Qin Dewei and Yan Song couldn't stop arguing, and suddenly turned to his second assistant Gu Dingchen and said, "Mr. Gu Ge, can you please give me a fair word?"
Gu Dingchen hesitated for a moment and then told Emperor Jiajing: "The Yiwu Yamen does not need to reinvent the wheel. It only needs to slightly modify the Siyi Pavilion. This can save the court's expenses and is simple and convenient."
It was difficult for Qin Dewei to say this. After all, he was sent by the Admiral Siyi Pavilion, and on the surface he wanted to avoid suspicion, but Gu Dingchen had no problem saying it.
This method of upgrading the Siyi Pavilion was very worry-free and made Emperor Jiajing quite satisfied. He gave Gu Dingchen a thumbs up and said: "It's great!"
Yan Song blocked it and said: "If the Siyi Pavilion is upgraded, I'm afraid it will be inconsistent with the code. The ministries, courtyards, temples, and prisons are all customized. If one is added out of thin air, there must be an explanation."
Gu Dingchen then said again: "Then there is no need to call it department, courtyard, temple, and prison. It can be directly called the Prime Minister Yiwu Yamen, just like the civil servants, governor, and military administration in Beijing!"
Yan Song was still picking out the words and said: "The emperor is responsible for the control of all nations, so if the general word is not appropriate, how can we teach people at will? We can only use associate ministers!"
So Emperor Jiajing praised Yan Song again and said, "He will be titled as the Assistant Manager of the Yiwu Yamen."
Qin Dewei was a little disappointed. The prime minister sounded much more vain and arrogant than the associate prime minister. But the name is just a symbol, and in the end it all depends on human effort!
The most critical thing now is to finalize the framework and get the diplomatic power while the iron is hot. This will prevent the emperor from being impulsive and then changing his mind when he has a fit. This is the character of Emperor Jiajing.
Siyi Guan has become the Assistant Yiwu Yamen, so where will the original Admiral of Siyi Guan go?
Emperor Jiajing did not whet his appetite anymore and issued another decree: "Qin Dewei will also serve as assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs."
Seeing that the emperor had made a formal decision, Xia Yan and Yan Song had nothing to say.
At least the emperor gave them some face, and did not let Qin Dewei directly serve as a court official. The associate minister was still a dispatcher, and his title sounded like it was attached to the cabinet.
Qin Dewei once again stepped forward to thank him. After all the hard work, he finally got the job of reaching out to the diplomatic power.
Especially when the cabinet is strongly opposed, it is not easy to grab a piece of power.
Then Qin Dewei continued: "The Siyi Pavilion is located in the east of the imperial city, outside Dong'an Gate. It is inconvenient for ministers to enter and exit the Siyi Pavilion, which greatly affects official duties.
Your Majesty has approved the elevation of the Siyi Guan to the rank of Assistant Yiwu Yamen, and sincerely requests that the Siyi Guan be moved to the south."
The mainstream civil and military offices of the Ming Dynasty, such as five of the six bureaus, the Hanlin Academy, and the Governor's Office of the Fifth Army, were all located to the south of the palace, where the square would be five hundred years later.
Other non-mainstream yamen are scattered everywhere, especially in Dongcheng. For example, Jiaofangsi is in Dongcheng.
Siyi Hall, a non-mainstream yamen in the non-mainstream, is located outside the Dong'an Gate of the Imperial City.
Therefore, Qin Dewei, who works in Wenyuan Pavilion in the eastern part of the palace, is actually very close to the Siyi Pavilion in a straight line, just across the Donghua Gate of the Palace City and the Dong'an Gate of the Imperial City, about ten minutes' walk.
However, according to the etiquette system, only princes, vassal kings, princesses, etc. can go through Donghua Gate when entering and leaving the palace. In addition, sometimes Zi Palace needs to be sent out through Donghua Gate.
As for ministers like Qin Dewei, they generally have to go in and out of the palace through Chengtian Gate and Meridian Gate in the south direction, and cannot go through Donghua Gate.
Therefore, if Qin Dewei wanted to go from Wenyuan Pavilion to Siyi Pavilion, he could only walk to the south and exit the palace, then circle around half a circle and return to the east of the imperial city, which is almost five times the straight-line distance.
The route is similar to going from the upper left corner of the word "日" in a circle to the upper right corner of the character "日". It is very tiring to go back and forth.
Therefore, Qin Dewei took advantage of today's opportunity to petition the Siyi Pavilion to be moved to the south of the palace, so as to save himself from making mistakes for many years in the future.
At the same time, it also enhances the status of the "Assistant Yiwu Yamen" in disguise, allowing this new Yamen to integrate with other mainstream Yamen and get rid of the traditional image of non-mainstream Yamen in Dongcheng.
But Emperor Jiajing didn't know why. After listening to Qin Dewei's petition, he suddenly became distracted.
The few bachelors below looked at each other in confusion, completely unable to guess what the emperor was suddenly thinking. Even Yan Song and Gu Dingchen, the two most capable of licking the emperor, were not sure at this time.
After a while, Emperor Jiajing showed a little sarcasm and said to Qin Dewei: "There is no need to move the Siyi Pavilion. I specially grant you access to Donghua Gate for your convenience."
The academicians were all shocked. What kind of disease did the emperor have?
The imperial palace is a place that pays special attention to etiquette. Wenyuan Pavilion is not far from Donghua Gate, but in the past hundred years, no cabinet minister has been specially granted access to Donghua Gate.
Qin Dewei also felt that this was too unusual. He guessed that Emperor Jiajing was deliberately trying to push himself to make more progress, so he quickly declined: "I don't dare to accept it!"
Emperor Jiajing waved the sleeves of his Taoist robe impatiently: "I give you grace, and you take it!"
Only then could Qin Dewei be sure that the emperor didn't seem to be trying to seduce him, but that he was serious about it?
Emperor Jiajing said nothing, stood up, left the front hall, and returned to the back hall to cultivate immortality.
When Qin Dewei just mentioned that it was too detoured (not taking Donghua Gate), Emperor Jiajing couldn't help but think of the past eighteen years ago.
When Zhu Houcong came to Beijing to inherit the throne, the ministers forced him to enter the palace through the Donghua Gate as a vassal king, but he insisted on entering the palace through the Meridian Gate as an emperor, and then the first monarch-minister confrontation arose.
Hahahaha, it is impossible to walk through Donghua Gate. It is impossible to walk through Donghua Gate in this life.
So Qin Dewei inexplicably became the experimental subject of Emperor Jiajing's performance art, using Qin Dewei to mock the ministers from eighteen years ago.
A few days later, when the results of this meeting gradually spread, the whole court was filled with people who did not know the truth. Those who understood did not tell, and those who did not understood made random guesses.
Whether it was the addition of the Japanese Pavilion or the promotion of the Seyi Pavilion to the Assistant Yiwu Yamen, the courtiers were incredulous.
I really don’t know what Qin Dewei’s virtues and abilities are. For such a small matter as asking for the establishment of a Japanese pavilion, the emperor appointed him as the associate minister of barbarian affairs. Even the ministers could not stop him.
Not to mention the weird treatment of being granted special access to Donghua Gate, which is even more incomprehensible. What else can be said besides the unpredictable grace of God?
Even if Qin Dewei is given a large square sedan chair in the future, it won’t be shocking to see Qin Dewei entering the palace in a sedan chair from Donghua Gate!
When Qin Dewei returned home that day, his servant Ma Er reminded him: "It's time for the master to make a new name post. The original name post is outdated again. I wonder how the master plans to write the title this time?"
Qin Dewei casually ordered: "Young Master Zhan, a bachelor of Zuo Chunfang and a bachelor of Hanlin, will be admitted to Zhiwenyuan Pavilion and will be the assistant minister of barbarian affairs. He will be specially granted access to Donghua Gate. No one should be missing!"
Ma Er murmured to himself that if one of them really couldn't be left out, then "not participating in aircraft maintenance" should also be written down. Of course, he was not stupid enough to say it out loud.
Ma Er would never do anything that would displease the master!