As soon as Zhang Siwei took office, God gave him a big mouth and almost beat him. This guy is not in good health, but the emperor is not used to it. He has no intention of doing more if you are not in good health. Zhang Siwei Within a few months of taking over the Government Hall, he had become a bit sharp-tongued.
His uncle Wang Chonggu applied for early retirement and was approved by the emperor. He must have arrived in Yunnan at this time. Zhang Siwei lost an important think tank. Although many people came to him during his tenure as deputy prime minister, Zhang Siwei did not dare to rely on his confidants. After all, these people Untested.
After becoming Prime Minister, the power of the Jin Party suddenly increased greatly, but Zhang Siwei still lacked people in his pocket, especially a think tank with high-level vision and who could rely on his confidants. Compared with their background, Zhang Siwei and Zhang Juzheng were not the same at all. order of magnitude, so I couldn’t command as I wished, and a lot of things needed to be coordinated—which made me very tiring.
Of course, the decisive factor was that Zhang Siwei did not have the political ability of Zhang Juzheng. It was only when Zhang Juzheng took over in the sixth year of Longqing that things were in chaos. As the saying goes, "The ministers indulged their subordinates, the generals played at the side, and the scholars clamored in the countryside. Everything was governed by discipline, and everyone fell into disgrace." In the ambiguity, the disaster of disintegration and collapse is hidden in Yan An's peaceful days." If he hadn't carried out the examination and reforms, the Ming Dynasty would have been in chaos. But even in this situation, Zhang Juzheng was still doing well. From then on, it took thirteen years to create a new Ming Dynasty.
Taking the annual income as an example, in the first year of Wanli, the annual income was more than 10 million taels. When Zhang Siwei took over in the 13th year of Wanli, the annual income was 75 million, which almost tripled. The money and food were enough to cope with the three consecutive years. Widespread famine - why the disaster in Shanxi is so annoying is because it was caused by the stupid Yu Zhao.
Therefore, Zhang Siwei wants money and food. Under these conditions, being more tired than Zhang Juzheng is basically a matter of ability. It does not mean that Zhang Juzheng has a better head than Zhang Siwei, but that Zhang Juzheng can look down and bend down. He is tough-tempered and broad-minded at the same time - these excellent qualities of a top politician, compared with Zhang Siwei and Prince Zhongxing, they are all at the level of half-hearted jealousy.
To be honest, in today's political affairs hall, Xu Guo is superior to Zhang Siwei in terms of how well he can pull down his face; when it comes to how well he can bend down, Wang Guoguang dwarfs him; in terms of temperament, Liang Menglong and Pan Sheng are on par with each other, but They are both stronger than Zhang Siwei and have a broad mind. In this aspect, Luo Wanhua, who has seen the world, is far behind him.
In this case, Zhang Siwei had only one way to avoid being ignored and to retain power - he planned to hug the emperor's thigh tightly. Because he was the Prime Minister of the Political Affairs Hall, this thigh was particularly convenient to hug, at least for him Most often when meeting the saint.
Although Zhang Siwei wanted to embrace the emperor's lap, major changes occurred in the central system after the reform. The political hall was more powerful than Jiajing, and the power and responsibilities of the cabinet in the Longqing era were much greater. Moreover, after Zhang Juzheng and Zhu Yijun's running-in, there was also a clear difference between the imperial power and the prime minister's power. - All general government affairs that do not involve political or military power and that the emperor has no intention of interfering with are decided by the Prime Minister.
In this way, Zhang Siwei could not do "the three edicts are mutually beneficial" - so Wang Gui, the Prime Minister of the Song Dynasty Shenzong, was appointed by the political minister. "History of the Song Dynasty" said, "He went to the palace to present the imperial edict, saying that he could get the imperial edict; whether it could be completed, it said Those who receive the imperial edict; those who withdraw from the edict and report the matter are said to have received the imperial edict." Therefore, it is said that "the three edicts are mutually beneficial" - the system is there, and the emperor has no idea of reaching out to help him beyond the boundaries.
From Zhu Yijun's point of view, Zhang Juzheng's death made him clearly feel the sluggishness of the government's operation. The Prime Minister did not have the authority to say anything, and many things started to be argued in the political hall. Problems reflected from the bottom up
, there is also a case of buck-passing among various departments - it is not that everyone has lost their public spirit after Zhang Juzheng's death, but that the previous super coordinating ability of Zhongxing County Prince has covered up many institutional problems that should have been exposed long ago.
For example, this Shanxi disaster relief - the functions of the imperial court responsible for disaster prevention and reduction are now scattered among several ministries. The Ministry of Civil Affairs is responsible for disaster relief, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation is in charge of water conservancy construction, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce also has some of these functions. Pan Jixun, the Minister of Water Conservancy of the Huanghuai River,
Still taking care of part of it.
Having multiple political branches will naturally lead to an increase in coordination time. Although there is a cabinet to control the general affairs, several deputy prime ministers cannot reach the departments and bureaus that are responsible for each ministry. Coordination through the minister is naturally inefficient.
As a result, Zhang Siwei worked harder than Zhang Juzheng, but his efficiency was not as high as Zhang Juzheng's. When Zhang Juzheng was the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers and ministers of various ministries followed his lead, fearing not to do their best to prevent Zhang Jiangling from scolding or even giving political advice.
Attack. But now that Zhang Siwei is making decisions, he is always worried that Pan Sheng and others will dig holes for him. He needs repeated research and consideration before he dares to make a decision - the so-called exhaustive consideration is nothing more than this.
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The major reform that began in the fifth year of Wanli Dynasty changed the six-ministry system that had lasted for hundreds of years since the Sui Dynasty into nine-ministry, set up the political hall, added the Privy Council, abolished the Supervisor of Ceremonies and established the Ministry of Internal Affairs - this is the main purpose of the reform
It used the Government Hall to centralize the power of the prime minister, the Privy Council to enhance the emperor's military power, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to further standardize the emperor's industry.
This half-baked political reform worked well in the hands of Zhang Juzheng, because the old man was amazingly talented and could command like an arm. When Zhang Siwei took over, he found that the operation was stagnant - he lacked Zhang Juzheng's authority, although he did his best.
The responsibilities of adjusting the yin and yang of the wok, but "prime minister" and "chief minister of the cabinet" are very different. Zhang Siwei still wanted to hug the emperor's lap. A few months later, Zhu Yijun also felt that something was wrong.
The severe drought in the thirteenth year of Wanli marked the beginning of the continuous disasters in the Wanli period in the original time and space. Although Zhu Yijun had not studied the climate records of the Wanli period, he remembered the words "Little Glacier" clearly.
Judging from the process of the court's disaster relief in Shanxi in the past few months, when the emperor was anxious and the prime ministers were red-eyed - the court's disaster relief system was not functioning well, especially in the early stages of the drought.
The lack of food means exposed a lot of problems.
Not only in terms of disaster relief, as the reforms changed Ming society, Zhu Yi also felt that many functions of the center needed to be further strengthened. When Zhang Juzheng was in power, the system of temporarily assigning officials to specialize in something needed to be changed, and it was necessary to add more departments.
Further refinement of responsibilities will make the center's command over local areas more powerful.
After months of careful consideration, Zhu Yijun felt that it was necessary to further adjust the central structure - to further reform some of the institutional problems accumulated in the eight years of reform so that the superstructure and social development would always match.
Therefore, after the situation in Shanxi stabilized, Zhu Yijun held a military and political meeting in the Wenhua Palace and proposed the idea of deepening the central reform, and made this matter the primary political task of Zhang Siwei as Prime Minister.
At the meeting, Zhang Siwei accepted the task—his head was buzzing.