Because the official minister of the Six Departments of Nanjing has just become vacant.
Moreover, the Ministry of Civil Affairs is not only short of ministers, but also short of ministers.
The left minister of the Ministry of official affairs and the right minister of the Ministry of official affairs are also absent.
Now, if the court wants to nominate the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, it needs the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel to come forward to preside over it. However, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel is absent, and the left and right ministers of the Ministry of Personnel are also absent. What should we do?
Gao Hongtu said: "How about letting Uncle Da Zong preside over it?"
Wang Duo suddenly regained his energy. Would you like me to preside over the ceremony? That’s okay.
"It's inappropriate." Chen Liangmo immediately objected, "Uncle Da Zong's presiding over court affairs is suspected of usurping the power of the Ministry of Civil Affairs."
Gao Hongtu was immediately speechless. The Ming Dynasty's six-ministry cabinet system had been in operation for nearly three hundred years, and the division of power among the six ministries had become extremely clear. Every carrot was a pit, and infringement of power was a taboo in official circles.
Shi Kefa sighed and came out of the class to say: "Please give me the special permission to be the Prime Minister of Otsuka."
The Minister of Personnel has the highest authority among the six departments and is also the backbone of the cabinet's say in affairs.
If the chief minister of the cabinet cannot control the minister of civil affairs, he will basically be reduced to a decoration.
But now the big bosses of the Donglin Party, headed by Shi Kefa, have put the Ming Dynasty's imperial recommendation system on hold, and can only obediently cede the power of the Special Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs or Zuo Shilang to the emperor.
"I just said that I will not infringe on the power of the Cabinet."
Chongzhen said hypocritically: "It is better for Shi Aiqing to recommend a candidate for Otsuka Prime Minister first, and then I will make a special briefing."
Shi Kefa and other Nanjing officials couldn't help but roll their eyes. Sure enough, the Holy One is still hypocritical as always. You obviously want to do something yourself, but you have to ask your ministers to say it for you.
Isn't it just to prevent mistakes in the future and not be held accountable to you?
Shi Kefa and others did not follow Chongzhen to defeat the siege from Beijing, nor did they follow him to fight for more than 5,000 miles, so they still had the original stereotype of Chongzhen.
But in fact, this Chongzhen was no longer the same Chongzhen.
The current Shi Kefa said helplessly: "In this case, I recommend Meng Zhaoxiang, the right commander, to move to the left to be the governor of Zuozhong."
Having been in the officialdom for many years, how could Shi Kefa and other Donglin Party members fail to see Chongzhen's intentions? They simply wanted to let the Beijing officials who followed him south take control of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
So recommending other candidates will definitely not pass.
However, Shi Kefa and others were still unwilling to give it directly to the Minister of History.
I still want to let the emperor remove the left minister of the Ministry of History for the time being, and when the opportunity is ripe in the future, he will recruit a big boss of the Donglin Party such as Qian Qianyi or Liu Zongzhou to be the minister of the Ministry of History.
The cabinet still has the power to appoint and remove officials.
Chongzhen asked Gao Hongtu and others again: "What do you think?"
Gao Hongtu and others all bowed and said: "I second my opinion."
Chongzhen smiled and said to Meng Zhaoxiang: "Congratulations to Zuo Zhongzai."
Meng Zhaoxiang quickly bowed to the ground and said: "Your Majesty, I am scared."
"You don't have to be afraid." Chongzhen straightened his face and said solemnly, "Your Majesty is loyal to the country. I saw it with my own eyes during my southern tour of Yangzhou. You are well-deserved for the position of Zuozhong Prime Minister. I only hope that after you take charge of the Ministry of Civil Affairs
Select more useful talents for the country, and don't let those who are doing nothing but living in officialdom wander into the officialdom."
The implication is that I have taken good care of the staff.
Don't let the Donglin Party usurp your administrative power.
"I will obey the Holy Order." Meng Zhaoxiang said solemnly.
Meng Zhaoxiang's subtext is, Your Majesty, just relax.
Meng Zhaoxiang was Chongzhen's first wedge into Jiangnan officialdom.
After the Ming Dynasty retreated to the southern half of the Yangtze River, it was inevitable that the Donglin Party would become powerful.
Because Jiangnan is the home base of the Donglin Party, the Donglin Party has unparalleled influence in Jiangnan.
If the world were at peace and he still had a powerful military force in his hands, Chongzhen could naturally learn from the Manchu Qing Dynasty to eradicate the Donglin Party and rectify the Jiangnan officialdom with an iron fist. However, it is a pity that not only is he in troubled times, but also in his hands.
Lacking a strong armed force and facing the danger of national subjugation, Jiangnan's officialdom has to rely on the Donglin Party for the time being.
Otherwise, if a large-scale strike breaks out in Jiangnan officialdom, how can we still play?
In history, there were two official strikes in the Hongguang court.
The final result was to directly wipe out the Hongguang court.
But even so, the Donglin Party cannot be left alone.
That's why Chongzhen took decisive action to seize the right to select officials.
Meng Zhaoxiang is from Shanxi and is not deeply involved with the Donglin Party, so he is the best thug.
Shi Kefa coughed lightly and said: "Now, I would like to ask Zuozhongzai to preside over the court."
"As ordered." Meng Zhaoxiang immediately walked to the center of the palace and said loudly, "The country cannot be without a king for a day, and the cabinet cannot be without a minister for a day. The first priority for the court today is the candidate for the chief minister of the cabinet."
Upon hearing this, the Nanjing officials present immediately cheered up.
After waiting for a long time, I finally got to the point and chose the first assistant!
It's quite exciting to think about it. Before the capital fell, this was the power that only the officials in the capital had. Now it was their Nanjing officials' turn to exercise their power.
This is really a turn of events.
Tingtui is extremely sacred in the minds of Ming officials.
This is a group of civil servants exercising the highest power of the Ming Dynasty.
Just listen to Meng Zhaoxiang continue to say: "I have been in the capital for a long time, and I am somewhat familiar with my colleagues who have stayed in the capital, but some are not very familiar with them. Therefore, in order to ensure fairness, impartiality and openness, I have decided to expand the scope of the nomination of cabinet ministers to all officials of third rank and above."
, but according to tradition, I will not participate in the nomination."
"However, because there are so many candidates participating in the nomination,"
"We won't promote the main or secondary recommendation, just choose one person."
“The person with the most votes will be directly recommended.”
"The second one is the deputy recommendation, and the third one is the second recommendation."
"A total of four people will be recommended, and then they will be selected by the Holy Master on the spot."
After Meng Zhaoxiang finished speaking, the cabin exploded with a buzzing sound.
Zuotsukazai actually expanded the scope of recommendation to all three grades?
Oh, no, except for himself, because according to the rules, officials from the Ministry of Personnel cannot join the cabinet.
Let’s not say what the final result of this nomination will be, but Meng Zhaoxiang’s move instantly won the favor of most people. Except for Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, Jiang Yueguang and other Donglin Party bosses who were definitely able to enter the candidate list, there were no others.
The third-grade official who had the opportunity to be on the list instantly had a favorable impression of Meng Zhaoxiang, and Zuozhongzai was generous!
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Even the Kedao speaker who was not qualified to be on the list was favored by Meng Zhaoxiang, and Zuo Zhongzai was very fair in his actions.
Chongzhen also laughed when he saw this. Sure enough, there are no good people who can get involved in the officialdom of the capital. They are all old foxes. I thought that Meng Zhaoxiang would have a difficult period after taking charge of the civil service, and he did not even rule out that he would be ignored by the subordinates. But now
It seemed that his worries were completely unnecessary. Meng Zhaoxiang only used one move to gain a firm foothold.
The process is simple, Wang Chengen has already taken several eunuchs to hand out pens and papers.
The officials present wrote down the names of the instructing officials on pieces of paper.
After all the officials had finished writing, Wang Chengen collected all the pieces of paper.
Then it was handed over to Meng Zhaoxiang to do the roll call, accompanied by a censor and a supervising supervisor.
Wang Chengen was responsible for keeping count, and there was also a censor next to him to supervise the process.
The results came out quickly. Shi Kefa received the highest number of recommendations, with thirty votes. Nearly half of the officials in the capital elected him. It can be said that he was well received by the public.
Next are Gao Hongtu and Jiang Yueguang.
Then there is Jie Xuelong, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment in Nanjing.
Without exception, they are all big bosses of the Donglin Party.
In fact, the top ten are all Donglin Party members.
Chongzhen's face looked a little unhappy. It seemed that the Donglin Party's influence in Jiangnan's official circles was really great. It can be seen from this recommendation.
"Please ask the Holy Judge." Meng Zhaoxiang handed over the list.
Wang Chengen on the other side also handed over the ink pen.
Chongzhen thought about the list and made a decision.
Since there is no way to prevent the Donglin Party from taking over the cabinet, we should simply go along with the flow and help them achieve their goals.
This will more or less win the goodwill of the Donglin Party, which will in turn make the Jiangnan officialdom run at full speed.
After all, the top priority now is to concentrate all efforts on operating the Huanghuai Defense Line. This is the main contradiction at the moment. If we leave the main contradiction unresolved and rush to engage in internal conflicts with the Donglin Party, we will not distinguish between priorities and it will be foolish.
This is how the Hongguang court played to death. As a time traveler, Chongzhen would not be stupid.
At that moment, Chongzhen picked up his ink pen and drew four circles on the list, checking them all: "In my opinion, there is no need to waste time in recommending other cabinet ministers. Let's take Shi Aiqing, who has the highest number of votes, as the leader, and those who have the second highest number of votes.
Gao Aiqing is the second assistant, Jiang Aiqing and Xie Aiqing are the third assistant and fourth assistant again. What do you think?"
The vast majority of officials had no objections and said in unison: "I second my opinion."
"Then it's settled." Chongzhen said to Wang Duo, the Minister of Rites, "Uncle Zong, would you please help the Ministry of Rites to draft an imperial edict and announce it to the world, and promote Shi Kefa to be a bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion, Gao Hongtu, Jiang Yueguang and Jie Xuelong to be the governor of the East.
Bachelor's degree, pre-mechanical maintenance."
"I accept the decree." Wang Duo looked a little disappointed. As the Minister of Rites, he was supposed to be the first choice for the chief minister of the cabinet, but in the end, he was not even among the top ten recommended by the court.
Frankly speaking, Wang Duo is not convinced by Shi Kefa and others.
Although scholars all respected Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu and Jiang Yueguang as national scholars,
But Wang Duo thought it was because they were members of the Donglin Party, not because the three of them were really talented scholars. Why was Jie Xuelong, the Minister of Punishment, ranked above him?
But the situation is stronger than the people. Who let this be Jiangnan?
Chongzhen smiled and said to Shi Kefa: "Shi Aiqing, congratulations."
"Your Majesty, the old minister is afraid and dare not accept the order." Shi Kefa also wanted to imitate the ancients and make three concessions.
Chongzhen felt a little bored and said displeasedly: "Shi Kefa, when the country is in crisis, don't engage in the form of three concessions and three concessions. When you join the cabinet at this time, no one will say that you are obsessed with power, but only
They will say that you are relieving the country from difficulties and have the style of a national scholar, so you should think about how to organize the army, calm the people, and assist in the national affairs."
Chongzhen's words made Shi Kefa sweat.
Yes, there is a time to do the formality. What time is it now?
At this moment, Shi Kefa quickly entered the role and asked: "I am stupid, I don't know what the Holy Father's instructions are?"
Chongzhen nodded happily, acting like a chief minister, and then said: "Jiannu is about to move south in a large scale. The top priority is to manage the Huanghuai defense line, so all government affairs are based on this."