The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Master Chief Assistant, my godfather asked me to bring you a message: Your Majesty is approaching the new year, so don't play with foreign objects."

Wei Guangde walked back slowly, but the unique drake voice of the eunuch on duty was still very penetrating, and Wei Guangde heard every word.

Although he was slightly startled, he didn't stop and just returned to his room seemingly casually.

Entering the house, Wei Guangde's mind was still echoing the words, "The Lord is approaching the new year, so you can't play with foreign objects."

What's the meaning?

Wei Guangde didn't understand why Feng Bao said such things to Zhang Juzheng, which was really unpredictable.

"Master, the tea is cold. I'll change it for you."

After Wei Guangde sat down, Lu Bu followed him in, picked up the tea in front of him, said something, turned around and left the room.

Seeing Lu Bu's leaving figure, Wei Guangde realized it later and clarified the meaning of that sentence.

Yes, when he saw Lu Bu, Wei Guangde suddenly thought of the lotus pond that Lu Bu had mentioned before, and then thought of Bai Lian and Bai Yanzi of the Hanlin Academy who knew the lotus pond. Weren't they both sent to Qianqing Palace by Zhang Juzheng?

"hehe."

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde immediately realized that Feng Bao sent someone to tell Zhang Juzheng that he was giving some gadgets to the little emperor out of nowhere, which would easily make the little emperor lose his temper.

After sneering at Zhang Juzheng for being sentimental, Wei Guangde suddenly realized something, his face became solemn, and he couldn't help but murmured: 'Feng Shuanglin is so lost. ’

"Master, what kind of tea do you want?"

At this moment, Lu Bu came in with the newly brewed tea and heard Wei Guangde say "gone". He subconsciously thought that Wei Guangde was not satisfied with the Longjing tea he brewed and wanted to drink some other tea.

The tea names these days are all very cultural and connotative.

In the check-in room, there are several types of tea brought from the south, which are called "Giao".

"No, you go down."

Wei Guangde retracted his thoughts and waved his hand to Lu Bu, asking him to go down.

After Lu Bu walked out of the check-in room suspiciously, Wei Guangde began to think again.

Now Zhang Juzheng is acting as the imperial power with the power of prime minister, but the internal minister Feng Bao actually sent someone to lecture Zhang Juzheng. What is the meaning of this?

The chief assistant of the outer court and the admiral and eunuch of the inner court were called internal and external ministers in the court. Feng Bao's actions today were not just a demonstration to Zhang Juzheng, saying that his status as internal minister should be higher than that of foreign minister.

It is a very interesting thing to compare the Ming Dynasty's ceremonial supervisors, eunuchs, and cabinet ministers, who had the most power.

In the Ming Dynasty, the ceremonial supervisor and the eunuch in charge of seals were called the "head of the internal ministers", and the chief assistant of the cabinet was called the "head of the foreign ministers." Comparing these two positions, who has the most power is to compare the inner court and the outer court of the Ming Dynasty. The biggest question of power.

The cabinet originated during the reign of Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty. At first, the cabinet's academicians only had the power to make suggestions but not decision-making.

But as time went by, cabinet academicians gradually participated in decision-making and gained higher status and more power during the periods of Ming Renzong and Ming Xuanzong.

By the time of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty, the power of the chief minister of the cabinet was already very powerful. He was able to suppress the six ministries and even cooperate with eunuchs to govern major affairs.

The chief minister of the cabinet had the power to draft edicts, but he had to rely on the eunuchs to deliver approval, which to a certain extent limited his ability to exercise his power independently.

Although the eunuch in charge of the seal, that is, the eunuch in charge of the seal, is called the "head of the internal ministers", his power mainly comes from the trust and authorization of the emperor.

The palm eunuch is responsible for approving the votes of the cabinet, but does not actually participate in the decision-making process.

Their power was more formal, relying on the emperor's trust and cabinet support.

To discuss who has greater power, we must understand the Ming Dynasty, the most special dynasty in history.

There is a saying that there was almost no decent emperor in the Ming Dynasty. The only one who could be mentioned was Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor. Later, Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, could barely mention it.

Starting from Zhu Qizhen, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were not decent. Every emperor after that had many very ridiculous things.

Emperor Jiajing, Emperor Wanli, and Emperor Tianqi all did not go to court for many years, and Emperor Wanli even did not go to court for thirty years.

But even though the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were not decent, the Ming Dynasty was still very stable for a long time.

This actually shows that the most powerful person in the Ming Dynasty was the emperor.

Therefore, when we are discussing which of the ministers has the greatest power, we are actually discussing who the emperor trusts the most.

Those whom the emperor trusts most have the greatest power; those whom the emperor is wary of have limited power.

The emergence of the cabinet was actually the result of the emperor being wary of the excessive power of his ministers.

The chief minister of the Ming Dynasty's cabinet was created and finalized when Ming Yingzong became emperor for the second time.

Ming Yingzong was still a relatively capable emperor, but starting from Zhu Jianshen, the emperor became less and less fond of doing things.

Wan An, the chief minister of Zhu Jianshen's cabinet, even offered aphrodisiacs to Zhu Jianshen so that Zhu Jianshen could concentrate on playing in the harem, thereby increasing the power of the cabinet.

Since then, the chief minister of the cabinet has been basically finalized, and he has the meaning of prime minister.

The greatest power of the cabinet is actually to vote on memorials, thereby influencing the emperor's decision-making.

The so-called "vote draft" means that before the memorials are handed over to the emperor, the cabinet will first provide responses to these memorials.

However, the cabinet could not write these opinions directly in the memorial. Instead, they wrote them on a small ticket and handed it to the emperor for his reference.

Originally, the cabinet only referred to the opinions, but the emperor was too lazy, so he simply copied them directly on it.

But since the emperor was too lazy, they were too lazy to even copy them on it, so they asked someone to write them.

Who to ask?

Naturally, they asked the eunuchs who served him.

The eunuchs wrote the opinions on the cabinet ministers' tickets on the memorials, which was called "pihong". Such eunuchs were called pen-holding eunuchs.

But even if the eunuchs helped the emperor to fill in the opinions on the memorials, the emperor was too lazy and difficult to make the final decision, and the final decision was still left to the eunuchs.

The eunuch who made the final decision was called the seal-holding eunuch.

Only when the seal-holding eunuch agreed would the emperor's seal be stamped on the red-holding eunuch. Only the red-holding eunuch with the seal would have legal effect.

Therefore, we can see that in order for a minister's memorial to take effect, the seal-holding eunuch of the Silijian was the one who grasped the last procedure.

Obviously, the seal-holding eunuch played the greatest role, and he could directly determine the final success or failure of a memorial.

This series of institutional designs of the Ming Dynasty, although it can make ministers check and balance each other, but not become bigger.

The emperor is very relaxed, but the efficiency has become very low.

Wei Guangde thought about it in his mind. When the little emperor Zhu Yijun was young, perhaps they could still have a great influence on him.

But when he becomes an adult and takes charge of the government, he will definitely have his own thoughts, and he will trust the people around him more.

Zhang Juzheng's so-called prime minister's power on behalf of the emperor is actually more of the harem's trust in the cabinet. They will make the decision to let Feng Bao approve and execute according to the cabinet's vote.

Only for individual issues with greater impact will they have their own thinking.

But this kind of thinking is more about the cabinet's opinions.

Undoubtedly, although Zhang Juzheng is a foreign minister, his status is really not as good as Feng Bao.

At this time, Zhang Juzheng was also sulking in his duty room.

Yes, if Feng Bao asked someone to take him, it would undoubtedly be to press his face on the floor and rub it repeatedly.

Wei Guangde just figured out what Zhang Juzheng had figured out after taking over the position of the chief assistant.

Although he was surprised that Feng Bao was so merciful this time, Zhang Juzheng really couldn't do anything.

No wonder both Yan Song and his teacher Xu Jie were polite to Huang Jin and Teng Xiang at that time.

Seeing that Feng Bao hadn't been given a gift during this period, the old man might be unhappy, and he had to ask someone to prepare a generous gift to send to him later.

Yes, Feng Bao had just obtained the famous painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival", but he treasured it so much that he took it home and stored it in his private warehouse. He flipped through the account book recording gifts and found that Zhang Juzheng hadn't given him a gift for a while.

Thinking of seeing Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun personally feeding the pair of white swallows yesterday afternoon, today's incident happened.

Wei Guangde didn't know that if he wanted to be the chief minister of the cabinet to be stable, he had to give gifts to the eunuch who held the seal of the Silijian, because no one taught him to do this.

Of course, Wei Guangde did give Feng Bao something before, but that was all normal personal exchanges in the officialdom.

Besides, there was a happy event at Wei Guangde's mansion, so Feng Bao had to give him a gift.

Therefore, if he was not in the position of the Prime Minister, outsiders would see that the Prime Minister was in a position below one person and above ten thousand people.

And only those who were really in this position would know that the Prime Minister was actually "below two people and above ten thousand people".

Of course, if Feng Bao, the eunuch admiral, wanted to be stable, he had to be on guard against other people in the palace.

After all, there was only one position, but there were more than ten eunuchs in the palace, and everyone was watching Feng Bao's every move.

Whenever Feng Bao made a mistake in his work, they would attack him in groups.

Perhaps, this is the reason why people in the officialdom are walking on a tightrope, and they may be doomed if they are not careful.

Well, at this moment, Wei Guangde was still thinking about the little things between the Prime Minister and the eunuch in charge of the seal in his duty room. He had some guesses, but he was not very sure.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde took out a piece of paper and wrote quickly. After the ink dried, he folded it immediately and deliberately made a hidden mark.

"Lu Bu, come in."

After finishing all this, Wei Guangde shouted to the outside.

"Master, I'm here."

Lu Bu walked in quickly from the outside, stood in front of the desk with his head bowed.

"Take this note outside the palace, and ask them to send it back to Zhang Ji."

Wei Guangde handed the folded paper to Lu Bu, and then waved him to do the work quickly.

After the people left, Wei Guangde couldn't help but look in the direction of the prime minister's duty room.

Half an hour later, Zhang Ji received the paper folded into a special shape, and knew that this was a big deal ordered by Wei Guangde.

General matters are directly taken out, not afraid of others seeing it.

The folded paper means that you don't want others to know the content on the paper, which means it is very sensitive.

After checking the seal, Zhang Ji opened it and read it carefully.

"Monitor You Qi?"

However, after reading the matters Wei Guangde asked him to handle, Zhang Ji was a little puzzled.

Of course he knew who You Qi was. It can be said that You Qi was one of the most famous people in the capital who were not in the officialdom but had great influence.

And to be frank, he, Zhang Ji, was also one of them.

Who didn't know that Xu Jue, the chief steward of Feng Bao's family, You Qi, the chief steward of Zhang Juzheng's family, and Zhang Ji, the chief steward of Wei Guangde's family, was the chief steward of Feng Bao's family.

Look at the seventh-rank officials in front of the prime minister's door. Look, the gatekeepers are all like seventh-rank officials. He, the great steward, should be compared to the second-rank officials no matter what.

Although Zhang Ji was surprised, he knew that he had to keep an eye on You Qi in the past two days to see what he had done.

Thinking of this, Zhang Ji immediately called a few people and gave instructions carefully.

Soon, several people came out of the Wei Mansion. Without anyone knowing, a big net had been cast, and surveillance surrounding all the actions of the Zhang Mansion's chief steward had quietly begun.

Wei Guangde was just curious and wanted to verify his conjecture.

In the following time, Wei Guangde gathered his emotions in the cabinet and continued to read the memorials and draft the votes.

When Sanya returned home, Zhang Jizai greeted him and only whispered that he had arranged for someone to go out.

Wei Guangde just nodded slightly and didn't ask in detail.

After all, he only wants results, and it's up to him to decide what Zhang Ji will do.

In fact, the surveillance of Zhang Juzheng's residence has always been ongoing, but they always rented a house near Zhang's residence and arranged for someone to record the people entering and leaving the residence.

After all, they were all officials in the same dynasty. If they went too far and conducted a more in-depth investigation of their residence, it would be a bit too much.

Once discovered, he, the second assistant, would not be able to continue doing it.

Just observing the people who were brought in and sent, this is still within the acceptable range of each family.

In fact, there are no spies planted by others around Wei Guangde's mansion.

It's just that Wei Guangde didn't expect that he would be rewarded in the evening.

In the study of the Wei Mansion, Wei Guangde asked in surprise: "Are you saying that someone saw You Qi bringing six big boxes into the Feng Mansion's courtyard?"

"That's right, those boxes were not moved from the Zhang Mansion, but from the Jishun. You Qi took them directly to Eunuch Feng's house in the inner city."

Zhang Ji whispered.

"Whose property is the Jishun?"

Wei Guangde asked curiously.

"It was started by a businessman named Lu from Huguang. He often travels with the Zhang family. It may be one of the businesses of Mr. Shoufang. We have noticed this business name before."

Zhang Ji replied.

"Six boxes. How big is the box? Can it hold five thousand taels of silver?"

Wei Guangde said with a joking smile.

Use a box to deliver something to Feng Bao's house. You can imagine what's inside.

To say that all six boxes are filled with fine jewelry is to think too highly of Zhang Juzheng.

It's not that the Zhang Mansion can't fill six large boxes with Xinruan, but even the Xungui Mansion can't fill them up in a short period of time without using the old man.

Therefore, those boxes are most likely to be filled with gold and silver.

"Five thousand taels should be no problem. Those six boxes might actually be 30,000 taels."

Zhang Ji whispered, but he did not say whether the thirty thousand taels were silver or something else.

Indeed, they don't know.

However, Wei Guangde would not think that the box Zhang Juzheng gave to Feng Bao would contain a lot of silver. It should most likely be 30,000 taels of gold.

"Have you ever noticed that the Zhang family usually sends things to Eunuch Feng? Go down and check the records and report it to me."

Wei Guangde suddenly felt a little unmotivated. For no reason, he just felt unwell. (End of chapter)