The Sage of Confucianism and Taoism

Chapter 2472 The Queen Mother Falls Ill

According to the rules, even if the Queen Mother is ruling behind the scenes, she must let Jing Jun be by her side when handling government affairs.

It was better at the beginning, but as Fang Yun's drafts became more and more numerous and more professional, many things needed to be explained by officials from the Left Prime Minister's Pavilion before the Queen Mother could understand. After all, even officials from the Left Prime Minister's Pavilion needed Fang Yun's explanations to understand.

This explanation took more time. Jing Jun was young and couldn't hold it for long. He often became more and more impatient and even fell asleep while listening.

Finally, the Left Prime Minister's Pavilion proposed that if Jing Jun was not in good health, he could not accompany her.

So the Queen Mother began to handle drafts and government affairs alone with officials.

The monarch has too many things to do. He usually has to deal with various government affairs. Now there are dense drafts. Even a strong man may not be able to hold it, let alone the Queen Mother.

The Queen Mother was always on edge, guarding against Fang Yun and officials, avoiding suspicion and being accused of being a troublemaker, and taking care of government affairs. She also had to understand policies and laws that were difficult for ordinary scholars to understand, and she had to review the draft memorials for a long time, which was a double overload on her body and mind.

So, a month later, the Queen Mother finally fell ill due to overwork.

Even if a doctor personally took action, it could not be solved. Only the magic object could restore her health.

However, the royal family would not allow the Queen Mother to take the magic object.

The magic object was rare and could only be left to the monarch.

The Queen Mother fell ill, and the memorials and documents were piled up in the Imperial Study like a small mountain, and they were still increasing.

So the royal family began to lobby everywhere, hoping that the Queen Mother would appoint a regent to handle government affairs on her behalf.

As a result, when this happened, the Queen Mother suddenly became very energetic and dragged her sick body to handle government affairs.

Everyone knew that once a regent was established, the Queen Mother would no longer have real power, and Jingjun would most likely be sidelined by the regent in the future. The Queen Mother would rather see Fang Yun in power than to establish a regent.

A few days later, the Queen Mother asked the cabinet, hoping that the cabinet would send a few officials to help her handle government affairs, but all the officials opposed it.

The Queen Mother lived in the palace, and only a few educated eunuchs were really useful, but the officials of Jing State had always been on guard against eunuchs, and would rather watch the Queen Mother die of exhaustion than agree to eunuchs interfering in politics.

If the Queen Mother called on new officials to help her, it would almost be equivalent to re-establishing a small cabinet and undermining the original cabinet. Therefore, not only the cabinet officials opposed it, but also the officials of various ministries and states would not agree.

The Queen Mother had to continue to hold on, so that the Imperial Hospital arranged two doctors to accompany her for a long time, which ensured that the Queen Mother would not deteriorate, but if she continued, she would not be able to recover.

The bureaucracy of Jing State was too large, and the government affairs were extremely complicated. It was difficult for the Queen Mother to handle all the government affairs when she was healthy, let alone when she was sick.

As a result, more and more government affairs were accumulated, and officials' memorials were delayed in getting replies. Officials' grievances were increasing. Many officials in various places began to openly criticize the empress dowager because their achievements and even promotions were affected by the lack of replies.

Some officials even wrote directly to the empress dowager to ask her to hand over power, but Fang Yun suppressed the memorial and did not deal with it.

At the beginning, everyone was still hiding the dissatisfaction of the officials, but in the end, it could not be concealed. When the empress dowager learned about it, she was furious and vomited blood and fainted.

The news of the empress dowager's coma immediately attracted national attention, and there were even rumors that Fang Yun poisoned the empress dowager.

In the end, the Holy Court had to send a doctor and scholar to diagnose, and the final diagnosis was that she was overworked. If she did not rest well, she might be in danger of her life.

Although the rumor that Fang Yun poisoned the empress dowager was refuted, many people who opposed Fang Yun on the discussion list began to stir up trouble, believing that this was Fang Yun's conspiracy to first tire the empress dowager to death and then monopolize power as the left prime minister.

Some officials of Jing State were so angry that they cursed those people on the discussion board, saying that the officials in the capital were too busy now. Fang Yun had not returned to Quanyuan for a month and had been living in Zuo Xiangge. Moreover, Fang Yun's own injuries were more serious than those of the Queen Mother. If he really wanted to tire the Queen Mother to death, it would be like killing one thousand enemies and injuring eight hundred of his own, which was not worth the loss.

Fang Yun was not affected by any remarks. After leading the ministers to visit the Queen Mother, he continued to carry out intensive reforms.

At first, Fang Yun only made a draft, but later, he began to make proposals one after another, which was equivalent to ordinary officials writing to the court to express their opinions on the government. The contents of these proposals were mostly not directly managed by Zuo Xiangge, but mainly managed by You Xiang, Fu Xiang and Wen Xiang.

After the Queen Mother fell into a coma, she was in a coma most of the time, and occasionally woke up with a blurred consciousness.

Three days later, the Queen Mother finally woke up and sat on the bed, summoning many officials who were close to the royal family one after another.

On this day, the Queen Mother approved the memorial submitted by the Right Prime Minister Cao De'an half a month ago. The memorial was a proposal, hoping that some government affairs would be decided by the cabinet without the approval of the monarch.

The proposal also listed specific matters that the cabinet could decide on its own, such as the appointment and removal of officials of the fifth rank or below, some laws and regulations with less impact, the reform of prefecture and county offices, the promulgation of regional policies, and so on.

The cabinet officials were overjoyed.

This meant that the bureaucrats won another round in the battle with the imperial power.

However, everyone understood that the Queen Mother's royal family agreed not because of her serious illness, but because the memorial was supported by officials across the country.

Afterwards, the cabinet began to sort out its powers, which ones must be reported to the Queen Mother and the monarch in the future, and which ones can be handled by the cabinet on its own. This is a huge project, which requires a complete list of items to be sorted out and can only take effect after being stamped with the imperial seal.

After days of hard work, the cabinet officials finally formulated a perfect decree, clearly defining the scope of the cabinet's self-determination.

After the new memorial was sent to the Queen Mother, it took three days for the Queen Mother to formally approve it.

Subsequently, most of the documents and memorials piled up in the Imperial Study were removed, and the number of memorials sent to the Queen Mother was significantly reduced, even allowing the eunuchs in the palace to have some free time.

The news of the decentralization of the Jingguo cabinet spread to the discussion board, and officials from many countries cursed the officials of Jingguo for being crazy and treacherous.

However, those real high-ranking officials rarely participated in this topic.

Because the monarch is also a human being, except for a few truly shrewd and energetic monarchs in history, most monarchs have very ordinary talents. Instead of handing over government affairs to the monarch, it is better to hand them over to capable ministers who have climbed up from the bottom step by step.

In the wave of opposition from officials from various countries, Wu Jun rarely began to imitate Jingguo and began to decentralize power to the Wuguo cabinet and various departments.

Many officials were surprised, but some people with lofty ideals came forward to support this policy.

In fact, the appointment and dismissal of many low-level officials were originally decided by the cabinet of the Ministry of Personnel. After submitting the memorial, the monarch would basically approve it immediately and rarely object. However, conventions are not laws, and the real power of appointment and dismissal is still in the hands of the monarch.

Therefore, it is the general trend for the cabinet and the ministries to make their own decisions. Fang Yun just made the established facts into strict laws.

Fang Yun never thought that this decree would be obstructed from the beginning to the end, because it was nothing more than the court recommendation and department recommendation during the Ming Dynasty of the ancient Chinese country, and it was a trend that no one, including himself, could stop.

Fang Yun just pushed it lightly and accelerated this trend.

In fact, Fang Yun's current reform is largely to transform the potential rules of Jingguo into a clear legal system, and there is no real earth-shaking change.

But these are the basis for great changes.