Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1189 The Ming Cabinet
Wenyuan Pavilion in the Forbidden City.

This is the seat of the Ming Dynasty Cabinet. As early as the Yongle period, as the cabinet gained increasing power, it was transformed from the original emperor's secretariat to the Ming Dynasty's central political decision-making body. By the Renzong and Xuanzong periods, the cabinet was truly formed, and Wenyuan Pavilion became the cabinet's official office location.

In addition to the chief minister, the second chief minister and other cabinet ministers, the Ming Dynasty cabinet also had many cabinet subordinates working in the cabinet. These subordinates generally performed some auxiliary work in the cabinet as editors, reviewers, lecturers, etc. In addition, there were also low-level officials responsible for copying and delivering documents, which were all necessary.

You should know that the Ming Cabinet is equivalent to the central government of later generations. There are countless government affairs, big and small, sent to the cabinet every day. These affairs need to be sorted out by the cabinet and handled separately, and then submitted to the Emperor by the Silijian for final approval and decision. If only a few cabinet elders were relied upon to handle these affairs, they would probably have been exhausted to death long ago.

Among the offices of Wenyuan Pavilion, in addition to the large office on the first floor which is for public use and is preliminarily arranged by subordinates, there are other offices on the second floor. These offices are all dedicated offices for cabinet elders, with the first and second assistants having one room each, and the other cabinet elders having two people in one room, connected from east to west.

The room at the very back is the office of Prime Minister Hong Chengchou. The room is not big, even slightly smaller than an ordinary study room, and the facilities inside are also very simple. Apart from a few bookcases and a large desk, there are no other extra furniture. In addition, there is a pit near the inside where you can make a fire for heating in winter. There are also a lot of documents and files piled up there.

But such an ordinary room is the office of the Prime Minister of the Central Cabinet of the Ming Dynasty. Many important political decisions of the Ming Dynasty were made in this room.

In the past, Xia Yan, Yan Song, Xu Jie, Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng and others were once the owners of this place, and now Hong Chengchou has become the new owner and reached the peak of his official career.

Hong Chengchou was a Jinshi graduate and served in the Ministry of Justice for six years in his early years, working his way up from the position of Chief Clerk to Deputy Director. He was not sent out to serve as an official until the second year of the Tianqi reign. Because of his achievements as the Assistant Director of Education in Zhejiang, he was highly regarded by the court and subsequently promoted step by step, first to the position of Left Councillor of Liangzhe Province, and then to the position of Councillor of Grain Supervision in Shaanxi in the seventh year of the Tianqi reign.

After the death of Emperor Tianqi, Emperor Chongzhen succeeded to the throne and severely cracked down on the eunuch party, which led to a major change in the situation in the court. At this time, Hong Chengchou was lucky enough not to be involved because he had been exiled long ago. Later, due to the rebellion in Shaanxi, the governor of Sanbian, Yang He, was surrounded. Hong Chengchou, as a political councilor, sent troops to rescue and repelled the bandits, killing more than 300 of them, thus making his mark.

Afterwards, Hong Chengchou was appointed by Emperor Chongzhen as the governor of Yansui and ordered to quell the rebellion. Because of his meritorious service in quelling the rebellion, Hong Chengchou was promoted again a few years later and became the governor-general of the three borders. When Zhu Shenzhu entered Beijing to quell the rebellion, the Ming Dynasty changed. Hong Chengchou was a smart man and did not get involved in the court disputes, let alone the change of imperial power. In his opinion, as long as the Ming Dynasty remained the Ming Dynasty, it would be fine if the emperor changed as long as he was still a member of the Zhu family. He was loyal to the Ming Dynasty, not to someone. Moreover, Zhu Di had a precedent for this. Hong Chengchou was familiar with history books and of course knew the reason to stay out of it. Moreover, he was already a frontier official at that time. Bandits were everywhere in the Ming Dynasty. No matter who sat on the throne of the emperor, as long as Hong Chengchou did not commit suicide, the emperor would certainly use him.

What happened afterwards was just as Hong Chengchou had expected. After Zhu Shencui came to power, not only did he not touch Hong Chengchou, he also relied on him a lot. Moreover, Zhu Shencui not only gave Hong Chengchou many rewards, but also gave him enough trust.

Hong Chengchou also repaid Zhu Shencui with his talents. He cooperated with Sun Chuanting to annihilate Gao Yingxiang in one fell swoop. Then, according to Zhu Shencui's strategic plan, he led his troops south and joined forces with various Ming troops in the Central Plains to encircle and suppress the bandits, and finally solved the internal troubles of the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop.

After the internal troubles of the Ming Dynasty were quelled, Hong Chengchou was promoted for his merits and transferred from Shaanxi to Huguang to serve as the governor. The position of the governor of Huguang in the Ming Dynasty was different from the previous governor of the three borders. The governor of the three borders was a temporary position and was only responsible for the military of the three borders of the Ming Dynasty, Shaanxi and Gansu. The governor of Huguang was the highest military and political chief of Huguang Province, with more power than the provincial governor and the governor-general, and was directly responsible to the emperor. He was a true frontier official.

Hong Chengchou worked in Huguang for three years and achieved outstanding results. Later, Zhu Shenzhu transferred Hong Chengchou to the newly created post of Governor of Fujian and Zhejiang because of the Zheng Clique in Fujian. After going to Fujian and Zhejiang, Hong Chengchou understood the emperor's intention of putting him in this position, and was more aware of the harm of the Zheng Clique. After arriving in Fujian, Hong Chengchou did not disappoint Zhu Shenzhu's high hopes. In just one year, he completely disintegrated the once powerful Zheng Clique, and made great contributions to the court's stabilization of the local area and the disarmament of the Zheng Clique.

It can be said that Hong Chengchou has made countless contributions over the years and has been promoted to a higher position, but he never expected that the position of Prime Minister would suddenly fall on his head. Although Hong Chengchou was very confident and felt that he could eventually enter the cabinet and become a high-ranking official, he never expected to become the Prime Minister as soon as he entered the cabinet.

You have to know that although Hong Chengchou made great contributions, there were also people who made similar contributions. Let’s not talk about others for now. For example, the Governor-General of Liaodong, Sun Chuanting, was no worse than him. Although Hong Chengchou took the imperial examination one year earlier than Sun Chuanting, their careers were almost the same, and even Hong Chengchou admired Sun Chuanting very much in terms of both political achievements and military affairs. Hong Chengchou had worked with Sun Chuanting and knew Sun Chuanting’s abilities well. The two had similar contributions and held similar official positions. More importantly, Sun Chuanting’s relationship with the emperor was not comparable to Hong Chengchou’s. Everyone knows that Wang Jinwu’s wife is Sun Chuanting’s sister, and Wang Jinwu is the cousin of the current emperor. It is said that Sun Chuanting knew the emperor many years ago, when the emperor was just a member of the royal family. In this way, Sun Chuanting was in the emperor’s heart and was one of the emperor’s team before the rebellion.

Even though Hong Chengchou considered himself a talented person in the world, he did not dare to say that he could suppress Sun Chuanting in this regard. Therefore, Hong Chengchou always felt that it would not be a problem for him to enter the cabinet. However, to become the chief minister, he would have to be promoted step by step. At least he would have to wait for Sun Chuanting to become the chief minister first, and then it would be his turn after his term of office was over. However, Hong Chengchou never expected that during this cabinet change, the emperor would allow him to enter the cabinet directly as the chief minister, while Sun Chuanting, who had the highest voice, did not even enter the cabinet.

Hong Chengchou was surprised and delighted by his sudden rise to power, and he was also extremely grateful to the emperor. After becoming the prime minister, Hong Chengchou naturally worked diligently, striving to become a famous minister and leave his name in history, but he discovered a problem not long after entering the cabinet, that is, the current cabinet was slightly different from what he had imagined. Compared with the previous cabinet, the power of the current cabinet was not only weakened, but also decentralized.

Previously, the cabinet had always been one of the three carriages of the imperial court, and the three carriages were the cabinet, the emperor, and the Silijian. But since Zhu Shenzhu ascended the throne, he has continuously adjusted the political structure of the Ming Dynasty, not only weakening the power of the Silijian, but also weakening the power of the cabinet.

The first is the establishment of the Imperial Household Department. When the Imperial Household Department was first established, it was used as an institution within the imperial palace and had no direct contact with the outer court. Moreover, the inner and outer courts were clearly separated and were not subordinate to each other.

But over the years, the emperor has continuously increased the powers of the Imperial Household Department, and gradually took away some powers of the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue through the Imperial Household Department. In addition, with the establishment of the Royal Bank and the convenience of trade and opening up the sea, the status of the Imperial Household Department has gradually improved. The Imperial Household Department has also changed from the initial general manager to a special minister, who is concurrently served by important court officials. Now the Minister of the Imperial Household Department is Xu Xiancheng. Xu Xiancheng is not only the Minister of the Imperial Household Department, but also the Minister of the Imperial Guard. In addition, the Supervisory Office has always been managed by Xu Xiancheng. His powers are really greater than those of the six ministers.

In addition to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there was also a newly established Zongli Yamen. The emperor used the Zongli Yamen to take charge of the preparation and construction of trading ports and the establishment of customs, and set up multiple departments within the Zongli Yamen. As a result, not only did some of the departments' functions overlap with many of the six ministries, but the establishment of trading ports was not under the jurisdiction of local governments, but was directly under the responsibility of the Zongli Yamen, which further increased the power of the Zongli Yamen.

In addition, the customs department also replaced the functions of the Ministry of Revenue, which was equivalent to transferring a considerable part of the tax revenue to the Zongli Yamen. In addition, there was the establishment of the Mint, etc. These were all integrated and re-assigned from the original departments, but their powers were not in the six ministries of the court, but in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Zongli Yamen, or other newly established institutions, which also affected the original power of the cabinet.

Hong Chengchou had a great vision in politics. He might not have paid attention to these things before he entered the cabinet, but now that he was the chief minister, he could see the problem immediately. Privately, Hong Chengchou had to sigh at the emperor's cleverness. The emperors of the Ming Dynasty had always managed the government by balancing the cabinet, the imperial power and the Imperial Household Department.

But their current Emperor Yongming was different. He directly overturned the original three-legged tripod phenomenon. In addition to the original basis, he added institutions such as the Imperial Household Department and the Zongli Yamen to divide the powers of the cabinet including the six ministries, and then controlled them in the capacity of the emperor, and naturally attributed these powers to the emperor. In this way, the powers of the cabinet and the six ministries were greatly weakened.

When Hong Chengchou understood this, he couldn't help but feel a little sad, because as the chief minister of the cabinet, his power would be much less than before, which was not a good thing for Hong Chengchou who wanted to become a famous official.

However, Hong Chengchou, who was so smart, certainly would not try to seize power from the emperor. As a minister, he knew very well what he could and could not do. Moreover, the current emperor was not the Chongzhen Emperor, nor the Tianqi Emperor or the Wanli Emperor. Like the Chengzu Zhu Di, he was a ruthless man who rose to power through military means. Under such a monarch, Hong Chengchou did not have these thoughts. Moreover, he also knew that Zhu Shenzhu was an outstanding ruler. Even if the power of the cabinet was weakened, he still had the opportunity to become a famous minister in the current prosperous situation of the Ming Dynasty.

On this day, Hong Chengchou was working in the cabinet as usual. In front of him were thick documents, which were sent from various places and sorted by his subordinates. He was concentrating on reading them when he heard hurried footsteps outside. Hong Chengchou subconsciously raised his head and saw a man hurriedly coming in from the half-open door. He said to Hong Chengchou anxiously, "Prime Minister, I just received urgent news that something big happened in Yunnan!"

(End of this chapter)