Daming Military Empire

Chapter 568 Start the Selection

The cabinet is about to select a minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has been a hot topic in the capital's yamen for the past few days. He is a minister, a senior member of the second rank, and will become a super senior member of the first rank once the "Da Ming Chongzheng Law" is officially implemented in the next year , an extremely human minister.

Such a super official is not appointed by the emperor, nor is it nominated by a cabinet scholar, nor is it a few of the emperor's cronies, but is nominated by various ministers, and then elected by the quasi-cabinet members collectively, that is to say, as long as you If you have the ability, you will have a chance!

This selection method has completely overturned the previous routine, making everyone seem to see hope, and being a first-rank official, being an extremely talented minister is no longer so elusive.

Of course, to be elected as a minister, at least one must be a member of the third rank or above. For the time being, the seventh rank sesame official should not be delusional. If the grade of the recommended person is too low, it will be laughed at.

After ten days of preparation, almost all the ministers found suitable candidates. After the morning court, the Prime Minister Zhu Youjian finally called everyone and began to select the ministers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This time, Zhu Cijiong did not participate in the cabinet meeting, saying that he let them decide. He has never been the kind of villain who contradicts his promises, but in order to cheer up his fifth uncle Xinwang Zhu Youjian, he specially sent all of them here. Li Banghua, the left governor of the procuratorate, and Wang Zhengnan, the commander of Jinyiwei, attended the meeting. Their presence at the meeting not only gave Zhu You a chance to check, but also served as a warning.

He did this to warn all the participants that although I don't care about your selection process, the people you nominate must be reliable, and don't mention any stupid and corrupt officials. They are staring at you with blazing eyes!
The venue for this meeting is no longer the conference room of the Qianqing Palace, but the main hall of the Wenhua Palace. Since the cabinet is going to become an independent administrative center, the prime ministers of the cabinet can no longer stay in the imperial study of the Qianqing Palace. Zhu Cijiong simply vacated the entire Wenhua Palace to Zhu Youjian, in order to show the world that he really wants to decentralize power.

In fact, the original office of the cabinet was in the Wenyuan Pavilion behind the Wenhua Hall, but Wenyuan Pavilion is just an attic, and it can accommodate four or five cabinet scholars to work. It is necessary to gather more than ten cabinet members for meetings, or gather all It was far from enough for a group of elites to assist the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers in handling all the administrative affairs of the entire Ming Dynasty. That's why Zhu Cijiong vacated the entire Wenhua Palace as the new office space for the cabinet.

In order to enrich the strength of the cabinet, Zhu Cijiong is also planning to merge the Imperial Academy into the cabinet. The Imperial Academy was originally a secretarial institution. The permanent Hanlin Bachelor, Attendant Reader, and Attendant Bachelor are actually secretaries who assist the emperor in handling government affairs and studying classics and history. , there are other assistants such as classics, Shishu, Shizhao, etc., and historians such as editing, editing, and reviewing. As for the Shujishi, they are all elites selected from Jinshi. A member of the imperial court.

Since the reign of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty, the Hanlin Academy has actually become a storage place for the imperial court. It is also a place for a group of imperial examination elites to continue their studies. These elites study and discuss all day long. Nothing serious.

This has resulted in a serious waste of talents. With such a large group of elites sitting there idle, Zhu Cijiong has long been a bit disapproving. It just so happens that, taking advantage of this cabinet reshuffle, they can be directly stuffed into the cabinet as secretaries. .

Given the current territory and prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, the daily affairs of the imperial court are not trivial. There are at least a thousand matters to be dealt with every day. After the reorganization of the cabinet, the Grand Scholars have returned to the position of ministers in various ministries. The memorial is the official document in the future. The prime minister and the two deputy prime ministers will preside over the handling of the affairs. If they have to do everything, they will be exhausted all day. It happens that these imperial officials are idle, so let them assist in handling government affairs and accumulate money. Some experience in governance can kill two birds with one stone, so why not do it.

It's a bit far away, let's go back to the meeting to select the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Now, the main hall of Wenhua Palace has been converted into a special office space. The first room after entering the door is a huge conference room. At this time, all the participants have already sat down, waiting for the selection to begin.

The head of the conference table is the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, Xinwang Zhu Youjian;

The first person on the left is the chief assistant of the cabinet, Xu Guangqi, Minister of Rites;

Next is Bi Maokang, Secretary of the Ministry of Industry;
Sun Yuanhua, Shangshu of the Ministry of War;
Zodiac Zhou, Shangshu of the Ministry of Education;

Minister of Commerce Zhang Cai;
Minister of Communications Wu Jianye.

The first person on the right is Li Banghua, the left governor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate;

Next is Wang Zhengnan, the Commander of Jin Yiwei, the commander of the Commander-in-Chief of the Five Armies, Zuo Dudu;

Minister of the Ministry of Officials Yang Sichang;
Cheng Guoxiang, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs;
Cai Guoyong, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishments;
Minister of Transport Zhang Pu.

Zhu Youjian did a lot of preparatory work for this election conference. He even asked the emperor for advice and made a trial election charter. After everyone sat down, he followed Zhu Cijiong's example and slowly scanned around , Then, he coughed, and said loudly: "The purpose of calling everyone to this meeting is to select the minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the emperor's intention, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be responsible for receiving envoys from various countries, developing foreign relations, handling foreign affairs, and protecting Ming Dynasty who is outside. For the people and other matters, you can bring up any suitable candidates, so I won’t repeat myself, and now I will read the resumes of the candidates from the Ministry of Rites, Mr. Xu, please.”

Xu Guangqi was unambiguous when he heard the words. He directly took out a piece of official paper from his arms and read aloud: "I nominate Nan Juyi as Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The candidate is Nan Juyi, a native of Weinan, Shaanxi, aged 62, and a native of Wanli. Jinshi in 29 years, successively served as the head of the Ministry of Punishment, the right deputy Qiandu Yushi, the left and right minister of Shanxi Chengxuan Zhengshi, and the right servant of the household department. Ju Yi is a young man with a strong conduct, both civil and military. In the second year of Apocalypse, he served as the right deputy governor of Fujian Province and defeated the Dutch invaders in Penghu. The economy is doing well, and has been praised by the emperor many times. Now that the Ming sea area has expanded to South Asia and Persia, and there is no longer any threat of invasion in the southeast sea area, the emperor intends to recall the governor of the southeast. And Sheng Zhi, who is quite prestigious among foreigners, is suitable for the post of minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so as to demonstrate the national prestige of our Ming Dynasty."

After his introduction, all the ministers present here are a little bit heartbroken. Nan Juyi's reputation is indeed high enough. It is not an exaggeration to be the minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is the opening of this opening. Who can compete with him? ?

After all, who will get the Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, let's see the breakdown in the next chapter.

(End of this chapter)