Nanjing, Forbidden City.

Qiu Zhizhong, the chief eunuch of the master of ceremonies and the chief eunuch in a python robe, took a five-ride ride to the Wenhua Hall where the cabinet was located, followed by dozens of eunuchs of all sizes, and the pomp was not small.

Since the eunuch Wu Zhong sent an envoy to the West, Qiu Zhizhong has temporarily taken over the position of the chief of the inner house, and also the position of the boss of the celebrant eunuch.

Carrying the public was greeted by the eunuch and palace maid on duty, and the Wenhua Hall was in front.

At this time, a little eunuch hurriedly came, knelt beside Taiyu, and shouted: "Godfather, the emperor has sent a secret decree!" ”

Qiu Zhizhong suddenly stopped his lift, walked down and said, "Bring it!" ”

The little eunuch respectfully presented the secret decree.

Qiu Zhizhong opened it and looked at it carefully, his face showed doubts, and he muttered, "Why does the emperor suddenly want to check the collections in the main hall?" ”

He looked at the Wenhua Hall in front of him, and said to the little eunuch beside him: "Shunzi, our family still has to go to the cabinet meeting, and we can't delay it, you can take a few people to the main hall to check it." ”

"Yes! Son obeys! ”

Junzi responded happily, and the godfather sent out an errand, this is the importance of it!

Qiu Zhizhong sat back down, and suddenly turned around and said, "This is an errand assigned by the emperor, be sure to be careful!" ”

Shunzi said: "Godfather, don't worry, my son will do it beautifully!" ”

Qiu Zhizhong nodded slightly, signaling the guard of honor to continue.

In front of the Wenhua Palace, on the left are the eunuchs of the celebrant eunuchs, and on the right are several cabinet members, who entered the palace gate like geese after they met.

In the main hall, a long rosewood table is placed in the center, on which are stacked account books, empty notes and pen inkstones, and seats are neatly placed on both sides of the table.

The first seat on the north side of the table is a hollow gold seat carved with nine dragons, which is the location of Zhu Cihong.

Obviously, today's cabinet meeting of the emperor did not come, only empty.

Several eunuchs of the celebrant sat on the left side of the red sandalwood table, and more than a dozen cabinet ministers such as Yang Tinglin, Zhang Guowei, and Feng Ying were on the right, and they were listed in an orderly manner.

Behind the golden throne of the Kowloon, on the hollow pattern of the three-legged copper incense burner, faint cigarettes continue to bubble outward, and the congregation is calm and quiet.

After Qiu Zhizhong sat firmly on the chief seat on the left side of the golden throne, he glanced around everyone and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, Your Majesty is out on patrol and cannot preside over the cabinet meeting, so let's start the discussion!" ”

According to the rules set by Zhu Cihong, when the emperor goes on a campaign or tour, and there is no crown prince to supervise the country, the cabinet meeting will be held as usual, and the eunuch who will be in charge of the seal and the chief assistant of the cabinet will jointly preside over it.

The celebrant represents the eyes of the emperor and is responsible for approving the draft of the cabinet ticket, because the eunuch Wu Zhong is not there, so he has to be replaced by the great eunuch Qiu Zhizhong.

Qiu Zhizhong looked at the cabinet ministers and continued: "According to the usual practice, this mid-year cabinet meeting, all ministries will report the work content of the second half of the year, and the old cabinet votes are drafted, and our celebrant will approve the red on behalf of His Majesty, and we will approve as much as possible if we can, and important national affairs must be left to His Majesty to come back to the Holy Judgment!" ”

Yang Tinglin, the first assistant of the cabinet, nodded slightly, and said, "Then let's start, the household department will say first, Zhang Ge Lao." ”

Zhang Guowei, the secretary of the household department, got up, took a document, and said: "The work of the household department in the second half of the year is mainly to recompile the yellow book that is revised every ten years, and to count the population and cultivated land of the provinces.......

Speaking of territory, Zhang Guowei, who is in his sixties, twitched slightly when he spoke.

Originally, the Ming Dynasty only had two capitals and thirteen provinces, but it was expanded to three capitals and eighteen provinces by Emperor Tianwu, and some of the provinces were very large, and it was difficult for carriages and horses to travel, so they had to be divided into two provinces.......

Zhang Guowei can fully imagine that after ten years of gold development, after this Yellow Book statistics, I am afraid that the total population of Daming will double!

The work of this household department is very stressful!

Zhang Guowei talked about the work of the household department for two quarters of an hour, and then sat down on a chair and took a sip of tea to moisten his throat.

Shoufu Yang Tinglin took the documents of the household department, read them carefully, and said loudly: "The ticket of the household department can be signed!" ”

He took the black inkstone in front of him and was the first to sign, and after finishing it, he handed the ticket along the table to the other ministers to sign one by one.

In the end, the ticket was proposed to the side of the celebrant on the left side of the table, Qiu Zhizhong glanced at it and announced: "The celebrant approves red!" ”

After shouting, Qiu Zhizhong picked up the red pen on the case and carefully wrote the two vermilion characters "according to the alignment" on the ticket plan.

The whole process was serious and serious, and everyone on both sides of the table had a solemn expression, and no one dared to slack off in the slightest.

Next, it was the Ministry of Industry Shangshu Fang Kong Zhao reported on the work, he said: "Your Majesty sent a decree in Shaanxi to abolish the eunuch system, and hand over the acceptance of the official road to the local prefects for the first acceptance, the governor Yamen for the second acceptance, and finally the Ministry of Industry sent someone to carry out the third acceptance......"

When it came to the matter of Shaanxi, everyone was silent, especially the celebrant and the eunuchs, and the copywriting in their hands was also frozen there.

The matter of Shaanxi has already been transmitted to the court, Emperor Tianwu secretly Chen Cang, overturned the entire Shaanxi officialdom, everyone was shocked, and also mourned for three seconds for the eunuchs and officials in Shaanxi.

Yang Tinglin coughed, breaking the short calm, and he said seriously: "The vote of the Ministry of Industry is drafted, and the cabinet is signed!" ”

Next, Li Yan, the secretary of the Ministry of Education, made a work report and made a long mess on the issue of education, and the core was to set up 100 new girls' schools in the second half of the year.

Later, Shen Tingyang, the secretary of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, proposed to add Gaozhou (Zhanjiang) in Guangdong, Hepu (Beihai) in Guangxi, Gaizhou (Dalian) in Liaodong, Kaohsiung (Taiwan), Haimen (Nantong) in Zhili, Dengzhou (Yantai) in Shandong, Busan, and Kyushu, a total of eight coastal cities as the third batch of commercial ports, continue to increase overseas trade and drive the local economy.

The secretaries of each ministry reported in turn, and after being confirmed by Yang Tinglin, the first assistant of the cabinet, the master of ceremonies and supervisors approved a batch of red photos.

This kind of major national political event, Zhengde, Liu Jin and Wei Zhongxian of the Tianqi Dynasty can pat the table and say that they oppose it, but the celebrant of the Tianwu Dynasty has no right to oppose it, so he can only honestly be Zhu Cihong's secretary.

The Cabinet meeting lasted two full hours before the work reports of the ministries were concluded.

This is still a small amount of time, the cabinet meeting at the beginning of the year, it also has to involve the expenses and budgets of various ministries, and it takes longer, from four or five o'clock in the morning to the early morning of the next day, including Zhu Cihong, all of them have become panda eyes.

Yang Tinglin took a sip of tea and said: "Everyone has worked hard in the past six months, and I hope everyone will make persistent efforts in the second half of the year to contribute to the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty!" ”

The ministers responded with a smile, saying that it is their job to serve the country and the people, and to be able to be an official in the prosperous era is also to catch up with the good times.

Everyone relaxed for a moment, and Yang Tinglin said again: "Next, let's discuss the tax reform system arranged for us by His Majesty." ”

The so-called tax reform system is the last time Zhu Cihong encountered in Henan's Weihui Mansion, he handed over this task to the cabinet and the Ministry of Finance, so that they could come up with a feasible plan to completely put an end to such malpractices.