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After preliminary testing, Zhao Junchen was already certain that Emperor Deqing wanted Zuo Lanshan to enter the cabinet. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

But with just such a little information, Zhao Junchen still couldn't guess the specific plan and true intentions of Emperor Deqing.

After all, in this morning, many officials of the "Imperial Party" expressed their support for the trilateral governor Liang Fuchen to enter the cabinet, which was obviously also from the secret indication of Emperor Deqing, but this situation obviously conflicts with Zuo Lanshan's entry into the cabinet, but why?

You must know that with Liang Fuchen's exploits few and unparalleled, once he joins the competition for a vacant seat in the cabinet, Zuo Lanshan's hope of entering the cabinet will be greatly reduced.

According to Zhao Junchen's conjecture, there are two possibilities for Emperor Deqing to suddenly push Liang Fuchen out: perhaps Liang Fuchen was just a cover thrown by Emperor Deqing in order to divert the attention of various factions in the court; Or, Emperor Deqing plans to finish his work in one battle, and wants to let Zuo Lanshan and Liang Fuchen enter the cabinet together!

Of the two possibilities, the latter is more likely.

After all, after the fall of Huang Yourong, it seems that there is only a vacant seat in the cabinet, but in fact, the Ming Dynasty has never explicitly stipulated the specific number of cabinet auxiliary ministers, since the emergence of the cabinet, for hundreds of years, the Ming Dynasty cabinet has only one person at the lowest time, and as many as seven people at the most.

In other words, one to seven people is the default range of the cabinet size of the emperor and the hundred officials.

And the current cabinet, if you put aside Huang Yourong, who is about to return to his hometown, there are only three auxiliary ministers, Shen Changmao, Huang Yourong, and Cheng Yuandao, even if two more people are added at the same time, it is only five, which does not exceed the scope of the acquiescence of the monarchs and ministers.

If Zuo Lanshan and Liang Fuchen can enter the cabinet at the same time, Emperor Deqing can obviously reap a lot of benefits.

First of all, after Zuo Lanshan enters the cabinet, the status of the No. 2 person in the "Zhao Party" will surpass that of Zhao Junchen, the No. 1 person in the "Zhao Party", which can greatly increase the possibility of internal division in the "Zhao Party", so as to limit the increase in Zhao Junchen's power.

Secondly, after Liang Fuchen entered the cabinet, Emperor Deqing could also use Liang Fuchen's hand to meddle in cabinet affairs and divide the authority of the cabinet.

Thirdly, taking the opportunity to transfer Liang Fuchen, an important minister of the "Imperial Party," back to the capital and entrust him with important tasks, can also greatly enhance the influence of the "Imperial Party" in the center of the capital.

Finally, the larger the number of cabinet members, the more difficult it is to unite, the more serious the internal strife and internal friction will be, and the power and influence of the cabinet will be limited, which is equivalent to a disguised increase in imperial power.

All of these are the goals that greatly contribute to the enhancement of the imperial power of the Deqing Emperor, and the Deqing Emperor will never easily give up these benefits from the perspective of the character of the Deqing Emperor, who has always been a great joyful achievement.

Therefore, according to Zhao Junchen's conjecture, the latter possibility is obviously greater.

However, conjecture is only conjecture after all, and the next change in the situation is directly related to the success or failure of Zhao Junchen's final plan, Zhao Junchen is naturally extremely cautious, and will never conclude Emperor Deqing's thoughts by virtue of a momentary conjecture, otherwise once there is a slight deviation, Zhao Junchen will usher in the end of failure.

Therefore, Zhao Junchen still needs further testing.

While thinking about it, Zhao Junchen planned to further test Emperor Deqing.

However, in order to prevent Emperor Deqing from seeing the flaws, Zhao Junchen did not immediately probe it, but first discussed some court affairs with Emperor Deqing.

For example, the future prospects of Tongda Shipping Company, such as the recent situation of the household department, and the reception of the internal and western factories...... Zhao Junchen even calmly exchanged views with Emperor Deqing about the vacant cabinet seats.

Then, "inadvertently", Zhao Junchen chatted with Emperor Deqing about the expenditure of the household treasury next year.

I saw that Zhao Junchen's expression was full of pride, and he reported to Emperor Deqing: "Your Majesty, in recent years, the income and expenditure situation of the household department has gradually improved, especially this year, the amount of silver in the household department has reached a new high in the past ten years...... According to Chen's estimates, as the shipping line enters the right track in the second half of the year, the balance can at least quadruple, perhaps reaching two million taels! ”

To tell the truth, the household department is in charge of the world's taxes and grain, and it can balance two million taels of silver in a year, which is actually not much.

However, as Zhao Junchen said, this is the best situation of the household department for more than ten years, before Zhao Junchen took control of the household department, the household department has a surplus every year, not to mention the balance, and often cannot cover the expenditure.

All of this is all relying on Zhao Junchen's means, and it is no wonder that Zhao Junchen looks proud.

Therefore, after hearing Zhao Junchen's report and seeing Zhao Junchen's smug expression, Emperor Deqing also smiled cooperatively: "Yes, seeing the recent situation of the household, I am also very relieved, all of this is Zhao Aiqing's business work!" ”

Zhao Junchen hurriedly said humbly: "The minister does not dare to take credit, everything depends on your Majesty's wise and holy judgment." ”

Although he was humble in his mouth, the smug expression on Zhao Junchen's face could not be concealed no matter what.

Seeing Zhao Junchen's expression, Emperor Deqing's brows furrowed slightly.

In the eyes of Emperor Deqing, pride-of-merit is by no means a good quality.

But at the same time, seeing that Zhao Junchen's city government was as shallow as ever, Emperor Deqing became less and less defensive against Zhao Junchen in his heart.

Speaking of which, the reason why Zhao Junchen can repeatedly and successfully calculate Emperor Deqing is not because Emperor Deqing has low vigilance, shallow city government, or lack of strategy, but in the eyes of Emperor Deqing, Zhao Junchen is just a little clever courtier, such an image is too strong, so that Emperor Deqing has never really paid attention to Zhao Junchen, even if Emperor Deqing is now gradually a little jealous of Zhao Junchen, he is only afraid of Zhao Junchen's increasing power, not Zhao Junchen's scheming of the city.

Zhao Junchen knows very well that this is his biggest advantage over Emperor Deqing, so Zhao Junchen will always seize every opportunity to stabilize his image as a courtier in front of Emperor Deqing, even if he is pretending to be a clown.

That's exactly what it is today.

Seeing that Emperor Deqing's vigilance was further reduced, Zhao Junchen finally asked: "Your Majesty, seeing that the autumn harvest is approaching, at this time of year, the Jianzhou Jurchen and Mongolian tribes in the north will go south to plunder, and it is also the time when the imperial court allocates subsidies for the towns in northern Xinjiang. After receiving His Majesty's instructions, the minister can also instruct the household department to prepare in advance, so as to save time for being in a hurry. ”

After hearing Zhao Junchen's inquiry, Emperor Deqing didn't think much about it, but after pondering for a while, he said: "It's not in a hurry, let's wait until I discuss this matter in detail with several cabinet elders before making arrangements." ”

"I know."

When he agreed, Zhao Junchen's eyes flashed a hint of discoloration.

The distribution of food and salary in the Ming Dynasty also involved the interests of all aspects.

Among them, the food and salary of the Liaobian military town and the trilateral military town are the top priority!

Since the gradual rise of the Jianzhou Jurchens, the annual Liaoyu is an astronomical amount, although the Liaoyu does not actually need so much silver, but many ministers in the DPRK and China have benefited from the Liaoning, so they naturally speak for the Liaobian military town, from this aspect, the interests involved in the Liaoyu are not inferior to the commercial tax of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal!

Compared with Liao, the trilateral military towns are in charge of the military affairs of Shaanxi, Gansu, Yansui, Ningxia and other places, and they also face the threat of foreign raids going south every year, and their importance is not inferior to that of Liaobian, but the annual subsidies they receive are far inferior to Liao's salaries.

However, in the past ten years, because Liang Fuchen, the governor of the three sides, was a hardcore minister of the "imperial party", Emperor Deqing wanted Liang Fuchen to make some achievements in the governorship of the three sides, but he tried every means to increase the number of military salaries on the three sides! Today, the amount of trilateral military pay is gradually considerable.

And Zhao Junchen's inquiry at this time, it seems to be for the border military salary, but in fact it is to test the attitude of Emperor Deqing towards the trilateral military town, if the Deqing Emperor as always wants to strive for a larger amount of military salary for the trilateral military town, it means that the trilateral governor Liang Fuchen will not move in a short time, but if the Deqing Emperor does not pay so much attention to the military salary of the trilateral military town, it means that Liang Fuchen is about to return to Beijing after his term of office, so the Deqing Emperor is not willing to repeatedly argue with the hundreds of officials in the court because of the trilateral military salary.

Now, after hearing Zhao Junchen's inquiry, Emperor Deqing did not make any special statement, which means that ......

"Finally, it can be determined that Liang Fuchen is really going back to the capital, and it seems that Emperor Deqing really wants to push Liang Fuchen into the cabinet...... This Liang Fuchen, whether it is scheming, means, or city government, is second to none in the 'imperial party', if he returns to the capital, it will be tantamount to a tiger for Emperor Deqing, so that the future central situation will become more and more complicated, but I also have to prepare in advance...... In addition, they also had to secretly contact Zhou Shangjing, Shen Changmao and others, and they were probably also unwilling to see Liang Fuchen return to Beijing, to see if they could secretly stop this matter...... Also, the trilateral military town is quite erosive now, and it is indeed inseparable from the support of Liang Fuchen, otherwise there may be a big mess......"

Zhao Junchen thought secretly.

In fact, Emperor Deqing had vaguely revealed the idea of summoning Liang Fuchen back to Beijing before, and Zhao Junchen had long been ready to secretly stop this matter, but it was not until today that Zhao Junchen finally determined Emperor Deqing's idea.

Next, Zhao Junchen and Emperor Deqing continued to discuss some court affairs before leaving the country.

After leaving the imperial study, Zhao Junchen was quite silent on the way back to the mansion, just secretly thinking about his next plan.

But Zhao Junchen didn't know that when he was testing Emperor Deqing, among the major factions in the court, two factions were secretly discussing the matter of joining forces.

And the reason why these two factions joined forces was only because they had a common enemy - that was Zhao Junchen!

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…… (To be continued.) )