Although Huang Liji saw clearly that Zhu Youzhen's proposal was not conducive to the entire civil official group, it might even change the situation in which the scholars of the Ming Dynasty would be in charge of the government in the future. But this is a great thing for Huang Liji himself.

He can become the second prime minister of the Ming Dynasty since Hu Weiyong, which is something that Zhang Juzheng has not done, which means that his posthumous name will likely overshadow Zhang Juzheng, and the risk he took was shared by the merchant congress.

Give so little and gain so much. Huang Liji just hesitated, and pretended not to see it, Chongzhen looked forward to his eyes taking the initiative to take responsibility for implementing tax and administrative reforms.

Huang Liji made up his mind not to wade into the troubled waters of tax reform, which increased his reputation behind him and made him the second prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, but he clung to it and was unwilling to give up.

Huang Liji avoided Chongzhen's eager gaze, and pretended to be worried: "Your Majesty, this is an ingenious plan to convene a merchant congress to discuss the reform of commercial taxes. But summoning 230 merchant representatives from all over the world, which is such a large number, I am afraid that Your Majesty may not be able to make these profit-seeking businessmen fully support Your Majesty to increase the business tax and cut the meat from themselves, right? ”

Regarding Huang Liji's refusal to take responsibility, Zhu Youzhen was also slightly disappointed. If this Huang Liji had half the courage of Zhang Juzheng, with the power he had gathered in the DPRK and his own cooperation, Zhu Youzhen would not need to convene an uncertain merchant congress, and directly promote the reform of the Ming Dynasty from top to bottom.

At that time, Zhang Juzheng contacted the Minister of Internal Affairs Feng Bao, and he was able to implement the Wanli New Deal, which was opposed by the entire gentry class. If it weren't for the fact that Emperor Wanli was too jealous and abolished the Wanli New Deal regardless of whether it was good or bad, then Zhu Youzhen would not have to implement reforms from scratch today.

Now with the personal support of Zhu Youzhen, coupled with the court cleaned up by Wei Zhongxian, the Donglin Party does not occupy many high positions, and it can be said that there is the least resistance to promoting reform from top to bottom.

But obviously Huang Liji was unwilling, and went to the opposite side of the gentry of the world at the beginning. This is different from assisting Wei Zhongxian in attacking the Donglin Party, which only hit a part of the gentry class, and belongs to an internal struggle. But the tax reform was carried out against the gentry and wealthy merchants, and this enemy seemed too strong.

Zhu Youzhen looked at Huang Liji meaningfully and said, "It is precisely because of the large number of people that it is impossible for them to work together. And since I can't buy it, these businessmen are unanimous in favor of the tax reform policy. Then the businessmen could not be coerced either, and so many deputies were unanimously opposed to the tax reform policy. ”

Huang Liji's heart moved, and he asked again: "If the meeting of representatives of the Ming merchants convened by His Majesty finally vetoes His Majesty's tax reform policy, what will Your Majesty do?" ”

Zhu Youzhen was about to show his determination by saying that this could not happen, and I would never allow this kind of thing to happen, when he suddenly saw Huang Liji's eyes flickering a little.

He suddenly remembered that the position of this Shousuke-sama was not a firm support for reform, but an old bureaucrat who only wanted a smooth transition. If it weren't for the bait he threw out to restore the prime minister's system, it would be tempting to talk to him about the content of the reform at all.

Zhu Youzhen took a deep breath, and then said to Huang Liji with a gloomy expression: "Although I am the Son of Heaven, I have also heard of such a saying in the market, which is to be willing to gamble and lose. Since I proposed the convening of the Merchants' Congress, which in turn rejected my proposed tax reform policy, I accepted the decision without complaint. ”

Hearing Zhu Youzhen say this, Huang Liji finally let go of the biggest worry in his heart. What he is most afraid of is that when the conclusion of the merchants' congress is different from Chongzhen's expectations, this young man is thin-skinned and can't accept this decision, so he, the prime minister, will become a rat in the bellows, and he will be in a dilemma.

After receiving Chongzhen's personal promise that the decision of the merchant congress would be the final decision and that there would be no remorse, Huang Liji felt that his whole person was relaxed. In terms of administrative reform, although the executive, judicial, and military are divided into three independent parts, in Huang Liji's view, this is nothing more than the distribution of power within the civilian bureaucracy.

No matter how Chongzhen reforms, the last thing to do is always the Ming scholar, from this point of view, as long as the Ming Dynasty does not change the way the current officials are outstanding, then the power is always in the hands of the civilian group.

After Chongzhen's reform, the original power of the inner court to approve red will be abolished. In this way, the Daming civil official group finally reached the peak from the struggle against imperial power in the Taizu era to his Huang Liji.

He Huang Liji is no longer an ordinary first assistant, but should be remembered, the leader of the civilian-bureaucratic group, a politician who regained the power that was robbed by the imperial power.

Seeing that Chongzhen easily returned the power that Taizu had taken away to the civil official group, Huang Liji sighed in his heart and thought, "In the end, I am still young, such an impulsive move, I think Your Majesty will regret today's actions when he becomes an adult in the future." ”

Although Huang Liji has been regretting Zhu Youzhen's actions in his heart, he quickly promised Chongzhen that he was willing to contribute his modest efforts to the reform of the Ming Dynasty.

Seeing Huang Liji's suppressed excitement, Zhu Youzhen secretly thought in his heart that this Ming Shoufu must not have heard the phrase: 'Agreements are used to be torn up, and promises are used to be overturned'.

After a difficult conversation, Zhu Youzhen finally let the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty stand on his side. Subsequently, Huang Liji agreed to propose administrative reform at the next court meeting, and to convene a merchant congress to discuss commercial taxes and other matters.

Huang Liji entered the palace with a nervous mood and had a private meeting with Chongzhen, but when he left the palace, his steps were steady and hurried, and he felt quite excited. After Huang Liji left the Qianqing Palace, he arrived at the door of the cabinet duty room of the Cultural Palace, and only then did he hold back his excitement and reorganize his clothes before entering the duty room.

The cabinet room is a large and large room divided into two rooms, the outer room is the clerk who runs errands for the cabinet members, and the inner room is where several cabinet members work together. After seeing Huang Liji walk in, Shi Fenglai, who had been paying attention to Huang Liji's movements, immediately greeted him, and asked with a smile: "I heard that my brother Fan was edicted by a eunuch, but does Your Majesty have any instructions?" ”

Huang Liji touched his beard and said casually: "No, it's just that Your Majesty asked for some instructions on past political affairs, and there are no special instructions." Brother Cunmei doesn't have to worry too much. ”

Although Shi Fenglai is older than Huang Liji, Huang Liji is a Jinshi in the thirty-second year of Wanli, and Shi Fenglai is the leader of the thirty-fifth year of Wanli. According to the rules of officialdom at this time in the Ming Dynasty, Huang Liji became Shi Fenglai's predecessor in the imperial examination.

Among the four members of the cabinet, Huang Liji was a Jinshi in the 32nd year of Wanli, Shi Fenglai and Zhang Ruitu were the Bangyan and Tanhua in the 35th year of Wanli respectively, and Li Guopu was a Jinshi in the 41st year of Wanli.

And this is also the unspoken rule left over from the improvement of the cabinet system during the period of self-benevolence and Xuan, although becoming a cabinet member must be based on rules such as seniority and rank in the imperial examination, which seems very pedantic and cannot make really capable ministers stand out.

However, the selection process of the cabinet system itself is very mature, and the cabinet members are divided into the first assistant who is more senior, those with medium seniority who assist in handling affairs, and those with the least seniority who study in front of several seniors.

This system not only ensures the ability of cabinet members to do their work, but also ensures that there is an order for the rotation of cabinet members in which the old, middle-aged and young cabinet members take over.

Even if the officials recommended to the cabinet according to their seniority have little talent, the simplest Xiao Gui Cao Sui can still do it. This system ensured the continuity of Ming politics and avoided overly violent political turmoil.

In the cabinet of the seventh year of the Apocalypse, Huang Liji presided over the first assistant of the cabinet, and Shi Fenglai and Zhang Ruitu were assistants who assisted him, and the power of the cabinet was mainly among the three. As for Li Guopu, his role in the cabinet is to learn how the first three handle government affairs, and in the event of an emergency, serve as a backup supplement to cabinet aides. His status is closer to that of a minister in the modern cabinet system.

Huang Liji, Shi Fenglai, and Zhang Ruitu all entered the cabinet because they supported Wei Zhongxian in the process of cracking down on the Donglin Party. Therefore, all three of them can be regarded as political allies of the Eunuch Party, and they can be said to be a whole in front of the Donglin Party.

But their relationship was nothing more, although the three of them were the same in their attitude towards the Donglin Party, but they differed in their attitude towards the Eunuch Party. Huang Liji regarded Wei Zhongxian as a political partner, hoping that the two could support each other in the internal and external courts, but Huang Liji always abided by the final political bottom line, that is, this kind of political alliance could not exceed the imperial power and could not be used against the emperor himself.

This is also the reason why, before the death of the Apocalypse, only a testament was issued, and Huang Liji immediately abandoned the political alliance he had reached with Wei Zhongxian.

And Shi Fenglai has a weak personality and completely succumbs to Wei Zhongxian's power. When Wei Zhongxian is powerful, he will try his best to stammer. But after Wei Zhongxian lost power, he would not cry out for Wei Zhongxian.

Zhang Ruitu was lured by Wei Zhongxian's fame and fortune, and he echoed Wei Zhongxian's suppression of the Donglin Party because he could be quickly promoted politically. But there is opposition to most of Wei's overly radical policies.

When Wei Zhongxian stepped down, in order to protect himself, the three ministers hugged each other tightly. But when Huang Liji had a deep talk with Chongzhen and established a policy of promoting administrative reform and restoring the prime minister system, he subconsciously wanted to keep his distance from the two political allies.

There is nothing surprising about this, in the original cabinet system, theoretically the first assistant had a higher status than other cabinet members, but in fact, the power of the cabinet members still depends on the relationship between them and the emperor, after all, the cabinet members are all assistants of the emperor, not the assistants of the first assistant.

However, in the new cabinet system that will be introduced, the prime minister will be responsible, and the other ministers will no longer be accountable to the emperor, but will have to be accountable to the prime minister. Moreover, the entry of the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of Household into the cabinet is equivalent to canceling most of the current powers of Shi Fenglai and Zhang Ruitu.

This undoubtedly created a rift between Huang Liji, Shi Fenglai, and Zhang Ruitu, and Huang Liji was unable to discuss the content of cabinet reform with the two allies, because the reform harmed the interests of the two allies.