In the chaoban sequence, which had not completely calmed down, he was suddenly questioned by Chongzhen's sudden questioning. Whether it is the officials who want to topple the cabinet or the officials who support the cabinet, they have already prepared the means to deal with any statement made by the emperor today.

In the eyes of these officials, the emperor either wants to protect Shoufu and Han Yiliang, or give up them, or wants to make peace with the mud, and the emperor's choice will not exceed these options. Several leaders of the province who presided over today's impeachment action have learned the lessons of their repeated defeats at the DPRK meeting last year, and they have already ventilated in advance before today's meeting.

If it was in the past, they naturally wouldn't dare to do this, after all, the officials of Kedao colluded with each other to attack the first assistant, which was a naked party for personal gain. However, since the emperor developed the party ban and ordered Xu Guangqi and Qian Qianyi to form separate parties, the mutual contact between Kedao officials has not been so taboo in the past.

In the eyes of Lu Chengyuan and others, it is really a rare opportunity to use the two Huaiyan cases to attack the cabinet chief assistant and drag Huang Liji to step down.

Since the implementation of the new policy by the cabinet, after Li Kuilong was promoted to the left deputy capital of the imperial history, he presided over the personnel training and disciplinary work within the Metropolitan Procuratorate. The imperial officials, who used to have a lot of freedom in their work, now feel as if a shackle has been put around their necks.

Officials like Lu Chengyuan, who were transferred from Kedao to the Sixth Ministry, also found that their influence in the Metropolitan Procuratorate was getting smaller and smaller. The newly recruited officials of Kedao have almost all become Li Kuilong's followers, and they are simply obedient to this left deputy capital Yushi.

This situation will naturally not be accepted by Lu Chengyuan and other old imperial historians, although they have left the Metropolitan Procuratorate, they still hope to maintain their influence on the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

After all, the battle in the temple must have started with the impeachment of the imperial historians of the Imperial Inspectorate. Therefore, the imperial historians of the Metropolitan Procuratorate are actually the most well-informed people in the capital.

If they could know one day earlier, who these imperial historians are going to impeach and what the content of the impeachment is, then they can also prepare in advance, so that they will not be in a hurry when they are questioned by the imperial historian in public, and they will not be able to get off the stage.

However, the adjustment of the official system of the Metropolitan Procuratorate by the New Deal has made Lu Chengyuan, the opinion leaders of small and medium-sized groups in the Metropolitan Procuratorate, gradually lose their ability to influence small groups. This naturally made the leaders of these small groups spontaneously disgusted with the New Deal.

When the representatives of the Jiangnan gentry in the DPRK contacted them to fight back against Han Yiliang, these officials automatically linked Huang Liji and Han Yiliang together, hoping to pull down the first assistant Huang Liji through the turmoil of the salt case, so as to interrupt the ongoing New Deal reform.

These officials finally found an opportunity to fight back, so they naturally wanted to plan more precisely, and they could no longer fail to impeach again and again because of poor thinking, as they did last year.

However, the emperor suddenly jumped out of the scope of the salt introduction case and the new policy, and directly asked them what the imperial court was? This question, which was not in their plan, suddenly made these officials look at each other, and no one knew how to answer this question.

What is Imperial Court? Isn't the imperial court the place where the ancient emperor accepted courtiers and handled political affairs? In today's Ming Dynasty, the imperial court is more like a place to give orders to the world.

Although the officials present knew that this was the imperial court, they also knew very well in their hearts that this was by no means the answer that the emperor wanted. Therefore, no one wants to come out and answer Chongzhen's question.

Zhu Youzhen waited for more than a minute, and when he saw that no one still took the initiative to stand up, he began to ask people to answer by name, "You can tell me what the imperial court is." ”

Li Kuilong paused for a moment, and then blurted out: "The minister thinks that the court is Your Majesty, Your Majesty is the imperial court, Your Majesty says a word, and there is no reason in the world that you can't follow." ”

Li Kuilong openly flattered Yu Chongzhen, which immediately made most of the officials present look disdainful and showed a look of disdain. Li Kuilong acted as if he didn't see it, and only cared about patting the emperor's ass.

Regarding this answer, Zhu Youzhen just smiled and did not draw any conclusions, he immediately turned around and nodded to another person and asked, "Ni Bianxiu, what do you think is the imperial court?" ”

Ni Yuanlu pondered for a moment, and then replied without humility or arrogance: "Qin has never heard of the imperial court before, Qin destroyed the six countries, unified the world, divided the world into 36 counties, and set up a county to govern the local area, and set up a prime minister, a lieutenant and a royal historian in the center to manage the county, so as to have the name of the imperial court."

The Han Dynasty attacked the Qin system and set up nine secretaries under the three dukes to be in charge of all government affairs. After the Sui Dynasty, it became a system of three provinces and six ministries, with the decision-making of Zhongshu Province, the deliberation of Menxia Province, and the implementation of Shangshu Province, which were generally determined by the official position. In the two Song Dynasty, the power of the province was expanded, and the power of civil and military affairs was shared with the Privy Council, and the province of Menxia and Shangshu was abolished.

In this dynasty, the prime minister was abolished and a cabinet was set up to assist His Majesty in managing the six ministries and local government affairs. Therefore, the minister thought that the court was not only His Majesty, but His Majesty and the scholars ruled the world together. ”

"Wen Yanbo's theory." Zhu Youzhen thought disapprovingly, he stared at Ni Yuanlu for a long time before turning his head and looking for someone else to question.

It wasn't until Chongzhen turned his head that Ni Yuanlu resumed his standing posture, and the colleagues of the Hanlin Academy beside him whispered to him: "Brother Ruyu is really bold. ”

Ni Yuanlu's face did not change, and he did not pay attention to the compliments of this colleague. The emperor and the scholars ruled the world together, which was the political ideal of the scholars of the Ming Dynasty. However, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty obviously had different attitudes towards this political concept, and even opposed.

At the very least, Taizu obviously wouldn't agree with this idea. This emperor who started from cloth clothes, even the prime minister has been abolished, so he can let those scholars talk about the bullshit proposition of the emperor and the scholars to rule the world together in front of him.

Although Ni Yuanlu did not know Chongzhen's intention in asking this question, he believed that he should clearly state his political opinions, rather than allowing Li Kuilong and others to confuse the emperor's concept of right and wrong.

In the following questioning, the answers of the officials either echoed Li Kuilong or agreed with what Ni Yuanlu said, and there was no third unconventional statement.

Zhu Youzhen went around and asked more than a dozen officials, finally stopped questioning, and slowly walked back to the steps with his hands in his hands.

He stood in front of the throne, looked at the officials below with a heavy face, and said: "It turns out that in your heart, the connotation of the imperial court is so narrow, except for the emperor and scholars, where do you put the people?" ”

Without waiting for the officials below to reply, Zhu Youzhen quickly continued: "You say in my ear every day, the people are only the state, and the country is solid. But how did you get to the court and forget the existence of the people?

Why did Emperor Taizu Gao delete the "Mencius" in the past: the people are precious, the society is secondary, and the monarch is light. This sentence? It's not that this sentence is the way of the upper and lower kings and ministers, but that what Mencius said is wrong. The monarch, the people, and the community are inseparable things.

The people without a monarch are just a mass of scattered sand, and they are not the people of the country, but a group of selfish people, who cannot be called a society. And the king without the people is not the king. It is the king, the people, and the community, the three are one, the survivors live together, and the dead die together.

Emperor Taizu Gao Benhuai right cloth, because of the loss of the people of Mengyuan, the world's soldiers are in trouble, Emperor Taizu Gao pity the suffering of the people's livelihood, is to raise troops against the Yuan, set up a grand wish to help the people of the world, only to inherit the mandate of heaven, to create my emperor Ming dynasty. It can be seen that the mandate of our emperor is to safeguard the interests of the people.

I am mediocre, and I am not an elder, and this throne has nothing to do with me. The first emperor's brother is wise and wise, he is the hero of Zhongxing and my Ming Dynasty, but it is a pity that the sky is not a holiday, and the wisdom is not long, so he entrusts this Ming country to me. I still remember that when the imperial brother was leaving, he also instructed me, saying: My brother should be Yao and Shun.

After I ascended the throne, I often wondered, what are Yao and Shun? I have heard that the daily life of Emperor Yao is that the mouths are not cut, the rafters are not cut, the food of the rice is eaten, the soup of quinoa, the fur in winter, and the clothes of Ge in summer.

And Emperor Shun selected the virtuous and capable, and exiled the four murderers. Therefore, it is good to ask questions and be observant, conceal evil and promote good, stick to both ends, and use it for the people. Qisi thought it was Shunhu! Words.

Although Yao and Shun are called emperors but are actually the people, the emperor can only be Yao and Shun if he protects the interests of the people. Therefore the king has no selfish interests, and the interests of the king are the interests of the people. Since I am the son of the great tomorrow, I naturally have to safeguard the interests of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Now tens of millions of people in Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Anhui are living in poverty because of the price of salt, and the monarchs don't think about how to solve it, but they are entangled in who should be responsible for the people's inability to eat salt. ”

Ni Yuanlu opened her mouth, but finally didn't make any sound. And Lu Chengyuan and the others were pale, and after Chongzhen moved Taizu and Emperor Tianqi out, all the countermeasures they had calculated before had lost their effect.

In the Ming Dynasty, the subordinates were able to restrain the emperor's weapons, one was the great principle of the sage, and the other was the ancestral system and ancestral training. The former is mainly the pressure of public opinion, and whether the emperor accepts it or not depends on how much he cares about his reputation.

For example, for an emperor like Zhengde, the great truth of a saint is basically difficult to explain. And the latter is the shackles that really restrict the emperor, and it is difficult to break these old rules without a male lord like Chengzu.

Now Chongzhen deliberately distorted Emperor Taizu's intention to delete Mencius's remarks, and the ministers present did not dare to argue with the emperor on this issue.

Although the theory of the unity of the monarch and the people seems to be a further elaboration of Mencius's idea that the people are precious, it has in fact departed from Mencius's view of the monarch and the people, which is essentially a remodeled version of the democratically elected government in later generations.

If Chongzhen had not expounded this point of view in the name of Taizu, then the ministers present would still be able to cite scriptures and argue with the emperor. But when it comes to Taizu, they will easily be accused of criticizing Taizu by their political enemies.

After all, it was not a united clique of civilians vying with the emperor for the power to govern, and there were political enemies who wanted to fight back against them.

What made these officials most uncomfortable was that Chongzhen borrowed the last words of the Emperor of the Apocalypse and beat the officials present again. The emperor is showing that his succession to the throne is completely in accordance with the law of etiquette, so he has all the power of the great emperor, not the imperial power that was intercepted and discounted by the civil officials.

Huang Liji glanced up, and those officials who were still working hard to impeach themselves just now looked helpless, and the corners of their mouths couldn't help but show a somewhat mocking smile.