In the first auxiliary room of the Wenhua Palace, Huang Liji was discussing with Zhang Ruitu and Huang Liji about canceling the power of refutation in the six sections.

"According to His Majesty's plan, it is of course a good thing for the cabinet to be able to reduce the quarrel in the court by inserting the six departments into the six ministries, carrying out pre-event and in-process control, and canceling the power of refutation.

But this matter involves a major change in the power structure of the court, will the Donglin Party and the local Qingliu really agree with us to make such a big change? Without His Majesty's open support, even if it is enforced in the name of the cabinet, will we be able to protect ourselves under the attack of public opinion in the government and the opposition? Shi Fenglai was obviously very worried about this proposal.

Huang Liji obviously began to hesitate, after the cabinet reform, the political opponents he faced were no longer the emperor, but the officials in the court who restrained the cabinet.

Although some of the remarks made by the young Emperor Chongzhen made them feel naïve and ridiculous for the bureaucrats who were floating in the sea of eunuchs, Huang Liji could definitely feel Chongzhen's innocence to redeem the decline of the Ming Dynasty.

Huang Liji, who has ascended to the position of first assistant in the ups and downs of the sea for many years, is obviously not an idealist, although he feels Chongzhen's enthusiasm, but he will not be a moth to the flame for this enthusiasm.

Huang Liji also has a very clear understanding of the reality of the Ming Dynasty, and he does not think that just relying on the emperor's enthusiasm can change this social reality that is difficult to return.

The biggest problem of the Ming Dynasty now is that the gentry, royal families, and wealthy merchants in various places occupy too many land resources, resulting in the people at the bottom unable to maintain their basic survival.

If you want to change the downward trend of the Ming Dynasty, you must first restrict land annexation so that the people at the bottom can have something to eat. But in this case, it is necessary to declare war on the gentry, the royal family, and the wealthy merchants.

Huang Liji didn't think that with his own strength with the emperor, he could fight the power of the entire Ming gentry, royal family, and wealthy businessmen. Even if it is as strong as Zhang Jiangling, in the end, it is not a dead man.

What's more, the rule of the Ming Dynasty was based on the support of these gentry, royal families, and wealthy merchants, and if these forces were defeated, the Ming Dynasty should be changed.

Huang Liji thought that Chongzhen's ideal now was just the idea that young people would not experience the world, and when he understood the reality of the Ming Dynasty, he would definitely be like Emperor Shenzong back then, turn his back on the new policy, and return to the road of maintaining imperial power.

And Huang Liji thinks that he is not as good as Zhang Jiangling, and he does not have such great courage and ambition to change society and save the national fortunes of the Ming Dynasty. Being able to work hard to maintain this vast empire while in his own position was already his limit.

As a member of the gentry, Huang Liji looked farther than others, and they, the gentry and eunuchs, were actually attached to the vines on the big tree of the Ming Dynasty, and once the big tree fell, they could not save these vines.

Therefore, Huang Liji is very much in favor of Chongzhen's minimum goal of solving the problem of food and clothing for the people of the Ming Dynasty. If the people can't live anymore, will they still starve to death at home?

Even if they want to protect the long-term interests of these gentry and eunuchs, at least they have to give the people at the bottom a bite to eat.

It is precisely because of this consideration that Huang Liji finally stood in the position of the emperor and implemented the national policy of cultivators having their fields.

Huang Liji does not think that this national policy can really allow everyone to get a piece of land for farming, but he believes that it can at least combat the growing trend of land annexation in various places.

However, if we want to implement such a national policy that is detrimental to the interests of the gentry everywhere, we must first ensure that the upper and lower government decrees are unimpeded. That is, the power of the imperial court must be concentrated in the hands of the cabinet.

Then the political pattern of the Ming Dynasty using the officials to contain the powerful ministers must be abolished, and the emperor took action to rectify the Metropolitan Procuratorate, so that the political pressure on the cabinet was reduced by half. But for the rectification of the matter, Chongzhen handed it over to the cabinet to deal with it himself.

Huang Liji, who had a rich power struggle, soon understood that Chongzhen wanted the cabinet to take the initiative to cut off Qingliu, and the emperor himself wanted to maintain a harmonious situation with Qingliu.

All in all, the emperor hoped to be able to let go of the constraints of the Yanguan on the power of the cabinet, but he did not want Yanlu to be completely subservient to the cabinet.

As the first assistant, Huang Liji really hopes that the right to refute the matter can be canceled. But as a bureaucrat, he has to think about how long he can serve as the chief assistant at his age. When he retires, will he be liquidated because of this incident?

Looking at Huang Liji frowning and pondering, Zhang Ruitu suddenly said out loud: "A few days ago, Yangwuhou was assassinated, and as a result, the Criminal Department only sentenced the murderer to exile.

After hearing this, the relatives of Jingzhong Xun suddenly felt sad that the rabbit died and the fox died. They complained about Xue Zhen, the secretary of the Criminal Department, and impeached Xue Zhen, I don't know what Lord Shoufu thinks about this matter? ”

Huang Li said disapprerovingly: "Xue Zhen has always been tactful, this time he dared to take the risk of offending his relatives, and he must not have made such a judgment. Hasn't Your Majesty already approved the verdict of the Criminal Department in this case?

With His Majesty's support, these relatives can't make any waves, at most they just vent, and they will be fine in a few days. What's more, until now, the Yangwu Hou family has never said a word about the verdict. He doesn't complain about his own family, so what else does others have to say. ”

Zhang Ruitu coughed lightly before he said cautiously: "As far as I know, the Donglin Party has been contacting the Yanguan, preparing to attack Xue Zhen, trying to force Xue Zhen to leave the position of Shangshu of the Criminal Department with this matter. ”

Huang Liji suddenly became vigilant, he narrowed his eyes, looked at Zhang Ruitu and asked seriously, "What do they want to do?" ”

Zhang Ruitu's eyes lowered, avoiding Huang Liji's gaze, and said: "Han Xiangyun hopes that Yuan Liqing can take over the post of secretary of the Criminal Department, and in return, he will prevent the Donglin Party from attacking the cabinet over the matter of sealing the right to refute the matter in the six sections." ”

Shi Fenglai involuntarily said loudly: "This shouldn't be, the right to refute the matter given by the six departments may not be as good as a criminal department book, and they don't gain more than they lose by doing this?" ”

Zhang Ruitu immediately explained to his colleagues: "Although the six departments have the right to refute the matter, if there is no support from the authorities, who would dare to use it in the face of the world's disapproval?"

The current Donglin Party is not as good as it was at the beginning, and not everyone has Yang Dahong, Zuo Zhizhi and other backbones.

Since His Majesty ascended the throne, he has been suppressing speech, and one-third of the six sections have been dismissed and transferred. Now the Donglin Party is not a universal existence in the six sections, so why should they fight for life and death with the cabinet for a false name? ”

Huang Liji thought for a long time before he unconsciously said, "Xue Zhen is His Majesty's person." ”

After seeing Huang Liji's intentions, Zhang Ruitu hurriedly said: "Yes, Xue Zhen is not our person. ”

Thinking of Xue Zhen's performance in front of the emperor when he promoted the cabinet ministers a few years ago, Huang Liji finally leaned back in his chair and said weakly: "Then let's take a look first." ”

Zhang Ruitu and Shi Fenglai immediately got up and left, Zhang Ruitu walked out of the Wenhua Hall directly, he looked up at the clear blue sky, and his heart was inexplicably relieved.

If this can be accomplished, he will have a preliminary connection with the Donglin Party. Previously, Zhang Ruitu always believed that he was the first and auxiliary candidate after Huang Liji in the cabinet.

But after the cabinet expanded, he became a little uncertain. Among the cabinet ministers, the one who brought him the most pressure was not the famous but unreal Donglin leader Qian Qianyi, but the not very famous Li Tianjing.

Although the Minister of Education, who was directly promoted from a local official to the cabinet, did not have a deep relationship with the DPRK and China, he was very favored by Chongzhen, which obviously gave Zhang Ruitu a sense of crisis.

He was not willing to let Li Tianjing pass him over and become the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty. Because this constantly put an end to his path to Shousuke, it will also lower the reputation behind him by one level.

Therefore, when Han Yi made a suggestion to him, Zhang Ruitu did not think much about it and agreed to the cooperation of the Donglin Party.

"It's a pity, although the sun is very good today, it is not warm at all." Zhang Ruitu looked at the sky, and this thought flashed through his mind.

Zhu Youzhen was in the Heart Cultivation Hall at the moment, next to his brother Emperor Apocalypse's carpentry room, in a well-lit room, studying the microscope sent by Wu Youxing.

This microscope is very close to what modern microscopes look like, the only fly in the ointment is the lack of reflective lenses.

All decoration in this room has been removed, and a brick fireproof partition wall has been rebuilt against the edge of the wooden wall, painted with lime mortar and straw.

There were two bulky tables made of white marble, on which were placed various glassware from the glassworks, and a rather elaborate iron shelf.

This is the chemical laboratory set up by Zhu Youzhen. Although he still remembered a lot of chemistry principles in his head, he had almost forgotten about those chemical experiments in middle school.

The advent of glass may have been the discovery of a profitable commodity for merchants. But for Zhu Youzhen, who has the soul of a modern person, this is the key to opening the door to chemistry.

When the properties of the glass began to stabilize, he drew the glassware that he remembered in his middle school chemistry lab class, and asked the glassfactory to make several sets.

One set was sent to the Imperial Palace, one set was sent to the Academy of Sciences, and several sets were distributed to Yenching University, the Army Military Academy, the Craftsman Training School, etc.

Zhu Youzhen tried to reproduce the chemistry experiments he learned in middle school, but today he did not conduct chemical experiments, but used a microscope to observe a few pieces of polished iron.

This well-built compound microscope is estimated by Zhu Youzhen to be about 150 times, which is enough magnification for a preliminary observation of the metallographic aspects of steel.

Zhu Youzhen hopes that through careful analysis of metallographic pictures, firearms craftsmen rely on experience to judge the fineness of fine iron. At the same time, he also pinned his hopes on being able to draw a metallographic diagram as a reference standard for smelting steel.