Yuan Chonghuan saw very clearly that once Huang Liji and others completed the cabinet system reform plan, it would be tantamount to establishing the unshakable right of these eunuch remnants to speak in the government affairs in the coming decades.

The ancients said: Virtue, speech, and meritorious service. This plan for the reform of the cabinet system is undoubtedly tantamount to meritorious service.

In the past, the Donglin Party attacked these political enemies of non-Donglin Party members, and the most common argument was that these ** chaotic government programs and perverse actions.

The reason why the Donglin Party likes to use this sentence to attack political opponents is because everyone has not made any achievements in solving the political dilemma of the Ming Dynasty, but the Donglin Party has mastered public opinion, so they can throw this pot to the political enemies of the Donglin Party.

However, if the cabinet system reform plan implemented by Huang Liji and others can solve the current predicament of the Ming Dynasty, it will undoubtedly be equivalent to breaking the control of public opinion of the Donglin Party.

Although Yuan Chonghuan is still unsure whether the reform of the cabinet system will solve the political and economic dilemma of the Ming Dynasty, this plan can obviously strengthen the power of the cabinet and change the unfettered power of local officials in the Ming Dynasty over the center of the imperial court.

In the past, the central government of the Ming Dynasty was responsible for the management of local governments, and the management of officials themselves. But there has been little to define the boundaries of the use of power by local officials.

Therefore, the officials of Yan were sloppy all day long, and asked the imperial court to select good officials to serve as magistrates, because the power of these local officials in the local area was almost unlimited, and they could only rely on their consciousness to restrain their greed.

However, the cabinet system reform plan provides another way of thinking, which is to transform the management of people into the management of the functions and powers of officials. This way of thinking from administering people to administering officials has made the central government's management of local officials simple and clear.

Yuan Chonghuan can even see that after refining the functions and powers of officials, in the future, whether they are good officials or bad officials, they must act within certain rules, and those who exceed this rule will be punished.

Although this inevitably restricts the ability of some good officials to exert their freedom in local political affairs, it is more important to protect the people from the free actions of bad officials. Now in the Ming Dynasty, there are few good officials and many bad officials, and there is no doubt that this is the correct direction of reform.

The more he scrutinized this reform plan, the more Yuan Chonghuan felt that a fire burned in his chest. He only had one thing in mind, that is, to prevent the results of the cabinet system reform from falling into the hands of Huang Liji and others.

This reform plan will not bear fruit without a few years of hard work, but once it does, then the reform will continue to be implemented, after all, Chongzhen, who supports this plan, is younger than any of the current cabinet ministers, and there should be no problem in sitting as emperor for another 20 years.

Then a problem arises, if the reform continues, this political successor will inevitably exclude those Donglin Party members, such as Yuan Chonghuan.

Because Huang Liji is the remnant of the eunuch party in the eyes of the Donglin party, naturally the reform he implemented will definitely not be supported by the Donglin party, and in order to ensure that the reform continues to advance, Chongzhen will definitely not let a Donglin party that opposes the reform to govern the cabinet.

Even if he Yuan Chonghuan wants to change his court, Chongzhen may not trust him, and the Donglin Party is the most hated traitor.

Therefore, if Yuan Chonghuan wants to receive the political fruits of the cabinet system reform, he must first let Huang Liji step down and let the Donglin Party ministers lead the reform, such as his teacher Han Yi.

For this reason, Yuan Chonghuan even deceived the Liaoxi generals, and his real plan was to force Huang Liji and other cabinet scholars to step down for the Beijing mutiny.

Guan Ningjun entered the customs just to give Chongzhen the impression of incompetence in the cabinet, so that Chongzhen could consider replacing the entire cabinet members.

As for what he said to the generals of western Liaoning and some Donglin Party officials, the plan to use the mutiny to enter Beijing to clean up the remnants of the eunuch party was just a pretext. Of course, if things go smoothly to that point, he doesn't mind turning this pretense into reality.

Yuan Chonghuan, who felt a little stuffy in the room, pushed open the window facing the courtyard, and a cold air rushed in his face, which immediately lifted his spirits, and the smell of carbon fire and sandalwood in the room intertwined made him feel bored suddenly dissipated.

"There are still too few people available around me, and at this moment, there is not even one to discuss." Yuan Chonghuan looked at the night sky through the branches of the fallen leaves in the courtyard, but tonight the clouds were so dark that he couldn't see the moon at all.

"Ni Yuanlu and Huang Daozhou's moral articles are well written, but they don't know how to be flexible about human feelings. Lu Chengyuan, Wang Shoulu and others think very highly of themselves and always want to influence the thoughts of others. Lu Shanji and Mao Yuanyi are always drawn from side affairs, and they lack care about the overall situation of the court..."

Yuan Chonghuan was thinking about who could be his arm when a voice woke him up behind him.

"Big brother, it's starting to snow outside again, it's freezing, you open the window and be careful of getting cold." Yuan Chongyu, who walked into the study, put down the account book in his hand, walked to the window and tried to close the wooden window.

Yuan Chonghuan suddenly reached out and grabbed Yuan Chongyu's hand that closed the window, and his other hand stretched out the window to try to catch the snowflakes falling from the sky.

"Just let it go, I want to ventilate, go to the smell of fireworks in the house. In Guangdong, we don't see such a big snow. ”

"Big brother said it was funny, last year in Liaodong, when I was in Shenyang, the snow there was called big..."Yuan Chongyu said disapprerovingly.

Yuan Chonghuan suddenly turned around, looked at his younger brother sternly and reprimanded him in a low voice: "Shut up, how many times have I told you, let you be cautious in your words and deeds, what to go to Shenyang, it's just nonsense." If the king is not secret, he will lose his ministers, if he is not secret, he will be **, and if he is not secret, he will be harmed. Do you want to shout that everyone in the house knows that you are doing business with Jiannu? ”

Yuan Chongyu, who has always respected his brother the most, suddenly shrunk his neck and was silent, and Yuan Chonghuan asked, "Have you brought the account books of the salt farm?" ”

"Yes, big brother, please see." Yuan Chongyu picked up the account book on the table and respectfully handed it to his brother with both hands.

Yuan Chonghuan flipped through it casually, and continued to ask, "Are the account books here?" ”

"Yes, eldest brother, since August of the previous year, there have been a total of 7 account books about the Changlu Salt Farm, all of which are here, and there is no rebook." Yuan Chongyu pointed to a stack of account books on the table and said.

Yuan Chonghuan walked to the edge of the charcoal stove, uncovered the copper cover, and then tore off the pages in the account book, and threw them into the charcoal basin one by one.

The originally smoldering charcoal in the basin suddenly burst into flames, which immediately illuminated Yuan Chonghuan's calm face.

"Big brother, no, burn these account books, how can we reconcile accounts with King Khan and several marquis, this is tens of thousands of taels of silver." Yuan Chongyu exclaimed, and suddenly stepped forward in a hurry, trying to snatch the burning pages from the brazier.

"Pop" Yuan Chonghuan slapped off Yuan Chongyu's hand who wanted to pick up the pages from the charcoal basin, and threw the account book with a few pages left in his hand, and the silk cover quickly burned.

Looking at the flames that had become bigger, Yuan Chonghuan said calmly: "After tonight, it is still a question whether those Hou Ye can escape this catastrophe. Even if they do get away with it, will they want to have anything to do with us again?

Presumably they're doing the same thing as me right now, if they don't want to be killed by His Majesty.

As for the Khan? Hehe, the old slave is dead, the Jurchen tribes are still unstable, although Huang Taiji has ascended to the throne, but without us providing salt and food for him to appease the Haixi Jurchen and his subordinates, how can he sit on the throne.

Regardless of whether there is this account book or not, Huang Taiji will not default on the account. Leaving this account book will only bring trouble to our Yuan family. I'm going to see them burn to ashes with my own eyes, or I'll feel at ease. ”

Hearing that keeping the account books would lead to the destruction of the door, Yuan Chongyu suddenly stopped insisting, he quickly took the account books and helped his brother destroy the account books together.

When the Yuan brothers burned the account books, Eighteen Zhi and the others had not yet slept peacefully. The Zheng brothers, together with Li Kuiqi, Zhong Bin and other subordinates, are discussing today's mutiny.

"This Beijing city is known as the best place in the Ming Dynasty, how can there be a mutiny at two ends in three days, is it possible that the Zhu family's qi is now exhausted?" Li Kuiqi said with a twinkle in his eyes.

Zheng Cai immediately retorted angrily: "Li Kuiqi, have you drunk too much, and you dare to talk nonsense about this kind of rebellious words." ”

Zhong Bin said in a weird manner: "This hasn't landed yet, why did Brother Zheng become official?" Is it illegal to say a few jokes between your own brothers? ”

Zheng Caihuo stood up, and before he could say anything, Zheng Zhilong opened his mouth and reprimanded: "Okay, let's say a few words, we are still in Beijing now, Li Kuiqi If you want to die, don't bother the brothers, take care of your mouth first." ”

Zheng Zhilong's words suddenly made everyone realize that no matter what they thought about Zhao'an, it seemed that now was not the time to talk about it.

Liu Peng sighed and said: "I don't know if the mutiny in the capital has subsided, we are locked up in the mansion and are not allowed to go out, isn't this treating us as prisoners." If this mutiny is a big one, will we be able to retreat from the capital? ”

Zheng Zhihu pursed his lips, and finally couldn't help but say, "What are you afraid of?" I don't think this mutiny is a big deal, can you see a few cigarette butts in the capital during the day? There are not even a few fire heads, which is also called mutiny? In my opinion, it's just a soldier's trouble, and we are in the capital, and we have to be half-hearted, isn't this waiting for Your Majesty to cut off our heads? ”

Everyone's original thoughts suddenly faded a little, and Zheng Zhilong asked Zheng Cai quietly: "Ah Cai, how do you think our Eighteen Zhi should advance and retreat in the future?" ”

Zheng Cai cleared his thoughts before standing up and saying, "First of all, if this great Ming Qi is endless, I think everyone should say a few words." When Emperor Chengzu moved the capital to Beijing, it meant guarding the country with the Son of Heaven.

Yexian Taishi and Altan Khan have both attacked the city of Beijing, but isn't the Ming Dynasty still good now? Besides, the southeastern provinces are not splendid, and when you encounter a mutiny in Beijing, you think that the Ming Dynasty has exhausted, and when you arrive in Suzhou and Hangzhou, isn't it a prosperous age?

Also, in the past ten days, what we have negotiated does not need the support of the imperial court, if the Ming Dynasty falls, what good will it do us? Can you Li Kuiqi and Zhong Bin go ashore and become emperors?

I would like to ask, in the past, did the gentry on this shore look up to us as pirates? If it weren't for His Majesty's kindness and personally issued an edict to appease us and others, I'm afraid we wouldn't even be able to see the governor of Fujian, right? ”