Such things as "deceiving superiors and hiding subordinates" were common in the Song Dynasty. Cai Jing and Wang Fu controlled the affairs of the government. Even if the Fang La Uprising swept across the south of the Yangtze River occurred, and the Jurchens seized the Yanjing Song army and were defeated, they could hide and report such military and national affairs. Even when the Jurchens crossed the Yellow River, Emperor Huizong realized that the enemy had already arrived at the city. Therefore, the emperor who had done a little could not tolerate such a thing.

As Zhao Bing knew, Zhu Yuanzhang believed that this was a challenge to the imperial power, so he began to redefine the emperor and imperial power, and the prime minister's power was the root cause of these disadvantages. At the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the institutions of the dynasty were basically inherited from the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang once criticized: "In the era of Hu Yuan, he was the Minister of Political Affairs. He must first report everything and then report it. His king was often confused, which caused the people's sentiment and chaos. It is a deep warning."

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang first abolished the Zhengzhong Secretariat, which was in charge of all local affairs in the Yuan Dynasty. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, he did not obey the central jurisdiction like the vassal states of the Tang Dynasty, and was like a separatist rule. So he replaced it with three institutions, namely the Chengxuan Government Office, the Secret Censorate and the Dushi Commander Office. He used the Chengxuan Government Office to manage local administrative and financial affairs; the Secret Censorate and the Dushi Commander Office to manage supervision and judicial affairs; the Dushi Commander Office to manage military defense.

The three newly established institutions were directly affiliated with the Six Ministry and were no longer responsible to the Secretariat. Then, Lao Zhu directly handed over the daily affairs of the Six Ministry and the Three Departments to him and ordered that "the world's memorials cannot be kept in Bai's Secretariat." What does this mean? That is to say, the copy of the memorials that were given to the Prime Minister in the past was exempted, and he would give it to Zhu Yuanzhang himself to read them in order to greatly reduce the functions of the Prime Minister.

Then Zhu Yuanzhang pointed at the Secretariat of the Prime Minister's Central Administration, and the Prime Minister, as the leader of the central government, became the one who sacrificed his sword. There were four prime ministers in the Ming Dynasty, namely Li Shanchang, Xu Da, Wang Guangyang and Hu Weiyong. Except for Xu Dacheng who had been fighting abroad for many years, the other three were quite conscientious, but the knife first cut off Hu Weiyong's neck.

Zhao Bing also felt that even if Hu Weiyong had any experience, he would not be punished until he died, but he was just a little bit of a traitor. At that time, the position of prime minister was already in danger. The prime minister system was devastated by the centralized power, and the old Zhu was determined to abolish the prime minister. He happened to be in the position of prime minister, and the prime minister's power represented was irreconcilable with Zhu Yuanzhang's mind.

In other words, whether Hu Weiyong or Wang Guangyang was the prime minister, he would either be despised by him for not doing anything or be killed by him for doing things. Anyway, whoever became prime minister was unlucky at that time, he was just an unlucky person in this unlucky position. And Li Shanchang, who had served as prime minister, had retired and returned home, could not escape the end of being sentenced to death. Later, in order to further centralize power, the commander of the Jinyiwei, Jiang Yan, reported that General Lan Yu had rebelled, and Lan Yu became the ghost under his sword.

After the final abolishment of the Secretariat and the Prime Minister, Lao Zhu reconstructed the central structure and defined the civil and military officers' heads of the central government. First, he established the Four Auxiliary Officers to assist him in giving advice. But soon he abolished the Four Auxiliary Officers and claimed to follow the official system of the Song Dynasty and changed the Four Auxiliary Officers to Grand Secretary and replaced them, which is the so-called cabinet system. After completing the expansion of the emperor's power and the end of the prime minister system, Lao Zhu was equal to the head of state, the head of state and the head of government and the commander-in-chief of the three armies, becoming the real number one person in the world, and educated his descendants in the most severe tone, and never allowed another "prime minister".

Speaking of Lao Zhu's cabinet, Zhao Bing still knows a little about it. In fact, the earliest cabinet members existed as low-ranking emperor secretary. After abolishing the prime minister of the Secretariat, they actually assumed the emperor's government affairs secretary and consultant. This responsibility was later divided into two separate tasks, that is, the task of submitting solutions was assigned to the cabinet, and the documentary business that made the decision was handed over to the Sili Supervisor.

Therefore, the cabinet was not indispensable in the political system of the Ming Dynasty. In essence, it was a link between civil officials and the emperor. To be precise, it was to make decisions for the emperor. If the emperor wanted to get back the decision-making power, it would naturally be impossible to replace it. Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, the power of the cabinet chief assistant was like a rubber band. If the emperor was strong, the chief assistant would be weak. If the emperor was weak, the chief assistant would be "replaced".

In this way, the voices made by the cabinet can only be the emperor's voice. The big and small things of the country require the emperor to make decisions. The civil officials just execute them, and their power is greatly reduced, and it is difficult to challenge the emperor's authority. Even Zhang Juzheng, the most powerful chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, "exercising" monarchy, was not institutionalized official documents, but by extensively arranging "private" localities and forming a network of personal relationships, he could truly implement his will. Without these people, his government orders would not be able to go out to Beijing.

So in later generations, some people said that if the Ming Dynasty was not destroyed, the cabinet system might have evolved into a modern constitutional monarchy. However, Zhao Bing thought this was basically impossible, or it was a false imagination, because Lao Zhu had long reserved the "back door". In the political system of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to civil servants, there were nobles and factory guards, so the power of civil servants was like a castle by the sea, and a wave could smash it to pieces. The emperor could easily get back his power as long as he wanted.

Although Zhao Bing came from a modern democratic society, he soon discovered that it was difficult to do something without power to do something, especially in the feudal society with completely different political ideas and systems. He was involuntarily involved in the power struggle, and his memories of his previous life also made him intentionally or unintentionally choose a way that was conducive to maintaining his power.

There is no need to say that establishing an armed force that is loyal to oneself. Without a gun as a guarantee, participating in power struggles is like selling the first place. When Zhao Bing first established his system, although he was still very weak, he established his spy organization almost at the same time. His role was not to obtain information from the enemy country, but to monitor important officials in the court and detect political trends in order to gain the initiative in the fight.

After continuous reorganization and expansion, the current Affairs Bureau has become a secret organization like the Ming Dynasty's Jinyiwei. The scope of reconnaissance is not only to monitor ministers, but also mainly to collect political and economic information from the enemy country, but also to involve the economy, people's livelihood and public opinion trends in various parts of the Song Dynasty. It can be said that as long as Zhao Bing cares about everything they collect, the tentacles penetrate into every corner of society.

But what Zhao Bing is different from Zhu Yuanzhang is that he did not use the Affairs Bureau to suppress political enemies in bloody suppression, but only granted them the power to collect intelligence, and did not give them the power to reconnaissance and disposal. The armed forces they belong to are only mainly used to eliminate foreign enemies and protect their own security, and must be exercised after obtaining their own authorization. These measures are to prevent them from using their power to act arbitrarily, so that they will become a new political force in the future and participate in the struggle for power, thereby breaking the existing political ecology and power balance.

In addition, in order to increase his authority and compete for power, Zhao Bing successively established the Military Affairs Office and the Imperial Front Office on the grounds of responding to wars and assisting himself in handling public and private affairs, and issued government orders directly to the army and various ministries to convey his will. Then he asked the Imperial Front Office to assist him in handling the vast memorials, allowing them to participate in their opinions, thereby reducing their workload.

Although the Military Affairs Office is still in name only, the sign is still there and can be started at any time when needed. The Imperial Front Office has become a permanent institution and its power is getting stronger and stronger. It is not only handling daily business such as memorials, writing edicts, issuing documents, etc., but also assisting Zhao Bing in formulating national policies, selecting and inspecting officials, and participating in the formulation of combat plans. It can be said that it has already formed the prototype of the Ming Dynasty cabinet and has replaced the work of the priests in some aspects.

Zhao Bing also understood that not to mention Wang Yinglin at the moment, many officials in the court also knew the existence of the Affairs Bureau. Even among the people, there were rumors, but they did not understand the way of its operation, organizational composition and personnel distribution. Although the Imperial Front Office did not have a formal title, it existed on the surface and was known to more people. They knew that the people who served in it were the emperor's confidants, and those who released the outside world held important positions. No one suspected that as long as they did not make big mistakes, it was not impossible for them to be the prime minister in the future. Therefore, some people also called the Imperial Front Office a place where His Majesty could entrench talents, and those who could enter had a bright future.

However, as the war unfolded, the emperor personally led the expedition, and the ministers in the court could not all follow him. The Imperial Front Office took on their role, and his power was increasing, and he could even make decisions on the daily affairs on behalf of the emperor. This made the court officials feel uneasy. Most of the people in the Imperial Front Office were only above the fifth rank, but they could replace the priest, making them feel that in order to establish the imperial power alone, His Majesty would further infringe on the power of the prime minister, and would even replace the Imperial Front Office.

The ministers and even the Confucian scholars they represent have this sense of crisis is not a random thought, because they all understand that the current political situation and the military environment they face are very different from those of the previous generations. Although the young emperor still follows the ancestral system and implements the policy of "using civilized martial arts", everyone knows that thanks to the continuous war, while the young emperor constantly weakens the power of scholars, the military general group cultivated by the young emperor has already had the strength to compete with the civil ministers group.
Chapter completed!