All the officials looked at Fang Yun with uncertain eyes.
They all had the same idea that Fang Yun’s real purpose could not possibly be to respect rituals and restore the past.
Just like, Fang Yun’s real purpose before could not have been to drive away Jiang Hechuan and Li Wenying.
Those officials who support Fang Yun are still guessing his true intentions, but those who oppose or are neutral have already come to a conclusion.
If Fang Yun wants to expand his power, he naturally has to find an effective entry point to dismiss some officials. Now it seems that etiquette will become Fang Yun's main means to eliminate dissidents.
However, no one could object before Fang Yun officially took action.
After all, Jing Kingdom has the Ritual Hall and the human race has Confucianism. As long as Fang Yun does things strictly in accordance with Confucian standards, it will be difficult for everyone to launch a counterattack.
not to mention…
Many officials looked at the Grand Secretary of the Hall of Rites behind Fang Yun.
No one knew how much support the Li Hall gave to Fang Yun. Even the Left Prime Minister did not receive such clear support from any other hall in the Holy Academy.
Fang Yun glanced at the ministers and said, "After the great war with the barbarians, Jing State is in ruins. The fruits of victory that we have won with one heart and one mind must not be usurped. In order to stabilize the country of Jing, to make Jing State more stable and prosperous, and to deal with the next invasion of the demon world, I call on all officials of Jing State to start with themselves and begin to respect and restore the ancient rituals every day. When every official can abide by the rituals, we will proceed to the second step and promote the rituals to the whole people."
The officials immediately pondered over the new term "daily gift".
Fang Yun looked at the Chief Censor of the Supervisory Council and asked, "Sir He, the Supervisory Council monitors my words and deeds. If any official violates etiquette, will the Censors report it?"
He Mingxiang, the chief censor of the Supervisory Yuan, said sternly: "The human race values etiquette and law. If an official violates etiquette or breaks the law, our Supervisory Yuan will report it."
He Mingxiang only talked about etiquette and not about moral ethics.
Fang Yun nodded, not caring about He Mingxiang's word game. He looked at the Right Prime Minister Cao De'an and the Assistant Prime Minister Yang Xuwen and said, "Lord Cao, Lord Yang, I want to order the Supervisory Council to report officials' unethical words and deeds in the future and include them in the evaluation. Do you object?"
Cao De'an immediately said, "Respecting etiquette is the most important thing for a scholar. I second your proposal."
Fang Yun stared at Assistant Prime Minister Yang Xuwen again.
Fang Yun was not in charge of the Supervisory Yuan. If he issued an order by force, the Supervisory Yuan could pretend to obey and even have the right to resist the order. However, if the cabinet reached a consensus and drafted an imperial edict with the imperial seal, if the Supervisory Yuan dared not to act, Fang Yun would have an excuse to take down the censor of the Supervisory Yuan.
After all, in name, the cabinet and the monarch jointly govern the country. To oppose the cabinet's unified decision is to oppose the entire Jing country.
Yang Xuwen was silent for a few breaths, then said, "I will not object to this matter, but does this matter need further discussion?"
Fang Yun nodded and said, "Since Lord Yang has no objection to this matter, the three ministers of the cabinet have reached an agreement. As for the details that Lord Yang is worried about, the cabinet can discuss it later. I will trouble Lord Yang again."
Yang Xuwen was stunned for a moment, frowned slightly, but said nothing.
Some officials who supported the royal family secretly thought that it was bad, Fang Yun was too treacherous, he knew that Yang Xuwen would never stand up to oppose at this time, so he asked Yang Xuwen whether he opposed it, instead of asking whether he agreed. This led to Fang Yun taking the initiative and unifying the will of the cabinet.
After all, Fang Yun was not the left prime minister, but a great scholar of the four realms, a virtual saint, and he had made great contributions to the Jing Kingdom and the human race. Yang Xuwen was very careful about his reputation, and at least for now, he would not risk offending so many people and forces to oppose Fang Yun on such a small matter. Moreover, Fang Yun had given him some face, and he would not be excluded from this matter, and he would have the right to participate in the future.
Fang Yun looked towards the curtain and said, "The ministers in the cabinet have reached an agreement. We can draft the imperial edict today. Please give your instructions."
After closing the curtain, Jingjun did not answer immediately.
However, all the officials understood that it was basically impossible for the Queen Mother to object, because Fang Yun had the reputation of being righteous. Once the Queen Mother objected, it would be tantamount to denying the entire cabinet. After that, Fang Yun and Cao De'an would inevitably join forces to use the cabinet to fight against the royal family. Unfortunately, Assistant Prime Minister Yang Xuwen had already agreed, so it was difficult for him to oppose Fang Yun and Cao De'an.
The officials even suspected that there must be an old bureaucrat of a very high rank behind Fang Yun who was giving him advice. Otherwise, no matter how talented Fang Yun was, it would be impossible for him to master the art of court struggle so quickly.
After all, the cabinet's means of struggle are completely different from those of the county magistrate.
Many people looked at the Right Prime Minister Cao De'an, suspecting that he had become Fang Yun's shadow aide, and sighed in their hearts, thinking that this meant that Cao De'an had abandoned his independence as the Right Prime Minister and completely turned to Fang Yun.
This also means that even the current Fang Yun’s power is close to that of Liu Shan’s peak period, and he only lacks the power to turn some government office heads into his people.
What they didn't know was that Fang Yun had long since deeply realized what collective will and the overall situation were. After becoming the Left Prime Minister, he would naturally use this method, and it had nothing to do with Cao De'an.
After several hundred breaths, Jingjun's voice came from behind the curtain.
"This matter cannot be done overnight. I will make the decision after the cabinet drafts the imperial edict."
The officials breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. It seemed that the Queen Mother was also well versed in the art of struggle and knew that she could not directly reject Fang Yun, so she would just delay for a while. If there was a turnaround, that would be even better. If there was no turnaround, she would have to agree, which was far better than agreeing on the spot.
Jingjun's future decision also represents the Queen Mother and the royal family's message to Fang Yun that the royal family is not weak and can be bullied.
Fang Yun nodded and said, "Then I will order the Secretariat to draft an edict and wait for news tomorrow."
Some officials frowned. Fang Yun's words seemed ordinary, but in fact they were issuing a deadline warning, which was a bit overbearing. Later, they were relieved, which meant that Fang Yun's methods of doing things would not be as sinister as Liu Shan's, and many things would be put on the table.
Minister of Personnel Sheng Boyuan snorted coldly and said, "Prime Minister Fang has become famous at a young age and is full of vigor and vitality. He should consider the court when speaking and doing things."
"I know the truth." Fang Yun said.
Several imperial censors hesitated for a few moments, but ultimately did not report Fang Yun. After all, Fang Yun did not directly order the Queen Mother or the King to give a result tomorrow, so it was not a handle.
After the court session ended, the officials returned to their respective offices.
The secretariat of the Left Prime Minister's Cabinet became busy and began to draft two edicts, one to implement a daily ritual, and the other to order the Supervisory Council to report officials' violations of etiquette and include them in their evaluations.
As for the main hall of the Supervisory Council, a heated discussion was taking place.
The Supervisory Yuan was formed by the founding emperor Taizu's reform of the Censorate. The first chief official was the Chief Censor, followed by the Left Censor-in-Chief, the Right Censor-in-Chief, the Left Deputy Censor-in-Chief, the Right Deputy Censor-in-Chief, and then the censors of various regions.
At the beginning of the founding of Jing State, each state was divided into two circuits, one for the capital, and later one for each of the six ministries, and the rest of the government offices were combined into one, with increases and decreases in number over time.
At present, there are eleven prefectures, including Mizhou, Jiangzhou, Xiangzhou, Yanzhou, Dongyunzhou and the capital, plus seven prefectures, making a total of eighteen prefectures under the Supervisory Yuan, and each prefecture has an imperial censor.
Except for the two provincial censors, all twenty-one censors of the Supervisory Yuan gathered together.