Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 631 Organization Department

This has to be understood in reverse.

Also a reminder.

There are no two days in the sky, and no two masters in people.

To manage the entire Ming Dynasty, as well as the cabinet with tens of thousands of bureaucrats, is naturally the undisputed leader.

This is the authority gradually established by the cabinet after more than 200 years since its establishment.

If the power of the bureaucracy is too heavy, there will be a risk of overreaching, which will break the entire bureaucratic system and cause turmoil.

Party government is inevitable.

As we all know, party struggle was an important part of the demise of the former Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yixi naturally thought of these things, and felt apprehensive.

"Then set up another one!"

The emperor couldn't stand the bloat of the six parts for a long time.

As early as the 29th year of Hongwu, the Ministry of Officials was designated as the Four Qing Official Departments, namely the Wenxuan Department, the Seal Inspection Department, the Kaogong Department, and the Jixun Department.

He is in charge of the national civil servant selection, examination, and honorary administration, and the military attache belongs to the Ministry of War.

With the exception of cabinet scholars and ministers of the Ministry of Officials who are promoted by the court or by special orders, all internal and external officials are selected by the Ministry of Officials in conjunction with other senior officials or elected by themselves.

However, officials, such as Liufang clerks, doormen, Zaoli, servants, catchers, jailers, clerks, food messengers, etc., were all appointed and dismissed by the chief officials of the yamen themselves, and they were paid very little.

Since the imperial court did not participate in the inspection, appointment and dismissal of subordinate staff, these subordinate staff did not worry about their own future, and they were more confident in doing bad things.

They either took advantage of the loopholes in the law, or they used money to open a way to turn the deer into a horse, talking nonsense, and playing with the law in their hands.

Guo Songtao, an official in the late Qing Dynasty, once said bluntly that the Qing Dynasty "shared the world with subordinate officials".

In the Shaowu Dynasty, all these subordinate officials were changed from cold and humble to civilian registration, and there was also a formal establishment.

But just like in the past, the appointment and dismissal of subordinate staff is always at the discretion of the chief official.

Thinking of this, the emperor got up and said:

"According to the words of the Ministry of Officials, there are at least five more than 60 or more than 300 officials in each county, such as county magistrates, county magistrates, masters, edicts, disciplines, inspections, and history. Three elders, there are two or three hundred people who eat the food of the county government!"

"I'm afraid it won't stop."

Zhao Shu said truthfully: "However, the government and the public have heard about the harm of subordinate officials. Although the local burden is a bit heavier, a few hundred people are barely enough to govern a county with tens of thousands of households."

"If these people are ignored? Wouldn't it be that the county magistrate is allowed to sit on the throne?"

"If it is under the control of the Ministry of Officials, these officials will expand several times, and I am afraid they will be too busy!"

Zhu Yixi raised his head, showing a hint of a smile: "The Ministry of Officials is in charge of officials, and the Ministry of War is in charge of soldiers. They have to be re-established to manage these officials."

"There are more than [-] officials in the world?" Zhang Shenyan exclaimed, "Your Majesty, one may not be enough, but three or four."

Zhu Yixi glared at him: "Nonsense, what a shame."

"What I mean is to give these high-ranking officials to the jurisdiction of the new Ministry."

In the local reforms, there are six houses in the county, six departments in the government, and six cao in the province, especially the six houses in the county.

And from the ninth rank, it belongs to the indispensable leaders such as headhunting and Wu Zuo.

According to Zhu Yixi's meaning, the three elders also have to enter the rank, which is the ninth rank.

"Officials below the seventh rank can be managed by the government office, and the official status is registered in the new department."

"What about the six offices of the government office?"

"Isn't the six places set up as the sixth rank? (The magistrate is the fourth rank) should be selected by the Ministry of Officials."

As for the chief envoy and other provincial government officials, Liucao is the transition official of the prefect from the fourth rank.

Of course, in the eyes of the emperor, the main function of this new ministry was to select and take care of grassroots officials such as the elders.

To put it bluntly, they can only be qualified to select candidates, but cannot accurately arrange jobs, because this requires the cooperation of the local government.

This is precisely difficult, they do not have the energy to communicate with the local, after all, there are [-] counties in the country.

Those retired soldiers who expired will be placed in the counties by the new ministry, and then properly settled by the county government.

As long as it complies with their resettlement regulations, the rest is out of our control.

Saying this, the three members of the cabinet suddenly realized.

"Your Majesty, what is the name of this new Ministry?"

Zhao Shu was quite eager.

The weakening of the Ministry of Officials is the strengthening of the cabinet. At the same time, the establishment of this new Ministry means that the power of the court has increased greatly.

This is good for the cabinet.

"Name?" Zhu Yixi hesitated for a moment, then said resolutely, "Organization Department."

"The Central Committee has established a new Organization Department, and the local six Cao Caos will remain unchanged for the time being."

The three of them looked at the emperor eagerly, their thoughts turning.

Although this organization department, which can arrange officials below the seventh rank, does not seem to have much power, it is also a kind of power to a certain extent.

Especially for scholars, Juren, and Yin officials, it is even more decisive.

"The new Secretary of the Organization Department, let me think about it again."

The emperor showed a trace of entanglement.

There are hundreds of thousands of officials across the country, and the screening of nominations for officials alone is enough to cause headaches.

The faces of Zhao Shu and the others remained unchanged, and they began to think about how to win this position.

Due to the emperor's reform, the three of them divided the personnel power of the bureaucracy equally. Although the chief minister had more weight in his words, he had no decision-making power.

And once the organization department is obtained, it is equivalent to indirectly determining the personnel rights.

As we all know, personnel is the lifeblood of bureaucrats.

"Your Majesty, although there are some magistrates in the provincial examination, most of them are officials, what?" Zhang Shenyan suddenly thought of something, and said directly.

"When you said that, I just remembered."

Zhu Yixi came to a sudden: "The provincial examination, let the organization department supervise and handle it!"

"I don't know, who is in charge of this organization department?" Yan Chongxin carefully showed a look of expectation.

Zhu Yixi was taken aback, and then realized that it was a matter of the separation of powers and management of the cabinet.

"I just remembered, the former Li Fan Department didn't draw a clear line, did it?"

The emperor glanced at the three of them thoughtfully, and smiled confidently:

"Forget it, wait until the Minister of the Organization Department arranges it properly, let's arrange it together, and save time and trouble."

"Your Majesty Shengming."

The three of them had different thoughts and bowed down in unison.

As the saying goes, there is no school in the school, and there are all kinds of strange things.

Since the emperor restricted the chief examiners of the imperial examinations, there were no veterans from the three major cabinets to preside over them, so their faction was still composed of senior officials.

Not to mention Zhao Shu, he is the oldest and the head of the court-central shogunate faction, that is, the bureaucrats from Hanzhong to Huguang.

And because Zhang Shenyan was from the Donglin Party, he was naturally favored by those old officials, and effectively accepted the old officials of the Chongzhen Dynasty, so that Emperor Shaowu was quickly accepted by the bureaucrats.

Yan Chongxin lacked seniority, so he could only win over some centrists.

It is precisely because of this that Zhu Yixi can occasionally be lazy and trust the cabinet so much.

Because of this, there is no intention to rebuild the Supervisor of Rituals.

(End of this chapter)