Water Margin people

"Do you think this plan is feasible?"

Sun Lei looked at Xiao Jiasui, Wen Huanzhang and Xu Guanzhong and asked.

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

The three men bowed and saluted. This was indeed a very good official system. Although the previous official promotion system was also good, the lowest-level positions of county magistrates and county magistrates had always been parachuted in, and it was the same in all places.

Outstanding candidates in the imperial examination would be directly assigned to a county, and the rest would be substitutes in various government offices.

But the problem is that these people have no understanding of the counties they are going to govern, nor any experience of being officials in any place. Once they arrive there, they will definitely be controlled by local gentry and officials.

"That's good. Let's do this starting this year. Send them all to the grassroots for training. There are too many places to be arranged below the county level."

Sun Lei smiled and said that what he meant was that all clerks and auxiliary personnel would be incorporated into the bureaucratic system, starting from the grassroots level and working their way up, and it would no longer be autonomous at the county level.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Everyone bowed and accepted the order.

"In addition to these things, I also want to change the departmental structure of the court."

Sun Lei looked at everyone and continued.

“Departmental structure!”

Everyone was shocked again and immediately became extremely alert, as this concerned all of them.

"You can also feel that the administrative structure of our Qi State is different from that of the previous dynasty. Last year, Xiao Jiasui and Wen Huanzhang were the main officials, and other officials were auxiliary officials. A temporary department was formed, and the six department officials were responsible for its execution."

"I think this structure is very good, so I plan to make it a regular structure. We will call it the Cabinet from now on. We will have one cabinet minister on the left and one cabinet minister on the right, and twelve assistants. You already have six of them. The remaining six will be selected from various ministries or governors-general from various regions."

"The main task of the cabinet is to discuss politics and handle various government affairs. After all government affairs are handled, they will be approved by the left and right cabinet elders and then submitted to the cabinet for discussion at the court meeting."

Sun Lei looked at everyone and continued speaking.

Everyone started thinking quickly. They thought that this temporary organization was only temporary and the original structure would be restored when the emperor returned. But now that the cabinet has been formed, the whole situation has changed.

Everyone knows that the cabinet is the division of the prime minister's power. The prime minister's power is replaced by the cabinet and divided into two, with twelve people participating. These fourteen people can participate in political affairs.

Xiao Jiasui and Wen Huanzhang looked at each other. They both understood what the emperor meant. The emperor was going to take action against the power of the prime minister.

But both of them said nothing. They did not care about the power of the prime minister, nor were they greedy for power. If they thought about it carefully, the country would only be more stable. The power of the prime minister would be dispersed to the cabinet, which would increase office efficiency without the danger of power falling into other people's hands.

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

Xiao Jiasui and Wen Huanzhang bowed to Sun Lei. Their bow expressed their support for the establishment of the cabinet and their admiration for the emperor. Although they had no other thoughts, what about the latecomers? Some things must be prevented before they happen.

"Haha, I'm glad you understand. In addition, military affairs are still independent. The cabinet cannot interfere in military affairs. Military affairs are the responsibility of the Privy Councilor and the Grand Marshal."

"Also, the three judicial departments must be independent. Legislation and law enforcement should only be accountable to the emperor, and the cabinet only has the right to review and make recommendations."

Sun Lei added two more sentences, saying that the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty was the pinnacle of the feudal dynasty system, and some emperors of the Ming Dynasty were also very smart, but their cognition hindered their development.

The cabinet of the Ming Dynasty was very good in its early days, but the emperor was lazy. To save trouble, he set up the Silijian and used eunuchs to control the cabinet. He thought it was foolproof, but the final result was that the cabinet became the eunuchs' minion.

The biggest problem with the cabinet is that it has too much power. Although the power of the prime minister is gone, the cabinet still controls everything in the country. If the entire cabinet is corrupt and all fourteen people become cliques, wouldn't that be just as ruined?

Therefore, he wanted to separate the military and judicial powers. Without military power, the cabinet would be just an administrative body and would not be able to cause any trouble no matter what.

The independence of the three judicial departments would make the cabinet and the officials fearful. The law would be like a shackle that would make them dare not cross the line.

There was not much change in everyone's expression. If this happened in the previous dynasty, it would definitely cause an uproar, but it was like this before the establishment of Qi State.

This is also due to the original Liangshan structure of Qi State. Liangshan did not have a complete judicial system, and the entire mountain stronghold was full of generals and troops.

Moreover, most of the generals in the mountain stronghold are the emperor's brothers, such as Lu Zhishen and Lin Chong, who are even the emperor's sworn brothers. Lu Zhishen still calls the emperor brother, and the emperor likes it very much.

This resulted in the military officers having a very high status after the founding of the country, which was the exact opposite of the previous Song Dynasty, as the military officers were not under the control of civil officials at all.

As for judicial power, the emperor never delegated this power to others. People only had the right to discuss and submit petitions, and were not allowed to interfere in legislation and law enforcement. The decision-making power lay solely with the emperor.

"The right to discuss politics was given to the cabinet, the executive power was given to the six ministries and hundreds of officials, the judiciary was divided into three departments, and the military was independent again."

Everyone then understood that what the emperor meant by changing the court department structure was not a simple cabinet change, but a reshaping of the entire court structure and the implementation of a completely different court system from the past.

"What do you think?"

Seeing that everyone was staring blankly, Sun Lei asked.

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

Everyone bowed and said, they didn't know what the result would be, but at this time they could only say that the emperor was wise.

"Draft an imperial edict and announce it tomorrow!"

Sun Lei nodded with satisfaction and said that since the system was to be reformed, an imperial decree must be issued.

"Also, this matter is for your cabinet to handle."

Sun Lei pointed at the case files in front of him again. These people actually dared to put pressure on the emperor. It seemed that they didn't want to live anymore. But letting them die would be too easy for them. It would be better to let them live in fear and make their life worse than death.

"I understand."

A group of officials saluted.

They now hated those officials who were ignorant of their own dangers. When they provoked the emperor, the emperor immediately started to carry out drastic reforms.

They don't know whether the reform is good or bad, but with such a big reform effort, they won't be able to take a vacation within three months, and they may even have to work overtime on weekdays.

After arranging everything, Sun Lei left, and Lu Zhishen, who was confused, quickly followed him.

"Brother, why don't you find someone to help you with this complicated matter?"

Lu Zhishen started to complain, but he didn't quite understand what he was saying. He just knew that he still had to take care of those complicated military affairs.

"Why do you always want to slack off? Don't you see how busy I am? Hurry up and get the rotation list ready. We need to send some people out."

Sun Lei looked at Lu Zhishen and said, this monk is very lazy, all he does all day is drink, eat meat and fight.

"Can't you let Zhu Wu come back first? Nothing will go well without him!"

Lu Zhishen started asking for people directly.

"Then choose someone to bring him back."

Sun Lei looks at Lu Zhishen (End of this chapter)