Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The imperial court's official system needs to be improved, and the local governments should be no exception.

After securing the power to veto and dismiss officials in the Ministry of Personnel, Yang Jingchen, the Vice Minister who had always wielded considerable influence over the Ministry, said:
"According to the imperial system, local governors and viceroys are recommended by the ministers of the court."

"The Left and Right Provincial Administration Commissioners and Provincial Surveillance Commissioners are jointly recommended by officials of the third rank or above, and nowadays they are also recommended by the court."

"Now that the Protector-General has been appointed in the provinces, I believe that the court should recommend him."

"The appointment of officials under each department should be approved by the Cabinet, just like the appointment of officials in the ministries, so as to facilitate the implementation of policies at the local level."

This was a necessary measure because Zhu Youjian wanted to replace the provincial governorship with the provincial governorship to balance the power of the three offices. The selection of the provincial governor should naturally be the same as that of the provincial governorship and the provincial governorship.

However, due to the specialized nature of the Protectorate General's affairs, Zhu Youjian considered the matter and said:

"The selection of Protector-General is carried out by the Ministry of War, the Privy Council, and the Five Ministries, with the ministers recommending candidates from the central court."

"The candidates for Provincial Surveillance Commissioner are nominated by the three judicial departments: the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, and the Supreme Court. The ministers recommend them from the central court."

"The candidates for the Left and Right Provincial Administration Commissioners were nominated by the five ministries other than the Ministry of War, and the ministers were recommended by the central court."

"Officials of the Provincial Administration Commission, the Provincial Surveillance Commission, and the Provincial Protectorate, such as Councilors, Advisors, and Deputies, as well as Deputy Provincial Surveillance Commissioners, Assistant Provincial Surveillance Commissioners, and Captains, are appointed by the above departments."

"The Cabinet has the same veto and dismissal power over the officials of the three departments, just like the appointment of ministerial officials."

He agreed to Yang Jingchen's request, while emphasizing:
"The list of candidates for court ministers and local governors must be approved by me."

“Every candidate should be publicly announced, and science and technology officials should report them.”

"Furthermore, court officials should communicate with local officials, with a minimum ratio of 20%."

"After this reshuffle, at least 20% of the officials of the fifth rank and above in the imperial court, especially ministers of the third rank and above, should come from local areas."

"Local officials should be given room for advancement; they should not be suppressed or discriminated against."

This was something Zhu Youjian had wanted to do for a long time. When he was recommending ministers in court, he had specifically promoted local officials such as Zhang Yandeng.

However, this ratio is still not enough; there are still too few ministers from local backgrounds in the imperial court.

In order to allow more officials with local knowledge to enter the imperial court, Zhu Youjian forcibly stipulated a minimum ratio of 20%.

This naturally harms the interests of officials in the capital.

They originally thought that adding officials of the third and fourth ranks would increase their chances of promotion.

Who would have thought they would face competition from local officials and have to give up 20% of their positions to them.

Guo Yunhou, Minister of Personnel, inquired:

"Your Majesty, what is a local official?"

"Has he/she previously served as a local official, or was he/she a local official in the previous term?"

If it's the former, Guo Yunhou could also say that he came from a local official background and had served as a county magistrate.

If it's the latter, it means that many local officials will be promoted.

Zhu Youjian set the proportion so low, so of course the latter option would be chosen. He said:
"Only those who served their entire previous term in local areas can be considered local officials."

"We must strengthen exchanges between officials in the imperial court and local governments, and the imperial court should send more talented people to local areas."

Before officials from the capital were to take up their posts in local areas, they had to undergo training at the Imperial Academy of Administration and then explain the knowledge they had learned to local officials, as well as the measures of the imperial court.

"Only in this way can we better govern and implement the policies of the imperial court."

This is the problem that Zhu Youjian ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guard to investigate.

He realized that his persuasion of the court officials was insufficient, as many local officials were unaware of the reasons behind the court's policies. They were completely confused and not proactive in implementing them.

Many things that are common knowledge among officials in Beijing are completely unknown to local officials.

In some places, newspapers were scarce, and people had no idea about news from the capital.

Under such circumstances, it's no surprise that local officials are conservative. Some mediocre local officials don't even bother to convey the imperial court's policies to their subordinates.

Strengthening communication between officials in the capital and local governments was intended to solve this problem.

Zhu Youjian purged the officials in the capital several times, and most of them supported the restoration of rites and music, or at least did not oppose it.

Zhu Youjian needed them to go to the local areas to spread the word and promote local change.

In order to increase the enthusiasm of officials from the capital to go to the local areas, Zhu Youjian said:
"A prime minister must rise from the local government, and a valiant general must emerge from the ranks of soldiers."

"In the future, court officials and local governors should have at least ten years of local service experience, preferably having served as prefects or county magistrates."

"Due to its special nature, the Hanlin Academy allowed members of the Hanlin Academy to concurrently serve as local officials. Other officials had to spend more than ten years in local areas before they could become ministers."

This demand caused many officials in the imperial court to feel as if they had lost their parents.

Who would want to go to a remote area when they can stay comfortably in the capital?

But that's no longer the case. Anyone who aspires to become a minister must have experience in local affairs.

They had to go to places they didn't want to go, becoming officials traveling from place to place.

As the head of the officials, Guo Yunhou, the Minister of Personnel, had no choice but to speak up for them and remind the emperor:

"Your Majesty, the capital city holds a reshuffle every three years, while in other regions, one-third of the provinces hold reshuffles every year."

“It is unfair to other provinces if officials are only selected from those provinces that are currently undergoing leadership transitions.”

“If we select candidates from these provinces, the changes in job positions will make the reshuffling process very complicated.”

Every change in position affects a large number of officials.

Provinces undergoing leadership transitions are relatively safe, but provinces that shouldn't be undergoing transitions may experience chaos if the central government reassigns officials.

Zhu Youjian frowned, sensing that this matter was indeed somewhat troublesome.

Previously, for the sake of local stability, he only replaced officials in one-third of the provinces each year.

Now it's time for a change of leadership in the imperial court, which means exchanging officials between the court and local governments. Areas that shouldn't be reshuffled shouldn't be subject to major changes, as officials in those areas will find it difficult to advance to the central government and will naturally be very dissatisfied.

Especially under the current system, only a few provinces will have the same leadership transition time as the imperial court. Their advantage in leadership transition time will continue to accumulate, resulting in the emergence of more imperial officials.

To solve this problem, Zhu Youjian thought for a moment and then said:
"From now on, the timing of local leadership transitions will be unified and will coincide with the timing of the imperial leadership transitions."

"What do you all think?"

This is clearly a major event and will have a significant impact on the local area.

The reason why the timing of local leadership transitions was not uniform in the past was because the imperial court was worried about chaos in the localities.

The need to unify the timing of leadership transitions between the central government and local authorities is naturally even more unsettling.

What if a major event happens during the leadership transition? How will the central government and local authorities respond?
Many officials opposed this, arguing that the timing of leadership transitions should not be standardized.

Yuan Keli, however, remembered why the emperor had kept him in office and offered a suggestion:

"I believe that instead of replacing one-third of the local governments with new leaders every year, we should replace one of the three administrative offices with new leaders." "For example, the Protectorate General's Office, I believe we can postpone the replacement until next year to ensure local stability."

This was endorsed by some officials, but problems also existed, Yang Sichang said:

"This means the Privy Council's leadership transition will have to be postponed until next year."

"Otherwise, if the Privy Council transfers personnel from the local areas, it will still require a large-scale replacement of local protectorate officials."

The issue has now reached higher levels, becoming whether or not to postpone the Privy Council's leadership transition.

After careful consideration, Zhu Youjian felt it was necessary, and he said:

"Whether a region is stable depends mainly on both the military and the government."

"The reshuffling of political officials should not be carried out at the same time as the reshuffling of military officials, so as to avoid chaos in both the military and the government."

"In this way, if there is any trouble during the reshuffling of government officials, military officials can enforce martial law according to the established procedures."

"The reshuffling of the Privy Council and the Protectorate General will be postponed by one year."

"We'll do this again next August when we elect officials."

This disappointed some people, especially Son Won-hwa, who was eyeing the position of Minister of the Navy.

However, he soon wouldn't need to be disappointed, because the Ministry of War officials were replaced during this reshuffle—

Navy Minister Yu Anxing was nominated as a candidate for Vice Minister of War, responsible for naval affairs. His competitor was Sun Guozhen, the Governor of Dengzhou and Laizhou, who was nominated for Vice Minister of War due to his merits in supporting Liaodong across the sea.

That's a matter for the future. What the court is discussing now is whether to postpone the re-election of the Protectorate General among the Three Offices, and whether to separate the re-election of the Provincial Administration Commission and the Provincial Surveillance Commission.

If the re-election of the Provincial Surveillance Commission is postponed, then the re-election of the Censorate and the Supreme Court will also be postponed to a later date.

After considering the matter, Zhu Youjian felt that replacing everyone wouldn't be a big problem, but he couldn't allow the supervisory officials to become unstable. He then decided:
"The Provincial Surveillance Commission is responsible for criminal cases and supervision. In order to prevent collusion with local officials, a portion of its personnel should be replaced every year."

"The proportion of personnel to be replaced will be set at no more than half, and 10-20% of the personnel will be replaced each year for the next three years."

"These candidates will be selected by the three judicial departments, and the cabinet will make the final decision to supervise the implementation of the court's policies by the local authorities."

The cabinet members were overjoyed, having gained another powerful tool to urge local authorities to act.

Moreover, these people could be used to impeach local officials who were not proactive in implementing the court's policies, greatly enhancing the court's authority.

The more independent Supreme Court and local courts were designated to be replaced along with the local chief officials, who had the power to veto and impeach them.

This is because adjudicating cases was the main job of the county magistrate in the past.

Even though the imperial system has changed, many people still regard the county magistrate as an upright and just official and go to the county government to report cases.

Many courts were located within the county government offices, with no separation between them. It was common for county magistrates to interfere in trials, sometimes leading to serious conflicts.

Given this situation, the imperial court could only stipulate that county judges must respect the county magistrate and, while adhering to etiquette and law, adjudicate cases according to the magistrate's will.

Judges were actually assistants to the county magistrate in criminal matters; only then could we talk about judicial independence.

In this way, the reshuffling of the two government offices must be done simultaneously, and the county magistrate can even choose a county judge who is a good match for him to take office together.

The timing of local government officials' reshuffles was standardized, coinciding with the timing of the imperial court's reshuffles. The ministers in the imperial court were also primarily drawn from government officials.

Zhu Youjian also explained this reshuffle arrangement as follows:
"After the parliament is established, the Minister of Revenue of the Imperial Court and the heads of local governments will report to the parliament, recounting what they did in the previous year, especially the fiscal revenue and expenditure and the budget final accounts."

"Members of parliament serve six-year terms, with half of them being replaced every three years."

"The timing of this change must be consistent with the timing of the leadership transition."

"We strive to hold county council meetings in September, prefectural council meetings in October, provincial council meetings at the end of the year, and national assembly meetings in the capital in March of the following year."

"At least one plenary session will be held each year to review the work report and budget implementation, and to vote on some bills."

This suggestion was welcomed by the court officials.

They all look forward to the establishment of parliament, but at the same time, they do not want the election time to be changed after the parliament is established.

They greatly admired the emperor's approach of establishing relevant systems in advance.

However, for the sake of stability, Grand Secretary Cheng Jiming suggested:

"If the officials of the provincial administration are to be replaced, half of the provincial judicial commissioners will also be replaced."

"Although the change of the Protectorate General has been postponed, it may still cause unrest in the local areas."

"I believe that local governors and viceroys should retain their posts as much as possible during the change of leadership, and no more than half of them should be replaced during the change of leadership."

This proposal was approved by the court officials, who did not want a large number of local governors to become ministers in the court.

The Nine Ministers, in particular, had a greater say in the selection of governors-general and governors outside of the election period, as the system required them to make recommendations during the court process.

Therefore, they hoped that fewer governors and viceroys would be replaced during the reshuffle, so that when replacements were needed in the following three years, they could recommend officials they liked.

The same applies to Zhu Youjian, because he had more say in the Nine Ministers' court recommendation, unlike the ministers' court recommendation. After the court officials became familiar with his methods, it became increasingly difficult for him to manipulate the selection of candidates.

Cheng Jiming's suggestion struck a chord with him. After reaching an agreement with his ministers, he quickly stipulated that, like the governors-general and provincial judges, the replacement ratio during elections should not exceed half. If necessary in the future, the Nine Ministers could recommend temporary replacements.

After calculating the changes in each government office, the timing for the leadership transition at both the central and local levels was finally determined.

Compared to the previous system where all officials were replaced every three years, this reshuffle will retain military officers and half of the supervisory officers, resulting in a significantly reduced workload.

However, with so many ministers being replaced, there are still many difficulties.

For example, there is much debate about the order in which leadership transitions take place.

The current court officials naturally hope that the new ministers, including the Nine Ministers and the Grand Secretaries, will be recommended by them.

Those who have the potential to become ministers but are not yet so naturally hope that the court will first appoint ministers, and then these ministers will be used to appoint the Nine Ministers and Grand Secretaries.

Both sides also hope to control the department and gain the power to appoint mid- to high-level officials.

Amidst the commotion, Zhu Youjian decided:
"First, the current ministers will select the Nine Ministers and the Cabinet Ministers."

"Then the new Nine Ministers and Cabinet Ministers will propose policy plans and select officials who can be decided by the ministers according to the plan."

"For example, the ministerial officials that the cabinet can appoint and the supervisory officials that the Nine Ministers can recommend can be decided in advance."

"Ensure that the new officials implement the court's policies."

Under this arrangement, the Nine Ministers and the Grand Secretaries gained control over the leadership transition.

Any position they can get involved in can be assigned to them first.

Then other officials will be recommended, and then a new court of ministers will be appointed. The positions can only be decided by the court.

Therefore, the new Nine Ministers and Grand Secretaries will wield immense power and attract considerable attention.

With the Grand Secretary position essentially confirmed, the court officials hoped that the Nine Ministers could be appointed as soon as possible.

Because Zhu Youjian was unsure how long such a large-scale reshuffle would take, he ultimately decided, following the suggestions of his ministers, to begin the reshuffle in June, after which the Nine Ministers and Grand Secretaries would be appointed and they would oversee the arrangements. (End of Chapter)