Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 635: Ministry of Justice and Weiwei Temple
Dazzled and overwhelmed, they accepted the adjustments made by the emperor in a daze.

This was the biggest feeling in the hearts of the ministers after the court meeting ended.

It was okay for a minister like Yuan Keli who was accustomed to the emperor's whimsical ideas, but Zhang Fengxiang and others who were only transferred to the court in September last year were extremely uncomfortable with this.

After the court meeting, Zhang Fengxiang was still a little angry when he thought about the emperor ignoring his words at the court meeting. He found Han Yu, the chief minister who also belonged to the Donglin Party, and complained:

"Lord Han, isn't it a bit too frivolous to ask the inner court to increase its military strength so easily?"

"The affiliation of the guards has its own ancestral system. Why didn't Lord Han argue and put the Banner Guards and the Left and Right Guards of the Imperial Guards into the Jinyi Guards?"

"This way, the Jinyiwei will have more power. When will the Weiwei Temple be transferred to the Ministry of Justice?"

As the former Nanjing Minister of Industry, he was somewhat dissatisfied with the fact that he could only serve as the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice after coming to Beijing. He felt that his official position was downgraded from Minister to Vice Minister.

After becoming familiar with the affairs of the Ministry of Justice and knowing that the current Ministry of Justice is mainly responsible for judicial review and execution of penalties, he became even more dissatisfied.

Because in his opinion, the current Ministry of Justice has little power at all. It is not like the previous Ministry of Justice, which held the power of trial.
If someone commits a crime, the Ministry of Justice is fully capable of arresting, trying and punishing the criminal.

It is not like it is now, where we are only responsible for punishment and some irrelevant legal work.

It can be said that the Ministry of Justice suffered the most in the reform of the court institutions. It was ranked second to last among the six ministries, and now it is on the verge of becoming the last.

In the eyes of many officials of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Justice is not as powerful as the Weiwei Temple under the Jinyiwei. The Weiwei Temple, which is responsible for law enforcement and arrests, is considered by many to have more power than the Ministry of Justice.

Especially in the minds of ordinary people, the Weiwei Office, Public Security Bureau, Police Station and other institutions under the Weiwei Temple have more influence on them than the Lifa Department and Tixing Department under the Ministry of Justice.

Even the Dali Court, which had obtained the power of adjudication, was becoming more and more powerful. The six departments that nominally belonged to the Dali Court made the Dali Court and the Metropolitan Procuratorate seem to be the same as the two courts of science and technology.

Among the three judicial departments, the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, and the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Justice is the most embarrassed and has the lowest authority.

In particular, among the subordinate agencies set up by the emperor, the local agencies of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Justice were merged into the Department of Rites and Law, and the officials of the Ministry of Justice system were unable to fully control this government office.

Those officials from the Ministry of Rites also argued that the Ministry of Justice’s local subordinate agency should be the Tixing Department of the Tixing Ancha Si.

The Tixingke has the power to supervise criminal justice, and since it also has the word "criminal" in its name, it can indeed be said to be a local agency of the Ministry of Justice.

However, the officials of the Ministry of Justice, who were too arrogant, were unwilling to let the local organs of the Ministry of Justice be subordinate to the Censorate, as if that would make the Ministry of Justice lower than the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Today, Zhang Fengxiang proposed in the court that the Weiwei Temple be placed under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. This is the opinion of many officials in the Ministry of Justice.

They all wanted to annex the Weiwei Temple, so that the Ministry of Justice would have the power to arrest and enforce the law, and even take over the patrol camp and have some military power.

Unexpectedly, the emperor ignored his suggestion completely.

This made Zhang Fengxiang feel humiliated, and he even wanted to resign in protest.

When Han Yu heard his idea, he quickly dissuaded him:

"No! Never!"

"There aren't many Donglin gentlemen in the court. If Minister Zhang resigns, there will be one less."

"Brother Zhang, please be patient and do your best in the next term."

After much difficulty in pushing Zhang Fengxiang to the high position of Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, he had a chance to become one of the Nine Ministers in the next term. Han Yu certainly did not want to sit idly by and watch him resign just to show his anger.

Zhang Fengxiang's resignation was just talk. He knew that officials were now assigned their own positions, and he knew that it was easy for him to resign, but it would be difficult to come back in the future.

People like him who had not made any great contributions and were not irreplaceable in the emperor's heart almost never returned to the court after resigning.

So after Han Yu's dissuasion, he pretended to give up the idea. Then he listened to Han Yu's explanation:

"After Your Majesty ascended the throne, there is almost nothing you cannot do. The most you can do is to make some concessions."

"If I hadn't proposed to merge the Jinwu Left and Right Guards into the Jinyi Guards today, Your Majesty would still hold on to the Four Yulin Guards and put them all into the Imperial Horse Administration."

"Compared to increasing the number of guards under the Imperial Horse Administration, it is more reassuring to place the guards under the Imperial Uniform Guard."

"And in my opinion, the more powerful the Jinyiwei is, the more likely it is that the Ministry of Justice will be able to seize the Weiwei Temple in the future."

This made Zhang Fengxiang a little surprised, and he said:

"The Imperial Guards have become stronger. How can the Ministry of Justice still fight for them?"

"Mr. Han, don't you know that in the outside world, the Ministry of Justice is regarded as the lowest of the six ministries?"

"How can the current Ministry of Justice compete with the Imperial Guard for the Weiwei Temple?"

Han Yu heard that Zhang Fengxiang did not say anything about resigning, so he stroked his beard and smiled:
"The Imperial Guard now has four offices. The Northern Office is in the name of the Intelligence Department in the Privy Council, which is equivalent to a department of the Privy Council."

"One Sifang has so much power. The four Sifang and the Criminal Justice Department in charge of the imperial prison are equivalent to four ministries."

"Now that there are more flag bearers and the left and right guards of the Imperial Guard, wouldn't Your Majesty be worried?"

"If the Jinyiwei expands and loses control in the future, Your Majesty will definitely abandon the Weiwei Temple and hand it over to the outer court for management."

"Your Ministry of Justice already has the power to supervise the Weiwei Temple. You must take over in a timely manner when the time comes."

This was the trick he figured out, and he even thought that the emperor had this plan in mind.

Otherwise, the emperor would not have allowed the Weiwei Temple Minister and Shaoqing to be recommended by the outer court, but would have kept them firmly in his hands.

In addition, the Weiwei Temple is an outer court institution, and its funding is also allocated from the Ministry of Revenue and other government offices. Even if it now belongs to the Jinyiwei, the outer court can still exert influence on it.

The emperor also allowed this to happen. For example, the patrol camp of the Weiwei Temple was where Xu Guangqi and others were training soldiers.

Han Yu chose to transfer the Banner Guard and the Left and Right Guards of the Imperial Guard to the Imperial Guard, rather than the Four Guards of the Imperial Guard to the Imperial Horse Administration. One of the reasons was that the Cabinet could exert influence on the Patrol Battalion. After these three guards were transferred to the Imperial Guard, they would most likely be the source of soldiers for the Patrol Battalion in the future.

Explaining the ins and outs of this to Zhang Fengxiang, Han Yu said:

"The Patrol Battalion belongs to the Weiwei Temple. This is the most important thing."

"The Ministry of Justice must take good care of this army and not let the Royal Guard assign the patrol camp to other government offices."

This new army, which has demonstrated its combat effectiveness in Korea and Liaodong, has received increasing attention.

Especially after the emperor assigned several battalions of the patrol camp to the shooting camp, many people thought of the eight lieutenants of the Han Dynasty, and worried that the emperor would replace the Beijing camp with the patrol camp and reorganize the Beijing army.

The reason why Han Yu proposed to transfer the Jinwu Left and Right Guards to the Jinyiwei was to test whether the emperor had this intention.

Now it seems that there is no such thing, the emperor did not intend to give Jinyiwei too many guards. But this possibility must be prevented, he asked Zhang Fengxiang, who served as the left assistant minister in the Ministry of Justice, to keep a close eye on this.

Zhang Fengxiang listened to Han Yu's arrangement and gave him a wry smile:
"The Weiwei Temple says it is supervised by the Ministry of Justice, but the officials inside are all from the Jinyiwei."

"Compared to the Ministry of Justice, the Criminal Department, which has the power to approve cases, has a greater influence on the Weiwei Temple."

"No matter how high our official positions are, we cannot interfere with the Weiwei Temple."

Supervision is a very wonderful power, which means supervision and guidance.

What can be determined here is the extent of the supervisory and guiding powers, which vary from country to country.

For example, the departments and bureaus of the inner court, after being led by the supervisors, almost became subordinate agencies with a certain degree of independence, and dared not violate the instructions of the supervisors.

This was not the case with the Ministry of Justice and the Imperial Guard. The officials of the Imperial Guard, who belonged to the Jinyiwei organization and were close ministers to the emperor, almost regarded the instructions of the Ministry of Justice as nonsense.

On the contrary, the Criminal Department, which is only of the seventh rank, is more respected by them because it has the power to approve cases.

This is also the reason why the officials of the Ministry of Justice were indignant and wanted to seize the Weiwei Temple.

Han Yu frowned as he listened to Zhang Fengxiang's story. He realized that even if the emperor did not control the Weiwei Temple so strictly, it would not be easy for them to infiltrate.

After thinking about it, he said:
"Among the nine temples, Zhai Fengchong, the Minister of the Sinong Temple, Dong Yingju, the Minister of the Imperial Treasury, Qian Qianyi, the Minister of the Imperial Rites Temple, Zeng Chuqing, the Right Junior Minister of the Zongzheng Temple, Chen Qiyu, the Minister of the Imperial Household, and Zhang Wenyu, the Minister of the Imperial Treasury, have all been appointed as assistant ministers, or have concurrently assumed the position."

"Their actual power is so great that it is even greater than that of an ordinary right assistant minister, and can be compared with the left assistant minister or even the minister."

"The power of the Minister of the Ministry of Defense is no less than that of a minister. It is really inappropriate for him not to serve as a minister at the same time."

Among the nine temples, the rank of Weiwei Temple is only the third rank, which is equivalent to Guanglu Temple and Honglu Temple. However, the actual power it possesses ranks among the top three.

While the six ministers of administration all served concurrently as vice ministers, Han Yu thought it was really inappropriate that the minister of Weiwei Temple, like the ministers of Guanglu Temple and Honglu Temple, did not have a concurrent position as vice minister.

Zhang Fengxiang pondered the meaning of this and said with some doubt:
"Mr. Han wants me to take the initiative to propose that the Minister of the Ministry of Defense be promoted to the position of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice?"

"This way, our Ministry of Justice can intervene in the Weiwei Temple."

Han Yu nodded and said:

"exactly!"

"After becoming the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, the Minister of the Ministry of Justice will be able to attend the Ministry of Justice meetings and have more interactions."

"If there is anything, it will be easier to talk about it. We can even have some matters related to the Weiwei Temple decided at the Ministry of Justice meeting."

As an institution supervised by the Ministry of Justice, memorials related to the Weiwei Temple were usually sent to the Ministry of Justice for discussion.

Previously, the Ministry of Justice would directly transfer most of the decisions to the Ministry of Defense, allowing the Ministry of Defense to make their own decisions. After the Minister of Defense became the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, he could be summoned to meetings to make decisions on these matters.

After Zhang Fengxiang figured out the trick, he exclaimed:
This seemed to be a promotion for the Minister of the Weiwei Temple, but in fact it restricted his power. Things that were previously decided entirely by the Weiwei Temple were now decided by the Ministry of Justice.

This made him look at Han Yu with great admiration. He felt that although this Prime Minister was not tough enough in facing the emperor, he still had some means.

However, there is a problem with this matter. That is, if the Minister of Weiwei Temple is appointed as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, does it mean that he can become an official of the Ministry of Justice in the future?

Zhang Fengxiang said with some concern:

"After your majesty ascended the throne, the positions of officials were strictly defined. The Ministry of Justice only had one minister and two assistant ministers."

"It's fine to let the Minister of the Ministry of Justice concurrently serve as the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, but if he wants to become a formal Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice in the future, what should we do?"

There are only so many civil service positions, and they absolutely do not want military officers or officials with patronage to invade their private lands.

Han Yu was also troubled by this and sighed:
"It would have been better if the Weiwei Temple had been designated as a third-rank government office and the Weiwei Temple Minister had been included in the list of candidates for the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice as Your Majesty said."

"This way, we don't need to worry about this matter now. The Minister of the Imperial Guard, who is on the same level as the Imperial Guard, will not completely submit to the Imperial Guard."

"When Lord Yuan presided over the establishment of the Weiwei Temple, he really miscalculated and did not consider these things."

Thinking carefully now, every move of the emperor has deep meaning.

Because the ministers were unfamiliar with these things, the emperor set many traps for them.

Now Han Yu and Zhang Fengxiang encountered one:
If you want to increase the Ministry of Justice's control over the Weiwei Temple, you need to give up your position in the Ministry of Justice.

Even though the Minister of the Imperial Guards might not necessarily be nominated by the court to be the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, they must be given the qualification to be included as candidates for the Vice Minister.

The reaction of other civil servants to this can be imagined. It is not easy to convince them.

This made Han Yu and Zhang Fengxiang sigh and feel that they still had to take a long-term view.
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Coincidentally, Yuan Keli also realized at this time that he had miscalculated.

When he was in charge of the reform of the three judicial departments, he never imagined that the Ministry of Justice would go from being the head of the three judicial departments to being the last, and even less powerful than the Ministry of Justice.

If he had known this earlier, he would have given up his candidacy for the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice and let the Minister of the Imperial Guards concurrently serve as an official of the Ministry of Justice to strengthen the Ministry of Justice's management over the Imperial Guards.

But it's too late to regret now. He is no longer the assistant minister of the three judicial departments and has no right to interfere in these matters.

The reform of the guards, which the Privy Council was in charge of, gave him a much bigger headache than the affairs of the three judicial departments:
"How should these guard posts in the capital be changed?"

"Should we send them to the outskirts of the capital and allocate some land?"

This was the simplest solution he could come up with: relocate the garrisons inside the capital to outside, reclaim wasteland and other ownerless land, and distribute land to military households in the same way as the garrisons outside the capital.

He even thought of another source of land, which was to target the nobles and force them to hand over their land to establish fiefdoms.

He knew the nature of the nobles in the capital and knew that as long as he conducted a thorough investigation, he could find faults in most of them. Even if these crimes did not result in them being stripped of their titles, they would be expelled from the capital without any problem.

Especially after the emperor expressed his intention to attack the Beijing Camp, he felt that the affairs of the Beijing Camp alone would be enough to make the nobles drink a pot. All the evidence collected by Li Banghua, the guard of the Beijing Camp, could now be used -

These things were prepared in the past to prevent the emperor from favoring nobles. Using them now might seem like an overkill, but it's not a waste.

Although the emperor attached great importance to the nobles, he sent them to establish fiefdoms overseas. The civil officials were not worried at all that the nobles would compete with them for power.

Especially after the emperor conferred hereditary positions and low-level titles on civil officials, they were even less worried about the nobles. They even had to be cautious when targeting the nobles, lest the emperor, in a rage, forcibly deprive them of their titles.

Now, using some evidence to force the nobles to give up their land is their proper use. Many of the guards in the city can be relocated to the vicinity of the capital.

(End of this chapter)