Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The implementation of the collective system also affected the military.

The civilian officers of the Privy Council believed that the army should also hold meetings to discuss military affairs.

And in terms of who is the chief officer between the generals and the guards, they tend to favor the guards:
"When the army convenes a meeting, most of the discussions are about military and political affairs."

"The guards should be the chief officers and have the power of veto."

This undoubtedly put the guards above the military generals, and Zhu Youjian was not very satisfied with this.

However, at this time in the court, except for the five military commanders, no one spoke for the generals.

The Five Military Commanderies had little real power, and the nobles serving in it did not realize the importance of the matter, and no one stood up.

This forced Zhu Youjian to step in personally and said:

"Generals and guards in the army can all be called chief officers."

"But the two responsibilities must have a focus, one focuses on military orders, the other focuses on military politics."

"For meetings concerning military orders, the generals are the chief officers."

"For military and political meetings, the Guards are the chief officers."

"There is no particular priority between the two, and they can be called dual chief officers."

This compromising attitude undoubtedly dissatisfied the Privy Council officials.

Yuan Keli, the Privy Councilor, said:

"War is a matter of great importance to a country. How can we be so careless?"

"If something goes wrong in the army, do we have to first distinguish whether it is a military order or a military government? Arguing about who should call the meeting and determine who is the chief officer?"

Military orders and military and political affairs can sometimes be easily distinguished, but sometimes they cannot be separated at all.

Yuan Keli believed that the dual-chief approach was too frivolous and not suitable for handling military affairs at all.

Zhu Youjian had seen the dual-chief system of later generations and felt that the two chief officers could work together to ensure that no matter who it was, no one could lead the army to rebel.

So he insisted on this and said:

"Dual command is the focus of this military reform. All armies will have to have dual command in the future to ensure they are not controlled by one person."

"As for the difference between military command and military administration, we can find a way to resolve it."

Then he said to Yuan Keli and others:
"Combat and training matters are undoubtedly military orders and are handled by generals."

"Officer selection, performance appraisal, education, and logistics are undoubtedly military affairs, and are handled by the Guards."

"In the future, the documents issued by the Privy Council and the Ministry of War must clearly indicate the military orders and military and political classifications."

This solved the classification of affairs from the superiors. As for daily affairs, Zhu Youjian divided them into peacetime and wartime:

"Except for matters that are clearly under military orders, the guards will take the lead in handling them."

"During wartime, the generals are the chief officers, and everything is centered on victory in battle, including the handling of military and political affairs."

"If the guards fight for power and gain without distinguishing the importance of the matter during the war, and thus affect the war, they will be tried by military court."

This division resolves disputes over chief officers in most cases.

That is, except for matters that clearly belong to military orders, the guard is the chief officer.

During wartime, all military affairs serve the purpose of combat operations and can be said to be all military orders, with generals as the chief officers.

The officials discussed this, some thought that this division was clear, and would be helpful for combat command. It would also restrain the power of the generals in peacetime, so that they would not become too powerful.

Others believed that the emperor gave generals too much wartime power, and that if an ambitious general used the wartime state as an excuse to take charge of all military affairs, it would still be possible for a rebellion to take place.

They believed that military and political affairs during wartime should also be handled by the guards, just as military affairs in peacetime were handled by generals.

In this regard, Zhu Youjian said:
"During war, the guard is the military supervisor, and has the power to supervise the generals in executing military orders."

"If the commander refuses to move forward, the guard has the right to urge him to move forward, or even remove him from office for violating military orders, and replace him with another commander according to the order of command."

"The power of generals is also subject to supervision during wartime, and they cannot do whatever they want."

Then he said to his ministers earnestly:

"Although the army has combat responsibilities, most of the time, it is still in a state of peace, and the guards can act as the chief officer in most matters."

"How to distinguish between peace and war, and how to divide military orders and political affairs are all your responsibilities."

"In terms of preventing the chief officers from acting recklessly and launching rebellions, you need to give serious consideration to this."

This made the ministers realize that the emperor still preferred to let the guards take power. However, fighting was no joke, and the frontline generals needed to be given more power.

Thinking that the guards had considerable power as military supervisors during wartime, they accepted this statement and decided to strictly divide military affairs in peacetime and strictly restrict entry into wartime status.

Zhu Youjian listened to their discussion and felt that these Privy Council officials of civil service origin did not yet fully consider themselves as military officers. They were more thinking about issues from a civil servant's perspective rather than doing everything for the sake of combat.

This made him, who was worried about the impact on the operation, clearly say:

"In the combat martial law area, it can be said that they are always ready for combat, and the generals are the chief officers in the army."

"When the border is invaded, the general can immediately declare a state of war to resist the enemy invasion."

"For the mainland, a wartime state can only be declared after an order from a higher authority, or after joint confirmation with the Guards, or after a general assembly is convened to pass it."

"Now let's discuss who are the members of the military assembly council?"

He simply and crudely decided on a method for entering a wartime state, and used the affairs of the members of the assembly to divert the attention of the ministers.

The ministers were indeed more concerned about this and put forward various opinions.

Some think it should be decided by rank, some think it should be assigned by superiors, and there are various opinions.

Finally, Zhu Youjian decided:
"A general council must be set up at the battalion level and above, consisting of the top three generals in the order of command, including the military chief and the chief of staff, as well as the chief of the guard and logistics."

"If there are Jinyiwei Zhenfushi or Jianjun Yushi in the area, they can also join the assembly."

"Below the battalion level are the military chief and the guard chief, plus the staff officer, the logistics chief, and the sergeant major who represents the soldiers."

"When there are more than three people, they should hold a meeting to discuss and make decisions according to the principle that the minority obeys the majority, the individual obeys the collective, the lower level obeys the higher level, and the various departments obey the court."

This is modeled after the four obedience principles of democratic centralism. Zhu Youjian further specified: "Members of the assembly are all equal. They can vote in favor, against, or abstain from voting and reserve their opinions."

"But once the assembly makes a decision, it must be implemented regardless of the attitude during the deliberations and no one can shirk responsibility."

"The specific rules of procedure, that is, the methods of proposing, discussing, and voting, are formulated by the National Assembly Etiquette Committee and written into the Court Meeting Law."

"The Privy Council then formulated the Military Procedure Regulations based on this, which made provisions for specific situations in the military."

This made all the ministers agree. They agreed with the emperor the most, that no matter what he did, he would find the rules in the etiquette and law. If there were no rules, he would make them, and he would not do things without any basis.

After the officials got used to this, they became more and more comfortable. This also made some people more active, and even wanted to stir up party disputes.

After understanding the current emperor's style of doing things, they found that the emperor was not difficult to deal with. As long as there was solid evidence to support the matter, the emperor would deal with it according to the rules even if he was unhappy.

This made them very enthusiastic about formulating etiquette and laws, striving to make the emperor's actions more and more orderly without worrying about angering the emperor and being punished.

At the same time, they were accustomed to the emperor's information bombardment, so they did not pass the emperor's proposal blindly as they did in the past, but analyzed the clauses one by one.

The first three in order of command, the guards, and the logistics chief, plus the possible Jinyiwei Zhenfushi and the military supervisor, together formed the assembly council. The balance between military generals and civilian officers was generally maintained, and the ministers had nothing to say.

However, they were not used to the equality of all during the meeting. Yuan Keli said:

"Your Majesty said that all members of the Assembly are equal, and that subordinates must obey their superiors. How should we discuss this?"

Zhu Youjian explained in detail:
"The lower level obeys the higher level, which means that the lower level of the collective assembly obeys the higher level of the collective assembly."

"For example, the decision of the squad assembly should be subject to the decision of the brigade assembly to which it belongs."

"The decisions of the district and county assemblies must be subject to the decisions of the prefecture assemblies where they are located."

"The meetings of the ministries must be subject to the meetings of the House of Representatives and the Cabinet, and must also be subject to the decisions of the court."

"From now on, all Ming departments with more than three officials must set up a collective council. Only after collective discussion can they use the seal to issue official documents according to the procedures."

"Orders issued privately by officials of various departments are invalid and do not need to be executed, just like you treat imperial edicts."

These words made the ministers burst into laughter. They could tell that the emperor was actually very unhappy with their resistance to the emperor's orders, and now he wanted the officials to also have a taste of the feeling of having their private orders resisted.

As for the equality of members, Zhu Youjian said:
"Everyone is equal in the assembly, which means that all members participating in the assembly are equal, and each person has only one vote, just like a court meeting."

"This also applies to the chief officer, who only has one vote."

After saying this, all the ministers would understand that when the court deliberated, official rank did not matter, and all participants had one vote.

This becomes even clearer after the current emperor has established a method for counting ballots.

This seemed natural to Zhu Youjian, but Yuan Keli asked a question:
"If all members of an assembly are equal, who should preside over the assembly?"

"I think the chief official who convenes the meeting should be the host of the assembly, just like your majesty presides over the court meeting."

"Although he only has one vote, he has the power to veto the decisions of the assembly."

The power to convene meetings and veto were both granted by Zhu Youjian previously.

At this moment, he was thinking about these two points and felt that the power of the chief officer was indeed higher than that of ordinary assembly members.

Moreover, there is another hidden meaning in Yuan Keli's words, that is, the emperor and his ministers are not equal in the court, so there is no way to say that all members of the parliament are equal.

So Zhu Youjian followed suit and corrected his words:

"All members of the assembly, except the chief officer, are equal."

“Every member who attends the meeting has one vote when making decisions.”

"But the chief officer has the veto power and can veto the resolution of the assembly with one vote."

Now all the ministers were finally satisfied, especially the heads of various government offices.

However, Zhu Youjian raised another question at this time, and explained his intention of granting the chief officer the power of veto:
"The chief official has the power to veto the decisions of the assembly. Do I have the power to veto the decisions of the court meetings, court discussions, court recommendations, and court trials?"

This made the ministers look at each other in bewilderment, some of them unable to answer.

Because theoretically, the emperor does have the power of veto, and can even nominate someone to accompany him in the imperial nomination.

But if the emperor really did this, he would be criticized by public opinion.

If the emperor was dissatisfied with a decision, the most he could do was keep it in his pocket and not issue it.

At this time, the emperor linked his veto power with that of the chief official. After discussion among the ministers, Yuan Keli stepped forward and said:

"Your Majesty can indeed veto the court's decision, or allow the ministers to discuss it again."

"Similarly, the chief officials have the power of veto during a meeting. The chief minister can veto a cabinet meeting, the six ministers can veto a ministry meeting, the nine ministers can veto a temple meeting, and the presidents of each court can veto a court meeting."

This made everyone happy. The emperor, the prime minister and the heads of various government offices all agreed with this.

These chief officials believed that with the veto power their status in the government would be guaranteed, while Zhu Youjian believed that with the veto power clearly defined, he could finally veto any resolution he disliked.

This way, he could let go of government affairs better, and he wouldn't have to carefully count the votes every time there was a court meeting or a referendum, to avoid a result that would not meet his expectations.

After working so hard for more than two years, he really didn't want to waste his energy on such things. He decided to reject any result that he didn't like, instead of completely controlling the court's deliberations and recommendations.

As for the criticisms that this may cause, he no longer cares after giving the chief officer the veto power. Because he believes that the chief officers of the various departments of the Ming Dynasty will definitely use the veto power in the future, and they have no reason to blame him on this point.

In such back-and-forth discussions, the Ming Dynasty's court meeting and assembly system were further improved. The previously stipulated court recommendation law and court discussion law were also included in the "Court Meeting Law".

Only the Congress, because it needs to be elected, has to stipulate the ratio of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, and has to formulate a separate "Congress Law" and even a special election law.

These laws, which were written into the "Great Ming Convention on Rites and Laws" and derived from rites and laws, were classified as the same level as the six laws separated from the "Great Ming Code" and all belonged to the first-level laws.

The National Assembly Etiquette and Law Committee chaired by Liu Zongzhou initially drafted a etiquette and law article based on the results of the discussion:
The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty leads the Ming court, oversees the state affairs of the Ming Dynasty, convenes court meetings to handle state affairs, and all Ming Dynasty departments must obey him.

The Ming Empire had grand court meetings, regular court meetings, and regular court meetings. The emperor was supposed to convene them regularly, and all officials would participate according to their ranks.

The Ming Emperor appointed and dismissed court ministers, who assisted the Emperor in handling state affairs.

All important court discussions, recommendation of ministers, and court trials are attended by the regents, ministers of state counselors, ministers of state council, ministers of government, privy councilors, ministers of state advisors, and the six ministers' censors who are not grand secretaries.

The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty had the power to veto the decisions of meetings such as the National Assembly, the Imperial Court, the Court Discussions, the Court Recommendations, and the Court Interrogations.

The Ming Dynasty implemented a collective deliberation system in all departments. Matters must be discussed collectively by more than three people, and all members of the collective council are equal. The heads of departments can preside over the collective council and have the power to veto the decisions of the collective council.

The specific regulations are stipulated in the "Ming Empire Court Meeting Law". (End of this chapter)