My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 380 Magical Reform
It is worth mentioning that, whether it is the current Han Dynasty or the former Qin Dynasty, the central positions in the court corresponding to the word "Nine Ministers" are not actually nine positions.

——Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, literally means three dukes and nine ministers;
In fact, it has never been the case.

During the Qin Dynasty, there were more than nine Nine Ministers.

The Nei Shi is divided into the official Nei Shi and the Nei Shi who manages grain, and the Shao Fu is divided into the official Shao Fu and the Shao Fu who manages crafts.
These are the four 'Nine Ministers';

There are various genuine and pirated Nine Ministers, as well as the Left and Right Prime Ministers in the house - let alone the Nine Ministers, even the Three Dukes, there are actually more than three!
no way;
When Emperor Qin Shi Huang came to power, Chinese civilization was at a critical juncture of inheriting the past and ushering in the future.

There are actually four or five of the Three Dukes and more than a dozen of the Nine Ministers, which is a perfectly normal thing.

But the reason why the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers are called "Three Dukes and Nine Ministers" is because it is a rule set by Emperor Taizu Gao after he established the Han Dynasty.

——The three dukes are the prime minister, the imperial censor, and the grand marshal;
——The Nine Ministers are: Weiwei, Tingwei, Taipu, Shaofu, Dianke, Zongzheng, Fengchang, Neishi and Langzhongling.

But even so, problems often occur in the subsequent specific operations.

The system of the left and right prime ministers need no further elaboration;
During the reign of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, there was even a "Prime Minister of Finance" who was specifically responsible for data accounting work within the Prime Minister's Office.

To this day, the system of three dukes and nine ministers inherited by the Han Dynasty from the Qin Dynasty has formed a set of unspoken rules with Han characteristics.

For example, the position of Taiwei is not permanent;
For example, the system of left and right prime ministers was used intermittently when there was a change of regime or political instability.

However, the Nine Ministers gradually stabilized in the Han Dynasty, forming a "one man, one job" system, and the Nine Ministers were indeed customized to only have nine people.

As a prime minister with a political level above the passing line, Liu She certainly knew what Liu Rong's words meant.

——It is not realistic to have the Nine Ministers of the Han Dynasty have more than ten positions like in the Qin Dynasty.

In this case, the birth of a new Nine Ministers would naturally mean the demotion of an old Nine Ministers.

Thinking of this, Liu She lowered his head involuntarily, pinching his fingers and calculating secretly.

The Nei Shi, as the "little prime minister" in the Guanzhong region, was especially the foundation of the Han Dynasty's system for training prime ministers: the promotion path of Nine Ministers - Nei Shi - Grand Censor - Prime Minister, and it was obviously unlikely to be abolished.

In addition, the Shaofu, Tingwei, Taipu, Weiwei and other highly professional and irreplaceable subordinate offices are also basically safe.

The remaining ones are Dianke, Zongzheng, Fengchang and Langzhongling - Zongzheng is in charge of clan affairs and is indispensable; Fengchang is in charge of sacrificial rituals and is equally indispensable.

The last two positions left are Dian Ke and Lang Zhong Ling.
"So, it seems that Your Majesty has made up his mind to take action against Dian Ke?"

Thinking of this, Liu She couldn't help but let out a long sigh, and secretly felt sympathy for Gongsun Kunxie, who had just been promoted to the position of Dianke and became one of the Nine Ministers.

——In the basically mature Nine Ministers system of the Han Dynasty, the Dianke Department can be said to be the least noticeable and also the most dispensable department.

This is because the basic duties of the Dianke are to handle internal and external vassal affairs, which actually overlap with the powers of other departments.

In today's Han Dynasty, which has already eliminated the princes of different surnames, the inner vassal states can basically be equated with the princes of clan families.

After all, the clan princes were related to the Liu clan, so even if there was no Dian Ke to contact them, there was still the Zong Zheng to take care of them.

As for the foreign vassal states, if we count them on our fingers, they include the three kingdoms of Nanyue, Minyue and Donghai in the southern Baiyue area, as well as small countries such as Yelang and Dian in the southwestern Yi.

These small countries were nominally vassal states of the Han Dynasty, but in reality, they were areas that the Han Dynasty had to deal with and transform into internal vassal states, and they had to be liberated as peacefully as possible.

Matters related to these small countries can be considered diplomatic affairs for the Han Dynasty today;

And diplomacy itself is part of the etiquette system that Fengchang is responsible for.

In this way, Dianke was one of the Nine Ministers of the Han Dynasty, in charge of the affairs of the royal family and foreign vassal states. But in fact, when it really came to the need to deal with the problems of the royal family and foreign vassal states, the other nine ministers could have done the job.

Taking all these things into consideration, Liu She finally made a conclusion: the person who would replace the new Nine Ministers, the Chief of the Imperial Household, would most likely be the Chief of the Imperial Household.

At the same time, Liu She also had a vague feeling: what was supposed to come had finally come.

——Eight years ago, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen passed away, and Emperor Xian Xiaojing succeeded to the throne and became the emperor.

In the same year, that is, the seventh year of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen's Houyuan reign, Emperor Xiaojing Liu Qi, who had not yet changed the reign title to the first year, had already begun frantically placing his own confidants in the positions of the Nine Ministers in the court.

Two years ago, in the sixth year of Emperor Xiaojing's reign, the previous emperor passed away, and the current emperor Liu Rong ascended the throne;
However, after all, he was not like the late Emperor Xiaojing, who had been the crown prince for more than 20 years and was already a fully-fledged heir apparent.

In addition, he had just ascended the throne when the Han-Xiongnu Battle broke out, and half a year later the Han-Xiongnu Battle of Hetao-Mayi broke out.

Therefore, after ascending the throne, Liu Rong was not in a hurry to place his own trusted cronies in the positions of dukes and ministers in the court.

Now, Liu Rong, through the state-run salt and iron business, finally revealed such an intention.

——The Chief Commandant of the Imperial Household would be in charge of the salt and iron state-run business that was about to be implemented, and also be in charge of the grain state-run business that originally belonged to the Shaofu!
For such a crucial position, it is obviously impossible for Liu Rong to use ability as the first review criterion.

According to Liu She's guess, the first chief marquis of the Han Dynasty would most likely be selected from Liu Rong's former crown prince's palace team.

The chief noble commander also controls the state-owned monopoly of the three major commodities of salt, iron, grain and rice. His contributions obviously belong to the current Liu Rong;

In other words, every penny transferred by the Lord Duke would eventually flow into the treasury of the Shaofu.

This means that from now on, the Lord Duke will naturally become a super cash cow that the Shaofu will hold in his hands for fear of dropping it, and hold in his mouth for fear of melting it.

As for the Lord Commandant, the Shaofu would most likely respond to any request, and he would no longer have the extremely high principles that he had in the past.

In other words: It is very likely that Liu Rong today can use the title of Lord Duke to indirectly bring the Shaofu under his complete control.

——This is not easy.

It may sound a bit strange: Shaofu was the personal steward of the Han emperor, whose main job was to manage the personal property of the Han emperor;

Isn't it supposed to be like this that the Han emperor controls the Shaofu?

Does the Emperor of Han need to resort to political means to control his own private property?

But in fact, many things in the process of human civilization are one thing in theory, but another thing in reality.

If we really say "it should be like this", then the emperor should be rich and own the world, and have the final say!

But actually?
Almost every feudal emperor, after sitting on the throne, needed to use his own skills to snatch the rights that should have belonged to him from the hands of different people and put them back into his own bowl.

For example, after the death of Emperor Taizu, Emperor Xiaohui tried to wrest the imperial power that should have belonged to him from his mother, Lu Zhi, but failed. Unable to defeat his mother, Emperor Xiaohui Liu Ying set his sights on Prime Minister Cao Shen, wanting to take back part of the imperial power that had accidentally flowed into the hands of the prime minister and was divided up by him.

In the end, he failed again, and was severely criticized by Cao Shen's words "the sage emperor who governs with ease".

The Empress Dowager could not be defeated, and the Prime Minister could not be controlled either, so Emperor Xiaohui became disheartened and completely gave up, successfully bringing about his own death at the age of 23.

More typical: Emperor Taizong Xiaowen!

At the beginning, when Emperor Taizong Xiaowen just succeeded to the throne from Dai, he should have theoretically been in control of the entire Chinese civilization, but he couldn't even make decisions for the commander of his own guards!

Under the covert and overt control of veteran ministers like Chen Ping and Zhou Bo, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen was almost completely sidelined. He was unable to appoint even a confidant whom he truly trusted as the commander of the imperial palace guards: the Weiwei.

In desperation, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen could only play a word game: in addition to the Weiwei, one of the Nine Ministers, he established another position of "Wei Jiangjun".

The so-called General Wei had no official title and was a military rank at the level of a duwei, and his treatment level was higher than that of a two thousand stone official.

As for his powers and responsibilities, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen's original words were: When the Weiwei was busy with official duties and had no time to take care of other things, to assist the Weiwei in completing the work of guarding the Forbidden City.

To put it more bluntly, the Weiwei was in charge of the entire Weiyang Palace's guards, while the Wei Jiangjun was specifically responsible for the guards of the emperor's residence: the Xuanshi Hall.

From this one incident alone, it is not difficult to find that although the feudal emperor is "omnipotent" in theory, in reality, it is not the case.

——Those rights that theoretically belong to the feudal emperors need to be fought for bit by bit. Only after proving that they are "worthy of having this right" can they truly become feudal emperors who theoretically have everything and are omnipotent.

For example, the founding emperors like Emperor Taizu Gao relied on their achievements in founding the country and building the country to prove that they were worthy of the title and successfully possessed the authority of the Son of Heaven;

Emperor Xiaohui fought for it, but failed;

Emperor Taizong Xiaowen fought for it and finally succeeded.

Even the late Emperor Xiaojing seemed to have great power the moment he sat on the throne, but in fact, he had already been "striving" for it when he was still the Crown Prince Regent, or even just the Crown Prince who was the heir to the throne.

Rather than saying that the most valuable thing the late emperor gained from his more than 20 years as a crown prince was the art of being an emperor, it would be better to say that he had already completed the test of the general environment on the emperor before he actually sat on the throne.

However, the current Liu Rong is an extremely special person since the Han Dynasty.

——Like the previous emperor, he was not born of a legitimate wife, but was also the eldest son of a concubine;
Like the previous emperor, he had served as the crown prince regent, but almost at the same time as he was named crown prince, he was given the responsibility of regent.

He ascended the throne at about the same age as Emperor Taizong: he came of age or around the time of his coming of age. Although he did not have the suspicion of "young ruler and suspicious country", he did not have to ascend the throne when the previous emperor was thirty.

In terms of ability, Liu Rong is clearly qualified, or even more than qualified;

But in terms of "qualifications", or experience in governing, Liu Rong is quite lacking.

——A few months as a crown prince, three years as regent, plus two years as emperor to date.

He had been involved in government affairs for less than six years in total. Such an experience, let alone for an emperor - even for an official, would inevitably make people feel doubtful.

So, naturally, some rights that should have belonged to Liu Rong flowed to places where they should not have flowed through various channels and methods.

For example, the two Empress Dowagers of the Eastern Palace still control one of the only two jade military tokens of the Han family;
For example, when it came to important matters in the court, even if Liu Rong intentionally or unintentionally did not report to the Eastern Palace, the officials below would still do it for him and ask for instructions from the two empresses dowagers, especially Empress Dowager Dou.

Another example is departments like the Prime Minister's Office and the Minister of the Palace.

——Perhaps Liu She would not disobey Liu Rong;
——Perhaps Shi Fen did not dare to disobey Liu Rong.

But as the saying goes: It is easy to see the King of Hell, but it is difficult to deal with little devils.

It is really hard for the officials below not to have thoughts like "How old is your majesty?" and "What can a child of this age understand?"

And such thoughts will affect everyone's behavior without them realizing it.

For example, the East and West Weaving Rooms under the Shaofu were supposed to carry out the emperor's orders without compromise;

But after having this idea, when Liu Rong gave orders to the East and West Weaving Rooms, the person in charge who should have responded immediately would most likely hesitate.

After hesitation, he might obey reluctantly, but the greater possibility is that he would make up an excuse to put Liu Rong off.

Such a situation is unavoidable.

The only solution is to keep proving yourself so that everyone will realize: Your Majesty, you are not that easy to fool.

Of course, it is precisely for this reason that there is a saying in feudal dynasties that "a new emperor appoints his own ministers."

——Compared to proving one's own skills and abilities to those little people who are not very loyal to oneself and have a stereotyped impression of oneself, it is obviously much simpler and easier to directly place one's own people.

Liu She once thought that Liu Rong would tentatively begin to place his confidants in the court when he was around 25 years old;

As for Liu Rong's real power, with no taboos and no constraints, he would most likely have to wait until Empress Dowager Dou passed away.

But now, a chief marshal has undoubtedly overturned all of Liu She's previous judgments.

——Liu Rong, the action has already begun!

The first step of the action was to transform the Chief Commandant of Nobles, who was temporarily established by Emperor Taizong Xiaowen and was responsible for presiding over the matter of "supplying grain and donating titles", into a smaller Shaofu Neiku.

From the job title "Lord of Nobles Commandant", as well as the origin and original duties of the job, Liu She could even imagine that when he became the Lord of Nobles Commandant of the Nine Ministers in the future, he would most likely not abandon his original powers.

That is, the work related to the granting of titles in the donation of grain, which has not been officially stopped to this day;
As one of the Nine Ministers - especially one of the Nine Ministers with the title of "Master of Nobles", the authority of the Master of Nobles Commandery in granting nobility could not be limited to the donation of grain and nobility.

Perhaps the awarding of titles based on military merit, the inheritance of titles, and even the conferring of titles of nobility based on meritorious service and titles of nobility based on relatives by marriage will all be included in the responsibilities of the chief commander of titles.

By that time, the chief noble commander, who held the monopoly of grain, salt and iron, had a close relationship with the Shaofu, was openly supported by the Han emperor, and held the important power of "noble title"...

"Maybe in twenty years..."

"—no, ten years;"

"Perhaps ten years later, the head of the Nine Ministers of the Han Dynasty will no longer be the Internal History."

"It will be a little-known title that was once created by the modern world: Lord Commandant..."

(End of this chapter)