I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 926 New Cabinet, New Prime Minister
New Year's Day of the eleventh year of the Wanli reign.

Wang Yi'e and Qi Jiguang were dressed in court robes and accompanied by civil and military officials, who were divided into two groups, east and west.

Zhang Juzheng and Li Chunfang stood in a group with royal family members, relatives by marriage, and nobles. Envoys from the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Portugal, and Indian countries were also present.

When the auspicious time arrived, Wang Yi'e and Qi Jiguang were divided into two shifts, the east and the west, and they stepped out separately to deliver their congratulatory speeches to Zhu Yijun who was sitting on the dragon throne.

This is a new rule changed in the eighth year of the Wanli reign. The general content is that under the leadership of the Holy Emperor, we achieved remarkable results last year. In the coming year, we will do this and that, and then congratulate the Emperor and say a bunch of nice and auspicious words.

It is similar to a very brief summary and report on the new year's policy/military direction.

The two men stood in front of the steps and read their congratulatory speeches to the civil and military officials.

The congratulatory message was then respectfully presented to Zhu Yijun by an official from the Secretariat, and then the Eastern and Western classes, with members of the royal family, relatives by marriage, nobles and foreign envoys as the secondary ones, paid homage in an orderly manner, performing the highest etiquette of five bows and three kowtows, under the chanting of the eulogy officer.

Complete the most grand court meeting of the four times a year.

According to the ancestral system established by Emperor Taizu, the imperial court held a court meeting on the first and fifteenth day of each month, which comes to twenty-four times a year.

Zhu Yijun implemented the Wanli New Deal, changing the festival to four times: New Year's Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Winter Solstice.

Among them, the New Year's Day court meeting was the most grand, with the largest number of ministers attending.

The Dragon Boat Festival is the most festive and lively because it is also the birthday festival.

After New Year's Day, civil and military officials began to take turns to rest, because during their vacation, they also had to take turns to be on duty.

On the 16th day of the first lunar month, all government offices opened for work.

Central government offices such as the Cabinet and the Military Government were usually led by the heads of each department. They would march out of the North Gate of Daming in the morning and bow to the Imperial Palace with their hands crossed at Chengtian Gate.

What I mean is, Your Majesty, now that we have started working, we will definitely perform our duties diligently and conscientiously.

On the 17th, the new Prime Minister Wang Yi'e convened a full cabinet meeting in Hall No. 1 of the East Hall of Daming Gate, also known as the East Great Hall.

All the chief and deputy officials of the cabinet, six ministries and temples participated.

What are the chief and deputy officials?

It means an official who has an official position in the Guanglu Temple and is officially appointed by the Ministry of Personnel or the personnel department of the department.

There were section chiefs, deputy section chiefs, department directors (chiefs), deputy department directors, bureau directors (langzhong), deputy bureau directors, then supervisors and deputy supervisors of various departments, assistant ministers, chancellors, junior secretaries, and senior ministers, a total of about 1,600 people.

At the meeting, Wang Yi'e made all the chief and deputy officials of the cabinet, six ministries and various temples fully aware of his style of doing things.

Wang Yi'e certainly knew that in the previous Ming Dynasty, the countryside was controlled by landlords and gentry, who in turn were dependent on the aristocratic and powerful families.

The first people the emperor took action against were the local aristocratic and powerful families.

After these aristocratic families and gentry who monopolized knowledge, culture and education rights and controlled a large amount of local land and population resources were eliminated like a storm, these landlords and gentry became rootless trees.

The emperor first appointed retired veterans as village security and militia captains, first grasping the key points of each village and gaining an invincible position. Then he promoted counselors and village heads elected by villagers. Once this mechanism was perfected, it was equivalent to the court truly reaching out to the countryside and firmly grasping the foundation of the country.

Wang Yi'e turned around and looked at his colleagues, and continued: "The grassroots officials trained in this way are all outstanding talents. The Ministry of Personnel will select a group of them and directly transfer them to Beijing to serve in the six ministries and temples for training.

Running water never rots, and a door hinge never rots. Excellent officials at the local and central levels must communicate with each other so that they can be fully trained and outstanding talents can be selected to continue the Ming Wanli New Deal!

This work will be the focus of the Cabinet in the next five years and one of the most important tasks of the Ministry of Personnel."

After talking about the selection and training of grassroots officials, Wang Yi'e talked about economic construction, industrial construction plans, railway construction plans, and the development of the Northeast and Northwest.

These are all very important matters for the Cabinet over the next five years.

Then he brought up the important matter of the moment.

"It's the first month of the lunar year now. In two months, we will have the annual provincial examination.

According to the rules, the provincial examinations were specially prepared by the Examination Bureau of the Ministry of Rites, which appointed chief examiners, assisted by the provincial governments, and supervised by the Ministry of Personnel and the Censorate throughout the process.

Before the meeting, I had communicated with Minister Cai of the Ministry of Rites. The Examination Bureau of the Ministry of Rites is organizing professors from various colleges and universities to start setting questions. According to the rules, ten sets of questions are set, and then each province draws lots. The guards will escort the set of test papers to the province that draws the set. "

Cai Maochun, who was sitting a little further outside, nodded repeatedly, echoing Wang Yi'e's words.

"The chief examiner, the Ministry of Rites, is drawing lots to arrange the examination. The Ministry of Personnel, the invigilator, will also draw lots together with the Metropolitan Censorate to arrange the examination. Time is very tight, only two months. Although we now have trains running north, south, east and west, there are still many provinces that do not have trains, and we have to change jobs, which takes time.

So time is very short, we must hurry up! "

Next, Zuo Cheng Xu Zhenming spoke.

He was talking about something else.

"On the 16th day of the first lunar month, the Secretary General conveyed the first imperial edict of the 11th year of the Wanli reign, which stated that the Emperor decided to take a train south in March to inspect Hebei, Shandong, Anhui, Yingtian Prefecture, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang.

The accompanying personnel have been tentatively determined. The cabinet includes Ben Cheng, Pan Youcheng, Zheng Youcheng, Hu Youcheng, as well as Cai Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, Liu Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishments and others.

Roster subject to change.

This is a big deal, a very big deal.

The provincial governors and provincial governors are watching over them, so we don't have to worry about them.

The Cabinet, the six ministries and all the temples, quickly tighten your fences and clean your yards.

We have no idea where His Majesty the Emperor is inspecting or who he is going to meet.

If the emperor finds out what kind of ox-bile and dog-bearing treasures you have, you will have to think about the consequences yourself!"

There was an uproar in the meeting hall!
(End of this chapter)