Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 108: Promote newcomers and start

Who can not understand?
I wonder how many people’s requests are behind these vacancies for the imperial examinations and censors, which means how much weight their say will have in the court?

How many people’s career paths will end in this life?
Zhu Changluo looked at them, his heart calm.

For him, what difficulty would it be to study the promotion path map of Ming Dynasty officials?
Every era has its own unspoken rules for promotion in official circles.

The censors are the key to promotion in the Ming Dynasty officialdom.

It so happens that among all the officials in Beijing today, the censors were the "hardest hit by dismissal" during the Wanli period in the past, and had the largest number of vacancies that had not been filled.

At the beginning, there were many censors in the six departments.

In addition to one Du Shizhong of the seventh rank and one Zuo Shizhong of the seventh rank in each subject, each subject also has a varying number of Zuo Shizhong of the seventh rank.

In the ninth year of Wanli, except for the four ordinary censors in the Civil Service and Engineering departments, the number of people in the Household Department and the Criminal Department was reduced from eight to four, the number of people in the Military Department was reduced from ten to five, and the number of people in the Rites Department was reduced from six to two.

As the number of governors and governors-general gradually increased in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the number of censors in the Censorate was also quite large.

Zhu Changluo promoted quite a few local county magistrates and assistant officials of prefectures and states to the fast track of censors in one go.

Although the rank of local county magistrates and assistant officials of prefectures and states was higher than that of the Imperial Censor, they all longed to become the seventh-rank official.

At the beginning of the country, [the Lang Office was extremely important. All censors who had served in the post for nine years were promoted to the position of chief official.]

At that time, officials in the Six Ministries held extremely important positions.

But nowadays, the status and situation of the officials in the six ministries are much worse than before. Even a newly-appointed Jinshi who is elected as the head of the six ministries is not as good as being sent to be a county magistrate.

As the Ming Dynasty became more conservative, the authority of the civil officials in the court grew, and the role of the censors became more and more critical. During the Tianshun period and the early Chenghua period, most of the officials and censors were selected from the newly-appointed Jinshi. It was also the best opportunity for each cabinet minister to promote newcomers and cultivate students and followers.

However, during the Chenghua period, Emperor Xianzong attached importance to local officials and decided to appoint the third-class Jinshi to the positions. However, the Jinshi scholars did not buy into this idea at first.

Therefore, Emperor Xianzong regarded county magistrates and prosecutors as important sources of officials. As a result, many new scholars were willing to serve as prosecutors and county magistrates.

【Since the introduction of the examination system, only those who have been evaluated as middle-ranking officials, or those who have been recommended as external officials, can enter the two provinces. As a result, the external officials have suddenly become more important, while those who are middle-ranking officials are particularly popular. This is because the money they have can help them make friends with important people and win the praise of their superiors.】

Because in the Ming Dynasty officialdom, there are two positions that can be regarded as large-scale transfer stations for promotion. One is the censors as a whole, and the other is the deputy censors of each province.

After being a deputy censor, one can become a left or right councilor of a provincial governor's office, and the next step may be censor or governor, officially entering the ranks of frontier officials and court officials. The next three steps after the governor are usually the deputy chief censor of the Censorate, the assistant minister of the six ministries, and the minister.

But before becoming a Deputy Censor, there are many paths leading to the position.

Among these many paths, the Six Departments Directors of the Sixth Rank can be sent to the local areas to serve as Ancha Qianshi, and they may have to go through the step of Yuanwailang before being sent out. Or they can wait until they become Langzhong before being sent out. In this case, no matter if they first serve as prefects or as councilors of the Provincial Administration Commission, they will most likely have to go through the position of Ancha Fushi later.

Among local officials, county magistrates and assistant officials in prefectures and counties may be able to reach the position of prefect by working hard. However, the promotion of prefects also basically requires passing through the step of Ancha Fushi, who is also a fourth-rank official. It is rare for a prefect to be promoted directly to the position of a provincial governor.

According to the rules of the Ming Dynasty, there was an examination every three years, and after nine years, there would be a move, but it would most likely be a transfer. If there was no one in the court and everything was done according to the rules, how long would it take to get to the position of Deputy Censor?
At this time, the advantages of the censors came into play: they only had to become the chief censor, and when they were sent out, they could become the left or right councilors of the local provincial government, or they could transfer to the Censorate, Imperial Household Department, Imperial Household Department and other departments, and become the deputy censor-in-chief of the Censorate at a faster speed, and then they could aim for the positions of vice minister and chancellor.

In other words, the censors only had to compete among a limited number of people who rotated at an extremely fast speed, and by gaining support from places where bigwigs gathered in the capital, they could effectively cross the threshold of becoming deputy censors.

Just tell me whether it smells good or not.

This is why everyone wants to be a censor even though the rank is low and the risk is high.

Now the emperor took this opportunity to promote so many censors at once, which illustrates two points.

He understood the key role of the censors in the promotion map of the Ming Dynasty officialdom.

This group of people is the new team he wants to train. Zhu Changluo's "manual forms" are kept up day by day. Zhu Changluo knows exactly which positions in the Ming Dynasty are vacant, which positions are critical, and which people are available.

Now, when the court heard that the recommended person was "in line with the Holy Spirit", it immediately made the decision.

The four giants of Liaodong were thus determined: Xing Jie, the governor of Ji and Liao, Li Ruhua, the governor of Liaodong, Yuan Keli, the inspector of Liaodong, and Ma Gui, the commander-in-chief of Ninglu.

The Left Censor of the Military Department was happy to be appointed as Hou Xianchun's Deputy Censor, and silently warned himself not to anger the emperor. Then, perhaps he could be sent to a provincial government as a councilor, a position second only to the left and right governors in the Provincial Administration.

He could even simply take a short break in the position of Junior Secretary of the Imperial Household Department or Junior Secretary of the Imperial Household Department and go to the Censorate to be the Censor-in-Chief, and inspect some unimportant places!
Outside the Qianqing Gate, a new batch of censors who benefited from this sudden decision all expressed their gratitude. Most of them were promoted to the position of Du Shizhong or people who were closer to Du Shizhong.

No matter what those important officials who are qualified to recommend think, they are the beneficiaries anyway.

Among them, there were a few people who came out to express their gratitude quite reluctantly. They were editors or compilers of the Hanlin Academy who were appointed as Censors.

Li Dai looked at the emperor meaningfully: Is this a plan to change the fastest way to promotion in the court?

This path is called the clean stream. From the Hanlin Academy, one can be promoted to the position of editor, then to the position of tutor, and then directly to the position of Jijiu or Shilang of the Imperial College, and then to the position of Shangshu.

Among those transferred to the position of Censor this time was Huang Hui, an editor of the Hanlin Academy who had previously participated in the emperor's lectures when he was the eldest son.

He can be considered as the "Prince's Teacher" to some extent.

Next, the court decided on the candidates for the vacancies in the six ministries and the left and right assistant ministers. Guo Zhengyu, the emperor's former lecturer and now the chief academic officer of the Nanjing Imperial College, was selected as the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Rites. Li Dai's face became even uglier.

Coming from the Hanlin Academy, he is already a vice minister. The next step is to become a minister, and then he can be a cabinet member.

Wang Yingjiao, who admired Xiong Tingbi, was also appointed back to take up the vacant position of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue.

Among the officials appointed by the emperor to the Ministry of Personnel, there was one named Yang Shiqiao, who was to be transferred from the Nanjing Tongzhengshi to the Beijing Ministry of Personnel as the Left Vice Minister.

Shen Shixing suddenly felt something was wrong: Was it possible that after the emperor had selected a group of Beijing officials, he would stop recruiting new ones?

Li Dai was unwilling to "act arbitrarily" and waited until Yang Shiqiao slowly returned to Beijing to take office before starting the ministerial meeting. This was inappropriate.

He was about to leave the court to advise, but the emperor spoke bluntly: "The vacancies have not yet been filled. I think the implementation of the policies for the first year of Taichang will still be slow. The Prime Minister is absent from the court, so it is difficult to discuss matters. Mr. Shen is ill, and I am really worried. I hope he can recover soon, and then we can hold a court meeting again."

After saying this, he stood up and walked into the Qianqing Gate in everyone's astonished eyes, without giving the ministers time to react.

No matter how many earnest calls came from behind him, advising him not to cancel the court session, because it would be even more inappropriate to stop the court session when the Prime Minister was sick.

Only when an important official died would the court be suspended to express condolences!

Even Tian Le was stunned for a moment, and then he understood.

Although the emperor was worried about the progress of the training of the Beijing Camp, the first step in the training of the Beijing Camp was to eliminate abuses and clear up occupied service, and only then could other things be discussed.

The problems of abuse and occupation have not been solved, and the salaries and food of the soldiers in the Beijing camp still have to be included in the expenses.

On the contrary, after what happened today, both the government and the public are clear: it’s not that the emperor doesn’t want to fill the vacant position, but everyone has seen that it was the prime minister who dodged the issue and the Ministry of Personnel who shirked its responsibility.

By the way, the list of gold and silver, the arrangement of the Ministry of Rites' joint examination, the plan for the rotation of grain transportation, and the plan for this year's salt tax are all uncertain.

See who is more anxious.

(End of this chapter)