Ming Dynasty 1627

Chapter 91 Classification of Memorials
Zhu Youjian raised his eyebrows.

Good, quite efficient.

After Gao Shiming finished speaking, he pointed to some of the memorials with red strips on their covers and said, "All those memorials whose rank is inconsistent between the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Cabinet have been marked with red strips to distinguish them."

Zhu Youjian nodded in satisfaction.

That's more like it. It can't be that even something as small as buying a roll of toilet paper requires the emperor's personal approval.

He reached out and took the two memorials that the Directorate of Ceremonial had designated as "A". One of them was also designated as A by the Cabinet, but the other was only designated as C by the Cabinet.

The first document was submitted by Li Yan, the chief supervisor of the Armory Department of the Ministry of War. It was a lengthy document listing seven suggestions for the administration of military studies.

Zhu Youjian sighed, opened the book, and sure enough, it was true.

The entire text is filled with universally applicable but ultimately meaningless platitudes, emphasizing the importance of martial arts education with earnest words and a deep concern for the country and its people that almost overflows from the page.

Then it listed some nonsensical strategies such as prohibiting impersonation, strictly enforcing examinations, and emphasizing the importance of teaching materials.

This is a typical official document from the Ming Dynasty, seemingly grand in its narrative, but in reality empty and devoid of substance.

There's no way to judge whether something is good or bad.

He then looked at the reasons for the ranking provided by the Cabinet and the Directorate of Ceremonial, both of which stated that "martial arts education is a matter of national importance," and therefore ranked it as Grade A.

This reason is reasonable.

Whether considering the Ming Dynasty's emphasis on education or from the perspective of national politics, classifying martial arts as a top-tier discipline is entirely justified.

But—this article is really not good.

Zhu Youjian shook his head and said to Gao Shiming, "You also witnessed my exchange with Xue Guoguan yesterday. From now on, all policy proposals without detailed implementation plans will be downgraded by one level from their original level."

"Your subject obeys the decree." Gao Shiming bowed and said yes, but secretly pondered in his heart.

The emperor's preferences were now almost entirely out in the open.

Zhu Youjian put down the book and asked again, "Has Xue Guoguan's new memorial been submitted yet?"

Gao Shiming pulled out the memorial with the red stripe pasted on it from another stack and presented it, saying, "This is the one."

"The cabinet initially classified the road repair project in the capital as Grade C. However, considering that His Majesty personally assigned the task, the cabinet members promoted it to Grade B."

The Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs believes that this is the beginning of His Majesty's new policies and should be classified as Grade A.

Zhu Youjian nodded in satisfaction.

In the past, it would have been reasonable to classify road repair as a minor issue, even as a Class C or Class D problem.

The cabinet's willingness to promote someone by one rank already indicates they are trying to gauge the emperor's intentions.

But as expected, it was Gao Shiming and the eunuchs who followed him day and night who understood his intentions better.

He opened the memorial and quickly skimmed through it.

The entire memorial is indeed much more detailed than the original version. Between the lines, it is subtly different from the empty policy essays that are currently in circulation.

However, it still couldn't meet the basic requirements he set for an intern in later generations.

Zhu Youjian took the vermilion brush and, without saying a word, began to carefully annotate the memorial in the blank space.

"Firstly, the order of all payments, materials, and labor must be considered. There must be clear deadlines for when the materials, labor, and money will arrive. If the money is delayed, what preparatory work can be done in advance? This is the foundation of success and must be carefully considered."

"Secondly, all data listed in the text should be filled in using tables and Suzhou numerals for easy calculation. Additionally, Chinese capital numerals can be attached after the table for record-keeping purposes."

"Thirdly, the order of the text should begin with the background, stating the necessity of road construction. Then, the expected progress in October and November should be the middle section, which is the goal. Finally, the required funds, manpower, and materials should be the end section, which is the expenditure. Only by grasping the main points can the whole thing be clear at a glance."

Once Zhu Youjian started writing, he couldn't stop.

That was incredibly exhilarating, as if I had returned to the time when I first started leading a team and personally taught interns how to write project proposals.

He only stopped writing reluctantly after attaching two more pages filled with his "revision suggestions" for the paper.

He put down his pen, nodded in satisfaction, and said to Gao Shiming, "Send it back and have Xue Aiqing revise it and submit another version."

He paused, then asked, "This memorial, along with my annotations, will all pass through the Office of Transmission, and all the officials in the court will be able to see it, right?"

Gao Shiming nodded: "Your Majesty, this is how it is done according to the regulations when submitting a memorial."

"Very good." Zhu Youjian's lips curled into a smile.

He wanted everyone to see it.

He has already expressed his inclination in the most direct way.

Next, it remains to be seen whether the officials in the court are able and willing to follow his lead and improve themselves.

Anyway, those who can keep up will naturally get promoted. Those who can't keep up will just have to slowly accumulate seniority.

He put the two memorials aside and carefully reviewed the nine Class B memorials. Then, he also reviewed the more than twenty memorials in Classes C and D where the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Grand Secretariat had different rankings.

After reviewing the data, Zhu Youjian found that the two institutions' classification logic was largely sound. The slight differences were perfectly acceptable.

Some of the questions concerning etiquette, even though the matters were extremely minor and unimportant, were often assigned a very high rank.

For example, according to ancestral rules, if the Tianqi Emperor had passed away less than 27 days prior, all official documents should be stamped with a blue seal instead of a red seal.

Guo Yunhou, the Minister of Revenue, submitted a memorial arguing that the blue seals were prone to fading and the writing would become blurred over time, which could be exploited by unscrupulous people in matters involving money and grain, leading to fraud. Therefore, he requested that all matters involving money and grain continue to use the red seals.

For such a minor matter, both the Cabinet and the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs assigned it the rank of "B".

Zhu Youjian thought about it and decided that he would not make any changes to the hierarchy of such matters for the time being.

The majesty of feudal imperial power largely stemmed from these rituals and ceremonies that seem tedious and insignificant to later generations.

However, his current prestige largely comes from the dragon throne he sits on, and it's not yet time for him to shake the foundations of his rule just to save a little time on reviewing documents.

After reading through these twenty-odd books, Zhu Youjian simply randomly selected another twenty books from the remaining question books to read, and found no major problems.

When he finished dealing with all of this and looked up, he realized that only half an hour had passed.

For a moment, Zhu Youjian seemed to have returned to the future.

Back then, I worked overtime until late at night every day. Occasionally, I could get off work at six o'clock and wander aimlessly on the street, as if I didn't belong to this world.

The sunset and the passersby were all so unfamiliar.

Since ascending the throne, except for a few days when he relied entirely on the Directorate of Ceremonial to filter the documents, he personally handled all the numerous documents, which often numbered in the hundreds, by himself.

Each session takes anywhere from one to two hours.

This unexpected high efficiency today filled him with ease and joy.

Just as Zhu Youjian was about to announce the end of the day's work, Gao Shiming, who had been standing by for a long time, coughed lightly.

"Your Majesty, there are... a few more here."

Zhu Youjian followed his gaze and then noticed that next to the four tall piles of memorials, there were a few memorials placed alone, as well as a locked black lacquered wooden box.

Gao Shiming stepped forward and explained softly, "Your Majesty, these are the secret reports on corruption submitted by Lord Li Guopu and Lord Yang Jingchen. Lord Yang's report is presented here in a wooden box."

"In addition, there were three eunuchs, Liu Ruoyu, Cao Huachun, and Zheng Zhihui, who respectively submitted memorials on matters concerning palace personnel, finance and taxation, and supervision."

He added, “These matters, whether they are secret reports or matters within the inner palace, are not supposed to go through the Grand Secretariat according to regulations. The Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs felt that there were not many matters, so they did not make a fixed order and presented them all to His Majesty for review.”

Zhu Youjian abruptly snapped out of his leisurely state of "leaving get off work early."

Well, there are only a few left.

A slight smile played on his lips as he reached for a memorial and said, "Indeed, there aren't many... Consort Gao, you're very kind..."

Before he could finish speaking, his hand suddenly froze in mid-air.

and many more!

A thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

He suddenly realized that as his secret memorial system was promoted more and more widely, the few memorials on the corner of the table would soon swell to dozens, or even hundreds!

Even setting aside secret reports, as the reconstruction of the Imperial Guard is completed, his tentacles will extend to more and more places in the Ming Dynasty, and the amount of information he needs to process will inevitably increase exponentially.

By then, the current Directorate of Ceremonial and the Cabinet will probably be unable to handle the workload of this level of information.

Zhu Youjian gently tapped the smooth imperial desk with his knuckles, making a tapping sound.

Preparation is key to success; lack of preparation leads to failure.

There was something he hadn't thought about in detail before, but now it seemed he had to plan ahead.

The existing Directorate of Ceremonial and the Cabinet are ultimately products of this era, representing the pinnacle of the governance model of an agricultural empire.

However, as his reach extends to more and more places in the Ming Dynasty, the amount of information he needs to process will inevitably increase exponentially.

What he needs is a more modern and professional organization.

Instead of distinguishing between civil officials and eunuchs, the system should recruit professional bureaucrats from various fields such as finance and taxation, military affairs, science and technology, intelligence, personnel, and public opinion.

The entire organization should have a staff of over a hundred, not the small team of a dozen or so people in the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs and three people in the Cabinet as it is now.

Interesting. Am I actually going to establish the Grand Council ahead of schedule?

No… perhaps it should be called—“?”

(End of this chapter)