Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 204: Work Must Have Focus (I)
"My Lords, the vacancies for court officials have been filled. Next, there are vacancies for local officials. After this meeting, my Lords, especially the Ministry of Personnel, must quickly come up with an opinion."
"I obey your orders."
At the State Council meeting that day, among the ministers present, not to mention those who were originally from the Crown Prince's faction, the other ministers? It really felt like drinking honey water and eating fly meat.
During the Jiajing period, the imperial court was reorganized, with a quota of more than 80,000 officials, including more than 9,300 Beijing officials. Among the Beijing officials, according to previous regulations, there were 150 censors of various types in the Censorate. However, because of the "national foundation dispute", Wanli hated the censors to the extreme, so that he never filled the vacancies. Before the crown prince became regent, there were less than 20 censors! So this time, although more than 200 court officials were added, nearly 140 people were added in the Censorate alone!
In any case, it would be great if the crown prince was willing to appoint an official: since the 1604 Jinshi class, it has been extremely difficult for the Ministry of Personnel to appoint a new Jinshi to an official position. This has resulted in more than 800 Jinshi for three consecutive classes, and nearly 600 of them are still stranded in Beijing without an assignment!
Therefore, although the crown prince had inserted many of his people into the government during this adjustment, especially Wen Tiren, who entered the cabinet before he was fifty years old. But the bigwigs in the court still had to accept it: they had no choice but to accept it. What if they angered the crown prince and he simply didn't give him a new position?
You have to know that the five or six hundred Jinshi who waited for their posts had waited for two or three years at the shortest and seven or eight years at the longest. They were already very angry. How dare you delay their official career? Wouldn't you tear down the houses of the big bosses?
In short, this time the court officials were greatly strengthened, and the big men from all sides had some younger brothers taking up their posts - this was honey. But seeing the people from the crown prince's family inserted into too many key departments was really like eating a fly.
However, let alone flies, even the yellow mantis would be eaten with relish at this point: Didn't you hear what the crown prince said? After filling the court officials, continue to fill the local officials.
Oh, there are quite a few vacancies for local officials, at least thousands! How big a pie is this?
However, given Taisun’s character, would he be so kind?
really……
"I want to unify my understanding with you all. The Ming Dynasty is vast, with a population of hundreds of millions, and the national conditions are of course extremely complex. Therefore, every year, in addition to daily work and temporary military situations, disasters, and civil unrest, we must determine the focus of this year's work. I have already ordered that Fangshan School be relocated to Beijing. When the time comes, you can go and take a look at the "Philosophy" that Fangshan students are studying. There is a chapter in it that specifically talks about the focus... In short, the country does have a lot of problems now. We focus on one or two issues every year to solve them. As more and more problems are solved, the speed of solving them will become faster and faster!"
"I obey your command. Your Highness, please tell us the main issues that the court needs to solve in the 41st year of Wanli."
"I have decided that the top priority for next year's work is to continue the national census, rebuild the household registration system, and compile and produce identity cards for every citizen of the Ming Dynasty. My Lords, I don't want to say more about the significance of the household registration system. This matter is related to whether the Ming Dynasty can continue, so we must proceed unswervingly."
"Yes, I will obey your command."
"It's not enough to just follow orders. This is what I think. Next year, the national census will be conducted simultaneously in the north and the south. In the north, 2,000 working team members who have completed the census of Yingtian Prefecture and Zhenjiang Prefecture will be transferred to the north, and a total of 10,000 frontier troops from the nine important border towns will be transferred to Beijing, plus 10,000 people from the Beijing camp. A thousand working teams will be formed. Next year, the north will complete the census of the three provinces of Northern Zhili, Shandong, and Henan. In the south, based on the existing census working team, the manpower will be expanded. Relying on the soldiers of Chongming Shasuo and Funing Town, the slightly capable soldiers in the southern guards will be selected to supplement and form a guard team, which will also form a thousand working teams. Next year, the south will thoroughly complete the census of the three provinces of Southern Zhili, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi. During the whole process, all officials of the Ministry of Revenue in the two capitals will take turns to follow the working team, go deep into the grassroots, and truly understand the lives of the bottom-level people in my Ming Dynasty."
"I obey your orders, Your Highness. However, the number of personnel in the work team alone is 44,000. The salaries of these people plus the daily work expenses. I estimated that it would cost no less than 1.5 million taels of silver a year. Your Highness, I have just taken over the Ministry of Revenue. The warehouse is so big that it can starve to death."
"Haha." Zhu Youdong was very polite to Xu Honggang, who had worked with him in Nanjing for many years, and especially helped him when the officials of the prince's faction attacked him earlier this year. "Don't worry, Grand Tutor. I will pay for this myself."
"Thank you very much..."
"Your Highness! Border troops entering the capital is against ancestral rules!"
"Um?"
The speaker was Weng Zhengchun, the Minister of Personnel, who was from Houguan, Fujian. According to Zhang Weixian, he was a neutral in his political stance, but also a well-known conservative: he always referred to the ancestral system.
"Young Master, during the Hongwu period, when Taizu was drafting the household allowance, didn't he involve the army? Also, we just violated a lot of ancestral rules."
"Why do you say that, Your Highness? How did we violate our ancestral rules just now?"
"Young Prime Minister is really forgetful. When Taizu was in power, officials who embezzled and accepted bribes of more than 100 guan were either executed by slow slicing or skinned and stuffed with straw. Just before the meeting, when we reported the audit of the departure of Lord Ye, the number reported was that Lord Ye had received more than 3,000 liang of ice and carbon tributes from local officials. According to the rule during the Northern Song Dynasty, one guan was basically equivalent to one liang of silver. If we uphold the ancestral system and never violate it, then shouldn't the Grand Secretary of Justice send someone to arrest Lord Ye and skin him and stuff him with straw? But didn't everyone just agree not to pursue the matter? Does this count as a violation of the ancestral system?"
"This...I have spoken out of turn. Please punish me, Your Highness."
"It's okay, it's okay. I'm not intolerant of people with different opinions. Speaking of this, I thought of something."
Clearing his throat, Zhu Youdong said, "In the early days of the country, silver was very valuable. Although the salaries of officials at that time were not high, as long as they were frugal, it was not a big problem to support their families. But in recent decades, especially after the opening of the Longqing Port, a large amount of silver has poured in. The price of silver has depreciated greatly. If the officials of the country rely solely on their salaries to eat, they are doomed to starve to death. Therefore, I think that the salary should be increased for everyone."
"Your Highness is kind and I thank you."
You don't need to use the ancestral system to criticize me now, right? With a slight twitch of his lips, Zhu Youdong said, "But, as you can see, the income of the Beijing Ministry of Revenue is not enough to supply the frontier troops with military pay, so where is the money to increase everyone's salary? The treasury of me and my grandfather is also limited, and it is mainly used to pay for national emergencies or major events. Therefore, if we want to increase everyone's salary, our fiscal and taxation system must be changed."
"Your Highness, this matter is too big. I think the Ministry of Revenue should first come up with a plan for your colleagues to discuss."
When Xu Honggang said this, all the officials present, including those from the Crown Prince's faction, looked at him with a sidelong glance: What do you want to do? Do you want to take back all the power to collect taxes? How can you do this alone? If the heads of our departments give up their original development and return to their own departments, how can they explain to their subordinates?
In short, when it comes to issues of interest, things like friendship and ancestral rules are all nonsense.
"Haha." Seeing the weird atmosphere at the scene, Zhu Youdong was very happy: I want you to split up. To be honest, although I hold the knife in my hand, if the civil officials really unite to fight me, I will also be in trouble.
"My Lords, this is what I think. As the Grand Tutor said, reforming the fiscal and taxation system is a very big topic . This matter mainly involves the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Works. So, all three of you should go back and come up with a plan and present it for deliberation at the next meeting."
"I obey your orders."
"Well, but I also have some ideas about the reform of the fiscal and taxation system. I think the first step of this reform is to establish a new currency system!"
