Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 590 Ming Institutional Reform
“Hua La La~”
By June of 1629, the outdoor temperature in Beijing had risen to over 20 degrees Celsius. In some poorly ventilated rooms, in the stuffy environment, if there were a group of rough men constantly exhaling carbon dioxide, the temperature would rush straight to 30 degrees Celsius.
But even in the Privy Council's office, a group of strong and rough men were sweating and staring at each other as they flipped through page after page of the thick Criminal Code, but no one complained about the heat.
"No! Really not! What about you guys?"
"No, not even the seventh volume I was in charge of reviewing!"
"Hahaha, it looks like it's really gone! Long live the emperor!"
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, you are truly our good emperor!"
"Yes, it has been more than two hundred years. No, it has been more than seven hundred years since those bastards in the Northern Song Dynasty set the precedent of exile. The clause of exile of criminals has finally been completely abolished by the emperor!"
There are many reasons why the social status of soldiers in the Ming Dynasty was low. But one very important point is that the national law clearly stipulates that ordinary people who commit crimes that are not punishable by death are often sent to the army - this is the open discrimination of the state power against soldiers. If the country is like this, can you still expect society to respect soldiers?
There are 189 articles in the Ming Dynasty law that involve military exile. Theft, tomb robbing, robbery, corruption, bribery, rape, and adultery can all be punished by military exile. Even some death row prisoners with less serious sentences can be spared from death by military exile if communication is in place... As a result, the entire Ming Dynasty army has become a gathering place for scum - as the saying goes, one rat shit spoils the whole pot of soup. According to the Ming Dynasty's practice, it is not a matter of a rat shit mixed in with the delicious food, it is simply a specially stewed shit soup!
Moreover, the Ming Dynasty law had the extremely perverted provisions of lifelong exile and eternal exile: the former meant that you alone would be exiled for the rest of your life, and the latter meant that your entire family and descendants would be exiled for generations - being a soldier actually became a horrifying punishment that would bring disaster to future generations!
With this approach, how will public opinion view the military? How will the military view themselves? How can such an army be combat-ready?
Since Zhu Youdong rebuilt Henghaiwei, his new army has always been mainly composed of ordinary farmers, refugees, and miners, and he resolutely refused to accept criminals sent by the Ministry of Justice. Later, when he became emperor, he also strictly prohibited criminals from joining the army when forming a new army and navy.
But all this was just the emperor's personal behavior: the Ming Dynasty laws were still there, and local officials were still constantly sentencing certain criminals to exile in accordance with the Ming Dynasty laws.
When the new code that completely replaced the Ming Dynasty Code came out, although he knew that the emperor would definitely treat soldiers well, when the Privy Council's staff carefully reviewed the entire Criminal Code word by word and confirmed that there was no word "exile" in this thick code, the 65-year-old Privy Councilor Ma Chengzhao couldn't help but shed tears.
"Okay, okay, from now on, we warriors will never be discriminated against again."
After letting the young staff officers cheer for a while, Ma Chengzhao said in a deep voice: "In this case, Your Majesty, if we warriors do not fight to the death to be loyal, then there will be no hope for us. Quietly send messages to the commanders of the garrisons in various places, asking them to absolutely support the emperor's next move. If there are any signs of dissatisfaction in any place..." He stretched out his right palm and cut fiercely into the air.
"Prime Minister, rest assured. The hundreds of thousands of soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are determined to serve the emperor until death! But if there are scoundrels who cause trouble, they will be crushed to dust in an instant!"
…
After receiving continuous news from Wei Zhongxian and Tian Ergeng, confirming that the opposition among the people was not very strong and that the army was extremely loyal, Zhu Youdong took bigger steps.
In November 1629, the Minister of Personnel Sun Chengzong submitted a memorial requesting the division and refinement of the various departments of the imperial court. The political system reform of the Ming Dynasty finally entered a substantive stage.
There is an old saying that goes, "The economic base determines the superstructure." But there is another sentence behind this saying: the superstructure has an important influence or even a decisive role in the development of the economy.
If we really want to trace the origin of the Ming Dynasty's official system, we can trace it back to the Sui Dynasty. For more than 1,300 years, although the Chinese Empire has been repeatedly tossed around in a vicious circle of order and chaos, it has at least been spiraling upward. With the development of society to this point, let alone the time travelers who have continuously accelerated society, even if there were no time travelers, this system of three provinces and six ministries that originated in the Sui Dynasty would have seriously hindered economic development.
Therefore, it must be changed. Only by improving the political system can the economy be further loosened and the national strength of the Ming Dynasty can rise again.
During his three-year tour, Zhu Youdong not only had long correspondence with Xiong Tingbi and repeatedly discussed the revision of various laws, but also repeatedly communicated with Sun Chengzong on the institutional setup of the court. However, the changes were too big, so even though Sun Chengzong tried his best to cooperate, the matter was finally finalized after Zhu Youdong returned to Beijing. The master and apprentice sat together and spent more than five months to finalize it.
The new political reform plan will first change the departmental setup of the central government.
Under the emperor were the Cabinet, the Privy Council, the Censorate, and the Supreme Court, which were in charge of administration, military, supervision, and justice, respectively.
The head of the cabinet was changed from a certain palace university scholar, chief assistant, etc. to the prime minister. The prime minister had two deputies, called vice prime ministers. The prime minister had great power. In the field of civil affairs, the appointment and removal of civil officials below the fifth rank and single financial expenditures below 1 million silver dollars could be decided by the prime minister presiding over the cabinet meeting, without having to submit the draft to the Silijian for approval. Since Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister system, the situation of university scholars being only consultants and advisers has been changed. The civil officials of the Ming Dynasty once again had the power to make decisions on some specific matters like the prime ministers of the Tang and Song dynasties.
This was certainly one of the measures Zhu Youdong took to appease the civil officials after he offended them in constitutionalism. Of course, after being an emperor for so many years, he also deeply felt that the key point in philosophy is truth. It is okay to control everything, but doing so may not do anything well. It is in line with the principle of trade-offs to appropriately release some power and grasp more important things.
Under the prime minister and the vice prime minister are the ministers of various ministries. But now, the Ming Dynasty has completely abolished the three-province and six-department system and replaced it with a modern government system with a strong time travel style.
The Ministry of Personnel was divided into the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Labor. The former was responsible for the assessment, promotion, appointment and removal of officials, while the latter was mainly responsible for social security.
The Ministry of Revenue was divided into the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation, the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Commerce, and the General Audit Office.
The Ministry of Rites was split into the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Honglu Temple, which was responsible for receiving foreign guests, was merged into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Some of the Ministry of Rites personnel were merged with the Taichang Temple and Guanglu Temple to form a new General Bureau of Rites, which was responsible for the arrangement and preparation of various ceremonies within the country.
The Ministry of War was split into the Ministry of National Defense and the Military Service Bureau. The Imperial Household Department, which previously managed the national horse administration, was merged into the Ministry of National Defense.
The Ministry of Justice was split into the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice, and some personnel were merged with the Dali Temple to form the Supreme Court.
The Ministry of Industry was split into the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Heavy Industry, and the Ministry of Light Industry.
Based on Fangshan Academy of Sciences, the Imperial Observatory was merged and the Ministry of Science and Technology was newly established.
The Ministry of Health was established with the Fangshan Academy of Sciences Medical Laboratory as the lead and the Imperial Medical Service merged.
The three institutions of Zhanshifu, Guozijian and Hanlin Academy merged to form the Ming Political Academy: from then on, this was the place where Ming officials continued to improve.
Based on Zhang Shize's existing team, a new Propaganda Department was established to specialize in cultural propaganda. Newspapers, theater troupes, storytellers, and even professional women in brothels across the country were all placed under the Propaganda Department's jurisdiction. In addition, private capital would be gradually allowed to enter the media industry.
The Ming Royal Bank will continue to exist, but its deposit and loan functions will be gradually weakened. The state plans to establish three to five more official banks and gradually open up private capital to establish private banks.
The Tongzhengsi retained its original name, but its duties were transformed into the Cabinet's office.
The Duchayuan retained its original name, but its duties had been completely changed: rumors and opinions were prohibited, and the investigation of officials' moral problems was placed at the back of the list. The current Duchayuan has independent funding and independent investigation power. Its main function is to supervise the performance of officials and economic issues, and it also undertakes the responsibility of government prosecution.
Jinyiwei retained its original name, and the imperial prison continued to be retained. However, as a national intelligence agency, although it still retained a certain degree of independent judicial power, this power was more for the interrogation of relevant personnel who were considered to be possible spies. For general interrogations of officials, the only way was to go to the court.
The position of Shangbao Cheng was abolished, and its responsibilities for managing and making seals were transferred to the inner court.
The Prime Minister, the Privy Councilor, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate were the top ministers of the Ming Dynasty and all of them were of the first rank.
The vice chancellor, the deputy privy councilor, the second-in-command and the right censor-in-chief were of the first rank.
The newly established ministers of various ministries, directors of general bureaus, president of the Political Academy, commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, president of the Royal Bank, etc. were all of the second rank.
According to Zhu Youdong's order, after the reorganization of various departments of the central government was completed, all provinces, regions, and prefectures under the Ming Dynasty, except for departments such as diplomacy, national defense, ethnic affairs, cadre training, and national intelligence, must set up corresponding departments in local governments in accordance with the establishment of new departments of the central government.
As for the county government, due to the current level of social development, it is not necessary to set up all the corresponding departments for the time being. However, the county government should also set up corresponding personnel to connect with the work of the various departments and bureaus of the higher-level government.
After the establishment of this entire government structure, Zhu Youdong issued another imperial decree: After the establishment of the new institutions, the civil servants and the public servants will be gradually abolished and replaced by a comprehensive civil service system. Starting from the 13th year of Tianqi, the country no longer has the so-called imperial examination, but instead has the central government civil service examination and the local civil service examination!
