Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 591: The lucrative job at the Military Service Bureau
December 1629.
In winter, the temperature in Beijing has dropped below 0°C. However, in an elegant loft in the south of the city, the air is filled with mist. In the white mist, you can vaguely see the greenery in the yard, which is completely different from the gray and white main color of the entire city of Beijing.
"Hahaha, Brother Weifu is really enjoying himself. He even connected the ground pipes outdoors. Oh, it's so rare to be able to see green leaves in Beijing in the winter."
"Haha, although I am from the north, I was an official in the south for many years. I can never forget the evergreen scenery in the south. So, although my family assets are limited, I have invested a lot of money in this garden. Please look at this thermometer. The normal temperature is kept at around 20 degrees. This way, the plants here can naturally be kept green all year round."
Amid the greetings, the five people in the attic sat down, and the servants of Brother Wei Fu's family came in and set the table for tea and snacks.
"Let me introduce this young man to you, Brother Wei Fu. His name is Yuan Chonghuan, and his courtesy name is Yuansu. He was a Jinshi in the same class as Chen Zizhuang in the 47th year of the Wanli reign. He was once a county magistrate, and later a prosecutor. Now he is the Shangbaocheng. However, as Brother Wei Fu knows, this position will soon be gone."
After hearing this, the master named Wei Fu smiled slightly: There is at least one clear purpose for the other party to come here today.
The so-called Weifu is the courtesy name of Fang Zhuangli, the current Minister of Personnel of the Ming Dynasty. He was from Anxin County, Baoding Prefecture, Northern Zhili. In terms of history, he was capable: in 1621, when the Yellow River in Henan Province burst its dike, he led his people to block it. He was also loyal enough: in 1636, when the Qing Dynasty invaded again and plundered and conquered Anxin, he led his people to defend the city and died heroically in battle.
However, he was a traditional scholar after all, so in terms of value orientation, he was still inclined towards the traditional scholar-official class. In terms of history, he promoted Donglin Party members such as Yang Lian. However, he was not a Donglin Party member, so when Wei was slaughtering Donglin, he just asked him to resign.
In this dimension, the top of the Ming Dynasty was almost wiped out by the emperor's dictatorship and the aggressive Donglin Party was almost wiped out early. Therefore, the power struggle in the central government was far less intense than in the historical dimension. Therefore, neutral officials like Fang Zhuangli also rose steadily in official positions. In the twelfth year of Tianqi, he was already the Minister of Personnel. In this major adjustment of the central institutions of the court, he was responsible for assisting Sun Chengzong in doing specific work and had considerable real power.
The court reformed its institutions, and so many more positions were created. Undoubtedly, officials from all sides were desperately trying to get a good position in the new institutions. Those who had connections with the Imperial Teacher Party naturally went to find Wen Tiren, Yuan Keli and others. Those who had no connections thought of specific organizers like Fang Zhuangli.
Therefore, Minister Fang’s house has been very lively recently.
Because there are so many people seeking official positions, naturally not everyone can see Minister Fang. However, the person who came to visit today was too senior, so Minister Fang could not meet him personally.
Han Yu, courtesy name Yuchen, was a Jinshi in the 20th year of Wanli's reign and the last Donglin boss in the Ming Dynasty.
Zhang Heming, courtesy name Yuanping. This is a typical useless official who "does nothing in normal times and is willing to die for the emperor in times of crisis". But you can't beat him because he is a senior official: he was a Jinshi in the 17th year of Wanli, which is 42 years ago. In the entire Ming officialdom, there are only a few Jinshi with such seniority alive now.
Therefore, although these two have retired for a long time, Minister Fang, who is still very powerful at this moment, still has to take out his precious time to meet them in person.
However, Yuan Chonghuan was able to invite two senior officials, Han Yu and Zhang Heming, to act as lobbyists. He must be a capable person, right? Then, let's investigate?
“Elements.”
"I am here."
"To be honest, it's my fault. You and I both work in the capital, but we haven't been able to visit each other for many years. Uh, which county were you the magistrate of before?"
"I am the magistrate of Shaowu, Fujian." After bowing, he looked up at Fang Zhuangli. Seeing that the other party had no intention of continuing to speak, Yuan Chonghuan bowed his head again and said, "Young Prime Minister, please allow me to report that Shaowu is located at the southern foot of Wuyi Mountain. There are many mountains and dense forests, but very little arable land. When I went there, I took the local people to mine the towering trees in the mountains, mainly for the Binhai Shipyard in Songjiang Prefecture. Over the years, the navy of my Ming Dynasty has become famous all over the world, and it is really thanks to the efforts of Shaowu.
I saw that the local bamboo forests were dense, so I worked with the materials laboratory of Fangshan Academy of Sciences to develop bamboo pulp paper through the help of my colleague who stayed in Beijing. The new bamboo paper mill was built two years after I left office. Now, the local people of Shaowu live a rich and happy life with the help of this bamboo paper mill. I said a new local saying to Shao Zongzai: "Yuan's parents came and built the bamboo paper mill, which saved the lives of the people in the county and made them the most carefree people in Fujian."
"hehe."
Hearing Fang Zhuangli's noncommittal laugh, Yuan Chonghuan felt nervous and bowed again, "In addition to doing my best to improve the local people's livelihood and make the people happy, I also attach great importance to local education. I took office in the first year of the Tianqi reign, and built the ancestral hall of Li Gang, a famous prime minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, in the second year."
"Oh, this is something I am not well-informed about. It turns out that Li Gang, who led the fight against the invasion of the Jin army in Kaifeng during the late Northern Song Dynasty, was from Shaowu, Fujian?"
"That's right, Junior Prime Minister. So I think, with such a hero in Shaowu, how could we..."
"Yuansu, what do you think of this major restructuring of the court's institutions?" Without waiting for Yuan Chonghuan to continue, Fang Zhuangli started a new topic.
"Well... I think this major change will benefit future generations and the present. Young Prime Minister, the various departments of the Ming Dynasty could only cross each other and check each other. Although this also ensures that there will be no powerful ministers, the efficiency of doing things cannot be guaranteed. After this major change, the newly established departments have clear powers and responsibilities, and each department does its own thing, which will definitely greatly improve the efficiency of the Ming Dynasty."
"I think the words about elements were all mentioned in the newspapers, right?"
"Uh..." Although he had taken off his thick coat when he entered the room, the sweat on his forehead still unconsciously poured out in this room with floor heating. Yuan Chonghuan smacked his lips and tried his best to secrete some saliva to lubricate his mouth: "Then let me give you an example. In the past, all departments of my Ming Dynasty were collecting taxes and spending money. Although the emperor established the Royal Bank more than ten years ago and abolished the warehouses of various departments, the income and expenditure of various departments were all reflected in the bank's accounts, but the power of affairs was still not clear. This time, the Ministry of Revenue was split into the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation. One is responsible for spending money and the other is responsible for collecting money. The income and expenditure power of other departments was all confiscated. In this way..."
“This seems to have been mentioned in the newspaper.”
"I am ashamed!"
Hearing Fang Zhuangli's words, Yuan Chonghuan almost collapsed: It's not that I want to repeat what the newspaper said, but the significance of this major institutional adjustment has been fully What can I do? I am also helpless!
In the first year of the Tianqi reign, he went to Beijing with Chen Zizhuang and other Guangdong scholars to participate in the imperial examination. As a result, Chen Zizhuang became the top scholar that year, but he was the last of the top three - this was intentional by Zhu Youdong, because the time traveler was afraid that this big liar would fail the exam and go to deceive the new vassal states such as the Prince of Fu and the Prince of Gui. If such a person was really allowed to preside over the government of a kingdom, it would cause a lot of trouble if things went wrong.
I'd rather give you a fellow Jinshi degree and keep you in the country. As long as I'm here, you can't harm anyone.
From the first to the fourth year of the Tianqi reign, he served as the county magistrate of Shaowu. He personally supervised the construction of the Li Gang Temple, but his other political achievements were unremarkable: felling trees in the mountains and transporting them to the Changsha Shipyard to build warships was the work of Funing Town, which had nothing to do with him as a county magistrate, except that the felling site was in the mountains of Shaowu.
As for the Bamboo Paper Factory? It was run by his successor, a new scholar from Fangshan, and had nothing to do with him.
But he was really anxious. Chen Zizhuang, who was so dark and ugly, had become the teacher of the eldest son of the emperor! Moreover, the Imperial Constitution clearly stated the succession to the throne: the new emperor would be directly appointed !
This means that Chen Zizhuang has a great chance of becoming the emperor's teacher in the future!
This really made him feel extremely unbalanced: Back then, I always called you Brother Jisheng, and you respectfully called me Brother Yuansu. How come after so many years, the gap is so big?
Thinking of this, he gritted his teeth and bent his waist even lower: "Young Master Rong reported, speaking of this major institutional change, the court abolished the position of Shangbao Cheng, which is also very correct. I used to be a county magistrate, and I was busy with the affairs of the county every day. Although it was very tiring, it was also very fulfilling. But after coming to Beijing to become Shangbao Cheng, I have nothing to do every day, and I feel like I have wasted my time. Such a redundant official should be eliminated!"
"Haha, Element's words are very sincere."
Having said that, old bureaucrats like Han Yu and Zhang Heming quickly stood up and left on the pretext of visiting Fang’s magnificent small courtyard.
When there were only two people in the warm room, Fang Zhuangli asked, "Where does the element want to go?"
"As a minister of the Emperor..." After saying some polite words, Yuan Chonghuan lowered his waist again, his hands almost touching the floor: "Your humble servant is very humble, and I would like to trouble the Minister of the Imperial Household to transfer me to the Military Service Bureau."
"General Administration of Military Service? Why does Yuansu want to go there? You know, the emperor wants to establish a national compulsory military service system based on the Yellow Book. In the future, when the Ming Dynasty is not in wartime, it will only maintain 300,000 standing troops responsible for external operations and 500,000 armed police forces responsible for local public security, firefighting, border defense, transportation, and precious metal mines. The task of the General Administration of Military Service is to recruit new soldiers to replace old soldiers and make up for casualties every year. It can be said that this matter is complicated and laborious. If you do it well, it is your duty and you will not see any results. If you do not do it well, once those soldiers in the Privy Council make a fuss, the officials of the General Administration of Military Service will easily be in trouble."
"I have always liked military affairs, and I have always dreamed of commanding a corps and expanding the territory for the court. Unfortunately, the emperor has abolished the practice of civil officials supervising the army, and I am not young anymore, so I can't go to the Royal Military Academy for further studies. Therefore, I can only think of going to the Military Service Bureau to select high-quality soldiers for the court. In the future, if the court wins a battle, I will be proud to think that these soldiers were selected by me."
Humph. Fang Zhuangli looked down at Yuan Chonghuan coldly: Don't give me that. Nowadays, the treatment of soldiers is very good, and the social status has been significantly improved. Therefore, there are many men in the Ming Dynasty who are willing to serve in the army. However, the court has no major foreign wars now, and the number of soldiers recruited each year is extremely limited: with more people than porridge, the chief officer of the Military Service Bureau has great power!
Besides, if the service period is up, there are military service bureaus in various places to take care of resettlement after discharge. With so many discharged soldiers, who wouldn't want to go to a good place? But where to go is still decided by the military service bureau, right?
There are so many benefits between going in and out!
Not to mention, as an official in the Military Service Bureau, one can have in-depth contact with almost all military commanders and expand new connections.
Yuan Chonghuan really has a good plan!
