Xu Ying, Huang Zongxi, and Wang Tiaoding occupied the guest seats, while Zhao Han sat alone in the main seat.
Huang Zongxi first said: "If Your Highness wants to reinstate the cabinet, should the ten cao be placed under the cabinet or under the imperial power? The powers of the ten cao must be adjusted. If the ten cao are placed under the cabinet, I am afraid they should have the power of review, otherwise
He became the cabinet’s mouthpiece.”
Wang Diaoding laughed and said: "If the ten cao officials have the power of review, they will return to the three provinces and six ministries system of the Tang Dynasty. The cabinet is the Zhongshu Province, the ten cao officials are the subordinate provinces, and each ministry is the Shangshu Province. They are exactly the same, and the rights and responsibilities have not changed.
"
Xu Ying said: "If the ten Cao Cao are separated, the Secretariat must be re-established, otherwise the emperor will become blind and be at the mercy of the civil and military officials."
Huang Zongxi said: "If the Secretariat is reestablished, once it encounters a neglectful king, the Secretariat will definitely evolve into a ceremonial supervisor controlled by civil servants. At that time, the cabinet will become a mouthpiece, and the Secretariat will become a new cabinet. The Ming Dynasty
The cabinet was originally the emperor’s secretarial agency!”
The three of them continued to argue, and Zhao Han looked helpless.
Imperial power and prime ministerial power are so irreconcilable that they have always been in a relationship of ebb and flow.
Zhao Han now does not have a cabinet, and the ten Cao Cao directly obey Zhao Han's orders. The six ministries execute the orders conveyed by the Ten Cao Cao, which is equivalent to the integration of imperial power and prime ministerial power. Zhu Yuanzhang also did this back then.
This state certainly cannot last long and requires the emperor to work more than ten hours a day. When there are many things going on, the emperor may work twelve hours a day.
Zhao Han is so tired now!
As for Zhao Han's descendants, if they can work eight hours a day, they are considered diligent kings, and they must definitely divide the power of the prime minister.
The more power is given out to the prime minister, the more opportunities future emperors will have to neglect their duties. And the cabinet that gets the power of the prime minister will not be satisfied with the status quo, but will only want more and more power.
Just like the three provinces and six ministries system in the Tang Dynasty, it was originally a three-part system of prime ministership. As a result, first Zhongshu and the two provinces under the gate took away the power of the minister. Then Zhongshu and the two provinces under the gate merged and were re-established by the three-part prime ministerial power.
Become one.
The cabinet in the early Ming Dynasty was nothing more than a secretary and advisory body, pulling the Hanlin Academy together to seize power.
After the cabinet successfully seized power, it kicked the Hanlin Academy away, and the emperor could only use eunuchs to divide the power. When the cabinet could not fight with the eunuchs, it went to get involved in the ministry power (executive power), and took the responsibility for review and signing
, refuted, and the six subjects conveyed were accepted as dogs.
Civil servants are unreliable, and eunuchs are equally unreliable.
Once the emperor re-appoints a eunuch, the eunuch will immediately start to tremble. He doesn't even think about doing serious things, but just relies on his power to make money crazily. Because eunuchs who do serious things will not end well, and they will definitely take the blame for the emperor!
Whenever there is an emperor who reuses eunuchs, the civil servants will counterattack after the new emperor takes the throne and take the opportunity to make the power of the prime minister stronger.
How to balance and restrict?
No way to balance, no way to control!
It is impossible for Zhao Han to create any kind of parliament, and it is impossible for civilians to participate in the parliament. Maybe it was possible at the beginning of the founding of the country, but after two or three generations, only the interest class will be left in the parliament. For their own interests, they will inevitably ignore the interests of the country and the people.
Zhao Han sighed and said, "I won't argue anymore. Let's try it first and adjust it slowly in the future. The ten cao will be managed by the emperor and the cabinet."
Xu Ying, Wang Tiaoding, and Huang Zongxi looked at each other. Now it was fun. It was a disguised version of the Tang Dynasty's Three Provinces and Six Ministries system.
The cabinet is responsible for making decisions on major issues, the Ten Cao is responsible for reviewing and issuing them, and each ministry is responsible for implementing policies.
In the Ming Dynasty, the Chief of Ceremonies was fighting against the cabinet, but in Zhao Han's case, the cabinet was fighting against the Ten Cao Cao.
As the saying goes, there is no perfect system.
Future generations will have to worry about what it will look like in the future. The rulers and ministers of future generations will make adjustments on their own.
Xu Ying suddenly said: "In the future, the imperial court should be responsible for the examination of female officials."
"This is natural," Zhao Han said with a smile. "Not only is the inner court responsible, but the women who sign up for the exam must be graduates of middle schools in various places. After the establishment of universities, they must even be college graduates."
In Zhao Han's vision, those who graduate from elementary school, middle school, or university will obtain the corresponding imperial examination qualifications.
A very strict public examination is organized every year. Those who pass the examination can become officials, and those who fail the examination do not receive any preferential treatment from the gentry.
There is no restriction on women taking the public examination, but due to traditional concepts, there may not be many women who can become officials, and even if they become officials, it will be difficult for them to be promoted normally. Examination for female officials in the inner court is another path left to them by Zhao Han.
After serving as an official in the inner court for a few years, he could resign and return to the private sector, which would be regarded as gilding the imperial city.
Don't talk about civil servants using female officials to control the inner court. If you can't control it, anyone who dares to do this is seeking death.
By the way, palace ladies in the Qing Dynasty were recruited by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But if they were Eight Banners showgirls, they would enter the palace through the Ministry of Household Affairs and be either concubines or senior palace ladies. Which Ministry of Household official would dare to control the palace through showgirls?
Even in the Ming Dynasty, local eunuchs seemed to be in charge of the auditions for concubines and maids-in-waiting, but in fact, civil servants from all over the country helped with the audition. Moreover, most civil servants avoided it for fear that being too active would affect their official reputation and reputation.
Zhao Han asked officials from the Six Ministries to help select female officials in the inner court this time because the inner court had not yet been established.
If the civil servants are not allowed to help, should Zhao Han be responsible for it himself?
…
After discussing with Xu Ying, Wang Tiaoding, and Huang Zongxi, Zhao Han convened officials from various ministries for detailed discussions and finally determined the latest central agency structure.
The future operation of the country will be as follows:
The emperor, the cabinet, the ten ministers, the ten ministries, and the four major institutions.
Small matters are handled by local officials, while major matters are reported to each level.
The Tenth Department handed over the matter to the cabinet and attached its own suggestions for handling it.
The cabinet discusses and makes decisions and tries to adopt the opinions of the ten ministries. If the opinions of the ten ministries are not adopted, it must be discussed in the cabinet and its own valid reasons must be given.
After the cabinet decision is made, it is handed over to the Ten Cao for review.
After the review is passed, the Ten Cao will be handed over to the emperor for review. The Emperor agrees and signs, and the Ten Cao can issue it, and the details will be handed over to the Ten Ministry for execution.
Under normal circumstances, if the cabinet, ten cao, and ten ministries have the same opinion, the emperor cannot easily reject it.
These three major institutions compete with each other. If they agree on the same thing, there will be no mistakes. If they really want to unite to take over the emperor, there must be something wrong with the emperor, or the entire civil service system has completely collapsed, or else
There is a powerful minister who controls the government!
At the same time, the emperor's work intensity also decreased.
If the opinions of the three major institutions are consistent with each other, the emperor can take a look at them or take a brief look at them. If the two major institutions have the same opinions, the emperor should take a closer look. If the opinions of the three major institutions are very different, the emperor should call the relevant personnel for collective discussion.
After doing this, Zhao Han's daily workload will definitely be reduced by more than 70%.
Zhao Han is not Zhu Yuanzhang, who was overly diligent and even personally handled the theft case of the imperial city, intervening in every trivial matter.
Now that things are settled, officials at all levels must make adjustments.
Pang Chunlai serves as the chief minister of the cabinet, Li Banghua serves as the second minister of the cabinet, and Tian Younian serves as an ordinary cabinet minister. There are only three of them in the cabinet for the time being. In addition, there are a large number of Zhongshushe people, equivalent to the secretaries of the three cabinet ministers.
Officials from the ten bureaus and ten Cao Cao also had their respective transfers.
In particular, the ten chief officers were all transferred by the right ministers of each ministry, and all Zhao Han's secretaries were sent to serve as officials.
Xu Ying continued to engage in intelligence work and interfaced with various departments, but was only under the jurisdiction of Zhao Han himself.
Many institutions were expanded at once, and there were many female officials and palace maids. Zhao Han could no longer live in this place, and the female officials had to live in one room.
…
Fei Chun officially moved to the position of Minister of Finance, leaving the bank to others to take care of.
"How much money is left in the treasury?" Zhao Han asked.
"More than three million taels," Fei Chun replied in detail. "After this war, a lot of silver was spent on rewards and pensions, and a lot of money was spent on immigration. The cost of the enthronement ceremony must be controlled at 50,000 taels of silver.
within."
This 50,000 tael budget includes the construction of the Yinghun Temple in Nanjing and the restoration of the Sheji Altar in the old imperial city.
When Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor in Nanjing, the enthronement ceremony was extremely simple.
That is to first offer sacrifices to the Heaven and Earth Sheji, and then the officials will pay their respects. Zhao Han's plan is similar, but he wants to sacrifice the souls of the martyrs first, then to offer sacrifices to the Heaven, Earth, and Sheji, and then let the officials pay their respects.
These martyrs include not only regular soldiers and peasant soldiers, but also ordinary people who have sacrificed their lives in previous wars.
Worshiping them is equivalent to worshiping all nations.
Zhao Han said: "I don't plan to build a royal village or a royal shop. I only have a hundred acres of private land in Wuxing Town. From now on, the royal family will not own private property, but the treasury will need to supply internal funds every year. How much money do you think is good every year?"
Fei Chun didn't know, so he asked tentatively: "How about one million taels per year?"
"It's too much. Let's tentatively decide on one hundred thousand taels per year," Zhao Han said. "Nowadays, there are not many members of the royal family, and there are not many female officials and maids. One hundred thousand taels per year is definitely enough. There will be more in the future. How much more will it be?"
, depending on the situation. Moreover, you cannot be like the Ming Emperor who used the treasury whenever there was a shortage of money. The emperor's internal funds and the treasury must be managed separately. The treasury allocates money every year as the emperor's internal funds. If you want to adjust the amount of internal funds, you must ask the cabinet, ten
Cao, the ten ministries jointly discussed."
Fei Chun asked: "Are the royal family's expenses purchased with internal funds, or are they provided by the private sector?"
"The inner court spent its own money to purchase it," Zhao Han said.
The imperial expenses of the Ming Dynasty were three-in-one: self-made, purchased and supplied.
Self-made, that is, the imperial court opened its own factories to manufacture, and the imperial village grew real estate grain, and the palace maids even knew how to spin cloth.
Private supply is the customs duties of various local currency customs, which directly collect some physical goods, such as wood, and part of them are sent to the palace. There are also taxes on specific physical goods, which are collected by eunuchs from various places and handed over directly to the inner court.
Add in the shopping, and it's going to be a mess anyway.
The more chaotic and complicated it is, the more eunuchs and officials can profit from it!
Zhao Han's idea is very simple. The treasury allocates money to the inner court every year, and the inner court uses the money to buy things. Although there will definitely be tricks in the purchasing process, it is always more transparent than eunuchs running around to mess around.
Today, the total annual fiscal revenue of the seven provinces of Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui is more than 13 million taels of silver.
This statistics is incomplete because many farmers pay grain directly, and the real total tax payment is estimated to be more than 16 million taels.
Among them, industrial and commercial taxes and tariffs are growing rapidly and will definitely continue to grow in the future.
The annual tariff revenue from the five major ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Guangzhou and Macau alone exceeds 5 million taels. Shanghai's tariffs are growing particularly rapidly and are very likely to double next year!
In addition, after the reform of the Salt Law, salt taxes are also increasing.
The salt-drying method has been basically popularized in the Lianghuai Salt Fields. This method was invented by the salt fields in Fujian and Guangdong in the mid-Ming Dynasty, but it has not been able to be extended to the Lianghuai River because the seawater in the Lianghuai River has a lower salt content.
During the Tianqi period, Xu Guangqi improved the salt-drying method so that the Lianghuai Salt Fields could also dry salt.
Unfortunately, bureaucracy and slow promotion.
After it became privately owned, in just one year, all Lianghuai Salt Farms used the sun-salting method.
If people's livelihood in northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui can be restored, Zhao Han's annual income in the seven provinces alone may reach 20 million taels next year!
With money, being an emperor is not a waste of time. He will ascend the throne in half a month!
(The fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty was actually not as bad as imagined. Even after the One Whip Law, a large amount of physical taxes were retained. Adding these physical taxes together, the annual income of the Ming Dynasty must have been more than 10 million taels, and may even exceed 15 million taels.
