In the final analysis, although the current emperor has only been on the throne for more than two years, he is no longer the king who had no foundation and prestige in the court.
The emperor has his mind set on such things, and it is quite difficult for ministers like them to stop them.
Although the emperor said that you should try what you should try, but this is also a way of saying to give face. If you continue to struggle, you will lose face to yourself.
Fortunately, although the ministers have various concerns about the secret memorial system, as the emperor said, the court is still struggling for the time being.
The only dissatisfaction is probably that the cabinet has seized the qualification to reveal the secret report.
However, there is nothing we can do about it. The special nature of the cabinet determines that only it can undertake this function.
Moreover, if it is not handed over to the cabinet, then it can only be sent directly to the palace. In that case, the confidentiality is optimal, but the harm is not small.
So for now, this should be considered the best way.
Of course, if it were to change to another yamen, Chen Yi, as the chief, would definitely try his best to fight for it.
However, Kedao Yamen was a very special Yamen in the outer dynasty.
The imperial court has smooth channels of communication, so the officials of the Department of Science and Technology are extremely independent.
For the officials of the Ministry of Science and Technology, there has never been any concept of transcending their superiors to submit memorials. Therefore, even if there was no secret memorial system, Chen Yi would not be able to interfere with the contents of the memorials of these officials of the Ministry of Science and Technology.
In fact, the restrictions imposed by the Mingzou system have strengthened the control of officials above the imperial censor in Qiandu over Ke Dao, which is a good thing.
However, having said that, the ministers present were still a little jealous that the cabinet could be the first to hear the contents of these secret reports. Although they did not say anything openly, they secretly began to think about what to do. At least, the cabinet should not be allowed to take this opportunity to gain dominance.
Therefore, although following Wang Wen's words, the topic has turned to how to recruit more officials, the thoughts of the ministers below have not yet come out.
Zhu Qiyu sat on the throne, naturally having a panoramic view of the expressions of the ministers below.
It should be said that he was very aware of the concerns of these ministers, but, again, there was no better way at the moment.
Some of the words he just said were meant to silence these ministers, but most of them were also true.
Although there were precedents for the secret memorial system before, it was only used in Jinyiwei and Dongchang. It was not used on a large scale in the Ming Dynasty. It was only in the late Ming Dynasty. Well, it mainly refers to the clever Jiajing. Children are used to control the court.
After the Great Ceremony, in order to further control the court, Jiajing picked up the "silver seal density" system that had been used by the Renzong Dynasty.
During the Renzong Dynasty, this kind of system was a privilege specially granted by Emperor Renzong out of gratitude to the veterans of the Prince's Palace who helped him ascend the throne. It was more for showing his identity and showing his favor, but it was not used much.
However, Jiajing reused this method and further improved it purely to strengthen its control over the courtiers.
At that time, Jiajing first gave all cabinet ministers and some trusted ministers a specially cast silver seal, allowing them to use this seal to report secretly, and specifically instructed all ministers holding the seal that this was a secret edict and should not be leaked. Even Jiajing returned A set of secret music formats is specially prescribed as a standard.
In this way, Jiajing firmly controlled the cabinet and then the entire court in the following decades. Even the cabinet ministers were afraid of each other because of the dense silver seal system. I send you my greetings to welcome you.
However, that was all. In the Ming Dynasty, apart from being widely used in Jinyiwei and Dongchang, the dense system was most widely used in the court during the Jiajing period to check and balance the forces of all parties.
So for Zhu Qiyu, he was actually crossing the river by feeling the stones.
Such a large-scale system of granting censors secret reporting rights had never existed before. Therefore, although Zhu Qiyu had anticipated what kind of effect it would achieve, he was not entirely sure.
This is why he will open up the secrets
One of the reasons why power was delegated to the cabinet.
Although the confidentiality is a bit poor, in the end, Chen Yi and others' considerations are reasonable.
What he has to do now is to establish the framework first, and when there are problems in the future, he will gradually improve them.
Of course, this system will inevitably enable the cabinet to obtain a lot of information that other courtiers cannot access, and the hidden power will be further expanded, which is contrary to Zhu Qiyu's original intention of placing the cabinet second.
However, for one thing, secrets are different from ordinary memos. Although the cabinet has the power to open secrets, secrets are unsealed by cabinet ministers, and the votes are drafted and sent directly to the palace. Cabinet ministers are not allowed to leak the contents to each other. It is not allowed to be discussed at the cabinet meeting, so it also has a check and balance effect within the cabinet.
Secondly, the reason why Zhu Qiyu had inconsistent attitudes towards the cabinet was that he was worried that if the cabinet became powerful, there would be the risk of party strife. For this reason, he separated the connection between the cabinet and the Hanlin Academy and further suppressed Qingliu. Now it seems that Wang Ao, the chief assistant, has already figured out the key, which is why he performed as he did today.
If the cabinet can abide by its duties and stop reaching out to Qingliu randomly, then this power can still be handed over to the cabinet for the time being.
As for the hidden danger... there may be cabinet ministers who will take this opportunity to win over Ke Dao.
However, if they really do this, then Zhu Qiyu will have the opportunity to take back this power from the cabinet and make further improvements to the secret reporting system.
The most important thing is that under the circumstances where Mingzou and Minzou are clearly distinguished, Kedao's right to remonstrate is restricted. Even if it is roped in, it is impossible to blackmail the court discussions at every turn as before.
As for secret music, the most advantageous person in this form is actually Zhu Qiyu, the emperor.
Ming memorials are submitted and go through many agencies such as the General Affairs Department, the Cabinet, and the Supervisor of Ceremonies. Moreover, some will be reported in the morning, so it is basically impossible to keep them secret.
In fact, this is also a constraint for Zhu Qiyu.
Since everyone in the government and the public knows about the existence of this memorial and its general content, if Zhu Qiyu refuses to approve it, or the reply is not in line with the wishes of some ministers, it will easily cause controversy in the court.
However, in the form of a secret memorial, at most, only a certain cabinet minister knows the content. Even if someone has evil intentions and wants to "admonish" as usual, Zhu Qiyu can just throw it aside and treat it as if it does not exist at all. Under the secret memorial system, as long as Zhu Qiyu If you don't want to, then the content in this memorial actually does not exist.
Therefore, the current situation is definitely not the final result, but it will at least maintain a period of equilibrium for a long time.
After solving this problem, the rest is actually simple. Wang Wen, the official minister, has always been very effective in his role. For example, he handled everything as big as the Beijing inspection last time, so it is naturally impossible. I am stumped by this little thing at the moment.
The reason why he asked for instructions in front of so many people was, to put it bluntly, to give Zhu Qiyu a step forward.
The relationship between emperor and minister for so long is not only the tacit understanding between Yu Qian and Zhu Qiyu. On the issue of election, Mr. Lao Wang's understanding of the emperor's spirit will only be better.
The emperor spent so long time to put shackles on Ke Dao, so he must have already thought about how to show mercy.
Under such circumstances, it is naturally impossible for Mr. Lao Wang to steal the limelight.
So, after pondering for a moment, Zhu Qiyu said.
"Nowadays, there is indeed a shortage of manpower in the Kedao. However, this is because half of the Kedao officials in the Metropolitan Procuratorate have been dispatched to various places to take charge of organizing military camps."
"After this group of people come back, the number of people in the Metropolitan Procuratorate should be over-capacity. According to the report given to me by Yu Shaobao and Jin Shangshu, the military camp matter will probably be settled before the year. In this way, this group of people will He will definitely return to the court."
"However, since it is necessary to clarify the style of officialdom, it is okay if the number of officials is occasionally exceeded. In this way, the Ministry of Civil Affairs can quickly formulate examination regulations and wait for the newly transferred censors to be evaluated. Those who pass the exam will be retained. Qualified candidates will be dismissed based on their merits, regardless of their positions."
Well, it’s really a big deal!
As the emperor said, the Metropolitan Procuratorate is indeed short of people, but
Yes, it's just a temporary shortage of people.
There are six subjects and thirteen courses, not counting all the students who are given to the middle and left, and the right to the middle. The quota for the six subjects is forty, and the quota for the thirteen courses is one hundred and ten.
Today, there are about 30 officials serving in the Metropolitan Procuratorate in six departments and 60 censors in thirteen departments.
Especially the censor, with less than half of them missing, there is naturally a serious shortage of people.
However, last time, with the help of the east wind of rectifying the military settlements, Mr. Chen took advantage of the situation and snatched fifty censors from the staff, plus the thirty-two original members of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. A number of officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology were sent to various places to assist in the clearing of land.
However, the emperor made it clear at the time that these fifty censors were a temporary measure. After the reorganization of the military garrison was completed, the quota of Kedao should be restored.
In other words, only twenty-eight of these fifty people can stay in office.
Seeing the process of reorganizing the military settlement moving forward more and more, Mr. Chen was both happy and reluctant to give up.
Fortunately, after this year of training, these censors have gradually matured. However, he felt heartbroken when he thought that 40% of these people would be wiped out.
Now it's good, the emperor's words are clear, regardless of the number of positions, which means that after the reorganization of the military camp is completed, Ke Dao's team will further grow.
With joy in his heart, Chen Yi was about to thank him, but he saw the emperor raised his hand to stop him and continued.
"In addition, the grades of science and technology officials have been slightly adjusted!"
"In my imperial code, the six subjects are all given to Shizhong, which is the seventh rank. The left and right are given to Shizhong and the right rank is from the seventh rank. The thirteen censors are also the seventh rank."
"The original intention was to make the officials of the department independent of each other and to suppress the big ones with the small ones. However, times have changed. Now that the responsibilities of the department have been adjusted, the grades should also be adjusted."
"From now on, the six subjects will be assigned to Shizhong as the sixth rank, the left and right are assigned to the sixth rank, and the Shizhong as the seventh rank. There are thirteen censors, each with one censor in charge, with the rank of Zheng6. grade, the grades of the other censors remain unchanged."
"He is in charge of the censor, assists the censor of the capital, and assists in the management of various affairs."
After saying these words, all the ministers present were also a little surprised.
Originally, they thought that the emperor's act of allowing the original fifty people to stay in their posts regardless of their positions was a big deal, but they did not expect that there would be more, and even greater favors.
If the recent retention move is an expansion of the overall power of Kedao, then the adjustment of grades will benefit at least one-third of Kedao officials.
Before this, the system of science and education was relatively simple, with six subjects and thirteen levels, whether starting from the seventh level or the full seventh level, it was always the seventh level.
And directly above this is the censor of Qiandu, with a rank of fourth rank.
There are six steps between the seventh rank and the fourth rank. This means that if a Kedao official wants to be promoted, he will not be able to stay in the supervisory system. He can only be promoted elsewhere and then wait until he becomes a fifth rank official. Only at the highest level can he be transferred back to the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
However, the emperor made such a change, and the six subjects were given to Shizhong and Zhangdao Yushi, and they became the sixth grade. Although they were still four steps behind Qiandu Yushi, the difficulty was finally reduced, and they could be greatly improved. Speed up the turnover of department officials.
Chen Yi couldn't hide the joy on his face. He took a step forward and wanted to express his gratitude.
However, what was unexpected was that the emperor raised his hand again to signal that he would swallow the words as they reached his lips.
Under the gaze of everyone, the emperor pondered for a moment, then spoke again, saying.
"This is an adjustment to the science. In addition to these, I also have an idea that I would like you to review and see if it is feasible."
Ah this...
The elders looked at each other and pricked up their ears.
They really couldn't think of anything else that would make the emperor say such things. Listen, it's not a trivial matter.
As expected, the emperor continued to speak.
"According to convention, after the imperial examinations of our dynasty, the top three and those with excellent grades will enter the Hanlin Academy as Shujishi. The original intention of this move is to enable this generation of literary and elegant people to fully display their talents."
"However, in recent years, I have often found that people in the Hanlin Academy study poetry and books and are good at writing, but their understanding of court politics is often not as good as that of the new scholars who observe politics in the six departments."
"The Hanlin Academy has always been regarded as a top-notch Chinese college. If things continue like this, it will be a waste of talent!"
"So, I have been thinking about how to enable officials in the Hanlin Academy to not only immerse themselves in poetry and only know how to talk on paper, but also to participate in government affairs."
"Now, since the Metropolitan Procuratorate is short of manpower, I think we might as well let the Shujishi from the Hanlin Academy who have observed politics for more than three years go to the Metropolitan Procuratorate to serve as censors for a period of six months, which will be conducted jointly by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Metropolitan Procuratorate. After the evaluation, if he is qualified, he will be actually taught as a censor; if he is not qualified, he will be transferred to another path."
"The imperial censor is responsible for inspecting officials' conduct and corruption. In this way, the Metropolitan Procuratorate will no longer have to worry about being short of manpower."
"Do you think this is appropriate?"
this……
After hearing the emperor's words, all the ministers present couldn't help but look at each other, and then, in unison, they all frowned tightly and fell into deep thought.
