In this dynasty, the Censorship Station no longer has the positions of Censorship Officer, Censorship Officer, and Censorship Officer. Instead, there were set up the censors of the capital around the second rank, the censors of the deputy capital around the third rank, the censors of the capital around the fourth rank, and the supervisory censors of the seventh rank. Compared with the Yushitai of the former Tang Dynasty, the highest imperial censors were only in the third rank, the censors in the middle were only in the fifth rank, and the supervisory censors were only in the eighth rank. Their grades were much higher.
It not only continued the supervision, impeachment, and picketing of officials of the former Tang Dynasty, but also formed the Three Law Divisions with the Ministry of Punishment and Dali Temple to jointly hear major cases. It also had the power to report major matters and establish paragraphs on minor matters. Without the joint signature of the Yushitai, even if the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Punishment sentenced the death penalty, it would not be executed. Moreover, the supervisory censors were not only sent to various roads, but also to the river work, mazheng, and salt tea roads.
When this dynasty encountered war, the supervisory troops sent to the armies were mainly the censors of Qiandu. Without the signature of the supervisory censor, the imperial court would not recognize any merit reports from generals at all levels. It is precisely because the Yushitai of this dynasty not only has a high position, but also has great authority, even surpassing the Zhongshu Province to a certain extent.
Therefore, there is always a joke in this dynasty, saying that as the head of the six departments, the official department is nothing. Even if you get through all the officials, a memorial from the Censor's Office will completely make your work in vain. As long as they don't hold the title of Chief Political Affairs Officer or Ping Zhang Political Affairs title, they are not as powerful as a small seventh-rank supervisory censor.
This shows the importance of the authority of the Yushitai in this dynasty. The emperor sent a left deputy imperial envoy as the general coordinator for the examination, which shows that he attached great importance to this examination. Huang Qiong was actually not very satisfied with the emperor's arrangement. In this Manchu Dynasty, all the bachelors, bachelors, and six ministers could be the examiners. Why was he sent out this time? In all the dynasties, how could any prince be the chief examiner?
But the emperor was very resolute. Not only did he appoint Huang Qiong as the examiner, but he also had to give the exam questions himself. Although this matter is not difficult for Huang Qiong, who was taught by his mother at a young age, let alone a strenuous task. However, according to the ancestral system of Da Qi, the examiner could only live in a place under heavy military supervision after setting the questions until the beginning of the imperial examination, and was not allowed to have contact with outsiders.
Moreover, when the imperial examination was held and until the marking was completed, they could only live in the examination room. The date of this imperial examination is set for February 20th. In other words, after adding or subtracting, Huang Qiong could not return to his hometown for almost two months. He could only live in the place designated by the emperor and could not even have contact with other people. This made Huang Qiong somewhat dissatisfied.
But under the old man's threatening gaze, Huang Qiong finally gave in helplessly. But he never expected that on the third day after he was appointed as the examiner, Huang Qiong reluctantly said goodbye to a group of beautiful wives and concubines in the house. When he was about to be quarantined, he received an imperial edict. Huang Qiong never expected that the emperor actually ordered Huang Qiong to move directly to the palace before the imperial examination.
Huang Qiong thought that the emperor was going to put him under house arrest in the palace. As for the emperor's operation, Huang Qiong had no idea what it meant. It wasn't until the night when he moved to the palace that he was taken directly to the back of Wende Palace. He saw the emperor throwing a mountain of memorials to him for approval, while the emperor himself ran to listen to Xuexuan.
Only then did Huang Qiong realize that he, the emperor, was doing this for personal gain. There must be a lot of discounts accumulated at the beginning of the new year, which is definitely inevitable. After all, I took half a month off, so there must be a lot of things to do at the beginning of the new year. It is indeed a bit stressful for the emperor alone to approve everything in a short period of time.
Therefore, I, the emperor, did this. But even after understanding the emperor's intention, Huang Qiong felt a little overwhelmed when looking at the pile of memorials. He took a rough look and found that these were only the three departments of Li, Gong, and Bing that he was appointed to assist, as well as some memorials from the Lu Mansion involving the three departments.
But the old man obviously didn't want to give him a chance to bargain. Huang Qiong could only sit in the Wende Hall, behind the desk set up for him, pondering over the questions for this spring exam and reviewing these memorials. While reviewing the memorial, Huang Qiong realized that it was no wonder the old man was tired all day long.
The contents of these reports include the Ministry of Industry's need to prepare for the spring floods this spring, the river labor money that the states and counties along the Huang and Huai rivers need to approve and allocate, and whether the construction of the imperial mausoleum will continue. At the Ministry of War, from the seventh rank to the fourth rank, military attachés at all levels were promoted and promoted. Then come to the Ministry of Rites to report on various matters in the Spring Festival, covering almost everything from military and state affairs to trivial matters.
Among them, there are even officials from various places who gave a greeting note before the year. There were so many excerpts, not to mention reviewing them. Even just looking at Huang Qiong made me feel very tired. A large part of it can actually be handled by the ministries of Zhongshu Province and Shangshu Province themselves. At least a promotion from seventh-grade military attache requires the emperor's personal approval, so what else does the Ministry of War need to do?
So many trivial matters require the emperor's personal decision-making, which would make anyone feel tired. It's just that the inner thoughts are the inner thoughts, but what should be done still needs to be done. Huang Qiong first separated the memorials thrown by the emperor, and the memorials for greetings were placed aside first. Then list the things that need to be done urgently first. As for those trivial matters, leave them alone for now.
Among the pile of folding papers, the first thing Huang Qiong looked at, and the most important one, was naturally the folding papers for allocating river wages along the Huanghuai and Huaihe Rivers, at various river yamen and prefectures and counties in various states and counties. Although there was a severe drought in Longyou and Shaanxi 2nd Road in the upper reaches of the Yellow River last year, the water inflow of the Yellow River has been significantly reduced. If the drought continues in Longyou and Shaanxi this spring, the amount of peach blossom and cauliflower floods this spring may not be very large.
But the problem is, thinking is one thing, but when it comes time to approve the money, who really dares to discount on this matter? Even if there is only a small opening in the Yellow River, the officials below will bite like crazy in order to shirk responsibility. The first to bear the brunt is the Water Cleaning Department of the Ministry of Works, which is responsible for the world's rivers. Every year, the money and food needed for river work are audited and estimated by the Dushui Cleaning Department.
In other words, the Dushui Cleaning Department of the Ministry of Industry uses the overall situation of the Yellow and Huaihe Rivers, that is, the situations reported by various prefectures and counties, to make specific estimates of the river labor money and food needed to treat the two rivers every year, as well as the cost of repairing the canal. Required project money and food. After the emperor's imperial approval, the funds will be allocated by the Ministry of Household Affairs. At the end of the year, the money and grain used by river workers every year are written off.
If the Ministry of Industry has underestimated the approximate amount of money and food needed. As long as nothing happens, it will be fine. Once there is a problem in one of the three rivers of Huang, Huai and Yun. The first unlucky person was the river yamen along the coast, and the second unlucky person was the Ministry of Works, especially the Dushui Cleaning Department, which was in charge of estimating and writing off river workers' money and grain, and was the first to suffer.
Therefore, as long as there is no great chaos in the world, the Ministry of Works has always overestimated the money and food needed for river construction. Every year, at least 20% of the money and food needed for river work is generally false. The state capitals below, as well as the river yamen on various roads, naturally also know the elegant meanings of songs. The two percent is usually left directly with the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household Affairs. That is to say, there are benefits, and the benefits are equally shared by everyone.
And this is still a false report by the competent authorities. As for the money and food reported to river workers every year, they are also increased step by step. Everyone knows that Hegong is the fattest guy in the world. Therefore, everyone is afraid that they will underreport. Of course, some more honest officials are also worried that the money and food will be peeled off before they get it. If the report is made truthfully, the money and food received will not be enough to use.
Therefore, people often report more, hoping to reduce the burden on the people in their jurisdiction. Because if the money and food received are not enough, and the river workers cannot afford to delay, the gap will naturally have to be apportioned locally. As for those corrupt officials, any overpayment will naturally go into their own pockets. Those who are brave may even fool around with river engineering, and most of it will go into their own pockets.
Huang Qiong didn't know whether the emperor knew about this kind of thing, but Huang Qiong himself knew it. Among Jia Quan's friends in Beijing, there are still a few junior officials from the Ministry of Industry. Although these people's official positions are not high, they have worked in their respective yamen for many years, and they know everything about their respective yamen. Huang Qiong still knows the twists and turns here.
That was fine in previous years, but this year there is a drought in the northwest, and the imperial court wants to take back the right to trade. I am afraid that a large amount of money and food will have to be spent. At least this year, this part of the hype needs to be taken down. However, before reviewing, for the sake of caution, Huang Qiong specially asked people to report the snowfall and ice conditions of the Yellow River in winter on various roads in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, including Shanxi Road.
After carefully reading the reports from various states, Huang Qiong was shocked. Longyou and Shaanxi 2nd Road, although last winter had a rare sustained low temperature and the Yellow River ice was thick, the winter drought continued. In addition to the Helan Mountain District of Ningxia Prefecture, Hanzhong Prefecture and Fengxiang Prefecture of Shaanxi Road, Minzhou and Taozhou of Lintao Prefecture of Longyou Road, and some areas of Gongchang Prefecture, there was a little snow in the Second Road.
In other prefectures and counties, not even a light snow has fallen so far. The lack of snowfall in winter means that we may have to face a spring drought or even a locust plague. If the spring drought continues, the first thing the court must prepare now is not river labor money, but disaster relief money and food. After much hesitation, Huang Qiong finally gave a 30% discount on the wages originally allocated to the Yamen River along the Huangzhu Road River.
Because Huang Qiong knew that whether it was the yamen along the Yellow River or the various state capitals. No matter how much money and food the court allocates for river work, no matter whether the river embankments need repairs or not, as long as these money and food are allocated, not even a hair will be left to the court. If there is no need for river construction workers in a drought year, more of this money and food will be put into personal pockets.
At present, there is a severe drought in the northwest of the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and countless victims are crying out for food and relief from the imperial court. The imperial court is so stretched in terms of annual income that this money cannot be put into everyone's pockets at this time no matter what. If it were not necessary to provide relief through work, Huang Qiong would even want to give the river workers a 50% discount on their money and food.
After approving a few important things first, Huang Qiong gave instructions quickly on the rest. The Ministry of War's promotion documents for military attachés also include the evaluation of military attachés, so it is not troublesome to approve them. Moreover, civil servants of rank four and above must be personally approved by the emperor's imperial pen. When they arrived at the military attache's place, those of rank four and above were naturally approved by the emperor's imperial pen.
As long as you only need to approve military attaches below the fourth rank, the progress will naturally be much faster. As for the replenishment of the arsenal, Huang Qiong also retrieved the archives over the years and verified the preservation of the ordnance, and then gave him a 30% discount. In Huang Qiong's view, this is called asking for prices all over the place, and the court has to pay back the money, right? What's more, there has been no major war for nearly ten years, and the Arsenal Department only repairs the damage.
With this idea in mind, Huang Qiong quickly gave instructions on the memorials thrown by the emperor. In less than two days, basically all instructions were completed. For certain things, Huang Qiong not only wrote criticisms, but also attached reasons why he solved them the way he did. As for those so-called greetings, to put it bluntly, they were just for showing off in front of the emperor, Huang Qiong simply wrote three words.
