At this time, Huang Zicheng was only thinking about how to limit the power of military commanders. He never realized that he had unknowingly fallen into Zhu Yunzhen's plan.
He was very proud of himself at this time.
"The Military Affairs Department acts as an agent for military affairs and is in charge of the world's military. It has great authority and should not be given more favors."
"The lower official believes that all military ministers, unless they are newly promoted officials, have no other grades and no salary. They can be paid according to the seven grades."
"Other than that, the rest will not have any grades, nor will they receive additional salary."
The civil servants nodded.
Originally.
The salaries of military generals and nobles have always been much higher than those of civilian officials.
Some are even several times higher.
Of course, this is also the practice of all dynasties.
Even the Song Dynasty, which was known for emphasizing culture over military affairs, was the same.
Song Taizu had agreed at the beginning to give generous rewards to the military generals, asking them to give up military power, buy more good land and beautiful houses, buy more singers, and enjoy their happiness.
Therefore, when it comes to political status, the chances of a military general being flattered are not as good as a civilian official.
A seventh-grade county magistrate can scold a fourth-grade general.
But in terms of salary, military generals are much higher than civilian officials.
The same was true in the Ming Dynasty.
However, the method used in the Ming Dynasty was different.
The Ming Dynasty improved the treatment of military generals by giving them higher grades.
For example, the thousand households in the guardhouse are from the fifth rank, the hundred households are from the sixth rank, and even the small flags that lead ten soldiers are from the seventh rank.
And the civil officials and county magistrates are only in the seventh rank.
To compare with the army of later generations, the squad leader in the army is of the seventh rank, and the senior county official of the local government is also the seventh rank. The two are considered to be the same rank.
But rank and authority are not equivalent.
The county magistrate can mobilize the resources of a county, but its actual power, not to mention a small banner, even a thousand households of the fifth rank, is far less than the county magistrate.
There are even three-level commanders who control more than 5,000 people. Except for internal guards with special powers such as Jinyiwei, many third-level commanders may not be as powerful as the actual power of the county magistrate.
After all, in the later guard posts, soldiers were basically indistinguishable from farmers to a large extent.
The larger counties in the Ming Dynasty also had a population of hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, which was far more than the number of guards.
In this era, controlling more people means being able to mobilize more resources.
To put it bluntly, military officers and nobles are rich, but they are not like civil servants who flaunt themselves as "incorruptible" and poor.
If the battle is won, the rewards given by the court are so rich that many civil servants cannot compare with their lifetime salary combined.
At this time, I heard that there was no extra salary for joining the military affairs office, so the generals and nobles naturally didn't care.
They still don't care about the little money.
Next, civil servants stepped forward one by one to make suggestions to limit the power of the Military Affairs Office.
"I believe that all military affairs memorials and military affairs, no matter how big or small, should be reviewed by more than three military ministers and decided upon by consensus. If there is any dispute, please ask His Majesty for instructions. No one person can make the decision without authorization."
"The lower official believes that the Military Affairs Office should not be like the Governor's Office of the Fifth Army, with a separate yamen and independent office. It is still the same as the temporary review of memorials in the Wenhua Hall before, and there will be a toilet in the palace and work in front of the emperor. If something happens, it can be done You can hear it immediately with His Majesty."
"My official believes that in addition to the secret memorial system, the Military Affairs Office should be mainly responsible for the daily affairs of military memorials. Important memorials still need to be reported to His Majesty."
"I believe that the main responsibility of the Military Affairs Office is to serve as His Majesty's advisor to prepare for consultation. In addition..."
"My official thought that the Minister of Military Affairs was not allowed to leave the capital without an imperial edict..."
"I think that the Military Affairs Office should only draft opinions and not..."
…
Civil servants have formulated rules one after another for the Military Affairs Office, making its powers smaller and smaller.
In the end, it basically turned into a pure secretarial office, with almost no real power left.
Everyone worked together and came up with various methods that were much more thoughtful than what Zhu Yunzhen had thought of before.
After all, when a person thinks about this kind of thing, there will always be something unexpected and something he will miss.
But now the civil servants are racking their brains to limit the power of the Minister of Military Affairs, leaving no dead ends at all.
It was finally decided that the first step of the memorial would be to send it to the emperor or His Royal Highness, and then send it to the Military Affairs Office.
This completely eliminated the possibility of the Minister of War seizing any memorials.
Because they had no way of knowing whether the emperor had read the memorial before decentralization.
After putting forward the draft opinions, it was submitted to the emperor.
Classification processing, some daily memorials, the emperor will not read, or only select a few to read, and then return them directly for handling.
The confidentiality system that Zhu Yunzhen wanted was naturally settled.
After all, confidentiality is a must in military affairs.
…
All kinds of things, very complete
Zhu Yunxian was very satisfied.
Sure enough, the civil servants are still very good. After all, they are also talents selected by the country.
These ideas of limiting the power of the Military Affairs Office and allowing the Military Affairs Office to play the role of secretary are very good.
He asked the eunuch to record it, and after sorting it out, he immediately read it in class.
Of course the civil servants had no objection, this was their idea in the first place.
The military commander Xungui accepted it without any objection.
By now, the generals and nobles have also noticed that Zhu Yunxian allowed generals with high prestige and military power to enter the Military Affairs Office in order to seize their military power and "raise" them.
But this method is completely acceptable to the generals and nobles.
While handing over military power, you can still enjoy glory and wealth forever without being suppressed by civilian officials or arousing suspicion. What else would you not want to do?
Both parties were happy and reached an agreement smoothly.
Huang Zicheng, Qi Tai and others were even more proud.
Unexpected!
Everything went so smoothly.
It took almost no effort to seize the military power of the noble general.
Although they did not get it into the hands of the civil servants, they were quite satisfied with this result.
After the eunuch finished reading, Zhu Yunzhen asked: "The matter of the Military Affairs Office has been settled like this. Do you think it is appropriate?"
"The regulations are detailed and the authority is clear. It can help His Majesty handle military affairs without having to worry about having exclusive power. I think it is very good."
"His Royal Highness Taisun is wise, martial, and intelligent, so he can come up with this good plan."
"There is neither the authority of a military attache to exercise power nor the laxity in military affairs. He does not understand the concerns of military affairs, and even the subordinates think it is excellent."
"Hahaha, we generals don't have any objections. This is good."
…
Civil servants and military generals expressed their opinions one after another and all agreed.
Zhu Yunxuan nodded.
"This matter has been discussed by the civil and military ministers of the Manchu Dynasty, and everyone is in favor of it. It has been compiled into a document. Once the emperor is invited, it will be officially implemented."
After reaching an agreement, the atmosphere in the court became much more relaxed.
"The Military Affairs Office has been decided, the Counselor's Office..."
He paused and turned his eyes slightly.
"Gu's opinion and the Military Affairs Office's method are ready-made. All civil and military officials in the court agree."
"Why don't we just follow the regulations of the Military Affairs Office? What do you think, sir?"
Hula.
Outside the hall, a strong wind blew in.
It made all the officials' clothes flutter.
In the main hall, Huang Zicheng, Qi Tai and other civil servants all had frightened expressions in their eyes.
I have just searched my brain and thought of ways to limit the power of generals. Do I want to use it on myself?
Is this a trap for oneself, or is it shooting oneself in the foot?
All the civil servants stood there frozen one by one, as if they were petrified.
(End of chapter)
