Chapter 505 The merger of officials and local officials
Starting from the Song Dynasty, officials and officials were divided into different fields. In addition to the formal administrative staff, such as Cang Ambassador, Yi Cheng, etc., the rest of the servants were, in other words, temporary workers.
There is no establishment and no salary, but they belong to a lowly status and can only rely on the power in their hands to get money.
But now that the emperor holds a provincial examination, it is equivalent to giving a staff structure to the subordinate staff. At this time, the staff naturally has to come into play.
Wang Yingxiong said calmly: "Although he is a humble official and does not belong to the upper class, he is still an official of the imperial court, and he must be admitted to the Ministry of Personnel to prevent counterfeiting."
In terms of personnel rights, the Ministry of Personnel cannot naturally obtain it, but if you have official status, you will naturally have to be registered as an official.
In this way, officials who join the ranks in the future will have a certificate.
"Officials have ultimatums (letters of appointment) and identity cards (identity cards), and officials should do the same."
The emperor muttered: "But the governor's office does not have permanent staff. If it is handed over to someone else, wouldn't it be a private office? We can't let the staff set up branch offices in local places!"
"This..." Wang Yingxiong was stunned and was also asked by the emperor.
Although the governor has become a permanent position and is the head of a province, he is still a capital official. His original job is to be the censor, and the governor of the local area is just a dispatcher.
In other words, the governor does not have his own yamen and subordinate officials, but only some handymen and staff he hires.
Using one person's expenses to control the entire province is a great way to save money.
Wang Yingxiong was silent for a while and then said: "If a governor's office is established, although the official position of the seal officer is in the staff department, the subordinate staff will be in the local government, I'm afraid..."
The words revealed caution and a bit of fear.
To put it bluntly, the governor's greatest authority over local officials is the right to evaluate local officials. Whether they can be promoted or not depends entirely on the governor's comments.
Therefore, the establishment of the governor's office may expand the power of the governor, causing the external emphasis to be emphasized while the internal affairs are neglected.
"No problem."
The emperor shook his head and said: "According to my opinion, after the provincial examination, the subordinate officials will be assigned to different places and dispersed. Their evaluation will not be carried out by the governor, but by the officials in each place and the inspectors."
"As for the governor's position, it gradually deviated and became the chief officer of a province. Then let them take charge of the administration and no longer serve as supervisors."
"Other than that, the power of the governor should be handed over to the censor!"
As soon as the four words "Xunjian Censor" came out, Wang Yingxiong was startled, his lips were slightly opened, and he stopped talking.
The so-called patrol censors are officials dispatched by the Metropolitan Procuratorate to inspect local areas on behalf of the emperor. They are also called "circulatory censors" and are commonly known as "eight prefecture patrol censors".
In the early Ming Dynasty, the patrol censors and local censors were constraining each other, and the evaluations of the same person were often very different, which greatly annoyed the court.
Later, because the patrol censor was in a low position and had a low status, and could only do things on a whim, a permanent governor was appointed to supervise the local area.
However, in this way, the governor became the chief official, and under the principle of mutual protection between officials, local governance was immediately relaxed, and the clean officialdom that Zhu Yuanzhang worked so hard to maintain disappeared.
Therefore, in Zhu Yixi's view, the supervision system must not merge with the local government, otherwise it will lose its fighting spirit and become superficial.
"The Chasi is responsible for the officials of the prefectures and counties, while the Yushi is responsible for the prefecture and the provincial level. With such clear distinctions, isn't it harmonious?"
"Your Majesty is wise!" Wang Yingxiong squinted his eyes and thought, this is beneficial to the centralization of power. As a member of the central government, he naturally agreed.
Seeing his appearance, the emperor said meaningfully: "In the future, the power of appointment and dismissal of the Metropolitan Procuratorate will not need to be submitted to the cabinet, but will be directly handed over to me."
"If the cabinet is allowed to take charge of itself, won't the Metropolitan Procuratorate become a tool of party struggle?"
Wang Yingxiong even felt suffocated when he heard this. Is the emperor seizing power or reducing it?
In the party struggle after Wanli, the Supervisory Council completely became a tool and lost its neutrality. As a result, it was influenced by others and was rumored to be impeached.
Because of Zhu Yuanzhang's regulations, even if they were impeached, there would be no punishment. This gave them great freedom, even to the point of abuse.
Streamlining its personnel and dividing its powers are what the emperor will do in the future for the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Now, through the provincial examination, I have only briefly mentioned this point. The key lies in the governor's office that has been drawn out.
"Each prefecture and county has six rooms. According to the wishes of the veteran, the governor's office can also set up six rooms."
When they talked about the establishment, Wang Yingxiong immediately cheered up and kept talking: "In addition to the six offices of officials, households, rituals, soldiers, punishments, and workers, there should be a provincial hall to take charge of overall affairs and a number of classics and histories."
"There are two more departments and one office. The Experience Department is responsible for the paperwork; the Zhaomo Department is responsible for collecting and polishing files; and the Prison Department is responsible for overseeing the affairs of the prisoners."
"In addition, the Department of Medicine, Yin-Yang Studies, Seng Gang Department, and Dao Ji Department should also be established."
After talking about it in a big circle, in fact, the patrol yamen is just a copy of the county and government. It is just that there are no teachings and professors for Confucianism, but academic officials.
"In this case, wouldn't it mean that the promotion of officials is narrow-minded?"
The emperor was dissatisfied. This was still a division between officials and officials. The access roads were still blocked. There were no future officials. So what was the point of the provincial examination?
"The county is divided into six houses, from the ninth rank; the prefecture is divided into six departments, from the sixth rank; the province is divided into six places, from the fourth rank; the central government is called the sixth department, from the third rank."
Zhu Yixi recounted word by word, while Huang Zongxi, the daily attendant on the side, recorded the evidence of the future restructuring of the imperial court word by word. Otherwise, who would remember these?
"To be promoted to a county magistrate, you first enter the six departments of the prefecture for a period of one year, and then you can be promoted to the prefecture. After the prefecture, there are six departments, and then you move to three divisions, and then you enter the capital, or you are transferred to the governor of another province."
Speaking of this, the emperor's voice was loud: "Take one step at a time and do practical things, rather than holding an official position like watching a show."
Generally, Jinshi who serve in local areas are the top three Jinshi, and their typical promotion route is: county magistrate (seventh rank) → prefectural magistrate (sixth rank) → prefecture magistrate (fifth rank) → prefectural magistrate (fifth rank) → prefect (fourth rank)
.
Once you reach the prefect level, you are at the top of the top three Jinshi, and it is difficult to break through.
But the emperor opened the door to the provincial level, which was the first time in the Ming Dynasty.
Wang Yingxiong was completely shocked. He felt that something was so wrong about this day, so unbelievable.
Is this the merging of officials and local officials? Something big has happened in the world again.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, I'm afraid this is against the rules. The position of a humble official must not be filled by a Jinshi!"
Official positions at the provincial level are reserved exclusively for the second-level Jinshi. How could they be given up so easily?
Wang Yingxiong couldn't wait to bow down, his tone was quite weak.
"Rules? Rules are meant to be broken. Anything that is inappropriate should be changed."
The emperor said loudly: "You think I don't know why it is difficult to be promoted to the top three Jinshi? It's just a carrot and a pit. All his experience is spent in hardship. There is no way to get promoted, so he has to stop at the prefecture."
"A humble official? You can only get a promotion. I see how many people are unwilling to do it."
To be promoted from county magistrate to prefect, although there are only three levels of prefectural magistrate, prefecture magistrate, and prefectural magistrate, they are extremely competitive.
What's even more embarrassing is that there are only 139 states in the world as the middle part of prefectures and counties, but there are 1,200 counties.
But now that there are six subjects and six rooms, there are more pits to serve as stepping stones. Naturally, there is no need to worry about the state, and the road to promotion will naturally be easier.
Who dares to complain about the six departments and six departments that serve as stepping stones? Isn't the merger of officials and officials on the right track?