In the current Tang Empire, regardless of civil and military affairs, the criterion for measuring one's political status is not the position, rank or title. The only real criterion for measuring one's political status is that one enters the imperial study room, and
What kind of errands do you have in the imperial study?
In the current political separatism of the Tang Empire, the ministers on duty in the imperial study room were the real important ministers. The nine ministers on duty in the imperial study room jointly assisted Li Xuan in handling all military and political affairs of the entire empire.
Secondly, there are the walking ministers in the imperial study, who are generally held by important generals in the military, important officials in the civil service, or ministers with relatively special status.
Regardless of whether it is the Minister on duty in the Imperial Study Room or the Minister on duty in the Imperial Study Room, these two positions are not real positions, and there is no matching grade, and there is not even a clear office organization.
At the same time, their authority does not have any clear authority. They only serve as Li Xuan's staff and make various suggestions to Li Xuan, but they do not have any power themselves.
This can be seen from all the official documents of the Tang Empire. There has never been any official document issued by an organization named Yushufang.
The official documents issued by the Tang Dynasty were still mainly based on various ministries.
All the ministers on duty in the imperial study room and the ministers on duty were appointed by Li Xuan with one word, and there was no formal document. It was all based on Li Xuan's mouth. All appointments were made verbally.
This also brings about a very special point, that is, there are no special requirements. Basically, Li Xuan only needs to say that you are the minister on duty in the Imperial Study Room, and then you are.
Unlike other positions such as ministers and ministers, although Li Xuan still has 100% decision-making power when appointing officials, Li Xuan still has to select appropriate people from among those with sufficient experience and qualifications.
Therefore, this has also resulted in the fact that the imperial study officials in recent years are no longer as pure as those in earlier years, and they are all current important ministers.
For example, Liu Bagou, the founding father who has always been at the core of the power of the Tang Dynasty, has actually stopped holding any actual positions for a long time, but he is still the minister on duty in the Imperial Study Room.
Nowadays, among the civil servants, Qian Zuili has to be added. Qian Zuili no longer holds any actual position. Like Liu Bagou, he only has the title of bachelor.
However, the title of Grand Scholar in the Tang Dynasty was a false title and could not be regarded as an actual position.
Then Hao Bainian in the military is in a similar situation. He is the official and even the Deputy Privy Council Envoy. However, the Deputy Privy Council Envoy in the Tang Empire has always been a false title. He holds an army position without actual military duties.
All generals are deputy envoys to the Privy Council. Including Hao Bainian, there are now more than a dozen deputy envoys to the Privy Council in the Tang Empire.
This deputy envoy to the Privy Council is more of a position than an honorary title.
These three people who did not hold actual positions occupied the positions of three ministers on duty in the imperial study room, leaving only the other six people with actual positions.
Similarly, this situation is also the same among walking ministers!
For example, Wang Wenhua, who was actually ridiculed as a favorite by outsiders more than 20 years ago, although he has not held any actual positions for a long time, he has always been known as a walking minister in the imperial study. Of course,
Although he has the reputation of a walking minister, he never cares about government affairs. He just focuses on trying to please Li Xuan in various ways.
Over the years, the number of beauties sent to Li Xuan's bedside often numbered in the hundreds.
Of course, the reason why he has been able to remain firmly in the center for twenty years, especially in the following ten years, without gradually launching the core of power like other early founding heroes, is naturally not only because he can send beautiful women.
, in fact, there are many ways for him to please Li Xuan, and sending beautiful women is just one of them.
For example, a few years ago, he heard that Li Xuan was very interested in some products overseas, especially in the Americas. He also heard Li Xuan talk about a stallion in South America called Cao Ni Ma, which was very interesting.
This was unintentional, but the listener was interested. It didn't take long before Wang Wenhua funded a merchant fleet and commissioned them to bring back various novel species from America, especially the grass and mud horses!
As a result, more than a year later, we actually brought back several alpacas, and they are still raising them in the palace!
In addition to these pure flattery, Wang Wenhua actually has another important role, that is, he is thick-skinned enough and can spare no effort to praise Li Xuan!
Where did the title Holy Emperor come from?
Wang Wenhua was the first to shout!
And how did the previous Eternal Saint King shout it out?
It was also Wang Wenhua who shouted it out.
And the title God Emperor was also called by him.
Back then, in order to praise Li Xuan, Wang Wenhua used extremely disgusting words!
Over the years, he has been called this in some documents: the wise and great, greater than the sun, the benevolent Eternal Saint King, the God Emperor who transcends the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, the Son of Heaven, the Holy Son of Heaven.
When it comes to literary talents, there are many people who are better than him, but compared to shameless, there are so many ministers in the Tang Dynasty and the public, he is definitely the only one!
He is shameless and has always been deeply favored by the Holy Emperor. Although he is not a powerful core class, he is still the kind of person who can enter the palace and the imperial study every day.
Under the political structure of the Tang Dynasty, to measure the political status of a courtier, you have to see whether the Holy Emperor values you, and the specific manifestation is whether you have entered the Imperial Study Room.
There were founding fathers, responsible officials from important departments, and favorite ministers in the Imperial Study Room, and they all had one thing in common, that is, Li Xuan trusted them.
Now that Qian Zuili has been promoted to a bachelor's degree, and he continues to serve as the minister on duty in the imperial study room, Li Xuan also worked in the tax department for more than ten years and survived five terms as left minister, and then climbed up to the left minister of the tax department.
Xu Zisong took over the post of Minister of Taxation.
This surprised Xu Zisong, who had been proud of the tax department for more than ten years!
He did what all five of his predecessors failed to do!
He originally thought that like his predecessors, he would be forced to retire after his three-year term expired this year, but he did not expect that he would actually force his immediate boss Qian Zuili away!
How could this not make him wildly surprised?
This feeling is like a pie falling from the sky, and if you raise your head and open your mouth, the pie will fall directly into your mouth without even picking it up.
If there is any organization in Datang that has the most difficult time, then there is no doubt that it must be the Tax Department.
It's very simple. Qian Zuili has always been the Minister of Taxation. If he doesn't vacate his position, the minister below will not be able to take the position.
Even these high-ranking officials in the tax department are unable to move up to higher positions, and it is even more difficult for mid-level tax officials.
Xu Zisong is one of them. Although this name is not very famous in the Tang Empire, when you talk about his qualifications, it is quite impressive.
Conglong already existed in the Xingquan Mansion era, and it is worth noting that he was not a traditional official. Before Conglong, he was just an accountant, and he was a very miserable accountant.
However, because Conglong had been in a high position early on, his starting point for becoming an official was the fifth rank.
Why?
Because the Tang Empire was so awesome back then, those below the fifth level were not awarded at all!
However, he was promoted to a higher level in a few years. When the Unification War just ended, he was already a third-level official, and served as the director of the Agriculture and Forestry Department under the Ministry of Taxation, in charge of the collection of agricultural taxes across the country.
In the following years, he went to other places to serve as the director of the tax department, and then he was transferred back to Gyeonggi five years ago as the right minister of the tax department. He stayed there for two years, and when the then left minister of the tax department retired, he
He took over as Zuo Shilang, and stayed there for another three years before he succeeded Qian Zuili as Minister of Taxation.
Before him, the Tax Department had already had five left ministers of the Tax Department, but they failed to survive Qian Zuoli, and finally resigned or were transferred to other departments.
However, he came over proudly, how could this not make him wildly surprised!
What surprised him even more was yet to come. When the time entered the 23rd year of Xuanping, after the new personal income tax reform plan was generally well received, Li Xuan also felt that this person was a talent, so he issued an oral edict at the beginning of the first year.
, allowing him to enter the imperial study.
This sentence made him become the walking minister of the royal study!
Of course, this is just a conventional title. Li Xuan never said such words as the minister on duty in the imperial study, the walking minister in the imperial study, etc. That was just what outsiders said. More
It still shows respect for these officials, rather than saying that this is a real position.
To be precise, Li Xuan usually used oral instructions or private decrees (not stamped with the national seal) to recruit or allow someone to work in the imperial study and walk around.
However, that's all there is. There won't be any clear description of the authority. For example, terms such as counselor for government affairs and counselor for military aircraft have never appeared!
Li Xuan just recruited or allowed them to enter the imperial study room for duty and walk!
That's all!
But this is also not important. What is important is that these ministers in the imperial study, even without any explicit recognition, are the core ministers who control the actual power of the Tang Empire.
It is not surprising that Xu Zisong was able to enter the imperial study and become a walking minister. You must know that when Qian Zuoli was the minister of the Ministry of Taxation, he was still the minister on duty.
However, the number of ministers on duty is limited, and Li Xuan also wants to distinguish ministers on duty from senior officials who hold actual duties.
Therefore, if nothing unexpected happens, it is unlikely that Xu Zisong will become the minister on duty during his tenure as Minister of Taxation.
But Xu Zisong doesn’t care!
He originally thought that he would retire from the position of second rank, Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Taxation, but now he has become the Minister of Taxation, and has also become the Minister of the Royal Study. This has far exceeded his own expectations.
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Three months after Xu Zisong served as the Minister of Taxation, he became the Minister of the Imperial Study, which also announced the arrival of the 23rd year of Xuanping.
But half a month after Xu Zisong entered the imperial study, another major high-level personnel change occurred in the Tang Empire!
On the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, Ma Wei, the Imperial Viscount, was the minister on duty in the imperial study room and had successively held important positions such as the Minister of Personnel and the Minister of Rites.