Chongde Hall is majestic and tall, with hundreds of officials standing under the stage, arranged in order.
As an imperial palace, Luoyang Palace is actually very dilapidated, like a declining empire at the end of the day.
On rainy days, there will be heavy rain outside and light rain inside. On snowy days, there will be heavy snow outside and light snow inside. In winter, when the weather is damp and windy, blowing in through dilapidated wall holes and unrepaired broken doors and windows can turn the palace into a wilderness.
The entire palace, only the Chongde Hall and the West Palace where Liu Bei lived, is slightly better. The other places are almost impossible to see. Many palaces have even collapsed. The North Palace has become a ruin, with all ruins.
Some of the collapses of these palaces were caused by the Shi Changshi Rebellion, some were in disrepair, and some were simply caused by man-made destruction, such as the burning of Luoyang before Dong Zhuo left.
It's not that Liu Bei doesn't want to repair it, but the general supervisor who has been renamed the Ministry of Works has calculated that if the South Palace and the North Palace are completely renovated and restored to their appearance during the Kangdi period, the cost will be astronomical, including two years of military expenses.
The expenses are nothing more than that.
Because all the raw materials used in the palace are not ordinary materials, but precious wood and stone produced in each county, which need to be transported thousands of miles from each county.
And let alone repairs, even maintenance costs are terrifyingly high.
Comparing it with the Forbidden City, the capital of later generations, the annual maintenance cost of the Forbidden City is as high as hundreds of millions or even more than one billion. In one case, it cost 220 million just to repair the Yangxin Hall. The Luoyang Imperial Palace is seven times as much as the Forbidden City. You can know that the Luoyang Imperial Palace repairs
How much does it cost.
Therefore, during the period of Emperor Xiao and Kang of the Han Dynasty, Liu Hong plundered money wantonly, and a lot of money was used to repair palaces. Liu Bei has just passed his founding period, and even though he is already the largest prince in the world, it is impossible to spend money on enjoyment.
certainly.
Some people may ask, since Luoyang is already so dilapidated, why should the capital be placed in Luoyang? Can't we follow Cao Cao and put the capital in Yecheng?
It really doesn’t work.
The capital of an empire should be particular. It does not need to be at the center of the empire, but it should be at the center of the empire's resources, population, and interests.
For example, the country has a large number of overseas colonies and needs to have communication links with the European continent, so the capital is London.
Firstly, there are many plains around London, which is suitable for living. Secondly, it is adjacent to the Thames River, has an outlet to the sea, and is just a stone's throw away from Europe, making it easy to travel to the European continent by boat at any time.
The same is true for the current situation of the Han Dynasty.
The reason why the capital was placed in Luoyang was because Luoyang was located in the center of the entire Han Dynasty. No matter where you go from Luoyang, it is very close.
If we follow Cao Cao's example and place the capital in Yecheng, which is too close to Yanzhou, once a fight breaks out, the capital may be easily attacked, just like the capital of the Ming Dynasty was too close to Liaodong and was attacked by the Qing army after Shanhaiguan was breached.
It will lead to the destruction of the country.
Therefore, in order to facilitate the mobilization of soldiers and horses and the transportation of materials, Luoyang's capital status will probably not be shaken, at least until the Han Dynasty returns to unification.
Chongde Hall has been renovated once or twice before. Although it looks old, it is not dilapidated.
There was a snowfall this winter. It was the coldest month of winter at the end of the year. Snowflakes were flying, and indoor doors and windows were closed. The ministers were wearing cotton-padded jackets and sitting cross-legged on the mats in the hall. There were quilts on the mats, which was considerate of these young people.
Older ministers.
Liu Bei sat high on the throne, with three ministers and nine ministers in the audience. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei did not come back this time, only Chen Mu was there. Among the advisers, Xun Yu came back to report on his work at the end of the year. Anyway, Wei County is not far from Luoyang, only two or three
Day effort.
Among the nine tiger generals, only Dian Wei, who was tasked with guarding the capital, and Zhang Liao and Gao Shun, who returned to Luoyang after Youzhou was pacified, were there. The rest performed their duties, guarding Hanoi with Zhao Yun, Zhao Yun was in Yingchuan, and Huang Zhong was in Yecheng.
Taishi Ci and Zang Ba are in Qingzhou, while Xu Rong is currently guarding Liaozhou.
The courtiers gathered together to summarize their work at the end of the year.
"Your Majesty, this year the censors of the Censorship Station visited many places and conducted secret investigations. A total of forty-seven corrupt officials were found, including nine county magistrates, none above the county magistrate, and 38 below the county magistrate. All evidence
conclusive."
Taiwei Yang Biao reported to Liu Bei: "I have joined forces with Situ to dismiss these officials and promote new capable ministers and officials from various places to fill these vacancies. Please read it."
Below, the censors from the censorship station came up with the case files of these forty-seven people. Since the paper was available, the punctuation has been consistent for a long time. Moreover, the ancients wrote more concisely. In classical Chinese and traditional Chinese characters, there are multiple characters in one word.
Meaning, so there won’t be too many files.
In fact, Liu Bei now owns Youzhou, Jizhou, Qingzhou, Sili, Guanzhong, nearly five states, dozens of counties, and four to five hundred counties. He has only found 47 corrupt officials. He is already relatively clear politically.
Generally, this phenomenon mostly appeared during the founding period of the People's Republic of China. As time goes by, officials gradually become corrupted and interest groups and political groups are formed. Corrupt officials will become more common.
But now that the Censorship Office and the Supervisory Yuan are integrated at the upper and lower levels, the Censors are equivalent to the inspection teams of later generations. They often visit local places in disguise. If they find corrupt officials in the local area, they will contact the local Supervisory Yuan. Under special circumstances
Under the law, the county-level Supervisory Yuan has the power to remove county magistrates from power.
If the county magistrate is relatively powerful in the local area, if necessary, he can even use troops from the county town to forcibly control the situation. As long as the evidence is conclusive and reported to the Taiwei, the Taiwei can directly remove the official.
The Supervisory Yuan has the power to depose officials, while Situ is in charge of the Li Yuan. The Li Yuan cannot depose officials, but it can control the promotion of officials.
Therefore, if the emperor's selection is unclear, under certain circumstances, if the Taiwei and Situ unite, they will almost always lose their official posts if they want, and they will promote whoever they want to be promoted. The power will still be very great.
Situ Zhao Wen also stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the nine-grade system was reorganized at the beginning of this year. Countless officials who were not included in the official list were also included in the official list this year. This year, the official plan was to make a plan based on the officials' moral standards, ability and ability.
Local political achievements are listed in four grades: top grade, excellent grade, medium grade, good grade, low grade, passing grade, and bottom grade, poor grade. However, as the number of officials increases, it takes a lot of time to coordinate the list of officials. Now, the current number of officials in the Han Dynasty has just been sorted out.
, a total of 196,872 people. It is expected that after the graduation of Taishan Academy next year, the Qingzhou Government Affairs Station will hold an official assessment again, and the number should exceed 200,000. Among them, the Civil Service Academy has also coordinated the merits of some officials.
At present, they are mainly officials in Linzi City, Qingzhou. There are 2,842 excellent people, 6,539 good people, 2,676 passing people, and 3 poor people.
Sir, please read it, Your Majesty."
The officials from the Li Zhi Yuan also brought up a large number of personnel files. These were officials who had already been coordinated, and they were all officials from Linzi. This is because Linzi is the seat of the Qingzhou Government Affairs Office, and Zhong Yao is now the Qingzhou Mu.
In charge of the Government Affairs Desk, issues involving officials, people's livelihood, public security, economy and agriculture in Qingzhou are all solved by the Government Affairs Desk.
At first, Chen Mu was in charge of the government affairs desk, and later Xun Yu. The two took charge successively, leaving Qingzhou with a highly efficient and extremely streamlined and capable organization. When the court wanted to select the merits of officials, Linzi's Office of Officials and Officials immediately took action to organize the government affairs department.
Under the efficient operation of the station, the selection of merits and demerits was completed in just a few months.
The current population of Linzi City has exceeded 500,000. According to the ratio of officials to citizens of about 1:50, including low-level clerks and petty officials in various courts, the number of civil servants can reach more than 10,000. After all, it is the Qingzhou Administration, and the ratio of officials to officials
There are many places, which is normal.
The information of these people is now put into a thin statistical table. The content is very simple, including name, age, date of birth, ethnicity, education, official position, and then the evaluation of their political performance, style, and ability by the CCP.
Evaluations, etc.
Qingzhou was the first place to implement the rule of virtue into filling out forms. In the previous rule of virtue in the Han Dynasty, people often heard that this person was very filial and talented, so the state and county government promoted this person as Xiaolian and Maocai.
.
Nowadays, the official administration office must conduct an actual investigation to confirm that this person is very filial and has a good reputation among his neighbors and colleagues before he can write down this person's true moral standards.
In order to get the excellent selection, ability, moral character, and political achievements are all indispensable. Having this selection will be of great help to your future career.
It's just that rule by virtue belongs to rule by virtue. Liu Bei sat on the stage and looked at the various files that gradually began to pile up in the palace. His eyelids began to jump wildly, and he unconsciously looked to the distance not far away like an old monk sitting still without raising his head.
, the fourth brother Chen Mu seemed to have dozed off, with a feeling of "fourth brother save me" in his eyes.
It's a pity that Chen Mu didn't seem to notice it at all and ignored it at all.
Just kidding, dealing with government affairs is very tiring.
These are all national affairs, and you, the emperor, should be involved in them. You can't rely on me for everything.
But it's not over yet.
Sikong Zhongfu also jumped out and said: "Your Majesty, the People's Council will coordinate the household registration population this year, and there will be new personnel across the country... and there will be supervisors this year..."
Another pile of work reports and files.
Then Sun Rui, the Taichang Shi in charge of sacrifice and education, stepped forward and reported to Liu Bei the progress of the state, county, and county schools implemented in various places this year. He also suggested that teachers be transferred from Taishan Academy to reorganize Taixue.
Because now almost half of the officials in the Han Dynasty came from Taishan Academy, students from all over the world flocked to Qingzhou to study in the Academy.
Not only is Qingzhou a long way away, a large number of talented people have also gone to Shandong, which is not a good thing for all places.
Therefore, it is very necessary to implement Taixue as soon as possible, develop state schools, county schools, county schools and even township schools, conduct popular education, and improve the knowledge reserve of outstanding talents.
Finally, there was another pile of messy plans, which filled the hall.
Immediately afterwards, Guang Luxun and Sima Fang came up to report on the work of the Metropolitan Procuratorate this year. Wei Wei Sun Jian reported on the work of the Wei Yuan, Ting Wei Zhang Yi reported on the work of the Dali Yuan, Tai Pu Lu Xu reported on the work of the Communications Yuan, and the Chief Secretary
Nongwangyi reported on the progress of agricultural development, Zongzheng Liu Ai, Dahonglu Xujuan, Sili Xiaowei Xuanfan and so on.
Only Chen Mu, who was working part-time as the Young Master, didn't find anything to do for Liu Bei.
A whole morning had passed since the three ministers and nine ministers reported their work. Liu Bei looked around and finally waited until everyone had finished reporting their work. He looked at the emperor eagerly, waiting for the emperor's instructions.
After finally waiting for everyone to finish speaking, Liu Bei looked around and said: "Everyone's work has been progressing very well this year. Unknowingly, it's already afternoon. Why don't we have dinner in the palace first and then talk about state affairs in the afternoon."
Yang Biao stood up and said: "Your Majesty, these matters are national affairs and require prompt instructions. Those corrupt officials are still in custody. If they cannot be dealt with quickly and the charges are customized, it may be difficult to calm people's hearts."
Zhao Wen also said: "Yes, Your Majesty, the administration of officials is the top priority of the country and cannot wait."
Zhong Fu also said: "The governance of people's livelihood is also the cornerstone of the country."
"The rule of law cannot be missing, Your Majesty."
"Agriculture is fundamental."
"Education is the future of a country!"
"The clan cannot ignore it either."
The three nobles and nine ministers stood up one after another to persuade Liu Bei to make a decision as soon as possible, which made Liu Bei's people dumbfounded.
Last year, because the powers of the three ministers and nine ministers had just been defined, government affairs were still in the exploratory stage, and there was not much actual progress.
After this year, the work has basically started, and the subordinate functional departments are gradually improving. Departments in various places have also begun work, including the Ministry of Finance of the Shaofu, which is headed by Chen Mu, and has also established government treasuries in various places.
Do things to allocate funds to various places.
For example, Taichang under the leadership of scholar Sun Rui needs to promote education and build schools in various places, so a school requires the cooperation of multiple departments at the local level. For example, the Institute of Education investigates the enrollment situation of local children, and the general supervisor prepares for the construction.
Chen Mu's treasury needs to make financial allocations, which must be reviewed and approved by various departments.
A township school must be reviewed and approved by the county government, a county school must be reviewed and approved by the state government, and above the county school must be reviewed and approved by the central government, and must be reported to each level to complete all of this.
Therefore, when divided among various departments, the workload is actually quite large.
In the past, the Han court basically ignored such matters. Even if schools were to be built, local officials basically made the decision themselves and had nothing to do with the central government.
This resulted in a sense of separation between local officials and the central government, and at the same time, the centralized power of the central government was shattered one by one.
But if the central government is in charge of everything, there will be too many government affairs in the world every year. Compared with the period of Emperor Kangxi, it is ten times and a hundred times more than what the fashion desk could handle at that time. Now they are all piled up in front of Liu Bei, which naturally makes him dumbfounded.
In fact, this is easy to say.
How did the Ming and Qing Dynasties solve it?
Cabinet and Military Aircraft Service.
The six ministers also serve as cabinet bachelors or military ministers.
There are as many as seven or eight members inside, and there are countless subordinate officials below. They operate efficiently and can handle government affairs quickly.
Although there is a cabinet now, except for a few first-class ministers, the cabinet members basically have no real power. They only have the right to consult but not to approve.
However, these first-class ministers of record have their own important positions. The country is fighting everywhere, and it is impossible to delay the unification of the country because of local government affairs.
Therefore, these matters were piled up and could only be left to the emperor to handle.
certainly.
Some people may say, why not handle it internally?
That would be too easy to abuse your power.
For example, if a Taiwei wants to depose certain high-ranking officials without going through the review of the cabinet and the emperor, it will lead to the Taiwei having too much power and forming a political party headed by the Taiwei, and other hostile officials can be deposed if they want. Is this okay?
The same is true for Situ. As an official in charge of promotion, he is equivalent to the Heavenly Official of the Ministry of Personnel and the Minister of Organization. Whoever is promoted will be promoted. It is easy for the government to be filled with cronies, and then the government and the public will be filled with disciples and old officials.
Therefore, if Sangong and Jiuqing were to handle it internally, the consequences would be serious.
Therefore, the correct way to open it is to separate the three powers, with the three ministers and nine ministers as one side, the cabinet as one side, and the emperor as one side. In this way, mutual supervision will ensure that major events are ultimately decided by the emperor, preventing the ministers and cabinet from colluding with each other and causing various problems.
The form is somewhat similar to the three provinces, six ministries and group prime minister system of the Tang Dynasty. The three provinces and six ministries were responsible for their own affairs, and then handed them over to the various prime ministers. The prime ministers also supervised each other, and major matters were handled by the emperor.
Almost from the Tang Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, this model was used, such as the Privy Council of the Song Dynasty, the Cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, the Military Aircraft Department of the Qing Dynasty, etc.
This will help the emperor handle state affairs efficiently.
What Liu Bei lacks now is an efficient cabinet. He is aware of this shortcoming. Chen Mu and Xun Yu told him about it at the beginning, but when he wanted to form a cabinet and appoint a prime minister, Chen Mu objected.
After all, he had just ascended the throne not long ago and had not even secured his position. He immediately took a big step and directly restored the prime minister system. This was too fast.
So the matter was delayed.
Now seeing this mountain of documents, Liu Bei remembered why he had to deal with so many things. Then looking at his fourth brother who had nothing to do with him, he suddenly felt his teeth itching and said loudly: "From today onwards
, all affairs of the country, large and small, are submitted to the cabinet for review and approval, and finally to me for disposal."
Xun Yu hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, several cabinet ministers currently hold positions of record, and the rest of the cabinet members only have the right to consult but not to approve. If your Majesty delegates power to the cabinet, wouldn't it mean that the second- and third-class ministers who are not qualified enough will be left behind?"
Cabinet members control national affairs?"
Liu Bei then said: "I have decided to restore the former Han Dynasty prime minister system and take charge of the cabinet and government affairs. Where is my son?"
Chen Mu looked around and reluctantly stood up and said, "I'm here."
"From now on, I will be the prime minister and I can freely form a cabinet. All matters will be handled by the cabinet!"