If I fail to overcome the tribulation, I can only return to the Ming Dynasty and become a prince.

Chapter 319 God’s Affiliated Official
"Subordinates, please see the Dragon King." In the Chengyun Hall of Prince Zheng's Mansion, the subordinate officer assigned to Ah Qing was saluting her.

Although the Dragon King of the South China Sea is just a god's name, since Zhu Zhanjun wanted to establish a complete Shinto system in the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to say that these gods only have empty names.

To be precise, this Shinto system will complement the existing official system of the court. Eventually, the two teams will be merged into one, allowing the court to control the entire Ming Dynasty from both the mortal and immortal aspects.

According to the norms of the Incense Shinto, the canonization of a god should actually be accompanied by a number of subordinates such as officials and servants. Those who have the power to command the army, like Ah Qing, should also have Taoist soldiers attached to them.

However, the Ming Dynasty's Shinto system has just started, and the Communist Party has only canonized two gods. The entire Shinto system has not yet been operating well, and it has not been able to support the Ming Dynasty in terms of national destiny. Naturally, it is unable to support more gods.

However, it is currently impossible to expand the gods of the Shinto system through the method of canonizing gods. Ming Dynasty still has an indigenous way to solve the problem, and that is to directly recruit living people.

In the Ming Dynasty, there was no other scholar who wanted to be an official.

Not to mention the number of civil servants who wanted to become officials through the imperial examination, the Imperial College's graduates alone could meet the imperial court's employment needs.

It has to be said that the national system for cultivating talents created by Zhu Yuanzhang did play a great role in the early Ming Dynasty. It was able to cultivate enough qualified official reserves for the country in a relatively short period of time, which greatly eased the problem of the Ming Dynasty. The initial talent shortage problem.

It's just a pity that, like all systems, they are good at the beginning, but after a certain period of time, they begin to decay.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it was basically possible to get into the Imperial College if you had enough money, and there was almost a clear price tag for donating one's status as a prison student.

The Yan Jiansheng in "The Scholars" is such a person who buys fame by spending money, and this kind of people are usually from the local gentry family who really can't get fame, so they spend money to buy a status.

They do not expect to become officials with this status, but with this status they can enjoy the preferential treatment set by Lao Zhu, thereby being exempted from taxes, and can use this to annex a large amount of land and property.

It is very difficult to obtain the status of a Jinshi or a Juren in the Eight Classics. Just looking at the huge differences before and after Fan Jin passed the exam, you can understand how awesome you were in the Ming Dynasty to be a Juren.

If this matter is compared to later generations, it is almost equivalent to being admitted to the civil service, and it is still the kind of level where you can be assigned to be the top leader of the real power department after joining the job.

You must know that the Ming Dynasty's juren can hold official positions such as Jiaoyu, County Chancellor, and Director. These official positions may sound inconspicuous, but Jiaoyu can be in charge of the academic administration of a county, which is equivalent to the chief and deputy positions of the Education Bureau in later generations. Almost equivalent to deputy county level.

Although the chief clerk is only in charge of clerical work, he has to handle all the clerical work in the entire county, which is also a very powerful position.

Although he was only a grassroots official at the county level, he was already a member of the Ming Dynasty's bureaucracy. If he was not ideal, he could still become a local hegemon in this position.

Therefore, for the Ming Dynasty, there is no problem in equipping Ah Qing with a team of vassal-level officials.

It's just what exactly she, the Dragon King of the South China Sea, is responsible for and how to implement her power is a problem that gives the court some headaches.

In the past, everyone just burned incense for the Dragon King Temple, and never thought about in detail what things the Dragon King could control and what things the Dragon King could not control.After all, the Dragon King did not appear to say that he did not care about this matter, or that he appeared to say that he did not care about this matter. What stands out is an idealism that believes in everything and does not believe in it.

Therefore, even if the Ming court drew up a scope of duties for the Sea Dragon King based on folk beliefs and the vassal powers of feudal lords, it would be difficult for them to clarify what Ah Qing, the Dragon King of the South China Sea, could and could not do.

This matter made the court very embarrassed, and finally sent a clipper ship to ask Zhu Zhanyu. He returned to the capital and finally settled the matter.

"Your Highness, this is the document given to you by the imperial court, as well as the seals, ribbons, military talismans and other items corresponding to your role as the Dragon King of the South China Sea. Please take charge of it personally and keep it properly." A Qing's subordinate officer handed over a series of her tokens as the Dragon King. She continued after Ah Qing took it and put it away: "According to the results of the discussion between His Royal Highness Prince Zheng and the imperial court, the imperial court will build a temple for you in Quanzhou for worship.

In addition, Your Highness, you can train soldiers and naval forces within the South China Sea, and after reporting to the court, you can attack the enemy.

In addition, the imperial court considers your highness's needs for training the army, and specifically allows your highness to withdraw [-]% of the taxes from Quanzhou Port and [-]% of the sea trade tariffs as military supplies. "

The subordinate officials and Mr. A Qing Lin talked a lot. Taking into account A Qing's special status and some of what Zhu Zhanquan told the court, the court did not expect her to be able to fulfill her duties as the Dragon King of the South China Sea as the same vassal king. From the beginning, From the beginning, she planned to let these subordinate officials perform their duties for her.

It is also planned to let these subordinate officials choose those with outstanding abilities to be canonized as Ah Qing's subordinate gods after death. In this way, even if Ah Qing does nothing in the future, these subordinate officials can ensure the normal operation of the Southern Sea Dragon King's priesthood.

Of course, this does not mean that Ah Qing really doesn't care about things. It's just that she is a snake spirit who has been sealed for 500 years. She obviously doesn't understand the operation of human government and how to manage the priesthood.

Although these subordinate officials also did not understand how to perform their clerical duties, they at least understood the operation of the imperial court and the human government, and could help A Qing set up the air first.

As for how Ah Qing performs her priestly duties, she can learn this slowly after she is formally anointed as a god and obtains the priesthood.

Doesn’t Xu Miaoyun understand this too?However, after being officially consecrated as a god and receiving the priesthood, she has now gradually begun to perform her priestly duties, responding to the prayers of believers to gain faith and popular support, thereby supporting the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty.

Although the part that feeds back the national destiny is not much, and is even insignificant compared to the cost of canonizing Xu Miaoyun as a god, it is a good start, marking that the incense and Shinto system of the Ming Dynasty is finally officially in operation.

From this point of view, this matter itself is still very meaningful and very worthwhile.

After all, many times when running a country or doing things, we do not look at the pros and cons of one thing in isolation, but we should look at the problem from a longer-term and overall perspective.

Just like a blessing in disguise, sometimes looking at a problem from a different perspective will lead to different gains.

And a loss on one thing is likely to become a profit on another thing in the future.

Therefore, when looking at problems, we can take a longer-term view and be more structured. Instead of worrying about the petty gains in front of us, we will gain more.

(End of this chapter)