Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The appointment of additional counselors had been decided long ago. Just because it was not implemented at the time, not many people cared.

At this time, the emperor used this reason to create additional official positions and promote the establishment of civil affairs offices. Yuan Keli and others were immediately speechless and unable to object to this.

After convincing them, Zhu Youjian made specific provisions on the powers of the Civil Affairs Bureau:

“The Department of Civil Affairs is subordinate to both the Chief Secretary and the Ministry of Civil Affairs and accepts dual jurisdiction.”

“The staff establishment and grade promotion and demotion of provincial, prefecture and county officials shall be reviewed and decided by the Department of Civil Affairs.”

"For officials of the eighth or ninth grade, the Department of Civil Affairs can make recommendations on appointment and removal on behalf of the Ministry of Personnel, and temporarily appoint officials to act."

"After the official approval, the order will be officially issued."

After these words were spoken, the officials immediately understood that the emperor had delegated the appointment of eighth- and ninth-grade officials to the Civil Service Department.

From now on, official positions such as the eighth-grade county magistrate and the ninth-grade chief secretary will be decided by the Civil Service Department. After they appoint officials to act as agents, as long as there are no major problems, they will be approved by the Ministry of Personnel and receive the emperor's order.

This is a good thing for local officials, but it weakens the court's control over eighth- and ninth-grade officials. Yuan Keli said:

"Your Majesty, official appointments need to go through the imperial court. How can we let the local government decide?"

"I believe that the Department of Civil Affairs is responsible for official affairs, and official affairs need to be decided by the Ministry of Personnel."

Zhu Youjian had doubts about whether to decentralize the power to appoint officials. But after thinking it over, I still decided to do it. Explained carefully to Yuan Keli:

"The political counselors or counselors in charge of the Civil Affairs Department can be regarded as the envoys sent by the Ministry of Civil Affairs to the local areas to take charge of deposing officials, and they are recommended by the Shaoqing standards."

"In this way, the appointment of officials will still be controlled by the Ministry of Personnel and will not easily get out of control."

"And with this power, local governments can more easily adjust official positions, deal with incompetent officials, and promote outstanding officials."

When Yuan Keli heard this, his worries were relieved. However, I am still worried that after local governments have the power to appoint officials, they may not be able to lose their power. I suggest:

"I believe that even if the power of appointing officials is decentralized, it cannot be completely controlled by the Ministry of Civil Affairs."

"It should be imitated in the imperial court system and recommended by the Chief Secretary."

These words made Zhu Youjian's eyes light up and he said:

"Knowing how to push is a good idea!"

"Just like the nomination process, the Ministry of Civil Affairs proposes candidates, and senior officials from each province meet to recommend them."

"Please discuss, who are the provincial officials involved and will recommend it?"

The ministers now became interested and felt that decentralizing the imperial recommendation system would be a good thing.

As one of the greatest powers obtained by courtiers from the emperor, all civil servants disliked Tingtui.

Seeing that the current emperor was not averse to tingtui and had formulated the law of tingtui, but also extended it to local areas, they praised the emperor's wisdom in their hearts and put forward various suggestions. Yuan Keli said:
"The ministers of the imperial court and the officials and soldiers are recommended by the officials above the fifth rank and the imperial court."

"I believe that local officials of the eighth or ninth grade should be recommended by officials of the fifth or higher rank of the Chief Secretary and the Chief Secretary."

"There are chief secretaries, left and right chief envoys, left and right political envoys, left and right counselors, and left and right counselors. The chief ministers are responsible for the inspection envoys, the deputy envoys are responsible for the inspection, and the inspectors are responsible for the affairs."

This long list of official positions, not to mention other people, even Yuan Keli himself felt that it was a bit too much, so he added:
"The chief secretary and the officials of the judicial department are divided into various departments and may not have time to gather."

"I think it only needs more than half of the people to participate, and there is no need to force everyone to participate."

Zhu Youjian shook his head when he heard this and said:
"It's still too much. Get rid of the counselors and ministers, and let officials of fourth rank and above participate."

“A resolution can only be formed when more than two-thirds of the total number of people are present.”

This was a common practice in later generations, and most officials agreed.

Zhu Youjian took advantage of the situation and made another point, saying to the ministers:

"The province has three departments. In addition to the Chief Secretary and the Inspector General Department, there is also the Metropolitan Command and Envoy Department."

"I believe that the Metropolitan Commander and the Metropolitan Commander's colleagues should also participate in the meeting."

The ministers immediately rejected it and did not want the generals to participate. Yuan Keli said:
"Each Dusi leads his own bodyguard, so he is subordinate to the Five Prefectures and listens to the Ministry of War."

"It has nothing to do with local officials and should not have the power to make recommendations."

"And if Du Si controls the appointment of officials, he may be in trouble with Jiedu!"

This was something that civil servants tried their best to avoid. Zhu Youjian felt it was reasonable and put down the idea, but he made another point to give the military attache some power:
"The captains of the provincial guards have the right to attend the meeting."

“And we have the responsibility to vet candidates to prevent criminals from mixing in.”

"In official positions involving military affairs, we have the right to veto."

The power that was originally intended to be given to the Du Si was instead given to the Du Lieutenant.

Many civil servants were unwilling to accept this, but no one raised objections.

In today's court, only a few people such as Yuan Keli and Bi Ziyan have the confidence to argue with the emperor.

However, Yuan Keli's son Yuan Shu is now the captain of the Shaanxi Weiwei Department, and he is inconvenient to express his position on this.

In addition, this power is not great, so it does not give the captain the power to push.

Therefore, after Bi Ziyan raised some objections and was explained by the emperor, the fact that the captain was present was accepted by the courtiers present.

This is just a side dish. The next thing to discuss is the focus of the ministers' attention, that is:

Do the governors and governors have the power to push?
There are two schools of thought on this point. One school believes that governors and governors control local areas and naturally have the power to appoint and remove officials and should participate in meetings.

One group believes that the power of the governor and governor is too heavy and cannot have the power to appoint and remove officials, so as to prevent the tail from being lost and the formation of vassal towns in the local area.

Some people even cited the example of cabinet academicians not participating in the nomination, arguing that governors and governors should not participate in the nomination.

After discussions among these people, Zhu Youjian was already inclined not to give the governor power. Even though he wanted to strengthen Sun Chuanting's power and enable him to restrain Shaanxi officials, he was unwilling to give the governor the power to appoint and remove officials of the eighth and ninth grades.

The governor controlled the appointment and dismissal of officials, which would cause too much trouble, and Zhu Youjian was unwilling to give them this power.

Therefore, after the second opinion prevailed, he decided:
"The Governor is not qualified to vote, but he has the right to attend and the Supervisory Committee will count the votes."

"In the future, the appointment and dismissal of local officials of the eighth or ninth grade will be recommended by the local Chief Secretary and the officials of the fourth grade and above of the Ancha Division, who will make recommendations to the court."

The local meeting regulations were formally formulated, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs was asked to try them out in the Shaanxi Civil Affairs Department to improve the specific provisions.

At the same time, Zhu Youjian did not forget his purpose: to let Sun Chuanting restrain Shaanxi officials and stabilize the situation in Shaanxi. Therefore, since the governor had no power to appoint or remove officials, he decided to send an obedient official to be in charge of the Shaanxi Chief Secretary's Office and ask him to assist Sun Chuanting.

Regarding this candidate, Zhu Youjian asked:
"The construction of the Shaanxi Civil Affairs Bureau is related to the appointment of local officials and the implementation of the recommendation system."

"Who do you think can take on this important task?"

This matter is the responsibility of the Ministry of Personnel, and the emperor had previously said that officials in charge of the Ministry of Personnel Administration should be recommended by the Ministry, mainly by the Ministry of Personnel.

What is being held now is the standing meeting to deal with the affairs of the Ministry of Personnel. The main officials of the Ministry of Personnel are all in the palace. After some discussion, they proposed two candidates, Yang Wenyue and Wu Di.

Yang Wenyue is currently serving as a subordinate in the criminal department. According to the custom of being assigned to participate in political affairs, there is no problem for him to be assigned as a lower-level counselor.

He even had the title of Taipusi Qing before. If Zhu Youjian hadn't eliminated the abuse after he ascended to the throne, he might have been promoted to the chief envoy. Now that I am serving as a counselor, there are still some losses.

Wu Di was formerly the censor of Shanxi Province. He was deregistered in February of the seventh year of Tianqi because of his disobedience to Wei Zhongxian.

Now that Wei Zhongxian has fallen, many people have suggested reviving him, and this time it was brought up again.

Zhu Youjian looked at these two names and felt that the officials in the Ministry of Personnel were already familiar with his official habits. Knowing that he will generally not respond to the push, the official accompanying the push can also respond.

So they proposed these two candidates because they wanted to appoint Yang Wenyue and revive Wu Di at the same time.

Not wanting them to get their wish easily, Zhu Youjian said:
"Wu Zongqi returned to Beijing, and the position will be appointed later."

"After the meeting, I will summon Yang Wenyue to see him. I will see if he is suitable."

I plan to get to know this person first and see if he is willing to obey and if he can cooperate with Sun Chuanting.

Not knowing what the emperor was thinking, the officials were a little uneasy that the emperor did not appoint him immediately. But the emperor did not veto the recommendation, and they could not make any suspicions.

We could only continue to discuss other matters, Yang Jingchen said:
"As usual, officials are selected in February and August and their promotions are determined."

"Among them, the subject of science and education comes first, commonly known as subject one and two, and the examination is held first."

This is an old topic that many officials have raised since the end of last year.

Now that it was time to replenish the officials of the Department of Science and Technology as usual, Yang Jingchen couldn't stand it anymore. This suggestion was made knowing that the emperor did not want to replenish the Kedao officials.

Zhu Youjian was unhappy, but he knew he couldn't blame Yang Jingchen. In fact, science and technology officials are too important, and they are a fast track for civil service promotion. No one wants the science and technology officials to remain vacant.

Therefore, after adding a batch to Shizhong last year, Zhu Youjian decided to supplement the censor, saying:
"According to the previously established rules, those with local judicial experience will be given priority among officials of the Three Judicial Departments of the imperial court."

"Priority is given to selecting officials from various governments, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs examines political performance."

"In addition, I urge everyone to take office as imperial censors, especially Liu Zongzhou."

Zhu Youjian was particularly dissatisfied with Liu Zongzhou's delay in taking office. Qian Qianyi, who was appointed later, has gone to Beijing, but Liu Zongzhou has not come yet.

Without his cooperation, how could the Donglin Party transform into a school of thought?

To the people of the world, Liu Zongzhou was the great scholar, while Qian Qianyi was the leader of the literary world, and his academic reputation was not as good as his.

Zhu Youjian wanted to use this Taishan Beidou in Ming Dynasty academia to promote the transformation of the Donglin Party.

The ministers didn't know this, they just felt that the emperor valued Liu Zongzhou, and they paid more attention to this person.

After the meeting that day, Zhu Youjian summoned Yang Wenyue to get to know this person.

Yang Wenyue was born in Nanchong, Sichuan and was a Jinshi in the 47th year of Wanli. Initially, he worked as a pedestrian in the Pedestrian Department, and was selected as a passerby in the fifth year of Tianqi examination.

His resume is all about serving in the imperial court and has no local experience. Zhu Youjian was initially suspicious of this person.

However, after a conversation, Zhu Youjian found that Yang Wenyue was very astute and many of his opinions were right to the point. And because of his experience as a transfer officer, he attaches great importance to money and food. It is believed that money and food are indispensable to run the Shaanxi Civil Affairs Bureau successfully.

At the same time, he also requested Zhu Youjian that the Civil Service Department should have the authority to award annual merit.

After thinking about this, Zhu Youjian said:
"The annual merit of an official is determined by the Department of Civil Affairs."

"For officials with more than one year of merit, the decision will be made by the Ministry of Personnel, and the Department of Personnel Affairs can only make suggestions."

"But the Civil Affairs Office can decide on one year's merit for eighth- and ninth-grade officials."

"After you arrive in Shaanxi, you must make good use of your merit and the power of deposing officials to cooperate with Governor Sun Chuanting."

Now Yang Wenyue understood clearly that his mission in Shaanxi was to cooperate with Sun Chuanting. Sun Chuanting will also provide support and help him run the civil affairs office.

So he immediately expressed his stance to cooperate with Sun Chuanting's work.

Zhu Youjian was very satisfied with this and decided to appoint Yang Wenyue as counselor to the Chief Secretary of Shaanxi Province, in charge of the Civil Affairs Department, and responsible for official work.

He was not stingy about the money and food issue he raised, and said:

"Sun Chuanting's memorial also mentioned that he wanted to recruit troops and needed a batch of money and food."

"I have allocated 200,000 yuan from Henan to govern Shaanxi."

"If you have any needs, please apply to Sun Chuanting."

Sun Chuanting mentioned it in his memorial to hold a martial arts conference to recruit heroes from Shaanxi, and Yuan Shu also wrote in his memorial.

Zhu Youjian is very supportive of this, and of course must solve the problem of money and food.

However, the repayment of arrears for the Shaanxi frontier army has exhausted the court's money and food, and his own internal treasury is not tight and he cannot allocate more money.

So after thinking about it, Zhu Youjian directly allocated the 200,000 yuan of grain borrowed from King Fu and King Lu to Sun Chuanting. This was obtained by sending Concubine Zheng to Prince Fu and conferring official posts in the clan of Prince Fu and Prince Lu. It was originally intended to be used by the border army, but now it is used in Shaanxi.

With this batch of money and food, and the assistance of Zu Dashou and others, Zhu Youjian believed that Sun Chuanting could train an elite army and stabilize the situation when chaos broke out in Shaanxi.

Sun Chuanting, who had high hopes from the emperor, was receiving the money and grain shipped from Henan with a bright face at this time. He was eager to see through this batch of property.

With this batch of money and food, he had start-up capital for his planned strategy to govern Shaanxi. Not to mention that the emperor sent Zu Dashou to serve as the commander of Biao Camp.

With the elite servants brought by Zu Dashou, Sun Chuanting became more confident in holding a martial arts conference to recruit people. I think having these people as a deterrent will make those people in the world not dare to mess around.

In order to prevent those people from causing chaos in Xi'an, Sun Chuanting immediately ordered Zu Dashou to form a standard battalion and select elite soldiers from Shaanxi officers and soldiers. He also asked Yuan Shu to send Jin Yiwei to lead generals such as Zu Dale and Zu Kuan to patrol around the city. If they found people in the Jianghu making trouble, they would immediately arrest them.

Under the shock of these people, the Jianghu people who came to Xi'an quickly became honest. Zu Dale and Zu Kuan were both brave generals with outstanding military prowess. The soldiers they command are strong soldiers, far superior to the bandits in the village.

Those unruly Jianghu people quickly put away their arrogance after competing with them. I feel that the imperial court has many elite soldiers and generals who are far superior to them.

Zu Dale, Zu Kuan and others, after competing with Gao Yingxiang, Liu Zongmin and others, were also shocked by the number of heroes in Shaanxi and did not dare to underestimate them. (End of chapter)