Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Replacing officials with low-level officials was Zhu Youjian's long-established strategy. He wanted to use these exiled officials to change the situation where local power was dominated by subordinate officials and wealthy families.

Not only will the teaching position be changed to a grade official, Zhu Youjian also plans to add judges at the county level, who will be responsible for judicial supervision like the officials in the government.

The Weiwei Department also has officials at the county level who are responsible for local security and military work.

It happened that Sun Chuanting sent a memorial, and Zhu Youming, the eunuch Gao Shiming, took it out and read it in the court.

This memorial was written by Sun Chuanting to arrange for the winners of the Shaanxi Martial Arts Conference.

In view of the fact that bandits are everywhere in Shaanxi today and banditry is frequent, Sun Chuanting suggested that more officials be added to Shaanxi to be responsible for catching bandits.

It happened that Zhu Youjian pushed the court to decentralize the appointment authority of civil servants and eighth- and ninth-rank officials. It was piloted in Shaanxi. Officials of fourth-rank and above from the Chief Secretary and the Ancha Division submitted the appointment to the Ministry of Personnel.

Sun Chuanting therefore proposed that additional inspections could be set up in Shaanxi and county lieutenants could be added in the counties to be responsible for catching thieves.

Inspection departments in various parts of the Ming Dynasty were responsible for arresting thieves and interrogating traitors and traitors. They were set up in key places in Guanjin, prefectures and counties, and led corvee archers to guard them.

The grades of patrol inspectors and deputy patrol inspectors are designated as Cong Ninth Grade, which are official officials.

Now Sun Chuanting and Yuan Shu proposed to establish an additional inspection department in Shaanxi. In addition, county captains were added to each county as subordinates of the Weiwei Department.

For those winners of the Shaanxi Martial Arts Conference who were not qualified to go to the capital to participate in the Martial Arts Conference, Sun Chuanting believed that after training, they could be appointed as county captains and patrol inspectors, leading the government officials to arrest local bandits.

Most of these people are local snakes and have some influence in the local area. He knows more about things in the green forest than ordinary officials. With these people taking the lead, the banditry in Shaanxi could not be said to be completely quelled, but at least temporarily stabilized.

Zhu Youjian appreciated this proposal very much and asked Gao Shiming to read aloud the proposal in the memorial to add county captains.

When the ministers in the court heard that the emperor not only wanted to upgrade the imperial edict to a grade official, but also to create a county captain, more and more people opposed it.

After all, the edicts were civil servants, and there were many famous ministers with ecclesiastical backgrounds. These teaching positions were designated as grade officials, which they could barely accept. The county captain was actually a military attache, which they couldn't stand. They were unwilling to share local power with the warriors they looked down upon.

Even if Sun Chuanting and Yuan Shu proposed in their memorials that the imperial court should send Wu Jinshi as county captain, it would be the same. In their opinion, the so-called martial scholars also belong to martial people.

Zhu Youjian knew these things very well and never thought that the establishment of county captain would be easily passed. So he raised this matter together with the promotion of his teaching position to a grade officer.

And the establishment of judges was also mentioned:
"The county magistrate is in charge of the administration of a county and cannot waste his energy on criminal matters."

"There are not only officials in the government, but also judges in the county, who are responsible for judicial trials and supervision like the urban court office."

"From now on, the officials of the Three Laws Division will be mainly selected from among the officials and judges. The scholars of the Ming Law Department will mainly hold the positions of the Three Laws Division."

Telling everything about his plan, Zhu Youjian said:
"From now on, in the affairs of the county, the magistrate will control the overall situation, the county magistrate will assist the magistrate, the judge will be responsible for punishment, the chief registrar will be responsible for money and food, the county captain will be responsible for public security, and the edict will be responsible for education."

"These six officials are the decision-makers on county affairs. All matters in the county, the promotion and demotion of officials, and financial revenue and expenditures must be made by six people."

"The imperial court holds court meetings, and county officials must also meet at least once a month to discuss county affairs. The records are also recorded by the edict and submitted to superiors for viewing."

"Dian Shi, as the head of the officials, is allowed to attend meetings and inform other officials."

"The county magistrate only has the final say when the remaining officials cannot agree on the outcome."

"There must never be a situation where the magistrate and his staff decide matters privately without other officials knowing anything about it."

"If something like that happens, the county magistrate is unqualified and must be reprimanded or even demoted and dismissed."

County magistrates are commonly known as Bailihou, and they are also called old parents. Their power in the local area is boundless.

The so-called "county magistrate who destroys the family and the governor who destroys the family" refers to them.

Zhu Youjian wanted to limit their power, so he thought of the collective leadership system. Moreover, Ming Dynasty also has a tradition of gathering discussions and can accept this kind of thing.

After formulating the provincial-level conference promotion regulations some time ago, Zhu Youjian realized that officials in the Ming Dynasty could accept the decentralization of the collective conference system. Therefore, we decided to extend the tradition of discussing major events to the county—

From now on, the affairs of the county will be changed from the sole discretion of the county magistrate to collective leadership. Everyone has corresponding powers, dividing the power of the county magistrate.

Even though the county magistrate has the power to handle overall affairs, he must discuss specific matters with other officials in charge. This reduces the possibility of county magistrates running amok and makes the distribution of local power more reasonable.

This is a major change in the local governance system, and it is more terrifying than the officials in the court had previously feared. Many officials who were unwilling to change immediately began to persuade the emperor to withdraw the proposal.

Their reasons are various. The most common one is that the world is in chaos and stability should be the priority. We cannot interfere with county officials at this time.

But since Zhu Youjian has proposed it, he will not give up halfway. Using Sun Chuanting’s memorial to refute:
"The matter of increasing county officials was proposed by the governor of Shaanxi."

"Do you officials who sit high in the court know more about local conditions than he does?"

"The situation where three officials are responsible for the affairs of one county no longer meets the needs of the Ming Dynasty."

"That's why I decentralized the power to appoint eighth- and ninth-grade officials a few days ago and increased the number of low-grade officials."

"I plan to try this out in Shaanxi at the request of Sun Chuanting."

“If it’s executed well, then roll it out to other places.”

This method is more stable than spreading it across the country at once, but it still has many risks.

Especially the taxes in Shaanxi were waived by the emperor last year. Now that more officials are being added, where will the money come from.

Zhu Youjian listened to them constantly raising difficulties, but he was unwilling to help him solve the problem. Some of the officials in the court were not very satisfied.

But he also knew that there was great resistance to this matter, and he never thought of settling the matter in one court meeting, saying:
"This matter is of great importance and will be discussed at a court meeting next month."

"Whether it passes or not is up to you all to decide!"

Let the officials choose a good day to hold a court meeting at the Chinese Army Governor's Mansion.

Then he turned to Liu Zongzhou and said:
"Mr. Liu will be in charge of matters related to Mingjingke."

"It is up to the teacher to decide what to take and how to take the test." "We need to select suitable talents for the reconstruction of rituals and music."

Liu Zongzhou suddenly got this appointment and was very happy.

Recreating such a major event as ritual music requires a lot of manpower. How could he not be happy when the emperor handed over Ming Jing Ke to him?

This means that he is responsible for the emphasis on making rituals and music, and it must be advanced step by step in the hands of his disciples.

Then came the examiner of the Ming Shu Department, Zhu Youjian, and Dong Qichang was in charge.

This person was arranged by him to draw "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" two days ago. Of course Zhu Youjian had to provide support to make him more famous. In this way, when future generations want to sell paintings and calligraphy, they will be worth more money.

Dong Qichang's calligraphy attainments were second to none in the Ming Dynasty. He served as the examiner of Ming calligraphy, and the officials were naturally convinced.

Only the bachelor Zhang Ruitu felt very sad. Because he is also a famous calligrapher, he is qualified to preside over the calligraphy department. The emperor had also previously asked him to focus on books and writing matters and be responsible for these things. As a bachelor, it would be more appropriate for him to preside over the imperial examination.

But the emperor would rather use Dong Qichang, the right minister of the Ministry of Personnel, than the examiner. Obviously it means that he no longer has any status in the emperor's heart, and he is just waiting to find an opportunity to take it down.

How could this make him happy? The opportunity he lost was far from being as simple as an examiner.

Dong Qichang was overjoyed because he knew the pros and cons. He never imagined that he would still be able to preside over the imperial examination when he grew old.

Even for him, it was a great honor to serve as the examiner for the Ming Dynasty's first Ming Shu subject. This is not only a matter of reputation, but also means that all scholars in this field must recognize him as their master.

And more importantly, this is the first time that Ming Dynasty has held Ming Shu Ke, and the standards for Ming Shu Ke exams must be decided by him. What kind of words can be used depends on his arrangement——

He can completely use his own calligraphy as a model, and stipulates that the closer the calligraphy is to his, the better the ranking will be.

In this way, his influence in the Ming Dynasty calligraphy circle will be greatly improved. Scholars in the Ming calligraphy department in later generations must learn from his calligraphy.

Zhu Youjian knew this situation, so he appointed him as the examiner of Mingshu. After all, he allowed Dong Qichang to write a lot of words during this period, and also asked him to paint. As Dong Qichang became more famous, the value of these things would increase.

What's even better is that Dong Qichang is seventy-four years old this year. No matter how famous he is and how many disciples he has, he cannot have great influence in the court. The decision passed years ago to allow people over 70 to start one year at a time can also allow Zhu Youjian to easily take him down.

Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, Zhu Youjian appointed Dong Qichang as the examiner of Mingshu subject and asked him to preside over this subject and determine various standards.

As for the Ming Jing Ke hosted by Liu Zongzhou, preparations were simpler. Because the content of the imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty was the Four Books and Five Classics. It's just that the Four Books are compulsory courses and the Five Classics are elective courses. In the provincial examination and the joint examination, scholars need to choose one classic as the main classic. This is where the title of Wu Jing Kui in the rural examination comes from.

Therefore, most of the scholars in the Ming Dynasty only knew one sutra and did not know much about the other four sutras. The exam papers must also be assigned to rooms. The number of rooms and admission quotas for each class must be determined before the exam.

For example, this time the examination was divided into six rooms of the Book of Changes, six rooms of the Book of Songs, four rooms of Shangshu, and two rooms each of Spring and Autumn and Book of Rites. There are twenty rooms in total, and twenty co-examiners who grade the papers. Twenty people were admitted to each room, a total of 400 Jinshi.

These are all established examples. The Ming Jing Ke has just been established and is obviously impossible to change. This Ming Jing examination will obviously be modeled on the Jinshi examination. In the future, when the competition becomes fierce, it will be possible to integrate the contents of the Five Classics, and it is required that the scholars who participate must be familiar with all the Five Classics.

After settling the matter, Zhu Youjian ended the court meeting. When he got back, he summoned the person in charge and editors of the Beijing News and asked them to write the article according to his instructions:

"The front page on the 27th should be dedicated to adding more favors to the imperial court, and writing about my promotion to the throne and the recruitment of more talents."

"Then next to this article, write a discussion about adding county officials. Tell all the scholars that the court intends to add county officials."

"Let the candidates who come to the capital to participate in the examination know that after they get their birth certificate, there will be official positions waiting for them."

This is Zhu Youji's idea. He plans to use the public opinion of the scholars in the capital to force the ministers in the court to accept the reform of the county-level official system——

If they are unwilling to increase the number of county-level officials, the rioters gathered in the capital will make them unable to even leave their homes.

This is the first time since the publication of the newspaper that it has exerted its influence on public opinion, using public opinion to influence politics and influence court decisions.

Zhu Youjian attached great importance to this, selected the best manuscripts, and revised them himself.

On the morning of the 27th, people in the capital, who had gradually become accustomed to reading newspapers, saw the news about the addition of Enke on the front page, and the news about the addition of county-level officials next to it.

This made Juren immediately overjoyed when he saw the newspaper. They never imagined that it was not enough for the emperor to recruit 600 Jinshi. He also planned to add Enke and recruit another 200 Jinshi.

Moreover, it was mentioned above that some non-Jinshi scholars should be given a good background so that they would be qualified to serve as officials.

Although the official position awarded is only the ninth rank, for many lower-ranking candidates, it is already a dream -

The issue of people begging for teaching positions occurred during the Jiajing period. After the joint examination in the 23rd year of Wanli, there were even scenes of more than 700 people begging for help.

For those teaching positions that the candidates on the deputy list are unwilling to take, some candidates on the lower list are eager to take them. After all, becoming an official from a teaching position is also a way to become an official. The famous Hai Rui Haigangfeng served as an edict as a scholar and became a famous official of his generation.

Therefore, the emperor established Enke, which greatly praised the people in the capital. The only thing they were dissatisfied with was that Enke’s qualifications for participation were limited, and only some people could participate, excluding many people:

“How can we only allow these people to participate?”

"Are we not worthy of His Majesty's grace?"

Some juren who had been in disgrace for many years and wanted to seek an official position were talking about this and wanted the court to take back their orders and expand the scope of enke to all juren.

But those old Juren were not very happy about this. They came to participate in the examination at such an old age, obviously they have expectations for becoming an official. They all refuted those who did not respect the elders enough and actually wanted to rob them of their opportunities.

These candidates are older and somewhat famous. They came forward to refute it, and the three generations of Baishen ancestors also echoed it. The two sides fought to a close, with no one willing to surrender.

However, these were just appetizers, and soon it was discovered that the relationship between the addition of county magistrates and the addition of Enke was discovered. If there are no more county officials, will people from Enke still have a chance to become officials?
How can the emperor arrange for the expansion of recruitment so much?

At this time, many people stopped arguing. They knew that whether the proposal to add additional county magistrates could be passed was a big issue that affected them all.

After all, the emperor named Enke Mingjingke and Mingshuke, obviously intending to establish them more than once. Nowadays, as long as young people are over forty, they will have the opportunity to participate.

However, if there are no more county-level officials, the number of officials needed by the court will be very limited. Even if Enke is opened in the future, not many people will be hired.

Therefore, the governors in the capital share the same hatred on this point. They all believe that additional county magistrates should be added to divide the power of the magistrate. (End of chapter)