Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 79 Adjustment of the Metropolitan Procuratorate

Zhu Yougao had been planning for a long time to establish the General Accounting Office and the Independent Commission Against Corruption, and also to bury Sunchon Bank, a new institution established in the inner court.

At this time, no one in the Metropolitan Procuratorate dared to object when he said it when dealing with officials. Other officials who were awaiting punishment were also speechless. They even thought about the emperor's adjustments to the five temples some time ago and thought that the emperor had taken action again. It seemed that the emperor would never give up until he adjusted all the institutions.

Yuan Keli had not experienced the adjustment of the five temples some time ago, and felt that it was unreasonable for the emperor to set up government offices at will without discussion.

But he thought about the money and food expenditure issue mentioned in the exchange with the emperor a few days ago, and the fact that Jiubian owed millions in wages.

In the end, he comforted himself in his mind that the affairs of the Metropolitan Procuratorate were not under his jurisdiction. He also did not open his mouth and acquiesced to the matter.

Seeing that there was no objection, Zhu Youjian took the opportunity to continue to adjust the Metropolitan Procuratorate. He wanted to take advantage of this period to take power and adjust the Metropolitan Procuratorate according to his own will, so that their main responsibility would shift to supervising officials.

In order to prevent those powerful officials from resurrecting, they will target themselves as the emperor when they have nothing to do.

Continuing to establish the general office in the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Zhu Youjian said:
"Yang Suoxiu, the general envoy of Nanjing, praised and taught, and was designated as the sixth class, and all official ranks were removed."

"In the hope that he has made meritorious service in impeaching the eunuch, he will be reinstated as the fourth-rank censor of Qiandu."

"The General Prosecutor's Office is established to be responsible for judicial supervision. It investigates and prosecutes behaviors that endanger national security, endanger people's safety, and abuse of power to commit crimes. It also supervises the execution of judgments, and supervises the use of penalties and prisons."

"In this trial of eunuchs, the Prosecutor General's Office will initiate public prosecutions and follow all cases to the end."

After hearing this appointment, the ministers were already a little envious of Yang Suoxiu. Regardless of the fact that this person was demoted from the third rank to the fourth rank, in terms of actual power, he, the censor of Qiandu in charge of the General Procuratorate, is far more important than the general envoy of Nanjing, and even more important than the former censor of the third rank, right deputy censor. Even better.

It can be said that Yang Suoxiu achieved his original goal——

He separated himself from the eunuchs and successfully stayed in the capital.

All the officials present knew that the emperor liked to adjust institutions. They did not say anything because they were punished. Only Yuan Keli couldn't help it and remonstrated:
"Your Majesty, adjusting institutions at will will make officials confused. This is a taboo in governing the country."

"What's more, Yang Suoxiu was originally an eunuch. His Majesty asked him to hold this position, and he might bend the law for personal gain."

Still a little patient with Yuan Keli, Zhu Youjian explained:
"I am not adjusting the organization at will. I am just unifying the powers and responsibilities and clarifying the responsibilities."

"Yang Suoxiu was an eunuch before, but he is determined to make meritorious deeds. I believe he will not disappoint me."

Having said that, Zhu Youjian himself felt that using only Yang Suoxiu would easily arouse suspicion and even create public opinion, so he ordered:

"Liu Zongzhou, who was originally in the fourth rank of the Zheng Dynasty, was appointed as the censor of Qiandu."

"After arriving in Beijing, he and Yang Suoxiu were responsible for investigating the crimes of eunuch party members and prosecuting them."

Now Yuan Keli had nothing to say. Liu Zongzhou was a famous member of the Donglin Party. With him in charge of investigating the Eunuch Party, no one had anything to say.

Liu Zongzhou was extremely famous. It can even be said that after the deaths of Gu Xiancheng and Gao Panlong, he was the only remaining Taishan Beidou among the Ming Dynasty scholars.

The imperial court publicly praised Liu Zongzhou for his "eternal spirit, perfect generation, known as Qilin Phoenix, scholar Taishan Beidou"——

If the emperor Zhu Youjian does not use him, he may even be criticized as "there is a sage in the wild."

Therefore, after the eunuch was defeated, Liu Zongzhou was included in the first batch of indictment lists by Zhu Youjian. Moreover, he remembered that Liu Zongzhou was a loyal minister who died for the festival, and he also knew that he was the last Confucian master in the Ming Dynasty, the leader of Neo-Confucian psychology in the Song and Ming Dynasties, and the teacher of Huang Zongxi. Although I don't know what his abilities are, he still became the censor of Qiandu and was responsible for investigating the eunuchs.

Zhu Youjian believed that this man who was so popular in the world would not let him down. Even if someone criticizes the eunuch's handling of the eunuch in the future, they can suppress it with the help of Liu Zongzhou's reputation.

Sure enough, when Liu Zongzhou's name came out, no one had anything to say. There is no objection to his acting as the censor of Qiandu.

The only problem is that Zhu Youjian appointed too many censors in Qiandu, more than the two on the left and right.

Xu Zongli raised this question, and Zhu Youjian said:
"The two positions of Deputy Capital Censor and Qiandu Censor will no longer be distinguished between left and right in the future. According to the positions they are responsible for, there will be one Deputy Capital Censor and four to six Qiandu Censors."

"From now on, the Imperial Censor Zuo Du will be in charge of affairs, the Deputy Imperial Censor will be in charge of the affairs, and the Deputy Imperial Censor will be in charge of the general administration."

"Set up a special right capital censor, responsible for supervising the officials of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and working with the Ministry of Personnel to manage the censor's titles."

"Other officials who are not in the Metropolitan Procuratorate but have the title of censor, I authorize them to have the same supervisory powers as real censors. They can monitor lawlessness and supervise officials."

"The thirteen supervisory censors remain unchanged and are still responsible for the original official duties." Speaking of the adjustment of the Metropolitan Procuratorate's organization, Zhu Youjian also explained the specific operations in order to turn them to supervisory officials:
"All supervisory censors have independent supervisory powers and submit them to different general administrations for assistance based on the classification of the matters they supervise."

"If an official is suspected of corruption, after the supervisory censor finds out, he can submit it to the Independent Commission Against Corruption for investigation and determination of specific evidence. The final result will be signed by the supervisory censor and the Qiandu censor in charge of the Independent Commission Against Corruption."

"If any official has problems with financial revenue and expenditure, they should be submitted to the General Accounting Office."

"If any official is suspected of breaking the law or committing a crime, he should be submitted to the Prosecutor General's Office for public prosecution and let Dali Temple try him."

"If there are officials involved in these aspects, or the case is serious, then the supervisory censor will apply to transfer personnel from the general administration and the 13th Road to temporarily establish an independent investigation office until the case is over and the investigation office will be abolished."

"The General Investigation Bureau is headed by the Censor of Qiandu, and Liu Zongzhou will take up the post after arriving in Beijing. It can be responsible for the deployment of personnel in various investigation offices in normal times, but without legitimate reasons, the application of the Supervisory Censor to form an independent investigation office must not be rejected."

“Officials from the Ministry of Criminal Justice and the local prosecutor’s office and other three judicial departments must also cooperate with the General Administration of Investigation’s deployment of personnel.”

This adjustment obviously strengthened the power of the censors, but made their energy mainly focused on officials. Zhu Youjian didn't want so many censors to stare at him idle. It was better to let them stare at officials than to stare at himself.

Listening to the emperor's division of the thirteen supervisory censors and the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the General Audit Office, the General Prosecutor's Office, and the General Investigation Office, all the ministers felt that the emperor really had a lot of ideas. The future of the Metropolitan Procuratorate will definitely undergo major changes.

Although those ministers who were unwilling to change wanted to object, they were speechless at this time. The censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate didn't say anything. What else could outsiders like them say?
Of course the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate did not speak, because the emperor swept away all the censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. The newly appointed censor of Qiandu had just been questioned, and he was specifically responsible for the general administration and strengthened his power. Of course, he had nothing to say.

The responsibilities of the thirteen supervisory censors remained unchanged, and the establishment of several general administrations added the position of Qiandu censor, which increased the hope of the censor in charge to be promoted within the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

The matter of the Independent Investigation Bureau has also strengthened the supervisory power of the supervisory censor. It is impossible for the supervisory censor to object to such matters.

It can be said that Zhu Youjian took advantage of the power vacuum at the top of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to reorganize the upper-level structure of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and shift the supervisory direction of the censor to use actual evidence to supervise officials. Lest they have nothing to do but rant without being able to produce concrete evidence.

Yuan Keli seemed to have something to say. After Zhu Youjian saw it, he said to him in advance:
"The Thirteen Supervisory Censors will not be adjusted for the time being, but in the future, the supervision of the guards and the army will be separated from the coordination of the Thirteen Supervisories, and will be the responsibility of the independent Military Supervision General Administration."

"The General Administration of Military Supervision was established by the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Ministry of War to ensure confidentiality."

"From now on, matters such as military law, military discipline, and auditing in the army will be supervised by the General Administration of Military Supervision."

"Dali Temple will also set up military courts to try military personnel."

This is a good thing for the Ministry of War, and Yuan Keli cannot refuse. So after thinking about it, he quickly chose to accept it.

However, in order to prevent the emperor from arbitrarily adjusting the imperial organization, he also raised questions and gave advice:

"Your Majesty has established so many new departments and dismissed so many officials."

"I am worried that there are not enough officials, so please be patient."

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly and said in approval:

"Yuan Qing is old enough to seek the country, and what he said makes sense."

"Let's see. The establishment of the new government office of the Metropolitan Procuratorate will be decided by the Imperial Censor and the Ministry of Personnel after discussion."

"Each department has a department chief and selects a supervisory censor. Below, set up a seventh-rank governor, a seventh-rank inspector, a eighth-rank magistrate, and an eighth-rank school official, selected from next year's new scholars."

"We need to recruit more people for next year's imperial examination and reserve more talents!"

After this decision was made, no one dared to object. The expansion of the imperial examination enrollment is something that will benefit scholars all over the world. Anyone who dares to oppose it must be prepared to be sprayed to death by the scholars.

As a result, the establishment of the five major general offices of the Metropolitan Procuratorate was established, and no one could object anymore.

In order to ensure the smooth progress of this matter, Zhu Youjian appointed the person in charge:
"Li Banghua, the former governor of Tianjin, the right minister of the Ministry of War, and the censor of the right capital, has returned to power and has become the acting deputy censor of the capital."

"After he comes to Beijing, he will be responsible for coordinating the affairs of the court and adjusting the organization of the Metropolitan Procuratorate."

"The recommendations of the Censor of the Left Capital and the Censor of the Right Capital will be placed after adjustment by the Metropolitan Procuratorate."

Yuan Keli was silent after hearing the words and accepted these adjustments. Although this matter was somewhat irregular, Li Banghua was recommended by him, so his objection at this time was unjustifiable. He also believes in Li Banghua's ability and integrity to preside over the adjustment of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

(End of this chapter)