Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 296 Fine-tuning the administrative system of Ming Dynasty

Wang Siren, the right servant of the Ministry of Rites, is in charge of the ceremonies of the Ministry of Rites and the reception of foreign guests. Zhu Youjian doesn't have much expectations for Ming's foreign affairs, but he still gives Wang Siren a task, which is to send officials to Ryukyu and Japan next year. Other countries can even take the initiative to contact the Dutch East India Company.

Zhu Youjian believes that before the Ming Dynasty decides to rely on war to compete for overseas interests, the Ming Dynasty should use diplomatic means to promote the degree of diplomatic relations and foreign trade openness between each other.

Of course, this is just one of the many tasks of Wang Siren, the right servant of the Ministry of Rites. As the in charge of foreign affairs, he has to set up an interpreter school, which is specially responsible for training generalists and diplomats who can speak various languages.

In addition, Wang Siren has to manage the foreigners who come to China. Now, as Zhu Youjian intends to open up the country, in order to promote the development of the natural science field of Ming Dynasty, he intends to recruit Western scholars who are good at natural science research, so he came to Daming to preach. There are more and more taxis.

The Ministry of Rites, as the department that manages these foreigners, naturally cannot ignore the control of these people.

However, all of this should not be a problem for Wang Siren. Today's Daming is not the late Qing Dynasty that was bullied by foreign powers. It has extraterritoriality, and foreigners dare not despise Daming. Although Daming is only half of the country now, it is still a big country in the East in the eyes of overseas countries.

Even today's Japan has not dared to underestimate the Ming Empire.

As the right servant of the Ministry of Rites, it is impossible for Wang Siren to have an attitude of admiration for foreign foreigners. In the current Daming, scholar-officials still have a sense of national confidence in foreign foreigners.

Sometimes, Zhu Youjian had to persuade Wang Siren and other Ming officials not to care too much about the honor of the state, and to absorb as much as possible foreigner's good technology and academic knowledge.

After summoning the Ministry of Rites, only the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of Officials remained among the six ministries, but Zhu Youjian did not intend to give any instructions to the Ministry of Punishment.

When he, the autocratic emperor, was still in power, there would be no reforms in the Sanju Department, and of course there would be no legal system in the current Ming Dynasty.

In the political system of the Ming Dynasty, the Outer Court was composed of the cabinet and six ministries and five temples. The five temples were Dali Temple, Taichang Temple, Guanglu Temple, Taipu Temple, and Honglu Temple. Judiciary, as mentioned earlier, Zhu Youjian has no intention of reforming the judiciary for the time being.

Among the remaining four temples, except Taipu Temple, which is in charge of Ma Zheng, the responsibilities of the other three temples overlap with those of the Ministry of Rites. Zhu Youjian plans to let Liu Zongzhou manage these three temples at that time, which can be regarded as streamlining the organization and reducing redundant staff.

Regarding the horse administration of Taipu Temple, Zhu Youjian also intends to attribute Taipu Temple to the Ministry of War and be managed by the Ministry of War. After all, the main purpose of horses is cavalry combat.

This is equivalent to further strengthening the authority of the six ministries. In addition to the six ministries, the Zhengqing of Dali Temple, the Zuodu Yushi, and the Tongzheng Envoy still form the Jiuqing with the six ministries.

Zhu Youjian's idea is that in the future, major events will still be decided by the six ministries and nine ministries, but the daily administrative affairs will be handled by the cabinet. The Guozijian and the Imperial Academy, among the six ministries and nine ministers, are all responsible to the cabinet.

Of course, the Ministry of War must also be responsible to the Generalissimo's Office, serving as a bridge of communication between the Generalissimo's Office and the cabinet.

Zhu Youjian knew that the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty was actually the highest decision-making body of the Ming Dynasty, but he wanted to clarify this system, and even write it directly into the imperial order, so as to avoid future changes in the cabinet's powers and even intervene in military affairs and justice.

Now Zhu Youjian has separated the three legal departments, and the cabinet does not concurrently manage the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

The hall officials of the Sanfa Division are directly responsible to themselves, the emperor.

Like the Grand Marshal's Mansion that manages the military affairs of the world, under the emperor himself, the empire began to truly realize the separation of administrative, military, and judicial powers.

Zhu Youjian still does not want to abolish the Supervisor of Rituals and the Six Sections Gallery as agencies that intervene in administration. After all, they are an important part of protecting his imperial power.

As the organization department of Ming Dynasty, the Ministry of Officials manages the promotion and demotion of officials all over the world. It has a lot of power. It could even stand against the cabinet in the early days of the empire. But now Zhu Youjian continues to clearly admit that his powers belong to the cabinet. Naturally, it is necessary to strengthen the cabinet in The ruling authority on the part of the administrator.

This is conducive to the unification of government orders and the faster reform of the New Deal by those in charge of the cabinet.

Of course, because of the addition of the Grand Marshal's Mansion and the theater system, the highest local officials are the Governor and the Chief Soldier, the independence of the judiciary and the existence of the Supervisor of Rituals, the chiefs of the Three Jurisdictions, the Sixth Division Speaker, the inner court officials and even the administrative staff. High-ranking officials in the system, such as cabinet ministers and officials of the Six Departments, are still directly appointed by Zhu Youjian, including officials from the Grand Marshal's Office.

However, the chief assistant of the cabinet began to have the right to recommend the officials of the six ministries. In order to ensure the effective implementation of cabinet decrees, Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian would also follow the opinions of the chief minister of the cabinet to appoint and remove senior officials and cabinet ministers of the six ministries.

In other words, the cabinet now has the power to appoint and remove officials from the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Households, Ministry of Rites, and administrative officials below the local governor. Although it still needs to be reported to the emperor for approval, the power is already considered very large.

Except for the low administrative ability of the cabinet ministers or the serious partisanship in the empire, which caused the officials of the Six Departments, the Supervisor of Rituals, and the Grand Marshal's Office to deliberately embarrass the cabinet, Zhu Youjian can basically ignore the daily administrative affairs of the entire Ming Empire, so it can be regarded as lightened his workload.

Now Zhu Youjian can basically let go of the daily administrative affairs and let the cabinet preside over them. As for the public security and criminal cases of the judiciary, they can be handled by the three judicial departments. Generally, there will be no major cases that will alarm him, the emperor. .

Therefore, Zhu Youjian felt that after 19 years in Chongzhen, he could completely relax his work burden, and it was completely possible to only spend his mind on military and industrial advancement.

Among the current Cabinet Scholars, Wu Lu had submitted his resignation a month ago, and this time Zhu Youjian approved his resignation,

And He Tengjiao was instructed by Zhu Youjian to impeach He Tengjiao's inaction during his stay in Huguang, which caused Zuo Liangyu to rebel. The education level of the people in Guangxi can be regarded as a crime and a meritorious deed.

Gao Hongtu is still on vacation, and Zhu Youjian has issued an order that he can return to Beijing after the end of the first lunar month.

Li Banghua and Lu Zhenfei have been granted the official titles of Shaofu and Shaobao respectively, and they will no longer be cabinet bachelors.

In other words, among the current cabinet scholars, there are only Fan Jingwen, the chief assistant of the cabinet, and Ma Shiying, a scholar of the Hall of Martial Arts.

At the same time, Zhu Youjian made Liu Zongzhou, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, a bachelor of Dongge University, and Song Yingxing, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, a bachelor of Dongge University.

(End of this chapter)