I

  Chapter 387 385 [Establishment of the cabinet]

  In the quiet room.

  Xu Ying, Huang Zongxi, and Wang Tiao took the guest seats, while Zhao Han sat alone in the main seat.

Huang Zongxi first said: "If Your Highness wants to restore the cabinet, should the Ten Caos be placed under the cabinet or should they be placed under the imperial power? The authority of the Ten Caos must be adjusted. If the Ten Caos are placed under the Cabinet, I am afraid that they should have the right to review, otherwise It became the mouthpiece of the cabinet."

Wang Tiaoding laughed and said: "If the Ten Caos have the power of review, it will go back to the system of three provinces and six ministries in the Tang Dynasty. The cabinet is the Zhongshu Province, the Ten Caos are the subordinate provinces, and the ministries are the Ministers. They are exactly the same, and the powers and responsibilities have not changed. "

  Xu Ying said: "If the Ten Caos are separated, the Secretary Academy must be re-established, otherwise the emperor will become blind and let the civil and military officials decide."

Huang Zongxi said: "If the secretariat is re-established, once it encounters a slack king, the secretariat will definitely evolve into a ceremonial supervisor controlled by civil servants. At that time, the cabinet will become a mouthpiece, and the secretariat will become a new cabinet. Great Ming Dynasty The cabinet was originally the emperor's secretariat!"

  The three continued to argue, and Zhao Han felt helpless.

  The imperial power and the power of the prime minister are so irreconcilable, and there has always been a relationship between one and the other.

  Zhao Han does not set up a cabinet now, the Ten Caos directly obey Zhao Han's orders, and the Six Departments execute the orders conveyed by the Ten Caos, which means that the imperial power and the prime minister's power are integrated, which is what Zhu Yuanzhang did back then.

   This state certainly cannot last long, requiring the emperor to work more than ten hours a day. When encountering a lot of things, the emperor may work twelve hours a day.

  Zhao Han is exhausted now!

  The descendants of Zhao Han, who can work eight hours a day, can already be called diligent kings, and they must divide the power of the prime minister.

  The more prime minister power is distributed, the more opportunities the future emperor will have to neglect his administration. And the cabinet that has won the prime minister will not be satisfied with the status quo, but will only demand more and more power.

  Just like the system of three provinces and six ministries in the Tang Dynasty, the power was originally divided into three parts. As a result, first Zhongshu and Menxia provinces took away the ministerial power of Shangshu province. Then the two provinces of Zhongshu and Menxia merged, and were reunited into one by the three-point prime minister.

  The cabinet in the early Ming Dynasty was nothing more than a secretarial and advisory body, pulling the Imperial Academy to seize power together.

  When the cabinet successfully seized power, it kicked the Imperial Academy away, and the emperor could only use eunuchs to distribute the power. When the cabinet was unable to fight the eunuchs, it even ran to get involved in the power of the ministry (executive power), and took over the six departments responsible for review, signing, refutation, and communication as dogs.

  Civilian officials are unreliable, and eunuchs are also unreliable.

  Once the emperor reused the eunuchs, the eunuchs immediately trembled. They didn't want to do business at all, and just used their power to make money crazily. Because the eunuchs who were doing serious business did not end well, they must be blamed for the emperor!

   Whenever there is an emperor who reuses eunuchs, the civil servants will counterattack after the new emperor succeeds, and take the opportunity to make the prime minister stronger.

  How to balance and restrict?

  No way to balance, no way to restrict!

   It is impossible for Zhao Han to create a parliament, and it is impossible for civilians to participate in the parliament. Maybe it was possible at the beginning of the founding of the country, but after two or three generations, there are only interest groups left in the parliament. For their own interests, they must disregard the interests of the country and the people.

  Zhao Han sighed: "I will stop arguing, try to do it first, and adjust slowly in the future. Ten Caos are under the dual management of the emperor and the cabinet."

  Xu Ying, Wang Diaoding, and Huang Zongxi looked at each other in blank dismay. This is fun, it is the Tang Dynasty's Three Provinces and Six Departments System in disguise.

  The cabinet is responsible for making decisions on major issues, the Ten Caos are responsible for reviewing and issuing policies, and the ministries are responsible for implementing policies.

  Daming is the battle between the chief inspector and the cabinet, and here Zhao Han is the battle between the cabinet and the Ten Caos.

   Again, there is no perfect system.

  What the **** will it look like in the future, let the future generations have a headache, and the monarchs and ministers of future generations will make adjustments themselves.

  Xu Ying suddenly said: "The future female officer examinations should be in charge of the inner court itself."

   "It's natural," Zhao Han said with a smile, "Not only is the inner court in charge, but the women who apply for the exam must be middle school graduates from all over the country. After setting up a university, they must even be college graduates."

  In Zhao Han's vision, graduating from primary school, middle school, and university is similar to obtaining the corresponding imperial examination qualifications.

  A very strict public exam is organized every year. Those who pass the exam can become officials, and those who fail the exam will not have any preferential treatment for gentry.

   There is no restriction on women taking public examinations, but under the influence of traditional concepts, I am afraid that not many women can become officials, and even if they become officials, it will be difficult to get promoted normally. Examination for female officials in the inner court is another way that Zhao Han left for them. After serving as an official in the inner court for a few years, they can resign and return to the common people, which can be regarded as a layer of gold in the imperial city.

  Don't talk about civil servants using female officials to control the inner court. If they can't control it, whoever dares to do so is courting death.

  By the way, the court ladies of the Qing Dynasty were recruited by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But if she is a beautiful woman from the Eight Banners, she will enter the palace through the Ministry of Household, either as a concubine or a high-ranking court lady. Which household official would dare to control the palace through a beautiful woman?

   Even in the Ming Dynasty, the selection of concubines and court ladies seemed to be in charge of the local eunuchs, but in fact it was civil servants from all over the country who assisted in the selection. Moreover, most civil servants avoid it, for fear that if they are too active, it will affect their official reputation and reputation.

   Zhao Han asked the officials of the six ministries to help select female officials in the inner court this time because the inner court has not yet been established.

   Instead of letting civil servants help, should Zhao Han be personally responsible?

  …

  After discussing with Xu Ying, Wang Diaoding, and Huang Zongxi, Zhao Han convened officials from various ministries to discuss in detail, and finally determined the latest structure of the central authority.

  The future operation of the country is as follows:

  Emperor, cabinet, ten cao, ten ministries, four major institutions.

   Minor matters are handled by local governments, while major matters are reported to the higher levels.

  The Ten Departments handed over the matter to the cabinet, and attached their own suggestions for handling it.

  The cabinet discusses and makes decisions, and tries to adopt the opinions of ten ministries. If the ten opinions are not adopted, they must be discussed in the cabinet and give their own legitimate reasons.

  After the cabinet makes a decision, it will be handed over to Shi Cao for review.

   After passing the review, the ten cao will be handed over to the emperor for review. After the emperor agrees and signs it, the Shicao can issue it, and it will be handed over to the Shibu for execution.

  Under normal circumstances, if the cabinet, ten cao, and ten ministries agree on how to deal with it, the emperor cannot easily dismiss it.

  These three organizations are competing with each other. If they agree, there will be no mistakes. If they really want to unite to become the emperor, there must be something wrong with the emperor, or the entire civil service system has completely collapsed, or there is a powerful minister who controls the government!

  At the same time, the emperor's work intensity also dropped.

  Emperor can take a look at the political affairs that the three major institutions agree on. Only the two major institutions have the same opinion, and the emperor should take a closer look. If the opinions of the three major organizations are different, the emperor should call the relevant personnel to discuss collectively.

  After doing this, Zhao Han's daily workload will definitely drop by more than 70%.

  Zhao Han is not Zhu Yuanzhang, who is too diligent in politics, and even personally handles the theft of the imperial city, asking about trivial matters.

   Now that things are settled, officials at all levels must make adjustments.

  Pang Chunlai served as the chief assistant of the cabinet, Li Banghua served as the second assistant of the cabinet, and Tian Younian served as an ordinary cabinet minister. There are only three of them in the cabinet for the time being. In addition, there is a large number of Zhongshu Sheren, who are equivalent to the secretaries of the three cabinet ministers.

  Officials of the ten ministries and the ten cao also have their own transfers.

  Especially the chief officials of the Ten Caos were all transferred from the right ministers of various ministries, and all Zhao Han's secretaries were sent out as officials.

  Xu Ying continued to engage in intelligence work, connecting with various departments, but only under the jurisdiction of Zhao Han himself.

  Many institutions were expanded at once, and there were many female officials and maids in the palace. Zhao Han's place was almost too big to live in, and the female officials had to share a room with several people.

  …

  Fei Chun was officially moved to be Minister of the Ministry of Finance, and the bank was handed over to someone else to take care of it.

   "How much money is there in the treasury?" Zhao Han asked.

"More than three million taels," Fei Chun replied in detail. "After the war, a lot of silver was spent on awards and pensions, and a lot of money was spent on immigration. The cost of the enthronement ceremony must be controlled at 50,000 taels of silver." within."

  The budget of 50,000 taels includes the construction of the Yinghun Temple in Nanjing and the restoration of the Sheji Altar in the old imperial city.

   When Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor in Nanjing, the enthronement ceremony was extremely simple.

   It means first offering sacrifices to the heaven and earth, and then the officials worship. Zhao Han's plan was similar, but he wanted to sacrifice the heroic souls of the martyrs first, and then sacrificed to the Heaven and Earth Shek, and then let the officials pay homage to it.

  These martyrs include not only regular soldiers and peasant soldiers, but also civilians who died in previous wars.

  Worshiping them is equivalent to worshiping all peoples.

   Zhao Han said: "I don't plan to build Huangzhuang Huangdian, I only have 100 acres of private land in Wuxing Town. From now on, the royal family will not buy private property, but the national treasury needs to supply domestic money every year. How much money do you think is good for each year?"

  Fei Chun didn't know, so he tentatively asked, "How about one million taels a year?"

"It's too much, let's tentatively set 100,000 taels per year," Zhao Han said. "Nowadays, there are not many royal family members, and the number of female officials and court ladies is not too large. One hundred thousand taels a year is definitely enough. It will increase in the future, how much?" It depends on the situation. Moreover, the treasury cannot be used as soon as there is a shortage of money like the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. The emperor's internal funds and the national treasury must be managed separately, and the treasury allocates funds every year as the emperor's internal funds. Cao and the ten ministries jointly discuss."

  Fei Chun asked: "Is the royal family's expenses purchased with domestic money, or is it provided by the people?"

   "The inner court spends its own money to buy it." Zhao Han said.

  The imperial expenses of the Ming Dynasty are three-in-one of self-manufacture, purchase and supply.

  Self-manufacturing means that the inner court opened its own factory to manufacture, and Huangzhuang farms real estate grain, and the maids can even spin cloth.

  Private supply is the customs duty of various localities, directly collecting some real objects, such as wood, and sending some of them to the palace. There is also taxation on specific objects, collected by eunuchs from all over the country, and handed over directly to the inner court.

  Plus purchasing, it's a mess anyway.

   The more chaotic and complicated it is, the more eunuchs and officials can profit from it!

  Zhao Han’s idea is very simple. The treasury allocates funds to the inner court every year, and the inner court uses the money to buy things. Although there will definitely be tricks during the purchasing process, it is still more transparent than eunuchs running around to mess around.

  Now, the total annual fiscal revenue of the seven provinces of Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui is more than 13 million taels of silver.

  This statistic is incomplete, because many farmers pay grain directly, and the total real taxes are estimated to exceed 16 million taels.

  Among them, industrial and commercial taxes and tariffs are increasing rapidly, and will certainly continue to increase in the future.

  Only the five major ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, and Macau, the annual tariff income exceeds 5 million taels. The tariff increase in Shanghai is particularly fast, and it is very likely to double next year!

  In addition, after the reform of the salt law, the salt tax has also been increasing.

  In the Lianghuai Salt Fields, the salt drying method has been basically popularized. This stuff was invented in the Fujian and Guangdong saltworks in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, but it has not been able to be extended to Lianghuai because the seawater on the Lianghuai side has a lower salt content.

  Xu Guangqi improved the salt drying method during the reign of Tianqi, so that the Lianghuai Salt Farm can also dry salt.

  Unfortunately, bureaucracy, slow rollout.

  After it became privately owned, it took only one year for the Lianghuai Salt Fields to use the sun-dried salt method.

  If the people's livelihood in northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui can be restored, Zhao Han's annual income may reach 20 million taels next year in the seven provinces alone!

   With money, being an emperor is worthwhile, and he will be enthroned in half a month!

(The fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty was actually not as bad as imagined. Even after a whipping law, a large amount of in-kind taxes were retained. Adding up these in-kind taxes, the annual revenue of the Ming Dynasty must be more than 10 million taels, and may even exceed 15 million taels .)

  (end of this chapter)