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Qin Mu opened a small loophole for generals in the military system to enter the civil service sequence by transferring Li Guowei, the assistant official of the Central Military Governor's Office, to the Ministry of Personnel to serve as the chief official.
Although Li Guowei was already a member of the military system, he was easily recognized by civil servants because he was a juren, and his transfer did not cause much disturbance.
After the court meeting was over, Qin Mu summoned six cabinet ministers, Sima An, Lu Zhenfei, Li Yuan, Liu Boquan, Yang Tinglin and He Liang, to the Huagai Palace. After a few greetings, Qin Mu gave them seats and tea as usual.
Liu Boquan and Yang Tinglin were appointed as Grand Secretaries of the Eastern Pavilion when Qin Mu led his expedition to Lanzhou last time, and they were allowed to enter the cabinet to assist in government affairs.
He Liang was appointed by Qin Mu because he considered that the military system should not be excluded from the cabinet. Over time, this would inevitably lead to the phenomenon of emphasizing civil affairs over military affairs. After returning to Beijing from the Western Expedition, he also gave He Liang the title of Dongge Grand Secretary and ordered him to join the cabinet.
In fact, there are six cabinet ministers in the Qin Dynasty now. However, because Yang Tinglin, Liu Boquan and He Liang also serve as the ministers of the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War respectively, they usually work in their respective departments and only participate in discussions when the emperor convenes such a small-scale cabinet meeting.
Lu Zhenfei was a very pragmatic person. He rarely made empty remarks, whether with the emperor or his colleagues. After he took the tea from the maid, he thanked Qin Mu, put the tea on the small table next to him, and immediately asked, "Your Majesty summoned me here today. I think there must be something important. Please give your instructions."
Qin Mu took a sip of tea and said cheerfully, "My Lords, I'm sure you've all seen the statistics from the Ministry of Justice. From this data, it's clear that the previous judicial training for local Tongzhi and County Magistrates, and the on-site investigation training for forensic doctors have been very effective. Now the number of local backlogs has been significantly reduced, many old cases have been quickly tried and judged, and the case-solving rate has also greatly increased. The people have responded enthusiastically and praised it. It's very gratifying!"
This is true. In the past, local officials were generally unfamiliar with the judiciary, especially those who were directly appointed as county magistrates after passing the imperial examination. They passed the imperial examination by memorizing the Four Books and Five Classics, and were extremely unfamiliar with the new "Daqin Law". In addition, they also had administrative functions, so it was impossible for them to devote all their energy to case trials, so the efficiency of case trials can be imagined.
It is different now. The Tongzhi and the county magistrate who have received judicial training are responsible for judicial trials and do not involve other matters. In addition, with more professional on-site inspections, the rate of solving cases has increased and the speed of case trials has accelerated. This is inevitable.
The six cabinet ministers present were also very pleased with this, as the life and death of criminals depended on the case, and it was indeed a serious matter.
Every unjust case has a very bad impact on society, and will cause many ordinary people to lose trust in the court and officials.
Once the imperial court loses this credibility, the foundation of its rule will be shaken, which will be extremely dangerous.
Now that the judicial system is showing a good trend, Qin Mu and his ministers are naturally sincerely happy.
Li Yuan sighed, "Your Majesty wanted to use a large amount of national currency to train local officials and forensic doctors. I hesitated, but now it seems that Your Majesty is really taking a high-level view. I am ashamed!"
Li Yuan was not the only one who had doubts at the beginning. If it weren't for Qin Mu's strong push, there would be no such effect today. Sima An and others also stood up to plead guilty.
Qin Mu smiled and said, "My fellow ministers, I summoned you today to discuss this topic. It is undeniable that the Four-Five-Five Classics are profound and have benefited us endlessly. However, the saying that half of the Analects can rule the world is a bit exaggerated.
All of you ministers are important ministers of state. You work day and night for state affairs. You handle countless government affairs every day, covering all aspects. You should know best that many government affairs cannot be handled solely by the words of sages or the classics, history, and literature.
For example, the Ministry of Revenue headed by Liu Qing was in charge of household registration, land registers, finance, taxation, industry and commerce, warehousing, revenue and expenditure, budget, market regulation, etc. These were not things that could be handled just by reading the Four Books and Five Classics.
The good results produced by judicial and case site investigation training have made me realize that the management of the court needs to be further refined, or further professionalized. Officials in many departments need professional training to improve their efficiency.
At the same time, a complete training mechanism should be established so that in the future, a steady supply of management talents with considerable professional capabilities can be provided to these departments. Some special positions must be filled through professional assessments.
For example, no matter how good a person is at writing poetry and prose, if he doesn’t know mathematics, geometry, or accounting, it would be a failure to appoint him as the head of the Ministry of Revenue.”
Liu Boquan nodded first and said, "Your Majesty's words are very insightful. A good housewife knows how to budget carefully, so that the family can be well maintained. By extension, the same is true for a county, a prefecture, and a country.
Guan Zhong was good at financial management and assisted Duke Huan of Qi in achieving his hegemony. Fang Xuanling was also good at financial management and ensured that Emperor Taizong of Tang had sufficient military supplies. A closer look shows that both Guan Zhong and Fang Xuanling were people with considerable professional abilities, which shows the importance of professionalism.
I agree with your Majesty's words that officials in departments that need professional management skills should be trained to be more professional, so as to avoid the situation where laymen command professionals and cause a chaotic situation. "
Qin Mu proposed that the current officials should receive vocational training and that they should meet the professional standards in order to continue to serve or be promoted. This reason seemed reasonable.
The cabinet assistants present were also very clear that some special departments did need professional talents. For example, Yang Tinglin was in charge of personnel and did a good job, but if he were asked to take charge of accounting, it might not work.
In fact, all dynasties had some training for new Jinshi before they were appointed to official positions. The Ministry of Personnel would also assess these people before assigning them corresponding official positions. Not everyone would be appointed to official positions immediately after passing the Jinshi examination.
But relatively speaking, the training and assessment before the appointment of officials in previous dynasties were very simple, mainly just to see who was more suitable for which department's work. It was far from reaching the level of professional training and assessment.
It was fine when the administration was clean, but in most periods of time, even such training and assessments were meaningless and played no real role.
Qin Mu proposed to conduct professional training and assessment for officials of some departments at this time. This was based on the fact that the training and assessment of judicial and forensic doctors had already achieved good results. The cabinet ministers had already clearly seen the effectiveness of such training and assessment.
Therefore, there was no immediate objection, but there were still some doubts.
Lu Zhenfei said: "If your majesty's intention is followed, there will be quite a few department officials who need professional training and assessment. If it is done too hastily, it will inevitably cause most officials to panic and find it difficult to do their jobs. In serious cases, it may paralyze the operation of the court.
Therefore, I think that even if we want to train and assess the current officials, we should not do it too drastically. We should start from some marginal departments and gradually move to the core departments. This is the right way to go. "
Lu Zhenfei's words were mature and prudent, and were unanimously agreed upon by other cabinet ministers.
Qin Mu also nodded and said, "What Elder Lu said is very true. Let's not make this public for the time being. We will implement it department by department. Moreover, for training and assessment, we need to find some professional teachers first. I think these teachers do not have to be limited to court officials. We can also find some top talents in related fields to serve as training instructors.
Let me give you an example. For example, when training officials in charge of land registration in the Ministry of Revenue, we can hire some top talents in mathematics, geometry, etc. to participate in compiling relevant training materials and serve as training instructors. I believe that with their participation, the quality of relevant training will be further improved. Well, this is also a form of combining theory with practice.
You can also hire some smart accountants and teach them how to find the logic in the accounts, and then use this logic to infer whether there is any fraud in the accounts.
As far as I know, even if your fake accounts are perfect, some savvy financial personnel can still use logical reasoning to infer that your accounts are falsified from certain places.
For example, if a spinning mill uses a steam engine, you won’t find any problems just by checking its income and expenditure accounts, but you can also trace the amount of coal ash consumed by the spinning mill. Usually, one load of coal can provide a certain amount of power for the steam engine, and then a certain amount of yarn can be spun. This value is basically stable, which is different from the account book, and these are usually not fake... "
Qin Mu just said this, and the cabinet ministers present were stunned. Everyone couldn't help but sigh in their hearts that they were inferior, but Qin Mu was still talking at this time... ...
... ... ... .(To be continued...)
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