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Qin Mu had been away from Beijing for a long time, and had a lot of matters that needed to be dealt with.
He got up early in the morning to practice Bishop Fu Qing's Qi-intake technique. Sima An and others were against Qin Mu learning these Taoist Qigong techniques, mainly because they were worried that he would become addicted to Taoist techniques.
Qin Mu did not say anything and consulted Fu Qingzhu privately.
He practiced Qi and sword skills, then bathed and changed clothes, then went to the main hall to hold a morning court session.
When the court meeting began, the first thing to be discussed was naturally how to reward the soldiers fighting on the front line and provide compensation to the martyrs who died.
This is a matter of great importance in ensuring the morale of the troops and we cannot be careless about it.
Those who have made merits must be rewarded, and those who have made mistakes must be punished. Pensions for the soldiers who died must be implemented as soon as possible. We cannot let the soldiers bleed and their families shed tears.
Qin Mu would personally inquire about this matter every time and took it very seriously.
The issue of rewards and pensions was discussed for a full hour before it was roughly settled.
Of course, the rewards and pensions for ordinary soldiers were mainly formulated by the Ministry of War based on the merit lists submitted by the clerks of each army, and did not need to be submitted to the court for discussion.
After the matter was almost settled, Huang Zhenlin, who had been promoted to the head of the Ministry of Works, came out first and said, "Prince Qin, in the early Ming Dynasty, each province had a governor, an inspector, and a commander-in-chief. These three envoys were in charge of the military, politics, and criminal law in the province.
After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the titles of governor, deputy governor, governor-general, general, and garrison eunuch were added. Although this was necessary to unify power, it also led to the overlap of important institutions. Powers such as the provincial governor were actually basically hollowed out.
"Nowadays, the world is still in chaos and the population is declining sharply. People are trying to settle down. I think our government should follow the trend of the times and cut some institutions to alleviate the disadvantages brought about by the overlap of local institutions, reduce salary expenditures, and reduce the burden on the people."
Huang Zhenlin was wearing a black official uniform with auspicious cloud patterns and a leather belt around his waist. He walked steadily, looked solemn, and spoke in a very steady voice. These words really touched Qin Mu's heart.
If you open the map, you can see that the eight provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang are basically under the control of the Qin Dynasty.
Of course, according to the division of the Ming Dynasty's provincial administration, there were no provinces called Hunan, Hubei, Anhui and Jiangsu.
The areas of Hunan and Hubei were collectively called Huguang in the Ming Dynasty; the areas of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces were called Nanzhili.
Qin Mu has no intention of splitting Huguang and Nanzhili for the time being. Now that the Qin Dynasty has just been established, the world has not yet been unified, and people's livelihood needs to recuperate;
The more provinces are divided, the more institutions, officials, salaries, and disturbances there will be, which is not conducive to the people's rest and recuperation.
In fact, the Qin Dynasty had never formally established positions such as governor and general, but it had not issued an explicit order to abolish them.
The fact is that the posts of provincial governors, provincial governors and governors-general in the Ming Dynasty were gradually added because of the increase in rebellions, and finally became a custom.
In detail, it is roughly like this. Because some small rebellions were difficult to deal with in one state or one county, the military preparation department was established to unify the powers of several states and counties. This was the only way to effectively suppress rebellions involving several states and counties.
If a rebellion spread to a province, the governor, the commander-in-chief, and the provincial inspector were in charge of politics, law, and the military, and the three powers were separated. This often led to disputes and made it difficult to put down the rebellion in time, so the post of governor was established to unify the military, political, and legal powers of the province.
If the rebellion involved several provinces, the governor would be unable to deal with it, so the post of governor-general was set up above the governor to command the military and political affairs of several provinces. For example, the post of governor-general of four provinces established by Lu Daqi was set up to deal with Zhang Xianzhong's rebellion.
The problem is that the establishment of the prefecture governor actually largely undermined the power of state and county officials.
The establishment of the governor-general further hollowed out the power of the governor-general.
As a result, the power of most officials was hollowed out, but their salaries were not.
This not only caused a large amount of institutional duplication, but also resulted in a lot of extra expenditure on officials' salaries.
After Huang Zhenlin proposed abolishing these overlapping institutions, Qin Mu asked the ministers in the palace: "What do you think?"
Yang Tinglin, the Minister of Personnel, came out and replied, "Your Highness, the Ming Dynasty established the posts of prefect, governor, and governor-general because it was necessary for current affairs. Now under our rule, the people are content and live and work in peace, with few rebellions. Therefore, I think that some institutions should be abolished to reduce the number of officials disturbing the people and allow the people of the world to rest and recuperate."
Li Yuan, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, came out and said, "Your Majesty, the four borders are not yet pacified, and the world is not yet settled. I think this matter should be handled with caution. Even if it is to be abolished, a proper method should be found to avoid causing panic among local officials."
At any time, it is extremely difficult to lay off officials;
As a vested interest group, they are also the foundation of your rule. Once you deprive them of their jobs, it will easily cause turmoil in the officialdom and even trigger a crisis in the regime.
What Li Yuan said is not without reason. Although the Qin Dynasty seems to be thriving now, the situation of being surrounded by enemies has not completely changed. It is indeed necessary to be cautious before taking action against internal officials now.
But on the other hand, it has always been easy to appoint officials but difficult to dismiss them. If we don't dismiss them now while the system is not yet rigid, it will be even more difficult to deal with them in the future.
Therefore, Qin Mu must be dismissed. The key is how to reduce the vibration in the officialdom caused by this.
Grand Secretary Zhuge Min thought for a while and said, "King of Qin, I think you can consider abolishing some government offices, but I think it is better to keep the military governorship. Although the areas under my rule are relatively peaceful, there is no guarantee that there will be no rebellion.
The establishment of the Military Preparation Department is conducive to nipping rebellion in the bud and preventing the situation from escalating and becoming difficult to deal with. Therefore, I believe that as long as the power of the Military Preparation Department is limited to the scope of military preparation and it is not allowed to interfere in the politics and law of prefectures and counties, retaining the Military Preparation Department will have more benefits than disadvantages.
As for the post of Governor, it is no longer necessary. As for the post of Provincial Governor, I think that in Huguang and Jiangnan where the situation is relatively stable, it can also be abolished, and the military, political and judicial powers can be returned to the three envoys.
As for the newly developed areas, due to special circumstances, the military and political affairs have not been put on the right track, so it is better to temporarily retain the post of governor to unify the affairs and quickly restore people's livelihood. "
Zhuge Min was very thoughtful, and he considered which official positions needed to be retained and which places needed special treatment.
According to what he said, except for the Bingbei Dao which remained as a permanent local institution, the post of governor-general had basically become a temporary institution. Once local governance was on the right track, the post of governor-general would be abolished and the power would be returned to the Three Envoys.
Qin Mu was quite satisfied with this plan, and not many ministers in the palace objected to it.
Sima An, the chief minister, came out and said, "King of Qin, the pace of our Great Qin's unification of the world is advancing steadily. Several prefectures have been newly opened in Jianghuai, and the southwest has been incorporated into the territory of Guizhou Province. These places need to send a large number of officials to govern;
As long as the laid-off officials are transferred to these places as much as possible instead of being dismissed and sent home, I believe the backlash will not be too great.
However, the military governors in various places were originally directly responsible to the governor's office. If the governor's office is to be abolished and the military governor's office is retained, it will require careful consideration as to which official the military governor's office will be under. "
This is indeed an issue that requires careful consideration.
The military preparation has its own particularity. It is impossible for it to simply deal with military preparation. The so-called military preparation must involve some criminal and political affairs.
Once the governor's office is abolished, the military preparation department will be transferred to some official, which will immediately increase the actual power of that official.
The Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office was responsible for government affairs, the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner's Office was responsible for criminal law, and the Military Commander's Office was responsible for military affairs. This was the pattern of separation of three powers at the local level in the early Ming Dynasty, and the Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office was the head of the three commissioners' offices.
The Bingbei Dao was responsible for military preparations, but given its special nature, it was impossible for it to be solely responsible for military affairs and not involve politics. If the Bingbei Dao was placed under the Duzhihuishisi, the Duzhihuishisi would basically have more power than the other two shisi. At the local level, the "military" was more important than the "politics", which would create great hidden dangers.
If, as in the Ming Dynasty, the military governors were sent by the Censorate, and the military governor's office was placed under the command of the Military Commandery, this would also seem to have a balancing effect.
But the problem is that if civil officials are allowed to be in charge of military preparations, it will often be ineffective if something happens. So isn't it redundant to set up a military preparation department
Qin Mu and his ministers discussed for a long time, and finally adopted a compromise solution, which was to let the Military Preparations Department be under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Administration Office in peacetime and supervised by the Provincial Surveillance Department. Once there was a war, it would automatically be under the command of the Military Command Department.
This is similar to the five military headquarters and the military department being in charge of commanding and mobilizing troops. Usually, the military preparation department is under the jurisdiction of the provincial governor's office, allowing "politics" to override "military", which is conducive to local stability.
When war breaks out, the focus is naturally on the "military", and the Military Preparations Department will take the initiative to come under the command of the Military Commandery to prevent laymen from commanding experts.
There are of course many disadvantages to doing this, but no policy can be completely without disadvantages. The key is whether it is appropriate.
What suits you is the best.
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ps: More than 70 years ago, my grandfather sent back his last letter, saying that he was enlisted in the expeditionary army. After entering Yunnan, there was no news from him. Last night, I accidentally learned on the Internet that there is a "Chinese Expeditionary Army List Wall" in Tengchong County, Yunnan, so I found a way to have someone check it out. My grandfather's name is on the list wall, He Guangwu, a private. But now we can't determine our place of origin, so we can't determine whether we are the same person.
After hearing the news, I couldn't sleep all night. I wanted to go to Tengchong immediately to see what happened. But I'm not afraid of being laughed at. The income from last month's manuscripts was very meager. The round-trip fare plus the need to stay for a few days to check the facts would not be enough for a month's income. I could only save more. How many lives were lost in that war of resistance against the whole nation. However, my family didn't even receive a message of death. My grandmother was widowed at a young age. She was a Buddhist. For seventy years, she often went to ask gods and ghosts, just to know whether my grandfather was alive or dead. I still remember that the year before last, my grandmother, who was more than ninety years old, was still mumbling in a daze when she was dying, saying that she saw my grandfather standing by the bed. It was the middle of the night. I was shocked when I heard her muttering, and then I couldn't help crying. It has been more than seventy years. How long has it been for more than seventy years? I believe that the last look of my grandfather before his death must have been cast towards his hometown, but my family has not even received a message of death... ..
I won’t say any more. Tears will start to flow again...
.(To be continued..)
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