I

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 secretariat 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.

Imperial power and prime minister power are so irreconcilable, they have always been in a relationship of ebb and flow.

Zhao Han does not set up a cabinet now, and the Ten Caos directly obey Zhao Han's orders, and the six ministries carry out the orders conveyed by the Ten Caos, which means that the imperial power and the power of the Prime Minister are integrated, and Zhu Yuanzhang did the same in the past.

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!

And Zhao Han's descendants, who can work eight hours a day, can already be called diligent kings, and they will definitely distribute the power of the prime minister.

The more the prime minister's 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, it was originally divided into three powers. 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 secretaries and advisory bodies, 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.

Civil officials are unreliable, and eunuchs are also unreliable.

Once the emperor reused the eunuchs, the eunuchs immediately trembled, and they didn't want to do business at all, they 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?

There is no way to balance, no way to restrict!

It is impossible for Zhao Han to form a parliament, and it is impossible for ordinary people 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 and said, "I won't argue any more. Let's try to do it first, and adjust it slowly in the future. The emperor and the cabinet will manage the Ten Caos."

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.

In the Ming Dynasty, the chief inspector was fighting with the cabinet, and in Zhao Han, the cabinet was fighting with the Ten Caos.

Again, there is no perfect system.

What the hell 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: "In the future, the female officer examination 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 the university is established, 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 examination is organized every year. Those who pass the examination can become officials, and those who fail the examination are not given preferential treatment by gentry.

Women are not restricted from 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 the selection of concubines and court ladies in the Ming Dynasty 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.

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

If the civil servants are not allowed to 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 state will function as follows:

The emperor, the cabinet, the ten Caos, and the ten ministries are the four major institutions.

Minor matters are handled by local governments, while major matters are reported layer by layer.

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 made a decision, it was 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, the ten cao, and the ten ministries agree on how to deal with it, the emperor cannot easily dismiss it.

These three organizations compete 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.

For the political affairs that the three major institutions agree on, the emperor can take a look or take a look. 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. The cabinet was temporarily composed of the three of them. In addition, there is a large number of Zhongshu Sheren, who are equivalent to the secretaries of the three cabinet ministers.

The officials of the ten ministries and the ten cao were also transferred.

In particular, the chief officials of the Ten Caos were all transferred from the right servants of the various ministries, and all Zhao Han's secretaries were released as officials.

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

With the expansion of many institutions at once, and there are many female officials and court ladies, Zhao Han's place is almost too big to live in, and the female officials have 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 left 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 50,000 taels of budget 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 is to sacrifice to the heaven and earth first, and then the officials pay homage. 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 treasury needs to provide internal funds every year. How much money do you think is good for each year?"

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

"Too much, let's tentatively set 100,000 taels per year," Zhao Han said. "Nowadays, there are not many royal family members, and there are not many female officials and court ladies. One hundred thousand taels a year is definitely enough. It will increase in the future, how much is it?" 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 internal money, or is it provided by the people?"

"The inner court spends their 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-made, that is, the inner court opened its own factory to manufacture, and Huangzhuang planted real estate grain, and the maids even spun cloth.

The private supply is the customs duty of various places, 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.

In addition to purchasing, it was 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 national 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.

Today, 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 directly pay grain, 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.

The five major ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, and Macau alone generate more than 5 million taels of tariff revenue each year. 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 continued to increase.

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.

During the Tianqi period, Xu Guangqi improved the salt drying method, so that the Lianghuai Salt Farm could also dry salt.

Unfortunately, bureaucratic, slow rollout.

Now that it has been privately owned, it has only been one year since the Lianghuai Salt Fields have all used 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 .)