Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 566 Change the Political System Again
If Zhang Juzheng did not appear in the Wanli period but appeared in the Ming Dynasty, if he implemented the New Deal, he would not need to play tricks and collude with his ministers to obtain the guarantee of reform power.

He can carry out the New Deal reforms several years in advance, and he doesn't have to worry about being settled after his death, because his power is granted by the emperor and is legal.

The speech officer has no power to impeach him for stealing power and disorderly administration during his term of office.

The inner court can no longer stop the pace of its reform.

He is one person under one person and above ten thousand people, and he is in charge of administrative power by adhering to the emperor's will.

Even if the emperor dislikes him, he can only be removed but cannot deny the legitimacy of his power.

Even if you want to punish the chief minister of the cabinet, you can only find evidence from corruption, neglect of human life, and treason.

Of course, this did not weaken the power of the emperor, who was still the supreme dictator.

It's just that the emperor no longer plays the role of prime minister.

Perhaps not as authoritarian as before, but this is also something that can't be helped.

The Ming Empire is no longer a purely agricultural country.

The emperor has no way to do all the big and small things on himself.

Besides, Zhu Youjian didn't know that every generation of future emperors would be qualified emperors. It would be better to have a legal prime minister at least, and at least a cabinet chief assistant could bear the responsibilities of the empire with the emperor.

In this way, it can avoid the phenomenon that in the past, the head and assistant of the cabinet only cared about the day, or even blindly curry favor with the emperor and civil servants.

The chief assistant of the cabinet envisioned by Zhu Youjian should be able to implement political changes in an empire according to his own ideas instead of following the rules.

This was the case with the chief assistant of the cabinet after Zhang Juzheng, who not only flattered the entire civil servant group but also met the emperor, and had no chance to display his talents, which made the empire stagnant.

The person who is the chief assistant of the cabinet is often a person who is good at both sides.

But now, the chief minister of the cabinet is directly defined as the head of the civil service group, and all the civil servants in the administrative system are subordinates of the chief minister of the cabinet, so naturally the chief minister of the cabinet does not have to curry favor with the civil service group.

And because the chief minister of the cabinet is appointed by the emperor, basically the political views of the chief minister of the cabinet and the emperor should be the same. If the emperor wants to be conservative, he will naturally choose a conservative person as the chief minister of the cabinet. If the emperor wants to be radical, he will naturally choose a radical People are the chief assistant of the cabinet.

At the same time, because the chief assistant of the cabinet controls the civil service group, it is easier to gather the strength of the civil service to implement the New Deal, and it is also possible to counter the entire military service group.

Of course, this does not mean that the military attache group will still be suppressed by civilian officials.

The military attache also has its own central agency, which is the Grand Marshal's Office.

The supreme commander of the Grand Marshal's Mansion is the emperor himself.

The command and deployment of the army has been controlled by the Generalissimo's Office, which means that the military attache will no longer obey the deployment of the Ministry of War, and the military attache will no longer be subordinate to the civilian officials. Even the civilian personnel in the army will only accept The military order of the Grand Marshal's Mansion.

The appointment of officials in the Grand Marshal's Mansion does not leave the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of War controlled by the cabinet.

The Grand Marshal's Mansion has its own organization department, the General Political Department.

However, there is no supreme commander in the Grand Marshal's Mansion other than the emperor, and even the Privy Councilor has been withdrawn by Zhu Youjian at this time and will no longer be established.

But the Grand Marshal's Mansion has its own department, just like the previous six departments, which is actually equivalent to the Military Commission, and Zhu Youjian is the chairman.

However, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Dali Temple, and the Ministry of Punishment, that is, the three judicial departments, are not affiliated with the cabinet and the Grand Marshal's Office.

But he controlled the legislative power, judicial power, and procuratorial power of Ming Dynasty. In a sense, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Dali Temple, Ministry of Punishment, and the Cabinet stood side by side with the Grand Marshal's Office.

Except for the emperor himself, it is impossible for any imperial official to control part of the military power while also controlling judicial power, prosecutorial power and administrative power.

But Ming Dynasty did not fully realize judicial independence.

There are military judges inside the Grand Marshal's Mansion, and the emperor himself has Dongchang and Jinyiwei.

However, Zhu Youjian is working hard to hand over the criminals except the Grand Marshal's Mansion to the Third Law Division, but the supervision of the officials of the Grand Marshal's Mansion system is not handed over to the Three Law Division but to Jin Yiwei.

The officials of the Grand Marshal’s Mansion system can only be supervised by the emperor’s own people. Even the civil servants of the Three Law Departments have no power to supervise and arrest the officials of the Grand Marshal’s Mansion system. Afterwards, the Ministry of Criminal Affairs of the Sanfa Division filed the case, the Dali Temple made a judgment, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate supervised the trial.

However, Jin Yiwei is only responsible for the management of the army, supervision and foreign military intelligence, and no longer participates in the supervision of the administrative and judicial systems, while the supervision of the administrative and judicial systems is only in charge of the Dongchang.

Jinyiwei and Dongchang are still Zhu Youjian's left and right eyes to strengthen the imperial power, one supervises the army, and the other supervises administration and justice.

It is obviously inappropriate for the current Ming Dynasty to distinguish imperial officials by civil and military officials.

After all, there are civil servants in the army represented by the Grand Marshal's Mansion, and there are military attaches in the Ministry of War controlled by the cabinet. The guards still belong to the Ministry of War, but they only play the role of maintaining local law and order. There are even military attaches in the Three Law Departments.

The Ming Empire is now a modern capitalist empire, and the separation of powers has been realized under the emperor. Naturally, imperial officials are also distinguished by three different types of power.

Imperial officials are already adapting to the change.

With Fan Jingwen and Gao Hongtu forming cabinets twice, as well as the perfect performance of the Grand Marshal's Office in military coordination and command, and the independent trial of war criminals by the Ministry of Punishment, Metropolitan Procuratorate, and Dali Temple, officials of the Ming Empire have adapted to the situation. This way of domination.

"From the 24th year of Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty abolished the war zone system, and based on the original Chengxuan Zhengshi Division, it was changed to a province, and Gansu Province was restored. Set up a governor, inspector! The inspector is responsible to the governor and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the officers of the Command and Envoy Division are selected by the Grand Marshal's Mansion and are responsible to the Grand Marshal's Mansion, and the Procuratorate is only responsible to the Ministry of Punishment."

"In addition, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Huguang, Fujian and Zhejiang, Nanzhili, Beizhili, Jiliao, Shanxi, Shanxi, Gansu and other places set up the governors and commanders of the war zones. The governors and commanders are appointed by the Generalissimo's Office. Commanding the Guards soldiers and horses stationed in these strategic areas, the commanders of each province are responsible to the Generalissimo's Mansion, which means they are responsible to the governor and general soldiers in the area under their jurisdiction."

"Before March 24 of Chongzhen, the Grand Marshal's Mansion, the Cabinet, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate completed the establishment of provincial-affiliated institutions and the appointment of officials. The official of Jingtang is a candidate, and he will report to me the reasons for running for the first assistant of the cabinet. I will announce the new candidate for the first assistant of the cabinet in May. After that, the time limit for the first assistant of the cabinet will be limited to one election every five years, and no more than two consecutive terms will be allowed. More than ten years, in order to avoid the emperor favoring only one person, there will be powerful ministers!"

(End of this chapter)