Shi Bufan explained to Li Shimin about the division of power among local officials, so that the deputy can control part of the power and restrain and supervise the main office. This is actually very much in line with the thinking of the ancient emperors, who often did not worry about the authority of the people below, so the emperor would supervise him by sending him a deputy. From the division of powers established by the Imperial Historian that year, the Imperial Historian is also the deputy prime minister, who has the role of dividing and supervising the prime minister's power, and the Imperial Historian is qualified as the first successor of the prime minister.

This method of adding "deputy positions" to subordinates is simply tried and tested. Even the simplest, but the most useful. Therefore, almost all departments at all levels later had a variety of deputies, such as counties, prefectures, prefectures, and general judgments at all levels. It is to maintain the power of the superiors and avoid bullying the subordinates. However, it is clear that the deputy position during the Tang Dynasty did not play its due role. During the Tang Dynasty, the county officials obviously had no authority, and were even bullied by a scribe, so the county orders were all local emperors one by one.

Now it is not unusual to assign powers to the county, which is actually in line with the consistent concept of the ancient monarch to strengthen the functions and powers of the deputy and restrain the supervision of the main office.

Fang Xuanling asked: "If you encounter a big event, what should you do?" Some things are not decided by one person on their own, but what if it is a big deal? ”

Fang Xuanling was not interested in this redivision of the powers of county-level officials, it was just a routine inquiry. Because during the Tang Dynasty, the promotion process of the scholars and various nobles was actually a process from the central to the local. The scholars often only served in the central court, and were not exiled until a certain level. However, the scholars are released, and most of the officials at the county level have nothing to do with the scholars, so in the division of power at the county level, Fang Xuanling, as a representative of the Shandong scholars, is not enthusiastic about this, he doesn't care about it, he neither supports nor opposes it, because there is almost no interest in their scholars.

"When you encounter a big event, you can take a deliberative approach! Isn't the same with my Datang Center, just in this political hall, when I encounter a major event, the emperor will preside over the discussion. Of course, in the lower counties, it is impossible for the emperor to preside over it himself. Therefore, the county magistrate presides over the meeting, and the county magistrate, the county magistrate, and the county lieutenant can form a three-person deliberation, and each of them has the right to vote. When something happens, the minority obeys the majority, and if two people agree with a certain opinion, then it can be done according to the opinion of the many people who agree. Of course, as a prefectural order, it also has higher powers, and if one person abstains, and the other two people are one-to-one, it will be carried out according to the plan of the prefectural order, which is also the deliberative system. Shi Bufan said.

Shi Bufan's deliberative system is actually a variant of the committee system, but there was no such thing as a committee system during the Tang Dynasty. Although the prime minister system in the Tang Dynasty adopted a committee system, the term committee was not popular. In ancient times, a committee member meant "to appoint a commissioner", not a "commissioner" in later generations.

Shi Bufan's use of this committee system actually avoids that no one is in charge when major events occur, but it can also divide the power of local officials as much as possible and ensure the centralization of power. If the prime minister's committee system is to maintain the power of the emperor, then the deliberative system of this place is actually to maintain the power of the central government. In this way, the central government has made decisions, and local officials cannot use the absolute authority of a certain county order to blackmail their superiors.

The biggest disadvantage of the leadership system is that it is afraid of failure in employing people, and once it fails, the consequences will be unimaginable. The ancients said that there is no suspicion in employing people, but from the perspective of Chinese history, any king has adopted the thinking of "employing people to be suspicious". Just the prime minister system, from the leadership system of the Han Dynasty, to the system of three princes and nine secretaries, the later system of three provinces and six ministries, and the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty, this is all the king dividing the power of the prime minister, and the prime minister has to be used, but he is also worried.

Shi Bufan's division of local power is also in line with the central government's consistent thinking, and it is helpful for the central government to maintain the authority of the central government by dividing the power of local officials. Therefore, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui and others, even if they were born in the scholar clan, did not reject this practice of dividing the power of local officials.

In particular, the vast majority of the scholars do not go through the county-level officials, and the county-level officials are often selected near the local area, so it is easy to form a force in the local area. The scholars control the central government, and they are also easy to be overshadowed by local officials when making decisions, so this division of local power and strengthening the authority of the central government is also in line with the interests of the scholars in a sense, so there is no need for Fang Xuanling and them to speak against it.

"What do you think?" Li Shimin asked.

"The minister has no opinion!" Fang Xuanling replied.

"The ministers don't have any opinions!" Du Ruhui replied.

Next, Pei Ju also expressed no opinion, the prime ministers of these scholars are in the central government, and strengthening the authority of the central government is to strengthen their authority, and it is also to strengthen the authority of the future officials of the scholar clan, so they naturally have no need to oppose it. If you even oppose such a thing, you are really a fool.

"Your Majesty, the minister suggested that it is better to set up a term of office for court officials. Once the term of office of the court officials has expired, they must adjust their positions, which can also avoid the formation of local 'soil emperors'. This not only allows officials to experience different positions, but also helps them grow. Moreover, allowing them to have different positions for transfer can prevent them from serving in the same place for a long time, so that they will have too much influence in the local area, so that the local people only know the county order, but do not know the imperial court and the emperor. Shi Bufan continued.

Li Shimin also nodded, at present, it is true that the Tang Dynasty did not have a so-called tenure system, the tenure system was invented by the Song Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty did not have a fixed transfer tenure system, unless it was an order for the transfer of officials, otherwise local officials would be there for the rest of their lives. The term of office system is something that any country in the future will do, and this term of office is to strengthen the flow of officials, otherwise once a person sits on it, he will not move his nest for the rest of his life, which is not good for the officials themselves. On the other hand, once they have formed a huge influence in the local area, they may in turn control the local officials and ordinary people who openly and covertly oppose the policies of the central court, which will be detrimental to the authority of the central court.

Even once it develops, it is easy to form the disintegration of the state. Of course, this is not good for the imperial court, so Shi Bufan suggested that Li Shimin clean up this matter as soon as possible, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable. The tenure system is also good for Li Shimin, because Li Shimin heard that local officials can become local emperors, which makes Li Shimin feel very dissatisfied. What emperor would want local officials to only know the county decree and not the emperor's? This kind of practice of strengthening the authority of the central government and strengthening the centralization of power is something that any emperor would like to do.

"Term of office? This is good, in the future, all officials must be transferred once every three years, but at present, it is the local officials who use this method, and the Beijing officials who serve in the center of the imperial court, this can be positioned for five years. Moreover, this is only limited to the fifth rank and below, and the transfer above the fifth rank is decided by me personally. Li Shimin said.

Li Shimin agreed to the transfer of the term of office of officials below the fifth rank, but there was no corresponding transfer term for the official posts above the fifth rank. Because officials above the fifth rank are all high-ranking officials, it can be said that the power is not small, and even the five grades above and below the fifth rank are an important watershed. Once it becomes more than five grades, all kinds of privileges and so on will come one after another. Above the fifth grade and below the fifth grade, these two watersheds are huge, and the privileges enjoyed above the fifth rank are far more than those below the fifth grade, and they are not a realm at all.

Therefore, Li Shimin still has to grasp the power of appointment and dismissal and all kinds of powers of officials above the fifth rank, and of course it is impossible for the fifth rank and above to hand over this appointment and removal power to the courtiers. Moreover, officials above the fifth rank are generally people in important positions, and there are often some considerable forces behind them, and if they are easily mobilized, the consequences are unpredictable. Shi Bufan knew that in the Tang Dynasty, officials above the fifth rank were often influential that could not be achieved by the provincial and ministerial levels in later generations, so it was indeed necessary to be cautious in the transfer of such officials. "Okay, do you have any comments? What do you think about this adjustment of the division of powers among the counties, according to the extraordinary division of powers, giving the county the power to govern affairs such as money and grain, civil engineering, forced labor, agricultural affairs, etc.? Li Shimin asked.

All the prime ministers present also nodded, obviously they had no opinion on this. Because the promotion process of these scholar prime ministers will hardly involve the county level, and the vast majority of the county level officials will not be appointed by the noble clan, they are all mixed in the central government, and once they are released, they will be a state assassin. Therefore, they will not care about the division of power and the corresponding term of office of officials at the county level.

As for this term, they are not worried, the lowest state assassin history is the fourth grade, and the state assassin history of the fourth grade is to be appointed by the emperor himself, and it is impossible to mess around. Behind the emperor's appointment is not just the term of office can be solved, the political struggle and game behind it is certainly not so simple, so the local power division system and the term of office system, for them almost no harm, at least they don't see any damage, but this kind of local power re-division, help the central government to grasp greater authority, so they will naturally not oppose it in public and private.

The discussion of this discussion was discussed and approved in the government office, and after the discussion and approval of this government office, the edict was officially executed. Because several prime ministers on the spot discussed and passed it in the political hall, then such things are also very simple, directly from the province of Zhongshu to draft the edict, the province of the door to deliberate and pass, the province of Shangshu to send to the locality, so that it can be directly implemented. Because the government hall is actually a pre-discussion, waiting for a compromise and agreement to be reached before carrying out the original procedures, so the deliberation was of course passed.

This order on the division of local power was first transmitted to the counties of Gyeonggi, which made the faces of those county commanders darken, but the county officials were all smiling. These county officials were originally embarrassed by their powers, did not have any authority, and were often overridden by county orders, and even bullied by the scribes below. And now that she is finally a "daughter-in-law who has become a mother-in-law", you can feel the excitement of taking orders as soon as you have the power in hand. In the future, if they want to grasp power, with the legal basis of the imperial court, they can directly obtain the power to control the corresponding money and grain, taxes, civil construction, forced labor, agricultural affairs and so on by mastering the emperor's edict, which means that their power in the future is not small.

Even this order of re-division of power can make them not so afraid of the county order in the future. Because all major matters must be discussed by the three people of the county order, the county and the county lieutenant, and the minority obeys the majority, so that they can also be implemented.

However, the latter tenure system is a mixed blessing for everyone. Because of the triennial transfer, this also makes those county commanders and county officials also have some joy and some sorrow. Those county officials in poor counties naturally wanted to move their nests for a long time, otherwise they would have been in this poor county all their lives, so of course they would not have done it. As for the attached counties, they are also very nervous, because from now on their term will be three years. What kind of results they will have after three years depends on the orders and transfers of their superiors. If you are transferred to the center of Chang'an, or if you go to another rich county, it will naturally be okay. But if you go to other poorer counties, then you might as well kill them!

Therefore, this tenure system is also an important means to strengthen the mobility of officials. Some officials are even more nervous, they have been here for decades, all kinds of connections and even their own family members are here, but they have to face the transfer to another place, so they of course feel the pressure is huge. When he went to another place, he not only had to use the new environment, but also let other county commanders come to his former territory to take up his post. What will people do with their relatives and friends? Think about yourself in other places, most of them are also going to repair those local forces once, so that they will also know how others will treat their relatives and friends when they come to their own territory.

So hearing about this tenure system is even more of a headache than that redivision of power. After such a tenure system, I am afraid that the mobility of officials will increase a lot, and even in the future, I am afraid that those county-level officials may be difficult to have a huge influence in the local area, what influence can be established in three years? Once you're gone, who will think of you? There are too few people who can make enough achievements within three years to make the people remember deeply.

This new county-level reform has benefited many people and caused many people to lose a lot. (To be continued.) )