Chapter 230 Provincial System

Most of the evaluations of the Southern Song Dynasty emperors in later generations were negative, mediocre, incompetent, and unenterprising; The reason for this is probably because the Southern Song Dynasty was established in the south of the Huai River after the Jin State occupied the Central Plains, and in the following 100 years, not only did not "return my rivers and mountains", but was destroyed by the later Mongolia.

In the Xianwen Pavilion, I can still see the true thoughts of the Southern Song Dynasty emperor hidden in the depths of his heart from the imperial pen of Song Lizong, no one wants their homeland to be forcibly occupied by others, and in this regard, the emperor is no different from ordinary people.

Inadvertently, I looked up at the window on the north side, it seemed that there was something out of my mind, I seemed to see a white-haired old man standing in front of the window, looking at the north with a lonely expression, he was a royal descendant who fled from the north, and at the same time a descendant of a Han surnamed Zhao whose homeland was occupied, no matter how dim he was, no matter how wretched he was, the distant Central Plains was also the former residence of his Zhao family,

For more than 100 years, the people of Lin'an and most of the officials have been accustomed to Lin'an as the capital of the Song Dynasty, only this lonely Song Lizong still follows the legacy of his ancestors, and never forgets his homeland in the north.

Unconsciously, I also stood up, walked to the window, and gradually merged with the old man's blurred figure,

Maybe this is my fate, the fate of a guardian, since I stepped into the Mausoleum of the Young Emperor, I have shouldered this heavy responsibility, a dream hidden in the heart of Song Lizong, a dream of countless people with lofty ideals, for me, this is no longer a choice of the subject, I, of course, there is only one way, to lead the Southern Song Dynasty to the top of the world again, of course, this is no longer a dream, but my ideal, an ideal that must be realized,

After yesterday's bad supplement, I have basically understood the layout of the palace, I often say that the side hall is located in the back of the Daqing Hall of Yanhe Palace, also known as the apse, is one of the smallest palaces in front of the palace, its size is about 20 or 30 people at the same time, the hall of the apse has already been according to my vision, changed to a common conference room in later generations, there is a cup of hot tea on the long conference table, the officials who come here for a meeting can enjoy the treatment of seats and tea, compared to the Daqing Palace, here is much more comfortable,

"See Your Majesty."

"Flat."

After bowing down, the ministers sat in their respective positions one by one,

"Ladies and gentlemen, today we will hold the last pre-start meeting on the official implementation of the reform of the provincial system, and the Government Council will make it clear what doubts there are, let's discuss, Wen Aiqing, let's start."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Wen Tianxiang got up and said, "Your Majesty, my lords, after a series of discussions, the Government Council has drawn up a detailed plan and steps for the reform of the provincial system, and it is recommended that it should be implemented first on Fujian Road and Jiangnan West Road. This is the first question that needs to be discussed, which way should be used after the reform of the provincial system in my dynasty, these two ways have their own advantages and disadvantages, the book order responsibility system is to concentrate the power of a province in the hands of the book order, which will help to improve work efficiency, and can also increase the coordination between various departments, but the shortcomings of this model are also very prominent, that is, the power of the province is too large, easy to cause [***], the quality and development of a province depends to a large extent on the ability of this person, However, the original decentralized management of our dynasty is easy to cause various departments to pass the buck and is inefficient, but it can prevent the existence of one word hall, and the government affairs yuan is also divided into two factions for these two systems, so please let Your Majesty make a final decision. ”

I thought for a while and said, "Master, Weng Aiqing, what about your opinions." ”

Jia Rudao said indifferently: "Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that the principle of the four-way division of officials should be maintained, since Taizu, he is worried about the excessive power of the previous dynasty's Jiedu envoy, and finally formed the current branch system, if it is according to the practice of the Mongols, it will inevitably go against the will of Taizu, and let the power of the provincial Zhongshu Ling swell, so that the imperial court's control over it will gradually weaken." ”

Weng Yinglong also said: "Your Majesty, the words of the Taishi are very reasonable. ”

I knocked lightly on the table, and said: "The words of the master and the minister do have some truth, both ways have advantages and disadvantages, the way of reform needs to be gradually approached, I think that the early stage of the provincial system is still based on the original road officials, when the official office of the anti-corruption government is fully built, and then it is not too late to transition to the responsibility system of the Zhongshu Order, in the early stage, I plan to change the four-way superintendent to the three-way, revoke the post of Chang Ping, and hand over his original affairs to the provincial system, the functions and powers of the three-way superintendent are respectively, the system is to lead the administrative affairs, responsible for the subordinate states, counties, and the military, The superintendent has the power to recommend the appointment and dismissal of officials in the prefectures and counties, and supervises the administrative affairs of local officials, who are responsible to the Ministry of Officials and the newly established Ministry of Education and Health; The transfer envoy is responsible for the financial revenue and expenditure of the whole province, including the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture, and is responsible for the verification of major cases in the province, and establishes branches in the state capitals, and then establishes the county government in the future. ”

In my plan, the provincial level will gradually change to the mode of separation of powers, first of all, the legislative power is in the imperial court, I will not delegate power to the local government for the time being, I want to slowly implement the legal system, but I also want to maintain the imperial power, so my legal system can be called the legal system under the imperial power, and the second is the administrative power, which requires the provincial system to exercise this power, which inherits the imperial court and connects the locality, so I will successively replace the local system with people who have both character and ability, and as for the judicial power, it will continue to use the original prison department. And gradually transition from reviewing major cases to reviewing all cases, that is, to read the power of the state capital and county government to read cases, and establish a procuratorate and court system similar to that of later generations.

Wen Tianxiang asked, "Your Majesty, what is the purpose of this mention of the Prison Division to establish a branch at the next level. ”

"The reform of the provincial system starts from the road level, and then will slowly transition to the prefecture and county, I plan to extend the system of the prison department downward, the purpose is to read the judicial judgment power of the current state and county, there is an old saying that absolute power will create absolute corruption, especially in the judicial sector, so, before the law is perfect, we must also avoid giving officials the opportunity to be corrupt."

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Zhao Shunsun praised, "Your Majesty Shengming." ”

"The three road supervisors of the province will perform their duties for the time being, and they will discuss the next step after a period of implementation."

"Yes, Your Majesty, the second thing is the issue of the selection of people from the two provinces, on this issue, the Government Council is quite controversial, and the ministers and the Ministry of Officials and the Zhongshu Province have discussed this for a long time, but they still can't agree on it, and this matter also needs to be made clear by Your Majesty."

I asked, "Someone in the Council has chosen someone?" ”

"Your Majesty, yes, please take a look." Wen Tianxiang handed over a booklet and said,

There are those who belong to the imperial power faction, some belong to the Xiangquan faction, and some belong to the neutral faction, and the people of these factions will naturally recommend their comrades to serve as the three road supervisors of Fujian and Jiangxi.

After reading it, I said: "The Fujian Provincial System Envoy is served by Chen Xinshu, and the Jiangxi Provincial System Envoy is served by Xie Fangde, as for the candidates you proposed for the two provincial transfer envoys and the prison sentences, I am not very familiar with them, so let's vote for everyone here to determine the priority, except for Wen Tianxiang, each Aiqing has one vote, Shichen and Wen Aiqing each have two votes, Weng Aiqing is also counted as one vote, everyone votes by secret ballot, in the order of the most votes, and attach the file of the Ministry of Officials, I will come back in the evening to carefully review and consider, and it will be announced when the court meeting is tomorrow, of course, I believe that all voters will put national affairs first, put ability first, and vote on the basis of merit. ”

"Yes, your ministers obey."

For the three major supervisors of the provinces, I will increase the power of the envoy in the future, so I have appointed the candidates for the envoy of the two provinces, Chen Xinshu has the ability, as long as he can meet my requirements and follow my pace, he is completely competent, and Xie Fangde's information I have also read, his person is not afraid of power, and there is no problem with his character, as for his ability, according to Wen Tianxiang's evaluation, "Xie Fang has a good memory, and he has the ability to never forget, and his ability to be an official is not under the minister." ”

As for the other positions, I don't have a suitable candidate, and secondly, I plan to balance the relationship between the various factions, and I also believe that the people here do not dare to recommend a person who does not learn and has no skills, after all, they are all voting for the first time, and I am not worried about the faction that the person who voted for belongs to that faction, the whole world, it is not the king's land, the most important thing is to have the ability, the will, and the ability to do things well,

"After I leave, you can start voting, ladies and gentlemen, according to the official evaluation system of our dynasty and the latest code of conduct for officials, for local officials, the officials have an evaluation every year, and every three years is a term, and any official can only be re-elected for one term in the same position, regardless of whether it is a province or a separate road, this is the same."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Wen Tianxiang then asked, "The third question is what is the relationship between the Supervision Office, the Nanya and the provinces, and what is the relationship between the prison and the prison. ”

"I have said this before, the Supervision Office is not a local moderation agency, it is a reading agency, its role is to supervise officials in various places, of course, including the officials of the Criminal and Prison Division, the Supervision Office and the Nanya are not involved in ordinary cases, and their power is limited to supervising whether local officials violate the laws of our dynasty and the code of conduct for officials, and will be adjusted later according to the situation."

"Yes, Your Majesty, the ministers understand."

"Well, Wen Aiqing, it will be announced to the world that the reform of my provincial system has officially begun."

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, and one last question, Your Majesty said yesterday about the establishment of a Law Department under the Government Council."

"Yes, I did say that with the establishment of the provincial system and many new departments in my dynasty, as well as the development of society, many of the old laws are either incomplete or not in line with the reality of today, and the laws are for development, so they must adapt to society, and when society develops, the corresponding laws have to change with it.

Jia Rudao was stunned for a moment, and he didn't know why I suddenly asked, "Your Majesty, yes." ”

I smiled: "I said before that when society develops, the supporting policies must also change with it, not only the laws of our dynasty, but all policies must adapt to the current social development, which is called advancing with the times." ”

"Keeping up with the times." Jia Rudao thought to himself, "Does this Zhao Yu mean that once a son of heaven and a courtier, let the old man also adapt to him as an emperor." ”