Lin Zhe weakened the real power of Guo Longyun and Jiang Daoquan, but on the other hand, he continued to keep them as associate ministers of the cabinet, which made those middle and high-level officials unable to see the direction of the imperial political arena.

Although the cabinet of the empire is different from the six ministries of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the cabinet or the military aircraft department in some titles and some specific functions, they also have great things in common.

Those ministers are the ministers of each ministry, and the assistant ministers of the cabinet and the prime minister of the cabinet are the ministers of the Ming Dynasty or the military aircraft department of the Qing Dynasty.

Naturally, the authority of an associate minister is much higher than that of a certain minister.

In the early years, the assistant ministers of the empire were stipulated to be two, but in the past two years, Lin Zhe has taken other ways to increase the number of assistant ministers, that is, to use the common way of adding titles in the Ming and Qing dynasties, but rarely used in the imperial era.

Previously, a number of ministers had been rewarded by Lin Zhe with the title of Associate Minister, and this kind of additional title was only enjoyed as an Associate Minister, and did not enjoy the actual power of the Associate Minister.

For example, when holding a grand court meeting, officials with the rank of associate minister can be ranked in front of the ministers of various ministries, and only stand after the assistant minister with real power.

Another example is the salary, which is the salary of the assistant minister.

Therefore, the assistant minister in the imperial cabinet is a position of real power, and of course this real power depends on his own political prestige and influence on the cabinet and local governments.

However, the Associate Minister cannot simply be regarded as a deputy to the Prime Minister or second-hand in the Cabinet, and the Associate Minister and the Prime Minister have no subordinate relationship, which is different from the subordinate relationship between the ministers who have already co-organized the ministers.

If you have to judge the level of the level, the prime minister and the assistant minister are more like the first assistant and the second assistant in the Ming Dynasty, or the relationship between the standing committee members of later generations, the former is the first leader, although the authority is higher. But if you really fight it, you have to fight it to know.

Now Lin Zhe wants to solve the problem of the current cabinet of the three big bosses who have too much authority, well, the main reason is that they have only seen too many struggles, which makes Lin Zhe a little annoyed, so he simply let another person be stuffed into this top power structure.

The triangle is not stable enough. And if each corner is too important, then he will simply make four corners to level their power, if this is not enough, Lin Zhe will have to adjust it again, in short, Lin Zhe's ideal state for the cabinet is: all for Lao Tzu to work honestly, don't have anything to do to cause trouble for Lao Tzu.

And to maintain this state, the balance of power is very important.

And then to balance the timing of the cabinet, Lin Zhe also established the Economic Reform Office.

In the early years, when the Economic Planning Committee of the Palace Affairs Department was established. Lin Zhe thought it was easier to use, but later when the palace affairs department was reformed, he abolished this institution, so as to let the cabinet lead the research on economic development, but in recent years, the economic planning office under the leadership of Li Hongzhang has had very limited results.

This is not to say that Li Hongzhang is not talented, in fact, many of the plans he put forward are still very good, but the key is that the economic planning committee led by Guo Longyun had a huge amount of actual authority, and could not only influence the central government. When you go to the local level, you can also influence those local governments, but after you get to Li Hongzhang. Since he had lost his actual power, he could only turn it into a purely theoretical study, and when Li Hongzhang personally went to the localities to investigate and guide economic work, many high-ranking officials ignored him.

Since the previous reforms were not successful, it became inevitable that the post of Minister of Economy would be reinstated!

And Li Hongzhang after the institutional reform. He was transferred to Guangdong as a political envoy, because there was no governor in Guangdong, so he acted as a governor in the position of political envoy, which was Lin Zhe's special arrangement for him.

Li Hongzhang in history is famous. And Li Hongzhang has performed well in the central government over the years, and this time he was sent to Guangdong to see if he has a talent for foreign affairs, or industrial and commercial development, as described in history, and if he does a good job, then the governor of Guangdong Province will be his, and it is not impossible for him to enter the cabinet in the future.

If he does not do a good job, then in just a few months, the central government will appoint another governor of Guangdong, who is still a political envoy, and he may continue to travel at this level for a few years in the future, and when he is in his sixties, it is estimated that he will barely touch the governor's side.

In this series of cabinet adjustments, if it is said that the one who has gained the greatest benefits, it is naturally Qi Xuanhao, and Li Hongzhang can be regarded as a person who has obtained a lot of actual benefits.

As for Jiang Daoquan and Guo Longyun, this can't say how much they have gained or lost, on the surface, they have lost a lot of actual power, but on the other hand, Lin Zhe still expresses an attitude in this arrangement, that is, although I am a little unhappy, I still plan to continue to use you.

This kind of beating is much better than losing nature completely.

As for others, they belong to the category of normal transfers, not to mention surprises, but these are within their own expectations, such as Li Nanquan, the mayor of Shanghai.

Before he became mayor of Shanghai, he had already served in the central cabinet, and a person from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce served as director of the department and co-minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce for one year, and then he was transferred to Shanghai to serve as mayor.

It is typical that after climbing to a high position in the central government, and then going to the localities to continue to accumulate experience in administration, and after accumulating enough experience, it is normal to be transferred back to the cabinet to preside over the work of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

The process of training officials, especially senior officials, has developed a mature system in the empire.

The first is to select the most valuable young people from the national employee examination, and there is generally a strict age limit, and there is basically no hope for those who are more than twenty-five years old to enter the national employee examination, and they must be at the top of the national employee examination.

However, a small group of the best of these people will be arranged to enter the secretariat or various ministries, and this starting point is difficult for most officials to reach, because these young officials enter the officialdom and first come into contact with military affairs, which is of great significance for broadening their horizons.

After accumulating in these places for several years, the outstanding ones are usually able to climb one or two levels, and then the organization department will transfer them to the localities, usually to serve as the number one position at the grassroots level such as the county order, which will be very challenging for those who have not been in contact with the grassroots level, and the difficulty for them to serve as the county order is greater than that of the grassroots officials who have passed the ordinary provincial examination and then been promoted step by step.

And this difficulty is the second exam of the Organization Department, those who pass, and those who are excellent, can enter the next round of training process of the Organization Department, and those with ordinary performance, the Organization Department of the Cabinet basically gave up on them and threw them directly to the organization departments of the provinces.

The young county magistrates who pass the examination will change departments and institutions at a speed unimaginable to ordinary officials, accumulate various experiences and qualifications, and slowly rise to the local provincial level officials in the process, and at this time, their age is generally not more than thirty-five years old.

And only when you enter the sequence of local provincial officials before the age of 35 can you talk about the luxury of entering the cabinet later.

At this time, they are usually transferred to cabinet ministries or secretariats, but in recent years, the organization department has been more inclined to the secretariat, especially those in the secretariat, not only a small section chief, but the authority of this section chief is close to that of a cabinet minister.

It is a coveted position for middle-level officials, and as a result, the section chiefs of the Secretariat are all the best middle-level officials in the empire, and they are all young officials who are focused on training by the empire, and they are basically not more than forty years old.

After the accumulation of section chiefs of the secretariat or directors of various ministries, they will once again go down, and this time the bottom is basically a party of senior officials, usually starting with the political envoy, and then the governor.

The years of serving as governors were basically the last chance in their lives, and according to this process, when they served as governors of a province, they could maintain around forty-five years old, and the excellent ones could even remain around forty years old.

The next five years will be a key period for them, and if they can make achievements at this time, and then enter the cabinet as co-ministers, then they will have the hope of serving as ministers in the future, and if they can't, they will be 60 years old if they drag on for a few years.

The age of the provincial officials of the imperial officials is sixty years old, which means that they will have to retire at that time, let alone enter the cabinet.

Of course, joining the cabinet as a co-minister only means that they have the hope of becoming a minister, and in fact they are still very competitive.

Unlike the term of office of the co-organizers, which is generally only two or three years or even one or two years, the tasks of the ministers of various ministries are generally longer, and four or five years are normal, and some of the founding ministers have been sitting and not moving since the founding of the country, so many officials who have been promoted to co-ministers at the age of 50 have waited for a few years, and in the end they can only serve in the position of provincial governors or co-ministers. (To be continued.) )