Inside the ashram.

Xu Ying, Huang Zongxi, and Wang Tiaoding were in the guest seats, and Zhao Han sat alone in the main seat.

Huang Zongxi first said: "If His Royal Highness wants to restore the cabinet, should Shi Cao be placed under the cabinet or under the imperial power?" Ten Cao's powers must be adjusted. If Shicao is placed under the cabinet, I am afraid that he should have the power to review, otherwise he will become the mouthpiece of the cabinet. ”

Wang Tiaoding said with a smile: "If Shi Cao has the power to review, he will return to the Tang Dynasty's three-province and six-ministry system. The cabinet is the Zhongshu Province, the Shicao is the Menxia Province, and the ministries are the Shangshu Province. It's exactly the same, and the rights and responsibilities haven't changed. ”

Xu Ying said: "If the ten Cao are separated, the secretary must be re-established, otherwise the emperor will become blind and let the civil and military officials handle it." ”

Huang Zongxi said: "If the Secretariat is re-established, once it encounters a slack government, the Secretariat will definitely evolve into a celebrant controlled by Wenchen. At that time, the cabinet will become a mouthpiece, and the secretariat will become the new cabinet. The Ming Cabinet was originally the emperor's secretarial body! ”

The three continued to argue, and Zhao Han looked helpless when he heard it.

Imperial power and relative power are so irreconcilable, and they have always been a relationship between one and the other.

Zhao Han does not have a cabinet now, Shi Cao directly obeys Zhao Han's orders, and the six ministries implement the orders conveyed by Shi Cao, which is equivalent to the integration of imperial power and relative power, and Zhu Yuanzhang did the same back then.

This state will definitely not last long, and the emperor will need to work more than ten hours a day. When there was a lot of trouble, the emperor could work twelve hours a day.

Zhao Han is so tired now!

And Zhao Han's descendants, who can work eight hours a day, can already be called the king of diligent government, and they will definitely divide the power.

The more power is divided, the more opportunities the future emperor will have to neglect his administration. And the cabinet that has obtained the power will not be satisfied with the status quo, but will only demand more and more power.

Just like the Tang Dynasty's three-province and six-ministry system, it was originally a three-part power. As a result, the two provinces of Zhongshu and Menxia first took away the power of Shangshu Province. Then the two provinces of Zhongshu and Menxia were merged, and they were reunited into one by three parts.

The cabinet at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty was nothing more than a secretary and advisory body, pulling the Hanlin Yuan to seize power together.

When the cabinet succeeded in seizing power, it kicked the Hanlin Yuan away, and the emperor could only use eunuchs to divide the power. When the cabinet was unable to fight with the eunuchs, he went to get involved in the ministry power (executive power), and took the six departments responsible for reviewing, signing, refuting, and transmitting them as dogs.

Civil officials are unreliable, and eunuchs are also unreliable.

As soon as the emperor reused the eunuchs, the eunuchs immediately trembled, and they didn't want to do the right thing at all, and they just used their power to make money crazily. Because the eunuchs who do the right thing don't end well, they will inevitably give the emperor a black cauldron!

Whenever there was an emperor who reused eunuchs, the civil officials would fight back after the new emperor succeeded to the throne, and took the opportunity to make the prime minister even stronger.

How to balance and constrain?

There is no balance, there is no restraint!

It is impossible for Zhao Han to create any parliament, and it is impossible for civilians 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 will be all interest classes left in the parliament. For the sake of their own interests, they will inevitably disregard the interests of the country and the people.

Zhao Han sighed and said: "I won't argue anymore, try to do it first, and slowly adjust it in the future, and the ten cao will be managed by the emperor and the cabinet." ”

Xu Ying, Wang Tiaoding, and Huang Zongxi looked at each other, which was fun, it was the disguised system of three provinces and six ministries in the Tang Dynasty.

The Cabinet is responsible for major resolutions, the Ten Cao is responsible for reviewing and issuing them, and the ministries are responsible for implementing policies.

Da Ming is the master of ceremonies and the cabinet fighting, and Zhao Han is here the cabinet is fighting with Shi Cao.

Again, there is no such thing as a perfect system.

What the hell will become in the future, future generations will slowly have a headache, and the monarchs and ministers of future generations will make adjustments themselves.

Xu Ying suddenly said: "In the future, the female official examination should be in charge of the inner court itself." ”

"This is natural," Zhao Han said with a smile, "not only is the inner court in charge, but the women who sign up for the exam must be high school graduates from all over the world." After setting up a university, you must even be a college graduate. ”

In Zhao Han's vision, graduating from primary school, middle school, and university is similar to obtaining the corresponding imperial examination qualifications.

Every year, a very strict public examination is organized, and those who are admitted can be officials, and those who fail the examination do not have any gentry preferential treatment.

There is no restriction on women participating in public examinations, but under the influence of traditional concepts, I am afraid that there are not many women who can become officials, and even if they become officials, it is difficult to be promoted normally. After being an official in the inner court for a few years, they can resign and return to the people, which can be regarded as a layer of gold in the imperial city.

Don't talk about civil officials using female officials to control the inner court, if you can't control it, whoever dares to do this is looking for death.

By the way, the court maids of the Qing Dynasty were recruited by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But if it is a show girl of the Eight Banners, she will enter the palace through the household department, either as a concubine or as a high-ranking palace maid, which household official dares to control the palace through the show girl?

Even in the Ming Dynasty, the selection of concubines and palace maids seemed to be in charge of local eunuchs, but in fact, civil officials from all over the country helped with the auditions. Moreover, most civil officials avoid it, for fear that their performance is too positive, which will affect their official reputation and reputation.

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

If you don't let the civil officials help, will Zhao Han be personally responsible?

……

After discussing with Xu Ying, Wang Tiaoding, and Huang Zongxi, Zhao Han convened officials from various ministries for detailed discussions, and finally determined the latest structure of the central organs.

The future operation of the country is as follows:

The emperor, the cabinet, the ten Cao, the ten ministries, the four major institutions.

Small matters are handled by local governments, and major matters are reported layer by layer.

The 10th ministry handed over the matter to the cabinet with its own recommendations for how to deal with it.

The Cabinet deliberates and decides and adopts the opinions of the 10 ministries as much as possible. If the 10 opinions are not adopted, they must be discussed in the cabinet and given their own justifications.

After the cabinet makes a decision, it is handed over to Shicao for review.

After passing the review, Shi Cao was handed over to the emperor for inspection. The emperor agreed and signed, and the ten cao could be issued, and the specific instructions were given to the ten ministries for execution.

Under normal circumstances, if the cabinet, the ten Cao, and the ten ministries have the same handling opinion, the emperor cannot easily dismiss it.

These three institutions are in competition with each other, and if they are unanimous, there will be nothing wrong with them. If you really want to unite to get 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 intensity of the emperor's work also decreased.

The emperor can take a look at the political affairs of the three major institutions that agree with each other. The two institutions have the same opinion, and the emperor should take a closer look. If the opinions of the three major institutions are very different, the emperor should call the relevant people to discuss collectively.

After doing so, Zhao Han's daily workload will definitely drop by more than seventy percent.

Zhao Han is not Zhu Yuanzhang, he is too diligent in government, and even personally handles the theft of the imperial city, and he has to ask about trivial matters.

Now that the matter has been decided, officials at all levels must also make adjustments.

Pang Chunlai served as the first assistant to the cabinet, Li Banghua served as the second assistant to the cabinet, and Tian Younian served as an ordinary cabinet minister, and the cabinet temporarily consisted of the three of them. In addition, there is also a large number of scholars, who are equivalent to the secretaries of the three ministers.

The officials of the Ten Ministries and the Ten Cao also had their own transfers.

In particular, the chief officials of the Ten Cao were all transferred by the right attendants of each department, and Zhao Han's secretaries were all released as officials.

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

Many institutions have been expanded at once, and there are many female officials and palace maids, Zhao Han is almost unable to live in this place, and the female officials have to have a room for several people.

……

Fei Chun was officially relocated to the Ministry of Finance, and the bank was handed over to others to take care of.

"How much money is left in the treasury?" Zhao Han asked.

"More than three million taels," Fei Chun replied in detail, "After this war, a lot of silver was spent on rewarding merit and bereavement, and a lot of silver was spent on immigration. The cost of the enthronement ceremony must be controlled within 50,000 taels of silver. ”

The budget of 50,000 taels included the construction of the Heroic Soul Temple in Nanjing and the restoration of the Sheji Altar in the old imperial city.

Zhu Yuanzhang was proclaimed emperor in Nanjing, and the enthronement ceremony was extremely simple.

It is to worship the heaven and earth first, and then the officials worship. Zhao Han's plan is similar, but he wants to sacrifice the souls of the martyrs first, and then sacrifice to the Heaven and Earth Sheji, and then let the officials worship and do it.

These martyrs include not only regular soldiers and peasant soldiers, but also ordinary people who have died in previous wars.

To worship them is to worship all nations.

Zhao Han said: "I don't plan to build Huangzhuang Huangdian, I only have 100 acres of private land in Wuxing Town. In the future, the royal family will not own private property, but the national treasury will need to supply domestic money every year. How much silver do you think is good each year? ”

Fei Chun didn't know either, and said tentatively: "How about a million taels a year?" ”

"It's too much, tentatively set at 100,000 taels a year," Zhao Han said, "Now there are not many members of the royal family, and the number of female officials and palace maids is not much, 100,000 taels a year is definitely enough." It will be added in the future, and the exact amount depends on the situation. Moreover, you can't use the treasury as soon as there is a shortage of silver, like the Ming Emperor. The emperor's treasury and the treasury must be managed separately, and the treasury approves the emperor's treasury every year. ”

Fei Chun asked: "Is the royal family's use of internal silver to buy, or is it supplied by the people?" ”

"The inner court buys it with its own money." Zhao Han said.

The royal use of the Ming Dynasty is a three-in-one of self-made, purchased and supplied.

Self-made, that is, the inner court opened its own factory to make it, and the Huangzhuang cultivated real estate grain, and the palace maid even spun cloth.

The private supply is the tariff of the banknotes in various places, and some physical goods are directly collected, such as wood and the like, and some of them are sent to the palace. There is also a specific tax in kind, which is levied by the eunuchs in various places, handed over and sent directly to the inner court.

Coupled with the purchase, it makes a mess anyway.

The more chaotic and complicated it is, the more eunuchs and officials can profit from it!

Zhao Han's idea was very simple, the treasury would allocate funds to the inner court every year, and the inner court would then buy things with silver. Although there will definitely be cattiness in the process of purchasing, it is more transparent than the eunuch running around the place.

Today, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, the total annual fiscal revenue of the seven provinces is more than 13 million taels of silver.

This statistic is incomplete, because many peasants pay grain directly, and the total amount of real taxes is estimated to be more than 16 million taels.

Among them, excise taxes and customs duties are growing rapidly, and they will certainly continue to increase in the future.

The five major ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, and Macao alone have annual tariff revenues of more than 5 million taels. Tariffs in Shanghai are growing especially fast and are likely to double next year!

In addition, after the reform of the salt law, the salt tax has also increased.

The two Huai salt farms have basically popularized the salt drying method. This thing was invented in the Fujian and Guangdong salt farms in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, but it has not been able to be extended to the two Huai, because the salt content of the sea water here in the two Huai is lower.

During the Apocalypse, Xu Guangqi improved the salt drying method, so that the two Huai salt farms could also dry salt.

It's a pity that bureaucracy, slow promotion.

Now after changing to private, in just one year, the two Huai salt farms all use the salt drying method.

If the people's livelihood in northern Jiangsu and northern Anhui can be restored, only the territory of the seven provinces, Zhao Han's annual income may reach 20 million taels next year!

With silver, it's not a shame to be an emperor, and he will ascend the throne in half a month!

(The fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty was actually not as bad as imagined.) Even after a whip law, a large amount of taxes in kind are retained, and if these taxes in kind are added up, the income of the Ming Dynasty will definitely be more than 10 million taels, and it may even exceed 15 million taels. ）