His Majesty once married me

Now that the world is preliminarily set, there are not many people like Wang Ji who are so anxious and disregarding their manners that they want to enter the power circle of the new dynasty. More so-called talented people are still standing aside and watching, wanting to see Qi Yunheng Will the emperor be able to gain a firm foothold and sit down in the world, and can the new dynasty of Huaguo be passed on in an orderly manner, and the country's destiny will continue.

As long as Qi Yunheng survives this first year in peace, these people will definitely be as restless as Wang Ji, trying to find ways to squeeze into the court, snatching power and peaches from the hands of today's nobles.

But the imperial court has such a large place and so many positions. If they want to come first, the only way is to dismount those above who already have positions and make room for themselves.In order to achieve this goal, even if the weather outside the court hall is smooth and the weather inside the court hall is calm, they must rack their brains to stir up wind and rain to muddy the pool of water in the court hall.

Qi Yunheng hadn't thought of this at first, but when he heard Ouyang say that the capital was going to be chaotic, the first thing that came to his mind was that someone wanted to rebel, and he forced Ouyang to explain, then he suddenly realized——

The chaos that Ouyang refers to is not in the people, but in the court.

Thinking over Ouyang's words carefully, Qi Yunheng became vigilant: this matter is really not just a random talk of his royal husband; some things really can be seen now.

Ten years to decide the country, this pace can't be called fast, but it can't be called slow either.

Influenced by Ouyang in his early years, coupled with some of his own experience, Qi Yunheng has a very close grasp of the army, and has accumulated a lot of generals who are good at fighting. From old to young, there are many talents. There is no need to worry about no one being available for 30 to [-] years.

But in contrast, there is a lack of talent reserves in the civil service area, good and bad, just because the prime minister has not been selected so far, it can be seen that there are many problems-to divide the existing talents into the local and six ministries, Qi Yunheng There is no living person that can be reused in my hands.

As far as the army is concerned, Qi Yunheng has never let go, and he is confident that others will not be able to intervene.Even for someone like Duke Qin, don’t even think about rebelling with a single call—with Qi Yunheng’s current control over the army, if Duke Qin dared to raise the flag of rebellion, at least half of his soldiers would have to mutiny on the spot, part ways with him, or even go their separate ways. It's turning against each other.

But the court is not as easy to control as the army.

The system of civil servants is larger and more complex, and their promotion and relegation are not as clear as military commanders' meritorious records, which is difficult to fake.What's even more annoying is that in this day and age, knowledge is in the hands of a few people, and there are very limited talents to choose from, which makes the emperors have to face such a situation: If you don't use him, you will No one is available.

"Is there a way to avoid double eaves?" Qi Yunheng asked casually.

Qi Yunheng didn't expect Ouyang to give him a good solution.Ouyang has a good vision in political affairs, and often has a clear and rational vision, but if he is allowed to intervene in the resolution, it will be a different situation and state.

Sure enough, upon hearing Qi Yunheng's question, Ouyang shook his head resolutely, "This kind of thing... can't be avoided, right? Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes. The so-called court dispute, after all, isn't it just a conflict of interests? Damn... But there is only such a piece of flatbread. If one person bites too much, others can eat less. The officials in the court are not saints with no distracting thoughts and selflessness. Who would be willing to sell their own share? Let others eat until they are full, but yourself go hungry?"

But then, Ouyang added: "If you want me to say, what your Majesty the emperor can do is to make the best use of the situation and minimize the loss as much as possible—for example, set the national policy early and reduce the power of the ministers." .”

"Determine the national policy early and reduce the power of the ministers..." Qi Yunheng repeated these eight words twice, and quickly understood what Ouyang meant—while the court at the moment is full of your confidantes, hurry up The policies that need to be revised are finalized, and latecomers are not given the opportunity and power to intervene!

After pondering for a while, Qi Yunheng turned his head and said to Ouyang: "Chongyan, can you accompany me to taste other people's food tonight?"

The other family that Qi Yunheng mentioned was Zhu Bian, Shangshu of the Ministry of Justice.

After taking a bath in a serious manner and enjoying the massage service provided by Oufu's massage therapist, Qi Yunheng brought Ouyang and a group of followers to the residence of Minister of Criminal Affairs Zhu Bian in a light car.

Zhu Bian is still unmarried. He is still an elderly single dog. He has parents in the morning and has no children. The women in the mansion are all servants over 40 years old.Many families in the capital thought of recruiting him as their son-in-law, but Zhu Bian neither wanted to marry a daughter-in-law nor wanted to have multiple father-in-laws on his head, so he beat out all the matchmakers who came to the door. Without exception, his colleagues are not fake, causing many people to call him ugly and do mischief behind his back, not knowing what is good or bad.

Qi Yunheng has no interest in meddling in his minister's marriage, let alone whether he has a wife or not.The reason why he came to Zhu Bian's mansion in micro-clothes today is certainly one aspect of connecting with his feelings, but more because he feels that Zhu Bian is too "free" now.

In fact, Zhu Bian didn't feel that he was at ease at all.He has just finalized the first draft of "Hua Law", and there are still a lot of legal cases waiting to be reviewed and revised. The officials below will send some difficult and miscellaneous cases to him for decision from time to time. I need to use my brain for personal affairs, and I wish I could break twelve hours into 24 hours every day, so how can I be free?

But His Majesty the Emperor felt that he was idle, so he had no choice but to be idle, and he could only think about defending himself, but could not do it.

So, Zhu Bian drooped his head, honestly waiting for Qi Yunheng to finish speaking, to see how he wanted to put a burden on himself.

But Qi Yunheng was not in a hurry to discuss serious matters with Zhu Bian. He first had dinner at Zhu Bian's house and tasted the cooking skills of those cooks who claimed to be no less than imperial cooks in his house, and then dismissed the idlers, leaving only Ouyang and Eunuch Wei were by his side.

Only then did Qi Yunheng tell Zhu Bian of his plan.

The work that Qi Yunheng wants to impose on Zhu Bian is the jurisdiction of the three levels of prefecture, capital and county.According to his vision, he planned to strip this right from the chief officials at all levels of the state capital and counties, and hand it over to special officials, and these officials would be brought under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Punishment.

Right now, after the reform of the state capital, the military and political powers of various regions have been completely separated. If the judicial power is also separated, the power of the prefects, prefects, and county magistrates will be further weakened, and their prestige among the people will gradually decrease.

"Two questions." After hearing Qi Yunheng's words, Zhu Bian raised two fingers, "First, the people below may... no, they will definitely ask, if they are not allowed to decide the case, what else can they do? ——Don’t laugh, in the eyes of many people, being an official means trying cases for ordinary people.”

"I will clearly tell them what local officials should do, and then send them to become officials." Qi Yunheng replied, "When the imperial examinations are over this autumn, all students who have achieved fame will first receive training in this area. Afterwards, they will undergo corresponding assessments, and only after passing the assessments can they leave Beijing to take up their posts."

"Then, there is another question." Zhu Bian continued, "How to divide the yamen servants? Thugs are indispensable for criminal names, but if all the yamen servants are assigned to officials with criminal names, then the chief officials at all levels will have to Turned into a stick."

"Each employs its own staff and recruits each." Qi Yunheng said, "I have been thinking about breaking the gap between officials, but... this matter has a long way to go, so let's not mention it for now. Right now, even a long For a period of time, if you want to be an official, there are still only two ways: recommendation and imperial examination. But I think that even if you are an official, you should follow the principle of specialization in the art, make the best use of people, and minimize the jokes of laymen commanding experts .”

"Your Majesty means..." Zhu Bian was slightly taken aback.

"I think that from the beginning of the imperial examination, the candidates will be screened according to their own wishes and abilities, and they can take the test according to the kind of official they want to be." Qi Yunheng explained, "If you want to work in the Ministry of Rites, you have to pass the " If you want to work in the Ministry of Industry, you must read books like "Tiangong Kaiwu"; if you want to investigate doubts and solve cases under Zhu Qing, of course you must memorize "Hualu" backwards."

"What about after the imperial examination is over?"

"In principle, each official's promotion route must be controlled within one department. Without the instructions of the six ministers, he is not allowed to serve in multiple departments, especially the three departments of military, punishment, and engineering."

"Which department should the magistrate belong to?" Zhu Bian asked.

"The chief official belongs to the household department, and the auxiliary officials are divided according to their functions." Qi Yunheng replied, "During the official examination, the Ministry of Officials and the department directly under the official will issue a separate evaluation. If the difference does not exceed three levels, the median value will be taken. Make an evaluation; if the difference is too large, I will send someone to re-evaluate."

"In this case, I'm afraid there will be more nonsense." Zhu Bian frowned.

"It's the same now." Qi Yunheng didn't think so, but he meant something, and then changed his voice, "I have to discuss this matter further with the other five ministers and even more officials. Let me tell you first, yes I want to know if the Ministry of Criminal Justice can provide enough manpower to take up these official positions. Also, do you, the head of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, have the guts to 'assume' the power corresponding to these official positions."

"Your Majesty should know that courage is what I lack the most." Zhu Bian grinned, "As for manpower, there is indeed some shortage, but at this moment, where is there no shortage of manpower? In some places, even magistrates are like this." The chief officer is still vacant!"

"It would be great if Zhu Qing dared to take over." Qi Yunheng nodded, very satisfied with Zhu Bian's statement.

When Qi Yunheng and Zhu Bian were discussing "major national affairs", Ouyang at the side was thinking about a seemingly trivial matter.

After following Qi Yunheng into Zhu Bian's mansion, Ouyang noticed that the white-haired old butler in Zhu Bian's mansion looked at them with something strange in his eyes - this person never looked at them directly, but it was not the kind of contempt , but cowardly dodging - at first glance, it is easy to associate this kind of eyes that would avoid looking away with this person's reserved expression, and misunderstand it as trepidation and cautiousness, but after careful observation You will find that this state is indeed due to tension, but the reason for the tension is alertness, vigilance, and lack of trust.

What made Ouyang even more concerned was that he had seen similar eyes in the eyes of his butler Zhuang.