Promotion Letter for the Chief Executive

If it is completely understandable that the concubines go out of the palace for the elderly because the new emperor is sympathetic to the brothers and allows them to enjoy the family happiness of mother and child, but the release of the palace maids only involves private affairs in the inner palace after all, and courtiers are not easy to talk about, then the demolition and merger of the 24 yamen The rectification will shake everything in the court.

24 Yamen is the emperor's private institution, which is generally divided into two parts: internal and external: internally responsible for the emperor's daily diet, daily life, food, clothing, housing and transportation; Do not trust the emperor, so appoint private matters.

Among them, the external part is naturally respected, such as the Lijian, Yumajian, Shangbaojian, Bingzhanju and so on.The rest belong to the internal affairs. Although the things they do are different in distance and size, they are all regarded as "servants sweeping things".

The eunuch, the supervisor of ceremonies, is called the "inner minister", and has always been a rival to the power of the prime minister. It is a very useful tool for the emperor to check and balance the political affairs hall, and its influence on the court is self-evident.

And now, the emperor wants to return these rights to the court!

For the princes of the imperial court, they naturally wanted to support this resolution.Not to mention anything else, it is absolutely impossible to let go only for such a great power.Even in the eyes of some people, this is the victory of Xiangquan over the imperial power, and it is a very glorious thing for the Wenchen Group.

But from Ping An's point of view, the internal part is even more overwhelming than the external part. Many people occupy positions there and consume a lot of money from the royal family, but they do far less.And his rectification also focuses more on this aspect.

After all, someone will naturally take over the external part, and try to make it better, so there is not much to worry about.

Originally, Ping An said that people would be released, but Zhao Can thought it was really just to reduce the number of maids and eunuchs in the palace, so he had no objection.After all, he also felt that there were too many people.Especially the harem, since he won't set up a concubine in the future, it is equivalent to being vacant, and it is useless for these people to stay.

But he didn't expect Ping An to do this.

Although Zhao Can is very supportive of Ping An, she is also very puzzled by Ping An's approach.To this end, I also had a conversation with Ping An.

"Have you thought it through? If you hand over all these rights, you will be greatly restricted in what you do in the future. It won't be as easy as it is now." Zhao Can said to Ping An.

With Ping An's status, within three to five years, he must be in charge of the Supervisor of Rituals and become the head of the 24 yamen.Now that he released these powers, it was not much different from poaching his own corner.At that time, he will only serve as Zhao Can's servant, without sufficient power, and will definitely be targeted more easily.

Power is sometimes the best tool to protect yourself.

Although Zhao Can would not let Ping An have an accident, but after all, manpower is not enough, Ping An has the power to protect itself, so he can rest assured.

"Think it over." Ping An nodded with a smile, "It is precisely because I know this that I chose this place to start."

His goal is big, but it is definitely not to become the "nine thousand years old" that everyone fears.On the contrary, although Ping An is not a person who is particularly fond of fame, he still hopes to hear more good things.

But sometimes, which step you take is not about whether you want to or not, there will always be some force behind you to push you forward, and you can't help yourself.

Just like many powerful ministers in history, they may not all have such a strong desire for power, but if they want to do something, let their voices be heard, recognized and implemented by others, that is the only way to do it.Gradually, more and more people gathered around, and they would eventually push him to that position.

So Ping An simply restricted himself in advance, so that if he wanted to intervene in some things in the future, he would have to go through Zhao Can, which would be a little more troublesome.But it is also a means of self-cleaning.

Of course, it also required his [-]% trust in Zhao Can.

Because in this way, if Zhao Can wants to deprive him of these powers, it will be easy.

"You..." Zhao Can was stunned for a moment when he heard the words, but in the end he didn't say anything, just sighed.

I had just talked about trust with Ping An before, but I didn't expect him to give an unreserved answer immediately.Faced with this situation, Zhao Can can only work harder to live up to Ping An's trust.

"However," Ping An laughed again, "Although I said that I would return this part of the power to the court, it doesn't mean that I will completely ignore it."

"Tell me about your plan." When Zhao Can saw Ping'an smiling like this, he knew that someone was about to fall into a trap, so he relaxed.

Pingan said, "Actually, there are many clerks in Zhongshu. After careful study, the work they do is actually similar to that of the supervisor of ceremonies. So I plan to reorganize the supervisor of ceremonies into a secretariat. Currently, half of the eunuchs and Half of the officials recommended by the imperial court belong directly to His Majesty. What do you think?"

Although the Great Chu Dynasty usually had four governors, even if the number was doubled, it would be impossible to handle all the memorials sent from all over the country every day.Besides, as a prime minister, what you have to pay attention to is the important affairs of the country, and it is impossible to bury your head in the memorial every day.

Therefore, there must be a group of people around them who specialize in handling chores and organizing memorials. This is the clerk of Zhongshu.

Reorganizing the Supervisor of Ceremony into the emperor's secretariat seems to have reduced their power - after all, they used to be called the inner ministers, but now they are the secretariats that the prime ministers can influence.But in fact the real change will not be too big.

Besides, Ping An does not intend to become a fat man with one bite, but to proceed step by step.

In this way, in a short period of time, the influence of the imperial court on the Secretariat is actually not that great.Ping An seems to have given up power, but it is not really powerless to fight back.

Zhao Can couldn't help but nodded, "Okay, just do as you want."

"As for the other yamen, it has little to do with being merged into the imperial court. Even if it is in charge of the military talisman, it needs to be considered again." Ping An said.

Of course, he was not completely devoid of ideas about the ancient military system.However, food needs to be eaten bite by bite. Military power is a very sensitive thing no matter which dynasty it is in. Reform can only be done slowly. Now is not the time.

However, in Ping An's plan, the practice of "emphasizing civil affairs over military affairs" and "controlling military affairs with civil affairs" is bound to be eliminated, but military power needs other forces to check and balance, so how to balance this degree is also very important.The temporary plan is to hand over the military talisman to the Ministry of War.

"It seems that you really have a plan in mind, so let's do it according to your ideas." Zhao Can said, "Just tell me if you have any problems, and I will solve them."

"Okay." Ping An said, "I plan to merge all the remaining departments into the Ministry of Internal Affairs and reduce the number of personnel. In the end, no more than 2000 people will remain in the palace. The extra people must be settled. I have Discuss with Concubine Zheng, except for some people who plan to make a living by themselves, she will open a garment factory to accept these people. It happens that the cotton cloth and silk in Jiangnan and Southeast can be supplied. So I hope to get it from the army. Side order."

Originally, some of the clothes distributed in the army were provided by the imperial court, but most of them were purchased from merchants.Many merchants even have long-term cooperation with the military.

It's just that this scattered approach is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the quality of the products produced varies.

What Ping An wants to do is to win this first order for the garment factory.With the order and account entry, the garment factory can be regarded as truly established.As for how to develop in the future, that is what Concubine Zheng has to worry about.

Zhao Can thought for a while and said, "Okay. It's just that it's hard to deal with merchants who used to cooperate with the military."

The royal family should always be more careful in their actions, if they act rashly, it will cause their dissatisfaction. At that time, the reputation of "competing with the people" and "overpowering others" will be spread, but it will not do any good.

Ping An said, "It's natural. So I don't plan to compete for their orders."

"what do you mean?"

"Your Majesty doesn't think that the treatment of the army is too bad. Can we raise it appropriately? We will be responsible for the improvement, and we will never argue with others."

If the soldiers could get linen clothes in the past, now they will be given a cotton or silk clothes on top of the original ones.This is an era when cloth can be used as money. For soldiers, it is impossible to make this kind of clothes by themselves.After the imperial court issued it, they could be regarded as having better clothing to protect themselves.

Of course, Ping An also has more specific ideas, such as making silk into a closet, because this thing has a smooth texture and can play a defensive role. In the era of cold weapons, whether it is bows and arrows or knives and axes, silk will be damaged. part of the power was removed.

In addition, cotton coats can also be made to keep out the cold in winter.In this way, the originally issued part of the materials will naturally not be affected.

The only problem is that the imperial court has to spend a lot of money, but Zhao Can said very proudly, "The national treasury may not be able to handle it now, so the money will be paid from the internal treasury for the time being."

Anyway, the road company and the cement company have been getting money all the time, and Zhao Can doesn't have any extravagant hobbies, and he doesn't like traveling and having fun, so the money for building a separate palace is almost useless.

After getting Zhao Can's approval, Ping An began to reorganize the new Ministry of Internal Affairs according to his own ideas.

Except for the provisional appointment of the secretariat for the reorganization of the Sili Supervisor, the other yamen were merged into six departments: Shangshe Bureau, Shangshan Bureau, Shangyi Bureau, Zhidian Bureau, Neiza Bureau and Jingong Bureau.They are respectively responsible for palace decoration, food, clothing, sweeping, housekeeping, and taking charge of sweeping incense lamps in the Taimiao Temple.

Because these matters are still the emperor's private affairs, although the action is a bit big, no one said anything.Because each generation of emperors will basically make some changes in this area, and ancestors' precedents will not work here.

However, in the palace, there are too many people who disagree with this matter.Every day, the supervisor of ceremonies received a thick pile of protesting memorials, and Zhao Canquan pretended not to see them, so he could not stop the anger of these people.They are looking for someone everywhere, hoping to stop this from happening.

——For the vast majority of people, although staying in the palace has no freedom, they may not be able to leave once in their life, and they can only be trapped in this palace city.And because he was doing business for the royal family, he often had to be cautious. After all, if he made the master unhappy, it would be a death sentence.

But even so, there are still many people who are willing to stay here.

One thing is that there is no custom of advocating freedom nowadays. Most people's life is originally going forward step by step, according to the arrangement of their parents and according to the needs of society.But in the palace, everything is arranged by someone, so you don't need to bear it yourself.Besides, these are things they are used to, and they don't want any changes.

After all, the two imperial palaces are the wealthiest places in the world. In the era of supremacy of imperial power, for some people, being able to serve the emperor's home—even if it is just a rough job of sweeping and sweeping—is a great thing to honor their ancestors. It is very meaningful to say it. face.

If you are kicked out like this, firstly you don’t know what to do in the future and how to live your life, and secondly, you will lose face. After all, in the minds of many people, you will be dismissed, naturally because you are not good enough.

The eunuch is better, he always has some knowledge when he travels everywhere.But the palace maids are different. They entered the palace at a very young age and have not learned anything except serving people. What can they do after they leave?Besides, all the women in the harem belonged to the emperor logically, and there were probably some of them who had the heart to climb the dragon and the phoenix.

Before that, the late emperor was old and rarely favored newcomers, and the palace was peaceful for a while.But now that the new emperor is on the throne, he is a handsome young man who makes women feel the most beautiful.Secondly, there is not a single serving woman around, if someone can take the top spot, it is needless to say that they will live in the palace in the future.

Under such circumstances, it is normal for a large number of people to be unwilling to leave the palace.

But it's not their turn to say whether they want to or not.Ping An asked Concubine Zheng to be in charge of this matter, and Concubine Zheng brought most of the concubines in the palace over, and there were only a few people who could talk, and they all stood by Ping An's side in order to leave the palace. No matter how many ideas you have, you can only obey them obediently.

——Pingan has reduced the number of people in the palace, but the imperial guards guarding the imperial city have not decreased. If there is any resistance, it will naturally be suppressed.

In addition, the factories and craftsmen attached to the 24 yamen also need to be dealt with.Ping An's approach is to directly transfer these things to the internal warehouse, and no longer work exclusively for the royal family, but to undertake external orders.

For example, the Economics Factory under the Supervisor of Rites is now accepting orders for printed books from outside.The first order was given by Ping An, and the printed books were to be distributed to state libraries.

Although these books began to be printed a few years ago, Ping An will not have too many.After all, it is true that a library must have at least one set of books, but which library have you seen only one set of books?There are usually five or six books for different people to borrow.

In addition, Ping An intends to extend the library model to the villages, and the required books are a very large number.Enough to run the factory for many years.

So far, the reform plan in the palace has finally come to an end.Zhao Can formally promulgated the decree, first of all, to seal the belated concubines and brothers. ——Before Zhao Can kept his mouth shut, and many people even thought that he was going to take revenge on these brothers and do something to them, so people were uncertain.Now that Zhao Can made it up, the hearts of these people fell to the ground.

The battle for succession has always been like this. There is nothing to say about the winner and the loser, but it is best to escape the catastrophe.And the first offender was forgiven, and the people who followed them would naturally let them go lightly.

But is it really that simple?Zhao Can and Pingan are just inconvenient now, and they can't spare a hand to deal with them.After all, the late Emperor had earnestly instructed Zhao Can to take good care of his brothers in front of the hospital bed, so it was a pity that he would start here before his bones were cold.

If they kept being honest, Zhao Can would not be able to do anything.But in Zhao Can's view, this is impossible.

The second is the specific arrangements for releasing people out of the palace.With so many people, the work in hand also needs to be handed over, which will inevitably require a process, so they can only leave the palace in batches.But within this year, all of them will definitely leave.

Whether they like it or not, these palace people can only pack up their own things and leave the palace one after another under the unified arrangement.Those who had a home to return to, and those who had their own livelihood to do, dispersed.The rest will be assigned to the factory.

Ping An stood on the tower and watched these people walk out of the palace gate, and then turned to look at the palace, which seemed a little empty, suddenly feeling a little emotional.

This is just a starting point, Ping An said to himself, there are still many, many things waiting to be done by him.

But these people are gone, and the matter is not over like this.

Originally, there were tens of thousands of people living in the palace. Although the palace was big, it still seemed a bit crowded.But now that more than half of it is suddenly missing, it seems too open.If these palaces exist here, they need to be maintained and cleaned, which can only be a waste of manpower and material resources.

But it is even more inappropriate to let it go unused.

So how to use these palaces is also a problem that Ping An needs to solve.

Ping An really wants to be like the later generations, open the palace for ordinary people to visit, and charge a ticket or something.But obviously, this kind of thing cannot be done now.

He also thought about vacating most of the palace and allowing courtiers to settle in and do business.But this was already taken into consideration when designing the imperial palace, so the large area in the previous dynasty was the office of the ministers, and there was no need to expand it for the time being.

Also this doesn't quite fit.

Although most of the palace ladies are going to be released now, some of the childless concubines are unable to leave the palace for the time being because of their embarrassing identities, so some palace ladies have to be left to serve them.In the future, Ping An also plans to invite male and female employees to work in the palace. Although it may not be possible to cause accidents if they live together, they must be guarded against.At that time, it was still necessary to separate them and let the female employees live in the back.

After much deliberation, Ping An finally found a way to use it.

Excitedly, he went to Zhao Can and told him his thoughts.

After Zhao Can finished listening, he looked at him with a strange expression, "You mean, you plan to set up a women's school in the harem to accept the female family members of officials?"

"Yeah, what's the matter?" Seeing Zhao Can's expression, Ping An knew that there was something he hadn't considered clearly.This approach is probably not appropriate.

Sure enough, Zhao Can raised his hand to support his forehead, "Ping An, what do you think others will think of this news?"

"What do you think?" Ping An was taken aback.

But he is not an idiot after all, he quickly realized, "You mean—"

Thinking about this clearly, Ping An couldn't help but gasped, and was speechless for a while.Although he has lived in Dachu for more than ten years, in most cases, he is still able to do whatever he wants and do things according to his own ideas. Gradually, he seldom cares about certain rules. Now it seems that he is too Slack off.

Seeing that he had figured it out, Zhao Can nodded, "Where is the harem? It's where the emperor's concubines live. You said that you want to set up a women's school there, so of course I believe it. But I'm afraid other people won't believe it. Minister They are even less likely to send their daughters here."

In the final analysis, Ping An and Zhao Can knew that he would not marry a queen or have a concubine, but others did not know!

Ping An's method of sweeping up all the daughters of the minister's family, from the perspective of those who don't know, isn't it intended to lock these women in the harem and let Zhao Can play with them?And it's still in the name of the above women's school, with no name or distinction, how could the courtiers agree?

Of course, many people in the court wanted their daughters to enter the palace. After all, there was no one around Zhao Can, so the first one would always be special.

But after all, they are all important ministers, this does not mean that they want to put their daughters there and let Zhao Can pick and choose, at most they can only send pictures and pictures to the palace.

Besides, Ping An didn't really want to help Zhao Can get a concubine, so naturally he wouldn't do such a troublesome thing.After all, it is easy for these women to enter the palace, but it is difficult to send them away.What if everyone thinks that Zhao Can will take responsibility for them?

"I didn't think carefully." Ping An sighed, "Forget it, I'll think again."

"Actually, it doesn't cost much to repair it every year, so you don't have to save too much." Zhao Can couldn't help laughing, "It doesn't matter if it's vacant for a while.

Ping An shook his head, "No, after hearing what you said, I have to try to fill up all the places. In case the courtiers will report that the harem is empty in the future, you should hurry up and choose someone. Then you will tell them that the harem has long been filled. It's filled up."

"Isn't it already full, and there is no room for others?" Zhao Can smiled and looked at Ping An.