Although these personnel arrangements have changed considerably, they have not caused much reaction because the new candidates are basically worthy of the name. But then Zhao Chen announced a series of new systems, which is the focus of this change.

First of all, it was officially determined that the political affairs hall was the power center of the Great Song Dynasty, and the five ministers of the political affairs hall were Shangshu Zuo and Right Pu She, and the privy envoys and the two governors were all ruling ministers.

After the official documents from various places arrived in Jiankang, they were first classified into six parts, and then the six Shangshu and the Privy Counsellor and the five ministers of the government hall were first reviewed, and the five ministers of the government hall drew up the handling intentions and then submitted them to the emperor for approval. If the emperor agrees, he will directly approve Zhu Zhun Xing, and then use the seal, if he does not agree, he will either send it back to the political hall for reconsideration, or leave the emperor's own opinion, and the political hall will consider whether it is feasible. Of course, if something important happens, the emperor will still make a decision after consulting with the five ministers of the government hall and even the six ministers of Shangshu and the deputy envoy of the privy council.

In the past two years, Zhao Chen's biggest experience is that it is no wonder that there are always more faint monarchs than Ming monarchs in history, because the work intensity of being an emperor is too great. He is still young and healthy, and he has learned some breathing and breathing techniques from Yang Yan, but he still feels a little unbearable. Sometimes, after reading all the pieces, I am so tired that I just want to sleep and nothing else. He has been married for more than half a year, but none of the concubines in the harem are pregnant, and it cannot be said that being too busy with affairs is also a reason.

And now there is only this half of the Great Song Dynasty left, so it has been accumulated like this, if the Northern Expedition is successful in the future and all the lost land is recovered, what can be done, you must think of this solution, so Zhao Chen came up with such a system.

In this way, because most of the official documents were prepared by the five ministers of the government, the emperor only needed to consider whether it was feasible or not, so the work was much lighter than before. Moreover, although the handling opinions are drawn up by the five ruling ministers, the final decision is still in the hands of the emperor, and there is no need to worry about the power of the people, and even to a certain extent, it can avoid the situation of the monopoly of a certain minister.

At the same time, Zhao Chen also stipulated that once one of the five ministers of the political affairs hall went out on business, inspected the place, was sick and could not serve as a director, was worried or was dismissed, he would choose a replacement among the six Shangshu, and the position of his Shangshu would be taken over by the waiter of the Ministry. However, if there is an accident on the part of the Privy Councillor, the Privy Counsellor will take over to ensure that there is always a share of the Privy Council among the five ruling ministers. As a result, the powers of the six ministries were greatly increased, and at the same time, the powers of some of the ruling ministers were also dispersed.

The biggest change in this institutional reform is to change the antagonistic situation between the Privy Council and the Zhongshu Province, which were previously in charge of the military and political powers, and had nothing to do with each other. Although the situation of ministers supporting the army and self-respect has been reduced to a certain extent, it has also created a situation in which the military and the government are opposed to each other and do not buy each other's account. For example, once a war breaks out, the dispatch of troops and the formulation of tactical arrangements naturally belong to the military and the government, but the supply of money and food, logistical support, and the requisition and transfer of civilian personnel belong to the civil administration, and the two governments must agree on the same article in order to handle these matters well.

Therefore, after the Southern Crossing of the Great Song Dynasty, for a long time, the prime minister directly served as a privy envoy at the same time, so as to ensure that this was the unification of the affairs agreement. Zhang Jun, Yu Yunwen, and Tang Siwei have all served as privy envoys. In fact, the antagonistic and irrelevant situation between the two governments has ceased to exist.

In the Great Song Dynasty's war against Jin, although Zhao Chen inherited the throne with Jingjing, he was still young at that time, and all major military and political affairs were discussed and decided by Chen Junqing, Han Yanzhi, Yang Yizhong, Yang Yan and others. Fortunately, at that time, the Great Song Dynasty was worried about the loss of the country, and all the ministers could still cooperate sincerely, so they finally defeated the Jin army. And this time in the battle against Western Xia, Zhao Chen officially began to deal with the government, and naturally participated in the whole process. This time, Chen Junqing and Han Yanzhi cooperated well, but because the two had different goals for this war, there were also many disputes in the process, and in the end, they could only rely on him, the emperor, to mediate, and they were not tired.

This is just a medium-sized foreign war, and the two provinces stand side by side and have nothing to do with each other, which leads to so much trouble, and if a full-scale northern expedition is launched against the Jin State in the future, it will not be more troublesome, but I am afraid that the front line has not yet divided the victory and defeat, and the family will be almost exhausted by the internal economy.

Therefore, this time, Zhao Chen simply tried to change it, and the privy envoy was appointed as the ruling minister, directly participating in the handling of the government, and the affairs of the privy council were managed by the privy deputy envoy. The Privy Council, although slightly higher than the Sixth Ministry, is also placed under the Cabinet of Ministers. In this way, the hierarchical relationship between the upper and lower levels is also clear, which is also conducive to the unified administrative arrangements of the imperial court. Since it was the great cause of the Northern Expedition in the future, it could do its best to create good conditions for military victory.

As for the promotion and promotion criteria of officials, an "evaluation system" will be implemented. According to the old system of the Song Dynasty, as long as an official has no major mistakes, he can be promoted to one level in three years, so ordinary officials can often be promoted step by step as long as they do not make major mistakes. As a result, the majority of officials follow the old list and do not return to the idea of working hard, while a small number of officials who want to make a difference are regarded as causing trouble for no reason, and if they make a slight mistake, they will be crowded.

However, the "appraisal system" records all the officials' annual achievements and mistakes in the official department, and evaluates the work of the year according to the five grades of excellent, good, medium, secondary, and poor; only those who reach the intermediate level are considered qualified, and they can continue to stay in office but cannot be promoted, while those with outstanding political achievements can be promoted immediately without waiting for three years. In this way, those who are able to go up and those who are incompetent go down, and it also avoids those officials who do nothing to ignore their political achievements, and they are promoted step by step by just staying up, which is conducive to the selection of useful talents by the imperial court.

At the same time, Zhao Chen revised the shadow subsidy system and vigorously reduced the number of shadow subsidies for officials.

The so-called shadow supplement, refers to the official children can be based on their father's official position, or the concubine's relatives and other direct access to the official without passing the imperial examination, although most of the official positions of the shadow supplement are some fictitious positions, idle positions, even if they are ministers, can not serve as the main local governors such as the county and the state, but after all, it is into the officialdom, and it is for some gentlemen, if they participate in the imperial examination, they may not be able to pass the examination in a lifetime, even if it is only a minor official of the ninth grade. Moreover, those who have received the shade subsidy are all the children of officials, and with the support of their parents, they may not have no opportunities in the future.

Originally, this was a benevolent policy of the emperor to the ministers, and the ministers were meritorious ministers, but by the time of the Zhenzong Dynasty, the shadow supplement was flooded, and the number of officials who received officials for the shadow supplement could reach hundreds every year. Generally in the court, if you hold an official position above the bachelor's degree, within 20 years, the number of brothers and nephews who are made up for the Beijing officials can reach twenty or thirty people, and only during the great ceremonies of the imperial court, the prime minister can grace more than ten people at a time, and the vast majority of these people are fictitious, idle, and receive an official salary every month, but there is no actual errand, and they are completely supported by the imperial court.

One of the three major drawbacks of the Song Dynasty was redundant officials, and the flood of shadow supplements was one of the reasons for redundant officials.

Fan Zhongyan, who presided over the new system of Qingli, synthesized the various systems of shadow compensation since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, especially after Song Zhenzong, and formulated a complete and systematic system of official shadow compensation, which can effectively control the number of officials and achieve the goal of curbing the rapid rise in the number of officials. However, because the new system of Qingli was implemented for less than a year and ended hastily, this system of official shadow compensation was not actually implemented.

Subsequently, during the Jiayou and Xining periods, the Song Dynasty continued to adjust the shadow subsidy system, but most of them were standard but not original, and the situation of the flood of shadow subsidy officials was not effectively controlled. Therefore, until the Jingkang period, redundant officials were always a major drawback of the Song Dynasty and difficult to eradicate.

Although the Great Song Dynasty has only been restored to the country for more than two years, and the problem of redundant officials has not yet been revealed, if we continue to let this go unchecked, sooner or later a new malpractice will be formed, so it must be prevented now. Therefore, the shadow subsidy system has become another important system for Zhao Chen's reform of the official system.

The new shadow subsidy system basically follows the new system of Qingli to formulate the official shadow subsidy system, which greatly reduces the number and level of shadow subsidy officials. However, as a supplement, the new system of shadow compensation stipulates that in addition to the prescribed number of shadow compensation recipients, if a great contribution has been made to the imperial court, the number of shadow subsidies can be increased as appropriate.

As a matter of fact, for these two reforms, except for a few knowledgeable ministers in the DPRK and China, most of the officials, who are middle- and lower-level officials, do not have the intention of doing so. This is because these two reforms will undoubtedly greatly damage their own practical interests. But several ruling ministers are still knowledgeable and understand Zhao Chen's good intentions in this move, so they basically support Zhao Chen. On the other hand, the victory of the war against the Western Xia also greatly increased Zhao Chen's prestige, although the battle was fought by Yang Yan, but Zhao Chen was the most supportive of the war against the Western Xia from beginning to end, so in the hearts of the ministers, there was no more awe of this young emperor.

Moreover, morally speaking, officials who do not support these two reforms really cannot find a proper reason to oppose them, and they cannot say that it is because they will no longer be able to mess around in the future, or that they cannot bring up their juniors. The Qingli New Deal was proposed by Fan Zhongyan, so there is no need to refute the New Deal morally, as long as Fan Zhongyan is defeated, it can be solved. But this time it was the emperor himself who proposed it, unless it was a rebellion, who could say that the emperor was wrong?

Therefore, once these two new systems were announced, although there were some voices of opposition, they were irrelevant, and basically could not prevent the implementation of these two systems.

However, Zhao Chen then issued an edict announcing a resolution, which was unanimously approved by the government and the opposition, that is, to reopen the imperial examination. The imperial examination has always been an important means of selecting talents in the Great Song Dynasty, and after more than two years of recuperation, the people have gradually returned to a stable life, and the conditions for reopening the imperial examination have also matured.

After this series of personnel and system adjustments, Da Song started a new process again.

(Full Text)