Chapter 1063: Deepening

The Deliberation Hall.

The civil and military officials all wore respectful expressions, signaling the supreme authority of Zhao Xu.

Nodding with satisfaction, Zhao Xu gave Xiao Guizi a look.

Xiao Guizi understood, immediately calling over two young eunuchs serving to the side, ordering the two of them to carry two thick stacks of documents and follow him.

Arriving before the civil and military officials, Xiao Guizi distributed the documents one by one.

The content of these documents was identical, concerning a thorough top-to-bottom reform of Great Song since Zhao Xu's ascension to the throne.

"From this day forward, the position of Prime Minister is abolished, to be replaced by the Cabinet. The Cabinet ministers are provisionally set at nine, with one Chief Grand Secretary selected to preside over Cabinet affairs," Zhao Xu said slowly. "Henceforth, all Great Song government affairs shall be deliberated and decided by the Cabinet ministers, then submitted to Us for review."

To Zhao Xu, this reform needed to be deep, yet appropriately conservative, conforming to the characteristics of Great Song's own history and culture, as well as its current stage of historical development.

He would not parrot others or play the Westerners' game.

To him, the foundation of any system lies solely in the people who execute it.

If the people are rotten, no matter what the system is, it will eventually be bullshit and rot along with them.

For instance, the Jin State, one of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period, established the Three Armies and Six Ministers system at its founding, which was the most ancient democratic system.

At that time, the ruler of Jin was called a nominal ruler, with his power restricted.

State affairs were handled in rotation by the commanders of the Central Army, equivalent to a Prime Minister, with the Six Ministers assisting.

This system could be called advanced and powerful at the time, but in the end, it led to the Partition of Jin by the three families, exiting the stage in gloom.

And Great Qin, after establishing the centralized commandery-county system, left all others behind and eventually unified the six states, yet it also perished.

But at least Great Qin once created a glorious history, establishing immortal achievements for ten thousand generations.

It is precisely because of these lessons from the past that he decided Great Song would remain a centralized state led by him, the Emperor.

After all, if he were to play the Westerners' game of mutual bickering and holding each other back now, would Great Song still have any development?

He did not want to argue for three or five years over whether or not to build a bridge.

If that were the case, the Westerners would be overjoyed and laugh themselves to death.

Furthermore, his fundamental goal was to clear obstacles to the development of technology, education, industry, commerce, and agriculture through reform, not to put a tightening spell on himself.

Thinking of this, he continued, "After the Cabinet is established, the Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of Works, Ministry of War, Ministry of Personnel, and Ministry of Justice will be cancelled. Among them, the Ministry of Rites is directly abolished; the Ministry of Revenue is renamed the Finance Department, and the Minister of Revenue is renamed the Minister of Finance; the Ministry of Works is renamed the Construction Department, and the Minister is renamed the Minister of Construction; the Ministry of Personnel is renamed the Personnel Department, and the Minister is renamed the Minister of Personnel; the Ministry of Justice is renamed the Legal Department, and the Minister is renamed the Minister of Legal Affairs," Zhao Xu said slowly. He did not mention the Ministry of War, because the Ministry of War would be discussed together with military affairs.

After such a reform, the status of the six ministries, which were previously very high, would be about the same as the Commerce Department headed by Yang He, the Industrial Department headed by Chen Xu, and the Foreign Affairs Department headed by Dong An.

Of course, the job titles of Yang He and the others also changed in this reform, becoming Minister of Industry, Minister of Commerce, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, respectively.

After announcing the reform of the Imperial Court's core institutions, Zhao Xu spoke of the reform of the prefectures, commanderies, and counties. "In addition, from this day forward, all prefectures of Great Song are renamed Xingsheng, and the Prefect is renamed Provincial Governor, while the titles of Commandery Governor and County Magistrate are retained."

The term Xingsheng evolved from the Secretariat, a central institution of the Tang Dynasty.

He abolished the prefecture and established the Xingsheng to further erase the bad custom of the Prefect system ruling the world.

Pausing, he continued, "At the same time, deepen the system where County Magistrates, Commandery Governors, and Provincial Governors only handle government affairs, while criminal judgment is handled by Supervisory Courts at all levels, and the arrest of thieves and public security are executed by Constables at all levels, strengthening the functions of the six bureaus and renaming them..."

In the great hall, the civil and military officials all held their breath, with only Zhao Xu's loud voice remaining.

There was much content regarding the reform of the province, commandery, and county, and just like the abolition of the Ministry of Rites, he also carried out the abolition of redundant institutions, such as the Rites Bureau among the six bureaus.

However, some additions were also made relatively, such as institutions targeting agriculture, industry, and commerce.

In fact, it was basically shrinking the imperial court institutions and moving them to the provinces, commanderies, and counties.

This is called "the sparrow may be small, but it has all the vital organs," which is also a common method used by all countries.

Regarding the part on government affairs, Zhao Xu recited for about an hour and drank tea three times.

But even so, what was said was only the brief content; the specific details were still in the thick documents.

"These reforms concern the national polity, but I also want to carry out some reforms on the customs of the Song People," Zhao Xu laughed. "For example, from now on, the common people of the world do not need to kneel when seeing officials; they only need to bow with hands folded. Of course, there is no need to kneel when seeing Me either," Zhao Xu said.

Bowing with hands folded is a relative gesture of respect; he felt this method of salutation was good and there was no need to change it to modern etiquette like shaking hands, which could also avoid skin contact and the spread of diseases.

And not kneeling was to blur the harsh bad custom of superior and inferior.

With the government affairs finished, Zhao Xu cleared his throat and looked at the military generals like Chang Wei.

After pondering for a moment, he said, "Regarding the military, I have decided to formally establish the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The Army and Navy need not be mentioned; the Air Force will temporarily consist of Hot Air Balloons and the airships that are about to be commissioned. The Air Force will further develop in the future."

"On the basis of the three services, establish a Defense Department to command the three services. The Minister of Defense will be concurrently held by Me for the time being. At the same time, a General Staff Department will be set up within the Defense Department, directly reformed from the Ministry of War."

The functions of the staff include battlefield logistics, formulating combat plans, and other affairs, which coincide with the previous responsibilities of the Ministry of War.

Therefore, Zhao Xu simply reformed the Ministry of War into the General Staff Department.

"Under the Minister of Defense, there are the Generals of the Three Services. Under the Generals, there are Captains (Army Commanders), Commandants (Division Commanders), Colonels (Brigade Commanders), Battalion Commanders, Capital Leaders (Regimental Commanders), General Banners (Company Commanders), Small Banners (Platoon Commanders), and Team Leaders (Squad Leaders)," Zhao Xu said one by one, which was basically the same as before.

After speaking for a while longer, Zhao Xu poured out all the general things.

Taking a deep breath, he said to everyone, "Everything I haven't said is in the documents in your hands. Today, I will first establish the Cabinet candidates, and then the Cabinet will push forward the reforms."

Having said that, he looked at the officials, "Liu Fu was originally the Prime Minister; henceforth he will serve as the Chief Grand Secretary of the Cabinet. Six of the other eight will be filled by the original Ministers of the six ministries; that makes seven. I also have candidates for the other two: one is Mi Yan, the other is Ma Yuan. How about it?"

"The Emperor is wise. During the period when Mi Yan was in charge of Ningjin Dusi, he was diligent and conscientious, with outstanding political achievements; he indeed has the qualifications to enter the Cabinet. As for Ma Yuan, during the time he was in charge of Jinzhou for Your Highness, he also won the hearts of the people, making a desolate Jinzhou become vibrant today," Liu Fu laughed.

In fact, these Cabinet candidates were not decided by Zhao Xu on the spur of the moment, but were the result of his discussions with Zhao Xu.

Now, what he said was just polite talk; in fact, there were other reasons for choosing Mi Yan and Ma Yuan.

This Mi Family is a royal relative, which can just balance the Yang Family, who are also royal relatives.

And Ma Yuan is an old official of three reigns, upright and unyielding, just right to serve as a stick in Zhao Xu's hand to beat others.

Furthermore, because there were not enough officials in Yanzhou, he absorbed many former Great Song officials into the officialdom; pushing Ma Yuan out could also unite the hearts of the people.

Of course, it could also, on one hand, check and balance the officials of the Yanzhou lineage.

He knew very well that being an emperor is like nature, maintaining the balance of the ecosystem.

The excessive expansion of any species is a destruction of nature.

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