Chapter 1266 Three Provinces and Six Departments

Chapter 1266 Three Provinces and Six Departments

The kings and dukes are certainly the most prominent new nobles in the new dynasty, but the vast majority of ordinary soldiers are the ones who really need to be rewarded. Especially this time, the merits of destroying and founding a country are rewarded at the same time, and the various rewards are also generous.

In order to ensure that all soldiers can be rewarded fairly without being left out, the court has established twelve levels of honorary officials in addition to the original system of titles and physical rewards as the only standard for recording and commending meritorious officials and generals.

These twelve levels of honorary officials are not the first of the new dynasty, but are listed separately from some official ranks that have appeared in the past Western Wei Dynasty’s military system. As a level division for recording the meritorious qualifications of military soldiers, from bottom to top, they are honorary scholars, governors, commanders, generals, grand governors, Yitong, Shang Yitong, Kaifu, Shangkaifu, Dajiangjun, Zhuguo, Shangzhuguo.

The Fubing system originated from the hegemony of Yuwen Tai. Until today, it has become the most important armed force that the Tang emperor relies on to pacify all parties and control power. Its organizational form and internal hierarchy are also gradually perfected. With the announcement of the twelve grades of honorary officers, it also indicates that the Fubing soldiers have a clear and definite hierarchy and promotion channels.

The honorary officer system of the Tang Dynasty is not just a simple honorary title, but the most important reward standard for military combatants. After the announcement of the honorary officer system, the soldiers of various prefectures must be rewarded if they have honors, and the titles and salaries are all based on the honorary ranks.

Take the title of Duke of the State as an example. First of all, you must have the honorary rank of Shangzhuguo, and then you can be granted the title of Duke of the State. Honorary officers are the original officials of the warriors. The honors are awarded by war, and no titles or nepotism can be given.

Although any system will inevitably be damaged to varying degrees with the passage of time and changes in the environment, at least at present, it is still a world of military use, so it is naturally necessary to emphasize giving warriors generous treatment and various honorary status.

The titles of various ranks of honorary officials all developed from the original system of military servicemen. They already had a special meaning in the minds of the middle and lower-level soldiers. Now, they have become a goal that everyone can achieve through meritorious service. Moreover, the way to obtain honorary officials is relatively simple and pure, which gives people a sense of fairness and justice, and naturally can greatly inspire people's morale.

Therefore, this time, the Tang Dynasty court rewarded meritorious officials and soldiers with honorary officials, titles, money, land, slaves and other rewards. Soldiers were awarded honorary officials based on their meritorious service, and the level of honorary officials directly determined the amount of subsequent rewards.

Li Tai has never been stingy with the rewards for meritorious officials and soldiers, especially this time, the two major events of destroying Qi and establishing the country were accumulated together, so all kinds of rewards were extremely generous.

Although there are still many military officers and soldiers who are stranded on the expedition and still stationed in Jinyang and Hebei and have not returned yet, their rewards have been distributed to their respective military offices in a timely manner. In addition to official titles, other money, silk materials, land, slaves, etc. are all received by their families.

At the same time, the court also encouraged the soldiers of various offices to leave Guanzhong and spread to a wider world, especially the newly conquered Northern Qi territory, because it is also necessary to create military offices. If the soldiers of various offices are willing to stay in these newly conquered territories, then the rewards such as land and slaves will be doubled on the original basis.

Whether now or in the future, Hebei is one of the areas that need to be focused on. Even if the political center of the Tang Empire is to be transferred from Guanzhong to the Heluo area in the future, a stable Hebei is also needed as support.

Li Tai is of course happy to see many Guanlong children go to Hebei to take root, and through them taking root in Hebei, the court's rule over Hebei will be strengthened. Moreover, the migration of military units such as the Fubing to Hebei also avoided the future breeding of any native-guest conflicts. The Fubing was not a purely parasitic model like the Xianbei Legion of the Northern Qi Dynasty. They themselves had production functions and could be invested in local construction.

Because a large number of soldiers had not returned, the court did not carry out a more comprehensive reform of the current Fubing system. It only optimized the channels for the award and promotion of meritorious officials through the establishment of honorary ranks, and rewarded meritorious officials based on this standard.

In addition to conferring titles on ministers and generals, the establishment and operation of the political system are also crucial to the establishment of a regime. Thanks to Li Tai's many reforms on personnel in the Western Wei Dynasty in the previous year, the transition from the Western Wei Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty court has been relatively smooth.

As early as when Li Tai was in charge of the Bafu, the prototypes of the three provinces and six ministries of the court had already been formed, especially the six ministries under the Shangshu Province, which were already operating smoothly at the administrative level.

However, since Li Tai was not a real king at that time, but held power in the name of the prime minister and the minister of Shangshu, the Zhongshu Province and Menxia Province, which played an important role in the decision-making of state affairs, had not been strengthened. The functions of the two provinces were all concentrated in the hegemony, and the three-province structure had not been formed.

Now that Li Tai has become the official emperor, it is natural to delegate this part of the power, strengthen the powers of the Zhongshu and Menxia provinces, and build a more normal political ecology.

The Zhongshu Province is in charge of military and national orders and assists the emperor in governing. The country's edicts all come from here. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it has been the place of the cardinal, and its position in the court structure has become increasingly important. The Menxia Province receives and delivers the emperor's orders, the general official duties, and assists the emperor in governing. The position of Shizhong has a long history. It was originally in and out of the palace and served close to the tent. Later, it gradually took charge of reporting matters, accepting advice, picking up omissions and filling in gaps, and even sealing and rejecting orders.

In short, the two are responsible for the formulation of political orders and the promulgation of political orders. An order that affects national politics must first be formulated in specific terms in the Zhongshu Province, and then transmitted to the Menha Province for verification and approval, and then implemented by the agency that issues the specific execution of the order. The main execution agency of these orders is It is the six departments of Shangshu Province.

This set of procedures formed a situation in which the three provinces each performed their own duties, cooperated with each other and restricted each other. No matter how power-hungry an emperor was and refused to delegate power, he could not do everything by himself. After all, human beings Energy and time are limited, so it is necessary to have such a set of clear and orderly governance systems with clear powers and responsibilities for assistance.

Of course, for Li Tai, an unparalleled founding emperor who could be said to know better than anyone else in the world how the new Tang Dynasty should develop, the political structure of these three provinces and six ministries was actually a formality Greater than the effect.

Because of his high prestige and clear goals, his acting style must be more forceful. Any kind of official system is only to cooperate with him, not to correct or restrict. But the reason why he still wanted to implement the system of three provinces and six ministries was mainly to create it for future generations, and he was not careless about this either.

Since each of the three provinces has its own director and a clear division of labor, there is no need to continue to retain the position of prime minister, which had a strong connotation of hegemony during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Including Shangshu Ling, the boss of the administrative system, the Tang Dynasty court also did not set up another one. Instead, Shangshu left and right servants were in charge of the affairs of the six departments of Shangshu.

In this way, there are two ministers, two ministers, two ministers, and two ministers. These are the most important positions in the imperial court today. Each of the ministers who hold this position has a part of the original powers of the prime minister. .

For Li Tai and the newly reborn Tang Dynasty regime, the mutual checks and balances between the three provinces are not what is needed at the moment. Instead, it is more necessary for the three provinces to cooperate and work hard to implement the emperor's orders. All kinds of unnecessary internal friction will lead to Avoid it if you can.

Therefore, in addition to the three provinces and six ministries, Li Tai retained the original Shangyang Palace Political Affairs Hall for the two senior officials, Zhongshu and Menxia, ​​to work together. The procedures for formulating and announcing government orders were as smooth and fast as possible. Reduce disagreements.

As for Shangshu Pushe, who needs to supervise the administration of the six ministries, he does not need to work in the political affairs hall. Of course, if necessary, he can also grant permission to Shangshu Pushe or other senior officials to enter the political affairs hall to work.

As a result, although the position of the Prime Minister is no longer established, the existence of the Political Affairs Hall can fulfill the functions of the Prime Minister's Office in the past. Therefore, the important officials of the court who work in the Political Affairs Hall can also be called prime ministers, but they have changed from the original title of Independent Prime Minister. Transformed into a group phase, the authority was also split.

The first ruling team chosen by Li Tai, the left and right servants of Shangshu were respectively Cui Qian and Changsun Jian, who had served as his administrative deputies. They had a tacit understanding of working with each other, and both of them could fully understand his intentions. So as to make appropriate cooperation. Lu Rou and Liu Min were in charge of Zhongshu Ling, and the servants were Xiao Qi, Duke of Liang, and Yuan Zan, who was from the Yuan and Wei clans.

As for other important court positions, talents will be selected and appointed one after another in the next period of time, in order to ensure that the talents complement the positions.

Among them, Li Tai appointed Cui Zhan, who was well-known in Hebei, as the Minister of Rites, and sent him to Hebei to inspect the prefectures and counties to select talents to pay tribute, waiting for the imperial court to inspect and confer officials. Through tribute scholars from various states, Hebei scholars were gradually incorporated into the ruling sequence of the new dynasty through official election channels.

Just before Cui Zhan was ordered to go on patrol, Gao Zhongmi, who was newly ennobled as the Duke of Hebei, repeatedly asked to see him and took the initiative to go to Hebei to patrol the people: "I have long teeth and have made little contribution to the country, but I am fortunate to share the dangers with the Supreme, and I receive the favor." I am very grateful for the honor and reward, and I always think of repaying you. Now Hebei is newly settled, and my family has enjoyed a poor reputation in Hebei. Now I ask you to be the mouthpiece of the Supreme Apostle, and work for the Supreme to proclaim benevolent governance, hoping that people will be settled quickly and order will be established soon. !”

Li Tai knew Gao Zhongmi very well and never believed that this old uncle would have such a strong ambition. After hearing this, he directly laughed and said: "Everything in Hebei has its own group of people who work hard to do their jobs. There is no need to work." My uncle will go on a journey. If my uncle is staying here and walks at night, I will also visit Hebei in person in the coming year. I will go with him and return to my hometown in glory. "