Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 565 Three Provinces
The King of Tang accepted the abdication in the Daming Palace, and then went out of the city of Chang'an to set up the Five-Colored Altar of the Land and Grain. Yuan Xu ascended the altar to confess his crimes to the ancestors of the Yuan family, and finally read out the edict of abdication, abdicating the throne to Su Ze.

Su Ze ascended the throne at the Five-Colored Altar of Land and Grain, and naturally changed the country's name to Tang.

In fact, his ministers did not understand why Su Ze chose Tang as the name of the country.

Only Su Ze knew that the Han and Tang dynasties, as representatives of Chinese civilization, held an extraordinary status in his heart. Choosing these dynasties as the country's name, he naturally hoped that the new dynasty would be like the Tang Dynasty before he traveled through time, and become the most powerful dynasty in the Middle Ages, displaying the spirit of the Han and Tang dynasties.

What follows next is what happens after he becomes emperor.

As for the establishment of ancestral temples, Su Tong had already compiled all of these when Su Ze took office as the Duke of the County. However, the emperor had seven temples and the princes had five temples, so Su Ze compiled two more generations of ancestors to complete the seven temples.

Then came the enthronement of the harem.

Princess Chenliu was the legal wife, so she was naturally given the title of Queen.

Madam An and Lu Xiuning were also Su Ze's concubines. They both had children and were canonized as concubines.

As for other positions in the harem, Su Ze has no intention of filling them for the time being.

In terms of offspring, Madam An and Lu Xiuning each had a daughter, and the eldest son born to Princess Chenliu was naturally named the crown prince.

The crown prince is the foundation of the country. In the early stages of establishment of most dynasties, efforts are made to ensure stability. Establishing the foundation of the country early can reassure all officials and reduce internal political struggles within the new dynasty.

However, Princess Chenliu is pregnant again, and Lu Xiuning is also pregnant. If Su Ze has more children, the position of crown prince will be difficult to determine.

These are not problems at the moment. After sacrificing his family for the country, Su Ze came up with a reform plan for the court institutions.

First is the prime minister.

The establishment of the Government Affairs Hall has already reflected Su Ze's attitude towards the power of the prime minister.

Since the Han Dynasty, the position of group prime minister has basically been established, which is naturally intended to weaken the power of the prime minister.

By splitting the power that originally belonged to the Prime Minister's Office among several prime ministers, the emperor can avoid one prime minister's dominance by simply using some checks and balances.

Since Emperor Wu of Han, it has been rare for there to be a powerful prime minister who can completely suppress the emperor.

This of course refers to the system. Powerful ministers can naturally obtain complete power through various unconventional means. But as I said before, being able to institutionally restrain the prime minister's power is already the limit of what the system can do.

If you want to solve all problems through a system that will never change, there has never been such a system in the world, both ancient and modern.

Su Ze reformed the Northern Wei Dynasty's cumbersome official system.

The direction of reform is naturally still the Tang system.

The three-province system was a framework that almost all dynasties after the Tang Dynasty modified in some ways, so Su Ze could just use it directly.

Moreover, the Three Ministries were not a newly created system. They were the Menxia Province, the Zhongshu Province and the Shangshu Province.

The Secretariat was responsible for drafting imperial edicts, the Ministry of Palace Affairs was responsible for reviewing imperial edicts, and the Ministry of State Affairs was responsible for executing government orders.

The head of the Secretariat was the Secretary-General, who was the head of the prime minister and was called the Right Prime Minister.

As expected, the position of Zhongshu Ling was naturally left to Su Chao.

In the previous commendation, Su Chao, as the first civil official and the de facto head of the Government Affairs Hall, was naturally entitled to this position.

The only thing that made Su Ze hesitate was that Su Chao had worked too hard over the years and had worn out his body. Although he was his fellow disciple, he looked much older than himself.

The Ministry of Personnel was responsible for reviewing government orders and imperial edicts, and had the power to seal and reject them. The highest official was the Minister of the Interior, but this position was not given to Su Liang. After all, the two brothers, one was responsible for drafting imperial edicts, and the other was responsible for sealing and rejecting imperial edicts, which was too difficult for Su Chao to take the position of Minister of the Interior.

Su Ze gave this position to Yu Jin.

As the chief military general among the meritorious officials, Yu Jin had also served as a county magistrate and was familiar with government affairs.

In fact, although the Menxia Province had the power to seal and reject, during the period when the country was established, this right was basically just a decoration.

Who dares to refute the edict of the founding monarch?
However, the Menxia Province is not without power.

Su Ze handed over the Censorate to the Ministry of Personnel.

The Jianxiulang, who was originally a temporary censor, was directly transferred to the censor.

After many twists and turns, Wang Sizheng finally became the Chief Censor and the head of the Censors, and was under the management of the Menxia Province.

In addition, there were officials such as Palace Attendants and Counsellor-in-Chief, who were responsible for satire and remonstration. In addition, historians were also set up in the Menxia Province, who were responsible for managing the daily records.

The Secretariat became the largest administrative body.

Because the Secretariat had many complicated affairs, it was managed by the Left and Right Pushe, who were in charge of a part of the affairs of the Secretariat respectively.

Su Ze simplified the institutions under the Shangshu Province of the Northern Wei Dynasty, turning the thirteen departments into six ministries, namely the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Punishments, and the Ministry of Works. He also appointed a Shangshu in each of the six ministries to be in charge of the affairs of the six ministries.

Su Liang took office as Shangshu You Pushe, but unexpectedly, Su Ze gave the position of Shangshu Zuo Pushe to Hou Jing.

However, as the southern expedition was imminent, Su Ze asked Hou Jing to stay in Jiangling.

The heads of the three ministries, namely, the Minister of the Central Secretariat, the Palace Attendant, and the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, can all be called prime ministers.

Su Ze also set up a government affairs hall between the inner court and the outer court, where the prime ministers worked together.

The reforms of other departments are adjustments based on this framework, so there is no need to elaborate on them.

In addition, Su Ze's most drastic local reform was to abolish the county administrative level and change it to the prefecture and county levels. This move naturally reduced a large number of redundant staff at the local level, but Su Ze did not simply "lay off staff". He also brought some of the officials in the prefectures and counties under the management of the Ministry of Personnel. Simply put, he increased the number of officials in these yamen who "ate the emperor's food".

This is naturally done to strengthen the government's management of the local area, and regulating the number of officials is to prevent officials from bringing their lackeys with them when they take office, or using local gentry to manage the local area, which would impose a greater burden on the people.

This set of reform plans was actually implemented two years ago, so it is natural for it to be implemented.

In the past two years, Su Ze had held countless meetings in the Tang Palace in order to plan for the unification of the world. Now, all these meetings were moved to the imperial palace, and everyone changed from being ministers of the Tang King to ministers of the court.

Even the things are still the same. Apart from a few personnel adjustments, it is basically the same people doing the same things.

These reforms did not cause too many twists and turns. The most important thing after the establishment of the new dynasty was naturally the southern expedition.

The reason why Su Ze did not march south two years ago was that he wanted to be more confident in conquering the Southern Dynasty, and also to allow the people in the north who had suffered from the war to recuperate.

The two-year period has arrived. The weather has been good during these two years. The treasury is full of grain. The soldiers of the Zhechoufu have been trained for two years, and the armor and weapons made by the Ministry of Works are no longer able to hold enough food.

Su Ze announced his southern expedition at this time and encountered almost no opposition.

On April 10th of the first year of Qianyuan, Su Ze personally led his troops to Jiangling.

(End of this chapter)