Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 429: Split into Six Divisions (I)

When they heard that Lu Jin wanted all the students in the world to participate in military training, they looked at each other in confusion. Chen Yu also raised his hand and asked.

"Your Highness, I can understand that the agricultural training requires people to do farm work. After all, the emperor has to do the farming himself to show his importance to farming. Officials and students should follow suit. But isn't it unnecessary to include the military examination as a compulsory subject in the imperial examination and require all students to take the examination?

"It is said that the poor are good at literature while the rich are good at martial arts. Practicing martial arts is not only time-consuming, but also requires strengthening the blood and qi, and eating a lot of meat, otherwise where would the strength come from? And the weapons used in martial arts are not something that all students can afford. After all, people are always divided into rich and poor. If you fail the military training test, you will not be allowed to take the imperial examination, and the poor students will probably never have a chance to succeed.

"Besides, it is easy to get thousands of soldiers, but it is difficult to get a general. I wonder what the standards of your highness' military training assessment are. If you use the method of selecting military generals to select Jinshi, I am afraid that there will not be many Jinshi candidates in a few years."

"No, no, no. Military training is not a martial arts exam. It's not what you think." Lu Jin waved his hand and explained immediately.

"Military training is part of the national mobilization mechanism. The so-called mobilization requires millions of qualified soldiers who can be deployed to the battlefield, rather than a group of brave generals who can rush into the battle line.

"With the development of firearms technology and the large amount of equipment, the era of traditional fierce generals has passed. Not to mention the future, just now, even if Lu Bu was resurrected and Xiang Yu was still alive, as long as they dared to rush in front of the musket formation, they would be beaten into a hornet's nest. What is needed in the future is more wise generals and military command.

"Nowadays, there are no longer 100,000 bows and arrows, but millions of muskets and 100,000 cannons. Therefore, even if there are still military examinations in the future, they will test who can count faster, draw more accurately, and measure more precisely, rather than who is stronger or who can pull more crossbows."

Everyone looked at each other in surprise when they heard this. Although they knew that there were a large number of firearms in the army and that the power of firearms was very impressive, in their impression, muskets were more like substitutes for bows and arrows, and cannons were similar to catapults. Apart from that, the way of fighting was no different from before.

But when it came to Lu Jin's mouth, the way of fighting seemed to be completely turned upside down.

Lu Jin then said, "As for the specific military training methods, the students do not need to practice at home, nor do they need to prepare any equipment. The military training only teaches four subjects: marching formation, musket shooting, throwing bombs, and musket bayoneting.

"Infantry drill is just marching in a line, which shouldn't be difficult, right? Shooting with a musket is not as difficult as shooting with a bow and arrow. Even ordinary women and children can learn it and shoot well. Are students worse than women and children? Throwing a bomb is just like throwing a stone. Can't we learn to throw a stone? The last musket attack is just three or five moves, which is about the same as a pistol."

Everyone nodded after hearing this.

Lu Jin continued, "According to my plan, every student will participate in military training when they are about 14 or 15 years old, and 18 or 19 years old. They will first gather at the local school, and then be led by local Internal Guard officers to the Internal Guard camp for training. All training equipment will be provided by the Internal Guard.

"Each time is one month. Normally, there are only two months in a lifetime. You just practice the four subjects mentioned above. As long as you have learned these four, you will be a qualified soldier. As long as the students go and do not desert in the middle of the course, they can almost all pass.

"The purpose of doing this is not to stop certain people from taking the imperial examination, but to cultivate the martial spirit of the whole nation, so that scholars have the courage and bravery to fight the enemy, so as to change the trend of discriminating against military men since the weak Song Dynasty, and scholars being afraid of fighting and only ceding land and paying tribute!

"Another reason is to strengthen the students' bodies. Although not everyone is required to practice martial arts, a strong body is still required. For example, if you pass the imperial examination and the court sends you to serve as an official in Mobei or Qiongzhou, but you are weak and fall ill or die on the way to the place, what does the country need you for? What's the point of such a person passing the imperial examination?

"By the way, speaking of serving as an official in the frontier, there is one more thing I want to say. In previous dynasties, most of the frontiers were governed by a system of controlled rule. The imperial court appointed local chieftains, cave masters, or tribal chiefs and allowed them to govern on their own. They only had to pay tribute to the imperial court every year, but they could not implement the system of registering all people and letting the imperial court send officials to govern.

“Of course, this is due to the fact that there are too few Han people in the area and the locals have not been educated, but the biggest reason is the inaction and irresponsibility of the officials sent by the court!

"Most officials from the interior were unwilling to serve in the frontier areas, and regarded the imperial court's dispatch as exile. After arriving in the frontier areas, they would just lie down and live a mediocre life, or they would despise the locals, deliberately oppress and exploit them, and then provoke endless rebellions.

"In the end, the court had to send troops and spend countless money and food to quell the rebellion, and finally the court had to give up the border areas because the income was not enough to cover the expenditure. This is definitely not acceptable. From now on, this rule must be changed!"

Everyone seemed to be thinking about what he said, but Li Shanchang asked directly, "Then how would you like to change it, Your Highness?"

Lu Jin said immediately, "In the future, the Ministry of Personnel will implement a system of officials and professors supporting the border areas. The so-called border support means supporting the border areas. Young officials who are willing to take the initiative to apply to serve as officials in border areas and become professors to educate the natives can be promoted before inland officials after their term of office expires!
"For example, if you want to be a county magistrate in the interior, you have to serve two or three terms before you can be promoted to prefect. But if an official has served in the frontier areas, he only needs to serve one term as a county magistrate to be promoted to prefect. If there is only one prefect vacant position, but there are two county magistrates who have completed their reporting period, the official with experience in the frontier areas will be promoted first!

"All officials should know that serving as an official in the border areas is not exile or banishment. As long as they can make achievements in the border areas, it is a shortcut to official career. We should make the natives naturalize as the imperial court as soon as possible, instead of repeatedly provoking rebellions and requiring the imperial court to spend money and food to clean up their messes. Killing such officials will not be enough to recover the losses of the imperial court."

When everyone heard this, they looked at each other and thought, "Tsk, once this system comes out, officials will have to rush to serve in border areas. This is not exile, this is clearly going to the border to gild their reputation!!!"

Qin Conglong nodded and stroked his beard, saying, "Officials who assist the border areas will be promoted first. Your Highness's method is indeed useful. It is also an incentive for those young officials."

"Yes, once this method is implemented, I'm afraid that young officials in the future will rush to serve in border areas." Feng Guoyong also nodded.

After explaining the process and purpose of the military training, and seeing that no one objected, Lu Jin asked again, "If anyone has any questions about the Privy Council, please continue to ask."

At this time, Chen Yu raised his hand again and asked, "Your Highness, the Military Education Department is also the General Propaganda Department. We all know about the Cultural Troupe, but what is this military newspaper?"

"A newspaper company is an organization that publishes newspapers, just like the imperial court's Dibao and Tangbao. However, the newspaper company in the army is only distributed within the army, and the newspapers it publishes will not be distributed to the public. This has nothing to do with the State Council. You can just treat it as a Dibao."

The Propaganda Department is of course a powerful tool for controlling and guiding public opinion, so Lu Jin just explained it casually and did not want to attract their attention and attention for the time being. After he has trained professional media talents in the future, it will be too late for these Confucian scholars to intervene.

Chen Yu nodded, and then said, "Then I have no problem."

"Does anyone have anything else to ask?"

Yang Xian also raised his hand and said, "Your Highness, I would like to ask, in the past, the manufacture of military equipment in each dynasty was generally handed over to the Ministry of Industry. Now that this matter has been separated from the Ministry of Industry, will the Ministry of Industry no longer be responsible for military equipment in the future?" "No, and not only will the affairs of military equipment manufacturing be separated, the Ministry of Industry will continue to split them up."

"Ah? Continue splitting?" Yang Xian was stunned.

"Yes." Lu Jin said immediately, "Not only the Ministry of Works, but also the Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Revenue, and Ministry of Works, except for the Ministry of Personnel and Ministry of Justice, will continue to be split up among the remaining five ministries of the Executive Yuan. There are also the Nine Ministers. Some of the Nine Ministers will also be changed into units similar to the ministries. From now on, they will no longer be called so-and-so ministers, but directly changed to so-and-so ministers."

Everyone looked at each other in surprise when they heard this. This reform was too big. It was no longer as simple as reforming three provinces. Even the six ministries had to be dismantled.

Li Shanchang immediately said, "Your Highness, if the remaining five departments are also split up, wouldn't that be a bit redundant?"

Lu Jin immediately said, "Since the functions have been split, then the rank should be lowered. The work done is not as much as before, so naturally we can't give such a high rank. The Shangshu of the former Song Dynasty was of the second rank, and from now on, the Shangshu will be changed to the third rank."

Everyone looked at each other. The Shangshu of the Sui, Tang and Yuan dynasties were also the third rank, while in the Song Dynasty it was the second rank, which was only half a level higher. Now it continues to be the third rank, the change is not too big, which is acceptable.

So Qin Conglong asked again, "The Shangshu is still a third-rank official, which is not a problem. The key is the Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Revenue, and Ministry of Works that Your Highness mentioned. These are the most important ministries. How do you plan to split them up?"

Lu Jin had already prepared a draft on how to split the book into six parts, so he said it immediately.

"Let's start with the Ministry of Rites. The Ministry of Rites originally presided over ceremonies, sacrifices, training and formulating etiquette, and was also responsible for the affairs of the academies across the country, the provincial examinations, the metropolitan examinations, the imperial examinations, and even some diplomatic affairs with foreign vassals.

"From now on, all foreign affairs related to foreign vassals will be assigned to the Honglu Temple. The Honglu Temple..." Lu Jin thought for a moment before saying, "The Honglu Temple should still be called the Honglu Temple, and it won't be changed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the time being."

Lu Jin thought, after destroying Korea and Japan in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, who will we have diplomacy with? We can't have diplomacy with the Mughals in India, Persia, and European countries, right? Then there is no need to set up a special Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Honglu Temple can continue to be in charge.

"The Honglu Temple does not need to be changed, but the education affairs of the Ministry of Rites must be separated and a new Ministry of Education should be established, including the academies across the country, teaching and educating professors, and presiding over the provincial examinations, metropolitan examinations, and imperial examinations. These matters will all be handled by the new Ministry of Education.

"In addition, this is not a simple split. The split is for the better development of education. Educational institutions in the future also need comprehensive reforms."

"This..." Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Tao An, who now worked in the Ministry of Rites and had also served as the president of the official academy of the Yuan Dynasty, immediately asked, "Then how is Your Highness going to reform? Are you going to change the imperial examination system as well?"

Lu Jin nodded, "Why can't it be changed? Were there imperial examinations before the Sui and Tang dynasties? Was the content of the imperial examinations the same in each dynasty? Aren't the subjects of the imperial examinations always changing? I didn't say that I wanted to cancel the imperial examinations. I just wanted to change the examination method and content. Why not?"

This is indeed true. The imperial examination subjects were different in different dynasties. As long as Lu Jin did not cancel it directly, they would not be able to say anything even if he made some changes. Besides, even if Lu Jin really abolished the imperial examination, what could they say? Didn't Zhu Yuanzhang in the original history abolish the imperial examination for more than ten years and implement the system of recommendation? It's just that in the end, those who came to power under the system of recommendation were all based on nepotism, which was not as good as the original imperial examination. That's why Zhu Yuanzhang changed back to it.

The founding emperors could do whatever they wanted. As long as Lu Jin blocked their upward path, there was nothing they could do even if the imperial examination was really abolished. It would be nothing more than changing the way of examination.

"Then how does Your Highness plan to change it?" Li Shanchang also asked.

Lu Jin immediately said, "The central government's government office has set up a new Ministry of Education, and each provincial government office will have its own education department and each prefecture will have its own education bureau.

"In the future, the county examinations, provincial examinations, metropolitan examinations, and imperial examinations, and the corresponding tongsheng, xiucai, juren, and jinshi, will all be changed to government-run schools. The schools will be divided into primary schools, junior high schools, and senior high schools. In addition, the Imperial Academy will be abolished, and the Imperial College will be changed to a university. The students of the Imperial Academy will be changed to college students. There will no longer be only one university, but more universities will be established, and the number of universities will continue to increase.

"The school's organizational method was changed to a grade system based on the three-house system proposed by Wang Anshi of the Song Dynasty. Primary school lasts for five years, from the first grade to the fifth grade, and students are promoted grade by grade. After completing the five-year program and passing the graduation examination, they will be issued a graduation certificate, just like the students in the past.

"Junior high school is three years long, and senior high school is two years long, which adds up to five years. Junior high school graduates are called scholars, senior high school graduates are called juren, and university is four years long, and graduates are equivalent to jinshi, but university students are no longer directly granted official positions.

"All of the above are like a person's resume. A resume can only show what you have done, while the experience of studying and learning is what I call academic qualifications. A graduation certificate is just a diploma of how much education a person has received, but it is just a graduation from school, and cannot directly give you a job as an official.

"After all, if there are more universities in the future, with tens or even hundreds of thousands of graduates every year, the court won't have that many positions for them."

Everyone frowned when they heard this. Five years in primary school, five years in middle school, and four years in college. If you don't get a job after finishing your studies, then what is the point of studying for fourteen years?
Qin Conglong immediately asked, "How will the court select officials in the future?"

"There is a separate examination for selecting officials, just like the previous imperial examinations, or the civil service examinations, which refer to the examinations for officials who handle court affairs, and the examinations are divided into different subjects.

"For example, if you want to be an official in the Ministry of Industry, you must have a diploma from an industrial university. If you want to be an official in the Ministry of Education, you must have a diploma from a normal university. If you want to be an official in the Ministry of Justice, you must have a diploma from a political science and law university.

"In the future, the country should cultivate more talents with multiple skills. When high school graduates apply for university, they can choose a specialized university or a specialized branch of a comprehensive university. After learning a specialty, they can consider whether to learn something else.

"Correspondingly, in the future, when the Ministry of Personnel organizes the promotion of officials, it must also be vertical promotion. If you are from a local academy, you can only be promoted to the education bureau of the prefecture or county, then to the education department of the province, and finally to the central Ministry of Education. Transfers to other departments are not allowed. This is called professional people doing professional things, and laymen who don't understand should not interfere.

"I really don't understand the random promotions in previous dynasties. One person was transferred between the six ministries. One moment he went to the Ministry of Works to manage water conservancy, the next moment he went to the Ministry of Justice to investigate cases, and finally he went to the Ministry of Revenue to manage finances. Can one person really understand so many affairs?"

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. This was really a ripple effect. Just changing the imperial examination system would change even the promotion of the Ministry of Personnel. The Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of Rites would all be dismantled, and we still didn't know what they would be changed into.
(End of this chapter)