Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

Chapter 245 The Three-Province System is Not as Good as the One-Province System
In order to put all his worries behind him, Liu Bian planned to numb himself with tedious official duties.

But upon entering the empty Yuntai Pavilion, only the soldiers of the Wuwei Camp stood solemnly with their halberds in hand, and the copper bells on the eaves swayed gently in the wind, which only made the surrounding silence more palpable.

Liu Bian then remembered that he had given all the officials a day off the night before.

All court officials in the capital were granted three days of rest, including officials under the Crown Prince's administration.

The meritorious officials who returned victorious from Liangzhou and Bingzhou were granted a 15-day rest period, of which five days could be taken consecutively and the remaining ten days were to be taken in lieu of leave. They were allowed to take paid leave in staggered shifts after handing over their work.

Of course, there were also those who were conscientious in their duties. At last night's banquet, both Dian Wei and Xu Chu, who were good drinkers, restrained their alcohol intake. Xu Chu was on night duty, and Dian Wei came to take over in the early morning.

Oh, there are also stubborn ones.

Not many people didn't get drunk last night; even the most avid drinkers, Dian Wei and Xu Chu, restrained themselves and didn't get drunk.

Xu Chu was on night duty, and Dian Wei came to relieve him in the morning.

As the Left and Right Martial Guard Generals, Dian Wei and Xu Chu's night watch duties differed from those of ordinary Martial Guard soldiers. They had their own private rooms in each palace, and could go to bed after completing a few routine patrols at night.

However, to prepare for emergencies, the two always maintained the habit of sleeping in their armor.

Liu Bian sat alone in the office area on the second floor of Yuntai Pavilion, looking at the place where he had feasted and revelled the night before. He couldn't help but chuckle as he looked at the place where he had feasted the night before. He then ordered Gao Wang to have the Left Assistant Minister of the Imperial Kitchen prepare breakfast.

Perhaps Dian Wei will remain unchanged, still wolfing down his food in the same way.

When he first met Dian Wei last year, although he already had a basic understanding of him, he was still shocked to see that it took five normal adults' worth of food to barely satisfy Dian Wei's hunger.

Look, early in the morning, Dian Wei ordered more than ten flatbreads filled with beef and mutton, and also had three large bowls of lean meat porridge.

But to be honest, seeing Dian Wei enjoying his meal so much actually made me more hungry.

After devouring all the flatbread and lean meat porridge on the table, Dian Wei finally breathed a sigh of relief, patted his belly through his armor, and then stood aside with his hand on his sword.

This appetite wasn't even at Dian Wei's full strength. Dian Wei, Xu Chu, and many other soldiers of the Wuwei Camp followed a system of eating small meals frequently, eating six meals a day, but never eating too much at any one meal.

This is to take into account the need to draw one's sword to defend oneself in case of an emergency, and not to eat too much to prevent abdominal pain during strenuous exercise. The usual practice is to eat only until one is about 60% full at each meal.

Compared to Dian Wei's enormous appetite, Liu Bian's appetite was much smaller and his meals were quite light. A bowl of fine rice porridge with pickled vegetables and a bowl of milk was his breakfast for the day.

It's not that I'm eating too little or having too much to do; it's just that I drank too much last night, and this morning I had some white porridge and milk to soothe my stomach and relieve the hangover.

After finishing his breakfast, Gan Cheng, the eunuch in charge of managing the tableware, cleared away the dishes and left. Liu Bian then devoted all his thoughts to official duties, beginning to plan the arrangements for the officials of the Crown Prince's Palace after his ascension to the throne.

Lu Zhi, the Crown Prince's tutor, was naturally promoted to Grand Tutor, making him the head of all officials. Although he did not have the title of Prime Minister, he held the real power of one.

However, to avoid excessive concentration of power, Liu Bian decided to remove Lu Zhi from his position as General of the Vanguard, and once the reform of the Central Army was completed, Lu Zhi's position as Commander of the Central Army would also be abolished.

This is not because Liu Bian was mean-spirited and ungrateful, but because concentrating so much power in one person was not a good thing for Lu Zhi. This was also a necessary measure to maintain the teacher-student relationship.

Human hearts cannot withstand tests, and Liu Bian did not want to test human hearts.

Fortunately, Lu Zhi understood these things as well, and the teacher and student had a tacit understanding on this point.

As for Huangfu Song and Dong Zhuo, Liu Bian had already enfeoffed the former as the Marquis of Ruixiang with two thousand households and the latter as the Marquis of Taixiang with two thousand households, and also appointed them as the Central Protector of the Army.

The two men, who were originally appointed as Generals of the Left and Right, were each promoted one rank, becoming General of the Rear and General of the Left, respectively. Considering the future war against the Xianbei, and given their age and physical condition, it was highly likely that they would continue to serve as commanders of the Han army. If their official titles were promoted too generously at this time, it would be difficult to imagine what they would face if they could not be promoted in the future.

However, the placement of the remaining officials in the Crown Prince's residence has become a problem.

There's a limited number of vacant official positions in the imperial court, and many of them are occupied by members of the princeling faction. It wouldn't be appropriate to kick anyone out, and any hasty adjustments could cause trouble.

In fact, Liu Bian had considered reforming the central administrative structure, but after taking office, he found that the so-called Three Provinces and Six Ministries system and other central administrative structures were not actually applicable to the present situation.

Although the position of the Three Dukes was established, the actual affairs were handled by the central government.

As the prototype of the Ministry of Personnel, Emperor Guangwu of the Ming Dynasty established the Secretariat to weaken the power of the Three Dukes and to use the Secretariat as an extension of imperial power to restrain the broad power of the prime minister, who represented the outer court.

The position of the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat was low in rank but high in power, which was to prevent the formation of a new power structure within the Imperial Secretariat.

The Office of the Attendant-in-Ordinary, established by Liu Hong, was the prototype of the Secretariat, used to supervise and restrain the Secretariat, ensure that the Secretariat could effectively exercise its powers, and attempt to centralize power through the Office of the Attendant-in-Ordinary. During the Cao Wei period, it also became a useful department for supervising and restraining the Secretariat and the Central Secretariat.

The predecessor of the Secretariat was the Secretary of Cao Cao's powerful government, which was a tool used by powerful ministers to divert power from the Secretariat to consolidate their rule. After Cao Pi became emperor, he renamed it the Secretariat and appointed a supervisor and a director.

However, the eventual formal replacement of the one-province system by the three-province system was driven by specific political needs.

During Cao Cao's reign, the Secretariat and the Chancellery became part of the powerful system of the Grand Minister's Office and the Prime Minister's Office. The inner court officials, who helped extend the imperial power, were actually transformed into the outer court officials who extended the power of the prime minister. Therefore, after the establishment of Cao Wei, the functions of the Secretariat and the Three Departments system needed to be formally established to check and supervise each other.

Moreover, while the Three Departments system appears to be a separation of powers among decision-making, execution, and supervision, it actually greatly reduced the administrative efficiency of the central government, severely restricted imperial power, and even vaguely became a parliamentary system, where officials could refuse to carry out the emperor's edicts or declare them invalid.

In fact, the integration of the three provinces was the trend of the Three Provinces system. Emperor Taizong also felt the sluggishness of the Three Provinces system in terms of administrative efficiency. Therefore, he set up the Hall of State Affairs in the Secretariat to gather the heads of the three provinces and important ministers with the power of deliberation. They first discussed a plan that was widely accepted by everyone, and then went through the formal process.

Moreover, with the Left and Right Vice Ministers of the Ministry of Personnel concurrently serving as Ministers of the Chancellery and Vice Ministers of the Secretariat, the three ministries had effectively been unified, thus significantly improving administrative efficiency.

Later, Emperor Gaozong moved this government office to the Secretariat, and it was later renamed the Secretariat-Chancellery. Five more offices (the Office of Personnel, the Office of Military Affairs, the Office of Revenue, and the Office of Justice and Rites) were added to it. Combined with the system of dispatching officials, the Three Departments and Six Ministries became nominal.

Ultimately, in essence, the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers system and the Three Departments and Six Ministries system are not inherently superior or inferior; they are merely redistributions of power.

However, Liu Bian did not have these prerequisite political factors for establishing the Three Departments system.

His edicts were circulated freely in the court, the inner court remained an extension of imperial power, and the inner and outer courts maintained a balanced political situation.

Liu Bian lowered his eyes and stared at the Boshan incense burner on the table. Wisps of smoke rose and curled up like sorrow. His fingertips unconsciously caressed the dragon pattern on the corner of the table. Finally, he sighed softly.

(2478 words)
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(The following is the word count added after publication, which is not actually included in the charge.)
P.S.: I'm a bit busy at work today. I'm going on a business trip to Changzhi, Shandong with my boss tomorrow and the day after. As his assistant, I need to double-check the preparations for the trip.

The novel still needs further refinement and organization of information on various systems and official positions, so today I will only add 1,600 words for now.

PPS: To put it bluntly, the Three Departments system was a problem left over from the period when powerful ministers usurped power. It caused the Secretariat to become an extension of the power of the prime minister in the outer court, and the predecessor of the Secretariat also became an official in the outer court. In the end, the predecessor of the Chancellery had to be formally established.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, this system was overused by powerful ministers, to the point that the Five Departments and Six Ministries system established during the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui almost became a system of aristocratic deliberation due to problems left over from the founding of the dynasty.

By the time of Emperor Taizong of Tang, the Three Departments and Six Ministries system was officially established, but in reality, he looked down on this corrupt system.

The greatest contribution of the Three Departments and Six Ministries was actually the separation of the feudal monarch's concept of family and state, which reduced the authority of official institutions such as the Guanglu Xun and Shaofu who served the monarch, and strengthened functional departments such as the Ministry of Revenue that served the state.

(End of this chapter)