Do You Know?: I, the Little Cabinet Elder, Regent of the World.

Chapter 260 On the Eve of Military Reform!

Bian River, riverbank.

The river is calm and still, and a light boat is moored on the shore.

From time to time, peddlers, porters, garrison officers, and sailors bustled about.

Jiang Zhao and Han Zhang stood at the ferry crossing.

About twenty key figures, including Zhang Heng, Zhang Dun, Su Shi, Su Zhe, Zeng Bu, Zhang Fangping, Han Jiayan, Wu Zhongfu, Li Chang, and Li Qingchen, stood silently about ten steps apart, some of them older and some younger.

A gentle breeze stirs the moist mist, invigorating the spirit.

"Just leave it here."

With his hands behind his back, Han Zhang said calmly, "With you in Bianjing, I feel at ease."

In the ups and downs of officialdom, there's a saying that once someone leaves, they're forgotten.

Even some Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet are not immune to this.

Of course, Han Zhang is different.

Han Zhang is a typical example of someone who leaves and then disappears.

"Your disciple is in the capital, Master, you can rest assured." Jiang Zhao bowed respectfully and nodded.

A dozen or so steps away, more than twenty core members of the Korean group stood silently, bowing.

Han Zhang nodded, returned the greeting with a raised hand, and took a step to board the ship.

However, as if remembering something, he turned back.

"If I pass away in the future," Han Zhang pondered, then instructed, "Zhao'er, remember to write a letter detailing the achievements of the reforms, and have the elders of the Han family burn it for me. In the afterlife, when I meet Fan Zhongyan, I can boast about it."

this--

Jiang Zhao's expression changed.

How did we suddenly jump to talking about passing away?
"It's bad luck." Jiang Zhao frowned and unusually retorted in a low voice.

"Harmful!"

Han Zhang shook his head, looking indifferent: "People are either heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather, but in the end they will all turn into a handful of dust."

"Facing life and death head-on brings peace and happiness!"

Jiang Zhao remained silent.

Han Zhang put his hands down, patted the disciple he had taught since childhood, and strode onto the ship.

"Ugh!"

With a sigh, Jiang Zhao watched the receding figure, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

Non-vegetation, ruthless Practice makes perfect?
My esteemed teacher, Han Zhang, is already sixty-two years old.

After this parting, I wonder if we will ever have the chance to meet again?
After about ten breaths, the figure was about to disappear when Jiang Zhao couldn't help but shout, "Master!"

On the large ship, Han Zhang gazed over.

"Take care of yourself!"

Jiang Zhao suddenly knelt down and bowed deeply.

"Take care of yourself!"

Han Zhang smiled with satisfaction and nodded repeatedly.

"Set off—"

June 20th, the fourth year of the Xifeng era.

The Secretariat, the Hall of State Affairs.

"Squeak~!"

The door opens.

Six figures in purple robes and gold belts stood at the entrance.

"Please take your seats."

Jiang Zhao called out softly, then stepped forward with his hands behind his back.

The other five people quickly followed.

Jiang Zhao, Grand Academician of Zhaowen Hall; Han Jiang, Grand Academician of Jixian Hall; Tang Jie, Grand Academician of Wenhua Hall; Zhang Fangping, Grand Academician of Zizheng Hall; Yuan Jiang, Grand Academician of Wenyuan Pavilion; and Yu Jing, Grand Academician of Dongge Pavilion.

These are the new generation of cabinet members!

The six Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet took their seats in order of seniority.

Jiang Zhao, sitting in the main seat, gripped the armrests and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

This chair is so comfortable!
cough!
Jiang Zhao raised his eyelids, steadied himself, and slowly said, "Today, there are two main matters involving political discussion. After the discussion, you may continue with your work."

The others all turned their attention to that direction.

In particular, Zhang Fangping, Yuan Jiang, and Yu Jing were all new to the cabinet and had absolutely no experience, yet they were extremely focused.

“Firstly, the division of labor among the Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet,” Jiang Zhaoping said.

The first step upon joining the cabinet is the division of responsibilities!

Han Jiang, a Grand Academician of the Jixian Hall, stroked his beard and sat solemnly, quickly saying, "The Grand Minister can simply issue a public notice."

Of the six Grand Secretaries in the Cabinet, all except the Chief Grand Secretary are required to wear red robes individually.

As for the authority and responsibility for wearing red, that was determined by the Grand Secretary.

The extent of power and responsibility depends mainly on the division of labor assigned by the chief minister.

Jiang Zhao nodded, pondered for a moment, and then made the arrangements:

"Grand Academician of the Jixian Hall, in charge of official administration and memorials from the Censorate."

"The Grand Secretary of the Wenhua Hall was in charge of submitting memorials from the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of Justice."

"The Grand Academician of the Zizheng Hall is in charge of submitting memorials from circuits, prefectures, and counties."

"The Grand Secretary of the Wenyuan Pavilion was in charge of submitting memorials to the emperor."

"The Grand Secretary of the Dongge Pavilion is in charge of memorials submitted by the Ministry of War, the frontier, the Censorate, and the Censorate."

"The rotation will be every hundred days, and we'll rearrange things." Jiang Zhao looked down and calmly asked, "Any objections?"

The cabinet's responsibilities and powers are not as complicated as one might imagine.

Generally speaking, unless there is a major political struggle, the power and responsibility of the cabinet secretaries decrease from high to low according to their ranking.

"good."

"can."

The Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet all expressed their approval, and no one dared to raise any objections.

Even among the chief ministers of the cabinet, there are varying degrees of power.

Some less capable prime ministers may even be sidelined by members of the cabinet, their power reduced to that of the ministers of the Six Ministries.

Jiang Zhao is undoubtedly the type with strong power.

Who dares to object?

"it is good."

Jiang Zhao nodded, picked up a document, and continued, "Secondly, the issue of promoting Champa rice."

"The pilot planting of Champa rice in the Liangzhe River system can yield a harvest in about 100 days. While japonica rice matures once, Champa rice can mature twice, nearly doubling the yield compared to the past. For the sake of the people's livelihood, Champa rice must be promoted."

The promotion of Champa rice was a plan that was initiated shortly after the New Year.

However, just a few days after the end of the year, the Yan-Yun turmoil and the major performance evaluation for officials followed, resulting in a large-scale reshuffling of officials.

The core of reform and innovation lies in people.

Despite personnel changes, the promotion of Champa rice was not officially implemented.

Now that the performance evaluation has ended and local officials have taken office one after another, the promotion of Champa rice naturally needs to be put on the agenda.

With that, Jiang Zhao reached out and passed the document down.

The five Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet reviewed the document in succession.

The government decrees regarding promotion were not complicated; their core was the intervention of administrative power to give Champa rice a superior status compared to regular rice.

Originally, the price of Champa rice on the market was only about one-third of that of japonica rice. However, in order to encourage officials to promote Champa rice, one kilogram of Champa rice could be administratively valued at the same price as one kilogram of japonica rice, and this could be used as a measure of their political achievements.

As a result, Champa rice, with its high yield, naturally gained favor with officials.

Officials, driven by a desire to achieve political success, would naturally promote Champa rice and encourage the people to plant it.

About a hundred breaths later, the document was returned to Jiang Zhao.

"can."

"can."

The document was quite detailed, and none of the people raised any objections.

Jiang Zhao raised his eyelids slightly, not surprised.

This is his first official document since taking office; as long as it's not of a disastrous nature, it will surely pass.

“If that’s the case, then let’s distribute the red ribbons according to our assigned roles,” Jiang Zhao said calmly.

With that, the deliberations are concluded!
Royal study room.

A small wooden table, about ten feet long, held dozens of documents.

Without exception, all of them had suggestions from the Cabinet to issue red leaflets.

Zhao Ceying held a vermilion brush and wrote furiously at his desk.

Just then, Li Xian, the Grand Eunuch in charge of the Imperial Secretariat, approached and announced, "Your Majesty, the Grand Chancellor requests an audience."

My lord?
Zhao Ceying nodded knowingly and waved his hand, saying, "In the future, if Zichuan requests an audience, just announce his arrival and lead him in yourself."

"Yes."

Li Xian quickly agreed and withdrew.

After about ten breaths, Jiang Zhao slowly entered, holding a document.

"Zichuan, have a seat," Zhao Ceying said, waving his hand.

The ruler and his ministers faced each other.

Jiang Zhao handed over the document and said solemnly, "I have come to the palace to present a document on reform."

"Reform documents?"

Zhao Ceying nodded and picked up the document with a serious expression.

After a cursory glance, Zhao Ceying squinted and looked up: "Military reform?"

"Military reform!"

Jiang Zhao sat with his hands at his sides. Reform and innovation were planned and implemented year by year, step by step, with each year having its own tasks.

In the second year of the Xifeng reign, the reforms focused primarily on improving the administration of officials.

In the third year of the Xifeng reign, the reforms focused primarily on the economy.

In the fourth year of the Xifeng reign, military reforms were naturally to be implemented.

Jiang Zhao pondered the policy regarding military reform for a long time and has come up with a good solution.

Thus, the memorial was presented to the palace.

"Allow me to take a look."

Zhao Ceying's expression was solemn. He waved his hand, and a palace maid brought him a cup of yellowish water.

A faint, pleasant fragrance wafts over.

Ok?
Jiang Zhao took the water, somewhat surprised.

honey water?
So the emperor and his minister sat down, one sipping honey water, the other reading memorials.

A memorial on military reform, which was about ten pages long.

Zhao Ceying read it aloud, nodding occasionally in approval.

Compared to redundant officials, redundant soldiers are obviously more difficult to solve.

The document outlines three main changes to the military reform:
I. Redefinition of rights and responsibilities.

Second, the soldiers were cleared of their duties and returned to their fields after being discharged from the army.

II. Military pay reform.

The redivision of powers and responsibilities mainly involved clarifying the powers and responsibilities of the Ministry of War, the Three Military Commands, and the Privy Council.

The most important matters of state are war and sacrifice.

Throughout history, due to changes in the official system, the offices in charge of soldiers have varied.

During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Sima Mansion held military power.

During the Qin and Han dynasties, the Grand Commandant's office held military power.

During the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Five Military Affairs Offices were incorporated into the Ministry of Personnel, taking charge of military power.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the system of three departments and six ministries was implemented, with the Ministry of War holding military power.

However, it is not difficult to see that from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the military power was held by a single Siya (司衙).

The Great Zhou was different; military power was divided among three factions.

The Privy Council held the power to mobilize troops, the Three Military Commands held the power to train troops and to reward and punish, and the Temporary Commander held the power to command troops.

As for the Ministry of War, its responsibilities and powers have shifted towards auxiliary functions, and it is now in charge of provisions, carriages, horses, and weapons.

To be fair, this process of gaining power has indeed achieved a delicate balance.

The Privy Council was in charge of troop deployment, but the head of the Privy Council was a civil official, which meant that military commanders were subject to restrictions on troop deployment by civil officials.

The Three Offices were the Palace Guard Office, the Cavalry Guard Office, and the Infantry Guard Office.

The Three Offices held the power to train troops, which essentially meant that military officers were in charge of training soldiers.

The management, training, promotion, demotion, reward, and punishment of soldiers are all under the control of military officers.

However, the "rotation system" was also implemented at the same time, which involved frequent changes in soldiers and generals.

This results in soldiers not knowing their generals and generals not knowing their soldiers, making it difficult to build cohesion.

The temporary commander-in-chief was always appointed by the government.

Food supplies are the lifeblood of soldiers. The Ministry of War is in charge of food supplies. Without food supplies, the Privy Council and the Three Military Offices would not dare to act recklessly.

Through a set process and a delicate balance, military power was completely placed in the emperor's hands.

Of course, this method is not without its drawbacks.

The downside is that the generals don't know their soldiers, and the soldiers don't know their generals, resulting in extremely poor combat effectiveness!

Military officers take turns serving as commanders, and cannot hold the position of commander of a particular army for an extended period. All their hard work in training troops will be for nothing, as it will benefit others.

This approach, aside from offending the soldiers, offers absolutely no benefit to training troops.

Thus, military commanders primarily focused on "managing troops" rather than "training troops."

The problems caused by this system must be reformed!
Achieving unification has never been as simple as it seems.

The expansion of Yan and Yun was essentially due to the "information gap" and the advantages brought by the technological gap in weaponry.

The problem is that the technological gap in weaponry is not as large as imagined.

The ceramic bomb's core component was still the startled horse.

However, if the Liao people were to train them carefully and use fireworks as a substitute, they could keep their warhorses from being startled.

In terms of offense, ceramic bombs are mainly suited for ambush and defense; their effectiveness is greatly reduced once they are used in an offensive operation.

In addition, cold weapons have their unique advantages. As long as technology has not developed to the point of creating a "weapon of equality for all", the combination of cold weapons and cavalry is an absolute battlefield reaping machine.

Upon closer examination, the rudimentary ceramic bombs were unlikely to have been the decisive factor in ending the era of cold weapons.

If we want to achieve unification, the combat quality of the soldiers cannot be ignored.

Otherwise, it will most likely still not work.

It can only be said that the century-long struggle between Liao and Zhou, during which the Great Zhou suffered repeated defeats, was never without reason.

Of course, this problem is not difficult to solve.

It's not hard to foresee that simply fixing the combination of soldiers and generals will suffice.

Soldiers who know their generals, and generals who know their soldiers, can naturally enhance combat effectiveness.

However, this method elevates the power of military officers, and some of it must be stripped away.

This led to the idea of ​​redistributing rights and responsibilities.

In order to maintain balance, Jiang Zhao planned to strip military officers of their power of reward and punishment, promotion and demotion, as well as the power to distribute military pay.

All these powers are now under the Ministry of War!
The soldiers were to be properly accounted for, which meant to count the actual number of soldiers in the army. This was done annually to ensure the accuracy of the number of soldiers. The elderly, weak, sick, and disabled were to be resettled, and large numbers of them could be sent to the twelve prefectures of Xihe to cultivate the land.

The main purpose of the military pay reform was to strip military officers of their power to distribute military pay and instead entrust it to official agencies to prevent the exploitation of soldiers.

"call!"

Taking a deep breath, Zhao Ceying picked up the documents, paced slowly, and pondered.

This military reform process has changed quite a few things.

However, the core issue remains unchanged—military power is still firmly in the hands of the emperor!
Military officers train troops, but the power of rewarding and punishing, promoting and demoting, and distributing military pay are all centralized in the Ministry of War, which is in the hands of civil officials. This still allows civil officials to check and balance the military officers.

"it is good!"

Zhao Ceying nodded repeatedly: "A superb plan!"

Without relinquishing control of the core military authority, yet still enhancing the army's combat effectiveness, this is undoubtedly a superior strategy that allows one to have the best of both worlds.

Jiang Zhao nodded and added, "However, most military generals rely on the blood and sweat of their soldiers. This change touches on the core interests of military families and noble clans."

“If core interests are lost, they must be compensated to prevent people from being driven to a dead end.”

All long-term reforms are invariably centered on the "balance of interests".

It is necessary to win over a considerable number of people, release some benefits, and encourage the beneficiaries to actively maintain the implementation of the reform.

The last time, the "heavy industry and commerce" policy targeting local gentry and prominent families was essentially about releasing benefits and taking a conciliatory approach.

Now that it's time for military reform, the same approach will certainly be taken.

Admittedly, profiting from soldiers' blood is a risk-free business, and military and noble families are certainly not willing to give it up.

However, the benefits that should be released must still be released.

Having a way out and not having a way out are two different things when your core interests are threatened.

There was no way out; rebellion was truly the only option.

"Ah."

Zhao Ceying understood this principle and nodded in agreement. Then, he pondered for a moment and asked, "Jiang Qing, what kind of benefits would be appropriate?"

Drinking the blood of soldiers brings considerable profits.

From the Imperial Guard to local officials, about one-third of the military personnel were paid without working, and the annual military pay was approximately ten million strings of cash.

In other words, military nobles could embezzle three to four million strings of cash a year just by exploiting the soldiers.

What kind of benefit can compare to the bloodshed of soldiers?
Even if it's not great, it can't be too bad, right?

Jiang Zhao slowly uttered two words: "Mining stones yields silver mountains."

In short, it cleared the fog and revealed the truth.

Zhao Ceying suddenly realized and nodded, "Great idea!"

Within the territory of the Great Zhou Dynasty, there were two main models for mining silver: one was that the government required the people to perform corvée labor in order to mine it; the other was joint mining by the government and private enterprises.

In the case of joint government-private procurement, the profit split is roughly 20/80.

Two are government entities, and eight are private entities!
This is mainly because mining silver mines consumes too much manpower and resources.

Silver mining relies on a large amount of manpower and capital investment, and the exploration and mining process is quite risky.

This led to the practice of joint procurement by government and private entities.

The so-called private individuals were basically ordinary people or businessmen who made a living by mining silver.

Mining silver mines can certainly be very profitable, but hundreds of thousands of people rely on it for their livelihood, and after sharing the profits, they can barely make ends meet.

Jiang Zhao's proposed profit-sharing scheme involved allowing nobles to jointly mine the Shijian Silver Mountain.

For this portion of the profits, spending three to four million strings of cash a year is absolutely not a problem.

If even this can't keep military officers in line, then no wonder the court is ruthless!
"Seventy-three percent?" Zhao Ceying asked, squinting.

Unlike other silver mines, Iwami Ginzan has an exceptionally high yield and a large silver content.

A 20/80 split is definitely unrealistic; it has to be 70/30, with 70% going to the government.

"More or less." Jiang Zhao nodded.

The 20/80 split was the official-private division in the vast majority of silver mines.

However, there are occasional silver mines with high silver content where the silver can be split 50/50.

Iwami Ginzan is even higher, so it can certainly rise even further.

"it is good."

Zhao Ceying waved his sleeve and said, "Send for the Marquis of Ningyuan and the Earl of Zhennan to enter the palace."

……

(End of this chapter)