When the Constitutional Court was established, Zhao Jun proposed to reform the bureaucracy, but at that time he only put forward a concept and let people spread the word as a warm-up.
Real reform requires him to have a comprehensive understanding of the Song Dynasty system, conduct in-depth research, and make new departmental plans.
After several months of in-depth research and understanding the responsibilities of each department through the data submitted by each department, Zhao Jun finally completed his replanning of the official system of the Song Dynasty.
It is now approaching the end of the year, and the new regulations will be implemented around the end of the year or the beginning of next year.
Although every reform in the Song Dynasty was accompanied by severe internal friction and turmoil, the officialdom reform was different from policy changes such as the New Deal of Qingli and Wang Anshi's Reform.
The new policies might harm the interests of the large landowners and officials, thus provoking widespread opposition from them. However, reforming the bureaucracy might not necessarily harm the interests of the large landowners and officials; on the contrary, it might benefit those with vested interests, and the resistance would be much smaller.
For example, Wang Anshi's reforms and the Yuanfeng reforms, the Yuanfeng reforms divided official power and enhanced imperial power. Even so, the resistance to the Yuanfeng reforms was much smaller than that of Wang Anshi's reforms, and the resistance in the officialdom and local areas was far less intense than that of Wang Anshi's reforms.
Ultimately, if the landlord class nationwide opposes, it will cause huge national unrest. But if officials nationwide oppose, the unrest will be less severe. Moreover, officials also have vested interests and may not be able to support them in time.
With Zhao Jun's reform this time, a large number of idle officials will be assigned jobs and will no longer be idle as before.
Although doing nothing sounds good, as one can get paid without doing anything, the salary in the Song Dynasty was often based on assignments. If an official was just an idle official, his salary would be very low, and he would have no power and no benefits. Therefore, many officials were eager to be assigned to such positions.
Now that they have been assigned new tasks, their salaries are much higher and they have power, then these vested interests will certainly not object. At most, only those officials who have been given less power will be dissatisfied.
But compared with the huge number of redundant officials, those officials who have been deprived of power probably have no choice but to accept it.
We are outnumbered!
Therefore, if the new law is implemented, the resistance may not be as intense as the Qingli New Deal and Wang Anshi's Reforms.
After explaining his design for a political system with multiple departments under one academy, Zhao Jun continued, "Under this system, each department will perform its duties. Each department will do what it's supposed to do, and the superior will be responsible for implementing it. If they can't do it, they won't have to do it. I believe administrative efficiency will soon improve."
After everyone exchanged glances, Lü Yijian laughed and said, "If we do this, Cheng Lin, Xia Song, and Li Di will probably be furious. The Privy Council is fine; at least the Prime Minister is still there. But after the Three Departments are divided, won't these ministers be gone?"
"On the contrary, my uncle is comfortable being the Deputy Envoy of the Three Departments. If the Three Departments are gone, I will be the Deputy Prime Minister in the Constitutional Council, which is much better than being the Deputy Envoy of the Three Departments."
Wang Zeng looked at Yan Shu and joked.
Yan Shu smiled embarrassedly.
Although he was also a deputy envoy of the Three Departments and one of the deputy ministers of planning, he was different from those people. He was the alternate director of the Constitutional Council, and his position was equivalent to that of a deputy prime minister.
To put it bluntly, if any one of Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng, etc. dies in two years, he will become the prime minister. What does the division of power among the three departments have to do with him?
However, Zhao Zhen, upon hearing Lü Yijian's words, thought about it and turned to Zhao Jun, saying, "Grandson, although the Minister of Planning was below the Prime Minister before, he was still a Minister of Planning after all. Now that the Three Departments have been abolished, I'm afraid Cheng Lin and the others will indeed object."
"Then give them an offer they can't refuse."
Zhao Jun thought for a moment and said, "There's still a gap in age between these people and Prime Minister Lu and Wang Xiang. Let them serve as ministers of various departments first, and add the title of Deputy Director of the Political Affairs Council to their titles. This means that we can observe their abilities. Although they can't enter the Political Affairs Council like deputy directors, if they have made achievements, they will have priority access to the Political Affairs Council."
"Priority access to the Constitutional Court?"
Zhao Zhen pondered for a moment, then nodded slightly, saying, "Well, they were originally candidates for prime minister. After Prime Minister Lu and Prime Minister Wang retire, it's reasonable for them to be given priority in the Political System Council."
Lu Yijian and others looked at their noses and their hearts, although these words made them unhappy, no one could live to be a hundred years old.
The term of office of the Constitutional Yuan is five years, and except for Zhao Jun, the others can be re-elected for a maximum of one term, which means they can only serve for ten years.
Lu Yijian is 59 years old this year, almost 60 years old. No one can say whether he will be in good health in the next five years. Even if he is in good health, it is hard to say whether he will get Zhao Jun's support for his next term.
So there is no objection.
After all, historically they would have been dismissed from office the next year. Compared to history, now not only their terms of office have been extended but also their powers have been expanded. What is there to be unhappy about?
"Of course, the prerequisite is that there must be political achievements and no untoward incidents."
Zhao Jun added, "This Xia Song is not a good person. Historically, he blocked the Qingli New Deal, and recently he instigated Liu Yuanyu to stir up trouble. If he is obedient, it will be fine. If he is not obedient, he will be exiled to Lingnan."
Zhao Zhen held his forehead and said, "Grandson is still too angry. Although Xia Song may not have had a good character in history, he has made many achievements in local administration and has not done anything corrupt or illegal. Why bother with him?"
Zhao Jun waved his hand. "That's because the Song Dynasty doesn't restrict officials from engaging in business. I've investigated this guy and found he sent servants to trade across the border. This means it's not illegal in the Song Dynasty. Otherwise, based on the Liu Yuanyu incident, I would have had him executed."
Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and others were in an awkward situation. They were representatives of officials' family members and servants who were engaged in business. They themselves did not engage in business, but their family wealth came from the business of their family members and servants, didn't they?
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