Just after the New Year of 1041 AD, Emperor Zhao Zhen of the Song Dynasty changed the reign title to Qingli.
At this time, the war with Western Xia and Liao was already decided.
As soon as the external threat was eliminated, solving the internal troubles naturally became the agenda.
In diplomacy, Zhao Zhen sent envoys to Goryeo and Japan to promote the prestige of the Song Dynasty by bringing the momentum of defeating the Liao Dynasty.
In terms of military, hundreds of thousands of troops were still stationed in the northwest and Hebei to deter the Liao Kingdom and Western Xia.
In terms of reform, Zhao Jun promoted the Jingyou reform and established a strict hierarchical order in the officialdom with the Political System Institute as the core.
In the economic field, the state-owned market system was reformed and privatization reforms were promoted.
In education, many modern schools were established in Bianliang to teach Confucian classics, as well as mathematics, physics and chemistry from elementary school to junior high school.
However, these are just the basics. The real large-scale reforms have not yet begun. Everything has to wait until Fan Zhongyan officially takes charge of the new policy.
On the 19th day of the first lunar month, Zhao Jun just attended the highest meeting at the Constitutional Council this morning and delivered an important speech.
The content of the speech was very simple. With the war already decided and internal reforms imminent, every member of the Constitutional Council must be prepared to face the new storm.
He also arranged tasks and main directions, such as Lü Yijian, Wang Zeng, Sheng Du, Cai Qi, Song Shou, and Yan Shu were mainly responsible for handling national affairs.
As the co-director of the Yuanzhiyuan and concurrently the Minister of Education, Jia Changchao was responsible for promoting the development of education nationwide, establishing new-style schools across the country, and presiding over reforms in mathematics, physics, and chemistry.
As the Minister of Punishments, Li Di was actually also the Minister of Justice in later generations. He had to re-enact the laws of the Song Dynasty and firmly adhere to the concept of governing the country according to law and abiding by the law.
The Minister of Rites Jiang Tang and Zhang Shixun were mainly responsible for the promotion of officials of all ranks across the country in the Ministry of Personnel and the Court of Censors, as well as the supervision of the Censorate and the Court of Remonstration.
Needless to say, Fan Zhongyan was to preside over the new policy reforms.
In addition, it is more important to start placing personnel, placing reform generals in important departments, and promote the development of reform.
The first reform in the new year is naturally the administration of officials. The administration of officials consists of two points: one is to clarify the responsibilities of officials, and the other is to assess the responsibilities of officials to see whether they meet the requirements.
Simply put, the tasks of officials are constant, mainly focusing on governing the local area. By setting deadlines and standards for what officials should do, we can measure whether the official is qualified and whether he has done his job.
So who is responsible for the verification?
Of course it is the Censorate.
There were relatively few people in the Censorate, and their main function was to supervise and advise the prime minister and the emperor.
The Censorate not only has a large number of people, but also has a much wider range of responsibilities.
After the Jingyou reform, the staff of the Censorate was increased, and Censorate offices were set up throughout the country.
Zhang Juzheng's performance evaluation system in the Ming Dynasty was mainly implemented by the six ministries and the Censorate, and the performance evaluation system in the Song Dynasty was also implemented by various departments and the Censorate.
At the same time, inspection departments were set up within each ministry to work closely with the Censorate to achieve the purpose of mutual supervision.
Then these personnel must be people who are trustworthy and can enforce the law impartially. Otherwise, isn’t it nonsense to let heroes investigate heroes and let good men investigate good men?
So on the eve of the reform, Fan Zhongyan transferred Yu Jing, Yin Zhu, Ouyang Xiu, Cai Xiang, Li Hong, Wang Zhi, Wang Zhu and others to the Censorate, and removed many unqualified censors from the Censorate and replaced them with many upright censors.
Not only Fan Zhongyan, but Zhao Jun also placed people there.
He has been very busy these days. He holds court meetings in the early morning, handles government affairs and holds meetings in the Constitutional Council in the morning, and then meets with his confidants in the afternoon.
Wang Su, Yang Cha, Yang Gao, Zhao Pin, Chen Xiliang and others came to Beijing one after another this year.
Transfer orders were issued starting last year, and the first person to arrive in Bianliang was Wang Su, the governor of Suzhou. Because of his political achievements, he was promoted to the position of Palace Censor.
In the Song Dynasty, the Censorate had always been in a situation of low status but great power. From the eighth-rank Palace Secretary to the highest-ranking fifth-rank Censor-in-Chief, none of them could reach the status of a fourth-rank official.
After the Jingyou reform, each rank was linked to the official position, and the Censorate was transferred to the directly affiliated Political System Yuan, on the same level as the various ministries, and was given the title of Observational Deputy Director.
If the deputy Tongzhi is not added as the second rank, it means that the rank of the Chief Censor has been promoted to the second rank.
At the same time, the assistant to the Chief Censor was the Assistant Censor of the third rank, followed by the Assistant Censor of the Palace of the fourth rank, the left and right inspectors of the fifth rank, the corridor envoys and the incense supervisors of the fifth rank, the supervisory censors of the sixth rank, the supervisory censors of the villages of the sixth rank, the Secretary of the Palace of the seventh rank, and there were also local censors from the fourth rank to the eighth rank.
Zhao Jun met with Wang Su a few days ago, encouraged him a few words, and told him the responsibilities he would have to bear in the future.
Afterwards, he met with Yang Cha, Zhao Pin and Chen Xiliang. The three were promoted to different degrees according to their original official positions, namely, Supervisory Censor, Acting Supervisory Censor and Palace Secretary, and all of them entered the Censorate.
The only one who didn't get in was Yang Gao. Yang Gao was originally a fourth-rank shipping envoy. If he was promoted to the Censorate, he could only be a third-rank assistant censor.
However, the Assistant Censor was an assistant to the Chief Censor, and there were only two vacancies, which were given to Cai Xiang and Yin Zhu by Fan Zhongyan. Zhao Jun had no intention of competing with Fan Zhongyan for the position, so he arranged Yang Gao to work in the Ministry of Personnel as a third-rank assistant minister.
On the 19th, Zhao Jun met with Su Huan again.
Su Huan was also an official he admired very much. As the fifth-rank magistrate of Xiangfu County, he had made outstanding political achievements in the past two years, so he planned to promote him to the position of Palace Censor and frantically fill the Censorate with people to prepare for the new policy.
Zhao Jun did not call Su Huan over, but went directly to the Xiangfu County Government Office. One reason was to conduct a surprise inspection, and the other was that he liked to walk around like this.
As they entered the Xiangfu County Government Office, Su Huan heard the news and hurried over to greet them.
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