Chapter 920: The Fifth Year of Yuanhuang (Part 2) [Requesting Monthly Tickets]
“This setup works, I think. Three provinces, six ministries, nine temples, and five directorates… The only problem is that we don’t seem to have that many people.” Shen Tang muttered as he flipped through the intelligence.
To ensure the stability of her power and position, she would definitely keep high-ranking positions for her own people. However, her team has always been lean and can never be fully staffed. Even though she recruited a batch of talented people before the new year, these people are still in their "internship period," and their abilities and character need time to be assessed and verified. Her current approach is to streamline the staffing of various departments, eliminating all nominal and redundant positions, leaving only substantive ones.
For tasks with overlapping or conflicting functions, let's put them aside for now.
"Is twenty positions enough for the Secretariat?"
Qi Shan's face darkened: "How could that be?"
Even with the most streamlined staff, the Secretariat still needs at least forty or fifty people, right?
With only twenty positions, does the lord expect all twenty to be half-hearted? To receive one salary while doing the work of three? The Secretariat is responsible for drafting edicts, decrees, and decisions, and for handling all memorials and reports submitted from various parts of Kang State.
Did she ever consider what the outcome might be?
Shen Tang asked in surprise, "Isn't that enough?"
So he counted on his fingers: "The Grand Secretary, the Vice Grand Secretary, the Secretary of the Secretariat, the Right Attendant Gentleman of the Palace, the Right Grand Counselor, the Right Remonstrator, the Right Remonstrator, the Attendant of the Palace, the Attendant of the Palace Secretariat, the Attendant of the Palace Secretariat... and the clerks, the village heads, and all these other subordinates..."
According to this intelligence report, there was one Grand Secretary, two Vice Grand Secretaries, six Secretariat Attendants, sixteen Attendants of the Secretariat, and dozens of other staff members such as clerks and village heads. No matter how you calculate it, twenty positions were far from enough.
Her brows furrowed deeply, and after a long while, she exhaled a breath of stale air, enduring the pain as she said, "Thirty-five, no more than that!"
More staff means more salaries to be paid.
Although the national treasury appears to be relatively well-stocked, that's only in relation to her original streamlined team. If a complete official system were established and every department were crammed with people, Shen Tang fears she wouldn't be able to pay salaries next year. Giving the Secretariat thirty-five people is truly the biggest concession she could make!
Seeing their reluctant lord, a strange thought suddenly popped into everyone's mind—the Secretariat, even a dog wouldn't go there.
Shen Tang continued to stroke down.
"The Secretariat... will also be given thirty-five positions?"
Qi Shan's face darkened further. Under the watchful eyes of his colleagues, he confronted his lord head-on and said, "No, it's impossible!"
If the lord adopts this official system, Qi Shan will definitely be placed as the head of one of the three departments: the Secretariat, the Chancellery, or the Ministry of Personnel. The number of positions is limited; whoever gets assigned one is unlucky. Regardless of the outcome, it's never wrong to strive for it.
Unconsciously, because of Qi Shan's actions, everyone's goodwill towards him quietly increased by one or two points—the Secretariat was responsible for reviewing and approving, as well as rejecting and deliberating on matters. Such a large department only had thirty-five staff members, and life there was even harder than in the Chancellery.
Shen Tang muttered, "How is it not enough?"
The head of the Secretariat was called a Chamberlain. Some large and powerful states allocated a large number of officials, with six each for the positions of Gentleman Attendant at the Palace Gate and Attendant Gentlemen-at-Arms. Other states had a smaller number, with only two each. The number of other officials such as Registrar of the Secretariat, Interpreter, Recorder of the Emperor's Daily Life, and Imperial Seal Attendant varied. Shen Tang glanced at the intelligence and found that the number of officials in the Secretariat was between 150 and 400.
In a short while, Shen Tang's complexion surpassed Qi Shan's.
She gritted her teeth: "One hundred and sixty!"
Give us ten more positions on top of the minimum standard!
Qi Shan said, "Two hundred!"
Shen Tang: "One hundred and sixty-five!"
Two hundred and ten!
"One hundred and seventy, that's the most we can do!" Shen Tang slammed her hand on the table, making a firm decision and not giving Qi Shan a chance to argue further. Then she earnestly advised, "Yuanliang, we're still a small family and a small business. One hundred and seventy employees is more than enough."
It's still unknown when it will be full.
Seeing that Qi Shan was about to speak, Shen Tang hurriedly raised his voice: "Stop—the Ministry of Personnel, we will definitely give more staff!"
The Ministry of Personnel (尚书省) commands six ministries and twenty-four departments.
The Six Ministries were similar to the Six Offices of Scholars, Households, Granaries, Guests, Military, and Law previously used by Shen Tang. Lin Feng's Office of Households was in charge of households, ancestral worship, and promoting agriculture and sericulture, corresponding to the Ministry of Revenue among the Six Ministries. Each of the Six Ministries had four departments, totaling twenty-four departments.
For example, the Ministry of Personnel consisted of four departments: the Ministry of Personnel, the Department of Conferment, the Department of Merit, and the Department of Performance Evaluation. These departments were mainly responsible for the selection, conferment, and performance evaluation of officials.
This time, Shen Tang did not casually announce the number of staff.
Instead, he was mentally calculating the necessary list.
The official head of the Ministry of Personnel should be the Minister of Personnel, with one Left and one Right Vice Minister. However, she observed that some countries directly abolished the position of Minister of Personnel, with the Six Ministries being overseen by the Left and Right Vice Ministers. Each of the Six Ministries had one Minister, one or two Vice Ministers, and each of the Twenty-Four Departments had one Director, two Deputy Directors… not counting the staff of the Twenty-Four Departments, there were ninety-three people in total…
If we also include the even larger number of subordinate officials...
Shen Tang frowned deeply.
No matter how many departments you cut, it's impossible to reduce them to double digits.
She could only sigh and give out the quota first.
We'll select the right people to fill the gaps later.
"Should I just abolish all three provinces... that would free up a lot of personnel..." Shen Tang considered the idea of directly managing the Six Ministries and Twenty-Four Departments, then shook her head. While having the ruler directly in charge would be much simpler and more conducive to concentrating power and avoiding power struggles, there was a major prerequisite: the ruler had to be incredibly energetic...
Once this is done, there's no way to slack off. If other departments are set up to replace the three provinces in order to slack off in the future, won't the problem just come full circle? Too many positions have been given out, and the national treasury doesn't have that much money to pay salaries, so Shen Tang gave up the idea.
Most importantly—
She planned to hand over the three provinces to Chu Yao and his team.
They were absolutely loyal to her, having neither family background nor relatives. They would wholeheartedly assist her and would not harbor any selfish intentions to harm her. Naturally, Shen Tang had no need to worry about the power struggles between the emperor and the prime minister.
Gu Chi listened to Shen Tang's innermost thoughts.
For the first time, I felt a tingling sensation on my scalp.
Of course, it wasn't because of Shen Tang's thoughts—these are the most basic skills of a ruler. If he doesn't even have these basic skills and keeps trusting someone, his subordinates will start to worry about his lord's mind. What makes Gu Chi's scalp tingle is that, given the lord's trust and reliance on his subordinates, Qi Shan and Chu Yao will definitely not escape becoming the heads of the three provinces.
One left—
Please don't let it happen to you.
Especially the six parts.
Judging from the number of staff allocated to the six ministries by the lord, the Ministry of Personnel will definitely be an overtime hell in the early stages! Gu Chi weighed his own body and was certain that he could not withstand the strain.
Just as Gu Chi's eyes darted around, pondering who was most likely to become the unlucky one, his lord had already begun drastically reducing the number of staff in the Nine Temples and Five Directorates: "The Court of Imperial Sacrifices, which oversees sacrifices, medicine, and music? Cut it, cut it..."
The most severely affected were the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs, and the Court of Imperial Stud. Shen Tang's reasoning was quite reasonable: "...The Court of Imperial Sacrifices manages court assemblies, sacrificial rites, and the royal family's meals. Managing court assemblies is sufficient; is anything else necessary? The royal family currently consists of only me! I have no elderly to support, no young children to raise, and no relatives of the same generation... If one person is full, the whole family isn't hungry. How large a department would be needed to feed me alone? Therefore, it's being cut..."
The reasons given by the Imperial Clan Court are the same as above.
This department manages the daily affairs of the royal family.
The Imperial Stud was even more useless.
Managing the royal carriages, entourage, and travel arrangements.
Shen Tang travels entirely on foot. If she wants to be lazy, she can just call a motorcycle. Those fancy entourages are a complete waste of her money! Don't they know she's heavily in debt? She'd rather not spend money to maintain such a department.
As for the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, the Court of Agriculture, and the Court of Judicial Review, Shen Tang didn't cut too many ties, only reducing their size by two-thirds. Some of the responsibilities of these departments overlapped with those of the Six Ministries and Twenty-Four Offices. Normally, they should have been able to check and balance each other, but Shen Tang was currently short of both manpower and funds, and simply couldn't afford to support idle people or maintain a system of checks and balances.
In contrast, the number of staff in the five prisons has been well preserved.
Not only was it well preserved, but she also increased the budgets for the Imperial Academy, the Imperial Household Department, the Arsenal, and the Water Conservancy Bureau, without significantly changing their staffing levels. The only unlucky one was the Directorate of Works: "Should we cut the Directorate of Works' budget by 60% as well? As for the palaces and such, as long as they're habitable, that's fine."
Shen Tang was not a person who liked extravagance.
For her, one bed and one room were enough; she didn't need an overly luxurious palace. She wasn't one of those rulers who enjoyed collecting beautiful women to fill their inner court. Without the penchant for possession, she saved herself the trouble of finding a palace to house her.
Shen Tang's proposal was met with opposition.
They're not just messing around with palace buildings; if the Ministry of Works issues orders for major projects, the Imperial Workshops must also actively participate in the construction. Upon hearing this, Shen Tang immediately thought of the Mohists from Bei Qiu and nodded: "That's good too; it was my oversight. Let Zhou Kou serve as the head craftsman of the Imperial Workshops, and then select two other Mohists with excellent skills and character to serve as junior craftsmen."
With Beijiu's abilities, that's more than enough.
Chu Yao was taking notes on the meeting.
Bei Qiu was the first official explicitly appointed by the lord.
He asked, "What rank is a master craftsman?"
Although the official systems used by different countries are largely similar, some titles and ranks differ. For example, the titles of Attendant-in-Ordinary and Gentleman Attendant at the Yellow Gate are not only highly prestigious and powerful in some countries, but are also minor, honorary positions in others.
Naturally, official ranks also differed.
Shen Tang thought for a moment: "From the third rank? Or the regular third rank?"
Chu Yao considered for a moment: "Let's start with the third rank."
Our lord's current staff is too streamlined; setting official ranks too high would not be conducive to stable governance in the future.
According to this common template, the heads of the Nine Temples, except for the Court of Imperial Sacrifices (太常寺), are all of the third rank, while the heads of the Five Directorates (五监), except for the Directorate of Waterways (都水监), are all of the third rank. Even the Ministers of the Six Ministries are only of the third rank…
Shen Tang had no objection to Chu Yao's proposal.
"Alright, he'll be a third-rank official."
She continued scrolling down.
They've once again brought up cutting staffing levels.
"Wu Hui, in my opinion, let's just eliminate the Three Departments of the Palace. Things are tough on all sides, and I can't afford to support so many people." The Three Departments of the Palace are the Secretariat, the Palace Secretariat, and the Palace Attendants' Secretariat. "Keep the Secretariat, the library can't be cut… As for the Palace Secretariat, cut as much as possible; a dozen or so people to take care of daily needs are enough. And the Palace Attendants' Secretariat, I think it can be completely eliminated… Hmm, cut it…"
The Inner Palace Secretariat was generally headed by eunuchs.
Specialized in managing the minutiae within the royal court.
As the saying goes, Shen Tang only needs to feed herself; in her view, there's no need to spend money supporting hundreds of servants, maids, and eunuchs. Her current lifestyle is quite comfortable; there's absolutely no need for such extravagance and waste.
Everyone sighed upon hearing this.
What else can they say?
Previously, when staff numbers were cut in various departments, they worried they would be overworked and exhausted, but they didn't expect their empress to be even harsher on herself, cutting all the departments that served her and the royal family. Judging from her empress's intentions, she preferred to eliminate these departments altogether.
but--
This won't do!
Chu Yao and others strongly opposed it!
The three departments within the palace should remain, at most reduced in size. At this moment, Qin Li stepped forward and spoke, gently advising, "Even if Your Majesty doesn't consider yourself, you should consider the future husbands and crown princes. Furthermore, if the royal family lacks proper ceremonial regalia, it will be ridiculed by the world. They won't think Your Majesty is being frugal; they will only think Your Majesty lacks the dignity of a ruler."
Shen Tang said, "Does dignity depend on these external things?"
Qin Li patiently persuaded her.
"Clothes make the man, and a saddle makes the horse. Respect the clothes before the man, respect the appearance before the spirit. If the king's ceremonial regalia is not displayed, over time people will overstep their bounds and lose their sense of propriety."
Shen Tang shook her head: "No one has the guts."
Are you tired of living and want to test her strength?
Qin Li smiled and said, "With your abilities, my lord, I believe no one will dare to underestimate you. However, a ruler who is too frugal and simple is not good for the country. What the ruler likes, the people will follow; what the ruler dislikes, the people will also follow. If the ruler is like this, the people below will naturally imitate him. If everyone wears coarse linen clothes and goes bare-faced, who will buy those silk brocades, rouge and perfumes?"
Appropriate frugality helps to eliminate waste, but excessive frugality is self-torture and not conducive to boosting the domestic economy.
Shen Tang scratched his head: "Sigh, that's true."
Those who entered the inner court were all of impeccable character; if all their positions were abolished, some would lose their livelihoods. In a way, allowing these people to serve in the inner court also created more jobs.
Sigh, let's cut these departments by 80%.
Since she is the only member of the royal family, there is indeed no need for her to be too wasteful.
She didn't know if she would ever find a partner. If she did, the inner court could be expanded to include more men, and there would be no shortage of staff.
But that's no longer necessary.
After determining the staffing levels for the above departments, Shen Tang's gaze slid across the bamboo slip in her hand for a few more lines before she raised her hand and pointed at Gu Chi.
"Watching the Tide".
Gu Chi felt a chill run down his spine when he was called out by name.
He stood up, cupped his hands in greeting, and said, "Chi is here."
Shen Tang pointed out an official position to him, one that was absolutely the right fit for him: "Censorate, Grand Censor, a third-rank official, it's up to you."
Just keep exposing and impeaching, and she'll back you up!
Instantly, Gu Chi felt countless pairs of burning eyes staring at him from behind, filled with envy, jealousy, and sourness! This was because he was the second official to be clearly confirmed after Bei Qiu, and because the Censorate generally did not have a Censor-in-Chief; the Censor-in-Chief was the superior.
Shen Tang not only set it up, but also gave it to him.
The key lies in Gu Chi's philosophy of the scholar's way...
Gu Chi felt his vision go black for a moment. He felt that after taking office, he would replace Qi Shan and become the one with the highest hatred value among the court officials—the Censorate didn't need any evidence to expose him!
|ω`)
It's a pity that Gu Chi didn't join the Censorate as Censor-in-Chief.
P.S.: There was some censorship in the text; "three officials" was censored to "three high-ranking officials"... I've revised it; "in charge" is better now...
(End of this chapter)
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