In February of the second year of Longwu, because the new five-year political program of Daqin was proposed, there were many things that needed to be sorted out. Therefore, in order to increase the efficiency of work, Xiao Ruxun directly turned the Palace of Heavenly Purity into the most direct office of the central government.
Xiao Ruxun was now 28 years old, the peak of a man's energy. But even so, the experience of Emperor Qin and Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty told him that although an emperor could hold absolute power, he could not govern the country alone.
After Emperor Qin swept through the lands, the population of China was 20 million. In the 26th year of Hongwu, the population of the whole country was 65 million. Now, the population of Daqin was definitely more than 100 million.
Although Xiao Ruxun had only conducted a census in half of Daqin and half of Jiangbei, it was estimated that the more comprehensive census data would not be available until five years later. Even so, it was not difficult to predict that the total population of this period would exceed 100 million.
The greater the population and the larger the territory, the greater the workload. Xiao Ruxun's workload was about six times that of Emperor Qin and about twice that of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty.
For this reason, Xiao Ruxun did his best to expand the scale of the central government. He expanded the central government of the Ming Dynasty that he had obtained from Emperor Wanli and recruited loyal and capable officials from all over the country to work in it. This greatly increased the number of officials and departments in the central government.
Among them, those who were particularly outstanding in the land reform and the marching process were given special attention and transferred to the various key departments. Those who were the best in the key departments were decisively transferred to the cabinet.
The cabinet under Xiao Ruxun was slightly different from the cabinet of the previous Ming Dynasty. Whether it was the number of officials, the rank of officials, or the responsibilities of the officials, they had all greatly increased.
Now, there were more than 200 officials in the cabinet, who were connected to the different government departments under the cabinet. This was to comply with Xiao Ruxun's request to achieve a seamless connection without shirking responsibility.
Any form of shirking responsibility or wrangling was not allowed. Each department had a direct and clear liaison officer. If there was a problem, the liaison officer would be directly held accountable.
From the local government to the Office of Transmission to the cabinet, and then to the administrative departments, the cabinet assumed a very important responsibility. Regardless of whether it was a big or small matter, the cabinet officials were responsible for contacting and handling it.
And in this, the Office of Transmission played a very important role.
In the former Ming Dynasty, local memorials were sent to the cabinet through the Office of Transmission, and then it was handled by the cabinet officials. But with the decline of imperial power and the increase of the power of the cabinet officials, whether the memorials could be sent to the emperor or not basically depended on the cabinet officials.
And with the further expansion of the power of the civil officials and the increasingly intense party struggle, some people even regarded the Office of Transmission as a very important part of the party struggle.
This was because they could directly intercept some of the memorials that were unfavorable to themselves, and directly send the memorials that were unfavorable to the enemy to the cabinet or the emperor.
They used the authority of the Office of Transmission to sort out memorials and deliver them to the Heavens as a bargaining chip in the internal strife.
They did not care about the interests of the country. When a disaster occurred and the people were anxiously waiting for help, they were discussing how to use the disaster to kill their political enemies. They did not care about the people at all. It was very hateful.
In order to avoid this situation, Xiao Ruxun adopted many methods.
Xiao Ruxun restricted the authority of the Office of Transmission. Once a local disaster occurred, whether it was a natural disaster or a man-made disaster, no matter how serious it was, it would be directly sent to the emperor by the local government. This kind of matter would be handled by the emperor himself, and no official was allowed to handle it.
Among them, Xiao Ruxun ordered the local branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation to set up a second route with the headquarters of the Central Bureau of Investigation. When a disaster occurred, the local branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation would also report it to the emperor. Once one side sent it and the other side did not, an investigation would be launched immediately.
These were the two routes on the surface. Xiao Ruxun also arranged a third route in the dark, which was the route of Black Water.
According to the secret reports, Xiao Ruxun knew that there was a lot of conflict between Zhou Yao and Zhang Wu, and that the relationship between the two was very bad. After realizing this fact, Xiao Ruxun also sensed some antagonism between Black Poison and Black Water.
Later, Xiao Ruxun decided to take advantage of Black Water's dissatisfaction with Black Poison and give Black Water some power to suppress Black Poison, so that Black Water could supervise the Central Bureau of Investigation that Black Poison was in charge of.
Black Poison controlled the Central Bureau of Investigation, which had a large number of officials and great power. If such a department had some kind of disease, it would have very serious consequences.
It was easy to control in the Central Bureau, which Xiao Ruxun could do directly, but it was difficult in the local area.
For this reason, Xiao Ruxun decided to use Black Water, which was also in the local area, to carry out reverse supervision. This authority was secretly given to Zhang Wu by Xiao Ruxun, and Zhou Yao was not aware of it.
Of course, if Zhou Yao knew, or if there were any signs that he knew and intended to do something about it, Xiao Ruxun wouldn't mind sending Zhou Yao to see his deceased relatives.
Even if he knew, he would pretend not to know. If he was smart enough, he would pretend to be deaf and dumb for the rest of his life, and not know until his death. Otherwise, the moment he knew, the moment he would die.
Using these three routes to ensure that Xiao Ruxun could timely grasp the local disasters, Xiao Ruxun also requested that the local government take the initiative to classify the daily affairs when reporting them.
What kind of affairs, whether they needed to be dealt with urgently, whether they were water conservancy, road repairs or river dredging, whether there were bandits or pirates, whether they were repairing the city defenses or repairing the warehouses and houses in the city — these were all classified by the local government first.
After being classified and transported by the local government, they would be sent to the Central Office of Transmission, where they would be selected and delivered again.
However, when the memorials were sent, the local government would stamp the corresponding big seal with a classified seal, and when they arrived at the Office of Transmission, the Office of Transmission would also stamp the big seal. No matter which big seal was missing, they would be directly held accountable.
Both kinds of big seals were made from copper molds that Xiao Ruxun presided over. The local ones were local ones, and the central ones were central ones. The big seals had different patterns and fonts, and the copper molds were stored in the Imperial Palace and guarded by special personnel, so that the local and central officials could not make trouble.
After ensuring the smooth flow of information, Xiao Ruxun also reorganized the Cabinet.
The officials in the Cabinet were divided into several groups, and the group leaders and members had a certain degree of administrative power. Some trivial matters were handled by them according to the clear rules and regulations determined by Xiao Ruxun.
After they finished handling the matters, they would cross-examine them. Once there were any memorials with different opinions, they would be discussed and handled again to ensure that mistakes were minimized. Memorials that exceeded their authority would be directly sent to the cabinet ministers.
Every cabinet minister had three to five assistant officials to help the cabinet minister deal with the larger affairs that involved a wider range of aspects, and the cabinet minister also had clear administrative power.
Memorials that exceeded their authority would be directly sent to the Emperor, who would act arbitrarily.
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