Han’s Son is Not a Slave

While busy issuing food stamps and casting new money for profit and strength, Zhou Shixiang successively appointed six officials. A few years ago, before the Eastern Expedition, the imperial decree brought by the great scholar Guo Zhiqi gave him the power of Ren Liuguan, in addition to naming him Uncle Xingping.

The six officials are officials, rituals, punishments, households, soldiers, and workers. In addition to the power given to Ren Liuguan, the imperial decree also allows Zhou Shixiang to appoint officials, military officers can reach the second rank, but civil officials can only reach the rank of six chiefs, and the chiefs are generally sixth rank officials. Obviously, the imperial decree of Yongli is still very strict in the appointment and removal of civil officials, which can also reflect the old thinking of the court of Yongli, that is, "the noble and the military".

Prior to this, only Zheng Chenggong, the king of Yanping County in Jinxia, ​​was authorized to set up six officials in the ninth year of Yongli (the twelfth year of Shunzhi in the pseudo-Qing Dynasty). It cannot be seen from this that the premise of the permanent calendar allowing the establishment of six officials is that the communication between the vassal (member) and the imperial court is interrupted, or the distance is far away.

Because of Wu Liuqi's sudden attack on Huizhou, Zhou Shixiang had to go east ahead of schedule, so that the six officials have not been established. After Chaohui's victory, Zhou ordered Xu Yingyuan to go to Kunming to report the victory. Considering that Xu Yingyuan did not have a formal official position, he ordered him to be an official of the Ministry of Industry. After returning to Guangzhou, Song Xianggong mentioned the matter of adding six officials many times, and Zhou Shixiang proposed a candidate to be appointed.

The officials were appointed by Gui Yongzhi, a former staff member of Li Suotai, the officials of rituals were Guo Tianxu, the former head of the Ritual Department of Chongzhen, who was at home, and the officials of punishment were Ding Zhixiang, the deputy envoy of the Guangdong Provincial Police Department of the former Shaowu regime, and the officials of the households. It was Jiang Xiaoming, the battalion school whose arm was broken in the First World War at Xuanwu Mountain, and the soldier was Dong Changqing, a student from Huizhou who offered advice to persuade him to surrender. In this way, with the addition of Xu Yingyuan, an engineer, all six officers took office.

The establishment of the Six Officials is not in the Chief Secretary's Yamen, but in the Xingping Counties. That is to say, the Six Officials are actually Zhou Shixiang's private officials, but the Yongli court recognizes their official positions and grades. Their duties are only to assist Xingpingbo in handling government affairs, and they must not interfere with the local yamen's office, which in disguise restricts the power of the six officials, so as to foreshadow the imperial court's future takeover of the vassal (member) territory.

It's just that the government envoy Si Yamen in Guangdong was actually established and controlled by Zhou Shixiang, and Zhou Shixiang appointed the officials of various prefectures and counties, so the six officials of Xingping's family could not interfere in specific government affairs without Zhou Shixiang's approval. of.

The establishment of the six officials overlaps with the functions of the Chief Secretary's yamen, prefectures, counties, townships, villages, and the military and civilian departments of the military commander's office, and they are optional officials. However, the establishment of six officials is the power given to Zhou Shixiang by the Yongli court, and it is a symbol, so he has to set it up. In order to enable the six officials to function normally, and not to overlap with the chief envoy and the military commander's office, resulting in inaction or delay, Zhou Shixiang reorganized the government affairs of Guangdong.

As the highest government yamen in Guangdong, the position of the Chief Envoy is unshakable. The Chief Envoy Song Xianggong is also an officer of the Civil Affairs Department of the military commander, responsible for all civil affairs in the area actually controlled by the Taiping Army. The four officials of household officials, workers officials, criminal officials, and official officials related to civil affairs are listed in the Chief Secretary's Yamen. Each official is responsible to Song Xianggong, and specifically undertakes the affairs of the officials in the original Guan of the Chief Secretary's Yamen. This is tantamount to subdividing the affairs of the administrative envoy and the yamen, similar to the later provincial government under the jurisdiction of transportation, public security, civil affairs and other departments, and the officials of these departments are the six officials.

As the top official of the Chief Envoy, Song Xianggong was directly responsible to Zhou Shixiang, so that there would not be two overlapping agencies, namely, the Chief Envoy and the Six Officials. The Taiping Army's territory is so large and its population is more than one million. Zhou Shixiang has no intention of using these six officials as the future six divisions. At present, expanding the army and simplifying the administration is the most suitable method.

As the general staff of the Taiping Army, the military department is not involved in civil affairs, and officers related to the military are brought under the military department, responsible for the appointment and dismissal of lieutenant generals, merit investigation, military salaries, and food and grass. The Ritual Officer of the Sixth Officials is an official position that has nothing to do with military and civil affairs. Zhou Shixiang did not think about how to arrange the former Chongzhen court director of the Ritual Department, Mr. Guo, so he asked him to put up a name and receive a salary. It is related to etiquette. If there is anything, he will come and ask, and if there is nothing, he will go.

The Military Intelligence Division established by Zhang An and Song Ying was also secretly expanding, and was not managed by the civilian ministry of the military commander's mansion, nor by the military ministry, but was directly managed by Zhou Shixiang himself.

While Zhou Shixiang allowed Zhang An to build an intelligence network, he could secretly select and recruit people from the military and civilians for training to form an action team of the Ministry of Military Intelligence. This force is similar in nature to the Jinyiwei, and it is another branch in Zhou Shixiang's hands that can be mobilized at any time in addition to the Iron Man. The secret force has about 400 personnel.

After the appointment of the six officials, Zhou Shixiang ordered the prefectures and counties to strengthen the breeding industry and raise more livestock, such as pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks. This matter is vigorously carried out by the Second Division of Agriculture, Reclamation and Fisheries and Animal Husbandry under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and all prefectures and counties must pay attention and increase investment. The Ministry of Civil Affairs regularly sends staff for assessment, and local officials who perform well should be rewarded and promoted.

Sugarcane is also one of the key points of agricultural development. Sugar cane is extracted into sugar and sold as a commodity to Westerners in Macau, and the profits are also very high. Zhou Shixiang asked Xiangshan County to choose one or two townships to start planting. In addition, Cantonese people only make salt by boiling seawater, so the quality of the salt is very poor. In order to improve the process, Zhou Shixiang introduced the method of drenching and drying salt. He ordered to dig a ditches near the salt field, so that the sea water was poured onto the sandy soil to form salt soil, and then the brine extracted from the salt soil was taken to the crystallization pond and sun-dried to obtain a grain of salt. To improve the quality of salt ~www.wuxiaspot.com~ Salt and iron have always been the franchise of feudal dynasties, and Zhou Shixiang was no exception.

Zhou Shixiang also accepted Song Xiang's public meeting and established Guangdong University in Guangzhou, which is the highest institution in Guangdong. Each prefecture, state, and county set up prefectural schools, state schools, and county schools. He also requested that all townships and villages also set up primary schools to facilitate children's enrollment. educate. In order to reduce the burden on the parents of school children and encourage them to send their children to school, Zhou Shixiang specifically stipulated that all children who enter the school will be exempted from 40% of the land tax.

Song Xianggong also stipulated that children in the prefectures and counties under his rule must enter primary school at the age of seven in the name of the Secretary of Government and Envoy. There are two exams in three years, and children are tested according to the department and the year. The prefecture (county) exam is famous for sending it to the government, the prefectural exam is famous for sending it to the province, the provincial exam is successful, and it is admitted to the Guangdong University. Those who took the middle test in three years, the six officials of the text supplement, the chief executive officer, the general affairs of the prefectures and counties, the military supplement team, the Weiwei, and the middle envoy of the Anjun, were promoted and promoted.

This policy is the imperial examination system, but the eight-legal selection of imperial examinations has been slightly changed, and the students are ordered to study by the Chief Secretary, and the military commander's office approves the textbooks. . As the highest schools of literature and martial arts of the Taiping Army, Guangdong University Hall and Military Training Institute not only undertake the teaching of students, supplement military and political talents for the Taiping Army, but also give Guangdong scholars a path to officialdom. (To be continued.)