Chapter 850: Country Embarks Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora
Chapter 850 – Country Embarks
Within the Imperial Reading Room.
Ouyang Shuo solemnly took out the imperial seal, taking a last look at the three imperial decrees before personally stamping it. With that, the imperial decrees were set and could not be changed.
When Tsing Yi saw that, she took out a cotton box and carefully placed the imperial decrees inside.
At this very moment, a court lady reported, “My king, the auspicious time has arrived!”
Ouyang Shuo nodded, smiling as she said to Tsing Yi and Jia Xu, “Let’s go, to the court.” … 8 AM sharp, Xia Palace main hall.
The auspicious time had arrived, and Ouyang Shuo sat on the throne and started the first court assembly of the Great Xia Dynasty.
Ouyang Shuo looked down at the civil servants and generals and seriously said, “A new dynasty has been establishing and must be ruled properly. I’ve ascended to the throne, and I’ll remove all chaos, setting up a system to rule the wilderness.”
The officials all bowed, “The king is wise!”
Ouyang Shuo said, “Decree!”
Secretary Bai Nanpu who was standing not far from Ouyang Shuo respectfully took out the cotton box and started to read the imperial decree upon hearing the order.
Bai Nanpu had been around Ouyang Shuo for a long time; he was stable in his work. Although he was placed in the Secret Document Pavilion, his role was more like the manager of the eunuchs, and he was in charge of reading the imperial decrees.
To Bai Nanpu, it was the king showing him a lot of gratitude and thanks.
The first decree to be read was the Great Xia Dynasty title system.
Based on the system, any children of the Great Xia Dynasty, be it soldiers, students, artisans, or merchants, as long as they did well in their fields, they could be awarded a title.
To the dynasty, soldiers killing on the battlefield were contributing, merchants paying tax and opening up trade routes were contributing, teachers educating were contributing, artisans inventing were contributing….
Since one contributed, one needed to be rewarded.
The lowest title was the 1st class baron. The titles were further split down into nine grades, 1st class as the highest and 9th class as the lowest. Each occupation had their specific class standards.
The title given by the dynasty was only an honorary one; it did not come with any salary increase or monetary reward. However, anyone with a title would have a higher status than civilians and would be treated with more respect.
Hence, it gave people who contributed to the dynasty a lot of respect.
After reading the title system, Bai Nanpu followed by announcing the list of the first group of people granted titles. Apart from the few during the ascension ceremony, all the generals and civil servants present were given titles one by one.
Based on Ouyang Shuo’s request, the titles were not given based on appointment but by their contribution to the dynasty. Hence, the longer the official served in the territory, the higher their title.
Take Culture Division Secretary Xu Shuda as an example; he was given the title of 3rd class earl. Even if newcomers had high appointments, they might just become a viscount. For example, Kou Zhun and Di Renjie were given the titles of 3rd class viscount.
With that, it rewarded the old guard while also giving the new ones pressure to give their all for the dynasty.
… After announcing the list of people who were given titles, next would be to announce the organizational structure of the Great Xia Dynasty as well as the appointments.
During this reorganization, apart from adjusting the original organizations, 20 odd support organizations were made to perfect the system.
The new support organizations included the imperial medical court, imperial academy, and the like.
The Xia Palace used court ladies to replace eunuchs, setting up 12 offices.
Apart from that, in the inner palace, there were also four new divisions and eight bureaus, merging into the 24 Yamen of the inner palace. The court ladies also had six bureaus, paying attention to the palace, rituals, food, sleep, and the like. Each bureau had four divisions under them.
However, since only Ouyang Shuo, Song Jia, and the underage princes Bing’er lived in the palace, Ouyang Shuo did not like excessive extravagance and ordered the 24 Yamen to make it simple.
If not, it would be hard to maintain the running of the dynasty.
With the support organizations being set up one by one, the aura and appearance of a dynasty appeared.
Of course, the most core adjustments were in the original Nanjiang Governor-General House. These organizations were the true core to maintaining the running of the dynasty and had to be treated seriously.
Setting up the cabinet to take charge of administrative matters, there would be one Grand Secretary and one assistant. Jiang Shang was officially appointed as the Grand Secretary and Kou Zhun as the assistant to help Ouyang Shuo.
There was also the setting up of the Grand Council, where the War Division, Military Intelligence Division, and Navy Headquarters would be under.
With that, the Privy Court would mainly care about the daily matters of the army and their logistics, while the Grand Council would be in charge of commanding. These two organizations would work together whilst also working independently.
The Grand Council would have one head to lead them all.
Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui would temporarily take the role of Grand Council Head, Navy Admiral Zheng He, Guards Legion Corps Marshal Huo Qubing, Dragon Legion Corps Marshal Baiqi, Tiger Legion Corps Marshal Sun Bin, and Leopard Legion Corps Marshal Han Xin would all be members of the council.
The Cabinet and the Grand Council were the highest military and administrative organizations in the dynasty. Apart from the organizations under Ouyang Shuo’s direct control, the others would be under these two.
The Clerk Room would be upgraded to the Secret Document Pavilion, and there would be one advisor and two secretaries. Tsing Yi would be the Secret Document Pavilion Advisor and Bai Nanpu would be the secretary.
They would also set up the Administrative Mentor Court to take charge of military and administrative questions; they would also be in charge of memorials. There would be one Chief Secretary, two advisors, and four secretaries. Jia Xu was appointed as the Chief Secretary and Chen Gong as the advisor.
The Censorate would be set up to be in charge of monitoring, and there would be one minister, and one assistant minister. Wei Zheng would be the minister while Feng Ting would be the assistant minister.
The newly established Secret Document Pavilion, Administrative Mentor Court, and Censorate, along with the Honglu Temple, Shanhai Guards, and Black Snake Guards were the six organizations under Ouyang Shuo’s direct control.
Below the cabinet would be the Administrative Court, Internal Affairs Court, Financial Court, and Privy Court as well as the Industrialization Department and the Four Seas Bank.
The secretaries under the four courts would all be upgraded to department, and their member appointments would be kept the same with no changes.
After the reshuffle, the local offices and Yamens around the territory needed to adjust too.
Based on the system, the local offices would all be set into six grades, province, prefecture, house, county, township, and village. Each grade would have a fixed number and one could not randomly add or deduct the number.
At the same time, the province used bureau as the highest grade, prefectures had department, house had division, county had office, and township and villages had branches.
Branch, office, division, department, bureau, and court; these were the six layers of the organizational system.
With that, the system was fluid and perfected. Only then could they ensure a smooth administrative system.
… The last imperial decree that Bai Nanpu read was regarding the nine grade rank. Since one had a perfect system, one needed strict and clear grades.
Based on the system, the Great Xia Dynasty would have nine grades of officials, one primary and one secondary, for a total of 18 grades.
Based on Ouyang Shuo’s request, the Great Xia Dynasty would not have a grand tutor, a senior grand tutor, and a grand protector. The Imperial Court civil servants were led by the Cabinet Grand Secretary and the generals were under the Grand Council.
The Cabinet Grand Secretary, Cabinet Assistant Grand Secretary, and the head of the Grand Council were all Primary Grade 1; Administration, Internal Affairs, Financial, and Military Affairs Ministers were all Secondary Grade 1.
Di Ruhui taking up two roles meant that he would have the higher rank. In the future, when the time was right, Ouyang Shuo was considering getting a minister for the Grand Council to do daily duties.
The Honglu Temple and Censorate leaders were Primary Grade 2, and the assistant ministers of the four courts and the Zhili viceroy were Secondary Grade 2.
Taking this chance, Ouyang Shuo officially announced the four assistant ministers of the four courts. He appointed Zhang Tingyu as Assistant Administration Minister, Di Renjie as Assistant Internal Affairs Minister, Cui Yingyu as Assistant Financial Minister, and Xiahou Dun as Assistant Military Affairs Minister.
Original Military Affairs Bureau Deputy Director Zhao Kuo would move along with the War Division to the Grand Council.
The Zhili viceroy was like the head of all governors.
The Provincial Governors, Administrative Mentor Court Minister, Shanhai Guards Commander and Black Snake Guards Commander were all Primary Grade 3. The directors beneath the courts, such as Industrialization Director, and Four Seas Bank Treasurer, were all Secondary Grade 3.
Secret Document Pavilion Advisor, Censorate Assistant Minister, and the like would be Primary Grade 4, while the secretary and deputy directors of the four courts would be Secondary Grade 4.
Out of the six organizations directly under him, Honglu Temple was in charge of diplomacy, and the Censorate handled channels for criticism and feedback; they were really important departments. Hence, their position was really high and only second to the four courts.
The Administrative Mentor Court, Shanhai Guards, and Black Snake Guards were on the same level as a Provincial Governor. Although the Secret Document Pavilion was really close to Ouyang Shuo, he only gave it a Primary Grade 4 rank.
The reason he arranged it like this was naturally to set up restrictions.
Further down, the secretaries of the four courts, the directors of the provincial Yamens were all Primary Grade 5. The Governor and deputy directors of the provincial Yamens were Secondary Grade 5.
Directors of the House level were Primary Grade 6, and Prefects were Secondary Grade 6. Country Magistrate and House Secretaries were Primary Grade 7. The four office managers at the county level would be Primary Grade 8 and the branch heads were Secondary Grade 8.
The town mayor was Primary Grade 9, while village heads and town grade branch heads were Secondary Grade 9.
After the grade system was released, all the officials in the dynasty would be given a rank with a certain amount of salary.
Hence, there was a way to settle the ruling foundations of the dynasty.
A new dynasty was about to arrive!