Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1448: Arctic Exorcism Institute

"Arctic Exorcism House? What is that?"

"It is an orthodox Taoist institution belonging to the Heavenly Officials. Its main function is, as you said, to patrol on behalf of the Heaven and eliminate evil spirits."

“What a cool name!”

"Many of the Taoist names are very cool. According to this system, the Thunder Department, Fire Department and the like have their own set of names for the Heavenly Officials. You have used them before, right?"

Shangluo nodded. He had indeed used it. For example, the promotion system of the "Shangqing Yiwei" in the palace was to be promoted from judge, chief judge, commander of troops and law enforcement, and then enter different sub-fields such as slaying evil envoys, controlling evil envoys, subduing demons, and summoning envoys.

"Who came up with this name?"

"Well, the name itself must have been thought up by Taoist priests of past generations. You think it's 'cool' because the Taoist priest who thought up the name knows what you like."

"Because, we can be as cool as we want, right?"

"After all, among Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, Confucianism comes from ancient sorcerers and is a national ritual. You can interpret Confucius' Confucianism, but you can't interpret the Confucianism before Confucius, and there is no need to interpret it. After all, Haotian Shangdi, Hou Tuhuang Diji, and Sheji Shen and the like were not designed for people to participate in. Buddhism is a foreign way, let's not talk about that. Taoism is our country's religion, so the old Taoist priest will try to make you happy, and we can do whatever we want, and how to explain it is up to us. So, there is a name like Beiji Exorcism House that seems to be found in novels."

"So, I can use it?"

"Yes. The main thing is that you are now representing the imperial court to transform into the heavenly court, so this name is just right. And this name..."

Elder Wen considered his words carefully:
"The Censorate has to continue to attract cultural attention, so it is necessary to maintain the stability of the style paradigm."

"Uh what do you mean?"

"What I mean is," said Elder Wen in a low voice, "the Censors also have special uniforms, right? If you don't make it look cool, no one will want to do this job."

"Ah! So being cool is the driving force."

"Yeah, that's right." Elder Wen nodded. "Many people become censors just for the outfit. As for why the treatment cannot be improved but only the honor can be improved, what do you think, Shangluo?"

"I want to know what the court thinks first."

"The court's view is actually quite complicated. Although our faction does not hold the most power in the court, we still have a certain say. If we want to improve the treatment of the censors, it will not be difficult. As far as the censors' current work is concerned, there is no problem in paying them twice the salary. But in fact, we cannot do this because it is a kind of balance. The censors have a low position but great power. If we give them too much salary, it will easily lead to an imbalance."

"What kind of imbalance?"

"It's mainly a selection of fresh blood. Long ago, the censors were basically newly-appointed Jinshi, and at that time, censors were one of the top career options. Because at that time, the quota of censors was 110, and the court was not as large as it is now. Among the 110 people, most of them were investigating cases in the Censorate, and a small number of them would go out on field duty when they were in charge of salt and tea inspections. At this time, the probability of a seventh-rank censor being promoted to a fifth-rank official was 42%. Similarly, the probability of a seventh-rank county magistrate being promoted to a fifth-rank official was only 3%."

"So being an Imperial Censor was such a good career path in the past?"

"Yes, but that was in the past. Later, during the Yongqing Restoration, the court carried out a series of changes that can now be seen as 'modernization transformation'. The scale of court employees has been greatly increased - in the past, all officials in Beijing, even including governors and generals stationed outside, only had more than 1600 people. The Ming Dynasty Code records that the national civil service has a fixed number of 24600 people, of which 20000 are below the rank of seventh-rank county magistrate. There are only 7 people above the rank of county magistrate. Now look at us, the Ministry of Revenue alone has more than 4600 people, including 20000 people in the headquarters of the Ministry of Revenue, 2000 people in the provincial branch of the Ministry of Revenue, and a whopping 1300 people in the Ministry of Revenue's Taxation Department, including many field staff."

As the size of the entire imperial court expanded, the size of the censors also increased.

This series of reforms affected an unchangeable rule - the imperial examination system.

Now, each of the six ministries has more people than the entire imperial court in Beijing before, and the number of Jinshi candidates alone cannot be filled. And the imperial court obviously does not intend to increase the number of Jinshi candidates in proportion to the expansion of the imperial court, because no one who has passed the Jinshi examination wants the value of the Jinshi to depreciate. When they make the decision, the number of Jinshi candidates cannot be increased.

There were only so many Jinshi candidates, and people were needed to serve as officials. Therefore, the strategy of using Juren candidates as officials designated by Emperor Taizu Gao was brought out again, and became the main way to recruit officials in the Ming Dynasty. Among the large number of people recruited by the court every year, Juren candidates accounted for the vast majority, while Jinshi candidates mainly served in the Hanlin Academy and its affiliated institutions.

Therefore, compared with the past, the value of Juren has been devalued to the point where "it seems that everyone has a chance"; Xiucai is even more "on sale without limit", becoming a passing exam rather than a selective exam.

After all, the decision-makers were the Jinshi, not the Juren. When the court decided to maintain the operation of the court by devaluing a certain honor, then the one that was compiled was definitely not the Jinshi, but other honors.

This also led to a sharp increase in the value of the Jinshi degree. Because the number of candidates admitted did not change, the number of candidates eligible to take the Jinshi examination increased exponentially, and the Jinshi examination became a huge battle. In the past, there were generally about 5000 candidates who participated in the joint examination, because only 1000 to candidates were admitted each year. Now, there are nearly candidates in the two counties of Jiangning and Shangyuan alone, and the number of candidates from all over the country who come to take the joint examination every year is in the tens of thousands, and sometimes even close to .

10 people competing for 300 Jinshi is indeed a bit outrageous. But considering that any juren is eligible to take the exam and can take it at any time in his life, this number can be regarded as a rational choice after historical sedimentation.

After all, because it was so difficult, most of the candidates across the country had actually given up the imperial examination and instead became officials directly or engaged in other social activities. After all, the life of a candidate was not bad.

It is common sense for Juren to become an official. But in the past, the size of the court was too small, and it did not have enough affairs to manage. The power was only enough to be distributed among Jinshi, and not to Juren. But now, the court has greatly expanded, and Juren can get a position as long as they are willing.

However, these extra officials also need to be supervised. The original 110 people could not supervise the court that had expanded tenfold, and the Censorate could not also expand tenfold in the same proportion. After all, the 10 censors were already the largest number of officials with the same name in Beijing. Other vice ministers, junior officials, etc. could not be counted directly at 110, let alone 110.

So here, the Censor-in-Chief has become a position with an indefinite number of censors. In the expansion of the Metropolitan Censorate, the thirteen departments that originally belonged to the Metropolitan Censorate's patrol of thirteen provinces were all merged. Now the Metropolitan Censorate directly governs the indefinite number of censors, and the number can be increased or decreased appropriately according to the urgency of the situation. At most, there are indeed more than 1000 people. However, now, there are only about 700 censors in office. "These 700 people are all of low rank but powerful." Wen Ge Lao replied, "People can gather together. When there were only 110 people in the past, everyone was scattered all over the place, and the friendship between their colleagues was not very strong. Now the 700 censors see each other every day, and when they work, they often form a special task force, and then four or five censors work together. With such a group of 700 people, they control the authority to directly launch investigations against all officials. If they are allowed to be promoted, not only will their own supervisory functions be affected, but it will also shake the court."

"What if the internal affairs agency rules the country?"

"This is one of the expected situations. It doesn't even need to go that far. We just need to let all the new Jinshi rush to serve as censors, and then there will be another Jinyiwei in the court out of thin air. The emperor doesn't want to see this, the cabinet doesn't want to see it, the guards don't want to see it, both factions of the cabinet don't want to see it, and even the Censorate itself doesn't want to see it."

"Ah" Shangluo nodded.

This is the logic of the Ming Dynasty. What Wen Ge Lao told him was something he couldn't learn anywhere else - Wen Ge Lao believed that if Shangluo intended to make drastic changes to the court, then knowing this was necessary.

"So, the honorary treatment must be adequate, right?"

"Yes, this is a weighed approach." Elder Wen gave an affirmative answer, "And it's not just a pie in the sky. In fact, all honors correspond to a reward system with allowances. Every time you make a contribution, a corresponding allowance is paid monthly. The more merits you have, the more allowances you get. Many merits are not paid for in a short time, but will provide help in a long-term career. So in general, the seventh rank is not small. The main job of the cabinet minister is only the fifth rank, and the other things are added in. And, the most important thing."

He pointed at the table in front of him and said, "Eat well and drink well. Among all the benefits, ensuring good food and drink is the most basic and simplest. People's appetites are easily satisfied, and it is easy to miss a good meal. Sometimes I think that although the work is very hard, at least I eat well. Among all the departments, the catering standards of the Censorate are among the best."

"Did the court allocate extra money?"

"That's not the case. It's actually their own tradition - and the Censorate actually has an interesting business that helps them make extra money."

"What business?"

"The printing factory. This is a historical relic. You can see it by flipping through many novels from the Jiajing and Wanli periods. You can often find hardcover books from the Metropolitan Censorate among a pile of shoddy books. The Metropolitan Censorate's printing factory is a sideline business specially approved by the court. That was how it was back then. They printed whatever was popular, like "Water Margin" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". They also printed strange stories like "Secret Manual of Immortals in Successive Dynasties". Although the censors received less salary, the Metropolitan Censorate had a lot of funds. It's just that because there were so many errands and it cost money to do them, the censors' salaries were not that generous."

"what"

"What do you think?"

"Copy it, copy it all." Shangluo replied, "I think the Arctic Exorcism Institute can copy all of this."

"You want the printing house too?"

"I think the printing house is pretty good. It would be even better if it could print small books. Can it print comics?"

"Yes." Elder Wen gave a positive answer, "Of course. If you publish at your own expense, you can print as many copies as you want. In fact, when Marshal Qi Jiguang published the first edition of Jixiao Xinshu, he printed and promoted it at his own expense."

"Whether it's the printing house or these censors, I want them all. Let's move them together."

"Then the only thing left is the flower stand. Hmm," Elder Wen nodded, "That's fine. Let everyone get used to it. We have to start moving."

The only high-quality assets in the Metropolitan Censorate were the experienced censors and the prestigious printing house that was at the forefront of fashion. The rest were administrative work done by governors at all levels in name only, and some ceremonial work - after all, historians were also part of Zhou Li.

Shangluo decided to move the Censorate to a shell, and then move it to the Thunder Department to become the Arctic Exorcism Institute, and immediately began to lead the work of the Night Duty Bureau. After all, the conflict between humans and non-humans will become the main problem in the future, and although the conflicts among humans themselves will continue to exist, they will also evolve into a new state.

For example, it is obviously unnecessary to maintain such tasks as salt inspection and tea inspection, which are not important to the Heavenly Court at all.

The new Arctic Exorcism Court will replace the Metropolitan Censorate and form a new supervision system. And according to the original rules, Shangluo decided to continue to implement the original treatment. Eat and drink well, that is to first ensure the cultivation and practice of the Metropolitan Censorate staff.

"Then for the first batch, I plan to give the elixir of life to everyone."

"Really?" Elder Wen asked, "If you do this, they will probably be happy to move to Heaven."

"Anyway, no matter where we are, we are all serving the Ming Dynasty, whether it is the imperial court or the heavenly court. And in the future, all parts of the imperial court will be moved here, they just went ahead. Also, I do need them to help me with some practical work, such as connecting with the Night Shift Bureau and so on. I have asked the people from the Night Shift Bureau to come here to report on their work."

"So fast? Then I suggest you get everyone from the Censorate onto the spiritual network as soon as possible, and then you can start discussing work directly over the spiritual network."

"How about you, Elder Wen, give me a hand?"

"That's fine. But Shangluo, is there any special reason why you don't do it yourself?"

"Because the name of the Arctic Exorcism Institute doesn't look serious, it's a bit too cool. If it were me, it would look a bit unreliable. But it's just right for you to come and recruit people, Elder Wen."

(End of this chapter)