Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora
Chapter 1103 – Wei Zheng Enters the Cabinet
To run the huge dynasty well, Ouyang Shuo had been doing a lot recently.
Apart from gathering the philosophers to discuss the Yanhuang ideology, he planned to try to unify all the ideologies in China. To make the different law domains and perfect the Great Xia law system, Ouyang Shuo was ready to increase supervision.
Great Xia’s supervisory system was split into two dark and two in the light.
The two dark ones were the intel organizations. The one in charge of China region intel, the Shanhai Guards, and the other in charge of overseas, the Black Snake Guars. The two in the light were the Censorate and the Regulatory Department.
The dark systems, be it the Shanhai Guards or the Black Snake Guards, had finally taken root after years of support and no big changes needed to be made.
Hence, Ouyang Shuo was mainly going to adjust the systems in the light.
Currently, the Regulatory Department had changed from being solely under the Internal Affairs Court to being under both them and the Censorate to strengthen the regulation and monitoring of officials on all levels.
“But that was far from enough!”
As the main monitoring organization, the Censorate was in charge of all officials. But now, they only focused on the Imperial Court and left the other offices to the Regulatory Department.
Furthermore, the officials in the Imperial Court were the top historical talents whilst those in the offices included many corrupt ones.
Ouyang Shuo wanted to make the Censorate go down and fulfil an overall cover of all offices.
During the Tang Dynasty, they made the Censorate into the left and the right. The left monitored military and officials in the capital, while the local officials were handled by the right.
After which, the left also started to regulate the locals.
Every year, they would send officials to tour the counties in spring and autumn seasons.
Ouyang Shuo’s idea was to follow that but improve on it.
After discussions with the Cabinet, the Censorate adjustment plan was quickly released and mainly included two areas.
First, the Censorate would send censors to the local offices.
The provincial offices would have one lead censor, the prefecture grade would have one intermediate one, the prefecture grade would have one regulatory censor, and the counties would have one censor.
The various censors could skip a level and report upward.
Secondly, form a Censorate regulatory system.
Great Xia would model this on the Tang Dynasty system to send officials down every spring and autumn.
With that, it would greatly increase their monitoring on the local offices.
Due to that, the Censorate would have a new round of expansion, from either the Imperial Court or local offices, they would take in a batch of officials to be appointed.
Ouyang Shuo had made it clear that those chosen to enter the Censorate had to be morally upright.
“Those that do well can be promoted!”
All of a sudden, the Censorate became the hottest organization in the dynasty, and all the officials felt that if they entered the Censorate, it would be like having a protective talisman. Moreover, it would be a good way of getting promoted.
One could only say that they were happy too early.
The Censorate minister Wei Zheng was a cold and fair person. Along with Bao Zheng, the two of them together ensured that nothing funny would happen in the Censorate.
“It is not a place that random people can enter.”
At the same time, to ensure the power and prestige of the Censorate, Ouyang Shuo suggested to let Wei Zheng enter the Cabinet to become the second part time elder after Zhang Liang.
This time, the Censorate was at a great position.
After the adjustment, the Censorate would be like a sharp blade hanging over the heads of all the officials.
This was the good side of the Censorate, but there was also a worrying side.
In history, be it the Censorate during the Tang or Ming Dynasties, they all had a problem. The Censorate might become the weapon between the Imperial Court civil servant factions.
Using censors who were loyal to them to attack their enemies was one commonly used tactic by civil servants.
More importantly, when the Censorate was used by the civil servants, it would directly threaten the power of the ruler, making him lose control. It was simply too dangerous.
“Censorate censors acting as bullets is the problem of all rulers.”
Facing such a situation, combining it with the Federation system, Ouyang Shuo had a plan. He planned to closely link the Censorate and Internal Affairs Court together to help one another and keep one another in check.
When the Censorate notices traces of corruption, it would immediately let the Internal Affairs Court review it. The moment the Internal Affairs Court investigates and realizes that the censor was abusing their power, the censor in question would have to take responsibility.
Small matters would affect their year-end evaluation, while serious ones would result in sacking.
With that, it would greatly reduce the situations of censors abusing their power like in history.
Throughout the entire process, Ouyang Shuo did not think about using the Shanhai Guards or Black Snake Guards. Using these two would make him like the Ming Dynasty, using spies to rule a country.
If an organization like the Shanhai Guards was given too much power, they might end up biting him in the back.
This was something that Ouyang Shuo did not want to see happen.
Even if the Shanhai Guards led by Shen Buhai had absolute loyalty to him, Ouyang Shuo would slowly take away their power and make them focus on intel collecting and not supervising officials.
“Letting the dynasty system run smoothly in the light.” This was Ouyang Shuo’s final goal.
This was a new dynasty, one that was ready to help the rise of Chinese civilization. They needed to be magnanimous and not hide in the darkness.
Only a suitable system could achieve all that.
Till date, as the founder of the dynasty, Ouyang Shuo was able to control the Shanhai Guards. However, once he was gone, how could he ensure that they would trust their new ruler and would not do anything funny?
Hence, no matter what, it was a huge problems that needed to be defended against early.
…
Unifying ideology, perfecting the law system, and increasing supervision.
Ouyang Shuo had decided to act on these three areas after thinking about how to solve the problems that appeared as the dynasty expanded. When all of it was pushed out, Great Xia would become really different.
Just as Ouyang Shuo was in the Capital City and making huge changes, the Shanhai Guards suddenly sent news that something was happening up north. The originally peaceful plains instantly became nervous.
