Chapter 164: Han Yuan Pai Tianlang (Chinese)

In Hanyuan Hall, nearly a thousand officials above the fifth rank from all over the Tang Dynasty gathered together to visit the new emperor and the empress dowager of the Tang Dynasty. Cui Xiaofu sat high on the dragon bed. She looked dignified and generous, holding the three-year-old new emperor Li Miao in her hand. He was still in a sweet sleep. With the melodious bell ringing, the magnificent hall slowly kicked off the prelude to the great dynasty again. Nearly a thousand officials, scattered officials, princes and nobles, led by the right prime minister Cui Yuan and the left prime minister Pei Jun, slowly knelt down to the new emperor and the empress dowager and worshiped him.

"My secretary is the minister of the minister Cui Yuan...My secretary is the minister of the disciple Pei Jun...My secretary of the minister of justice Chu Xingshui..." The voices were mixed, and the more they went back, the more they could not distinguish them. It gradually formed a passionate and surging sound, echoing in the Hanyuan Hall for a long time, "I wish my emperor long live, and the queen mother long live..."

After the thousand people finished the ceremony, the hall was silent, "Dear dear friends, please don't give me a favor!" Cui Xiaofu's voice was not loud, but she was clear and decisive, which immediately attracted another wave of overwhelming response, "Thank you, Empress Dowager Qiansu!"

All officials returned to their posts, and officials of the third rank and above sat down one after another. Only Li Qiu, the chief supervisor, was left in front of the white jade stairs. He was the biological father of the new emperor. He had just been in charge of the chief supervisor for three months. He quickly walked up the jade stairs and announced with a loud voice: "The great dynasty begins now! Please read out the personnel changes in the Ministry of Personnel."

According to the usual customization, only changes in cabinet members were announced in the major court. Today, Cui Yu, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of Personnel, left the court and came to the Baiyu Step. He took out a memorial and clear voice immediately spread throughout the Hanyuan Hall. "...Lu Qi, specially appointed as the Minister of Rites, and was in the same position as the Minister of the Central Committee, who was in the peace affairs of the Secretary of the Central Committee, can there be any objection among all officials?"

......

"Appointing Lu Qi as the Minister of Rites and serving as the Minister of the Central Secretariat, can there be any objection among all officials?"

......

The hall was silent, and everyone still clearly remembered that the last dynasty was October 3 last year. At that dynasty meeting, Zhang Potian was approved by the Minister of Rites by the third reading. However, after only a few months, the new Minister of Rites was born again in the same hall, which made people feel the cruelty and ruthlessness of the power struggle. Zhang Huan, sitting in the cluster of local officials, secretly looked at Zhang Potian in the corner of the hall. He saw that his eyes were calm and there was no expression on his face, as if the Minister of Rites had nothing to do with him. Zhang Huan couldn't help but sigh in secret. Zhang Potian's heart was dead, and the hope of revitalizing the Zhang family became even more slim. At this time, Zhang Potian looked back at Zhang Huan, nodded to him with a smile, then turned his face and ignored him again.

Lu Qi served as Minister of Rites more than two months ago. Today is just a final procedure. This is the final step of the Hedong Incident. It was completed, and the power distribution that happened in late autumn last year officially came to an end.

However, careful officials have discovered that the subtle changes in the court meeting today should have been made by Cui Yuan, the Minister of Personnel and Right Prime Minister, to perform the third reading, but today it was made by the Minister of Personnel. This seems to be no special objection, but the officials who are more active all thought about it at the same time that even the changes in cabinet members are only announced by the Minister of Personnel, the decision of 77 children of aristocratic families to enter the officialdom will be announced by Cui Yuan. Isn’t this saying that the latter is more important than the former?

Or Cui Yuan intentionally raised it to a higher level, perhaps something hidden in it, everyone's hearts were full of suspicion, and no one understood what Cui Yuan's intention was to do this?

At this moment, one of the two giants in this political transaction, the right prime minister Cui Yuan, was sitting in the first place in the right head without saying a silence. The third reading was just a routine procedure. What he really cared about was the new system for the children of aristocratic families to enter the officialdom and the candidate for the Minister of Rites.

"Appointing Lu Qi as the Minister of Rites and serving as the Minister of the Central Secretariat, can there be any objection among all officials?"

After reading the third reading, Cui Yu waited for a while. Seeing that no one objected, he handed the note to Cui Xiaofu. Cui Xiaofu flipped through it and nodded and said, "The third reading has been completed, and since no one objected, the Ai family officially appointed Lu Aiqing as the Minister of Rites."

Lu Qi immediately walked out of the ranks. He was formerly the governor of Shaanxi County. He was so ugly that he looked very ugly, but he was quite capable. This time he was suggested to be the Minister of Rites by Pei Jun, so he had no objection.

He quickly walked to the steps and knelt down to express his gratitude, "I thank the Queen Mother for his grace!"

"Your dear, please do not give me a gift!" Cui Xiaofu waved her hand and then looked at the prison in the hall. Li Qiu understood and said loudly again: "The Minister of Rites has passed the third reading. Please let the right prime minister announce other matters."

Cui Yuan slowly stood up and walked out of the class. He glanced at everyone and smiled: "Dear ministers, please raise your hands to signal if you have a son in the family."

Most of the people in the hall raised their hands one after another, Cui Yuan nodded, "Very good, please put it down."

Seeing everyone put down his hands, he took out the booklet from his arms and coughed gently, "Since the founding of the country, my Tang Dynasty has adhered to traditions and emphasizing the descendants of ministers to comfort the hard work of serving the country for a lifetime. This is a great act of emperor grace. Unfortunately, one is the few people he has to bear, and the other is the upper limit of promotion, which makes many talented children of officials unable to be reused. Today, taking advantage of the New Year's dynasty, my minister will improve the method of embarking on officials from three aspects, making it a law, and recruit a considerable number of people from the children of officials every year to supplement it as a court and local officials."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a stolen voice in the hall. The family was originally a welfare system specially set up by the court to take care of the royal relatives and the families of important officials. However, in order to prevent it from impacting the basic national policy of enrolling scholars in the imperial examination, many restrictions were made, such as only officials above the fifth rank enjoyed this welfare; for example, the official rank given should not be too high. Children of the first rank official will be at the top of the seventh rank, and children of the fifth rank official will be at the bottom of the eighth rank, and officials who enter the official position will not be able to reach a high position in the end; for example, the number of people limits, the emperor and the queen's immediate relatives, and the family can only be at the top of the designated two children, and the first, second and third rank official families can only be at the top, and this person must be designated as the above.

Today, Cui Yuan wants to reform this system, which is very likely to relax these three restrictions. This matter concerns the vital interests of every official present, making them not care about it.

But Pei Jun sneered slightly. Although Cui Yuan did not discuss this matter with him in advance, he could guess that the purpose and specific measures of Cui Yuan's reform were nothing more than compression at both ends and relaxation at the middle. Both ends refer to low-ranking officials below the fourth rank and honorary officials above the first and second ranks. One is without any strength, while the other is the famous official of the Li Tang royal family. They are likely to be disqualified from the Jun Yin or reduce the number of Jun Yin. The essence of this proposal is to use the name of Jun Yin to open up a channel for children of aristocratic families to enter the officialdom.

Sure enough, Cui Yuan opened the book and said, "This change of door-yin is limited to officials from the fourth rank or above, officials from the fourth rank or below are all implemented according to the original method."

......

As soon as this statement came out, the stolen sound in the hall had turned into a buzzing sound, and the sound was noisy, covering up Cui Yuan's words. There were nearly a thousand people in the hall, most of them were fifth-rank officials, scattered officials, princes and other empty officials. There were only two or three hundred officials above the fourth-rank official, including ministers, young ministers, ministers, ministers, local governors, chiefs, governors, etc., and most of them were important figures in major aristocratic families. In other words, this reform of the official positions was tailored for the children of these aristocratic families to be officials.

Cui Yuan did not stop reading because of the noise in the court. He read it slowly. His reforms did break the restrictions of many officials, such as third-rank to fourth-rank officials, who could be as good as fifth-rank officials to two, and even third-rank officials could be as good as sixth-rank officials. These were unimaginable in the previous family system.

After Cui Yuan finished reading, he did not rush to ask the cabinet to vote. Instead, he asked Cui Yu, the Minister of Personnel, to directly read out the first list of 77 children of aristocratic families. The first was Wei Qing, the son of Wei Yan, who was appointed as the main and guest officer of the Ministry of Rites, and the second was Wang Ang's eldest son Wang Yan, who was appointed as the deputy minister of the Ministry of Justice, all of which were based on the upper limit of the sixth rank.

At this time, many people understood that this new system would be passed by the cabinet, and even if Pei Jun opposed it, it would be useless unless Wei Yan was willing to give up his son as the post of the head and visitor department.

After reading a long list, Cui Yu said loudly: "This new law on the door will be discussed and approved by the cabinet during the recession. Can all ministers have any objections now?"

At this time, the originally noisy hall suddenly became silent. Many officials felt that too many people appointed by the aristocratic families would affect the political opportunities of poor families. They wanted to raise it but were afraid of offending Cui Yuan and his boss. Many people looked at the left prime minister Pei Jun, hoping that he could stand up and uphold justice, but Pei Jun just smiled and didn't mean to object at all. No wonder, this matter also involved the vital interests of many of his confidants. Even if he did not agree, it was difficult to object. At most, he would only put forward some revisions during the cabinet consultations.

At this moment, a low voice came from the lower left corner of the hall, "Queen Mother Qiansui, I firmly oppose this new family shade system!"

The hall was in an uproar, and everyone looked at the brave one. A young official raised his hands and walked out of the court. When Cui Yuan saw him, he couldn't help but stroke his beard and sneered secretly. The person coming was Zhang Huan. As he expected, he turned his eyes and looked at Pei Jun quickly, but saw that Pei Jun's eyes were slightly closed, as if the person coming had nothing to do with him.

The stolen voice sounded in the hall again. Those who knew each other secretly admired Zhang Huan's courage. Those who didn't know each other quickly asked the person next to him. When he learned that this person was Pei Jun's new son-in-law, he immediately showed a look of sudden enlightenment on his face, and then he smiled meaningfully.

Zhang Huan strode to the jade steps and bowed to Cui Xiaofu, "Please ask the Queen Mother to allow me to express my different opinions."

Cui Xiaofu nodded. She ignored the look of Li Qiu, the prison in the palace, and smiled slightly and said, "Please speak with Governor Zhang?"

Zhang Huan turned around and did not look for Cui Yuan. He directly asked Cui Yu: "Master Cui, how many vacancies can the imperial court vacant in the Tang Dynasty and how many vacancies can be vacant in a year?"

Although the other party asked aggressively, Cui Yu was not angry and just smiled gently and said, "About a hundred positions."

"More than a hundred, very good!" Zhang Huan said coldly: "Then let's put it simply. Even if there are 120 vacancies, Mr. Cui has used up 77, and there are still 43 left. There are also fifth-rank officials and non-official officials, so at least twenty will be used! There are also officials recommended to the government, so Mr. Cui calculates for me, how many will there be left?"

Speaking of this, Zhang Huan suddenly pointed out outside the hall and said sternly: "But does Mr. Cui know that at this moment, more than 100,000 scholars who have studied hard for ten years are working hard in the examination room. Is this family system fair to them today? Is it because they are not from famous families? Is it because they do not have a father who is an official in the court?"

The hall was silent, as if everyone's breathing had stopped. Only the intermittent coughing sounds came from the hall from time to time. Cui Yuan stared at Zhang Huan tightly, his face was gloomy and clear, while Pei Jun's eyes were still slightly closed, and there was no expression on his face.

Cui Yu's face turned red and white, and after a while, he said, "Governor Zhang was a little alarmist. More than 100,000 people took the exam, but according to the convention, only a hundred people were admitted to the Jinshi. The Ministry of Personnel selected officials and at least half of them. In the end, there were only more than fifty people. Although the number of people in this sect was a little higher, it would not be so many in the future. Therefore, the Ministry of Personnel could first give the additional Jinshi this time the post of a dispersed official position, and add the officials together when there are vacancies next year, which will solve the problems that Governor Zhang was worried about."

"Solved the problem?" Zhang Huan shook his head, and he sighed a long sigh to the officials, "Cui Prime Minister, Pei Prime Minister, dear ministers, our Tang Dynasty has established a national policy of using imperial examinations to win scholars from Emperor Taizong. After more than a hundred years, both Japan, Silla and the Hu people in the Western Regions can participate in the imperial examinations. It is this broad-minded and fair system that has led to the emergence of talents in the Tang Dynasty, and the Zhenguan Governor of Kaiyuan. But today, we have to redefine the family system, so that those who are only from famous families but have no talent to squeeze into high positions, and keep countless talented and talented people who are only from poor backgrounds. In the long run, this will surely destroy the foundation stone of the founding of the Tang Dynasty. This is the reason why I firmly oppose the new family system."

After saying that, Zhang Huan turned around and bowed to Cui Xiaofu again and said, "I beg the Empress Dowager to issue an order to deny this proposal, and there is no need to submit it to the cabinet for discussion!"

"Governor Zhang's words were too arbitrary. He didn't like it, so he asked the Empress Dowager to deny the case of the prime minister and treat all officials in the court like grass?" One person walked out of the court troupe, with a burly figure and a cold tone, but it was Wei Yan, the Minister of War.
Chapter completed!