The Sun and the Lion

Tabriz, in the palace meeting hall, Ibrahim sat in front of a table filled with documents. He summoned his ministers and planned to take advantage of the rare peaceful time to sort out the internal affairs.

Since he took over Tabriz, in order to draw blood from the newly conquered areas in a short period of time during his campaigns from east to west, he chose to take over all the administrative agencies left by the Aries Dynasty.

There is no doubt about the weakness of property owners, especially in land-based feudal societies. When faced with powerful foreign enemies, they would either give up the real estate that brought them income and class status and escape, or they would bow down to their new masters. Keep the property.

The bureaucrats who were incorporated into the new regime are perfect examples. In order to preserve their official positions and the future of their families, they did not hesitate to give up their original beliefs and continued to use various actions to lick Ibrahim to show their loyalty.

As the Safavid army gained successive victories in various places, good news spread frequently, which strengthened the confidence of many officials in the Safavid army. As long as a certain Aries prince's main army is defeated, the officials under his rule will take the initiative to find a way out for themselves.

Until now, the officials who were demoted in the previous dynasty have not given him any tricks to surrender and then rebel again.

However, as the business grew bigger and bigger, Safavid's administrative agencies had more and more demands for administrative capabilities. Ibrahim believed that the administrative agencies directly inherited from the previous dynasty needed to be transformed.

Ibrahim raised his head, stopped flipping through the report from the supervision department in his hand, and looked at the government officials who were respectfully waiting for his order in their respective positions.

Grand Vizier, what do you think of the current local government?

At present, the only thing local governments can do is to let local people understand who the monarch currently rules them is. In fact, priests and community leaders are responsible for organizing local production and restoring the economy.

But after all, the clergy are not as good as professional administrative agencies, or in other words, they can be regarded as part of the administrative agencies. The mainstream Tianfang Sect society does not have a very independent and well-organized church like Christianity. Most of the teaching titles of Tianfang Sect are academic, proving the title holder's proficiency in teachings. Only some teaching positions are incidental. In addition to being able to interfere with the power of secular society, priests have more influence among believers as religious authorities.

Of course, both Christianity and Tianfang Sect are powerful allies of secular rulers.

In organizing the work of restoring water conservancy and reclaiming wasteland, the priests and the priests not only used the funds allocated from Tabriz, but also called for donations from various communities. Khadi from various places also participated in the supervision and audit of the project, which can be described as very impressive. smoothly.

Muhammad Zakaria saw that Ibrahim's report had been read, what else could he say, he could only answer truthfully what he knew about the current situation.

Then what do you think we should do? Ibrahim asked, who already had the answer in his mind.

The Grand Vizier replied without hesitation: Your Majesty, now we can only select a group of new officials to enter the government. You once said that officials should be screened through examinations.

Yes, the Safavid government has not added any new blood since the inception of the army. He had been busy with the war before and was not very concerned about the construction of administrative institutions. The personnel power belongs to the monarch. Without the permission of the monarch, the officials below have no power to grant someone an official position. They can only write letters of recommendation to them.

However, recommendations from below are also unstable. If there is no formal official selection, then we don’t know how long it will take to fill up the required bureaucrats.

I don't plan to continue fighting this year. If there is anything I want to do, I hope it can be done this year. After revealing the general direction of this year to the ministers below, Ibrahim continued to explain in detail his thoughts on this year's official selection work. .

In any case, the exam is necessary for all officials in local government. Not just those county officials, but also the market supervisors appointed by Kadi.

The so-called khadi are religious judges. They hold this teaching position in various places under the appointment of secular rulers. They are responsible for local judicial work, auditing and supervising public projects, managing religious donations, guardianship of orphans, and notarization, etc. After this meeting, they will have the same recommendation power as the bureaucrats.

Your Majesty, what about the Director of Architecture? This position is usually held by famous local architects. Does this also require an examination? the Grand Vizier asked.

This... Ibrahim thought for a while: Were they recommended by the local guild? Or were they self-recommended?

The Grand Vizier immediately replied: Both.

As far as I know, the standards of guilds in various places are not unified now, so we can take this opportunity to rectify them. I want all guilds in various places to implement the same set of standards, starting with exams.

Craftsmen within the guild are divided into three levels, namely apprentices, craftsmen and masters. If you want to upgrade, you must obtain recognition within the guild. But the problem is still the same one that Ibrahim mentioned - the production standards of various guilds are not uniform.

The Ottoman army is well aware of this. The matchlock guns produced by guild craftsmen in different regions have different specifications. Find them at Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuａ. com This creates logistical difficulties.

Fortunately, Ibrahim ordered the control of the weapons manufacturing industry in various places early on, and implemented standard weights and measures through the priests - guilds in the Middle East have a deep relationship with Sufi orders - and the most critical firearms manufacturing was strictly managed.

Then Ibrahim continued: This system must also be implemented in religious schools. Only students who have passed the examination and obtained qualifications can hold teaching positions.

This ambitious restructuring made the royal representative below feel happy. He not only controlled the supervisory authority, but also had the responsibility of being responsible for examinations. This matter is not completely unfulfilled. Georgia and Armenia, two provinces with mainly Christian populations, will place recommended candidates through examinations when selecting local elites for self-government.

Other recommended candidates were also placed according to the same method. At this time, the question types and scoring standards have been roughly formed. However, holding exams in various provinces at the same time is something they have not had experience with yet.

Of course, in order to limit the recommendation, Ibrahim requires the recommender to guarantee the recommended person. If the recommended person commits treason or causes heavy losses to the King of Kings through other means, the recommender must bear joint liability.

After talking about how to select officials, Ibrahim changed the topic, pondered for a while, and reprimanded the Grand Vizier: The officials under you seem to be doing a good job.

The royal representative who was gloating on the sidelines silently lamented that he was very busy this year. Bureaucrats are not moral standard-bearers after all, and they will only become more lax as time goes by.

Just as Ibrahim was about to continue discussing moral issues with the grand vizier, the guard knocked on the door of the hall. After receiving permission, he quickly walked to Ibrahim, knelt down and reported: Your Majesty, good news from Hormuz.