A prefectural government was a vast institution. There was the prefect, with the judicial commissioner jointly overseeing prefectural affairs; there were signing judges or judges, secretaries or administrative assistants, investigation officials, recording clerks, and, ranked somewhat lower, the three assistant clerks in charge of legal review, judicial matters, and household affairs. Their ranks were roughly equivalent to a county registrar or county lieutenant, though their actual standing was certainly higher. Collectively, they were known as the judicial, clerical, and lieutenant officials.
These men were the senior officials of a prefecture. The prefect and judicial commissioner issued orders, while the rest each managed their own domain and handled the affairs of their respective bureaus. Bureau affairs referred to the so-called Five Bureaus: military, personnel, criminal justice, waterworks, and construction. Each had its own person in charge, or was concurrently managed by some senior official. Beneath them were lower-ranking officials, some without rank at all, who led a large number of contract clerks. These people carried out work throughout the prefecture, handling concrete matters of production, construction, and tax collection.
As for the local troops, that was an entirely separate system. There was some overlap, but not much. After all, when a military official met a civil official, his rank automatically dropped by one grade. If he was not an especially formidable military official, it dropped by two.
The commanders of Hangzhou's garrison troops could not even sit at the table before men like Wang Yan. Even the bureau officials beneath them could push around a whole batch of military officers. Of course, military officers of the Imperial Guard received better treatment, since they belonged to the regular army and were far more formidable than garrison troops. Still, even if military officers held lower status, that was only relative. It did not