ps: Please do not subscribe to this chapter! It is expected to return to normal in the next two to three days...
There is a folk saying in the Great Ming that the Four Tightnesses are: opening a new lock, wearing new shoes, a soaked hemp rope, and a screw cap. However, compared to the hand of Liu Huaiwen, the Minister of Revenue of the Great Ming, holding the money bag, these are not even tight; they are probably not as soft as "a maiden's waist, a cotton bag, a ripe persimmon, and a willow branch."
In the Great Ming, it was always Liu the Miser who extracted silver from others for the national treasury, but it was not easy for anyone to get silver from Liu the Miser's hands. Even Zhu Jinsong, the Emperor of the Great Ming, had to look at Liu the Miser's face to allocate some money from the national treasury.
In the Great Ming, it was always Liu the Miser who extracted silver from others for the national treasury, but it was not easy for anyone to get silver from Liu the Miser's hands. Even Zhu Jinsong, the Emperor of the Great Ming, had to look at Liu the Miser's face to allocate some money from the national treasury.
Although the merchants of the Great Ming seem easy to talk to and conduct business by the book, any amiable and proper merchant of the Great Ming is still a merchant of the Great Ming and cannot be provoked by the Shogunate.
This is because the merchants of the Great Ming are not subject to Japanese law. No matter how serious the offense, they can only hand over the person to the Great Ming Embassy in Japan or the Governor-General's Office of Kyushu for processing. The Shogunate does not even have the right to arrest them, let alone try them.
Moreover, the Emperor of the Great Ming is known for being protective. There have been more than one or two instances of the Great Ming deploying its navy to punish those who bully its citizens overseas. Even in Japan, there have been cases where ronin samurai provoked Great Ming merchants, resulting in the Kyushu garrison intervening to arrest the ronin samurai and publicly behead them!
Now, when the good and lowly people of Japan run to hide around the merchants of the Great Ming, what can the Shogunate do?
If they anger those merchants of the Great Ming and provoke them to draw their swords and resist the Shogunate, it will be the Shogunate that suffers in the end!
As he thought about it, Tokugawa Ienari, feeling increasingly troubled, frowned and asked, "Have you communicated with those Ming merchants? Aren't they afraid of contracting leprosy?"
Watanabe Saemon bowed his head and said, "Reporting to the General, Matsushita Ichiban has already visited those Ming merchants, but... but from their current reactions, they don't seem to care much about leprosy."
In later generations, during the era when patients of "rolling and twisting" were rampant, the dog sons raised by the cunning Eagle always brought up the issue of "What's wrong with this country? It's a matter of posture."
The problem is that Emperor Zhu himself is caught in the dilemma of "posture."
What path should the Great Ming take?
Should it adopt the so-called "separation of powers" liberal system of Europe?
In fact, such an idea can only be imagined. If this system were implemented in the central hall, it would be suicide.
The specific reasons for this are too complex to analyze in depth, but ultimately, it all comes down to interests.
It's your choice.
In fact, this is also why Europeans and the cunning Eagle barbarians are generally bold.
This is because Europe has never had a truly unified dynasty, and the barbarians are accustomed to the mindset of small populations and small states, and also accustomed to the system of small courts. The Great Bear is also similar—Bolshevism, is it good? Yes! The key is that human beings have desires!
This approach is fine in normal times, as even the common people in the central hall seem to be the same, and there appears to be no difference.
However, once disasters like the Little Ice Age become frequent, or when the common people truly cannot survive, the difference between large and small courts becomes apparent.
Europeans accustomed to the system of small courts rely on themselves for everything, and they are also used to a faltering court. However, the common people of the central hall, accustomed to the system of large courts, will demand that the government come to their aid and provide disaster relief, and demand that the government find a way out for them. The court can falter once or twice, but if it falters three times, someone may stand up and shout, "Are kings and ministers born to be different from the common people?"
Of course, there is another novel perspective to consider: the reason why the systems favored by the European barbarians could initially function was because the Great Qing continuously supplied them with blood. The cunning Eagle benefited from two small world wars to suck their blood. And when the Great Qing was gone, and the small world was no longer at war, what about Europe and the cunning Eagle?
The spokesmen chosen in Europe are becoming younger and younger, the promised benefits are higher and higher, and their actions are becoming more and more unreliable. In the land of the Three Islands, there even appeared a warrior spokesman who only blew up pipelines upon taking office and then collected his pension, with a shelf life shorter than that of lettuce.
Naturally, the cunning Eagle is not much better than Europe, otherwise, Comrade Biden would not have ascended the throne, nor would there have been the great joke of internal conflict in the cunning Eagle starting with Little Ukraine.
However, it is not necessarily feasible to directly transplant the system of Bolshevism, which also operates under a large court system.
Directly copying the system of Bolshevism has a huge hidden danger, which is that the Great Ming does not currently have the environmental conditions for that theory to survive.
The reason rabbits can practice Bolshevism is that the Great Qing at that time was completely gone. After the bald man in the middle took over the hall, he proved through practical actions that the system they learned from the West was also unreliable. Therefore, later, the rabbits learned from the Great Bear and practiced Bolshevism in order to save the nation and survive.
Even before the Great Qing was gone, they were desperately propagating theories of the emperor's wisdom, the emperor's love for his people, and that only a small number of officials were at fault, and that everyone should look forward to the "wise and benevolent official."
Of course, it cannot be said that this theory is wrong, because all countries in the world propagate it.
However, the key issue is that Qianlong and his baoi ahas propagated this theory while Qianlong also boasted of his ten perfect martial skills. At that time, the Great Qing had not suffered the beating of the great powers, nor had it compensated Britain, compensated Japan, ceded Qingdao, and ceded Lushun in disgrace.
Therefore, when Emperor Zhu raised the banner of rebellion to overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming, the common people of the world were still willing to believe in the imperial system. At that time, there was no fertile ground for that theory to survive. If Emperor Zhu had not advocated "overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming" but had directly advocated a theory of distribution according to need, the most likely outcome would not have been widespread support and rebellion against the Qing, but rather that everyone would have gathered around Qianlong to help Qianlong defeat Emperor Zhu. Would it not be better to strive for the merit of following the dragon and destroying the rebels than to wholeheartedly serve those dirt-poor peasants?
At that time, the central hall of China had not yet experienced the pain of impending national annihilation.
Then, the Great Ming became what it is now – the Great Ming has an emperor, and Emperor Zhu is a founding monarch whom no one can restrain. However, the Great Ming also has a Grand Secretariat, and the power of the Grand Secretariat is no less than that of the emperor.
Especially as the emperor gradually delegated power, the Grand Secretariat could even directly replace the role of the emperor.
This is because Emperor Zhu directly clarified the social status of the Grand Secretariat.
This is quite amusing, as when Emperor Zhu Si created the Grand Secretariat, he treated the Grand Secretariat officials as secretaries. Later, after the reigns of Emperors Ren and Xuan, the power of the Grand Secretariat gradually increased.
However, despite the power, the rank of the Grand Secretariat officials who could lead the Six Ministries was not high. The so-called leadership of the Six Ministries was also not legitimate, and they were also subject to the restraint of the Directorate of Ceremonial.
Now, Emperor Zhu has clarified the rank and responsibilities of the Grand Secretariat. The Grand Secretariat's Chief Grand Secretary is of the first rank, and the other Grand Secretaries are of the secondary first rank, while the ministers of the various ministries are of the first rank.
Correspondingly, the original Six Ministries of the Great Ming and the later established ministries such as the Ministry of Poor Scholars and the Ministry of Railways, which was promoted from the Railway Department, are all clearly placed under the management of the Grand Secretariat. Besides the Chief Grand Secretary, the remaining six Grand Secretaries are each responsible for a portion of the affairs, with responsibilities clearly assigned to individuals.
Parallel to the Grand Secretariat is the Grand Court of the Imperial Guard. The Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat can inquire about matters concerning the military command, but only to inquire – they can ask, but they have no decision-making power. The decision-making power of the military command rests with the Grand Commander of the Military Command.
There is nothing much to say about the Censorate. Their main responsibility is to criticize people. The emperor and all civil and military officials are targets of their surveillance.
However, the Censorate is not managed by the Grand Secretariat. The real authority that can manage the Censorate is the Office of the Censorate, and alongside it is the Court of Judicial Review. Neither of these offices is managed by the Grand Secretariat; they are directly responsible to the emperor. Among them, some censors in the capital are responsible for criticism, while the rest are responsible for the duties of investigation. The Court of Judicial Review is responsible for both joint trials and judgments.
The final interpretation of the Great Ming Law rests with the Ministry of Justice.
In short, there are various departments, and their responsibilities are also clear. They must support each other while also restraining each other.
It can basically be said that having an emperor is useless, but it is also impossible to do without an emperor. Emperor Zhu, naturally, can directly bypass the Grand Secretariat and the Grand Court of the Imperial Guard to do anything he wants. However, future emperors of the Great Ming, in addition to supervising and having the right to replace the Chief Grand Secretary, will basically be unable to interfere in political affairs.
Do you want to regain power by replacing the Chief Grand Secretary?
First, the Embroidered Uniform Guard must find evidence of the Chief Grand Secretary's crime, then the Censorate must initiate impeachment, and the Court of Judicial Review must pass judgment. Only after completing this process can the Chief Grand Secretary be replaced. If even one step of this process cannot be completed, then the Chief Grand Secretary cannot be replaced.
Moreover, the tenure of the Chief Grand Secretary and the Grand Secretariat officials is fixed, calculated from the date of entering the Grand Secretariat, with one term being five years, and a maximum of two terms. This is a strict iron law set by Emperor Zhu and cannot be changed at all.
In addition, the Great Ming Law adheres to the principle that anything not prohibited is permitted, and it has also established a series of policies to suppress clans and wealthy merchants. The protection of ordinary people is reflected not only in the law but also in the fact that farmers' associations share some responsibilities.
This puts the state system of the Great Ming in a very delicate state: it appears to be very perfect, almost a model of a nominal monarch. Except for the presence of an emperor, everything else can be considered democratic and free, and it can even be said to be operating with near-perfect efficiency.
However, Emperor Zhu knows very well that this perfection is essentially nonsense.
Even the system of the rabbits is not perfect!
Whether it was the two Ma Su who were executed with tears, or later the wealthy who were unwilling to help the poor and even wanted to extend their reach into the court, these are objective facts!
This is why Emperor Zhu has been delegating power to the court but has never relaxed the control over the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Eastern Depot, and the Censorate. The officials of the Great Ming do not have such high awareness! If they are allowed to relax even a little, they will create huge loopholes!
Thinking of this, Emperor Zhu couldn't help but laugh at himself.
No matter how hard he tries, he is not a god, so how can he solve these long-standing problems?
After a self-deprecating laugh, Emperor Zhu directly said, "The matter I need to discuss today is very simple. First, we will eliminate those scoundrels and broken households. Since they are unwilling to live a good life, we will send them to construction sites to endure hardship for a few days. Especially those who run rampant in their localities or engage in illegal activities will be directly shot."
"The second matter is about those workshop owners who are unwilling to earn money honestly but try to oppress the common people. Those who should be killed should be killed, and those who should be exiled should be exiled. The longer they enjoy their freedom, the more common people will suffer from their harm."
"And those officials who jump out and court death, do I need to say more about how to deal with them?"
Zeng Cheng, Liu Hemming, and a group of leaders present all understood that when Emperor Zhu referred to himself as "朕" (zhen, meaning "I" used by emperors), there were usually no major problems. However, except for the grand court assemblies, once the word "朕" was used, it usually meant he had killing intent.
After Zeng Cheng, Liu Hemming, and the other leaders bowed in agreement, Emperor Zhu turned his gaze to Zeng Cheng and said, "Minister Zeng, you have been in office as Prime Minister for almost thirty years now, haven't you?"
This former prefect of the Great Qing, who had voluntarily defected to Emperor Zhu during the Liangshan period, became the Chief Grand Secretary of the Great Ming in the first year of Emperor Zhu's enthronement due to his ability and his understanding and execution speed of Emperor Zhu's various instructions. This has been the case for twenty-six years. The reason for this situation is not that Zeng Cheng was reluctant to resign, nor that Emperor Zhu insisted on keeping Zeng Cheng to break his own rules, but rather that Emperor Zhu had already set this rule during the period known as the twentieth year of the Sacred Emperor.
In other words, Zeng Cheng, as the Chief Grand Secretary, can continue to serve for another four years, and then he must honestly step down from the position of Chief Grand Secretary. After that, he cannot hold any other positions with real power and can only live in retirement in the capital or return to his hometown.
Of course, the Great Ming has always treated its meritorious officials well. Although he will no longer be the Chief Grand Secretary, all his benefits will still be treated as those of a Chief Grand Secretary, and he will even receive a noble title.
Heavenly Emperor's Noble Lineage reminds you: Please remember to collect after reading.