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These students never thought of themselves as fools, and with Hu Yan and the little dog from Zhang Xijin's family stirring things up, these students naturally believed that the people of the Great Qing era lived in a prosperous and flourishing age, and that the people under the rule of Emperor Zhu truly lived in dire straits.
As for the history books that wrote about the Great Qing having a famine every two to three years on average, and that the Great Qing, from the emperor to the Eight Banners lords to the officials, did not treat the common people as human beings... this was simply Emperor Zhu and the Ming court pouring dirty water on the Great Qing!
As the saying goes, reading makes people wise, and we who read books can be considered to have read extensively, can we not understand this little trick of the court?
The famines of the Great Qing did not kill people. It was only those like the Great Ming, who rushed to provide disaster relief at the slightest incident, that caused people to die.
Humans have coexisted with famine for thousands of years; one must learn to adjust one's mindset.
The people of the Great Qing are all dead? They say the Great Qing had famines every two to three years, yet the population of the Great Qing has been growing, and the population during Qianlong's reign exceeded that of Chongzhen's!
Data from the past few hundred years shows that the number of people who died from famine is far less than the number of people who died from war. Now, the Great Ming is constantly fighting wars, so what is there to fear from famine?
None of those who died in the Great Qing's "literary baths" cried out in injustice!
Especially the students led by Hu Yan were even more displeased, because Emperor Zhu strictly stipulated the requirements for common people to work in workshops, such as the minimum wage standard, the daily working hours not exceeding four shichen, the requirement of two days of rest for every five days of work, and the strict prohibition of overtime.
Such requirements benefited the "mud legs," but they definitely did not benefit the workshop owners.
However, the workshop owners only dared to be angry but not to speak – if the workshop owners did not comply with Emperor Zhu's requirements, the labor unions would directly intervene, followed by the Censorate and the Ministry of Justice. Even more infuriating was that the Ming court had a large number of state-run workshops competing with ordinary workshop owners for workers, and they would arrange for three people to do a job that two people could complete!
For the students led by Hu Yan, Emperor Zhu and the Ming court harming the interests of the workshop owners was equivalent to harming the interests of the local gentry and scholars, and harming the interests of scholars throughout the land.
This was blatant competition with the people for profit!
However, students like Hu Yan and Zhang Xijin's little dog were, after all, a minority; the majority were fools who had been misled by them.
When these fools personally saw old man Cui finish the bowl of watery "breakfast" without leaving a drop, when these fools heard old man Cui speak of the famines of the Great Qing, the fleeing, the starvation, and cannibalism, and when these fools heard old man Cui say that dying from overeating was also a good way to die, the fools present finally felt that something was not right.
To put it mildly, human hearts are made of flesh and blood. Especially those fools who had been misled and had read the teachings of the sages could understand some principles of being human and still retained some conscience in their hearts. Upon realizing that they might have been used by Hu Yan and Zhang Xijin's little dog, these fools present felt a sense of shame as if they had been stripped naked and hung out to dry.
Emperor Zhu did not care whether the students felt ashamed. After scanning the students, he ordered Zhang Dequan, who was standing behind him, to fetch some hoes, spades, and other tools from the village with President Cui.
As Emperor Zhu's words fell, the students present trembled in their hearts.
If it weren't for the long speech that old man Cui had just given, the students would not have been afraid of Emperor Zhu sending someone to fetch hoes and spades. But with what old man Cui had said, the students were very frightened.
Land reclamation could not be done at any time; it had to be done between autumn and spring – and now it was the middle of winter, which was precisely the time between autumn and spring!
They should have persuaded the emperor with their fervent passion, urging the emperor to return to the righteous path of governing by non-interference!
Unfortunately, before their passion could ignite, it was doused by bucket after bucket of cold water.
The scholars were all completely stunned.
What could the shogunate do if the good and the base people of Japan were now hiding around the Ming merchants?
If they angered those Ming merchants and caused them to draw their swords and confront the shogunate, the shogunate would still be the one to suffer!
The more he thought about it, the more troubled Tokugawa Ienari became. He frowned and asked, "Have you negotiated with those Ming merchants? Aren't they afraid of contracting leprosy?"
In an era where patients with Rolling-Guji's disease were rampant in later generations, the "son of a bitch eagle" and its henchmen always used "This country why, it's the system" to stir up trouble.
The problem was that Emperor Zhu himself was caught in the doubt of "system."
What kind of path should the Great Ming take?
Should it adopt the so-called "separation of powers" system of Europe?
In fact, such an idea was only a fantasy. If this method were applied to the Central Plains, it would be suicidal.
To deeply analyze the specific reasons behind this would be too complex, but in the final analysis, it all came down to the word "interest."
In fact, this was also why Europeans and the "bastard eagles" were generally bold.
This was because the Central Plains had never had a truly unified dynasty, and the barbarians were accustomed to the mentality of small nations with small populations, and also accustomed to the system of small courts.
The Great Bear was similar – were the Bolsheviks good? Yes! The key was that human beings had desires!
This approach was naturally not a problem in normal times, as it seemed to be the case for the people in the Central Plains, and there seemed to be no difference.
However, once it came to disasters like the Little Ice Age, or when the people truly could not survive, the difference between large and small courts became apparent.
The "bastard eagle" was not much better than Europe, otherwise, classmate Bai Zhenhua would not have ascended the throne, nor would there have been the huge joke of the internal conflict in the "bastard eagle" starting with the Little Ukraine.
However, even the Bolsheviks, who were also a great court system, might not be able to be directly copied and used.
Directly copying the Bolshevik system had a huge hidden danger, which was that the Great Ming did not have the environmental conditions for that theory to survive.
Of course, it could not be said that this theory was wrong, because all countries in the world propagated it.
Was it not better to gain merit by slaying dragons and villains than to wholeheartedly serve those "mud legs"?
At that time, the Central Plains had not yet experienced the pain of impending total annihilation.
Especially with the emperor gradually ceding power, the Grand Secretariat could even replace the role of the emperor.
This was because Emperor Zhu had directly clarified the "jianghu status" of the Grand Secretariat.
However, although the power belonged to the Grand Secretariat, the actual grade of the Grand Secretaries who could lead the Six Ministries was not high. The so-called leadership of the Six Ministries was also not legitimate or proper, and there was also the Directorate of Ceremonial to restrain them.
Now, Emperor Zhu had clarified the grades and responsibilities of the Grand Secretariat. The Grand Secretary, as the chief Grand Secretary, was of the first rank, and the grades of the other Grand Secretaries were set as the secondary first rank, while the ministers of the various ministries were set as the second rank.
Correspondingly, the original Six Ministries of the Great Ming, as well as the later additions such as the Ministry of Poverty and the Ministry of Railways, which was upgraded from the Directorate of Railways, and a large number of other ministries were clearly placed under the management of the Grand Secretariat. Besides the Chief Grand Secretary, the remaining six Grand Secretaries were each responsible for a division of work, with responsibilities clearly assigned to individuals.
Parallel to the Grand Secretariat was the Five Chief Military Commissions. The Chief Grand Secretary could inquire about matters of the military commissions, but it was only an inquiry – they could ask, but they had no decision-making power; the decision-making power of the military commissions was held by the Grand Chief of the Military Commissions.
There was nothing to say about the Censorate; their main responsibility was to criticize people, and the emperor and all civil and military officials were their targets.
However, the Censorate was not under the Grand Secretariat. The real authority over the Censorate was the Ministry of Justice, and alongside it was the Court of Judicial Review. Neither of these two ministries was under the Grand Secretariat, but reported directly to the emperor. Among them, some censors in the capital were responsible for criticism, while the rest were responsible for inspection. The Court of Judicial Review was responsible for both trial and judgment.
And the final interpretation of the Great Ming Law was in the Ministry of Justice.
In short, there were various departments, each with clear responsibilities, and they needed to support each other while also restraining each other.
Basically, it could be said that with the emperor, there was no point, but without the emperor, it would not work. Emperor Zhu could directly bypass the Grand Secretariat, the ministries, and even the Five Chief Military Commissions to do anything he wanted. However, future emperors after Emperor Zhu, besides supervising and having the power to replace the Chief Grand Secretary, were also basically excluded from interfering in political affairs.
To regain power by replacing the Chief Grand Secretary?
First, the Embroidered Uniform Guard had to find evidence of the Chief Grand Secretary's crimes, then the Censorate had to impeach him, and the Court of Judicial Review had to convict him. Only after completing this process could the Chief Grand Secretary be replaced. If even one step of this process could not be completed, the Chief Grand Secretary could not be replaced.
And the terms of office for the Chief Grand Secretary and the Grand Secretaries were fixed, calculated from the date of their entry into the Grand Secretariat, with each term being five years, and a maximum of two terms. This was a strict iron law set by Emperor Zhu, which could not be changed at all.
In addition, the Great Ming Law advocated that anything not prohibited by law was permissible, and it also laid down a large number of policies to suppress clans and powerful merchants. The protection of ordinary people was reflected not only in the laws but also in the fact that the Farmers' Association also undertook part of the responsibility.
This placed the state system of the Great Ming in a delicate situation: it appeared very beautiful, almost a model of a nominal monarch. Apart from the emperor, everything else could be considered democratic and free, and it could even be said to be operating with near-perfect perfection.
However, Emperor Zhu knew very well that such perfection was basically nonsense.
Even the system of the Rabbit was not perfect!
Whether it was the matter of tearfully executing the two Ma Su, or later, those who got rich first but were unwilling to help others get rich and even wanted to extend their hands into the imperial court, these were all objective facts!
This was why Emperor Zhu kept delegating power to the imperial court but never relaxed the control over the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Eastern Depot, and the censors and their departments – the officials of the Great Ming did not have such high moral awareness! If they relaxed even a little, they would cause huge problems!
Thinking of this, Emperor Zhu couldn't help but laugh at himself.
No matter how great he was, he was not a god; how could he possibly solve those long-standing problems?
Emperor Zhu directly said, "What I need to say today is very simple. First, strike down all those rogue elements. Since they are unwilling to live a good life, throw them to the construction sites to experience hardship for a few days, especially those who are arrogant in their villages and engage in illegal activities; directly execute them by firing squad."
"The second matter is those workshop owners who are unwilling to earn money honestly but want 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 live freely, the more common people will suffer from their harm."
"And those officials who jump out and court death, do I need to say how they should be dealt with?"
Zeng Cheng, Liu Heming, and the other elder officials present knew very well that when Emperor Zhu referred to himself as "we," there were usually no major problems. However, apart from the Grand Court Assembly, once he used the word "朕" (zhen, imperial "I"), it usually meant he had the intention to kill.
After Zeng Cheng, Liu Heming, and the other elder officials bowed and agreed, Emperor Zhu then turned his gaze to Zeng Cheng and said, "Minister Zeng, you have been serving as Prime Minister for almost thirty years now, haven't you?"
This former prefect of the Great Qing, who had actively defected to Emperor Zhu during the Battle of Liangmeng Mountain, had become the Chief Grand Secretary of the Great Ming in the first year of Emperor Zhu's ascension to the throne due to his abilities and his understanding and execution of Emperor Zhu's various directives. He had held this position for twenty-six years now – the reason for this was not that Zeng Cheng was unwilling to resign due to his desire to cling to power, nor that Emperor Zhu insisted on keeping Zeng Cheng to break his own rules, but rather that Emperor Zhu had set this rule during what was known to the people as the twentieth year of the Holy Emperor.
This former prefect of the Great Qing, who had actively defected to Emperor Zhu during the Battle of Liangmeng Mountain, had become the Chief Grand Secretary of the Great Ming in the first year of Emperor Zhu's ascension to the throne due to his abilities and his understanding and execution of Emperor Zhu's various directives. He had held this position for twenty-six years now – it was not that Zeng Cheng was unwilling to resign due to his desire to cling to power, nor that Emperor Zhu insisted on keeping Zeng Cheng to break his own rules, but rather that Emperor Zhu had set this rule during what was known to the people as the twentieth year of the Holy Emperor.
Chief Grand Secretary Zeng Cheng could continue to serve for another four years, and then he would have to honestly step down from the position of Chief Grand Secretary. Afterward, he could not hold any other position with substantial power, but could only honestly stay in the capital or return to his hometown to retire.
The Great Ming had always treated meritorious officials well. Although he would no longer be the Chief Grand Secretary, all his treatment would still be handled as that of a Chief Grand Secretary, and he would even receive a noble title.