It is now early spring in the 14th year of Wanli, with many rainy days and slightly cold weather.
The snow had not completely melted in front of the steps of the huge official residence of the chief minister. Shen Shixing walked down the steps and walked into the garden. The dead branches in the garden were just showing new shoots, and their heads were poked out from the white gauze-like mist. , and soon it was covered with beads due to the drizzle.
Shen Shi walked among them, not wanting to knock off the buds sprouting new pearls. He walked carefully on the gravel road, letting the fine drizzle wet his robe, and looked at the gloomy sky intently, thinking about how to deal with it. .
Li Che and a group of counselors accompanied him.
For Shen Shixing, he knew that now was the time to test his determination and ability. These civilian colleagues in front of him were both assistants and opponents of his reforms.
Shen Shixing has both defense and confidence.
This statement may seem contradictory, but in fact it is not. As the chief assistant, he must be cautious when he should be defensive, and be confidant when he should be confidant.
Therefore, Shen Shixing suddenly took the initiative to ask Li Che: "Then why didn't you tell me earlier? You are from Fengxiang, and your hometown should not be silent when this disaster strikes!"
Li Che hurriedly raised his hands and said, "Enfu is generous! How can students blame Enfu's new policies because of the changes in their hometown and ruin Enfu's great cause?"
"Furthermore, there is no price for reform. My hometown is unlucky and it is inevitable to bear this price. Students cannot ignore the overall situation just because their hometown bears this price!"
"During the Taishi Reform, there were so many newly developed fields in Guangdong and Guangxi that the local big families were unwilling to clear their land. Therefore, it was unavoidable to kill some unruly people who had become thieves due to the reform, so that the world would know that the national policy must be implemented, and no matter what, You have to be willing if you are willing!”
"Therefore, from the students' point of view, it is the same now. This is actually an opportunity to establish prestige for the reform. On the one hand, it lets the people know that even if they die of hunger and beg for food from the officials, they cannot rebel easily. This is not polite!"
"Secondly, it also gives the military an opportunity to make meritorious deeds, so that the military will naturally be more able to support the New Deal."
"I made Li Rusong the admiral just to prevent the rich and powerful from cleansing Buddhist temples and causing chaos, not because I was afraid that one day I would kill people and make meritorious deeds!"
"Besides, killing people because of the new policies is against the new etiquette!"
"After all, according to the new etiquette, all people are innocent. How can they rebel unless they have no choice?"
As Shen Shixing spoke, he glanced at the Jin Yiwei standing around in the rain. This reminded him of the efforts of Zhang Jingxiu and others and the persistence of Emperor Zhu Yijun, and he became even more unwilling to give up.
At this time, Li Che advised: "Enfu, with all due respect to my students, the new rituals should just be said to the world, not actually implemented!"
"If the new rituals are just for people to hear, how can the emperor be willing to praise them?"
"How can the emperor be willing to treat us as innocent sons instead of domestic slaves because of the new rites?!"
After hearing this, Shen Shixing suddenly asked Li Che seriously.
Li Che was speechless for a moment.
Shen Shixing climbed up the steps and said as he walked: "I usually ask you to read more of Mr. Yangming's books, don't you listen?"
"Do you know what it means to unite knowledge and action? It means that you must set an example for the etiquette you admire, otherwise you cannot spread it to the world!"
"Although Your Majesty is trying to govern now, it is because of the new etiquette that the state affairs are beneficial to the people, but the emperor will also benefit, and he will be freer than a bird in a cage. Therefore, the emperor is willing to treat the people of the world with kindness for the sake of great governance for the world! Although he has the power to govern alone, he does not regard all officials as domestic slaves!"
"If we ourselves do not abide by the new etiquette and still treat the people as nothing, then we cannot expect our father-in-law to treat us with etiquette. We will have to kneel down and listen to instructions instead of sitting down to discuss politics!"
"Do you want to see a country like this?"
Li Che hurriedly handed over his hands: "Student understands, thank you for teaching me! Students should never dare to think like this again, and must make words and deeds consistent!"
"Go!"
"Although an official should be shrewd, one should not be too shrewd. Being too shrewd can lead to narrow-mindedness. In your free time, you should read more history and see how many princes, princes and ministers have done things that future generations will consider extremely stupid because of their too shrewdness. That’s why Du Fanchuan sighed.”
"yes!"
Li Che responded with some frustration.
Afterwards, he left Shen Shixing's place, and later met with Yang Menggao, a doctor in the Ministry of Punishment, and said: "Enfu did not stop cleaning up the Buddhist temple because of this."
Yang Menggao was quite disappointed after hearing this: "Why didn't you tell him the truth about the place?"
"said!"
Li Che replied, "But he just lamented that reform is difficult."
"Since you know it's hard, why don't you stop in time?"
“What’s wrong with allowing Buddhist temples to benefit domestically and bring peace to the people, and at the same time enrich the country and people externally?”
"It must be forced to make the sky angry and people resentful, and bandits will appear everywhere."
Yang Menggao complained in confusion.
Of course, when he talks about benefiting the people internally, he actually means not reforming the internal distribution model, but still allowing Buddhist temples to exploit the small people on behalf of the powerful gentry, allowing the powerful gentry to profit from the small people both internally and externally. Invest in the imperial court and get dividends and profits.
It is equivalent to wanting to eat a large part of the newly added cake, but being unwilling to give up part of the original cake.
Greed is human nature. Therefore, if foreign expansion wants to enrich the country and benefit the people, it must be accompanied by the reform of the distribution system. Otherwise, it will be difficult for the people to get great benefits. Instead, they will be dissatisfied with foreign expansion because their children have sacrificed the most in foreign expansion.
Therefore, the imperial court's external expansion was often in line with the wishes of some very greedy powerful gentry, but they were unwilling to take too little.
Li Che also sighed: "I don't know what Enfu is insisting on. He obviously knows very little about the people's sentiments in various places. At this time, he should know that the old way of running a country is to stop, or to pursue it with an iron fist. But he obviously Not only does it have the problem of being clean and ignorant of the people’s sentiments, it is also very ignorant.”
"What do you mean?"
Yang Menggao asked.
"He really wants to abide by the new etiquette! He cherishes the common people and regards them as his fellow countrymen!"
"He does this so that the emperor can be willing to reform, not take the emperor for personal gain, not be lazy in government, and at the same time be respectful to the people of the world!"
Li Che said.
After hearing this, Yang Menggao couldn't help but said: "It's really not the emperor's original intention to dare to reform. It's because people like him in Shenwu County don't want to kneel down to listen to politics, but want to use new rituals to disrupt the distinction between emperor and ministers!"
Bang!
After Yang Menggao said that, he punched the table.
…
Bang!
Shen Shixing punched the case here and mentioned Li Che: "Why did I click on his article in the first place! Who wants to kneel after sitting in front of the emperor for a long time?"
"Father, do we really want to continue cleaning up Buddhist temples?"
"According to Brother Li Shi, the cleanup of Buddhist temples this time will be the same as before. Most of the pain caused by this policy will ultimately be borne by the people!"
Shen Shixing's second son, Shen Yongjia's second son, asked about Shen Shixing at this time.
Shen Shixing said with a smile: "In officialdom, you have always been one among me, and you among me. I cannot believe Li Che's words at all. As for whether to continue to clean up the Buddhist temple, it is not for my father to make a good decision."
"Is that the emperor?"
Shen Yongjia asked.
Shen Shixing said: "Not the emperor?"
Shen Yongjia was stunned: "Who is that?"
Shen Shixing smiled and said, "It's the Planning Department!"
"Policy Department?"
Shen Yongjia looked at Shen Shixing curiously.
"That's right!"
"The policy department needs to conduct a feasibility analysis of the new policy based on the plan, and then the servants and ministers of the cabinet will review it and report it to the emperor, asking the emperor to make a decision. It does not mean that because there is a lot of external noise, the cabinet will persuade the emperor to be decisive because of fear to end a national policy."
"This is the most commendable restructuring of the Central Committee since His Majesty came to the throne. Everything is based on reality and data, and everyone works together to minimize the possibility that the emperor and the rulers will be misled when making decisions. After all, sometimes what you see may not be true, but numbers will not Lying, Your Majesty calls it a scientific strategy. No matter how scared or uneasy you are and how much you want to end it quickly, you cannot make your own decisions. Only people who don’t know think that you are really too stupid to stop in time."
Shen Shixing looked at Shen Shixing as he spoke: "I'm going to take a nap first. When the people from the Planning Department arrive, call me again!"
"yes!"
(End of chapter)
