Finally, there is another thing that the majority of gentry landlords and their spokesmen are extremely dissatisfied with, that is, the government controls the rent of a large number of official land at a relatively low level, generally no more than 30%, and even temporarily lowers it in some areas. Up to 20%, and if there is a disaster, it will be directly reduced!
This is nothing, but in February this year, the Chu Empire officially issued a rent restriction order to encourage land reclamation, requiring that the rent should not exceed 50% of the land output.
What scares the majority of gentry and landlords is not the 50% sharecropping, but once this is started, according to the nature of the Chu Empire, it will not take long for this ratio to drop to 40% or even 30%...
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In short, a group of remnants of the pseudo-Ming Dynasty are very dissatisfied with the current policies of the Chu Empire in many fields such as industry, commerce, and agriculture.
In the past, the Great Chu Empire was a bunch of losers, and the traditional gentry class was not admitted on a large scale. These gentry and landlords had no choice but to either resist with arms and then be punished, or silently endure the loss of money to eliminate disasters.
However, when the Chu Empire gradually expanded and was short of manpower, in order to win over different classes, it began to accept a large number of surrendered officials from the pseudo-Ming Dynasty, and after scholars surrendered.
These remnants of false knowledge have found that their right to speak has gradually increased.
Now, even among the senior officials of the Gyeonggi Ministry of Education, they have their own voices.
So he began to jump out and wave the flag and shout, trying to gradually reverse the Chu Empire's various policies of "stealing profits from the people" and persecuting the common people, and return a bright future to the people of the world.
This situation began to show signs at the end of last year, and it became more serious after this spring.
The main reason was the group of surrendered officials and imperial examination scholars who were admitted in Huguang and gradually climbed to high positions. During the eastward march, a group of surrendered officials and imperial examination scholars were admitted gradually, and they also gradually entered the officialdom of the Great Chu Empire.
These people were all traditional scholars with good cultural backgrounds and very good at intrigues. Therefore, they were often promoted faster than officials with half-term scholar backgrounds accepted by the Chu Empire from other levels.
The most important thing is that in such a large group, a considerable number of people are hypocritical.
This is not to say that they simply miss the Zhu family royal family, but they miss the happy life under Zhu Ming's rule...
Many people believe that the rise of the Chu Empire is inevitable, and the Ming Dynasty will most likely be unable to withstand it.
So what to do? Fighting to resist? Impossible. If they had the courage to risk their lives to resist, it would be impossible for them to still be alive.
Many of them changed their minds: since they couldn't beat it, they would join, and then gradually transform the Great Chu Empire into the Great Chu Empire in their own minds, well, just like the previous Ming Empire.
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When there are many such people, what they say and do will make the senior officials of the Dachu Empire alert!
Not only Luo Zhixue was vigilant, but also other ministers were also very vigilant.
For example, Chen Xingkai, who is in charge of taxation.
Counselor Chen Xingkai, who is in charge of taxation and financial affairs, mainly derives his power from taxation. If you restrict the taxation department and change many taxation policies, he, Chen Xingkai, should also step down...
Yuan Gaofeng, Minister of Counselor, is in charge of industrial, agricultural, economic and people's livelihood affairs. His main power comes from many factories and agricultural fields affiliated to the Ministry of Industry. If you close many factories and ignore agricultural policies, it is equivalent to poaching. His power base, Yuan Gaofeng...
Once the remnants of the false revelation are successful, Yuan Gaofeng will change from a tiger to a cat in minutes, and it will also be a short-legged cat...
In addition to these two ministers with direct interests, several other ministers also have interests to a greater or lesser extent.
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For example, Qin Gaolin, the Counselor in charge of justice, mainly wants to make up for the political losses suffered a while ago. You must know that the public security problem in the Chu Empire has never been very good, and the anti-corruption work has never achieved outstanding results. Legislation As for work, it's just my job, there are no bonus points.
To be honest, Qin Gaolin, as the counselor in charge of the judicial system, has not done well in the past two years. Luo Zhixue has criticized Qin Gaolin many times on issues of public security and official corruption.
Qin Gaolin felt that if he continued like this, he would not only become the one with the weakest presence among the seven ministers, but also his position would most likely be unstable!
After all, His Majesty's patience is limited.
For the sake of his own political life, Qin Gaolin was naturally very concerned about this political crisis.
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Guo Quanshu, he is the counselor in charge of civil affairs. He is also the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Now the issue of civil affairs is naturally inseparable from him. It can even be said that the officialdom of the Great Chu Empire is now filled with a group of ideological The remnants of unruly hypocrisy are directly related to his dereliction of duty in the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
For this reason, Emperor Luo Zhixue has criticized the administrative work of officials many times in the past two or three months.
Guo Quanshu naturally wanted to find a way to restore his political points in front of the emperor.
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As a result, the four senior civil servants in the Senate directly supported and personally participated in setting off this political storm.
As for the other three ministers in the Senate.
Although he was not directly involved, he expressed his support.
Lai Dehui, Minister of Counselor and Bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, was one of Luo Zhixue's earliest scholars-turned-secretaries or aides. He was an absolute confidant of the emperor. Basically, he would do whatever Luo Zhixue said. To fight against counterfeiting and expose the remaining evildoers, he didn't even need to think about why he did it, he could just do it and be done with it.
This is also the key reason why he has settled in Gyeonggi for a long time and became the Minister of Counselor.
Lai Dehui, this person is actually not well-known in the imperial officialdom. Even though many middle and low-level officials know that there is a counselor called Lai Dehui and a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, their past and detailed responsibilities are somewhat vague. of the lake.
In fact, this person was not an old bandit, and he did not even have the label of an early important minister like Funiu Shan.
He actually came over after the Chu army captured Nanyang Fucheng. He was a refugee. Because he was still a child and literate, he worked in the staff office at that time after he came over.
His main job was to assist Luo Zhixue in handling huge military and political affairs, and he was gradually promoted to the director of the Staff Affairs Office.
In the end, the Staff Office was changed to the Hanlin Academy, and he took advantage of the opportunity to become a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy. According to the official system of the Dachu Empire, he was the second rank.
Later, Luo Zhixue summoned important ministers and counselors to set up the Council of Counselors, and he became one of the first seven counselors, with the title of Prince and Grand Master.
Although this person has little reputation in the outside world and basically does not participate in external affairs. He stays in the Hanlin Academy all year round, but in fact his authority is very large!
You must know that in the Hanlin Academy of the Great Chu Empire, every subject can directly correspond to each department!
At the same time, Luo Zhixue clearly stipulated that everyone above the fourth grade of Wen and above the military colonel had the authority to submit secret documents, and no one was allowed to block them or open them privately.
Through the secret edict system and the Hanlin Academy, Luo Zhixue was able to directly bypass the ministries when necessary, directly use the Hanlin Academy as the various institutions in the capital, and implement emergency rule over the huge empire through the secret edict.
And all this is not enough to rely on the system alone, there must be a certain amount of force as a guarantee.
Naturally, this force does not refer to the army, but specifically to the Internal Affairs Investigation Section of the Hanlin Academy.
This intelligence agency, which has been called variously by the outside world, such as 'Han Tong', 'Han Factory', and 'Internal Affairs Section', has assumed extremely important responsibilities since the day it was established.
They are responsible for monitoring hundreds of officials and eliminating all kinds of risks that may threaten the imperial power in advance. They are the daggers that ensure the smooth operation of the imperial power system of the Great Chu Empire!
And this dagger is in the hands of Master Lai Dehui!
To a certain extent, this person's authority is somewhat similar to that of the ceremonial eunuchs in the Ming court, who were responsible for assisting the emperor in handling official affairs, eunuchs, eunuchs, and eunuchs. Factory etc.
Of course, today's Chu Empire is different from the Ming Dynasty. Luo Zhixue basically does not personally review a large number of memorials and does not participate in detailed affairs, so he does not have the authority to review memorials.
Coupled with the existence of the Council of Ministers, Lai Dehui is basically equivalent to a weakened version of the eunuch who is responsible for the rituals and eunuchs.
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And here, we have to talk about the Senate.
The Senate is not actually an institution. It does not exist in any official documents. It only exists in what people call it.
When Luo Zhixue appointed the Minister of Counselor, there was no imperial edict in the form of any document, only an oral order. Moreover, this oral order did not transfer the Minister of Counselor to the Council of Ministers to serve as Minister of Counselor, but to transfer him to "the important task of entering the palace as counselor."
It is a kind of job that has no real name.
When the emperor recognizes it, the minister of counselors is very powerful, but if the emperor does not recognize it, the minister of counselors has no meaning.
No anti-theft
This is also the reason why all the ministers of staff also serve as the top leaders of an organization. At least there must be an official, otherwise there will not even be a place to receive salary...
Well, at least for now, that is the case. As for whether it will evolve into a practical position in the future, or whether any new situation will emerge to replace the Senate, it is difficult to say.
Systems are always changing. It is impossible to say that once a system is formulated, it will continue to operate smoothly.
When the environment changes, the system will change accordingly. As for whether it will get worse or worse, it is difficult to say.
At least for now, Luo Zhixue feels that this system of managing the counselor ministers and co-organizing ministers by himself, and the counselor ministers are in charge, and the co-organizing ministers, that is, other ministers and powerful ministers, are specifically responsible for certain affairs, is relatively easy to use.
As for the future, who knows what will happen in the future.