Wang Lin, one of the deputy directors of the Secretariat of the Hanlin Academy, went to Liaodong on behalf of Emperor Luo Zhixue to express condolences to the soldiers of Liaodong and read out the imperial edict of awards to some useful soldiers. This incident not only strongly stimulated the morale of the soldiers of Liaodong, but also in the Central Plains. There was a huge response from the people in the hinterland.
The national edition of Da Chu Di News focused on the condolences and rewards this time, and the many rewards among them made many people very enthusiastic, wishing that they were the soldiers who made meritorious service.
Zuo Yingzhe's becoming the fifth duke of the empire also caused certain repercussions.
This greatly aroused the enthusiasm of the people to join the army and apply for military academies, and also aroused the people, especially the gentry, to identify with the empire.
Although the vast gentry class in the empire generally supports the empire and actively participate in it, it is nonsense to say how much they agree with the empire.
Their support is more of a kind of surrender, because those who don't surrender will basically die...
In addition, joining in it is also for your own benefit. How can you be an official if you don't join in it?
In order to become an official, they could even kneel down without restraint from foreigners, let alone Luo Zhixue, who was born as a bandit.
But in their hearts, many of them actually looked down on the high-level officials of the empire, headed by Luo Zhixue, who were born out of thieves. Many scholars went to participate in the imperial examinations of the Great Chu Empire to become officials, and many of them had the intention of purging the court. The mentality is gone.
Many people want to get rid of the original bunch of thieves and thieves in the empire, and then allow traditional scholars like themselves to take control of power.
If you can't defeat them, join in, and then gradually crowd out the enemy, leaving only your own people in the enemy's camp. This will naturally lead to victory.
For their own benefit and to fight for power, they actively participated in the imperial examinations, but this did not mean how much they identified with the empire.
But now, as the Chu Empire has won one after another in external wars, the mentality of some people has gradually changed.
How should I put it? They felt that although the empire had a lot of unreasonable and even policies that they were strongly opposed to internally, it at least had a good way of fighting abroad and could beat the Eastern captives to the point of losing their temper.
And this is the effect that the Ministry of Ethics and Education needs, or in other words, the effect that Luo Zhixue needs.
As long as this continues, the people's recognition of the empire will be gradually established!
It affects some people at a time, ten times, or a hundred times, and it will last for more than ten or twenty years, especially the new generation of young people who have received the empire's new education and grown up under the empire. They will have a negative impression of the empire. Have a higher sense of identity.
Luo Zhixue's vision is still relatively long-term. He is not worried about the changes in a few years in a short period of time. What he wants is the changes in ten or twenty years.
According to Luo Zhixue's estimation, with more than ten or twenty years of accumulation, the empire's basic science foundation will be basically laid, and by then the steam engine will be easily developed.
In this way, it would be logical for the people and the empire to work together to promote the industrial revolution.
Therefore, Luo Zhixue once again gave instructions to the Ministry of Ethic and Education, praising their recent work results, saying that their work titles are outstanding and effective, and asking relevant officials of the Ministry of Ethnic and Education not to be proud, continue to work hard, and contribute to the cause of education. .
In addition to verbal praise, Luo Zhixue also expressed his emphasis on etiquette work through promotions and titles.
On October 3rd of the seventh year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue issued an oral edict to recruit Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Rites and Education. Meng Dongyang, who was in charge of imperial examinations and imperial newspaper affairs in the Ministry of Rites and Education, entered the imperial study to assist in military and political affairs.
The co-organizer of the imperial study room is a rank in the Great Chu Empire that is ranked only after the minister of the imperial study room. It is more powerful than the ministers and ministers of ordinary departments who have not been able to enter the imperial study room.
Although the power structure of the Dachu Empire is very complicated, it has become basically clear after several years of adjustments. The emperor Luo Zhixue has an overview of the overall situation, and the nine ministers of affairs are under one person and over ten thousand people. They are responsible for different departments. Big business.
Under the Counseling Minister, there are the Co-organizing Ministers. These Co-organizing Ministers are responsible for subdividing several tasks and also have great power.
For example, Song Zhang, one of the nine counselors, was originally the prince's grand master, ranked first in rank, and concurrently served as the minister of the Ministry of Rites and Education; he joined the imperial study room to participate in important military and political affairs, and was in charge of rituals and education (including foreign affairs and vassal affairs), civil affairs, and relief. , urban construction, transportation and other matters.
Outsiders generally don't call him Song Shangshu directly, but respectfully call him Song Shenwu or Song Minister. Sometimes he is also called Song Sanshi.
The titles of many reports in the Dachu Dibao are more official and standard. Articles with Song Zhang as the protagonist are generally called "Song Zhang Counselor"; articles with multiple counselors appearing are called Song Zhang. Chapter participation.
As for the protagonist who is Luo Zhixue, he usually only says "Song Zhang and other ministers will accompany him" at the end of the article...
From this title, we can basically see Song Zhang's power.
Under Song Zhang and other ministers, he was the co-organizing minister.
Take Meng Dongyang, the co-organizer of the newly appointed Imperial Study Room, as an example. Before joining the Imperial Study Room, he had actually received the title of Prince's Young Master, which was a second-grade title.
This title alone has allowed him to directly surpass a bunch of other ordinary ministers and governors of various provinces in terms of rank.
This additional title was actually intended to raise his rank so that he could legitimately be directly responsible for most of the work of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs as the left minister of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs.
You must know that in the Ministry of Ethical Affairs, Meng Dongyang was the left minister of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs, but in fact he was directly in charge of the three core institutions of education, imperial examinations, and imperial newspapers.
The Ministry of Ethics and Education had a power of one hundred, but he took eighty!
The main reason is that Song Zhang is the Minister of the Ministry of Rites and Education... But when Song Zhang is the Minister of the Ministry of Rites and Education, to put it bluntly, he is given a seat. After all, the Minister of Counselor is not a serious official position, and he has a fixed position outside the palace. There is no office location. You can only work in the side hall next to the imperial study when you are on duty in the palace...
The title of Prince and Grand Master is an additional title, and it is not a fixed job.
He was not given a seat as a minister, and he did not even have an office outside the palace to handle daily affairs during non-duty hours...
But in daily life, it is impossible for him to personally manage the work of the Department of Ethnic Affairs. He is in charge of four or five departments, and often has to go to the palace to be on duty. How can he have time to personally take charge of the overall work of the Department of Ethnic Affairs?
Therefore, the actual work of the Ministry of Rites and Education is the responsibility of the Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Rites and Education. Therefore, Meng Dongyang, the Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Rites and Education, has relatively greater actual power. When Song Zhang held a meeting with the heads of various ministries under his command, he and several other The ministers of the departments are juxtaposed.
In other words, Meng Dongyang was already a high-ranking official at the level of Shangshu before, but he did not have the title of Shangshu.
This situation also exists in several other departments in the Great Chu Empire where the top leaders are ministers of affairs, but it is more prominent in the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs.
Now that Meng Dongyang has been recruited into the imperial study room to assist in important matters, he has truly squeezed into the core of power of the Chu Empire. In the future, he will even have the opportunity to further become a counselor, truly one person below ten thousand people.
And this is also the signal Luo Zhixue wants to reveal to the ministers. He attaches great importance to the work of promoting ethics and education.
Meng Dongyang happily entered the palace and went to the imperial study room to help with important matters, but when someone came up, someone else stepped down.
After all, although there is no quota for the number of counselors and co-ministers in the imperial study, there are usually rules. For example, among the many affairs that Song Zhang is responsible for, such as civil affairs and transportation in the Ministry of Etiquette, there are usually only two co-ministers.
Unless there is a major accident, it is unlikely that the quota will be increased.
Therefore, before Meng Dongyang became the co-organizing minister, someone naturally stepped down from the position of co-organizing minister. Song Tielin, the former minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and co-organizing minister, had already begged for the body in late September. His Majesty retained him twice and formally approved it.
Song Tielin was one of the earliest civil servants in the empire. His ability to become the Minister of Civil Affairs was not based on his ability, but because he had served early enough.
"The Evil God"
Because his ability could not keep up, he had been unable to do what he did in the past two years. Although Luo Zhixue gave him a lot of time to learn and adapt.
But the effect is not big!
Under such circumstances, Luo Zhixue would naturally not let him sit in the position of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The empire is now in the midst of rapid development, and a lot of things have to be done. The Ministry of Civil Affairs is also involved in relief, resettlement of disaster victims, and immigration. These matters were very important in the early days of the empire.
However, Song Tielin did not do well. The previous immigration settlements in the Shaanxi-Gansu region were not very effective, and now there is not much population in Gansu. Luo Zhixue has some opinions on this.
Now that the empire has regained the Western Liaoning Corridor and the Liaodong Peninsula, and now that the frontline troops are continuing to fight fiercely against the Eastern Capture, it may be possible to completely capture Liaodong by next year.
In the future, the empire will definitely need to organize a large number of people to immigrate to Liaodong for settlement, in order to strengthen the empire's actual control capabilities in Liaodong, and to provide assistance for subsequent large-scale military operations and expansion in the Northeast.
In addition, the Great Chu Empire also acted quickly in Monan Mongolia and recovered a large number of Mongolian tribes. The subsequent empire will also need to organize personnel to station in Monan, prepare to build a number of cities in suitable places deep in the grassland, organize immigrant settlements, and implement herdsmen travel policy.
At this time, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has a greater responsibility.
Luo Zhixue wanted to find someone else to organize the immigration and reclamation affairs. Otherwise, it would be troublesome if the empire conquered the Northeast and Mongolia but could not actually control it.
Although Song Tielin was unwilling, he also knew that His Majesty's patience with him had come to an end.
In August, Song Tielin had a slight cold. When His Majesty sent someone to visit him, he was told to rest more if he was not in good health to avoid overwork and illness...
At first glance, there is nothing wrong with these words, but people in the officialdom know that there is something wrong with them...
Because in the words His Majesty told him, he could only stop working so hard and have a good rest...but there was something missing at the end: Only by taking good care of your body can you serve the country!
Everyone is a smart person. Even Song Tielin is not very capable, but he has gained political consciousness after spending many years in the high-level officialdom of the empire.
As soon as he heard this, he knew that he should beg for bones...
If you pretend not to know and continue to stay in your position, then you will not be begging for a corpse, but will be impeached and removed... If you still don't accept it obediently and want to carry out various political resistance, then various investigations will follow, and even There is jail time.
Song Tielin has also gone through ups and downs to get to where he is now. Although he is unwilling to do so, he also knows that he cannot fight against the overall situation, let alone go against His Majesty's hints.
So, before the wind and cold had healed, Song Tielin wrote to beg for the body, saying that after years of hard work, his health was no longer good. He also hoped that Your Majesty would be considerate of him, an old minister, and let him rest and live longer to witness the expansion of the empire. of brilliance.
As usual, Luo Zhixue retained him twice. When Song Tielin wrote for the third time to request an official appointment, Luo Zhixue officially approved it.
In this way, the position of co-organizing minister was vacated, and Meng Dongyang had room for his promotion.
Otherwise, there would be no place for him and Meng Dongyang would not be able to take the position.
In Gyeonggi Province, although the change of one co-organizing minister has some impact, it is not too big. After all, there are eighteen co-organizing ministers. Basically, one or two people will change after a period of time. At the same time, the power of the co-organizing minister is relatively limited, so The impact is limited.
It is far less influential than the change of the Minister of Counselor!
In fact, there have been no changes in the staff of the Counselor in the past few years. Ever since Zhang Xu, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, joined the Imperial Study and became the Minister of the Imperial Study, the staff of the Counselor has not changed.
But it can’t always remain unchanged!
Neither Luo Zhixue nor other ministers could allow these nine ministers to stay at the top and control power.
Luo Zhixue wants to prevent the counselor from holding great power for a long time and gradually turning into a powerful minister.
The other ministers, especially the co-organizing ministers who were eagerly waiting to take office, were waiting for these counselor ministers to get out and then directly take office.
Other ordinary ministers and powerful ministers are also waiting for the co-organizing ministers above to take the position or leave to make room for themselves to take the position.
Therefore, it is very necessary to maintain the staff flow of ministers.
In the early years when the empire was founded, Luo Zhixue never changed personnel in order to maintain stability and avoid policy turmoil.
This group of ministers have been ministers since the establishment of the empire. Even before Luo Zhixue proclaimed himself emperor and founded the country, they were already the de facto central ministers.
Counting it all together, most of them have been in power for seven or eight years, and it is time to gradually replace them.
When Luo Zhixue had such an idea, the next thing fell into place.
On November 4, the seventh year of Chengshun, the Supervisory Council submitted a secret document to impeach Chen Xingkai, the Minister of Counselor and Secretary of the Ministry of Taxation, for corruption.
Luo Zhixue didn't even need to send extra people to investigate. He could know from the top-secret internal affairs information submitted by the Internal Affairs Department of the Hanlin Academy that this matter should be caused by Tang Fengze, the left minister of the Taxation Department.
His motivation is also very obvious. He just saw that Meng Dongyang, the left minister of the Ministry of Ethical Affairs, had become the co-organizing minister, and he was expected to come to power in the future. He couldn't bear his ambition.
As the left minister and co-minister of the Ministry of Taxation, his power is naturally not small. However, because Chen Xingkai, the Minister of Taxation and also the Minister of Counselor, is only responsible for financial issues such as taxation and property, especially tax issues, most of the taxation department Chen Xingkai is personally responsible for the authority.
Therefore, the contradiction between these two people is not small.
However, it is normal for ministers to fight. Almost every moment, these ministers of the Great Chu Empire are in intrigues and fights...
Normally, Luo Zhixue wouldn't bother to deal with this kind of thing.
But just in time, Luo Zhixue was about to make some adjustments to the Minister of Staff, and he couldn't find any good excuse for a while. This matter happened to hit the point of the gun.
Ever since, Luo Zhixue just followed the trend!
Soon after, the emperor summoned Chen Xingkai and handed the impeachment secrets directly to Chen Xingkai without saying anything, just asking him to pay more attention.
When Chen Xingkai saw this impeachment secret letter, he already knew what the emperor wanted to do.
As the Minister of Counselor, and also the Minister of Taxation, many people have impeached him, but in the past, major issues have been reduced to minor issues, and in most cases they have been ignored.
But now, the emperor has shown Chen Xingkai all the secret documents to impeach him...
The meaning is already obvious: it's time for you to give up!
If Chen Xingkai is ignorant and insists on fighting, he will be standing on the opposite side of the emperor. Then it will not be a secret impeachment, but a formal investigation, and the charges under investigation will not only be corruption.
If it doesn't work well, your reputation will be ruined!
Then, in mid-November, news came out from the court that Chen Xingkai was seriously ill and had been admitted to a hospital on the outskirts of Jinling for recuperation.
After the emperor heard about it, he sent an imperial doctor to see the doctor. He reported that Chen Xingkai had become ill from overwork and could no longer walk...
On November 27, the emperor personally went to the Chen Mansion's annex to visit his old subordinates who had worked together for many years. During this period, Chen Xingkai recalled some past events in Funiu Mountain in front of the hospital bed... and then said that he was already with him and asked him to become an official. .
He also recommended a number of candidates to Luo Zhixue who could succeed him.
On December 16, the seventh year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue officially approved Chen Xingkai's appointment.
On the same day, the emperor appointed Tang Fengze, the left minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, as the Minister of the Ministry of Taxation. He also recruited him to serve as counselor in the imperial study room and to serve as counselor for military and political affairs. This man was one of the candidates recommended by Chen Xingkai!
It is worth mentioning that just ten days later, someone from the Supervisory Council impeached the co-organizer, Yan Zhengli, the left minister of the Ministry of Taxation.
Behind this matter was the new Counselor Tang Fengze who was pushing for it. He wanted to repay Chen Xingkai with the recommendation, and more importantly, he wanted to control the power of the Department of Taxation.
After all, he is an airborne minister and has never worked in the tax department before. It is not that easy to take over the tax power smoothly.
The best way is to kill the original powerful Zuo Shilang, and kill the chicken to scare the monkeys, no... just kill the monkeys to scare the chickens, so that he can quickly take charge of the overall situation.
As for Luo Zhixue, he would generally ignore the struggles between these ministers as long as they did not touch on principled things... and let them fight.
If the ministers did not fight with each other and played together every day, Luo Zhixue would be worried.
In this matter, if Yan Zhengli has enough means and can withstand Tang Fengze's pressure, there will be no problem in overcoming the difficulties, and he may even have the opportunity to directly take over most of the powers of the tax department.
If his methods are not good enough... and he cannot deal with the new Tang Fengze, then he deserves to be unlucky!
Political struggles have always been cruel, and the Chu Empire was no exception!
It happened that Tang Fengze also produced real evidence for impeachment, and won many people to support him in the Council of Ministers.
So Yan Zhengli was defeated!
On December 23, the emperor issued a decree to remove Tang Fengze as co-minister and left minister of the tax department.
When Yan Zhengli received the imperial edict of dismissal, he could still calm down in front of others, but when he returned to the study room, he collapsed on the imperial chair.
He lost this round!
But he is not willing to give in!
He finally defeated Chen Xingkai and vacated the positions of Minister of Taxation and Counselor. However, he did not expect that before Chen Xingkai fell, he had ambushed him and used various past events to confuse the king. This successfully promoted his party member Tang Fengze to take office.
And Tang Fengze's rise to power not only led to the failure of Yan Zhengli's ambition to rise to power, but also directly led to the counterattack by Chen Xingkai and Tang Fengze's faction, and he was immediately dismissed from office after a complete defeat!
However, whether it is Chen Xingkai, Tang Fengze or Yan Zhengli, the struggle between them is not a big deal in Luo Zhixue's opinion. Even if there were no such things, he would have adjusted the personnel of the imperial study room. They just caught up. That’s all.
It was Luo Zhixue's established plan to control the power of the court by allowing the counselors and co-ministers in the imperial study to maintain a flow of personnel.
Chen Xingkai is the first to step down, but he will not be the last!
In fact, after Chen Xingkai stepped down, Luo Zhixue was already preparing to replace the second minister of staff.
The nine ministers of staff will be replaced roughly one every year, and they can be rotated every nine years. In this way, the term of each minister will be about nine years.
Of course, there can be no average in actual situations!
In Luo Zhixue's view, a counselor can only hold real power for four or five years. If there is too little time, he will not be able to implement policies and see any results.
Four or five years is enough for him to implement his strategy and see the results. If the results are good, then continue. Luo Zhixue will give him another four to five years.
If it doesn't work, get out and make room for someone else!
In the process, Luo Zhixue will also use various methods to implement this unspoken rule, such as adding titles, which is very useful.
Now he still needs various hints and various smooth things to do, but after two years when the routine is established, Luo Zhixue will not need to do it himself. The ministers who have not been promoted at the end of their years will make the above requests and become officials.
When that time comes, the central power of the entire empire can be stabilized and continuously replaced to achieve an overall personnel flow system.
This system is what Luo Zhixue wants.
In comparison, the fates of Meng Dongyang, Chen Xingkai, Tang Fengze and Yan Zhengli are not just small splashes in the process of promoting this system!
It seems important, but in fact it does not affect the overall situation.
