As a latecomer, Luo Zhixue was actually very aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the participation system and military system he had created, as well as the Hanlin Academy system, as well as the possible hidden dangers of the loss of imperial power.
After all, the staffing system he instituted imitated the Military Aircraft Department in the middle and late Qing Dynasty in the appointment of officials. However, on this basis, he further subdivided the powers of the staffing ministers and co-organizing ministers, and clarified the responsibilities of each staffing minister. Authority, rather than a state of being able to control everything.
There are good and bad aspects of this system. The advantage is that the authority is clearer and there will be no overlapping of authority and anyone can get involved.
But there is also a disadvantage, that is, the counselor who has long controlled some of the powers has great power in his field.
In the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty and even the military aircraft department of the Qing Dynasty, those cabinet ministers or military aircraft ministers actually did not have clear powers, which meant that they needed to compromise with other cabinets and military aircraft ministers of equal status on many matters. In exchange, a large number of officials with relevant interests must be attracted at the same time to form a so-called faction before they can demonstrate their power and realize their political aspirations or ambitions. This is also an important reason for the origin of party struggle in the Ming Dynasty. A bunch of people, even cabinet ministers, can't do anything.
However, in the Dachu Empire, this step was skipped and the powers of the ministers were directly clarified in the name of being in charge of certain affairs.
There is no need to win over each other or compromise with each other. The counselor has absolute authority in the field in which he is responsible.
For example, the Minister of Counselor in charge of economic affairs is very powerful and has authority over almost all economic-related matters. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in charge can all be regarded as his direct subordinate units to some extent. .
On major economic matters, he has full power to handle them independently without the need to compromise or exchange interests with other ministers.
He only needs to answer to the emperor.
The other ministers are basically the same.
These Councilors only need to be directly responsible to the emperor, and do not need to be responsible to the Council of Ministers itself.
This means that once the emperor's ability is insufficient, he will most likely obey the opinions of the ministers in charge when dealing with many government affairs. If this becomes a routine over time, the emperor will lose this part of his power...
In this way, the imperial power fell aside.
However, once there is no pressure from the emperor to carry out multi-party balancing, then these ministers, who are equal in power, may do their own things, without coordination and unified steps, which will ultimately lead to the empire's overall strategy. There were violent internal divisions.
In this system, the power of the ministers in charge of affairs has been strengthened, and the emperor, as their only boss, also needs to have sufficient capabilities, otherwise there will be no balance, and eventually there will be a split at the top of the entire political structure. Case.
How to solve this problem?
Luo Zhixue is actually very clear... Throughout history at home and abroad, there is only one solution: to establish a position such as chief assistant, prime minister, or prime minister in some way, and let the prime minister replace the emperor as the decision-maker.
what does that mean?
The imperial power has fallen by the wayside!
If the emperor can appoint and remove the prime minister at will, then the emperor can barely retain part of his imperial power.
But once it continues to develop, when the emperor loses the authority to appoint and remove the prime minister, or is greatly restricted... then the imperial power will be completely finished.
A similar situation is the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty. Their cabinet members were not appointed or dismissed by the emperor, but were recommended by the ministers... The emperors of the Ming Dynasty did not have the power to decide who to serve as cabinet ministers... They had this power There are only ministers.
Of course, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty could dismiss cabinet ministers... which could be regarded as preserving a small part of the imperial power. In the late Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen used this power to dismiss or even kill a lot of cabinet ministers... But even so, Chongzhen also Unable to decide who to put in cabinet.
If this system evolves further and the power to decide on the appointment and dismissal of cabinet ministers is directly given to more people, such as more bureaucrats or nobles, then it will gradually evolve into a constitutional monarchy in modern history, and further to a qualification-based election system.
If the people's wisdom goes further and industry and commerce continue to develop to a certain extent, it will gradually evolve into a universal suffrage system, and a prime minister will be elected by the people.
In the end, the emperor can only become a mascot!
This process is actually the process of the gradual decline of imperial power... Except for a very few constitutional monarchies in later generations, most of them have gone through such a general process.
Luo Zhixue actually knew this very well.
This is the inevitability of historical development, or in other words, it is the inevitability of the continuous development of productive forces...
As long as Luo Zhixue unswervingly continues to develop industry and commerce and continues to popularize education, then the Great Chu Empire... no, to be precise, the future of the Luo family royal family in the Great Chu Empire can only have two futures: one is imperial power. Continuously falling aside, it eventually evolved into a modern constitutional monarchy. Luo Zhixue's descendants retained the throne, but they could only serve as a mascot.
Another possibility is that the royal family is unwilling to lose power and maintains policies such as continuous high pressure, but paper can never contain the fire. When it reaches a certain limit, the Luo family royal family will be like a firework blooming in the night sky... …Bang…gone!
There may be some back-and-forth along the way, and there may also be some other messy turbulence. But in the foreseeable future, these two endings are basically unavoidable.
Of course, Luo Zhixue can actually choose to take another path, which is to resolutely not open up the people's wisdom, block information, and herd citizens like cattle and sheep...
As long as the people's wisdom is not enlightened, coupled with the current productivity, plus a proper political structure, then the rule of the Luo Family Dynasty can last for a long, long time... Of course, it will definitely be over in the end, but it can make the Luo Family Dynasty His rule lasted longer.
But Luo Zhixue was unwilling to do this.
He came to this era, established the Great Chu Empire, and built the Great Chu Empire into the world's dominant empire... He also had his own pursuits.
In the past, I only thought about rebelling and becoming an emperor. For a period of time, I pursued the stability of power, worked out a lot of political balances, and put most of my energy into preventing rebellion by ministers and stabilizing the power of the royal family.
But in the later period, Luo Zhixue's mentality also changed... The emperor has become the emperor, his power is very stable, and the empire as a whole is positive... What else can he pursue at this time?
Well, in fact, there was a time when Luo Zhixue didn’t know what to pursue, so for a few years Luo Zhixue was very lazy. He stayed in the harem every day eating, drinking and having fun with a group of concubines, and only went out after a few days. I met those ministers... Not to mention, the political structure designed by Luo Zhixue, without the personal control of the emperor Luo Zhixue, as long as no major events happened, in fact, with Luo Zhixue or without Luo Zhixue, There is not much difference in ambition and learning.
Especially when dealing with some daily affairs, the emperor does not need to be involved at all, and the ministers below can solve it by themselves.
So from the 25th year of Chengshun to the 30th year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue was lazy and rarely dealt with government affairs. The Chu Empire still maintained a steady pace of development... Of course, there were gains and losses. In the past few years, because Luo Zhixue was lazy, and after delegating power to a large extent, it also led to the formation of some so-called practices that were not good for the imperial power...In the past, matters that required the emperor's personal decision-making, now the ministers themselves hold small meetings to discuss some matters. Able to vote and make decisions.
Luo Zhixue knew this very well, but he just didn't care much.
Waiting until thirty years after Chengshun, Luo Zhixue felt that there was no point in eating, drinking and having fun every day... It felt like he was just eating and waiting to die.
Coupled with the continuous increase in the national power of the Chu Empire, Luo Zhixue saw more possibilities, and finally gave birth to new ambitions in his heart.
In this life, he basically had everything he could have while alive... so he began to pursue the so-called posthumous fame.
He wants to be the greatest emperor in China's thousands of years of history...and being the greatest is not something he brags about or is praised by his courtiers, nor is it even the evaluation of contemporary people.
Luo Zhixue hopes that after his death, people will still think that he is the greatest emperor in China for thousands of years after decades or even centuries.
As a human being, you have to have some pursuits, right?
When Luo Zhixue changed his mentality, the high-level strategy of the Da Chu Empire also changed... It was also at the beginning of this period that the Da Chu Empire did not simply pursue the expansion of territory as before, but pursued a more one-sided pursuit. Bigger land, more factories and so on.
Instead, start paying more attention to people’s livelihood!
In the past two years, under the influence of Luo Zhixue, a new trend of expansionism has formed among the high-level officials of the empire. That is, instead of wiping out all the indigenous people and grabbing all the land... it is better to let the indigenous people continue to live and farm and dig. The Chu people only need to produce some industrial products and use these industrial products to capture the surplus value of the indigenous people.
This can greatly improve the living standards of the people.
In addition to a series of domestic reasons, this change in the empire's top leadership is also related to Luo Zhixue's change in mentality.
Because Luo Zhixue wants to be a good emperor that ordinary people will praise even hundreds of years later!
And for most ordinary people, what kind of emperor is a good emperor?
The emperor who led the country to become stronger, defeated other countries, expanded its territory, and turned the empire into an empire on which the sun never sets?
So in the mid-to-late 19th century, the average life expectancy in London was only over 30 years, and the workers whose average life expectancy was worse than the tenants of the Qing Dynasty must be scolded... Those childhood sweethearts in Japan who watched their childhood sweethearts helplessly during the Meiji Restoration and even before World War II Japanese people who go abroad to earn foreign exchange for the country also need to be scolded.
Just because a country is strong... doesn't mean the people will think you are a good ruler.
For the vast majority of ordinary people, especially the people at the bottom, they don't care about or understand these international hegemony... They only care about three meals a day!
To put it in the simplest and simplest terms: the emperor who allows the people to live a good life is a good emperor!
If it can make people live a prosperous life, and by the way, it can also defeat other countries internationally, and let people enjoy themselves while chatting, then it will be even better.
The country is strong and the people are prosperous... No, the order needs to be changed. The people are prosperous and the country is strong. This is the most important thing!
This also began to make Luo Zhixue think about more things, such as the empire's series of overseas expansions and what was the purpose of a series of wars?
Fighting for territory? To open up living space? Looting resources?
of course……
But the question is, why do this?
In the past, Luo Zhixue just thought that some places overseas were very good and must be captured, such as Malacca, the gold mines in South Africa, and North America... Luo Zhixue just thought these places were good, and then he sent troops to capture them!
But the starting point is not to improve the lives of the people, but more of a mentality similar to playing a strategic game. I always want to grab good places...
Many strategic game players of later generations, in order to seize territory and occupy grids, did not hesitate to raise taxes, lower people's living standards, cause domestic riots, and even forcibly increase armaments and annex neighboring countries... just to create a so-called big country!
Luo Zhixue's previous behavior was somewhat similar to these. Although the Chu Empire's overseas expansion process alleviated the domestic contradiction of more people and less land, it brought more resources and markets to domestic enterprises.
But it must be said that these results were not the results Luo Zhixue pursued from the beginning.
What Luo Zhixue pursued back then was to build an empire on which the sun never sets across all continents around the world.
The two seem to have similar results, but that is based on the premise that the Chu Empire itself is strong enough. If the empire is slightly weaker, then such a strong and large-scale overseas expansion will cause many internal problems and even rebellions. ...And according to Luo Zhixue's mentality back then, if there was a rebellion in the country, he would be forced to continue to expand!
Build a powerful empire on which the sun never sets!
These were some of his goals in the early years, especially thirty years before Chengshun, and the starting point for formulating many strategic policies.
But thirty years after Chengshun, Luo Zhixue’s starting point was somewhat different.
Even though the empire is still expanding overseas and various reforms are continuing at home, the starting points are different, so the specific implementation methods are also different, and the goals pursued are also different.
Today's Luo Zhixue is not pursuing the establishment of a so-called powerful empire, but a better life for the people.
In recent years, the empire has devoted great efforts to foreign expansion and colonization, agricultural development in the Americas, and continued support for agriculture at home, developing agriculture in the Northeast and even Monan.
The purpose is not to build a powerful empire, but to increase the per capita food supply.
Luo Zhixue wants to increase the annual per capita grain consumption from about 380 kilograms to 400 kilograms!
That's all!
These are what Luo Zhixue pursues thirty years after entering Chengshun, to build an empire where the people are rich and the country is strong.
Although he continued to allow the empire's army and navy to sweep through the indigenous peoples of various countries... this was only a means, not an end.
His purpose is to allow hundreds of millions of people in the empire to truly have enough to eat, to eat well, to be warmly and well-clothed, to live in spacious and bright houses, and to be able to have a family with a smile on their days off. Visiting friends and family or going on vacation.
He hopes that the people of the empire under his rule can live a prosperous and happy life!
It must be said that this is a very ambitious and difficult goal. Looking at the thousands of years of Chinese history, no emperor has ever been able to achieve it, and no ruler at home or abroad has ever been able to achieve it.
Even Luo Zhixue's own confidence is not very sufficient... Even though his empire is so powerful, it is still far away from the goal he has set.
However, Luo Zhixue believes that as long as he moves firmly towards the goal he has set, there will always be a chance. Even if he cannot achieve perfection in the end, if he can achieve part of it, it will not be a complete failure.
People, you have to give yourself some goals, otherwise you will really just have to hang around and wait to die.
But compared to the life goals of ordinary people, Luo Zhixue's new life goals are somewhat illusory and unrealistic...
Luo Zhixue also knew that his ideas or ambitions were too dreamy, so he also adopted a step-by-step strategy.
The word happiness is too illusory, and I can't care about it for a while. It is too difficult to live a prosperous life... With a population of more than 400 million, it is too difficult to be rich per capita.
Therefore, Luo Zhixue set his goals on more realistic goals that can be achieved through hard work in the near future:
Let the people have enough food... a real meal, with an average of 400 kilograms of grain per capita!
Even though the empire has a large population, not counting overseas territories, there are more than 400 million people in the mainland alone, and there is a population of 500 million...
But he still doesn’t believe it. The food grown in so much land around the world cannot feed four to five billion people!
He didn't believe it even more. With a lot of funding and subsidies, we couldn't even mass-produce fertilizers and hybrid rice... It was impossible.
So when the European Expeditionary Forces were fighting hard in Europe, trying to pry open the entire European market, using the entire Europe as a supplier of agricultural products and industrial raw materials and a dumping ground for industrial goods.
Luo Zhixue also formally held an expanded participation meeting in Jinling City in October of the 37th year of Chengshun, focusing on food production and supply issues.
"Within five years, I want per capita grain to reach 400 kilograms within five years!"
"Develop more wasteland, import more grain through trade, improve grain yields per acre through more and better water conservancy facilities, and planting technology... find ways to increase the per capita grain level!"
"It is my mission and your responsibility to keep the people well fed!"
"It is necessary to further organize the development of local wasteland, the northeastern and Monan regions, and even Huguang, Yunnan and Guizhou and other regions to develop grain more deeply. At the same time, we must vigorously combat the large-scale occupation of grain cultivated land during the urban construction process in the land of plenty and important grain producing areas. the behavior of."
"Urban development is important, but food supply is even more important!"
"To further expand the sources of food imports, agricultural development in North America is still seriously insufficient. The central and western regions of North America are the major areas of food production, as well as India, Africa and even Europe in the future. The food supply level in these places must be further improved."
"We must pay attention to the research and development and application of new technologies. I heard that the Navy has built a refrigerated ship to ensure the food supply of the fleet when it sails across the ocean. So can we use this refrigerated ship technology to develop animal husbandry overseas on a large scale? Breeding technology, and then transport a large amount of meat to the mainland through refrigerated ships to increase the local meat supply?”
"Fertilizer-related technologies have been developed for so many years, but they are still in the laboratory stage. Why is this? Is it because of insufficient funds or insufficient technical personnel? Relevant departments must find out the problems in time, solve them, and speed up the mass production of fertilizers. "
"There is also the hybrid rice, which has been worked on for many years, but there is no result yet. What is the problem? I heard from the Royal Academy of Sciences that the research process of hybrid rice itself is very time-consuming and requires continuous research. Trying to cultivate rice is a time-consuming process."
"Since rice cultivation takes time, can we build more hybrid rice breeding bases and conduct multiple different studies at the same time? Shorten the entire experimental breeding process?"
“There are many food problems, but we can’t ignore them or ignore them!”
"I hope that through concerted efforts, we can solve the food supply problem, at least partially, within five years."
After talking on the phone for a long time, Luo Zhixue looked around at the ministers and co-organizing ministers, and then said loudly: "I am about to start a new journey, and on the way forward, I hope that all my dear friends will not fall behind!"
(End of chapter)
