In December of the thirty-seventh year of Chengshun, it was winter in Songjiang City. Even though there were many briquette stoves in every corner of the city and the huge heat emitted by steam engines in a large number of factories, the city was still extremely cold in winter. .
It was the thirty-seventh year of Chengshun during the Little Ice Age, and the winter was much colder than the winters of later generations in the twenty-first century, and even colder than the late Ming Dynasty more than thirty years ago.
The Yangtze River even froze this year. Two consecutive cold waves moved southward in December, which not only caused significant cooling and snowfall in the northern provinces, but also snowed in Songjiang City, a coastal city that used to be relatively warm. .
Not to mention Jiangnan, even the Guangdong region farther south has snowed almost every year in the past thirty years. Even Guangzhou has snowed frequently.
This kind of situation is probably unimaginable to future generations...
Of course, the coldness in this Little Ice Age was only limited to winter... It doesn't mean that it is so cold all year round. In fact, it is also very hot in summer when it should be hot.
To put it simply, the climate of the Little Ice Age was not simply cold, but more extreme. Winters were too cold, summers were too hot, and there were also many extreme climates such as long-term droughts and heavy rains.
However, these so-called extreme climates can only be noticed under macroscopic conditions. In fact, they are often not noticeable when you are in them.
At least the Chu people who lived in the 37th year of Chengshun actually did not have the concept of the Little Ice Age, and most people could not feel it.
Because most of them believe that the weather has been like this from birth to now... As a person born in the north and now settled in Songjiang City, Sun Xu doesn't think snowing in Songjiang City is so strange...
What's more, it was just a little snow, which melted away not long after it hit the ground.
Compared to the heavy snowfall in his hometown in winter, it was nothing worth mentioning.
What's more, he lives in a single-family house in the northern suburbs of Xicheng District, Songjiang. The fireplace has already burned anthracite coal from the Guangning coalfield in Guangdong, and the room temperature in the house is maintained at a level acceptable to the human body.
After getting up in the morning and simply freshening up and changing clothes, Sun Xu went downstairs and sat at the dining table. Two newspapers that had been ironed in advance were already placed on the dining table.
One is the local Songjiang Business News in Songjiang Prefecture, and the other is the Chaobao.
Local newspapers such as Songjiang Commercial Daily were gradually liberalized three or four years ago. In the early days, there was only one newspaper in the entire empire, and that was Da Chu Chao Bao.
Moreover, it is strictly forbidden for private individuals to run newspapers, and it is also prohibited for local governments to run their own newspapers.
The Chao Bao was under the unified management of the Chao Bao Department of the Ministry of Rites and Education of the Great Chu Empire, which established a national edition and a provincial edition. Chao Bao officials were dispatched to each province to set up provincial Chao Bao offices. However, the Chao Bao office did not belong to the Ethical and Education Department in the provincial governor's yamen. jurisdiction.
But it is still under the jurisdiction of the Chaobao Department, which is directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites and Education.
The court officials sent to local areas are not local officials, but still belong to the establishment system of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs and belong to the Beijing official sequence.
Officials dispatched to local newspapers conducted interviews and compiled articles there and submitted them to their superiors for review.
Among them, the North Korea Press Department directly finalizes the content of the national edition, and quickly transmits the finalized national edition content to the provinces through official document delivery channels, and then adds the provincial edition content reviewed and finalized by the Provincial Daily Press Office, and finally brings it together and distributes it to all governments. Printing and final distribution.
At the same time, although the content of each provincial edition of each province has been reviewed by the provincial North Korea Press Office, it still needs to be sent to the Gyeonggi North Korea Press Department for filing and verification. If there is inappropriate content, the official in charge of the North Korea Press Office of the province will will be punished accordingly.
The entire editorial and distribution work of the Chao Bao is quite complicated.
But newspapers are very sensitive, and Luo Zhixue has always been wary of exploiting them.
We want to use the imperial newspaper to publicize the court's policies, so that ordinary people can know the important policies of the court through convenient channels, break the information barrier between the court officials and ordinary people, and remove the power of local public opinion from the hands of local gentry and scholars. received into official hands.
At the same time, because newspapers directly face the general public, the news released will spread quickly and widely, so the influence of public opinion is very great.
Such a powerful public opinion tool must be firmly controlled. At the same time, we must also prevent some non-mainstream people from appearing in the official newspaper organization and using this channel to publish some non-mainstream content.
Therefore, the court newspaper system finalized by Luo Zhixue is both practical and preventive. On the one hand, it is a large-scale publication, but on the other hand, it has established a very strict censorship system.
The content of the national edition is even more expensive, sacrificing the timeliness of the newspaper, and using the entire process of local editing, review by the newspaper office, official document distribution, and local printing to ensure the accuracy of the content.
However, with the progress of society, the people's requirements for timeliness of news...especially the timeliness requirements for local news also prompted the Dachu Empire to carry out continuous changes in the court newspapers.
In the twenty-fifth year of Chengshun, at the request of the general public and even a large number of local officials, and after repeated discussions at the imperial council of the Great Chu Empire, the provincial edition of the Chaobao was officially established. The Chaobao Department dispatched officials to each province and established each province. The Morning News Office is responsible for the collection, editing and review of the provincial editions of North Korea newspapers in each province, as well as the printing and distribution of the North Korea newspapers arriving across the country.
Thirty years after Chengshun, due to the continuous progress of society, people's demand for information is no longer limited to understanding official news, popular science, literary works, etc., but also hopes to understand more business content and even some messy information. News to meet business needs and even curiosity.
Therefore, beginning in the 34th year of Chengshun, after discussions at the imperial council, it was finally decided to carefully pilot a local newspaper with higher timeliness and leaning towards commercial information, and selected a number of cities as pilot cities.
There are only five pilot cities in the first batch, namely Jinling, Songjiang, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Hantian.
Because these five cities are also the cities with the most active commerce and the strongest demand for timely business information.
At the same time, it is also because of the strong control of these imperial officials in these big cities, especially the strong efforts of the Ministry of Ethnic Education in the education work in these places.
After all, these cities are so important that the imperial officials can't ignore them even if they don't want to... And the pilot work that attaches great importance to them can ensure that there is more power to supervise local newspapers.
It was against the background of this era that Songjiang Business News was officially established and published in the 35th year of Chengshun.
Although Songjiang Business Daily is a local newspaper, it is not actually under the jurisdiction of Songjiang Prefecture or the Ethical and Educational Institutions of Jiangnan Province. Instead, like the previous provincial edition of Chaobao, it is still under the direct jurisdiction of the Chaobao Department of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs.
The Chao Bao Department of the Ministry of Ethnic Education directly sent a senior Chao Bao official from the fourth grade to Songjiang City to serve as the supervisor of the Songjiang Commercial Bao. He also served as the deputy director of the Jiangnan Chao Bao Office.
By the way, the grades of the relevant officials of the Chao Bao Department are quite high. The director of the Chao Bao Department is usually concurrently served by the right minister of the Ministry of Etiquette... In other words, the director of the Chao Bao Department is actually a second-rank position. It’s not a regular department-level institution.
From the second rank, he is a proper senior official in the empire, and he is already qualified to participate in the relevant affairs meetings. When discussing the issue of enlightenment, the right minister of the Ministry of Etiquette, as the official in charge, naturally needs to participate in the relevant affairs meetings. of.
Otherwise, even the specific person in charge is not here, what is the point of discussing...
The two major tasks or powers of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs are the imperial examination and education.
The former selects talents for the country, while the latter is responsible for education work.
The Chaobao Department is an important part of the Ministry of Etiquette and Education that is responsible for the education work. Usually the right minister in charge of the education work concurrently serves as the director.
The deputy director of the North Korea Newspaper Department is a third-rank official, but usually only senior third-level officials are qualified to serve. At the same time, if the director of the North Korea Newspaper Department is transferred, it is usually an upgrade, not a horizontal transfer... This is due to ethics and some It is a good springboard for many third-level officials in relevant organizations to continue to climb up.
There is nothing unusual about the fact that the directors of the various divisions directly under the deputy director are of the fourth rank.
The director of the Provincial Daily News Office who was stationed at the local level was also of the fourth rank, and his rank seemed to be the same as that of the heads of departments and prefects in the governor's yamen.
However, the officials of the North Korean Press Office are all dispatched from the capital, so their political status is actually higher than that of local officials... This also leads to a very embarrassing problem, that is, if the directors of the etiquette and education departments in each province are not from If the third-rank counselor concurrently serves as the director, the actual rank and even political status of the director of the Provincial Department of Ethical Affairs will be inferior to that of the director of the Provincial Daily News Office.
In fact, after most of the directors of the Provincial Daily News Office ended their term of office, they were either transferred back to Beijing and continued to serve as Beijing officials of the fourth rank, or they were promoted to a higher level and transferred to local areas, usually serving as provincial councilors of the third rank... Of course, Those who were unlucky enough to get into trouble midway or who were old enough to take a back seat for retirement will not be counted, only normal transfers and promotions will be considered.
It is very difficult for the directors of the Provincial Department of Ethical Affairs and Education to be directly promoted to the rank of 3rd rank. When they are promoted, they are often transferred back to the Gyeonggi Department of Ethnic Affairs or other institutions to take up the position of 4th rank, and then stay for a few more years to continue working abroad. If you let it go, then you can expect to consult from the third-grade province.
Of course... there is no affiliation between the two. Although they need to cooperate closely in daily work, they do not have any jurisdiction over each other.
The directors of the court newspaper offices in each province have no need to offend the local yamen... they don't even have to give face to the local governor. This is why the Ministry of Ethical Affairs and Education is directly under the jurisdiction, which is to prevent the court newspaper officials who are stationed in the local areas from being affected by the local government. Official influence.
What the empire wants is a unified voice of public opinion controlled by the Imperial Gyeonggi Council and the emperor... There is no need for a voice of public opinion controlled by local governors.
Regarding public opinion channels, the empire's senior officials, ministers, and the emperor have always attached great importance to it.
This led to the situation that the court officials who were stationed in the local areas still belonged to the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs and belonged to the rank of Beijing officials.
In the Dachu Empire, the only one with a similar situation was the more unique tax department.
The taxation agencies in the Dachu Empire have always been unique. They basically do not deal with local governments or other agencies in the capital. All tax officials nationwide, even the most basic tax officials and even tax patrol police, belong to the tax department. It is under the jurisdiction of the ministry and has nothing to do with the local area...
The empire has always attached great importance to tax collection. In order for the tax department to collect taxes better, Luo Zhixue not only allowed the tax agency to set up tax patrols, but also gave the tax patrols the power to enforce the law in the field of tax law. , and even asked the tax department to set up a professional tax army called armed tax police.
The armed tax police of the Dachu Empire were really capable of fighting on the battlefield. They were much more powerful than the so-called armed policemen of the American Internal Revenue Service in later generations...
In the early years of the Unification War, the armed tax police made great contributions to the Unification War. Basically, as soon as the regular army conquered a place, the armed tax police followed up and cooperated with the military in clearing operations. Of course, Well, the armed tax police cooperated with the military in purging operations, and the main purpose was to collect taxes... But at that time, many gentry and powerful people had lived under the rule of the Ming Dynasty for a long time, and formed the illusion that they were superior to others and did not have to pay taxes. , so tax agencies need to come to collect taxes with guns, swords, and spears.
This is also the main reason why armed tax police were formed and gradually developed.
There were too many powerful landowners and gentry resisting the tax, the army was too busy and had few troops, and the local patrol police were ineffective... In the end, the tax agency was forced to organize its own armed tax police to collect taxes.
After the Unification War, the scale of the armed tax police declined rapidly, and they once disappeared and had no sense of existence... At that time, the armed tax police underwent a large-scale downsizing, and once developed into a model of small-scale special security operations similar to armed patrols. ...has almost lost its ability to conduct large-scale field operations.
But soon the empire's large-scale expansion in overseas areas ushered in a new spring for armed tax police.
The empire's tax authorities discovered that tax evasion in the overseas territories and colonies was extremely serious. At the same time, many indigenous people in the colonies and surrounding areas had no concept or willingness to pay taxes. They always thought about tax evasion, and various smuggling and tax evasion emerged in endlessly.
As a result, armed tax police once again appeared on the stage of history. Tax officials found that the small-scale security warfare model of armed tax police was not enough overseas, so they began to expand their recruitment on a large scale and formed a large number of similar small-scale police officers with hundreds of people. The armed tax police brigade of the mixed battalion.
Today, the Chu Empire has deployed a total of thirty-four armed tax police brigades in overseas areas (excluding Nanyang, where few natives have been localized), widely distributed in overseas directly administered territories and colonies in the Americas, India, and Africa.
The total strength reached more than 18,000 people.
This only refers to armed tax police who perform combat missions and are equipped with a series of the latest breech-loaded rifled weapons. Each armed tax police brigade has an artillery squadron and a cavalry squadron, which can be used for large-scale field battles and even fortified battles. Armed tax police!
It does not include tax police who conduct routine law enforcement...
With the development of the armed tax police, in fact, the command power is no longer in the hands of the tax agency, but belongs to the dual jurisdiction of the tax agency and the military. Almost all the personnel of the armed tax police are all from the army, navy or Guards. The large-scale mobilization of retired military personnel and armed tax police also requires military approval...
This thing has developed to become the fourth largest armed force in the Chu Empire. When it comes to military procurement, it is often ranked alongside the army, navy, and guards... Of course, the tax department still provides the funds.
Those people in the military actually used the guise of armed tax police and asked the tax department to help them raise more than 10,000 experienced elite soldiers with many years of combat experience.
Although the Ministry of Taxation has provided money, it can also more conveniently borrow the power of the military to suppress various overseas tax resisters...use powerful and even brutal armed tax police to let everyone know: those who do not pay taxes The consequences are serious!
Many negative reputations of tax agencies and even tax law enforcement officers are actually condoned or even released by tax agencies to a certain extent... The purpose is to let people know that paying taxes is very serious. In order to collect taxes, we tax The agencies and even the army were brought out...
Before you evade taxes, you have to think clearly, are you prepared to pay the price of ruining your family?
According to the experience of the Ministry of Taxation over the past thirty years, we cannot rely on taxpayers’ consciousness to collect taxes...we have to rely on guns!
As all Americans in future generations know, they would rather offend the FBI or CIA than the IRS... The former is actually not terrible, after all, it has nothing to do with ordinary people...
However, if you evade taxes, the IRS will drive an armored vehicle and rush directly into your home with a machine gun...
For the contemporary Da Chu Empire taxation agency, such a reputation is also needed... Many times, armed tax police are in overseas areas to carry out armed attacks against some indigenous businessmen and even political authorities who smuggle and evade taxes, and when they forcefully collect taxes or even impose fines, In addition to tax collection, it is also to carry out corresponding publicity in the country: We are serious about tax collection, don't think about tax evasion!
With so much publicity, the Chu people naturally feel that the tax agencies are not to be messed with, and they will be honest when paying taxes, at least not blatantly evading taxes, especially those big taxpayers, that is, those enterprises or the upper class. wealthy businessmen and powerful people.
At most, they can use loopholes in the rules to avoid taxes, but no one dares to evade taxes openly!
In this way, the finances of the Chu Empire were so healthy.
The central government’s fiscal revenue alone is over one billion a year. Damn it if this is unhealthy...
The taxation department is special in the Dachu Empire... and the Chaobao organization is also a relatively special order in the Dachu Empire. Although it seems that power and reputation cannot be compared with the taxation agency, due to the importance of public opinion channels , so the North Korean newspaper organization also imitated the tax authorities and adopted the direct jurisdiction model of Gyeonggi Province, completely separated from the local government.
And this time, when it comes to running a local time-sensitive newspaper, the Morning News Department... no, it should be said that the Ministry of Ethics and Education attaches great importance to it.
When preparing the Songjiang Commercial Newspaper, the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs directly transferred a deputy director from the fourth grade to supervise the Songjiang Commercial Newspaper. He also served as the deputy director of the Jiangnan Province Chaobao Newspaper Office. This shows that the Chaobao News Department attaches great importance to local timeliness. The newspaper's attention...or vigilance!
The North Korea Newspaper Department must ensure that the content and pace of the first batch of local time-sensitive newspapers are within controllable limits, and set a model for the implementation of more local time-sensitive newspapers in the future: This is how local time-sensitive newspapers should be done, and this cannot be done for local time-sensitive newspapers. If you mess around as an official, otherwise you will ruin the great cause of ethics and education, I will make you lose your official position in a minute.
