I want to be emperor

Chapter 471 Expansion of the Senate

When the five-year development plan for agriculture, industry and commerce was finalized, Chengshun's four-year plan came to an end.

The land of Huaxia ushered in a new year: the fifth year of Chengshun of the Great Chu Empire, the first year of Longxing in Ximing Dynasty, and 1639 AD.

During the Spring Festival of this year, Luo Zhixue held a New Year's state banquet as usual, hosting civil and military dignitaries.

At the same time, a series of ceremonial activities will also be held in the harem.

However, other people's festivals are holidays, and Luo Zhixue, as the emperor of the empire, is very busy even during Chinese New Year, with many ceremonies.

It wasn't until the third day of the new year that Luo Zhixue had a little leisure time. After taking advantage of his free time to rest for a few days, Luo Zhixue held two more meetings on the sixth day of the new year.

It's the sixth day of the new year, everyone who should go to work has gone to work, and the handling of various things can't be delayed.

In the morning, Luo Zhixue first convened a meeting of counselors before the imperial court. More than 20 ministers of counselors and co-organizers in Beijing attended the meeting.

This meeting of the Imperial Counselors did not say anything too important. It was mainly a review of last year, affirmation and criticism of the work of some departments.

At the same time, several important personnel appointments were announced at the meeting, mainly the addition of Admiral Lu Xingye, the Minister of the Navy, as the Minister of Counseling, and the addition of Minister Zhang Xu of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry as the Minister of Counseling;
At the same time, a number of co-organizers were appointed and dismissed, a few were removed, and a few were newly elected.

These personnel appointments have actually been rumored for a long time. Last winter, Luo Zhixue had successively summoned important officials to discuss the matter of expanding the number of ministers of counselors and adjusting the staff of co-organizing ministers, and the parties involved in the appointments and dismissals were already known, so they did not Did not cause much disturbance.

After this round of adjustments, the number of ministers in the Senate, the core of power in the Great Chu Empire, increased from seven to nine.

And the newly added two people can also reflect the future political direction of the Great Chu Empire to a certain extent.

The first is the selection of Admiral Lu Xingye, the Minister of the Navy. The navy did not have a high sense of presence in the Great Chu Empire before. As the head of the navy, Lu Xingye has not had a high military rank for quite a long time.

When Xu Zhixian, the chief of staff, and other army leaders were lieutenant generals, Lu Xingye was only a major general.

When Xu Zhixian and the others gradually became generals of the army, Lu Xingye was only a lieutenant general.

Last year, in order to enhance the status of the navy and reflect the empire's emphasis on coastal defense and maritime trade, Luo Zhixue specially promoted Lu Xingye's rank to admiral, and he is currently the only admiral in the navy.

But now, in order to further increase the political status of the navy and enhance the importance of coastal defense and maritime trade, Luo Zhixue directly promoted Admiral Lu Xingye to Minister of State.

Since then, the military power in the Senate is not only the army, but both land and sea.

Of course, there are two Ministers of Staff of the Army, General Xu Zhixian, Chief of Staff, and General Wei Kaifu, Minister of Military and Political Affairs. The overall influence and power are even higher than those of the Navy.

The transfer of Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Zhang Xu as Minister of Counseling is also due to political considerations. First of all, in the next five-year development plan, agricultural development is even the most important thing. For this reason, the empire plans to spend 500 taels of silver in five annual investment.

In addition to spending real money, the Empire's emphasis on agriculture must also be reflected in politics. Letting Zhang Xu, who is in charge of agricultural affairs, join the Senate is the most direct and effective political signal.

Such a large Chu Empire formed a political structure in which Luo Zhixue led nine ministers as the core of power.

The division of labor among the nine ministers of affairs is different, and certain adjustments have been made.

Military side:

Admiral Lu Xingye, Minister of the Navy, is in charge of naval affairs.

General Xu Zhixian, Chief of the Staff Department, is in charge of army construction, training, combat and other affairs
General Wei Kaifu, Minister of Military and Political Affairs, is in charge of army personnel, military discipline, assessment, military and civilian affairs.

Civilian side:

Guo Quanshu, Shangshu of the Ministry of Official Affairs, is in charge of official affairs, internal affairs and other affairs.

Chen Xingkai, Shangshu of the Taxation Department, is in charge of taxation, finance and other affairs.

Yuan Gaofeng, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, is in charge of industrial, commercial and economic affairs.

Song Zhang, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites and Education, is in charge of rituals and education, civil affairs, relief, urban construction and transportation, etc.

Qin Gaolin, the chief censor of the Procuratorate, is in charge of judicial affairs, including the Procuratorate, Trial Court, and Patrol Department and other judicial departments (excluding the Tax Patrol under the Taxation Department)

Zhang Xu, the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, was newly selected to be in charge of agriculture, forestry, livestock and fishery, water conservancy, and flood control.

Each of the ministers mentioned above has to assist Luo Zhixue to manage a large number of affairs, and they are also very busy on weekdays.

And they alone certainly cannot handle the various affairs of such a huge empire, so there are co-organizing ministers under the minister of affairs.

These co-organizing ministers are also some ministers/ministers, or Zuo Shilang of important departments, etc., a total of eighteen people.

Nine ministers of affairs plus eighteen ministers of affairs, these 27 people formed the core power structure of the Great Chu Empire.

What's very interesting is that although these people all have their own jobs, they are in charge of many affairs, and Luo Zhixue basically decides what affairs they should take charge of. It often changes with Luo Zhixue's mind.

Adjusting the affairs in charge is also an important measure for Luo Zhixue to balance the power of his subordinates and control the power of the empire.

At the Imperial Counselor's Council meeting on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Luo Zhixue adjusted and finalized the new power core structure of the empire.

Two days later, that is, the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, Luo Zhixue held a meeting of the imperial counselors of the civil service system, and all the ministers and co-organizers of the civil service system participated in the meeting.

At the meeting, Luo Zhixue once again reiterated and emphasized the importance and necessity of the five-year development plan, requiring all government departments in the capital city and local governments to attach great importance to it, and carry out relevant work in a timely and vigorous manner.

At first glance, this kind of meeting seems to be talking in general terms, talking about some routine words, and does not actually solve the task problem, but this is how high-level politics are.

What Luo Zhixue wants is not to raise or solve a certain practical problem, but to pass on his attitude to let his courtiers know that he attaches great importance to the five-year development plan.

If there is no accident, after this meeting, many officials will analyze and discuss their own meeting speech records word by word, gain insight into their own intentions and implement them.

These words of Luo Zhixue may seem false to ordinary people, but they must be understood and even studied for officials, because these false words often represent Luo Zhixue's governance ideas.

If you want to make political achievements, you must naturally go in the right direction.

The higher-ups pay attention to agricultural development, so they should engage in agriculture, so that they can be promoted quickly.

The few words that Luo Zhixue said more recently have been spread throughout the imperial court and even among the people along with the official residence newspaper and various official documents.

"Food is the paramount necessity of the people."

"Eat enough to eat is the last word"

"The issue of food and clothing is the core issue."

"No agriculture, no stability, no work, no wealth, no business, no life"

These seemingly simple words contained the core of the five-year development plan, and even contained a shortcut to promotion and fortune.

Not surprisingly, after a few months, all local governments in the entire empire's control area will launch vigorous agricultural production activities, regardless of whether it is land reclamation or recultivation, or the construction of water conservancy facilities, etc., those officials There will be conditions to go, and there will be no conditions to create conditions.

Because of this kind of thing, if you do a good job and get promoted, if you don't do it well... demoting you is not negotiable!

This is especially true for Yingtianfu, which is under the foot of the emperor. Yingtianfu Yin Zhengyue has been clamoring every day that agriculture is the foundation of the empire and the foundation of people's livelihood, and quickly introduced a series of policies to encourage agriculture, such as farm tool subsidies, grain subsidies, etc., and Squeeze out a large amount of funds from local finances and prepare to use them for the construction of various irrigation and flood control facilities in the countryside.

In order to collect money, a large number of gentry were also called together to hold a naming charity auction. If a canal was to be built, the naming rights would be auctioned.

The same goes for bridges, roads, etc.

Not only naming, but also erecting a big stone tablet for you, so that your good name will be passed on to future generations.

Not to mention, those rich gentry just like this... There was a scholarly family in Yingtianfu who volunteered to donate the funds needed to build four canals and a bridge in their hometown, all with their parents' money. number as a name.

Of course, most gentry also have limitations, that is, they are often only willing to donate money to build bridges and pave roads in their hometowns, and they generally ignore those from other places.

Ying Tianfu is trying various methods to raise funds to build basic water conservancy irrigation and flood control facilities.

As for Zhenjiang Mansion next door, the newly appointed local prefect is rather strange.

In order to persuade the peasants, um, more importantly, to win a clear name, it is best to let His Majesty know and praise that the prefect of Zhenjiang led a group of officials to a wasteland in the suburbs to cultivate wasteland just after the new year...

More than 100 officials went to farm for a day, showing some persuasion to farmers, and their pro-farmer attitude is very good, after all, the emperor must personally farm.

But you took people there for seven or eight days in a row, and lived directly on the field, pretending to be planning to work on the field for a whole year is not normal.

There were more than 100 officials, many of whom were mid-level and high-level officials with a lot of work, but they were taken to farm by him, and then the Zhenjiang magistrate's yamen and several other yamen were directly paralyzed...

Not only a lot of administrative affairs have been squeezed up...

At the same time, many farming affairs that should have been dealt with during this period were also delayed.

The plan of the year lies in spring, local officials don't do these serious agricultural affairs, but run to put on a show.

The most important thing is that it's not yet time for the sacrificial ceremony. Generally speaking, the sacrificial ceremony for agriculture will be held on the Haitian day in mid-spring, and the emperor's own plowing is at that time.

It's only been a few days before Chinese New Year, and the fifteenth day of the first lunar month hasn't arrived yet... I even picked the wrong time for the show.

Luo Zhixue, who learned of this, said with a dark face: such a person who does not do practical work and blindly makes noise to win the public, should never use it!
It didn't take long for this strange magistrate to be smashed to the end...

However, such weird officials are a minority after all, and most of them are people with relatively normal IQs, regardless of whether they are sincerely for farmers, or for making political achievements to get promoted, or simply taking advantage of this wave to get money from numerous agricultural subsidies One vote, most officials are still very active in doing these agricultural affairs.

All of a sudden, in the area controlled by the Great Chu Empire, there was a vigorous wave of land reclamation and farming, and the construction of various irrigation and flood control facilities!
(End of this chapter)