I want to be emperor

Chapter 889 The new journey of the empire: eat enough!

As a latecomer, Luo Zhixue is actually very aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the system of participation in military affairs, the military affairs system, and the Hanlin Academy system he created, as well as the possible hidden danger of imperial power falling apart.

After all, the counseling system he developed followed the example of the Military Aircraft Department in the middle and late Qing Dynasty in terms of appointment of officials, but on this basis, the duties and powers of the ministers of counseling and co-organizers were further subdivided, and the duties of each minister of counseling were clarified. Authority, not a state where everything can be controlled.

This kind of system has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that the authority is clearer, there will be no overlapping of authority, and anyone can intervene.

But there are also disadvantages, that is, the minister of counsel who has long held part of the power 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 had no clear authority, which meant that they had to compromise with other cabinet and military aircraft ministers of the same status on many matters. In exchange, at the same time, a large number of officials with relevant interests must be attracted to form a so-called faction before they can demonstrate their power and realize their political ambitions or ambitions. This is also an important reason for the Ming Dynasty's party struggle. A bunch of people, even cabinet ministers, can't do anything.

However, in the Great Chu Empire, this step was skipped, and the duties and powers of the Minister of Counseling were directly clarified in the name of being in charge of certain affairs.

There is no need to woo and fight, and there is no need to compromise with each other. The minister of counseling has absolute authority in the field he is in charge of.

For example, the minister in charge of economic affairs is very powerful, and has authority over almost all economic-related affairs. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in charge can be regarded as his direct subordinate units to a certain extent. .

On major economic affairs, he has the full power to deal with them alone, and there is no need to compromise or exchange interests with other ministers.

He only needs to be responsible to the emperor.

And the other ministers of counselors are basically the same.

These ministers of the Senate only need to be directly responsible to the emperor, and do not need to be responsible to the Senate itself.

This means that once the emperor's ability is insufficient, it is very likely that he will follow the opinions of the ministers in charge when dealing with many government affairs. If a custom is formed over time, the emperor will lose this part of his power...

In this way, that is to say, the imperial power has been sidelined.

But once there is no pressure from the emperor above and a multi-party balance is carried out, then these ministers who are equal in power may do their own things, and there will be no coordination and unified steps, which will eventually lead to the empire's overall strategy. There are sharp internal divisions.

In this system, the power of the ministers in charge of affairs has been strengthened, and the emperor, who is their only boss, also needs to have enough ability, otherwise, it will not be possible to balance, and eventually the top of the entire political structure will be split Case.

How to solve this problem?
Luo Zhixue is actually very clear...Through the history of ancient and modern China and foreign countries, there is only one solution: to set up a post such as chief minister, prime minister, or prime minister in a certain way, so that the prime minister can replace the emperor as the decision maker.

what does this mean?
The imperial power falls aside!

If the prime minister can be appointed and removed by the emperor at will, then the emperor can barely retain part of the 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 over.

A similar situation is the cabinet system of the Ming Dynasty. Their cabinet members are not appointed and dismissed by the emperor, but are recommended by the ministers...The emperors of the Ming Dynasty have no power to decide who should be the cabinet minister...they have this power Only ministers.

Of course, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty could dismiss the cabinet ministers... It can be regarded as keeping a small part of the imperial power. Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty used this power to dismiss and even kill a lot of cabinet ministers... But even so, Chongzhen also Can't decide who gets into cabinet.

If this system evolves further, and the power to decide the appointment and removal of cabinet ministers is directly handed over to more people, such as more bureaucrats or nobles, then it will gradually evolve into a constitutional monarchy in modern history, and further into a qualification election system.

If the people's wisdom goes further and the industry and commerce continue to develop to a certain extent, then it will gradually evolve into a system of universal suffrage, and a prime minister will be elected by the people.

In the end, the emperor can only be a mascot!

This process is actually the process of the gradual decline of imperial power... Except for a very small number of constitutional monarchies in later generations, most of them have gone through such a general process.

Luo Zhixue was actually very clear about this.

This is the inevitability of historical development, or in other words, this is the inevitability of the continuous development of productive forces...

As long as he, Luo Zhixue, unswervingly continues to develop industry and commerce, and continues to carry out popular 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 Constantly falling aside, it eventually evolved into a modern constitutional monarchy. The descendants of Luo Zhixue kept the throne, but they could only be a mascot.

Another possibility is that the royal family is unwilling to lose power and maintains a policy of continuous high pressure, but paper can never contain fire. After reaching a certain limit, the royal family of the Luo family will be like a firework blooming in the night sky... ...bang... gone!
There may be reversals in the middle, and there may also be some other messy turmoil.But in the foreseeable future, these two endings are basically inevitable.

Of course, in fact, Luo Zhixue can also choose to take another path, which is to resolutely not open up the wisdom of the people, block information, and treat the citizens like cattle and sheep...

As long as the people's wisdom is not enlightened, coupled with the current productivity, coupled with an appropriate political structure, then his Luo family dynasty's rule can last for a long time... Of course, it will definitely end in the end, but it can make the Luo family dynasty His rule lasted a little longer.

But Luo Zhixue was unwilling to do so.

He came to this era, established the Great Chu Empire, and even built the Great Chu Empire into the world's hegemony empire... He also has his own pursuit.

In the past, I just thought about rebelling and becoming an emperor. For a while, I was pursuing the stability of power, making a lot of political balances, and putting most of my energy on preventing the rebellion of the courtiers and stabilizing the power of the royal family.

But in the later stage, Luo Zhixue's mentality also changed a little... The emperor has already become the emperor, his power is also very stable, and the empire as a whole is also positive... What else can he pursue at this time?
Well, in fact, Luo Zhixue didn’t know what to pursue for a while, so Luo Zhixue was very lazy for a few years, staying in the harem every day to eat, drink and have fun with a group of concubines, and only going out every few days Let's meet those ministers... Not to mention, the political structure designed by Luo Zhixue, without the emperor's personal control, as long as there is no major event, in fact there will be Luo Zhixue or no Luo Zhixue. There is not much difference in annals.

Especially when dealing with some daily affairs, the emperor does not need to participate at all, and the ministers below can solve them by themselves.

So probably in the past few years from the 25th year of Chengshun to the 30th year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue was lazy and seldom dealt with government affairs, and the Great Chu Empire still maintained a steady pace of development...Of course there were gains and losses, because Luo Zhixue was lazy in the past few years , and further decentralization of power, it also led to the formation of some so-called practices that are not good for the imperial power... In the past, the emperor had to make decisions in person, but now the ministers hold a small meeting by themselves, and they can vote to make decisions after discussing something It's decided.

Luo Zhixue is very clear about this, but he doesn't care too much.

Waiting until 30 years after Chengshun, Luo Zhixue felt that it was meaningless to eat, drink and have fun every day... There was a feeling of eating, drinking and waiting to die.

Coupled with the continuous rise in the national power of the Great Chu Empire, Luo Zhixue also saw more possibilities, and finally a new ambition was born in his heart.

In this life, he basically has everything he can have when he is alive... So he began to pursue the so-called posthumous fame.

He wants to become the greatest emperor in China's thousands of years of history... and this greatest is not something he boasted about or his courtiers boasted about, nor is it even the evaluation of contemporary people.

Luo Zhixue hoped that after his death, decades or even hundreds of years later, people would still think that he was the greatest emperor in China for thousands of years.

People, there must be some pursuit, right?

When Luo Zhixue had a change in mentality, the high-level strategy of the Great Chu Empire also changed... It was also the beginning of this period. The Great Chu Empire did not simply pursue expanding its territory as before, but pursued a more one-sided pursuit. Big land, more factories, these things.

Instead, start paying more attention to people's livelihood!
In the past two years, under the influence of Luo Zhixue, a new trend of thought for expansion has formed in the top management of the empire, that is, instead of exterminating all the aborigines and grabbing all the land... it is better to let the aborigines continue to live and farm and dig Mines, and then generate surplus value, they Chu people only need to produce some industrial products, and use these industrial products to bring over the surplus value of the indigenous people.

This can greatly improve the living standards of the people.

Apart from a series of domestic reasons, this change in the top management of the empire is also related to the change in Luo Zhixue's mentality.

Because Luo Zhixue wanted to be a good emperor who would be praised by ordinary people even after hundreds of years!

And for the vast majority of ordinary people, what kind of emperor is a good emperor?

The emperor who leads the country to become stronger, slaps all countries, expands the territory, and turns the empire into an emperor on which the sun never sets?

Then in the mid-to-late nineteenth century, the average life expectancy in London was only in the thirties, and the average life expectancy was worse than that of the tenants of the Qing Dynasty. The workers must be scolding... the Meiji Restoration and even before World War II, those childhood sweethearts in Japan who watched helplessly The Japanese who go abroad to earn foreign exchange for the country also have to scold their mothers.

Just because the country is strong...doesn't mean the people think you're a good ruler.

For the vast majority of ordinary people, especially those at the bottom, they don't care about and don't understand these international hegemony...they only care about three meals a day!
To put it in the simplest and most plain words: the emperor who allows the people to live a good life is a good emperor!

If it can make the people live a prosperous life, and by the way, it can also beat other countries internationally, so that the people can cheer themselves up when chatting, then it will be the best.

The country is strong and the people are rich... No, the order has to be changed, the people are rich 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 series of expansions of the empire overseas, and what is the purpose of the series of wars?
Fight for territory?Open up living space?Looting resources?

of course……

But the question is, why do you want to do this?
In the past, Luo Zhixue just thought that some overseas places were very good and had to be taken down, such as Malacca, the gold mines in South Africa, North America... Luo Zhixue just thought these places were good, and then sent troops to take them down!

But the starting point is not to improve the lives of the people, but more of a mentality similar to playing a strategy game. A good place is always trying to grab it...

Many strategic game players in later generations, in order to seize territory and occupy grids, did not hesitate to raise taxes, lower the living standards of the people, cause domestic riots, and forcibly increase armaments and annex neighboring countries...just to create a so-called big country!

Luo Zhixue's previous actions were more or less similar to these, although the Great Chu Empire's overseas expansion process eased the contradiction between the number of people in the country and the lack of land, and brought more resources and markets to domestic companies.

But it must be said that these results are not what 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 of the world.

The results of the two seem to be similar, but that is based on the premise that the Great Chu Empire itself is strong enough. If the strength of the empire is slightly weaker, then such a strong and large-scale overseas expansion will cause many internal problems, and even rebellion ...And according to Luo Zhixue's mentality back then, if there is a rebellion in the country, it will be forced to continue to expand!
Build a powerful empire on which the sun never sets!
This was some of his goals in the early years, especially before Chengshun 30 years ago, and the starting point for formulating many strategic policies.

But 30 years after Chengshun, Luo Zhixue's starting point is somewhat different.

Even though the empire is still expanding overseas, various domestic reforms are continuing, but the starting point is different, so the specific implementation methods are also different, and the goals pursued are also different.

What Luo Zhixue is pursuing today is not to build a so-called powerful empire, but to make people's lives better.

In recent years, the empire has worked hard to expand and colonize the outside world, to develop agriculture in the Americas, and to continue to support agriculture in the country, and to develop agriculture in the Northeast and even in the south of the desert.

It's not for a powerful empire, it's just to increase the per capita food.

Luo Zhixue wants to increase the annual per capita grain consumption from about 380 kilograms to [-] kilograms per capita!

That's it!

These are what Luo Zhixue pursues after 30 years in Chengshun, to build an empire that will make the people rich and the country strong.

Although he continued to allow the army and navy of the empire to sweep away the natives of various countries...but this was only a means, not an end.

His purpose is to enable the hundreds of millions of people in the empire to have enough to eat, to eat well, to be warmly dressed, to live in spacious and bright houses, and to be able to have a family with a smile on their days off. Visit relatives and friends or go on vacation.

He hopes that the people of the empire under his rule can live a prosperous and happy life!

It has to be said that this is a very grand and difficult goal. Looking at China's thousands of years of history, no emperor has ever been able to achieve it, and even no ruler in ancient and modern China and 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 set.

But Luo Zhixue believes that as long as he firmly moves towards the goal he set, there will always be a chance. Even if he can't achieve perfection in the end, but if he can achieve a part of it, it is not a complete failure.

As a person, you have to give yourself some goals, otherwise you really can only eat and wait to die.

It's just that Luo Zhixue's new life goal is somewhat illusory and unrealistic compared to the life goals of ordinary people...

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 it is too difficult to take care of it for a while, and it is too difficult to live a prosperous life... With a population of more than 4 million, it is too difficult to be rich per capita.

So Luo Zhixue set his goal on a more realistic goal that is possible to achieve through hard work in the near future:

Let the people have enough food... the real sense of full food, the kind of [-] kilograms of grain per capita!

Even though the empire has a large population, not counting overseas territories, there are more than 4 million people in the mainland alone, and they are rushing to [-] million people...

But he still doesn't believe it, the food grown on so much land in the world can't support [-] to [-] million people!
He didn't even believe that, with a lot of money and subsidies, even mass production of chemical fertilizers and hybrid rice would not be possible...impossible.

So when the European Expeditionary Forces were fighting in Europe, trying to pry open the entire European market, using the whole of Europe as a supplier of agricultural products and industrial raw materials and a dumping place for industrial commodities.

Luo Zhixue also formally held an expanded conference in Jinling City in October 37 of Chengshun, focusing on discussing grain production and supply issues.

"In five years, I want to increase the per capita grain to [-] kilograms within five years!"

"Develop more wasteland, import more grain through trade, increase the grain yield per mu through more and better water conservancy facilities, and planting technology... Find ways to increase the per capita grain level!"

"It is my mission to feed the common people, and it is also your responsibility!"

"To further organize the development of local wasteland, the Northeast, the Monan region, and even Huguang, Yunnan, Guizhou and other regions must further deepen the grain development. At the same time, we must vigorously attack the land of fish and rice. During the urban construction of important grain producing areas, large-scale encroachment on grain arable land the behavior of."

"Urban development is important, but food supply is even more important!"

"To further expand the source of food imports, the agricultural development in North America is still seriously insufficient. The central and western regions of North America are the major food production areas, as well as India, Africa and subsequent Europe. The food supply levels 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 developed a frozen ship to ensure the food supply of the fleet when sailing in the ocean. So can we use this frozen ship technology to develop large-scale overseas animal husbandry? Breeding technology, and then transport a large amount of meat to the mainland through frozen ships to increase the local meat supply?"

"Fertilizer-related technology has been researched and developed for so many years, but it is still in the laboratory stage. Why is this happening? Is it insufficient funds or insufficient technical personnel? Relevant departments must find out problems in a timely manner, and then solve them to speed up the mass production of fertilizers. "

"And the hybrid rice has been done for many years, and there is no result now. 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 constant research. It is an experimental rice breeding process, which itself is time-consuming."

"Since rice breeding takes time, can we build more hybrid rice breeding bases and carry out multiple different researches at the same time? Shorten the entire trial breeding process?"

"There are many food problems, but we can't ignore them and don't care about them!"

"I hope that through concerted efforts, the food supply problem will be solved within five years, at least partly."

After a long talk, Luo Zhixue looked around at the ministers of counselors and co-organizers, and then said loudly: "I am about to start a new journey, and on the way forward, I hope that all my dear ministers will not fall behind!"

(End of this chapter)