I want to be emperor

Chapter 892 Songjiang Business Daily
In December of the 37th 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.

During the 37th year of Chengshun during the Little Ice Age, the winter was much colder than that of later generations in the 21st century, even colder than the late Ming Dynasty more than 30 years ago.

This year, the Yangtze River has even been frozen. In December, two consecutive cold waves moved southward, not only greatly reducing the temperature and snowfall in the northern provinces, but also snowing in Songjiang City, a coastal city that was relatively warm in the past. .

Not to mention the area in the south of the Yangtze River, even in the Guangdong area further south, it has snowed almost every year in the past [-] years, even in Guangzhou, it often snows.

This kind of situation is probably beyond the imagination of the world...

Of course, the coldness of this Little Ice Age was only limited to winter... It doesn't mean that it was so cold all year round, in fact, it was 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 climates. 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 detected under macroscopic conditions. In fact, you are often not aware of them when you are in them.

At least the Chu people who lived in Chengshun for 37 years actually did not have the concept of the Little Ice Age, and most people could not feel it.

Because according to most of them, the weather has been basically like this since they were born... And Sun Xu, who was born in the north and has already settled in Songjiang City, doesn't think it's so unusual for Songjiang City to snow...

What's more, it was just a little snow, which melted not long after it hit the ground.

Compared with the heavy snowfall in his hometown in winter, it is not 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 from the Guangning coalfield in Guangdong, and the room temperature in the house is maintained at a level acceptable to the human body.

After waking up in the morning to freshen up and change clothes, Sun Xu went down to the first floor and sat on the dining table, where two newspapers that had been ironed in advance had already been placed.

One is the local Songjiang Business Daily in Songjiang Prefecture, and the other is the Chaobao.

It was only three or four years ago that the restrictions on newspapers in places like Songjiang Commercial Daily were gradually lifted. In the early days, there was only one newspaper in the entire empire, and that was the Great Chu Dynasty Daily.

In addition, private newspapers are strictly prohibited, and local governments are also prohibited from running newspapers on their own.

The morning newspaper is managed by the Chaobao Department of the Ministry of Ritual and Education of the Great Chu Empire. It sets up a national version and a provincial version, and dispatches officials to each province to set up a provincial morning newspaper office. Jurisdiction.

Instead, it still belongs to the Chaobao Department, which is directly under the Ministry of Rites and Education.

The court officials sent to the localities are not local officials, but still belong to the establishment system of the Ministry of Rites and Education, and belong to the Beijing official sequence.

The court officials sent to the local area interviewed and wrote the content of the article, and delivered it to their superiors for review.

Among them, the Chaobao Department directly finalizes the content of the national edition, and quickly transmits the finalized national edition content to the provinces through the official document transmission channel, and then adds the provincial edition content reviewed and finalized by the Chaobao Office of each province, and finally brings it together and distributes it to each government. Printing and finally distribution.

At the same time, the content of each provincial edition of each province, although the Provincial Morning News Office has reviewed it by itself, still needs to be sent to the Gyeonggi Morning News Department for record verification. will be punished accordingly.

The editing, editing and distribution of the entire morning newspaper can be described as quite complicated.

But newspapers are very sensitive, and Luo Zhixue has always been vigilant about using them.

I want to use the court paper to publicize imperial policies, so that ordinary people can know the major policies of the imperial court through convenient channels, break down the information barrier between the imperial court officials and ordinary people, and transfer the power of local public opinion from the hands of local gentry and scholars received by the official.

At the same time, because the newspapers directly face the general public, the news released will be spread quickly and widely, so the influence of public opinion is very large.

Such a powerful tool of public opinion naturally needs to be firmly grasped, and at the same time, it is also necessary to prevent some non-mainstream people from appearing in the official morning newspaper organization, and use this channel to publish some non-mainstream content.

Therefore, Luo Zhixue's morning newspaper system is both useful and defensive. On the one hand, it is issued on a large scale, but on the other hand, it has established a very strict review system.

Among them, the content of the national edition is even more costly, sacrificing the timeliness of the newspaper, and using the whole process of local editing, review by the newspaper department, official document distribution, and local printing to ensure the accuracy of the content.

However, with the progress of society, and the timeliness requirements of the people for news...especially the timeliness requirements for local news, it is also prompting the Great Chu Empire to carry out continuous changes in the newspapers.

In the 25th year of Chengshun, at the request of the general public and even a large number of local officials, after repeated discussions at the Imperial Counseling Meeting of the Great Chu Empire, the provincial edition of the Chaobao was formally established. The office is responsible for the collection, editing and review of the content of the provincial newspapers of each province, and prints and distributes them together with the national newspapers that arrive.

After 30 years of Chengshun, due to the continuous progress of society, people's demand for information is no longer limited to understanding official news, popular science knowledge, literary works, etc., but also hope to know more commercial content and even some messy news , to meet business needs and even curiosity.

Therefore, Chengshun started in the 34th year, and after discussions at the imperial council meeting, it was finally decided to carefully trial run local newspapers with higher timeliness and business information, and selected several 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 business and the strongest demand for time-sensitive business information.

At the same time, it is also because of the control of these imperial officials in these big cities, especially the education work of the Ministry of Rites and Education in these places is very powerful.

After all, these cities are so important that the imperial officials can't ignore them... and the pilot work with a high degree of attention can ensure more power to supervise local newspapers.

Songjiang Business Daily was officially established and published in the 35th year of Chengshun under the background of this era.

Although Songjiang Business Daily is a local newspaper, it is not actually under the jurisdiction of Songjiang Prefecture, nor is it under the jurisdiction of the Confucianism Institute in Jiangnan Province. Instead, it is still directly under the jurisdiction of the Chaobao Department of the Ministry of Confucianism, just like the previous provincial newspaper.

The Chaobao Department of the Ministry of Ethics and Education directly sent a senior court official from Sipin to Songjiang City to serve as the supervisor of the Songjiang Commercial Daily, and also served as the deputy director of the Jiangnan Chaobao Office.

By the way, the relevant officials of the Chaobao Department are quite high-ranking, and the director of the Chaobao Department is usually the right servant of the Ministry of Etiquette and Education... In other words, the director of the Chaobao Department is actually a second-rank position. It is not the third product of the regular department-level organization
From Erpin, it is a proper sequence of the top senior officials of the empire, and is already qualified to participate in the council meeting of corresponding affairs. When discussing the issue of enlightenment, the right servant of the Ministry of Rites and Education, as the specific official in charge, naturally needs to participate in the relevant council meeting of.

Otherwise, even the specific person in charge is not here, so why discuss it...

The two major tasks or powers of the Ministry of Rites and Education are the imperial examination and the education.

The former selects materials for the country, while the latter is responsible for education.

The Chaobao Department is an important part of the education work in the Ministry of Rites and Education. Usually, You Shilang, who is in charge of the education work, also serves as the director.

The deputy director of the Chaobao Department is a well-regulated third-rank official, but only senior officials of the third rank are qualified to serve. At the same time, if the director of the Chaobao Department is transferred, it is usually a promotion, not a level transfer... This is etiquette and some There are many good springboards in the relevant institutions to continue to climb up from the third-rank officials.

It's not unusual for the directors of the departments directly under the deputy director to be the fourth grade.

And the directors of the provincial court newspapers stationed in the localities are also of the fourth rank, and their ranks seem to be comparable to the ranks of the heads of departments and prefects in the governor's yamen.

However, the officials of the court newspaper office are all dispatched by Beijing officials, 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 rites and education departments in various provinces are not from the If the third grade counselor is concurrently serving, then the director of the Provincial Department of Ethics and Education is not as good as the director of the provincial newspaper office in terms of actual rank and even political status.

In fact, most of the directors of the Provincial Morning News Office are either transferred back to Beijing to continue to be a fourth-rank Beijing official after their term of office is over, or they are promoted to a higher level and transferred to other places, generally serving as third-rank provincial councilors... Of course, Those who are unlucky and commit crimes in the middle or retire to the second-tier pension and retire at the age of age are not counted, only the normal transfer and promotion.

As for the directors of the Confucianism Departments of various provinces, it is very difficult to be directly promoted to the third rank. When they are promoted, they will often be transferred back to the Gyeonggi Ministry of Ethics and Education or other institutions to take up the position of the fourth rank. Only then can he expect to be consulted by the province of Sanpin.

Of course... There is no affiliation relationship 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 various provinces can ignore the local yamen...they don't even need to give the local governor face. influence of officials.

What the empire wants is a unified voice of public opinion controlled by the Senate of the Imperial Gyeonggi Province and the emperor of the empire...the voice of public opinion controlled by the local governor is not needed.

As for the channel of public opinion, the high-level officials of the empire, the ministers of affairs, and the emperor of the empire have always attached great importance to it.

This has led to the situation that the officials of the court stationed in the local area still belong to the establishment of the Ministry of Rites and Education and belong to the sequence of Beijing officials.

In the Great Chu Empire, there is only a more unique tax department.

The taxation agencies in the Great Chu Empire have always been unique. They basically do not deal with local governments or other agencies in Gyeonggi. All taxation officials across the country, even the most grassroots taxation officials and even the taxation police, belong to the taxation department. It is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry and has nothing to do with the locality...

The empire has always attached great importance to tax collection. In order to allow the tax department to collect taxes better, Luo Zhixue not only allowed the tax agency to set up tax police, but also allowed the tax police to have law enforcement powers in the field of tax law. , And even asked the tax department to set up a professional tax army called a special armed tax police.

The armed tax police of the Great Chu Empire are really capable of fighting on the battlefield. They are much stronger than the so-called armed forces of the Internal Revenue Service in the United States...

During the unification war in the early years, the armed tax police made great contributions to the unification war. Basically, as soon as the regular army took down a place, the armed tax police followed up, and then cooperated with the military to carry out the purge operation. Of course Yes, the armed tax police cooperated with the military to carry out the purge operation, the main purpose was to collect taxes... But at that time, many gentry and dignitaries lived under the Ming Dynasty for a long time, and formed an illusion that they were superior because they did not have to pay taxes Yes, so the tax agency needs to come to the door with guns, swords and spears to collect taxes.

This is also the main reason for the formation and gradual development of armed tax police.

There are too many powerful landlords and gentry resisting taxes, the army is too busy and has few troops, and the local patrol police are useless... In the end, the tax authorities were forced to organize armed tax police to collect taxes.

After the Unification War, the scale of the armed tax police declined rapidly, and they disappeared for a while without any sense of existence... At that time, the armed tax police underwent a large-scale downsizing, and once developed towards a model of small-scale special security operations similar to armed patrols. ...almost lost its large-scale field combat capability.

But soon the empire's large-scale expansion in overseas regions ushered in a new spring for the armed tax police.

The tax authorities of the empire found that tax evasion in the overseas territories and colonies was extremely serious. At the same time, many natives in the colonies and surrounding areas had no concept or willingness to pay taxes.

As a result, armed tax police once again stepped onto the stage of history. Tax officials found that armed tax police in the small-scale public security warfare mode were not enough overseas, so they began to expand their enrollment on a large scale, forming a large number of similar small-scale police with hundreds of people. The armed tax police brigade of the mixed battalion.

Today, the Great Chu Empire has deployed a total of 34 armed tax police brigades in overseas regions (excluding Nanyang, where few indigenous people have been localized), which are widely distributed in overseas territories and colonies in America, India, and Africa.

The total strength reached more than 8000 people.

This is only about the armed tax police who perform combat missions, equipped with a series of the latest breech-loading 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!

Does not include tax police who conduct routine enforcement...

The Armed Tax Police has developed to the present. 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 members of the Armed Tax Police are all in the army, navy or guards. The large-scale transfer of retired soldiers and armed tax police also requires the approval of the military...

This thing has developed to the fourth largest armed force in the Great Chu Empire. When it comes to military procurement, it is often ranked alongside the army, navy, and guards... Of course, the tax department pays for it.

Those people in the military, in the name of armed tax police, let the tax department take advantage of them to help them support more than 1 experienced elite soldiers with many years of combat experience.

Although the tax department has paid for it, it can also more conveniently use the power of the military to suppress various overseas tax-resisting elements...Use the 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 taxation agencies and even tax law enforcement officers are actually connived or even released by the taxation authorities to a certain extent...to let people know that paying taxes is very serious. In order to collect taxes, we tax The agencies and even the army have been brought out...

Before you evade taxes, you should think about it, are you ready to pay the price of family ruin?

According to the tax department's experience over the past [-] years, one cannot rely on the taxpayer's self-awareness to collect taxes...you have to rely on guns!
Just like all Americans in later generations know, they would rather offend the FBI and CIA than the IRS...the former is actually nothing to be afraid of, after all, it has nothing to do with ordinary people...

However, if you evade taxes, the IRS will drive an armored vehicle and rush into your house with a machine gun...

And for the taxation agency of the contemporary Great Chu Empire, such a reputation is also needed... Many times when the armed tax police are in overseas areas, when they attack some local businessmen or even the regime for smuggling and evading taxes, forcibly collecting taxes and even fines, In addition to collecting taxes, it is also to be able to carry out corresponding publicity in the country: we are serious about collecting taxes, don't think about tax evasion!

There is a lot of publicity, and the Chu people naturally feel that the tax authorities should not be provoked, and they will be honest when paying taxes, at least they will not blatantly evade taxes, especially those big taxpayers, that is, those enterprises or the upper class wealthy businessmen and dignitaries.

At most, it is to use loopholes in the rules to play tax avoidance, but no one dares to evade taxes openly!
In this way, the finances of the Great Chu Empire are so healthy.

The central fiscal revenue alone is more than one billion yuan a year. If it's unhealthy, hell...

The Taxation Department is special in the Great Chu Empire... and the newspaper agency is also a special sequence in the Great Chu Empire. Although it seems that power and reputation cannot be compared with taxation agencies, but because of the importance of public opinion channels , so the newspaper organization also followed the example of the tax authorities, adopting the model directly under the jurisdiction of Gyeonggi, and completely separated from the local government.

And this time, the local time-sensitive newspaper, the newspaper department... no, it should be said that the Ministry of Rites and Education attaches great importance to it.

When organizing the Songjiang Commercial Daily, the Ministry of Rites and Education directly transferred a deputy director from Sipin to be the supervisor of the Songjiang Commercial Daily. The importance of newspapers...or vigilance!

The Chaobao Department must ensure that the content and pace of the first batch of local time-sensitive newspapers are within a controllable range, and set a model for the promotion of more local time-sensitive newspapers: this is how local time-sensitive newspapers should be run, and local time-sensitive newspapers should not be given to local newspapers. The official messes around, or the great cause of ethics and education will be ruined, and the official will make you lose the official position in minutes.

(End of this chapter)