Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 2092 With the establishment of the Commercial Bureau, the three major governors

At this moment, Wang Yu also took a deep look at Zhao Nanping below. In the Zhen Dong Army back then, although this old guy was not as close to Wang Chang as Kuai Liang and Zhao Anling, he was the unyielding figure of Yanbei.

From Wang Yu's grandfather's generation to his own, the generation has gradually transitioned, and no amount of ups and downs has affected him.

Indeed, it wasn't entirely without reason.

There were some things that Wang Yu had only discussed with a few trusted ministers; at least this old fellow was not within the scope of his knowledge.

It's likely that this old fellow has already keenly sensed something, and thus, he's once again become the first to stick his neck out.

"It is precisely because merchants are driven by profit that a Ministry of Commerce should be established to strictly regulate them!" Guan Zhong, the Minister of Personnel, stood up and spoke frankly. At the same time, he stopped Zhao Nanping from continuing.

Some things are best left unsaid. It's not time to completely tear off this veil of pretense yet.

Of course, Zhao Nanping was tactful and had no intention of continuing the conversation; in fact, he had already decided to stop there.

If we were to continue down this path, while the four imperial merchants would be the main players in the matter he mentioned, other merchants would also be involved, including some people in the imperial court, especially those from the Yanbei faction.

It's not just their merchants; aren't the merchants from the Eastern Yi and Northern Di the same kind of people? They have contraband that the other side needs, and the other side also has contraband that they need!
Sometimes, the imperial court even existed behind these commercial transactions. However, some things could be guessed or known, but that didn't mean they could be openly discussed.

The Emperor was clearly wary of the imperial merchants, which was why Zhao Nanping was willing to take this opportunity to chime in. And this chime was something his old body could still withstand.

Even if the imperial merchants cause him trouble because of this, he can simply retire; after all, he's reached retirement age anyway. If the imperial merchants continue to pursue him after that, then there's no reason for them to do so.

He, however, took advantage of the official position he was about to lose upon retirement, and used it one last time.

If it were to be completely torn apart, the rebound would be something he wouldn't be able to withstand.

Therefore, it is important to grasp the right balance.

“Minister Guan, if the Ministry of Commerce is established, although it can regulate merchants, I fear that the status of merchants will rise too high, and everyone will become a merchant, which will be a sign of great chaos!” Di Renjie said to Guan Zhong.

In the alternate world of Apocalypse, the status of merchants is indeed not as low as on Earth. At least, there are absolutely no restrictions on clothing or housing. However, some restrictions still exist, such as restrictions on official rank and title. These are real restrictions.

Especially titles of nobility, which have absolutely nothing to do with merchants.

As for the four imperial merchants, they were imperial merchants, from aristocratic families; there's no need to treat them as mere merchants. Just as Zhu Youxiao, though a carpenter, is no different from any other carpenter.

To put it bluntly, the Four Imperial Merchants can be viewed as a kind of alternative government department; they were essentially managing the country's commerce on behalf of the court. Otherwise, how could they have even managed trade in salt, iron, and military equipment?

These are business areas that other ordinary businessmen are not qualified to operate.

"The Ministry of Commerce can be established, but it must not be on par with the Six Ministries. It should be subordinate to the Six Ministries and be called the Ministry of Commerce! It can be controlled by the Ministry of Revenue!" Guan Zhong said after thinking for a while.

Neither Guan Zhong nor Wang Yu had considered elevating the Ministry of Commerce to the same level as the Six Ministries.

If we were to do it that way, it would create a huge problem!
Their release of such information is simply a matter of seeking the highest and achieving the middle, or seeking the middle and achieving the lowest.

Sure enough, after Guan Zhong proposed this solution, although there were still dissenting voices, their strength was incomparable to those of the past.

At least, people like Di Renjie obediently returned to the queue and stopped speaking.

The Six Ministries are not just six ministries; they also have subordinate departments.

For example, the Ministry of Personnel had four subordinate departments: the Selection of Officials, the Verification of Officials, the Investigation of Merits, and the Evaluation of Officials.

The Ministry of Revenue had the most subordinate departments, each of which was a division, and each department was further divided into four sub-departments: Civil Affairs, Finance, Finance, and Granary.

Generally speaking, the departments under the Six Ministries were mainly staffed with officials such as Langzhong, Yuanwailang, and Zhushi. As for the specific number of officials, there was no fixed rule; it depended on the specific circumstances of each department.

The number of officials in departments under the Ministry of Personnel is relatively small. Generally speaking, each department has one director, one assistant director, and one clerk.

Each of the departments under the Ministry of Revenue was headed by one secretary, one assistant secretary, and two clerks.

In the official system of the Han Dynasty, the Langzhong was a fifth-rank official, the Yuanwailang was a fifth-rank official, and the Zhushi was a sixth-rank official.

If a Ministry of Commerce were established, its chief officials would be officials of the second and third ranks, which would naturally be unacceptable to officials at all levels.

However, if it is just a commercial office under the Six Ministries, then the chief official is only a fifth or sixth-rank official, and the officials at all levels cannot compromise.

“Very well, if that is the case, then let us follow Minister Guan’s suggestion and establish a Commerce Bureau, which shall be under the Ministry of Revenue, with Wang Hai, the Earl of Shangqiu, as the Director in charge of the Commerce Bureau.”

In the Golden Palace, Wang Yu's words sealed the deal with the matter of the Commerce Bureau.

As for the civil and military officials, at this moment, they were still trying to recall who this Earl of Shangqiu was!
However, judging from the name, they could roughly guess that he was a member of the Han imperial family.

When the Han Dynasty was first established, the imperial family members were naturally granted numerous titles. Those with high status in their families were generally granted the title of Duke, or even King, or at the very least Marquis, and many of these titles were hereditary.

The next level down is granting titles of duke or marquis, but these titles are not hereditary.

There are also some whose relationships are somewhat skewed, but not to an absurd degree, and who are symbolically granted titles such as Earl, Viscount, or Baron. Of course, none of these titles are hereditary.

And the latter type, there are far more of these.

Of course, it was impossible for these civil and military officials to remember every single one of them clearly.

The main purpose of this business is not to solve the problems in business development; if those problems were truly to be solved, there would be more than one way to do so.

In reality, it was still in preparation for completely eliminating the Nangong family, and at the same time, it was also an initial attempt to consolidate power.

The Four Imperial Merchants were essentially an alternative organization set up by the imperial court to manage merchants on its behalf. Now that the court has taken this power back into its own fold, it is naturally to reclaim some of their power.

The problems of the four imperial merchants are indeed more troublesome than those of the four generals' mansions.

Of the four generals' mansions, they are actually the easiest to deal with.

After all, they had either rebelled outright or stood against the rebels, becoming complete enemies. Therefore, the problem could naturally be resolved through war. In the end, it would be a winner-takes-all scenario; as long as they won, the problems of the four generals' mansions would be solved.

After that, as long as Wang Yu does not open this door again and does not give the military the opportunity to form such military leaders, as long as this bottom line is upheld, there is no need to fear that the system of the Four Great Generals' Mansions will reappear in the future.

However, only those problems that can be solved by force are easy to solve; the rest are much more troublesome.

These imperial merchants were usually law-abiding citizens, but when the court needed them, they were all incredibly generous. Even if they wanted to evade taxes, they did so through legal and legitimate means provided by the court.

In this way, there is no reason to take action against them.

While it's not to say that these four imperial merchants are completely without fault—that's simply impossible—on the contrary, if they were to look for problems, they could easily find a whole host of them.

However, it is difficult to identify the fundamental problem.

If you think you can take someone down based on minor issues without addressing the root cause, then you are truly acting without any legitimate reason!

This is similar to the officials under Wang Yu who might accept a few dozen or a few hundred taels of silver to forcibly buy a few acres of land. If Wang Yu finds out, he can reprimand them, but can he use that as a pretext to take their lives? Let alone take the lives of their entire families!

The Dongfang family, for example, bet the entire clan on this. The Beiming family, while not comparable to the Dongfang family, will cooperate as much as possible.

If this action is taken without a legitimate cause, it could instantly become a matter of whether people support it or not!

If the Nangong family hadn't been provoked by the Celestial Masters Sect and hadn't sided entirely with Zhong Cang, they would have been completely involved in this grand game of chess and become the losers.

Therefore, there was sufficient reason to deal with the Nangong family.

At this point, the Nangong family's status was no different from that of the other three major generals' mansions; if they won, they could have a legitimate reason to eliminate him.

Even so, Wang Xu and Wang Yu still took extra precautions, framing them for the demonic disaster.

And that's not all!

As one of the four major imperial merchants, it is not so easy to destroy. Without the cooperation of other imperial merchants, even if the person is killed, how will the chaos afterwards be handled?

As the four major imperial merchants whose economic reach has penetrated every aspect of Dacang, wouldn't it cause problems if they were cut off without any preparation?
Therefore, so far, Wang Yu has only maintained control over the Nangong family, without carrying out the final strike. He is waiting, waiting for the remaining two major imperial merchants.

With the establishment of the Chamber of Commerce and the cooperation of the two major imperial merchants, even if the Nangong family is dealt with and some economic fluctuations occur, they can be suppressed as quickly as possible, minimizing the turmoil.

The biggest problem with Guan Zhong's reforms, particularly in the political sphere, was that they dismantled the existing political system of Da Cang. With the four major generals' mansions essentially gone, and the four imperial merchants opening a breach, this was arguably the biggest problem solved.

After all, without the four generals and the four imperial merchants, the six great families alone could not have maintained that stable political system.

As for eliminating these six powerful families, Guan Zhong had absolutely no interest in it!

Even if he eliminates one group, a new group will appear. How could the world be without powerful families?

People like Han Xin and Xue Rengui, as well as the civil and military officials of the Han Dynasty, grew from small families to large families as the Han Dynasty developed. Even if they were from humble backgrounds, as long as they became founding heroes, they could become a family after several generations.

Knowing full well that dealing with one batch would only lead to another soon, Guan Zhong was too lazy to do such unnecessary work; he wasn't that idle!

After all, once that balanced political system is broken, these six powerful families will never be able to stand as strong as they once were.

As this chaotic world unfolds, some of them will inevitably decline, or even disappear in the tides of time.

Take the Yang family, one of the six great families, for example. Although they haven't fallen out of the ranks of the six great families after all the turmoil they've experienced in recent years, they are clearly not as powerful as they used to be.

The Zhuge family, for example, has kept a very low profile in recent years, focusing solely on their own small territory!

As for reform, many people around the world are currently implementing reforms and encountering various problems.

Like Da Xiao and Alexander's Macedonia, both were undergoing reforms, and each had its own problems.

However, the biggest problem facing the Han Dynasty has already begun to be solved.

The Ministry of Commerce has been established, but this is not the most important matter in the court today.

The most important thing to discuss today should be the affairs of the prefects of Qingbei, Henan, and Guangyin.

Currently, these three areas are still under military control, and no local officials have been appointed yet.

Now that the battle is over, it is natural to get these three places back on track as soon as possible.

"Your Majesty, Wang Anshi, the Prefect of Hebei Circuit, and Fang Xuanling, the Prefect of Youyuan County, are suitable candidates for governorship!" Guan Zhong was the first to offer two suggestions.

As the Minister of Personnel, he was, if not the most knowledgeable about, the performance of local officials, but certainly one of the most knowledgeable.

He is naturally one of the most qualified to speak on who has the right to move up in rank.

However, he only gave two candidates, so he had to give others a chance to recommend.

Of course, there was someone more suitable in his heart, but given his position, he couldn't bring himself to say it.

"As the saying goes, one should recommend the virtuous without avoiding relatives. During the tenure of Prefect Shen Buhai of Shenglan, the chaos in Shenglan was almost completely quelled, and the production of Shenglan Road has now basically recovered. Governor Xun has submitted several memorials to request merit for him, and Minister Guan recommended his colleagues Wang and Fang, but they avoided mentioning Prefect Shen. This is not the way of a subject!" Zhao Nanping said in a rebuking tone.

The Imperial Censor, being an official responsible for reprimanding others, naturally tends to use a more critical tone, which is not a major problem.

Not to mention, what sounds like a reprimand is actually just giving Guan Zhong face by bringing up the name he wanted to mention.

After all, Guan Zhong and Shen Zhong both came from the Legalist school, so Guan Zhong was naturally happy to let others bring it up.

“Imperial Censor Zhao is right!” Guan Zhong readily accepted the advice and humbly accepted it.

Shen Buhai was originally the most suitable person in his mind, and also the one with the most outstanding political achievements among the three.