afterglow

Chapter 64 Cabinet Deliberations
Zhou Changfeng's worries are not unreasonable. Although he is not interested in classical history, he has a little understanding of the past dynasties.

Although Daming, known for his toughness in diplomacy, has the reputation of "no kinship, no compensation, and no tribute", but in his opinion, he has changed from the extreme of the Song Dynasty to the other extreme.

This point is coerced by folk customs. Ming people despise the weakness of Song Dynasty. Throughout the 300 years of Ming Dynasty, even a slightly moderate diplomatic attitude will be opposed by literati.

There were very few diplomatic means in the classical era, nothing more than paying tribute, proclaiming vassals, sending protons, making peace, and prohibiting trade, but Ming’s political correctness did not allow them to appear, so the only option left was war .

Looking at it objectively, Zhou Changfeng thinks that this is also unreasonable. It should be known that war is undoubtedly the most resource-intensive strategy in ancient times with low productivity. In many cases, the goal can be achieved with less cost.

When the country is at its peak, such a tough diplomatic attitude is not bad, but it can inspire people; but when the country is in decline, continuing to be so tough is to hasten its demise.

The extremes of the Song and Ming Dynasties are obviously not advisable. The majestic war power can certainly inspire the army and the people, but this is "dead energy", while the flexible diplomatic means can play a wonderful role in four or two, which is called "transformation energy".

The two complement each other and are indispensable. Only when they are used properly can they gain the upper hand in the diplomatic game.

At noon on this day, the Forbidden City, Wenhua Palace.

Looking back at history, the first cabinet created in the Yongle period usually held office in Wenyuan Pavilion. This rule has been used in the later Ming Dynasty, because the location and regulatory level of Wenyuan Pavilion are indeed suitable as the working place for cabinet scholars.

However, after the constitutional government, the reorganized cabinet moved to the Wenhua Palace.

Since the number of government affairs in modern countries far exceeds that in ancient times, there are at least a dozen cabinet members. Wenyuan Pavilion, which has limited space, is also responsible for collecting books, so it seems a bit crowded.

The Wenhua Hall was originally used as a place for studying Buddhist scriptures, but now it is hardly used, so it was simply moved here.

Although there is an example of "re-establishing a prime minister, who will be in charge of the painting and maintenance; set up twelve cabinet ministers to participate in the maintenance." However, the number of cabinet ministers is not necessarily 12, and in many cases there will be a little more.

Similar to the titles of chancellor, minister, lord, and secretary enjoyed by British cabinet members, Ming's cabinet ministers also followed the previous habit of adding the title of bachelor.

The Bachelor of Fengtian Temple is in charge of personnel work, that is, the personnel cabinet minister;

The Bachelor of Huagaidian University is in charge of financial work, that is, the Minister of Finance;

The Bachelor of Jinshendian is in charge of civil affairs work, that is, the minister of civil affairs;

The Bachelor of Wenhuadian University is in charge of diplomatic work, that is, the Minister of Foreign Affairs;

The Martial Arts Hall University Bachelor is in charge of national defense work, that is, the National Defense Cabinet Minister;

These five cabinet ministers are the most important, and they are called the "Upper Five Prime Ministers". In addition, there are many cabinet members, such as those responsible for education, water conservancy, sanitation, transportation, etc., who are uniformly titled Bachelor of Wenyuan Pavilion.

The cabinet is headed by the prime minister and is not responsible to the Advisory Council (Parliament), but only to the emperor.

But a very important point is that although the cabinet does not care about the Advisory Council, it is supervised by the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

This is a special feature different from the typical dual constitutional monarchy system, which limits the power of the emperor to a considerable extent-this was the last effort made by the new party when it compromised.

In addition, the traditional Chinese powers of refuting and enforcing performances have also been used. The former is controlled by Liuke Geshizhong, and the latter is controlled by the chief assistant (prime minister) of the cabinet.

"Anything that is inconvenient to make an edict must be sealed and played; if there is something unreasonable in the punishment and prison, it must be refuted and corrected." The two are called together, which is called sealing and refuting.

At this moment, in a meeting room in the east side of Wenhua Hall, several cabinet ministers are having daily exchanges and discussions.

"Currently, the British are complaining, but they dare not use the actual means."

"The current signs are still very good, but it may also be that the time is too short, and the attitudes of all parties are not yet clear. Let it take a few days. At the latest... the League of Nations Congress should also be clear."

Li Guangyuan, a scholar of the Huagaidian University and the Minister of Finance, flipped through the booklet and said casually: "Indeed, this matter cannot be rushed. According to the plan last year, we might as well make a fuss about exporting materials."

"Let's limit it to strategic materials, so that the direction is clearer." Yu Shenhua, a scholar of the Wenhua Palace and Foreign Minister, took a sip of tea, "Now the world situation is not stable again, and the place of Flangji has become noisy. Look. This posture will not calm down in two or three years."

Li Guangyuan only grasped the second half of his sentence, and said: "A few days ago, you said that it is better not to meddle, but to just sell things. Now it seems that Britain and France think the same way."

The topic suddenly turned to the Iberian Peninsula.

"It's probably the so-called 'non-intervention policy' again, looking coldly at the infighting in Spain."

"That's not sure, what if the Germans end in person? Britain and France will definitely not sit still."

If the German Society helped the Republican Army win the final victory, then France would be faced with the cheese sandwiched between bread and bread. The French naturally dare not take this risk, and this is also against the British national policy of "balance of power diplomacy".

Suddenly, Yu Shenhua turned his head to look at the Minister of Defense beside him, and asked, "Does the military department think it necessary to send someone to visit?"

The latter looks gentle and elegant, and at first glance looks like a scholar.

Lin Xi, who was flipping through the documents, nodded slightly, and replied casually: "Of course we have to go, it's a beneficial and harmless move."

The topic diverged a little, but everyone quickly moved it back to the topic.

After some discussion, they reconfirmed the previous idea, that is, the British counterattacked Ming's restrictions on oil imports, and reversely restricted the export of the three major military strategic materials.

Increase the price layer by layer, add another one if one is not good, and even unilaterally cut prices to increase exports to the thorny German society of Britain and France.

One is tung oil, which has been widely used by the people since ancient times. It is indispensable for furniture, ships, oilcloth, oil paper, etc.

And its high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, non-conductivity, and fast drying characteristics make it also play a key role in industrial production-paints made of different oils, soybean paint takes 41 hours to dry, linseed oil It takes 28 hours, perilla oil takes 18 hours, and tung oil only takes 7 hours.

At the same time, it is also one of the important organic raw materials. Hundreds of products represented by anti-rust paint need it to be produced, and its status is evident.

And because most countries in the world have failed to introduce tung oil, or have little success, so Daming occupies an absolute monopoly in the export of tung oil, with an annual output of up to 90% of the world's total, and the remaining 10%. Mainly Uruguay and Argentina, and the quality is not as good as that produced in China.

In the past three years, Daming's annual export volume of tung oil has basically hovered around [-] tons and [-] tons. It can be said that it exists in machinery and industrial products all over the world.

(End of this chapter)