My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 518: Each Seeks Its Own Benefit
After clarifying this, the different expressions on everyone's faces, as well as the emotions hidden beneath their appearances, all started to make sense.

——Prime Minister Dou Ying was a great Confucian scholar, so the focus was on this slavery case and the impact it had on the order of respect and hierarchy advocated by Confucianism.

The Imperial Censor Wei Wan was a "scholar-general", so he was instinctively unhappy, but he did not react too strongly.

Grand Chancellor Han Anguo, as a veteran official with a complex academic background, decided to wait and see what would happen.

If the three dukes are like this, the nine ministers below them are even more intriguing.

——Shi Fen, the Minister of Agriculture, seemed to know nothing. He looked at his nose with his eyes and his heart with his nose, as if he was staying out of the matter.

——The Praefectus Urbi, as a well-known good guy inside and outside the court, who rose to the position of Nine Ministers by protecting his reputation, obviously did not want to get involved in this muddy water.

——Grand Coachman Dou Pengzu, who had just regained the favor of Emperor Liu Rong, was also related by blood to Prime Minister Dou Ying, who was also a member of the Dou family, as well as having Empress Dowager Dou as a bridge.

Therefore, Dou Pengzu was somewhat hesitant, not knowing whether he should form a united front with Dou Ying, or learn from his mistakes and stand firmly on the side of Emperor Liu Rong.

...

——Taichang Ji An, as the only one who is a disciple of Huang-Lao school, a newly promoted one of the Nine Ministers, and the confidant of the current Liu Rong, focused his attention on the slavery case itself.

If Liu Rong needed it, Ji An would most likely stand on Liu Rong's side, whether out of his political label as "the current confidant of the palace" or in order to preserve the last spark of Huang-Lao school.

But before that, Ji An still wanted to think carefully about what caused this slavery case and how to avoid it in the future.

He is a practical man in a sense.

——Zhao Yu of Dali, as a representative figure of Legalism today, is overwhelmed with joy!
Something that can make the Confucians suffer a setback is enough to make the Legalists celebrate!
What's more, the series of problems exposed by this slavery case - whether it was the destruction of social order caused by the slave Luan Da's rebellion, or the corruption exposed by the collusion between officials and businessmen - all made Zhao Yu very motivated.

Confucianism advocates the economy of large clans and landlords, and the rule of the country by gentry;
The Legalists, on the other hand, advocated small families and small peasant economy, and ruled the country with high pressure and power.

The two have completely opposite positions and concepts, so their attitudes towards things naturally present two extremes.

——As the elder of the Liu family, Liu Piqiang, the chief of the clan, naturally stood firmly on Liu Rong's side.

After all, this time, Liu Rong did not intend to punish his own relatives or target the Liu clan.

For the Liu clan and the Zong Zhengqing who represented the clan, as long as the emperor did not want to deal with his relatives, they had to support him no matter what he did.

After all, the emperor, clan members, and the ancestral temple and the country are all grasshoppers on the same rope. They prosper together and suffer together.

Naturally, those who also gave unconditional support to Liu Rong included the late emperor's remaining ministers: Langzhongling Zhou Ren, the former Prince of Yiqiu: Shaofu Gongsun Hunxie, and Emperor Liu Rong's maternal relatives: Zhujue Duwei Li Cang.

In total, among the Nine Ministers, there were seven people, including the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Rites, the Chief of the Imperial Guards, the Minister of Clan Affairs, the Minister of Palace Attorney, the Minister of the Imperial Household, and the Minister of Imperial Nobles, who either stood on the side of Emperor Rong or did not get involved in the matter.

Of the remaining two, Zhao Yu of Dali unconditionally supported everything that displeased Confucianism—including this slavery case, which had an impact on the Confucian ideological system.

The only one left is Grand Coachman Dou Pengzu, who is wavering, but he is likely to stand on Liu Rong's side.

——It’s not even possible to be neutral!
After all, Dou Pengzu did not want to experience the feeling of being a relative by marriage and being hidden by the emperor for the second time.

By this calculation, the two people who were truly dissatisfied with the slavery case and Emperor Liu Rong's attitude towards the slavery case, or who had complaints in their hearts, were Prime Minister Dou Ying and Imperial Censor Wei Wan.

Hey, isn't this a coincidence?

Two Confucian scholars!

After clarifying the possible "hostile forces" and determining that the "enemy" is in the minority and "our side" is in the majority, Tian Zirong, who was not tense to begin with, couldn't help but relax a little.

Naturally, there is no rush to get the topic back on track.

——First, talk with Grand Chancellor Han Anguo, who is also one of the Three Dukes, about the work in the past period of time, as well as the problems and obstacles encountered after the establishment of the position of Grand Chancellor.

Overall, Liu Rong was quite satisfied with Han Anguo, the Grand Marshal.

As early as when he was carrying out the reform of the court officials, Liu Rong had already clearly defined the responsibilities of the new three dukes and nine ministers.

The prime minister under the new system is no different from that under the old system, except that the financial power of the prime minister's office and the national treasury is given a safety lock.

The Imperial Censor himself was separated from the Imperial Censorate - the Imperial Censor truly became the "second prime minister" who checked and balanced the Prime Minister;
The Imperial Censor was under the Yamen. Then the name was changed to Grand Chancellor, who was responsible for the supervision of officials and the examination and review of their appointment and removal.

In this way, the three dukes of Han under the new system had, in a sense, initially achieved the most primitive version of the "separation of powers".

However, the separation of powers here is not the legislative power, law enforcement power, and executive power that are well known to people in later generations.

Rather: administrative power, financial power, and personnel power.

——The Prime Minister’s Office is responsible for the operation of the central court and is considered to be in charge of administrative power.

The Grand Censor had a hand in the Prime Minister's Treasury and had the power to monitor and supervise the financial expenditures of the Prime Minister's Treasury, which was a disguised way of interfering with financial power.

The Grand Marshal was responsible for supervising officials, as well as reviewing and examining their appointments and dismissals, and was in charge of initially exercising power over personnel.

This is the true meaning of a three-legged tripod, with the three officials checking and balancing each other.

What kind of checks and balances were those in the past?
The Prime Minister is in charge of government affairs, while the Grand Marshal is in charge of the military. Far from being incompatible with each other, they have the ability to create danger "as long as they unite, they can subvert the world."

Under the tyranny of these two, the so-called "Second Prime Minister" Censor-in-Chief had neither power nor influence.

Even the things hanging around his waist were the silver seal and green ribbon of the Nine Ministers level, and even his rank and salary were the middle two thousand stones of the Nine Ministers level.

Isn't this simply letting the Prime Minister walk like a dog? How can it be possible to "restrain the Prime Minister"?

On the contrary, the promotion route of first becoming the Nei Shi, the head of the Nine Ministers, then serving as the Deputy Prime Minister and the Chief Censor, and finally being promoted from Deputy Prime Minister to the Prime Minister, was called a system in the Han Dynasty and was quite effective.

As a time traveler, Liu Rong has a considerable degree of self-awareness.

——Liu Rong understood that no matter how grand and broad his historical vision was, his political skills and level could never be compared with those old guys in the court who were in their seventies and eighties and had been "up and down in the officialdom for decades".

Liu Rong knew what was the most cost-effective way he could rely on if he wanted to control the court.

The late emperor also taught Liu Rong the most valuable spiritual wealth in this way.

——Checks and balances.

According to the words of the late emperor, being an emperor is actually about studying the art of checks and balances.

For example, the founding emperor was like creating a table from scratch.

After having a table top, in order to support it, the founding emperor would inevitably install many "table legs" under the table top.

For example, military commanders~
Civil servants~
Gong Hou~
Relatives~
And so on and so forth.

Some of these table legs can indeed be used as table legs for a long time;

Some need to be adjusted - either by cutting off a section or extending a section, in order to support the table top.

Some of the materials are not suitable for making table legs at all, and need to be cut completely to make the table top stable.

Therefore, starting from the founding emperor, successive emperors began to study: which legs under the table called the country and the people need to be sawed off, which legs need to be adjusted, and which legs must not be moved. Being able to accurately saw off the "bad table legs" is to eliminate bad policies and clarify the administration of officials.

On this basis, if we can fix the table legs that need adjustment, then prosperity is just around the corner!

As for the table legs that must not be moved, once they are touched, it would mean layoffs in the main arteries - at the very least, the dynasty would decline, and at worst, the country would be overthrown and the rulers would change.

This theory is simple to explain and very easy to understand.

But in actual operation, it is just like the saying: Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish.

——This is a delicate job and it is extremely challenging for the emperor.

For example, Emperor Taizu Gaohuangdi Liu Bang created this table top named "Hanjia" from scratch.

Then, in order to stabilize the table top, without thinking twice, I worked hard to install the legs under the table top.

During this period, the rotten table legs named "Princes of different surnames" were sawed off one by one by Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang.

As a result, when Liu Bang passed away and Emperor Xiaohui came to power, the table legs, known as "foreign relatives", began to rot again.

——On the one hand, this sufficiently thick table leg does indeed stabilize the Han family's table top.

But on the other hand, this overly thick and obviously not straight enough leg also poses a considerable threat to the table top.

When Empress Dowager Lü passed away, the table leg had completely rotted away and was sawed off by the princes and ministers who were responsible for exterminating the Lü clan.

After that, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen succeeded to the throne and began the 27-year "table leg adjustment" work.

For example, the foreign relative (Bo Zhao)
Donggong (Empress Dowager Bo)
The prince of the clan (Liu Xingju)~
And so on.

After careful adjustments by Emperor Taizong, the Han dynasty was finally completely stabilized, and the reign of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing began.

By the time of Liu Rong, the Han dynasty had been completely stabilized.

All it needs is a fastener called 'Bei Zhu Hu Lu' to become as solid as a rock and impossible to be easily defeated!
In order to achieve this goal, Liu Rong spent a lot of money - he spent a lot of money, food and supplies without any regrets, and fought several wars with the Huns in succession.

However, this slavery case told Liu Rong in a mysterious way that the Han family's seemingly solid table had a problem with one of its legs.

If this bad leg called "bureaucracy" is not resolved and corrected, it is very likely to go further and affect the other good leg called "mausoleum system".

If you just leave it alone, the legs will break one after another, and eventually the table top will fall off and break.

As for the checks and balances among the three dukes, it was handed over to Liu Rong by the late emperor when he was still alive.

——The late emperor told Liu Rong that if he wanted two people to check and balance each other, he must make sure that these two people had irreconcilable conflicts.

Only when the contradiction is irreconcilable will they stand on natural opposites.

Only two people standing on opposite sides can restrain and check each other.

For example, the current prime minister and the chief censor have almost irreconcilable conflicts of interest over the issue of treasury financial power.

——The Prime Minister wants to spend the national treasury at will for state affairs expenses.

The Grand Censor wanted to use his power to review, monitor, and even "approve" the state treasury expenditures to control the Prime Minister to a certain extent.

At least the prime minister should be more cautious and tolerant of him, rather than being the prime minister's dog.

The same principle applies if we add a Grand Marshal.

——As the head of all officials, the Prime Minister was dissatisfied with the Grand Censor who interfered with the financial power of the outer court. He was also full of complaints about the Grand Chancellor who controlled personnel appointments.

It was even more impossible for the Grand Censor and the Grand Chancellor to communicate in a friendly manner.

The Imperial Censor said: I have painted a pie in the sky and made a promise to my subordinates, why don’t you let me fulfill it?

Da Sikong replied: How dare you say that?

It’s almost spring, why haven’t we received our winter clothes yet?
Why the hell don’t you let the Prime Minister’s Office and the National Treasury give us official uniforms for the winter!!!
Some people may say that this will not necessarily lead to conflicts of interest and checks and balances.

The prime minister and the chief censor might collude with each other - for example, the prime minister would promise benefits and ask the chief censor to turn a blind eye to the prime minister's office and the national treasury, and the two of them would work together to deceive the emperor.

It is also very likely that the Grand Censor and the Grand Chancellor exchanged interests - I won't block your funding, and you don't block my personnel transfer.

and many more.

In this regard, Liu Rong only wanted to quote the words of the late emperor.

——It may not be perfect, but it is always useful.

It is better to put the three officials in a theoretical conflict of interest than to do nothing and ensure that there is no conflict between the three officials.

To put it bluntly, this means doing your best and leaving the rest to fate.

To put it in a positive way, it is possible to embellish it by saying: This is the most effective measure that can be taken under the current conditions.

At the level of the three highest officials, what Liu Rong wanted to achieve was a three-party check and balance.

Because triangles are stable.

——Just like the three legs of a table, they can definitely make the table stand more stable.

As for the Nine Ministers, Liu Rong's expectation was to make a more detailed and clear division of responsibilities within the scope of their authority, covering the entire world.

For example, the Shaofu is in charge of all the wealth in the world, but he only manages wealth.

For example, the authority of the Minister of Agriculture separated from the Internal History was expanded from Guanzhong to the whole world, and the specific content of the authority was limited from the original all-encompassing to: only managing agriculture and sericulture in the world.

The same applies to the rest.

Taipu - in charge of all horse affairs in the country.

Dali - in charge of all criminal justice in the country.

Zong Zheng – represents all the clan members in the world.

and many more.

In this slavery case, the ministers and officials who remained silent and buried their heads in the sand like ostriches were, in essence, pursuing their own selfish interests.

Those who are a little greedy and have a habit of taking things for granted want to protect themselves and guard their habits.

Those who don't have this habit also instinctively want to protect the people under their command, especially their own direct descendants.

(End of this chapter)