The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 433: The Attitudes of Officials and Representatives
Most of the civilian representatives who attended the meeting were "pen-wielders" and "talkers", such as reporters, editors, lawyers, writers, etc.

They make a living by direct debate and exposition, so they are generally quite eloquent.

Historically, most of the founding fathers of the United States were eloquent people, and they were mainly lawyers and businessmen.

There are still many such people among the first generation of American aristocrats in this world, such as Adams.

However, after they defected to the Ming Dynasty and became aristocrats, they gradually began to learn the traditional aristocratic style of commanding others, and no longer regarded pure debate and business ability as basic skills.

The second generation of nobles are becoming more and more like traditional nobles, and their abilities are declining compared to the first generation of nobles.

The questioning session at the meeting was quite lively at the beginning, but the situation soon became one-sided.

When faced with questions from the nobles, the civilian representatives were generally able to give clear and logical explanations, making the nobles' questions seem unreasonable.

And when the civilian representatives began to question, they usually quickly silenced the noble representatives.

In the end, it often becomes a rogue answer: This is the agreement between our fathers and the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and it is the glory of our fathers and the United States.

After the eldest prince Zhu Jingkun asked the representatives on the scene three questions each, it was almost noon.

The second phase of the meeting was announced to be over and the meeting was temporarily suspended. It will resume at 2 pm and will directly enter the third phase.

All the representatives stood up, first respectfully saw the princes off, and then each went to the palace cafeteria to eat.

When the civilian representatives stood up, most of them were in high spirits.

In their view, the meeting arranged by the princes was a debate, and judging from the current situation, the nobles of the Free State were bound to lose.

The afternoon debate will be more direct, allowing ordinary representatives to raise questions and may also enter a free debate session.

Now, the representatives of the nobility are already overwhelmed by consulting each other according to the strictest rules, and they will be even more unable to withstand it when it comes to more relaxed links.

In the eyes of the civilian representatives, since they would definitely win this debate, the proposal to change the free state into a dominion would naturally be implemented after the debate.

They feel that a bright future is beckoning them.

Most of the noble representatives had gloomy faces, but they were not too panicked. Instead, they were a little contemptuous.

Because the princes have already informed them that no matter what the outcome of this public meeting is, the status of the Free State will not change and it will not become a dominion.

So they feel that it is useless for these unruly people to make trouble now.

But they have also agreed that they will have to make some concessions after this meeting.

The more excited these unruly people were, the greater the concessions the princes might force them to make, so of course they couldn't be happy.

The two gangs each had different emotions and were both waiting for the final decision, so they were now staying away from each other.

Sandwiching the officials who were trying to smooth things over, the three groups of people left the hall in groups to eat.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, when the meeting started again, things developed exactly as the civilian representatives had expected in the morning.

The civilian representatives once again took turns to refute the aristocratic representatives, leaving them speechless.

However, when the advantage is great, people tend to become proud, and when people become proud and complacent, they tend to do inappropriate things.

When the civilian representatives found it easy to criticize the nobles, some of them took the opportunity to criticize the official representatives as well.

The key point is that some of them loudly criticized that most of these officials were incompetent.

They are either lackeys of the nobles or are simply trying to make a living, and they do not consider public service as their ideal at all.

The point is that they did not deliver justice to the common people.

After a free state is changed into a province or dominion, it must pass the imperial examination selection in accordance with the laws of the kingdom.

There is nothing wrong with what these words say; they are the actual situation among officials of the Free State.

The key point is that removing these existing officials happens to be in the interests of the civilian representatives on the scene.

They could replace these officials and directly become officials of the newly established prefectures or provinces, or local councilors.

So when a representative said these words, ordinary civilian representatives immediately applauded.

But this statement destroyed a delicate balance.

Most of the representatives who were former officials at the scene were just doing nothing, trying to keep a distance from the other side.

If the civilian representatives win the debate, the princes tend to support the civilian representatives' demands and demand that the free state be directly changed into a dominion.

The nobles of the Free State will definitely not agree directly, they will definitely use various means to launch confrontational actions.

Although it may not necessarily be an armed confrontation, there will definitely be various means, both civilian and official.

Once the confrontation began, the Free State officials had to take sides.

If they stand on the side of civilian representatives, they will have to break directly with the current nobles, and the nobles will naturally no longer employ and support them.

Naturally, they would lose their existing jobs.

The king and the court might not be able to take control of all the free states immediately, and it was highly unlikely that they would be able to immediately arrange jobs for those who had lost their jobs.

This means they may be temporarily unemployed.

Even if the king and the court finally won and the Free State was successfully transformed into a dominion, they might not be able to maintain their current status.

The king and the royal court may not completely trust them, and many of them rely on their relationships with the nobles to rise to power.

If they were on the side of the nobles, they certainly couldn't go against them now.

If the princes did not ultimately support the civilian representatives, but instead decided to support the nobles, the status of the Free States and the nobility would not be changed.

The officials would have to continue serving in the Free State and continue working for the nobles.

Then they must not offend the nobles.

These officials should have supported the nobles, and the conditions for them to support the representatives of the people in turn were very fragile.

First, the civilian representatives won a decisive victory in the debate.

Second, the princes and the royal court supported the civilian representatives and decided to change the free state into a dominion or province.

Third, the royal court won the confrontation with the Free State and quickly took control of the situation, successfully transforming the Free State into a dominion or province.

Fourth, as officials, they also sided with the kingdom and the people’s representatives.

Fifth, the royal government retained them directly as officials in the newly established dominions or provinces.

These conditions are progressive, and it is very difficult to meet all of them. The key is that if any link in the middle fails, it will be impossible to proceed.

The real reason why they are now adopting a non-involvement attitude is simply because the voice of the civilian representatives is too loud now, and there is a high probability that it will really trigger the reforms promoted by the princes.

In that case, they would have to side with the prince and the common people, but they did not dare to express their stance publicly until the dust settled.

As a result, civilian representatives now directly say that even if the free state is changed into a dominion, they cannot stay in office.

Then the fragile conditions for their support of the civilian representatives collapsed directly. Many official representatives quickly thought that if the princes started the Free State reforms because of the appeals of the civilian representatives.

The key is to complete the reform with the cooperation of grassroots representatives, and these grassroots representatives will inevitably gain huge prestige and voice during and after the reform process.

Their future status will be close to that of the original nobility, and they may even become new nobility.

Some people realized that once the reforms of the Free State began, they would not be able to maintain their current income and lifestyle.

The last thing officials want to face is an undetermined change of course.

So, if they completely dominate the nobility and are firmly opposed to Free State reform, is there any chance of preventing reform?
The princes have just arrived in America, so we need to learn about the situation in America through them.

The point is, would they really risk supporting Free State reforms if all the nobles and officials were opposed?
Most likely not, right?

As a result, most of the official representatives who originally only wanted to smooth things over began to more clearly support the aristocratic free state and turned around to attack the civilian representatives.

Ordinary officials and clerks were experts in handling documents, and parliamentarians had to have debate skills, and they all had to be able to fool the nobles.

Therefore, the debating level of the official representatives was obviously higher than that of the nobles, and there was no level gap between them and the civilian representatives.

The key is that the officials are more "professional" and can use many difficulties encountered in the work of government offices, courts and parliaments to shut up the questioning representatives of the public.

At the same time, we use these specific difficulties and problems to question the representatives of the public, "Do you understand?" and "You think too simply."

After the officials began to speak up for the nobles, the situation in the meeting hall shifted slightly.

However, most bureaucrats did not give their full efforts, and many officials still wanted to continue observing the direction of the wind. The key was to see the inclinations of the princes.

As a result, the civilian representatives still have a slight advantage overall, but they cannot suppress the nobles and criticize them at will.

The nobles were slightly relieved by this, but they could also see that the officials were not using their full strength and were still waiting to see more specific developments.

The meeting that afternoon was very lively, and consultations by ordinary representatives lasted until five in the afternoon.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Zhu Jingkun spoke again to announce the end of the third phase of the meeting. The meeting itself was also suspended and would continue at nine o'clock tomorrow morning.

After Zhu Jingkun's announcement, the princes left first, followed by representatives from all parties.

This time the conditions of the three groups of people were completely different from that at noon.

The civilian representatives were still generally optimistic, but not as jubilant as they had been in the morning. Some began to realize that there was something wrong with their strategy.

After the representatives left the palace, they immediately gathered together to discuss, deal with the current situation and make plans for the future.

Some people naturally pointed out that the official representatives should not be attacked.

We should focus our firepower on attacking the nobles of the Free State, first gain absolute advantage at the meeting, and finalize the reforms of the Free State.

Although these officials should be purged during the reform, there are some people among them who can be won over, so we should not involve them as a whole for the time being.

However, most people still do not realize that after directly attacking the official representatives, it is not so easy to make the other party return to neutrality.

At the very least, we need to explain and persuade in person, and organize some plausible arguments rather than simply "stop attacking."

After all, in their opinion, they still have the advantage, it's just that the gap has narrowed.

At the same time, the nobles reacted much faster. Although the current parliamentary debate ability has declined greatly, there are still a few old guys with experience in actual struggles.

In particular, the aging Adams was the most famous lawyer in the thirteen colonies when he was young, and was directly involved in diplomacy with the Ming Dynasty.

After the afternoon meeting, Adams brought several other nobles from the free states and his son and took the initiative to join the crowd of official representatives.

Invite each free state to arrange one or two representatives to have dinner with him and discuss some things.

The officials originally wanted to stay away from both parties and did not want to offend the nobles. After this afternoon, they were even more inclined towards the nobles and naturally would not refuse such an invitation now.

Especially since local congressmen from Massachusetts were also invited, they would not offend the old man Adams.

Then that night, in a private room at the largest restaurant in New York City, after Adams had a few drinks with these people, he revealed the key information to them.

They have been hinted to many times that the princes have actually stated privately that the status and nature of the Free State will not change in the future.

At the same time, Adams deliberately misled officials, making them believe that the princes did not want to create conflicts in the free state, so they did not want to change the status of the free state.

At most, they can add items to the agreement in a targeted manner, solve specific issues that private businessmen want to resolve, and appease the emotions of those troublemakers.

The more trouble these troublesome people make at the meeting, the more items may be added to the agreement in the end, and the more trouble these bureaucrats will face in the future.

Therefore, it is recommended that the bureaucrats continue to stand with the nobles and do their best to curb the madness of these unruly people.

If these unruly people can be completely suppressed at the meeting, there will be a real chance that the current situation will not be changed at all, which will be most beneficial to both the nobles and the bureaucrats.

Adams is also a shrewd man. Although he can't speak clearly now, he can create a sense of mystery.

Just a few words convinced several officials and congressmen.

In fact, the more important underlying reason is that plans that do not change the current situation are in the interests of the bureaucracy.

It was also in line with their judgment that the princes did not want to intensify the conflict.

This is completely normal within the bureaucratic logic chain, and as long as there is a little information catalysis from the outside, it will have a very good effect.

The dinner hosted by Adams ended quickly, and the bureaucrats and parliamentary representatives present hurried to find other representatives of their respective free states to tell them the news.

"The princes don't want to cause trouble in the Free State, so they don't want to change the Free State status."

This news reached the ears of most bureaucrats and parliamentary representatives that evening.

At nine o'clock the next morning, all the representatives entered the New York Palace again, waiting for the princes to arrive.

Zhu Jingkun announced the start of the meeting again and went directly to the fourth session, which was the free speech session.

Although it is nominally free speech, one still has to raise his hand and obtain permission from the Speaker before he can start speaking.

However, when anyone is speaking, others can raise their hands to question or express their agreement.

At the same time, representatives from the nobility, bureaucrats and civilians took turns speaking, and only one representative from each group could speak at a time.

As soon as the meeting started this morning, the situation on the scene was completely different from yesterday.

The original intention of the civilian representatives was to concentrate their firepower on attacking the nobles and not get entangled with the official representatives.

As a result, the official representatives fully appreciated it and directly pointed their guns at the civilian representatives from the beginning, and began to fully support the free state and the nobles.

Bureaucrats naturally hate change, but given the opportunity to maintain the existing order and with sufficiently accurate information, their fighting power is very strong.

The civilian representatives who felt they had the upper hand yesterday were suddenly stunned by the attack from the bureaucratic group.

Instead, the nobles had some free time and began to cooperate with the bureaucratic representatives, as long as they could provide support in terms of momentum and information.

The civilian representatives were caught off guard and their response was somewhat chaotic, and the situation among the three parties gradually reversed.

(End of this chapter)