The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 434 The Wind Changed Again

During the free debate on the morning of June 16, the official representatives suddenly took a clear stand, which caused a sudden change in the three-party battle situation at the meeting.

The official representatives assisted the aristocratic representatives in suppressing the voices of the civilian representatives and soon gained a huge advantage.

Most of the noble representatives were in high spirits, thinking that these bureaucrats were indeed useful.

But this situation did not last long. Only after the debate had been going on for more than an hour did the nobles begin to realize that something was wrong.

They vaguely felt that the reasons given by the bureaucrats to oppose civilian representatives seemed to be gradually going astray.

An official representative said: Even if there are problems and defects in the Free State, they should be adjusted according to the agreement between the Emperor and the Founding Fathers.

That is to say, new agreements should be formulated around the specific matters themselves to solve the problems of the free state.

For example, the Ming Dynasty's American Inspector and the Embroidered Uniform Guard sent out branches to monitor and investigate the evil deeds of the nobles and bureaucrats in various free states.

For example, cases in the Free State could be appealed to the Kingdom Court and tried by the Kingdom Chief Justice, also known as the Ming Dynasty's American Chief Justice, without interference from Free State officials.

Instead of directly demanding changes to the Free State itself when encountering a problem.

Doing so would be tantamount to directly denying the existence of the free state in fact, and most importantly, denying the laws established by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

If the noble representatives had not already determined that these bureaucratic representatives were now their allies, they would have instinctively opposed these suggestions.

Now they can only anxiously remind these teammates that they should not argue with the civilian representatives in this way.

The representatives of officials should work closely with the representatives of the nobility and should first completely suppress the representatives of the people so that their current appeals become unreasonable.

Finally, the princes were asked to make a decision not to change the existing system based on the results of the on-site debate at the meeting.

Then make small concessions on your own to appease them.

You bureaucrats are now actively using this "step back" tone!
Adams, who was particularly experienced, soon realized that the bureaucrats were now deliberately making concessions to the representatives of the people.

Let the bureaucrats and civil representatives reach a consensus on adding a large number of agreement items.

The princes most hope to see the conflict between the nobles and the people be resolved through compromise based on the advice of the bureaucratic representatives.

This happens to be the result that best suits the interests of the bureaucracy!
The official representatives instinctively opposed the civilian representatives' direct attempt to abolish the free state, because that might cause them to be temporarily or even permanently unemployed.

Bureaucrats are unwilling to face such a turbulent and uncertain future.

But they are very supportive of them in demanding power through making trouble.

Because the power that civilian representatives demand from traditional nobles is actually the power that they will be able to exercise in the future, they are of course happy to gain more power.

This is also the typical thinking and work logic of bureaucrats.

Yesterday, this group of nobles took the initiative to negotiate with the bureaucrats, trying to win them over to cooperate with the nobles in suppressing the civilian representatives.

As a result, they mixed in their own agenda while cooperating with the company.

Adams' expression gradually became extremely ugly, but he had no effective way to deal with it.

It is impossible for these bureaucrats to be without selfish motives and to cooperate with the nobles wholeheartedly, otherwise they would not have tried to smooth things over in the beginning.

Now their selfish desires are in line with the people's call and are most likely in line with the interests of the kingdom's court.

Now the interests of the imperial and royal courts, the officials and parliamentarians of the free states, and the opinion leaders of the people are actually converging.

All three parties wanted to limit the power of their own local nobles.

The nobles should have realized this, and they actually felt a strong sense of crisis before the arrival of the princes.

So Adams brought up this matter at the public meeting with the princes.

It was the promise made by the princes after consulting the emperor not to change the status of the free state that made these nobles relax a little.

The arrangements made by the princes simply avoided open confrontation and confined the confrontation within the existing platforms and rules.

This can even be considered a good thing for the nobles...

Because if they openly confronted each other, the court, officials, and the people would unite to attack the nobles, and the consequences would be disastrous.

At the beginning, these colonial representatives found the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, led the colonial people and followed the Ming people to drive out the British, and they became the new aristocracy.

Now these officials, parliamentarians, and unruly people can directly imitate what they did in the past.

Cooperate with the Ming Empire or the United States to drive out the previous nobles who controlled the free states and let them replace their positions.

But this replacement is certainly not complete, but comes with costs and losses.

The Ming Empire court and the United States court are the absolute main forces of their tripartite alliance.

These people, like myself back then, can at best be considered to have cooperated and provided momentum and legitimacy.

Therefore, after the success, most of the spoils will belong to the Ming Dynasty and the court of the United States, and these people will definitely not be able to fully receive their power and status.

The free states under their control will be completely abolished, and at most they will be reduced to the status of dominions, or even directly become provinces of the kingdom.

As such, they can only become bureaucrats in the kingdom and get a slight promotion, and they may not even get a noble title.

Because the slogans they are now using are originally against the free states and the nobility.

However, for these bureaucrats, such an outcome is considered a better result, at least better than their current situation.

The royal court was far away in Taiping Prefecture and New York. It was unable to personally supervise local officials at all times and could only rely on supervisory agencies composed of other bureaucrats to supervise them.

These local nobles can keep an eye on them at all times, and they can only obey them to maintain their status.

Therefore, they were willing to cooperate with the Ming court and get rid of the restrictions of local aristocrats like themselves.

In the history of the Ming Dynasty, local nobles gradually disappeared, clans gradually disappeared, while the authority of the central court continued to rise, which should be the result of this confrontation.

To govern a vast empire, professional bureaucrats must be used. Bureaucrats naturally support centralization, and the status of senior bureaucrats will gradually surpass that of regular aristocrats.

The current conflict between the court of the United States of America and the Free State is just a repetition of the political process that has occurred in the history of the Ming Dynasty. This is the general trend of the world that cannot be changed by human will.

"This is really a fucking... a damned reality that makes people feel painful and helpless..."

The smarter Adams was and the more he understood the world, the more helpless he felt.

Most of the ordinary aristocratic representatives did not have Adams' clear understanding and were somewhat confused about the bureaucrats' reactions.

Adams wanted to explain to all the nobles at the meeting, but he had no opportunity or conditions at all.

After the free discussion meeting lasted for more than two hours, the public opinion trend on the scene had basically become unified.

The civilian representatives have also realized that while the official representatives are cooperating with the nobles to control the situation, they are also beginning to make concessions to them.

Official representatives can support reforms, but they cannot change too much, at least they cannot overthrow the Free State itself.

The original plan of the civilian representatives was actually to compromise at the meeting.

Directly changing the free state into a dominion or even a province was originally an opening price, and it must be negotiated with the nobles at the meeting before mutual concessions can be made. Now the direction pointed out by the bureaucratic representatives, either explicitly or implicitly, is in line with their original idea.

It was the huge advantage they had yesterday morning that made many of them overly excited and gave them the illusion of a "complete victory".

At that time, I really thought that I could directly change the free state into a province.

Now more and more civilian representatives have realized that a "complete victory" is basically impossible, and their way of thinking and basic plans have naturally returned to the original plan.

Now some more sober representatives have begun to seize on the bureaucratic representatives' words and insist on adding items to the agreement.

The bureaucratic representatives were already prepared to do this, so after a little bit of resistance and prevarication, they basically agreed to the promise and clearly expressed their support for doing so.

However, it is up to the princes to decide which specific matters can become subject of the agreement.

Seeing that the discussion had almost ended, Zhu Jingkun announced the end of the free discussion phase and the morning meeting was temporarily over.

The Minister of Etiquette asked all the representatives to stand up and respectfully escort the princes out of the venue.

After Zhu Jingkun and the princes left, the meeting was nominally adjourned, but many representatives did not leave immediately.

Many ordinary representatives from the three parties, namely the nobles, officials and the people, did not have time to think carefully during the meeting and did not have a particularly clear view of the current situation.

The three parties at the meeting seemed to be in a state of confusion, but the princes announced that the free discussion phase was over.

They instinctively asked people around them and sought help from people they were familiar with and who were more prestigious. After a long period of intermittent discussion, they slowly figured out the current situation.

The most astute representatives felt that unless the princes had special plans, the next Free State reform should have been determined.

What needs to be discussed later are just some details, and it is indeed time to summarize.

The result of this compromise was that none of the parties were very satisfied, but it was also an acceptable result to all parties under the suppression of the Ming Dynasty's power.

In the future, the bureaucracy of the Free State will no longer belong only to the Free State, but will be under the dual jurisdiction of the Kingdom and the Free State.

Because the plan of having the royal court arrange personnel to supervise the officials of the Free State has now basically been determined.

The bureaucrats on the scene, as well as the civilian representatives on the scene, are likely to become kingdom bureaucrats in the process.

This form of discussion meeting may now become a precedent.

In the future, whatever demands public opinion may have on the Free State may lead to calls for similar meetings to be held by the royal court.

This conference may become a joint parliament of the Free State.

It could not be considered a royal parliament because there were no representatives from the dominions and provinces, and only Free State affairs were discussed at the meeting.

The representatives present here will have the opportunity to attend such meetings in the future to discuss and debate reform plans together.

Because of this obvious possibility, most people do not show obvious dissatisfaction now.
However, there are a few people with more intense and extreme personalities who express their dissatisfaction with others through their attitudes and words on the spot.

But the meeting itself has ended, so it is normal for some people to make a lot of noise, and it does not affect the meeting itself.

The representatives of the three parties went to the palace cafeteria to have lunch and then take a short rest.

The meeting continued at two o'clock in the afternoon. Zhu Jingkun announced that the meeting had entered the closing statement stage and allowed representatives of nobles, civilians, and officials to speak in turn.

The speeches of the noble representatives and civilian representatives were consistent with the statements made at the beginning of the meeting, except that the focus of the content had changed.

The presentations at the beginning of the meeting were focused on explaining the problem and presenting arguments, but now they have become focused on solutions.

No matter what they think about the future, they still stick to their original demands and reasons on the surface.

The noble representatives still insisted that the status of the free state was unshakable, while the civilian representatives demanded that the free state must be abolished and provinces or dominions established instead.

The representatives of the nobility and the people were still confronting each other, and in the end, the representatives of the officials seemed to still be trying to smooth things over.

While admitting that the Free State does have many problems now and the demands of civil representatives are reasonable, he also believes that the status of the Free State should not change, as that is the basic principle established by America's meritorious predecessors and His Majesty.

So now everyone should follow the existing system and enter into new agreements to solve the problem.

On this basis, three official representatives stepped forward one by one and each put forward several quite specific suggestions.

The first is the biggest problem of the Free State, which is the lack of effective supervision by existing official agencies.

Branches of the Inspectorate, the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner, and the Imperial Guard can be set up in each free state to supervise the bureaucracy of each free state.

The Censor was responsible for finding and discovering problems and accepting complaints and accusations from the people.

The Censor General conducts targeted investigations, announces dereliction of duty by various public officials, and transfers the evidence and parties involved to the Royal Court for trial.

The Royal Court, also known as the Ministry of Justice, sent trial agencies to each free state to specifically try illegal cases involving officials, parliamentarians, judges, and clerks.

On this basis, the selection system of the Free State bureaucracy was adjusted to fundamentally avoid the monopoly of power by local nobles.

Extend the kingdom's unified basic imperial examination system to the Free State.

Members of parliament, officials, judges, and clerks in the Free State must all pass specific imperial examinations and obtain corresponding honors before they can take up specific positions.

At the same time, parliamentarians, officials, judges, and clerks can continue to be promoted and serve in the corresponding institutions of the royal court.

Then there are the reform proposals at the judicial level.

The Courts of the Kingdom should be included as a court of appeal from the Supreme Court of the Free State.

In civil dispute cases in the Free State, if the parties are still dissatisfied with the final judgment after the two levels of courts in the Free State have completed the trial, they can continue to appeal to the Kingdom Court.

The Royal Courts shall be heard by the judges of the Royal Courts, without interference by the judges and other officials of the Free State.

Finally, there are suggestions at the legislative level.

The Kingdom establishes a special institution as the legislative council with the participation of all parties in the Free State, which makes laws applicable to the Free State in accordance with the laws of the Kingdom.

The agency is also responsible for coordinating conflicting laws between the various free states.

The results of the Free State's own legislation, or the decision to repeal a particular law, must be reviewed by this body before they can be implemented in the Free State.

This is to prevent local nobles and officials in the Free State from arbitrarily revising the laws for their own benefit.

The three official representatives quickly put forward a large number of proposals, and their demands were very clear and sensitive.

The power to select and supervise bureaucrats, as well as the power of legislation and judicial trial, were actually directly taken over by the royal court.

The officials themselves suggested strengthening supervision and management of officials, which seems to be against their interests.

In fact, it only appears to be a restriction, but in fact it is a loosening of their power.

At the same time, they also tied their status to the royal court, providing a higher level of endorsement for their status.

If anyone wants to abolish their status in the future, it can only be done by the royal court, and the Free State will no longer have the power.

(End of this chapter)