The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 865 Liquidation and Extension

In early September, Prime Minister Kang Guangxu suffered a rheumatic attack and was bedridden in his residence. He did not attend the morning court for several consecutive days, which attracted attention from the outside world.

Cabinet affairs are temporarily handled by Vice Prime Minister Chen Mingxia.

No matter what time it is, there is always a crowd of people watching the fun in Tianxin City.

No matter if they are dark-skinned porters, well-mannered teachers, or retired aunties from Chaotian Street, everyone has an inexplicable enthusiasm for watching the excitement.

Even if the excitement finally falls on me, it cannot stop people's enthusiasm for watching.

Because where there is excitement, there are other people’s lives and deaths.

Appreciating the suffering of others can always bring you inexplicable joy.

In terms of the level of excitement, public execution is good, and lingchi is undoubtedly the icing on the cake.

At that time, spectators would gather around the execution ground, and a huge crowd would raise their arms and shout at the dying prisoner on the stage:

"Don't be afraid, grandson! Don't be afraid, grandson! In eighteen years, you'll be a brave man again! Scream! I'll beat you with a steel whip!"

Unfortunately, the torture of lingchi was abolished by Emperor Guangde long ago, and the enthusiastic citizens had not seen a hero who could survive 3,600 cuts for a long time, let alone a hero who was still singing "I will eat the steel whip and beat you" before being executed.

The world is in decline.

Nowadays, everyone is civilized in everything and abides by the law. There are special areas for horse-drawn carriages on the streets, and government officials have installed traffic lights. Trained pack horses can distinguish street lights on their own and actively give way to pedestrians.

This is an era where even animals have to obey rules, let alone humans?
Following the rules is boring.

At such a boring moment, I suddenly heard that Prime Minister Kang was no longer in power and no longer had to be so arrogant.

Everyone was like crazy, adding fuel to the fire and talking nonsense, trying to make Lao Kang feel disgusted.

After all, in the Great Qi, speech is free, officials can be slandered, and citizens are not held accountable.

So all kinds of rumors spread.

Some people say that the prime minister's five-year term is coming to an end, and he is worried that his position will be taken away by Chen Mingxia, so he is worried that his old illness will relapse.

Some people said that when the emperor saw that the constitutional government was established, he would take action against Prime Minister Kang. As the saying goes, when the birds and beasts are gone, the good bows are put away.

The most absurd theory is that Kang Guangxu was the confidant of the deposed crown prince and Liu Wuji's close aide. He had been holding back and waiting for the right opportunity. Now that the crown prince is dead, old Kang sees that the situation is hopeless and is filled with resentment and indignation...

Kang Guangxu didn't care about these rumors at first, until his guard officer Jiang Yihu came to visit him, he realized that something was wrong.

Deep inside the Prime Minister's residence, Jiang Yihu held Kang Guangxu's withered old hand and tried to articulate his words:

"Prime Minister Kang has toiled for the country and engaged in intrigue. Your Majesty has sent me here to visit you so that the imperial physician can give you a final diagnosis and treatment. Great Qi cannot do without Kang Guangxu, just as Britain cannot do without Cromwell."

Kang Guangxu was so angry that his beard was shaking. He didn't know why the empress would have such an unlearned and useless person like Jiang Yihu by her side.

Still a final conclusion...

Can a traitor like Cromwell be compared with himself?
Why is Jiang Yihu, the son of Jiang Liuer, so stupid? It's true that a tiger father begets a dog son.

Kang Guangxu forced a smile and struggled to sit up: "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. It's just a relapse of my old illness. Don't worry..."

Based on Kang Guangxu's understanding of the Empress, if she misunderstood him, not only would his position as Prime Minister be in danger, but his life would also be in danger.

According to the laws of Da Qi, although the empress could not directly sentence the prime minister to death, she had ten thousand ways to make Lao Kang's life worse than death.

"Brother Yihu, others may not know, but don't you know it either? I'm not someone who clings to power. This has nothing to do with the election."

According to the Prime Minister System of the Great Qi Dynasty, the Prime Minister held state administrative power on behalf of the royal family and the people of Qi.

The prime minister is automatically chosen by the leader of the majority party in the lower house of the Qi parliament or the leader of the ruling coalition, and the candidate officially becomes the prime minister after being appointed by the emperor.

In other words, the real power of the country lies in the hands of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

As the first prime minister of the Great Qi Dynasty, Kang Guangxu was second only to the emperor and above everyone else. Even he himself probably didn't believe that he would not cling to power.

In Tianxin City, countless people were eyeing the position of prime minister and were drooling over Kang Guangxu, wishing they could replace him.

"If Mr. Chen can win a majority of seats in the House of Commons in the next election, the position of Prime Minister will naturally be his. Why should I cling to it?"

Jiang Yihu said, "Your Majesty has agreed to the Cabinet's proposal to issue a global manhunt for corrupt officials. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has notified embassies of various countries, ordering them to cooperate in capturing the families of fugitive officials... State affairs are busy, and at this time of dynastic change, the Prime Minister cannot let down his guard!"

Change of dynasty.

Kang Guangxu's beard trembled. It wasn't because Jiang Yihu was talking nonsense, but because he hadn't expected Chen Mingxia to make such a big fuss just a few days after he left the cabinet.

"Is this your Majesty's idea, or Prime Minister Chen's idea?"

"Of course it was Prime Minister Chen's idea."

Kang Guangxu took a breath of cold air:
"Things have come to this. I am willing to take care of state affairs, but I am afraid I am unable to do so."

"Does Minister Kang think they're going too far?"

"Excessive..."

"Yes, if you embezzle one thousand taels of silver, you will be beheaded!"

"Hey!"

Seeing Kang Guangxu hesitated to speak, Jiang Yihu lowered his voice and said:

"What is your secret? Lord Kang, just tell me. As long as it's not about money, Your Majesty can help..."

Kang Guangxu smiled bitterly, really bringing up something that was irrelevant to the topic.

"No one is more wise than the Empress. It is indeed a matter of money."

Lao Kang waved his hand to dismiss his attendants, and under Jiang Yihu's gaze, he stood up and personally made a cup of tea for the latter.

"I believe that food should be eaten one bite at a time and the road should be taken one step at a time. Do you know how many officials of the Great Qi fled during the Wuding and Guangde reigns?"

Jiang Yihu didn't respond to this. It was estimated that he didn't have a deep understanding of the severe anti-corruption situation in Da Qi.

Kang Guangxu laughed and said, "If we let the Minotaur Guards arrest all the officials of the previous dynasty and execute them one by one for the crime of corruption and dereliction of duty, I'm afraid there will still be some that slip through the net."

Jiang Yihu said angrily, "Prime Minister Kang, are you just going to ignore this? Prime Minister Chen said, 'New dynasty, new atmosphere.' If we don't thoroughly clean up corruption, if we don't execute a group of people and arrest a group of people, Europeans will not trust our constitutional government and will not do business with us."

Kang Guangxu shook his hand and said with a smile:
"What foreign merchants are concerned about now is whether the money Da Qi borrowed from them can be repaid in time. As for whether the emperor or the parliament is in charge here, the red-haired barbarians don't care."

The debts owed by Da Qi are about to mature.

Everything seems unsolvable.

Over the past two years, power has been decentralized to various places, and even the land that "all under heaven belongs to the king" has been sold to self-cultivating farmers.

But the income is still not enough to cover the expenses.

As of August of the fourth year of Tianshou, after decentralization, the foreign debts pledged by each district were barely 300 million taels, and the national proceeds from land sales were only 800 million taels.

The total amount of debt that Liu Zhaosun, Liu Wuji and others borrowed and mortgaged to major European banks exceeded 1.2 billion taels of principal and interest.

Among them, the largest amounts are held by Germany's Berenberg Bank and Italy's Siena Bank?

It is said that each loan including interest is around 100 million taels.

The two creditors were pressing for repayment very urgently. They notified their governments and threatened to withdraw their investments from Tianxin City.

What could Kang Guangxu do?
If foreign investors were allowed to withdraw their investments and close factories, unemployment would inevitably surge, and widespread suffering would follow. The fate of the Great Qi would be shattered.

In a desperate situation, the hardliners headed by Chen Mingxia actually wanted to declare war on the creditors...
I have to say the idea is very clear.

This mess was the reason why Kang Guangxu fell ill.

Lao Kang knew that he was unable to cope with it, so he retreated to advance and temporarily claimed to be sick and did not attend court.

And his opponent, after repeated court arguments, came up with the following coping strategy:

Liquidation
We are recovering the embezzled proceeds of corrupt officials worldwide and negotiating with major banks on repayment extensions, meaning that the principal will be repaid first and the interest will be paid later.

"The cabinet has decided to liquidate the corrupt officials of the previous regime and confiscate all their vast overseas assets to offset the debts. I believe the Europeans are willing to accept this."

The guard spoke without restraint, and his voice began to tremble, perhaps from excitement or nervousness.

"It's time to make them pay. The cabinet has sent people to Japan, Europe and other places."

Kang Guangxu muttered to himself: "Terror is not constitutionalism..."

(End of this chapter)