Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 661 The Controversy Between the Two Factions of the Empire
Zhang Huangyan was very excited, and he could barely accept the establishment of local advisory bodies and assembly bodies to let the people manage officials.

After all, this is indeed a way to curb the excessive and arbitrary exploitation of the people by the local government, and the most affected is the gray income of the entire officials.

And he, Zhang Huangyan, can be regarded as a clean and honest official, and he doesn't care too much about the reduction of gray income.

But now that Wang Jiaqin and other officials in the imperial court proposed to set up a council and a house of representatives in the central government, he can no longer agree. After all, this is equivalent to making him, the chief minister of the cabinet, have to obey the orders of the two chambers in addition to the emperor. This is even more aggrieved than the chief minister of the cabinet who could not govern the six ministries before.

Zhu Youjian is not in charge of affairs now, the chief assistant of the cabinet is in charge of administrative power, and he is even a veritable prime minister. The power of taxation and the power of administrative regulations.

Since the six divisions of Lang Yanguan were under the jurisdiction of the cabinet, and the director of ceremonies disagreed with the cabinet and Zhu Youjian was unwilling to be troublesome, so that the cabinet had the final decision-making power, the chief assistant of the cabinet has become the second master of the empire.

But now that imperial officials such as Wang Jiaqin have proposed the establishment of a council and a house of representatives, he is naturally the first to disagree, even extremely disagree.

Of course, Zhang Huangyan couldn't directly say that it was because this would limit the power of the chief minister of the cabinet, but found another reason:

"Your Majesty, war, disaster relief, construction, medical insurance and pension insurance for the first-class citizens of the empire are all a lot of expenses. Although we have just occupied Dongpu, there is no guarantee that the empire will not have wars in the future, and there will be no guarantee that there will be no wars in the future." There are natural disasters, all of which have to be supported by money, food and state taxes;

The cabinet has to formulate tax policies according to the needs of the country. If the court also set up a council and a house of representatives, there will definitely be chaos. After a fight, the cabinet came out with an order, but I'm afraid it will be three or five years later, and the world will already be in chaos! "

"But I don't know if the chief minister has thought about it. If the central government wantonly increases taxes and uses the central administrative regulations to blackmail the people, what will happen? Since the local people have the right to restrict local officials, why can't all the people in Ming Dynasty restrict the central officials? The chief minister is nothing more than It’s just because you are afraid that your power will be limited, but your power is only given by His Majesty, but since His Majesty can bestow power on one person, why can’t you bestow power on all peoples? If this is the case, there will be no power between the ruling and the opposition!”

Song Mingquan, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, stood up at this time, and directly exchanged words with Zhang Huangyan, the chief assistant of the cabinet who had recommended him to be the Minister of Industry.

Zhu Youjian just smiled slightly. He naturally understood that the officials at the court also began to have differences because of the different political interests represented behind them and the different perspectives of thinking. Auxiliary centralization.

"Song Shangshu said, I don't agree with this official. Back then, His Majesty centralized power in the first assistant, and the first assistant made decisions on administrative affairs on behalf of His Majesty. Centralizing power in one person is convenient for handling major affairs, but it will not cause the king to be burdened with files! If this is attributed to Wanmin, How to do great things? Even if there are lu beetles at the top of the court, there are still supervisors from the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Dongchang. Your suggestions are nothing more than wanting businessmen to participate in politics!

However, once the businessman participates in politics and controls the government, Zhang wants to ask, if the agricultural tax in the north and outside the customs is really exempted now, if the businessman passes the tax reduction bill enacted by the two chambers and requires the court tax to be reduced to the level before Chongzhen 17 years ago, hundreds of How to maintain the support of tens of thousands of troops, hundreds of civil and military officials and tens of thousands of students, as well as the education and scientific research funds of millions of silver dollars every year, and how can my cabinet accomplish these great things while adhering to the tax reduction intention of your two houses? "

Zhang Huangyan asked such a question, and Wang Jiaqin, director of the Imperial Economic Reform Commission, replied: "You are the chief assistant, so naturally you have to find a way. How to move around, turn around, and come up with money-making schemes, your cabinet naturally has a way."

"Director Wang! You don't feel pain in your back when you stand and talk. You have set up two chambers, and the power to legislate laws and set taxes is in your hands. How do you let me be the chief assistant to find ways to make money? I don't have soldiers. How can I still It’s impossible to force you with a gun.”

Zhang Huangyan yelled loudly.

"What other ministers have any comments?" Zhu Youjian asked at this time.

As the emperor, he actually likes to watch the ministers quarreling. In his opinion, this may be one of the most worthy of appreciation in Daming. He will not stand here because he is the emperor, and the ministers are like a group of puppets. The same only knows how to nod and say yes, and say some peaceful words that are not painful.

Through the quarrels among officials, Zhu Youjian can discover many problems, and he can also discover what the representatives of bureaucratic groups and capital groups really want.

Since the beginning of Sanyang in the Ming Dynasty, the struggle between the cabinet and the officials has been the most prosperous since Wanli.

The emperor basically didn't care about things or balance things out. The chief inspector of ceremonies was an inner court institution after all. Except for a few eunuchs, most of them had little interest in politics, and they were basically the shadow of the emperor. Mostly it is the most direct manifestation of the struggle between centralization and democracy.

Except for the civil servants who joined the cabinet, many civil servants in Ming Dynasty were very reluctant to be controlled by the cabinet, because once controlled by the cabinet, it was equivalent to being controlled by the emperor, and they would not be free.

At least not free to use their own power to protect their own interests, not only the officials do not like to be controlled by the cabinet, but also the officials of the various ministries.

Without the cabinet, they are the highest decision-makers in a certain industry, and they can come as they want.

With one more cabinet, they are equal to one more decision-making body, and they have to listen to the baton of the cabinet.

Therefore, hundreds of officials essentially do not want the cabinet to take power, especially officials with a bourgeois background.

Even Zhu Youjian did not expect that they would take the initiative to propose a bicameral system to control the cabinet.

But Zhu Youjian also wanted to see the opinions of other officials, the officials of the bureaucracy group's views on the cabinet.

At this time, Wen Chushi, Minister of the Organization Department, stood up again:
"Your Majesty, I think what Shoufu said is very true. Merchants value profits, and the people are scattered and disunited. If there is no power to dominate the state affairs, the state affairs will be chaotic, and even lead to party disputes. The dispute between the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party arose because of this. , Yin Jian is not far away, Your Majesty!"

"Your Majesty, I do not agree with the establishment of a cabinet controlled by the two courts. In case of war, the cabinet cannot coordinate money and food, and the country will be in danger!
Now, although the wisdom of the people has been developed, the hearts of the people are more scattered and difficult to unify, and as the people become richer, their selfishness becomes more serious. If they encounter problems that do not concern themselves, they will hide behind them or even destroy people's integrity for profit. reputation;
If something happens to you, you have to jump up and down and you have to overthrow the government and you have to listen to any explanation. If there are two houses to control the cabinet, there will be endless noise. "

Xu Chuanjie, Minister of the Ministry of War, stood up and said at this time.

　A reward for the frustrated book friend and the helmsman

　　
　
(End of this chapter)