Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 665 The Overt and Secret Struggle Between the Bureaucratic Group and the Capital Group
The development of Daming has now entered an era of very complicated internal forces.

And it is necessary to form a new joint force within the Ming Dynasty without causing the imperial regime to overthrow, causing the nation to suffer huge losses, or even allowing external forces to take the opportunity to intervene.

Zhu Youjian can only use his status as emperor to try his best to use non-war means to let the two major groups of the empire solve the problem of regime change through negotiation.

But using non-war means is like treating a disease slowly without surgery, and it will definitely take more time.

Zhu Youjian didn’t know how long it would take, but what he was worried about was that the British Empire had already completed the “Glorious Revolution” before the Ming Dynasty, and embarked on the rapid development of capital before the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian had to find a way to stop the British bourgeois revolution.

However, due to the geographical distance, he could not directly send troops to destroy Britain. He could only support the old aristocrats and royal family in Britain to continue to suppress the bourgeoisie and craftsmen in Britain.

This is like the fact that in history, foreigners set up foreign gun teams to help the Qing government eliminate the Taiping Army, and funded warlords from all over the country to prevent the unification of China.

The method Zhu Youjian came up with was to intervene in the internal affairs of the UK in the name of marrying a British princess to form an in-law country. The custom of marrying in-laws is very common in Western European countries. If Ming used this method, the English royal family would certainly be able to accept it.

……

As Zhu Youjian expected.

In the local provinces of the Ming Dynasty, because of the strong financial resources of the capital group, the advisory body was able to be implemented smoothly.

Even if the government is still unwilling, the capital group dares to strike the market, which paralyzes the entire local order, and finally forces the government to implement it.

Taking southern Zhili as an example, Yang Mingshen and others successfully persuaded the chamber of commerce to advance the salaries of a large number of low-level officials for the local government, and at the same time actively helped the government gather a large number of highly professional young scholars to enrich the local political grassroots.

Coupled with the threat of a strike.

The establishment of provincial advisory bodies at all levels can be carried out smoothly.

Business people at all levels in Southern Zhili, especially the rich businessmen and property owners who are keen to control power, as well as academic elites began to gather people to give speeches and convey their ideas.

But no matter how you say it, the counselors were finally elected.

But when it came to setting up the House of Representatives and electing members of the House of Representatives, the government and the capitalists clashed again.

Because the members of the House of Representatives demand a large number of farmers and workers, but the bottom-level proletarians such as farmers and workers do not have much willingness to participate in politics, so they are not very cooperative.

In addition, local wealthy businessmen deliberately discourage farmers and workers from participating in politics, and began to increase wages and increase working hours to prevent workers and farmers from participating in the House of Representatives.

Thus, from the very beginning, the establishment of the House of Representatives stalled.

The local wealthy businessmen hope to use merchants to enrich the public council first.

But the local officials refused, saying that to strictly follow the imperial decree, many migrant workers must participate, otherwise the parliamentary body would not be enough to represent the entire population.

The local government even took the initiative to mobilize the grassroots people to participate.

Of course, the local government is not really kind enough to allow proletarians such as farmers and workers to gain the right to participate in and discuss state affairs, but to deliberately disgust property-owning businessmen who want to control local government affairs.

In their view, the enemy of the enemy is their friend, and instead of allowing businessmen to share their power, it is better to let workers and peasants join in and make local government affairs more chaotic.

"Mr. Yang, this is not very good. Since we want the people to control our government, we should control them all. We can't just let you businessmen manage it. Workers and farmers should also control it. It can be seen that the court is still very thoughtful. It can be described as extremely wise!"

Now, Yingtian governor Bai Yunming began to recite the imperial court's greetings, and said proudly: "Don't you want democracy for the people? I will give you democracy, and give you all democracy. You are satisfied."

Yang Mingshen felt as uncomfortable as if he had eaten a fly, but he couldn't refute it, so he could only endure Bai Yunming's cynicism.

"Okay, if your government allows those peasants and workers who are in a mess to participate in politics, we have no objection, but since you only pay one silver dollar a month to the counselors of the advisory body, the representatives of the parliamentary body cannot If the treatment is higher than this, everyone is a first-class citizen, and there can be no distinction between high and low," said Yang Mingshen.

"Don't worry, they are all citizens, how can this official treat one more favorably than another!"

Bai Yunming, governor of Yingtian, smiled coldly.

After Yang Mingshen and others left, Bai Yunming, the governor of Yingtian, immediately asked someone to order: "Immediately tell officials at all levels that since their merchants set up chambers of commerce to tear down our government, we will also mobilize a few active migrant workers to set up farms. Congresses and unions to dismantle them, mobilize workers and farmers to actively run for Congress, and we provide congressional grants.”

As a result, the people in the government began to mobilize the workers and peasants at the bottom.

At the beginning, the effect was not great, and not many people responded. The capitalists and landlords restricted the workers and farmers to factories and land, which made the government have little effect.

And capital groups even prevent workers and peasants from participating in politics by dismissing and dismissing workers and peasants' livelihoods.

The government also had its own method, starting to organize workers and peasants to strike, which caused a lot of losses to the capital groups. In the end, Yang Mingshen and others had to find Bai Yunming and reach a settlement.

Capital groups no longer restrict workers and peasants from participating in politics in various ways.

Members of the House of Representatives were also elected with the help of the government, and a group of farmers and workers who had just put down their hoes and shovels began to become members of the House of Representatives.

However, it is precisely because of this mutual tossing that the establishment of the local advisory body and the assembly body was delayed until the end of the year, and in some places it was not completed until the summer of the following year.

However, it's not over yet.

It was also as expected by Zhu Youjian, Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty.

After the establishment of the local advisory body and the House of Representatives, the political debate among people of all walks of life has just begun.

Take Nanzhili again as an example.

Instigated by wealthy businessmen such as Yang Mingshen, the newly established Nanzhili Advisory Department first put forward the first proposal after the establishment of the advisory body and the assembly body, that is, "Proposal on Improving the Salaries of Officials at All Levels in Nanzhili Province" .

This may seem ironic.

The capital group's request for the establishment of a consultative body is intended to control the exploitation of officials, and what they hate most is also local officials who demand excessively.

However, their first proposal after entering politics was to increase the salaries of local officials.

Yang Mingshen has now become the counselor of the Southern Zhili Province of Ming Dynasty. He is the initiator of this proposal, and he put forward the reason for initiating this proposal in the counseling department:

"The salaries of local officials in Southern Zhili Province are seriously lower than the average income level of the citizens of the empire. Even at the current prices, they can't even support themselves, let alone support a family... Therefore, I propose to increase their salaries Remuneration ranging from five hundred silver dollars a month to fifty silver dollars a month, and corresponding welfare measures, the following are the detailed rules..."

(End of this chapter)