Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 681 Chapter Seventh White Chapter 24. The Chief Assistant of the Cabinet
The encounters in life are really amazing. Song Qingshu, who was shy even standing on the stage of the student union more than ten years ago, was not at all nervous when he watched the congressmen busy voting on the stage of the general election. There was no excitement at all, and what was replaced was the serenity of not being alarmed.

Indeed, he was not even excited, following the rules of the game, Song Qingshu did not inquire about Chen Zilong's Conservative Party's election plan, but just as he does not have such a huge advantage now, as if the Communist Party and Hillary are in a fair election in the future, this time Song Qingshu is also sure to win. There is no other way. The Conservative Party has made a mixed move. The Democratic Party and the Labor Party have only put forward such a candidate as the chief minister. They actually put forward eleven, including Chen Zilong, Xia Wanchun, Qian Qianyi, etc. old antique.

As a result, the limited number of votes was once again pulled away. What is even more frustrating is that there is actually a Conservative Party candidate who denounced this as disrespectful in his election speech, threatening to return to power immediately after being elected. , Leading everyone to be loyal ministers of Ming Dynasty, even many members of the Conservative Party frowned when they heard this.

The election speeches went on until around [-]:[-] p.m., and soon one after another member took the unique hard cardboard ballots, stood up from the purpose-built parliamentary armchairs one by one, and threw them into the ballot boxes made of gold and inlaid with jade at the front. , The voting lasted for almost an hour. At six o'clock, in front of everyone, the two hosts, Jiao Dalin and Lu Jiude, opened the ballot box and began counting the ballots one by one.

"Chen Zilong, one vote!"

"Song Qingshu, one vote!"

"Qian Qianyi, one vote!"

Although they knew that the hope was slim, Conservative Party candidates such as Chen Zilong were still staring at the votes with full energy. What if there was a miracle?

It's a pity that miracles don't happen so easily, otherwise they wouldn't be called miracles. At eight o'clock in the evening, hundreds of thousands of Yingtian people still ignored the cold and hunger, waiting in the Suzaku Square, staring at the Forbidden Palace. It was almost a quarter past eight, and suddenly The palace walls of the entire Forbidden Palace were completely lit up, and then, under the amazed eyes of the people, more than a dozen fireworks shot up into the sky, bursting into brilliant brilliance in the night sky.

"Citizens of the Empire, the election results are out! The Democratic Party candidate Mr. Song Qingshu, with [-] votes, more than half of the required votes, was elected as the first minister of the Ming Empire!"

In an instant, the whole square was boiling. Except for those sour old conservatives, almost everyone cheered from the bottom of their hearts. Countless people bravely threw colorful flower petals into the sky.

"Great!"

Yu'er was also so excited that she almost jumped up, but was pushed back by Song Yongzhong in a hurry, Xiaojiali and Caiwei also showed warm smiles on their faces.

After all, it is a constitutional monarchy empire, and the symbolic meaning of Emperor Chongzhen is still very important. When the cheers dissipated a little, two pairs of fires several meters high were lit. In the raging fire, Zhu Youjian, wearing a dragon robe, walked from the palace building in an extremely complicated way. He stepped out, holding a huge brocade box in both hands.

On the other side, also wearing a slightly tight-fitting attire similar to a Chinese tunic suit, Song Qingshu also walked out with a dignified face. Under the eyes of everyone, he walked to the center of the palace building and bowed heavily to Chongzhen.

"I see your Majesty!"

Looking at the box in his hand, Zhu Youjian felt as if his heart had been twisted. More than a month ago, he had just signed the Magna Carta that would completely abolish the imperial power. Looking at the box in his hand with nostalgia for a few seconds, reluctant to let it go, Emperor Chongzhen just handed the box out tremblingly.

"I have entrusted the country and the people to Ai Qing!"

"Thank you Your Majesty, I will definitely live up to my expectations!"

Taking the box with both hands, Song Qingshu immediately turned around and walked to the edge of the palace wall with ceremonial solemnity, raised the box above his head with both hands, and swore an oath loudly.

"Citizens of Yingtian! Citizens of Daming, today, I, Song, have been loved by the people of the world and accept this sacred duty. I, Song Qingshu, swear that during my term of office, I will lead everyone to do my best to restore our Daming country. Internally, I, Song Qingshu, will reform the bad government, develop industry and commerce, and provide everyone with enough employment opportunities and living space. Now Song Qingshu dare not fully promise anything, but I can guarantee that on the day when I step down four years later, Every citizen of the Ming Empire should be clothed and fed to keep warm, their families have surplus food, and they will no longer be threatened by foreign races, every citizen will be proud of being a citizen of the Ming Empire!"

Once again, overwhelming applause and cheers came from all directions, and some people even chanted long live!It's been a long time since I saw such a scene full of responses and excitement. Although the cheers were no longer aimed at himself, Zhu Youjian seemed to have a kind of anticipation in his heart when he was lonely.

17 years ago, someone also promised to pacify the Liao Dynasty in five years. Unfortunately, after the bold words, what was left to the Ming Empire was time and time again.This time, someone promised again!This time, although he no longer has the right to decide his fate, Zhu Youjian still waits and sees.

…………

Although the general election has come to an end, it is actually still far away from a true constitutional republic. According to Mr. Sun Yat-sen’s three steps to the founding of the country, today’s Ming Dynasty is still in the middle of the military and political era, and the country has not yet been unified. A large number of troops were used. At the same time, the officials who conformed to the constitution of the monarchy had not yet been in place. Since the whole of Nanzhili, thousands of scholars and elected councilors were concentrated in Yingtian for intensive training. However, the six departments at the top of the cabinet are obviously not enough, and Song Qingshu has been so busy that he was appointed to the position of chief assistant of the cabinet.

On the fifth day of February, the first government decree of the Song Qingshu era was issued to the world, formally dividing the six vague departments in the past, and completely changing the previous situation of one minister and two ministers. Bureau, Cultural Bureau, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Households are also divided into three, divided into Land Bureau and Taxation Bureau, Central Bank, Ministry of Industry, Industrial Bureau, Road Management Bureau, River Management Bureau, Urban Construction Bureau, and Criminal Ministry Merged with Dali Temple, officially separated from the government, established the Supreme Court, the Supreme Procuratorate and the Supreme Police Station, supervised by the Twelfth Congress Election Committee, governed in accordance with the Ming Constitution, supervised and reviewed national cases, and at the same time, cities and counties There are also branch courts in each district.

For the sake of judicial independence, Song Qingshu took this extremely difficult step and seized the judicial power that had been controlled by local officials for more than 2000 years.

The Ministry of War has been strengthened, and the General Staff Department has been set up under it. However, Song Qingshu is also afraid that someone will sway his military power. After Sun Chuanting was appointed Minister of the Ministry of War, Lu Xiangsheng, Liu Zongmin, Zhou Yuji, Li Tiezhu, Shi Lang, and Zhang Huangyan, all the important generals in the army, died The rank of chief of staff, all major military operations, must be designated by the joint staff meeting, and then decided by him as the chief assistant.

The original imperial examination function of the Ministry of Rites is now completely returned to the Ministry of Officials. The county schools in various places are still under the leadership of the Ministry of Rites. It is a good thing to be an official, and the range of admissions has increased countless times, but every candidate must start from a small official, and then be promoted by the official department step by step according to his political achievements.

Locally, the original yamen servants and Jinyiwei were also eliminated, police stations were established in various places, and county schools were also eliminated, but now it is modeled after the later generations of elementary schools, junior high schools, high schools, and universities. Song Qingshu really does not have the strength, so he had to simply merge. Primary schools and junior high schools are merged into elementary schools, while high schools and universities are merged into government schools.

Later generations of Prussia relied on the high-quality talents trained by the national compulsory education to defeat France, separated the two industrial areas of Alsace and Lorraine, and completed the great cause of unifying Germany. With a flick of a pen, a total of 500 million taels was allocated for infrastructure construction.

Of course, this is also based on the premise that the Ministry of Household Affairs has started to have money. As a big capitalist, Song Qingshu's heaviest knife was cut on himself. The business tax of large enterprises has increased from one-thirtieth of the past to 30.00 now. %, but fortunately, it actually caused little rebound.

After all, the largest monopoly trust company today is Song Qingshu's West India Company. The big businessmen in China have the habit of investing in politics after making a fortune. Now Song Qingshu, the chairman, has fulfilled all his promises and really put the power in their hands. In terms of maintaining their own political power, the major shareholders naturally spared no effort. As for other industrial and commercial owners at the bottom, the West India Company has implemented it, and it is impossible for them to disagree.

Another highlight of Song Qingshu's reform is to encourage public opinion!Support the newspaper industry!Coming from the Internet age, he has seen the power of media supervision. Local newspapers from Yingtian Daily to various places have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. What is particularly shocking is that the editor-in-chief of Yingtian Daily is actually Chongzhen. The emperor's thirteenth daughter, Princess Changping Zhu Yuhui.

Gu Mei, another female member of the Congress, has already made many old masters full of complaints. Now that there is a female editor-in-chief, many old guys simply organized a group to protest in the streets. It's unlucky. Princess Changping's Yingtian Daily A report, that is, these old masters who reported it jointly signed her to step down.

In March, new policies at all levels were rolled out across a large area of ​​Jiangnan, and the way of life in Jiangnan that had lasted for centuries began to change rapidly.

However, various challenges have also begun to follow.

(End of this chapter)