Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 1151 Postscript 8. The Queen Mother and the Prime Minister are still too strong

Another day, Xie Yan was having breakfast when he suddenly heard a noise coming from the direction of the hall.

Xie Yiqin's face changed slightly, and he put down his bowl and chopsticks and went out.

Xie Yan and his second brother Xie Kan hurriedly followed.

The younger sister also wanted to watch the fun, but was pushed back to the table by her mother.

On the street in front of the hall, more than 200 parents and children knelt there and cried loudly. They recounted their hardships in life, and if child labor was banned, they would not be able to feed their children, and asked the officials to give them a bite of food.

The situation was similar at the gate of the government office next door, and there was also crying.

The clerks persuaded them patiently and civilized, and did not use violent law enforcement to drive them away.

Xie Yiqin and the officials who had already gone to work had very ugly expressions at this moment.

These parents and child workers came from different factories, and they must have been organized to petition together. Moreover, the clerks also secretly stood on the side of the petitioners, and the foreign officials became weak instead.

"Dapan, how should we deal with it?" Xie Yiqin's full-time secretary (a Jinshi official) asked in a low voice.

Xie Yiqin said, "Let them cry first, I'll go to the government office." He said to his two sons, "Don't watch it, go to study."

Xie Yiqin turned and went out through the side door, and soon entered through the side door of the government office again, and found the prefect Du Yinzheng who also had a gloomy face.

The prefect is in charge of all affairs in theory, but is mainly responsible for government affairs, people-friendly, personnel, science and education, court congratulations, sacrifices, etc. Especially the assessment of officials, supervision of subordinate counties, and transfer of official documents, which can easily suppress all officials in the government.

"Those factory owners didn't even say hello." Xie Yiqin sighed.

Du Yinzheng said, "You and I must work together this time. Instigating the people to cry and petition in the government office is just a test, and who knows what will happen next."

Although capital is invested in collusion with the powerful, not every official is qualified to be invested.

The cake has been cut almost.

Officials like Du Yinzheng and Xie Yiqin will be transferred after a few years of work. They are not deeply involved with the noble families and powerful people in their jurisdiction.

In other words, the local noble families and powerful people do not need to curry favor with them at all.

They have other backers!

If the prefect and the Tongpan are sensible and sensible, it will naturally be good for everyone. In many daily work, the local noble families and powerful people will actively cooperate and try their best to make the officials achieve a good political achievement.

But if any official is not sensible, the usual governance will be difficult.

"Drag it on?" Xie Yiqin asked.

Du Yinzheng thought about it carefully and nodded: "Drag it on!"

The two parents reached a preliminary agreement, tacitly understood, and left separately, as if nothing happened today.

They didn't know how the situation would develop, so they could only delay time as much as possible.

Until the situation becomes clearer, they will really make a choice.

It is possible that the prefect and the Tongpan will work together for reform.

It is also possible that the prefect and the Tongpan will fight each other!

Xie Yiqin returned to the hall and said to his subordinates: "Prepare some tea, let them cry and shout, and give them tea when they are tired. Anyone who dares to break into the hall will be arrested and put in jail for trial!"

The commander's office farther away received an encrypted military telegram.

Commander Shao Cheng stared at the telegram for a long time, hesitated for a long time, and finally made a decision: "Follow the orders of the cabinet, the Ministry of War and the Hubei Dusi, send troops to arrest people!"

The military camp outside the city soon became lively.

There are even many officers and soldiers who are on duty in the military camp, who are not on duty at all. In order to gather troops, the officers had to send cavalry, first blowing the gathering horn everywhere outside the city, and then riding into the city and blowing the horn along the street.

The discipline of the army has become very bad!

The series of actions of the Huangzhou Prefecture garrison soon alarmed everyone. Not only did the officials come to inquire about the situation, but even the local noble families sent people to inquire.

Just as the commander Shao Cheng led the troops into the city, the prefect, the judge, the county magistrate and other officials hurried to stop them.

"Commander Shao, without the transfer order from the Ministry of War, the garrisons in various places are not allowed to enter the city!" Du Yinzheng reminded.

Shao Cheng turned over and dismounted, handed over a telegram and said: "Joint secret telegram from the Ministry of War and Hubei Dusi. Number: Bing09 Dingsi01 Yite06. If the governor has any doubts, he can call the Ministry of War or Hubei Dusi for verification. The verification code is 29455."

Du Yinzheng's eyes fell on the word "Yite". He nodded slightly to Xie Yiqin, and then the two went to the telegraph room together.

Half an hour later, the secret telegram was verified.

"A few common people made trouble, and the Ministry of War asked directly?" Xie Yiqin was confused.

Du Yinzheng said: "How long has it been? The Ministry of War can't know."

The two fell into silence.

Obviously, the secret order to mobilize the army was not only sent to Huangzhou Prefecture, but also sent to all parts of the country!

Today is just a coincidence.

They returned to the city gate and ordered the officials to let the army pass.

Hundreds of soldiers, fully equipped, quickly rushed to the petitioners.

Shao Cheng ordered: "Take them all to the barracks. If there is resistance, kill them without mercy!"

The petitioners stopped crying, and trembled with fear, and were taken to the barracks with their children.

Xie Yiqin couldn't help asking: "How to deal with them?"

"Wait for the ship." Shao Cheng said.

Du Yinzheng was even more confused: "What do you want to wait for the ship for?"

Shao Cheng said: "Wait for the ship to be shipped to Shanghai, and then shipped overseas. If there are other people in the family, they can also apply to go to sea together. All provinces in the country are the same, it's just the difference between taking a ship and taking a train."

Hearing this, Du Yinzheng and Xie Yiqin looked at each other and understood what had happened.

The Queen Mother, the Emperor and the Prime Minister finally completely controlled the army of the whole country, and showed their muscles directly to the officials, noble families, powerful people and the people!

There must be compromises and deals in this, otherwise it would not take three years.

At the beginning, they cleared the first three rows of the court (killed them all) for treason, and only a few generals were left in the first ten rows (some were exiled and imprisoned), and more than 200 civil and military officials who were traitors were imprisoned, exiled, and executed.

Although the number is not large, they are all top dignitaries, and the impact is so far-reaching that they dare not take the next step.

Because although the tree has fallen, the monkeys have not dispersed.

These monkeys are all over the country, including civil officials, military generals, and countless noble families. If something happens again, the whole country will be in chaos, and it is possible that several wars will be fought to suppress the rebellion.

The Queen Mother, the Emperor, and the Prime Minister did not dare to act rashly, and those monkeys did not dare to move either.

Because it was a crime of treason, the new central team occupied the righteousness, and they were right to kill as many people as possible in the court.

So in the past three years, the relationship between the central government and the local governments has been extremely delicate.

The central government did not dare to replace local civil and military officials at will, and at most appointed and dismissed some officials below the sixth rank, or transferred some officials whose terms of office had expired. At the same time, it waited for more local civil and military officials to express their attitudes and support the central government.

The local civil and military officials were even more passive, and they dared not do anything openly even if they wanted to do something. Because once they openly disobeyed the central government, they would be caught and severely punished.

Three years later, the local army was finally all settled.

This was thanks to the foundation laid by Emperor Dingtai, who would rather force the army to rebel and suppress the rebellion than to reorganize the army and keep it firmly in the hands of the emperor.

Otherwise, it would never be so smooth now.

Because those top military officials who were executed, imprisoned, and exiled for treason had countless disciples and old officials in charge of the troops, and even had direct relatives leading troops outside!

Xie Yiqin watched the commander arresting people and went away, and gradually strengthened his determination - he wanted to be a reformer.

He even suspected that there had been wars in some places in the past three years, but the news was blocked.

Not long after returning to the hall, Xie Yiqin's old servant suddenly ran to the office with a telegram: "Sir, a civil telegram from the provincial capital."

Xie Yiqin took the telegram and read it: "The new left and right governors and censors have all arrived in the provincial capital. The officials of the provincial government remain unchanged. Friends."

He knew which friend sent it.

But why did the chief officials of the provincial government and the censor change without saying a word?

He, a dignified judge of a prefecture, actually needed a civil telegram from a friend to know about it.

This was definitely the emperor's use of his privileges to directly issue an order to transfer officials without discussion with the ministers of the cabinet. The news was so tightly blocked that it was estimated that even the procedures of the Ministry of Personnel had to be completed afterwards to prevent individual officials of the Ministry of Personnel from leaking the news in advance.

"The Queen Mother and the Prime Minister, this is too strong!" Xie Yiqin felt a sense of fear.

Although he decided to be a reformist and stand on the side of the Queen Mother and the Prime Minister, he naturally hated this kind of rough behavior.

Not following the rules!

It is obvious that they can follow the formal procedures, but they have to use the emperor's privileges. This is what officials hate the most.

More than half a month ago, Xie Yiqin was still afraid that the Queen Mother and the Prime Minister were not firm and strong enough.

Now they feel too strong.

The Queen Mother has no experience in politics.

The Prime Minister has only experience as a local official, and his style of being an official is very strong.

After they seized power, they endured for three years, trembling and carefully laying out, and now they can't wait to implement the policy.

Why can't they be strong?

The previous emperor spent his whole life laying the foundation just for today.

Moreover, they killed so many top dignitaries and offended countless civil and military officials. Now they behave calmly. Can they reconcile with those monkeys?

In today's Ming Dynasty, even the ruling class is seriously divided.

Not everyone has a share of the emerging bureaucratic capital.

There are still a large number of traditional gentry landlords who, while occupying land, also run some traditional industries and commerce. They cannot benefit from the emerging industries and commerce, so they hate the dramatic changes in the industrial and commercial landscape.

There are even many scholars who miss and beautify everything in the past and think that factories and steam engines should not appear.

It has destroyed the environment, hurt the people, and caused moral decline and deterioration.

These people are eager to strike hard at bureaucratic capital, and at the same time they hope to become a part of it.

So now the newly promoted ministers of the cabinet and the ministry in the court are called reformists, but in fact they are conservatives. The so-called conservative here means that from the long-term process of historical development, they are trying to stop capitalism and the industrial revolution!

It is definitely impossible to stop it, but it can be restricted, that is, to step on the brakes.

The current situation does need someone to step on the brakes.

…

In the Luoyang Palace, a female official in her fifties was checking the emperor's homework.

She was the long-lost female Jinshi Tao Jinfeng.

After correcting the homework, the little emperor went to play happily.

Tao Jinfeng smiled and said to the Queen Mother: "Your Majesty has made great progress in your studies these days. You will definitely be a wise ruler in the future."

Queen Mother Ye sighed: "You are just good at learning, but you are still far from being a wise ruler. You have been an official in the local government for nearly 30 years. Do you think this reform will succeed?"

Tao Jinfeng said: "The late emperor has actually changed half of it, but due to his old age and the constraints of a large number of powerful people, the reform stopped at a critical moment. What we have to do now is just to follow the late emperor's tail."

"In the later years of the late Emperor's reign, the situation was too dangerous, which makes me very scared now," said Queen Mother Ye.

Tao Jinfeng said: "In any reform, some people will benefit and some will suffer. The dangers the late emperor encountered in his later years were due to the close friends he promoted. Many of them became the beneficiaries of the reform. They benefited and were in high positions, so naturally they would not I hope to continue to change it.”

Queen Mother Ye was silent.

Tao Jinfeng said: "The real enemy of the Queen Mother is not the local hozens who have lost their big trees. The late Emperor has already uprooted the big trees with his own layout. The Queen Mother's reform will definitely succeed, and it will succeed easily. The real Queen Mother The enemy is today’s group of reformist officials, who will inevitably turn into deep-rooted trees in the future.”

"Then what is the purpose of my reform? I uprooted a forest that was growing crooked, and planted a forest with my own hands until it grew crooked." Queen Mother Ye was a little discouraged.

Tao Jinfeng said: "The forest in the past did not listen to the tree planters. In the future, even if the forest eventually grows crooked, it will grow crooked in the direction restricted by the tree planters. What's more, the current Ming Dynasty seems strong, but in fact the meridians are not strong. It needs to be unblocked.”

Queen Mother Ye suddenly laughed and said: "I thought the female gentleman was going to talk about saving the world and the people."

Tao Jinfeng said: "The late emperor opposed all opinions and asked me, a woman, to be an official. When I was young, my idea was very simple, that is, to repay the late emperor's kindness by doing a good job in the official position. Later I found out, how can there be any truly good official? Can I keep it? He has a good heart. In ancient times, there was an official named Zhou Mu, which was aptly named. As long as he became an official, he would be the emperor's herdsman, and the common people would be the herds of sheep."

"The female gentleman is insightful." Queen Mother Ye said.

Tao Jinfeng said: "Since you are a shepherd, you must also fulfill your duties faithfully and not watch and steal. You must not let the sheep be picked up by wolves. You must also clean the sheepfold to prevent them from getting sick. You must also repair the sheep shed to provide shelter from wind and rain."

Queen Mother Ye said: "How about reinstating the female gentleman?"

Tao Jinfeng shook his head: "Why bother with so many complications? I am already over fifty years old, and I have no husband and no children. To put it bluntly, I would be satisfied if I could treat the official family as my own son and teach him carefully to support him until his old age."

"What do you think of Prime Minister Deng, sir?" Queen Mother Ye asked.

Tao Jinfeng said: "He is two years older than me, but he is my junior. This man thinks very highly of himself. He was arrogant when he was young. He was demoted to poor counties by the late emperor for many years. Now he has been refined into steel. But there are still some He is too strong, and even though his edges have been worn away, he still has a heart of stone. He is already a towering tree and will never grow crooked. As for his descendants, who can tell clearly?"