New Shun 1730

At this point, the emperor finally saw the full picture of this reform.

Originally, the salt reform was intended to be a small Huaihai, but after Liu Yu entered the scene, he kept making trouble all the way to Sichuan. I didn't expect that today I would finally understand how big the original small Huaihai had become.

The reform of Dashun started with the abolition of the Grand Canal. The general direction was set, but many of the small details were pushed.

For example, at the beginning, the changes in the share of Shanxi salt, Changlu salt, Shandong salt, and Huaibei salt in the Henan salt area after the abolition of the Grand Canal were not considered.

After the reform, something went wrong, so they quickly patched it up.

The salt administration reform was even more so. Liu Yu, who didn't enter the scene at the beginning, was busy patching everywhere and acting as a repairman after entering the scene.

In Liu Yu's words, the previous salt administration reform plan in the court, which was simply to introduce a change in tickets, was purely a brainless one, and it was obviously used for twenty years.

There are so many loopholes that Liu Yu suspected that the budding officials of Dashun were spoiled by the hardworking people. If they were not so useless, the minister who proposed the salt administration reform would have committed suicide in five years, not to mention twenty years.

It was not even a cure for headaches. It was just a headache. He took two puffs of opium. Not only did it stop the pain, but he also felt comfortable for a while. However, pain relief is not a cure.

The bureaucrats of Dashun were not stupid. It was because the economic foundation of Dashun was here. They could only manage the affairs of landlords and farmers, and they didn't really understand it.

Once capital was involved, they were all confused. They didn't know what to do and could only make decisions on the spur of the moment.

The emperor was very sure of one thing, that is, Liu Yu had no intention of entering the salt administration reform before, and he didn't want to get involved at all.

It was just that he was forced to do it later, and more and more patches were made, and finally he came up with the final plan of "Recovering Huai in Five Years" today.

Just as the navy and military reform of Dashun were based on the new law school of the three houses of Wude Palace set at the founding of the country, and the accumulation of strength after a hundred years.

The final plan of this salt reform was also based on the navy, navigation, reclamation, capital, etc. laid in the previous twenty years, and the accumulation of strength after twenty years.

If it had been done this way twenty years ago, Dashun could have directly corrupted Lianghuai.

But now, after reading it carefully, the emperor felt that it was really a matter of course.

In fact, the emperor only cared about two things about the Lianghuai salt industry.

Can the money be collected?

Will there be a civil uprising?

According to Liu Yu's analysis, there should be no problem with the civil uprising.

This directly divides and rules the lower-class people in the salt industry. Salt workers will definitely rebel, but salt households will definitely not.

Thirty to fifty thousand salt workers revolted because of unemployment. Killing a thousand people and taking a batch of them into the army would not be a big problem.

As long as the salt workers and salt households do not unite, but divide and disintegrate them, the emperor will not worry.

The salt workers lost their jobs, but the salt farmers directly used the grassland as shares to make money. How could they unite?

As for collecting taxes... there must be no problem.

Before going to bed, the emperor took up his pen to erase Liu Yu's last sentence "I will serve for five years", drew a circle, and commented: "Not auspicious, read more, don't use it indiscriminately".

Then he went to sleep peacefully.

The next day, before entering the palace, the ministers were already in an uproar.

Liu Yu killed more than 800 gentry in northern Jiangsu. The gentry in Huai'an and other counties were basically killed by him. It is said that there was no village without mourning and crying everywhere.

Although it is true that those gentry embezzled the river engineering funds, it was too cruel, wasn't it?

It has only been two months since the change of the reign, and a series of things have happened. Who in the court can bear it?

A few days ago, it was said that the reform of the salt administration should not be discussed anymore, but someone jumped out and asked for reform of the salt administration.

Then the emperor "furious" said, didn't I say it, don't review it again? As a result, after being angry for less than ten minutes, he was actually "persuaded" and felt that it made sense and should be changed.

Then he shamelessly compared himself to the story of Wei Zheng and Emperor Taizong of Tang, saying, "Look, isn't this a replica of the story of Duke Zheng advising Emperor Taizong of Tang?"

In view of the fact that Duke Xingguo Liu Yu supervised the restoration of the Huaihe River to the sea well, completed it on schedule, and no civil unrest occurred. He had inspected the Huaibei salt industry before and had some understanding, so Duke Xingguo went to Haizhou to supervise the Huaibei salt reform.

The incident a few days ago was already a big deal, and today this incident happened again.

Before entering the palace, the eunuch ran out again and gave each minister who was preparing for the court meeting a copy of "Records of Huai'an Evil Gentry".

The ministers only took a few glances and all smiled helplessly, thinking that today's court meeting was very lively.

As soon as the palace gate opened and entered the palace one by one, the emperor first performed a show of intolerable anger.

He threw the book "Records of Evil Gentry in Huai'an" far away and cursed for about ten minutes.

However, as the saying goes, strong winds reveal strong grass, and turbulent times reveal loyal ministers.

Even when the emperor was so angry, there were still loyal people in Dashun.

Those who got to the top pretended to be ignorant. But among the censors, there were those who dared to speak out.

This official spoke frankly despite the emperor's anger and directly told the story of Duke Zheng defeating Duke Duan in Yan.

"... Duke Zhuang indulged his desires and let them go, nurtured his evil and made it happen. His heart was sinister and evil, not the right way."

"The strength of the armor and the wealth of the soldiers and carriages were Duke Zhuang's hooks and baits; the city of Baizhikou and the land of Liangbi were Duke Zhuang's traps."

"That Shuduan was stubborn and unyielding, with fish ears and beast ears. How could he not swallow the hooks and baits when he saw them, and not throw himself into the trap when he saw them?"

"Lead him to rebel and then advise him to rebel."

"Teach him to rebel and then punish him to rebel."

"Duke Zhuang's intentions are dangerous!"

"His heart is not right, so there was the Battle of Juge, which was a rebellion against the emperor!"

"Youzi said: Those who are filial and respectful to their elders but like to rebellion are rare; those who do not like to rebellion but like to make trouble have never existed."

"Filial piety, rebellion, and rebellion are progressive. As the saying goes, a person's character can be seen from the age of three. Duke Xingguo's intentions are not right. He led people to rebel and then advised them to rebel, and taught them to rebel and then punished them to rebel."

"Whether those gentry are guilty or not is one thing. But if Duke Xingguo uses such means and is not dealt with, it will disrupt the morality of the world."

"Since Duke Xingguo can do this, those cruel officials who want to seek promotion, Aren't they all the same?"

"Shu Duan is stubborn and unyielding, he is a fish or a beast. However, Duke Zhuang knew that he was, but he still threw bait and traps. Isn't this the root cause of the later rebellion and the wounding of the Zhou emperor?"

"Duke Xingguo knew that those gentry were fish or beasts, but he still threw bait and traps. What is the difference between this and Duke Zhuang's actions?"

"This matter should be corrected and dealt with uprightly. Since they are guilty, they should be tried, educated, and moralized. The court could have solved the matter uprightly, but it turned into such a sinister conspiracy. I think it is not advisable."

The emperor was not angry at all. With his current three views, what he said was indeed reasonable.

Anyway, this is what the censors do.

The emperor had no choice.

If you say that the Nanyang savages don't know etiquette, let these people go there to spread education, which is just to vent anger.

It will be bad if no one dares to speak at that time.

This is not to say that the emperor is worried that no one will advise him, but the words of the censors are a necessary embellishment in Dashun, just like setting off fireworks and pasting couplets during the New Year.

The country was originally "not quite right" because of the early equal land and tax exemption. Because of anger, the Duke of Yansheng was demoted to a marquis of Fengsi by taking advantage of the haircut and petition, and a good family son who obviously did not trust the gentry officials was also created. It would be really ugly without some embellishment.

Originally in history, the enemy Ito Hirobumi once commented on the censors: [Some people are worried that "China will be strong in three years", but there is no need to worry about this. China uses contemporary literature to select literature and bows and arrows to select military, but what is selected is not used; if there is a slight change, the censors will make random comments. Although the navy and the army seem to be reorganized at this time, in my opinion, it is all empty talk. Because now that the law has just been settled, it seems to be working hard, but it is not known that after one or two years, it will follow the old ways and be at ease, just as Westerners describe China as "sleeping" again. If I fight with it at this time, it will urge it to become stronger quickly. Don’t you see that China started to set up telegraph wires after the Russian war and navy after the French war? If the country is peaceful for one or two years, the censors will definitely participate in many changes, and those who are planning for the country will not dare to carry out the plan. 】

The reason why Dashun didn’t pay much attention to censors was not because they thought that censors could influence “those who are planning for the country”, and it had nothing to do with the lessons of the previous dynasty.

It was purely at the beginning of the founding of the country that Emperor Taizong analyzed the significance of the existence of censors and rationally came to the conclusion that “they are just for decoration”, so he didn’t pay much attention to them.

The censors and the like were originally used by the imperial power to curb the power of the prime minister and civil officials, but there was no prime minister in the previous dynasty, and Dashun was almost a secretariat. Then the greatest significance of the censors as the imperial power to curb the power of the prime minister did not exist?

The remaining supervisors of the hundred officials... ultimately had to rely on the imperial power and the bureaucratic system to speak out. Whether to protect or not, release or not, control or not, it was up to the imperial power, the Tianyou Palace, and the six governments.

The remonstrance officials, in theory, advised the emperor. But the problem is that the imperial power is unlimited, and the remonstrance officials cannot "change the emperor according to the law". In essence, they rely on the power of the emperor to restrict the emperor... Then this power is purely funny.

The prime minister of Dashun is actually a group of secretaries under the title of Pingzhang Junguoshi, and there is also a system of good family officials to compete with. The meaning of the original job of the censor "imperial power is used to curb the power of the prime minister" is gone.

The original job of the remonstrance officials is more noble in theory, but the emperor is really Shang Zhou and Xia Jie. Can the remonstrance officials directly initiate a court meeting to dismiss him?

As long as the emperor is the emperor and prime minister for one day, dismissing and impeaching the prime minister is essentially dismissing the emperor.

It was originally an official position to restrict the prime minister, just like fireworks and couplets during the New Year.

The embellishment is to make the Dashun emperor pretend to be a Confucian emperor and meet the expectations of the literati.

It is really impossible to learn the posture of the three generations of sages, but it is impossible to learn the knowledge and mind of Confucius. What kind of clothes does Confucius wear when eating and shitting?

Praising merits is embellishment.

Advising the emperor is also embellishment. The embellishment is "I am magnanimous and can tolerate them, and I am a truly benevolent monarch."

This is a roundabout embellishment, a bit more advanced.

Dashun did not directly restore the system of Li Tang, and directly cut the number of censors to one-fifth of the previous dynasty, but it was very disgusting to raise the grades of some censors by one or half a level.

It seems to be more important, but in fact, the level is stuck in a position that cannot be decided by the six governments themselves through the process. Originally, the official government could directly choose through the process, but now the level has been raised, which is very different.

Moreover, many of them were promoted from the local assistant officials, purely to mix sand in the court. Anyone from a big force or a big faction in the court, how could they become the deputy wife of the assistant official?

As long as the imperial power is unlimited, it is just an embellishment. The Emperor of Dashun knew this very well.

Since it is an embellishment, it can only be an embellishment. Listen with one ear and let it out with the other, and it is even more impossible to really argue about anything.

The emperor neither approved nor opposed the remarks, but skillfully changed the subject.

He shifted from the real to the imaginary, turning the actual issue into a theoretical one, and discussed the difference between "conspiracy" and "open conspiracy".

Of course, Liu Yu was not mentioned, but Duke Zhuang of Zheng was. If Uncle Duan was a good man, would Duke Zhuang of Zheng still use his methods? If the methods cannot be used as long as the person is a good person, is it called a conspiracy?

The ministers who pretended to be stupid also opened their mouths at this time. After unanimous discussion, they determined that although this matter was not wrong, it was indeed not good.

Because everyone is not a good bird, if you really play like this, it will break the rules.

Besides, you, the emperor, had better have some knowledge in your mind. The gentry is the foundation of grassroots rule. If you overturn the table, can you open another table for yourself?

What, you have one million land reform teams and 400,000 grassroots cadres with super organizational ability?

If not, it's almost enough.

Let alone the power at the village level, even at the town level, you go back and count the silver in the warehouse first. Is it enough to support the staff? Don't you know how much money you collect in a year? Redundant staff, are you worthy of Dashun?

After exchanging opinions implicitly and fully, the emperor also expressed his attitude, saying "this will not happen again next time."

At the same time, he also implicitly expressed that the scope of the reform policy was limited to Jiangsu.

He also said that Liu Yu was too murderous, and he would not be allowed to manage local affairs in the future. He would not be an imperial envoy for inspection, nor would he be allowed to pacify a region, manage industry and commerce, the Academy of Sciences, or use him when the war of annihilation really came.

For example, the decision to let Liu Yu manage the salt industry reform a few days ago must be fulfilled.

He was fired and replaced.

However, since he went, he had to be allowed to look after the situation there.

But don't worry about it, he has no right to deal with it, and he has no right to investigate it.

The matter of the salt administration system is limited to today, and the past will not be blamed.

The ministers received the guarantee that "reform has boundaries", and seeing that the emperor still pretended, they were very sensible.

The ministers could not argue with the salt administration reform. Because bullshitting is useless, we can only make a bet, saying that the reform will definitely collect less money and sell worse official salt than before the reform. If you don't believe it, let's wait and see. But if bullshitting is just empty talk, it's ok, but the ministers will not be foolish enough to make a bet on money related to Liu Yu's affairs.

The emperor has decided on this matter, so there is no dispute.

Fortunately, the emperor's credibility is basically good. He said before that he would not let people from the new school system occupy the official quota, and he did keep his promise, and did not cut the cake that had been there before.

Moreover, after implicitly expressing the boundaries of the reform, as a deal, several new counties in Jinghai, Northeast, and Southwest were taken out, and a new province was established north of Jilin Shipyard, which was included in the jurisdiction of the six governments. It is no longer a special appointment mechanism for the extension of imperial power, but a regular process.

In addition, since this matter is a moral issue, it is necessary to strengthen moral education, so more Confucian temples should be built.

Although the change of the reign title to Weixin was in line with the governance of Zhenguan, it was not possible to directly elevate Confucius to the status of "teacher and saint" as in the second year of Zhenguan, but it was necessary to build more Confucian temples in various places to prove that the dynasty still ruled the country with Confucianism.

It was necessary to tell the gentry of the world not to be disheartened and not to think that the dynasty would use those who did not learn orthodox knowledge.

Therefore, the shipbuilding funds for one battleship, three cruisers, and four frigates were nominally cut, and the reconstruction of the Dagukou artillery group was delayed. About 600,000 taels of silver were lost to build more Confucian temples, open official schools to teach classics, and boost education.

The next time the emperor went on a southern tour to inspect the Huaihe River and southern Jiangsu, he would "visit Confucius Forest" and take down the humiliating plaque that read "If it were not for Guan Zhong, I would have been wearing my hair loose and my clothes on the left."

It was also to calm the hearts of the gentry of the world.

Seeing the emperor's attitude, the ministers denounced the gentry for their moral corruption and abuse of the people. Those who didn't know thought that the gentry who were killed were killed because of their moral corruption rather than withholding the river engineering fee.

Soon, the court reached a consensus: to publish the "Records of Evil Gentry in Huai'an" and distribute it throughout the country to serve as a warning to others, so that the gentry would know shame and admire morality and etiquette, and show that the court ruled the country with morality and etiquette rather than punishment.