Chapter 317 The Purpose of Discipline (III)
After returning to Linzi, Yang Wangfu went to see Qian Qing and told his cousin about his disappointment.
I thought Qian Qing would be very angry, but unexpectedly, Qian Qing's dignified face did not show much fluctuation. Instead, he asked Yang Wangfu, "What do you want to do?"
"I don't care! I won't care about this kind of thing in the future." Yang Wangfu was still a little annoyed.
Qian Qing stared at Yang Wangfu, not making any comment. Yang Wangfu felt as if he was being stared at by a beast, and felt a strong pressure all over his body. He could only tentatively ask, "Sister, what do you want to say?"
"You can ignore them. Listen carefully to what the master says. Wang Fu, everyone is successful now and is less and less willing to listen to the master. Others are under the supervision of the supervisory department, and we can't let that happen."
Yang Wangfu nodded repeatedly, without any rebuttal, and even less intention to refute. This incident was too unexpected, a good person turned out like that, Yang Wangfu didn't want to end up like that.
Perhaps seeing that Yang Wangfu really accepted it, Qian Qing suddenly changed the subject, "By the way, you have accepted a new student, recommended by Master Changxin. He was the little Taoist boy who was Master Changxin's disciple before, named Mingxin."
Yang Wangfu was a little surprised to hear that he had a new junior brother. However, Yang Wangfu didn't want to comment on the fact that this junior brother was from Master Changxin's side. Moreover, Yang Wangfu and Master Changxin had a very ordinary relationship. The two rarely met, and he didn't know who Mingxin was.
After the incident, Yang Wangfu threw himself into work. Huo Chong first ordered to determine the new date unit of "week". According to Chinese tradition, every fifth day is a day off. That is, work five days and rest one day.
The lunar calendar has 30 days per month, which naturally makes a month have 5 weeks.
At the same time, Huo Chong also stated in the release that as labor productivity increases in the future, there will be a five-day work week and two-day rest week. That is, work five days and rest two days.
After seeing this, everyone was a little confused. However, at the back of the document, it was stipulated that all departments of the Chinese court had to study every Wednesday. Wednesday was a normal working day, and because of the normal work, they could not put down their work. Everyone needed to study after work.
The first thing to learn is the powers of the supervisory department and the deeds of the supervisory department personnel who died heroically this time.
The method adopted by Huo Chong was very simple, which was to strengthen learning, promote the advanced, point out the backwardness, and announce punishment.
After two weeks of propaganda, the punishment was told in the organization's study session. The murderer was killed, and the one who participated in the beating was sentenced. Three county magistrates were dismissed from their posts. Among them, Song Qingkun was imprisoned for participating in the instigation.
Seeing that this was a real move, people within the system no longer dared to ignore it.
The responsible persons of each unit held up a temporary silk-screened document and read out the key points: "Observe discipline and keep secrets. Do not say what you should not say, and do not listen to what you should not listen to."
After reading, the group of people talked about the content of the class they attended, "Don't think that discipline is only for us. Discipline is indeed for us, but it is also for everyone's benefit. If those county magistrates abide by the discipline and don't tell the subordinates who are being investigated about their conflicts with the supervision department, do you think those subordinates who are being investigated would dare to say they beat people?"
Everyone was concerned about this matter, and each study session had a secretary who was responsible for organizing the discussion. Once this topic was brought up, analysis and discussion began.
Similar to other courses, the discussion starts with the internal and external causes of the conflict.
Among the many internal relationships, Song Qingkun does not think that he and the supervisory department are his own people, but that he and the people in the village are his own people, because the people in the village can satisfy Song Qingkun's pursuit of interests.
This is the established position.
Huo Chong did not try to hide this fact, but pointed it out clearly, "Our Chinese court is a political organization, and the foundation of a political organization is political ideas. State-owned land and public-owned land are the basic political foundations. No one can destroy this foundation for any reason. Anyone who thinks that this foundation can be destroyed can prove that they are not on the same side as our Chinese court in terms of foundation..."
Not only Shandong is learning, but other places are also learning. In Zhenjiang, Gao Pang is learning and even gave the content to his teacher Chen Mingtai in his office.
After reading it, Chen Mingtai chuckled and said without surprise: "Isn't this just about eliminating cliques?"
Gao Pang really hoped that someone like the teacher would come out to support the Chinese court, so he asked, "Teacher, you should support the cleansing of cliques, right?"
"Before his death, Yongzheng had been trying his best to clean up his cliques. He probably didn't expect that Huo Chong, who killed him, had the same philosophy in governing the country."
Chen Mingtai finished speaking, and felt like laughing at his own comparison. Before Yongzheng's death, ordinary people in Jiangnan had a rather simple view of the relationship between Huo Chong and Yongzheng. "The prince became a traitor, the official became a traitor. Now a craftsman has also become a traitor."
Among the cultural people in Jiangnan, the view was more profound. They did not understand why Yongzheng saw Huo Chong, a craftsman, as having the intention of rebellion. From this perspective alone, Yongzheng and Huo Chong were kind of soulmates.
The idea that Yongzheng died at the hands of Huo Chong was temporarily forgotten. However, Huo Chong's current execution method made Chen Mingtai see some similarities between Huo Chong and Yongzheng. At least both of them were resolute and resolute, and their ruling style was full of toughness.
For a monarch to be able to implement strong policies, he must crack down on cliques.
Gao Pang didn't know much about Yongzheng, nor did he have any feelings about him. After hearing what the teacher said, he became interested and asked Chen Mingtai to explain why he said that.
At this time, the Chinese court occupied more and more cities in Jiangnan. Looking at his student, the governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Chen Mingtai felt more and more pleased with him. He told Gao Pang what he knew.
A clique is a special political group or interest group that is formed due to different political backgrounds and economic interests and is an inevitable product of the internal power struggle.
The official corruption and mismanagement caused by factional struggles had an extremely serious negative impact on the sustained and healthy development of the dynasty. At the same time, factional struggles also exacerbated the contradictions within the dynasty's ruling class, seriously undermined the country's political and economic stability, and hindered the development of productivity.
After explaining the key points, Chen Mingtai smiled and said, "I think Huo Chong said it well. What is the Jianghu? Where there are people, there is the Jianghu. Cliques are the Jianghu. Mr. Huo is indeed a Jianghu man. So is Yongzheng."
Gao Pang laughed out loud and was a little surprised. When he was studying with Chen Mingtai before, he never realized that Chen Mingtai was such a humorous person.
However, Chen Mingtai did not intend to criticize Huo Chong or Yongzheng. He continued to tell Gao Pang about Yongzheng.
Chen Mingtai was a genuine juren, with real achievements. In the Qing Dynasty, juren were equivalent to reserve officials, and when the imperial edicts were sent to the localities, juren like Chen Mingtai had to know about it.
From this perspective alone, Huo Chong, who donated money to become an official without any real vacancy, did not even receive such treatment.
Since he had the power to access these imperial edicts and was a well-known local scholar, Chen Mingtai had a deep understanding of the affairs of the Yongzheng period.
All dynasties hated forming factions, and in many dynasties, forming a faction was a capital crime. The reason why they spared no effort to crack down on factions and eliminate factional disputes was that the existence of factions would seriously threaten the stability of imperial power and even the survival of the dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty had learned too many lessons from the complete destruction of feudal dynasties due to "factional struggles". The Qing emperors generally adopted a zero-tolerance suppression stance against court officials forming factions. Emperor Yongzheng, who had experienced the "Nine Princes Fighting for the Crown Prince" incident in the late Kangxi period, was even more disgusted with the harm of factions. Therefore, Emperor Yongzheng began to crack down on and eliminate factions through various measures as soon as he ascended the throne.
One of Yongzheng's methods was to secretly appoint a crown prince.
In August of the first year of Yongzheng's reign, Yongzheng issued a famous edict: The matter of establishing a crown prince should be decided long ago. Last November, it was decided in a hurry. The holy ancestor is sacred, and I am not in a position to do that. Now I write it myself, seal it, and put it in a brocade box, hiding it behind the plaque of "Zhengda Guangming". You should know it.
From then on, the "secret succession" was confirmed. The method was to write the name of the crown prince and hide it behind the plaque of "Zhengda Guangming".
After that, Chen Mingtai said seriously: "This method was used by Emperor Yongzheng. It seems that Mr. Huo needs to marry more women."
Gao Pang didn't know how to respond to this. Huo Chong was not a womanizer, and certainly not a manizer. According to Gao Pang's observation, Huo Chong might want to educate the prince himself, but he felt that he was unable to do so. There was no special reason, it was just that feeling.
As I was thinking, I heard Chen Mingtai continue to tell me that when Emperor Yongzheng ascended the throne on the first day of the first lunar month, he appointed the eighth prince Yinsi, the thirteenth prince Yinxiang, the Grand Secretaries Ma Qi and Zhang Tingyu as the general ministers.
Among them, except Yinxiang who was his staunch supporter, the eighth prince Yinsi and Ma Qi both belonged to the "Eighth Prince Party". Zhang Tingyu did not publicly take a stand in the "Nine Princes' Struggle for the Throne" incident, so the political power of Emperor Yongzheng, who had just ascended the throne, was very weak.
Yongzheng was in a rather isolated and unfavorable position in the court at that time. Except for Yinxiang and Longkodo, he could not find any trustworthy and capable assistants among the civil and military officials in the court. This was in sharp contrast to Yinsi, Yin'er and others who enjoyed the support of many important ministers and nobles.
There is no doubt that the royal clique composed of Yinsi and others had seriously threatened the status and authority of Emperor Yongzheng.
Faced with such a situation, Emperor Yongzheng was also very anxious. When Yongzheng criticized Lao Ba on a daily basis, he also sent messages to the people below him. He probably wanted to get the approval of the officials below.
I have been entrusted with a great responsibility by my father. Since I took the throne, I have carefully handled state affairs. I think I have the mental strength to manage more than enough. However, among my brothers, these few are extremely difficult to teach. They are neither grateful nor afraid of the law, which makes me feel exhausted.
Therefore, Yongzheng had two methods: first, literary inquisition, and second, the secret memorial system.
After finishing his story, Chen Mingtai made a general assessment. Huo Chong's methods were different from what Yongzheng said, but their purpose was the same.
Huo Chong wanted to establish a Chinese court with political ideas as its core, and Huo Chong wanted to establish a system of regular learning.
Of the two, the former is to establish a clear standard for definition. All cliques are, without exception, for the sake of profit. The political philosophy of the Chinese court is to seek liberation for the people, and naturally it is opposed to the private interests of cliques.
As for the study class system, the first thing is to emphasize discipline, and the second is to bring out concepts and cases. These can help the court itself to maintain confidentiality and unify thoughts.
Finally, Chen Mingtai gave the same evaluation as before, "Mr. Huo is indeed determined to rule the world immediately to the end."
Gao Pang was no longer as respectful of the teacher as before. After hearing what the teacher said, he laughed and said, "Teacher, do you still look down on me?"
Chen Mingtai shook his head. "It's not that I look down on him, but I always thought that Mr. Huo was doing this. I don't really agree with it. But recently, it seems that Mr. Huo's methods are extraordinary. At least they are a step forward compared to previous dynasties. I said before that I wanted to see how Mr. Huo would handle the salt administration. I thought Mr. Huo would make the same mistakes again after a few years of hard work. Unexpectedly, Mr. Huo solved the dirty problems of the salt administration that had lasted for hundreds of years in just one year. It's really admirable."
Gao Pang quickly advised: "Teacher, I wanted to ask you to come out and be the salt administrator before. Can I ask you to come out now?"
Chen Mingtai thought about it and couldn't make a decision for a while. In the end, he could only say: "My philosophy is very different from Mr. Huo's. Although Mr. Huo's salt administration is refreshing, what about the million canal workers? The people in Jiangnan benefited a lot, but there is no such thing as everyone benefiting. If Mr. Huo can handle the million canal workers, I will work for him!"
Gao Pang did not continue to persuade him. He just gave Chen Mingtai a prepared content of the official examination. Seeing that Chen Mingtai did not refuse, Huo Chong felt that the teacher was really moved.
The Huaxia court's civil service exam question bank is public, and the exam format is also public. The one who wants to take the exam is Chen Mingtai's daughter. Since Chen Mingtai did not refuse, it means that Chen Mingtai no longer objects to his family coming out to serve the Huaxia court. This can also be regarded as a huge progress.
After sending Chen Mingtai away, Gao Pang began to promote the establishment of the Agricultural College. As the Governor-General of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Gao Pang also had to implement the court's decision.
The so-called decree is the decision made by the entire court. Although the decree was issued in the name of Emperor Huo Chong, the decision was made by the various departments of the court, which is now the committee. Once the decree comes out, the entire court must implement it. Of course, the Governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, as a local official, must also implement it.
If the Governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang did not carry out the order, it would be a disobedience to the imperial order. This was not against Huo Chong, but against the entire imperial court.
Of course, compared with the imperial edict, which is the decision of the court, Huo Chong also has his personal privilege, which is "edict", or "command."
The decree itself refers to an order issued directly by Huo Chong to a certain department. For example, Huo Chong can issue a decree to Gao Pang, the Governor-General of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, asking Gao Pang to do something.
However, the imperial edicts did not have such a strong support background as the imperial decrees. In history, especially in the Ming Dynasty, the imperial edicts would not only be rejected by the six departments, but the officials who received the edicts would often directly refuse them. After all, the emperor's personal decision seemed to be alone in the face of the entire court.
The so-called disobedience to the imperial order basically refers to resisting the imperial edict and refusing to execute the order, rather than really resisting the imperial will.
To oppose the imperial edict was to oppose the emperor. Officials were challenging the emperor in a one-on-one fight. This often earned them fame.
To defy the will is to defy the court. Unless officials are truly determined to die, they would not dare to put themselves in a position where they have to defy the entire court.
So Gao Pang carried out the plan obediently, and Gao Pang himself really supported this plan.
The so-called imperial edict is not a simple sentence requiring Gao Pang to do "XXX" and then leaving everything to Gao Pang to do.
Gao Pang originally really thought this was the case. But when Gao Pang really became an official in the Chinese court, he realized that this was not the case.
An edict is just an edict. If there is no corresponding series of implementation regulations behind it, the edict is useless.
For example, when building an agricultural college, what is the purpose and scale? What kind of people should be hired as teachers and what are the standards for teachers? What are the unknown and known contents in the implementation process, as well as the planning of each stage.
This not only requires Gao Pang and relevant personnel to make decisions, but also to assess how they are implemented.
The reason why an edict is an edict is that it must have its rationale. If the edict is completely nonsense, it means that the entire court has become a place of nonsense.
While I was working hard on every aspect of this job, another teacher from Gao Pang arrived.
Gao Pang didn't want to see this teacher. He couldn't pretend that he had almost been expelled from the academy.
During that incident, only Chen Mingtai gave Gao Pang strict instructions as a teacher. Even so, Gao Pang felt that he had no future and had to run to Huo Chong for help.
Pushing Gao Pang to this point, he really couldn't just pretend it hadn't happened. Gao Pang felt very unhappy whenever he thought about it.
In the end, Gao Pang still felt that he had to meet him, at least to give him a clear rejection, because the gentleman had expressed his position last time, and he was very dissatisfied with the entire collapse of the salt merchant class.
Just as Gao Pang expected, the gentleman started by talking about the million canal workers.
The so-called "what can we do if the millions of canal workers depend on their food and clothing" is a major event in the south of the Yangtze River.
The teacher started to alarmist things very readily. At the beginning of the 16th century, the number of statutory laborers on the Caohe River from Tongzhou (now Nantong, Jiangsu) to Yizheng (now Yizheng, Jiangsu) alone reached more than 47,000 people. Many of them could bring their families to live on the construction site due to the nature of their work. In addition to the labor under special circumstances, it should be noted that the so-called "special circumstances" in the Ming Dynasty became more and more normal in the future... All of these inevitably determined that the number of people who depended on the Caohe River for survival in the middle and late Ming Dynasty was quite considerable.
Since the "sinking" of grain in the Bohai Bay has become a generally accepted unspoken rule, how can a simple sea transport replace the population supported by the Grand Canal, which stretches for thousands of miles and supports the relevant interest chain? It reminds me of the layoff of Li Zicheng, a postman, when Chongzhen eliminated civil servants. If any emperor in the Ming court was really determined to replace the grain transport by sea, the drama of King Chuang entering Beijing might have been staged in advance.
Gao Pang couldn't help laughing when he heard this, "Sir, are you talking about Jiangnan rebelling?"
