Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 523 Strong Support for Chickens
A person is bound to suffer some hardships when he is alive. But as long as there is hope, he can face all these hardships calmly. But if there is no hope...
The group of clerks basically sees no hope under the current Ming Dynasty system. Without hope, and with the power to handle specific affairs, what do you think they will do?
This overall trend cannot be reversed by Lian Zhen’s talent.
Therefore, we must give this class hope.
How to give it? Of course, it is to break down the gap between officials and clerks.
But after taking the exam for a while, Zhu Youdong was shocked to find that he really couldn't break this gap before the existing imperial examination system was completely abolished. In order to appease the scholars across the country, he had solemnly promised to change the imperial examination system after the joint examination in the tenth year of Tianqi.
So, there is really nothing we can do at this moment.
"Mr. Sun, I think this should be done in two steps. First, the clerks should be graded. Those with long service should have their salaries appropriately increased. It is impossible for senior clerks and newcomers to receive similar salaries, right? Second, local government offices should organize clerks to study the civil service examination and essay writing. Starting from the 13th year of the Tianqi reign, the national imperial examination system will undergo major changes. Aren't many clerks good at numbers? If they take the exam as a reference, they will at least have an advantage in the civil service examination. In addition, since they are at the grassroots level, they may not be good at writing essays, but they will basically have something to say. In short, we should give this class some hope."
"Yes, I accept your order."
"Okay, let's continue the meeting."
The agenda for the next meeting was relatively quick: the Ministry of War and the Privy Council were now quite idle, the Ministry of Rites was busy preparing for this year's joint examination, and the Ministry of Justice continued to promote new laws: the Imperial Ming Constitution was too complicated to be produced in just three years after Xiong Tingbi took office. However, the Civil Code and Commercial Code, which were suitable for the new era, had already been produced and put into practice... The Ministry of Works naturally continued to overhaul roads and railways.
By the time all the ministers had finished speaking, the clock in the conference room had just struck eleven in the morning.
"Okay, now that I have finished talking to you all, I also have three things to tell you about."
"Your Majesty, please give us your instructions."
"The first one is my personal matter. Um, Mr. Zhao?"
"I am here."
"My fifth brother, Youjian, will graduate from Fangshan Middle School this year. I want to assign him to work in the Censorate. What do you think?"
"Your Highness Prince Xin is known for his diligence and love of learning. I am extremely happy that Your Highness has chosen our Censorate!"
In fact, it was an absolute taboo for a prince to join the government in the past. But now it is different: everyone knows that sooner or later, the princes will be sent to distant foreign countries, so when a prince joins the government in his own department, his chief official not only does not object, but welcomes it.
In addition to the reasons of the feudal system, this was also because Zhu Youxiao had a good start: after he went to the Binhai Shipyard, it was never a problem to obtain funds from the Ministry of Works.
Nowadays, the Ministry of Justice has gained a lot of influence in recent years because Xiong Tingbi was originally the emperor's tutor and Prince Jian Zhu You (Mu Xue) has joined the system. When competing for funds in the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry's voice is much louder than before.
With two successful examples in front of us, why wouldn't other tribes want to have a young prince in charge? It's because the two princes, Prince Huai and Prince Qi, are too bad - as long as there is someone who looks like a good person, we will rush to take over.
Looking at Zhao Yan who was overjoyed, and other ministers who were full of regret, Zhu Youdong sneered in his heart: When you, Zhao Yan, receive Zhu Youjian, you will know that my brother is not an easy person to deal with. He may be obedient in front of me, but in fact, he is impatient, mean, and not easy to serve.
However, it is actually quite good for such a person to work in the Discipline Inspection Commission.
"The second thing is to discuss assistance to the Ottoman Empire."
After saying this, Zhu Youdong stood up and walked to the wall on one side of the conference room: there, Fang Zhenghua had already replaced the map of Europe and the Middle East according to his request.
"Because yesterday was the Lantern Festival, I did not bother the Privy Council to come after I met with the Ottoman envoy. Therefore, today I will personally explain to you what has happened in Europe recently... In short, the European Union has mobilized nearly 600,000 troops and hundreds of warships to prepare for a war of annihilation against the Ottoman Empire."
The European Union wanted to destroy the Ottoman Empire. The officials of the Ming Dynasty looked at the map and instinctively felt unhappy: the reason was simple. The current map was made by Zhu Youdong himself. On this map, the directly governed territories of the Ming Empire were fiery red, and the vassal states were light red. The Spanish mainland was dark blue, and its colonies and allies under its control were light blue or light gray. The Ottoman territory was yellow.
Now it seems that Europe, South America, and Central America are all blue, and many places in North America and Africa are still turning blue. If such a large piece of Ottoman territory, and a large piece of territory with such a critical geographical location, is also swallowed up by Spain, then will the Ming Dynasty still be invincible?
The cabinet members of this cabinet are formed with the Imperial Party as the backbone. This determines that their vision is unprecedentedly broad. They have clearly realized that nowadays, the biggest enemy of the Ming Dynasty is Spain. With Spain's wanton expansion, the two countries will sooner or later break out into a violent conflict.
In fact, it is not sooner or later, but it has already happened. After the Battle of Manila, the Spanish government began to ban the silk, porcelain and tea of the Ming Dynasty from entering Europe: although this ban was basically in name only due to the attacks of smugglers driven by high profits, the merchants of the Ming Dynasty also suffered losses because of this: the demand was not as great as before.
And from what the emperor just said, your Prince Rudolf died, and you actually put the blame on the Ming Dynasty? This is really absurd!
Therefore, whether out of emotion or practical interests, there is no problem for the Ming Dynasty to stand on the side of the Ottoman Empire at this time.
However, the position has been set, but how should it be implemented specifically?
"I am sure that this war will start this year, and once it starts, its cruelty and bloodiness will far exceed the Battle of Manila. So, the first question is, should we withdraw Zhao Lujiao's Sixth Division? You must know that the Ottoman Empire is thousands of miles away from us. If we lose the war, our army will not be able to withdraw even if it wants to."
"Your Majesty." Privy Council Commander Ma Chengzhao stood up and said, "What I mean is that Your Majesty can issue an order to Zhao Lujiao and Liu Xingzuo there to ask them to recruit volunteers in the army. There doesn't need to be too many volunteers, one or two hundred will be enough. These people will stay and watch and summarize the various weapons and tactics of the European and American wars on the actual battlefield, so that we can prepare for future battles against powerful enemies. Moreover, it will be easy to withdraw a team of one or two hundred people in the future. As for the main force of the Sixth Division, Your Majesty, I think it's better to withdraw it first."
"Hmm..." After glancing at everyone and seeing that everyone had a similar expression, Zhu Youdong nodded: "Then do as Marshal Ma wishes. The Privy Council will draft an order later and send it to the Silijian for seal."
"As you wish."
"Let's talk about the aid, Mr. Xu?"
"Your Majesty." After urgently settling accounts with the lower-level officials behind him, Xu Guangqi stood up and said, "The Ministry of Industry can urgently allocate 30,000 Type 1 Tianqi rifles, 500 Type 2 Shizhen heavy machine guns, 1,000 Type 1 Yuanhua light machine guns , 100 Type 2 Huxiao 75mm cannons, and 300 Type 1 Jaguar mortars. All of the above weapons can be equipped with 20 base ammunition."
"..." After knocking on the table for a while, Zhu Youdong shook his head: "Young Master Hate."
"Your Majesty, because military technology has developed very rapidly in recent years, weapons are also updated very quickly, so our inventory is indeed small. After these things are taken out, the arsenal under the Ministry of Industry will have zero inventory."
"Da Sima, where are our active troops?"
"Ah?" Yang Hao stood up nervously: "The emperor said that we should take down the equipment of the active troops and support Osman first?"
"That's right. There are no major wars around our Ming Dynasty right now, so let's support the Ottoman Empire first. In this way, the weapons we provide will be doubled from what Mr. Xu just mentioned. If there are not enough, the Ministry of War will be responsible for grabbing them from the active troops."
This will really offend all the soldiers below, and the worst thing is that I will be the bad guy.
Although he thought so in his heart, Yang Hao, who had become Zhu Youdong's loyal dog since Sarhu, still bowed obediently: "I accept your order. The Ministry of War will strive to complete this matter within this month. Try to ship it in early February."
"Well, it is reported that the European-Austrian war will begin in March this year. So our batch of weapons will not be able to catch up with the early stage of the war, but the sooner the better. I hope that this war will last at least five or six years, so that we will have more time to rectify domestic affairs."
"Yes, I will speed up."
"In addition to weapons, the transportation of food will also have to be doubled. But since we have already provided weapons, we can save on steel. In this way, the transportation capacity does not need to be increased too much."
"Yes, I will obey your order."
"Okay, let me tell you about the third thing. Actually, this thing is also related to supporting the Ottomans. That, Grand Marshal, I remember that more than five years ago, when Zheng Guangyuan, Zheng Wei, and Zhang Hong returned from America, there were more than a dozen natives on the ship, right?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. After these natives arrived in the Ming Dynasty, many of them died of illness due to unfamiliarity with the local climate. Only two survived. According to Your Majesty's will, we admitted them to the Royal Military Academy and the Naval Academy and trained them with all our heart and soul for five years."
"Very good, what are their names?"
"Uh..." Yang Hao quickly turned his head and, with the help of the military officer in the back row, he finally found a booklet: "Your Majesty, these two are a man and a woman. The man is Liuko Sillon and the woman is Tia Waman Chaska. Moreover, the two seem to be led by this woman."
"Hahaha, great, great, call these two here, I want to meet them in person. It's time for them to go back and work hard to save their compatriots."
