The Heavens: From Knowing Whether You Rule the World

Chapter 95: Prime Minister, His Majesty has passed away!

When one is in a low position, one values ​​power and money; when one is in a high position, one values ​​ideals.

The prime ministers and ministers of the Zhou Dynasty all had their own unique ideas on governance.

In other words, what kind of country does he want?
Some tend to be conservative, some tend to be reformist, some tend to be infighting, and some tend to recover territory.
Chu Hong had the idea of ​​governing the country early on, reforming the world and recovering the borders!
The premise of all this is to have power over the world.

Now, Chu Hong succeeded!
The prime minister is the head of all officials.

Compared to Han Zhang, who has been in power for nine years, Chu Hong's qualifications and prestige are undoubtedly less.

However, although it is insignificant, the power is no less.

He was young, had little experience, and had low prestige, only comparable to Han Zhang, who had ruled the country for nine years.

Following the dragon's hidden residence and inspecting the world, these two things alone are enough to make Chu Hong's qualifications and prestige far ahead in the civil service group.

In the Korean industry, Chu Hong's words are always final and no one dares to question them.

Han Zhang retired, the former Han faction disappeared, and the Chu faction came into being.

Chu Hong has always been the only heir to the Han faction, so the official team of the Chu faction and the official team of the Han faction are naturally almost identical.

Chu Hong is naturally equivalent to a replica of Han Zhang’s governance.

Compared with his teacher Han Zhang, Chu Hong has held more official positions and more key posts.

At the beginning, when Han Zhang was in power, there were only the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Works, which involved some of the powers of the Ministry of Revenue.

When Chu Hong became the Minister of Personnel, Han Zhang was about to retire, but he did not actually enjoy the influence of the Ministry of Personnel.

Chu Hong was different. He had served as the Minister of Personnel, Right Vice Minister of Revenue, Left Vice Minister of Rites, and Minister of Taichang Temple.

When he came to rule the world, he would naturally have people assigned to these departments, and they would all be major officials.

This meant that Chu Hong had the assistance of many departments in governing the country, including the Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Works, Taichang Temple, Honglu Temple, and Censorate.

Of the six ministries in the world, the Ministry of War is controlled by the lords, leaving only five ministries.

Except for the Ministry of Justice, Chu Hong has them all!
The Ministry of Justice does not have much responsibilities and powers, so it makes no difference whether it exists or not.

With four out of five, Chu Hong's power is much greater than that of his teacher.

When you are in a high position of power, your words will naturally be effective.

With power, one can implement his political philosophy and mold the vast world into the desired shape.

At that time, when the cabinet was selecting a new prime minister, the attitude of Zeng Gongliang, the Grand Secretary of the Eastern Pavilion, caught Chu Hong's attention.

After arranging an "accidental" meeting, Chu Hong and Zeng Gongliang talked for a long time.

The two men felt like they had met a soulmate and were determined to reform.

In this way, no one dared to stop Chu Hong's reform measures.

There are five grand secretaries and one prime minister in the cabinet, and Liu Shi'an, the grand secretary of Wenhua Palace, is the core of the Chu faction.

Now, with the support of Zeng Gongliang, the attitudes of the other three cabinet ministers are no longer so important.

In this way, in the spring of the second year of Zhiping, the new policy was officially implemented.

It is mainly divided into several aspects:

First, an inspection station was set up to conduct a thorough inspection of the officials in the two capitals and thirteen provinces every year.

The inspection station has two purposes: to maintain clean governance and to crack down on opposition parties.

The inspection station was recently established and has no clear administrative level.

No level is the best level.

After Chu Hong established it, Liu Shi'an, the Grand Secretary of Wenhua Palace, was appointed as the Inspector General, and six officials of the third rank or above from the three provinces and six ministries were allowed to be arbitrarily selected to serve as deputy inspectors, and the specifications were basically filled to the maximum.

During the inspection period, the inspector and deputy inspector will be stationed in the local area.

Corrupt officials discovered by the inspection station will be recorded separately according to the official's rank, the power contained in their position, and the severity of their crimes, and will be included in the official's performance evaluation.

The more you check, the faster you will be promoted!

In order to prevent favoritism and corruption in the Inspection Office, the Censorate was set up, with Prince Huan Zhao Ceying as the chief officer. Any problems and evidence were reported directly to the emperor.

Secondly, the performance evaluation system was implemented, which stipulated that the six ministries, the Censorate, the Court of Remonstrance, and local government offices should establish regular rules for handling urgent and non-urgent matters in accordance with the cabinet's decrees, and set up a register for recording and keeping records of documents, which could only be cancelled after they were completed within a specified time limit.

The cabinet's decrees to local areas must be implemented efficiently, and annual inspection officials must focus on checking this during their inspections.

The best will be promoted, and the worst will be demoted!

If the government orders are not implemented, the local chief official will be demoted first, and then the minor officials will be punished.

The prime minister and the cabinet ministers are in a very lonely position. The implementation of some policies is necessary, but if there is no efficiency at the local level, even the best policies will have to be abolished.

The efficiency of government orders should be from top to bottom.

When it comes to government affairs, just put pressure on the chief officer, and he will spontaneously pressure the smaller officials to speed up efficiency.

Third, promote Champa rice, which existed during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong, and encourage its planting.

If taxes are paid with Champa rice, an additional three points of tax exemption will be given to encourage payment of taxes with Champa rice.

Chu Hong has personally seen this Champa rice and also asked professionals to look at it. The Song Dynasty also did it in history.

In one word, it's quite interesting.

Except for the taste, everything else is good, especially the yield.

Compared to the popular rice in the Zhou Dynasty, the grain yield of Champa rice is about 10% to 20% higher. This 20% increase in grain yield alone can feed tens of millions more people.

Fourth, implement the one-whip system.

The taxes in the Zhou Dynasty were a bit complicated, and could be roughly divided into land tax, population tax, corvée, and miscellaneous taxes.
Various taxes are paid at different times and in different amounts.

But the people usually calculate how much food they will eat based on the surplus grain, so it is a little hard to calculate the amount of food collected at this moment.

This also gave rise to a large amount of corruption.

The Single Whip Method combined all these numerous, complex and controversial things together.

The Ding tax was levied based on the land area and paid in silver, simplifying the tax payment process and items.

Fifth, open up trade to enrich the country and strengthen the military.

There are always some people who do not want to see the implementation of new policies and choose to stop it.

Only, kill!

The implementation of the New Deal was supported by a large number of beneficiaries, but also sabotaged by a large number of people.

Chu Hong gradually and vigorously selected like-minded people. His brother-in-law Sheng Changbai selected a small number of people every year, and a large number of people every three years. Zheng Bin, the Minister of Honglu Temple, Han Jiayan, the Governor of Hangzhou, and Chen Qi, the Governor of Changzhou, these students and old officials were promoted quickly. Officials from Jiangnan and other places were also promoted one by one. Officials of the Chu faction were either sent to other places or held important positions.

In this way, three years passed quickly.

Wenhua Hall

Chu Hong carefully checked the tax and grain totals over the past three years and nodded with satisfaction.

His policies have both advantages and disadvantages.

He is also very clear about this point. It is impossible to have a perfect policy.

However, it is impossible not to implement executive orders simply because of the drawbacks of a policy.

There is no right or wrong in government decrees, only whether they are suitable or not.

These reforms have proven to be appropriate.

This policy is suitable for the current Zhou Dynasty. The benefits outweigh the disadvantages. That’s enough!

After carefully reading the memorials submitted by Cabinet Grand Secretary Liu Shi'an and many provincial governors, Chu Hong began to deal with the promotion of officials above the third rank.

In the past three years, with reform as a shield, the Chu faction has rapidly expanded its influence.

The other factions still had the energy to impeach at the beginning, but gradually they didn't even have the courage to impeach.

There are people from the Chu clan everywhere. There are people from the Chu clan everywhere.

Chu Hong, the most powerful person in the world!
To be honest, Chu Hong was a little panicked.

The influence of the Chu faction is too great, and things might get a little ugly when his cousin ascends the throne.

But he has no choice. Once the reform begins, those who have benefited will spontaneously push him up to protect their hard-earned interests.

Even if he does nothing, there will be people who will spontaneously recruit talented people for him, and his power will spontaneously increase.

It’s difficult, but the only way is to move forward!

"Dong dong!"

"Who?"

Chu Hong slowly flipped through the papers and asked questions casually.

"Prime Minister, His Majesty coughed up a lot of blood this morning. He is a little more awake now. Please come over."

The eunuch Wang Li, who was in charge of the writing, ran forward in small steps, looking somewhat anxious.

"uncle."

Chu Hong's eyes narrowed slightly, and he waved his hand with a serious expression, "Uncle, right?"

My uncle Zhao Zongquan suffered many assassination attempts in his early years, and he was also assassinated during the period when he ascended the throne. Some of the wounds were not serious, so no one cared.

When Zhao Zongquan ascended the throne, there was another arduous political struggle, and the high-intensity mental state seemed to involve these things.

Until last year, Zhao Zongquan's health was getting worse and worse, and sometimes he even ignored state affairs for a month.

Last month, Zhao Zongquan vomited a large amount of black blood and was unconscious for three days.

Zhao Zongquan, it’s no use!
Wang Li saw that there was no one around, so he did not try to hide his presence and quickly whispered, "Prime Minister, Ningyuan Marquis Gu Tingye and Yingguo Duke Zhang Fu have also been summoned! In addition, the other cabinet ministers have also been summoned, and the time is half an hour after the Prime Minister, Yingguo Duke, and Ningyuan Marquis."

"Is that so?" Chu Hong sighed slightly, then put down the paper, "Let's go!"

Chu Hong had already guessed that this trip was probably to entrust an orphan to someone else.

Well, it can't be said to be entrusting an orphan to someone else, it's just leaving things for the future anyway.

Cousin, you’re going to ascend the throne!

The good news is that my cousin is also a staunch supporter of reform, and the reform will be implemented firmly.

Bad news, the Chu faction is already quite powerful and it can’t be more powerful!
The Prime Minister has always been a check on the imperial power. If the Chu faction is a little more powerful, then the imperial power will check the power of the Prime Minister?

Chu Hong sighed silently, this is difficult!

……

(End of this chapter)