I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 226: Yuan's Controlled Information Cocoon

Yang Ci was not surprised about Tang Zhen's appointment as Shaofu, he was just a little envious and jealous.

During Yuan Shu's disaster relief, Tang Zhen opened the Imperial College despite tremendous pressure, thus winning the favor of Yuan Shu and the Yuan family.

Although Tang Zhen did not directly participate in the coup, he later maintained a cooperative attitude and clearly stood on Yuan's side, providing a lot of help to Yuan in handling ceremonial affairs.

Considering that the Tang family had a place in Yingchuan County, and Tang Zhen himself had great reputation and political qualifications, and was more familiar with court etiquette and regulations, it was reasonable for him to be recommended by Yuan Wei as the first Shaofu after the reform.

When Tang Zhen heard this suggestion, he became visibly excited. When he noticed Yuan Feng's eyes on him, he straightened his body involuntarily, waiting for Yuan Feng's further instructions.

"Hui Bo, after the reform, the responsibilities of the Shaofu will become more important."

Yuan Feng slowly said, "This position requires the management of the palace and the overall situation, which involves many issues such as the emperor and eunuchs. Therefore, we need someone who is well versed in etiquette and is meticulous to take on this responsibility. Can you take on this responsibility?"

Tang Zhen understood that this was Yuan Feng's trust and expectation in her, and it was also Yuan Feng's hint that she had already joined the Yuan Group.

As a result, a feeling of ecstasy suddenly surged into her heart, but Tang Zhen tried hard to control her emotions and tried to appear calm and composed.

He bowed slightly and expressed his determination and confidence to Yuan Feng.

"Since Lord Yuan has this intention, how dare Zhen disobey?"

Yuan Feng looked at Tang Zhen, smiled slightly, and nodded slowly.

"Okay, I'll send you the seal after I report to the emperor. Hui Bo, this reform is of great significance. You must be more careful and think twice before doing anything. You must effectively control the regulations of the entire palace and don't let the villains get the chance to cause chaos in the world again."

Tang Zhen stood up and bowed deeply to Yuan Feng.

"Mr. Yuan's instructions will be kept in mind!"

Amid the envious gazes of everyone, Tang Zhen took over the important position of Shaofu.

Yang Ci sat silently aside, his heart filled with complicated emotions, but he was well aware of the cruelty and ruthlessness of political struggles, and knew that the current outcome was the best outcome. If missed, it was missed. He could only accept the reality and try to adapt to the new environment and role.

After the position of Shaofu was arranged, the others began to look forward to how the Tongzhengsi institution would be set up, and wondered whether they would have the opportunity to hold important positions in it.

According to Yuan Shu's design, the newly established Tongzhengsi was endowed with extremely high exclusive powers - responsible for receiving all memorials submitted to the court across the country.

The delineation of this function is undoubtedly a major adjustment to the past power structure.

Regardless of whether it was a government memorial involving major national policies or a routine memorial of a ceremonial nature, any document that needed to be presented to the court must first be sent to the Tongzhengsi for unified recording.

Officials of the Ministry of Public Administration would carefully classify these memorials to ensure that each one was properly handled and then submitted to the relevant departments according to the established procedures.

At the same time, they would also present memorials on military and national affairs to the emperor so that the emperor could be kept abreast of national affairs and developments from all parties.

The design of this process seems simple, but it actually contains profound political significance.

In the past, the power to transmit memorials and messages was long controlled by the eunuch group. They used positions such as Zhonghuangmen and Xiaohuangmen to artificially create an information barrier between the emperor and his ministers.

This barrier did play a role in protecting the imperial power to a certain extent. Especially when the emperor was young and strong and able to effectively control the government, it helped the emperor to centralize power and prevent the rise of powerful officials.

However, when the emperor is incompetent or young and ignorant, this information barrier may become a tool for the eunuch group to deceive their superiors and subordinates and seek personal gain.

They can use their control over information to distort facts, conceal the truth, or even falsely convey imperial decrees in order to achieve their own goals.

This situation is not uncommon in history and is one of the important reasons for the decline of many dynasties. Therefore, Yuan Shu established the Tongzhengsi in order to take this power back from the eunuchs and incorporate it into the court's administrative system.

This will not only cut off the possibility of inner court personnel interfering in government affairs, but also ensure the smooth flow of information. To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that it was not appropriate now, Yuan Shu would have wanted to come up with the secret memorial system in advance.

It’s just that the Yuan family doesn’t have complete control over the situation at the moment, so Yuan Shu didn’t do it in one go.

To put it bluntly, Yuan Shu's goal was to keep this important communication power firmly in the hands of the Yuan family. To this end, he deliberately transferred the Luoyang information terminal from the inner court to the outer court and into the hands of government leaders.

In this way, the palace became an information cocoon controlled by the Yuan family, and all information had to be screened and filtered by the Yuan family before it could be transmitted to the palace.

From then on, all the news the emperor could receive was selected by Yuan and deemed acceptable for delivery.

This information cocoon is like a big net woven by Yuan himself, which binds the emperor and eunuchs tightly inside. Their understanding of the outside world will become increasingly limited. No matter what they want to do, the information gap will be an insurmountable mountain.

The Yuan family can gain the greatest information advantage by controlling the Tongzhengsi and obtain a crucial information gap, thereby forming a huge first-mover advantage over other political forces in Luoyang City.

The importance of this institution cannot be overstated.

Therefore, like the Shangshu Tai, the Tongzheng Si was also designed as a typical position of low status with great power.

The rank of the chief official, Tongzhengling, was only 1,000 dan, and the rank of the two Tongzheng Pushe was only 800 dan. The ranks of the remaining officials were mostly between 400 and 600 dan.

Although he seems to be of low rank, he actually has great power.

When Yuan Shu designed this institution, his ideas were quite similar to those of the Shangshu Tai. Both hoped to give full play to the role of these functional departments and improve the administrative efficiency of the court. But at the same time, he was also very wary of these departments becoming too powerful and becoming a hidden danger that threatens the power of the ruler.

Therefore, while he granted the Tongzhengsi enormous power, he also adopted a series of institutional designs to lower its rank and status and limit the excessive expansion of its power.

Despite this, the position of the head of the Tongzhengsi still became the focus of everyone's attention, and everyone wanted to know how Yuan Feng would arrange the first head of this agency.

The importance of this position is self-evident. It is not just an official position, but also represents the strength and depth of the Yuan family's control over the government.

Amid everyone's expectations and speculation, Yuan Feng finally revealed the answer.

He did not choose anyone present to fill this important position, but nominated another candidate - Shen Ke, the former Youfufeng and current Yilan official.

This decision surprised many people present, but it made sense when they thought about it carefully.

Shen Ke had a close cooperative relationship with Yuan Shu during his tenure as Youfufeng. During the period when Yuan Shu started to make a fortune, Shen Ke gave him a lot of support and help.

These actions naturally earned him the appreciation of Yuan Feng. Later, with the help of Yuan Feng, Shen Ke successfully left the ranks of local officials and entered the central government as a counselor.

Although the rank of the counselor is not high, it has unique advantages in terms of promotion.

The Counselors were able to participate in state affairs and express their views and opinions on state affairs. It was easy for them to enter the emperor's field of vision and get opportunities for further promotion. In the entire Langguan system, the Counselors were one of the most noble and respected positions. It was also a must-go place for many local officials to rest and gain a foothold after entering the Luoyang court.

However, Shen Ke's luck did not seem to be very good. During his two and a half years in office, he had not gotten any good opportunities to be promoted.

Because he joined the Yuan Group relatively late, many people had already reserved good positions before him, so he could only wait in line to gain experience and wait for his turn, and he couldn't help feeling anxious and lost.

After waiting for a golden opportunity for the Yuan family to launch a mutiny and take control of the government, Shen Ke caught a cold and was bedridden, missing out on Yuan Feng's great reward. This made him feel extremely regretful and sad, and he regretted it to death.

So after he recovered from his illness, he quickly sent someone with a visiting card to visit Yuan Feng, expressing his determination to be loyal, and hoping that Yuan Feng would not forget him as a loyal lackey and give him a chance to make amends.

Only then did Yuan Feng remember Shen Ke, the lackey who had once done things for Yuan Shu.

(End of this chapter)