I want to be emperor

Chapter 755 Balance and Factions

After the Great Court Meeting on the [-]th day of the first lunar month was over, Luo Zhixue could be considered to have really entered the working state, and the whole work rhythm returned to normal.

Basically, every day, there is a duty meeting in front of the imperial court, mainly to listen to some important brief reports from the courtiers, and then Luo Zhixue will give corresponding instructions according to the specific situation of the matter.

The courtiers present will not be all the ministers of counseling and co-organizers, but often only the ministers of counselors and co-organizers who are on duty and who have taken over.

This time is also the day when the ministers on duty are handing over.

The ministers of counselors and co-organizers who were on duty last night can go home and rest after the morning meeting.

The newly on-duty ministers of counselors and co-organizers will take over the work and start a day's duty work, which will probably last until about [-]:[-] pm, handover with the night shift ministers on duty, and then go home to rest.

Therefore, there will not be many people participating in the daily morning meeting of the Imperial Counselors. Generally, there are two or three ministers on duty, and four or six co-organizers.

The total number is probably between six and nine.

After the morning meeting, Luo Zhixue began to process various reports and memorials. These formal reports were mainly submitted by various ministries, and then submitted to Luo Zhixue after passing through the hands of the ministers in charge or co-organizing ministers.

They are all reports related to major domestic and foreign affairs of the empire, such as changes to legal provisions, major engineering projects, foreign military affairs, major administrative adjustments, appointment and dismissal of some middle and senior officials, and other important matters.

These reports are usually drafted by various departments and responsible for specific affairs. The ministers of each department or Zuo Shilang who actually acts as the agent of the department give their approval opinions and approve them. After approval, such reports will be made in triplicate, and one copy will be sent to the department in charge of the affairs. The Minister of Counseling or the co-organizing minister shall approve it.

The second copy was sent to each department of the Imperial Academy.

The third copy is sent directly to the archives room for archiving.

After receiving the report, the counselor or co-organizing minister will approve it, and the minister in charge will give detailed approval opinions, and then this report will be sent to Luo Zhixue... The approval opinions of the minister in charge are sealed.

However, there will be a lot of reports sent to Luo Zhixue, and at the same time, many reports are thick and piled up, often consisting of dozens or even hundreds of pages of reports.

It is impossible for Luo Zhixue to really read every report from beginning to end, and at the same time, it is impossible not to read everything, and directly approve or veto a certain matter according to the approval opinions of the ministers in charge. Briefing summary.

Where do these briefing feeds come from?That is the main work of the Hanlin Academy.

There are various departments under the Hanlin Academy, and each department is dedicated to a certain department.

In the administrative system, there are currently 31 major and second-level ministries (including the Great Inspectorate and Grand Judges) or first-level institutions such as the General Administration and General Administration from the second-rank level.

There are twelve departments in the military system, which are the Army's Four Departments and Two Directors, the Navy's Four Departments and One Command, and the Guards Command.

There are nearly 40 first-level institutions in the two major systems, civil and military.

Each of these more than 40 first-level institutions will have a corresponding department in the Imperial Academy.

The corresponding departments will review the second report submitted by each department, and extract the main points in the report to form a briefing.

Then the report and the briefing were sent to the Secretariat of the Imperial Academy, and the first or second secretaries, together with the third secretaries, reviewed it.

After reviewing the report, it is considered that there is no problem with the report, and the report will be sealed.

In the end, the reports of each department, the approval opinions of the ministers in charge, and the briefing of the Imperial Academy were sent to the imperial court for Luo Zhixue to make the final review.

Luo Zhixue usually only reads the briefing from the Imperial Academy and the approval opinions of the minister in charge. If there are no problems in both aspects, he will directly approve or veto according to the approval suggestion of the minister in charge.

Only when there were conflicts between the secretariat's briefing and the approval opinions of the ministers in charge, or when the matter was more important, would Luo Zhixue personally read through the dozens or even hundreds of pages of reports.

Dealing with the reports submitted by various departments is part of Luo Zhixue's daily work, but it does not take the most time.

In fact, it would take more time for Luo Zhixue to approve memorials in the traditional sense.

However, these memorials that need Luo Zhixue's personal review are different from the traditional memorials, and only officials of a certain level are allowed to submit them.

Beijing officials need to be above the fourth-rank real-time deputy director, while for local civil servants, they must be above the fifth-rank to be eligible for the secret letter.

And this kind of secret statement is not allowed to be used to say other messy things, such as officials using secret statement to say goodbye, it happened in the early years, but after being severely punished by Luo Zhixue, it was clearly stipulated that the use of secret statement is not allowed After doing these messy things, it basically never appeared.

At the same time, it is also required to have something to say, and nonsense is not allowed. If you want to impeach with secret papers, then you need to require officials to be responsible for the impeachment itself.

The secret document system is to give officials, mainly local officials, a direct channel to Tianting, and it is also to strengthen the control over the local area.

Under special circumstances, Luo Zhixue did not need to issue orders to the provinces through the Senate or even the ministries, but could directly issue orders to local officials through secret decrees.

The system of in charge of affairs, the briefing system of the Imperial Academy, the independence of taxation, the system of local confidentiality, the complete separation of civil and military affairs, huge conflicts between land and sea, and the Guards formed their own army, etc.

These various systems can be simply understood as Luo Zhixue's continuous efforts and attempts to strengthen the imperial power.

After this series of systems, the imperial power of the Great Chu Empire was highly concentrated, and no traditional feudal dynasty could compare with it. Compared with the imperial power of the Great Chu Empire, the imperial power of the pre-Ming Dynasty was not worthy of even lifting shoes.

As long as Luo Zhixue is willing, he can bypass the Senate and directly take over the entire Gyeonggi institutions through the Imperial Academy.

As long as Luo Zhixue is willing, he can bypass the entire Gyeonggi bureaucratic system and directly issue orders to local officials.

And Luo Zhixue was able to do this largely not because of his great talent or ability, but purely because he was the founding emperor and possessed unprecedented prestige and deterrence.

In addition, because he was the founding emperor, all the political structures of the Great Chu Empire were designed by him with reference to many systems of later generations, without any interference in the middle.

Just like drawing on a blank sheet of paper, Luo Zhixue can draw however he likes, without interference from old interest groups.

When vested interest groups were formed, the political structure of the Great Chu Empire was already very mature.

These interest groups have actually become the defenders of this political system.

For example, Beijing officials are actually very displeased with the local secrecy system, because in this case, local officials will bypass the ministries and even the ministers of affairs and report directly to the emperor.

But the Beijing officials were not happy, but the local officials raised their hands to welcome them and tried their best to maintain them. Because of the local confidentiality system, their opinions can be heard directly, and they don't have to worry about being blocked by the ministries or even the ministers in charge.

Tax independence system... If anyone dares to bring tax affairs back into the various ministries and set up a traditional household department or something like that, the officials of the tax department will thoroughly investigate the official's tax issues the next day.

In this world, there are not many officials who dare to say that they have no tax problems, even if they don't have any tax problems, but what about their family members?
The briefing system of the Hanlin Academy, if other officials dare to propose to cancel it, you really think that the head of the Hanlin Academy is doing nothing, but he is the minister of affairs... In addition, in the officialdom of the Great Chu Empire, many officials in the Hanlin Academy are A very important political force, and the famous secretarial department is only a part of it.

In addition to the secretarial department, there are more than 40 departments in the Imperial Academy. Usually, those who can be selected into the Imperial Academy are mainly young or middle-aged officials with relatively promising prospects.

These people came and went, the total number was quite large, and many later held high positions, thus forming small factions.

Not to mention the final counseling system, whoever dares to have an opinion on the counseling system will be against the nine most powerful ministers of counseling and more than 20 co-organizing ministers in the empire.

All kinds of things mean that there are already a large number of vested interest groups in the current political structure.

And these people will spontaneously maintain the operation of this political system.

Even if this political system is the system with the most concentrated imperial power since ancient times.

But they will still maintain it firmly, because there are their own interests here.

This is why many dynasties in history had great difficulties in carrying out reforms, which would attract a lot of backlash.

This has nothing to do with whether the reform plan is good or not, but because any reform will hurt the interests of some vested interest groups, and these people will oppose it.

The current Great Chu Empire is actually similar. Relying on Luo Zhixue's prestige and deterrence, it is possible to carry out some tinkering reforms and adjustments, but it is very difficult to make big moves, even to peak the existing political structure.

After Luo Zhixue's death, if the future Great Chu Empire wants to carry out reforms and change the core structure, there is almost no possibility.

Even if the emperor supports it!
The empire, after all, is not an empire of an emperor, there are many courtiers and other interested groups.

Of course, the current political structure of the Great Chu Empire is quite stable. At least Luo Zhixue is satisfied with this. It allows him to control the real power without being too busy, so as not to exhaust himself to death.

After the imperial morning meeting every day, the approval report and secret document, the next step is to meet some courtiers or hold some small meetings.

A few days ago, the working hours were almost the same, and in the evening, Luo Zhixue got off work and went back to the harem.

But now he does not live in the emperor's exclusive palace three kilometers behind the inner court, that is, the Qianqing Palace, but in Dongyuan to the east of the Qianqing Palace.

Because the many palaces of the Great Chu Empire were built strictly according to the traditional architectural style. This kind of palace looks mighty, but Luo Zhixue doesn't really like it if he really wants to live in it.

After all, he is a modern person with a modern aesthetic style!
Therefore, after the main buildings of the palace were built in Chengshun for more than ten years, Luo Zhixue went to have a look, and finally decided to build a new palace in the eastern area of ​​the palace for his daily living.

This is the origin of Dongyuan.

The design of Dongyuan is based on the traditional garden architectural style, incorporating a part of the modern architectural style proposed by Luo Zhixue. The most important feature is that it pays great attention to lighting and some details. The interior decoration looks softer, rather than the solemnity of traditional palaces. and thick.

In terms of building materials, marble, glass, and reinforced concrete are mainly used in large quantities.

Since the completion of Dongyuan in the 22nd year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue lived in Dongyuan in his daily life.

As for the Qianqing Palace, they are basically vacant, and they will only go there during special times or ceremonial occasions.

Not only did Luo Zhixue live in a new-style garden palace like Dongyuan, but many concubines also lived in some new-style palaces.

When Luo Zhixue built Dongyuan, he also built many new-style palaces behind Dongyuan.

Therefore, the current palace of the Great Chu Empire is actually a combination of tradition and modernity.

It has six front and rear halls built in strict accordance with traditional architectural regulations, and constitutes the core of the Great Chu Empire's palace!
But many of the buildings surrounding the six main halls are actually buildings of different styles, including typical Jiangnan garden-style buildings, such as the "An Garden" where Queen Wang lives and lives, which is a very traditional Jiangnan garden!
Then the Anping Palace, where Concubine Xu usually lives, is actually a baroque building.

As for Luo Zhixue in Dongyuan, there are several modern-style architectural style buildings that Luo Zhixue personally provided the design style and perfected by architects, and there is even a purely modern-style villa, which uses a lot of Large expanses of glass...

Under the intervention of Luo Zhixue, in fact, the architectural styles of the imperial palace of the Great Chu Empire are diverse, and basically everything can be seen.

At the same time, it covers a very large area. The scope of the harem extends from the front hall all the way to the north to Xuanwu Lake and several connected small lakes to the north.

However, although it occupies a large area, the density of buildings is not high, and many places are actually large grasslands.

On the one hand, this is because Luo Zhixue likes to have a wide field of vision, and on the other hand, it is also for better defense!
Especially in the outer area of ​​the palace, there is a large area of ​​grass outside the moat, surrounded by simple palace walls.

If an outsider wants to break into the palace, you have to climb over the thin outer palace wall, and then pass through the empty grassland with a depth of hundreds of meters... This grassland looks flat, but in fact there are many people in the middle. There are trenches with tunnels and fortresses that look like hillsides, but are actually firepower points...and there are tunnels connecting them.

You can only come to the moat by crossing this piece of land called grass, which is actually a trench line of defense!

Behind the moat is the real palace wall. This palace wall is extremely thick. The top of the palace wall can run horses and even deploy heavy artillery. At the same time, the top of the palace is not empty, but has a trench defense system similar to a trench.

And the palace wall is not a purely right-angled line, but has many protruding bunkers... The artillery and rifle firepower deployed on it can form crossfire in front. .

The imperial palace of the Great Chu Empire is actually a large-scale military fortress.

At the same time, there are also warehouses in the palace that store a large amount of food and ammunition. The firepower points of each fortress are deployed all year round and are regularly maintained.

In daily life, the Guards Guards Corps is responsible for the garrison, and there will be a Guards Division on the periphery for reinforcements at any time.

Once encountering an enemy or rebel attack, the guard division can provide emergency reinforcements, increasing the number of troops guarding the palace to more than [-] in a short period of time.

It's just that such a thick palace fortress is probably of no practical use, at least for decades.

After all, it is still the era of Luo Zhixue, the empire is in a period of rapid development, and there is not much risk of rebellion inside.

There are many careerists, but someone must be willing to follow the careerists to rebel!
The people in the country live and work in peace and contentment, and the possibility of civil rebellion is minimized.

The political structure in the court is relatively balanced, and there are many factions. Even if the minister of counselors wants to rebel, it is impossible to get the support of many people.

There is a high probability that they will be cleaned up by other ministers before the army is raised.

You said that a certain minister of affairs dominated the family and turned other ministers of affairs into subordinates?

The ministers of counseling are full of conflicts with each other... This has nothing to do with personal thoughts, but each minister of counseling represents the interests of the entire system behind them.

However, among many systems, there are often contradictions, and it is difficult to reconcile interests.

In addition, the most important thing is that the Minister of Counseling can only be dispatched, and this dispatch is verbal... When appointing the Minister of Counseling, Luo Zhixue never used a formal imperial decree, but issued a decree...even sometimes even the decree None, only an oral order.

Ministers of Counseling also have no grades, and there is no fixed office location (the imperial study room, that is Luo Zhixue's office, not the Minister of Counsel's)...

This means that the resignation of ministers of counselors depends entirely on the emperor's words, without any formal procedures.

The emperor saw that he was unhappy, so he just kicked him away. Why should he tolerate him to continue to grow?
If this is the case, you can still be lifted up by the courtiers...

What else can I say... I can only say that the emperor deserves it!
It is precisely because of a complete set of political framework that Luo Zhixue can watch operas and listen to music in Dongyuan with peace of mind, and guide the work of the Royal Music and Dance Troupe if he is interested.

You can also go to the surrounding places from time to time to inspect and see the actual development of the place.

With the arrival of Chengshun 29, Luo Zhixue's plan to go to various provinces to conduct inspections also started in an orderly manner.

This time, instead of just going to a few nearby cities as usual, the farthest is no more than Shanghai, this inspection is going to go all the way north along the railway network. North to Hebei and even Liaodong.

Luo Zhixue is going to make a northern tour to see the actual situation of the northern provinces of the empire under his rule.

(End of this chapter)