Fang Shan quickly listed the incriminating evidence of Hurd that he had collected in recent years. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Hurd's plan to expand the public bureau began several years ago after the end of the war, on the grounds that it was to comply with the voice of the people and bridge social contradictions.

Fang Shan said that in recent years, Hurd has colluded with many local leaders and directors of public bureaus, especially those directors of public bureaus in the north who have lost power, and they are the focus of Hedra's efforts and have made many promises to these bureau directors.

Fang Shan believes that Hurd has ulterior motives.

Zhu Jinglun understood Hurd's thoughts very well: "He is just like restricting my power." ”

Zhu Jinglun believes that in recent years, Hurd has increasingly felt that he has been hollowed out, especially during the war against the United States, and he, the prime minister, has almost become a puppet. In the past two years, not only has the status not changed, but it is even worse than before. The relationship between Daming and Britain was tense, and the people harshly criticized Hurd, an Englishman, and even the voice that Hurd was a spy appeared. Hurd believed that the root of all this was that the emperor had too much power.

Fang Shan sighed: "I'm afraid it's not just that. In his plan, he asked the public bureau to appoint local officials, which was to establish a separate government! ”

Zhu Jinglun smiled: "It's not that serious." ”

In Hurd's plan, the power of the public bureau was expanded, and the previous public bureau was actually a rubber stamp of the government, and the directors of the public bureau even had to get a stamp from the local government before they could work, and the office had no actual content, but nothing more than to convey the instructions of the government, help the government publicize policies, and use their influence to promote the implementation of some rural policies.

Now, according to Hurd's plan, Hurd not only handed over the power of the local government to collect temporary taxes to the public bureau for review, but also gave the public bureau the power to appoint village officials such as the town supervisor.

The official position of supervising the town is similar to that of the town mayor; It is a new official position established when the government's government and capital institutions were adjusted a few years ago, and the six ministries will be under the direct jurisdiction of the six ministries to promote the development of new commercial cities. At the same time, the formation of rural areas has also been adjusted, with commercial nature of various towns, the past of the various "capital" level structure, all changed to towns, with Foshan Town as a model, trying to promote the development of rural towns, the establishment of the post of town supervisor, and the port of commercial port supervision.

Port cities are under the direct jurisdiction of the six ministries, and these town-level rural towns are directly under the jurisdiction of various localities, and the small ones are directly under the jurisdiction of the county government, the larger cities and towns can be directly under the jurisdiction of the government government, and the larger giant towns such as Foshan Town are directly under the jurisdiction of the provincial government.

Now Hurd is just handing over the power of appointing officials to the public bureau in these county-level towns, which can be regarded as local decentralization, Zhu Jinglun believes that it is not a big deal, it can be regarded as an attempt at political reform, and it still has the traditional practice of not going to the countryside with royal power, no matter how bad it is, it cannot be so bad that it cannot be cleaned up.

Fang Shan was still worried: "He still wants to build public bureaus in various prefectures, and in the future, he will definitely go to the province and send bureau directors to the imperial court." Let the public bureau manage the county order now, and in the future, it will be in charge of the prefect, and in the end, it will be in charge of the imperial court. Since ancient times, where has there been a reason for the civil management officials, he is going to use the foreigner's set to change the summer! ”

Zhu Jinglun was puzzled, Fang Shan is not a conservative, nor a new faction, to be honest, he doesn't have any faction, his only purpose is to be prosperous and rich, so in the past, the emperor asked him to do anything, he did it, but this time he actually stood up against Hurd, I'm afraid he is the one with ulterior motives.

However, Zhu Jinglun didn't plan to delve into it, it was normal for an official of Fang Shan's status not to have a group of power groups standing behind him, and to have his own interests.

"You are serious, but you are just asking each county public bureau to send personnel to the government, one person in a small county, and no more than three people in a large county. What could happen? What's more, ordinary bureau directors only have grades and no money, and there is only one bureau in a county or a government that always receives money, is responsible for presiding over the meeting, and can still toss flowers? ”

Fang Shan said worriedly: "Okay, after the officials are all appointed by the public bureau, do you still want the imperial examination?" The trip of the avenue is also, the world is for the public, the selection of talents and abilities, and the sale of harmony. In the future, officials will be appointed by the public bureau, how to select talents and abilities? ”

Fang Shan's sons are neat, the eldest son Fang Qian has received a strict education since he was a child, he relied on the imperial examination at a young age, and climbed from the county level to the six high positions step by step, studied agriculture in the official school, and is now in charge of silkworms; Although the second son Fang Kun was not admitted to the imperial examination, he also studied agronomy, and contracted 100,000 acres of wasteland in Vietnam and opened up a large rice farm; The third son, Fang Lun, became famous at a young age, proficient in many foreign languages, and proficient in traditional learning, according to Fang Shan, he is a master of Chinese and Western studies, full of economy, in fact, like his father, full of intrigue and intrigue, serving in the Department of Foreign Affairs, has become an ambassador to France.

Zhu Jinglun couldn't help but wonder, is it because of his family's situation, Fang Shan is very supportive of the imperial examination, so he opposes the appointment of officials by the public bureau?

Fang Shan's consideration is not unreasonable, how to integrate the civil service system with the administrative official system has always been a problem. The United States had only completed civilian reform before the war, and had learned from Britain in conducting civil service examinations to select civil servants, and before that, officials at all levels were assigned by elected officials, often appointed a group of their own cronies, or rich people who had contributed to their own election period, donated money, or were members of their own party. The party-stolen system, historically known as winner-takes-all, has created a huge problem of corruption.

But in Hurd's plan, this kind of problem was obviously considered, and it has been 40 years since the UK completed the civil service, forming a good combination system, and Hurd has borrowed many methods. The officials appointed by the public bureau are only the chief officials, and there is still an inherent set of procedures for the promotion of civil servants, and even if these new officials take office, they must promote or dismiss officials according to the procedures, and it is impossible to do whatever they want.

Zhu Jinglun thought that Fang Shan was probably too nervous.

"Whatever he has in mind, let him try. Now it is not the power of the imperial court that is restricted, but the power of the local government. In this way, step by step, nothing big can happen. See how the effect is, if the effect is not good, it can be changed, and if the effect is good, it is not too late to promote. ”

Zhu Jinglun said so, and Fang Shan had nothing to refute.

In fact, both of them were wrong, Hurd was indeed selfish, and he really wanted to limit the imperial power by establishing a British-style parliamentary system. But at present, the first step is not to that extent, and Hurd does not dare to rashly raise the status of the public bureau to the extent that it can limit the imperial power, which is not only impossible to pass, but also too risky in the future. Hurd's current partial power over the public bureau actually has some purpose of wooing the local elite. His position was very unstable, and the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Britain continued to decline, and the voice of the people against him became louder and louder. By giving local bureaus a certain amount of political power, these local elites can be co-opted.

As an Englishman, he naturally believed that parliamentary democracy was the most superior system in the world, and that it would not be as chaotic and unstable as the republican politics of France, nor would it be as rotten and full of contradictions as the autocratic systems of Germany and Russia.

So by gradually introducing the British parliament, it will be a good improvement in Chinese politics, good for China, good for him, and even good for Britain, because once the parliament is established, the government's decision-making will not be so heavily dependent on the emperor's personal attitude, and many of the policies of the Chinese government will become more transparent and predictable, and it will not be like now, you have to guess what the emperor wants to do, and if the emperor wants to do it, he can really do anything, such as starting a war.

But Hurd himself had concerns, restricting the imperial power through parliament was essentially a restriction of the government's public power, and in order to reach the level of limiting the emperor, he must first limit the power of the civilian government and the bureaucracy, and his power as the prime minister must be limited before the emperor.

However, Hurd still chose to promote the expansion of the public bureau, because this is one of the few ways other than war, which can make him enter history and be praised by the West in modern times, and bring Western civilization to countries in other regions has always been very supportive of Western powers with a strong missionary culture, especially those admired by Western elites.

If he can turn China into a constitutional parliamentary government, his influence in the world will increase as it has ever been.

With the support of Zhu Jinglun, the bill to expand the public bureau that Hurd withdrew from was passed in October, and for the first time in history, the public bureau of rural autonomy got power from the government, and the director of the public bureau suddenly became a hot position. In Hurd's plan, a standard procedure was also set for the selection of directors of public bureaus, which must be elected by all adult men in the region, using one person, one vote, basically copying the local council system in the United Kingdom.

The impact of the expansion of the power of the public bureau is not yet visible.

Something soon happened abroad, and the contradictions between Japan and Germany and Russia in Korea broke out in a concentrated manner, and the Japanese sent warships to cruise off the coast of Pusan.

Things started last year.

Early last year, under pressure from Germany and Russia to enter Korea, Japan accelerated its efforts to turn Korea into an "independent" state, first pushing for the Kingdom of Korea to be renamed the Korean Empire.

For the name of the Korean Empire, which was independent of China, the Korean monarchs and ministers were still very happy, and it seemed that with this name change, they would really become a big empire.

However, Japan's strong support for Korea to become an empire did not take advantage of this to bring relations closer to Korea, and the newly established Korean Empire was still maneuvering between Germany, Russia and Japan, and even strengthened ties with the Ming Dynasty.

At the inauguration ceremony of the Korean Empire, Germany, Russia, and China sent special envoys to congratulate them. But then, Germany and Russia, at the same time, expanded their power in Korea, bypassing the Korean Empire, and the Korean Emperor approved the power of Russia and Germany to build a railway on the Korean Peninsula.

Russia gained the power to extend a railway from Vladivostok into Pyongyang and Seoul in North Korea, penetrating Vladivostok from the high latitudes southward into the warm waters of the Bohai Sea, embracing ice-free ports like Dapo and Incheon, which were better conditioned in addition to Huludao. Germany, for its part, was given the construction of a railway from Pusan through Seoul and Pyongyang to China's northeastern border.

The two countries obtained the right to build a railway on the Korean Peninsula, which made Japan extremely dissatisfied, and rebuked the Korean emperor of Korea and asked him to retract his order, but the Korean monarchs and ministers, who were bent on destroying the country, did not care about Japan's opposition at all, but instead relied on the power of hunger, which made Japan very passive. In the end, he became angry and relied on his navy to patrol outside the port of Incheon!

The situation on the Korean Peninsula is becoming white-hot because of the conflict of interests of the great powers, as if war could break out at any time.