Zhu Youzhen questioned the court officials in front of him.

Zhang Huangyan, the first assistant of the cabinet, had to stand up and reply: "Your Majesty, this is at the order of Tianfu Yin, not the cabinet, and Tianfu Yin is arbitrarily extorting and extorting the people, and the Organization Department has now dismissed him. ”

"This is not a question of extortion, what I see is a problem of power distribution, Ying Tianfu Yin levies taxes and even proposes a card inspection system, should this be implemented with the consent of the people first, and even if there are people who resist taxes, he should be able to take people casually in Tianfu Yin, and even cover the sky in Ying Tianfu, this power distribution has to be changed."

As soon as Zhu Youzhen said this, Shang Shuwen of the Organization Department stood up at the beginning: "Your Majesty, the unification of the military and political affairs by the local governors, as well as the unification of the military and political affairs by the prefects and counties, is a national policy that has not changed through the ages. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at the court officials: "What do you Aiqing propose?" ”

At this time, Shen Jiayun, the imperial historian of the left capital, stood up: "Your Majesty, Weichen thinks that the local government should be consistent with the central government, the central government should be separated from each other, and the local government should also be separated from each other;

Local governors, prefects, prefectures, and even counties should only be responsible for administrative power, and have no right to detain first-class and second-class citizens of the Ming Dynasty. ”

"There is no need to set up subordinate organs in the Command and Envoy Division, but only at the provincial level, which is responsible for the military defense of the whole province;

But for the governor, the army may not be called in unless there is war;

For the prefect, the prefect, the prefect, the county and other officials, as well as other officials, have no right to interfere with judicial and military power;

In addition, even if the local government has the right to levy and reduce taxes, it cannot be allowed to promulgate them at will and arbitrarily exploit the people. ”

At this time, Song Mingquan, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, also actively stood up: "Your Majesty, Wechen agrees with Shen Gong's proposal, and Wechen thinks that we should set up a consultation department in the province, set up an advisory bureau in the government, set up a consulting branch in the prefecture, and set up an advisory office in the county, and the local people should elect the councillors and determine the number of councillors;

The number of people allocated to each subordinate area should be about 101 people, taking Nanzhili as an example, the provincial councilors elected by Yingtianfu and Fengyang Prefecture should be calculated by the proportion of the population of Yingtianfu and Fengyang Prefecture to the total population of Nanzhili, and so on for other prefectures and counties.

The power of the councillors is to decide whether the decree establishing the local government can be approved and implemented, once it is passed by more than half of the councillors, it can be implemented, if it is not passed, it cannot be implemented, if it is not passed and the local government forcibly implements it, it violates the law, the metropolitan prosecutor's office and the higher prosecutorial body have the right to arrest, and the people have the right to resist. ”

Song Mingquan's proposal made Zhu Youzhen quite stunned and unexpected.

But because of this, he began to realize that the capital group had begun to infiltrate the upper echelons of imperial politics, and even began to influence the political ideas of senior officials of the empire.

Song Mingquan, who had served as the prefect of Songjiang, was appointed as the secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce because he was good at business and had his own mature experience in developing business.

Now Zhu Youzhen can see that this Song Mingquan has begun to have the idea of returning the government to the people, representing the desire of the bourgeoisie and the burghers to participate in imperial politics.

But Song Mingquan's sudden suggestion surprised many of the ministers present, who had never thought of setting up such an institution at the local level.

"It is natural for Song Ge Lao to want to stop the officials from exploiting the people, but this will lead to administrative inefficiency, and the people will definitely not want to pay more taxes but will definitely be willing to enjoy more rights," Shi Liangbi, the secretary of the Ministry of Communications, replied at this time.

"That's better than letting these local officials exploit the people wantonly, how can I let them destroy the foundation of my Ming Dynasty at will, the administrative efficiency is low, the local government has no power to control the tax rate, it has been the central decision since ancient times;

The local government has imposed a lot of harsh taxes for their own selfishness, and now I have locked their power to levy harsh taxes in a cage, and if they really want to levy more, they can do so, as long as the people in the area under their jurisdiction agree, I have no opinion, and your cabinet does not need to have an opinion. ”

As soon as Zhu Youzhen said this, Wang Jiaqin, director of the Economic Reform Commission, stood up:

Wechen thought that it was a pioneering move to manage officials with the people, but Wechen thought that this should be done for a limited number of years, each councillor should not exceed five or six years for a term of office, and a certain number of old councillors should be replaced every two or three years, so as to avoid collusion with the government.

These councillors should have a number of peasants, ordinary merchants, and other members of the non-wealthy merchants, or with the greed of these rich merchants, they would be eager to pay a penny, and with the susceptibility of the workers and peasants, they would be eager to enact legislation every day. ”

"Wang Aiqing's thoughts are far-reaching, according to my opinion, it is better to order the local government to set up two councils, one advisory department, one chamber division, as Song Aiqing said, the number of members is not too much, a hundred or so is, mainly the representatives of the various localities under their jurisdiction, taking the province as an example, each province has at least one representative; The number of members of the House of Representatives has been expanded to more than 500, and in the case of provinces, for example, at least half of the members of the House of Representatives in each province are from the middle and low income classes, such as workers and peasants. ”

When Zhu Youzhen said this, Song Mingquan and Wang Jiaqin all agreed.

But Zhang Huangyan, the first assistant to the cabinet, remained silent, and he had to admit that if he did this, the power of the magistrates, especially the main court officials, would be greatly limited.

However, Zhang Huangyan did not object, and he knew that this might really be a favorable way to curb the local government's excessive exploitation of the people and ignore the lives of the people and only take care of the higher-level officials.

Then, Zhu Youzhen asked Song Mingquan, secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and Wang Jiaqin, director of the Economic Reform Commission, to discuss the specific powers of the local advisory bodies and the House of Representatives with Wen Chushi, the secretary of the Organization Department, and Zhang Huangyan, the first assistant to the cabinet.

As a result, it was agreed that the local governors would continue to be appointed by the Cabinet Organization Department.

However, the local council has the right to propose the officers of the Prosecutor's Office, and the appointment can only be made after the approval of the House of Representatives.

In addition, the local councils and the House of Representatives have the power to impeach the local governors and to request a new change in the cabinet.

Both the local council and the House of Representatives have the power to establish local regulations and to review proposals for the establishment of administrative regulations by the superintendents, which must be approved by both bodies before they can be effective.

However, welfare regulations for workers and peasant groups may take effect directly by the House of Representatives without passing a resolution of the Consultative Body.

Members of the local councils are elected for a term of six years and may be re-elected for two consecutive terms, ranging from 101 to 113, and are elected every three years, with more than half of them replaced at a time.

The term of office of the local representative body is three years, and it is elected every three years.

Quotas are redistributed through a decennial census.

After almost discussing and deciding, Zhang Huangyan, the first assistant to the cabinet, had to say: "Your Majesty, if this is the case, it will be even more difficult for the magistrate to be a magistrate, and he can really only do things for the people, and cannot make profits for himself." ”

"The salary I gave them has already increased several times, and they can't make a profit and won't make them live a rich life, and they can't have this kind of thinking when they are officials, so if they want to make a fortune, why not go directly to business investment."

As soon as Zhu Youzhen said this, the officials had nothing to say, and at this time, Wang Jiaqin added: "Your Majesty, Weichen thinks that the court should also set up an advisory council and a chamber of representatives!" ”

"No, Your Majesty!"

Zhang Huangyan, the first assistant to the cabinet, expressed his opposition.

There will be a chapter on rewarding the helmsman later

(End of chapter)