Chapter 830 National Integration
Hurriedly dealt with the Siamese report. That damn Tong Luan was even more slippery than a loach and had not been caught yet. The troops he had raised were once again defeated by the Siamese government forces, but several important figures in the Tong Luan group slipped away again.
Emperor Chen was too lazy to pay attention to Siam's memorials now. He left the palace to visit his parents in the Yanshou Palace. The death of the old lady was a big blow to Chen Hui, and he looked much older.
If his hair and beard had not been dyed black, he would have looked younger. At first glance, he would have looked like a sick old man.
The powerful Emperor Chen had been sitting on the throne for fifteen years. Chen Hui, who had voluntarily given up the throne, probably didn't expect that his rotten body could live for so long.
But no one could say for sure whether he would have lived until now if he hadn't given in.
Now, the third cabinet has entered the end of its term. After fifteen years of development, the cabinet's authority has penetrated into the hearts of the people of the empire, and its power is getting bigger and bigger. The increasingly close exchanges between the East and the West have allowed many things from the East to be introduced to the West, and many things from the West to be introduced to the East.
At least as far as Chen Ming knows, the four words "constitutional monarchy" have been discussed among the people.
French enlightenment works have also begun to circulate in China.
But now is not a hundred years later in the original time and space. The capitalist society is not something that Europeans have completely mastered, so some of the political and economic systems led by Chen Ming cannot be said to be "learning" from the West. Although many things in it can indeed be seen from the current European politics.
Chen Han's administrative and legislative systems are no exception. The so-called cabinet system seems to be produced in China, but a careful analysis shows that it is also very different from the cabinet of the former Ming Dynasty and the military office of the pseudo-Qing Dynasty. Although the Chinese cabinet is nominally only assisting the emperor in handling government affairs, it is far from being as powerful as the British prime minister, and it does not touch too much military power, but the power of the chief minister of Chen Han's cabinet is basically the same as that of the British prime minister in politics and national affairs.
In terms of actual power, the power of the cabinet's chief minister is not as great as that of the prime minister in the Han and Tang dynasties, but excluding military power, it is not much different.
The power of the prime minister in China is still quite large. It's just that Emperor Chen was too strong, which contrasted with the honesty of the cabinet.
This is like the cabinet of Zhu Ming, which showed different strengths under different emperors.
If it were another emperor, without the prestige of Chen Ming, the cabinet would definitely be more "independent" and would take the initiative to seize more power. This is an inevitable requirement of historical development.
The biggest difference between Chen Han and the constitutional monarchy is that there is no real parliament.
Even the Advisory Council is limited to new territories such as Korea, Annan, Burma and Luzon. It is a special policy specially formulated by Chen Ming for the newly occupied territories, which is completely different from the mainland.
In a word, Chen Ming intentionally distributed some benefits to the indigenous upper class in those areas. If he wanted to assimilate them as quickly as possible and eliminate the resistance of the vested interest class among them, the fastest way was to incorporate these people into the system of "their own people", but this was completely different from the Congress.
The Advisory Council had the right to audit the local government's financial expenditures, to review certain financial expenditures, to object to the court's decisions, to propose local bills, or to express different opinions on some of the government's work...
But they did not have the right to appoint and dismiss officials, nor the right to amend the law, let alone the right to elect officials.
All their objections and different opinions would be reflected in the hands of the higher-level administrative organs, but before the upper level made a ruling, they had no right to stop or hinder local officials from performing their duties.
And the Federation of Industry and Commerce that China was doing was not even as good as the Advisory Council, and had no real power at all. They could only be used as a think tank when the Administration of Industry and Commerce formulated various laws and regulations. Through the members of the Federation of Industry and Commerce covering the whole country, the Administration of Industry and Commerce could clearly obtain the implementation of certain new regulations and laws and the various good and bad effects generated during the implementation. The latter is a detailed database that can feedback the information they need, and then the Industry and Commerce Bureau will use these data to formulate and modify the laws and regulations that have been published and have not yet been published, so as to better promote the development of China's economy.
These are fundamentally different from the parliament of capitalism.
Social change is never achieved overnight, with little changes and one by one.
Chen Ming can only say that time is on the side of Chen Han. It is 1790, not 1890.
Chen Ming does not want any constraints on military and political affairs during his reign. And as long as he has such an idea in his mind, the parliament will have no soil and space to survive in China.
Perhaps with the development of time, Chen Ming may change some ideas, but now, there is no soil for the growth of parliament in China.
Let alone the royal family of Chen Han, even all social classes in China are not mentally prepared to rush into capitalism now.
And most people do not agree with this concept. Social development has not reached this point yet, and the people who chant the four words "constitutional monarchy" in China are only a very small minority among the minority.
Even some ordinary people think that the cabinet is a team that helps the emperor deal with miscellaneous and trivial matters. The emperor still needs to make the final decision on national affairs. Everything in the world belongs to the emperor. After the emperor decides on something, the ministers can execute it. They can only make decisions on small tasks that the emperor doesn't care about, and this is to prevent the emperor from being too tired.
If they are really busy and have no time to rest, and they are busy with all kinds of affairs every day, that is not a good thing.
So, there is a big difference in the understanding of "parliament" between the two societies.
Chen Ming wants to change China's social form according to his own ideas, and push China into a period of social change earlier, so he needs a strong right to say no to everything. Otherwise, given the current social situation in China, it is too easy to shrink in the "hole" for decades like a hibernating bear.
But the pace of the world will not stop with China's stagnation.
China has stopped, but Europeans will not stop.
Look at Europe today. Unless a thorough war completely knocks them down, capitalism is destined to develop there.
Without America and India, they still have Arabia and the European continent.
Because they had the big fat piece of America before, Europeans did not invade Europe on a large scale. In the original time and space history, Europeans had to wait until the middle and late 19th century to enter Europe on a large scale. But now if they don't have America and the British don't have India, then their goal can only be transferred to Arabia and the African continent.
Europe is really not at the end of its rope.
The remote geographical location of the two sides determines that neither side can completely occupy the other's homeland under the current technical conditions. Therefore, it is really difficult for China to completely interrupt the pace of Europeans.
And another thing that makes Chen Ming upset is that Chen Han's royal family is getting bigger and bigger now, with so many princes and princesses. It's hard to say what the princes will be like in the future. The high-level dignitaries all know that these people will go to America sooner or later.
But the princess will not run overseas.
In Nanjing, there are several princess mansions that have been rebuilt, are being rebuilt, or are being rebuilt.
The sites are all old houses in the past. Those that can be used are preserved, otherwise they are pushed down and rebuilt.
Because of these princesses, many people in the upper echelons of Chen Han have made a fuss.
The current emperor does not learn from the Ming and Song dynasties. For capable young people, the son-in-law is no longer a burden or shackle, but a helper to rise to the top. Although the princesses of Chen Han cannot intervene in the affairs of the court like the princesses in the Han and Tang dynasties, or even the secret of the succession of the throne.
The little princes have grown up one by one, and their palaces have either been built or are being built.
Chen Ming did not make a distinction between a county king title and a prince title in the kingship.
Whether it is the one-character Song Wang, the two-character Luoyang Wang, and the subsequent Xiangyang Wang, Puyang Wang, Laiyang Wang, Luyang Wang, Yueyang Wang, etc., the treatment is the same and they are at the same level.
But everyone knows that the two-character ones are not as good as the one-character ones. This is the influence of traditional Chinese concepts.
In the future, if these sons go to America to be enfeoffed, it won't be too late to change the title to a one-character king. In the future, such a rule can be set for the royal family of China.
In other words, the one-character king can be inherited from generation to generation; but the two-character king must be passed down from generation to generation?
The most important thing for the royal bloodline is of course the chair.
Emperor Chen is awesome, he can find land to settle his brothers and sons, but what about his sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons?
The whole earth is so big, Australia is already China's, most of Asia is also China's, and America is also China's. No matter how capable Chen Ming's descendants are, they can't find new land to settle their brothers and sons.
So, the descendants of this son who stayed in China to sit on the dragon throne will have to find a way to survive from the royal industry. China's marriage system is different from that of Europe. European illegitimate children have no inheritance rights, but the rights of concubines and even maids in Chinese families to inherit the family business are far from comparable to those of legitimate sons, but they cannot be driven out without a penny. Moreover, this is the royal family. Except for the children of the queen, the others are all concubines and concubines. There is no difference in essence, so there are more things to divide.
A system must be finalized, otherwise no matter how much property the royal family divides, there will still be poor families and paupers after several generations.
In addition, Chen Ming has his own troubles.
Chen Han has only one throne, but there are so many princes! Although some of them have long expressed their intention to withdraw from the fight for the throne and be a vassal king. But the division of the territory of the vassal state and the determination of the throne really cannot be neglected. If it is not handled properly, the trouble will be more than a little bit.
After all, the one who failed to compete for the throne with the heir to the throne is also Chen Ming's son, right?
Chen Ming really didn't think about killing his son or imprisoning his son. He didn't learn from anyone else. In this regard, he didn't learn from Kang Mazi and Li Shimin.
Chen Ming felt that he was in control of the power. Even if these sons fought, they were competing for performance in front of him. This is completely different from the previous dynasties where the princes of the past dynasties fought for the throne and won over the generals in the army and important officials in the court, and formed cliques for personal gain.
Therefore, he felt that these sons would not do anything that would anger the heavens and the people.
It is impossible for the Chen Han Empire to occupy all the land under the sun. The empire's homeland has taken over most of Asia, as well as Australia. From the Arctic Ocean to Antarctica, this piece of land alone runs through the entire north and south of the earth. Chen Ming roughly estimated that this "homeland" alone is already about 40 million square kilometers. It is larger than the land of the two great empires of the original time and space. It is definitely a very, very vast empire!
And because the land is sparsely populated, Australia and Siberia are easier to absorb and digest.
But now Chen Han has set foot in America again. The empire will continue to expand in the future. The vassal states are also the empire's territory, but it is necessary to really consider the digestion problem after the continued expansion.
At the beginning, he did not think so much, but based on his distrust of the "independence" of the Chinese people, he felt that the vassal states were easier to digest the land, so he threw out the big picture of overseas vassal states. Instead, it united people's hearts more and successfully completed a national tax reform.
But now it seems that Chen Ming really hit the mark by mistake.
His "overseas vassal states" really solved a big problem for the empire.
Each time a vassal state was established, the central government of Chen Han would throw away a burden.
And by throwing away the burden, the empire could go into battle lightly and then conquer more American lands.
Although Chen Ming came from the future, he did not agree with the harmonious situation of multi-ethnic unity. Not to mention the present era, even the rabbits in the 21st century have not been able to achieve true national unity.
And the present era is even less suitable for the birth of the "river crab society". Only the main ethnic countries will become strong countries, Chen Ming is very sure of this.
Britain, France, Prussia, Russia and Austria, aren't these all main ethnic countries? And the Ottoman Empire, which was a little confused about the primary and secondary, declined.
Chen Han is also a standard main ethnic country, and it can even be said to be a single-ethnic country.
In this era, including the next hundred years, except for the old United States, there is no multi-ethnic power. Even the newly emerged America, this immigrant country is a small weak country.
The rise of the United States is jointly promoted by many factors.
The Chen Han Empire is a nation-state - all foreigners have to endure the constant invasion of "Sinicization". From life to work and study, if they want to reach a higher level in life, they must actively Sinicize.
Everyone is a nation, a country, a language and a culture.
The advantages of the Han people in China are too great. More than 99% of the people are Han people. As long as we promote Chinese language and Han culture education, we will achieve national integration in two or three generations.