My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 401 The So-Called "Soviet Party"

Upon returning to the newspaper office, Luo Wanhua immediately began editing articles, preparing to publish the detailed news of the Southwest victory report.

Su Ze sat down at the desk and began to think.

When later generations studied the topic of "replacing native chieftains with centrally appointed officials," it was as if there was a turning point. Once the "replacing native chieftains with centrally appointed officials" was completed, the southwest was completely Sinicized and became part of Chinese civilization.

However, when Su Ze was studying at the Hanlin Academy, he discovered that this was not the case at all.

The reason why border regions are called border regions is because they are very ambiguous areas.

The boundary between the indigenous people and the Han people is not clearly defined by bloodline, and it is also difficult to distinguish them by appearance in the southwest region.

The distinction between Han Chinese and indigenous people was often political.

Those who accept the Ming Dynasty's system and are under its rule are considered Han Chinese in the southwest region, regardless of their bloodline.

The people who do not accept the rule of the Ming Dynasty and are governed by the Tusi system are called Turen (local people).

Once this is understood, the Southwest issue becomes clear.

Ordinary people are naturally inclined to seek benefits and avoid harm.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the country was peaceful and prosperous, and Zhu Yuanzhang restricted taxes. At this time, people were more willing to live under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, so many tribes took the initiative to request the abolition of the native chieftain system and the replacement of the chieftain system with the central government.

This wasn't because the chieftains were particularly enlightened and willingly relinquished power, but rather because the allure of the Ming Dynasty's system was too strong. Even if the chieftains didn't voluntarily give up power, the people of their tribes would force them to relinquish it.

However, as the Ming government became increasingly corrupt, exorbitant taxes and levies increased.

At this time, faced with the Ming government's oppressive policies, which were described as "more ferocious than tigers," Han Chinese people would also choose to flee to the Tusi tribes.

In the Tusi tribe, one only needed to accept the Tusi's administration, without having to pay taxes to the Ming government or bear heavy corvée labor.

During this period, the conversion of native chieftains to imperial officials came to a standstill, and there were even instances of officials returning to their original positions.

Of course, these are all holistic considerations.

The specific situation varies from place to place, depending on the Tusi tribe.

There were wise and open-minded chieftains whose reputation was even better than that of the government.

There were also brutal chieftains who used violence to control the people under their rule.

There are honest and capable government offices, and there are also corrupt and incompetent ones.

Having figured this out, Su Ze laid out the memorial.

This time, Su Ze did not mention the matter of replacing native chieftains with appointed officials, but instead requested the court to rectify the officialdom in Guangxi.

In addition to demanding a cleanup of officialdom in Guangxi, Su Ze also proposed opening a port in Fangchenggang and levying commercial taxes in Guangxi to accelerate the region's development.

"In order to rectify the officialdom in Guangxi, open the port of Fangcheng and levy commercial taxes to strengthen the border defense and relieve the people's suffering."

In his memorial to the throne, Su Ze included his own summary of the problems in Guangxi, pointing out that it was not an ethnic issue, but a problem of official corruption.

Therefore, Su Ze requested the imperial court to carry out a sweeping overhaul of the officialdom in Guangxi:
“Strictly instruct the governors, inspectors, and officials of the prefectures, counties, and districts to dismiss the incompetent and select the honest and capable; establish regulations and clearly define rewards and punishments, with border defense, finances, and criminal justice as the top priorities for performance evaluation; and request that upright and honest officials be selected to inspect the border areas and impeach subordinate officials. Only when the administration is in order can we talk about the improvement of local governance.”

In addition to governance, there is also economic development.

Guangxi is mountainous with little arable land, and its economic development is lagging behind, which is also a major factor contributing to regional instability.

In the original timeline, Guangxi's development space was blocked by Guangdong and Vietnam, but in this timeline, Guangdong has not yet gained an overwhelming advantage.

Vietnam, which is now Jiaozhi, was still physically fragmented and had never had a unified dynasty, making it even more disorganized than the Jiangnan region.

Guangxi's geographical advantages are actually quite good. It borders Jiaozhi to the west, and Jiaozhi has a long coastline that allows for maritime trade.

Guangxi is also close to Southeast Asia and is a tropical region, which is suitable for growing tropical cash crops.

Given stable conditions, Guangxi can develop.

At the same time, Su Ze did not forget about levying commercial taxes.

Su Ze's original idea was to use a combination of rewards and punishments to link the affairs of the civil service examination and education administration with the collection of commercial taxes, so that the provinces would take the initiative to request the collection of taxes.

But Su Ze was wrong.

The imposition of commercial taxes affected local gentry and powerful clans.

They are happiest when the government is weak, because they can replace the government and become the arbitrators in the countryside.

As for education, that was not a problem for the local gentry.

Local gentry could invite scholars to teach in private schools, while more influential gentry could establish clan schools or send their outstanding disciples to academies.

This would actually allow them to better monopolize the number of places available for the imperial examinations.

Since this tactic wasn't working, Su Ze decided to take the initiative.

In this rebellion of the three chieftains in Guangxi, the local government was powerless to quell the uprising. In the end, the imperial army carried out a massacre in Guangxi and finally quelled the rebellion.

At this juncture, they should step forward and, under the guise of "Guangxi public opinion," levy a commercial tax in Guangxi to accelerate its promotion.

From then on, whenever trouble arose in a region, the imperial court could use the imposition of commercial taxes as a demand to force the local authorities to levy them.

After Su Ze finished writing the memorial, he put it into the "Portable Ming Dynasty Imperial Court".

——[Simulation Start]——

The memorial entitled "Request for the Rectification of Officialdom and the Collection of Commercial Taxes in Guangxi" was sent to the Cabinet.

The Cabinet approves of your proposal to reform the bureaucracy and open up ports.

However, there are differing opinions within the cabinet regarding the imposition of a commercial tax.

Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng both supported the idea of ​​levying commercial taxes, but Zhao Zhenji and Yin Shizhan opposed it, believing that it would break the tacit understanding between the court and the local governments, and that forcing Guangxi to levy taxes would cause dissatisfaction in other provinces.

The memorial was sent to the palace.

The Longqing Emperor was also worried that levying commercial taxes under the guise of this would cause turmoil in the court.

The emperor issued a memorial, but the officials opposed reforming the administration of Guangxi.

Many officials from Guangxi submitted memorials arguing that the rebellions of the Guangxi chieftains were the problem of these chieftains themselves. They pointed out that since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, rebellions by the Guangxi chieftains had been ongoing, and if officials were punished for this, no one would be willing to serve in Guangxi in the future.

In the end, Emperor Longqing only agreed to the request to open Fangchenggang as a treaty port.

——[Simulation End]——

[Remaining Prestige: 1710.]

[To approve your memorial, you need to pay 400 prestige points. Do you wish to pay?]

Good grief, out of three proposals, only one was approved?
It can only be said that as the reforms progress, the resistance is getting greater and greater.

These opposing forces have all united, putting even greater pressure on the imperial court. Su Ze naturally chose "yes" without hesitation.

[Prestige points have been deducted, leaving 1310 prestige points. Please complete the memorial as soon as possible and await its effect.]

Fortunately, I have the system; now it's up to the system to put its power to use.
-
This time, a special situation arose in the cabinet: Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng joined forces in an unusual way, and Su Ze's memorial was opposed by Zhao Zhenji and Lei Li.

It's normal for Gao Zhang to support it; Su Zefan's proposal concerns fiscal reforms, which both of them support.

Developing new sources of revenue is something that any ambitious reformer must do.

Without financial support, it would be impossible to complete the reforms. The benefits of commercial taxes are obvious to everyone, and the court is truly reaping the benefits.

However, Zhao Zhenji and Lei Li were the conservative faction that promoted commercial taxes.

As cabinet ministers, they naturally saw the benefits of promoting commercial taxes.

However, they were also worried that pushing for commercial taxes too aggressively would provoke local resistance, and that it would be better to let the local governments take the initiative to levy commercial taxes, as they had done before.

The debate ultimately failed to reach a consensus, and the memorial was eventually sent to the Directorate of Ceremonial, where the Longqing Emperor ordered officials to discuss it.

The result was naturally even stronger opposition.

Even the cabinet's consensus on reforming the administration of Guangxi sparked controversy in the outer court, with some arguing that it was the court being harsh on scholars.

Guangxi was already a difficult place to govern, so promising officials were unwilling to go there. If the imperial court punished local officials because of the Tusi rebellion, then even fewer people would be willing to serve as officials in Guangxi.

This argument clearly contains elements of sophistry, but it has still sparked considerable controversy.

Moreover, this time the opposition is different from the past; there is no clear leader among them.

According to Su Ze's previous summary, this can be considered as entering the period between the second and third stages.

The third stage is "drawing the sword and looking around in bewilderment," a stage where you are intertwined with me and I am intertwined with you.

If a Guangxi official is found guilty, will the imperial court use other officials to be found guilty as well?

If officials were punished for failing to perform their duties, how many officials in the Ming Dynasty would have been punished?

Officials who were sent to Guangxi were basically those with no future. If they were punished for corruption or incompetence, the court would then target other officials.

Therefore, this opposition was a spontaneous act of the bureaucratic system, not led by any particular official, and the interests of Guangxi had nothing to do with the interests of most officials in the capital.

Of course, that's precisely why such opposition is even more terrifying.

This is not an attempt to exonerate any one or two specific officials, but rather an spontaneous unity of the entire bureaucratic system to oppose any form of reform in order to protect itself and maintain its privileged status as an official.

When Hai Rui entered the Censorate, several supervising censors from Guangxi Province came before him.

The senior censor Ruan Chaodong, who was in charge, said to Hai Rui:

"Vice Censor-in-Chief, we wish to jointly submit a memorial opposing Su Zilin's memorial! Please affix your seal, Your Excellency!"

Hai Rui looked at the group of people, but said nothing. He ordered the official beside him to fetch the seal of the Censorate, and then addressed them:
"Do you all think that what Su Ze reported is wrong?"

Ruan Chaodong felt somewhat uneasy.

Since Hai Rui took office in the Censorate, there have been stricter requirements for joint memorials, and a joint memorial must be stamped with the official seal of the Censorate.

However, Hai Rui also promised that this procedure was not intended to obstruct the flow of information. He would affix his seal to all memorials submitted by officials who had voiced their opinions. This was merely to increase the rigor of the Censorate and ensure that all memorials had to pass through him, the Vice Censor-in-Chief.

Because Hai Rui often colluded with Su Ze when he was in local government, there is now a saying in official circles that Hai Rui is a member of the "Su Party".

This claim sounds absurd. Hai Rui was the Grand Minister in charge of the Censorate, how could he possibly be a henchman of Su Ze, who was only a fourth-rank official?
But as the story spread, it seemed less absurd.

The so-called "Soviet Party" does not seem to be a clearly defined political force, but this group does seem to exist.

Whenever Su Ze's policy efforts were thwarted, members of the "Su Party" would step forward to ensure that Su Ze's memorials were approved.

Hai Rui helped Su Ze pass his memorials on several occasions.

By this calculation, Hai Rui was indeed a core figure of the "Soviet Party".

Ruan Chaodong originally thought that Hai Rui would not agree to their memorial, but unexpectedly Hai Rui did not interfere with their memorial, so he was relieved.

After Hai Rui finished using the seal, he returned the memorial to Ruan Chaodong.

Hai Rui then said:

"You have come at the right time. I was just about to impeach Cheng Zixue, the Provincial Treasurer of Guangxi. You are all the most knowledgeable about Guangxi."

Ruan Chaodong was stunned for a moment, and cold sweat broke out on his brow.

Cheng Zixue, the Provincial Administration Commissioner of Guangxi, was a high-ranking official who had served as the Provincial Administration Commissioner of Guangxi since the first year of the Longqing reign.

During his tenure in Guangxi, this Cheng Daren completed the task of clearing up the deficit in the province's treasury, which earned him praise from Zhang Juzheng.

Not only Zhang Juzheng, but even Gao Gong praised this Cheng Daren highly, considering him a capable minister of the Ming Dynasty.

Hai Rui actually wanted to impeach such a high-ranking official!?

A provincial governor is a high-ranking official comparable to the Nine Ministers.

Ruan Chaodong carefully took Hai Rui's memorial and opened it to see Hai Rui's strong and powerful handwriting.

Hai Rui's calligraphy was not the official script commonly used by scholars in the Ming Dynasty, but rather the sharp and elegant Yan style. His calligraphy truly reflected his personality and was indeed excellent!
But what chilled Ruan Chaodong even more than the words themselves was the content of Hai Rui's memorial.

During his tenure as the Provincial Governor of Guangxi, Cheng Zixue presided over the mobilization of the Yongjiang Project. This project mobilized more than 100,000 laborers, drawing on the entire population around Nanning.

However, the result was that the Yongjiang River flooded five times in five years during Cheng Zixue's tenure, and the flood control project was completely ineffective.

In addition, Cheng Zixue also accepted bribes on a large scale in the matter of Tusi succession. The chaos in Tusi succession caused during his tenure was dozens of times greater than that of his predecessor.

The rebel leader Zhao Quan's men, who were captured this time, were personally interrogated by Chen Lin, the military commander of Annam, after their arrest, to inquire about the reasons for Zhao Quan's rebellion.

According to Zhao Quan's subordinates, Zhao Quan once bribed Cheng Zixue with a large sum of money, and Cheng promised that he would definitely inherit the position of Baima Tusi.

However, Cheng Zixue suddenly changed his mind and demanded a large sum of money from Zhao Quan again. Zhao Quan was so angry that he started a rebellion.

This confession was sent to the capital along with the report of victory, and the cabinet then forwarded it to the Censorate.

After reading it, Ruan Chaodong felt cold in his hands and feet.

Hai Rui said:

“Cheng Zixue is an important official of the court, and Zhao Quan’s men are rebels. We cannot trust them completely. I was planning to send someone to investigate in detail before impeaching him, but since you all have come here, I would like to ask for your opinions.”

Ruan Chaodong wished he had never been there, and the faces of the other censors present were also very unpleasant.

Seeing the silence of the crowd, Hai Rui asked in a somewhat serious tone:

"You are all Supervising Censors of Guangxi Circuit, with the duty of overseeing Guangxi. Are you really unaware of these matters at all?!"

(End of this chapter)