Under this circumstance, under the auspices of Chen Lifu, the minister on duty, the empire formally reached formal land transfer agreements with all European countries, including the Kingdom of Sweden, the Kingdom of Spain, and the Kingdom of England.
The above-mentioned countries signed land transfer agreements with the empire, officially selling all the territories in Europe to the Tang Empire. At the same time, Datang paid for the land in terms of territories in Africa, cash, help in relocating people, loans and other conditions.
In the autumn of the same year, the empire reached a similar agreement with the sixteen countries on the Indian peninsula, as well as the Safavid dynasty and the Mughal dynasty.
Although the relocation of the above-mentioned areas has not yet been completed and is expected to continue for many years, from now on the entire Eurasian continent is completely part of the territory of the Tang Empire.
The Tang Empire began to formally establish affairs offices in the above-mentioned areas, and adopted the strategy of moving the natives to one place and the Tang Dynasty to immigrate to another place, gradually immigrating to the above-mentioned areas, and at the same time, gradual localization will be carried out.
In the winter of the 53rd year of Xuanping, the Tang Dynasty Daily announced that the empire's globalization strategy had achieved initial success.
The reason why the empire was eager to sign formal land transfer agreements with various countries this year was not only due to various objective factors, but also had something to do with Chen Lifu.
Because he will officially retire at the end of this year.
That's why before taking office, he worked hard to promote the globalization strategy and formally signed agreements with various countries to ensure that he would reap his political achievements and avoid letting his successors take away the credit for his achievements.
Before Chen Lifu officially took office, he also finalized another matter.
That is to promote the project of the statue of the Holy Emperor. Of course, as a decent and shameless minister, he would not propose such a plan himself, but after serving as an official for decades, he has many disciples, so he can just find someone to indirectly
Just a hint, someone will make detailed plans immediately.
Half a month before taking office, Chen Lifu reported the relevant plans to Emperor Sheng.
The Holy Emperor was firmly opposed to it at first and even reprimanded Chen Lifu, but later Chen Lifu said that this statue was to commemorate this great history and the history of unifying the world.
It is also said that the statue project will not use public finances, and many large domestic companies have already pledged to contribute funds.
Finally, the Holy Emperor reluctantly looked at the renderings.
Not to mention, this rendering looks quite shocking. This is a statue that is to be erected on the coastline of the Yangtze River estuary in Songjiang Prefecture. The statue reaches a height of more than 150 meters, plus the base,
It can reach a height of two hundred and thirty meters.
The tall statue is enough to be seen from any ship sailing into the Yangtze River Estuary from the distant sea!
Shocking enough!
Chen Lifu also explained that in order for the statue to be preserved longer and remain unchanged for thousands or even ten thousand years, it is planned to be made of pure rock.
Of course, it can't be a whole piece of rock, but a pile of huge rocks similar to the pyramids in Egypt.
This will naturally place huge demands on technical crafts, especially some of the hanging tower craftsmanship, but with the empire's current technical capabilities, it is fully capable of achieving it.
After seeing the renderings, Li Xuan felt that since the ministers were interested, it was also to let future generations feel the efforts of today's people, so he reluctantly agreed.
Considering the huge cost, public funds must not be used for this project, and the Crown Assets Branch will bear all costs.
However, Chen Lifu said that this project was a gift from the people of the world to the Holy Emperor. How could the Holy Emperor pay for the construction himself? He insisted that the private sector raise funds for the construction.
In the end, it was decided that the Imperial Household Assets Division would bear most of the costs, while also accepting funds from voluntary participating companies.
The statue project was the last thing Chen Lifu personally promoted before he left office.
After promoting this matter, on December 16, the 53rd year of Xuanping Dynasty, Lin Ziran awarded Chen Lifu the title of Bachelor of Wenhua Palace and the title of Crown Prince Grand Master (first grade).
These two honorary titles are Li Xuan's high evaluation of Chen Lifu's official career in the past decades!
Li Xuan actually admired Chen Lifu very much. During the more than ten years since Chen Lifu entered the Imperial Study Room, he was able to hold real power for a long time and eventually even became the foreman of the Imperial Study Room. This was inseparable from Li Xuan's appreciation and trust in him.
And Chen Lifu has lived up to Li Xuan's important role. The three major strategies of economic development plan, global economic integration, and imperial globalization have been successively rolled out in the past ten years and have achieved great achievements.
For such an important minister, Li Xuan would naturally not begrudge his reward.
That's why before Chen Lifu took office, he was given an honor far beyond that of ordinary ministers: a bachelor!
This is the fourth bachelor awarded by the Tang Empire since its founding!
Before Chen Lifu, there were Liu Bagou, Wang Wenhua, and Qian Mengjiu. Among them, Wang Wenhua and Qian Mengjiu's bachelor's titles were actually withdrawn within a few years. For a long time, Liu Bagou was the only one in the Tang Empire.
Ba Gouhui is such a great bachelor.
After Liu Bagou officially passed away in the 51st year of Xuan Ping, the empire had no existing bachelor in the past two years.
Now, Chen Lifu has become the fourth and only remaining bachelor in the empire. According to the imperial official positions, the title of bachelor is the first grade.
Therefore, Chen Lifu also became the fourth first-class minister in the empire in decades!
This kind of honor cannot be obtained by other ministers.
Compared with before, the title of Prince and Grand Master was not worth mentioning.
Although the crown prince's grand master is already the highest-level honor among the crown prince's third division and the third young master, it still belongs to the category of the crown prince's third division and the third young master. According to the official position, the crown prince's third division and the third young master are all titles of the first rank, unlike those of the three gongs and three young masters.
Gu Nai belongs to the title of Zhengyipin.
In the past, several senior civil servants in the empire were posthumously awarded the title of Third Prince Master after their death.
But the important point is that this is the title of the Third Prince Division that Chen Lifu received during his tenure. This is the only one in the past twenty years.
At present, the honorary titles of the empire include, in addition to the Grand Bachelor, the Three Dukes, Three Sovereigns, the Crown Prince, the Three Masters and the Three Young Masters.
Needless to say, it goes without saying that for a bachelor, even if the foreman of the royal study becomes an official, it is unlikely that he will be granted the title even after his death.
The same is true for the Three Gongs and Three Solitaries. Currently, only Liu Bagou has obtained it, and other civil servants and military generals have no chance.
Generally, those awarded to ministers are the prince's three divisions and three young masters, as well as civil and military officials. This honorary title is for both civil and military officials in the empire.
Among them, the Prince's Third Young Master was awarded more frequently, and many civil servants and generals during the founding period received it. In the middle and later stages, generally the ministers on duty in the imperial study room would be awarded the title of Prince's Third Young Master after making achievements.
Even if you hold an ordinary position, when you are about to become an official, you will basically get a consoling title of Prince Shaobao, which at least gives people a title of first rank.
The Third Prince's Division is relatively rare. Generally, it can only be obtained when the leading minister becomes an official, and there are mainly two types: Prince Taibao and Prince Taifu.
The higher-level crown prince and grand master were only awarded to current officials in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China (including those who were about to become official).
And like Chen Lifu, he was the first person in the empire in the past thirty years to obtain the title of Crown Prince and Grand Master before he entered office.
Regardless of whether he is the Crown Prince or Grand Master of Wenhua Palace, this is all because Chen Lifu did an outstanding job during his tenure.
In fact, he was already the crown prince's guardian before. Now that he is about to retire, it is normal to be promoted to another level according to management, so Li Xuan simply bypassed the crown prince's tutor and awarded him the crown prince's tutor.
If nothing else goes wrong, when Chen Lifu is done with his hair that day, he will also be awarded the title of Three Gongs and Three Solitaries.
Although the titles of Grand Bachelor, Three Lords and Three Sovereigns, Prince, Three Masters and Three Young Masters are purely honorary titles, these purely honorary titles are the only first-class titles in the Tang Empire.
In addition to these honorary titles, the highest actual titles are Shangshu, Zuodu Yushi, and Grand Judge, all of which are of the second rank.
As for the ministers on duty in the royal study room, the ministers on duty are of no rank, have no quota, and have no rank at all.
If civil servants want to obtain first-class titles, there is only one way, and that is to obtain the above-mentioned honorary titles.
Chen Lifu basically reached the limit of contemporary civil servants.
With honor, Chen Lifu officially announced his resignation on December 26, the 53rd year of Xuanping, thus ending the era of Chen Lifu's governance.
The person who succeeded Chen Lifu and became the new foreman of the imperial study was Peng Zhifu. This person was quite special. He was not from the industrial and commercial economic system, but from the judicial system.
Peng Zhifu's official and even Zuo Du Yushi of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
This is also the first time in the empire's more than fifty years that an official from the judicial system has served as the foreman of the imperial study.
But everyone knows that Peng Zhifu is just a transitional person. He is already older, and he has been the censor of Zuodu for four years. According to the default rules of the top management of the Tang Dynasty, he can only serve as censor of Zuodu at most.
Worked for five years.
In the judicial system, the duty minister of the imperial study room has always been concurrently held by the Zuodu censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. After he retires from the Zuodu censorship, he will naturally retire from the imperial study room.
This means that, perhaps in less than a year, a new foreman will appear in the empire, and the upcoming foreman will be the real next foreman who will lead all major affairs of the empire, Chen Lifu's successor.
Peng Zhifu also knew that he was only a leading minister during the transitional period. When His Majesty selected the next leading minister, he would take up his official position.
The reason why Peng Zhifu became the foreman of the imperial study was purely because the Holy Emperor Li Xuan had not chosen Chen Lifu's successor.
Perhaps because he was used to Chen Lifu's neat and worry-free way of doing things, Li Xuan was not satisfied with the current candidates in the Imperial Study Room. Their ability to do things was just average, they didn't speak well, and they had too many things to do.
So he had previously expanded the scope of candidates, not only adding the ministers on duty in the Royal Study Room, but also the walking ministers, among whom there were two more promising walking ministers.