Chapter 963: I want to go back to my hometown to worship my ancestors
Tianjin Customs Yamen, late at night.
"Bang bang bang!"
Jia Liu, who was reviewing documents, was startled by the sound of the clock outside. He looked up at the glass-lined window and found that it was already dark, so he asked Shuan Zhu, who was napping next to him, what time it was.
"Master, it's the third watch."
Shuan Zhu rubbed Mi Hu's eyes, took out the pocket watch given to him by the young master, looked at it, and said it was half past eleven.
"Is it so late?"
Jia Liu frowned and sighed softly. He took off his reading glasses and picked up a thermos cup of "Gudu Gudu" filled with ginseng and wolfberry. He took a few big sips and felt that he was not in good condition, so he walked to the washbasin.
I wiped my face with cold water, then walked back to my desk, put on my reading glasses, and continued to review the mountains of official documents on my desk.
These official documents were all transferred from Beijing in the past two days. Although the cabinet gave their opinions on how to deal with them, as the emperor, Jia Liu still read them carefully.
When you see that the cabinet's handling opinions are not to your liking, you should use a red pen to write your opinions on a piece of white paper and paste it on it. In this way, after receiving the reply, the cabinet will renegotiate and give new handling opinions before submitting it to the emperor.
His Majesty.
If the emperor has no objection, he will forward it to the relevant departments for implementation. If he has any objection, he will send it back.
It sounds like a bit of nonsense.
However, Jia Liu set a rule that he, the emperor, only had the power to reject the cabinet's opinions three times.
If you want to refute it for the fourth time, you must organize a political meeting, where the princes and ministers will vote to decide whether to follow the wishes of the cabinet or the emperor.
If the outcome of the meeting of princes and ministers is to support the cabinet, the emperor must obey unconditionally.
If the result of the meeting of princes and ministers is to support the emperor, the cabinet will obey unconditionally.
If the cabinet refuses to obey, the emperor will exercise the power to dissolve the cabinet and appoint new cabinet members.
If the emperor refused to obey, the Council of Princes and Ministers, as the highest authority of the Qing Dynasty, had the power to impeach the emperor.
If necessary, the emperor can be respectfully asked to step down.
Jia Liu personally summoned the five elders of the cabinet and explained this system to them carefully every word.
At that time, the five elders were stunned, and then they collectively raised tea bowls and clinked glasses, unanimously agreed to this plan, and planned to announce this system to the whole country in the form of an imperial edict to ensure that the Six Emperors would not regret it.
How could Jia Liu go back on his word? His purpose in becoming emperor was to regard the emperor as a position and a job, not as an emperor who could do whatever he said.
Even if this move will make his descendants become mascots, he must do it.
Because China does not need an emperor.
Europe has entered the primary stage of the industrial revolution, and humanistic ideas are exploding. China cannot avoid revolution in the future. If you want the fire of revolution to prevent the six emperors from wiping out their descendants, then let him do everything he needs to do while he is still young.
Just as his next step was to do an unprecedented and shocking thing - to declare himself the king of the country's subjugation, he also announced that he was the king of the founding of the country.
Beautiful, right?
Human beings are also him, ghosts are also him, and gods are also him.
He is the one who makes progress, he is also the one who is reactionary, and he is also the one who eats melons.
I am such a man!
A fitting description.
Shuan Zhu yawned and couldn't help but persuade: "Master, it's getting late. You'd better go to bed early. You have to meet with foreign business representatives tomorrow."
"If you feel sleepy, go to bed."
Jia Liu raised his head and glanced at Shuan Zhu, who had brought him up since childhood, and said affectionately: "It doesn't matter if I, the emperor, sleep less, as long as the people in this world can sleep peacefully."
As soon as these words came out, the room suddenly became extremely bright.
In the camera, Jia Liu is sitting at his desk, exuding an aura of greatness.
Holy as Guevara.
"Great, great, Your Majesty, you are such a good emperor that I will never be able to defeat you in my eight lifetimes!"
Lao A placed a large glass mirror on the left side of His Majesty's desk, and asked others to place the other mirrors according to a scientific perspective.
Needless to say, the light in the house with such an arrangement is obviously much brighter than before.
"Old man, you're here at the right time. Do you have any opinions on the candidates for Tianjin Customs Supervision?"
Jia Liu put down the official document he was giving instructions on and motioned to Lao A to sit down and talk.
In terms of establishment, the Tianjin Customs Yamen and the Guangdong Customs Yamen in Guangdong are tax agencies directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
According to the customs yamen regulations formulated during the Kangxi period, all customs yamen are not only responsible for the local foreign trade management, but also responsible for the local coastal waterway trade management.
In other words, the Tianjin Customs Office not only levies taxes on merchant ships from Western countries coming to China, but also levies taxes on goods transported from the country to Tianjin Port via the canal.
There are two-way charges, and import and export taxes have to be paid to the court.
Jia Liu personally checked the functional regulations of Tianjin Customs and found that they were no different from the customs of later generations. They were responsible for customs declaration and registration, filling out tax forms, collecting taxes, and also responsible for inspecting import and export ships and goods.
Jia Liu didn't know what the Guangdong Customs Yamen in Guangdong looked like, but he paid full attention to the Tianjin Customs Yamen from the project establishment to the completion.
Even the drawings of the customs office building and ancillary facilities were drawn by himself in his busy schedule.
It is equivalent to a large government compound.
It has two floors, covering an area of less than ten acres.
There is a main building, two auxiliary buildings, and a dormitory for customs staff to eat, sleep and rest.
It looks like a tube building.
If the building materials and construction standards of this era were not enough to allow Jia Liu to express himself freely, otherwise he would have built an Empire State Building by the Haihe River, giving Western countries a little Jia-style shock.
The head of the customs claimed that he was "impressed to supervise the Trade and Tax Household Department of Tianjin Coastal and other places." However, there was a dispute between the cabinet and the Six Emperors as to whether the Tianjin Customs supervisor should be selected by the Ministry of Household Affairs or the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In the past, customs supervision was directly appointed by the emperor, and each term was only one year. Before the expiration of one year, a request was made in advance to replace the appointed commissioner. If he was appointed again, he would remain in office.
Therefore, since the customs office was established during the Kangxi period, the customs supervision of each trading port has been assigned by the emperor from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, usually by department personnel such as Yuanwai and Langzhong.
Jia Liu wanted to follow the old practice and let him appoint the Tianjin Customs Supervisor.
But it was strongly resisted by the cabinet.
The reason is that the customs supervision is really too fat.
Although it is only a third-grade setting, tens of millions of dollars pass through its hands every year!
Jia Liu finally summed it up.
A chief and deputy supervisor was established at the Tianjin Customs Yamen.
The daily operations are handled by the chief supervisor, but the deputy supervisor is responsible for the financial aspects.
However, the cabinet and Jia Liu had different opinions on who should serve as the chief supervisor and who should serve as deputy supervisor.
The cabinet plans to appoint former military commander Zhang Jing and current fourth-grade secretary Qian Shougu as the chief supervisor because he is not only talented but also good at financial management.
A few years ago, when Qianlong mobilized a large army to conquer Jinchuan, Qian Shougu had been coordinating the money and grain work of the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Household Affairs and related provinces, so he was a good candidate.
Jia Liu wanted Zhu Dawen, the prefect of Tianjin who was recruiting business for him in Macau, to serve as Tianjin Customs Supervisor. Firstly, it was because Zhu Dawen was familiar with foreign merchants and it would be convenient to deal with them. Secondly, it was also a reward for merit.
As a result, the cabinet imposed a hard-core policy, and now the Tianjin Customs Yamen has been established, and all the staff have been selected, but the first and second leaders are empty.
Lao A thought for a while and suggested that the emperor should let Qian Shougu be the chief supervisor and Zhu Dawen be the deputy supervisor.
"That's fine."
Unexpectedly, Jia Liu didn't expect the stalemate between the chief and deputy commissioners of customs and the cabinet to continue, so he agreed to Lao A's proposal. When he was about to ask Shuan Zhu to submit the decree to the cabinet for implementation, he noticed that Lao A was holding an official document in his hand and asked what happened.
.
"Your Majesty, we just received the power of the Eight Banners outside the Pass!"
The old man turned on the electricity and presented it.
"Have you figured it out outside the border? Do they plan to talk to me in the capital, or do I send people to Shengjing to talk to them?"
Jia Liu turned on the emergency phone and scanned it, but his face became solemn.
The power of the Eight Banners outside the Pass is not to support him, the Sixth Emperor, but to demand the restoration of the relatives, princes, and titles that were deprived of their clan status in the previous period, and to return the confiscated property to the kings. Otherwise, the Eight Banners outside the Pass will send troops to Shanhaiguan to replace the emperor.
Follow the path and restore the ancestral system.
In addition to the three people who signed the telegram, General Hongxiang of Shengjing, General Fu Chun of Jilin, and General Fu Yu of Heilongjiang, there were also 68 Manchu and Mongolian dignitaries above the deputy governor general's rank on the list.
"I am not Chongzhen, let alone Li Zicheng. How dare I be such a clown?"
Jia Liu threw the power on the table and said, "Tell the cabinet that I will go back to my hometown next month to worship my ancestors."