Two days later, in Xinbao, Fan Ning published a real-name article "There is Endless Wealth", which details the current situation of the Southern Continent and various rich minerals, including not only gold and silver mines, but also high-grade iron ore and charcoal mines. The article describes the happy life of the people of the Southern Continent. The article points out that the Southern Continent is actually not far away and can arrive in just over twenty days. He encourages more people to immigrate to the Southern Continent and encourages more merchants to go to the Southern Continent to start mining.

This is to use public opinion to lay the groundwork. That morning, Fan Ning officially submitted his development and investment plan for the Southern Continent to Empress Dowager Cao.

He proposed a plan to invest 10 million yuan in five phases within three years. Empress Dowager Cao did not immediately make a statement. She needed to consider it before talking about it.

In the circular hall of Zhizheng Hall, several prime ministers began to discuss the development plan for the Southern Continent. This was the number one major event that the emperor suppressed yesterday, and the prime ministers had to pay attention to it.

The discussion was chaired by the right prime minister Fu Bi. In addition to the seven prime ministers abroad, there were more than 20 senior officials from various departments, ministers, and chief cases of the three departments.

I need to say a few more words here. After the Song army recovered Youyan, the war temporarily quelled. Wang Anshi continued to promote his reform. This time, the reform was the highlight. Reforming the official system, in short, is to restore the Tang system.

Since the establishment of the Song Dynasty, the six ministries and various temple supervisors have basically been undermined, and the real power has been controlled by the three ministries. The East and West Court of Justice has also undermined the Ministry of Personnel, and the Privy Council has undermined the Ministry of War.

In the end, the ministers of various departments were only one title, and officials took this title to work in the local area. For example, the two adjacent counties were likely to be the magistrate of the Beijing official after being transferred to a regular court, while the other was the county magistrate who had not been transferred to a regular court.

The official system of the Song Dynasty was very complicated and chaotic, with neither fixed personnel nor full-time, and the institutions overlapped. In the end, even the officials of the Ministry of Personnel and the Court of Justice were confused.

This overly complex official system will bring about a large number of redundant officials who only pay for money and do not do things, resulting in many political careers and extremely low efficiency of the court.

However, reforming the official system will inevitably involve the interests of a large number of officials, so Zhao Xu adopted Fanning's two-step suggestion, and the first step was to clean up virtual officials.

The plan was responded to and supported by the void officials with titles and overseas land, and the number of void officials was allowed to be inherited for three generations. This plan was responded and supported by the void officials, including the military governor, defense envoy, observation envoy, governor, prefect, regiment envoy, and other large number of void officials were successfully abolished. The officials in the court were reduced by half, and the monthly salary expenditure was reduced by hundreds of thousands of chunks.

Later, due to the outbreak of war, the reform of the official system was suspended, and now it has been restarted as the war subsides.

This time it involves changes in substantive power, so it is even more difficult and will violate the vital interests of too many officials.

The Song Dynasty implemented a system where low officials held power. For example, an official from the Third Division held the power of a fourth-rank official, but he was only a seventh-rank official. Wang Anshi's reform was to have equal power and duties. A fourth-rank official held the fourth-rank official and would undoubtedly deprive a large number of low-rank officials of the power. The key is that many small officials had a large number of interest groups behind them. This was formed over decades. If Wang Anshi cut down this knife, he would not know how many people's vital interests would be violated.

At this time, the discussion had not yet begun, and the prime minister was talking in a low voice. Ouyang Xiu said to Fan Ning: "The Zhizheng Hall is going to change, and it will be restored to the three provinces Yuanfeng Reform, and it will be implemented soon."

Fan Ning asked with a smile: "How to change it specifically?"

"The left and right Pushe are prime ministers, the left Pushe is also the minister of the subordinates, and the position of the minister of the ministry, and the right Pushe is also the minister of the minister of the minister, and the position of the minister of the minister of the minister, and the position of the minister of the minister of the minister, so as to play the role of the minister of the minister of the affairs of the minister of the ministry, and the minister of the ministry, and the minister of the minister of the ministry, but the actual power belongs to the minister of the minister."

"What about the political affairs of the people?"

"The chief minister of the government affairs was changed to be the Minister of the Secretariat, the Minister of the Secretariat, the Minister of the Secretariat, the Minister of the Secretariat, and the Minister of the Right."

"That means that after the Zhizheng Hall discusses the matter, there will be no more than five other officials and political affairs. The original five officials have been reduced to four, which will kick me, the Privy Councilor away?"

Ouyang Xiu looked around and lowered his voice: "The emperor's intentions are not clear now, but I personally feel that it is probably because Zhizhengtang's discussion has put the emperor's power in a bit, and the court meeting has become a false situation. Important matters may be decided at the court meeting in the future."

The original intention of establishing a deputy prime minister to serve as a minister was to divide the power of the prime minister. Later, a voting system was gradually formed in actual operations. Once the vote was passed, the emperor had less room for his opinion, which put a lot of restrictions on the emperor's power. In addition, the discussions at the court meeting became false. The court meeting passed, but the Zhizheng Hall did not pass, which was useless. On the contrary, the ministers strongly opposed it, but the Zhizheng Hall voted and the ministers opposed it.

Therefore, Zhao Xu wanted to take advantage of this official system reform to restore the Tang system and abolish the voting system of Zhizhengtang. He discussed and decided at the court meeting. On the one hand, it increased the power of the ministers to make suggestions, and at the same time it could fully reflect the power of the emperor at the court meeting.

If the voting rights of Zhizhengtang were abolished, then Fanning, the Privy Councilor, would not have been kicked out of the decision-making circle.

At this time, Fu Bi walked in, holding a stack of manuscripts in his hand. He handed over the manuscripts to the worker and asked him to distribute them.

Fan Ning quickly got the manuscript. It was indeed the development plan of the Southern Continent. It was hard to know that Zhengtang was so efficient. The emperor made a request in just two days and came up with a complete plan.

The entire plan has five pages and more than 4,000 words. To be precise, this is just a five-year plan. Within five years, 500,000 people and about 120,000 households have been immigrated. Recently, 100,000 Japanese miners have been recruited and 20,000 additional troops have been stationed.

The plan is very detailed, and even goes to the people who migrate to those prefectures and counties, but this report does not mention the issue of money and expenses at all. It is estimated that this issue will be left to me.

Fu Bi coughed gently, and the circular hall immediately became quiet. Fu Bi then said to everyone: "This discussion is actually very hasty. I originally wanted to discuss it with everyone in a few days, but the official summoned me early this morning and asked me to come up with a plan tomorrow. Let's take a look! It's the plan you have in your hands."

Han Jiang raised the manuscript and said, "My rich man, I took a brief look. It said that there will be an additional 20,000 troops stationed in the future and recruiting 100,000 Japanese miners in the near future. First of all, I want to know when this refers to the near future?"

Fu Bi said: "Within this year."

"Has the military camp of 20,000 people been built? Even if it is a tent! You can recruit 100,000 Japanese miners. According to management, each miner must advance the wages of five months to their family. Each person has ten taels of silver, and a hundred thousand people is one million taels of silver. Our finances are very tight now. Can we take out the money?"

Fu Bi looked at Fan Ning, and Fan Ning could only smile bitterly and said, "I also handed over a South Mainland development plan to the Queen Mother today, but I focused on financial expenses. I also mentioned the start of the 20,000 troops stationed and the labor expenditure plan of 100,000 miners. I hope the Queen Mother will allocate two million taels of silver this year."

Everyone immediately understood that it turned out that the development of the Southern Continent was in the inner warehouse. Han Jiang hurriedly asked, "Is the Queen Mother willing to approve it?"

"The Empress Dowager did not clearly express whether she agreed to the two million taels of silver in the first year, but she made a request that if it is necessary to allow the inner warehouse to bear the development expenditure in the South Mainland, a special warehouse must be established. Every expenditure in this special warehouse must be used in the South Mainland and must not be used for other purposes."

Fan Ning looked at everyone again, "Do you agree with the Queen Mother's condition?"

Wen Yanbo said slowly: "The Empress Dowager has always been strict in the use of money in the internal treasury. From the previous year to now, only five payments have been approved. Two payments have been approved by the Construction Institute and the Imperial College, two payments have been approved by the Construction of the Saint-School College, and one payment for the relief of the victims of Henan Prefecture and one payment for the sacrifice of the former emperor. I remember it very clearly, so the Empress Dowager's request for building a special treasury is normal and reasonable, and I think it is acceptable."

Fu Bi nodded, "I also think it is reasonable. A special library can be established for development in the South Mainland."

Han Jiang asked Fan Ning again: "Will the Empress Dowager approve the millions of silver recruited for 100,000 miners?"

Fan Ning smiled and said, "As long as the special library is built, I don't think there is a big problem."

Fu Bi asked again: "Does Mr. Fan have any additions to my plan?"

Fan Ning bowed slightly and said, "I basically agree with the plan of the rich husband, but I want to add two more points."

"Please say it to Mr. Fan!"

"The first is that I don't think the number of immigrants is enough. I hope to immigrate 200,000 households within five years. Of course, this is just my personal suggestion. Zhizhengtang can consider it, or the report should not be so clear. It can write that the number of immigrants ranges from 120,000 to 200,000 households.
Chapter completed!