“The latter ensures that the ruling group always retains its ability to rule and pays the minimum price.

“Recover the land resources occupied by ruling group individuals who have lost their governance capabilities and transfer them to new ruling group individuals who can provide governance capabilities.

"This mechanism is certainly not in line with the wishes of ordinary people and ordinary members of the ruling class.

"But as the leader, the emperor has already taken the lead. The emperor's sons also have to take exams to obtain titles, and the training system is more stringent than that of Guan Xungui.

"The future emperors selected in this way can all be regarded as social elites.

"Then the nobles will have no choice but to accept it.

"Because the inheritance assessment is not a pure surrender. Of course, if you don't work hard, you will not have the right to inherit, but if you are willing to work hard, you will have the opportunity to obtain the right to inherit, so most people choose to work hard.

“This has led to the overall involution of our ruling group in the Ming Dynasty, and has formed a tradition of getting out if they can’t do their job.

“At least so far, this system is working quite well.

“The energy of the bureaucracy is always tightly constrained.

“And the royal consortium and private capital are expanding almost without restraint.

“When running a business and running a factory becomes the most desirable profession for ordinary people, rather than being an official, the energy of the bureaucracy will drop to freezing point.

"Since being an official is not as good as being a boss, then why do the best elites come to work for the emperor?

"I think we really need to loosen the reins a little bit now..."

Zhu Jingyuan spoke for a long time, and the two emperors Zhu Zhongliang and Zhu Jianyan were silent for a while.

After a long time, Zhu Jianyan did not speak again. Zhu Zhongliang continued to ask:

"You have been thinking about it for so long, do you have a more mature plan?

"How to release it specifically? How to improve the status of bureaucrats.

“What should we give them so that they can more effectively resist the corrosion of capital?

"At the same time, how can we ensure that they are still under control in the future?"

Of course Zhu Jingyuan had thought about it, so he spoke directly now:

“I think we should start from two directions, one is protection, the other is honor, and the third is energy.

“First of all, protect the living conditions of bureaucrats, protect themselves and their families, and protect their children’s advancement path.

“The imperial courts at all levels came forward to provide high-quality housing for all officials, in different sizes according to different levels.

“When you reach a certain level, you start to be equipped with cars, which must have special logos and special functions.

“The most basic-level clerks and clerks can also be directly provided with fuel-powered mopeds (motorcycles), so that they do not need to ride bicycles to and from get off work, nor do they need to spend money to purchase transportation.

“Comprehensively build specialized schools for officials’ children, and ensure that their educational level and educational resources exceed normal levels.

"After retirement, the court will also provide relatively high pensions, provide almost free medical care, almost free funeral services, and provide relatively high standards.

“Unified official cemeteries can be built in government offices at all levels.

"As long as he becomes a formal bureaucrat of the Ming Dynasty, he and his family will no longer have any worries about their life and safety, as well as their children's learning and development space.

“This eliminates the need for bureaucrats to actively accept capital investment for the sake of living conditions.

"We are not afraid of raising a family of professional bureaucrats. This kind of family is actually more likely to be of one mind and heart with the emperor, because their status is completely determined by the emperor.

"Secondly, for honors, the direct solution is to open up titles to the civil service system generally.

"An old bureaucrat who has worked diligently in the bureaucracy all his life and has made no obvious mistakes throughout his life should have the lowest honorary title when he retires.

“We can use the once informal names of gentry and gentry to identify them and enjoy certain retirement benefits.

"Those who have made outstanding contributions can be given a rather formal baronship, and those who have made great contributions can be promoted to titles in turn.

"Ordinary titles can be given to the title of "Flower Knight", and those with special contributions can be given to the Spyker. Of course, the inheritance test is the same as the traditional title.

"Emperors and nobles are hereditary, but civil servants are not easily granted titles. This is actually one of the underlying causes of corruption in the civil service system.

"Civil officials may feel that since the emperor and nobles can inherit, but their own status cannot, they should use their power to seek personal gain for their family when they are in power.

“The emperor and nobles evaluate succession, which reduces the psychological incentives of the civil service system.

"Now that the restrictions on titles have been relaxed for them, then civil servants, military officers, and traditional nobles will be exactly the same.

"It can further alleviate this contradiction.

"At the same time, civil service titles can maintain or even enhance ordinary people's yearning for official status.

“Ultimately, we continue to attract the best talents to become officials.

“The last thing is energy, which is the most important part.

“Let the bureaucracy possess resources that can counter the royal consortium and private capital.

“In the industrial age, the resources that can provide this energy are the means of production, which are large factories and businesses.

“So, we should establish a government-run consortium that is owned by the imperial court and whose managers have formal bureaucratic status.

“With the government-run consortium, the bureaucracy has the ability to compete with private capital.

"The key is that this makes the two sides have a natural tendency to oppose each other.

"The emperor can be in the middle to coordinate and balance.

"In the future, the capital power of the Ming Dynasty may be divided into three parts: the royal family, the court, and the private sector.

"The mutual balance of these three parts is the prerequisite for maintaining the stability of the Ming Dynasty.

"The final decision-making power of two of them is in the hands of the emperor, so it is also the basis for protecting and maintaining the emperor's authority."

Zhu Jingyuan paused for a moment when he said this, feeling that the two emperors should understand their purpose.

Both generations of emperors indeed nodded silently.

The two of them originally thought that Zhu Jingyuan was going to delegate power, but they didn't expect that except for the final project, everything else was not related to fundamental things.

In fact, the protection of bureaucratic identity, status, life and other aspects exists now and has existed since ancient times.

It’s just that it was not as comprehensive as Zhu Jingyuan said before.

As for the last item, the two emperors who had read Shizu's posthumous chapter had a word pop up in their minds:

"State Capitalism."

The two of them did not need Zhu Jingyuan to explain further, and Zhu Jingyuan also knew that he should not need to explain.

State capitalism does not mean ownership by the whole people, and ownership by the whole people does not mean ownership by workers.

State capitalism can be seen as owned by the bureaucracy, or the civil service system, or the imperial court.

The factories and businesses owned by the imperial court cannot directly protect the interests of the people at the lowest level.

But it is the basis for the court and the bureaucracy to remain relatively neutral when facing employers and workers.

If there is no government-owned consortium to make weights, and if the imperial court formulates some new labor-related laws, requiring manufacturers to produce according to certain regulations, and requiring manufacturers to provide workers with certain protections, the bosses may respond like the scholar-bureaucrats in the past against the emperor.

You can do it in disguise, you can resign, you can go on strike, and you can find a lot of reasons that seem very reasonable.

In the past it was "the court cannot compete with the people for profit", now and in the future it is "the court cannot deprive workers of their right to work to get rich".

If the court deals with certain individual manufacturers in particular, other similar manufacturers may unite to fight or go on strike, or even incite and instigate workers to riot against the court.

Just like the local scholar-bureaucrats in the past, they could find someone to kill the tax collectors sent by the emperor. If someone died in trouble, they could write a "Tombstone Story of Several People" to ensure that the cause they were doing was just.

It's a pity that in the Qing Dynasty, it was impossible to write this kind of tombstone record. The list was too long to write down, and even if it was written, there would be nothing.

With the consortium run by the imperial court, it is equivalent to the imperial court directly controlling part of the resources and a large number of people.

The management and use of these resources and populations no longer require the use of bosses as intermediaries.

When the bosses disobeyed management or obstructed them, the court could use government-run consortiums and enterprises to fight against them.

The imperial court enacted a law requiring the implementation of a ten-hour work system, and could let the government-owned consortiums directly managed by it implement it first.

Government-owned consortiums will attract workers from private manufacturers due to their relatively favorable working conditions and benefits.

This in turn forces private employers to offer better conditions to retain workers.

Just like the Ming Emperor used the bureaucracy and the royal consortium to check and balance each other.

The most critical thing is that the existence of government-run consortia has created a competitive relationship with private capital.

Members of the bureaucracy include members of government-run conglomerates.

Therefore, the existence of government-run consortia has become an obstacle to the reconciliation between the bureaucracy and private capital.

The use of mostly government-run consortiums is the basis for the bureaucracy not to completely tilt towards its employers.

A dam that restricts private entrepreneurs from controlling more social resources.

No matter what considerations the bureaucracy takes, it vetoes the need to protect the most basic interests of workers at the bottom.

The existence of government-run consortiums provides them with the possibility of making choices.

Without the government-run financial groups directly controlled by the court as a balancing force, it would be as difficult for the court to require manufacturers to directly protect the interests of workers as it was when the ancient emperor asked scholar-bureaucrats to protect the interests of farmers.

They can talk nice, but probably no one will actually do it.
Chapter completed!