Chapter 422: The Opening of the Constituent Assembly.
Danyun, who was pregnant with her belly, as the representative elected by Guangxi to the Constituent Assembly, came to the Crystal Palace accompanied by Li Yangong.
After Li Yangong completed his hot-air balloon test flight in Dagu, he immediately rushed back to Nanjing on a clipper ship.
Danyun's due date is March next year, and now is the time when her pregnancy is stable.
Delegates to the Constituent Assembly in Guangxi sent people to consult Dan Yun himself. After being diagnosed by a famous doctor graduated from Li Shizhen Medical College, Dan Yun decided to participate in this first Constituent Assembly.
Li Yangong was still worried. He took leave from the logistics department and personally accompanied Danyun to the meeting.
Danyun was wearing the clothes of a Han woman, but with a silver headdress characteristic of the Yao people. She was pregnant, but she shook off Li Yangong's support and walked straight into the Crystal Palace.
Li Yangong was sulky for a while, but finally caught up with his wife and came to the checkpoint to confirm the representative's qualifications.
The checkpoint was the original main entrance of the Ming Forbidden City. Su Ze ordered part of the city wall to be demolished so that pedestrians on the road in front of the Ming Forbidden City could see the shining Crystal Palace.
"Your Chief Governor has really changed his temper. Such a stingy person actually built such a gorgeous building."
Dan Yun looked at the Crystal Palace reflecting the sunlight and said to Li Yangong beside her.
"What do you mean by the Governor of my family?"
Dan Yun sneered and said, "You mention the Governor much more often when you are in the military camp than at home. When you are at home, you mention the Governor much more than you mention me. Isn't that right? Your chief governor?"
Li Yanggong was speechless again. It took him a long time before he retorted:
"When we were in Guangxi, you were away from home every day!"
Dan Yun said, "Okay, you will break up whenever we have a quarrel. It's an old score, right?"
When Dan Yun used her skill to "clear the old score," Li Yangong's momentum immediately evaporated.
"I'm not the only one who says that Governor Su is stingy. Everyone thinks so. This time, the Crystal Palace was the only building built by Governor Su after he entered Nanjing." Li Yangong thought about it carefully, and it seemed that this was really the case
.
After Su Ze occupied a place, he would keep the original government offices. Even the newly established departments were often crowded into other offices. In some places, there were no government offices anymore. Su Ze actually arranged for them to work in vacant temples or Taoist temples. .
When Nanjing was first occupied, officials from the southeast wrote to Su Ze, asking Su Ze to confiscate the old properties of former Ming officials and reward them to officials who took office in the southeast.
But Su Ze immediately rejected this suggestion.
Except for the founding figures of the Ming Dynasty such as Wei Guogong Xu Pengju, the mansions in Nanjing were not large.
Those large-scale mansions were basically built by officials who continued to occupy the properties of surrounding people.
When Su Ze first entered Nanjing, he asked Xu Wei to sort out the lawsuits over property disputes and encouraged the people to sue the officials and get back their encroached properties.
For the remaining houses of former officials of the Ming Dynasty whose property rights are clear, if they are former Ming officials like the Li family of Linhuai Hou who have been verified as having no harm to the common people or corruption, Southeast will also return the house deeds and let them move back to their mansions. .
Linhuai Marquis Li Tingzhu was originally driven to a farm outside the city. Later, after verification, it was found that Li Tingzhu did not do anything harmful to nature during his tenure.
The house of Li Tingzhu's family was indeed ancestral property, so the Linhuai Marquis Mansion was returned to the Li family.
Li Yangong and his wife now live in the house of the old Linhuai Marquis, but the plaque on the Marquis's house has been removed.
However, houses in Nanjing are expensive and rents are not cheap. Although the salaries of officials in the southeast are much higher than those in the Ming Dynasty, living in Nanjing is still not easy.
For these officials who took office in Nanjing and had no houses in their names, Su Ze could not force them to commit corruption.
For ordinary officials who rely on their salaries to support their families and want to improve their lives through progress, Su Ze provides three options.
The first is low rent. There are many ownerless courtyards in Nanjing. Su Ze ordered the Ministry of Works to convert these courtyards into large courtyards and rent them to these officials at low prices.
However, this is not to rent out the entire courtyard, but to tear down the wing rooms of a courtyard and rent them out one by one.
This kind of courtyard is called "big courtyard" by the people of Nanjing. Four, five or even seven or eight households are crowded together, and the kitchen and toilet are shared. It is conceivable that the living conditions are such that only some single officials will choose to rent this kind of courtyard. Cheap house.
The second type is official residences and dormitories. Many government offices themselves have residential areas, such as the government offices of magistrates and magistrates. Behind the Yimen is the private residence of the prefect and county magistrate.
The county's chief registrar also has supporting residences near the county government office.
These yamen often have dormitories where county officials live, and the conditions are naturally not better than those in large courtyards.
However, Su Ze also made requirements for the official residence and dormitories.
After local officials take office, they are not allowed to renovate their official residences privately, nor are they allowed to buy private property in the local area and live separately. They must live in the official residence.
Only the official's immediate family members could live with him in the official residence, and there was a limit to the number of servants he could hire. The cost of hiring these servants must be borne by the official himself, not by the Yamen.
Officials' dormitories can only be occupied by themselves and cannot be sublet.
The third way is for those officials who neither have official residences or dormitories nor want to live in large courtyards. Su Ze's solution is to get loans.
If these officials were willing to buy real estate in Nanjing, Su Ze would naturally not interfere.
But there are also some people who are short of money and cannot afford to buy real estate.
For these officials who serve in the southeastern government, various government-run banks can provide loans for a certain period of time and lend them money to buy houses.
Every month, the loan that needs to be repaid will be deducted first, and then the salary will be paid.
Many people are secretly muttering that Su Ze, the Grand Governor, is too stingy, but when they think of where the Grand Governor lives, such criticisms are much lessened.
As stingy as ordinary officials were, Su Ze was equally stingy towards himself. There are so many magnificent mansions in Nanjing, but the Governor's Mansion after Su Ze entered the city was still the same mansion that looked out onto the sea when he was in Nanjing.
It is said that the house belongs to Su Ze's father-in-law Fang Wanghai, which means that the dignified Grand Governor of the Southeast actually lives in his father-in-law's property like his son-in-law!
This time, the Crystal Palace can be said to be Su Ze's first major construction project after the Southeast New Army occupied Nanjing. Not only Danyun, but also many people familiar with Su Ze's style were surprised.
Li Yangong looked at this magnificent building made of steel, concrete and glass, and said to his wife: "I heard that
after this constitutional meeting, the Crystal Palace will be used for an exposition."
Dan Yun was surprised. Asked: "This Crystal Palace is the place where the Constitutional Convention is held? Does the Governor want to use it for other purposes?"
Li Yangong nodded, and Dan Yun said: "As expected of the stingy Governor."
The checkpoint was very fast, confirming As a representative of the Constitutional Assembly, Li Yangong accompanied his wife into the Ming Forbidden City after being issued passes and conference supplies.
In the Crystal Palace, this huge building that can accommodate 500 people for a joint meeting adopts a special echo design to ensure that the words spoken by the people at the speaking table can reach the ears of everyone in the venue.
However, the speaker still had to shout loudly for everyone to hear clearly. Su Ze couldn't help but miss the loudspeaker in the school conference room before crossing over.
Following Su Ze was a middle-aged man with a white face and a beardless face. He said at a loss:
"Grand Governor, I am an eunuch. Do you really want me to be the speaker to preside over the Constitutional Convention?"
This middle-aged man is Eunuch Yan who presented "Yan's Rules of Procedure" and later compiled administrative materials.
As long as the representatives to the Constitutional Convention meet in the Crystal Palace, they are all equal in theory.
However, a convention of this size naturally needs a presiding officer, and this is the speaker of the Constitutional Convention.
Su Ze actually invited Eunuch Yan, who taught at the Imperial College in Nanjing, to serve as the speaker, which frightened Eunuch Yan.
Su Ze said with a smile:
"This is the first Constitutional Convention. Representatives come from all over the world with different backgrounds. We have to ask Yan Gong to teach us how to hold a meeting." "
This meeting must have been chaotic at the beginning. Could it be that Yan Gong was doing this job?" It's too hard for me to take up the post?"
Eunuch Yan immediately said: "Grand Governor, I definitely don't mean this. It's just such a solemn meeting for me, an eunuch?"
Su Ze shook his head and said: "There is no hierarchy here, only control. Representative of the Constitutional Assembly, Yan Gong is a representative of the Constitutional Assembly and also the speaker of this term."
Eunuch Yan was so moved that he was about to cry. He looked at Su Ze and said, "Grand Governor, my subordinates must preside over this meeting well!"
Sure enough, In the first few days of the meeting, representatives from all over the country could not even maintain the basic order of the meeting. Eunuch Yan held a gavel and shouted the word "quiet" until his voice became hoarse. It was with great difficulty that the meeting was able to maintain order. Open up.
Xu Wei looked at Su Ze who was chatting and laughing among the representatives of the Constituent Assembly, and couldn't help but sympathized with the eunuch. The governor was really ruthless in employing people.
The goal of the Constituent Assembly is to formulate a constitution. Of course, such a fundamental law cannot be completed in just a few days.
The goal of the first Constitutional Convention was to select a constitutional working group, which would be responsible for drafting and formulating this law.
Su Ze was naturally elected as the leader of this working group with a unanimous vote, and He Xinyin was also selected for this working group. The remaining members were beyond the expectations of the Southeast leaders. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention learned to exercise their rights faster than anyone imagined. a lot of.
Almost all strata quickly elected their representatives. Everyone knew the importance of constitution-making and wanted to insert their spokespersons into this working group.
The list of the fifty-member working group includes officials, scholars, businessmen, workshop owners, hired workers, rich farmers, yeoman farmers, tenant farmers, independent small craftsmen, active military personnel and retired military personnel.
Even representatives of the Yao people like Dan Yun were selected into this working group.
Most of these people do not know what constitution-making means, and they do not know how to draft laws at all, but they were elected to this working group to ensure that this fundamental law will not harm the interests of this class.
After the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, this working group will continue to exist. When the next Constitutional Convention is convened, this working group will report on the progress of the constitution.
After the law is enacted, the working group will immediately convene a constitutional conference to complete all the work of constitution-making.
In addition, Su Ze also personally read the work report of the southeastern government last year and announced the fiscal revenue and expenditure of the entire southeast last year.
Then it was time for the representatives of each group to discuss in groups. In addition to this large conference hall, the Crystal Palace also had conference halls of various sizes.
Delegates to the Constituent Assembly can form various groups to discuss various issues. These issues will be recorded and sent to the Metropolitan Governor and various southeastern departments.
Li Yangong also accompanied Danyun to several meetings, including meetings where representatives from Guangxi discussed how to develop Guangxi, and meetings where female representatives invited Danyun to attend on how to protect the rights of pregnant female employees in workshops.
At the beginning, most of the meetings were full of noisy talk, but as everyone became familiar with Yan Gonggong's procedures, they gradually began to discuss some useful results.
Li Yangong was a little surprised. Some representatives could not even write, but when everyone sat down to discuss some things, they were able to come up with some useful plans.
These plans may not be the most perfect plans, but they are plans that have gone through pull and compromise and are mutually acceptable.
Danyun is addicted to all this, which gives her a greater sense of belonging to Southeast than when she was an official in Yao Town in Guangxi.
Just when the Constituent Assembly was in full swing, Zhang Juzheng came out of Hanyang, immediately abandoned the gorgeous eight-horse carriage, and galloped towards the capital on horseback himself.
The pomp of leaving Hanyang was to intimidate those who opposed Zhang Juzheng in Huguang, but now he must rush to the capital as soon as possible to control the Ming Dynasty!
Zhang Juzheng rode so hard that the saddle between his legs was worn out, and finally arrived in the capital.
On the outskirts of the capital, Zhang Juzheng did not enter the city immediately. Instead, he asked the Ming court to bring out the same set of ceremonial guards used by the prime ministers in the early Ming Dynasty, and then waited for the Ming court to welcome him into the city with the etiquette of the prime minister.
Li Chunfang could only ask the hemiplegic Emperor Longqing again for instructions. At this time, the emperor naturally had nothing to disagree with and immediately agreed to Zhang Juzheng's request.
The city gate was wide open, and Zhang Juzheng rode an ox cart and entered the capital city on the road paved with white sand.
(End of chapter)