I want to be emperor

Chapter 1163 Transfer of Power

In order to stabilize the empire and avoid high-level turmoil or even civil war due to the struggle for imperial power, Luo Zhixue decided in his early years to completely adopt the direct eldest son system as the throne succession system.

Moreover, the eldest son inheritance system of the Great Chu Empire was not only implemented in the royal family, but also in the aristocratic system.

For this reason, Luo Zhixue identified the crown prince early, and eighteen years ago he also named Luo Guoxi as the emperor's grandson, directly confirming the second and third heirs, and early letting other princes and grandsons give up their thoughts on competing for the throne. .

However, although Luo Zhixue insisted on implementing the eldest son inheritance system in order to ensure the stability of the empire, he did not say that he would treat other princes like pigs.

On the contrary, Luo Zhixue still gave some power to other princes and grandchildren.

In addition to the regular crowning of kings, granting titles, annuities, and assets in the royal industry, Luo Zhixue will also allow adult princes to participate in some government affairs depending on the situation, but they are mainly more pragmatic affairs.

The most common ones are as representatives of the royal family, participating in some inspections, condolences, visiting old ministers, attending the funerals of old ministers, etc.

If you don't want to participate in these affairs, you can actually participate in some government affairs. Of course, the authority will not be too great. For example, in the name of overseeing government affairs in a certain ministry, you can actually serve as director or director.

You can also serve in the Zongfu Mansion and participate in the management of clan and noble affairs.

The Zongfu Office of the Great Chu Empire was not only a royal family management organization, but also a noble management structure. For example, the inheritance of noble titles needed to be handled by the Zongfu Office. At the same time, the scope of management also included the monarchs of various vassal states, because they Theoretically, they were also canonized as kings, dukes, or counts by the emperor. These also fell within the scope of the empire's aristocratic system.

If they don't even want to participate in government affairs, Luo Zhixue also allows adult princes to engage in business... However, this kind of business does not mean directly opening a company to participate in business operations, which is impossible...

A prince directly opens a company to participate in the management, and other colleagues do not have to live.

Therefore, the so-called business management of the prince is actually to work in the royal family assets company to manage and operate the company. Of course, he can also work in the government-run company, rather than opening his own company to make money, which is not allowed.

In order to prevent members of the royal family from seeking personal interests and damaging the business environment, the empire strictly prohibits members of the royal family from conducting any private investments and business activities.

The income sources of royal members can only be composed of four parts, one part is the title annuity, the other part is the dividends from the shares of the royal estate, and the other part is the palace reward or the gift from the elders of the royal family. In addition, if there is any work in a government agency or royal estate organization If you actually hold a position, you will receive a job salary.

In addition, any other personal income is illegal income... Even money picked up on the road must be turned over to the Royal Assets Section. It cannot be regarded as the personal income of your royal family members. If you conceal it and fail to report it, you will offend the royal family. regulations.

If you want to engage in business, you can work in royal estates or government-run enterprises.

Of course, although there are many restrictions, the royal members will not be short of money.

Take the seventeen-year-old Luo Wei as an example. When he reached the age of ten, he was canonized as Prince Xu. When he was sixteen, he was canonized as Prince Xu. He officially became one of the princes in the Dachu Empire. Then two Got married when I was eleven.

When he was enthroned as a county king, a prince, and at his wedding, he was awarded shares of the Royal Fund Company three times. The Royal Fund Company is actually the commercial name of the Royal Assets Division, and all royal enterprises are affiliated with this fund. Down.

This part of the royal company's shares allowed him to receive a dividend of more than 30,000 Chu Yuan in the fifty-three years of Chengshun.

In addition, he was given a large area of ​​land overseas by Luo Zhixue as his fiefdom. It is a piece of land located in Brazil, South America. The area of ​​this land reaches 30,000 square kilometers. Although this land is not a good one, However, after development, setting up some large farms for mechanized planting and grazing, and digging a mine or something can also bring him tens of thousands of yuan in income every year.

This area is his main income... Mainly because this place is big enough, he can do whatever he wants, even if the profit is meager, the total profit is high enough.

The land rewarded by other dynasties was calculated in acres, but the land rewarded by Luo Zhixue was calculated directly in square kilometers.

There is no way, the Chu Empire controls the world, and there is not much else but a lot of land, so Luo Zhixue rewarded each prince with a large amount of land. Of course, the rewards were all undeveloped wasteland and maturely developed land. They won't be used as rewards.

Moreover, these rewarded lands are not the same as fiefs in the traditional sense. The fiefs obtained by the princes actually obtain property ownership, not sovereignty. If they are developed, they have to pay taxes.

In addition to these big heads, his princely title also provides him with an annual annuity of twelve thousand Chu Yuan.

Then he himself still served in the Zongfu Mansion and received a salary of several thousand yuan every year.

During festivals and festivals, you can also get some rewards from the palace, which are worth about ten thousand or twenty thousand Chu Yuan.

Combining all these aspects, his annual income can reach nearly 100,000 yuan.

If this number is compared with those rich people, it is naturally inferior, but it is definitely a lot... You know, this is not his net worth of more than 100,000, but his annual income of more than 100,000.

Many rich people with a net worth of millions probably do not earn that much every year.

After all, net worth is net worth, and annual income is annual income. These are two different things.

As a prince, the income of the seventeenth son of the emperor, King Xu, is still acceptable, more than enough to meet the daily expenses of his palace...

There are more and less other princes, but the minimum annual income is tens of thousands of Chu yuan, and if it is more, it can even be two or three hundred thousand.

The next generation of emperors and grandsons are worse off. They also have annuities from titles. They can no longer directly obtain shares in the royal industry from the palace, nor can they obtain large tracts of land directly rewarded by the palace.

The shares of royal industry are only granted to the prince, and they are granted directly through the issuance of additional shares.

However, they can also inherit the shares and land of the royal industry from their fathers.

And this is also a pattern that continuously dilutes the royal family's industrial shares in the hands of princes and grandsons.

For example, after the prince succeeds to the throne, he will grant his sons shares in the royal industry, which will be granted through additional issuance of shares. The princes do not need to spend money to purchase the additional shares, and they will own them directly. This continues The additional issuance means that the value of the shares of the royal estate held by the princes who obtained dry shares early and their descendants are constantly being diluted.

This will avoid that after Luo Zhixue granted shares in the royal industry to his sons, subsequent emperors will no longer be able to grant shares; it also avoids the first generation of princes from controlling the dividends of the royal industry for a long time.

You must know that the scale of the royal family's industry is very large. Although the profits used for dividends are very small, most of the profits are invested in scientific research and reinvested in production. However, the profits used for dividends every year are not a small amount.

Luo Guoyu, the king of Jinjun who currently holds the largest share of the royal family's property, is the eldest son of the late emperor's eldest son Luo Kai. In the past, Luo Zhixue loved Luo Kai very much. On the other hand, he also felt that the eldest son system had completely deprived him of it. As compensation for the eldest son's right to inherit the throne, a large number of royal industry shares were awarded to him. After Luo Kai's death, most of his royal industry shares and other properties were inherited by the eldest son, Luo Guoxu. Therefore, this also led to the fact that Luo Guoxi, as a junior, held more royal industry shares than other princes, and he could earn more than 300,000 yuan in dividends every year.

In addition to royal industry shares, Luo Guoxu also owns a large amount of land in North America... This was also rewarded by Luo Zhixue to his eldest son in the past. When these lands were awarded, there were not many people in North America. Some of these lands were wild lands. Some of them are even still in the hands of the natives.

But as North America was completely swallowed up by the Chu people and then gradually developed, these lands became very valuable.

Moreover, oil was actually found in a piece of land located on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, which made Luo Guoxu, the county prince, extremely wealthy.

Therefore, the richest members of the royal family in the contemporary era are not the princes or princesses, but Luo Guoyu, a grandson of Luo Zhixue, who earns hundreds of thousands a year and lives a very comfortable life.

But it’s hard to say how many generations it will last.

Generally speaking, Luo Zhixue feels pretty good about his sons and grandchildren. He has given them glory and wealth, and he has not raised them like pigs.

But the power is not given too much.

Moreover, there is a restriction that the prince cannot leave Beijing without an order.

At the same time, there was no such thing as feudalism.

Luo Zhixue felt that it would be better to keep potential risk factors such as the prince by his side... To say the least, even if the prince rebelled, it would only be limited to a small-scale palace coup and would not lead to a large-scale coup. of civil war.

If this is to establish a vassal state and send the vassal king to the local areas, local rebellions may occur in the future, which may lead to civil war.

In Luo Zhixue's view, if the prince must rebel, then a palace coup is much better than a local rebellion, and the damage to the empire as a whole will not be that great.

It is better for the princes to plot a palace coup than to rebel.

Ensuring the overall stability of the empire, avoiding civil war, and preventing the royal family from becoming a burden on the country's finances in the future are Luo Zhixue's core demands in handling the succession of the throne and arranging the way for the princes and grandchildren...

After understanding this, it is easy to understand Luo Zhixue's many policies towards members of the royal family.

For example, a royal industrial company was established, shares were distributed to royal members, large tracts of land and property were granted, and princes and grandsons were allowed to hold official and even military positions to a certain extent.

At the same time, the prince was restricted from leaving the capital, and if he did not establish a fiefdom, he would become a vassal.

Naturally, some people agree with what Luo Zhixue is doing, while others do not agree or are even unwilling to accept it.

Among Luo Zhixue's many sons, there are always a few who are ambitious and want to aspire to the throne... After all, it is the throne of the emperor, and who doesn't want to have fun on it?

But Luo Zhixue never gave them a chance. In order to completely block their inappropriate thoughts, Luo Zhixue even had the emperor's grandson canonized in advance.

In addition, the prince was asked to co-manage the Council of Ministers and the Military Affairs Council, with great power... Whatever the princes did, the prince could suppress them with one hand without Luo Zhixue having to do it himself.

Although the prince Luo Jian is not considered very smart in Luo Zhixue's opinion, he has accumulated enough experience after twenty or thirty years of watching politics. He can use it to expand the territory and use it to do things such as violent waves, which is not reliable, but Shoucheng, maintaining the basic stability of the empire after Luo Zhixue's death is not a big problem.

At least that’s what Luo Zhixue hopes!

With the end of the Spring Festival state banquet in the fifty-third year of Chengshun, the Chu Empire also entered the fifty-fourth year of Chengshun.

In the first imperial council meeting after the spring of this year, Luo Zhixue only sat at the head, but did not participate in the meeting. The person who specifically presided over the meeting was Prince Luo Jian, who assisted in the council affairs.

This is part of the power transfer process formulated by Luo Zhixue!

The same was true at the imperial military affairs meeting held the next day. Luo Zhixue just sat at the top and basically didn't say anything except a few formal remarks. Luo Zhixue directly asked Prince Luo Jian to handle some of the meeting matters, including the military affairs. What is more important in terms of development is the establishment of the Air Force.

Luo Zhixue is further delegating power, letting Prince Luo Jian's associate minister take charge of military affairs, and the title of military affairs is more legitimate.

We have already decentralized power in government affairs, but we are more cautious in military affairs. We only plan to further decentralize power this year. The first thing to do when decentralizing power is to establish an independent air force.

This matter is relatively important in the decades-long history of the Chu Empire, and it will enter the annals of history in the future.

Because this was after decades of establishing the navy, the empire once again established an independent military branch.

The Chu Empire currently has five formal armed forces: the Army, Navy, Guards, Coast Guard, and Armed Tax Police.

However, the Coast Guard and the armed tax police are quite special. Although the Coast Guard is equipped with a large number of warships and has maritime combat capabilities, it is not actually a serious military force, but an armed law enforcement force that belongs to the Navy and Dual jurisdiction of the Patrol Division.

Then there is a special armed force, the Armed Tax Police, who collect taxes...

As for the newly established Air Force, it is very special... It will be a completely independent service, equivalent in nature to the Army and Navy, and will become part of the Empire's regular armed forces.

In the future, it will undertake aerial reconnaissance, air strikes, air defense, aerial search and rescue and other tasks.

The early composition of the air force will be mainly composed of the Army Air Force and the Naval Air Force.

However, the Guards Air Force will not be merged, but will continue to remain within the Guards system.

The Guards is quite special. It is a multi-service armed force. It not only has an army, but also a fleet. It is reasonable to have an air force now.

(End of this chapter)