The passage of the Cabinet Self-Determination Act had far-reaching significance because it meant that for the first time officials had the legal right to self-determination.
Before that, even the smallest power was nominally exercised by the monarch through officials, even if in reality it was the officials themselves who were doing the work.
Giving the cabinet the right of self-determination this time is essentially the royal family handing over some of its real power.
It is easy to hand over this kind of power, but never think of taking it back. Even if a strong monarch forcibly takes it back, when he dies, the officials will still try their best to obtain this power.
The Queen Mother did not realize the true impact of this incident at first. Later, after the scholars on the discussion list slowly analyzed it thoroughly, the Queen Mother vomited blood and fainted again after reading it.
A few days later, the royal family members of the clan house visited the empress dowager together, and she fell into a coma again.
Because almost all members of the royal family accused the Queen Mother of making a big mistake, betraying the royal family and the monarch, betraying the imperial power, and even accused the Queen Mother of having an ulterior motive with Fang Yun.
However, no member of the royal family dared to scold Fang Yun.
Zhao Hongzhuang, who was working far away in Mizhou, had to travel day and night to return to the capital.
The imperial power was weakened and the power of the cabinet increased dramatically.
Because almost all of this was due to Fang Yun, other cabinet members rarely made things difficult for Fang Yun's drafts. They just occasionally tried to gain more benefits for themselves and their own offices, and that was all.
Therefore, the implementation of the Left Prime Minister's policies was very efficient.
However, Fang Yun was not an inexperienced official. After winning over a group of officials, he unceremoniously used the Ministry of Personnel and the Supervisory Council to crack down on a group of officials who had obstructed him. Although the highest-ranking official was only a fourth-rank official, Fang Yun's handling methods were experienced and direct, without any omissions. Even their backers could not find fault, and they suffered losses and dared not fight back.
Because they knew very well that Fang Yun was trying to alert the enemy, and whoever dared to stand up and oppose him now would be used by Fang Yun to establish his authority.
In fact, ever since Fang Yun took office as the Left Prime Minister, all senior officials have been very careful to avoid becoming Fang Yun's target for establishing his authority.
Even the Left Prime Minister was forced to leave, and even the Queen Mother was so angry that she vomited blood. Fang Yun would not be afraid of any high-ranking official.
Among the officials punished by Fang Yun, there was a fifth-rank official of the Honglu Temple who had connections with the Chen Sheng family. After being demoted by Fang Yun, he went to the Chen Sheng family to complain because his grandmother was the cousin of the current head of the Chen Sheng family.
As it turned out, Chen Jing, the eldest grandson of the Chen family, happened to be there. This person had an old friendship with Fang Yun and was a decent person. When he learned that the person in charge had actually used his power as a diplomat to have some dealings with the Kingdom of Qing, he pointed at his nose and scolded him out of the Chen family.
Afterwards, the Chen family used their power to directly seize that man's official position and exiled him to Zhenyuhai. Their method of handling the matter was far more brutal than Fang Yun's.
The experience of that person in charge made many people who thought they had powerful backers shudder. In fact, they have always known that any big force that cares about its reputation would not be willing to make enemies with Fang Yun, who is praised by the world, not to mention that it would cost a huge price.
Fang Yun's attempt to lure the snake out of its hole failed, but his attempt to scare the tiger was successful, which made his reforms particularly smooth.
Fang spent one and a half months to carry out basic reforms on the Ministry of Personnel. Afterwards, he announced the unification of the naming of government offices. All offices under the Cabinet were named after the Ministry.
This news would have triggered confrontation among old interest groups, especially officials from the six ministries. However, Fang Yun added that new ministerial offices should be split up and added.
Therefore, the strange scene that occurred in Jing State was obviously a huge reform. From the current point of view, its impact far exceeded Fang Yun’s respect for rituals and restoration of the past and the Ministry of Personnel’s benefits. However, after the news was released, no official opposed it.
Because every official realizes that if new ministerial offices are to be split and added, there will inevitably be a large number of additional official positions!
Even Sheng Boyuan, who was most opposed to Fang Yun, did not express any objection at this moment.
He didn't want to offend more than 90% of the officials in Panorama Country!
Soon, Cao De'an was the first to speak out in support, believing that Jingguo was currently in an unprecedented stage of development, and that the current government offices could no longer meet the needs of Jingguo. Fang Yun's reform was in line with the will of heaven and the will of the people, and was imperative. Anyone who opposed this reform was obstructing the rise of Jingguo.
Cao De'an also said that in order to support Fang Yun, he was willing to start the reform from the Ministry of Revenue.
Afterwards, Assistant Prime Minister Yang Xuwen also publicly expressed his support for Fang Yun, believing that government office reform was the general trend.
With the three parties' simultaneous support, all officials felt reassured.
A few days later, a new ministerial-level office, the Ministry of Soil and Water, appeared in the history of Jing State.
The cabinet also quickly announced the functions of the Ministry of Soil and Water. At this stage, the Ministry of Soil and Water is mainly responsible for checking the information of Jingguo’s building land, fields, water systems, forests, grasslands, etc.
At first glance, this Ministry of Land and Water does not have any special power. It is only responsible for more detailed exploration, inventory and recording of Jingguo's land resources.
However, this alone is not enough to form a book in itself.
The person acting as the Minister of Water Resources and Land was Fang Yun's old friend Cai He, who once served as the magistrate of Ji County.
To fill a vacancy, it is not necessary to have served a full five-year term.
Therefore, after discussion, the officials of Jing State quickly came to the conclusion that the Ministry of Water Resources and Land would be responsible for managing all land resources of Jing State.
No one spoke out in opposition, because the Ministry of Water Resources and Land could be said to have been split from the Ministry of Revenue. Even Cao De'an, who had worked in the Ministry of Revenue for many years and was now the right prime minister in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, had personally come forward to support it, so no one was qualified to object.
Land has always been the core lifeline of all human countries, and no ruler will ignore this.
Scholars in Shengyuan Continent once summarized the chaos of the Han Dynasty and believed that the biggest reason was that the officials at that time were unable to solve the problems of finance and land.
The officials waited quietly for changes in the Ministry of Soil and Water, but to their disappointment, after many days, it turned out that the Ministry of Soil and Water was just as advertised, only responsible for checking and recording the water and soil resources of Jing State, without any real power.
The only incident that the Ministry of Water Resources and Soil had caused was that some officials in Yanzhou obstructed officials appointed by the Ministry of Water Resources and Soil to check the land. They were impeached by the Supervisory Council, and the Cabinet directly issued a document to arrest them and bring them back to Beijing to be tried by the Three Law Courts. What shocked the officials the most was that the whole process took no more than five days, and they were all punished quickly and severely, and no one from the major forces in Jing State came forward to oppose Fang Yun.
When the officials did not understand why the Ministry of Soil and Water was so powerful, some rumors spread in Jing State. Before the Ministry of Soil and Water was established, Fang Yun convened a small-scale cabinet meeting. The specific content was unknown, but the result was that the top leaders of Jing State fully supported the Ministry of Soil and Water.
Therefore, the officials decided that Fang Yun wanted to take action on land policy.
But after a few days, the Left Prime Minister's Cabinet and the Ministry of Water Resources and Land still did not issue any relevant decrees. The officials had to go about their own business, but continued to pay attention to the developments of the Ministry of Water Resources and Land.
The officials of Jing State did not know that after Fang Yun obtained the first batch of information on Jing State's land from the Ministry of Water Resources and Soil, he used his special privileges as a virtual saint to secretly summon the elders of the Criminal Hall, the Agricultural Hall, and the Industrial Hall to hold a grand meeting of the three halls with the highest level of confidentiality.