The officials looked at Fang Yun and had already guessed Fang Yun's method, which was nothing more than winning over one group and attacking another group. It was very simple and effective.
In fact, neither the imperial court nor the officials care about the families that are now standing up to oppose. Their number is less than one-tenth of the total number of Jingguo's gentry.
What the imperial court fears is that once the situation gets out of control, more families will get involved. In the worst case, it may lead to confrontation between the imperial court and the families.
When those families were excited, Fang Yun threw out the bait of "Bachelor of Political Affairs", and no family would not be tempted.
In fact, there are many powerful families in various places. The power they form can influence the policies of the local chief officials, but this is real but not famous. If they encounter a chief official with a strong background, such as a county magistrate from a noble family, those powerful people would not dare to act rashly.
The Council of Political Scholars are different. Although they do not have real decision-making power, if most of them oppose a policy, the court will never force it through.
As a Bachelor of Political Science, he still has certain soft power.
It can even be said that the Councillors have a semi-official status. Even if the influence on the court is small, the influence in the local area will increase dramatically.
The head of a family who becomes a council scholar is basically equivalent to a thief who has been recruited.
Therefore, even though the Councillor Scholar does not seem to have much power now, the title alone is enough to make other families jealous.
Many officials suddenly felt sad for those families who were causing trouble. Those people were not stupid, but they made a mistake in choosing Fang Yun as their enemy. Fang Yun did not need to fight back at all. He only needed to implement his reforms step by step, and these enemies would be easily crushed.
If we must say that those troublemaking families had an impact on Fang Yun, it might be that they allowed Fang Yun to come up with a reform plan for the Council of State earlier.
In fact, it was very correct for Fang Yun to put forward this proposal today.
Today, when all the officials of Ding Prefecture have been arrested by the Criminal Hall and the War Hall, Fang Yun has put forward this reform plan, which is also beneficial to all officials. It combines kindness and power, so no one is likely to object.
Cao De'an nodded and said, "Prime Minister Fang, this is a very appropriate method. The major families are the backbone of Jing State and are indispensable. There are rumors that you are weakening the power of the families, but now you have first invited the heads of the major families to join the Council of State, and the rumors will be refuted. So I don't care about these rumors, I only care about how to select them."
Fang Yun said: "In my conception, we will establish four levels of councils, starting from the county, to the prefecture, to the state, and to the country. However, it is too early to establish a county-level council now, so in the next few years, we can only set up a prefecture council, a state council, and a national council. Among them, the prefecture council scholars are decided by the state governor, the state council scholars are decided by the Ministry of Personnel, and the national council scholars are decided by the cabinet and the monarch."
The officials nodded slightly, secretly thinking that Fang Yun was really capable, actually delegating such great power to the provincial government. Officials from all places would surely recognize this left prime minister even more.
Assistant Prime Minister Yang Xuwen said: "This matter should be dealt with as soon as possible, Queen Mother, I am overstepping my authority. Please make a decision at the court today. Otherwise, if other countries learn of this, and they get there first, it will deal a serious blow to the fate of Jing State."
Cao De'an said: "Prime Minister Yang is right. My guess is correct. If we cannot make a decision today, Lord Wu will definitely announce the establishment of the Council of State tomorrow!"
Some officials laughed secretly, thinking that Wu Jun was very likely to do such a thing.
"Let me think about it again."
The Queen Mother did not reply immediately.
Those officials who supported the royal family had complicated expressions on their faces. At a time like this, they should speak for the Queen Mother and delay the matter a little. However, if they really did that, they would inevitably be ostracized by other officials, and all the scholars and family heads who wanted to become councillors would also stay away from them.
Obstructing the establishment of the Council of State is basically equivalent to obstructing the power of most of Jing State.
Even Sheng Boyuan, who firmly supported the Queen Mother, lowered his head slightly and said nothing.
The Golden Palace fell into deathly silence.
This kind of scene, which is almost equivalent to the confrontation between the Empress Dowager and all the officials, has almost never happened.
The Queen Mother said nothing, and everyone remained silent.
One hundred breaths, two hundred breaths...
A quarter of an hour, two quarters of an hour...
After a full hour, the Queen Mother sighed and said, "I approve of your request."
All the officials said in unison: "The king is wise, and the queen mother is wise."
Afterwards, Fang Yun, as the head of the cabinet, personally drafted the imperial edict, which took effect immediately after being stamped with the imperial seal by the empress dowager and the king on the spot.
Almost at the same time, all officials of the third rank or above felt a subtle change in the palace. It was impossible to explain the change in words, but it was simply a feeling that the palace had a more powerful aura.
All the senior officials secretly breathed a sigh of relief, which meant that everyone had made the right bet. This Council of State would be of great benefit to Jing State.
Afterwards, some officials of the Miscellaneous School frowned in surprise, because this Council of State should obviously be counted as part of the Miscellaneous School of Holy Path, but the Miscellaneous School of Holy Path did not react at all. Could it be because of Fang Yun's leadership
The officials left the Fengtian Hall with their own thoughts.
Such important news quickly spread to the discussion list and quickly spread to all parts of Shengyuan Continent.
All countries had to hold court meetings for this purpose. Officials of Qing State were the most straightforward. They cursed Fang Yun for being unruly and unfatherly. They believed that the Council of State was simply prepared for the peasants. This was not a reform, but a dethronement of the monarch. A Council of State must never be established in Qing State.
Only three hours later, King Wu "shamelessly" announced that Wu State would also establish a council, but did not provide any details. He also bluntly stated that he would learn everything from Jing State, which aroused ridicule from scholars in various countries.
Scholars from all over the world laughed at him, but they also admired his decisiveness. At least he was brave enough to do things. Unlike some monarchs who boasted about everything but actually did nothing, let alone made any truly courageous decisions, he was like a sieve, doing some things well but some things were simply horrible.
The next day, Cai He, the first president of the Council of State, announced some details and explained that everything was still in its infancy and needed to be continuously improved.
The most important detail is that the National Council of State should be established first. The specific number of scholars in the National Council of State cannot be decided and will be gradually determined based on the implementation of the Council of State.
The Council of State has many responsibilities, and its current responsibilities mainly include building local schools and selecting national council scholars.
The Council of State selected the first batch of council scholars from among the officials, ranging from the ninth rank to the first rank, and then prepared to select the second batch of council scholars from among the heads of the various families in Jing State.
The second batch of councillors will be selected from all over the country to ensure that in each of the 47 prefectures of Qing Kingdom, there are at least three family heads serving as councillors. The capital is equivalent to a state, and there are no fewer than fifteen family heads serving as councillors.
One of the regulations stated that if a large family in a prefecture was suspected of committing a crime, the selection of local scholars would be temporarily suspended. The state would then conduct the selection after the local situation stabilized.
The most interesting thing is that after the Council of State announced the conditions for selecting family heads, the Strict Crackdown Office also announced new disciplinary regulations to crack down on local tyrants and evil gentry. Families that committed serious crimes would not be forgiven lightly, but leniency would be given to families who surrendered themselves, and families who committed minor crimes would be allowed to pay land to be exempted from punishment.