Chapter 60: Wanting to launch a new policy
Zhu Houzhao ignored the screams outside the Meridian Gate and turned back to Qianqing Palace.
From now on, he will still regard Qianqing Palace as his main palace.
Of course, this does not mean that he compromised with the civil servants and had to move into the Qianqing Palace.
But the geographical location of Qianqing Palace itself is the central area of the former dynasty and the inner court. Now that he has controlled the inner court in his own hands, he no longer has to worry about being controlled by the civil servants and the inner court. Naturally, it is more suitable to live in Qianqing Palace for convenience. Ruled the entire core class of Ming Dynasty.
As for the punishment of Mu Bin, it is just a method used by Zhu Houzhao as the emperor to frighten the Jin Yiwei.
Zhu Houzhao was not the sentimental and innocent Emperor of Zhengde in his previous life. In this life, everything he did was only for his own benefit, including protecting his own life.
In the evening, the temperature dropped sharply. Zhu Houzhao only stood around the stove, looking through the green screen window at the sky that was already dim like a smoke screen. He only put the hot tea in his hand on the huanghuali wooden plate. After a while, he saw Gu Dayong walked in: "Your Majesty, Otsuka Zai and the others are here."
Zhu Houzhao nodded: "Let them come in!"
Green ants' new fermented wine, small red clay stove.
It's snowing in the evening, can I have a drink?
As soon as Zhu Houzhao took a sip of hot tea, he saw Ma Wensheng, the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Xu Jin, the Minister of the Ministry of War, and Jiao Fang, the left minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, had already walked in: "I have met your Majesty!"
"Give me a seat!"
Zhu Houzhao gave instructions, turned around, put his right elbow on the wooden table, tapped his forehead lightly with his index finger, and began to think about how to speak.
Ma Wensheng, the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Xu Jin, the Minister of the Ministry of War, and Jiao Fang, the left minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, thanked him hurriedly.
Among the three, the eldest is Ma Wensheng, the Minister of Civil Affairs. According to nine men and ten women, he is now eighty years old. The second is Jiao Fang, who is already in his seventies, and the youngest Xu Jin is also in his seventies. .
Therefore, it is not wrong to say that the current Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao does not use veterans. Zhu Houzhao just does not like to use veterans who are disobedient or even not on his side.
In fact, Ma Wensheng and the other three people could all guess the reason why Zhu Houzhao immediately summoned them without Zhu Houzhao's explanation. Whether they are politicians or politicians, they all have a persistent pursuit of power, and Ma Wensheng and the other three people are no exception. They also want to be in the cabinet. Cabinet minister.
"I have summoned you three beloved ministers today. This is not just a casual chat between monarchs and ministers. I want to entrust the Ming Dynasty to these three beloved ministers. I believe you are also aware of what happened in the court recently. It is not that I am unkind, but that the traitor is unjust. As for the people in the court who bully my youth, I have to kill them to establish my authority!”
"Of course, I don't need to explain to you. You are all veteran ministers left by the late emperor, and you have all held foreign posts. You know the last wishes of the late emperor and the expectations of the people. It can be expected that from today on, the three cabinet ministers will I will definitely resign and leave. I hope that your three beloved ministers can join the cabinet and work with me to fulfill the late emperor’s last wish and restore the prosperous age of Yongle!”
"The glorious Ming Dynasty has been going on for more than a hundred years. Its military power is sluggish, refugees are increasing, and the Tatars have repeatedly seduced the border. However, the empire has been unable to do anything about it, and its finances have been exhausted to the point where Yin has to live without food. This is not the Ming Dynasty I want to see, nor is it the late emperor. The Ming Dynasty I want to see;
Therefore, the late emperor worked hard for eighteen years and only wanted to bring peace to all the people. Unfortunately, the late emperor died young. Now I have hastily ascended the throne. Although I am young and ignorant of world affairs, I have not lost my ambition to revitalize the Ming Dynasty. I intend to recreate the prosperous age of Yongle, and even Beyond my ancestors, I hope my three dear friends will help me with all their heart!
I want to launch a new policy and complete the reform work that the late emperor had not completed. If my three beloved ministers have any suggestions that they can offer me, I will definitely accept them! "After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, he looked out the window. At this time, the snow had begun to fall, and when the whistling north wind blew, it seemed that new life had begun to breed.
The three people including Ma Wensheng, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, were very excited when they heard this. The three of them were not people who were vegetarians in the corpse position. Moreover, now that His Majesty Zhu Houzhao said that he wanted them to enter the cabinet, he still treated them with such respect. Naturally, he no longer wanted to hide them.
Ma Wensheng, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, stood up first: "Your Majesty, if you want to govern the prosperous era, you must first rectify the administration of the officials. The corruption of the Ming Dynasty is not due to the king's lack of virtue but to the lack of integrity of the officials. Both the government and the public are mediocre, seeking fame, forming cliques for personal gains, and even more neglectful people. Therefore, with the opinions of ministers, we should first rectify the administration of officials and strictly inspect the system! ”
"Your Majesty, I deeply believe what Otsuka Prime Minister said. If you want to establish a new government, you must clean up the government. Nowadays, people in the government and the public are too busy with things. Although the late emperor was aware of everything, he was inevitably misunderstood by the mediocre officials. In the past, when the late emperor started to revive the government, It also purges the civil service first, with the prince (Wang Shu) in charge of the civil service department, and the Dazai in charge of the military department, to purge the civil and military officials;
Nowadays, hundreds of officials are deceiving Your Majesty, who is young and naturally slack off. Therefore, if Your Majesty wants to launch a new policy, you must first clean up the officials! ”
Jiao Fang, the left minister of the Ministry of Personnel, also echoed.
"I also agree with what Dazai Shaozai said. Although I am in the Ministry of War, I don't know whether the civil servants are honest or not, but I also know that most of the military officers are not trained in martial arts. They deduct military supplies and use empty pay to enrich themselves. What is especially serious is the use of military personnel. Soldiers make military equipment weak, so if you want to strengthen military equipment, you must first rectify the government. Only by selecting good ministers and generals can good government be implemented, and it will not even turn into bad government!”
Xu Jin, Minister of the Ministry of War, also said.
Zhu Houzhao nodded. He also agreed with the views of these three people. If he wanted to change the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, where civil and military forces were at war and the country's prestige was sluggish, he could only rectify the government first, because any policy needs people to implement it. If you are responsible for the implementation, If people are not good enough, they will naturally be unable to implement the New Deal.
And Zhu Houzhao also knew that the reason why the Ming Dynasty perished more in the original history was also due to corruption in government. The so-called financial system was out of date and the system of the government collapsed, etc. In fact, these systems had already collapsed, and the reason why more Ming Dynasty would perish after a hundred years. As the government became increasingly corrupt, there were no good ministers or generals left to extend the life of the dynasty, and all of them only focused on forming cliques for personal gain.
To put it bluntly, most of the rulers in the ruling class only focus on exploitation and forget to maintain the balance of the entire ruling system, and fail to curb their greed.
At this time, Ma Wensheng began to say again: "I dare not lie to your majesty. I had already submitted the method to the late emperor to pass the examination. That's why your majesty put me in charge of the civil service department. However, it is a pity that the late emperor passed away and I passed the examination." The law has not been implemented. Now I present this to Your Majesty, hoping that Your Majesty will adopt it!”
Zhu Houzhao asked Gu Dayong to take it over.
Immediately, Zhu Houzhao opened it and took a quick look, thinking that Ma Wensheng's examination method was similar to that of Zhang Juzheng in later generations. The purpose was to improve the efficiency of officials, strictly apply the inspection system, and set the political tasks of each official. There are set deadlines and severe penalties will be imposed if any are not completed.
Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but secretly thought that if Emperor Hongzhi had not died and Ma Wensheng could implement it, he would have pioneered the reform of officialdom. Of course, there is no doubt that this method of placing a tight curse on officials will definitely make all officials of the Ming Dynasty dissatisfied.
Because for most officials, the purpose of being an official is to enjoy happiness and make money, but your court keeps me doing business and pays me such a meager salary, which makes me lose the opportunity to make money and enjoy it. Doesn’t this make me feel uncomfortable? .
"Ai Qing's method of passing the examination is naturally very good, and it is very suitable for the situation. However, if you have enough food and clothing, you will know honor and disgrace, and if you have enough food and clothing, you will know etiquette. Officials can't just ask him to be diligent, but also have to let him have no worries about food and clothing, or even worse. It is important to be rich, otherwise I am afraid that you will still be an official for thousands of miles just for wealth. Improving their salary can at least ensure that some officials are corrupted due to poverty and embarrassment. Officials can remain honest, so the rewards and punishments in the law cannot be as simple as promotion, demotion, retention, and dismissal. There must also be performance rewards, that is, the achievements completed are linked to salary income. Of course, the punishment must also be increased, including increased prison sentences, confiscation of homes, and beheadings. Punishments such as being sentenced to death and skinning will increase the cost of corruption!”
After Zhu Houzhao read it, he expressed his thoughts. He knew that no matter what era it was, corruption would definitely exist and would be difficult to eliminate. Now, even if he was the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he did not think about trying as hard as Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. In order to permanently eliminate corruption, he just wants to increase the cost of corruption as much as possible and at the same time create incentives to encourage officials to do good things with benefits.
Therefore, what Zhu Houzhao wanted to implement in the Ming Dynasty was to reform the performance system, linking the income of officials to personal achievements. This is undoubtedly better than giving money to honest people. The more it is, the more reasonable it is.
(End of chapter)