Lao Zhu's eyes widened when he heard Han Du's words. Because of Lao Zhu's childhood experience, what he hated most in his heart was corrupt officials. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Lao Zhu always regarded punishing corrupt officials as the first priority of the Ming Dynasty. Even in order to give the people a place to appeal their grievances, Lao Zhu even issued a special edict to the people. If the people have grievances, they can rely on the imperial edict to directly escort the relevant officials to the capital, where Lao Zhu will personally interrogate them.
It can be said that Lao Zhu was the most active among all emperors in punishing corrupt officials.
Han Du ignored Lao Zhu and continued to explain: "As for that county, there is only one official in a county. One person faces tens of thousands of people in a county. Even if the county official does evil, the impact will usually be A small number of people. On the contrary, the number of yamen servants in the county ranges from dozens to hundreds. If they do evil, the people affected will be dozens of times that number. And there are more people than yamen servants, such as the li chief and the grain chief. People."
"There are so many of these district chiefs and grain chiefs that they go deep into every township and village. If someone with good character takes the position, that's fine, and it will be of great benefit to the local people. But once their position is stolen by cunning people, not only will it be It does no good to the people, but will instead gather in the countryside, oppress the people, and cause harm to the whole country."
Lao Zhu was stunned when he heard this. He had never heard of such a situation before.
He said in surprise: "Is this really so? It shouldn't be the case. One of the purposes of setting up the Li Chang Baojia is that these people and the people are fellow villagers after all, and they should not bully people in the same village."
Lao Zhu's deep hatred for corrupt officials has reached the point where he no longer trusts officials at all. I would rather let the people manage themselves than let the officials go to the countryside to harm the people.
But Lao Zhu never thought about a problem. Power can easily change a person. It can turn a person who has been kind to others since childhood into a man-eating beast in a very short period of time. These people have almost unlimited power in the countryside, but the county government cannot control this power. The system of district chiefs and grain chiefs was good at the beginning, but Lao Zhu established this system but did not include these people in the scope of supervision.
And as these village chiefs and grain chiefs passed away from father to son, and accumulated from generation to generation, a strange class was born among the common people and officials, the squires.
The boy who slayed the dragon finally became an evil dragon.
When Han Du heard this, he smiled bitterly and explained to Lao Zhu: "Your Majesty, without the power of supervision, it would be a huge disaster for the people. Fortunately, these first-generation li chiefs and grain chiefs have not returned yet. After thinking about it, I have no idea how to use the power in their hands. When they react in the future, each of these villages will become a three-acre land that is completely independent of them, unable to be blown by the wind and splashed by the rain. Not entering.”
Han Du looked into the void, sighed, and continued: "They can speak their minds on their own territory. Whether the people are right or wrong depends entirely on their words. At that time, even the court will not Even if I try to reach in, I'm afraid it's beyond the reach of the whip. In some places, family law is better than national law, and that's how it was formed."
After hearing this, Lao Zhu looked cold. He wanted to refute Han Du's words, but he opened his mouth but nothing came out. It was not uncommon in the Yuan Dynasty that family law was more important than national law. Lao Zhu has always wanted to know what is going on in this situation. But he has never been able to find an answer that satisfied him, and now Han Du gave him an answer inadvertently.
To put it bluntly, this is a cognitive difference. In the eyes of the imperial court, only those with good character and rank are officials, but in the eyes of the common people, anyone with power, whether it is a scribe or a government servant, as well as the chief of the district and the chief of grain.
"Do you want the court to take over both the district chief and the grain chief?" Lao Zhu asked in surprise. Without waiting for Han Du's answer, he shook his head and said, "This is almost impossible. The court is short of talents. Where can we find so many people to take charge of all the li chiefs and grain chiefs?"
When it comes to Hongwu Nian, what is Lao Zhu lacking the most? The first one is, of course, money, with successive campaigns to pacify the four directions, and the expedition north to conquer the remaining Yuan. Military expenditures are like the Yellow River bursting its banks, and it cannot make ends meet every year. The second one is to eliminate talents. After more than ten years of war in the late Yuan Dynasty, not only the people's livelihood was in decline, but also the number of scholars was greatly reduced. After all, only with a safe environment can people have time to study books carefully. In an era of chaos and uncertainty, who can still calm down and study? Even if there were, it would be rare for an official family to have this condition. But how many are these people? For the entire Ming Dynasty, it was just a drop in the bucket.
When the Ming Dynasty was first established, there was no need to take any imperial examinations to become an official. As long as you are a scholar, are recommended by others, or are favored by Lao Zhu, you can become an official.
When the Ming Dynasty was first established, there was an endless stream of people coming to Jinling to seek official positions. But even this could not meet the needs of the entire Ming Dynasty.
It was not until more than ten years after the world became stable that this situation eased a lot. At least the people employed by the imperial court don't just grab one and throw it into the official position. Lao Zhu occasionally held imperial examinations to make selections.
It is impossible for scholars to meet the larger demand for talents such as li chiefs and grain chiefs, unless they wait until comprehensive education.
"Your Majesty, it is naturally impossible to fill the positions of Manli Chief and Food Chief with talents. However, the tasks undertaken by the Chief and Grain Chief here are not complicated. You can just choose people from among the people to serve as you do now. ." Han Du said.
After hearing Han Du's words, Lao Zhu gave him a strange look and asked in confusion: "Didn't you just say that the village chiefs and grain chiefs selected from the common people will in turn oppress the common people in the future? Why now? ..."
Han Du replied sincerely: "Your Majesty, I think there is nothing wrong with the system of li chief and grain chief."
What are the problems with this system? Many people have a very superficial understanding of the system. Once there is something bad, we think it is the fault of society and the fault of the system. But if you think about it carefully, is there anything wrong with the system? The system is dead, but talent is alive.
There is no right or wrong for a dead object. The only ones who are wrong are people. As for Lao Zhu's system of village chiefs and grain chiefs, if this system is implemented well, it will naturally be beneficial to the people. But if it is not implemented well, this system will naturally be harmful to the people and not beneficial to any.
