"Your Majesty, which one of these old ministers is not a veteran of the three dynasties, and which one is not an important official, but now they have to personally escort grain to the capital because of the Western Factory's tax collection, just like coolies. This is a loss of face for the imperial court! The world I'm afraid people really think that the Ming Dynasty is not considerate of my veteran! If this continues, it will be chilling! Your Majesty! I have to repay you truthfully, please forgive me."
At this time, Sun Ruyou, the Minister of Rites, burst into tears and complained to Zhu Youxiao.
After hearing this, Zhu Youxiao only smiled coldly: "Why, you still want to threaten me by pretending to be an old minister? It is a common practice that the food transportation of the army and the people is handed over to the Cao Army. They can also transport the food to Beijing themselves! I will let the Minister of Cangchang collect their taxes, but I will also issue an order to punish them for violating the imperial decree, just like resisting the decree! Let them succeed! No one can try to obstruct the imperial government's new policy!"
"Yes! I beg you to resign!"
Sun Ruyou replied with some disappointment. After receiving the letter from Gu Qiyuan and others, he hurriedly came to see the emperor. He originally wanted the emperor to care about the feelings of the senior ministers and show favor to high-ranking officials and gentry in paying tax and grain. He wanted to avoid the high officials and gentry from serving like common people. He did not expect that His Majesty the Emperor would not make any concessions for the sake of the new deal, and would no longer treat even the senior ministers who had become officials.
Zhu Youxiao nodded. He knew that Sun Ruyou's intention was to give these veterans more privileges.
But Zhu Youxiao was unwilling.
In his opinion, these senior ministers and ministers who have become officials are not short of money. If they want to avoid transporting grain to Beijing, they can pay money instead of doing corvee work, instead of letting the court save their dignity by exempting them from taxes and grain.
In Zhu Youxiao's view, if you want to be decent, you have to spend your own money to buy it, rather than the court taking the initiative to give it to you.
Sun Ruyou left the political hall.
Zhu Youxiao glanced at his back, and the other party Congzhe said: "Nanzhili is now in full swing to collect taxes and clear the land of the father-in-law. The central government cannot be idle in the court. The law of passing the examination must be implemented as soon as possible. These officials cannot be allowed to I am too idle and do not know what my responsibilities are. A second-rank official of the imperial court, a grand master, is eager to see me. Is he here because of private messages from several senior ministers? Is this because all the affairs of the ministry have been done? The Ministry of Rites is already too busy, so there is no need to establish it?! All officials’ salary increases and decreases, promotions and demotions must be linked to political performance! Qualifications and reputations are so empty.”
"Excuse me, Your Majesty, how do you calculate this political achievement? Now that taxes and grains are paid by the West Factory, local officials no longer have to bear the responsibility of supervising grain. They only have the responsibility of bringing peace to the people. Therefore, please make it clear to your Majesty."
Fang Congzhe asked back.
"Water can carry a boat or capsize it, but the people are the water, and the country is the boat. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty often warned his ministers with this saying. Keeping the people in peace is also a political achievement. If local officials can make the people's lives easier, It is to contribute to the peace of the country, and this is better than the previous evaluation of officials mainly based on tax and grain collection, thereby preventing officials from exploiting the people in order to complete the tax and grain collection;
In addition, the political achievements of Anmin need to be quantified and cannot be determined based on the so-called official reputation in the local area. The common people are busy running around for three meals a day. How can we know which official is good? Even if we really know, we can't listen. To achieve real popularity, after all, most people are illiterate, don’t know how to speak, and don’t understand that when officials leave, they need to send umbrellas to represent their reluctance to leave;
Therefore, the imperial court must have specific criteria for assessment, such as how much wasteland is reclaimed, how much grain production is increased, how much water canals are opened, how much the number of large households with a household wealth of more than one thousand taels and ten thousand taels is increased! "
Zhu Youxiao said, "In this way, the responsibilities of officials have not been reduced, but have increased a lot, which will definitely make them more tired, especially officials in prefectures and counties. They are directly responsible for contacting the people, and their salaries are the most important." Meager, and now that I prohibit corruption, they will definitely be even less willing to be officials who deal directly with the people, so we need to increase their salary and treatment to make them feel that the fatigue is worth it."
"Your Majesty is wise! There are too few officials in prefectures and counties. But nowadays, people and things are becoming more complicated. If prefectures and counties want to manage the place well, they need more subordinates. Therefore, many officials have to hire more officials to pay their salaries. There are too many masters and servants, which means that even if local officials in prefectures and counties want to do good things and be upright officials, they have to collect money to support their staff and subordinates. However, the standards for courtiers' salaries were set by Taizu. I'm afraid It’s not easy to tamper with.”
Fang Congzhe started talking.
"The salary does not need to be changed, but the reward money can be increased or decreased. While implementing the law of passing the examination, you ask the Ministry of Civil Affairs to formulate a regulation on the reward of silver for officials according to my wishes, which is mainly divided into the following categories: maintaining integrity, honoring officials, and rewards for passing the examination. Three parts:
The purpose of cultivating integrity is to prevent some powerful but poor officials from falling for five buckets of rice;
The term "Rongsheng" gives officials a certain number of years to serve. They don't have to worry about working hard for the court all their lives, and being resented by future generations who say they still cling to power. After the expiry of the term, they can take the initiative to resign, and the court will issue a formal notice. Rong Yangyin for several years;
The exam reward is a generous reward for outstanding officials, letting officials all over the world know that they can receive money for doing good things for the wealthy gentry, and they can also receive money for doing good things for the people, but the difference between the two is different. "
Zhu Youxiao started talking.
Fang Congzhe became a little excited after hearing this. He thought that His Majesty did not regard his officials as human beings, so he said:
"Your Majesty has thought carefully. I believe that there should not be too much money to maintain integrity. This will not only avoid the court's temporary increase in money and food expenses, but also prevent officials from becoming more extravagant and even more greedy than before. Because it is easy to change from frugality to luxury, and from luxury to luxury. It is difficult to live frugally, so it is better to put the main reward money after taking office, so that officials can have the idea that they can live a stable and prosperous life after taking office;
In this case, even if their lives are somewhat cramped when they are in office, they will still be willing to work tirelessly for the court and the people, and then give them generous rewards after they become officials. In this way, they will be old by then and will not indulge in sex. Even if you have no power, you can't chew the delicacies from the mountains and the sea, so you can no longer be extravagant. Even if you have no scruples, it will only increase the number of diseases. It is just right to use the money from the prosperity to train doctors for the Ming Dynasty, so that the doctors can improve their treatment skills in order to have generous medical fees. ! "
Zhu Youxiao nodded in agreement and laughed: "Yuan Fu is an old man who seeks the country after all. To improve the treatment of officials, we should pay more attention to improving the treatment of officials after they become officials. This strategy is very clever! Just do this. In addition, , the generous reward after becoming an official does not need to be paid out in one go, but is still paid out on an annual basis. This also prevents him from squandering it and his descendants to squander it. At the same time, he can also use the silver reward after becoming an official to control these old ministers who have become dishonest. , just block his Rongyangyin!"
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