Others don't know it, but Zhao Yan knows it.
Anti-corruption has always been a symbol of the emperor's power. Only an emperor with strong power can carry out anti-corruption actions at the risk of offending the bureaucracy. Generally, emperors with relatively weak power do not have this ability, and ministers are not afraid of him at all.
And sometimes, those who are corrupt are even relatives of the emperor, the emperor's own people. If you want to investigate corruption, you have to find it on your own people. The implication is too great and it is impossible to do it, so you can only let it go.
Not every emperor has the courage to go all out and risk chaos in the court to launch a resolute anti-corruption struggle, because sometimes corrupt people are the foundation of their rule, and if they tamper with it, they will dig their own graves and cannot be tampered with at all.
And more often than not, the emperor's actions were not only to clear up the social atmosphere, but also to consolidate his own power and let more people who suit his wishes come to power.
Therefore, this itself is a symbol of absolute power.
Zhao Min yearned for this very much.
During the period since he became emperor, Zhao Min issued many political orders, allocated funds to handle post-war affairs, and tried his best to repair the wounds caused by the war in the Southern Song Dynasty.
It can be said that he has achieved outstanding achievements.
But that only looked like a remarkable achievement. In fact, Zhao Min knew that the series of actions he promoted were basically progressing slowly.
Many times it is clear that the budgeted money is sufficient, but after a period of time, a report indicating that the money is insufficient is handed in, requesting continued funding, otherwise it will be difficult to move forward.
Building cities, roads, houses, buying food to provide relief to victims, etc. It is clear that money is enough, but it is not enough when you use it.
Zhao Xun was very angry and ordered a strict investigation, but found out a lot of perfunctory remarks, such as the damage to the city was far beyond imagination, and the number of victims was far beyond imagination.
These are all bullshit, and anyone who believes them is a fool.
When he was the prince, he knew some of the rules of the Song Dynasty court.
For example, when something needs to be done, 20% to 30% of the money will often be taken away by the responsible officials before it leaves the treasury. Then the lower levels of service officials divide it up layer by layer.
You take a little, I take a little, and we all divide the national funds together. In the end, when the money reaches the hands of those who need to do things, there is very little left.
The person doing the work is not willing to accept it.
Why should I do things honestly if you can take them?
No, I want to take it too.
So they took some more.
When I finally needed to do something, I was thankful that I still had two dollars left.
Therefore, every time the Song Dynasty court decided to do something big, the final result was always unsatisfactory. Either there was a problem here or there, and then a bunch of people argued with each other, shirk responsibility, and passed the blame to others.
But Zhao Xing knew that in the final analysis, money was the problem.
Why is money a problem?
Someone has taken advantage of me!
How else could things go wrong?
It’s not that Zhao Hao didn’t know the bad habits of the officialdom of the Song Dynasty, nor did he know how much trouble there was. If all these corrupt officials were removed and replaced with a group of honest and upright officials, the efficiency of the Song Dynasty court would be greatly improved. Immediately increase it tenfold, and the Song Dynasty will immediately enrich the country and strengthen its army.
The efficiency improvement is obvious.
But is this possible?
Zhao Min smiled bitterly.
Others don’t know clearly, but he still doesn’t know?
If we want to fight corruption, we must first target Zhao Gou.
As for his adoptive father, the person who passed on the throne to him, what he did was really judged according to the laws of the Song Dynasty, and beheading ten times was not an exaggeration.
What Zhao Gou did was quite impressive. Not only did he take the initiative to take money from the finance, but he also kept asking Zhao for pocket money. This was not enough, and he also wanted to make extra money.
Zhao Gou's way of making extra money is very interesting. He inherited the excellent tradition of Princess Guantao of the Western Han Dynasty and the ten regular servants of the Eastern Han Dynasty, taking people's money, eliminating disasters with them, and doing things for them.
The specific method is that if someone wants to become an official or be promoted, they should get acquainted with the people around Zhao Gou, pay for friendly exchanges with them, and after reaching the initial conditions of mutual trust, then pay to open up the relationship with Zhao Gou.
After Zhao Gou receives the money and confirms that it is correct, he will "recommend" some "worldly talents" to Zhao Hao when he comes to see him, so that Zhao Hao can appoint them.
Zhao Gou did not intervene in specific political and military issues, and did not recommend "talents" in this area. What he recommended was often personnel in national projects, involving finance.
Zhao Min didn't want to agree, but after all, it didn't involve sensitive issues such as the military or administration, and his throne was given to him by Zhao Gou. He really didn't have the confidence to stand up to Zhao Gou.
Out of the ten times, he had to agree at least eight times. The remaining two times he really didn't want to agree and it was unbearable. Zhao Gou saw something was wrong with his expression and gave in on his own initiative. He was really unhappy with Zhao Min.
With every tug and tug, Zhao Min was beaten to death by Zhao Gou.
It's not that he doesn't know how many of the corrupt officials below are working for Zhao Gou and amassing money for Zhao Gou, but what can he do? Can he still attack Zhao Gou's money bag?
A politically correct "filial piety" suppressed him so hard that he couldn't breathe.
So he really wants to fight corruption and clean up corrupt officials, but he can't.
Every time he thought about this, he felt like there was a thorn in his heart, which hurt him so much that he felt very uncomfortable and helpless.
So when Zhang Jun came to him again to report on the progress of rebuilding the army, Zhao Jun said something from his heart to Zhang Jun.
"Deyuan, do you think Su Yonglin killed so many corrupt officials, will it cause any unrest?"
Zhang Jun blinked, and it took him a while to realize what Zhao Xun meant.
He lowered his head and thought for a moment before giving a negative answer.
"Su Yonglin is the founding emperor. He has great prestige and power. If he wants to fight corruption and punish corrupt officials, he can absolutely do it. As for turmoil... I guess it won't be on that scale."
"It's not that bad..."
Zhao Hao sighed melancholy and said slowly: "That's great, Deyuan, do you think that if we can punish a group of corrupt officials, will the situation in the Song Dynasty be much better? Those bastards are corrupting the country. It’s not that I don’t know about the money thing, but I have to pretend that I don’t know, it’s so uncomfortable.”
Zhang Jun knew what the emperor was thinking.
He didn't want to do this, and he hated corruption, but after thinking about it, he still shook his head helplessly.
This won't work.
So he decided to answer Zhao Hao's question by telling a historical story from "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" that Zhao Hao must have read, and let Zhao Hao figure out the rest.
"After Emperor Xiaowu of Wei fled to the west, the Northern Wei Dynasty split. The Western Wei Dynasty was controlled by Yuwentai, and the Eastern Wei Dynasty was controlled by the powerful minister Gao Huan. At that time, Du Bi, a doctor in Xingtai, was very dissatisfied with the corruption situation in the civil and military affairs of the DPRK, so he proposed to Gao Huan Suggestions, calling for anti-corruption and rectification of officialdom.
But Gao Huan replied that he knew about corruption, but now, he could not pursue it. Du Bi was very puzzled and asked him why. Gao Huan explained that the bad habit of corruption has been around for a long time. He knew this, but The situation at that time was that the world was divided into three parts.
To the west is the political power controlled by Yu Wentai. Many of Gao Huan's generals' families are with him. To the south, there is Xiao Yan, Emperor Wu of the Liang Kingdom in the Southern Dynasty. At that time, he was vigorously promoting the education of ritual and music and had a high reputation in the Central Plains. Many scribes yearn for it.
Gao Huan felt that if he did not give his men some sweetness, then the generals would probably run west to join Yuwentai, and the scribes would all slip south to join Xiao Yan. By then, who else could Gao Huan rely on to conquer the world? What about stabilizing forces? "
After hearing this, Zhao Jun looked at Zhang Jun calmly.
"I have read Zizhi Tongjian. Deyuan, are you trying to persuade me that the Northern Ming Dynasty is strong and the Song Dynasty is weak? If I can't give some sweeteners to my subordinates, they will all flee north?"
Of course this is what Zhang Jun meant.
The Northern Ming Dynasty was strong and the Southern Song Dynasty was weak. This was something everyone in the world saw. Moreover, the Northern Ming Dynasty definitely had the ability to destroy the Southern Song Dynasty. This was also something everyone in the world saw.
The reason why the Southern Song Dynasty is still attractive is that compared to the "lenient policy" of the Northern Ming Dynasty, it is the paradise that people pursue. If you don't even have the last "lenient policy", what else do you have?
It is better for everyone to join Beiming directly, be more honest and restrained, and eventually become the winner, and maybe there will be greater political gains.
Why bother becoming a loser in the Southern Song Dynasty and a second-class citizen after the unification of the Northern Ming Dynasty?
Figure out your core competitiveness, Zhao Guanjia!
