An urgent encrypted letter was sent to the Nanjing Imperial Palace.
When Jiang Wei received the secret letter, he did not dare to hesitate at all and hurriedly came to the Hall of Supreme Harmony with the secret letter.
"Your Majesty, there is a letter from Kaiping County!"
Jiang Wei presented the letter with both hands.
Eunuch Wang Zhong took the letter and gave it to Zhu Yuanzhang.
After opening the secret letter, Zhu Yuanzhang became furious after finishing the secret letter. He slapped the dragon case together with the secret letter. He only heard a 'bang' sound, and then Zhu Yuanzhang roared: "How brave!"
In the palace, Wang Zhong and Jiang Gu were both shocked. The last time His Majesty the Emperor was so angry, I don't know how many people moved their heads. This time...
"You also come and take a look at the contents of this secret letter."
Zhu Yuanzhang handed over the secret letter.
Plop——
Wang Zhong and Jiang Wei quickly knelt down.
"Your Majesty, this is a national matter. I am a servant, so I dare not look at it!"
"Your Majesty, only you can read this secret message. I don't dare to overstep it!"
They were all old men who followed Zhu Yuanzhang. The more they knew, the sooner they would die. The two of them knew it, and it was about the consort Ouyang Lun, so they did not dare to get involved easily.
"I'll let you see it!"
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes widened and he said sternly.
Hearing this, the two of them understood that they could not escape this time no matter what, so they knelt down and took the secret message and sent it to them.
After reading this, Wang Zhong and Jiang Wei felt a chill coming from the backs of their heads.
Mao Xiang's secret letter, in addition to describing what Ouyang Lun did every day, most importantly described the speculation that Ouyang Lun and Yong'an prefect Mao Youfu were colluding and corrupt and perverting the law. It also stated that Mao's family had multiple branches in the stock exchange. Own shares in stocks!
Be good!
This consort Ouyang Lun is really looking for death!
Even if he is committing corruption himself, he actually drags other officials along with him to commit corruption. This is not an isolated case but a major case!
If the matter is true, then Ouyang Lun's head is not enough to chop him off.
"It seems that you are also shocked!" Zhu Yuanzhang said solemnly.
"Shocking!" Wang Zhong nodded.
"Bold!" Jiang Wei admired Ouyang Lun's courage in his heart.
"Jiang Yu."
"My subordinate is here." Jiang Wei knelt on the ground.
"Reply to Mao Xiang immediately and arrest Mao Youfu, Ouyang Lun and other corrupt officials, and escort them to Nanjing for interrogation and execution!" Zhu Yuanzhang said solemnly.
"Yes!" Jiang Wei stood up and immediately turned around to make arrangements.
"Wait a minute." Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes flashed coldly, but mixed with a trace of hesitation, and he called Jiang Wei.
"Your Majesty?" Jiang Wei was a little confused.
"I thought about it for a moment. What Mao Xiang said in the letter is just speculation at present, and there is no clear evidence. Such a rush will easily cause chaos in the border areas, giving the Tatars and Oaras an opportunity to take advantage of it!" Zhu Yuanzhang muttered.
Um! ?
Jiang Wei was shocked.
This is not like His Majesty’s style! In the past, whenever there was any rumors, they would be directly arrested and interrogated. After confessing, they would be killed immediately. They were decisive and never procrastinated. This time, they actually hesitated and even took the initiative to find reasons! ?
Zhu Yuanzhang thought about it again and waved his hand, "Let Mao Xiang continue the investigation first, and report it when there is evidence."
"Yes!" Jiang Wei raised his hand.
His Majesty has indeed changed his mind. This consort Ouyang Lun is not simple! No wonder Mao Xiang, the commander of the Imperial Guard, was asked to investigate in Kaiping County in person.
"I asked you to investigate the situation in Kaiping County in the past three years. Have you got any results?" Zhu Yuanzhang continued to ask.
Jiang Wei cupped his hands and said: "Back to Your Majesty, my subordinates went to the Household Department and looked at all the data of Kaiping County in the past three years, and found no differences."
"However, wasteland reclamation and tax burdens in Kaiping County have been increasing year by year in recent years, but judging from the data, Ouyang Lun is a good official!"
"By the way, this year is Ouyang Lun's third year as the magistrate of Kaiping County. It has been completed for three years. The Ministry of Household Affairs will evaluate according to the "six things", namely schools, fields, household registration, taxes, lawsuits, and thieves. Ouyang Everyone is qualified and should be promoted as usual..."
Huo!
This guy is actually competent at his job!
This surprised Zhu Yuanzhang.
In order to maintain the long-term rule of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang learned from the lessons of previous generations at the beginning of the founding of the country and formulated a more systematic and complete civil servant assessment and reward system to monitor the civil servant group and strengthen the emperor's efforts.
During the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Yuanzhang often discussed the experience and lessons of the Yuan rule with civil officials. He believed that the main reason for the demise of the Yuan Dynasty was that in the later period of his rule, the civil service team was large and redundant, with overlapping central and local agencies. What is even more serious is the unhealthy official conduct and corruption and bribery.
Zhu Yuanzhang firmly believed that the fall of the Yuan Dynasty was closely related to the treacherous ministers and chaos in government. If the Ming Dynasty was not to make the same mistakes again, and to achieve social stability and long-term peace, it was urgently necessary to formulate a reasonable civil servant assessment and reward and punishment system, and strengthen the management and restraint of the civil servant group. In this way, the clarity of official administration can be achieved.
In the first year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the provincial officials to formulate a civil service assessment system. In the second year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict requiring civil servants in Fuzhou and counties to go to the Ministry of Personnel to accept assessments on their merits and depose them when their three-year terms expired. The main targets were local officials.
According to the merit scores of local chief officials in the past three years, the Ministry of Personnel is divided into three categories: competent, ordinary, and incompetent, that is, upper, middle, and lower grades. The competent ones are promoted to official positions, the ordinary ones maintain their original official positions, and the incompetent ones are demoted.
Therefore, receiving the evaluation of "competent" means that becoming an official is considered superior!
Zhu Yuanzhang once again recalled the scene when he went to Kaiping County. If assessed according to the "six things", that is, schools, fields, household registration, taxes and servitude, lawsuits and prisons, thieves, flat cement roads, people living and working in peace and contentment, harmony and peace, and an active market... .
It's not an exaggeration to say that this guy is "competent".
Hey, it's because the officials don't know how greedy Ouyang Lun is.
Maybe this is a capable corrupt official!
Suddenly, Zhu Yuanzhang was curious. Ouyang Lun was so capable that Kaiping County should have paid a lot of taxes, so he asked: "Do you know how much the taxes of Kaiping County have increased in the three years that Ouyang Lun has been in charge?" Fan?"
"How many times?" Jiang Wei was confused by the question asked by Zhu Yuanzhang.
"Is it not several times, but dozens of times?" Zhu Yuanzhang was also confused, but what he saw in Kaiping County was not impossible for dozens of times.
Jiang Wei said with some embarrassment: "Returning to your majesty, my subordinates noticed that in the first year of Ouyang Lun's administration in Kaiping County, the total amount of autumn grain, summer taxes and other taxes was 5,632 taels of silver. The total tax amount for the second year is 5,700 taels, and the total tax amount for the third year is 5,800 taels."
"Wait a minute." Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned and asked with some uncertainty: "You said that Kaiping County's annual tax revenue is only 5,632 taels???"
"Yes!" Jiang Wei continued: "Your Majesty, my subordinates have checked and found that Kaiping County is a border county with an underdeveloped economy. Five thousand taels is considered normal."
Zhu Yuanzhang rolled his eyes and thought to himself that if you had visited Kaiping County, you wouldn't have said that.
