To the west of the capital city, there is a large house in the dense forest called Miningkuyuan.
On the surface, this place is a government warehouse, which stores a large amount of coal, iron ore and other materials. It is actually the headquarters of the Penalties Bureau. Because it is located in a dense forest and there are officials controlling the main roads, it is difficult for outsiders to approach.
Secret, isolated, a place where outsiders can't hear even your throat breaking.
Feng Jin, a member of the Qianhu Bureau of the Criminal Punishment Bureau, has vicious methods and is very harsh on people. Coupled with some psychological distortions, he always finds ways to torture people.
Liu Chang, a member of the Jianyang Security Bureau in Fujian, was considered a hero many years ago. However, due to Wang Zhonghe's involvement and his dereliction of duty, he was arrested and sent to this place by the Punishment Bureau.
At this time, Liu Chang had lost all his limbs, and even one eyeball was gouged out. However, the information Liu Chang knew was limited and he was not qualified enough to tell anything about Wang Zhonghe and Yin Bing.
Another Qianhu, Du Zonghui, couldn't stand Feng Jin and thought his methods were too cruel and inhumane. He once persuaded Gu Sanshen to warn Feng Jin, but Gu Sanshen did not warn and instead praised Feng Jin.
The Criminal Punishment Bureau, the object of the investigation is the Security Bureau. Most of the people in the Security Bureau are hard-nosed. They don’t have a few frightening thugs with cruel methods. How can they be asked to explain?
Feng Jin was highly regarded, and more and more imitators, such as Deng You and Qi Ning, were originally Jinshi. Later, they had a fight in the Imperial College and were expelled from the imperial examination. Recruit.
Deng You and Qi Ning are knowledgeable and educated people, but if the educated people become ruthless, they will have nothing to do with martial arts...
Someone in the Penal Service Bureau composed and sang:
Feng She sat down, his body mutilated.
Qi Dui smiled, the door of hell was knocking.
Deng lights the lamp, and the King of Hell feels pain.
Liu Chang was only interrogated by Feng Jin alone, but Sun Zhengcheng from Qianhu of the Fujian Security Bureau was treated much better. Feng Jin, Deng You, and Qi Ning were interrogated together.
Even if Sun Zhengcheng had a strong body, he could not withstand the torment of these three people. He finally told the Fujian Security Bureau to collect Wang Zhonghe's black money and cooperate with Wang Zhonghe to solve the problem of two magistrates. Not only that, Sun Zhengcheng also cooperated with Mao Rui After drinking, I know the existence of Yin soldiers.
Sun Zhengcheng expressed deep sympathy for Mao Rui's painful experience, and then, under the temptation of beautiful women and money, he concealed Mao Rui's identity and helped Mao Rui apply for a photo ID.
"According to Mao Rui's words, ancient and present should be on the sea."
This is Sun Zhengcheng's explanation.
Gu Sanshen doesn't care about specific means, only the results.
Deng Qifeng handed the results to Gu Sanshen, who immediately secretly reported the news to Zhu Yunwen.
Zhu Yunwen was full of doubts after reading Gu Sanshen's documents.
A few days ago, Vajra Zhang Che of the White Lotus Sect who intended to assassinate Zhu Wenkui, Cai Kui who arranged for the eight-niu crossbow to be sent, and Wang Yanshou, a veteran of the guard station who was responsible for the execution, were escorted to the capital. The results of the interrogation by the Security Bureau and various signs indicate that ancient and modern In the capital.
Even Wang Zhonghe has repeatedly believed that the past and the present lie in the capital.
In Zhu Yunwen's view, if a conspirator hiding in the dark wants to play a big game, he must be well-informed, master the dynamics of the capital, and have a group of people who can travel north and south.
Judging from Widow Liu's revelation that the imperial court was fully implementing the land reform document in the southwest, this sudden turmoil must have been carefully operated by someone. If the past and present are at sea, then who is running the affairs of the capital?
But Sun Zhengcheng and Mao Rui had dealt with each other after all, and Wang Zhonghe also mentioned that Gu and Jin might have power overseas. This seemed to mean that Gu and Jin might really be at sea.
Zhu Yunwen couldn't think of the reason, and he didn't have so much energy to direct these things. The imperial examination and the military examination were talent promotion ceremonies, which were far more important than these things. He just ordered the Penal Service Bureau to comprehensively rectify the Security Bureau, and the Security Bureau made every effort to investigate the persons involved.
Zhu Yunwen does not need to participate in the examination, but the three people who are ranked first in the examination still need Zhu Yunwen to personally review and prepare the questions for the palace examination.
This year, Lin Huan, a native of Putian, Fujian, came into Zhu Yunwen's field of vision.
As early as the seventh year of Jianwen, when Yu Xin was governor of Fujian, he reported to Zhu Yunwen about Lin Huanlin Juren, saying that he was young but dignified and mature, knowledgeable about world affairs, and outstanding in talents. He hoped that the imperial court would entrust him with important tasks.
Facts have proved that Yu Xin's vision is correct. Lin Huan is by no means a pedantic scholar, but a capable person who understands changes and is good at managing affairs. He has outstanding articles, clear logic and appropriate strategies. The Ministry of Rites recommends him as the first person in the examination.
Palace examination.
The topic is very simple and straightforward:
If you are the county magistrate, how can you govern the people and make them well-off?
Looking at this question, all the Jinshi felt uneasy. Looking at this posture, it would be difficult for them to stay in the capital and find a job.
Zhu Yunwen knew very well that although the monarch coordinated the overall situation, it was difficult to go deep into the local areas. Most of the time, the people who really had a direct impact on people's lives were not the aloof emperor, but local parent officials, such as prefects and county magistrates.
A lot of official corruption, oppression, and exploitation of the people mostly occur in local areas.
If the county magistrate is good, the people will be better off.
If the county magistrate is bad, the people will suffer.
There are not many good magistrates, and there are not many bad magistrates. The more magistrates are neither good nor good, even if they are officials, they do not do anything. Let’s say they do things. They have done everything the court stipulated, such as tax.
Let's say he doesn't do anything. A case can be completed in half a month, but it has to take half a year. The people are complaining about injustice, and they can't make decisions for the people. They just make peace with each other and say what they say. A certain tycoon can't afford to offend him, so he might as well We decided what to do in private, it was just a matter of one third of an acre of land and one house...
The local officials did not act, and they delayed as long as they could. They ruled the people for decades without thinking about how the people could live a good life or develop any industry or anything.
In Zhu Yunwen's view, the blueprint for the prosperous Ming Dynasty was by no means a highly prosperous business, with scholars singing their praises and virtues while the common people were hungry, cold, and impoverished.
In this era, the well-off life pursued by Zhu Yunwen was completely different from the well-off life of later generations.
Xiaokang in later generations refers to a state in which after food and clothing are satisfied, there is enough leftover to pursue a better life. But the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty is just a prosperous scene where the family can have enough food for a year.
Although the Ming Dynasty was founded nearly 40 years ago, according to reports from the chief envoys, local officials and censors, there are still a large number of people in all provinces of the Ming Dynasty, including the northern and southern Zhili, who have trouble even eating.
Only rough statistics show that among the 70 million people of the Ming Dynasty, more than 33 million were in abject poverty, and this figure is likely to be an underestimate.
The capital is prosperous, with less than a million people, and Suzhou and Hangzhou are prosperous, with only more than a million people. Apart from these, how many prosperous places were there in the Ming Dynasty?
The real reality is backwardness and poverty, not prosperity.
Zhu Yunwen wanted to go deep into the people and make a tour to the west to see how the people were living. It's just that I have so many things to do that I can't get away from it at all.
Through county governance, we can improve people's lives and at least help them escape from extreme poverty. They will not have to work year after year. In addition to having enough food, their families cannot even afford new clothes or money for medical treatment.
How to break the bottom-level governance and improve the living conditions of the people is related to the foundation of the prosperous Ming Dynasty and the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty.
A question in the palace examination is of far-reaching consideration.
Lin Huan was in his early thirties, which was a good age for him to have ambitions and realize his ambitions. When Zhu Yunwen gave such a topic, he did not write in a hurry. Instead, he pondered for a long time and wrote a very brief response:
"I once asked His Majesty the famous saying, practice brings true knowledge. Different counties have different products, mountains, rivers and land are different, and the villages are distributed very differently. If you want to govern the county, you should go deep into it and explore and find the way to govern, then you can be well-off. If you blindly lead others The law of the land should be used in a general way, fearing that the water and the soil are not suitable for it, causing the people to live in dire straits, and actually harming the people..."
While other Jinshi scholars wrote about being loyal to the court, being an honest and good official, and working diligently in government, Lin Huan had already awakened to the rational thinking of "different places, different strategies."
Like Lin Huan, Chen Quan and Liu Su also performed well. The outstanding performance of these two people benefited from their further studies in the Imperial College. As early as after they became Juren, they entered the Imperial College by virtue of their status as Juren.
When the Jinshi in the palace examination were spreading out their examination papers, the Imperial College also entered martial law, and all the supervisors were tested uniformly, and the questions were the same as those in the palace examination.
After the palace examination this year, the imperial court postponed the release of the results.
Li Zhigang rushed back from Peiping to review the examination papers of the Imperial College students and to select talents for the imperial court. After more than two hundred teachers from the Imperial College reviewed and selected day and night, three hundred test papers were selected after three days. After their names were anonymized, they were sent to the Ministry of Rites. Officials such as the Cabinet, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Personnel comprehensively reviewed and selected the good ones.
After reviewing the merit order of the Imperial College student rolls and Jinshi rolls, their names are separated and filled in on the list.
Statistics on the list revealed that among the top 100, 78 were students from the Imperial College, while only 22 were traditional Confucian students. Among these 22, there were 12 people who had entered the Imperial College.
Regardless of the label of Imperial College, there are only ten outstanding talents among traditional Confucian scholars in the Imperial Examination.
Such an astonishing result made all officials stunned and shocked.
The biggest difference between Imperial College students and ordinary Confucian students is logic and rationality. They no longer open their mouths and shut up about the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, and no longer trace back to the five generations of the old Zhu family. Instead, they discuss matters rationally and give operational strategies and methods.
Not empty talk, not whitewashing, speaking with substance, seeking truth and pragmatism, this is the biggest characteristic of the Imperial College students.
Zhu Yunwen took this as an opportunity to consolidate the status of the Imperial College and issued a far-reaching decree: "However, before being awarded an official position, you must go to the Imperial College to study for two years and pass the examination before you can be appointed to an official position. "
Although the issuance of this decree did not cut off the path for traditional Confucian scholars to enter officialdom, it abruptly extended the time for two years, which was equivalent to forcing the private education forces to work towards the gate of the Imperial College first, and then to think about entering the court as an official.
At this point, the Imperial College completely stood at the commanding heights of education in the Ming Dynasty, the status of the imperial examinations for scholars was greatly reduced, and the methods, standards, and requirements for selecting talents by the imperial court also began to change.
Although some officials objected and believed that the imperial examination system had been the same since the Tang Dynasty, the opposition became weak in the sharp contrast between the imperial examination rolls and the traditional Confucian student rolls.
After all, the imperial court hired people who were national scholars. Although they could write a thousand words, Zhu Yunwen couldn't afford to use talents with no strategy in mind.
