My players are all actors

Chapter 181 Not sharing the world with the scholar-bureaucrats (additional ticket 7)

Alchemist Yong's expression changed, and he opened his mouth, but he still couldn't think of an excuse.

Chu Ge's words were very clear, and it was difficult for him to refute.

The operation method of Kongyin was originally a bad habit left by the northern barbarians.

In fact, the northern man's management of the local area is a very loose model, which is the case of the so-called "losing the world with wide".

Beiman doesn't care about the local mess, as long as he pays a certain amount of taxes regularly.That's why local officials creatively came up with the operation method of "empty printing" in this extremely relaxed environment.

In this way, it doesn't matter how the local government expropriates and extorts as much as it wants, anyway, it only needs to give the court what it should have.

This is also why Beiman was driven back to Mobei within a few decades, and why there are still many aristocratic families in many places at this time, thinking that they are the subjects of Beiman.

It is because under Beiman's rule, they actually live too comfortably.

At the beginning of the establishment of the Dasheng Dynasty, many local officials were subjects of the Northern Man.

Since the north is still using troops, and local affairs need to be dealt with in a thousand and one ways, the Dasheng Dynasty can only roughly follow some systems of the Northern Barbarians, and it cannot be completely overthrown as soon as it comes up, and has to be gradually implemented.

Later, various rules and regulations were slowly formulated and implemented nationwide.

But obviously, the unspoken rules of Air India are not among them.

And many local officials still use the old way of operation wishful thinking. In fact, it is because of the decades of rule of the Northern Man that these officials live too loosely and lawlessly, so such problems arise.

And the empty printing case itself is to stop this kind of unhealthy tendencies.

Alchemist Yong was still a little dissatisfied, he thought for a while, and then said: "But your majesty, since the establishment of the country, there has never been a law of empty seals. There are ministers and prime ministers who don't know their crimes. If they are arrested and punished today, why should they be punished?" Are you willing to say nothing?"

His meaning is very clear, that is, the imperial court did not have relevant legislation in advance, so there is no way to rely on it.

Since there has never been a law stipulating how empty seals should be dealt with, and the relevant departments do not know how to deal with crimes, so they cannot be punished.

Chu Ge looked at Alchemist Yong and nodded slightly.

Finally, this third point finally has a little lethality.

But it is still not difficult for him to refute this point.

Chu Ge asked back: "It is true that the law does not stipulate how to deal with empty seals. From this point of view, what you said seems to be somewhat reasonable.

"Then let me ask you, how are the accounts compiled and compared when I order, are the relevant details clear?

"Are there any similarities between the prescribed practical operation and the operation method of Air Printing?"

The alchemist was taken aback for a moment: "This..."

Chu Ge made it very clear that there is indeed no penalty for empty seals in the law, but it is very clear about how the local accounts are compiled, how to submit the data to the Ministry of Accounts for verification, and how to deal with problems in the verification. .

After all, if this kind of thing is not clearly stated, it will be difficult for officials to act in accordance with relevant regulations.

However, the operation method of Air Printing is obviously completely inconsistent with the previous process of book making and verification that had clear requirements.

Sheng Taizu has stipulated that all levels must truthfully report the tax figures paid, and finally get it to the Ministry of Households for verification, and the seal can only be stamped after the verification is correct.So if the operation is done in the form of empty printing, what is the point of truthfully reporting the numbers at all levels?

In the end, it depends on how much each country submits. The Ministry of Household Affairs and the local government discuss and fill in the number, isn't it all over?
In other words, although there is no clear regulation on how to punish such an act of empty printing, it is clear that this act strictly violates the relevant regulations, which is undeniable and irrefutable.

Chu Ge continued: "You said that the empty seal is just a trivial matter, and there is no clear regulation on what crimes should be committed by the empty seal, so it should not be punished, don't you think it is absurd?
"I would like to ask you, as an official, is it okay to do what the law does not prohibit, or is it not allowed to do so without the law?"

The alchemist was taken aback for a moment: "This...naturally, it can be done without any prohibition..."

Chu Ge's face turned cold, and he slammed the table: "Nonsense!
"It can be done without prohibition by law? There are so many laws and regulations, how can it be possible to include all the actions of officials? If there is no prohibition by law, officials at all levels can use clever names to exploit the people, wouldn't it be against the sky?"

The alchemist still refused to accept it, and said: "Your Majesty! The emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats rule the world. This has been a tradition since ancient times..."

Chu Ge said coldly: "I am not ruling the world with the scholar-bureaucrats, but with the scholar-officials! The scholar-bureaucrats cannot rule the world. I can rule the world by myself, and I can also use other people to rule the world!"

The alchemist couldn't help being stunned, and after a long time he said in shock: "How is your majesty's words different from Du Fu's?"

Chu Ge slightly shook his head in disappointment: "Drag on!

"Decree that the officials involved in the Kongyin case will be beheaded by the chief seal official, and the deputy seal official will be punished and exiled!"

After the dust settled, a series of pictures were presented in front of Chu Ge like a revolving lantern.

Hundreds of officials were questioned and beheaded, and hundreds more were punished and exiled.

Alchemists are also used among officials who are blamed and exiled.

And many of the officials involved in the empty printing case did not have much corruption, and they could be regarded as good officials according to ancient moral standards.For example, the alchemist used it.

There are quite a few people who support alchemists, and it is foreseeable that many literati will complain for alchemists in the future, and will make the empty seal case an unjust case.

But for Chu Ge or the real Sheng Taizu, it is no longer important.

In front of Chu Ge, a line of handwriting appeared.

[Dasheng Dynasty Guozuo: 280 years]

Seeing this handwriting, some smiles finally appeared on Chu Ge's face.

efficient!

Compared with the real Guozuo in history, it has been slightly extended.

Although the extension was very limited, it was finally extended.

In the case of the North and South List before, Chu Ge also tried his best to carry out some operations, but the Guozuo of the Dasheng Dynasty did not increase at all.

Several times knowingly made mistakes, Guozuo's reaction was also very real, and he was cut in half.

This shows that his operations that he thought were useful were trivial and had no meaning at all to the matter of extending Guozuo.

But this time things are different.

Chu Ge's overall handling of the Kongyin case is still similar to that of Sheng Taizu back then, but some adjustments have been made in details.This may be the key to the slight extension of Guozuo.

"I have formulated a strategy of returning waste and envy to the public. Compared with the tax calculation method of Sheng Taizu, this strategy is obviously some progress. But no matter how good the strategy is, it will definitely gradually change after more than 100 years.

"In addition, the conversation I used with the alchemist should also have a certain impact.

"Because what I said on behalf of Sheng Taizu at this time can represent Sheng Taizu's thoughts on governing the country to a certain extent, which will affect the thoughts of future emperors on governing the country.

"Although it is still inevitable that there will be a faint king, this subtle influence should be able to prolong Guozuo a little bit.

"It seems that the playing of the role of emperor is indeed similar to what I thought.

"How to deal with these cases is important, but more importantly, it is necessary to sort out the situation in the court in the early years of the Great Sheng Dynasty, figure out why Taizu Sheng did this, and then answer according to the specific situation at this time.

"If I hadn't figured this out, I would have run out of words to refute the alchemist's use.

"If the alchemists cannot be persuaded to use it, it naturally means that Sheng Taizu's concept of governing the country is not clear enough, and the final number of Guozuo will definitely be greatly reduced."

After some analysis, Chu Ge became more and more certain of his thoughts.

The debate between him and the alchemist actually had only two core issues.

The first is whether the emperor knows enough about the situation at the grassroots level.If you don't understand, it is easy to be fooled by officials.For example, what alchemists used to say about "going back and forth often takes a year", if the emperor didn't know that it actually took less than a month to get to the capital from these places, he would be easily involved and could only use the way officials prefer to go. manage.

The officials have indeed saved trouble, but over time, how many holes of fraud will be dug behind this "troubleshooting"?That's hard to say.

The second is, who is the emperor sharing the world with?
The emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats share the world. Is there something wrong with this sentence?
In fact, there is a big problem.

When many people discuss this issue, they choose between the two options of "the emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats share the world" or "the emperor and the common people share the world".

But in fact, neither of these options is correct.

Sharing the world with the common people, although it sounds nice, actually does not conform to the basic laws.The people are the ruled class, and the emperor and scholar-bureaucrats are the ruling class. How can the emperor share the world with the people?

This is impossible.

Therefore, many scholar-bureaucrats shouted "the emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats share the world" openly to fool the emperor.

If governing the country is to cut leeks, then the request of the literati and landlords is that the state can only cut the poor, not them.

For the emperor, if he believed this sentence, the country might not be able to last for a few years.Because the poor don't have much property, the landlords cut off the country, and cutting it back and forth will only end in stirring up civil uprisings?
So for a clear-headed emperor, it was never a time to share the world with scholar-bureaucrats.Dynasties that cannot cut off the scholar-bureaucrats are basically not far from being destroyed.

The previous reforms, to put it bluntly, were all about cutting leeks from the hands of these scholar-officials and letting them spit out part of their vested interests.

Some dynasties failed because the entire bureaucratic class composed of scholar-bureaucrats was too powerful, and the emperor could not move at all. Then they could only continue to oppress the people with these scholar-bureaucrats, and in the end the country collapsed.

The correct way should be "the emperor uses literati to rule the world", that is to say, literati are just tools for ruling.If the literati became powerful and seriously oppressed the people, then as the emperor, these literati had to be cut off so that the people could recuperate normally, so that the country could be stable.

As a feudal emperor, Sheng Taizu also regarded the people as his own private property, and it was impossible for him to have ideas of freedom and equality, but at least compared with other feudal emperors, he was more aware of the difficulties of the people, and he also knew how to let the people recuperate and live a better life. The truth of the good life.

If these scholar-bureaucrats were really allowed to mess around, and they really shared the world with the scholar-officials, then the Dasheng Dynasty would definitely not live for more than 200 years.

But unlike those emperors who wanted to change the law but did not change, Sheng Taizu had a way.

For other emperors, there was only one way to face the lack of cooperation from the bureaucracy, and that was to give in.

What if everyone is killed and no one is working?Then you can only make do with it.

But for Sheng Taizu, there will be no such problem.

Do not cooperate?Then kill!

So what if all these officials are killed?I can do things by myself!
As a result, the unconvinced officials met the emperor, a model worker with extraordinary ability to govern the country and extremely vigorous energy, and this was the ending.

For officials and landlords, of course they are dissatisfied.We have been lords in all dynasties, and together in Yurou Township, why should we be grandchildren when it comes to your great prosperity?

And Sheng Taizu's answer was: If you don't become grandsons, then the people will go through the tragedy of changing sons and eating again!
Therefore, in Sheng Taizu's thinking, of course he would not think that he was still the common people, and the emperor, as a representative of the ruling class, could not really stand on the same side as the common people.

But this kind of governance skills will indeed allow the common people to live a relatively good life.

But the price is that the scholar-bureaucrats who hold the pen must describe it as an unprecedented dark dynasty and tyrant rule.

Chu Ge shook his head slightly, and continued to bury his head in the mountain of memorials, looking for the next case.

(End of this chapter)