Jingtai Fengyun: The First Absurd Emperor of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 756 The Hajj system is completely abolished and inspectors general are added to each province.

How to restrict local officials in Ming Dynasty is not a small problem.

Zhu Qiyu secretly scratched his head, thinking that the chieftains in Yunnan and Guizhou could not rebel because of the mess made by the civil servants and military officers.

It's probably because they were too strong, which made the toast master's mentality explode.

The center hasn't floated yet, but local officials have floated first.

Zhu Qiyu asked Li Zan: "Why don't we prohibit all civil servants and generals from kneeling down and worshiping their superiors? Violators will be severely punished."

Li Zan was confused by the question. The mighty Emperor Tian actually talked to Xiao Xiao in a thoughtful manner.

At this court meeting, all six departments were called over, which was rare. They didn't know what kind of medicine was sold in the emperor's gourd.

Li Zan bravely replied: "Wei Chen believes that officials should also be prohibited from greeting each other, and the number and power of patrol censors should be increased to strengthen local supervision."

Zhu Qiyu fell into deep thought after hearing this. This makes sense. Local power needs to be checked and balanced. It is not enough to have the governor, the governor and the three chief officers. The Qing Dynasty abolished the system of patrolling and censorship, which resulted in the power of governors and governors becoming more powerful and able to be restrained.

So Zhu Qiyu asked again: "How many patrol censors do you think it is appropriate for each province to have?"

Li Zan didn't dare to answer this. If he keeps being so arrogant, it's time for the officials of the Ministry of Civil Affairs to put on some shoes for him: "I would like to report to your Majesty, I think that this matter should be discussed by the cabinet ministers and the Ministry of Personnel, and it is not something that I can say unreasonably." .”

Zhu Qiyu nodded: "As Ai Qing said, the cabinet will discuss it with the staff, and then report it.

In addition, in the future Umrah meetings, all six subjects will be given to Shizhong to attend, so I don’t have to specially summon them every time. "

On this issue, Zhu Qiyu and Li Zan happened to have similar views. Li Zan focused on the local area, while Zhu Qiyu focused on the center and wanted to slightly restrict the power of the six departments.

The specific method is to enhance the status of the six departments in order to strengthen the supervision of the six departments.

This should form a permanent system to prevent young masters from appearing in the future and having their power taken away by powerful ministers.

Although the Ming Dynasty had many checks and balances and was designed to be very strict, as soon as a young or weak leader appeared, some ministers would always jump out to cause trouble.

Needless to say, Sanyang, the great treacherous person in the front, did outrageous things.

Later, there was Zhang Juzheng, who took advantage of Wanli's youth to form an iron triangle with Empress Dowager Li and Feng Bao.

Zhang Da's first assistant, borrowing the imperial examination method, brought the Liuke Yanguan under the direct control of the cabinet. He was happy at the time, but the imperial power was severely stepped on.

Poor Wanli, he originally encountered great resistance in the process of regaining imperial power. Zhang Juzheng carried out reforms like a storm, and he took all the reputation himself, while leaving all the shortcomings of the reforms to Wanli.

With Li Zan's suggestion, Shen Yi, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, also stood up and said: "Your Majesty, as a rule, governors from all over the country go to Beijing to discuss matters in August every year. Now the hungry people are waiting for relief, and the money and food have not been exhausted, and the thieves have not stopped, please I am temporarily exempted from going to Beijing to attend to the matter, and I have ordered you to report it to me."

Zhu Qiyu waved his hand: "I know this. I will change it in the future. When the governor is sent out, he should work hard in the local area and don't go back to Beijing every year to discuss matters.

The governors of Shandong and Shanxi are better off. You said that the governors of Yunnan and Guizhou have to travel five thousand miles to the capital every year, and then travel five thousand miles back to their places. Isn't this wrong?

What if a local rebellion breaks out while the governor is in Beijing to discuss matters?

Moreover, our territory is getting larger and larger. When civil servants go to places like Annan and Myanmar, they are easily acclimatized, and they still torment people back and forth. It is meaningless except that people lose two years of life.

Forget it, this system has been abolished. If anything happens, just write a memorial. There are not so many things in this world that cannot be understood on paper. "

He Wenyuan, the Minister of Civil Affairs, asked: "Your Majesty, what about the pilgrim inspection of local officials?"

Zhu Qiyu waved his hand: "No need."

Since the Hongwu Dynasty, the Hajj inspection system has been established. Once every three years, foreign officials take turns going to Beijing to report on their duties, accept examinations from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and finally give rewards and punishments in the name of the emperor. Taizu stipulated that pilgrim officials should arrive in Beijing on December 25th every year, but the actual implementation was not so strict.

There are also many officials who will set off in advance to travel around the mountains and rivers and visit relatives and friends.

This is actually a huge waste of administrative resources. Zhu Qiyu has long wanted to abolish the Hajj inspection system.

Moreover, the inspection of local officials can only be done by the governor and the inspector.

If you have to go to Beijing for inspection, it is just a formality.

For example, a prefect went to Beijing and went to the Ministry of Personnel. The officials asked, "How has your political performance been in the past three years? What have you done?"

Just facing a table, asking and answering questions, what can I learn. With just a few questions, can you evaluate the prefect's local political performance?

Moreover, the Ministry of Personnel is faced with a large number of pilgrim officials from all over the world. The officials of the Ministry of Personnel may not even be able to recognize all the people, so how can they have the ability to identify the political achievements of local officials one by one.

At the same time, there is still the same disadvantage. Under the Hajj system, it is easy for a place to be without a chief official for several months.

He Wenyuan was shocked by the emperor. When the emperor said "I'm exempted from it," less than half of the power of the official department disappeared. This is really a disaster that comes from the mouth.

Zhu Qiyu knew what He Wenyuan was thinking, so he added: "From now on, under the Literary Selection Department of the Ministry of Personnel, there will be three chiefs in each province, who will be stationed in the local area and responsible for inspecting officials.

Under the Metropolitan Procuratorate, there are three additional censors for each province.

In this way, each province sends three supervisory censors and three officials in charge to supervise local officials at any time, which also saves officials the trouble of traveling for pilgrimage every year. "

As soon as these words came out, He Wenyuan immediately felt at ease, as long as the power of the officials was not reduced.

The smart ministers quickly reacted, and the emperor added more than a hundred positions to his disciples in one breath.

Disturbed by the emperor's sudden reforms, everyone had no intention of talking about other things with the emperor. The two sides settled some trivial matters and dispersed.

Zhu Qiyu returned home, freshened up, changed into light clothes, and leisurely leaned on the backrest and admired the scenery outside the window.

Lin Xiangyu asked curiously: "Why don't you have a headache today? The ministers didn't use the precedents of the "Da Ming Code" to make things difficult for your husband?"

Zhu Qiyu smiled and said: "I mentioned two reforms, but they were confused. They were all in a hurry to go back and study, so they didn't bother to make things difficult for me."

"Oh? What reform is so powerful?"

"The governor is no longer allowed to come to Beijing every year to discuss matters, and local officials are no longer allowed to make pilgrimages to report on their duties every three years."

“Would this weaken the control of local officials?”

Zhu Qiyu shook his head: "How is that possible? Civil servants are all mobile. They work in this place for a few years and then are transferred to another place for a few years. They are not military generals stationed in border towns. It is impossible for civil servants to lose their jobs.

You call them back to the capital at every turn, but it has no big effect except tormenting them.

There are also inns that the imperial court spent a lot of money to set up. Instead of doing business, they only receive these pilgrim officials. Isn't this a pure waste of people's fat and money? "

There is a saying that Zhu Qiyu did not dare to say directly. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen was tortured by all the consumption and could no longer bear it, so he cut out Li Zicheng from the post station.

(End of this chapter)