Daming: The most ruthless tyrant in history

Chapter 955: Extracting pus and squeezing sores (2)

Ever since Zhu Youxiao ascended the throne, he has always wanted to promote one thing, that is, the rectification of the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, how to keep it normal and how to ensure compliance.

For this purpose, Zhu Youxiao set up a special Integrity Council, clarified the integration of the science and government, and established a special procuratorate. Before and after this, he ordered a group of ministers to handle major cases and arrest corrupt officials who violated laws and disciplines, committed favoritism and fraud, and abused their power for personal gain. Although many results and achievements were made during this period, Zhu Youxiao was still not satisfied.

However, as time went by, the state that Zhu Youxiao wanted was gradually taking shape in the three courts of Censorship, Procuratorate, and Integrity. If this matter could be finally realized, the Ming Dynasty's supervisory system would truly become independent and become an important existence for supervising the huge number of officials!
The civil service group of the Ming Dynasty was too special and too transcendent. Zhu Youxiao wanted to split it up. The administrative, judicial, supervisory... departments should not interfere with or influence each other. Everything should revolve around the imperial rule. Officials from different systems who dared to openly or secretly intervene and interfere with things outside the system would be severely punished.

This task was extremely difficult and faced great resistance, but for Zhu Youxiao, he had no way out. If this task failed, then the reforms he had worked so hard to carry out would only last for a period of time and would be completely denied at some stage in the future.

Metropolitan Procuratorate.

House meeting.

Since the six departments were merged into the Censorate, some personnel from the Censorate have been transferred to central government offices to exercise supervisory powers, and the Censorate's meetings have added a lot of content.

"You have all reviewed the proposal of the Resident Inspector. You can all share your ideas." Left Censor-in-Chief Li Qiyuan sat in the main seat, glanced at the officials of the Censorate gathered in the hall, and said calmly.

"The three evils of flying, fire consumption, and escaped households have always been the stubborn diseases that have troubled the court. Since the court promoted the new currency, the Ministry of Revenue has launched tax reforms in northern Zhili, Liaodong and other places, which can be said to have achieved considerable results. However, since the trial tax reform, except for the changes mentioned above, the tax policy malpractices in other places in the Ming Dynasty have always existed."

When he said this, Li Qiyuan stopped and looked at the officials in the hall.

When other high-ranking officials of the Censorate heard what their Chief Censor said, different expressions appeared on their faces. What they were going to discuss today was no small matter.

"General, I think this is something the Ministry of Revenue should consider."

In the delicate atmosphere, the Right Censor-in-Chief Yuan Yingtai frowned and said, "What Zhou Zhigang mentioned is obviously beyond the authority of the Metropolitan Censorate. How to solve these problems and how to implement them in the local areas are all determined by the Ministry of Revenue based on the actual situation. After the Ministry discusses the results, it will draft a memorial to the Ministry of Public Administration and submit it to the Emperor."

"For the Ministry of Supervision, they only need to do a good job of supervising the departments and agencies to see if there are any acts of slackness, laziness or laziness in administration. But talking about these things now is obviously not what they should do."

Yuan Yingtai's words were echoed by many people.

indeed.

The departments of Ke and Dao were indeed merged, but the powers of the six departments did not disappear. On the contrary, they were directly supervised in a more detailed form in the name of dispatch.

In the existing supervision system, the Censorate is clearly in charge of central affairs, the Procuratorate is clearly in charge of local affairs, and the Integrity Commission supplements this with anti-corruption and promoting integrity. This makes supervision a closed loop, and there will be no loopholes or defects in the connection of certain powers, which can be exploited by people with ulterior motives.

"I think this idea is wrong."

Right Censor Zhong Yuzheng frowned slightly, glanced at Yuan Yingtai, and then said: "One of the duties of the Censorate is to see whether the central government officials perform their duties well. Yes, the Ministry of Revenue has tried some tax reforms in the past and achieved considerable success, but this cannot cover up the omissions in other aspects."

"Since the tax reform was clearly proposed, it has been implemented in northern Zhili, Liaodong and other places for a long time. It has been several years. Tax reforms such as temple property tax have achieved remarkable results. It has also been tried in Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and other places."

"Why did they stay in northern Zhili and Liaodong for so long when it came to matters like flying and burning, and why couldn't they be sent to other places with clear regulations?"

"Deputy Governor, this is not just the Ministry of Revenue's business." Yuan Yingtai frowned and said, "The Ministry of Revenue has achieved remarkable results in Northern Zhili and Liaodong in terms of flying money and fire consumption. That is because the officials under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue supervised the production of new currency and clearly stated that the payment of taxes must be settled in new currency, and there are silver banks designated by the Ministry of Revenue to exchange them. Only then can such results be achieved."

"Okay, even if this matter has something to do with my Censorate."

"Then I would like to ask the deputy governor, if the Ministry of Revenue finally adopts this matter and expands the above tax reform area, but other officials do not follow up, how should this matter be resolved?"

"Then impeach the other officials!"

Zhong Yuzheng said in a sonorous tone: "I will not elaborate on the duties of the Censorate. You know it very well. Is this a difficult task?"

The atmosphere in the hall became subtle.

Many people's eyes changed when they looked at Zhong Yuzheng.

What Yuan Yingtai was actually referring to was the special existence of Shaofu.

But Zhong Yuzheng broke through this special existence.

The Censorate has the authority to supervise the central government officials, but there has always been concerns among people in the Censorate about a certain type of officials.

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Even though some people think that they should perform their duties, there are still some people who oppose it and have concerns. These are the officials specially appointed by the emperor and the officials who have been re-empowered.

This also leads to some things that do not achieve a true closed loop.

In a sense, the purpose of today's House meeting is to break this deadlock.

Your Majesty is right. Once a loophole appears, someone will take advantage of it, and some may even choose to turn a blind eye to the loophole because of certain ideas and calculations.

Seeing the reactions of the officials in the hall, Li Qiyuan felt emotional, but these people had no idea that what Zhong Yuzheng had just said was actually clarified in a secret meeting with Li Qiyuan.

Li Qiyuan decided to do this with the emperor's explicit instructions.

The behemoth Shaofu is just a special product of a special period. When the reform reaches a certain level, the departments under its jurisdiction will be split up, and a group of new departments will appear in the central government of the Ming Dynasty. However, during this period, certain things cannot form inertia, otherwise the Shaofu, which is currently the pioneer of reform, may become the biggest obstacle to reform later.

After all, interests are involved.

"I think what Vice-President Zhong said is correct in this matter."

In this situation, Li Qiyuan stood up and supported, "Since you are an official in the Censorate, don't worry about this or anything else. If you only have concerns in your heart but don't have the power to supervise, then it's best not to stay in the Censorate. I think this matter should be drafted as soon as possible and submitted to the emperor for his majesty to decide!"

(End of this chapter)