If I fail to overcome the tribulation, I can only return to the Ming Dynasty and become a prince.

When discussing budget policies, Zhu Gaochi and Xia Yuanji didn't realize how much this system would increase their workload. After all, they just made the original budget more detailed and reviewed it more carefully.

But when the Ministry of Rites submitted a compiled budget for social studies construction to the Ministry of Household Affairs, Xia Yuanji discovered that the workload involved in this set of things was a bit large.

"Prince, the people in the Ministry of Finance are already too busy! I have used all my manpower, and even brought back some people who are proficient in calculations from the money bank, but there are still not enough people!" Xia Yuanji asked He went to Zhu Gaochi and asked the prince for help.

It was useless for him to go to the emperor for this matter. Zhu Di was not like his father Zhu Yuanzhang. When it came to handling government affairs, Zhu Di's style had always been to leave things to his subordinates. He would never do it himself. He only needed to catch the boss.

Xia Yuanji went to Zhu Di about this matter, and Zhu Di would only let him find a way, and then he would support it, that's all.

Therefore, it is better to go to the prince directly than to find the emperor. At least the prince can think of ways to provide himself with some support besides verbal support.

"This..." Zhu Gaochi didn't expect that things would turn out like this. Originally, he thought it was just to add some procedures to the existing level of government affairs. Although it would make the officials handling it a little tired, it would not mean that it could not be completed or that there was not enough manpower. .

But obviously, both Zhu Gaochi and Xia Yuanji underestimated the increased workload after refining one thing.

It was easy for the Ministry of Rites to say that they only needed to change the original budget and refine it a little more, and that was it. This part was pretty much what Zhu Gaochi and Xia Yuanji had expected.

After all, it is just a matter of making a detailed cost and cost estimate, subdividing and improving the originally rough items. It is not a particularly troublesome thing, it just takes a little more effort.

This kind of thing is easy to do in the hands of some old officials without any extra effort.

But when this budget was submitted to the Ministry of Household Affairs for review, problems arose.

If the Ministry of Household Affairs wants to review the budget of the Ministry of Rites, it must know the actual market price of each item involved in the budget submitted by the Ministry of Rites.

Just like a stone of rice, the budget reported by the Ministry of Rites to the Ministry of Revenue is three guanwen per shi, so the Ministry of Revenue must investigate and find out how many guanwen the market price is, and also find out whether the price of food in different places is different to avoid such things as It happens that grain prices in grain-producing areas have two quotations and that in non-grain-producing areas has four quotations.

Because the former means that the budget is too much, and the latter means that the budget is too little.

When it comes to budgeting, neither doing too much nor too little is a good thing.

The Ministry of Household Affairs also had a certain understanding of prices in various places before, so it was not a big problem in calculating quotations. It was just that for some quotations involving local places, it was necessary to send people to inquire about the specific market prices in the local areas. However, this is not a big problem. It's just a matter of spending some time and asking the people below to walk through the official documents several times to wear down their legs.

But when these data are summarized and a series of processes such as calculation, statistics, and comparison are required, the workload suddenly increases.

You must know that the computing tools in this era are mainly calculation chips and abacus. It is actually very troublesome to calculate data, especially when a large amount of data statistics is required. In order to avoid errors, three or four people need to calculate together until everyone has the calculation results. Only when they are consistent will it be considered passed.

This will undoubtedly cost the lives of officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs.

Although mathematics is included in the Six Arts of the Gentleman, this thing is no longer tested in the imperial examinations of the Ming Dynasty. If you let those who passed the imperial examinations and Jinshi masters make a fuss, it can be done smoothly and in full bloom.

But what if we let them settle accounts?If you can add up all the numbers to get the correct result, you are already qualified.

As for clear accounting of an account book, finding loopholes and unreasonable expenses, and discovering whether there are any errors in the accounts, that can only be done by an accounting expert.

Of course there are such people. In previous years, these people were responsible for calculating the accounts of the Accounts Department, so they didn't think anything of this job, and it wasn't too difficult for them.

But the problem is that this calculation is too much!The budget that could have been reported to the Ministry of Accounts was already a general estimate. All they needed to calculate was whether there was any problem with this large total number, and whether there were any particularly outrageous figures in the accounts.

As for how much a pound of grain or a brick costs, how much grain and how many bricks are needed, why does the Ministry of Household Affairs need to calculate this kind of thing?

These things used to be accounted for by the household bureau of each chief secretary or the household bureau of the state government and county government at the lower level. After all, they are the ones who actually use the money and actually implement it. If there is a real problem, they are the ones. The first responsible person.

But now, all these things have been piled up in the Household Department, which means that the Household Department has to do all the things that were originally done by the yamen at all levels below. The workload has increased many times at once.

Therefore, the manpower of this household department is naturally not enough.

Faced with this situation, Zhu Gaochi also felt that it was very difficult, but it was naturally impossible to abolish the new policy, so he asked Xia Yuanji to take his warrant to the Imperial College to recruit students proficient in mathematics to help, while also thinking There is a way to solve this matter.

But even a government expert like Zhu Gaochi could only feel troubled and depressed when faced with this kind of problem, and could not think of any other solution besides expanding the manpower of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

This made Zhu Gaochi couldn't help but complain to Zhu Zhankun: "Son, the idea you came up with is a good one, but now the Ministry of Household Affairs does not have so many people. Just the social science budget of the Ministry of Rites has almost paralyzed the Ministry of Household Affairs. The budgets of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry need to be reviewed, what should we do?”

"What should we do? Dad, aren't you and Xia Shangshu both masters in this field? Don't you think of a solution?" Zhu Zhanjuan was busy with his daughter at this time. As for his son, he was with the Zhang family. Even if he This biological father couldn't compete with his mother as a grandmother, so he had to settle for the next best thing, teasing his daughter.

Zhu Gaochi looked at Zhu Zhanqun who was teasing his daughter with preserved fruit, and said dissatisfiedly: "If there was a way, why would I ask you? Your father and I have all turned gray in the past few days, and you are still here teasing your daughter?"

"Isn't this also your granddaughter? Come on, daughter, say hello to grandpa! Call him grandpa~!" Zhu Zhanjuan ignored Zhu Gaochi's complaints, held his daughter in his arms and waved his daughter's little hand towards the water mirror.

Although they are still babies, after their hair and marrow were cut off, Zhu Zhanchun's children grew up much faster than ordinary babies. Today, these two little people can already recognize people.

It is precisely because of this that Zhu Zhanjun would hold his daughter and play with her. Otherwise, he would not be able to play with such a small child like this.

After all, under normal circumstances, even a child over one year old cannot withstand the torment and should spend most of his time sleeping in a cradle.

Looking at his little granddaughter in the water mirror, Zhu Gaochi had no choice but to put out his dissatisfaction. Facing such a cute little granddaughter, he couldn't get angry anymore.

Just not angry, Zhu Gaochi still asked Zhu Zhanyu: "Zhanyu, is there anything you can do about this matter? Hurry up and find a way for your father, otherwise this policy will have to be suspended first and wait. The Ministry of Household Affairs will be able to carry out large-scale accounting before restoring it." "This matter is simple, just make some adjustments." Perhaps Zhu Zhanquan was trying to make his daughter feel good, and he did not hide it, so he gave it to Zhu Gaochi casually. He came up with an idea: "Don't all the chief envoys and the provincial and county offices have Hu Ke and Hu Cao?

Split the total budget, and send it to the prefectures and counties involved, and let them audit and calculate by themselves. After the calculations are completed, they will be submitted to the upper-level government office for review, and then continue after completion. Submit upward.

Finally, it is summarized to the Household Section of each Chief Secretary. After the statistical calculation is completed, it is handed over to the Ministry of Household Affairs. The Ministry of Household Affairs only needs to review the things submitted by each Chief Secretary. "

"If we split it up like this, won't there be problems?" Zhu Gaochi could hear the feasibility of this method, but he could also hear the problems.

The Ministry of Revenue's review is trustworthy, because it is responsible for the country's overall budget, and even if there are problems, they are just errors and omissions.

But if it is decentralized to local governments, it is inevitable that some officials will take this opportunity to make more figures or pass them off as good ones, and then enrich themselves.

Even if they are just reviewing and adding or deleting some items during the review, this is a huge amount of money.

Even with the monitoring of Qi Luck Compass, this matter would be difficult to detect.

You must know that although the Qi Luck Compass can monitor changes in the luck and people's sentiments throughout the Ming Dynasty, as long as it does not damage or reduce the country's luck and people's sentiments, it will not be displayed on the Qi Luck Compass.

To put it simply, it’s like something that could have increased luck and public support by ten points, but now someone is profiting from it, and the original increase of ten points has only been achieved by eight points, and the difference between the two points has been He profited from it.

As long as his actions are not aimed at damaging Ming Dynasty's luck and people's hearts, these will not be displayed on the luck compass.

Originally, no one in the Ming Dynasty knew about this matter, and most officials worked conscientiously because of the appearance of the Qi Luck Compass.

But there are still people who can't control their own hands and still want to gain benefits.

After all, being an official for thousands of miles is just for money. With the little salary from the court, should the wife of a dignified official go out to sew and mend to supplement the family income?

Do you still want the court’s face?Do you still want this official’s face?
What's more, even if there is an upright official who is willing to do this, his wife doesn't mind doing work in public to support the family, but the money is still not enough.

This is the fundamental reason why during the Ming Dynasty, although Zhu Yuanzhang's anti-corruption efforts were unprecedented, the corruption situation in the Ming Dynasty was still very serious.

It's okay for high-ranking officials, but if those lower-level officials didn't find ways to make money, they would really be unable to survive on the salaries issued by the court!
In the past two years, because the imperial court has become rich, especially the money orders issued by the Ming Dynasty Treasury have gradually replaced the already severely depreciated treasure notes, the salaries of officials have been relatively improved compared to before, coupled with the fortune compass Deterrence, the phenomenon of corruption has somewhat improved.

It's just that some people have become a habit, and some people are corrupt purely for the sake of corruption. In short, corruption has not disappeared in the Ming Dynasty.

The court also discovered when investigating a corruption case that corruption would not be shown on the luck compass as long as it did not damage luck or people's hearts.

The same was true for the corruption case investigated by the court. The official who committed the crime did not commit any dereliction of duty or damage to the country's destiny or people's support. He did complete the matter with due diligence, and the acceptance was qualified according to quality and quantity.

However, he accepted the filial piety of the wealthy people who were responsible for the work, and handed over the tasks that could have been handed over to the more capable rich people to the filial rich people, so that the things he did were only qualified, not the best.

If the court had not discovered the fact of his corruption, this matter would not have been discovered.

Because of this, Zhu Gaochi had to worry about someone taking advantage of the opportunity of auditing the budget to gain profits from it.

Regarding this point, Zhu Zhanquan still showed no concern: "If the water is clear, there will be no fish. It is unrealistic to really expect all officials in the world to be honest. Even if the fortune compass can show whether all officials are corrupt Taking bribes, the court could not stop this from happening.

As long as they don't give it to you as an official, or even let you as an official know about it, how can you start to investigate this matter?

Although practitioners can use the art of Dayan to deduce the past and the future, it is impossible for them to calculate everything in detail.

Just like it is impossible for the Ministry of Accounts to review all the details of the budget, it is ok if there are no problems in the general direction.

Of course, if you are really worried, dad, I can set up a more detailed supervision system in the court to check every detail of the custody.

Moreover, the imperial court does not have no supervision mechanism. Jinyiwei has been training with me for several months. It is time for them to go back and play their role and pick up their own work. "

In Zhu Zhanjun's view, it is unrealistic to expect that there will be no corrupt officials in the world, and for ordinary people, they are actually more concerned about whether the position of the court and officials can bring them tangible benefits.

It's like there is an official who is corrupt, but during his tenure as an official, he always benefits the local area and makes the people's lives better and better. He just takes the opportunity to get some benefits from it.

The other official was an upright official, but he had no outstanding political achievements during his tenure as an official. His tenure as an official did not bring about any changes in the local area, and the people still lived in poverty.

If ordinary people were asked to choose, I'm afraid most of them would choose the former rather than the latter.

Although this sounds a bit sophistical, to a certain extent it also reflects the reality of most officials in the Ming Dynasty.

What really makes the people hate and despise are the corrupt officials who are greedy for money and exploit the people, harming their interests to satisfy their own greed. This is what the people are dissatisfied with.

As for truly capable and honest officials, they are always in the minority.

It's like everyone in later generations says that Hai Rui is an upright official, but how can it be possible that everyone in this world is Hai Rui?
"Can the batch of Jin Yiwei you trained be used?" Zhu Gaochi heard what Zhu Zhanchen said and understood that this was indeed the case. He did not expect the world to be full of upright officials, so he became concerned about what Zhu Zhanchen said about the Jin Yiwei. matter.

Zhu Zhanjun nodded affirmatively: "Take them to complete a graduation assessment, and this knife will be ready for use." (End of Chapter)