The first assistant of the poor family

Chapter 579 Official Illness [4000 words combined into one chapter]

People have to be hard on themselves sometimes, let alone when life and death are at stake.

Officials from the Jinan Prefecture and even the Chief Secretary of Shandong Province poured buckets of ice water over their 'cold', and temporarily escaped the limelight.

Of course, this is only temporary.

The effect Qian Lan wants has already been produced, and the insides of these corrupt officials have been loosened and disintegrated.

Although Lin Feng is not a member of Qin Kewang's inner circle, he knows something inside.Now that Lin Feng is writing to ask Qin Kewang for help, will Mr. Qin help or not?
Obviously, Qin Kewang didn't know that Lin Feng had been arrested, otherwise he wouldn't be so entangled.The question before Qin Kewang now is whether to save Lin Feng.

It would be very risky if he saved it, and if he didn't save it, it would chill the hearts of his direct descendants.It will be difficult if everyone is in danger.

Qin Kewang really hoped that Lin Feng would die suddenly overnight, so there would be no way to investigate.But this is obviously impossible.

The Son of Heaven is in Tai'an, who would dare to send someone to assassinate Lin Feng at the risk of the world?If this is not done well, it will be considered as the assassination of Junfu, which is the crime of ransacking the family and exterminating the clan.

Qin Kewang chose to stand still, intending to see how the situation would develop.

From the current point of view, the situation can not be said to be good but not too bad.As long as Lin Feng is not arrested and imprisoned, everything will be said.

But Qin Kewang obviously overestimated his control over people's hearts.Except for the absolute direct descendants such as the procurator and the prefect of Jinan, the rest of the officials are more or less beginning to prepare for retreat.

Most obviously, there are far fewer officials giving filial money to the chief secretary's yamen.

This is a rush to get rid of the relationship.

Qin Kewang had nothing to say about this.Things have come to this point, seeking self-protection is a normal behavior.

The only thing he can do is to ensure that he will not take the initiative to show his flaws.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for this superficial balance to be broken.

One of Qin Kewang's confidantes, Cai Lin, the Tongzhi of Jinan Prefecture, took the initiative to report the officials of the Chief Secretary of Shandong Province for their corruption in ink and Japanese.There are more than 60 people on the report list.

Cai Lin's move happened very suddenly, without any warning before.

When Qin Kewang realized it, the memorial had already been delivered to the emperor.

Cai Lin was obviously well prepared, and the memorial to the report contained detailed records of Qin Kewang's embezzlement of ink and money for disaster relief, and his cooperation with the Cui family and Japanese pirates in smuggling.

If Lin Feng's report only opened a door, Cai Lin's memorial is the evidence for Qin Kewang and others' conviction.

Of course, Cai Lin himself was not clean, but he sold Qin Kewang and others without hesitation in order to pay off his crimes, hoping that he could be punished lightly.

Although the allies hated this kind of behavior of dead friends and poor people, it made Jin Yiwei very happy.

Now they don't have to be restrained anymore, and they can justifiably go to Jinan Mansion to take people.

Tai'an is not far from Jinan Mansion, and the Tiqimen of Jinyiwei soon came to Jinan Mansion to take away the officials involved in the case, and returned to Tai'an at night.

More than [-] senior officials were sacked one after another, causing a major earthquake in Shandong Chief Secretary.

The Son of Heaven decided to personally interrogate these scumbags who were greedy for ink, fattening themselves, and treasonous. After Xie Shen's persuasion failed, he had to let Zhu Houzhao go.

Among these officials, the only one Zhu Houzhao had an impression of was Qin Kewang, the governor of Shandong.

Just looking at his resume, Qin Kewang's resume is very beautiful.He served as a senior official in the local area and also held important positions in the capital.He was born as a second-class Jinshi, and he wrote good poems and essays.

But it was such a person with a near-perfect resume who made actions such as embezzling ink for disaster relief and silver, privately selling salt, and cooperating with Japan to treason the country.

The most ridiculous thing is that Zhu Houzhao once bestowed Qin Kewang with a plaque of "the minister of the shoulders and arms", but now it seems that it is a blatant mockery.

The two monarchs and ministers met in the prison, but they had too much to say through the prison door.

But just because there are too many things to say, there is no way to talk about it for a while.

Up to now, Qin Kewang has nothing to hide.

When Zhu Houzhao asked a question, he answered it, no more, no less, neither too fast nor too slow.

Seeing that Qin Kewang was so at ease, as if what he did was a matter of course, Zhu Houzhao really wanted to immediately draw the Xiuchun knife from Jin Yiwei's waist beside him and slash Qin Kewang's neck.

But he can't.

Although he is the son of heaven, although he holds the power to control all living beings, these people still have to declare the canonical punishment to warn future generations.

Otherwise, the Great Ming Law would really become a dead letter.

Collusion between officials and businessmen is a chronic disease that plagues Ming Dynasty, and Shandong Chief Secretary is just a microcosm.

Where there is Qin Kewang, there will be Liu Kewang and Wu Kewang.

Finding a solution to the problem is the top priority.

Of course, before that, it is also very important to punish these corrupt officials and evil gentry.

After Qin Kewang's confession, Zhu Houzhao formally issued an order, ordering Jin Yiwei to arrest Qinghe Cui's wealthy families including Tongwo.

Compared with officials, there are more wealthy family members involved in the case.

These evil gentry often have families as the core, and cooperate with ronin warriors in large-scale smuggling and sea trade to earn huge profits.

Because of the care of the government, the smuggling activities continued for several years but were not banned, which had a bad impact on the rule of Ming Dynasty.

The imperial power does not go down to the county, and the emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats rule the world together.

These seemingly beautiful language now seem so ironic.Zhu Houzhao was thinking, why must he share power with the scholar-bureaucrats?
What is the result of sharing?It is the traitorous behavior of these literati who have no bottom line and no integrity.

Perhaps in the minds of these officials, it doesn't matter whether they are proficient in Japanese or not. The important thing is that they earn a lot of pockets.The imperial court promised all kinds of preferential treatment for civil servants and gave them the power to exempt from land tax, but what they got in return was such a reward. Anyone who changed it would have to take a good look at it.

At this time, Zhu Houzhao remembered Xie Shen's suggestion of sharing power between civil servants, soldiers, craftsmen, and businessmen, and thought he could give it a try.

Previously, the New Deal had raised the status of soldiers, craftsmen, and businessmen in some aspects.

Although from the current point of view, the status of these three is still not comparable to that of literati, but they are always developing on the right path.

Zhu Houzhao felt that reform was imperative.Before that, he always believed that corrupt officials, moths and traitors were just an exception.But now it seems that this is because of the problems of the civil service system itself.

If the system does not change, it will be useless to kill all the corrupt officials, moths, moths and traitors in Daming.Because there will always be newcomers blackened on top.

Only when the supervision of officials is in place can this situation be avoided to the greatest extent.

Before that, Zhu Houzhao had been evading this issue, thinking that the system left by his ancestors was not perfect but at least adequate.

But now he has come to realize that this system is like a slow poison, although it will not kill people immediately, it will kill people slowly.

The Ming Dynasty has been established for more than a hundred years. If there is no strong medicine to treat it, I am afraid it will really perish.

There is no room for taking it for granted in governing the country, and it was indeed his mistake.

Dealing with these officials and landlords is very simple.According to the law of the Ming Dynasty, it is enough to kill these people ten times.

Zhu Houzhao did not spread too far, and ordered these officials and landlords to be beheaded for public display.His wife and children were exiled and assigned to Qiongzhou Prefecture, and all their property was transferred to the state treasury.

For a while, the vegetable market in Tai'an was filled with blood, and dozens of people were beheaded every day for serious crimes.

Their heads were hung on the city gate to show the public, so as to warn future generations not to make the same mistake again.

As for Lin Feng and Cai Lin, who made meritorious accusations, their crimes were reduced to one degree, and their beheadings were changed to exiles.

Zhu Houzhao didn't want to see Taishan Fengchan once in a while, and it turned into what it is now.

But this incident itself cannot be said to be an absolute bad thing.At least it allowed Zhu Houzhao to recognize the shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom, and strengthened his determination to support businessmen, craftsmen, and soldiers to check and balance civil officials.

This is actually Xie Shen's ultimate goal.

Only by making Zhu Houzhao believe from the bottom of his heart that civil servants are the cancer of the Ming Dynasty, can the Ming Dynasty be saved.

Take a look at those dynasties in history that emphasized imperial examinations and neglected military generals. Which one was not beaten into a hornet's nest by foreigners.

The Tang Dynasty was originally a superpower of all nations. Since Wu Meiniang abolished Guanlong to support the Han people, the combat effectiveness of the army has been greatly reduced, and it has become a soft persimmon that everyone bullies.The Anshi Rebellion was just an outbreak of accumulated contradictions, and the reason was the loss of the status of warriors.

Look at the Song Dynasty, which claimed to be unrivaled in economy, the imperial examination system reached its peak, civil officials completely suppressed generals, and there were almost no generals in the Privy Council.

Soldiers even have their faces tattooed, calling them thieves who join the army, which is simply a shame and a great shame.

But the emperor of the Song Dynasty didn't trust the generals so much, and finally got Di Qing and was scolded.

The result is also obvious. Anyone from Xixia, Liao, Jin, and Mongolia can step on the Song Dynasty.A strong economy is useless. Without strong military strength, no matter how rich you are, you will still be making wedding dresses for foreign races in enemy countries.

The Yuan Dynasty was ruled by a foreign race and skipped.In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial examination became a tool for the emperor to control the people.In the end, the emperor found that he could not control the tool, but was led by the tool instead.

The Ming Dynasty was also a dynasty with the highest power among scholar-bureaucrats, and the emperor was often helpless, which was naturally the fault of the imperial examinations.

The great changes in the late Ming Dynasty were more or less related to the imperial examination system.Families who want to get ahead all send their children to study, and even military families will send a child to study, hoping to get rid of their embarrassing living conditions.

Under such circumstances, how many people will focus on training children to practice martial arts and read military books?
Those eldest sons who inherited the status of military households and continued to serve in the army had to muddle around and completely became the servants of the officers.

Words are not written, and weapons are not like weapons. If this deformed model is to be changed, we must start from the root.

The simplest thing is to raise the status of generals so that they can see hope.

Of course, directly promoting the status of generals will make the ruler feel uneasy.Therefore, the method Xie Shen took was to mix military generals with craftsmen and merchants to elevate their status together, so that the emperor would not be too concerned.

This is very important. If the king does not trust him, the reform may be terminated at any time, and the repeated pains brought about will be more harmful than the original slow death.

As the helm of the New Deal reform, Xie Shen must be careful not to let the reform go astray, because once it goes astray, it may be difficult for any manpower to pull it back.

Zhu Houzhao delegated power to Xie Shen with confidence, and Xie Shen must take up this responsibility and complete the tasks assigned by the leader.

From the current point of view, the big case in Shandong can be used as a hot spot.

The most important thing is to weaken the inextricable connection between civil servants and local gentry.Only in this way can the imperial power be touched in the closed local politics, and the government's decrees will not exist in name only.

Be an official in politics, and become a gentry when you become an official.

These eight characters can basically summarize the relationship between civil servants and gentry.

So if you want to weaken the connection, you still have to start with the imperial examination.

The most important one is that the preferential treatment of tax exemption for famous scholars such as Juren and Jinshi must be abolished.

The so-called one person attains the Tao, and the chicken and the dog ascend to heaven.

As long as they pass the Juren or Jinshi examinations, countless clansmen will come to contribute land, how much tax will the court lose?

However, the imperial court did not dare to move, because pulling one hair would move the whole body. Once it moved, it would be criticized by countless civil officials.

Xie Shen decided to be the villain.

In fact, there was no such regulation at the beginning, but the civil servants are a group that is very good at seeking benefits for their own group, and this system was finalized after several discussions.

If you want to mobilize the cheese of the civil official group, you have to make a fuss about the system, pointing out that it is unreasonable for famous scholars to be exempted from taxes, and supplemented by the emperor's thunderous tricks, the civil official group can shut up.

Of course, all of this needs a starting point, and the change in Shandong this time is very suitable.

Officials and gentry worked hand in hand, a nest of snakes and rats, greedy for silver, messed up the salt law, and cooperated with Japanese pirates, and their reputation was completely stinky.

Why should local tyrants and evil gentry be exempted from taxes?
Even if Xie Shen wanted to make compromises, he would only be able to exempt the officials themselves from taxes while they were in office, and they would have to pay taxes after they left office, and they would have to strictly check the amount of land and be severely punished if they were found to be donated by clan members.

It is actually very easy to operate after you really make up your mind.After all, the amount of land under the name of an official is limited, and the possibility of thousands of acres or even tens of thousands of acres of land is very low.

Even if you come from a wealthy family, and the family has tens of thousands of acres of land, it still belongs to the whole family, and it is impossible to attribute it to one person.It would be nice to have a few hundred acres allocated to each house, let alone spread it over the heads of individuals.

This requires a long-term follow-up of the land under the names of these officials. If there is a sharp increase, it will be investigated immediately. Unless it is a large-scale purchase, it is basically a contribution.

After severely punishing a few cases of killing chickens and monkeys, it will have a deterrent effect, and people will have to weigh it carefully if they want to follow suit.

Of course, this process takes time.

But Xie Shen can afford to wait.He is still very young, and Zhu Houzhao is also in his prime.A few years ago, Xie Shen might still be worried, after all, Zhu Houzhao had no descendants.

In case Zhu Houzhao really dies one day, the successor may not have a good face for him.

But now it's all right, Zhu Houzhao already has an heir, and everything is developing in a stable direction.

Xie Shen can completely cultivate the little prince from an early age and instill his own values ​​in him, just like what he did to Zhu Houzhao.

A sense of trust really needs to be cultivated slowly. If Xie Shen hadn't become friends with Zhu Houzhao since he was a child, Zhu Houzhao would not have delegated power to Xie Shen and unconditionally supported Xie Shen's New Deal.

(End of this chapter)