The Prosperous Era of Longwan

The two-capital system of the Ming Dynasty actually appeared very early. As early as the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, not only established Nanjing as the capital, he also established a "Beijing" in Kaifeng. This was also the prototype of the two-capital system of the Ming Dynasty.

Later generations thought that Zhu Di initiated the two-capital system in the Ming Dynasty, but they actually wrongly blamed him.

Zhu Yuanzhang's system was designed to resolve the resource distribution contradiction between the north and the south during the Ming Dynasty, ensure national tranquility, and try to find a balance between the north and the south, which to a certain extent alleviated the conflict between the southward shift of the economic center of gravity and the gathering of military power in the north. Contradictions laid the foundation for the long-term stability and development of the Ming Dynasty.

But later Zhu Yuanzhang found that this setting seemed to have no practical use, so in the eleventh year of Hongwu, he revoked the title of Kaifeng Capital.

Later, King Zhu Di of Yan launched a Jingnan War and usurped the throne of his nephew, Emperor Jianwen.

However, after Zhu Di entered Nanjing, he was "forced" to deal with a group of old Jianwen officials who refused to surrender, causing panic in the people of Nanjing.

When Zhu Di officially ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor in Nanjing, he still felt uneasy. He always felt that Nanjing was not as good as Peiping, his base.

So Zhu Di decisively issued an order to move the capital to Peiping and rename Peiping to Beijing.

Although Beijing became the new capital of the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing was still the nominal capital, so there were two capitals in the Ming Dynasty for a period of time.

It was not until Ming Yingzong succeeded to the throne that the status of Beijing as the "official capital" and Nanjing as the "remaining capital" was officially established, and the two-capital system was formed.

What role does "living the capital" in Nanjing play?

To put it simply, he manages the small half of the world in the south.

Although Nanjing does not have the title of capital city, Nanjing's government agencies have been preserved. Including the complete six-ministry system and important institutions such as the Hanlin Academy and the Supervisory Board, both Beijing and Nanjing have them.

For example, the Nanjing Sixth Ministry is also considered a real power organization.

The four departments of officials, households, soldiers, and workers are respectively responsible for official inspections, tax and grain collection, regional defense, water conservancy, and field farming in Nanjing and its surrounding provinces.

Only the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Punishment were a little embarrassed. The emperor and the court were in the north, so the ritual and music system and the formulation of laws naturally did not have the turn of the small court in Nanjing.

Therefore, the functions of Nanjing's Rites and Punishments Department were weakened and they could only manage minor matters concerning Nanjing's etiquette system and public security.

He has a lot of money but a few things to do but is an official. He is leisurely and at ease all day long. It seems that being an official in Nanjing is a happy life, but in fact it is not the case.

Who were most of the officials in Nanjing during the Ming Dynasty?

He made the emperor unhappy by doing things and admonishing him, so he went to Nanjing to become an official.

Those who were poor at work and could not meet the emperor's requirements were sent to Nanjing to serve as officials.

It was difficult for him to go to court, and the emperor was anxious to go to Nanjing to become an official.

It can be said that ministers who the emperor did not want to see and who were difficult to investigate and deal with went to Nanjing to serve as officials. Therefore, Nanjing also has the title of "Ming Dynasty Special Elderly Care Institution".

Therefore, the group of officials in Nanjing are far away from the center of power, and their political future is basically ruined. Except for a few "salted fish", the other officials are very painful in their hearts, even if they are promoted from the second rank in Beijing to the rank in Nanjing For a first-class official, that kind of psychological gap is enough to declare the disillusionment of a person's career ideals.

Now the court seems to want to cancel this nursing home. One can only imagine what those frustrated officials would think.

When the time comes for people to spread some rumors, their reputation will be ruined.

After Lu Tiaoyang expressed his concerns, he saw Wei Guangde nodding his head, and knew what he meant. Wei Guangde listened, but he didn't know what Zhang Juzheng thought.

When he turned his eyes to Zhang Juzheng, he noticed that his eyebrows were frowning, and he couldn't help but feel a sudden shock in his heart.

Yes, this is Zhang Juzheng's idea, and he must have thought about it a lot before putting it forward.

Lu Tiaoyang was not worried about offending Zhang Juzheng with his words, but it was not worth it for such a trivial matter.

So, he was thinking about saying something to make up for it, but then Wei Guangde spoke.

"Uncle, I think Brother Qing's concerns are justified. If this matter is announced, I'm afraid there will be bad rumors below."

Wei Guangde's views here are indeed contrary to Zhang Juzheng's.

Some trivial matters are not worth fighting with the officials of the world.

Going to Nanjing, although noble, is definitely not a good job.

No one is willing to go, so why would you restrict official positions in Nanjing like this?

"Some things can be done, but there is no need to talk about them."

Finally, Wei Guangde said meaningfully to Zhang Juzheng.

In fact, Wei Guangde's words are very straightforward. This matter can be implemented in practice, but there is no need to make it public. Just turn it into an unspoken rule.

However, Zhang Juzheng's frowning eyebrows still did not relax. It was obvious that he was indifferent to Wei Guangde's proposal and had no intention of changing it.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng's considerations were much more profound than those of Wei Guangde and Lu Tiaoyang.

Using Nanjing's official position to make a fuss was just his first attempt to bring some things that could be run off the table onto the table and form a system.

Yes, it was actually Zhang Juzheng's attempt to reform many unspoken rules of the Ming Dynasty's officialdom.

"Unspoken rules" are also called "money rules". This term was first coined by contemporary historian Wu Si after studying the history of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. He used this as the title of his book to comprehensively explain the official ecology of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

At this point, everyone has a tacit understanding of these rules.

Ancient "civil servants" all have a common characteristic, that is, they have been baptized by the teachings of Confucius and Mencius and the Four Books and Five Classics since childhood, and each of them shouts "loyalty to the emperor and love for the people, integrity, integrity, and benevolence, righteousness, and morality."

Of course, these are all empty talk, but behind them there is another unique code of conduct, which is the unspoken rule.

In the officialdom, what can you do without money?

Who is an official not for money?

From the beginning of being an official, there is no place where you don’t need money for promotion, assessment, and social activities. Everyone’s salary is so low that a month’s salary is not enough for a gift! What else can you do if you don’t get greedy?

Besides, this official is promoted by buying money, how can you get back the cost if you don’t get greedy?

This is the original logic of the formation of the unspoken rule. Thousands of miles to be an official is only for money, and everyone takes the imperial examination for money.

Therefore, the first unspoken rule of the Ming Dynasty appeared, not to let everyone be greedy for money, but whoever proposes anti-corruption will suffer.

In addition, there is actually a unique unspoken rule in the Ming Dynasty officialdom, that is, not seeking merit but seeking no mistakes.

In the Ming Dynasty, inaction will be considered fair, and those who really do things will mostly not have a good end.

Because those who really do things will inevitably have some considerations when doing things, so there will be mistakes.

If you make a mistake, your position will be lost.

Before this, in the Ming officialdom, as long as you don't make mistakes, you are basically a lifelong official, and you will not be dismissed until the Ministry of Personnel evaluates you and thinks you can't do it.

As long as officials don't make mistakes, they will not be demoted even if they do nothing. This atmosphere makes the officialdom more and more mixed. Everyone does not seek merit, but only seeks to avoid mistakes, which greatly reduces the efficiency of work.

Speaking of which, when this unspoken rule was first formed, most people believe that it is related to the empty seal case initiated by Zhu Yuanzhang.

The empty seal case is a famous case that occurred during the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. It involves the practice of pre-stamping seals on documents, which eventually led to the execution of a large number of officials.

The core issue of the empty seal case is a simple method used by Ming Dynasty officials when handling financial accounts, that is, pre-stamping seals on blank documents and filling in specific content when they are actually used.

This method was widely used at the time to save time and energy, especially when dealing with complex financial accounts.

However, this method was regarded by Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, as evidence that officials might use blank documents to commit fraud, so he severely punished officials who adopted this practice.

Due to the occurrence of the empty seal case, officials had a great fear of the emperor's authority, so that a strict unspoken rule was formed in the officialdom, that is, in order to avoid offending the emperor, officials had to act cautiously and would rather do nothing than take the initiative to do things.

If they did nothing, at most they would be considered incompetent by Zhu Yuanzhang and would be dismissed.

But if they did something, they might be taken as evidence of crime by Zhu Yuanzhang and directly pulled out and rubbed.

So for more than a hundred years afterwards, officials tacitly handled official affairs in a way of inaction, and when they were inspected by the Ministry of Personnel and the Censorate, they waved yellow and white things to bribe for their own future.

After Zhang Juzheng promoted the performance evaluation system, he inevitably had to face a problem, that is, whether officials who failed the evaluation should be dismissed or transferred.

Zhang Juzheng wanted to dismiss people, which was bound to affect the unspoken rules of officials.

After all, the evaluation of the performance appraisal system is different from the Beijing inspection and other activities, and it is carried out every year and every season.

As long as officials fail to complete their work tasks on time, they may be considered unqualified at any time and face the risk of being dismissed.

As for the unspoken rules, Zhang Juzheng used the method of political struggle to pull one group and beat another.

That is to find a way to abolish some unspoken rules, and at the same time, to rectify some unimportant unspoken rules, or unspoken rules that can no longer be changed.

For example, the local heavy taxes and levies, everyone knows that these things are extremely harmful to the court, but they are indispensable to local governments. Anyone who wants to eliminate them is an enemy of all officials in the world.

Such things cannot be moved.

Not only can they not be moved, but they must also be whitewashed.

In this regard, Zhang Juzheng already had an idea, that is, to incorporate these miscellaneous taxes that the people reacted to the most into the One Whip Law, and mix the regular taxes and miscellaneous taxes together, so that the ignorant people will not know.

In this way, in the Ming Dynasty under his rule, the infringement of heavy taxes and levies on the people was eliminated.

As for the unspoken rule of officials not doing anything, as mentioned earlier, Zhang Juzheng needed to break it.

In fact, Zhang Juzheng himself may not know that the performance evaluation system he promoted is actually similar to the KPI evaluation system of later generations. It only looks at data and does not consider other things.

In the actual implementation of the performance evaluation system, the six ministries and the Censorate issued KPI indicators and performance indicators to set rules and deadlines for officials to do things.

The quality of these officials' work depends not only on the evaluation of their superiors, but also on the supervision and impeachment of the six censors. The content of the impeachment and the comprehensive evaluation of the indicators of the superiors will affect and influence the rewards, punishments and promotions of officials.

Of course, the implementation of all these systems is subject to the unified management and verification of the cabinet, so that the decrees can be controlled from the issuance to the implementation.

Zhang Juzheng's intention to influence the unspoken rules of the Ming Dynasty officialdom is naturally not a trivial matter.

However, he did not intend to tell Wei Guangde and Lu Diaoyang about this idea.

They each have a group of followers behind them, and telling them may have a counterproductive effect.

Wei Guangde might approve of his attempt, but what about the people behind him?

Lu Diaoyang's situation is similar, but his strength is not as great as Wei Guangde's.

"Your concerns are reasonable, but I still plan to report this matter to His Majesty."

Zhang Juzheng's words made Wei Guangde narrow his eyes.

Obviously, Zhang Juzheng had considered it carefully before bringing up this matter.

Wei Guangde didn't know Zhang Juzheng's considerations for this attempt, but he thought that he might be a little arrogant after gaining power, and planned to use this matter to test the attitudes of the officials in the court, and use this as a judgment to see who supports him and who opposes him.

Wei Guangde glanced at Lu Diaoyang, and his eyes were full of helplessness.

Zhang Juzheng made up his mind that it would be difficult to persuade Wei and Lu, and it seemed that they didn't discuss it, but directly discussed it with the palace.

The chief minister naturally has this right.

He is the first person to communicate between the cabinet and the emperor, and if Zhang Juzheng had consulted Feng Bao in advance, then the probability of this matter being accomplished is still very high.

Wei Guangde just had the idea of ​​persuading him again, but he didn't have it anymore. Let him and Feng Bao do it. It would be interesting when the court and the public quarreled, and it would be time to dampen his spirit.

Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng maintained a cooperative relationship most of the time, and the court was relatively stable.

As for Zhang Juzheng's disregard of his opinions today, Wei Guangde just thought that he thought he could control the court and could ignore him.

The relationship between the two was certainly not close, but they used each other and could only get together if they were useful.

Wei Guangde had already thought about it and just sat back and watched the show.

"Shandai, Heqing, are there any documents you handled today that need to be discussed?"

After talking about his own affairs, Zhang Juzheng asked again.

Hearing this, Wei Guangde sneered in his heart but did not show it on his face. He first glanced at Lu Diaoyang, and saw that he was also looking over, but did not make any other moves. He immediately reached out from his sleeve and took out a memorial and said, "I have a memorial from Yang Bing, the military governor of the Beijing camp, on the purchase of chariots. The Ministry of War has already reviewed it."

After speaking, Wei Guangde handed the memorial to Zhang Juzheng and asked him to look through it.

"The Beijing camp needs 1,140 chariots?"

Zhang Juzheng frowned after seeing only the front.

Well, now the Ministry of Works' money is mostly invested in the Jiayun River, grain transport and the navy, and often the Ministry of Revenue has to support various expenses.

Now the Ministry of War is going to build chariots again, and the number is quite large. In the end, I'm afraid that the Ministry of Revenue will have to subsidize it again.

"Is it too much?"

Zhang Juzheng frowned and asked.

"This is the number determined by referring to the configuration of the Ji Liao Chariot Camp. It really takes so many to build a camp.

Fortunately, the Ministry of Works has supervised the construction of a batch of chariots before, and there should be some in the warehouse, so there is no need to build all new ones.

If there are any, they will all be distributed to the Beijing Camp, and the Ministry of Works will speed up the construction and delivery of the missing parts."

Wei Guangde explained.

Now the court has developed a mysterious confidence in the Chariot Camp because of its previous performance in the Great Wall of Jizhen, and believes that the Ming Dynasty has found a way to deal with the Mongolian cavalry.

For their own safety, the Beijing officials urged the Beijing Camp to build a chariot camp.

Wei Guangde was also happy to see it happen.

As for the expenses, that was the business of Zhang Juzheng and Wang Guoguang, as well as Tan Lun and Zhu Heng, and they would argue. (End of this chapter)