allendalepharm Chapter 515 Then Kill
Chapter 515 Then Kill
Chapter 515 Then Kill
There are twelve guards in the Capital Camp, plus the newly established Shenji Camp which is all-firearms camp, the two major personal guards Longjin and Yulin, and the six rates of the Prince's Eastern Palace, a total of sixteen regular military guards.
Under it are the thousand-household units, the hundred-household units, the general flag and the small flags, with each small flag having eleven people.
Each of the twelve guards had a staff of 11,000 men, totaling 132,000 men. Together with the Shenji, Yulin and other military guards, the total number was more than 198,000 men.
Among these military guards, the Dragon Guards are the most special, with an extremely complete organizational system from the central government to the local levels.
Putting aside other things, if the retired soldiers of the Dragon Guard who are loyal to the country can be spread out to the local areas, then for the emperor, wouldn't the vast countryside and villages have a large number of ears and eyes?
What the gentry can do, the Dragon Guards can do; and what the gentry cannot do, the Dragon Guards can also do.
They are the Dragon Guards. Not only are they proficient in martial arts, but most of them are literate.
By then, the transmission of official reports will be strengthened, and the emperor's edicts and the court's decrees will be transmitted to the countryside, and the village heads and elders who are originally the Dragon Guards will go from village to village to publicize and explain them.
This fundamentally blocks the opportunities for corrupt officials and lawless gentry to misinterpret imperial edicts and government decrees, let alone heavy taxes and levies. Even if they want to incite the people to oppose the court's new policies, it depends on whether the new wave of village heads and elders will let them leave the county.
I guess if it really comes to that, under the leadership of the head of the Dragon Guards who are loyal to the emperor and the court, the common people in the countryside will block the gate of the county government with hoes in hand and hang all the corrupt officials on the city gate tower.
Jia Cong explained in great detail, especially advising the emperor to refine the decentralization system of prefecture and county government offices and strengthen management at the township level.
"Your Majesty, the imperial court's rule over the local areas is too weak, and the power of the county government is too concentrated. Although it can reduce the expenditure of the imperial government, it also makes the county officials the heaven of the people of the county."
Whether the sky above is sunny or stormy depends entirely on the character of the officials appointed by the court.
If they meet good and capable officials, the people can live a comfortable life for a few years.
If you encounter corrupt officials and cruel officials, then you will be helpless and there will be no one to help you.
Therefore, local power must not be concentrated in the hands of one person, and there must be constraints. At the same time, management construction at the township level and even the village level must be strengthened.
Of course, analyzing the current actual situation in Daxia, being able to achieve management at the township level is already a success.
After Jia Cong finished talking about the ideas at the village elder and neighborhood head level, he briefly said a few words about the ideas at the village level, which greatly shocked the two saints.
If what Jia Cong said could really be done, the court could directly appoint village heads at the village level and appoint neighborhood heads at the township level, and every imperial edict and government decree would be publicized and interpreted to the people by the neighborhood heads and village heads, then the gentry would no longer be able to fool the people and deceive them into opposing the court.
"Good boy, why didn't you tell me such a good idea earlier?"
The two saints looked at each other, and the look they gave Jia Cong was filled with both relief and a hint of resentment.
This kid is too lazy. He wouldn't have come up with such a good idea earlier unless he was pushed.
The emperor raised his hand and slapped her on the head again, then scolded her with a smile of regret: "If it weren't for Wen An, I think you would still be hiding it. What are you afraid of? Are you afraid that you will achieve great merits and be rewarded with a high reward, which will shock the emperor?"
"Ah? No, Your Majesty, what are you thinking about..."
Jia Cong hid behind the old saint with his hands covering his head, and said aggrievedly: "It's really not... Although I have thought about this before, the time was not ripe. Think about it, let's not talk about the Dragon Guards, how many people in the Beijing Camp will be truly loyal to you..."
uh~
The emperor's face darkened. This kid is not a human being. He always exposes other people's shortcomings for no reason.
The old man was watching the fun with a chuckle, while Jia Cong hid behind him and watched as the veins on the back of the emperor's hand lit up.
He hurriedly continued to explain: "Your Majesty, to be honest, it is an open secret that the imperial power does not extend to the countryside. If it weren't for Sister Lin suddenly breaking this almost transparent paper, I think it would be better to wait another year or two before we proceed with the direct appointment of officials from the villages and communities by the court. If the talent gap problem is not solved, it will still not be perfect if we only rely on retired imperial guards."
"Oh? Tell me in detail."
When it came to business, the emperor gave up the idea of knocking Jia Cong on the head and signaled him to explain in detail.
Although this kid is a bit clumsy, he always has a clear goal in mind and never does anything without confidence.
Sure enough, Jia Cong made another suggestion.
On the basis of continuing to improve the imperial examination system for selecting officials, the open recruitment examination for Daxia public officials (clerks) was fully implemented, referred to as the Daxia Public Examination.
Simply put, it means gradually abolishing the existing selection mechanism for local officials, and the court will formulate new policies and regulations to publicly recruit low-ranking officials from prefecture, county, and township government offices based on local needs, breaking the control of local officials and gentry over the grassroots.
Moreover, these clerks and village elders would no longer receive their salaries from the county government, but would instead be paid directly by the imperial court, thus eliminating the county magistrate's control over clerks.
Based on his superficial understanding of civil service examinations in his previous life, Jia Cong tried to explain as comprehensively as possible the advantages of civil service examinations for the court to control the grassroots, which opened the eyes of the two saints.
So, politics can be played this way?
Of course, the energy and financial resources consumed in this process also gave the emperor a headache.
"I finally understand why you didn't mention it before. The salaries of these officials alone will be astronomical figures every year. Your father-in-law will definitely come to me and cry about his poverty."
If it were three or five years ago, this plan would have been unnecessary. Although it was a good idea, the court could not afford the huge salary expenses, and even the best plan would have failed.
But now the emperor is so rich that he can be said to be inhumane, and money will no longer limit his dream of becoming the greatest emperor of all time.
"Xia Shouzhong, go and inform the cabinet ministers, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Personnel, and the Ministry of Revenue..."
"Your Majesty, I just issued an order to summon several ministers of the cabinet, as well as the Minister of Justice, the Left and Right Censors of the Censorate, the Minister of the Supreme Court, and the Governor of Shuntian Prefecture to the palace to discuss matters."
Ok?
"Did Honger encounter something difficult to solve?"
Without waiting for Xia Shouzhong to explain, Jia Cong hurried forward to explain: "I know about this. It is Sister Lin's impeachment memorial. Of course, there is also the "Management Measures for the Public Recruitment Examination of Daxia Public Officials (Clerks)" that Sister Lin and I drafted together."
After hearing Jia Cong's answer, the emperor nodded first, then asked in confusion: "Impeach? Who does Wen An want to impeach?"
uh~
Jia Cong was a little embarrassed. After scratching his head, he sighed and said, "The case in Shunyi County involved more than one gentry. There are many such cases in the local area, and the officials of the court are all clear about it. But for the officials of the court, the gentry are the cornerstone of helping them maintain the rule of the country, so they have always turned a blind eye to the misdeeds of some gentry..."
"Tell the important point!"
The emperor's face darkened again because Jia Cong exposed his shortcomings again.
This kid was talking about the officials in the court, but he was actually hinting at him overtly or covertly.
Yes, the emperor himself knew what the countryside was like, and he might have thought about changing it, but he had no good ideas and could only muddle along.
Seeing the emperor's dark face again, Jia Cong was about to slap him, so he immediately hid behind the old man again and said in a mosquito-like voice: "Sister Lin originally just wanted to impeach those gentry and the Shunyi County and Shuntian Prefecture. I thought it would be better to make a big deal about this, so Sister Lin added a few names at the end..."
……
The prince looked at the impeachment memorial in his hand and rubbed his brows with a headache.
The long list of impeachment made him feel terrified, especially since the first person on the list was his father, the current emperor.
The charges were quite reasonable. Lai Jiu drowned the widow in a pond for adultery in order to seize a few acres of thin land. Lai's daughter forced Sun Qi to hang herself because she looked down on the butcher's daughter.
Shunyi County was under the feet of the emperor, but such an absurd and tragic thing happened there. The emperor was certainly guilty of not governing his subordinates strictly.
Since the emperor is guilty, officials at all levels of the cabinet, government offices, including Shuntian Prefecture and Shunyi County, will naturally not be able to escape responsibility.
For example, the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Personnel are responsible for selecting talents and appointing officials for the country. Faced with the problem of gentry controlling local areas, they are slow to put forward appropriate suggestions for improvement, which is a manifestation of incompetence.
The laws of the country are no match for clan laws and village conventions, allowing local gentry to lynch innocent women. This is the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice.
Daiyu went to almost every government office and listed all of their crimes.
Jia Cong marked the solutions he could think of after each one.
See, it's not that my sister Lin is looking for trouble. There is a reason why you say these problems have not been solved for thousands of years.
But look at it now, haven’t we found a fairly reasonable solution?
To put it bluntly, it’s not that there are no solutions to these problems, but it’s because of interests.
The interests of the gentry are closely linked to those of officials in the court. Many gentry who control the local areas are relatives and friends of officials in the court. Everyone makes money together, so naturally they will not break the current pattern.
The people from the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate and the Supreme Court had been scolded and sent back to handle the cases. Liu Hong only left behind a few ministers from the cabinet.
"Lord Zhou, I think the suggestions made by Princess Wen'an are worth a try..."
The Grand Secretary Zhou Jiong opened his mouth but only let out a long sigh.
It is too difficult. If this strategy is implemented, the number of people offended will definitely be twice as many as that of surveying the land.
Not to mention anything else, just Zhou Jiong himself, had more than a dozen relatives in his hometown who, because of him, were employed in the prefecture and county, and the lowest-ranking official was a ninth-rank official in the Inspection Office.
Not to mention that local gentry served as village heads, or sent their sons to work as clerks in government offices. This was an unwritten rule for thousands of years.
Otherwise, how could the imperial court have such an easy time collecting the imperial grain and national taxes? Did they really think that the county magistrate would give an order and the common people in the countryside would obediently bring their grain, rice and silver to pay the taxes?
Several university scholars remained silent, and the main hall of the Eastern Palace fell into an eerie silence.
Liu Hong has already understood the meaning of silence. He feels a little angry and unwilling.
"Isn't this difficult?"
This question clearly expressed the Crown Prince's anger, and Zhou Jiong knew that he had to answer this question whether he wanted to or not.
In the end, he could only reply as tactfully as possible: "Your Highness, it's not a question of whether it's difficult or not, but whether it's worth it. Have you ever thought about who is standing behind the gentry? To be disrespectful, the emperor rules the country, and the officials govern the people on his behalf. The stability of the world cannot be separated from the literati."
Liu Hong's eyes narrowed slightly. He naturally understood what Zhou Jiong meant.
Behind the gentry are the literati. Since ancient times, military generals fought in wars and literati ruled the country. Without the support of the literati, the court could not rely on military generals who wield swords to govern the country.
This is the truth, but Liu Hong is unwilling to accept it.
"Didn't Lord Zhou look at the solutions in the notes at the back of the memorial? Are these solutions not feasible?"
Not to mention the implementation of the "Management Measures for the Open Recruitment Examination of Public Officials (Clerks) of Daxia", just the provision of allowing retired imperial guards to serve as village heads in the countryside can, to a large extent, break the situation in which gentry control the local areas.
Is this one not allowed too?
Zhou Jiong sighed again and explained to Liu Hong: "These methods are indeed good, but have you ever thought about what kind of situation the court will face once this policy is made public? The court's hard-earned stability will be immediately broken. The interests of county officials and village heads will be threatened. No one knows what will happen. Resistance to the law and rebellion are all possible."
"Then kill them! I don't believe the people will follow them and rebel against me!"
"Father..."
The emperor led Jia Cong into the main hall of the East Palace with great strides, and said in a cold voice with a disdainful look in all directions: "The country is now strong and the people are rich. The people have enough food. As long as they have food, they will not follow the gentry to rebel against me! It will only be a period of chaos. It is better to suffer a short pain than a long one. Taking advantage of the opportunity of reforming the official system, we can solve this problem that has troubled the emperors of all dynasties once and for all."
Jia Cong, who was standing next to the emperor, kept nodding his head. Now the two emperors were both the most powerful kings. If the problem was not solved at this time, future kings would have neither the courage nor the opportunity to solve it.
You must know that after the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties of the previous Ming Dynasty, the imperial power gradually fell into the hands of others. By the time of Wanli, when Zhang Juzheng wanted to carry out reforms, it was difficult for him to carry out a long-term confrontation with the huge vested interests.
After Zhang Juzheng's death, Emperor Wanli was unable to continue the reform. The new law that saved the Ming Dynasty was soon extinguished by the vested interests. Emperor Wanli was powerless to resist and could only hide in the deep palace until his death.
This is true for the Ming Dynasty and the Great Xia Dynasty. No one can guarantee that future rulers will have the courage and determination of the current emperor.
Of course, the most important thing is that behind the current emperor there is a group of military generals who are extremely loyal to him.
The knife is much more useful than the pen! As long as we kill a lot of people, I don't believe that anyone will oppose the court's policies.
The most representative one is Jia Cong, who kept nodding his head behind him. This guy's nod represents the support of the Military Merit Group for the emperor.
An idea suddenly popped up in Zhou Jiong's mind. The Lin family girl's suggestion might be the idea of this kid Jia Cong!
Monthly ticket recommendation ticket
I’ll stop here tonight and continue tomorrow. Good night!
(End of this chapter)