In fact, Guo Zhiyuan wanted to do it a long time ago, but he didn't know where to start for a while, because the water here is too deep! The corruption of the Ming Dynasty is well known, Zhu Yuanzhang laid down the Ming Dynasty, he himself is a bitter background, so he hates corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and treats corrupt officials and corrupt officials without mercy, it can be said that he has cut off countless heads, and even tortured corrupt officials such as skinning, but even so, corrupt officials are still one after another, endlessly, after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, the corruption of officials in the Ming Dynasty was even more out of control, to the Chongzhen years, almost to the point of no officials and no greed, Li Zicheng broke through the city of Beijing, 70 million taels of silver were scavenged from the palaces of the princes and ministers in the capital, and you must know that the annual financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty was only 4 million taels of silver a year, which shows the extent to which the officials were corrupt!

Why was the corruption of officials in the Ming Dynasty so serious? Speaking of the roots, it is because Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor, is too picky, he himself is a bitter background, so he treats the officials below very harshly, the salary on the books of the officials of the Ming Dynasty is very low, and the wife and children are enough to have food and clothing, and the officials basically can't live without making some extra money, for example, when Hai Rui, the first Qing official of the Ming Dynasty, was the county lord in Zhejiang, the whole family lived a tight life, so poor that he never went to the vegetable market to buy vegetables, and his mother went to buy 2 catties of meat on her 70th birthday and made headlines as a big news, It can be seen what level of salary income of officials in the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, it is basically impossible for Zhu Yuanzhang to run and the horses not to eat grass to be honest and honest, and when he dies, the corruption and bribery of officials in the Ming Dynasty are basically semi-public, and lower-level officials have to give gifts when they go to meet higher-level officials. Even Zhang Juzheng, known as the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty, also accepted the filial piety of his subordinates, and after his death, his home was raided, and 10,000 taels of gold and 110,000 taels of silver were also found.

High-level officials can rely on the lower levels of filial piety to earn income, grass-roots officials can only rely on the exploitation of the people, the most famous of which is the "drenched tip kick Hu", when the people hand over the public grain, first to pour the grain into the Hu, nominally to check the quality of the grain to see the fineness of the grain, the requirements to pour the Hu Zi full, there is a cone-shaped tip on it, at this time the official in charge of the official went up and kicked hard, requiring the Hu Zi not to fall, but the tip above spilled down, the spilled grain is not allowed to be recycled by the people, it is considered the loss in transportation and storage, The people then weighed the remaining grain in Huzhong, and invisibly handed over a lot of grain, which became a semi-public income for officials at all levels in the Ming Dynasty. (Note: Hu, a container for grain.) ）

Later, in order to rectify the rule of officials, Zhang Juzheng launched the famous "one whip law" reform, that is, the people paid taxes were uniformly converted into silver taels, which was equivalent to changing the original tax in kind into a monetary tax, so that the officials could not exploit the people through "drenching and kicking", but there were policies and countermeasures, and the officials quickly came up with a new way to exploit the people, that is, fire consumption, the so-called fire consumption is in the process of melting and casting silver, evaporating the part consumed. This part is actually two to three percent. However, in order to ask for more, officials generally increased this part to 7 percent, and the most ruthless to 20 percent.

In this way, the common people complained about a whip law, calling it "a whip for the remnants of the people" (of course, a whip law still has its positive historical significance, I will talk about it later, so I will not go into detail here), and a whip law was soon abolished after Zhang Juzheng's death.

It can also be seen that it is not easy to rectify the rule of officials in the Ming Dynasty, because it will touch the interests of many people, Zhang Juzheng was later liquidated, and he introduced the "examination law" and "a whip law" in order to rectify the rule of officials, which touched the interests of vested interests such as the bureaucracy, the scholar group, and the squire group.

Even the dignified first head of the Ming Dynasty to rectify the rule of officials has encountered such great resistance, not to mention Guo Zhiyuan's small Jiupin county order, so although Guo Zhiyuan has the intention to rectify the rule of officials, he does not dare to do it easily, because the scope of involvement is too wide, which is equivalent to declaring war on the current bureaucratic system of the Ming Dynasty.

Bai Du knew that he had realized the stakes as soon as he saw Guo Zhiyuan's expression, but he was still a little worried that Guo Zhiyuan was young and vigorous, and carefully persuaded: "I have always said that the imperial power is not lower than the county, and if you want to govern the county government, you can't do without the support of the local squires, not to mention the officials of the county government, even those who are in the third class are also inextricably linked with the local squires, and they will affect the whole body. The great situation that adults have managed to create is likely to be ruined because of this! Please think twice! ……”

Guo Zhiyuan frowned, and said in a deep voice: "What Brother Bai said is indeed reasonable, but you have also seen Chen Huaili's arrogant attitude just now, if this official shows weakness like this, what prestige do I have in Gutian County?" And since I am the official of Gutian's parents, under my rule, such a tragedy of five family members committed suicide, if I sit idly by, what face do I have to sit in the position of the county commander?! ……”

Speaking of this, Guo Zhiyuan patted the case hatefully and said: "I have long planned to rectify the rule of officials, if I don't rectify the rule of officials, everything I have done before will not be able to truly benefit the people, and it will only fatten those corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and Gutian will not get real development, just use this case as an opportunity to comprehensively rectify the rule of officials!" As for those local squires, there are many people who have made ill-gotten gains, I want to revitalize Gutian, I will definitely violate their interests, I have just arrived, the foundation is not stable, and I can only temporarily deal with them, now I have eliminated the bandits, and it is time to wrestle with them! ……”

Seeing Guo Zhiyuan's resolute attitude, Bai Du couldn't persuade anymore, so he thought for a while and said: "The adults have made up their minds, and Bai should fully cooperate, but this is cutting off people's money, such as killing parents, the county officials are very meager, not to mention that those third-class officials have no money, all rely on adult subsidies, but the daily operation of the county government depends on them, if the adults cut off their financial routes, I am afraid that no one is willing to be on an errand, how can the county government operate?" ……”