Seeing Tianqi asked, King Gui thought for a while and said, "If you are a minister, you should just take a detour without seeing it." Everyone nodded their heads.

Tianqi said: "This county magistrate also thinks and prepares to do so, who knows that one of his officials is powerful, and he goes up to the person who sets up the stall is a whip, and the person who sets up the stall is in pain and stands up and says loudly: 'You dare to beat me?' Look at the clothes on my body, don't you want to live? When the county magistrate saw this, he hurriedly stepped forward to apologize and presented ten taels of silver, and returned to the yamen to call the official over and scolded loudly: "You bastard, don't you see the clothes he wears that are a senior official?" Do you still dare to beat him, do you want to cause trouble for this official? 'Guess what the officials say?' ”

Seeing the apocalypse and asking again, King Gui thought for a while and said, "Did the official say that he didn't know what kind of clothes this was?" ”

Tianqi shook his head and said, "No, after listening to the words of the county order, the official stepped forward and took off his coat and said, 'Master, what do you see on the villain?' This is also the clothes that the emperor rewarded because of the villain's military merits, why can't he beat him? The county magistrate had to come forward again to make amends. ”

After hearing this, everyone laughed and shook their heads, only Sun Chengzong said with a straight face: "The minister understands what the emperor meant, although the flying fish suit is a piece of clothing, it is the dignity of the court, if it is indiscriminate, it will make the court lose its dignity and make jokes, and the minister will take back the beginning." ”

Tianqi said: "Yes, although the flying fish suit is a gift, it is not a casual wear with grade requirements, even the brocade guards around me are not everyone is qualified to wear the flying fish suit, they all wear the flying fish suit, unicorn suit and bullfighting suit according to the grade, if one day the people who sell vegetables and pick dung all over the street wear the flying fish suit, the court will lose face and sweep the floor." ”

Sun Chengzong nodded and said, "Don't send this flying fish suit, but what about this silver?" ”

Tianqi gritted his teeth and said, "The Military Affairs Yuan will calculate how much silver it will cost, and if it is not much, it will be paid by me." ”

Sun Chengzong said: "There shouldn't be much silver in the palace, right?" However, if the minister wants to save it, it shouldn't be much, and it is estimated that 300,000 is enough. ”

Tianqi heard Sun Chengzong say that as long as 300,000 people, his heart was immediately relieved, but he asked carefully: "I remember that two days ago, someone mentioned that there were about 300,000 people in the military control area, and there were about 300,000 people with their families. ”

Wang Zaijin said at this time: "Your Majesty, this reward has always only rewarded meritorious people, how can others reward them casually?" It's not a good thing to reward too much. ”

Tianqi thought for a while and said, "No, when the military control zone was established, it was said that the reward would be divided equally, although this reward cannot be distributed equally, but it must also be stained by everyone." The military control zone is a collective, and only some people are rewarded, and the others have little sense of identification with the collective. In this way, before the meritorious deeds are rewarded, the people in the military control area will be rewarded with five buckets of grain first, so that everyone will be happy. ”

Everyone listened to Tianqi's words, thought about it and nodded, and Tianqi said again: "Also, for the soldiers who dare to fight the Jurchens, such as cavalry, hammer soldiers, chariot battalions, and sailors and marine battalions, we should reward them more." Let's put it this way, those who lie on the head of the city and shoot arrows don't count, and everyone else will be rewarded twice as long as you have cut down or been cut by the enemy. I do this with the aim of making everyone feel identified with the collective, and at the same time making the brave feel that their actions are worth it. ”

Sun Chengzong smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty, in this way, 300,000 taels of silver will not be enough, at least more than 500,000 taels, and this is not counting the rewards of the people in the rear." ”

When Tianqi heard it, he felt that it made sense, the soldiers in the front should be rewarded for their bloody battles, and the people in the rear who made plans and prepared materials and equipment could not have nothing, otherwise the people behind the war would also slack off in the future. Thinking of this apocalypse, he said: "The personnel in the rear who are related to the battle of Ningyuan and Nanguan will be rewarded with the soldiers in front, and you will first set the reward rules and report them." ”

At this time, Yuan Keli, who had just entered the Military Affairs Yuan, said: "The minister suggested that the soldiers should be rewarded with silver, and the officers would not reward them with silver, but they could be promoted, I don't know what the emperor wants?" ”

Tianqi thought for a while and said, "Although you can save a few in this way, in the long run, the gains outweigh the losses." ”

Seeing that everyone looked puzzled, Tianqi said: "For a long time, people have regarded official position as a symbol of power, but in fact, I believe that official position not only represents power, but also represents responsibility. To promote a person to an official is to give the person greater power, not for anything else but to enable him to use more power than before to take on greater responsibilities. I can't elevate someone because of their merits, I can only elevate someone based on their ability. ”

Yuan Keli thought for a while and said: "The minister is stupid, but the minister thinks that if a person can make meritorious service, it means that he has the ability, and the ability and merit should be linked." ”

Yuan Keli's words do not mean that he thinks this way alone, many people actually think so, they think that a person cannot make meritorious service if he is not capable, and if he makes meritorious service, it means that he is capable, and then giving him a promotion will help him make greater meritorious service. This kind of thinking seems to be very reasonable, but if you think about it carefully, you will find that this kind of thinking is wrong, not to mention whether a person has made meritorious contributions with his ability, not to mention whether there is any accident, if he is rashly promoted, it is difficult to say whether his ability can be qualified for the new position, the possibility of doing things by accident and correctness will increase, and the possibility of being necessarily correct will become less and less, just like a person with good grades in primary school and not necessarily good grades in middle school.

There's a story about a man who threw a stone at a window with a frame, and if the stone hit the frame, he would say, "Look, I'm good at it, right?" It just hit the window frame. But if he throws a stone out of the gap between the window frames, he can also say, "Look, I'm good at it, right?" Just through the window frame. "He's always right anyway.

What really depends on a person's ability is whether he can say his thoughts in advance and then do it. It's like the marksman Yoyuki, who first painted the leaves he was going to shoot red and then actually shot them all, so people believed that he was a truly capable person. The same should be true when choosing an official, you first talk about what you are going to do, and finally prove your ability with actions to realize your ideas, and only by matching words with deeds can you gain the real trust of everyone. Although the Apocalypse thinks so, he can't say it, because now is not the time to say it.

Tianqi thought for a while and said: "Now it can be said that people who have made meritorious contributions are capable people, and they can be appropriately promoted, but it cannot be claimed that the reason for their promotion is because he has made meritorious contributions, and it should be said that the reason for their promotion is because of their outstanding ability." ”

Yuan Keli asked: "May I ask the emperor, why is this?" ”

Tianqi said: "Everyone has two identities, he is both an individual and a member of the country, and the reward for his meritorious service can be seen as a reward for him personally, and the promotion is aimed at his status as a member of the country, so that he will not be confused between public and private." Think about it, if an official makes meritorious service but does not give him any material reward but only gives him a promotion, does that mean that he is allowed to use more power to make money in his new position? ”

Yuan Keli said: "The imperial court definitely didn't mean this. ”

Apocalypse asked, "The imperial court didn't mean that, but who would dare to guarantee that he himself wouldn't want to do that?" And I dare to say that once they decide to use their power to make money, they will still make money with confidence, because they will feel that the court owes them and what they deserve. Military generals can eat empty quotas, civil officials can also change tricks to scrape the ground on the people, and in the long run, the officials of the Ming Dynasty will become unofficial, not greedy, and proud of greed! ”

Hubu Shangshu Zuo Guangdou said at this time: "The emperor's words make the ministers have the feeling of seeing the sun and the moon through the clouds, and they are not as wise as the emperor, but how can these 600,000 silver come out?" ”

Tianqi sighed and said, "You don't need to worry about money, I will figure out the 600,000 yuan." ”

Seeing that the apocalypse was willing to pay, everyone also had a smile on their faces and said together: "The emperor is wise!" ”

On the way back to the palace, Tianqi was thinking about where to squeeze some money to prove his wise ability, when a little eunuch came over and said: "Your Majesty, Liu Xuan's maid and Wei Xuan's maid fell to the ground, and the queen asked the emperor to go to Kunning Palace to have a look." ”