After discussing with a group of cronies, Zhu Cijiong had a feeling that there were too many means to develop the economy, such as developing agriculture to increase grain output and vigorously developing cash crops; For example, the development of industry to increase productivity, vigorously develop the private economy; You can also raise cattle and horses, plant mulberry and raise silkworms......

In short, there are many methods, in addition to promoting steam power, vigorously improving productivity, the Ministry of Industry needs to develop a large number of civil machinery, the rest is actually very simple, all localities can do their own, but, why is the economy of the Ming Dynasty not improving at all?

In recent years, the economy of the Ming Dynasty can be said to have not developed at all, the treasury is all filled with the assets of the Jiangnan Shidafu Group that Jinling confiscated, and the military salary of the army is all maintained by the money earned by the Rixinglong business and the Western trade of the Ming Dynasty, and the taxes of the Ming Dynasty are enough to maintain the daily expenses of the imperial court, and there is no balance at all. It's just a year or two years, five or six years, every year, it's too much.

The reason is very clear to Zhu Cijiong, from the six departments of the imperial court to the local state and county officials, everyone is a monk for a day and hits the clock for a day, not seeking merit but seeking no fault, where the emperor catches, there will be improvement, and the emperor doesn't ask, they just mess around.

Like the Ministry of War, before he was caught, the 300,000 troops in Liaodong still had some combat effectiveness, and the armies in other places rarely even engaged in daily drills, and the battle was like a piece of tofu, and it was scattered when it was touched, and it was obvious when Chongzhen Dynasty that more than one million troops were beaten by hundreds of thousands of troops of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and finally the country died.

In the past few years, as soon as he was caught, the Houjin and the Mongolian coalition army that the six legions directly fought were hugging their heads, and now the Houjin is about to be wiped out by him!

Like the Ministry of Industry, before he caught it, this department was like air, without a sense of existence. In the past few years, Wang Gong's factory has been booming, and the weapons manufactured have excellent performance and excellent quality, which are not even comparable to the great powers, and now they are even more steam-powered trains, and advanced sail battleships have also started, and they are also preparing to develop various civil machinery to promote the development of productive forces. It can be said that it has completely changed from a marginal department to the core department of the Ming court.

What about other departments? The "Beijing News" came out with the General Political Envoy Department, which was running a prosperous and complete mastery of the mouthpiece of public opinion, but this was also what he single-handedly grasped. The departments he didn't ask about are basically air-like talents now, if you want to ask if there is any, then there must be, just like people can't live without the air, and the court can't operate without these departments, but if you want to ask about merit, it's not at all, they really treat themselves as air, just keep the court running, and they don't want to make progress at all.

It will definitely not work like this, and the rise of the Ming Dynasty cannot rely only on the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry, which is equivalent to moving forward on one leg, and it will not be fast at all.

What to do? Do you want to remove them all and replace them with Jinshi from these two subjects? This is definitely not good, I am afraid that there are not more than 10,000 officials above the sixth grade of the entire Daming Guang, and the Jinshi of these two subjects are only six or seven hundred, not even a fraction is not enough, and not all officials are useless, the general environment dictates it, they just go with the flow, maybe change to a positive and enterprising environment, some of them will be more powerful than Bi Maokang, Song Yingxing and others.

This question is indeed a headache, in the past few years, Zhu Cijiong has been developing the military industry and rectifying the army, if you want to talk about political means, he really hasn't studied it, how to rectify the rule of officials, he has been thinking about it for a few days and has not come up with a practical method.

Just when he had a headache for this, things suddenly came to a big reversal, on this day he was thinking about it in his private study, and Cao Huachun suddenly came to report outside: "Your Majesty, Yang Sichang, the secretary of the Ministry of Justice, and Li Banghua, the imperial history of the left capital of the Imperial Inspectorate, ask to see." ”

When Zhu Cijiong heard this, his eyes couldn't help but light up, aren't the officials and the Metropolitan Procuratorate all in charge of officials, how to rectify this official rule They should be clear! So, he couldn't wait to run to the imperial study and summoned the two in.

Unexpectedly, before he could ask a question, Yang Sichang asked him instead, and as soon as Yang Sichang walked into the imperial study, he saluted solemnly and said: "Your Majesty, is the Beijing inspection plan going to be done this year?" ”

Zhu Cijiong was stunned when he heard this, what kind of plan to investigate Beijing, he didn't know! It's not that he doesn't read much, it's that his father died early, and he didn't teach him anything about being a king at all; His teacher Xu Guangqi was so that his feet didn't touch the ground, and he didn't have time to teach him at all, so he didn't know many things!

It is strange enough to be the emperor when he is like this, if he didn't have the history books of later generations as a reference, and promoted some loyal ministers and good generals, it is estimated that the court has been chaotic now, but fortunately, he has now realized that his control over the government is not enough, and he is preparing to make great efforts to rectify the rule of officials.

This Jingcha plan sounded related to the rectification of the officials, which was exactly what he wanted, and he didn't care if he was embarrassed or not, so he asked directly: "What is the Jingcha plan, why have I never heard of it?" ”

Yang Sichang and Li Banghua were stunned when they heard this, the emperor was not embarrassed, but they looked a little embarrassed.

To say why Confucianism can prevail in China for thousands of years, mainly because he has a benefit, this ancient Confucianism scholars in addition to the unscrupulous traitors and paranoid and arrogant Confucianism, the general people take the emperor very seriously, the so-called heaven and earth monarchs, the emperor's respect, can be seen. Therefore, real scholars will not and dare not discuss the emperor's rights and wrongs.

Yang Sichang and Li Banghua are naturally models of loyalty and patriotism, otherwise Zhu Cijiong would not have let them hold such an important position, so now even Zhu Cijiong doesn't even know such a major matter as the Jingcha plan, they don't think it's the emperor's fault, but their own fault, it's that they never mentioned the Jingcha plan to the emperor, and the emperor wouldn't know about it.

After the embarrassment, Yang Sichang hurriedly explained in detail: "Your Majesty, it's like this, this Jingcha is a big inspection of all the officials in the two capitals, Taizu stipulated that it should be checked every three years, but the first emperor Hongzhi period was changed to a six-year inspection, which has continued to this day, and this year is the sixth year of the emperor's reign, so it has not been held before, and it is normal that the emperor has not heard of it." As for the big plan, it is an external inspection, which is a big inspection of all local officials in the Ming Dynasty, so it is called a big plan, and the big plan is generally inspected once every three years, and Chongzheng has already inspected it once in three years. ”

It turned out that Jingcha had been inspected for six years, and he had only been in the dynasty for more than five years in total, no wonder he hadn't heard of it, as for the big plan, maybe he had, at that time he was concentrating on the development of the military industry, trying to deal with Huang Taiji, the affairs of local officials, where did he have the heart to care.

However, this time the Beijing inspection plan came just in time, he was about to rectify the rule of officials, and someone sent a pillow as soon as he fell asleep, but what was it to investigate, he asked curiously: "What is the main thing to check in this Beijing inspection plan?" ”

Yang Sichang then explained: "There are eight goals in the Jingcha plan, which is greedy, cool, impetuous, impatient, old, sick, and careless. As for the focus of the investigation, it mainly depends on the emperor's intentions, and the emperor can focus on any subjects he wants, and he can also add any subjects he wants. ”

Well, for the officials of the general feudal dynasty, these are comprehensive enough, but the policy he wants to implement now is a bit biased towards the capitalist model, and the subjects must be added, first ask about the rewards and punishments, Zhu Cijiong then asked: "Then what rewards and punishments do officials have after the inspection?" ”

Yang Sichang then explained: "The fourth grade or above is self-Chen to take the holy judgment, and the fifth grade and below are reviewed by the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Ministry of Officials, which are divided into, promotion, demotion, promotion, resignation, and then unified submission to the emperor for decision. ”

This means that in the end, the emperor alone has the final say, very good, Zhu Cijiong immediately made a decision: "Well, this Jingcha plan is very good, it must be done, and it must be effective, what is the specific process, tell me about it, let me think about it." ”

Yang Sichang explained in detail: "The officials in Beijing are jointly investigated by the six departments and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the local officials are jointly investigated by the Ministry of Officials and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, which lasts for half a year. ”

It sounds like this system is quite strict, why has it not been effective for so many years? This is mainly caused by the friends of the party, such as the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party both use the Jingcha plan as a tool to eliminate dissidents and cultivate cronies, that is to say, no matter what your political performance is, if you stand on the right side, you will be promoted, and if you stand on the wrong side, you will get out. This is also the main reason why Ming officials are now slacking off in government, diligence and no benefit, as long as they stand on the right side, so, everyone has to get by, and when it comes to the inspection, directly choose a strong friend to take refuge, even if there is no political performance, you can be promoted!

But now it's not such a good thing, to the matter and the supervision of the imperial history are almost replaced by the two branches of the Chongzheng Dynasty, nominally Zhu Cijiong's protégé, the secretary of the Ministry of Shangshu Yang Sichang is Zhu Cijiong's cronies, this Imperial Envoy of the Left Capital of the Imperial Court Li Banghua is a loyal and patriotic, fair and honest loyal minister, and the friends have basically been cleaned up by Zhu Cijiong, all officials must rely on real political achievements to pass the inspection, and the left way of the side door is no longer feasible.

With such a foundation, Zhu Cijiong believes that this time those ghosts, ghosts, snakes, and gods will have nothing to hide, and the problem of corruption should be curbed, and all that remains is to find a way to let those honest officials focus on economic development.

How can all officials be brought to economic development? Zhu Cijiong thought about it carefully, and then he had an idea, and he said solemnly: "The method is very good, just follow this, but the subjects are a bit biased, they are all based on the conduct of officials, what are the substantive benefits to the common people?" The foundation of the country is the people, the so-called people are the foundation of the state, and when you are an official, you must take the people as the foundation, and only care about your own noble conduct one day, and the people under your rule can't even eat enough, can you be considered a good official? This time, I added a subject to them, and all the officials in Beijing wrote a recital, discussing how to make the people's livelihood rich, and adding points for good writing and minus points for bad writing; The local officials will have a good understanding of the situation of all the people under their rule, and give me a report, how many people are under their rule, how much arable land there is, how much yield per mu of cultivated land is, how many merchants, how many artisan households, and how much income a year is. ”

Yang Sichang and Li Banghua naturally said yes again and again, praising the emperor's wisdom.

Zhu Cijiong said proudly in his heart: "Hehe, this is just the beginning, when this Jingcha plan is over, and the good work of the performance is good, it will be promoted according to the performance of the performance, and the report will be reported, which is the basis, I will immediately announce that the focus of the next inspection will be the increase in the income of the common people, see if you are interested." In the future, all the major plans of the Beijing inspection will be inspected once every three years, and we will see if you dare to neglect your government. I don't believe that such a Ming economy can't be handled! ”