On the first day of the council, the governors of the provinces or the envoys made their annual reports in the council hall.

In the past, the end of the year in the provinces was just a fold, and the cabinet looked at it, and there was no famine and no cholera, and it basically passed, but now it is not enough to just pass the past, and there is still something to grow, and we cannot always stand still, and even drive backwards.

Now, when these feudal officials are gathered together to listen to each other and make comparisons, the imperial court decides whether they are qualified to be promoted to the central government and appointed as cabinet scholars based on their local political achievements, and the enthusiasm of these people is mobilized.

Speaking with political achievements, without judging by the previous vain things, the competition between the various feudal officials will be provoked, and those who have no ambitions, or usually play tricks, and have no plan when they get to the place, can be quickly distinguished by the imperial court, as long as there is no achievement within two years, then his political future will end.

In order to get the attention of the imperial court, for their own political future, and to realize the ideal of literati worshipping the prime minister, the feudal officials made great efforts in the pre-conference for the coming year.

As soon as he said this, he put a lot of pressure on other provinces, not to mention Jiangxi in front of him, and Zhejiang in the back, even Wu Jinxi, the governor of Chu, also felt the pressure doubled.

Although this will definitely lead to many new problems, if you don't do it and don't change it, you will undoubtedly be waiting for death.

After all, the recovery of Nanzhi did not all rely on the province, but Fang Fengnian sent people around to persuade the Jiangnan people to return to their hometowns and dug up the corners of several other provinces, so that they had such achievements, which is a bit speculative.

Many officials in the Chu party also complained about this, after all, the business name was dug up to Nanzhi, and the political achievements of local officials in Huguang and Liangguang were affected, and they were naturally not happy in their hearts.

Wang Yan was also very clear about these things, but he didn't intervene too much, Nanzhi may be a little unkind, but he didn't violate the imperial decrees, and he had no reason to stop it.

After the pre-deliberations of the governors, the main issues discussed in the council hall were concentrated on the re-clearing of the land, and in this regard, the greatest resistance was not Tang and Lu, but Huguang and Liangguang under the rule of the Chu party.

Compared with other regions, these two places have been in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, have not experienced major wars, and the power of the gentry has been preserved, so the resistance in the Qingzhang land is much more difficult than that of Nanzhi and Zhejiang after the war.

Now that Nanzhi and Zhejiang have been cleared, Jiangxi and Fujian are also about to be completed, but Huguang and Liangguang are not very active because there are people in the local area, and many officials are not very active, so it has dragged on for more than a year, and the clearance has not yet been completed, which makes Wang Yan's face gloomy.

For several days, the discussions were all about local issues, and in late November, they finally began to talk about the decisions of the imperial court.

On this day, after the deliberations were over, Wang Yan summoned several confidants to the mansion to discuss several bills and unify their thoughts internally, so that they could reach a consensus in the council hall.

In the living room of the palace, the servants prepared pastries and strong tea to refresh themselves, and after everyone ate and drank and chatted for a while, Wang Yan cleared his throat, and then said with a smile: "Today's meeting hall has been sitting for a day, everyone must be tired, let's hurry up and go through tomorrow's bill, everyone will discuss it again, if there is no problem, tomorrow the ministries will directly propose, and everyone should go back to rest early." ”

Wang Yan said, everyone put down their teacups, or clapped their hands, wiped off the pastry scraps on their hands with handkerchiefs, and then sat up straight, ready to get to the point.

"Who's going to say it first?" Wang Yan glanced at the hall.

The following officials looked at it, and Gu Yanwu, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, stood up and arched his hand: "Your Highness, your lords, let the lower officials speak first." ”

Wang Yan nodded with everyone, and Gu Yanwu bowed down and said: "There is one of the main proposals of the Ministry of Rites tomorrow, to set up a new department to manage the books and pictures on the market, and for those who publish books to slander officials or spread rumors, they must cooperate with the local government and punish them according to the severity of the circumstances." ”

"Do you have any comments on this?" After Gu Yanwu finished speaking, Wang Yan asked.

Since Wanli, public opinion has influenced the court situation, and Donglin has done the best, because they have mastered a large number of bookstores and engraving workshops, and have mastered the right to speak among the people.

Now the Chu Party also controls a lot of bookstores, publishes many books, and influences public opinion, but Tang and Lu also have some, in addition, there are also some in the hands of the Jiangnan gentry, if everyone maintains a certain bottom line, then it is okay to say, but the key is that there is no bottom line in the fight, exposing each other's old bottoms, and even spreading rumors and slander, which damages not only a certain party, but the prestige of the entire Ming Dynasty.

The reason why Gu Yanwu proposed this article was also by Wang Yan's intention, in the relocation of the feudal domain, Wang Yan put the clan together, and hit the prestige of the royal family, not long after, a major corruption case occurred in Nanzhi, one of the main culprits was a cousin of Wang Yan, who was immediately arrested, and some picture books began to appear among the people, and Wang Yan was also arranged into it, which caused a very bad impact, so Wang Yan made up his mind to supervise books, picture books, operas, etc.

Everyone whispered below, Yan Qiheng stood up and arched his hand and said: "Your Highness, China has not been convicted of words since ancient times, and proposing this policy is suspected of blocking the way of speech, I'm afraid it will be difficult to pass it in the hall!" ”

Several people in the hall couldn't help but nodded, Wen Chen's most disgusted thing was not allowed to speak, they instinctively resisted this proposal.

Wang Yan nodded, he knew in his heart the difficulty of implementing this plan.

"I'm afraid the adults have misunderstood!" Seeing this, Gu Yanwu explained: "This bill of the Ministry of Rites is not to block the way of speech and prevent people from speaking, but not to let people talk nonsense and unscrupulously spread rumors and slander. Blocking the way of speech is not to let people speak, and the bill of the Ministry of Rites is to let people talk about the consequences, how do you want to say, or how to say, if you want to publish a book, you can still publish a book, but the text carries the Tao, with cultural people, court officials and saint disciples should have basic standards, speak to seek truth from facts, can not be arbitrarily nonsense, maliciously seriously injured the court or officials seeking positions. ”

At the beginning of the Ma Ruan dispute, many people in the Donglin Party lost their basic bottom line, arranged many unnecessary things to attack Ma Ruan, and even carried out a lot of unfavorable propaganda against An Zong.

After all, Ma Ruan represents the Hongguang Imperial Court, and the worse the Donglin Party describes them, the more severe the blow to the Hongguang Imperial Court.

As far as the Chu Party is concerned, now that it is in a ruling position, it naturally does not want the people to do anything unfavorable to the Chu Party, especially rumors.

After hearing this, several people discussed for a while, and Yan Qiheng pondered: "How to implement this bill of the Ministry of Rites?" ”

Gu Yanwu saw several ministers and had the intention of accepting, and hurriedly continued: "The law of the Ming Dynasty actually has regulations on rumors and slander the imperial court, but in order to appear enlightened, the imperial court rarely investigates this kind of thing, so that the law is false, allowing the villain to take advantage of the loophole." The Ministry of Rites' suggestion was to improve the laws and regulations, to manage books and engraving workshops, and that the information of the publisher of any book must be traceable, and if someone maliciously slandered, the government could immediately find the person who published the book according to the book drawings and punish him. ”

The publishing industry in the Ming Dynasty was very developed, but the government's management of this aspect was very backward, and many picture books came out, and they didn't know who wrote them, so it was easy for people with ulterior motives to take advantage of the loopholes.

If it's just like this, then everyone can still accept it, after all, as the person in power, they are the most vulnerable to malicious attacks, several ministers looked at each other, exchanged opinions, and Yan Qiheng immediately sat down, "The lower officials have no objections." ”

"Okay, then this bill will be like this for the time being." Wang Yan smiled slightly when he saw this, "Who is next?" ”

At this time, Yuan Pengnian, the left deputy envoy of the Imperial Procuratorate, stood up and said, "Your Highness, my lords, the next bill will be proposed by the lower officials. ”