Zhu Youxiao took a breath of relief as he spoke, and took a sip of the drink next to the dragon chair, which was a honeysuckle drink made by the Hakka family, sweet but not greasy, and indeed a good thing.

And Fang Congzhe and the others had already knelt on the ground, and before the emperor could take a breath, the ministers shouted together: "Only Your Majesty can be powerful." ”

Zhu Youxiao smiled: "Yes, only I can be powerful." Then I declare that what the officials have done will be checked once a month to see what they have done. What has been done for the people under his rule? ”

The ministers at the bottom blew up the sky with a coax, and the emperor wanted to reopen the examination method. When Xu Guangqi was the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, he had already applied some principles of the examination method in the Beijing inspection in the third year of the Apocalypse, and achieved very good results. But there is no real reinstatement of the test method, and now it is finally about to be officially reopened.

Zhang Juzheng in November of the first year of Wanli, Shangshu played and asked for the formal implementation of the examination method. The examination law stipulates that the six ministries and the Metropolitan Procuratorate shall set a time limit for the affairs that their officials should do, and register them in three account books, one of which shall be kept by the Sixth Ministry and the Metropolitan Procuratorate as the base book, the other shall be sent to the six departments, and the last one shall be submitted to the Cabinet. The Sixth Ministry and the Metropolitan Procuratorate are registered according to the account books and inspected on a monthly basis. For the things undertaken by the subordinate officials, one must be posted for each completed item, otherwise it must be truthfully declared, otherwise it will be punished for violating the law; The six departments can also register according to the account books, and require the six departments to report the implementation of the implementation every six months, and the violators will be dealt with in limited cases; Finally, the Cabinet also registered the books of accounts to verify the inspection work of the six sections.

Zhang Juzheng's examination method has two main assessment aspects, one is the tax collection rate, and the other is the thief capture rate. If the tax collection rate and the thief catch rate are less than 90%, the result of the assessment will be judged to be unqualified.

This method has an excellent effect, before the implementation of the examination method, the Ming Dynasty's annual income was only two or three million taels of silver, and after the implementation, it increased to about four and a half million taels per year, so that the financial revenue from the previous income to make ends meet became a slight surplus, Zhang Juzheng ten years of the first assistant, the original empty warehouse has seven or eight million taels of silver.

However, Zhu Youxiao asked Xu Guangqi, Fang Congzhe and others, and the test method did work wonders in terms of fiscal revenue, but there were also problems. Ye Xianggao said: "There are many reasons for whether the tax can be collected as appropriate, and it is not completely determined by the ability and attitude of the county magistrate; If the officials ignore the difficulties and blindly persecute their subordinates, and the subordinates persecute the soldiers, it will cause many suspects to be beaten into tricks, which is not in line with the dynasty's spirit of governing the country with clarity and generosity. ”

And Xu Guangqi said more bluntly: "The boss's ticket, calligraphy, New Year's gift, and recommendation fee are all free of money." Recently, it has developed to the point that every time the Hajj is completed, it is often three or four thousand taels of silver. This silver will not fall from the sky and come out of the earth, can officials at all levels be honest? Every time in Jingcha, the officials on the road call it the opening of the market. ”

Therefore, the two drawbacks of the examination law are also obvious: the lack of leniency in administration and the intensification of corruption among officials. After discussing with the cabinet and the six scholars, Zhu Youxiao decided to slightly revise the examination method.

The clerk shouted, "Be careful, don't lose your manners in front of you." ”

The ministers' arguments only then subsided. Zhu Youxiao said: "Zhuqing, there are four main aspects that I want to investigate, one is taxation, the second is thieves, the third is immigration, and the fourth is people's livelihood. Set up a limit of responsibility, take responsibility for people, and be responsible for practical results. ”

The ministers breathed a sigh of relief, eighty percent was too loose compared to ninety percent. Zhu Youxiao continued: "These four things are closely related, immigrants do well, taxes will be easy to complete, thieves will be reduced, and people's livelihood will be prosperous, so the focus is to do a good job in immigration." ”

Fang Congzhe said: "Your Majesty, I don't know how many people the immigrants can accommodate, and the household department is not clear about this matter, so it can only be decided by Your Majesty." ”

Zhu Youxiao said: "Taiwan can accommodate at least five million people, and the weather in the north has been colder in recent years, and Taiwan is at least not worried about this." And Japan should emigrate two to three million people, and more Liaodong, now that Jiannu has been completely suppressed by our Guards, even if there are 10 million immigrants, there is no problem. ”

Fang Congzhe silently calculated: "Your Majesty, in this way, you can do your best to immigrate, but in this way, the cultivated land in the interior will lead to a situation where there is no one to plant." ”

Zhu Youxiao said: "It doesn't matter whether the cultivated land in the mainland is cultivated or not, because as long as there is so much cultivated land, it will be the output of the Ming Dynasty overseas or in the mainland. ”

Xu Guangqi said: "Your Majesty, the cultivated land in the interior is cooked land, and the overseas land is newly cultivated land, and the output of the two is quite different. Therefore, in the matter of immigration, it is necessary to formulate a plan to ensure that the people in the interior have their own land and that the land is cultivated, and then the surplus landless peasants can be resettled. ”

Zhu Youxiao originally wanted to relocate the landless peasants to other places first, so that the landlords in the interior would face a situation where there would be no one to hire, and the landlords would be more polite to the peasants who rented crops and reduce the amount of rent collected. The life of the tenant peasants will be better.

He thought for a moment and said, "The tenants who rent the landlord's land in the interior do not have enough to support their families after paying the rent, so I think that the annual rent rate must be set. ”

Zuo Guangdou said: "Your Majesty, the matter of renting seeds has always been a negotiation between landlords and tenants, and there has never been a matter of the imperial court mandating the rent rate, please think about it." ”

Zuo Guangdou has been much quieter since Donglin Sanshangshu was dismissed. He actually thought about it a lot, Donglin came to this point, it couldn't be a problem of the emperor's suppression, because Ye Xianggao and Sun Chengzong were still in the cabinet, and even Yang Lian was reused by the emperor. So in his mind, Donglin's internal thinking is actually a bit problematic.

But now he can't help but stand up, in Chinese history, the situation of renting land and ploughing is very common, and the collection of land rent is negotiated between the landlord and the tenant farmer, and there is no precedent for the imperial court to force it. Now the emperor wanted to use the authority of the imperial court to suppress the landlords and curry favor with the tenant farmers, and he felt that it was inappropriate, so he stood up directly.

Zhu Youxiao hadn't heard Zuo Guangdou speak for a long time, and only then did he remember that this thorn was still there. He looked at Zuo Guangdou and said, "Then what is Zuo Yushi's way to solve the problem of tenants not being able to make ends meet?" ”

Zuo Guangdou is a little uncalm now, I am the imperial historian, okay, I am only responsible for pointing out what is wrong with this matter, and I am not responsible for how this matter should be done, but the emperor asked, he couldn't answer like this, so he had to reply: "The minister was the imperial history of Tuntian, and he knows the importance of water conservancy." If water conservancy is built in the north and rice is cultivated, the yield will be greatly increased, and the tenants will be able to make ends meet. ”