(a)

However, Liu Shen was still not satisfied with this level of frugality.

One night, when he came to Zhaoyang Palace to sleep, he retreated from his left and right, and talked with me heart-to-heart. He said that he has always been very understanding and deeply grateful to me, for so many years, I have been racking my brains to arrange the expenses and maintain the decent operation of the harem, which is really not easy. However, he was quite worried about the current extravagant atmosphere in the government and the opposition, and believed that it was necessary to take action to rectify it. However, if the court does not change, the expenses of the harem have not been reduced jaw-droppingly, and the officialdom will be purged, I am afraid that it will cause dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction among the ministers. Therefore, Liu Shen said to me that he hoped that I could support him again, start from the harem first, reduce all daily expenses, and let him have the confidence to ask the important ministers and dignitaries in the court to be thrifty and set an example for officials at all levels.

He said that no matter how difficult it is, I hope I will overcome the difficulties to do it.

I said, "The worries of the king of Han are the worries of his concubines." The abundance of all nations is true abundance. Qin'er must do it for King Han and reduce the daily use of the harem to half of the current one. ”

Liu Shen was overjoyed, held my hand tightly and said, "Can it be reduced to half of the current one?" ”

I nodded: "Except for the food and clothing and the ritual regulations, the rest of the needs are superfluous, and they are all reduced by gritting your teeth." ”

Liu Shen said: "Then it's hard for you." It's so peaceful, everyone wants to live more comfortably, and now this cut, no matter how much they praise it on the surface, must be full of complaints in private. You don't want to focus all the criticism and resentment of the harem on yourself. The East and West Houses are naturally duty-bound to help you conspire in this matter, and in addition, you can also choose some capable and capable people from among the princesses and female officials who are reused by each palace to help you accomplish this matter. After the deed is accomplished, I will give them a generous reward, so that their good name will spread all over the world, so that they can all get the glory they deserve. There are people in each palace involved, which can not only check and balance each other and ensure fairness, but also help reduce the resistance from each palace, and also screen for me which house and house can best share my worries and put state affairs first. ”

I nodded and said, "King Han is thoughtful. Qin'er also had some candidates in her heart, but I don't know what King Han thinks. ”

So, our husband and wife talked by candlelight and night, and selected the concubines and female officials to participate in the matter. Liu Shente wrote a gold-lettered edict and stamped the emperor's seal, and I stamped the queen's seal below.

Liu Shen said: "This is the sword of Shang Fang, but all the female officials to reduce the cost, all the decree first, the emperor and queen edict on the spot, and then do things, there are those who dare to complain, those who refuse to cooperate, those who do not follow the will, all by the female officials to record the words and words, after the emperor, the emperor and queen will be severely punished for the offender." If the evil behavior is intolerable, the female officer who is specially authorized to do so can be arrested and confined on the spot, and the first thing to do is to be closed and then played! “

I said, "King Han is using the thunderbolt on the battlefield to deal with the difficult women in the palace." ”

Liu Shen said: "That's not what I learned from your brother. I always remember what he used to say: If you are messy for a hundred years, you must use a lightning knife! This matter should be resolved quickly, and I will give you a period of 100 days, and within 100 days, cut the palace expenses in half. ”

I stood up, knelt down and said, "Qin'er leads the order." ”

Liu Shen said with a smile: "Let's see how the female general of my family dominates the situation and wins this battle for me resolutely!" ”

I bowed my head and said, "That's it." King Han teased. ”

Liu Shen said: "It's not a joke. I'm smiling from the bottom of my heart. Qin'er, to have a wife like you, through ups and downs, always by my side, to be able to share hardships and prosperity, I really, feel very lucky. ”

(b)

A few days later, the harem went into action.

A number of small groups of young princesses and capable female officials, divided their responsibilities, went to all parts of the court to carry out an unprecedentedly strict examination of the accounts of all aspects of daily use. With the strong support of the emperor and the deterrence of the privilege of closing first and then playing, the audit work was carried out relatively smoothly.

Since the establishment of the dynasty, the harem has had various forms of audit and reconciliation every year to prevent corruption and fraud among the palace attendants. However, at the beginning of the founding of the dynasty, people were determined that I focused on the overall situation of maintaining stability, and did not conduct a comprehensive audit with great fanfare. The most important thing at the moment is to appease Liu Shen's people's hearts and make concerted efforts to rebuild a new country on the ruins of more than 200 years of war.

However, now, purging the harem has risen to a top priority. We can no longer tolerate these corrupt practices, which have accumulated over the years.

Although the audit is going smoothly and calmly on the surface, it makes many people frightened, and every day there are rumors, plants and trees are soldiers, and there are more than one or two concubines, palace people and chamberlains who can't sleep at night.

Under the guidance and cooperation of the household department, after more than 30 days and nights of intense audit and 20 days and nights of inventory reconciliation, the account books of several houses for more than 30 years have been turned upside down. Many cases of corruption and fraud have surfaced, and the unsightly thoughts and actions of the parties involved have been undoubtedly exposed. Among them, there are even three or five concubines with higher rankings who are more favored by Liu Shen. The tricks of corruption and fraud include: taking kickbacks in procurement, shoddy supplies in the palace, accepting bribes from foreign officials and relatives, stealing and reselling things in the palace with foreign officials, squeezing low-level concubines who are not favored, and taking power for personal gain in the distribution of errands in the palace.

Even, even the tea that Liu Shen likes to drink, has been handled by the subordinates for a few years, in recent years, Liu Shen has drunk, not the local tribute tea, but the second-class high-grade merchant tea, Liu Shen is old and the taste is not sensitive, did not perceive, this gang of thieves once succeeded, they became bold, and simply replaced the tribute tea. The real tribute tea was stolen by them and sold on the black market at a high price. There are also many nobles in the capital and local officials from other places involved.

The performance of the Audit Girl Scouts is outstanding. Not only successfully resisted the pressure from the concubines who did not agree with this matter, dealt with several incidents of resisting the audit and deceitful in person, arrested several palace attendants and palace maids, but also took out a detailed list, one by one pointed out where the use can be saved, where the expenditure is unreasonable, where there are loopholes in the cost control, the article is more than 280 pages long, and there are more than 5,800 thrifty projects!

There was a princess with a lower rank, when she found out that her mother's cronies were involved in a cheating and received bribes from them, she knelt in front of her mother's door for several days and nights, and finally said that her mother and concubine took the cronies who committed the crime to Zhaoyang Palace to surrender and ask for guilt, and took out the silver from her own body and paid it to the treasury to make up for the corruption and bribery of her subordinates.

(c)

On the 70th day after the start of the operation, a complete audit report, foul personnel, handling opinions and a detailed plan for frugality were presented to Liu Shen.

Liu Shen spent a whole day reading them all. After reading it, he was both angry and satisfied. On the one hand, he didn't expect that the new dynasty had just been established for such a short time, and these oil guzzlers were already so pervasive, so fat, and so bold that even the emperor's supplies dared to do tricks, and it was really "Tai Sui's head breaking ground"! On the other hand, he was also satisfied with the loyalty and efficiency of his daughters and female officials to the state.

Immediately, Liu Shen authorized me to lead the east and west palaces to carry out rewards and punishments in the palace vigorously. A total of more than 200 people were rewarded and promoted to concubines, palace people and internal servants who took the initiative to be thrifty and law-abiding on weekdays, rewarded jade silk, and conferred on family members, and gave different degrees of punishment to more than 530 concubines, palace people and internal servants who were extravagant and wasteful on weekdays, resisted in this inventory operation, and had all kinds of corruption and filth behaviors. The concubines were demoted or grounded to think about it, and the palace attendants were expelled from the palace after being punished, or transferred from their posts, or punished according to the law, or compensated for losses. Because the evidence is conclusive, the disposition is fair, and there is no selfishness, the punished person, etc., although he has grievances, he has no words to say it, and he cannot not accept the punishment. The princess who said that her mother and concubine surrendered themselves received Liu Shen's extraordinary grace, and was crowned to a position that only the daughters of the concubines of the East and West Palaces could have, and was promised by Liu Shen to marry the prince of Peiluo who studied in Yunjing, and became the crown princess of Peiluo Kingdom, and later became the queen of Peiluo Kingdom with her husband inheriting the throne.

After the storm of rewards and punishments, the palaces and courtyards began to spend daily expenses according to the newly approved standards. Among them, the daily expenses of Zhaoyang Palace have been reduced to only 35% of the usual ones, while the daily expenses of the concubines of the East and West Palaces have been reduced to 40% of the usual ones.

On the 86th day after the start of the operation, the new standard of dosing in the whole palace was implemented in place and worked well.

The harem completed the task assigned by Liu Shen 14 days ahead of schedule.

Under Liu Shen's great joy, he started a nationwide action to check the financial expenses and save the province in the court, and appointed Yu Yanzhen, the secretary of the household department, as a special envoy to mobilize the national financial and taxation elites and criminal elites to lead the national action. Guo Rengui, the servant of the Ministry of Officials, was appointed to be responsible for rectifying the rule of officials, standardizing the behavior of officials, and cooperating with the imperial history of officials to jointly prosecute and find out the extravagant behavior of officials.

As a result, the anti-corruption storm spread across the country. (To be continued.) )