The army of the Ming Dynasty killed people in Liaodong, and Zhou Chong also killed people in the capital, but he killed not those aliens who often went south to harass the Ming Dynasty, but those moths in the Ming officialdom, since he rectified the officialdom, the Ming Dynasty investigated and punished hundreds of officials who continued to be corrupt, although most of these officials were not killed, but there were still eighty-six who committed capital crimes, and as a result, Zhou Chong was all pulled to the Chai Street in the capital and slashed.

Originally, Zhou Chong didn't want to make the reform too bloody, so before he rectified the rule of officials, he first increased the officials with a lot of money, and directly stated that the previous things were written off, he would definitely not pursue it again, everything depends on their future performance, but I didn't expect that there are still so many officials who can't control their hands, in the first month of increasing the number of officials, dozens of officials were arrested, and then there are also not a few officials who are investigated and punished every month, in order to deter the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Chong has no choice, These embezzlers can only be dealt with severely, and as a result, there is a magnificent spectacle of dozens of people being killed.

For Zhou Chong's large-scale killing, the people are naturally welcomed, after all, for the people, what they hate the most is those corrupt officials, and now His Royal Highness King Zhao has executed dozens of corrupt officials at once, which is a great joy for the people, so after passing this incident, Zhou Chong's reputation was suddenly pushed to the top among the people.

However, for the officialdom, Zhou Zhong's large-scale handling of criminal officials is under tremendous pressure, after all, the officialdom of the Central Plains Dynasty has always had a tradition of not holding the public accountable, except for a few periods, it is rare for the imperial court to kill so many officials at once. After all, on the one hand, doing so is likely to involve the interests of many people. On the other hand, there are so many corrupt officials. The face of the imperial court is not good-looking, so when this situation is encountered, it is usually dealt with secretly, and it is rare to behead officials with such fanfare as Zhou Chong.

Zhou Zhong has long known these rules in the officialdom, but he didn't pay attention to it at all, in the past, the Ming court was because he cared too much about his face, even if something happened. The imperial court will also help the officials cover it, but for Zhou Chong, he has already given those corrupt officials a chance to make amends, but they don't cherish it themselves, so he can't be blamed for being ruthless in this matter.

After the most serious officials were beheaded, their families were also confiscated, but Zhou Chong changed the previous court charges of joint sitting, and the families of these officials were naturally dealt with together, and the embezzled property was also confiscated. However, for those innocent family members, Zhou Zhong does not intend to pursue them. After all, according to the practice before the Ming Dynasty, the families of these criminal officials were generally slaves by men, and women were prostitutes, which was really cruel, at least Zhou Zhong from later generations was somewhat unacceptable, so he abolished this bad custom in the law.

In addition to the most serious officials of these crimes, there are hundreds of officials with different crimes, these officials are as big as corruption and murder, as small as passive sabotage, everyone has committed minor or serious crimes, and Zhou Zhong has not easily let them go, most of these officials have been deprived of their official positions, and then dealt with according to their respective charges, as a result, for a time there were officials everywhere in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, and sometimes there was even a county government or state government officials were all dismissed, although this had some impact on the administrative organs of the Ming Dynasty. But Zhou Zhong did not waver in the slightest, because he clearly knew that if a country is full of corrupt officials, then there is no hope for the country.

Although in the eyes of those officials, the methods used to deal with those criminal officials were really too cruel, but the effect achieved was excellent, because it made those officials finally understand that His Royal Highness King Zhao, who was in charge of the country, was determined to rectify the rule of officials, and in order to achieve his goal, he would definitely not be afraid of killing. With this level of understanding, the atmosphere in the Ming officialdom is also clear, at least no one dares to offer and accept bribes blatantly.

At the same time, Zhou Chong took advantage of this killing wind, and also began to change the structure of the Ming officialdom, so that it slowly changed to his ideal structure, such as the power of the Metropolitan Procuratorate is expanding, and the tax department is slowly taking over the taxation of various places, and the gap between officials and officials in status is narrowing, etc., these reforms that Zhou Chong has proposed before have been slowly implemented, and it can be said that in all aspects, the Ming Dynasty is changing in a good direction.

"Qi Qi Jianguo, with the disposal of so many officials this time, the resistance to our implementation of reform is immediately much smaller, especially in terms of taxation, now the tax departments in various places have begun to operate normally, and have also taken over the vast majority of taxes in various places, according to the current situation, it is estimated that it will not be long before the reform of the prison country to my Ming Dynasty can be fully realized!" In Zhou Chong's office room of Wenyuan Pavilion, Zhang Cai was reporting the results of the reform during this period to Zhou Chong, and Jiao Fang, Wang Qiong and others were also here.

"Very good, it seems that if you want to complete the reform of my Daming, it is not possible not to kill people, but I just hope that those officials will be smarter in the future, and don't think that this king will not dare to kill people!" Zhou Zhong nodded after hearing this, and when it came to the end, he couldn't help but feel a little hateful, after all, killing so many people at once also brought him a lot of psychological pressure, and even he was worried that it would attract a backlash from the Ming officials, but fortunately, it was finally over now.

"Prison country, now my Ming Dynasty's official rule is also much clearer, as long as the Metropolitan Procuratorate can maintain the current supervision strength, coupled with the existence of the tax department and the bank, so that the local yamen has reduced the opportunity for corruption, then in the future, we can always maintain my Ming Dynasty's official rule is clear, so what are we going to do next, is it to revise some of my Ming laws?" Jiao Fang stood up at this time and proposed, among all the people, he was the oldest, but he was the most anxious to reform, because he was worried that he would die one day, so that he could not see the scene after the reform of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhou Zhong also understood Jiao Fang's thoughts very well, but after thinking about it for a while, he shook his head and said: "The current government has just begun to change, and the institutions such as the Supervision Yuan, the Taxation Bureau, and the Bank have just begun to operate normally, and there is no guarantee that there will be no problems in the future, so now our task is to maintain the current results, find a way to solve the problem immediately, and wait until the new institutions and the yamen in various places have been run-in, and everything is on the right track, and then revise the laws of the Ming Dynasty. Only then can we be more sure that there will be no chaos. ”

For the reform of the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Zhong had to be cautious, especially the law of the Ming Dynasty, there are many problems, many of the laws set by Zhu Yuanzhang at the beginning are out of date, and even some are Zhu Yuanzhang's decision to pat his head, which is not feasible at all, but Zhu Yuanzhang relied on the majesty of the imperial power to carry it out, and as a result, the whole Ming Dynasty was full of ills, these problems are much more troublesome than the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, and it involves the most critical issues of people's livelihood, so if there is no perfect certainty, Zhou Zhong didn't dare to change easily.

Hearing Zhou Chong's answer, Jiao Fang also knew that he was a little anxious, so he sighed secretly and retreated, and then the others asked Zhou Chong for some questions in the recent past, and Zhou Chong also made decisions and arrangements one by one.

"Prison country, Your Majesty asked the court for supplies and food, but now Your Majesty just stayed in Daning and did not move, but the 50,000 servant army led by Li Anliang was the main force to attack the Jurchens, and now with the approach of winter, Li Anliang's side is not only not easy to supply, and it may even be difficult to send the news back in the future, but the affairs of Liaodong have always been arbitrary by His Majesty, so the old minister does not know how to deal with this matter?" At this time, Wang Qiong, who was the secretary of the military department, stood up and reported, in his opinion, it was almost winter now, and it was impossible to send troops in the winter in Liaodong, so it was best to let the army withdraw and recuperate, so that the imperial court would not have to spend so many materials.

However, after Zhou Chong heard this, he thought about it for a while, and then turned to Yan Song next to him and said, "Weizhong, I remember that there will be a part of the balance in the treasury this year, how much is this part of the balance?" ”

Yan Song was originally the president of the central bank, but the original Hubu Shangshu Lu Xing was also arrested for corruption and bribery this time, although Lu Xing's crime was not serious, but he was also dismissed, so Yan Song took over as the Hubu Shangshu, although Yan Song's qualifications are very shallow, and he is too young, so that many officials oppose it, but Zhou Chong is trying to override public opinion, let Yan Song take over the post of Hubu Shangshu, as for the position of the president of the central bank, he is also temporarily concurrent.

"According to this year's budget, the treasury will have a balance of 1.23 million taels, and the money was originally intended to be used for the repair of the palace, after all, the treasury was tight a few years ago, and the palace has not been overhauled for many years, and many palaces are a little old, and there are even some leakage problems." The young Yan Song stood among the old ministers and looked very conspicuous, but although he had just obtained a high position, he did not become arrogant because of this, but was as humble as ever, which also made Zhou Chong, Jiao Fang and others value him more.

"More than one million taels, if they are all used to repair the palace, it can indeed make the palace look new, but now the situation in Liaodong is tense, and it is the time when it is necessary to spend money, so the affairs of the palace will be put aside for the time being, and all this money will be allocated to Liaodong, and the needs of the army must be guaranteed, especially Li Anliang, we must hurry up and send them more supplies, I estimate that they may have to spend this winter in the Jurchens' nest!" Zhou Chong's eyes flickered and said, Liaodong is about to be cleaned up, which can not only eliminate the potential threat of the Jurchens, but also lay the foundation for the Ming Dynasty's march into the Mongolian steppe. (To be continued......)