readx; It is said that it is the whole country to exterminate rats, but Zhu Youzhen did not carry out a national mobilization like Shanhaiguan, but only issued an edict to all parts of the country: "The epidemic" is actually a plague, spread by rats and fleas, and all prefectures and counties should supervise the local people to exterminate rats and fleas. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info except for this holy decree, there are no substantive measures, and the real fanfare of the rat extermination campaign is only carried out in Shuntianfu, especially in Jingshi City.

This is not because Zhu Youzhen favors one over the other, but because he knows that the officialdom in various places is very thorough, from the top officials to the ordinary officials, they all know that they make money, and they don't care about the lives of the people at all.

And no matter what kind of reform, if you naively think that as long as the emperor's holy decree is made, the following will be moved, and soon the whole country will have a new look, it is undoubtedly a fool's dream. The biggest reason for this lies in the officials responsible for the execution, as well as the rich gentry group that colludes with them. They will only proceed from their own interests in everything, and will never do anything that is not beneficial, and those that touch their interests will be even more contrary to the sun and the shadows.

If Zhu Youzhen copies the experience of Shanhaiguan to the whole country, I am afraid that the crooked-mouthed monks below will change the taste of the scriptures. The simplest, aren't you a reward for a hundred rats? I'll find a few people to catch some rats and get the reward first, and then the rats will not be burned, but they will be sent in at the front door, and they will be sent out secretly at the back door, and the cycle will be repeated until they are rotten. Such a fraud is not enough for them to waste even a lot of money.

And does Zhu Youzhen now have the means to curb fraud on a nationwide scale? The answer is clearly no. Although there are tens of millions of taels of silver in the interior, these silver are copied and checked at one time, and they are not recurring income. The money that should be spent is spent hundreds of thousands or millions of taels at a time, and Zhu Youzhen will not blink his eyes; The money that shouldn't be spent, especially the money that he knew would be embezzled, he was distressed if he had one less.

Therefore, in this rat eradication campaign, Zhu Youzhen did not take the government as the lead, but asked Bao Yulian's Tai Hospital to do it, and the government only played an auxiliary role, especially not letting them touch money.

Zhu Youzhen also had another purpose in doing this, that is, to take this opportunity to start the reform of government institutions without revealing anything.

The government institutions of the Ming Dynasty were regarded as the culmination of the feudal dynasty, with a complete system and a complex structure. However, compared to modern society, it is too shabby. There are only six ministries and five temples in the central government, and eleven institutions cover all the affairs of the world; Local government is simpler, especially at the county level, where a county government is in charge of all major and minor affairs.

The high concentration of power will inevitably lead to two major consequences: one is weak administrative capacity and low efficiency, and the other is **. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the entire officialdom was already extremely top-notch, and it was difficult to return, and if Zhu Youzhen wanted to reverse the situation and save China, he had to carry out a thorough reform from personnel to system.

However, reform is not easy to say, especially the reform of government institutions, which directly touches the interests of the official group, and the slightest carelessness will provoke a violent backlash. Therefore, Zhu Youjian had to start from an inconspicuous place first, and this hospital is an excellent entry point. It does not belong to the six ministries and five temples, and its functions are extremely important, and it can be said that it integrates the functions of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Food and Drug Administration in modern society, and these functions are precisely the missing link of the existing government agencies.

In this way, Zhu You's appointment to Bao Yulian Associate Hospital has the effect of killing two birds with one stone: it not only solves practical problems such as medical and health care, but also sets up a set of teams in addition to the existing government agencies. When there are more and more such institutions, their functions are more and more extensive, and the resources at their disposal are more and more abundant, there will be much less resistance if they choose the opportunity to carry out large-scale institutional reform.

Therefore, this rodent extermination campaign started from Beijing under the auspices of Bao Yulian. Of course, the successful experience can be replicated, and the Tai Hospital soon posted notices all over the city: regardless of men, women, and children, if you catch 100 mice, you can receive a silver tael. At the same time, exchange points are set up outside the gates of the inner and outer cities, which are counted and cashed on the spot.

This economic stimulus was immediate, and on the same day, a large number of people carried bags of mouse carcasses and rushed to exchange money for silver. It is no wonder that they are so active, because these people at the bottom of the society have neither property nor specialty, and can only engage in some simple handicrafts or provide various services for high-ranking officials. The so-called "peddlers and pawns" are a vivid portrayal of the profession they rely on for a living.

And their income is also very meager, and they are busy from morning to dark every day, and they can barely make ends meet. Now the price of rice in Jingshi is four taels and one stone, and this stone of grain, that is, one hundred and twenty catties, is barely enough for an old snack for two months. That is to say, if a family can earn two taels of silver a month, life can be improvised; If you don't even have two taels of silver, you will inevitably starve from time to time.

And the measure of "exchanging rats for silver" in the Tai Hospital is undoubtedly pie in the sky in the eyes of the vast number of poor people! Who would have thought that the rats that everyone hated could be exchanged for white silver!

So without anyone mobilizing, the common people spontaneously raised a huge anti-rat campaign, and the rat catching method was to cross the sea with eight immortals, each showing its ability. On the first day that the notice was posted in the hospital, more than 1,000 taels of silver were taken away. In response, more than 100,000 rat carcasses were confiscated and burned in a large pit dug outside the city gates. Some people couldn't catch so many rats for a while, so they gathered together several captured mice, and after receiving the reward, they went back and replaced them with copper plates. All of a sudden, when the people of Beijing met and greeted each other, they no longer asked "Have you eaten", but became "How many rats have you caught today?" ”

The people of the whole city were overjoyed because of the rat catcher for silver, but some officials didn't even like this. The Ministry of Rites Shangshu came to Zongdao to persuade the emperor to stop exterminating rats, on the grounds that rats are also living creatures, and it is against heaven and peace to hunt and kill them in large quantities; The second is that there are too many rats, and a hundred rats are exchanged for one or two silver, what if the silver is not enough?

Zhu Youzhen scoffed at it, didn't even bother to reply, and directly left the piece in the middle. He didn't want to emphasize the significance of catching rats repeatedly, the notice of the hospital was very clear, what "contrary to heaven and harmony" was pure nonsense, and rats are not cherished animals, but typical pests!

As for the number of rats, Zhu Youzhen also knew it in his heart. He knew that the number of house mice in a city was closely related to the population, generally three to nine times the population. The population of Jingshi is not less than one million, so the number of rats is about 10 million. If one tael of silver is exchanged for a hundred mice, even if all these ten million rats are killed, it will only be 100,000 taels of silver. Compared with the great harm caused by mice, this 100,000 taels of silver is definitely worth it!

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