As a matter of common sense, as a feudal dynasty based on agriculture, once it was levied again during the busy agricultural season of spring ploughing or autumn harvest, and engaged in large-scale construction projects, it means that there was a tyrant or a faint monarch who disregarded the suffering of the people, which in turn caused great resentment among the people.

However, in late August of the third year of Emperor Jingdi, in the face of the upcoming autumn harvest, the imperial court issued a notice in the surrounding counties of Gyeonggi against common sense, wantonly levying conscription. What is even more strange is that not only did not adopt coercive measures as usual, but instead proposed to strictly screen the people who came to volunteer for service.

In the face of such an abnormal practice of the imperial court, the common people not only did not have the slightest resentment, but rushed to serve with great interest, lest they would fall behind others and fail to grab the position. And the people who have completed their service this year are even more sighing, annoyed that they have lost this opportunity.

In the early Western Han Dynasty, the scope of conscription was mainly divided into labor service and military service, and labor service was also called "change service", which was mainly engaged in production and surname labor, such as: building roads, temples, city walls, palaces, rectifying rivers and canals, and transporting and transporting goods. Every adult male shall serve annual unpaid labour for one month. Of course, it is impossible for the powerful to serve in person, and there are those who provide materials for service, and there are those who pay for hired people to serve on their behalf, and so on.

This time, the conscription issued by the imperial court was different from the past, and the most vivid description of the common people now is an extremely novel word "overseer".

The so-called "supervisor" is a new word that was spontaneously coined by the people of several counties around Gyeonggi last fall, and it quickly spread widely, and then it was adopted by the government in accordance with the established practice into the official vocabulary.

Although the prison service is also classified as a change of service, it is also unpaid labor, but it is fundamentally different from the content of the previous change of service. After a few days of simple training, the convicts became overseers and were sent to various construction sites near their places of origin to supervise the heavy labor of foreign slaves.

It is easier to supervise the work of others than to work yourself, not only to offset the forced labor, but also to serve delicious food and wine.

Compared with the previous work of exhaustion and exhaustion, when I could only eat some gruel made of old rice mixed with rotten vegetable leaves, and was occasionally whipped by officials, serving as a prisoner was really like a blessing.

If it is only good wine and good food, it is naturally not enough to make most people put down the work of the autumn harvest and come to apply, at most it can attract some idle people who are lazy and lazy. What really made the people salivate was the high reward that seemed to be within easy reach of prison service.

Prisoners ostensibly work unpaid at any time, but in reality they earn a lot of money. Because the imperial court or the magnates of Chang'an City, in order to dare to complete the huge amount of work according to quality and quantity within the construction period, under the demonstration and leading role of the Royal Industrial Group, the project was divided into countless small sections, and widely advertised, if a small section can be reached in advance, the stewards and supervisors responsible for the construction of the small section will receive a high reward.

The so-called achievement of the standard is to achieve the pre-set goals set by the respective owners in advance based on the number of slave casualties, the quality of the work, and many other items. As early as the end of autumn and the beginning of winter of the year, during the construction of the North-West Avenue and the Gyeonggi Roads in several counties, these rules, rewards and punishments from the hands of the Royal Family Industrial Group were gradually accepted by the major families involved in the road construction project. Just because they found that after the implementation of this way, the efficiency and quality of various projects have been greatly improved, and after weighing the pros and cons, since they can make a lot of money with a small amount of money, they will naturally be satisfied.

In short, in August of the third year of Emperor Jingdi, with the promulgation of the imperial court's edict to levy conscription in Gyeonggi County, the people of Guanzhong burst out with great enthusiasm, and there was an unprecedented wave of conscription.

Faced with the large number of people who came to apply, the officials in charge of recruiting and issuing conscripts were really taken aback. In previous years, they had to bring swords, halberds, axes, knives, guns, and sticks to search for those people who tried to evade the service. Now in the face of so many Guanzhong men who are eager to apply, the officials are happy, but they are still a little overwhelmed in their hearts, and it took a long time to calm down and start to do things according to the rules.

"Oh? In just a few days, the conscription has been completed? "Prince Liu Che was quite surprised to see the reinstatement submitted by the Gyeonggi counties at the central government office, "and regardless of the more than 100,000 Xiongnu slaves who were put into road construction last year, there are hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war who have been captured from various border passes in the past few months." Even if one overseer could take care of ten slaves, it would require at least tens of thousands of overseers. In this busy farming season, it is really unexpected that Gyeonggi County can recruit so many strong men in just a few days. ”

Shi Huangtao, the prime minister who has been following and assisting him, has already smiled pointedly: "The so-called wealth is moving, in the face of such a rich reward, but any man who can help harvest the crops will naturally apply." Besides, there are no less than 10,000 large and small officials in various counties, who doesn't have a few poor relatives? ”

When Liu Che heard this, he couldn't help but laugh dumbly: "This is also true, the so-called building near the water gets the moon first, I'm afraid that because of this levy and conscription, the petty officials and officials in the surrounding counties and counties have a rare time in front of their relatives at home." Since Zhang Tang took office as a lieutenant in Chang'an, he did not hesitate to wash the officialdom with blood, and then severely purged the law and order in Gyeonggi, and even the petty officials in various counties and counties lived in fear, and it was not easy to say. ”

"It's just that in this way, I'm afraid there aren't many people who can really apply." Huang Tao was a little helpless in his words, as an assistant prime minister in charge of the long history of the evaluation of hundreds of officials, he still hoped that the officials would be clear, otherwise he would always feel a little embarrassed by the imperial historians who supervised the rule of officials.

Liu Che waved his hand indifferently and said with a smile: "If the water is clear, there are no fish, as long as these petty officials themselves are not greedy for money, and the people they recommend can also do good things, it is okay for them to sell their favors." If we really want to purge the rule of officials, we need to carry out rectification from top to bottom. The so-called upper beam is not correct and the lower beam is crooked, if the important ministers of the court are not upright, they can't complain about the officials below. ”

As a traverser, Liu Che deeply knows that anti-corruption must first fight tigers, and as for low-level public servants, even if they want to be greedy, because the power in their hands is too small, they really can't do too much harm. Only a high-ranking courtier is the group that needs to be purged the most. Otherwise, if the corrupt and corrupt style of the central government prevails, it will really spread to bureaucrats at all levels throughout the country, just like an urgent infectious disease.

Huang Tao nodded slightly in agreement: "What Your Highness said is extremely true, fortunately, after the two dynasties of the first emperor and His Majesty, the two dynasties have worked hard and strictly rectified, and now most of the people in my Han Dynasty are honest and good ministers, which is really a blessing for the people and a great fortune for the community." ”

Liu Che chuckled a little disappreciatively: "Father and the prime minister are not here now, don't just pick good ones." King Lone knows in his heart that for today's important ministers of the court, there is no doubt about integrity, but this dedication is debatable. ”

Huang Tao saw that the sycophants were not filmed, and his face couldn't help showing a little embarrassment. However, he has been in the officialdom for decades, and his skin has long been thicker than the city wall, so he smiled and said with a smile: "Your Highness said that you are laughing, the so-called people are not perfect." Just by virtue of the incorruptible official style of our dynasty, it can be regarded as an extremely rare rule of the world. ”

"Yes, no one is perfect." Liu Che seemed quite agreeable, and said with a playful smile: "The so-called honesty means not being greedy." The officials at all levels in my dynasty are quite high-ranked, enough to support their relatives and relatives, and it is not too difficult to be honest. As for serving the public, you must be selfless, everything is public, for the people, it is really difficult for some strong people, even the lone king himself can't do it, how can he ask the courtiers to be consistent? ”

When Huang Tao heard this, he couldn't guess the meaning of His Highness's words, so he had to be silent. The so-called too much talk will be lost, only silence is the way of Jin Dang as an official.

Liu Che didn't expect Huang Tao to echo his words, just chatting with emotion.

The welfare salaries of officials in the early Han Dynasty were extremely high, which can be described as high salaries and incorruptible.

For the imperial court officials, the rank of the third duke was 4,200 stones, and its purchasing power was equivalent to a high annual salary of 2.5 million yuan in later generations. The vice-national level of Jiuqing is more than one million. The princes and the Taishou and the like at the ministerial level will approach the annual salary of one million.

Even for low-level officials, the rank is staggering, and the county magistrate of a small county town is 400,000, which is equivalent to a public magistrate. Quiet. The county lieutenant of the director also has an annual salary of more than 300,000 yuan. It is the smallest and smallest official who is used to do miscellaneous work, and he cannot receive an annual salary, but he can also receive a monthly salary of more than 2,000.

Compared with the few honest civil servants in New China in later generations, the salaries of civil servants in the early Han Dynasty were definitely countless grades higher, of course, when they had to send gray income. Therefore, Liu Che believes that it is the duty of officials in the early Han Dynasty to be honest, and if they dare to be corrupt with such a high salary, they should really be cut with a thousand knives.

As for Fenggong, even if you look at the thousands of years of human civilization that have been recorded in writing, there are basically few people who can really meet this standard. Especially in the early Han Dynasty, even the royalist faction headed by Yuan Ang was not completely selfless, and once the interests of the faction were touched, the so-called public heart had to give way.

Even the most concrete "law-abiding" may not be able to require ministers to fully do it, especially the two cool officials that Emperor Jing and Liu Che value the most, Zhi Du and Zhang Tang. Their integrity is unquestionable, and according to historical records, when they died, their families could not even afford to buy coffins to bury them. When it comes to serving the emperor, if it is defined as loyalty to the emperor, then these cool officials are even ten million times more "honorable" than the royalists, and with just an edict from the emperor, they can slaughter tens of thousands of people without questioning it and without blinking an eye. There is only one law-abiding, and the two of them don't know how many Han laws they have violated, and even the abolished prince Liu Rong dares to die, not to mention others.

Liu Che thought a little distracted, and it took a long time to slowly wake up, looking at Huang Tao, who was standing silently without any impatience on the side, and sighed faintly: "Thousands of gold are easy to get, but talents are rare." Even if there is a person who bears the name of humiliation, laughs at him, or is unkind and unfilial and has the skill of governing the country and using soldiers, he should also order the officials everywhere to know everything, and not to leave anything behind. Only meritocracy is the best way to elect officials to govern the country. ”

Huang Tao didn't know that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince shamelessly stole the classic words and phrases of the later generation of heroes Cao Ying, but secretly figured out the meaning of His Highness's words with admiration, and felt that the more he pondered, the more interesting it became.

A few days later, the crown prince Liu Che inadvertently said that the remarks about "meritocracy" were relayed to Prime Minister Yuan Ang by Huang Tao, and Yuan Ang subconsciously informed His Majesty the Emperor.

Emperor Jing then summoned Liu Che to the crown prince and discussed with him with him with great interest, so that he could understand Liu Che's original intention. That is, the real criterion for electing officials is not "meritocracy", but "peace and virtue, and rewarding functions". Not only did he not generally deny the standard of virtue emphasized by the family, but he also attached great importance to the struggle for celebrities. It's just that for those who are really talented in governing the world, don't care too much about his slight lack of virtue, and try to make the best use of his talents under the premise of abiding by the law.

Emperor Jing couldn't help but be quite moved, and put the clock in his heart. He first slightly modified Liu Che's original words, especially the word "unfilial piety", so as not to violate the national policy of governing the world with filial piety in the early Han Dynasty, and then deliberately ordered people to secretly spread this remark.

The so-called one stone stirred up a thousand waves, and the relevant remarks of the Son of Heaven and the prince soon triggered a large-scale and long-lasting debate in the Han court, and also set off the first reflection and impact on the extremely rigid system of electing officials in the early Han Dynasty. (To be continued.) )