Outside the noon gate, Yuan Jixian's carriage slowly stopped, and the second assistant Li Banghua immediately walked over and greeted the first assistant as before.

"My eyes are red, Gensuke didn't sleep last night, right?"

Yuan Jixian glanced at his deputy from the province, and nodded, "I can't sleep well, the emperor has decided to go west next summer and send more than 300,000 troops." And before the summer of next year, the imperial court will have to complete the first official examination, and everyone in a hurry will touch it, how can they sleep. ”

The first assistant and the second assistant of the cabinet are both from Jiangxi, the first assistant Yuan Jixian is from Yichun, Jiangxi, and the second assistant is Li Banghua, who is from Ji'an, Jiangxi. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Yanru, the first assistant, and Wu Fu, the second assistant, were both from Jiangnan, one in Jiangbei and one in Jiangnan, and they were in the same cabinet, but there were many contradictions, and as a result, they also got out the Jiangbei Party and the Jiangnan Party. Today's two Jiangxi Pavilion elders have a good cooperation, Yuan Jixian Tianzi teacher, the prestige is very heavy, Li Banghuaxin is the second assistant, and he is also trying his best to assist the first assistant, abide by his own duties, and the cabinet is rare to be consistent.

Li Banghua just smiled and didn't say much. The emperor's words at the prime minister's meeting had already made him understand that the western expedition was inevitable, and it was difficult to change it even if he was in person, so he was not surprised to hear the exact news now. The two entered the noon gate side by side, followed by a group of officials.

As soon as the two of them entered the cabinet yamen, there were internal servants who came to pass the decree and summoned them to the Qianqing Palace.

The other five prime ministers were summoned to politics.

"Your Majesty."

"No need to salute, sit down." Liu Jun sat on the top and said to a group of central ministers.

"Today, I have summoned all the prime ministers to participate in politics, and I have two important things to order. The first of these is that I have decided to personally conquer Moxi Mongolia in May next year, and fighting a war is a matter for the army, but diplomacy and logistics need to be supported by the cooperation of the officials of the imperial court. In addition, it is necessary to send envoys to Yarkand, Tsarist Russia, and even Wusizang to do some diplomatic work as much as possible, to win over and divide the enemy, and so on. ”

The seven prime ministers participated in politics, and they all just nodded, and no one objected anymore.

"Very good, since everyone is nodding, then go all out, don't go against the yin. If you have an opinion, you will say, if you have no opinion, you will work hard to implement it, what I hate the most is the behavior of yin and yang disobedience, pulling back legs, if someone has such thoughts, I will never tolerate it. ”

"Okay, the second thing is the official examination. This is also a major event, I attach great importance to this matter, and I hope you will pay attention to it, I am ready to transfer special personnel from various ministries of the imperial court to form a joint assessment team to be responsible for this assessment. ”

Officials inspected, in fact, there are all dynasties.

For example, during the Ming Dynasty, there was a special Jingcha system.

Jingcha is a Beijing official inspection, initially once every three years, then once every ten years, and finally changed to once every six years. After the inspection of officials above the fourth rank, they are promoted or deposed, and the emperor personally decides, and the retirement, demotion, dismissal and dismissal of officials below the fifth rank are different, also known as internal planning.

There are internal plans, of course, there are also external plans.

Outside the plan is to specifically inspect local officials, also known as the big plan. In the Ming Dynasty, Jingcha was jointly presided over by the Ministry of Shangshu and the Imperial History of the Left Capital of the Imperial Palace.

This kind of appraisal system is of course positive in nature, and the Jingcha divided the incompetent officials under inspection into eight categories: old, sick, weak and inactive, greedy, cruel, imprudent, impetuous, and incompetent; among them, those who are old and sick retire, those who are weak and inactive, greedy and cruel, and those who are ruthless and cruel are dismissed from their posts and serve as people; those who are imprudent are dismissed from their posts; and those who are impetuous and shallow and whose ability is not strong are demoted to one level and transferred to the outside world.

The method of inspection is to send a visit to the ministry and the court to conduct an anonymous inspection, and after the completion of the cabinet vote to be left or sent back to the ministries for reconsideration, and finally make a book to ask the emperor for ruling, and the inspection will be issued. After the end of the Jingcha, the impeachment of the retained officials by the speech officials is called gleaning.

Officials who have been dismissed from their posts because of the Beijing Cha are not allowed to be re-appointed, and officials who have been attacked by the officials are generally not spared.

However, from the beginning of the Wanli period, Jingcha has deteriorated. Jingcha began to become a tool for party struggle, and the three major factions of Donglin and the three parties poured into each other, and the momentum was like fire and water until the death of the Ming Dynasty.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the cabinet auxiliary ministers held the title of Shangshu and the scholar of the palace, and held the right to approve the vote to assist the government, and the status was above the six ministries.

And the cabinet auxiliary ministers are in charge of the ministry and the selection of leaders, which is no different from the prime minister of the previous dynasty. Therefore, later, the Ming Dynasty specifically stipulated that the official department was not allowed to enter the cabinet.

However, in the Jingcha system of the Ming Dynasty, although the official department Shangshu and Zuodu Yushi who did not enter the cabinet jointly presided over the Jingcha, they still had to be sent to the cabinet to decide to stay, especially at that time, whether it was the Metropolitan Procuratorate or the Six Departments, or the Six Ministries, they were actually under the leadership of the cabinet, so the Jingcha eventually became a tool for party struggle.

The Han Dynasty now has to take the exam every two years, including the inspection of Beijing officials and the plan of local officials. Liu Jun didn't want this official assessment to become a tool for the DPRK and Chinese officials to form a party and attack each other. Therefore, this first assessment is extremely important.

Instead of handing over the responsibility of the assessment to a certain ministry, personnel are transferred from each ministry for each assessment to form a special and independent temporary assessment team.

The process of assessment is that the officials first write a report on their work and report their gains and losses. At the same time, the investigation team investigates the official's political performance and ethics through open and covert inspections, and at the same time, the official's superiors, colleagues, and subordinates during his tenure of office also need to write a report on the official, and also investigate the accounts and private property during his tenure.

In general, it is divided into three steps, self-report, including the comments of superiors and subordinates and colleagues who work with them. Investigations, including overt and covert investigations, investigation of gains and losses in office, current accounts, and private property. The last step is to publicize the results of the investigation and accept the report. After receiving a report, it must be investigated and the results must be presented.

This kind of assessment is very strict, and it is difficult to escape if there is a problem.

Even if there are no major problems such as corruption and corruption, in the end, they still have to evaluate their political performance during their tenure, and finally evaluate them at three levels: competent, diligent, and service, and reward and punish them.

Even in the work report, it is necessary to attach a statement to expound the opinions on the major policies of the state and submit some policies for the administration of the post.

The big examination should not only test the degree of honesty and dedication, but also assess the ability to serve as a politician.

Jingcha and the big plan should be based on the four grids and six laws as the assessment standards, and the four grids are talent, keep, government, and year. Talent refers to talent, divided into long, flat, short, etc., keep is integrity, divided into three categories: honest, peaceful, and greedy, and government refers to government affairs, and divide three categories: attendance, level, and slackness. Year refers to age, which is divided into three categories: young, middle, and old.

As for the six laws, they refer to the deficiencies in the six aspects, namely, "imprudentness", "resignation and inaction", "impetuousness", "lack of talent", "old age", and "illness". After assessment, those who are listed as "unscrupulous" and "soft" will be dismissed; Those who are "impetuous" and "not talented" are demoted; Those who are "old" and "sick" are ordered to retire.

In addition to the four grids and six methods, there is also a hard indicator in the assessment, that is, the elimination rate is stipulated. There is a rate of elimination for officials of each grade, and if those who are old and sick are ordered to retire, and after they are dismissed from their posts and demoted, they must be eliminated from those who are ranked behind in the assessment until the target number is reached.

This rigid elimination index is the most ruthless move in this big examination of Han officials.

Under this trick, no official or official cover up and release water, in the end, you have to eliminate a certain number of officials, and then replenish fresh blood.

The examination is in charge of the official assessment group selected by the ministries and government offices, but the cabinet, the imperial history platform, and the parliament still have the right to supervise the assessment team.

Those officials who are found to be corrupt and derelict in their duties during the examination should be held accountable and handed over to the judicial system for trial.

For officials with excellent performance in the assessment, they will be promoted by the Ministry of Officials, and those with average grades will be maintained in their original positions, and those with poor grades will be demoted or dismissed.

As for the military, it is not within the scope of this assessment, and the military is assessed separately by the military department, the privy council, and other internal systems of the army.

The examination team is responsible for the assessment, and finally provides the results of the assessment investigation, and the final disposition is carried out by the Cabinet of Ministers supervised by the House of Representatives and the Imperial Historical Tower.

In this whole assessment process, the emperor has the final right to interpret. All the departments of the imperial court were involved, but no one had the power to decide on their own.

Before the end of the year, before the end of the year, the imperial court announced the details of the official examination to the world.

"This is going to be a big purge!"

In the yamen of Shuntian Mansion, a non-tasteless scribe who did not enter the stream came to the yamen in the morning, boiled the shell boiling water as usual, then made a cup of tea and began to read the newspaper.

As a result, the headline on the front page was the detailed regulations of the assessment, and after reading it, Li De couldn't help but snort.

Li De is a classless official, but officials also have ranks, Li De is a bureaucrat and an official. Now the imperial court has not restricted officials from being promoted to officials.

With Li De's current seniority, as long as the assessment results are okay, he has every chance to be promoted from the ninth grade. He is only forty years old this year, and maybe he can mix a seven-grade in his lifetime.

But now looking at this assessment charter, Li De's brows furrowed.

is so strict, and it has to test political performance, integrity, assets, and even publicity.

He didn't have to think about it to know that he wouldn't be able to pass these levels himself. He began to work in the yamen as a teenager, and in his twenties, he officially took over the hereditary position of scribe from his father. Then I went all the way to Dahan and worked for another three years.

In the past, when he was in the Ming Dynasty, he didn't make money in Shuntianfu, but everyone was like this at that time.

But when it came to Dahan, he didn't catch less, but it wasn't as obvious as before. Usually ushered in the delivery, a lot of property. Especially now he is still in charge of urban construction, there are so many engineering projects, he can't say that he is asking for bribes, usually what father and mother have birthdays, their own birthdays, children go to school, and the days when the elderly are sick, those colleagues give gifts, especially those businessmen, but not one or two pieces.

Adding up to a lot, this is a lot of gifts.

Li De secretly calculated, not to mention the things of the previous Ming Dynasty, in the past three years, the various gifts he received added up to several thousand.

Although he usually didn't dare to accept big gifts, the accumulation of thirty or fifty yuan became a lot of money.

I can't imagine that the current assessment of the imperial court is so strict.

I still want to be the last county master in my lifetime, but now it seems that I can't pass this hurdle.

He has a good relationship with his boss and colleagues, and I believe that there will be no unfavorable words in their narrative reports, but this property declaration and review must be exposed, especially a public announcement. At that time, someone will definitely report it secretly, and his house, land, etc. are all there, and they will definitely be found out after checking.

Thinking about it, Li De couldn't help but panic a little.

I don't even know how to deal with this thing, and on the cusp of this storm, no one will dare to accept gifts. Even if he wanted to send it, he couldn't find the temple gate with a pig's head.

The assessment was carried out by this assessment team composed of temporary officials, and it is said that even Dongchang and Jinyiwei also participated. But he didn't know any of them.

Sitting in front of the desk, Li De sighed again and again, hammering his chest.

After sitting for a while, Li De couldn't sit still, so he found a reason for a headache and asked his boss for leave to go home.

Depressed and returned home in a carriage, Li De thought about it for a long time, but still couldn't find a way. The more he thought about it now, the more he felt that this time it was a terrible thing, like the calm before a storm.

The keen sense of smell of the officials for many years told him that the emperor must have taken the opportunity of the assessment to carry out a major purge this time.

The founding of the Han Dynasty has not made any major moves in the past few years. Most of the officials of the previous dynasty still remained. But on the other hand, the emperor has also been training new officials. In the hall of Jingshi University, there are 8,000 young scholars and people who have been trained for two years.

In addition, hundreds of thousands of troops have been dismantled this year, of which no less than 100,000 officers at all levels have been transferred to other jobs, and many officials have been waiting for vacancies.

And the sudden dismissal of Senate Chairman Ni Yuanlu also seems to be a signal. Who is Ni Yuanlu? The famous Donglin Party veteran of the Chongzhen Dynasty, he also turned against the current emperor.

After thinking about it for a long time, Li De thought of someone and maybe he could discuss it.

Li De hurriedly went out again and went to his wife's brother's house. Li De's wife's eldest brother turned out to be a clerk, Li De's father and his wife's father were both officials of Shuntianfu, and the relationship between the two families was not bad, so they married their children. Later, Li Deyue's father-in-law retired in old age, and his wife and brother took the position.

However, after the founding of the Han Dynasty, this brother-in-law was dismissed from his post because his accounts were not clean and he had a lot of losses.

After leaving the Yamen, his wife and brother started a business in recent years, at first he went to Zhangjiakou to sell wool, and later went to Tianjin to sell southern goods.

His brother-in-law, Zhao Shouxin, has a beautiful house on Nancheng East Street, a townhouse, which cost more than 3,000 yuan to buy and pay taxes and furniture decoration.

My wife has always wanted to buy a house here, which is not far from Dongmen Street, which is very prosperous, and that area is a rich family, clean and beautiful, and schools, hospitals, etc. are also nearby. It's just that Li De has always felt that it is too high-profile, more than 3,000 silver dollars is nothing to him, he has been working in the yamen all these years, and he is still eating outside the door to catch extra money, the outside market has been so good in recent years, he also followed the money to invest, especially when his wife and brother went out of the yamen, he took 5,000 yuan to his wife and brother.

Originally, his brother-in-law said that he borrowed it at the time, but Li De felt that his family didn't need to be so clear, even if it was a shareholding, it would also share some risks with his brother-in-law.

Unexpectedly, his brother-in-law's business went smoothly later, and three years have passed in a blink of an eye, and the business has been very big, and he originally invested 10,000 yuan in shares, accounting for one-third of the shares, and now it has multiplied several times.

Qian Li De has, all of Li De's family properties, real estate shops, as well as shares and bank deposits outside are all converted into at least 100,000 yuan.

100,000 yuan, in the entire Jingshi, is not a rich man, but it is also above the middle class.

It's just that although there is a lot of money, a lot of money is rarely seen. Even if it is the money he earns from investing in shares, it is not easy to spend it openly, after all, the money is not right.

A small official directly paid 3,000 yuan to buy a villa, which is obviously too ostentatious. Li De's current salary plus bonus is less than three hundred in total, and three thousand yuan can be his salary for ten years, isn't this ostentatious?

Sometimes, Li De also wants to leave this yamen errand like his wife and brother, and go to the sea to do business and make money. Otherwise, although the family has a lot of money, there is no need to show it, living in an old house for several generations, and they dare not spend it if they have money.

Zhao Shouxin was not surprised to see his brother-in-law coming.

"I guess you're coming to me for the assessment, right?"

"Brother-in-law, you have always admired my ability, if you hadn't left the yamen at the beginning, you would definitely be a high-ranking official now."

Zhao Shouxin snorted, "I died from the eighth grade, and most of the sesame grains are gone." If it was a few years ago, I would have been very happy even if I could be a Jiupin at that time, but now, what era is it, you are still staring at being an official. What does it mean to be an official, a seven-pin county, you can't earn 1,000 yuan a year, you see me now, I am the boss of myself, not to say much a year, I can earn 18,000 casually. ”

"Brother, you are also a smart person, the times are different, and the yamen rice is not so delicious. In the past, when doing business, it was the lowest industry, and any yamen official could make businessmen lose all their smiles. But nowadays, in the world of the rich, officials still have to beg businessmen. Believe it or not, I just need to say that I plan to build a new factory in Tongzhou, invest 40,000 or 50,000 silver dollars, recruit 2 or 300 workers, and a large number of officials will immediately invite me to dinner in the three counties below Tongzhou. ”

"Brother, I know the trouble you are encountering now, with the usual behavior of the imperial court, you must not think about passing the test this time, if you don't get it right, you will still be imprisoned at that time."

"Brother please, give me some guidance?" Li De said busily.

"Actually, the solution is very simple, you are just in the middle of the game. You immediately report to your boss that you are seriously ill, and then ask for your resignation, by the way, close your own accounts, and at the same time greet your colleagues, invite them to a few meals, and ask them to help say a few words. Before the assessment officially starts, you get out in advance. As long as you resign and leave office, and there is no problem in the account, then the assessment will not find out to you, after all, as long as you have no problem with the account, then some of your gray income will not be managed. ”

Li De was stunned for a moment, but he didn't expect the solution to be so simple.

"Of course, the premise is that you are willing to give up this office that has been passed down from your family for generations." Zhao Shouxin said with a smile beside him.

Li De hesitated, their family has been working as officials in the Shuntian Mansion for several generations, his grandfather's grandfather passed it to his grandfather's father, and then his grandfather passed it on to his father, and his father passed it on to him, this is an errand that the Li family has passed down for generations.

"If you want to get out, just hurry up, hesitate, and finally you go in prison for a few years to mine and labor for a few years, and when you come back, do you think this hereditary errand of your family can still be passed on? In these years, the officials have to be transferred from the military and the civil service examination to be popular, old officials like us, sooner or later will be eliminated, now take the initiative to get out, can still leave a decent face, keep that bit of belongings, why not? Come out and work with me, it's much better than being a servant. ”

Li De thought about it carefully for a while, and felt that it seemed that this was indeed the case. As long as you leave your post before the start of the assessment, then the assessment team will only investigate those officials who are in office, and those who have left the post are not in the assessment and investigation. If you level the accounts yourself, then there will be no other problems, and you will not find out how to check your head.

"Okay, I'll go back to my illness now." (To be continued.) )