Leaving Jinan, passing through Tai'an and Zaozhuang, out of Shandong Province. 【】

Far away from the capital, both "Chongzhen" and the ministers found that the world was not as peaceful as they imagined. Nowadays, the anti-corruption in the capital is serious, and the officials in the capital are very honest, but in places far away from the capital, there are no officials and no greed, and they are very greedy.

Ao Bai found a problem, the people who oppressed the people the most were not the Beijing officials in the imperial court, but the officials at the most basic level.

These people don't have much power at all, and at the root of it, there is an overall lack of morality. Money worship is prevalent in the whole society, and people have no ideals at all.

When the Ming Dynasty was just established, people were reluctant to be county officials, not to mention those jinshi, and even the people regarded being county officials as chicken ribs. If the county officials don't dig out their hearts to get gray income, they only take the little money issued to them by the imperial court, which is really a drop in the bucket.

Now it is seven grades of rice per month and seven stones of rice or forty-five taels of silver a year. Other income: four firewood and one groom, and the wages of these five people are paid by the state. Winter and summer official uniforms and pen and ink expenses are subsidized by the state. When a new official takes office, he can also get ten taels of repair fees first. The forty-five taels of silver of the seven-pin county officials are similar to the ten taels of silver of the horseman, but the housing, travel, soap personnel, clothing and food expenses of the county officials and the canons are basically paid and subsidized by the state, so the annual income is basically net income, and the pen and ink expenses are fixed and allocated by the state, and there is a surplus. Although there is no worry about food and clothing, it is too far behind those merchants. How can the heart of such an official be balanced? Have you been reading for so many years?

Zhu Yuanzhang was born at the bottom and is a grassroots in the true sense.

The biggest characteristic of grassroots emperors is that they have the pain of seven skins for the suffering of the people. Zhu Yuanzhang knows very well that the grassroots level is like the foundation of the six buildings for the empire, if there is a fundamental problem, no matter how brilliant and majestic the building looks, it will inevitably collapse in the end. As a result, he attaches more importance to the grassroots than usual.

The control of the state power in the Ming Dynasty could only reach the county level, and the governance of the Lijia below the county level was completed through the autonomy of the villagers, the township rules and conventions, and the influence of family power. In the Ming Dynasty, low-level officials were county officials, who were responsible for dealing directly with the people, so they were called "parent officials".

During Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, one of the cadre appointment policies pursued was to pay special attention to the conduct of local officials at the state and county levels. For the magistrates who have made small mistakes but can still perform their duties well during his tenure, Zhu Yuanzhang often opens up the net and shows benevolence outside the law. 【】

It is precisely because he saw that the image of the county official was almost equivalent to the imperial court and the emperor in the minds of the people, so Zhu Yuanzhang's requirements for the county officials were almost harsh. For example, in the promulgation of the "Great Decree", it is stipulated that the common people can directly report to the imperial court that their parents and officials are crooked, "harming the people and taking money", "having a department and not being talented", "being honest and proclaiming", and "caring for the people in a proper way".

When the Ming Dynasty was first established, it was very easy for the common people to petition, and they would never die of drinking water, washing their faces, or picking powder...... No one plays peek-a-boo with them either. Later, Zhu Yuanyuan further stipulated that the common people had the right to compare the grass-roots officials according to the standards he put forward in the "Great Edict", and if the official was a treacherous official, the common people had the right to send him directly to the capital.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang's design is suspected of overkill, it is an indisputable fact that during his reign, the Ming Empire was on the rise. However, no matter how good the system is, once the executor i3e violates it, the system is equivalent to a piece of waste paper.

By now, the whole country has become the norm, and the government is bribed, and the festering of the grassroots has become inevitable.

According to the policy formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Dynasty officials were low-level, and at first, this harsh system and strict picket examination were a strong constraint on local officials. With the longevity of the Ming Dynasty, although the gray income of local officials has long become the largest source of income to enrich the eunuch bag, the institutional sunshine income is still very small.

The promotion of the prefectural officials was very slow compared to that of the capital officials. The practice in the middle and late Ming and Han dynasties was that the imperial examination was the right path for officials, and those who served as county officials ranged from jinshi to juren, supervisor, and gongsheng. However, the poverty and massive transactional work of the county officials, as well as the attention of the entire officialdom to the Beijing officials and the contempt for the local officials, made the Jinshi regard the dispatch of county officials as a daunting path.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, once the intellectuals were selected as Jinshi, the first was to hope to enter the Hanlin, the second was to hope to do things, the third was to hope that if the imperial history, and the fourth was to be the principal, these four positions were all Beijing officials, not only could they enjoy prosperity and comfort, but more importantly, they were easy to have the opportunity to be promoted under the nose of the Son of Heaven. Once Yu was appointed as a state or county official, he was sent to a remote village to suffer and become a servant of the people, and many people appealed to the officials in charge in the hope that he would be relieved of this appointment.

The county officials are generally old and educated, or the lower level of supervisors and tributes. In this way, the principal has two situations.

First, a small number of county officials appointed by Jinshi must be deeply worried that they failed to stay in the capital Hanlin as the imperial history, which, FE once had the ambition to serve the country, but seeing that in the same year, they were rapidly promoted due to the assignment in the pass, but they sank into the subordinates, and they couldn't help but feel resentful. In this case, their attitude towards work is not to seek merit, but to seek no fault, and after a few years, they are promoted or transferred to the capital through connections. In everything, the key is to delay, cover up, and apply shovels, and maintain the stability on the surface to deal with the above, and whether there are hidden dangers under this stability is not in their consideration.

The second is that most of the county officials who are not expected to be promoted by the department and the supervisor Gongsheng know that it is impossible to make much progress in their official careers, and they are only officials for money, so they play with corruption with their lives, and there are five positive strategies and countermeasures. Such an official has just turned being an official into a business.

Nowadays, being a county official in the Ming Dynasty is already a beautiful difference.

In Zaozhuang, Ao Bai and his entourage encountered a group of magistrates who oppressed the people.

The leadership here, the distribution of benefits is already a tacit understanding, a few big families have already been formed, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, prepare for each, each eats its own, no one else can set foot in the uncle, they are parasitic roundworms on the people!

Under this repeated pursuit of interests, the people are very stable, because if they want to live, they have to desperately earn Xuan to support themselves and their families, and they have no time to care about other people's people and things.

When Jinyiwei investigated and punished a Qipin county official, this person shouted angrily: "If you want to say that I am a corrupt official, then the officialdom is all poor officials." Why did you arrest me? If you want me to confess, I can explain for three days and three nights, turning the officialdom here upside down. Isn't it here that the molecule promotes the **molecule, and the **molecule is defeated? Like me who grows seven sesame officials, who can't supply ten people? It's so commonplace! If you want to say damn it, you should be damned, Wei is good at killing one! ”

Zhu Yuanzhang sowed dragon seeds back then, and harvested other fleas. No matter how strict the system is, no matter how beautiful the vision, with the passage of time 77 and the decline of the world, it will eventually become a mirror flower 71, month. The festering at the grassroots level was initially unnoticed, and for the time being the spark that the rulers thought would not threaten the whole. Decay can make money, money can make ghosts grind, and it is not surprising that some people get rich first. But quantitative change leads to qualitative change, and when more and more grassroots units fall into a festering circle, no matter how decent the empire is, it cannot escape the end of its collapse.

The ministers have chatted with the people for a while, and as long as they talk, they will find that there are almost no good magistrates in the eyes of the people. The people in the north who levy Liao pay are happier than the people in the south, because the rectification has begun there, and the further south they go, the higher the mountain is the emperor, and the officials are all like the emperor of the soil.

"Chongzhen" has been a civilian for more than ten years, and he knows this situation very well, and his teeth itch with hatred. The ministers knew about these situations, and the arrows didn't know what to say, if they handled these people, would the new Yu not be greedy?

Everywhere he went, the situation was almost the same, and then he felt that he couldn't manage it. Pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger is not so much fun anymore. On the road, "Chongzhen" rode a horse and said beside the turtle: "Brother, what should we do in this situation?" ”

Ao Bai sighed: "There is no way, you can only change slowly, and it is impossible to think about change." ”

Li Yan smiled from the other side: "How can it not change quickly?" Kill them all. As long as it is a corrupt official, it will be killed, and all those who give bribes will be killed. Reappoint officials, and introduce new laws, clearly telling them how much money to be removed from office, how much to be greedy, if there are a lot of people, then prepare a cauldron in front of a group of local Baishi, tie this person to the pot and add a lamp, so that the family members of the corrupt officials can eat meat and drink soup. You have to eat it all, you can't spit it out. ”

Ao Bai sighed: "Do you dare to be more perverted?" If you were to be the emperor, it would definitely be a Qin II? So violent, they still have to revolt directly? ”

Li Yan said again: "Of course, we must also give them some benefits, improve the income of grassroots officials, so that they can eat and drink well, if they are greedy for money like this, they will be looking for death." In addition, the royal family and relatives are reduced. These people don't dare to do anything, what are they raising for? Let them also go to school and take exams, and those who have talent will be officials in the court, and those who have no ability will be given the minimum living allowance, and let them fend for themselves. ”

"Chongzhen" is not from the Zhu family, he agreed with this kind of words, and said with a smile: "This idea is very good, but it will attract many people to oppose it."

Opposition is certain, just like the school Wei proposed by Aobai!

degree, the most powerful resistance is those who have studied for many years, the eight stocks are too important to them, and the new Wei l degree harms their interests. Obviously, what they learn is useless, and they are filling their heads with straw, but they also have to oppose learning straw bales. It is also difficult to implement the reduction of the imperial family's relatives.

At this time, a brocade guard came to Ao Bai and said, "Huang Liuren, Mrs. asked you to get into the carriage and talk." ”

(To be continued)