"Don't want to resign?"

When Zhang Gui heard that many civil officials who had resigned did not want to resign after the implementation of the outgoing investigation system, he was amused and said to the other ministers of the Department of Planning: "But this is not up to them!" ”

"Yes, I can't help them, if you want to resign and go into hiding, you have to leave with a clean breeze on your sleeves, even if you have accumulated eunuchs over the years, it should be taken legally, the so-called gentleman loves money, and he takes it in a good way! How can the balancies of the people be embezzled? ”

Yuan Keli echoed at this time.

And Zhang Gui got up and said: "The officials who have not investigated the problem may not be because they are honest and upright, but because they have not had the opportunity to use their power for personal gain. ”

"The responsibility of the Department of Policy should be to formulate corresponding prevention regulations for Your Majesty in advance, the so-called prevention of small problems, precautions, the construction of the system cannot wait until the problem is very serious to establish, that may be out of date."

Yuan Keli heard Zhang Gui say this, so he said: "Nuisance the post station is the most likely way for the outgoing officials and gentry to embezzle the state treasury and the people!" ”

"They will get a post station summons through their friends who are officials, harass the post station, extort carriages and horses from the post station, and even force the local people to serve as their envoys, even military households!"

Han Yi said at this time: "It is precisely because there are also imperial histories that have asked the imperial court to abolish the post station, so as to save the state treasury and avoid the gentry from causing a large loss of state funds and the suffering of the people due to the nuisance of the post station." ”

Zhang Gui suddenly thought of the incident that caused Li Zicheng to rebel after Chongzhen's abolition of the post station, so he said: "You can't abolish the post station!" ”

"Why not?"

Han Yi asked.

Zhang Guidao: "After the abolition of the post station, how to arrange so many post guards?" The court cannot ignore their lives or deaths. The purpose of our reform is to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and at the same time to benefit the people, so even if the post station system is currently riddled with ills, it cannot be rashly abolished. ”

"What's more, the post station does have a function that the imperial court really needs. Reform cannot be easy to come, how to be beneficial, it is better to start the reform from the root cause of excessive expenses of post stations and excessive exploitation of the people. ”

"Then you can only toss the official gentry."

Chen Zizhuang replied.

"Reform is tossing, we can only toss the gentry, is it possible that we can also toss the people? The people can't afford it. ”

Zhang Gui replied.

Wei Zhongxian interjected: "Then this matter will be done for us in Dongchang, and my Dongchang will send the official school to inspect the post stations on all roads, and once it is found that there is a nuisance to the post station, arrest it!" ”

"What should I do if Dongchang's own people are corrupted?"

Yuan Keli asked at this time.

Wei Zhongxian: "......"

Zhang Gui said at this time: "Then the civil officials will set up a patrol post and imperial historian here, and set up districts; The east factory also has a post inspector and a district; Our west factory also has a post of thousands of household officials, divided into districts; Each of them sends an official to supervise the world's post administration, how about it? ”

Wei Zhongxian said with a grudge on his face: "Our family has no opinion, since Yuan Zongxian is worried that my Dongchang Independent Division will take the opportunity to do wrong, then the three parties will each send an official, but they can also supervise each other, and when the province gets it, it will be questioned for concealing the imperial court and shielding local officials." ”

"This is good, but this will require the addition of a lot of officials, and all reforms are to streamline institutions and eliminate redundant personnel, but I have been increasing the number of officials in the Ming Dynasty."

Chen Zizhuang said at this time.

Zhang Gui said with a smile: "This is also the difference between my Ming Dynasty and previous dynasties. For example, one of the major malpractices of the two Song Dynasty is that the redundancy is serious, but this dynasty is just the opposite, and the redundancy is not the officials, but the officials, gentry, and students. And these people, although on the surface caused little direct damage to the imperial court, but they in the people to take over the lawsuits, exploit the people, but the damage caused to the common people is great, and whether the common people can live and work in peace and contentment is the foundation of whether the dynasty can continue, therefore, this requires us to add a group of honest and decisive officials to control them, or mobilize the people to resist them. ”

After the death of the Ming Dynasty, Gu Yanwu, a famous thinker in the late Ming Dynasty, summed up the three major evils that led to the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

He believed that these three evils were the officials, the gentry, and the students.

As a son of an official gentry and a member of the fame, he listed the gentry and the student as two of them, which is not bold.

Wei Zhongxian, who was born at the bottom, felt the same way, and said: "If you don't say that Uncle Guo's eyes are like torches, if you want to say that we ordinary people, what we are most afraid of are these officials, gentry, and students, none of whom are not knocking on the bones and sucking the marrow!" And basically it was the turn to come, the officials went to the countryside to extort in the name of collecting taxes, that is, the gentry collected rent, and then some ministers said that we stole his things, and they had to go to the government to sue us, and some ministers took advantage of this to ask for money in the name of helping us with lawsuits, anyway, these ministers were afraid that the world would not be chaotic! Our family also broke off their children and grandchildren and entered the palace because they couldn't stand it. ”

Wei Zhongxian unconsciously wiped the corners of his eyes as he spoke, as if the class hatred in the past had really caused him an unforgettable feeling.

Zhang Gui patted Wei Zhongxian's shoulder: "Old Wei, since this is the case, you have to talk more for the people." ”

"Uncle Guo, rest assured, the people in the palace are our mother-in-law's family, but the people are our mother's family, can we not speak for them?"

Wei Zhongxian replied.

Zhang Gui didn't know if Wei Zhongxian's words were just talking on the scene, but in any case, in his opinion, it was good for Wei Zhongxian to promise to speak for the people on the scene now.

Then, Zhang Gui said: "There is a saying in the Han book, which is called 'study the ancients well, seeking truth from facts', and we can change the law the same, we can't copy the changes of the ancients, but also combine the reality of this dynasty." I wonder what you think? ”

"Study the ancients well and seek truth from facts."

After hearing this, Chen Zizhuang pondered for a moment and looked at Yuan Keli.

Yuan Keli stood up excitedly and said, "Uncle Guo's words are indeed true!" The problem of my Ming Dynasty is not that there are redundant personnel, but that there are too few officials and too many gentry and too many students, so that it is difficult to issue government decrees, it is difficult to pay taxes, and even the national funds for disaster relief are difficult to reach the hungry people. Therefore, we must learn from the ancients to streamline the organization and eliminate redundant personnel! ”

"In fact, even if the Metropolitan Procuratorate, East Factory, and West Factory all add a group of official schools to inspect the post station, at most it will increase the amount of money and the new maintenance of tens of thousands of taels of silver, even if there is a few corruption, it is estimated that it will not exceed 100,000 taels, but compared to the current bad post government, the loss of hundreds of thousands of taels of national funds caused by it is nothing, and as long as they can let the post government reduce even 100,000 taels of excessive expenditure every year, the imperial court will also make money by adding so many officials to manage the post government."

My Healing Game

"Maybe it can increase revenue."

Zhang Gui replied.

"Increased revenue?"

The rest of the Strategies Division looked at Zhang Gui in surprise.

Zhang Gui said with a smile: "All post stations are in the main thoroughfares, and most of them are businessmen, as long as the business order of the post stations is rectified, it will naturally increase the business tax revenue." ”

"Most of the people who can operate industries in various post stations are powerful and gentry, and the imperial court will rectify and collect taxes, which is only afraid that it will make the powerful and gentry dissatisfied."

Han Yi said.

Zhang Guidao: "If these taxes are easy to collect, why does the imperial court set up a west factory?" What is the purpose of the tax police team that the most loyal and brave government schools are selected by the West Factory every year? In order to be able to bring up the taxes! At the right time, the comprehensive stores directly operated by the West Factory will also go to each post station to open one, and the public will be willing to buy shares? ”