Seeing that the emperor still hated the generals who brutalized the common people, Lu Ning said that he fully understood Zhu Yuanzhang's current mood.

"It is necessary to crack down on corruption, but it is not enough to do it now. If we want to eradicate corruption, we need to start from many aspects. ”

"Tell me, then, what else can be done to prevent these things from happening?"

Lu Ning thought for a moment and continued.

"In fact, when my nephew thinks of Song Lian's words now, it is not all unreasonable, although his methods are a little pedantic, but his character is still worthy of recognition."

Hearing him praise Song Lian so much, Zhu Yuanzhang was greatly surprised and asked.

"He and his son instructed those imperial historians to impeach you, and you still speak for him?"

Lu Ning didn't mind at first, and said with a smile.

"In fact, Song Xue is for the official to be honest, and the practice is completely in accordance with the kind of integrity of the scholar, there are very few such officials in the court, although the ability to deal with practical things is not good, but it can be promoted as a model of the official's conduct, so that the whole world of scholars knows what kind of official should be, this is the power of example."

Hearing what Lu Ning said so objectively, Zhu Yuanzhang also nodded and said.

"We don't doubt the character of Master Song at all, that is, he is too bookish and angry, what people said more than 2,000 years ago is too outdated now, so we asked him to go to the beach to learn more, since you say so, we will immediately issue an order to call him back, and concurrently serve as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and then ask someone to greatly reward him and set an example."

He obviously attached great importance to this matter, so he asked Lu Ning to repeat it again, and he personally took it up and wrote it down.

"The second is about the issue of maximizing interests, Your Majesty needs to send an official for each time, and you also need to send some alternate officials raised by the imperial court to supervise them."

"Because these alternate officials can only officially take office when there is a vacancy, it is impossible to shield the person being supervised, as long as the other party does something disqualified, it will be reported to His Majesty immediately."

"In this way, those officials who are ordered to go out on errands will not dare to be corrupt. After all, if you stretch your hand a little longer, you may be able to hit the ground. With power under supervision in this way, who would dare to stretch out their hands indiscriminately? ”

Although Zhu Yuanzhang appreciates the previous example, there are also predecessors who have done this, and it is not a new idea.

But hearing Lu Ning's second idea, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up.

I can't imagine that a profit maximizer can still make such an article.

"Haha, this is a good benefit, I want to tell those officials that although corruption allows them to maximize their benefits, it also comes with the risk of exterminating the Nine Clans. However, it is the safest and most affordable to maximize the benefits of finding evidence of other officials' crimes. ”

After writing Lu Ning's second suggestion, he found that Lu Ning had some hesitation.

"Now it's just our uncle and nephew. There is no Your Majesty, and there are no courtiers, even if you are wrong, we will not blame you, just say anything. ”

"In fact, there is another most important and realistic one, if this one can't be solved, the so-called anti-corruption is only greedy, and it is only a symptom but not a root cause."

"Then tell us, what is the biggest sticking point?"

"It's just that the salary of our Ming officials is too low now, even if he is a member of the first rank of the dynasty, if he doesn't have a title, his annual salary is only one hundred and eighty taels of silver."

"The money is tight, and it can only barely make ends meet, and if you want to do something else, you will be stretched, and my nephew has seen a lot of corruption cases, although there are also those black-hearted officials, but many middle- and lower-level officials have to be greedy because of their living needs."

Zhu Yuanzhang's brows furrowed at that time and said.

"What do you mean to be greedy? Is there any reason for corruption? ”

Lu Ning slowed down his tone and carefully replied to Zhu Yuanzhang's words.

"These people are facing the common people below, and when they first came to be officials, they didn't necessarily want to benefit one party, but unfortunately the reality taught them to be people."

"During the New Year's holidays, I have to give my boss Bing Tan, as well as money for my children's schooling, or my family, and I need to be treated for three disasters and eight disasters. You can't do that with money alone. ”

But if you don't do it, you will inevitably be put in small shoes by your superiors, and even give Ann an an ugly charge. In order not to be framed by other embezzlers, they have to take risks. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted and asked.

"Although we are the Son of Heaven, we are not extravagant and wasteful, and we have always advocated frugality, how can they have so much courage?"

"It's not guts but life, I heard that there is an official, because he is honest and honest, when he returns to his hometown, he can't afford to pay for the journey, so he has to sell his daughter, so he was punished by the emperor's uncle, but you think, if his money is enough, why do you make such a helpless move? Can this be summed up by a single person who has no father-daughter relationship? ”

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang was silent and said.

"I don't know that the salaries of the officials are too low, but since the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the lives of the people have been miserable, and the people have not been able to make a living, and the court has to cultivate and recuperate to support the people. If you increase the income of officials, you need to collect more taxes from the people, and if you don't do it well, it will subvert the social system of the country, and it is not easy to talk about it. ”

As he spoke, he took out two documents from some secret files and handed them to Lu Ning.

Lu Ning took it and took a look, it turned out to be some lists of the first and second years of Hongwu.

However, the court did not have the money to pay, and in desperation, the ministers were given some traditional Chinese medicine in the first year, and the fruits were harvested in the second year.

If the ministers wanted to exchange the money for silver, they had to sell the goods they had sent. It can be seen how financially constrained the Ming Dynasty is.