Regarding the selection of scholars from the north and the south, Zhu Yuanzhang has actually noticed the imperial examinations in recent years.
But he didn't take it seriously.
In other words, he didn't take the imperial examinations seriously, and it didn't matter if he stopped for seven or eight years.
This situation is mainly due to the relationship between officials' lifelong tenure.
When all official positions are filled, it means that the imperial court does not need to hold imperial examinations to select officials.
Because there is no place to put the students who have passed the exam.
For most officials, once they become an official, they are there for life.
For example, the county magistrate of a remote place.
If nothing unexpected happens, a certain candidate may be appointed in his thirties or forties.
It doesn't matter, his talent is not particularly outstanding, and his local political performance can only be said to be passable.
In this case, the county magistrate will probably work until he is sixty or seventy.
It is even very possible that if he died in this official position when he was 70 or 80 years old, he would report to the court and request to send a new county magistrate.
It sounds a bit ridiculous, because even at the age of seventy, the county magistrate has become old and even demented, but he will still stay in this official position.
"Grandpa, my grandson has another idea here. Please give it a try."
Seeing that the old man was very satisfied with the memorial to separate the recruitment of officials from the north to the south, Zhu Ying directly struck while the iron was hot and came up with his idea of letting officials adopt a retirement system.
In fact, Zhu Ying had written these contents a long time ago, but he never published them because he was worried about what the old man would think.
Because the old man is not young anymore, Zhu Ying is afraid that bringing up this charter will remind the old man of himself.
Now that spring is approaching, official positions in the imperial court are still relatively full.
How to arrange the future arrangements for these successful students is also a question that both myself and the old man should consider.
Moreover, with the plan to recruit scholars from the north and the south, more students will be selected.
Zhu Yuanzhang took the memorial and began to look at it.
Zhu Ying observed carefully.
At first, the old man's brows started to furrow, which made Zhu Ying a little worried.
But soon, after seeing the reasons written by Da Sun, Zhu Yuanzhang's brows slowly widened.
In this memorial, Zhu Ying actually collected many specific examples.
Most of them are ridiculous things caused by officials because they are too old.
There are also some troubles and hidden dangers brought to the people by the weakening of abilities in all aspects after old age.
The simplest way to put it.
No matter what kind of official position one holds, especially inspector, censor, or even county magistrate, to a large extent, every once in a while, one needs to go to the countryside below to see if there are any unfair or illegal things happening.
If you are older, you will basically be in the government office every day, and you will not be able to control the outside world at all.
At this time, some people below have completely emptied their authority, and it is unknown.
Even some decrees issued by the imperial court could not be effectively disseminated to the lower classes of the people.
Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a while, and then asked:
"Dasun knows how big an expense this is, and it will continue to be a burden on the national treasury."
"How can we continue for so long?"
"As for the health department, according to the gradual restructuring of Da Sun, the burden will gradually be borne by the national treasury. Coupled with the salaries of officials all over the world after their retirement, we are really worried."
"Since the ancient dynasty, this kind of behavior has never happened."
"Da Sun said that without worries, officials can effectively prevent corruption."
"We know these officials best. No matter how high their salary is, their greed has never diminished."
"Perhaps many officials also set lofty ambitions when they first became officials, and lived a clean and honest life to benefit the people."
"However, it is not easy to get rid of all kinds of temptations, family relationships, relatives and friends. If you open this door, you will no longer have any restraints and scruples when you engage in corruption later."
"Besides, if you become an official at the age of sixty, if those are in good health, won't the court have to support them for twenty or thirty years?"
The Ming Dynasty now has very detailed regulations for officials to serve, that is, retire.
If an official of the third rank or above retires according to his current position, if he is below the fourth rank and has served in his current position for three years without major faults, he can be promoted to an official position.
In the early years, Zhu Yuanzhang had stipulated the salary of officials for serving as officials, but he soon found that the burden was too great and canceled it.
Later, it was also stipulated that officials would not be granted official salary under normal circumstances. However, if the family was poor and could not survive on their own, they would be given rice and two stones per month to cultivate their health.
This means that retired officials who cannot even afford food can receive a subsistence allowance to ensure that they will not die of hunger.
According to Da Sun's current proposal, all officials who have reached the age of sixty and have no special needs will be eligible for official service.
After that, the imperial court will also be responsible for their salary arrangements after retirement.
This made it difficult for Zhu Yuanzhang to accept.
Facing the old man's question, Zhu Ying, who had been prepared for a long time, did not panic at all.
Then he took out a booklet from his pocket and handed it over.
"Good boy, you can hide something from us."
When Zhu Yuanzhang saw this, he couldn't help but laughed and took it.
The Ming Dynasty did not have an institution similar to the Bureau of Statistics of later generations. This booklet is a summary of information about today's officials.
While the old man was checking the summary data, Zhu Ying introduced: "There are currently 27,896 officials in office in the Ming Dynasty."
"Even if each person is equally divided into ten guan of treasure money, the monthly income is nearly 300,000 yuan, and the annual income is about 3.6 million yuan. Based on the current income, the increase in taxes is not unbearable."
"Among these officials, 60% are over fifty, the remaining 30% are over forty, and only 10% are under forty."
"Most of the officials' grandchildren are simply recorded in the official records. About 75% of the officials were promoted not through political performance, but through seniority and then recommendation."
"The biggest disadvantage of recommendation is that relatives hide from each other, which is the easiest way to form clique relationships. Those talented officials are not promoted, but these connections are promoted."
"For a long time, it has been a huge hidden danger to the official environment of the entire Ming Dynasty."
"Grandpa knows every detail and can definitely tell the difference between loyalty and treachery. My grandson thinks he has some knowledge as well, so basically there won't be any problems."
"But what about future generations? Will they be able to excel from generation to generation? If there is a fool among them, wouldn't it destroy the foundation of the Ming Dynasty?"
"For many dynasties in ancient and modern times, the founding of the country was the peak. No one who came after could surpass it. On the contrary, it became weaker and weaker, and the people's life became more and more difficult. Therefore, the dynasty was destroyed and a new country was established."
"The key to this, Sun'er has thought over and over, seems to be the work of a foolish king, but in fact it is more closely related to officials at all levels."
"If there are a few more unworthy descendants, our Ming Dynasty..."
At this point, Zhu Ying stopped talking.
Because Zhu Ying knew very well that the old man's weakness had always been how to make the Ming Dynasty last forever.
All the current systems of the Ming Dynasty are designed around this point.
Sure enough, while listening to Da Sun's report and looking at the detailed data in the booklet, Zhu Yuanzhang's mind began to change.
After pondering for a while, Zhu Yuanzhang stretched out his hand: "Come on."
Zhu Ying chuckled: "My grandson knows that he can't hide it from grandpa."
After saying that, he took out the third booklet from his arms.