Chapter 680: The beginning of the comprehensive reform of the Ming Dynasty
Capital of the Ming Dynasty. (Due to caching reasons, please visit the browser directly.\nCOM website to watch the fastest chapter updates)
After nearly a month of sailing, the southern patrol finally returned.
After Zhu Yuanzhang returned to the palace, he immediately summoned six ministers and Zhu Ying to check on the situation of the Ming Dynasty in the past six months.
Because of the decentralization of power, it can still operate well even if there is no emperor to handle government affairs.
There were not many matters that required the emperor's personal review. They either involved border military defense or the conferment of titles.
The six ministers carefully handed over the statistics of government affairs to His Majesty.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at it in detail.
The originally vacant post of Minister of Rites now has a candidate.
It was Ren Hengtai, the former Minister of Rites.
According to the current promotion and demotion of official positions, it is no longer the case that you can be promoted as you want. Skip-level promotions have now been cancelled. Promotions at each level need to be supported by political performance.
Only the emperor has the power of special appointment.
Of course, neither Zhu Yuanzhang nor Zhu Ying would use this power lightly.
"Very good. It seems that during the time we were away, your beloved ministers still focused on government affairs and did not disappoint us."
After about half an hour, Zhu Yuanzhang finally finished reading the statistical data of the six movies.
The six people below are all fifty-year-old men, and each of them is as nervous as a child who has just handed in his homework.
It wasn't until I heard His Majesty speak that I felt relieved.
"Besides this work, dear sirs, do you still have other things to report?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked after putting down the memorial.
The six ministers looked at each other, but in the end no one spoke.
Now is a time of peace and prosperity, with singing and dancing.
The borders of the Ming Dynasty are basically relatively stable. The small neighboring countries are either suppressed by the Ming Dynasty, or are guarded by overseas vassals, and basically will not invade the Ming Dynasty.
For some small matters that can be solved by oneself, the Six Ministers will not go out of their way to cause trouble for oneself.
In the current stage of rapid economic development in the Ming Dynasty, the happiness index of most people is relatively high. Basically, as long as they can work and have enough food and clothing, at least they will not starve to death.
The establishment of the Qunying Chamber of Commerce in local areas has greatly enhanced the revenue capabilities of local governments.
Even when famine strikes some small places, the situation can be brought under control quickly so that large numbers of refugees will not appear.
While we now pay attention to political achievements, there is a Special Supervision Department here in the capital that visits the entire Ming Dynasty every day.
If you encounter someone who is acting recklessly in a local area, you can directly appeal to the local Chief Secretary.
In general, minor problems in the Ming Dynasty still exist, but major problems have basically been dealt with and will not affect the country.
"Big Sun, let me tell you a few words about some arrangements and plans for this year." Zhu Yuanzhang was half lying on the chair and ordered with a relaxed expression.
Now that he is in a peaceful age, he is just watching how his grandson governs.
Zhu Ying nodded, organized some words in his mind, and then said: "For this year, I have three ideas, and I hope the Sixth Department will help implement them."
As soon as Taisun opened his mouth, the six ministers immediately sat upright and listened attentively.
Zhu Ying continued: "First of all, it's about the military."
Rujun, Minister of the Ministry of War, couldn't help but feel a little more nervous.
Because although there is still the Fifth Army Governor's Office, basically all military affairs are implemented in the Ministry of War.
Zhu Ying glanced at Ru Yu and said: "At present, the individual quality of the soldiers in the army varies greatly, and there are even some officers who are eating their wages and drinking the soldiers' blood. At this point, I hope that Ru Shangshu can establish the inspection department of the Ministry of War.
An internal review will be conducted specifically on this aspect of the situation."
"A dike of a thousand miles breaks in an ant nest. From our perspective, perhaps one health center or one thousand-household hospital is nothing, but things like this are extremely easy to spread."
"There are hundreds of thousands of households who see their neighbors making a fortune while they themselves are miserable. Naturally, their hearts are not balanced, and it is easy for them to get involved."
"Once this kind of trend spreads, it will have an extremely huge impact on our Ming army and directly shake the country's foundation."
Ru Jin quickly replied: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty Taisun, I will convene a meeting immediately after my return to set up an internal inspection department to clean up the worms in the world's defense offices."
Zhu Ying nodded slightly: "In addition to corruption, the Ministry of War has two other things to address at the same time."
"First, regarding the issue of soldiers retiring, a number of years must be set for this. If some soldiers are already in their fifties and sixties and are still in the army, this will affect the combat effectiveness of the army."
"I suggest that if lower-level soldiers cannot be promoted to officers, they should retire before the age of forty. This will not have a big impact on their subsequent lives."
"Including the general banner, 100 households, 1,000 households, and Ru Shangshu must discuss a number of years, especially for 1,000 households and above, there can be no situation where there are corpses and no meals."
"Secondly, regarding the issue of re-employment of retired soldiers, they must be properly resettled. Local governments should cooperate in this regard. In the recruitment of officials, government officials, etc., retired soldiers should be given priority."
"Many soldiers may have joined the army at a very young age, but now they retire rashly without any skills, and they also have martial arts skills. If they are ignored, it will cause local chaos."
"However, for soldiers who have devoted half their lives to the army, the court cannot chill their hearts."
Ru Yu quickly replied: "I understand, I will arrange it carefully."
Zhu Ying looked at the other ministers and ordered: "As for the resettlement of retired soldiers, it is not only the responsibility of the Ministry of War, but also the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of Rites, all of which must cooperate."
"Don't underestimate this retirement arrangement. It involves the military's combat effectiveness, morale, and even the success or failure of the battlefield. Only when we solve the soldiers' worries can they dare to die fearlessly when they go into battle to kill the enemy."
The six ministers replied in unison: "I respectfully obey Taisun's order."
Zhu Ying continued: "Finally, here at the Ministry of War, there are still questions about this year's recruitment."
"Currently, our Ming Dynasty has more than two million soldiers. Although there is a military household system and we can produce our own soldiers, in the future, we must pay more attention to the individual qualities of the soldiers. We cannot recruit all the monsters and monsters."
"You should be careful when recruiting troops in the future. Those with bad conduct will not be accepted, especially those who have committed crimes. No matter how excellent your personal martial arts is, the army cannot tolerate such black sheep."
"From now on, criminals in our Ming Dynasty can only rebel and join the labor reform, and they are not allowed to join the army. This article should be written into the military regulations of our Ming Dynasty, and no one is allowed to violate it."
Before Zhu Ying, there was a saying of confining the army.
Those who broke the law were thrown into the border areas and sent to the army.
Such behavior has greatly damaged the image of the army among the people. In the eyes of many people, soldiers in the army are almost the same as criminals, and there is even a saying that a man of good family will not join the army.
In fact, such behavior is helpless, because the soldiers themselves are treated very poorly, and the situation of corruption and bullying in the army is very serious.
This also made it difficult for the court to recruit troops, and coupled with forced recruitment for military service, the army never had a good impression among the people.
At present, the Ming Dynasty's economy is already very good. What Zhu Ying has to do is to integrate the current army, try his best to improve the overall combat effectiveness of the army, and put discipline first.
The direction of recruiting soldiers is to recruit good families.
Because only in this way can the army obey orders more and be better controlled by the imperial power.
"I respectfully abide by Taisun's order."
After saying this, all the six ministers stood up and bowed.
They felt even more deeply His Highness Taisun's determination to rectify the army.
Smart people can actually understand that if this kind of reform continues, the discipline and combat effectiveness of the Ming army will continue to increase in the future.
In fact, Zhu Ying's reforms were not a miracle.
Many smart people have already taken such measures, and it is even common and normal for famous generals in the past dynasties to only recruit sons from good families.
But only Zhu Ying, as the future emperor, actually wrote this article into the military law.
Only Zhu Ying wants to make all the soldiers in the country like this.
Of course, in fact, there were emperors in the past dynasties who had the same idea, but they could only think about it and could not formulate it like Zhu Ying did.
After all, in the previous dynasties of the Ming Dynasty, the right to speak was basically in the hands of the aristocratic families. The stability of the emperor did not depend on the support of the people and the army, but on the support of the aristocratic families.
Only the Ming Dynasty could achieve this.
In other words, there is only the current Ming Dynasty.
If it were not for Zhu Yuanzhang's era, it would be almost impossible to have such favorable conditions, and even Zhu Di would have difficulty completing such reforms.
If by the middle of the Ming Dynasty, officials in both the government and the opposition began to become corrupt, there would be no need to mention it.
It can be said that the imperial society that has existed for thousands of years can only be achieved at Zhu Yuanzhang's current point of time, even taking into account Zhu Ying's help to the Ming Dynasty's economy.
In any other era of imperial power, such things could only be empty talk.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Da Sun with deep relief in his eyes.
He felt that Dasun had changed a lot since this southern tour.
In the past, the grandson would put a lot of thought on business and was relatively lazy in handling government affairs.
Every day I just want to take a break from my busy schedule and live my own little life.
It is undeniable that many strategies were devised to make the Ming Dynasty's economy prosperous, and they also solved the division of power very well.
But there is one thing, although Zhu Yuanzhang has never said it, he feels a little regretful.
That is, Da Sun did not give him the feeling of an emperor.
This is a very strange feeling.
Not everyone can look like an emperor. Some people wearing a crown will give people the feeling of being crowned like a monkey.
But today's grandson really made Zhu Yuanzhang feel the majesty and wisdom of the emperor when he was giving instructions to the ministers.
This should be the emperor of the Ming Dynasty in the future.
He is old.
What he wants to see most is for his successor to be outstanding, to be able to surpass himself in all aspects, and to be able to control the general trend of the country.
Zhu Ying's side is naturally not just the Ministry of War.
Among them, especially the Ministry of Industry, was related to the issue of steam engines.
"The Council of the Ministry of Industry will issue an announcement later, and we will inform all the prefectures, counties, and even villages in the Ming Dynasty."
"Now that the imperial court is in the midst of a major construction project, it is calling on craftsmen from all over the world to gather in the capital. As long as the craftsmanship is available and has been verified by the local government, the expenses for traveling to Beijing and even returning to Beijing will be borne by the imperial court."
This time, Zhu Ying wanted to gather all the efforts of the Ming Dynasty to develop the steam engine and truly apply it to practice.
Even if such a notice will lead to the emergence of some people who fish in troubled waters, it doesn't matter.
As long as steam iron-clad ships can be developed, the Ming Dynasty will truly be a sea of stars in the future.
The Craftsman School here at the Ministry of Industry has been in existence for two years and has provided many craftsmen for the Ming Dynasty.
But in fact, what Zhu Ying lacks is researchers, scientific and technical talents, and even scientists.
These are still a bit far away. At present, the underlying knowledge structure of the Ming Dynasty is still limited to the Four Books and Five Classics. This is not a problem that can be solved in a few years.
Now that the Renaissance in the West has begun, if steam ironclads can be developed as soon as possible, it means that the long distance between the East and the West will be greatly shortened.
For thousands of years, the Central Plains has indeed led the world in all aspects of cultural ideology, including various technologies.
But Zhu Ying will not be blindly arrogant or suppress Western development.
It is undeniable that the West developed rapidly in the hundreds of years after the Renaissance, especially in aspects such as physical and chemical manufacturing. Thanks to free thinking and the emergence of the world market, a technological explosion occurred in just a few hundred years.
The Ming Dynasty was a society of imperial power, so Zhu Ying certainly could not be stupid enough to revolutionize his own life.
However, the stable imperial power also has shortcomings, especially the cultural ideology, which has lasted for thousands of years. It is not something Zhu Ying can do in just a few decades to make sudden changes.
Perhaps Zhu Ying could continue to develop new technologies during his lifetime, but it is also very likely that after a few generations, the development of science and technology in the Ming Dynasty would not only stagnate but may even retreat under the influence of imperial power.
Therefore, Zhu Ying needed to find an analogy to form an arms race and stimulate scientific changes.
Zhu Ying believes that as long as the ideology changes and the research spirit of the Central Plains can be truly recognized and create value, it will definitely not be worse than the West.
Therefore, while leading the Ming Dynasty to carry out reform and development and strengthen industrial infrastructure, it was also necessary to learn from Western technological innovations.
With the fusion of east and west, Zhu Ying is looking forward to what kind of sparks will burst out.
After handing over to the completion department.
For the Ministry of Punishment, the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Officials, and the Ministry of Rites.
Zhu Ying also arranged some tasks and directions.
For example, the Ministry of Punishment has strengthened the improvement of laws, the Ministry of Revenue has allocated a proportion of the national treasury, and increased investment in the military and industry.
The Ministry of Rites has jurisdiction over the current entertainment system of the Ming Dynasty.
The Ministry of Rites has a similar concept to the cultural departments of later generations, and it is not limited to etiquette and diplomacy.
Including the correct construction of the spiritual culture of the Ming Dynasty, the control of bad habits, and the guidance of positive energy of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism are also key points.