"I have always felt that most of the ministers in the court can only advise and advise my father to do this or that, but they are officials who have not made any practical contributions."
"Old Liu is still very powerful. He can do practical things and solve various problems and things for my father."
"Hmph, when I become emperor in the future, I will definitely formulate a series of assessment systems to assess all officials in the world. Officials who can do practical things and have the ability will be promoted, and officials who can't do things will be promoted.
Go home and retire.”
After hearing Liu Jin's words, Zhu Houzhao also nodded and said.
He followed Emperor Hongzhi in handling some court affairs and naturally saw some problems. He even read many memorials for Emperor Hongzhi.
Every one of the officials of the Ming Dynasty is a master at writing articles. They can write brilliantly and beautifully, and they can easily pick up new beautiful articles without any pressure. When writing memorials, they usually write a large paragraph first to show off their talents, and then slowly develop their skills.
When it comes to talking about things, some officials' memorials are even written in very cryptic ways. If you don't have some skills and education, you won't even know what they mean.
This made Zhu Houzhao feel very tired. It was obviously a very simple matter. For example, there was a drought in a certain place. He only needed to briefly say that there was a drought, request the court to allocate silver and grain for disaster relief, and exempt this year's taxes.
That’s it.
After Emperor Hongzhi read it, he could just approve it directly. However, these officials often would not write it so simply. Instead, they would add a long paragraph of irrelevant content before explaining it clearly at the end.
It's like a foot wrap, it's long, smelly, and wastes time.
You must know that as the supreme ruler of this empire, the emperor's time is extremely precious. Even if the entire huge empire is peaceful and the people are safe, there will still be many things that need to be dealt with by him. Time is precious, and the efficiency of handling things is very important.
important.
The report memorial was only one aspect that Zhu Houzhao saw.
More often than not, these officials who were selected through the imperial examination are actually nerds. They are good at reading and writing articles, but they are not good at doing things. When they encounter problems, they cannot come up with good solutions. Of course, it is possible.
It’s because they don’t want to make a difference and they don’t dare to make a difference.
For example, in the past, the Ming Dynasty's treasury was empty, and the court received less than 3 million taels of silver in tax every year. For such a huge empire, it only had less than 3 million taels of silver. This amount of tax revenue could not satisfy the operation of the huge empire.
The Tatars from the north repeatedly moved south, and with the treasury empty, the court could not afford to fight a war. Even if it fought, it would basically lose more than it won.
Some officials in the DPRK wrote to levy commercial taxes to increase the revenue of the treasury. When Ma Wensheng was Minister of the Ministry of War, he suggested to Emperor Hongzhi to increase commercial taxes because of the depletion of armaments.
However, it met with the opposition of the cabinet minister Xie Qian, and in the end it was nothing. The treasury was still out of money, the Ming army was still depleted in armaments, military supplies could not be guaranteed, and the combat effectiveness was low. Facing its northern neighbors, it was always in a passive situation.
There is also the problem of salt administration. In the past, the emperor's random rewards of salt led to the gradual collapse of the grain payment system. No businessman was willing to transport grain to the border towns anymore, because even if it was shipped, he would not get it.
Yanyin, you can't extract salt from the salt field.
Because there is no way to meet the demand for salt from the salt field, the dignitaries who hold the salt can get a large amount of salt from the salt field for free, but the businessmen who actually transport grain to the border towns need to queue up. If they don't have connections,
, there is still hope of getting salt even if you queue for hundreds of years.
On the other hand, the officials in the salt fields worked hard to squeeze the Zao households. Due to the restrictions of the household registration system, the Zao households could only be continuously exploited and squeezed.
The imperial court's frontier troops had no one to transport food, military supplies were not guaranteed, and they didn't even have enough to eat. How could they go to war with their northern neighbors?
In fact, many people in the government knew about this situation, and almost all ministers in the government and the public were aware of this matter.
However, no one has ever stood up and said that they want to solve this problem, because the interests involved in salt are really too great. In the end, the payment of grain was changed to the payment of silver, which would directly give up a policy that benefits the country and the people.
Completely abolished.
From many things, Emperor Hongzhi and Zhu Houzhao saw the inaction and the inaction of the ministers in the court, although many of them were sabotaged by the emperor himself in the first place.
For example, the Ming Dynasty's treasure banknotes were originally a very good thing, equivalent to the paper currency of later generations. If the purchasing power of the treasure banknotes can be maintained, then the treasure banknotes can always be maintained and continue to operate.
However, when the emperor himself did not understand finance, economics and monetary science, he printed treasure banknotes desperately, thinking that as much money as he printed could be used as silver, in the end, the treasure banknotes were not even as good as paper.
Another example is the salt introduction system. It was a very good system, but the emperor had to constantly reward salt introduction to the princes and nobles, which eventually led to the collapse of this system.
But no matter what, the emperor still likes ministers who can solve his worries and people who can do things for him.
After all, the reason why the emperor continued to issue large amounts of money and reward people on a large scale was because the emperor was poor and lacked money. However, the emperor was the most face-conscious person in the world. After all, the emperor's face and majesty mattered no matter what.
It also needs to be maintained.
The emperor's income mainly came from the estates, land and other income under the emperor's command. The emperor's private income, that is, internal money, this part of the income was actually very small, probably less than 500,000 taels of silver per year.
income.
To be honest, this amount of income is simply not enough to maintain the dignity of the royal family, to reward meritorious ministers, to maintain the expenses of the huge harem, etc. This amount of money is simply not enough.
Therefore, when his own internal funds are not enough, the emperor will find ways to embezzle money from the treasury and use the money from the treasury to do things for himself, such as repairing the palace and so on, putting the expenses of the royal family and clan members into the treasury expenses, etc.
Then there are the large amounts of reward money and salt. When these treasure notes and salt are in the hands of the princes and nobles, they can naturally suppress them layer by layer, eventually leading to the collapse of the system.
On the one hand, the emperor's poverty comes from the emperor's large expenditure. On the other hand, the emperor does not participate in the commercial field and has no way to increase revenue. If the emperor goes to do business, the ministers below will say that the emperor competes with the people for profit, resulting in the emperor having to fight with the feudal society.
It is useful to the landowners. Although it is used for thousands of farms, tea houses, cloth villages, etc., the annual income is actually quite limited.
Under such circumstances, the emperor had no money, so he would naturally think of other ways. After all, the world belongs to the emperor, and no matter how hard he suffers, he cannot really say that he has suffered.
This is also what Emperor Hongzhi and Zhu Houzhao liked most about Liu Jin.
Without it, Liu Jin was able to make money for the old Zhu family. In the past, they were so poor that even Emperor Hongzhi had to wear patched clothes and the palace was reluctant to repair them.
It's different now. There is so much money that they can't even spend it all. The money earned from various industries under their command is flowing into their wallets continuously, and they can't use it all, so that they can only deposit it in the First Bank of Ming Dynasty.
Go and earn interest.
"Your Highness, this is a very good idea."
"Although our Ming Dynasty has a method of inspecting officials, such as Beijing officials conducting inspections every six years and local officials conducting "big plans" every three years, but due to the corruption of officials and the lack of laws and regulations, these systems are either inattentive to formality or become
The means used by officials to fight for power and gain."
"And speaking of itself, these test methods are not perfect, and there is no data comparison. It is impossible to conduct the test intuitively and fairly. In the end, it will definitely not work."
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After hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Liu Jin also nodded solemnly.
When talking about this matter, we must talk about Zhang Juzheng, a classmate who appeared dozens of years later in history. When Lao Zhang was the steward of the Ming Dynasty, the entire Ming Dynasty was actually in turmoil. He felt the various shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty and formulated a plan.
series of reform measures.
The whipping method for taxation and the examination method for the official assessment system were all devised by classmate Zhang Juzheng, and the effect was very significant. When classmate Zhang was the housekeeper, the Ming Dynasty was able to survive and resist Japanese pirates and Tatars in the north.
The internal treasury revenue increased, and the administration of officials became clear and clear.
As soon as Mr. Lao Zhang died, his reforms were abolished, and the Ming Dynasty completely began to be destroyed. He was regarded as the last savior of the Ming Dynasty.
The examination method is a policy that Lao Zhang came up with after he was impressed by the corruption of officials in the Ming Dynasty and the fact that the corpses were left to eat without food.
We are still in the Hongzhi Dynasty, and although the Ming Dynasty has not yet reached the precarious stage of the Zhang Juzheng period, there is not much difference in terms of official administration.
But the situation that Ming Dynasty is facing now is even more special. With the advent of the colonial era and capitalism, Ming Dynasty is facing unprecedented changes, and many things require timely responses from the Ming Dynasty court.
Not to mention anything else, just how to effectively control and manage such a huge empire was a huge test for the emperor and officials of the Ming Dynasty, not to mention the fact that they had to face the East and the West
The collision between them is facing issues such as the governance and long-term peace and stability of the newly included areas.
More importantly, the colonial era and the capitalist era had new requirements for the officials of the Ming Dynasty. They must not be like before, not seeking merit but seeking no faults, doing nothing, and living a simple life.
The Ming Dynasty needed a court that was more efficient, more honest, more organized, and more capable of mobilization, and such a court would naturally have more demands on its officials.