While Zhong Jinwei was watching, he was thinking about how to provide Emperor Chongzhen with a solution to this matter.
He kept looking at the memorial for so long that Emperor Chongzhen almost couldn't help but want to ask. Only then did he see him put the memorial away and prepare to speak.
Things could not have been so bad. Wen Tiren advised Emperor Chongzhen several times, but he still had to think about it. As a result, while Emperor Chongzhen was hesitating, the situation suddenly changed and it was out of control.
The current situation is already like this, and there is no rush. At this moment, Zhong Jinwei can look at it seriously, which means that he is using his brain. Therefore, Wen Tiren is very patient and has not been impatient.
Zhong Jinwei raised his head and saw the anxious look on Emperor Chongzhen's face, and said in a calm voice: "Your Majesty, I told you about the official rape before. Do you still remember?" [
After finishing speaking, he looked at Wen Tiren on his right, then turned back. Before Emperor Chongzhen could remember to answer his question, he said again: "Your Majesty, Mr. Wen is also here. I would like to discuss this together."
**problem, and then we’ll see how to solve the current situation, do you think that’s okay?”
"Master Zhong, please speak." When Emperor Chongzhen heard what Zhong Jinwei said, he knew that he must have an idea to solve the current court situation. He calmed down and said in a calm tone.
"Your Majesty, Mr. Wen, the problem of official corruption should be a problem that has existed in all dynasties. It is probably impossible to eliminate it, right?" Zhong Jinwei asked.
"What do you think of Uncle Zhongxing?" Wen Tiren spoke first. Emperor Chongzhen originally wanted to nod, but seeing that Wen Tiren had already spoken, he stopped nodding and listened to the conversation between the two.
"I won't rush into my opinion right now. Let's talk about Taizu of this dynasty first. No emperor should have paid more attention to anti-corruption than Taizu, right?" Zhong Jinwei did not answer Wen Tiren's words, but asked another question.
"Exactly." Wen Tiren nodded.
"Did the corruption at that time dare to be made public? Will it be as unbridled as it is now? Will there be such breadth of participation by all employees?" Zhong Jinwei asked three questions in a row.
The answer is obvious, so Zhong Jinwei did not wait for Wen Tiren to answer, and continued: "Obviously, the lowest level of corruption was during the Hongwu period, and then the level gradually increased until it is today. Then why has it increased?
Woolen cloth?"
Emperor Chongzhen and Wen Tiren both knew that Zhong Jinwei would answer his own questions, so they did not answer and waited for Zhong Jinwei to continue.
"In my opinion, there are two reasons." Zhong Jinwei said facing Emperor Chongzhen.
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help it and asked Zhong Jinwei: "What are the two reasons?"
"I believe that the first reason is that the various anti-corruption systems established by Taizu have not been consistently implemented. Why is this happening?" Zhong Jinwei always uses this question-and-answer approach to guide others, which is what he did in later generations.
A habit of the project.
Emperor Chongzhen was already attracted by his words. He no longer waited calmly for Zhong Jinwei to answer his question, and asked Zhong Jinwei: "Why?"
"Because the executors of the system are also involved in corruption. For example, the censors who monitor hundreds of officials and the factory guards who detect officials and citizens are all involved. This can be seen from the list on this memorial." Zhong Jinwei replied.
Then he went on to say the second reason: "Second, objective reasons have caused the ranks of corruption to grow larger and larger, eventually leading to the spread of corruption."
"Master Zhong, what is objectivity?" Emperor Chongzhen asked. This time it was a philosophical term. People in later generations knew it, but ancient people did not know it.
"Oh, objective means environmental factors. People who take the initiative to do something are called subjective, and the corresponding thing is objective. As for the second point just mentioned, official salaries are actually not enough for them to spend, even to maintain their daily lives.
Forcing them to commit corruption is called objective reason."
Regarding the issue of insufficient official salaries, Zhong Jinwei had already mentioned this issue to Emperor Chongzhen before, so he did not repeat it again.
It wasn't many days after this happened, so Emperor Chongzhen naturally remembered it. As for Wen Tiren, Zhong Jinwei didn't need to tell him, he already knew it.[
"Your Majesty, I would like to help Mr. Zhongxing add some more." Wen Tiren suddenly interrupted.
"Oh, Qing Wen, please speak." Emperor Chongzhen looked at Zhong Jinwei and said.
Zhong Jinwei looked at Wen Tiren, wondering what he had missed, and also listened to Wen Tiren's words.
"I just remembered what Uncle Zhongxing said about the distinction between objective and subjective. Official corruption also has its subjective factors, which are the seven things that I mentioned before to open the door to the Ming Dynasty." Wen Tiren said.
Emperor Chongzhen remembered that when Wen Tiren mentioned the seven things to open the new door, he said that these seven things were not based on financial resources, and the court salary was not large, so officials began to take bribes, protect jn businessmen, evade taxes, and the treasury was empty.
At that time, I was busy solving the problem of refugees in the capital, and was worried about the captives in the capital, so I didn't look into it carefully. Now it seems that I really wrongly blamed Wen Qing for the first two days, and I blamed him for not warning him about the seriousness of anti-corruption in advance. In fact, he had done it before
I've said some things.
"Yes, Mr. Wen is right. The changes in social atmosphere and the prevalence of luxury are also the reasons for the increasing number of official corruption." Zhong Jinwei did not blush at all. In fact, he knew this, and the reason why he did not
He said it was so that he could better explain the solution he wanted to talk about, but now that Wen Tiren has said it, it doesn't matter. It's the truth anyway.
Wen Tiren saw that Zhong Jinwei didn't mind him mentioning his omissions. This kind of open-mindedness was rare! He couldn't help but nodded slightly.
Seeing that Wen Tiren stopped talking, Zhong Jinwei continued to explain to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, these three points are probably the reasons why the corruption problem is getting more and more serious. Now that we have figured out the reasons, we will try to solve the current situation in the court.
and corruption issues.”
Seeing that Zhong Jinwei had said what he wanted to hear most, Emperor Chongzhen sat up straight, looked at Zhong Jinwei and said, "Master Zhong, please continue."
"Master Wen, if what I said is wrong, please correct me as you did just now." Zhong Jinwei did not start speaking immediately, but made a suggestion to Wen Tiren.
"Don't worry, Uncle Zhongxing. Even if you don't say it, I will definitely say what needs to be said." Wen Tiren replied with a smile.
After Zhong Jinwei got the answer from Wen Tiren, he looked at Emperor Chongzhen and continued: "Your Majesty, the situation in front of you is actually a situation where the law does not punish everyone. There are so many people, and it is impossible for your Majesty to punish them one by one. It is also illegal to be a law enforcer.
When this happens, law enforcement will become empty talk."
As Zhong Jinwei spoke, he was preparing to express the thoughts in his mind. This idea was obtained by referring to similar situations in later generations, and was not something he came up with just by thinking about it.
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, his brows began to wrinkle again.
Zhong Jinwei acted as if he didn't see it and continued: "If we persist like this, the army's desire to fight and the civil servants will become a mess, and we will end up building captives at our own convenience. Your Majesty, the Ming Dynasty cannot repeat the mistakes of the Northern Song Dynasty!
"
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he knew that Master Zhong was referring to the Jingkang Revolution in the Northern Song Dynasty. This was really a shame for the Han people!
However, what Master Zhong said is right. The overwhelming troops of Jianlu are now in the capital. If he insists on dealing with them one by one, there will be no civil servants in the yamen to handle affairs. Even if the generals of King Qin’s army outside the city do not make a fuss or resist, they will also be killed because of it.
If there is no general to command and is defeated by the Jianlu, the capital will be in real danger.
Thinking of this, Emperor Chongzhen felt particularly heavy.
Wen Tiren had also vaguely thought about the result Zhong Jinwei mentioned, but he did not think of the Jingkang shame. Wen Tiren secretly said to himself that this shame should not be allowed to happen again under any circumstances.
Zhong Jinwei looked at the faces of Emperor Chongzhen and Wen Tiren respectively and knew that no one could afford this serious consequence. So he said: "Therefore, it is impossible to punish all corrupt officials one by one. This can be confirmed
Bar?"
Emperor Chongzhen nodded reluctantly. Wen Tiren had already been aware of this, so he also objected.[
"Well, on the basis of this consensus, let's discuss it further." Zhong Jinwei continued, just like a mess, he found the thread first.