Zhu Qizhen is determined to make some big noise this time. Reforming the Military Guard is just the beginning. Everything in Nanjing must be torn down and started over.
Just when Li Zhen went to reorganize various guard stations, Yuan Bin was not idle either. All the Jinyi Guards were dispatched to arrest people everywhere.
The group suspected of treason has long been eliminated, but those arrested now are those who followed the clues, were involved, or were reported by others, and it was found that there was something wrong.
From Fuzhou and the coastal areas of Guangzhou, Zhu Ji has also started to take action. A large number of officials and gentry suspected of smuggling and collaborating with the enemy were captured and then escorted back to Nanjing.
In just a few days, more than 300 officials were found involved, and the number of people implicated exceeded 10,000, and this number is still increasing every day.
Among these officials, there were civil servants, military generals, and even some who had retired and were preparing to spend their old age peacefully, but they were also taken out of their homes.
Suddenly, the entire Jiangnan officialdom was in panic. Some people even wrote suicide notes and left them at home before going on duty in the morning.
Yu Qian stopped pretending to control the floods and left the affairs of Huai'an Mansion to Wang Yonghe, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, while he rushed to Nanjing without stopping.
However, even though he was prepared, he was still shocked when he saw the list.
"Your Majesty, the situation must not escalate any further, otherwise, the consequences will be disastrous!"
Zhu Qizhen looked disapproving and said: "The evidence of these people I arrested is solid. According to the law of the Ming Dynasty, those who should be exempted should be exempted, those who should be imprisoned, and those who should be killed should be killed. Why not?"
"This... law does not punish everyone. This case has a wide range of implications. I think it is best... to suppress it."
"The law does not punish the public?"
Zhu Qizhen couldn't help laughing and asked: "When Emperor Taizu was the emperor, why was there no saying that the law should not be punished?"
Yu Qian was immediately stunned. Each of the famous four major crimes during the Hongwu period involved tens of thousands of people. Could it be that...
He glanced at Zhu Qizhen cautiously and thought to himself, could this be the inheritance of the old Zhu family, with the blood of being a tyrant in his body?
Zhu Qizhen put away his smile and continued: "The law is the law. There has never been a saying that the law does not punish everyone. Otherwise, where is fairness and justice?"
"But...it is the time for the imperial court to employ people..."
Yu Qian doesn't want to excuse these people, but he just thinks that there are too many people involved. If they are all eliminated, half of the officials in Jiangnan will be reduced out of thin air. How will it work?
Zhu Qizhen interrupted before he could finish: "You are wrong. Ming Dynasty has never lacked talents, but too many talents have been drowned and wasted. This is the new policy measure I have formulated in recent days.
Come and see!"
Yu Qian took a stack of self-written papers. The first page read about the restructuring of the Military Guard Office. He was the Minister of the Ministry of War, so he was naturally the most concerned about military issues, so he read it carefully.
At the beginning, I was a little confused and confused, but the more I read on, the more shocked I became.
The emperor actually wanted to abolish all the farming system left by Emperor Taizu and replace it with a recruitment system.
In addition, there are no longer restrictions on household registration for ordinary people. From now on, there will be no distinction between farmers and military households.
Streamline the number of troops and allow military households such as the old, weak, sick and disabled who are not suitable to continue serving in the army to retire and make a living on their own. The court will provide certain subsidies, then increase military expenditures, strengthen military training, and update weapons and equipment...
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[At the beginning of the civil fort, the Ming God of War was a little panicked] []
Seeing this, Yu Qian couldn't help but said: "The emperor's innovative measures are all aimed at the shortcomings of the current army, but if they are implemented... I'm afraid it will be a little difficult..."
"Tell me, what are the difficulties?"
Yu Qian nodded and said: "The first is military expenditure. If there is no farming, where will the large amount of military expenditure come from? Just this one item, all the tax revenue of the court every year is not enough. This is only in peacetime. If there is a war,
, the cost will at least triple."
Zhu Qizhen said: "Of course I have thought about the issue you mentioned. Since it is a reform, it must be reformed in all aspects. It is definitely not enough to reform the military. Therefore, I have reformed the scholars, farmers, industry and commerce all at once. Next,
The imperial court will encourage the people to vigorously develop industry and commerce, especially overseas trade. With money, you can pay more taxes and support the Ming Dynasty's army! Only when the army is strong, others will not dare to covet the Ming Dynasty's thousands of miles of land, and we will be better.
Protect the people of the world. When the time comes, when my Ming Dynasty merchant ships go out to do business, people will look up to you!"
"What the emperor said makes sense, but... I believe that if you want to develop industry and commerce, the first priority is to feed the people. Only when they are full can they have the strength to do other things. The most important thing right now is to solve the land problem.
."
Yu Qian's worries are justified. Over the past hundred years of the Ming Dynasty, princes, nobles, officials and gentry have been vying to annex land. The poor land in the hands of the people has long been taken away by these people through various means.
, unless this problem is solved, developing any kind of industry and commerce will be a dream.
Zhu Qizhen said: "I have also mentioned this issue, you can see for yourself!"
Yu Qian lowered his head and continued to read the planning book in his hand.
Sure enough, the second page was about land.
All land will be remeasured and registered. The land confiscated by the court will be redistributed according to population. The land previously annexed by illegal means from the homes of large landowners will be returned unconditionally. Otherwise, they will be punished as resisters.<
/p>
Moreover, the land tax will also be changed in the future, from the head tax to the land tax.
In other words, the more land your family owns, the more taxes you pay, and this number is upward. The larger the acres, the higher the tax rate.
Under such circumstances, it is no longer a wise move to hoard land. Otherwise, the pitiful income will not be enough to pay taxes.
After Yu Qian read this page, his brows twisted into knots.
I have to admit that this idea is very good. If it can be implemented, it will definitely improve the living standards of the people and even improve the strength of the entire Ming Dynasty.
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But the problem is that this measure will hurt the landlords and gentry. These people, from ordinary country squires to princes and nobles, have formed a huge community of interests. If their interests are harmed, the consequences will be disastrous.
Although the emperor is nominally the greatest among all the kingdoms in the world, the emperor is also a human being, not a god.
The reason why the emperor is the greatest is because he has the support of the gentry class.
The reason why these people support the emperor is because the emperor can protect their interests.
When the emperor no longer protects their interests, and even takes measures that harm their interests, will these people still support the emperor as before?
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[At the beginning of the civil fort, the Ming God of War was a little panicked] []
Yu Qian even felt uneasy and continued to turn to the next page.
This page talks about the official assessment system.
The general meaning is that below the ninth-rank officials, there are three levels of officials: tenth-rank, eleventh-rank, and twelfth-rank officials.
Yawen Bar
Moreover, the assessment for officials is universal. Tenth-grade officials who pass the assessment and have excellent results can be promoted to ninth-grade officials.
In the Ming Dynasty, the smallest official was not the county magistrate of the seventh grade. Below the magistrate there were auxiliary officials such as the county magistrate and the inspection officer, who were the eighth and ninth grade officials respectively. These were the lowest officials.
There are officials below the officials, that is, clerks, such as Zandian, secretary, ambassador of Hebo Station, Yicheng, etc.
Although the word "official" is often used together to refer to it, the two are the same in heaven and earth.
There is a gap that can never be crossed between clerks and officials. Although the court pays wages, there is no promotion path between the two.
Officials are obtained through the imperial examination. You climb up step by step from the bottom. How high you can climb depends on your own ability.
An official can only be an official forever. If you work for a lifetime, you will still be an official.
But now, the channel has been opened, and officials can also become officials, which is simply unbelievable.
Then I thought about it again, this is good, it can stimulate the motivation of the lower-level officials. Otherwise, there will be no hope in their lives, they will just eat and wait to die. Where will the enthusiasm come from?
The more Yu Qian read, the more shocked he became. When he opened the next page, his eyes almost popped out.
Change the imperial examination and cancel the eight-legged examination!
Damn it... Your Majesty, you want to rebel!
Create a rebellion against your old Zhu family!
What is the Eight-part Pattern to Recruit Scholars? It is the root of Ming Dynasty!
Now...you just canceled it when you said it was cancelled. What's going on?
It is conceivable that once this edict is issued, the world will inevitably be in chaos, and when the time comes... the consequences will be unimaginable...
There are still a few pages after that, but Yu Qian is not in the mood to read them at all.
"Your Majesty, regarding the implementation of the New Deal... I believe that we should be cautious and proceed slowly. As for these drastic measures, please think twice!"
Zhu Qizhen smiled and asked: "Let me ask you a question first. Do you think my new policy is good or not?"
"Your Majesty, this is no longer a question of whether it is good or not, the New Deal..."
"Answer me first, whether it is good or bad!"
Yu Qian had no choice but to reply: "The New Deal is good, but it is not suitable for the current situation..."
He wanted to tell Zhu Qizhen that as long as you dare to cancel the imperial examination today, someone will dare to cancel your throne tomorrow!
Zhu Qizhen didn't seem to understand, and asked: "Why is it not suitable?"
Yu Qian sighed secretly and said: "Your Majesty, the imperial examination is the foundation of our Ming Dynasty. Everyone in the imperial court, including ministers, are selected through the imperial examination. This is the foundation of the country and cannot be touched!"
These words are not alarmist, because since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang has attached great importance to the training and treatment of scholars, and personally made regulations to test scholars on the Four Classics and the Book of Changes, Book of Changes, Poetry, Spring and Autumn, and Book of Rites. Moreover, the difficulty of the eight-legged essay is not limited to this. Zhu Yuanzhang believed that all scholars should read Confucius, Mencius, and Zhu Xi. They should not use it casually, so he asked the text to slightly imitate the meaning of the Song Dynasty. However, the ancients did so in tone, style and use, which is called
The Eight-part Gu.
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[At the beginning of the civil fort, the Ming God of War was a little panicked] []
Since then, eight-part essay has become a lifelong pursuit of readers.
Zhu Qizhen was the most clear-eyed about the pros and cons of this system. Eight-legged essays were often criticized and criticized by later generations. However, in the early Ming Dynasty, this system was not without its merits.
The important role of the imperial examination system is to bring the power of selecting officials and appointing people to the central government, avoiding the emergence of clans, and strengthening centralization and imperial power.
Through the imperial examination system, scholars from all over the country had the opportunity to participate in state management, promoted social mobility, and effectively maintained the unified situation. However, in order to give full play to the role of the imperial examination system, maintaining examination fairness is a key. p>
Just imagine, if you use poems and poems to select scholars, it will be too subjective, which will easily lead to the problem of candidates asking for help from princes and nobles in the Tang Dynasty.
If the scope of the examination is not limited, scholars from poor families and remote areas will definitely not be able to compete with those from wealthy and developed areas. In the long run, a vicious circle will be formed, which is not conducive to social stability and national unity.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated a fixed format and fixed requirements, which is the eight-part essay.
Through strict format regulations, examiners can quickly make objective evaluations based on the format and content when marking papers.
There is also the scope of the examination. The Eight-part Part Examination questions are from the Four Books and Five Classics, and the scope is narrow. For scholars from poor families, these books have a high popularity rate and are easy to obtain. Therefore, the scholars who participate in the imperial examination, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, and where they are, can
They can basically be on the same starting line.
Of course, there are also great disadvantages to this.
If a person is not very bright-minded and puts all his energy into the imperial examinations and only immerses himself in the Four Books, Five Classics and Eight Eight-part Writing, and has a narrow range of knowledge, he will not only have no ability to govern the country, but will not even have basic living abilities.
Such people can only become nerds.
Therefore, when Zhu Yuanzhang was formulating the imperial examination, in the last stage of the imperial examination, he suddenly gave up the eight-legged composition and changed it to policy theory.
Through policy discussions, nerds can be excluded. Of course, if they are really nerds, they will most likely not be able to pass the imperial examination.
Even if you are not a nerd, because the imperial examination only tests eight-legged essay, scholars will only be able to do eight-legged essay as a human being. This leads to them being ignorant in other aspects, such as natural science. If someone studies these, they will be regarded as a grotesque person.
Disdainful.
As a result, although these scholars have read the books of sages, except for the top ones who can ascend to the temple, most of them will be just ordinary people throughout their lives.
They couldn't carry it on their shoulders, couldn't lift it with their hands, and the knowledge in the books couldn't be used as food. This is what later generations meant when they said they were useless scholars.
At most, you can go back to your hometown and become a teacher, or go to work as an accountant in a wealthy family. Apart from being able to barely obtain a household registration, there will be no future in this life.
Of course, Zhu Qizhen knew that the imperial examination should not be done rashly. What was at stake was a huge cake. Scholar-officials all over the world were dividing this cake. If they cut one less piece, they might still be able to accept it. However, the cake was served directly.
Go, these people must be jealous of you.
"Regarding the imperial examination, I do not want to completely cancel it, but to reform it. Simply taking the eight-part essay test has no great meaning. Governance is not as simple as the Four Books and Five Classics. Let me give you the simplest example, accounting statistics, the Four Books and Five Classics.
Is there any in it?"
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[At the beginning of the civil fort, the Ming God of War was a little panicked] []
Yu Qian was stunned and replied: "Account statistics... are just some arithmetic problems, not anything profound..."
Zhu Qizhen suddenly changed the topic and said: "Since it's not that advanced, I guess... you, as a Jinshi, must be more than enough. How about this? I'll give you a test question, and you can do the math. How about it?"