On the way back to Beijing, Zhu Cihong was discussing this matter with Fang Zhenghua.
"There are too many disadvantages if the government does not go down to the county!" Zhu Cixi said with emotion, "I have passed through so many places along the way from south to north. Although the squires in most places are still OK, look at it.
If you meet someone like Liujiazhuang, it would be extremely easy to kill people privately. This is not a good thing!"
"Young master, what you said makes sense!" Fang Zhenghua listened and immediately nodded in agreement, "The power of this clan leader is too great, even more powerful than the government. Even if the county magistrate wants to try this case, the final result must be reported to the court and sentenced.
Matters of capital punishment are brought directly to the imperial court. But in this countryside, the clan leader makes a decision with his word, and there is no possibility of review!"
Having said this, he changed the topic again and said to Zhu Cixiang: "But this has been the case in rural areas since ancient times. Even if the government wants to control it, it often can't!"
After hearing this, Zhu Cihong shook his head and said: "If you can't control it, you still have to control it! The power of life and death cannot be controlled by rural people like this! Otherwise, where is the king's law?"
After a pause, he said with a serious face: "The difficulty in this matter is that the court's control at the county level is too small, so that such a situation occurs. After returning to Beijing, I reported to my father that I
Can this situation be changed?"
Even if it was to make decisions for the people, or to ensure the strict authority of the emperor, at the time of the Ming Dynasty's resurgence, at least in the view of the vigorous Zhu Cixiang, this kind of thing must change.
This time, if he hadn't met them, the man and the woman would have been killed directly.
Although as far as this matter is concerned, it will not affect the rule of the imperial court at all. However, if there are too many such things, it will be a big deal!
Zhu Cixi had reason to believe that if the world had been in chaos a few years earlier, or if the imperial court had less control over local areas, then this kind of thing would have been more common.
Thinking about this matter, Zhu Cixiang even made special observations and research on this matter when he went north. When he finally arrived in the capital, he wrote an eloquent memorial of ten thousand words and presented it to Emperor Chongzhen.
In the eyes of the emperor and the prince, what they paid more attention to was that the local gentry had the power to surpass the local government. They had to care about the power that originally only belonged to the emperor to kill and kill the people.
Emperor Chongzhen also attached great importance to this matter.
Coincidentally, the report from Wujin County was also sent to the capital, and the Jinyiwei Yamen's own investigation was submitted to the imperial court.
This project is not complicated at all, and with Jin Yiwei watching, all aspects of the process are not only fast, but also very detailed.
Including the information about the son of the clan leader who was the censor, was also placed in front of the censor.
The son of the patriarch who was the censor, his name was Liu Guangdou. When Emperor Chongzhen saw this name, he felt that it was a bit familiar, so he took out his mobile phone and looked it up.
As a result, he really found it.
In the original history, there is information about Liu Guangdou as the censor in the information on Jiangyin Eighty-one.
When Jianlu went south, Liu Guangdou voluntarily surrendered to the Jianlu who went south, and followed the orders of the slave chief Duduo to recruit all the counties in Changzhou to surrender, but Jiangyin refused to surrender. He went there personally to persuade the Jianlu to surrender, and colluded with the county magistrate to persuade the Yin people to surrender.
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The information provided by Liu Weichao did not mention the final result of Liu Guangdou. However, his name and the disgraceful scene remained in the historical materials of Jiangyin 81st.
After reading this information, it goes without saying that Emperor Chongzhen was extremely disgusted with Liu Guangdou. Looking at the information about Liu Guangdou investigated by Jin Yiwei, it was found that he was corrupt.
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen regarded the matter of Liu Guangdou and his father as a typical example.
The Chinese New Year was about to come, but Liu Guangdou was still arrested and ordered to be interrogated by the Ministry of Criminal Justice.
The Ministry of Punishment was just happy to have an additional Tianqi Division that could take charge of the vassal state. When it received the task from the emperor, it dared not neglect it and immediately sent its capable personnel to Jiangnan to further investigate the Liu family case.
At the same time, Emperor Chongzhen naturally asked Liu Weichao for his thoughts on this matter. Most importantly, he still wanted to know how future generations would govern the place.
In response to this, Liu Weichao smiled and said: "In my dimension, there are townships below the county, and villages below the township. Those who receive imperial salary are at the village level."
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he was very interested and quickly asked about the details.
So, Liu Weichao made an introduction. After listening to it, Emperor Chongzhen concluded: "Roughly speaking, in fact, the imperial court is only at the township level, and the village is more autonomous."
He concluded that village officials were not appointed by the court, but elected by the villagers, and they were equivalent to village sages.
Emperor Chongzhen said with a little regret: "It seems that I can't learn from you. The difference is too big!"
When Liu Weichao heard this, he said a little disapprovingly: "Why can't you learn? Are you a young official? There shouldn't be too many people who want to be officials, you can expand the recruitment! In your position, as an official among officials, I think we need to innovate
better!"
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen remembered that he seemed to have said this before, and quickly asked: "What do you mean, do you mean to transfer all the officials, servants, etc. to serve in the imperial court and receive imperial salary?"
"It's very simple. Aren't the people who actually do the work in your Ming Dynasty all these officials and handymen? They have no income. If they are just serving, they will definitely try to make money with the power in their hands. Who seems to have written this
How can people turn their hands to make money from the clouds and the rain, and pass it on from generation to generation? It will definitely have a great impact on the administration of officials!"
When Liu Weichao said this, he went to search on his bookshelf, and he actually found the book he was looking for. Then he sat back in his seat, opened the book, and the impression came out, and he said to Emperor Chongzhen: "This
The Ming Dynasty under this microscope summarized several stories based on county records to describe this situation. Let me tell you about it..."
Emperor Chongzhen was so high up there that he would care about the details below. To put it bluntly, Zhu Cixiang had a better understanding of the life at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty. Maybe he had never even gone out.
At this time, listening to Liu Weichao introducing him, he was dumbfounded.
After Liu Weichao made a brief introduction, he said to Emperor Chongzhen: "This situation should be a common phenomenon in the Ming Dynasty, and it is not just the place mentioned in the book."
At this point, he remembered something and said with emotion: "You don't know, we have always had a debate in later generations. It has been more than two hundred years since the Ming Dynasty. By your time, social conflicts have become deep. Even if Zhu Yuanzhang is alive,
I’m afraid it can’t be saved. This view actually means that the corruption in the Ming Dynasty has become very serious and cannot be cured!”
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he was a little unconvinced and wanted to speak.
But before he could speak, Liu Weichao said to him first: "To a certain extent, the thieves causing chaos are actually breaking the altars of the Ming Dynasty and cleaning them up with the help of the force of the bandits."
The local government has cured the corruption of the Ming Dynasty. But I think the most important thing is because of my influence, which allowed you to vigorously develop science and technology, so that you have the ability to turn the tide!"
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he was not in a hurry to speak, and seemed to be thinking about something.
Liu Weichao ignored him and continued: "It's like dividing a piece of pastry. It's already so big. Any part of this pastry already has an owner. If someone wants to eat it, if you touch them, they will definitely not agree.
!but……"
This metaphor seemed a bit fresh. Emperor Chongzhen immediately raised his head, looked at Liu Weichao on the phone, and listened carefully.
"...The thieves' troubles have killed the owners of part of the cake, which means there is no owner. If you touch this part of the cake, you will not encounter strong opposition. Furthermore, technology is equivalent to taking this part of the cake away.
The cake has grown bigger, and there are a lot more cakes that no one has occupied yet, so you have more cakes!"
When Liu Weichao said this, he said seriously to Emperor Chongzhen: "What I said about this is to say that you should take advantage of this opportunity to make the cake bigger and put all the power to distribute the cake in your own hands. What do you let them eat?
You can eat whatever you want, so that you don’t have no cake to eat.”
Emperor Chongzhen was already accustomed to the way he talked to Liu Weichao, and he immediately understood his thoughts and confirmed: "What you mean is that I want to take advantage of this great change to change the current situation in the Ming Dynasty?"
"That's right!" Liu Weichao nodded after hearing this, "Otherwise, your current expansion of territory will only be built on a pile of floating sand, with an unstable foundation. If you are not careful, the behemoth Ming Dynasty will be destroyed very soon.
It might collapse because of something!”
Emperor Chongzhen obviously could not let this happen. Although he felt that it would be difficult to change the local governance that had existed for thousands of years, he still wanted to do it, so he expressed his concerns.
Next, ask Liu Weichao for advice.
After hearing this, Liu Weichao immediately shook his head and said, "You don't have to think it's that difficult! It's been like this for thousands of years. That's because the population was too small in the past, so this model didn't matter. But starting from your Ming Dynasty,
The population is calculated in units of hundreds of millions. In the future, when peace continues, the population will only increase. Therefore, the population of a county in the past cannot match the population of a town now. The way of governance has changed over time.
, this is reasonable!”
"Don't be afraid of shortage of people. Those who have retired from the army have been trained by the supervisory army. Not only do they have a record, they are loyal and more reliable. With such a large number of people as your backup, I think you can go ahead and do it.
Moreover, these people can be assigned to the grassroots level and have good jobs, which in turn will attract more young people to join the army. Everything is a positive thing..."