Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1778, corrupt officials

In the Study Room of Qianqing Palace, Hongzhi Huangdi, Liu Jin, Qi Zhong, Wang Shouren, Han Wen, Yang Yiqing, and Liang Chu were discussing state affairs.

"Your Majesty, officials from Xiayun Township Immigration Bureau in Heitu Province, together with Xiayun Township officials and bureaucrats, embezzled 200 million taels of silver, [-] horses, [-] cows, and [-] sheep."

Wang Shouren took out a memorial and reported the immigration affairs of Heitu Province to Hongzhi Wasteland. He was the cabinet minister in charge of immigration affairs. He felt that his face was not bright when something like this happened.

Speaking of the past, the salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty was really low. If everyone lived on that salary, they would starve to death. Therefore, there were many unwritten rules in the officialdom, such as collecting filial piety and brush fees.

This is something that everyone turns a blind eye to. Even Emperor Hongzhi knew about it, and Liu Jian, the chief minister of the cabinet, was also accepting it.

But it’s different now. The income of officials in the Ming Dynasty is already quite high. Even the income of seventh-rank officials has exceeded 200 taels of silver. In addition, there are subsidies, food, cloth, tea and other objects issued by the court. It is far beyond ordinary people.

The annual income of ordinary people is only fifty or sixty taels of silver. After calculation, the income of seventh-rank officials is more than five or six times that of ordinary people.

This kind of income, coupled with the extremely low prices in Daming now, can be said to support a large family without any problems at all, and there is no need to talk about being greedy.

However, the hearts of the people are not enough, and the problem of corruption is still an important problem. Every year, a large number of officials are investigated and dealt with for corruption.

"Humph~"

"Immigrated thousands of miles, thousands of miles to the Black Earth Province, in response to the call of the imperial court, immigrated to the real border, no matter what the settling allowance, and the property that should be given away by these people, it is simply devoid of conscience."

Emperor Hongzhi read the memorial carefully, and immediately threw the memorial to the ground in extreme anger.

The immigration issue has always been the most concerned issue of Emperor Hongzhi.

In Emperor Hongzhi's view, emigration was not easy. Leaving his homeland and wandering in another country, with confusion and panic about the future, he was willing to immigrate entirely because he believed in the imperial court.

Now such a problem has arisen, the settlement fee has been corrupted, and even the cattle, sheep and horses distributed to the immigrants have been corrupted together, and they have colluded with each other, thinking that it can be done seamlessly.

"Your Majesty, the immigration policy is related to the long-term peace and stability of our Ming Dynasty, and it is related to our rule and management of remote territories. It must not be affected by these moths."

"I think these people who are greedy for ink should be dealt with seriously."

Liu Jin stood up and said with a serious face.

Corrupt officials have existed since ancient times. Some corrupt officials know what can be corrupted and what cannot be corrupted. For example, when a famine occurs, the money and food for disaster relief cannot be corrupted, because once corrupted, it is unknown how many victims of the disaster will die .

But there are some officials who are so greedy, no matter what kind of money, they dare to be greedy, and their appetite is so huge that they can't wait to eat everything in one bite and swallow everything into their stomachs.

Such corrupt officials have no moral bottom line, they only have money in their eyes, and they don’t care about anything else. It’s like a bean curd project for later generations. Once something goes wrong, it’s hard to know how many people will be killed.

For such people, Liu Jin hated them deeply, and he has always been merciless. If one is found, he will be dealt with severely, and he will regret it for the rest of his life.

"Your Majesty, I also think that these corrupt officials should be dealt with seriously, and they will never condone adultery, and they will publish it in newspapers, so that they will be reviled by thousands of people, and it will also be a warning to officials all over the world."

He Zhong also stood up to express his support.

In fact, these officials who went to the Black Earth Province to become officials not only had a faster promotion rate than those in other places, but in addition to salary subsidies and the like.

They can also be rewarded with large tracts of land. Even ordinary seventh-rank officials can obtain thousands of acres of land, a lot of cattle, sheep, horses, and slaves.

It can be said that in this regard, the imperial court has formulated a complete set of perfect systems, not only to attract ordinary people to immigrate there, but also to allow these officials to govern in these places with peace of mind.

Unexpectedly, some people still go to embezzle.

"Your Majesty, these corrupt officials must be severely punished!"

Wang Shouren also expressed his opinion.

"Your Majesty, I believe that this matter must be thoroughly investigated, and the relevant supervision mechanism must be improved at the same time."

Yang Yiqing also said.

He is the minister of the Ministry of Industry, and now Daming is engaged in infrastructure construction. The money passed by the Ministry of Industry is hundreds of millions every year. This is a very huge wealth. The construction of railways, highways, river lifts, ports, reservoirs, etc. are countless. , the interests involved are huge.

It is also a place of key investigation every year, and it is inevitable that a large number of corrupt officials will be found out. There is no way that this has been the case since ancient times. Engineering is similar in ancient and modern China and abroad, and it is extremely prone to problems.

For this reason, Yang Yiqing was also troubled. He was in charge of a large number of infrastructure projects, had a lot of power, and a lot of money passed over, but if there were always problems, he, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, would always be impeached.

Those officials and censors and the like, they don’t care whether you Yang Yiqing is innocent or not, as long as someone below is corrupt, they will impeach you together, and yellow mud will be stuffed into your crotch. It’s either shit or shit, jump into it You can't even clean the Yellow River.

In the past, Liu Jin was often impeached and criticized because everyone was jealous of Liu Jin, but gradually everyone found that impeaching Liu Jin was useless.

Emperor Hongzhi had a lot of trust in Liu Jin, and Liu Jin was not a good person, Zhang Cai was still watching polar bears at Beibing Mansion.

What's more, Liu Jin is now the chief assistant of the cabinet, the head of civil servants in the world, with deep roots and deep roots, so everyone gradually stopped impeaching Liu Jin and impeached Yang Yiqing instead.

It is because Yang Yiqing, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, has passed too many projects, and the money passed by is calculated in the hundreds of millions every year. Officials at all levels under the Ministry of Industry will always have various corrupt officials.

When everyone impeaches these corrupt officials, they will naturally impeach Yang Yiqing, Minister of the Ministry of Industry.

He is now an ant on a hot pot, with countless pairs of eyes looking at him.

Since ancient times, money has moved people's hearts.

So he has been thinking about how to effectively prevent these corruptions, especially the projects are of great importance.

If the embankment built here is a bean curd dregs project, when the flood comes, the embankment will burst and people will be drowned, then it will be over.

If the quality of the bridge built here is not up to standard, and it collapses within a few years, it will also be impeached.

There are also cement kilometers. If it starts to be potholed in a few months, the relevant officials will also be held accountable.

The engineering of the Ming Dynasty is very different from that of later generations.

That is, in the Ming Dynasty, whether it was building a city wall or building a bridge, the names and hometowns of the officials and craftsmen who undertook the project were engraved on the side.

Even every brick used in a row must be engraved with the craftsman's name, place of origin, date, etc. If something goes wrong, these officials and craftsmen will be blamed directly.

This is a system that has been implemented since Hongwu Zhu Yuanzhang.

To put it simply, everyone knows who built this road and who built this bridge. If the construction is not good, you will be poked in the back.

Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, the quality of the engineering buildings was quite good, and the city walls and the Great Wall were well preserved. The Great Wall that can be seen by later generations was basically built in the Ming Dynasty, not in the period of Qin Shihuang. built.

From this point of view, the quality of the Ming Dynasty's projects is definitely quite good, because whether it is the officials who built these projects or the people who were conscripted, they are all doing things with their lives, and they dare not be careless at all.

"Well, since all the love ministers agree that this matter must be severely investigated and punished, then send an order to investigate and deal with this matter severely!"

After listening to the ministers' words, Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly.

Immigration matters.

Daming's present prosperity is inseparable from immigration.

First of all, because a large number of immigrants went out, the contradiction between people and land in Daming itself was greatly alleviated. In the past, the contradiction between people and land was extremely acute. The gentry and landlords, royal clans, powerful families, etc. wantonly annexed land, so that the common people gradually Some lost the land on which they depended for survival, and at the same time had to bear taxes.

Taking Henan as an example, just the big and small royal families and princes in Henan accounted for almost a quarter of the land in Henan. Coupled with the gentry and landlords, etc., the land conflict in Henan was extremely sharp.

And a large number of people migrated out, and at the same time these princes, big and small, were also taken out. On the Henan side, a lot of land was barren and uncultivated.

Secondly, a large number of immigrants also increased the grain output of Daming. The development of Liaodong, Hezhong, Nanyang, Central Asia and other places, a large amount of fertile land was used for mechanized farming, and the grain output increased greatly, so that Daming really got rid of the problem of famine , This is the foundation of the prosperity and stability of Ming Dynasty.

Also, immigrants consolidated the frontiers, turning the frontiers into a land of wealth for Ming, and enough of the frontiers, so that Daming would not have any border troubles.

It can be said that there are many benefits of immigration, and it is also a policy that the Ming court has always adhered to. Even now that there is a shortage of manpower in the Ming Dynasty, the court still insists on immigration.

Relocate people from mountainous areas, relocate people from areas with harsh natural conditions, and let these places slowly restore their natural environment, etc.

"Your Majesty, the plan for dredging the Yangtze River has also been formulated!"

After talking about the immigrants from the Black Earth Province, Yang Yiqing also submitted a memorial about the plan to dredge the Yangtze River.

PS: Ahem, do you have any engineering masters, please tell me about the situation~
(End of this chapter)