Daming: I, Yang Xian, really govern Yang!

Chapter 301: When a hero governs a country, he has far-reaching plans (4k)

"We have already beaten those subordinate officials to low status, how can they still be harmed by subordinate officials?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked with an expression of disbelief on his face.

That expression seemed to say, we have already brought those subordinate officials to the same status as prostitutes, what else can we do?

In history, Zhu Yuanzhang was also the first emperor to deal so heavily with the subordinate staff group, but in Yang Xian's view, this was far from enough.

Yang Xian shook his head slightly and said: "Your Majesty has indeed relegated those subordinate officials to low status, but in my opinion, this approach can only cure the symptoms, but it is far from being able to cure the root cause."

"Because what minor officials have changed is only their status, but the power in their hands has not changed. They have a low status but a heavy weight."

In later generations, a social experiment was conducted to demonstrate the results of a study on the psychological tendencies produced by status and power. In the experiment, there was little difference in the performance of those with high power, those with high power and low power, and those with low power, while the performance of those with low power was significantly worse.

In short, it means that the mind will be more prone to extremes and distortions.

Yang Xian then said: "Being relegated to a lowly status means that the descendants of subordinate officials will not be allowed to participate in the imperial examination for three generations."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, with a look of pride on his face. He thought this was the most correct decision.

He looked at Yang Xian with a puzzled look.

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help being stunned when he heard this.

And after the third generation of emperors, the new emperor of tomorrow will inevitably have far less control over the yamen in various places than Zhu Yuanzhang.

Throughout the yamen, those subordinate officials, no matter how low-ranking they are.

Therefore, untouchables can only marry within themselves.

Among state and county government offices, grain depots are the hardest hit areas for subordinate officials to engage in malpractice for personal gain and make fortunes. Because the grain warehouse is full of grains, there is more room for replacement than the silver warehouse and the material warehouse. The county grain depot is also called "Changpingcang". In a county with a medium population and income, the general stock ranges from 3000 to 5000 shi.

Zhu Yuanzhang's face gradually darkened.

Families of subordinate officials continued to intermarry, and their sons and daughters inherited the position of subordinate officials and continued to intermarry with other families of subordinate officials.

The act of marrying an untouchable is regarded as an act that violates moral ethics, insults one's ancestors, and confuses one's bloodline.

Yang Xian stood aside and analyzed the harm caused by subordinate officials under the Ming Dynasty's subordinate officials policy one by one in front of Zhu Yuanzhang.

Indeed, according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty today.

Once the vast majority of subordinate officials become subordinate officials, let alone three generations later, they will leave the humble status. Basically, their entire family will play the role of subordinate officials in the public family for generations, or they will hold the ruthless stick of water, fire and fire. Yamen, or the jailer who looks after the cell, or the clerk, knife and pen clerk

Since you can't pass the imperial examination.

Then they will work even harder to get entangled in the major yamen.

Looking at it this way, isn't his method just to treat the symptoms? It's just that when he is in office, he will not see the harm of subordinate officials.

Only then did they truly understand that even if a person reaches the position of county magistrate, what he wants to do and what he wants to do are different.

The so-called unbreakable government officials are the only ones in the government who have been running for generations!

Late Ming Dynasty.

In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, the Yuan Dynasty allowed these subordinate officials to become big precisely because they had the opportunity to become officials.

But these guys are passed down from generation to generation.

By then, the subordinate officials, who have as much power as local parents and officials, will put all their energy into making private wealth for their families because they cannot be promoted.

Combined with the special profession of subordinate official, a strange phenomenon will occur at this time.

As long as the promotion channels of subordinate officials are blocked, the harm caused by subordinate officials can be minimized.

At worst, they will be reprimanded by public opinion, and at worst, they will be punished by law.

When Zhu Yuanzhang was feeling proud, Yang Xian suddenly asked: "Your Majesty, have you ever thought about what will happen after you completely block the advancement of these subordinates?"

Zhu Biao on the side heard this, a flash of inspiration suddenly flashed in his mind, and he blurted out: "They will get worse!"

But now he not only blocked their subordinates, but also sentenced them to death for the future of their sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons.

Repeating this process only takes three generations at most.

What they spend all day thinking about is how to squeeze money from the court and the people. In their eyes, they have no conscience at all, and they use all possible means to make money as their lifelong career.

Zhu Yuanzhang showed a trace of anger on his face, but after thinking about Zhu Biao's words, he also realized that something seemed wrong.

The subordinate officials in a local government office will become a world of subordinate officials who are in-laws to each other!

Once you become a subordinate, the hope of the entire family will be wiped out.

It is equivalent to saying that the method Zhu Yuanzhang originally used to punish these subordinate officials was to force them to unite.

When that time comes, the government offices in various places will really be controlled by the families of subordinate officials.

But when they actually sat on the chair of the county magistrate, they realized that even if they wanted to manage a county well, they had to work hard and be careful.

And his county magistrate is just a wandering official!

You must know that in the Ming Dynasty, subordinate officials were of low status.

County magistrates must both rely on and be wary of these subordinate officials. If they are not right at all, they will end up in ruins.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, many county officials were full of ambitions before taking office. They felt that they were the head of a county and the prince of a hundred miles, and they could use their fists and kicks to their heart's content to help the world.

What else could happen? We have blocked their path to becoming bigger. How can they make waves?

But good people and bad people don’t get married!

Good people and untouchables cannot marry, and the rule that good people and untouchables do not marry is implemented. This is a reflection of the social hierarchy.

"They dare"

And when the harm of subordinate officials really breaks out after three generations, it will be more ferocious than any previous dynasty.

Grain has a fixed shelf life, which leaves a lot of room for subordinates. They usually suggested to the magistrate that they sell the grain at a low price on the grounds that it would become moldy if stored for too long, and then exchange it for the same amount of new grain.

From a procedural point of view, this practice of exchanging old items for new ones is permitted by law, and the county magistrate will also handle it in accordance with the regulations. However, things went wrong during the implementation process. Many good grains in the grain depot were sold as cheap grains, and old grains were bought as new grains. This amount of income was considerable.

During this period, the treasurer would still raise and lower his hands.

But as long as you don't go too far.

Even if the county officials discovered that there was a deficit among the treasury officials, not only would they not pursue the matter, they would also find ways to hide it from them and let them use their own brains to make up for the deficit. And you must not push too hard. Once a dog jumps over the wall in a hurry, the blessings and disasters are really unpredictable.

These are the bloody experiences and lessons learned by successive county officials from various places.

It was not that there were no upright magistrates at the beginning, but they all learned a painful lesson.

Because if you don't touch a treasurer like this, you can still ensure that the accounts will be consistent with the actual items when the outgoing office is handed over. If they block their way to make a fortune, they will cause some trouble for you.

They are low-class people anyway, and they are willing to be fat all over themselves.

But for these county officials, the county magistrate is just the first step in their political career. There will be better prospects waiting for them in the future, so there is no need to drag themselves down because of this incident. In the Qing Dynasty, the harm caused by subordinate officials became even worse.

These subordinate officials are beetles in one town, in one province they are beetles, and in one department they are beetles in the world.

Emperor Jiaqing once had a famous saying, "This dynasty and its subordinate officials share the same world."

Because Emperor Jiaqing knew clearly that the entire Qing court was built on one such subordinate staff after another.

The more Zhu Yuanzhang listened, the uglier his face became.

Did he do bad things with good intentions again? !

It was another force that I tried my best to suppress, but in the end, because of what I did, the fire that I wanted to put out started to burn even brighter!

The low salary at the beginning not only failed to cure corruption, but also enriched officials all over the world and made them more and more corrupt.

Now, beating these subordinate officials to low status will only lead to even greater troubles for subordinate officials!

If Yang Xian hadn't brought it up today, in the future when one of his descendants would be in power, the persecution of subordinate officials would completely break out, and I don't know how much I would blame his ancestor.

Zhu Yuanzhang originally thought that he could easily control these people under the control of the court as long as he stretched all the legal restrictions to the extreme and prevented them from doing evil and harming the people of his family and country.

Formulate the most stringent laws to punish corrupt officials, peel off the day lilies, and consign subordinate officials to low status.

Zhu Yuanzhang followed all these actions.

It's just that he forgot four words.

These four words mean that everything must be reversed when it reaches its extreme!

Officials receive the meager salaries, but receive the harshest punishments. This creates a situation where they will engage in corruption in order to survive (the salaries are not enough), and if they become corrupt, they will become extremely corrupt, which means they will die anyway.

The subordinate officials agree. Lao Zhu blocked all their ascending channels. With no way to go, they would only choose to use the power in their hands to make profits.

At Hongwu's age, the harm caused by subordinate officials could not be seen at all.

Especially in today's prosperous Ming Dynasty.

But when a hero governs a country, his plans are far-reaching.

After hearing Yang Xian's various descriptions, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao could almost see in their minds dozens or hundreds of years later, various yamen in the Ming Dynasty were filled with scenes of subordinate officials challenging the chief officials.

Both Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao are outstanding figures of their time.

Naturally, they would not think that Yang Xian was alarmist. They knew very well that if there was no external interference and the Ming Dynasty continued to develop step by step, the scene of harm to subordinate officials that Yang Xian mentioned before would definitely happen.

To know a county, there are only a few imperial officials.

In addition to the county magistrate, he is also the county magistrate and secretary.

The remaining ones include the county magistrate, who is equivalent to the deputy county magistrate and senior political and legal official in later generations; the chief registrar, the secretary-general; the dianshi, the public security director, the education director, etc. They, like the county magistrate, are all court officials. Register in the Ministry of Personnel and wear official robes and hats.

Apart from that, everyone is a minor official.

Take a county now as an example. There are tens of thousands of civil servants, but only a few department-level (county bureau, township and town chief) leaders.

If the people below are all related by marriage and are monolithic, how can the policies of the leaders above be implemented smoothly?

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned, looked at Yang Xian, and asked: "Mr. Yang, how can we cure the harm caused by subordinate officials?"

Hearing this, Yang Xian smiled softly and said.

"Your Majesty, do you still remember what you called me here to talk about in the first place?"

Things have been going around for so long, and they finally came around again.

If Yang Xian hadn't spoken, both Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao would have been attracted by the problem of the harm of subordinate officials and forgot how to deal with those scholars.

Zhu Biao asked with some uncertainty: "Yang Qing means to let these scholars replace the subordinate officials in the yamen?"

Yang Xian nodded.

In terms of overall quality, these subordinates originally only knew two words.

These scholars are not only literate, but also know the farming season and Xiao Tianlun, so they are obviously more suitable for this position.

Letting these scholars work as subordinate officials is tantamount to letting them go to the grassroots level to train and face the common people.

It will also help to change their slightly decadent Confucian spirit.

Zhu Biao asked: "But are those scholars willing to be subordinate officials?"

As Zhu Biao said, scholars who read books by sages often think highly of themselves. They don't take these lowly subordinates seriously at all, so how can they do it.

"With their current status as subordinate officials, it is naturally impossible for these scholars to become subordinates." Yang Xian shook his head gently and said. "In this case, even if someone is willing to become a subordinate, I will only doubt his original intention."

"A good scholar, if he doesn't think about doing things for personal gain, bending the law and lining his own pockets, who would want to change from a good person to a mean person?"

Yang Xian paused, and then said: "So, the first thing we have to do is to remove the subordinate officials from their humble status, and not restrict the subordinate officials from participating in the imperial examination in the future."

"In short, it is a purpose to open up the way for subordinates to make progress and give them hope to make progress. Only in this way can the stagnant pool of subordinates be revitalized and make them flow."

"If you want to ensure that a pool is not turbid, there is only one way, and that is to ensure that it is a pool of living water."

running water!

The eyes of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao, father and son, lit up.

Yes, in this way, the dilemma is solved.

It is equivalent to solving two problems at the same time.

Yang Xian is indeed still the same Yang Xian.

There was nothing in this world that could stop him.

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but glance at Yang Xian. Seven years ago, that is, the third year of Hongwu.

In that dilapidated Yangzhou City, when I first met Yang Xian, the boy was simmering a pot of chicken soup and distributing it to the remaining dozen or so people in Yangzhou City.

In the blink of an eye, seven years have passed.

Yang Xian is still the same Yang Xian, and he seems to be getting younger. Only those eyes can see a trace of age.

Just when Zhu Yuanzhang was sighing.

Zhu Biao on the side still frowned.

(End of this chapter)