Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 98 Reviewing the World's Accounts! (Subscribe)
Zhu Yuanzhang grinned.

The more he looked at the zigzag lines, the more they pleased him.

Zhu Yuanzhang held the memorial in his hand, looked at Zhu Biao, and said, "Biao'er, what kind of official position do you think we should give Hua Lun?"

"Doctor of the Ministry of Revenue (rank five)?"

Zhu Biao smiled bitterly, knowing that this was his father's temper. If he liked someone, he would never hesitate to reward him.

This kind of thing was not uncommon in the Ming Dynasty.

When the Ming Dynasty was just established, Gao Qi and Xie Hui, editors of the Hanlin Academy (rank seven), were very knowledgeable. Whenever the emperor asked them questions, they could answer them fluently. The emperor was overjoyed and promoted Gao Qi to the position of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue (rank three) and Xie Hui to the position of Doctor of the Ministry of Personnel (rank five) in public.

These two people had good intentions. They knew that they had skipped too many ranks and were afraid of disrupting the order of the officialdom, so they did not dare to accept the appointment.

Only then did he continue to stay in his original position and endured for two years before he was awarded an official position.

The speed of promotion can also be described as rapid.

In addition to these two people, there was also Fang Keqin, a survivor of the Yuan Dynasty. He was originally a county instructor, but was appreciated by Zhu Yuanzhang and directly promoted to the prefect of Jining, becoming a local official.

Love the house and the bird.

His son Fang Xiaoru was also appointed as an exception.

There is also Zeng Lu, the current head of the Ministry of Rites. He discovered the tricks hidden in the memorials of Chen Shuming in the past of Annan and safeguarded the diplomatic interests of the Ming Dynasty. He was directly promoted to the Minister of Rites by his father, skipping six steps in one go.

There are many officials like this who are quickly appreciated and promoted in the Ming Dynasty’s court.

In addition to individual promotions, there are also batch promotions.

In the eleventh year of Hongwu, my father promoted ninety-five officials at one time.

In the 15th year of Hongwu, 24 selected students of the Imperial College were appointed as chief officials of local prefectures, states and counties. In addition, 860 scholars recommended by various places were also directly promoted to officials at all levels of the six ministries, provincial governments, prefectures, states and counties.

The intensity of the promotion of officials is rare in ancient and modern times.

This is the great courage that my father has in employing people.

There will be heavy rewards for merit and heavy punishments for faults.

But it is still inappropriate to reuse Hua Lun directly.

Zhu Biao bowed and said, "Father, I know that you value talent, but Hua Lun has only been in the Imperial Academy for two months. He has not been involved in many political affairs and is not that proficient in handling political affairs. Moreover, he is too young, two years younger than Xia Zhibai. I think a reward of 100 gold coins is enough."

"After Hua Lun has become familiar with handling government affairs in the Hanlin Academy, we will promote him."

Zhu Yuanzhang stopped smiling, put his hands behind his back, thought for a moment, nodded, and said, "You are right. Hua Lun is too young. It is indeed inappropriate to let him enter the court too early. However, what he did is indeed interesting."

"It looks good to us."

Say it.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes moved slightly, and he waved his hand and shouted to the outside of the hall: "Come here, call Hua Lun from the Hanlin Academy for us. We have something to ask him."

Zhu Yuanzhang put the memorial on the table, a cold light flashed in his eyes, and he said coldly: "Boss, what do you think will happen if we ask the officials of the Ministry of Revenue to sort out all the accounts in the world?"

Zhu Biao's expression changed slightly.

How could he not understand Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts?

It is obvious that he wants to use the data that Hua Lun came up with to sort out the world's accounts.

In the past, it was actually very difficult for the imperial court to audit the accounts. The main thing they checked was whether the accounts between the upper and lower levels were consistent. As long as there were no major problems, the court would basically not delve too deeply into it. But the appearance of this line graph made things different.

Because of comparison.

People are most afraid of comparison, and things are afraid of the same.

If the accounts submitted to the court by the six ministries, provincial governments, prefectures, states and counties are compared with each other, or compared with themselves in previous years, and large fluctuations are found, and the relevant officials of the six ministries, provincial governments, prefectures, states and counties cannot give a reasonable explanation, then falsification of the accounts must be involved.

In the 15th year of Hongwu, an empty seal case broke out.

If your father investigates further, I'm afraid a larger-scale "empty seal case" will occur.

Zhu Biao looked somewhat solemn.

He knew Zhu Yuanzhang, so his father was not asking this question.

I want to support myself.

Moreover, once my father has made up his mind, it is impossible for ordinary people to persuade him.

Zhu Biao also knew that his father was extremely hostile and even hated the "fraud" left over from the Yuan Dynasty. Once discovered, he would crack down on it severely. Moreover, if the accounts of the world were really re-examined, it would actually be of great benefit to the Ming Dynasty in understanding the situation of the world.

But Zhu Biao was also worried that he might be involved in too many things.

The empty seal case alone led to the killing of dozens of local officials and the confiscation of property and exile of nearly ten thousand people.

If we were to review the accounts of money, grain, fiscal revenue and expenditure, and taxation submitted by various parts of the country, I'm afraid the scale would be unprecedented, possibly tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands.

Zhu Biao was a little undecided for a moment.

long silence.

Zhu Biao's eyes flashed with determination and ruthlessness, and he said in a deep voice: "I think we should investigate. Otherwise, local officials at all levels will continue to deceive their superiors and subordinates, always thinking that the court can do nothing to them. These corrupt officials should be investigated and punished one by one."

"But I think we should not rush into it."

"We can't be too arbitrary."

"The audit idea proposed by Hua Lun is indeed good, but I think it is better to inquire clearly before deciding whether there will be any problems. If there are too big loopholes or major hidden dangers, perhaps we should stop."

"Please be cautious, Father."

To check.

But there must be a limit to the investigation. If we suddenly investigate everything at once, I am afraid that many officials will get into trouble.

He was not worried about anything happening in the world, but he was worried that there would be too many vacancies in official positions, which would in turn affect the normal operation of the court.

If not for this, my father would not have directly recruited and recommended scholars without examination.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded.

He was certainly aware of this.

Although he was extremely harsh on officials.

But they are all measured and not completely without any worries.

However, he also knew that the data displayed in the Hualun map were all submitted by the six ministries and other government offices. What could go wrong? If there was a problem, it could only be that the data sent by the officials below was false.

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "We know what's going on."

"We will first ask clearly, and then conduct a thorough investigation of Tianxia's accounts."

"Your Majesty is wise," Zhu Biao said hurriedly.

Not long after.

Hua Lun rushed all the way there.

He entered the hall trembling with fear, not daring to breathe too much, and feeling even more uneasy.

He had guessed why His Majesty had asked him to come.

I have been prepared for this.

But when it comes to facing this emperor who has swept the world, I still feel a little timid and fearful.

As soon as he entered the palace, Hua Lun felt his legs go weak and he knelt down and said, "Hanlin Academy Editor Hua Lun pays respect to Your Majesty."

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, "No need to be so polite. I called you here for no other reason than that I read the memorial you submitted and felt that the lines on it were very good. I wanted to ask you how you came up with the idea of ​​submitting the memorial in this way."

"And what is the use of this thing and where can it be used?"

"Please tell us everything."

Zhu Yuanzhang's tone was very calm.

But there is an unquestionable and strong feeling between the lines.

Hua Lun nodded and said quickly: "Your Majesty, what I presented is called a 'line chart'. As the name suggests, it connects some data with lines at certain intervals to make it easier to judge the data situation."

"I have been appreciated by Your Majesty and have been selected to compile for the Hanlin Academy."

"I was able to read a lot of memorials."

"The court stipulated that every year each provincial government, prefecture and county must submit to the Ministry of Revenue accounts of money, grain, fiscal revenue and expenditure, and taxes."

"The figures of the Ministry of Revenue and the provincial governments, prefectures and counties must be completely consistent before the account can be closed. If there is a discrepancy in one item, the entire account book will be rejected, re-reported and re-stamped with the seal of the local government."

"The Ministry of Revenue reviews data submitted by local government offices every year to see if the data submitted by the Ministry of Revenue is consistent with that submitted by local government offices."

"In the horizontal and vertical warps, it is equivalent to only reviewing the 'vertical warps'."

"Therefore, I have the audacity to compare the data submitted by the provincial governors, prefectures and counties, especially the data from the year before last and last year, and found that many of the data have no problems in the 'vertical' direction, but have large fluctuations in the 'horizontal' direction."

"I didn't care at first, I just thought it was an accident."

"But a few days ago, when Your Highness asked me to review the financial revenue and expenditure accounts of Shouzhou and Chuzhou, I was curious and tried it again, but I found a lot of problems."

"I was terrified, but I dared not hide anything, so I submitted the 'inconsistent' memorial."

"Your Majesty, please punish me."

Hua Lun did not follow Zhu Yuanzhang's words.

But plead guilty first.

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and said, "I don't mean to blame you."

"I think your idea is very good and brilliant. It's well said."

"I've always felt that the court's audit was a bit too thin and a bit too simple, but I never understood why. After listening to your explanation, I finally figured it out."

"Our investigation was too superficial."

"I only checked the top and bottom, and as long as the accounts were consistent, I would not ask any more questions."

"But we have overlooked that local governments are relatively stable to a large extent. In other words, local accounts are unlikely to fluctuate too much. Unless there is a natural disaster, the trend of local governments over the years is similar."

“We just overlooked this!”

"Let me ask you, if we compare the data reported by the provincial governments, prefectures, and counties over the years, if there was no natural disaster in that year, but the reported data has changed significantly, does that mean someone has falsified the data?"

Hua Lun's eyes narrowed slightly and he nodded seriously.

He said in a deep voice: "From my current point of view, this is indeed the case."

"Now the country is peaceful, the people live and work in peace, the world is stable, and under your majesty's governance, the Ming Dynasty is in order and everything is moving forward. It is unlikely that there will be major fluctuations at a certain time. Even if there are, they will not be limited to one county or one prefecture."

"If there is a problem with the horizontal data, someone must have falsified it."

"It's just that the data was mixed and it was not easy to review in the past, so few people would bother with it."

"What if we want to review the world's accounts?" Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly said.

(End of this chapter)