I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 778 Many of our officials are very smart!

Zhu Yijun's eyes swept across the faces of all the ministers one by one. His solemn and sharp look made everyone present feel their tailbone tighten and their scalp numb.

Although Zhu Yijun was only twenty years old and had been on the throne for less than five years, his power and authority in the court were not inferior to those of the Second Ancestor and surpassed those of all the ancestors.

Living ancestor!

It seems that the emperor has not been involved in a major case for two or three years. Many people in the court and the public believe that the emperor is cultivating himself in the Western Garden, and has changed his diet to vegetarian, chanting Buddhist scriptures, and being compassionate!
He had completely forgotten about this lord, whose scheming was more profound than that of Emperor Sejong, whose methods were more cruel than those of Emperor Taizu, and whose ability to govern his subjects far surpassed that of his ancestors.

Hearing these words and seeing this look, it seems that the Emperor is feeling restless and is ready to stretch his muscles.

But who does the emperor want to use as a test? Who is so unlucky to run into the emperor's gun?
Everyone was pondering in their hearts.

In the past two or three years, the government and the people have been calm and peaceful, with a prosperous and harmonious scene.

First, everyone was frightened by the emperor's methods, and no one dared to jump around.

Second, the Ming Dynasty was thriving in recent years, and military generals were busy expanding territory, making achievements and receiving titles and medals; civil officials were busy gaining political achievements and getting promoted to bring honor to their families.

In recent years, the national treasury has been abundant, the emperor has been generous, and the salaries and allowances have been adequate. Besides making political achievements, people can also live a comfortable life. Who would want to make things uncomfortable?

After much thought, no one could have expected who would be the unlucky one.

After nearly a minute of silence, the air in the conference room had become tense and the atmosphere was set, Zhu Yijun finally spoke.

“I am here today to highlight a very serious issue.

I discovered this problem during the new policy reform process in the past few years. I didn't take it seriously at the beginning, but one day when I was reading the history of Song Dynasty and saw Wang Anshi's reforms, I suddenly realized something and cold sweat broke out on my back!

I asked the East Factory, Jinyiwei and Huaxia News Agency to secretly collect relevant information."

There is no need to mention the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The Huaxia News Agency is actually a reformed version of the Commercial Investigation Section of the former Shaofujian. It is known as the three major mysterious organizations of the Ming Dynasty.

The emperor actually dispatched these three families. This is a very serious matter!
The ministers became even more nervous.

When Zhang Juzheng heard Wang Anshi's words "reform", his face changed.

Zhu Yijun continued: "When the New Deal reforms were first implemented, the voices of opposition were earth-shaking and the force of opposition was overwhelming.

I, Prime Minister Zhang, and all of you have worked very hard, and we have fought to the death, and finally suppressed these opposing voices and repelled wave after wave of counterattacks from the opposing forces. "

Everyone listened quietly.

That's right, it was a fight to the death, and those opposing forces were killed like the Qin army at Julu and the Zhao army at Jingxingkou, with corpses scattered all over the ground and blood floating on the boats.

Just like the princes and generals in the Battle of Julu who dared not look the King of Chu in the face, everyone in the court and the country dared not to challenge your majesty again.

Zhu Yijun's voice continued to echo in the conference room.

"Some of our officials are very smart. They are good at summarizing experiences from history books and applying them flexibly.

In their hearts, they are opposed to the new policies and they reject reforms.

However, they did not dare to refuse and were powerless to oppose, so they came up with a shady trick and over-enforced various measures of the new policy that were beneficial to the country and the people.

He even counted the dogs, pigs, chickens and ducks of farmers as human heads and added unnecessary burdens to the fields. He opposed the pedantic Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and burned books and buried scholars, arousing the anger of innocent people.
But if you look at it from the surface, they are supporters of the New Deal and are the pioneers of reform. Even if the means are radical, they claim that they are wholeheartedly for the New Deal and wish that the reform can achieve its goal tomorrow."

When Zhang Juzheng heard this, his expression became even more solemn.

Zeng Shengwu couldn't help but turn his head and glance at him secretly.

The Wanli New Deal, among many reforms, was mostly implemented by the teacher as the prime minister.

Land surveys, population censuses, land tax distribution, the abolition of royal family nobility and officials and gentry, as well as the exemption of monks and Taoist priests, the Single Whip Law, and the central and local governments vigorously promoted the performance evaluation system.
He had offended countless vested interests, and countless people in the Ming Dynasty secretly cursed and hated him. If he was not careful, a sudden change would destroy his family and bring disaster to his descendants.

Teachers are the ones who are truly fighting a desperate battle.

Zeng Shengwu knew that his teacher was very aware of these situations and the possible consequences, so he was determined to complete the reform as soon as possible and implement the new policy with the support of the emperor.

As the emperor said, in the new policy reform, enough new interest groups were fostered, including workers and new farmers, emerging industrial and commercial entrepreneurs, and officials who rose to power by virtue of their reform achievements.
If they, who are closely related to the New Deal reforms, can truly possess strong enough power, even if there are setbacks later, the conservative forces will not be able to turn the tide.

For this reason, the teacher seemed to be doing things very steadily, but Zeng Shengwu could sense that the teacher was actually very anxious inside, and therefore was a little eager for quick success in the execution process.

Many of these two-faced officials that the emperor just mentioned were highly valued by the teacher as capable ministers who supported the new policies and were capable of promoting reforms.

After hearing the emperor's words just now, the clever teacher immediately understood that doing so would lead to endless troubles.

These officials who excessively implement the new policies and rashly push forward reforms are extremely bad and have evil intentions!
If this continues, the teacher's fate may be much worse than that of Wang Anshi in the early Song Dynasty.

The meeting room was silent and Zhu Yijun paused for a moment.

He and Zhang Juzheng looked at each other in the air for more than ten seconds, and the teacher and student communicated silently.

"I know what these people mean and what they are thinking!

These officials know that if they want to oppose a national policy, they don't have to oppose it openly, but just implement it excessively. They can also get a good reputation and achieve political achievements.

Why does excessive implementation of New Deal reforms lead to disaster?

Look at the reforms of Wang Anshi in the early Song Dynasty, they are all lessons!
The Green Seedling Law, the Recruitment Law, the Horse Protection Law, the Baojia Law, and other good laws for the purpose of financial management and military consolidation were over-implemented by officials who secretly opposed them, and turned into evil laws that "robbed the poor of their wealth", causing "the people suffered from labor service" and "suppressed the warriors", which angered the heaven and the people. The people did not know how your reform would strengthen the country and enrich the people, they only cared about their own interests. The pie in the sky was out of reach, and the whip on the body was painful, so Wang Anshi's reform finally failed.

Those moral gentlemen and literati cheered the abolition of the evil laws, complacently thinking that they were smart and skillful, and had preserved the laws of their ancestors without making a fuss. However, they did not know that they made the former Song Dynasty miss the last chance for reform, which eventually led to the Jingkang Shame.

Now these people who are well-read in history books are trying to do the same thing again.”

Zhu Yijun's words became extremely stern, "Based on the information collected by the East Factory, Jinyiwei and the news agency from various places in recent years, the situation cannot be ignored.

There are quite a few officials who are shouting in support of the New Deal reforms but are actually undermining them. And they are all doing very well!

The more powerful they are, the greater the damage they will cause to the New Deal reforms!

They were rewarded and promoted with this set of sinister practices. What about those officials who are truly loyal to the emperor and love the people, who truly care about the country and the people and who are treading on thin ice to implement new policy reforms in order to achieve long-term stability?
Will they also follow the example of these vicious officials and carry out those evil-minded actions? Then will the new policy reforms be like the reforms of Wang Anshi in the Song Dynasty, causing the wrath of heaven and the resentment of the people, and in the end all their efforts and hopes will be wasted? "

Zhu Yijun's voice became louder and louder, and the fierce murderous aura in his tone made everyone shudder. The timid official's legs trembled slightly under the table.

How can such thunderous wrath be quelled without the deaths of thousands of people?
Zhu Yijun paused and swept his sharp eyes around everyone.

“Now that we have discovered the problem, it is not too late to fix it!

The Cabinet should first conduct self-examination.”

Zhang Juzheng immediately responded, "I have received your order. After I return, I will immediately convene a standing cabinet meeting to make arrangements. I will first conduct self-inspections at the six ministries and central government agencies, and at the same time instruct the provincial governments to conduct strict inspections."

The cabinet will select capable personnel to form a special investigation team to review the past achievements of various places one by one. If problematic achievements are found, the special investigation team will immediately become a special case team to conduct a thorough investigation on the spot.

If there is any excessive enforcement, it will be severely punished.”

The words were full of murderous intent, and everyone felt scared after hearing them.

Zhang Xiang, Uncle Zhang, was also angry!

Yes, according to what the emperor said just now, the harm caused by such officials is the greatest harm to the cabinet and the Prime Minister Zhang Shuda. Moreover, these officials had previously deceived Zhang Shuda's eyes, making him think that these officials were capable ministers who supported the new policy reforms.

Now that the emperor has revealed the truth, Zhang Shuda must be very angry inside.

He was blatantly humiliated by those officials!
Secretly, those officials were laughing at him!

Uncle Zhang will definitely vent his anger, and those officials who harbored evil intentions will definitely be held accountable.

Neither this teacher nor this student is a good person!
Zhu Yijun nodded and continued with Zhang Juzheng's words.

"The Cabinet should investigate the Cabinet, and the Censorate should also take action. You are the highest supervisory agency of the Ming Dynasty, and it is your job to investigate and correct mistakes.

Of course, I have to explain that the thorough investigation by the Censorate does not mean that we do not trust the cabinet, but that such officials are too bad and the evil deeds they have done are too harmful. We must cross-check and find out the officials with hidden evil intentions, eliminate the remaining harm as soon as possible, and recover the losses as soon as possible.

The Censorate should form a central inspection team to go down to the provinces and investigate all counties and departments one by one. If any problems are found, the team will be directly sent to the counties and prefectures involved.

The governors of each province must also form inspection teams and personally take charge of the work.

Governors, provincial governors and provincial inspectors, you should investigate the problems in your own jurisdictions and among your subordinates and handle them impartially. I will consider that you have corrected yourselves and made meritorious contributions while serving your sentences, and will forgive your past mistakes.

If you turn a blind eye and are unwilling to take serious action, you will be investigated and severely punished by the Central Inspection Team, and the provincial governors, provincial governors and provincial procuratorates will be jointly liable!
I want to hold them all responsible!"

The last sentence made all the ministers understand that the emperor was sounding a warning to local officials such as governors, provincial governors and provincial judges.

Especially the governor who is in charge of supervising a province on behalf of the emperor, he should take it to heart, because if he fails, he will bear the primary responsibility. It will not be as simple as dismissal!

Everyone listened and kept it in mind.

There is no need to use a heavy hammer to beat the drum, but the emperor still hit everyone hard today. Everyone knows what this means.

The ministers present here are all leaders and representatives of various forces that can currently come to the fore in the Ming Dynasty. They must make things clear to their own party members when they return.

The emperor was very angry and the consequences were serious.

Let's conduct a quick self-investigation. If there really is a similar official, please surrender immediately so that we can ensure the safety of his family.

If it is discovered by the higher-ups, it won’t be as simple as the death of your entire family!

After Zhu Yijun finished speaking, the agenda for today's meeting came to an end. After Zeng Shengwu consulted Zhu Yijun's opinion, he announced the adjournment of the meeting.

Everyone stood up, raised their arms and bowed to Zhu Yijun, seeing him off respectfully, and then left the meeting room one after another.

The ministers were walking in groups of two or three, chatting and laughing on the road from Ziguang Pavilion to Nanhua Gate. Qi Yan suddenly caught up with two eunuchs and walked up to Hai Rui first.

"Mr. Hai, the Emperor invites you."

Hai Rui, who was talking to Zhao Zhenji, nodded and said calmly, "Okay. Lord Dazhou, we will talk in detail later. I will go to see the emperor first."

"Okay, Mr. Hai, we'll talk later."

Qi Yan walked up to Wang Yi'e again and said, "Lord Wang, the Emperor invites you."

Everyone's eyes turned to the Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, especially the Shuntian Prefecture Governor Pan Fengwu, whose eyes were particularly complicated!
(End of this chapter)