Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 375 Times have changed, and more and more officials hope to reform Jiajing!

It was Zhang Cong who spoke out against Yang Yiqing.

Zhang Cong looked at Yang Yiqing sternly: "What Yuanfu said sounds reasonable, but in fact he is avoiding the important issues and focusing on the trivial ones. He does not want to reform and eliminate the malpractices at home, but instead tries to gain benefits from foreign plunder and condone the malpractices at home! This is undoubtedly putting the cart before the horse, and it is not the way for a minister to help his king become like Yao and Shun!"

Yang Yiqing's face turned cold after hearing this.

This is where the conflict between him and Zhang Cong lies.

As a scholar-official with a military background, he was also a civil official who rose to prominence through military achievements in frontier towns.

Yang Yiqing preferred to rely mainly on military force for external expansion and achieve domestic rejuvenation by sacrificing foreign interests, rather than making drastic reforms at home, which would not only offend interest groups but also easily backfire.

However, Zhang Cong, who came from a handicraft family, hoped to rely on the powerful imperial power to carry out drastic reforms internally and thus promote the development of productivity.

Seeing the two of them frozen in place, Wang Ao quickly spoke up to persuade them, "We are discussing the affairs of the royal family now, so let's not talk about anything else."

"Exactly."

Wang Qiong replied.

Xi Shu glanced at Wu Yipeng and said, "It wasn't originally off topic. It was the Grand Master who started it off topic."

Wu Yipeng glared at Xi Shu again: "You!"

"do not do that."

"There should be generosity among colleagues."

"Let's talk about the royal family. The idea of ​​using money to encourage foreign tribes as mentioned by the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan is indeed not feasible after the discussion. It is easy to reject good people and attract bad people, and it is also a waste of national funds."

"While we should save money, our emperor and father should not be wronged. Without wronging our emperor and father, this royal family issue must be resolved. Otherwise, how can the royal family be at peace?"

"If the royal family is not at peace, the families of the world will also be at peace!"

Wang Ao said this and looked at Wu Yipeng: "Grand Master, what do you think now?"

"Mr. Zhenze is certainly not wrong."

"I don't want to wrong my father or my father. I don't want to wrong my father or my father. I can return the responsibility of managing the imperial clan's imperial edicts to the Imperial Clan Office."

"In addition, our Ministry of Rites will certainly fully cooperate with other changes regarding the royal family system."

Wu Yipeng said.

Speaking of it.

Wu Yipeng glanced at Xi Shu and said, "I'm afraid the Ministry of Revenue will be reluctant to allocate more money and grain because they want to reform the royal family."

Xi Shu said: "That won't happen! Although the Ministry of Revenue dares not waste national funds, it will not regard public funds as private property!"

"I just hope that the Ministry of Rites will not exaggerate again in the future, saying that if we don't benefit foreign countries, there will be unrest in the world. The two Song dynasties did a lot to benefit foreign countries, but there was not much peace in the surrounding areas!"

Xi Shu followed with a sarcastic tone.

Wu Yipeng was furious again after hearing this, but because Wang Ao shook his head and winked at him, he could only suppress his anger and sneered:

"Even if I exaggerate, what do you have to lose?"

"I just don't understand why you keep holding on to this!"

Wu Yipeng then added another accusation.

"No one is holding on to it. It's just that reform and change are advocated by the emperor and what the people want. I hope you won't do stupid things for selfish reasons."

Xi Shu replied with a smile.

Yang Yiqing couldn't help but nod after Xi Shu said this.

Because he was not wrong. Since another large amount of foreign money was added to the national treasury, the bureaucrats' views on conservatism or innovation have also changed.

Many of them lived in the inland, and many of them spent the first half of their lives studying hard in their hometowns, and the second half of their lives gaining experience in the capital. In addition, the mainstream academic exchange of the era was Confucianism, so naturally the bureaucrats who knew little about the overseas situation gradually discovered that there was so much money and grain overseas to enrich the national treasury. Especially the young and ambitious bureaucrats began to think more actively and their concepts began to change.

Plus.

Following the example of the reform of the Ministry of Personnel, many middle and lower-level bureaucrats from poor families in other central government offices realized that the emperor was truly willing to show mercy to them, and they began to hope that their own departments could also be reformed like the Ministry of Personnel, turning clerks into officials, eliminating institutional corruption, and using the gray income generated by corruption to improve the lives of middle and lower-level officials and make administration of officials more transparent.

After Wu Yipeng returned to the Ministry of Rites, many officials of the Ministry looked at him excitedly and eagerly, obviously wanting to know whether the court would reform the Ministry of Rites just like it reformed the Ministry of Personnel.

Of course, there were also people from the Ministry of Rites who looked worried.

The ones who looked worried were naturally the officials of the Ministry of Personnel who had earned a large amount of income from the Ministry of Rites' gray income.

Therefore, the Left Vice Minister of Rites Liu Long and the Right Vice Minister of Rites Zhai Luan both walked towards Wu Yipeng.

Liu Long first asked Wu Yipeng: "But what are we going to discuss?"

Wu Yipeng replied: "In discussing the reform of the imperial clan, the power to manage the imperial clan jade books should be returned to the Imperial Clan Court, and no longer managed by the Ministry of Rites."

When Liu Long heard this, he felt a chill in his heart.

As a hall official, he naturally did not want the court to reduce the power of the Ministry of Rites.

Zhai Luan, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, who was standing nearby, also sighed.

But when the official from the Ministry of Rites announced this matter, middle and lower-level officials such as Shi Wu, the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Rites, were very happy.

Shi Wu said to his colleagues: "Your Majesty is indeed a wise king who works hard to govern the country! After the national treasury has received a large amount of foreign money, a new reform has really begun. In this way, we will have our own small courtyards like our colleagues in the Ministry of Personnel, and the day when we can receive rice and coal subsidies will not be far away!"

"Yes!"

Ding Rukui, the chief official, followed suit, and walked over to the Minister of Rites Wu Yipeng with an expectant look on his face, and asked, "I wonder if the Grand Master of the Imperial Clan knows when the court plans to reform the Ministry of Rites like the Ministry of Personnel in addition to reforming the royal family system?"

"What's the rush!"

"The money and grain of the imperial court did not come from the wind!"

"Things have to be done one by one. We can't use money to solve the problems of the royal family and use money to make our officials in the Ministry of Rites receive more favor from the court like the officials in the Ministry of Personnel!"

Wu Yipeng replied impatiently.

Ding Rukui replied with a rather dissatisfied smile: "How can we not be urgent? You officials may not care, but if we, the lower officials, can live in the houses allocated by the court and eat the rice, charcoal and cotton cloth allocated by the court as soon as possible, we will save a lot of expenses! After all, everything in the capital is expensive, and we have to support our families with our salaries. As long as we spend less here, our wives and children at home will have a better life."

Ding Rukui's great-grandfather Ding Boyuan and grandfather Ding Fu were both commoner landlords, and his father Ding Zhong was just a tribute scholar, so his family was indeed not well off.

Therefore, Ding Rukui really hoped that the spring breeze of Jiajing's reform would blow to the Ministry of Rites as soon as possible, so that his life as the head of the Ministry of Rites would be easier.

"That's right, you are not in a hurry, but we poor officials are!"

"It would be fine if the court didn't have the money to reform the system, but now that the court has money, it can naturally use this method to clarify the administration of officials and allow officials to have more energy to work hard on state affairs!"

"Yes, if we save some money early, we can buy a sedan chair and hire bearers to reduce the number of beggars in the world. Even if we buy a mule, it can help the mule breeder make more money, and we can also come to the inner city from the outer city to report for duty more conveniently!"

Many middle and lower-level officials of the Ministry of Rites, including Shi Wu, also responded.

Weng Wanda, a scholar who also came from a poor family, even raised his arm and shouted, "We need to reform the system and clarify the administration of officials!"

"We need to reform the system and clarify the administration of officials!"

"We need to reform the system and clarify the administration of officials!"

"We need to reform the system and clarify the administration of officials!"

……

Others followed suit.

Seeing this, Wu Yipeng's face was as gloomy as water. He returned to the duty room with Liu Long, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and Zhai Luan, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and said to the two:
"The imperial treasury has increased greatly, and the emperor is determined to reform and implement benevolent policies. As a result, people's hearts are in chaos! Even in such a noble place as the Ministry of Rites, so many people are beginning to want to reform the system!"

(End of this chapter)