Jiajing Chengming

"Guo Honghua's sudden proposal to survey the land across the country is definitely not a whim. This shows that the cabinet has given instructions. The cabinet dared to give instructions, which means that Your Majesty acquiesced to this matter!"

"That's right. Your Majesty intends to support Zhang Fujing's land reclamation. He must be dissatisfied with the provocative actions of the world's wealthy families."

"Your Majesty has always been diligent in governing the country, so it should not be just the provocation of the wealthy, but Your Majesty has long intended to tidy up the land of the country."

"How can we just survey all the land in the world? Besides, can we survey all the land in the world completely?"

"It's enough to survey the imperial estates and nobles, why do we need to survey the entire country?"

"The court cannot do this. This will hit the weak spot of the rich families in the world!"

"Let's see how the Ministry of Revenue responds. The censors only made a proposal. Whether it can be implemented depends on the Ministry of Revenue. The Ministry of Revenue is the government office that can actually issue orders to the provincial governments to clear the land on behalf of the emperor."

The ministers in the court began to discuss Zhu Houcong's request for the Ministry of Revenue to thoroughly survey the land across the country.

For a time, people in teahouses, restaurants, brothels, and the entire capital were talking about this matter.

Almost everyone focused their attention on the Ministry of Households, concerned about how it would respond to the issue.

Minister of Revenue Zhu Xizhou and other officials of the Ministry of Revenue also discussed this matter for a long time.

They were also invited by many colleagues who had good relations with the DPRK to do ideological work.

Naturally, most officials hoped that the Ministry of Revenue would not support Guo Honghua's proposal, and there were many reasons for this.

It can be said that public opinion in the court and the country did not support conducting a nationwide land survey.

Therefore, Zhu Xizhou and other Ministry of Revenue officials did not dare to go against public opinion.

In addition, officials of the Ministry of Revenue, such as Zhu Xizhou, were also worried that the emperor was not so determined. After all, Emperor Jiajing did not refuse to appoint a crown prince, but handed it over to the Qingliu.

Therefore, Zhu Xizhou and other officials of the Ministry of Revenue submitted a memorial after the discussion:

"If we survey the land in the whole country, there may be disturbance. If we find the right person to be in charge and have a good way to investigate the land, there is no need to survey. And the problem of land annexation can be solved by just ordering the governors to conduct a strict investigation and act according to the actual situation. Therefore, the court does not need to thoroughly survey the land in the whole country, but only needs to pursue fairness in selecting the governors!"

Zhu Houcong had already made up his mind to survey the land of the whole country, so the Prime Minister Zhang Cong drafted an imperial edict to refute the proposal of the Ministry of Revenue, saying that what the Ministry of Revenue said was completely nonsense, that the land tax could be properly managed without measurement, as long as the local officials were virtuous and fair. He also questioned the Ministry of Revenue, saying that if the officials could consciously ensure that the land tax in the whole country was fair and not reduced, then why did the land tax in the whole country decrease instead of increase compared with the beginning of the country, and why the total number of land areas in the Ming Dynasty did not increase significantly after 150 years of its establishment.

Therefore, the Minister of Revenue Zhu Xizhou took the initiative to submit a letter of resignation.

Zhu Houcong approved Zhu Xizhou's resignation letter.

He knew that Zhu Xizhou did not intend to continue offending all the landlords in the world, but he also did not intend to fight against the emperor for the landlords in the world. He had to use his status as the Minister of Revenue to prevent the emperor from surveying the land in the world.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong approved his resignation.

For Zhu Houcong, Zhu Xizhou could choose not to do such a thing that would offend all the landlords in the world.

After all, there are always officials in the Ming Dynasty who are willing to do this kind of thing.

The Minister of Works Wu Wendi was an official who was willing to conduct the survey.

Because Wu Wendi had cleared out the military farms during his tenure as Governor-General of Ji and Liao.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong promoted Wu Wendi to be the Minister of Revenue.

After Wu Wendi took office as the Minister of Revenue, he discussed the matter with the officials of the Ministry again and used all his power to force them to consider their own political future and submit a new memorial acknowledging the necessity of surveying the land area of ​​the country.

At the same time, the Ministry of Revenue took the initiative to request an imperial decree and selected officials to supervise the clearing of fields.

Zhu Houcong naturally agreed to the Ministry of Revenue's request and also adopted Zhang Cong's suggestion to reform the Hanlin official system. He adopted the "three-way" approach, limiting the number of Hanlin scholars selected, and selecting outstanding people from the capital's ministries and localities to enter the Hanlin Academy to become reserve prime ministers.

That is, the selection of Hanlin officials changed from the traditional selection based on only the imperial examinations to selection based on both the imperial examinations and the practical officials who performed well in the central ministries and local government. The purpose of this was to encourage the bureaucracy to actively clean up their fields. As long as they performed well in cleaning up their fields, they could be promoted to the Hanlin Academy even if they were from the same Jinshi family, or even just Juren or Bagong.

It can be said that it has broadened the channels for talent selection and class advancement.

Zhang Cong's move hit the weak spot of the Hanlin Academy, but it also undoubtedly had a great motivating effect on the majority of bureaucrats involved in the practical affairs of the country.

This let these bureaucrats know that failing to perform well in the imperial examinations and the selection for the Imperial Academy did not mean they would never be able to govern. The most important evaluation criteria were the quality of their political performance.

"Governing a country should follow the right path!"

"What is the right way?"

"Respecting etiquette and respecting learning is the right way, while the strategy of enriching the country and keeping the people safe is nothing but a trick!"

"Selecting those officials who are not good at etiquette and have no deep knowledge of learning to join the Hanlin Academy is simply putting the cart before the horse!"

"The Hanlin Academy is a place for the upright and the noble. If it is filled with corrupt officials, can it still be considered a place for the chancellor? If so, a truly upright gentleman would rather resign from the position of Hanlin official!"

As soon as this reform of the Hanlin official selection system came out, it aroused strong opposition from many Hanlin officials.

As a result, many Hanlin officials submitted petitions to resign.

Zhu Houcong approved all the resignations.

He knew that these Hanlin officials who voluntarily resigned would rather give up a bright career prospect than to offend the rich and powerful in the world to complete their career.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong did not try to retain any of them.

The political ecology of the Ming Dynasty had already become increasingly conservative.

Therefore, in the selection and appointment of officials, more and more emphasis was placed on ritual governance and morality, rather than the personal achievements of officials.

Neither military nor civil achievements are the criteria for appointment as a prime minister.

The selection of ministers to the government depends only on whether they are from the Hanlin Academy, whether they come from the clean stream, and whether their moral character can stand the test.

According to the development of the original history, in later years, many cabinet ministers and even prime ministers had almost no experience in serving as local officials.

The condition for selecting prime ministers that "the prime minister must come from the prefectures and counties" will be completely abandoned in the original historical track of the Ming Dynasty, and the prime ministers will be selected only according to the standard that "only those who have passed the imperial examinations can enter the Hanlin Academy, and only those who have passed the Hanlin Academy can enter the cabinet."

But Zhu Houcong is now breaking this rule in order to make the empire no longer conservative, but constantly full of vitality and vigor.

Zhang Cong continued to propose to Zhu Houcong: "Your Majesty, in order to complete the land survey, in addition to the need for incentives for officials who carry out this matter, we should also conduct a pilot project first, then promote it, and at the same time select reliable officials to be responsible for this matter."

"I have discussed this with the Minister of Revenue and believe that the pilot project of land surveying should be carried out in Nanzhi."

"In addition, I think that Yan Song can be appointed as the governor of Zhejiang and Zhili and concurrently in charge of river and post administration, and stationed in Huai'an first to provide military guarantees for the land survey. This person knows the general situation and understands the emperor's intentions. He will not act recklessly and can be in charge of military power."

"And the governor of Nanzhi can be replaced by the Sichuan governor Xiong Jia, who will be directly responsible for the pilot land reclamation. This man is courageous and knowledgeable, and can be your majesty's vanguard in land reclamation!"

After hearing this, Zhu Houcong smiled and nodded, and directly approved Zhang Cong's proposal.

So, next, Yan Song went to Huai'an, while Xiong Jia came to Nanjing, and issued a warrant to summon the prefects of Nanzhi to their offices, and informed them of the court's intention to conduct a land survey.

Prefect Nie Bao and others were shocked upon hearing this.

Soon, the wealthy and powerful people in Nanzhi were also in a turmoil, and the whole of Jiangnan was greatly shaken! (End of this chapter)