Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 249 Mobilizing the masses! Old Zhu is laughing like crazy!

To truly eliminate all bandits, including gangs and hooligans hiding among the people, and make them dare not commit crimes again, it is not enough to rely on the court alone.

Everyone must be mobilized.

Mobilize millions of people!

But how to start it?
This depends on the post office.

Just like online reporting in the past, online supervision can have a great deterrent effect on the bureaucratic system.

In this age when electronic communications are not yet well developed, the postal system, which has been popularized among all ordinary people, also has great power.

It is very costly for ordinary people to go to the government to file a complaint, and they are also afraid of retaliation afterwards.

However, the cost of writing a letter of denunciation is very low, and as long as the court strengthens supervision, subsequent retaliation can be prevented.

You know, even in the hereafter.

Writing letters of complaint to relevant departments and state supervisory agencies is still the most effective way for citizens to supervise and report officials.

For the country, it is also the biggest and most effective anti-corruption weapon.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has established a postal system, why not make use of it?
As long as the Ministry of Justice, the Anti-theft Department, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the county offices at all levels all set up special reporting centers and publish them in the "Da Ming Daily", let the people report the evil forces, the underworld and the gangsters around them...

Then, the fight against bandits will become part of the vast ocean of people's war.

At that time, it was no longer the imperial court fighting alone, but millions of people fighting together with the imperial court.

The situation immediately reversed.

Will people report it?
Will!

First of all, there are always people who are dissatisfied and like to meddle in other people’s business.

Secondly, no matter whether it is a martial arts sect, a criminal gang, or a gangster, although they scare many people, they must also have "enemies" and competitors.

Even if ordinary people don't report it, enemies and competitors will.

In the past, if you went to the government to file a complaint, you would be accused of not following the rules of the underworld and would be despised by everyone.

Now, all it takes is a letter of complaint, and no one will know about it, so who wouldn’t do it?

Those thieves and bandits will fall into the "prisoner's dilemma" themselves.

Because if you don't report others, you will also worry that your competitors will report you.

As a result, these gangs will expose each other.

More than that.

Zhu Yunhuan's thoughts continued to diverge.

The same goes for the Censorate.

To supervise all officials, we need a source of information.

Previously, when officials were sent to inspect various places, they had to wait for the people to come and complain, or they had to go on a private inspection in disguise.

In fact, it is very difficult to obtain information either way.

But with the postal system that can receive letters of complaint, the situation immediately changed.

For example, in the past, the food for workers at the imperial construction sites was very poor, but it was impossible for the workers to go to the government office to complain and seek justice.

As a result, the money allocated by the imperial court went into the pockets of corrupt officials without the higher-ups noticing.

But once it is announced that people can write letters to report something, then people will write letters to complain.

The same is true for other officials who are corrupt.

It is impossible to solve all problems.

By making full use of this postal system, supervision over officials can be elevated to a level almost comparable to that of later societies.

Although people in later generations often complained about the problems of the government.

But compared with the current Ming Dynasty government, the progress of later society is more than a hundred or a thousand times greater.

The more Zhu Yunhuan thought about it, the more excited he became.

This letter from Lao Zhu really gave him great inspiration.

He had never realized that he had already built a systematic project to solve the problem, but he just didn't make good use of it.

Supervision of officials has always relied entirely on their superiors.

But looking back at later society, Zhu Yunhuan was very clear that even if power came from above, truly effective supervision always relied on revelations and reports from below.

Therefore, before an official is officially transferred, it will be publicly announced and he or she will be subject to reporting and supervision by his or her subordinates.

Normally, officials are investigated and punished because someone has reported them.

Although many people complain that their letters of complaint often fall on deaf ears and have little effect.

But this is often because the whistleblower does not have definite and solid evidence, and there are too many people reporting, and the content of their reports is similar.

Faced with a mountain of reports, the superiors were simply unable to investigate them all and had to let the matter drop.

But no matter what, the reporting and supervision system plays an absolutely vital role in helping superiors understand the movements and situations of their subordinates.

In later crackdowns on organized crime, the evil forces that were eliminated basically all came from reports from below.

Ninety-nine percent of officials were brought down because of reports from their opponents or subordinates.

In fact, wasn’t the impeachment practiced in the Ming Dynasty court just another form of reporting?
However, the scope of this reporting is very small, and there are few people who can implement supervision.

But once the postal system is expanded to the entire population, things will change qualitatively.

Before this, Zhu Yuanzhang asked the common people to arrest officials who broke the law and committed crimes and send them to the capital, so that the people could supervise the officials.

But the difficulty of this kind of supervision is undoubtedly very great.

But if any citizen could write a letter to the court to report an official, then supervision would immediately become different.

Constrained by the times and technology, today's imperial court has too little control over and understanding of local officials.

Once the people can use the postal system to report and supervise officials, they will have a direct channel to report to the higher authorities.

In a sense, the postal system became a completely new "memorial" system.

However, the power to submit memorials to the court changed from a few officials to "all the people."

It can be reported upwards one level at a time, or it can bypass the lower levels and go directly to the center.

Report to the county government, to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, to the Ministry of Justice, to the Metropolitan Procuratorate...

The previous "Da Ming Daily" enabled the people to directly understand the policies and decrees issued by the court, and prevented officials from taking advantage of their positions and deliberately not conveying the court's orders.

For example, when a certain place needs disaster relief, the imperial court will issue an order to distribute ten kilograms of rice to a certain disaster victim.

But in fact, when it comes to actual implementation, many officials will not issue the court's orders to the outside.

He only distributed five kilograms of rice to each victim, and the remaining five kilograms was turned into silver and went into his own pocket.

The common people below did not know the situation and thought that the court's disaster relief grain was only five kilograms.

Similar things were common throughout the feudal era.

Even in later societies, it still happens from time to time.

As supervision and accountability became more stringent, the number of cases gradually decreased.

The same is true of the Ming Dynasty today.

The tentacles of the Ming Daily have spread to all prefectures and counties in the Ming Dynasty.

The decrees issued above can be seen by all the people.

Even those who cannot read can know it through word of mouth.

However, when it comes to actual implementation, officials still have various reasons and do not strictly follow the court's orders.

The people lack channels to report problems to their superiors and are usually helpless.

Instead, they would accuse the court of not keeping its trust, which sounds better than singing, but in fact it is not like that at all.

With this system, the people now have a channel to report to the higher authorities.

Once the policies implemented locally are inconsistent with those announced by the court, they can immediately write letters to reflect the situation.

Local officials will no longer be able to deceive their superiors and subordinates, and will lose the power to do whatever they want in the local area.

The entire Ming Dynasty administrative system will be completely renewed.

Its far-reaching significance far exceeds the Ministry of Justice's clearing operation itself.

Thinking back carefully, in later generations, when telephones were not yet popular, the letter system effectively enabled the public to supervise officials!

Relying on the administration under the supervision of the postal system, all officials can be very honest and dare not engage in corruption.

Because government orders are communicated from top to bottom, supervision can be implemented in a practical manner.

The Ming Dynasty, a feudal dynasty, could also be like this.

What a huge leap that would be?

Throughout history, no dynasty has ever been able to do this.

After all, since ancient times, people have lacked a way to report their situations to their superiors.

Since ancient times, it has been impossible for ordinary people to truly and effectively "supervise" officials.

No matter how detailed the intelligence obtained by the Investigation Department is, it is not on the same level as the supervision of the whole people. Thinking of this, Zhu Yunhuan could no longer hold back.

He immediately ordered Yang Rong to bring pen and ink to write back to Zhu.

……

Shencheng.

At sunset.

Old Zhu was walking along the bank of the Huangpu River.

This was a habit he had developed recently.

It is so pleasant to take a walk along the river bank every day, feel the river breeze and watch the sunset.

"A letter, sir, your letter!"

Yoshigaki handed the letter he had just received from the postman to Lao Zhu.

Your Majesty has always requested that once the letter is received, it must be presented immediately without any delay.

Old Zhu took it, opened the envelope and started reading.

Soon, the expression on his face became very interesting.

Based on his previous proposal, Zhu Sun put forward a new, more systematic and comprehensive suggestion in the letter, using the postal system to establish a national supervision mechanism throughout the Ming Dynasty.

Not only did the Ministry of Justice use this system to crack down on gangs, bandits and robbers, but more importantly, the imperial court relied on this system to establish a supervision and management system for all officials at all levels.

Before this, how many officials could be supervised by the few censors in the court who submitted impeachment memorials?
It was precisely because he was clearly aware of the shortcomings that Zhu Yuanzhang established a huge Jinyiwei and Jianxiu system to serve as his eyes and ears and to gather intelligence from below.

But this system is still inherently flawed.

On the one hand, the bureaucratic system itself has limited capabilities and it is impossible to obtain all the information.

On the other hand, top-down supervision depends entirely on the loyalty of officials at all levels.

However, human loyalty is difficult to guarantee.

For example, if Zhu Yuanzhang sent an official from the Imperial Guard to investigate rumors in the market, and the rumors happened to contain unfavorable information about that official, the other party would basically conceal it and not report it.

Even if other people are sent to patrol and investigate, it is inevitable that officials will protect each other.

Everyone gave each other face and helped to hide the truth for each other out of friendship.

But once the post office reports and supervises, everyone becomes a supervisor.

The situation where officials deceive their superiors and conceal the truth from their subordinates will be completely reversed.

Thinking of this, Lao Zhu's hands trembled slightly.

He was so excited.

Since he became emperor and held a high position, he has been thinking almost every day about how to avoid being deceived by those below him.

He thought of many ways, including setting up the Jinyiwei, inspecting and prosecuting, and allowing people to appeal to higher authorities and even file complaints with the emperor.

However, Lao Zhu finally discovered helplessly that there was no way to solve this problem.

As an emperor, he would eventually be deceived about certain things.

The outbreak of major cases such as the Hu Weiyong case, the Guo Heng case, and the Empty Seal case all confirm this point.

But now, with the postal system, if we make good use of it, the problem can be easily solved.

During the Guo Heng case, was there really any official, especially a minor official, who felt fearful and uneasy?

Do not!
They just don't have the channels to report the situation to their superiors while ensuring their own safety.

If you report it directly to the government, it will definitely be suppressed or you may even be killed.

Therefore, in the end, they all chose to go along with the crowd.

If there is a complete and perfect reporting system, these collective corruption cases can be basically eliminated.

The court's supervision of officials will reach an unprecedented level.

As for things like officials or generals colluding secretly and plotting rebellion, it would be unlikely to happen again.

Therefore, before this, even if a low-ranking military general found out that his superior was planning a rebellion, it would be very difficult for him to report it to the court.

Why are there always many people secretly plotting rebellion in every dynasty? Because when they are dependent on others, the conditions for doing so exist.

The prince wants to rebel, and a soldier who makes weapons finds that something is wrong. Can he report it to the court?

The answer is no.

Because he wanted to report something, he had to leave the area ruled by the vassal king.

But how could a prince who was preparing to rebel let others leave easily?
But with a postal system in place and ensuring that it operates smoothly, anyone will report any clues.

This is the real "magic" that ensured the stability of the Ming Dynasty's rule!

How could Old Zhu, who was worried about the future of the Ming Dynasty and couldn't sleep every night, not be excited at this moment?

He stood there with the letter in his hand, his whole body frozen.

Only the face was still smiling.

Keep laughing.

"Master! Master!"

After a while, Yoshigaki finally realized that something was wrong.

Your Majesty, what is going on?

He called out softly.

Old Zhu still didn't answer.

Still smiling blankly like a fool.

"Master! Master!"

Yoshigaki became anxious and walked over and gently shook Lao Zhu's body.

Whoops!

Old Zhu staggered and leaned forward.

Yoshigaki hurriedly supported Lao Zhu and prevented him from falling, but he immediately broke out in a cold sweat.

"My Lord, what is the matter with you?"

Yoshigaki was so scared that his face turned pale, his lips turned purple, and his heart was beating like a drum.

"it's okay no problem!"

Old Zhu came back to his senses and laughed heartily: "I am just too happy. Our Ming Dynasty will finally last for thousands of years."

This statement was very loud.

The pedestrians around looked at him in surprise.

After all, it seems a bit strange that a passerby would suddenly be happy that the Ming Dynasty would last forever.

Yoshigaki suddenly froze.

If there was no one around, he would immediately kneel down and congratulate.

But they are now on a secret visit and cannot let outsiders know their identities.

However, judging from His Majesty's expression and reaction, it seems that there is really a great joyful event.

It would be wrong not to congratulate at this time.

"Master, this is really a happy thing. Why don't we go back to the restaurant and have a drink to celebrate."

This sentence not only expresses congratulations, but also reminds Lao Zhu that we are out there and should not get too carried away.

Old Zhu also woke up instantly and immediately realized that he had lost his composure just now, and hurriedly said, "That's right, let's have a few drinks tonight."

After saying that, he walked towards the restaurant.

Although the pedestrians around felt it was a bit strange, they just looked at it for a few more times and then dispersed.

Nowadays, everyone is busy. Even if you find someone on the street who looks a little crazy or abnormal, you will just take a casual look at him or her and won't investigate further.

Lao Zhu returned to his residence.

He immediately picked up his pen and wrote a reply to Zhu Sun.

There is definitely no problem with the overall framework of this method, and it is something that Lao Zhu had not thought of before.

Zhu Sun is extraordinary.

Such a talent must be recommended to my grandson and given importance.

However, although he is still working for the Science journal, the suggestions he made to the court have basically been adopted, which is not bad.

Although the method of reporting and supervision is good, there must also be a specific implementation plan to get things done in detail.

Old Zhu thought for a long time and finally wrote out a detailed plan.

Afterwards, he asked Lu Yuan to deliver the letter to the post office overnight.

……

(End of this chapter)