Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 251 Old Zhu: It’s ok without me, I will officially pass on the throne!

At the core of this storm was the postal system he had established.

In order to ensure its normal operation, Zhu Yunhuan decided to change it to the "Ministry of Posts and Communications", placing it on par with the Ministry of Punishment, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Personnel and other departments, and temporarily supervise it personally.

Letters from the Ministry of Posts and Communications are divided into several categories.

The first is ordinary mail, the second is registered mail, and the third is express mail.

People can choose services at different prices.

At the same time, the original decentralized document delivery system was incorporated into the Ministry of Posts and Communications.

From then on, all official documents from the imperial court or government offices were transmitted via the Ministry of Posts and Communications' express delivery service.

When local officials encounter issues that are difficult to decide, they can also send express mail letters to seek instructions from their superiors.

This was also true for memorials written by officials to the court.

Before this, a special person had to be sent to deliver it to the capital, which was very inefficient and prone to accidents on the way.

When major events such as rebellion occurred in the local area, memorials were often unable to be delivered to the court in time.

Usually, it is only after the other party has launched an uprising that the local government next door will discover it and report it.

After switching to the express mail service of the Ministry of Posts and Communications, the number of letters increased dramatically. If any state capital saw no letters sent out in a day, it would know that something big must have happened.

Officials no longer had to send special personnel to deliver letters, and the threshold for submitting memorials was greatly lowered.

Local supervisors and even heads of local departments such as the Law Department and Law Office can all keep in constant communication with their superiors through this system, and vertical management has truly become a reality from paper.

The communication between local governments and higher-level governments was greatly strengthened.

In the past, a prefectural government would often communicate with its higher-level government only once every ten days or half a month.

Nowadays, through express delivery, not only the prefect, but also the various agencies under the prefect and the corresponding agencies at the next higher level have correspondence and official documents almost every day.

Zhu Yunhuan also ordered the formal reform of the memorial system.

The memorials of the Ming Dynasty were divided into memorials and memorials.

The memorial was sent to the Ministry of Public Security, which copied it into two copies.

One copy was sent to the palace, and the other was handed over to the Six Departments in Langfang for copying.

A memorial was usually a public matter requesting the emperor's decision.

The other is the memorial.

The memorial was sent directly to the official in charge of the palace, who then submitted it to the emperor.

Or he could go to the court and make a report on the spot.

Therefore, before the memorial was submitted to the emperor for formal approval, the Ministry of Public Security would not see it, and the Six Departments of Langfang would not copy it.

Compared with the official memorials, the petitions are usually more serious matters.

This is the memorial script of the “I have something to report” that was performed in later TV dramas!

However, it was easy for officials in the capital to request an audience with the emperor and submit memorials.

However, it was somewhat difficult for local officials to submit memorials.

Even seemingly confidential memorials may leak information because they need to be delivered through officials in charge.

Before it was formally presented to the emperor, many people in the court had already known about it.

This kind of thing has happened many times.

Zhu Yunhuan then formally ordered the establishment of a secret report system.

A special leather box was designed and produced by the Daming Academy of Sciences and the Daming Manufacturing Bureau. Once locked, it can only be opened by cutting it open and cannot be sealed again.

Important memorials that needed to be kept confidential were placed in a leather box and delivered directly to him, who would open them personally.

Secret reports cannot be used casually and will only be activated in extremely important matters.

Ordinary memorials were still sent by express mail from the Ministry of Posts and Communications.

Of course, when necessary, special escorts can still be sent, but only as a temporary special measure.

"On the third day of November, the Anti-Theft Division arrested 263 White Lotus remnants in Sichuan."

"On the fifth day of the first lunar month, the notorious bandit Liu Heiqi and his accomplices were captured in Fujian, a total of 37 people."

"On the sixth day of the first lunar month, the Yu Gang, a gang that had dominated Jinling City for many years, was officially destroyed."

"On the seventh day of the first lunar month, the Guangdong Provincial Surveillance Department reported that a total of 1,968 bandits were eliminated in the territory, involving 19 gangs."

……

"On the eighth day of the first lunar month, the Censorate reported that the prefect of Jiaxing, Zhejiang, Shen Haishan, embezzled grain distributed by the labor service for the civilians, totaling 8,139 taels of silver. He also had frequent contacts with the Salt Gang, a local underworld gang in his territory, and protected and condoned the Salt Gang's oppression of the people. He is being investigated and punished."

……

As time went on, more and more gangs were eradicated and uprooted.

The gang bosses and hooligans who once dominated the market quickly disappeared.

They are either caught and interrogated, or killed on the spot for resisting arrest, or they hide their heads like turtles and dare not commit crimes again.

In a very short period of time, all the gangs, bandits and robbers that had once wreaked havoc in the Ming Dynasty were wiped out.

This massive nationwide anti-bandit and anti-corruption campaign lasted for a year.

By the last two months, there were no more bandits or robbers left in the Ming territory.

The hooligans and gangs in the city have basically disappeared.

When businessmen go out to do business, even if they are alone, they can travel all over the country with confidence.

Although you may occasionally encounter evil and unruly people, the probability of encountering them is very low.

The public security in the Ming Dynasty was better than ever before.

Things that had never been achieved in feudal society for thousands of years actually became a reality under Zhu Yunhuan's governance.

Not only that, the atmosphere in official circles has also been completely renewed.

In order to fight corruption, Zhu Yuanzhang killed more than 100,000 people, but corruption was still rampant in the Ming Dynasty officialdom.

However, now under Zhu Yunhuan's high-pressure policy and the effective reporting and supervision of the postal system, the phenomenon of corruption among officials in the Ming Dynasty has been greatly reduced.

The official politics of the Ming Dynasty became extremely clear.

At this point, the plan that Zhu Yunhuan had been planning for a long time could finally be officially implemented.

……

Shencheng.

"Catch him, catch him!"

On the street, several police officers from the Public Security Bureau shouted loudly.

"Whizzing!"

A sharp whistle sounded, and people on the street stopped to watch this scene.

"Stop, or I'll shoot you if you run again."

The man in front of me kept walking.

"boom!"

"boom!"

Two gunshots were fired in succession.

First, an officer fired a shot towards the center, but the people fleeing in front did not stop.

Then, another officer took decisive aim and shot.

The man fell down.

"The one who was shot dead was Niu Si." Someone in the crowd on the street said, "Niu Si was born with amazing brute strength and was very brave in fighting. Seven or eight ordinary people might not be able to beat him. This man founded the Niutou Gang at the dock and collected protection fees. He was once a famous figure, but I didn't expect him to end up like this."

"What gang leader? What celebrity? In my opinion, he is nothing but a clown. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has issued a clear order that no gangs are allowed to exist in the Ming Dynasty. The end of these people has come."

"Yes, now those gangsters have been arrested one by one. Just in our Shencheng dock, there must have been dozens of gangs of all sizes in the past. Is there still one left now?"

"Anyway, I haven't heard of it. In the current situation, who would dare to form a gang? Wouldn't that be sending their own heads to the guillotine?"

"Not only have the gangs disappeared, but even the self-proclaimed 'heroes' of justice now dare to call themselves that."

"'Heroes use force to break the law', His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said that if there is any grievance, report it to the county security office, file a complaint with the court, or write a letter to report it. Do not retaliate privately, otherwise, you will be severely punished. Those heroes dare not show their faces, otherwise, they will end up like the gang leaders."

"Haven't the Jianghu gangs been around for thousands of years? The change of dynasties has not affected them. I never thought that today, they would be completely banned."

"Now it is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince who is in power. Times have changed. Things are different!"

"That's true. Not only the gangs, but also the corrupt officials don't dare to be corrupt now. I heard that the rice distributed to the laborers doing corvée and the meals they eat on the construction sites are different from before."

"Yes, yes, yes. I heard that some time ago, the court ordered the construction site to set up a canteen to provide meals for everyone. The food was so bad that you could even count the grains of rice. It was definitely not suitable for people who did hard labor all day to eat that. Everyone could only bring their own rice and food. Unexpectedly, since the court ordered that people could write letters to report, everything has changed. Now those people who are doing corvée labor eat better in the court canteen than us dock workers."

"I've heard about this, too. Now the government cafeteria not only has rice and vegetables, but also meat every now and then."

"Yes, in the past, there was no place to file a complaint. Even if you knew that an official had embezzled money, who could you report to? I have never heard of anyone going to the government office to file a complaint because the food was not tasty. Now, once you send a letter, the censors of the Censorate will come over immediately like a cat smelling blood."

"It's true. Even the officials in the government offices are much nicer to us common people now than before."

"Isn't it because someone wrote a letter to complain that the police officers were rude to the people and extorted money at every turn? The yamen masters are afraid that someone will write to the Censorate, so they take it very seriously. Once they find out, they will punish them severely."

"Every policeman in the Public Security Bureau has a number on his chest, which is said to be for the convenience of supervision by the people. This is really a rare story. Since ancient times, have you ever heard of people supervising the policemen? No! Only His Royal Highness can come up with such an idea, it's great. Hahahaha!"

"The world has really changed. We ordinary people don't have to be bullied by anyone anymore, all thanks to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

……

Shencheng.

These days, Lao Zhu spent the whole day listening to the discussions of the people around him.

There are more and more voices praising the Ming court.

The people said that the yamen runners were now much more honest and upright than before, and they no longer extorted money from merchants and the people as they did in the past.

The same is true for gentlemen.

Although the imperial court had issued strict bans in the past, there was always a shortage of officials visiting some of the places of debauchery in Shanghai.

He simply ignored the imperial ban.

Now they have all disappeared.

For this reason, Lao Zhu went there in person to verify and found that it was just as rumored, the officials really did not go.

Although according to the information obtained by the Jinyiwei, some officials still secretly invited singing girls and dancers to sing and dance in their houses, at least the original customs had been greatly reversed.

Thinking of the letters Zhu Sun had sent him these days, Old Zhu couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

His suggestion to Zhu Sun was to use letters to mobilize the people to report gangs, bandits and robbers.

But the other side proposed to add supervision over officials.

In the letter, Zhu Sun also argued from multiple different angles the reasons why he had failed in combating corruption over a long period of time.

The most crucial point is that they only focus on the punishment after the event, but ignore the supervision and management during the process.

Take the Ming Baochao as an example.

The original Ming Baochao was too easy to counterfeit, and there was a lack of effective official management after its issuance, which led to the proliferation of counterfeit banknotes.

Even though the imperial court killed many people after discovering counterfeiting, and even executed everyone within dozens of miles of a certain place after printing counterfeit money, the number of people printing counterfeit money did not decrease, but instead continued to increase.

The measures taken for the new version of Ming Dynasty treasure notes are, first of all, to strengthen technical anti-counterfeiting to make it difficult to counterfeit.

The second is to make full use of banks distributed across the country to detect counterfeit banknotes as soon as possible and respond immediately.

The court should treat officials in the same way.

We must use rules and regulations to make it difficult for officials to engage in corruption, and at the same time strengthen supervision so that any corruption can be quickly discovered.

This is the most effective way to combat corruption, not killing people afterwards.

"The difficulty of officialdom governance lies in maintaining the authority of superior officials while giving subordinates space to counter their superiors to a certain extent when necessary."

"If the superior officials completely monopolize all power and the subordinates have no ability to resist them, then the superior officials will deprive the subordinates of all power and take all the benefits for themselves."

"Absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely."

"Only by providing lower-level officials with channels to report situations to higher levels, or even to file complaints directly with the emperor, can we effectively prevent official corruption."

"The smoother this channel is, the less corruption there will be. But it will also cause problems where superiors lack authority and their orders are not followed."

"The solution to this is to govern the country according to law. No matter the top or the bottom, everyone should follow the laws of the country, not the personal decisions of the superiors."

"The second thing is to balance the relationship between the two parties and maintain the authority of the superiors."

……

In his letter, Zhu Sun shared with Old Zhu the theory and logic of how to govern corrupt officials.

Seeing this, Lao Zhu was filled with emotion.

It turned out to be the case.

If there had been a man like Zhu Sun in the Ming Dynasty court, why would he have killed so many people and still failed to solve the problem of rampant corruption in the officialdom?

This person is truly a gift from God to the Ming Dynasty.

If Hu'er could get his assistance, he would be even more powerful.

From then on, the Ming Dynasty prospered and lasted for thousands of years.

"Your Majesty, the New Year is approaching. When will we return to Nanjing?" Just as his thoughts were flying, Yoshigaki asked from the side.

"Yes, the New Year is coming soon, it's time to go back." Old Zhu murmured, "It seems that the rebellious grandson can govern the country well without me. I have to go back to Beijing, promote Zhu's grandson, let him assist the rebellious grandson, and then officially pass on the throne."

……

(End of this chapter)