Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 902 Supervising Public Opinion
On the first day of the meeting hall, the provincial governors or political envoys made annual reports in the meeting hall.

In the past, the end of the year in the provinces was just a memorandum. The cabinet took a look and found that there was no famine or cholera, and it was basically over. But now the past is not enough. back up.

Now gather these big officials in frontiers, listen to and compare with each other, and the imperial court will decide whether they are qualified to be promoted to the central government and serve as cabinet scholars based on their achievements in the local area, and the enthusiasm of these people will be mobilized .

Talking about political achievements, instead of judging by those vain things before, the competition among the various feudal officials will be provoked, and those who have no ambitions, or usually play tricks, and have no plan when they get to the place, can be judged. The court quickly realized that as long as there was no achievement in economic strategy within two years, his political future would be over.

In order to get the attention of the imperial court, for their own political future, and to realize the ideal of literati worshiping ministers, all the big officials in the feudal borders have worked hard on the predictions for the coming year. The governor of Nanzhi Fang Fengnian directly stated that he will surpass Jiangxi next year and become the only It is the third largest province after Guangdong and Huguang.

When he said this, he put a lot of pressure on the other provinces, not to mention Jiangxi in the front, Zhejiang in the back, even Wu Jinxi, the governor of Chu, felt the pressure doubled.

Although doing so will definitely lead to many new problems, if you don't do it or change it, you will undoubtedly be waiting for death.

Regarding the rapid recovery of Nanzhi this year, the other provinces are actually quite critical. After all, the recovery of Nanzhi is not entirely dependent on the province, but Fang Fengnian sent people around to persuade Jiangnan people to return to their hometowns, and poached the corners of other provinces. Such a result is a bit speculative.

Many officials in the Chu Party also complained about this. After all, the business name was dug out to Nanzhi, and the achievements of local officials in Huguang and Guangdong were affected. Naturally, they were not happy.

Wang Yan was also very clear about these things, but he didn't intervene too much. Nan Zhi might be a little unkind, but it didn't violate the court's laws, and he had no reason to stop it.

After the governors made their predictions, the main issues discussed in the council hall focused on re-clearing the land. In this regard, the biggest resistance was not Tang and Lu, but Huguang and Liangguang under the rule of the Chu Party.

Compared with other regions, because these two places have always been in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, they have not experienced major wars, and the power of the gentry has remained intact. Therefore, in the land of Qingzhang, the resistance encountered is more difficult than that of Nanzhi and Zhejiang after the war. many.

Now Nanzhi and Zhejiang have been cleared, and Jiangxi and Fujian are about to be completed. On the contrary, Huguang and Guangdong have been obstructed by local people and many officials are not very active, so it has been delayed for more than a year, and the clearing has not been completed. Let Wang Yan's face was dull.

The discussions for several days were all about local issues. In late November, they finally started to talk about the court's decision-making.

On this day, after the discussion was over, Wang Yan summoned several confidantes to the mansion to discuss several proposals, to unify their thoughts internally, so as to reach a consensus in the meeting hall.

In the living room of the palace, the servants prepared pastries and strong tea to refresh themselves. After eating, drinking and chatting for a while, Wang Yan cleared his throat, and then said with a smile: "I've been sitting in the hall for a day today, and everyone must be tired. Go through tomorrow's proposal at once, and everyone discuss it again. If there is no problem, the various ministries will directly propose it tomorrow, so everyone can go back to rest early."

As Wang Yan said, everyone put down their teacups, or clapped their hands, wiped off the pastry crumbs with handkerchiefs, and then sat up straight, ready to get down to business.

"Who will speak first?" Wang Yan glanced at the hall.

The following officials looked at it, and Gu Yanwu, the servant of the Ministry of Rites, stood up, cupped his hands and said, "Your Highness, my lords, let the lower officials speak first."

Wang Yan and everyone nodded, Gu Yanwu then bowed and said: "The main proposal of the Ministry of Rites tomorrow is to set up a new department to manage books and picture books on the market, and to publish books that slander officials or spread rumors." Yes, we must cooperate with the local government to deal with the punishment according to the seriousness of the circumstances."

"Do you have any opinions on this one?" After Gu Yanwu finished speaking, Wang Yan asked.

Since the Wanli period, public opinion has influenced the government. This is what Donglin did best, because they have a large number of bookstores and engraving workshops, and they have the right to speak among the people. They can scold whoever they want, and even the emperor dares to make arrangements.

Now the Chu party also controls many bookstores, publishes many books, and influences public opinion, but Tang and Lu have also mastered some. In addition, the Jiangnan gentry also has some. If everyone maintains a certain bottom line, it’s okay to say, but The key is to fear that there will be no bottom line in the fight, exposing each other, or even spreading rumors and slander, which will not only damage the prestige of a certain party, but the entire Ming Dynasty.

The reason why Gu Yanwu proposed this point was also Wang Yan's intention. When moving the vassal to the stage, Wang Yan played the role of the suzerain vassal and hit the prestige of the royal family. Not long after, a major corruption case occurred in Nanzhi, and one of the main culprits was It was a cousin of Wang Yan, who was caught immediately, and some picture books began to appear among the people, and Wang Yan was included in it, which caused a very bad influence. Books, operas, etc. are supervised to a certain extent.

Everyone discussed in a low voice, Yan Qiheng stood up and cupped his hands and said: "Your Highness, China has never been punished with words since ancient times. This policy is suspected of blocking the way of speech. I am afraid it will be difficult to pass it in the meeting hall!"

Several people in the hall couldn't help but nodded. The most disgusting thing for civil servants was that they were not allowed to speak. They had instinctive resistance to this proposal.

Wang Yan nodded, he understood the difficulty of implementing this plan.

"My lords may have misunderstood!" Seeing this, Gu Yanwu explained: "The proposal of the Ministry of Rites is not to block the way of speech, but to prevent people from telling lies and unscrupulously spreading rumors and slanders. Blocking the way of speech is Don't let people talk, and the proposal of the Ministry of Rites is to make people talk about the consequences. Everyone wants to say what they want, or how to say it, and they can still publish books if they want to. The basic principle is to speak truthfully, not to speak nonsense, maliciously and seriously hurt the court or find an official."

At the time of the Ma Ruan dispute, many people in the Donglin Party lost their basic bottom line, arranged many unnecessary things to attack Ma Ruan, and even carried out a lot of unfavorable propaganda against An Zong. The Donglin party members have taken the initiative in public opinion, but at the same time, these rumors have also brought about a very bad influence.

After all, Ma Ruan represented the Hongguang court, and the worse the Donglin Party described them, the more severe the attack on the Hongguang court would be.

As far as the Chu Party is now in power, they naturally don't want the people to have things that are not good for the Chu Party, especially rumors.

After hearing this, several people discussed it for a while, and Yan Qiheng pondered: "How to implement this proposal from the Ministry of Rites?"

Seeing several ministers, Gu Yanwu expressed the intention of accepting it, and hurriedly continued: "The laws of the Ming Dynasty actually have regulations on slandering the imperial court by spreading rumors, but in order to appear open-minded, the imperial court seldom pursued such matters, so that The law is false, allowing the villain to take advantage of the loopholes. The suggestion of the Ministry of Rites is to improve the law and manage books and sculpture workshops. Whenever a book is published, the publisher's information must be available. If someone maliciously slanders, the government can immediately use the book Picture book, find the person who published the book and punish him."

The Ming Dynasty's publishing industry was very developed, but the government's management in this area was very backward. Many picture books were published without knowing who wrote them, so it was easy for people with ulterior motives to take advantage of the loopholes.

If this is the case, then everyone can still accept it. After all, as the party in power, they are the most vulnerable to malicious attacks. Several ministers looked at each other and exchanged opinions. Yan Qiheng immediately sat down with his hands together, "I have no objections."

"Okay, then this proposal will be like this for the time being." Wang Yan smiled slightly when he saw this, "Who will speak next?"

At this time Yuan Pengnian, the left deputy governor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, stood up and said: "Your Highness, my lords, the next proposal will be raised by the lower officials."

(End of this chapter)