Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 117: Promoting the secret petition system and treating monks and nuns harshly

The twenty-fifth day of the twelfth lunar month in the sixteenth year of the Zhengde reign.

The Cabinet issued an edict:
Because Fan Yangqian, the former Langzhong of the Ministry of Literature, participated in hiding in the palace and forcing the emperor to go to prison, he was dismissed from his post and punished. However, in recognition of his merits in suppressing the rebellion, Shu Sheng, the former Shandong Military Preparations Director and Circuit Director, was promoted to the position of Langzhong of the Ministry of Literature.

Although the Yuanwailang of the Ministry of Literature was only a fifth-rank official, the Bingbei Dao and Fenxun Dao were fourth-rank officials.

However, if an official from outside the capital was transferred to become an official in Beijing, even if it was from a fourth-rank official to a fifth-rank official, it was considered a promotion, especially if he was transferred to an important position such as Langzhong of the Wenxuansi, commonly known as a small celestial official, which was naturally considered a promotion.

Simultaneously.

Cai Tianyou, the governor of Fen Shou, was promoted to Langzhong of the Military Selection Division of the Ministry of War for his merits in punishing evil and eliminating evil.

This is a Langzhong, who is as important as the Langzhong of the Wenxuansi.

After all, the former is responsible for selecting civil officials, and the latter is responsible for selecting military generals.

Zhu Houcong was rewarding the two men for their dedication to his work, letting them know that as long as they were willing to work for him sincerely, he would not treat them unfairly. It was also to let the official who had the power to make secret reports keep a close eye on these two departments.

In this way, Zhu Houcong could directly control the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of War through these two people.

then.

The cabinet issued another edict.

Let the Minister of Personnel secretly select military officials who are above the seventh rank in the capital and above the fourth rank outside the capital, who are talented and upright, and report them, in an attempt to expand the number of officials who have the power to make secret reports.

This decree meant that Zhu Houcong wanted to make better use of the secret memorial system, expand the scope of officials who had the right to make secret memorials, and strengthen mutual supervision among bureaucrats.

Moreover, Zhu Houcong's request to limit the selection range to military personnel was also related to his satisfaction with the performance of two military officials, Shu Sheng and Cai Tianyou.

He simply used this experience to directly regard military personnel as a special group among bureaucrats that is the most trustworthy and should be trusted first.

just.

This naturally caused dissatisfaction among officials from other places of origin.

But officials from other places, no matter how dissatisfied they were, could not resign and let more scholars with military backgrounds take their places.

What's more.

After experiencing several major storms, they have become more or less obedient.

Therefore, these officials only submitted memorials stating that officials from different places of origin should not be treated differently.

Zhu Houcong only instructed that those who came from a military background, whose ancestors had served the country, should be given more attention by the court.

However, those who have made contributions to the country can apply to be admitted into the military.

Zhu Houcong also issued an edict to remove Grand Secretaries Liang Chu, Jiang Mian, Mao Ji, Minister of Personnel Shi Yan, and Minister of Revenue Sun Jiao from the official register, and military officials who committed serious faults would also be expelled from the official register.

Grand Secretaries Yang Yiqing, Fei Hong, and Minister of War Wang Xian did not need to raise their status because they were already military personnel.

The Wei Suo system of the Ming Dynasty completely collapsed after the Zhengtong period, and a large number of military households fled. Up to now, the Wei Suo system has become a mere existence in name only, so much so that the border towns have begun to adopt the conscription system.

And now.

The officials who still retained their military status were basically only the families of hereditary officers in the garrisons. This way they would not have to flee, nor would they have to worry about not being able to bear the burden of various military services and the Qing army.

These people are different from the previous civil servants who came from the military. They will not rush to ask for permission to change their place of origin.

of course.

In order to prevent the Wei Suo system from collapsing too quickly, the Ming Dynasty had always been strict about changing one's place of origin. Only the Minister of War was qualified to request an imperial decree to change one's place of origin.

But this could not stop the speed of the collapse of the Wei system.

Until now.

The number of people with military background, or military households, has been greatly reduced to a point where it is not enough to undertake national defense tasks.

Zhu Houcong simply took this opportunity to change the military household system.

New wine in old bottles.

He wanted to take advantage of the fact that many military landlords had now become gentry and equally knowledgeable, and create a military aristocracy group that could provide military, political, cultural and other talents and whose main source of income was blood tax, in order to fight against the scholar-official group.

After Zhu Houcong gave this instruction, the court officials who were not in the military had no choice but to accept it, and they began to hope that their families would also be able to be promoted in the future, and did not dare to really refuse.

After all, if they strongly oppose it, it will only further encourage military officials to monopolize official power because of their support for the emperor.

This was indeed a good thing for the military officials. They had never expected that the emperor would suddenly pay attention to their uniqueness.

This forced them to admit that the current emperor was indeed diligent in governing the country and should be a saintly emperor who was not afraid of hard work.

After all, to treat them as military officials specially and grant them privileges in exchanging information with the emperor would require the emperor to be more diligent.

otherwise.

Once the emperor gave this privilege to his advisers such as the cabinet or household slaves such as the Imperial Household Department, it would not be a good thing. Instead, it would allow the people in the cabinet and the Imperial Household Department to become powerful ministers and eunuchs who would undermine the emperor because they would have more channels for information exchange.

Zhang Jing was also a civil servant with a military background.

In order to escape from the military exploitation, his father had to change his mother's surname and live with his mother's clan.

When he took the imperial examination, he used the surname Cai. It was not until he became an official that he dared to obey his father's order and asked for permission to change his surname back to Zhang.

After all, as long as he became an official, he would no longer have to worry about being over-exploited because of his status as a military household.

So, after learning about the decree, he frowned and thought deeply.

Because this makes him very conflicted now!
He opposed the reform because the Minister of Personnel Shi Yao had promoted him to Beijing and done him a favor, and Shi Yao happened to be a conservative and a proponent of ritual.

So, he chose to keep in step with Shi Yan.

But now, the emperor wants to give the privilege of secret reporting to military officers who have performed well.

This made him feel that he should support His Majesty.

So Zhang Jing took the initiative to come to the Ministry of Personnel and pay his respects to Shi Yan.

Shi Yao knew why Zhang Jing came, so he smiled and said, "You came at the right time. His Majesty wants to implement the secret report system and secretly select a group of officials from among the military officials as officials with the right to make secret reports. I plan to recommend you."

"But your majesty, this is a reform. Hasn't the Duke always opposed reforms?"

Zhang Jing asked.

Shi Yao said: "So, Your Majesty should hear the voices opposing the reform! Know why we oppose it. As for the secret petition system, since it cannot be stopped, we can only accept it. Your Majesty can make the choice in the future."

Speaking of it.

Shi Yan then said, "Perhaps your majesty will realize in the future that the system of our ancestors may not be that good, but it is not that bad either! If it is changed for the better, it will be fine. If it is changed for the worse, it will cause more troubles! It will cause a greater burden to the people and easily make you a sinner for all eternity!"

Zhang Jing nodded.

Soon.

As expected, Zhang Jing received the secret decree from the emperor granting him the right to make secret reports.

This made him excited, as he knew that he might be promoted quickly like Shu Sheng and others.

Zhang Jing immediately reported to Zhu Houcong that he was instructed by the Minister of Works Zhao Huang to contact monks from Puzhao Temple, Yanfa Temple and other places to inform them that they would implement the monetary system in Shuntian Prefecture. He then reported to Zhu Houcong in secret, thus informing himself first.

no way.

Zhang Jing felt that it was better to sue himself than to be sued by others.

After all, once the secret reporting system is implemented, no one knows who among the colleagues is the emperor's spy, and they report themselves for advancement. In addition, Zhang Jing also hopes to let the emperor know how difficult it is to reform the system, and that although the bureaucrats will agree on the surface, they will secretly disobey and actively provide information to those whose interests are damaged.

Along with Zhang Jing, Gui E was also granted the right to make secret reports.

Gui E, the Right Censor of the Household Department, had recently been promoted from the Censor of Yunnan Province to the Supervisor of the City, responsible for recruiting strong men and managing epidemic prevention, industry and commerce, and cleaning matters in the capital's streets.

Generally, the thirteen censors have different duties and there is no fixed number of them. Some are in charge of specific matters and some are in charge of leadership matters.

The Northern Zhili was generally headed by the Yunnan Censorate, one of the Thirteen Censors.

Therefore, Gui E's nominal official title was the Censor of Yunnan Province, but his actual responsibility was to be responsible for the environment and sanitation of the capital as well as the city's business order.

Gui E was also more excited because of this.

Next, he really carefully selected the Jianghuai militiamen who came to Beijing and organized them to clean the streets. He was determined to make the capital city truly brand new and more orderly under his governance.

The sanitary conditions and street cleanliness in the capital were indeed very bad. When it rained or snowed, the ground was filthy and smelled foul, so epidemics often occurred.

Many people have opinions about this.

Including Gui E himself, now the emperor wants him to govern, which he thinks is also a good policy worth doing.

Let’s talk.

As the New Year was approaching, Zhu Houcong issued an edict on that day, stipulating that from the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month to the 5th day of the first lunar month, all government offices were allowed to stop work and stay home to reunite with their families, except for special circumstances.

According to the Ming Hui Dian, civil and military officials were given five days off during the New Year's Eve and New Year's Day holidays.

Zhu Houcong gave two extra days.

So that he can have two extra days of rest.

Because as long as he gave the officials a holiday, he would naturally take a holiday as well, so that he could spend more time with his family.

The end of the year is approaching.

None of the censors felt uncomfortable, and they advised the emperor to continue to carry forward the fine style of diligence and study, and not to give officials two more days off, but two fewer days off, especially to let the lecturers of the imperial lectures work two more days so that the emperor could study for two more days.

After all, talking nonsense at this time will not help you gain fame, but will only attract criticism.

It is easy to be assigned or transferred to Nanjing.

Because the financial situation has improved a lot this year, all officials have received full salaries and an additional bonus.

Therefore, all the officials in Beijing, even those in low-ranking offices, can have a good New Year.

Officials who were originally very resentful about the implementation of the performance evaluation system now have less resentment as a result.

This also led to more people buying New Year goods, and the capital city became more lively than in previous years.

For the officials in Beijing, many of them received a lot of tribute money every year.

But basically, all this money can only be transported back to my hometown, and I can only spend it there.

Because there are many people in the capital, mainly many spies from the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and the tributes they received were all in gray form and could not be seen in the open, and they did not want to ruin their image of integrity in the eyes of the emperor.

Therefore, they basically dare not spend their own money in the capital, but many of them cannot live a frugal life, so in order to maintain the expenses in the capital, if they really do not have enough money, they would rather borrow money first than admit that they still have a lot of money.

This also resulted in the capital's lending business being particularly prosperous, which led to the establishment of numerous large temples near the capital and the number of monks being the largest in the country.

And now.

These Beijing officials received a lot of legal salaries and bonuses, so they dared to spend them openly and bought more New Year goods.

Ordinary poor officials from commoner families no longer had to worry about spending a poor year in the capital, and they were all looking forward to the arrival of the first year of the Jiajing reign.

According to later statistics on the proportion of Ming Dynasty Jinshi who came from rich and poor families, until the end of the Ming Dynasty, one-fifth of the Jinshi were poor children from ordinary small landlord backgrounds. Now in the Zhengde and Jiajing periods, this proportion is naturally even higher.

Therefore, there are many minor officials from poor backgrounds in the Ming Dynasty today.

Many Beijing officials were also surprised to find that the streets of the capital had become much cleaner when they went out shopping.

As members of the party of life, or in other words, most of the officials in the capital who were neutral on the standpoint of etiquette and law, and on the standpoint of reform or conservatism, began to feel that the court seemed to have truly entered an era of great governance, and that better days were yet to come.

Zhu Houcong was also full of hope for the first year of Jiajing, but after reading Zhang Jing's secret report, he couldn't help but frown.

Through Zhang Jing's secret report, he became more convinced that the resistance to reform was indeed very great.

Naturally, he would not punish Zhang Jing because he confessed in a secret report that he had sold the information to the monk.

This would only expose Zhang Jing's right to make secret reports.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong just replied "I know", and then went to greet his mother, Empress Dowager Jiang, thoughtfully.

When Empress Dowager Jiang saw Zhu Houcong, she said, "Just now, the nun Hongci Temple in Yuquan Mountain came to see me and said that there have been voices that want to wrong the Buddha recently. Is it true?"

"It has nothing to do with the Buddha. It's just about the currency system in Shuntian Prefecture."

Zhu Houcong replied, frowning even more tightly.

He had to admit that these monks and nuns acted really quickly and came to the harem to lobby so quickly.

After Zhu Houcong said this, Jiang understood and just smiled and said:
"Since this is a government matter, I won't say much, but if this kind of rumor spreads, it won't be a good thing!"

"There are many good men and women in the capital!"

"As the Chinese New Year is approaching, it would be better to have more exciting news that is welcome and enjoyable."

Zhu Houcong immediately understood the meaning of the New Year and said with a smile, "What the queen mother said is true. My son asked them to collect more happy things outside."

Subsequently.

Soon.

Zhu Houcong summoned Liang Chu and said to him, "The reform of the currency system has been known to outsiders."

Liang Chu was not surprised after hearing this, he just said: "In this case, we have to take measures."

"We need to take action!"

"We must make it so that the monks and nuns in the capital and the dignitaries behind them have no time to take care of this matter. We must give them a bigger problem so that they have to rush to deal with that bigger problem first, and then they will have no energy to take care of the new monetary policy we want to implement."

Zhu Houcong laughed.

Liang Chu nodded after hearing this: "Your Majesty is wise!"

then.

Liang Chu suggested: "Why not have someone investigate the monks and nuns who are in contact with prostitutes, drinking wine, and defiling the purity of Buddhist temples?"

After hearing this, Zhu Houcong asked curiously, "Are the monks and nuns corrupt and degenerate?"

Liang Chu said: "Many people in the world take this as a joke!"

"Okay! This is cruel enough!"

"Let Gui E take charge of this matter. He is in charge of the health and business order of the capital, and he also has to prevent epidemics. He needs a lot of funds. He can't just rely on the court. We also have to prevent his people from supplementing the funds from merchants."

"So, let them seek funds from monks and nuns to make up for the city's sanitation and the people's health. They should be fined heavily! Otherwise, they will be detained and forced to do hard labor!"

Sorry, the update is late because I couldn't stop while writing. I believe everyone is familiar with the history of Ming Dynasty, so I will not explain in the main text how miserable the military households in Ming Dynasty were, I believe everyone knows it.

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(End of this chapter)