Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 351: Lao Zhu's point of view, video to Zhu Di [Please subscribe]

"The feudal dynasty's implementation of a low-wage system is like having a vicious dog guard fat meat. No matter how the emperor beats, scolds, or tries to reason with him, he will still steal and eat, because if he doesn't, he can't survive."

"Logically speaking, with so many emperors in ancient China, it's impossible that they didn't understand this principle. So why did so many dynasties still implement low-wage systems?"

"There are three reasons: First, the bureaucracy is constantly expanding, making it impossible for the financial system to bear the burden..."

"Second, the imperial autocracy and its selfish and short-sighted nature—the fundamental logic of the imperial autocracy is to expand the interests of the emperor, which inevitably leads to the compression of the interests of the bureaucracy..."

"Third, there's institutional inertia. At the beginning of a dynasty, the economy, including prices, is relatively low, so low salaries are understandable. However, as social and economic development progresses and prices rise, emperors often refuse to adjust salaries, citing the principle that 'the laws of our ancestors cannot be changed.'"

"Regarding the second and third points, let me give you an example from the Qing Dynasty. Among Qing emperors, Yongzheng was considered a decent figure. His policies of 'returning fire consumption to the public' and 'raising integrity silver' temporarily curbed the rapidly growing corruption during the reign of Emperor Kangxi."

"Why do you say he suppressed it for a time? Because he didn't really suppress it. Thanks to Qianlong, Yongzheng almost succeeded..."

Originally, Zhu Yuanzhang was a little unhappy when he saw the video using the Ming Dynasty as an example of low wages, and thought that the old lady was talking nonsense.

But when he saw that the old lady first mentioned the examples of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the early Yuan Dynasty, and then talked about how the "filial son" Qianlong arbitrarily changed the system of maintaining integrity left by Yongzheng, he immediately felt better.

People's emotions are often derived from comparisons with each other, and the emperor is no exception.

In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang was skeptical about whether "high salaries to maintain integrity" was really effective.

Sure enough, after satirizing and mocking Qianlong, the video started to talk about the Zhao Song Dynasty.

"History records that the Song Dynasty had the most generous official salaries, yet corruption was still rampant. Seven or eight out of ten officials in the country embezzled money and undermined government, and corruption was rife."

"Of course, some people say that the Song Dynasty actually implemented a high-salary system for mid- and high-level officials, which cannot be regarded as a true high-salary system to maintain integrity."

"Having said that, even if high salaries don't necessarily lead to corruption, low salaries certainly make corruption more likely to breed. If high salaries are to lead to corruption, where does the money come from?"

"As someone who has gone through compulsory education, you know full well that traditional Chinese society had a relatively simple structure, with taxes primarily coming from agriculture. But how much money did farmers actually have?"

"The most important thing about increasing revenue and reducing expenditure is increasing revenue. Developing industry and commerce is the optimal solution to escape the cyclical laws of feudal dynasties..."

Seeing the video mentioning the use of industrial and commercial development to increase fiscal revenue, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded in agreement, as the Ming Dynasty's development in recent years had proven this approach was correct.

After talking about “high salaries to maintain integrity”, the video entered the last section, and four big words appeared on the screen - anti-corruption education!
"As the ancients said, 'We should use both propriety and law.' Fighting corruption requires not only establishing relevant laws and systems, but also educating the people and promoting the values ​​of anti-corruption and promoting integrity."

"To the people, you shall establish 'Shenming Pavilions' in every village throughout the country. All those who have committed crimes in the various departments, both internal and external, shall be displayed in the Shenming Pavilions as a warning."

"For exemplary officials who are honest and upright, we must never let them remain unknown. Instead, we must single them out for praise, and even give them fame and material rewards, so that other officials will willingly follow their example..."

Perhaps in pursuit of humorous language, the video's word choice and sentence structure were not sophisticated in the eyes of Zhu Yuanzhang and others, the word order was rather confusing, and there was even a lot of nonsense.

Fortunately, the last section only lasted a few minutes and was finished quickly.

This kind of video is neither shocking nor requires digestion, so as soon as the video ended, Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Liu Kuan, this video clearly contains a lot of nonsense."

"Let's put it another way. There are two errors in the statement that the annual salary of a county magistrate in the Ming Dynasty is 40 or 50 taels, which is the base salary."

"Even before you came, the annual salary we set for the county magistrate was ninety dan of rice. However, in the early years of the Hongwu era, the price of rice was about one guan of silver per dan. How could we settle it with forty or fifty taels of silver?"

"Furthermore, the county magistrate already has assistant officials such as the county magistrate, the chief clerk, and the registrar, as well as clerks and yamen runners. Why would the magistrate need attendants such as legal advisors, accountants, and gatekeepers?"

"We appoint county magistrates to manage civil affairs, not to be masters!"

In fact, when Liu Kuan was choosing the videos, he knew that the quality of this old lady’s videos was average, and many of the words in them could only be listened to and not studied in depth.

So, after listening to Lao Zhu's words, he bowed and said, "Your Majesty is right. The video does contain many biased and even fallacious statements."

Seeing that Liu Kuan also admitted the mistake in the video, Zhu Yuanzhang's expression became better.

Unexpectedly, Liu Kuan then said, "However, some of the statements in the video do make sense. For example, with social and economic development and rising prices, if officials' salaries don't increase, they will become truly low-paid."

"For example, high salaries don't necessarily lead to honesty, but low salaries definitely make corruption more likely to flourish." "Another example is emphasizing integrity education, praising and even offering material rewards to honest and capable officials, and so on."

Zhu Yuanzhang did not accept Liu Kuan's suggestion immediately. Instead, he frowned and said, "The first two points you mentioned are fine, but as for praising and rewarding honest officials, that's ridiculous."

"Integrity is the moral code that officials should possess. If they can achieve this, they can only be considered qualified. Why do they still need to be praised and rewarded?"

Liu Kuan was stunned.

He suddenly remembered that later stars would use memorizing lines and other qualities that an actor should have as an example of excellent qualities.

Isn't it a flawed perception that he now regards integrity as an excellent quality for an official?
Of course, there is some difference between an official maintaining integrity and an artist possessing basic qualities.

After all, when officials hold power, they will be subject to various temptations, and it is not easy to remain honest, especially when their salaries are low.

But Liu Kuan was not prepared to argue with Zhu Yuanzhang. Instead, he bowed and said, "Your Majesty is right. It was I who was wrong."

Zhu Yuanzhang then asked, "Liu Kuan, with your knowledge from the future, how do you think we can prevent and control corruption?"

Liu Kuan paused for a moment and said, "Before I came to Daming, I didn't know much about this. I can only share some of my knowledge from the internet."

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't mind and nodded, "You go ahead."

"First, of course, we need to establish better anti-corruption systems and laws to reduce the opportunities for officials to engage in corruption at the root."

"For example, the power of the county magistrate was divided, with financial power, criminal power, military power, etc. all given to subordinate officials, and the county magistrate was only responsible for the general direction of civil affairs."

"Secondly, we should carry out anti-corruption education. This can start from childhood, using official education to shape the ideological qualities of future officials, such as integrity and love for the people, so that they will not be easily tempted into corruption."

"The second is to maintain integrity through high salaries – by providing officials with relatively high salaries to ensure a certain quality of life for them and their families, the possibility of officials being corrupted due to financial needs will be further reduced."

"Finally, we need to regularly carry out anti-corruption operations – the officialdom is like a mirror; if we don't want it to be covered in dust, we must wipe it clean from time to time."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and then looked at Zhu Biao, "Biao'er, what do you think can be improved in the anti-corruption efforts of the Ming Dynasty?"

Zhu Biao had already thought about this and immediately said, "I think that if what my brother-in-law said is true, our Ming Dynasty has done enough to punish corruption. However, the salaries of officials are indeed too low. Now that the court's finances are getting better year by year, perhaps we can appropriately increase the salaries of officials."

"Secondly, the video just now talked about the educational role of Confucianism in promoting integrity. I think it is very good and we can add relevant content from Confucian classics."

"The last point is, of course, to regularly investigate the bureaucracy and crack down on corrupt officials. Don't wait until corruption cases occur before investigating."

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled slightly and said, "Well said."

Zhu Xing, Zhu Di, Zhu Zhen and others also nodded as they listened, feeling that through this video and the conversation just now, they had learned a lot of knowledge about preventing and combating corruption, which could be used in the governance of the vassal state in the future.

Then, Old Zhu discussed with a group of princes and grandchildren his experience in combating corruption over the years, and then signaled Liu Kuan to play the next video.

After Liu Kuan pulled up the video, he glanced at Zhu Di and said to him, "Your Majesty, considering that His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan will be sailing to India in the spring, I specially found this video. I hope it will be of some help to His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan."

Is it helpful to me?

Zhu Di was slightly surprised at first, then he bowed and said, "My brother-in-law is so thoughtful. I would like to thank you in advance."

After saying that, he looked at the tablet, and the video started, revealing the title -

"A Brief History of India in 10 Minutes - How Many Times Has India Been Invaded and Ruled by Foreign Races?"

A brief history of India?
Now, not only Zhu Di, but also the old Zhu, Zhu Biao, and other princes such as Zhu Gui who wanted to become a vassal in India, all had their eyes lit up and watched with concentrated attention.

The first shot of the video shows a vast map dominated by the Indian subcontinent...

　First update.

　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)