I served as an admonisher in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 214 Jingming, if this plan is successful, you will be worthy of enjoying the Ancestral Temple!
Forbidden in the back garden.

Zhao Zhen was resting in the side hall after participating in the roll call of the gold list.

Zhao Gai, a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy and the official of this year's tribute examination, suddenly came to report that four old men were making trouble under the gold list, claiming that there was cheating in the examination, and they asked for an interview before he could give the evidence.

Zhao Zhen couldn't help but quickly came to the front hall.

The imperial examination is a major plan of the imperial court, and there is no room for any stain.

After a while.

Zhao Gai brought Jinshi Xu Tong and four old men to Zhao Zhen.

When the four old men saw Zhao Zhen, they burst into tears. They knelt on the ground and burst into tears.

While crying loudly, he complained about his grievances.

A bunch of runny nose and a bunch of tears, crying heartbreakingly.

Zhao Zhen didn't hear clearly, but seeing the state of the four old men, he knew that they must have suffered great grievances.

The four old men cried for nearly half a quarter of an hour before slowly stopping.

Zhao Gai on the side was so anxious that he stamped his feet.

Zhao Zhen ordered his chamberlain to get towels for them, wiped their faces first, and then asked: "If you have anything to do, please come to me."

Zhao Gai added from the side: "Four of you, please let one of you tell the officials. First tell your identities, and then say anything else."

Immediately.

A thin old man wiped the tears on his face and said: "Guan family, we...we finally see you!"

"We are villagers from Xinghua County, Chuzhou. We... we... we are not here to expose his cheating, but... we are here to sue his father, Xu Chongshan."

"We really had no choice, so we went to the Jinbang and falsely claimed that he had cheated on the imperial examination!"

"My son once came to the capital to file a petition, but just as he was about to beat the drum, he was taken away. Then there was no news from him again. He may have been... murdered!"

"The so-called contribution of the magistrate of Xinghua County in Chuzhou to the great development of water conservancy is completely false."

"In order to achieve political success, he destroyed more than 200 tombs in the four villages around us. How could this give us the face to see our ancestors? We went to Beijing to complain many times, but we were stopped all the time!"

"In addition, the businessman surnamed Liu who he arrested last September for selling smuggled salt was a miscarriage of justice. Mr. Liu is a good man and he was not selling smuggled salt at all. The seizure of [-] kilograms of smuggled salt is completely false. He did it for Shorten seniority for promotion..."

On the side, Zhao Gai, a scholar of Hanlin Academy, was shocked when he heard this.

Falsification of official performance also happens from time to time.

But it is unprecedented for people like this to destroy houses and dig graves for water conservancy projects, especially under the pretext of framing illegal salt sales.

At present, the Song Dynasty court has a complete monopoly on the salt industry and prohibits any individual from refining and selling private salt.

Anyone who refines more than three kilograms of private salt will be punished by death; anyone who carries official salt into forbidden areas and sells it in more than ten kilograms will be punished by death.

Among them, local officials can shorten their seniority and promotion if they capture illegal salt sellers.

If you seize [-] kilograms of illegal salt at a time, you can be promoted one year in advance; if you seize more than [-] kilograms at a time, you can be promoted that year.

This approach of the imperial court was originally to protect the revenue from salt tax. Who would have thought that any official would dare to take advantage of this loophole.

At this time.

A small yellow gatekeeper presented Xu Chongshan's documents to Zhao Zhen.

Zhao Zhen took a closer look and found that the main reason why Xu Chongshan was promoted from the magistrate of Xinghua County in Chuzhou to the magistrate of Haizhou a year early was because of the construction of water conservancy and the capture of illegal salt sellers.

Immediately, Zhao Zhen looked at Xu Tong.

Xu Tong's legs went weak and he knelt on the ground.

"Guan family, I... don't know, I don't know anything!"

Zhao Zhen ignored him and looked at Zhao Gai, saying: "Qing Zhao, you will place these four old men in the idle houses of Kaifeng Mansion. In addition, Xu Tong will also be placed under house arrest in Kaifeng Mansion. I will send Zuo Si to admonish He Tanxiang." Investigate this matter, and when the truth comes out, we will give an explanation to the people."

"I obey the order." Zhao Gai held his hand.

On that day, Zuo Sijian He Tan rushed to Xinghua County in Chuzhou.

At the same time, Zhao Zhen ordered Kaifeng Mansion and Yushitai to thoroughly investigate why the people could not beat the Dengwen drum.

……

Soon, the matter also reached the ears of officials in Beijing.

Everyone felt incredible.

Some officials are really willing to do anything harmful to the world just for their official career.

"Slandering a businessman for selling illegal salt, treating his life as nothing, and then using this to get promoted a year early, is so shameless!" Wang Yaochen couldn't help but sigh.

Wang Anshi let out a long sigh.

"In a folk village, it's too easy for low-level officials to take people's lives lightly!" Hearing this, Su Liang nodded in approval and murmured in his heart: Perhaps, the opportunity has come to submit the test to become a law.

Three days later.

Under the joint inspection of Tang Jie and Bao Zheng.

Hundreds of officials and people were identified who were suspected of preventing people from beating the Dengwen drum.

Preventing people from beating the news drum to complain has created a huge news trading market.

The Song Dynasty allowed people to appeal.

This has led some officials in Denwen Drum Courtyard and some people living in the surrounding areas to make a living specifically in this way.

They are in cahoots.

When a citizen is found to have complained, he will be stopped first, try to see the complaint, and then inform the accused official so that he can pay to avoid the disaster.

Some people even directly stopped those who complained.

All you have to do is inform the accused official and you will get your reward.

People at the bottom are easily deceived.

Even if they come to Bianjing City, they don't know who they can find useful, let alone who they can find.

……

March [-]th.

Zuo Sijian He Tan presented the case file to Zhao Zhen through Yibing.

After investigation, everything the four old men said is true.

Xu Chongshan was very happy for his personal career. In order to build useless canals, the tombs of more than 200 households were destroyed.

The false accusations against local businessmen for selling illegal salt and disregarding human lives are all true.

Also.

Han Qi, who knew Yangzhou as a bachelor of Zizheng Palace, and Cai Xiang, a bearded man who is currently the transfer envoy of Fujian Road, also picked up three identical cases each.

Zhejiang and Zhejiang are places where salt is produced and sold, so such incidents naturally occur frequently.

After Zhao Zhen saw these cases, he was so angry that he didn't eat all day.

These corrupt and cruel officials cannot escape death penalty. Xu Tong, Xu Chongshan's son, will also inevitably be revoked.

And that night, Su Liang didn't fall asleep until midnight.

He wrote a thousand-word article about the examination method he was thinking about and named it: Official Examination Strategy.

……

Early the next morning.

Su Liang did not submit this strategy to the ban, but first went to the Admonition Court to find Ouyang Xiu. He wanted Ouyang Xiu to see if this strategy was feasible.

Ouyang Xiu took a closer look, and after being stunned for a long time, he looked at Su Liang with admiration.

"Jingming, you...are you...going to...train all the scholar-bureaucrats and officials in the Song Dynasty to become Bao Xiren or Wang Jiefu?"

Su Liang couldn't help but laugh.

The words of Emperor Wen Zong are indeed interesting, and this metaphor is very vivid.

The essence of the official examination policy is to set limits for examinations and to be responsible for people, that is, to examine officials' performance within a limited time.

The specific method is: order local officials to record all the things that should be done every month in three account books, one to keep for themselves, one to keep in the book, and one to keep for advice.

The imperial court's regulations for inspecting officials changed from annual examinations to monthly examinations.

Those who have not completed the tasks for the month.

Depending on the size and urgency of the incident, they will be demoted or dismissed.

This method can enable layer-by-layer supervision, reduce the occurrence of deceiving the superiors and concealing the truth from the inferiors, not focusing on actual results, making false reports, and turning the imperial decrees into empty documents.

The real targets are local officials who are currently on actual duty.

In addition, this "monthly examination system" can also expose those who are incompetent and have no talent and are just pretending to be good.

According to the current assessment difficulty set by Su Liang, if strictly implemented, at least [-]% of officials will be dismissed in the next six months.

Earlier, Fan Fu's new policy of "clearly deposing officials and suppressing luck" was to reduce the number of officials eating from the imperial court's big pot. However, Su Liang's policy made it impossible for officials without political talents to eat from the big pot.

Once this policy is implemented, the most busy people will probably be the scholar-officials of the Song Dynasty.

Ouyang Xiu smiled and said: "Jingming, if this plan is successful, you will be worthy enough to enjoy the Ancestral Temple!"

(End of this chapter)