Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 277 The Countermeasures of Corrupt Officials
It was already dawn, and Zhu Youjian, who hadn't had a good night's sleep all night, was sitting on a soft cushion made of light yellow satin.

The early morning sun came in, and the dust rolled up in the aperture made him feel very bad. He wished he could close the rich door on one side, so that the dust would disappear from his field of vision.

Now, Zhu Youjian naturally knows that in the prison of Dongchang at this moment, people from Dongchang are severely interrogating Dang Chongya, the left servant of the household department, and others.

As for how to use all means, how to be ruthless and bloody, he didn't bother to think about it at this time.

He didn't want to do this at first. As a non-historical descendant, he didn't have a good impression of Dongchang Jinyiwei. He even thought about banning it when the system is sound enough in the future and the importance of imperial dictatorship is no longer so high. Institutions that override the judicial system.

But he found that if he didn't have Dongchang now, he really didn't know how to deal with this group of officials who might affect his taxation plan.

Of course, in this incident, Dongchang did not seem to have played a big role in the early stage.

However, Zhu Youjian believed that in the future administrative reforms, the status and participation of Dongchang in the entire imperial political system must be improved, and the army would naturally not be able to participate in politics. This was the premise to ensure that warlords would not appear.

The Metropolitan Procuratorate is a judicial supervision agency independent of the administration and also needs to be supervised. The supervision of the administration and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the entire civilian group, can only be done by Dongchang.

Especially when the Ming and Qing basically entered a period of confrontation, economic and political supervision was more meaningful than cracking down on Manchu spies.

The corruption in the tax collection process this time sounded a wake-up call for Zhu Youjian.

He found that reform does not seem to mean that if your reform policy is correct, it will definitely work. If you make a will, and with military power in hand, you can make drastic reforms and eliminate evils.

In fact, there are always people who will find ways to take advantage of the loopholes and make your reform taste different. You can't trust a group too much, and you must always consider supervision and mutual checks and balances.

The city of Nanjing is at the foot of the emperor, and there are so many officials who practice favoritism and fraud in the tax reform.

Then in other areas, will there be problems from the beginning of the drafting of tax invoices? If I impose a strict tax collection standard, will these officials transfer this financial burden to low-level traders or even ordinary farmers? class hands.

The great cause of tax reform that he had painstakingly accomplished eventually turned into the exploitation of the common people.

Zhu Youjian found that if any good policy is calculated in this way, it seems that it will change its taste in the hands of the bureaucracy.

If he turned a blind eye to this phenomenon and did not send secret agents to conduct secret investigations, especially in Daming where the central government lost control over grassroots administration, Zhu Youjian dare not imagine how terrible the consequences of reform would be without the supervision of the secret agents.

But the taxation reform must continue to be implemented, even if the road ahead is difficult, it must not be given up, otherwise it will be difficult for Ming Dynasty to undergo fundamental changes.

The only thing Zhu Youjian can do is to use the most stringent means to deal with those who challenge his own rules, without setting specific taxation standards, and to set up the Dongchang Investigation and Statistics Bureau to conduct comprehensive supervision of the entire Ming administrative system.

……

At this time, the officials and gentry in Nanjing City also began to notice that something was wrong. Although the guards were still under martial law in the city, and people from Dongchang still appeared everywhere, they did not start collecting taxes.

Yao Sunju, the deputy capital censor of the left, was thinking of sending someone to find Yingtian governor Qu Shixu to put pressure on Yingtianfu to release his son because his son was arrested by Wu Jiayin, a member of the household department. When he came back, he hurriedly told Yao Sunju the news that Yingtian Governor Qu Shixu had detained Huang Jiayi, the censor of the patrol city, and Dang Chongya, the left servant of the household department, overnight.

"What is Qu Qitian going to do? Who dares to arrest the dignified Hubu Zuo Shilang? Even if he is the Xuncheng Censor, he can't detain him!"

Yao Sunju said, and the person who came back replied: "I heard that it was the order of Feng's chief assistant. Later, people from Dongchang came and took them all to the Imperial Prison. Ying Tianfu was also arrested. I also know Chen Yu."

"Shoufu's order, Dongchang?"

Yao Sunju began to feel that something was wrong, and hurriedly rushed to the residence of Li Qiao, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in Nanjing, and found Li Qiao. After a while, Liu Wandou, the young minister of Dali Temple, also rushed here: "Could it be that the matter of taxation was overthrown by the chief minister?" Does the people in Fuhe East Factory know about it?"

"I'm afraid that not only the people in Shoufu and Dongchang found out, but His Majesty also found out, what happened to this party hall, didn't you say that he was infallible? Why did such a thing happen after only one day? Big accident!"

Yao Sunju paced anxiously.

"According to the people in the palace, the only person who entered the palace last night was Yin Chengde of Yingtian Mansion, but as far as we know, it was Qu Shixu, the governor of Yingtian, who detained the censor Huang Jiayi and the left servant of the household department in advance, which means that there is a problem. In Yingtian Mansion Yin Chengde and Yingtian Governor Qu Shixu, Yingtian Mansion Yin Chengde is the son of the emperor, we have always been on guard, even if he notices something wrong, it will be difficult for him to pass the barrier of Yingtian Governor and the Ministry of Household Cabinet. Even if he entered the palace, he couldn't produce any evidence. As long as Ying Tianfu and Hubu agreed, His Majesty would have nothing to do even if he doubted it!
But now, the problem is that Yingtian Governor Qu Shixu did not stand on our side. The party department said that Yingtian Governor Qu Shixu accepted the bill and logically supported us in doing so. Why did he still participate in this matter? According to this official, the problem It happened on Qu Shixu! "

Li Qiao slapped his forehead as he spoke: "Sure enough, people's hearts are unpredictable. This Qu Shixu really dares to offend the entire bureaucracy!"

"The problem is that he has already been offended. The current situation is that the left servant of the household department, the party Chongya patrolling the city censor Huang Jiazhen, and the Tongzhi of Yingtianfu Chen Yu have been sent to prison. Huang Jiazhen and Chen Jie are fine. They don't know the inside story, even if It was found out by the questioning that there was a problem with the drafting of tax invoices back then, but Dang Chongya, the left servant of the household department, is different. He knows who initiated this matter in the first place, and he also knows who participated in this matter, so he cannot be allowed to live. Come down; in addition, no matter what, Your Majesty probably already knew that there was a problem with the drafting of the tax invoice. I was the governor of Yingtian at the beginning, and Liu Shaoqing was the co-prefect of Yingtian Mansion. Once we are investigated, Liu Shaoqing and I cannot escape ah."

After Yao Sunju said this, Li Qiao said: "You two first find a way to escape from the city and go to the Qing court by sea. I will handle the matter of making Dang Chongya shut up. Dare to start a big case, after all, it will lose the face of the whole Daming."

"My lord, the gate of the city has been put under martial law. People from Dongchang have already gone to the mansions of Yao Fuxian and Liu Shaoqing, and they cannot escape!"

At this time, a guest from Li Qiao's residence ran in and said.

Upon hearing this, Yao Sunju and Liu Wandou glanced at each other, and hurriedly glanced at each other: "What should I do!"

"Collude! Let this matter be led by Dang Chongya, the left servant of the household department, let Dang Chongya, the left servant of the household department, die first, and then say that Dang Chongya forced you to do this. Your Majesty does not want to get involved. But send you, and I, Daming, have never punished greedy and cruel ministers strictly!"

After Li Qiao said this, he told the guest: "Find a way to contact our eyeliner in the East Factory, and secretly execute Dang Chongya, the left servant of the household department."

(End of this chapter)