The conduct of officials has always been a top priority for maintaining stability in every dynasty.
Therefore, capable and ambitious monarchs throughout history have never relaxed their efforts in fighting corruption.
However, over the years, the efforts have yielded little result and the problem persists despite repeated bans.
Ultimately, it all comes down to greed.
People often say: "Get promoted and get rich."
These four words are deeply ingrained. Except for a very few ambitious people, many people become officials for those very reasons.
Therefore, Liu Hong chose to distribute the profits of the Royal Merchant Guild to the officials, with the aim of satisfying the basic desires of some officials to be promoted and make money.
Those who become officials can enjoy the profits of the Royal Trading Company. Those who become high-ranking officials can enjoy even more. By focusing on developing industry, commerce, and the national economy, they can earn more from the Royal Trading Company and receive a larger share of the profits.
While this cannot guarantee that officials are 100% honest, it can greatly prevent officials from colluding with local authorities to harm the people.
As the saying goes: A wise man helps all under heaven.
With officials free from worries about wealth and material possessions, they will naturally be more inclined to think about the people and will be more actively involved in the development of industry, commerce, and the economy.
Therefore, when Liu Hong discussed matters concerning governance and anti-corruption with the officials in the palace, the discussion was quite active.
In addition to continuing the policy of mutual reporting from the time of Emperor Xiaowu, a reward system for ordinary people to report crimes was also added.
At the same time, the laws and regulations on punishing corrupt officials have been strengthened!
Liu Hong also readily brought out the same set of laws used by Zhu Yuanzhang to punish corrupt officials.
The officials were quite shocked by the emperor's proposed cruel punishments, such as skinning people alive, dismemberment, and slow slicing, but none of them objected.
Now, thanks to their share of the royal trading company's profits, they can live a wealthy life, and they may even gain more in the future.
Only a fool would risk his life to commit embezzlement.
Furthermore, because an official is corrupt, he will inevitably collude with powerful figures and landlords, thereby damaging the local people's livelihood and affecting economic benefits.
Therefore, in the eyes of the officials, a corrupt official has already deviated from the bureaucratic capitalist class.
The officials naturally abhorred such traitors who betrayed their class and villains who ruined their own interests!
Now that you have such good welfare benefits, why don't you focus on improving people's livelihoods and encouraging the economy in order to expand the Royal Trading Company and acquire more wealth?
Instead, they choose corruption and oppose the entire capitalist official class; then they deserve to die!
Then Chen Fan spoke:
"Your Majesty, Zhong Yao, Chen Qun, and Sima Fang are currently inspecting various regions and have arrested a large number of corrupt officials, which has been quite effective!"
Your Majesty, I believe this precedent should be followed, and a Censorate should be jointly established by various ministries and departments, including the Sili, Tingwei, and Zhongwei, under the exclusive control of the imperial court, thus expanding the scope of inspection and supervision!
"The Grand Tutor is right. Local officials have been in contact with powerful families, landlords, and common people for a long time, and they do need to be more closely supervised!"
"That's absolutely right. Only when the local areas are stable can commerce develop, and only then can the imperial court and the country remain stable!"
"We second that proposal!!"
The officials unanimously agreed with and supported Chen Fan's proposal to establish a new inspection agency.
After all, the three government offices had joined forces more than once or twice, so the formation of this new government office was just a natural progression.
After some discussion, a new Censorate was established, with twenty inspecting censors under it, responsible for inspecting the governance of officials in various regions and reporting directly to the emperor.
The officials then began to discuss the personnel structure of the newly established auxiliary agencies.
The newly established agencies—the Road Administration Department, the Water Conservancy Department, the Medical Administration Department, and the Grain Department—may appear to be merely executive bodies with little power, but their weight and role are considerable, and cannot be taken lightly.
Chen Fan said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty, these institutions are all specialized functional departments, and they must be managed by professionals. They certainly cannot be handed over to laymen."
Moreover, these agencies are responsible for relevant affairs nationwide, and their staffing needs are enormous!
Liu Hong nodded. "The Grand Tutor is right. We might as well select a group of elite students from the three colleges of engineering, medicine, and agriculture to fill the positions as the core members of the four institutions!"
As for supplementing the team later...!
Finally, Liu Hong looked at Hu Guang and asked:
"Situ, how many students have come to Luoyang now?"
Hu Guang respectfully reported, "Your Majesty, there are now more than 30,000 students from all over the country heading to Luoyang!"
Liu Hong nodded, then looked at the officials and said in a deep voice:
"This assessment will recruit 5,000 people, which is enough to complete the initial establishment of the four organizations!"
The remaining students can all be enrolled in the three colleges to develop relevant professional skills and complete the follow-up work for the four institutions!
"Your Majesty is wise!!"
Subsequently, Liu Hong and his officials began discussing the powers and functions of the four institutions and the candidates for their heads.
After some discussion and communication, Liu Hong ultimately made the final decision:
Tian Feng was appointed as the chief of the Road Administration Department.
Ju Shou served as the chief of the Water Conservancy Department.
Guan Ning served as the Director of the Medical Administration Department.
Zhou Yi served as the head of the Grain Bureau.
In addition to the professional engineers under each department responsible for managing and planning central affairs, each department also has thirteen deputy directors responsible for overseeing affairs in each state, which are then passed down to the various counties.
Each county has a branch director who oversees personnel with relevant expertise responsible for the management and supervision of roads, water conservancy, medical care, and food.
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