Chongzhen's remarks about increasing the cost of bribery shocked everyone.
yes!
Since bribery cannot be eliminated, then increase the cost of bribery.
The gentry finally bribed everyone, but when he looked back, he saw... the land officer had been replaced!
The inspector was reported and stepped down!
The county magistrate was also impeached and dismissed from office!
All the money was wasted!
When new officials take office, they have to do it all over again!
Repeat this process.
Once they find that the cost of breaking the law cannot be recovered by bribery, they will honestly abide by the law.
Wonderful! It's wonderful!
"Your Majesty is a man of great talent. We admire you!" Fan Jingwen took the lead in bowing.
Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "I have said before that the chaos in the grassroots government is very serious. After the New Year, your Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Personnel and Metropolitan Censorate will start to work on this matter."
"Also, let the students of the Imperial College be prepared. There will be a huge shakeup in the officialdom after the New Year, and many grassroots officials will be dismissed. I need them to be ready to step up at any time."
"As you wish."
After the three men kowtowed and left, Chongzhen got up and returned to the harem to rest.
In the blink of an eye, it was the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month.
As the New Year draws closer, the festive atmosphere in the capital becomes stronger and stronger.
The smell of meat and gunpowder wafted everywhere inside and outside the imperial city.
Explosions were heard from the sky from time to time, attracting the attention of the people.
After the morning court session, Chongzhen retained Song Quan, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate.
Song Quan stood on the stage with a nervous look on his face, feeling a little overwhelmed.
"Song Quan, do you know why I want to talk to you about this?" Chongzhen asked with a smile.
"Your Majesty, I don't know."
"Do you really not know, or are you pretending not to know?"
"Your Majesty..." Song Quan hesitated.
He wanted to lie, but the Ming emperor in front of him seemed to be able to see through his thoughts. Under his gaze, he instinctively told the truth: "I... thought that Your Majesty wanted me to help."
"Oh?" Chongzhen was stunned for a moment, "You are indeed smart enough. I didn't misjudge you."
Song Quan did not dare to be complacent and bowed again.
"Song Quan, since the last false accusation, do you think the attitude of the officials in the capital towards you has changed?"
Song Quan's eyes turned red.
What else can change?
His reputation is ruined!
Although Chongzhen did not punish him, officials in the capital began to distance themselves from him.
Even the vegetable vendors on the street looked at him sideways.
A fourth-rank official ended up like this. I wanted to die.
"If it were someone else, he would have resigned and returned home long ago. You didn't resign, which means you are reluctant to leave the court. Am I right?" Chongzhen continued to ask.
"Your Majesty, please forgive me. I...have a lot of grievances that I cannot express." Tears of regret flowed from Song Quan's eyes.
He regretted accepting bribes from nobles in order to attack Li Banghua.
Now that the truth has been revealed, everyone treats him as a discarded pawn.
Chongzhen smiled slightly and said: "I can help you get out of your current predicament, but I need you to do two things."
"I am willing to serve you like a dog or a horse!" Song Quan knelt down without any hesitation.
In fact, he had no choice at all, and Chongzhen's words were a life-saving straw for him.
"Okay," Chongzhen tapped his fingers on the dragon desk a few times, "I previously proposed that officials should make their assets public, but they all opposed it."
"As the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, you can help me make this happen."
"Ah...this?" Song Quan was very embarrassed.
You know, he was the main force opposing the public disclosure of officials' assets.
The reason for opposition is very simple: the family property does not match the salary.
He wanted to refuse.
But he thought that his reputation had already been ruined, and if he offended the emperor again, he would only end up dead.
"Your Majesty, what does you want me to do?" Song Quan asked cautiously.
"Impeach officials for corruption! If they don't admit it, you can use provocation to ask them why they dare not disclose their assets!"
Song Quan swallowed his saliva and said humbly: "Minister, what will happen after I finish this?"
Chongzhen took a deep breath and said, "I intend to abolish all household registration systems except for the artisan registration system, and no longer restrict the people. They can do whatever they want without looking back."
"This move will affect the interests of many people, so someone needs to raise this point of view for me."
Song Quan looked up in surprise, and his eyes towards Chongzhen were full of...shock!
This is no small matter.
The number of people involved is in the hundreds of thousands or even millions, and the interests involved are innumerable.
The household registration system of the Ming Dynasty inherited the various household registration systems of the Yuan Dynasty.
In the third year of Hongwu, the Ming court stipulated: the army would be sent to the garrisons, the craftsmen would be assigned to the Ministry of Works, the civilians would be assigned to the relevant officials, and the stoves would be assigned to the Transport Department.
The soldiers are military households, the craftsmen are craftsmen households, the civilians are ordinary people, and the stoves are the people who fry and prepare salt.
Generally speaking, there are two types of household registration in the Ming Dynasty: basic household registration and other household registration.
The basic household registration is divided into two categories: good and low.
There are four types of good records: military, civilian, craftsman, and cook.
The regional characteristics of the slave class are obvious, and the musicians in Shanxi and Shaanxi are examples.
Although there are many other household registrations, they are not very important, including tea households, medical households, fishing households, boat households, kitchen households, monks, Taoists, and Confucian scholars.
The Ming Dynasty law stipulates that the three types of household registrations, namely military personnel, craftsmen and cooks, are not allowed to be removed from the register and their descendants must inherit them.
(Music households could not easily leave their registered permanent residence, but the Ming Dynasty law did not provide for this.)
The remaining registered households will automatically become civilian households after being deregistered.
The household registration system has both advantages and disadvantages.
The advantage is that it limits the migration of people to the greatest extent and maintains social stability.
The disadvantages are also obvious.
This decentralized, closed, self-sufficient peasant economy has low productivity, weak ability to resist disasters and unstable economic status.
Let’s take the simplest example.
The drought in Shaanxi has caused a reduction in land production. Farmers are unable to make ends meet and have no choice but to sell their land at a low price to find other ways to make a living.
Due to the existence of the household registration system, these people became refugees in the eyes of local officials.
The local government had very good reasons: you are all civilians, you should farm and not do anything else.
Since the land had been sold at a low price, if they wanted to continue farming, they could only rent land from the gentry and landlords.
The land rent in the Ming Dynasty was relatively fixed. Regardless of whether it was a good year or a bad year, half of the good year's harvest was collected.
In a good year, one acre of land produces 300 kilograms of grain, and the rent is 150 kilograms.
In a disaster year, one acre of land could only produce 100 kilograms of grain, but the rent was still 150 kilograms.
After working hard for a year, he earned nothing and in the end he still owed the landlord 50 kilograms of grain.
Where the hell is this going?
How can the people not rebel?
This is the flaw of the household registration system.
If the household registration system were to be abolished, the gentry and landlords would certainly oppose it because they control a large amount of land.
The officials in the court represented the interests of the gentry and landlords, and they would definitely oppose it.
This is just civilian households!
Behind the military households were the nobles (the abolition of military households had not yet been implemented nationwide), behind the kitchen households was the transport department, behind the music households was the Ministry of Rites, and behind the fishermen and boatmen was the river and lake authorities...
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