Chapter 1250 External Observation
Officials from outside the Ming Dynasty paid homage to the emperor once every three years and accepted external inspections.
The so-called external inspection is the opposite of the Beijing inspection. The Beijing inspection is for officials in the two capitals, while the external inspection is naturally for local officials.
This rule was set by Emperor Taizu. In the early years of the Hongwu reign, local officials had to pay homage to the emperor once a year. However, due to the long distances between many prefectures and counties, officials had to take several months to reach the capital. As a result, they spent the entire year on the road.
Therefore, it was later changed to once every three years.
Normally, the prefectures and counties would conduct monthly inspections and report to the government. The government would conduct inspections and report to the provincial government every year. In the third year, the governor and the provincial government would review the officials in their province, write comments, and compile a list for the inspection as the basis for the pilgrimage.
Those who fall into the eight categories of greed, cruelty, impetuousness, incompetence, old age, illness, dismissal, and carelessness will be punished by the Ministry of Personnel in conjunction with the Censorate, including retirement, demotion, idleness, and civilian status.
This year is the year of external inspection, and all local officials must be inspected. However, only some officials who have performed outstandingly and received awards can be allowed to go to the court and report to the court in person. Most local officials can only wait anxiously in their own offices for the results to come...
At the end of last year, officials from various provinces who were allowed to make the pilgrimage gathered in the capital. Even though the number of people entering the capital was limited, there were still more than a thousand people.
The key is to decide whether to promote, demote or retain the employee after reporting on his/her work.
Therefore, just after the Lantern Festival, in the first month of the lunar year, a long queue formed outside the Ministry of Personnel. Provincial governors, provincial inspectors, councilors, assistants, and county officials who came to pay homage could not wait to report to the Ministry of Examination so that they could get the best positions on a first-come, first-served basis.
In previous years, performance reports were just a formality, because the Ministry of Examination would not easily reject the comments written by the Provincial Censorate.
Especially for those second- and third-rank officials who came to report in person, the Langzhong of the Ministry of Examination had to give them face. Otherwise, if he was not careful, he might fall into their hands one day and suffer the consequences.
But things are different this year.
Gao Gong, the Minister of Personnel and Grand Secretary of Wuying Palace, actually sat in the Ministry of Examination and listened to the performance reports of officials one by one.
This was a matter of life and death. Gao Huzi had sharp eyes and was fully aware of the situation in each province. He could see through their carefully embellished performance reports at a glance and expose their lies with just a few words, without any room for rebuttal.
As a result, almost every day, a large number of officials who came to the pilgrimage received negative comments such as carelessness, inadequacy, impetuousness, old age, illness, and dismissal, and then they would soon be severely punished in the name of the emperor. At the very least, they would be demoted, and at the worst, they would be demoted to civilians, and the bloody storm continued.
Zhao Hao knew that Gao Ge was always using this method to purge people. Who were they purging? First, officials who were old, incompetent, and incompetent; second, officials who had offended him and opposed him; and third, officials who were not in the same group with him.
The officials in Jiangnan were naturally also greatly impacted, but the handling was generally reasonable. They only dismissed some incompetent and useless people, and those who stayed were all smart and capable. Zhao Hao knew that this was already a mercy from Gao Gelao, otherwise how could Gao Huzi miss this great opportunity to interfere with the ten prefectures in Jiangnan?
Therefore, Zhao Hao was very sensible and suppressed the noise of the Jiangnan Gang, preventing them from following Zhao Zhenji and the group of censors to make trouble.
My father-in-law had already warned me on the first day of the first lunar month. Gao Ge Lao was going to deal with the officials and arrest Zhao Zhenji. Now they were still meddling in the matter. Did they think that Gao Ge Lao, who was so crazy about killing people, hadn't chopped them down?
~~
Of course, when some people are demoted, others are praised and promoted.
Mr. Zhao Erye was the first official to be commended. He was promoted three levels in a row, from the magistrate of Kunshan County in Suzhou Prefecture, South Zhili, to the co-magistrate of Chaozhou Prefecture in Guangdong.
But he was not the only official who was promoted. In fact, all those who received outstanding evaluations were promoted by at least two levels...
This is because, at the end of January, Han Ji, the chief secretary of the Ministry of Personnel, and others suggested that, "the ministers who have been awarded banquets for their outstanding performance should be promoted as soon as possible to serve as a model for others. Those who have not been promoted for a long time should be given more salary and be selected first. After the great inspection, if there are vacancies in prefectures and counties, please do not consider the distance or the merits of the imperial examinations, and fill them all through the selection process, so as to gradually plan for long-term appointments."
As Gao Ge Lao's top henchman, Han Ji expressed two meanings. First, the local officials who received outstanding evaluations this time should be promoted, rather than promoted step by step, so as to make full use of their talents and encourage future generations.
Second, all vacant positions after external inspections should be filled as much as possible, regardless of their background, so that officials can feel at ease serving in local positions for a long time.
This is very important, because unlike officials of the Qing dynasty who were keen on being sent to other places, officials of the Ming dynasty loved being officials in the capital, but were afraid of being sent to other places. They thought that even planting flowers and walking birds in Nanjing was better than going to the local areas to associate with cunning clerks.
The main reason is that after two centuries since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, deep-rooted local interest groups have been formed. Clerks and gentry have firmly controlled the prefectures and counties. They cannot be dealt with by officials who serve for three years and a few legal advisers and servants.
Local officials cannot fight against local interest groups, so what they can do is very limited, and most of the government orders cannot even leave the county. How can they achieve results? Naturally, promotion is slow, and if things go wrong, they will work in one place for three years and nine years and still not be able to move. If you see that your peers who are officials in Beijing have been promoted to officials of the six ministries, but you are still serving as a county magistrate there, no one can stand it...
In fact, the difficulty of promotion is not the most important thing. The biggest problem is that local officials have little power but great responsibilities. Although you can do very little, if something happens in the local area, you will be held accountable. If you fail to collect taxes in full, you will be fined. If you tighten the collection and cause civil unrest, you will lose your job. If the river bursts, you will be dismissed. If you offend the gentry who have connections with the higher-ups, you will still be dismissed. In short, it is a big "bad luck".
For example, during this pilgrimage, the Ministry of Revenue suddenly intervened and submitted a report requesting to check whether the officials from all over the country who came to the court owed any taxes in their provinces, prefectures, cities and counties.
Isn't this nonsense? Which county in the Ming Dynasty didn't owe a lot of taxes?
After checking, it turned out that 90% of the prefectures and counties had arrears. So the lighter ones were suspended from salary, and the heavier ones were demoted, without mercy! They also wrote a letter of guarantee that they would pay it back this year. Those big men spent the New Year in tears...
Therefore, it is better to be an official in Beijing, as there are fewer things to do, less responsibility and faster promotion, which has always been the best choice for officials. Therefore, officials from other provinces who are at the same level in Beijing are considered to be promoted, even if they are demoted by one or half a grade, it is still a cause for celebration. However, if officials from Beijing are sent to other provinces but are not promoted by one or two grades, it is considered to be a demotion.
There are even many officials in the two capitals who are unwilling to take up their posts even if they are promoted and sent to other places. Usually they will claim to be sick and ask for leave...
The high EQ version of the answer is to go home, leisurely stroll in the woods, and serve your mother.
The low EQ version is that they would happily go back to their hometowns and become part of a local interest group, encroaching on the people's land and bullying men and women. Then they would wait for an opportunity to be reinstated. If they could not get the official position they wanted, they would rather never serve in the government again than go to a foreign land and suffer.
Therefore, the reason why these scholars and officials "will not bow down for a few grains of rice" is not because of their noble morals. The damn exploiting class, even if they talk about morality, they can't change their hearts full of thieves and prostitutes.
It's just because they are all from the exploiting class, so they have extensive family businesses and don't rely on the salary from being an official... Although Zhang Siwei's example is extreme, Zhao Hao has never seen a Jinshi who came from a poor family in all these years.
This is not surprising. At a time when classes have become rigid, there were no noble sons from poor families in the Ming Dynasty. It is a bit absolute to say that all the successful candidates are from wealthy families, but it is true in most cases.
Even if a poor scholar with extraordinary talent passes the imperial examination, he will soon be able to lead his entire family to achieve class transition like Fan Jin did - countless pieces of land will be donated to his name, and this income alone will far exceed that little salary.
To put it bluntly, the literati in the Ming Dynasty coveted only the privileges brought by the title of Jinshi and the status brought by the noble official position, which is why they acted so strongly and regarded their official positions as nothing more than clouds.
As for why the Qing dynasty turned around? It was because the fourth son of the Qing dynasty implemented the policy of "equalizing the land tax", "gentry and officials serving as officials and paying taxes together", and "returning the fire consumption to the public"... He abolished the privileges of officials and gentry, and legalized the corruption of local officials, so that "three years as a clean prefecture official can earn 100,000 silver coins". With this increase and decrease, officials were naturally keen on being sent out to other places, and they wanted to make a lot of money. They were determined not to resign easily if they couldn't make enough money...
Therefore, the world is bustling with people, all for profit. The world is bustling with people, all for profit. This has been the case since ancient times. The economic base determines the superstructure, which is an indestructible truth.
~~
In order to prevent officials from claiming illness to avoid being sent to other places, Gao Gong made a memorial on the 28th day of the first lunar month, "From now on, officials in the two capitals who are transferred to other places due to illness and ask for leave will be allowed to retire, and they will not be allowed to be re-employed after recovery. Those who evade will be demoted and replaced, and those who dare to disobey will be removed from the list and kept idle. Officials in other places who claim illness and ask for leave must have urgent matters before they can be asked for leave. When recommending officials who have recovered from illness for appointment, the governor must examine and decide, and they must not be appointed for personal reasons."
Emperor Longqing naturally obeyed all requests and agreed immediately.
Now there was nowhere to escape, and their lives were completely in danger... The officials had no choice but to pack up their luggage reluctantly, and under the sympathetic gaze of their colleagues, they reluctantly left Beijing to take up their new posts.
The person who received the greatest sympathy was Mr. Zhao Er, who was far away in Kunshan.
This is easy to understand. Mr. Zhao, a top scholar and a sixth-rank imperial scholar, should not have been sent out to a remote place. Not to mention being sent out to be a county magistrate, which was a serious demotion. He fell to the bottom when his life was at its peak, but he did not lose heart or lie down and let others do what they did. Instead, he worked hard to govern the country and achieved some earth-shaking achievements in Kunshan County.
This fully demonstrated the scholar-officials' attitude of "walking to the end of the water and sitting to watch the clouds rise" and won Master Zhao a very high reputation.
Moreover, he was certified as the "iron-butt champion" by the eunuchs of the East Factory. The emperor didn't like him either, and even forbade him, an official who had been the most outstanding for three consecutive years, to come to the court, and even exiled him to a dangerous place like Chaozhou to serve as an assistant official!
With all these injustices piled up, how could the scholars not sympathize with him? They were in deep mourning. Some people even went to Zhaojia Lane to cry in the street, which made Zhao Hao and his brothers very angry. Our grandfather hasn't died yet, why are we in such a hurry to mourn?
But no matter what, after this incident, Mr. Zhao's reputation among the literati is now at its peak, and it is no exaggeration to say that he is famous all over the world.
(End of this chapter)