Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 114

Zhu Houzhao took off the phoenix crown on the little queen's head, tucked it under his armpit, and then took the little queen's hand: "Let's go, let's go see mother! Wear it in Cining Palace!"

The little queen's hands were so soft that Zhu Houzhao didn't dare to squeeze them hard for fear of breaking bones.

The little queen nodded, smiled sweetly, and trotted after Zhu Houzhao, with her brocade embroidered shoes occasionally peeking out half of her head from under her skirt.

At this time, Concubine Su and Concubine Liu were also waiting outside the Cining Palace. When they saw Zhu Houzhao and the young queen appear, they hurriedly saluted.

"No gift!"

Zhu Houzhao then put the phoenix crown on the little queen, let go of the little queen's hand and entered the Cining Palace first, and brought the three little girls, no, it should be said that Zhu Houzhao's three wives, to the Empress Dowager Zhang.

Empress Dowager Zhang smiled lovingly. After the proper etiquette was completed, she asked Zhu Houzhao and others to sit down. She only pulled the little queen in front of her, gave her a jade bracelet, and greeted her with concern, completely forgetting about her own son Zhu Houzhao: "Did you have sex last night?"

Zhu Houzhao didn't expect Empress Dowager Zhang to ask this directly. He thought to himself, are these concubines who are thirteen or fourteen years old not treated as girls and have no scruples?

"Reporting to the Queen Mother, they slept together!"

The young queen did not understand what he meant. She just thought that she had done what the nanny said, that she had slept in the same room with the emperor and slept with him, so she answered accordingly.

Empress Dowager Zhang was even happier when she heard this and said with a smile, "It's time to call me mother!"

Zhu Houzhao really couldn't stand this atmosphere of chatting about such topics, and hurriedly said: "Mother, I still have government affairs to attend to, so I'll take my leave first!"

As soon as they arrived at the Cabinet and the Silijian duty room, the Prime Minister Ma Wensheng on duty saw Zhu Houzhao coming so early, so he hurriedly greeted him and smiled sincerely, "Your Majesty is really more diligent than the late emperor. Now that you are newly married, it is understandable that you want to rest for a while."

"The country and people of our ancestors are more important. Let's discuss the matter. Is there anything important today?" Zhu Houzhao said as he sat in the middle, leaning against the pillow, and just flipped through the drafted memorial and continued reading it.

When Zhu Houzhao lifted his sleeve, Ma Wensheng noticed that Zhu Houzhao had a wound on his hand, and couldn't help asking, "What is the wound, Your Majesty?"

"It's okay, I did it for the Queen," said Zhu Houzhao.

"Your Majesty, the Queen is still young, so take it slow. Although Your Majesty is the ruler, he is also the husband, so you should be gentle and kind to her." Ma Wensheng thought that Zhu Houzhao must have hurt the Queen and caused her hand to be scratched by her nails, so he gave some advice.

"Why don't you talk too much?" Zhu Houzhao replied.

"Let's talk business," Zhu Houzhao said directly, not wanting to waste any more words on this. "According to your order, the Minister of Personnel Wang Shu has officially submitted a memorial, suggesting that the court implement the performance evaluation system and restart the Beijing inspection in April this year, first inspecting the Beijing officials and then the local officials. I have already approved it!"

Ma Wensheng handed over Wang Shu's memorial.

Zhu Houzhao looked at it and said, "Now that the civil service examination is over, and the court has added a large number of officials to the capital, it is a good time to hold the imperial examination. It is also a good opportunity to implement the new performance evaluation system. Those who are mediocre and incompetent will be dismissed, and those who are wise and capable will be selected. Approved! The Imperial Household Department will approve it! Then, the cabinet will immediately send a letter to the Ministry of Personnel, ordering all ministries and government offices to start the imperial examination!"

As Zhu Houzhao said this, he threw the memorial in front of Gu Dayong, the eunuch in charge of writing in the Imperial Household Department. Gu Dayong immediately took it and approved it.

In this way, in the first year of Zhengde, the civil service reform of the Ming Dynasty entered deep waters and began the prelude to the implementation of the performance evaluation system. The performance reward and punishment system will, through this early opening of the imperial examination, arouse new vitality and vitality for the Ming Dynasty's political arena, which has gradually become stagnant and corrupt.

For officials who do practical work, this reform is undoubtedly a good thing. They can increase their salary income and get promoted through their political achievements, instead of relying on creating fame and using connections to get a chance to be promoted. At the same time, they don't have to make money against their conscience just to make a living.

Hong Ming, a doctor in the Ministry of Justice, was such an official. He could not frame a person for money, but he suffered from insufficient income to support his seven sons, one wife and two concubines. He also had no money to bribe his superiors for promotion, and was mocked by many of his peers for being pedantic.

Now the court's performance-based rewards and punishments have prevented Hong Ming from falling into the abyss of corruption. He has found that since he can satisfy his need for a good life by working diligently on government affairs and can also hope to be promoted because of his good performance, he no longer cares about the ridicule of others and only speeds up the efficiency of reviewing cases in the hope of getting a good performance evaluation result during the Beijing inspection.

Because Wang Shu was in charge of the Ministry of Personnel, and several cabinet ministers in the court were indeed committed to promoting honest officials, and after the reform of the performance system, the performance of officials was clear at a glance and the information was public, so it was easy to compare who was better and who was worse. Therefore, Hong Ming was awarded three months of the corresponding monthly salary for that year because he ranked first in the Ministry of Justice assessment.

That is to say, in the few years before the next imperial examination, his monthly salary would be four times what it is now, that is, sixty-four dan, and it would be all paid out in cash without any discount. This was already higher than the monthly salary of a second-rank official in the past.

As a result, he was promoted to the position of Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice the following year.

"The emperor's grace is truly great, and the world is in peace and order!" Hong Ming said with emotion.

However, many officials are very dissatisfied with this, even the majority. People are lazy and hope to gain something for nothing or to gain more with less work. Therefore, most officials hope to do less work and then easily get the opportunity to be promoted and make money. Even if they can get a lot of rice and salary rewards by making political achievements, they are unwilling to do so. After all, even if the income is high, it is still very hard work.

This new performance evaluation system required officials to report their affairs every day and promise when they would be completed. If they completed their affairs, they would be rewarded for their achievements, and if they failed to do so, they would be punished. This was like a tight ring around the neck for many officials in Beijing who only wanted to play with birds and write poems in order to receive a large sum of money.

Especially for those clean officials who are good at talking but not good at government affairs, they have always relied on building their reputation to gain promotion and wealth. Now the performance evaluation system only focuses on practical performance and not reputation, which is simply going to kill them.

Li Mengyang was one of these officials. His official position was not that of a clean official. He was a doctor in the Sichuan Qingli Division of the Ministry of Revenue. However, he followed the path of a clean official, relying on fame and writing poems and articles to gain achievements. The current performance evaluation system was difficult for him to accept. He slammed the table and said, "What is Ma Junzhou trying to do! He does not ask about family background, reputation, or recommendations from ministers when selecting officials. He does not value clean officials. This move is undoubtedly against the imperial order and against the right way!"

Thanks to the book friend Zhanli Moxin for the 100 starting coins reward. Thank you to the book friend Luyangyang for the 100 starting coins reward.

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(End of this chapter)