Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 60: New Policies
Zhu Houzhao ignored the screams outside the Meridian Gate and turned back to the Qianqing Palace.

From now on, he will still treat the Qianqing Palace as his main palace.

Of course, this does not mean that he compromised with the civil service group and had to move into the Qianqing Palace.

Rather, the geographical location of the Qianqing Palace itself is the central area between the former dynasty and the inner court. He has now controlled the inner court in his own hands and no longer has to worry about being controlled by the civil officials and the inner court. It is naturally more suitable for him to live in the Qianqing Palace to facilitate his rule over the entire core class of the Ming Dynasty.

As for the punishment of Mou Bin, it was just a means for Zhu Houzhao, as the emperor, to intimidate the Jinyiwei.

Zhu Houzhao was not the emotional and innocent Emperor Zhengde in his previous life. In this life, everything he did was only for his own interests, including protecting his own life.

In the evening, the temperature dropped sharply. Zhu Houzhao just sat around the stove, looking at the sky outside that was already dim and shrouded in smoke through the green gauze window. He just put the hot tea in his hand on the rosewood tray. After a while, he saw Gu Dayong walk in and said, "Your Majesty, the Grand Chancellor and others are here."

Zhu Houzhao nodded: "Let them in!"

Green Ant New Distillery, red clay small stove.

Can you drink a cup of snow when you come here late?

Zhu Houzhao had just taken a sip of hot tea when he saw the Minister of Personnel Ma Wensheng, the Minister of War Xu Jin, and the Left Vice Minister of Personnel Jiao Fang walk in: "Your Majesty, I greet you!"

"Give me a seat!"

Zhu Houzhao gave an order, then turned around, rested his right elbow on the wooden table, tapped his forehead lightly with his index finger, and began to think about how to start speaking.

The Minister of Personnel Ma Wensheng, the Minister of War Xu Jin, and the Left Vice Minister of Personnel Jiao Fang hurriedly expressed their gratitude.

Among the three, the oldest is the Minister of Personnel Ma Wensheng. Counting based on the age difference between nine males and ten females, he is now eighty years old. The next is Jiao Fang, who is already in his seventies. The youngest, Xu Jin, is also nearly seventy years old.

So it is not true that the current Emperor Zhengde Zhu Houzhao does not use old ministers. Zhu Houzhao just does not like to use old ministers who are disobedient or even not on his side.

In fact, Ma Wensheng and the other three could guess why Zhu Houzhao summoned them immediately without him telling them. Whether a politician or a statesman, they all have a persistent pursuit of power. Ma Wensheng and the other three were no exception. They also wanted to become cabinet ministers.

"I summoned you three today, not for a casual chat between the emperor and his subjects, but because I want to entrust the Ming Dynasty to you three. I'm sure you all know what happened in the court recently. It's not that I'm unkind, but that the traitors are unjust. As for the court, there are many people who bully my youth, so I have to kill them to establish my authority!"

"Of course, I don't need to explain to you. You are all old ministers left by the late emperor, and you have all served in foreign posts. You know the late emperor's last wishes and the people's expectations. It is foreseeable that from today on, the three cabinet ministers will resign. I hope that you three can join the cabinet and work with me to fulfill the late emperor's last wishes and recreate the prosperous era of Yongle!"

"The glorious Ming Dynasty has been around for more than a hundred years, but the military power is weak, the refugees are increasing, the Tartars are repeatedly attacking the border, and the empire is helpless against them. The finances are even more exhausted, and the empire is living beyond its means. This is not the Ming Dynasty I want to see, nor is it the Ming Dynasty that the late emperor wanted to see.
Therefore, the late emperor worked diligently for eighteen years just to bring peace to the people, but it was a pity that the late emperor died young. Now I have hastily ascended the throne. Although I am young and ignorant of worldly affairs, I have not lost my ambition to revitalize the Ming Dynasty. I intend to recreate the prosperous era of Yongle and even surpass that of my ancestors. I hope that the three of you will help me with all your heart!

I want to start a new policy and complete the reform work that the previous emperor did not complete. What good ideas can the three ministers offer me? I will select and accept them! " After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, he looked out the window. At this time, snow had begun to fall. When the whistling north wind blew, it seemed that new vitality had begun to be nurtured.

Minister of Personnel Ma Wensheng and the other three were overwhelmed with emotion when they heard this. The three of them were not the kind of people who would just sit in office and do nothing, and now that His Majesty Zhu Houzhao said he would allow them to join the cabinet and showed them such respect, they naturally did not want to hide it any longer.

The Minister of Personnel Ma Wensheng was the first to speak up: "Your Majesty, if you want to rule a prosperous era, you must first rectify the administration of officials. The corruption of the Ming Dynasty is not due to the lack of virtue of the monarch but to the lack of integrity of the officials. Some people in the court and the public are mediocre, some seek fame, some form cliques for personal gain, and some are lazy in their work. Therefore, in my opinion, you should first rectify the administration of officials and strictly enforce the system of inspection!"

"Your Majesty, I agree with what the Grand Chancellor said. If you want to launch a new policy, you must rectify the administration of officials. Nowadays, there are too many people in the court and the country. Although the late emperor was very perceptive, he was inevitably misled by mediocre officials. In the early days of the Hongzhi reign, the late emperor also rectified the administration of officials when he started the restoration of the country. He appointed Wang Shu as the head of the Ministry of Personnel and the Grand Chancellor as the head of the Ministry of War to rectify the civil and military officials.
Nowadays, officials are lazy because your Majesty is young. Therefore, if your Majesty wants to launch a new policy, you must first rectify the administration of officials!"

Jiao Fang, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, also echoed this.

"I agree with what the Prime Minister and Junior Prime Minister said. Although I am in the Ministry of War, I don't know whether the civil officials are honest or not, but I know that most of the military officers are no longer trained in military affairs, they withhold military supplies, eat empty salaries to enrich themselves, and the most serious is that they use the soldiers as slaves, which makes the military preparations slack. Therefore, if we want to strengthen the military preparations, we must first rectify the administration of officials. Only by selecting wise officials and good generals can good policies be implemented, and even avoid turning into bad policies!"

Minister of War Xu Jin also said so.

Zhu Houzhao nodded. He also agreed with the views of these three people. If they wanted to change the current situation of the Ming Dynasty where the civil officials were complacent and the military officials were idle, and the national prestige was declining, they could only rectify the administration of officials first, because any policy needed people to implement it. If the people responsible for implementation were not competent, it would be impossible to implement the new policy.

Zhu Houzhao also knew that the reason why the Ming Dynasty perished in history was more due to the corruption of officials. The so-called outdated financial system and the collapse of the military system were actually the result of the collapse of these systems. The reason why it perished a hundred years later was that the officials became more and more corrupt. There were no wise ministers and good generals to prolong the life of the dynasty. All of them focused on forming cliques and pursuing personal interests.

To put it bluntly, most of the rulers in the ruling class are only concerned with exploitation and forget to maintain the balance of the entire ruling system and fail to curb their greed.

At this time, Ma Wensheng began to speak again: "I dare not hide the truth from Your Majesty. I have presented the method of performance evaluation to the late emperor before, so Your Majesty appointed me to be in charge of the Ministry of Personnel. Unfortunately, the late emperor passed away, and my method of performance evaluation could not be implemented. Now I present this to Your Majesty, and I hope Your Majesty will adopt it!"

Zhu Houzhao asked Gu Dayong to take it.

Zhu Houzhao immediately opened it and took a quick look. He thought that Ma Wensheng's performance evaluation method was similar to Zhang Juzheng's performance evaluation method in later generations. Both aimed to improve the efficiency of officials, strictly enforce the inspection system, set deadlines for each official's political tasks, and severely punish those who failed to complete any task.

Zhu Houzhao could not help thinking that if Emperor Hongzhi had not died and Ma Wensheng had been able to implement his plan, it would have set a precedent for civil service reform. Of course, there is no doubt that this method of putting a tight ring on officials would definitely make all officials of the Ming Dynasty dissatisfied.

Because for most officials, the purpose of being an official is to enjoy life and make money, but your court makes me keep doing my job and gives me such a meager salary that I lose the opportunity to make money and enjoy life. Doesn't this make me very uncomfortable?

"Your Excellency's performance evaluation method is of course excellent and is a perfect remedy for the problem. However, when one has enough food and clothing, one will know honor and disgrace; when one has a full granary, one will know etiquette. We cannot only require officials to be diligent, but also ensure that they have no worries about food and clothing or even become more prosperous. Otherwise, I am afraid that they will still serve as officials for money. Improving their treatment can at least ensure that some officials who have become corrupt due to poverty can remain honest. Therefore, the rewards and punishments in the performance evaluation method cannot be as simple as promotion, demotion, retention or dismissal. There must also be performance rewards, that is, the political achievements completed are linked to salary income. Of course, the punishment must also be increased, and penalties such as imprisonment, confiscation of property, immediate execution and even skinning must be added! Increase the cost of corruption!"

After reading it, Zhu Houzhao expressed his thoughts. He knew that no matter what era it was, corruption would always exist and would be difficult to eliminate. Even though he was now the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he did not think of trying to eliminate corruption permanently like Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang had done. He just wanted to increase the cost of corruption as much as possible and at the same time establish an incentive for officials to do their jobs by using benefits.

Therefore, what Zhu Houzhao wanted to implement in the Ming Dynasty was performance system reform, linking officials' income with their personal political achievements. This was undoubtedly better than giving them money to maintain integrity, which could not keep people honest. The only correct thing to do was to let people know that the better they work, the more they get.

(End of this chapter)