The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Although the "six things" mentioned by Zhang Juzheng cannot be said to be specific national policies, they illustrate the various contradictions that have appeared within the superstructure of the Ming Dynasty since the "Ren and Xuan Reign".

These contradictions include the contradiction between the civil servant group and the internal supervision group, the contradiction between the civil servant group and the royal rule, the contradiction between the superstructure and the ordinary people, as well as the national defense crisis and lax armament of the Ming Dynasty.

In essence, most of these contradictions and problems reflected in this memorial are contradictions and problems within the feudal ruling class.

Although he has read it several times, Wei Guangde still feels that he has not fully understood the profound meaning of Zhang Juzheng's writings.

So, naturally, Wei Guangde planned not only to go to Chen Yiqin's house tonight to discuss it with him, but also to think about it carefully after he got home.

However, when he came out of Chen Yiqin's house in the evening, he not only had Zhang Juzheng's "Chen Liu Shi Shu" in his hand, but he also had a high-arched memorial called "Reversing the Decline of Habits and Chongsheng Zhi Shu" 》.

This memorial was completed by Gao Gong at the end of the 45th year of Jiajing's reign. Emperor Jiajing died before he had time to memorialize it.

In this essay, Gao Gong summarizes the eight major evils of the world that he has experienced and observed over the past twenty years: bad laws, blackmail, meanness, jealousy, recommendation, party rivalry, pretentiousness, and gossip, and also puts forward some countermeasures. The reform plan for the Eight Evils states that "there will be no excuse for frivolity, no forgiveness for greed, no forgiveness for honesty, fairness in rewards, review of courses, public housing, review of merits and crimes, and verification of facts", which is referred to as "Eight Evils Elimination".

It's just that when Gao Gong wrote this memorial to Emperor Longqing, he was "entrusted with the important task" of copying documents for Emperor Jiajing, so he didn't know about it and had never read it.

He didn't pay attention, so Chen Yiqin naturally wouldn't let him go.

In Chen Yiqin's view, the two people's governance concepts have a lot of common ground.

Talking about this not only reminded Wei Guangde that the relationship between Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng seemed to be very close.

However, relatively speaking, Wei Guangde felt after reading Gao Gong's "Excepting the Eight Evils" that Gao Gong was more idealistic than Zhang Juzheng. Among them, it is actually difficult to distinguish between greed, loyalty, and fairness. It just relies on the personal judgment of the chief officer.

First of all, we must ensure that the chief officer does not have these problems so that his policies can be implemented, and this is very difficult.

After returning home, Wei Guangde just took a look in the backyard, then went into the study alone, took two memorials and studied them, hoping to understand the difference between the two.

After reading it twice more, Wei Guangde really found some differences, that is, in rectifying the administration of officials.

Zhang Juzheng talked more about making officials work diligently. Although he also emphasized discipline, he seemed to have intentionally or unintentionally not mentioned the need for strict punishments and strict laws to deal with corrupt officials.

This may also be because in the Ming Dynasty today, it seems to have become an impossible task to find enough honest officials.

Since there is no such thing, it is better to let corrupt officials do their jobs and stop dereliction of duty, and then through inspection, weed out officials who have done bad things and are unqualified.

Gao Gong, on the other hand, wanted to kill corrupt officials, instead of putting corruption aside like Zhang Juzheng did.

From this, Wei Guangde had to think of the grand occasion of the Manchu Dynasty's fall last year. It was already clear what the officials were thinking.

"Reverse the decadent habits and worship the saints to control the sparse, haha"

Wei Guangde twitched the corner of his mouth, thinking that if Emperor Jiajing really read this memorial, he would probably slap Gao Gong and drive him back to his hometown.

As for the reason, naturally you dare to say in front of the wise and powerful Emperor Jiajing that his country is full of decadence, and you want him to turn the tide.

So soon, Wei Guangde put aside Gao Gong's memorials and studied Zhang Juzheng's memorials, because he felt that Zhang Juzheng seemed to be more down-to-earth and operational, and at least he would not be besieged by the Manchu ministers.

The first provincial discussion is that when the current court makes decisions, there are always many people who oppose it.

No matter how perfect the plan is, he can always find a lot of flaws and criticize it until it is useless. When you ask him to tell you the countermeasures, he can't tell you. He only wants to belittle others to the point of being naked, as if this is the only way to show that he is capable.

As a result, His Majesty was unable to make up his mind and missed the best opportunity to solve the problem.

No decision can be perfect. We should look at the mainstream, weigh the pros and cons, and through hard work, as long as the pros outweigh the cons.

If you worry about everything and get stuck in endless arguments all day long, it will not only be detrimental to solving problems, but may also intensify conflicts.

When ministers and ministers submit memorials, they should go straight to the topic, not go around in circles, concentrate on their own work, and argue less.

This article can actually be seen as Zhang Juzheng's certain restrictions on the system of speaking officials that prevailed in the Ming Dynasty.

The imperial court specially set up censors and ministers. These officials were of lower rank, but they had the power to supervise and impeach high-ranking officials. They also liked to express their own opinions on everything, and they were basically opposed. They only knew how to expose shortcomings but did not know how to make suggestions.

The purpose of the second article to uphold discipline is not only to hope that the court will restore the original laws, but also to punish the Jiajing Emperor's behavior of unclear rewards and punishments during his more than 40 years in power, and promoting or imprisoning ministers based on his preferences. criticism.

Guilty or innocent, it all depends on the emperor's thoughts, and Yousi is in name only.

The subsequent heavy edict required each government office to complete the order within the specified time after receiving the order.

If it cannot be completed, explain the reason and come up with a solution.

All orders must be registered and written off after completion.

Those that are not completed must be held accountable, and officials shall be evaluated based on their efficiency in completing tasks.

Zhang Juzheng's method is to cut off the blame game between various departments. When receiving an order, you must give a strict statement, and then supervise your execution according to your statement. No one is allowed to respond negatively.

In other words, standard file formats are used to clarify responsibilities and quantify tasks, which facilitates supervision and assessment.

Article 4: Verification of reputation. What the country really needs is those who can solve practical problems. The method of judging talents by reputation will result in those who work hard and do not get promoted. On the contrary, those who talk about things can often be promoted.

If things go on like this, everyone will be unwilling to do things and the efficiency will be low.

For officials who have served for a certain period of time, precise assessments must be conducted based on their performance in all aspects. Positions will be adjusted and rewards and punishments will be adjusted according to the ranking of "competent", "normal" and "incompetent".

Among them, Zhang Juzheng specifically mentioned the promotion of Zuo Erguan. Officials who have passed the nine-year examination, indicating that they are very capable, should be promoted within their own departments instead of being transferred between yamen.

Article 5: Strengthening the foundation of the country is actually the way to solve financial difficulties.

Finance is the cornerstone of the country, and the economic status of the people and a reasonable tax system are also the foundation of the country's finances.

In the last ten years of the Jiajing Dynasty, Yan Song controlled the government and was wildly corrupt. Emperor Jiajing devoted himself to Taoism and did not care about political affairs. The people were impoverished and their wealth was exhausted.

Local powerful tyrants annexed land and passed on the tax burden to the people at the bottom, making the national finances even worse.

Zhang Juzheng hoped to restrain the powerful and allow the common people to recuperate.

It advocates strict economy, advocating simplicity and putting people first.

Of course, every time he saw this, Wei Guangde's eyes would linger for a moment on the so-called famous sentence "To deal with foreign affairs, we must first settle within." However, this time, although Wei Guangde did not look away, he simply closed his eyes.

In the last few sentences of this line, Wei Guangde seemed to smell a trace of blood.

In the first year of Longqing, due to insufficient state supplies, the Metropolitan Procuratorate sent a large number of censors to various places to supervise taxes, that is, to collect taxes and levies from various places.

Zhang Juzheng already knew that the result of this would be, "If those who want to harm wealth go away, why bother asking for it from poor people and depleting the vitality of the country?"

"Why do we want to take measures now? Today's customs are extravagant, there are no restrictions on the service of officials and people, foreign powerful forces have merged, taxes and servitude are uneven, flowers are divided and sent in a treacherous manner, and stubbornness does not pay for the land and grain, which is a burden to the small people."

Wei Guangde opened his eyes suddenly and couldn't help but stare at one section.

"It's too tiring for the common people."

Wei Guangde seems to have realized that when Zhang Juzheng wrote this matter, perhaps his eyes had shifted away from the "little people" to make up for the court's shortfall. Why should the "poor people" ask for it.

Here, Zhang Juzheng distinguished Ming society into three categories: officials, common people and common people.

The respective references are very clear, and Wei Guangde can naturally understand them at a glance.

But he was also very suspicious. Was Zhang Juzheng planning to put the "way to make money" on "officials and the people"?

How does he plan to collect it?

There is no mention of it in the main memorial, so Wei Guangde read the memorial again.

The fundamental reason why he attaches so much importance to this matter is that except for a little insight from later generations, he is not much smarter than Zhang Juzheng, Chen Yiqin and others.

Since Wei Guangde has no talent, he has no intention of pretending to be an elephant.

If you join the cabinet, should you join the cabinet to govern?

Of course he is not willing to kill himself like Zhang Juzheng did.

However, more importantly, he did not want to give Zhang Juzheng any chance to be punished.

When Zhang Juzheng was in power, he could say that he had power over the government and the public, and even the emperor had to listen to him.

In Wei Guangde's impression, it was said that Zhang Juzheng dared to give in to the emperor because he had some disagreements or hesitations about the emperor's handling of government affairs.

If Zhang Juzheng caught him with something, would he force the emperor to take him down?

Therefore, to avoid such things happening, he must know his thoughts in advance, try to avoid committing these things, and not give him the slightest chance.

He, or the people behind him, are the "officials and people" in his memorial. In other words, Zhang Juzheng's way of making money for the court fell on himself and the people around him.

At this time, Wei Guangde finally understood that he always felt strange when watching Zhang Juzheng's "Chen Liu Shi Shu" at first, and now he finally knew where the source was.

"Collect business taxes like Wei Zhongxian?"

Wei Guangde muttered unconsciously.

He remembered that later generations had a very low evaluation of Wei Zhongxian. The fundamental reason was that Wei Zhongxian turned his attention to businessmen in order to make money for the court and himself. Because he was born into a poor man, he naturally knew that the common people could no longer squeeze out money, and further squeezing would only force oppression. The people rebelled.

Of course he doesn't want anyone to rebel, because he will be the unlucky one.

Zhang Juzheng seems to have similar views to Wei Zhongxian.

The only difference is that it seems that the power of businessmen is not strong enough to interfere with the court.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the relationship between businessmen and officials became even more entangled and could no longer be separated.

It is said that most of the officials in Jiangnan, Shanxi and other places were funded by businessmen at that time, so after they became officials in the court, they were mostly controlled by businessmen.

Wei Guangde knew that Zhang Juzheng's main achievements were the "one whip method" and the "passing examination method", but the "one whip method" seemed to have little to do with Zhang Juzheng and had existed for a long time.

Moreover, the "one whip law" actually has little impact on "officials and the people".

He must have done other things.

Wei Guangde had already concluded at this time that Zhang Juzheng should have done more things after taking control of the power. These things may be the reason that directly pushed the Zhang family into doom.

Wei Guangde recalled it carefully for a long time, but he never thought that when he was dating Zhang Juzheng, he had said anything else. His opinions on taxes were more complicated because he supported the "one whip law".

Wei Guangde did not consider the matter of "hidden fields" and "hidden houses". Although he knew it, he knew better that to do these things, the court would need massive investment and the resistance it would encounter.

The officials below will first quit because of their respective families.

If you do these things in other provinces, then others can also investigate your family background. How can the civil service group poach itself?

Forget it, it's late, that's it.

Wei Guangde automatically filtered out the issue of ordering military preparations among Zhang Juzheng's six things. He felt that he knew better than Zhang Juzheng and started preparations earlier.

In fact, after Wei Guangde passed the imperial examination, he also thought about doing something successful and famous.

For civil servants, is there anything more famous than creating a "prosperous age"?

It’s just that he knows how difficult it is to create another “prosperous age”, and the details can be omitted. At the very least, the national treasury must be filled and the people must have enough food and clothing.

What was the prosperous age of Kaiyuan like?

"Recalling the heyday of the Kaiyuan Dynasty in the past, there were still thousands of families in the small town.

The rice is dripping with fat and the corn is white, and both the public and private warehouses are abundant. "

This is internal.

Externally, there were no major threats around the Tang Dynasty. Even the Tang Dynasty had repeatedly conquered Tubo, which was unfavorable. Because of the Tang Empire's powerful national power, it had suffered so much in successive battles that it chose to request a peace treaty to end this kind of war. state.

Yes, during the Tang Dynasty, the main enemy of the Tang Empire was not the Turks on the northern grasslands, but the Tubo on the Tibetan Plateau.

It was difficult for the Tang army to invade the plateau on a large scale. The strong altitude sickness made the Tang army miserable every time they attacked. The initiative in the war was always controlled by Tubo.

It was under this internal and external environment that a rare "prosperity" in Chinese history was created.

Wei Guangde's idea in the past was to "light the people's taxes." The imperial government solved its financial problems by opening up the sea and levying heavy taxes on exported goods.

Even if it cannot be solved, it would be good to at least alleviate it so that people can recuperate.

Externally, they employed generals who were experienced in fighting, trained an invincible army, and directly pushed Mongolia to the north. Then they "ploughed the court and cleared the holes" to completely solve the hidden dangers in the Northeast.

In his memory, he seemed to remember the "Three Great Expeditions of Wanli", including the war to aid Korea and resist the Japanese, but he didn't know when it was.

If he was still in the court, he would definitely not end the war so easily.

In the eyes of Western navigators, the Japanese islands are treasure islands. How can they be given up so casually?