Chongzhen Chat Group

In previous years, Emperor Chongzhen would not have had any objections to this negotiated outcome. Because they were all negotiated according to predetermined rules, and he is a very rule-abiding person.

At this time, all the ministries and departments were very happy. After all, this year's dividends had increased several times compared to before.

However, this time, Emperor Chongzhen did not reply to the chief minister's words. Instead, he said with a cold face: "I remember that when the shares were split, it was for the six yamen. I remember this correctly, right? ?”

Everyone was stunned when they heard this. They didn't understand why the emperor would suddenly mention this at this time?

"Your Majesty, it's for the six yamen and the inner palace." Wen Tiren had already stepped forward to answer the question, so he replied smoothly and affirmatively.

These people in the Wenhua Hall are all human beings. At this time, they have a vague feeling in their hearts: Something seems to be happening to the emperor!

Sure enough, they immediately heard Emperor Chongzhen suddenly raise his voice and shouted coldly: "But why didn't I find out that the stock dividends in the past were given to the six yamen?"

"..." Wen Tiren was stunned after hearing this. No matter how smart he was, he couldn't react for a moment. The emperor had not communicated with him about today's matter. He thought about the past dividends and found that they were indeed given to Liubu!

Thinking this, he turned to look at the six ministers on the side.

The six ministers did not understand what was going on. Seeing the chief minister's gaze, Xu Guangqi, the minister of rites, first stood up and testified: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Rites has indeed received dividends, there is no problem!"

Li Changgeng, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, also went out to report: "The Ministry of Personnel has also received dividends, there is no problem!"

"..."

Six ministers have successively stated that there is no problem with dividends.

After hearing what they said, Emperor Chongzhen suddenly sneered, turned around and ordered Liu Xingzuo, the commander of the Jinyi Guards standing beside him: "Give these to each of them and let them see if the six yamen have received it. Dividends over the years!”

"The general obeys the decree!" Liu Xingzuo immediately clasped his fists and agreed. He picked up a stack of memorials from the imperial case. As if he knew what the contents were, he walked down and gave one copy to each of the people below.

Wen Tiren got it first and quickly opened the memorial and read it. Just by looking at it, he immediately understood what Emperor Chongzhen meant when he said that previous dividends were not given to the six yamen!

So, he turned to look at the Minister of Civil Affairs and saw Li Changgeng also unfolding the memorial and reading it.

Li Changgeng's face, which was rosy just now, suddenly became very pale, and even the hand holding the memorial was trembling faintly.

The other ministers of the yamen also lost their excitement just now, and several of them also turned pale.

Only the Eunuchs Bingbi and the eunuchs on one side remained calm, because the dividend issue had nothing to do with them.

They looked at the memorial in their hands and saw that it listed the past six reds and the specific whereabouts of the money. It was very dazzling to see that the name of Li Changgeng, the Minister of Civil Affairs, was in the most conspicuous position, and the amount of money that fell into his pocket was also the highest amount of money that fell into an individual's pocket.

Among them, Wang Chengen, the admiral of Dongchang, was the most proud. There were many cunning people in these ministers. Some of the money was transferred several times and used various names before it finally fell into the pockets of these ministers. And none of this was hidden from the eyes of the officers he sent out. The only regret he had was that he didn't know why the emperor asked Liu Xingzuo to make the points, making it seem as if these investigation results were done by Jin Yiwei!

Suddenly, there was a "pop" sound and a lot of movement. The sound shook Li Changgeng's hand, and the memorial fell to the ground.

When everyone heard the sound and looked around, they saw Emperor Chongzhen slamming the imperial case, with anger on his face, and shouted loudly: "You and others are the highest-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty and important ministers of the imperial court. I am very grateful to you and others." I have always been trusting, and even changed the previous practice of giving dividends to various departments on the income of the imperial court. The result is good, did these dividends fall into the six yamen? "

After hearing this, even the most stupid person knew what the emperor was referring to.

Li Changgeng, the Minister of Civil Affairs, felt his legs weaken and fell to his knees. He lowered his head and said in a low voice, even with a slight trembling: "I am guilty!"

Shen Yongmao, the Minister of War, also knelt down and also lowered his head to confess.

…

Only Xu Guangqi, the Minister of Rites, did not kneel down, because in this memorial, only the dividends from the Ministry of Rites were distributed, and not a penny went into his personal pocket.

No one dared to deny it. Because they knew in their hearts that the detailed contents of this memorial showed that the emperor absolutely understood the ins and outs of the dividends.

More importantly, having just experienced the military parade, the majesty of the army was impressive, and of all this, the most important thing was the new army that the emperor had personally formed and devoted his efforts to! Anyone who has participated in the military parade will understand that both the soldiers who have become part of the Beijing camp and the people in the capital have great admiration for the emperor. The emperor's prestige is at its peak!

For the civil servants, in addition, the emperor suddenly composed an impromptu lyrics during the military parade. The so-called emperors of Qin, Han and Wu, as well as the ancestors of Tang and Song, all had the spirit to look down upon them. The heroic spirit of this Qinyuanchun song is deeply rooted in people's hearts. The so-called poetry expresses feelings, which allowed these civil servants to see what kind of feelings Emperor Chongzhen had! This shock to the civil servants will definitely not be less than the shock of regaining Liaodong!

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen, in their eyes, was already an emperor with both civil and military skills! His current prestige firmly suppresses the desire of civil servants to resist.

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen was angry, and the ministers and senior officials of the Ming Dynasty knelt down and bowed down one by one. Suddenly, the atmosphere in the Wenhua Hall was very tense, which was completely incompatible with the festive atmosphere of the upcoming New Year.

"I know that some of you may disagree with this. In the past, wasn't it like this? The money given by the court would be plucked every time it passed through a yamen. Haha, it's a waste, right..." As Emperor Chongzhen said, he sneered again, "The excuse is quite high-sounding. Every time you reach out, have you ever thought about the words of Confucius and Mencius? If you are an official thousands of miles away, you really have to be just for money?"

"Do you think that this kind of thing has been a common practice for hundreds of years, and I am making a big fuss out of it by asking about it?" In the Wenhua Hall, only the words of Emperor Chongzhen were echoing, even if it was Wen Tiren or the Supervisor of Ceremonies. Here, everyone lowered their heads and endured the emperor's anger: "If according to the ancestral system, how many of the Ming Dynasty's six ministers can be exempted from the punishment of skinning and stuffing grass? You want me to punish the second-rank officials of the imperial court? Are they all skinned and stuffed with grass, and sent to the six yamen to warn those who come after you?"

Li Changgeng had the most money in his pocket. When he heard the emperor's words, even though it was a cold winter day and it was snowing heavily outside the palace, he couldn't stop sweating at all and kept dripping down.

"For money! You can be shameless! But I want face!" Emperor Chongzhen's anger filled the Wenhua Palace. Unconsciously, the title he addressed to his ministers had been changed from "Qing" to "you", completely gone. With a little respect, "What kind of example has the dignified second-grade Ming Dynasty official set to all the officials in the world? I have been waiting, waiting for one of you to wake up! But until today, no one has thought about reforming! Now! It’s time for a new dividend, no wonder you are so excited when I see it!”

In fact, as long as he had real evidence, Emperor Chongzhen would not have to go through such trouble and directly issue an order to the factory guards to take down those who were corrupt and violated the law. Absolutely no one would say anything about this kind of thing, because it is defensible from a theoretical perspective.

However, Emperor Chongzhen's purpose was not that simple. In addition to returning the equity dividends to the state treasury, he also wanted to touch upon the unspoken rule of "plucking feathers when geese pass" that had been formed during the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years. This is not as simple as punishing a few corrupt officials and tightening the ethos of one yamen.

When Emperor Chongzhen said this, he paused for a moment and slowly looked at the ministers below. He saw that each of them was either sweating profusely, trembling with fear, or bowing in silence.

Suddenly, he softened his tone a little, calmed down his anger, and said to the ministers below: "I am not an unreasonable person! I know that since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the salaries of officials in our Ming Dynasty have not been high. Especially for lower-level officials, it is only enough for the official to live. If there are welcomes, favors, or a thriving population, the official's salary alone is definitely not enough. It should be for this reason that slowly The unspoken rule of "plucking the hair of a wild goose" has been developed in all yamen..."

Hearing that the furious emperor suddenly said such reasonable words, these ministers were suddenly unable to recover. At the same time, they could not help but secretly be grateful to the Emperor and his understanding.

In fact, these people in the Wenhua Palace knew that Emperor Chongzhen said this to save face for them. If you really want to tell the truth, the reality may become very cruel. For a large number of officials, even if their salaries are sufficient, those officials who reach out to get money will still reach out to get money.

In response to this situation, Taizu spared no face at all and imposed severe punishments, including skinning off people and stuffing them with grass for embezzlement, but he still could not stop corrupt officials from succeeding in succession. Today's Emperor Chongzhen obviously did not adopt the same methods as Taizu did back then.

As a result, the atmosphere in the Wenhua Hall, as Emperor Chongzhen's words softened, unconsciously became less tense.

"...However, these unspoken rules are very harmful to our Ming Dynasty! How much of the military pay allocated to the border army actually falls into the hands of the border army officers? The low combat effectiveness of the Ming army in the past was due to the hungry soldiers Or should someone else be responsible for the empty soldiers?"

When Emperor Chongzhen said this, his tone became a little more stern, and he raised his voice and said: "Therefore, this unspoken rule of 'plucking the hair of a wild goose' is absolutely forbidden. It is also for this reason that I have decided to split the equity in the treasury income. , sent to the six yamen. I hope that officials of the Ming Dynasty, regardless of their official position, can benefit from it and no longer be forced to bend down by the pressure of life..."

By this time, all the officials in the Wenhua Hall understood that the emperor had delegated the issue of stock dividends to various departments in order to improve the lives of all officials in the six departments. In other words, if this money is available to everyone in the yamen, everyone can take it. If it comes to that, then it’s the yamen’s share and it doesn’t matter. But when all the equity dividends go into the pockets of the first and second leaders of the yamen and other major officials, that won't work! The emperor was furious because of this.

After hearing this, Chief Assistant Wen Tiren pondered the emperor's intention and realized something in his heart. At this time, he had already remembered that the emperor had actually discussed this matter with him. After understanding this, he immediately went out to report to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty's good intentions, I believe that the officials of the Ming Dynasty are all grateful to the emperor for his great kindness! I believe that all the income from equity dividends should be returned to the national treasury, and then can be used with the salary." It is distributed together to supplement the salary of Ming officials. It also tells the world that all officials who are honest and upright and have outstanding political achievements can receive dividends from this share. "

Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but admire in his heart after hearing this. He was worthy of being the chief minister he had chosen. He really had a roundworm in his stomach and knew what the purpose of this meeting was. He even made a very avant-garde proposal in the form of a bonus!

I have to say that Ming officials should also be a profession. If they are asked to serve the people wholeheartedly, it seems not in line with human nature. This form of bonus has not been heard of before. But this sounds good, maybe you can try it and see how it works!

Emperor Chongzhen was considering this matter, and Cao Huachun, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony and eunuch in another column, also came out and said: "Your Majesty's benevolence is unprecedented in all dynasties. I think it is reasonable and reasonable for the chief minister to assist me in this proposal." Dividends come from the national treasury. It is a kindness from His Majesty, not a gift from the ministry. This is a legitimate act. Therefore, I second the proposal!"

Although what he said was a bit disgusting, it represented the meaning of the palm print eunuch. When the eunuchs saw this, they immediately stood up one by one, seconded their opinions, and flattered the emperor.

On the side of the foreign ministers and officials, including the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Minister of Rites, and others who have not much involvement in today's corruption, or who say that they are upright and do not care about the money, they all also agreed. I feel that these equity dividends should be attributed to the national treasury as a favor, rather than being distributed by the Ministry of Finance. Everyone in the Wenhua Hall quickly reached a consensus on this.

When Emperor Chongzhen saw this, he smiled and nodded and said: "In this case, I will agree with what you have said. In addition, I have another idea. As a reward other than the salary, in addition to being honest and honest, and having excellent political performance, I am willing to go Those who go to remote areas of the Ming Dynasty to serve as officials in places with difficult conditions and harsh environments in the Ming Dynasty should be rewarded more!"

It is temporarily impossible to resume on-time updates during working days. I can only update the second chapter after returning from get off work in the evening. Waiting for the weekend, I hope it can be updated on time.