Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 510: Rectification of Administrative Laws
"Zhao Qing, you have been in the government for more than 30 years. Tell me, has the administration of the Ming Dynasty improved in the past ten years, especially in the past few years?"
"Indeed, the emperor has increased the salaries of officials, ensuring the survival and dignity of those who don't want to be greedy. The establishment of the outgoing audit system has made those officials in office always feel nervous. In addition, the most fundamental thing of our Ming Dynasty, the Yellow Book, has also been basically clear. Officials from all over the country have lost their foundation... Because of all these, the administration of officials has indeed improved a lot in recent years."
"But it's not enough, is it?"
"Uh..." After a slight hesitation, Zhao Yan bowed his head and said, "That's true, Your Majesty. Officials in various places are much less corrupt and accept bribes openly, but secretly..."
"Well, Mr. Zhao, since I became the regent, I have put a shackle on the Censorate. The censors can speak on hearsay, but if they cannot produce hard evidence, the impeached officials do not have to stay at home and write a self-defense."
"Your Majesty, this rule is excellent. What we officials hate most is that once we are impeached, we are forced to stop working and write a self-defense at home. How can we not make some small mistakes and offend people when doing things? If we have to write a self-defense as soon as we are impeached, how can we do our work?"
"But once this shackle is put on, the Censorate will become a deserted government office."
After a moment of confusion, Zhao Yan reacted: MD, he is about to take up the post of the head of the Censorate, the time is almost up, why hasn't his mind caught up?
"Your Majesty, please cancel my appointment. I am just a man who does things, I really can't be a censor."
"Hahaha, Zhao Qing, don't panic. First, take a look at the new powers I have granted to the Censorate. After you've read them, tell me whether you're willing to go."
"Uh, okay." Taking a book from Fang Zhenghua, Zhao Yan began to flip through it seriously.
This is a document called "Institutional Reform Plan for the Censorate". In general, Zhu Youdong gave the Censorate great new powers, but also made clear adjustments to its functions.
First of all, the structure of this organization: starting from the fourth year of the Tianqi reign, the title of "censor" will no longer be abused. For example, the governor must hold the title of censor, and the ministers who go out on temporary business must also hold the title of censor. From then on, there will be no such thing.
In the future, only full-time officials of the Censorate could use this title. From the top left censor-in-chief to provincial censors, prefectural censors, and county censors, all administrative agencies at all levels after the Ming Dynasty had full-time censors.
Secondly, the funding for this department: the central government allocates 1% of its annual revenue to the Censorate, and except for being subject to audits by banks and the Ministry of Revenue, it is basically at its disposal. According to the fact that the court's fiscal revenue exceeded 100 million silver dollars in the third year of the Tianqi reign, the Censorate could get at least 1 million silver dollars in fixed funding each year.
What was such a large sum of money used for? This involved the transformation of the function of the Censorate: from the fourth year of the Tianqi reign, the Censorate would be transformed into the Anti-Corruption Commission of the Ming Dynasty, specifically monitoring and investigating whether officials had engaged in corruption and bribery, as well as whether they were morally corrupt. Of course, no one is perfect, and minor flaws in character and minor misconduct in words and deeds were not within the scope of the Censorate's job functions.
The court allowed the Censorate to build its own informant system, allowed these people to receive a certain amount of compensation within its own funds, and clearly stipulated that the Censorate should set up public mailboxes across the country to accept complaints from officials and citizens across the country. After obtaining clues or receiving clues from others, the Censorate can investigate the case. When investigating the case, all officials must actively cooperate. The Censorate has the right to "double-regulate" any official in the country and detain him for no more than 48 hours.
The reformed Metropolitan Censorate will adopt a vertical management system, that is, the censors at the same level will only be responsible to the censors at the higher level, and the government at all levels will have no right to interfere in their appointment, dismissal and transfer...
The plan was very long and detailed. Although Zhao Yan could not read it carefully because he could not let the emperor wait too long, he could not help but tremble slightly after just reading it.
He heaved a sigh of relief, gently rolled up the plan, and then said to Zhu Youdong seriously: "Your Majesty, I accept this mission. I am willing to stake the rest of my life and do my best to create a clean and upright officialdom for Your Majesty."
"You are wrong. This is not for me, but for the billions of people of Ming Dynasty."
"For the Emperor, it is for the people. For the people, it is also for the Emperor."
"Hahaha, alright, Zhao Qing, I'll be honest with you again. To make it easier for you to do your job, I've decided to raise the salaries of all officials across the country in the fourth year of Tianqi."
"Ah? Your Majesty, how much can it increase? Oh, my own salary is enough, but to be honest, although the current salary has increased a lot compared to before, it is still too little for those lower-level officials, especially clerks. In particular, many clerks, their salaries are not as good as an ordinary soldier..."
It is normal that the salary of civil servants is not as high as that of soldiers, right? Forget it, it is not easy for you civil officials to change your mindset all of a sudden.
"In the second year of Tianqi, the court had an income of more than 65 million, and the salaries of officials were 13 million. In the third year of Tianqi, excluding was 105 million. Based on one-fifth of the fiscal revenue as official salaries, I plan to set the total salary of officials across the country at around 20 million. By this calculation, it can generally increase by 30% to 50%."
"Thank you, Your Majesty. This will make my future work easier."
"This is just my own idea, and it has not been discussed at the State Council meeting. Wang Shaozheng has just taken over as the Minister of Revenue, and he has to hear such bad news. I guess he will confront me at the meeting."
"Hahaha, rest assured, Your Majesty, I will give you my full support at the State Council meeting!"
"Okay, Mr. Zhao, let's stop here for now. Go back and take a closer look at this plan. If there are any changes that need to be made, please give us your opinions and I will review them."
"Yes, I will take my leave."
After Zhao Yan left, Xiong Tingbi came in.
Mr. Xiong, Zhu Youdong's father, has been a sharp knife in Zhu Youdong's hand over the years: when he was intimidating Burma, he went to Yunnan. When Japan invaded Siam, he went to Guangdong. After conquering Siam, he stayed in Bangkok. It can be said that wherever there is danger, he is there. This is Zhu Youdong's own firefighter.
"Mr. Xiong, you've worked hard coming here. Please take a seat. I'll serve you tea myself."
"Your Majesty, this is truly an humiliation for me. I cannot accept this."
"Hahaha, well deserved. My Mr. Xiong has worked so hard these years, and now he is about to do something even harder."
"Huh?" Unlike ordinary ministers who only dared to lean half of their buttocks against the edge of the stool even if they had a seat in front of Zhu Youdong, Xiong Tingbi actually sat comfortably with his back against the imperial chair. However, after hearing what Zhu Youdong said, he stood up immediately.
"Your Majesty, I originally thought that in this cabinet reshuffle, I would most likely go to the Ministry of War or the Censorate, but I didn't expect to go to the Ministry of Justice. Well, before I was driven by Your Majesty in my early years, I did serve as a prosecutor, but when it comes to being a chief prosecutor, I still feel a little nervous."
"Mr. Xiong, you and I are a master and disciple, so I don't need to talk nonsense with you. I asked you to go to the Ministry of Justice because I saw that you have experience in judicial work, but not for a long time. In this way, the thorough reform of the laws of the Ming Dynasty will be led by you, and it will not fall into the old ways."
"..." Respectfully accepting the tea handed over by Zhu Youdong, Xiong Tingbi pondered for a while: "Your Majesty, I know that the Ministry of Justice's only job in recent years is to absorb the essence of the thoughts of the pre-Qin philosophers and combine the essence of Western Roman law to improve the Ming Dynasty law. The previous Grand Secretary also did a lot of work for this. But I don't know how to change it to satisfy Your Majesty."
"Mr. Xiong, this is what I think. Since the Battle of Manila, my Ming Dynasty has basically not had to fight any major wars, except for some minor incidents in Myanmar. Therefore, in the next few years, in addition to sending a small number of troops to the Ottoman Empire to participate in rotation wars to train officers, the main focus will be on rectifying this country . In this process, the role of law is very important.
Since the steam engine was invented in the Ming Dynasty, various production processes have advanced by leaps and bounds, and various civil disputes have arisen one after another. Now, the institutions at all levels in the Ming Dynasty will also undergo reforms, but there are no corresponding laws to define their powers and responsibilities. In addition, the princes of the Ming Dynasty, after gaining real power, also lack new laws to restrict them... In short, the times are progressing, but the laws are lagging behind. "
"…I have roughly understood that I will continue the work of my last term as Grand Secretary and continue to improve the law. Make sure the law keeps pace with the development of society."
"This is one. My idea is that Mr. Xiong's most important job after taking over as the Minister of Justice is to compile and publish a set of systematic laws. I think that when Mr. Xiong goes to the Ministry of Justice, he should first make a "Huang Ming Constitution" as the fundamental law of the country. Then, based on the "Huang Ming Constitution", criminal law, civil law, commercial law... all laws will go hand in hand. In this way, all walks of life in our Ming Dynasty will have laws to follow, and officials at all levels in our Ming Dynasty can truly govern the country according to law."
"I see, Your Majesty, I will accept this mission. Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I have been working hard to learn the laws of ancient Rome in order to facilitate my dealings with various Westerners in Bangkok. Although there are still many things I don't understand, I will do my best to meet Your Majesty's expectations!"
