Shen Yicheng hadn't figured out what Luo Sigong needed, but he was very clear about what the Emperor needed and what his colleagues needed. So he combined what the Emperor and his colleagues needed and gave it to Luo Sigong.
Luo Sigong dutifully handed the report to the Emperor.
Of course, in order to prevent the Emperor's hands from getting burned, Luo Sigong dutifully accepted the money on behalf of the Emperor.
Things were just as Shen Yicheng and Luo Sigong had expected. Even though he only received a shortened version of the report, Zhu Yijun was still very angry.
He was furious at the fact that a fifth-ranked official could own a family fortune worth tens of thousands of taels of silver, while the national treasury of the Great Ming Dynasty could not even afford a hundred thousand taels of silver for military expenses.
These rats!
If a family of five wanted to eat and wear, they would only need about thirty taels of silver a year, but these bastards actually …
Zhu Yijun's anger was inevitable, and the death of those officials was also inevitable. But if Zhu Yijun knew that the data was reduced by ten times, how angry would he be?
Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that if someone embezzled more than sixty taels of silver, they would be killed. This was a very strict standard. Zhu Yuanzhang's anti-corruption policy was unique in all the dynasties, but things changed with the passage of time. In the Wanli Dynasty, this kind of thing was almost unimaginable.
Killing people for sixty taels of silver? Then all the officials of the Daming Dynasty could be beheaded.
Zhu Yijun wasn't Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang had the power to kill anyone. That was his prestige and qualification. Zhu Yijun didn't have this qualification. If he wanted to kill people, he had to get the cooperation of others. The power of the Emperor was proportional to his own strength. The title of Emperor was just a righteous title.
A fifth-rank official with an annual income of forty-two taels of silver wanted to accumulate tens of thousands of taels of silver. Even if he was an immortal, how many years would it take without eating or drinking?
Since there wasn't such a year, where did the money come from?
Zhu Yijun was angry! He hated it! He was angry!
He blamed himself for not knowing!
Setting a low salary for officials was a method used by the Emperor to control his subordinates. Not only was it a choice made in times of financial difficulties, but it was also an important political tactic. Not every dynasty was like the Great Tang, where people from all over the world congratulated the rich, and not every dynasty was as rich as the Great Song Dynasty.
The Daming Dynasty had never been wealthy.
Restricted by policy factors, they never compromised with the outside world. From the founding of the country to its demise, there were wars almost every year. The military expenditure was huge. During Zhu Yuanzhang's time, they could still use the military system of the Wei Suo to share some of the financial burden. As time went on, the military system of the Wei Suo collapsed, and it became more and more difficult to share the financial burden. Towards the end, the Ming Army had a million men, and they all needed the court to provide the army's pay and military expenses.
This meant that a considerable part of the Ming Dynasty's annual income was reserved for the army. There was no other way to subsidize it. The rest of the money had to be used to make up for the shortfall in various places. The surplus was very small. It was not a matter of a day or two to live beyond one's means.
The most important thing was that the Ming Dynasty's business tax was very low. Opening the sea to trade was not the norm, and it was often hindered. They could not open the country to earn foreign exchange like the Song Dynasty and the Great Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty earned large amounts of foreign exchange through overseas business to supplement the agricultural tax, but the Ming Dynasty did not do so for most of the time.
Under these circumstances, setting a high salary like the Tang Dynasty and the Song Dynasty would inevitably return to the Song Dynasty's extremely high salary. Moreover, they did not have that much money, and the country's finances might collapse. Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born into a poor family, would definitely not do that.
Zhu Yuanzhang's low family was one of the reasons he hated corrupt officials. However, as time passed, would a poor child who became the Emperor still use the naive way of thinking of a poor child to treat a country's subjects?
One's position determined one's brain. Such a simple logic. The reason why he set a low salary for the officials could also be explained. On one hand, it was indeed because of the thrifty mindset of a poor child. On the other hand, it was the reality of the country's financial difficulties. On the other hand, it was necessary to consolidate the rule.
Setting a low salary for the officials would cause them to be short of money, but giving them power that did not match the low salary, what would the officials think? What would they do?
Could corruption be stopped? Were the officials all saints?
In this way, corruption became a fact for the officials. With power, there would be money. With money, there would be a good life. For a good life, they needed money. For money, they needed power. Where did power come from? From the Emperor, in order to protect their own power and money, they had to protect the Emperor's power and keep the Emperor safe.
For the Emperor, corruption became a fact. With the handle in his hand, if you were obedient, he would let you continue to be an official. If you were disobedient, he would fight corruption and get rid of you. It was justifiable, and he could also comply with the people's wishes. He would gain a wave of fame and make his image in the people's hearts more positive.
The Emperor who had centralized power would always care about his own safety and status. Everything else could be relegated to second place. Anti-corruption wasn't the goal. It was only a means of political struggle. They needed corruption and corrupt officials.
Zhu Yuanzhang was born into a poor family. He had just founded the country and just sat on the throne. His position was not stable and he was surrounded by wolves.
He didn't need to use this kind of method to build up his reputation. If he didn't do it this way to make the people feel close to him and create the illusion that Zhu Yuanzhang was on their side, then they would acknowledge Zhu Ming's legitimacy in the shortest time possible. If one day Northern Yuan attacked or someone rebelled, he wouldn't have enough supporters. What would he do then?
For this reason, he had to sacrifice some stupid officials who had dirty hands and feet but didn't have enough means to hide the truth, or disobedient and disloyal officials. He had to make Zhu Ming's legitimacy deeply rooted in the people's hearts. He had to make his position as stable as Mount Tai. He had to make the bureaucrats tremble in fear, make the nobles bow their heads, and make the world his own private property.
It was a pity that this was a high-level game that only the Emperor who had completely grasped all the power could play. It wasn't something that Zhu Yijun could play. Now, this game would be played by the Cabinet Secretary who had real power. Zhu Yijun was no longer qualified to play.
Therefore, he hated that he couldn't play this game and become a real arbitrator.
People didn't hate the corrupt officials, but they hated themselves for not being corrupt officials.
As for corruption itself …
He had also received the education of an Emperor. How could he easily think that corruption itself was a problem?
Luo Sigong didn't understand this logic. Shen Yicheng didn't know for now, but he would understand very soon.
"Your Majesty, please calm down!"
Luo Sigong hurriedly knelt down.
"Calm down, calm down! What else can I do other than calm down? A group of rats is about to empty the national treasury! They're simply unscrupulous! "
Zhu Yijun vented his anger for a while before calming down a little.
One million taels of silver should be enough to deal with Xiao Ruxun for a while.
"Luo Sigong, count the amount of silver and then give it to Shi Xing. Let Shi Xing arrange for them to be delivered to Xiao Qing at the border. Sell the rest of the things as soon as possible and exchange them for silver. When the time comes, send them to Xiao Qing as well. Let him completely defeat the Northern Barbarians."
Zhu Yijun took a deep breath. "Don't let any of those corrupt people go. Continue to investigate the rest! I want to see how far these daring Jin people can go! "
Luo Sigong immediately nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty!"
Following Zhu Yijun's roar, the Imperial Court's attack on the Jin Party accelerated greatly. Under such circumstances, the new Governor of Datong was chosen — Fang Shoushi, who was well-versed in military and border affairs and had practical abilities.
The previous Governor of Datong, Mei Guozhen's death caused a ripple in the Imperial Court. In order to protect Datong City, he did what Inspector Zhang did. After receiving reinforcements, he knew that he wouldn't be forgiven and committed suicide. He only begged the Imperial Court to forgive his family.
Although the moral teachers wanted to criticize him, he was already dead. If they continued to scold him, it would be too harsh. No one wanted to cross this bottom line. Thus, the Great Ming Dynasty's most powerful group of verbal cannons actually let Mei Guozhen off and didn't scold him.
Datong's Commander-In-Chief, Ma Gui, also committed suicide. Some of the Imperial Court officials who still had a conscience sighed. Zhu Yijun ordered for the two to be pardoned for not fulfilling their duties and not implicate their families. However, the Imperial Court didn't give them posthumous titles to show that the Imperial Court couldn't tolerate such actions.
The man was dead, and the matter was over. However, the position of Datong's inspector-general still needed to be filled. After the chaos of the Great Tang war, there were many things waiting to be done, and a suitable candidate was needed. Although the civil officials allowed a military general to be the governor-general, it was more to motivate him to lead troops and not to actually have him manage state affairs like a governor-general.
That was impossible!
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