Zhao Hao's reign began in Qiongzhou, when there were few generals and few officials, so he could only rely on officials to govern the place. In practice, he found that where those old officials were in charge, not only were the places stable, but the government decrees were unimpeded, and both the collection of taxes and the collection of the people could be completed quickly. On the other hand, the prefectures and counties run by officials who are from Zhengpai Jinshi are constantly in trouble, and it is difficult to carry out the work.

From that time on, Zhao Yu realized that as a specific clerk in the government at all levels, although he was only ordered to deal with various trivial and detailed affairs, it seemed impossible to make a big difference. As everyone knows, it is these seemingly trivial matters that form the basis of the rule of the feudal state, because any policy and decree of the state must eventually be detailed into various specific measures and implemented by the officials.

It is precisely because of the familiarity of the officials with the allusions of the laws and regulations that they play a pivotal role in ensuring the implementation and implementation of various laws and regulations. And officials, whether they want to or not, have to rely on these swords and penmen to act. Why is this happening? In fact, it is very simple, because the officials from the imperial examination can't do the business of grassroots civil servants at all, and they have to hire a master to coordinate the compulsory courses such as writing eight shares and reciting poems, collecting taxes and judging cases, not to mention the professional jobs of transportation, warehousing, and accounts, which are simply ignorant.

In this sense, the role of the officials in the rule of the feudal bureaucracy is indispensable and cannot be denied. Moreover, the status of officials makes it difficult for them to have an in-depth understanding of the suffering and needs of ordinary people living at the bottom of society. Even local officials who claim to be "close to the people" are affected by the system of tenure and recusal, and it is difficult to have an in-depth understanding of the actual situation in the region or department where they work. Everywhere they went, they were surrounded by a group of officials, not only when dealing with official business, but even most of their understanding of people's livelihood and suffering came from the officials around them.

This was not the case with the officials, most of whom came from poor and innocent families. Some came from the educated class, but because of their own temperament or lack of knowledge, they were unable to enter the civil service. A small number of officials have also served as officials, and they have either been dismissed for misconduct or have been disemployed by unusually large layoffs. They come directly from the private sector, so they have a deeper and more intuitive sense of the social situation and the suffering of the people than ordinary officials.

As the dynasty moved to Qiongzhou, a large number of officials moved with it. Zhao Hao's understanding of the officials has deepened, they are engaged in the specific and practical work of their own department, carry out the tasks assigned by their superiors, and their functions are more prominent in terms of service and affairs. Specifically, it can be said that officials are all over the government organizations at all levels and are a force that cannot be ignored, such as managing documents and accounts, taking charge of warehouses and warehouses, urging and supervising taxes, maintaining social order, and running errands and miscellaneous tasks.

can listen to Xu Zongren's explanation, in the Song Dynasty, the status of officials with internal official qualities was not promoted but demoted, and they were simply disqualified from joining the emperor in the Heban Dynasty, but the non-commissioned officers with lower ranks than them could enjoy this honor. even explicitly forbade the central and local officials to participate in the imperial examination, and even gave you the opportunity to change your fate.

Zhao Yu couldn't help but feel a handful of black belly, assuming the truth of what "Water Margin" said, Song Jiang, a small official who was a priest, really wanted to be a doctor of martial arts, a pacification envoy of Chuzhou and the head of soldiers and horses, and there was really no possibility except for rebellion and whitewashing. Of course, the title of Dr. Wude, which indicates how many levels of cadres, only appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the latter two positions did not conform to the system of the Song Dynasty at all......

"Hehe, I understand a little, when I was in Qiongzhou, I put those court officials in various states and counties, and even in the township as officials, they did not object, but now in Lin'an, some people have spoken out, it seems that it is regarded as a 'corner strategy'!" Zhao Yu took a sip of tea and smiled.

"Your Majesty's thoughts are not quite true, when you first arrived in Qiongzhou, there were too many officials, so that people were panicked, fearing that they would be dismissed and have no livelihood. Your Majesty can find a place for them to live, and it is too late to be grateful, where will there be opposition. And then there is what His Majesty said, thinking that it is just a timely strategy! Xu Zongren thought about it.

Xu Shangshu was blunt. However, it turned out that my idea at that time was right, after entering Jiangnan, these officials were ordered to shepherd and guard the party, and they were able to govern the local area and appease the people without the help of their staff, and the imperial court also benefited from it. Isn't it worth inheriting and promoting? Zhao Yu praised a sentence and said.

"Your Majesty doesn't know that it is Qiongzhou that wants to include Xu officials in the list of orthodox officials!" Xu Zongren said, "When Wang Jiefu presided over the reform of the law for the prime minister, he also included the officials in the official system to raise salaries and restrain them with heavy fines; On the other hand, it is proposed that those who serve as officials should first take up the position of officials in order to learn the details of government affairs, and at the same time improve the status of officials, hoping to include them in the ranks of officials. ”

"Oh, it turns out that it has already existed, since it is ......" Zhao Yu was a little surprised when he heard it, he thought it was the 'advanced experience' he brought, but he didn't expect it to be still in the footsteps of his predecessors, but he was quickly relieved, isn't the system of the descendants also from the experience of the predecessors! He wanted to say that since there is such a system, it is necessary to deal with it according to this, and it will be a matter of relief, but after thinking about it, this system must have been abolished a long time ago, otherwise how could there be a problem at this time, shook his head and sneered.

After Wang Jiefu was demoted, the matter was closed. Subsequently, the imperial court thought that there were too many officials and too indiscriminate, so they ordered Su Zhe, a scholar in the middle school, to reduce it. When it was difficult for him to be a clerk, a small official Bai Zhongfu said: In the past, there were only a dozen officials, and now the servants are selected to dozens of officials. Things are as old as before, and those who use it several times have no heavy law in the past, and the officials bribe money, so they don't want people to get more money, so they try their best to work hard and never give up; Today, the law is heavy, and the bribes are less than the old ones, so there are not many people, but fortunately there are few things, and the amount of this official is also very affectionate. ”

"Well, I kind of get it!" Zhao Yu nodded. Although Xu Zongren said that it was vague, he also heard that it meant that it was difficult to form a system as a result of the reform at one time and one place. And he quoted the words of the small officials and pointed out the drawbacks, which means that although the officials were treated poorly in the past, they did not follow with heavy punishments, so they all accepted bribes, and they did not want others to come in and share the fertilizer, so there were only a dozen people in the establishment; Now although the treatment has been improved, there are heavy penalties to follow, and they dare not accept bribes, so they wish that more people would come into the establishment, share it, and have less work to spare.

The most fundamental reason why this set of policies was abolished by the successors was that it involved the essence of the imperial power-scholar system, that is, what was the guiding goal of this system? The answer is, for stability. It's a surprise, but it's so amazing. The core of stability lies in distribution, and then there are vested interests in the first level for secondary distribution, which can be legal delivery or gray rent-seeking, which is a structural problem, and can even penetrate into the lowest level of society, in this system logic, "waste" and "inefficiency" are necessary, because they are also the source of distribution at the next level.

But in the absence of major changes in the organization itself, this kind of digging into the wall is inevitable, regardless of whether it is an official or an official, it is all a virtue. Confusing the boundaries between scholars and officials is actually to break the original distribution pattern and transform the organization into an efficient organization, and what needs to be followed by change at this time is not just a temporary event, such as the treatment and supervision of officials, but the operating logic of the whole society. The price of success is a change, either economic or political. Otherwise, these efficiencies will have nowhere to be released, and they can only end up being the end of the Qin Dynasty's prosperity and death.

"Your Majesty, after returning to Jiangnan, current affairs have changed, and some people want to bring up the old things again and restore the old system." Seeing that the little emperor already understood the root cause, Xu Zongren sighed lightly and said.

"Xu Shangshu, you are an old minister of the Three Dynasties, and you are familiar with the affairs of the previous dynasties, do you think it is not good to use the system of the kings back then?" Zhao Yu leaned over and asked.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that although the system of the king and the prime minister cannot completely eliminate the stubbornness, it can also eliminate the malpractices of officialdom and clarify the rule of officials." Xu Zongren said with a serious face.

"The disadvantage of the officials is that the officials are strong and the officials are weak, and the officials do nothing!" Zhao Yu said. He had not seen what the corruption of the officials of the court had become, but he had heard a lot, from the teachings of several gentlemen to the courtiers, but few of them proposed effective solutions.

In fact, he thought that the officials were a very unique group, although they were on errands in the government, they were still "commoners", and they had to be supervised and restricted by the officials everywhere, and they were meager or even unruly; As a commoner, their original family was not very wealthy, and they would inevitably be oppressed by the local tyrants. Therefore, the officials, especially the treacherous officials in the local government, often flattered the officials in order to obtain protection, and colluded with local forces to obtain greater benefits.

From the standpoint of the ruling class, the bureaucrats and doctors have vigorously criticized the illegal acts of the officials, one-sidedly exaggerated the negative influence of the officials, and ignored their positive role in state politics.

Zhao Hao thought it was unfair. The strength of officials and the weakness of officials are caused by various factors such as politics, economy, and culture. As far as political factors are concerned, the Song Dynasty was established after the five dynasties of war, and in order to effectively consolidate their rule, the rulers of the Song Dynasty concentrated their power in one body, so that the central departments and the central and local governments checked each other, and the upper and lower levels restrained each other, so that everything could not be assured, and many problems in all aspects of society had to be taken from the imperial dynasty, which to a certain extent caused complex and changeable policies and measures.

The increase in the number of officials and the large number of officials in the Song Dynasty were the direct reasons for the increase in their power. Due to the strengthening of the centralized system and the expansion of bureaucratic politics, as a relatively independent political force, it has become more active in the political arena. It also makes it easy for the party to plant private interests, and forms group forces to maintain its political position. Fundamentally speaking, the changeable and complex bureaucratic and political operation mechanism has caused a huge contingent of officials.

"Your Majesty's words, officials have been afraid of officials for a long time. They look down on their subordinates, but they are quite dependent, and it is not an exaggeration to say that they are afraid and hateful. Xu Zongren agreed with the little emperor's summary very much, and said with a smile, "In order to control the officials themselves from being bullied, some officials put severe punishment on top of the law, but it is often difficult to solve, and even retaliate." ”

"What else do you do? But there's something interesting about that. Zhao Hao smiled and moved, moving his ass to pose very interested.

"It's true, of course, they don't dare to kill Shangguan, but it's still a lot to do something in secret. Some officials resigned at the same time, so that the yamen was empty, and there was no one to take care of the official affairs of a county; or some officials complained to the higher authorities and deliberately created incidents, so as to force the officials to resign and leave their posts; What's more, they secretly collect the bad deeds of officials and wait for an opportunity to take revenge, so that there are not a few officials who are dismissed and imprisoned! ”

"Hehe, a fledgling Confucian scholar, who has no political experience and no ability to deal with government affairs, how can he fight those old officials who have been trained in the officialdom and are already extremely slippery, even if they are sold, they will still help count the money!" Zhao Hao could imagine the angry and helpless appearance of those officials who were held hostage by the cunning officials, and couldn't help but smile.

"Alas, the imperial court entrusts political affairs to officials, and officials pay them to officials, and the officials put them into practice. Therefore, the quality of governance depends on the efforts of the officials, and the quality of political performance is inseparable from the career and future of the officials, resulting in most of the officials not daring to control the officials, and even conniving at the officials to do illegal things, or colluding in collusion, so that the people's resentment boils. And the reason for this is because the officials do not understand government affairs and rely too much on officials. Xu Zongren said helplessly, probably remembering that he had also been teased and bullied by the officials.

"I also saw in the book that some officials sighed: Today, there is no feudalism among the lower officials, but there is feudalism among the officials. I didn't know much before, but now I know that I have not been able to do it when I listen to the words of the Qing family! Zhao Hao said with a wry smile. Of course, the feudalism he spoke of was not the feudalism of the feudal society, but the feudalism of feudal princes and hereditary inheritance. The implication is that officials are already flowing officials, but officials have become "worldly positions" that have been passed down from generation to generation, which is "a great harm to the world".

"Extremely, extremely!" Xu Zongren exclaimed, "The state and county, in the caves of the officials, the father thinks that he is the son of the passenger, and the brother thinks that he is the younger brother of the passing." And those who are especially unscrupulous are then the scribes of the court department, and with the power of the county, the people above know that they are a great harm to the world and cannot go. For a long time, the power of a hundred officials must be attributed to the officials, which is the so-called false name of the hundred officials, and the officials who uphold the country are just officials. The minister thinks that the old system has been abolished, and when the new system has not yet been established, His Majesty should get rid of the drawbacks and reorganize the officials! ”