Li Guopu was immediately annoyed: "The officials are all treacherous people, and their mental skills in this generation are broken, so they can enter the official career." Your Majesty's move is inappropriate, why shouldn't Shoufu refuse in person, this must be entered by the villains around Your Majesty, and we should work together to dissuade Your Majesty's chaotic policy. ”

Huang Liji looked at Shi Fenglai and Zhang Ruitu on the side, and also bowed slightly, obviously dissatisfied with the officials' participation in the imperial examination and ruining the reputation of the scholars. If there is no temptation from the prime minister, Huang Liji will naturally oppose it.

But now, he has unconsciously stood on Chongzhen's position, and he distinguished Chongzhen's policy: "Your Majesty has a saying, since the officials are all treacherous and unscrupulous, why do I still use them to govern the people?" The officials are evildoers, so who are the officials who are opposite to the officials?

The official who is the chief official blames the subordinate officials, or this is a mediocre official who is easily deceived by others. Either it is a corrupt official who does the real thing of looting in the name of officials. The state selects talents through the imperial examination in order to educate the people of the world, and these people can't even educate the officials around them, so how can they educate the people? ”

Although Huang Liji only relayed Chongzhen's words, it also made the three scholars blush. Chongzhen said the truth, how could the three cabinet scholars not know, but they kept pretending not to know.

Regarding the issue of officials, from the Tang and Song dynasties to the Yuan and Ming dynasties, countless people of insight have talked about this issue, and Sima Guang said in "On Wealth and Profit":

The family of the Shi Xu disciples of the mansion has no mansion and no hope of entering, and they all live by the people. From the provincial temples of the Gongfu Province, the superintendent of the roads, the prefectures and counties, the villages, the warehouses, and the treasurers, the officials of the lawsuits, the taxation and servitude, and the cashiers and accountants, all those who have the slightest matter in their hands are not allowed to bribe the widow. It is the people who break the family and destroy the property, and the non-county officials can only make it so, and most of them are all in the hands of the officials.

Sima Guang said a fair word for the official. The officials have no income and no future, but they have the power to manage people and things, and it is difficult to think about it.

And Su Zhe also said that the officials have no income, and there is "the trouble of whipping and humiliation", they are called a lot, the requirements are very strict, there is no remuneration, everyone is still scrambling to do it, and even spend money to make up for it, what is the purpose? Isn't it clear?

"Su San's Solution" Zhongzhong Gongdao once said to Su San, who blamed the officials for sharing the spoils: "This hall does not plant sorghum, the second hall does not plant black beans, and does not eat you complainants, do we government officials drink the northwest wind?" "This is still a good person with a conscience, but he also has to eat spoils.

During Wang Anshi's reforms, the salaries of officials who provided services in various central ministries were formalized. In the Ming Dynasty, although some local officials also had low salaries, more of them were white-handed without any income.

A full-time errand officer often has 7 or 8 white-handed people who do not receive a salary, a gang of treacherous people gathered together, and there is no future to speak of, and there is no one to supervise, except for day and night planning how to make the "government annoying and harsh" and how to squeeze more money out of the people, what else can be done.

But even so, the scholars were still unwilling to completely solve the problem of officials. The first reason is that instead of officials, urging taxes, apportioning grain and distributing money, and keeping and transporting official goods are all errands that "good people can't do, and no good people can do it"; Second, without the evil of these officials, how can it appear that the officials who are born in the imperial examination are good.

It is precisely because of this unspeakable dark psychology that the more scholars despise the officials and the like, the more unwilling they are to face the problem of solving the problems of the officials. And not allowing officials to participate in the imperial examination has developed this prejudice to the extreme.

Different yamen, all kinds of regulations are accumulated over the years, often hundreds of volumes, only the officials are most familiar with the rules and regulations of the yamen, and even the business of the yamen, they have been passed down from father to son, firmly control the practice of these yamen. If they are allowed to participate in the imperial examination and enter the official career, then wouldn't it make those scholars who only read the books of the sages become decorations.

This kind of thing is naturally categorical and cannot be tolerated by scholars, and even scholars and doctors like Su Shi who are well-educated say that "if you read thousands of books without reading the law, you will be able to know no skills." Even a great scribe like Su Shi not only did not read laws and decrees, but also had a great disdain to read them, and other scholars could be imagined.

In the final analysis, these scholars, who only read the books of the sages, were afraid to compete with these officials who were skilled in general affairs. They need officials to do these chores for them, but they are unwilling to give these officials a chance to stand out.

Although several scholars do not know these things well, they can also be said to know them well. However, this consideration based on practical interests is contrary to the teachings of the Confucian classics.

This is also the reason why several scholars are now red-faced but unable to open their mouths, but Zhang Ruitu quickly reacted, he lowered his voice and said to Huang Liji: "Your Majesty doesn't know the harm of the officials, don't you know Shoufu either?" Let the officials enter the official career, in the future, my generation will not become a person who is in the same stream as the officials, if there are officials who are admitted to the Jinshi in the future, and even the list and champion, where is the face of my generation? Even if what Your Majesty says is right, you should refuse it. ”

Huang Liji rolled his eyes, although Zhang Ruitu's words did not conform to the teachings of the saints, they were quite realistic. However, Huang Liji also knew very well that although letting officials participate in the imperial examination would damage the face of the Ming scholars, it would be of great benefit to the administrative reform he wanted to promote next.

As Chongzhen said to him, it is not the goal to let the officials participate in the imperial examination, but to find something to do for these scholars who have nothing to do all day long. The current Ming officials, in addition to making money, want to criticize traitorous ministers all day long to gain fame, so that they can become officials and knights.

And the little officials are thinking every day about how to exploit the small people and deceive the officials. How to manipulate authority between officials and the public for the benefit of others.

Expecting such officials to carry out reforms is undoubtedly a fool's dream. Only by giving these officials a sense of urgency and pressure on the petty officials can the next reforms be implemented, and Huang Liji can be a real prime minister.

The hereditary system of officials was abolished, the number of officials in each yamen was stipulated, and these junior officials were given the hope of entering the official career. The voice of officials in the world opposing reform will not be so loud, after all, those who do things in the local area are officials, and most of those officials from the imperial examination are just superficial.

The last thing that the Ming Dynasty lacked was the people who were officials, and with the support of these officials, even if the scholars objected, the administration of the Ming Dynasty could barely be maintained. And even if the scholars resist, as long as the central government is determined enough, they will still give in.

At that time, Zhang Juzheng dismissed a large number of officials who did not support the new policy in order to reform, so didn't the hundreds of officials in the world finally give in. Compared with the words of any ethereal saints, and the common morality of famous religions, they are not as righteous as power and silver.

Huang Liji didn't care whether the officials could participate in the imperial examination, and even he didn't care if Chongzhen's local reform plan could be implemented.

Daming has jurisdiction over two capitals and 13 provinces, but the total number of official positions in the country is only more than 100,000, and the number of senior officials is only about 3,000. Every three years, there are more than 320 Jinshi backgrounds, and theoretically 10 years is enough to replace all the senior officials of the Ming Dynasty. The number of people who have reached the qualifications for appointment is 2-3 times the total number of official positions.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty not only had low officials, but also had few vacancies in official positions and too many people with official qualifications. There is no retirement system for officials in the Ming Dynasty, and as officials, their living conditions are much better than ordinary people, so their life expectancy is much higher than that of ordinary people, and high-ranking officials in the DPRK and China are more than 6 or 70 years old.

This also caused most of the scholars who were qualified to serve as officials to stay in the capital and wait for the vacancy to be elected. These people worked hard to get admitted to the Jinshi, but before they were awarded the official by the Ministry of Officials, they were still ordinary scholars who were ready to be officials, and a small official of the Ministry of Officials could call them back and forth.

This also caused the Qing gossip officials who criticized the ruling government and the emperor to be so popular with Shilin. Because they are just giving a bad breath to these unambitious reserve officials, if it were not for these depressed scholars to wave their flags and shout for the officials, Donglin's momentum would have fallen by at least half.

Chongzhen's local reform plan added three official positions below the county magistrate, which were official positions rather than official positions. There are more than 1,000 counties in Daming, which means that more than 3,000 official positions have been added at once.

As long as Huang Liji can control one-tenth of these official appointments in his hands, he will be a huge force. The world's scholars study hard, isn't it just to want to be an official, he Huang Liji has solved the dream of becoming an official for these scholars, are you still afraid that you won't get the support of these scholars?

The Donglin Party jumped up and down, attacking him as a member of the Eunuch Party, which was nothing more than wanting to drive them out of the court and let the officials of the Donglin Party take office. And those scholars who support the Donglin Party may not all really support Donglin's ideas, and more scholars just think that after Donglin takes the throne, they can rely on Donglin to get an official position.

But now he is following Chongzhen's wishes and implementing local administrative reforms. With so many vacancies added at once, those scholars who are not determined will inevitably abandon Donglin and surrender to him.

In this way, the voice of the resurgence of the Donglin Party, which has recently become loud in the DPRK and China, will soon automatically calm down. And the voices attacking him as a henchman will soon disappear.

It was based on this consideration that Huang Liji couldn't wait to accept the local administrative reform plan launched by Chongzhen, and even raised no objection to the most criticized conditions for officials to participate in the imperial examination.

Huang Liji coughed, and was thinking about how to refute Zhang Ruitu, but the more upright Li Guopu interjected coldly: "Brother Mustard's words are wrong, what Your Majesty said is also reasonable, the officials who have been in contact with the scholars all day long are not well educated, how can they educate the people." Anyone who is self-motivated should still be given a way out.

Besides, my life has been studying hard for more than ten years, can I still let a fly camp dog official Xu compare with his career? If there is such a great talent, our generation should feel gratified, the sage said: There is no class in teaching. Exactly for this.

I think that His Majesty has added three additional official positions below the county magistrate in one go, and the official positions are redundant, and there is a repetition of the disadvantages of the redundant officials of the old Song Dynasty. Today's Ming Dynasty is already in the autumn of three emptiness and four exhaustions, and even the military salaries of the nine sides are in arrears from time to time, how can so many official positions be set up, how can the people of the Ming Dynasty afford it? I will correct your majesty's omissions. ”