When Zhu Youzhen was hesitating, Xu Guangqi actually stepped forward to vote for Bi Ziyan. At this time, Zhu Youzhen could not be allowed to delay, and he finally determined the rules of procedure of the court meeting, which could not be destroyed in his own hands.

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while, and then said, "Then let's settle it like this, let Bi Ziyan serve as the governor of Shuntian Mansion, but Shuntian Mansion is under the jurisdiction of: Daxing County, Wanping County, Liangxiang County, Gu'an County, Yongqing County, Dong'an County, Xianghe County; It has jurisdiction over Tongzhou, Bazhou, Zhuozhou, Changping and Jizhou.

Daxing, Wanping two counties are located in the capital, the population under the jurisdiction of more than one million, almost the same as the number of the remaining states and counties, now Shuntian Mansion only has a person in the government Yin, a person in the government, a person in the middle of the government, a person in the judgment, experience, and a person each, so that the manpower to manage millions of people inside and outside the capital, this is really a bit unreasonable.

Moreover, the millions of people in the capital live in such a small area, and the complexity of things greatly exceeds that of other prefectures and counties. Therefore, I believe that Shuntianfu should increase the number of people and reform the current situation of the organization being too small. ”

Liu Zongzhou suddenly objected: "Ancient sages once said: "The people are the foundation of the state, and the country is solid. Today, the people of the Ming Dynasty are poor and withered, and His Majesty should streamline the officials and ease the people's strength as the foundation, instead of increasing the official positions and stepping on the old Song Dynasty to abuse the officials. ”

Huang Daozhou, Ni Yuanlu and others also made suggestions to Chongzhen, and also believed that there should be no more official positions and consume people's power.

Huang Liji and others disagreed with the statement of Liu Zongzhou and others, but for the sake of political correctness, they could not raise any strong objections to this, after all, the Song Dynasty died in the maladministration of Kang Guan, Kang Bing, and Kang Fei, and a consensus had been formed among the scholar class in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youzhen coughed lightly a few times, and then turned to Liu Zongzhou and asked, "Mr. Qishan, I really want to ask, what is the purpose of the state appointing officials?" ”

Liu Zongzhou replied without thinking: "The state naturally sets up officials to take care of the small people, and the "poem" cloud: Le is only a gentleman, the parents of the people. What is good for the people, and what is evil for the people, this is the parents of the people.

"Mencius, Liang Hui Wang": For the parents of the people, the administration is not exempt from leading the beast and cannibalism, and the evil can also be seen in the parents of the people, and the officials are the parents of the people. ”

Zhu Youzhen's face remained unchanged and he continued to ask: "If, as Mr. Qishan said, the officials are the parents of the people. The people in the market have a saying, seven things to open the door every day, firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea.

So who can tell you, the officials who are the parents of the people, how much of these things are consumed daily by the people under his rule? ”

The officials who were ready to theorize with Chongzhen suddenly dispelled the idea of stepping forward like trees that had taken root.

Huang Daozhou stepped forward angrily and said bluntly: "The parents that Mr. Qishan said are not the parents in His Majesty's mouth. As a parent official, the most important thing is to educate the people under his rule, rather than absorbing trivial matters such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea? ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Huang Daozhou a little strangely and asked: "Huang Xiushu, I want to ask you, since you were a child, did Ling Zun and Ling Tang make you study hungry?" ”

Huang Daozhou was silent for a while and replied: "Although my family is cold, my mother has never let her minister go hungry. ”

"Ling Tang Aiqing, so I don't think that firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea are trivial matters, and I regard Your Excellency's warmth and hunger as the top priority. And Huang Qing compares officials to the parents of the people today, but thinks that the rule of education is more important than the stomach of the people, is this really the idea of parents? Zhu Youzhen's statement made the officials in the court a little unspeakable.

Huang Daozhou still felt a little unconvinced, and he said a little stubbornly: "But Your Majesty is now adding official positions, don't these additional officials still have to take rations from the mouths of the people?" ”

"There are only less than 10 official officials in Suncheonfu, which seems to have lightened the burden on the people, but is this really the case?

I have read a book of "Wanping Miscellaneous Notes" these days, this book is very interesting, recording the current affairs and stories of Wanping County at that time, the author Shen Bang is the magistrate of Wanping County, Shuntian Prefecture in the eighteenth year of Wanli, I suggest that the ministers may wish to take a look at it in their spare time.

When he took office, Wanping County only had more than 50 gold in its finances, but Wanping County's annual consumption required 6,000 'odds'. Three years after he took office, Wanping County's financial expenditure was not only able to meet the needs of one year, but also accumulated 'more than a thousand gold'.

However, what I want to talk about today is not about this Shen Fuzi's financial management ability, but about the third volume of this book, which records that the official officials of Wanping County are: one member of the county, two members of the county, one member of the main book, one member of the canonical history, and four members of the inspection department. The total number of officials is less than nine, which seems to be a simple administration.

However, there are 44 county officials registered in Wanping County, 18 secretaries, 49 soaps, 6 menzi, 6 bucket level managers of the warehouse, 5 changfu, 10 gatekeepers of Guangyuan Gate, 2 treasury members, a total of about 130 people, these are still issued by the state for money and grain.

In addition, there are about 1,000 people who are not paid money and food. I want to ask, these people don't pay money and food from the court, do they live by drinking the northwest wind?

9 officials, to manage more than 1,400 officials, can you manage it? I even heard that some local county officials do not know the practice, and blindly take the settlement of litigation as the United States, resulting in the county affairs being in the hands of small officials, and the local people do not know the laws and disciplines of the country, and only know the name of the local wealthy officials. ”

When Chongzhen mentioned "Wan Zhi Miscellaneous Notes", those officials who had not experienced local states and counties, nor had they read this miscellaneous book, began to retreat.

For these officials who only read the Four Books and Five Classics on weekdays, or make appointments with three or five friends to talk about poetry and painting, the things Chongzhen talks about are all mundane affairs that they have always despised in the past, and they are also what the masters in the scenes should do.

Huang Daozhou is a little difficult to ride a tiger, if you talk about Jingyi, even the three Chongzhen are not his opponents.

Huang Daozhou studied at the age of 5 at Tongshan Chongwen Academy; 11-year-old is a good article; At the age of 14, he traveled to Boluo, Guangdong, and was honored as "Fujian Talent"; At the age of 18, he lived in Tongshan and Tayu in the sea, cultivated and studied "Yi"; At the age of 20, he began to get involved with Lingtong Mountain; At the age of 23, he began to lecture and write.

He was a truly talented man, but he also didn't know anything about these worldly studies.

When Huang Daozhou stood there stunned, many officials had already scolded Shen Bang, who wrote this book, in their hearts. However, there are also some people who are over-minded, thinking that after they go back, they will buy a set of "Wan Signature Miscellaneous Notes" and put it on the desk to see what is written in this book that Chongzhen praises so much.

Qian Qianyi, the right attendant of the Ministry of Rites, who had been watching coldly, stood up and said: "The minister thinks that His Majesty's words are very good, parents should let their children have no worries about food and clothing, and for the parents of the people, officials should let the people not suffer from hunger and cold, and those who are ministers should not let Your Majesty worry about state affairs." ”

Hanlin Sun Zhiqi, who stood up almost at the same time as Qian Qianyi, had to echo a few words because his reaction was not as fast as Qian Qianyi's. However, this also made Sun Zhizhi have some prejudices against Qian Qianyi, and felt that Qian Qianyi had stolen his limelight.

With Qian Qianyi taking the lead, the officials who were inclined to Chongzhen suddenly overwhelmed the officials who did not want to change the official system of Shuntianfu.

Subsequently, Huang Liji, the first assistant, also proposed that Wanping and Daxing counties be used as pilot projects for the reform of the county government official system, and three new positions of deputy county, county judge, and State Taxation Bureau should be added.

Under the Shuntian Prefecture Yin, two more deputies were added, one was dedicated to managing the two counties of Wanping and Daxing within the capital, and the other was in charge of the prefectures and counties outside the capital, and the Shuntian Prefecture Yin was in charge of the overall responsibility.

Bi Ziyan served as the governor of Shuntianfu, while Wang Siren and the former Tongzhi of Shuntianfu were promoted to his deputies.

After solving the problem of the selection of the governor of Shuntian Mansion, Wu Chunfu, the secretary of the Ministry of Works, mentioned: "Out of Dagu Mountain, forty-five miles west of Wanping County, there is black coal, and fifty miles southwest of Taohuagou, there is white coal. Most of the coal used in the capital comes from the mines here, and the locals also call it Mentougou.

Climb the mountain from Toumen Village, several miles to Pan Yan Temple, three miles on the overpass, enter from Shimen, two miles to Mengjia Hutong, and the people are all living on coal. There are more than 100 local mines, and the number of miners employed ranges from 3 or 4 to 2 or 300 people.

However, Xishan is a forbidden place for the royal mausoleum, and many coal mines have been closed a lot because of the fact that they are 'close to the imperial mausoleum and may be harmful to feng shui'. Therefore, the imperial court ordered that the coal mine was restricted to the territory of Xiaoxishan in Wanping.

Compared with the official kilns, military kilns and private kilns here, the number cannot be compared. The coal mined by the official kiln is mainly used for glaze firing and in the palace. However, the transportation of coal from Xishan into Beijing is mainly carried by carts, animals and people's backs, and it is difficult to expand the number of transportation. ”

Wu Chunfu finally concluded that in order to meet the daily needs of millions of people in the capital, first, it is necessary to expand the coal mining area; Second, it is necessary to reform the mode of transportation of coal.

It was the first time since Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne that he heard a meaningful proposal at a court meeting.

He subconsciously nodded at Wu Chunfu and said: "Wu Shangshu's statement is very good, the area of coal mine exploration should be expanded, and the management of coal mines should also keep up.

The management model of the coal tax supervision is obviously not suitable for the development of the Mentougou coal mine, and I believe that the Ministry of Industry should set up a department dedicated to the management of coal mining. For coal mines, it is okay if the imperial court can't collect taxes.

First of all, coal mining is a risky job, and have there been safety measures in the current coal mines? Preventing landslides during coal mining?

Second, do they get paid fairly for absenteeism? Could it be that the imperial court will not know what is going on until those miners flock into the capital, fill the streets and block the roads, and complain about grievances?

In the 31st year of Wanli, the kiln owners and miners of Xishan entered Beijing to protest, and I didn't want to see them again. I explained that if the same incident happened again, the officials in charge of the mine would immediately step down and be held accountable. ”