Wu Chunfu, who changed from the Ministry of Industry to the Ministry of Industry, although he was divided into a small half of power, but the preparation for the construction of 12 industrial cities and 114 industrial project construction plans were firmly grasped by him in his hands, and this huge plan worth 25 million yuan has occupied the main energy of the Ministry of Industry in the next five years, and naturally there is no spare energy to pay attention to other aspects.

There is nothing surprising about the work plan of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of War that followed him. One is to continue to implement the compulsory trading system in primary schools and rectify the style of study of scholars. The other has formally set up a three-tier armed forces system under the jurisdiction of local governors, which was decided a year ago, as a work plan for this year.

When these departments finished reporting and it was the turn of the Criminal Department led by Yuan Keli, the atmosphere in the hall suddenly became a little subtle. The officials who had commented on the work plan of the reporting department relatively easily before, now they all paid attention to Yuan Keli who walked to the middle of the main hall with bated breath.

Few of the officials present were unclear about the predicament of some of the gentry in Henan represented by Yuan Keli these days. Even high-ranking bureaucrats like Huang Liji knew that Yuan Keli's request to see Chongzhen was refused. Many officials present had almost concluded that Yuan Keli would not be able to stay in the position of the secretary of the Criminal Department for a few days.

After Yuan Keli walked into the hall and bowed to Chongzhen, he raised his head and looked at him slightly for a few seconds before he calmly said, "The work plan of the Criminal Department this year is..."

Although the work plan mentioned by Yuan Keli is not as innovative as the previous work plans of various ministries, it is not useless, at least the whole plan seems to be flat and stable, and there is no special omission.

However, many officials in the palace did not care about what Yuan Keli said, but about how Chongzhen would react to the work plan of the Criminal Department, so as to determine their position.

Sure enough, Chongzhen didn't simply say yes as the previous work reports of various ministries, but frowned and said to Yuan Keli: "Although Yuan Shangshu's work plan sounds comprehensive, I always feel that it is too peaceful, should the criminal department go back and think about it again and reformulate a plan." ”

Although Chongzhen said it very moderately, he firmly vetoed Yuan Keli's annual plan. Yuan Keli did not confront Chongzhen on the spot, but asked Chongzhen according to his mood: "Your Majesty, the way to govern the country is to put the people first, and there are already many things in the sea today, if the policies issued by the imperial court blindly harass the people, I am afraid it will not be my blessing." ”

Regarding Yuan Keli's euphemistic criticism of the emperor in his words, the other officials in the palace chose to remain silent. Zhu You, who was sitting on the throne, looked at Yuan Keli for a few seconds before he spoke: "Yuan Shangshu's words are too extreme, do you think that if the imperial court doesn't do anything, the world will become fine?" ”

Yuan Keli stood solemnly in place and said unswervingly: "In the past, the first emperor built a lot of construction and died in the world, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty built a canal and lost the hearts of the people, and Meng Yuan repaired the Yellow River and the world turned against it. ”

"Yuan Shangshu can't help but say sensational, is Your Majesty the First Emperor and Emperor Yang of Sui? You have gone too far to slander your majesty like this..."

Hearing Yuan Keli's words, Wu Chunfu and several other officials immediately stepped forward to accuse him with dissatisfaction. And several officials who were good friends with Yuan Keli defended Yuan Keli on the side, and the originally quiet Wenhua Hall suddenly became a little noisy.

In the scolding of the imperial history who maintained order on the side, the hall finally quieted down again. But contrary to what these officials expected, Chongzhen, who was compared by Yuan Keli to the first emperor and Emperor Yang of Sui, did not mean to be angry.

Su Changqing is not a person of this era, so naturally he doesn't think that being compared to the First Emperor and Emperor Yang of Sui will make him angry. He even felt that the nervous performance of the following officials was a little too excited.

He said to Yuan Keli with a normal face: "We still have to look at the evaluation of the First Emperor and Emperor Yang of Sui. You can't disparage them for nothing just because they've lost their throne, that's not the attitude of learning.

The First Emperor unified weights and measures, established the county system, and built the Great Wall, but are we still ruling the country according to the policies he formulated today? If according to the words of the ancestors, shouldn't we abolish the county and restore the well field system now, so as to conform to the rule of antiquity?

It is good that Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty exhausted the people's strength, but the Grand Canal he built is still in use now, and it costs a lot of money to repair it every year. In order to maintain the existence of this canal, how many officials in the DPRK and China oppose the implementation of maritime transportation?

Therefore, you can't engage in double standards, while supporting the practices of the First Emperor and Emperor Yang of Sui, you criticize this practice as tyrannical and unkind. Yuan Shangshu, don't you think it's a little unreasonable? ”

Yuan Keli finally couldn't keep his peace, he blushed and said: "How can this be compared, the policy we are doing now has been improved countless times in the past dynasties, and it is very different from the policy issued by the First Emperor back then, and it is a policy suitable for the current statecraft." Now the canal is maintained, and that is to communicate the freight between the north and the south. And Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty opened the canal just to let himself go down to the south of the Yangtze River to play, this purpose is different, and the return is naturally different. Your Majesty can not be confused. ”

Zhu Youzhen's reaction was very fast, and he immediately followed Yuan Keli's words and said: "Yes, Yuan Shangshu, you also agree, this purpose is different, and the result will naturally be different."

The various policies issued by the imperial court now are aimed at solving the problem of food and clothing for the people of the world, not those policies that wanted to loot more wealth from the people in the past to satisfy the king's personal desires.

Could it be that the people of the world will rise up against the court because the court wants to make their lives better? I am afraid that this is not the case, and there is only one reason why the people will oppose the policies of the imperial court, that is, the new policies issued have harmed the interests of the people, or the new policies have taken a crooked path in the process of implementation, and the original policy of benefiting the people has become a policy that hinders and harms the people.

To solve these problems, it is not to let the imperial court do nothing, but to strengthen the supervision and control of the imperial court for new policies, as well as the protection of the law.

Yuan Shangshu, as the chief official of the Criminal Department, shouldn't you order the Criminal Department to formulate a reasonable plan to provide legal support for the smooth implementation of the reform policy of the imperial court? ”

Yuan Keli's heart was suddenly shattered by Chongzhen's words, although he is not consistent with Chongzhen in the position of reform, but in the concept of rule of law, he is the same as Chongzhen.

So suddenly, he couldn't find the words to refute Chongzhen's claim. When he was hesitating, Liu Zongzhou on the side couldn't help but jump out and said to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, the way to govern the country should still be based on educating the people, and the law is just a supplement.

If we blindly pursue the rule of law and the rule of law, I am afraid that the people of the world will lose their simplicity and will easily file lawsuits in case of trouble, and there will be no more customs of harmony between the villages, and the local officials will have many troubles from now on. ”

Zhu Youzhen replied disapprenosingly: "Mr. Liu's ideal is still good, but the master still wants to punish the young and righteous with the law, which shows that this moral education also depends on people."

It is good to educate the people with morality, but we must also protect the good with the law and deter the lawless. Otherwise, the offender will not be punished, and who will be willing to listen to the moral preaching of the imperial court?

If you teach moral articles a few times, the people can become good people, why do I have fewer Ming officials like Hai Gangfeng, and more like Yan Song? Didn't my Ming officials read the books of sages?

Last year, I said that to rectify the illegal behavior in the Jiangnan market, does the Criminal Department have a plan? At the meeting of representatives of the Ming merchants that ended earlier, I heard a few strange stories, and I will also tell you about it, to see the moral level of my Ming people. ”

Liu Zongzhou retreated with an ugly face, once he talked about the corruption of officials, even if he wanted to sell his concept of prudence to the emperor again, he would obviously be defeated.

Zhu Youzhen paused, watching the officials below continue to remain silent before he spoke: "A representative of a merchant complained to me that he brought a shipload of seafood to Suzhou for sale last year, but before he entered the city of Suzhou, he was stopped by a group of people. These men, who claimed to be middlemen, inspected the goods he was carrying, and then offered to buy them.

The merchant was visiting Suzhou for the first time to see what the seafood market was like, so he only agreed to sell some of it, and the other part he wanted to bring into the city for sale.

The men ignored his arguments and forced the boatman to take the boat to the wharf on his farm, where he unloaded all the seafood. The merchant had no choice but to agree to sell them his goods.

But what he didn't expect was that these people were bidding far less than he had introduced, and they were not allowed to make a counter-offer. The goods had reached the bow of others, and the ships he had hired had already been sent away by them, and he had to agree to the deal for his own safety.

Afterwards, he filed a complaint with the local government, but the local government believed that the money he received was a normal transaction, so it did not accept his case. After inquiring, he learned that those who claimed to be Chinese were a powerful local squire, who had always controlled the seafood business in Suzhou, and had been forced to buy goods from foreign merchants like him more than once.

The local county officials did not dare to interfere, because the matter was only a fine of a few dollars, but they had to be careful of the gentry's revenge in the future.

I heard that in addition to Suzhou, this kind of bullying and domination of the market is very common in all parts of the south of the Yangtze River, and the local gentry collude with the scoundrels in the market to form any kind of fighting, and many scholars often haunt it.

The gentry instructed them to attack their enemies in the countryside, or to monopolize commerce for their own gain. And those scoundrels relied on the protection of the gentry to oppress the good people in the streets, and even some ordinary scholars suffered from it.

I want to ask, what you are talking about in terms of moral education is to connive at these tigers, leopards and jackals to devour my good people? Is the establishment of the criminal department in the imperial court just an ornament? Or is it that my Ming world's world is the world of these local tyrants and inferior gentry, not the world of benevolent people? ”