Zhu Youzhen sat at the top of the long table in the conference room and glanced coldly at the ministers kneeling below, and finally eased his emotions and said, "Everyone, please get up, I just felt it for a while." Since everyone agrees that let Bachelor Feng enter Shaanxi to rectify the style of study and morale, then I think the cabinet will draw up an opinion today.

It is always better to rectify the style of study and morale, clarify the rule of officials, and consolidate the foundation of the country. Do you say yes, Mr. Huang? ”

Huang Liji, who got up with Zhang Ruitu's support, could only agree to Chongzhen's meaning at this time.

Although the matter of arranging Feng Zhenlu to go to Shaanxi has ended, Huang Liji still feels a little uneasy, and he always feels that what Chongzhen just said seems to have seen somewhere.

Feng Quan was satisfied, and walked out of the Wenhua Hall with the name of the new Shaanxi Inspector Yushi. At this time in the hall, Chongzhen was letting Wang Chengen put a stack of materials in front of each minister.

Huang Liji squinted his eyes and looked at the documents in front of him, and couldn't help but look up at Chongzhen and asked hesitantly, "Dare to ask Your Majesty, what is this?" ”

Zhu Youzhen said with a somewhat grim face: "Mr. Huang can take a look, this is the account of the silver taels that the palace specially squeezed out to allocate to the household department for disaster relief, and after arriving in Shaanxi, the local government actually received the silver taels and grain materials. ”

Guo Yunhou suddenly eagerly opened the account book in front of him, and the other ministers glanced at each other, and also lowered their heads and began to read.

When everyone was looking through the account book, Chongzhen didn't speak, but just closed his eyes and began to recuperate. For a moment, the conference room fell silent, and only the sound of paper folding could be heard.

Just looked at it for a quarter of an hour, and Guo Yunhou, the head of the household secretary, was sweating a little. The first amount of silver allocated by the palace to the household department was 150,000 taels, but it had disappeared by half before it left the city of Beijing.

The household officials who went to Henan and Shanxi to buy grain intercepted 30% of them. When they arrived in Shaanxi, the amount of grain was only six or seven percent of what was expected, but half of this grain was old grain that had become moldy.

The accounts were closed after entering Shaanxi, and it was obvious that Chongzhen did not want to let these ministers look at the actions of local officials in Shaanxi.

Although Guo Yunhou knew that the household officials acted rather bastardly, he never thought that they would even dare to start with disaster relief. Even if you start it, you can actually let the emperor put such a clear account in front of him, which shows that these officials are not only bastards, but also very incompetent.

However, as the head of the household, he also had to stand up for his subordinates, after all, if he really had to track it down, this fire would always burn to himself.

"Your Majesty, these officials are indeed unforgivable, but please also ask Your Majesty to give the old minister a chance to atone for his crimes, and let the old minister personally handle this case, and the old minister will definitely give His Majesty an explanation." Guo Yunhou's face turned red, and he pleaded to the emperor dryly.

Huang Liji, Zhang Ruitu, Shi Fenglai and others saw Guo Yunhou's expression of asking for help, Huang Liji thought for a while, and then took the initiative to stand up and intercede for this Ming minister. With the first assistant taking the lead, more than half of the ministers also made a voice to intercede for Guo Yunhou.

Zhu Youzhen leaned forward, and then said with a serious face: "I am not the kind of person who can't rub sand in my eyes, and I also understand what it means to be with the light and dust.

However, there must be a bottom line in being a person, and there must also be a bottom line in being an official. I can't tolerate anyone who takes even the last bite of food from the mouths of the victims.

If the relief food cannot reach the disaster area, will those victims who are waiting to be fed distinguish whether it is because I have not kept my promise, or whether the disaster relief money has been embezzled by black-hearted officials?

I only know one thing, the victims will starve to death without these few mouthfuls of food, and can these officials make a fortune by embezzling this little money? ”

Guo Yunhou opened his mouth, but finally did not make any sound. Huang Liji and the other ministers also remained silent, and they had already heard the suppressed anger in Chongzhen's words. Although they wanted to protect their protégés and friends, they did not want to bear the emperor's wrath for them.

Zhu Youzhen suddenly tapped his fingers on the table, and then said a little calmer: "Starting from the officials who took over the inner treasury and silver, until the officials who escorted the disaster relief materials into Shaanxi, all of them were arrested for interrogation. ”

Huang Liji's face finally changed, and he finally couldn't hold his breath and said to the emperor: "Your Majesty, there are a lot of people involved in this disaster relief operation, there are dozens of officials in the capital alone, if all of them are arrested and interrogated, I am afraid that there will be hundreds of people."

Shaanxi is now suffering from a serious drought, coupled with the imminent battle in the border towns of Datong in Shanxi, and the summer harvest season in the south. If these people are all arrested and questioned, I am afraid that the manpower of the household department will be even more strained.

And such a big case will definitely cause the world to shake. If it is spread out, it will not be said that it will provoke a riot among the hungry people in Shaanxi. The minister thought that it would be better to give them a chance to mend their ways, and let them return three times the share of the embezzlement for disaster relief.

The minister thought that these sinners would definitely be grateful for the emperor's great grace, and they would inevitably atone for their sins and complete the imperial court's action to help the victims of the disaster in Shaanxi. ”

Chongzhen listened patiently to Huang Liji's words, but he didn't agree with Shoufu's statement. He said quite blandly: "If Shaanxi is in chaos, how much silver will the imperial court spend to quell the chaos?"

The people of the world are already suffering from three salaries, and now that the northwest is in turmoil, how should the imperial court raise the military salaries to quell the civil unrest in the northwest?

Shaanxi is in turmoil, can the surrounding counties and cities that can barely survive still ensure stability? Together, there will inevitably be only destruction and no construction. And once these people's mutiny armies break into the interior, Henan and Huguang will inevitably bear the brunt.

Now I, the people of the Ming Dynasty, all depend on the food in these two places, and if the chaotic people plague these two places, the world will be rotten. There is a border disaster of building slaves outside, and there is a civil rebellion inside, under the attack from inside and outside, how long can Daming last?

These officials are not embezzling money, they are trying to dig up the foundation of my Ming Dynasty, they want my head.

Will the merit be atoned? It's just a dream. In troubled times, how can manpower be able to contend with it. With these ** incompetent materials, do you still want to make meritorious contributions?

If there is a shortage of manpower in the household department, it is better to recruit again. The biggest problem with the rebirth of the drawbacks of the household department is that the officials of the household department can directly contact the money and grain, so they can guard and steal themselves.

In addition, the household officials are all generations, and several generations have not left their posts, so there are naturally many disadvantages. And after several generations get along, they are not in-laws with each other, so they are friends with each other, so everyone is profiting from it.

It was decided by me to change the six minor officials to civil servants, and they will not be replaced in the future. Every year, according to the number of vacant civil servants in the six ministries, the Ministry of Civil Servants prepares a recruitment examination for civil servants, and uniformly recruits them to the public.

Officials who are lacking in the household department are drawn from among the new branch scholars and local officials; The vacant officials are selected from the universities and Beijing commercial schools.

The newly selected relief officers are only responsible for supervising and setting the disaster relief plan, and the central bank is responsible for the allocation of money and food for disaster relief. ”

Huang Liji heard it a little, and most of the emperor's dissatisfaction was directed at him. After all, the last time he formulated a plan to help the victims of the disaster in Shaanxi, Chongzhen had already put forward a proposal to let the household department supervise and let the central bank be responsible for implementation.

However, under the persuasion of him and Guo Yunhou, Chongzhen finally changed his position and agreed that the household department would send personnel to carry out this action to help the victims of the disaster in Shaanxi.

Huang Liji also said that the biggest difficulty in helping the victims was the lack of funds in the imperial court, and now the emperor took the initiative to allocate silver taels from the inner treasury, which was an action planned before the drought situation worsened.

Therefore, for any official, this is a door-to-door achievement. At a time when the cabinet reform had just been implemented, and public opinion in the government and the opposition had different evaluations of him, if we could add a meritorious achievement in successfully relieving the drought in Shaanxi, we would probably be able to offset a lot of negative evaluations.

But in order to obtain this political achievement, the disaster relief operation cannot be handed over to a group of Huizhou courtiers. Otherwise, when the matter is over, when it comes to credit, can he, the first assistant, compete for merit with a group of businessmen.

In addition to having the same thoughts as Huang Liji, Guo Yunhou also has the heart to suppress the development momentum of the central bank.

Although the central bank is still under the supervision of the Ministry of Households, the central bank has shares in the palace behind it, and the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs are simply unable to exercise this regulatory power normally.

On the contrary, the Central Bank's Monetary Authority, which was established under the name of the Ministry of Households, is slowly influencing the way the Ministry of Accounts works.

Guo Yunhou felt that this momentum was very dangerous, and if this continued, it would not be the household department leading the central bank, but the central bank directing the household department to cooperate.

Compared with the household department, which is confused when it comes out of the capital, the central bank's grasp and management of the local economic situation is far cheaper than that of the household department. After all, except for a few officials stationed in the local area, the household department has no fixed term of office and stronghold, and there is no organizational structure in the local area.

The central bank, which has just been established for a short time, has set up 37 branches in the south and the capital. It can be said that it is necessary to have manpower and organization, and naturally the power of the household department is completely overwhelmed at the local level.

Guo Yunhou had already realized at this time that it was indeed a very good idea for Chongzhen to suggest that the Ministry of Household should establish subordinate institutions in the provinces, so as to avoid the interference of local officials in collecting taxes from the Ministry of Households.

He originally thought that the idea that too many officials would increase the burden on the people obviously had some limitations. He had already begun to prepare a plan to present to the emperor in the coming days the plan for the establishment of household branches in the provinces.

But until then, he hopes to slow down the rapid development of central banks in various places, so as not to create a situation where the tail is too big to fall.

But who would have thought that these idiots from the household would be able to mess up the credit given to him?

Whether it is Huang Liji or Guo Yunhou, they will not vouch for the household officials again, and these officials will not make mistakes again, after all, this will trap them themselves.