However, after Huang Liji prevaricated for a few words, he suddenly remembered that there was one thing or two that could be discussed with these colleagues. By the way, I can also release what I was talking about with His Majesty for more than an hour.

Huang Liji sighed and said to the three colleagues: "Actually, Your Majesty only talked about one thing when he asked me, and I was about to discuss it with you, what should I do about this matter?" ”

Zhang Ruitu and Li Guopu glanced at each other, put down the file in their hands, and walked over. Those of them who can enter the cabinet are all people with good thoughts, just now Huang Liji said that His Majesty didn't talk to him about anything, and these people didn't believe it.

Since Chongzhen ascended the throne, he had never summoned that cabinet minister alone. This is the first time I summoned Shousuke.,I talked alone for more than an hour.,If the two don't talk about anything, it's called a ghost.。 Although several cabinet ministers are not as close to Huang Liji as in the palace, they can be regarded as knowing a few people in the palace, and if Huang Liji refuses to disclose whether he is alive or dead, it is estimated that they will have to go through the palace door to find out what the emperor and the first assistant are talking about this afternoon.

However, since Huang Liji is willing to confess himself, then they naturally have to listen to it, which saves them a lot of trouble.

After Huang Liji cleared his throat, he looked at the three colleagues standing in front of him and said, "Your Majesty summoned me for the matter of Zhang Douyao, the magistrate of the county who was killed by Zheng Yanfu and other thieves in Chengcheng, Shaanxi at the beginning of this year. ”

Li Guopu suddenly said with some annoyance: "Last year, there was a great drought in Shaanxi, and in order to protect his political achievements, this Zhang Douyao actually urged the department when the people were not in a good place, and the urging was very cool, and the people were unbearable, which provoked the local people's uprising. If such a traitor, for his own selfishness, corrupts the affairs of the state, if he is not killed by the people, I should also ask the court to arrest this person, so as to correct the law of the country and reassure the people. ”

Zhang Ruitu persuaded with an unbearable expression: "Brother Yuanzhi doesn't have to be so angry, this Zhang Douyao corrupted state affairs, so he naturally deserves to die." But the killing of the people is enough to pay for their evil. And afterwards, the first emperor had already condemned his family and deprived this person of his eunuch status, and this punishment was already heavy enough. As the saying goes: when people die, their debts are gone. Your Majesty is bringing up this matter again today, why? ”

Although Zhang Ruitu persuaded him like this, Li Guopu's anger still did not subside. Shi Fenglai didn't care about Zhang Douyao's family at all, he just wanted to know what Chongzhen was mentioning a dead person for, so he immediately played a round and turned the topic back to Chongzhen's explanation to Huang Liji.

If it had been in the past, if Li Guopu had interrupted him like this, Huang Liji would have been unhappy a long time ago. But today he was in a good mood, smiling and waiting for a few people to finish talking before continuing.

"Your Majesty means that if Zhang Douyao is not dead, he will naturally be arrested and severely punished, so as to calm the hearts of the people of Chengcheng City and relieve the resentment of the local people.

However, the people of Chengcheng did not report to the governor of the same state, second, to the Xi'an Prefecture, and third, not to announce the political envoy to Shaanxi Cheng, and to report the punishment according to the probationary envoy. Instead, he allowed the thieves to instigate the murder of the official to vent his anger, and the nature of the matter changed.

In a year of great drought, taxes were collected as usual without disaster relief, which was a dereliction of duty on the part of the state, the government, and the envoys who undertook the announcement. And the procurator was at a loss to know about this, and he was even more derelict in his duties.

When the people are not answered, this can only show that the magistrate knows nothing about agricultural affairs, and the ministry chose such a person who knows nothing about civil affairs as a pro-people official, isn't it the negligence of the ministry of officials?

Zhang Douyao is a mediocre person who doesn't know anything about civil affairs and reads dead books, but don't the Chengcheng officials know that going to urge the department at a time when the people are young and yellow will provoke a civil uprising?

After the Chengcheng civil change, when the princes of the court did not think about why Zhang Douyao would urge the department of the year of the great drought when the green and yellow were not in succession, they only cared about shirking the responsibility on Zhang Douyao, and used the dead to block the mouths of the people in the world, I think the people may not be safe, and the officials of the prefectures and counties in the world are already cold..."

Huang Li recalled what Chongzhen said to him unhurriedly, as if he even wanted to describe Chongzhen's expression when he spoke.

Huang Liji relayed the words on behalf of Chongzhen, and blamed the officials of the Ming Dynasty from the central to the local government over and over again. However, these cabinet scholars are still powerless to refute, which is really uncomfortable.

Zhang Ruitu had a realization in his heart, no wonder Chongzhen wanted to find Shoufu to talk about it alone. After this Zhang Douyao provoked a popular uprising, the official Qingliu wrote a book to reprimand him, describing Zhang Douyao as a cool official who takes pleasure in crueltying and abusing the people. The Manchu Dynasty was civil and military, and no one said a good word for it. If Chongzhen's remarks are made public in the court, I am afraid it will cause an uproar.

When Li Guopu first heard Huang Liji's relays of Chongzhen's words about Zhang Douyao's reversal of the case, he still felt a little indignant, thinking that he should immediately go up and correct Chongzhen's erroneous concept of not distinguishing between right and wrong.

But after slowly listening to Chongzhen's erroneous explanations and evaluations of officials at all levels in the Zhang Douyao incident, Li Guopu suddenly realized that Chongzhen's words did make a lot of sense.

After the Zhang Dooyao incident, apart from questioning Zhang Dooyao's family and ordering the suppression of the rebellion, the court officials did not make any changes. As Chongzhen said, none of the problems of the Ming officials exposed by the Zhang Douyao incident have been solved.

In the year of the famine, no one raised these questions, nor was it resolved, whether local officials should organize the people to help themselves, how the central court should provide disaster relief to the local people, and how the taxes that the affected people should pay should be adjusted.

Therefore, in addition to the death of a magistrate of the Ming Dynasty and aroused the resentment of the people of Chengcheng against the government, the Zhang Douyao incident also set a bad precedent for the people of Shaanxi.

As a result, local pro-people officials lose their flexibility in handling civil affairs. If it is slow, no one will pay attention, and if it is urgent, it will gather people to make trouble. Let me ask me, how can the national policy of the Ming Dynasty be implemented locally in the future?

Huang Li looked at the three silent colleagues in front of him with great satisfaction, and now their reactions were exactly the same as what he had behaved in front of Chongzhen before. Chongzhen can actually see so many problems in the Ming officialdom from Zhang Douyao's incident, even Huang Liji, an old bureaucrat who has been immersed in officialdom for a long time, is also surprised.

Even Huang Liji himself has been immersed in officialdom for decades before he understands all kinds of shortcomings in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, while Chongzhen only understands the three flavors after reading a case.

When he heard about this, Huang Li was greatly shocked, thinking that Chongzhen was going to use this incident to raise a big case, which couldn't help but make him very frightened. Because most of the people involved in this incident were eunuchs and his protégés, and the Donglin party members were not involved in this matter because they were driven out of the court by Wei Zhongxian before.

Seeing Huang Liji pleading bitterly in front of him, Chongzhen said his plan unhurriedly. He doesn't want to hold anyone responsible, it's been almost a year since the incident, and it's not good for anyone to go through the old case again.

However, taking advantage of this incident, Chongzhen proposed to Huang Liji to rectify the atmosphere of local officials, especially to bring local officials into control. It is necessary to prohibit the current situation in which the central government is ignorant of the petty officials who actually control the localities, and to break the situation of iron-clad yamen and flowing county officials.

Huang Liji was pondering the plan for rectifying the local official position that Chongzhen told him, Shi Fenglai finally couldn't help but remind the next first assistant, and everyone was waiting for him to continue. Shi Fenglai is more concerned about what Chongzhen wants to do, rather than Chongzhen's evaluation of the Zhang Douyao incident.

Huang Li took a long breath and said: "Your Majesty means that Zhang Douyao's eunuch status will be restored, his family will be rehabilitated, and the cabinet will take responsibility for the negligence of the people's rebellion, and notify the world with a palace newspaper. Then, on the basis of this, we will promote local administrative reform. ”

Shi Fenglai was shocked when he heard that the cabinet was in charge, and he didn't even hear the next sentence clearly, so he immediately objected: "No, absolutely not." The Cabinet has confessed its mistakes to the world, so where will the reputation of our Cabinet be placed in the future? Those Donglin officials have nothing to do and still want to find something to come out, and now that there is such a big sore foot in hand, won't we do the crime of traitor who brought disaster to the country and the people on the part of the Donglin Party? My brother Fan, don't make such a big mistake. ”

Zhang Ruitu's face was unusually calm, he stretched out his hand to stop Shi Fenglai's persuasion, and said seriously to Huang Liji: "Since Your Majesty wants us to come forward and confess our crimes, there must be a way to break the siege." However, what does His Majesty mean by saying that he wants to use this matter to reform local maladministration? ”

Huang Liji looked at the most capable member of the cabinet, and couldn't help but secretly approve. Among the three cabinet scholars, Li Guopu felt sorry for himself, immersed in his previous reflection on Zhang Dooyao's biased evaluation. Shi Fenglai is bent on absolving himself of responsibility. Only Zhang Ruitu quickly jumped out of regret and was wary of whether Chongzhen proposed unrealistic reforms, which is the demeanor of a cabinet minister.

The sage once said: The past cannot be admonished, but the coming can still be pursued. And the neighbors put the words of the saints on their lips every day, but few people really follow them.

Huang Liji nodded to Zhang Ruitu and said: "Your Majesty believes that although the imperial examination has accumulated talents for the country, there are also many nerds who are not familiar with the world. If you are admitted to the Jinshi, you will become a pro-people official on the ruling side, and there are few who are not deceived by the subordinates. This is not a good thing for the country and its people, nor is it good for the future pillars of these countries.

As the head of a county, the responsibility of the county is to develop the people's livelihood and educate the people. It should not be used to urge the department and punish the prison. Therefore, His Majesty intends to set up three new positions below the prefect county, one is called the deputy county: to assist the magistrate in handling political affairs; Second, county judges: full-time justice; 3. The National Taxation Bureau: in charge of all tax affairs.

In the future, the new science and technology jinshi shall not be directly awarded the main position of a county, and must serve as a deputy county for two years before he can be promoted. All officials must be compiled in the register and included in the state treasury expenditure. In the future, officials must also pass the examination before they can fill the position, and they are not allowed to recruit privately. and abolish the rule that officials are not allowed to conduct scientific examinations. ”