Corrupt officials like leeks
Zhu Yuanzhang In order to combat corruption, he massacred 150,000 people and issued extremely strict laws, but this still did not stop the corruption of officials.
However, the strange thing is that Yongzheng only used three moves to frighten the courage of corrupt officials and solve the corruption problem that had not been dealt with for hundreds of years.
How on earth did he do it?
Why did Zhu Yuanzhang still not solve this problem despite his ruthless tactics?
Zhu Yuanzhang was a workaholic. He often couldn't sleep all night because of some long-standing problems in the court that could not be solved.
Since he came to the throne, the first thing he did was to establish a supervisory system to deal with and prevent corruption. You must know that what Zhu Yuanzhang hated most was corrupt officials.
Therefore, after Zhu Yuanzhang became the emperor, he took great measures to deal with corrupt officials. Once discovered, he would show no mercy and even issued strict laws many times.
But the strange thing is that no matter how he governs, corrupt officials are like leeks. Before one stubble is cut, another stubble will grow again, and they will be banned again and again.
In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang became desperate: "I want to control corrupt officials, but I kill those who commit crimes in the morning and in the evening. From now on, once corrupt people are discovered, they will be killed regardless of severity."
It can be said that in order to control corruption, he He had exhausted all his efforts and finally reached this point, and he had no choice but to do it.
The largest corruption case in the history of the Ming Dynasty - The case of Guo Huan occurred during the Hongwu period. Guo Huan was only a third-grade official. His annual salary was only 600 shi, but the amount involved was There are more than 12 million taels of silver.
Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and ordered a thorough investigation. In the end, it involved not only the Minister of Industry, the Minister of Rites, and the Minister of Punishment, but also the chief secretaries of more than a dozen provinces.
Regardless of the amount of money involved, there is only one punishment for officials of all sizes, which is to kill without mercy. This time, a total of 150,000 officials were killed, which shocked the government and the public.
Such thunderous measures have indeed had a rectifying effect. Everyone is trembling with fear, fearing that they will be harmed. Maybe you would think that knows that the consequences of corruption are so serious, so officials must never dare to be corrupt again, right?
In fact, the result was exactly the opposite. After the "Guo Huan case", officials did feel stable for a period of time, but soon after, corrupt officials appeared one after another.
Some people say that corruption must be solved at its root cause. Just select people from poor families who came from the imperial examination, and do not promote the disciples of officials, so they will not collude.
What others can think of, Zhu Yuanzhang also thought of it. He vigorously selected imperial examination talents, appointed people on their merits, and taught every newly appointed official:
Although the salary is not high, if you live honestly, you will have a long and prosperous future. You can survive wealth, but if you become corrupt, not only will you lose your head, but your family will also be ruined.
Everyone knows the truth, but in the end, these poor people still cannot escape the word greed, and eventually embark on the road of corruption. What exactly is the problem with
?
Yongzheng's strange move
After ten years of hard study, he was able to enter the court and become an official. However, when they found out that the salary was pitifully low, scholars from poor families also joined the army of corruption.
The reason why corruption cases were repeatedly banned in the Ming Dynasty is that the salaries of officials were too low . Zhu Yuanzhang advocated frugality, so he searched hard for officials.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang himself did not have big fish and meat, he still had no worries about food and drink. However, the officials were different. With only a small salary throughout the year, there were seniors and juniors in every family.
Some families have dozens of families, just waiting for the little salary he sends. Officials really can't survive, so they can only get some money from other places.
Another reason is the court atmosphere . Once the atmosphere is formed, it is difficult to change. If some poor people who have just taken office are unwilling to be corrupt, then other officials will definitely not be able to tolerate them.
Only when we have each other's control can we be long-term "friends". In the past dynasties, the DPRK has always been party to party and opposed to dissidents. The courtiers will not allow an honest and upright official to dominate.
Therefore, newly appointed officials are either squeezed out or integrated into the system, which results in the problem of corruption never being eradicated.
The most important thing is that Zhu Yuanzhang actually seems to be tough and ruthless, but in fact he has big flaws.
When an official is laid off, there must be vacancies. A group of people leave and a group of people come in. The former ones have not yet been dealt with, and the new ones have been integrated. This means that the root problem has not been solved.
Moreover, the laws promulgated by Zhu Yuanzhang were very strict. Later, they would treat everyone equally, and no matter how corrupt they were, they would be killed. So the officials had an idea:
Being greedy is also death, not being corrupt is also death, it is better to make a big fortune before death. , yourself You can still live a comfortable life for a while, but once the officials are all broken, the court will be in chaos.
Then it is also about dealing with corruption. Why did Yongzheng only use three measures to completely eradicate it? How clever are Yongzheng's methods?
In fact, you can understand it by comparing it.
Yongzheng's first method was to dismiss from office.
Yongzheng was able to win and sit on the throne in the "Nine Sons Seize the True Sons". Naturally, he was not a merciful person. However, when it came to dealing with corrupt officials, he only dismissed them and did not kill them.
Although his methods do not seem to be that tough, every step is a heart-breaking move without the need for tough tactics to prevent officials from breaking the rules and protecting each other. After
relaxed the punishment methods, some people were more afraid of being exiled as a family, so it had a miraculous effect.
But this is only the first step. The second step is that once the amount of corrupt officials is verified, no matter what position they hold, even if they are marquis or prime minister, they must compensate them in full.
Not only that, in order to prevent the possibility of him transferring the stolen money, he will trace all his family assets, sales and transactions, and even the people who have dealings with them.
If a corrupt official dies, he has to claim compensation from his children. This method is different from the Ming Dynasty's death. Officials also consider their own families and heirs. Only when they are concerned do they have weaknesses.
However, these are just temporary solutions, not the root cause. The most important step is the third step. This step is the most ruthless. After the implementation, the national treasury increased nearly ten times in just a few years!
How did Yongzheng solve it?
As the saying goes, "Evil people will be punished by evil people." Yongzheng understood this truth, so he was able to eradicate the problem of corruption in one breath.
He sent some difficult people from the DPRK and China to investigate the corrupt officials involved. He also dispatched some low-level officials from various states and counties to follow him.
This is very important.
As long as corruption can be verified, it is considered a great achievement. The corrupt official will be removed from office on the spot, and then one person will be selected from the accompanying officials to take over the position.
What is the cleverness of this step?
During the Ming Dynasty, when Zhu Yuanzhang dealt with corruption, he always sent people to investigate. After finding out, he returned to Beijing and resumed his duties. Only then could he be dismissed from office and punished.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang ignored one issue. A culture of corruption had already formed in the court, and the officials sent to investigate would also consider whether they would implicate themselves. Therefore, there will always be a phenomenon of officials protecting each other..
After the original officials were dismissed, the newly appointed officials found out that there was a serious deficit, but they certainly did not dare to report it to the court. After all, when the previous officials were dismissed, they would definitely conceal part of the deficit in order not to implicate themselves.
The newly appointed officials had no choice but to make up for the shortfall themselves. However, after making up for it at that time, they would definitely have to double their profits in the future. The salary of the court was small, so in the end they inevitably embarked on the path of corruption.
However, Yongzheng's method effectively avoided this problem. When investigating corrupt officials, whoever has made the most merit will be replaced. In this case, when it comes to their own interests, the investigating officials will naturally make more efforts no matter how vigorously they do it. vigorously.
Because there is no cover-up problem now, the newly appointed officials will naturally not make up for the shortfall themselves, so they must point out the accumulated shortcomings.
In this way, let alone the previous officials, even the previous officials can be found out, and corrupt officials will naturally have no way to hide.
This method directly avoids the vicious cycle of the previous person leaving a deficit and the next person wiping the butt. In a way, it can also be regarded as breaking the officialdom drawback of officials protecting each other.
But at the same time, new problems emerged. As the saying goes, the devil is as high as the road. When corrupt officials see that a disaster is coming, they can only borrow money to make up for the shortfall.
Yongzheng therefore ordered that once anyone is found to have lent money to others to make up for the shortfall, the money will be confiscated directly and no one can get it back. As soon as the
order was issued, no official dared to borrow money at will.
After the corruption problem was eradicated, it was necessary to prevent it from flourishing again, so Yongzheng set up a special institution called "Huikaofu".
is specially used to audit national financial expenditure matters. All expenditures, reimbursements, tax payments, etc. of the court, as long as they are related to money, are supervised and handled by the Huikao Office.
The Huikao Mansion has an equal relationship with the Six Ministries, and is a special institution independent of the imperial court. If there are major matters, the only person who can make the decision is the emperor himself.
In this way, the corruption problem in the DPRK and China will be directly avoided.
Since then, no official has dared to be corrupt again. Although there are still a few people who are brave enough, once verified, the consequences will be disastrous.
As time went by, such unhealthy trends gradually disappeared , and officials in the DPRK and the Central Government really did not dare to do corrupt things like before.
