Rebirth: Overthrow Song Dynasty

"Huang Aiqing, when I went south to Jiangnan, you were the first to support me and the first to join me! You have spent a lot of time in Jiangling, and you were also the prime minister of Jiangnan before, so now you are the Minister of the Household Department! In the future, you will still be promoted!" Zhao Chen said as he walked forward.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Huang Qianshan said with great joy.

He used to be the prime minister, and this Minister of the Household Department is not as good as the prime minister, but he is much better than the prefect of Jiangling. Moreover, this shows that Zhao Chen has no prejudice against him and is still willing to use him.

snort!

At this moment, Chen Dong next to him suddenly let out a cold snort.

"What? Magistrate Chen, are you dissatisfied?" Huang Qianshan looked at Chen Dong and sneered.

"Your Majesty, Huang Qianshan is cunning, greedy, and perverting the law for personal gain. When he was prime minister, he did all kinds of evil things. Now he must not be allowed to become the Secretary of the Household Department! Your Majesty will even put him in prison for careful inspection. This person has committed a lot of crimes, I think this person should be executed Ling Chi!" Chen Dong said coldly.

"What did you say?" Huang Qianshan was furious, his eyes fixed on Chen Dong.

"I said before, as long as he takes refuge in me, his past mistakes will be forgotten! No matter how many mistakes he has made, they have been made before, and they can be put aside." Zhao Chen said flatly.

"Your Majesty, don't do this!" Chen Dong said anxiously.

"Your Majesty is wise!" Huang Qianshan said with great joy in his heart.

The dozen or so officials beside him, except for Chen Dong, all had smiles on their faces at this moment, and they all breathed a sigh of relief! In fact, Zhao Gou ruled Jiangnan, and there are no officials in Jiangnan who are not greedy! One incorruptible official out of ten is not bad! Three years to clear the magistrate, one hundred thousand snowflakes of silver, even a "clean" magistrate, can get one hundred thousand taels of silver in three years, let alone someone who intends to embezzle? Among the officials who followed Zhao Chen, except for Chen Dong, they were more or less corrupt. Now that Zhao Chen once again affirmed that the mistakes of the past were never to be blamed, they breathed a sigh of relief again!

"Why did Your Majesty do this?" Chen Dong said angrily.

"Jiangnan used to be managed by Emperor Jianyan. Emperor Jianyan was extravagant and disrespectful of the law. The so-called upper beam is not upright and the lower beam is crooked. It is impossible for such an emperor to rule Jiangnan and keep officials clean! Emperor Jianyan is dead. Therefore, I will not blame the mistakes of Jiangnan officials! However, now that I am the emperor of the Song Dynasty, I cannot allow people to embezzle wantonly! Chen Aiqing, when you were in Kaifeng, you were only a student of the Taixue, but you stood up to impeach Cai Jing and Gao Qiu , Tong Guan, and the other six thieves were finally killed! When Zhao Gou was in power, no Jiangnan officials dared to stand up, but you stood up and scolded him and asked him to abdicate! I have long admired your name for you." Zhao Chen said.

"I don't dare to be a humble minister." Chen Dong gradually calmed down, and said.

"I have decided to appoint you as the censor of the south of the Yangtze River." Zhao Chen said sharply.

"Ah!" Chen Dong was taken aback, and then a delighted smile appeared on his face.

As a censor, he can monitor and impeach officials all over the world, which is something Chen Dong has always yearned for.

"There are a lot of corrupt officials in the south of the Yangtze River. I have decided to deal with corruption. What can you do?" Zhao Chen said as he walked forward.

"If you want to control corruption, you must first correct your heart! Especially Your Majesty, only when your Majesty is honest can you correct the court, only when you correct the court, can you correct all the people, and only if you correct all the people, can you correct the four directions! Your Majesty must promote education and send famous teachers Teach all the officials and all the people in the world, in this way, our Great Song Dynasty will naturally be clean!" Chen Dong said.

After Chen Dong finished speaking, Zhao Chen froze there! Use "righteousness" to control corruption, this is the view of corrupt Confucians! This Chen Dong is jealous of evil and has extraordinary integrity, who knows that he is such a corrupt scholar who doesn't understand the world.

"What else can you do?" Zhao Chen said again.

"Secondly, Your Majesty must curb business and industry! Since ancient times, there is no business and no fraud. It is precisely because of these businessmen that people in the world are treacherous! After curbing business, there will be fewer and fewer corrupt people, and the world will naturally become better and better. "Chen Dong said seriously.

Zhao Chen felt a little dumbfounded now.

"What else can you do?" Zhao Chen asked again.

"Also, it is to reduce the rule of law!" Chen Dong said.

"Reduce the rule of law?" Zhao Chen asked in disbelief.

"Yes, it is to reduce the rule of law! The sage once said, "When the law comes out, there will be fraud; if the order is issued, there will be fraud." The more the rule of law, the more treacherous people in the world will be, and the more corrupt people will be. The words of the sages are always true. There will be mistakes, right? We have to follow the words of the sage!" Chen Dong said.

"When the law comes out, there are traitors, and when there are orders, there are frauds." It means that the more laws there are, the more people break the laws, and the more laws, the more treacherous people! The ancients called it "the law gives birth to traitors", but it was said by Dong Zhongshu, a famous Confucian figure! This Dong Zhongshu can also be regarded as one of the Confucian sages, he was very famous in ancient times, and Chen Dong actually respected his words to the end.

"You mean to use virtue to rule? Abandon the rule of law? Use virtue to make the world clear?" Zhao Chen said.

"That's right! It's about abandoning the rule of law and governing the country with virtue! It turns out that His Majesty also understands this truth, it's great!" Chen Dong danced.

Zhao Chen nodded lightly, but he didn't think so in his heart!

Now that Jiangnan has been defeated, the situation in the north has become clear. Restoring the Central Plains is no longer a problem. Now it is time to consider the issue of governing the world. Governing the world includes the governance of corruption. The rule of virtue is certainly indispensable, but the rule of law is absolutely indispensable, let alone restraining business and industry. This is an approach that does not conform to the laws of historical development. This Chen Dongnai is a standard rotten Confucian, the real "useless is a scholar", such a person is not worthy of reuse. Even if he hates evil, even if he has extraordinary integrity, he will only do wrong things with good intentions.

"Zhang Aiqing, what's your opinion on dealing with corruption?" Zhao Chen suddenly looked at Zhang Jun, who was beside him, and said.

Zhang Jun is very famous in history. He served as a privy envoy and prime minister in the Southern Song Dynasty. Of course, he is not well-known in this era, but his ability is still better than ordinary officials. Zhao Chen also wants to hear his opinion.

Zhang Jun was also a little surprised, he didn't expect Zhao Chen to ask him how to deal with corruption.

"Your Majesty, to deal with corruption, one is, as Master Chen said just now, to straighten one's mind to rule the world, and the other is to use severe punishments to deal with corruption, so that officials in the world dare not be corrupt!" Zhang Jun thought for a long time, and then said .

There is a lot of shade in the mountains. Although it is summer, but the breeze blows, it feels cool here. Zhao Chen said: "Severe punishments to control corruption? How to use severe punishments?"

Zhang Jundao: "Anyone who corrupts a hundred taels of silver will be dismissed from office! A person who corrupts a thousand taels of silver will be imprisoned for three years! A person who corrupts ten thousand taels of silver will be imprisoned for ten years and his home will be ransacked! A person who corrupts a hundred thousand taels of silver will be executed! Those who have ten thousand taels of silver will kill the nine clans!"

Zhao Chen shook his head slightly as he walked forward.

Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, there have been few examples of severely punishing corrupt officials. It is commendable that Zhang Jun can say such a thing now.

However, severe punishment is by no means a good way to deal with corruption.

In particular, what Zhang Jun said was not a "severe punishment" at all.

In Chinese history, the most famous emperor who severely punished corruption was Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that anyone who corrupted more than sixty taels of silver would be tortured by skinning. Every state capital in the world has a temple of earth in front of the gate. This temple of earth is the place where torture is carried out, so it is also called "peeling temple". Once someone corrupted more than sixty taels of silver, he was immediately escorted to the Earth Temple. First, his head was cut off and hung on a flagpole for public display. After that, the human skin was peeled off, stuffed with straw, and placed next to the public seat of the yamen. The first thing a new official takes office is to visit the Earth Temple, and then stay in the Earth Temple for one night, and then when he works in the Yamen, he must be accompanied by "human skin", which is very scary!

In addition to skinning, Zhu Yuanzhang also formulated countless methods to deal with corruption, such as picking tendons, picking knees, chopping fingers, amputating hands, cutting feet, pumping intestines, scrubbing, weighing rods, stabbing, cutting noses, castrating, owl heads, Ling Chi, and clan punishment. Torture by officials! But in the end, Zhu Yuanzhang discovered that the corrupt officials in the world were invincible, and the more they killed, the more they killed. In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang was also powerless, and could only say, "From now on, everyone who steals will be punished regardless of their severity"!

Zhu Yuanzhang was born in a poor and humble family, and his parents and brothers all starved to death since he was a child. He hated corrupt officials very much, so he dealt with corruption very harshly! Compared with Zhu Yuanzhang, those "severe punishments" mentioned by Zhang Jun are hardly mentioned! If the officials of the Ming Dynasty heard these "severe punishments" mentioned by Zhang Jun, they would probably all laugh out loud!

However, such torture by Zhu Yuanzhang could not cure corruption. How could these "severe punishments" by Zhang Jun be able to cure corruption?

Therefore, Zhao Chen also disagreed with Zhang Jun's statement.

In ancient China, for thousands of years, almost no one was able to control corruption. Even in modern society, corruption is still rampant.

"What's your majesty's idea?" At this moment, Huang Qianshan asked.

"I don't have any good solution, but start with the system! Now the magistrates and county magistrates in various places have too much power. They have to manage the local area and judge cases. In a prefecture and a county, almost no one can restrain him! In my opinion, we can let the famous people in the prefectures and counties supervise the local officials! If the officials do something wrong, these famous people can even jointly write a letter to me to impeach these officials." Zhao Chen said.

In fact, this is the embryonic form of the "Parliament"! The earliest parliament was composed of famous local people. Of course, the real parliament has much more power than what Zhao Chen said. They can supervise finances, impeach officials, conduct elections, etc.! Now Zhao Chen is just saying that these people have limited supervisory rights!

"Your Majesty's idea is not bad! With supervision, those officials naturally dare not do evil!" Huang Qianshan said immediately.

Zhang Jun also nodded.

"Your Majesty, the magistrates and magistrates in various places have been in poverty for ten years. They have studied the knowledge of saints so hard that they can govern the region! If your majesty does this, then you don't trust these magistrates and prefects? You don't trust us disciples of saints!" Chen Dong asked sharply.

"It's not distrust! There are also evildoers among the saint's disciples. It should be a good thing to have supervision!" Zhao Chen said.

"But not everyone is like this. Your Majesty's actions will only chill the hearts of scholars in the world!" Chen Dong said.

"This is just my casual remark, and I still have to think about it in the future." Zhao Chen said with a faint smile.

There's no need to argue with this rotten scholar now.

These rotten Confucians believe in dead truths in their hearts, and it is impossible to change them.

In Zhao Chen's view, it is an eternal experience that people with power are prone to abuse power. No matter who you are, as long as you become an official, you are prone to corruption. For example, the rule of virtue and corruption are naturally possible, but the completion of a person's moral cultivation is a long-term and complicated project. Some people may not be able to perfect their own morality in their entire lives. Is it possible to watch them continue to be corrupt? So it is still necessary to use the system to restrict and supervise the rights. This is the best way to control corruption.

In fact, it is not just about fighting corruption. Governing the world also requires restricting and supervising rights so that rights can be used by the people rather than by individuals.

Now that the restoration of the Central Plains is getting closer and closer, these issues have gradually entered Zhao Chen's agenda.

Zhao Chen has already issued an order to the Guanshan side to let young people from all over the Guanshan go to the Central Plains and Yanyun to prepare to govern the Central Plains and Yanyun.

As long as the affairs in the south of the Yangtze River are handled well, he will immediately go north, and when he arrives in the north, he will implement a new system in the north now! The north is now a waste of time, and the local forces have already been wiped out by the Jurchens. The implementation of the new system in the north will not encounter much resistance! As for Jiangnan, it can only temporarily maintain the status quo.

Ahead is already the mountain gate of Lingyin Temple, and several monks are standing there, waiting for Zhao Chen to arrive.