Chapter 650: The Reign of Heavenly Blessing (Part 2)

Qin Lei has always taken good care of this army. Since the end of Zhaowu, the court has been carrying out bloody and cruel suppression and purges... First, it was a liquidation of the Li party, then a cleanup of the gentry officials, and then a blow to the Censor Party. It was not until July of the sixth year of Tianyou that the Chief Secretary Wang Anting voluntarily retired and returned home, and the Censor Party members fell down and scattered, and the court stopped.

But looking back on this history, we suddenly realized that although the political turmoil comes one after another, and the new people in the court have replaced old people, it has not affected the Qin army at all. Qin Lei protects his generals under his wings and never hurts them, nor allows others to hurt them.

This is an extremely wise move, because the army is no better than elsewhere. It is a weapon to defend the country when it is normal, but once it falls into chaos, it will immediately turn into a ferocious beast that kills and sets fire, and can smash its own country into pieces. The middle and senior generals of the Qin army either have close ties with the Li family or come from famous families. If Qin Lei expands the liquidation of the Li family and the aristocratic family to the army without restraint, it will inevitably cause a strong backlash from the generals. No matter how high Qin Lei's prestige is, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Qin Lei retained these gentry officers, which not only made them grateful and devoted themselves to their hearts, but also made the families whose status was seriously damaged due to the great purge see the hope of a comeback, which greatly reduced their resentment, so that there was no big mess.

After saying it’s OK, let’s talk about it bad. That’s another magical fulfillment of the ‘the law of officials must be greedy’.

Even though Qin Lei killed a group of corrupt officials every year, corrupt officials still appeared one after another. Facts have proved that the group wisdom of these well-educated and intelligent bureaucrats can completely bypass the various monitoring measures of the court and have the ability to achieve the point of being greedy for great power and greedy for small power and greedy for small power and greedy for power and greedy for power and greedy for power and not greedy for nothing.

In the first few years, Qin Lei couldn't help gritting his teeth when he heard someone's corruption, slammed the table and cursed, "All these people should be killed!" He also fantasized about creating a truly pure dynasty, a dynasty in which all officials are honest and the people live and work in peace. Therefore, he was never ruthless to corrupt officials, and stipulated that any official who embezzled and accepted bribes would be punished with third-class crimes, and even had more than 2,000 criminal officials a year.

At the same time, he racked his brains and wanted to mobilize the masses to let the eyes of the whole world supervise the officials in the world. The new policy of Tianyou in the second year stipulated that no matter who found corrupt officials, they could be tied up and sent to Beijing for punishment. He could also take the carriage at the post station. The checkpoints along the way must be released. If someone blocks them, they will be killed without mercy and the whole family will be exiled!

But this seemingly awesome policy is actually quite not a good deal. Since ancient times, the people have not fought with officials. When the people see officials, they can't hide in time. They dare to grab him and send him to the capital? Are officials fighting alone?

It is said that there are honest and honest people who really want to turn their magistrate to the capital, and they really caught him and went on the road smoothly. So people in the world looked at this unprecedented person, suppressing the officials who sued them all the way north. Unexpectedly, before they left the province, the complainant left the county magistrate and ran away due to excessive psychological pressure, and naturally left the county magistrate and ran away.

What's more, everyone's life is good now, and the officials are still restrained. They have not done anything that is not moral and forced to jump off the cliff. They are really not willing to sacrifice themselves and dare to take down the master. Later, this idealistic decree was naturally ignored and became the first decree in the "New Deal of Heaven Blessing".

Of course, Qin Lei also knew that he would expect his feet to be broken. If he only relied on the public to report and expose his Qin Dynasty, he would not know that he would be greedy for all his officials. The main clues of his anti-corruption campaign came from his spy agencies, the Civil Affairs Department and the Intelligence Department, and the Anti-Corruption Department, which was later specially established. The secret spies of these three departments were spread all over the country. Once it was found that officials had corruption and abuse of power, they could be reported. Once verified, they could be arrested back to the capital for their crimes. The number of corrupt officials investigated and punished every year is not small, and their efficiency is not high.

He has used so many methods and attached great importance to it. He has used spies to monitor and severe punishments. In theory, corruption should be extinct, but the situation is far from as simple as he imagined.

However, the officials of the Qin Dynasty were still corrupt, like a group of suicide squads, heading towards the jail of the Anti-Corruption Department in groups, either rushing to the court or exiling thousands of miles, but still don’t know how to stop?

Ironically, the corruption situation in the Tianyou Dynasty was even more serious than in the late Zhaowu Dynasty, second only to Wen Yanbo’s administration period, which was incredible.

Qin Lei was confused. He didn't understand why these intellectuals who read poetry and books, who regard "cultivating oneself, managing the family, governing the country and pacifying the world" as their life creed and valued "gentle, kind, respectful, frugal and modest" like corruption so much?

After repeated thinking, he vaguely felt that this was related to the current background of these officials, and his official policies were also to blame. Although using thunder means to plow the gentry bureaucrats, they suddenly raised the common scholars who had low social status and were far inferior to those of the gentry and had a higher position, but it seemed a bit inappropriate.

This is like driving away his ex-corrupted corrupt officials and replacing them with poor new officials. Although these new officials will certainly want to do something to prove themselves, they still enjoy a luxurious life as they make a fortune and even have a higher social status than they do, so you can imagine the imbalance in their hearts.

Naturally, people will imitate their ex and start making money, and then more people will imitate the pioneers. Moreover, they or their families generally have a bitter history of struggle. Many people's families have just begun to have a well-off life, and even struggle to maintain food and clothing. Their importance to wealth is far greater than that of children from aristocratic families born with golden spoons, and their eating habits are naturally ugly than them. This is beyond words.

Moreover, during the Tianyou period, the country's economy grew rapidly, fiscal and tax revenues rose steadily, and the warehouses of various prefectures and counties were filled with food and money, which made officials feel itchy. In the absence of effective supervision, corruption is inevitable.

To solve this problem, we must supervise effectively. In addition to catching insects by his own life, he also hopes that the thirty-six inspectors elected by the six major Fuxing Yamen, hoping that these officials who receive salary from Fuxing Yamen can help him supervise those uneasy officials more effectively.

On the other hand, Qin Lei finally understood the truth that "the water is clear and there is no fish". In order to make the reform go smoothly, in addition to severely punishing officials who blatantly corruption and abuse of power, he also secretly left a way out for the officials.

For example, the Qin Dynasty implemented a system of "tax and silver reduction". Various items submitted by the people, such as grain, vegetables, cloth, fruits, medicinal materials, etc., were converted into silver according to regulations. Although the conversion ratio was controlled by the court, there were naturally special circumstances in the local area. It seemed normal to take appropriate care of them and make a fortune from them.

Officials also coined the term "color-breaking fire consumption". Because the silver and money paid by the people are of various shapes and very mixed in color, the government must be uniformly melted and fused into neat silver ingots and handed over to the court. There may be losses when the broken silver is fluxed and calcined... The government used this name to collect excess silver, and these extra taxes are called fire consumption.

In fact, only the government knows whether there is any loss or not. This is just an excuse to charge more money.

Qin Lei knew about this situation, but he turned a blind eye. Apart from beating from time to time, he did not take any action to rectify it, because he knew that if he pressed the gourd and hit it up, he would stop this method. Those "genius" officials would come up with more and more extreme ways to embezzle. Instead of making the people more suffering, it would be better to accept this relatively restrained method of embezzlement.

So everyone was very happy. The court collected a penny that should have collected, and the people didn't have to let the officials fool them. Whether it was greedy or robbed, they agreed to slaughter one after another, at least they would have a better life. The officials also gained benefits, and their lives were pretty good, so that's what they were doing.

So the facts prove that you have to leave a way out for people. If you want to do things, you have to satisfy everyone. If a rabbit is anxious, it will bite people, let alone people?

Although Qin State is a little in chaos, compared to his old enemy Qi State, it is simply in heaven.

Since that war, Qi State has been deeply trapped in the quagmire of the shattered myth of the Baishenggong, and cannot extricate itself. The emperor no longer obeys Zhao Wujiu, and from time to time, there are remarks about "Lian Po is old"; the aristocratic class is pessimistic and disappointed, and numb themselves in banquets and enjoyment all day long; the people are overwhelmed by the sequelae of Zhao Wujiu's overdrawing of national strength, and a considerable number of refugees flee to Qin State every day, engaging in the coolies that the Qin people do not want to do to make a living.
Chapter completed!