I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 299 How the Imperial Power Was Restricted and Undermined

The population mobility in the Ming Dynasty was still too low, which greatly reduced the speed of information circulation.

In addition, the imperial power did not extend below the county level, so a prefecture or county had only four formal officials, namely the county magistrate, the county magistrate, the chief clerk, and the registrar. Some counties did not even have all four officials.

Therefore, if these officials were to collude with each other, the county would have no idea what they were doing.

As long as they collude with their superiors, they can cover up whether there is a disaster in the area.

From submitting memorials to the central government to receiving its approval, there are only a dozen people involved. These people are located hundreds or thousands of miles apart from each other, so the news of tax reductions and exemptions cannot be passed on to the grassroots level at all, and local officials can intercept the news in advance.

Although the imperial court also had news reports, such as official gazettes, which were specifically used to convey documents on state affairs and political intelligence, they had limited space and circulation. Something like a disaster in a county was not qualified to be included in the official gazettes.

In addition, the official atmosphere in the middle of the Ming Dynasty gradually became corrupt, and the trend of extravagance and enjoyment among the people emerged. Many officials tried to embezzle money.
Therefore, as long as you are brave enough, the risk of falsely reporting a disaster is much smaller than you think.

After the evening court ended and the news spread, the entire capital was in an uproar, and everyone was in danger for a while.

This is just a three-year investigation in the four northern provinces, where officials in more than a dozen places were found to have falsely reported disaster situations, and officials in several places were found to have levied taxes during disasters. If the scope is expanded to the entire country, how many more local officials with problems can be found!
Moreover, if you pull out the carrot, you will also bring out the mud. Their superiors and officials of the supervisory agencies will definitely be implicated, and the number of people will be hundreds.
So many people started to panic, but they couldn't say anything.

The evidence provided by Zhu Houxuan was so solid that the decision he made was impeccable.

Whoever could serve as an official in the Ming Dynasty was not well-read in the books of sages, but the books of sages did not teach them to be so cruel and cruel to the people. The more they talked about benevolence, morality, benevolence, and loving the people like their own children, the more painful it would be for them when this boomerang hit them back, and the less they dared to say anything.
The Royal Group also launched a propaganda campaign. Several of its newspapers reported the progress of the incident in lengthy articles, making it known to everyone. Moreover, the news spread rapidly around the capital.
The civil affairs departments of this era did not have a strong sense of confidentiality. These newspapers made clear the actions of the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court, the Censorate, and the Imperial Guards regarding the case and published them directly in the newspapers, allowing the people to see the enthusiasm of these four institutions in handling the case.
When there is a comparison, there is definitely harm. The departments that were slow to act and handled the situation passively were directly criticized. This was the first time these departments had experienced such intense media supervision, and they also felt the real pressure of public opinion.
Faced with such strong pressure from public opinion, the heads of these departments still have to save their dignity. Moreover, reputation and prestige are very important in this era. If these two things are ruined, everything will be over. The heads of these departments do not need to let their reputation and prestige be affected for some officials they do not know.

Therefore, under the pressure of public opinion, these four departments have accelerated the speed of handling this case, and the Jinyiwei has already gone to various places to arrest people.
This incident made everyone recognize Zhu Houxuan in a new light.

Zhu Houxuan's performance in the previous Salt War made everyone realize how ruthless he was in business, but this incident made everyone realize how ruthless he was in politics.
"King Jing is telling all the ministers in the world through this incident that he is not someone who can be fooled easily!" Liang Chu stood with his hands behind his back, standing by the railing and looking at the scenery outside in the rain.
The house was filled with the sound of elegant piano and the fragrance of tea.
"The King of Jing is not only not easy to fool, but also very hardworking." Yang Yiqing leaned on the couch and admired the beauty playing the piano.
They were on the third floor of a restaurant, and they were the only ones on the entire third floor.
"Alas..." Liang Chu sighed, "The Ming Dynasty has produced a figure like the King of Jing, who is so young and impulsive. I don't know if this is a blessing for the country."

Yang Yiqing's expression slightly changed, but he didn't say anything. He heard Liang Chu's subtext - the appearance of King Jing was not a blessing for the country. But it must be said that the appearance of a person like Zhu Houxuan in the position of regent has already touched the most fundamental interests of the civil officials.
To explain this matter clearly, we need to talk about how the civil officials checked and controlled the emperor and even undermined him in the Ming Dynasty.

Power is realized through people.

No matter how supreme the imperial power is, how many memorials can you review in a day? How many grassroots officials can you meet with?
If you are really like Zulong who read 120 kilograms of memorials every day, or like Zhu Yuanzhang who held court every morning to dictate dozens of political affairs, which civil servant can check and balance you? Not to mention undermining you.

But supermen like Zulong and Zhu Yuanzhang are a minority after all. Most emperors are mortals and their abilities are very limited.

The will of the emperors who maintained the status quo was far inferior to that of their ancestors. Zhu Yuanzhang made dozens of decisions at the morning court every day. The emperors who followed could only read out the notes written by the cabinet the day before and approve them verbatim, and even let the eunuchs do the approval.
Can this not be overturned by the civil servants?
As the interpreters of the system, the civil officials are particularly good at salami-slicing power grabs. Any changes that are beneficial to them will be retained in the name of ancestral laws. Any changes that are not beneficial to them are considered bad policies and must be corrected.

This contradiction became particularly prominent in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty's system of selecting concubines and imperial consorts only from small families actually prohibited the possibility of external relatives participating in politics.

After the Jingnan Campaign, members of the royal family were treated like pigs, and after the Tumu Campaign, the military power of military officials was gradually eroded by governors and governors-general, which together led to a serious lack of restraining power on the civil service group in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

The expansion of the civil service group in the Ming Dynasty did not directly squeeze or restrict imperial power, but rather implicitly undermined imperial power.

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty had great power and almost unlimited power over personnel. For example, during his 17-year reign, Chongzhen had 19 prime ministers and more than 50 university scholars, but his personnel recruitment pool consisted of only civil servants. No matter how many times he changed, the essence remained the same.
The teacher-student and classmate relationships established by civil servants through the imperial examinations made it difficult for the emperor to exercise his personnel power as he wished.

Just like Zhu Houxun wanted to investigate the false reporting of disasters, he could only check through the Ministry of Justice, the Dali Temple and the Supervisory Council which were controlled by civil servants. He also knew that there must be many people in these three departments who had intricate ties with the criminals in this case, but he had no choice, this was his only choice.

Power is nothing but people, money and events.

Without substantial personnel power, there will naturally be no substantial financial power.

(End of this chapter)