Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 529 The Philosophy of Officialdom! Different Reports!

Zhu Yunwen's brows furrowed slightly.

Although the governor and the imperial inspector did not have the power to directly appoint the prefect, as powerful officials in charge of a region, the prefect candidates they jointly recommended would undoubtedly receive serious consideration from the upper echelons of the court and carry great weight.

If the governor and the imperial inspector each recommend different candidates, the court will carefully consider and weigh the pros and cons before deciding which one to appoint.

However, if two people jointly recommend someone, the Administrative Office will generally appoint the person according to their recommendation, unless extremely special circumstances occur.

After all, as a high-ranking local official, the prefect worked directly under the governor and the imperial inspector, who naturally had the power to assess the prefect's performance and supervise his administration.

Therefore, their recommendations naturally carry significant weight and can influence the appointment of the prefect!
Whether they joined forces to impeach any official in Henan Province or jointly recommended an official for promotion, the governor and the imperial inspector could basically make the final decision and determine the direction of the official's career.

So why did the administrative office not adopt their joint recommendation this time, but instead took a different approach and promoted Chen Zheng?

Is it because Chen Zheng has a special status and an unusual relationship with a certain minister, or is there some other unknown reason?
According to the imperial system, after the government affairs office selects the right people, it will report to him, the emperor, for approval.

Without any particular reason, Zhu Yunwen would directly approve the appointments of officials at the prefectural level, and he wouldn't have much of an impression of them.

Zhu Yunwen pondered for a moment, then said, "Since the Prefect of Guide is not here, let the Magistrate of Shangqiu County come to see me."

The location of this Yellow River breach was within the territory of Shangqiu County, Guide Prefecture.

The former prefect of Guide Prefecture was imprisoned and questioned after the dike breach, while the former magistrate of Shangqiu County chose to drown himself in the Yellow River after the dike breach, either to prove his innocence or to avoid punishment.

This era was unlike any other; the court held officials who committed serious offenses accountable with extreme severity, often accompanied by harsh punishments.

The Yellow River breached its banks within Shangqiu County. Normally, the magistrate of Shangqiu County would almost certainly be executed and would not escape death.

By committing suicide by drowning himself early on, he may have escaped punishment to some extent, and might even have earned a good reputation for "dying in the line of duty."

However, the former magistrate who committed suicide probably never expected that Emperor Zhu Yunwen would not play by the rules and would have such a unique style of doing things.

He merely imprisoned the prefect of Guide Prefecture and other officials, without immediately executing them, but instead left them for further interrogation.

If the magistrate of Shangqiu had not chosen to commit suicide, his fate would have been the same as those of the imprisoned officials, not necessarily a dead end.

As long as he can withstand the rigorous investigation by the imperial court afterward and clear himself of suspicion, he has a good chance of escaping unscathed and saving his life.

Of course, the officialdom itself is a complex and enormous melting pot, full of temptations and traps.

How many officials can truly withstand the subsequent rigorous scrutiny by the imperial court?

If this is indeed the case, from a certain perspective, choosing suicide in the face of disaster may not be a "wise" escape and relief!
The magistrate of Shangqiu County that Zhu Yunwen mentioned at this moment was naturally the newly appointed one.

Upon hearing this, Zheng Hongjian and Zhao Qingzhi immediately and respectfully withdrew.

Before long, another man dressed in the robes of a seventh-rank official walked in with a respectful expression.

As soon as he entered the room, he knelt down and kowtowed: "Your humble servant, Zhou Anmin, magistrate of Shangqiu County, Guide Prefecture, Henan Province, pays respects to Your Majesty. Long live the Emperor!"

"Rise!" Zhu Yunwen's gaze fell on Zhou Anmin, who had his head pressed tightly to the ground, and he criticized, "The Yellow River breached its banks in Shangqiu County. As the newly appointed magistrate of Shangqiu County, you should have been conscientious in your duties and comforted the disaster victims, but you have abandoned your post and come here to greet me."

"Very well, considering it is an order from above, it is understandable that you, as a subordinate, would not dare to disobey." Zhu Yunwen's tone softened slightly. "I will not pursue your crime for the time being. Tell me in detail about the specific situation of the disaster in Shangqiu County."

Although Zhu Yunwen had already listened to the reports from Zheng Hongjian and Zhao Qingzhi, those two were, after all, governors and inspectors, and what they reported was macro-level data compiled and statistically analyzed from various regions.

The specific situation varies from county to county, and only by asking the local county magistrate can one obtain the most detailed and accurate information.

Of course, this also implies Zhu Yunwen's consideration and testing of the newly appointed magistrate Zhou Anmin.

Zhou Anmin got up from the ground, but his body was still slightly hunched and his head was lowered. He did not dare to look up and look directly at the emperor in front of him.

"Your Majesty's reprimand is etched in my mind, and I will always keep the people in mind from now on."

He first apologized, then reported respectfully and clearly: "The Yellow River breached its banks this time, and the breach stretched for more than seventy zhang. The raging river rushed down like a ferocious beast, submerging more than nine-tenths of the county's land. Where the flood ravaged, fields were submerged, houses collapsed, and countless people and livestock drowned. The scene was shocking."

"The number of households affected by the disaster in Shangqiu County is as high as 120,000, the number of deaths is countless, and the flooded farmland is as much as 1.5 million mu..." With each number Zhou Anmin reported, his tone became heavier and more heartbroken.

After hearing his explanation, Zhu Yunwen frowned slightly and pressed for an answer: "Has the number of civilians who died not been tallied yet?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Anmin hurriedly replied, "Your Majesty, Shangqiu County has suffered a severe disaster. Almost all the roads in the county have been submerged by floods, and transportation in most areas has not yet been restored. The situation is chaotic."

"Due to the inconvenience of transportation in various places, we only know that certain places have been flooded and turned into a vast expanse of water, but it is indeed impossible to accurately count how many people have drowned in a short period of time."

"We beg Your Majesty to understand our predicament."

Zhu Yunwen frowned slightly, his tone tinged with displeasure: "You just said that the exact number of deaths in Shangqiu County has not yet been tallied."

"Previously, Zheng Hongjian and Zhao Qingzhi reported that more than 80,000 people in Henan Province had been swallowed by the flood and had unfortunately died."

"Since Shangqiu County hasn't even figured out its own death toll, where did their data come from? Are they fabricating it out of thin air, deceiving the emperor?"

Zhou Anmin's body trembled violently, clearly frightened by the emperor's questioning.

He hurriedly explained, "The figures reported by the governor and the imperial inspector should already be the ones that can be counted and verified. As for those that haven't been counted yet..."

He paused, took a deep breath, and, mustering his courage, said in a trembling voice, "Your Majesty, some villages were completely swallowed by the flood, with no survivors. Even the remains were washed away to distant places, and there is nowhere to retrieve them."

"Under such circumstances, it is probably impossible to accurately count how many people have died. I implore Your Majesty to make the right judgment!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yunwen abruptly stood up from his seat.

Although the Ming Dynasty court conducted population censuses from time to time, he also conducted a detailed population census after ascending the throne and implementing new policies.

However, the accuracy of population statistics in this era could not possibly compare with that of later eras with advanced technology.

After all, with computer data available in later generations for verification, statistics are much more convenient, faster, and more efficient.

Even so, the decennial censuses conducted in later generations still uncovered many problems. The actual population data did not perfectly match the records in the computer system, requiring recalibration.

There are many complex reasons for this.

First, newborns may not be able to register their household registration quickly.

There are always some "unregistered persons" who, for various reasons, were not registered in time after birth and do not have a formal household registration record even until adulthood.

Secondly, it's not always possible to quickly report and close a deceased person's household registration.

Some people may have passed away for several years, but in the computer system, they are still "alive" and still appear to be alive.

Thirdly, for various reasons, some people register their identities and obtain household registrations in two places, or even more places, for multiple years, thus creating a false population.

Even with the advanced network technology and computer-based statistics in later generations, this situation still cannot be completely eliminated.

After all, it's not difficult for a person to simply change their location, change their name, and re-register into the computer system.

In this way, the computer system would identify him as two different people in two different places, rather than the same person, creating a false sense of prosperity in the data.

Only through repeated monitoring and precise calibration can relatively accurate population data be obtained.

However, the Ming Dynasty at that time obviously did not have the advanced monitoring methods of later generations to conduct relatively accurate population statistics.

In rural areas, many children are hastily delivered by local midwives.

For most people, there are no records of them with the government for eight to ten years after their birth, as if they had never existed.

As for the elderly or middle-aged people who unfortunately pass away due to illness or accident, their families simply bury them after completing the funeral arrangements. Unless they are prominent individuals with official positions, who would bother to go to the government office to report their passing?

Ordinary people didn't care much about this, and the government was powerless to intervene.

As for other complex situations, there's no need to elaborate further.

In addition, official household registration qualifications are all recorded by hand, and as the number of records increases, the files pile up like mountains.

Given the massive and ever-changing population data, achieving completely accurate statistics is simply impossible.

After the flood came, many villages were mercilessly submerged and turned into a vast expanse of water.

Even finding people they knew to conduct investigations became extremely difficult, and the government had no accurate records.

Given this scarcity of information and chaotic data, obtaining accurate death statistics is wishful thinking and simply impossible.

At best, that's just a rough estimate!
But when the Governor of Henan, Zheng Hongjian, and the Imperial Inspector, Zhao Qingzhi, reported to him just now, they didn't mention this at all. Instead, they spoke with absolute certainty, as if they had the exact figures.

This made Zhu Yunwen feel a surge of anger.

However, upon further reflection, his anger subsided somewhat.

Reporting only good news and not bad news is a long-standing tradition in officialdom and a "survival strategy" for officials.

What Zheng Hongjian and Zhao Qingzhi reported were probably those deaths that had been counted and investigated, with conclusive evidence or whose bodies had been found.

As for other people who cannot be verified, or whose remains have been lost and who have no news of them, they can only be classified as "missing persons" rather than directly included in the "dead persons".

The two reported a long list of figures, but never mentioned the specific number of missing persons.

Therefore, the "deaths" they are referring to are the number of people who have been accurately counted and confirmed. From this perspective, it cannot be said that they are wrong.

However, this reporting method was more or less suspected of being deliberately misleading, causing the emperor to mistakenly believe that it was the total number of deaths caused by the disaster.

The actual number of deaths is likely much, much higher than the figures they reported.

The reason Zhou Anmin dared not say that was primarily because the disaster situation in Shangqiu County was far too severe.

More than 90 percent of the county was mercilessly submerged by the floods, and the extent of the damage was unimaginable.

As the newly appointed county magistrate, he needs to shoulder the heavy responsibility of disaster relief and reconstruction.

If he deliberately conceals the truth and makes the court mistakenly believe that the disaster losses are small, then the corresponding disaster relief and reconstruction funds will be greatly reduced, which will directly prevent him from effectively carrying out follow-up work and from comforting and rescuing millions of disaster victims.

If it gets discovered by higher-ups, then it will all be his responsibility.

This is completely different from the intention of the Henan governor and imperial inspector to cover up the matter and underreport the losses so that the matter would remain "in the pot" and not be fully known to the court.

Most importantly, Zhou Anmin was a newly appointed county magistrate, and the huge losses caused by the Yellow River breach had nothing to do with him; the responsibility did not lie with him.

He only needs to focus on handling the aftermath and reporting the disaster situation truthfully.

If he conceals anything during this process, then he will ultimately bear the responsibility for that concealed portion.

Zhou Anmin was certainly unwilling to bear the heavy burden of his predecessor or pay for the mistakes of others.

Only by reporting all the disasters truthfully, and even exaggerating them a little, could he be completely absolved of responsibility, and the subsequent handling would be less troublesome, thus gaining more financial and material support from the imperial court.

This is clearly at odds with the positions and interests of the Henan governor and the imperial inspector.

The Yellow River dam breach occurred during their tenures. The greater the damage caused by the disaster, the greater their responsibility and the deeper the impact on their careers.

Naturally, one should try to downplay the reported losses in order to lessen one's own responsibility.

Therefore, the authenticity and credibility of the data reported by the two of them are likely to be greatly diminished.

……

(End of this chapter)