My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 401 The first new policy of the Qianlong era impressed the central government!

Although spring has arrived, the weather remains cold, as if one were in an ice cellar.

The earth was not green, and white snow still lingered on the vermilion eaves of the palace.

Furthermore, since there were no major events in the country, and Emperor Yongzheng allowed his ministers to be late or even absent from work once or twice during their stay at the Yuanmingyuan Garden due to the hardship of traveling back and forth.

Moreover, now that Hongli has just ascended the throne and his power base is not yet stable, he needs to rely on these veteran ministers even more.

Therefore, the Grand Secretaries and ministers of various ministries are no longer very proactive in getting up early to handle government affairs, and are instinctively pushing their arrival time to the office later and later.

Furthermore, the Grand Secretaries and ministers of the various ministries had never imagined that the young Emperor Qianlong would get up so early and be so diligent in his duties.

However, this made Hongli wait for quite a while.

The emperor had to wait for the Grand Councilors, then the Grand Secretaries and ministers of various ministries, and it was a great loss of face for him to wait so long.

Although the Old Summer Palace was twenty or thirty miles away from the Forbidden City, it took ministers living near the Forbidden City a lot of time to get there.

However, most of the Grand Secretaries and ministers had bestowed residences near the Yuanmingyuan, and those who did not had rented houses.

Therefore, they no longer needed to spend much time coming to the Old Summer Palace, so there was no need for them to be late or absent.

Like the cabinet, the six ministries, the various offices of the Eight Banners, the Censorate, the Court of Colonial Affairs, the Imperial Household Department, and the Grand Council, all had their own offices and residences in the Yuanmingyuan.

According to the rotating reporting system established during the Yongzheng reign, these government offices all had designated dates for their rotating reporting.

Even if these government offices did not take turns reporting back, their officials were still required to remain in their respective offices in preparation for any unforeseen imperial summons.

in this way……

Therefore, there was no situation where these officials, because they were working in various government offices along the Thousand Steps Corridor, could not come to see the emperor in time.

Therefore, the emperor has been waiting for so long and no one has come yet.

There can only be two possibilities:

These Grand Secretaries and ministers either did not come to the government office or went on strike and refused to be summoned by the emperor.

The latter is naturally impossible.

In the Qing Dynasty, no minister dared to defy the imperial decree and refuse to see the emperor.

This can only be the former.

These Grand Secretaries and ministers had gradually become so lazy that they would only arrive at their posts in the Yuanmingyuan Garden very late to await an audience.

Even the Grand Secretaries and Ministers of the various ministries who were required to present their reports on this day were not afraid of being late when summoned.

During this period, Hongli mostly summoned Grand Councilors to discuss matters, and when he needed to summon Grand Secretaries and Ministers, it was always in the afternoon.

This is why he only realized today that the Grand Secretaries and ministers of the various ministries arrived at the government office so late, making him wait for so long!

When Chen Fu sent his guards to the East and West Chambers again, they found that the Grand Secretary and the ministers of the various ministries had indeed not yet arrived.

"Your Majesty, the Grand Secretaries, Ministers, and Chief Censors have not yet arrived at their respective offices."

After Chen Fulai reported this situation to Hongli, Hongli was immediately filled with anger.

He wished he could just dismiss these people!

But Hongli, who had already learned to cultivate his composure, wouldn't actually act so impulsively.

He also knew that as the boss of the Great Qing Group, he couldn't expect his ministers, who were his employees, to truly treat the Great Qing as their own home, to care about its prosperity and long-term stability, and to be genuinely willing to work diligently for it.

From the ministers' perspective, they would naturally prefer to slack off whenever possible and take it easy.

If I can spend even a minute less in the government office, I can gain an extra minute of time for myself.

However, he is now the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, so he instinctively hopes that his ministers can be as proactive as he is, and he feels inexplicably agitated when he learns that his ministers are slacking off.

After all, he has been in this world for many years and has almost begun to consciously assume the role of a superior in his thinking.

Hongli took a sip of tea before instructing, "Summon the Grand Councilors. Have Yue Zhongqi wait in the office at the entrance of the Xianliang Gate. Once the other Grand Secretaries and ministers have arrived, they can all come together to request an audience."

"Whoo!"

Ortai, Zhang Tingyu, and others arrived before the emperor shortly afterward.

Unlike the Grand Secretaries and ministers of the various ministries, the Grand Councilors, who were frequently summoned, naturally dared not keep Hongli waiting. They had already arrived at the Grand Council's duty room in the Yuanmingyuan Garden. Upon seeing these Grand Councilors, Hongli said with a serious expression, "It's one thing to wait a quarter of an hour or two when summoned, but to make me wait this long!"

"It seems that when the Emperor Emeritus was in power, he was not too strict, but too lenient, so lenient that the Grand Secretaries and ministers of the ministries and departments became so negligent in their duties!"

After Hongli said this, the Grand Councilors all lowered their heads even further and remained silent.

"Hengchen!"

At this moment, Hongli pointed at Zhang Tingyu.

Zhang Tingyu stepped forward: "Your subject is here!"

"Draft an edict to reprimand the Grand Secretaries and ministers for their negligence in their duties!"

With an unfriendly tone, Hongli stood up and walked towards Zhang Tingyu.

"Between the hours of Chen and Si, these Grand Secretaries and ministers are still enjoying themselves in their private residences. It is clear that their previous reports of coming to the office to handle affairs every day were nothing but empty words to deceive me!"

“I had hoped that they would at least advise me, the newly enthroned emperor, to attend court and be diligent in my duties, but instead they have begun to indulge in comfort and neglect state affairs.”

Hongli then used the pretext of criticizing these Grand Secretaries and ministers to subtly criticize Grand Councilors such as Ortai and Zhang Tingyu.

Ortai and Zhang Tingyu dared not speak openly: "Your Majesty, the officials have always believed in speaking the words of sages but not doing the deeds of sages; how could they really advise you to be diligent in your duties? In fact, they would rather you be lazy in your duties so that everyone can follow suit and be even lazier. Now you insist on relying on your youth to work hard and govern diligently, which is not what the officials really want to see."

At this point, the chief Grand Councilor Ortai could only bow his head and apologize, saying, "Your Majesty is diligent in governing and making good, while we servants are lazy and presumptuous. We are truly ashamed before Your Majesty!"

Zhang Tingyu, who was also the chief Grand Councilor, followed up: "Your Majesty is a ruler like Yao and Shun, loving the people and being diligent and capable. He is a blessing to the country and all the people. We, your subjects, have failed to live up to His Majesty's grace and our crimes are unforgivable!"

The other Grand Councilors on duty also knelt on the ground and began to criticize themselves.

"Get up."

Hongli glanced at the Grand Councilors with his hands behind his back.

Ortai, Zhang Tingyu, and other Grand Councilors thanked the Emperor and rose to their feet.

Hongli, with his hands behind his back, continued, "Although the world is prosperous and peaceful now, we must be mindful of potential dangers and look to the future. We should not think that each generation only needs to do its own thing. We should follow the teachings of the retired emperor and do our best to plan for our descendants."

"Throughout history, the downfall of a nation has not only been due to the incompetence and cruelty of its rulers and ministers at the time of its demise, but also to the short-sightedness and extravagance of its preceding rulers and ministers!"

Hongli waved his hand and walked towards his throne.
"Of course! Just talking about grand principles is useless; we still need to establish and improve national regulations and policies!"

"Therefore, instead of criticizing here, we should use rules to restrain people."

"In my opinion, the assessment systems such as the Capital Inspection and the Grand Assessment need to be improved, and attendance regulations should be added!"

"Especially officials in the capital, particularly those in the central government, in the Qianqing Palace, and in the Qinzheng Qinxian Hall!"

"If one or two officials here are lazy in their duties, a whole bunch of them will follow!"

Emperor Hongli decided to establish an attendance system, adding a full attendance bonus to the salaries of officials in addition to their regular salaries and allowances for maintaining integrity. He also established corresponding punishment regulations to deal with those who were absent or late.

As the saying goes, the weapon of criticism cannot replace the criticism of weapons.

Emperor Hongli, who wielded the greatest power of violence, could not simply offer criticism. To ensure that officials could not remain complacent, he naturally needed to establish rules for rewards and punishments.

Ortai and Zhang Tingyu, among others, were unable to speak well of the officials and could only nod in agreement.

"Your Grand Council should discuss which attendance regulations to add first. My idea is to add a supplementary allowance of less than 10% of the allowance for maintaining integrity to the regular salary and the allowance for maintaining integrity."

"With the current increase in annual income, increasing this expense should not be a big problem."

"As for the punishment of the lazy, you can think about it some more."

At this point, Hongli continued to elaborate on his ideas.

Upon hearing this, Grand Councilors such as Ortai and Zhang Tingyu's eyes lit up, and they all bowed in unison, praising Hongli's wisdom.

"Your Majesty! The Grand Secretaries and ministers have all arrived."

At that moment, Chen Fu took the opportunity to report something.

Upon hearing this, Hongli's face fell again.

(End of this chapter)