When Hu Changan heard this, he did not continue to refute his views as Zhu Yuanzhang expected, but instead openly agreed with Zhu Yuanzhang's words.
"Your Majesty is right. No matter what, it is always wrong to put crooked ideas on the people."
"However, I suggest that we should also pay attention to the combination of firmness and softness in punishment."
"Of course, those officials who are not involved in corruption should be praised generously."
"They made the right choice and they should be rewarded."
"Only by regularly rewarding these officials who uphold morality can others follow their example and stick to their own moral bottom line."
"At the same time, this is also an encouragement to those officials who uphold morality."
"With constant encouragement, they will be more determined that the path they have chosen is correct, and they will continue to walk firmly."
"As for those officials whose families are really poor and who don't have many corrupt officials, I still suggest that your Majesty try to be more lenient."
"After all, His Majesty just heard about the plight of those ministers."
"In adversity, people's minds may become confused for a while, which is normal."
"As the saying goes, people who live in a warehouse can understand etiquette; those who have enough food and clothing can understand honor and disgrace. We cannot set too high moral requirements for those who are not well fed or clothed."
"However, I recommend that your Majesty impose the death penalty on those whose families are obviously wealthy but are still corrupt."
"This kind of people are really greedy. No matter how high your Majesty's salary is, these people will always become corrupt."
"For such people, no amount of money can fill the holes in their hearts."
In fact, as a humble citizen, Hu Changan also hated official corruption.
In his previous life, Hu Changan would be filled with indignation every time he saw news in the newspapers about officials embezzling hundreds of billions or tens of billions.
After all, what these officials embezzled was the hard-earned money saved by the common people!
As a poor citizen, Hu Changan could not accept that his money was squandered by corrupt officials.
But as a superior, you cannot just look at the problem from one side's perspective, but you must think about the problem from the overall perspective.
Zhu Yuanzhang's idea of killing all corrupt officials was indeed a good idea, but this would also create too much of a deterrent effect on the officials.
As a result, all these officials were so frightened into silence that they did not even dare to raise their opinions.
In the long run, this may not be a good thing for the entire country.
In history, Zhu Yuanzhang directly killed all the ministers involved and left no trace behind.
Among the six departments, almost nine out of ten rooms are empty.
The remaining officials were naturally like frightened birds, and they were too scared to say a word.
After that, it was even popular for officials to pretend to be crazy and act stupid to ensure safety.
After all, in ancient times, officials could not resign.
Since I can't resign, I have no choice but to pretend to be crazy and call home early.
It is said that someone once stayed awake at night in fear and started pretending to be crazy just because of Zhu Yuanzhang's unintentional words.
After all, in ancient times, there was no psychiatric appraisal institution. As long as you were brave enough, you could definitely pretend to be crazy and succeed.
A case like this is actually just the tip of the iceberg.
It is said that officials during the Hongwu period even solemnly bid farewell to their families every morning.
Because they are afraid that once they leave, they will never come back.
And every day after court, these officials would gather at home to celebrate that they had lived another day.
In this depressing atmosphere, one can imagine the efficiency of the court's operation.
Even if corruption is gone, the work efficiency of the court will also be gone.
Even if everyone has good opinions in their hearts, they dare not raise them.
The imperial court was like a pool of stagnant water, just functioning mechanically.
Hu Changan naturally did not want to see this situation.
Therefore, even if Hu Changan himself hated corruption, he would never want Zhu Yuanzhang to kill everyone indiscriminately like in history.
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he couldn't help but fell into thinking.
Indeed, after listening to the complaints of those officials just now, Zhu Yuanzhang could not help but feel a sense of sympathy for those poor officials.
Eating only two meals of meat a month was indeed beyond Zhu Yuanzhang's imagination.
If he were in this position, it would be difficult for him to restrain his inner impulse.
It is indeed not appropriate to kill all these poor officials.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang was still a little aggrieved: "Hu Aiqing, what you said is indeed reasonable, but once this hole is opened, what if everyone follows the same example and takes advantage of their family's poverty to commit corruption?
?”
Hearing this, Hu Changan also straightened his expression and said: "If I reply to Your Majesty, of course, this kind of forgiveness can only be given once."
"When the salary standards are raised appropriately in the future, if those officials still engage in corruption, then it is their fault."
"If their family is really poor, they can choose to do other jobs to supplement their family income."
"I even ventured to suggest that people who are too poor should not be officials."
"Being a businessman will definitely make more money than being an official."
"Since they have become this official, they should have such awareness."
Hu Changan's words, no matter how he said them, seemed to make sense.
Hu Changan's approach is definitely much better than his random killing spree.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang did not want to become an executioner with his hands stained with blood. He just hated corruption too much.
Since there is a better way to stop corruption that combines strength and softness, Zhu Yuanzhang is not forced to accept it.
Looking at Zhu Yuanzhang's face as he was deep in thought, Hu Changan made a timely suggestion: "Your Majesty, I think we can train a group of royal guards to go to the six ministries and various prefectures and counties to audit the accounts to prevent corruption from happening again."
"The Jinyi Guards are His Majesty's personal bodyguards. They have always been loyal to Your Majesty and will not be tempted by any external forces."
"I believe that Jin Yiwei's loyalty is very secure."
"But today's Jin Yiwei only has a military position, and may not be good at civilian tasks such as accounting."
"I thought I could give the Jin Yiwei to be trained by me so that they can master certain accounting skills."
"This big case can just be handed over to the guards in uniform for practice."
"After Jin Yiwei gets the hang of it, he can go to the central or local government to check the accounts."
"Once corruption is discovered, we will never tolerate it!"
"No one except His Majesty knows the time and cycle of this audit."
"Such secret audits from time to time can definitely deter central and local ministers and prevent them from thinking about corruption!"
Hu Changan's suggestion is actually based on the modern spot inspection system. This chapter has been completed!