Before dawn the next day, Li Ye, protected by hundreds of guards, returned to Chang'an on horseback.
An hour later, Li Ye was sitting in his imperial study room.
The New Year's holiday was very short. Li Ye looked through the memorials on the table as if he had just seen them yesterday. Normally he would not let memorials celebrate the New Year, but this time he placed two memorials to celebrate the New Year.
It is also because these two memorials are special. One memorial is the draft of this year's imperial examination. Li Ye put forward a suggestion after last year's imperial examination. When the level is equal, he hopes that the admission will be biased towards the children from poor families.
In response to his own suggestions, Zhengshitang proposed a differential admission plan. If 100 people were admitted today, then after the Ministry of Rites provincial examination, the cutoff would be 110, and then the number would be divided between 91 and 110.
The order of names is determined, and the ranking is slightly biased towards the children from poor families.
But Li Ye felt that this plan seemed unfair, so he wanted to consider it.
Li Ye wrote to approve his idea, and divided the names between ninety-six and one hundred and five, and the children from poor families were shortlisted.
If the range is smaller, it will be basically fair.
Another memorial was a proposal put forward by Yan Zhenqing to abolish the Internal Guard. The proposal stated that the Internal Guard was originally established to deal with the destruction of various hostile forces. It was indeed necessary. However, with the unification of the world, the hostile forces have disappeared, but the Internal Guard
But his power is getting stronger and stronger, making Chang'an and the people of the world fear him.
A small case that can be solved by the county government is eventually solved by the internal security guards. When the case becomes larger, the family often ends up being ruined.
'There is a dispute in the world, and the inner guard still has 20,000 troops. Now that the world is peaceful, the inner guard has 40,000 elites. Who is its enemy? Your Majesty has no intention of doing so, but the tyrannical trend is beginning to appear, and the people's colors change after hearing about it.
Then hide, and the internal guards are rampant in Chang'an. This is definitely not a scene of peace and prosperity."
This memorial surprised Li Ye. When did the internal guards become rampant in Chang'an? When did the internal guards interfere in county government affairs? When did the internal guards become tyrannical?
After thinking for a moment, Li Ye pulled the rope. After a moment, Wei Gao appeared at the door, "Please give me your Majesty's orders!"
Li Ye waved his hand, "I want to ask you a few words!"
Wei Gao stepped forward and stood with his hands down. Li Ye asked, "Are you a local?"
Wei Gao nodded, and Li Ye asked again: "Do you usually drink outside with your friends?"
Wei Gao hesitated and nodded. There was no need for him to lie about this kind of thing.
"Do you think the internal guards are disturbing the people?" Li Ye asked.
Li Ye saw that he was a little hesitant, "I want to hear the truth, otherwise what would I do if I asked you?"
"To report back to Your Majesty, the reputation of internal guards among the people is indeed not very good."
"Tell me more about it!"
"Weichen told me something. Weichen had a good friend who was a classmate. His father-in-law opened a pharmacy. A patient was critically ill, so his family came to buy him ginseng to keep him alive. However, the patient still died, and the family stopped working.
, thought that the drug store was selling fake ginseng, so he went to the internal guards to file a complaint, saying that the drug store was selling fake medicines. The internal guards sealed the drug store, arrested the person and tortured him, but no evidence was found. So his classmates and friends came to communicate with me and took the person first.
He let him go, but when he returned home, his father-in-law was angry and resentful, and his injuries were severe. He died within three days. In the end, no evidence of selling counterfeit medicine was found, so the matter dropped and the false accuser was not punished.
"
"What else?"
"Also, His Majesty does not allow officials to engage in prostitution. This should be a moral matter. There is no such article in the laws of the Tang Dynasty, so it should be impeached by the Yushitai, but the internal guards intervened. Officials were drinking in restaurants, even if they were called a few
If a singer comes to sing a song to cheer up, the internal guards will come and arrest the person, imprison him for a night, and fine him ten thousand dollars. This has become a common occurrence and is deeply disgusted by middle- and low-level officials."
"So what do you think the problem is?"
"The humble position believes that the internal guards have too much power and can do whatever they want. As long as they say that they suspect selling illegal salt or contraband in any store, they can go in and investigate without any evidence, and they can arrest people. They will be investigated.
Should your family be ruined, or should you just let it go? It all depends on whether the store is willing to pay a huge bribe.
There is competition between two other shops. As long as one shop is willing to spend some money and make up some stories, the internal guards can kill the competitors for them. Your Majesty, the various practices of the internal guards have already caused public dissatisfaction, but there is nowhere to redress the injustice."
Li Ye walked two steps with his hands behind his back: "If I want to personally experience the practice of internal defense, is there any way?"
Wei Gao thought for a moment and said, "There is a way!"
Li Ye immediately informed him that he would go to Xingqing Palace at noon.
He immediately left the palace in a semi-old carriage and headed for Chunming Gate. Sure enough, when Li Ye arrived at Chunming Gate, he found that Chunming Gate had been blocked by the internal guards and no one was allowed to enter or exit.
Thousands of people gathered at the city gate. They were all jumping and cursing, but it was no use. The city gate would not open, and no one explained to them when it would be opened.
If we had explained earlier that we would have to wait for an hour and a half, many people would not have waited and would have gone directly to the south to leave the city.
Li Ye's face suddenly looked a little ugly. It was now 8:30 in the morning, and there were still three hours before he was going to Xingqing Palace at 11:30. The city gate was blocked, which meant that if he went out, the city gate would have to be at least
Was blocked for three hours in advance.
He immediately said to Wei Gao: "Go and ask why it was blocked for so long?"
Wei Gao went to ask, and came back shortly after to report: "They said this is the rule of the internal guards. When the emperor travels, he must clear the place in advance, an hour or an hour and a half in advance. If the time is too short, it is not conducive to deployment and control, and the assassins will be killed."
Find opportunities.”
Li Ye was speechless. The inner guards were performing their duties and could not be blamed. Although it took a little longer, they did not do it intentionally, they were just more cautious.
Because the inner city wall is no longer guarded, it is easy for assassins to lurk on it, so the inner guards need to patrol the inner city wall while closing the passage, and their time is mainly spent on this.
But making people wait for three hours is indeed too long.
Li Ye said to Wei Gao again: "Go and inform them that I have canceled my visit to Xingqing Palace and ask them to cancel the seal!"
Li Ye took the carriage back to the palace gate, feeling really not in a good mood.
Li Ye has realized that the root cause of the internal guards disturbing the people is actually himself. The internal guards are the army, not the people's government. If you do things with the military's thinking, people will naturally become resentful.
The military requires absolute obedience, orders and prohibitions are strictly enforced, and no appeals are allowed. If something is wrong, it must be enforced. People must appeal when they are wronged. If there is no way to appeal, they will naturally become angry and die of depression.
The inner guards are only responsible for themselves. They really do not need to consider the feelings of other people. If they do not allow officials to engage in prostitution, the inner guards will carry out their orders to the letter without considering the feelings of the officials at all.
If there is suspicion, arrest the person without considering any evidence. If you find that you have arrested the wrong person, just let him go, without considering the pain of the arrested person, let alone the property loss of the arrested person.
This is actually the characteristic of military control. It only needs to facilitate the management of the army and will never consider the interests and feelings of the people.
But it is impossible to abolish the internal guards. Li Ye needed internal guards to consolidate his rule. He abolished the eunuch system, so organizations like Jin Yiwei were needed.
The key lies in the system and implementation. As I have told Li Chenghua more than once, we must focus on the big ones and let go the small ones. But in the end, it was obviously not implemented in place. It even interfered in disputes between ordinary people. This was criticized.
Another problem is that there are too many internal guards. If they take care of too many things, the organization will be huge and the army will expand. If there are too many troops, the good and the bad will be mixed. Some soldiers want to use the power of the internal guards for personal gain, which will make
Some internal guards extorted shops in Chang'an, causing public dissatisfaction.
The internal defense has reached a point where it must be reformed. First of all, it must be reduced in size. Forty thousand people is indeed too many. It should be reduced to about ten thousand. The internal defense does not depend on the number of people, but on the elite.
Secondly, there are institutional constraints. What can internal security guards do and what cannot internal security guards do?
Li Ye thought of the White Tiger Hall, which was his own original system and clearly defined the division of authority from the source.
An institution similar to the White Tiger Hall can be set up for the internal guards. In fact, the internal guards also have the position of judge, but the judge is not independent first and is controlled by the chief officer. Secondly, the judge is a post-judgement, which is of little significance.
If there is such an organization like a faucet, then no matter what the inner guards do, they must do it in accordance with the regulations. For example, if you want to go out, the notice will first be sent to the inner guard Baihu Hall, and the Baihu Hall will make it clear that the city gate will be closed for a quarter of an hour.
, and generals are not allowed to seal the door as they please. If the general extends the sealing time without authorization, it is a violation and will be demerited. If demerited three times, he will be demoted.
For another example, someone comes to complain that a certain store sells counterfeit medicines. When Baihutang receives the complaint first, it will judge that the procedure is incorrect, refute it, and the internal security will not file a case.
Because the inner guards are in contact with other government agencies, for big things that the government agencies cannot do, they come to the inner guards for help, and then the inner guards can take action. This is in line with the principle of grasping the big and letting go of the small.
Secondly, the internal guard general cannot make the decision to go out to enforce the law without receiving the dispatch order from Baihutang. The same goes for the soldiers, who cannot go to the streets to investigate people as they please.
Thinking of this, Li Ye made a reply to Yan Zhenqing's memorial, 'The internal guard should not be abolished, but can be reformed!'