The scholars and scholars who made trouble at the gate of the palace just wanted to vent their dissatisfaction.
After all, I came all the way, full of confidence, and now I have returned without success, which makes everyone feel angry.
What's more, the assessment by the Ministry of Civil Affairs is indeed unfair.
There is nothing we can do about it. Everyone is of the same level, the number of places is limited, and there is no meritocracy.
There are too many monks, and if you want to be admitted and awarded a high-level official status, you have to look at who gives more money to the Minister of Civil Affairs and who has a closer relationship.
As eunuchs, scholars and scholars from Donglin Academy, and even those who are involved in scholarly examinations, the chance of being admitted is naturally much slimmer.
On the contrary, it is much larger.
Zhu Cixiang would not care about this kind of thing at all, at least for the time being. Although Zhang Yan wanted to care about it, she also knew that it was not convenient for her to interfere in government affairs now, so she just said a few words.
The scholars and officials also knew in their hearts that Xu Lan was just perfunctory with them, but for the sake of their own fame, they could only leave one after another and continue to vent their dissatisfaction in restaurants and brothels.
Ma Shiying did not care about public opinion in various places. After some preparations, he issued the decree to exchange officials from various places to all states and counties.
This time the transfer is mainly between the south of the Yangtze River and the north of the Yangtze River. All officials will be transferred out of their respective counties, prefectures and prefectures. They have a deadline of the end of April to arrive at the yamen where they are going to be transferred.
Anyone who fails to meet the deadline will be dismissed and will never be hired, even the lowest-ranking third-shift yamen officer is no exception.
After this decree was issued to the local government, it was like poking a hornet's nest. It was resisted by almost all officials, and the public was furious for a while.
Most of these officials came from local wealthy families, and many even came from official families whose ancestors had been working as officials and clerks in the yamen for generations.
A powerful civil servant has a big business in the local area and owns a large amount of land, shops, and houses. If they are transferred, what will happen to these properties? Is it possible that they can be moved to a new place with them?
And if you don't move and leave on your own, over time it will definitely be annexed and cannibalized by new officials or local wealthy families.
Even some small officials with little power have houses in the city and even more than ten acres of thin farmland outside the city. They belong to the middle class and cannot leave casually.
Seeing that officials from all over the country were reluctant to leave and were stubbornly resisting to the end, Ma Shiying also panicked and became a little anxious. Unless these officials were subdued, the New Deal would not be implemented at all.
"Queen Mother, when will Your Majesty return?"
Apparently he couldn't bear it any longer, so he ran to the palace again to ask for instructions.
"His Majesty said that this matter is entirely up to you. He will not care about it, and neither will the Ai family. If you can't even handle this matter well, how can you preside over the new coup law and be a minister of ZTE?"
Zhang Yan said coldly, showing no mercy.
Ma Shiying lowered his head in shame and understood that His Majesty was testing him. If he couldn't do even this well, he would be an incompetent minister.
Now that he has been put on the stakes, if he is considered by the emperor to be an incompetent minister, a loser who can't get things done, his fate can be imagined. Thinking of this, the look of shame on his face immediately turned into a fierce determination.
He bowed and said: "Please also ask the Queen Mother to allocate five hundred thousand taels of silver to me."
"Ma Shiying, do you think those officials are short of one month's salary now? Even if the Ai family gives you five hundred thousand taels of silver and lets you pay it, those officials will take up their posts honestly?
Salaries can be paid to them when they get there. What you have to do now is to use thunderous means to remove them from office, ransack their homes and kill people, and completely establish the authority of the cabinet."
Ma Shiying looked at Zhang Yan blankly. She was completely dumbfounded. She couldn't believe it even to death. These words actually came from the mouth of the Queen Mother Yi'an.
Zhang Yan was also a little embarrassed, but these words were all told by Xun'er, and she had to repeat them.
"I understand what has been done, I will resign!"
Ma Shiying also woke up, took a deep breath, then resigned and left.
As soon as he returned to the Wenhua Hall, officials from various ministries gathered around him.
"Mr. Ge, is your Majesty back?"
"Mr. Ge, how would your Majesty reply?"
"Your Majesty has not returned yet and has left a message, which I have full authority to deal with."
At this moment, Ma Shiying was not as flustered and anxious as he was in front of Zhang Yan just now. Instead, Yixia sat down on the main seat, picked up the tea cup and took a sip gently, until everyone was extremely anxious, then they calmed down.
Said slowly.
"Mr. Pavilion, can the Queen Mother agree to allocate the salary?"
The newly appointed Minister of Household Affairs asked quickly, and everyone else looked directly at Ma Shiying, obviously also very concerned about this issue.
After all, before the soldiers and horses arrive, food and grass go first.
"Confused!"
However, Ma Shiying knocked the tea cup heavily on the table, and then scolded: "Do you think that if you give those officials a month's salary, they will honestly go to take up posts in various places?
In this situation, we must use thunderous means to serve as a warning to others, so that they know that the court's new policy cannot be resisted, and the authority of the cabinet cannot be questioned." After saying this, he slapped the table hard.
"Mr. Ge, it's good to be so good...it's just, it's just..."
Everyone was shocked, with a hint of hesitation on their faces.
To establish the authority of the cabinet, everyone applauded.
But after all, the cabinet is not the Ministry of Education, and you, Ma Shiying, are not the prime minister. It is happy to keep your word now, but it will be equally happy when Your Majesty kills donkeys in the future.
"Everyone, today is different from the past. Today's mind is so broad that it far exceeds our imagination. Can't you still see His Majesty's true intention?
What His Majesty wants is a cabinet that can handle various government affairs, and a cabinet chief minister who has the courage and authority to handle various government affairs, not what he did before!
What's more, if the sky falls, I, Ma Shiying, will be the first to die. I'm not afraid, so what worries do you have?"
Ma Shiying glanced at all the senior officials of the six ministries and said in a deep voice.
Everyone also fell silent, which they could naturally see, otherwise His Majesty would not have designated the chief minister of the cabinet as a first-rank official, nor would he directly grant Ma Shiying the right to appoint and remove third-rank officials on his own.
"Now that the Holy King is in office, the power of the cabinet has been established, and the status has also been achieved. Fame and fortune, and leaving a name in history are just around the corner. If you are still timid and hesitant, then stand up now, take off your official robes, and get out immediately. I will never
It’s hard to force someone to do something difficult.”
"The old man's words are true. How could such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity have never happened before in the more than two hundred years of the Ming Dynasty?"
"good!"
Seeing that Ma Shiying had gone so far as to say what he said, everyone gritted their teeth and nodded, deciding to give it a go.
Even if they are worried that His Majesty will take off the job and kill the donkey in the future, no one is willing to ask them to take off their official robes and resign now that they have tasted real power.
After all, throughout the thirteen dynasties of the Ming Dynasty, there has never been an emperor who delegated power so thoroughly without checks and balances as the emperor does today.
After the six ministries of the cabinet unified their thinking, Ma Shiying also took the risk and dismissed dozens of civil servants from various states and counties near Nanjing in one fell swoop. They were all born into local wealthy families. All of them were handed over to the Ministry of Punishment for review. Once they were found to have violated the law, their homes would be confiscated and they would be punished.
At the same time, it was once again strictly ordered that all states, prefectures and counties who failed to show up within the time limit would be dismissed from their posts and investigated, and transferred to the Ministry of Criminal Justice for trial.
Sure enough, seeing that Ma Shiying, the deputy minister of the cabinet, actually dared to use violence directly, officials from all over the country were also panicked. After all, no one's buttocks were found to be clean.
Everyone also knows that if Ma Shiying dares to do this, he must have the full support of His Majesty.
Not to mention confiscation and distribution, even if they are dismissed from office, all officials will be unable to bear it, because without the power in their hands, they are nothing, not to mention that they are also serious civil servants now, and almost no officials are willing to lose their official status and rights.
.
In the end, the two powers were at odds with each other, and the smaller one was chosen. Some civil servants who were born into wealthy families gave their explanations and hurried to their yamen.
After all, all government officials have to be replaced, and there is no exclusion. As long as you have an official position and rights, you don't have to start over from scratch. What's more, as long as you do a good job and please your superiors, no one may dare to touch the local property.
Of course, almost all civil servants have some illusions about promotion. They don't expect to be high-ranking officials. They would be satisfied with being a county magistrate. Most of them hope to climb to a higher yamen, or even go to the yamen.
The six central departments, after all, the six departments also need a large number of clerical staff.
And everyone knows that it is easier for people like them to be civil servants of the fifth or sixth grade among the six bureaus than to be the seventh-grade county magistrate.
In fact, everyone also knows that although the edicts for civil servants who are not Jinshi are good-looking and can be promoted to the position of chief minister of the cabinet, everyone just listens to it. I am afraid that the emperor himself will not know such nonsense.
letter.
Most of the civil servants from the eighth grade, who have big families and businesses, choose to go there alone, while most of the junior officials, who are from the ninth grade to the ninth grade, choose to sell their fields and houses and move there with their families.
There is no way, they usually do things that offend people. Once they no longer have to do errands in the yamen, they are really no one anymore, and they might be secretly killed by their enemies at any time.
What's more, compared to those civil servants, these junior officials and senior officials care more about their hard-won official status.
Although they are only the lowest official, they have been registered with the Ministry of Personnel. As long as they do not make any serious mistakes, even if they are magistrates of counties and prefectures, they can no longer be dismissed casually as before.
As for being imprisoned, you have to go through the Ministry of Personnel.
Although there is no formal document stipulating these procedures, almost all officials have acquiesced in this.
As time became more and more compact, the entire southern Zhili was full of officials on their way, some with only one servant and some with their families.
The officials in almost every county were scattered to pieces and did not appear in the same yamen. After arriving at the local yamen, although their official positions remained unchanged, no one knew anyone else.
At this time, the power of the magistrates and county magistrates in various places had really reached its peak. They could only fool the officials, and there was no such thing as being fooled by the officials.
No, the first thing all officials, big and small, do after arriving is to pay tribute to the local magistrate and host a banquet for their superiors.
In the same way, gentry, landlords, gangs and local gangsters from all over the country also entertained these newly arrived petty officials and big officials, and they had a great time building relationships and making friends.
Not to mention Ma Shiying, even Zhu Cihong was at a loss for the time being to deal with this kind of human sophistication.