Chapter 30 (12) Complete extermination of upright officials

The so-called "return waste and envy to the public" is an epoch-making suggestion put forward by Nuo Min, the governor of Shanxi. It is said that one day, Yongzheng was sitting in the palace sullenly, and Nuo Min came: Your Majesty, what's wrong, who messed with you again? Yongzheng said: No one provokes me, I just am not happy. Nuo Min: There must be a reason for being unhappy, right? Yongzheng: The reason... Let me tell you the truth, I especially hate honest officials. Nuo Min: ...Why? Yongzheng: Tell me first, why do ordinary people need an emperor like me? Nuo Min: Isn't it because... I understand, the common people need the emperor, it's because of the rampant corruption of officials.Think about it, when corrupt officials rob men and bully women, if they say they smash your stall, you are an illegal dealer; if they say they demolish your house, you are an illegal building;The common people were forced to hang themselves and throw themselves into the river, and had nowhere to go. At this time, he hoped that the emperor would come out to uphold justice for him.If all the officials in the world are upright and the common people live and work in peace and contentment, who will give the emperor your hammer?

Yongzheng: ...Bastard, what are you doing so clearly? Nuo Min: I can make it clear, that's because I already have a way to solve this trouble.With just one small measure, I will guarantee that all the officials in the world will become corrupt officials, and all the stupid people in the world will cry and call you Mingjun. Yongzheng: Come on, what can we do? Nuo Min: This method is called "returning waste and envy to the public", which means cracking down on privately set up small coffers by leading cadres at all levels. Yongzheng: Strictly crack down on small coffers... But honest officials don't have small coffers.

Nuo Min: It is precisely because honest officials do not have small coffers that they can be eliminated at once through this system reform. Yongzheng: ... I understand. Proclamation: Now the situation of leading cadres at all levels privately setting up small treasuries is becoming more and more serious. They eat and drink too much, consume public funds, travel at public expense, use public vehicles for private use, and even government servants who die drunk on the table dare to apply for imperial pensions. The opinions of the masses are raging, and the time has come to catch them. The crackdown on the small treasury this time is serious.From top to bottom, a number of audit cadres were dispatched to rush to the desks of leaders at all levels.All leading cadres must open their small coffers and accept audit inspections.

To conduct an audit, you must first have an audit law, and you must act in accordance with the law. The regulations stipulated in this way. First, Yongzheng drew a line for the private small coffers of leading cadres at all levels: For county-level cadres, the calculation is based on 50,000 taels of silver set up privately by each person. At the prefect level, it is calculated as one hundred thousand taels of silver set up by each person privately. Governor level: Calculated on the basis of 200,000 taels of silver set up privately by each person. ...In this way, with the improvement of the level of leading cadres, the standard of the small treasury also doubled.

Then these privately set up small treasuries were all confiscated by the court, that is, sent to Yongzheng's treasury. The county-level cadres wanted to send Yongzheng 50,000 taels of silver. At the first level of the magistrate, he wanted to send one hundred thousand taels of silver to Yongzheng. At the first level of governor, Yongzheng will be sent 200,000 taels of silver. ...After all the money was delivered, Yongzheng would withdraw a small part of the money and transfer it back to the accounts of leading cadres at all levels in the form of a commission, which also showed the emperor's mighty grace.

What if you catch up with an upright official, with a clean sleeve, penniless, and no private treasury? For such leading cadres who disregarded the overall situation, Yongzheng did not refuse to give a way. The soft ones have ropes, the hard ones have knives, the open ones are rivers, and the delicious ones are poisons. Take your pick!