Chapter 1851 Ren Zijuan Analysis and Examination Chai Feng discusses reform

"Chai Gong, you also served as a chief official in the state capital. I wonder if the situation I described is familiar to you?" Feng Ziying said with a smile: "Perhaps when you were here more than ten or twenty years ago, There are also situations like this, but they may not be so common, but I would say that they are commonplace now, and if we didn’t do this, it would be rare.”

Chai Ke couldn't help but smacked his lips, "Ziying, are you going too far? Are all the prefectures and counties in Shuntian Prefecture like this?"

"Chai Gong, there is absolutely no exaggeration or falsehood." Feng Ziying said sincerely, "For example, when it comes to water conservancy construction in winter and spring, the government issued requirements to the states and counties in August last year, and I also specially arranged a general judge. However, as of September last year, when construction plans were required to be submitted, only 22 states and counties had submitted them, and the plans reported by seven states and counties were rough. Fourteen states and counties followed the previous year's plan, and the plans were not updated. If no changes are made, even after being ordered to make rectifications, plans in six states and counties are still difficult to implement..."

"I don't understand. Is it so difficult to make a plan?" Feng Ziying was a little angry: "Every state and county has workshops and households, and there are also many officials. These are routine things that need to be done every year. After all, Are they fooling the government every year, or is it just a habit and they don't do anything at all?"

"Okay, this plan is almost done, so you have to do it. The plan has been put forward, and people have been sent to the government to guide and supervise. In addition to the state and county raising part of the money and food, and sending out labor , the government has also allocated some money. Under such circumstances, this money and food are really valuable. What is the result?"

Chai Ke’s scalp was numb. It looked like Feng Ziying was going to spit out a bunch of embarrassing things again.

"At least up to now, that is, there is only one month left before the deadline for construction in winter and spring. I specially sent people to investigate in private. Among the 27 states and counties, less than 60% have completed more than half of the plan, that is, It is said that eleven states and counties have not completed even half of the tasks, and three states and counties among them have barely done anything. Well, about eight states and counties have done some face-saving work and are trying to cover it up. How can I say this? I don’t know. I don’t understand, why do these guys come to explain to me in the future? Or do they think they can just find some objective reasons to excuse me, and I will just turn a blind eye and let it pass like Mr. Wu? "

 This brings up Wu Daonan, Chai Ke caressing his forehead.

Wu Daonan has done a lot of harm to people in the past few years as the governor of Shuntian Prefecture. It is not just as simple as his corpse being a vegetarian. The key is that his unrestrained self-discipline in the past few years has caused upstream and downstream effects, and the lower counties are lawless.

Prefecture and county officials are better off if they have a little bit of self-discipline and moral integrity. If they are worse, they will become emperors behind closed doors. There are many who do evil things, and there are even more people who line their own pockets. The same goes for those who wait for the corpse to eat nothing but wait for death. Quite a few, but when it came to the year-end assessment, the assessment results he got were all fair or good.

 In other words, no matter how well you do, you won’t get a first grade, and no matter how bad you do, you won’t get a bad grade. In this case, who would care about this assessment?

The assessment of the Ministry of Personnel and the Metropolitan Procuratorate mainly relies on the attitude of the chief official of the government. Unless there is an impeachment report, or the criticism is too great, the assessment results will generally be given based on the attitude of the chief official of the government.

 Under such circumstances, it will naturally lead to the officials below becoming even more forgetful and unscrupulous.

It’s no wonder Feng Ziying is so angry.

It is not that the Ministry of Official Affairs has not asked Wu Daonan about this.

But as far as Chai Ke knows, Wu Daonan's answers are quite satisfactory. They are all assessed according to normal work matters. All parties' work is progressing in an orderly manner. Even if something is not satisfactory, it is for a reason. There is a reason.

This makes it difficult for the officials to make any calculations, unless Wu Daonan, the governor, is removed first, but this is not something the officials can make the decision.

"This is only the construction of water conservancy projects. Land taxation in summer and autumn. Over the years, Shuntian Prefecture has been ranked low among the prefectures in Beizhi. Of course, there are many reasons, but based on the conditions of Shuntian Prefecture, is it true that it can only be ranked among the bottom few? Position?" Feng Ziying asked again: "The criminal and prison litigation remains high, the public security is unstable, the arrest service is slack, the number of thieves is increasing, and the gangsters in the territory are not eliminated. The Ministry of Punishment is very dissatisfied with this, and I don't even mention the matter of teaching bandits. , about the assassination in Guhe."

Chai Ke found it difficult to answer, and after a long while he said, "Ziying, do you think this is a problem left by Huifu?"

"There are other reasons, but not entirely. I think the more reason is that the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Metropolitan Procuratorate are conservative in the assessment rules, which are rough and difficult to understand. Therefore, there have been too many disadvantages in the long run, leading to this situation." Feng Ziying shook her head.

The Great Zhou Dynasty continued the examination regulations of the former Ming Dynasty, which were divided into "eight methods of three grades", but there have been some changes in the later period. The eight methods of the former Ming Dynasty were greedy, cruel, impetuous, incompetent, old, sick, weak, and careless. Zhou made adjustments and divided them into four grids: Shou (conduct), Zheng (political achievements), Cai (talent), and Nian (seniority). Then they were graded according to these four grids, and finally a comprehensive examination was formed, based on excellence, Good, medium and poor grades.

Logically speaking, the four categories of Shou, Zheng, Cai, and Nian are relatively in line with the evaluation rules for officials, and basically cover all of an official. However, in actual practice, it is often difficult to judge the two categories of Zheng, Cai, unless there are special circumstances. Excellent people will be praised by the top officials, while ordinary officials usually use the "Second Life" and "Second Year" as the basis for promotion.

This has led to the prevalence of mediocre and mediocre officials, because in addition to the evaluation of the superiors, the evaluation of the local gentry comes more from the evaluation of the local gentry. This leads to the tendency to offend others by doing more, and not by doing anything, and even go against the local tyrants. They work together to influence the official voice in order to achieve promotion.

"Well, it seems that you have a lot of grievances and some ideas. Let's talk about it. I also want to hear your opinions on the examinations of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Metropolitan Procuratorate." Chai Ke was interested, and the other party directly poked him. Of course, he should listen carefully to the key points of the affairs under his jurisdiction and see what the other party has to say.

"Currently, the most important thing in local examinations is to observe and the year. Don't mention the year, just endure it. The official reputation is mainly in the hands, but who is in the hands of the official reputation? Besides Shangguan, it is the local gentry. But when you have to do things, it is inevitable There will be conflicts of interest, which will attract criticism. However, political management and talents should also be put into use. However, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Metropolitan Procuratorate do not have sufficiently detailed examination rules for these two points, which is difficult to clarify, so it is impossible to achieve the test. The real purpose and intention of the course, this is the biggest drawback. Maybe the officials will say that this is the most difficult thing to test. Maybe it takes three to five years for a political thing to show results, or how to judge how well this thing is done? The officials are not experts either. They spend too much on building roads, bridges, and canals, and they are eager to achieve success. All kinds of possibilities exist. How to judge these?..."

Feng Ziying spoke in great detail and gave several examples in a row, which made Chai Ke raise his eyebrows in approval.

"Ziying, what you said makes sense, but you should also know that the Ministry of Civil Affairs is in charge of the entire Great Zhou Examination, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate is only assisting. It is difficult for people like the Ministry of Civil Affairs to do such a huge task alone. And as you said, it is difficult for officials to make judgments on such more professional matters. They can only listen to the opinions of their superiors, and many of these officials' superiors may have interests or emotional tendencies with lower-level officials. , which also makes it more difficult for the staff to make a choice. If they choose to agree with the opinions of their superiors, the assessment of the staff will be almost meaningless and become a procedure. If the staff wants to use their subjective initiative to make analysis and judgment, it will be difficult for them to do so. arrive,…"

Chai Ke also talked about the difficulties of the official department, which was also true.

Feng Ziying also agreed with the difficulties mentioned by Chai Ke, "What Mr. Chai said is also reasonable. Knowing that there are many shortcomings here, the officials should consider how to reform these assessment systems, improve, optimize, and adjust them, so that they can It is more appropriate to the time, and we cannot just let it go by like this.”

Chai Ke smiled bitterly, "Ziying, it's easier said than done. Let's discuss it here. It's simple and easy, but when it comes to how to make corrections and improvements, it's a huge and complicated matter. It's not just you and me. You just say it one by one. Just say it, it involves too many aspects, especially the two items you mentioned, politics and talent, which cover almost all the work matters of local officials, so it is difficult to handle."

"Chai Gong, it is precisely because it is complicated and difficult that he has to do it. This can be said to involve the efficiency of the entire imperial government system from top to bottom, and in my opinion, the imperial court's assessment of local affairs is not comprehensive. , has also lagged behind the times, and is very detrimental to mobilizing the enthusiasm and enthusiasm of officials. We should conduct a comprehensive review and refinement based on the current development situation, so that our various local affairs can be listed more accurately and meticulously. , and can also more accurately judge the performance of officials.”

Chai Ke had expected Feng Ziying's words. This person never speaks lightly and always has something to say. If he dared to say something like this, he must have already thought it over carefully.

"Since you have this intention, why not write a statement in your hand and I will take a look at it first, and then we will discuss it. If it is appropriate, I can deposit your opinions and submit them to the Ministry of Civil Affairs for discussion. Finally, Determine the next step based on the situation.”

Chai Ke had no intention of taking away Feng Ziying’s achievements, and even intended to give Feng Ziying more opportunities to showcase herself.

"Chai Gong, do you trust me so much?" Feng Ziying smiled. He still trusted Chai Ke.

"It's too early to say whether it will happen or not." Chai Ke also smiled, "But I have considered what you said, but I still don't have a clue. After hearing what you talked about today, I suddenly became enlightened. You should prepare well. , if you want to get it, come up with a decent strategy, I'm looking forward to it."

 (End of this chapter)