Chapter 1851 Analysis and Examination Course of Renzi Juan Chai Feng’s Discussion on Reform

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

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

"Chai Gong, there is absolutely no exaggeration, let alone empty words." Feng Ziying said earnestly, "For example, in winter and spring to build water conservancy, the government issued requirements to the prefectures and counties in August last year, and I specially arranged for a general judge. But as of September last year, only 22 states and counties submitted their construction plans, and seven states and counties reported rough plans. Fourteen states and counties followed the plan of the previous year. If there is no change, after the rectification is ordered, there are still six states and counties that are difficult to implement,..."

"I don't understand. Is it so difficult to formulate a plan?" Feng Ziying was a little resentful: "There are workshops and household houses in every prefecture and county, and there are many officials. These are routine things that need to be done every year. After all, Are they fooling the manor every year, or is it just a matter of habit, and they didn't do anything at all?"

"Okay, this plan is almost done, so you have to do it, the plan has been proposed, and the government has also sent people to guide and supervise, except for the state and county themselves to raise part of the money and food, and distribute labor. , the government also allocated a part of the money, under such circumstances, the money and food are really expensive, what happened?"

  Chai Ke's scalp felt a little numb, and it seemed that Feng Ziying was about to spit out a series of embarrassing situations again.

"At least until now, that is, there is only one month until the end of the winter and spring construction period. I specially sent someone to investigate in private. Among the twenty-seven counties, less than 60% of the plans 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 of them have hardly moved. Well, about eight states and counties have done some face-saving work, and they are fooling around. How do you say that? I don’t understand, what’s wrong with these guys coming to explain to me in the future? Or they also feel that they just find a few objective reasons to prevaricate, and I will just turn a blind eye and close my eyes like Master Wu? "

  Wu Daonan was mentioned, and Chai Ke stroked his forehead.

  Wu Daonan has done a lot of harm in the past few years when he was governor of Shuntian Mansion. It is not just as simple as eating a vegetarian meal in his corpse, but the key is that his self-discipline has caused the upper and lower effects, and the lower states and counties are lawless.

The state and county magistrates who have a little self-discipline and integrity are better, if they are worse, they will be the emperor behind closed doors. Quite a few, but when it came to the year-end assessment, all the assessment results he got were fair or good.

  That is to say, no matter how well you do, you won’t get an excellent grade, and no matter how badly you do, you won’t fall behind. In this way, who cares about this assessment?

  The assessment of the Ministry of Officials and the Metropolitan Procuratorate mainly depends on the attitude of the chief official of the government. Unless there is a report of impeachment, or there are too many criticisms, the assessment results will generally be given according to the attitude of the chief official at the government level.

  In this case, it will naturally cause the officials below to be even more forgetful and fearless.

   It's no wonder Feng Ziying is so angry.

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

   But as far as Chai Ke knows, Wu Daonan's answers are quite satisfactory, and they are all assessed according to the usual work items. The work of all parties is progressing in an orderly manner. Even if it is not satisfactory, there is a reason for it.

   This makes it difficult for the official department to make any further calculations, unless Wu Daonan, the prefect, is removed first, but this is not up to the official department.

"This is only for the construction of water conservancy. In the two seasons of land tax in summer and autumn, Shuntian Mansion has ranked at the bottom among all the beizhi mansions over the years. Of course, there are many reasons, but with the conditions of Shuntian Mansion, is it true that it can only be ranked at the bottom? Position?" Feng Ziying asked again: "Punishment and prison proceedings remain high, law and order are not stable, arrests are lax, thieves are multiplying, and there are tyrants in the environment who are not eliminated. The Ministry of Punishment is very dissatisfied with this, and I don't even mention the matter of educating bandits. , about being assassinated in Guhe."

  Chai Ke had difficulty answering, and after a while he said: "Then Ziying, do you think this is a question left by Huifu?"

   "There are other reasons, but not entirely. I think it's more due to the conservativeness of the Ministry of Officials and the Metropolitan Procuratorate in the assessment rules, which are rough and difficult to understand, so there are too many abuses in the long run, which led to this situation." Feng Ziying shook her head.

Dazhou continued the examination regulations of the former Ming Dynasty and divided them into "three grades and eight methods", but there have been some changes in the later period. The week was adjusted and divided into four grids, Shou (conduct), Zheng (achievement), talent (talent), and year (seniority), and then graded according to these four grids, and finally formed a comprehensive examination course, with excellent, Good, medium, and poor.

It stands to reason that the four criteria of shou, politics, talent, and years are more in line with the evaluation rules for officials, and basically cover all officials. However, in practice, it is often difficult to judge the two criteria of politics and talent, unless there are special Excellent work won the honor of the top, but ordinary officials mostly use shou and seniority as the basis for promotion.

This has led to the prevalence of mediocre officials and even officials, because in addition to the evaluation of the superiors, the observation of this standard comes more from the evaluation of the local gentry. Working together, controlling the official voice, in order to achieve the purpose of promotion.

"Well, it seems that you have a lot of grievances, and you also have some ideas. Tell me, I also want to hear your opinion on the examinations of the Ministry of Officials and the Metropolitan Procuratorate." Chai Ke became interested, and the other party directly poked Of course, he should listen carefully to the key points of his own affairs to see what the other party has to say.

"At present, the most important thing in local examinations is to observe the year. Don't talk about the year, just endure it. The official voice is the main one, but whoever controls the official voice, except for the Shangguan, is the local gentry. But to do things, it is inevitable. There will be conflicts of interests, and criticism will be attracted, but theory, politics and talents should also be useful. However, the Ministry of Officials and the Metropolitan Procuratorate do not have sufficiently detailed and detailed examination rules for these two points, and it is difficult to clarify them, so they cannot meet their requirements. The real purpose and intention of the class, this is the biggest disadvantage. Maybe the officials will say that this policy is the most difficult to test. It may take three to five years for a political matter to see results, or how to judge how well this matter is done. The bureaucrats are not experts either, building roads and bridges, repairing canals and cultivating land for land reclamation cost too much, and they are eager to achieve success, all kinds of possibilities exist, how to judge these?..."

  Feng Ziying spoke in great detail and eloquently, citing several examples in a row, and Chai Ke raised his eyebrows again and again, quite approving.

"Ziying, what you said is quite reasonable, but you should also be clear that the Ministry of Officials is in charge of the entire Dazhou exam, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate is only assisting. It is difficult for such a huge job to be done by the Ministry of Officials alone." And as you said, it is difficult for officials of the Ministry of Civil Affairs to make judgments on matters of a more professional nature, and they can only listen to the opinions of their superiors, and many of these officials’ superiors and lower-level officials may be involved in interests or emotional tendencies , This also makes it more difficult for the officials to make decisions. If they choose to agree with the opinions of these superiors, then the evaluation of the officials is meaningless and becomes a procedure. If the officials want to use their subjective initiative to analyze and judge, it is difficult for them to do so. arrive,…"

  Chai Ke also talked about the difficulties of the Ministry of Officials, which is also true.

Feng Ziying also agrees with these difficulties mentioned by Chai Ke, "What Chai Gong said is also reasonable, so knowing that there are many disadvantages here, then the Ministry of officials should consider how to reform these assessment systems, improve, optimize, adjust, and let them It is more timely, rather than letting it go."

Chai Ke smiled wryly, "Ziying, it's easier said than done. Let's discuss it here is simple and easy, but how to fix and improve it is a huge and complicated matter. It's not you and me who say what you say. Just say it, it involves too many aspects, especially the two items you mentioned, politics and talents, which cover almost all work matters of local officials, so it’s not easy to handle.”

"Mr. Chai, we have to do it because it is complicated and difficult. It can be said that it involves the operational efficiency of the entire imperial court's top-down government system. In my opinion, it turns out that 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. According to the current development situation, a comprehensive sorting and refinement should be done again, so that we can list our local affairs more accurately and meticulously. , and can more accurately judge the achievements of officials.”

  Feng Ziying's words were within Chai Ke's expectations. This person never speaks lightly, and there must be something in his words. If he dared to raise such a question, he must have thought it through.

"Since you have this intention, why don't you write a statement in hand, I'll take a look first, and we'll discuss it later. If it's appropriate, I can submit your opinion to the Ministry of Officials for discussion. Determine the next step according to the situation.”

  Chai Ke did not intend to take credit for Feng Ziying's achievements, and even intended to give Feng Ziying more opportunities to show off.

   "Mr. Chai, you trust me that much?" Feng Ziying smiled. He still trusts Chai Ke.

"It's too early to say whether it will be successful or not." Chai Ke also smiled, "But I have considered what you said, but I still haven't got a clue. After hearing what you said today, I feel a little enlightened. You should prepare well. If you want to get it, come up with a decent strategy, I am looking forward to it."

  (end of this chapter)