Zhu Jinsong never believed in the integrity of officials, because rules were rigid while people were flexible.
At times, the darkness and ruthlessness of officials far exceeded ordinary people's imaginations.
For instance, you might die in your sleep before you even leave home; if you do leave, you might be stopped and turned back; after finally reaching the capital, you might be forced into a carriage and sent back to your hometown, or even be blessed with a lifetime stay in a mental institution.
In short, if it's something ordinary people cannot conceive, it's something officials cannot do.
Even taking a step back, assuming the officials of this Great Ming dared not openly engage in corruption, what about personal connections?
As the saying goes, wherever there are people, there is a jianghu; jianghu is not just about fighting, but about human relationships and interwoven interests.
Just like the common saying: Qin Hui still had three mistresses.
Which official does not have a few relatives?
Which official does not have a few friends?
Providing convenience to relatives and friends without violating the laws of Great Ming, is that a problem?
No problem this time, what about next time?
A thousand-mile dike can collapse from an ant's nest!
If it's alright to treat someone to a meal this time, it’s alright to help with a small matter next time, and then is it possible to handle bigger matters after that?
Therefore, as long as the system relies on people for execution, corruption will inevitably occur; it is merely a matter of skill.
Thus, the Song Dynasty’s high salary for incorruptibility did not solve the problem of corruption, nor could the extremely violent Zhu Chongba and Zhu Laosi solve it.
Even if Zhu Jinsong, the穿越者 (chuānyuè zhě - transmigrator) Emperor, followed the path of the United States, it would not work.
However, Zhu Jinsong believed in one principle: officials needed discipline. If they were disciplined too lightly, these officials could exploit the bureaucracy to their hearts' content; if they were disciplined frequently, these officials would at least be a little more obedient.
It was precisely for this reason that Zhu Jinsong chose to wield the butcher's knife again, while simultaneously allowing the common people to report officials and even to tie up officials and escort them directly to the capital to lodge complaints.
He even didn't hesitate to strike the Jingyang Bell to discipline the officials of Great Ming.
As for whether the common people in the localities might mistakenly tie up incorruptible officials, or even use this to threaten officials?
Nonsense. Who ordinary people would care about officials? As long as they can live their own small lives well, many people will never care about the county magistrate's name in their entire lives.
Thinking of this, Zhu Jinsong cast a cold glance at the officials again, snorted, and returned to Wenhua Hall.
Zeng Cheng, Liu Hemin, and a group of other big shots who followed Zhu Jinsong back were all drenched in sweat – today's event seemed like the Emperor inexplicably threw a tantrum, summoning officials to scold them for no reason, but the underlying meaning and impact were extremely dire!
First, over two thousand officials would be brought to the execution ground at Caishikou, and most would be flayed alive.
It was better during the Qing Dynasty, where spectators were not allowed to cheer loudly when officials were executed because it "disgraced the national image," but the current Great Ming had no such consideration; the more corrupt officials were killed, the more the people would cheer.
Second, behind over two thousand officials, at least ten thousand people were involved.
Even if each official only had an ordinary family of five, that still amounted to over ten thousand people. Ten thousand people either dead or exiled, with the added consequence of being banned from imperial examinations and military service for three generations, the impact was not small.
Third, it would involve how many more people these over two thousand officials would implicate.
For example, their accomplices, who led them astray, or who acted as their accomplices.
If this continued, it would likely lead to another major case involving thirty to forty thousand people.
Even if ten thousand died and thirty thousand were exiled, the scale would be considerable.
However, Zhu Jinsong clearly had no intention of letting Zeng Cheng and the other big shots off the hook.
"Besides the messes made by these scoundrels, Great Ming still has many problems."
Zhu Jinsong said slowly, tapping the table, "According to intelligence provided by the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Heaven and Earth Society, many merchants in Great Ming are no longer satisfied with the profits they can currently earn."
"They have come up with more advanced methods."
"For example, they arrange for people to go overseas to set up workshops, use the low labor costs in foreign countries to produce goods in large quantities, and then ship them back to Great Ming, relabel them as Great Ming products, and sell them back overseas at Great Ming product prices."
Is there a problem with this method?
In fact, there isn't.
Just like the suppliers for the hexagon-shaped building in the United States, they dare to directly give orders for the hexagon-shaped building to China for production, and then rebrand them with American labels, and then sell them to the hexagon-shaped building at a high price.
This method can offset a portion of labor costs to a great extent.
Making money is not shameful.
Great Ming is the same – as the national strength of Great Ming grows stronger, the value of Great Ming citizens also increases, and the cost of employing Great Ming citizens is definitely much higher than employing the people of those small foreign countries.
The problem is, these Great Ming merchants seem to care nothing about the golden signboard of "Made in Great Ming."
For these merchants, reducing costs and increasing profits are what they need to consider. As for the quality issues of products produced by the people of those small foreign countries, these Great Ming merchants do not care at all.
They keep the high-quality ones for sale in Great Ming to avoid damaging their reputation, and then sell the ones with quality problems to the barbarians, and at a high price, still making a profit.
So the question is: if Great Ming merchants can disregard the words "Made in Great Ming," can Zhu Jinsong, the Emperor of Great Ming, also disregard them? If even Zhu Jinsong, the Emperor of Great Ming, disregards them, who else will care about these four words?
Just like Germany back in the day.
Perhaps many people don't know that Germany, renowned for its precision, rigidity, and reliable product quality, actually started by counterfeiting English goods, and its quality was very poor in the early stages, to the extent that even English goods were affected, forcing them to mandate that German factories mark their counterfeits with "made in Germany."
This is why Germany later managed to improve and strictly adhere to quality control, slowly transforming "Made in Germany" from a negative association into a synonym for reliable quality. Otherwise, Germany would never have been able to shake off the reputation of counterfeiting.
So the question arises again: while Germany spared no effort to increase the value of the words "Made in Germany," the merchants of Great Ming completely disregard the already established "Made in Great Ming."
Is this the decline of morality? Or the distortion of human nature?
Neither.
It is driven by profit.
Of course, if it were just this, Zhu Jinsong would not be angry because of it. As the Emperor of the Great Ming Empire, Zhu Jinsong could be angry about the rampant corruption of officials, but there was no need to be enraged by the misdeeds of a few merchants.
For such matters, as long as they were casually handed over to those officials, they could arrange these merchants properly.
What truly angered Zhu Jinsong was that the actions of certain Great Ming merchants had crossed Zhu Jinsong's bottom line: "According to intelligence from the Factory Guard and the Heaven and Earth Society, as well as feedback from the troops stationed in the Lanfang Military Region, it has been confirmed that some people in Great Ming are indeed smuggling firearms."
"These bastards sold firearms to the monkey remnants in Lanfang and Jiugang, and their influence can also be seen in India."
Zhu Jinsong's expression grew colder: "Sometimes I feel curious – why can't people just do something normal, why must they be focused on these life-threatening businesses?"
Hearing Zhu Jinsong say this, Zeng Cheng and the other big shots felt a dizzying sensation – compared to someone smuggling military ordnance, what could the case of over two hundred officials about to be flayed alive be considered?
Liu Hemin, the leader of the Five Military Commissions, even felt like dying.
However, just as Liu Hemin had fallen into complete despair, Zhu Jinsong coldly snorted and said to Ke Zhiming, "Tell this matter to Minister Zeng and the others."
Ke Zhiming first cupped his hands and agreed, then said to Zeng Cheng and the other big shots, "According to reports from spies of the Heaven and Earth Society lurking in India, Jiugang, Lanfang, and other places, the firearms being smuggled out are not the standard military ordnance equipped by the Great Ming army, but rather matchlock guns and flintlock guns produced by some people in small workshops. Both their range, accuracy, and service life are far inferior to standard military ordnance."
Hearing this, Liu Hemin immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and Zeng Cheng and the other big shots didn't know what to say anymore.
Are firearms difficult to produce?
Certainly not easy, because to produce military ordnance, one not only needs to solve problems with raw materials such as steel, wood, and gunpowder, but also with gunpowder ratios, ammunition packaging, steel strength, wood strength, and a host of other issues.
Each of these miscellaneous problems is easy to solve individually, but collectively they are quite troublesome.
Otherwise, Europe would not be coming to Great Ming to import firearms and cannons at this time.
However, what if someone does not consider quality, range, or accuracy, but only whether the thing can be used roughly, and only considers how to make it cheaper?
Based on this premise, matchlock guns and flintlock guns are not technically very complex.
At least, they are not technically complex for literate Great Ming citizens.
The "History of Firearms Development" in libraries across the country contains detailed records of how to manufacture matchlock and flintlock guns. Coupled with books such as "Records of Firearms," "Illustrated Records of Military Equipment," "Tiangong Kaiwu," and "Illustrated Records of Wonderful Instruments," it is not difficult to manufacture matchlock and flintlock guns. Even the firing mechanism and the ratio of gunpowder used are not secrets.
This has created a rather awkward situation – Great Ming prohibits citizens from possessing firearms, but it is very easy for Great Ming citizens to privately manufacture firearms.
Thinking of this, Zeng Cheng and the other big shots felt a bit of a headache.
Who said that these technologies were freely available for citizens to view? Who said that as long as the court treated the people well, the people would not manufacture firearms and cannons to resist the court?
Yes, currently, the citizens of Great Ming are not manufacturing firearms and cannons to resist the court. The citizens of Great Ming are very obedient; they always pay taxes and levies honestly. If Emperor Zhu announces a concubine, the citizens of Great Ming will even happily send their daughters to you.
However, in Great Ming, some people are manufacturing matchlock and flintlock guns and selling them abroad, specifically to the monkey rebels in the Jiugang Provincial Administration and the Lanfang Provincial Administration, and a considerable amount of military ordnance has flowed into other countries!
If one thinks further, would these scoundrels dare to sell matchlock and flintlock guns to Japan? Would they dare to sell them to other remnants?
If they dare to privately manufacture matchlock and flintlock guns today, will they dare to privately manufacture percussion guns tomorrow?
From this perspective, His Majesty's anger today is not solely due to the corruption case?
It is important to note that over the years, Great Ming has successively defeated Annan, Burma, Siam, and Korea, and has successively recovered Lanfang, Jiugang, and many other territories. It cannot be said that enemies are all over the world, but there will certainly be many remnants of various countries who want to cause trouble for Great Ming.
After careful consideration, Zeng Cheng felt more and more troubled, and then simply said to Ke Zhiming, "Commander Ke, this matter will still require the Embroidered Uniform Guard to investigate and find those scoundrels who have been illegally manufacturing firearms?"
Ke Zhiming nodded and replied, "We have already dispatched people to investigate, and there are some leads. I believe the net will be cast soon."
After receiving Ke Zhiming's assurance, Zhu Jinsong's expression gradually eased.
It couldn't be helped. As the saying goes, one grain of rice can nourish a hundred kinds of people; the Central Plains have countless varieties of rice, so it is only natural to have a hundred, or even a thousand, kinds of people.
Just like corruption can never be eradicated, there will always be some idiotic individuals who are bold enough to go rogue; this is unavoidable.
Wealth moves people's hearts!
However, upon thinking of wealth moving people's hearts, Zhu Jinsong suddenly felt a sense of unease.
After thinking for a moment, Zhu Jinsong instructed Ke Zhiming again, "Besides the ordnance case, also send people to investigate issues like '采生折割' (cǎishēng zhégē - buying living people to mutilate and sell), opium, and cottonseed oil."
Ke Zhiming immediately bowed and replied, "Yes, Your Subject has noted it."
Zhu Jinsong hummed and then changed the subject: "We've talked about a lot of annoying things just now, which almost delayed today's main business."
If this were a comic, Zeng Cheng and the other big shots' expressions would be black lines, with a few crows flying past squawking.
Main business?
Your Highness first struck the Jingyang Bell, then sentenced over two thousand officials to death, and then had an outburst scolding the officials. Now you say you almost delayed the main business?
So, who exactly is delaying the main business?
However, despite their internal grumbling, after Emperor Zhu's scolding of the officials, Zeng Cheng and Liu Hemin, along with other big shots, were somewhat trembling, and even when reporting the budget for various yamen the following year, they did not dare to argue or quarrel anymore.