Chapter 20 Nine rectification of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

My move to dismiss the eunuch was greatly praised and encouraged by public opinion.Under the further guidance of Master Zhuang, I then shifted the goal of striving for governance to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Regarding the Ministry of Internal Affairs, I would like to first copy a piece of material written to me by an old man of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: Many people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs do not read Many people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs don't know how to read, and even teach their children to read as a sowing disaster.If you observe his words, you will be dumbfounded, and if you watch his reception, you will be overly complicated; if you look at him, you will be full of grace, and if you cheat, you will be ordered by a license.Chang Yan Wuji, complacent.There are pomegranate trees in the canopy, fish tanks, fat dogs and girls on the ground kang, and new paintings in the tree houses. You can tell the irony of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at a glance.I am ashamed of it, but I can't find the source of suffering.During the 17th and 18th period of the Republic of China, I read Donghualu all over the place, and in an accident in the Jiaqing Dynasty (Lin Qing’s change or the case of Chengde, which is not clear now), I found that there were Jiaqing’s words, and briefly described the rebellion in the Qing Dynasty. Among them, there are clans, Eight Banners, and eunuchs, but there is no one from the House of Internal Affairs, which shows that the House of Internal Affairs has not failed to live up to the kindness of support in the past, and is indeed a man of conscience compared to other generations.Jiaqing's sigh is actually a commendation from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.So I have to solve my confusion.People in the Ministry of Internal Affairs often claim that the emperor's family asked us to make money in order to support us. This statement must be based on this.To the extent that his words and actions are ineffective, it is precisely because of his tameness and ignorance, and he has no ambition to be a gentleman; his fear of reading is to avoid the interference of literary disasters, and his husband will cause disasters in the future; If you are full as if you were told clearly, is it not in vain to use a talisman to receive the kindness of being nourished by the superiors of the past?And the generations of descendants of the people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs have also caused delays, and even this, what a sigh!

The old man had received a lot of stimulation because his family did not allow him to go to higher education, so he felt very deeply that the people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not study.At that time, I was most dissatisfied with the Ministry of Internal Affairs [1] run by the Sanqi family, not because it was vulgar and uneducated, but because they regarded it as full of fraud, as if it was clearly stated. With regard to the stories of corruption and fraud in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it is sufficient to cite two examples here.One is the staggering annual expenditure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Even if all the 4 million yuan preferential treatment fee is paid, it will not be able to make ends meet.After I left the palace in the thirteenth year of the Republic of China, the aftermath committee of the Qing Dynasty disclosed in the Beijing "Beijing News" that the income mortgaged gold, silver and antiques amounted to more than five million yuan. There was no surplus in that year, and all expenses were spent.According to the author of the previous paragraph, the annual expenditure in those years was around 3.6 million taels, which is roughly consistent with the information disclosed in the "Beijing News".

Another example is a mortgage handled by my father-in-law, Rong Yuan.The date of the mortgage contract is May 31, the 13th year of the Republic of China. The signatories are Shaoying, Qi Ling, Rong Yuan from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Yue Ganzhai, manager of Beijing Salt Industry Bank. , the mortgage amount is 800,000 yuan, the term is one year, and the monthly interest is one cent.According to the contract, the 400,000 yuan was pledged by 16 golden bells (total weight 111,439 taels), and the other 400,000 yuan was pledged by eight empress dowagers and five empress dowagers. The queen's ten gold treasures, thirteen gold books, as well as the gold treasure box, the gold seal pool, the gold pagoda, the gold plate, the gold pot, etc., weighed 10,969 taels, nine cents and six cents, less than Thirty-six pieces of ten percent goldware, weighing 883 taels, plus 1,952 inlaid pearls, 184 gems, and 40 treasures such as agate bowls. five items.As far as the last mortgage of 400,000 yuan is concerned, it is tantamount to selling gold treasures and gold books and other 100% gold items as waste gold, and giving away the rest for nothing.There are always several such mortgages and price changes every year, especially when expenses are needed during the holidays.At this time, there will be secret news in the newspaper, and there must be a statement from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to refute the rumor or explain it.For example, there were rumors about this mortgage in advance, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Rong Yuan himself also made a statement, saying that all the things sold were invalid, and there was absolutely no such thing as the legendary Cixi's book Baoyun [2].

Before I left the palace, although I couldn't get evidence like the one mentioned above about the corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the annual figures of the missed funds told me a fact: the expenditure of my Ministry of Internal Affairs exceeded that of the Queen Mother. The highest record of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.The Ministry of Internal Affairs wrote to me a document called Seven Years of Loaning and Comparison of the Past Three Years, which was fabricated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in order to deal with the decree of property liquidation (we will talk about this liquidation later), according to their own statistics Excluding the salaries of princes and ministers, which belong to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it was 2.64 million taels in the fourth year of the Republic of China, 2.38 million taels in the 8th, 9th, and 10th years of the Republic of China, and 1.89 million taels. Two, 1.71 million taels, while the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Empress Dowager era spent no more than 300,000 taels a year at the beginning, and when the Empress Dowager passed her 70th life, it only increased to 700,000 taels. Even if you don't know how to count, you can't help but feel strange.At the same time, I also noticed this fact: some nobles and prominent eunuchs’ families have been sitting on the ground, and they are getting worse and worse. Even the news of the princes and grandchildren who died in the city gate, the princess and the married woman fell into fireworks, etc. have appeared in the social column of the newspaper, while the internal affairs However, the people of the government opened up big businesses such as antique shops, ticket shops (money shops), pawnshops, wood factories (construction industry), and so on.Although the masters have helped the Ministry of Internal Affairs and opposed my buying a car and installing a telephone, no one has a good impression of the Ministry of Internal Affairs when it comes to these matters.Not long before his death (one year before I got married), Master Yi Ketan said that Master Chen had committed the crime of deceiving the emperor and was not worthy of being a Tai Tuo because of Master Chen's refusal to expose the shortcomings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to me.As for Master Zhuang, let alone the House of Internal Affairs, in his opinion, the incarnation of a vampire.His views on the Ministry of Internal Affairs contributed to my determination to rectify the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

From the House of Internal Affairs of the palace to the housekeepers of every prince, they are all the richest.He once said that the master did not know about his property, but only asked the stewards, or even had to ask the stewards, otherwise he would not get any money.Don't talk about restoring old things, just talk about this little treasure in your hand, if you don't rectify the housekeeper, I'm afraid you won't be able to keep it! He also said: The Ministry of Internal Affairs has a motto, which is to maintain the status quo!Whether it is a small reform or a great ideal, when encountering this motto, it is all Stop (parking)!

My car has already been filled with oil by the masters and the engine started.If someone else was driving for me before, now I am sitting in the driver's seat and driving towards an ideal goal.Now I have just successfully passed the intersection where the eunuchs are dismissed, and no matter who tells me to stop, it will not work. I made up my mind.I also found strength. After the wedding was over, I was the first to use my right to be the master of the family. I selected a few people who I thought were the most loyal and capable from among the elders who attended the wedding, as my ministers.The selected ones recommended their friends. In this way, a total of twelve or thirteen braids were added to the Forbidden City.These are: Zheng Xiaoxu, Luo Zhenyu, Jing Fangchang, Wen Su, Ke Shaomin, Yang Zhongxi, Zhu Ruzhen, Wang Guowei, Shang Yanying and so on.I gave them the titles of walking in the South Study Room (the emperor's study room) and walking in the Maoqin Hall (the place where the emperor read stationery).In addition, I also used two bannermen, Jinliang, the vice capital of Mongolia with a red flag inlaid with teacher Zhang Xueliang, and my father-in-law Rongyuan, who were sent as ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

There is no record of their touching oral performances, and the reports they wrote are also difficult to find for a while. Now the date of Jin Liang's report in hand is the first month of the 16th year of Xuantong, that is, Jin Liang wrote it two months before he became Minister of Internal Affairs. Copy the next paragraph (in the original text, both the header and the sidewriting are omitted here): The minister intends that the most important thing today is to restore the secret map as the first.Restoring the grand plan, turning the dry and the dry, the latitude and the longitude are tens of thousands, the first is to protect the court to consolidate the foundation; the second is to clean up the property to maintain the finances.Gai must have self-support, then there is self-protection, self-support and self-protection, and then it can be restored by secret map. The three are connected, and they are originally one thing and cannot be separated.Now please Chen Zhi:

One, it is called clearing up.The cleaning methods should be divided into two categories: real estate and treasures.1. Qing real estate, starting from Beijing and the three eastern provinces. Beijing is like the official land and government buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the garden land of Xishan, the land of the Erling Tombs, and forest land; The land of the House of Internal Affairs, the forest land of Guanshan, the production areas of tributes in Jilin and Heilongjiang, the land of Wangqing, Mu 㮙 Lin, and Tangyuan carving sheds, which contain mines such as coal, iron and precious stones, but one of them is enough to make the country rich.It is all the property of the royal family, and it can be taken back according to the people's reason. Or send a commissioner to open the land for reclamation, or set up a company to start a joint venture. It depends on the situation and plans to do it at any time.1. Qing treasures are collected in each hall and inspected separately. The best ones will be kept forever, and the second ones will be changed in price. This will not only avoid the loss of sporadic auctions, but also prevent the risk of theft and loss.If you have a huge amount of money raised for budgetary purposes, or to be stored in a treasury, or to start a business, it should be long-lasting and not allowed to be consumed.This is the rough idea of ​​cleaning up property.

One, it is important to protect.The protection methods should be divided into two categories: old temples and antiquities.1. Preservation of ancient relics. After the treasures are cleaned up, please set up the Imperial Family Exposition Hall, move the treasures, and allow people to view them, and make appointments with museums in Eastern and Western countries to lend and donate antiquities. people interfere.1. Preserving the old hall, it is proposed to set up an exposition hall in the third hall, take it back and run it on its own. The third hall is now a historic site.Moreover, this matter is co-organized with allies, and when there is a need to help each other, even if the inner court is in danger, it is not impossible to rely on it.This is the general idea of ​​protecting the court.

1. Said map recovery.The method of recovery should be careful and careful, and it should be self-invigorated while being low-key on the outside.Seeking talents, attracting people's hearts, and uniting with allies are mainly based on keeping quiet.Seeking talents, if you are diligently recruiting, you might as well use the old and the new; if you want to attract people's hearts, if you want to publicize it, you should pay attention to both foreign and domestic news;As for the recovery plan, the confidant ministers plan inside, and the loyal people serve outside.If it succeeds, the country will benefit from it; if it fails, one or two people will let it harm.The secret is only a secret, and it is impossible to say the roughness of the recovery of this secret map.

After Jin Liang became Minister of Internal Affairs, another memorial put forward the so-called two strategies of self-protection and self-support. He said that self-support should focus on financial management, and should focus on reducing manpower, and self-protection should focus on acquiring people, and should start with recruiting.The method of reduction includes those who should cut disadvantages, those who should cut people, and those who should cut funds. In short, we should start with the rectification of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.This is an approach I fully agree with. Except for those who are most active in the restoration of the secret map, even those elders with a negative and pessimistic attitude, most of them are not opposed to protecting the palace, cleaning up property, and laying off people and money.Only a small part of them, represented by my master Chen, always shake their heads when it comes to reforming the various systems of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.Most of these people think that the House of Internal Affairs has deep-rooted malpractices, and it is not a one-day cold. Since the Qianlong era, with the increasingly extravagant court life, this situation has been created. It can't be done, how can it be easier said than done now?From Master Chen's point of view, it's good if the House of Internal Affairs is not in order, but if it is in order, it will get worse and worse;But old people like Master Chen, even though they don't agree with the rectification, don't speak well of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and they can even remain neutral. Not long before I got married, I did a stupid thing about cleaning up my property.At that time, at the suggestion of John Toton, I decided to organize an institution for the purpose of this work.I invited Johnston's good friend Li Jingmai, who was sent by the old Westernization Movement, to preside over the event. Li refused to come and recommended a relative named Liu to replace him.The Ministry of Internal Affairs did not directly express any objection, and once brought out my father to stop it.I ignored my father's dissuasion and insisted on appointing Li Jingmai's relatives to carry out this matter. They gave in and asked Liu to take up the post.But after working for only three months, he took a long vacation and went back to Shanghai. After that failure, I still haven't seen the supernatural powers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.I put the reasons for my failure on the improper employment of people and myself not being in charge of the government; at that time, the political situation was changing rapidly, and I almost fled to the British embassy, ​​and I had no time to take care of this matter.Now, I think the situation is very different from before. On the one hand, I have become an adult, and no one can stop me; on the other hand, I have a group of people around me, and my strength is stronger.With great interest, I selected Zheng Xiaoxu from this group of talents to take on this important task of rectification. Zheng Xiaoxu is a fellow villager of Chen Baochen. He served as a consul in Kobe, Japan during the Qing Dynasty, and served as a border affairs supervisor in Guangxi.Masters Chen Baochen and Johnston both praised him to me in the past, especially Master Zhuang who praised him the most. He said that Zheng Xiaoxu was the person he admired the most in China for more than 20 years. There is no second place in China for moral articles. Come on, when it comes to ability and courage, there is no one better than him.Master Chen also told me that Zheng Xiaoxu had repeatedly rejected the invitation of the President of the Republic of China, refused to be an official of the Republic of China, and refused to take money from the Republic of China.I have also seen articles praising him in the newspapers, saying that he has entertained himself with poetry and wine for more than ten years, and he is very modest, and he is praised as a rising star of the Tongguang School of poets.I have seen his calligraphy before, and it is said that his income from calligraphy pens can reach thousands of gold every day.Since he gave up fame and wealth to come to serve, it can be seen that he is a rare loyal minister. Zheng Xiaoxu and I met for the first time in the summer of the twelfth year of the Republic of China.He talked about the future of the Qing Dynasty from the beginning of Pangu, and when he talked about the joy, he was beaming with joy and spit, and when he talked about the passion and generosity, he burst into tears, which made me overwhelmed.I immediately decided to let him stay and ask him to develop his ambitions.I can’t remember exactly what I said at the time, but I only remember that he was very moved after listening to my talk, and quickly wrote a poem by Ji En: Monarchs and ministers have their own worlds, who can make peace in the world? Tianxin has a silent enlightenment, which surprises Fang Yiming. Hundreds of words are lost, and the liver and brain lose their sincerity. Let it do what you want, the sun and the moon hang in the palace. It's so different to say something, knowing words is a sage. If you turn to the ravine at your own will, you don't know how to get back the crown. Embracing loyalty alone is unavoidable. May there be no death for a moment, and see the transformation of virtue in the end. After Zheng Xiaoxu became Maoqin Hall, he told me several times that in order to achieve great success, the Ministry of Internal Affairs must be rectified first, and he proposed a more specific rectification plan than Jinliang's.According to this plan, only four departments are enough for the entire Ministry of Internal Affairs, and a large number of people will be laid off, and a large number of expenses will be subtracted.In short, if his rectification plan can be realized, the restoration will first have a financial guarantee.Therefore, I made an exception to grant this Minister of the Han Dynasty the Prime Minister's Minister of the Interior, and he was in charge of the key, and was the chief of the Ministers of the Interior.Zheng Xiaoxu received my extraordinary promotion, and wrote two poems complacently: Night duty on the 10th day of March The Taiwang was in charge of the wares, and Goujian was also in charge of Wu. In order to comfort my lord, I can bow to my husband. I can't bear to be ashamed once, but I am ashamed all my life. Don't be embarrassing, and get back to safety for a while. Destiny will return in peace, you have to watch what people give. If you can get a scholar, it's better than a lot. Although the raccoon head is written in shape, it is used to talk to ward off groups of mice. Whoever holds the same heart, leans on each other for example. However, if one thinks that the vulgar and ignorant Ministry of Internal Affairs will be defeated in the hands of Zheng Xiaoxu, then the estimate of this two-hundred-year-old court housekeeper's office is too low.Although Zheng Xiaoxu boasted extravagantly, and had my support and trust, his fate was the same as that of Li Jingmai's relatives, and he only worked for three months. Those vulgar and uneducated people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who pushed Zheng Xiaoxu away, I still haven't fully figured it out.Is Shaoying making trouble?But Shaoying is notoriously timid and timid.Is it old age?Qi Ling is a layman who is not familiar with the errands of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, so he doesn't ask many questions.As for Baoxi, he has only been here for a short time, so he may not have such great supernatural powers.If it is said that the people below have made their own decisions, it is not entirely true that they dare to make trouble with Minister Zheng.After Zheng Xiaoxu took office, the first thing he encountered was a pile of cases since the Xinhai.Zheng Xiaoxu's way to deal with it is to get rid of his power first, expel the former Rentang doctor, and take over this important position, and his confidant Tong Jixu will take over.But unexpectedly, since then, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been paralyzed, asking for money, there is no money at all, there is really no money, it is clearly recorded in the account: if you want something, you can't find a place to store it, and it is also recorded in the account write In order to win over the subordinate officers, Zheng Xiaoxu showed humility and listened to his subordinates. He stipulated that he would have a discussion with the officers once a week and ask them to give some ideas for reform.One of the officials suggested that a large number of fruit cakes were usually used for sacrificial offerings in the palace, and the cost was too great. In fact, it was just a meaning. It is better to use clay and wood carvings instead, which are equally solemn.Zheng appreciated this idea greatly, ordered it to be implemented, and promoted the person who came up with the idea by one level.But those eunuchs who used offerings as their legal income (there are still about 100 left after the reduction), all of them hated Zheng Xiaoxu to the bone.Within a few days of taking office, Zheng Xiaoxu became the most unpopular person in the Forbidden City. Zheng Xiaoxu didn't want to withdraw troops, so he received a threatening letter.The letter said: You are on the road of ignorance, you have to be careful of your head.At the same time, Johnston, who I sent to rectify the Summer Palace, also received a threatening letter.The letter said: If you dare to take office, there will be people waiting to kill you on the way.Later, Johnston said to me very proudly: I didn't ride in a car, but rode a horse to see if they dared to kill me. As a result, I got my job alive.I've seen through those people long ago!The people he was referring to were people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.Both he and Zheng Xiaoxu expressed indifference to the threatening letter. The final outcome of the matter is still with me. I had just appointed Zheng as an envoy, and I got a very headache news: Another group of members of the Congress of the Republic of China proposed a bill to abolish the preferential conditions and let the Republic of China take over the Forbidden City.As early as two years ago, there was such a proposal in the Congress. The reason was that the Qing Dynasty was restored in the sixth year of the Republic of China. Attempt to restore.Now the old case is brought up again, saying that I not only violated Zhang Xun's posthumous posthumous law for the restoration, but even more illegally rewarded Zheng Xiaoxu, a Han Chinese, to ride a horse in the Forbidden City and to be a minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The news was published in the newspapers, and this news was like a signal, and attacks on the Ministry of Internal Affairs appeared one after another.For example, the Ministry of Internal Affairs sold antiques to Japanese businessmen, and the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rong Yuan, put the treasures of the empresses of the past emperors in the four major banks. At the same time, during the counting of calligraphy and paintings, those ministers who were summoned to my side, especially Luo Zhenyu, were also criticized.When these newly added braids came to the Forbidden City, they had nothing else to do, except for a report on the left and a secret performance on the right to report on the grand plan of revival. A treasure of Xuantong Yulan, registered in the account.Unexpectedly, this count caused a storm in the city.I didn't know at the time, it's okay not to order, the more you order, the less things you have, and it has added various ways to make money for the elderly.Luo Zhenyu's Sanshi plate, Mao Gongding's ancient bronze rubbings, and Tong Jixu's Yueluo version of the palace collection of paintings all sold for high prices, causing a sensation both at home and abroad.The most troublesome thing was that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of China suddenly promulgated a draft law on the preservation of ancient books, antiquities and historical sites for the export of antiquities sold by the Qing Palace. Soon, Zheng Xiaoxu's open-source strategy wanted to transport the complete books of Siku to the Shanghai Commercial Press for publication, but was stopped by the authorities and all the books were seized. My father found me at this moment, and told me in a tactful and stammering manner that Zheng Xiaoxu's method is worth considering, and if even the Republic of China authorities are not satisfied, it will be even more difficult to handle in the future. The original Ministers of Internal Affairs, Shaoying, Qiling, and Baoxi, were still so obedient and did not say a single bad word about Zheng, Jin, and Rong.However, because Rong Yuan had an accident with the sale of book treasures, he no longer showed his face, and Jin Liang was scolded by my father for urging me to let Prince Jin retire because of the notice on the Internet, and I don’t know where he went. On this day, Shaoying appeared in front of me with a timid look and said that the current infantry commander Wang Huaiqing was very dissatisfied with Zheng Xiaoxu's actions. There is no way to help me anymore.When I heard this, I was really scared.At this time, Zheng Xiaoxu's memorial requesting to go on an errand arrived.As a result, Zheng Xiaoxu returned to the Maoqin Hall to walk, and Shaoying was still in charge of the seal key of the House of Internal Affairs. [1] Among the Eight Banners of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, the three Manchu army banners, Xianghuang, Zhenghuang, and Zhengbai, belong to the so-called pro-military forces led by the royal family. Everyone in the Ministry of Internal Affairs comes from the most trusted three banners. The exception is that the ministers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are ministers above the middle level, some are promoted by the secretary, and some are transferred from outside.In short, except for a few ministers, they were all under the umbrella of the Three Banners.author [2] For the contract mentioned above, see the Beijing News on February 14th, 14th year of the Republic of China, and see the Beijing News at the end of the 13th year about the rumors and the statement made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Rong Yuan.