Chapter 1425: Shunzhi, Hero of the Manchus

On the sixth day of the sixth month of the twenty-fourth year of Hongxing of the Great Ming, at the West River Port in Pukou, a large force of Embroidered Uniform Guard cavalry and Eastern Depot agents had already arrived, sealing off one of the passenger docks inside and out so tightly that not a drop of water could get through.

Such a scene was rare in Pukou! The present Zhu Emperor did not resort to the "Imperial Prison," nor did he let the Depot and Guard arrest people on imperial orders, nor did he send these secret agents to clean up officialdom — now the officialdom of the Great Ming had the Censorate, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of the Navy to handle its rectification.

The Censorate was responsible for anti-corruption, while the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of the Navy were responsible for performance evaluations — Zhu Cilang's anti-corruption and performance evaluation work was something people deeply resented! Although anti-corruption and performance evaluation (assessing officials' achievements) had existed since ancient times and were no innovation, Zhu Cilang would set quotas for the Censorate and the Ministry of Personnel!

The Censorate had a quota for how many corrupt officials it had to deliver each year! Don't say they couldn't produce them — when had the Great Ming ever lacked corrupt officials? Besides, the Censorate was rewarded for catching corrupt officials, and could take a cut from the confiscated illicit money and goods.

Moreover, there was a rule that "once you enter the Censorate, it claims your whole career" — anyone who entered the Censorate system was basically in it for life. If they didn't want to continue, they had to resign, and after resigning from the Censorate, they could no longer take office in any other government agency. Very few could leave the Censorate and seek better employment elsewhere.

So if officials in the Censorate system wanted to make a bit of extra fortune, they had to catch more corrupt officials!

And to make it convenient for the Censorate's censors to "get rich," the Zhu Emperor had "invented" some methods for catching corrupt officials. The most hated among them was the departure review — this targeted the chief officials of government offices at every level. When an official's term of office expired, before leaving their post, censors from the Censorate would come to investigate!

However, the corrupt officials of the Great Ming did not need to be too afraid, because there were also quotas for arrests in departure reviews, and these were broken down into several different ranks (of course, above a certain level, quotas no longer applied, but people could still get caught), so they would not all be arrested. Nor would they only swat flies and never strike tigers.

But every year a certain number of officials would be investigated until their families were ruined, and sometimes they would be exiled to the island of Taiwan (which at the time was still a malaria island — exiled corrupt officials without special treatment faced a two-thirds mortality rate from disease). So when the officials of the Great Ming reached out their hands, they had to think very carefully about the consequences!

Of course they could still skim, but their methods had to be discreet — they could no longer act with reckless abandon.

Although this anti-corruption method of "fixed quotas" and "commission cuts" could not eliminate corruption in Ming officialdom, one thing was certain: compared to the days of no quotas, no commissions, and no professional censors (who could not take other posts), the corrupt officials of the present Ming had become far more restrained.

And this anti-corruption was sustainable anti-corruption — the anti-corruption work was profitable, and it would not wipe out all corrupt officials. It could flow like a steady stream, catching them slowly, and it would not kill people indiscriminately. The worst punishment was exile to Taiwan. No executing entire households, no exterminating nine clans — the Zhu Emperor would not do such things. Because in his view, killing people indiscriminately was not only unjust (corrupt officials might not even share their money with their nine clans), it was also unsustainable.

What Zhu Cilang pursued was sustainable anti-corruption — that is, keeping corruption controlled at a level the Great Ming dynasty could bear.

Like the Censorate's anti-corruption, the performance evaluations of the Ministry of Personnel system (the Ministry of Personnel and the personnel departments at the provincial, prefectural, and county levels had a certain vertical management relationship), the Ministry of War system, and the Ministry of the Navy system were likewise sustainable. Of course, they also gave those below a great deal of headache, because accompanying the performance evaluations was a bottom-rank elimination (demotion) system!

That is to say, officials at every level of the Great Ming could face elimination or demotion because their performance evaluations were not good enough — and elimination and demotion also had quotas.

This bottom-rank elimination quota was of course hated, but without quotas, the performance evaluations of the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of the Navy would certainly become mere formalities.

In addition, eliminating a portion of officials every year could free up a fair number of posts for newcomers or lower-ranking officials (promotion). Newly appointed officials generally tended to have more drive.

So after elimination and demotion became institutionalized, Zhu Cilang also rebuilt the official retirement system. Whether civil or military, officials would retire from officialdom at a prescribed age based on their rank (higher-ranking officials retired later) and receive a retirement pension.

In this way, the officialdom of the Great Ming could take in a large amount of fresh blood every year, and lower-level officials could rise more easily.

Because the Censorate, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of the Navy were handling the rectification of officialdom, the two secret-police organs, the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot, no longer needed to play the dog catching rats by seizing officials and throwing them into the Imperial Prison for punishment.

So scenes of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and Eastern Depot agents deploying en masse had become extremely rare. But such a rare scene had appeared today at the West Port dock in Pukou!

West Port dock was an important waterway passenger and cargo terminal for Pukou, with countless goods and travelers passing in and out every day. And the rare spectacle of the Depot and Guard deploying en masse naturally attracted the attention of the merchants and travelers coming and going.

On both sides of the main street outside the dock, quite a crowd of merchants and Pukou citizens had already gathered to watch the excitement. Among them were even some bold Pukou locals who actually went up to the Depot and Guard agents to ask questions.

"What day is it today? Why have you all come to the West River port dock? You haven't caught some great traitor or rebel, have you?"

An Embroidered Uniform Guard cavalryman actually answered the question — because this was not a topic to be kept from spreading, but rather news that needed to be spread outward.

"Shunzhi has been captured!"

Hearing that name, everyone was still a bit dazed, but soon some people began to recall something.

"Shunzhi? Sounds familiar... some big bandit chief, right?"

"Isn't the roving bandits' dynastic title 'Shun'? Could this Shunzhi be the bandit chief of the roving bandits?"

"Not the roving bandits — it's the false emperor of the eastern barbarians," there were people in the know after all! Soon someone remembered, "The one with the reign title Shunzhi! That one is our Great Ming's mortal enemy!"

"Ah, the false emperor of the eastern barbarians, Shunzhi... wasn't it said, said that he died in a sea of flames?"

Someone remembered the story of the Shunzhi Emperor being burned to death — that matter had been in the newspapers and publicized for many days.

An Embroidered Uniform Guard shook his head and said, "That was a faked death. He's been hiding out in the wilderness for many years, and this time he's finally been caught!"

"Now I remember — a while back, didn't people from the Depot and Guard go to Prince Gong's residence and Marquis Yan'en's residence to search and confiscate?"

Another Embroidered Uniform Guard explained, "That was because Prince Gong and Marquis Yan'en were suspected of secretly communicating with the false Shunzhi Emperor. So His Majesty issued an edict permitting the Embroidered Uniform Guard to search for evidence of their crimes."

Just then, large formations of Embroidered Uniform Guard cavalry, escorting three prison carts, emerged from the dock. Behind the lead prison cart, a young man dressed in the everyday robes of a Commandery Prince rode on horseback. To be personally escorted by a Commandery Prince of the Great Ming — whoever could enjoy such treatment must surely be the false Shunzhi Emperor.

All the onlookers stopped talking and discussing, and instead craned their necks, concentrating intently to look — the emperor of the eastern barbarians! Truly an extraordinary bandit chief; they had to get a good look.

And upon looking, the crowd was indeed not disappointed.

Inside the prison cart was a burly giant of a man with a face full of scraggly beard and fierce flesh, a ferocious countenance, and features that seemed to carry some barbarian blood; his pair of eyes still gleamed with a savage light.

That appearance alone looked vicious! He must have done plenty of heinous, unconscionable deeds!

This "Shunzhi," seeing so many people gathered to watch the excitement, also got worked up and roared: "Wahaha! I am the number one hero of the Great Qing, Grandpa Shunzhi! Which of you dares to fight me!"

Without a doubt, this was the real Shunzhi!

The onlookers all believed it!

This Shunzhi's image matched the one on the opera stage — a big, burly, stout warrior, the kind their Manchu people called a baturu. For Shunzhi to become emperor of the Manchus, he must surely be the number one baturu of the Manchus.

Following behind the prison cart, watching this "number one baturu of the Manchus" throwing a roaring tantrum, the Commandery Prince of Luoshan, Zhu Ci'en, felt a rather ominous premonition.

For the assignment to turn out like this — it was a complete botch, wasn't it?

If a Shunzhi looking like this were delivered into his imperial brother's hands, would it be returned as defective goods? If it really got returned, where would he go to find a real Shunzhi to hand over?

(End of Chapter)