Chapter 1025: Cleaning Up Officialdom (III)

Because many military officers colluded with gentry and local officials to seize military farmland, the investigation traced the trail from the localities up to the capital.

Yu Qian submitted a memorial to the Emperor's presence, prematurely launching a major purge of officialdom.

Winter had arrived, the season when all regions must prepare winter reserves and relief for cold-weather disasters; the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Censorate, and the Court of Judicial Review were all driven frantic—local officials were raided, capital officials were raided, and the seized corrupt silver flowed ceaselessly into the national treasury.

With officialdom cleansed, whether from fear or lofty ambition, the number of officials demanding bribes dropped sharply.

Simultaneously, the Emperor ordered that the paper currency portion of officials' salaries be abolished, with all payments now made exclusively in silver or copper coins, and he raised this year's charcoal allowance for officials.

It was effectively a disguised raise in officials' compensation.

The State Tutor said: if you want the horse to work, you must let it eat well.

Great Ming officials, especially low-ranking ones, received salaries too low to support efficient governance.

Indeed, raising compensation alongside officialdom reform quickly improved officials' efficiency.

But the increase was limited.

Xue Shao finally completed his inspection tour of the Jiangnan region and returned to the capital, seizing the opportunity to submit a memorial proposing the implementation of an evaluation system.

Officials would be evaluated annually; those who failed to meet standards three times consecutively would be dismissed, warned once, demoted twice.

With this law's promulgation, Xue Shao surpassed Pan Yun to become the most hated official in the court, his infamy rivaling that of Wang Zhen of the previous dynasty.

Officials generally believed Xue Shao's move wasted manpower and national resources.

"The Ministry of Personnel and the Censorate are already understaffed—from the capital down to the provinces, evaluating every official annually—how could there possibly be enough people?"

Xue Shao said: "In Jiangnan alone, one in ten officials draw salaries for nonexistent posts; in some positions, two or three men perform the work of one, and in the capital, four or five men split the workload of a single post. With such rampant redundancy, how could there ever be a shortage of personnel?"

Xue Shao said: "The evaluation system can remove unsuitable officials and place suitable ones in appropriate positions."

"They all endured years of hard study to become Provincial Graduate and Metropolitan Graduate—how could they lack even this basic capacity to learn?" Xue Shao said coldly. "If they cannot, then they are unfit for officialdom—let them go home and farm."

Yu Qian was the first to endorse it, viewing it as a legitimate component of officialdom reform.

He challenged the opponents: "Next year's imperial examination is expected to grant 227 Metropolitan Graduate degrees. I know the Ministry of Personnel still has eighteen Metropolitan Graduate from the previous cohort waiting for appointments, and 198 Provincial Graduate still queued up seeking posts—not to mention former officials awaiting reassignment for various reasons. Every ministry cries out for staff, yet these people remain without posts. If this is not resolved, can the imperial examinations even continue normally in three years?"

"Isn't this the Ministry of Personnel's responsibility?"

Cao Nai did not shirk responsibility, but he felt annual evaluations were too frequent, and proposed biennial or triennial evaluations.

The debate shifted from whether to establish the evaluation system to how often it should be conducted.

Xue Shao proposed building a comprehensive mechanism, establishing clear standards from the outset.

Starting with the most basic: the format of official documents, requiring officials to express matters clearly and unambiguously, thereby improving efficiency; meanwhile, officials at all levels could stagger their examination times, conducting annual evaluations…

They debated from the end of the year through the spring palace examination, and continued until the imperial palace examination concluded.

Through collective effort, they finally finalized the rules of the evaluation system.

This cohort of Metropolitan Graduate from the imperial examination would serve as the trial subjects.

Pan Yue, who had successfully passed the imperial examination and become a Great Ming civil servant, sighed, picked up his book again—but this time, he read the Ministry of Personnel's compiled evaluation system.