Chapter 238 Five years, five years of year-end bonuses, gone! The economic spillover effect of agricultural excess capacity
The seventy-fifth year of the Jiajing reign, the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, noon.
"Buzz buzz buzz." A curtain of golden beams of light fell from the sky of the Mingming Plateau and then transformed into human figures.
They were officials from the cabinet, six ministries, and of course, provincial governors and other high-ranking officials who had previously obtained the immortal magic.
Compared with the highland political discussion at the end of the 60th year of Jiajing's reign, the number of people participating this time was even greater.
Although some officials said that they were ashamed to see the emperor, when it came to participating in the plateau's political affairs, they all agreed in their minds at the first opportunity.
After all, in the eyes of these people, being able to participate in plateau politics is a sign of a smooth road to success.
On the plateau, heavy snow was falling above the gloomy sky. However, under the influence of Benming Daming, the heavy snow and the whole world covered in silver were just decorations.
It would not make the people present feel cold at all, and certainly would not let the snowflakes fall on all the officials, making them look embarrassed.
"Om."
After everyone arrived, Jiajing and Lu Fang also appeared.
"Your Majesty, I bow to you. May your Majesty be well."
Seeing Jiajing appear, the ministers led by Yan Song knelt down on the plateau and began to shout in salute.
Taking a look at the cultivation levels of the ministers in front of him, he found nothing surprising, as they were still the same as in the 70th year of Jiajing.
In five years, everyone's cultivation has not changed.
Lu Fang, Lu Bing, Prince Yu and Prince Jing, the four first-tier cultivators of the Ming Dynasty, are still in the late stage of foundation building and have not shown any signs of breaking through to the golden elixir stage, but their cultivation aura is becoming increasingly powerful.
The two state masters, Qingfeng and Chanshuang, were still in the initial stage of foundation building. With Jiajing's cultivation level, it was not difficult to see at a glance that the two were probably not far from breaking through to the middle stage of foundation building.
It is estimated that a breakthrough will be achieved in a year or two.
Then came Yan Song, Yan Shifan, Xu Jie and Hai Rui. They broke through to the middle stage of foundation building in the 70th year of Jiajing, but they still did not move.
In addition, people like Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, Zhao Zhenji, Huang Jin, Xu Fan, Chen Hong, Shi San, Yan Shaoting, Hu Zongxian, Wang Chonggu and Yu Dayou are all in the initial stage of foundation building.
It is similar to Qingfeng and Chanshuang. It is estimated that there is only a year or two left before they can break through to the middle stage of foundation building.
Overall, nothing has changed in five years.
Jiajing was not surprised at all. As his cultivation level improved, the difficulty of breaking through would become greater and greater.
In fact, thanks to the existence of the natal field, everyone can concentrate on their cultivation and make a breakthrough every few years. This is already a cheating-like cultivation speed.
After all, the natal field is a direct reward for one's cultivation, and this reward is not something like spiritual energy.
Although the natal field is a place where everyone gathers to cultivate, in essence, it is still the result of years of hard practice and the polishing of the natal object. However, the Ming Dynasty rewards according to political achievements and personal contributions.
In other words, all the cultivation is gathered together and then distributed uniformly according to political achievements. However, the feeling of accumulating a breakthrough and accumulating little by little are completely different.
Not to mention, there is also the item of political achievements, which is equivalent to giving you a part of other people's cultivation.
Moreover, every time the natal field issues cultivation, a large portion will be stored for reserve. This portion of the reserve cultivation is used to reward those with outstanding political achievements.
Although essentially anyone could be harmed in the process, it was precisely because of this method that everyone could benefit that the ministers were motivated and flocked to their natal fields.
It was also because of this that, even though in five years, everyone had not made any breakthroughs in their cultivation, they were not panicked at all.
Because they know that as long as they work hard to develop their political achievements and constantly polish their own natal objects, or even if they don't have natal objects and are only responsible for salvaging political achievements, their cultivation will continue to break through under the reward of their natal plateau.
"I am well," Jiajing waved his hand. In front of him appeared a stone table that was nearly a circle larger than the one in the sixtieth year of Jiajing. The stone table was divided in the middle, and circles of tree chairs appeared on the periphery. He said:
"Sit flat on your back."
"Thank you, Your Majesty." After bowing, the ministers took their seats.
Some officials who came to the plateau for the first time were amazed at the scenes.
Snowflakes were floating in the sky and Jiajing was sitting in the main seat.
Compared with the seating arrangement in the 60th year of Jiajing, there were some changes during these ten years. That is, under Prince Yu and Prince Jing, there were nine princes, and then Qingfeng, Chanshuang, and Lu Fang.
Next, Yan Song and other members of the cabinet and the Imperial Household Department took their seats in a clockwise order.
When the Ninth Prince took his seat, Prince Yu and Prince Jing looked at each other and then looked away. How could they not see that this was done intentionally by their father in order to train the Ninth Prince.
Prior to this, during the ten years that my father had been in seclusion, the Ninth Prince had no right to take a seat, and even the Emperor's seal had not invited him. It was obvious that my father was telling the court officials that he was going to train the Ninth Prince.
"I know what you are most concerned about," Jiajing leaned back on the throne, raised his hand, pointed at the piles of scrolls on the stone table, and said, "Let's start with the political achievements."
"We will follow the old rules and first rate the performance of each provincial government, prefecture, state, and county."
Starting from the 65th year of Jiajing, because all the cabinet members had broken through to the foundation-building stage, the scope of performance evaluation was expanded to directly cover the county level.
"Yes."
Yan Song and others bowed to Jiajing one after another, and then began to distribute the files and start grading.
Well, it is worth mentioning that, except for the Ninth King, all those sitting at the stone table are in the Foundation Establishment Stage, so their spiritual sense can naturally scan them very quickly.
Moreover, in order to calculate political achievements in detail over the years, the cabinet has extremely detailed the assessment and rating standards.
Therefore, there are a large number of scrolls of political achievements piled up on the stone table.
It started with the performance evaluation and rating of officials above the fourth rank in the six ministries and the capital. This made the officials sitting in the outer circle of the six ministries, the Inspectorate, the Hanlin Academy, etc., feel very nervous.
After all, the Emperor brought the Cabinet's Imperial Household Department to evaluate them in person, and their performance in the past five years had not been good. For a moment, everyone was so nervous that they dared not even breathe.
Of course, this is on the Honming Plateau, so it doesn't matter even if they really don't breathe.
With the assistance of spiritual consciousness, the assessment and rating process could be said to be extremely fast. It took less than half an hour to complete the performance rating of officials from the provincial government to the county level.
However, at this moment, everyone, including those in the cabinet, looked unhappy, simply because the situation was too bad.
For officials above the fourth rank in the capital, the performance ratings given by them are uniformly only up to the sixth rank. God knows how low the rating can be after removing the inevitable water from the imperial seal rating.
Seventh rank? Eighth rank? Or even ninth rank?
In addition, the Ming Dynasty had two capitals, thirteen provinces, more than 140 prefectures, 193 states, 1,169 counties, 493 guards and 359 offices.
Except for the garrisons which belonged to the military, since it was not a war era and the political achievements of the generals did not change much, the political achievements of other provincial-level officials, when spread out, only reached a pitiful eighth rank.
After the Emperor's seal is refined with his political achievements, it will probably drop to nine.
Even Xu Xiran, the governor of Shandong, whose political achievements have always been ahead of everyone else, was only rated fifth grade this time.
(Note: See Chapter 223 for details.)
It can be seen that under the huge grain crisis, the political achievements of the entire Ming Dynasty official class suffered severe damage.
From the small we can see the big picture. We can see to what extent the internal conflicts within the Ming Dynasty have intensified in just five years.
For a moment, everyone present was silent. The officials of the six ministries lowered their heads, their mouths dry with nervousness. Although the people in the cabinet felt much better, they still lowered their heads.
They dared not imagine how angry and dissatisfied the emperor would be after the imperial seal purified his political achievements.
"Buzz." Soon, the imperial seal's purification performance rating also appeared.
At this moment, everyone subconsciously looked at the political performance rating in the air above the stone table.
After seeing the final performance rating, Yan Song and his people couldn't help but sigh in their hearts. It was just as expected.
Throughout the Ming Dynasty, from provincial governors to county lords, the political performance rating was only nine grades.
It can be said that it has barely reached the grade.
This means that over the past five years, the performance of officials throughout the Ming Dynasty has been declining collectively, which is enough to show how much resentment the people under their rule have towards the court at this moment.
Of course, the situation is not particularly serious.
For at least five years, the performance of officials of all ranks in the Ming Dynasty has been evenly distributed, and their ratings have reached the ninth rank. This shows that the Ming Dynasty has not yet reached the point where the people are complaining.
After all, the great grain crisis only began in the 70th year of Jiajing. Five years, with the current size and financial resources of the Ming Dynasty, was not enough to make the people feel despair.
Furthermore, from the 40th to the 70th year of the Jiajing reign, a period of 30 years, although many people had passed away, many people also came through the most difficult and darkest Ming Dynasty.
Having seen the times when people had little to eat and little to wear, and were persecuted by the government, and having experienced what true despair is, the younger generation may not be able to adapt, and may complain about all kinds of things and be dissatisfied with the court, but for the older generation, these are nothing.
After all, the overproduction of grain means that at most they won't make any money, but they won't starve to death. Moreover, the imperial court is now more powerful than ever before, and the people's livelihood is doing very well.
These older generations are still very willing to support the court.
Of course, no matter what the common people think, handing in such an answer sheet to the court in five years is a disaster for officials of all levels who want to advance, both inside and outside the court.
Those in high positions worry about being demoted, and those at the bottom worry that they will never have the possibility of promotion.
Between the 60th and 70th year of the Jiajing reign, all officials of the Ming Dynasty were working hard to make progress.
Every official dreams of reaching the first-class performance rating, being granted magical powers by the court, and enjoying a share of immortal salary.
I dream about how to make progress!
But now, five years later, they never imagined that because they were too eager to make political achievements, they took advantage of the wave of the spiritual industrial era to vigorously develop agriculture to drive all industries and contribute to their own political achievements, but the result was actually a food surplus crisis.
That’s right, food surplus crisis. Sounds like such a strange yet familiar word. They would never have imagined that one day there would be a crisis covering the entire Ming Dynasty due to too much food.
The road to progress for him and others was actually blocked by food.
It’s true. I wouldn’t believe it if I told them. Even if I killed them, they would never have thought that having too much food could actually be a bad thing.
What is even more incredible is that although the Ming Dynasty is an immortal dynasty, its current development direction is still agriculture driving all other industries. Then, when a crisis occurs in agriculture, all other industries are directly impacted.
Who could have imagined that farming would have an impact on blacksmithing, weaving and other industries, which are such unfamiliar trades.
In five years, all officials of the Ming Dynasty have truly experienced the terrible impact that the "economic spillover effect of agricultural excess capacity" has had on the entire country.
If they are not careful, even their official career, no, that’s not right, their immortal career, will be ruined.
"Tell me all," Jiajing said calmly at this time, "Five years, is this your explanation to me?"
During these five years, although Jiajing had been in the Ming Dynasty, he would occasionally take time to return to the world of immortal cultivation and take charge of the Ming Immortal Sect.
After all, the Daming Immortal Sect over there is also heading towards rapid development. Although he has set up a "cabinet" and a "Sect Council", which are comparable to the Daming Sect, where the Sect Master can operate the sect normally even if he doesn't take care of things for several years, but sometimes you still have to take a look.
After all, the world of cultivating immortals is not the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, for the officials of the Ming Dynasty, after breaking through the Jindan stage, he went into seclusion every now and then for the past five years.
"We are incompetent and guilty." Hearing Jiajing's questioning, the ministers stood up one after another and then knelt on the ground.
At this point, firstly, they were too embarrassed to sit there, and secondly, they were mainly afraid.
I’m afraid that they will hold people accountable all the way down from the six ministries.
Although they also felt that at this critical juncture, the emperor would most likely not hold them accountable, and the most important thing was why the food crisis had occurred? It had not been resolved yet, and where was the source?
In fact, everyone knows all of this. It's simply because the cabinet has already come up with an idea, but the emperor has never given his approval.
Therefore, to be disrespectful, the problem lies with the emperor.
Although they are also guilty, Your Majesty, don't you have any fault yourself? Isn't it too unfair to hold us accountable at this time?
Of course, they only dared to keep these words in their hearts and not speak them out loud.
However, this is the truth, but the emperor's thoughts have always been difficult to guess, even Yan Song sometimes can't figure it out.
Who knows if the emperor will use this as an excuse to launch another major purge of the court?
After all, the Ninth Prince is about to enter the arena, and officials of all ranks in the court are still waiting and watching, not daring to jump teams easily or stand on the same side again. In order to pave the way for the Ninth Prince and make the pie of power bigger, it is possible that this accountability will be an excellent excuse.
For a moment, everyone was panicked and quickly admitted their mistakes.
As for the "year-end bonuses" for these five years, well, they no longer want them. Although it hurts, compared with the official career, nothing matters anymore.
"Incompetent? Guilty?" Hearing this, Jiajing's tone remained calm, and he said, "I didn't ask you to come here to listen to your useless words."
"All dynasties in China have always attached importance to agricultural development above all else, and the development of dynasties has always been driven by agriculture to drive other industries. The Ming Dynasty is no exception."
As he spoke, Jiajing raised his hand, pointed at Xu Fan, and said earnestly, "The 'Spiritual Industrial Age' proposed by Xu Fan has given our Ming Dynasty a better alternative."
"That is to use the 'spiritual energy industry' to drive the development of various industries."
"But everything has a process of adaptation. Moreover, the layout of the 'Aura Industrial Age' has not yet been completed, and agriculture has already run into problems, so that now the subjects are affected by it."
"Okay," Jiajing waved his hand and said, "You all understand these principles, and I don't want to say more."
"The best solution now is to come up with a solution as soon as possible," he said, looking at Yan Song.
"Lord Yan, tell me what you think... Stand up and reply," he said to the crowd, "You all should stand up as well."
"Yes, thank you, Your Majesty." Seeing that the emperor had no intention of purge the power in the court, everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and then all turned their eyes to Yan Song.
Well, a month ago, Yan Song had promised them implicitly and implicitly that they would leave it to him and he would take care of it.
Now they have all done their part. Try your best to maintain stability both inside and outside the government in this month. Now it's your turn to perform.
"Your Majesty, I do have a way." Despite being stared at by everyone, Yan Song did not panic. He still spoke in that slow tone, and while speaking, he did not forget to bow to Jiajing.
"..."
(End of this chapter)
