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In Chang'an City, the heat of the debate on the presumption of innocence and the presumption of guilt had just cooled down, but Qin Mu pushed out Tang Geng, the real murderer of Xia Niang, and asked Yu Chenglong to hold a public trial, allowing the people to watch the entire trial process, which once again quickly heated up the heat of the debate.
Among the various clauses in the five-year plan formulated by Qin Mu, the most difficult one will undoubtedly be the reform of the judicial system and local administrative structure;
If this reform cannot be implemented, it will be impossible to separate the legislative, law enforcement, procuratorial and judicial powers and make them independent from local administrative power.
If supervision and the judiciary are not independent, it will affect the implementation of official performance appraisal, official property registration, lifelong accountability, openness and transparency of local administration, the establishment of a corresponding supervision system, and the prevention of official corruption.
This series of measures are closely linked to each other and one move will have a far-reaching impact.
Qin Mu knew very well that if these difficult tasks were not completed at the time of the founding of the country, future monarchs, without the prestige of the founding monarchs, would be even less likely to promote such reforms.
The matter was of great importance, so Qin Mu had to be extremely cautious, building up momentum step by step, and repeatedly reminding himself not to be impatient and not to act too hastily.
In order to divert the officials' attention, he asked Sima Kai to immediately start planning the construction of a polytechnic college, one in each of the three capitals, still with the money from Qin Mu's inner treasury. In order to avoid resistance, he tried to keep a low profile during the planning process, and strive to complete the construction of the polytechnic college before all parties figured out what was going on.
On the other hand, Qin Mu once again raised the issue of the civilianization of science and technology, and asked the accompanying officials to discuss how to emulate the Sino-Agricultural Temple and adopt a model of government-private cooperation to organically combine the technologies of the Ministry of Works, Imperial Household Department, Military Equipment Bureau, Shipyard, Weaving Bureau, Internal Supervision Research and Development Department, Imperial Medical Service and other departments with private capital to form a virtuous interaction.
He also personally inscribed: "Science and technology are the primary productive forces" and ordered craftsmen to carve a stele in front of the bell tower where officials waited to attend court, further clarifying this idea.
On this point, Yang Chao, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, firmly supported it. The Sinong Temple was originally like other departments. It was a government office that needed funding from the Ministry of Revenue to operate. But now the Sinong Temple is not only self-sufficient, but also has a certain amount of profit to pay to the national treasury.
This not only made the officials of the Ministry of Revenue very happy, but also caused a great shock to other officials in the court. Moreover, you cannot attack them with excuses such as "competing with the people for profits".
As the saying goes, food is the most important thing for the people. The cooperation model between the government and the people in the Sinong Temple obviously promotes the agricultural production of Daqin, and no one can make irresponsible remarks on this.
In the court, Qin Mu wanted to promote the Sinong Temple model. Yang Chao happily stepped out and said, "Your Majesty. Judging from the current situation of Sinong Temple and shipbuilding, promoting the civilian use of technology will undoubtedly benefit both the country and the people.
Take shipbuilding for example. The profits from transferring technology to various civilian shipyards alone are enough to cover the court's annual shipbuilding expenses. When Your Majesty wanted to transfer the shipyard to private management, many ministers opposed it. Now the facts have proved that Your Majesty is far-sighted and unmatched.
So far, the cost of warships and tank ships built by the court has been basically offset by the funds obtained from technology transfer alone, and the court does not need to allocate additional funds from taxes for shipbuilding.
The technology transfer and the opening of private shipyards have made the shipbuilding industry in Daqin unprecedentedly prosperous in just a few years.
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Revenue, the tax paid by the shipbuilding industry each year has reached one-fifth of the agricultural tax, and has become one of the main sources of annual revenue for the national treasury. If it were not for Your Majesty's promotion of privatization of shipyards, relying entirely on official investment, this prosperous situation would be unimaginable.
Now, with the example of Sinong Temple, it is further proved that the cooperation between government and people and the civilianization of technology will benefit the country and the people, which is imperative. I support your Majesty's proposal. "
Sima An continued, "Your Majesty, I am not opposed to the official-civilian cooperation model of the Sinong Temple, but I am worried that the temptation of profit can easily lead to collusion between officials and businessmen, which must be prevented.
If Your Majesty wants to implement this model, I think that you should first set up an independent auditing department to conduct strict audits of the income and expenditure of various departments, including the income and expenditure of the Ministry of Revenue.
The current Ministry of Revenue officials are the most honest among all the officials in the ministry, but if there is no strict review, it is hard to say whether future officials can maintain this integrity. "
Qin Mu was quite surprised after hearing Sima An's words. He had not even thought of the audit system, but Sima An hit the nail on the head. He had to admit that he had chosen a good prime minister.
The importance of an independent audit system is self-evident. It plays an irreplaceable role in preventing corruption among officials and misusing public funds.
Qin Mu said slowly: "What the Grand Secretary said is very true. Officials' self-discipline is important, but we cannot rely on officials' self-discipline alone. In this case, we will set up an Audit Department under the Cabinet to be responsible for the financial audit of various departments. Do the ministers have any additional comments?"
If you don't do anything wrong, you don't have to worry about ghosts knocking on your door. On the contrary, anyone who opposes will inevitably be suspected of having something to hide, and the ministers in the palace all agreed.
"All cabinet ministers must understand that greater power means greater responsibility. Let me make it clear that if the Audit Department fails to act or if there are other illegal acts, all cabinet ministers will bear the corresponding responsibilities."
Sima An did not expect that the emperor would put the Audit Department under the management of the cabinet. He immediately said, "Your Majesty, I think it is inappropriate to put the Audit Department under the management of the cabinet. I think it is better to make the Audit Department independent and report directly to Your Majesty, and include the cabinet in the audit scope."
As the saying goes, it's lonely at the top. There are probably quite a few people who secretly want to bring down the Prime Minister. As long as the emperor shows the slightest intention, countless people will pounce on him and bite him.
Therefore, Sima An now acts as low-key as possible. He knows very well that if the Audit Department is not managed well, the emperor will hold him accountable; if it is managed well, he will offend all officials. During this sensitive period, he really does not want to take on this hot potato.
Qin Mu glanced at him inconspicuously and said, "In that case, let's do as the Grand Secretary said. The candidate for the chief of the Ministry of Accounting and Auditing must be honest and upright, and must have the corresponding auditing ability to be qualified. Do you have any suitable candidates to recommend?"
Li Yuan said: "Your Majesty, Bian Di is an upright official with an impartial character. He has made outstanding achievements in all the important positions he has held. I think Bian Di is the most suitable person."
Sima An immediately said, "I second the motion."
"I second this motion."
"Okay, then transfer Bian Di to be the third-rank supervisor of the Audit Department and start to set up the Audit Department." Qin Mu paused and said, "Also, order the Ministry of Works, Imperial Household Department, Military Equipment Bureau, Weaving Bureau, and Water Conservancy Bureau to conduct self-inspections, classify the technologies that can be used by civilians in each department, submit them to the cabinet for review, and then submit them to me for my seal, and then implement them as soon as possible."
Wei Yuan, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, came out and said, "Your Majesty, the asphalt road from Changsha to Kunming has been built to Yuanzhou. From the current situation, the road construction project has played a good role in boosting the local economy. Now merchants entering Yunnan have turned to waterways to Changsha, and then take the asphalt road to Guizhou. This has not only reduced freight costs, but also increased freight volume, greatly improving the circulation of wealth and goods in the southwest, and benefiting people's livelihood a lot.
In addition, according to Xu Shilang of the Ministry of Revenue, the total amount of deposits in Huitong Bank has approached 500 million dragon coins. It is a pity that such a large amount of funds is stagnant in the bank and is not used to stimulate the economy.
Therefore, I suggest that we increase the construction of the Daqin Road through bank loans, and gradually repay it with the transit tax at the checkpoints in the future. This is a feasible strategy. "
Qin Mu couldn't help but smile. In later China, borrowing money to build roads was not a new thing, and collecting tolls after the roads were built was not a new thing either.
In fact, in every dynasty in China, there were tax inspectors or patrol officers at various passes to collect transit taxes on passing goods. In the Ming Dynasty, transit taxes were still an important source of tax revenue for the imperial court.
Therefore, borrowing money to build roads and collecting tolls to repay the loans is a relatively feasible approach in this era. Qin Mu's five-year plan happened to include a road construction plan. The Ministry of Industry took the initiative to propose it, and Qin Mu just went with the flow...
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ps: I feel a little sick these two days, not in a good state, and my mind is full of confusion. Please give me some recommendation votes to encourage me. (To be continued..)
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