Rebirth of the Ming Dynasty: Sixth Generation of Glory, I don't want it

Liu Song, the Minister of Personnel during the Hongwu reign, was erudite since childhood and honest and prudent by nature. He lived with his three brothers in a thatched cottage and owned 50 mu of land. When he became rich, he did not increase his income. He only used a cloth quilt once every ten years, but changed it when it was damaged by rats, and then repaired it to clothe his son. He never brought his family burden with him when he was an official.

This one was even more tragic. Before he became an official, his family owned fifty acres of land. Normally speaking, he was considered a lower-middle farmer.

After he took office, the situation at home did not change at all. He used the same quilt for ten years, and had to replace it with a new one when it was bitten by rats. He also had to mend the old one to make it a cotton-padded jacket for his son. The people at home could not even come to live with him in the capital.

The Minister of Personnel is a second-rank official in Beijing, the highest rank in the Ministry of Personnel among the six ministries.

The Minister of Personnel is also the head of the Six Ministries and the head of civil servants. He is in charge of the appointment and dismissal, examination, promotion, demotion, transfer, and conferring of honors on officials across the country.

Such a difficult position.

Not even as good as an ordinary person who owns a few acres of land.

This was the general situation of officials in the late Hongwu period.

The integrity of officials, whether good or bad, is still recorded, which has the meaning of going down in history.

Moreover, it developed into a situation where officials had an unspoken gift of filial piety - a regular salary of silver.

The local county magistrate could get one to two thousand taels of silver from this money. This is the origin of the saying "ten years as a clean magistrate can earn you one hundred thousand taels of silver."

There is really no place to check whether the officials are poor.

If you are caught being greedy, you will die a worthy death.

For those who are not corrupt, no matter how much they serve the country and the people, and how great the political achievements their superiors have achieved with their assistance, they may be explained in just a few simple words, such as "so-and-so official has made remarkable achievements with the assistance of capable clerks."

"You want the horse to run, but you don't want it to eat grass."

Zhang Xin also summed it up in more popular language.

Hongwu was still relatively good, at least he could still get food.

Being an honest official in the Yongle, Xuande and Zhengtong dynasties was a real tragedy.

My father-in-law had to take the blame for the excessive issuance of treasure notes by the previous emperor of the Yongle Dynasty. However, my father-in-law himself went to the West, built the imperial city, and conquered Mongolia, all of which cost money.

The father-in-law was also quite ruthless. He did not want to increase taxes to deprive the people, but instead deprived the officials of their salaries, and issued treasure notes at a discount... He also issued things... Zhu Gaochi was not well-received at the time, and he could not save himself, so he could only let his father-in-law do whatever he wanted.

This set a precedent.

During the Xuande period, high-ranking officials like the Minister of Rites could not even be buried after their death.

Zou Shiyan, a native of Yidu, was the Minister of Rites. He went to visit the graves during the Qingming Festival, and when he came back, he had just reached Tongzhou when he was gone.

His followers were unable to afford the money to send him to the capital. The then Shangshu Lu Zhen reported this to the court, and Zhanji ordered the post station to send someone to send him back to his hometown for burial.

In the first year of the Zhengtong reign, Liu Zhun, the censor of Guangxi Province, was appointed as an official after being awarded the title of Jinshi. His monthly salary was one stone and five dou of rice, which was not enough to support his mother, wife and children at home. He had to borrow money from his colleagues and borrowed thirty stones of rice. In the end, he died of illness and was unable to repay the money.

At that time, there was a minor official who ranked first in the imperial examination and became a Hanlin editor. When he was demoted to the deputy envoy of Fujian Maritime Customs, his meager salary was not enough to cover his expenses, so he had to make a living by selling calligraphy in the local area.

On the contrary, those who are good at scheming and dare to take and collect, spend day and night on the flower boats listening to songs and touching hands.

If we don't reform now, the situation will really get worse and worse.

"In the imperial grandfather's court, there were still quite a few honest people, but they were treated like cattle and horses by the imperial grandfather, loyal ministers who worked hard until their death. Alas,"

Zhu Gaochi sighed again.

"If there is a problem, just fix it. It's not difficult. You can do it."

Zhang Xin was very sure that Zhu Gaochi could do it.

In his previous life, Zhu Di and Zhu Gaochi really had a bad relationship. Zhu Di obviously disliked Zhu Gaochi's scheming, and Zhu Gaochi secretly despised his father for being a mere military man. In addition, there were his two younger brothers-in-law, as well as the court officials and subordinates who were eager to watch the fun and sow discord.

The situation at that time did not allow Zhu Gaochi to show off too much, so when Zhu Di scolded Zhu Gaochi in the court, he really meant it.

Now, not really.

It's half true and half acting. The mother-in-law is still around and won't tolerate the father-in-law doing whatever he wants.

"My wife really thinks highly of me!"

Zhu Gaochi was flattered by Zhang Xin, and he felt happier both physically and mentally, but he still had to be humble in his words as usual.

"How can I look down on the father of my child?"

Zhang Xin added more praise.

"Okay, okay, I got it!"

Zhu Gaochi's mouth was grinning from ear to ear and he hugged Zhang Xin with satisfaction.

The couple fell asleep quickly.

Zhu Gaochi, who had been praised by Zhang Xin, spent his time thinking about how to increase the salaries of officials across the country, except for attending the morning court on behalf of his father every day.

"How about the job field?"

Zhu Gaochi kept Xia Yuanji for a small meeting after the morning court session.

He looked at the salaries of officials in the previous dynasty, and found that they all had a particularly stable source of income - official land. He felt that this was quite suitable for the current situation.

"How much land is left? More than half is occupied by military households, 30% of the official land is gone, and there is no way to divide the private land. The land granted by the royal palaces in various places is all taken from the most fertile land in the prefectures and counties."

Xia Yuanji is not pouring cold water on you, this is the current situation.

"The prince's can be moved. Wait until my father comes back to confirm this."

Zhu Gaochi dared to speak out, which meant he had a plan in mind.

"Your Highness, are you sure?"

Xia Yuanji didn't dare to think about it.

He was also an honest official, but he had nothing at home and was so poor that all he had left was his official uniform.

"My grandfather is their father, and my father is just their elder brother..."

Zhu Gaochi did not give a direct answer either.

"Since Your Highness mentioned this, I also have a number that I would like to show Your Highness."

Actually, Xia Yuanji did not trust the people of the Zhu family very much, and he always left room for maneuver in everything he did. But at this moment, he felt that Zhu Gaochi was really trustworthy, so he showed Zhu Gaochi a set of extremely terrifying numbers that he had thought of while standing in the court today.

The whole country supplies the capital with 4 million shi of grain every year.

The rice expenditure for the various royal palaces was 8.53 million dan of grain.

Gap: 4.53 million shi of grain.

"Nonsense, how can there be so many!"

Zhu Gaochi wants to turn against you, do you think the kings are pigs!!!

"I am definitely not exaggerating. The expenditures of these royal palaces are not for now, but for a hundred years to come."

Xia Yuanji was not frightened by Zhu Gaochi's anger.

He has always been good at mental arithmetic.

Today, the Ministry of Rites discussed the issue of conferring titles on the children of princes.

He silently calculated in his mind: sons give birth to grandchildren, grandchildren give birth to sons, this is a number that increases exponentially. In the end, he was shocked by the number he calculated.

This is the old story. There are rice pieces on the chessboard, and each piece is a multiple of the previous one.

The first grid is for one grain of rice, which means the late emperor; the second grid is for two grains of rice, which means the late empress and the late noble concubine; the third grid is for four grains of rice, which means the late virtuous concubine and the late imperial concubine; the fourth grid suddenly becomes eight people, which means the late empress, the noble concubine and the late virtuous concubine gave birth to four children.

In the end, the number was simply impossible to estimate.

A prince can only have one principal wife, two concubines, and countless concubines, and they can give birth to countless children.

A concubine has no salary, but she has children.

One can receive the annual salary of a title at the age of ten. Assuming that each person lives to be sixty years old, this would be a huge expense.

The previous emperor had set the annual income of the imperial court at 4 million dan of grain. A hundred years later, it was not enough to support the royal family.

"Really that much?"

Zhu Gaochi vaguely felt that this number was not false.

"Not only are the expenses of the royal family so high, but it is also unclear whether the land tax can still be so high. The emperor has set a precedent for the imperial farm, and the princes should have already started to enclose land by now."

Xia Yuanji didn't dare to speak ill of Zhu Di to his face, but he dared to do so behind his back.