[Comprehensive History] Clothes are all over the world

In July, China, which is deeply affected by the monsoon, ushered in a big test.

When it was raining in the south, the northerners squatted in the dry and cracked ground and sighed. After a while, when it was raining in the north, it was the southerners who sighed and worried.

But no matter who sighed, none of them sighed as much as the Ming officials in Yingtianfu.

I have to say that those who can keep the black hat under Zhu Yuanzhang's hands are basically the talents among the talents.Emperor Hongwu had an incomparably accurate vision of people, and all the people he named became pillars of talent in later generations.

In history, many of Zhu Di's capable men and strangers had already emerged in the Hongwu Dynasty, and were planted by Zhu Yuanzhang in various parts of the country for hard work and cultivation.

It's a pity that Emperor Hongwu never dreamed that the little beets he planted everywhere were not used by his chosen heir to the throne, but instead were transplanted to his son Tian Zhong who rebelled against his grandson.

Some of these people helped Emperor Yongle overthrow his grandson, and some of them followed the change of the throne and became the ministers of the Yongle Dynasty.Although there were quite a few upright people among them who paid the price with their lives for not wanting to be an official for Zhu Di, the number was still much smaller than the former.

In short, Emperor Yong Le, who was far behind his father in cultivating talents, can personally speak out how useful the officials who survived Hong Wunian were.

But now, most of these officials are still struggling.

"Thank God, fortunately, the imperial examination was held this year, and we have more people here, otherwise my wife should have buried me by now..." The household official, who looked like a ghost, slumped on a chair and muttered to himself. Looking at the abacus that has been ground out, half of the soul has already flown in the air, and the other half is about to vomit.

The whole person is still a breath away from being killed in the line of duty.

"Yeah, a few of them have to lie down and go out at this time of year. This year is really good." Another small official replied, he was a little more energetic than the previous one, and he could still drag his feet around the room at this moment.

Seeing the look of his colleague who was dying, the petty official didn't even want to move over, but stood still and spurred: "Keep working, don't stop, if you stop now, more documents will be piled up !"

"No, let me rest for a while, I want to have a dream without a plan!" The first official wailed, "If I am guilty, then let the "Law of the Ming Dynasty" punish me instead of making me go to bed every year. It's going to be a summer that can never be settled!"

"I'm sorry." As if responding to his words, there was a crisp knock on the door, and a young man with a stack of papers came in, "Everyone, this is the water and drought plan sent by the counties and counties in Henan. There are a total of fourteen copies of damaged messages, please sign for acceptance."

The first little official buried his head back silently, and let out a miserable sob.Seeing this, another small official hurriedly took two steps and stood in front of his colleagues, trying to save the face of the headquarters, but he could block one but not all of them.

Right behind him, apart from a few clerks in the planning department who were making calculations blankly, most of them were paralyzed in every corner of the room.

This is also a feature of the department, and similar scenes happen every summer and autumn.

The household department is the most trivial and most important department among the six departments. The busiest department with the largest employee base and the highest resignation rate is the planning department. The only job of this department is to prepare accounts and reconcile accounts.

With the expansion of the territory of the Ming Empire and the complexity of economic activities, the manpower of this department has been expanding, but no matter how they expand, they will never be able to keep up with business needs.

Therefore, every time the reconciliation day comes, even the chief officer has to roll up his sleeves, but one more labor force can't change the image of the department from top to bottom being unkempt and slumped like a dead dog during the reconciliation period.

Over time, the colleagues in the household department have become accustomed to their appearance.But the young man in front of him is a newcomer, ahem, he must save some face in front of the newcomer.

The little official counted the documents one by one, and after confirming that they were not damaged, he stamped them on the receipt. He nodded dignifiedly and said with grace, "I have received it, thank you for your hard work."

"Where is the duty?" The low-grade young man in a blue robe bowed slightly, and suddenly looked like he remembered something, "Dare to ask if the account books sent the day before yesterday are correct, and if they are correct, I can hand them over to you." , don’t bother you to send it off.”

The half-spirited little official murmured like a maiden in spring, "Here comes the debt collector. Obviously we are already like this, and you don't care whether we are tired or not, oh, you don't have anything to do." Care, you only care when you get the ledger."

youth:"……"

"Ahem, shut up!" The receptionist kicked him, knocking him over completely.After changing to a face-down posture, the man completely fell silent.

The little official put his hands up again and smiled politely: "There are still some finishing tasks that have not been completed, and we will send them over after the calculation is done."

The young man was taken aback, and said with some hesitation: "Is the calculation department short of manpower?"

"Yes, it is extremely insufficient. Would you like to join us?" As soon as the little official finished speaking, I don't know if it was an illusion. , very penetrating.

However, the young man didn't react too much, he thought for a while, and said: "I have something to do at hand, I'm afraid it will be difficult to help, but if there is simply a shortage of people, why don't you hire some helpers temporarily?"

Recruiting temporary workers, of course they have thought about it, but the reality is too cruel.

Emperor Hongwu was a very stingy emperor. He blocked the number of people for each department. Every time he added a person, he had to report frantically. When the superior finally approved it, he almost had to ask his family again.

As for the recruitment of temporary workers, that is not even thinking about it.

Emperor Hongwu said: The salary I gave you is to do this job. If you can't finish it, it's your lack of ability. What does it have to do with me.

Therefore, if the "insufficient" courtiers want to hire helpers or temporary workers, they have to pay for it themselves.

It must be mentioned here that the salaries of officials in the Hongwu Dynasty were very low. If they did not engage in corruption and pervert the law to fish in troubled waters, it would be difficult to support their own family with this salary, let alone hire some staff with accounting skills.

These days, those who can do abacus and keep accounts are already professionals. Those who have this ability can basically settle down outside and have a job, so why come to them to work.

Of course, the most important thing is - the salary here is low.

To put it bluntly, the salary of low-level employees like them is probably not as high as that of the accountant in the big restaurant outside. At least they have rewards and small red envelopes.So, even if all the departments work together to raise money to hire people, how many can they hire?People probably don't like that little money at all.

It would be wrong to think so!The green-robed scholar shook his finger, "Many candidates were admitted after the imperial examination this year, but many failed. Many of those candidates are still staying in Beijing for the next year."

"They know how to do math, they are well-known, and they have a clean family background. Being able to help the household department is considered an accumulation, and the money requirements are not too high. If the calculation department is really short of people, you might as well hire them, presumably they will also I would love to come and help."

The little official's eyes lit up when he heard the words, he turned around to discuss with the staff for a while, and through the help of this green-robed junior official, he got on the line with the candidates who were still in the capital.

This green-robed official is Mubai's roommate, Shen Er from Qiongzhou Prefecture, one of Xiangshan Scholars. His previous examination results were not high or low, and he was assigned to the household department as a fifth-rank official, which is not bad. Start.

Shen Er has a cheerful personality and likes to make friends. When he lived in Xiangshan Bookstore, he often chatted with other friends, and he stayed in the capital as an official, so naturally he did not break contact with his former friends.

Most of the examinees who stayed in Yingtianfu now had to fight for the next scientific examination, and the reason why they stayed in the capital instead of returning to their hometown was to see if there were any extra opportunities here.

After all, it is the capital of a country. Whether it is visiting famous teachers or making friends with high-ranking officials, it is a way out. No matter how bad it is, you can get some literary fame. If you can go directly to Shengting, you can also add impression points during the exam.

These people are still living in the dormitory area converted from warehouses, but the current Xiangshan Bookstore is not what it used to be.

Because there is a grandson of the emperor here, and the rate of passing the exam is astonishingly high, and the advertising effect is full, the dormitory area on Xiaogaopo has become a holy place for checking in in the capital, and is sought after by candidates and students.

Because of this, the shops that were originally due to the gathering effect of the candidates did not close their doors after the scientific examination, but sold the same items as the candidates in place. They changed the "No. "Pen" and other names, the sales volume has increased by more than five or six times. (That's right, the first and third places are all from here!)

And those second-generation officials simply bought the land and transformed it into a more comfortable dormitory for the students who came to live in the culture.As a result, the investment that was originally at a complete loss has turned into a profit after half a year, making the tails of these second-generation officials all cocked.

But now, walk up the hillside along the steps of the examinees, look at the Confucian Temple, drink the spring water here, and visit No. Take a bath in the bathroom where the predecessors took a bath, feel the breath of wisdom, and finally sleep here for a night, which has become a standard tourist procedure here.

Of course, don't forget to buy peripheral products before you leave.As the saying goes, the slaughter of scenic spots is not slaughter, but feelings. Buying tourist souvenirs is a very ceremonial thing in this era.

And on Xiaogaopo, the best-selling products are all around the little emperor's grandson.

The straw hats bought by the eldest grandson of the emperor, the candied haws eaten, the shuttlecocks kicked, the paper kites let go, and the biscuits praised, all have Mu Bai's name on them from food, clothing, housing and transportation.

As for whether these things are authorized by Mubai... just like the wife cake does not need the wife's authorization, and the dragon beard cake and the dragon are fine, most of these things have nothing to do with Mubai.

At least he must have never used such a thing as "the bib used by His Royal Highness the Emperor"! !

There is no way, this is the distress that he has to bear as the first IP family of Ming Dynasty, at least he can comfort himself that his name has indeed stimulated the local economy, which is considered a good thing.

Xiangshan Book House No. [-] was bought directly by the crown prince with money after Mubai was taken back. The old father renovated the house, and according to his son’s wishes, it was only open to the public during each scientific examination. All the rules were compared with Mubai’s at that time. It is set to help candidates who are financially distressed to reduce the pressure of life.

In normal times, Xiangshan Shushe No. [-] is a small library, where the homework notes donated by fifteen Xiangshan bookstores including Mu Bai are displayed for those who come to copy and study.

In addition, under the promotion of the emperor's eldest grandson, starting from the 16th year of Hongwu, every candidate who came to the capital to take the general examination for the first time could receive a subsidy from the imperial court and provide them with free bus access to Beijing.

In order to distinguish it from officials traveling on official business, the bus that candidates take is specially assigned a small flag with the name of [考].All vehicles and horses flying this flag can stay in official post stations for free along the way, and enter the city for free.

Of course, what is more important than free treatment is this sense of honor that everyone is looking at. If there is no accident, the journey to Beijing on the bus with a small flag can be regarded as the highlight of life.

However, compared with the happy treatment of these future candidates, the current candidates are still struggling for living expenses.

After Shen Er made a match for them, some candidates who failed the exams connected with the Ministry of Household Affairs and got assignments abroad.

Although the money given by the Ministry of Households is really worthless in terms of labor costs, but is working for the government called part-time work?This is an early internship!Maybe you can be admitted in advance after practicing, wouldn't that be flattering?

This kind of opportunity to connect with the official would be robbed if he didn't give money. These candidates are simply grateful to Shen Er.

But two months later, they don't feel that way.

If there is no war, the busiest time of the year for the household department is mainly concentrated in summer and autumn. Summer is busy calculating losses, and autumn is busy with summer grain and taxation.

The Ministry of Household Affairs must calculate the amount of tax they should pay based on the basic data of each province and county. At that time, these amounts basically match the money, grain and income and expenditure submitted by the prefectures and counties of the Chief Secretary before closing the account.

This move can effectively avoid the occurrence of tax evasion and tax evasion, but there will inevitably be errors in actual operation.

At this time, the tax to be transported is grain, and there will inevitably be losses in the process of transporting grain. In addition, the local financial personnel are not professional enough, and it is easy to make mistakes in the calculation of addition and subtraction.

And if it is found that the numbers do not match, the entire account book must be recalculated, and local officials must also re-copy the account book and return to the local area to re-stamp it.

It doesn't matter if you are in a nearby place, you can go back and forth for ten days or so, but in remote areas like Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, it is impossible to go back and forth without a month.

"So, they thought of a way." A candidate who was working in the household department swallowed, he took a breath, and said to Mu Bai, "Before the reconciliation team travels, the local area has already prepared a book If there is a mistake in the blank account book, copy it directly into the blank account book."

"...And the account books have been stamped with the official seal of the local government in advance."

The crowd changed when they heard it.