The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty

The people can leave, but the officials cannot.

Even though all the officials were so frightened that their faces turned pale, their two bodies were fighting, and many people were retching, they could not leave. They could only sit on the small bench and wait for the end of the execution.

In fact, whether they are the first batch of corrupt officials or the second batch of relatives of Bian Xiong, Huang Xingfu, and Zhu Maogong, these are just appetizers and not the protagonists of today!

Therefore, the officials could only endure their discomfort and did not dare to take any other action.

However, at this time, even though there were still a large number of onlookers who had not left and were forcing themselves to stay at the scene, everyone was already numb and speechless as they looked at the heads and corpses on the ground.

Such bloody and violent scenes are like purgatory on earth!

The next moment, another group of death row prisoners were brought up, all of them gentlemen and scholars!

This time, there were no old, weak, women or children inside, but the shock to the onlookers was even greater than the previous group!

Because these people in front of them are all gentry and country squires that they know and are familiar with, and some of them even have a large family of gentry who often do good deeds!

"why is that?"

"Why are Mr. Liu and his family also up there?"

Liu Congjing was heartbroken and fell into despair.

"The reason why the imperial court treats scholars so favorably is so that you can study and cultivate your virtues without worrying about your livelihood. But it's bad for you. As your official position becomes bigger and bigger, you get more and more money, but you have forgotten the kindness of the imperial court to you! "

The official salary of the cabinet bachelors is already so low, and the salary of those lower-level officials is even lower.

However, as an official, who would be stupid enough to live on these basic salaries?

In order to allow officials to maintain a decent life, the imperial court had no choice but to give officials some additional allowances in addition to their regular salaries. Although there was no such thing as "integrity silver" in the Ming Dynasty, the purpose of these allowances was to enable local officials to "enhance integrity."

The people no longer cursed, and Liu Xuewen and others became honest.

When Liu Congjing heard Tang Hao's words, he was stunned and fell into memories.

At that time, he was only an assistant official and the county magistrate of a county. He had no power and could not change anything. It was precisely because he had seen too much darkness in officialdom that he retired from office and returned home on the grounds of illness.

Immediately afterwards came the deafening shouts, which resounded throughout Jinan Fucheng!

All of a sudden, the scene exploded!

"When has the meager imperial salary become an excuse for you to take corruption and bribery? The basic salary of the imperial salary is indeed not high, but what about the various welfare policies you enjoy? The total sum can at least guarantee that you will have enough food and drink to support your family. Are you all a family?"

"The imperial court has always given preferential treatment to scholars. As long as you gain fame, you can enjoy tax exemptions and exemptions without having to bear the burden of corvee labor. All you need to do is study with peace of mind, cultivate virtue, and grow into a capable official!"

The latter didn't quite understand what he meant and subconsciously asked: "Isn't it?"

Ever since Huang Xingfu found him, the head of the Liu family had hesitated and hesitated, but in the end he still couldn't resist the temptation of real money, and he couldn't refuse the chief envoy who was a feudal official, so He just got on the pirate ship!

Smuggling means huge profits. Over the years, the Liu family has made a lot of money through this Japanese pirate smuggling business. The accumulated wealth even exceeds that of many gentry families that have been passed down for hundreds of years!

However, Liu Congjing became increasingly uneasy, especially when he heard that the imperial court had sent Tang Hao, the notorious Marquis of Zhongshan, to Shandong to suppress the Japanese. Liu Congjing immediately panicked and secretly found out Huang Xingfu wanted to withdraw from this dangerous transaction.

There's no way to argue with that, it's just the truth.

Liu Congjing was completely despairing at this moment, and there was nothing she dared not say.

As soon as these words came out, the soldiers immediately drew their swords and stood ready!

It wasn't until the White Lotus Demon Rebellion broke out in Juzhou, and Zhongshan Hou Tang Hao led his troops to Qingzhou to quell the rebellion, that Liu Congjing finally breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that Huang Xingfu had solved everything.

"Can't answer that, right?"

Facing the angry shouts of the people, Liu Congjing, whose hands were tied on the execution ground, showed a sad smile.

"Even if you take a step back, even if your salary is really meager, then don't fucking be this official? Is the imperial court begging you to be this official?"

He was originally from a scholarly family, and the Liu family was already a local nobleman when he became an official. Therefore, whether he became an official or not, it didn't seem to make much difference to him.

Seeing their murderous posture, the scene suddenly became quiet.

"I think you are so shameless and unloyal, do you think you have read all your books into the belly of a dog?"

"Tang Hou, I think you also know that the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty was corrupt and dark, not only in the court, but also in the local area!"

Because of this, Japanese pirates also focused on these things.

"Kill them!"

A foolhardy fool?

Oh, they even checked the specific accounts for you!

Huang Xingfu, Huang Xingfu, you damn fool!

However, it is easy to get on the boat but difficult to get off!

"Furthermore, the government's salary is meager, and it is paid at a discount, and some people are corrupt. If most middle and low-level officials are not corrupt and take bribes, how will they make a living and support their families?"

If Liu Congjing had restrained his greed and not listened to Huang Xingfu's temptation, he would not be in this disaster today.

"Anyone who dares to make noise again will be thrown into prison!"

"Everything is too much and too little is too much. Emperor Taizu Gao set such a meager salary. His original intention was to prevent corruption, but instead it forced officials to become corrupt..."

Tang Hao did get up. He had been sitting quietly before.

Official salaries are divided into two types: real salary and discounted salary.

Hearing this, Liu Congjing's expression suddenly froze and he didn't know how to answer.

The salary drawn in real terms can be divided into three types: one is "monthly rice", which is roughly one stone per official per month, which is the basic guarantee for the official's monthly living; the second is "folded silk rice", which is based on Silk-folding rice, official salary is paid out two months a year, usually one piece of silk, worth seven dollars in silver; the third is "silk-breaking rice", that is, silver is made into rice, and it is paid out ten months a year. It's silver rice.

Seeing this scene, Liu Xuewen and others shouted even louder, and even began to curse their good father Liu Congjing for being crazy, colluding with Japanese pirates, and treason against the country and the people!

Liu Congjing stared blankly at the ugly appearance of these nephews, and shed two lines of tears in her eyes. The moment of regret became a reality.

"Liu Congjing, when you were an official, you always had a reputation as a virtuous person. How come you lost your conscience after becoming an official?"

The most craziest thing is to increase your extra income by invading and plundering people's wealth and money. In three years, you can get one hundred thousand snowflakes of silver from the prefecture. This is this kind of beast!

There are also various gray incomes and black incomes. For example, for officials from various provinces who come to Beijing to congratulate each other, all provincial governments, prefectures, and counties need to present "ceremonies and elder husbands"; for example, according to the customs of the Ming Dynasty officialdom, whenever In the year of Hajj, local magistrates, county magistrates and above officials "must bring one or two thousand gold chariots to the capital, deliver them to various yamen, and pay for envoy fees", which is the cost of paying piers to the capital officials.

Liu Congjing opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but in the end nothing came out.

"quiet!"

Due to water, soil and climate reasons, tea cultivation was extremely rare in the ancient north, but this does not mean that it did not exist.

Today, the Liu family has become a large gentry family in Jinan Prefecture. Not only does it own thousands of acres of fertile land, but it also specializes in the tea business. It almost controls the entire tea trade in Jinan Prefecture. Later, through Huang Xingfu's matchmaking, they chose to join smuggling in order to make huge profits. Buy and sell.

For example, Jinan Prefecture in Shandong Province has many extremely famous teas, including tea from around Baotu Spring, as well as Nanshan Tea, which is often mentioned by literati.

The current head of the Liu family is called Liu Congjing. He once served as the county magistrate of Gong County. He was known for his integrity during his tenure as an official. Soon after he became an official and returned to his hometown, he started the most common trick of "farming, reading and heirloom" among gentry and country squires, annexing fields and accumulating money. family wealth, and then cultivate the children of the clan, allowing them to gain fame through the imperial examinations, and either become officials in the court or become gentry, continue to annex fields and expand the family industry.

Tang Hao glanced at these bastards expressionlessly, and then fixed his eyes on Liu Congjing.

Everyone is corrupt and making money, so why are you pretending to be noble?

But if you are just "working thousands of miles to be an official just for money" and have no moral conscience, then the life of these corrupt officials will be very easy!

Looking at the entire two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, if you pick out any official at random, 99% of them will be unclean. This is the current situation of the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty!

The government is corrupt and the officialdom is dark. Even supervisory agencies such as the Kyoto Procuratorate and the local Procuratorate have become places of filth and evil. It can be said that they are completely rotten to the bone!

But this is not the reason why you can be corrupt and accept bribes!

"Liu Congjing, you just said that officials are corrupt and accept bribes because the imperial salary is too low, so they have to be corrupt?"

Tang Hao sneered, then looked around, scanning the gentry waiting to be beheaded on the execution ground, and then looked at the more than 500 officials sitting under the stage!

"Spare your life, Hou Tang!"

So Liu Congjing thought that he would finally make a speech for the gentry and Jin gentry, and it was also for the Ming Dynasty that he once loved but betrayed in the end!

For a time, the people were talking a lot, and some even started shouting and asking questions, trying to speak up for these normally hypocritical gentry and gentry.

"After all, he is an official of the Ming Dynasty, but he still has to rely on support from his family to survive. Who would be willing to be an official of the Ming Dynasty?"

However, he never expected that housebreaking and housebreaking would still happen.

What's more, this is a pirate ship!

After Huang Xingfu scolded Liu Congjing, he comforted him with kind words, claiming that nothing could go wrong and that the Marquis of Zhongshan was a brave and foolhardy man, and there were plenty of ways to get rid of him.

Therefore, corrupt officials should all die, there is no reason!

When Zhongshan Hou spoke, the whole scene suddenly became quiet.

"Yes, am I mistaken? Master Liu is a well-known philanthropic person in Jinan Mansion!"

Mou Bin accurately stated the types of goods provided by these gentry families and the amount of profits obtained from them!

"Kill them!"

Facing the repeated questions from the Marquis of Zhongshan, all the gentry and gentry present were speechless.

For example, the Liu family of Jinan Prefecture is a well-known official family. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, all dynasties have had children who have served as officials in the court. For example, Liu Shimin, who was elected magistrate of Gaoyi County in the fifth year of Hongzhi, has a great political reputation.

"Tanghou!"

Emperor Taizu Gao hated corrupt officials the most, so he established this incredibly low salary system. It was so low that it could only ensure that officials would not die of hunger, but it was basically impossible to live happily with this salary.

He didn't get angry, after all, the Ming Dynasty's salary was notoriously meager.

Mou Bin saw this and scolded him sternly.

But it is precisely because of this that officials in the Ming Dynasty had to take bribes and corruption to support their families.

"From the moment you gained fame, you have enjoyed all kinds of preferential treatment from the Ming Dynasty. After you became an official, you were even provided with various welfare measures. As a result, you people are good. In the name of "meager salary", you are blatantly corrupt. You take bribes and steal people's wealth, but you don't feel any guilt at all, and you still think it's natural. Who the hell gave you this kind of power?"

Oh, the salary is meager, is it really meager?

"The same goes for you. You might as well ask yourselves. From the moment you gained fame, you began to enjoy the various benefits and privileges that the court gave to scholars, right? Isn't it just a waste of money that the court gave you by exempting you from taxes and labor?"

Such a low official salary is not even as good as the wages and wages of ordinary yamen service personnel, which inevitably leads to the living dilemma of "insufficient food and clothing" for these lower-level officials.

But no one even listened to what he was barking at!

When a person is about to die, he will become crazy because of fear. For example, Liu Xuewen in front of him, after going crazy for a while in order to survive, he couldn't help but look at Tang Hao and cried hoarsely.

After all, Kankai trade does not happen every year, and it is mainly controlled by the Muromachi shogunate and the Ouchi clan. If they want to get a share of the pie, they can only do this kind of smuggling business.

Tang Hao was expressionless when he heard this.

No one dares to provoke these murderous soldiers at this time!

After all, he had just beheaded so many people without even blinking!

For example, travel allowance, "travel fee", "discount fee", etc.; such as firewood silver, firewood silver in winter plus firewood silver in leap months; such as "ling give silver", are some normal official income.

"Then I would like to ask you, how much has your Liu family changed since you became an official, or since your ancestors gained fame?"

He knew very well that the Marquis of Zhongshan in front of him, with his ability and means, coupled with his rescue efforts, was likely to dominate the Ming Dynasty in the future and become an important minister of the court who was inferior to one person and surpassed ten thousand people!

The monthly salary of the warehouse official is only one stone; the salary of the postmaster is only seven taels of silver a year.

What is meager is just the basic salary, not the overall income!

Even if we don’t talk about the taxes they exempted and exempted, in addition to issuing basic salaries, the imperial court also formulated a series of additional measures. In total, it is indeed lower than those of the previous imperial courts, but it is also much higher than that of ordinary people. What a pittance to speak of!

"Corrupt officials are corrupt officials. No one forces you to be corrupt. Gentlemen in ancient times could live comfortably in a shabby room. You are just purely greedy. It is not enough to enjoy various preferential treatments from the court. You also want to make more. Money, live a more prosperous life, then who can you blame?”

Generally speaking, to put it bluntly, in the Ming Dynasty, if you want to be a good, law-abiding, honest and upright official, not only will your life be very difficult, but you will also be squeezed and suppressed by the entire officialdom!

One of the people shouted loudly, his whole body shaking with anger.

After receiving Huang Xingfu's assurance, Liu Congjing felt a little more at ease, but in the end he still had a guilty conscience. Ever since the Marquis of Zhongshan led his army to Shandong, he had not been able to eat well and could not sleep, fearing that one day this madman and reckless man would lead the army. The house was broken into and ransacked!

"That's not true. During the famine last year, Mr. Liu even opened a tent to give out porridge. I even received a bowl of rice porridge, and I was lucky enough to survive..."

Judging from this basic salary, the Ming Dynasty is obviously much lower than the Tang and Five Dynasties. The official salary is the thinnest in history!

According to inspections, the monthly salary of cabinet academicians is not half of that of the prime ministers in the Five Dynasties and the Northern Han Dynasty. Compared with the Tang Dynasty, it is even worse.

After it became quiet, Mou Bin took out a handful of new files and read out the evidence of the crimes of these gentry and country squires!

Most of them were the ones who provided goods and colluded with the Japanese pirates to smuggle and profit through the Japanese pirates channel!

Zhongshan Hou spoke for the first time and looked at Liu Congjing calmly.

Liu Congjing looked at the eldest son in whom he had always placed high hopes in disbelief, feeling so heartbroken that he couldn't breathe!

After hearing this, the other children of the Liu family all begged for mercy. They thought that by doing this regardless of face, they could ask for forgiveness from the Marquis of Zhongshan and survive!

Such an ugly face instantly provoked the onlookers to yell and curse. It was simply an act of an animal!

In the Ming Dynasty, which has strict etiquette and laws, filial piety is the first priority. Anyone who is unfilial is equivalent to being directly deprived of human rights. That is, he is a beast, and no one will treat him as a human being!

Liu Congjing, the county magistrate, really couldn't do it based on his basic salary alone.

However, his heirs were unwilling to accept their fate. Liu Congjing's eldest son Liu Xuewen was struggling wildly, screaming desperately, trying to save his life.

Hearing this, everyone laughed angrily.

"Kill them!"

The onlookers looked at Mr. Liu in disbelief, and the expressions on their faces gradually changed from shock to anger, with red-faced anger!

This kind of anger is not only based on the actions of these gentry and country squires, but also because the common people feel deceived!

They were like a group of fools, fooled and deceived by these ruthless gentry and country gentlemen, thinking that they were really kind-hearted people who were just seeking justice for them!

As a result, these unscrupulous beasts had sold them secretly a long time ago, colluded with the Japanese pirates to smuggle for profit, and earned countless huge profits. Then when they encountered disasters, they would symbolically use them to make some Doing good deeds, such as opening a tent to give porridge, building roads and bridges, etc., can earn some good reputation for yourself, and become a great philanthropist known far and wide!

Bah, disgusting, really disgusting to the extreme!

"Kill them!"

The income composition of officials in the Ming Dynasty can be roughly divided into the following two categories: first, normal income, mainly salary; second, additional income, including normal additional income, as well as various gray income and black income.

In the joint trade between Japan and the Ming Dynasty, the main purpose was to purchase specialties from the Central Plains such as raw silk, medicinal materials, tea, calligraphy and painting, books, etc. As long as they were transported to the territory of Japan, the profits would be huge.

Facing the sharp gaze of the Marquis of Zhongshan, all the gentry and gentry lowered their heads.

"These are all things my father did and have nothing to do with us!"

Tang Hao sneered and sat back down.

"cut!"