Gu Qi, she just wants to farm

Chapter 256: Officials and businessmen (1)

"Don't say that, Master Liu of our county is a very good man!"

Jiang Ping's casual suspicion caused dissatisfaction on the middle-aged man's face.

Xu Shi also thought that Jiang Pingping and others were foreigners, so he held back his anger and patiently explained: "When the drought first started, the officials above did not allow official food to be released, and several rice shops and food stores in the city were busy closing their doors. The price starts from the price of the shop and the warehouse.

It was Mr. Liu who brought people to talk with each other and asked those grain stores to cut prices and release grain. Our Lushan County did not become chaotic at the beginning.

Later, the epidemic became more and more serious, and those rice shops and grain stores could not hold on and closed one after another, and some simply moved out of Lushan County.Liu Da had no choice but to transfer a grain of rice from another county by disposing of all the money in his family in private.

It was originally a free gift from the porridge shop opened outside the government office, but later it couldn't hold on anymore and began to collect money.It's just that the price is lower than in the past when there was no disaster. "The middle-aged man sighed with emotion while speaking.

Jiang Ping was surprised by the middle-aged man's words, but at the same time moved a little: "It sounds like you, Mr. Liu, are indeed a rare and good official."

Shunzi also nodded, just a little strange: "If you want to give free food and porridge to the people of a county, even if it's just for a few days, it's not enough for hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

Is his official salary enough for serving porridge for as long as your county man? "

"Nature is not enough.

I heard that Mr. Liu's salary has been exhausted long ago, and later Mr. Liu used the property of his family to support him.

According to the news from the people working in the government office, Mr. Liu even took out Mrs. Liu's dowry.An angry Mrs. Liu returned to her natal home early with her children. "

Gu Qi was thoughtful when he heard the words.

According to the official salary of the Dakang Dynasty, the adults of the county government are the fourth grade, and the monthly salary is about 120 shi.However, in order to facilitate the distribution of salaries, most of the officials exchanged them into silver and distributed them to various places.

Of course, the exchange price for silver issued by the government is naturally exchanged with the pricing method of official grain collection.It doesn't care about the market price at all, and it doesn't care whether the local weather is good and the harvest is good or there is no harvest.

They are all calculated as one tael of silver per stone of rice grain.And then all the way to the distribution, it is necessary to deduct some seventy-seven eighty-eight expenses.In the end, the salary of 120 shi was in the hands of a fourth-rank county mansion, but it was barely a hundred taels of silver.

The salary of nearly 100 taels a month is naturally a huge sum of money for an ordinary family or a small businessman.But if it is put on a fourth-rank county official who needs to support a large family and needs to be favored and entertained at any time, it is just a drop in the bucket.It's hard to even get by.

This has also led to the fact that most local officials need a large amount of private property to support the expenses of going in and out of their own houses and the running of favors, as well as extra money for year-end assessment and scheduling.

In the long run, it is inevitable that there will be some corrupt officials in the local area.Of course, as long as they don't go too far, the officials at the top will just turn a blind eye and close one eye.

When the water is clear, there will be no fish. In this case, pull out a wave and raise a new wave.As long as within this system, almost no officials can really avoid corruption.

After all, it is impossible for all officials to use Hai Rui as a role model.If this is the case, I'm afraid that the whole physique will be more completely messed up.Sometimes corrupt officials are better than disorderly management.

It's just that Gu Qi now listens to the meaning of this middle-aged man's words. This county mansion Mr. Liu has a good reputation in Lushan County, at least he is loved by the people in the city.

In this way, Mr. Liu will obviously not do too outrageous and absurd things in the county. At least he can't do such things as tax deductions, private collection of bribes, or personal moral loss.

In this way, the only thing that can generate income is the original private property or the wife's dowry, which can be used as a subsidy if it is properly operated.Of course, generally speaking, it is not bad that these outputs can support daily expenses, even if there is little accumulation, it will not be too much.

If it is really used to go to other counties to buy high-priced private food for porridge relief, obviously it will not last long.

After all, this is a county town, and before the epidemic, Lushan County had a population of 30 to [-].It is far from being comparable to a village or a town, nor is it comparable to the small-scale donations of porridge and food by a few merchants at their doorsteps on weekdays.

Such a large-scale and long-term porridge and food distribution can't be supported by Mr. Liu even if he has gold and silver mountains. supported.

After all, even if you only lose one penny for one person, 10 people will be 100 pennies or 20 taels of silver, and [-] people will lose two hundred silvers.

But this will last forever, where only a loss of 200 taels of silver is enough.

Thinking like this, Gu Qi also asked the question.

Sure enough, the middle-aged man said again: "It's not enough to just post the money privately, and later Master Liu went to Linhang to ask for help.

You don't know if you want to come.Mr. Liu was born in the Liu family in Linhang. I heard that the Liu family is a great noble family in Linhang.It was also for this reason that Master Liu brought back a batch of rice from Linhang after spending all his money.

For this reason, he was almost robbed by those gangsters who did evil on the road.Thanks to the green forest heroes and righteous people who met later, he protected Mr. Liu all the way back to our Lushan County.

However, this food did not last long.

Later, the people in our county were grateful for Mr. Liu's kindness, and they were really sorry that Mr. Liu did this for us, so they spontaneously organized donations and handed over the money to Mr. Liu, so that Mr. Liu would sell it for us. For food.

Later, the epidemic became more and more serious. Even if there was money in the Yuzhou government, it would not be able to buy much food. In addition, the money of the people was not counted. After a few donations, there was no more money.

Immediately afterwards, in addition to food, the water sources in Lushan County became less and less, especially in the county town, only a dozen wells on Liuhang Street and the government office were still producing water.

If there is no food, there is still a way to do it, but if the water is cut off, there is really no way.

It was also at that time that Mr. Liu advised us that if we had relatives and friends in other prefectures to seek refuge or had other outlets, it is better to go to seek refuge early and come back when the drought in Yuzhou prefecture eases.

I still remember that Master Liu was very dry and thin when he came out that day, and his complexion was not much different from that of the refugees outside the city.

Later, when it comes to letting the people in the city find their own way out, their eyes are all red, and the people who watch it feel blocked.

In the past three years, there is no one in our Lushan County who does not miss Master Liu.Even my brother-in-law, who moved away early, occasionally sent letters back, and would ask how Master Liu is doing now. "

The middle-aged man with a beard started to look normal, but when he said this, he couldn't help but choked up his voice:
"Now you can also see that the total population of Lushan County is less than [-]. The bustling shops are closed, the good houses are also locked, and everyone is gone. The city is also deserted."

(End of this chapter)