Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 443 Performance
Du Fenghe put on his official robe again, and two egrets frolicked on it.

Facing the mirror, looking at the dark green official robe, I felt a little uncomfortable for a while.In the past, the official robes of the Ming Dynasty were crimson from the first to the fourth rank, blue from the fifth to the seventh rank, and green from the eighth to the ninth rank, and the green rank was the lowest.

But now that Emperor Shaotian ascended the throne in Nanjing, he decided to change the color of the clothes, purple robes of the third rank and above, scarlet robes of the fourth and fifth ranks, green robes of the sixth and seventh ranks, and blue robes of the eighth and ninth ranks, and each has two shades of light and dark.

The turquoise and green colors have changed their status.

The prefect of Penglai, Dengzhou is a prefecture and county, which belongs to Shangzhou, so it is from the sixth rank.

"This green official gown is paired with this egret patch. My lord is really energetic today. I think it won't be long before I can change into the scarlet gown." Master Chen Xueyin praised.

Chen Xueyin is Du Fenghe's hometown fellow in Shaoxing, also from Juren. He also worked in Beijing for a few years, but never became an official.

To say that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were a huge number of masters in the officialdom, down to the county magistrate, up to the magistrate, governor, and governor. Officials at all levels had a staff team around them, ranging from a few small people to dozens or hundreds of people. None of these people belonged to the imperial establishment, but were privately hired assistant secretaries.

According to different duties, they are divided into Xingming Master, Qiangu Master, Shuqi Master, Playing Manuscript Master, etc. Some senior officials, and some masters are purely drinking and composing poetry.

Du Fenghe has been an official for ten years, and he also has a large staff team. Master Xing Ming is in charge of litigation and criminal laws, Master Qian Gu is in charge of taxes, money and food, Master Shu Qi is in charge of writing letters, and Master Zouan is responsible for writing manuscripts to superiors, etc. These masters The highest salaries are Xingming and Qiangu, both of which require very professional talents, and each person costs several hundred taels of silver a year, while the salaries of other masters like Shuqi are much lower.

In addition to raising four masters, Du Fenghe also had other private persons, such as bearers, attendants, etc., and even arranged for his own people to be headhunters and scribes.

The senior governors of the Ming Dynasty can bring Beijing officials with them when they take office, and provincial officials such as Buyin often take their posts with them. Examining the barbarian's situation, urging and supervising military supplies, writing books, treating illnesses, etc., in addition, it is also required to bring younger brothers and nephews to prepare for elbows and armpits, and family members for envoys.

These useful people around are all provided by the imperial court with rations, horses, fodder, etc.

As for low-level officials such as magistrates and county magistrates, many of the affairs of the yamen cannot be handled by one person after they take office. They also need to be shared by these masters and followers, and even help them seize power. It is entirely the responsibility of the officials themselves not to pay rations.

However, the salaries of officials are inherently low, and it is impossible to afford them. Therefore, the officialdom has always had its own set of unspoken rules. The division of officials in Li.

Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, an official like the prefect of the county magistrate needed an excellent staff team. If the staff team has experience, then this official can be easily. Not only will it be evaded by the officials below, but it will even lose money.

When Du Fenghe was the first magistrate, he lost more than 1 taels of silver, because the staff at that time were inexperienced.

"Master Chen, are all the greeting cards and gifts ready?"

After Dengzhou City was broken, Du Fenghe and his staff were all arrested, and they all starved for six or seven days. Fortunately, Du Fenghe finally managed to save the day and was appreciated. The word, which means temporary, remains to be seen, but at least the real job is still in hand.

He had met Chen Qianfu, and the first thing he did after getting back his official seal was to quickly ask for the release of his master and entourage, and restore his team first.

Most of his team are from Shaoxing.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Shaoxing’s masters were very famous, because Shaoxing was a big palace of imperial examinations, with a large number of scholars and scholars, and even Shaoxing people took the clerks as a business, forming the famous Shaoxing subordinate officials. Shaoxing scholars often went to the Yamen to work as clerks, and even served as teachers and staff for officials. They used the method of flying across the sea to accumulate qualifications for selecting officials. The highest can only do this) half from Shaoxing.

There are more than [-] masters in the world, and more than half of them are from Shaoxing.

The so-called no screen no government.

In fact, private employment became common in the Ming Dynasty, and the key reason for the prosperity of the shogunate was the unsound official system of the Ming Dynasty. For example, senior officials such as governors and governors used to belong to Beijing officials, and none of the temporary officials assigned by the imperial court belonged to officials. They take up the post alone, so naturally they can only recruit staff and bring entourage by themselves.

Later, the resident patrol and the excessive establishment of various Taoist priests also caused a shortage of officials. If there are officials but no officials, it can only be done privately.

Secondly, there are local government offices such as prefectures and counties, which belong to few officials, and their power is seriously robbed by the chief officials, especially in the county government, where the power in the county is almost exclusively monopolized by the county magistrate, and the subordinate officials and even some economic officials have no power. In the hands of officials, the chief official can't manage it, so naturally he can only manage it through his staff.

Another characteristic of the Ming Dynasty is that in local government, the subordinate officials were often hereditary from the local government. The power of subordinate staff, if the officials do not have a reliable private team, they will be emptied at all.

Another reason is that most of the officials in the Ming Dynasty came from imperial examinations. Many of them had studied for half their lives, and they only knew how to read the Four Books and Five Classics to do stereotyped writing. They had no experience in handling government affairs at all, so they needed the help of experienced staff after taking office.On the other hand, a large number of scholars took the imperial examination, and many of them inevitably failed the exam. The final way out could only be to be a court, enter the court, practice medicine, and become a litigator.

These two are more respectable, and they can even accumulate experience, and they can be elected as officials in the future.

Du Fenghe's team has been a partner for almost ten years. The members are relatively stable, and the cooperation is also very tacit. The followers of Muyou did not lose points.

For example, his criminal name, Old Master, has a salary of 500 taels a year, but he is also given a share of other festival and birthday gifts. We are very satisfied with this cooperation.

A relationship of prosperity.

"The 1 taels of silver are all used as gifts, so don't be stingy." Du Fenghe confessed that he felt very lucky to be able to recover this time, but the old man in the officialdom also knew that even if he was lucky this time, he should take care of it. It still cannot be less.

How to give gifts is also a university question. You can’t favor one or the other, and you can’t miss it. It’s a university question. If you don’t do it well, you will offend others.

Now that the emperor is stationed in Dengzhou, many ministers of civil and military affairs from the cabinet and six ministries are there, which is even more challenging.

1 taels of silver had to be properly arranged.

Master Chen also knew that Du Fenghe's 9 taels had been confiscated. Although he felt distressed, he could only accept it. After all, at least he survived and got an official.

"I heard that Long Live advocates frugality and dislikes extravagance, and even prohibits officials from accepting gifts and bribes indiscriminately. Shall we think about it?" Master Zhao reminded.

Du Fenghe said, "That's what I said, but how can an official in this world not make money? If you give a gift, maybe the Shangguan will not remember you, but if you don't give it, he will definitely remember you.

Whether the gifts should be given or have to be given, whether to receive them at that time is another matter. "

The friends of the Dong family sat there and studied for a long time, and finally drew up a gift list, who should give it, who should give it as a reward, how much to give, and it must be watertight. After repeated confirmation that there were no omissions, Du Fenghe asked his followers to take Use the money to buy gifts, or just pack them up.

Only then did he summon his masters and scribes to discuss business again.

Du Fenghe has four official masters, but there are several scribes under each master, so the whole team of masters adds up to less than 20 people.

"You tell me, how do I burn the first three fires when I am re-elected? Can I show my ability and achieve political achievements?" Du Fenghe also held back his energy in his heart, wanting to make some moves, after all, the emperor is on board Zhou, if he can achieve results, he will catch the eyes of the saints, and if he can be summoned, won't he be on the rise?

Such an opportunity is so rare, of course you have to seize it.

Mr. Xingming is the most important of all the masters, ranking higher than Mr. Qiangu, because Xingming is more professional, and it is easy to overturn and cause accidents if it is not handled well.

This master Chen is also from Shaoxing. He has been in prison for half his life and has no intention of official career. It is said that he has saved 5 to [-] taels of silver over the years, and bought land and properties in his hometown, which is also very good.

"I think we have to follow the policy of the imperial court. Long live the Northern Expedition and take Dengzhou by ourselves. Now we are sitting here and divide our troops to take Laizhou. It seems that we will stick to Denglai for a long time. Therefore, we have three axes. You have to start here."

"First of all, we need to be safe. Before the Qing court was very tight, we could only try our best to force the payment of money, etc., but it has already aroused the resentment of the people, and there are constant rebellions everywhere. We have to change the policy now, and we can't do this anymore."

Du Fenghe stroked his beard, "Old Master Chen, please tell me."

"First of all, put up notices for the safety of the people, send yamen servants to the countryside to publicize, and the previous ten-year tax collection can be stopped immediately."

"The artisan class silver has also stopped, and the forced recruitment of craftsmen has also stopped."

"First appease the grievances of the people, then borrow some food from the imperial camp, or buy some food, donate porridge to the counties of Dengzhou Prefecture, appease the victims of the disaster and the hungry first, find a way to let them return to their hometowns, and stop wandering outside, especially We have to find a way to get them back to farming as soon as possible, and if they can grow it every season, if there are no seeds, our government will lend them first."

These few things are all thankless things, and even less rewarding, but now for the sake of performance, I have to do them.

Du Fenghe nodded.

"anything else?"

"I suggest that the prefectures and counties can come forward to recruit some disaster victims from outside Dengzhou, and turn some of the barren fields into official settlements, and then hand over some of the barren fields to the imperial camp for military settlements.

Now there are barren fields everywhere, many of which are still without owners.

There are also many fields that were confiscated by the Tatars before, and these fields must be immediately recorded and handed over to the imperial court for disposal. "

Du Fenghe concluded, "Put up a list to help the people, borrow food to relieve disasters, recruit people to farm, right?"

　Thanks for the reward of Shui De Shang Black, and Li Laiheng who brought Ming Zhongliang, thank you!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)