Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 331
"I want to see Your Highness! I want to see Your Highness! I am a student of Yanshan! I am an official of Yanshan!"

"Paws!"

On May 27, the eighth year of Tianqi, when the sounds of torture and begging for mercy continued to be heard from the supervisory prisons in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and other places, the entire north fell into an atmosphere where everyone felt insecure.

In the officialdom, no less than [-] people were tied to the Yellow River and beheaded, no less than [-] officials were implicated in the crime, and more than one million family members were involved.

Even the Yanshan officials whom Zhu Youjian regarded as his disciples had their homes ransacked and beheaded, and among the people, there were more than [-] gentry and powerful gentry whose homes were ransacked, and there were more than [-] grain merchants and shoddy traders.

A total of 270 families, involving nearly [-] people.

To be precise, when the ransacking of the homes of these 270 merchants and peddlers was over, there were 430 people on Zhu Youjian's desk...

Holding the memorial in his hand, Zhu Youjian was sitting in the carriage at the moment, rushing to Daming Mansion at the southernmost tip of North Zhili.

Looking at the criminal file in his hand, he squinted his eyes from time to time, and then raised his head after a while, and in front of him were Lu Wenzhao kneeling on the car, Wang Chengen, the eunuch of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and Bi Ziyan, the Minister of the Household Department, Gu Bingqian, the chief assistant of the cabinet.

"This inspection found 960 offending officials, more than 270 petty officials offending, more than [-] Yanshan scribes offending, and [-] merchants and peddlers, implicating millions of people in total. .”

"Tell me, these millions of people, should they be exiled or sent to the factory..."

After Zhu Youjian's words came to this point, everyone in the carriage couldn't help but feel a chill in their hearts.

As the chief assistant of the cabinet, how can Gu Bingqian not understand his highness?
Although Zhu Youjian is lenient on the inside and strict on the outside, there is a limit to his lenient. This time, the officials and gentry obviously touched the bottom line of His Royal Highness.

Since he mentioned the words "distribution workshop", it is obvious that in His Royal Highness's mind, this choice is greater than exile...

However, the number of people involved in this major case is really too many. If nearly a million people are dispatched to the factory, then later history books and the people may think that His Royal Highness is a murderous person.

Therefore, Gu Bingqian had no choice but to bow and say:
"Your Highness, there are many people involved this time. There are only tens of millions of people in my Ming Dynasty, but this time there are millions of people involved."

"If all of them are distributed to the workshops, then even if these people deserve what they deserve, it will make the people panic."

The common people in Gu Bingqian's mouth did not refer to the farmers who only planed food in the fields, but the powerful gentry, merchants and street vendors in other places.

"Millions of people, this is calculated according to the standards of the nine clans, but according to the officials, in fact, three clans are enough..."

Gu Bingqian calculated that even if only the three clans were counted, the number of people involved in the case would be as high as [-].

The reason why the number has dropped so much is also because among the people involved in the case, only the tens of thousands of officials who were killed are eligible to be involved in the three clans. That's all.

But even so, the case involving two 10,000+ people can definitely be ranked among the top ten major cases in history.

"In terms of the crimes of the three ethnic groups, all the main criminals were sent to the local cement labor camp for 15 years, and the rest were moved to Nanzhou and Xiaoxiyang Supervisory Commissioner..."

In a word, Zhu Youjian decided the case for all the people who have been found out so far, but everyone knows that the more than [-] people are just the people who were found out in the case, and there are many people who have not been found out. People hide under the surface of the water.

"What's the result of this inspection..." Zhu Youjian turned to look at Lu Wenzhao, and Lu Wenzhao immediately replied:
"Search mansions and courtyards, more than 160 shops and villas, and 320 acres of land, of which more than [-] million acres are merged military farmland."

"In addition, 53 taels of gold, 200, 430 taels of silver, more than 43 copper coins, more than 770 stones of grain, and countless salt and iron jewels were seized..."

But at this point, Lu Wenzhao also looked up at Zhu Youjian and said, "These are the last officials involved in the San Niangzi case and the Shaanxi civil uprising."

After one sentence is finished, it means that Zhu Youjian's available civil service handles have been exhausted.

However, the number of officials involved in the San Niangzi case was nearly [-], and the Shaanxi civil uprising case involved more than [-] officials.

The original number of civil and military officials in the Ming Dynasty was [-]. Since the case of the Three Niangzi cases, until now, there are only less than [-] civil and military officials left.

The team of 200 million subordinate officials, after this blow, probably has less than 140 million left.

The only thing that makes Zhu Youjian feel a little tired may be the nearly five thousand Yanshan students who were also found to be corrupt.

In three years, among the 15 Yanshan students who graduated, one-thirtieth of them became the corrupt officials they had always hated in their studies. This undoubtedly made Zhu Youjian feel a little embarrassed.

This is still found out. If you count the ones that haven’t been found out, how many corrupt officials are there among the 15 Yanshan students?No one knows this.

Zhu Youjian's appearance was clearly seen by Gu Bingqian, and he also carefully said:
"Your Highness, you have been in Xingguo for the past few years. You are not at fault. The fault lies in the fact that these people took what they shouldn't take and did what they shouldn't do. They couldn't resist the temptation."

"When Xiaguan first entered his official career, he thought about doing something for the common people, but it was very difficult to do everything."

"At first I didn't know why, but gradually I understood."

"Things are difficult to do because the court is not correct, and there is no right and wrong in the officialdom."

"Those who have done meritorious service may not necessarily be rewarded, but those who have done wrong will be severely punished."

"In the end, if you don't do well, it's a means for all officials to protect themselves, and this is why all officials stick to the rules."

It was rare for Gu Bingqian to talk to each other, and even implicitly admitted that he was also one of those who couldn't resist the temptation.

He dared to say that because he knew that his highness had a mirror in his heart.

The imperial court's finances are insufficient, and the salaries of hundreds of officials are low, so they can only make money by "running the pen" and various means.

Zhu Youjian knew this, so even though he clamored for the abolition of "Mounting Pen Silver" every time, he still didn't really implement it, because he knew that the abolition of "Mounting Pen Silver" was useless.

If you want to reduce official corruption, you must first increase your salary, and every time the salary of a hundred officials doubles, it will cost millions of taels.

This may not sound like much, but if it really counts, it is a bit embarrassing.

According to the salary standard established in the 25th year of Hongwu, the monthly salary of officials of the first rank in the Ming Dynasty was 87 shi. From the first rank to the third rank, the monthly salary was reduced by 35 shi to [-] shi...

26 stones from the third rank, 24 stones from the fourth rank, 21 stones from the fourth rank, [-] stones from the fifth rank, [-] stones from the fifth rank...

From the sixth grade and ten stones, from the sixth grade and eight stones, from the seventh grade to the ninth grade, the five buckets are reduced, and the five stones are the ultimate...

In the reign of Tianqi, according to Zhu Youjian's words, Zhu Youxiao folded the officials' salaries into cash and distributed them.

Afterwards, Zhu Youxiao felt that it was not good to keep changing color all the time. After all, the price of food had been fluctuating, so he simply followed the permanent quota of five hundred pennies and one stone, and only found silver.

In this way, the monthly salary of officials of the first rank in the Ming Dynasty was 43 taels of silver, while the salary of officials of the ninth rank was two taels of silver.

From this point of view, it seems that the salaries of officials are not too bad after the color change, but compared with the officials of other dynasties, it seems that it is difficult to be elegant.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian said to Bi Ziyan:
"Has the Ministry of Household Affairs carefully thought about how to raise the salary?"

"Your Highness, I think that my salary is not low..."

Bi Ziyan responded suddenly, the answer made Zhu Youjian frown, and Bi Ziyan continued:
"The official salary of my Ming Dynasty has been adjusted by His Royal Highness. The official salary of the first rank has reached 520 taels of silver a year, from the ninth rank it has reached 30 taels of silver, and the clerks of the second ninth rank have also reached [-] taels of silver. "

"After calculating it, it doesn't seem to be high, but the salary of my dynasty is not only the regular salary, but also the special exemption."

Bi Ziyan talked about "Zeli Youtu", and this word means tax exemption, exemption from military service.

In other words, after becoming an official in the Ming Dynasty, you don't have to pay land taxes, and you don't have to be a servant.

Fu and service are the main forms of income for Ming Dynasty, and besides being an official, Juren and Xiucai are also exempted.

Because even if they are not officials, they are considered as candidate officials by the court by default, which is different from ordinary people.

Scholars can obtain "food granary", and recruit granary students from government and private schools in various places, and the government will distribute a certain amount of food and daily necessities, which can generally meet the needs of personal life.

After a certain number of years, or if you are desperate for fame, you can go directly to the local yamen to become an official, and there are many.

However, the official position in this life may not be too big. If you don't enter the stream, you will be at the end of the seventh or eighth rank.

As for the preferential exemption of salary, this thing is not capped, but has its own level.

According to the standard of Tianqi years, the first rank of Beijing officials is exempted from [-] Ding, which means that [-] members of the official family do not have to go to the Yamen to serve as errands or serve corvee.

In addition, Jingguan Yipin can also get [-] mu of "excellent and exempt land", that is, [-] acres of land do not need to pay taxes.

However, this "preferential exemption" is because Zhu Youjian often attacks officials, so the officials who are always worried that the court has no money and attack themselves will more or less hand in their hands when they are afraid of Zhu Youjian. A little meaning.

In addition, in addition to preferential treatment, there are many gray incomes from the imperial court, including Zao Li Yin.

The so-called "Zao Li Yin" refers to the money that officials hire for many years as servants. These servants are not the ones that are generally requisitioned by civilian husbands, but the hired silver of the Yamen's catchers, shift servants, and official books.

In the Ming Dynasty, under normal circumstances, the salary of a yamen servant was given by the local official, such as the county magistrate.

However, although the money was given by the county magistrate, the money was actually paid by the court.

How much to pay is given to the place by the imperial court according to the quota.

Generally speaking, the imperial court gave the full amount, and the money was distributed after passing through the hands of the official, so how much was given was not certain.

If there is a surplus, it is the gray income of being an official.

For example, this year, the imperial court issued 100 taels of silver according to the number of county government servants established at the beginning, five taels of silver per person, a total of 20 people.

But since this quota was set many years ago, in fact there are only ten servants in the county government, so the magistrate can only pay 50 taels of silver and spend the remaining 50 taels of money on ink.

This "zao scribe silver" is owned by local officials in Beijing and local officials. In fact, the court knew about the embezzlement of this silver by local officials, but the emperors of all dynasties turned a blind eye to it.

The above-mentioned things are some official income methods that Zhu Youjian is very clear about.

However, the gray income of "Zao Li Yin" is being eliminated by Zhu Youjian's "sub-ninth rank scribe" system, which is why he is busy raising the wages of all officials.

Bi Ziyan, who had always supported Zhu Youjian before, suddenly stood up and sang against him this time, which made Zhu Youjian a little puzzled, and Bi Ziyan explained:
"The lower officials carefully read the memorials of the Ministry of Households and internal funds in recent years, and only then discovered that the salary of my Ming officials is not meager."

"His Royal Highness reformed the salaries of Baiguan because the income of Zao Liyin dropped sharply. After checking and investigating, the income of Baiguan is not limited to "Zao Liyin""

"In addition to "Zao Li Yin", there are also "Chai Xin" and "Zhi Tang Yin" of each yamen.

"Zhitang silver is different from firewood silver and Zaoli silver. It is not distributed according to the personal rank of officials, but according to the yamen."

"In addition, Baiguan also has "regular money", "annual money" and other income..."

At this point, Bi Ziyan said: "Although Emperor Taizu Gao said that he would never raise salaries, my previous emperors of the Ming Dynasty have always increased salaries for officials."

"The salaries of officials do not need to be increased, but they need to be distributed as regular salaries to facilitate calculation and monitor for corruption!"

Bi Ziyan's words made Zhu Youjian frown, and he asked: "In your opinion, what is the actual salary of the ninth-rank Beijing officials and foreign officials?"

"It's not a good calculation, but the official salary of the ninth rank should be no less than 60 taels after His Royal Highness orders the real silver to be distributed, and the official salary of the ninth rank should be no less than 40 taels."

Bi Ziyan responded very well to Zhu Youjian's truth, that is, whether there is no absolute relationship between corruption and wages, and there are too many corrupt criminals raised by high salaries, and the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were actually not low.

Just as Bi Ziyan said, what Zhu Youjian has to do now is not to increase the salaries of these officials, but to coordinate the distribution of salaries, and end the chaotic salary distribution so that even Zhu Youjian and Bi Ziyan need to check the memorials to understand the situation.

The finances of the Ming Dynasty were a mess. Zhu Youjian knew this a long time ago, but he didn't expect that the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were also so confused.

Thinking of this, he took a deep breath before speaking:

"From now on, rewards such as Zaoliyin, Chaixinyin, Zhitangyin, regular money, annual money, etc. will be abolished, and the Ministry of Households will re-determine the salaries of officials at all levels."

"Taking the salary of the second ninth rank and ten liang as an example, it will be promoted step by step, and the memorial will be handed over before the salary of the hundred officials is released this year."

"The lower officials take orders..." Bi Ziyan bowed in response, and Zhu Youjian also wanted to see how much income these poor officials had.

"Your Highness, Xu Shangshu and Wang Shangshu are asking to see you..."

Just as Zhu Youjian and the others were discussing the salaries of hundreds of officials in the carriage, Cao Bianjiao rode his horse back from the front and spoke to Zhu Youjian in the carriage.

"Xuan..." Zhu Youjian's slightly happy mood instantly sank, and he uttered a word lightly.

"Yes!" Seeing this, Cao Bianjiao immediately ordered Tang Qi to summon him. At the same time, Zhu Youjian also said to Wang Chengen and Lu Wenzhao:

"In three months, I want to see the brand new Yumajian and Jinyiwei..."

"Your servant (lower position) obey!" The two bowed to each other, and the carriage stopped at this moment.

Zhu Youjian got up, Gu Bingqian and others also got up one after another, and the group got out of the carriage, and after getting off the carriage, what came into view was a torrential river.

Zhu Youjian in his previous life had seen the Yangtze River, but had no chance to see the Yellow River.

He didn't know whether the desertification in the Ming Dynasty was worse than that in the later generations, or because the Ming Dynasty was in a period of low temperature, and now it is because of the small ice river. The Yellow River gave him the first feeling that it was not as good as some tributaries of the Yangtze River.

Seeing the rolling Yellow River flowing to the south, Zhu Youjian also saw more than ten officials coming on horseback.

They came under the surveillance of Xiao cavalry guards, and then got off their horses. The leaders were Wang Shunding, who once made things difficult for the Qi royal party, and Xu Guangqi, who had a vicissitudes on his face.

"Your Highness Chitose..."

Facing Zhu Youjian, more than a dozen people got off their horses and bowed to each other. Except for the people from Xu Guangqi's group, the people from Wang Shunding's group were all extremely anxious.

After all, Wang Shunding and his faction are all the Zhejiang Party, and the Zhejiang Party and Zhu Youjian have a lot of grievances.

The civil uprising in Shaanxi is not over yet. In fact, there are many tricks in the Yellow River sorting out project, so they are naturally a little afraid of Zhu Youjian.

But after all, they underestimate Zhu Youjian too much. Zhu Youjian is not the kind of person who will kill one or a group of people who are beneficial to the country because of his personal preferences.

He really doesn't like Wang Shunding and the Zhejiang Party, but he handles politics with the mentality of using what he can use, and dealing with it when he can't use it or can't use it.

As far as Wang Shunding and the Zhejiang Party are concerned, there is still a certain amount of residual value, so naturally he will not avenge his personal revenge publicly.

"You have done a good job supervising the Yellow River. I came here this time to hear how you plan to manage the Yellow River, and by the way, see how the Yellow River is being managed."

Facing Xu Guangqi and others, Zhu Youjian praised without hesitation, and stated the purpose of his trip.

The civil uprising in Shaanxi and officials embezzling people's wages are not a big problem with Xu Guangqi and the others.

Because the wages are paid by the yamen of each prefecture and county to the people first, and then another payment is made when the people arrive at the Yellow River, and finally the people go home and send the last payment according to the completion of the construction period.

The whole process was handled by the Chief Secretary. Although Xu Guangqi and Wang Shunding were responsible for the management of the Yellow River, they were actually only responsible for the overall management of the Yellow River and how the local government built dams.

To put it in an easy-to-understand way, Xu Guangqi and Wang Shunding are more like designers and supervisors, while the provinces and counties are the engineering teams.

Therefore, under the situation of the chief secretary being corrupt, they did not panic when faced with Zhu Youjian's inquiry, but honestly said:
"Xiaguan and others governed the Yellow River in accordance with Pan Shaobao's "Shooting Water and Scouring Sand Method", and built near embankments for beaming water and flushing sand on both sides of the South Zhili River in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River to prevent flooding. There are a total of 230 embankments, such as grid dikes used to retain water and attack sand, and moon dikes that serve as reinforcements.”

"At present, in the South Zhili section of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, we only need to repair and reinforce the overflow dam on Pan Shaobao's long embankment to make the flood control and drainage more efficient, benefit the people on both sides of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and avoid canal blockage. "

Zhu Youjian nodded in satisfaction with Wang Shunding's word-for-word introduction and explanation, but he still asked Xu Guangqi:

"The river sand in the downstream has been washed away, but if the upstream cannot be restrained, it is still a matter of time before the Yellow River becomes congested."

"Has the upstream governance been honestly carried out in accordance with Gu's suggestion?"

Xu Guangqi presided over the combing project of the Yellow River from Xining to Luoyang. Before the project started, Zhu Youjian spent a few days writing a copy of "Treatment of the Upper Yellow River", and handed it to Zhu Youxiao. At the same time, it was sent to Xu Guangqi for reference.

In the Memorial, Zhu Youjian emphasized some factors that need to be paid attention to in harnessing the Yellow River.

The first is climatic factors, the second is soil factors, and the last is human factors.

These factors are some of the factors that he can think of a little bit, and they are some of the reasons and solutions that he wrote down in geography class.

Zhu Youjian didn't say too much about climate and soil factors, because he felt that Xu Guangqi and the others couldn't solve it even if he said it, so it's better to talk about human factors.

As far as man-made factors are concerned, to control the Yellow River, the Loess Plateau must first be controlled, and the failure of the Loess Plateau is mainly due to climate, followed by man-made, or the proportion of both is the same.

Before the Han Dynasty, the Loess Plateau was still a forest, but since the Han Dynasty, the forest began to disappear gradually. By the Tang Dynasty, the number of forests dropped sharply, and the huge northern Shaanxi became a grassland.

By the end of the Tang Dynasty, the nine surnames of Zhaowu who moved inland were grazing indiscriminately, and even the grasslands were destroyed. In addition, the climate gradually changed from the warm period in the pre-Qin period to the low temperature period. turned, sandy land.

Of course, indiscriminate grazing can only destroy the grasslands, and the disappearance of the forests is caused by the forces in the Guanzhong Plain needing to smelt iron and build civil houses.

When the forest degenerates into shrubs, the hungry people can only destroy the vegetation and cultivate fields on steep slopes in order to survive.

Therefore, in order to prevent the Hetao from becoming like a loess high slope, Zhu Youjian first issued an order that the people should not cut down trees at will.

But if the people do not cut down trees, they will have no firewood and materials to build houses.

So in order to solve this problem, Zhu Youjian's solution is to issue honeycomb coal tickets, and use criminals to make cement locally, and use cement and bricks to build houses.

Zhu Youjian has tried his best to create some favorable conditions, so he wants to know what Xu Guangqi has done on the basis of such conditions.

But it is not surprising that although Xu Guangqi is not very good at politics, his ability in water conservancy is relatively good.

Facing Zhu Youjian's question, he bowed and replied:

"According to what His Highness said, I ordered the upper reaches of the prefectures to clean up the Yellow River silt to fill up the local potholes, and ordered Shuofang, Jiuyuan, Wuyuan and other prefectures and counties to clean up the Yellow River silt to compost the sand. Raise chickens and ducks for composting and plant trees.”

"Since this year, the upstream management has achieved initial results. In previous years, the Yellow River that turned yellow after it came out, and the section of the river that started to turn yellow at the beginning of the year, has moved back several miles compared to previous years, and gradually moved back."

Xu Guangqi's words made Zhu Youjian nod a little. Although he didn't think that after only three years of treating Huang, he would be able to show initial results, but there must be some reassurance:
"It is not a year's work to control yellow in the upper reaches, it takes diligence..."

As he said that, Zhu Youjian also began to take Xu Guangqi, Wang Shunding and others, under the guard of Xiaoqiwei, crossed the border of North Zhili, entered the border of Henan, and began to observe the Yellow River at close range...

(End of this chapter)