A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 417 As always, Wei Xuancheng

Li Shimin started his army at the age of 16, and immediately fought against the world, and he was invincible in all battles. Even if he sat on the throne, the government affairs of the court were handled well.

But when it comes to finance and economy, that's not his forte, and it's even a headache that he wants to avoid.

Wu Huaiyu was holding a teacup, sitting by the side and roasting it by the fire. Facing the emperor's question, he actually had no good solution.

In fact, the empire's finances are a complete mess, unsystematic, chaotic, full of patches, barely maintained.

To be able to run all the time is pretty amazing.

When you talk about reform, there is no way to start. If you cut it down casually, you don’t know which patch is broken, and then it may cause the collapse of the entire system.

Of course, it is also possible to start another system, but the problem is that this kind of thing is generally untouchable and too dangerous. It will not cause the collapse of the old system, and the country will go into shock. It is more likely that you will become the target of public criticism. After all, everyone knows that any old system Those are all vested interest groups.

Breaking the old system will inevitably offend a bunch of vested interest groups.

Wu Huaiyu is so young, even though he is the emperor Pang Chen, he dare not mess around like this.

Therefore, in the face of Li Shimin's expected inquiry, he could only talk clichéd words, "Your Majesty, if you want the country's finances to be sufficient, there are no other than two points, increasing revenue and reducing expenditure."

Well, this is what everyone knows and can say, but the question is where to get the new source, and which old flow can be saved.

Wei Zheng stepped forward at the right time, "I thought Duke Yi's words were very good, but now there are more and more officials in the court, and even the number of officials is a disaster.

Officials win people, but they don't have many people.

Nowadays, there are many court officials, in addition to the official staff, there are also non-member officials, even more than one person, and many officials are over [-] years old, and when they reach the retirement age, they still cling to the post.
The imperial court should merge provincial institutions and streamline personnel.

There are clear regulations on the yamen at all levels, various positions, and the number of officials, so that excessive staffing is not allowed.

Now there are more than [-] officials in the various divisions of the capital. This has caught up with the Sui Dynasty when there were too many officials. Three thirds are enough. "

Sure enough, it was Old Pao Wei. As soon as he came up, he shouted to merge the provincial agencies and streamline the officials.

If you really want to do what he said, if there are [-] Beijing officials, [-] will be reduced, so what about these people?
You can't just go home and grow sweet potatoes, and arrange to go to other places, that's not bad, and if you only keep scattered officials for the election, you don't need to pay salaries, but the question is, will they be happy?
It's a guy like Wei Zheng who dares to say such things publicly, which is too offensive, and even an enemy of all officials.

After all, every quota is not easy. If you streamline one, there will be no official position. Originally, it was not like the early days of the country. At that time, there were wars and many people were unwilling to be officials. Now there are too many officials. Even had to wait in line for a vacancy.

The imperial court has even had to introduce new regulations. After the term of civil servants below the sixth rank expires, they cannot be re-elected, or they will be given new posts immediately, and must stand in the election.

They must take turns to retire from office, and vacancies must be vacated.

There are officials who take turns, otherwise there will be too many officials and lack of arrangements.

Wei Zheng didn't care about this and continued to fire.

"Your Majesty, there are too many candidates, and a large number of candidates have gathered in Chang'an, which has caused the price of Chang'an's grain to rise."

What Wei Zheng said was a bit exaggerated, but there are indeed many candidates.

"There were a total of 7000 candidates for candidates for the capital during the autumn solstice. Your Majesty, in the end, there were only 7000 official positions in the Ministry of Officials. One thousand candidates who were born did not get official positions, so they had to wait for the next year's appointment. select.

This situation will become more and more serious, so the minister believes that not only should the province consolidate the organization and reduce the number of personnel, but also increase the qualifications for officials to be awarded, and limit the number of officials from the source. It is not a problem to gather in Chang'an every year. "

"The minister also suggested that next year, the anthology will be divided into Luoyang, which will also reduce the pressure on the capital's food."

There are too many officials and there is a shortage of officials. Although there is now a system of keeping the elections and taking turns to serve as officials, so that everyone has the opportunity to be officials, the problem is that more and more people get official positions. There are always only so many official positions. more and more
Those selected candidates are tired of dealing with each other and waste their money, and the selected candidates will become more and more dissatisfied.

There are many candidates and many unsuccessful candidates. There are only two solutions to the problem, increase the number of staff, or reduce the number of candidates.

Now there are four types of people participating in the election. One is officials whose term of office has expired or who have been suspended for some reason, also known as former senior officials.The other is the scholar who has not yet been awarded an official after being admitted to the imperial examination.

The third category is people who were born in a family and qualified for election, and the fourth category is people who came from outside the country and gained entry into the election.

The number of candidates is increasing every year, mainly due to the fact that more and more people from the family background and those from outside the country are participating in the election.

Wei Zheng suggested that the establishment of official positions should not be randomly added, but should be streamlined, not to mention the addition of temporary positions, such as non-member officials and examiners.

In addition, the best way is to reduce the eligibility for candidates who are born in the shade, and reduce the eligibility for candidates who are born outside the country.

"Nowadays there are thousands of people in Chang'an who only catch Qian Lingshi, and most of the candidates who come from abroad every year are these Qian Lingshi. Interest rate, the interest rate of public money lending is too high, which already disturbs the people, and now let these people run for election,
This is very wrong. The minister suggested canceling the money lending of the public house, and removing all the history of seizing money, so that the number of exiled officials of Xiaoqian people can be reduced at once. "

Li Shimin actually agrees with Wei Zheng's words.

Last year, the imperial court merged provinces and counties, successively abolishing and merging many states and counties that were added during the Wude period.

Up to now, there are ten provinces in the world, 550 prefectures, 41 seven counties under its jurisdiction, and [-] Dudufu. The province is still in the process of being merged. The imperial court has lost many counties. One of the consequences is that a large number of officials have disappeared. got a job,
They became candidates, and they were selected by the Ministry of officials. If they could not participate, they would continue to nominate.

Last year, there were many candidates, which is actually related to this.

In the Sui Dynasty, it was said that too many officials caused disasters. At the beginning of the Sui Dynasty, prefectures and counties were divided into nine grades. The number of officials in the upper and upper states was 320, and the number of officials decreased in descending order. There were still 160 and seven in the lower and lower states.

In Yongzhou, where Chang'an is located, there are as many as 520 officials.

There are 99 officials in Shangshang County, 49 officials in Xiaxia County, and 140 seven in Chang'an Wannian County.

At the beginning of the Sui Dynasty before the eradication of Nanchen, there were 24 local officials in prefectures, counties and counties across the country, not counting those after the eradication of Nanchen.

Yang Jian later merged the prefectures and counties, abolished the county level, and even abolished the power of the local governor to recruit subordinate officials, brought them back to the imperial court, and streamlined a large number of personnel.

But now Datang has this trend again. In the final analysis, it is actually related to Li Yuan.

Back then, in order to seize the world, one of Li Yuan's most important means was to bestow rewards on officials, to give away officials and honors without giving them money.
Passing by Xiangcai, the landlords, powerful and powerful scholars who came to greet them were also awarded honors and honors. They won the battle and captured a large number of officers and soldiers of the Sui Dynasty. Give the fifth-rank Sanguan to let them go back.

Li Yuan did this, so that no matter if he was a country landlord or an ordinary soldier, he would have official ranks all at once. Although it was only a loose official, for the era when status was the most important, this trick was simply invincible.

After all, in the age of identity system, everything is related to identity.

After Li Yuan entered Chang'an, he was still a big gift, even the king gave many heroes to the separatists.

Although the world was gradually unified later, Li Yuan began to stop messing around, and even rearranged and adjusted the honorary name, scattered officials, and scattered ranks in the early days of the country.

But there are still too many scattered officials and honors awarded in those years.

A direct consequence of this is that these people are also eligible to stand for election. For example, a rural landlord with scattered officials only needs to go to the Ministry of Officials to work for a period of time every year. If you are eligible to stand for election, you can be appointed if you are elected.

The same goes for those officers.

Even these scattered officials themselves are getting older, but their sons have also obtained the right to be a member of the family. When it comes to catching money or something, the sex service is full, and you can also choose it, and you have a chance to get a background.

Anyway, Li Yuan's move was really powerful at the beginning, and he united a large number of people. He was happy at the time, but now Li Shimin has to wipe his ass all the time.

The increasing selection of candidates every year has caused Li Shimin a headache. Even if there are civil servants below the sixth rank, they must be elected as marquises, and it is not enough to arrange for them to be officials in turn.

In the Wude Dynasty, Li Yuan added a large number of prefectures and counties and newly established the governor's office, which was originally to arrange a large number of officials.

In fact, in any era, regardless of ancient or modern times, although this number is fixed, once the status of an official is established, it basically lasts for a lifetime.

Only a very small number of people who commit serious crimes will be expelled from the people, deprived of their official status, and lose their qualifications to be officials.

Anyway, if you get a family background, you will be an official for the rest of your life. Even if you don’t have a job for a while, you can choose. If you fail this year, you will continue to choose next year.

Even if there is no job, no salary and job land, but as long as there are scattered officials who are born, there are still permanent career land for officials to divide.

This is a privileged class, you can go up and down.

Even if Wei Zheng is now fearlessly firing, he dare not say that the cut-off of states and counties, provinces and institutions, and the downsizing of officials will take away their official titles, and they will not be given Yongyetian.

Wei Zheng said there were too many orders to seize money, and the interest rate on public money was too high, but he pointed out the problem but did not come up with a solution.

Without a history of arresting money, how to guarantee the income of public money?Without public money, where will the income of court officials come from?Originally, the imperial court had no financial solutions, so they let the yamen solve it on their own.

It's easy for you, Wei Zheng, to say a word, but where does the money come from?

There are indeed many problems with the history of seizing money, and people have even criticized that this is just a change of name, and it is just a change of name, and it is particularly disturbing. Public money lends money and has to pay 100% annual interest to the government, so are they doing it for nothing?

Although this is an errand, since the money has passed, it must be earned, so the actual interest released is much higher. They even use more private funds as the imperial court's official money to lend money, and gain profits in the name of the imperial court.

Wei Zheng was very dissatisfied with the history of seizing money and the loan sharks. He had suffered from loan sharks and made him miserable, and he hated it deeply.

"Mr. Yi, I remember that you started as the history of the Sanyuan county arresting money order, right?"

"Your Majesty, when I first came down from the mountain, I had to undertake corvee service. I was selected by the county magistrate to be the son of a military officer in the forbidden army, and serve as the history of the money arresting order in Sanyuan County." Wu Huaiyu replied. Granting the prince's right guard to lead the ninth-rank official position in the military is enough to make other money grabbers envious.

Li Shimin stroked his beard, "When it comes to the history of arresting money orders, I guess no one here knows better than Yi Guogong. Why don't you tell me, should the imperial court keep the history of arresting money orders?"

(End of this chapter)