Good son-in-law of the Ming Dynasty

The salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were extremely low. For example, a magistrate of the seventh rank only had thirty taels of silver a year.

Converted into RMB in modern society, it would be about two to 3000 yuan a month.

This is probably due to the fact that Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang was born poor, knew the sufferings of the people, and had always been extremely vigilant against officials' corruption and corruption, and overcorrected.

On the surface, these two, three, and two months of money seem to be a no-brainer to maintain an official's monthly livelihood, but the problem is that this salary also includes office expenses.The Ming Dynasty was famous for its small government and big society.A seventh-rank county magistrate has received his salary, and he still needs to use the money to pay his master and government servants.As a result, there are huge deficit gaps every month.

This is true locally, and so is the central government.

So, at the end, everyone felt that going on like this was not an option, so they began to collect funds to solve the problem of office expenses.

In this way, a kind of routine is produced.

The so-called routine is that officials send money to each other in their dealings.

For example, if you are the governor of a province, you want to ask the central government for a sum of Hegong silver, totaling 10 taels.

After you get the money, you have to return it to the official department according to a certain percentage, such as [-]%.The remaining [-]% really belong to you.Of course, out of the [-]%, you have to raise another [-]% to [-]% to pay the river workers.If it is really used for waterproofing and disaster prevention, it is considered good if it has four achievements, and it can be called incorruptible.

When going to the central government to do business, it is a common practice to give people money and commissions.

Every summer and winter, you have to send money to the relevant higher-level units.

In summer it is called Bingjing, in winter it is called Charcoal Fire.

Especially the charcoal fire, because it was sent before the Spring Festival, it seemed extraordinarily grand.If you give less, it can be said that when we deal with each other next year, you can wait to be put on small shoes.

In the past, there was no standard for these routines. Everyone rejoiced, and the numbers were limited to an approximate range.For example, if you send charcoal fire to the cabinet boss, it is generally more than 2000 taels, and the maximum is no more than [-].

This year's Chinese New Year is the first time Liu Jin has received a gift since he monopolized power.

He already loves money, but on second thought, the cabinet boss can get three thousand.I, Eunuch Liu, is the eunuch in charge of the chief inspector of ceremonies, and holds the power to criticize and criticize people. He is more powerful than the cabinet. This is a number that naturally has to go up a bit to be in line with his status!

As soon as he slapped his head, Liu Jin made a list and distributed it to all levels of government and military agencies and yamen. It was regarded as an official document.

The above stipulated that officials at the provincial governor level should give Liu Jin 1 taels of charcoal fire, and officials at the prefectural level [-] taels.[-] for Yanzheng, [-] for Hezheng, [-] for Water Transport... and so on.

Liu Jinzi opened his mouth wide. Taking the provincial level as an example, 1 taels is tens of millions of RMB!

This is just a charcoal fire. Other than that, you have to do business besides sending Liu Jin a routine when you come to Beijing.I'm sorry, give me another money.[-] at the provincial level and [-] at the prefectural level...

In just one Spring Festival, Eunuch Liu made millions of dollars and became a billionaire. He lived a fat year.

A million is just the tip of the iceberg, Liu Jin is not fighting alone, he has a lot of people under his command.

Eunuch Liu collects money, so they can't run errands for nothing, they also have to pluck their hair.

Coupled with the large number of people, apart from his one, the officials had to prepare another one.And the number of this share is even more astonishing. It is said that all the people under Liu Jin will get at least seventy-eight million benefits this Spring Festival.

Liu Jin's appetite was so great that the magistrates who came to Beijing to handle business were a little overwhelmed.Such fat yamen as Yanzheng and Hedao paid it off. It was just a drizzle for them to take out 2 taels of silver, but the officials of other Qingshui yamen were miserable.

If you don't give money, I'm afraid that a paper of dismissal will come down before you leave the capital. You should just take off your official hat and go home to retire!

Give me the money, everyone's monthly salary is only so much, even if you get a little from other places, it won't be enough for Eunuch Liu to pay you twice so bloody.

There is no choice but to borrow, borrow from acquaintances, and borrow from usury.

Usury is not something to be messed with. No one can bear the revolving interest rate.

At this time, the development bank made a move, and the interest rate was more favorable than that of usury.

Therefore, these days, the development bank's business has been so hot that it is unbelievable that one month's income is worth the first half of the year.

It's strange to say that Liu Jin collected so much money, but Emperor Zhengde didn't care about it.

Su Mu read the Dibao and the letters from his friends for a long time, touched his forehead and thought for a long time, and analyzed it.There are three reasons.

One is that during the past few years when Emperor Zhengde was emperor, he finally had no civil servants to bother him. He was clean and was busy playing with no interest in the country's major affairs, so he didn't care about them at all.

Secondly, Zhengde is nostalgic for the old days and attaches great importance to feelings.Liu Jin has served him for more than ten years, and in the eyes of the emperor, he is already one of the closest relatives.My relatives were used to being poor in the past, and now it is understandable that they want to earn some money to improve their lives, so the emperor acquiesced.

The most important thing is the third point. He and Emperor Zhengde are the largest shareholders of Development Bank, and Princess Taikang is the second shareholder.All the officials came to borrow money, but it was their brother and sister who got the benefits in the end.

During this period of time, the Development Bank issued tens of millions of taels of loans, most of which were paper credit currencies.If others want to borrow money, they can just run the printing machine and print it, and they don't need a penny of real money.

Many people estimate that it will take one or two years to pay off the money. The interest alone is an astronomical sum.

Calculated in this way, the emperor's income is even more than that of Liu Jin.

This is why Zhengde allowed Liu Jin to extort bribes wantonly. Speaking of which, Zhengde is the biggest beneficiary.The emperor also needs money. In the face of money, the Ninth Five-Year Supreme is not immune.

What's more, this Emperor Zhengde has always been extremely contemptuous of other people's reputation.

The current Emperor Zhengde is even more absurd than the real history, and has gone further.

Su Mu could only smile wryly at this moment, since he fell out with Princess Taikang, he has withdrawn from the specific affairs of the Development Bank, otherwise, he would really make a fortune this time.Of course, there will inevitably be many troubles in the future, so that's fine.

What he is thinking about now is the huge changes that Liu Jinlai's actions may cause in the ruling and opposition parties.

It was also because of this incident that the rebellion of King Anhua was directly born.

The thing is like this, according to the real historical records.

After the Chinese New Year, because Liu Jin's actions were too dirty and arrogant, Zhang Cai, a member of the Liu party, couldn't stand it any longer.

Now everyone in the world knows that Liu Jin, Jiao Fang, and Zhang Cai are lovers, and your father-in-law Liu looks so ugly that even Zhang Cai and I were reviled.You can be ashamed as an eunuch, but I, Zhang Cai, is a cabinet minister who was born as a Jinshi and Shujishi, so I still have to be shameless.

Jiao Fang was old and calm, and Zhang Cai was young and vigorous. He couldn't control that much, so he ran to find Liu Jin and said, Eunuch Liu, you really don't want to lose face by doing this. Approve red on behalf of the emperor, and have the final judgment on all affairs in the world, so pay attention to decency!

Originally, it was also an unspoken rule in the officialdom for officials to give money to their bosses, and there were established rules for how much to give. For 100 years, my Ming Dynasty has been like this, and it is difficult for others to say anything.

But this year you have gone too far, Eunuch Liu, you are not alone, besides you, there are six or seven clerks in charge of ceremonies, and there are twelve yamen in the palace, all of them belong to you, you If they collect money, they will also collect it.

Usually, if you charge one or two taels of silver, Eunuch Liu, your subordinates dare to charge ten times as much.

So far, local officials have no choice but to borrow.

I have to pay back the borrowed money, but there is still no way, so I have to apportion it to the subordinates.

After the apportionment goes down, the officials below will see this opportunity, and it is estimated that they will also get a hand by the way.

Therefore, after calculation, for every tael you collect, father-in-law, the people below will have to bear the burden of 100 taels.

I'm afraid that within a year, your notoriety will spread all over the world, and you will be scolded to death.

Liu Jin has never read a book, so he is just an idiot, how can he recognize the power of it.

After Zhang Cai's analysis, she took a breath of air.It doesn't matter if he charges a little money, but if it really makes such a big noise and even makes it famous all over the country, it's not good.

In the future, if the people's anger is too great and the Lord Long Live is alarmed, I'm afraid that I will inevitably die.

Not to mention the future, even now, his reputation has been completely stink.

So, Liu Jin hurriedly asked people to stop the routine, but it was too late.

There was no other way, so he thought about making some political achievements to justify his name.

He had seen how powerful the civil servants were, so he naturally didn't dare to trouble them this time.After thinking about it, he decided to cut the knife at the soldier.

The status of the soldiers in the Ming Dynasty was low, especially the military households. They were basically untouchables. If they moved, they would move. There should be no trouble.

As a result, Liu Jin's head became hot, and he didn't discuss with Zhang Cai, a capable general, and went directly to the book, suggesting that Emperor Zhengde clean up the land in the army, clean up the land and population embezzled by the officers, and take it back to the state.

Emperor Zhengde had been in power for several years, and he was tired of fighting with civil servants all the time, and he didn't bother to ask about political affairs, so he just agreed.

Liu Jin, who received the emperor's approval, was gearing up, ready to do a big job to reverse her notoriety in the eyes of the world.

If this matter is really done, maybe I will become a famous eunuch like Zhang Shouyi!

However, although the army appears to be of low status, it is not easy to mess with.

A great man in later generations said: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

The action power of these military men is not comparable to that of civilian officials. They do what they say and immediately cause trouble.

Therefore, seeing that the army's hearts were unstable, King Anhua felt that this was an excellent opportunity for him to replicate Jing Nan.

"It seems that the rectification of the military base is about to begin." Su Mu murmured, "If you guessed correctly, the Anhua King's rebellion will begin within half a year at the most."

All he needs to do is wait.