When Su Hao returned to the yamen in charge, Xu Guangzu had woken up from a hangover and was sitting on a stone bench in the yamen courtyard bragging to several soldiers from the Kanyu camp who were in charge of the security. Seeing this, Su Hao walked up to the yamen with a smile.
He went over and asked, "Uncle Xu, how are you? Have you come back to rest?"
"Why haven't you rested yet? I'm not drunk at all!" Xu Guangzu glared and scolded with a stern expression.
Su Hao was also aware of Xu Guangzu's temper. He chuckled and said, "Well, since Uncle Xu wasn't drunk last night and didn't have a lot of fun, how about I invite a few people over tonight and let's have a drink and have fun?"
"What's there to drink for a kid like you?" Xu Guangzu hesitated. He was also an older man. He drank heavily the first night and couldn't recover for a day or two. At this time, Su Hao
When it came to drinking, Xu Guangzu had no choice but to refuse.
Everyone laughed, and several soldiers dispersed. Su Hao asked someone to bring tea, and sat on the stone bench with Xu Guangzu to chat.
"Li Shida's life is not easy." Xu Guangzu put away his teasing expression and said softly to Su Hao.
The Li Shida he was talking about was the commander of the Huai'an Guard. Su Hao's reconnaissance camp was nominally affiliated with the Huai'an Guard, and Li Shida was considered his immediate superior in the military. Xu Guangzu had some friendship with Li Shida's father.
He was considered an elder in front of Li Shida. Last night he went drinking with Li Shida and others and got some news.
Su Hao nodded and said: "There are too many yamen in Huai'an. For the river, there is the River General Military Office, and for the tank transport, there is the Tank Transport General Military Office. They are both military agencies, but they are more powerful than the Huai'an Guard.
It is normal for Li Shida to have a hard time."
Xu Guangzu said: "I heard from Li Shida that the soldiers on both sides of the river and Caoyun are supported by salaries directly allocated by the imperial court. The Huai'an guards earn their salaries from their own farming. In the past two years, there has been a famine in Huai'an, and the military camps have also been destroyed.
The water washed away several places. The Huai'an Guard was a great guard. Not only did he have his own soldiers and horses, but he also had three garrison posts in Yancheng, Donghai, and Haizhou, with a total of seven or eight thousand soldiers. This commotion
During the famine, seven or eight thousand soldiers and their families, totaling more than thirty thousand people, relied on Li Shida for food rations. Li Shida was so worried that his hair turned white."
"It's not surprising. After the nest was overturned, An's eggs were intact." Su Hao was not surprised. He now knew something about the affairs of the Ming Dynasty's military. He knew that some of the officers and soldiers in the guards below were living very hard.
, the Ming army's combat effectiveness continued to decline, which was also related to this. Looking at the hardship of the people in Huai'an, the life of the guards must not be much better.
Xu Guangzu said: "Li Shida has no choice but to organize the guardsmen to work as river workers to earn some food and money to support his family. I went to see him last night, and you guessed it..."
"I can't guess." Su Hao shook his head and said. Xu Guangzu's words made no sense. How could Su Hao guess?
Xu Guangzu said: "Li Shida heard that I came with the director of the Ministry of Works. He called me Uncle Xu several times and asked me to come back and beg you for mercy. In terms of river engineering, take care of the Huai'an Guards."
"He wants me to hire more Huai'an guards?" Su Hao asked.
Xu Guangzu shook his head and said: "No, he asked me to intercede and deduct a little less money from the guards' food and work expenses."
"Huo Hua Hua?" Su Hao's eyes widened. How could there be Hua Hua Hua out of the work and food money?
During the Ming Dynasty, the local government levied taxes on the people and collected some broken silver taels. These silver taels had to be escorted to the capital for storage, and they had to be smelted locally into silver ingots of the prescribed standard. When the metal was smelted and processed, it was often
There will be some losses. One or two broken pieces of silver are melted into silver ingots, and you may lose a few cents. This is an objective phenomenon. Of course, these losses cannot be borne by local officials, so the central government stipulates that when local governments collect tax money, they can withdraw a certain percentage.
As compensation for losses, these compensations are called fire losses.
The official fire consumption of the Ming Dynasty is generally 3. The actual loss of the local government when smelting silver ingots may be less than 3. The difference can become additional income for the local government. Over time, various departments have learned this method.
, when doing things, they would cleverly ask for a little discount, also in the name of "fire consumption". In the vocabulary of later generations, it is the so-called cost of production and handling fee.
Su Hao had heard about the rules in this area, but it was unheard of for him to say that fire expenses should be extracted from the labor and food money of river workers. It reminded him of Zhang Xiang, Li Shibo and others hemming and hawing.
, Su Hao had some clues in his mind.
Xu Guangzu said: "Li Shida told me that when laborers are hired on the river, they are paid 4 cents of silver for work and food a day, and the clerks of the Ministry of Industry are charged 10% of fire expenses. The Huaian Guards sent 1,000 soldiers to work on the river, and they had to pay 10 cents a day.
Give the pian 4 taels of silver as fire expenses, and after this month, it will be more than 100 taels."
"There are more than 10,000 river workers on the river. If all are calculated according to this standard, the person in charge will earn thousands of taels a month just by collecting the fire money. Uncle Xu, I am here to be the head of the Ministry of Works. I'm afraid
You've tampered with the meat in someone's bowl." Su Hao sneered.
Xu Guangzu said: "After Li Shida said this, there were still several thousand households below, who were suppressing and fussing, and they added some more. I heard from them that the fire consumption was collected by the code officials, and those servants under the code officials,
We must also collect filial piety money according to the regulations, this one is two taels, that one is eight cents, everyone has a share. An ordinary hundred households in Huai'anwei will nod and bow when they see the slaves on the river, and they will have wine and banquets every now and then. If they are serving
If you are not careful, they will find a reason to dismiss you, a soldier from a hundred households, and hundreds of people will have to go and drink the wind."
"Is there such a thing as a king's method?" Su Hao was really angry. A scene like this appeared in his mind: a second-rate servant, sitting on the Taishi chair with his legs crossed, and below him was a bright man with a helmet on his head.
Hundreds of military households held silver in their hands and smiled charmingly. If a country has destroyed the Great Wall to this extent, what hope can it have?
"Did Li Shida not report this situation to Governor Pan?" Su Hao asked. Commander Wei is a third-grade military attache, and he should be able to speak in front of Pan Jixun. His subordinates were humiliated by several evil officials. He
Can you actually swallow this breath?
Xu Guangzu said: "Governor Pan knows about the fire consumption. The river engineering project is huge, and people need to take care of it everywhere. These people's work and food money must be spent from the fire consumption. What Governor Pan wants is to
After the river work was completed, there were people below who helped. As long as it was not particularly serious, Governor Pan turned a blind eye.
Besides, it is against the rules for the guardsmen to work as river workers to earn money. If it were true, the Ministry of Industry could fire all the guardsmen and use civilians recruited from various prefectures and counties. Wouldn't Li Shida be even more blind?
In this matter, Li Shida acted like a chicken."
"So he wants to let me take care of them through your relationship?" Su Hao asked.
Xu Guangzu said: "That's right. His requirements are not high. If he can reduce the fire consumption by half, he will be satisfied. In addition, it is best for Zaoli to say hello and ask them not to embarrass the officers and soldiers below.
, charge less regular money.”
Su Hao suddenly laughed and asked: "Uncle Xu, when Li Shida asks me to do something, you can't just say it and it's over, right? I've done something for him, what benefit can he give me?"
Xu Guangzu knew that Su Hao was not the kind of person who would trade on principles. Su Hao asked this question just to explore Li Shida's background and see if he had any weights that could be used for trading. These weights may be able to be used in the future.
play a role.
"On this point, he also said that he has some connections in the Ministry of War and several people of the same age in the Ministry of Personnel. He said that as long as you do something for him, he can put in a good word for you in the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Personnel.
It will be extremely useful for your future career development." Xu Guangzu said.
"That's it." Su Hao understood.
What Li Shida used to trade with Su Hao was his personal connections. This kind of connections is very useful for low-level young officials like Su Hao. It can help these officials advance smoothly in their official careers, so officials are very interested in such people.
Transactions are generally difficult to refuse. However, Li Shida's connections cannot be used to trade with Zhang Xiang and others, because Zhang Xiang and others are officials. No matter how good their reputation is, they cannot be officials. This kind of commitment has no effect on them.
Attraction.
The segregation system between officials and local staff in the Ming Dynasty was an important source of corruption among officials. Although there were many corrupt officials, they often acted more covertly, and even temporarily gave up their corruption in order to be promoted. But officials were different.
Now, they have no possibility of promotion, so they focus entirely on making a fortune, which makes the officials more unscrupulous than the officials. Since there are fewer officials and more officials, the officials are responsible for most of the administrative affairs.
, which made the politics of the Ming Dynasty become increasingly darker.
"Okay, I brought everything Li Shida asked me to tell you. You dragged me to Huai'an, right, just to let me build a good relationship with the Huai'an guards for you? Now that they have drawn a line, can you handle the matter well?
, Li Shida will treat you as one of his own. If you can't handle it well, I'll break it, Li Shida won't give you a good face, so you just have to do it." Xu Guangzu said.
Su Hao said: "Thank you Uncle Xu for the message. I will definitely handle Li Shida's matter for him, but not now. People like Zhang Xiang have been operating in Huai'an for many years and are considered local snakes. I get off Yin Shi, if I have trouble with them
It turned out that it was a small matter that caused trouble and affected the river workers. I'm afraid Governor Pan won't be able to spare me. Uncle Xu also gave Li Shida a message for me. I will definitely help him solve the livelihood problem of the guardsmen, but I have to ask him to be patient.
Wait for me for a few months. Also, if there are things that require his cooperation, please don’t refuse.”
Xu Guangzu yawned and said, "Oh, what a big deal it is for me, a veteran, to carry messages back and forth for you. There is nothing interesting or interesting to eat in Huai'an, but it suffocates me to death."
"Uncle Xu, please be patient for a moment. When Hao smoothes things over, he will take you to go boating on Hongze Lake to eat fresh fish." Su Hao smiled and made the promise. (To be continued. Please search for Piaotian Literature and Novels. Better updates faster!)