The young prince lowered his head, nodded in agreement to the majestic Li Gang, and promised to give him a neat copy of the Book of Filial Piety of more than 2,000 words tomorrow for inspection, and today's meeting was over.
The prince was no longer in the mood to say hello to the other officials, and left in a hurry, accompanied by his eldest grandson brother.
Wu Huaiyu looked at the prince's leaving figure and felt a little pity.
Children who are only eight years old actually have similar natures. Although Li Chengqian has just become the prince, he can see that this child is just the common arrogance and luxury of some noble children. Which child of a distinguished family is not like this.
At best this is called nobility, at worst it is called arrogance.
Li Gang, an 80-year-old man, bullies an eight-year-old child and is shameless.
"You all saw the way I admonished the prince just now. As an official of the East Palace, I have to be loyal and dare to admonish. The prince is young and needs good guidance even more..." The old man was actually a little complacent, feeling that today
He immediately showed off his power and straightened the prince upright.
"Please go back to the government office and be on duty."
Huaiyu and others all stood up and saluted Li Gang and Pei Ju.
Chongwen Hall is only the place where the prince studies, and it is also the place where the East Palace officials usually visit the prince. After all, the prince is young, so he only comes here every day to register for roll call as if it were a morning meeting.
The Si Jing Bureau is affiliated to Zuochunfang and is one of the six subordinate bureaus. It is located to the east of Xiande Hall.
Another prince, Xima Cai Yungong, came out of the Chongwen Palace together. He briefly chatted with him and then left. He was going to be on duty at the Xiuwen Pavilion under the imperial palace gate across the wall.
Being a bachelor of Xiuwenguan is his official job now, and the prince's horse washing can only be regarded as a part-time job.
"Lao Wu Xi Ma is responsible for everything in the Economic and Economic Affairs Bureau."
Zuo Chunfang was equivalent to the lower province of the imperial court, and its subordinate Economic Affairs Bureau was like the inner palace province. The Economic Affairs Bureau was mainly in charge of books and official documents.
He, Prince Xima, is actually the director of the East Palace Office.
All the way to Zuochunfang, which occupies a large area and houses to the east of Xiande Hall, the six bureaus are lined up. Wu Huaiyu, the prince, is also a high-ranking official in Zuochunfang.
The two princes, the Zuo Shuzi of the fourth rank, are equivalent to the servants, and the two princes, Yunzheng, the fifth rank, are equivalent to the servants of Huangmen.
There are six bureaus: Secretary Jing, Dian Shan, Yao Zhi, Nei Zhi, Dian She and Gongmen. Wu Huaiyu's Bureau of Economics is modeled after the Secretary's Department. His prince's Xima is from the fifth rank, which is quite high.
But when we arrived at the Economic Affairs Bureau, only four people came to greet us.
Two are Prince Wen of the Bureau of Economic Affairs, and two are Zhengzi. The two Taizi Wen are in their thirties and claim to be from the Jinshi Department of Wude Benchao. The two Zhengzi are younger and are from Shukeke of Wude Benchao.
Origin.
Prince's literature is at the sixth level, while orthographic writing is at the ninth level.
Those who were born in the same imperial examination had a big difference in level. It can be seen that the imperial examination in the Tang Dynasty had the highest gold content in the scholar examination, followed by Ming Jing and then Jinshi.
However, clear books, clear laws, clear calculations, and even clear medicine and clear teachings are very worthless.
As the old saying goes, if you are young at fifty, you will become a Jinshi, and at thirty, you will be able to learn the classics.
It is considered old to pass the Ming Jing examination at the age of thirty, and it is still considered young to pass the Jinshi examination at the age of fifty. As for subjects such as storytelling, law, and medicine, they are usually recruited as civil servants.
These two young men were able to become Zhengzi because they came from a well-known family and brought with them a halo bonus. Just like Wang Ji, a bachelor of wine fighting, he had been a Zhengzi secretary for many years, all because of his good family background.
"Are these the only people in our Economic and Economic Affairs Bureau?"
Zhang Chengde, a Jinshi in his forties, replied, "Our economics bureau originally had two people from the Prince's Xima, three people from the Prince's literature, four people from the school of writing, two people from the orthography, and there were also people who wrote books, ordered history, regular script, and classics.
Books, etc., as well as the history of catching money."
"Our Economic Bureau also has a company that lends money and collects interest?" Huaiyu perked up when he heard this. His current job is related to his salary, daily necessities, miscellaneous items and other benefits.
"Yes, but the capital of our Economic Bureau is relatively small, only 450,000 yuan. Nine money-catching officers are responsible for catching money and lending it, with an interest of 36,000 yuan per month. However, in June, this amount
The money was misappropriated and has not been repaid yet..."
Huaiyu pinched his chin and sat in his new office. The Economic Affairs Bureau had a fairly small courtyard. He and Cai Xima each had a separate office, but others did not have such conditions.
"How many people do we have in total in our Economic and Economic Affairs Bureau now?"
"With the exception of Wu Xima and Cai Xima, we have two literary and two orthographic characters. The officials are still short of one literary and four school scripts. As for the officials, the book of Lingshi, the regular script and the classic script are also temporarily missing.
There are only four each,
The capital of the public house has not been replenished yet, so there is no special money-catching order yet..."
"Is there a public kitchen canteen?" Huaiyu asked directly.
"not yet,"
"Then where will we have lunch?"
"There is a public kitchen in Zuochunfang, and we eat there at noon, but we in the Economic Affairs Bureau have to pay extra to eat there."
After hearing this, Huaiyu shook his head, "This is not okay."
"Our Economic Affairs Bureau is also a bureau-level unit after all. There are ten high-level officials here, more than the officials in the county government. How can we not even have a canteen, and we have to go to other places to eat."
"It's hard for a clever woman to make a living without rice before the father-in-law's money is taken out." Zhang Chengde really likes his boss Wu Huaiyu, unlike Cai Yungong, although he is a horse washer, he basically never takes care of this place. There is no serious job here anyway.
.
Wu Huaiyu ignored the work matters for now, but the canteen had to be set up first, and the money for the business had to be obtained first, "You guys draft an official document right away, and I'll take it to Prince Li Shaobao to get the money later."
"Go and call all the secretaries, orders, historians, miscellaneous officials, etc. from our Economic and Economic Bureau."
After a while, everyone from the Bureau of Economic Affairs except Cai Yungong came, five officials and twelve officials.
The Lingshi of the Si Jing Bureau is of the third grade of Liuwai, and the Shulingshi is of the fourth grade of Liuwai. As for regular calligraphers, the status of classic script is even more humble.
It can be seen that everyone usually has nothing to do.
Although the Bureau of Economic Affairs said it was in charge of East Palace pictures and books, there are not many people there now, let alone books.
"I remember that both the Secretariat and the Menxia Provincial Literature and Art Museum still have many craftsmen? Don't we?"
"When Huiwu Xima, there should have been paper craftsmen, decorators, pen craftsmen, etc., as well as pavilion chiefs, palm guards, etc., but now they are not all available."
"Then how many books does our East Palace Economic Bureau have?"
"Back to Wu Xima, now there is not a single book."
"What?"
"Originally, there were many books in the Economic Bureau of the East Palace, but after King Xi Ling was executed for his rebellion, the imperial court transported all the books in the original East Palace to the Secretariat Department and the Xiuwen Hall in the Menxia Province and stored them separately. Now there are no books in the East Palace.
.”
After hearing this answer, Wu Huaiyu felt that this new job was just a way to make ends meet.
But he, Wu Huaiyu, is not that kind of person. He found out that although there are no books now, the Bureau of Economic Affairs actually manages many places, such as the Chongwen Hall where they used to hold meetings. It used to be the East Palace's book collection, and it was also under their control.
.
It turns out that the Bureau of Economic Affairs also has many craftsmen who make paper, decorate, pens, ink, etc. There are many workshops where they can copy books, bind books, and even produce paper, pens and ink.
In Wu Huaiyu's view, these are high-quality assets. If they are revitalized, everyone's life will be better. Even if you have money, you can take the initiative to do something, such as editing a book or buying some books from private collections.
Rearranging things, isn't that just credit?
Zhang Chengde just said that they had nothing to do all day long. Although it was easy, life was quite difficult. Most of them, officials with imperial examination backgrounds, were from outside the city. They did not have much property in Chang'an. They had to rent a house to feed their family, feed their family, buy donkeys and horses, buy books, paper and pens, etc.
The expenses are not small, but the Economic Bureau did not even distribute the capital of the company, and there was no farmland for the company, and there was no farmland for the workers. One acre was only worth two buckets of grain.
He didn't even have any money for daily rations, so he had to rely on rice flour, and he didn't even have any money for oil and water. The price of food was so high before that he even had to borrow Beijing debt.
It is said that the Secretary Department is like Qingshui Yamen. It is difficult to be an official, but it is even worse for the Secretary and Economic Bureau.
"Don't worry, everyone, our department will slowly be fully equipped. Everything will be available, including public money, public food, public kitchens and canteens, and miscellaneous materials for the New Year and holidays."
There will definitely be no shortage of benefits. I will think of ways to deal with these, but one thing is that we also need to change our mentality and we can’t continue to be lax. I will slowly assign some tasks next and everyone must work hard to complete them.
·······”
In the public room, Huaiyu painted cakes for these dozen subordinates.
After igniting the enthusiasm of the poor scholars, Huaiyu went directly to see Young Master Pei Ju.
Before Pei Ju became prime minister, he succeeded Li Gang as the crown prince.
Nowadays, although he is no longer Prime Minister, he is still the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Minister of Finance of the Empire. He is in charge of the money bag of the Tang Dynasty. He also holds the title of Prince Shaozhan. Huaiyu naturally goes to him if he wants money.
Moreover, although Pei Ju and Li Gang are both about the same age, Pei Ju is obviously more flexible.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs of Shangshu Province is in the imperial city, not far from the Bureau of Economic Affairs. As soon as he arrived at the Yamen to sign up, Pei Ju was quickly called over.
Old Man Pei's real name was Pei Shiju. When Li Shimin became successful in the first palace, he immediately took the initiative to remove the word "Shi".
"We just left in the Chongwen Hall of the East Palace. Why did Wu Erlang come to us so quickly to ask for money?" Pei Ju asked with a smile, and asked the officials to pour tea.
Huaiyu looked at Pei Ju's public house and found that it was much better than the one in his economic bureau.
"Pei Gong is really amazing, he can see through it at a glance. To be honest with Pei Gong, when I left Chongwen Hall, I went to the Economic Affairs Bureau. I found that there were only eight officials in the Economic Affairs Bureau, and Academician Cai was basically not there. There were all rats in the Economic Affairs Bureau.
We are starving to death. We have neither a book nor a pennies. Our officials in the Economic Affairs Bureau have all borrowed money from Beijing at usurious rates. They don’t even have a place to eat lunch, and their official uniforms have to be pawned...
····”
Pei Ju just listened to him with a smile, but did not express his position immediately.
"Pei Gong, I am relatively young and have little experience, but I also know that I am looking for a job in my position. Our economic and economic bureau is responsible for the East Palace Atlas, so I plan to find some aristocratic families of Chang'an Xunqi to make some connections.
Let’s see if you can donate some books to the East Palace. Our economic affairs bureau will organize and copy these books and store them in Chongwen Hall, so that it can be convenient for His Highness the Crown Prince to read.”
"Good idea." Pei Ju smiled.
"I am confident that I should be able to get some books. But when I get the books, I need to sort them out and copy them. I need a scribe, a decorator, and more importantly, paper, ink, pen, and inkstone. It's hard for a clever woman to make a meal without rice, so I can only come to Mr. Pei.
"You are the young master of our East Palace." Huaiyu was also rude.
Pei Ju brought him a cup of fried tea and asked, "How much do you want?"
"The money from the government agencies in the Economic Affairs Bureau has not been withdrawn. As a rule, it costs at least 450,000 yuan. In fact, the government agencies in Chang'an all have a lot of money. Mr. Pei, please give us one million.
Paper, ink, pens, and inkstones are also very expensive. I also plan to open a public kitchen and canteen, and recruit craftsmen such as decorating and making pens with cooked paper. In this way, I can save some expenses on paper, pen, ink, binding, etc. Mr. Pei will allocate another one million.
Give us······"
Pei Ju raised a finger.
"I can only give you 100,000 yuan first, plus ten shi of corn, and I can temporarily give you some paper, ink, pens and inkstones. There is no more extra civilian money."
He wanted two million, but only offered one hundred thousand. Pei Ju was very aggressive in bargaining.
But Wu Huaiyu stood up and accepted it happily, "Thank you Mr. Pei, where can I get the money and food? Our Economic Bureau is still waiting for the rice to be cooked for lunch!"
Pei Ju wrote a note and called a secretary, Ling Shi, and asked him to take Wu Huaiyu to get money and food.
He also personally sent Wu Huaiyu to the gate of the Ministry of Civil Affairs Yamen, "What you said about collecting and sorting out books and storing them in the East Palace is quite good. Do it well."
"How about you, Mr. Pei, take the lead in donating a few sets of books? No matter what kind of books, we all need them now," Huaiyu said with a smile.
"I have a set of Filial Piety Classics in my apartment, but Ouyang Xun copied it himself, so I donated it to you."
"Pei Gong, you are dedicating the book to the East Palace, not to me." Huaiyu corrected with a smile, and then thanked Pei Shangshu on behalf of the Economic Affairs Bureau.
