The Shaowu Dynasty is 70% the same as the previous Ming Dynasty, and the other 30% is a patch. [Read the novel with correct chapters, search on google]
The six central ministries were transformed into eight ministries, and the cabinet took charge of the transformation and management ministries, while the local government was responsible for supervision, litigation, and civil affairs.
That is, the Baojia system was replaced by the Three Elders system.
For the sake of balance and the need for governance, the quota of the three elders cannot be fully controlled by the central government.
Therefore, the most powerful township chief is a veteran or disabled veteran. There are three to four hundred thousand Beijing camp and frontier troops in the country, and tens of thousands of them retire every year just like a joke.
It is equivalent to the dragon crossing the river, representing the interests of the court.
As for the village elders, they are recommended by local gentry and village chiefs. They are required to be highly respected elders who have at least the qualifications of a boy or a martial artist. They represent the interests of the local people. It is really difficult for non-locals to mediate lawsuits.
He is a local snake.
The rural police are independently appointed by the county magistrate to catch thieves and key criminals.
Unlike the county magistrate, who is elected for a term of three years, the three elders are elected for a term of five years, and they can serve two consecutive ten-year terms.
It can be said that the relationship between a simple village is extremely complicated.
In name, compared with the previous Baojia system, the power of the three-elder system has been decentralized a lot, but in reality it has been tightened.
Because in the past, Baojia was basically all locals, but now the township chief's breakthrough is like a chokehold for the local area.
Although the village chief of a natural village is elected by the villagers, he needs the approval of the three elders.
It can be said that local control is somewhat stronger.
The three elders can also become a mediator, mediating between the county government and the village to prevent them from getting out of control.
As for the people under the three veterans, they are of course white laborers. There are always a few landless big men in every township.
"Sure enough, if you encounter a coiled snake, even a dragon crossing the river will have to lie down."
Zhu Yixi smiled and came to the small Yamen.
When he learned that he was looking for the mayor, the gatekeeper curled his lips. When he received a cent of money, his eyes lit up, and he pointed to the location and said:
"Sir, you have entered the right temple and worshiped the wrong Buddha!"
"However, the mayor is not here today, so you should go to his house and have a look!"
He shook his head and ignored it.
Zhu Yixi smiled, this township government office is really interesting, anyone with a little bit of status can enter, it is much more casual than the county government office.
But then he thought that this yamen was not a yamen in the first place, it was just an office they randomly decided to make easier for the county government to find.
On weekdays, there is nothing much going on. The clan has its own rules and the village has its own village rules. There is no major event in the year. The most busy thing is the autumn and summer harvests.
It's completely different from the kind of village offices of later generations.
After searching for a while, I finally saw a dilapidated yard not far away.
The door is dilapidated, but at least it is complete. A few patches of gray have peeled off the gray-white walls, revealing mottled colors.
When you open the door, you will see a well.
A burly man was carrying water for a shower next to the well.
Two children aged eight or nine were playing with mud and stones nearby with great interest.
Next to her, a woman in a wooden hairpin apron with a round waist and broad shoulders was sitting on a horse washing clothes.
It looks so harmonious.
"Creak!"
The sound of the door opening immediately attracted their attention.
"What does this young master do for you?"
The man immediately panicked, wiped his body casually, immediately put on the single clothes on the side like this, and forced a smile.
Zhu Yixi looked around and saw that the yard was dilapidated, with broken tiles and few furniture. Although it looked neat, it was inevitably a bit shabby.
"Are you the mayor of Wu Township?"
"That's me." The man's voice was loud, but slightly polite, and he said with a wry smile: "This young master invites you."
"Although he is the mayor of the township, he is just a paper boy. Young Master, you have found the wrong person."
Seeing the child bring a chair, Zhu Yixi sat down and said, "I'm just here to find you."
"It's just that you are the head of the village, so why do you live in such a miserable state?"
"Sir, please stop praising him, this township chief is nothing!" At this time, the woman couldn't help but put her hands on her hips and said:
"He's from the same province, just next door. I can't understand what the people here say, and I'm not familiar with them. The village elder treats him as a clay Buddha and won't let him interfere in anything."
"Ten yuan a year and ten stones of grain are better than farming, but what's the use? How can I be considered an official?"
From the rank of ninth-grade official, one will receive ten silver coins and ten stones of grain and grass every year.
His salary was not high, which was deliberately suppressed by the court and the emperor.
According to the principle of one thousand households per township, there are six or seven small counties, about ten large counties, and three elders with thirty or fifty people. There are 1,600 counties in the country, which means about ten thousand people.
If you don't lower your salary, you won't be able to support them at all.
But compared to farmers who dig in the fields every day, this salary is very impressive.
What's more important is having power and status, which is difficult for farmers to achieve.
Wu Jin was concerned about his face and hurriedly scolded: "What do you know, you woman? We are officials now. Even if the landlord is rich, we have to bow to me when we see him."
"Who is Xiu Cai Gong? How can he compare with me?"
Zhu Yixi smiled.
Wu Jin recounted his origins.
He was originally from Zhenjiang and came from a military family. When Emperor Shaowu entered Nanjing, he simply joined the army. He worked hard for twenty years, acquired more than ten acres of land, and was able to retire at the post of chief minister.
It can be said that he wisely preserved his life and survived, but he was not destined to make meritorious deeds.
"The Beijing camp will not have people until it is forty years old, and the local patrol camp will not have people until forty-five years old."
Wu Jin said with great interest: "When I went out to the army, according to my qualifications, I could join the patrol camp as a team leader and manage the number 180 people."
"I don't want to be a Qiu Ba anymore. It's still more comfortable to be an official. No matter how young a villager is, he is still an official. He is much better than the previous security chief, Jia Zhang..."
As he spoke, he showed a proud smile.
Then he scratched his hair in distress: "If I become a team leader, I can go to the county government when I go down to the local government. I can also serve as a clerk in the sixth room. That would be the ninth grade..."
Just like in later generations, when the military was transferred to a local position, it was customary to use it in a downgraded manner.
But it's different at the bottom level.
Because the team leader is a ninth-rank official, it is impossible for them to be the sixth-rank clerk, so they are basically divided according to rank.
Military attachés who have reached the rank of captain or above will basically be retired after retirement and will take up idle positions in local areas, such as chief secretary, chief envoy, and political envoy.
After all, at the age of thirty when you can become a grandfather, and when you retire from the army at forty or fifty, you can fully support yourself in old age. There is really no need to become an official.
As for the expansion of the military, civilian officials will not ignore it. Being an idle official is already showing mercy.
Due to years of literacy campaigns and military schools, ordinary soldiers need to know 500 words, while officers need to know 2,000 words.
Being an official is actually not difficult for military officers. What is difficult is the officialdom.
Wu Jin felt that the man in front of him who spoke Beijing Mandarin was very close to him, and they got to know each other briefly:
"This village has a great reputation. There is an uncle who is a supervisor and a nephew who is a scholar. He is a scribe in the next county. Even the magistrate has to give him some face when he meets him."
"To them, I, a warrior, am just an ignorant roughneck. Those village chiefs don't listen to me..."
Having said this, he couldn't help but feel extremely distressed.
When he arrived in the village, he almost became a seal. He could only seal and sign the document, but had no right to speak at all.
Zhu Yixi laughed and talked about the way to be an official: "As the third elder, you have to curry favor with the county government, and you have to appease the people below."
"So if you want to gain prestige, the most important thing is to gain support, especially from the county government. The township police are appointed and dismissed by the county magistrate..."
Hearing this, Wu Jin suddenly understood and immediately held his hand, wanting to make a sworn vow.
Zhu Yixi refused quickly, left two silver coins, and left decisively.
He looked back at the house again and left immediately.
After getting on the carriage, Zhu Yixi sighed: "These three elders have advantages and disadvantages. If you don't have any skills, you won't be able to drive them at all."
"But it's impossible to train the way to be an official, right?"
"However, controlling money and food means controlling lifeblood and controlling people's hearts."
But he had new thoughts about the three elders:
This salary is really too little.
But its base is too large. Even if it increases a little, it will be a huge burden for the court.
But we can't find solutions from the court, we can only find solutions at the local level.
Thinking about it in his mind, Zhu Yixi suddenly remembered the salary during the Tang and Song Dynasties.
Basically, officials at that time had three sources of salary: official salary, government money, and official land.
There is no need to explain the official salary. The government money is the fiscal surplus, and the officials are allowed to lend money, and the money earned from loan sharking is given to the officials.
This is definitely not possible.
It is simply ridiculous for an official to openly use his fiscal revenue to lend money.
Therefore, the official land system can only be adopted.
A certain proportion of official land was assigned to officials, and the rent paid by tenants was their additional income.
This is doable.
In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were a large number of abandoned fields in the local area, firstly because there were not enough manpower to cultivate them, and secondly because the government did not allow it.
Because sometimes official land is an important financial revenue and belongs to the small treasury.
But Zhu Yixi can be sure that these official lands will be annexed by the gentry, and in the end they will only become data on paper.
You must know that during the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty, two-thirds of the land in the Taihu Lake area of Suzhou was official land.
However, the official land payment is a rent, which will definitely be higher than the tax.
A large number of gentry swallowed up official land and turned it into private land, but in name it belonged to official land, so taxes were determined according to the rent.
In other words, the heavy taxation in the Jiangnan area is actually a false proposition, because it is not called taxation, but rent.
Then they felt that the taxes were too heavy and started to default on the taxes.
"Instead of letting these lands be annexed by others, it is better to turn them into food fields and improve the lives of the three elders."
In this way, he had a plan in mind.
The township chief was entitled to 100 acres of official land, while the township elders and township policemen were entitled to 80 acres, and this part of the income was managed by the township chief.
Not only did it improve their salaries, but it also provided a boost to the township chief.
It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone.
Zhu Yixi was very happy.
Suddenly, another cry came from my ears.
"Damn it, why are there so many things happening after leaving the palace?"
He lifted the car curtain and took a look. Men, women, old and young were crying in mourning. It was extremely miserable and embarrassing. There were many government officials nearby watching.
He was unlucky enough to bump into him.
"Ask me what's going on, why you're crying so miserably!"
As we all know, the Yangtze River flows through several provinces, and there are tens of thousands of ships traveling between them. Although there are large ships, they are all small and medium-sized ships. This means that there are many pirates on the river.
There are many thieves on the river, and catching thieves requires quick arrests. Therefore, when there are many thieves, there are also many quick arrests. In large counties, there are as many as a thousand people listed as "official".
In fact, as the saying goes, "The policeman is born as a thief." The policeman sitting in the squad room during the day is exactly the robber holding fire at night.
One of the most famous detectives in Quanying Tianfu is Hu Ti'an from Shangyuan County. He is a big robber who sits on the ground and divides the stolen goods.
Of course he didn't take action, and he didn't commit crimes locally. Instead, he assigned his disciples and disciples to rob people hundreds of miles away. Because of his cunning methods and his widespread reputation, accidents rarely happened.
If the case becomes too big and the pursuit is too urgent, Hu Ti'an has one last resort: buying poor people with huge sums of money to "take the blame".
Once, Hu Changde's gang members robbed a cloth merchant named Zhao in Taiping Prefecture, Anhui Province. This man was a local wealthy man. After the robbery, he reported the crime as usual, but as usual there would be no consequences.
So Zhao hired someone to conduct a private investigation and found out that it was Hu Changde who was the mastermind.
At this time, Hu Changde became angry and immediately ordered his green men to go to his home and beat him to death on the street.
Later, Hu Changde forged an IOU to say that he would not repay the debt, so he was beaten, so that several green men just played with boards and were exiled to Nanyang.
Now, the Zhao family was annoyed.
However, if businessmen do not fight with officials, especially officials, they will not discuss breaking up their families.
At this time, the Zhao family's business was robbed, which obviously meant that their livelihood was cut off.
As for why you don’t care?
The delicate woman said: "The slave family knows that Hu Changde has a brother-in-law who is a master of Shaoxing and serves as a master of the prefect of Changzhou..."
"This little master actually has such abilities?"
Zhu Yixi was shocked.
He thought he had some big background. He never thought he was just a master. This was not an official position.
"Let Jin Yiwei take care of it!"
The emperor ordered with a straight face and returned to the Nanjing Palace.
At this time, the commander of the Jin Yiwei sent Chu Yu over to explain the reason.
It turns out that there are many scholars in Zhejiang and even more people in Shaoxing, so he is commonly known as "Shaoxing Master", especially in the name of punishment. He is proficient in laws and regulations, and has the secret method of learning from his master. When starting a case, he must first determine the purpose.
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Ji Xiaolan jokingly called this generation "Mr. Four Rescues". The most important one among the four salvations was: "Save life but not death." It is said that he has the virtue of being good at life and accumulating more yin merits to benefit his children and grandchildren.
In fact, 'saving lives' is nothing more than redressing injustice. Although it can bring fame, it may not bring any benefits. To save lives, the family members of the prisoner will definitely do their best and spend money to buy their lives. If you encounter a murder case involving a rich family member, if you can find ways to exonerate it,
Then just take whatever you ask for, and eat endlessly.
Of course, this requires a joint effort from top to bottom.
Therefore, it is very important for a screen friend to have a wide range of voices and form a system of his own, otherwise even great abilities will not work.
From this, just like drama, there was a teacher-to-teacher relationship. Those who studied Xing Ming would worship the old Master Xing Ming of the Si Yamen as their teacher, and they would practice a number of rituals every year as a filial piety.
After one or two years of this, when you apply for a job, you will have a clear understanding of the entire case-handling procedures from prefecture to county to province.
With the boss at the top taking care of me, the people from the same family at the bottom, and the country friends in the middle, everything is going well.
Only a master was able to control the prison.
Therefore, this is why Shaoxing people are more willing to serve as staff. As long as you serve as an official, you will be full of wings, enjoy the success, and become rich.
Officials have ups and downs in officialdom, but masters make money every day.