Liu Chuan's memorial requesting that the land tax of the five prefectures of Jiangsu and Zhejiang be lowered was not allowed to stay overnight in the palace by Yunxi. It was sent to the General Affairs Department along with all other memorials. The General Affairs Department then recorded the content of the memorial and the emperor's reply in
The official newspaper was submitted to the newspaper, and the original document was returned to the person who submitted it. The document for the punishment of Liu Chuan was also issued.
At night, Liu Chuan ran to another mansion at the risk of being captured by the night patrol sergeant. Fortunately, the two mansions were not far from each other.
The man came out with his clothes on and said to Liu Chuan: "Fortunately, I stayed in the outer house tonight, otherwise you would have come here without being discovered? The discount you bought today is out now? So fast?"
What has His Majesty approved?"
Liu Chuan said in fear: "Sir, Your Majesty has refuted the villain's claims, and even dismissed the villain as an experienced Shazhou Guard."
The man opposite was shocked and said: "Your Majesty, your Majesty actually dealt with you so harshly?"
Then he continued: "It was a mistake this time. I didn't expect His Majesty to punish you so severely." Then he said to Liu Chuan: "After a few years, I will find a way to transfer you back to Jiangnan.
As an important official of the imperial court, and with the help of a group of officials from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, we will definitely be able to do it."
Liu Chuan came here hoping that he would help him find a way not to go to the northwest for his post. How could he, a Huzhou native, want to go to the northwest? But looking at the attitude of the person opposite, he knew it was irreversible. He said bitterly: "The big deal is
I will resign and won’t do anything!”
The man opposite immediately said: "Even if you resign, you still have to stay in the northwest for a year and a half."
Liu Chuan didn't dare to disobey his order. He was just testing it. When he saw that he wouldn't allow it, he could only agree and leave.
After Liu Chuan left, after a while, a middle-aged man about forty years old came in and said to him: "Your Majesty, it seems that he is not ignorant of people's sentiments. It may not be easy for us to deceive him.
"
"Tomorrow I will go check out Lian Zining's words and find out what His Majesty has to say about this matter."
The person who was originally sitting sighed: "Your Majesty today, there are many things that are inconsistent with the way of the Holy Emperor. The emperor, the emperor, is to rule from the top and leave everything to the people below. However, the current Holy Emperor is in conflict with the late emperor."
Same."
"At the beginning, it would have been nice if the late emperor had chosen Prince Guangze (Yunwen) as his grandson. Prince Guangze was modest, prudent, and good at reading. He must have been a good emperor and would have understood the hardships of the people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.
."
The person who came in later said: "It's too late to say anything now. We will test how much His Majesty knows about the people's sentiments in the future. We have to be cautious. I just read His Majesty's refutation and took Liu Chuan's false statement that 'the taxes on private land in the five prefectures of Jiangsu and Zhejiang are high' as an excuse."
Therefore, it is too harsh to demote Liu Chuan to the rank of Shazhou Guard. However, if Your Majesty continues to be so strict in governing officials, more officials may be able to see clearly His Majesty's true face of despising us and other civil servants."
The first person said: "But, your Majesty will probably not be like this. Give me a sweet date with a slap in the face, your Majesty will be very playful."
The last person sighed and said, "Let's talk tomorrow. Be careful not to be discovered by spies." The two dispersed.
He went to court the next morning. At this time, most people didn't know that Yunxi punished Liu Chuan yesterday, or even knew that Liu Chuan had sent a letter. The news didn't spread that fast. But Yunxi knew that he couldn't always wait.
Even if the civil servants raise an issue, they still have to take the initiative.
Therefore, after Yunxi came to court, he issued the following six decrees:
The first line: "The emperor's edict is carried out by heaven: professors in all prefectures and counties should teach, teach, and educate people,..., professors in each prefecture should be promoted to the eighth rank, and those in each state should be promoted to the ninth rank.
The teachings of each county are said to be from the ninth level, and the teachings of all prefectures and counties are from the ninth level. I admire this."
The second line: "The emperor's edict was carried out by heaven: the Imperial College is a place where talents from all over the world gather..., but the grades of the officials in the Imperial College are not high, how can it mean that they value the Imperial College? Today, all the officials in the Imperial College who have not entered the mainstream have been promoted to the ninth grade.
; Officials who enter the ranks, such as Jijiu, Siye, Jiancheng, etc., will all be promoted to one level."
At this time, many officials in the imperial court came from the Imperial College. The current Xia Fuguan Bao Zhao graduated from the Imperial College, so the Imperial College was quite important.
Moreover, at this time, the Imperial College also taught literature and martial arts, and those who came out could be both civil servants and military generals.
The third line: "The emperor's edict is carried out by heaven: the officials of the world's economic system..., the annual salary has been increased to ninety-six dan. I admire this."
After Yunxi proposed to divide the land into acres and pay the grain as a whole, the annual salary of official officials was increased because the officials' right to tax exemption on land was cancelled. According to Zhu Yuanzhang's old system, the annual salary of the second-rank minister was seven hundred and thirty.
Two stones, the annual salary of a fourth-grade magistrate is two hundred and eighty-eight stones, and the annual salary of a seventh-grade magistrate is ninety stones.
After Yunxi helped Zhu Yuanzhang reorganize the system, the annual salary of the second-rank minister was 768 dan, the annual salary of the fourth-rank magistrate was 360 dan, and the annual salary of the seventh-rank magistrate was 180 dan.
Yunxi felt that in Zhu Yuanzhang's system, the gap between the annual salary of the lower-level officials and that of the higher-level officials was too big, so the annual salary increase for the middle- and lower-level officials was more, while the increase for the upper-level officials was less. Although in Yunxi's view, the gap was still very large, and future generations would not
Why would a mayor's annual salary not be more than twice that of a county magistrate? But he can only do so much, and the salary of fifteen dan of food per month is quite sufficient.
According to Zhu Yuanzhang's old system, the economic system officials, equivalent to the grassroots civil servants in later generations, only had an annual salary of thirty-six shi of grain, which amounted to only three shi of grain per month (one shi equaled 118.8 kilograms in later generations). If you were in a poor county, it was still enough.
If you spend money, you can even be wealthy; but in the capital or wealthy places, a salary of three stones of food per month is definitely not enough.
But at that time, Zhu Yuanzhang firmly believed that officials should contribute to the country, so he firmly opposed increasing the annual salary of officials. At that time, Yunxi could not convince Zhu Yuanzhang, but after he succeeded to the throne, he decided to increase the annual salary of officials.
You know, in this era, women cannot go out to work to earn money to support the family. All the expenses of the family depend on the salary of the head man, and there are many children. Doesn't this force them to engage in corruption, bribery, and extortion?
For the same reason, the following edict was issued:
The fourth passage: "The Emperor's edict is carried out by heaven: all medical officials, monks, Taoists, and inspection officials in prefectures and counties, such as Zhengke, Du Gang, etc., will all be given salaries according to their grades. I admire this."
According to Zhu Yuanzhang's old system, the official hospitals in Fuzhou County, as well as some other official units, all had officials without salaries. These officials would definitely not eat their own food, so this resulted in the grassroots level of the Ming Dynasty.
From the very beginning when politics was still relatively clear, these organizations have done everything they can to extort money because they also want to make money to support their families!
Yunxi took advantage of the fact that the current political situation was still relatively clear, and paid them wages, and then carried out a period of "hard crackdown" to get rid of some people who were still breaking the law. This way, it is estimated that the grassroots level would be better. However, corruption and bribery were not allowed in feudal society.
What may be eliminated can only be curbed no matter how much it is changed.
The fifth line: "The Emperor of Heaven carries the edict: Officials of science and education,..., are hereby authorized to be paid according to the salary of fifth-grade officials. I admire this."
This article is to flatter the officials of the Department of Science and Technology, so that they feel that the emperor values them, so that they will not cause trouble for Yunxi.
Yunxi felt that the officials of the Sixth Section were just that. After all, they had real power, so they could be set up. But it was a waste of food for the Censor, a group of people who only know how to fire cannons, to have more than a hundred people set up. Although the Censor
Shi also has some practical responsibilities, such as touring various places and playing the role of supervision and inspection, which is somewhat useful.
However, on average, the censors spent at least four months a year on patrol in other places, and the remaining eight months were spent firing cannons in the capital. Yunxi was very unhappy, and felt that they had to patrol other places for at least eight months a year.
Although Yunxi did not dare to delete the official system established by Zhu Yuanzhang without authorization, he could leave the official positions vacant and not appoint officials! Then just merge the responsibilities.
After he came to court, Yunxi asked Zhuo Jing to draft the edict before starting to deal with today's issues. Before drafting the sixth edict, Yunxi asked the officials present: "What do you think, if I set up a system to supply officials below the fourth rank?"
Would these officials below the fourth rank be willing to live in the public residence?"
Chen Xingshan asked: "Your Majesty, what is the system of this public house?"
Yunxi said: "It is to build some houses, divided into rooms one by one, to provide accommodation for officials free of charge. One room should be about this size," Yunxi gestured in the palace, "Although I have never seen it before
It looks like a family of five or six people living together, but such a big place should be able to accommodate a family of five or six people."
"I think because the houses in the capital are relatively expensive, many officials live alone in the capital and share houses with them. I couldn't bear it, so I set up a public residence."
Chen Xingshan said: "It's more than just five or six people. If arranged properly, it can accommodate five or six adults. I just don't know where your Majesty plans to build it."
Yunxi said: "Not far to the south of the imperial city, there is a piece of land owned by the imperial court. It used to be used to supply vegetables to the palace. Now I take this land out and build public houses for officials."
Chen Xingshan, Zhuo Jing and others just thought that this was a benefit given by Yunxi to officials. In the past, Yunxi always gave benefits to his subordinate officials, so Chen Xingshan said happily: "Your Majesty, most of the officials in Beijing have a salary that is barely enough.
Now that His Majesty is willing to set up a public residence for officials to occupy, the officials must be happy."
Zhuo Jing also said: "Your Majesty is so considerate of the officials, it is really a blessing for us officials." He thought a little more than Chen Xingshan, so that if the officials wanted to gather together at night, they would not have to worry about the curfew.
Yunxi continued: "Because there is only one room in the house, there are only public toilets. In addition, I allow a restaurant to be set up in the courtyard of the public house for officials to eat."
Bao Zhao also praised Yun Xi's approach at this time, so he came up with the sixth decree:
"The emperor's edict was carried out by heaven: everything in the capital has become expensive. I can't bear to see hundreds of officials living alone in the capital..., I have specially built a public house for the accommodation of hundreds of officials. I admire it."