Chapter seven hundred and ninety-ninth ask for orders for the people
"Could it be that the money collected from city entry fees and various fines is just to support these patrol policemen!" Chen Lifu said: "This is really... really..."
Chen Lifu was speechless for a long time. To be honest, this kind of thing was beyond his understanding.
In fact, there are many things he doesn't understand. For example, there is no distinction between officials and clerks. From ancient times to the present, officials are officials and officials are officials. However, in the Li and Tang Dynasties, there was no distinction between officials and officials. They were all given uniformly.
Official status is only divided into high and low grades.
A mere patrol officer, the lowest official, can actually have an official status of the ninth rank. And I heard that in Li Tang's yamen, even the lowest clerks have the official rank of the ninth rank.
In this case, the number of officials in the Li and Tang Dynasty would probably be an extremely terrifying number, and the financial pressure would be huge.
Chen Lifu naturally didn't know. In fact, in a narrow sense, the number of officials in the Tang Dynasty was naturally more than that of previous dynasties, and it was much more. But in a broad sense, in fact, although the number of officials in the Tang Dynasty was actually
There were more in the past dynasties, but not to an exaggerated level.
Although there were few officials in the past dynasties, there were many people like government servants and helpers, and these people relied on the government to make a living to some extent.
What's more, the salaries of officials in the Tang Dynasty were high, and that was only for senior officials. However, ordinary clerks, patrol officers, etc. actually had ordinary income, which was only a few taels of silver a month.
Of course, overall, in the Tang Dynasty, there were still more people eating public food than in previous dynasties. There was no way, who allowed the power of the Tang Dynasty to go directly to the village level. This is the two villages and towns.
The level can increase the number of officials by a lot.
To support so many officials, there was naturally a lot of money. However, the Tang Dynasty adopted a fiscal separation system. The central finance was not responsible for the salaries of officials in each province. The salaries of local officials were based on the unified standard range implemented by the court.
Each province then sets its own unified standard within this range based on its own financial situation.
Each state government allocates funds from local finances based on the standards set by the province!
Of course, at this time, some state capitals are relatively wealthy, and some state capitals are relatively poor. The poor ones need provincial funding to pay official salaries, while the rich state capitals can also provide additional salary in addition to the standard salary.
We will issue some benefits and so on. In short, if the state government has money, you can give yourself more benefits, and the higher-ups will have no objection.
Of course, since you have provided welfare, it means that your state government has money. If you want to build water conservancy facilities, infrastructure and the like, don't expect to receive funding from the provincial or even central finance.
Well, the above is an ideal situation, but in fact, because of the current financial difficulties of the Tang Dynasty, in order to meet the huge military needs, the court has repeatedly increased the proportion of central finance and taxation. Many local finances in this way are poor.
jingle.
But it’s not enough if you don’t have money, so now the officials in various local government offices under the rule of the Tang Dynasty are focused on improving finances and striving to generate revenue. Otherwise, the local finances will have no money to pay them their own salaries.
This is not only the case at the local level, but also in various cabinet ministries.
The Ministry of Industry opened factories to make money to subsidize office expenses.
The Ministry of Rites opened a royal publishing house to subsidize office expenses. Recently, it also tried to print more commercial advertisements in the Tang Dynasty newspaper to increase advertising expenses to subsidize the family.
Other departments are also showing off their own talents. How can I say that a living person can still choke to death from urination? If a dignified cabinet agency wants to make some money to pay wages, it can still be done with a little effort.
Among them, the one with the most abundant means and the most nourishing life is the patrol department.
There is no way, although they have all kinds of messy power to impose fines. Although the fine part must be handed over to the tax department and the rest must be handed over to the local finance, but how can I put it, such a big piece of fat, this is just a small blow.
If you put some oil in, you can keep the patrol department full.
Therefore, when the Patrol Department recruits personnel in various cabinet ministries, it is quite heroic, second only to the Tax Department, which is the money bag of the Tang Dynasty.
It is natural for the tax department to be arrogant. Everyone in the cabinet can make less money, but they are indispensable. They are the ones who collect taxes. How can we collect taxes without enough office funds!
Since Chen Lifu and Zhong Cai talked about fines and city entry fees, they naturally turned the topic to the city's sanitation, because Chen Lifu heard from Zhong Cai that the fines are the most severe nowadays.
The biggest income is from the sanitation fine!
Regarding this matter, Chen Lifu was not very surprised, because he had also seen it in the Tang Dynasty newspaper. The Li Tang Dynasty was simply obsessed with paying attention to hygiene and rectifying the appearance of the city. According to rumors,
Everywhere we go, we clean up the city appearance.
But this is the first time he has seen it in Jinling City. As a decent person, he naturally thinks that it is a good thing that the city is clean and tidy. However, the punishment is a bit harsh, and it is said that it has caused quite a lot of trouble. According to him,
Of course, this kind of thing needs to be done, but there is no need to rush and expect it to be done in just a few days. It always needs to be guided slowly.
But the Li Tang Dynasty didn’t think so.
Then, he asked curiously, where were the beggars and refugees in the city?
It is simply abnormal that there are no beggars or homeless people in such a big city like Jinling.
Zhong Cai said: "Brother Chen, don't you know that Li Tang here provides work-for-relief, and the beggars and refugees in the city are collected together whether they are willing or not, and many of them are dug out to build roads outside the city."
He went, and some women and children were arranged to enter a textile factory."
"Work-for-relief?" Chen Lifu said: "I know this, but isn't it said that this is only done in those disaster areas? How come it is also done to beggars and homeless people? It is also mandatory. If people are not willing, how can they do it?
Isn’t it the same as being imprisoned? It’s harmful to Tianhe!”
Some people are just lazy and like to be beggars. Although being a beggar doesn't look good or sounds good, people are happy with it! You, Li Tang, without saying a word, have all been forced to be taken in and given jobs. How is this possible?
!
This is to forcibly deprive others of their freedom to eat well and work lazily. Who would have thought that others would rather starve to death than work!
However, Zhong Cai was more open-minded. He chuckled and said: "Although this matter has many flaws, it is still desirable on the whole. At least now those beggars and refugees have a place to eat, which is better than freezing to death in the cold winter."
Well done!”
Chen Lifu sighed, but stopped talking. Then the two of them started talking about other topics, most of which were related to the Li Tang Dynasty. During this period, they also expected the Battle of Jianping.
"It is rumored that in the battle of Jianping, all 100,000 elite officers and soldiers were wiped out, and Lord Wang was also killed by Tang soldiers. Chen has never seen the strength of Tang soldiers, but Chen has seen Lord Wang's new Jiangnan army.
They are practicing, advancing and retreating in the same manner, and have all the guns and artillery. Even if they are defeated, the whole army will not be wiped out!" Chen Lifu sighed as he spoke.
"Although it is an exaggeration to say that the entire army was wiped out, it is true that nine out of ten soldiers survived. At that time, less than 10,000 of the defeated troops fled back to Jinling!"
"In addition, I also heard that Wang Yiqi, a traitor who misled the country and defeated the army, was not defeated and killed, but committed suicide when he was defeated. This can be considered to have some courage, but even so, this person has committed a heinous crime."
"That was an army of 100,000 people. They were all wiped out in one day. If the thief Wang led his army to stick to the south of the Yangtze River before, no matter how bad things were, the land in the south of the Yangtze River would not have all fallen to Li Tang in just one or two months.
Hands!"
When Zhong Cai said this, he sighed again.
However, Chen Lifu disagreed with Zhong Cai's opinion and retorted: "Although Mr. Wang failed in leading the army to fight, it is still something that cannot be done. However, if we do not go out of the city to fight, when the rebel army captures Hangzhou, then the land south of the Yangtze River will also be
It will fall into the bandit army, and there will be no way to defend Jinling City. When the Tang soldiers gather at the gate of Jinling City, Jinling City will also be unable to be defended, and I am afraid that everyone will be devastated by then!"
Speaking of this, Chen Lifu showed a wry smile, and then said: "It's okay now, even if we lose, Jiangnan's luck is still preserved!"
The two of them chatted about various topics. After drinking most of the tea, the topic of their chat finally turned to the imperial examinations of the Tang Dynasty. First, they routinely criticized the imperial examinations of the Li and Tang dynasties.
The content was so treacherous that miscellaneous subjects were openly included in the imperial examination questions.
Not only that, but there is also a liberal arts subject, and it is still tied with the Jinshi subject. This is simply intolerable.
When we talk about the imperial examination, we naturally talk about the selection of scholars in the Tang Dynasty!
After the two chatted for a long time, they finally talked about another important matter, which was what Chen Lifu had come to the city for today.
Chen Lifu took a sip of tea, and then said: "I heard that the imperial court is recruiting officials to enrich the officialdom recently, and they are recruiting officials such as myself? I don't know whether this is true or not?"
Zhong Cai naturally also knew the purpose of Chen Lifu's visit today. In addition to the good relationship between the two, it was also because he had a slightly closer relationship with Li Tang and was able to contact some officials from Li Tang.
Some time ago, in the letters between Chen Lifu and him, he had only indirectly asked about this matter. However, since the matter was so important, he naturally would not say anything in the letter, but would directly invite Chen Lifu to the city to discuss it!
After hearing Chen Lifu mention this, he said: "Yes, it is indeed true, and this is a major event personally presided over by Lord Qian, the minister on duty in the Imperial Study Room, and organized by the Ministry of Personnel. The imperial court plans to recruit senior officials like me from various places.
Although the detailed regulations have not been released yet, it will only happen in the past few days!"
Chen Lifu said: "If this matter is true, Mr. Chen will have to eat a tiger with his body to plead for the people. We cannot allow so many chaos and tyranny to continue!"