This time when he takes office and seals the border, he will definitely set fire to it.
If he doesn't let go, he won't be able to show off his abilities.
Generally speaking, there are only three things to do when setting fires: to straighten out the officials; second, to clean up the accumulated cases; third, to promote water conservancy.
Rectifying the administration of officials and clearing up the backlog of cases are essentially the same thing. Generally, large unjust, false and wrong cases involve the administration of officials, because without corrupt officials there would be no unjust, false and wrong cases, or in other words, there would be relatively few cases.
The reason why Sun Lehe's case was made unjust by the Zhili government at all levels is that Zhao Bing'en used money to clear up all the links.
Therefore, he planned to take advantage of Sun Le and his unjust case to deal with it severely.
If we first arrest the officials involved in the case, and then dig deep into these officials, using the dots to bring out the noodles, and pulling out the carrots to bring out the mud, we can dig out hundreds of corrupt officials no matter what.
If it were more ruthless and continued to expand, I'm afraid it could overthrow the Zhili officialdom.
The reason is that there are really not many officials in the Qing Dynasty who have clean butts.
The famous Liu Yong and Ji Yun are both corrupt criminals, let alone others.
In this way, he became famous in Qingtian and became the only Yuanying old monster in the Qing Dynasty.
Once the New Deal is completed and the New Army is launched, if you look around the world, if you can only have a few golden elixirs at most, there is no need to worry about failing to succeed in your imperial career.
But what Lao Yang said makes sense and is an objective fact.
There are thousands of officials in Zhili, big and small, involved in the military, political, and criminal systems. If Jia Liu, the new governor, pays close attention to them, he will definitely not be able to make a living as an official. This will have two consequences.
First, directly subordinate officials collectively boycotted the new governor-general;
Second, the Zhili officialdom was paralyzed.
No matter which outcome, it would be detrimental to Jia Liu.
Without officials to do things for him, he, the governor, is nothing.
It is not unprecedented for officials to jointly boycott governors sent by the imperial court. The "Southeast Mutual Protection" in the late Qing Dynasty even saw officials collectively boycott the imperial court, leaving Cixi helpless.
Jia Liu came to Zhili to work. If he spent all his energy on fighting wits, courage, or even ruthlessness with the officials below, it would undoubtedly be putting the cart before the horse.
Therefore, Yang Jingsu’s reminder is reasonable.
Knowing that Lao Yang had pointed it out, he had some thoughts, so he asked him what he thought.
"The officials involved in this case can be punished severely, and lower officials will never protect them, but it is limited to the people involved in this case and should not be expanded."
Yang Jingsu gave his thoughtful advice.
After all, the prince-in-law is young, and it is his first time to take charge of the overall situation of the local area. He must not act according to his temper, as it will easily mess up the situation.
Therefore, Sun Lehe's case can be investigated in depth, but not too deeply, otherwise it will endanger everyone in the government and there will be no way to end this mess.
Jia Liu listened to Lao Yang's suggestion and frowned: "How can that be done? An ordinary murder case in Ansu County can lead to more than ten officials. It can be found in all provinces and counties. I don't know if it can be found in other places."
If we do not investigate and deal with these cases strictly and provide justice to the people, I, the governor, might as well go home and sell sweet potatoes."
Lao Yang hurriedly said: "Sir, what I mean by lowering the official rank is that all the backlogged cases in the province can be cleared up, and the administration of officials should also be rectified. However, officials who have had problems in the past can be given the opportunity to make meritorious deeds and make them effective. If they still don't know how to restrain themselves, they will still act privately."
Those who commit fraud, take bribes and pervert the law, and cover up the real culprits will not be tolerated and will be dealt with severely."
"Um?"
Jia Liu felt that Lao Yang's proposal seemed a bit familiar and strange, so he subconsciously moved the bun in his hand forward.
"Sir, no one is a saint, and no one can do anything wrong."
Lao Yang started from the overall situation and implored his father-in-law not to be in a hurry to achieve political achievements, but to work on it slowly.
Otherwise, big trouble will definitely occur, which will be detrimental to stability.
"Well, ten years of hard work is also difficult, and it is not easy for the imperial court to train an official. Let's do this. You can send an official document to the subordinates in the name of the Chief Envoy. First, you want to highlight the governor's determination to rectify the administration of officials. Second, you can let the subordinates have problems.
The officials took the initiative to hand over the crime silver."
Jia Liu adopted the reasonable suggestion of Lao Yang, a local snake, and added a tool to discuss crime.
The purpose is not to make money in the name of cracking down on corruption and rectifying officialdom, but to raise initial funds for the upcoming Zhili New Deal.
"There is no need for the officials involved in Sun Lehe's case to hand over the money. If you ask them to take off their hats and bring them to the Governor's Yamen for disposal, if they refuse to take them off, then you don't have to blame the governor for asking for the king's order."
The flag is up.”
The Sun case was Jia Liu's first shot at breaking the law. The officials involved must be severely punished. This is not negotiable.
Lao Yang had no objection to this. Even though Song, the prefect of Baoding, was personally promoted by him when he was the governor, the deputy envoy in charge of the inspection department often sent him gifts during the holidays.
There was no way, who made them hit the muzzle of the consort's gun.
Besides, Sun Lehe’s case was indeed too rough.
Cutting off a few heads is inevitable.
Jia Liu asked Lao Yang how much money he had in the Zhili treasury now.
Lao Yang said that it is about more than one million taels. This summer's tax collection will probably be about two million taels. After deducting regular donations and losses, the balance will be at least 1.5 million taels.
"This province's summer tax will not be paid to the Ministry of Household Affairs this year. When you go back, you will make a detailed list of the salary distribution of officials in this province. After I take office, I will institutionalize the salary of officials in this province."
Lao Yang was the chief envoy, and the disbursement of official salaries was in charge of the chief envoy's Yamen. Jia Liu had to rely on Lao Yang if he wanted to straighten out Zhili's finances.
The salary of the Governor of Zhili is paid by the Ministry of Household Affairs in October every year. It has nothing to do with the finance of Zhili and is a matter of central finance.
The same is true for flag members. Every year, the Ministry of Household Affairs allocates money to each Dutong Yamen, and then the Dutong Yamen pays it to the flag members themselves or their family members.
Lao Yang was a little confused and didn't know what the emperor's consort meant by institutionalizing salary.
Jia Liu gave a rough explanation, that is, after he took office, the salaries of officials in the province who were directly under the jurisdiction of the province and enjoyed the Integrity Silver (generally seventh grade or above) must be made public and transparent.
For example, the official salary of Yang Jingsu, the chief envoy, was only 155 taels, and that of Yanglianyin was between 10,000 taels and 16,000 taels.
Under the new system, wages and salaries are merged with Lianlian Bank, and the customization is 15,000 taels.
Calculated based on the purchasing power of one tael of silver, Lao Yang's annual income would be tens of millions.
Specifically, there must be a standard reference for how much Yanglianyin will be given.
Lao Yang was indeed a governor-general, and he understood immediately upon hearing this, and immediately pointed out that corresponding salaries could be set based on the officials' year-end performance appraisals.
If the assessment is excellent, the maximum amount will be allocated.
If the evaluation is average, the middle amount will be allocated.
Those whose evaluation is particularly poor will be allocated the lowest amount.
In the past, local officials' funds for raising integrity were actually allocated by the upper-level yamen, which had a lot of drawbacks and could easily lead to power-for-money transactions.
For example, the top ration is the full maximum ration of 3,000 taels of silver to the bottom, but the problem is that the bottom may not be able to get all of it, and may only get 2,000 taels.
Where did the other thousand taels go?
The problem lies here.
opaque.
From now on, salary payment will be centralized under the Chief Executive's Office, which will evaluate the performance of local officials based on their one-year performance, and then report to the Governor's Office for approval and payment based on the standards.
"Yes, that's what it means."
The old bureaucrat is just good, and he can tell everything at once.
By following his new regulations, a lot of fiscal and salary expenses can be saved every year. In addition, the "economic" life of the province's officials will be in the hands of him, the governor-general.
From now on, officials throughout the province of Zhili will no longer eat the food of the imperial court, but the food of Mr. Jia.
If Jia Liu comes up with silver coins, then the people of Zhili and the official Hua Jia Datou will eat Jia Datou and use Jia Datou.
The economy suddenly became active.
However, Yang Jingsu soon realized a new problem, that is, if all salary payments were returned to the provincial treasury, it would cause the problem of untimely salary allocation.
For higher-ranking officials, delayed salary payment will not have much impact, but for lower-ranking officials, especially those working on the front line in Qingshui Yamen, it will be more miserable.
Who is Mr. Jia?
What others have thought of, he has already thought of.
It was natural to come up with the plan of Zhili Bank.
That is to say, "banks" were established in each county in the name of the governor's office. All official salary payments were handled by the bank, and local taxes were also handed over through the bank. Payments for local water conservancy and river projects were also released by the bank.
The concept of "deposit-absorbing" has not been proposed for the time being, but we want to wait until the new thing "bank" becomes familiar to officials and has authority before promoting it.
This point is different from Sichuan Bank.
There are more than 100 counties in Zhili, which means that more than 100 banks need to be built. In addition, there are government banks and provincial banks, at least 200 need to be built.
In conjunction with bank personnel, security personnel, and government officials at all levels, etc.
It is undoubtedly a huge project.
It involves not only civil affairs, but also the military.
"It will be piloted in Baoding next month. In terms of staffing, a batch of personnel will be transferred from the vassal treasury first, and training will be done while it is being built."
Jia Liu kept talking to Lao Yang for half an hour.
On the way, Lao Yang excused himself for convenience. When he came back, he had already taken pen and paper and carefully recorded it. From time to time, he gave his professional opinions, which made Jia Liu very happy.
I simply explained my ultimate goal of sorting out Zhili’s finances.
That is to say, the expenses of local three-shift and six-room personnel should be unified into the provincial finance.
Lao Yang asked in confusion: "What do you mean, sir?"
"In the future, the expenses for three classes and six houses will no longer be paid by the local government themselves, but will be allocated by the feudal treasury through banks."
Jia Liu has been studying financial issues a few days ago.
After much research, we found that the biggest problem plaguing finances is local spending.
To put it bluntly, local expenditures are a matter of running three shifts and six rooms.
Under the Chengming system of the Qing Dynasty, wages were not paid to local people who were "eating from the public family", and instead the county was allowed to pay for itself.
To put it bluntly, it allows localities to collect various miscellaneous taxes in addition to regular taxes. If these miscellaneous taxes are not collected, the county magistrate will not even pay the wages of the three classes and six rooms of the county government. He will even pay the wages of the masters he brought.
No.
If there is no salary, who will do it for the Qin County Grand Master?
The number of personnel in the three shifts and six wards is ten times or even dozens of times more than the number of officials.
Taking Ansu County as an example, there are only three officials in name, but there are more than 300 staff members surrounding these three officials.
In his previous life, Jia Liu read some research, which said that in the Ping Dynasty, the proportion of common people supporting officials was very large. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, about 3,000 common people supported one official. In the Ming Dynasty, more than 2,000 common people supported one official. In the Qing Dynasty, it seemed that less than 1,000 people supported one official.
An official.
In modern times, it evolved into dozens of common people serving one official.
It may seem scary, but in fact the data obtained from these studies are not accurate at all, because the researchers only studied officials and officials, and did not take into account the large number of helpers who eat from the public family.
If we only count officials, the hundreds of thousands of people in Ansu County would have to support three. But in fact, the three squads and six houses, including the rural soldiers, all have to be supported by the people.
The number of personnel in the three shifts and six houses was large. On the one hand, their existence maintained the court's local governance. They could manage a county well even without county magistrates.
However, the existence of three classes and six houses prevented the imperial power from reaching the countryside. Most of these people were the spokespersons of the local gentry, and some even turned the county magistrate into a decoration.
The exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes that support these people are more than the regular taxes that go into the national treasury, so Jia Liu has to deal with this phenomenon, on the one hand, to control the local area more effectively, and on the other hand, to have a reputation of "reducing the burden on the people"
.
People are exempted from the miscellaneous taxes required to support three classes and six houses, so they will naturally have more money. This will also promote the development of all walks of life.
To go even further, all those who eat official meals in Zhili Province should have the surname Jia.
Mr. Jia was unhappy and everyone was hungry.
"This matter is of great importance and is unprecedented. If it is done according to your wishes, the vassal treasury will simply not be able to bear it."
Lao Yang also told the truth, sir, what you think is very good, but the problem is unrealistic.
There are hundreds of people in one county, and there are hundreds of thousands of people in more than 100 counties in the province. Even if you give one person 10 taels, it will be several million taels.
It is good to reduce the burden on the people, but where will the money come from?
"Don't worry, this is just the governor's preliminary idea. It will have to wait until next year or the year after that to be implemented. The main task of your administrative office this year is to implement the wage rectification issue that the governor just mentioned."
Of course, it is impossible for Jia Liu to implement all new policies now. The prerequisite for tax exemptions and burden reduction for the people in all dynasties is that the state treasury has money.
Where does the money come from?
Of course it's the sea.
The annual revenue from sea trade in Guangdong is more than 50 million taels, and even if the trade revenue in Beiyang is only half, it is enough for Jia Liu to push the New Deal.
"It's getting dark. I think you can go back to Baoding with me tomorrow."
Jia Liu enthusiastically persuaded Lao Yang to stay for dinner. He ate simple home-cooked dishes and asked about his predecessor Zhou Yuanli during the dinner.
Lao Yang said that Zhou Yuanli had no objection to the imperial court asking him to serve as an official. After receiving the notice, he completed the handover procedures and packed up to return to his hometown in Zhejiang.
Jia Liu nodded. After dinner, he walked around the county government office to eat and then went to rest.
They lived in the house of Qin Liang, the magistrate of Ansu County. Apart from changing the bed and bedding, nothing else changed.
Shuan Zhu led a search and turned over a total of more than 17,000 taels of stolen silver. This was because Qin Liang had only served as magistrate for two years. If he had completed his term, it would have been 30,000 taels.
"Three years to clear the magistrate's office, one hundred thousand snowflakes of silver, don't you dare to deceive me? This Qin Liang has really failed the court's cultivation of him, and also failed the saint's teachings. Dog official, he really deserves to be killed!"
Looking at the silver boxes piled in the corner, Jia Liu was so angry that he carefully folded the stack of banknotes on the table and put them into his underwear pocket.
He waved his hands to Shuan Zhu and the others: "Okay, I don't have anything for you to do here, so go and have a rest."
"嗻!"
Shuan Zhu and the others quickly exited the house.
Jia Liu suddenly thought that he hadn't washed his feet yet and wanted to ask Shuan Zhu to fetch him a bucket of water. He thought about it and forget it. No one would smell his feet anyway.
After burping from wine and humming A Qing's tune, I came to the big bed and saw that there was a curtain hanging on the bed. I couldn't help but wonder what kind of curtain was hung in the winter.
He casually lifted up the curtain, and the scene he saw made him change his expression. He threw down the curtain in a rage, turned around and pushed out the door angrily, asking who had brought Mrs. Liu out of prison.
On his bed.
As soon as his hand reached the door, it suddenly stopped there.
Various fragments kept flashing through his mind, and the scene he just saw made his mouth dry.
After a while, he touched his bare forehead and muttered: "There may be some hidden secrets in this case. I'd better try it again. Well, just a few sentences."
Holding his breath, he quietly came to the bedside, quietly stretched out his hand to lift the curtain, and looked at the man who was holding the quilt with both hands like a frightened bird. His eyes were confused and helpless, and he looked more like a flattering Mrs. Liu and said seriously: "I ask you this.