Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 254: With so many officials and clerks, who can withstand a sword?
It is impossible to count which dynasty had the most corrupt officials throughout history, but we can give a rough estimate of the number of officials.

According to historical records, "The number of officials in the Han Dynasty was 7,500, the Tang Dynasty 18,000, and the Song Dynasty had a peak of 34,000. However, since the fifth year of Chenghua in this dynasty, the number of military officials has exceeded 80,000, and the number of civil officials has exceeded 100,000."

Another historical record states: "During the reign of Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty, there were only 7,500 provincial officials; during the Tang Dynasty, there were more than 18,800 civil and military officials; in the fourth year of Hongwu in this dynasty, there were more than 28,000 military officials."

From the fourth year of Hongwu to the fifth year of Chenghua, in just ninety-nine years, the number of military personnel increased from more than 28,000 to more than 80,000, a full threefold increase.

The increase in civil servants was even more terrifying. During the Hongwu period, there were only about 2,000 people. By the fifth year of Chenghua, the number increased to more than 20,000, a tenfold increase.

After the Chenghua period, the increase in the number of military positions was curbed, and now there are more than 100,000 personnel.

However, during the Chenghua, Hongzhi, Zhengde and forty years before the Jiajing reign of the current emperor, which was another hundred years, the power of the civil service group continued to grow rapidly, from more than 20,000 people to more than 120,000 people.

It can be said that in the spring of the 41st year of Jiajing, there were more than 220,000 civil and military officials in the Ming Dynasty.

The peak populations of all dynasties were 60 million during the Han Dynasty, 50 million during the Tang Dynasty, and 46 million during the Song Dynasty. The current dynasty is at its peak today and is still increasing, reaching nearly 120 million people.

in this way.

The ratio of officials to civilians in the Han Dynasty was 1:8000.

The ratio of officials to civilians in the Tang Dynasty was 1:2700.

The ratio of officials to civilians in the Song Dynasty was 1:1400.

In the 1st year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, the ratio of officials to civilians was 600:.

Everyone says that the Song Dynasty had three redundancies: redundant officials, redundant clerks, and redundant staff. However, few people knew that the Ming Dynasty was even worse.

Take the lowest-ranking official of the ninth rank in the court as an example. His annual salary was 50 dan, equivalent to 25 taels of silver.

Even if this were used to pay the salaries of 220,000 civil and military officials, the annual salary payment would cost 5.5 million taels of silver.

However, the actual expenditure was much higher than this. During the 40th year of the Jiajing reign, the court distributed nearly 8 million taels of silver in food and rice.

This is when His Majesty deposed all the kings and did not include the king's food and salary in the calculation.

Although the emperor announced a three-year tax exemption last year, the court's tax revenue still broke the record in the dynasty's history, reaching 80 million taels of silver.

These are the huge benefits that the government-run industries of salt, iron, wine, vinegar, alum, coal, etc. brought to the imperial court.

Even if ordinary people did not pay taxes, the imperial court would have received 80 million taels of silver in taxes just from the government-run industries.

From this we can see that in the past two hundred years, the vested interests of the Ming Dynasty have colluded with each other and taken away a lot of benefits from the people, the court, and the Ming Dynasty.

According to calculations by the Ministry of Revenue, if the taxes exempted from the people were included, the taxes levied by the Ming Dynasty last year would have been as high as 200 million taels of silver, even exceeding the peak annual revenue of the Song Dynasty.

Based on the actual tax collection last year, the salary expenses of officials in the Ming Dynasty accounted for 10% of the total revenue of the court.

Based on all taxes last year (tax exemptions and actual taxes), the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty accounted for four hundredths of all the court's income.

However, if we calculate based on the court's tax revenue of 45 million taels of silver in the 39th year of Jiajing, the salary expenses of officials in the Ming Dynasty accounted for 18 percent of all the court's income.

As everyone knows, the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were the lowest and most meager in history. However, in such a vast country as China, the country did everything it could to support civil and military officials and the Zhu clan.

The Ming Dynasty court and the people of Ming Dynasty can no longer provide civil and military officials, nor can they provide even more for the royal family.

Secondly, please believe one thing: a position that countless people are competing for must be a good position.

Everyone is cursing the Ming Dynasty emperor for being ungrateful and unkind and for treating his officials poorly, but why aren't there so many people scrambling to pass the imperial examinations and become officials?
For every dog-slaughtering person who is righteous, there are many scholars who are unfaithful.

This world.

The smartest people are those who read books.

On the one hand, he criticized the low salary, on the other hand, he actively worked as an official. He let the court and the emperor bear all the blame, but kept all the benefits in his own hands.

There are always people who say that being an official in the Ming Dynasty, especially an honest official, means you will have no house to live in, will starve to death, and will have no money to be buried after death.

Throughout the dynasties, in which dynasty and which year, were there no honest officials who died of starvation? No honest officials who were homeless? No honest officials who died without money to be buried?

Throughout the five thousand years of Chinese history, have there been any capital cities that have cheap clothing, food, housing, and transportation?
Having lived two lives, Zhu Houcong knew that even in later lives, there was not a house for all civil servants in the capital.

Whether or not we can afford it is another matter. Even if we can afford it, will the billions of people be willing to do so?
It's not easy to be an honest official.

But it will never be relevant to the vast majority of officials.

Therefore, in any dynasty and at any time, the imperial court never treated officials unfairly, and this group of people always enjoyed the best of the world.

Getting rid of greed and possessions is not because you cannot survive, but because of the desires in your heart. You are greedy and insatiable, so what does the life and death of ordinary people have to do with them?
This is why Zhu Houcong did not feel the slightest bit of sympathy when he massacred tens of thousands of officials in the officialdom of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty last year.

Since all the ministers are petitioning for salary increases, just increase them. But no matter how much they increase, the court's total expenditure on officials' salaries will not change and will be fixed at eight million taels of silver a year.

If the salaries of middle and lower-level officials were to be increased, then the salaries of upper-level officials would have to be reduced. Zhu Houcong wanted to make the more than 220,000 civil and military officers in the two capitals and 13 provinces understand that salary adjustments would become an internal issue for the officials.

It has nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty, and has nothing to do with His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

No one else dared to mention this matter, only Hai Rui could do it.

Hai Rui understood everything and handed the crown prince Zhu Yijun back to Huang Jin. Then he knelt down on the embroidered cushion and said loudly: "Your Majesty, I would like to reduce my salary by half to help the poor officials in our dynasty."

The salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty mainly consisted of regular salary, preferential exemptions, clerk silver, and rewards.

The lower the rank, the higher the proportion of regular salary to total salary. Conversely, the higher the rank, the greater the reward.

Especially for Hai Rui, the Minister of Rites, every time there was a festival celebration or sacrifice, the emperor would always give him a divine gift.

Hai Rui was a civil servant of the second rank, with an annual salary of 732 dan, equivalent to 366 taels of silver. His annual rewards were more than double that, and with the addition of exemptions and salary for clerks, his annual salary was more than 1,200 taels of silver.

Hai Rui was willing to reduce his salary by half, which was six hundred taels of silver a year. This was a huge sum of money for Hai Rui, who came from a poor family and was an honest official.

"I agree!" Zhu Houcong smiled from the bottom of his heart.

Hai Rui took the prince away.

The news that some lower-level officials in the court had their salaries increased, while higher-level officials had their salaries reduced, also spread.

At the same time, the newly appointed Minister of Rites Hai Rui asked to reduce his salary by half, which shocked the entire court.

Countless middle and lower-level court officials were moved to tears, while upper-level court officials were furious.

The imperial decree was not issued. It was obvious that they were waiting for the senior officials to take the initiative to submit petitions to reduce their salaries. Did Hai Rui want to force them to death?

……

Hai Rui first sent the crown prince Zhu Yijun back to the imperially granted Hai Mansion.

Even through the screen, he could feel the eager gaze. Hai Rui just shook his head and sighed.

The current Ming Dynasty is not suitable for enthroning a crown prince.

Hai's wife took over the crown prince, and Hai Rui took his leave. Next, he would go to the cabinet to report on his work.

However, just as Hai Rui was about to get on the carriage, he saw a timid man in front of the sedan chair.

The shopkeeper surnamed Zhao of Liuxinju.

Shopkeeper Zhao, following Hai Rui's order, picked a jar of pickles and sent it back to the palace. He begged for help from the eunuchs and heard the name "Hai Rui".

This is a smart man, although his cleverness is only modest, but it is enough. After delivering the pickles, Shopkeeper Zhao did not return to the shop, but came to the door of Hai Mansion and waited.

When Hai Rui returned with the prince, the imperial guards and eunuchs from the Ministry of Justice cleared the way and protected them. Shopkeeper Zhao did not dare to get close and could only watch Hai Rui and the prince enter the palace.

He continued to wait outside the door. When he saw Hai Rui leaving the house again, he hesitated again and again. Just when Hai Rui was about to get on the car, he gritted his teeth, hardened his heart, and walked over.

In Hai Rui, Manager Zhao saw the last chance to save Liuxinju.

Hai Rui saw Manager Zhao, but did not stop at all and got into the car. Just when Manager Zhao was feeling desperate, a Jinyiwei came with a message, "Follow me."

Just two short words brought tears to Shopkeeper Zhao's eyes. He is alive, he is going to live.

The six hearts are in the center.

Hai Rui's return immediately sparked countless discussions.

Shopkeeper Zhao prepared writing brushes, ink, paper and inkstone, and waited in a fawning manner for Hai Rui to bestow his calligraphy so that he could carve a plaque and change the signboard for his shop.

Hai Rui held the brush and dipped it into the inkstone box to fill it with ink, but he was not in a hurry to start writing. He looked at Shopkeeper Zhao and asked, "Why is this shop called 'Liuxinju'?"

Shopkeeper Zhao quickly replied, "Sir, this shop was opened by six brothers, so we named it 'Liuxinju'."

"Six people means six different minds, which is not good."

Although Hai Rui despised Yan Song and Xu Jie, he would not step on the two former pillars of state to gain fame. He said, "People's hearts are like water, and people's movements are like smoke. There are now 120 million people in the Ming Dynasty. If you think like this, then there are 120 million hearts. I have an idea for you. Add a stroke to the word 'heart' and change it to 'must'. How do you think about unifying the world and uniting the people?"

Shopkeeper Zhao nodded repeatedly. The pickle shop had become like this. If Hai Rui could lend a helping hand, he could even change the names of the six brothers, not to mention changing the name of the shop.

Hai Rui picked up his pen and wrote the dot for the character "six" in one stroke. Then he wrote a horizontal stroke, a stroke, and a dot, and the character "six" was complete.

Shopkeeper Zhao was standing by the table, serving carefully. He also looked at Hai Rui's inscription and subconsciously compared it with Yan Song's inscription on the plaque.

Yan Song's handwriting is full and powerful at all times, and is always like the full moon in the sky, overwhelming the world.

But as it is said in the "Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Fan Ju and Cai Ze": "As the saying goes, 'When the sun is at its zenith, it moves; when the moon is full, it wanes.' Things flourish and then decline; this is a constant of heaven and earth."

Everything that rises must fall, and every high place must be followed by a heavy fall.

Hai Rui's calligraphy is vigorous and strong, just like the crescent moon in the sky, spotless.

Perhaps, this is the state of mind?
Hai Rui dipped the brush in ink again and wrote the word "心" in one breath, and then wrote a thick stroke in the middle of the word "心".

With his mind focused, Hai Rui dipped the brush in ink and wrote the last character "居".

Hai Rui took out his seal, and Shopkeeper Zhao took it respectfully in his hand and asked the waiter to bring the cinnabar ink box immediately. After heavily stamping his seal, he put it to his mouth and blew out a breath, then stamped it neatly on the upper right corner of the banner.

The new plaque was ready. Manager Zhao of Liuxinju, no, Liubiju, was immediately excited and said, "Minister, I will ask someone to carve it today and have it hung up tomorrow morning."

Hai Rui took back the seal and asked, "What about the plaque on the door?"

It refers to the plaque written by Yan Song and printed by Xu Jie.

Shopkeeper Zhao felt as if he was poured with a basin of cold water, chilling him from head to toe. Based on what had happened in the past year, he wished he could take down the plaque and chop it with a knife or split it with an axe.

But he was not stupid enough to speak out his resentment. He also knew that the person in front of him would definitely not like a fickle and arrogant villain, so he replied respectfully, "I will hang it in the store."

He had requested for that plaque with a blind heart, and now he had to keep it even with tears. From now on, Liubiju would have two plaques, one above the store door and one hanging in the store hall.

No matter whether it is auspicious or not, this is the only thing we have to do.

Hai Rui was satisfied, and said to Shopkeeper Zhao, "The name of the store has just been changed, so it will surely affect your business. Bring me some paper and pen, and I will write a footnote for you about the word 'must', so as to correct people's minds and stop rumors."

Shopkeeper Zhao immediately looked at a clerk behind the counter and shouted, "Bring some more paper and pen."

Because accounts need to be kept at any time, paper and pen are always available. The clerk took paper, pen, ink and inkstone from the counter, hurried over and placed the things on the square table.

Hai Rui picked up the brush and probed in the inkstone. Then he turned to ask Shopkeeper Zhao, "I heard that your shop's pickles are very particular. First, they are particular about the origin, second, they are particular about the season, third, they are particular about the vegetables, fourth, they are particular about the sweet sauce, fifth, they are particular about the container, and sixth, they are particular about the water source. Is that true?"

Shopkeeper Zhao was touched when he heard him describe the six benefits of the pickles in his shop so well. He said with emotion, "Yes."

"In that case, I'll write it for you." Hai Rui said, dipped the brush in ink and began to write on the paper.

Shopkeeper Zhao looked at the words that appeared on the paper one after another, his eyes becoming brighter and brighter.

After finishing the last word, Hai Rui put down his pen, looked up at Shopkeeper Zhao, and asked, "How is it?"

Shopkeeper Zhao answered loudly, "What the minister wrote must be of the highest quality!"

"The origin must be genuine, the season must be right, the vegetables must be fresh, the sweet sauce must be mellow, the container must be clean, and the water must be fragrant!"

Hai Rui stood up and warned, "This is the true meaning of Liuxinju's change to Liubiju. Shopkeeper Zhao, don't forget it for the next ten, a hundred, or even a thousand years."

Manager Zhao replied solemnly: "Please rest assured, I will make another plaque with these 'Six Musts' and hang it up. It will never fall down."

Hai Rui nodded.

He asked Manager Zhao to pack four lotus leaf bags of pickled vegetables as a reward for his writing, and this was also the gift that Hai Rui prepared to give to the four cabinet elders when he first met them.

It is easy to save a pickle shop, but it is difficult to save a country.

(End of this chapter)