Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 153: Clerical reform, Jiajing receives personal ceremony!

There were three sources of clerks in the Ming Dynasty.

The first type is the Qianchong: those who have no family background as a farmer, are under 30 years old and can write are selected.

The second is punishment: officials, Jinshi, Juren, Jiansheng and Shengyuan who have committed crimes or performed poorly will be punished.

The third is to pay taxes: starting from the Jingtai period, the practice of paying taxes was implemented, and the people could pay goods and silver to become officials.

Up to now, the source of clerks is mainly informants.

Now Zhu Houcong changed the clerk system again, which was considered to be a continuation of the system of selection and appointment by joint officials, selecting honest children through examinations.

As Zhu Xizhou had now betrayed the Nanzhi gentry, his only option was to follow the emperor's instructions.

Therefore, after seeing the emperor's edict, he took action immediately and drafted a bill to implement the civil service examination system in Nanzhi, Jiangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang.

After drafting the manuscript, Zhu Xizhou returned to his hometown, Suzhou.

Although he now holds a higher official position, he is still the most powerful official in Jiangnan today.

But now, it is the time when he is least popular among the villagers.

because……

The Nanzhi gentry had long been able to avoid being implicated and had a successful career thanks to him. It would be confirmed that he would be the same as Li Dongyang, who betrayed his own Nanzhi gentry.

When I think about it, many official families in Suzhou were implicated.

The scholars in Suzhou despised him even more and regarded him as a traitor to his hometown party, instead of respecting him more because he was now the governor.

As mentioned before, most of the clerks in the world nowadays come from those who have made reports and received taxes.

and so……

Most of the clerks in Suzhou were from the Nanzhi gentry, so they organized the villagers to slander and humiliate Zhu Xizhou.

"How dare the traitor return home!"

"Haven't you heard that the villagers all regard it as filthy?"

"When flushing it!"

As soon as Zhu Xizhou got off the boat and entered the Changmen Gate, a soldier guarding the city poured a basin of water on him from the city wall, cooling him thoroughly.

The reason why the soldier could say such words was actually because he was taught by a minor official who was on good terms with him.

The official's name was Tang Chang.

At this moment, he was in the bronze mirror shop, watching this scene with a sneer.

After doing this, the soldier fled as planned. When the soldiers around Zhu Xizhou chased him, he had already disappeared.

There were some wealthy scholars who praised this scene and said, "Well done! If you don't wash it, do you really want to stink up the villagers?"

Zhu Xizhou was treated the same way as Zhou Shangwen.

But Zhu Xizhou was calmer than Zhou Shangwen. He was not in a hurry to change his wet clothes, but went directly to the calligraphy stall set up by a young man in plain clothes.

It is now the beginning of July, and the summer heat has not yet ended.

Therefore, those who set up calligraphy stalls outside Changmen were naturally poor scholars.

After all, anyone with some family property would not work so hard.

It is precisely because he is a poor scholar.

The young man in commoner clothes didn't care about being mocked by the governor.

Firstly, because of the class gap, people did not understand high-ranking officials like Zhu Xizhou, and could not say whether they liked or disliked him.

Second, Zhu Xizhou's betrayal of his fellow villagers, strictly speaking, was only a betrayal of the upper class such as the local officials and landlords in Nanzhi, and the impact on the poor scholars was indeed minimal.

Before and after Zhu Xizhou arrived at the calligraphy stall, he said to the poor scholar who was setting up the calligraphy stall: "How much can you earn in such a hot day?"

The poor scholar bowed and replied: "Going back to the capital will only give us enough to eat!"

"Stop earning this hard-earned money."

"I think your handwriting is pretty good. Take some time to come to Nandu to participate in the new civil servant selection exam."

"A monthly salary of seven cents, plus a three-cent bonus for performance in the exam and an annual subsidy ranging from one to three taels. It's better than selling calligraphy and writing letters for others."

"The key is that you can resign from your official position at any time, and you can continue your career after resigning!"

"If you want to serve the court as an official in the future, you should first take the examination to become a clerk and get familiar with the government affairs, so as to avoid being fooled by cunning clerks when you suddenly get an official position in the future!"

After Zhu Xizhou said this, the poor scholar immediately bowed and said, "I am Xu Shen, thank you for your advice."

Zhu Xizhou threw a silver dollar in front of him and said, "Well, you should spread the word about this matter on behalf of the temple, so that all your fellow villagers and relatives will know about it. This is your hard-earned money."

"Yes!"

"Thank you for the reward!"

The poor scholar hurriedly took the silver dollar, packed up his stall, and left the city gate.

A monthly salary of seven cents is actually about the same as the monthly salary of an ordinary soldier in the border army today.

Naturally not high.

Even with bonuses and year-end subsidies, the maximum you can get is fifteen taels, which is not a particularly high income, especially in the Nanzhi area.

Of course, the clerks who came from wealthy families in the past looked down on him.

Because the extra income they received from the additional fire consumption tax alone was over ten thousand taels every year.

According to convention, after deducting the two thousand taels given to the county magistrate, the rest would be divided among the hundreds of clerks of the county government. Even if it was divided equally, each person could earn more than eighty taels per year.

And this does not include the income obtained from bribery, extortion, stealing public funds, and selling public grain at a low price.

Therefore, the maximum salary income of fifteen taels of silver, although much higher than the current regular income of the clerks, could not attract these clerks.

But this income is very tempting for poor scholars.

At the beginning of the Jiajing period, the price of grain in Jiangnan was only seven cents per stone.

An adult consumes about five stone of grain a year.

Therefore, the income of about 20 shi of grain a year was enough for a poor scholar to support his family and save a lot of money.

What's more...

Still stable.

Guaranteed harvest regardless of drought or flood!

More importantly, you can resign at any time and continue your career.

According to the historical notes left by the literati of this era, almost every family in Jiangnan at that time was well-educated.

A widow can support her son's education by weaving.

There was also a record by a scholar named Chen Que that his wife not only supported his studies by weaving, but also kept slaves to take care of her parents-in-law.

Naturally, there were many scholars in the Jiangnan region during this era.

At least many of them may no longer be able to continue their studies because their family fell into poverty.

After all, small middle-class landowners and small artisans have always been economically vulnerable.

In the Jiangnan region, although there are many wealthy nobles who are as rich as a country, there are also many poor people who have no place to live.

Due to the increasing size of the gentry class and the resulting intensified mergers, the gap between the rich and the poor here is also huge.

Therefore, even though there are many wealthy scholars among the scholars, there are also many scholars who are poor and cannot continue to take the exams!
Soon, Xu Shen contacted many poor scholars, many of whom had already achieved academic status.

These scholars came to pay their respects to Zhu Xizhou, who had changed his clothes and was temporarily staying at home, intending to inquire about the specific details of the new policies for the civil service examination.

Zhu Xizhou asked them to elect representatives to ask.

Zhu Xizhou also explained the specific details to their representatives in detail, and even talked about the current situation of a large shortage of clerks in the government offices of prefectures, counties and districts in the southeast.

This made poor scholars more interested in this new policy.

In addition, Zhu Xizhou also began to ask his subordinates to post notices everywhere.

This meant that more and more poor scholars in Suzhou learned about this new policy.

These poor scholars in Suzhou City took the initiative to make friends with Zhu Xizhou, and even presented their articles and poems to him, hoping that Zhu Xizhou would affirm them. They also began to praise Zhu Xizhou, which made the people begin to have a good impression of Zhu Xizhou.

After all, the relatives and friends of poor scholars are mostly lower-class people.

Zhu Xizhou therefore no longer seemed so unpopular.

Zhu Xizhou's sense of loss was reduced because in addition to the officials of all ranks in Suzhou City, there were also many scholars and common people surrounding him.

The clerk Tang Chang also heard about the implementation of the civil servant examination system when Zhu Xizhou was talking to the poor scholar Xu Shen.

This made his face suddenly darken.

Because he was sure that this new policy would completely cut off the career paths of traditional clerks like them.

Tang Chang's smug mood caused by humiliating Zhu Xizhou was instantly wiped out.

"It's almost impossible for us to survive!"

Therefore, that night, Tang Chang secretly met with Hua Bangrui, whom he had known for a long time, and began to complain with a face full of resentment.

Hua Bangrui was in the same bad mood as Tang Chang:
"I didn't expect the court to do this!"

"Now many of the clerks' yellow books in Jiangnan have been destroyed in advance, in order to prevent the court from finding us clerks who suddenly disappeared!"

"But now they want to directly recruit those poor students as officials. Even if we want to go back and take these positions back, it's too late!"

Bang!
At this time.

Tang Chang slammed the small bronze mirror in his hand onto the table.

"They say that the court is ruled by bureaucrats, but in fact, it has always been us clerks who have the final say."

"The bureaucrats are just as fooled and deceived by us as the emperor above them was fooled and deceived by the bureaucrats."

"But ever since the new emperor's massive purge of the inner court, all the inner court spies have been removed, the bureaucrats have repeatedly made wrong predictions, and we clerks have followed suit."

"So, I think the root of the problem lies with the new emperor."

"We should try to develop new eyes around him."

After Tang Chang said this, Hua Bangrui was amazed by Tang Chang's intelligence, and nodded quickly, "The key is how to develop."

"Look at this."

Tang Chang handed a copy of "Di Bao" to Hua Bangrui.

Hua Bangrui suddenly saw the content of the emperor's decree to select a son-in-law for his elder sister, Princess Yongfu.

Tang Chang took out a small bronze mirror from his sleeve and looked at his face, then said with a sinister smile:
"I believe that my character and appearance are not inferior to Pan An, so I decided to change my household registration, go to the capital to participate in the election, and then use my life savings to pave the way for becoming the brother-in-law of the current emperor!"

"When the time comes, it will be easy to place spies by controlling the princess!"

"But you were married! And you had syphilis."

Hua Bangrui said.

Tang Chang turned around and laughed, "Is this a problem for us clerks?"

"I heard that your father is an ambassador in the Ministry of Revenue. Just change my household registration and let me become the son of an instructor or professor! Is it difficult?"

After Tang Chang said this, Hua Bangrui smiled and said, "That's right!"

"Then I will pay my respects to the Prince Consort in advance."

Hua Bangrui pretended to kneel down.

Tang Chang hurriedly supported Hua Bangrui and said, "It's too early to talk about this now. Please write a letter to your father for me so that I can bring it to Beijing. When the time comes, I will give the required fee and the door gift to your father."

Hua Bangrui nodded: "Okay! If you can become the son-in-law of the emperor, I will keep an eye on the southeast in the Governor's Office, and you will keep an eye on the emperor in the inner court. Then we can use our network of relationships to make all the officials in the world work for us!"

Tang Chang smiled slightly and did not comment.

Tang Chang did marry Zheng, the only daughter of a childless small landlord.

He married this woman for her beauty and her property.

But now Tang Chang no longer needs Zheng and can't wait to get rid of this burden.

to this end.

He has been treating Zheng with cold violence for several days.

"My friend said you were cheating on me."

"You slut!"

After returning home that night, Tang Chang told Zheng the reason, but he directly accused her of a crime.

"If my husband really says so, I can only die in front of you!"

And Tang Chang laughed.

Zheng actually chose to hang herself that night.

This naturally suited Tang Chang's wishes.

After hastily dealing with Zheng, he took her dowry and his own savings and went to Beijing.

As soon as he arrived in Beijing, Tang Chang visited Hua Bangrui's father, Hua Wei, a clerk in the Ministry of Revenue.

Hua Wei took him to visit Cui Ping, the household slave of Cui Wen, the eunuch in charge of the royal wedding.

Cui Wen was also waiting for the opportunity to make a fortune by choosing a consort for Princess Yongfu. After hearing about Tang Chang's gift, he said to Cui Ping:
"Let him go to the Ministry of Rites to register first, but whether he is selected or not may require additional money, and it may not be just this amount."

"Of course they understand the rules."

Cui Ping replied.

Cui Wen smiled and said, "That's good!"

……

"Your Majesty, I made you a dress. Please take a look and see if you like it."

Forbidden City.

The date for Princess Yongfu's marriage has indeed been put on the agenda.

After all, after her elder sister got married, Jiajing would have to rush to choose a queen and concubines.

Because of this, Princess Yongfu, who had always been introverted, would often take the initiative to see Zhu Houcong during this period.

This evening.

Princess Yongfu came to see Zhu Houcong again and gave him a new robe she made herself.

Zhu Houcong thanked her and said with a smile: "I know what you are worried about now, but please rest assured that although this matter was decided by the Empress Dowagers, I will not ignore it."

(End of this chapter)