Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

There are a lot of redundant officials, most of whom hold nominal positions and only receive salaries without doing any work.

There are also high-ranking officials who receive multiple salaries, each of which is shockingly high.

In the new Ming Dynasty, redundant officials were eliminated, and they were only allowed to receive one salary. Moreover, the treatment of high-ranking officials was reduced.

At the same time, the salaries of mid- to low-ranking officials and clerks on the payroll were increased.

Take the county magistrate for example.

The official salary of a county magistrate in the Ming Dynasty was more than three times that of a county magistrate in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Of course, the benefits and subsidies for county magistrates in the Northern Song Dynasty were much greater. If all the benefits were added together...

The total income of a county magistrate in the Ming Dynasty was two-thirds higher than that of a county magistrate in the Northern Song Dynasty.

It's a high salary, but it's hard to keep honest officials in line; it only makes honest officials live a better life.

Zhao Yuan tapped the table and said, "These years have been marked by continuous natural disasters, and grain prices have risen. Let's raise salaries again."

"Officials of the fourth rank and above will receive an additional 10 strings of cash per month."

"Officials of the fifth rank to the seventh rank will receive an additional 5 strings of cash per month."

"Officials from the eighth rank to the ninth rank will receive an additional 3 strings of cash per month."

“The monthly salary of the clerks on the payroll of the Ministry of Personnel will be increased by 1 guan.”

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

The ministers were all delighted and sang praises in unison.

Although they don't care about the extra 10 strings of cash each month, who doesn't like a raise?

The fact that senior officials' salaries increased more than those of junior officials was not because Zhao Yuan neglected the grassroots.

The problem is that there are even fewer high-ranking officials, so even if the increase is larger, it doesn't amount to much money.

Officials below the seventh rank were the main contributors to the salary expenditure, and their numbers were incredibly high.

Don't be fooled by the mere monthly increases of 3 or 1 guan; the overall increase in salary expenditure is many times greater than that given to high-ranking officials!

Chapter 3939 One Person Does the Deed, One Person Takes the Responsibility

Zhao Yuan continued, "The fiefdom fee has increased from 30 coins to 50 coins."

Upon hearing this, all the nobles present smiled.

The Ming Dynasty continued the practice of granting fiefs to the former Song Dynasty, which was purely an honorary title, while those who received real fiefs were given a small amount of money.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, a household was granted a fiefdom, which was converted into 25 coins per month.

The Ming Dynasty raised the price to 30 coins per household, and now it has been raised to 50 coins, which is equivalent to doubling the price in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Take Yue Fei as an example. He now has a fief of 2800 households and can receive 140 coins per month, which is approximately 140 strings of cash.

In addition, there is the stipend of a marquis, which is given according to rank. There is also military pay, which is given according to military rank.

Excluding various welfare subsidies, if you add up all the official rank, fiefdom money, and military salary, Yue Fei's total monthly salary was around 900 guan.

Is that too little?

That's already a lot!

While high-ranking civil officials are no longer allowed to receive double salaries, they do receive additional stipends when their rank is promoted.

For example, titles like the Three Masters, the Three Young Masters, the Pillar of the State, and the Special Advancement—no matter how many such titles one receives, only one salary is given, and the salary is based on the highest-ranking title.

In addition, if civil officials also have titles, they cannot receive them together with their official salaries; they receive whichever title is higher.

In other words, high-ranking military officers received both official salaries and titles, while high-ranking civil officials received both official salaries and additional titles; both could actually receive double pay.

There weren't many civil and military officials who received double salaries, so the corresponding financial expenditure of the imperial court was not large, yet it allowed high-ranking civil and military officials to live a wealthy and prestigious life.

After Qin Hui was promoted to a higher rank, he was also able to receive double pay, and his total income was even higher than Yue Fei's!

Now, Zhao Yuan is both increasing official salaries and granting more real money as stipends.

It's nothing more than giving a beating followed by a sweet treat, to appease the hearts of all the people, both civil and military.

The confidence to raise salaries overall stemmed from the fact that the iron coins from Sichuan and Shaanxi had been largely recovered, so the imperial court no longer needed to frantically subsidize Sichuan's finances.

Starting next year, the imperial court will issue an order: for the next three years, those who continue to pay taxes in iron coins can only use iron coins for half of their tax liability.

Three years later, iron coins were completely abolished, and the government no longer collected them when levying taxes.

After dozens of gangs illegally minting iron coins were busted, no one dared to use iron coins to fleece the government anymore.

Anyone who dares to do that will get a free family-sized meal, and all the male members of the main culprit's family will have their heads chopped off.

The female relatives of the main culprit and the entire families of the accomplices were all exiled to southern Sichuan and Guizhou.

The number of people implicated and exiled for illegally minting iron coins has exceeded five thousand!

Zhao Yuan was still speaking to one person: "I know that you have been complaining that the punishment of relatives of convicted officials is too severe."

"One should take responsibility for one's own actions, so why involve one's parents and siblings?"

"I'm telling you clearly today, firstly, it's to reverse the corrupt practices left over from the former Song Dynasty, and secondly, it's to force those officials from powerful families to divide their property."

The ministers attending the meeting were unsure how to respond.

"Overall, in the more than ten years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the rampant corruption has been brought to a halt."

“Although there are still corrupt officials everywhere, at least they dare not show it in the open anymore,” Zhao Yuan said. “This time, there is an official named Li Qiu, who is the father-in-law of Qin Hui’s brother-in-law.”

"He was an honest official, but because his eldest and second sons committed crimes, he actually committed suicide in the Ministry of Justice prison in order not to affect his youngest son's career!"

Li Gang immediately sat up straight; he had witnessed the incident firsthand.

Chapter 3940 Correcting a wrong requires going to extremes.

Zhao Yuan continued, "Now that the trend of corruption has been curbed, the Ming Code should be revised again to prevent such things from happening again."

"When a person commits a serious crime, only his parents, wife and children are implicated, not his brothers."

"Of course, when recovering stolen goods, the house will be searched as well. If the brothers don't separate their households, they will be searched together."

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

Hu Anguo quickly flattered him, as he had always felt that the system of collective punishment was too harsh and made many officials suspicious.

Now it's all good, my brothers aren't involved.

As long as one remains honest and upright in official conduct, one need not fear being implicated and punished for one's brother's misconduct.

The real compensation Zhao Yuan could offer Li Qiu was to abolish the rule of punishing brothers by association.

The revision of the "Great Ming Code" because of Li Qiu's suicide would allow all officials in the country to feel indebted to Li Qiu for his kindness.

Zhao Yuan said, "Your parents, wives, and children will still be implicated by corrupt officials in the future. You officials should keep this in mind."

"Furthermore, the law also stipulated that princes, princesses, and grandsons who broke the law would be punished the same as commoners."

“They commit serious crimes so that their parents won’t be implicated.”

Upon hearing this, all the ministers were astonished.

Based on their understanding of this emperor, they knew that once the "Great Ming Code" was written into the law, he would indeed take action against the princes and princesses!

Of course, in practice, no one would dare to actually investigate.

Unless a prince or princess has caused such a disturbance that it has angered both heaven and the people, the censor will not report the truth to the emperor.

In ordinary cases, who would be out of their mind to investigate princes and princesses?

The ministers' minds raced. There were three main reasons why this clause was included in the "Great Ming Code":

First, to express our stance to all the people; second, to restrain the princes and princesses.

Third, it provides a legal basis for dealing with notorious members of the royal family at critical moments.

After the meeting, the officials returned to their respective offices.

They actually wanted to remove the practice of holding corrupt officials' parents accountable, but they had to do it step by step.

The fact that brothers are no longer implicated is already a significant step forward. Moreover, it was the emperor who took the initiative to make this concession, so there's no need to create further complications.

Hu Anguo sighed, "The Qin and Wang families are now infamous."

"I heard that next month's 'Da Ming Yue Bao' will detail their crimes, and the people of the whole world will know that these two families are corrupt and lawless."

“What a pity for Li Qiu,” Chen Dong said. “An honest official actually had to commit suicide to protect his young son’s career.”

Li Hanzhang said, "This man will surely be included in the biographies of famous officials of the Ming Dynasty. Because of him, the Ming Code was revised, and at least we no longer have to punish brothers by association."

Pan Liangui said:

"Your Majesty's implementation of such harsh laws and punishments is not an impulsive act, but rather has a profound purpose."

"Just like the arrogance and domineering of military men since the late Tang and Five Dynasties, the Song Dynasty had to reverse the trend."

"Your Majesty's severe punishment of corrupt officials is also to reverse the corrupt atmosphere of the former Song Dynasty."

"To correct a wrong, one must go to extremes, otherwise it will be difficult to reverse the trend. But even after the trend has reversed, we still need to correct the deviations and restore the right direction."

"The former Song dynasty failed to correct these errors, which led to the decline of its military prowess. With Your Majesty's wisdom and martial prowess, can't you see the harm caused by harsh laws and severe punishments?"

"The trend of corruption has been curbed, and the harsh laws and punishments will be gradually withdrawn."

"Li Qiu is just a pretext; even without Li Qiu, there would be Zhang Qiu or Liu Qiu."

Chapter 3941 Lifting the Alcohol Prohibition

"This time it's abolishing the practice of punishing brothers by association; next time it will be abolishing the practice of punishing parents by association."

Wei Liangchen said, "The practice of punishing parents by association may be abolished, but the practice of punishing wives and children by association will likely continue. Otherwise, how can we deter corrupt officials?"

Everyone nodded in agreement with Wei Liangchen's statement.

He Su didn't want to talk about these things, and clicked his tongue, saying, "Do you think that if there are no more major disasters year after year, will the alcohol restriction order be lifted?"

"The price of rice wine is getting higher and higher, and there are also limits on the amount. I can't afford much with my monthly salary."

"Those liquors are too strong; I really can't get used to them."

"Hahaha," Qian Chen laughed, "I'm not used to drinking baijiu either."

"But even if the alcohol restriction order is lifted, baijiu will definitely become popular, just like roasted tea replaced steamed tea."

"Baijiu is not only cheap, but it can also be stored for a longer time, so ordinary people prefer to drink it."

As the officials chatted, they shifted the topic to wine and tea, seemingly forgetting the major corruption case of the year.

……

Before the heavy snow blocked the roads, Wen Huanzhang returned to Luoyang with his wife, children, and some guards.

I've been living in Wangchuan Valley for several years now. This time, I've come to see the emperor and spend the New Year in Luoyang.

Wen Huanzhang's temples were already gray, but the rest of his hair was still jet black.

Based on the 40 years old he made up when he traveled through time, he would be 68 years old this year. Apart from some gray hair and wrinkles, he doesn't look that old.

After the group had finished their meal, the emperor and his minister went to the garden alone.

Zhao Yuan joked, "What, do you think I've killed too many corrupt officials?"

"Or did you hear that Qin Hui was killed and rushed over to celebrate?"

“I heard that His Majesty has written the law that applies to members of the royal family as well as commoners into the Great Ming Code and proclaimed it to the world,” Wen Huanzhang said.

Zhao Yuan said, "The royal family cannot be punished the same as commoners when they break the law, especially with the increasing number of members of the imperial clan."

"Decades later, they were deeply entrenched and protected each other, so how could the civil officials dare to lay a hand on them?"

"The inclusion of this law in the 'Great Ming Code' was more symbolic."

"Perhaps, in the future, when we encounter a strong-willed emperor, this can be used to our advantage a few times."

Wen Huanzhang said, "The number of adult members of the royal family has been increasing in recent years, and several princesses have married. It's time to formally establish the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs."

“Indeed,” Zhao Yuan nodded. “If a member of the royal family is involved in a criminal case, the power to adjudicate cannot remain with the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs; it must be handed over to the Three Judicial Offices for trial.”