First Minister of Ming Dynasty

It should not be limited to the court.The will of the people must be taken into account, and the ideas of the officials at the bottom must be taken into account. It is best to arrange some special civil servants to go down to the people, carefully understand the situation, and come up with their plans.In this way, the lord can not only guarantee the implementation of the lord's will, but also ensure that there will be no major omissions. "

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and laughed for a long time, "Okay, sir taught us another lesson!"

At this time, Li Shanchang came with a stack of official documents. When he saw Zhang Ximeng and Zhu Yuanzhang chatting happily,

There is an ominous premonition that chills down the spine...

Chapter 3 Salary

Li Shanchang came to meet Lao Zhu mainly to discuss a most important matter, that is, the staffing of the Ministry of Education, who should be arranged for the six ministries, various rules and regulations, and even official uniforms and hats. only a conclusion.

According to the usual practice, Li Shanchang had drawn up a set of drafts and came to discuss with Zhu Yuanzhang.According to the usual experience, Zhu Yuanzhang will seriously discuss with him, weigh the pros and cons, and then make a final decision, resulting in a result that both the monarch and his ministers are satisfied with.

This is also the tacit understanding between the two of them. After all, Zhang Ximeng has taken care of enough, and he is not too involved in such matters.

But by coincidence, Zhang Ximeng was also here today, so Li Shanchang had to cheer up and explain to Zhu Yuanzhang carefully, so as not to make any mistakes.

He talked for about a quarter of an hour, his mouth was dry and his throat was smoky, but Zhu Yuanzhang just listened and didn't mean to interrupt at all, which was completely different from before.

Lao Li's heart was beating wildly, and his premonition of uneasiness was getting stronger and stronger. What did Zhang Ximeng say?He peeked at Zhang Ximeng, and found that Zhang Ximeng was looking up, his mind wandering.

Helpless, Li Shanchang plucked up his courage, peeked at Zhu Yuanzhang, and found that Lao Zhu was also smiling slightly, "Mr. Li, I understand, you have upgraded the original Zhongshu Province. Although you have more control and more careful distinctions, But there are not many changes, this kind of thing, you can decide, if there is any inconvenience in the future, just let us know."

"Let's talk about the next item!"

With a relaxed tone, Lao Zhu took the draft casually, only glanced at it twice, and decisively wrote the word "Ru Bi", and then stamped the King Wu's seal. From the beginning to the end, there was no doubt, and the agreement was clean and neat.

Seeing this scene, Li Shanchang was completely dumbfounded, something is wrong!

How did his familiar routine change?

Shouldn't it be studied carefully?

How could Zhu Yuanzhang let go of such an important personnel arrangement?

This unscientific!

Li Shanchang looked at Zhang Ximeng again, Zhang Ximeng was startled, and asked my opinion?

"Li Xiang, in the past, the Zhongshu Province was running well, and there were no major mistakes, so it was good. I am also the right minister, and I agree with your arrangement with both hands!"

Li Shanchang hesitated for a moment, but in the end he couldn't say anything more, so he could only continue to talk... Poor God, today's Zhu Yuanzhang is much easier to talk than ever before, he hardly asked any questions, just listened, he was absolutely obedient, and there was no embarrassment at all Lao Li.

Even if some obviously sloppy proposals contained obvious loopholes, they were intentionally left by Li Shanchang for Zhu Yuanzhang to amend. After all, as a subordinate, he had to give his superiors room for expression.

Li Shanchang was very determined on this point.

But what's weird is that Zhu Yuanzhang didn't care about these loopholes, as if he didn't notice them.

Everything was done according to Li Shanchang's wishes, and he didn't even change it.

Lao Li was flustered. He wasn't worried about these small loopholes. After all, with Li Shanchang's methods, they could be easily eliminated during execution.

The problem was that he couldn't figure out what kind of medicine Zhu Yuanzhang was selling in his gourd.

Could it be that the superior in front of him is a fake?Get a puppet here to fool things?

Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain clearly. How could Zhu Yuanzhang, who used to do everything himself, be willing to delegate power to himself?

Old Li was getting more and more confused.

And because of Zhu Yuanzhang's cooperation, he prepared a lot of official documents, which could be discussed for a whole day, and even discussed the content until midnight, and it took less than one morning to solve all of them.

In the hands of Li Shanchang, there is only one last thing left, which is the issue of officials' salaries.

Interesting to say, Lao Zhu has been in the army for several years, but the salaries of officials have not yet been determined.

This is mainly because there were not many civil servants in the early days, gold and silver were too useful at that time, and they could not be issued casually, and the printing of treasure banknotes had not yet started... Civil servants followed the example of soldiers and received Lumi together, and they were still in the same system, to be precise At this time, Zhu's army had no concept of salary, only military pay, and the same was true for civilian officials.

Fortunately, food is a hard currency at this time, and occasionally Zhang Ximeng will push Zhu Yuanzhang to give him some rewards, and add three stones and two stones during the holidays.

On the whole, officials can live on.

After crossing the river, the team of officials became more and more expanded, especially after the imperial examinations were held, which made the number of local officials too large.If Lumi is still distributed like before, it must be sent out from the military camp.

The military generals have long been unable to bear it, and reform is urgently needed.

By the way, when Lao Zhu ascended the throne and formally established civil and military officials, Li Shanchang created a separate salary system, which was attached to the six officials, division of responsibilities, crowns, hats, etc. behind a lot of things.

Compared with the previous ones, salary is naturally an insignificant matter. Li Shanchang thought that Zhu Yuanzhang would agree after listening to it for a day after discussing it, so he didn't care much.

But today's situation has changed. The most inconspicuous issue of salary has become the grand finale. Lao Li only feels the pressure is overwhelming, but he must cheer up.

"Superior, hundreds of officials on behalf of the herdsmen, the responsibility is the heaviest. The level of official salary is related to the morale of the people, and it cannot be sloppy. But the country is just starting up, and it can't bear too much salary. Therefore, I think twice and think that I should refer to the Song Dynasty. Yuan standard, appropriate profit and loss..."

When Li Shanchang mentioned this, he found that both Zhang Ximeng and Zhu Yuanzhang were silent, as if they had some opinions, Li Shanchang's heart sank even more, it's not good!

During this period of time, the Song Dynasty was the dynasty that criticized the most, and the Yuan Dynasty was a hypocritical and hypocritical dynasty to be overthrown. With reference to these two products, how could Zhu Yuanzhang be satisfied?

Therefore, Li Shanchang hurriedly said: "I refer to the salary of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, but it has been lowered a lot, and it is still less than one-third of the salary of the Song Dynasty... If the superior has doubts, I will modify it!"

Lao Li tremblingly handed over the list of salary to Zhu Yuanzhang

Zhang Ximeng on the side laughed inwardly, this old Li is really good at calculating.Zhao Song's salary is very famous... Not to mention the official salary that scares people to death, just the rewards given to the chief ministers and officials in the court every New Year's day are enough to make people speechless.

Even if it is one-third of the Song Dynasty's salary, that is an astronomical figure!

It's true that there are mountains of gold and silver, can't you spend them all?

Zhang Ximeng didn't say anything, let Lao Zhu decide anyway, if he couldn't even see this, it would be a waste of his painstaking efforts to teach.

Sure enough, Zhu Yuanzhang frowned, "Mr. Li, aside from this monthly salary, what's the matter with the salary you got?"

Li Shanchang was stunned, and quickly said: "If you return to the superior position, this is also an imitation of the arrangement of the Song Dynasty, and it is used for the daily expenses of the yamen."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned, "Isn't it right? How do we remember that all levels of yamen have special expenses? What's going on?"

"This, this is specially for the officials to use in the yamen...mainly to deal with their own affairs..." Li Shanchang's voice became lower and lower. To put it bluntly, this is the money for an official to welcome and send, eat and drink, of course , You can also put it in your pocket, in short, you have the final say.

How could Lao Zhu agree!

"Public and private cannot be mixed up! The expenses of the Yamen must go to the public account, and the money for this position cannot be taken!"

"Yes!" Li Shanchang obediently agreed.

Zhu Yuanzhang still refused to give up, "How can I pay this back, and there is still a job field?"

Li Shanchang grinned, "This, also, is also imitating the Song system, which is convenient for local officials to govern..."

"no!"

Lao Zhu was interrupted directly, and glared at Li Shanchang, "Mr. Li, you don't know, do you? The word Juntian is so important to us, how dare you make a career?"

For a moment, Li Shanchang felt the murderous aura rushing towards his face, and Lao Zhu was really angry.

He hastily saluted, trembling all over, "Chen, I was confused for a while, please forgive me."

Lao Zhu took a deep breath, looked down again, and the anger that had just been suppressed suddenly surged up again.

There are a lot of things behind here, such as rice, flour, salt, oil, tea, silk, charcoal, wine... Lao Zhu saw it straight. Since he was given a salary, how come there are so many things?

We give money to the officials just to let you buy these firewood, rice, oil and salt, and we will give you another copy. If this is the case, why do you still need to pay salaries?

Isn't this crazy?

"Li Shanchang! What on earth are you thinking? Let's see if you want to enrich yourself or win people's hearts? Why don't you distribute all our treasury to the officials?"

thump!

Lao Li couldn't bear the anger any longer, and fell to his knees directly on the ground.

"Superior, superior, it's all my ministers who are confused, ministers, ministers, shouldn't follow the regulations of the Song Dynasty, ministers, ministers, and revise them immediately!" Li Shanchang trembled all over, frightened.

At this time Zhang Ximeng suddenly said: "My lord, can you let me have a look?"

Zhu Yuanzhang threw the official document to Zhang Ximeng, and just glanced at it briefly, Zhang Ximeng said: "My lord, I think this is a misunderstanding of Li Xiang. Zhao Song has always been willing to give up his money to support his servants, and he is complacent! The so-called nurturing scholars are all In addition to the salary, Zhao Song officials have a generous salary for their own jobs, and a sum of money for dispatch, which is also amazing. Moreover, as Li Xiang said, there are salary, job fields, clothing materials, rice flour, grain and oil, salt and tea Silk, everything was given out. During the holidays, the emperor’s longevity, and extra rewards, all added up, a third-rank official almost needs to be supported by the taxes of a mansion every year. Of course, it is the poorest mansion, but even if Even so, it is astonishing!"

"Absurd! Absurd!"

Zhu Yuanzhang stomped his feet angrily, and cursed angrily: "We have already said that the bad habits of Zhao and Song Dynasties must be abolished, and Vientiane must be renewed. Li Shanchang, why don't you have a long memory?"

Old Li was scolded so badly that he was scared to death, so he could only keep saying: "Please rest assured, sir, I will modify it now!"

Zhang Ximeng said, "My lord, don't be too busy, and don't rush to blame Li Xiang. The salary is not created out of thin air. There is nothing wrong with Li Xiang referring to the experience of the previous dynasty. It is reasonable for the lord to disagree. This is the case." It's not about Li Xiang's fault, but I have a suggestion, I ask my lord to consider it, and I also ask Li Xiang to consider it."

Zhang Ximeng said with a smile: "360 lines, officials are one of them... Just refer to the income and expenditure of ordinary people every year, and then refer to the price, and draw up an algorithm, from top to bottom, to pay salaries to all officials."

After Zhang Ximeng finished speaking, Li Shanchang was so stupid!control big owls

These few words are even scarier than Zhu Yuanzhang's stern words. I'm comparing Zhao Song's salary, and you directly use the income and expenditure of the people as a reference. You, do you want to die of poverty?

Chapter 3 How much do you want?

Li Shanchang was full of opinions, but facing Zhu Yuanzhang at this moment, he really didn't dare to say more, for fear that he would cut himself off when he lifted the sword.

For his own life, Li Shanchang ran away with his head in his arms, and fled in despair.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Li Shanchang's back and snorted heavily.

The anger in my heart was overwhelming, and I felt a strong sense of being deceived.

Lao Zhu belongs to the very stubborn kind of temper.When Zhang Ximeng gave him so many bibliographies, he couldn't read all the words, so he just gnawed them down.

He is not afraid of hardships, getting up early and going to bed late, and works hard like an old farmer, taking care of his own business.

He thinks that no matter how big or small it is, he should be involved. For a trivial matter, Chang Chang argued with Li Shan Chang, blushing, blowing his beard and staring.

Put all your heart into it, there is nothing bad about it!

But today, Zhu Yuanzhang realized that he might have made a mistake.

Governing the country is really not something that can be rewarded if you put in your life and work hard.

This industry is very evil. If you don't master the tricks, maybe the more effort you put in, the less you will gain, or even the complete opposite.

That is to say, be vigilant day and night, work hard, and make yourself a king of subjugation.

Take this official system design as an example. It seems that who should be the secretary, who should be the minister, who is responsible for implementation, and who is responsible for supervision... These must be big things, at least much more important than officials' salaries.

But in fact that is not the case at all.

After thousands of years of development, the bureaucratic system has evolved to a very mature stage, with a clear division of labor, each performing its duties, checking and balancing each other, and vigorously supervising.

There are all these things that should be there.

It's nothing more than whether it's suitable or not, and whether you can perform your duties smoothly... These things are very complicated, and it's not like choosing a capable and virtuous minister can solve the problem.

Basically, it is necessary to prescribe the right medicine and make adjustments after encountering problems during the implementation process.

In other words, this is a problem that needs to be solved after normal operation.

In contrast, the initial setting of official salary is much more important.

After all, it is difficult to say who is virtuous, but it is clear at a glance who is worth how much!

Still want us to confess you?

That's a dream!

We would rather use money to do things for the common people than support you bastards!

Also, Li Shanchang, please remember for us.

If you put the most important things at the end and want to get away with it, that is wishful thinking.

Lao Zhu recalled what Zhang Ximeng told him, and Lao Zhu fully understood.

A person's energy is limited, no matter how hard he tries, there are always things he can't take care of.

That being the case, it's better to focus on some important matters. As for other government affairs, just leave it to Li Shanchang, and ask him to settle the score if something goes wrong.

This also facilitates the division of responsibilities, otherwise everything will be on our shoulders, and we will be responsible for any accidents, so it will be difficult to pursue.

Sure enough, when he became the king of Wu, he considered the problem from a different angle.

Mr. Zhang made a point in time!

Zhu Yuanzhang reflected deeply here, and suddenly felt that he had gained a lot. Zhang Ximeng saw that there was nothing wrong with him, so he intervened and swayed to see Li Shanchang.

Today, I did Lao Li a great favor, so I have to get something in return.

Zhang Ximeng went into Li Shanchang's room and found that old Li was holding his head, in great pain, with cold sweat on his forehead, obviously frightened.

Are you afraid?