Infrastructure masters in the red building

On the surface, the rulers of this time and space are a group of elite officials selected through the imperial examinations, but in fact the local power is controlled by a group of small people called subordinate officials.How much evil these seemingly insignificant little people can do, just look at the door around Jia Yucun when the "Gourd Monk Breaks the Gourd Case" in the original book, you can know a thing or two.

Unlike officials, subordinate officials have salaries issued by the court, and all income of these people is "grey".In order to survive, they must do everything possible to make money from various loopholes.In addition, they often joined forces with the local gentry and the staff around the officials to deceive the upper and lower for personal gain.

Only Wang Anshi, the prime minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, once advocated that the profession of "subordinate staff" be included in the system of regular state officials.

During the reform, Wang Anshi advocated improving the status of subordinate staff and subordinates, and including subordinate staff into the ranks of receiving state salaries, that is, truly incorporating subordinate staff into the ranks of "public officials" and giving them salaries to support themselves. "Sage Enlightenment" can restrain the behavior of these subordinates, make them loyal to their superiors, and dedicate themselves to the common people.

It's a pity that Wang Anshi's reform only lasted for a short period of time before it came to an end.The old party wiped out all his efforts after he left.The subalterns are still outside the system, controlling local grass-roots affairs but have no reasonable source of income, and can only rely on various means to seek personal gain.As long as their bad behavior is not discovered by the superiors, the petty officials can make a fortune and live in the fish and meat village; but the upper-level officials will also regularly launch campaigns to clean up the subordinates, clean up crimes, and impose extremely severe punishments.

Therefore, the subordinate staff in the local government is still a high-risk occupation.

What Jia Fang is doing now is similar to what Wang Anshi did back then.He also advocated bringing all kinds of officials and servants serving in the Yamen into the salary payment system so that they have a reasonable source of income. The status quo of grassroots work in various states and counties.

But the problem is that the southern states and counties are not Taoyuan Village, nor Jia Fang's own territory.If Jia Fang wants to pay salaries to officials and servants in the yamen, it must be paid out of the existing local financial system.

That's why Jia Fang put forward a proposal to use the southern states and counties as "pilots", and try to withhold a part of the various taxes collected by the counties in the past and distribute them to these small officials, so as to try out the method of "nourishing honesty with high salaries".

Even if this is an "experiment", the superior must agree, so Jia Fang must submit a statement in advance, and cannot make arbitrarily asserted opinions.

Xia Shengshen looked at the above table drafted by Jia Fang, nodded his head and said: "I can understand that you are using the strategy of Wang Jinggong back then, to seek the benefits of the subordinate staff and avoid the harm of the villain's favoritism. But if you move For all the counties in the ten southern states, I fear that you will not be able to get through with the Prince Jian Guo."

There was just a severe drought in the north last year, and the tax money and food from the south now account for half of the national tax. In addition, the imperial court spent a lot of money on river engineering, and the army on the western border is still active, so the military salary is very high. Spend like water.

The prince's staff are all fussy and stingy in terms of financial management. If Jia Fang wants to mobilize the southern taxes, even if it is just for the integrity and self-discipline of the subordinates, it will be difficult to pass a small amount of money.

Jia Fang thought for a while, and sincerely asked for advice: "Master Xia's opinion, how should I put it on the table."

Xia Sheng thought to himself: You are the emperor's favorite young son now, as long as the reason is justified and there is a limit to what you ask, the crown prince should be able to agree.He said: "Ten southern states are too many. You might as well try this method in Wuyuan County, Yong'an Prefecture first. If everything goes well, it will be extended to all southern states and counties next year."

Jia Fang quickly cupped his hands: "Thank you, Lord Xia, for your guidance."

He thought: This is indeed a good idea. It will be more reasonable to select a certain area for the pilot first, and then sum up the successful experience and then promote it.This is like the "schistosomiasis report" made by Zhang Youshi back then. With empirical experience and data in hand, once the report is released, everyone in the world will accept it.

Unexpectedly, Xia Shengshen didn't accept his thanks very much, and said with a stern face, "If I hadn't seen how difficult the livelihood of the people in Wuyuan County is, and most of the officials and yamen servants are wearing luxurious clothes and living in luxurious houses, I wouldn't have Giving you this kind of idea... Alas, this has fallen into the trap of Xiang's sinners again."

Jia Fang was taken aback for a moment before he realized that the old man thought that his common sense was also in line with Xiang Fengyi's theory of "extending knowledge and investigating things". In such a situation, he would not take the initiative to support himself in this way.

He immediately bowed down with a smile on his face, and said: "If this matter is successful, it will solve a major problem in the region for many years for His Majesty the Emperor. Jia Fang thanked Master Xia for his suggestion."

Not to mention how Xia Shengshen visited Taoyuan Village, Jia Fang quickly edited and polished the above form, and quickly sent it to Beijing, where it was in the hands of the Prince Jian Guo.

The prince faced a group of his staff: "What do you think, this young boy really wants to make some noise in the south."

The prince never concealed Jia Fang's true identity in front of his staff - he was just a young son with no name and no distinction, but the kind that his father loved very much.For this reason, the prince showed his closeness to Jia Fang and Jia's family everywhere in front of people, which was also the case in the criminal case in the examination room before.

For this, he has indeed been rewarded. His Majesty the Emperor has been affirming his performance recently, while the line of the Third Prince is very picky.This made the prince really feel refreshed for a while.

At this moment, the staff looked at each other and put forward their opinions.Similar to Xia Shengshen's opinion, most of them think that since the Ministry of Households is in short supply of money and food, there is really no need for the local government to withhold a part of the tax to support the salaries of these local subordinates - after all, there were no such salaries before , These people are also alive and well.

"Then how should I approve it?" The prince couldn't help but asked, "Should I just send back the sixth form? It's not a big deal."

At this time, the prince's chief staff member came up with a brilliant idea: "His Royal Highness, anyway, the Pingnan Jiedushi is only trying this out in one state and one county in the south. You might as well ask the Jiedushi to do it, but there is one request—— Taking Wuyuan County as an example, you can allow the county to keep a part of the county tax in the local area, but the autumn tax handed in this year must not be less than the amount in previous years."

Prince: ...that's a good idea!

This is equivalent to the prince's generous approval of Jia Fang's request on the surface, but the salary of those county officials requires the county to find a way by itself. Anyway, it can't affect the autumn Fu handed over to the court.

This trick is a typical wool from the sheep. Since you want to "raise cheap", you have to find money from your own pocket to raise it.Putting it on the subordinate staff is tantamount to asking the subordinate staff to collect more taxes from the people, and the extra money collected can be used to support themselves.

No matter how the prince thought about it, he felt that this trick made Jia Fang feel like he was in a cocoon. How the land was scraped in the past will definitely be scraped in the future.

"Just send it out as you said." The prince smiled, "I hope that the sixth child is just playing in the south, not really wanting to make a big career. It will be easier for Gu to tidy up for him then. "

Zheng Boyi received the crown prince's comments, explained them to Jia Fang one by one, and finally sighed, saying: "Before now, according to Lord Xia's suggestion, my lord gave way so many steps, I didn't expect my superiors to disagree."

Jia Fang laughed and said, "I've thought about it a long time ago."

Zheng Boyi: ...?

Jia Fang is not a person who knows how to play politics. What he has been exposed to before is just office politics in the firm. Besides, he is a person who is immersed in his career and never cares about other people.

But this does not mean that he must not understand the basic principles of politics.

It's like saying that if you have already promised the resources of your superiors, it will usually be more difficult for you to pay less.

So the prince's reply was completely within Jia Fang's expectation.Wuyuan County wants to reform the administration of officials and support officials with high salaries. If they want to raise such a sum of money to pay the county officials and servants, "retaining" will definitely not work, so they must find ways to increase revenue.

"That is to say, this year's autumn tax will be collected more than last year." Zheng Boyi was still worried, "There is no collective land reclamation in Wuyuan County. It is these fields. Where can the county officials get more food? ...Do you want to collect more commercial taxes?"

Jia Fang shook his head and said with a smile, "Where does the money come from...I still can't figure it out."

Zheng Boyi: ...I can't think of it, but you still dare to ask the crown prince?

Jia Fang: "It will not be too late to discuss these after the examination results of all the officials come out, the positions of each person are determined, and the required money and food are calculated."

The "examination results" Jia Fang mentioned naturally refers to the "re-examination" that Wuyuan County officials and government officials will take part in two months later.

When Yuan Hua, the magistrate of Wuyuan County, launched this "diploma" exam, about half of the first time he passed the exam--one-third were illiterate, and some seasoned county magistrates failed because they could not answer the paper. There are problems with typos and typos, which cause unnecessary loss of points, resulting in low scores and failure to pass.

Those officials who failed were originally very confident that they would pass the next time, but they were shocked to learn that they would count the content of the test in the next test—a group of people burst into tears, and some of them He's really good at pen names, but he doesn't know anything about numbers—typos kill people!

In the past two months, the county officials have gone through the devilish pre-examination training in the county school. Most of the completely illiterate part have given up, and some young people are still struggling.In addition, there are some people in Wuyuan County who have never held a position in the county government before, applying to take the "diploma" examination held by Wuyuan County.

These people are either "spare tires" found by some county officials and government servants through their families, or they are confident that they have some talents and want to sneak into the county government to eat "gongmen".

Among these two types of people, some even couldn’t trust the “teaching quality” of the county school, and went to Xiaoxiang Academy in Taoyuanzhai to apply for a pre-diploma exam cram school.Xiaoxiang Academy also accepts all visitors, except that villagers in Bibu Taoyuan Village can attend classes for free, and those from Wuyuan County must pay two thousand circulation coupons for Shuxiu.

Two months later, 87 of the 59 people who participated in the first "diploma" exam in Wuyuan County passed the exam.

Liu Lixing is one of the 59 new "diploma" holders.He is an offshoot of Liu Minghua's family.Although his surname is Liu, the Liu family has never cared about the life and death of his mother, him, and his sister for many years—until two months ago, an "uncle" named Liu Minghua came to Liu Lixing and handed over the "diploma" to Liu Lixing. "The prospect of the exam was talked about in a wild way, and he promised to give Liu Lixing's mother ten taels of silver and ten acres of land, and promised that the clan would come forward to help Liu Xiaomei talk about her husband's family.

Liu Lixing went to take the exam and passed it by luck.

The reason why Liu Lixing was able to pass the diploma exam was really because he had been working in Taoyuan Village since last year.First, I helped people build houses, and later, I helped people burn cement in a cement factory.

People in Taoyuanzhai went to Xiaoxiang Academy to attend classes in the evening, and Liu Lixing would occasionally slip away to listen in with the "workmates".He gradually became able to recognize and understand the [-] commonly used words in the diploma exam, and he was able to understand the calculations. Later, he went to tutoring for two months, and he passed it so logically.

However, the master of Xiaoxiang Academy also said that this was originally a basic examination, not an imperial examination, and the proportion of people who passed it should be higher.

But the Liu family's attitude towards Liu Lixing's passing the exam was obviously very happy, just like he was selected as a scholar——

It wasn't until he passed the exam that the Liu family told the truth: since Liu Lixing passed the "diploma", the Liu family asked him to work in the county government office as a county official—that county official was also from the Liu family, and he was in charge of In the matter of collecting taxes, he missed the first exam because of "typos", and failed the second exam because of "application questions".

The Liu family was obviously not prepared enough for this, so they had to let a young man like Liu Lixing take the lead.

"Don't worry too much. Uncle and grandpa will teach you how to do things. This matter is very, very important to the entire Liu family, so the family will find you." Liu Minghua taught patiently, "After all, you can't write two characters Liu in one stroke."

But Liu Lixing was somewhat resistant to this: "Uncle, I did pass the exam, but I don't want to work as an officer in the county. Doesn't it mean that you don't have money and grain to be an officer?"

In his opinion, working as an errand in the county government office is hard work, has a bad reputation, and doesn't have much money to get food.

Liu Minghua immediately lowered his face and reprimanded: "Why are you young people so ignorant of good and evil? This is a big matter for the whole family, do you think it's a joke?"

Liu Lixing didn't expect the other party to have such a big temper, so he frowned for a while and thought: When they were orphans and widows, the clan ignored them for many years, and they got a "diploma" by themselves, but the clan asked for their own heads. up?What kind of kindness is this Ann? Is it true that he is too young to see it?

Seeing that the two sides were at odds, Liu Lixingniang hurried to persuade Liu Minghua, "Seventh Uncle, don't listen to this kid's nonsense, we naturally have to listen to what the clan says, and I hope that Seventh Uncle will support him more in the future." Arm, whispered: "Don't forget that little sister is still waiting to talk about her husband's family..."

But who would have thought that this young man, with a stubborn temper, looked up at the sky and thought: when the time comes, my little sister's marriage can be settled by going to the blind date meeting in Taoyuan Village next door, why ask those bad old men in the clan?

Unexpectedly, Liu Minghua suddenly laughed at this time, stretched out two fingers to Liu Lixing, and made a gesture of "two".

"When the autumn Fu is harvested this year, the clan will definitely give you this amount." Liu Minghua said.

Liu Lixing: "Two taels?"

Liu Minghua glanced at him with disgust: "20 taels!"

Liu's mother and son gasped in unison. 20 taels is their family's annual expenses.

After Liu Minghua finished speaking, he stood up and said goodbye, knowing that money touches people's hearts, this mother and son will definitely not let go of such a great opportunity.

Then things developed as Liu Minghua expected, Liu Lixing reported to the county government on time, and Liu Minghua arranged for him to take the position of the previous county magistrate surnamed Liu.

But after everyone re-entered this time, the county held a very surprising "entry ceremony". Get a certain salary according to the content of the job and the number of years in the job.

Someone in the county government immediately cheered: but most of the cheering people were those who had never worked in the county government before, while most of the "old people" who passed the exam and stayed in the county government frowned at this moment , showing a trace of panic——

These are human beings, so they understand the principle of wanting to get what they give first. If the superiors want to pay them salaries, it means that they will block their other channels for making money-but can they really be blocked?

After Mr. Yuan made such a short "welcome speech", he asked all the officials to open a folded piece of paper in front of them, and then read out loud the "oath" on it together.

Now all the officials standing in the county yamen, including the yamen servants, can at least recognize the one thousand commonly used characters, and there is no problem in reciting the "oath".So, Liu Lixing and everyone read out the words and sentences printed on the paper.

"From today, I, Liu Lixing, take an oath to be a glorious official of Wuyuan County..."

"I promise that during my tenure as an official in Wuyuan County, I will be loyal to my duties, be honest and honest, and complete all my duties in the spirit of serving the people..."

Others may become more and more confused as they read more and don't know what "the spirit of serving the people" is, but Liu Lixing becomes more excited and louder as he reads more - he has many friends in Taoyuanzhai, and later entered various offices as a clerk , They all speak in this tone.

"... Let our work be recognized by the people, and our profession be respected by the people. Let our names and surnames be written in the county annals, and our contributions will last forever..."

Gradually, the voices of other people also became louder: they seem to understand the meaning of the county lord, and now everyone is an official with a "diploma", and the county lord's expectations of them are naturally different from before. As before, he was only a muddle-headed official and government servant.

Liu Lixing was excited while reading, and felt that as a new batch of county officials in Wu Yuan, it was even more natural for him to make changes to give his image a new look.

"...Work hard to build Wuyuan County into a prosperous, prosperous and civilized new Wuyuan."