Fusang and Japan are in full swing!

On the beginning of winter, the new capital, Nanjing Forbidden City, and the palace of new and old drivers.

"My memory, Sun Chuanting bowed to my emperor, long live, long live, long live!" In front of all officials in the palace, Sun Chuanting was too chaotic and inconvenient for transportation, so he searched for him many times but failed. This time he finally got the order to summon him to Nanjing.

After a long time, the slightly tired voice of Emperor Tianqi (Zhu Zilong's emperor clone) came from above: "I want to destroy the remnants of the thieves and Dongnu, how many soldiers do you need?"

Hearing the emperor's words of value, Sun Chuanting suddenly raised his head.

After years of experience, his eyes were filled with the original stimulus that could not be concealed, as if he was deeply restrained and became more mature.

He thought for a while and replied loudly: "If you want to defeat the thief, you must have three to five thousand elite soldiers and millions of food and salary!"

If it were a few years ago, even if the food and wages were millions, even hundreds of thousands, the country would not be able to produce them.

However, it has been different in recent years.

In addition to the integrity of the emperor and Zhu Zilong, he first accepted Li Zicheng's wealth and food in the capital. Then, according to the plan, he used Haoge's hand to wipe out the wealth of the Jiangnan Donglin Party and major landlords.

The so-called wine brings courage to heroes, and this money naturally brings courage to the emperor.

As long as the problem can be solved safely, can something that can be solved with money be considered a matter?

Therefore, in response to Lao Sun's request, Zhu Zilong's emperor clone waved his hand, not only asking for money, but also paying it in full. He was also promoted to the Grand Commander and the United Front side.

He gave money and the officials and sent Lao Sun away.

Zhu Zilong's emperor clone, in accordance with the staff team, took action for several days and designed a plan to increase salaries of the State Bank and officials.

The day and minute at this time.

The sky is covered with light snow, which is sometimes tight and sometimes slow.

The eaves of Nanjing Cultural Palace are white. The house is warm, the charcoal fire is red, the exquisite hot pot is boiling, steaming, and a small wine is warm on the copper rack next to it.

Wen Tiren, who was wrapped in a fur coat, was in a good mood with other new cabinet ministers.

It is like looking at the emperor's imperial plan, writing about raising the salary of officials and employees and the content on the detailed list, and commenting a few times, which is very pleasant.

I can't be unhappy, for many years. It has been hundreds of years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and the official salary of Ming officials has never been increased.

Gu Yanwu, a famous thinker in the Ming Dynasty, once lamented that "the salary of officials has been so low since ancient times."

In August of the 25th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an anti-corruption textbook called "A Brief Record of Awakening Corruption". This textbook records in detail the theoretical basis for Zhu Yuanzhang to formulate the salary standards for officials.

The salary of first-rank officials in the Ming Dynasty was 57 shi of rice per month. One stone of rice in the Ming Dynasty was about 155 kilograms of current market. Based on the current value of 2 yuan per kilogram, the annual salary is about 200,000 yuan.

In the Ming Dynasty, first-rank officials were equivalent to the current prime minister and vice-president level. A prime minister of a big country, whose annual salary is more than 200,000 yuan cannot be considered high.

In the 21st century of later generations, just imagine that the Prime Minister’s annual income is only more than 200,000 yuan, which is not as good as a repair technician. What’s going on with this TM?

Even the Prime Minister had only earned more than 200,000 yuan a year. It is conceivable that the county magistrates, prefects, and other incomes of the Ming Dynasty at that time were so gratifying. It is simply a pleasing to describe it, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it.

You should know that being an official and doing business in China basically depends on connections and relationships.

This is nothing else in future generations!

Think about it, if you become an official, your salary is pitiful. It sounds nice to say it, but in fact, life is just a barely enough food and clothing!

However, if an official wants to be promoted, he must maintain a good relationship between colleagues and superiors. The personal expenses between officials were the biggest expenses for officials in ancient times. There are also hiring servants, sedan chairmen, maids, and teachers and staff. In the Ming Dynasty, officials paid for their own money.

There are also some scholars who rely on family support, and they must also support their clans after becoming officials. Otherwise, they will say that you have poor character. This is at most others scold you in later generations. But in ancient times, it was really fatal!

Moreover, the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were paid in three parts: silver, treasure banknotes and rice, and the treasure banknotes were severely reduced. His salary was calculated and it was difficult for the family to satisfy their food and clothing.

Of course, if you insist that the whole family of officials has food to eat and goes out naked without clothes (so that saves other expenses besides eating), that's also the same thing.

But, in that case, you still become a nonsense official?

According to the bad rules, all the expenses in the yamen are borne by the shopkeepers--of course this is a bad rule. Hai Rui is famous for his anti-bad rules because...

Modern scholars often claim that it is actually unrealistic to maintain a family life for only 15 taels in the Ming Dynasty. Especially in the late Ming Dynasty!

Taking the military households of the Weishu, which had poor living in the Ming Dynasty as an example, one cent of the military household (about 50 acres) was the burden of 12 stones of grains in the military farm and 12 stones of grain for the inspection. The latter was the food for the family of 4 people in the military households.

Military households are regarded as pure service in the military office, which is used to offset the tax benefits obtained in military households of their original military households - therefore military households in the military office are regarded as pure service, without paying wages and only rations).

The basic living expenses of 12 shi a month for a family of four were required, even in the early Ming Dynasty, at least 4-5 taels of silver were needed!

Officials in the Ming and Qing dynasties did not live on their salary. If they lived strictly on their salary (like Hai Rui), they might even starve to death. It would be better to just barely get one, which is similar to the living conditions of the farmhouse household.

Hai Rui only bought 2 kilograms of meat to celebrate his mother's birthday like that. It was a joke in the officialdom, but it was a true portrayal of the life of an ordinary farmhouse (a small landlord).

Therefore, for the sake of life, the Ming Dynasty officials could only be corrupt in the past, and even if they could be beheaded, they could not stop them.

(If I were to be an official environment, I would be corrupt too!)

If you want to minimize the existence of corrupt officials as much as possible, only a good system can you do it slowly.

As a time traveler in later generations, Zhu Zilong knew very well that he had to take care of himself and prevent officials from wanting to be greedy, not being greedy, and not daring to be greedy. This requires institutional improvement!

First, the so-called "not wanting to be greedy" can solve a large part of the difficulties by increasing the treatment of officials.

Just like Bao Qingtian in the Song Dynasty, do you really think he doesn’t want to embezzle? His legal salary income is as high as tens of millions per year, so is there still a need to embezzle?

Second, the so-called "not greedy": This requires a restrictive mechanism, which makes officials unable to be greedy. For example, implement a family property declaration system!

Third, the so-called daring not to be greedy: it means to make corruption at high risk.

For example, Zhu Yuanzhang's killing, killing, killing. This is actually good, but he did not do it at the same time, and the first two were also done.

Of course, you may say that there is no radical solution, and maintaining integrity with high salaries is also a treatment of symptoms but not the root cause, and killing is also a treatment of symptoms but not the root cause.

But, is there any better way within the human social system?

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Chapter completed!