Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, responded to the Manchu Dynasty officials with a low and pitiful salary, and this situation lasted until the Chongzhen period, and the officials' income was pressed so low, which has a great relationship with Zhu Yuanzhang's background, Zhu Yuanzhang lived in the Yuan Dynasty, corrupt officials and corrupt officials were rampant, and the people suffered great pain, coupled with the continuous death of relatives, so that Zhu Yuanzhang hated the government, even after controlling the world, it is impossible to completely change the understanding in his bones, Zhu Yuanzhang needs officials to do things, On the one hand, suppressing the officials' income, every time to compare the lives of the officials, this extreme approach, for the Ming Dynasty left a great hidden danger, although Zhu Yuanzhang used brutal means to deal with corrupt officials, but there is still no way to really eliminate the corruption of most officials, because if these officials rely on the income to live, it is impossible to maintain.

Zheng Xunrui is resolutely opposed to this practice, of course, as a traverser, he also knows that the controversy in this regard after a few hundred years is still very strong, and all parties have various views, but there is one thing that Zheng Xunrui insists on, that is, if the officials and the common people have the same income and live the same life, it is a great irony of cultural knowledge, since you can get preferential treatment without studying, and since you can enjoy a good life without paying too much, then who else reads, and who is willing to do things, Isn't society going to regress dramatically?

Looking at the development of the world, any country attaches importance to knowledge and science and technology, science and technology is the productive forces, this is undoubted, as the elite of social management, if the basic life is not guaranteed, life and the people are the same, then the officials who hold power, the first thing that comes to mind is greedy for ink. In order to make life better.

Zheng Xunrui's decision to greatly improve the rank of officials also has very good conditions, which are not available after a few hundred years, that is, the number of Ming officials is indeed very small, especially after the turmoil, taking Jiangning County as an example. There are only three officials with ranks, namely the magistrate, the county and the lord, and the three people, the pawn is not in the stream, and they are not considered real officials, and the total number of officials on the copperplate book is only thirty-six, plus the head and fast arrest of the patrol room, etc., the total number is only sixty-five.

It turned out that many of the county officials had no money and relied on the county government to maintain their expenses. The number of these servants is difficult to calculate, dozens or even hundreds of people in many places, and only a few in few places.

Zheng Xunrui has already regulated the number of people in the yamen in the south, for example, Jiangning County, as a large county in the south, the total number of people in the yamen is 95 people, including all the personnel.

These ninety-five people. The imperial court is directly responsible, ranging from high to low.

And there are some very small counties in the south. The total number of yamen ranged from 35 to 45.

After ascending the throne, the household department was busy cleaning up the candidates for the local government, and according to Zheng Xunrui's requirements, the personnel of all provincial capitals, prefectures and counties in the Ming Dynasty were preliminarily standardized, which were specifically divided into two grades, and the number of governors and yamen in each province was roughly the same. It is 120 people, including all officials, and the number of people who are sentenced to punishment is 40 according to the number of prosecutors, prefectures and counties are divided into two grades according to the size of the population, etc., and the first level of government officials is 40 to 50 people. There are 35 to 45 people in the state government, 65 to 95 people in the county government, 20 to 30 officials in the second class government, 20 to 25 people in the state government, and 35 to 45 people in the county government.

This indicator is not allowed to be exceeded, regardless of the exceptional circumstances.

After such standardization, after statistics, the Ming Dynasty has jurisdiction over thirteen provinces, including Beizhili, one hundred and forty prefectures, one hundred and eighty-three prefectures, and one thousand one hundred and thirty-eight counties, and the total number of officials who need to bear the burden of the imperial court is roughly about 100,000.

This number made Zheng Xunrui feel surprised, if it were a few hundred years later, the number of people who ate imperial grain in a region would exceed this number, but the fine division of labor in society has not yet been fully rolled out, and the number of officials is inevitable, otherwise the people will not be able to bear it at all.

The Yulu formulated by the imperial court was determined according to the grade, and the monthly Yulu of the first product was equivalent to 600 taels of silver, 580 taels per month from the first grade, 550 taels per month from the second grade, 530 taels per month from the second grade, and so on, from the 9th grade official's Yulu to 180 taels of silver per month.

Strictly speaking, the number of officials in the Ming court is not much, and most of them are officials, accounting for more than sixty percent, close to seventy percent.

According to the goal set by Zheng Xunrui, the clerk was paid 100 taels of silver per month, the warden was 80 taels of silver per month, and the clerk was 50 taels of silver per month.

From the consumption level of the Ming Dynasty, this is quite high.

Calculated in this way, the Ming court needs to pay the officials every year, which is equivalent to 90 million taels of silver.

This is not counting the expenses of the 200,000 people of the Zheng family's army.

Such a court will definitely be unbearable, although it can bear it after the great development in the future, but it cannot bear it under the current situation.

The Ministry of Officials took into account the actual difficulties, so adjusted the number of Yulu, according to the proportion of the composition of the Ming officials, greatly adjusted the five grades and the five grades below the official Lu, the five grades of officials are equivalent to three hundred taels of silver per month, from the fifth grade two hundred and sixty taels, from the sixth grade to two hundred taels per month, from the sixth grade to one hundred and eighty taels per month, from the seventh grade to one hundred and fifty taels per month, from the seventh grade to one hundred and thirty taels per month, from the eighth grade to one hundred taels per month, from the eighth grade to eighty taels per month, from the ninth grade to sixty taels per month, from the ninth grade to forty taels per month.

As for the officials, it has been lowered on a large scale.

The clerk is thirty taels of silver per month, the warden is twenty taels of silver per month, and the clerk is fifteen taels of silver per month.

After such adjustments, the amount of silver that the imperial court needed to pay dropped to more than 30 million taels of silver.

This amount is completely affordable.

Such an adjustment has sparked some controversy.

Although the storytelling office can get the Yulu every year, which is equivalent to one hundred and eighty taels of silver, this is different from the previous world, you must know that the Zhixian of the previous seven grades can get the Yulu every year, that is, about fifty taels to sixty taels of silver.

Everyone wants to be able to get more money, so that life at home will naturally be much better.

The Ministry of Officials obviously took this reason into account, and after formulating the rules, they made corresponding explanations in the early dynasties, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate also explained this, that is to say, after the officials got these money, they could fully meet the expenses of living, and their lives were much better than ordinary people.

The court council also held several debates, and finally agreed to the plan put forward by the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Households, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

There is only one key problem, that is, the development of the south and the north is unbalanced, and the taxation is naturally different, for example, in the south of Yingtian Province, Zhejiang Province and Fujian Province, the tax income is very high, these places are developed in commerce and trade, and the local officials are also working a lot, on the other hand, in the north, the difference is far away, even if it is slightly better Shaanxi, there is no comparison with many provinces in the south.

If Yulu is completely unified, the vast majority of officials in the south will not be convinced.

To solve this problem, Zheng Xunrui said an opinion in the early dynasty, that is, according to the different situations of the provincial capitals, prefectures and counties, the household department at the end of each year, to give a certain reward, the so-called reward is actually the household department to return to the provinces of tax income, this part of the income, in addition to maintaining the daily expenses of the provincial capital, state and county, can also be used to reward officials at all levels, where the income is small, the officials will naturally not get the reward.

In this way, the income level will be opened, but this grade will not be too large, because the tax income returned by the household department is limited, at most about 20% of the tax income.

After the decree was issued to various places, the officials were basically calm.

This point again surprised Zheng Xunrui's expectations, and it took him a long time before he understood, compared with before, the officials' income has undergone earth-shaking changes, although for some officials who are greedy for ink, these incomes are nothing, but for the vast majority of officials who want to do things and are unwilling to be greedy for ink, such income is enough to maintain dignity and let their families live a decent life, taking Jiangning County as an example, from the eighth grade of the main book, the annual income is equivalent to nine hundred and sixty taels of silver, Combined with the reward at the end of the year, which was about 150 taels of silver, the total income was equivalent to 1,110 taels of silver, which was enough to maintain the expenses of the large family and live a relatively prosperous life.

Such a rich life, there is no reason for officials not to cherish it, after all, the imperial history of the Metropolitan Procuratorate stationed in the provincial capital and prefecture is supervising all the time, if there is no matter of greed for ink, and the black gauze hat is dropped, then there is nothing, and you will have to carry a shameful reputation for the rest of your life, which is more important, everyone knows very well.

The emperor's adjustment of the officials' salaries also completely subverted the conventions of the Ming Dynasty for more than 300 years, so that many scholars, businessmen and ordinary people realized the importance of reading, and also gave the officials a real sense of pride.

Zheng Xunrui is more satisfied with this situation, he also knows that there are many shortcomings in high salaries, but in comparison, this is the best way, anyway, let officials at all levels have a strong sense of responsibility, let them cherish their positions, this is already very good, officials with relatively high salaries, to consider whether they are worthy of these salaries, to do things honestly, if because they can not do things well, or even greedy ink, lost this errand, Even going to prison is not worth it. (To be continued.) )