I'm really not King Jing of Zhongshan

Chapter 445
When Chen Jian suggested 'to build prestige by killing people through sacrifice', Liu Sheng certainly refused.

However, anti-corruption and anti-corruption have never been a simple problem that can be completely solved by the upper and lower lip service.

——You must know that in future generations, even trivial matters such as elementary school students copying homework are repeated deadlocks;
If you want to solve the problem of official corruption at the root, it is the same as stopping students from copying homework at the root: blocking is worse than sparse.

In short, instead of giving a strong order 'No copying of homework! ''No corruption allowed! ’, it’s better to calm down and think about it: What is the reason why students would rather copy than do their own homework, and officials would rather be corrupt than be honest and do their duty.

In the final analysis, it is actually very simple: some students copy homework, the teacher can classify it as "poor learning ability leads to insufficient learning level, under the objective condition trend of being unable to complete the homework alone, they have no choice but to find another way to complete the homework Task'.

The same is true for official corruption: a few officials are corrupt, aside from human greed, it is more likely that the inherent salaries of officials can no longer meet the daily needs of officials, and they are forced to help out due to the pressure of survival.

There is a saying that Chen Jian hit on the point.

——From the reign of Emperor Taizu Gao to the present, the salaries of officials have not been changed, but the price of food has become more and more peaceful as the world has become more peaceful. It has dropped from thousands of dollars per stone at the beginning of the founding of the country to fifty dollars per stone today.

There has also been news in the market: today Zisheng is already planning to further reduce the price of grain in Guanzhong to the upper limit of 45 yuan per stone.

According to this trend, it may only be ten or twenty years before the price of grain falls below 20 yuan, or even [-] yuan.

Then, through an extremely simple arithmetic problem, we can understand how serious the problem Chen Jian mentioned is.

Take the prime minister as an example;
As the head of a hundred bureaucrats who are extremely courteous and avoid Taoism, the prime minister eats ten thousand stones, but his actual salary is four thousand stones;
According to the regulations of "official salary, half money, half salary" formulated by Emperor Taizu Gao, it is two thousand shi of corn and copper coins matching the value of two thousand shi of grain.

At the beginning of the founding of the country, the Han family had 600 yuan of rice and stone, and the prime minister's salary alone was [-] shi of corn worth [-] yuan per shi, plus copper coins that could buy [-] shi of corn, that is, [-] million yuan. .

With 600 million copper coins and 600 shi of corn worth [-] million yuan, even if the prime minister at that time did not rely on the output of the food town of Chehou feudal state, he could still achieve the achievement of "accumulating billions of dollars" through his annual salary.

From a practical point of view, two thousand shi of corn is definitely enough for the daily consumption needs of the prime minister's family, as well as the side branches, old tribes, and even the family's servants;
The remaining 600 million copper coins are enough for the prime minister to obtain the wealth that matches his status-wealth under one person and over ten thousand people.

What now?
Fifty coins for rice and stone, still the same prime minister, still with ten thousand stones in rank and ten thousand stones, and four thousand stones in real salary. Compared with the beginning of the founding of the country, his annual income has undergone earth-shaking changes.

——Two thousand stones of grain, but now the price is only one hundred thousand yuan!

Compared with the 600 million yuan when the country was founded, it can be said that a fraction is not even a fraction!

Even if the food can still be used to feed the family, servants, etc., the copper coins obtained are only [-] yuan per year.

What is the concept of one hundred thousand dollars?
According to Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, one hundred thousand yuan is the entire wealth of a middle-class family;

In the words of peasant households, one hundred thousand dollars can buy three to five acres of land near Chang'an to prepare the next ancestral property for their descendants, or buy a dozen or twenty acres of land in a remote place in Guanzhong, so that someone Since then, the son has the foundation of his life.

But for the prime minister, is one hundred thousand dollars really that much?

The second-generation dandies in Chang'an City just want to say: One hundred thousand yuan is only ten gold, let alone a good horse, you can't even buy a decent servant!

In the past few years, "officials do not count on their salary to live" has already become a consensus inside and outside the court.

——If there is a feudal state, then rely on the tax generated by the feudal state~
Even if he is just a little Chehou in a city of thousands of households, he can still earn tens of thousands of shi of grain tax revenue every year, which is fully [-] times that of the prime minister!
If there are thousands of households, or even tens of thousands of households, they don't need to care about their salary at all, whether they are punished by the emperor's clever name.

The Marquis of Qianhu, the food city, is already very small~
A marquis of this level, unless his personal ability is really outstanding, like Zhang Cang, the Marquis of Beiping during the reign of Emperor Taizong, otherwise, he cannot get involved in the position of public minister!

Even the official position of two thousand stones can't be obtained, and the rent and tax of the feudal state are two and a half times that of the prime minister's salary. How can this be said?
As for the prime minister, he is a marquis with three to five thousand households at every turn, and the rent and tax of the state is often more than ten times that of his salary;
As the prime minister, who would care about those two thousand shi of corn and one hundred thousand copper coins?

After understanding all these things, and then looking at the disadvantage pointed out by Chen Jian, it will be clear at a glance.

——There is only one prime minister of the Han family...

Under the circumstances that the Taiwei is not permanent and the rank of the censor is two thousand shi, the prime minister is the only high-ranking official who has reached the level of "eating ten thousand stones and real salary four thousand shi" in the whole world.

This is the only case, absolutely no second person can be found!

What about those who are not prime ministers?
The censor doctor and Jiuqing included two thousand shi, the actual annual salary was 160 shi, the grain was [-] shi, and the copper coins were [-] shi;

The real two thousand stones of the princes, kings and concubines as the main body, the actual annual salary is [-] stones, the grain is [-] stones, and the copper coins are [-] yuan;

The two thousand shi represented by the prefect of the county had an actual annual salary of 440 shi, 720 shi of grain and [-] copper coins;

The captain of the county, the general of Zhonglang, and the doctor of Guanglu are more than two thousand shi, the actual annual salary is [-] shi, the grain is [-] shi, and the copper coins are [-] shi.

Then there are county magistrates with thousands of shi and six hundred shi, chief officials with [-] shi and [-] shi, even small officials with a hundred shi, and "unranked" non-staff personnel below [-] shi...

——Not everyone can have an annual salary of four thousand shi like the prime minister;
Even the hurdle of 'more than a thousand stones' can overcome [-]% of the bureaucratic group of the Han family.

What about these people?
There is no actual salary of more than 1000 shi and [-] shi, let alone thousands of households or even thousands of Chehou feudal state food towns, petty officials who can only live on hundreds of shi, corn, and three to five thousand copper coins—— What can the 'majority' of the bureaucracy do?
In the county government, he is an official position of two hundred shi, and he is in charge of an independent department of the county government alone, so he is considered a decent person;
As a result, the annual salary of corn and rice is only one hundred shi, which is not even enough to feed a family of five!

The [-] copper coins I got, I have to use part of it to buy food to supplement the family, not to mention, it also needs to be used for greetings, interpersonal communication, maintenance of contacts, as well as firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea within the family...
It is no exaggeration to say that the situation facing the Han Dynasty today is exactly the same as the situation in the Hongwu period of the Sun and Moon Dynasty thousands of years later.

——Unless there is a mine at home, the official must be greedy!

——If you don’t get greedy, you can’t live!

Similar examples have been seen frequently in Chang'an courts in the past few years.

First, Zhang Shizhi, a court officer during Emperor Taizong Xiaowen's period, was not reused in his early years because of his business background. He served as a Lang Guan at Shangshutai for more than ten consecutive years, responsible for sorting out documents, and wasting time.

Zhang Shizhi already conceived the idea of ​​resigning from office and returning to his hometown before being recommended by Yuan An at the time.

Regarding the fact that he was about to resign from office and return to his hometown, Zhang Shizhi gave the reason that he had been in office for a long time and his production was reduced.

——Jiuan reduced the production of Zhongzhong.

——Being an official for a long time has caused my brother to shrink his property in order to support me as an official in Chang'an.

In addition to Zhang Shizhi's well-known phrase of "long-term eunuchs and less production", of course there is also the old prime minister who had a clean hand in the former emperor's period: the old Anzhen Wuhou Shen Tujia.

For this old prime minister, before Liu Sheng established a master-student relationship with him, there were mixed reviews in the market.

Some people say that Shen Tujia is nothing but incorruptible, and even a scum who would rather neglect government affairs for the sake of the reputation of being "clean and incorruptible" and to cherish his own feathers;
Some people also said that Shen Tujia forgot his duty as a servant, relying on himself as the founder of the country and Taizu's entourage, he relied on the old to sell the old, and wantonly oppressed the descendants of the Taizu Gao Emperor.

But after Shen Tujia passed away, no one spoke ill of the old prime minister anymore.

Even without Liu Sheng, no one would speak ill of Shen Tujia.

Because after Shen Tujia died of illness, Chang'an Chaotang was surprised to find out under Liu Sheng's deliberate guidance: the majestic prime minister had sat in the prime minister's position for more than ten years, but at the end of the day, his son was asked to borrow money everywhere , in order to barely handle the afterlife.

Although to a certain extent, this is also related to the prevalence of thick burials in the Han Dynasty today, but it is true that a person who has been in the position of prime minister for more than ten years can't even manage his own future generations with the wealth he has accumulated. It's a bit appalling.

Knowing this, and looking back at the endless corruption of officials, the situation becomes much clearer.

—Of course there are bad guys.

——Of course there are people who are greedy and greedy for the sake of greed.

But the vast majority of people are unable to resist the temptation because they are forced to live without guarantee.

Just imagine: you are an official with a rank of 360 shi, with an annual salary of 750 shi, and your monthly salary is [-] shi of corn, plus [-] qian;

You have an old mother, a lovely wife, and three sons and daughters, a total of eight people in your family;

There is enough food, although there are eight people, but the sons are still young, and the appetite is far less than that of adults.

It's the monthly salary of [-] yuan, which really makes you a little anxious.

Sometimes, it is the old mother who has a sore back and legs, and has to go to the pharmacy in the county to get medicine;
Sometimes, it is the wife who complains that it has been half a month and she has not smelled meat from the food.

What's more terrible is: as a county magistrate at the [-]-shi level and a figure in the core circle of the county leadership, you really have a lot of contacts;
You have to attend the weddings and funerals of the people above;

The people below have personal affairs, so you have to show it.

During the holidays, I have to give some wine, meat and silk to my direct descendants, so that I can continue to draw the big cake of "I will treat you well in the future".

Your salary has long been insufficient, and the old man even has to curse and subsidize you from time to time.

At this moment, a rich man approached you and asked you to do a small favor.

This favor is so small that you don't have to do anything, just don't express any opinions when the county government initiates a discussion on a certain matter.

In short: keep your mouth shut during the course of a meeting.

You only need to be quiet for a while, and your harvest is your salary for several years, even ten or decades.

You, will you agree?

Would you be willing to use "basically not talking for an hour" in exchange for a huge fortune that can greatly improve the family situation, and even no longer need to worry about money...

"With regard to the widespread practice of bribery and bribery, I think that the actions of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen back then were actually reasonable."

"—Promote the honesty."

"It was only in the past that Emperor Taizong Xiaowen gave Zhang Wu the 'Nursing Lianjin' after he was prosecuted for accepting bribes, so that this behavior has changed a bit."

"And after Zhang Wu, no one has ever received a pension."

After a long time of thinking, Liu Sheng finally made up his mind to reveal his long-planned plan.

"What I mean is to reduce the life pressure of officials by increasing their salaries, so as to prevent some honest officials who have no intention of accepting bribes from accepting bribes because of their livelihood."

"The general charter is the method of distributing salaries. From the previous half of the grain and half of the money, to all of the money."

"—Anyway, with the money, the officials can also buy food by themselves. With the presence of Captain Zhi Su, there will be no situation where the price of food is surging, and the situation of being unable to buy food even if you have money."

···
"Secondly, the standard for the payment of officials' salaries is set as the actual salary of each stone in the past, which is converted into one hundred coins."

"That is: the prime minister's salary is ten thousand stones, but the actual salary is four thousand stones, which is converted to 40 yuan."

"Doctor Yushi, and the two thousand stones in the middle and nine ministers, the actual salary is 160 stones, which is converted into 21 yuan."

"In this way, even if food prices continue to fall steadily in the future, officials' salaries will not drop along with the price of food, causing life to become more difficult."

···
"In addition to the fixed salary, according to the situation, money can be transferred from the Shaofu's internal funds to give a low-income person."

"Similarly calculated based on the actual salary, every stone of the actual salary will be given [-] qian per year to support Lianjin."

"In this way, the salary has been doubled, and there is also a maintenance fund from the emperor. If there are still people who embezzle and accept bribes, and fall into the dignity of our Han officials, the Tingwei can take them."

"—Even if you take my royal gift to support you, and dare to embezzle and accept bribes, that is disrespectful!"

"With such deterrence, the current trend of corruption and bribery in my Han family can be alleviated to a considerable extent?"

"What do you guys think???"

(End of this chapter)