My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 440: A speck of dust in heaven collapses the mountains on earth
Ever since Liu Rong proposed to reform the existing system of dukes and ministers of the Han Dynasty, there has been an inexplicable sense of unease both inside and outside the court.

Especially when Liu Rong clearly stated that the Nei Shi and Shao Fu, the two representative departments among the Nine Ministers, should be split into at least two or three parts respectively, all the Nine Ministers and their affiliated offices inside and outside the court were in a state of panic.

Even the Shaofu and Neishi will be stabbed!
What about us?

But today, when the "gate" was finally dropped and the reform plan for the duke and ministerial levels was officially approved, all the dukes and ministers in the court breathed a sigh of relief for some unknown reason, feeling a long-lost sense of ease.

no way;
——The most frightening thing is never the knife that has already cut into your body.

Instead, it was suspended in mid-air, aimed precisely at the neck. The knife was bound to fall, but it never did, and no one knew when it would fall.

This is why the greatest fear comes from the unknown.

During this period of time, the Nine Ministers had matters to report to the yamen, and from the Nine Ministers themselves, who were paid 2,000 shi (a salary of 1,000 stones), to the grassroots officials at the levels of 400 shi, 200 shi, and even 100 shi, all were shaken by the fear of the unknown.

Everyone is worried;

They were worried that their subordinate offices would be dismantled or even directly abolished.

As for themselves, they will either follow the dismantled departments and be assigned to a relatively worse department;
Or they will be laid off naturally when the department is abolished.

The most optimistic scenario is what is happening to the officials who originally worked in the Dianke Yamen at present.

——Originally he was doing well in the Nine Ministers’ Office;
Even though Dianke is a Nine Ministers with little presence, he is still a Nine Ministers after all!

Being an official in the court and directly under the jurisdiction of the Nine Ministers, you can feel more confident when going on blind dates!
it's good now.

The Dianke is no longer one of the Nine Ministers.

All the officials who originally belonged to the Dianke Yamen were no longer officials of the "Nine Ministers" mentioned by Liu Rong, but officials of an independent department other than the Nine Ministers.

The most terrifying thing is that there are many differences and distinctions between the Nine Ministers Department and the Non-Nine Ministers Department.

The most typical example is Dian Keqing himself, who was demoted from the original Nine Ministers and Middle Two Thousand Stones to Non-Nine Ministers and True Two Thousand Stones;
The top leader has been demoted one level, what about the people under him?
The super high-end deputies that originally belonged exclusively to the Nine Ministers and the Middle Two Thousand Stones: the two Dianzue Chengs with the rank of Thousand Stones, naturally had to be downgraded to less than Thousand Stones, and the number of two had to be reduced to one.

The chief officer is really a 2,000-stone official, and the deputy officer is even more than a 1,000-stone official~
Going further down, how could it be possible for a third person with a rank higher than Qianshi to appear?
It is no exaggeration to say that after the entire yamen was downgraded and kicked out of the Nine Ministers, the Dianke Yamen would only have one Dianke official with a real rank of 2,000 stones and one Dianke Cheng with a rank lower than 1,000 stones in the future.

Going further down, there are six hundred stones, four hundred stones and even one hundred stones, arranged in order according to the pyramid structure.

To describe it in vivid and figurative language, this reform means that Dianke’s original pyramid-shaped power structure had a thick layer cut off at the bottom!
The middle 2,000-stone rank at the top became the real 2,000-stone rank;

The next level of two thousand stones became one thousand stones;

A thousand shi becomes six hundred shi, six hundred shi becomes four hundred shi, four hundred shi becomes one hundred shi…

It can be said that everyone has been demoted, or even eliminated through "optimization".

The most terrible thing is: in the future, you will no longer be a member of the Nine Ministers, and there won’t be as many vacancies as before in the Dianke Yamen!
Gongsun Kunxie was originally a middle 2,000-stone official, and in the future he could only be a true 2,000-stone official;
As for Gongsun Kunxie's original two deputies, the one who was luckier was demoted from a thousand stones to less than a thousand stones, but still served as the Minister of Rites.

The one with worse luck will be directly downgraded to the 600-stone level...

Further down - the dozen or so people who were originally above the 1,000-stone level, plus the unlucky Yuandian Kecheng, fell to the 600-stone level;
But sorry, Dianke is no longer one of the Nine Ministers.

Therefore, the number of positions at the 600-stone level must be reduced from the original dozens to less than ten.

Therefore, those who originally had 600 shi, no one can keep their rank - all will be demoted to 400 shi;

As for the dozen or so people who were demoted from the 1,000-stone level or lower, there are still a few who cannot even reach the 600-stone level.

Further down the line, the problem starts to become serious.

——The unfortunate Diankechen, whose salary was demoted from 1,000 dan to 600 dan, finally stopped falling further;

But among the dozen or so people who fell from the level of more than 1,000 stones, there were still a few who didn't even make it to the level of 600 stones, and continued to fall to the level of 400 stones.

As for the 400-stone level, there used to be hundreds or even tens of thousands of positions, but now there are only 30 to 50 left;

Several of these positions will be occupied by those who fell from Bi Qianshi.

But the number of people who dropped from the 600-stone level was still more than thirty or fifty!

So, continue to 'slide'.

The positions of 400 koku were all occupied by officials who had "slipped" from 1,000 koku and 600 koku, and there were still a dozen people who continued to "slip";
And the original 400 stones, without exception, fell to the 100 stone level...

The worst-officials were undoubtedly those who originally belonged to the lowest and most basic level of the Dianke clan, with a salary of 100 stones.

——The pressure from above was like a mountain, and the leaders were demoted to the grassroots level.
The original grassroots officials had no room for demotion or retreat, so naturally they were completely squeezed out.

Those who have some connections may be able to be demoted and transferred to other departments;

Those who don't have any connections can only consider themselves unlucky...

Therefore, during this period of time, the officials of the Nine Ministers' Offices have been so uneasy and nervous.

Because at this moment in Xuanshi Hall, everyone who participated in this court meeting knew very well: the content of this reform regarding the Dianke was just one sentence: "No longer a Nine Ministers, but a Two Thousand Officials";
But these ten words caused at least two-thirds of the positions in the Dianke Yamen to be filled, and the remaining one-third were demoted - most were demoted by one level, and a small number were demoted by two levels.

In extreme cases, it is possible that the level may be downgraded three levels in a row.

What does it mean to be demoted three levels in a row?
From a thousand stones to a hundred stones!
Hundred stones!

There is a saying in later generations that goes like this.

——If you want to know the negative effects of donating a bottle of blood on the body, you should type in the search engine: What are the harms of losing a bottle of blood to the body?
Same reason;
If you want to understand what it means to be reduced from 1,000 shi to 100 shi, the most intuitive way is to understand how difficult it is to be promoted from 100 shi to more than 1,000 shi.

So, what is the situation like for officials at the Baishi level?

Speaking of Baishi, we have to mention the current Han Dynasty, which has a relatively complete grassroots official system in the bureaucratic system inherited from the Qin Dynasty.

In later generations, people often found the term "unranked petty official" in documents related to the Qin and Han dynasties.

The meaning of "no rank" refers to officials below the rank of 100 stones, excluding officials with no formal rank or salary.

If you reach one hundred shi, you are ‘of rank’ – one hundred shi is your ‘rank’;
Having a "rank" means having a system, an identity, and a fixed salary.

The most important thing is: having an official seal and an official status.

On the contrary, those who have not reached the rank of 100 stones are "clerks" without a system, official status, or fixed salary.

To sum up, Baishi is the watershed between "officials" and "clerks".

If you reach 100 shi, then you are an official - even a small official is also an official.

If you can't reach 100 shi, then you are a clerk, and we can fire you whenever we want.

If anything goes wrong, the temporary worker who is pushed out to take the blame is you, the "unordered petty official".

There are a large number of such unranked petty officials at the grassroots level in the local areas of the Han Dynasty today.

For example, the logistical staff in the county and prefecture offices, such as grooms, cooks, and gatekeepers, were all in disarray;

For example, voluntary and compulsory posts outside the establishment that are not paid by the government, such as the three elders of the village and the head of the village, are also considered unranked.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, there was a pavilion every ten miles and ten pavilions formed a township, which is a grassroots structure that is familiar to people in later generations.

In the five-level administrative division of prefecture, county, township, pavilion and village, the lowest level of "li" does not have any officials with a rank of 100 stones or above. There are a few pavilions at the second level.

——For example, the pavilion chief is a gatekeeper at the 100-stone level;

In the third-level township, there are more officials of the hundred-stone rank - the tax collectors, the township stewards and the like, all of whom are of the hundred-stone rank.

At the fourth level, it is no exaggeration to say that more than 90% of the personnel in the vast majority of local county-level departments are grassroots officials at the Baishi level.

For example, the bailiffs patrolling the streets, the thieves apprehending the thieves;
For example, the clerks who record and the county soldiers who garrison.

Even some management positions, such as prison supervisors and clerks, may be at the 100-stone level.

The reason why it is possible but not certain is that counties in this era are also divided into large and small sizes.

It is just like in later generations, the administrative levels and specifications of prefecture-level cities and county-level cities are very different.

The sizes of large and small counties in this era were also very different.

——Now in the Han Dynasty, the chief official of a large county, that is, a county with a population of more than 10,000 households, is: the county magistrate;

The salary is 1,000 shi.

A small county, i.e. a county with a population of less than 10,000 households, has the following chief officials: the county magistrate;

The official salary was either four hundred or six hundred dan, depending on the number of households and population and the area of ​​land.

Obviously, in a large county controlled by a county magistrate at the thousand-stone level, the heads of departments such as the Prison Supervisor and the Personnel Department can reach the level of four hundred or even six hundred stones.

However, in those small counties where the chief official cannot be called the county magistrate but can only be called the county head - especially in the small counties controlled by the county head of the four hundred stone level, even the county head himself only has four hundred stones, and it is probably impossible to find a second official higher than the one hundred stone level.

From the above, it is not difficult to find that Baishi is the watershed from "official" to "official" in the Han Dynasty.

Knock on the door called 'officialdom', step in, and you will be a small shrimp of Baishi level.

As for outside the door?

That's not officialdom.

If you like, you can call it 'Lichang'.

It can also be called: the human world...

In other words, Baishi is the initial level of an official in his early stages.

This is similar to the civil servants in later generations who have just landed and started working and start as clerks.

So, what level is Bi Qianshi, which is three levels higher than Baishi?
It will not be difficult to understand if we give some of the most representative examples.

——In the highest-level department of the Han Dynasty today: the Prime Minister's Office, the top leader, the Prime Minister, has a rank of 10,000 stones;

The second in command, the Prime Minister Sizhi, was a 1,000-stone official;
The third in command, the Prime Minister’s Chief Secretary, is worth a thousand stones!
What kind of official is the Prime Minister's Chief Secretary?
To put it simply, of all the government affairs sent to the Prime Minister's Office, the Prime Minister himself only handles the most important parts.

The remaining trivial matters were handled by the Prime Minister's Chief Secretary.

In addition, major incidents that the prime minister personally resolved were only handled by the prime minister;
The person who actually does the work is also the Prime Minister's Chief Secretary.

Give another example.

The giant of the past, the true head of the Nine Ministers: Shaofu.

The top official is Shaofuqing, a middle-ranking official with a rank of 2,000 stones;

The second in command, Shaofucheng, is worth a thousand stones!

The second-in-command of the Shaofu, who is responsible for coordinating work with the Nine Ministers - especially the adjutant of a super high-ranking Nine Ministers like the Shaofu, is only worth a thousand stones!

Knowing this and looking back at the original question, everything becomes much simpler.

Original question: How difficult is it to upgrade from 100 shi to more than 1,000 shi?
After translation: How difficult is it to be promoted from a grassroots clerk or yamen runner in a local county government to the second-in-command of a department of the Nine Ministers in Chang'an, or the third-in-command of a yamen of the Three Officials?
The answer to this question is self-evident.

In the Han Dynasty today, there are at least 30,000 officials with a salary of 100 shi, if not 50,000.

But at least 70% of them will never be able to make any further progress in their lifetime and will be able to reach the 400-stone level.

There are only over 10,000 people at the 400-stone level, and less than 40% can be promoted to the 600-stone level...

There are more than 4,000 people with 600 shi, and only 1,000 people can be above 1,000 shi.
There are several hundred people who can produce more than a thousand stones.
But the number of people who can be ranked above 2,000 koku is no more than 200...

Time and again, thousands of troops have to cross the single-plank bridge - and even have to wait and see for experience before there is a very slim chance of breaking through the siege and rising to the top.

The most important thing is: in the Han Dynasty today, there may really be thousands of positions higher than the Qianshi level.

But don’t forget;

The officials in the Dianke Yamen are worth a thousand stones, but those in the nine ministries in the capital are worth a thousand stones!
There are so many special officials like Qianshi. Now in the Han Dynasty, including the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, plus the entire Chang'an City inside and outside - if you count them on your fingers, there are no more than fifty of them.

In the ranks of tens of thousands, or even tens of thousands of bureaucrats, they finally climbed up and secured one of the top fifty positions.

As a result, overnight, Dianke was no longer one of the Nine Ministers.

Not only are you no longer an official of the Nine Ministers Department, you are no longer even a Thousand Stones;

If it can be reduced to 600 shi, you are lucky. If it can be reduced to 400 shi, you are not terribly unlucky.

Because the truly unlucky people have returned to the pre-liberation era overnight and have been reduced to the 100-stone level...

Is it ridiculous?
100 shi - 400 shi - 600 shi - 1,000 shi, climbing up step by step, each level took at least five or six years of hard work;
Twenty years of hard work, plus a lot of luck - there just happened to be a vacancy, and it happened three times in a row, and you, the lucky guy, got it every time!

As a result, the court said a reform, and you worked for nothing all your life...

Being a guest in the yamen is really miserable.

But fortunately, only the guests in the yamen suffered.

The other subordinate offices are all okay.

Shaofu is still Shaofu;

Although the Neishi is no longer there, the Da Nong, which was split off from the reduced post, is still a department of the Nine Ministers and can still transfer the original Neishi staff over without any changes.

Although the Weiwei was no longer one of the Nine Ministers, he was not downgraded, but was incorporated into a separate military and political system, and still had the same level of treatment and specifications as the Zhong Erqianshi.

It can be said that everyone - except the people in the Dianke Yamen, everyone else breathed a sigh of relief on this day.

And then, there was a carnival.

——The new three dukes and nine ministers departments have been finalized.

But the head of the new department...

(End of this chapter)