Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 388 All officials received their salaries, and the Jiajing Dynasty was financially abundant!

June of the sixth year of Jiajing.

As the world became more extravagant, more officials were borrowing money. The imperial court also changed the grain transport system, which made the commercial prosperity of the capital directly related to the enthusiasm of southern merchants to transport grain, cloth and other materials to the north, which in turn affected the prices of grain, cloth and other commodities, as well as the official treasury income of supply and marketing shops.

Therefore, the court decided last year to pay the salaries of all officials every six months, instead of paying them all at the end of the year.

Therefore, although it was the hottest time of the year, because the officials in Beijing had to come to the Ministry of Revenue to collect their salaries, there were crowds of people outside the Ministry of Revenue early in the morning and a long queue formed, which did not lessen until noon.

"Ding Rukui, the Director of the Ministry of Rites!"

Ding Rukui looked at his neck and didn't know how long he had been waiting in line. Finally, when his clothes were almost soaked, he arrived at the place where he could receive his salary. He reported his name while sweating profusely, and then handed his official certificate to the official from the Ministry of Revenue who paid his salary.

The official in charge of distributing salaries from the Ministry of Revenue reported after looking at the official certificate: "Ding Rukui, the head of the Ministry of Revenue, has received his salary!"

Wang Tang, an official of the Ministry of Revenue, was responsible for the payment of salaries of the Ministry of Rites. He handed Ding Rukui's salary to him with an unhappy look on his face.

The Ministry of Revenue had already packed each official's salary in advance, and placed them in cloth bags printed with the Ministry's name and the salary amount.

Therefore, Wang Tang did not need to count and directly gave Ding Rukui the salary of the sixth rank official, and then asked him to sign the roster.

Ding Rukui saw that Wang Tang looked unhappy, and knew that it might be because of the recent reform of the civil service system by the imperial court, which had greatly affected the interests of officials like him who came from powerful families. Especially now that the emperor said that the country would have to increase the silver by tens of millions taels every year because of the silver mountain, he was afraid that he would be even more unhappy, and he knew that the day when the clerks would control the imperial court departments would not be far away.

Ding Rukui was a sensitive person with a strong sense of self-esteem. If others did not treat him well, he would not treat others well either. He even started to carefully calculate his salary and ignored the urging of the official who collected his salary behind him. He just took out the silver coins one by one under the scorching sun to settle the accounts.

"Why are there five silver dollars missing?"

"The receipt issued by your Ministry of Revenue clearly stated that I would receive a salary of fifty silver dollars plus a bonus this time."

"But now it's only forty-five!"

After Ding Rukui finished the settlement, he asked Mou Tailai, the doctor of the Ministry of Revenue who was in charge of distributing the salaries.

After hearing this, Mou Tai took the cloth bag of Ding Rukui's salary and began to count it carefully.

After counting, Mou Tai also found that there were only forty-five silver dollars, so he looked at Wang Tang: "What's going on?"

Wang Tang, a clerk from the Ministry of Revenue, was speechless and didn't know how to answer.

Because Ding Rukui settled the account in person, it was difficult for him to claim that Ding Rukui had hidden five silver dollars and then falsely accused the Ministry of Revenue of corruption.

Naturally, Mou Tai was unwilling to give face to Wang Tang because they belonged to the same government office.

Some officials who had just received their salaries also began to settle accounts after hearing this.

At one point, many people received the full amount of money, but two officials came over and said that they had also had three or five silver dollars withheld.

It turned out that this was a deliberate trick done by the officials of the Ministry of Revenue. They selected some middle and lower-level officials and appropriately deducted a few silver dollars from their salaries. They took advantage of the fact that many officials were careless and did not care about the amount of these silver dollars and did not settle them, or would not cash them out until they returned, in order to embezzle some of the official treasury into their own pockets.

In this way, even if some officials found out about it later, they could bribe the censors and ask them to say that these officials were falsely accusing the Ministry of Revenue and deliberately causing trouble.

Of course, if a careful official made a mistake during the face-to-face counting, the Ministry of Revenue would have an excuse, saying that the people below accidentally counted the wrong number, otherwise it would not be so random that only a small number of people made the mistake.

Moreover, in the past, when officials' salaries were paid, they were often insufficient and there were many types of salaries, such as sometimes using pepper, sumac, and cloth as compensation. Therefore, many officials were too lazy to check the calculations. In addition, embezzlement of official funds was a common phenomenon in the officialdom, and officials were basically too lazy to report it to each other. Reporting it would be a violation of the rules and would force others to take it seriously.

Naturally, shortchanging became a habit.

Officials from the Ministry of Revenue also continued to do so due to path dependence.

But after all, it is different now. Official salaries are all paid in the court's legal currency - silver dollars, and salaries are also set in silver dollars. It is easy to find out on the spot whether there is any deduction.

In addition, Ding Rukui happened to be a careful person, so he exposed the matter to his face.

"Minister Rong, I may have been careless and made a mistake!"

Wang Tang then apologized to Ding Rukui: "Please forgive me!" Ding Rukui sneered: "Is it really just carelessness?"

Wang Tang did not answer, but just lowered his head and pursed his lips tightly, hating Ding Rukui in his heart.

Mou Tai also hurriedly bowed to Ding Rukui and said, "Our Ministry of Revenue will make up for the salary right away. As for whether he was careless or deliberately embezzled the salary, our Ministry of Revenue will also report it to Your Majesty! Please allow us to pay out the salary first. After all, it's hot, and the people behind us may not be able to bear the heat if they wait too long."

After hearing this, Ding Rukui gave face to Mou Tai and walked aside. After the Ministry of Revenue paid his full salary, he signed and left with the salary.

At the same time, the Ministry of Revenue also supplemented the salaries of other officials who had not received their full salaries.

Although Ding Rukui did not care much about it, he still shouted to the officials in line after he came out: "When you receive your salary, please remember to count it carefully on the spot to prevent being underpaid. I just got shortchanged by five silver dollars!"

The officials who were still unaware of the situation started talking about it.

"Such a thing actually happened. Someone had reported it before. The Ministry of Revenue did not pay the full salary. But because it was not discovered until Guan took it home, the Ministry of Revenue evaded the issue."

"In this case, we should be more serious!"

Officials such as Wang Tang from the Ministry of Revenue could not help but frown.

Ding Rukui smiled proudly at this.

The heavy salary in his hand also made him even more proud.

The court can now pay the full salaries of all officials, and can pay them in two installments. This makes him realize that the national strength of the Ming Dynasty is indeed growing, and the prospects for officials like him who come from humble backgrounds will only get better and better.

Even now, people like them can support themselves with sufficient official salaries.

But he was not satisfied with this. He secretly thought that it would be better if the Ministry of Rites could provide housing and food for the officials in its own office like the Ministry of Personnel.

"Brother Da Zhang!"

When Ding Rukui came over with a cloth bag containing his salary, Weng Wanda, a Jinshi from the Ministry of Rites who was waiting in line, called out to him, took the fan on his forehead, folded it, and bowed to Ding Rukui.

Seeing this, Ding Rukui bowed and returned the greeting.

"What's that noise up ahead?"

"It shouldn't be that the salary is not enough, right?"

Weng Wanda asked.

He had heard from senior officials that before the Jiajing period, salaries were often not paid in full, and in many cases even the invoices or physical goods were not enough to pay, so he started asking about this.

Ding Rukui replied, "Of course not! Your Majesty governs the country well, and the treasury is abundant. There will only be more payouts, not shortages. It's just that some corrupt officials deliberately gave some people less payouts. Remember to count them on the spot later."

"I see."

"Thank you for reminding!"

"I just asked this on purpose to annoy those villains who don't really want the court to be revived."

"Just as Brother Da Zhang said, now that the country is prosperous and the people are safe, tens of millions of silver will soon be deposited into the treasury, so we will only issue more, and there will no longer be a shortage as in the past!"

"It can be said that a country has a wise ruler, which makes the world peaceful and makes the gentlemen happy and the villains upset!"

As Weng Wanda spoke, he looked at the officials around him who were sons of noble families and were glaring at him.

Ding Rukui also looked at these people and agreed with a smile: "That's right!"

(End of this chapter)