GBP Chapter 382 Should we go find the Prince Consort?
Chapter 382 Should we go find the Prince Consort?
Yang Shaofeng was quite unhappy that he failed to outmaneuver Zhu Chongba, and at best only managed to achieve a lose-lose situation.
As a magnanimous son-in-law, Yang Shaofeng could only vent his frustration on official duties and miscellaneous tasks after failing to successfully trick his father-in-law.
"I have some good news for you."
As Yang Shaofeng sipped his tea, he addressed all the clerks and servants of Ningyang County: “Starting from the first month of the fourth year of Hongwu, you have all been officially second-rate officials.”
"From now on, there will be no distinction between clerks, runners, yamen runners, and miscellaneous servants in Ningyang County. They will all be considered as unranked and will receive different salaries based on the different tasks they perform."
This brings us to a rather absurd concept.
There are always people complaining that the salaries Emperor Zhu paid to officials were too low, while the officials had too much work to do and had to pay for their own clerks, servants, and staff.
This kind of statement is like someone earning a monthly salary of three thousand yuan trying to sympathize with someone surnamed Ma who was punched by a financial institution. It's utter nonsense that can't be more absurd.
Officials were paid a salary and had official positions, while laborers performed corvée labor and did not have official positions. The former's salary was paid from taxes retained by local officials, while the latter either did not receive any money or received a portion of the money and grain from the county treasury.
If officials were to pay out of their own pockets to hire a large number of clerks and servants, let alone the fact that a county might need one or two hundred clerks and servants, would the officials be able to afford it? Even if they could, they would simply give up completely and would never pay out of their own pockets.
It could even be said that the imperial court stipulated that each county had a quota of one hundred yamen runners, but the officials actually only used eighty of them. The remaining twenty yamen runners were just nominal positions, and the money and grain saved went into the pockets of the officials.
As for situations where there is a genuine over-quota, for example, if the imperial court stipulates that a county has a quota of thirty yamen runners, but the county magistrate uses fifty yamen runners, no one really cares about the extra twenty, as long as the county treasury can afford it.
This is why, when the Imperial Inspector Shen Hao came to Ningyang to implement the "Four No's and Two Directs" policy, Wu Yanhu and Chen Mo dared to openly and frankly say that the number of officials and laborers was excessive and then complain about being poor in front of Shen Hao.
Yang Shaofeng glanced at the numerous clerks and servants and continued, "There is another piece of news that can be both good and bad: like other officials, you will also be assessed."
"Those who pass the assessment have the opportunity to be promoted; those who only pass the assessment remain the same; and those who only fail the assessment... will be dismissed and will not even be able to become a third-rate official."
At this point, Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but shake his head and sigh slightly, saying, "A bunch of scoundrels. When I asked you to study and learn to read, you all cried and screamed. Now let's see what you're going to do."
Then, Yang Shaofeng turned his gaze to Wu Yanhu, Chen Mo, and Lü Peng: "There is an even simpler piece of bad news: the three of you will have to write work reports and year-end summaries with the people in the sixth and third shifts from now on."
"Also, I will be unable to preside over the spring plowing on the second day of the second lunar month for the time being. The three of you will preside over it in my place."
"As for the prefectural examination, it will also be handled by the three of you. You three should discuss and see who should lead the students from Ningyang County to Jinan Prefecture to participate in the prefectural examination."
The mere mention of the prefectural examination made Yang Shaofeng want to curse again.
The students in Dengzhou had to take care of the prefectural examination themselves. What was even more infuriating was that the prefectural school in Dengzhou had not yet been built. Even if the students in Dengzhou passed the exam, they could only temporarily study at the county school in Penglai County.
There are also fruit tree saplings that Wang Guangyang and the Chang brothers helped to collect. When spring comes, people will be arranged to plant the saplings, and the spring plowing cannot be delayed because of planting the saplings.
Damn it, we'll deal with these trivial matters when we get back to Dengzhou. Anyway, there's a sub-prefect in Dengzhou Prefecture, and we'll have to use him when necessary.
Suppressing his displeasure, Yang Shaofeng continued, "There's another matter. The village schools that I reserved for them can now be built. In a few days, teachers will come to Ningyang County to serve as school teachers."
When talking about school teachers, one cannot help but mention Zhu Chongba, that old scoundrel, and Liu Bowen, that old scoundrel.
Just as Lao Deng disliked the scholars of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Bowen also disliked the scholars and students of Jiangnan.
The two unscrupulous emperor and his minister, after a brief discussion, decided to take advantage of the spring imperial examination in the fourth year of Hongwu's reign to abolish the academic titles of those scholars from the Yuan dynasty. All those who did not register for the examination and those who failed the examination were considered commoners.
There were definitely no preferential treatments; all preferential treatments such as tax exemption and corvée labor exemption were abolished.
The only way to be exempt from taxes and corvée labor was to retake the imperial examinations or become an official.
Of course, because there were too many scholars and gentry who wanted to become officials, it was impossible to become an official of the ninth rank or above. They could only consider those who were not even in the ranks.
If you really don't want to be a lowly, insignificant official, then shouldn't you consider being a teacher in a school?
Social studies is also a form of learning.
……
The famous, decadent writer Mr. Luan Tingshi once said: Most of those so-called fierce dogs are just bluffing by barking wildly; real vicious dogs usually don't bark before biting people.
Among the henchmen under Emperor Zhu, Yang Xian, who had already been killed, was the kind of fierce dog that bit people fiercely and barked loudly, while Xia Yu was the kind of vicious dog that killed silently.
Rumor has it that the screams in the prison of Yingtian Prefecture have never stopped since the first official was imprisoned there, and no official has ever been able to walk out of the prison on his own.
However, Xia Yu's interrogation was very effective.
The incidents of fire and water damage at the Dahewei, Changhuaiwei, and Wudewei garrisons were thoroughly investigated.
The cases of Qian Hegao, who stole money in Songjiang, and Dong Mantian, who gathered a crowd to rebel in Changsha Prefecture, were also thoroughly investigated. The officials who provided them with intelligence and money and food confessed everything, even those who could not withstand the torture.
The only thing that gave Xia Yu a headache was that no matter how he tortured or interrogated them, he still couldn't get any results from the investigation of the money, grain, and ironware that were covered up by the blank money and grain registers.
Of course, it's not that the investigation couldn't yield any results, but rather that the destinations of the salt, iron, money, and grain that those officials confessed to were far too complicated, to say the least, a thousand threads in a million, making it impossible to find a reliable direction for the investigation.
For example, County A used blank money and grain registers to cover up 100 jin of iron. The key point is that the process of covering up this 100 jin of iron will involve County B and County C, and later it may involve one or even two or three gentry.
If we were to investigate based on the confessions given by those officials and gentry, even using all the personnel in the entire inspection team wouldn't be enough.
Then, Xia Yu wondered if he should go find the Prince Consort.
After all, he had said before taking office that if he encountered any problems that he couldn't solve, he should go to Yang... he should go to the Prince Consort.