There was silence in the hall.
Suddenly, a voice exploded on the dragon seat.
"It's a good one who does not shy away from relatives! A good one treats each other with sincerity! A good one still lives in the imperial city, but has no idea what happened under the imperial city's roots! Good, very good!"
Emperor Jiacheng slapped his legs with his big palms and looked around at everyone with a sneer: "Tell me, are you worthy of my trust?!"
The eunuchs knelt down first, and then the ministers knelt down one by one.
"Your Majesty, this minister is ashamed." Yang Chonghua knelt in the front and prostrated on the ground: "This minister is the minister of the household, and this appalling thing happened next, and the minister is suspected of oversight."
Peng Junyi followed behind: "Your Majesty, the minister is guilty. The minister is busy with the cabinet, and some affairs of the household are watched by the minister. The matter of distributing salaries to officials was previously managed by the former right servant of the household, Lord Fang. , I really don't know."
"Master Fang? But Fang Anxian?" Emperor Jiacheng asked.
Peng Junyi said: "It is this person."
This Fang Anxian is not an unknown person either. Last year, he was involved in Wu Ge Lao's case, and Emperor Jiacheng was sentenced to exile for 3,000 miles despite his age.
If he had known about this, it is estimated that Emperor Jiacheng would have had the heart to kill him.
Now that people have been exiled, Dachang has not punished once for not understanding hatred and then punishing him again, so he can only let it go.
As for Fang Anxian, no one knows whether it has anything to do with this Lumi who is greedy. Now that people are not there, it has naturally become a headless koan.
In fact, we all know that things are not so simple. If it is just Fang Anxian, how can those low-level officials dare not speak out
But some things are well known, but they can't be said, including Xue Tingxiang, who doesn't seem to know the inside story.
"Your wife is also a good one. A country woman knows the suffering of the common people, and officials cannot make money from the common people. Don't those corrupt officials and beetles know this principle? Even a woman is not as good as a woman. What's the use of you!"
"Your Majesty, rest your anger."
Emperor Jiacheng scolded a few words, probably because of what Xue Tingxiang said before, he did not chase after him as hard as before.
At this time, Xue Tingxiang said again: "I still have something to report."
Hearing that there is still something to play, Yang Chonghua and Peng Junyi's eyebrows immediately jumped.
"you say."
"There is another reason why the minister chooses the Tailong ticket number to pay the salary. The ticket number is originally for the exchange business of various places. They have semicolons everywhere. The court escorts the tax and silver to Beijing every year. It is completely possible to exchange money through the ticket number. In this way, it not only saves manpower and material resources for the court, but also avoids the loss of fire and consumption.”
Hearing the word Huo Consumption, all the officials in the hall jumped up in fear.
This fellow is so daring, he dares to use fire.
The so-called fire consumption, as the name implies, refers to the consumption of the silver when the court collects tax silver, because the silver paid by the people is all pieces, and these pieces of silver are melted and cast into silver ingots.
In fact, it is still related to taxation. Taxation in the past dynasties has been a big problem for the court.
As for how to collect and collect taxes, it is constantly changing according to the current situation. Just take the former dynasty as an example. At first, the former dynasty only accepted food, not silver. Later, the chief assistant named Zhang Juzheng implemented the method of a whip and instead charged taxes and silver.
In this way, it can save the cost of transportation and storage, and can avoid the disadvantages of eroding the distribution without the person who is the chief of Baojia's grain.
Although the method is good, it still has drawbacks, and this method was eventually abandoned.
When it came to Dachang, Dachang followed the previous dynasty, still mainly grain and millet, and occasionally silver. And the money handed over needs to be cast into silver ingots by the county yamen from all over the country, in order to escort Shangjing.
The melting of the broken silver will inevitably lead to losses, which cannot be borne by local officials themselves, so they are apportioned to the common people.
That is to say, in addition to paying their own taxes, the common people also need to pay a certain percentage of extra money, and some even charge 20% to 30% more, which naturally fills the pockets of corrupt officials.
The so-called three-year Qing Dynasty prefecture, 100,000 snowflake silver, most of these 100,000 snowflake silver were born on this fire.
This is also one of the reasons why the taxation of grain is lowered every year. The people can only get the money by paying the tax and silver. The county officials and prefects below naturally want the people to pay the silver.
Emperor Jiacheng was not ignorant of this matter, so after he ascended the throne, he proposed the method of returning the fire to the public. It is a pity that the treasury was so poor at that time that even if Emperor Jiacheng wanted to be generous, he could not be generous.
So it can only be over.
In the past two years, Emperor Jiacheng has also mentioned this matter, but unfortunately it has been blocked. If Xue Tingxiang's words can come true, this is a good way to benefit the country and the people.
"Is what Xue Aiqing said true? Then I don't understand it. This waste of money is an unavoidable loss. If you hand over the broken silver to the Tailong ticket, the Tailong ticket will use its own method to escort the capital and exchange it. Could it be this fire? Can't they bear the cost themselves?"
"This—" Xue Tingyan paused, looked around at the elders with a smile, and then lowered his eyes again and said, "Go back to Your Majesty, the ticket number is for the transaction of Tongdu, and naturally there is a way to reduce the loss of fire consumption to The lowest. As for that small loss, all businessmen in the world are proud of being an imperial merchant, and being able to do things for the imperial court is the highest honor, and naturally they will not care about these things."
As he spoke, he showed a look of shame: "It's also because of the favoritism of Wei Chen that he would say these words shamelessly."
By this time and place, the cabinet ministers didn't know what to say.
As the superiors, this matter of burning down has little to do with them, even if the people below make money, it is filial piety to go to the peak. But whether there is fire consumption, the one who should be honored is still honoring, and there will be no loss.
Now it was obvious that Xue Tingxiang had come prepared, and Emperor Jiacheng was handing a ladder on it. Naturally, it was one thing that could be avoided.
You must know that the cabinet today is not as monolithic as before. Even if it is really arguing to block it, whether it can be successful or not is still a matter of choice.
If he is willing to offend all officials, let him offend, and one day he will be himself. Some people can't help but think so maliciously.
But now, no one has the previous thought to underestimate this young man.
At a young age, he is not bad in his poses and mental skills. It seems that Wu Yong's defeat in his hands was not what many people thought before, and it all depended on luck.
"... After May, there should be a group of tax and silver escorts to go to Beijing. This matter will be handed over to you, and you will have full overall planning and assistance from the Ministry of Households. Don't let me down..."
Everyone here has their own thoughts, and the two rulers and ministers over there have already discussed this matter.
Hearing what Emperor Jiacheng said, the ministers all smiled bitterly in their hearts. Even if they wanted to object, it didn't give them a chance.
"I still have something to say."
"Anything else? Say it."
"Your Majesty loves the people like sons, the people are the people, and the officials are also the people. Officials have meager salaries, and they have to maintain their dignity as officials. In those days, the ministers were sent out as county officials, and they were able to provide food, clothing, housing, and transportation. Other than the supply, you have to bear it yourself. Don't be afraid of Your Majesty's joke, when I first arrived in Dinghai, I was told by Zhuojing that my salary was not enough to hire a master. Therefore, the minister asked Your Majesty to increase the salary of the officials."
"Add salary?" Emperor Jiacheng murmured, meaning unknown.
The following officials looked at each other in dismay and continued to remain silent.
"Your Majesty, if the salary is not enough to support the family, I can understand a little bit of greed for ink, but if the salary is enough, it is still greedy, then..."
Xue Tingxiang didn't finish the rest of the words, but Emperor Jiacheng's eyes brightened.
He pondered for a while: "It's not too early, you all have official duties, and this matter will be discussed in the morning tomorrow. You can all retire."
After respectfully saluting Emperor Jiacheng, these high-ranking officials filed out.
No one walked with Xue Tingxiang, so Mao Wenhao was not far behind him.
When he was about to reach the palace gate, Mao Wenhao took a few steps: "Master Xue, you have hurt the old man."
Where does this saying come from
But after the previous episode, Xue Tingxiang also saw that Mao Wenhao was a wonderful person. Then he smiled and said, "Master Mao should be grateful to this official."
"Why should the old man be grateful to you?"
"Master Mao should be grateful to this official for fulfilling your loyalty to the king." After saying that, Xue Tingxiang laughed and left.
Leaving Mao Wenhao staring blankly at his back, he couldn't return to his senses.
The next morning, we discussed this matter.
It was also the intention of Emperor Jiacheng that he did not mention what happened in the Qianqing Palace yesterday, but only said that the officials would be paid more.
People in the world who don't like yellow and white things, or the court to give them a salary, are naturally happy.
Regarding this matter, Baiguan, you and I discussed each and every word, and everyone was elated, and they did not forget to sing praises to Emperor Jiacheng. Several officials present at the Qianqing Palace yesterday all looked at these idiots who fell into the pit without realizing it with pity.
At this time, Xue Tingxiang proposed various ways to increase salary.
For example, the original salary can be increased according to the local price, and the standard of increase for each grade varies. The salary of Beijing officials is higher than that of foreign officials of the same rank, but local officials have subsidies such as chariots and horses. The Ministry of Personnel conducts performance appraisals for officials every year, and different amounts of awards can be set according to the performance appraisals.
There are also high-ranking officials, especially local officials, such as governors, governors, and inspectors, who can set up a certain amount of money to keep them clean. The amount of money for keeping clean silver varies, according to their official position, abolishing bad rules, the court sends money to support officials, and puts an end to scraping from the common people, etc.
This new law has attracted a lot of heated discussions.
If this law can really be implemented, all officials will benefit. In particular, the so-called "honoring silver" can actually reach dozens and hundreds of times the original salary.
Everyone knows that embezzling money will be dismissed from office and beheaded. If the court is willing to subsidize officials, probably no one will take the risk to embezzle.
Of course, in addition to the law of increasing salary, severe punishment and heavy punishment were also imposed on the removal of bad regulations. Once caught accepting bribes, they are not tolerant.
It took five or six days to discuss this matter, and it was finally settled.
Afterwards, Emperor Jiacheng sent the matter to the Ministry of Household, asking them to formulate an exact charter, which was then notified to the world through the imperial decree of the cabinet.
At the same time, the change in the escort of tax and silver also informed Baiguan, and the fire consumption is naturally gone.
But for some reason, the courtiers have some voices of opposition, but these voices are not loud. Maybe this is the so-called cannibalism and short-handedness
Emperor Jiacheng had just increased the salary of the people below, and he had added a lot, so he was naturally embarrassed to oppose him.
I have to say, this was a pleasant surprise. At least this was done more simply than Xue Tingxiang imagined.
Of course, it's not that he didn't get benefits, just take the Tailong ticket number as an example. Because now he is doing the job of issuing official salaries on behalf of the imperial court, and also undertaking the errand of escorting tax and silver to Beijing for various prefectures, states and counties.
That's all, just exchange the tax and silver for the imperial court, and the convoys and fleets of the Tailong ticket number will pass through various places, which is a convenient door.
"Do you know what kind of treatment Beijing is on the ship of water transport? Everywhere along the canal, all the boats retreated, and no one can stop them." After finally resting for a day, Xue Tingxiang started to talk to Zhao'er again about this.
"Then I have to thank you. What benefits do you want? Master Xue is also a second-rank officer. Little girls are too few to do anything, and many are incapable." Zhao'er smiled and rolled her eyes: "That's it, From now on, I will give you an extra 100 taels of silver every month, and it will be a reward."