"Master Li, this is nothing, what is the most important thing to be a human being? The first is to talk about righteousness! The second is to live with a clear conscience! If someone makes trouble in front of my godsister's spirit, and I don't dare to let out a fart, then what kind of person have I become? I'm going to feel guilty for this for the rest of my life! Even if I endure my anger in the future, and survive to the high-ranking officials of the various ministries you mentioned, is this matter different to suppress my reputation and my heart? So what is my life drawing? Can you be happy? Being an official is a practice, self-cultivation, if you can be, if you can't, let's go home! Wei Bao laughed.

Wei Bao was a bunch of officials, and Li Limin, who listened to it, agreed with it and said with emotion: "What Master Wei said is good, once upon a time, I was as young and vigorous as Lord Wei, but once you have a family and children, you will be afraid, you have to get by, and it will not be easy to mix a family wife and be peaceful." ”

"Yes, what Master Li said, I can also understand, it is impossible for everyone to be like me." Wei Bao laughed.

"Master Wei, tell me the truth, do you regret it? You not only beat those officials in Donglin, but also those officials in Wei's father-in-law, and they are all high-ranking officials, and they will not be treated well on both sides in the future, and you will not regret it later? Li Limin looked at Wei Bao expectantly, and wanted to hear the word regret from Wei Bao's mouth, which would prove that his set of shrunken turtle official ways is far better than Wei Bao's set of what follows his heart, as if practicing the general way of being an official.

Wei Bao smiled: "What do you regret?" As long as it is something that I think is wrong, I don't care if he is from Donglin or from Gonggong Wei, I will fight one, come two, I will fight a pair, we just need to be reasonable in everything! What do you say? ”

Li Limin smiled, secretly thinking that you are a cow, you are still stunned, sooner or later, you will regret it.

However, Li Limin really admires Wei Bao's intelligence, in his opinion, Wei Bao can be a high school student at the age of 15, which is unique in the history of the Ming Dynasty! He is only a third-class fellow jinshi, and he can always mix in the officialdom of the capital, and he is also a complex yamen mixed up like the Metropolitan Procuratorate, he is already very satisfied.

"Okay, okay, drink." Li Limin knew that no matter what he said, Wei Bao couldn't change his mind, so he simply didn't say anything.

Although he has a good impression of Wei Bao, after all, it has nothing to do with him, everyone has their own way of living, and he feels in his heart that Wei Bao must be about to make a big mistake, but he no longer persuades him.

The two drank for more than an hour before leaving the restaurant.

I didn't drink much, I was slightly drunk, and I could go to the yamen.

Fortunately, the yamen of the Metropolitan Procuratorate usually has nothing to do, it is very lax, and it is nothing to drink a little wine.

Li Limin didn't seem to have enough conversations with Wei Bao, and Wei Bao invited Li Limin to go to the prison of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to continue chatting, and Li Limin readily agreed.

When Li Limin passed by the gate of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, he greeted the doorman and said that if there was something, he would ask people to go to the back prison to find him.

The doorman agreed to please, reassuring Lord Li.

Not to mention units like the Metropolitan Procuratorate, in Daming, there doesn't seem to be a very nervous unit.

The Zhu Babaka officials have a very low salary, which can almost be said to be the lowest in all generations, but they do not grasp labor discipline very tightly.

Even military units are like this, armaments are abolished, military discipline is lax, every time there is a war, there are still temporary recruits, millions of troops are raised, and not many people can pull out a war.

This is also the strange place of the Ming Dynasty.

Why is the Ming Dynasty's income so low, but there are still so many people who want to be officials?

Wei Bao thought about this question, but he didn't understand it, and talked to Li Limin.

Li Limin smiled slightly, "Master Wei, I am so old and you are so old, I kindly advise you." ”

"Master Li, please speak." Wei Bao said hurriedly.

"Don't be uncomfortable with others, if you can endure it, we will be officials, mainly for the peace of the wife, for the sake of a stable life for the family, it is important to get money, what do you say?" Li Limin said with a smile.

Although Wei Bao was most disgusted with this kind of person, he pretended to be aware and said with a smile: "Lord Li is high-minded! ”

Li Limin smiled, "It's easy to do it if you can listen to it." ”

"But our silver is so low, how can we make silver?" Wei Bao asked.

Li Limin smiled and said, "Cheng, brother, I'll give you a rough talk about making money." ”

Because of relying on various ways to exploit legal loopholes or direct illegality, the actual "income" of Ming Dynasty officials was not low, and it was twice as much as the statutory officials, and this long-standing officialdom disease soaked into the marrow of Ming Dynasty politics for a hundred years, and eventually became a major reason for the collapse of the Ming Dynasty's ruling machine.

Taizu's prescription for the officials of the Ming Dynasty is indeed pitiful, and the Qing Dynasty's "History of the Ming Dynasty" directly set the tone: "Since ancient times, the officials have been so thin, and there has never been such a thing." ”

In fact, compared with the price at that time, the official salary finally determined in the late Hongwu period was not low, and Wang Qiong, a person in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, said: "At the beginning of the country, the hundred officials were given ...... Enough to hook up the incorruptibility". But the problem is that the treatment of Yulu formulated during the Hongwu period was set as a "permanent system" by the Ming Dynasty, and after the Ming Dynasty became its own and Hong, the level of economic development and price level have been different from what they used to be.

What's even more pitiful is that the officials of the Ming Dynasty have been divided into two parts: true color and folded color since Yongle.

At the beginning of the country, Yulu was paid according to the grain in kind, but the problem was that the battle of Jingyan wiped out the treasury, and Chengzu was very worried about the grain storage after he ascended the throne, so the court ordered: "The world's warehouse grain should be frugal for national use." Everywhere is the official and the old full rice, the middle half of the rice banknote should be ......"

Since then, the Ming Dynasty officials' fortunes have been divided into true colors and folded colors. The true color is that it is still distributed according to the grain of rice and grain, and later it is also used as cloth and other things; Folding color is to fold a part of the Yulu into silver and treasure money, and in the early Ming Dynasty, silver was used to pay very little.

Generally speaking, the true color can still be distributed as usual and truthfully, but the problem lies in the folding color. The number of folds is strictly stipulated at the end of the fourth year of Jianwen in accordance with the "Grain and Rice Banknotes", although there have been changes in later generations, but the magnitude is not large.

You must know that the rate of rising grain prices in the Ming Dynasty was not low, after Zhengjia, the price of rice continued to rise, and even if the same money arrived in the Chenghua Dynasty, at best, it could only buy a small part of the rated rice.

What's even worse is that the issuance of the Daming treasure banknotes was extremely unsuccessful, and soon it was a pile of waste paper, and the treasure banknotes issued to officials could not buy anything.

When it came to Jingtai, there was no choice but to fold the colored money that should have been folded into treasure banknotes and then converted into silver for distribution.

At the beginning of the Jiajing Dynasty, everything except for moon rice was distributed in silver. Tossed back and forth a few times in the middle, and the amount of money that the officials could actually get in their hands did not meet the pitiful value that was stipulated.

Even at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, when the rule of officials was clarified, the people of the Ming Dynasty were already complaining about the low level of income.

Since then, the officials of the Ming Dynasty have complained endlessly about the pity of the dynasty, such as Yu Shenxingge of the Wanli Dynasty, who actually looked up to the sky and sighed that the officials of the Ming Dynasty were not as good as the small court of the Northern Han Dynasty: "To the Northern Han Dynasty, Liu Chong founded the country with Taiyuan, and the prime minister stopped the law of the month of 100 yuan, and the festival degree made 30 yuan, which was too small compared to the end of the Tang Dynasty." It is the prosperity of today's unification, and the prime minister's monthly salary is still not half like this, so the modern salary can be described as the thinnest. ”

The salary is too low, but the officials have to support their families, socialize up and down, and maintain pomp.

Especially in the late Ming Dynasty, the whole society was intoxicated with the glitz and glitz of consumerism.

For example, Wei Bao invited Li Limin's guest today, but he didn't spend much saliva, because this is a common phenomenon, and everyone is like this.

It's just that Wei Bao's pomp and circumstance scared Li Limin, and that was because Wei Bao was used to spending it like this.

No matter how big Daming's expenses are, they can't be as big as Wei Bao.

Although the officials of the Ming Dynasty did not have such a large expenditure as Wei Bao, after a month, the personal expenses of normal officials were five taels to 10 taels of silver, and they could not escape.

This is far from matching their salary, not to mention that everyone has a big family behind them to spend their expenses.

Ming officials gave full play to their collective wisdom and developed an endless stream of means of accumulating wealth.

Their five main ways are begging and rewarding, occupying land and collecting rent, evading taxes, embezzlement and bribery, and using power to do business.

In fact, rewards are only a drop in the bucket, and it is not common to use power to do business, and corruption and bribery are serious violations of the law after all, and there is a risk of imprisonment or even loss of head at any time.

The most important thing is that there are two major ways to occupy land with tax avoidance as the support point, and regular money.

With these two means, the real income of the Ming bureaucracy was extremely considerable.

The bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty had the privilege of tax exemption, so after the Zhongjin Shi was appointed as an official, a large number of people would come to donate land, and the bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty were also veterans of land annexation, so the land rent income obtained was enough for most bureaucrats to have food and clothing.

Of course, this is also an act that harms the country and benefits oneself, but if corruption is a complete black income, "regular money" is a veritable gray income.

The common practice is also to loot the people's fat and ointment, which is also illegal income, but it is the income that the Ming Dynasty knows from top to bottom, and everyone takes money. Although the common practice is not legal, it has been practiced for a long time and has formed an unspoken rule in the operation of the state apparatus.

Whoever rejects the norm, such as Hai Jui, will be seen as a sign of non-compliance with the rules of the game.

The Ming Dynasty's common practice was permeated with its evil from the prefecture to the cabinet, but its deep roots grew at the lowest level of the imperial ruling apparatus - the Xu officials.

The basic operation of the government of the Ming Dynasty was in the hands of the officials, especially the Qian Gu, which was most closely related to the people, and was often in the hands of the officials.

These officials have no hope of rising, so they naturally rely on the power in their hands to wantonly seek rent, and the people may face the consequences of ruining their families if they do not obey the slightest.

Therefore, the looted people's fat and people's ointment, in fact, advanced to the waist of the officials in the first layer, and many scholars and servants made a lot of money.

Although the officials can be powerful and beneficial to the ordinary people, they are like an ant in front of their top bosses, state and county officials. Leave your own share, and the bigger one will be dedicated to the lord of Zhizhou County.

Hai Rui, who refused to accept the usual practice in Chun'an Zhi County, recorded in detail the list of common practices that the old men of Chun'an County should receive: one hundred and sixty taels of summer silk silver. Taifu is counted, and it is up to the person to accept it. Twenty taels of silver for the autumn grain. Four taels of grain and silver. Ten taels of silk and silver. Ten taels of silver for salt and grain. Eight horses of summer silk. Taifu is counted, and it is up to the person to accept it. Four horses of mulberry-like silk. Taifu is counted, and it is up to the person to accept it. Qing military craftsmen have one tael of silver per mile. Judging the Jiading Tian one tael of silver per mile. Straight day in the long beginning of the day to change the word next to a pair of outside, white rice one stone or five buckets, eighty miles are the same. The trial is equal to one tael of silver per mile. After every 100 taels of silver for each 100 taels of salt, it is about 50,000 cents per year. Taifu is counted, and it is up to the person to accept it. For every 100 taels of silver, about 7,000 taels per year. There are a hundred lacquers, and the Taifu is counted, and it is up to the people to accept it. Firewood Martin's house fire, two taels for every tael. The peasants were fined two pieces of paper and five dollars in silver. The government fined two knives of paper and eight coins of silver. The officials allocated four knives of penalty paper and paid one or two or six coins of silver. Whether it is in the person or not. Collect all kinds of money and grain, and take five taels for every hundred taels. The yellow book is made of two taels of silver per mile. Urging nails is one tael of silver per mile. Each stone of rice is worth one tael of silver. Go out straight and long supply and store money and favor satin.

In just a Zhengqipin Zhi County, the regular income of a year can reach more than 2,700 taels of silver, which is almost ten times the annual income of Zhengyipin.

Although the types and quantities of common practice vary from state to county, the proportion of shoppers is equally striking.

Chun'an is still a small county in the mountains, and if you go to a rich place, the county lord's routine is even more terrifying.

For example, in Huating County, Songjiang Prefecture, there are more than 2,000 taels of standing cases that the county directly asks for a year, and the county magistrates "need to ask for regular routines, fire consumption, social feeding, and the official books and soaps of the various yamen of a government, pointing out that they are strange goods, and they are often asking for it, and if they are unsatisfactory, they are angry and angry", which is equivalent to directly extorting the regular practice from the officials.

This is exactly the intensification of forcing the officials to knock on the bones and suck the marrow, and drive the people to a dead end.

The state and county Suoxu officials, the government road Suozhou County, the governor, the second division of the Suofu Road, layer by layer.

Whether a magistrate is promoted or not depends on the face of his superiors, so this is a huge amount of money.

However, when the magistrates were happy to collect black money at the first level, a large part of it had to flow to the Beijing officials.

The magistrates of the Ming Dynasty had a variety of endless means of collecting money, so they all made a lot of money.

Although the status of Beijing officials is high, there is not much oil and water, so it is inevitable that they will be poor. Therefore, he attached great importance to the filial piety of the magistrates, and even blatantly asked the magistrates for common practice.

If the magistrate has help in Beijing, the promotion will be much smoother, because in this regard, every time he enters Beijing, the magistrate will inevitably "pay for the official in Beijing".

Not only those middle- and lower-level Beijing officials who completely rely on external filial piety, otherwise they can only drink the northwest wind, even if they are officials in the ministries and courts, they can't cherish their feathers.

During the Jiajing period, Zhang Zhangge, who was known for his incorruptibility, said bluntly: "It is difficult for those who have aspirations to obey the ministers, and those who have no ambitions are ordered to listen, and the ministries and courts are the treasury of the cabinet." Today's superintendent, Bao Tho Gongxing, known as the norm, is not stubborn, tranquil, is the superintendent and the treasury of the ministry! ”

Even the Taoist officials, who are responsible for the supervision of the purge, are not merciless when they take up the common practice.

From top to bottom, the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty is as natural as breathing with regular money.

In fact, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was also well aware of the existence of common practices, and Shenzong also strictly ordered officials not to overcollect common practices in water conservancy projects.

But in the face of the deep-rooted habits of the entire bureaucratic system, the emperor's few strict decrees were only as pale as a passing cloud.

After all, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty did not have the courage of Zhu Yuanzhang to kill all the corrupt officials and corrupt officials.

Moreover, even Comrade Zhu Baba did not stop corruption.

If you want to stop the common practice, do you want the emperor to start using the guillotine one by one from the cabinet princes around him?

The bureaucratic system was a very failed case of the top-level system design of the Ming Dynasty, and it was precisely because of the difficulty of maintaining a normal life that it existed in the entire bureaucratic ranks, rather than being limited to individual departments, and made a whole set of systemic corruption systems that were effective from top to bottom.

The regular routine soon became an ineradicable tumor in the bureaucratic machine of the Ming Dynasty.

Even if the emperor and a few people of insight realized the enormous harm that this phenomenon could cause, they were powerless to overthrow the entire bureaucratic system from the roots, let alone risk losing the trust of the entire bureaucratic system.

As Xie Zhaoqian said: "At the beginning of Shangguan's tenure, there must be a prohibition, which is called passing." Xu Cao attacked the old routine to bully the officials, and the officials pretended to shake the brush to deceive the people. As for the prohibition of counseling, the prohibition of feeding, the prohibition of joints, the prohibition of private worship, the prohibition of common practice, the prohibition of greeting and sending, the prohibition of luxury, and the prohibition of left and right servitude, but they are all self-prohibited and self-inflicted, and they are all ordered to change at night. ”

Everyone understands that the norm cannot be abolished.

And the development of the common practice has intensified, to the point that there is no money to do at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Under the effect of this comprehensive institutional corruption, how can the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty talk about integrity?

How can the ruling apparatus not develop hopelessly?

With such a huge income from drought and flood, how can it not attract groups of aspiring people to go forward and succeed them?

"So, Master Wei, you got Tanhualang, and you are so young, honestly shrink your head in Beijing, wait for five years and ten years, and then strive to get a prefect of a rich land, with your wealth Master Wei, you will not be able to rise step by step in a few years and return to the capital, when the time comes, you will not be an ordinary person." The future is immeasurable, Lord Wei. Li Limin said that he was thirsty, took a sip of tea, and looked at Wei Bao with a mentor-like demeanor.

Everyone has a good time to be a teacher, Li Limin is no exception, he feels that what he said to Wei Bao today is enough for Wei Bao to be used for a lifetime, and he is quite proud.

Wei Bao smiled slightly, what Li Limin said, in fact, he knew it, but that was by no means the officialdom route he wanted to take, if it was just a corpse vegetarian meal, trying his best to scavenge the people's fat and people's cream, he would look down on himself, because he didn't have to do that, and he could still live a good life in this era.

"Thank you, Lord Li, for mentioning it!" Wei Bao didn't think so in his heart, but he was still very polite on his lips.

Li Limin smiled and nodded: "Don't make trouble again during this time, this is a place where no one comes, it is the most suitable place to hide and relax, and spend time here, of course, you can invite your brother and me to drink more when you have time." ”

"Definitely! Certain! Wei Bao smiled, secretly wondering what is the use of inviting you to drink? It's a waste of effort, please drink, I might as well throw you some silver for a while, you will be even happier.

Just when Wei Bao and Li Limin were having a good conversation, the Metropolitan Procuratorate Prison actually came.

There were a lot of people coming, which is a rare thing.

The cell boss Lao Du saw that the superintendent Yu Shi Rong Zhengyu took several officials to escort a female prisoner with a black cloth on her head, sneakily got down from the two carriages, and hurriedly greeted her.

Rong Zhengyu is not an ordinary imperial history, the imperial history only has seven grades, and Wei Bao and Li Limin are of the same grade.

But this Rong Zhengyu's father is a big man, called Rong Keqin, who is the imperial history of the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and is a high-ranking official of the second grade!

Rong Keqin was also one of the high-ranking officials who was violently beaten by Wei Bao a few days ago.

"Hello Rong-sama, what is this?" Lao Du asked.

"This is an important offender! Look, this person has me personally interrogated, and no one is allowed to approach her, do you hear? Rong Zhengyu said, patting Lao Du the shoulder, "Something went wrong, your whole family has to be careful!" ”

Lao Du was taken aback, although in a year, it is rare for a few people to be detained in the prison of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, but it is not nothing, but there are people who have been imprisoned in the future, but they have never threatened them like this?

"Lord Rong, don't you scare me Lao Hancheng? The old man is timid. Lao Du smiled bitterly: "Lord Rong, where do we dare to neglect the errand you explained?" ”

Rong Zhengyu snorted arrogantly, "It's good to know!" Bring it in! ”

"Yes, yes." Lao Du hurriedly beckoned, and two jailers came up, one on the left and one on the right, holding the sturdy female prisoner who was tied, and the female prisoner was still wearing a black hood on her head, and she couldn't make a sound, and it was estimated that her mouth was gagged.

Rong Zhengyu handed over the female prisoner to Lao Du, but he didn't mean to leave, but followed Lao Du into the prison of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Lao Du felt more and more that this female prisoner must be very important, and Rong Zhengyu was willing to leave only after seeing the female prisoner being placed.

"Lord Rong, please rest assured, I will put this prisoner on death row, and no one will be allowed to see him!" Lao Du flattered.

Rong Zhengyu nodded with satisfaction, "Except for me, no one is allowed to contact it!" ”

At this time, Wei Bao and Li Limin heard the movement outside in the errand room.

Wei Bao came out to see, Li Limin took a look, and saw that it was Rong Zhengyu who had taken someone to prisoner, and wanted to pull Wei Bao back, but Rong Zhengyu had already seen it.

Moreover, Wei Bao has no intention of going back.

Wei Bao originally came to the Metropolitan Procuratorate to watch the government, and finally had a 'business' come to the door, just when he was interested, where would he go?

"Yo, isn't this Rong-sama?" Li Limin saw that he had already met Rong Zhengyu, and took the initiative to greet him.

Rong Zhengyu glanced at Li Limin and Wei Bao indifferently, frowned and said, "It's Lord Li, who is this?" ”

"Oh, this is Lord Wei sent by the Hanlin Academy to our Imperial Court, and Lord Wei is a new science detective." Li Limin hurriedly introduced Wei Bao and introduced Rong Zhengyu to Wei Bao: "This is Lord Rong, supervising the imperial history, Lord Rong is amazing, young and promising, and the pillar of our Metropolitan Procuratorate." ”

Wei Bao hurriedly arched his hand and said, "Hello Lord Rong!" ”

"Lord Wei? There are not many people with the surname Wei, are you the Wei Bao who went crazy in the palace a few days ago and beat many high-ranking officials? Rong Zhengyu suddenly remembered something.