Lu Peng's thoughts were understood and followed by all people.

After ten days of thunderous rectification, the centurion was corrected on the spot, and the little official who took a bribe of 1,000 yuan, although he was also a disabled soldier of the Lu family's army, still had a meritorious hero with a military merit medal.

After getting this result, Lu Peng felt very distressed, so he deliberately met this hero in the lobby of Lu County.

At the time of the meeting, all the civil and military forces were gathered again.

When this man limped and was escorted to the court by several officials, Lu Peng stood up according to his own rules and gave a fist salute to this brother with a military merit medal. When he was about to kneel, Lu Hanqiang grabbed him: "According to my original regulations, anyone who has a military merit medal will not bow to anyone in our group and accept everyone's courtesy." ”

So in the lobby, all the civil ministers and military generals respectfully saluted this former hero, and this brother accepted it calmly.

Lu Peng took a step forward: "Because your behavior has failed our ideals and beliefs and tarnished this military medal, so I now decide to withdraw my commendation for you and my meritorious commendation for you." Then, with a painful face, he took off the military medal on the man's chest.

Then he said bitterly: "I hope you can understand now that even if you have great merit, in my place, there is no such thing as merit for merit, you have merit, you should enjoy the respect and glory brought by your merit, but if you break the law, you must bear the punishment of the law you have violated, do you understand this?" ”

This man, who had no military merit medal, burst into tears and knelt down to Lu Peng: "I have failed the lord's kindness to me, and I regret it now, but I want to say to the lord, in fact, I was also forced to be helpless." ”

In Lu Peng's opinion, this is a kind of justification for criminals, all criminals think that the reason why they commit crimes is because they have one reason or another, and they are all forced to do so, but what about the reality? The devil knows how far-fetched and selfish his reasons are.

However, out of respect for the original hero, Lu Peng still wanted to hear how he defended, although no amount of sophistry he could change his crime.

"Lord, when I was in the first battle of Zhaojiabao, I was injured and awarded, because I was disabled, I can no longer fight for the lord! So I was released to the place, and I thanked the lord for his kindness to us disabled people and gave me the position of a Yancheng minister, but do you know? There are five people in my family, and my money is not enough to support my family. ”

"Sophistry." Lu Peng asked angrily: "According to the rules of our base area, your family of five, each of whom has four acres of self-reserved land, and can also contract land in addition, is the land rent I stipulate very high?" ”

This man kowtowed to Lu Peng: "The lord's policy will definitely make the people in the base area cheer and rejoice, but do you know? My family of five, at that time, I was the only strong laborer, my parents, younger brother and sister, the old and the young, had no ability to cultivate the land that grace gave us for themselves, let alone the contracted land, and you look at me, now I am disabled, and I have to work day and night for our government, how can I cultivate the land? ”

Lu Peng was choked up, and when he formulated the policy, he really didn't expect this situation.

"You are a salt factory official, don't you have a salary? Isn't this salary enough for you to support your family? ”

The man replied in the affirmative: "No." ”

Lu Peng looked at Mi Zhu suspiciously, and Mi Zhu nodded affirmatively: "According to the bureaucratic system of the Han Dynasty, there are no officials who have a small official, and the wages of these small officials are paid out of their own pockets. But here, officials are not allowed to support their subordinates privately, so pay these small officials. However, according to the rules and conventions, how can the salary of the petty officials be higher than that of the chief officer? Therefore, these servants are not as well paid as a worker. If this brother's position is followed, his salary will never be able to support his father, mother, and siblings who are unable to work. ”

Lu Peng opened his mouth, but was finally speechless.

Yes, Mi Zhu is right, from the day when there were officials in China, only officials had a salary, but there were no small officials, and the small officials were all hired by the officials, which were hired by the officials themselves, including officials at all levels.

But how much is the official's salary? For example, according to the current Han regulations, the county order is 800 stone a year, that is to say, a year's salary is equivalent to 120,000 yuan.

If they want to make a living, they must be greedy for ink, and if lower-level officials want to make a living, they must use the rights given by the government to openly extort the people and openly be greedy for ink, otherwise they can't survive, which is why the real Qing officials of all dynasties can't even afford a coffin after death.

Therefore, in that era, if you want to be an official and be leisurely and decent, one must be wealthy, the other must be black-hearted, and the other must be from a poor family, and if you are not ruthless, the only ending is starvation.

Corruption, in fact, is also forced out, of course, I am not overturning the case for corrupt officials, this is a fact, of course, the officials of later generations have a salary income above the average salary, which can only make us fart people hold back the average salary.

Here, although Lu Peng gave the small officials and the village chief Li Zheng a salary, and did not need the county order to get a private salary, but as Mi Zhu said, their income could not be higher than the county order according to common sense. This is not in line with common sense, this is why this man can't support his family with a fortune, which is why Wang Dong always hides behind everyone when everyone is in a meeting, because his official uniform is now full of holes and has lost his dignity.

This is a real thing, but it can't be violated and hidden, killing a veteran who is greedy for ink and bribery, in fact, only plays a deterrent role, but this deterrent effect will be pale and powerless in the face of not starving to death! To solve the fundamental problem, it is still the question of improving the treatment of these officials, even petty officials.

Otherwise, even in later generations, like Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty, gave low-cost money to officials at all levels, and killed countless officials every year, he did not hesitate to peel off the skin and grass, and stood in front of the yamen to set an example, but when he finally died, he still had to lament that corrupt officials were really inexhaustible and killed.

(End of chapter)