"Speaker Ni, things are actually very clear, aren't they? In the previous dynasty, although there were only more than 10 official officials in a county, in fact, the number of various supernumeraries and helpers was quite large. It is true that the Ming Dynasty is not responsible for the welfare of these people, but what do you think these people rely on to support their families and even make a fortune? ”

"These people, with the tacit consent of the imperial court, earned their income by levying all kinds of fire consumption surpluses, as well as all kinds of silver, fees, levies, and so on. Because the imperial court does not pay money, it is tacitly accepted that these people set up a name to collect all kinds of fees, and even all kinds of extortion, such as those who guard the prison, they rely on extorting money from prisoners, and some officials specialize in eating money from lawsuits, and the plaintiff eats the defendant after eating. ”

In short, it is true that the imperial court does not bear much expenditure on officials, but in fact, in the late Ming Dynasty, there were at least four or five hundred thousand officials in the country, and these people did not take the imperial court, but they were still supported by the people. Even because there was no control from the imperial court, they arbitrarily fished the people, resulting in an increased burden on the people. In particular, the imperial court did not directly recruit and manage these guards, resulting in a mixture of local officials, good and bad. ”

"In our Han Dynasty, the imperial court directly set the officials as civil servants, who were selected and appointed by the imperial court through a unified examination, and paid salaries. The local officials were uniformly managed and audited by the imperial court, which ensured the character and ability of the officials. The officials were paid directly by the imperial court, and with strict local supervision, there would be no officials who extorted the common people from fishermen, nor would they disrupt the market and undermine commercial development. There is also less corruption, and there is less tax evasion. ”

"Compared with the good local environment of the imperial court and the guarantee of taxation, the salaries of these officials paid by the imperial court are actually nothing. This is the same as doing business, how can you become bigger and stronger without investing capital? Without a team of excellent and sophisticated officials, how can we manage and develop the place well? ”

"Again. Speaker Ni thinks that the imperial court should also have only more than 20,000 officials in the whole country, and then 100,000 people in a county, but only four or five officials, and a few officials are enough? ”

Ni Yuanlu was asked a little unanswerable.

Xu officials have a bad reputation since ancient times, saying that Xu officials are as slippery as oil, controlling the locality, corrupt and corrupt, fish and meat the place, and being a traitor to make it bad, in fact, a big reason is that the court has a laissez-faire attitude towards the officials. From recruitment and selection to appointment management. Even the distribution of money is a confused account.

The imperial court only thought about not spending money, but did not want the consequences of doing so.

Even in the early days, many officials and others were still a kind of service, and the common people took turns to serve. After the Ming Dynasty arrived in the Middle and Ming Dynasty, after a whip law, this service was exempted, and it was changed to the people to pay the silver, and the government paid the silver to hire people to serve. But there is very little silver for food. Most people only have six taels of silver a year, and they have to be deducted, what can this silver do?

However, many officials and officials will have a little power in their hands. The natural result is that these people will monetize the rent-seeking power in their hands.

And in fact, the cost is much larger.

It's just that on the surface, the imperial court has not contributed money. But in fact, the burden was all passed on to the people. It also led to chaos in the administration of local officials and tensions between the government and the people.

The tax rate in the Ming Dynasty was extremely low on the surface. But in fact. There is a problem with the tax system, the rich often do not pay taxes by borrowing various privileges, but the poor have to do nothing less, and they also have to bear all kinds of corruption and punishment by local officials.

Moreover, often the tax is still of a joint nature, and if the neighbor flees the famine, his tax has to be shared with the people who plan it. The imperial court collected taxes, but it didn't care about anything, just to support the royal court and hundreds of officials, and to raise a soldier and have to levy more money at every turn.

In such a situation, in fact, the burden of the people of the Ming Dynasty was extremely heavy, and it can even be said that it was very heavy in all dynasties.

In contrast, during the Song Dynasty, although there were many taxes of all kinds, and the imperial court also had problems such as redundant officials and redundant soldiers, in fact, the burden of the people, especially the burden of ordinary people, was definitely lighter than that of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

For example, the Ming Dynasty could only collect a small amount of regular taxes a year, but in fact, their regular taxes were only used to support the royal court and hundreds of officials, and they would neither engage in public services, develop education and medical care, nor engage in water conservancy facilities, and even rarely seek disaster relief and famine. Even the army does not raise, solve it yourself.

In the later battalion system, the annual military expenditure was basically additional.

The taxes collected by the imperial court have no place to share. Where does the money come from, such as the local administrative expenses, the salaries of the officials, etc.? In addition to the regular tax, an additional tax is levied from the people.

Therefore, it shows that the tax of the generation is light, but it is only light on the surface, but in fact, all kinds of additional taxes, various additional taxes, etc., have already exceeded the regular tax by a lot.

The 200 million yuan of official expenditure items of the Han Dynasty not only include 200,000 civil officials, 150,000 military attachés, and 850,000 officials, but also 300,000 teachers, as well as a large number of medical personnel in public hospitals and health centers, as well as personnel in the establishment of state-owned enterprises. As for the salaries of hundreds of thousands of non-commissioned officers and soldiers, they are listed in the major item of military spending.

Among the major items of administrative expenditure, there are also administrative expenses of various yamen, such as the construction and maintenance of the yamen, food expenses, entertainment expenses, travel expenses and horses, office supplies expenses, etc.

This budget table has a detailed classification of projects, and there are many small items under each major item, and the estimated expenditure of each project is listed in great detail.

The budget table is very good for national defense and military spending, administrative spending, education spending, health and medical spending, public service construction spending, transportation spending, and so on.

However, Ni Yuanlu refuses to admit defeat, and if he really wants to pick a bone in the egg, he can always find a problem.

He looked down and thought for a moment, then finally found a question.

"For places where there is a need, it is naturally no problem to set up corresponding officials, but there are still many overlapping official positions and a large number of personnel. For example, now the administrative divisions of the imperial court are mainly at the four levels of provincial capitals, counties and townships, and there are districts above the provinces, and there are governors to lead the military and political affairs of several provinces, which is no problem. However, there is still a provincial level between the province and the government, especially this road, and there are various provinces such as guarding, patrolling, military garrison, grain road, tea road, salt road, river road, etc., which were originally set up in the Ming Dynasty and were administrative institutions sent by the governor. ”

"I think. In this dynasty, there is no need for an organization at the level of Dao. Just as the state was abolished before the dynasty, it is completely possible to revoke the Tao as well. Provincial capitals and counties are completely sufficient, there are many names in this province, and there is no need for overlapping powers, and the responsibilities of each province are handed over to each province. But if you cancel it, you can save a lot of money. ”

The Tao is not a local government nature. It is a derivative of the provincial administrative body, which is in charge of a certain affairs, such as rivers, grain roads, tea roads, salt roads, military roads, and so on.

Liu Jun smiled slightly when he heard it, and Ni Yuanlu really said a useful suggestion. In fact, Liu Jun was already preparing to remove all kinds of Dao in the country, Daotai and the Governor were both temporary dispatch agencies in the Ming Dynasty, the Governor was temporarily dispatched by the central court, and the Daotai was sent by the Governor to be in charge of a special type of affairs.

But by now, the governor of Dahan has become a permanent governor. There are also special district-level administrative units, although there are no corresponding sets of offices, but they are in charge of the military and political affairs of several provinces, as well as the nature of the governor and the governor of one province. As a result, the position of governor has become an important part of the Han official system and division.

But the Tao and the Tao platform are a bit chicken. The governor is now the head of the military and government of a province, the province of Buzheng is the head of the administration, and the provinces are the provinces. There is no need to set up a road in between. Because the provincial and government levels are relatively stable, there is no need for those temporary dispatch agencies, after all, the Han Dynasty is no longer the chaotic period of the late Ming Dynasty.

Liu Jun has already planned to start the complete removal of the Dao and Dao platforms.

Ni Yuanlu is still there. "I don't think there is any need to set up at the township level, all dynasties and dynasties have been the imperial power not to go to the countryside, and it is good to have the township old clan autonomy. There are more than 1,000 counties and 4,500 townships in Dahan, and there are now 20 or 30 officials in each township; if the township level is abolished, the number of officials will be reduced by no less than 100,000, and how much state financial expenditure will have to be saved? ”

Liu Jun shook his head, Ni Yuanlu's eyelids were still too shallow.

The imperial power did not go to the countryside, it was just the extensive management of the past dynasties. But now that productivity has risen dramatically, the requirements for management are getting higher and higher. The officials of the imperial court could no longer be left alone, but had to actively participate in local affairs. If the township-level institutions are abolished, it will certainly do more harm than good.

Liu Jun will definitely not change this.

In fact, in Liu Jun's view, the imperial court manages the world, just like farmers farming. In the past, there were many people and little land, and the production level was not high, so it could only be managed extensively and harvest thin seeds. One person planted one or two hundred acres, even if one acre only harvested a few buckets, it was still a good harvest.

But now, especially in the south of the Yangtze River, there are more people and less land, and no matter how extensive management is, there will be less harvest. Therefore, we began to intensively cultivate, the new agricultural tools to plough the land less, the purchase of bean cake and so on as agricultural fertilizer, supplemented by manure, plant ash, pond mud, etc., plus rotation planting and other methods, make full use of the soil, and even after the field has fertilizer, you can also plant two seasons, and even two seasons of rice can also be planted season beans or rape.

Even if a farmer only cultivates five or six acres of land, his income may exceed that of one or two hundred acres of extensive cultivation. The same is true of the imperial court's governance of the world, and now the productivity has risen, the population has increased, and the economic form is no longer a single agricultural model, but a diversified model.

This placed more demands on the officials of the imperial court, requiring them to play a greater role in management and guidance.

In the past, officials were always equivalent to the proprietor, or the major shareholder behind the scenes, and their role was to collect some taxes, and basically didn't care much about the rest, and they didn't care. Writing poems and reading books every day, and even visiting the mountains and rivers, it is very good to have a person who knows how to relieve himself when he encounters a famine, and knows how to try some grievances, and he can be shouted by the people.

And now the officials of Dahan, Liu Jun hopes that they are all general managers, branch managers, and business managers, hoping that they can understand the market, know the relationship between supply and demand, and be able to go down to the front line of the market.

Such officials are what Liu Jun needs, not a group of officials who can't even collect taxes well.

Millions of officials and civil servants, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and dozens of teachers, doctors, etc., the Han Empire ate imperial grain, and the number of people who relied on financial support may reach two or three million.

The country has a population of 300 million, and 3 million people are provided by the government, 100 to 1.

Maybe people in this era will be extremely shocked, but Liu Jun feels that this number is acceptable. Compared with later generations, it has reached eighteen to one, and the ratio of pure officials and citizens can reach one to twenty-eight.

The key is not the number of officials, but the level of management of this contingent of officials. For them to play their full role, there must be a sound supervisory team.

Although today's cabinet dispute is a bit like child's play, it is still very commendable in some aspects. (To be continued.) )