"Master, the examination room has been set up!" Liu Jin came to the edge of the throne and reported respectfully.

Zhu Youzhu looked at the household officials who had been kneeling for a long time, and then raised his hand to let them get through, and then said to the three heads of the household department: "Li Shangshu, Li Shilang and Ye Shilang, you are exempt from the test!" ”

"Thank you, Lord Ron!" Li Min found that Zhu Youzhu still saved some face for himself, and even thanked him.

The sky outside the canopy was still gray, but there was not the slightest sign of rain.

Thirty-one tables and chairs have been placed in the square here, and there are paper, pen, ink and inkstones on the tables, and there is enough distance between the tables and chairs to make it a temporary examination room.

"The longest hour for the 13th Division Exam of the Household Department will begin!" Liang Fang saw the officials of the Thirteenth Division who were ready, and announced with a blank face.

The officials of the thirteen divisions present did not dare to be sloppy, in addition to the elimination of the last place in this examination, the results of the examination will also be related to their careers.

If you can move from Lang Zhongchao to Shilang, then life can be considered perfect.

The principal wants to promote the outsider, and the outsider wants to be promoted, and the thirteen langzhong also want to work hard to complete the craziest jump.

"Let's go!"

Zhu Youzhu didn't want to waste his rich time invigilating here, and after arranging for Liu Jin to invigilate here, he drove back to Qianqing Palace directly.

The development of the situation made him feel a little uneasy, since his enthronement could be refuted, then Wang Yue's appointment was probably not smooth.

Originally, he had already given the position of the deputy capital of the Imperial Court to Wang Yue, but Wang Yue was guilty after all, and now he had to be rehabilitated by the Criminal Department.

Judging from the current situation, I don't know if Wang Yue's matter will be stuck in the Criminal Department, or if he will finally be pushed by Jiuqing Ting.

Zhu Youzhu couldn't help but sigh secretly, he pushed Wang Yue out of Prime Minister Yanzheng, maybe he was in a bit of a hurry, so that the three of them were likely to work together to deal with themselves.

"Lord Lord, let's go back!" Ye Qigong sent His Majesty away, and then proposed to Li Min.

Li Min found that he couldn't see through this young genius at all, but he still nodded lightly and said, "Okay, let's go!" ”

When he passed by the edge of the examination room, he couldn't help but take a look, but the place where he was standing was relatively far away, so he couldn't see the content of the test questions on it clearly.

Li Si also glanced over there, but felt sorry in his heart.

Unlike the two next to him, he has the experience of being the head of the household department, so he is far superior to these two in arithmetic. If you take the exam this time, I'm afraid Your Majesty will know who is the most suitable person to talk to the household.

The square in front of the canopy hall is very large, and the examination room occupies only a small area.

Since this is the land of imperial power, there is only "imperial land", and there are no trees in sight, and the actions of all of them are exposed to the eyes of the invigilator.

At the beginning of the exam, a sense of competition permeated the audience.

The officials of the Thirteenth Division could barely gather under Li Min's command, but the pie painted by His Majesty was too big, and everyone wanted to win this favor.

Among the thirteen langs, there is the one who has the best chance of being favored, and a competitive mood quietly unfolds.

In fact, Zhu Youzhu is right, the household department does need certain professional skills, so the household servants are generally promoted from the head of the household department.

Among the thirteen current langs, excluding the relationship between the two, the remaining eleven langs are all real officials, and they are all capable of managing the finances of a province.

"An antique dealer buys an antique at a price of five times, and then sells it to a customer at a price of ten times, the customer takes out a hundred pieces of treasure money, and the antique dealer goes to the rice store next door to exchange for ten pieces of ten treasure money, and gives change of ninety times.

Originally, many people were worried that His Majesty's topic was too simple to reflect the level, but when they saw the first arithmetic question, they couldn't help but be dumbfounded.

Where is this, there is such a life-threatening topic in the world, and it is not allowed to live?

Liu Jin stood in front and observed, and found that His Majesty's question seemed to really stump these household officials who thought highly of themselves, and he couldn't help but be complacent.

Compared with their masters, these rookies are simply weak, and they even dare to go against their masters.

After several calculations, Chen Kun came up with the answer, and immediately smiled like Maitreya Buddha. I don't know where such a subtle title came from, but it's enough to weed out a group of people.

After writing down the correct answer, he proudly dried his handwriting, but suddenly caught a glimpse of Liu Zhong, a member of the Guangxi Division of the rival on the left, and his heart suddenly became unbeautiful.

Liu Zhongren, as his name suggests, pursues the word "loyalty", but he is the only five-grade official who does not participate in the small actions of the household department.

It's just that when I saw the next question, I couldn't help but swallow and spit secretly, realizing that this exam was more complicated than I imagined.

"How much was the annual income of salt tax during the Northern Song Dynasty Shenzong? How much is the salt tax in this dynasty all converted into silver? On the pros and cons of the salt tax of the two dynasties! ”

Chen Kun also began to look at the second question, with the same solemn look on his face, but he quickly turned relieved and immediately started to answer.

Regarding the salt tax situation in the Song Dynasty, you only need to open the relevant records to see accurate data, and the highest record is 60 million guan, and it remained at 1200 guan during the Shenzong period.

The salt tax revenue of this dynasty may have been difficult to calculate earlier, after all, the imperial court did not use silver taels to settle the "open middle method", but since the imperial court allowed the surplus salt to be converted into silver, it can already be calculated.

Since the price of surplus salt set by the imperial court is "seven coins of silver for one lead of positive salt", this price is multiplied by the output to get the amount of salt tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty.

"About 1,200,000 taels?"

Liu Zhong got the result through calculations, and when he saw that it was only one-tenth of the Song Dynasty, he couldn't help but gasp.

Fortunately, this is just an assumption, and the law formulated by the Great Ancestor is not so stupid.

The essence of the law is to exchange transportation capacity for salt, that is, the salt merchant will transport ten stone rice grain and other materials to the granary on the nine sides, and the Ming court will give a salt guide.

It's just that in fact, you can't get the merchant to help you transport ten stone of grain to the granary on the nine sides for seven pieces of silver, but you can use a piece of salt.

The reason for this is that the value of a piece of salt is more than seven coins of silver, and the "capacity" of salt tax under the Kaizhong Law is far more than 1.2 million taels.

Although I don't know that the price of salt is set so low for money, but from the interests of the Ming court, it is natural to follow the Kaizhong Law formulated by Taizu, and using salt to reduce silver will only cheapen those profiteers.

Every time Chen Kun finished answering a question, his face would be filled with a smile like Maitreya Buddha, but when he looked up and saw Liu Zhong finish answering, the smile on his face disappeared instantly.

Soon, the exam came to the last question: "What is the price of salt in the capital?" ”

This is undoubtedly the easiest question in this exam, and it does not require complex calculations or a wealth of knowledge, just to understand the price of salt in today's daily life.

It's just that in the face of such a simple question, a few people who were just like a bamboo, but now they are scratching their ears and cheeks, and they all look sweating profusely.

If you go outside and catch a peddler pawn, you will definitely be able to know the price of salt, but now it has stumped the officials and men who are rich and rich in the scene.

The low income of Ming officials mainly refers to the Hongwu period, but through the unremitting efforts of the civil official group, their income has already risen.

Because Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang added "Sui for the eternal system" to the official salary, the emperors and officials of the past dynasties did not dare to move the basic salary, but they made a big fuss about allowances and benefits.

For example, each person is paid one tael of firewood and silver per month, and the number of people in the soap department ranges from two to twelve, that is, senior officials can get twelve taels of silver every month, and one tael is added in leap years, which is raised by the military department and the local political department without going through the household department.

In addition to the allowance, there are also "ice examples", "charcoal examples" and "don't set examples" from the local government, and they are endless, which can be described as a lot of benefits.

As for salt and tea, they had already been distributed by the yamen in the capital, and many officials took the opportunity to benefit from them. "Since ancient times, hundreds of officials have been thin, and there has never been such a thing", this sentence is no longer applicable to the current Ming Dynasty.

Not to mention that they don't need to worry about salt at all, even if they really have to spend money to buy salt, with their current income, they don't need to take it seriously at all.

"Submit the papers!"

Just as the other household officials were still scratching their ears and cheeks, Chen Kun, a member of the Guangdong Division, and Liu Zhong, a member of the Guangxi Division, raised their hands to hand in the papers almost at the same time.

Liu Jin looked at Liu Zhong and Chen Kun very unexpectedly, so he stepped forward to check and found that the two had indeed completed the answer.

He accepted Liu Zhong's test paper first, but when he collected Chen Kun's test paper, a piece of silver ran into his cuff like a trick.