My life skills in Daming Liver

Upstairs in Yaoyue, Su Ze met Lin Qingcai's elder brother.

This clan brother named Lin Qingjian was older than Chen Chaoyuan, but he was not as steady and stable as Lin Qingcai, and he was a bit more of a philistine.

But it's normal, I heard from Lin Qingcai that this clan brother is not talented in reading, he gave up the imperial examination early to learn to work as an accountant, and has already worked in the society for many years, so he naturally understands the world better than Lin Qingcai.

At the banquet, after drinking two glasses of rice wine, the newly appointed clerk of the county yamen's house has already become brothers and sisters with everyone in Su Ze.

He pulled Su Ze to pour bitter water.

"Brother Su, you don't know that there are too many doorways in this house, and the water is too deep. I am really a man with my tail between my legs in the house!"

"I don't know what kind of errand Brother Lin is doing?"

"Of course it's hard work and dirty work. This Xuhu has held the house for many years. Although he has not been promoted to the official history, he is very powerful in the county government. Most of the houses are in the county government that he recommended. People in the house are wearing small shoes."

Lin Qingcai and Chen Chaoyuan nodded one after another. They also deal with officials, so they naturally know the situation of officials in the Ming Dynasty.

The history of classics is compiled by the Ministry of Households with files, and the imperial court also has salaries, but the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty are very meager, let alone these officials.

These canons and historians of the county government don’t care about the salaries of these three melons and two dates at all. The main reason is that the identity of the canons and historians is registered in the official department. Under the circumstances, unless it is really too much, the county magistrate will save Dianshi some face.

The clerks under the classic history are different. They belong to the employees of the county government and have no salary. The scribe pays some salary.

The clerks are served for five years. If the county government is not satisfied, they can return home after serving, or even be expelled in advance.

Therefore, for a clerk like Lin Qingjian, in order to survive in the county government, it is necessary to worship the mountain and hold a group to keep warm.

The recommender here is a special relationship similar to the "students and old officials" in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

For example, it was Sun Dianshi from the punishment room who recommended Lin Qingjian to enter the county government. Then everyone in the county government knew that Lin Qingjian belonged to Sun Dianshi, so naturally he belonged to Sun Dianshi's faction.

The relationship between the recommender and the recommendee is close, not just one-way.

If Lin Qingjian made a big mistake in the county government, then as his recommender, Sun Dianshi would also be jointly and severally liable.

The factional struggles in the county government are very fierce, and there are even long-term struggles that last for several generations.

Lin Qingjian was placed in the family room by Sun Dianshi, who was the official history of the punishment room. Naturally, one can imagine the hostility towards him from the whole family.

At this time, Lin Qingjian not only couldn't eat and drink with his colleagues, but had to do things well, because his every move was being watched by other people in the house.

Because of the ancestral system established by Zhu Yuanzhang, the government of Ming Dynasty had very little disposable income.

However, in all fairness, the standards set by Zhu Yuanzhang were able to keep the government offices running, and the population in the early Ming Dynasty did increase.

But with the development of the times, the government of the Ming Dynasty took care of more and more things, and the original manpower was already unsustainable.

In fact, this is also easy to understand. With more and more superiors, more and more work needs to be reported and written work needs to be done.

The ceremonial room, which looks very leisurely, is concocting all kinds of rubbish official documents every day. It faces dozens of large and small yamen. When it meets the censor, it comes down to inspect, and it has to prepare report materials and meet inspections. It is simply too busy.

Every time these higher-level departments issued an official document, the subordinates had to try their best to reply. This kind of bureaucratic expansion caused the number of county government clerks to rapidly expand.

For example, the Nanping County Yamen has more than 80 formal employees. In fact, it is not only a few elders working as imagined by later generations.

Sun Dianshi was Lin Qingjian's recommender. Although Lin Qingjian was dissatisfied with Sun Dianshi, he couldn't speak ill of Sun Dianshi, so he could only say that Xu Shisheng, the head of the household clerk, was wrong.

"It's naturally not my turn to do this good thing of taxation and donation, but Xu Hu is too good-for-nothing, so he asked me to do things to understand Yunke as soon as he came."

Xiong Yue's eyes lit up when he heard Xie Yunke.

Su Ze asked: "Is this Department of Transportation responsible for sending taxes and taxes?"

"It's just this hard work! Brother Su, you don't know that the transportation department in this house is the heaviest and most prone to mistakes."

Su Ze nodded. Since the Ming Dynasty still collected taxes in kind before Zhang Juzheng's reform, the tax collection was very troublesome.

Taxes in kind are food, cloth, etc., but the tax system of the Ming Dynasty was too complicated, and there were so many items collected that it was not easy for an old official who had worked in the household for a long time to explain clearly.

In terms of agricultural tax, it is mainly summer rice and winter wheat, but these grains are not just received by the county government.

The county government needs to send these grains to the designated place required by the superiors, and if they are delivered late, they will be punished.

The work of delivering taxes and food is the main job of the household transportation department.

This delivery is not easy, because of the complicated division system of the Ming Dynasty, the complexity of delivering food is quite terrifying.

It can be said that the scribes and helpers of the Hufang Jieyun Division are all masters in graph theory.

For example, the grain produced in Beishan Village near Changningwei must first be collected by the tax collectors of the taxation department and sent to Nanping County.

At this time, Nanping County still needs to divide the food, and part of it will be used as military food for the various guards under its rule (such as Changning Guard) and sent to the designated location of the guards.

Nanping is in Yiguo County, which saves the trouble of sending grain to the capital city, but the officials of Nanping county government have another job, to help the household officials of the government government office to deliver the grain of the entire Yanping Prefecture to the provincial capital Fuzhou city.

However, the Yanping Guards in Nanping City directly belonged to the provincial governor's office, so their military rations had to be transported from Fuzhou City to Nanping City, and sent to the Yanping Guards in Nanping City.

This is only the collection of grain. The tax in kind collected by the Ming Dynasty included grain, silk, cloth, tea, salt, pearls, medicinal materials, and so on.

Then some are to be sent to the treasury of the Ministry of Household Affairs, which is regarded as the disposable income of the foreign court. Every year, it needs to quarrel at the imperial meeting to determine the budget allocation, and then the supervisor of rituals will wear red to take effect.

Salt, tea, medicinal materials, and mine supervisors are the emperor's personal income, and all of these must be brought into Taikuang.

These complex expropriation systems, such a huge transshipment system, have been increased by successive emperors, and the cost is now getting higher and higher.

The corruption of the upper and lower officials is naturally the same thing. Maintaining this complex tax system itself requires too much expenditure. The focus of Zhang Juzheng's reform is to change these complex tax collections in kind into silver collection.

In modern fiscal terminology, that is monetization of taxation. However, the monetization of taxation in the Ming Dynasty, which was short of silver, also brought a series of follow-up problems, which will not be discussed now.

Compared with the tax-paying clerks who have many ways to make money, such as big fights and small fights, such as kicking the tip of the dendrobium, Lin Qingjian and his transportation department not only have no means of making money, but are often reprimanded and punished for not delivering taxes and food in time.

However, this does not mean that Jieyun Branch has no way to make money.

Lin Qingjian may have been too unsatisfactory recently. After drinking a few more sips of wine, he said to Su Ze in a low-key manner:

"Brother Su, in fact, it's not that the Jieyun Department has no money. It's just that the previous clerk belonged to Xu Hu. That guy still wanted to squeeze me out before I was hired, so he refused to tell me the ways to make money."

Su Ze was also speechless. You, Lin Qingjian, took his position. Do you still expect him to tell you the secret of corruption?

It is estimated that Lin Qingjian was driven crazy by the official duties these few days, and that's why he said such words.

However, Su Ze also wanted to ask him about the situation of the household, and Lin Qingjian continued to stay in the household, which also disgusted Xu Shisheng.

So Su Ze thought for a while and said: "Actually, Jieyun Branch's method of making money is nothing more than exchanging money and food."

Lin Qingjian's eyes lit up, he looked at Su Ze and said, "Brother Su, do you understand this too?"

Everyone also looked at Su Ze. The entire county school knew Su Ze's talent in the imperial examination. Even Hai Rui said that Su Ze would definitely be a scholar in three years.

But Su Ze still understands the errands of this house?

Su Ze said: "Actually, it's simple to say, that is, first exchange the grain to be delivered by the county into silver, and then buy it into grain and hand it over when you arrive in the provincial capital."

This kind of in-kind tax is inconvenient, in fact, there are monetization solutions in various places in the operation.

What Su Ze said is the most common one. Some counties with long roads and high freight costs, when sending grain taxes to Fucheng, will first replace it with grain, and then buy city grain in Fucheng and hand it over.

If the price of grain was about the same, then the officials of the Liberation Transportation Section would not have to conscript the peasants to escort the grain, but would directly collect a sum of "service money" from the peasants who were supposed to serve hard labor.

Most of the civilian husbands are naturally willing to pay, because the journey to escort the food is long and risky, but it also delays their own farming time. If they can pay a sum of money, they can not serve. Most people rush to pay.

The officials of the yamen can take the money with them, and then go to Fucheng to exchange it for food, and then they can complete the task of delivering food.

Lin Qingjian shook his head and said: "The method is this method, but it's not easy to do now."

"There are so many government offices that deliver food every year. If everyone uses this method, the price of the government office will soar every time it collects grain. If you still use this method, you may have to pay for it yourself."

Only then did Su Ze know that Lin Qingjian's way of making money is not as simple as a simple exchange of money and food. I am afraid that he must be able to deliver food and make money, which includes a series of commercial operations.

This is the system of the Ming Dynasty. If you complete the task, no one will be held accountable for pocketing your own money.

If you fail to complete the task, even if you try your best, you will be punished by the government.

For example, if the transportation department fails to release the grain on time, they have to make up for the fine or the lost grain.

Before Lin Qingjian became a scribe, he also saved some money, but after he took office, he made two money and grain swaps, not only did he not make any money, but he also put his savings into it.

I am afraid that if I continue to do this, not only will I not be able to make money, but I will go bankrupt.

Su Ze thought of a way. He took out the bamboo tube he had with him and handed it to Lin Qingjian.

Skill! launch!

Lin Qingjian opened the bamboo tube and found a few crystal candies inside, and immediately said: "No way, Brother Su!"

Su Ze said: "Brother Lin doesn't treat me as a brother. This is the rock candy made by our Chang Ningwei. It's not worth a lot of money."

Lin Qingjian accepted it cherishingly. Although he is a clerk of the county government, he can't afford rock candy at ordinary times.

[Bribe Lin Qingcai successfully, skill +1, Lv1, 2/100]

Su Ze said again: "Brother Lin, this is the rock candy from our Changningwei. What do you think of its quality?"

Lin Qingjian picked up the rock sugar and exclaimed, "It's as white as ice, it's the best rock sugar!"

Su Ze immediately said, "Then do you know the price of sugar in the provincial capital?"

Lin Qingjian used to be an accountant, so he knew the prices in the provincial capital very well, so he quoted a price quickly.

Su Ze then said: "We in Changningwei can make sugar, and my rock candy will definitely sell at a high price in the provincial capital. If brother Lin goes to the provincial capital to unload the grain next time, he can come to Changningwei to exchange the grain for rock sugar, and then send it to The provincial capital sold it for food."

Lin Qingjian was overjoyed. He did a simple calculation and found that Su Ze's offer was comparable to the price of rock candy in the county, but the quality of his rock candy was indeed top-grade. In Fuzhou, where dignitaries and dignitaries gathered, he would definitely be able to sell at a good price.

In this case, as long as the food is sent to Changningwei, it can be replaced with sugar and lightly packed to the provincial capital, and it can save the peasants and charge them a sum of money for service.

In this way, even if the price of grain in the provincial capital is higher, there is still some profit in reselling it.

Lin Qingjian is also a newcomer, and he doesn't want to make a lot of money, he just needs to not lose money.

He pulled Su Ze excitedly and said, "Brother Su, there are a lot of rations for the next batch. Do you have enough sugar?"

Su Ze used the "Accountant" skill to calculate the final inventory, nodded and said, "No problem!"

Lin Qingjian couldn't help asking: "Brother Su, why do you need so much food at Changning Guard?"

Before Su Ze answered, Lin Qingjian said: "I am the one who talked too much, I should be punished!"

Su Ze knew that Lin Qingjian had misunderstood that Chang Ningwei wanted to smuggle food, but Su Ze didn't bother to explain.

Su Ze said: "Brother Su, who is Xu Shisheng familiar with in the county government office? What kind of relationship does he have in the province?"

Lin Qingjian said: "I just remembered that Brother Su is from Changningwei, so he has a grudge against Xu Shisheng!"

The lawsuit between Xu Shisheng and Changning Wei's hundreds of households was known to everyone in the county government. Lin Qingjian only got in touch with it, because he had just entered the county government and was too insensitive.

He said: "The person Xu Shisheng has the best relationship with is our Yanping Weiyu family in Nanping City."

at home?

This answer made Su Ze feel so reasonable, it was so reasonable!