There were three lines of clan descendants in the Song Dynasty, namely, the line of Taizu Zhao Kuangyin, the line of Taizong Zhao Guangyi, and the line of Qin King Zhao Tingmei.
It is worth mentioning that the system of joint names of seniors in later generations, that is, representing seniority according to a certain character, roughly started in the Song Dynasty.
Before Zhao and Song Dynasties, there was mostly no clear ranking of seniority between fathers, sons, and brothers.
(ps: The sons of Taizu and King Qin use the word '德', and the grandsons and descendants of Taizu use the words Wei, Cong/Shou, Shi, Ling, etc.).
Taizong's descendants are named Yuan, Yun, Zong, Zhong, Shi, etc., and King Qin's grandsons and descendants are named Cheng, Ke, Shu, etc.)
Now, the descendants of the clan have reached the third generation.
Although Li Jie did not personally go to Zongzheng Temple to check the names of the clan's children, he remembered seeing a set of data.
The number of Zhao Kuangyin's sons, grandsons, and great-grandchildren are 4, 8, and 23, respectively.
Of course, these miscalculations include male, female clan members and those who died young.
The number of Zhao Guangyi's children and grandchildren is 9, 12, and 71 in order, and that of Qin Wang Tingmei is 10, 32, and 124.
Adding these numbers together, the total number is less than 300 people.
At first glance, it doesn't seem like a lot. Even if you include the clan girls, the number will only double or triple at most.
Two to three times, that is, less than a thousand people. It seems that there is no problem if the whole country can support a thousand people.
But the clan’s expenses are not high at all.
The monthly salary of more than a thousand people accounts for about half of the official monthly salary of the Beijing Dynasty. This does not include birthday gifts, daily weddings, funerals, food and clothing, etc.
(Historical records show that in the middle of the Xining period of the Northern Song Dynasty (1068-1077, more than 40 years later), the monthly salary of hundreds of officials in Beijing was more than 40,000 yuan, the army was 110,000 yuan, and the clan was more than 70,000 yuan.
More than forty years later, the number of members of the clan has roughly increased fivefold. However, moving forward, we cannot simply divide the expenditure by five. After all, the more descendants there are, the more close the family will be, and the lower the treatment of the collateral descendants will naturally be.
During the Qianxing period, only the third generation was reproduced, so the closeness and distance relationship were definitely not as good as those in later generations, and the average rewards and monthly salary were definitely higher than those in later generations, so I took one-half of the number)
If you include weddings, funerals, daily rewards and other expenses, the comprehensive expenses will increase a bit higher.
Therefore, Li Jie thought of cutting down the clan's expenses.
Always look for soft persimmons.
In every court, there is no softer persimmon than the clan members.
The royal family of the Song Dynasty had to guard against the civil and military ministers externally, and they also had to guard against the clan's children internally.
In the early Song Dynasty, not only were the children of the clan unable to serve as officials, they were also subject to many restrictions on going out to interact with guests.
What else can the children of the clan do who can neither take the imperial examination nor go out to serve as officials, and can only stay in the capital to be supported?
The only way left is to enjoy things, such as creating humans.
Therefore, the number of clan children increased as time went by. By the time of Song Shenzong (1067-1085), the number of clan children had expanded extremely.
As a result, the imperial court could no longer afford to support a large number of clan children.
During the Xining period, Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty had to relax restrictions on the clan's children, and clan children outside the Five Servers were no longer given names or officials.
At the same time, the children of the clan outside the Five Servers could also take part in the imperial examination and serve as officials.
This is also one that Li Jie is planning to implement. None of the current clan members have yet entered the fifth server, so the resistance to promulgating this rule will be relatively small.
However, the resistance is small, but it is by no means non-existent.
Although the knife did not cut the current clan members, who among the clan members still has no descendants?
Once the regulations are implemented, it means that the sword will be on future generations, even if it is still early before the fifth server is released.
But this knife will come sooner or later.
Therefore, this proposal cannot be proposed by Li Jie himself. The correct approach is to have it proposed by officials from other dynasties.
And timing is important, too.
Not long after, Li Duanyuan, the second son of the eldest princess of Ji, will be seven years old. Although the eldest princess of Ji has already married, her descendants are not considered to be descendants of the clan.
However, the eldest princess of Ji is the biological sister of Zhenzong, and the relationship is very close. The rewards for her sons are no less than those of ordinary clan members.
The excuse is already there, the only thing missing is the official.
Since entering the dungeon, the only officials Li Jie has met privately are basically the teachers who teach him, although some of these people have served as public officials.
But that was then, not now.
After thinking about it for a long time, Li Jie decided to leave this matter to the Cao family.
Although the Cao family has been generals for generations, they have many marriages with civil servants. For example, Cao Can's daughter married Li Zhaoshu, Li Fang's grandson.
With ties of marriage, the connections Cao can draw upon are far beyond those of ordinary generals.
Letting Cao do it is also a test for Cao. If he can't handle these things well, there will be no need for Li Jie to reuse Cao in the future.
Thinking of this, Li Jie waved his hand to summon Zhang Maoze and asked him to go to Cao Mansion to deliver the message.
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Cao Mansion.
In the evening, Cao Qian learned the news from the palace. She was happy, but at the same time she felt that the matter was not easy to handle.
Cutting down clan expenses is inherently difficult.
Although the descendants of the clan have little real power, their influence is there.
In particular, the eldest princess of the country of Hebei must be 'operated'.
The official family... The official family really trusts the Cao family.
The eldest princess of the country of Hebei was the sister of the late emperor, and the prince-in-law Li Zunxu was a disciple of the famous minister Yang Yi.
Although Yang Yi has passed away, Li Zunxu's connections are still there. Liu Yun, now a Hanlin scholar, was Yang Yi's best friend during his lifetime.
Not only that, Yang Yi is also a leader of Xikun style poets. If he really encounters difficulties, Li Zunxu can turn to these people for help.
Yang Yi, Liu Jun, Qian Weiyan, Li Zong'e, Li Wei, Ding Wei, Chao Jiong, Cui Zundu, Zhang Yong and others are all the backbone of Xikun style poets.
If you pick anyone randomly among this group of people, they are not easy to mess with. If Li Zunxu really begs them, the situation will become complicated.
"well."
Cao Qian felt a headache when she thought of those Xikun style poets.
These people are not easy to mess with.
One careless move might stir up a hornet's nest. If Li Zunxu begged Ding Wei regardless of his face, that would definitely be the worst case scenario.
none of them!
However, although this matter is difficult to handle, it is not impossible.
It happened that Cao Wei was going to return to court soon, and Cao Qian decided to take action while waiting for his father to come back.
This matter must be handled by Cao Wei.
After all, Cao Qian is too young, and he only has the official position obtained by Enyin, but no actual position. Most of his social circles are people of the same age.
To put it simply, Cao Qian alone cannot accomplish this.
Although Yan Guan's rank is not high, he cannot stand up to other noble people. With Cao Qian's existing connections, he cannot get in touch with them at all.
