Seeing Huang Qiong's puzzled look, he also knew that the King of England had just come out of the cold palace less than a year ago, and he might not know much about the tricks in the government-run workshops. Sima Hong smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty, nowadays all the officials in the court are not receiving their full salary. Do you think it is possible for these powerless kiln workers to receive their full salary every month?"
"Besides, even if they receive the full amount of food and salary. However, the amount of food and salary that has never changed since the Taizong period is no longer enough to support a family based on today's food prices. The monthly regulations for craftsmen in various divisions stipulated in the Taizong period are At that time, a bushel of rice only cost more than 20 cents. Now the official price of a bushel of rice has risen to sixty or seventy cents. If there is a famine year, the price of this grain will be much higher."
"The official workshops of our dynasty are different from those of the previous dynasty. They have always given out money instead of food. The food that should have been given has been converted into the monthly rules. According to the monthly rules for the craftsmen of Yousi set by the Taizong Dynasty, even if Thirty-year-old craftsmen only get three guans per month. And new craftsmen only get 5 guans per month."
"After three years of apprenticeship, the salary will start to increase by one hundred cents per year. After reaching the level of Erguanwu, another five hundred cents will not be given until thirty years have passed. Although craftsmen are exempted from corvee, they need to pay taxes. Regardless of the craftsman grade High or low, the tax money is always made every year. For an old craftsman who has been supporting a large family for thirty years, even if he gets the monthly income, he can only make thirty thousand dollars a year."
"And a craftsman who has just entered the industry can only make eighteen thousand dollars of valuable income every year. With such a meager income, he still has to pay a thousand dollars' worth of taxes every year. You know, a slave of a big family has a monthly income At least I still have three dollars. And I don’t have to support my family, let alone pay taxes.”
"I have been a craftsman for thirty years, and I am usually the one who takes care of the family. With such a small amount of money, a family with a slightly larger population is enough to take care of the family every month. As for the son marrying a wife, the daughter will be married in the future. The dowry, but I don’t care about anything. The kiln workers themselves are very wasteful of clothes, but the little money they get every month is not even enough to buy clothes after excluding what is left for meals.”
"Go and take a look at the Junyao Kiln Workers' Colony. There are a lot of people, old and young, living in half-clothed clothes. What's even more despicable is that with such a small amount of money, some people still want to get their hands on it. When I was in office, the deputy governor Together with the supervising eunuchs, those hard-working kiln workers have never received the full monthly salary. Basically, 80% of them are considered too much."
"Roughly every month, they generally only receive 60% of the monthly payment. And even if they have the remaining money, they still have to deduct 200 cash per person every month. This is still for those who only receive the usual five qian. Those who work. Those who receive the highest monthly salary will have to deduct 300 cash every month. Three hundred cash a month is 3,600 cash per year, which is exactly three times and six coins."
"Most of those single kiln workers have fled and went south to the porcelain kiln under the name of Guilin County Prince's Mansion. But after all, there are only a limited number of single kiln workers. Most of the kiln workers have their families and they just want to escape. They can't escape. I have been in office for two years, and the lives of the kiln workers I have seen are really miserable. Some kiln workers even have to sell their wives and daughters to make ends meet for their families."
"And among those kiln workers who have reached the age of marriage, there are many who cannot afford to marry. Even if they get a wife and cannot support themselves, there are many who run away with others. People in Junzhou say that there are more than three kiln workers in Jun kiln. There are many bachelors, many children without mothers, and many people with half-closed doors. There is also a local saying that if you marry someone other than a kiln worker in Jun, you will have no food or clothing, no one will take care of you when you are sick, and you will die with a roll of tattered straw mats."
"King of England, you are now the envoy of Zhengzhou, and you are also the prince of our Qi Dynasty. After you return to Beijing, can you give some advice to the emperor and leave a way for the Jun kiln workers to survive? The small amount of tax they pay is very important to the imperial court. For them, no matter how much they have, it won't matter if they don't have too much. But it's different for those kiln workers. At least they can buy an extra bucket of rice every month."
Seeing the expectant look on Sima Hong's face, Huang Qiong hesitated for a moment, and finally said: "Master Sima, I'm really sorry. I am the envoy of Zhengzhou. Although the Jun kiln is on the ground in Zhengzhou, it is directly under the Ministry of Industry. I am now There is nothing we can do about it. Although I sympathize with these kiln workers, it is really beyond my reach."
He just watched Sima Hong look disappointed after hearing what he said. After several hesitations, Huang Qiong finally relented and said: "In this case, Master Sima, you can write a letter and I will submit it to my father for you. I promise to go directly to Tianting without going through the Zhongshu Province and the General Affairs Department. If Your excerpts are reasonable, and it’s not like I can’t help you speak to your father.”
When Huang Qiong said before that there was nothing he could do about the Jun kiln matter, Sima Hong looked frustrated. But after Huang Qiong said the last part, a glimmer of hope rekindled in his eyes. He hurriedly walked into the house and soon took out a wooden box carefully wrapped in oilcloth. After carefully wiping the wooden box in his hand, he carefully handed it to Huang Qiong.
"Your Royal Highness, this is a statement written by the old man based on his experience in the Ministry of Works during these years when he was serving in Jun Kiln and when he was exiled to Longyou, focusing on the shortcomings of the imperial officials. Some of them were written while serving in Jun Kiln. It’s been written. But I haven’t had time to submit it yet, except for things like that. Dismissal from office, exile, is there anyone who is willing to submit this document for the old man?”
"However, although these years in Longyou have made me a little more miserable, I have also left the right and wrong of the officialdom. I can calm down and think about some things carefully. I have made some modifications to the deficiencies in the original articles. This article can be said to be the collection of many years of hard work."
Huang Qiong opened the wooden box, took out the contents and read them carefully, then carefully put them back into the box. He raised his head and looked at Sima Hong, who looked expectant in front of him, and said, "Mr., for this hard work, I will thank you." I will definitely hand it over to my father personally, and I will definitely live up to the trust of the old gentleman. However, has the old gentleman ever thought about the consequences once this clause is handed over?"
"Your Highness, I have already thought about what you are saying. It is nothing more than death. I have served in the Ministry of Industry for many years, and I see all the details very clearly. I handed this document to the emperor. I’m afraid I don’t know how many people in the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and even the palace will be cut off from their financial resources.”
"Destroying a person's wealth is like killing his parents. Those who are still in power, or even in high positions, will not let the old man go. The old man is now a commoner again, and these people quietly kill him, but It's a piece of cake. It won't even cause a splash. It's just that, Your Majesty, the craftsman household system is already riddled with drawbacks."
"Especially the shortcomings of the imperial bureaus have even reached the point where they are irreversible and cannot be solved. Your Royal Highness, the craftsman household system of our Da Qi Dynasty has not changed for more than a hundred years since its establishment. But now The situation in the world is no longer the same as it was when the country was founded."
"At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the world had been in chaos for a long time, the people's livelihood was in ruins, and the imperial court's financial resources were unable to make ends meet. Our dynasty unified the craftsmen of weapons, soldiers, coins, and royal utensils into craftsmen's households. First, it was to ensure that the imperial court could requisition the goods at the best time for the world. It has not yet been calmed down, and the army's military campaign consumes a lot of weapons and equipment. If we blindly recruit craftsmen from the private sector, it will have a great impact on the people's livelihood, which has not been restored in the first place."
"Combine some craftsmen as craftsmen households, and the imperial court will distribute a certain amount of money every month to support them. This can not only ensure the needs of the army, but also save the time spent recruiting craftsmen. It will not affect the spring planting during busy farming times. , autumn harvest. Another reason is that at that time, the army was out fighting all year round, and military power was in the hands of the generals."
"By keeping these craftsmen in the hands of the imperial court, all military ordnance will be uniformly allocated by the imperial court, and local regions are not allowed to manufacture it without authorization. In this way, the armaments can be firmly in the hands of the imperial court and avoid the recurrence of the separatist rule of the former Tang vassal town due to the generals holding military power for a long time. The situation. Your Majesty, making a steel knife and making a hoe are completely different things."
"A blacksmith who can make a good hoe may not be able to forge a sword and spear suitable for mining. Putting the craftsmen who make ordnance, especially guns and firearms, in the hands of the court may not be a way to control the armies. . Therefore, since the Battle of Chenzhou, the imperial court has begun to classify such craftsmen as craftsmen, together with the craftsmen who made royal utensils in the imperial bureaus of the former Tang Dynasty."
“Some of the paper-making, ink-making, embroidery, porcelain-burning and other craftsmen were respectively established in the Ministry of Industry’s Imperial Affairs Department and the Internal Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which were later the Imperial Affairs Bureau, specializing in the production of various utensils needed by the royal family. Later, because of Taizong, The emperor particularly loved the Jun and Ru porcelains of the former Tang Dynasty, so he created two imperial kilns based on the original Jun kilns and Ru kilns of the former Tang Dynasty."
"During the later Xuanzong Dynasty, Ru kilns were allowed to be run by the private sector. Even the original imperial kilns were also allowed to be jointly run by the government and the people. Emperors Taizu and Taizong originally established imperial offices to prevent the internal servants from going out to purchase royal kilns during the Tang Dynasty. It was set up to extort people and collect people's wealth during the period of time. All expenses are drawn from the internal treasury and are not paid by the household and work departments."
"Emperor Taizong once said very proudly about this: Everything we need in the palace is made by the Tianjia, and we will never disturb the people. However, although the original intention of Taizu and Taizong not to disturb the people was good, times have changed. The current situation in the world is far from what it was at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, after Taizu and Taizong worked hard to govern, a bucket of rice only cost more than 20 yuan, and a piece of linen cost only 30 yuan."
"A pound of pork is only thirty cents, and even slightly more expensive mutton is only fifty cents. A kiln worker who works on a monthly basis of five cents, deducting the tax of less than a hundred cents, can get enough for a family. We have enough food and clothing. We can live a good life and even have a surplus. But as the world has been stable for more than a hundred years, the number of penises continues to grow."
"At present, the amount of Dou rice in an ordinary year has reached sixty or seventy cents per dou. It was originally enough for a monthly basis, but now even if it is received in full, a family of five can only barely feed themselves. Those with a little more Dingkou, It's hard to have enough food and clothing. What's more, at least during the two years that I have been in office, I have never seen the kiln workers receive a full monthly salary."
"Back then, Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong set up the imperial department, just to prevent local officials from disturbing the people by presenting imperial objects and not wanting to compete with the people for profit. But now the world is becoming extravagant, and all kinds of luxurious things are emerging in endlessly. No. Let’s talk about other things, but how much is this Jun porcelain worth among the people? How much is a Jun porcelain tea bowl worth per household?”
"One tael of Tieguanyin produced by the Prince of Guilin County is worth how many acres of land? But these things are still sold but not marketed. Instead of wasting huge annual expenses, it is better to treat Jun kiln and Ru kiln equally. Prince A shipload of Jun porcelain can be exchanged for dozens of times the value of copper from Japan and Korea. Why can't the court follow the rules?"
"This dynasty has always been short of copper, and every year it purchases a large amount of copper from Dali at a high price to cast copper coins. And because of the high price of copper, a large number of copper coins cast every year are privately melted and made into copper utensils by the people. The imperial court's annual consumption of copper purchases It’s getting bigger and bigger, but less and less private money is in circulation. As a result, the denominations of Wuwei Bank’s banknotes are getting smaller and smaller.”
