The official administration of the Northern Song Dynasty was indeed a bit outrageous.
In fact, most of the people in charge of local affairs are officials. They even have the right to make decisions on many decisions. Officials know where to eat, drink and have fun every day. Zhang Fei's uncle Xu Lingxiao also belongs to this group of officials.
Xu Lingxiao is good at poetry and writing, but is not good at handling official affairs. He is far inferior to Xu Zhiqian.
Under this system, it is indeed unlikely that officials such as Jiedushi would appear.
In fact, there is nothing wrong with this. Who cares? In many details, officials are much more reliable than officials. But the key point is that officials do not have salaries. They can only get some subsidies. Of course, officials themselves If you hire officials, you have to pay them yourself. It depends on the financial resources of the officials. If you follow Han Qi, you will definitely be popular and drink hot food.
When these two points are combined, the problem becomes huge.
On the one hand, they have power, but on the other hand, they have no money.
The results speak for themselves.
When the common people ask the government to do something, they should not give up some money.
As a result, under normal circumstances, people are unwilling to go to government agencies for help.
If this is not changed, no matter how good the law is, it will have no meaning.
But Yu Da is right. Those officials have no choice but to make a living without making money.
The imperial court actually knew this, but it could only turn a blind eye or close one eye.
There is a saying that there were indeed relatively few corrupt officials in the Northern Song Dynasty during this period, but there were countless corrupt officials, far more than those in the Tang Dynasty.
In history, when Wang Anshi promulgated the Recruitment Law, there was also a less eye-catching law hidden in it, which was the "Cang Law".
In fact, it is very simple, that is, to include officials into the national salary system.
Then, Wang Anshi began to rectify the administration of officials.
Although Wang Anshi was not as cautious as Sima Guang, he was limited to details. On key issues, Wang Anshi considered very clearly. In order to rectify the administration of officials, he must first pay wages to others.
If you don't pay salaries and have to deal with dirty officials, that's pure hooliganism, and other people won't do it.
However, due to the emergence of the police, Wang Anshi was not eager to introduce the Cang method. Instead, he hoped to use the entire police system to implement the Cang method.
The unprecedented success of the police is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Including officials into the police system can quickly gain the recognition of the people.
Compared with Wang Anshi and Sima Guang, Zhang Fei lacks the kind of ambition to cultivate oneself and govern the country and bring peace to the world. He is a trainee lawyer and lives a well-off life, so he does not have this kind of ambition at all.
Although after arriving in the Northern Song Dynasty, this kind of thinking began to sprout in my heart, it is still not comparable to today's literati.
But having said that, his professionalism is also something Wang Anshi and Sima Guang do not have.
Since he wants to develop the business of household grade assessment, he will definitely do it seriously and will never do it half-heartedly.
Moreover, if Wang Anshi cannot promote the new law, then his plan will not be successful.
The entire judicial reform was not due to Wang Anshi's New Deal. Otherwise, Sima Guang would not really have done this.
Therefore, Zhang Fei will definitely support Wang Anshi.
But at the moment, he is still busy moving. Today he went to the flower market to buy some better flowers to plant back home, because Gao Wenyin likes to grow flowers very much, but he is reluctant to spend money on expensive flower seeds.
"Ouch! It's Saburo here."
The shopkeeper of a flower shop saw Zhang Fei coming and greeted him enthusiastically.
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "Shopkeeper, I want to buy some flower seeds."
The shopkeeper asked: "I wonder what flower seeds Sanlang wants?"
Zhang Fei said: "Peonies and roses, these two are indispensable. Let the other shopkeepers watch and sell them."
The shopkeeper said: "I heard that Sanlang recently bought a big house. I guess these flower seeds are used in the new house."
Zhang Fei smiled bitterly and said, "How do you know that I bought a house?"
The shopkeeper exclaimed: "Don't you know, Sanlang, that wherever you buy now, the rent will go up?"
"Is that an exaggeration?"
Zhang Fei smiled helplessly and thought to himself, when I was beaten, the rent of that house was not lowered. These damn rents will only go up, not down.
At this moment, I suddenly heard a quarrel coming from behind.
"What? You actually said this recruitment method is good?"
"I think it's pretty good."
Zhang Fei looked back and saw two scholars coming out of the tea shop quarreling.
"Where's the good?"
"In the past, it was only targeted at the upper-class households, which caused many families to lose their lives. But now it is shared equally among everyone, and everyone only needs to contribute a little money. I think this is quite reasonable."
"A little money is nothing to the upper-class households, but for the poor people, it may also cause their families to be destroyed. How many upper-class households are there, and how many are the lower-fifth-class households? One less rich household is ruined, and the price is Maybe more than a dozen poor households have been destroyed. Doesn’t the life of the poor count as life?”
"You are simply arrogant. It is clearly written in the newspaper that the poor households pay less than half of the rich households, so what else can they do?"
"Is the wealth of the poor households half that of the rich households? That's all, I won't argue with you. We don't agree with each other, so I'll take my leave."
The two of them broke up on bad terms.
Then I heard the shopkeeper sigh, "Oh, people have been arguing about this recruitment law every day these past two days!"
Zhang Fei turned around and said, "Really?"
"Compared to the previous method of losing everything, this recruitment method is really terrible. There are many people who support it, but there are also many who are against it. Let's talk about our store. I support it, but my clerk is very dissatisfied. "
"Why?"
"I belong to a third-class household. Every year when it's my or my family's turn, I have to spend a lot of money to take care of it, but my servants don't need to. And once the draft law is enacted, he will also have to pay the exemption money every year. "
"Won't you give the guy a little more pay?"
"Would you like some rose flowers?"
"Ah? It's okay."
Zhang Fei smiled and nodded.
After buying seeds, I just left the flower market when a white-faced boy came over.
Zhang Fei recognized him as the attendant beside Zhao Xu.
Royal palace, attic.
"minister."
"How many times do I have to say this?"
Zhao Xu was quite dissatisfied when he saw Zhang Fei was about to salute.
"Well, the emperor is good, no, no, the officials are good. Not really!"
"hehe."
Zhao Xu smiled and extended his hand to the opposite side, "Sit down. Sit down."
"Thank you, officials."
Zhang Fei sat down calmly.
He didn't know how to say hello without being polite.
Zhao Xu smiled and asked, "Do you know why I came to you?"
Zhang Fei said: "Recruitment method?"
Zhao Xu asked again: "What do you think of this?"
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "This is the fifth or sixth time that the official has asked me this question."
Zhao Xu said: "Then how did you answer?"
Zhang Fei said: "I don't know. I don't know. I can't tell."
"What do I ask you?"
"It is ten thousand times better than the labor method, but the obstacles encountered may also be huge."
"There are also many ministers in the court who are opposed to it. For example, Sima Junshi, they all oppose the collection of free tax from the poor. What do you think of this?"
"I think that's the best thing to do right now."
"Yeah?"
Zhao Xu hurriedly asked: "How do you say this?"
Zhang Fei explained: "The poor are the majority. If the poor's money is exempted, then all the burdens will be concentrated on the second, third, and fourth-class households. This situation may be worse than the draft law. In a few years, all the upper-class households may be will all disappear.
And those who are really rich can't levy too much tax. In the recruitment law formulated by Wang Xueshi, this official household is only levied half, but if it is considered in terms of wealth... "
The richest people in the world are all relatives of the emperor and court officials. Their taxes will definitely not be collected, and they will have to be shared equally by the poor. Otherwise, such huge expenditures will all fall on the middle class.
Even if he was asked to do it, he couldn't think of a better way than this. After all, this is not typing on the keyboard.
Zhao Xu nodded and couldn't help but sigh: "It can be seen that this recruitment law is only a temporary measure! But even this temporary measure has encountered opposition from many people. For example, Mr. Zhao and others are worried that this will also give people Corrupt officials can take advantage of this opportunity."
Zhang Fei nodded: "To govern the country, you must first govern the officials. Before this step is completed, Mr. Zhao's worries will inevitably occur."
"This is why I came to you today."
Zhao Xu said: "Actually, Academician Wang is also aware of this, so he proposed to transfer most of the staff to the Royal Police. On the one hand, he will reform the law and on the other hand, he will rectify the administration. I also agree very much with this, so I will transfer all the tax exemptions to the police station. The funds are used to expand the police, what do you think?"
Zhang Fei said: "I knew about this in advance, and I think it is feasible, but it can only be used as a long-term policy, and it cannot be directly expanded to the whole country. In that case, the problem will not be solved much, and it may add a huge amount to the finance." A big burden.”
"I know this. Regarding this matter, I will still include it in the judicial reform." Zhao Xu frowned and said: "But will this affect the people's view of the Royal Police?"
It can be seen that he cares about the Royal Police very much.
Zhang Fei smiled and said: "There will definitely be people who think so, but it doesn't matter. As long as the Royal Police maintain their current attitude, I believe they will change their views on this matter."
Zhao Xu said: "But the police department suddenly has to take on so many things, and it must expand its team. Can you guarantee that the Royal Police will not have problems?"
Zhang Fei said: "There will definitely be problems, so I suggest developing auxiliary police."
"Auxiliary police officer?"
"They are police officers who specialize in assisting the Royal Police."
Zhang Fei said: "Their treatment is not as good as that of the Royal Police. This can reduce the financial pressure in the initial stage, but they can work hard to become the Royal Police, giving them opportunities to rise and spur them to improve. There is also the supervision of the Royal Police.
Of course, I think we should also give the Royal Police better treatment, such as organizing them to study law in law schools, so that the Royal Police can be both civil and military. In this way, the Royal Police will attract more talents to join. "
Zhao Xu nodded: "It should be so! Most of those servants understand the law. If the royal police do not understand the law, it will only make people laugh."
Zhang Fei added: "In addition, it is inappropriate to put most of the functions into the police station. After all, the authority for many matters does not lie with the police station, but with various departments. However, through the platform of the police station, Police officers are trained and then sent to various government offices.
For example, the tax bureau can set up the Royal Tax Police, and the Procuratorate and the Royal Court can all be equipped with specialized police. "
Zhao Xu suddenly said: "Isn't the tax bureau planning to develop secretly?"
Zhang Fei said hey: "Those are elites. In the future, they will be specially used to deal with the big landowners and wealthy businessmen who evade taxes. On the surface, some people will be arranged to handle some daily affairs."
"Yes, yes, this is reasonable. If they are all transferred to the police station, should the police station obey the various government departments, or should each government department have to ask for help from the police department? This is not appropriate. I thought it was too simple before,"
Zhao Xu asked again: "Then who should be entrusted with this matter?"
Zhang Fei said: "Of course it's Cao Dongdong."
(End of chapter)
