Chapter 153: The Barefoot Doctor System and Official Salaries
In fact, Zhu Biao had this idea for developing medicine a long time ago.
But before, the productivity was really insufficient. There were so many things that he needed to do, such as the reform of the official system, the reform of education, the construction of railways, the development of scientific research from scratch, and the development of industry and commerce, and he really could not take care of the medical system.
But now it's not a big problem.
Even though the Ming Dynasty spent a lot of money and continued to carry out nationwide infrastructure construction, thanks to the industrial revolution, the imperial court's annual revenue increased steadily.
This is enough for him to make some big moves that he couldn't do before.
Zhu Biao's idea is very simple. It's okay if he didn't do it before. Now that he wants to do it, he should just go big.
Doctors were recruited from the fifteen provincial-level administrative regions of the Ming Dynasty, and their medical skills were assessed. They were given the same grade treatment and salary as officials, and large public hospitals were built around these people, and then these fifteen provincial-level administrative regions were
Large hospitals in China have trained a large number of barefoot doctors who understand basic medical knowledge and spread them to all counties and villages, establishing a barefoot doctor system.
This system seems very large, but in fact it is not difficult to achieve based on the influence of Lao Zhu and the national power of Ming Dynasty.
After all, Lao Zhu had implemented a similar system before.
For example, the grain chief system involved taxation, and the social studies system that Zhu Biao had just participated in the reform.
Both of these are the lowest level of the political ecological structure of the imperial court, and now it seems that they are implemented very well.
Of course, this was true only in the Hongwu Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang’s original intention of setting up these two systems was to enable children from poor families to go to school and to continuously import talents for the Ming Dynasty.
Do not allow officials to interfere with the tax issues of grassroots people, so as to reduce the exploitation of grassroots people by corrupt officials as much as possible.
But the imagination is beautiful, and the reality is very skinny.
After the Hongwu Dynasty, grain chiefs began to collude with the government to exploit the people, and the social studies system almost existed in name only by the middle and late Ming Dynasty.
In Zhu Biao's view, although these policies of Lao Zhu are not necessarily perfect, they can be said to be very innovative attempts in feudal society.
It's a pity that people are greedy. Without corresponding supervision measures, once the grain director or social science teacher takes full control of their power, their first thought is to use these rights to put money into their own pockets, instead of
For the benefit of the people.
This is a problem of the managers of the Ming Empire after Lao Zhu, rather than a problem of the system itself.
There is no perfect system in the world.
There are loopholes in any system. The key is whether the managers of the empire can detect and fill the loopholes in a timely manner.
When Xue Li listened to what Zhu Biao described to him about the future of Taiyuan Hospital, his mind couldn't help but feel in a trance, and he felt like he was in another world.
To be honest, he had watched too many departments being restructured before.
It was before his eyes that the Academy of Sciences, a department devoted to the study of strange technologies and ingenuity, started from scratch and gradually turned into the behemoth it is today.
Nowadays, Wan Hu, the president of the Academy of Sciences, is already a second-grade imperial official, and he is located in the Xumi Illusion Realm, next to the office of His Highness the Crown Prince. He can be said to be a serious official of the emperor.
Wanhu once told him that when he saw steam trains, street lamps, high-yielding rice, and airships, which were researched by the Academy of Sciences and gradually applied to all aspects of the Ming Empire, gradually changing the entire world, the sense of accomplishment was unparalleled.
It would be a lie to say that I don’t envy such honor and status.
He had also imagined that one day doctors, a profession that was also not prestigious, would be respected like these researchers.
Medicine can also set off a vigorous revolution throughout the Ming Dynasty.
Xue Li believes that this should be the dream and expectation of every doctor, not just him!
But now the dream has become reality, and he really has such an opportunity.
"I have always believed that if we want Ming Dynasty to get better and better, we must let professional people do professional things."
"Establishing a medical system throughout the entire Ming Dynasty is a major event, and it is also a matter of benefit to the future. All I can do now is to create a framework and a direction, but the specific how to do it still has to be left to
Professionals like you, Xue Yuanzheng, should do it!"
"If you are short of management talents, you can come to me and I will arrange it for you. The same is true if you are short of funds."
"In the future, the medical school will also be relocated to Xumi Fantasy Realm. If you have any difficulties, you can always come to me to solve them!" Zhu Biao said
"yes!"
"Old minister... I will definitely live up to His Highness's expectations."
Xue Zheng has lived to be almost sixty years old, but now he still has the feeling that a scholar will die for his confidant.
"Of course, I have to make it clear to Xue Yuanzheng in advance that in the future, the medical school will have a large amount of money flowing, and it will affect the lives of many people, so the entire medical school system will also be included in the court's supervision system. I hope this
Can you understand!"
"clear!"
"This is what it should be!" Xue Zheng agreed.
"very good!"
"Then just go ahead and do it!"
Seeing Xue Zheng leaving full of blood, Zhu Biao nodded with satisfaction.
Seeing Daming being transformed bit by bit into what he wanted in his own hands, Zhu Biao felt very accomplished to be honest.
"Your Highness, Mr. Li Ge wants to see you!" Seeing that Zhu Biao's round of talks had finally come to an end, Fang Xiaoru, who had now been promoted to a bachelor's degree in the Hanlin Academy, hurriedly took advantage of every opportunity to come in and report.
"Okay, I just rested for less than a minute, and now I'm back to work again!" Zhu Biao had a look of helplessness on his face.
I have to do at least five hours of work every day!
If three times the time of Sumeru Illusion Realm is included, it will be fifteen hours.
Working thirty hours a day is so ridiculous that no one would believe it!
It's really hard to be the prince of the prison country.
I will cry if I continue.
"Let him come in!" Zhu Biao said helplessly.
Li Shanchang asked to see him, but he couldn't push it back, so he could only see him.
"Your Highness, this is the salary and benefits you asked me to determine for the world's officials. See if there are any problems!" After Li Shanchang came in, he directly presented his memorial to Zhu Biao.
Zhu Biao took it, opened it, checked it roughly, and nodded.
This is the fifth time since the early years of Hongwu that the imperial court has increased official salaries.
According to Zhu Biao's request, in addition to the basic salary, this time it also formally stipulated the travel expenses, year-end bonuses, and the most important salary increase schedule corresponding to the working years of officials at each level, as well as pensions.
That is to say, starting from this year, the salary of all Ming officials will not only increase with the improvement of their grade, but also with the increase of their years as officials starting from their first year as officials.
And as long as you have been an official for fifteen years and resign and return to your hometown, you can still get a salary from the court every year until you die.
Although this kind of welfare cannot be compared with the five insurances and one housing fund in modern society, it far exceeds that of any feudal dynasty in China.
This means that the Ming Dynasty has basically completed its first industrialization. It does not need this little money, otherwise the salary increase this time can directly bankrupt the Ming Dynasty...
In fact, in history, the salaries of court officials in the Hongwu Dynasty were also increased, not just once, but three times in total.
Although it is still not high even after promotion, don't forget that Zhu Yuanzhang formulated a policy of preferential treatment for civil servants.
For example, there are reductions and exemptions from corvee, and another example is the tax exemption system.
Otherwise, why did Zhu Yuanzhang kill officials so ruthlessly in the early Ming Dynasty, but the scholars who took the imperial examination every year still competed to death.
In the final analysis, it is because the temptation of being an official is greater.
Of course, it was this policy of preferential treatment for scholars that ultimately led to the gentry class in the Ming Dynasty becoming too weak and leading to its demise.
It even continued to influence the subsequent Qing Dynasty. Yongzheng's unified payment of grain to officials and gentry was to solve the remaining problems of this policy.
But to be honest, in the Hongwu Dynasty in history, this kind of reduction of corvee was not as scary as it was later, and the policy set by Lao Zhu was also temporary in nature.
In the Hongwu Dynasty, even a first-grade official could only exempt at most twenty-four people from the corvee. The so-called official and gentry were completely unpaid because of the efforts of generations of scholars, which made this policy permanent from temporary, and the tax exemption limit continued to expand.
the result.
Therefore, it is precisely because he has seen the entire history of the Ming Dynasty that Zhu Yuanzhang did not let go of this gap this time and set up a preferential and exemption policy for scholars.
Zhu Biao agrees with this point. In Zhu Biao's view, once this kind of opening is opened, it will be difficult to close it again.
Now the preferential and exemption policy is gone, but the salary can be increased.
How could Zhu Biao not understand the saying that being an official for thousands of miles is just for money? He has always advocated high salary and integrity.
Looking at the memorial submitted by Li Shanchang, Zhu Biao nodded and said: "No problem, let's distribute salaries to officials at all levels according to this in the future!"
"This is the limit that the court can achieve at this stage. If some people are still greedy, then I am afraid I will go on a killing spree like my father!" Zhu Biao said.
"Don't worry, Your Highness, both the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Metropolitan Procuratorate are very strict in investigating corruption. I believe that at least at this stage, most Ming officials are still good!"
"But Your Highness, there are some things that we need to prepare for in advance!"
Seeing Zhu Biao looking at him, Li Shanchang pondered for a moment before explaining: "Corruption and bribery usually start at the grassroots level, especially at the county magistrate level, because they deal directly with the gentry and are most susceptible to corruption by those people."
"But from another perspective, this is also caused by our weak power at the grassroots level. Those county magistrates go to local offices alone. If they want to do things, they must compromise with the local gentry and provide certain policy conveniences.
Otherwise they won’t be able to accomplish anything!”
"According to reports from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, some bad signs have begun to appear below. For example, if you want to do things, you must collude with the gentry, and you must even take bribes and let the gentry take advantage of them. Only in this way can you have political achievements and rise to the top.
If you want to be an upright official, the gentry will not cooperate with you, your political performance will not be good, and you will not be promoted. This is the current contradiction."
"If we don't find a way to get rid of the root cause, corruption and bribery will always exist and will never be eradicated."
"Indeed!" Zhu Biao heard Li Shanchang's words and nodded with deep sympathy.
This contradiction was basically unsolvable in feudal society because the imperial court was not productive enough and could not send too many officials to effectively rule the countryside, so it had to rely on the gentry class.
This is also the origin of the so-called emperor and scholar-bureaucrats co-ruling the world.
Those gentry are actually equivalent to the village chiefs and town chiefs in modern society. They are responsible to the county magistrate at the top and responsible for managing the people at the bottom.
But they are not only managers, they are also members of the managed.
Take care of yourself, this sounds pretty fucked up.
But this is reality.
This would be really unjustifiable if we don't use the power in our hands to make profits.
"What do Mr. Li Ge think?" Zhu Biao asked.
"Your Highness, there is no other way except to increase the number of government officials in large numbers, and the number of officials who are directly assigned to do serious work." Li Shanchang said carefully.
This was another money-spending project that required a huge amount of money. Old Li felt a little embarrassed. After all, he had just submitted the memorial for the salary increase for officials, and now he was asking for money again.
And there is another sensitive point that comes from Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang's previous governing policy had always been that the imperial power should not go to the countryside. As a farmer, Zhu Yuanzhang was often bullied by corrupt officials when he was a child, so he set up the post of grain chief to let them pay grain to the people on behalf of the government.
Now Li Shanchang's suggestion is obviously to strengthen the court's management at the grassroots level, which is contrary to Lao Zhu's previous administrative policy.
Zhu Biao was not worried about this.
Times have changed, and naturally the way to deal with one thing will also be different.
Again, the industrial revolution doubled the wealth of society every year, and while the total amount of social wealth increased, the wealth that the court could control also doubled.
In addition to using this wealth to carry out nationwide infrastructure construction, Zhu Biao also continued to reform official positions, increase the number of officials, and strengthen the court's control over local areas.
When Zhu Biao was reforming the official system, he had this consideration in mind when he decentralized the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Dali Temple directly to the county level.
The Metropolitan Procuratorate represents the power of supervision, and the Dali Temple represents the power of judicial trial.
To put it bluntly, the Metropolitan Procuratorate is used to supervise officials in county-level yamen, while Dali Temple directly takes away the judicial power that originally belonged to the county magistrate.
These two departments appeared in the list of county-level yamen, and the problem of corrupt officials that Lao Zhu was worried about before has been solved for more than half. Although I dare not say that it will not happen again in the future, at least it will not be so unscrupulous.
But this is still not enough. What Zhu Biao needs to do next is to strengthen the law enforcement authority of county-level yamen. To put it more bluntly, he must take back the law enforcement authority at the grassroots level bit by bit from the hands of the local gentry.
As the first step, Zhu Biao planned to start from the Ministry of Punishment.
"Mr. Li Ge, I have discussed it with my father. The next step of Ming Dynasty's reform will be on the army. All military households will be converted into civilian households, and the number of the army will be reduced for the first time on a large scale. From now on,
The Ming Dynasty’s army must implement a system of elite troops and strong generals.”
"As for these soldiers who have been forced to demobilize, I am not going to give them a few taels of silver and send them away directly. Instead, I will send them to the county offices across the Ming Dynasty to become six-door police officers under the dual jurisdiction of the county magistrate and the Ministry of Justice. From now on
Yamen servants are no longer lowly officials, and the imperial court will give them the rank of ninth grade, and they will enjoy the same salary, allowance, year-end bonus, and pension as the imperial officials."