In the battle of "Tingyu Tower", Ding Yunyi suffered 13 major and minor injuries. He and his subordinates Ye Dahai and Xiao Yifeng killed 19 assassins and protected the great eunuch Wang Chengen from harm. The battle became famous all over the world.
Ding Yunyi was injured all over his body, but fortunately none of them were fatal. His body was strong and he was able to get out of bed after two days.
Shang Haifeng, the prefect of Hangzhou, and Gu Bingyu, their co-prefect, knew that they were in great trouble this time, thanks to Ding Yunyi's rescue. They were grateful for Ding Yunyi's kindness, and also worried that Ding Yunyi would be able to speak good words for them in front of Wang Chengen in the future. Two days later
He actually came to say hello three times every day, as if he treated Ding Yunyi, a small boss, as an imperial envoy.
Ding Yunyi was not used to being asked before and after, asking for greetings every day, and being carefully served. This was not only the case for him, but also for all his brothers.
These people usually lick blood with their swords and rush around every day. Suddenly they live such a life, but they feel uncomfortable no matter how they live it.
"A bunch of cheap bones." Ding Yunyi smiled and said to his brothers: "It seems that we can't live such a wealthy life. Wang Chengen has already gone to Suzhou. Before leaving, let us go to Suzhou to join him as soon as possible. Everyone's injuries can be affected
No?"
"able!"
The first one to answer was Qin Yun.
Xiao Yifeng rolled his eyes at him: "You are a bitch like Jieyuan. You haven't lost a hair on your body. Of course you can move. Boss, it's okay. Leave as soon as possible. I really can't get used to the faces of those magistrates and fellow magistrates."
"
Ye Dahai and A Hu also have general thoughts.
Immediately, he told Shang Haifeng about his intention to leave Hangzhou. Shang Haifeng refused to do so no matter what, and repeatedly persuaded several people to stay in Hangzhou for a longer period of time.
Ding Yunyi knew his thoughts very well.
Not only are there no clues about the assassin case, but not even a single assassin has been caught. These Hangzhou officials are already committing meritorious deeds, and it would be unfavorable to do things like this now. What if Ding Yunyi sees Wang Chengen and says bad things?
What to do? Then how can these officials survive?
In fact, they did not know that Wang Chengen had long known that he could not obtain any clues by relying on these officials. He was just using them to confuse the enemy. The real investigator Jin Yiwei had already secretly entered Hangzhou.
Ding Yunyi repeatedly comforted and reassured him, which made Shang Haifeng and others dubious and reluctantly agreed.
Shang Haifeng exchanged some good horses for them and gave them three large gold ingots, saying that they would be used as expenses on the road. Ding Yunyi thought that the source of these people's money was probably not clean anyway, so he did not need to be polite to them.
, put it away immediately.
On the day before leaving, Shang Haifeng and Gu Bingyu personally brought the Hangzhou officials to see him off, and the scene was grand. Those who knew they were seeing off a general manager, but those who didn't know thought they were seeing off some high-ranking official from the imperial court.
"The emperor is good, and he is determined to revive the Ming Dynasty." As he gradually moved away from Hangzhou, Qin Yun sighed: "But these officials below are all incompetent and corrupt, which has ruined a good country like this.
If I, Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty, knew something secretly... eh..."
"The salaries of officials at the time of Emperor Hongwu were a bit lower." Ding Yunyi said smoothly: "This also forced those officials to rely on corruption, right?"
"Low?" Qin Yun's eyes widened, as if he found Ding Yunyi's words unbelievable: "According to the 'Brief Record of Awakening Corruption' formulated by Emperor Hongwu, it records in detail the salary standards for officials set by Emperor Hongwu. Based on the salary of a seventh-grade county magistrate.
In terms of standards, the annual salary of 90 dan of rice sounds low, but according to the calculation of "A Brief Summary of Awakening Corruption", more than 70 acres of land are needed, and five farmers are dedicated to producing it. Just picking those rice crops requires
Traveling more than a thousand miles, these ninety shi of rice, although not extremely wealthy, should at least be at the level of affluence. What Emperor Hongwu established is basically heavy salary!"
Ding Yunyi was speechless. It seemed that he was playing tricks on his class.
Judging from the knowledge I have learned, the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were very low starting from Zhu Yuanzhang, which led to the corruption of officials who were not afraid of being skinned and beheaded. But now that Qin Yun said this is not the case at all.
But why did officials in the Ming Dynasty always cry about poverty?
When this question was raised, Qin Yun sighed again: "Actually, officials' salaries are not low in the first place. It's because these officials have so many wives, concubines, and children that it becomes difficult to spend their salaries."
One sentence attracted everyone's curiosity, and Qin Yun said:
"As for Hai Rui, who is famous for his integrity. When Hai Rui was the magistrate of Chun'an County, his salary was reduced by 70%. What he actually received was twelve stones of rice, twenty-seven taels and nine cents of silver and three hundred
Sixty guan banknotes. The banknotes are very worthless and can be ignored. Calculated with only twelve shi of rice and twenty-seven taels and nine cents of silver. If placed in an ordinary family of five, each household per year (daily life)
The required rations are about fifteen to eighteen stone, which is fifteen to eighteen taels of silver. Each household spends about seven taels of silver throughout the year on oil, salt, meat, vegetables, etc., and about three taels of silver for cloth and lamp oil.
The annual expenditure is about thirty taels of silver. In this way, the annual expenditure is about thirty taels of silver. Hai Rui's salary should be considered good for an ordinary person's life. But..."
Qin Yun paused for a moment before continuing: "However, Hai Rui's family has a large population, which is incomparable to ordinary people's family of five. When Hai Rui was in Chun'an, in addition to his mother and wife, there were two or three other people.
Daughter, two sons, plus domestic servants, maids, and wet nurses, there are a total of about ten people. With these salaries, the lives of these ten people will inevitably be somewhat difficult. Therefore, the real reason why I, the Ming officials, cry about poverty is not because of the low salary.
, but because of the large family size. Hai Rui’s family is already very simple, and his life is quite simple, but it seems to be stretched thin. As for other officials, you can imagine.”
Suddenly he remembered something and added: "When Hai Rui passed away at the age of seventy-five, he still had two concubines. The price of a concubine would not be less than a hundred taels of silver. This is also because Hai Rui was a second-rank official.
And it was because he didn’t have much money when he died.”
Speaking of this, Ding Yunyi has roughly understood.
Officials in the Ming Dynasty always said that their wages were low, but in fact a large part of the reason was themselves.
The state pays official salaries, and there is no reason why officials should also pay for concubines. This was also the case in my own time. The corrupt officials who were found to have mistresses or third wives could already have "basically no salary", so the reason why they continued to embezzle was,
Obviously it's not because the salary is too low, but because compared to having a mistress, the huge expenses and salary of a third wife are not enough.
This is true in reality, and so is history.
To solve this problem, we can only change the dynasty.