Da Ming Tai Shi

Chapter 23
Just as Chen Yunfu was curious about everything in the Procuratorate, the official Shi Pu was also curious about Chen Yunfu.

This one is probably too young.

Can one be fifteen or six years old?
How close is this guy to Shao Yushi to be sent to the Metropolitan Procuratorate at such a young age.

Although it is said that he is just a petty official with a knife and a pen, and his status is not popular, but there is such a saying that he is called the seventh-rank official in front of the prime minister.

The same officials, the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the officials of the local county government can't be at the same level.

As one of the central organs of the Ming Dynasty, the Metropolitan Procuratorate was responsible for the impeachment, prosecution, and audit work of all officials in the world, and exercised the power of Beijing inspection together with the Ministry of Officials. It was a veritable national authority, but it only had more than 200 officials.

This is very different from Liubu and Dali Temple.

The Ministry of Rites, the most relaxed of the six, has thousands of officials.

After all, the Department of Cleaning Officials is the department that needs the most manpower.

Shi Pu didn't take the initiative to inquire into Chen Yunfu's background, he is a nine-rank official, there is no difference between ordinary people and ordinary people in the capital, and there are countless families under the emperor's feet, no son of any family can afford to offend.

In short, he just needs to remember that Chen Yunfu is also someone he can't afford to offend.

Anyway, more than half of the more than 200 small officials in the Metropolitan Procuratorate are related households, and there are no more than one or two of them.

"We are all procuratorates. The place is big but there are few things. You don't have to worry when you come here. If there is something you don't understand, just ask Shao Yushi."

Shi Pu took Chen Yunfu to have a brief understanding of the layout of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and then visited the inner courtyard, which is the dormitory area.

"If you are tired on weekdays, you can rest here. However, except when we are handling cases, the inner courtyard is basically unoccupied."

Shi Pu smiled and said: "After all, they are all from the capital, so it's still comfortable to sleep at home after the value is off."

After repeating this sentence, Shi Pu asked Chen Yunfu, "Where does Yunfu live?"

"The top three in the north of Liren Street."

Shi Pu twitched the corner of his mouth, and laughed dryly: "Good terrain, good terrain."

Liren Street North Sanjia, Shao Yushi's family lived there, and it seems that there is no house that is less than the fourth grade.

His mind was running wildly, and Shi Pu thought of several dignitaries surnamed Chen in Beijing.

"Shi Siwu, my servant, where should I report?"

What Chen Yunfu said was a bit of a mouthful. He didn't quite understand how to express the meaning of the word "report" in the Ming Dynasty, so he simply used it directly.

"There's no need to go anywhere."

Shi Pu could understand it, and replied directly: "Usually, the Department of Experience is the busiest, and the Department of Zhaomo is the most idle, but the subordinates in our procuratorate are different from those in other places. In fact, there are not many, the main thing is to wait for orders.”

"Stand by, whose life are you waiting for?" Chen Yunfu blinked, unable to comprehend for a while.

"The fate of the imperial historians."

Shi Pu said: "But to put it this way, basically you don't meet a few times. How can the censors have the time to come to us to issue orders? Don't think that the officials of the censor hall are the bosses of our capital's procuratorate. They don't come here very often.

What's really going on, it was also Ge ​​Ching who brought the dossier to the palace to submit a report. I have worked here for more than ten years, and I have met one of the censors. Now we have Zhan Huigong, the censor of the Zuodu, I haven't heard of it yet. I have seen it. "

Metropolitan Procuratorate, are you so free?

Chen Yunfu blinked, a little incredulous.

In this way, wouldn't this procuratorate become a Qingshui yamen?

No, to be precise, the Qingshui yamen is the Ducha'outer courtyard.

The 'inner' courtyard of the Ducha in the palace is not a Qingshui yamen, but a real authority.

Only then did Chen Yunfu realize that he had misunderstood the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Subconsciously, Chen Yunfu always associates the Metropolitan Procuratorate with the procuratorates of later generations, thinking that the Metropolitan Procuratorate has many actual responsibilities, but now it seems that the only duty of the Metropolitan Procuratorate may not be the supervision function of the officials of the world , but simply as a weapon of partisan struggle.

This outer court accepts impeachment reports from various provinces and places, and then the experience department collects these impeachments and sends them to the inner court located in the palace, where they are handed over to a group of high-ranking supervisory censors.

As for how these censors will report to the leaders of the larger parties behind them after they are obtained, or how they will carry out attacks and fights against different parties, it has nothing to do with their outer court.

Because the Metropolitan Procuratorate itself does not have the power to investigate cases.

The Metropolitan Procuratorate can only call clues, and clues can only be called evidence after investigation and fact verification, and the power of verification lies with the Ministry of Punishment.

The censors were chasing after the wind, the officials of the Ministry of Punishment broke their legs, and the court became one, and the emperor profited from it, balancing all parties and stabilizing the ruling structure.

This is probably the only value of the Metropolitan Procuratorate itself.

Thinking of this, Chen Yunfu's fighting spirit retreated a little bit, he came here with great enthusiasm, thinking that he would be able to participate in the upcoming Guo Huan case, but looking at it now, this Guo Huan case may have nothing to do with him.

Unless, the Metropolitan Procuratorate has independent investigation power and its own set of investigation team!
But this kind of thing can only be thought about, Chen Yunfu himself shook his head.

It's useless to talk to Shao Zhi about this matter, let alone Shao Zhi, even if you talk to Zhan Hui, the Zuodu censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate who has never been masked, it can't be done.

Except Zhu Yuanzhang.

Chen Yunfu is not so ignorant.

It's better to do your own job honestly.

Although the Metropolitan Procuratorate is idle and crazy, the salary is not low.

"The annual salary is 20 taels, of which ten taels are given in cash, and ten taels are exchanged in kind."

Hearing this value, Chen Yunfu once thought he heard it wrong.

"so many?"

The salary situation of officials in the Ming Dynasty has always been criticized by later generations, because they feel that it is too little.

For example, the lowest official from the ninth rank can only receive five shi of rice per month or choose an annual salary of 28 taels.

But is it really low?

Let's not explain the high or low prices at the beginning, let's talk about the monthly salary of five shimi.

In the Ming Dynasty, one stone weighed about 94 kilograms, and five stones weighed 940 kilograms.

If this official from the ninth rank is a family of five, can he eat two hundred catties of rice every month? Even if he can, the remaining more than 700 catties can be realized in the market.

This can be sold for more than two taels of silver.

Wu Jingzi wrote a plot in "The Scholars", Fan Jin's father-in-law, Hu Butcher, can sell a pig a day for a penny.

A pig is calculated at a hundred or so catties, which is only enough for the butcher to earn a penny.

How much is that pig?
According to the records of "Miscellaneous Notes of Wanshu", a pig is only one or two or six silver coins.

With a total price of one tael or six dollars, the butcher Hu only made one dollar, so he was considered a very conscientious trader.

Of course that's not the point.

The point is that a pig is only one, two or six dollars.

An official from the ninth rank and a family of five eat two catties of meat a day, and don't finish eating a pig in a month!

In other words, Dun Dun has meat.

And the price of beef and mutton is [-]% cheaper than pork!
Because the sanitation environment in the Ming Dynasty was not ideal, it was difficult to raise pigs, but cattle and sheep were not. One was that the Ming Dynasty had its own pasture (Monanwei) in the early Ming Dynasty, and the other was the mutual trade of grasslands.

An official from the ninth rank can live a healthy life with only a legal salary.

In addition, the prices of cloth and silk are not high.

A piece of cloth is only three yuan, and a piece of silk is only five taels.

There are two sets of clothes for officials in spring, summer, autumn and winter. Both official clothes and casual clothes are purchased by the court.

Then the officials only need to buy clothes for the family members.

It's just why the salary of the Ming Dynasty gives people an illusion of being extremely low, because we have done a cross-time and space-time conversion of prices.

We calculated that a stone of grain would only cost more than [-] yuan if sold to future generations.

The monthly salary of five shi grains is only one thousand seventy-eight.

How to live.

How much is spent on human relations and festivals.

Don't officials have to keep a few side houses?

Don't you have to learn a foreign language once in a while?

Don't you want to eat a lot of fish and meat, and call a few singing and dancing prostitutes to listen to the music?

What kind of family is made like this?
If you put one thousand seventy-eight into the 21st century, the officials of the Ming Dynasty are really pitiful, and corruption seems to be justified.

But considering the price level, production conditions and spiritual supply of the Ming Dynasty, a small official from the ninth rank has already lived a very nourishing life.

It's just that people's hearts are limitless.

I am an official, why should I have a family of five.

Why only eat four dishes for a meal.

It's not a crime to drink some flower wine and listen to music once in a while.

I have to buy myself a few big brands of Su embroidery and Shu embroidery.

It is not too much to buy two pieces of jewelry for the daughter-in-law, concubine, mother-in-law and so on during the holidays.

Thinking about it like this made grass grow in my heart, and looking at the pitiful monthly salary in my hand, I felt like the imperial court was stingy.

If people are greedy, they will be greedy no matter what.

Is the salary of officials in the 21st century enough to be chic, enough to play golf, or not enough, so is their corruption reasonable?

Obviously unreasonable!
Lao Zhu adjusted the salaries of officials twice in the sixth year of Hongwu and the 28th year of Hongwu, which has been formulated according to more than twice the cost of normal family life.

It is the thinking of the ancient officials themselves, who has certain feudal bureaucratic habits.

Those who are unwilling to live are only better than ordinary people.

Officials are people, and people are just grass.

There must be a huge disparity in life to reflect it.

In the context of the fourteenth century, being able to eat big meat for a family of five with only legal income alone is enough to call happiness.

He also wanted to raise a concubine, and also wanted to learn a foreign language. In the end, he scolded the imperial court for being stingy, saying that Lao Zhu forced them to embezzle, which is somewhat shameless.

If it is to speak out for the officials of the Ming Dynasty, there is no need to grit their teeth against the corrupt officials in reality.

It's that simple.

The three views must be correct, and the thinking must be pure!

When Chen Yunfu heard that the annual salary was 20 taels, the smile on his face was brighter than flowers.

(End of this chapter)