Ming Dynasty: Traveling through the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded

Chapter 12 The prince behaves strangely, and the ministers are collectively confused
Zhu Biao, who was sitting in the audience, raised his hand to signal Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Your Majesty, the second matter is about the salaries of the officials."

As soon as these words were spoken, the ministers could not help but tremble.

In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that salaries could not be changed arbitrarily, especially the annual salary of officials was a mandatory requirement.

Anyone who dares to use any income other than salary will be treated as corrupt.

Even entertainment venues such as brothels and high-end restaurants are not allowed to have official positions that do not match the salary.

Zhu Yuanzhang once discovered that an official whose annual salary was only 30 shi actually went to a brothel and spent dozens of taels of silver in one night.

After investigation and evidence collection, it was found that this official had abused his power to embezzle and accept bribes.

Naturally, his final fate was very miserable. He was tortured by having his skin peeled off by daylilies and then made into a scarecrow and placed at the official position as a warning to the next person to take up the official position.

If he embezzles, this will be the result.

Zhu Biao mentioned the issue of salaries. In their opinion, they might feel that their salaries were too high and needed to be reduced.

Not only them, Zhu Yuanzhang also thought so.

In his opinion, his son would definitely stand on his side.

"Salary? Biao'er, what's the problem with this salary?"

Zhu Biao took a deep breath and immediately responded.

“Your Majesty, I think the salaries of officials are too low, especially those at the grassroots level.

After much research and investigation, I discovered that the monthly salary of a county magistrate of the seventh rank in the Ming Dynasty was less than eight dan, and the annual salary was less than one hundred dan.

Such salary is totally insufficient for them to use. I have also discovered that the corrupt officials dealt with by the Ming Dynasty every month are basically those with low ranks.

They lived in an area that was not rich to begin with, and had to support their families and the people recruited by the county government, such as legal advisors.

However, the salary given by the court was too little. Not only could they not spend money, but it was even difficult to support their families.

As a result, some people have no way to give their families a better life.

They had no choice but to resort to corruption and bribery.

The Ming Dynasty executed thousands of corrupt officials every year, but the killing did not reduce the chance of them continuing to engage in corruption. Instead, they became more corrupt. During the interrogation, I even learned that they knew they would end up dead.

So he was extremely greedy and even transferred his money away to prevent it from being confiscated by the court after his death.

Your Majesty, it is normal to use severe punishments in troubled times, but killing people to stop corruption is simply not feasible."

After returning to the Eastern Palace last night, Zhu Biao began to look for the memorials he had handled in the study.

I want to see if what Yang Chen said is true.

Later, he looked through the corrupt officials who had been beheaded in the past. Many of them said before they died that the salary given by the Ming Dynasty was not enough, which was why they were forced to resort to corruption.

In other words, it was the Ming Dynasty that forced them to engage in corruption; if they had the chance, they would not have done so.

Zhu Biao knew best how drastic and swift his father's methods were.

At the same time, he was also prepared to see how his father would treat him after knowing his thoughts.

When he looked up, he found that Zhu Yuanzhang sitting on the dragon throne had a gloomy face and looked very bad.

It can be seen from here that he has been suppressing his temper.

He couldn't understand why his son would make such a suggestion.

The Ming Dynasty had a zero-tolerance attitude towards corrupt officials, and anyone who had evidence of corruption would be punished.

No matter how high his official rank is, no matter how much or how little he has embezzled, as long as it reaches a certain amount, he must be dealt with according to the law!

As for why officials were given such low salaries, it was because in Zhu Yuanzhang's view, officials were not worthy of living a carefree life!
We must exploit these officials and let them know that in the Ming Dynasty, if officials dare to do evil and aid the tyrant, they will all have the same end!
Zhu Yuanzhang looked down at Zhu Biao, his tone showing no attitude. "Biao'er, you said that the salaries we set for officials are too low, so you want to increase the salaries of all officials, right?"

"Yes!"

Zhu Biao followed his heart and answered affirmatively.

He didn't want his father to continue committing murder like this.

It is impossible to kill all people. If killing could reduce the number of corrupt officials, then there would have been no corrupt officials since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

However, more than ten years have passed, and more and more corrupt officials have died under Ming law every year. If the situation continues to develop in this way, Zhu Biao is worried that when he takes over the Ming Dynasty in the future

I'm afraid no one would dare to take the imperial examination.

The ministers below seemed to smell gunpowder at this moment.

Some of them knew very well that Zhu Yuanzhang treated them, the officials, as his own slaves.

Except for those who fought with Zhu Yuanzhang, the rest of the people, even if they were first-rank officials, lived in extreme poverty.

If it weren't for their status and relatives who could obtain a certain amount of money through various channels, these people in high positions would have lived an ordinary life.

After Zhu Biao answered, the whole place fell into silence. After a long while, Zhu Yuanzhang spoke again.

"I am very pleased that the Crown Prince can show sympathy to the officials, but as for the increase in salaries, I think this is something that needs to be discussed. Let's adjourn the court."

The murmured sound spread out and fell into everyone's ears.

They all saw that Zhu Yuanzhang was very angry, and in fact, he was.

He stood up and was about to leave, but stopped and turned to look at Zhu Biao.

"Prince, come to the study later. I have something to ask you."

Zhu Biao looked at his father, feeling bitter, and could only raise his hand to respond.

At the same time, all officials gradually withdrew.

When they left, they were all discussing why Zhu Biao suddenly spoke for them.

This is really weird.

You have to know that Zhu Biao usually considers issues from Zhu Yuanzhang's perspective and never thinks about officials like them.

The other party's behavior today can indeed be described as strange.

The Imperial Study was where Zhu Yuanzhang usually handled memorials.

As in the past, after he retired from court, he would come here to wait for Zhu Biao to process the memorials. He only needed to take a quick look at them, and if there were no major problems, they would be considered passed.

But today he was unhappy.

Sitting on the chair, Zhu Biao, who was standing in front of him, was a little nervous.

Until the other person speaks.

"Biao'er, tell me why you want to increase the salaries of all officials? Are you trying to win over the people? To show your favor to the emperor?"

Zhu Yuanzhang knew his son's character very well, but he didn't understand why he brought up this idea during the morning court session.

Zhu Biao took a deep breath, raised his hand to salute, and then answered.

“Father, I have no intention of winning people’s hearts and minds, but the salaries you set for officials are indeed too low, especially for those low-level officials, which are totally insufficient to support their basic living.

As an official of the Ming Dynasty, he lived a very difficult life. He couldn't even buy new clothes for his family during the holidays. If this were to be told to others, people would think that the Ming court was exploiting its officials.

That is why I proposed the idea of ​​increasing the salaries of all officials.”

(End of this chapter)