A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 163 Welfare
The weather is getting colder.
It was already the second half of November, but Li Yi, a sixth-rank deputy supervisor of the palace gardens, did not have to attend the morning court, did not have to get up at four o'clock every morning, and did not have to work for three hours.

He could sleep until dawn, and then ride his horse leisurely to work. He didn't even have to report to the palace garden supervisor's office. He could go directly to the imperial garden greenhouse. His job was to manage the golden potatoes, and he didn't have to worry about anything else.

Li Yi was also happy about this. Although he had the power to manage things, he found it troublesome.

After inspecting the potatoes in the warm greenhouse and looking at the other vegetables, fruits and melons grown there, you can drink tea and read a book.

At noon, Li Yi no longer had to go to the public kitchen in the government office to eat. The emperor had specially ordered that the Guanglu Temple deliver one meal to him every day.

Today's lunch was also very rich, with stewed lamb, white flour steamed cakes, raw fish, a plate of spinach, and a hot soup.

Four dishes and one soup, worthy of the emperor's special order, the food is delicious.

Li Yi is a little resistant to sashimi.
Today's sashimi uses sea bass. The chef from Guanglu Temple has excellent knife skills and cuts the fish into pieces very thoroughly.

The fish pan is as white as snow and afraid of the wind.
It would be a waste not to eat such a fresh sea bass, so Li Yi simply boiled hot soup on the tea stove and used the soup to dip the fish fillets.

The sashimi turned out to be shabu-shabu.

After a delicious meal, Meimei continued to bask in the sun, read a book and drink tea.

When the sun was almost setting, around three in the afternoon, Li Yi packed up and went home from get off work.

Come at seven or eight o'clock and leave at three or four o'clock, and there are free working meals in between. Life is really comfortable.

"Deputy Supervisor Li, please wait a moment."

A clerk from the Palace Garden Supervisor came over and gave Li Yi some money.

"what money?"

"The remaining money for food," the clerk explained with a smile. The public kitchen of the Palace Garden Supervisor also has a special food allowance based on the number of officials in the department. This money mainly comes from the interest collected from lending public money and the rent from public land.

There were not many officials supervising the palace gardens, but there were a lot of public land and money. The public kitchen could not use up all the money every month. After paying for entertainment and other expenses, the rest was the leftover money for food, and this money was distributed to everyone.

This is equivalent to the welfare of each government office.
The food leftovers from the Palace Garden Supervisor are quite a lot, and they can get a share every month.
According to convention, the director and deputy director will of course take the biggest share, the two seventh-rank chancellors and two ninth-rank clerks will get a little less, and the lower-ranking officials such as the chief clerk and the clerk will get even less. As for the gardeners and flower growers, they will get nothing.

Li Yi, the deputy supervisor, earns about the same as the supervisor, several times more than the chancellor and the chief clerk.

"Our palace garden supervisor has a capital of 450 guan (approximately 100,000 guan), which yields 450,000 guan a year in interest. We have 300 mu of public land, and the rent is 6 dou per mu, which yields 180 dan (approximately 100,000 guan) a year."

These are just the rent from public land, interest from public funds, and other income.

Although Li Yi had just been hired as a regular employee not long ago, Director Fan Fang had instructed that the final pay be distributed based on the entire month.

"Director Fan said that Deputy Supervisor Li has been eating lunch in the greenhouse, which is all provided by the Guanglu Temple. Your portion from the public kitchen is useless, so I'll give you some money as well."

Li Yi looked at the portion given to him, which was five thousand coins and one stone of grain.

That’s a lot.

The monthly salary is only two thousand four hundred, and miscellaneous expenses are six hundred, which adds up to only three thousand.

His annual rice allowance for a sixth-rank official was ninety dan, but the emperor granted him special permission to receive it according to the fifth-rank official's salary, which was one hundred and sixty dan per year.

"Is there a mistake? There are so many?"

The interest on the public funds was 450,000 coins a year, which was only over 37,000 coins a month, and there were quite a few people feeding in the public kitchens of the palace.

Lingshi explained it to him in detail.

It was customary that the director and deputy director would take half of the remaining food, and the four chancellors and the chief clerk would divide the remaining half again, and the rest would be divided among the others.

It happened that Fan Fang came to the greenhouse to inspect it before getting off work.
Li Yi told this matter to his boss.
"These are all old rules handed down from the previous dynasty. They are all divided this way." Fan Fang said. This director is usually very leisurely and always smiling.
Although he was born as a slave of Li Yuan, he was actually an official who was enslaved for committing a crime during the Sui Dynasty. He came from a famous family in Anlu. His ancestors were powerful barbarians from the Wuxi tribe, and their ancestors were also dukes for generations. When Li Yuan followed his father in Anlu in his early years, the two were classmates.

So after he was enslaved, Li Yuan found a way to get Fan Fang over, and Fan Fang was naturally loyal to Li Yuan.

"Lord Fan, I have an immature idea. I think we don't have many officials in the Palace Garden Supervisory Office, and most of the daily work is done by the lower-level people. The food allowances are not much, so why not distribute them evenly? We don't lack them, but the lower the official rank, the lower the salary. If we have more food allowances, we can also supplement our family expenses and encourage them to work more actively."

Fan Fang was a county duke, and also held the rank of Jinzi Guanglu Dafu (Jin Zi Dafu), a third-rank official. His son Fan Shixing was also a county duke, and also held the rank of Zuo Guanglu Dafu (Zuo Guanglu Dafu), a second-rank official.

They didn't need this little money for food.
Fan Fang said with a smile, "What the deputy warden said makes sense. From now on, the public fields, public funds, the public kitchen, and the remaining food will all be managed by you, the deputy warden. It just so happens that you are free now, so you can help me take charge of some of the prison affairs."

He had no objection to splitting the remaining food allowance. It was only a little over ten thousand yuan and a few stone of rice a month. The young man Li Yi was quite popular now.

"So, will it start from this month or next month?" Li Yi asked the clerk if the salary for this month had been distributed yet. The clerk was secretly happy when he heard that it would be divided equally. They were the clerks who did the most work but had the lowest salary and the least share of the food salary.
Usually, the bulk of the food money was taken away by officials, especially the two directors and deputy directors, who took half directly.

"It hasn't been sent yet." He said quickly.

Fan Fang smiled and said, "Then let's do as Deputy Supervisor Li said and split the remaining food allowance equally this month."

Because the distribution of food leftovers had been changed, Fan Fang took Li Yi to the government office and announced the new distribution method to everyone.

Fan Fang specifically told everyone that this was what Deputy Supervisor Li Yi had fought for, and he hoped that everyone would work harder in the future. If they failed to live up to Deputy Supervisor Li's kindness, he might have to cancel the equal distribution method.

All the officials thanked Li Yi.

After the final recalculation, each person received one thousand coins and two dou of rice. Li Yi did not ask for the discount for not eating in the public kitchen, and asked it to be included in the remaining food allowance.

A thousand coins and two dou of rice a month are nothing to Fan Fang, Li Yi and others.

But for the seventh and ninth rank officials such as the chancellor and the chief clerk, it was still acceptable. But for the clerks such as the clerk, it was a lot more than before, almost three times as much.

Chang'an, the capital, was a prosperous place for the nobles and ministers, but for these minor officials, the salaries were meager and it was very difficult to support their families, especially in government offices like the Palace Garden Supervisor.

The Sinong Temple has 2,600 mu of public land, while their Palace Garden Supervisor only has 300 mu.

However, the officials in Beijing are much better off than local officials. They not only have salary rice, official fields, and permanent fields, but also subsidies from public fields and public money. Many government offices also have monthly salaries and miscellaneous funds.
But the situation of local officials is far worse now. They have no salary, only income from public land, money, and official land.

There were twenty officials supervising the palace gardens, and several hundred gardeners, gardeners, and masons.
Those gardeners earn even less.
He felt that as deputy supervisor, he had the responsibility to provide some benefits to everyone and increase their income.

"Mr. Fan, I heard that the Imperial Household Department earns a lot of money every year by selling horse manure?" Li Yi remembered reading a story that said the Imperial Household Department in the Song Dynasty earned hundreds of thousands of strings of cash by selling horse manure every year.

The numbers are staggering.

The Imperial Household Department of the Tang Dynasty was also in charge of horses and had many pastures, so naturally there was horse manure.

"Well, the Imperial Household Department is the richest of all the government offices in the capital, and they make a lot of money from horse manure every year."

"Do they keep all the money from horse manure?"

"That's impossible. The bulk of the money is turned over to the court, and a portion is kept for public use. In fact, most of it is distributed among the officials of this department."

Live off the mountain.

This is a horse that eats horse manure.
During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Pei Feishu, the Supervisor of the Imperial Household, was adept at managing finances and making profits. He once wrote to the emperor saying that horse manure in the imperial stables was piled up like a mountain, and if it were sold to the people, he could make a profit of 200,000 strings of cash every year.

Li Zhi asked Prime Minister Liu Rengui, who said he was afraid that people would say the Li Tang royal family's selling of horse manure would be disreputable, so Gaozong gave up. Even if the emperor didn't sell it, officials still did, and of course the emperor still took the lion's share of the money.

"Master Fan, you said that our Palace Garden Supervisor is mainly responsible for the flowers, birds, trees, etc. in the palace gardens. Why don't we build a few greenhouses to grow vegetables and flowers for sale?

Although the greenhouse costs a lot, there are many nobles and officials in Chang'an. They are definitely willing to spend more money to eat fresh vegetables, even some out-of-season vegetables and fruits, in this winter.

I heard that in the summer, fresh lychees were shipped from Lingnan and Shu to Beijing by express horses. A bunch of fresh lychees could be worth 100,000 yuan, but some people still enjoy doing this.
Some people also transport fresh seafood from the Denglai coast, and chicken head rice from Suzhou..."

"We can build some greenhouses, grow vegetables and flowers for sale. The money we earn can be turned over to the government, used to buy paper, pens, ink, farm tools, and food for the public kitchen, and can also be used to provide subsidies to our government officials and gardeners to increase everyone's income.
Living in Chang'an is not easy."

Fan Fang had never really thought about such a question. In fact, he, the director, was similar to Li Yi, the deputy director. They just muddled through the day and didn't put any thought into this at all.

The specific affairs of the Palace Garden Supervisor are handled by two Palace Garden Secretaries and the Chief Clerk.

Fan Fang himself is a nobleman, so of course he is willing to spend a little more money to eat fresh vegetables in winter, or even some fruits and vegetables that can only be eaten in summer.

And some flowers will definitely sell well among wealthy ladies.

"This is indeed a good idea." Fan Fang said with a smile.

"Fan Jian, the Imperial Household Department can sell horse manure to make a living for their officials, but we can't let the people below suffer."

"Hahaha, alright, you come up with a specific proposal first, and then we'll discuss it together. If it's feasible, then we'll do it. You'll also be responsible for this matter."

Fan Fang was a hands-off boss, and he left everything to Li Yi, whether it was splitting the remaining food money or making money by growing vegetables and flowers in the greenhouse.
If things go well, it's because of his good leadership. If things go wrong, it will be Li Yi who will be held accountable.

Li Yi naturally thought of it, but he didn't care. As an official, even if he couldn't benefit the people, he should at least provide some benefits for his subordinates.

(End of this chapter)