Chapter 10 10. The method of military officials is "robbing openly", while the method of civil officials is "robbing secretly"

The new local officials are relatively poor, and their treatment is not as good as that of the officials who stayed in the court, but the local officials live a nourishing life. As mentioned above, when Kou Zhun was drinking and sexing with prostitutes in Dengzhou, the mountains were high and the emperor was far away, so no one could care about him, and he squandered the money he had accumulated in his official career for half his life.After the failure of the Qingli New Deal, Fan Zhongyan moved down to the land, and also "widely purchased land" and called it "Yi Tian" to comfort his relatives.At that time, there were still ninety people in the clan, and they were given money for marriages, weddings, and funerals.For example, if you marry a daughter, you will be given fifty guan, and if you marry a wife, you will be given thirty guan.

The leaders of the prefecture, the government, the army, the supervisor, and even the transport envoys of the road are in the position where the emperor Yuan Laozi has the final say. They report to the higher authorities every year and complete the tasks assigned by the court.Officials at the first level can only enter the imperial court to become a minister. If they cannot enter the decision-making level, it is meaningless to enter the imperial court.There is also a big bottleneck in the promotion of the chiefs of the state, government, and army. On the one hand, being a transfer officer requires talent, and on the other hand, the competition is very fierce.

In the Song Dynasty, due to the political system with strong stems and weak branches, there was insufficient financial space for the localities. Even so, some officials came up with tricks. The imperial court gave minister money (or "common money") to various government functional departments, similar to today's hospitality expenses, both central and local, to ensure that the bowl of water was level.Suffer more than few, don't worry about few but unevenness, the ups and downs of officialdom are mostly caused by the uneven distribution of interests, including material interests and spiritual interests.

Minister's money or public money is the node of finance in the Song Dynasty, and it is also a concept that has not been studied clearly. "Song Hui Yao Collection Manuscript Ritual" contains: "The ministers of Zhongshu give 50 guan each month to the kitchen, 35 guan to the political affairs, and the Privy Council gives 350 guan to the east cook and 270 guan to the west cook every month. , 300 guan per month for the third department, 100 guan for the monthly kitchen of the bachelor’s college, etc. The old military supervisors in Sanjing and other prefectures all have constants, and they are allowed to declare and set up, and they are paid on a monthly basis. Officials have the same branch.” In short, the envoy’s money is already a huge amount as hospitality expenses, but the subsidies from the imperial court are far less than the income generated by the localities alone.

Corruption is like a parasite, nourished by the blood of the empire, and siphons the nutrition of the empire.Corruption in the government and the public will lead to disordered discipline and morals, and corruption in the army will be extremely destructive.In the fourth year of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty (1052), Nong Zhigao rebelled against the Song Dynasty and established the "South Heaven Kingdom", which caused a lot of trouble in the southwest area.Before Di Qing went to the front line, the local officials could not resist.Song Klonn, the magistrate of Yongzhou, was unable to quell the chaos, and he was thinking about how to get rewards from the court. He cooperated with many frontline officials such as Xidongdu to inspect Liuzhuang, Wang Fang, the push official of Pennsylvania, and Yang Deyan, the chief secretary of Lingshan County, Qinzhou. Unethical things, killing fugitives and falsely claiming to have captured the enemy, in order to pretend to be paid by the imperial court.After the incident, the relevant responsible persons were severely dealt with, deprived of political rights for life, exiled for thousands of miles, and never hired.

Song Klonn made a fortune for the country. Under the specific historical background, during the war, "killing fugitives and claiming to be thieves" abounds, which is not enough to prove the advantages of local officials.It will be more obvious in peaceful times.Cao Bin, the famous founding general of the Northern Song Dynasty, was a relative of Cao Han, and was a general who fought bloody battles.When Cao Bin entered Shu, Cao Han was the transshipment envoy of the southwestern states, responsible for the supply of the army.When the Southern Tang Dynasty was destroyed, Cao Han was the vanguard.Cao Han is both civil and military, and his poems are very bold: "I once wore golden armor because of the national disaster, and I was ashamed to sell treasured swords because of my poor family. In the future, Yanshan will be on the cliffs, and I should be named Cao first." Song Taizong often chanted Cao Han's military poems , to reminisce about the eventful years of the year.Cao Han was deployed in the camp of Youzhou, and used his army to open a black market to make money in the local area. "Song History" records that "expropriation is harsh, and political reasons are relaxed", even to the point of selling weapons.Senior officers in the army sold weapons privately and committed a crime of endangering national security, enough to cause death.Song Taizong thought of his great achievements, so he was relegated to Ruzhou as a punishment.

Song Klonn and Cao Han relied on the advantage of the sky high and the emperor's remote location, and used national resources to enrich their own pockets. The military officials who had been on the battlefield were indeed not soft on economic construction.Zhang Kang, the training envoy of the Guozhou Regiment, who was also a military minister, was obviously superior.Zhang Kang does not kill people and does not sell weapons. He makes money by lending money and earning interest. He uses "fake official bank" for his own use. The original capital is money from the imperial court. He has come up with a "karate" trick. Now we are in charge of this practice. Called "embezzlement of public funds".

The method of military officials is "obvious robbery", while civil officials usually "secret robbery". According to "Song Huiyao Collection Draft Officials", at that time, Wai Lang, a member of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, was appointed as Zhuanzhi Tanzhou, roughly equivalent to the mayor of Changsha today.From time to time, a great jeweler from Guangzhou died in Tanzhou. Ren Zhuan saw the opportunity to make a fortune, so he found Li Zhang, the judge (deputy governor) of his own way, and the two joined forces. Commerce flourished in the Song Dynasty, and the commercial tax surpassed the agricultural tax for the first time, becoming an important economic pillar of the empire.Huang Renyu mentioned in "Xining's ten-year (1077) annual income was 70.7 million guan, the two agricultural taxes were 21.62 million guan, accounting for 30%; the industrial and commercial tax was 49.11 million guan, accounting for 70%".In the Song Dynasty, there was a complete financial system and commercial taxation system, such as the third department of the highest department of central finance, and the local capital transfer department to manage finances.In terms of trade management, the central government is responsible for cargo services, and the local governments are responsible for the cargo department and the city ship department (customs).Ren Zhuan and Li Zhang destroyed the jeweler's tax payment certificate, confiscated the jeweler's property on the grounds of tax evasion, and obtained 80 taels of pearls, which happened to be 5 Song Jin.

This Guangzhou jeweler used to buy goods with 1,000 guan in Guangzhou, and sold more than 3,000 guan in Beijing, and the price doubled.At that time, he bought 5 catties of pearls for 1000 guan, or 200 guan per catty.This is the cost price, not the market price.Unfortunately, the jeweler in Guangzhou died of illness in Tanzhou this time. Ren Zhuan and Li Zhang "received their wealth" and "sold" the five catties of pearls they got.One is the mayor who is in charge of the local area, and the other is the deputy governor who is in charge of finance. They are well aware of the market conditions of pearls, and the reason why they sell them at a low price is because they are eager to sell them and exchange them for cash.Give them a discount, sell it below the market price, it will cost two thousand strings!In the Renzong Dynasty, the price of rice was 300 Wenqian per stone, which was equivalent to 360,600 RMB.Together, the two sold the pearls at a low price, and "distributed the money according to work", and found an excuse to kill the jeweler's son.

Song Klonn, Cao Han, Zhang Kang, Ren Zhuan, etc., whether civil servants or military officials, they worked for tigers in the local area, and they were able to retreat completely after the incident.They have a common characteristic after committing a crime: Why didn't they kill the responsible person to show the world, but dealt with it lightly? The quack term "a strong dragon does not overwhelm a local snake" has inspired us, and this phenomenon is its extension and refraction.Staying in the place for a long time and establishing a solid organizational network is like a carbuncle somewhere in the body. The way to deal with it is not to cut off the rotten flesh, but to seek another remedy to prevent it from spreading and necrosis.The reason why it is difficult for a strong dragon to overwhelm local snakes is that there are so many local snakes.Let’s go back to the relationship between the imperial court and the localities again. The sky is round and the place is round, and the road is in the center. It is precisely because of the support of several localities that the imperial court is unique.Mount Tai does not let the soil, so it can become big; the river and the sea do not choose trickles, so it can be deep.The two are essentially the same, the degeneration of the dragon is the snake, of the same origin, inseparable.The local advantage lies in the existence of extremely strong political forces for self-protection.The imperial court's attitude towards them is very clear. To take care of local forces, it must first take care of local personnel.In the final analysis, it is to balance the material interests of the officials and the people, and the political interests of the central and local governments.

In officialdom, the biggest ups and downs are nothing more than the word "balance".