Rule the Ming Dynasty Alone

Master, the examination room has been set up! Liu Jin came to the throne and reported the report respectfully.

Zhu Youtang looked at the officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs who had been kneeling for a long time, then raised his hand to tell them to stand up, and then said to the three heads of the Ministry of Household Affairs: Li Shangshu, Li Shilang and Ye Shilang, you are exempted from the exam!

Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty! Li Min found that Zhu Youtang still saved some face for himself, and thanked him immediately.

The sky outside the Canopy Hall was still gray, but there was no sign of rain.

Thirty-one tables and chairs have been placed in the square here. On the table are paper, pens, ink and inkstones, and there is enough distance between the tables and chairs to become a temporary examination room.

This examination of the Thirteenth Division of the Ministry of Household Affairs will last up to one hour. The exam is about to begin! Liang Fang announced expressionlessly when she saw the officials of the Thirteenth Division of the Ministry of Household Affairs who were ready.

The officials of the Thirteenth Division present did not dare to be careless. In addition to the elimination of the last place in this examination, the examination results will also be related to their career.

If you can move from being a doctor to being a minister, then your life will be perfect.

The boss wanted to be promoted to a foreign doctor, and the foreign doctor wanted to be promoted to a medical doctor. The thirteen doctors also wanted to work hard and complete the craziest jump.

Get started!

Zhu Youtang did not want to waste his rich time by proctoring the exam here. After arranging for Liu Jin to proctor the exam here, he drove directly back to Qianqing Palace.

The development of the situation made him feel a little uneasy. Since his accession to the throne could be denied, Wang Yue's appointment might not go smoothly.

Originally, he had promised to leave the position of deputy censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to Wang Yue, but Wang Yue was guilty after all, and now he has to go through the Ministry of Punishment to rehabilitate him.

Judging from the current situation, I don't know whether Wang Yue's matter will be stuck in the Ministry of Punishment, or whether it will be pushed forward by Jiuqing Ting.

Zhu Youtang couldn't help but sigh to himself. He might have pushed Wang Yue out to be the prime minister of the salt administration, but he might have acted too hastily, so that the three of them might work together to deal with him.

Master, let's go back! Ye Qigong suggested to Li Min after seeing His Majesty off.

Li Min found that he could not see through the young emperor at all, but he still nodded slightly and said: Okay, let's go!

As he passed by the examination room, he couldn't help but take a look, but he was standing far away, so he couldn't see clearly the content of the test questions.

Li Si also glanced over there, but felt regretful in his heart.

Unlike the two next to him, he has the experience of being the head of the household department, so he is far superior to these two in arithmetic. If he takes the exam this time, I'm afraid your Majesty will know who is the most suitable person to talk to the Ministry of Household Affairs.

The square in front of Huagai Hall is very large, and the examination room only occupies a small area.

Since this is a land of imperial power, there is only imperial land and no trees, and all their actions are exposed to the invigilator's sight.

When the exam began, an atmosphere of competition filled the room.

The officials of the Thirteenth Division could still barely gather under Li Min's command, but His Majesty's pie was too big, and everyone wanted to win this honor.

Among the thirteen doctors, the one with the greatest chance of being honored, a feeling of competition quietly unfolds.

In fact, Zhu Youtang is right. The Ministry of Household Affairs does require certain professional skills, so the Minister of Household Affairs is generally promoted from the head of the Household Department.

Among the current thirteen doctors, excluding two related ones, the remaining eleven are all solid officials, and they are all capable of managing the finances of a province.

An antique dealer bought an antique for five guan and sold it to the customer for ten guan. The customer took out a hundred guan banknote. The antique dealer went to the rice store next door and exchanged it for ten ten guan banknotes. The change was 90 guan. Guan, after that the shopkeeper of Mihang came to tell Baiguan that the banknotes were counterfeit, how much did the antique dealer lose?

Originally, many people were worried that His Majesty's questions were too simple and did not reflect his level of proficiency. However, when they saw the first arithmetic question, they were immediately dumbfounded.

Where is this all going? There is such a life-threatening problem in the world, and why are we not allowing people to live?

Liu Jin stood in front and observed, and found that the questions asked by His Majesty seemed to really stump these self-respecting household officials, and he couldn't help but feel complacent.

Compared with their masters, these rookies are so weak that they dare to go against their masters.

After several calculations, Chen Kun, a doctor from Guangdong Province, came up with the answer and immediately smiled like Maitreya Buddha. Although I don’t know where such an exquisite question came from, it is enough to eliminate a group of people.

After writing down the correct answer, he dried his handwriting proudly, but suddenly he caught a glimpse of his rival Liu Zhong, a member of the Guangxi Department on the left, writing, and his heart suddenly became unhappy.

As his name suggests, Liu Zhong adheres to the word loyalty, but he is the only fifth-rank official who does not participate in the small tricks of the household department. Faced with this tricky question, he also answered step by step.

But when I saw the next question, I couldn't help but swallow secretly, realizing that this exam was more complicated than I thought.

How much was the annual income from the salt tax during the Shenzong period of the Northern Song Dynasty? How much is the total salt tax in this dynasty converted into silver? Discuss the pros and cons of the salt tax in the two dynasties!

Chen Kun also started to look through the second question, with the same solemn look on his face, but soon turned to relief, and he immediately started writing to answer.

Regarding the salt tax situation in the Song Dynasty, you only need to open the relevant records to see the accurate data. The highest record was 60 million strings, and it remained at 1,200 strings during the Shenzong period.

The salt tax revenue of this dynasty may have been difficult to calculate in the early days. After all, the court's Kaizhong method did not use silver taels for settlement. However, since the court allowed the remaining salt to be converted into silver, calculations have become possible.

Since the price set by the imperial court for the conversion of surplus salt into silver was seven qian for one piece of salt, by multiplying this price by the output, we can get the amount of salt tax revenue in the Ming Dynasty.

About 1.2 million taels?

Liu Zhong obtained the result through calculation, and couldn't help but take a breath when he saw that it was only one-tenth of the Song Dynasty.

Fortunately, this is just a hypothesis, and the opening method formulated by the Great Ancestor is not so stupid.

The essence of the Kaizhong method was to exchange transportation capacity for salt. That is, the salt merchant transported ten stones of rice, grain and other goods to Jiubian's granary, and the Ming court gave him a salt.

But in fact, you can't get a merchant to help you transport ten stones of grain to Jiubian's granary by spending seven coins, but you can do it with a piece of salt.

The reason is that the value of a salt yin is more than seven taels of silver, and the transport capacity collected from the salt tax under the Kaizhong Law is far more than 1.2 million taels.

Although I don't know that the price of Zhengyan's salt is set so low for money, but in the interests of the Ming Dynasty, it is natural to follow the Kaizhong method formulated by Taizu. Exchanging salt for silver will only benefit the profiteers.

Every time Chen Kun finished answering a question, his face would be filled with a Maitreya-like smile. But when he looked up and saw Liu Zhong finishing his answer, the smile on his face disappeared instantly.

Soon, the exam came to the last question: What is the price of salt in Beijing now?

This is undoubtedly the simplest question in this exam. It does not require complicated calculations or rich knowledge reserves. It only requires an understanding of the price of salt in daily life.

Just faced with such a simple question, several people who had just been invincible were now scratching their heads and looking like they were sweating profusely.

If you catch a random peddler and a lackey outside, you will definitely know the price of salt, but now it has stumped the knowledgeable and wealthy officials present.

The salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty was low mainly during the Hongwu period, but through the unremitting efforts of the civil service group, their income has already risen.

Since Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang added the permanent system to the official salary, emperors and officials of the past dynasties did not dare to touch the basic salary, but they made a big fuss about allowances and benefits.

Taking Chai Xin Yin and Zaoli Yin as an example, each person gets one tael of Chai Xin Yin per month, and the number of Zaoli silver varies from two to twelve, that is, senior officials can get twelve taels of silver every month, plus one tael in leap years. It is raised by the Ministry of War and local chief secretaries without going through the Ministry of Household Affairs.

In addition to the subsidy, there are also Bing Jie, Charcoal Jie and Bie Jie from the local areas, and they can also keep their wives and children, which can be said to have many benefits.

As for salt and tea, they had already been distributed by the yamen in the capital, and many officials took the opportunity to reap huge benefits. Since ancient times, the salaries of officials have never been so low. This statement no longer applies to the current Ming Dynasty.

Not to mention that they don’t need to worry about salt at all. Even if they really have to spend money to buy salt, with their current income, they don’t need to take it seriously.

carry out an assignment!

While other officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs were still scratching their heads, Guangdong Division Chief Chen Kun and Guangxi Division Member Liu Zhong raised their hands to hand in papers at almost the same moment.

Liu Jin looked at Liu Zhong and Chen Kun in surprise, then stepped forward to check and found that they had indeed completed the answer sheet.

He first collected Liu Zhong's test paper, but when he was collecting Chen Kun's test paper, a piece of silver ran into his cuff like a magic trick.