Chapter 50 Accounting Skills
Su Ze has questions all over his head. Bribery is also a life skill?
But if you think about it carefully, it seems that this is indeed an ancient skill.
If you have skills, you must learn them. After Su Ze chose to learn, some simple hidden rules for bribery came into his mind.
After all, these are some agreed-upon rules, and this set of unspoken rules is implemented everywhere in Daming County Government.
To enter the county government office, you have to pay a bribe to the government servant on duty at the door. To work in the county government office, you have to pay a bribe. Moreover, depending on the identity of the person serving, the content of the service is different, and different amounts of money are required.
For example, when Su Ze registered for the county examination, his current status was not even considered a child, and he was considered a scholar from a poor family.
Naturally, there is no psychological pressure when such subordinates bully people.
If Su Ze passed the boy student examination and became a student member like Zhou Xiucai, then the subordinates in the ceremonial room would not only not accept money, but would also respectfully come to deliver the materials to Su Ze for signature.
If Su Ze could pass the provincial examination like Hai Rui and be qualified to be elected, then these subordinate officials would in turn send gifts to Su Ze and ask for his protection.
This is the unspoken rule contained in bribery. Su Ze is very disgusted with this set of rules, but he has to admit that this kind of thing has never been forbidden through the ages.
Su Ze had an idea. Since the county government office is a location, can other "skills" be discovered?
When he thought of this, Su Ze immediately said goodbye and left the ceremony room, joining Lin Xianyang who was waiting outside the door.
"Is it done?" Lin Xianyang asked when he saw Su Ze's happy look.
"It's done. Thank you brother Xianyang. Come on, I'll accompany you to the household to pay the fine."
Su Ze didn't see Hai Rui's figure and asked, "Where's Master Hai?"
"Master Hai said he He went to the Chengfa Department to read the recent imperial newspaper. Let us finish our work and go to the Chengfa Department to wait for him." The
Dibao is a newspaper distributed by the imperial court to the grassroots. However, this newspaper is not for ordinary people to read. From the express delivery shop After being sent to the county government, it will be stored in the Department of Acceptance and Delivery.
The officials of the Chengfa Department will copy three copies of the county magistrate, the county magistrate, and the chief registrar. If the other officials want to read it, they can only go to the Chengfa Department to read it themselves.
Without Hai Rui around, Su Ze felt more relaxed. He didn't know why he felt a little uncomfortable seeing Hai Rui after he had just paid a bribe.
As expected, "taking people as a mirror can help you understand gains and losses." Standing with a Hantan mirror like Hai Rui is quite psychologically stressful.
Su Ze and Lin Xianyang came to the household room together. The structure of the household room was similar to that of the ceremony room, except that the incense table in the middle was not dedicated to Confucius, but to the God of Wealth.
Su Ze only felt that it was a bit absurd. The Ming Dynasty Yamen openly worshiped the God of Wealth?
This God of Wealth is dressed in red, holding a wishful thinking and a cornucopia, and there are two naive boys in front and behind, namely the boy who attracts wealth and the boy who brings in treasure.
Su Ze Level 2's religious knowledge allowed him to recognize that this was Li Kuaizu, known among the people as the God of Wen and Wealth.
Ancestor Li Gui, the government service is fine.
The Ming Dynasty inherited the Song Dynasty's sacrifices, and the Ming Dynasty's sacrifice system basically followed the Song Dynasty. Li Kuizu himself was the official canonized God of Wealth in the Song Dynasty, so it was no problem to worship him in official uniform in the Ming Dynasty.
This God of Wealth himself was a county magistrate during the reign of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty. He was honest and loved the people. He often used his salary to give to the poor. He was also a God of Wealth who conformed to Confucian political correctness.
However, it seems that the incense ash on the incense table in front of the God of Wealth is much more than that on the incense table in front of Confucius in the ceremony room. This God of Wealth should be more popular than Confucius in the county government. Lin Xianyang looked around and couldn't find the round-faced clerk who issued the fine. He had to find a skinny middle-aged clerk and handed him the fine.
This clerk had a mustache, which is the standard look of a cunning subordinate in traditional TV images. After taking the receipt, he checked it with the county government's fine book, and then said: "The fine of thirty-two taels of silver, you are
paying Silver or copper coins?"
"Silver, silver!"
Before coming, the old man had already asked someone to exchange the copper coins for broken silver, so that Lin Xianyang could be sent to the county government.
Lin Xianyang put the cloth bag in his arms on the table. The cloth bag was filled with small and large pieces of silver. The clerk looked at the pile with some disgust, but he still counted it carefully.
[I found that the location "County Government Office" can learn the skill "Accounting Room". Do you want to learn it? 】
Sure enough, there are new skills!
It makes sense when you think about it. The county government office needs to settle accounts, so it is normal to learn the skill of "accounting room".
And Su Ze is in a better mood. In "Hundred Scenes", accounting is also a very practical skill. After mastering accounting skills, whether in business or officialdom, it can reduce the corruption of subordinates.
In fact, in reality, accounting is also a practical skill. Even if an official does not have accounting skills, he must bring his close associates who know accounting skills to his appointment. Otherwise, his subordinates who are proficient in accounting will torture the official to death.
This is definitely not alarmist. The famous "Empty Seal Case" in the early Ming Dynasty was a major case that shocked the government and the public because of false accounting. In the end, a large number of officials, including Fang Xiaoru's father, were investigated and executed.
"Learn!"
Su Ze happily gained a skill again. From today on, he will start keeping accounts, so he can use this skill as soon as possible!
After the mustached scribe finished counting, he said: "The fineness of the silver is fine, but the weight is thirty-two taels, and you need to pay another one or two taels of fire consumption silver." Huo consumption is the smelting of broken silver
. The consumption of silver ingots was one of the current shortcomings during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it was also a focus of historical research on the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
Yongzheng's return of fire consumption to the public meant that the collection of fire consumption silver was transformed into a tax, and was changed to a unified collection by the central court to put an end to random local levies.
However, Su Ze read the history books and found that the Huo Hua Consumption Period only appeared after Zhang Juzheng’s whipping law, which uniformly converted physical taxes into silver for tax collection. Why is the county government collecting Huo Consumption now? Could it be that this scribe was targeting Changning Wei?
"Why do you still need to collect fire and waste money?" Su Ze asked.
The eight-character bearded clerk glanced at Su Ze. Lin Xianyang quickly grabbed Su Ze and said, "It is a rule that fire consumes silver. The clerk is not targeting our Changning Guards." The
eight-character bearded clerk snorted coldly and said, "This silver You are here to enter Taichou. The county government wants to melt it into silver ingots and send it to the capital. Thirty-two taels of silver will charge you 20 taels of fire consumption, which is not high! This is all the mercy of our Nanping magistrate! You can ask about the fire consumption charges of other counties. How much!"
But with the clerk's explanation, Su Ze understood that this should be an unspoken rule of the county government, and not for Chang Ning Wei.
Taicang was the emperor's private treasury. The reform of Taicang was much earlier than the reform of the Ministry of Household Affairs. Starting from the Chenghua Year, many of the physical taxes in Taicang were changed into tribute silver.
Lin Xianyang took out another cloth bag from his chest and handed over some broken silver. The mustached scribe then picked up his reed pen, dipped it in ink, wrote out a new bill and said: "This is the statement
. You can go."
After coming out of the house, Su Ze's eyes lit up when he saw the plaques on other houses of the county government. Can he learn other skills?
(End of chapter)