The official administration of the Northern Song Dynasty was indeed a bit outrageous.

In fact, most of the people in charge of local affairs are clerks. Clerks even have the final say in many decisions. Officials spend their days eating, drinking and having fun. Zhang Fei's brother-in-law Xu Lingxiao also belongs to this group of officials.

Xu Lingxiao is good at poetry and writing, but he is not good at handling official business and is far inferior to Xu Zhiqian.

Under this system, it is indeed unlikely that officials like Jiedushi will emerge.

Actually, there is nothing wrong with this. It doesn't matter who is in charge. In many details, clerks are much more reliable than officials. But the key point is that clerks do not have salaries. They can only get some subsidies. Of course, officials pay their own clerks, so it depends on the financial resources of the officials. If you follow Han Qi, you will definitely have a good life.

When these two points are combined, the problem becomes serious.

On the one hand, he has power, but on the other hand, he has no money.

The result speaks for itself.

If the people want the government to do something for them, they have to give it some money.

As a result, under normal circumstances, ordinary people are unwilling to go to government offices for help.

...

...

If this point is not changed, no matter how good the law is, it will be meaningless.

But what Yu Da said was also very true. Those officials had no choice but to make money. How could they make a living?

The imperial court was actually aware of this, but could only turn a blind eye.

To be honest, there were indeed fewer corrupt officials in the Northern Song Dynasty during this period, but there were still countless corrupt officials, far more than in the Tang Dynasty.

In history, when Wang Anshi promulgated the conscription law, there was also a less noticeable law hidden in it, namely the "Warehouse Law".

In fact, it is very simple, which is to incorporate officials into the national salary system.

Then, Wang Anshi began to rectify the administration of officials.

Although Wang Anshi was not as cautious as Sima Guang, his consideration was limited to details. On key issues, Wang Anshi considered very clearly. If he wanted to rectify the administration of officials, he had to pay people's salaries first.

Not paying salaries and yet punishing corrupt officials is sheer hooliganism and no one will do that.

However, due to the emergence of the police, Wang Anshi was not in a hurry to introduce the Warehouse Law, but instead hoped to use the entire police system to implement the Warehouse Law.

The unprecedented success of the police is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

By incorporating officials into the police system, they can quickly gain the recognition of the people.

Compared with Wang Anshi, Sima Guang and others, Zhang Fei lacked the ambition to cultivate himself, govern the country and bring peace to the world. He was just a trainee lawyer who was striving for a well-off life, and he did not have this ambition at all.

Although this kind of thought began to sprout in people's minds after the Northern Song Dynasty, it is still incomparable with that of today's literati.

But then again, his professional spirit is something that Wang Anshi and Sima Guang do not possess.

Since he wants to develop the business of household grade assessment, he will definitely do it seriously and will never do it perfunctorily.

Moreover, if Wang Anshi could not promote the new law, his plan would not be successful.

The entire judicial reform was due to Wang Anshi’s new policies. Otherwise, Sima Guang might not have done so.

Therefore, Zhang Fei will definitely give his full support to Wang Anshi.

But at the moment, he is still busy moving, so he came to the flower market today and wanted to buy some better flower seeds to take back, because Gao Wenyin likes to grow flowers very much, but is reluctant to spend money on expensive seeds.

"Hey! It's Saburo."

The owner of a flower shop saw Zhang Fei coming and greeted him warmly.

Zhang Fei smiled and said, "Boss, I want to buy some flower seeds."

The shopkeeper asked, "What kind of flower seeds would Sanlang like?"

Zhang Fei said: "Peony flowers and rose flowers are indispensable. The shopkeeper can sell the rest as he sees fit."

The shopkeeper said, "I heard that Sanlang recently bought a big house. I guess these flower seeds are for the new house."

Zhang Fei smiled bitterly and said, "How come everyone knows that I bought a house?"

The shopkeeper groaned, "Don't you know, Sanlang, that wherever you buy a house, the rent will go up?"

“Is it so exaggerated?”

Zhang Fei smiled helplessly and thought, when I was beaten, I didn't see the rent of that house reduced. These damn landlords only increase the price, never decrease it.

Just at this moment, I heard a quarrel behind me.

"What? You actually say this method of conscription is good?"

"I think it's pretty good."

Zhang Fei looked back and saw two scholars coming out of the teahouse arguing.

"What's good about it?"

"In the past, it only targeted the upper-class households, causing many families to be ruined, but now everyone only needs to pay a small amount, which I think is quite reasonable."

"A little bit of money is nothing to upper-class families, but for poor people, it may also cause their families to be destroyed. How many upper-class families are there, and how many lower-class families are there? If one less rich family is destroyed, the price may be the destruction of more than a dozen poor families. Doesn't the life of the poor matter?"

"You are just making up a story. The newspaper clearly states that the poor households pay less than half of the rich households. What else do you want?"

"Does the wealth of the poor have half of that of the rich? Well, I won't argue with you. We are on different paths and cannot make plans together. Goodbye."

The two parted on bad terms.

Then the shopkeeper sighed, "Ah, these past two days, people have been arguing about the conscription law every day!"

Zhang Fei turned around and asked, "Really?"

"Compared to the previous equalization method, this conscription method is really terrible. There are many people who support it, but there are also many who oppose it. Take our store for example. I support it, but my employees are very dissatisfied."

"Why?"

"I belong to the third-class household. Every year when it is my turn or my family's turn, I have to spend a lot of money to prepare, but my servants don't have to. Once the conscription law is promulgated, he will also have to pay the exemption fee every year."

"Can't you give your guys a raise?"

"Would you like some roses?"

"Ah? Of course I can."

Zhang Fei smiled and nodded.

I bought the seeds and had just left the flower market when a white-faced servant came over.

Zhang Fei recognized him as the attendant beside Zhao Xu.

The palace, in the attic.

"minister."

"How many times do I have to say this?"

When Zhao Xu saw that Zhang Fei was about to salute, he was quite dissatisfied.

"Uh, Hello, Emperor. No, no, Hello, Official. Not that either!"

"hehe."

Zhao Xu smiled and extended his hand to lead him to the other side, "Sit down. Sit down."

"Thank you, sir."

Zhang Fei sat down awkwardly.

He didn't know how to greet anyone unless he saluted.

Zhao Xu asked with a smile: "Do you know why I came to you?"

Zhang Fei asked: "Recruitment method?"

Zhao Xu asked again: "What do you think about this?"

Zhang Fei smiled and said, "Your Excellency is the fifth or sixth person to ask me this question."

Zhao Xu asked, "So how did you answer?"

Zhang Fei said: "I don't know. Not sure. I can't say for sure."

"Then what should I ask you?"

"It's 10,000 times better than the corvée law, but the obstacles it encounters are likely to be huge."

"Many ministers in the court also oppose this, such as Sima Junshi, who are against collecting exemption taxes from the poor. What do you think about this?"

“I think this is the best approach at this point.”

"Yeah?"

Zhao Xu hurriedly asked, "What do you mean?"

Zhang Fei explained: "The poor are the majority. If the poor are exempted from paying taxes, all the burden will be concentrated on the second, third and fourth class households. This situation may be worse than the corvée law. In a few years, the upper class households may all disappear.

As for the really wealthy people, they cannot be taxed too much. In the conscription law formulated by Wang Xueshi, the official households are only taxed half. But if we talk about wealth...

The richest people in the world are all royal relatives and court officials. It is impossible to collect taxes from them, so the poor have to share the burden. Otherwise, such huge expenditures will all fall on the middle class.

Even if you ask him to do it, he can't think of a better way than this. After all, this is not just typing.

Zhao Xu nodded and couldn't help but sigh: "It can be seen that this conscription law is only a stopgap measure! But even this stopgap measure has been opposed by many people. For example, Mr. Zhao and others are worried that this will give corrupt officials an opportunity to take advantage of it."

Zhang Fei nodded: "To govern a country, one must first govern its officials. Before this step is completed, what Prime Minister Zhao is worried about will inevitably happen."

"This is also the reason why I asked you to come here today."

Zhao Xu said, "In fact, Wang Xueshi also realized this, so he proposed to transfer most of the duties to the Royal Police, so as to reform the law and rectify the administration. I also agree with this very much, so I will transfer all the exemption tax to the police department's finances to expand the police. What do you think?"

Zhang Fei said: "I knew about this in advance. I think it is feasible, but it can only be a long-term policy. It cannot be directly expanded to the whole country. If that happens, it will not solve many problems and may add a huge burden to the finances."

"I know this. I will still include this matter in the judicial reform." Zhao Xu frowned and said, "But will this affect the people's view of the Royal Police?"

It can be seen that he cares very much about the Royal Police.

Zhang Fei smiled and said, "Some people will definitely think so, but it doesn't matter. As long as the Royal Police maintain their current attitude, I believe they will change their views on this matter."

Zhao Xu said: "But the police station suddenly has to take on so many things, and it must expand the team. Can you guarantee that there will be no problems with the Royal Police?"

Zhang Fei said: "There will definitely be problems, so I suggest developing auxiliary police."

"Auxiliary police?"

"They are police officers who assist the Royal Police."

Zhang Fei said: "Their treatment is not as good as that of the Royal Police, so it can reduce the financial pressure in the initial stage, but they can also become Royal Police through hard work, which will give them the opportunity to rise and spur them on. There will also be Royal Police supervision above them.

Of course, I think the Royal Police should be given better treatment, such as organizing them to study law at the Law School, so that they can be both civil and military. This will make the Royal Police more attractive to talented people. ”

Zhao Xu nodded: "It should be so! Most of those officials know the law. If the royal police don't know the law, it will only make people laugh."

Zhang Fei added: "In addition, it is not appropriate to assign most of the duties to the police station. After all, the authority for many matters does not lie with the police station, but with various departments. However, the police station can be used as a platform to train police officers and then send them to various government offices.

For example, the tax bureau can set up a royal tax police, and the procuratorate and the royal court can be equipped with special police officers. "

Zhao Xu suddenly asked, "Isn't the tax bureau going to develop secretly?"

Zhang Fei chuckled and said, "Those are elites. They will be used to deal with those big landlords and wealthy businessmen who evade taxes in the future. On the surface, we will arrange some people to handle some daily affairs."

"Yes, yes, this is reasonable. If everything is assigned to the police station, will the police station obey the other government offices, or will the other government offices have to seek help from the police station? This is not appropriate. I thought too simply before."

Zhao Xu asked again: "Who should be entrusted with this matter?"

Zhang Fei said: "Of course it's Cao Dongdong."

(End of this chapter)