In addition to the 330,000 layoffs, a salary of about 7 to 9 million strings of cash had to be paid. The obvious comparison between the army before and after the reform was that the national treasury expenditure could be saved by about 20 million strings of cash a year.

From this we can also see that in order to change the situation of redundant troops, Zhao Jun touched the cakes of many people and affected the interests of many people. It is no wonder that those people even dared to rebel.

That is to say, his position is now stable, and Lao Fan has won victories in the northwest and Hebei, defeating the Western Xia and Liao. Otherwise, if he were to travel through time and immediately reform the three redundant systems, I am afraid the grass on his grave would be three feet high.

"OK."

Zhao Jun led the applause and said with a smile, "Starting in May of last year and ending in January of this year, this major national military reform has finally been completed, and the results are gratifying."

Everyone applauded, and Li Di smiled and said, "Dali Temple and the Court of Justice are very busy during this period."

The criminals, unqualified generals, and old, weak, and disabled soldiers who were previously found in corruption cases in various armies have now been completely eliminated. The old, weak, and disabled soldiers have either been turned into surplus personnel, transferred to construction corps, or given resettlement allowances and land to return home to cultivate.

The rest of the criminals were transferred to the Dali Temple and the Court of Criminal Justice, and the Ministry of War presided over the three-court trial. So now the Dali Temple and the Court of Criminal Justice are really busy.

There are countless military cases that have been tried this year alone. Cases are judged every day, and countless people have been beheaded, exiled, or imprisoned.

"Being busy is a good thing. After this period of busyness, there will be fewer corrupt officials and less corrupt officials in the army. Only then can the combat effectiveness of our army be guaranteed and the country be stable."

Zhao Jun smiled and then said to Fan Zhongyan, "The Ministry of War must immediately take over responsibility. From now on, military violations will be handled primarily by the military courts, while the Dali Temple and the Court of Justice will handle civil and criminal matters. This way, rewards and punishments will be handled by the Ministry of War, and the military will remain independent."

"Yes, the military court is already under construction. We will select some officials specializing in criminal cases to form a military court."

Fan Zhongyan said: "At present, we plan to open them in Hebei, Shaanxi and Kaifeng first. This way, we don't have to send soldiers and generals who have committed crimes back to Kaifeng. We can wait until the military regions are re-divided and then build new departments."

"Um."

Zhao Jun nodded with satisfaction: "Very good."

As he said this, he looked at Cai Qi again.

Wang Zeng is still in charge of the Ministry of Personnel, but he has been ill recently, and Cai Qi is now helping to take charge.

Cai Qi said, "The number of officials nationwide has increased again this year, all because the civil service examination admitted more than 300 officials. Combined with the imperial examination and the imperial family's influence, the number of officials produced each year is about 1,000, much more than before. However, with more official positions, there will not be a problem of idle officials."

"It seems the problem of redundant officials has been solved."

Zhao Jun spread his hands.

Just tell me whether the solution has been solved or not.

Although the number of officials remains the same.

There is even an increase.

But before, there were at least 10,000 of them who had nothing to do, receiving salaries every day without doing any work.

Now they finally have work to do, and they are all functional departments with clear tasks, all working for the Song Dynasty.

But it’s much stronger than before.

Cai Qi was at a loss for words and said, "But the official salary expenditures have not been reduced. Although it is about the same as before, this goes against the problem of redundant officials that we originally wanted to solve."

In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were an average of more than 500 officials who were appointed through imperial influence every year. Together with more than 100 officials who became Jinshi (imperial jinshi), the number basically remained at around 600 per year.

Now that the civil service examination has been added, local officials can also take the examination to become officials, and the number of officials will increase.

Moreover, there was no change in the salary level. Zhao Jun cut all the messy benefits, allowances, official land and other incomes, but added them all to the performance, resulting in the salary still having to be paid at the same level.

The reason why expenditures remained similar to before, maintaining at around 10 million strings of cash per year, was because Zhao Jun cut the salaries of senior officials.

There were about three to four hundred people in the central court and local governments, ranging from high-ranking officials of the fourth rank and above to national-level officials.

At the local level, there are four departments plus the Censorate as the boss, more than 50 ministers and vice ministers in the central government, more than ten chancellors and chancellors in the Privy Council and the Council of Constitution, and the rest include scholars from the Longtu Pavilion, Tianzhang Pavilion, Baowen Pavilion, and Hanlin Academy.

These people’s salaries used to be around 10,000 or 20,000 strings of cash per year, and their annual expenses alone could reach several million strings of cash, which was among the top incomes in the officialdom.

Zhao Jun simply cut their salaries in half, and also slightly reduced the income of middle-level officials between the fifth and sixth ranks to subsidize low-level officials below the seventh rank, so that the expenditure did not exceed the original level.

But in everyone's eyes, this seems to go against the essence of solving the problem of redundant officials.

But Zhao Jun shook his head and said, "You're wrong. The problem with redundant officials isn't the sheer number of them, but rather the fact that there are too many officials, and that many of them are just collecting salaries and doing nothing, while few actually do anything. Now that over 40,000 officials are working, this isn't redundant officials, but rather building a bright future for the Song Dynasty!"

"All right."

Cai Qi had no choice but to say, "As for redundant spending, spending has been streamlined across the country. Local finance bureaus have recorded every expense and reconciled accounts with the local censors and imperial city officials, reducing unnecessary expenditures. Furthermore, a large number of royal sacrificial ceremonies and celebrations have been canceled, saving over 2.4 million strings of cash this year."

“Where are the main expenditures?”

Zhao Jun asked.

"On royal expenses."

Cai Qi said awkwardly.

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