Chapter 2109 Bargaining
Manbao also said simply: "Then calculate it as two cents. A person must eat one or two pounds of vegetables a day, and meat. Even if you eat it every other day, a pound of meat now costs twelve cents, even pork. Chicken and beef and mutton are even more expensive. Even if you only eat half a pound of meat every other day..."
"How can we eat so much? Two taels of meat is enough..." Minister Liu said, "And don't think I don't know. Pork at twelve cents a pound is good meat. We can buy some less good meat, such as pig heads, some tougher lean meat, and offal. The cheap ones are five or six cents, and the expensive ones are seven or eight cents."
The emperor and other ministers were stunned. Is this how meat is sold outside?
Wait, why do they know so much?
It’s okay if it’s Minister Liu, he is the Minister of Revenue after all, and his subordinates will deliver price lists every day. But Zhou Man, you are not from the Ministry of Revenue, and you don’t have to go out to buy groceries, so how come you are so familiar with him?
Manbao naturally knew this from her father. Now when he has nothing to do, he goes to the vegetable market with his sixth brother or eldest brother and his wife in the morning. Occasionally he buys some vegetables for the family, but most of the time he buys for restaurants.
She had recently been living outside the palace to take care of the three patients at the imperial farm. She would get up early in the morning and sit with her father to eat breakfast, listening to him talk about how the price had gone up by a penny, and how this and that had become cheaper.
After talking so much, Manbao took note of it.
The two of them bargained back and forth, and with Xiao Yuanzheng and Doctor Lu helping out from time to time, Minister Liu probably felt that one hundred taels was too little, so he reluctantly raised the price to six hundred taels.
However, the money was not given directly to the Imperial Hospital, nor even to the Ministry of Justice. Instead, he said, "When the time comes, a menu will be drawn up. Those who are willing to accept this can order from these menus for three meals a day or rotate. At the end of each month, the Ministry of Justice will report the amount along with other expenses to the Ministry of Revenue."
Still unwilling to give money directly.
"There are other methods, such as reducing the distance of exile and calculating the number of years separately."
The Minister of Justice thought this was too troublesome, so he said it would be better to pay the money in one lump sum. Wouldn't the national treasury be unable to take out even 600 taels?
Minister Liu said calmly, "That's right, it's just hard to come up with. Otherwise, the Ministry of Justice would have transferred some funds from other sources. This year, your Ministry of Justice would have applied for quite a bit of external funding."
The Minister of Justice immediately stopped talking.
Wei Zhidao said, "Your Majesty, we can also exile some serious criminals to the border and change their military registration directly. They may cause harm if they return to the civilian population, but in the army, they are under the supervision of sergeants and should not cause any trouble. They may even achieve great success."
The emperor asked Old Master Tang, "What do you think, Mr. Tang?"
Old Master Tang frowned in thought.
Some serious criminals in the Ministry of Justice's prison would be escorted to the mines to work. That was really miserable, even worse than exile. After all, they would be treated like slaves. Most serious criminals could not walk out of the mines alive, and basically they would die within ten years.
In comparison, joining the army seems much more tolerant. Although you still have to fight for your life, you may be able to accumulate merits to atone for your sins.
Even if the accumulated merits are not enough to atone for the sins, life will be much better than in the mines.
After all, it was a fight of their lives, so Old Master Tang no longer objected and nodded.
So everyone temporarily decided on these reward methods and then took them to the Ministry of Justice for people to choose from.
The emperor was very satisfied with the experimental results of Zhou Man and his team. Knowing that they had been very busy in the past two days, he let them go back and rest.
Manbao had been given two days off to make up for her previous ten-day leave. As she happily rode home, carrying her medicine box, Xiao Yuanzheng's carriage pulled up from behind. He drew aside the curtain and said, "Doctor Zhou, the day after tomorrow, don't rush off to take on other work. Come find me at the Ministry of Justice first. We'll go pick someone together."
Manbao nodded in agreement.
The carriage drove ahead of her.
She returned home, dismounted, handed Chiji to the servant, took down the medicine box, and asked, "Are Bai Shan and the others home?"
"The young master and the second young master went out to the Zhuangyuan Building. They also said that if Miss Man is bored when she comes back, she can go to the Zhuangyuan Building to play with them."
"Hasn't the Ministry of Personnel's examination finished yet?"
The Mingjing examination was held in the capital in the first month of the year. After the results were announced in February, the Ministry of Rites examination came immediately. It was very simple. You just had to go in and let the officials of the Ministry of Rites see that you had a regular face, a suitable height, and no problems with your speech, and you would pass. It was the simplest exam.
Then came the official selection examination of the Ministry of Personnel.
Bai Shan had no intention of taking the official examination, so even though he passed the imperial examination, he did not even take the examination of the Ministry of Rites. However, Chongwenguan and Guozijian still gave the students a holiday and allowed them to move freely.
Yi Ziyang took the exam, but no one knew how he did.
Manbao thought about it, carried the medicine box back to the room, and then rode his horse to Zhuangyuan Building to find them.
Yi Ziyang was giving them the Ministry of Justice test questions. He had a good memory and didn't forget the questions after finishing them.
Moreover, the Zhuangyuan Building is now full of people discussing the topic. Even if he forgets it for a moment, he can go out for a walk and remember it by hearing them discussing it.
Bai Shan looked at the test paper and sighed, "It's really not easy."
Yi Ziyang nodded. "Most of the questions are very basic. They're mostly about magistrates and encouraging farmers to study agriculture. It's not difficult to complete them, but writing them perfectly is not necessarily easy. Look at these two questions. They're about the heading of an official document and the heading and ending of a memorial to His Majesty. To be honest, I was confused for a while and didn't know if I wrote them correctly."
Feng Zongping said, "There's also the example of asking the Ministry of Justice to write a case, which is even more difficult."
Yi Ziyang nodded. "But I heard that the selection exam for the Mingjing exam is much simpler than the Jinshi exam. The Mingsuan exam mainly tests the Ministry of Revenue, while the Mingfa exam tests the Ministry of Justice, mixed with some knowledge from other ministries that they may use. The Jinshi exam is much more difficult than both. I wonder how many people will be rejected this time."
Bai Shan said: "It shouldn't be. The number of candidates for the Jinshi exam is small. As long as the paper is not too bad, you should be able to pass."
Yi Ziyang nodded, "Fortunately, there aren't many difficult questions, but they're too fragmented."
When Manbao arrived, they had almost finished their discussion. When they saw her come in, everyone stood up, greeted her, and then sat down and ordered another meal for her.
Manbao asked Yi Ziyang, "How did you do on the exam?"
Yi Ziyang smiled and said, "It's just so-so."
Manbao smiled and said, "You have made great contributions in your trip to Xiazhou. If you rank higher in the Ministry of Personnel Examination this time, you will have an advantage when selecting officials."
Everyone was stunned, and then they remembered this matter. It seemed that those who had been to Xiazhou had received rewards from the court. Zhou Man was better off than them, and he also received rewards from the palace.
Feng Zongping perked up and asked, "So, Your Majesty also knows about us?"
Manbao nodded, "Of course I know, it seems that it was Kong Jijiu who reported it."
See you at 9pm
(End of this chapter)
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