The situation with officials is even more exaggerated, with probably tens of thousands of them having problems.
The remaining 300 or so problematic officials simply failed to complete their tasks on time. At most, they would be fined or given disciplinary action, and in more serious cases, they would be demoted.
And these corrupt officials will be arrested and put in jail.
For a moment, the court was in an uproar.
I am not shocked by the fact that there are so many corrupt officials in Kaifeng Prefecture, but I am shocked by the wide range of impact. What should I do?
So all the officials wrote letters to the emperor, requesting that the performance evaluation system be stopped.
The reason is simple.
Putting aside the more than 400 corrupt officials, the tens of thousands of officials are a big problem.
Once these people are dealt with, not only will the imperial court come to a standstill, but the entire Bianliang will probably be in turmoil on a massive scale.
The most typical example is the strike of officials throughout Bianliang.
For example, in the first month of the third year of Jingyou, the imperial edict ordered the Chief Censor Du Yan to dismiss the officials of the Three Departments. The officials suspected Yan of making suggestions. On the 22nd day of the Ji Hai year, more than 500 officials of the Three Departments went to the prime minister's house to make a noise, and also went to Yan's house to mess around and move rubble.
That is to say, in the third year of Jingyou, the emperor ordered the Chief Censor Du Yan to be responsible for cutting down the staff of the three departments.
These officials suspected that Du Yan had suggested this to the emperor and were very angry. More than 500 officials first ran to the residences of prime ministers such as Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng to make trouble, and then ran to the door of the house of the Chief Censor Du Yan, cursing and throwing tiles and stones in protest.
Just laying off 500 people was already a big deal, let alone the tens of thousands now.
Fortunately, Fan Zhongyan and Zhao Jun had anticipated this long ago. As early as May this year, new regulations were implemented, stipulating that officials in Bianliang would become public servants and enjoy the treatment of a medium-level imperial guard, that is, an annual income of 30 strings of cash and a monthly salary of about 2.5 strings of cash.
This salary was not high, because the price of hiring a civilian worker at that time was about 50-100 wen per day. A porter at the dock could earn two or three hundred wen a day, and four or five strings of cash a month.
However, officials also have other benefits, such as subsidies, allowances, meal allowances, etc., which add up to about three or four strings of cash a month, which is enough to support a family.
Fan Zhongyan announced that they had no salary and no source of income in the past and were forced to solicit and accept bribes, and they could be forgiven for their past behavior. However, after the new law was stipulated, if anyone solicited bribes from the people again, or if anyone took bribes in any government office, they would be punished.
During this court review, those who were pardoned before the new regulations came out, and those who continued to cause trouble after the new regulations came out, will all be expelled from the public service, and those with serious crimes will even be imprisoned and punished.
This reduced the impact on tens of thousands of officials in Bianliang to just a few thousand officials who still committed crimes after the new regulations came out in May.
Even so, there is still an endless stream of people who oppose the performance evaluation system, and the resistance is starting to grow.
Those who are not corrupt feel that the performance evaluation system makes them exhausted. In the past, when they were officials, they could just drink tea, eat, and visit prostitutes, and the day would pass by. They could also receive a salary of more than 100 strings of cash every month and live a very comfortable life.
Although the salaries of senior officials above the fifth rank have been cut, the salaries of middle and lower-level officials below the fifth rank are still maintained at their original high levels.
But I can’t stand this way of rolling it.
Those who have embezzled money became even more frightened. They did not expect that the performance evaluation law would be so strict that it left them with nowhere to hide and no chance to embezzle money.
For a time, everyone took advantage of this incident and opposed the continued implementation of the performance evaluation system for various reasons.
However, Fan Zhongyan, who was in charge of the new policy, did not give in at all.
What gave him the confidence was not Zhao Jun, but the fact that the national treasury was indeed very rich.
Historically, the imperial court fought the Western Xia War for several years and signed the Qingli Currency Increase Agreement with the Liao Kingdom, which resulted in a serious financial deficit.
But this time not only was the war very short, being concluded quickly within two years, but the preparations were also more thorough.
First, Zhao Jun went on a nationwide tour, investigated many corrupt officials, and contributed tens of millions of strings of cash to the national treasury.
Secondly, after several years of development, Jiaozi Shop has expanded to major commercial cities across the country.
For example, they were opened in Luoyang, Fuzhou, Jiangning (Nanjing), Chang'an, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Jiangling, Mingzhou (Ningbo), Quanzhou, Mizhou (Qingdao), etc., and the money deposited in Jiaozi shops had reached tens of millions of strings of cash.
After the reform of state-owned enterprises, a large amount of state-owned assets were sold to private traders, earning tens of millions of strings of cash. In addition, the state-owned enterprises acquired shares and received large dividends every year.
The last and most important point is that since the court signed a trade agreement with Japan at the end of last year, more than half a year has passed, and the trade volume between Song and Japan has reached more than 10 million guan, and the trade volume is still increasing.
At that time, sea transportation was extremely risky and difficult, and the tax rate was relatively low, only 10%. Therefore, the trade volume between Song and Japan soared by about three to four times within a year. The tax revenue alone reached more than one million strings of cash, and the court collected silver, about one million taels of silver.
It doesn't seem like much, but it's a huge improvement.
The Song Dynasty's main foreign trade revenue came from Guangzhou and Quanzhou. "Miscellaneous Records of the Imperial Court and the Countryside Since Jianyan" records: "In the 32nd year of Shaoxing, the net revenue from customs duties in Quanzhou and Guangzhou increased to 2 million strings of cash."
In other words, Guangzhou and Quanzhou's tax revenue was 2 million guan per year, and their trade volume was probably over 20 million guan. With Japan, the Song Dynasty mainly imported sulfur and copper, and Japan was a closed-door country, so the trade volume between the two sides before the Southern Song Dynasty was not large.
Now it has skyrocketed so much, and together with the customs offices in other cities, the Silk Road, the ancient Tea-Horse Road, and the Liao-Song trade, the annual tax revenue adds up to tens of millions of strings of cash, which greatly makes up for the fiscal deficit.
Therefore, with so much increased revenue, as the Song Dynasty fought wars and collected taxes in recent years, the treasury surplus of the Song Dynasty has not decreased but increased. It has not only filled the previous fiscal deficit, but now there is still a surplus of 70 to 80 million strings of cash in the treasury, which is equivalent to more than half a year's fiscal revenue.
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