jdhmnovel Chapter 897 Efficiency under Feudal Imperial Power
Chapter 897 Efficiency under Feudal Imperial Power
“This matter cannot be handled by issuing notices directly by the prefectures and counties; the number of places must be limited.”
Perhaps they were tired of arguing, or perhaps they reached an agreement during the argument, the officials finally began to seriously discuss the recruitment.
The Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue spoke first: "You should know what a daily wage of sixty coins means."
"With a monthly wage of about two strings of cash, apart from Ningyang County and Dengzhou Prefecture, which other counties and prefectures wouldn't be envious?"
"To put it bluntly, those bandits and highwaymen might all end up doing manual labor."
Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but roll his eyes.
Can someone explain to me what it means to exclude Ningyang County and Dengzhou Prefecture?
What have the people of Ningyang County and Dengzhou Prefecture done to offend you?!
Yang Shaofeng was internally ranting, while Zhu Biao leaned closer to Yang Shaofeng and whispered, "Last year alone, tens of thousands of people came out of the mountains in Zhili province alone."
Seeing Yang Shaofeng's bewildered expression, Zhu Biao couldn't help but roll his eyes as well.
"Don't tell me that when you first came to Ningyang County as magistrate, Ningyang County was already peaceful and prosperous."
"You can't expect there to be no bandits on the roads of Ningyang County, or no robbers in the mountains, can you?"
Yang Shaofeng shook his head slightly and looked at Zhu Biao with eyes full of concern for the mentally challenged.
What I'm saying is, is it possible that Ningyang County, this wretched place, was originally a den of bandits roaming the land?
Furthermore, isn't it a bit disrespectful to the profession of banditry to send a group of thieves to become mountain bandits and highwaymen?
wrong.
Ningyang County is home to only a group of extremely poor people, who are also kind-hearted people personally certified by Chang Heitan. There are no bandits here at all!
I almost got led astray by black sesame dumplings!
Zhu Biao didn't notice Yang Shaofeng's gaze. After a slight sigh, he continued, "Except for Zhili, it's pretty much the same in other provinces. One person emerges today, and two more tomorrow."
"There are countless people hiding in the mountains of Jiangnan. Local officials can only send people to search one mountain at a time, and try to persuade them to come out. If they can't be persuaded, then we'll deal with that separately."
Yes, I understand perfectly well how this alternative calculation works.
Those who obeyed were given land.
Those who disobey and come out will be locked up in the mountains.
They might even have to bombard it a couple of times.
Yang Shaofeng said "Oh," then deliberately feigned a bewildered look and asked Zhu Biao, "What about Shandong? There are quite a few mountains in Shandong Province, so there should be even more people coming out, right?"
Zhu Biao almost lost his composure.
I've seen people who cause trouble for others.
But I've never seen anyone cause as much trouble as my brother-in-law.
Theoretically speaking, if people can always emerge from the mountains and forests of the Jiangnan region, there is no reason why no one could emerge from the mountains and forests of the Shandong Provincial Administration Commission.
Actually?
People rarely venture out into the mountains and forests of Shandong Province.
The reason my brother-in-law asked this question was not to express how kind the people under the jurisdiction of the Shandong Provincial Administration Commission, where bandits were rampant, were.
He meant to say that Shandong is a vast and sparsely populated region.
It all boils down to those four words.
Zhu Biao was internally ranting, but he didn't respond to Yang Shaofeng's words. Instead, he said to himself, "Anyway, people have been coming out of the mountains in recent years, and some of them were bandits and highwaymen during the Yuan Dynasty."
"As far as I know, these so-called bandits and highwaymen, apart from those with blood on their hands, are mostly poor people who don't know where their next meal will come from."
"Now that there's a good place to work that pays sixty cash a day, these people will definitely rush to go to Liaodong."
Yang Shaofeng gave a listless "oh," not really wanting to pay any attention to Zhu Biao.
A prince who cannot provide laborers for Ningyang County and Dengzhou Prefecture is definitely not a good brother-in-law.
Just as Yang Shaofeng was ranting in his mind, the officials next to him had already discussed the matter to a great extent.
Each provincial administration commission does not set a lower limit for the number of positions, but a maximum limit must be agreed upon.
A thousand people.
This figure was the result of a lot of arguing among the officials.
Based on the calculation that a provincial administration commissioner governs about ten prefectures, that means each prefecture has approximately one hundred positions.
If we calculate based on the counties under a prefecture, then roughly each county has ten slots.
Typically, a county has a dozen or more villages, and if you break it down further, a village might not even get a single spot.
The idea of these officials is to create the illusion that there are few available spots.
In reality, a provincial administration commission could have a thousand slots, and the entire Jiangnan region could gather several thousand people. Adding the provincial administration commissions in Jiangbei, the first batch of people sent to Liaodong numbered around ten thousand.
It's definitely a bit too little.
It was far from the grand spectacle of a million young men migrating to Liaodong that Hu Weiyong had envisioned.
However, if the first batch of people who went to Liaodong could return home with more than ten thousand strings of cash before the end of the seventh year of Hongwu, then the number of young and strong people going to Liaodong in the second batch might reach 100,000.
Then, these officials began writing memorials on the spot, perfectly demonstrating what efficiency under feudal imperial power meant.
The Ministry of Works wrote a memorial on the spot, stating that due to various reasons, it was necessary to mine and smelt coal and iron mines in Liaodong, and therefore a large number of manpower were needed.
The Ministry of Revenue wrote a memorial on the spot, stating that there was still a lot of land in the Ming Dynasty that needed to be cultivated. In order to prevent young men from flocking to Liaodong to work, it was necessary to stipulate the number of people from each province who could go to Liaodong to work.
The Ministry of War stated that, in order to ensure safety when going to Liaodong, each provincial administration office needed to send people to several designated locations along the coast, from where they would gather in Dengzhou Prefecture, and finally from Dengzhou Prefecture to Liaodong.
"..."
Then, the Grand Secretary Li Shanchang would first write his approval on the memorial, then hand it over to Zhu Biao, the Vice Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Finally, a certain sesame seed dumpling would use its own seal to stamp and sign each of these freshly produced memorials.
Yang Shaofeng was at a loss for words to describe the scene before him.
You say this scene is right? The whole process completely bypassed the Ming Dynasty court, and even bypassed Lao Deng.
However, if you want to point out something is wrong, the whole process, except for the lack of the imperial seal, perfectly conforms to all the procedures of the Ming Dynasty court.
One black sesame dumpling even casually remarked that the imperial seal was just a formality, and it wouldn't be too late to stamp it when they got to the capital.
Besides, I'm not issuing any decrees in the name of the imperial court, but rather in the name of His Highness the Crown Prince to benefit the people. Whether or not I have the imperial seal is irrelevant.
Is this right?
……
Whether it's right or wrong, the entire agenda of recruiting workers and developing Liaodong is being pushed forward with unprecedented efficiency.
The first person to receive the news of the recruitment for the development of Liaodong was Wang Guangyang, the Shandong Provincial Governor, who was located in Jinan.