"There is no deduction, no one will deduct such a little thing." Ma Zhou shook his head.

"Then why?" Li Chengqian had basically finished handling the matter at hand, so he wanted to hear Ma Zhou's explanation, and threw down the memorial in his hand and walked out the door, saying as he walked, "Let's go out and find a cool place to say that it's too stuffy and can't get angry."

Ma Zhou naturally had nothing to do. He followed Li Chengqian out of the room, found a relatively shaded pavilion outside and sat down, took a breath of the cool autumn air, and then said, "Your Majesty, do you know that the salary of our Tang Dynasty is actually divided into how much stone grain, right?"

"Um" Li Chengqian nodded, indicating that he knew, and signaled Ma Zhou to continue talking.

"But Your Majesty, do you know what the price of our Tang Dynasty is now?" Ma Zhou said as he stretched out four fingers: "It's still four cents and one dou, which means one stone of grain is forty cents."

"That's how to calculate it, it's the top official. The monthly salary is 3,000 shi of grain. If the total amount of money is calculated, the salary is 120 stakes. But this is just the top one. If you convert the following county magistrates, it will be about 6,7 stakes per month."

"But their six or seven stakes of money need to support their families and servants. The most important thing is to pay wages to the officials below. In this way, there is not much money left in the weight. Let's look at our other prices? A cotton piece of three or four stakes; a bicycle is two or five stakes; a carriage... a carriage costs four or fifty stakes."

Ma Zhou said this and smiled bitterly on his face, smacked his lips and said, "I'm going to tell you, my wife has told me how many times I'm going to change the furniture at home, but I don't have money!"

"It's actually like this? What do you mean is to directly change the distribution of food to distributing money? And there will be a little more increase?" Ma Zhou said that Li Chengqian did not consider it. He was thinking about the people from beginning to end, and never thought that officials were on the verge of not being able to survive.

"Your Majesty, I am not talking about this." Ma Zhou calmed down and said, "I mean, I am afraid that grassroots officials will take risks, have insufficient salary, and cannot support my family. They will be tempted by some external material things and do things that harm the interests of the Tang Dynasty in exchange for certain benefits."

When Ma Zhou said this, he was ready to accept Li Chengqian's rage. But what surprised him was that the new emperor was not as excited as he expected. He just frowned slightly and said after a while: "Your worries are not unreasonable. There are many new things in the Tang Dynasty now, and these things are all temptations to officials. This is an objective thing, and I don't want to deny it."

"Your Majesty's wise!" Ma Zhou breathed a sigh of relief and flattered him gently.

"But that said, how much salary do you think is appropriate to increase?" Li Chengqian's brow did not loosen, but frowned tighter: "If there are too many, it will also be a burden on the national treasury. If there are too few, it will be less meaningless than not increasing."

Ma Zhou shook his head: "Your Majesty, I only know about a general situation. I don't know the specific situation. If I want to re-determine the salary, it is better to discuss it."

Although he also knew that Li Chengqian asked him this way just because he wanted to find out the salary standard first, and he did not necessarily determine the salary standard, considering the impact of this matter, he still shut his mouth rationally.

You should know that no matter what this standard is formulated, in the end, some people are happy and some are worried. There will always be some people who are dissatisfied with it. When this dissatisfaction cannot be targeted at the emperor, then it can only be targeted at the person who has the idea.

So the best way at this time is to shut up and not to cause hatred for yourself for no reason.

Li Chengqian did not think of this problem at first, but now he thought of it with Ma Zhou's reminder, and immediately realized the serious consequences of this matter.

To increase money, he must increase money. He can't let his subordinates eat rice but not vegetables every day, nor can he let his subordinates live a worse life than ordinary people.

However, the proportion of money increase must be well controlled. Too much increase will easily cause officials to feel superior and will also make the people feel envious. In this way, officials are certainly satisfied, but it will undoubtedly be unfavorable for the future of the Tang Dynasty and will form an official-oriented trend.

All the people in the country want to be officials, but no one wants to do something practical. If they don’t become officials, they will feel dissatisfied, which invisibly creates a gap between the people and officials.

If the salary increases less, officials will still be dissatisfied, and they will be perfunctory when handling official duties, or use their power to open a door to convenience for some people.

...

As he thought about it, Li Chengqian couldn't help but feel a little confused. He came back to his senses until the sky gradually darkened. He sighed and said, "I'll discuss it tomorrow morning. This is a big deal. Let Lord Du and Lord Fang come. Oh, Yu Zhining will come, and the six ministers will also call him."

"Yes!" Ma Zhou agreed, and took out a notebook from his pocket of clothes and recorded the few people Li Chengqian said.

This is a habit he developed in the past six months, just because Li Chengqian may not think of some things at any time. If he doesn't remember them, he may forget them.

In addition, the pencil is really easy to use. No matter when, you can use it as long as you take it out, which greatly facilitates recording work, so Ma Zhou will bring a few sticks with you at any time.

Of course, not only Ma Zhou, but also many officials and people in the Tang Dynasty liked pencils. Although the words written were ugly, it is undeniable that this thing was convenient. For this reason, Lao Cheng had a period of time and smiled happily every day, saying to everyone that the graphite mine was the most successful business he had invested in in his life.

...

The book is back to normal, and the night passes quickly. The next morning, a group of old guys gathered in Li Er, but now in Li Chengqian's study.

After Li Chengqian and other groups of old men sat down, they said in a deep voice: "Everyone, I believe you already know what the matter is about today, right?"

"I know!"

"Then let's talk about it. Do you think the salary should increase? How much is it appropriate?" Li Chengqian glanced at the group of old men in the study and prayed in his heart that these old guys would be more pragmatic and not do the kind of thing that slapped the head to make decisions.

"Your Majesty, the old minister thinks it should rise. If it doesn't rise, we old sticks will have to eat dirt." Li Daozong, Minister of Rites, Minister of Zongzheng Temple, and Li Chengqian's uncle were the first to speak out.

(End of this chapter)
Chapter completed!