Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 594 Building Local Institutions
"Woo~Kongzi~Kongzi..."
After the whistle, a long train, emitting a string of black smoke, slowly began to slow down.
"Director, we are almost at the station. I will help you pack your luggage."
"Oh, thank you for your help."
Looking out the train window, Yuan Chonghuan let out a long sigh as the scenery became clearer and clearer as the speed of the train decreased.
At the end of last year, with the introduction of two retired bureaucrats, Han Yu and Zhang Heming, he visited Fang Zhuangli, the then Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.
Originally, according to his thinking, as a fifth-rank official, with so many new positions created in the court after the major organizational restructuring, his rank could be raised, right? He couldn't say he could be promoted to the third rank, but from the third rank, he should be promoted to the fourth rank, right?
Who would have thought that Fang Zhuangli would arrange for him to work in the Military Service Bureau as he wished. But his rank remained unchanged: still the fifth rank.
The fifth rank was equivalent to a prefect in the Ming Dynasty - in today's times, it would be equivalent to the mayor of a prefecture-level city.
According to Li Shizhong's arrangement, the Military Service Bureau was to establish local military service bureaus in all provinces and prefectures under the Ming Dynasty. The director of the military service bureau in each province was a fifth-rank official. Therefore, Yuan Chonghuan took the initiative to apply to be the director of the military service bureau of the Guangdong Provincial Government.
In order to ensure the success of his application, he not only flattered Li Shizhong, but also restrained his self-esteem and quietly asked for help from his classmate, Chen Zizhuang, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ming Dynasty.
Who would have thought that after the final appointment came down, he would be appointed as the director of the Military Service Bureau of the Greater Mongolia Region.
When he received the appointment letter, he almost went berserk on the spot. But when he saw the few colleagues around him looking at him with envy and jealousy, he finally came to his senses.
Nowadays, the working class of the Ming Dynasty, a family of four, with a husband and wife working full-time and two children working as child laborers, can earn about 25 silver dollars a year. After the implementation of the land-based tax system, the burden on farmers in the Ming Dynasty was significantly reduced. A farmer's family of four, if the weather was good, could earn about 15 to 18 silver dollars a year.
The above income is enough to provide food and clothing. If farmers are frugal and lucky enough to avoid major natural disasters and man-made disasters, they can probably support one child to go to school after accumulating for one or two generations. What about workers? If the parents are in their prime years, strong and can do more, and lucky enough not to get injured at work, they can even support one child to go to school at that time.
However, the treatment of workers and peasants is obviously worse than that of soldiers.
An ordinary soldier's monthly income in the first year of enlistment was two silver dollars, and then it increased by two silver dimes every year. And this income was pure income: food, clothing, housing and transportation were all covered by the army! In other words, the income of an ordinary soldier was enough to support a family of four.
Of course, soldiers have to risk their lives when war comes, and there is a risk of death. But the treatment of military martyrs is also very good: not only do their families receive 50 yuan in funeral expenses, but the state also takes responsibility for raising their minor children until they are 18 years old - this is raising, that is, in addition to feeding them, they are also responsible for the education of the child!
If a soldier was disabled instead of killed in battle, in addition to a one-time 20 yuan retirement allowance, the newly established Military Service Bureau was also responsible for arranging employment for him - usually working as a doorman in government offices at all levels, or as a postman at post stations or railway crossings. This income was guaranteed to be around 20 yuan per year. In addition, one of the disabled soldiers' children could be guaranteed to go to school nearby.
What if you were extremely lucky and retired with all your hands and feet intact after fighting in all kinds of wars without getting a scratch? The state would give you 10 yuan in retirement pay, and the Military Service Bureau would also be responsible for arranging employment for you: collective farms, factories, etc., all of which would be arranged for you.
When Yuan Chonghuan thought about these things carefully, he suddenly realized: Unknowingly, joining the army has become one of the best choices for young people in the Ming Dynasty besides studying and becoming an official.
Then he felt ashamed of his previous stupidity: How stupid must one be to take the initiative to apply to go to Guangdong? In that place, except for the mountainous areas in northern Guangdong, the entire Pearl River Delta is a land of fish and rice. The land there can be harvested two or three times a year, and the income of local farmers is generally higher than that of ordinary farmers in the Ming Dynasty. The local maritime trade is developed, there are many factories and merchants, and naturally there are many jobs for young people: in a word, going to Guangdong to be the director of the military service bureau, let alone other jobs, but recruiting new soldiers is probably not easy - there are too many industries to choose from, and being a soldier is not the only way out.
But it was different in Mongolia: the economy there was backward. The herders who entered the Baotou Heavy Industry Base were fine, although they worked harder and had to work harder. But in a year, a strong man could earn more than 15 silver dollars. And what about the ordinary herders? After working hard all year round, it was good enough to earn 7 or 8 silver dollars!
Therefore, it is very pleasant to be the director of the Military Service Bureau in Mongolia: local people will rush to send their strong and capable young men to the army, which makes the main work of the Military Service Bureau very easy.
Of course, the Military Service Bureau also has to coordinate the relationship between the military and the local government and place retired soldiers. These two tasks are probably difficult to do in other places: the Ming Dynasty has openly discriminated against soldiers for more than 200 years, and this stubborn concept cannot be completely reversed by the release of the "Huang Ming Charter". But in Mongolia, it is not a problem at all: strength is more important on the grassland.
So, if you think about it carefully: it was really my fellow villagers who made the effort and sent me to Mongolia - this is a place where it is easy to achieve results!
The train came to a complete stop, and Yuan Chonghuan stopped his reverie. He then climbed up from the berth, began to stretch his muscles, and tidy up his appearance: the train had been running for a whole day from Beijing to Hohhot, and if he really had to sit on a hard seat, he would have been unbearable.
After some trouble, Yuan Chonghuan walked out of the train with the twenty or so men assigned to him by the General Administration of Military Service, but suddenly found that on the platform, a group of nobles in traditional Mongolian costumes, surrounded by several officials in Hanfu, were already standing there to greet them.
Just when he was panicking and thinking it was not good to let his superior wait for him, he heard a shrill whistle in his ear.
"All colleagues from the Mongolian Department of the Ministry of Public Security, come and assemble!"
Following this shout, more than 20 capable men wearing wide-brimmed hats and uniform navy blue police uniforms walked out of the front carriage one after another. The leader was tall, well-proportioned, with two dark whiskers on his upper lip. Judging from his appearance, he was no more than 20 years old, and compared with Yuan Chonghuan, who was already in his 40s, he was obviously full of youthful vitality.
The uniformed troops quickly lined up. The young man in the lead didn't even look at his colleagues from the Military Service Bureau who were busy lining up. He strode forward and saluted the high-ranking Han official surrounded by a group of Mongolian nobles. He shouted, "Your subordinate, Wu Sangui, the head of the Mongolian Department of the Ministry of Public Security of the Ming Dynasty, pays homage to the General of the Central Army!"
...hiss~ Seeing that the capable Wu Sangui had taken a step ahead of him, Yuan Chonghuan somehow suddenly felt a panic as if his luck had been taken away.
"Your subordinate, Yuan Chonghuan, leads all colleagues from the Mongolian Bureau of the Military Service Bureau to pay respects to the General of the Central Army."
There was no way. The Military Service Bureau was a mixture of civil and military personnel, so the uniforms were not uniform, and naturally they were weaker than the Public Security Bureau in terms of momentum. And the momentum of its chief officer Yuan Chonghuan was much weaker than that of Wu Sangui. As a result, the officials of the Military Service Bureau felt a little ashamed at the moment.
But soon, a weaker voice sounded: "Your subordinate, Yan Mingtai, the director of the Mongolian Department of the Ministry of Justice of the Ming Dynasty, pays homage to the General of the Central Army."
"Your subordinate, the Director of the Department of Labor, the Department of Taxation, the Department of Industry and Commerce, the Department of Education... greets the General of the Central Army."
"Hahaha, good, good, all of you great sages have come to our Mongolia. The millions of people in our three regions of Mongolia will be able to enjoy the emperor's grace. Everyone, after assembling your teams, please follow the taijis around me. I have prepared a wonderful Nadam Festival for everyone on the grassland outside the city. Everyone must appreciate the customs of our Mongolia!"
Since May 1630, with countless trains leaving Beijing, nearly 6,000 of the nearly 10,000 officials of the Ming Dynasty were dispatched to various parts of the country. Their task was to build the framework of the functional departments of each province in advance, then to initially sort out the working relationships, and to select or build new office space. After that, everyone held their breath and waited for the national and local civil service examinations to begin in the 13th year of Tianqi (1631)!
