Before I wrote that the Han Ling Emperor betrayed his officials to save the country was a clever means, today we talk about how the officials reacted to this.
When Sima Yi was in power at the end of the Three Kingdoms, the competent department of the taiwei Jiang Ji also privately and semi-openly bought and sold officials. At that time, there was a folk song that said, "If you desire the tooth gate, you should get a thousand horses; if you want five hundred overseers, you will get five hundred horses." This means that if an officer wants to hold a military position like a tooth gatekeeper, he must send a thousand horses to Jiang Ji; even a low-level officer like a hundred governors needs five hundred horses.
Sima Yi's personal relationship with Jiang Ji was very good, so he asked Jiang Ji if there was really such a thing as what the relevant folk songs said? Jiang Ji was naturally extremely embarrassed by this, because this was an open secret, and it was not right to deny it, and it was not right to admit it. So Jiang Ji jokingly said: "Buying something in the Luoyang market, you can't buy it without a single dollar." Jiang Ji smiled when he finished speaking, and Sima Yi couldn't help but laugh.
In fact, such a thing as buying and selling official positions exists universally or semi-openly in any society with an imperfect legal system. Although this kind of thing is said in a grandiose occasion, it is too sensational and bizarre. But in private, everyone knows that this is just an open secret.
It is precisely for this reason that The close associates of Emperor Wu of Jin will say that although we in the Great Jin Empire have not publicly listed and sold officials, the entire official field has also become a common practice in buying and selling officials. In this regard, Emperor Wu of Jin could only bypass it in a self-deprecating way.
Because of this, Jiang Ji could only use a joking way to turn it away in the face of Sima Yi's private questioning, but he could not deny it. In this regard, Sima Yi only laughed and passed.
During the time of the Second Emperor Huanling, the personal relationship between the officials and the emperor was obviously not so close. Therefore, when they saw the emperor put such an incident as selling officials on the table, they were naturally embarrassed and embarrassed. Therefore, in addition to pretending to be forced to talk to the emperor, they can only take care of it left and right. But they dare not deny this fact, because it is an open secret.
In this context, the emperor openly listed and sold officials, which is a kind of disguised forced donation. All in all, your open corruption is an open fact. I'll take care of it, that's no way to start; catch it, that's not easy to catch. Now the government is very short of money, so I hope you will hand over some of the relevant corrupt money to the government.
The reason why the Second Emperor Huanling was able to sell his official position in the stormy weather was because there were two most basic facts at that time, which no one could deny.
First, the financial crisis of the Empire, however caused, is objectively existent;
Second, it is a universal fact that no official is not greedy, no greed is not official, and no one even dares to say that he is innocent.
In this context, although everyone feels that the emperor will inevitably make people unable to get off the stage by putting this unspoken rule on the table, it is also reasonable.
Some people may say that the emperor's public listing and selling of officials will reduce the overall quality of civil servants. In fact, this statement is just the opinion of a scholar. It is not false for officials to pay money, but officials can never buy it by paying money.
In fact, no matter how to sell officials, the selection of officials still needs to go through normal procedures (of course, the so-called normal procedures, there are clear rules, there are also unspoken rules; the emperor does not sell officials, the relevant procedures are also walked down in this way), you can not pass the normal procedures, you have money, it is impossible to buy this official.
It is precisely for this reason that although the Ling Emperor is publicly listed and sold officials, the people who become officials are usually the people who are flaunted by the Scholars. In other words, although a three-duke position only sells for ten million dollars, there is no bottom-level local tycoon who can climb to the position of the three dukes.
More importantly, if the Ling Emperor is really selling officials (not talking about the organizational selection process, whoever gives more money will sell the officials to whom). The official of the two thousand stones only sold for twenty million dollars, and it was really cheap as selling cabbage. As for a sangong only selling for ten million dollars, the cheaper one has become the price of jumping.
Ten million dollars, twenty million dollars, used to buy steamed buns, pies, is naturally an astronomical number. But for official trading, that is drizzle.
Let's look at a price during the han ling emperor period.
In the first month of the spring of the fourth year, he was initially placed in the stables of the horse and received the transfer of horses from the county. Howe is right and one horse is to two million. Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Spirit Emperor》
The meaning of the above passage is that a horse is worth two million dollars, and it should be just an ordinary horse, because it was transferred.
In this way, a sheriff is worth the money of ten horses. One three dukes is worth the money of five horses. If you bargain, it is worth two and a half horses. A minister is usually worth two and a half horses.
If emperor Ling was really selling officials (not talking about the organizational selection procedure, whoever gave more money would sell the officials to whom), and one day a big local tycoon would come with two hundred horses, how many official positions would he have to buy away from the empire?
All in all, I have two hundred horses here, and I first use fifty horses to buy all the three princes and nine secretaries; the remaining one hundred and fifty horses, and then buy it for ten or so county guards to play with, so that if you count, don't you mean that two hundred horses can turn a local tycoon into a top tycoon? If he had led five hundred horses, wouldn't the Great Han Empire have been peacefully evolved at that time?
Think about it, is this possible?
As long as we can understand this, we will naturally know that the essence of the so-called Ling Emperor selling officials is definitely not to sell the official position as a pure commodity. Instead, he used his power to exchange interests with the bureaucracy. The emperor will not object to everyone being an official, nor will he auction off the highest official position. I just hope that everyone will donate some money to the imperial government while becoming officials.
To put it simply, it means that officials of the three public ranks should donate money for five horses to the Empire; officials at the sheriff level should donate money for ten horses to the Empire; and officials at the ministerial level should donate money for two horses to the Empire.
For the emperor's method of counterbalance to unspoken rules with unspoken rules, the heart of the Scholar Group was full of contradictions.
Because, they all claimed that they were public servants of the country and the people, but before they became officials, they all needed to pay a black money to the emperor. When they handed over the black money, they were actually punching themselves in the face. Because you pay this black money, it is equivalent to admitting that in a society without officials and greed, you yourself are not exempt from vulgarity. Otherwise, how can you come up with such a large sum of money?
Earlier said that this is a small amount of money, and now it is said that it is a big money, Xiaobian, are you confused? Don't worry, listen to me explain.
The Three Princes and Nine Secretaries are generally the pockets of the representative figures of the Tuas Clan, and for people of this level, ten million dollars or twenty million dollars are all small money, but this kind of talk cannot be said on the table. Because, judging by the salaries of these high-ranking officials, how many lifetimes can they save this money without eating or drinking?
In other words, it will not be too difficult to get a certain high-ranking official to come up with ten million, but this kind of talk cannot be put on the table. Because judging by the salaries of these high-ranking officials, how many lifetimes can they save this money without eating or drinking?
In the face of the emperor playing such a rogue, the officials' hearts are naturally extremely contradictory. If you pay this money to the emperor, you will prove that you are not a legendary Qing official. However, if they did not pay this money to the emperor, they would lose the opportunity to become officials or be promoted, and they were naturally unwilling. Therefore, the scholar group was angry and anxious about the emperor's practice of moving the unspoken rules to the table, but finally helplessly accepted the relevant facts.
In this context, if an official wants to get a letter of appointment from the emperor, he must first pay the emperor a large amount of money. In this regard, many dignified officials cried and shouted, because the emperor did this, which was really tantamount to publicly punching them in the face. Although there are no officials, no greed, no greed, no officials, but the integrity of the old minister is universally recognized! If you punch the old minister in the face like this, the old minister really has no face to live. In this context, the emperor would also give them a discount on the qing officials who were recognized by everyone; in short, a fifty-fold discount, and a three-fold discount if it didn't work. How's that, cheeky, right?
The biggest criticism of the Second Emperor Huanling's act of openly selling officials was that the emperor's selling of officials was equivalent to encouraging officials to become corrupt.
This is all the funniest to say, because the real motivation for officials to be corrupt is that the cost of corruption is extremely low.
Let's assume that if corrupt officials are caught, they will be beheaded, serious direct extermination, and the probability of being caught is very high, naturally not many officials dare to be corrupt. (For example, Zhu Yuanzhang killed corrupt officials, although it later revived, but at least in Zhu Yuanzhang's dynasty, there were no corrupt officials.) Why did Zhu Yuanzhang have few or even no corrupt officials in his dynasty? Because I was scared to be killed. ）
However, if corruption usually has nothing to do, whoever sits in the position of an official will inevitably make a big move. In this context, whether the emperor acquiesced to their corruption or shouted anti-corruption and clean government every day, the result would not change much. You shout yours, I do mine, even if you are greedy, you will not take me. In this kind of official ecosystem, corruption has always existed semi-openly, how can we blame the emperor for selling officials? Obviously, the official's power is too great, and the emperor is not capable of managing it!
The above is the essence. But even if it is put on the table, it cannot be equated with the emperor's public listing and selling of officials (in fact, it is forced to donate) and conniving at official corruption.
We can imagine: When an official makes a mess of his work, does he really dare to tell the emperor that before I became an official, I paid you a sum of money, so although my work is a mess, you can't remove me from my post, let alone punish me. Of course, he didn't dare to tell the emperor that it wasn't that I wanted to be corrupt, but it was because I had paid a tribute to you before I became an official, so when I became an official, I had to recover the cost.
If the official really dares to talk nonsense like this, the emperor will definitely beat him all over his face with blood, do you boy think that society is really no one to care, dare to talk nonsense here?
You have a little spectrum when you are corrupt, you can recover the cost, you can also make a lot of money, this is an open secret, you think the emperor does not know?
Moreover, the Ming people did not speak secretly, and there were more people in the imperial court who did this kind of thing every day. At your level, through various unspoken rules, how much money can be charged in a year, do you think we don't know? Do you think that when the emperor and you ask for money, you really make a decision with a slap on the head?
If you dare to say such a thing, do you really think that the emperor is the legendary Emperor? Do you really think that the emperor's collection of money from you is to encourage you to be corrupt? Do you really think that the emperor collected this money from you just to eat, drink and have fun for yourself?
Just because of your nonsense, I will not argue with you. The whole family packed up and got ready to go to the execution ground!