Chapter 6815 The Foundation of the Foundation

Chapter 6815 The Foundation of the Foundation
To be honest, it was only thanks to the fact that this was the third century, the feudal era, when the agricultural population accounted for 99%, otherwise Chen Xi's method of forcibly raising food prices would never have been passed.

After all, there are too many things related to grain prices. Whether it is too low or too high, it will cause fatal problems. And Chen Xi's method of directly collecting grain and raising the market price of grain from about 42 wen to 120 wen will not be a problem to directly trigger a war in the future.

However, in this era, when Chen Xi proposed this plan that sounded outrageous, the people present did not directly object, but instead lowered their heads to think about it.

There is actually nothing much to mention about their own losses. A large part of their salaries is food. Take Empress Xiao as an example. Why could she go to Mount Zhongnan to attain enlightenment and not engage in production? It was because even if she did nothing, she still had the 14th-level title and 700 shi of food every year.

Therefore, the issuance of this decree actually had little impact on Liu Bei's ruling foundation, nor did it have much impact on the upper-class aristocratic families. After all, these days, most people ate food grown by themselves, and families that were completely free from production were like immortals or gods, and they didn't need to worry about this little extra expense.

Of course, this is because of Chen Xi's existence, otherwise this little bit of benefit would be enough for this group of people to have a fierce fight. After all, there are huge interests involved in whose food to collect first and how to collect it. In the past, these things would have to be decided after a fierce fight and the death of a group of people.

But now, the impact is very light. Of course, this light impact is based on the fact that Liu Bei is still in power and Chen Xi is still alive. If it were any other time, I am afraid that even everyone present now would need to think twice, because this decree actually benefits the lower classes, but in fact it is cutting into the flesh of the middle and upper classes.

Even if not much is cut, as long as it is cut, there will definitely be backlash.

It's just like when you kill a chicken. The chicken has only so much strength, so as long as you are ruthless and ignore its resistance, you can just kill it and put it in the pot. But if it's a tiger, even if you just lightly scratch its butt with a knife, the tiger will make a big noise.

But again, a little bit of interest released by the upper class is enough to bring huge benefits to the lower class, just like the so-called speck of dust in the era. This slight loss of the upper class is directly a grain of gold sand in the era for the lower class, which will be a mountain of gold when it falls.

For the truly wealthy and powerful, this slight increase in grain prices would only mean an extra few tens to hundreds of thousands of coins a year. But for the ordinary people, who made up more than 99% of the Han Dynasty's population, it was basically equivalent to doubling their income.

More importantly, after the income doubled, under the state's regulation, the overall price level has hardly changed, except for the further increase in various non-staple foods, meat, etc. In this case, even though consumption habits have constrained people's consumption capacity, the overall living standard has naturally improved.

By the way, this is one of the ways Chen Xi selected after evaluating the output of the second five-year plan to effectively release development dividends without causing social impact. After all, the government has always collected grain at 150 wen, but now it collects a little more. This policy has been implemented for more than ten years, and the people have long been accustomed to it.

"Then when you distribute rice, remember to give more money as well, as a salary increase for the bureaucrats." Jia Xu lowered his head and calculated for a while before speaking. Their family of seven, plus the housekeeper, servants, and so on, the grain distributed by the state throughout the year is more than enough for them to eat. After all, Jia Xu was awarded 2160 dan of grain and the actual grain and salary he received was dan, which was enough for them to eat.

In fact, Jia Xu was not short of money, nor did he care about this, but even though he didn't care, there were people who did. Moreover, since the sixth year of Yuanfeng, bureaucrats from all over the country had been clamoring for salary reform because of the falling grain prices. Even now, Chen Xi still pays out salaries based on his mood. There is no clear and formal salary payment instructions stamped with the imperial seal and the seals of the three dukes and nine ministers. The salaries of bureaucrats at all levels are really paid at the discretion of Chen Xi.

To be honest, bureaucrats at all levels are satisfied with the salaries signed by Chen Xi. After all, compared with their job levels, everyone knows that there is only profit and no loss. But it has been five years, and not a single serious reform document has been issued. The bureaucrats are also muttering in their hearts.
So when Jia Xu heard that Chen Xi wanted to raise the price of grain, he thought about it and decided to go with the flow and bring this up for everyone to comment on. It could be considered as a warning and a sweet treat. After all, most of the people who buy grain and eat are in Jia Xu's circle of salary, and those who are not in this circle, damn, you are not in this circle, how can you have the qualifications to sit at the table and speak?
Chen Xi glanced at Jia Xu. He knew that if he brought this up, someone would definitely give him a way out and let him go along the path of salary reform. This way, he could solve the problem at the same time and win twice.

"Salaries also need to be discussed at the grand court meeting." Chen Xi raised his eyebrows slightly, looking at everyone present with a half-smile, "After all, such a big thing, if we don't bring people together for discussion, we can just finalize it and send out a document with a seal. After all, the grand court meeting at the beginning of the sixth year of Yuanfeng didn't bring this up for detailed deliberation."

It may sound a bit strange, but if Chen Xi follows the rules, others will agree. After all, this is a resolution involving the salaries of all Han officials, and it must be reviewed item by item on the table. Otherwise, if they just send out a document with a seal and start implementing it as Chen Xi said, it would be too makeshift.

"Such things will be discussed at the Grand Court?" Zhang Fei directly expressed everyone's doubts. "Will there be bureaucrats who think their salaries are too high? Even if there are upright bureaucrats who cut their salaries on the basis of the country, they will be overturned. It is hard to tell who is for the collective in this situation!"

"Because it has been in trial operation for five years." Zhuge Liang pressed his temple and said, "In the past five years, the bureaucrats at all levels have dealt with most of the proposals on salaries. The review should have been completed by now. If you think about it carefully, in the past two years, there have been very few local bureaucrats who have sent letters about salary issues as often as before."

Chen Xi smiled when he heard this, "Kong Ming is still the one who works the hardest."

"No, you didn't really deal with all the official documents concerning salary issues in the past three years." Zhuge Liang frowned and asked solemnly. It would take a lot of time just to read those official documents.

"Although it's a little different from what you thought, I did deal with it." Chen Xi nodded and said, "In the past two years, there should be very few bureaucrats who wrote to us about salary issues. Maybe I can't make them completely satisfied, but in the current social environment, they can still fully accept this level of salary. Of course, if it can be a little higher, they will be more satisfied."

"You actually finished reading it. I didn't even know when you finished reading it. There are quite a lot of documents." Zhuge Liang looked at Chen Xi with some disbelief.

"The most likely thing is to collect all the official documents related to salary issues, and then divide them according to the states, randomly select some from them, and then deal with them one by one to see the situation. After a while, do it again and deal with another wave." Fa Zheng folded his arms and sneered. He knew Chen Xi's outrageous operation too well.

"No, no, no, I'm looking at it according to the county." Chen Xi denied it on the spot.

Zhuge Liang couldn't help but cover his forehead. He had a headache, and he felt sorry for the local bureaucrats who were excited and actively reporting the documents. What was even worse was that under Chen Xi's handling, the problems of the local bureaucrats were gradually solved, and judging from the subsequent reports that Zhuge Liang had read, those people were even quite satisfied.

Even though we need to take into account that this type of official document needs to be discounted in terms of satisfaction, we can still say that we are very satisfied. At least the same type of request will not be made again for many years to come. In other words, Chen Xi's outrageous handling method may be appropriate and reasonable for the next ten years.

"Who are you kidding? Do you know how many counties there are now?" Fa Zheng said unhappily.

"158 counties." Chen Xi said unhappily, "You look down on me too much."

The Han Dynasty itself had 103 counties, and the governor and lieutenant of each county were both two thousand dan. The counties under their jurisdiction had county magistrates with a rank of six hundred to one thousand dan in counties with more than ten thousand households, and county governors with a rank of three hundred to five hundred dan in counties with less than ten thousand households.

After Chen Xi entered Chang'an, the Han Dynasty annexed the Western Regions, Tibet, Funan, and parts of Central and South China, adding a total of 55 counties, which further increased the number of Han Dynasty's two thousand stone bureaucrats.

However, even so, there were less than 500 positions for all the officials in the Han Dynasty with a salary of more than 2,000 stones, including special female officials in the palace and imperial concubines with a rank higher than the three dukes.

By the way, these positions, which are less than 500, have not been filled yet. The position of the county lieutenant, which is theoretically reserved for the sixth-level smelting and is more than 2,000 stones, still has a large number of vacancies.

On the one hand, there are a large number of Sixth-Layer Smelting soldiers in the front-line legions waiting to win fiefdoms and seize greater benefits. On the other hand, some of the Sixth-Layer Smelting soldiers are not suitable for being officials at all and just want to return home with wealth and honor. There are also some veterans of the Sixth-Layer Smelting soldiers who have automatically moved to their own fiefdoms, resulting in that not even half of the 158 county lieutenant positions have been filled yet.

"Hey, you actually know all 158 counties. Do you think you can go through them one by one?" Fa Zheng said in a tone that was unclear whether it was teasing or surprise.

"Alright, alright, don't mention this. Anyway, I have sent out all the notices that should be sent out. In the sixth year of Yuanfeng, I also said that if you have any questions about salaries, please reply. I will make adjustments to the current trial salary." Chen Xi said expressionlessly, "After five years of trial operation and many adjustments, bureaucrats at all levels are relatively satisfied with the current salary system."

"This is just a notification!" Li You said speechlessly looking at Chen Xi.

"The problem is that I really ran it on a trial basis for five years, and listened to the opinions of senior bureaucrats such as Jia Wenhe, Guo Fengxiao, Fa Xiaozhi and so on. Oh, I also listened to your salary suggestions for technical bureaucrats last year." When Chen Xi said this, although he still had no expression on his face, there was already a hint of smile between his eyebrows, which made Li You speechless.

"If you think about it carefully, Zichuan even listened to my suggestion for subsidies for those clerks who run errands. It's really..." Mi Zhu looked at Fang Liang with a hint of helplessness. This guy was really listening to opinions and conducted a trial run to verify.

"He even listened to the suggestion on subsidies for the firemen." Zhao Yun recalled and compared it with his own memory. It was somewhat strange. It turned out that Chen Xi was really doing the deliberation alone.

"The rotation subsidy of the Imperial Guard and the field subsidy of the Palace Guard." Man Chong also quickly realized the emergence and adjustment of certain things.

"In short, I listened carefully to the opinions of bureaucrats at all levels and restructured the rank and salary system based on these opinions. After five years of trial operation, the fairness and rationality of the new rank and salary system were guaranteed." Chen Xi said with a smile, "So when the review is held, I will bring all the information with me."

"Okay, next topic. These two have been passed together. We have nothing to say. I am quite satisfied with the current salary, but considering Zichuan's situation, it will probably be slightly increased when it is announced when everyone is still relatively satisfied." Jia Xu said, "You have come to this point, what else is there to say? Of course it has been passed. We are absolutely satisfied with the review!"

"It is totally irrefutable. This is indeed Zichuan's idea." Liu Bei also nodded.

"Can I ask a question?" Hua Xiong raised his hand and asked. Chen Xi took a glance and knew that Hua Xiong was being held back by Zhang Fei and Xu Chu and was forced to ask the question.

"Ask." Chen Xi said happily.

"In what aspects will the slight improvement be by then?" Hua Xiong glanced at Zhang Fei and Xu Chu and hinted to Chen Xi, saying that it was these two guys who asked him to ask.

"That's boring." Chen Xi said with a smile, and then gave an answer without waiting for Zhang Fei to ask, "For those below 600 dan, in addition to the salary during the trial period, coastal areas will receive a cured goose, and inland areas will receive two yellow croakers. For those above 600 dan, ten kilograms of cured beef will be provided."

"How many officials and officially employed clerks are there below the rank of 600 dan?" Liu Bei looked at Li You and asked. There was actually no problem in issuing these to those above the rank of 600 dan, because there were simply not that many people. In the Han Dynasty, only those in a county with ten thousand households had officials above the rank of 600 dan, and in a prefecture, generally only one or two counties reached the level of ten thousand households. The rest were senior bureaucrats in the county, and all of them added up, there were less than three thousand people.

"About 16500 people." Li You said almost without thinking.

"We have a population of over 80 million now, and there are 20,000 bureaucrats." Liu Bei looked at Chen Xi with a frown. In Liu Bei's impression, during the reign of Emperor Ling, the people were living in dire straits, and the ratio of officials to civilians was about 1:7,000. How come it is now more than 1:4,000, a huge increase?

"Because a lot of professional and technical personnel have been incorporated into the bureaucracy. After all, the official system has always been the most important thing, and giving them official positions is the most convincing. Anyway, they are not short of that little salary. Moreover, most technical officials rarely appear in public. Their value lies in their technology. For example, Xiangli's dozen or so official positions of 300 stones, as well as the rank of 1,000 stones, are mainly reflected in contacting other people for supplies..." Chen Xi explained with some distress. He actually did this to save trouble.

After all, being an official in this land is the fastest way to gain respect, and being an official can also effectively reduce the difficulty of communication. So in order to save trouble, when Chen Xi was developing the industry, he also gave job ranks based on later generations. The highest ones, such as Jiang Qi, Liu Ru and others, were directly worth two thousand stones.

Although a low official-to-civilian ratio is a good thing, meaning low expenses, fewer levels of feedback and high efficiency, it does not mean that a ratio as low as one to more than seven thousand is a good thing. Chen Xi thought that he could afford it, so he recruited a lot of technical bureaucrats. This was also the reason why many senior technical personnel from state-owned factories, mines and workshops in Yanzhou and Qingzhou were able to move to Jizhou to become officials. To put it bluntly, it was because they really had ranks.

"This is not a good idea." Liu Bei frowned. He had never paid much attention to the changes in the ratio of officials to civilians before. The old soldier would not mention this in front of Liu Bei, because the number of local bureaucrats and clerks had not increased. The increase was mainly in technical bureaucrats, and the technical bureaucrats were pressed by Chen Xi in factories and workshops to work hard for the country and consolidate the country's foundation. They generally did not appear in public.

In other words, Chen Xi isolated the two systems through urban-rural separation and the dual-track system, so that although the number of bureaucrats increased, you could not feel this increase.

"Give Wang family of Kuaiji an official of 600 dan, and ask them to arrange someone who can repair Leijitai to work. Lord Xuande, guess how many counties are willing to give up one person." Chen Xi lowered his head and thought for a while. He felt that he should use a simpler way to explain to Liu Bei, and then he easily found a suitable situation.

"It's all over the map." Li You answered on behalf of Liu Bei. "For a mere 600 dan, I'll write him a stack. As long as he can find 10 more people who can repair the Leijitai this year, I'll have no problem opening all the Lantai Censors to make room for them. Does anyone here think that's unreasonable?"

Among the things Li You has done in his life, one of the things that makes him regret more and more is when he saw Wang Shi of Kuaiji using Lei Ji Tai to strike down those playboys in her family. More than ten of them were struck to ashes. At that time, Li You was so shocked, but now when he thinks about it, damn, these were all excellent animals who understood Lei Ji Tai, and most of them would be able to build Lei Ji Tai with a little effort!

The crimes committed by those dozen or so playboys are nothing. The highest level is bullying men and women, exploiting the people in the village, arbitrarily judging the local customs, and taking human lives. These are already the worst kinds among those dozen or so big animals.

The question is, if a bad seed of this level wants to be reformed, can Li You reform it with his ability? Of course he can, too much! If I had known that this bad seed could repair the Lei Ji Platform, I would definitely not send him to the Lei Ji Platform. I would have let him repair to death and atone for his sins!

It was also this incident that made Li You completely understand what Chen Xi meant by "human heads are not leeks, they can grow back after being cut." Damn it, at that time, the Wang family of Kuaiji was so happy to attract thunder that half of their own population was blown up. As a result, so many years have passed, and the population that was blown up has not grown back. Li You was speechless. Why couldn't you have said earlier that your family was so useful? I really believe in making up for one's crimes!
It can be said that if the Wang family of Kuaiji says that they can give you one more person to deal with Lei Jitai for 600 shi, Li You can clear out the Lantai Censors today and get a stack of 600 shi.

As for the fact that the current grain output is extremely astonishing and the grain price has fallen to the point of no return, as if the Kuaiji Wang family is not that important, that is all an illusion. Anyone with a little bit of common sense knows that grain is the cornerstone of national strategy, the foundation of industry, and the foundation of animal husbandry. There has never been such a thing as enough grain output!

To put it simply, what should be fed to make large livestock such as cattle, sheep and pigs grow quickly? It will take several years for them to develop by feeding them grain, bone meal and grass.

Enough food? What a joke. If there is enough food, won’t we feed the animals?

Even in later generations, the best breeds of beef cattle need to eat six to eight kilograms of fine feed to grow one kilogram of meat. The best breeds of sheep, when they are lambs, need to eat six kilograms of fine feed to grow one kilogram. After they grow to the size of adult sheep, they may need to eat ten kilograms to grow one kilogram. This is why most sheep seen in later generations weigh thirty kilograms, because if they weigh any more, the cost will explode. As for pigs, based on the development speed in different periods, the current better breeds of pigs can basically guarantee to eat three kilograms to grow one kilogram.

This is also the reason why the current price of pork is lower than that of beef, and beef is close to or slightly lower than that of mutton. It is simply a cost issue.

Considering the transformation of various non-staple foods after the increase in grain production, and the use of grain as industrial materials, how can we say that there is no such thing as enough grain? There are only two options: enough grain or I can open a new consumption outlet. How can it be enough?

In later generations, 90% of the soybeans imported by China were used as feed, and local grains that were not very tasty but had high yields were also used as feed. More than 30% of the country's total grain output was used as feed. As a result, the cost of beef and mutton is still much higher than that in foreign countries. What this means is self-evident.

Basic agriculture is just like that. If the output is not enough, it is not enough! Even if Chen Xi now pats his chest and says that there is enough to eat, it really only took ten years to meet the supply of food!
And food rations are only the basis of food security. Although being able to guarantee this is something that only the top powers can do in the 21st century, let alone in the third century, it would be a joke if you want to say that it is enough with just this level.

Chen Xi's next step was to continue collecting grain, both from the Han Dynasty and from Southeast Asia. He would continue to collect grain and thoroughly establish the animal husbandry group. He would then gradually lower the price of meat to a suitable range. If a dou of rice cost twelve cents, then a jin of meat should cost around ten cents. This was reasonable.

So even though Li You's words were a bit extreme, everyone present agreed with them. After all, they were not stupid. Even Xu Chu knew that pork elbows were delicious, and if pigs wanted to grow fast, they had to eat grain!
The author has not been feeling well recently, so I can't be online every day. If you have any materials, please send them to me.