Chapter 111

The brief meeting ended, and Li Mu took the group to visit the military camp.

In the Great Yu Dynasty, the weight of a military officer never depended on the rank of his official position.

Whoever had the stronger military strength in their hands spoke with more confidence.

As an Assistant Regional Commander appointed by the court, the troops under his command were all soldiers registered with the court, so there was no need to hide anything.

To fool a group of civil officials who knew nothing about military affairs, as long as they looked good, one could declare them elite troops.

The cavalry training time was short, so they couldn't perform for the time being.

Fortunately, these soldiers were originally elites selected from the infantry, and Li Mu had led them to see blood several times.

Arranged neatly together, one could feel the murderous aura from afar.

"Assistant Regional Commander Li is truly skilled at training soldiers!"

Gu Youwen couldn't help but exclaim.

The Yangzhou Battalion had only been formed for three months, and it already had this quality.

If a few years passed, it would definitely be an elite force in the Great Yu army.

When he was in the capital, he heard that the court wanted to strengthen its control over the southeastern provinces, but he hadn't taken it seriously.

Now it seemed that the rumors at the time were not groundless.

Once this troop was successfully trained, if there were changes in the south in the future, troops could be mobilized from nearby.

There would be no need to travel thousands of miles to mobilize troops from the capital.

In peacetime, this troop deployment was enough to deal with general small disturbances.

"Prefect, you are too kind. I have only fulfilled my duty.

All the elite troops in the world are fed by money and grain.

If financial resources can be guaranteed, there are many people in the world who can train elite troops."

Li Mu replied frankly.

It was all the truth; with guaranteed money and grain, the Great Yu Dynasty was not short of military talent.

Especially in the Nine Borders, there were truly no shortage of capable generals.

If the court could raise enough military funding, clearing out external threats would only be a matter of three to five years.

"Haha, there are things to do in the office, so I will take my leave first!"

Hearing the words "money and grain," Gu Youwen hurriedly laughed and found an excuse to run away.

Intuition told him that if he stayed here any longer, he would suffer another heavy financial loss today.

It wasn't that he opposed spending money to train soldiers; on the contrary, Gu Youwen was one of the few civil officials who supported increasing military spending.

When he was in the Hanlin Academy, he had submitted a memorial to the court hoping to increase military expenditure.

Supporting it politically was one thing, but paying for it himself was another.

Only after becoming the head of a household did he know how expensive daily necessities were.

The greatest support he could give Li Mu now was not to cause trouble himself.

Seeing Prefect Gu turn and leave without even giving him a chance to persuade him to stay, Li Mu was very helpless.

It was just asking for military funding a few more times; any military officer would strive for such things.

Pie in the sky doesn't fall; if one doesn't actively strive for military funding, others will think the allocated money and grain are enough.

If one doesn't complain in normal times, by the time the government has money, it will be too late.

Don't look at how well the Yangzhou Battalion is doing; the other armies currently under reconstruction in Yangzhou are one more miserable than the other.

The Inspection Offices and Garrison Battalions under the prefectures and counties were all empty shells.

The Yangzhou Guard, which had just hung up its sign again, only had a bright future, but was still eating bran and vegetables at the current stage.

The military funding allocated by the court to Yangzhou prioritized the stronger recruited troops, and the treatment of local troops had to take a back seat.

Only by showing its own value could the Yangzhou Battalion squeeze money out of the Prefectural Office.

Many local commanders now only had a few personal guards and hadn't even set up their own framework.

Running to the government office to ask for money, they all suffered social beatings and learned what it meant for civil officials to be noble and military officers to be lowly.

Without preparing a generous gift, they couldn't even get through the door.

In the Wenyuan Pavilion, the five Grand Secretaries gathered together.

"Colleagues, the plan to cut redundant personnel has encountered difficulties.

I have gathered everyone here today to discuss how to push it forward.

Grand Secretary Shi, you were previously in charge of the Ministry of Personnel and are most familiar with the issue of redundant personnel. Please speak about the specific situation first!"

Pang Pang Hengsheng took the lead and said.

New officials burn three fires; the first big fire burned after the reorganization of the cabinet had encountered trouble.

If they gave up at this time, it would be a major blow to the cabinet's authority.

"Chief Grand Secretary, from the investigation, there are mainly three parts of redundant personnel in the court.

One part is rewarded by the Emperor daily; these people are mostly imperial clansmen, nobles, and relatives of the Emperor.

It is definitely not possible to drive them out of the court directly.

The Ministry of Personnel's plan is to retain their titles and allow them to enjoy the treatment of their corresponding ranks, but the proportion of treasure notes will be increased when issuing salaries.

Currently, progress is relatively smooth; these people don't rely on the court's salary to live.

Apart from cursing a few words, they haven't caused any major trouble.

The trouble lies in the latter two types.

In addition to entering officialdom through imperial examinations, our dynasty also has the hereditary system and the recommendation system.

The second part of redundant personnel mainly comes from the hereditary system.

Because of personal ability issues, most of those who enter officialdom through the hereditary system are arranged in idle government offices.

With the development of time, this group has grown, leading to overstaffing in many government offices.

The third part of redundant personnel is those who entered officialdom through the orthodox imperial examinations.

Either because they failed the assessment or were demoted, a portion of officials were marginalized.

These officials are equivalent to empty titles and have nothing to do in normal times.

Apart from receiving salaries, they wouldn't report to the government office all year round."

Shi Shi Yuanhu said with a gloomy face.

They hadn't combed through the context beforehand and underestimated the difficulty of cutting redundant personnel.

Others could be understood, but it was too inappropriate for him, the former Minister of Personnel, to have made the same mistake.

Although no one said it explicitly, everyone had doubts about his ability to handle affairs in their hearts.

Yet he also had unspeakable bitterness.

The Minister of Personnel was not omnipotent; he couldn't ask about some sensitive matters.

Before entering the cabinet, he absolutely didn't dare to talk about cutting redundant personnel, not even paying attention to it.

The criteria for cutting personnel drafted by the cabinet were very loose.

As long as there was something to do, regardless of whether it was important, they were not considered redundant officials.

The embarrassing thing was that after the investigation, it was discovered that there were more officials who didn't do anything but received salaries than those who actually worked.

Unless the cabinet was strong enough, such a job that offended the bureaucratic group could not be pushed forward at all.

"It seems we didn't consider it thoroughly before. Since there is no problem with how everyone entered officialdom, we cannot drive people home directly.

I think we should mainly persuade the idle officials to return.

For those nearing retirement, arrange for them to retire early, and their treatment should be executed according to normal official retirement.

For those unwilling to leave, the court will not take mandatory measures.

When the Ministry of Revenue issues salaries, gradually increase the proportion of their treasure notes, and future retirement will also be mainly based on issuing treasure notes."

Xu Xu Wenyue said.

The number of redundant officials was too huge, and cutting them was imperative.

Otherwise, the increasingly bloated bureaucratic system could hollow out the Great Yu Dynasty.

But officialdom is also a society of human relationships; driving people home directly is too heartless.

If executed forcefully, the resistance from below would definitely be very great.

After much deliberation, he chose a compromise.

With the shock of the news of layoffs, proposing to lower salaries made it much easier for everyone to accept.

Moreover, they weren't directly cutting salaries, just increasing the proportion of treasure notes in the salary; nominally, the treatment was the same.

Everyone's face was considered saved.

Persuading a few unlucky ones to return, the rest would only feel lucky and wouldn't care about the small matter of lower salaries.

After all, 99% of officials in the Great Yu Dynasty didn't rely on salaries to live.

There are only poor scholars in the world; there has never been a poor licentiate, let alone an official in office.

Even if they didn't receive a single cent of salary, just accepting tax-free land donated by neighbors provided a considerable income.

The descendants of the powerful who entered through the hereditary system had never lacked money and didn't need anyone to worry about their livelihood.

"Grand Secretary Xu's words are reasonable; we really shouldn't do things too absolutely.

We are cutting redundant personnel mainly to reduce the burden on the court.

Since the goal of reducing the burden is achieved, layoffs are no longer that important.

I think we should set a goal of cutting 100 redundant officials to give the outside world an explanation."

Grand Secretary Lu on the side echoed.

No one wants to do a job that offends people.

The first fire after the cabinet reorganization burning so big was actually forced by the situation.

The previous cabinet had completed the salt administration reform; even if the silver reported by salt merchants wasn't counted, salt tax had broken the record to 5 million taels.

The reason Grand Secretary Song could receive posthumous honors after his death was largely because he benefited from the success of the salt administration reform.

Even if he didn't lead it to completion, since the cabinet cooperated with the work, he had a share of the credit.

If he had led it to completion himself, his posthumous title might have been even higher.

For the sake of their reputation before and after death, everyone had to do something.

Cutting redundant personnel was difficult, but the risk was not high.

This treatment was completely different from when Grand Secretary Xu came last time; it was like heaven and earth.

Among the local gentry, the seven most powerful families were uprooted, and the remaining powerful clans all learned to be obedient.

Without the bigwigs fighting, everyone gave the local officials face.

As the official with the highest rank currently in Yangzhou, Li Mu did not appear in the team, but was waiting in the prefectural office for the handover of power.

It wasn't that he didn't give Prefect Gu face, but there is no rule in the Great Great Dayu's officialdom for a superior to welcome a subordinate.

No matter how high and powerful the Yangzhou Prefect is, his rank is still only Senior Rank Four, while the Assistant Regional Commander is Senior Rank Three.

Ordinary military officials have to bow to civil officials for military funds, which is why there is the saying that civil officials are valued and military officials are disparaged.

Li Mu, who has a clear plan for military funds, clearly does not belong to this category.

Stepping onto land with a group of colleagues and scanning the welcoming crowd, Gu Youwen was slightly disappointed.

Besides the local gentry, the official representative was actually only one private secretary.