Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 681 Continue to understand the situation

Finally, Hualei learned from the Household and Personnel Departments about the total area of ​​cultivated land, the total area of ​​wasteland and mountains, and the total population of Xichang Prefecture, including the number of people of all ages. The data was still very large, and Hualei needed to digest it on her own.

In addition, there were about 200 clerks and runners in the government office. If we only relied on these 200 people, it would not be enough to manage such a large area and population.

Therefore, every official and yamen runner would have several to a dozen hangers-on under him. Hangers-on were similar to temporary workers in previous lives.

Responsible for helping relevant clerks and yamen runners to gather information, monitor suspicious persons, help collect taxes, etc. Their salary is determined according to their workload each month.

So it is not fixed, and the unit price is also low. Therefore, many hangers-on make extra money while doing things, just like the "kick the hu and lin the jian" operation that Hua Lei did when collecting tax grain in Mobei before, which is one of the ways to make extra money.

Although the salaries of the hangers-on are also paid every six months, they work first and then receive their salaries, so the salary for the first half of the year will not be paid until the second half of the year.

However, their salaries for the second half of last year have not yet been paid out because Prefect Fei has returned home for mourning. When Hua Lei heard about this, she ordered the Ministry of Rites to compile the statistics.

After the officials' salaries were distributed, theirs would be distributed. However, the number of these hangers-on was much larger than that of the regular officials, more than 1,900 in total. When Wu Yousheng gave this data, Hua Lei was shocked.

When I was working in the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Forestry, I knew about the existence of hangers-on. Before Gao Tiedan, Xiao Yuanzi and others went to Mobei, they were unofficial hangers-on in the Ministry of Forestry.

However, the entire Silin Bureau only had five or six hundred hangers-on. Unexpectedly, Xichang Prefecture had nearly two thousand hangers-on. Hua Lei was wary of this, but did not say anything in person.

Perhaps noticing that Hua Lei's expression was a little strange, Governor Liu, who was in charge of civil and criminal cases, explained that it was not surprising for a government office to have nearly two thousand hangers-on.

The neighboring Xi'an Prefecture had more than 2,400 hangers-on. Because when arresting criminals, it was basically two or three yamen runners with a group of hangers-on.

A few years ago, there was a group of bandits in the jurisdiction. In order to eliminate this group of bandits, the yamen runners at that time gathered nearly a thousand hangers-on to participate in the bandit suppression event. However, they still lost.

Therefore, the prefect at that time asked the court for a garrison in the government office to help suppress the bandits. After the bandits were cleared out, the garrison did not leave but stayed. Therefore, there are still 1,500 garrison troops stationed in the city of Xichang Prefecture.

The salaries of these 1,500 garrison troops do not need to be paid by Xichang Prefecture, but their daily food and accommodation are basically paid for by Xichang Prefecture.

Hua Lei was stunned when she heard this. If she remembered correctly, the bandit suppression incident recorded in the regional annals should have happened eleven years ago.

At that time, the soldiers in the western border were busy resisting the interference of neighboring countries and had no time to take care of their own territory. Therefore, the bandits were rampant and tyrannical, harassing the people from time to time and robbing money and food.

Therefore, the prefect applied to the court for another garrison. Eleven years have passed. Has the suppression of bandits in this area not been completed? You know, the total number of soldiers in Xijiang can reach about 120,000, stationed on the border line of Xichang Prefecture.

Now that we have signed a six-year peace agreement with our neighboring countries, we should have more than enough manpower, right? This batch of garrisons should not be needed, right? Hualei silently made a note in her notebook.

After learning about these things, Hua Lei notified the Lifang Jieshi Zhong to compile a list of all the officials in Xichang Prefecture and its jurisdiction and submit it.

Hualei felt that giving only the total data was too general and could not give a true picture of the situation. In addition, all the personnel changes and attendance records of the government office in the past three months were also submitted.

After a rough understanding, Hualei felt that the prefect had great power. No wonder the saying goes, "Three years as a clean prefect, 100,000 silver coins." If he embezzled more, the silver coins would be even more. However, Hualei didn't have the guts to embezzle.

She looked at the hourglass in the corner of the room and it was almost time for the next shift. After sitting in her position with her body stretched out all day, Hualei felt a little sore in her waist and back.

So he said, "Let's stop here today. Thank you all colleagues for speaking freely today and for providing so many valuable opinions and suggestions.

This has given me some understanding of the situation in our Xichang Prefecture. I would like to thank you all in advance, and I also hope to receive your full support in future specific affairs.

Everyone has worked hard today, go back and have a rest." He then stood up first.

Everyone bowed and said goodbye, and Hua Lei and Rong Jin returned to the house at the back.

In the evening, Hua Lei and Rong Jin checked the detailed salary list submitted by Wu Yousheng in the study. Although there were more than 200 people in the government office, there were also many officials from the prefectures, counties and towns below.

However, since the salary of each official is fixed, it is not troublesome to compare. In addition, there have been few personnel changes in the past three months.

So after removing those who had resigned and adding the new ones, the two of them divided the work and worked together, and it only took them more than half an hour to check off everyone on the list.

In order to prevent mistakes, Hua Lei used an abacus to calculate the total three times. When the results were the same, she signed her name at the end of the list and stamped it with the seal.

After sorting and checking the salary list, Hualei breathed a sigh of relief, and then opened the regional annals on the desk again. Hualei wanted to learn more about the donkey that Chen Ducao mentioned in the morning.

In her previous life, Hualei was from the south, where donkeys and mules were rare, not as common as pigs, chickens, ducks and geese. Therefore, Hualei didn't know much about them. She only ate donkey meat a few times when she led a tour group. As for breeding, she knew nothing about it.

This morning, although I said in front of everyone that if I couldn't feed the donkey by the end of the year, I could slaughter it and give it as a gift, it seemed like I was just making empty promises.

But then Hualei thought about it and realized that if this operation was done well, it would be possible. If the number of donkeys and mules raised in Western Xinjiang increased, there would be a Laci at the end of the year, and then they could be rented to the people for arable land reclamation.

A mule can also be equipped with a cargo box at the back, making it a great mule cart for transporting things.

After reading the regional annals, Hua Lei realized that the donkeys and mules in Xichang Prefecture were introduced from neighboring countries in the past few years. They had become an important part of the local community, being able to plow the land and transport rice, with quite good results.