the next day!
Chen the Assassin came to the government office early to report, and after waiting for a while, he met Lin Zexu again.

"Chen Le, since you're new here, you might as well work as an ordinary clerk in the armory!" Lin Zexu said and picked up the tea bowl.

"Yes!" Chen Gu bowed respectfully and said, "I'll take my leave!"

"Ding!"

Lin Zexu tapped the tea bowl gently with the lid, and Chen the Executor stopped immediately.

"The salaries of clerks in various departments in Fuzhou have been raised, and the expenses for firewood, charcoal, rice and other grains have increased, so that the clerks will not be unable to support their families."

"My subordinate understands!"

"That's it, if you have anything, you can report to me directly!"

"I understand!" Then Chen Jue left the government office.

There were actually very few officials on the payroll of the Qing Dynasty. A county had only a few people, such as the magistrate, county magistrate, chief clerk, prison wardens, inspectors, and instructors.

Such a few people are naturally not enough to manage a county, so six more clerks and three more shifts of yamen runners will be recruited, collectively known as clerks. The county magistrate will generally also recruit a legal advisor and a group of servants to give him advice and provide military protection.

But no matter whether they are clerks, the magistrate's staff, or servants, the imperial court will not give them monthly salaries. But these people cannot work for nothing, so the only option is to increase miscellaneous taxes and levies.

However, the land and business of a county were all controlled by the powerful and wealthy families, and not much taxes and levies could be collected. Therefore, the salaries of clerks were actually pitifully small, and they could only make ends meet and had difficulty in supporting their families.

It’s okay that the money is little, the key is that the status is very low.

This is because since the ancient pre-Qin period, many low-level clerks in government offices were slaves, thus continuing the tradition of lowly clerks.

The aristocratic family system of the Han Dynasty led to a division between officials and local clerks, and the imperial examination system of the Tang and Song dynasties lowered the status of local clerks.

There is actually another important reason why clerks had a low status, which was the imperial court’s own calculations of “using the lowly to suppress the good”.

The original intention of the feudal rulers was to exploit and oppress the people, and squeeze the fat and blood of the people. As a result, the clerks were at the forefront of the social contradictions between officials and the people, and were inevitably in sharp conflict with the people.

Therefore, the court lowered the status of clerks: they were lowly, while the common people were good. In this way, the common people who were oppressed by the clerks felt psychologically balanced and developed Ah Q's thought of "I was beaten by my grandson", thus achieving spiritual victory and no longer rising up in rebellion.

So no matter how hard the clerks work, they are all humble and lowly, so why not take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune?
Most clerks in Ming and Qing dynasties were hired as hired soldiers. Many yamen runners were originally good people, but became untouchables after becoming yamen runners. Who would be willing to go from good to lowly if they were not allowed to bend the law for personal gain and enrich themselves?
Therefore, most of the clerks in the Ming and Qing dynasties became "corrupt officials" and "slippery officials". They "corrupted the whole town, the whole province, and the whole country" and became a freak under the feudal system.

There is a saying that goes, "No matter how clean the official is, the clerks are as slippery as oil." After all, no matter what the officials do, they need clerks to carry it out.

Lin Zexu's family had fallen on hard times since his father's generation, and he studied hard for more than ten years before he passed the imperial examination to become a scholar. Naturally, he knew the various methods used by the lower-level clerks, so after he came to power, he improved the various treatments of the clerks.

However, the corruption of the Qing Dynasty was so deep that simply improving the treatment of clerks was useless. Therefore, Lin Zexu wanted to start fighting corruption and had recently arranged for many new people to enter various rooms. Chen Gu was not the only one. Although Chen Gu was arranged to work as a clerk in the armory, as a newcomer, he was only assigned the position of cold weapon warehouse manager, responsible for recording the entry and exit of various cold weapons.

The person in charge of the barracks was Huang Hongen. After Chen Gu handed over a silver ingot weighing ten taels, Huang Hongen personally took Chen Gu to the armory area in the south of the city.

"This is a newly built armory. Recently, the court has transported a lot of weapons from the capital to be stored, so the old weapons have to be moved. This new armory is for storing the old swords, spears, and halberds.

Military equipment has always suffered from loss, such as insect infestation, rat bites, corruption, etc., which will cause a large amount of loss of military equipment. "Huang Hongen paused and looked at Chen Jue.

Of course there were some losses in weapons, but they were massive. After all, they were made of iron!
However, Chen Gu nodded immediately and said with a smile: "I understand. Silver will be lost in fire and drift away, not to mention weapons, which are very easy to corrupt. The loss will be huge."

Huang Hongen nodded with satisfaction and said with a smile: "Chen Le, you are a sensible person. I am relieved to leave this arsenal to you. When you have nothing to do, hang out with the brothers more often. You can learn a lot."

"Chen Le thanks the master for his teachings. I will definitely learn a lot from all of you superiors!" said Chen Gu.

"Hey, there's no such thing as a superior. We are all good brothers!" Huang Hongen said dissatisfiedly.

Chen Gu nodded immediately and said repeatedly: "Yes, yes, it was Chen Le who made a mistake. He should learn more from his brothers!"

"Hahaha, that's right. We clerks have lowly status and dare not call ourselves officials, lest we offend the real masters. We brothers enter the government just to make a living.

Alas, in fact, we are all literate people. If life is not really difficult, who would be willing to be a lowly clerk?" Huang Hongen sighed.

The lowly status of a clerk not only affects the person himself, but also affects his descendants. Once he becomes a clerk, his descendants for three generations will not be able to take part in the imperial examinations, which completely cuts off his lineage's official career.

Of course, it is only his own lineage and has nothing to do with the entire family. Anyone who can cultivate a scholar must have the support of a family behind him, so the low status is just talk.

Not to mention Huang Hongen, the head of the Sixth House, even an ordinary yamen runner, if he really gets ruthless, can destroy an ordinary family.

After all, clerks still hold public power and naturally have many ways to make things difficult for ordinary people. What's more, in this extremely dark ancient time, they can do things even more unscrupulously.

After letting Chen Gu go through some simple handovers, Huang Hongen left.

Although Chen Gu was only a low-level clerk, he had a dozen yamen runners under him. To be more precise, they should be called Ku Ding, who were responsible for the work of bringing weapons and armor in and out of the warehouse, and also had the duty of guarding the warehouse.

There are dozens of people in total, eight on the day shift and two on night watch. The foreman is named Cao Minghu, with a burly build and a ferocious face.

Cao Minghu and Chen Gu were of the same rank. After Lin Zexu improved the treatment of low-level clerks, the two of them received a monthly salary of one or two taels of silver, plus fifty kilograms of rice, and the rest of the money for oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, which was indeed enough to support a family.

Although fifty kilograms of rice is not a lot, it is enough for a family of five to eat for a month. After all, ordinary people don't eat rice every day.

(End of this chapter)