After comprehensive consideration, Zhu Youjian set the minimum reward limit at twenty taels, which was almost the income of the lower-level officials in the capital for four or five months, while the maximum reward limit was fifty taels.

At the beginning, Zhu Youjian wanted to give the rewards of officials at all levels to four or five months' monthly salary, so he gave him the same year-end bonus of that era. Later, Gao Qiqian and others calculated it and found that there was too much money to spend.

And hundreds of taels of silver may not be able to open the eyelids of high-level officials. It is better not to spend more money to buy it.

Zhu Youjian had studied economics before and knew what the marginal utility was, so he finally set several reward standards for officials at all levels to show the difference.

The cabinet masters are fifty taels each, and the Shangshu level is forty taels each, and then the minister and other officials can get twenty taels each.

These rewards may not be anything to high-level officials, but for these young officials, they can already have a very decent New Year.

In the past, the Ming emperors of all dynasties also rewarded the officials who participated in the ceremony, but most of them were in the form of rice, flour and meat. It looked quite a lot, but it was actually not worth much.

If the emperor's treasury is empty, it will only be a piece of tangerine.

Zhu Youjian monetizes the rewards, which actually has another meaning, that is, he wants to raise the salary of the Beijing officials first, which is similar to the year-end bonuses in later generations, and reward them in the name of the emperor, and win people's hearts by the way.

Thanks to Zhu Yuanzhang's blessing, the wages of officials in the Ming Dynasty were too low, so that the honest officials like Hai Rui could not afford to eat meat when their family members were large.

Hai Rui is ethical and would rather lack his own family's belly than take greed, but most officials do not have such awareness and make money through various names.

Fortunately, Taizu Chengzu was all emperors who fought on the battlefield and were decisive in killing corrupt officials. However, the Ming emperors after Chengzu turned a blind eye to corruption.

This led to the fact that the official seal officials who were not greedy in Jiajing, Wanli, and Tianqi Dynasty were basically extinct, and the administration of the Ming Dynasty was also on the verge of collapse.

Zhu Youjian was determined to clarify the administration of officials, but the premise was to raise salaries for the officials first and punish them without being taught. If the name was not correct, the words would be unsatisfactory. In the system, officials at all levels could live a corresponding decent life, which was a prerequisite for clarifying the administration of officials.

However, Zhu Youjian was generous to the officials, but the wool came from the sheep, and the rewards given to envoys from various countries after the Grand Duke Meeting were reduced a lot.

In previous years, the rewards to various vassal states were mainly gold, silver and wealth, and most of them accounted for more than half of the expenses of the dynasty.

But this year, Zhu Youjian’s rewards to envoys from various countries were mainly physical objects, and Zhu Youjian also created a new word, souvenir.

For example, blue and white porcelain vessels specially made for the friendship between the two countries, embroidery and silk from Jiangnan, etc., have profound meanings, but they are not very valuable.

For this reason, the cabinet masters in the cabinet often advised Zhu Youjian for various reasons, such as the spirit of a great country, the face of the heavenly family, and the shock of all nations, but they were rejected by Zhu Youjian one by one.

In order to express his attitude again, Zhu Youjian bluntly asked them to go back and read the book "War and Peace" given to them carefully.

"The face of a great country is earned by the prosperity of the country and the strength of the people. It is not the vanity of spending money everywhere."

Moreover, Zhu Youjian also bluntly stated: "The people worked hard, and their taxes were all the money and money. In the future, every tael of silver spent by the court on each vassal state must be exchanged for the same value of benefits, otherwise how can they be worthy of the people who worked hard in the ground."

Faced with Zhu Youjian's righteous words, the cabinet elders were so teased that they could not speak. They all turned red with their faces, but they could not find any reason to refute them.

The elders who were full of saints and were full of benevolence, righteousness and morality, faced with a young emperor who was pragmatism first, all their preaching became pale and powerless in an instant.

In the end, the elders had to give up and the emperor was in his heart. They only hoped that the various vassal states would not underestimate the Ming Dynasty and do anything rebellious.

As the days approach, various yamen are sealing one after another. In addition to the on-duty personnel, other officials are also on holiday.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang was a model worker and never rested 365 days a year. Moreover, Zhu Yuanzhang not only did not rest himself, but also did not allow officials at all levels of the Ming Dynasty to rest.

During the year, three days of holidays are prescribed, namely the Spring Festival, the Winter Solstice and Lao Zhu’s own birthday.

However, such a vacation system is too harsh and extremely feasible. Not only can the officials not stand it, but the emperors after Zhu Yuanzhang could not stand it either.

So, on the basis of Taizu's three-day vacation, the holidays continued to increase. It was not until Emperor Hongzhi, who was deeply loved by the scholars and officials, that the rest system of Ming Dynasty officials was finally determined.

During the Chongzhen period, Ming Dynasty officials had a fixed three-day holiday a month and required one day off every ten days.

In addition, traditional festivals such as Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival also have corresponding holidays, while the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival have the longest holidays, starting from the seal of the yamen around the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, with an almost one month long holiday.

Of course, there is also the birthday of Lao Zhu on September 18th every year, and there is also a holiday.

So in general, since Hongzhi, the holidays for Ming Dynasty officials have actually been quite rare.

After Laba Festival, as all the yamen in the court took a holiday, Zhu Youjian became much more relaxed. After deciding on the plan for the grand dynasty meeting, Zhu Youjian asked Empress Zhou and Empress Yi'an to discuss the rewards from the palace ladies.

He himself went to Xishan, which was his basic foundation, and the rewards at the end of the year were vague.

Although most of the new soldiers have not returned in Guizhou, the remaining soldiers and workers from steel, weapons, textiles, soap, glass, and sugar factories will also send red envelopes during the New Year.

But Zhu Youjian doesn't have to worry about these things himself. As long as he talks, Cao Huachun will naturally cooperate with Bi Maokang, Song Yingxing and others to arrange these things.

After the big and small things are dealt with, New Year's Eve will come.

Because I have given a lot of rewards to the palace servants this year, the palace is full of joy and harmony.

On New Year's Eve, after the sacrifice to the ancestral temple, Zhu Youjian ordered people to set up a family banquet in the Qianqing Palace, invited all the living concubines in the palace, and set off fireworks in the square in front of the Qianqing Palace, which made a lot of fun.

Of course, Zhu Youjian showed that these old palace concubines were not just for the sake of liveliness. Many of these late emperors’ palace concubines were the biological mothers of vassal kings from all over the country.

Zhu Youjian also hoped that the vassal kings would continue to invest in various factories in Xishan, so for the sake of investors, their mothers must also take good care of them.
Chapter completed!