Chapter 153 - Chapter 148 Official Tang Yan i (1/2)

Chapter 148 Official Tang Yan i

Translator: 549690339 |

Officials were divided into three types.

One type was the workers who handled various tasks for the government offices; these were known as menial workers and belonged to the lowest stratum. They could also be called helpers.

Some officials with slightly more power oversaw more matters and might employ twenty or thirty helpers and menial workers. These people did not receive a salary and relied on assisting with government affairs to scrape together some extra benefits.

A popular ancient saying was, “When the government office opens its doors, come in if you have rice but not if you have no money.’1

Ordinary people, without strong backgrounds, were essentially left to be exploited.

Those officials all had salaries.

The salaries of the officials were partly disbursed by the higher authorities in the form of silver money and partly borne by the branches of the government offices themselves.

For instance, under normal circumstances, a Historian was only allotted four official positions.

These four officials were on the payroll, with wages provided by the government office, and the rest had to be taken care of by the Historian himself.

In reality, to conduct work normally, a Historian would find four subordinates insufficient; not to mention ten might still not be enough.

In those days, without advanced technology, there were only two types of transportation: either ride horses or walk.

Most of the time, these officials and menial workers had to walk to fulfill their duties.

Then, all sorts of data required manual compilation, necessitating face-to-face communication with the common folk, you can imagine how low the efficiency was.

It had become a common phenomenon for officials to support a large number of subordinates, who in turn supported an even larger number of helpers.

The second type were clerks, divided into those with positions on the official staff and those without. They were of higher status than the errand runners.

The number of clerks under an official would not be particularly large.

For example, if the higher-ups allotted four positions and they recruited seven or eight additional people, the total would only be around twelve at most.

Therefore, the status of a clerk wasn’t low, as they were considered to have one foot in the officialdom.

The third type were the officials, ranging from Grade Nine to Grade One high- rank officers.

Even the lowest rank official at Grade Nine, dismissed as a nonentity on the official scene, was counted as a person of significance locally.

The young man who alighted from the carriage wore an official robe with an empty red patch on the chest area, devoid of any design.

This had a particular significance.

It was referred to as waitlisted.

This meant he had entered the waitlist of formal officials, and when the time came for a promotion or a formal appointment, the patch on his chest would be adorned with a corresponding pattern.

“Master Qin, we brothers don’t have any valuable gifts, so please don’t disdain these two large jars,”

The money earned by the Tang brothers was hard-earned.

They were somewhat less affluent compared to Wang Furen and Xu Zhenchang.

The two large water jars they carried were high-temperature fired and glaze­colored. They certainly weren’t cheap in the market, worth at least three or four silver coins.

For the Tang brothers, this was already a most generous gift.

The extent of their relationship with Qin Niu was the construction of this house.

They had only made some wage earnings from it.

With regards to purchasing materials, they had put in great effort and diligently ensured the quality, without making a single copper coin in profit.

Presumably, they noticed that the water jar Qin Niu had been using to raise his turtles was broken and thus decided to gift him two superior quality water jars.

“Thank you, thank you! It was hard work for you brothers to build my house, and now you’ve brought me such a heavy gift, really, how can I accept this with good grace!”

After Qin Niu finished speaking, he invited the brothers inside for tea.

However, they did not rush in.

“This is our youngest brother, Tang Yan, who hurried back home especially to congratulate Master Qin on the completion of his residence,”

Tang Fang introduced his brother’s identity.

It was clear that the three brothers were very united.

In this world, it is only through unity that one can become stronger and live better.

“I have long admired the great reputation of Master Qin Niu; hearing it a hundred times is not as good as seeing it once, and finally today, I have met the true genius!”