The concierge was very enthusiastic and introduced the layout of various buildings in the Yamen. Qiu Wuhen was very happy to have such an enthusiastic guide and gave him five cents.

Uncle Chen was even more attentive and took him around the yamen first. Except for the magistrate's inner house, which could not be entered, everything else was transferred. Then he took him to the execution room and found the secretary of the execution room.

This Sifang's surname was Dao, an old man with a gray beard. He looked up and down at Qiu Wuhen with his drunken eyes. With a smile on his face, he cupped his hands and said: "Young master, welcome, we are waiting for you to come. You

But it’s the first scholar in our torture chamber in so many years, and now we also have a scholar and scribe, which is great.”

Only then did Qiu Wuhen find out that he was the only one among the 100 clerks in the entire county government in Mingshan County who was a scholar. It was no wonder that even the secretary of the bureau was very respectful to him. Of course, it was no wonder that the county magistrate immediately agreed to the order.

On Hu Ding's recommendation, he was recruited as a scribe.

The Chief of Swordsmen and Qiu Wuhen met with all the scribes in the torture room one by one. Qiu Wuhen got to know them better and found that most of them were on the employment system like him, and only a small part of them were on the real quota system.

.Asked the reason, he couldn't help but sigh when he got the answer.

It turns out that Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang had set rules and set a very small quota for government officials and scribes. These quotas were barely enough to cope with the sparse population at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty. But as the population increased,

The workload has increased dramatically, and the workload has doubled. The original quota of scribes is simply not enough.

Those few people simply couldn't do so many things, so every government office requested to increase the number of scribes.

However, the imperial court refused to relent and always insisted on the fixed number of personnel established in the early Ming Dynasty. Only those with these quotas could receive salaries from the imperial court.

If the imperial court does not arrange the number of posts, and the work cannot be completed at all, if the work is not completed, it will affect the political performance, and the official's official position will not be guaranteed.

As a last resort, officials from various places had to pay out of their own pockets to hire a number of scribes to take on the heavy daily tasks, thus creating a huge employment system of scribes.

These scribes are not national posts, but they belong to the system. The court recognizes their status and will subsidize them with some money from time to time.

After Qiu Wuhen knew this, he felt uncertain about his future, because only scribes within the system could enter the official system through the system. It was impossible to open this door through the employment system outside the system unless it was first converted into

Only scribes within the system can enter the official system through a small single-plank bridge, and the probability of this is very small.

But now they are actually outside the system. The Su family doesn't understand the inside story of the imperial court at all. They think that becoming a scribe means they can become an official, so they cheered. In fact, they were happy too early.

Qiu Wuhen quickly went through the registration procedures. The knife manager asked him if he had any accommodation arrangements. Qiu Wuhen said that he had not yet and was about to find a room.

Daosifang told him that there are houses near the Yamen, but they are relatively expensive. The cheaper ones may have to be near the city wall. Because those places will be blocked by the city wall for half the day, and will be very cold in winter, and in summer due to

The city walls blocked the wind, so it was also very hot and humid. It was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Only people with no money would live in those places.

The Chief of Staff asked him to settle down for the next two days, and then come back to work officially. Then he would visit the county magistrate and the county chief registrar. Qiu Wuhen agreed and took his leave.

When I arrived outside the Yamen, I saw my wife Su Jinsong and her apprentice Niu Shui Tank reading the notices for renting houses in front of the screen wall. Although Su Jinsong was born in a merchant's home, because the old man paid great attention to literacy and hyphenation, he hired a private school teacher to teach him since he was a child.

Reading, so she is not only able to read, but also has some culture, so she can easily understand all kinds of documents posted on the wall.

Her main interest was in renting a house, and she read all the rental notices on the wall. When Qiu Wuhen arrived, she happily greeted Qiu Wuhen and said, "I have chosen two houses. They are all

It’s the cheapest house among all the houses. It also has three rooms, which is just enough for our family to live in.”

Qiu Wuhen frowned: "How can three rooms be enough? We need at least four."

"It's okay. We can just squeeze in and sleep in the living room. The living room is not included in the three rooms."

Qiu Wuhen smiled bitterly and said: "We two couples can no longer live together like this. We have to have a room of our own."

"I think so too, but look at the houses here, one is more expensive than the other. Three houses cost at least 500 cash, and it takes half a year to rent, and one month's rent is required as a deposit."

Qiu Wuhen took a look, suddenly pointed to a house and said, "Did you see it? This house is near the Yamen, and the rent is not too expensive."

Su Jinsong stepped forward to take a look and immediately exclaimed: "It's not expensive. It costs 900 cash a month. There are only four rooms in total, but it actually costs 900 cash. It's almost twice as expensive as what I thought before!"

"

"But it's so lively. It's in the center of the city and next to the Yamen. It's close to where I usually go to the Yamen, so it's convenient for us to go out."

"But it's too expensive. No, absolutely not. I don't agree."

Qiu Wuhen said: "But if you live under the tower, the security there is too chaotic, and the winter is cold and the summer is hot, the old lady can't stand it. We can bear it, but the old lady can't suffer with us. Don't worry, I have already arrived at the Yamen

Now, we will get a salary every month from now on, and our life will get better."

"How much is your monthly salary?"

"Eight hundred coins!"

"But the rent for this house is nine hundred cents, and your monthly salary is not enough to pay it."

"You don't know this, right? There are various rules for receiving money when doing things in the yamen. This money is a common practice and you can get it, which is equivalent to welfare. I asked the scribe about this money, and it's almost enough in a month.

Thousands of coins, so I can get almost two thousand coins a month, and this house should be able to afford it."

Su Jinsong had never heard of this. After all, she wouldn't worry about this at all before, and as a lady, she wouldn't care about it either. So after hearing what Qiu Wuhen said, she couldn't help being surprised and happy, and said

: "Is what you said true?"

"Is what I said is false? When did I lie to you? Besides, why did I lie to you? I lied to you today. If I can't get the money to pay the rent tomorrow, isn't it in vain?"

"That's true. Well, even if that's the case, we can't live here. It's too expensive. Why don't you take a step back and I'll take a step back and not rent a house under the city wall or in the busiest and most expensive place?

Okay? In that case, the room will be bigger and more spacious, and the rent won’t be that expensive. After all, we don’t have that much money, so we have to save it and be prepared for what we have to give to you in the future.”

Qiu Wuhen knew that this was her wife's obsession, so she had no choice but to listen to her.

So I had no choice but to nod and say: "Okay, as long as it's not near the city wall, you can decide the rest. But don't be too bad. Again, we can endure it. The old lady is old and can't suffer with us."

These words spoke to Su Jinsong's heart. Su Jinsong was also extremely filial, so he nodded and said: "I understand, there is another house. I guessed that you would not agree to stay under the tower, so I

I thought about it. Look at this house. It's only two meals' walk away. It's not too far. It's also quite far from the city gate. It's not noisy or noisy around. It's convenient to go out. Living here
Chapter completed!