The Lucky Farmgirl

The positions of the imperial doctors within the Imperial Hospital have not changed in rank; Director Xiao remains a fourth-grade director, though previously a fourth-grade director was a full position with no rank for the Taiyi Bureau appointees. Now, the fourth-grade position is part-time.

Zhou Man is still a fifth-grade imperial doctor and also holds the position of editor at the Chongwen Pavilion. She calculated in her mind that if she could also take a part-time high-ranking official role at the Taiyi Bureau, wouldn’t she then hold three positions?

All three positions are substantial roles, and substantial roles mean not only a salary but also a tax-free field (zhitian).

The salary given to officials by the Great Jin is actually not much. For example, Manbao earns between ten to twelve strings of cash per month from her outside pharmacy, and the consultation fees from her external visits are mostly hers, with the pharmacy only requiring that the herbs come from them.

However, her salary as an imperial doctor now is only 3,600 coins a month, much lower than the external consultation fees.

For officials, their income does not mainly come from their salary, nor from their ration of rice, but from the income of the tax-free fields.

In general, those holding actual ranks in office have tax-free fields. If they don’t, their salary is high, and other benefits follow suit, such as the doctoral positions at the Imperial Academy.

Although holding three positions might be very tiring, it seems quite profitable.

Manbao felt tempted.

So together with the other imperial doctors, she looked at Director Xiao with eager eyes.

Director Xiao waved his hand, saying, "Don’t look at me. There’s still a great deal to be done. The Taiyi Bureau today is different from before, and I can’t make decisions alone. But I will fight for you all."

The Taiyi Bureau used to be just an institution under the Imperial Hospital for training doctors, with no official status, relying on the Crown Prince and the Imperial Hospital for backing. So officials would only discuss things when they needed money from the treasury. Beyond that, decisions concerning the Taiyi Bureau were mainly left to the Crown Prince and Director Xiao.

However, the Crown Prince did not manage the Taiyi Bureau much, so Director Xiao practically made all the decisions.

Now, that’s clearly impossible.

Director Xiao went to join the emperor in a small council meeting. He now has the qualification to participate daily if he wishes.

Actually, among these esteemed lords of equivalent rank, Director Xiao felt quite insecure and did not really want to attend.

However, he had no other option.

In the Taiyi Bureau, apart from Director Xiao who is already assigned, no other officials have been appointed, so he had to attend.

At least the deputy director of the Taiyi Bureau should be appointed first, so that he could recruit... er, fill the vacancies.

Since they would be under his authorities, he recommended them on his way there. Upon arriving at the imperial study, he directly recommended two people to the emperor: "Imperial Doctor Liu and Imperial Doctor Zhou can serve as my deputies."

The attending officials expressed opposition, not to contradict Director Xiao, but because: "The two deputy directors of the Taiyi Bureau cannot both come from the Imperial Hospital. One must be proficient in medicine, while the other should be skilled in administration. The deputy director must assist the director in managing the Taiyi Bureau."

Wei Zhi proposed, "I suggest having someone transferred from another department to assist Director Xiao in establishing the Taiyi Bureau."

Other officials, especially the Minister of Personnel, concurred.

Managing a department isn’t that simple. The Taiyi Bureau doesn’t just need doctors competent in medicine, otherwise, it wouldn’t be different from just a hospital curing patients.

In arguments and reasoning, Director Xiao couldn’t measure up to these esteemed lords, so he was persuaded.

In calculations for necessary medical supplies across various regions, the reasonable budget for purchasing said supplies, the annual establishment and optimal number of new medical bureaus, and the management of relationships between the Taiyi Bureau and local bureaus; are the imperial doctors in the Imperial Hospital more competent, or those who have experience as local officials and have passed the juren or Ming Classic tests after years of study?

If the Taiyi Bureau were not such a technically demanding department, they wouldn’t even want to give Director Xiao a single deputy director position.

That’s because these senior officials inherently do not trust the managerial skills of these medical artisans.

So, it’s between Imperial Doctor Liu and Zhou Man; choose one of them.

But in fact, the decision was not left to Director Xiao. Zhou Man currently holds two positions, and considering the technical aspects, credentials, and her personal capacity, Imperial Doctor Liu was the most suitable.

Someone did suggest transferring Zhou Man from the Chongwen Pavilion to the Taiyi Bureau since both are fourth rank, and the deputy director of the Taiyi Bureau is even a proper fourth rank, which would be a promotion.

But not only Wei Zhi and Lord Tang opposed, even Director Xiao, who isn’t considered astute by many, strongly opposed it.

He’s not stupid and knows the benefits of Zhou Man being at the Chongwen Pavilion far outweigh those at the Taiyi Bureau.

Not to mention the Taiyi Bureau as a newly established department, just the official status and social status difference make it clear.

The Chongwen Pavilion houses all civil officials, whose official status is akin to that of the same-ranking Hanlin Academy and Imperial Academy, considered prestigious. What does prestigious mean?

It’s a place that’s clean and prestigious, with little profit but honorable status.

Zhou Man is much better placed there than at the Taiyi Bureau; even if the deputy directorship at the Taiyi Bureau is half a rank higher, it wouldn’t be worth the change.

Thus, Director Xiao directly appointed Imperial Doctor Liu as deputy director of the Taiyi Bureau.

Manbao and the other imperial doctors knew nothing about this. They were eagerly discussing the Mid-Autumn festival gifts the court distributed this year in the Imperial Hospital.

Yes, the festival gifts need to be picked up at the Ministry of Revenue, but they have a list, and they will get the items according to the list.

The festival gifts are distributed based on position rather than per person, so Manbao received two sets.

She looked at them happily.

Imperial Doctor Zheng came over to look at her list and envied, "Imperial Doctor Zhou actually has a jar of trimeresurus wine."

Manbao said, "Last year it was chrysanthemum wine, why is it trimeresurus wine this year?"

"Trimeresurus wine is much better than chrysanthemum wine," Imperial Doctor Zheng quickly said, "If Imperial Doctor Zhou wants chrysanthemum wine, why not swap with me?"

"No, thanks, I don’t drink alcohol," Manbao replied, "These wines are all for my father and brothers to drink."

Imperial Doctor Liu commented, "Judging by this, the national treasury seems to have had a good harvest this year, the benefits are better than previous years.’

After some thought, Manbao said, "The outskirts of the capital and the Yongzhou area have had favorable weather this year."

At least her two large tax-free fields yielded a lot.

Knowing a bit more, Imperial Doctor Liu smiled and said, "I heard there was only a bit of drought in the Taiyuan area, and some flooding in Jingzhou, but neither was particularly severe."

Every year there are floods and droughts. After all, the land is vast, how can every place have favorable weather?

As long as the floods and droughts aren’t particularly severe, the local places bear it themselves. If it’s a bit serious, the capital intervenes to help with disaster relief.

So overall this year, it has been a year of favorable weather.

With this good fortune all around, the emperor is quite happy, and when he’s happy, the ministers also feel joyous. Except for the Imperial Family, who are in a period of mourning, the populace has decided to really enjoy this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival.

By the twelfth of August, it was already bustling outside.

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