More than a dozen emperors before and after the Ming Dynasty implemented taxation several times, but were eventually interrupted by firm opposition. The reason was that the spokespersons of the merchants above were powerful and all the officials below were opposed.

Of course, everyone knows the above, so I won’t go into details. The reason why the petty officials below resisted fiercely is because the salary in the Ming Dynasty was too low. It was so low that it could no longer make a dignified seventh-grade county magistrate look decent.

life.

What is the purpose of studying hard for ten years? Of course, it is to be loyal to the emperor and patriotism, to display one's ambitions, and to benefit the people. But there must be a prerequisite here, that is, to honor one's ancestors and gain glory and wealth for oneself.

As a result, we did not gain glory and wealth, but fell into the predicament of starving to death. How could this be possible?

Since the salary cannot support his family, he can only take two ways, one of which is corruption. In the end, Lao Zhu killed corrupt officials, so he was absolutely merciless. In Zhu Yuanzhang's dynasty alone, he killed 20,000 to 30,000 corrupt officials.

You have to know that when Zhu Yuanzhang first established the Ming Dynasty, the entire civil servants were only a few thousand, not even 10,000. According to this number, they were killed three times during his reign. In this way, let

There was a huge gap in the officials of the Ming Dynasty. They had to graduate batches of supervisors from the Imperial College ahead of schedule, allowing them to directly enter the country's management officials without passing the exam. One of the supervisors directly became the chief envoy of a province.

, which shows how scarce officials were at that time.

Since the authorities are severely cracking down on corruption, life still has to go on. Cars, horses, bearers, maids, and servants are all essential to being an official, and management from top to bottom is an integral part of the question. How do you come up with such a huge expense? Then you can only exploit it.

But Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that land rent could never be increased, so donations could only be increased. As a result, the country's land rent revenue did not increase, but donations continued to come in endlessly, making the people miserable.

If the people have little money, then the government and businessmen will collude to do business. But the only ones who can afford the money to do business are the big guys and those with aristocratic family backgrounds. What about the small officials? So they set their sights on the businessmen.

.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang also stipulated that merchants' taxes should not exceed thirty-one, it was still okay to set up checkpoints along the way and collect money to buy the way. Therefore, it seems that the Ming Dynasty actually did not collect taxes on merchants, but there were even more checkpoints along the way, not to mention the merchants' concern for these along the way.

No matter how painful the exploitation is, only an income to support the families of officials in various places can be stabilized. Now the Ming Dynasty's management institutions are sound.

According to Mao Wenlong, if the state levies taxes from merchants in a unified way, it will be equivalent to cutting off the source of livelihood of those low-level officials, and will definitely cause fierce confrontation between the top and the bottom. From this point on, let alone an eunuch party cannot control the situation, even if

The emperor's position may be in a precarious situation. After all, businessmen's spokesmen are filling the court, and a faint emperor's name can dethrone you.

Therefore, although Wei Zhongxian faced the rolling torrent of silver, he could only look at the river and sigh. He did not even dare to stretch his feet in.

After Mao Wenlong learned about Wei Zhongxian's fears, he said calmly: "You must grasp the key to everything. Now that you, Wei, have seen the deepest things in this matter, it will be easier to handle. As the saying goes, as long as

Once a problem is discovered, there must be a way to solve it. There are always more ways to solve problems than difficulties, otherwise this society will be hindered by difficulties and cannot develop at all."

Hearing Mao Wenlong's words, Wei Zhongxian, who was already frustrated, suddenly lit up and took Mao Wenlong's hand: "Listen to what you said, do you have a solution? Tell me quickly."

Mao Wenlong said confidently: "To solve this matter, isn't it a matter of drawing together interests and dividing and disintegrating? As long as we give the following enough benefits, the officials below will not only not become our obstacles, but will become our biggest

At the same time, with the help of the Donglin Party, we can destroy the foundation of our two biggest enemies, and it can also reduce the burden on businessmen. When increasing the cost of the national treasury, it will also make businessmen grateful. This is a multi-purpose thing.

,Why not do it?"

Is there such a good thing in the world? This makes Wei Zhongxian feel incredible, but he firmly believes in Mao Wenlong's statement, because this guy is really too shrewd. Since he said so, he must have a good idea that is almost perfect, so he excitedly pulled him

He took Mao Wenlong's hand and said: "Old Mao, please tell me quickly. As long as the method you mentioned is feasible, I will immediately ask the emperor to issue an imperial edict to collect national industrial and commercial taxes. When the national treasury is full, I will definitely remember your kindness."

Mao Wenlong was happy. Before he could kick him into the pit, this guy had already taken the credit from him and jumped in. He was also afraid that he would take away his benefits and directly stood in the lead.

Promising benefits to oneself in the position is good, not bad. This is the most deceptive artistic conception.

"The reason why local officials have the kind of opposition you mentioned is because if we collect taxes on the 11th day, if the officials also collect donations, it will inevitably be unbearable by the merchants, which will cause fierce opposition from the merchants. In fact, the officials below

It’s not easy to do either. The donations collected are not justified and cannot be recognized by the court. They can only ask the businessmen to pay some money to settle the matter in order to buy peace of mind. Once there is a fuss, no one will get any good. And most of them

There are huge forces behind the merchants. They cannot take them in at all, and they don't dare to take them in. If they don't do it well and offend the aristocratic family, they may be an unemployed minister or a minister who has become an official, and the money will not be obtained by then.

In this case, if we give him a legitimate way to make money, so that they no longer worry about getting gray income, wouldn't we make them happy? "

"What Lao Mao said is that it is really not easy for the people below. If we can get them some income legitimately, then they will definitely support us, but how can we achieve this?"

"To achieve the above goal, the method is actually very simple, that is, we implement a tax-sharing system and divide the industrial and commercial taxes we collect into two parts, with 60% turned over to the national treasury and 40% left to the local governments. In this way, the local taxes

Officials can legitimately obtain extra income. As for merchants, we have stipulated a tithe tax, but once the tax is paid, in the first transaction, no matter where you go, you will no longer pay taxes, and you will no longer pay any taxes to the checkpoints along the way.

Donating classes, in fact, businessmen are happy to do this, which is equivalent to less donation fees than they usually pay, and everyone is really happy."

"But what should we do if various places continue to collect taxes indiscriminately? Lao Mao, human nature is greedy, who is afraid of money biting your hand." Wei Zhongxian raised the key question without worry.

Mao Wenlong smiled calmly: "Are all the men in your Jinyi Weidong Factory just for a living?" Then he said with a ferocious face: "I gave it to you, you can take it. If I don't give it to you, you can't take it from me. Who can

If they break the rules, pull out the Xiuchun knife and chop off their hands."

Wei Zhongxian clapped his hands and said: "The interests are shared, and we must guard against it. Old Mao is really good at calculating. If it becomes a rule, paying taxes will become a matter of course, and businessmen will no longer object, and the local government will justifiably withhold 40%, that is,

We feel more at ease after getting rid of embarrassment and possible charges. For this fixed income, local officials will not only not oppose us, but also support us. Of course, these bastards above will definitely oppose us, but wouldn't this be more serious?

Okay, in this way, Donglin’s local power will break away from them, and it will become our power. It will dig into Donglin’s corner and strengthen us. If one thing fades away, the other will grow, great things can be accomplished.”

The more he talked, the more proud he became. The impatient Wei Zhongxian stood up and drank the wine glass in front of him: "Old Mao, our family must go to the palace immediately to report this good way to benefit the country and the people, and implement it immediately. I won't accompany you anymore.

"Then he walked away directly.
Chapter completed!