Early in the morning.

Wu Jing felt a little uneasy when he was having a meal.

So much so that after dinner, he immediately recalled what he had done since taking office in the study.

It is mainly because of recalling whether there has been any violation.

As the salt inspector, he has just taken office for half a year, so it is not easy to be an official.

The officials of the Holy Dynasties were different from those in the past. The court paid a high salary, but the rules were stricter.

Salt officials are even more at risk. In order to manage the national salt tax, the court sent many salt officials to all parts of the country, and these people became the target of bribery for the salt merchants. Therefore, salt officials have always been regarded as a fat job.

This errand was a fat man, and now it is the same.

But the problem is that the salt service officials, including Wu Jingzheng, dare not collect it at all! Because salt tax is related to the financial and taxation foundation of the Ming Dynasty, like the Chaoguan and Customs, in order to maintain the integrity of the institutions, an independent supervision mechanism was specially established. In terms of structure, salt service and customs were taken to the inner government in the first year of Gansheng. Officials were directly appointed by the emperor, and they were isolated from the officialdom. They reported directly to the inner ministers and only obeyed the emperor's orders. This ensured that they were not afraid of the intervention and pressure of local officials. In addition, an independent supervision system was introduced. The traditional Chinese accounting method was abandoned and the accounting, audit, and statistics system of later generations was introduced. This system was about 200 years ahead of the world. After this system was introduced, it became very difficult to make false accounts within the salt service, Chaoguan and Customs.

It is precisely because of the separation of the salt service from the Ministry of Revenue that there is an independent "supervisory force" outside the salt service, the Chaoguan and the Customs, and the local officials of the court are closely watching the income and whereabouts of the three departments of the salt service, the Chaoguan and the Customs. They are always watching whether there are scandals in the "Salt, the Chaoguan and the Sea" and are waiting to regain their financial power.

The internal and external supervision combined with humanized salary and benefits has made almost no scandals in the "Salt, Chao, and Haisansi" since the first year of Gansheng.

Of course, once it comes out, it will definitely die!

"Something happened, right?"

Just after Wu Jingzheng repeatedly thought about it and repeatedly confirmed that he had neither accepted bribes nor had he "civil bribes", he was considered a little relieved.

However, I was still a little uneasy. Just when he was about to order the salt sample to check, the yamen runs in and says that an old friend from Nanjing is asking to see him.

"An old friend in Nanjing?"

Could it be an old friend who went to the test?

While he was puzzled, Wu Jingzheng asked the yamen runners to invite the guests in. As soon as the guests entered the room, he immediately knew why he was so uneasy.

It's Your Majesty!

His Majesty actually came to Yangzhou. He stood up quickly and was about to salute, but was stopped by His Majesty. Until the yamen runners went down, he bowed.

"My memory, Wu Jing, has met Your Majesty!"

"No gifts, I am traveling in a condom. I passed by Yangzhou and came here to take a look..."

Zhu Guoqiang said with a smile.

Among the few candidates, the reason why he chose Wu Jingzheng, a tribute official, as the Yan Jingshi, was because in another world, when he was in Quzhou Chengpi, he went to the well to die. Compared to other people, he was a loyal minister, so he handed over this position to him.

Seeing that Wu Jingzheng was a little nervous, Zhu Guoqiang said with a smile.

"Salt tax is related to the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, and the salt tax in the world is half of it. This time I passed by Yangzhou to you, just to learn about the salt tax collection this year."

"Ah, your Majesty, the salt tax collection this year is still going well. As of August, 11.7535 million taels of salt tax have been levied..."

Upon hearing this, Wu Jingzheng finally breathed a sigh of relief. Then he reported on the levy of the Lianghuai salt tax, and gradually hesitated. When he was transferred to a salt service official, he also hesitated that salt service officials were different from ordinary civil servants. According to the current Ming officialdom, "Salt, Chao, and Hai" were like other officials of the Internal Affairs Office, all "official officials" were appointed by the emperor, not the right path. Therefore, they were always rejected by civil servants.

But Wu Jingzheng himself was born in an unrighteous way, and he was born in a tribute student. Such an official had limited future in the officialdom. It is precisely because of this that after being appointed as the salt inspector of His Majesty, he was grateful to His Majesty. After all, this means a broader future.

The official...that is also an official!

Of course, Zhu Guoqiang didn't understand Wu Jingzheng's thoughts, he just listened silently to the report.

In terms of salt tax, Zhu Guoqiang did not make a big move. He abolished the "specialized merchants' shore" salt transportation and sales measures from the beginning, but instead revised it against its disadvantages.

First, the tax rate and salt price were unified. This is the most incredible. As the most important tax of the Ming Dynasty, there was no unified tax rate in the national salt tax. Different provinces and even two adjacent counties were completely different, and were basically formulated by local salt officials themselves. This may be the result of the rulers' consideration of the need to adapt to local conditions. This policy gave local salt officials too much power and greatly expanded their rent-seeking space. This is also the fundamental reason why specialized merchants colluded with salt officials.

Therefore, in the first year of Qiansheng, the court directly unified the tax rate and salt prices. The responsibilities of local salt officials also changed from setting tax rates to inspecting the quality of private salt and official salt. Don’t underestimate this change. It was this small change that caused the salt tax of the Qiansheng Dynasty to surge from less than 2 million taels in Chongzhen to 23 million, and now it has reached a huge amount of 30 million taels.

But is that enough?

It was not enough. The court received a tax of 30 million taels of salt, but how much benefit did the salt merchants get?

Holding a teacup in his hand, Zhu Guoqiang was stunned.

Seeing His Majesty holding the teacup and thinking, Wu Jing was busy asking uneasy:

"Your Majesty, the increase in the salt tax in Lianghuai has been limited in the past two years. Is it because the salt tax collection has reached a bottleneck?"

Zhu Guoqiang asked.

"Oh! Bottleneck? What do you say?"

When Wu Jing saw His Majesty asking, he hurriedly took out a document from the table and said:

"Your Majesty, after taking office as the Yanhuai Censor, I conducted a detailed investigation on the Yanhuai Salt Affairs. In terms of the current salt tax collection method, not only has the Yanhuai Salt Tax Collection reached its peak, but the national salt tax collection has also reached its peak. Even if the population increases, the annual increase in taxes is extremely limited..."

Of course, Zhu Guoqiang would not doubt this. After all, in another world, the Qing Dynasty rectified the salt tax for more than two hundred years, and the population increased to more than 400 million, but how much did the salt tax increase?

If you want to increase this thing, you have to change the way of tax collection, otherwise it will only benefit those merchants. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Beiyang and Nanyang successively rectified the salt tax, which increased from tens of millions to hundreds of millions, or even hundreds of millions. The salt tax has potential!

Long live the Ming Dynasty...

Zhu Guoqiang asked with a smile.

"What should you do?"

After handing over the note in his hand, Wu Jingzheng was serious about the matter.

"Your Majesty, I think it is necessary to abolish the shore-guided specialized commercial system and implement on-site taxation. In simple terms, it is the civil system, official collection, commercial transportation, and civil sales. Of course, if you want to get the most profit, you must implement the official monopoly system. However, the official monopoly requires a lot of manpower and material resources. In contrast, on-site taxation does not require a lot of manpower and material resources, but it can achieve the same effect as the monopoly system..."

Listening to Wu Jingzheng's story, Zhu Guoqiang just nodded from time to time. At the end, he reminded him again.

"Wu Jingzheng, the matter of salt administration is extraordinary. The salt tax is the main task, which is directly the fundamentals of the financial and taxation of the Ming Dynasty. It is better to implement reforms. If the financial instability is not stable, can you afford it? Moreover, the abolition of specialized merchants will inevitably be boycotted by specialized merchants. What should you do then?"

Wu Jing said seriously:

"Your Majesty, some things must be done. If we don't do them now, the resistance in the future will only be greater. We cannot throw the difficult problems to future generations. The country's accumulated ills always need to be reformed, and there must be someone to do them. How can we avoid them because of personal good and bad fortune?"

Looking at Wu Jingzheng, who looked solemn and even somewhat resolute, Zhu Guoqiang couldn't help but praise him.

"******, *******! The country is in troubles, and if you don't think about reform, you will think about how to be an official and win over the hearts of the people. Ten years later, a hundred years later, the Ming Dynasty will eventually perish. By then, we are all the sinners of the Ming Dynasty! You can write a memorial for this matter first."
Chapter completed!