Zhu Yuanzhang's face was as sinking as water and as cold as iron.
It was obvious that he was furious.
Lao Zhu seemed to have turned into a ferocious beast that chose people to devour, exuding a terrifying aura from the inside out.
This is no exaggeration at all.
His two prime ministers were almost kidnapped, and a bold and arrogant Wang family appeared under his nose... This was not a problem.
The forest is big and there are all kinds of birds. No hard-core ruthless person can scare Lao Zhu, so we are the most hard-core one!
What he couldn't stand was that a mere businessman could easily see the loopholes in the fiscal and taxation system under his rule. Faced with this level of shameless output, Lao Zhu really couldn't stand it.
"You must discuss a result now, and we need to know the solution immediately!"
Lao Zhu faced the officials headed by the two prime ministers and yelled angrily. This time, even Zhang Ximeng was not qualified to be spared. Not to mention Li Shanchang, he only felt that 80% of the anger was directed at him.
Whether it is life or death depends on whether the following discussion can satisfy Zhu Yuanzhang... "Everyone, there are many departments in the current financial and taxation administration, including the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of War, and the military garrison. Most of the land tax in Huaixi is intercepted in the north and south of the Yangtze River.
The state capital also mostly withholds money and grain for its own use. To name a few, the Zhongshu Province is unable to take over the financial power, and each yamen does its own thing. If this continues, there will be many drawbacks, chaos, and even affect the overall situation..."
When Li Shanchang thought about it, he realized that there were already so many problems. It seemed that he, the leftist prime minister, really had no suggestions to bring about advantages and eliminate disadvantages. It seemed that it was not unreasonable for Zhu Yuanzhang to express his anger at him.
So how should this fiscal and taxation be reformed?
Everyone pondered for a long time, and no one was willing to express his position easily for fear of saying the wrong thing and causing trouble.
Li Shanchang looked around, and finally his eyes fell on Ruan Hongdao. He had no choice but to make him the Minister of the Ministry of Finance!
"Shang Shu Ruan, what do you think we should do?"
Ruan Hongdao's face turned red. He was silent for a long time, then gritted his teeth and said, "Xiang Li, this matter is obvious, it's just hard to say!"
Li Shanchang lectured with a sullen face: "The boss is here, and everyone is here too. Since you know the root cause of the disease, you should know everything and talk about it. I don't understand, what do you mean by hesitating?"
Ruan Hongdao sighed heavily again, calmed down, and said proudly: "Xiang Li, then I will boldly say that there are too few people in the Ministry of Household Affairs, we need to add more people!"
After saying this, Ruan Hongdao seemed to have opened up his chat box.
"What does the Ministry of Households manage? As the name suggests, we are responsible for the household registration in various places. How many households and people are there under the rule? We revise the yellow book and compile the households and people... We also have to be in charge of land tax. How should we collect land tax? How many are there in each place?
When to ship, where to transport, and how to receive it are all in the hands of the Ministry of Household Affairs. From this, the warehouses in various places, Changping warehouse, military supply warehouse, and some grain storage in military camps... are also in the hands of the Ministry of Household Affairs."
"Everyone, take a look, which yamen is busier than the household department? The yellow register of people's population, the fish scale register of land allocation, the list of grain chiefs in various places, the storage situation. There are also treasure notes, tax cards, markets, iron yards,
Salt, tea, copper and iron... This is just in ordinary times. If there is a war, the Ministry of Households will recruit civilians to supply military supplies. There are all kinds of things. A heavy burden will fall on the Ministry of Households."
"Look at how many people there are in the Ministry of Household Affairs. They are just a minister and two ministers. The total number of officials working below is only a few dozen. Everyone is so busy that, to put it bluntly, everyone is laughing at themselves. Since then, Since I became an official, I haven’t even had time to have children. If you don’t believe me, you can ask, which official from the Ministry of Household Affairs has had children in the past few years?”
At this point, Ruan Hongdao felt aggrieved, "We must unify financial power and avoid having multiple political affairs. I strongly agree with this, and this should be done... But I have one thing to say, if you want the Ministry of Household Affairs to do things well, you must We need to increase manpower. Or...or simply follow the example of the late Tang Dynasty and appoint a minister to take over financial power. Only then can we succeed. Otherwise, if we don’t have enough manpower, everything will be empty talk!"
As soon as Ruan Hongdao finished speaking, everyone was still thinking about it and felt that what he said was reasonable. But Yang Xian from the Ministry of War had already stepped forward and said, "Ruan Shangshu, what you said makes sense, I just have a few questions. The affairs of the Ministry of Household Affairs are complicated and need to increase manpower and even arrange three envoys to take charge of financial power. Is this what you mean... What about the Ministry of War? We have less things to do? Selection of generals, performance evaluation, ordnance production, rewards for officers, and injuries. How can we be careless about military pensions? According to what you say, do we also need to set up a privy council to be responsible for military power?"
As soon as these words came out, Li Xi immediately said: "No, we have abandoned the bad policies of Zhao and Song Dynasties and reopened the dynasty. How can we get the three secretaries and privy councilors back? I object!"
Ruan Hongdao was anxious, "When did I say that I would reinstate the Third Chief of Staff? I meant that there are not enough people in the Ministry of Revenue now!"
Yang Yuangao said quietly: "Since the household department is not enough, let the big guys share the burden. You, Ruan Shangshu, will also be happy and free."
"You! What do you mean? It's Prime Minister Li's idea to take over the financial power! I advocate increasing manpower, am I wrong?"
Yang Xian still sneered: "It's okay to increase manpower, but it can't just be for the Ministry of Household Affairs! Also, many of the things Ruan Shangshu just said are not the responsibility of your Ministry of Household Affairs, such as the fish scale book and the yellow book, the local government office is responsible for it. There is a lot of burden, you are just collecting it and hiding it, how many people can be used?"
"Nonsense! The most important thing is to organize the households into all the people and divide the land equally. I have to personally check and verify the map of each county. How can I allow you to talk nonsense?"
…
This group of people came and went and became a quarrel.
Song Lian and others were all dumbfounded, as if they were stupid.
Isn’t it the unification of financial rights?
Why are there so many arguments?
What each of them said has some truth, but when put together, it becomes a mess. Who should listen to it?
Everyone is also confused.
Li Shanchang's old face is getting darker and darker. He doesn't dare to look back at Zhu Yuanzhang now, because he knows clearly that at this moment, Old Zhu is on the verge of explosion.
These bastards, can't you have some brains?
When have you ever only fought for personal gain?
No matter what Ruan Hongdao said nicely, in the final analysis, isn't it still necessary to expand the power? Even to compare with the three ministers, to put it bluntly, he is on the same level as himself.
The rest of the people didn't want to see the household expand, so they all stepped back.
It was about a basket of crabs. One of them tried to escape, but was caught by other crabs, one after another. No one could escape.
This is officialdom, which has a natural tendency to be stable. It is almost impossible to break the situation simply by relying on brute force.
Li Shanchang's head was so big that he was afraid that Zhu Yuanzhang would explode in the next second, and then he would pay for these bastards!
At this critical moment, Zhang Ximeng suddenly laughed, almost like a spring breeze, and the smile suddenly reached Li Shanchang's heart.
"Xiang Zhang, if you have any suggestions, please tell me immediately! Everyone is listening!"
As expected, the others stopped and looked at Zhang Ximeng.
"Let me say that unifying financial power is to prevent multiple branches of government, to improve efficiency and reduce drawbacks... As a result, no measures have been taken, and they are clamoring to increase manpower and expand authority. In this way, we can truly unify financial power and clarify taxation.
Gift? I don’t think so!”
After these few words, Ruan Hongdao's momentum dropped by a large margin, and he even became a little frightened.
His tricks were exposed like this, Zhang Ximeng was really merciless!
Zhang Ximeng paused and then said: "Let's talk about the grain chief first... I think it may be discussed in the future, but before the world is unified, it cannot be abolished. The grain chief comes from the people and is elected by the people. They are not only responsible for transporting grain
An important task is also a channel to raise public sentiment. We advocate land equalization, and one of the advantages is that it can mobilize the people, reduce the difficulty of governance, and save expenses... To put it bluntly, it means that the people can take the initiative to pay taxes, and there is no need for us to arrange such
Many people go to the countryside to collect the goods. If we abandon the grain chief and increase the number of officials, how much will the increase be? Three to five times? Or ten to eight times?"
Zhang Ximeng once again targeted Ruan Hongdao, completely losing his temper.
"The grain chief system cannot be changed. When delivering taxes and grains to various places, there will inevitably be multiple orders, local interceptions, and even corruption and perversion of the law... What I mean is, can a special yamen be set up to be responsible for auditing and counting all taxes and grains?
...We can’t collect the total revenue and expenditure of the household department for the time being, but we need to have an accurate grasp of the overall land tax situation. Now it’s convenient for the lord and the Zhongshu Province to make decisions!”
When Zhu Yuanzhang said this idea, his eyes lit up at first.
In fact, he advocated the unification of financial rights, but he saw that merchants and officials colluded and could easily take bribes and bend the law. The ordinary people below, as well as the grain chiefs in various places, seemed too powerless.
It would be great if there was an yamen that could supervise all taxes and grains, no matter the household department or the local area, and have an accurate situation, which could make you feel at ease temporarily.
After all, as Ruan Hongdao complained, the Ministry of Revenue really cannot shoulder the responsibility of unifying finance and taxation.
This requires thorough reform and adjustments to the entire official system.
But the heat is not yet there. To put it bluntly, good steel must be used on the blade, and the extra money and food must be used to support soldiers first.
In the final analysis, Mr. Zhang understands what we are thinking, and everyone else is just adding to the chaos...
"Mr. Li, what do you mean by Mr. Zhang?"
Li Shanchang hurriedly said: "What Prime Minister Zhang said is very true, and I think it is very appropriate." Now Li Shanchang has no intention of refuting Zhang Ximeng. No matter what outrageous suggestions he puts forward, Li Shanchang can only support it with both hands.
Zhu Yuanzhang finally felt a little relieved, "In that case, you two will discuss what the new yamen will be called, what it will be responsible for, who will be responsible for it, and hand it over to us in three days... Also, don't keep that Wang family anymore.
, if these moths live one more day, more officials will be bribed by them! We must be decisive and bright when dealing with cancer!"
Li Shanchang was horrified and quickly bowed deeply, his voice trembling slightly, "I...understand!"