Chapter 636: A whipping method two hundred years in advance
This day.
The governor-general of Zhili in the Ming Dynasty entered the palace during the day and did not leave the palace in a hurry until sunset and the palace door was locked.
Those who are thoughtful can naturally notice this.
On the eve of the chaos that was about to break out in the 18th Mansion of Zhili Province, Zou Xueyu, the Governor-General of Zhili Province who was in charge of the 18th Mansion, did not deal with the upcoming chaos in the yamen, but entered the palace without any cover-up.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Zou Xueyu was probably trying to communicate with the palace, and even gained the support of the nobles in the palace.
Judging from the time he spent in and out of the palace, Zou Xueyu gained a lot from this trip.
Everyone began to look forward to how Zou Xueyu, the first local leader in the Ming Dynasty to rule an entire place by himself, would face the situation in the 18th Prefecture of Zhili, and what the outcome would be.
And among the many palace gates is the inner court of the imperial city.
The moonlight was rising, and a slight coolness passed by.
Zhu Yunxi, however, only wore a long gown and walked among the corridors.
Innovation has no rules. It has always been about assessing the situation and taking advantage of it.
The Hongwu New Deal, which the imperial court has been implementing for more than a year, has lost its initial momentum. This is bound to happen.
If you push it forward without explanation, it will only ignite all the resentments that have been accumulated in the past.
Only by trying new systems, finding new productive forces, and developing new production relations can we continue to achieve the results we have achieved previously.
"Aren't you afraid of the cold entering your body?"
Zhu Gaochi's figure walked out of the shadow in the distance, put his hands in his sleeves together, and walked silently to Zhu Yunxi.
Zhu Yunxi sniffed: "I do feel a little cold. I didn't feel it before I went out."
Taking advantage of the situation, he lowered his head and looked at the cloak placed between Xiaopang's hands.
Zhu Gaochi shook his head helplessly, handed over the cloak, and then whispered: "When Zou Xueyu left the palace, there were a total of twenty-seven people secretly watching him."
"It seems that there are still many people who want to return to the life of waiting for the noble master before Hongwu twenty-four years ago." Zhu Yunxi's eyes were dark, but his face was a bit colder.
This also makes people feel that the temperature in the night is getting colder.
Zhu Gaochi nodded: "The military is so powerful that no one dares to openly oppose it. But Zou Xueyu, the Governor-General of Zhili Province, no matter how high his official position is and how powerful his hands are, he is only a minister of the Ming Dynasty after all. His position in Zhili Road
If he doesn't sit well, those people will definitely use him as an outlet, and in the end they will have to destroy him if they can't."
A sneer appeared on Zhu Yunxi's face: "I gave Zou Xueyu a knife today in exchange for ten taels of silver. I think he should be able to use that knife well."
"Which knife?"
Zhu Gaochi asked curiously.
Zhu Yunxi said in a low voice: "Change the physical objects of taxation and payment in the Ming Dynasty to silver coins, and change the official servants to all the corvee, and change the miscellaneous servants to hired servants. Clear the heaven and the earth, unify taxes and levies, collect silver per mu, and collect officials and officials."
He spoke very briefly.
But Zhu Gaochi frowned, his face lost in thought.
Zhu Yunxi didn't feel sleepy, so he sat on the railing nearby with his cloak closed.
The taxation and corvee systems of the Ming Dynasty were complex and changeable, and even the officials of the Ministry of Households needed to be able to grasp them briefly after taking office.
If there are no experienced and experienced officials in the yamen to do things in detail, no matter how smart ordinary people are, they will not be able to find out the key points.
Let’s start with the taxation of the Ming Dynasty, which is divided into two taxes: summer and autumn. Under the two taxes, there are various categories such as grain, cotton, and silk.
And the corvee was even more complicated.
For matters decided directly by the court, the people had to pay corvee. If the toilet at the government master's house was clogged, the people still had to go to the house to collect it. It was not uncommon for the emperor's people to be used for the private use of one family.
Under such systems, the people have become lambs to be slaughtered and fish on the chopping board, ready to be slaughtered.
The one-whip method is straightforward.
All taxes are calculated in silver and are collected and distributed by the government. When the government needs people to work, it also needs to pay corresponding wages in order to hire people.
The local government will no longer have the opportunity to engage in the so-called fight between officials and people, and it is even more impossible for the government to recruit ordinary people to work for nothing even if the toilet in the master's house is clogged.
Zhu Gaochi thought for a long time, and his head nodded involuntarily.
"The matter of farmers entering acres has been going on for a long time. The imperial court has added millions of hectares of taxed land over the years, which shows how cruel the local government is in squeezing the people. At this time, there are farmers who have entered the acres and eliminated the corvee.
It is the right time to count the acres and collect money."
The latest account book of the amount of acres in the Ming Dynasty is archived in the Ministry of Household Affairs, in the cabinet pen holder, and on the island in the middle of Xuanwu Lake. In addition to these three places, the tax office also stores a copy.
As the head of the tax department, Zhu Gaochi knows exactly how much wealth the Ming Dynasty has today.
only.
After confirming the whipping method first proposed by Zhu Yunxi, Zhu Gaochi showed hesitation.
"Most of the methods people come up with are good at first." Zhu Gaochi spoke softly, staring at Zhu Yunxi who was sitting on the railing: "It is best to work up and down, but most of the time, people below can always get through.
There is a loophole. If the imperial court wants to implement a whipping method, the people will inevitably sell their grain for money.
The Ming Dynasty now has four roads in Yingzhou, and the production of gold and silver increases year by year. The barbarian merchants in Europe have constant exchanges, and the number of barbarian merchant ships is increasing day by day, clogging the waterways, and the treasury's money income is stable. Previously, there were also government offices such as Jiaozhi Road and Zhancheng Road.
Report to the court and discover the local mineral deposits, and you can choose a day to mine them.
There is no shortage of gold and silver in the Ming Dynasty, but when the people sell grain in exchange for money, they must go through the merchants among the people. If the merchants are greedy and raise the price of silver, the people will still be poor.
It is certainly a good method to hire corvees at the government's expense. But after all, the place is far away from the court, so it is inevitable that some people will dare to cheat and send more corvees in private, and the people will still suffer."
once.
In Prince Yan's Mansion in Beiping City, Zhu Gaochi felt that he was a smart man and felt that as long as he was given a chance, he could do great things that benefit all people.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! But when he went south to the capital and took office as the head of the tax department, he saw many realities that he had never understood in the past.
Why do people like him choose to acquiesce in the increase of tax soldiers in the tax bureau, and that when the tax soldiers collect taxes, money and food in the local area, they will severely punish those who dare to resist and deceive.
It is because he knows that the reality is so cruel. If the court does not take action, the local people will only have an even more difficult life.
Killing invisibly.
Whenever there are people somewhere who have offended someone.
There is no need to pay to hire thugs or anything like that. All you need to do is inform the local grain chief, and the numerous corvee services from the court and the government can kill a family.
Even if the family is dead, if others ask about it, they can't find any fault with the procedure.
Zhu Yunxi just smiled.
But it gave Zhu Gaochi a chill down his back.
He suddenly spoke subconsciously and tried: "You don't want me to make up for these loopholes, do you?"
…
No one knows for the time being what responsibilities have been imposed on Zhu Gaochi, the crown prince of King Yan and head of the Ming Dynasty Taxation Bureau.
But the people who were watching finally waited for the backup plan of Zhili Governor's Yamen.
At dawn.
After a sleepless night at home, Zou Xueyu entered the Governor's Yamen in high spirits with several thick notebooks under his arms.
Most of the officials appointed to the Governor's Yamen are new officials to the court in the past two years, especially those who are students of Xinxue.
The yamen was newly established and the officials were also newly recruited.
The entire Governor's Office is like a wild mountain in late spring, full of vitality and high spirits.
Follow Zou Xueyu to the Yamen Dianmao.
The entire Governor's Yamen also began to officially operate.
Some brave people ignored the officers and soldiers guarding the yamen gate, and listened to a burst of noise in the governor's yamen, and then fell into silence.
at last.
Then I saw countless officials from the Governor's Yamen rushing out of the Yamen.
The war horses tied to both sides of the Yamen left one by one.
The Governor's Yamen is about to take action again!
The people watching outside felt a slight thump in their hearts.
The news spread about half an hour later.
The Yamen of the Governor-General of Zhili in the Ming Dynasty issued an official document. From today onwards, all subjects in the 18th Prefecture of Zhili Road must be levied money according to the number of acres of land to cover the previous summer and autumn taxes. All corvee services are prohibited and the official government
Pay and hire people to work.
From now on, for the summer and autumn taxes, the people will first convert the money into money, then hand it over to the local tax division of the tax bureau, return it to Beijing, and deposit it into the bank of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
This official document signed by Zou Xueyu and promulgated by the Governor's Yamen quickly spread throughout the country.
Since the imperial court implemented the taxation system, and with the establishment of tax bureaus, local governments have long lost the power to directly intervene in local taxation. All local taxes for merchants and citizens are collected by tax bureaus with tax soldiers.
But changing the original physical objects to collecting money per mu was something that no one had ever thought of before.
Those local officials who could still rely on delivering taxes and supplies to the tax office to enter the capital have completely lost their last bit of profit.
For a time, there were a lot of complaints in every government office.
Especially those officials, whose salaries were not high to begin with. In the past, they relied solely on these benefits. Now the bans have been stopped one by one. Originally, they were just planning to go on strike against the governor's office officials in order to cooperate with the government officials.
Everyone has begun to spontaneously gather to fight against Zou Xueyu, the governor-general.
Even the yamen officials who had originally planned to sit and watch began to become unable to sit still.
Zou Xueyu directly stopped the common people's corvee service in Zhili Road, and from then on, the government paid to hire common people to work.
This will allow them to exploit the people in the future and work for free for their own private affairs.
For a time, the entire Zhili Taoist officials were full of complaints against the Zhili Governor's Yamen and the Zhili Governor-General Zou Xueyu.
If he hadn't been frightened by Wang's law, I'm afraid the door panel of Zou Xueyu's house would have been covered with feces and farts.
The common people have nothing to do with it.
You have to hand over food, and you have to hand over money, but it's just a little more troublesome.
He no longer had to work for the government for free, and he was even more happy to call Zou Xueyu the great master of Qingtian.
The simple people of the Central Plains would never have thought that even paying money could lead to exploitation. And the character of local officials was definitely not trustworthy.
Soon, someone discovered this.
"According to Zou Xueyu, from now on, the taxes of the 18th Prefecture of Zhili Province will be converted into money and levied. I would like to ask you, where do the people get the money?"
It's still Suzhou Prefecture, but it's not on the Lion Rock.
Instead, it was in a courtyard near Taihu Lake in the south of the city.
In the courtyard, there were gathered a group of businessmen from various places who were making a living in Suzhou City.
One person was the first to speak, his expression was full of energy, and he was very excited about his discovery.
Someone then asked: "Of course the people have no money, but it's just like this, and we have..."
The man finally reacted, closed his mouth, and his eyes shone brightly.
"Yes! Although the people don't have money in their hands, we do! We don't have a lot of money in our hands that can't be spent. The money piled up at home is about to rot!" A man with a fat head and big ears, wearing illegal clothes
The silk merchant slapped his hands on the table and shouted.
"The people have food, we have money, and the court wants to collect taxes. Then the people can only come to us with the food to sell it. Isn't it up to me to decide what the price of the silver and the price of the food will be?"
The person who was the first to discover the loophole in the scheme to collect money from his parents let out a burst of triumphant laughter.
Someone suddenly stood up, and under the gaze of everyone, he had already made a gesture of leaving.
"This year's autumn grain harvest is about to begin! Everyone, I'll take my leave now!"
After that, the man ignored the surprised looks of the people present and left.
After a while, everyone here finally reacted.
According to the Zhili Governor's Office, from now on we will switch to the method of collecting money per mu. The autumn grain that has not been harvested this year will naturally be included in it.
That man obviously went home to raise money so that he could go downstairs to buy food first!
Make a profit on the price of silver, and another profit on the price of grain.
Everyone has vaguely realized that in the future, this grain business may be better than that of the salt merchants in Lianghuai.
The figure of the first person had long since disappeared.
The remaining people could no longer walk.
At this time, raising money a quarter of an hour late will result in the loss of countless money.
In just the blink of an eye, even the owner of this place disappeared.
Everyone rushed out in a rush, hoping to seize the opportunity and raise more cash to go to the countryside to buy food from the people.
Just a few days.
Following the official document from the Zhili Governor's Office, the entire Zhili Dao No. 18 Prefecture fell into an inexplicable madness for grabbing money.
A whipping method that later extended the Ming Dynasty's life for nearly a hundred years appeared and was implemented two hundred years in advance.
No one knows what the final result of such a change will be.
But now, the two sides are locked in a competition.
Yingtian City.
On the Chaoyang Gate gate tower directly opposite Hongwu Gate in the Imperial City.
Zhu Yunxi, dressed in a sash, climbed up to the tower early in the morning to face the rising sun.
Beside him, many officials such as Xia Yuanji, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, Zou Xueyu, the Governor-General of Zhili Province, Zhu Gaochi, the Chief of the Taxation Department, Jiang Yu, the Commander of the Jinyi Guards, etc. gathered here. In the corner, the twenty-fourth division of the inner court that should have been in the palace
Sun Gou'er, the chief steward of the Yamen, also stood there silently.
With a smile on his face, Zhu Yunxi looked at Juechen riding on the official road outside the city, rushing towards Yingtian City.
He spoke slowly: "Everything is almost ready, so let's start taking action now."