Chapter 331 Where did the decent life of Ming officials come from?
Chapter 331: Where did the decent life of Ming officials come from? (Second update)
To others, the Wang Wen in front of him was not only mean and ungrateful, but also stubborn and self-willed in his actions. He also had a venomous language, which was disliked by all the ministers in the court.
happiness.
In Zhu Qizhen's view, his meanness and lack of kindness to others are selfless and selfless, and he recognizes the law but not human kindness; his stubbornness has been seen and he is stubborn and self-indulgent, which is contempt for the powerful and not flattering; and his language is cunning.
Poison can also be interpreted as speaking out and daring to remonstrate.
Damn it, does he look like Bao Qingtian from the fifteenth century? Well, or should I say Hai Rui, in short, those characteristics in him are annoying shortcomings to those ministers, but Zhu Qizhen feels that those characteristics
This is the shining point of Wang Wen's humanity. Such an official is really talented, and he is perfect material to be the prosecutor general of the country.
"It seems that your beloved is very familiar with the responsibilities of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Haha, in this way, I can trust you more safely in entrusting this matter to you." When Wang Wen's mouth was dry and foam was forming at the corners of his mouth, he said politely.
After drinking all the tea in front of him, Zhu Qizhen told Wang Wen his intention to let him go to Nanzhili to serve as the censor of the left capital of the Southern Zhili Metropolitan Procuratorate.
"For a hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, we have vigorously expanded our borders and encouraged people's livelihood, so that farmers have land and residents have houses. Just like a young man, gradually entering middle age, many problems that did not appear in the past have gradually become chronic diseases of our Ming Dynasty.
I am very anxious..."
Zhu Qizhen did not hide anything, and directly told Wang Wen his thoughts and ideas. Of course, he told Wang Wen with reservations. For Ming Dynasty, the most important tasks that need to be solved now are the tax issues.
For the Ming Dynasty, water transportation issues and salt were not only related to people's livelihood, but also important events in the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty.
The disadvantages of water transport are not that no one sees it, but because of the entanglement of interests, these civil and military ministers pretend to be blind. They also clamor that the magic of sea transport will cause a large number of transport workers to lose their livelihoods.
, causing social unrest and so on...
In a word, water transportation has become entangled with the interests of all parties. As for salt, Zhu Qizhen knew very well in later generations that the stories about salt merchants were like the old woman's footbindings.
It is smelly, long and annoying, and it is precisely because of this that Zhu Qizhen also remembered that during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, these salt merchants were not good birds. At least in the absence of the Ming Dynasty's tax system, what they had
The looted people's wealth can even be equivalent to nearly 50% of the Ming Dynasty's annual taxes.
Another issue is taxation. Many people in later generations always complain that the Ming Dynasty had heavy taxes. This is all nonsense. From the early years of the Ming Dynasty to the Wanli period, the Ming Dynasty's economy experienced rapid growth and rapid economic development.
develop.
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As for the taxes of the Ming Dynasty, starting from the tax base set by Zhu Yuanzhang, it lasted for more than ten emperors, and there were almost no changes. Of course, let’s not talk about the Liao rates in later generations. At least, at this time in Zhu Qizhen
, there is no such country’s rigid collection target.
The country's taxes have always been maintained at a very low level. So, the people of Ming Dynasty have grown, and the economy and industry and commerce have also developed vigorously, but have the resulting taxes increased?
Let me tell you, there has been no increase at all, or in other words, after the collection, the taxes paid to the court did not increase, and sometimes even decreased. So why were the people of the Ming Dynasty still miserable?
In addition to various reasons, there is also an extremely important factor, which is: officials committed crimes. According to regulations, officials in the Ming Dynasty were paid extremely low wages. However, they lived a luxurious life. Especially, the salary of officials was dozens of times that of officials.
A large number of officials are not paid, but they also have a very decent life. How can they live an enviable, decent and luxurious life with very little wages or even no wages? This is to say
, they have a way to make money.
In fact, the way to get money is also very simple. Corruption certainly exists, and people put state funds into their own pockets. However, these are a minority. State funds are accounted for, and blatant corruption is risky. Their
Most of the money comes from extortion and scraping land.
Extortion of ordinary people through extra taxes. It seems that the tax burden on the land is not heavy, but extra clever names are often used to collect several times to ten times the officially stipulated tax amount. There are too many names to list them one by one.
Point out, in a word, what are dendrobium noodles, deformation, scientific application, restraint, stolen goods punishment, fire consumption, rat consumption, and bird consumption.
After the grain is harvested, people have to transport it thousands of miles to the specified place. Think about it, with the road transportation conditions of the Ming Dynasty, how much manpower and material resources are needed to transport the grain thousands of miles to the specified place? How much normal work is delayed? And these
All freight costs are borne by farmers who pay taxes;
Although all losses and losses have been collected in advance at several times the amount, once losses and risks do occur during transportation, they will still be fully borne by the tax-paying farmers. Such extraction made the society unable to bear it, so Zhang Juzheng implemented a one-whip reform to
Some exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes have been abolished, and more have been legalized and spread to the land. However, in the following implementation, it is still "regulations outside the rules, and whips outside the whip". That is to say, after the old taxes and miscellaneous taxes are legalized, new taxes and miscellaneous taxes will immediately be implemented.
produce.
All these unconventional taxes, extortion and extortion are not included in the government's official fiscal revenue. Liu Zongzhou, a minister in the late Ming Dynasty, said in a memorial that the additional taxes on top of the regular taxes amounted to more than a hundred times, and some farmers had tax burdens per mu.
It amounted to three to five taels of silver, and people's families were ruined for it.
At that time, three to five taels of silver could buy more than three to five hundred kilograms of high-quality white rice. However, the yield per mu at that time was certainly not able to produce so much grain. The tax was higher than all the output on the land. You
Are you saying the tax burden is not heavy?
Those above eat those below, and those below have no choice but to distribute them all to the peasants through additional distribution. This is a pyramid-shaped spoils-sharing mechanism. At the top are the central officials, the officials in the court, and the bottom.
There are tens of millions of petty officials and government servants who are not included in the national financial establishment and live by extortion. They are equivalent to today's urban management police and township cadres. This is a very complete food chain network. These scraped land
, handed over to the pockets of leaders at all levels in the form of bad rules, routines, etc.
Even Hai Qingtian Hai Rui, who is considered to be the most incorruptible man in history, his official salary is simply not enough to support his family. He has a wife, children, and several young concubines.
In other words, can a salary with purchasing power equivalent to four to five thousand yuan today be able to support a family of ten? Therefore, even Hai Rui has to take advantage of the bad rules. There is no doubt that this is generally the case in official circles. Whoever does not take it will survive
Can't go down.
The fiscal revenue collected by various dynasties in history through clear rules on the table is only a fraction of the plunder and extortion through hidden rules. Some people always can't figure out the problem: the tax burden of the Ming Dynasty was not heavy
, why did the common people still rebel, leading to the eventual demise of the dynasty? Because in fact, the tax burden is not heavy is an official record, not the truth. The common people bear not only regular taxes, but also all kinds of inexplicable and unclear names.
Add extra money, blackmail.
Therefore, Zhu Qizhen needed an official, a high-ranking official, a high-ranking official who was incompatible with the ordinary Ming Dynasty officials and isolated from this official circle, to get something real for himself.
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Even if Wang Wen is mean and ungrateful, unkind to others, and unkind to others, when he heard the task assigned to him by Zhu Qizhen, he couldn't help but break out in cold sweat for a moment. Zhu Qizhen couldn't help but sweat.
If you really let yourself do it, wouldn't it mean that you have completely pushed yourself against more than 80% of the officials in the world?
Looking at Wang Wen, who was sweating like rain in the cold winter, how could Zhu Qizhen not understand what he was thinking. However, such a thing, except for Wang Wen, a cruel minister who was hated by people and ghosts, could not understand what he was thinking.
Besides, it is really difficult for Zhu Qizhen to find any other more suitable candidate.
In fact, there are some. For example, Yuan Bin and Ha Ming around Zhu Qizhen may also be qualified, but the problem is that they have more important things to do. There are really too few people around Zhu Qizhen who can entrust important responsibilities.
Therefore, he had to think of solutions from other aspects, and Wang Wen was what Zhu Qizhen thought was a good choice.
"I know what you are worried about, Qing Wang." Zhu Qizhen sat up straight, looked at Wang Wen in front of him, and smiled lightly: "I don't need you to use people from the Metropolitan Procuratorate to inspect these things.
." After saying this, Zhu Qizhen raised his hand and said to the knife-wielding guard who brought Wang Wen over: "Jiang Huai, come here."
"The general is here, what are your orders from your majesty?" The person who brought Wang Wen to Chongzhi Palace was Jiang Huai, the close guard who was nearly killed by Wang Cheng's crossbow when he called the door at the gate of the capital city that day.
"Jiang Huai, are all your injuries healed?" Zhu Qizhen asked with a smile as he looked at the tall and burly Jiang Huai, but his brows were still agile.
"Your Majesty, the general's injuries have already healed. These days, the strength of this arm has almost been fully recovered." Jiang Huai laughed and deliberately moved the arm that had been shot through the shoulder.
, playing quite vigorously.
"Haha, okay, I understand. I want to ask you, would you like to follow Mr. Wang to the south of Zhili?" Zhu Qizhen looked at the man who had been following him, who was courageous and knowledgeable, and started to do things.
The bold and careful Jianghuai.
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ps: The update has arrived. Take a look, everyone. I will try to update it twice tomorrow. Haha, okay, students, let’s go to bed early.
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