In the study of Liu Jin's house in the capital, Liu Jin was reading a letter carefully. After reading it, he couldn't help laughing.
"It seems that I am still too kind. These old-school officials really want to eat my flesh and drink my blood."
Liu Jin received the detailed contents and information about the conspiracy of conservative officials on the same day.
As the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, in charge of the officials in the world, there are so many people who want to join Liu Jin, and I don’t know how many there are, including some officials from the conservative faction.
"Bewitching the Holy One, blinding the Holy One's hearing, being a sycophant, using power for personal gain..."
Liu Jin couldn't help but smile when he looked at what was written on the letter.
As for these old-school officials, they are not good at anything, but when it comes to internal fighting, they are definitely experts. Otherwise, in a few decades of history, the entire Ming Dynasty will have control of the Donglin Party.
Human hands.
The methods that the Donglin Party relies on are actually very simple. They are nothing more than continuous impeachment, impeachment, attack and criticism again, bringing down the big shots in the court one by one, and then sending their own people up.
In addition, Jiangnan has many talented people since ancient times, and the officials are half Jiangnan, so they can naturally control the entire government.
Originally, there were always people who controlled the government. The key is that after you control the government, you will not do practical things for this country and this nation. Their minds are all focused on internal fighting and their own rights and interests.
Above, there is no regard for the life and death of the country. This is the most dangerous place.
There are many people in history who are greedy for power. Who can control them in the face of power?
But after gaining power, what many people think about is how to do things that are truly beneficial to the country, instead of just caring about their own selfish interests and regardless of the life and death of the country.
When the Ming Dynasty court was at the end of its rope and faced internal and external troubles, it needed money to consolidate border defenses and provide relief to the victims. However, these bureaucrats from the Jiangnan region still opposed to the imposition of commercial taxes, and even asked the court to reduce taxes on tea, salt and so on.
Tax, maritime trade tax, etc.
So when the Ming Dynasty fell, the court had no money and could not collect money, so it could only tax the poor farmers, further stimulating conflicts and turning the desperate farmers into rebels. Wave after wave eventually destroyed the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty was destroyed.
You must know that in the Ming Dynasty, the commercial tax itself was very low, and it was already difficult to collect commercial tax. However, they were still not satisfied. They did not care about the life and death of the country and only had their own interests in their eyes.
Standing on the moral high ground, constantly criticizing others, and doing shameful things himself.
After thinking about the Ming Dynasty in history, Liu Jin gnashed his teeth in hatred towards these people.
For their own benefit, they can collude with Japanese pirates and engage in armed smuggling in coastal areas.
While annexing land wantonly, they prevented the imperial court from collecting taxes and spread the taxes that should have been paid by the scholar-bureaucrats to the suffering people.
While shouting "loyalty, filial piety, integrity and shame", when Li Zicheng and Qi Qing arrived, they were the first to open the door and kneel down to surrender.
The current situation of Ming Dynasty is not all due to the painstaking management of the Ming Dynasty. However, in the words of these people, the people of Ming Dynasty are in dire straits and the atmosphere is smoky. They are treacherous villains. They are the real upright people and the real people.
Loyal minister, capable minister.
"If you people really take control of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Dynasty is probably not far from destruction."
Liu Jin crumpled the letter in his hand and threw it into the stove.
However, I came to my desk, carefully made a list, and started to make a series of arrangements.
As the Minister of Civil Affairs of the Ming Dynasty, he was in charge of the officials of the world and held great power. In addition, he implemented an assessment system, so it was not easy for these people.
Early morning the next day.
"If there is something to do, start the show, if there is nothing to do, leave the court~"
As Xiao Jing shouted loudly at the top of his voice.
Immediately, several officials stood up, all of whom were not of high rank. They were all fourth- and fifth-grade officials, and most of them were Yushi Yanguan, Hanlin Qingliu and the like.
Become an official who specializes in finding fault with others.
"Your Majesty, I impeach Wang Shouren, the tax governor of Southern Zhili~"
"When he was the governor of Nanzhili Taxation, he imposed excessive taxes, used tax agents to arbitrarily oppress good people, and aroused public dissatisfaction. As a result, people attacked the taxation office in Nanzhili many times."
Censor Gao Yuanlong stood up and began to impeach Wang Shouren seriously.
Under his words, Wang Shouren became a heinous person. In order to collect taxes, he did everything possible, forcibly breaking into people's homes, plundering, expropriating, and even killing people and setting fires, which aroused a lot of public resentment.
As a result, people in the southern Zhili area attacked the tax office many times.
Finally, he asked the emperor to immediately order a thorough investigation of Wang Shouren to quell the boiling public resentment in southern Zhili.
"Your Majesty, I also want to impeach Wang Shouren, the tax governor of Southern Zhili. He abused his power, imposed taxes, and levied excessive amounts. The tax agents of the tax yamen took advantage of the power of taxation to act recklessly, break into private houses, seize goods without permission, and imprison good people.
The good deeds aroused public resentment, and even in the wealthy land south of the Yangtze River, public resentment arose."
"I request your Majesty to order a thorough investigation of Wang Shouren, and at the same time abolish the tax office, so as to calm the people's resentment and give the people of Jiangnan a bright future~"
As soon as Gao Yuanlong finished speaking, Qian Qi, another public official, stood up and continued to impeach Wang Shouren. At the same time, he took the opportunity to attack the court's tax policy and demanded that the tax bureau be abolished.
The excuse was that the so-called tax yamen's tax collection caused public dissatisfaction in the Jiangnan area, causing angry people to attack the tax yamen.
Following Gao Yuanlong and Qian Qi, officials one after another stood up, some impeached Wang Shouren, some took the opportunity to criticize the court's tax policy, and some even targeted Liu Jin.
After hearing the words of these people, Emperor Hongzhi, who was sitting on the dragon throne, had an expressionless face, and Liu Jin below frowned deeply. These people were really going to any lengths for their own selfish interests.
In the imperial court, Yanran suddenly set off a wave of opposition to the New Deal, tax reform, and administrative reform and assessment. The officials who were impeached and attacked started with Wang Shouren, and slowly some people impeached Liu Jin.
As for Wang Shouren's father, Wang Hua, he was sweating profusely at this time, like an ant on a hot pot.
If his son Wang Shouren is impeached and criticized, even if it is not a big deal, it will affect his future image in the emperor's heart, and it will be difficult to be promoted again.
"Alas~"
"If a tree is beautiful in the forest, the wind will destroy it. If you behave above others, everyone will reject it~"
"I have told him a long time ago that when we go to Jiangnan, we must not offend the Jiangnan scholars too much. We are also from Zhejiang after all, but he refuses to listen. Let's do it now. Let's create a crowd to attack.
Otherwise, my future career will be in trouble!"
Wang Hua couldn't help but sigh. His son was promoted too quickly, but he was too good and now he is in trouble.
"My dear friends, what do you think of this matter?"
When no one stood up anymore, Emperor Hongzhi slowly spoke.
Having been emperor for more than twenty years, Emperor Hongzhi has long been indifferent to emotions and anger, and has watched this kind of impeachment scene countless times.
In fact, in the early dynasty, there was no way to really talk about any important national affairs. In many cases, it would be like now, and it would become the mainstream home for these censors and officials.
Really discussing important matters should be done in the small conference room of the Chancellery. As the saying goes, a meeting with many people is not important, and an important meeting with not many people is not important.
"Your Majesty, I have something to say~"
Liu Jin naturally wanted to be the first to stand up.
These people criticize Wang Shouren, criticize themselves, and also criticize the tax system and assessment system. This is a clear opposition to everything they have done. If they don't stand up, who will?
"Hmm~"
Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly to signal Liu Jin to continue.
"Your Majesty, Wang Shouren worked conscientiously during the period when he was the governor of Jiangnan. He thought of his loyalty to the king and the people of Jiangnan. The tax paid by Nanzhili in the past year was less than 10 million taels of silver. However, after Wang Shouren's efforts over the years,
The annual tax paid by Nanzhili is nearly 100 million taels, and it is growing significantly every year."
Liu Jin spoke with numbers.
"Your Majesty, this is how he expropriated people in Southern Zhili and used all possible means to plunder people's wealth. These are the flesh and blood of the people of Southern Zhili."
After hearing Liu Jin's words, Gao Yuanlong immediately stood up and said with great anger.
"By common people, you are referring to the gentry, businessmen, and big families, right? You are not referring to the poor people in the Jiangnan area. The tax yamen is not responsible for the collection of local grain, and it never levies taxes on the people."
"And these people you are talking about are extremely rich, as rich as the enemy, but they are not willing to pay a single tax, and they deliberately resist the tax with force, and even mobilize their own tribesmen, local ruffians, etc. to attack the Yamen, and then
When it comes to your mouth, it means that it has aroused public dissatisfaction and even attacked the tax office."
"Excuse me, do these ruffians count as citizens?"
"Shouldn't these gentry and businessmen pay taxes?"
"Does it mean that this tax should be collected from the poor people?"
Liu Jin glared at Gao Yuanlong, and Gao Yuanlong's expression suddenly changed with his repeated questions.
Of course, they know very well about the attacks on tax yamen in the Jiangnan area. The local gentry, businessmen, big families, etc. arranged for their own clansmen and local ruffians to do it. But no common people are not afraid of death.
Go attack the tax office.
Now that Liu Jin said it all at once, he felt guilty on the spot. They impeached and attacked Wang Shouren and the tax policy. The core point was that the tax yamen's forced tax collection triggered a civil uprising, causing the people to attack the tax yamen.
