The next morning, accompanied by the cold wind of early spring, in the streets and alleys of the capital, newsboys were walking in the streets and alleys carrying full newspapers, shouting loudly as they walked.
"Sell newspapers~ sell newspapers!"
"Taxation is collected from the people and used for the people. Taxation is a way for everyone to show their loyalty and filial piety to the emperor of Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty. It is the obligation of every citizen!"
"It is honorable to pay taxes, it is shameful to evade taxes, and it is a shame to resist taxes by force. It is a serious violation of the laws of the Ming Dynasty. The whole family will be exiled thousands of miles away!"
"The taxes collected by the imperial court, each item mainly reflects in detail that the taxes are collected from the people and used for the people. Only when the imperial court has money can it arm a strong army and expand its territory to the outside world, rather than letting others
Hazing.”
"Only when the imperial court has money can it organize large-scale infrastructure construction, build roads, railways, ports, dams, reservoirs, dredge blocked rivers, facilitate transportation, prevent floods and water storage, increase employment, and promote the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty."
"Only when the imperial court has money can it vigorously build schools and hospitals so that more children can receive cheap education and more people can enjoy better medical services."
"..."
With the shouts of the newsboys, the entire Beijing-Tianjin area began to gradually wake up. A large number of people came out of every corner and quickly bought the newspapers from the newsboys.
What happened in the court yesterday has already spread in the capital. The young and old men in the capital are all waiting for the newspapers to carry relevant reports in order to know in detail what happened yesterday.
What was a wonderful morning turned into a vegetable market, and the two sides had a heated discussion about whether to levy commercial taxes and whether to abolish the tax bureau.
At the same time, this matter also involves the attack on the tax office in Nanzhili, which is worth seeing.
For young and old men in the capital, these are all things that need to be clarified, otherwise you will not know anything when you sit down, and you will have nothing to talk about.
In a teahouse in the capital, many tea-goers were having morning tea and reading newspapers. At the same time, they were quietly listening to the newspaper reader explaining today's newspaper.
"Everyone, today's newspaper reveals a lot of information~"
"First of all, the first thing we have to think about is what I and everyone talked about a few days ago about the border officials coming to Beijing to report on their duties."
"The most important thing among them is the dismissal of Feng Shiyong, the chief minister of Southern Zhili."
“Where is Nanzhili?”
"It has always been the most important taxation land in our country and the most fertile area in our country."
"At the same time, Southern Zhili has produced talented people and beautiful women in large numbers since ancient times. The saying that half of the entire court is from Jiangnan means that more than half of the officials in the entire court are from the Jiangnan area."
"The position of chief envoy of Southern Zhili is a second-grade official position, and it is an important position that holds real power. It is also a fertile position in the land of Jiangnan."
The newspaper reader paused slightly here, took a sip of tea, collected his thoughts, and continued.
"The reason why Feng Shiyong was dismissed was mainly because he didn't know anything about the situation in Southern Zhili during the debriefing meeting, and at the same time he criticized the imperial court's assessment system."
"In addition, over the years, the development of Southern Zhili has been slow, and Northern Zhili has caught up. Last year, Northern Zhili paid as much as 200 million taels of silver in taxes per year, but Southern Zhili was only half of Northern Zhili. Both sides
The gap is huge."
"This is enough to show that Feng Shiyong did not do well in the position of chief minister of Southern Zhili, and it is normal for him to be dismissed."
"Why do I need to contact the previous report meeting of the feudal officials?"
"Because the fierce quarrel that took place in the imperial court yesterday has a lot to do with the arrangement of the position of chief envoy of Southern Zhili."
"A few days ago, I had already made an estimate that the position of chief envoy of South Zhili is most likely to be Zhong Fan, chief envoy of Guangdong, or Wang Shouren, the tax governor of South Zhili. One of these two will take over.
."
"No matter who of these two people takes over the position of Chief Envoy of Southern Zhili, it means that Southern Zhili will undergo a huge change, because both Zhong Fan and Wang Shouren are officials of the hard work. Zhong Fan is in Guangdong
What he has done is remarkable, and Wang Shouren’s achievements in collecting taxes in Southern Zhili are even more remarkable.”
"If one of them takes over, Southern Zhili will inevitably undergo a major change."
"Let's talk about this tax issue again."
"Officials from Southern Zhili have always been the most aggressive in levying commercial taxes."
"Because since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the salt merchants, grain merchants, cloth merchants, tea merchants, etc. in South Zhili have almost monopolized some of the most profitable and important businesses in the Ming Dynasty."
"Taking salt merchants as an example, in the past, salt merchants were as rich as the country. They spent huge sums of money on the banks of the Qinhuai River. These are the salt merchants, as well as the famous Hui merchants. The names of Hui merchants are common in all parts of the Ming Dynasty."
"These businessmen are very rich, but they basically don't have to pay any taxes. The Ming Dynasty Morning Post has a special report on this matter. What impressed me deeply is that in a wealthy county in the south of the Yangtze River, the taxes paid in a year are less than
To one hundred taels of silver, it can be seen that these businessmen basically paid no taxes."
"At that time, the imperial treasury was empty. There were Tatars and Jurchens in the north, Japanese pirates were raging along the southeast coast, and the chieftains in the southwest were capricious. The emperor wanted to rectify military affairs, but he suffered from an empty treasury and no silver."
"However, these salt merchants, Anhui merchants, grain merchants, cloth merchants, etc. in the south of the Yangtze River are extremely rich and wealthy. They can spend a lot of money in the land of fireworks, but they are unwilling to pay a tael of silver to the court.
As a result, our Ming Dynasty is suffering from internal and external troubles and has no money to solve many problems."
"This is why Liu Jin and Liu Gong carried out tax reforms back then. Because the court needed money to do things, and it was naturally impossible for the court to tax the poor people, because the poor people, even if you sold them,
There are not many taxes that can be levied, so we can only levy commercial taxes on these rich people and businessmen."
The newspaper reader stopped and took a sip of tea. The entire teahouse fell silent. Everyone listened quietly, even the waiter listened with gusto.
Because the Beijing-Tianjin area is located at the foot of the emperor, it has the most exposure to this aspect, and it can be regarded as the most concerned about national affairs. It is always the most favorite to hear about this aspect.
"This goes back to the debate in the court yesterday."
"Let's talk about why officials in the Jiangnan area are the most opposed to the levy of commercial taxes."
"It stands to reason that this court official should first think of being loyal to the emperor, solving problems for the emperor, and secondly think of seeking the welfare of the common people in the world."
"But officials in the Jiangnan area are different, because officials in the Jiangnan area are inextricably linked to these big businessmen."
"We all know that the wealthy people in the Jiangnan area, salt mountains, grain merchants, cloth merchants, etc. were the richest people in the entire Ming Dynasty in the past. After they became rich, they would build private schools and academies to provide services to their family members.
read."
"In the past, the best place for education in the entire Ming Dynasty was the Jiangnan area. In the Jiangnan area, even the street vendors were able to read and decipher hundreds of words. This is where many of the talented people from Jiangnan came from in ancient times."
"This rich businessman is running a lot of schools and supporting his people to study. These scholars then go to get the honors and become officials. Naturally, when they become officials, they also want to protect the interests of their own families. Naturally, they cannot support the introduction of commercial taxes.
"
"To put it simply, the introduction of commercial tax has seriously affected the interests of the big businessmen, big landowners, big gentry, and big families in the Jiangnan area. Naturally, they will strongly oppose it."
"Had it not been for several major cases in succession, which severely damaged the power of officials from Jiangnan, it would have been impossible to carry out tax restructuring and levy commercial taxes."
"You must know that over the years, there have been many officials who have opposed the levy of commercial taxes. This time, it is just because the adjustment of the position of the chief minister of South Zhili has ushered in a wave of climax."
This newspaper reader was obviously very good. He explained the cause of the incident in detail, and everyone in the teahouse suddenly understood and understood it all at once.
"That's it~"
"I asked why those officials from Jiangnan are the most opposed to levying commercial taxes. It turns out that they are in cahoots with the businessmen, landlords, and big families in the Jiangnan area."
"Isn't that right? If you only care about your own small profits, you will forget the great interests of the country."
"If the court has no money, it really can't do anything. Ten years before Hongzhi, I remember that the Tatars in the north would seize the country and go south to plunder every year, but the court couldn't do anything to them."
"What are we going to do with the Tatars? I used to be a military household or a frontier soldier. Don't you know? We just have trouble eating. The weapons in our hands have not been replaced for more than ten years. The bows and arrows are all rotten. We
You can't fight the Tatar cavalry with your fists."
"It's better now. The court has money, the army is well-equipped and well-trained, and it has status and status, so its combat effectiveness will naturally be high. Only then will our Ming Dynasty be able to continuously expand its territory."
"Yes, yes, so paying taxes is an honor, because we pay taxes, and it is for ourselves and for the sake of Ming Dynasty."
"You see, only when the court has money can it arm a powerful army. Only then will we not be bullied by foreign enemies. We can also continue to expand our territory and acquire more fertile land."
"Only when the imperial court has money can it build roads and railways. It used to take a long time to walk back to my hometown in Shandong, but now it takes a day and a night to go back by train."
"Yes, yes, I think what the newspaper said is right. Paying taxes means being loyal to the emperor and to the Ming Dynasty. As a Ming Dynasty citizen, paying taxes according to the law and paying taxes according to the regulations is to contribute to the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty."
"The taxes paid have finally been spent on us people!"
"We can't be like those people in Nanzhili~"
"That's right, that's right~ We are gentlemen from the land of Jingji. We are the most active in paying taxes. Our tax payments account for nearly half of the Ming Dynasty's tax revenue."
