"What about the money bag? Why is it also in his hand?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked in a deep voice.
"Because every year, taxes from various places are discussed with the Korean government first, and then sent to the court." Hu Weiyong replied.
"Okay, very good, very good..." Zhu Yuanzhang said with an angry smile: "Hu Weiyong, look at the glory of our great butler, right?"
"..." Hu Weiyong lowered his head and did not dare to answer.
"What about you, are you willing to be a decoration all the time?" Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Hu Weiyong provocatively.
"I'm not willing to do anything!" Hu Weiyong said flatly: "I don't know how many more years I can be prime minister. I only know that if I continue to be inactive like this, I will definitely regret it for the rest of my life!"
"Then you have something to offer!" Zhu Yuanzhang raised his voice: "We will be your backing, do you dare to fight with them?"
"Dare! Of course I dare!" Hu Weiyong nodded heavily. "As long as you have the support of a superior, I have nothing to fear!"
"Okay, well said. With our support, you really have nothing to fear!" Zhu Yuanzhang nodded approvingly and asked, "What are you going to do?"
"First master the Zhongshu Province thoroughly!" Hu Weiyong said solemnly.
"We not only have to fight, we also have to do business. Are you confident that all the military supplies for the Northern Expedition will be transported to Peking by the end of February next year?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked loudly.
"Have confidence!" Hu Weiyong replied loudly.
~~
After Hu Weiyong retired, Zhu Yuanzhang asked the prince: "How about it? Do you think what Hu Weiyong said is true?"
"It shouldn't be false, but it's unbelievable." Zhu Biao frowned and said, "Especially the section on numbers. The court wants to show off extra, so it's understandable to talk to the local government about numbers. Is it possible to bargain over how much tax is collected?"
"It's really unbelievable, but the more bizarre something is, the more likely it is to be true." Zhu Yuanzhang picked up 'filial piety' and said slowly while running it up and down his back:
"Let's remember one thing. When we were in Fengyang this year, Han Yike said something similar."
Then the emperor recalled: "He said that he had been in Linhuai County for one year and found that there were three accounts in the place. One was used to deal with the court; one was used to collect taxes from the people; and the other was used to collect taxes from the people.
The account was reconciled by Shangfeng.”
"Because there were too many things going on at the time, we didn't pay much attention to what he said." Zhu Yuanzhang continued: "But the more I thought about it later, the more I realized that there was a big problem here."
"Yes." The prince nodded, he also felt it.
~~
The current basis for tax collection by the imperial court is still the household registration certificate compiled in the third year of Hongwu.
But the household registration card is a product of the census, which mainly contains the registered population of each household. Although it also records the number of acres of land for each household, it is filled out by self-report...
It is conceivable that every household must have concealed and underreported the "hidden fields" behavior... This point was already investigated by the princes when they were practicing in their hometown.
User posts are used as the basis for the court to collect taxes, so they will definitely not be able to collect enough taxes.
Therefore, each county has a private account, which is the county's own statistics of the number of acres of land per household, so as to serve as the basis for real tax collection.
The difference in the number of acres between the private account and the household registration is an opportunity for the local government to use power for personal gain.
After the reconciliation, the record of actual taxes paid by the people is the public account.
Of course, it is impossible to show private accounts to the court.
Even the private accounts in many places are not shown to the county magistrate, but are firmly in the hands of subordinate officials.
At most, the county magistrate knows about the existence of private accounts, but it is almost impossible to get subordinates to hand them over.
Naturally, a small subordinate official cannot challenge the county magistrate. But once local forces such as subordinate officials, squires, local ruffians and lawyers form a group, it is not something that the county magistrate can contend with.
Just like the dilemma Zhu Yuanzhang is facing now.
Therefore, some people say that the magistrate is the local emperor. Because being an emperor and being a magistrate are actually very similar.
~~
"At that time, we thought that the three accounts that Han Yike mentioned were household records, private accounts and public accounts. But now that I think about it, the account for the court is not household records." Zhu Yuanzhang said solemnly:
"Because the number of acres on the household registration is fixed, and the court has a bottom line, how can we deal with it?"
"Yes, the public account that records the actual tax amount should be the one handed over to the court." The prince was also keenly aware of the problem.
"How can I deal with the one from the imperial court?"
"That's right. What Han Yike meant is that these two books should be one, but now there are two. In other words, there is a discrepancy between the actual tax amount and the amount sent to the court! That's why two books are needed.
Account book records." Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that he cursed his mother:
"Han Yike, the Riddler, deserves to die!"
"Father, please be considerate of Han Yike. He has already broken the foundation of Zhongdu, and he dares to offend all the local officials in the world again?" Zhu Biao said something fair for Xiao Han.
"It's already amazing that he can hint at it to this extent."
"Yes." Zhu Yuanzhang nodded in agreement. Of course he knew Han Yike's integrity and loyalty, so he continued:
"If what Han Yike said is true, then it would be easier to understand that the local government should first talk about numbers and then explain luck."
"Yes, because the amount collected should be greater than the amount released." The prince nodded and said, "Then how to distribute it is really worthy of a discussion."
"That's money and food collected from our people under our banner!" Zhu Yuanzhang said angrily: "They dare to divide it up?"
"Dad, this is just a guess based on what you said." The prince said at a loss of whether to laugh or cry: "Why are you so angry now?"
"Because we are inseparable from ten." Zhu Yuanzhang said coldly.
"Evidence is still needed to prove it." The prince said calmly: "But if we send imperial envoys to each province to collect evidence separately and mobilize troops, I'm afraid we won't be able to find anything. Moreover, we may alert the enemy and let the people below destroy the evidence."
"That's right, so we have to do the opposite." Zhu Yuanzhang obviously already had a plan and said: "We want them to come to Nanjing to teach mathematics, so that we can learn from them up close, and maybe we can catch them.
Woolen cloth."
"Yes, it is convenient for monitoring in the capital." The prince nodded and said, "But didn't Hu Weiyong say that all provinces would send people to Fengyang to give lectures?"
"What's so difficult about this? Let's just let the Korean prince come to Beijing." Zhu Yuanzhang said calmly.
"What's the reason?"
Boss Zhu smiled slyly and said: "The eldest daughter of King Yan and Xu Da are getting married. Let him be the officiant. Isn't this reasonable?"
"It's very reasonable." The prince said in his heart. The wedding of the fourth child was really burdensome. He couldn't help laughing and said: "No wonder my father wants the fourth child to get married in the first month. It turns out that the drunkard's intention is not to drink."
There is a saying among the people, "If you are not married during the first month of the year, you will not be engaged during the twelfth lunar month."
Because it is said that if you get married in the first month, Tai Sui will be too late, which is not good for your children and grandchildren...
Although as long as Boss Zhu wants to, he will have his own Qin Tianjian to choose auspicious days and auspicious times to eliminate the unfavorable factors.
But wouldn’t it be nice to postpone the wedding of the fourth child until February? Why bother to raise suspicions in the first month?
Only now did he know the reason. Because the summer tax of this dynasty did not exceed August, and the autumn grain did not exceed February of next year!
That is to say, all autumn grain must be delivered to Taicang by February at the latest.
As for the calculation, it must be completed before it is put into storage, and it must be completed in the first month of the year at the latest.
The father asked the fourth child to get married in the first month of the year, so the Korean princess had to go to Beijing in the first month. Officials from all over the country could only go to Beijing in the first month to talk to the Korean princess so as not to delay the arrival of autumn grain in Taicang in February...
With so many local officials coming to Beijing to speak at the same time, and in a hurry, it is indeed easy to catch flaws.
Ps. Historically, Zhu Di got married in the first month of the year... It can be seen that Zhu Di was a pragmatic superstition.
