Chapter 277 Aiding Korea and Fighting the Japanese (4) Successive
Zhu Yijun takes it for granted that he is clueless. Based on his political and ideological foundation, he obviously has strong limitations of the times and class limitations. But his cluelessness may not be a problem for Gao Pragmatic, because
Gao pragmatism has direct solutions at hand.
This method was not something Gao Pragmatic came up with on his own. He just happened to stand on the shoulders of a great man with the same surname as Zhu Yijun on this issue. That great reformer withstood huge international and domestic pressure and worked hard for China in his time.
A bright and bright future has been created, and his main solutions to this problem are two: tax sharing system and transfer payments.
In Gao Pragmatic's view, fiscal affairs are an important entry point for understanding the national governance system. In a sense, not only fiscal behavior is essentially governance behavior, but even governance behavior is essentially fiscal behavior. In ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, every dynasty has
The reform of the fiscal system will have an important impact on central-local relations, regional relations, and even the political system of later generations.
The early financial system of the Ming Dynasty was almost the opposite of the early financial system of the later Red Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty had extremely poor central financial capabilities and very little financial power. This has been repeatedly emphasized in the previous article of this book and will not be repeated here.
In the early days of the Red Dynasty, the central government had a highly centralized and all-encompassing fiscal system of "unified revenue and unified expenditure". The fiscal revenue of local governments was uniformly handed over to the central government, and local expenditures were unified and allocated by the central government. There was a reason for this, and it was for
Solve the financial and economic situation of decentralized management and decentralized operations formed during the revolutionary war, and raise necessary construction funds in the early stage of New China.
However, after the 1980s, the Red Dynasty adopted a relatively decentralized "contract system" fiscal system. The principle was to "divide tax types, determine revenue and expenditure, and perform hierarchical contracts", which was matched by the "profit-to-tax" system.
The background of this reform is that local fiscal deficits occurred in the 1970s. In addition, after the reform, a supporting fiscal system was needed to give local economic autonomy and fiscal autonomy. Therefore, there was a saying of "pay it to the state, and the rest is local."
How to eat on separate stoves.
The profit-to-tax reform is to change most of the profits that state-owned enterprises originally handed over to the state to levy income tax, thus fixing the distribution relationship between the state and enterprises through tax laws. However, it is obvious that this system is not perfect and needs to be further deepened.
So after 1994, the Red Dynasty adopted the "tax-sharing reform" of centralizing revenue and decentralizing expenditure, and in conjunction with this, it established two tax systems: "national tax" and "local tax".
Please note that during the period from 1980 to 1994, the situation in the Red Dynasty was somewhat similar to that before the Ming Dynasty's "Big Household Reform".
The World Bank stated in February 2002 that it believed that the fiscal system of the Red Dynasty during that period was an “interlocking fiscal federalism.” It said this: “Although the central government determined that the system was broadly
outline, but it only deals directly with the provinces.
For example, it set up rules for revenue sharing with each province; then, each province determined the revenue sharing system with its municipalities, and then the cities and counties, and so on. The same was true for the division of expenditures. Therefore, although the Red Dynasty was a unitary government
system, but these institutional arrangements give it strong federal characteristics.”
The word "federal" is used here, and its main meaning is that the central government has absolute power in theory, but the local governments have relatively high autonomy in practice - is this very "Ming Dynasty"?
As a modern country, the details of the tax-sharing system in the Red Dynasty were far more complicated than those in the Ming Dynasty, so I won’t go into details here. However, the result must be summed up in one word, that is, after the reform of the tax-sharing system, local financial capabilities were weakened and they relied on allocations from superiors.
This kind of "allocation" is actually a central local-based subsidy, usually tax refunds and transfer payments, and transfer payments are divided into general transfer payments and special transfer payments.
General transfer payments are also called balancing transfer payments or financial transfer payments. They do not have designated uses and can be arranged independently by local governments. The purpose is to balance the fiscal gap between regions and achieve equalization of basic public service capabilities.
Special transfer payments mainly serve the specific policy goals of the central government. They are generally combined with local industrial development and economic development and need to be used strictly in accordance with the prescribed purposes.
As a young cadre who had worked in grassroots government for many years, Gao Pragmatic was personally involved in this practice. In addition, he studied law and later studied economics, so he was quite familiar with these matters.
The tax sharing principle at that time included the tax sharing of the five-level fiscal system, in which the superior government at each level had the right to formulate a tax sharing plan with the next level. The common rule was: financial power was decentralized at each level, and administrative power was decentralized at each level.
The more terminal the government is, the more difficult its financial situation is.
Because of this, Gao Jingshi heard someone joke at the grassroots level at that time, "The center is magnificent, the province is beautiful, the city is rickety, the county demolishes the east wall to make up for the west wall, and the town is full of people crying for father and mother."
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However, this statement is just self-deprecation by grassroots cadres. In fact, everyone has held countless meetings, has unified their thinking, and knows why they are doing this. Therefore, self-deprecation is self-deprecation, and few people really resist this reform ideologically.
. It must be said that the Chinese people at that time had no reason to feel inferior. At least few officials abroad could possess such a spirit.
Chinese people have always believed that it is an unshirkable social responsibility to sacrifice one's own family for everyone, so much so that they do not understand the so-called freedom of Westerners "as long as I am happy, I don't care what other people do".
Transfer payment is the sublimation of this idea. The so-called transfer payment, expressed in the simplest language, generally collects taxes from wealthy areas and invests them in infrastructure construction in poor areas, so as to try to bring the regional development level closer.
Resist "the strong will always be strong and the weak will always be weak" under excessive freedom in regional development, and create a more equitable and stable social environment.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! The Red Dynasty did this because it was socialism, which was its ideal and goal; the Ming Dynasty also had to do the same, but the reason was obviously not that great, just because it was not so
Doing so will lead to big trouble - for example, the Jiangnan plutocrats will gradually infiltrate and control the court's voice.
Without Gao Pragmatic's intervention, wouldn't the Donglin Party in the original history have just done this? Wouldn't the Ming Dynasty be finished like this?
The reason why Gao pragmatic insists that among the three major events mentioned by Zhu Yijun, the Cao army turmoil is the first problem that must be settled is precisely because he hopes to take advantage of the prestige of conquering the Yuan Dynasty when it is at its peak, and both Bozhou and North Korea need a war.
At this juncture, the truth about the chaebol's indirect interference in politics was exposed, giving them a political blow, and drawing a red line for them from then on.
Only by doing this at this point in time can the power in your hands be maximized and the resistance you face be minimized, so the final effect must be the best. If it were done at another point in time, I am afraid it would be more or less meaningless.
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic explained the tax-sharing system and transfer payments to Zhu Yijun in as simple a language as possible, and tried to make it more in line with the mainstream thinking of this era.
So Zhu Yijun suddenly realized after hearing this: "Isn't this robbing the rich to give to the poor? I think this is feasible and absolutely should be done - it cannot always be that the rich have endless fields and the poor have no place to stand. Pragmatically, your ambition is exactly what I am doing.
Ambition!"
The two of them discussed some relevant details for a while, and both drank half a bottle of wine. After a while, Zhu Yijun looked at the hourglass and realized that he was pressed for time. He was afraid that the discussion would not be finished, so he quickly stopped the topic and moved to
On the second matter, he asked: "Now that we have talked about Jiangnan's affairs, why do you think Bozhou should be pacified first instead of North Korea?"
"There are two points. The first point is that the emperor should have guessed that before fighting against the outside world, we must first calm down the inside." Gao pragmatically said: "If Bozhou is not peaceful, not only will the southwest be uneasy, but it is also under the control of Nanjing, which will affect us.
Mobilize military and financial resources from the south to support the war in North Korea..."
"Wait a minute!" Zhu Yijun opened his eyes wide and asked with some confusion: "You said you want to mobilize financial resources in the south, which I can understand, but why do you want to mobilize military forces from the south? How many troops do the Japanese pirates have? We have nine borders.
With a million-strong army, if you randomly deploy some of them, you should be able to drive the Japanese pirates all the way into the sea to feed the fish, right?"
Gao pragmatic raised his eyebrows slightly and said: "The good Pope has learned that the current total military strength of the Japanese country is about 500,000, and this is without large-scale conscription."
Zhu Yijun was really surprised, and subconsciously said "Ah", and then asked in disbelief: "The Japanese country actually has such a large army, why haven't I heard of it before?"
"The Japanese country has experienced a long civil war before, which is similar to the situation of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Therefore, there are large armies in various places. Now it is unified by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the total number is only too many. At the same time, because of the too many troops, Toyotomi
Hideyoshi couldn't feed them, so he had to find a way... His launching of this war was partly related to this."
Gao pragmatic sighed and said: "When I learned the news before, I happened to be still serving as the Minister of Rongzheng, so I discussed this with Duke Cheng and others. Duke Cheng said that he had previously discovered that someone had asked the Japanese
Sold some old cannon..."
Zhu Yijun's face collapsed, and he said with a sullen look on his face: "You dare to sell artillery, how can the imperial law be child's play!"
Gao Pingshi smiled bitterly and said: "There is something wrong with this matter, but..." When he said this, he suddenly felt embarrassed.
Zhu Yijun's heart moved and he hesitated: "Could it be that you also sold it?"
Gao pragmatic sighed: "I didn't sell it myself, but the artillery sold by others was sold to them by Jinghua. Your Majesty, the thing is like this: after they used it for a period of time, they lied about the need to replace it for one reason or another.
He installed new cannons, so he ordered them again from Jinghua, but dismantled the old cannons that were not old enough and sold them to the Japanese country..."
Zhu Yijun was relieved when he heard that Gao Jingshi was not involved. He waved his hand and said: "As long as you are not involved, it's okay. They are also deceiving you that you have no time to interfere with your own many industries. After all, you are the chief minister, the state and military affairs department."
It’s already busy enough.”
Before Gao pragmatic had time to thank him, Zhu Yijun continued, and his tone suddenly became stern: "However, I think those people who sell cannons just get into money and can't get out!"
Who knew that Gao Pragmatic's face was still a little embarrassed, which made Zhu Yijun feel a little unconfident again, and asked with an uncertain look: "Do you have anything else to say?"
Gao Pragmatic coughed lightly and said with a wry smile: "Your Majesty, you don't know. The problem is that before, the imperial court only had restrictions on sales to Mongolia, Jurchens and even Korea. Here... there is no Japanese country."
"Ah?" Zhu Yijun was stunned for a moment, and then asked, "Why is this?"
"After the Ningbo incident, the Ming Dynasty and the Japanese state originally suspended trade, but since the imperial court opened the sea, the Japanese state has been within the scope of free trade. At that time, the Japanese state was still in civil strife, so selling some soldiers and armors could make money.
It can also bring benefits to the court, so there is no strict ban on sales to the Japanese country.
And then...well, after all, no one expected that Japan would be so bold as to dare to stroke the beard of the Ming Dynasty, so things became like this."
Gao Pragmatic's words are all half-truths and half-false, with the truth accounting for about 70-80% and the cover-up accounting for 20-30%. To a large extent, it is to absolve the nobles from responsibility - after all, selling cannons is a big deal.
As far as Gao Panggang knows, the nobles have done a lot.
It's not that Gao Pragmatic insists on saving them, but saving them means saving the Sea Trade Alliance. Otherwise, although the Sea Trade Alliance will not die this time because of its own relationship, it will definitely be severely cut.
Although this knife will probably hit the heads of the nobles, and it probably has little to do with Gao, but from a long-term perspective, the strength of the nobles cannot be weakened at least for now - otherwise, how can Gao Pragmatic fight against Jiangnan?
Chaebol?
Relying solely on the power of the emperor to suppress them administratively will only make the Jiangnan chaebol temporarily dormant. To lead the chaebol into a healthy development path, it requires high pragmatism and the use of economic means to implement both carrot and stick. In this case, of course, it cannot be achieved before the goal is achieved.
, let the emperor deal with his allies first.
However, after all, Zhu Yijun was still the same Zhu Yijun, the Wanli Emperor who was famous for his "greed for money" in history. As soon as he heard that the reason for selling cannon to Japan was trade, and trade can increase revenue for the national treasury, he suddenly changed his mind.
His attitude changed from a vicious look to "Long live understanding", his expression softened and he said: "So that's the case, then it's...well, it's excusable."
Even so, Zhu Yijun was still a little unhappy and said: "Even if the Japanese have some artillery and their troops are not weak, how can it be that our nine-sided army of one million cannot defeat a mere North Korea - the total Japanese army of 500,000
You can't even ignore your old nest and throw it all into that tiny place, right?"
Gao Jingshi coughed dryly and said: "But we have newly established Mongolia, and we have to keep an eye on these thousands of miles of grassland. Besides, after Tumen escapes to the west, who knows if he will still have the opportunity to establish a foothold in the Western Regions and peek into the Central Plains from the east?"
After all, they were sworn enemies for two hundred years. When Zhu Yijun heard this, he finally calmed down and no longer insisted that entering the DPRK to fight against the Japanese was something that could be easily solved by allocating some troops from Jiubian.
"In your opinion, how can we pacify Bozhou as soon as possible and mobilize financial and military resources from the southern provinces?"
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