From mid-to-late March to early April, the substantive content of government governance was promulgated one after another by the Chongguo Government and Privy Council Orders to Jiangning, the Jianghuai region, and Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Hubei and other places directly controlled by Jiangning.
Gradually lift the veil...
In addition to Song Fu, Lin Mengde, Sun Jingxuan, Hu Zhicheng, Li Shuyi, Liu Shidu, Chen Huazhang and other Privy Council ministers, Lin Xuwen, Hu Wenmu, Fu Qinghe, Liu Zhi, Huang Jinnian, Hu Zhiyong, Ye Junan, Zhang Han, Liang Wenzhan, Li Wei, Lin Jingzhong
The nine people all received the title of political affairs official; in addition, Zhou Guangnan, the manager of Huaidong Bank, Zhou Guangdong, the manager of Blackwater Ocean Shipping Company, Wang Chengfu, the manager of Colonial Bank, and the manager of Nanyang Shipping Company all received the title of political affairs minister, that is,
The 21st Councilor and Political Minister of the Duke's Office.
In addition to the Military Staff Qin Chengzu, Gao Zongting, Sun Jingtang, Yang Yihang, the Forbidden Army Zhou Pu, Zhao Hu, the Jingjiang Navy Ge Cunxiong and the Army High Command School Cao Ziang, there are commanders of all camps, and commanders of all armies and cavalry divisions.
The envoys were all given the rank of military advisor, and became the seventeenth military minister of the Duke's office.
An additional government meeting was set up to allow the councilors to attend the proceedings. In addition to the 22 military counselors and political counselors in Jiangning, there were also 22 people selected from the Lin family, the Privy Council, the Military Staff and the newly established Chongxue Hall.
Eleven people, a total of thirty-three people, joined the council to form a government meeting to decide on new policies and new systems.
The government meeting was placed under the Duke's Office, and above the Military Staff Department and the Privy Council. Lin Tingli resigned from his official positions such as Zuo Fudu Censor to focus on presiding over the government meeting.
There is a Chongxue Hall under the Duke's government. Lin Fu, Jiang Yue, Ge Siyu, and Song Shixian are the bachelors of the Chongxue Hall. Twenty-four people, including Sun Dalu and Wu Jiye, are the bachelors of the Chongxue Hall.
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The government's new policies are gradually coming out, which naturally arouses heated discussions among the people in Jiangning City. In the season of summer in April, people's hearts are getting hotter and uneasy.
The vassal building changed its owners several times, but after Xie Chaozhong was defeated and died, it finally returned to the hands of the Yongchang Marquis Mansion.
It's just that the Yongchang Marquis Mansion has gone through several ups and downs. The old Marquis Yuan returned to power and left Henan, which was the last territory controlled by the imperial party. Yuan Jinqiu, who had a bad relationship with his father for many years, usurped the title. In the past few years, he has been focusing on nothing else but
The management of the vassal building made the vassal building prosperous again in Jiangning City.
Zhao Shuhan and Zhang Yubo climbed up the stairs and heard the scholars in the front hall talking loudly: "Who is Jiang Yue? The nephew-in-law of the former Prime Minister Chen Xinbo. He entered the high school at a young age and joined the Tianjian to supervise the construction of the Armillary Sphere.
, who revolutionized the calendar and was the first person in astronomy in this dynasty. Who was Ge Si Yu? He was a Gongzao official, the son of Ge Fu, the ancestor of craftsmen. He was promoted to the Ministry of Industry in Jiangning, where he supervised the construction and defense of sea dikes and conducted surveys.
He was promoted to Minister of the Ministry of Industry because of his meritorious service. These two people were ranked as bachelors of Chongxueguan. We were convinced. However, this Song Shixian was unknown. How could his reputation be ranked with Jiang and Yue?
"
Zhao Shuhan and Zhang Yubo looked at each other. They did not expect that everyone in the hall would actually argue about the name of Chongxueguan Grand Scholar. They slowed down and continued to listen.
"...If anyone else can be ranked with Jiang and Yue, there is no one else except Zhao Shuhan." Someone else commented in the hall, "I think Zhao Shuhan has been teaching at Hekou Bamboo Hall for ten years.
Confused, without other contributions, how could miscellaneous studies flourish in Jiangning? Without other contributions, how could the Craftsman's Code be compiled? With only the compilation of the Craftsman's Code and ten years of experience, he would be ranked with Jiang and Yue. You
Tell me whether the Duke's government did this unfairly."
When Zhao Shuhan heard these words, he felt mixed emotions and had an overwhelming feeling.
Song Shixian is a little-known person, but Lin Fu ranked him with Jiang Yue and Ge Siyu, so Zhao Shuhan naturally knew him. Speaking of his early years, he was a frustrated junior official in the Jiangning Ministry of Industry.
As far as Zhao Shuhan knew, Song Shixian was firstly proficient in various European and Western studies, and secondly, he created a refining method from the alchemy passed down by the previous dynasty, which attracted Lin Fu's attention. It is said that Huaidong weaving and dyeing used a large amount of green dye and for
The light kerosene burned in the glazed lamp was all his work.
Of course, Song Shixian may have other achievements, but they are all military secrets that are strictly forbidden to be leaked to the outside world by the Privy Council and the Military Department, and are not something Zhao Shuhan can know.
When it was first rumored that Lin Fu would set up a Chongxue Academy, Zhao Shuhan thought that Lin Fu would invite him to join the academy. He also thought about several ways to reject him. He never thought that he and Zhang Yubo would resign, but Lin Fu did not retain him in the end.
He wanted to do so, and the establishment of the Chongxue Hall under the Duke of Chong's Palace had nothing to do with him at all - it was Zhao Shuhan's firm wish years ago to have nothing to do with the Duke of Chong's Palace, but it was really forgotten in the corner.
I couldn't help but feel disappointed in my heart.
After more than twenty years of ups and downs in officialdom, Zhao Shuhan could not get rid of his utilitarian heart. Zhao Shuhan suddenly felt sad, pitiful and heartbroken.
"I was just thinking about Brother Yu, Brother Shu Han is here!" Yuan Jinqiu watched Zhao Shuhan and Zhang Yubo climb the stairs, bowed and saluted, smiled and invited them to go upstairs to the elegant room to drink tea, and met the outside hall.
Staggered, but not so that the discussing gentry would see them and embarrass each other.
Yuan Jinqiu is also an embarrassing figure. He is incompatible with the imperial party, and even had a very antagonistic relationship with his father and brother in his early years. But after all, he is the son of Yuan Guizheng, the lone minister of the imperial family. Those old Yuan Yue ministers and Jiangning scholars who are waiting to see the situation,
For a while, there was no way to integrate into the palace, but he didn't want to have anything to do with the imperial party. Even if he came to the vassal building for a banquet, he didn't want to have too much contact with him, the Marquis of Yongchang.
Zhang Yubo and Zhao Shuhan resigned from their official positions and spent their free time in Jiangning. Neither of them were compatible, so they could only stay together with Yuan Jinqiu. In addition to writing books every day, they would come to the feudal mansion and listen to the gentry discuss current affairs to pass the time.
The Fan Tower is one of the twenty-four places designated by the Xuanzheng Secretary to sell the Xuanzhengdi newspaper in Jiangning. In addition to posting announcements, the Xuanzhengdi newspaper is one of the limited ways for ordinary people and gentry to understand the current situation.
Whenever a new issue of the Xuanzhengdi newspaper is released, the feudal lord's mansion will become a place for discussion among the gentry, and the Xuanzheng Secretary cannot help but do so.
"It was first reported that the Duke's government was going to implement a new policy. Too many people were talking about it, which would lead to disputes. But after seeing all the new policies, it is impossible to change the situation in which the government governs the world's military and government, right?" Yuan Jinqiu was waiting for Zhao Shuhan and Zhang Yubo.
Come over for a small gathering, new tea has been brewed for a long time, and the teapot is filled for the two of them. "But three days ago, the Privy Council issued a new order to reduce or reduce land tax according to the number of acres, which may cause some trouble?"
Zhang Yubo sighed softly and said: "There are many policies issued by the government that violate the old system and innovate. It is indeed contrary to the concepts of the people of the time. But the power of the world is nothing more than wealth and military power. If you have wealth, you can support military equipment, and if you have military equipment, you can
Protect property rights. When Lin Fu first entered Jiangning, he would see these two things more thoroughly than anyone else. With these two, the imperial system and the country can be changed, but the old system and the patriarchal system cannot be changed? Divide a small family into an acre, and practice an acre.
The tax difference law is a good law. If it were implemented in the old days, it might cause big disputes; but it is difficult to cause disputes now!"
The law of dividing the land into acres and implementing the land tax differential was a new tax policy that Lin Fu implemented uniformly across the country after he established the Taxation Department under the Privy Council.
The core of the new tax policy is to allocate the land tax, Ding tax and various capitation assessments currently borne by Ding households into the acres for accounting and unified reduction and exemption.
After a household owns less than 40 acres of land, the land tax payment after dividing the land into acres is reduced to the level before the Qingyu Year. Compared with this time, the burden can be reduced by about two-thirds.
The number of fields owned by a household is between 40 acres and 300 acres. After dividing the land into acres, the land tax payment is reduced to the level before Chongguan 8 years ago. Compared with this time, the burden can be reduced by about half.
If a household owns more than 300 acres of land, the three additional taxes since the early years of Yongxing will be reduced by dividing the land into ten acres, and about a quarter of the burden will be reduced.
However, from now on, all officials, nobles, traders, and soldiers, scholars and scholars, all share their land and pay land tax and city business tax according to the law. They are all obliged to enlist in the army for military service, and all previous exemptions from tax are abolished.
privilege.
After the land tax is divided into acres, the national land tax will form a three-level tax difference. The lowest land tax will be 1 in 20, and the highest land tax will be 1 in 10. The difference is doubled.
Lin Fu also drafted an announcement to the world in the Privy Council Order: "When the bandits invade, the poor will be displaced, and the rich will suffer even more losses, and their situation will be particularly miserable. Therefore, everyone wants to govern, appoint officials, and set up an army to protect the country;
However, the poor do not think about the little they gain and the little they lose. There are so many people who go to the battlefield and throw their heads and blood. How can you see a few rich people on the battlefield? Therefore, this time the tax policy is adjusted, the poor will be exempted from more and the rich will be exempted from less!
"
Based on this, Lin Fu made the final decision and established the new tax policy of assigning people to the fields and implementing a tax differential per acre, so that those without land would not be taxed, those with less land would be taxed less, and those with more acres would be levied more.
The maximum land tax of 1 out of 10 is also the result of frequent tax increases as the war intensified in the late Chongguan period. In any case, this time we can reduce the three increases since Emperor Yongxing came to the throne. Those large landowners who own more than 300 acres of land
If you want to complain, you can only blame Emperor Chongguan, but you cannot blame the Privy Council for not granting them a reduction or exemption at this time.
Of course, Zhao Shuhan, Zhang Yubo and Yuan Jinqiu are all proficient in political affairs. Naturally, they can see at a glance that the new tax policy is intended to curb land annexation. What is even more impactful is that the new tax policy will completely abolish all property rights of clans, nobles and gentry.
tax-free privileges.
Of course, in the past, landowners could pass on newly increased taxes to tenants, and the clan nobles and gentry openly hid their land acres to evade taxes. But this time, Lin Fu used the Taxation Department led by Li Shuyi to
It will take two to three years to thoroughly conduct a thorough inventory of the fields and households in the world.
In the early stages of the Jingxiang Campaign, Lin Fu invited scholars from all over the world to join the army with the promise of replenishing officials. A total of 3,000 scholars joined the army before and after the Jingxiang Campaign. After the Jingxiang Campaign, these 3,000 scholars expressed their merits and were trained in the Agricultural and Political School, and were gradually recruited into the two Zhejiang provinces.
, Eastern Fujian, Jianghuai, Jinghu, Xianghu, Jiangxi and other places as civil servants, but nearly half of the scholars will be directly assigned to the newly established Taxation Department after training to participate in this large-scale inspection of land acres and small households.
Although the complete abolition of tax-exempt service and other privileges is a blow to the entire gentry class, the three thousand scholars hired by the Privy Council this time are a kind of compensation in themselves. Moreover, these scholars who joined the army either themselves
They were passionate young men who were bent on saving the nation, or they were scholars who lived in poverty and had an urgent desire to serve as officials. Therefore, they supported the new tax policy more than they resisted it.
In Jianghuai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hubei and other places, the number of scholars who had only meritorious status, regardless of their clans and honors, numbered as many as 70,000 or 80,000 before the war. If it had been a time when the world was at peace, such a subversive new policy would have been implemented.
The tax policy will inevitably encounter crazy opposition and resistance. However, the Privy Council Order issued three days ago did not cause much commotion in Jiangning City except that the price of Jiangning land increased by more than one-third.
"People's minds are being cured. It has not been two years since the city of Jiangning was destroyed and people were killed. Who wants to experience the city being destroyed and people being killed again?" Zhao Shuhan sighed softly. Curing people's minds is one thing, and he knows better.
, the destruction of Jiangning city severely destroyed Jiangning’s traditional gentry power. Looking from afar, how many places in the world have not experienced war or been devastated?
If there are any objections, apart from those within Huaidong, the imperial party and those old ministers who are waiting and watching for fear of purging Huaidong, how many people dare to stand up and test Huaidong's sword at this time?
Before the New Deal came out frequently, Lin Fu strangled more than 400 war criminals at the entrance of Nancheng at one time, and handed the bodies to the medical hall for dissection in lieu of Ling Chi's punishment. The scene of more than 400 war criminals being strangled together was still quite shocking.
People's hearts, who knows if Lin Fu will use this method on opponents?
If there is any opposition, it can only come from within Huaidong. At present, there are conditions and the ability to annex land on a large scale. Only the people of Huaidong. Once Lin Fu abolishes Yuan Yue and establishes a dynasty, the Lin family and Huaidong generals will become the new
The new tax policy implemented by Lin Fu, the royal family and the noble group, is to not only prohibit the sale of land, but also to strongly suppress the land annexation for the purpose of rent and profit, and to abolish the ability of the Lin family and Huaidong generals to serve as royal family and nobles in the future.
The economic privileges that Xungui Group can enjoy.
Why is there no opposition voice within Huaidong?
Take a look at the directors of Colonial Bank, Huaidong Bank, Nanyang Shipping Company, and Heishui Shipping Company. Together with Song Fu, Lin Mengde, Lin Xuwen and other important Huaidong officials, they are listed as political ministers of the Duke's Office.
After the Battle of Jingxiang, Lin Fu handed over 80,000 of the 140,000 prisoners of war directly to the Nanyang Shipping Company and the Blackwater Shipping Company, who were responsible for exiling them overseas for hard labor. Then he knew that these four companies and
Those emerging factories in Jiangning and Huaidong, as well as the mines scattered in various prefectures and counties that are owned by the government and under the jurisdiction of the Mining Supervision Department of the Privy Council, are the real interests of the people in Huaidong.
The land owned by the Lin family has long been converted into capital for banks, shipyards and many emerging factories; the Song family attached itself to Huaidong and even transferred millions of acres of land to the bank at a discount of 4 million taels of silver.
The same is true for Chen Huazhang and the Chen family of the Xuanzheng Department; the forces that later attached to Huaidong, such as Hu Wenmu and Zhang Han, must also be dealt with according to this example and given certain compensation...
Yuan Jinqiu thought that the New Deal would cause some disputes, because he did not understand Huaidong thoroughly enough. Zhao Shuhan and Zhang Yubo's relationship with Huaidong has been cold and dim over the years. They probably know Zhundong best besides the people in Huaidong.
System people.
The new system of dividing farmers into acres, tax differentials, and tax exemptions for the powerful was actually a step taken by Lin Fu to prevent the Huaidong people from going back to the old ways. This step cannot even be postponed until the Northern Expedition is successful and the new dynasty is established.