Everyone originally came to stop the Jianguo from causing chaos in Yanzhou. Especially after they heard that the Jianguo was causing public dissatisfaction in Yanzhou and the gentry were wailing, they all felt that the Jianguo was acting recklessly.
The gentry are the foundation of the imperial court and must be treated favorably. How can we attack the gentry? Otherwise they will become thieves?
At first, the intruders swept the world and broke into Beijing by relying on the slogan "The king of intruders will not pay for his food". However, the gentry who were forced to pay the stolen goods later resisted and even forced Wu Sangui to rebel, leading the Qing army to enter.
Guan Guan, snatched away the throne that Li Zicheng had just taken. Isn't this a lesson learned from the past?
What should we do if all the gentry are forced to surrender to the Tartars?
But who knew that the Supervisor would drop such a heavy issue when he came?
Everyone was speechless.
These problems of the Ming Dynasty have indeed rotted the foundations of the Ming Dynasty. Without Li Zicheng and the Jianzhou Jurchens, others would have overthrown the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty was not defeated by the intruders and Jurchens, but simply by themselves. The intruders and the Tartars just tore off the fig leaf of the Ming Dynasty and exposed everything.
There was silence in the prefect's Yamen.
Although this problem has existed for a long time, it is still somewhat unsolvable.
In fact, it is not that there is no solution, but it involves too much. It can be said that it must involve all aspects of the Ming Dynasty system. Even the cabinet bachelor dare not say that he has such courage.
Think about Zhang Juzheng, how powerful he was back then. The whipping method he implemented was actually not a top-down reform, but some methods that many local governments had already begun to trial after years of exploration. Zhang Juzheng put these trials in various places
Policies are used to summarize, improve and promote.
However, the implementation of the whipping method did not go smoothly. Even Zhang Juzheng was liquidated so miserably after his death. It was not because of these things that any official should not think about this.
Who wants to end up like this?
Furthermore, in the end, these reforms only hurt our own interests, and not many officials have such courage.
So not many people are willing to do such a thankless job.
But today Zhu Yihai said that if we don't reform, the country will be destroyed and the world will be destroyed.
He Tengjiao stood up.
"Your Highness, I believe that the old system has long-standing disadvantages and needs to be reformed to adapt to the situation. However, just like a person who has been ill for a long time and is too weak, using tiger and wolf medicine at this time will not save people, but kill them.
"I heard that His Highness was checking the account books in Yanzhou and ordered the officials to make up for the deficit, even for twenty years. I think it is absolutely impossible. The deficits in various places are not all due to official corruption, and even if there is official corruption,
Yes, not everyone is greedy."
"There are many reasons for the shortfall, and it is unreasonable to put the blame on officials now. Furthermore, by imposing such heavy penalties on those gentry who have evaded taxes and owed taxes, doesn't this mean that they will be forced to rebel by the people?"
"Your Highness, the gentry is the foundation of the country. You cannot chop down the pillars yourself."
"Your Highness, please think twice and take back your order!"
Chen Meng and others also immediately requested to take back their orders.
Zhu Yihai was silent for a while.
"The situation in Yanzhou Prefecture is special, and Gu takes this as a typical example, so the severity will be severe. As long as the other places correct themselves and self-examine, make up for the shortfalls in time, and return the occupied Guantian, military villages and other places, then Gu will not be punished with silver and interest.
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"But it is impossible for Yanzhou Prefecture to change the order overnight. This is what they deserve. I have already been given a lighter sentence, otherwise, I will not be able to escape the fate of being beheaded and ransacked."
This murderous frontal force made the bachelors a little uncomfortable.
But Zhu Yihai really refused to give in.
If you want to open a window, you have to first say that you want to demolish the house, and then he will finally agree to open a window.
Chen Meng once again requested to take back his life.
Zhu Yihai looked at Chen Meng, "How old is Chen Qing this year?"
"Next year will be my sixtieth year."
"Oh, I remember that Chen Qing seemed to have been elected in the 40th year of Wanli. Later, he failed in two examinations and was appointed as the eunuch of Xin'an. In the second year of Tianqi, he passed the examination again and passed the examination. He was selected as a good scholar and served as a reviewer in the Hanlin Academy. In the first year of Chongzhen, he was promoted to the Imperial Academy.
Ye, who was an official of the sixth rank, was tested in Nanji. After being convicted, he was dismissed and settled in Nanjing.
The country was founded in Nanjing, the Sutras were taught and read, the left minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Nandu was destroyed, and he was ordained as a monk in Hangzhou, and later returned to Shengxian County, Shaoxing, where he supervised the country alone and came out to help, right?"
Chen Meng nodded.
His official qualifications are actually average. Although he is about the same age as Ruan Dacheng, Fang Fengnian and others, he only reached the sixth rank in the Chongzhen Dynasty. In the Hongguang Dynasty, he was gilded and became the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. When Zhu Yihai started his business, he came to
He defected to the throne, so he was appointed to the pavilion as Xiangzan.
However, he did not achieve a few practical things in the cabinet, but he made peace with Fang Fengnian and attacked Song Zhipu, the leader and assistant.
Now that he is unable to understand the will of the Supervisory State and still sings the opposite tune at critical moments, there is no point in keeping such a cabinet minister.
"Chen Qing, the current situation is in crisis, with internal and external troubles, what's the use of pretending to be asleep at this time? We must alleviate the people's poverty. The ancestral system has been in use for more than two hundred years, and the world situation is also turned upside down. It must be changed when it needs to be changed."
"If we don't change, the country will be destroyed and the world will be destroyed, so we must fight to the bitter end."
"Chen Qing was afraid of being scolded by the gentry and afraid of taking responsibility, so he went back to continue to be a monk, continued to chant sutras and pray to Buddha, to see if he could save the world, and if he could pretend to be asleep any longer."
Chen Meng was so accused by Zhu Yihai that he had no shame in staying in the court anymore.
He immediately had no choice but to kneel down and resign.
Zhu Yihai also agreed directly without any courtesy, without leaving any scene behind. There was no need to pretend to stay. What was needed now was efficiency rather than false politeness.
"Please allow me to return."
"I'll give you the Imperial Academy's sacrificial wine and be responsible for rebuilding the Imperial Academy in Shaoxing."
Chen Meng hesitated for a moment and accepted the order. Then Zhu Yihai waved his hand and Chen Meng retreated in embarrassment. He was no longer qualified to discuss matters here.
Since Zhu Yihai became the superintendent of the country, he has successively worshiped fourteen cabinet bachelors, but he has already dismissed Fang Fengnian and Chen alliance.
"Everyone, if the people cannot make a living, the country will not survive. The foundation of the Ming Dynasty is not only the gentry, but also the peasants, industry and commerce. They are all the foundation of the people. To oversee the country, we cannot just focus on the gentry and ignore the agriculture, industry and commerce. The palms and backs of the hands are all flesh. We must
The bowl of water is level."
It has reached a point where it is necessary to change, but no one has a clue how to change it.
After all, if it's just a patchwork, it doesn't mean much.
Chen Meng's dismissal once again demonstrated his determination to supervise the country. For a while, the emperor and his ministers were able to concentrate on thinking of ways to solve the problem instead of arguing about whether to do it or not.
"I have an idea."
Seeing that no one said anything, Zhu Yihai had no choice but to continue speaking.
"There were frequent wars between the Tianqi and Chongzhen dynasties, and the Central Plains was in turmoil. Taxes, Yao and Yao services were severely increased, and the burden on the people was very high. Gu planned to use the tax and service records from the Wanli period as the basic basis to collect taxes in various places."
Use the tax and labor records from the Wanli period to collect the current tax, tax and corvee decades later?
Everyone thinks this idea is very strange.
But Zhu Yihai's next words shocked them even more.
"Then the total list of taxes and services for the forty-sixth year of Wanli was used as the number of taxes and services in the first year of Lu Jianguo, and an edict was issued to the world. From then on, no more taxes will be added."
Many of them haven't responded yet.
What does it mean, never add gifts?
Normally, the tax amount is not fixed, but changes, because the number of fields also changes, and even the household registration number also changes.
Zhu Yihai explained it to everyone in detail.
The Wanli period was quite stable, so the tax and service records were relatively comprehensive and well-kept. Compared with the chaos caused by turbulence in various places in recent years, this is a relatively reliable and comprehensive database.
Use it directly, which is relatively reliable and saves time and effort.
As for changes in the past 20 years or so, they are not too big and are acceptable.
What does it mean to never add gifts?
First, take the prefecture as a unit, and based on the tax collection of various local prefectures collected by the imperial court in the forty-sixth year of Wanli, the amount collected per mu at that time will still increase, and any increase in these years will be eliminated.
When the other whipping law was implemented, various corvee services were combined and converted into silver, and then part of them was allocated to the acres, but part of it was still apportioned and collected according to the household.
Zhu Yihai planned to spread all the small amount of silver that Wanli had not spread into the fields in the Wanli whip method into the acres of land, and levy it together with the land tax.
All new corvee and additional payments after the One Whip Law were cancelled, and were no longer levied, such as three wages, donations, etc.
For example, in the past, the land tax in Yanzhou Prefecture was five cents and four cents of silver, and every ding of silver was levied at one cent.
But in fact, in the past few decades, various new assessments have been added, such as the Liao rate plus 1.2 cents per acre, and later the training rate and suppression rate. This is an additional levy from the imperial court, and there are many additional levies from local governments. In total, it has been
It is several times the regular supply.
The same is true for the people's dingyin. Originally, the corvee was combined and converted into silver, and part of it was allocated to the land tax. The rest was levied according to dings. Each ding in Yanzhou Prefecture was one cent of silver per year. But now, it is several taels of silver, which has increased dozens of times.
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Now Zhu Yihai said that the land tax should be levied according to the silver standard of the 46th year of Wanli, that is, 5 cents and 4 silver per acre.
One silver coin per ding fixed the total number of dings in the whole prefecture in the 46th year of Wanli. The total ding silver was calculated based on one coin per ding, and was fully apportioned to all the acres in Yanzhou Prefecture.
With the land and Ding united into one, there will no longer be a separate poll tax like Ding Yin.
For example, if Yanzhou Prefecture has 300,000 ding and one million acres of land, then 30,000 taels of silver will be paid into the land tax, and each mu will be paid three cents of silver. The land ding combined into one is eighty-nine cents of silver per mu, plus
The fire consumption of 10% and 20% is equivalent to almost one silver per acre.
After saying this, Liu Zongzhou and others understood it.
It's not as surprising as I imagined. The words "never add a blessing" are very shocking, but if you look closely, nothing seems to have changed?
"Your Highness, isn't this transferring Ding Yin into land tax and imposing additional taxes on the landlords?"
"I know this too well, but it makes more sense to divide the family into a single family."
A whipping technique during the Wanli period only used part of the Ding silver.
Now that most people have become landless, Ding Yin's burden on them is much higher than that of landowners.
Essentially, the tax was collected from the fields and turned over to the court.
For servicemen, mainly local errands, etc., the money should be exchanged for service, and this money should be kept in the local area for use.
Tian Fu and Ding Yin are supposed to be fixed, but in fact the Ming Dynasty was quite casual in this aspect, and all kinds of additions were very arbitrary. The court added, the locals added, and every year they called for more taxes every year.
There was even a whip that had just merged various tax deductions and levies, but a few years later, it turned around and re-introduced separate levies for the merged ones, and there were even many different additional levies in various places.
The water here is too muddy, so people everywhere are basically suffering from corvee labor. Originally, the south was heavy in taxes and the labor was light, and the north was heavy in labor and light in taxes. But by the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was already a mess. Both the north and the south were in dire straits.
"The key to reforming the tax and servitude system is to cut through the mess quickly, fix taxes, spread the taxes among the people, and never increase taxes."
As soon as these words came out, the senior ministers were deeply shocked.
In the past, whether it was the imperial court or local governments, their finances were in a mess. Every time they did something, they would impose additional taxes and apportionments. This has always been the case.
Never give more gifts, what will you do if you have no money in the future?
When it comes to building palaces, rivers, cities, or even fighting wars, if you don’t have enough money, why don’t you allocate additional taxes?
As for the amount of taxes per mu, it is not that important. The key is the total amount of taxes. If we only levy the amount for the forty-sixth year of Wanli and abolish all the taxes that have been increased in the past thirty years, how can we make up for the financial gap?
The three rates collected together amounted to twenty million taels of silver.
Is it enough to rely on only one penny per acre of land and the amount of money consumed by fire?
