In the former Denglai Governor's Yamen, Liu Chao, the Superintendent of Ceremonies, led a group of eunuchs to greet the ministers.
Zhu Yihai was blowing the wind in the distant attic while watching these important ministers enter, including the cabinet bachelors, the co-sponsored bachelors, the six ministers, the minister, the admonishment court, the dean of the Metropolitan Inspectorate, and the thirteen ministers.
The Taoist censors, the Xiedao censors, and the six departments all gave their palm seals to Shizhong, and the left and right handprints were given to Shizhong. The general envoy, the minister of Dali Temple, the Yin of Fengtian Prefecture, the governor of the Beijing camp, the admiral of the imperial camp, etc. filed in.
Looking at these important officials, Zhu Yihai felt as if he was holding a company meeting.
The Ming Dynasty company was listed on the market through a backdoor, and the eunuchs such as Liu Chao and the Royal Horse Supervisor were equivalent to him as the secretary to the board of directors, assistant to the president, etc.
Song Zhipu, the first assistant, is the executive vice president of the company, followed by directors of various departments, general managers of branches such as Shandong, Liaodong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, directors of several major sales regions, etc.
Overall, although the company Daming has existed for a long time, he almost started his business all over again, just using this shell. And now, the structure of the entire company is actually completely different from the original Daming company.
In the cabinet led by Vice President Song Zhipu, the bachelors no longer serve as directors of various departments, but each is in charge of one department. The Director of Ceremonies is the secretary to the board of directors, who is not only responsible for taking care of the daily life of the chairman, but also mainly responsible for internal affairs.
Audit.
In addition to the president's management team, there is also a board of directors, which is the Prime Minister's Office.
Of course, the most important thing is the company's elite sales team, that is, the imperial camp was established and brought out by the emperor. Now it is firmly in the hands of the chairman, the district directors, and the town admirals.
The generals are directly responsible to him.
Not to mention the Admonition Yuan, which is responsible for auditing and supervision, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate are also directly responsible to him.
As the founder of the company, he is completely above the entire company. No matter which team it is, it cannot compete with him as the founder.
However, as the company grows larger and the team becomes larger, the management needs more and more systems.
Today's company meeting will also focus on solving these problems.
Liu Chao, the eunuch in charge of the ceremony, came to ask the emperor for instructions, "Your Majesty, all the ministers who were ordered to participate in the court meeting have arrived, and there are no absent ones."
"Well, let's go."
When Zhu Yihai arrived at the hall, Song Zhipu, the first assistant, quickly took the lead and stood up to greet him.
Today, the nominal head of the imperial court is still the chief minister of the cabinet.
The Prime Minister's Office is still only a temporary office, not a formal government agency, and all the prime ministers and ministers are assigned part-time jobs by the agencies.
Therefore, in formal situations, the cabinet still controls all officials in the court, while the Supervisor of Ceremonies assists the emperor in approving red papers and serves as the emperor's private secretariat.
Because the cabinet minister no longer holds the post of the six ministers, the status of the six ministers has declined. After all, in the past, the chief assistant was also the official or the minister of rites, and the two positions were bundled together. But now the six ministers no longer hold the concurrent position.
It is just a ministerial document and is subject to the leadership of the cabinet.
In the lobby of the former governor's office, a dragon chair was placed, with an upright and bright plaque hanging high behind it.
Zhu Yihai wore a black dragon robe today, which was more casual and light.
The First Assistant Foreign Minister Song Zhipuyin's cabinet, six ministers and other ministers, the internal minister Liu Chaoli, the five eunuchs with pens, as well as the eunuchs of the imperial horse, the admiral of Dongchang, the commander of the Jinyiwei, the governor of the Beijing camp, and several admirals of the imperial camp,
The governor of Shuntian, as well as the governor of Liaodong and Shandong among the foreign ministers, paid homage to the emperor.
Officials from the Admonition Yuan, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the General Administration Department, and the Dali Temple yamen stood at the door.
Zhu Yihai sat down.
"My lords, please be safe. I won't talk too much. I specially convened this court meeting today because it is urgently needed. It has been more than a year since I raised the army. I have been away leading troops all year round and I have no time for many things.
Please discuss this carefully with your Majesty.
Today, let’s discuss it together.
Let’s talk about the finances first. The troops and horses have not been moved yet, and food and grass go first. Now our Ming Dynasty has stabilized the situation, and the situation is pretty good. However, the military expenditures are huge due to the use of troops in various places, and disaster relief in various places is also asking for money and food. I have been doing this frequently recently.
I heard many voices about how to distribute fiscal revenue. Some people said that the military salary in the imperial camp was too high, others said that officials should not be provided with honest money, and some said that military attachés should not have relatives and famous food.
Some people say that local taxes are paid too much, and others say that there should not be a separate tax department to collect industrial and commercial taxes.
There were many opinions and discussions.
Let's have a good discussion today. What areas of the new tax policy still need improvement? How should we allocate the collected money? Let's pick up the pieces and make up for the shortcomings. Let's talk about it carefully and in depth to solve the problem.
!”
Liu Chao, the eunuch in charge of the ceremonial department, stood up and began presiding over the meeting. In the late Ming dynasties, the eunuch in charge of rites even overpowered the cabinet. With his power of approving the emperor, he became a well-deserved inner dynasty, and his eunuch in charge was even called the internal minister.
But now in the Shaotian Dynasty, the Chief of Ceremonies is no longer what it used to be. It is basically Zhu Yihai's secretariat, or the chairman's office.
"The Ministry of Household Affairs is in charge of finance. The Ministry of Household Affairs can summarize and report the general revenue and expenditure information for more than a year, and then talk about the main expenditures now. Everyone will have a bottom line." Liu Chao stood there.
, bowing slightly, this former companion of Zhu Yihai, even though he is now the number one eunuch, is still very cautious. "Shang Shu Ruan, what do you think?"
"I have only been in charge of the Household Department for a short period of time, but I have worked overtime these days to sort out the Household Department's files. I can still give a general explanation." Ruan Dacheng stood up to answer the question.
After Shen Tingyang, the former Minister of Household Affairs, became the governor and governor of Liaodong, Zhu Yihai chose Ruan Dacheng to take over the important position of Minister of Household Affairs.
Ruan Dacheng did a very good job as governor of Zhejiang. This time he entered the court as Minister of Household Affairs and Cabinet Co-organizer with a bachelor's degree. He even went to the Prime Minister's Office on a special trip.
This man was classified as an eunuch by Donglin during the Chongzhen period of Tianqi, and then became a traitor in the Hongguang Dynasty. Now he has become a capable official in the eyes of the emperor. He is deeply trusted, and the emperor even married his daughter and niece.
Entering the palace can be said to be a tumbler in the political arena.
"Relying on the saint's great kindness and the unity of the civil and military officials and the people, we have passed through the most difficult days, and the days are getting better and better," Ruan Dacheng came up and flattered the emperor calmly, and then made a decision
It's a good tune now.
"I won't talk about last year's situation. The saint took us through the life-and-death crisis caused by landslides and landslides. Let's talk about this year."
"This year we not only completely drove the Tatars across the Yangtze River and restored all the land south of the Yangtze River, but we also captured Huainan, half of Shandong, and a new half of Liaodong,"
"The imperial camp now has more than 120,000 soldiers in the 21st town of Shuimabu. It has also expanded the Shaanxi-Gansu camp, the Sichuan-Guizhou camp, the Huguang camp, the Fujian camp, and the Sixing camp with more than 30,000 soldiers.
In addition, we have three towns in the Beijing camp, and provincial camps in various places are also being reorganized one after another..."
"Of course, the war has not stopped this year. The three armies here have made a Northern Expedition, going straight into Huainan, Shandong, and Liaodong. In addition, Fujian and Lingnan troops have crossed the sea to conquer Taiwan to encircle the Dutch. Guangxi, Sichuan and Guizhou have sent troops to conquer the chieftain rebellion in Yunnan, and Hunan and Jiangxi are fighting against Huguang and Henan.
Qing army.
Sichuan soldiers and horses are also preventing the Qing army from entering Sichuan..."
"The Tatars moved the sea order and abandoned the Huai order. It has even been confirmed that in order to prevent Shandong uprising, they diverted the Yellow River and diverted it. Three provinces, ten prefectures and 47 prefectures and counties suffered heavy floods, which caused serious consequences.
Great Famine in the Central Plains.
But even if the situation is like this, we not only hold on, but under the protection of the saints, we strive for victory steadily and fight back with all our strength. Since this year, we have not only stabilized the south, stabilized the southeast, stabilized the southwest, and even provided relief and received a large number of people from the Central Plains
refugee.
The Central Plains and the South are now in a world of ice and fire. In the areas controlled by the Tatars, people are in dire straits, famine and epidemics are rampant, and human lives are like grass. People everywhere are dying of hunger, disease, and war and famine.
But in our areas where the Ming Dynasty recovered, this kind of situation is very rare, especially in the southeastern region, it is basically non-existent. Although food prices are still on the high side, they are generally under control."
Ruan Dacheng's opening remarks were still a bit too flattering, but most of what he said was true.
In order to prevent people from starving to death, the imperial court paid a huge price, spending a huge amount of money, food, and even manpower and material resources. This is why some officials believe that they should not spend money like this just to prevent people from starving to death. Especially today's money,
In fact, most of them were extracted from the gentry, landlords, and wealthy merchants.
As the situation gradually stabilized, many people began to try to return to the tax system of Jiajing, Wanli, and even the Apocalypse and Chongzhen era. It would even be best if the gentry were completely exempted from taxation. Now the rich gentry pay too much tax, and then the money is huge.
Subsidies are given to poor people, even beggars and homeless people, which arouses their dissatisfaction.
The tax reform that originated in eastern Zhejiang has not only been implemented very well in Zhejiang, but has also been basically implemented in Jiangnan after the war. Even in Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi, the imperial court also implemented reforms to Zheng, Ding Kuichu, etc.
Suppression was carried out on local mountaintops, and after adjustments, roads began to open up, and are gradually deepening.
Even Hunan, Sichuan, Guizhou, and even now Shandong, Liaodong and other newly controlled areas are also fully implementing these new tax laws.
The New Deal was spreading across the country, including the sharing of land between farmers, the return of firepower to the public, the payment of grain by the gentry as a whole, industrial and commercial taxes, customs duties, levies, monopoly on salt, tea, wine and cigarettes, etc., and these reforms were all under the control of imperial and provincial governments.
The military guarantees it.
The difference in tax revenue before and after is huge. Just like the previous tea tax in Zhejiang has almost disappeared, but under the new tax law, tea is a special tax. This year’s tea tax in Zhejiang alone has only been collected for more than half a year.
It’s more than 200,000 taels, not counting the tariffs on tea exported overseas.
The same goes for salt. There are salt farms in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong, and the salt output is also very high. However, in the past, the salt tax was not much. A large amount of salt tax was evaded. Zhu Yihai changed the previous salt law in the salt area, and the democratic government collected taxes.
Restrictions were relaxed on commercial traders and anti-smuggling measures were strengthened, but the salt tax was immediately increased several times.
Not to mention that in the past, industrial and commercial taxes, customs duties, and even deed taxes did not account for a small proportion of taxes. All tax revenue came from land tax and silver, and these mainly fell on the heads of ordinary poor people.
Now after the adjustment, the burden of ordinary people, especially the landless poor, has been greatly reduced. Various places are still reducing rents and interest rates to protect tenants. Landlords and businessmen have been taxed, but there is evidence.
According to this, the tax rate burden is within a reasonable range.
Therefore, the current tax revenue is more than ten times that of the past, but the problem is that there is no such situation as before where the people were unable to make a living due to excessive taxation.
In the past, I stared at a thin sheep and tried to pluck it, while the other fat sheep did not move. Now, the fat sheep are plucked more, and the thin ones are plucked as little as possible. In this way, when the cold wind comes, the sheep still have enough energy.
Hair protects against cold.
Of course, there were previous internal and external troubles, such as in Zhejiang, when the Tatars went south and marched to the city. Many officials and gentry even surrendered, and the Tatars shaved their heads, collected taxes, and even paid donations. Then rebels broke out everywhere, bandits and bandits emerged, and there was such turmoil that even the slaves were
They took the opportunity to unite and kill the landowners for their rebellion.
Under such circumstances, Zhu Yihai raised troops and told the captured prefectures and counties that they would divide the land into acres, levy industrial and commercial taxes, set up tax cuts, and require the gentry to pay the grain as one body. The gentry were willing, because Zhu Yihai guaranteed
Their lives and property are safe, and even if they spend a little money and food, they will actually pay less than during the turmoil.
If you don't pay, you may be robbed by force. It is also possible that after Zhu Yihai left, the Tatars or bandits came over and ransacked the house again. Everyone also hoped to support Zhu Yihai to revive the Ming Dynasty and continue to protect their status as gentry or officials, as well as their property.
It's forced by the situation.
But now the situation is getting better and better. The Tatars have been completely driven away, across the Yangtze River, and may even be driven back outside the customs. Then everyone is less willing to continue to pay money and food like this.
Why can a rotten soldier get four to five taels of silver a month?
Guan Ningjun was not treated so well before.
A battalion officer in charge of five hundred soldiers actually gets fifty taels of pay a month and one hundred and fifty taels of ministerial silver?
In the past, a county official only earned a few dozen taels of silver a year!
There are more and more voices like this, and they are even forming public opinion.
So today Zhu Yihai specially convened a court meeting and also discussed finance first, which was actually for this purpose.
"The previous expenditures and other accounts have all been reconciled, so there is no problem. The key now is the next expenditure. If you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are, your Majesty also had a decree before, asking the Ministry of Accounts to make a budget for the fourth quarter of this year. This will also
Good measure distribution.
There are many places where money is used. Although the financial income is not bad now, we still have to be careful. It is August now. In the last three months of the fourth quarter, there are still many places where money is used. Our household department will make a preliminary plan first.
, live within your means, and then ask His Majesty and the Cabinet to review it."
Ruan Dacheng did not say much about the income situation, but directly turned to the expenditure budget.
When we talk about income, we will definitely discuss whether we should collect so much and whether we should return to the past. Ruan Dacheng will not give them this start.
Liu Chao answered, "How did you prepare the funding budget for the fourth quarter of Shaotian's second year?"
