On the land of Qilu, the sun and moon flags were raised high, and the Ming army advanced in many directions and surrounded the cities of Xu, Yan, Dongchang, Jining, and Jinan.
In this battle, the five armies of the imperial camp headquarters, except for the four towns where the former army was stationed in eastern Liaoning and western Liaoning, the remaining four armies and the two towns in the Beijing camp were basically mobilized.
Even the emperor arrived at the iron city of Zichuan quietly.
The emperor asked the Beijing camp Fengtian Town to stay in Tokyo, and he led Jinwu, Yulin, and Qianniu to station in Zichuan. There was Yongwei Town to the north and Zhongsu Town to the south.
After Zhu Yihai entered Zichuan, the three towns of Yuying quickly sealed off all sides.
The emperor is quite calm. This autumn offensive is a strategic counterattack that Shao Tianchao has been preparing for two years. However, after preparing for so long, everything that needs to be prepared has been prepared. The early advance is also very good. The Tatar Shandong defenders are basically
Not daring to accept the challenge, they retreated again and again. It was obvious that they were going to defend the fortified city and fight to the end.
Zhu Yihai also summoned local gentry, common people, and industrial and commercial representatives to visit Banyang Academy. Zichuan City was suddenly famous across the country under the headline report of Fuxing Daily. The Beijing News and other major newspapers followed suit.
Promote this place as a righteous hometown and a good place.
However, after walking around in person, I found that things are really going well here. The place is peaceful and peaceful, and the industry and commerce are quite dynamic.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the four people live happily.
Even if the army crossed the border and entered the country, it did not disrupt local order or disrupt people's lives, especially since prices were relatively stable and supplies were sufficient.
There are more than a thousand students in Banyang Academy.
The cross streets in the city are very lively, the official roads, and the merchants on the docks are constantly coming and going. In the official warehouses, there are the original colors of the land tax that have just been collected, and in the bank vaults, there are the collected silver coins.
The grain depots in counties and townships contain grain purchased collectively.
New warehouses have also been built in each township. Although Gu Xianshou is a member of the Donglin Party and likes to engage in party disputes, he still has pragmatic abilities. In other words, the county government team that came with him from Fengtian is not bad. Zhu Yihai ordered the abolition at the beginning of the year.
This is the tradition of officials recruiting and appointing their own master's staff.
Instead, new official positions were established in yamen at all levels to replace these masters, and they were converted from private staff to state officials.
When Gu Xian received this county magistrate, he did not bring his masters such as Xing Ming, Qian Gu, Shu Qi, etc., because the imperial court assigned him several officials as section chiefs, who were responsible for Xing Ming, Qian Gu, etc., which belonged to the ninth rank, and were managed by private individuals.
Staff members were transferred to public service.
It turns out that since the Ming Dynasty, the group of masters has been an important source of corruption in government officials. There are many inferior ones, good ones and few, who use their power for personal gain and dominate.
It is said among the people that there are three elders in the yamen: the old official, the old minister, and the old assistant.
It is a huge burden for an official to hire several masters. The masters are just the official's personal staff. The court cannot restrain them, but they can act on behalf of the official and do whatever they want.
To put it bluntly, these masters in the Ming Dynasty were similar to the eunuch slaves of the Ming Emperor. Whatever problems the eunuchs had, they also had problems with the masters.
The master directly represents the officials, so in a county government, no one cares about the county magistrate's master.
Now under the New Deal, the master class has been abolished, and the imperial court has set up criminal names, Qiangu and other general cases in each government office. Each department has appointed people as section chiefs. Official officials with official salaries from the imperial court are not only bound by national laws and disciplines, but also subject to the supervision of performance examinations.
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On the other hand, Zhu Yihai was also promoting the separation of the judiciary. He established a director of justice in the province, and set up local bureaus below. The court was responsible for the trial of litigation. At the same time, he also set up a judicial school in the capital to build accelerated courses to train students.
The establishment of a law firm will recruit and train new types of judicial talents.
Accounting and other professional schools have even been established to train these specialized financial and accounting officials to enrich local tax bureaus, audit bureaus, etc.
When Gu Xianshou came to Zichuan to take office, the entire team was assembled, including the county magistrate, county magistrate, chief registrar, and edict and canon officials.
According to convention, Gu Xianshou was the chief official, and the county magistrate and chief registrar were the second assistant officials. They were in charge of food, water conservancy, river defense, etc., and they also had their own yamen, which worked in separate yamen.
The county magistrate is of the eighth rank, and the chief administrator is of the ninth rank.
The eighth rank of Jiaoyu is an academic official, specializing in education and county schools.
There are also some miscellaneous positions in the county, such as inspection of the inspection department, post manager of the post station, ambassador of the warehouse, deputy envoy of the Hebo Office, deputy envoy of the batch inspection office, etc.
Each of the miscellaneous jobs has its own specialties, but they are all under the leadership of the official.
There are also some miscellaneous positions that do not even receive a salary, such as medical officers, Onmyoji, Sengzhengsihui, Daozhengsihui, etc. They have official status and are specialized technical personnel who need to make a living by relying on their professional expertise.
The county government office is responsible for the official affairs, and it has six rooms. In fact, there are more than six rooms, and there is also a reception room and a cabinet storehouse that are even in front of the sixth room.
The status of officials is not high, but they have great authority in the yamen.
The county government has a large group of servants. In large counties, there are thousands or even thousands of people. They are divided into two parts. One part is the third class, the strong class, the soap class, and the fast class. The other part is the county magistrate's service.
, can be subdivided into seven departments, sending and receiving, following, accounting, preliminary drafts, final drafts, shift management, and duty.
In addition, there are Kuzi, Canglao, Douchi, Menzi, Jizi, cook and waiter, etc.
Although a county government is not big, it is still small but has all the internal organs. The number of various officials and subordinates is staggering. Their wages and expenses are actually the largest financial expenditures in ancient times.
After the land tax collected by the local government was transferred, the retained land was often not enough to cover expenses, so various additional apportionments had to be made.
When Gu Xianshou took office, he brought several high-ranking officials with him. He even brought some unpaid miscellaneous officials, including a few professional unpaid medical officers, monks, and the like.
Didn't bring it.
The official of the Dian, the clerk of Liufang, Xing Ming, and the chief of Qiangu's case section also brought them.
It can be said that the entire Zichuan County government office has basically been completely replaced. Even the head of the third shift, the sixth-room book office, etc. have been re-evaluated and many people have been replaced.
Gu Xianshou was able to achieve astonishing results in such a short period of time in Zichuan. In fact, in addition to the great external environment, it was also due to his new team.
Generally, county magistrates are new to the country, many of them are inexperienced, and they have to deal with the cunning local subordinates, so they are often deceived by them. The subordinate officials collude with the local powerful, and the county magistrate is just a decoration.
They are not familiar with the business and often have to rely on their masters. Some officials even have to be hoodwinked by their masters.
Therefore, after taking office, he may not have been in office for more than a year and a half, and he may not even know the details of the county.
But now that he was appointed by the entire team, and with the support of the imperial camp, and Xie Qian helped him kill people and exterminate clans to establish his authority, it was very easy for Gu Xianshou to do anything. The details of the entire county were already clear, and the gentry had all paid
The officials made up for the accumulated debts, so that they would have food and money in their hands, and they would not have to worry about anything.
Zhu Yihai inspected Zichuan City. The city walls had been repaired, the moat had been dredged, and even the trees on the streets had been pruned. Many new public toilets had been built in the city.
The training of Baojia has also been implemented very well. Every household has one A, and every ten A has one brand. All household registration information is clearly registered on the brand. The three classes in the county are also very neat and energetic.
During this time of war, not a single beggar or refugee was seen outside the city of Zichuan, and there were no homeless shelters. They were all resettled and separated.
There are no barren fields or dilapidated villages outside the city. Everything is orderly and full of vitality.
There are even more mines in the mountains, and the workshop business is more prosperous. It is hard to imagine that not long ago this was an actual border, or even a clearance zone.
The local gentry and powerful landowners were frightened when summoned by the emperor. As a result, the emperor was very enthusiastic towards them and publicly praised their righteous deeds. He also tested the talents and learning of some gentry and their children on the spot, and greatly praised several of them.
Zhang Erniu, a small farmer, was also received by the emperor as a farmer representative. He and more than a hundred farmers, tenants, traders, craftsmen, clerks, etc. paid homage to the emperor. The emperor gave them tea and snacks and chatted with them all morning.
Asked many questions.
Zhang Erniu was both excited and nervous at his age, but when faced with the emperor's roll call questions, although he stuttered, he still said everything he could think of. The emperor even took a pen to take notes and gave them to him one by one.
reply.
The question raised by Zhang Erniu is actually of concern to all farmers. It is the current tax of two bushels per mu, and then another two liters per mu, plus two liters and two combined fire consumption. Is this a permanent system?
Is it really true to add children and never add gifts?
Is it true that there will no longer be assessments and these taxes will be added?
"Yes, the number of people increases, but we will never increase the tax. I, Zhu Yihai, have issued a custom order. The land tax, Ding Yin, and fire consumption will always be the same number. There will be no additional Ding servants, Ding Yin, or additional ones.
Recruit these."
Zhang Erniu's face turned red and he was as excited as when he got married. "But if the county doesn't have enough money to do things, such as building rivers or roads, or the county police officers don't have enough money for food and work, or the minister doesn't have enough money, the county inn
If the reception expenses are not enough and the money for raising horses is not enough, why don’t we add more taxes and apportionments?”
"I can tell Old Man Zhang that customization is customization. From now on, the farmers' burden will be just this, and there will never be any more. If the court's expenditure is not enough, or the local expenditure is not enough, no matter what projects need to be built, or the minister's money is not enough, we will not pay any more.
Farmers send extra money.”
"What should we do if it's not enough?" Zhang Erniu asked everyone's thoughts. The court has no money and the government has no money. Who can raise taxes unlike the common people?
Zhu Yihai smiled and told everyone that farmers' income is limited, and the current tax per mu is two dou, four liters and two combined. Although it is said that the tax acres are converted, the upper, middle and lower fields, and various large and small acres, are all converted into standard tax acres.
To levy taxes, there will not be a situation where good land and bad land have the same tax rate. For good land, three shi per mu will be charged at two dou, four liters and two, and for poor land, eight dou will be charged, and two dou, four liters and two liters will be charged.
The current tax rate, under normal harvest conditions, is about one per ten tax, or even one per twelve or three tax. In Zhu Yihai's view, this tax rate is actually not low.
In the early Ming Dynasty, Taizu's customs generally imposed a tax of 30 yen on farmers, which was only a few liters of grain per acre. However, compared to now, the previous 30 yen tax was actually only part of the burden. The bulk of it was labor, and there were also many additional taxes.
, so by the Chongzhen Dynasty, the actual burden of many farmers had reached 40 to 50%, and they would not be able to survive in the event of a famine, especially since they had to bear joint and several taxes. If others fled the famine, you had to make up for them.
Now Zhu Yihai said that no matter what the situation, farmers will only be taxed two dou, four liters and two per acre of land, which is still a tax per mu.
Everyone really couldn't believe it.
"The imperial court will fix agricultural taxes and fixed land tenure to ensure that farmers' burdens are not high and they can have food and clothing. As for national expenditures and local expenditures, there will also be industrial and commercial taxes, special taxes on salt, tea, tobacco, wine, and minerals, customs taxes, and donations.
To supplement, the country even supplements with fiscal revenue from handicrafts, trade, and purchases.
If there are some emergencies, such as an additional increase in war and military expenditures or major disasters and epidemics, the court can also issue bonds to raise funds from the private sector and borrow debts with interest. After the situation improves, the principal and interest can be repaid slowly."
There will even be other taxes added in the future, such as vehicle and vessel tax, resource tax, property tax, etc. Just like the current land deed tax, there are many taxes that can be levied, provided they are reasonable.
To reduce agricultural taxes, especially to abolish the head tax, taxes must be levied on assets, transactions, income, etc.
It is simple and convenient to only focus on farmers and levy taxes on a per-acre basis, but it is actually extremely unreasonable. If you want to collect more and more reasonable taxes, you have to focus on industry, commerce, resources and other places.
If it doesn't work, you can still issue bonds. Reasonable bond issuance is actually very necessary. Every country in the future will issue bonds.
What's more, in addition to tax collection, the state also has other sources of revenue, such as selling land and minerals, and state operating income.
Zhang Erniu and other old farmers did not understand this, but when they received the emperor's personal assurance that farmers would only acquire so much land for farming in the future, they all smiled happily.
Although they may not fully believe it, they believe that this policy may not change for at least one day when the emperor reigns. Maybe when the new emperor succeeds to the throne in the future, new policies will be issued. But seeing that the emperor is so young, how can he still do it?
If they can live another thirty or forty years, then they will have another thirty or forty years of good life.
Zhang Erniu even secretly thought that it would be great if the emperor could live to be a hundred years old, so that the farmers could live a good life for sixty or seventy years.
