After lunch, Zhu Yihai cast out fish in a stream on the island and went fishing.
Yang Boxing led the flag bearers and soldiers to disperse to guard and guard. Song Zhipu, Chen Hanhui, Ke Xiaqing, Yu Dafu, Shen Chenquan and Zhu Yihai's confidants each also lowered their poles.
In the military, everything was kept simple. Bamboo cut on the island was tied with thread, and a reed was used as a buoy. Earthworms dug in the ground were used as bait. The stream was clear, and fish could be seen swimming in the bay.
Calling it fishing is actually just an excuse.
These confidants just wanted to find a place to talk to the supervisor alone.
"During this period, we borrowed more than 600,000 taels of silver from gentry and landlords across Ningshaotai, and raised more than 200,000 taels of silver from donations. Originally, we could collect 300,000 taels of silver from taxes, but His Highness has announced before The overdue payment will be forgiven in full and this year’s tax will be exempted.”
"There is good news. Lu Ruoteng, who was the governor of Fengyang during the reign of Chongzhen and served as governor of Fengyang during the reign of Chongzhen, resigned from office because he was dissatisfied with Ma Shiying and others' theft of power. When Nanjing fell, he was working with Hongguang. Guo Zhenyi, the Inspector-General of Zhejiang Province, is in Wenzhou. Now that I heard that His Highness was supervising the country in Taizhou and raising the flag to fight against the invaders, he collected taxes and raised money. The two prefectures in Wenzhou received 300,000 taels of silver and transported the silver to Taiwan."
Of the three hundred thousand taels of silver, part was collected from taxes collected by the two governments, and part was raised from donations from large merchants.
"His Royal Highness's previous decree of exempting taxes has not yet reached Wen Chu. They have already collected and transported the collected silver and asked Your Highness to dispose of it."
Lu Ruoteng and Guo Zhenyi were able to get so much money. Of course, Zhu Yihai couldn't say anything. He knew that there must be forced donations for the money, but he couldn't blame them now.
It's rare to be so loyal and so capable.
After thinking for a while, he said, "I plan to divide Zhejiang Province into four governors. Hangjiahu in western Zhejiang will have a governor of western Zhejiang, Ningshaotai in eastern Zhejiang will have a governor, Wenchu will have a governor, and Jinquyan will have a governor. .Separate lanes and caress!”
In fact, strictly speaking, the governors, governors and other officials of the Ming Dynasty were dispatches rather than formal official positions. They were originally just imperial envoys, temporary in nature, and would be withdrawn immediately after the work was completed. However, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, they basically became permanent.
Originally, there were one governor for each province, or even one for several provinces. According to different needs, the provinces were divided into patrol roads, guard roads, military preparation roads, grain supervision roads, etc. However, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, they began to be set up indiscriminately. The main reason There are still too many things to do.
For example, at the end of Chongzhen, there were a lot of governors and general soldiers in the capital area of Beijing. There were eight town general soldiers around Beijing alone.
The territory actually controlled by Zhu Yihai is now very small. It is just a land in eastern Zhejiang, which is not very stable. He previously appointed Yu Ying as the governor of Zhejiang, but now he wants to divide Zhejiang into four governors, one of which is still an enemy-occupied area. Jin Quyan and Wen Chu are actually not his real control areas.
The purpose of doing this is essentially to strengthen control.
"Lu Ruoteng was awarded the title of censor of Qiandu and governor of Wenzhou. Guo Zhenyijia supervises the censor and the inspector of Wenzhou. He Junyao, the deputy general of Wenzhou who was originally appointed by Hongguang, was moved to the chief military officer of Wenzhou with the title of Tongzhi."
The fact that Wen Chu could send 300,000 taels of silver so quickly undoubtedly showed their loyalty to Lu Jianguo. Since they were so loyal and supportive, Zhu Yihai naturally had to reciprocate the favor.
The governor, the patrol commander, and the commander-in-chief have officially appointed the three-person leadership team in Wenchu.
He also gave He Junyao a military establishment of 10,000 men, three battalions of the general standard battalion of 3,000 men, and then the deputy commander-in-chief of the Wenzhou assisting defense, the Wenzhou sub-defense staff general, the Chuzhou co-defense staff general, and the guerrilla general. The camp has 7,000 people, and these 10,000 people are officially officers and soldiers and are paid by the Ministry of War.
"Send someone to Wenchu to proclaim the imperial edict, and bring a hundred thousand taels of silver to pay for the troops in Wenchu's camps."
Ten thousand men and horses would get tens of thousands taels of military pay a month. One hundred thousand taels is actually not much. Moreover, Wen Chu had just sent 300,000 taels of silver. If Zhu Yihai sent another 100,000 taels, it would still be money paid by Wen Chu.
But this is completely different since it is done in the name of official military pay.
"Make it clear to Lu Ruoteng, He Junyao and the others that the officers and soldiers will be paid according to the new official military pay. However, due to current financial difficulties, they will all be paid half pay for the time being. However, they must be paid in real terms, and officers at all levels will also be paid according to the new standards.
Give him a corresponding food subsidy. I will give him a quota of 10,000 soldiers and horses, and I hope Wen Chu can train 10,000 capable soldiers!"
"These 100,000 taels are considered as the settlement reward for Wen Chu's soldiers, as well as the military salary for the first three months. As for the follow-up, I will ask the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of War to provide it."
Song Zhipu felt a little distressed. The 300,000 he had just paid was now reduced to 100,000, and he would have to cover the military pay and supplies in the future.
"Your Highness, we are currently facing financial difficulties. Just relying on borrowing money and raising donations may not be a long-term solution. Do you want to re-levy three rates?"
Lao Zhu shook his head.
"The reputation of the three-rate tax is too bad. In addition, when the three-rate tax was imposed before, officials from all over the country took advantage of it, and the people hated it. If the three-rate tax is imposed again, I am afraid that many people will be forced to rebel first."
"But it's hard to raise troops without money." As the chief assistant, Song Zhipu couldn't conjure up money out of thin air.
"Actually, I have been thinking about this issue for a long time. I had some vague ideas in my mind before, but now it has taken shape."
The Ming Dynasty's finances have always been corrupt, forcing Chongzhen to hang himself. If the old tax system is not changed, no matter how hard it is, it can still be turned around.
After all, if you can fight, you must have money to raise troops.
If there is no money to raise troops, then the soldiers under your command will inevitably become robbers and bandits. How can we talk about resisting the captives and driving away the Tartars?
The method Zhu Yihai can think of now is actually to use the method Zeng Guofan used to fight the Taiping Army and collect lijin. The so-called lijin is actually a customs tax.
The Hunan Army set up customs and checkpoints in the areas under their control, and merchants had to pay taxes when passing the checkpoints. Because the tax rate was one percent, which was one percent, it was called Lijin.
Later, Lijin not only set up checkpoints to collect tolls, but also levied them on landowners, shop owners, etc., roughly one in a hundred.
Relying on Lijin, Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army solved the major problem of military expenditure. Coupled with the income from robbery, soliciting donations and other income, the Hunan Army was able to maintain itself and was able to fight more and more, and finally broke through Tianjing and eliminated the Taiping Army.
Zhu Yihai believes that from the Ming Dynasty to the present, all kinds of old taxes have long gone out of shape. Really wealthy landowners, gentry, and businessmen are not taxed. Instead, the poor people bear the main tax, which makes
The tax system is unreasonable.
The poor cannot survive, but they end up having to bear major taxes. As a result, the people go bankrupt and the country is in turmoil. The rich are connected with each other and have rich assets, but they are exempted from taxation.
If we do this, if the country is not in chaos, who will be?
But now that Zhu Yihai has become a ruler, he also has to face the problem of tax collection. According to the traditional method, the result is that the rich will not have to pay, and the poor will not be able to pay.
So what he has been thinking about is to get around the old tax law. Previously, he announced that he would waive the original taxes owed and even waive the taxes payable this year. He understands that ordinary people can no longer afford these taxes. Since they cannot be levied,
, it is also possible that the government will force the people to rebel. With such a huge tax cost, it is better not to levy it.
But the court could not survive without taxation. Money was needed to support officials and soldiers.
"The country is in crisis and the people are in hardship. The purpose of acting righteously is to revive the Ming Dynasty and save the people, not to oppress them. Therefore, the three rates must be abolished, and all old debts must be forgiven. Even the original land, rent, silver, etc. must be abolished.
The levy is suspended.”
"Your Highness, if this is the case, the imperial court will have no tax revenue, so how can it support the army?"
"Lijin!" Zhu Yihai finally put forward his plan, "Set up a Lijin General Bureau under the Ministry of Household Affairs, and each province, highway and prefecture will set up a Lijin Branch, and appoint officials to be responsible for collection."
"Lijin?"
"There are three types of lijin. One is through lijin. Checkpoints are set up at Hejin Pass on the roads in each prefecture and county. All goods passing through the customs will be charged 1% for lijin."
"The second is the lijin of the place of origin. In the place of production, 1% of the lijin is levied on the products produced, such as rice, tea, salt, cloth, etc., which is charged at the rate of one hundred cents, and one liter per rice and stone, which can be levied at the market price in silver.
.”
"The third one is the transaction tax, which is 1% for merchants in stores and shops."
These three types of taxes are completely simplified, and the tax rate is not high, only one percent, but in fact they are all-encompassing.
An output tax is first levied on the place where an item is produced. Those who grow grains are taxed, those who raise silkworms and weave silk are also taxed, and even those who dry salt and make tea are also taxed.
Then merchants have to collect customs duties during the trafficking process. The further the goods are transported back, the higher the customs duties will be.
Finally, there is the transaction tax. Merchants sell in markets and shops, and each transaction is taxed.
One percent may not seem like much, but because the tax collection range is wide and there is basically no threshold, so if you add up, the amount of tax that can be collected is still a lot.
Especially compared to the current tax situation in the late Ming Dynasty, this will be a huge change.
The industrial and commercial taxes in the Ming Dynasty were already low, even so low as to be almost non-existent, and the bureaucrats and gentry enjoyed special privileges and paid almost no taxes.
Just relying on a little money to suck blood from the people is a vicious cycle.
The imperial court's previous levy of three rates, although designed to be levied based on land, actually ended up being basically grafted on to the people.
Zhu Yihai can't say that he will change the Ming Dynasty's tax system or take action against the tax-free privileges of the gentry class, but now he can give it a try by changing the name and using the name of levying gold.
After all, in name, the regular tax is still there, and the privileges of the officials and gentry are still there. Now it is just a new lijin, and the lijin is special and there are no exemptions or exemptions.
In the late Qing Dynasty, Lijin could collect more than 10 million taels a year, and even reached more than 43 million taels at its peak. This shows that this thing is very powerful.
Free of accumulated debts and regular taxes, allowing the people to have a chance to rest and recuperate, and then levy lijin, and even create a new lijin levy system, set up a special lijin bureau, and be led vertically by the Ministry of Household Affairs, changing the past hundreds of years.
The old method of levying taxes on local subordinate officials and large clans will definitely change the corrupt administration.
"Aren't the gentry exempt from exemption?" Song Zhipu asked the key question.
"When the country is in crisis, this amount of money is equivalent to persuading donations. I just hope there is a standard. Merchants are selling goods, and persuading donations of 1% is not an exaggeration, right? Merchants selling goods in the market, persuading donations of 1%, is not an exaggeration."
Is it okay? The landlords’ rice fields, tea gardens, salt fields and even cloth factories, dyeing houses and weaving houses, please donate 1/100, it’s not much, right?”
"In this way, there is a standard to encourage donations, which can be regarded as allowing everyone to donate to save the country without saying that the burden is too heavy. This is not a tax, but a donation, so why are there exemptions? The donation is naturally the Ming Dynasty.
The gentry took the lead in donating first!" Zhu Yihai said seriously.
After hearing this explanation, Song Zhipu and Chen Hanhui could not refute it.
Yes, this is a donation solicitation and not a tax. Where does the exemption come from?
And compared with Zhu Yihai's previous persuasion to donate in Ningbo, Haimen and other places, the current fee is still a standard, and one hundred percent does not sound high, it is still less than directly asking for a donation of five thousand taels and ten thousand taels.
A lot?
Song Zhipu was in awe of the prison country. How could he come up with such a good idea?
"This method is very good. If it is fully implemented, it will not only win the support of the people, but also reduce the dissatisfaction of the big landowners and gentry. It will also get money and food to support the army. Thank you very much!"
Zhu Yihai said in his heart that this was a good method that Zeng Shatou worked hard to find out. It was a magic method that really saved the Manchu Dynasty and extended his life. He was just borrowing it.
"The law of lijin is also a temporary method of last resort. The Ministry of Revenue has set up lijin bureaus in various places to be responsible for collecting lijin. Supervision must be strengthened. If corrupt officials take the opportunity to use it as a corruption tool, it will ruin the reputation of the court and prey on the common people."
"I will draw up regulations and systems immediately after I return. I will definitely strengthen management and supervision. Anyone who dares to reach out will not be treated with mercy."
Zhu Yihai shook his hand, pulled up the fishing rod, and a fish two fingers wide was lifted out of the water, "The fish is hooked!"
"This fish has taken the bait, and Li Yuchun must have taken the bait too." Zhu Yihai said with a smile.
