Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1424, paying taxes is glorious

In the early morning of the next day, accompanied by the cold wind of early spring, newsboys carrying newspapers full of newspapers were walking in the streets and alleys of the capital, shouting loudly as they walked.

"Sell newspaper~sell newspaper!"

"Taxes are collected from the people and used for the people. Taxation is the way for everyone to show loyalty and filial piety to the Son of Heaven and the Ming Empire. It is the duty of every citizen!"

"Paying taxes is an honor, tax evasion and tax evasion are shameful, resisting taxes by force seriously violates the laws of the Ming Dynasty, and the whole family will be exiled for thousands of miles!"

"The tax collected by the imperial court, the main details reflect that the tax is collected from the people and used for the people. Only when the imperial court has money in its hands can it arm a powerful army and expand its territory to the outside world, instead of letting others insult."

"Only when the imperial court has money in their hands can they organize large-scale infrastructure construction, build roads, railways, ports, dams, reservoirs, dredge silted rivers, facilitate transportation, prevent floods and store water, increase employment, and promote the prosperity of Ming Dynasty."

"With money in the hands of the imperial court, it is possible to vigorously build schools and hospitals, so that more children can receive cheap education and more people can enjoy better medical services."

"..."

With the yelling of the newsboy, the entire Beijing-Tianjin area began to wake up gradually, and a large number of people came out from every corner, and quickly bought the newspapers in the hands of the newsboy.

What happened in the court yesterday has already been spread in the capital, and all the young and old in the capital are waiting for the newspaper to report on it, so as to know the details of what happened yesterday.

A good morning turned into a vegetable market. There was a heated discussion between the two sides on whether to levy commercial taxes and whether to abolish the tax office.

At the same time, this incident also involved the attack on the tax office by someone from Nanzhili, which is interesting to watch.

For the young and old in the capital, these are things that need to be clarified, otherwise you won’t know anything when you sit down, and you won’t have anything to talk about.

In a teahouse in the capital, many talented tea drinkers read newspapers while having morning tea, and at the same time quietly listening to the newspaper reader explaining today's newspaper.

"Everyone, today's newspaper reveals a lot of information~"

"The first thing we have to think about is the matter that I and everyone have lived together a few days ago when the big officials from Xinjiang went to Beijing to report on their duties."

"One of the most important things is the dismissal of Feng Shiyong, the governor of Nanzhili."

"Where is Nanzhili?"

"It has always been the most important taxation place in my Ming Dynasty, and it is the most fertile area in my Ming Dynasty."

"At the same time, since ancient times, Nanzhili has produced many talented scholars and beauties. When it is said that half of the court is in the south of the Yangtze River, it means that more than half of the officials in the entire court are from the Jiangnan area."

"The position of Nanzhili chief envoy is a second-rank official position, and it is an important position with real power, and it is such a fat vacancy in Jiangnan."

Mr. Newspaper Reader paused slightly at this point, took a sip of tea, sorted out his thoughts, and continued.

"The reason why Feng Shiyong was dismissed was mainly because he didn't know anything about the situation in Nanzhili during the debriefing meeting, and at the same time he criticized the imperial court's assessment system."

"In addition, the development of Southern Zhili has been slow over the years, and it has been caught up by Northern Zhili. Last year, Northern Zhili paid [-] million taels of silver in taxes, but Southern Zhili was only half of that of Northern Zhili. Both sides The gap between them is huge."

"This is enough to show that Feng Shiyong did not do well in the position of chief minister of Nanzhili, and it is normal for him to be dismissed."

"Why did I say that I want to contact the previous officials of the frontier to report their work?"

"Because the fierce quarrel that took place in the imperial court yesterday has a lot to do with the arrangement of the position of Chief Executive of Nanzhili."

"A few days ago, I had made an estimate. The position of chief envoy of Nanzhili is very likely to be Zhong Fan, chief envoy of Guangdong, or Wang Shouren, governor of taxation of Nanzhili. One of these two will take over. .”

"No matter who these two people are to take over the position of chief envoy of Nanzhili, it means that Nanzhili will undergo a huge change, because both Zhong Fan and Wang Shouren are officials of the practical faction. Zhong Fan is in Guangdong. What he has done is remarkable, and Wang Shouren has made remarkable achievements in collecting taxes in Nanzhili."

"If one of them takes over, Nanzhili is bound to usher in a major change."

"Let's talk about the tax issue again."

"Officials from Southern Zhili have always been the most responsible for collecting business taxes."

"Because since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the salt merchants, grain merchants, cloth merchants, and tea merchants in Nanzhili have almost monopolized the most profitable important businesses in my Ming Dynasty."

"In the case of salt merchants, the salt merchants in the past were as rich as a country, and they spent a lot of money on the Qinhuai River. They are talking about these salt merchants, and there are also famous Huizhou merchants. The name of Huizhou merchants is common in all parts of Ming Dynasty."

"These businessmen are very rich, but basically they don't have to pay any taxes. There was a special report on this in the Ming Morning Post. What impressed me was that in a wealthy county in the south of the Yangtze River, the annual tax payment was less than It can be seen that these merchants basically did not pay taxes."

"At that time, the imperial treasury was empty, there were Tatars and Jurchens in the north, Japanese pirates were rampant along the southeast coast, and the chieftains in the southwest were capricious. The emperor wanted to rectify military affairs, but he suffered from the empty treasury and no silver."

"However, these salt merchants, Huizhou merchants, grain merchants, cloth merchants, etc. in the south of the Yangtze River are all rich and rich. They can spend a lot of money in the land of fireworks, but they are not willing to pay a tael of silver to the court. As a result, I have internal and external troubles in the Ming Dynasty, and I have no money to solve many things."

"This is why Liu Jin and Duke Liu carried out tax reforms, because the court needs money to do things, and it is naturally impossible for the court to collect taxes from the poor people, because even if you sell the poor people, There are not many taxes to be collected, and the only way to do this is to levy commercial taxes on these rich people and businessmen."

The newspaper reader stopped and took a deep sip of tea, the whole teahouse was silent, everyone listened quietly, even the waiter in the shop listened with gusto.

Because the Beijing-Tianjin area is located at the foot of the emperor, it has the most contact with this aspect, and it can be regarded as the most concerned about national affairs. It is always the most favorite to hear about this aspect.

"This is back to the debate in the court yesterday."

"Let's talk about why officials in the Jiangnan area are most opposed to the introduction of business taxes."

"It stands to reason that this court official should be loyal to the emperor above all, relieve the emperor's worries and problems, and seek the well-being of the common people all over the world."

"But the officials in the Jiangnan area are different, because the officials in the Jiangnan area have inextricably linked with these big businessmen."

"We all know that the Jiangnan area is rich and prosperous. Yanshan, grain merchants, cloth merchants, etc. were all the richest people in the entire Ming Dynasty. read."

"In the past, the best place for education in the entire Ming Dynasty was the Jiangnan area. In the Jiangnan area, even small merchants and hawkers on the streets could read and write. This is why Jiangnan has many talented people since ancient times."

"The wealthy businessmen wantonly run schools and support their clansmen to study, and these scholars go to the exam to become officials. Naturally, when they become officials, they also want to protect the interests of their own families. Naturally, it is impossible to support the introduction of business tax. "

"To put it simply, the introduction of commercial tax has seriously touched the interests of big businessmen, big landlords, big gentry, and big families in the Jiangnan area. Naturally, they will strongly oppose it."

"If it weren't for several major cases in a row that severely damaged the power of officials from Jiangnan, it would have been impossible to reform the tax system and levy business taxes."

"You must know that over the years, there have always been many officials who have opposed the introduction of commercial taxes. This time, it is only because of the adjustment of the position of the Nanzhili Chief Envoy that it ushered in a wave of climax."

The level of this newspaper reader is obviously very good. After explaining the cause of the incident in detail, everyone in the teahouse suddenly realized, and they figured it out all at once.

"That's it~"

"I said why those officials from Jiangnan are the most opposed to the taxation of merchants. They are colluding with those merchants, landlords, and big families in the Jiangnan area."

"Isn't it? I only care about my own small profits, but I forget the righteousness of the country."

"If the imperial court has no money, it really can't do anything. Ten years before Hongzhi, I remember that the Tatars in the north would seize them every year and go south to plunder them. The imperial court has nothing to do with them."

"What are you going to do to the Tartars? I used to be a military household, or a frontier soldier. You don't know. We just have problems eating. The weapons in our hands haven't been changed for more than ten years. The bows and arrows are all rotten. We You can't use your fists to fight the Tartar cavalry."

"It's better now. The court is rich, the army is well-equipped, well-trained, and has status and status. The combat effectiveness will naturally be high. Only then can my Ming Dynasty continue to expand its territory."

"Yes, yes, so it is an honor to pay taxes, because we pay taxes, and it is for ourselves and for Daming."

"You see, only when the imperial court has money can it arm a powerful army, so that we will not be bullied by foreign enemies, and we can continue to expand our territories and obtain more fertile land."

"The court can only build roads and railways when it has money. It used to take a long time to walk back to my hometown in Shandong. Now I take the train back, and one day and one night is enough time."

"Yes, yes, I think what the newspaper said is correct. Paying taxes means being loyal to the emperor and Daming. As a Daming person, paying taxes according to the law and regulations is to contribute to the prosperity of Daming."

"The tax paid is finally used on the heads of our common people!"

"We can't be like those people in Nanzhili~"

"That's right, that's right~ We are gentlemen in Beijing, and we are the most active in paying taxes, accounting for nearly half of Daming's tax revenue."

"..."

(End of this chapter)