Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2379: The Wind Within (VI)
The second strategy? In fact, people who are familiar with Gao Yousi have already understood it by now, because Gao Yousi usually carries out top-level design in terms of system first, and then adjusts the distribution of interests.

As expected, Gao Youshi said: "The second strategy is to provide a certain degree of financial support to the mutual aid team."

When many ministers heard this, they immediately showed an expression of "as expected". However, they still stared at Gao Youshi, to see how this financial expert would squeeze out a part of the precarious fiscal balance this year to support this mutual aid team.

However, Gao Youshi did not seem embarrassed at all, and said calmly: "Last night, our cabinet reviewed this year's honorary contributions. The report for the first half of the year showed that from the first day of the first lunar month to the 30th of June, the total was approximately 1,034,250 taels of silver.

According to last year's trend, the contribution of honors in the second half of the year may be slightly more than that in the first half of the year. Here, the cabinet will make some redundancy and calculate it based on the contribution of the second half of the year as 1171 million taels. There are nearly 1300 counties in the Ming Dynasty (originally 770 in history, and increased to about in the book due to the annexation of Korea, the relocation of the northeast, and the recovery of the Western Regions). If we temporarily ignore the upper, middle and lower counties, the average contribution of each county is about taels of silver.

This white disaster mainly affected the north, especially the nine border areas. Considering that the Western Regions have wartime funding, there is no need for the court to provide additional support this time, so I actually need to allocate funds to the four provinces of Northern Zhili, Liaodong, Shanxi, and Shaanxi (although Gansu has a governor, it is under the jurisdiction of Shaanxi under the "Two Capitals and Thirteen Provinces" system of the provincial government, so Gao Youshi does not need to list it separately from a financial perspective).

There are 336 counties in these four provinces, including 96 counties in Shaanxi, 77 counties in Shanxi, 106 counties in Northern Zhili, and 57 counties in Liaodong [Note: As discussed in the previous chapters of this book, Liaodong was originally under the "military control model" and did not have clear "counties". The 57 counties in this book are the result of Gao's pragmatic reform.], of which there are 52 upper counties, 207 middle counties, and 77 lower counties.

I propose to allocate one million taels of Rongjue Contribution in the second half of the year as a reward for local mutual aid teams in response to the white disaster this year. In principle, 3,000 taels will be provided for upper counties, 2,500 taels for middle counties, and 2,000 taels for lower counties.

That is to say, the upper county allocated a total of 156,000 taels, the middle county allocated a total of 517,500 taels, and the lower county allocated a total of 154,000 taels, totaling 827,500 taels, with a surplus of 172,500 taels. Of course, the Ministry of Revenue did not take back the surplus funds, but still used them for disaster relief and emergency dispatch.

In addition, considering that disaster relief is an urgent need and it is inconvenient to transfer large amounts of cash, the above funds are all available for use at any time by local branches of the Ming United Reserve Bank according to the quota. However, emergency funds cannot be transferred by local government offices. They must be signed by the cabinet and written by the Ministry of Revenue before the local Ming United Reserve Bank can transfer the funds according to the amount. "

You see, a large territory also has its own problems. One million taels may seem like a huge sum of money, but even if Gao Youshi reduced the number of provinces to be allocated to the four northern provinces, there were still more than 300 counties eagerly waiting for the money. As a result, after the one million taels were divided up, each county only received an average of more than 2,000 taels of support.

What is the concept of more than 7 taels? It is roughly equivalent to a thousand pigs. In later times, a county-level farm would be able to take out pigs at any time. Considering that China eats 10 million pigs a year, and each person eats half a pig per year, there are often a row of such farms in a county. (This also takes into account that the Chinese diet in later times is extremely wide, otherwise even billion pigs may not be enough.)
The statement that the economic base determines the superstructure is indeed a universal truth.

Of course, the purchase of pigs was definitely not the main expense of this money, and the above is just a value equalization. In short, this money seems to be very large, and it will not make much difference if it is divided. This is also the reason why there were almost no decent disaster relief measures in the Ming Dynasty before Gao Gongshi's fiscal reform.

The finances are so empty that they are like impotence. Expecting this broken imperial court to be strong and powerful and have sex with eight women at night is obviously like a eunuch going to a brothel - nonsense!

Gao Youshi's words made the ministers present fall into deep thought. Of course, they could hear that such a specific number could be blurted out, which obviously meant that the prime minister had a plan in advance, and the so-called "checking for leaks and filling in the gaps" might just be a casual humble remark.

However, they had to admit that Gao Yuanfu's plan was probably not only to deal with the impending white disaster, but also an attempt to change the grassroots governance model of the Ming Dynasty.

After so many years, everyone has been serving in the same palace, and now we can see some patterns: Gao Youshi's reforms often start from a small point. When he drives a wedge into this small point and makes sure it is firmly nailed, he will gradually start to exert force based on this, slowly opening the gap, and finally, when everything is mature, he will cut it open with one knife.

The old foxes have even discovered that if this plan succeeds, it will leave a significant mark in the history of the Ming Dynasty.

Why do I say that? Because Gao Youshi's plan, fundamentally speaking, actually abandoned the past model of local gentry managing the local area and implemented a set of organizational models based purely on local reputation.

In other words, those who had power in the local area in the past were all wealthy and powerful local tycoons, but the so-called "mutual aid team" that Gao Yousi insisted on setting up today is different. Its person in charge - most likely the "righteous man" who Gao Yousi wanted to commend - is actually explicitly required to "not have more than 100 acres of land."

What does this mean? It means that this cabinet has clearly stated that only the truly “poor” can lead this mutual aid team.

Even though Gao Youshi described the mutual aid team as a temporary position, and it seems that it can't do anything without disasters or emergencies, we are not stupid. Especially since we have all seen your methods over the years, Gao Yuanfu, you have given it so many restrictions today, but what if you gradually remove these restrictions in the future? What if you gradually expand the power of the mutual aid team?
If this is true, in the future, a poor organization that can compete with the local gentry and wealthy families may be formed among the lowest level of the people. The leader of this poor organization is determined by "popularity" and then determined by the court through the title of "righteous man". In this way, a direct connection will be formed between the local people and the court, breaking the past situation of "imperial power not extending below the county level"!
Why do we say so? Because the reason why the imperial power did not extend to the county level was, on the one hand, because the court did not have enough spare money to set up officials at the grassroots level, and on the other hand, because the local gentry had the power to "help" the court manage the grassroots.

In this way, the gentry can obtain actual governance power over the local grassroots people by swearing allegiance to the imperial power, and the imperial power does not have to go down to the county level to maintain stability at the grassroots level. This is simply a two-way effort, and the dilemma is solved!

However, this model has hidden dangers. The hidden danger is that when your imperial power is stable, the local gentry will naturally be willing to be loyal, but when your imperial power is unstable... oh, sorry, we will help whoever wins.

Aren't the countless surrenders of counties and prefectures in Chinese history the result of the outbreak of hidden dangers in this model? After all, if I change the emperor to serve, it will not affect my continued dominance in the local area!

However, once the "mutual aid team" is created, it can directly link up with the imperial power and the government, skipping the gentry level, thereby taking away the gentry's power to govern the local area - although this is only a long-term crisis, but considering Gao Youshi's style of doing things, who can guarantee that it will not become a reality? After all, Gao Youshi is frighteningly young for a prime minister, and if nothing unexpected happens, he can still rule for another 30 years!
In fact, everyone found Gao Youshi's behavior a little hard to understand - your Xinzheng Gao family is the largest "family of aristocrats" in Xinzheng, and is undoubtedly the best in the whole of Henan. What you did is not good for your family! What do you want?

Is it true that, as some rumors say, the Xinzheng Gao family will sooner or later become the Dingnan Gao family? But aren't the famous families in Zhongzhou more stylish and prestigious than the local kings of the southern barbarians? However, no matter what, since Gao Youshi did this, everyone should advise and oppose it, because everyone is a noble family in their hometown.

"Prince, this plan sounds good, but I'm afraid it will encounter many difficulties in actual implementation." Minister of Personnel Chen Yubi frowned and said, "First, how can we ensure that these mutual aid teams can really play a role? Second, how can we prevent local officials from misappropriating these funds? Finally, can this plan get the support and cooperation of local people?"

It was not surprising that someone opposed it, but the fact that the first person to stand up and oppose was Chen Yubi made Gao Youshi somewhat emotional. Of course, he knew the status of the Chen family in Sichuan. After all, his father Chen Yiqin had been a cabinet minister, and he himself had been a civil servant for so many years. It was not surprising that he rejected his proposal. Moreover, although Chen Yubi was willing to oppose it, at least he raised serious questions, which was not unreasonable.

Gao Fusi nodded first, indicating that he understood Chen Yubi's concerns, and then said: "This cabinet has considered these issues. First of all, as to how to ensure that the mutual aid team can really play a role, we can start from two aspects.

On the one hand, we need to strengthen the training and guidance of mutual aid teams so that they understand their responsibilities and missions. This can be done by the officials who were originally in charge of civil affairs in the local government, and then included in the examinations.

On the other hand, we need to establish an effective supervision, review and incentive mechanism. For those mutual aid teams that perform well, we need to reward and commend them, including but not limited to the awarding of the title of "righteous man" and direct rewards and gifts; and for those mutual aid teams that do not perform or act recklessly, we also need to impose severe punishments. First, the local government will review the performance of the local mutual aid team, and then hand it over to the provincial governor for verification, preliminary judgment, and reporting. "

"As for how to prevent local officials from misappropriating funds, we can take the following measures. First, all funds must be managed through Mingliansuo, which can ensure the safety and transparency of funds.

Secondly, the audit offices and audit bureaus at all levels under the Audit Office of the Ministry of Revenue should strengthen supervision over local officials. Once any misappropriation of funds is discovered, it should be reported to the Ministry of Revenue first, which will then inform the Ministry of Personnel and submit it to the Cabinet, and ultimately severely punish the officials.

Finally, we can give mutual aid teams the authority to report the allocation of funds to higher authorities, that is, county-level mutual aid teams can report the details of the funds they received to the government office. At the same time, if three or more county-level mutual aid teams jointly report, they are allowed to report to the provincial government and the provincial government at the highest level. "

“As for how to gain the support and cooperation of local residents, this cabinet is not worried. As long as officials like me can truly care about the people and solve their practical problems as a starting point, they will naturally support and cooperate with our approach.

Everyone, cats and dogs can understand human nature, let alone ordinary people? Even if they can't read, they can feel whether the court and the government's actions are beneficial to them. I don't need to say more about this."

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Regardless of whether or not they agree with Gao Youshi's insistence on setting up this mutual aid team, at least Gao Youshi's words cannot be questioned. Of course, the greater difficulty for them now is that no one really dares to confront Gao Youshi - look, Chen Yubi was rejected, and Shen Yikuan simply didn't dare to say anything more.

In this way, no matter how they complained or criticised in their hearts, Gao Youshi's words at least made the ministers present nod their heads openly, as if they all agreed with Yuan Fu's "reason".

"In this case, my colleagues, let's act according to the plan of the Prime Minister." As the second prime minister, Zhao Zhigao was the first to express his support.

This is not surprising. Everyone knows him well now. Even if Gao Youshi farts, he will listen respectfully.

"I can't see anything wrong at the moment." Shen Yiguan also nodded in agreement. However, his words obviously left room for interpretation. Just because you can't see anything wrong at the moment doesn't mean you won't suddenly see it in the future.

But it didn't matter, as long as he didn't directly oppose it. When Zhou Yong also expressed his agreement, it meant that the cabinet had reached a "unanimous opinion", so the other ministers, not to mention that even the Heavenly Official Chen Yubi had failed to persuade the Prime Minister to change his mind, they felt that they didn't have the face to do so, so they all expressed their agreement.

Gao Youshi's plan was thus decided by the "cabinet and the nine ministers". According to convention, at this point, even the emperor would not easily reject it - especially since the emperor was still recovering from illness and seemed to not want to care about anything.

Next, Gao Youshi introduced the specific implementation steps and precautions of the plan in detail. The ministers also put forward some suggestions and opinions as much as possible, striving to prevent the mutual aid team from gaining too much local governance power. The meeting lasted until sunset, and even the palace gate had to be closed on time. After all the details were finalized and the ministers left one after another, the side door would be opened for passage.

Gao Youshi stood at the door of the cabinet meeting hall, watching the ministers leave. His face showed a trace of fatigue, but more of determination.

As the one who planned and arranged the plan, he certainly knew that this plan would be an important turning point in the history of the Ming Dynasty. He hoped that through this plan... and subsequent plans, the lower-class people of the Ming Dynasty would have more or less a voice and the right to self-government, rather than being oppressed and bullied by local gentry forever.

Similarly, this also relieves pressure on local governments. After all, if the gentry never give in and can always exploit the people without scruples, one day they will provoke a civil uprising, and then they will not end well.

The night wind blew, Gao Fusi tightened his clothes and looked up at the starry sky.

"Manpower is limited, so do your best."
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PS: I got the news that my uncle had his tube removed today. My dad told me on the phone that he went to the hospital today and asked me to pay attention to my aunt and cousin's emotions and comfort them if they are not stable. I thought to myself that my comfort would be useless... but in the end I just said "hmm".

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