prosperous age

Chapter 1103 Chapter 1194 Ministry of Industry Mistakes

"inappropriate."

Wei Guangde immediately said: "Although the Single Whip Law has matured, the court has not yet issued a document to promote it nationwide.

If there are mistakes in the survey, it may affect this law, which is not appropriate. "

As Wei Guangde said, although the Single Whip System had been supported by most civil servants in the court, there were still voices of opposition.

In the eyes of many people, the tax and service system that has been passed down since the Hongwu period is already very complete, so how can it be changed at will?

Some people even suggested that if the Single Whip System was simpler, then the imperial court would have to reduce the number of local government officials after adopting it, because collecting taxes and labor service has always been the main administrative matter of local governments.

The new tax and labor collection system is simple, so local governments do not need so many additional staff.

Zhang Juzheng wanted to survey the land in Jiangxi and Nanzhili first according to the Single Whip System, but this task itself was extremely difficult.

If any trouble occurs during the land survey, it could easily lead to disaster and bring disaster to the One Whip Law.

Even officials who did not oppose the Single Whip System but resisted land surveying would join the opponents.

By then, let alone land surveying, even the One Whip Law would probably be aborted.

"The Single Whip Law and land surveying have nothing to do with each other, there is absolutely no need to mix them together.

My dear uncle, if you really want to consider land survey, you might as well choose representative areas, such as provinces with large populations and limited land, to conduct pilot projects.

Of course, this uncle has to think carefully about this and the local government has to give full support.

Otherwise, a slight mistake could lead to disaster.”

At this point, Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Juzheng and said, "Brother Uncle, you must not rush into this matter. You have to take your time and work it out slowly."

"Shandai, I actually understand this, and I have been planning it for a long time."

Zhang Juzheng listened to Wei Guangde's words, nodded and smiled bitterly, "I know this will offend many people, but you know what the current situation is. How many tax-paying fields were there during the Hongwu period, and how many are there now?

The imperial court was in dire straits, but all the wealth fell into their hands.

Zhang Juzheng paused for a moment here and did not continue speaking, but then changed the subject and said, "Shandai is worried that it will cause a civil uprising, but I don't think it will happen.

Don't forget to be kind. When the country was first established, Taizu had already defeated those aristocratic families in the south of the Yangtze River.

Now those are only founded a hundred years ago, and their foundation is insufficient. As long as the imperial court pushes forward forcefully, they will be powerless to resist. "

It turned out that Zhang Juzheng was sure that there were indeed powerful families in the local area, but these families had only been formed over the past hundred years and had limited hidden strength, which was only what was visible on the surface.

Such a family may be able to influence the government to a certain extent, but as long as the court is determined to do so, they can only cooperate and will never dare to have the intention of rebellion.

You have to know that the world is peaceful now, not a time of chaos where human lives are worthless. As long as the common people cannot afford to eat or survive, they naturally will not have the thought of rebelling.

As long as the people are stable, even if some aristocratic families cause trouble, it will not spread like wildfire. It will just be some minor disturbances in the local area, which can be easily quelled by the imperial court's garrison troops in the local area.

Therefore, it is impossible for the land transfer order to trigger a riot.

The Hongwu Dynasty launched a continuous attack on the landlord class as a whole for half a century. This never-ending continuous attack not only persistently destroyed the strength of the powerful landlord class, but also created lasting psychological fear and pressure on the powerful landlord class in terms of social psychology and public opinion.

Now, this became the confidence for Zhang Juzheng to push for land survey.

During the process of Zhu Yuanzhang's entrepreneurship, he was resisted by the landlords in the south of the Yangtze River. The landlords in the south of the Yangtze River had a certain favorable impression on the Yuan Dynasty and Zhang Shicheng's regime, but were extremely cold towards Zhu Yuanzhang's regime.

During Zhu Yuanzhang's march into eastern Zhejiang in 1358, except for Liu Ji, Zhang Yi, Ye Chen, Song Lian and others who successively surrendered to him, a considerable number of landlords in eastern Zhejiang and Suzhou and Songjiang held the opposite attitude and resisted passively. This was the first stage of Zhu Yuanzhang's struggle with the landlords in the south of the Yangtze River.

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang had not yet unified China, so he had to do his best to win over the landlords in the south of the Yangtze River, hoping that they would stand on his side, but to little avail.

The entire Hongwu Dynasty was the second stage of his struggle with the landlords in the south of the Yangtze River.

During this period, the political status of Zhu Yuanzhang and the Jiangnan landlords had undergone obvious changes. Zhu Yuanzhang was currently the ruler of the regime, while the Jiangnan landlords had become a group discriminated against by the dynasty because of their failed political bets.

Their indifference and incompatibility with the Ming regime resulted in Zhu Yuanzhang's brutal suppression and ruthless attacks.

As early as after Zhu Yuanzhang defeated Zhang Shicheng, he said to the surrendered generals in Zhang Shicheng's camp: "All my generals grew up in Hao, Si, Ru, Ying, Shouchun, and Dingyuan. They are used to hard work and do not know luxury. They are not like those in the south who indulge in pleasure."

This clearly distinguishes his Huaixi landlord group from the Jiangnan landlords. Zhu Yuanzhang's destruction and attack on the Jiangnan landlords was carried out in three different stages.

The first two stages were around the beginning of the Hongwu period, and were aimed at those landlord forces who were politically hostile to the Ming imperial power, especially those landlords who had ties with Zhang Shicheng's original regime. Ordinary farmers had no political influence, so they were not included.

The third stage targeted the wealthy families in the Jiangnan region and the scholars in the Jiangnan region who had little connection with the original regime, the Yuan Dynasty and Zhang Shicheng. The famous historical story of Shen Wansan, a large landlord in the Suzhou and Songjiang areas in the late Yuan Dynasty, who suffered cruelty from Zhu Yuanzhang is well known to everyone.

Zhu Yuanzhang initially treated Shen with superficial perfunctory treatment and let Shen's children take up some minor official posts. Later, he still did not let him go and included him in the "Blue Party". He "sent people from Liaoyang to garrison and confiscated thousands of hectares of his land" and "set a tax of nine dou and three liters per mu, and the heavy grain quota in Wu was imposed on this."

Of course, Shen Wansan is a historical legend, and different historical books have different records about him, but it is a basic fact that Zhu Yuanzhang cracked down on this type of landlord.

The policies at that time, such as heavy taxes in Jiangnan, relocation of wealthy people, forcing Shen Wansan to build the Nanjing city wall, rewarding the Ming army with money, and issuing all kinds of hard labor, all had political reasons.

Even Zhu Yuanzhang's policy of "not allowing a single piece of wood to go to sea" to curb private maritime trade, as well as the prohibition of people from Suzhou and Songjiang from serving in the Ministry of Revenue, and even the prohibition of Pu Shougeng's descendants from taking the imperial examinations, were of course aimed at the landlords in the south of the Yangtze River.

At the beginning of the Hongwu period, there was a large landowner in Jiading named Wan Er, who was originally a survivor of the Yuan Dynasty and was "the richest man in the county." Later, he realized that the situation was not right, so he "bought a huge boat to take his wife to travel across the Yellow River and the Xiang River." Sure enough, "after twelve years, the big families in the south of the Yangtze River were confiscated one after another, but this man was the only one who lived to a ripe old age."

After Zhu Yuanzhang's continuous crackdown on the landlords in the south of the Yangtze River, the "rich and powerful families" in the Suzhou and Songjiang areas were "wiped out", and the big landlords in the Three Wu areas "were either dead or relocated, and no one survived."

It can be said that Zhu Yuanzhang spared no effort in his crackdown on the Jiangnan landlords, and the landlords in Jiangnan were so cruelly oppressed that they were on the verge of death.

Due to the high-pressure policy of the Ming Dynasty, many scholars in Jiangnan at that time were unwilling to serve as officials of the Ming Dynasty. Even if someone in their family loved reading, they were "afraid that the county would know about it and would instead force them to farm the fields."

It can be seen how painful the psychological fear and psychological shadow caused by the Ming Dynasty's attack on the large landlords in the south of the Yangtze River and the scholar-official class were.

Wei Guangde knew all this without Zhang Juzheng telling him.

Apart from the emerging forces of the nobles, most of the current big landlords are families that actively participated in the imperial examinations and gained court status in those years. They all relied on the Ming Dynasty to develop. Whether it was Zhang Juzheng's own family or Wei Guangde's family, they were actually emerging forces. They used their power to reclaim land and were actually landlords.

At the beginning, Wei Guangde didn't know that his family actually owned two or three hundred acres of land in secret, and these lands were not listed in the imperial book, so you can imagine.

In fact, the Wei family has such fields, and the Zhang family may also have them.

The land survey that Zhang Juzheng initiated was somewhat of a stab at himself, but after all, as the prime minister, he was responsible for the country's fate and had no choice but to do it for the sake of the country's fate.

This may be the difference between a politician and a statesman. When it comes to private matters and public affairs, a politician will tend to favor private matters, making him appear more selfish, while a statesman will pay more attention to public affairs. As long as it is good for the country, they will choose public affairs first, even at the expense of their own interests.

"When are you going to start the trial? Anyway, I will not agree to pilot it in Jiangxi and Nanzhili first. This will easily put the implementation of the Single Whip Law at greater risk, and it may even fail."

Wei Guangde said bluntly.

Wei Guangde expressed his support for policies such as the Single Whip System, the opening of the sea, and commercial development very early on, but he never thought about doing anything about tax laws because historical experience told him that it was a futile approach.

Even in later times, when society is ruled by law, it is difficult to completely eradicate excessive taxes and levies.

He really had no way to ensure that all local government officials were honest and upright and dedicated to their duties.

All he could do was to try to transfer the surplus grain from the poor people to the rich, so that they could bear less and live a better life.

The so-called "floating grain" refers to the part of land tax that is passed on to the common people due to the transfer of actual control over land and property.

What Wei Guangde wanted to do was actually to move the land tax system implemented by Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty. That is, he wanted to wait until Zhang Juzheng implemented the land measurement and the Single Whip Law, and then find a way to promote it and take advantage of it.

However, the Single Whip System had the support of local and court officials and was relatively easy to implement. But after careful consideration, Wei Guangde felt that the land survey was difficult to accomplish and would offend people, so he could only let Zhang Juzheng do it himself and he would not stop him.

Now that Zhang Juzheng was discussing this matter with him, he naturally had to make the problem sound more serious so that he would proceed with the matter more cautiously.

"I originally wanted to go to Jiangxi, but since Shandai is against it, I'll think about other places."

Zhang Juzheng said.

He saw that Wei Guangde did not object to the land survey, but was just too worried.

Little did he know that Wei Guangde was actually the least worried person, he just didn't want to get involved with the Single Whip Method.

Wei Guangde didn't know where the land survey was first carried out, so he was not in a position to comment and let Zhang Juzheng think about it himself.

At the same time, he was also very wary. From the time Zhang Juzheng sought him out for private discussions and then proposed the Jiangxi Ten Points, Wei Guangde guessed that Zhang wanted to drag him into the water.

After all, if the first and second ministers of the cabinet both support it, the resistance below should be much smaller, and local officials will have some concerns.

In fact, Wei Guangde was right. At this time, Fujian had already ranked first among the pilot provinces for the new land survey in Zhang Juzheng's mind.

Fujian is a province with a large population and limited land. Although it has a vast territory, there are too many mountains and the land suitable for farming is limited, so Fujianese have always had the habit of doing business.

The imperial court set up the opening port at Yuegang, which was actually intended to help the people of Fujian.

Moreover, the current Fujian Left Governor Lao Kan is a fellow townsman and age of Wei Guangde, and the two have a good relationship, which Zhang Juzheng also knows.

Let Fujian be the pilot province. As long as Fujian achieves results, people outside will actually guess Wei Guangde's attitude, and he won't even need to say it himself. The effect will actually be better.

"That's it for today. I'll discuss this with Shandai once I've decided on a pilot location."

Zhang Juzheng spoke, his expression somewhat bored.

However, Wei Guangde now remembered something, which he had only been thinking about on his own before and had not yet spoken about it.

So, Wei Guangde did not stand up to say goodbye, but said: "Brother Shu, there is one more thing Shandai wants to discuss with you whether it is feasible."

"What's the matter?"

Zhang Juzheng asked with a smile.

"Two days ago, I saw the Ministry of Industry send me the shipbuilding progress of several official shipyards in Nanjing and Zhejiang in the first half of the year. I learned that the South China Sea Navy had previously ordered ten new gunboats from the Zhejiang Shipyard. Dayou had previously issued a document to stop the construction and transform two double-decker gunboats.

However, since construction had already started in Zhejiang and there was no plan to order other ships, they reported to the Nanjing Ministry of Industry and still built these ten gunboats.

Just last month, the two double-decker gunboats ordered by the Navy were completed and delivered to the Navy officers and soldiers for sea trials.

After hearing what Wei Guangde said, Zhang Juzheng understood a little bit. The Ministry of Works had to find someone to pay for the money it spent, but as it stood now, the South China Sea Navy was afraid that it would not pay for the ten gunboats, so he reported the matter to the cabinet.

"The Ministry of War only approved those two new gunboats?"

Zhang Juzheng knew that the navy had imitated the foreign gunboats and built some warships with cannons as their main weapons, but the Ministry of War had always been under the jurisdiction of Wei Guangde, so he naturally paid little attention to it.

"I asked, and the Ministry of War said that the South China Sea Navy had reported and suspended the construction of the ten warships, so the Ministry of Works built them, but they couldn't take over.

Obviously, the navy was not very satisfied with that kind of gunboat, so they purchased double-decker gunboats.

But it has already been built, and we can't dismantle it or convert it into a cargo ship, so I still plan to let the Ministry of War take over, and send the two new gunboats south to support the South China Sea Navy fighting in Myanmar.

After that, even if the South China Sea Navy is not needed, the sailors on the gunboats have gained more experience after this long voyage, so we can transfer the Denglai Navy to the north to protect the capital."

Wei Guangde said, "However, since the accounts between the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works do not match, the Ministry of Revenue may refuse to pay when they check. Therefore, I would like to ask my uncle to speak on my behalf with Minister Wang."

Zhang Juzheng just frowned slightly when he heard this. It was obvious that the mistake was made by the Nanjing Ministry of Works, but the Ministry of Revenue had to take the responsibility.

But the matter is done and it is impossible to just demolish it.

"In that case, then let's do as Shandai says. I'll go and tell the Ministry of Revenue."

Zhang Juzheng said.