prosperous age

Zhang Juzheng came out of Wei Guangde's duty room and returned to his own room. The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became.

Because Zhang Juzheng had thought that the royal family had always been wary of the royal family, the Imperial Household Department sent spies to keep an eye on the princes' and dukes' palaces in various places.

Moreover, because the fiscal and tax revenues of various places were as tight as those of the Ministry of Revenue, the rice allocated to the royal family had always been insufficient, so he had never considered moving the land of the vassal princes' palaces.

But now Wei Guangde's proposal forced him to think deeply about this problem that he had ignored.

If things go wrong, the princes will once again annex land on a large scale after the new policy is implemented.

Unless, taxes are levied on the land annexed by the princes.

However, the Ming Dynasty had never levied taxes on the princes' palaces. If he rashly brought up the issue, the matter would certainly be serious. He was afraid that impeachment memorials from more than 30 princes' palaces and hundreds of county princes' palaces would fly into the Imperial Household Department like snowflakes.

The royal family can submit memorials directly to the emperor. If they really submit a memorial together, even the palace may not be able to withstand the royal family's gossip and will have to compromise.

He had to think of a proper solution during this period of time. He had to impose taxes on the royal family's self-owned land to prevent them from continuing to annex land on a large scale, and he also had to find a way to appease them.

Zhang Juzheng no longer had the mind to handle official business. He sat in a chair and began to think.

After Zhang Juzheng left, Wei Guangde, like Zhang Juzheng, had no interest in working.

In fact, the land survey and implementation of the Single Whip Law were conspired by him and Zhang Juzheng.

But he didn't have the courage to propose doing it himself, and he didn't have the ability to complete such a big project, so he had to rely on Zhang Juzheng.

All Wei Guangde could rely on were the group of Yu Ji and their disciples entrusted to him by Emperor Longqing, as well as the officials in his own base, Jiangxi. He was far from being a match for the huge political resources inherited by Zhang Juzheng from Xu Jie.

Moreover, through cooperation with Yang Bo and others, Zhang Juzheng also brought in salt merchants from Shanxi and Yangzhou, and actually possessed stronger business power than Wei Guangde.

However, in Wei Guangde's eyes, this force should be following Zhang Siwei, because Zhang Siwei's family is already part of this huge business group.

"Lubu, ask someone to go to Wenyuan Pavilion and move all the documents related to the vassal kings here."

Wei Guangde was not willing to throw his philosophy of mind to waste or to come up with a half-baked project. He had to find out whether the right of the princes not to pay taxes was set by Zhu Yuanzhang and what exactly happened in the first place.

You should know that the rumor that gentry did not pay taxes was actually just a story deliberately misleading and made up by officials.

According to the court rules and regulations, gentry had to pay taxes on their land, but there were exemptions, that is, they were exempted from certain miscellaneous taxes and levies. There was also a capitation tax ranging from a few to dozens of people. It was not that the gentry did not pay taxes.

But in reality, it was difficult to collect taxes from the gentry, and the officialdom was complicated, so over time even some unlearned officials thought they were really exempt from taxes.

I guess that’s how the rumor about not paying taxes spread.

The reason why Wei Guangde wanted to see the documents related to the princes now was because after Zhang Juzheng left, Wei Guangde suddenly realized that there was a big trick.

People always talk about ancestral rules, which gives people the feeling that everything was decided by Zhu Yuanzhang. However, when Zhu Yuanzhang was alive, he did not give any land to the princes. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang only gave fiefs to the princes.

What does the fiefdom of a vassal king mean? It is the so-called fiefdom. The vassal king’s palace would ask for tribute from the fiefdom every year, which is the living needs of the vassal king’s palace.

The princes not only received rice as an stipend through their fiefs, but also received a variety of items such as banknotes, brocade, silk, gauze, satin, winter and summer cloth, cotton, salt, and flowers. These were all used to ensure the daily living expenses of the palace, as well as to maintain the operation of the palace and the princes' social activities.

That was a fiefdom, not a granted land.

The practice of granting land to royal palaces in the Ming Dynasty actually started with Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji, who granted 80 hectares of land to King Zhao as a royal estate. Royal palaces in various places followed suit and requested the emperor to grant land to establish royal estates.

However, it seems that the fields of these royal estates have never paid taxes to the imperial court.

Suddenly, Wei Guangde thought of this and suddenly realized something was wrong.

The fields of Wangzhuang did not pay taxes to the Ministry of Households. That was because in Wei Guangde's impression, the fiefdom was only nominally allocated to the prince as a salary, operated by local officials, who collected taxes, and then allocated the prince's salary from the tax revenue of the royal fields, with any excess refunded and any shortfall supplemented.

Since the local government is directly connected with the royal palace, it naturally does not go through the Ministry of Revenue, thus eliminating the middle link.

But in actual practice, Wei Guangde also heard a lot of news about princes' palaces being harmed by local officials.

Before Emperor Xuanzong issued an edict to grant land to the princes, the management rights of those fiefs were not in the hands of the princes but in the hands of local officials, that is, the right to collect rent.

During this process, local officials appropriated the output of Wangzhuang and concealed the money from the royal palace.

As a result, the princes' mansions could only receive very little land rent each year, so they cried poor to Ming Xuanzong Zhu Zhanji, and then they were granted land.

After the land was granted, the management rights of the Wangzhuang fell into the hands of the royal palace, and they did not allow local officials to interfere.

Whenever local officials wanted to investigate Wangzhuang, their subordinates, that is, eunuchs and slaves, would rush forward under the orders of the prince and use force to prevent the local officials from approaching Wangzhuang. In this way, all the proceeds from Wangzhuang would be taken into the prince's palace.

It seems that now all those royal estates are controlled by the local royal palaces, and local officials cannot intervene at all.

From then on, no tax could be collected.

This was something Wei Guangde had heard someone say before, but he had just laughed it off.

Anyway, the Ministry of Revenue is not his territory, and he naturally doesn't bother to care about matters that are not his responsibility.

But things are different now. If those princes’ palaces are not controlled, it will be hard to say what will happen in the future.

Soon, Lu Bu came in with a pile of documents.

"Master, I asked someone to check over there, but there are a lot of documents, so they just picked the oldest ones and moved them back.

After you have finished looking at the ones here, I will bring you the others."

Lu Bu put down the document in his hand and spoke respectfully to Wei Guangde.

"Okay, go down first. I'll call you if there's anything else."

Wei Guangde nodded, picked up the document and started to read it.

After Lu Bu left, Wei Guangde began to look through the documents on the desk one by one, and sometimes he would think for half a day.

After all, what is recorded in writing is somewhat different from the actual situation.

However, after reading a few documents, Wei Guangde realized something was wrong.

There is no other reason. It seems that no matter whether it is a fiefdom or a royal estate, or the later granted land, they are all the same as the land of scholars and are not exempt from taxes at all.

Yes, according to the rules set by Zhu Yuanzhang, the fiefs of the vassal kings provided the items needed for the royal palaces, but taxes still had to be paid.

As for the subsequent granting of land, the same rules apply.

The reason why Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty granted land to the princes was actually because the officials below were so outrageous that they even put the idea of ​​corruption on the princes.

Here, we have to clarify the land system of the Ming Dynasty.

The land in the Ming Dynasty was generally divided into two types: official land and private land. Private land, needless to say, was private property, or in the words of later generations, it was land with both ownership and use rights. Then there was official land, which was actually quite a lot, and how it came about was actually very simple: one was confiscation, and the other was land reclamation.

In the early Ming Dynasty, people were allowed to reclaim wasteland. Farmers who reclaimed wasteland automatically obtained the right to use the land, but the ownership belonged to the government.

After a few years of tax-free period, you will naturally have to start paying rent and taxes.

The land rent and taxes set by Zhu Yuanzhang were very low, the lowest in all dynasties. Because of this, he became an orphan and lived in precarious conditions for many years, so he had a deep understanding of this.

From Zhu Yuanzhang to Zhu Zhanji, and other emperors thereafter, all the fiefs and land granted to the various royal palaces came from official lands.

Apart from the income from the fiefdom to compensate the rice salary of the royal family, who owns the rest?
In fact, according to the system, part of the land output should go to the farmers, and the other part should be collected as taxes and rent by the court.

This part of the income that belongs to the imperial court is first supplied to the princes' palaces. If there is any surplus, it will be turned over to the Ministry of Revenue as tax revenue.

However, the food and salary lands of these princes were operated by local officials, who collected taxes and then allocated the princes' salaries from the royal land tax revenue. There was a lot of room for manipulation. As long as they tampered with the harvest, not to mention that the Ministry of Revenue would still want to collect taxes, it would not even be able to pay the princes' salaries.

Since Yongle, the royal family has been very wary of clan members, so when clan members and local officials have lawsuits, the royal family usually appears to favor the clan members, but in fact it is the clan members who suffer the losses.

After all, the emperor would not restrict the power of civil servants, and he also needed these local officials to help keep an eye on these princes.

Zhu Zhanji may have felt sorry for his children, worried that they would be bullied, hungry and cold, so he offered land as a reward and allowed the princes to build their own farms.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

What he didn't expect was that his beloved descendants were only concerned about the fiefdom. Under the control of the royal palace, local officials were not allowed to set foot in Wangzhuang.

They also saw the emperor's attitude, so they dealt with the officials who came to their door directly with force, from verbal insults to beatings. Anyway, as long as they didn't beat them to death, the most they would get if they killed or maimed them would be scolding.

If he really fails, he might end up behind bars and leave the title to his children.

However, in most cases, the results of this approach were very good, because the emperor was happy to see the princes and local officials fighting each other, while he would play the middle and try to mediate.

By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, although some fiefdoms were still managed by court officials, the right to collect rent had actually been taken back by the royal palaces, also through the use of force.

As for the granting of land, Wei Guangde had actually seen the true situation behind a memorial personally approved by Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty during the Hongzhi period.

"It means that even if the farmland of the king and the farmland of the royal family is damaged by disaster, it cannot be exempted from tax like the farmland of the military and civilians.

From now on, all local officials are requested to conduct a thorough investigation of the fields of the military and civilians, the imperial estates, etc., and decide which fields should be exempted and collect the tax relief as a whole. "

This paragraph says that the fields of princes and royal relatives would not receive special care even if they suffered disasters, and would have to pay taxes together with civilian and military fields according to the court's disaster relief standards.

Seeing this, Wei Guangde exclaimed in his heart, what a great guy.

Obviously, he roughly understood why it was said that the scholars and royal family members of the Ming Dynasty no longer paid taxes. The source was actually that the two groups of people joined forces to cause trouble and embezzled the court's taxes.

Regardless of whether it was a royal estate or the land of the gentry, all taxes and labor service had to be paid, but there were exemptions and special privileges.

Obviously, everyone reached a tacit understanding. The royal family knew that the scholars were evading taxes, and they announced to the outside world that the royal family sympathized with scholars, so they exempted them from taxes.

As for the part of the royal family, scholars are not allowed to pursue it, otherwise everyone will go their separate ways and all taxes will be paid.

The emperor's eyes and ears are all on the officials and royal family. They may know what is going on among the people, but they are afraid of trouble, so they pretend not to know.

It is also possible that he really didn't know, and was kept in the dark by the royal family and officials.

Wei Guangde put the document aside, took out a piece of paper and copied it down, noting the source, and then continued to look through other documents.

After lunch, he was still in the duty room looking at the documents when Zhang Juzheng came to see him again.

"Shandai, I heard that you asked someone to move a lot of documents over to Wenyuan Pavilion."

After Zhang Juzheng came in, he looked at the documents piled up like a mountain on Wei Guangde's desk and laughed.

It turned out that in the morning Wei Guangde arranged for Lu Bu to go to Wenyuan Pavilion to look for the collection of documents. Zhang Juzheng knew the news and also knew what Wei Guangde asked someone to look for.

He immediately understood Wei Guangde's plan, so he waited until now to come here to take a look and ask if there were any discoveries.

"Nothing can be hidden from my uncle."

Wei Guangde smiled bitterly, picked up the paper beside him and handed it over, saying, "Brother Uncle, take a look. You have discovered quite a few things. It seems that we have been kept in the dark."

Zhang Juzheng reached out to take it, glanced casually at the paper, then his eyes suddenly widened, and his left hand, which was originally stroking his beautiful beard, froze in mid-air.

Local officials may have realized some things a long time ago, but people in the cabinet, because they have never held local positions, really cannot discover some secrets.

After all, you can only read boring text, while you can understand it more thoroughly by putting yourself in the other person's shoes.

"Shandai, this is no small matter."

After a long while, Zhang Juzheng spoke softly.

"If the court is to have money, taxes and labor service must be collected in place. Otherwise, the state's expenditure will still be borne by ordinary people, and sooner or later something bad will happen."

Wei Guangde said calmly, "My opinion is that if the court wants to maintain long-term stability, taxes and labor service must be collected in place, and they must not be collected only for the people's fields.

The lands of the royal family, nobles, and gentry must all be taxed and levied. I have an idea."

"What can I do?"

Zhang Juzheng naturally understood that for such a big country, if all the taxes came from the common people, what would happen when the common people were eliminated?
Only if the burden is distributed among all people can the wealth of the common people be prevented from being plundered wantonly and the stability of the country be achieved.

"Collect taxes from the imperial farms, survey the royal fields, and finally the nobles, and make them all pay taxes.

In this way, when all provinces in the country begin to survey their land, the gentry will have nothing to say. "

Wei Guangde said.

Zhang Juzheng was shocked when he heard this, but he quickly calmed down and began to walk back and forth in the room.

Suddenly, Zhang Juzheng stopped and asked, "Is the record on the paper true?"

Wei Guangde pointed to a pile of documents on the right and said, "They were originally all here. I left them here specifically for the palace to review."

The royal estates and fields of the nobles all had to pay taxes, but the emperor’s estates were not seen.

Perhaps, only the imperial estates never pay taxes.

However, if the royal family wants the royal family and nobles to pay money, they still need to show some attitude.

With the royal family as an example, those clan members naturally have nothing to say.

"It's only a few cents per mu, so a million mu is only a few tens of thousands of taels of silver." (End of this chapter)