prosperous age

Wei Guangde proposed recruiting Jurchens to guard the northern border for the Ming Dynasty, which surprised Tan Lun, Zeng Shengwu and a number of officials from the Ministry of War.

Before this, they all regarded the Jurchens as enemies, after all, the two sides had just fought a war for less than two years.

Now Wei Guangde discovered that the northern border was vast, but the imperial court could not arrange for anyone to guard it, so he thought of using the Jurchens to do this.

After looking at each other, someone finally whispered, "It's not impossible, it's just this identification."

"Yes, not to mention the difficulty of identification, they are refugees from the North. If we send them back now, I'm afraid they may not be willing to do so."

"We can only give it a try. There are still many wild Jurchen tribes near Nurgan, and they were all unwilling to move south in the first place.

If we can bring some Jurchens with us, it will be much easier for the government troops to come into contact with them.”

The person who said this obviously has a better understanding of the situation over there, or at least has done his homework.

Considering that they are all Jurchens, communication may be more convenient.

Naturally, Tan Lun also heard the whispers of the people below.

Wei Guangde smiled and waved his hand at this time, and continued: "This is my suggestion. The Ministry of War may wish to discuss it with people who are familiar with Liaodong and Jurchens."

Because he was the one who set the tone for what Nuer did, it now seems that the Ming Dynasty has to bear a heavy burden because of it. Wei Guangde doesn't want to make a big mistake again because of something he decided on a whim.

"Okay, let's go to the Ministry of War and find someone to discuss it. The most important thing is to see the opinions of Liaodong."

Tan Lun nodded and said.

Wei Guangde was very satisfied with this. At this time, Tan Lun even regretted not informing Wei Guangde in time when he knew that the Liaodong troops had encountered great difficulties in Nurgan.

However, even if he was really told, he would probably just find a way out, and the time for going north might be delayed, which would give Qi Jiguang one or two years to develop northward and make some preliminary preparations.

For example, first occupy Huaide, repair the surrounding military newspapers, and then send ships to Tuhe in batches.

As for building ships using local materials, don't think too much about it within ten years.

Although Liaodong has high mountains and dense forests, the newly cut wood cannot be used within a few years and is not intended to be burned as firewood.

As for mobilizing wood to build ships, it would be simpler to follow Qi Jiguang's idea and directly dig an ice road and mobilize people and animals to tow the ship over.

After everything was said and the officials from the Ministry of War dispersed, Wei Guangde still had no intention of leaving. Instead, he sat there and chatted casually with Tan Lun and Zeng Shengwu.

It is too early to talk about strategy now. Once a few more Liaodong battle reports come in, we can make specific deployments.

The orders issued previously were just preparations for the war.

"Shandai, did something happen to you just now?"

He asked in a low voice after Zeng Shengwu said goodbye and left, leaving only Tan Lun on duty.

He finally realized that Wei Guangde didn't seem to plan to go back to the cabinet to do his work today.

"I've been working here with you these days."

Wei Guangde subconsciously glanced at the door of the duty room and spoke in a low voice.

"Hmm? What happened in the cabinet? Or is there something wrong in the palace? This shouldn't be the case."

Tan Lun said in surprise.

"Don't make wild guesses. I don't have any classes at Wenhua Hall these days, so I can't be lazy for a few days."

Wei Guangde interrupted Tan Lun with a smile.

"That's not like you."

In response, Tan Lun just smiled and shook his head, and said at the end.

"hehe."

Wei Guangde chuckled for a while, and finally said: "The matter of Zhang Jiangling entering the academy has been pushed forward, and the local authorities dare not delay it any longer, for fear of following Shi Guanmin's footsteps."

"what happened?"

Tan Lun immediately asked.

"Shi Guanmin has resigned from his post."

Wei Guangde said softly, then shook his head and smiled bitterly: "It seems that this is the best outcome, but in fact it is the most passive approach for the cabinet.

I'm afraid it's not easy to get rid of the word "jealous of talented people". I'd rather not go to the cabinet and spend a few more days in peace with you."

"Are there more memorials from the local authorities?"

Tan Lun asked in a low voice.

"Almost. According to the news from the post station outside, there are many more memorials coming from the south today than in the past. I estimate that the six ministries in Nanjing will collectively oppose it. They probably can't hold it back any longer."

Wei Guangde smiled bitterly, but there was nothing he could do. Zhang Juzheng was determined to suppress the academic style this time. The atmosphere in the academy was indeed very bad now. People did not focus on teaching but preferred to comment on current affairs, and officials were also involved.

"In addition, there was also some trouble in Fujian. It was said that because the measuring tools of the Ministry of Industry were broken, some places made their own measuring tools to measure the number of fields. It was said that some officials used small bows as large bows to record, and increased the number of fields without reason.

The local gentry have already filed a complaint with the governor and provincial governor."

Wei Guangde whispered, "The Fujian side wants to cover up this news, so don't spread it even if you hear it."

The news that Wei Guangde mentioned later was also the first time that Tan Lun heard it, which meant that it had not yet spread widely in the capital.

However, can this news really be covered up?

Tan Lun expressed deep doubts.

However, officials in the capital actually knew very well, or in other words, all officials in the Ming Dynasty knew very well that if the issue of land was not brought up, nothing would happen.

But if it really gets opened by someone, it would be a big deal.

"Is it because of this that we asked every household in Jiangxi to prepare the land tax they were supposed to pay?

"Does Zhang Jiangling really want to make this matter public?"

As for the scholars of the Ming Dynasty, no one knows how the habit of being greedy for small gains was formed. Up to now, they were only exempted from military service, but now they have developed to exempted from taxes.

It is said that Zhang Juzheng's greatest contribution to the reform was the implementation of the Single Whip System and the survey of land, but in fact, what really brought him down was that he wanted to dispel the fog and abolish the tax exemption privileges that the scholars had made up themselves, and only maintained the privilege of exemption from military service.

However, at that time, all the land in the world was either in the hands of royal family members and nobles, or in the hands of these officials, and no one was willing to hand it over.

This is not just a matter of a little money, it is a long-term expenditure.

A little bit every year, but a piece adds up to a lot of money.

Moreover, this matter cannot be made a big deal. If the common people knew about it, the consequences of these "zhihuzheya" deceiving the whole world would be too great to imagine.

As a result of the officials and gentry's tricks, the taxes that should have been borne by them were distributed to the people. People had to pay taxes for them for so many years for nothing. Who wouldn't be upset?

"Zhang Jiangling insists on exemption from military service but not taxation?"

Tan Lun asked with a frown.

Wei Guangde nodded, "Since last year, we have to bear the taxes and labor service that we should bear, so I asked my hometown to prepare so as not to be caught off guard. At this time, it seems that Xu Ge Lao and others have not agreed yet. I heard that the two places have been communicating frequently through letters recently."

"In theory, this tax should be paid."

Tan Lun sighed and spoke in a low voice.

"Yes, I also think it should be paid. The court has exempted people from menial labor. It is unacceptable for them to try to escape even the land tax.

It was the adults who played around with this idea. The key point is that I actually believed it when I was studying, thinking that I could be tax exempt if I passed the exam.

This is why no one dares to say anything about this policy, even though we know it is wrong. At most, the innocent will pay their share of taxes, or simply not keep any land for themselves, like Hai Rui and Hai Gangfeng did. "

Wei Guangde said.

"By the way, someone in the Ministry of Revenue recommended that Hai Rui be reinstated as an imperial censor in charge of collecting silver for postal exchange.

Shandai, have you heard the news?"

Tan Lun suddenly asked.

"Is there such a thing? I haven't heard of it."

Wei Guangde was greatly surprised, for he knew that Zhang Juzheng disliked Hai Rui because Hai Rui had not given him face and had acted too uprightly.

"Yesterday I heard from someone in the palace that someone in the Ministry of Revenue had raised this matter.

Many of the silver from the pawnshops near the capital were paid directly to the Ministry of Revenue, so there was not much difficulty in collecting the exchange silver.

After all, taxes are collected from merchants, and no one dares not to pay.

But outside of Northern Zhili, the emperor is far away, and it is said that collecting taxes will be very troublesome, so the Ministry of Revenue plans to send an imperial censor to specialize in this matter. "

Tan Lun said, "It may still be under discussion within the Ministry of Revenue, so it has not been reported to the Cabinet."

"If Hai Rui is reinstated, he must at least be given the title of Deputy Chief Censor, but I'm afraid the Prime Minister won't agree.

but

Apart from Hai Gangfeng, I'm afraid no one else can handle the job of collecting money."

Wei Guangde commented in a low voice.

Paying taxes according to the law is a citizen's right. Wei Guangde is rich now, so he naturally does not consider tax evasion as a way to get rich. Therefore, he does not feel much pressure about whether to use Hai Rui to be responsible for commercial taxes.

"Money is just a thing outside of one's body. The imperial court really needs people like him to make money for the imperial court."

Tan Lun was not a greedy person, but like most officials, he would accept the money issued by the government, regardless of whether it was the people's money extorted or not, but he would not take the initiative to participate in the extortion.

After all, these are salaries paid by the court and subsidies from the government.

Don’t think that the salary money that “disappeared” from the Ministry of War was put into the pockets of the lower-level officials. In fact, most of it went into the Ministry’s “petty treasury”, which was used to disburse subsidies to the officials of the Ministry of War on a regular basis according to their ranks.

Otherwise, do you really think that those officials who are not in office and cannot get any benefits would be willing to watch others do it?

As for other government offices, it is the same. As long as you are an official, you will not receive less than this benefit.

Otherwise, all the officials of the Ming Dynasty would have starved to death long ago.

This was also the case in the final, middle and late Ming Dynasty, when corruption had become a collective behavior and had reached a point where the law could not hold everyone accountable.

Occasionally, some people are unwilling to go along with the crowd and become the outliers, which leads to collective boycott and suppression by everyone.

Of course, there are tens of millions of people in the world, and it is not true that there is no one who is untainted by the mud, but they are called unofficial Jinshi, which means that they have the title of Jinshi but have not been granted an official position. Most of them choose to indulge in mountains and rivers and stay away from the intrigues of officialdom.

"So how do you plan this?"

Tan Lun asked in a low voice.

Wei Guangde has a quick wit and sometimes can come up with some fantastic ideas to solve difficult problems.

"What they did was actually just taking advantage of the people's ignorance. They didn't know that the exemption of land mentioned in the decree was actually an exemption from labor service and grain, and they just thought that it was an exemption from taxes on these fields."

We have to admit that those people were really geniuses. In the "Regulations on Exemptions from Labor Service and Grain" promulgated by the imperial court, they deliberately confused the "exemption from labor service and grain" and "exemption from land" for officials. Not only did they deceive the people of the world, but they also made later generations believe it to be true, thinking that officials did not have to pay taxes.

In fact, it was nothing more than a mutual exchange, where the "exempt grain" was converted into farmland and shown to others as "exempt land".

Wei Guangde said slowly: "This matter has actually hindered us. Even if we want to correct the chaos, we will only become the target of public criticism.

Therefore, I have discussed with my uncle before and we think it would be better to go with the flow and directly convert the exemption from military service granted by the court into exempted land, or even directly include the discount on officials' salaries and include it in the list of exempted land.

For example, my current annual salary is 1,000 shi, but I only get 40% of it, and 60% is discounted, hehe."

Wei Guangde couldn't help but laugh when he said this.

In fact, there were many tricks in the Ming Dynasty officials' discounting of colors, which was not the same as later generations believed.

The discount ratio of officials' salaries generally follows the principle of "the higher the rank, the higher the discount ratio", but the actual value varies greatly in actual purchasing power due to different discount methods and market fluctuations.

For example, Wei Guangde’s discount items are actually mainly silver and cloth, which are all needed things. Although the discount price is higher than the market price, it is still acceptable.

Low-ranking officials received less grain discounts, and even the lowest-ranking officials received only 20% of their grain discounts, which means 80% of the actual grain they received. However, their monthly salary was only one stone of grain, which was enough to ensure that they would not starve to death.

But the 20% discount might just be worthless things like treasure notes, which is almost equivalent to nothing. It depends on what unwanted things are left in the treasury to pay your salary.

"If we use the standard of the discount, my annual salary is almost 400 dan less, which is equivalent to the grain tax of 10,000 mu of land."

Wei Guangde said slowly.

Tan Lun nodded slightly. In the Ming Dynasty, the annual grain tax for one thousand acres of high-quality farmland was about 54 dan. In other words, if it was ten thousand acres of high-quality farmland, the grain tax could reach more than five hundred dan, but it was necessary to pay attention to the grade of the land.

Ten thousand acres are all top-quality fields, which are very rare, so there will probably be a lot of medium or lower fields among them. If you calculate it, the ten thousand acres mentioned by Wei Guangde is about the same.

"So, I suggested to Uncle Da that the first-rank officials in Beijing be exempted from 10,000 mu of land, and the exemption for the following ranks is reduced accordingly. The eighth-rank officials are exempted from 500 mu of land; the exemption for officials outside the capital is half; the exemption for retired officials is 60%; non-official Jinshi are exempted from 1,000 mu of land, non-official Juren are exempted from 300 mu of land, and students and supervisors are exempted from 80 mu of land."

Wei Guangde had roughly calculated this privately.

If Zhang Juzheng had not surveyed the land, Wei Guangde would not have been able to directly propose the exemption of land.

How can there be tax exemption if you don't pay taxes in the first place?

However, if Zhang Juzheng's idea was really followed and the gentry were required to pay the taxes on their land, they would be given a certain tax exemption. At least it would save everyone's face, and it could also cover up the fact that all the meritorious people in the Ming Dynasty were collectively "corrupt and perverting the law."

"The imperial court is promoting the silver standard, replacing the rice subsidy with silver. From now on, the amount of silver for one dan of grain will be set every year, and officials can voluntarily choose to receive silver or rice subsidy.

As for the abolition of the partial deduction, it was regarded as a donation from all officials to the insufficient financial resources of the court, but in fact it was compensated by the tax exemption of land. "

Wei Guangde continued.

"How did he say?"

Although Tan Lun did not think it was a good idea for Wei Guangde to use tax-free land to pay his salary, he still had to consider Zhang Juzheng's attitude.

"He hasn't expressed his opinion yet. Maybe he's still considering it."

Wei Guangde smiled. (End of this chapter)