prosperous age

"Master, you are here."

"Ah."

Wei Guangde came out of the mansion this morning, got on the sedan chair and directly ordered to go to the cabinet.

Wei Guangde hadn't appeared in the cabinet for two days, and he felt that he couldn't hide forever. He decided to deal with some memorials in the cabinet and then go to the Ministry of War in the afternoon to inquire about the situation.

When I went to the cabinet, I also told Zhang Juzheng about the arrangements made by the Ministry of War.

Now that someone has reminded you, you have to give a response.

He entered the cabinet and walked to the door of his duty room, but the door was closed and not opened.

Lubu was standing at the door as usual, but he seemed to be dozing off, leaning against the pillar of the house.

When the footsteps woke Lu Bu up, he hurriedly opened the door and saluted Wei Guangde.

"Master, the room has been cleaned up this morning. I will go make you some tea."

Although Wei Guangde entered the room, Lu Bu hurriedly said something.

"Go."

I guess the water hasn't been boiled yet, so I'll have to wait a while if I want to drink tea.

Wei Guangde didn't care and just sat down behind the empty desk. At this time in the past, the desk would have been piled with memorials.

After waiting for a while, Lu Bu came in with the teacup and placed it next to the desk, where Wei Guangde could reach it.

"Go to the front later and ask them to bring some memorials, maybe ten or so."

Wei Guangde had no intention of bringing in a bunch of memorials, and would be busy until the court was dismissed.

After spending half a day processing a dozen memorials, it was almost done.

"By the way, I haven't been to the cabinet these two days. Has anything happened?"

Just as Lu Bu turned to leave, Wei Guangde suddenly stopped Lu Bu and asked.

"Hey, Master, now that you are in charge of the Ming Dynasty, there won't be any trouble.

Look, the Mongols and Jurchens in the north who were about to cause trouble have now calmed down, and Burma in the south has also been conquered by Governor Li. This means the world is at peace. "

Lu Bu started praising Wei Guangde as soon as he opened his mouth.

"Come on, I've heard this so many times that my ears are callused. Don't say it to me anymore."

This was actually quite useful to hear, but Wei Guangde still waved his hand to tell Lu Bu to shut up.

"By the way, the palace did send a note to the Ministry of Revenue yesterday, but it was rejected by Prime Minister Zhang."

Lu Bu put away his playful smile and added a sentence as if he had just thought of it.

"In the palace? Who? What's going on?"

When Wei Guangde heard that Zhang Juzheng rejected the note from the palace yesterday, he hurriedly asked.

"The Emperor ordered the Ministry of Revenue to deliver 100,000 taels of silver to the Guanglu Temple, saying that the Emperor disliked the food in the palace and asked for more money to be allocated to the Guanglu Temple to improve the food."

Lu Bu said quickly.

One hundred thousand taels of silver, just to eat better. When the news got out, all the clerks in the cabinet were secretly shocked.

After hearing this, Wei Guangde was surprised at first, then nodded slightly.

In fact, the food provided to the emperor and the empress dowager in the palace was very good, and hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were prepared every year.

As for the little emperor complaining about the bad food, not only the little emperor, but he too complained about it.

It’s really hard to describe the things in Guanglu Temple.

Don’t think that all the imperial chefs in ancient times were skilled masters. There were some, but not many.

In fact, those who are really skilled in cooking are all working as chefs in the mansions of nobles and powerful officials in the capital, because they are willing to pay and the ingredients are good.

The food in the palace, on the other hand, is made from excellent ingredients, but safety is more important than taste.

Of course, what Wei Guangde found most difficult to accept was the price. Wei Guangde was too embarrassed to check the accounts, as it was simply an insult to his intelligence.

The cost of one meal for the little emperor was equivalent to the food expenses of several days in the Wei Mansion, but the food was really not as delicious as at home.

It seems that only those in the palace don’t know the reason, or pretend not to know it.

"Just refute it directly?"

Wei Guangde just asked a follow-up question.

"The Prime Minister went to the Qianqing Palace and met the Emperor. When he came back, he said everything was fine."

Wei Guangde glanced at Lu Bu and knew that this group of people must be surprised by the emperor's one-time increase in food expenses by 100,000 taels of silver.

If they were seen eating the emperor’s meals every day, they probably wouldn’t think so.

However, the matter has already been handled by Zhang Juzheng, and it seems that Zhang Juzheng has no intention of cleaning up the problems at the Guanglu Temple, so Wei Guangde will naturally not intervene again.

Nodding slightly, Wei Guangde asked again: "Anything else?"

"The day before yesterday, Huizhou Prefecture submitted a memorial about the tax on silk and satin. Because of the uneven distribution, the six counties under Huizhou Prefecture have been in an uproar. Even...

It is said that the people of the five counties are targeting another county together, but no one knows what is going on. The day before yesterday afternoon, the Prime Minister even asked Zhang Shangshu to come over to discuss the matter. "

Lu Bu said hurriedly.

"Go downstairs later, and let me take a look at the memorial. Also bring the draft of the Prime Minister."

What Wei Guangde wanted to see were the cabinet's own archives.

"Anything else?"

Wei Guangde continued to ask.

"No, these two things are the only things that people have talked about in the past two days. No one has mentioned anything else."

Lu Bu replied.

"Okay, go down."

After Wei Guangde asked his questions, he waved his hand and asked Lu Bu to go down and bring all the things to him.

However, when Lu Bu walked out of the duty room, Wei Guangde's eyebrows were wrinkled into the shape of the Chinese character "川".

Lu Bu and other secretaries, perhaps just seeing that the emperor wanted to eat better, would ask for an astronomical sum of 100,000 taels of silver at a time.

Going deeper, there is the issue of the food in the Guanglu Temple. The corruption involved was so daring that even the emperor was not satisfied because the food was not good.

In fact, Wei Guangde also saw that the little emperor seemed to have grown up and began to test his words and the notes he issued, which increased his influence in the court.

One hundred thousand taels of silver was a small matter, but the Ministry of Revenue did it, which showed that the ministers had the emperor in their hearts and would do things according to his instructions.

But obviously, the result of the test was not like this.

After the note was issued, Zhang Juzheng went there and stopped the matter.

Wei Guangde couldn't say whether Zhang Juzheng's behavior was right or wrong, but he felt that it was indeed too disrespectful to the young emperor.

The little emperor is no longer young now. He is in the rebellious period of his youth and attaches great importance to face.

Even if his request was to be rejected, at least the Guanglu Temple should be severely punished. But Zhang Juzheng did not do so.

Only the emperor was struck.

Not long after, Lu Bu brought back a pile of memorials with a book on top, which was used to record the cabinet's archives.

Wei Guangde did not look through the memorials, but first looked through the books, found the memorial records from Huizhou Prefecture, and read them carefully.

Soon, Wei Guangde realized the trouble of this matter.

If you say it's a big deal, it is really a big deal, involving the interests of the six counties of Huizhou Prefecture.

The key is that the silk and satin costing several thousand taels of silver would have to be shared among the other five counties, and the gentry and common people in the five counties would certainly not be happy about it.

The incident happened in the fourth year of Longqing. Officials working in the government office of She County discovered that the tax items were wrong. Among them, a tax levied by the court on Huizhou Prefecture had been borne by She County alone for a long time, while the other five counties had not shared any of the burden.

Shuai Jiamo discovered this loophole in the accounts and naturally spread the news in the county government. Everyone knew about it and was very indignant.

Afterwards, it was naturally Shuai Jiamo who reported the matter to the governor of Southern Zhili, and submitted a copy of all the documents he had found as evidence.

In fact, after the county magistrate learned about this, he just took a look and said nothing more.

Because he knew that since it had been inherited for two hundred years and was only being changed now, it would be very difficult as the impact would be too great and would completely subvert the Huizhou Prefecture.

Reporting it would only cause trouble for the prefect.

Anyway, the taxes were borne by the people, and as a county magistrate he did not pay taxes, he naturally did not bother to ask about it.

Who would have thought that Shuai Jiamo was so stubborn that he not only found the source of the tax silver, but also consulted the "Da Ming Hui Dian" to find evidence to support his opinion.

According to the records of the Ministry of Revenue, Huizhou Prefecture was required to pay 8780 pieces of silk per capita every year, equivalent to more than 6100 taels of silver, but the Ministry of Revenue did not clearly record whether She County was solely responsible for the payment.

During the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang, the entire Huizhou owed the Ministry of Revenue a total of more than 10700 dan of grain. Based on the official silver discount standard at the time, which was 3 cents per dan, this amount of silver was about 3000 taels.

But to convert the grain into 8780 pieces of silk, and according to the official price of 7 cents per piece, it would cost more than 6100 taels of silver.

From then on, the local accounts of She County and the accounts recorded in Huizhou Prefecture were the same, both of which were 8780 pieces of raw silk.

This means that this tax is borne solely by She County, and the other five counties do not have this item at all.

But logically speaking, the taxes that Huizhou Prefecture should pay should be shared by the six counties. This is obviously a bit unreasonable, and has been going on for more than two hundred years.

Shuai Jiamo checked the "Da Ming Hui Dian" and found that the code only mentioned that Huizhou Prefecture would bear the "silk and satin for the population", and there was no other words saying that She County had to bear the cost alone.

After a quick thought, he concluded that the silk debt owed to the people of Huizhou Prefecture had nothing to do with the arrears of summer wheat in the early Ming Dynasty. If it was to be paid, it should be borne jointly by the six counties of Huizhou Prefecture.

It is untenable and unfair to let She County bear the annual silk and silk tax of more than 6,000 taels of silver for Huizhou Prefecture alone. This is equivalent to She County paying taxes for the other five counties for a long time.

The matter was reported, and the Yingtian governor also wrote to the Huizhou government to investigate the matter thoroughly.

However, the matter has been under thorough investigation and began to be delayed after being sent back to Huizhou Prefecture.

After all, most of the local officials were from the six counties, and they naturally saw the trick in Shuai Jiamo's report after reading it.

It doesn't matter whether someone did it on purpose or it was an accident. What matters is that if the tax is shared, the five counties will have to bear the burden of a thousand taels of tax silver every year, and naturally no one is willing to do that.

Delaying it is naturally the best solution.

However, Shuai Jiamo also kept submitting letters to the emperor, and at the same time the news spread in She County, and both the gentry and the common people were dissatisfied.

After that, Nanjing kept sending orders to Huizhou Prefecture, asking it to investigate the situation and deal with it impartially, because Yin Zhengmao was the Minister of Revenue in Nanjing at that time.

With this huge Buddha statue around, the prefect of Huizhou Prefecture naturally did not dare to neglect it.

In fact, it would be fine if they didn't know, but now that they know, and know that they have been bearing unreasonable taxes, of course they are going to make a fuss.

What's more, She County is not without strong supporters in the court.

With the pressure from Yin Zhengmao, the prefect insisted on taking over the tax from the five counties. Just think about how much courage it took.

The final outcome was that the governor, inspector and military governor of Yingtian coordinated with the neighboring prefectures of Huizhou and jointly sent personnel to first "sum up" all the taxes and grain of Huizhou Prefecture, and then determine the silk burden according to the number of people and acres of land in each county, in order to achieve "equal taxation and labor service."

After all, She County was a large county in Huizhou Prefecture. Although it still had to bear part of the tax, there was less than 3,000 taels of tax silver left. More than 3,000 taels of silk for two people were deducted from She County's annual burden and shared by the other five counties.

Afterwards, Huizhou Prefecture conveyed this plan to all counties.

As a result, Huizhou Prefecture began to become chaotic during this period.

Under the instigation of the gentry, fierce conflict broke out between She County and the other five counties.

The angry common people surrounded the county government office, demanding an explanation. At most, tens of thousands of people gathered, and the situation was almost out of control.

The shops of She County merchants in the five counties were often smashed and robbed. People from She County could not get food or accommodation in the other five counties. Anyone who wanted to marry a woman from She County was also looked down upon.

As for the people from the five counties, once they arrived in She County, they were beaten up without any investigation.

In fact, at this time, there were already signs of large-scale civil unrest in Huizhou Prefecture.

By this time, the prefect of Huizhou was feeling a bit frustrated. He knew that if he couldn't handle the matter well, his tenure as an official would be over.

Although he did not dare to forcibly transfer the tax silver to the five counties, he thought of a way to replace the former with the latter, but this had to be reported to the capital.

According to the new plan, the original silk levy of more than 6,000 taels for the people of She County would remain unchanged and still be borne by She County alone, but other taxes in She County would be reduced by 2,000 taels, and this would be "a permanent rule."

In principle, the two thousand taels were to be shared by the other five counties according to the population. However, after communication between Huizhou Prefecture and the gentry of the five counties, it was learned that the people of the five counties still found it difficult to accept.

Therefore, another solution was thought of. It was decided that the two thousand taels of tax silver would be deducted from the military supply silver of Huizhou Prefecture. In other words, the task of allocating two thousand taels of silver would only be implemented at the prefecture level and would not be assigned to the counties.

In this way, the five counties did not need to increase taxes, but the government allocated two thousand taels of silver from military supplies to pay the taxes.

In the final analysis, Huizhou Prefecture nominally borne the loss, but in reality it was the Ministry of War that lost its income, and She County's taxes also decreased by 2,000 taels, thus settling the issue for all parties and making everyone happy.

Of course, this is actually because She County is the richest among the six counties of Huizhou Prefecture, and it is mainly for the sake of face.

The two thousand taels of silver in taxes had been paid for two hundred years, so it was not that they could not afford to pay it.

After figuring out the whole story, Wei Guangde could only sigh.

This plan has been accepted by the six counties of Huizhou Prefecture. If the court disagrees and makes it a "permanent rule", it is unknown what will happen to Huizhou Prefecture in the future.

It was said that Huizhou Prefecture borne the loss, but in fact it was the Ministry of War, and ultimately the Ministry of Revenue. The court was short of two thousand taels of silver.

"Lubu."

Wei Guangde shouted outside.

Lu Bu came in quickly, and Wei Guangde returned the book to him, saying, "Please compile for me a copy of the documents sent by various provinces regarding the Single Whip Law."

Although the land survey in each province had not yet started, with the examples of Jiangxi and Nanzhili, each province had also begun to promote the "One Whip System", which was actually to collect all the local taxes and then distribute them among the fields.

After that, when the land is surveyed, the total tax item can be divided by the number of fields to determine how much tax silver should be paid for each acre of land.

"Ugh."

Lu Bu went out and Wei Guangde sighed.

Even if you know the "truth", sometimes it is better to be ignorant. The most important thing is to keep the peace, even if you are the prime minister.

Zhang Juzheng has already approved this matter, so it’s settled.

I just don’t know how many more such incidents will occur in the process of promoting the One Whip Law. (End of this chapter)