prosperous age

Chapter 498 Chapter 497
In the early years of Hongzhi, due to insufficient annual income, Emperor Hongzhi issued an imperial edict shortly after he ascended the throne, announcing that all royal family salaries and grains would be "halved".

In the 14th year of Hongzhi, the imperial court promulgated further reform measures, "The middle and half of Lumijumi banknotes under the king of the county are also supported, and Lumiju under the princess is four points for the original color, and six points for the folded banknotes", and it is stipulated that all the true colors The silver part of Lumi "still deducts 100 taels for every 20 taels".

When the banknote law was badly broken and the precious banknotes were seriously depreciated, the imperial court adopted the method of "folding banknotes", which reduced the actual amount of the royal family Lumi's disbursements during the Hongzhi period by about half compared with the Hongwu period.

However, in fact, these reforms to reduce Lumi did not fundamentally solve the problem of clan Lumi. The reason lies in two points:
One is because the amount of Lumi disbursed was too large and the local government was unable to supply it, so it adopted the method of defaulting, either not paying it at all, or disbursing it according to a certain percentage.

The second point is that because of insufficient distribution of Lumi, the lower clans could not receive the Lumi they depended on for survival, and became increasingly impoverished.

The reason for this factor is that Lumi’s disbursement system is not obtained by the clan itself from the local government office, but by the prince, who then distributes it to the county king, and then distributes it to the general of the town, the general of the auxiliary country and the general of the auxiliary country. General Fengguo, and finally Lieutenant Fengguo.

It is natural that there is enough Lumi in the local area. Once the local support is insufficient, a small amount of Lumi will be directly distributed by the princes and county kings, and the lower clans will not get any Lumi at all.

Lin Run's memorandum is exactly to solve the problem of the lower clan, and proposes that the prince and the county king will give rice and three stones next month.

Three stones can guarantee that they will not die of starvation or poverty.

Of course Wei Guangde knew the reason for Lin Run's formulation. Wang Zongmu, the right governor of Shanxi Shanxi, had made a statement a few years ago, saying that due to the famine in Shanxi and the arrears of Lumi, "there were several hundred or two hundred people who died of famine last year."

As for what Lin Run said about the Henan clan's "repeated claims and uproar", it was actually caused by Henan Zonglu's arrears of more than 240 million shi.

As for why there is such a huge number, of course it is not the Lumi that should be paid out in one year, but the result of many years of debts.

Test the waters, use Lin Run's proposal to test the waters, and see if Emperor Jiajing intends to amend the suzerainty regulations in the past few years to pave the way for his son to ascend the throne.

"Sure enough."

Speaking of this, I have to say that the taxation system established by Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty has long stipulated how much land taxes should be paid to all counties and counties in the world, and fixed it.

In fact, looking at ancient and modern times, there are really not many emperors like Zhu Yuanzhang.

Lin Run replied.

In Wei Guangde's impression, it seemed strange that he hadn't heard of troubles in the clan under the palace this year.

Wei Guangde got up, got off the carriage, and walked into Prince Yu's Mansion.

However, based on Wei Guangde's understanding of the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, he felt that it might not all be due to the inability of the local government to pay the arrears.

"Don't say it, there really is."

In recent years, the increase has been increasing, including the hair, in addition to the normal salt, there is surplus salt; in addition to the surplus salt, there are processing costs, additional orders, additional introductions, and cut off.

Once this memorandum is played, Wei Guangde believes that he will definitely approve it. As long as he guarantees that the clan will not starve to death, Emperor Jiajing will definitely not refuse, but the local government will be even more in arrears with the vassal Lumi.

Since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty to the present for nearly 200 years, the national taxation has not increased at all, which is also strange.

Recently, the Ming court seems to have really become smoother because of Yan Song's resignation, and there are not so many messy troubles in the past, so Wei Guangde said this.

Entering the room, Wei Guangde laughed.

Wei Guangde fell into deep thought. Before coming to the Ming Dynasty, Wei Guangde, like most people on the Internet, believed that the finances of the Ming Dynasty were dragged down by the almost crazy reproduction of suzerains and vassals. In fact, this was not the case at all, or it was not accurate.

Wei Guangde's question stunned Yin Shizheng, and said: "Isn't it good news to get rid of the bad government established by the strict party?"

For the upper-class clans like princes and county kings, in fact, they do not live on Lumi. No matter how much Lumi was in the early Ming Dynasty, they kept playing to the emperor, asking for rewards for Lumi, which is the so-called "clan begging". , just like Xungui begging for Yanyin, they all use the lack of expenses as an excuse.

"Hehe, there's really nothing to be busy about."

In fact, as Yin Shizhen said in his words, Yan Maoqing’s salt administration can receive a salt tax of one million taels a year, but according to Xu Xuan’s statement, more than [-] taels of tax silver will be reduced immediately.

Why can't the tax and labor be collected?
It's not that there are too many tax-free fields, and everyone doesn't pay taxes. Those who should pay taxes also try their best to donate them to nobles and famous scholars to avoid taxation.

Yin Shizhen laughed.

Wei Guangde thought it over, and didn't let Lin Run revise the memorial. After all, this is what people in this era can think of, and he doesn't plan to present his own plan immediately. He wants to read it again. What opinion will Phan Lumi put forward.

Wei Guangde didn't pay attention to this data, but only mentioned it when listening to people chatting.

"However, the current finances of the imperial court can no longer support the supply of vassal Lumi. Shanxi and other provinces with a large number of vassal kings have chosen to settle their disputes by defaulting on the dispute to the imperial court.

It is impossible to directly abolish Zonglu, which will bankrupt countless lower-level clans and ultimately hurt the face of the royal family. However, it is feasible to let the upper-level clans fund them, but it actually destroys the property ownership system established by the Ming Dynasty.

As for his claim that the salt merchants could not sell the remaining salt in time, it meant that the salt field produced too much salt and could not be sold, and it would be thrown into the hands of the salt merchants, Wei Guangde felt hehe.

After the land tax is fixed, the people will reclaim wasteland and cultivate the land by themselves. Calculated in this way, the cultivated land will increase and the population will increase. However, if the tax revenue does not increase, then the tax and labor distributed to each common people will naturally decrease.

Lin Run’s memorandum, for the current clan, the lower clan would of course like it, because it solved a little problem they faced, but for the clan from top to bottom, they were not satisfied, because the full text of the memorandum was revealed Come up with a meaning - or reduce Lu.

Wei Guangde thought in his heart, he estimated that he had inquired about Zonglu's news from many sources over the past year, so he didn't play it until now.

"I just ask you to correct one or two, and I have discussed it with others."

If you have anything to do, you have to come to Prince Yu's Mansion. The main reason is that you can learn a lot of news here.

Of course, the downside is that the officials in various places have no task of increasing taxes. They only need to complete the figures set by his old man every year to collect taxes. This is also the reason why a large number of hidden fields appeared in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. Shangxin didn't even bother to check the actual situation of the fields.

"Your memorandum, in the short term, will allow the lower-level clan to get a little bit of Lumi, which can feed their hunger, but it still can't solve the problem fundamentally, and they will make trouble after a long time."

Part of the Lumi was folded into waste paper-like banknotes, and the real issue was partially folded into silver. The price per stone was also far lower than the market price, so in fact, the Ming court issued only about the amount of Lumi that should be paid to the vassal. Thirty percent of rice.

Even if you are an emperor and you are said to be rich all over the world, you cannot deprive others of their property at will.

Wei Guangde naturally understood the meaning of Lin Run's words.

Wei Guangde sat on his seat, turned to them and asked, "Is there any good news from the court today?"

In fact, over the years, Wei Guangde also had some ideas, but this idea would be extremely detrimental to the upper clan. He was worried that he would burn himself, so he could only continue to think about other methods.

Wei Guangde looked at Lin Run, thought about it and added: "As you said, it must be resolved, otherwise something will happen sooner or later."

Now that he met Lin Run, what Wei Guangde considered at this time was whether to use him as the knife to slash at Zongfan.

However, their real income is that they hold a large amount of land that does not need to pay taxes, and they continue to annex land, occupy local commercial taxes, and even use their status to monopolize commerce and trade to obtain huge profits.

It would be wrong to say that Yan Maoqing's reform of the salt administration was wrong because he was a strict party.

This is more than 40 taels of tax money. How many 40 taels of silver did the Ming court waste.

Considering the common people so much, to be honest, Zhu Yuanzhang is definitely the most conscientious among the emperors.

In essence, the local government has no subjective initiative and is indifferent to the increase in taxation and labor.

Regarding the matter of the clan Lumi, Wei Guangde felt from the beginning that the endless reproduction of the clan was the root of the crushing of the Lumi system. Every emperor ascended the throne would increase the number of princes, and the princes would increase the county kings, and the burden on the court continued to increase. In the end, everyone nothing left.

But when he said this, Wei Guangde asked curiously: "Ruoyu, how did you think of this?"

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help laughing secretly at Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Taizu, and tried to come up with some policies of cutting off children and grandchildren, digging holes for his own children and grandchildren.

When Wei Guangde arrived, only Yin Shizhen and Zhang Juzheng were in the room, and there was a pile of notes in front of each of them, which should be the information sent today.

Wei Guangde just commented lightly.

Like Wei Guangde, Zhang Juzheng was more practical, and he didn't pay attention to who proposed the so-called "bad governance", but only talked about whether it was beneficial to the court.

"I think I can hand it up first, so that's it."

The suzerains and vassals of the Ming Dynasty were indeed able to reproduce very well. In the Jiajing Dynasty alone, taking the Zhou Palace in Henan as an example, there were more than 6000 people in the early years of Jiajing, but in the first two years, the population had increased by five times to nearly [-] people. It took only thirty years.

"Yo, they're all busy."

Zhang Juzheng understood the meaning of Wei Guangde's words, but there was a smile on the corner of his mouth, and he shook his head gently.

Of course, Lin Run was not stupid enough to offend the upper clan by himself. He also proposed that "it is advisable to order the Minister Ke Dao to gather in the court to discuss the future policy, and then gather all the people to judge from the heart, so that the rules that will never be easy" statement.

Since the mid-Jiajing period, the ancestral jobs of the middle and lower clans were often withheld and delayed by the local government. Considering that civil servants in the Ming Dynasty dared to embezzle military pay without delay, let alone ordinary clans with no power or influence?
That is to say, for clans with relatively high status such as princes and county kings, the local government dare not deduct them at will, but delays also occur from time to time.

At this moment, the carriage stopped suddenly, and someone shouted from the front of the carriage: "Master, Prince Yu's Mansion has arrived."

In fact, this is not always the case, at least as far as the clan of the Jiajing Dynasty is concerned, there is no problem at all in paying, but the premise is that the tax and service must be collected.

"Last year, I was hooked after reading the memorabilia of Master Wang Zongmu of Shanxi."

The soaring population of the imperial clan will indeed infinitely magnify the demand for Lumi and create a huge financial burden on the court. However, in fact, the Ming Dynasty had financial problems very early on. The solutions at that time were "folding banknotes" and "folding colors". way to solve it, similar to the official salary.

For the concierge and bodyguards of Prince Yu's Mansion, Wei Guangde was very familiar with him, so naturally they would not prevent him from entering the mansion.

Hearing Yin Shizhen's words, Wei Guangde was taken aback for a moment, and couldn't help asking: "Is this good news?"

Lin Run just said.

As long as there are vassal kings in their hometown, even if these officials know the inside story, they are unwilling to touch the suzerain-vassal system. The only way to fundamentally solve the financial pressure is to reduce and continuously reduce their demand for Lumi.

Speaking of this, Lin Run pointed around, "Some of them are moved, and more people are still unwilling to touch the clan, for fear of getting angry."

Yan Maoqing saw that the salt was blocked and did not sell well, so he wanted to clear it up, but he didn't know that the salt was not sold, and the merchants were extremely distressed. He asked the Ministry of Households to avoid the increase, and still collected 60 taels a year. "

The salt in the border is eight cents of silver for every introduction, and after Yongle, it is two buckets and five liters of nanometers for every introduction.

In fact, the Lumi problem of the clan and vassals has reached the point where they have to face up to it and find a solution. Is it necessary for the Henan clan to stage a repeated search for nothing in the 16th year of Jiajing and make an uproar? "

The current King Yu's Mansion is like a small Jinyiwei, constantly collecting news from various yamen in Beijing.

Leaving the Metropolitan Procuratorate and sitting in the carriage, Wei Guangde sighed in his heart. Actually, can Lumi, the patriarch of the Ming Dynasty, really afford it?

Holding Lin Run's memorial in his hand, he looked up at him and asked, "When are you going to hand it in?"

But even this figure of [-]% is a considerable expense, especially for the already stretched Ming court's finances.

Yin Shizhen then answered, flipping through the notes in front of him, found one of them and said: "Today Xu Yu, the censor of salt inspection, made a play, saying that when the ancestors were born, Huaiyan had regular shares, deposits, and water towns, totaling 70 yuan. 180 lead, each lead weighs two hundred catties.

As a result, the policy of preferential exemption for scholars came into being. The preferential exemption regulations originally made by the emperor to encourage folks to practice essays were gradually amplified by them.

What's more, they collude with local gentry families to transfer the evenly shared land taxes to the common people, and collect taxes and labor on their original land and newly reclaimed land. If they want to not pay taxes, they naturally have to find reasons.

When those official salts go out, how many people can be used by them. As the censor who patrols the salt, it is impossible for Xu Yu not to know.

It has not been two months since Yan Maoqing was appointed as the Prime Minister of Yanzhengdu Yushi. He was transferred to Dali Temple before, but he was soon dismissed and stayed idle. Unexpectedly, in such a short period of time, the salt merchants opened up their joints and contacted Xu Yu. It is also powerful enough.

"What does Hubu say? Really, just play directly?"

Thinking of Yin Shizhen's attitude when he spoke earlier, Wei Guangde not only asked.

(End of this chapter)