Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 207

Yanzhou City Tower.

Crying and robbing the land, a group of gentry are as powerful as mourning concubines, everyone has to pay back and punish the silver, the amount is not small.

Many people were carried down.

"Your Highness, this is a big matter and involves a lot of things. Do you want to think about it?" Xu Shiqi asked.

Shen Chenquan said directly, "I think it is feasible to deny the practice of doubling the discounts and exemptions in various places, but is it too much to investigate for 20 years? Moreover, the deficits in various places are bad debts. Now the officials are responsible for making up for it, and they have to pay a high amount. Fine interest, this matter is only afraid of stirring up a civil uprising."

Zhu Yihai asked, "Revolts? In the past, ordinary people were forced to do what? Military households were forced to flee, civilian households and artisan households were forced to flee. Why did they flee? Because the government gave those powerful and powerful families the tax they should pay. , It was all spread on their heads, they worked hard, not only did not get food and clothing all year round, but also owed the government, so naturally they had to flee."

"Those powerful families have sucked the blood of the court and the people for many years. Now I don't pursue their crimes. I just let them spit out the blood they sucked. They can't stand it and want to rebel?"

"It's ridiculous. If they really want to retaliate, then I'll just wait. If they retaliate, I'll cut one, and if they retaliate, I'll copy the whole house. I just happen to get back all my capital and profits."

The two prime ministers, one old and one young, were silent.

Zhu Yihai knocked on the table, "Da Ming has already reached this point, can Gu still turn a blind eye? You are free, you are free. Of course, Gu is willing to give preferential treatment to gentry and officials, but there is a limit, not to let them Lie on the imperial court to suck blood, the imperial court has been sucked dry, it is empty, and it doesn’t stop, if you don’t do it alone, the world will perish!"

"Since they are all about to die, I might as well give it a go instead of waiting to die!"

"According to the preferential and exempt quotas set in the Jiajing Year, the extra case of requisitioning food and silver, the lonely soldiers of the imperial camp are waiting for the payment of food and salaries, and the officials of the court are still owed salaries. To restore ZTE, do you rely on words?"

"A mansion in Yanzhou, how many stones and grains and taels of silver are only collected in the account in a year? Thousands of households, soldiers and grain fields are all gone. You know where they are. You know as much as I do."

Xu Shiqi said, "These things are long-standing evils, and we have to take it step by step."

"There's no time. If you are seriously ill, you need strong medicine. Otherwise, it won't work if it doesn't hurt. If you can’t get it right, how can you expect the officials to carry it out?”

From the Ming Dynasty to the present, all kinds of maladministration are numerous, and when all kinds of conglomerates, they form the ultimate fatal problem, financial collapse and no money.

It is difficult for a family of the common people to move an inch without money, let alone maintain a huge empire.

Daming ran out of money, so he imposed various additional taxes and apportionments, and then it remained the same. In the end, the additional taxes were collected on the heads of the poor and poor. , What fire consumption loses and so on.

The one-whip method in the Wanli period, in fact, in many places earlier, the summer and autumn grains were converted into color and grain, and some of the corvees were converted into silver and sent to the fields, and some of them were distributed. But later, the excessive taxation of fire consumption in various places, as well as the new taxation departments such as the three rates, made people even more tired.

Although Zhu Yihai also knew that the financial system of the Ming Dynasty had a very serious problem, that is, there was not enough surplus for the local governments, which resulted in the local finances having no money and food available, so they could only find ways to ask the people for more money.For example, the number of local government officials is limited, especially in a county with only a few officials and few economic officials. However, to maintain the operation of a county requires a large number of people. In addition to sending servants to the people, it also needs Some professional personnel assist.

For example, the Liufang Book Office, the third class of policemen, the patrol archers, etc., but the imperial court has no salary and salary if it is not compiled.Many places collect a lot of fire consumption, and use this money to serve as local funds.

This is like the residential real estate that Zhu Yihai later bought to live alone in the suburbs. It was so expensive, not only because the developer wanted to make money, but also because the local government had already auctioned off the land for a sky-high price. It is a big part of this house.

Therefore, the additional taxes on fire consumption in various places are also collected on demand.

In the process of collecting silver, it needs to be melted and cast, and there will be loss, and the grain will also be lost in the process of collection and transfer. The official practice is to collect more. For example, in the Han Dynasty, one stone of rice was charged with two buckets.

At this time in the late Ming Dynasty, the collection of fire consumption in various places became even more excessive.

In some places, an additional [-]% is charged, and in some places, the tax is doubled, or even doubled. Originally, one tael of silver was levied, but in the end, the common people had to levy an additional one or two taels. In the end, a small part of the money went into the yamen, and a small part of it was local expenditures, and more of it was divided among officials and officials, so as to make up for their low salary on the surface, and even took out a lot of money for the higher-ups. Reciprocal expenses.

It's like a county magistrate doesn't have a few taels of salary a year, but in fact, the well-known gray income can reach as much as a few thousand taels a year, and the richer the county, the more money.

The people paid too much money and the burden was heavy, so they scolded the court.

But in fact, the imperial court did not get this money, and it was all used locally.

Even in Yanzhou, the amount that should be handed over to the court is owed every year, and the amount handed over is insufficient, let alone expect them to return the fire consumption to the public.

Such a large Yanzhou government now collects [-] taels of silver a year on the books, and then it is not enough for local expenses, and it still owes a deficit. This is too much.

Zhu Yihai also counted on these rear areas to provide money and food to support the resistance against captives.

"My lords, now is the most critical time. I can no longer pretend to be blind. If I pretend to be blind again, the country will be subjugated. This is a greater threat to us than the Tartars. The Tartars are an external threat, but these are Heartache."

"Taking Yanzhou as the starting point for the clean-up and rectification, first dismiss the military and craftsmen and return to the civilian registration, then dismiss the garrison, clean up the farmland, and then clean up the debts accumulated over the years, and then the next step is to clear the land and register the household registration. Resisting the captives requires rejuvenation, and if we don’t revise our internal affairs, how can we deal with the outside world?”

"Gu has already given them the opportunity to make up for the shortfall, pay back the outstanding debts, and return the occupied and annexed farmland and official land. Forget about the past, and write it off. But if anyone doesn't follow the Gukang's order, Gu doesn't mind taking it away. They used knives to scare chickens and monkeys, Gu is poor and crazy now, and he would be happy for someone to jump out, so that it just ransacked the house and confiscated the property."

Both Xu Shiqi and Shen Chenquan couldn't answer the murderous words.

After all, although the gentry's preferential treatment is a national policy, it is also a fact that the gentry are doing too much now, and Zhu Yihai's current punishment is not random punishment.

"In the future, the collection of fire consumption must be standardized. The fire consumption rate is tentatively set at [-]%, and it will be recorded in the public account. It will be handed over to the public account first, and then part of it will be returned to the local government, and part of it will be used to increase the salary of officials and increase their income. Part of it will be used to increase the number of economic officials, another part will be used for local government office funds, and the rest will be used for the national treasury.”

"The collection of fire consumption must be open and transparent, and no additional collection of private parties is allowed. Violators will be severely punished."

This fire consumption levy can be said to be an important local financial group, and it is also a hotbed of corruption, because there is no name, and there is no account.

Now Zhu Yihai wants to standardize this. After all, there is indeed a loss rate in the melting and casting process after the silver is expropriated. However, the loss itself is not high, but the government has increased it layer by layer. Doubly so, the harm to the people is serious, and the officials are greedy because of this.

If this additional levy is regulated, the imperial court will have laws to follow and accounts to check in the future, and even reasonable planning for the money collected, such as increasing salaries for officials and increasing local funds, will have great potential. It can even increase some treasury revenue.

"In the past, the food and salaries of the officers and soldiers have increased, and the income of the officials must also be increased, step by step."

But all the prerequisites are financial regulations and stable income first, otherwise it is difficult for a smart woman to cook without rice.

"Gu also knows that officials all have special silver, gray income. A governor can even get 20 taels of silver a year, and a county magistrate also has several thousand taels. A large part of this money comes from Huoxing silver. , and a lot of them ended up as office expenses, so I will still take care of the actual situation after I return the expenses to the public."

"The officers of the army will have a corresponding amount of relatives' famous food, and use the subsidy salary as a public utility, etc., so the local officials also plan to use the fire money to pull out a part of it, and use it as a special maintenance bank. The tentative governor 2 taels a year, 1 taels a year for the governor, 8000 taels a year for the three provincial envoys, 5000 taels for priests, 4000 taels for magistrates, 2000 taels for county magistrates, 1000 taels for Tongzhi, and 500 taels for general judges..."

This Nourishing Bank is mainly for local chief officials and Zuo officials, ranging from 2 taels to 200 taels. This number is actually based on the regular numbers that Zhu Yihai collected from the local officials, and they were roughly averaged. [-]% off.

For example, the governor can get 20 taels of standard silver, and Zhu Yihai will give 2 taels.And a county magistrate can get about tens of thousands of taels, so a minimum of two thousand is guaranteed.

Compared with their original salaries, the amount of this money for maintenance is very large, even many times.But on the other hand, in the past, officials used their own means to form unspoken rules and get more money, but the source and use of this money were not standardized.

Zhu Yihai is now blocking the source from the source, for example, the important fire consumption silver is returned to the public, and then the use of this piece of money is also regulated, and the money is directly given to them according to their grade and position, and it is stipulated that although the money is issued to officials, it is also with public use. silver in nature.

In the past, officials took money by themselves, and it was up to the individual to take more or less.Now Zhu Yihai asks the imperial court to collect the fire consumption and manage the distribution, and there are standards to follow.

Everyone wants to be an official these days. If you have an official, you have power, and if you have power, you can get rich.

Especially when you become an official in a wealthy place in the south of the Yangtze River, you can earn 10 taels of silver for a prefect, and even some magistrates for three years can earn [-] taels.

It is really poor, the court is rich, and the officials are rich, and the people are suffering and the gentry are cheap.

If this situation is not changed, no one can save the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yihai would rather give the governor 2 taels of silver himself than they would take 20 taels directly from the local government. It is the people, and it is the authority of the state that is damaged. In the end, it is he, the supervisor of the country, who bears the scolding of the people all over the world.

The Ming Dynasty has been rotten from the inside to the outside, Zhu Yihai is now a pastor who repairs the house, try to repair it as much as possible, so that he will not collapse first.

"Your Highness, do you want to go back to Shaoxing first?"

"No, I have to sit in Yanzhou and watch it personally. I must grasp the model of Yanzhou and set an example so that it can be promoted everywhere in the future." Zhu Yihai said firmly. If he left now, he seriously doubted that this matter would be anticlimactic. Even dies without a cure, so he has to stare.

"All the editors of the Fuxing Daily were summoned, and Gu asked them to conduct a comprehensive special report on the reform of Yanzhou, and to publish all aspects of the problem in detail, so that everyone in the world would know Gu's determination, and In the process of reform, let Yanzhou be a good example, so that all places can follow!"

(End of this chapter)