national surname chiming

Chapter 77 Both are dead ends, one is longer and the other is shorter

Shen Tingyang was dizzy when he learned that his son had won a great victory and was promoted to the magistrate of Huangzhou by the emperor himself.

When he returned to his residence in the capital that night, his wives, concubines and maids came to serve him, and he was still a little out of his mind.

"Master, what's wrong with you? Don't scare us." His wife Xu asked worriedly.

"Lin'er won a great victory in Huangzhou. His Majesty was overjoyed. He was promoted to be the magistrate of Huangzhou. The imperial order has been taken to wait for the cabinet vote to be drafted. It will be issued after the court meeting in the future."

Shen Tingyang was rubbed on his chest for a long time before he gasped and said,
"Set the wine! Set up ten tables and eight tables! I want to entertain my colleagues in the household department! Huh, those guys who originally wanted to discuss marriage with my family at the beginning of the year, but then saw Lin'er go to a place ravaged by thieves to become an official, and then retreated in a hurry , I regret it now.

Only in his early twenties, he became a fifth-rank magistrate, and his future prospects are limitless.Sure enough, heroes come out of troubled times, and this is all the credit earned by the blade's blood. The promotion is fast. "

Xu and several aunts were overjoyed when they heard this.Although Shen Shuren was not born by the Xu family, she was just a stepmother, but it is good for her family to have a future, and she is not worried about fighting for this family property.

Mrs. Xu couldn't help but said: "I'm so happy, master, you have to rest and relax these few days, and leave the rest to the servants to worry about. But you mentioned Lin'er's marriage, didn't you?" It's time for an urgent meeting.

At the beginning, your colleagues were afraid that he would be in danger and wanted to wait and see, but we adults don't remember villains.Since it is said that Huangzhou is completely pacified this time and the local area is safe, I believe that the old granddaughter of the Chaozhong Pavilion will not hinder the marriage with our family. "

Mrs. Xu doesn't understand state affairs, so all she can worry about is gossip. Just now, hearing her husband talk about her son's marriage, she immediately became as excited as chicken blood. of.

Shen Tingyang was relatively calm, and felt that his wife was a bit too rampant, so he coughed lightly:
"Don't get carried away, there are fifth-rank magistrates who have never married a wife, so let's do our part, don't climb up randomly, it is enough to be able to climb a level and a half.

Speaking of this matter, I recalled that when Jiang Shilang interrogated me the day before yesterday, he asked whether my family had a close relationship with the family of Huguang Governor Fang Kongxuan, and suspected that Governor Fang and my family were secretly discussing to be in-laws, otherwise Governor Fang would reject it in order to cover up for Lin Er. Complaints by Zuo Liangyu and Yuan Jixian.

Alas, it would be great if this matter is true, the Fang family in Tongcheng can be regarded as a scholarly and well-known family in the literary world for three generations.The three younger sisters and cousins ​​of Governor Fang back then were all known for their talents, learning and righteousness, and they were able to remain widowed with a pure heart after losing their husbands.

I heard that Huang Yan's nephew had married Governor Fang's niece, the daughter of his widowed cousin, and they were very peaceful.The daughter who wants to come to the governor's house must have better tutoring.

Later, I asked someone to prepare a heavy gift. After visiting Lin'er in Huguang, I sent him to Jingzhou Mansion on the way, to check with Governor Fang, and said that it was to thank him for his righteousness and justice.Lin Er was still the same age as Fang Yizhi, with this friendship, maybe Governor Fang would consider it. "

Mrs. Xu was fascinated by her husband's words, and felt the same way at first.But later, when my husband mentioned Governor Fang's three younger sisters and cousins, he was a little unhappy and faintly jealous.

After all, these are people of the same generation as them, and her husband's inner and outer words revealed that "the wealthy businessmen are not short of money, so they want to marry the leader of the literary world", which made her quite upset.

She thought about it, and tried her best to dissuade her:

"What's wrong with women who are righteous? Ping An is a blessing! The three elder sisters and sons of the Fang family are all widows. Maybe it's the women of the Fang family who are hard-working! No matter what kind of scholarly family you are, you can't marry This kind! Our family still lacks a chastity arch!"

Shen Tingyang felt a little scared after being harassed like this, so he temporarily put aside the idea.

In the next few days, Shen Tingyang also received a lot of compliments from his colleagues during the Shen family banquet.

Many Beijing officials also handed over olive branches again, and stuffed a bunch of their own daughter's birthday horoscopes. Shen Tingyang returned the gifts, but they did not give any letter of approval. First, leave the horoscopes and choose slowly.

On the first day of December, after the routine court meeting, the cabinet drafting process was completed, and the promotion documents were officially issued.

Shen Tingyang also wrote a family letter for his son, and he planned to send it to his family who went south in a few days. It also mentioned the matter of discussing marriage with him, and secretly attached some written descriptions, which was regarded as giving his son a little choice. .

Normal marriages in the Ming Dynasty were, of course, ordered by parents and matchmakers, and it was not up to young people to decide for themselves.

Shen Shuren was also promoted too fast for meritorious service, and his official position was almost the same as that of his father, so Shen Tingyang had no choice but to pamper him a little.Give him a range and let him choose by himself, but the "shortlist of candidates" still needs to be checked by his parents first.

……

After finishing this work, it was already the twelfth lunar month, and Shen Tingyang thought he would be able to relax.

But on the second day of the twelfth lunar month, he was summoned by Chongzhen again on a whim, and he also asked Jiang Dejing to play the right match.

Shen Tingyang murmured in his heart, and only found out when he got to the place. It turned out that Chongzhen had thought about it carefully after he went back, and was very interested in the "Lijin Reform" he mentioned that day, and wanted to talk about it in detail.

Shen Tingyang groaned slightly in his heart, knowing that the policy mentioned to him in his son's family letter is actually not yet ripe for implementation, and will encounter a lot of resistance and backlash, but until now, he can only bite the bullet.

That day, he was just asking for the way by throwing stones, making excuses to ask for an interview with the emperor, so he took the risk to propose it in advance, and he didn't expect to be approved by the emperor at all.

After interviewing the emperor again, Chongzhen first asked a few simple words, "If this new deal is implemented, how much money can we get?"

Shen Tingyang also had to answer truthfully: "Your Majesty, Lijin is a measure that can only be levied in name only by providing escort and interrogation to business travelers in state capitals bordering on thieves or Tartars.

If it is rashly collected as a general business tax, there is no basis for the law of the ancestors, and it will be resisted by the gentry and bureaucrats all over the world-the business tax is only so much every year in my dynasty, and the reason why it cannot be increased is because most of the businessmen have gentry backgrounds .

However, His Majesty’s previous increase of the three rates was mainly borne by the peasants and the poor. These people had no complaints for them in the court, so there was little resistance to the implementation of the three rates at the official level.

Your Majesty wants to estimate how much money can be collected after the lijin method is implemented. I only dare to estimate the figure based on the waterway shipping business travel in the Yangtze River Basin and the northern border gate——

After the implementation of lijin in these two regions, based on the quantity of goods transiting through the banknote customs in previous years, an inspection fee of one percent (one percent) will be charged for each province that passes through, and the annual income will be about... 400 million taels.If the tax rate continues to increase, or if the military navy provides escorts, the charges will increase accordingly, and the income will also increase several times, but the military cost will also skyrocket. "

The number Shen Tingyang said was basically not his own thought, but Shen Shuren's rough calculation when chatting with his family book before.

The lijin system was historically not until the late Qing Dynasty and Zeng Guofan, in order to deal with the Taiping Army, came up with this source of income to train the Hunan Army and the Huai Army.In the end, it was indeed with this money that the Taiping Army was killed.

Therefore, purely from the perspective of "not offending the peasants and ensuring sufficient military expenditures to solve the peasant army", Lijin can indeed continue the life of a dynasty, but the side effects are also obvious.

After the implementation of lijin in the Qing Dynasty, and in the later period of the counterattack against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the total income of lijin reached more than 2000 million taels a year, which was about the same as the sum of the three salaries in the late Ming Dynasty.Lijin was exploited by merchants and three rates were exploited by peasants. The Qing Dynasty succeeded in continuing life and the Ming Dynasty did not continue.

However, in the late Qing Dynasty, the population was more than 3 million, three times that of Daming today, and it was only after the Lijin tax rate was raised many times.Now that lijin is being levied, it is almost the same after dividing by one-third and then cutting it in half, so the new commercial tax in the Yangtze River Basin is only three or four million taels.

After hearing this number, Chongzhen was not too happy.

After all, the training fee levied last year was 800 million taels, equivalent to twice the likin.Unless the tax rate is raised in likin, it cannot replace the three rates.

As for the original commercial tax of the Ming Dynasty...the amount of big banknotes varies from tens of thousands of taels to 10,000+ taels per year, and the total sum is less than 100 million. It can only be regarded as pocket money. The Ming Dynasty did not rely on commercial taxes at all. .

After thinking over and over again, Chongzhen sighed: "Then let me talk about the possible disadvantages once Lijin is implemented-let me guess, the first to bear the brunt is whether it will provoke the mine supervisor and tax supervisor again. Resisting that, causing chaos in the south of the Yangtze River?"

Chongzhen had seen his elder brother's rebellion against Wei Zhongxian's tax supervisor in Suzhou in the south in his late years, and he had also read "The Tombstone of Five People" written by Zhang Pu.

Although after he ascended the throne, because of attacking Wei Zhongxian, he washed away those who resisted the tax supervisor.But after more than ten years of being the emperor, his heart has actually been shaken many times, and many problems have been understood, and he misses the benefits of those tax and mine supervisors.

It's just that because of the emperor's face, Qingliu put him under the moral abduction of "the emperor should not compete with the people for profit", so he couldn't get off the stage.

However, Shen Tingyang's answer surprised him a little:
"Your Majesty...if it is implemented well and the scope of the pilot project is properly controlled, the resistance encountered by Lijin may be much smaller than that of mine inspectors and tax inspectors sent during the Tianqi years. However, that will cause Lijin to have other hazards, and we must not Don't worry."

Chongzhen raised his eyebrows: "Oh? How can Lijin be less hindered? What are the other hazards?"

Shen Tingyang gritted his teeth, and picked out a few details that he had discussed with his son's family letter before:

"During the Tianqi period, the southern gentry resisted the mine supervisor and the tax supervisor. On the one hand, those eunuchs really searched too much and had no rules. Although they also expanded the financial resources for the court, at least six out of ten fell into the hands of treacherous eunuchs and their party members.

Moreover, the collection of commercial taxes has always been uniformly dispatched by the imperial court. At that time, there were no bandits in the south, and the common people and gentry felt that they were using their own money to subsidize the northerners, so they resented.

The current situation is much more critical than during the reign of Tianqi, and there are also thieves in the south. Lin Yangcheng's tribe is close to Anqing and Luzhou, which is already the border of Southern Zhili, that is, the Six Ministries of Nanjing and the wealthy gentry of Suzhou and Hangzhou. Can feel that home is threatened.

If His Majesty imposes a new commercial tax, the funds can be earmarked for the encirclement and suppression of the thieves in the south.And if the three salaries saved are used for the war in the north, then the resistance of the southern gentry will naturally decrease. After all, the money is to defend their own homeland, so there will be less resistance.

However, the disadvantage of this measure is also obvious. Since the Song Dynasty, the imperial court had to separate the local army and finances to prevent the separatism of the Tang Dynasty.

Although our court has three envoys in the local area, and the military guards and financial power are held in the hands of different feudal officials, but when the war is critical, I am afraid that there will be strongmen acting arbitrarily.Among them, the interests should not be careless. "

These words were analyzed by Shen Shuren and his father, and they were also based on his correct understanding of history——

After the Qing Dynasty used lijin, it did not die in the peasant army, but Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang did not lose his tail after that, and became the southeast mutual protection.In the end, the southern region formed its own independent consciousness, and after 60 years, the Qing Dynasty was still buried.

Once the Lijin strategy is implemented, for the warlords who are suppressing thieves in the south, it will definitely benefit and cause no harm.In the future, there will definitely be "Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang" who protect and support the Ming Dynasty in Huguang.

But after Daming Jiangshan was saved, it was hard to say whether he still listened to Chongzhen.

However, Shen Tingyang still spoke so honestly, he didn't hide anything, and Chongzhen couldn't blame him for harboring evil intentions.

"This matter... Let's discuss it again. Right now, we can only acquiesce to Huangzhou's continued implementation. I don't reward or blame it. As for whether Huguang can implement it, it depends on the situation next year."

After struggling again and again, Chongzhen finally closed his eyes in pain, and temporarily chose a drag formula.

(End of this chapter)