I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 199: Losing the face of the time traveler (second update)
Zhu Youxiao returned to Qianqing Palace and changed into regular clothes while being served by eunuchs and maids.

What happened today was both unexpected and expected.

He had long expected that many ministers would oppose Bi Ziyan's pursuit of tax arrears, and he had already thought about how to deal with it, but he didn't expect it to come so soon.

Now such a result is quite satisfactory. As thought before, he holds military power and is not afraid of any big waves in Jiangnan. In the future, as long as he holds a big stick in one hand and a date in the other to support new interest groups, he will naturally be able to thing.

But the problem now is that before the new interest group was formed, he had already offended many nobles and courtiers from Jiangnan forces.

Before these people gain benefits, they will still accumulate dissatisfaction with themselves, secretly obstructing themselves, and making it more difficult for them to govern.

What should we do? Zhu Youxiao doesn't have the gold and silver for everyone to share directly. Therefore, the current method is to make achievements and improve his prestige. Only in this way can he suppress this group of people. Only continuous victory and continuous achievements can Suppress them and stop them from acting rashly.

Zhu Youxiao also knows very well that this road is difficult. Whenever he encounters a setback, he will definitely be questioned. Therefore, he must not take it lightly and must be careful every step of the way.

Then let’s go and see who is the best!Principal Zhu You secretly swore in his heart.

The time at noon flew by quickly, and it soon passed, and it was time for the imperial edict in the Wenhua Palace.

The ministers of the six ministries and nine ministers did not go out of the palace to rest. Thanks to the people from Honglu Temple providing meals, they rested in the side hall and gathered in twos and threes to discuss today's major events or discuss the afternoon edict.

By the time Zhu Youxiao arrived at the Wenhua Hall, everyone had already gathered and was waiting for the order.

"Although I punished many people in the morning, it was actually the issue of tax arrears in Jiangnan. When I went back at noon, I thought about it. Just a matter of tax arrears in Jiangnan would involve so much effort. Then if we do it again in the future, it will involve tax arrears, etc. Will things still be like this?

Therefore, after much thought, I still feel that we should change the topic of the edict from the salt tax to the finance of the Ministry of Household Affairs. Anyway, the salt tax also belongs to the finance of the Ministry of Household Affairs, so it is not a deviation from the topic. "

"Your Majesty is wise, the country currently has a lot of expenditures. Finance and taxation are the top priority of the imperial court. It should indeed be discussed. However, the Wenhua Palace edict in October last year discussed tax increases. Now according to Wang Shangshu's decision this morning The revenue of the imperial court this year is completely sufficient, so I dare to ask Your Majesty what financial issues of the Ministry of Revenue are being discussed in today's imperial edict."

Liu Yishen naturally had no objection to Zhu Youxiao's discussion of finance and tax matters, but he was afraid that the emperor would discuss raising taxes today, which he absolutely could not accept. After all, it had already been raised once, and the finances were sufficient now. If it were to be raised again, It is not appropriate to be afraid.

When Zhu Youxiao heard Liu Yishuo's question, he wanted to laugh in his heart. Liu Yishuo was so afraid of his arbitrary taxation.

Today he certainly does not want to discuss tax increases, but he wants to discuss the reform of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

"The foundation of major affairs of the imperial court lies in finance and taxation, and finance is the destiny of the country. In the Tang Dynasty, three ministers were set up to be in charge of finance and taxation. The Song Dynasty continued to use the three ministers, making finance and taxation the highest among all dynasties. After the founding of our country, Taizu continued to use the six departments and put the Ministry of Households in charge. Finance and taxation can be regarded as following the old system of Sui and Tang Dynasties.”

"But I have always had a question. The national power and population of the Song Dynasty were far inferior to that of our dynasty. Why was it so wealthy? Even at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the annual income was more than 2000 million yuan, and the territory and population of our dynasty far exceeded that of the Song Dynasty. But The expenditure is insufficient every year, why is this? I wonder who among you ministers can explain to me."

Seeing the emperor raising this question, the ministers looked at each other. This question is not unusual. This question has been raised since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. It's just that the emperor asked this question not to raise taxes.

"Your Majesty, this is actually Taizu's benevolent government. Since the founding of our dynasty, Emperor Hongwu sympathized with the sufferings of the people and ordered a tax of [-] out of [-] fields. The taxes in the Song Dynasty were ten times that of the Han Dynasty and five times that of the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the people often remember Taizu's kindness. "

Liu Yishen was the first to answer this question. Zhu Youxiao knew that the official taxes in the Ming Dynasty were indeed low, and the pressure on the people's regular taxes was also very low, but the taxes on the people's corvées and handymen were very high.

"What the Chief Minister said is very true. In fact, not only the official taxes in our dynasty were low, but also the merchant and miscellaneous taxes and salt taxes were still very low compared to the Song Dynasty. In particular, the Song Dynasty also imposed heavy taxes on tea and wine, especially the return of wine to officials. It can be said that the government does everything possible to collect wealth, but our government subsidizes the people and does not want to compete with the people for profit, so the finance and taxation are far inferior to those of the Song Dynasty."

Zou Yuanbiao, the governor of Gyeonggi Province, stood up at this time. In fact, he had always supported the country in encouraging the development of industry and commerce, and also supported an appropriate increase in taxes, but opposed an increase in regular taxes. Therefore, at this time, he proposed that the Song Dynasty impose heavy taxes on tea and wine, which was actually a suggestion. .

"What you all said makes sense, but in my opinion, compared with the Song Dynasty, we cannot just look at taxes. If we just increase taxes on the people, no matter what taxes are imposed, the people will still suffer. In fact, our government Although taxes are low, the national and financial resources of our dynasty are far greater than those of the Song Dynasty. Even if taxes are low, we actually collect a lot of taxes, but why the country is increasingly running out of money actually lies in the system!"

Shen Guan has now shed all his burdens and has semi-broken with the Zhejiang Party. Now he just wants to attach himself to the emperor. As long as he holds on to the emperor's thigh, no one can overthrow him.

Therefore, when he heard the emperor's inquiry just now, he thought about it, wondering what the purpose of the emperor's inquiry was and why he mentioned the topic of the three secretaries.He was a smart person and figured it out after a while. "Oh, then Shen Aiqing, tell me why the reason lies in the system."

Zhu Youxiao really wanted to reform the system, and when he heard Shen Guan's speech, he immediately became interested.

"The reason why Your Majesty has so many finances and taxes in the Tang and Song Dynasties is that he has three secretaries responsible for finance and tax matters, from tax collection, warehousing, transportation, etc., as long as it is related to finance and taxation, the three secretaries are responsible for it, but our dynasty is different. Although the Ministry of Household Affairs Controls finance and taxation, but the other five ministries, localities, and even the internal treasury all have financial resources.

As a result, the power of finance and taxation cannot be unified, and it is very troublesome to arrange the Ministry of Household Affairs. Not only is the loss large, but it is also difficult to calculate and restricts each other. Therefore, even if our government has a large number of finances and taxes, if the money goes to various places, not all of it goes to the Ministry of Households for use in the court. It's no use. "

Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but admire Shen Guan's words, thinking that he had spoken from the bottom of his heart. It was true. This was also the issue Zhu Youxiao wanted to discuss today.

Since time traveling, he has kept up with Jingyan through self-study, and has a deep understanding of the political system of the Ming Dynasty, especially the financial system.

He discovered that the central finance of the Ming Dynasty had a big problem, that is, financial management was very decentralized. Each department had its own small treasury and was accountable to the emperor.

Although the Ministry of Household Affairs was the most important component of the central financial management system in the Ming Dynasty, it controlled the central financial affairs and was not able to govern all the imperial government's finances.

In addition to the Ministry of Household Affairs, the central departments of the Ming Dynasty such as the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War, Taipu Temple, Neifu, and Guanglu Temple all had financial management functions, and many of them were responsible for miscellaneous taxes.Among them, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of War, and Taipu Temple have independent financial resources, and their own revenue and expenditure systems are not subject to management interference by the Ministry of Household Affairs.

For example, the finances of the Ministry of Industry mainly come from the income from the silver exchange for work materials and bamboo and wood extraction from various places; the income of the Ministry of War mainly comes from the firewood and direct silver of officials in Beijing, which are collected and stored in the Arsenal Department of the Ministry of War, and distributed by the Ministry of War to officials in Beijing; Tai The income of Pushi is mainly from the horse price silver obtained from the war horses from various places, etc.
In addition to the six ministries, the emperor also had his own small treasury. For example, although the fiscal revenue of the Inner Palace and Guanglu Temple were handled by the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works, their expenditures were not subject to the management restrictions of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

This resulted in these departments not being financially subordinate to each other, and no one could control each other. The emperor could only arrange and distribute the funds in the middle.

Therefore, although the Ministry of Revenue seems to be in charge of the court's finances, it actually does not. A lot of money is in the other five ministries and even in the inner treasury, and the Ministry of Revenue cannot control it.

This leads to the fact that the amount of money in the national tax account submitted by the Ministry of Accounts every year is only the money that the Ministry of Accounts can receive, excluding the independent financial parts of other central ministries, excluding the corvee part, and excluding the retained part of land tax. Condition.

This is the essence of the financial issue that Zhu Youxiao wants to discuss today. It is not to increase taxes or salt tax, but to strengthen the authority of the Ministry of Household Affairs and transfer all central finances of the imperial court to the Ministry of Household Affairs, except for internal funds.

Only in this way can money be utilized to the maximum extent, managed in a unified manner, and losses and corruption reduced.

Otherwise, the small treasury of each department will definitely not be willing to spend money on other departments, and they will push each other every time they borrow money, and there may even be sudden spending. They would rather spend it themselves than borrow money from other departments, which is a huge waste of resources.

But this approach is very unpleasant. Taking people's money is like killing their parents. These departments have wanted to control these financial resources since the founding of the country. Now how can Zhu Youxiao just say that he will release them?

Zhu Youxiao also thought of this, so he originally wanted to take it slow and figure it out slowly. Even when he issued the edict this morning, he just wanted to discuss the salt policy first and then appropriately strengthen the power of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

But what happened in the morning when the ministers united to force him to go to the palace made him completely sober.

What do you think you will get in return for your excessive concessions?It's because the ministers are pressing harder and harder on themselves, and they think that if they unite, they can make themselves surrender.

So instead of doing this, you should take the initiative, take the initiative, and carry out drastic reforms. They have to be changed anyway. It doesn't matter whether they change early or late. Ming Dynasty has no time to delay.

At this time, he couldn't help but think of Emperor Sejong Jiajing. After he came to the throne at the age of 15, he had a conflict with the Ministry of Rites and the cabinet over the issue of how to respect his parents. In the end, he persisted in fighting and won with the cabinet Yang Tinghe admitting defeat.

Thinking of this, he felt really ashamed. He was still a time traveler, not to mention that the military power was in his own hands. How could he be so bullied by civilian officials when he was not as good as Emperor Sejong.

What a disgrace to the time travellers.

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(End of this chapter)