Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 306 The dispute over quotas

"Shanxi Tianfu has a bucket, but also has eight or seven liters. On slopes, it is often five liters."

In the twelfth lunar month of winter, a three-foot-long table was placed in the Wuying Hall, with eight chairs on the left and right, and six ministers and the left and right censors of the Duchayuan were seated respectively.

At the position, Yu Xin, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, was reporting on the land quota for each province, which is related to the burden of the people in each province in the coming year.

During the Hongwu period, the land quota for each province was rarely changed, but it has been changed twice since Yongle.

One time was in the thirty-third year of Hongwu, and the other time was now one year later.

The reason why there was a need to change the fixed land tax was because Zhu Gaoxu discovered more problems about farmers paying taxes.

At present, the Ming Dynasty needs to resume production and restore the amount of cultivated land in the north as it did during the Northern Song Dynasty. Therefore, the land tax quota per mu in each province still needs to be discussed again.

On the golden stage, Zhu Di listened to Yu Xin's report, but looked at the memorial in his hand, frowning.

As winter entered, Wu Liangha appeared again in Zhaozhou and Quaning as expected, but fortunately he was repulsed by the Bohai and Daning cavalry.

Sitting below him was Zhu Gaoxu, who was listening intently to Yu Xin's story.

Standing around them were Xie Jin, Hu Guang, Hu Yan, Yang Shiqi, Jin Youzi and other great scholars.

"A man with a dou of land in Zhejiang has eight liters of paddy fields and five liters of slope land. A dou of paddy fields in Sichuan has six liters of sloping land."

"According to the imperial court's quota, this year's quota is 35 million shi."

After Yu Xin finished explaining the general situation, he told the quota amount set by Zhu Gaoxu this year.

After he finished speaking, Li Zhigang, the Minister of Rites, stood up and bowed to Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu on the Golden Platform:

"Your Majesty, I believe that although Zhejiang has more than 46 million acres of farmland, most of it is sloping land, so we should continue the old Hongwu system to pay taxes and grain."

"Of the 35 million quota, Zhejiang can afford 2.5 million."

"In addition, Nanzhili should also bear six million according to the old Hongwu system."

As soon as Li Zhigang opened his mouth, he set a quota of 8.5 million, which was almost a quarter of the Ming Dynasty Tianfu quota.

Zhu Di knew these two provinces quite well, so when Zhu Gaoxu didn't speak, he nodded and said, "This is the case for these two provinces, what about the other provinces?"

Seeing Zhu Di asking about the situation in other provinces, Li Zhigang sat down leisurely, and Xie Jin, as a royal scholar, also turned around and bowed to Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu.

"Your Majesty, although Jiangxi has 40 million yuan of cultivated land, the annual quota of 2.6 million yuan is already a heavy burden, and no more should be added..."

"What the scholar said is wrong."

Just as Xie Jin opened his mouth, Zhu Gaoxu interrupted: "There are 40 million acres of cultivated land in Jiangxi. I know exactly how much sloping land there is."

“In terms of slopes, does Jiangxi have more slopes than Zhejiang?”

"Your Highness, there are indeed more slopes in Jiangxi than in Zhejiang." Xie Jin bowed in response. He knew that Zhu Gaoxu had never been to Jiangxi, and the same was true for Zhu Di.

Looking at Xie Jin's appearance, it would have been easy for Zhu Gaoxu to be deceived by him if he didn't know what was going on in Jiangxi.

As someone who works in a geological unit, what is the situation in each province? This is something he makes statistics and writes reports every year.

He believed that most of the 40 million acres of arable land in Zhejiang were sloping land. After all, Zhejiang in future generations would not be able to find 20 million acres of plain arable land, let alone now.

However, the plain cultivated land in Jiangxi is definitely much more than that in Zhejiang, but the tax on grain in Jiangxi is only 100,000 dan higher than that in Zhejiang.

"The Poyang Lake Plain alone is bigger than the Hangjiahu Plain in Zhejiang."

Zhu Gaoxu looked straight at Xie Jin and said before he could say anything: "Jiangxi's quota for this year is three million."

"Your Highness, this move will only increase the burden on the people..." Xie Jin loudly dissuaded him, but Zhu Gaoxu chuckled:

"If there is really a burden, the Ministry of Revenue can send the tax department to inspect, and can also dispatch the cavalry in Beijing to Jiangxi to investigate."

"This..." Xie Jin is a typical scholar. Hearing that Zhu Gaoxu wanted to mobilize the army and the tax department to inspect the fields, he was speechless immediately when he did not want Zhu Gaoxu to send the tax department and the army.

At this time, the fat Yang Shiqi stood up and bowed: "Your Highness, the quota of three million is indeed too much, but the court is also facing difficulties. I believe the people will understand the court's good intentions."

Compared with Xie Jin, Yang Shiqi was much more flexible. He answered that the people would understand the court's intentions. If something happened in Jiangxi, it would be due to the court's decision-making error.

"If people have any grievances, they can report it to the Yamen. The soldiers and horses in Beijing and officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Taxation Department will go to investigate."

Zhu Gaoxu didn't have enough money to make money. Anyway, he had increased Jiangxi's quota of three million. If there was any civil unrest in Jiangxi, he could just take the opportunity to lay a secret hand inside Jiangxi.

"Yes, I will definitely convey His Highness's decree..."

Seeing that Zhu Gaoxu was not getting enough, Yang Shiqi had no choice but to accept the offer, thinking about how to allocate the quota of 400,000 shi.

Seeing what Zhu Gaoxu said, the six ministries and the cabinet spoke to each other.

"Huguang can have a quota of 2.2 million shi, and Henan..."

"Henan's quota is 1.5 million shi."

Zhu Gaoxu interrupted everyone's retreat, disrupting their rhythm and putting them in a dilemma.

Henan used to have a quota of 2 million shi, but now it has been reduced by 500,000 shi, which means that other places have to add 500,000 shi, which makes them don't know how to increase the amount.

But while they were still thinking, Xia Yuanji, the official minister, said:

"Your Highness, Beizhili has a quota of 4 million shi, Shanxi has a quota of 2 million shi, Shaanxi has a quota of 1.5 million shi, Sichuan has a quota of 1.5 million shi, Guangdong has a quota of 1 million shi, and Guangxi has a quota of 600,000 shi. stone."

Xia Yuanji suggested setting a quota for the capital and five provinces. Counting the previously set quotas, the total would be 25.8 million shi.

His words surprised everyone. After all, when he said this, there were only four provinces left: Fujian, Yunnan, Shandong and Liaodong.

Among the four provinces, Fujian has little cultivated land, Liaodong is newly developed, and Yunnan has only a small amount of civilian land, which is obviously not enough to solve the remaining 9.2 million dan. Wouldn't the burden fall on Shandong?

"Isn't Xia Yuanji from the East Palace? Why would he put the burden on Shandong?"

For a moment, except for Yu Xin and Huang Fu, the other ministers were surprised, and at the same time they also focused on Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di.

Zhu Di also set his sights on Zhu Gaoxu, wondering what his son wanted to do.

"The quota for Sichuan is two million dan. After the Guangxi chieftains were pacified, there was a lot more farmland. Eight hundred thousand dan is the best."

Regarding Xia Yuanji's suggestion, Zhu Gaoxu only raised the quotas for Guangxi and Sichuan, but even so, there was still a gap of 8.5 million.

"Fujian will reduce the amount, and 800,000 shi will be enough. Yunnan will set 200,000 shi, leaving Liaodong responsible for 2 million shi and Shandong 5.5 million shi."

Zhu Gaoxu took the initiative to set the land tax quotas for the last four provinces. Among them, Shandong's 5.5 million shi was jaw-dropping. After all, Shandong used to only have 2.8 million shi, but now it has almost doubled.

In such a situation, even Xie Jin, who has a high self-esteem, is worried about bowing: "Your Highness, with such a quota, I'm afraid the people will bear the burden..."

He was worried that such a high quota would trigger civil unrest in Shandong, but Zhu Gaoxu said calmly:

"Shandong and Liaodong are now implementing new policies, abolishing all miscellaneous items except salt, tea, mining taxes and commercial taxes. In addition, they have changed the land tax and commercial tax to one in ten."

Zhu Gaoxu's words were tantamount to saying that he had abandoned all the miscellaneous income in Shandong in the past in exchange for an increase in land tax.

You must know that miscellaneous items account for the bulk of the income of subordinate officials and assistants such as li chiefs and grain chiefs. Zhu Gaoxu's move undoubtedly offended tens of thousands of assistants and thousands of subordinate officials in Shandong.

However, before the officials could react, Zhu Gaoxu stood up and bowed to Zhu Di:

"Father, I am planning to use Shandong and Liaodong as pilots to implement administration. Once the new policy is successful, it can be fully promoted."

"What do you want to do?" Zhu Di put down the memorial in his hand, with a curious expression on his face.

Of course, all this is a disguise, because in the past month or so, Zhu Gaoxu has discussed all the details of the New Deal with Zhu Di. Now he is just pretending not to know, in order to support Zhu Gaoxu.

Regardless of whether the New Deal is successful or not, he can serve as a middleman to ease the relationship between the East Palace and the ministers. This is also what Zhu Gaoxu wants to see.

"From now on, the monthly salary of subordinate officials in Shandong will be set at two stones, and the township chiefs and grain chiefs will be appointed to subordinate officials. Subordinate officials will also have the opportunity to participate in the imperial examination and be promoted to officials."

As soon as Zhu Gaoxu opened his mouth, Xie Jin knew that what he had been worried about had happened.

"I would like to ask Your Highness, how many villages and towns are there in Shandong..."

Li Zhigang, the Minister of Rites, bowed his head and asked, while Zhu Gaoxu said without hesitation: "Three hundred and forty-five in market towns and five thousand eight hundred and sixteen in villages."

Zhu Gaoxu's answer caught Li Zhigang off guard, but he still said calmly: "If it is according to what His Highness said, then these towns need to have at least 12,300 people."

"No!" Zhu Gaoxu interrupted: "To be precise, there are 18,532 people, because the market town needs five li chiefs and five grain chiefs."

"In addition, there are 620 officials in the six prefectures, fifteen states, and eighty-nine counties in Shandong, and 5,200 subordinate officials in prefectures and counties. The total number of officials in Shandong is 620, and there are 23,700 subordinate officials in prefectures, counties, towns, and towns. Thirty-two people.”

"Okay..." Li Zhigang was disrupted by Zhu Gaoxu, so he could only seize the opportunity and said:

"According to the number mentioned by His Highness, including the subordinate staff of the Tea and Salt Mine Department, there are at least 24,000 people."

"May I ask, Your Highness, how much are the salaries of these people?"

"Five hundred and seventy-six thousand dan for subordinate officials, 124,000 dan for officials, totaling 700,000 dan." Zhu Gaoxu reported what he needed without thinking, leaving Li Zhigang speechless.

Before Li Zhigang could speak, Zhu Gaoxu continued: "According to this year's Shandong Grain Book and the three taxation and commercial taxes, it is completely possible to support local officials and subordinates while paying 3.8 million shi to the court, and Turn over more than 400,000 yuan to the three bureaus and commercial taxes."

"But the Chief Secretary still needs to intercept..." Li Zhigang was about to continue, but Zhu Gaoxu continued to disrupt his rhythm.

"Since it is a new policy, it will naturally be changed. The local retention rate will be fixed at 30% in the future, and the remaining 70% will be handed over to the court." After Zhu Gaoxu said this, he also bowed to Zhu Di and said: "Your Majesty, I know that the number of subordinate officials in the country will be from The number does not exceed 60,000, but as time goes by, nothing is fixed, and the number of subordinate officials in the imperial court is only more than 50,000. The reason is that at the beginning of the founding of the country, there were many wastes waiting for improvement, and there were not enough scholars in the world."

"But now, the imperial court has held many imperial examinations. Thousands of people have been admitted to the imperial examination alone, and the number of candidates, scholars and children below is tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands."

"It is much better to use these people as subordinate officials than to use people who don't know anything."

"What I want to do is to use Shandong as a pilot project. Regardless of the condition of the land, only 10% of the output will be collected."

After he finished speaking, Xie Jin also grasped a point and stepped out to bow to him: "I would like to ask Your Highness, what if the people have complaints about such a high land tax?"

"From the people, for the people. The imperial court has taken so much tax from the people, so it will naturally be used on the people." Zhu Gaoxu's thoughts were faster than Xie Jin's.

"Manpower is needed to build official roads, rural roads, bridges, pond weirs, and Pi Canal embankments, and they can all be returned to the people through construction."

Zhu Gaoxu talked about the concept of economic cycle. This concept has long been known by the ancients, and naturally Xie Jin also understood it, so he asked Zhu Gaoxu:

"There is loss in all grain transportation. If it takes such a long time, the loss will probably be considerable."

"The imperial court collects gold, silver and copper coins from the southwest and overseas, which can be used to distribute to the people." Zhu Gaoxu answered Xie Jin's inquiry and continued:

"The government of Fuzhou and County held projects and the people worked. The court issued copper coins as wages. The people bought and sold grain with their wages, and the losses were borne by the people."

Zhu Gaoxu knows better than Xie Jin what grain transportation loss is.

Except for areas with difficult roads such as the southwest and northwest, transportation losses in most areas will not exceed the weight of the grain itself as long as the distance is not too far.

If Shandong's grain is stored in Shandong and used for the people, the distance to the people is only a few dozen miles, and the loss is only a matter of one meal.

The existence of attrition is nothing more than an excuse for the greed of those officials and subordinates.

"If this is the case, then I dare to ask Your Highness, what is the use of having corvees in the court?"

On the surface, Xie Jin looked kind-hearted, but in his heart he was digging a hole for Zhu Gaoxu. But Zhu Gaoxu was not fooled: "Corvees can be used, but they cannot be left out."

No one can predict what the consequences of abolishing corvee will be, but Zhu Gaoxu also chose to retain it, but the specific use of corvee was left to the court.

As long as the court does not issue corvee, then corvee does not exist. Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu is prepared to impose strict restrictions on whether prefectures, prefectures, and counties around the world can issue corvee. All corvee must be approved by the emperor.

"In that case, I have no objection..."

Xie Jin was very helpless. Now that Zhu Gaoxu had soldiers, people and money, the resources at his disposal were simply not comparable to theirs.

Zhu Gaoxu did not directly implement administration for the whole country, but only implemented it for Shandong. This shows that he knew that the cards in his hand were not enough for the whole country.

On the contrary, when they are concentrated in one place and used in a province, even if the temple objects, they cannot stop it.

Xie Jin was unwilling to give up, but Yang Shiqi suddenly stood up and bowed and asked: "I would like to ask Your Highness, do you want to recruit so many subordinate officials in Shandong or from all over the world?"

"I have already made arrangements for the subordinate staff, so Xueshi Yang doesn't need to worry about it." Zhu Gaoxu did not answer Yang Shiqi directly, but Yang Shiqi had already roughly guessed where the subordinate staff Zhu Gaoxu was transferring.

Xie Jin mentioned before that the official schools established by the East Palace in Liaodong were extensive, covering almost all the people of Liao.

Such an idea is by no means something that comes out of nowhere. Judging from the fact that Zhu Gaoxu has continuously mobilized thousands of officials and subordinates from outside the customs in the past two years, I am afraid that Zhu Gaoxu has already begun to deliberately train his disciples when he was in Bohai.

After thinking about it carefully, Yang Shiqi realized how terrifying Zhu Gaoxu was.

The official school in Liaodong is a five-year system. If the same is true in Bohai, it means that Zhu Gaoxu had already started training students as early as the 28th or 9th year of Hongwu. At that time, he was just a Bohai prince.

Doesn't this mean that he had long expected that Zhu Yunwen would cut down the vassal vassal, and he had long been prepared to rebel, so he spent so much resources to train this group of students...

Yang Shiqi retreated to his seat and stopped speaking.

Seeing that neither he nor Xie Jin spoke, Hu Guang and Hu Yan also stopped talking.

"Since there is no objection, let's use Shandong as a pilot to implement the new policy."

Zhu Di couldn't help but feel happy watching the scene where Zhu Gaoxu responded to Xie Jin, Li Zhigang and others.

The last thing he wants to do is to play tricks with literati. He prefers to use Ji Gang to deal with this group of people.

Thinking of this, Zhu Di also lowered his eyes and looked at an official who had not spoken.

The man seemed to feel Zhu Di's gaze. He raised his head to confirm before standing up and bowing:

"Your Majesty, Chen Ying, the censor of Zuodu, impeached Luo Qian, the minister of the Ministry of punishment, Yu Shiji, the censor of Zuoqiandu, Yuan Fu, the young minister of Dali Temple, and Cheshu, the censor, were greedy and tyrannical. They formed cliques for personal gain, hid their land, deceived the people, and deceived the saints... "

"absurd!"

Chen Ying's sudden impeachment surprised all the officials, and Luo Qian, one of the subjects of the impeachment, rebutted on the spot.

But after he retorted, he realized that his advice to the emperor must have caused the emperor's dissatisfaction, but now he was retaliated against.

Luo Qian had gone to Zhu Di a few days ago and criticized his employment practices. He believed that the court should employ both old and new officials, but Zhu Di only liked to use officials from the Yan Palace period. This was not fair.

What's more, since Zhu Di ascended the throne, he has asked Guanglu Temple to hold banquets for old officials of the Yan Mansion many times, which has increased the cost of the palace. This is not what a holy king should do.

These things Luo Qian wrote were things that Zhu Di was most taboo about. Therefore, he showed the memorial to the ministers a few days ago. No one among the ministers agreed with Luo Qian and angered the emperor, which made Zhu Di feel that Luo Qian had evil intentions.

As for the people who were impeached by Chen Ying except Luo Qian, they were basically the participants who spread Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu's remarks about the feudal king's change of title last time. It is typical to catch them and impeach them, and it is also to scare the chickens and monkeys.

"Your Majesty, I suggest sending officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate to conduct a thorough investigation!"

Chen Ying received Zhu Di's instructions, so he was naturally not afraid of Luo Qian's revenge. He even didn't think Luo Qian could survive today.

"Okay..." Zhu Di did not hide his dissatisfaction with Luo Qian, which made Luo Qian's face look very ugly.

"I resign!" Luo Qian saw that the emperor did not trust him, so he did not want to stay and make Zhu Di dislike him. He bowed and saluted and left Wuying Hall.

His behavior made Zhu Di even more angry, but at this time Zhu Gaoxu said: "Why don't you let Dong Gong also participate in the thorough investigation?"

"Ok?"

Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaoxu in surprise. He did not expect that Zhu Gaoxu would actually interfere, but it was not easy for him to teach Zhu Gaoxu a lesson in front of the ministers, so he nodded in agreement.

Seeing Zhu Gaoxu come out, Yu Xin immediately understood that Zhu Gaoxu wanted to protect Luo Qian, and immediately stood up and bowed:

"Your Majesty, the Shipping Department also submitted a report on trade and taxation with Japan today."

"Read it." Zhu Di was obviously not happy with Zhu Gaoxu's behavior, so he asked Yu Xin to speak with a cold face.

Yu Xin didn't take it seriously when he saw it, so he took out the memorial and started reading it.

To put it simply, the Shipping Department conducted two trades with Japan this year. The first time was Zheng He’s voyage to the East Ocean, and the second time was the shipping of goods after the successful voyage to the East Ocean.

The cost of the second batch of goods is more than 600,000 guan. If successfully sold, it will make a profit of nearly 3 million guan. However, due to the large volume of goods sent by Zheng He to the East, the goods shipped to Yinqi fell into a unsalable situation. However, this It's normal, after all, this batch of goods was originally prepared to guarantee sales until June next year.

But overall, the two batches of goods sold a total of more than 2,964,000 guan, of which 77,600 guan were transferred to Ashikaga Yoshimitsu by the City Shipping Department in the name of commercial tax.

Seventy-seven thousand six hundred kan was not much for Ming Dynasty, but it was a large income for Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, enough to support more than 30,000 ashigaru.

Although Ashikaga Yoshimitsu still has to give half of it to the Kyogoku family, it can still be a huge income, not to mention whether he really wants to give half to the Kyogoku family.

The current situation is undoubtedly that Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and the Kyogoku family have joined forces with the Ming Dynasty to use economics and trade to harvest Japanese nobles and guardians, and the nobles and guardians use the proceeds from trade to harvest domestic civilians.

In the short term, as long as Japan's domestic silver and copper coins are still abundant, there will not be any conflicts in Japan.

However, as time goes by, the ship trade will trigger the outflow of Japanese domestic silver and copper coins.

It’s just that the Kyogoku family is already using the Ming Dynasty’s gunpowder and ash blowing methods to mine the Iwami silver mine, and the Ashikaga family can obtain a large amount of copper coins through the Oki City Hoseki. They are in this drama of the Ming Dynasty’s economy plundering Japan’s resources. As a vested interest, it is difficult for Zhongzuo to cut off in-depth communication with Ming Dynasty.

At that time, Japan will definitely experience a money shortage due to long-term trade, and the guardians from various places will also be dissatisfied with the Ashikaga Shogunate, which will lead to turmoil.

Zhu Gaoxu will not take action soon, but will need Japan to reach a certain level of chaos before he will take action to support the Ashikaga Shogunate.

The Ashikaga Shogunate cannot fall, at least not until the Iwami silver mines and silver mining across Japan are exhausted.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu also turned his attention to reality.

Zhu Di and the ministers did not know much about economic warfare. At present, they only knew that Ming Dynasty had obtained sufficient benefits from the Japanese shipping company.

Excluding costs, this year the Ming Dynasty earned nearly 1.9 million guan worth of silver and copper coins from Japan through trade, and it also squeezed out goods worth more than 2 million guan.

Zhu Di also knows that things are rare and valuable. This year, the Ming Dynasty brought too many goods, so Japan's shipping trade will definitely be weak for a while next year. It may not be able to achieve this year's shipping results next year, but it doesn't matter, even if the market The ship trade was only a few hundred thousand dollars, which was a considerable income for Ming Dynasty.

"Okay, please step back."

After listening to what Yu Xin said about the trade situation with Japan, Zhu Di also spoke and signaled the ministers to retreat.

Seeing this, everyone knew that the emperor and the prince had something to say, and after bowing and saluting, they all walked out of Wuying Hall.

After they left completely, Zhu Di frowned and looked at Zhu Gaoxu: "I want to kill Luo Qian, why are you coming out to cause trouble?"

　"Records of Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty": "On December Ding Chou, the land tax quota for the world was set at 35 million dan. The scholar Xie Jin and the minister Li Zhigang wanted to fight, but the prince persuaded him to try the new policy in Shandong."

　　

　

(End of this chapter)