Daming: I can’t kill such a greedy prince-in-law?

Chapter 511: Millions of Year-End Bonuses!! Where's the Money? (Subscribe please!!)
Although Empress Ma was in the harem and basically did not interfere in the affairs of the court, she was still quite knowledgeable about the affairs of the Ming Dynasty court and the people.

He also knew a lot about the recent problems in the Ministry of Revenue and the fight between Ouyang Lun and Li Shanchang.

The core issue of the Ministry of Revenue now is the taxation issue. After all this trouble, taxation in the Ming Dynasty is likely to become a big problem this year.

In fact, even if Ouyang Lun did not come to Kunning Palace, Empress Ma also planned to send someone to call Ouyang Lun to come.

So when Ouyang Lun took the initiative to mention the tax issue, Empress Ma immediately became interested.

"Since I have come to see the Queen Mother-in-law, I naturally want to discuss cooperation with you. What is the solution?"

Just when Ouyang Lun was about to express his thoughts, a figure walked into Kunning Palace.

"Cough cough!"

"Ouyang Lun, why are you running to Kunning Palace instead of staying in the clan residence?"

"You look so sneaky, you must be holding your fart in!"

Hearing this familiar voice, Ouyang Lun turned his head reluctantly, and happened to see Zhu Yuanzhang with his hands behind his back, looking at him with a depressed and vigilant expression.

Uh, this guy Zhu Yuanzhang is really haunting! He can be found everywhere.

Originally, Zhu Yuanzhang was handling some government affairs in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, but he received the news that Ouyang Lun had come to the Kunning Palace, so Zhu Yuanzhang immediately rushed to the Kunning Palace.

After all, Zhu Yuanzhang knew Ouyang Lun very well. He would not come to see Empress Ma for no reason, so there must be something going on.

Seeing that it was Zhu Yuanzhang, Ouyang Lun was somewhat helpless, but he still stood up and saluted Zhu Yuanzhang, "Your Majesty, your son-in-law Ouyang Lun greets you!"

"Your Majesty has wronged me. I came to see the Queen and my mother-in-law mainly to discuss the year-end bonus."

Ouyang Lun was not stupid. Zhu Yuanzhang came here in such a hurry that he must have heard the news and guessed something. However, Ouyang Lun was not sure how much Zhu Yuanzhang knew, so he brought up the issue of the year-end bonus first.

"Year-end awards!?"

Hearing these three words, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up. This "year-end bonus" was proposed by Ouyang Lun. At the end of each year, the court would judge the officials based on their performance throughout the year, and then issue year-end bonuses based on the judged levels. This was a large sum of money. It was also because of this money that the Ming Dynasty reduced a lot of corruption cases and it also improved the enthusiasm of officials. In terms of effect, this is much better than any "anti-corruption silver".

Moreover, last year, Ouyang Lun had said that not only officials should have it, but also royal family members, civil servants, private company employees and even himself, the emperor, should have it!

Now it seems that Ouyang Lun is going to make his statement come true!

After this analysis, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly had expectations in his heart. How would he be rated as an emperor for his work in the past year? How much would he get as a year-end bonus? This must be figured out!

If his work rating is low and his year-end bonus is small, where will his face as an emperor be?
After thinking about it, Zhu Yuanzhang's expression returned to normal, and then he sat down next to Empress Ma. It was obvious that he had no intention of leaving, but to participate.

Queen Ma and Ouyang Lun looked at each other, with a hint of helplessness in their eyes.

Even Empress Ma was unable to drive Zhu Yuanzhang away, so Ouyang Lun naturally couldn't think of any good solution. Besides, no matter what method or strategy he used, as long as he was fighting against the Ming Dynasty, he couldn't avoid Zhu Yuanzhang!

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang took the initiative to speak, "Ouyang Lun, don't stand anymore, sit down quickly!"

"I am also very interested in the year-end bonus, so I discussed it with you. Sister, Ouyang Lun, do you have any objections?"

"I am naturally happy that Your Majesty is willing to discuss this together." Ouyang Lun nodded helplessly.

Zhu Yuanzhang, you are really the number one dog-skin plaster in the Ming Palace. You can’t get rid of you at all!
"Zhongba, don't you have a lot of government affairs to deal with? This is very time-consuming to discuss. Aren't you afraid that it will delay other things?" Queen Ma asked tactfully.

"Sister, you know that I have handed over most of the affairs of the court to Biao'er. I am just dealing with some bigger matters. Don't worry. I have enough time to discuss with you today! There is no problem at all."

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile.

Ouyang Lun: Uh.
Queen Ma:
"Ouyang Lun, please continue! Tell me quickly what you think about the distribution of this year's year-end bonus. I will work with you this time!" Zhu Yuanzhang urged.

In previous years, whether it was distributing year-end bonuses or sending year-end gift boxes to officials, Ouyang Lun did it in the name of Queen Ma, which made Zhu Yuanzhang very envious. Today, he had the opportunity to participate in it, so Zhu Yuanzhang naturally wanted to join in.

"The court officials have worked hard for a whole year. As the emperor, I must prepare bonuses and gift boxes for them. Only in this way will they be willing to work hard for our Ming Dynasty and risk their lives!"

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile.

Hearing this, Queen Ma smiled and said, "Chongba, you didn't care about these things in previous years, but this year you are very active!"

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled awkwardly, "We were busy in previous years, but now we have Biao'er supporting us in the court, and Ouyang Lun is the one who makes the decisions on the court policies, so we are much more relaxed. Otherwise, how could we have competed with you in square dancing some time ago!"

"Okay, you are the emperor, everything you said is right." Queen Ma nodded and said with a smile.

"Ouyang, since your father-in-law the emperor is planning to join in, let's discuss it together." Queen Ma said with a smile, and winked at Wang Youguo a few times.

"Yes!" Ouyang Lun nodded, and then said: "Emperor father-in-law, Queen mother-in-law, regarding this year's year-end bonus, this is what I think. This year, whether it is the year-end bonus or the year-end benefits, they are similar to last year, and may even be increased a little!"

"Also, regarding the year-end benefits, we can't just decide on it among the three of us this time. We need to discuss it with the officials first."

Um! ?

After hearing Ouyang Lun's suggestion, Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma both expressed doubts.

"Ouyang, it is indeed a good thing to discuss this with the officials, but there are thousands of officials in the court, and there are even more other civil servants. How can you discuss this with them one by one in time?" Queen Ma asked worriedly.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded immediately. "The queen is right. It is not feasible to discuss this with all the officials. It will take a lot of manpower and is really not worth it."

Facing the emperor and empress's questioning, Ouyang Lun smiled and said slowly: "Your Majesty, Queen-in-law, of course I am not stupid enough to communicate with every official myself, but you must not forget that we now have newspapers. This newspaper is not only a channel of communication with the people, but also a channel of communication with officials." "Communicate with newspapers? How do you say that?" Queen Ma asked curiously.

"Don't beat around the bush, just say it!" Zhu Yuanzhang said urgently.

"This is very simple! We can open a column in the mainstream newspapers to communicate about year-end bonuses and year-end benefits!" Ouyang Lun said confidently: "Officials can take the initiative to write to the newspapers and tell the newspapers their ideas. The newspapers will then compile statistics and finally get the topics that officials are most concerned about. At that time, we can increase or decrease year-end bonuses and year-end benefits based on the officials' suggestions!"

"Of course, there may be two or more suggestions in the end. At this time, we can vote on the officials, and the plan with the most votes will be implemented!"

"This way we can achieve the most complete communication with officials!"

After listening to Ouyang Lun's proposal, Empress Ma nodded repeatedly, "Not bad, not bad. If we follow your proposal, the officials will be very happy and will have a good New Year!"

Zhu Yuanzhang lowered his head slightly and did not speak, as if he was thinking seriously about the method proposed by Ouyang Lun.

Finally, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said:

"Of course you can, but when you do this, you must be careful not to cause any trouble for me!"

"Besides, aren't you going to give me and my sister a year-end bonus this year? Just tell me how much you plan to give."

Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's anxious look, Ouyang Lun also found it a little funny. It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang was so actively participating because he was eyeing the year-end bonus!

Queen Ma also smiled and said, "I also want to know how much my year-end bonus is!"

Ouyang Lun smiled and said, "In previous years, the year-end bonuses for officials ranged from 1,000 taels to 100,000 taels. Of course, few people received a year-end bonus of 100,000 taels. The year-end bonuses for Your Majesty and the Queen's mother-in-law are also calculated separately. Currently, it is tentatively set at 10 million taels each!"

"hiss--!"

Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma both gasped!
It’s not that the two of them have never seen 10 million taels of silver, but if one person has a year-end bonus of 10 million taels, then those two people would have 20 million taels. This has never happened before!
"Isn't this too much?" Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes widened, but he was happy in his heart. You know, although the entire Ming Dynasty belonged to him, Zhu Yuanzhang, he couldn't spend money casually. If he spent too much, the censors in the court would stand up and shout "diligence and thrift for the people"!
But if this was a year-end bonus of 10 million that went into Zhu Yuanzhang's pocket, then he could spend the money openly and no one could say anything!
But ten million was really too much. Zhu Yuanzhang's treasury rarely exceeded ten million taels, which made Zhu Yuanzhang feel a little embarrassed.

"Ouyang, this 20 million is not a small amount. How are you going to make up the gap? Don't let this give people with ulterior motives a reason to fight against you!" Queen Ma was quite worried, and she glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang after she finished speaking.

"Hehe, sister, look at what we mean. It's Li Shanchang's gang who want to deal with Ouyang Lun. It has nothing to do with us." Zhu Yuanzhang muttered immediately upon seeing this.

"If you hadn't recalled Li Shanchang to the court, would these things have happened?" Empress Ma was not polite and directly argued with Zhu Yuanzhang.

"We called Li Shanchang back because the court needs balance. This is the emperor." Zhu Yuanzhang was halfway through speaking when he remembered that Ouyang Lun was still there. He was embarrassed to continue, "Oh, I can't explain it to you clearly now. What we are discussing now is the year-end bonus and year-end benefits. Let's talk about the rest in private!"

"Queen, mother-in-law, please don't worry about the money for me. The Ming Dynasty can still afford a few tens of millions of taels." Ouyang Lun said with a smile: "But it's not so easy for you to get these 10 million taels."

"Since it is a year-end bonus, it naturally needs to be evaluated. If it is given out directly, it is not a year-end bonus but a fixed salary. This is inconsistent with the meaning of rewarding the efforts of the past year and motivating continued efforts in the next year!"

Ouyang Lun continued, "You two are the emperor and empress, and it is obviously not enough for the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Personnel to judge you. Therefore, I have made some adjustments to your judgment. It is divided into three parts. One part is the people's scoring, one part is the officials' scoring, and the last part is the scoring between you two!"

"The scores from the people account for 50%, the scores from the officials account for 30%, and the scores from each other account for 20%. The sum of the scores from the three is your total score! You will receive a year-end bonus based on the total score. For example, if you get 90 points, your year-end bonus will be 9 million!"

"If the total score is only ten, then it's only one million!"

"Ten points? Haha, who are you kidding? As the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, I must get one hundred points. I will definitely get this 10 million year-end bonus!" Zhu Yuanzhang said very confidently.

Empress Ma rolled her eyes at Zhu Yuanzhang, then turned to Ouyang Lun and said, "Ouyang, why don't you just talk about the tax issue as well!"

"it is good!"

Ouyang Lun nodded. "This year's tax situation is indeed quite serious. This is related to the decline in the willingness of the people and merchants to pay taxes. There are many reasons for this situation, and I will not go into details here. To solve this problem, I have come up with a solution - to tax the people according to their income!"

"For example, those with an annual income below thirty-three taels are exempt from tax! A certain amount of tax is levied between thirty-three taels and one hundred taels, and a different amount of tax is levied between one hundred taels and one thousand taels, and so on! The higher the income, the more tax is levied!"

“For some taxes that have already been collected, after the annual accounting is completed, the excess taxes must be refunded!”

Um! ! ? ?

After hearing Ouyang Lun's proposal, not only Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned, but even Empress Ma was stunned.

Give officials a huge year-end bonus! ?
Tax exemption for the people?!

Still want a tax refund?!

Isn't this a waste of money?!
Zhu Yuanzhang's face changed immediately.

Asshole! You are not here to solve problems, you are here to cause trouble!

Taxes are already difficult to collect, and now they are simply exempting from taxes or giving tax refunds?
What on earth do you want to do, Ouyang Lun? !

"Ouyang Lun, you are stupid, aren't you? You are exempting from taxes, refunding taxes, and giving out huge year-end bonuses. If you keep doing this, the national treasury will be emptied. We won't be able to survive next year, right?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said unhappily.

"Your Majesty, calm down." Ouyang Lun said with a soothing smile.

"You're spending our money, how can you expect us to remain calm?!" Zhu Yuanzhang almost cursed.

"Zhongba, calm down. Ouyang never makes any unprepared comments. Even if you want to get angry, you have to wait until you hear what Ouyang says!" Queen Ma frowned.

"Okay, I'll listen to you. If you can't make sense, I'm going to cut you into pieces today!" Zhu Yuanzhang said in a deep voice.

(End of this chapter)