Wanli Ming Emperor

Chapter 236: Deserted Island, Ancient River, Broken Stems and Sparse Duckweed

The next day, early in the morning.

As the saying goes, a new official has three things to do when he takes office. Although rehired employees are less enthusiastic than new employees, they still have two things to do.

A fire had already been started at the court meeting yesterday, causing the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple to confess his incompetence and the Chief Censor to beg for dismissal.

This is a slow cooker over low heat, and it will take some time to finish burning - not to mention anything else, Minister Weng is still serving in the Ministry of Justice in Nanjing, the sky is high and the road is long, so a violent redox reaction will not easily occur in a short time.

Anyone who has been involved in the kitchen knows that when slowly stewing something, it is often necessary to light a fire and then burn another stove.

then.

Before daybreak, the ministers saw the Prime Minister's carriage outside the Qianbu Gallery, parked steadily outside the Ministry of Revenue.

The passing officials were so frightened that they quickened their pace and looked straight ahead.

……

Minister of the Ministry of Revenue Wang Guoguang was an old member of the New Party and a professional bureaucrat who wrote the "Wanli Accounting Records". Both his qualifications and abilities made him feel like he was "out of the three realms" in the court.

Therefore, when the Prime Minister arrived at the palace but was not greeted by the officials, Zhang Juzheng was not displeased. Instead, he bowed and apologized in a gentle voice: "I am sorry to have come here without asking and disturbed you."

It was certainly abrupt. Zhang Juzheng had been planning to discuss the second task assigned by the emperor during the morning court session.

But before going to bed yesterday, he suddenly changed his mind and did not have time to inform the Ministry of Revenue in advance.

Wang Guoguang stood up from his seat, poured soybean milk into the teapot, held the teacup together, and walked towards Zhang Juzheng: "Are you here to destroy the Ministry of Revenue?"

Which of the six ministries has no faction?
Either high or low.

Zhang Juzheng stood up, took the tray with both hands, and put it on the coffee table: "The Ministry of Revenue has asked Li Youzi to check and correct himself. You think it is a financial butcher's knife, why use it to kill chickens?"

The two of them set the tone for this private conversation with each other.

Since they were not here to call for an accusation, the two of them naturally did not distinguish between the main and the secondary, but sat down one after another on the guest chairs on either side of the coffee table.

Wang Guoguang picked up the teapot and poured a cup of soybean milk for Zhang Juzheng: "Alas, I thought I had done something wrong and would be sentenced to death by His Majesty."

Shangshu Wang is exactly seventy years old this year, but he looks more energetic than Zhang Juzheng.

But his brows were furrowed, looking a little gloomy.

Zhang Juzheng got up from his seat, half stood up and took the teacup.

Of course, he could hear that Wang Guoguang sounded somewhat resentful about what happened in the court meeting yesterday. In fact, this sentiment was very common among the veteran ministers.

"You see, Weng Dali fabricated a false case and killed three innocent lives. How can you and I degenerate and be associated with him?"

What is innocent?

He was living a decent life, but was suddenly thrown into jail. No one could get any help from him, and he hoped to be released from prison with a clear name, but was eventually taken to the execution ground, where his flesh was cut off piece by piece in despair, until he died with blood all over his body and wailing.

This is innocence.

Zhang Juzheng didn't like drinking soy milk, so he just took a symbolic sip while talking.

After hearing this, Wang Guoguang shook his head slightly and said, "Uncle, I have always been upright and honest. I am not afraid that His Majesty will hear what I have to say."

"Human lives are different from one another. You and I, court officials, only know Weng Dali. How could we have ever seen a maid named He Hua?"

"Yes, the Ministry of Justice did handle the case unjustly, but there is nothing we can do about it. Who can be free from mistakes in their career as an official?"

"If we easily kill Weng Dali, who will dare to work wholeheartedly in the future?"

"Prince, your majesty is just trying to cut off the mountain, why not leave Weng Dali a way out, even if you take away his writings and exile him three thousand miles away, the court and the people will surely praise your majesty's benevolence."

Of course, Wang Guoguang was not really afraid of following in Weng Dali's footsteps. Since he entered the officialdom, he had never made a mistake in his assignment.

A poem he wrote when he first became an official: Wang Guoguang of Shanxi, first arrived in Wujiang. If I accept a penny, I will die in exile and never return home. This poem is still with Wang Guoguang today and is currently hanging in the lobby of the Ministry of Revenue.

He just wanted to beg for mercy, so he did.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Juzheng slowly put down his teacup and was speechless for a moment.

Of course he understood these old ministers. Lotus or no lotus, after all, it was just a name. Weng Dali was a living person. At least he had seen, talked and argued with him in his memory.

Besides, he had already reached the level of a court official, and official documents were full of reports of thousands of casualties. The number three probably wouldn't move his heart of stone.

To be honest, does Zhang Juzheng care?
Zhang Juzheng asked himself, and couldn't help laughing at himself. He shook his head and rejected Wang Guoguang's plea: "You see, it's different. If you read the files, you will understand."

"Weng Dali and Zhang Guowei did not do anything wrong, but they knew that they were wronged and deliberately tortured him into confessing!"

"As for who will dare to work wholeheartedly in the future... Pan Zhiyi, who insisted on not closing the case, will surely do a better job than Weng Dali and others after he is reinstated as the head of the Ministry of Justice."

That’s enough for now.

After all, in terms of justice and morality, Weng Dali is ultimately untenable.

But in front of his old friend, Zhang Juzheng paused and added: "You see, for you and me, we are only familiar with Weng Dali; but for the people outside, He Hua is a living person."

"The will of the people is often reflected in all these matters. As Your Majesty said, the water that overturned the boat is the tears of the people."

"You and I, court officials, are in charge of everything and govern the people on behalf of the emperor. We must always put the overall situation first."

Now it was Wang Guoguang's turn to be silent.

Shangshu Wang was not a person who was good at speaking, and at this moment Zhang Juzheng's words of justice came crashing down on him, leaving him speechless.

After a while.

"Ugh."

Wang Guoguang sighed for the second time: "Forget it, what is the purpose of Yuanfu's visit?"

It seems that this topic has been uncovered.

Zhang Juzheng had no reason to argue, and naturally stated the purpose of this trip: "Of course it is for the foundation of the country, financial affairs, and land survey!"

After all, the purpose of rectifying the team is to get things done, and we cannot put the cart before the horse.

The emperor has always been very clear on this point.

Hearing this, Wang Guoguang frowned slightly and asked bluntly, "What kind of difficulty could there be in the land survey that would make it inconvenient for Your Majesty to come forward and make a decision?"

Except for disputes over policy, or general business issues, the emperor would only behave like this when the court was evenly divided.

Just like the Lotus case yesterday, we are just waiting for the central ruling.

Zhang Juzheng did not mince words and directly reached out his hand and took out several memorials from his sleeve: "During the land reclamation in Huguang, the counties had a dispute over a matter, and the governor's office submitted it to the emperor on his behalf."

"Your Majesty was unsure after reading it, and asked me to discuss it with the court officials. I was also unsure after reading it, so I wanted to ask Ru Guan for advice."

After saying that, he placed the two memorials on the coffee table and gently pushed them over.

The land survey was mainly carried out by local county officials, but each county official had different personalities and abilities, and the methods they adopted were also different.

Take Huguang as an example.

In Ye County, Huguang, the gentry were first asked to survey the land themselves, and the county government would review it - "order them to survey themselves and then re-survey"

You County was more meticulous and directly set up a team of grassroots servants to do everything themselves - "the group was divided into groups and each had their own duties, such as measuring, calculating, and writing. Each person had a number, and the division of labor was fair, and the overall supervision was responsible for measuring... The size of the fields was uneven, and all were controlled by a scale."

Huangan County is the most daring.

They even confiscated the official lands of the gentry directly - "After the measurement in the eighth year of the Wanli reign, all of them were made into civilian lands and taxes were imposed. There was no official land left."

In short, each county acts on its own. If the government works together, the most that can happen is a competition between each other. But if the government has a bad atmosphere, a war of words will break out.

For example, the memorials that Zhang Juzheng pushed onto the desk belong to the latter.

Zhang Juzheng placed the memorials in front of Wang Guoguang and explained, "First, your majesty was afraid that the investigation of hidden households would cause trouble, so he promised to exempt the adult tax for three years, and temporarily spread the tax amount into the land tax during the three years (Chapter 188)."

"After the land survey was reported to the prefectures and counties, there was a lot of discussion, and it got more and more intense. Now the local area is already in chaos."

Wang Guoguang frowned slightly, becoming more and more confused.

He looked at Zhang Juzheng suspiciously and asked, "Since this is a temporary measure for three years, it can be stopped immediately, so why are you making such a fuss?"

Of course he knew about this.

The emperor's concerns were not without reason. Most of the hidden households were poor people, and even if they were cleared out, they could not afford the poll tax. This temporary expedient made the emperor appear mature and patriotic.

Because of this, he really didn't understand what the local noise was all about.

Zhang Juzheng did not answer immediately after hearing this.

Instead, he stretched out his index finger and pressed it on one of the memorials.

Zhang Juzheng looked at Wang Guoguang, his expression seemed to agree but also seemed to be fearful, and he said softly: "Jiangxia County Magistrate Mo Yang said that this policy is in line with the national conditions, and the exemption of the capitation tax should be a permanent rule!"

Wang Guoguang's expression brightened up!
Almost blurted out: "Nonsense!"

As one of the three major taxes, the Ding tax is an important source of income for the national treasury. The three-year expedient is just a concession to make way for the land survey!

How dare you make it a permanent rule! ?
The emperor actually brought it up seriously for discussion. Didn't he feel uncomfortable if he didn't empty the Taicang warehouse?

Zhang Juzheng didn't say anything, but just gestured to Wang Guoguang to read the memorial.

Wang Guoguang's face was twisted into a knot. After hesitating for a moment, he reached out and picked up the memorial that Zhang Juzheng was holding down.

No matter how dissatisfied you are, you still have to watch it.

He lowered his eyes and looked at the memorial.

After reading a few lines, Wang Guoguang suddenly realized that he had misunderstood what the person meant. It did not simply refer to the exemption of the Ding tax, but to "fixing the Ding tax and including it in the land tax" and making it a permanent rule!

Mo Yang begins with the Lijia system, arguing that it is centered on the Yellow Book of Taxes and Labor Service and the Fish Scale Map, and that population and land properties are combined.

During the Chenghua period, labor service became heavier and land was annexed, causing the local officials to flee and common people to abandon their registered residence, resulting in a spectacle of more than two million refugees in Jingxiang!

From then on, household registration and land began to drift further and further apart.

Then he began to discuss that after the two sides parted ways, even if the land was measured and the households were cleared, it was impossible to restore the old situation.

The more Wang Guoguang looked, the more complicated his expression became.

At first I thought it was speculative nonsense, but when I saw the opening argument, I took it seriously. It was only at this moment that Wang Guoguang had to take it seriously.

Minister Wang read the memorial carefully.

Zhang Juzheng expressed his own opinion: "Mo Yang's proposal to abolish the Ding tax and increase taxes is in line with the national conditions and is indeed not wrong."

"The Yellow Book records Ding, and the Fish Scale Atlas records the nuclear fields."

"It just so happens that the Yellow Book, which was used to collect the Ding tax, had gradually lost its effectiveness before the Jiajing period, and in this dynasty, it had completely become waste paper."

"Take Cili County as an example. The household registration of this county is very complicated. There are many traitors among them. There are families with thousands of people but only a few people are left. There are also families with no children but only a few people are recorded in the household register..."

The county's Yellow Book had long been eaten away. The most obvious sign was that during the household cleanup, there were thousands of prominent families, but only a few of them were recorded in the Yellow Book; even poor people who had no descendants were recorded in the Yellow Book as families with only a few people.

Wang Guoguang was multitasking. As he read, he nodded and replied, "I remember that in the fifth year of Longqing, the Ministry of Personnel issued an impeachment for this matter."

"It is said that in the actual collection of taxes in various counties, there are endless cases of collecting people along with grain."

This is actually the exact opposite of the policy at the beginning of the country.

At the beginning of the country, the number of people in the country determined the number of taxes and labor service for the lijia, that is, the ding tax determined the land tax - "At the beginning of the country, the system was to set the lijia according to the number of people, and the grain was based on that number."

Nowadays, the tax has become a matter of collecting both the grain and the people, that is, as long as the share of land tax is collected, the performance of the people tax will be naturally completed, that is, the land tax determines the people tax.

The roles of leader and follower have been completely changed.

After reading Mo Yang's memorial, Wang Guoguang's opinion changed completely. This theory is truly based on national conditions and is a pioneering one!
Having said that, he did not express his opinion immediately.

Wang Guoguang frowned and thought for a while, then reached out to take another memorial, titled "A Memorial on Questions about Dingliang", signed by Hong Maode, the supervisor of the Juren in Xiangxiang County.

Zhang Juzheng explained: "Hong Maode disagrees with this matter, and Your Majesty also thinks it makes sense."

Wang Guoguang flipped open the memorial and said without even looking up: "It is indeed difficult for an outsider to tell the difference."

Zhang Juzheng paused.

Wang Guoguang was totally unaware of this, and flipping through Hong Maode's memorial, he silently said in his heart: "The people are the foundation of the country, and the fields are the heaven of the people.

If there are no male laborers, the taxation and labor service will be left to the farmers, and the people will then regard their fields as poisonous and will be afraid to leave them as soon as possible.

Once the fields are gone, they will become vagrants in the secluded world, and the emperor cannot use them, and the mayor of the city cannot command them. This is to seek profit and be diligent..."

After reading it, Wang Guoguang couldn't help but shook his head.

The entire article by Hong Maode analyzes the pros and cons from the perspective of controlling the people. He believes that the inclusion of the poll tax in the land will cause the people to be completely decoupled from the land - if only the land tax is paid and no poll tax is collected, more people will abandon their land and lie down.

The "men without grain" became "people without registration", and the imperial court had no control over them, resulting in "there was land of the Ming Dynasty but no people of the Ming Dynasty".

In Wang Guoguang's view, this statement is more about position than analysis and is not very convincing.

Humans are not beasts. They have to make a living in the market. Even if they abandon their fields, they still have to make a living in other ways, whether it is escorting and trading, or working in a workshop. They are all the people of the Ming Dynasty who are rotten in the pot.

Wang Guoguang opened the next memorial, "On the Atlas of Fish Scales", which was signed by Xu Ximing, the magistrate of Qianjiang County.

When he first touched it, Wang Guoguang felt that the touch was different.

After opening it, I found that the first page was two stickers glued on with rice paste.

One is the style of fish scale atlas.

One is the style of the Yellow Book.

This is followed by the discussion:

"The Yellow Book takes households as the mother and fields as the son; the Fish Scale Map takes fields as the mother and households as the son.

Laws will become corrupt over time. If we want to revise them, we should keep them simple.

It would be better to abolish the Yellow Book and use the Fish Scale Book exclusively. All taxes and corvées should be based on the Fish Scale Book, which is the so-called "returning the grain by sitting on the map"..."

Xu Ximing, the magistrate of Qianjiang, was only a student of the Imperial Academy and rarely had anything meaningful to say.

What Xu Ximing meant was that although the Yellow Book was easy to compile, it was difficult to check.

For example, the Liu family in Longgang Town, Yangxin County, had only one family during the Hongwu period. During the Jiajing period, it split into three families. Now there are thirteen families with a population of more than 6,000.

For the past two hundred years, every time the Yellow Book was updated, the Liu clan members would disperse and avoid being recorded. Before this liquidation, there were only two hundred people on the Yellow Book!

In contrast, the fish scale atlas is much more convenient. Although the entries are complicated, the land is there and will not grow legs to avoid measurement.

Once the fish scale atlas was compiled, it would be extremely simple to review. It could be used as the basis for taxation and the tax could be collected accordingly - in other words, with a book in hand, all the land taxes could be collected.

Wang Guoguang still did not make any statement.

He closed one and took out another.

After reading the objection of Li Tengfang, the magistrate of Xiangtan County, since the ancient emperors established the world, the population and land have never been merged into one. There are many opinions of saints and heroes, but I have never heard of anyone saying that collecting grain is convenient but collecting labor is inconvenient.

Some talk about ancient system, some talk about established law, and of course, there are also those who say that this move is sucking the blood of the gentry.

Let's look at the support of Wu Ren, the magistrate of Daye County - At the beginning of the country, everything was revived, just to open up fields and increase the population; now it is the most prosperous era, we should distribute taxes equally and love the common people. How can we bear to see that the rich have fields stretching across the country, but have few people to serve, while the poor have no place to stand and are subject to more corvee labor?

Some talked about progress, some talked about distribution, and of course, there were also those who sought political opportunism and flattery of the emperor.

Wang Guoguang read them one by one.

Time passed slowly and dawn finally broke.

The sound of carriages and horses coming from Qianbu Gallery has stopped.

Wang Guoguang was flipping through the books quietly while Zhang Juzheng was waiting patiently beside him.

Until the soy milk on the tea table no longer emits steam.

Wang Guoguang also finished reading the last memorial.

Zhang Juzheng leaned forward and asked with concern, "What do you think?"

There are not many times when the Prime Minister would be nervous, and the current situation is one of them.

After all, it was an ancestral law that had lasted for two thousand years. Even Zhang Juzheng, who was bent on seeking change, did not dare to put it in the Wenhua Hall easily before he was absolutely sure.

Wang Guoguang slowly raised his head and looked at Zhang Juzheng.

He did not answer, but instead looked full of emotion: "The tax is distributed according to the land..."

……

"It is the same as the land tax."

Zhu Yijun stood on Wansui Mountain and overlooked the entire Western Garden.

Xu Jie sat in a pavilion nearby, panting and beating his legs.

The eunuchs and palace maids who were accompanying him were driven far away by the emperor. Only Zhang Fuzhi, a scholar of the imperial examination, was allowed to support Xu Jie.

Xu Jie was about to open his mouth to criticize something, but he heard the emperor's voice coming again: "Zhang Zizan, I remember that the essay you wrote for the examination for the Imperial Academy was about tax reform, so you must be an expert."

"What do you think of the policy of allocating taxes to each acre of land? Is it good or bad?"

As the saying goes, the green forests and verdant trees are deeper than the shower, they are always the rain and dew from heaven.

The air on Wansui Mountain is very good. Apart from a stone throne and a pavilion, the entire mountain is shaded by trees and capped by two pines.

But in this good atmosphere, Xu Jie inexplicably smelled a hint of murderous intent.

He glanced at the young and introverted scholar beside him, Zhang Fuzhi... I remember he was the son of the three Zhangs of Taicang, right? Why did the emperor treat him differently?

The strange location, strange entourage, strange questions, everything reminded Xu Jie that this was a dangerous match.

The old minister had a keen sense of smell, but Zhang Fuzhi was still confused and racked his brains to think of the right words: "In reply to your majesty, I think that in terms of taxation, land is a property, but people are not necessarily not."

"Whether it's the Ding tax or the Fu tax, in the final analysis, they are all levied according to 'property'."

"Over the past thousand years, as canals were built, farm tools were cast, water wheels were used for irrigation, and oxen were used to plow the fields, the 'product' of the population gradually became worthless. It can be said that the sheep with the least wool plucked have the loudest bleating."

"I think that it is the general trend to exempt the Ding tax and then make up for it from other sources!"

Zhu Yijun couldn't help but chuckle when he heard this.

When things develop to a certain point, the natural discussions that arise are always better than being dragged around by the emperor.

The good thing is that the timing is right, the good thing is that everyone has their own thoughts, and the good thing is that the reactions of those involved are real.

This was the case with the issue of the land-based tax system. None of the memorials forwarded to Zhang Juzheng were instructed or directed by Zhu Yijun.

The Yellow Book was something that was completely corrupted during the Jiajing period.

The adjustment of the Lijia tax and service system began during the Longqing period.

The "six inconveniences" in the Yellow Book and the "six conveniences" in the Fish Scale Map were also used in the second year of the Wanli period to argue that "taxation based on population" should be changed to "taxation based on land".

The formation of a policy requires the background of the times. It just so happened that the prototype of the land-based tax system appeared during the Wanli period.

Both "Questions on the Taxation of Ding and Grain" and "On the Recruitment of Ding" are speeches that appeared in history during the Wanli period. Even Zhang Fuzhi's speech was probably from the bottom of his heart.

If we talk about what Zhu Yijun did in this matter, perhaps he just used the temporary three-year exemption of the Ding tax as a trigger, which is really insignificant.

Of course, this does not mean that it will be implemented immediately.

It should be said that the current imperial court does not have the conditions to massacre the city at will, so the preliminary preparations will naturally have to be doubled.

Zhu Yijun faced the mountain breeze without turning his head: "This is a novel statement, worthy of a talented scholar. So, should I implement the 'tax-sharing policy' in all provinces?"

Zhang Fuzhi bowed quickly and said, "I am just a firefly, please forgive me for making fun of you, Your Majesty."

He paused and replied, "Your Majesty, I'm afraid it's not the right time yet."

"This law is a major policy of equalizing taxes. Once implemented, I'm afraid the gentry and the wealthy will be in an uproar again!"

"The land reclamation is just beginning, and the civil unrest in various provinces has not yet subsided. If we act too hastily, I'm afraid there will really be chaos."

The emperor is naturally an emperor who listens to opinions.

Zhu Yijun nodded thoughtfully.

Then he became a little angry again: "They are really the greatest enemy of the world! Why do they always jump out to oppose me every time there is a good policy?"

Zhang Fuzhi secretly sighed in his heart that the emperor was indeed young and energetic.

He pondered for a moment, then said to appease the emperor: "Your Majesty is at the peak of your power, and they are like cicadas and crickets. They cannot bear to see your majesty's glory, so they can only make mournful noises everywhere, disturbing your majesty's peace for a while."

Zhu Yijun chuckled when he heard this.

He turned to look at Xu Jie: "Master Xu, let's see what a young talent is."

Xu Jie felt uneasy and forced a smile.

Zhu Yijun slowly turned his head and looked at Zhang Fuzhi, and said with a smile: "Mr. Zhang, the civil unrest in Huzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang, was caused by your master, right?"

A light word fell to the ground.

Zhang Fuzhi's lips were still filled with reserved calmness, but his ears suddenly exploded!
The brain suddenly became congested and the face turned pale instantly!
There was no time to react.

The emperor had stopped smiling, his face expressionless, and he asked softly, "Do you want to rebel?"
-
Everything was written on the same day, and I don't have any drafts saved. I managed to finish it today, which means I'll have a day off tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)