Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 478 After the Ming Dynasty
Failure to completely annihilate them is the same as annihilation.

The Zhiyuan ship went to Naruto alone, and its powerful performance and combat capability were undoubtedly revealed. It went in and out several times, making the Japanese anti-Islamic navy unable to stop.

It always seems like there is a chance, but I can't succeed.

After all, it’s just a boat. Can you really be fooled like this?

If they wanted to escape, they would be chased and hunted by the Zhiyuan ship. Kuki Moritaka boasted that he would get so much fine iron to transform the iron-clad Antaku ship, so how could he just escape?
After fighting for an entire afternoon, the human-rowed Ataka ship was exhausted. Looking at the Zhiyuan ship, which had suffered some damage but was getting stronger and stronger, the naval forces of the Awa and Fujido families were the first to cross the Naruto Strait.

It was approaching dusk and the tide was about to ebb.

If the Zhiyuan wants to chase them, it will have to fight them again in the Naruto Strait which is full of whirlpools.

And they can have a better chance of winning by relying on their familiarity with the ocean currents in the strait when the whirlpool occurs - it seems that they are ready to fight again.

But everyone knew that they were just escaping, betting that the previous black ship would not dare to enter the strait.

But when it was about to get dark, the rest of the warships of the Oriental Fleet finally appeared at the southern entrance of the Naruto Strait.

They were not here to chase the Edo Ashigaru navy. From the time the black ships appeared until now, no ships of the Edo Ashigaru navy had arrived at the Naruto battlefield.

Now it is the Ming Dynasty's warships that are blocking Nankou.

They were not like the Japanese navy that could try to stop the Zhiyuan by "stretching the river like an iron chain", but when they saw the Zhiyuan chase into the whirlpool-filled strait without hesitation, everyone knew it was over.

Yes, that black ship is not only fast, but also as flexible as theirs. With such rich experience in naval battles, are they really worried about the whirlpool in this strait?
The Zhiyuan ship is powerful, so you just need to be careful. The ship's guns have a long range, and it's not the Zhiyuan ship that needs to be fought closely.

In the Battle of Naruto, the Ming Dynasty's Eastern Fleet won a great victory.

Although some Japanese ships still escaped, Harima Bay and Osaka Bay were essentially open to Daemyung-dong.

The next step was for the isolated and helpless feudal domains on the island of Shikoku to surrender.

When the victory report was submitted to the capital, it was already February of the 21st year of Taichang.

By this time, the new currency system had been implemented for three years.

After Ye Xianggao had presided over such a major case for such a long time, his second term as prime minister had entered the second half.

The inspection teams sent from the central government to various provinces will return to Beijing one after another this year. Since the provincial capitals, prefectures and counties now have separate supervisory and executive departments, there is a major event this year.

The emperor was almost forty years old. Although there was no grand birthday celebration in the twenty-first year of Taichang, there was an extremely important political meeting.

For this year's meeting, all three levels of local supervisors from all provinces of the Ming Dynasty will gather in Beijing to attend the meeting.

After the new currency law, a new tax system must be formally agreed upon.

At present, the Ming Dynasty still had a fixed land tax, mixed with customs duties from the Maritime Customs, border markets, and the Customs Office, commercial taxes from shops and private workshops, and profit income from government-run factories under the Official Property Office, which together constituted the annual income of the Ming Dynasty.

The transfer to the central treasury and the retention of local funds are also important parts of the new tax system.

Your Majesty, the victory news from Japan means nothing.

Zhu Changluo simply said, "The Xining Reforms during the Song Dynasty and the Taiyuegong Reforms during the previous emperor's time did not fully succeed and even ended up harming the people. There are two most important points. One is that they cut off all reforms from the top without considering the different local conditions. The other is that the locals colluded with each other and used the new laws to seek personal gain. I have been in power for more than 20 years, but in fact I have always been carrying out reforms, slowly and slowly, all in order to lay a good foundation."

This shows how difficult the reform is.

Wang Anshi and Zhang Juzheng were both ministers. Although they had the emperor's support for a while, the time they could hold on was indeed too short.

Reform is not just about coming up with good laws; ensuring their implementation is even more difficult, and they do not have enough time and authority to do it in a more detailed manner.

Zhu Changluo was different, he was the emperor himself.

And this time, he was not a short-lived emperor.

In the 28th year of Wanli's reign, he took the initiative to attack. Zhu Yijun, who was negligent in government affairs and indulged in wine and sex, and whose health was getting worse and worse, suffered a stroke in shock and anger and could not attend to government affairs. He was able to ascend the throne 20 years earlier.

If nothing has changed, the 21st year of Taichang is actually the first year of Tianqi.

But now he has been on the throne for more than twenty years and is still in good health.

The emperor spoke and the ministers nodded in agreement.

Looking back over the past twenty years, at first, it was just to strictly implement preferential exemptions and commercial taxes. This step alone took seven years. During this period, the emperor kept a backup plan, determined the direction of employment, laid a good foundation for military preparation, reformed the central government, and cultivated a team of important officials who were willing to follow the emperor's will.

Then, he conquered the northern border in one fell swoop. With this prestige, the reform of local government offices was first tried in Liaoning Province and Chengde Prefecture, and finally the two Zhili in the north and south were abolished, and the local government office system was reformed.

This process took nearly another ten years. From the first seven years to the last ten years, the old officials were eliminated and replaced by talents trained by the theory of "investigating things and seeking knowledge". Many cases were also handled to gradually weaken the old local gentry who could not keep up with the changes.

Even so, when the new currency system was about to be implemented, the assassination case still occurred.

At this point, with the newly established Haidong Province, a great victory in Japan, and the establishment of the new Port Xuanwei Division, Myanmar should be able to deal the final blow to the Toungoo royal family in this autumn and winter dry season. The new law that the emperor hoped to implement was finally about to achieve the most core result: the tax system.

It's all about money, finances.

Zhu Changluo had already set up the framework. He looked at Ye Xianggao and said solemnly, "Prime Minister, this is the last important matter that I need to put my mind at ease on! If this matter can be properly discussed, and the central and local governments are united in many aspects such as finance and personnel, and the people praise it when it is implemented, then we can talk about discussing the national constitution. From now on, the co-governance of the monarch and his subjects will be the system of a dignified country!"

Ye Xianggao was excited and bowed, saying, "I know the importance of this! This time, the Ming Dynasty has one capital, three capitals, and nineteen provinces. Under the governors of each province, the prefects of each prefecture, and more than a thousand county magistrates will attend the grand political meeting. Although the inspection team went to various provinces to examine officials for the people, they also followed the orders of the Executive Yuan to conduct detailed research. Before the grand political meeting, they will issue a report. After further discussion, they will ensure that the types of taxes and tax rates are in line with the actual local conditions, so that both the central government and the local governments can benefit from it."

Zhu Changluo nodded: "There is no need to deliberately discuss a law that will last forever. It is rare to have stability for ten or twenty years. Times change, and reforms will never stop. It's just that this time it is a big change compared to the previous ones, so we need to be more cautious."

Ye Xianggao was very confident: "Now that the bank and the treasury have been established, transportation is smooth, and the currency system is in place, the shortcomings of the old tax system have been reformed. Apart from this, the supervision of the civil service will be entrusted to the Jinxianyuan and Jianchayuan."

"I wish to assist the Holy Emperor to accomplish this great cause."

Zhu Changluo saw that they were all looking forward to the day when "a constitution would be established for the emperor, and the monarch and his subjects would rule together as the state system", and he didn't mind as long as things could be accomplished.

The Ming Dynasty implemented tax in kind because it had to do so at the beginning of the country and was also constrained by the technical conditions at the time.

After that, it was the old problem of every dynasty: to govern the country, we must rely on the gentry, so we must give preferential treatment to the gentry. The best students are appointed to official positions. Although there are idealists in the official ranks, since the royal family itself regards the country as its private property, why should we blame the officials for their selfishness?

So over time, everyone was generally a drain on the country. Although strong men like Wang Anshi and Zhang Juzheng occasionally appeared, they were only able to treat the symptoms and not the root cause.

This fundamental solution must involve the interests of the emperor and the royal family.

Now that Zhu Changluo is willing to face this problem, the reform at least has no more difficult problems to face. Under the great cause, can the private interests of officials and gentry still outweigh the interests of the royal family?
We can all find other ways to compromise, such as official treatment or new opportunities.

In short, the purpose of this grand political conference is to discuss a new balance with the new tax system as the theme.

How to balance the interests of officials and the people, and how to balance the interests of the court and local governments.

So everything is for money, and reform means changing the distribution of benefits.

And how much total benefit can the Ming Dynasty distribute?
In the past, the biggest part of the Ming Dynasty's tax system was always land tax, which was in the form of grain. In the exchange rate of gold and silver, one tael of silver was equivalent to four shi of grain.

After the Single Whip Law, many local taxes and levies could indeed be counted in silver. However, the common people only received grain after all. If they wanted to exchange it for silver, they would be exploited by grain merchants; if they wanted to pay silver, they would be exploited by fire consumption taxes; if they wanted to deliver grain to warehouses, they would be exploited by transportation costs.

Taking the sixth year of Wanli as an example, the total amount of land tax actually collected was more than 26.6 million shi, but the actual amount paid by the people was far higher than this figure, while the annual income received by the central government was far less.

After so many years of efforts, the Taichang Dynasty was able to collect more than 42 million shi of land tax just by strictly enforcing exemptions, because the old land tax system was not changed. This was far higher than the peak of more than 31 million shi during the Yongle period.

The reason is simple: the Ming Dynasty has been peaceful in the hinterland for so many years, at least there has been no large-scale war. How can the newly reclaimed land be compared with that in the early Ming Dynasty? It is simply that after the Renzong and Xuanzong, more and more land has been exempted and hidden.

In addition to the land tax, although Zhu Changluo was exempted from the annual tax after he had income sources such as Changminghao and Zongminghao, and the income from local taxes also decreased a lot, but in terms of foreign trade and strict commercial taxes, the annual income in silver was much more than the 4 or 5 million taels during Zhang Juzheng's administration, and was already more than 11 million taels.

Everyone would think that compared with the annual income of more than 20 million shi and 2 to 3 million taels in the past, the current Taichang Dynasty is much better. Otherwise, how could it support the conquests to the north, east and south?
However, how does it compare with the Song Dynasty, which had a "small" territory?

At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the fiscal revenue was about 20 million strings of cash. At that time, one string of cash was equivalent to one thousand copper coins. Before that, one tael of silver in the Ming Dynasty could be exchanged for about six or seven hundred good copper coins.

If we calculate it in detail, the fiscal revenue of the early Song Dynasty was more than the more than 20 million shi of grain and 2 to 3 million taels of silver of the Ming Dynasty. Although the actual grain price is really calculated, the Ming Dynasty's income may be higher. However, during the Yuanfeng period, the annual income of the Song Dynasty was more than 60 million strings. After the migration to the south, although it was only more than 30 million strings in the early years of Shaoxing, it was more than 80 million strings by the end of Shaoxing, and it reached more than 120 million strings during the Chunyou period.

This is of course due to the fact that exploitation was more serious while the Ming Dynasty followed the ancestral system of a low land tax ratio and a fixed quota. But it at least illustrates two problems: the tax potential is huge, and at least the annual revenue of the Song Dynasty could be counted and increased, unlike the Ming Dynasty, where the peak of fiscal revenue occurred during the Yongle period.

Now, the Ming Dynasty no longer had to exploit the country to death like the Song Dynasty did and raise its fiscal revenue to the level of hundreds of millions of taels per year, but at least it could learn from its strengths.

For example, commercial taxes.

After the struggle with the local governments after the autumn and winter fairs, and the fact that the emperor had begun to reform the salt administration starting with the big salt merchants such as the Huizhou merchants, the rapid increase in annual silver revenue in recent years was due to the salt administration revenue.

But what is it compared with the Song Dynasty? In the early Song Dynasty, the salt money income was more than 3 million strings of cash. After the migration to the south, it soared tenfold to more than 31 million strings of cash during the Qiandao period. Even if the inflation factor is deducted, it is still very considerable.

Another is the treatment of officials in the Song Dynasty. Because the treatment of officials was really good, under this "rich support" policy, officials were willing to see more and more annual revenue in the court accounts, so that they could get more and more.

It was different in the Ming Dynasty. The various treatments were not clearly defined, but instead these treatments became unspoken rules. Some of them were not even allowed to be made public, so the local authorities could only carry them out privately through disguised exploitation.

At this moment, in front of the emperor, Ye Xianggao already had an idea in his mind through the preparations he had made over the past two years.

"For example, the tea monopoly. At the beginning of the country, the tea monopoly in Nanzhili could bring in 680,000 taels a year. Later, only Sichuan and Shaanxi could do so. If tea were a monopoly, the annual revenue would be millions or even tens of millions of taels. The wine monopoly is not much different. Although the deed tax can be levied lightly, it is only used as a statistical basis for the circulation of goods, but it can also bring in two to three million taels a year. The customs duties on the ports will be enough to reach tens of millions of taels after the East Sea, the South Sea, the northern border, and the western regions are all settled. In addition, merchants and workshops..."

When Zhu Changluo heard him calculate the real financial situation of the Ming Dynasty, it seemed that earning tens of millions of taels a year was no problem at all.

He quickly warned, "It is also not possible for the court to monopolize all of it. When you discuss the tax system, you must also take a long-term perspective and provide living water to the people. The court can stabilize the new currency system, and it can be adjusted in the future according to the current situation. My opinion is that there is no need to set quotas for the new tax system. It is secondary to do the work in a snail shell. The local governments can put the extra money into their pockets after completing the tasks. This is not acceptable. Officials and public expenses should be given enough, but the local governments and various government offices should not be forced to ask for more in order to survive, and then exploit them too much."

Zhu Changluo paused for a moment and continued, "The court collects taxes to make the country run better and better, not like ordinary people constantly amassing wealth and buying property. The court can spend the taxes it collects, balance its revenue and expenditure, and have a surplus or borrow money for emergencies. That's enough. Over time, these taxes have turned into better roads, bridges, water conservancy projects, and military equipment for the Ming Dynasty, and into more and more houses and more and more talents, which will make things better and better."

He concluded: "In short, it is more important to set rules for budgets, final accounts, how much to collect, how to collect, how much to spend, where to spend, and how to review. The most important thing is that the common people are richer and willing to pay taxes, and unnecessary losses and burdens should not be imposed on them. This is a good start. In general, as long as everyone works hard, wealth will increase. The court's tax system and finances are for adjustment to ensure the overall situation is good, not for the purpose of making money and enjoying life."

The tone was set at the imperial court meeting between the emperor and his ministers, and this most special political meeting of the Ming Dynasty entered the formal preparation period.

The local military and political affairs were monitored by the Privy Council and the Council of Public Security, while the civil affairs were monitored by the Executive Yuan system, and the heads of various places began to make preparations one after another.

People from far away places have to set off for Beijing several months in advance, so they have even less time to do their homework.

As the magistrate of Teng County in Yanzhou Prefecture, Zhu Youjian also had to go to Beijing.

Time flies, and he is now an adult in his twenties.

"Your Highness, it is not convenient for the inspection team to evaluate, and neither is it convenient for anyone to evaluate. Whether you can be promoted when you come to Beijing this time can only be evaluated by His Majesty." Lu Xiangsheng teased with a smile.

"You are not yet?" Zhu Youjian said unhappily, "but after you return to Beijing, you will probably get married and stay in Beijing. If I am promoted and appointed to another position, I will lose a good advisor."

Lu Xiangsheng smiled and replied, "If I keep staying by your side, I don't know how many people in the world will hate me to the core. I have to give others a chance to get close to your highness."

"……Too."

Zhu Youjian recalled his experiences over the past two or three years and heaved a sigh of relief: "It has been a difficult time for my father to live like this for a county like this for more than 20 years."

Lu Xiangsheng restrained his smile and nodded in agreement: "It is not easy. Your Highness has such an understanding, I think His Majesty should be very relieved."

"But I hope that I will speak out for the people of Teng County impartially. Father will not blame me for being narrow-minded, right?" Zhu Youjian asked uncertainly, "Since I know Teng County, I should only fight for Teng County now, isn't it?"

Lu Xiangsheng nodded solemnly, "Of course. There have always been disputes between the court and the local government, between this county and the leaders. Your Highness can fight for Teng County, which shows that you really know what the ministers will think in the future. Your Majesty is so happy."

Zhu Youjian looked at his expression and suddenly laughed out loud: "The provincial government can't compete with this county."

Lu Xiangsheng also laughed: "If there is a reason and evidence, there are many examples where the provincial government can't do anything to the county, not to mention your highness."

After Zhu Youjian laughed with him for a while, he looked outside the hall and suddenly felt a little reluctant to leave.

"It would be good if you can arrive in Beijing before the Emperor's birthday. Since you are an official, you should do more. Today I can only show my favor to one county, but in the future I can always show my favor to the Ming Dynasty. We are all my subjects, so it is not considered as partiality."

Lu Xiangsheng bowed upon hearing this and said, "Dong Weng has understood."

It is a bit presumptuous to call them “my subjects” now, but the prince can become a county magistrate, and the Ming Dynasty is no longer the Ming Dynasty of more than 20 years ago.

Now the prince has been through a lot, and although his methods are still rough and many things can be accomplished because of his status, it is enough for him to have the enthusiasm to seek benefits for the people under his rule.

It seems that the Ming Dynasty's prosperous momentum will last at least two generations, or at least sixty years.

And with the experience of this crown prince who has set a precedent for the Ming Dynasty, what will the future hold?
At this time, Lu Xiangsheng thought of another thing: "The Crown Princess..."

Zhu Youjian suddenly became embarrassed and his eyes were evasive.

Lu Xiangsheng smiled and said, "I don't think His Majesty will blame me. Why not make a clear statement first and get an imperial decree to come to the capital to let His Majesty and His Majesty see it. Your Highness has not even got married yet but has been ordered to tour the south and has been appointed to a local position. His Majesty must have had this intention long ago. Otherwise, the court would have long ago requested to select a crown princess for Your Highness."

After all, Zhu Youjian was a young man full of vigor and vitality. How could he not have these "romantic encounters" when he was "free" outside?
But the Crown Princess is really important.

Zhu Youjian was helpless when he heard this: "Then bring them all to Beijing."

Lu Xiangsheng nodded: "Then your highness will also be married, and you can take up your post after the wedding. In the future, the Crown Princess will follow your highness to various places, and will not be restricted by the palace. However, whether your highness can keep the harem peaceful outside the palace will be a test of whether the harem will be peaceful in the future."

Zhu Youjian couldn't help but open his mouth.

Lu Xiangsheng continued to tease: "Your Majesty is probably envious of Your Highness. You will be transferred to various positions. In the future, all the six palaces in the East and West will be your favorites. Your Majesty treats Your Highness very well!"

Zhu Youjian couldn't laugh or cry.

But it seems... there are indeed advantages and difficulties.

If he was busy with official duties in the local area, his women in the government office and the backyard would not be as restrained in their fighting as they were in the palace.

For a moment, he could not help but feel dignified: It seems that it is better to be promoted to an official in the capital as soon as possible. If he flirts with women too much in the local area, or if others come to seduce him with beautiful girls from time to time, his father will be watching. If there is any unrest in the harem or even death, it will not be beautiful!
It would be better to just stick with what we have now. If we give birth to more children, the Ming Dynasty will have a successor!

(End of this chapter)