The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 588 The Poor Scholar Goes Crazy with Joy
The imperial edict abolished the tax-free quota for land owned by Jinshi, Juren and Xiucai!

This time, the entire Ming Dynasty was in an uproar again.

However, this time it did not attract a barrage of criticism. On the contrary, many poor scholars were overjoyed.

Because the imperial court will use silver money to make up for the cancelled tax-free quota, and the subsidy for scholars is doubled, ten taels each per year!
This amount of money may seem like nothing. Nowadays, the minimum wage for ordinary people is one tael of silver per month, which means twelve taels for twelve months a year.

The situation for craftsmen was even worse. Earning two or three taels of silver a month was considered low, and earning four or five taels of silver a month was common.

As for the garrison troops, their situation was even more extraordinary. Each household had at least fifty mu of land, and the annual grain output was at least hundreds of dan.

In other words, ten taels of silver a year is not a very high income for most people today, but it is a huge sum of money for a poor scholar who has trouble even eating.

There is a scene in the story of Fan Jin passing the imperial examination where Fan Jin's old mother was so hungry that she could not see. She then fumbled out her treasured eggs and asked Fan Jin to exchange them for some rice to cook porridge.

This is not an exaggeration. A poor scholar only studies and has no source of income. If his family has no land, even eating will become a problem.

Poor scholars usually come from families without land. If a family has 80 acres of land, he is no longer called a poor scholar, but a gentry.

In other words, the original tax-free quota of 80 acres of land was of no use to the poor scholars. At most, they could use this tax-free quota to exchange for some food from the local tyrants.

The local tyrants and gentry would not calculate the land tax from them based on 80 acres of land. If they did so, then getting the tax-free amount would be like taking off your pants to fart, which would be a waste of time.

This kind of land that is donated for tax exemption can be calculated at most at half of the land tax. Some stingy local tyrants may calculate it at 20% or even 10% of the land tax.

In other words, the tax-free quota of 80 mu of land could only be exchanged for 4 stone of grain at most, which was not enough to eat.

Now, if the tax-free quota of eighty acres of land is converted into ten taels of silver a year, it will be different.

Even in the capital, ten taels of silver could buy ten stone of grain, so having enough food was no longer a problem.

If you are in grain-producing areas such as Huguang, Bashu, etc., one tael of silver can buy three stone of rice, so you can eat your fill with four taels of silver, and the remaining six taels can be used to buy a lot of things, so having enough food and clothing will not be a problem.

The poor scholars were naturally overjoyed as they suddenly went from being so poor that they could barely afford three meals a day to having enough food and clothing.

In order to successfully abolish the tax exemption for scholars, Wanli even ordered the Ministry of Revenue to immediately issue them a year's worth of silver.

At this point, those Jinshi and Juren who were not very wealthy were overjoyed.

One hundred taels is a lot for a Jinshi. If he is not greedy or corrupt, the annual salary of a seventh-rank county magistrate is only ninety taels.

In other words, the money the court gave them as compensation was more than their salary as county magistrates for a year.

Moreover, this is not the only time it will be issued this year. There will be another one before the New Year.

That's two hundred taels. In those days, buying a small house in the capital only costs a few dozen taels of silver. You can imagine how huge a sum of money these two hundred taels is for an honest official with clean hands.

It seems that Wanli suffered a huge loss by giving the Jinshi, Juren and Xiucai arrears.

At this time, there are more than 5,000 living Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty. If each of them gets 200 taels, that would be over one million taels.

There are tens of thousands of juren, and if each person gets 40 taels, that would be more than 400,000 taels.

The amount for scholars is even more than 100,000 taels, and 20 taels per person means more than 2 million taels.

In other words, he paid more than three million taels of silver to Jinshi, Juren and Xiucai this year alone.

Moreover, every year in the future, more than one million taels will be paid to Jinshi, Juren and Xiucai. This amount will continue to increase, and it is possible that it will rise to more than two million taels a year.

You know, the total salary of all officials is only about two million taels a year.

Wouldn't it be a huge loss for him to issue the money in this way?

actually not.

He actually issued the additional money in order to eliminate corruption as much as possible.

If the new standard of abuse of power is used, the standard for a seventh-rank county magistrate is that if he embezzles 7.5 taels, he will be caned with 70 strokes of the cane; if he embezzles between 7.5 and 90 taels, he will be caned with 100 strokes of the cane; if he embezzles between 90 and 900 taels, he will be caned with 100 strokes of the cane, his property will be confiscated, and he will be exiled; if he embezzles between 90 and 900 taels, he will be caned with 100 strokes of the cane, his property will be confiscated, and he and his entire family will be exiled; and if he embezzles more than 900 taels, his property will be confiscated, his entire family will be executed, and he will be exiled.

Now, a Jinshi who has achieved the title of Jinshi will be given an additional 100 taels per year. Anyone who risks being beaten 100 times, having his property confiscated, and being exiled with his entire family just to embezzle 90 taels is a criminal.

Moreover, this supplementary silver money was issued every year, and in nine years it would be nine hundred taels.

Anyone who risks having his entire family executed, confiscated, or even exiled to embezzle nine hundred taels of silver must be mentally ill.

Of course, his re-issuance of silver and money could not stop those officials who were too greedy.

He actually did this to curb the trend of corruption and prevent most officials from taking the risk of corruption.

A group of corrupt officials have just been purged at this time, and most officials should not have started to engage in corruption yet.

If he reissues silver and money at this time, most officials will be able to have enough food and clothing, and the possibility of taking the risk of corruption should be much smaller.

If he does not reissue the money, with the current salaries of Ming officials, many officials will be unable to resist engaging in corruption.

If there are too many corrupt officials, it will be a disaster. One of them will embezzle at least several thousand or tens of thousands of taels. If there are two hundred of them, they can embezzle more than one million taels.

Are there only about 200 corrupt officials investigated and punished by the Ministry of Justice this time?

It’s more than two thousand!
People like Shen Yikuan and Li Dai are even more incredible, each of them is worth several million taels.

In other words, as long as he reissued the silver and money while strictly enforcing the new laws and regulations, the money he saved every year by eliminating corruption would definitely be more than two million taels.

This business is actually not losing money at all.

He could also gain the support of those honest officials and even all the poor scholars.

More importantly, he was able to curb the frantic land acquisition by scholars. In fact, the reason why many officials who were Jinshi graduates were frantically acquiring land was that they started with the two thousand mu of tax-free land.

They will try every possible way to get money to buy two thousand acres of land because they have a tax-free quota of two thousand acres of land. After having two thousand acres of land, they will find that the tax-free money is nothing, and the income from two thousand acres of land is really great.

Even if the two thousand acres of land were all rented to poor farmers to cultivate, the annual income would be at least two to three thousand dan of grain, which would be at least more than one thousand taels of silver.

This amount of money is enough to buy several luxury houses and a bunch of beautiful maids. Life will be so easy.

Most people certainly want to live a better life, so most officials who have tasted the sweetness of two thousand acres of land will embark on the path of crazy land mergers.

This can also be said to be one of the reasons why scholars annexed land.

Now the tax-free land is gone, and the corrupt officials who frantically merged land have been almost cleaned up.

Under the severe punishment for abuse of power, not many of this new wave of officials had the courage to risk having their property confiscated, their entire family executed, and exiled in order to embezzle a few thousand, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in order to frantically merge land. The problem of scholars merging land should be solved for the time being.

After the problem of scholars annexing land was solved, he began to consider how to deal with the remnants of the princes, royal family members, Donglin, or the three major powerful families of Puzhou.

Only after these two forces were dealt with could the hidden dangers within the Ming Dynasty be completely eliminated.

On July 11th, Wuwu, early in the morning at about noon, he summoned Luo Sigong to the imperial study.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, he asked, "Si Gong, do the scholars have any opinions on abolishing the tax-free land?"

Some people may have objections to this, but the secret guards didn’t see it.

Luo Sigong nodded repeatedly and said, "We didn't find any scholars who had objections. Instead, many scholars were very happy, especially those poor scholars, who were almost going crazy with joy."

That's good.

Wanli asked again, "What about Li Sancai? Have you found any contact between him and the remnants of the three great families of Puzhou?"

These guys are really good at hiding.

Luo Sigong said somewhat discouragedly: "Your Majesty, I am incompetent and have not found any trace of the remnants of the three great families in Puzhou.

Li Sancai seemed to have become quite obedient after he convened the Donglin gathering. He even avoided meeting the Donglin clan, not to mention the remnants of the three great families in Puzhou."

These guys are really good at hiding.

The eight imperial merchants in history seemed to have nothing to do with the three great families of Puzhou.

If it weren't for the fact that most of the profits from the two salt fields originally controlled by the three major families in Puzhou were inexplicably transferred to the eight imperial merchants when Han Yu was the prime minister, it would seem that they really had no relationship at all.

These guys are really good at hiding.

If all else fails, we'll take down Li Sancai and Han Yu first, cut off your hands reaching out to the court, and see what else you can do.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then instructed: "Keep a close eye on Li Sancai and Han Yu, and don't let up on the lamp oil issue.

You keep an eye on it for a while. If it doesn't work, we will deal with Li Sancai and Han Yu first.

You've already planted spies in their homes, right? It wouldn't be a problem for you to slip them tens of thousands of taels of gold and silver treasures, right?"

Uh, are you planning to frame me again?

Luo Sigong nodded repeatedly and said, "No problem."

Wanli thought for a moment and then asked, "Logically, we should be able to find some clues from the lamp oil side.

It is impossible for the remnants of the three major powerful families in Puzhou to give lamp oil to the princes and royal family for free. They must also make money.

Haven't you asked anyone to check this?
They always have to go to the princes and royal families to get money."

Well, I have of course asked people to check this, but this problem is difficult to investigate.

Luo Sigong said carefully: "Your Majesty, I estimate that the money was transferred by the princes and the dukes to the remnants of the three great families in Puzhou by buying things.

The problem is that the princes and dukes are extremely extravagant, and no one knows how much money they spend every year.

Unless we thoroughly check their purchase records and interrogate all the merchants who sold goods to them, it will be difficult to trace the remnants of the three major wealthy families in Puzhou through this line."

This way of checking obviously won’t work.

Most of those merchants should be fine. If they are fine, catching them and torturing them is a perverse act.

This precedent must not be set. It is clear that torturing law-abiding civilians will definitely arouse public outrage.

Wanli pondered, "You mean, those princes and dukes should know that those are the remnants of the three great families of Puzhou, right?"

Luo Sigong nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, they should know this, otherwise the money would not be given to the remnants of the three great families in Puzhou."

These princes and dukes, please don't force me to confess by torture.

Upon hearing this, Wanli nodded slowly and said, "Okay, please write down in detail which princes and dukes are doing the lamp oil business. I will ask them when the time comes."

You ask the princes and dukes!
Doesn't that mean we have to bring them to the capital and torture them?
In fact, you can ask the king's uncle Wang Bing.

However, this would completely alert the enemy.

Well, I'd better not give any random suggestions.

Upon hearing this, Luo Sigong bowed repeatedly and said, "Your humble servant understands."

(End of this chapter)