Daming Palace, inner study room
Emperor Chongping looked at the young man opposite, his eyes warm and intimate, and said, "I heard from Dai Quan that you went to the Metropolitan Procuratorate?"
Jia Heng said: "Yesterday, the Holy Father ordered me to go to the Metropolitan Procuratorate to assist in the investigation, so I went over to have a look, but I didn't want Sir Xu to report his illness."
Emperor Chongping smiled and said: "I sent someone to deliver a message to him last night, asking him to let Yu De's son Yu Zhen go. This morning his memorial to complain of illness was delivered to my desk."
When Jia Heng heard this, his heart moved slightly. He looked at the middle-aged emperor with a calm expression and said, "Your Majesty, what you did last night must have deep meaning."
Emperor Chongping glanced at Jia Heng and did not continue to mention the matter, but said: "Look at this."
With that said, he took a memorial from the desk and handed it over.
It was not a memorandum of apology submitted by Han Huang, but a memorial submitted by Gao Zhongping, the governor of Liangjiang. He wanted to try out a whipping method in Liangjiang, clean up the land, strictly inspect the donated land, and require local officials and gentry to make up for the unpaid taxes.
At this time, the officials and gentry, that is, those above the Juren class, had the privilege of paying taxes and servitude, and many ordinary people donated their services to their subordinates.
After Jia Heng finished reading the memorial, his eyes flashed with thought.
It has to be said that Gao Zhongping did have lofty political ideals. One whip method and all the methods that passed the examination were arranged. The two rivers were tried out first. Then the two rivers were successful, which was to promote the whole country.
Obviously it was not enough to give him the governorship of Liangjiang. At that time, he returned to Beijing with great honor and became the chief minister of the cabinet.
Jia Heng plastic surgery calmed his expression and reminded him: "Your Majesty, we must not rush into reform."
"I know not to act too hastily, but this opportunity is extremely rare. It coincides with the great victory in the north and the political situation in the DPRK and China is stable. We can try innovative strategies. Of course, I also want to hear your opinion." Emperor Chongping looked at him with burning eyes. The young man said in a clear voice.
When the young man in front of him was governing Henan, he used thunderous means to suppress the mighty powers of the Central Plains and wipe out the lawless gentry clan. He is still known as a cruel official in the Central Plains to this day.
When Jia Heng heard this, he knew that Emperor Chongping had already begun to think about reforms.
This is why a series of great victories against the captives gave Emperor Chongping confidence in his path, and although Gao Zhongping had been away from the center for many years, he was also influencing the emperor's governance.
In fact, even during the meeting between the monarch and his ministers, he had mentioned the strategy of using the power of military victory to carry out reforms. Now it is not that he has changed his mind, but because of his rhythm, he does not want to break up with the civil servants and bureaucracy so early. come across.
Because he hasn't grown up to that point yet.
Of course, if he were standing in the emperor's perspective, or he was taking the emperor's script, he had just won a great victory over the chieftain, so why not take advantage of the opportunity to reform and become stronger?
Having said that, there is nothing wrong with moving Jiangnan now, just let Gao Zhongping charge in front.
Jia Heng said: "Wei Chen believes that it is actually feasible, and the area where the new policy can be tried can be temporarily limited to Jiangsu Province. Moreover, Wei Chen has some suggestions that can improve a whipping method, such as dividing the land into acres and returning the fire to the public," Jia Heng said. and the abolition of the two reforms and the reform of the Yuan Dynasty.”
If the whip method does not cooperate with Huo Huo Gui Gong, the cost of collecting discounted silver will eventually be passed on to the people.
It is worth mentioning that one whip law levied land tax and corvee into one tax, excluding Ding tax (head tax).
In the feudal era, the main source of tax revenue for the imperial court was land tax, but whether the government was responsible for welcoming people and sending people there, building bridges and roads, or even working on rivers and water conservancy, all these required the people to perform corvées.
In addition, there are other miscellaneous taxes. One of the current whipping laws is the merger of taxes and levies, and the other Ding tax, which is the poll tax, is called social support fee in later generations.
Interestingly, most of the Ding tax in the Ming Dynasty was embezzled by officials and was not paid into the national treasury.
No matter how you put it, in one sentence, levying property taxes based on acres of land means a strong sense of property tax. Landowners with more acres of land will have to pay more taxes, and then the government will hire servants to do some work of building bridges and paving roads, which to some extent alleviates class conflicts. Narrowing the gap between rich and poor.
Taxation itself is an effective means for the state apparatus to mediate the gap between rich and poor. It cannot always rob the poor and give to the rich.
But the difficulty in taxing is to let the children of officials and gentry collect their own taxes.
"Oh?" When Emperor Chongping heard this, he had doubts in his eyes and said, "What does this mean when you share your property with others and return it to your father's house? And why do you only go to Jiangsu Province?"
Sure enough, Ziyu also had a policy of innovation. When he first came to the inner study room, he and he discussed the political gains and losses of the previous dynasty, and the words of reform and innovation seemed to still ring in his ears.
Jia Heng said: "Your Majesty, let me first talk about the province of Jiangsu. The area south of the Yangtze River is vast. Anhui has just been divided. The scholars in the south of the Yangtze River are looking forward and backward, hesitating and hesitating. Among the two provinces, Jiangsu is particularly prosperous, and the imperial court wants to implement new policies. We can first choose one province in Jiangsu for trial implementation. If the results are impressive, we can then slowly extend it to several southern provinces without worrying about lack of energy and officials being disobedient."
Clearing land with a whip method can expand the tax base, and this method has the possibility of success in parallel time and space history, which shows that Gao Zhongping can probably do it. So if he really returns with great honor and enters the cabinet, he will also need to consider his influence on the government. Impact.
In other words, he needs to intervene to slow down the speed at which Gao Zhongping, the favorite of Emperor Chongping when he was hiding in the palace, successfully enters the center and dominates the world, and then increases the difficulty of success in a timely manner to highlight his own role.
There is no way, at this level, it is impossible not to fight for power and gain.
Now the emperor obeys his advice, but what about after Gao Zhongping enters the capital?
Emperor Chongping said: "I originally had no intention of starting a big war, but since we are two rivers, they should be one, and the results should be more significant."
Jia Heng pondered for a moment and said: "Wei Chen believes that only a small boat can turn around. If there is trouble in Jiangsu Province, the central government can respond in time and deal with it thunderously."
When Emperor Chongping heard this, his eyes flashed and he said, "Does Ziyu think that once implemented, it will cause trouble?"
Jia Heng said: "Your Majesty, I am worried that Jiangnan is a land of great wealth. If something goes wrong with the new policy, it will affect the stability of the country. If your Majesty thinks that Jiangsu Province is relatively small, you can set the regional tax and tax service in Henan Province as a whip." For legal collection, the Central Plains and Jiangsu can be said to be one in the south and the other in the north. Each chooses a province to verify each other's successes and failures, learn lessons, and gradually implement it next year or the year after to Jiangnan and even the whole country."
At that time, whether in Jiangsu or the Central Plains, once a general made trouble, it could be suppressed with heavy troops.
On the contrary, if it is spread everywhere and there are not enough capable ministers and officials to implement this policy, it is easy for good things to turn into bad things.
Not long after the great economic chaos in Henan Province, the results were greater than those in Jiangsu. At that time, the ugly behavior of Jiangsu gentry in resisting the imperial government's national policy for their own selfish interests was even more exposed.
Emperor Chongping thought for a while, but he also noticed some wonderful points. He nodded and said: "Zi Yu's method is very good. It can also block the mouths of scholars in the south and north of the Yangtze River. However, in Henan, Henan Governor Shi Ding may implement it." ?”
Jia Heng said: "The land of Henan is in chaos due to the chaos in the Central Plains, and there are hundreds of wastes waiting to be done. It is not as prosperous as Jiangnan. The sects and vassals were also suppressed before. They cleared the land and implemented a whip method, but the resistance was much smaller."
Emperor Chongping nodded and asked, "Zi Yu just mentioned that sharing the land with his family, what does it mean that Huo Huo returns to the father's house?"
Jia Heng added: "Governor Gao's whipping method is nothing more than to save unnecessary expenses in collection. However, we must not ignore the local servants and subordinates. They often use the pretext of collecting broken silver, melt it, cast it, transport it to the furnace, and then use it to burn the fire. To increase the floating fee, besides collecting tax money, the amount of silver is not much, and it will also cause the grain to be low and hurt the farmers. Once the court rolls out the policy, it needs to consider local conditions and pay equal attention to both physical goods and discounts. For example, if a whip is used to collect silver, it will not be beneficial to the country. To store grain and fodder, to provide disaster relief and prepare for famine, in order to solve this problem, the imperial court could gradually abolish the liang and replace it with the yuan, and replace the silver taels with silver coins, so that it could easily accept the copper coins in the hands of the people, and then use the collection center to purchase them. Grain and fodder form a cycle of their own.”
The current currency system is mainly made of metal, and banknotes and banknotes are basically not used by ordinary people.
Emperor Chongping pondered and said: "What a great return of fire to the public! This method can prevent the government from assigning land tax to ordinary people, good!"
Jia Heng then said: "As for dividing the land into acres, all the land tax will be deducted into the land. Abolishing the land tax will save ordinary people's childbirth expenses, and it will also be a virtuous policy that the people want."
Not charging a poll tax is indeed a virtuous policy.
Emperor Chongping's eyes flashed and he said: "This is a combination of land tax, corvee service, and Ding tax. Instead, it is collected in terms of acres. It requires clearing the land."
Facing the emperor's thoughtful gaze, Jia Heng said softly: "Abolish the Liang and change the Yuan, I, the great man, can plan to build a royal silver bank, and instead use silver coins to make money instead of silver liang to travel all over the world. This royal bank is almost like the Shanxi Shanxi Shanxi merchant bank." , they issued banknotes with merchants' credit. It was inconvenient for wealthy businessmen and wealthy families to carry silver, so merchants mostly used banknotes. In this way, the imperial court became the world's largest bank, which facilitated merchants all over the world, promoted the prosperity of commerce, and also provided more financial resources for the country. There are many benefits.”
Emperor Chongping nodded and said: "The Ministry of Household Affairs also has a ticket number, but it is limited to the capital. Why not promote it throughout the world?"
Jia Heng said: "Your Majesty, I believe that the Royal Bank can open branches in the north and south of the Yangtze River, and set them up in the provinces and wealthy prefectures and counties. With the prestige of the imperial court as the ticket certificate, merchants all over the world will also deposit money into the bank. Of course, it does not exclude local merchants from opening bank accounts, but they must be supervised by the Royal Bank and special officials to supervise the payment of money. The Ministry of Accounts will issue a license and at the same time put a reserve fund to the Royal Bank to prevent runs and bankruptcies. The Ministry of Accounts is It is not appropriate to deal with this matter in order to spend money and food."
At this time, there is no talk of credit or endorsement.
But there is another hidden danger in this matter, that is, the bank account may become a cash machine for bureaucrats, and then deposits cannot be withdrawn. The bureaucrats may not look good. This requires the Royal Bank to form its own financial system, which is most suitable to be managed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. but.
In the future, if Jinyang still has his children, they may be able to go to a bank... After three generations of finance, there will be endless shortages of children and grandchildren.
This is called Foolish Old Man moving mountains and hammering nails.
I really agree with one sentence, a good position is like AIDS, which can only be transmitted from mother to child, blood and sex.
Of course, before that, the bank account can be tried out in wealthy places like Jinling, Hangzhou, and Suzhou.
In short, by reforming finance, he achieved control over the economic lifeline of the Han Dynasty, gradually bypassing the Ministry of Household Affairs, and realized that the finance and military were self-contained systems.
Emperor Chongping felt for a moment that the establishment of the bank account might erode the authority of the Ministry of Revenue, but he was a little hesitant. He raised his eyes to look at Jia Heng and asked, "Zi Yu also has a way of currency colonization?"
Jia Heng said: "I read more miscellaneous books. Guan Zhong of Qi State made Qi State richer than other countries with the art of commodity colonial economy. Although I am not talented, I only want to be a common man and a dull man, so that I can find a way to enrich the country and strengthen its army." "
Emperor Chongping looked at the young man, secretly saying that Wang Zuo was very talented, and asked: "Continue talking about the silver dollar, I think there seems to be a lot of knowledge in it."
Jia Heng said: "The Royal Bank and the Mining Bureau of the Ministry of Household Affairs minted silver coins, which replaced the silver coins and passed north and south. They thought it was a waste of money to pay taxes, stipends, and purchase large items. People still used to make money to buy food and clothing as in the past. It was so convenient. You can also gradually use silver dollars."
Because silver is not only inconvenient to carry, it is not easy to convert in transactions. For example, the conversion of silver with different qualities is also different. It is better to have the court melt and cast silver coins.
It's not that he wants to drag the big man with nearly 100 million people to accompany him back to the future life before time travel.
Instead, it reformed the currency system to serve a whip-like taxation system. It used gold, silver, and copper as the three standards, used money to make money for daily needs, used silver dollars to purchase bulk commodities, and then used silver notes to promote commercial transactions. This was the economy of the Han Dynasty. .
When Emperor Chongping heard this, his eyes flickered under his thin pine eyebrows and he asked, "Does Ziyu mean to issue a new Tongbao?"
Jia Heng said: "Your Majesty, copper coins can still be used to make Tongbao. Instead, silver coins can be used to replace silver taels. Then, to facilitate trade, silver notes can be used all over the country. This is not only portable, but also saves transaction costs. Nowadays, officials' salaries are more than 100 meters. Banknotes are mixed with silver, and many officials dislike treasure banknotes. Now they use banknotes instead, or treasure banknotes can be accepted by banks for a certain amount of silver. Over time, people will naturally regard banknotes as one."
Nowadays, officials distribute salaries with a mixture of rice, banknotes and silver. Of course, the key is not to issue excessive amounts of precious banknotes, otherwise it will soon become a waste paper that is too hard to wipe your butt.
When Emperor Chongping heard this, he also understood what he meant, which was to take over the Shanxi merchants' banknote industry and let the royal bank take over. He said: "The movement of the currency system involves all aspects of the Ministry of Household Affairs. You, Qi Qing, and Lin Qing can come up with a charter. , the Ministry of Internal Affairs can actually prepare to build a royal silver number."
If silver coins can be used instead of silver taels, it will be a good strategy to eliminate the adverse effects of the one-whip method.
Jia Heng accepted the order and said yes, and then said: "Your Majesty, I think that when we clear the land in the south of the Yangtze River, we must also beware of the tyranny of the gentry that may cause some trouble."
Emperor Chongping said: "After your wedding, why didn't you go to Jiangnan to lead the army to eliminate the pirates? Let's see how this matter is settled?"
After saying that, he thought for a while and said: "Gao Zhongping mentioned in the meeting the day before yesterday that he wanted to take back some of the powers of the Jiangnan Camp as usual. I want to hear your opinion. Is it necessary?"
The emperor obviously also considered the turmoil brewing during the Reform and Reform Conference, and mentioned Jiangnan Camp just in case.
Jia Heng said: "The Jiangnan Camp has always been the headquarters of the Nanjing Military Department, the Governor-General of Liangjiang, and the Jiangnan Camp. The three parties negotiated and jointly promoted the deployment. Of course, the Shenjing Military Department must also be notified. If the troops and horses are promoted according to the previous system, there is nothing wrong. It’s just that at present, the Jiangnan naval force has to go south to suppress the Qing bandits in the sea and to the north to conquer the Eastern captives. Moreover, Wei Chen wants to go to Denglai, Shandong, and Tianjin to prepare strategies against the captives, and even jointly prepare for the establishment of a naval division. Wei Chen thinks that the Jiangnan navy will The Zhenhai Guard Navy of Camp Six Guards, would you like to reconsider this?"
After he took over the Jiangnan camp, and because the previous governor of Liangjiang, Shen Fang, was ineffective in mobilizing the army, he was no longer under the command of the governor's office of Liangjiang. Gao Zhongping had just arrived in Liangjiang and clearly wanted to take back his authority.
In other words, the emperor would not put all the soldiers and horses in his hands.
Gao Zhongping was also good at fighting in Sichuan and had great military achievements.
Emperor Chongping said: "The navy is still being returned to the center for use. This is nothing. Ziyu is preparing the navy, but he wants to use the Korean navy to cross the sea to attack Liaodong?"
"The Holy Spirit has a clear vision." Jia Heng said.
Emperor Chongping sighed with emotion: "This is what Pinglu Ce said, how could I not know?"
After the contribution of Pinglu Ce, it was indeed implemented step by step according to the policy, which gave people a really different feeling.
Emperor Chongping thought for a while, then looked at Jia Heng and asked: "I heard from Xianning that yesterday Gao Yong was drunk and caused trouble in a restaurant by Qujiang Pond, and you took him to Jinyi Mansion? "
Jia Heng said: "Gao Yong was drunk yesterday and made many rude remarks about Jinyi Mansion, and then even got into a fight. The ministers were afraid that something might happen to Gao Yong after he was drunk, so they imprisoned him in the government office. Today we are talking about releasing him." People go back.”
Emperor Chongping said: "The second son of the Gao family is a bit reckless. These officials and officials rely on their fathers' merits and honors. They don't know how to restrain themselves and cultivate themselves. They do many illegal things. It is a good thing to be taught a lesson in Jinyi Mansion."
As he spoke, Emperor Chongping said: "Yesterday, Mr. Han Ge came into the palace and mentioned that his son Han Hui was also involved in the imperial examination fraud case. I was quite surprised when I heard about it. After thinking about it, I sent someone to the Metropolitan Procuratorate to inform Xu. Qing, when you return, I will come to your door to persuade Xu Qing."
At this time, Emperor Chongping broke through the key points. After all, he had said before that no matter who was involved, a thorough investigation would be carried out, and then he went back on his words, which was somewhat disgraceful.
Jia Heng nodded and said, "After Wei Chen returned home, he went to see Mr. Xu."
Immediately, he sighed and said: "This matter is indeed a bit unbelievable. Wei Chen also had some friendship with Han Hui, the son of Mr. Han Ge, and did not want to resort to such opportunistic methods."
Emperor Chongping said in a deep voice: "This matter was brought to the attention of Fang Huan. My intention is to have Han Hui pass the exam again. If he fails in grammar, he will be deposed immediately."
Jia Heng said: "Your Majesty is magnanimous and magnanimous, and I admire him."
The emperor had given him an explanation, and he was using Han Hui's incident to blackmail Han and Zhao and clear the way for the upcoming reform and new policy.
At least a tacit understanding can be reached at the central level, which means that Ke Dao may be in trouble. As for local resistance, it is not a big problem if Gao Zhongping or he will take care of it later.
This is indeed a window period for reform and innovation.
Emperor Chongping said: "Then I will draft an edict in a while, and I will first carry out a whipping ceremony in Jiangsu and Henan. You can also prepare for the wedding in the past few days."
Jia Heng said: "I thank you, Your Majesty."
That's all before the wedding. After the wedding is over, we can go south.
At this moment, Dai Quan entered the inner study and said, "Your Majesty, Grand Scholar Li and Qi Ge Lao returned to the capital and handed over the sign to ask to see Your Majesty."
Emperor Chongping's eyes flashed and he said, "Xuan."
Dai Quan took the order and left.
Emperor Chongping looked at Jia Heng and said, "Qing Li and Qi are here just in time. You come with me to meet him. It's just in time that you and Qi Kun discuss the reform of the currency system."
Jia Heng stood up, cupped his hands and said, "I obey your order."
After this period of time, Li Zan finally returned to Beijing. Later, he could mention Shi Nai's departure from the town to be the admiral of Shandong.
(End of chapter)
