When Liu Yan left Nanjing, he specially summoned Liu Liangzuo and Gao Jie. For these two generals who left a mark in history, Liu Yan did not want to reuse them. Gao Jie was better, and Liu Liangzuo was completely an executioner who had defected to the Manchus.
It's just that these two people are both strong men who are accustomed to fighting. In addition, there will no longer be tragedies of the Manchus entering the pass, so Liu Yan does not want to force the two of them to leave. In that case, the two of them will most likely have to go. Those who have fallen into trouble will be dealt with again when the time comes.
So after Liu Yan gave the two of them, especially Liu Liangzuo, a hard beating, he sent them to the Huangming Martial Arts Hall. After they graduated, he arranged a position as a garrison military battalion general to observe the future. It works.
After listening to Liu Yan's arrangement for the two of them, Huang Degong said: "Gao Jie is still usable, but Liu Liangzuo did a lot of killing good people and taking credit for his crimes in his early years. Now he has a chance to change his ways. I really feel a little bit in my heart." uncomfortable."
Liu Yan also sighed, how could he feel comfortable in his heart?
It's just that now the New Deal and military reform policies are being fully rolled out. Let alone other things, just talking about suitable candidates for generals in the garrison camps in various places. Tian Huixu, the Secretary of the Ministry of National Defense, is already worried that there are not so many suitable generals. ah.
Now the Huangming Martial Arts Hall in Qingzhou Prefecture is almost full, and they are all trainees drawn from the various armies of the National Defense Force, in order to train qualified generals for the garrison troops.
So Liu Yan simply said his helplessness: "The world is too big and there are too many places to employ people, so sometimes the court is helpless. General Huang must be considerate of this."
"But General Huang also
You can rest assured that the lack of people in the court does not mean that people will be used indiscriminately. Anyone who violates the laws of the Ming Dynasty and resists the imperial court will not be appointed by me. I have already notified the Supervision Department to file a case for what Liu Liangzuo committed before, and Liu Liangzuo will be punished in the future. "
Huang Degong clasped his fists and said, "My boss is fair, I admire you."
Huang Degong then said goodbye to Liu Yan, and the army continued to march in the direction of Beijing.
In early October, Liu Yan led his troops back to Beijing.
At this time, the news of the abolition of the Nanjing imperial court had reached Beijing, and Emperor Chongzhen was very angry about this.
However, the large amount of evidence sent by Liu Yan and the huge amount of money and food transported back to Beijing by the National Defense Force soldiers extinguished the anger in Emperor Chongzhen's heart and made the young emperor start to think deeply.
"Big companion."
"The old servant is here."
"Do you think the officials of the Ming Dynasty were really so rich? Every time Liu Yan ransacked a house and took someone, he could make tens of millions of taels of silver!"
Wang Chengen didn't know how to answer. There was no official in the world who was not rich. If all the money of civil and military officials were nationalized, the court would not know how rich it would be. Even Wang Chengen couldn't imagine it!
Emperor Chongzhen glanced at the silent Wang Chengen, snorted with some dissatisfaction, and then said: "Where's Liu Yan, hasn't he returned to Beijing? Why doesn't he come to the palace to see me?"
Wang Chengen said: "The old servant sent someone to ask, and Liu Gelao said that he was busy formulating new policies, saying that he wanted to increase taxes on officials and the rich. Now I am afraid that it lies with Yue Ming, the Minister of Finance, and Song Shu, the Minister of Commerce. Let’s discuss this matter openly.”
Emperor Chongzhen frowned and said, "It seems that Liu Yan wants to
Stirring a hornet's nest! "
At the same time, in the Cabinet Office, Liu Yan, Yue Ming, and Song Gongming were discussing something.
"property tax?"
Song Gongming and Yue Ming looked at each other, both of them were frightened by Liu Yan's idea.
This is going to attack the rich and officials all over the world. Who would agree?
Liu Yan explained: "My trip to Nanjing this time made me realize one thing, that is, almost all officials in the Ming Dynasty are corrupt. If I blindly implement the New Deal, if nothing else, the two Ming Dynasty officials will be corrupt." Ninety percent of the officials in the thirteen provinces of Beijing will be captured!"
"Who will govern the place then, and who will maintain the normal operation of Ming Dynasty?"
Liu Yan said helplessly: "I also want to remove all corrupt officials in the world in one fell swoop, but the reality does not allow this. I must face the reality: as long as local officials support the New Deal and agree to the Ministry of Finance's property verification, I will Recognize that their current property is legitimate and legal!”
This is what shocked Yue Ming and Song Gongming.
The property tax that Liu Yan wants to levy this time requires officials of all sizes in the imperial court to take the initiative to report their property. No matter how much the property is or what its source is, as long as they declare it to the court before the deadline, the Ministry of Finance and the National Defense Force will After verification by each ministry, a property tax of 30% of the total amount will be levied.
As long as the court officials handed over the money, the remaining seventy percent would be legal.
Of course, when these officials died, their children who wanted to inherit the property had to pay an additional property tax of 30% of the total amount, and so on for future generations, just like Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's order of favor, reducing the income of those officials from generation to generation. fiscal
Produce.
Moreover, once these officials redouble their raids on the people in order to make up for their losses, it will not be that easy. As long as the New Deal is implemented in various places, the Supervision Department, the Criminal Department, and the Public Prosecution Department have established yamen in various places that are independent of the local governments, plus military intelligence With the Ministry's internal monitoring, Liu Yan is confident that corruption can be controlled at a relatively low level.
At this time, Yue Ming said: "If the officials in the imperial court have the opportunity to launder their corrupt money, they will definitely report it to the imperial court. At the same time, the imperial court can use the money and food to relieve the people, develop people's livelihood, and also effectively appease the people." , kill two birds with one stone.”
"I just have a worry as a subordinate. Are those officials afraid that the imperial court will settle accounts in the future, so they will wait and see at the beginning?"
Liu Yan nodded and said: "We will definitely wait and see, so officials from the fifteenth department of the imperial court must take the lead, and officials in the capital must also be the first to complete the report. Anyone who disobeys the order will be removed from office!"
"When officials from various places see that everything is fine after the Beijing official reported, they will rush to report to the court."
Yue Ming nodded and said: "In this case, I will complete these details and form a question book, and submit it to the cabinet for review and approval."
"Um."
Liu Yan then said to Song Gongming: "The same is true for businessmen, local gentry, and powerful people. They must complete the filing within a limited time limit. However, after filing, you do not need to pay 30% of the property. You only need to pay 30% of the property when your heirs inherit the family property. The imperial court pays 30% of the property tax.”
"yes."
Song Gongming said: "The detailed rules for merchants, gentry, and powerful people will be drawn up in detail by the subordinate officials."
Then Liu Yan added: "Whether it is an official or a businessman,
Jia, gentry, and powerful people all have a certain amount of property tax to pay. Officials do not have to pay property tax if their wealth is less than 5,000 taels. Merchants, gentry, and powerful people do not have to pay property tax if their wealth is less than 5,000 taels. "
"yes."
In fact, Liu Yan originally planned to follow the methods of later generations and adopt the detailed rules of tiered tax deductions. The more wealth the family has, the higher the cumulative property tax paid, and the less wealth the family has, the lower the proportion paid.
It’s just that the specific operation is too complicated. Judging from the current administrative efficiency and integrity of the Ming Empire, even if the New Deal is fully implemented, this overly detailed property tax operation will not be able to be done well.
Therefore, Liu Yan had to simplify it directly. No matter how much the property was, as long as it exceeded the collection limit, it would be 30%.
Then Liu Yan, Yue Ming, and Song Gongming led officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce to work for several days to fill in another article for the new policy.
When Liu Yan came to the Imperial Study Room with the strategy for collecting property taxes, Emperor Chongzhen was looking through the memorials reported by the previous cabinet.
"Liu Ge, please take a seat."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Emperor Chongzhen put down the memorial in his hand and said: "At present, the New Deal has been fully rolled out in North Zhili, Shandong, Xuanfu, Shanxi, Henan, South Zhili, and Sichuan. The number of refugees in various places has been greatly reduced, and the annual income of the imperial court has also begun to increase. These are all the contributions of Mr. Liu Ge, and I see them in my eyes."
Liu Yan was humble, and then he took out the property tax strategy and said, "This is the property tax strategy that I have drawn up together with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce. Please take a look at it."
After Emperor Chongzhen saw it, he asked: "How much can the court's income increase if this is the case?"
Liu Yan said: "Property
In addition to the tax that will be collected when officials file for the first time, the rest will only be collected when officials, merchants and other wealthy people pass on their family businesses. Therefore, it is really difficult to estimate the annual increase in income. "
"However, I estimate that the amount of money collected by our officials in the Ming Dynasty will definitely not be less. According to the cabinet's estimation, the imperial court can collect at least 30,000 taels of silver!"
"How many!"
At this time, Emperor Chongzhen had completely lost his imperial demeanor and stood up directly, shouting loudly.
Wang Chengen's eyes widened as well, as if he wanted to eat someone.
In fact, this is not Liu Yan's nonsense. According to the bottom of the Ministry of Personnel, at present, the Ming Dynasty does not mention the place, but there are 882 officials in the imperial court in the capital. These are all officials of seventh rank or above, and eight in the capital. Officials who have not yet entered the mainstream, such as the 9th grade and the 9th grade, have not been included in the statistics.
And what about locally?
According to the records of the Ministry of Personnel, the number of civil servants on the books is 2,445. Including the guards and generals from various places, this number may have doubled.
Today, there are at least 8,217 Ming civil servants and generals in the books of the Ministry of Personnel. Based on Liu Yan's understanding of the Ming officialdom, this number must be accurate. The actual number of officials in various places must be at least 30% higher. Calculated based on 11,000 people, these are all officials of seventh rank or above.
Then it is calculated based on the calculation that officials with property less than 5,000 taels account for 20%, and officials who were lucky enough to get away with it account for 10%. Judging from the experience of these several house raids, the hundreds of thousands taels of silver in the homes of officials in the Ming Dynasty are "standard." More or less, let's calculate it based on 150,000 taels.
Calculated in this way, 30%
With the property tax, the court can collect at least 346.5 million taels!
At first, Liu Yan was shocked when he heard that the cabinet had calculated this number. How could the Ming Dynasty have so much money?
But then I thought about it, since the Ming Dynasty Longqing was closed, the silk, porcelain, tea, and handicrafts produced in the Ming Dynasty have been selling well overseas. Even though the court banned the sea again, the overseas trade of private smuggling and government-run overseas trade has never been cut off.
It can be said that since the Longqing Switch, Ming Dynasty's foreign trade has always been a trade surplus. According to historical records, by the time of Tianqi and Chongzhen dynasties, even one-third of the world's silver had flowed into the Ming Dynasty!
It's just that these huge amounts of silver flowed into the official and business groups and into the pockets of the powerful and gentry. The Ming court did not receive much benefit, which also indirectly caused the financial difficulties of the late Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty is not without money. On the contrary, it is very rich. The wealth is beyond Liu Yan's imagination. In the treasury of the Ming Dynasty Official Business Group, there are at least hundreds of millions or even billions of silver. This is by no means alarmist!
So in the face of the astonishment of Emperor Chongzhen and Wang Chengen, Liu Yan said: "Your Majesty heard it right, it is at least thirty million taels of silver! As long as the property tax and the New Deal are implemented, the court will no longer pay for money and food for at least ten years. And stuck.”
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen sat down dejectedly, and then gritted his teeth and said angrily: "I'm going to play it! Mr. Liu Ge, just go ahead and get back the money they stole for me!"
