At the end of November, the temperature in Bianliang became lower and lower, and the weather became increasingly cold.
There are often clouds in the sky during the day, and even if the sun occasionally shines, the sunlight is pale, and it seems to have no warmth at all when it shines on people.
Today, the Sansiyuan Yamen began to pack up department documents.
Dozens of officials packed up baskets and baskets of documents and carried them out towards the Daqing Hall.
Bianliang Palace is divided into the front palace and the back palace. In the middle of the front palace are the Wende Hall and the Daqing Hall. In front of the Wende Hall are the three bureaus, the Privy Council and the Political Affairs Hall.
In front of the Daqing Hall is a huge school ground. This is a place for receiving foreign guests, holding grand celebrations, and holding banquets and Cuju competitions for the birthdays of emperors or other important figures. It is only used two or three times a year.
Zhao Jun always felt that it was a pity that such a large place was empty. Just after the new department was established, he asked the Ministry of Industry to rebuild some courtyards here to serve as office spaces for various departments.
It's not a large palace, just an ordinary courtyard.
This kind of courtyard can be built very quickly, with three entrances and three exits, and it does not take up much space. There is no problem in accommodating more than a hundred officials to work, so it is considered a relatively economical type.
It is indeed a bit shabby now, but the Ministry of Works and the Eighth Division are already speeding up the work, and it is expected that by next year it will be renovated to be the same as the current Third Division.
As for the three departments, there are now six departments: the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Taxation.
There are only the Ministry of Transportation, which was originally responsible for roads, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, which was responsible for industry and commerce (Youcao came out of the Household Department, and the Commercial Tax Case, Capital Salt Case, Tea Case, and Iron Case came out of the Salt and Iron Department), and the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The three important departments of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the Ministry of Taxation were moved to the front of the Daqing Hall. Together with the newly established Police Department and the Ministry of Education, they are only one hall away from the Constitutional Yuan behind the Daqing Hall.
After the entire department was restructured, each department was re-planned.
The original three provinces had ceased to exist in name only and had no business or responsibilities, so they were simply abolished. The Privy Council still maintained its original structure, and the other departments were scattered and newly built.
Such separate departments and newly established departments will undoubtedly increase the number of officials, exacerbating the problem of redundant officials.
But the benefits are also obvious.
At present, the highest administrative agency of the Song Dynasty is the Constitutional Yuan, followed by a group of first-level agencies, including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Police, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Taxation, and the six traditional ministries of Rites, Officials, Soldiers, Punishments, Households, and Industry. .
The chief officials of these departments are slightly higher than those of ordinary departments. In addition to the title of Shangshu, they will also have the status of an observation candidate, which is equivalent to the second-grade level.
Then there are the general departments, namely Dali Temple (Court), Sentence Yuan (Procuratorate), Yushitai, Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of Communications, Jinzouyuan (Propaganda Department), Statistics Department, Communications Department, Geology Department, Foreign Affairs Department Department (unifying the National Information Office, Concierge Courtyard, Tongwen Hall, Duting West Station, Huaiyuan Station), etc.
After that, the Constitutional Yuan directly under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Academy, the Shaofu Prison, the General Supervisor, the Ordnance Supervisor, the Water Supervisor, the Liunei Quan, the Third Class Yuan, the Judge Yuan, the Pinyin Yuan, the Firearms Bureau, the Creation Bureau, the Production and Imperial Bureau, There are more than 20 sub-departments such as the Living Bureau and the Etiquette Bureau.
In this way, the entire superior and subordinate authority structure was formed.
From the perspective of redundant officials, due to the increase in departments and personnel, idle officials have been dispatched, and redundant officials have intensified.
From a practical point of view, we have redefined the hierarchy and improved the organizational order, so that the superiors and subordinates of each department are clear, and they no longer have no control over each other, causing confusion as before.
At the same time, it also abolished the three provinces, Taichang Temple, Zongzheng Temple, Guanglu Temple, Weiwei Temple, Taipu Temple, Sinong Temple, and Taifu Temple, which had no business, no power and no responsibility, and restored the functions of the original six ministries, which greatly Strengthened the power of the Constitutional Yuan.
In a sense, it is a bit like the three provinces and six ministries in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, except that at that time the three provinces restrained each other, but now the three provinces constitute the Political Yuan, forming an overall force and strengthening the power of the prime minister.
And because the power of the prime minister and the imperial power are currently connected, Zhao Jun has compared the Constitutional Yuan to an institution like the Ming and Qing cabinet and the Military Aircraft Department. The power of the imperial power has also been increased and governance has become more centralized.
The most important thing is that after dismantling the originally extremely bloated three departments, although there are more institutions and larger departments, there is no overlap of powers and mutual influence in the past. Everyone performs their own duties and their own departments do their own work. On the contrary, things seemed much easier.
This is the significance of departmental weight reduction.
Perhaps the only ones who are dissatisfied are the new Finance Minister Cheng Lin and the Minister of Education Xia Song.
Especially Xia Song, he thought he could get a ministerial position.
But it is a pity that the Constitutional Yuan suppressed him and he was unable to achieve his goal.
Who told him to be mean-mouthed?
After the decentralization of power among the three departments, Cheng Lin's original dignified position became a minister, equivalent to the original deputy envoy in charge of the affairs of the third department. How could he be satisfied?
I wrote to Zhao Zhen many times in the early dynasty and later to object, but unfortunately the situation cannot be changed.
This officialdom restructuring was a carnival for idle officials, with supporters from all over the court making up the vast majority, so he alone could not change it.
So just like that, the entire Jingyou restructuring was successfully completed.
Personnel were redistributed, organizations were streamlined, and departments were managed collaboratively and uniformly by the Constitutional Yuan, making the system far more efficient than the chaotic system that once was.
The Ministry of Punishment has been working overtime and has drawn up charters for each department and defined the responsibilities system.
For example, Cheng Lin of the Ministry of Finance is the main person in charge, and the following branches are also under the jurisdiction of each department, down to the individual.
A series of restructuring gave Bianliang officialdom a new look and a new look.
certainly.
Regardless of any system, efficiency is mainly done by people.
If officials are lazy and neglectful in their administration, even if their responsibilities are determined, their superiors and subordinates are clarified, and their responsibilities are divided, the efficiency will still be low.
So this depends on the courage of the Constitutional Yuan.
At least the current lessons learned from the Salt and Iron Division coincide with the restructuring. The new redundant and unorganized officials are eager to prove themselves. The administrative efficiency is still not slow and much better than before.
At the same time, people were beheading and killing people every day outside the east city of Bianliang. The grass in the eastern suburbs was almost dyed red with blood, and the air was filled with a fishy smell.
The people of Bianliang are not used to it either.
Officials can't say that everyone is in danger. The main reason is that Zhao Jun beheaded and killed people, unlike Zhu Yuanzhang who was so exaggerated that he beheaded thousands of officials every time.
Most of the homicides were committed by criminals. In the eyes of officials, they were the ones who deserved to be killed.
When their own interest groups are harmed, these officials will choose to join forces to fight together. But they treat the people at the bottom and those evil elements who have nothing to do with their own interests, no different from the untouchables.
Therefore, this killing did not actually cause much turmoil in the officialdom, but among the people, its influence was unprecedented. Bianliang was cleared of evil and the underground was much cleaner.
More than ten days later, in mid-December, as the New Year approaches, the streets, deserted by the cold wind, become increasingly lively.
People came out to the market one after another and began to prepare for the New Year.
Kaifeng Prefecture demolished a large mansion in Xianningfang, and Bazuosi undertook the construction and transformed it into a commercial street, which is now under construction.
The government even built another road at the pier by the Huimin River, connecting the streets that were not far away. This will obviously make this commercial street a place where every inch of land is valuable in the future.
Now the imperial court is not short of money for some time.
As soon as the autumn tax comes, the national treasury currently has more than 40 million yuan. Secondly, Zhao Jun killed more than 10,000 people, ransacked homes and confiscated a large amount of property.
More than a thousand mansions in the inner city and outer city alone were seized. Among them, the real estate owned by the owner of Guifan Tower and the owner of Wuyou Cave was worth more than one million guan, as well as hundreds of thousands of guan in cash. Up to more than six to seven million strings.
Therefore, after having money, the government not only vigorously purchased grain and grass from the south, but also built large-scale construction projects in the city, hired low-level workers, built bridges and paved roads, and promoted economic development while maintaining the urban style of Bianliang.
"The top priority now is to make money. Why did Jiaozi appear in Shu? It was because the Song Dynasty had prosperous business and there was a shortage of copper coins in the Bashu area, so they were forced to use banknotes instead of money."
Today in Guanjia Hall, Zhao Jun started a new round of lectures.
He looked around the crowd and said: "The business environment in Bianliang has been greatly improved. In future generations, we will have a Ministry of Commerce, which is responsible for domestic and foreign trade and international economic cooperation. For now, there is no need to separate this department and hand it over to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Then we have to think about business reforms.”
"Did Sun say that state ownership should be changed to private ownership?"
Zhao Zhen asked.
These days, he has also understood the relationship between state-owned and private enterprises. Isn't it the same as the former Guemai and Chayanyin?
Selling food is a national exclusive business, but as long as you transport grain to the border, there will be tea and salt.
"Yes."
Zhao Jun nodded and said: "Capital needs to sprout and grow, so it is necessary to loosen its shackles. But completely liberalizing the free market will not work. Once the cage of this beast is opened, without restraint, it will cause very serious consequences."
"What consequences?"
Everyone asked curiously.
"To give a simple example, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, southern salt merchants monopolized salt and raised the price of salt, making the people miserable. The court could not collect commercial taxes and faced the dilemma of foreign tribes in the north withholding borders, but they fought to fight To be rich, spend a lot of money.”
Zhao Jun said with a smile: "At that time, the salt merchants in the Jianghuai area were extremely wealthy. "The Unofficial History of the Qing Dynasty" records: "The Yangzhou salt merchants were the most luxurious in the world, and those with less than one million were called small merchants." In other words, for the people at that time, For a salt merchant, a few million taels of silver is just a small amount of money, and the standard for a rich man is at least tens of millions of taels."
Ten million taels of silver?
Everyone had a look of astonishment on their faces.
Silver in the Song Dynasty was not not currency, but there was less silver and not much circulation on the market.
Converted according to the ratio at that time, one tael of silver was approximately equal to one pound of money.
But this is the official exchange rate.
In fact, the value of silver was higher. By the time of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, one tael of silver was equivalent to about 0.4-0.5 taels of silver, and one tael of silver was almost equal to two taels of silver.
Even if we only calculate it based on the ratio of one tael of silver to a regular amount of money, it means that the net worth of a wealthy Jiangnan salt merchant during the Ming and Qing Dynasties was comparable to one-tenth of the annual fiscal revenue of the Song Dynasty at that time.
You must know that under the Two Tax Law of the Song Dynasty, fiscal revenue was still very high. The Renzong Dynasty basically maintained it at about 80 million yuan every year, and by the Yingzong Dynasty it already had 11.6 billion yuan.
This is already the highest tax collection in all dynasties.
But compared with the Jiangnan salt merchants in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, they obviously pale into insignificance.
“I didn’t expect that Jiangnan salt merchants would be so wealthy during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.”
Lu Yijian sighed.
Zhao Jun smiled and said: "The main source of their wealth is the inflow of Japanese silver during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, so this is why I said we would go to Japan."
"Well, if Japanese silver flows into the Song Dynasty in a large amount, wouldn't the economy of the Song Dynasty be improved to a higher level?"
Yan Shu thought: "With so much silver entering the market of the Song Dynasty, the current situation of lack of money in the Song Dynasty can be improved. In the future, the annual tax paid by the court will reach hundreds of millions, or even two or three billion yuan."
"But we must be careful not to be coerced by capital, nor to be deceived by these people into not collecting commercial taxes. In the future, we must establish a rule. Anyone who dares to stop collecting commercial taxes will be killed!"
Zhao Jun looked around and said: "The lessons learned from the failure of merchant taxation in the Ming and Qing Dynasties are still fresh in my mind. We should not exempt those merchants from taxes just because they represent the interests of those merchants in the court. In the future, not only will the merchants be taxed, but Their taxes must be greatly increased to reduce the burden on the peasantry.”
Do you still remember the lessons learned from the failure of merchant tax revenue in the Ming and Qing Dynasties?
Why does this sound so awkward?
Everyone looked at each other.
Obviously they were in the Song Dynasty before the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but good guys, the later Ming and Qing Dynasties became a negative example.
"Well, that's natural."
Zhao Zhen nodded and said: "We have our own ancestral system in the Song Dynasty. Taizu established the "Business Tax Regulations". Anyone who dares to say that he will not collect commercial tax will be killed without mercy!"
When it comes to matters of the country, he is not careless.
"This is the best. Both commerce and agriculture are the foundation of the country. Agriculture controls food and commerce controls all aspects. In later generations, our country has completely abolished agricultural taxes and even provided subsidies. The income is almost mainly commercial taxes."
Zhao Jun continued: "The Song Dynasty must learn from the lessons of the Ming and Qing Dynasties when commercial tax revenue failed to come up, resulting in the country having no money to use and eventually perishing. Therefore, when it comes to taxation, it must do its due diligence, improve various legal systems, and avoid being People have taken advantage of loopholes, and the Commercial Tax Regulations must always be improved.”
"But at the same time, in the commercial market, we must also encourage and develop commercial prosperity. However, in terms of rigid needs such as food, clothing, housing and transportation, the intervention of state-owned assets is still indispensable."
"Otherwise, if these things that are related to the lifeblood of the country are controlled by businessmen, then the country will inevitably be carried forward by capital, which will inevitably cause turmoil in the domestic people's livelihood, thereby exacerbating the birth of internal strife.
"I will be touring various places at the beginning of next year. The commercial development of Bianliang is the top priority, and the reform will also be piloted from Bianliang. At that time, I will still rely on the support of Prime Minister Li and everyone."
"In short, we have only one goal, to improve the business environment, promote commercial development, and make money for the court, make money, make money!"
"Does everyone understand?"
After saying this, he still looked at everyone with a very serious expression.
Li Zhen had already been buried at this time in history, but Zhao Jun pulled him back from hell and is currently the minister of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. Tea merchant Tian Chang, grain merchant Meng Chengqi and many other businessmen have had contact with him.
So next year Zhao Jun plans to carry out business reforms and change the original tea, salt and grain monopoly to a public-private partnership.
But it just so happens that he needs to go to the grassroots level and understand the sufferings of the people. He will also have to tour various places next year. He is really worried about this business reform without him.
But then again.
The Constitutional Yuan has already gathered a group of prime ministers. If Zhao Jun has to intervene in everything, what is the difference between this group of people and a drunkard?
Therefore, Zhao Jun only planned to carry out early reform and development and tell them how to do it.
As for how we did it specifically, we have to come back and talk about it later.
This is also a test for them.
"Understood!"
Just like the regular meeting of the Constitutional Yuan, everyone responded.
Zhao Jun nodded with satisfaction and said: "After the commercial restructuring, if we are lucky, if Lao Fan wins in the north in the next few years, he will be able to start thinking of ways to get silver from Japan to flow in, and business will develop vigorously. We can look forward to the future, success or failure depends here. In one fell swoop, it’s up to you whether the Song Dynasty will be strong or prosperous or end up like in history.”
"good!"
Zhao Zhen concluded his speech by saying: "This time is related to the prosperity of the Song Dynasty. Please do your best."
"I will do my best!"
Everyone stood up and saluted Zhao Zhen solemnly.
This time is indeed a big test. When Zhao Jun leaves Beijing next year, they will have to carry out business restructuring, which will be a lot of pressure for them.
(End of chapter)
