Zhao Jun suppressed dissidents in the Constitutional Yuan, suppressed the Lu Party and the Royal Party, and consolidated another wave of power.
Just when the first item of the Qingli New Deal to rectify the official administration was resolutely completed, the New Year of the second year of Qingli also arrived as promised.
In the spring of the following year, after passing the entrance exam that started in February last year, one year later, with the stick and carrot, middle- and lower-level officials no longer resisted.
the reason is simple.
Although the test method makes them work a little harder and makes them tired, the performance bonus is really good.
Again, although there were various subsidies in the past, the subsidies for senior officials were paid truthfully every year, but the subsidies for middle- and lower-level officials were not necessarily the same. They were often deducted and their incomes were unstable.
After the performance of the examination came down, although the subsidy dropped sharply every month, the performance was paid out truthfully, and the income was much more stable than before.
Therefore, when there are actual benefits, middle- and lower-level officials increasingly accept the existence of the examination law.
Correspondingly, senior officials felt a little uncomfortable.
Because performance bonuses essentially weaken previous subsidies, and senior officials receive the most subsidies, their incomes will naturally drop sharply. Even if they complete their monthly tasks and receive performance bonuses, they will not be as good as their previous incomes. many.
This means that the actual New Deal still weakens senior officials of the third and fourth grades and above, and uses their wool to subsidize lower-level officials. This will not consume much for the national treasury, but it will be very harmful to them.
Therefore, many senior officials are quite critical.
But after all, senior officials were only a minority. Compared with the tens of thousands of officials throughout the Song Dynasty, their voices were too small, and they were suppressed by the Political Yuan, so naturally they could not make any trouble.
As the winter snow of the new year passed, in the spring of 1042 AD, under the chairmanship of Fan Zhongyan, the second chapter of the Qingli New Deal began.
First of all, politically, the construction of the entire framework has been completed.
With the Constitutional Yuan as the center, it formulates the direction of national development, coordinates various departments, and subordinates ministries to formulate development plans for their own departments and supervise the implementation of subordinate agencies.
At the local level, the local county magistrate is responsible to the state, the prefect of the state is responsible to the road, and the fourth division of the road government is responsible to the court.
Progressive and layer-by-layer communication improves execution and administrative efficiency.
In this way, we completed the rectification of the bureaucracy, uncovered a large number of corrupt officials, and dealt with many officialdom bugs, making politics more clear and clear starting from the first year of Qingli.
In agriculture, a large number of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes were eliminated, the burden on farmers was reduced, and corvee work was lightened. The main corvee work was done by local Xiang troops and the imperial army. The main idea was to "enhance agriculture and mulberry trees" and "reduce corvee work."
In terms of diplomacy, it maintains good foreign relations with Liao Kingdom, Xixia, Koryo, RB, Dali and other countries, communicates whether there is any, and does not prohibit trade with each other, which greatly promotes the development of foreign trade.
In terms of social system, starting from the north, the management status of parents under the semi-feudal system is recognized, but it must be carried out in accordance with the laws of the court. Private establishment of public courts is not allowed. The personal freedom of the clan must not be restricted. Children born by concubines enjoy the same land rights, inheritance rights and education. right.
In terms of science and technology, the Institute of Invention was established to refute the theory of useless inventions and creations, and encourage private innovation and invention. Once the invention patent was determined by the Invention Bureau, it was promoted by the court and received large sums of money as rewards.
Culturally, we advocate diversity, encourage the creation of drama, painting, sculpture, ceramics, poetry, songs, etc., and promote the simple and easy-to-learn Henan Mandarin, commonly known as the Northern Mandarin as Mandarin.
At the same time, he actively innovated clothing, decoration, and handicraft products. Zhao Jun even developed his own comfortable clothing such as cotton coats sewn from linen and stuffed with cotton, silk shorts and short sleeves for summer wear.
There is also an emphasis on restricting women's thoughts, advocating that women can study and go out on the streets. Except that they cannot be officials, other things are similar to men, and there are not many restrictions.
This was something that was allowed in the Northern Song Dynasty, so it's not surprising.
In terms of education, official schools were officially established across the country, divided into three levels: county, state and road schools.
Corresponding to elementary school, junior high school and high school respectively.
The funding for each school is about 100-200 yuan, and students who pass the examination are admitted free of charge. For those from poor families, the local government will give preferential treatment to poor students and reimburse their food expenses.
If you can graduate with excellent results from Lufu School, you may be admitted directly to Bianliang University, which was newly established by the Ministry of Education this year.
Bianliang University is great. The teachers there are all experts and professors from the research institute and enjoy the treatment of officials. For example, Bianliang University's sacrificial wine is affiliated to the Ministry of Education, and it is the same as the Imperial Academy's sacrificial wine.
The rest of the teachers are also from the fourth grade to the seventh grade, such as the Northern Song Dynasty mathematician Jia Xian, the alchemy (chemist) Wan Zhichen, the astronomer Yan Su, etc.
After several years of development, mathematics, physics and chemistry courses in primary and junior high schools have trained a large number of students.
Since Zhao Jun left the palace in the year of Jingyou, the Constitutional Yuan has set up several schools in Bianliang to conduct pilot education.
There are only two training directions in these schools. One is normal Confucian cultural education, which focuses on patriotism and ideological education.
The other is mathematics, physics and chemistry education, conducting research on mathematics, physics and chemistry.
Not only did Zhao Jun bring some primary school and first-year mathematics, physics and chemistry textbooks, but he also actively studied the mathematics, physics and chemistry knowledge handed down from ancient times.
Our country's science in ancient times was not bad, but it lacked the intermediate argumentation part and the prime minister's induction.
Therefore, the Institute of Political Science and Institutions established a research institute, convening many talents in mathematics, physics, and metallurgy to provide systematic guidance, summarize the laws, and form a complete theory.
Such as optics and mechanics in "Mo Jing". The Pythagorean theorem and geometry in "Zhou Bi Suan Jing". Positive and negative numbers, equations, square roots, etc. in "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic".
In the past, the government and the court would not do this kind of thing, but now they are very active. With the strong promotion of the government and the accumulation of manpower and material resources, the archaeological research on previous scientific and technological achievements has made rapid progress.
Therefore, after Zhao Jun sorted out and summarized it, he finally completed a set of basic education suitable for children in the Song Dynasty.
Primary school is still between six and twelve years old, and the main focus is on learning Chinese characters and mathematics.
Between the ages of twelve and twenty, they studied Confucianism, mathematics, physics, and chemistry. The level was almost the same as that of later generations from elementary school to the second grade of junior high school. After all, Zhao Jun couldn't teach the knowledge of the third grade of junior high school, and there were no teaching materials at all.
Other high school and college knowledge available.
For example, the "Jia Xian Triangle" invented by Jia Xian is a high-order arithmetic series summation problem, and the "multiplication method" is a numerical solution to high-order equations, both at the high school and university level.
But for the average person, basic math is enough.
As long as mathematics education is popularized, more people who devote themselves to mathematics will naturally be admitted to Bianliang University, concentrate on studying mathematics theory, and slowly complete the mathematics of future generations.
Economically, a progressive commercial tax system is implemented.
That is to say, in the future, taxes will no longer be determined based on the value of goods, but will be collected based on the total sales of goods. If you sell more goods, you will be charged more, and if you sell less, you will be charged less.
This is obviously done to protect the interests of small and medium-sized merchants. After all, the prices of commodities fluctuate and the risks of buying and selling are also high.
Once you hoard goods and cannot sell them, or the market price fluctuates and the selling price is lower than the cost, and you sell them at a loss, it will be a huge loss for small and medium-sized businessmen.
But if this happens, tax evasion will inevitably become a serious problem.
In the past, if the traffic tax was calculated based on the total value of the goods, the tax department only needed to set up cards at various transportation thoroughfares to collect the tax, which was simple, crude and effective.
But now who knows how much you sold and what the sales were?
Therefore, the imperial court reformed the tax system this year. Agricultural tax is still a two-tax law, which is divided into national tax and local tax. After the tax comes up, a certain amount of tax is divided according to the proportion and handed over to the local area as local tax, and the rest is turned over to the national treasury as national tax.
As local finance, local taxes will be used for local development, such as paying salaries to officials, building schools, roads, water conservancy facilities, establishing local industries, promoting economic and agricultural development, etc.
The National Taxation Department mobilized some of the forbidden troops and formed a tax force, which was coordinated by the local State Taxation Department and the Central State Taxation Department to supervise, strictly investigate, and pursue tax evasion and tax evasion.
For example, if a businessman wants to buy or sell goods, in addition to going to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau to apply for a business license, he must also go to the National Taxation Bureau to register the value of the goods. After the sale is completed, he must go to the National Taxation Bureau to pay taxes in proportion.
The tax departments that originally set up cards along the way are no longer used for payment, but for checking whether they are registered with the IRS and whether the value of the goods is similar to the registered value.
That’s not all. After the goods are sold, the tax department has to check, verify and finally determine the tax, etc.
The whole process is basically similar to that of later generations.
But the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, the more complex the program, the more room it has for manipulation.
On the contrary, taxes that are calculated directly based on the value of goods are much better than the current process in terms of efficiency and execution.
But you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
The previous measures had a very heavy blow to small and medium-sized merchants. Once there were large fluctuations in commodities or other unexpected losses, the merchants would go bankrupt, severely dampening their enthusiasm.
Now this process protects the interests of small and medium-sized merchants. Even if the goods are not sold, at least there is no need to pay additional taxes. It is always much better than before.
Therefore, the new method will test efficiency, execution ability and the integrity of officials.
For this reason, the imperial court's new law stipulated that taxes should be linked to the salaries of local finance and tax personnel, and tax evasion and evasion should be dealt with severely. The severity of the attack was comparable to that of the IRS in later generations.
The last policy is about auditing.
Starting this year, the Audit Department will conduct a population census across the country, measure cultivated land, and will also audit and verify the public expenditures of each county government.
After the local tax reform, a county has public funds. The whereabouts and approval of these public funds need to go through the local audit bureau and the local censorship department. Once public funds are found to be embezzled or the whereabouts are unknown, they will be prosecuted.
This can be considered as a precaution.
For a time, reform was in full swing.
But after the summer tax came up in July of the second year of Qingli, the Constitutional Yuan became a little restless.
Because after this year's reform, agricultural and commercial taxes have dropped significantly.
The agricultural tax revenue in the summer and autumn last year was 36.32 million guan, the total revenue from commercial tax and levy was 52.49 million guan, the foreign trade revenue was 1,494 guan, and the total revenue was 103.75 million guan.
As a result, agricultural taxes plummeted to 8.19 million guan this summer, commercial taxes and levies fell to 17.52 million guan, and only foreign trade income increased a lot, to 11.29 million guan.
Summer taxes are often higher than autumn taxes, because agricultural and commercial activities are mainly concentrated in spring, summer and autumn. Therefore, according to estimates by the Ministry of Finance, this year's tax revenue may be less than 60 million yuan.
This is obviously unacceptable when the three-redundancy problem has not yet been solved and the financial expenditure is increasingly huge.
On July 8, during the daily meeting of Chongzheng Hall, Lu Yijian reported this issue to Zhao Zhen.
It is late summer and early autumn, the weather has not turned cold yet, it is still a bit hot.
Except for the main door, all the windows in Chongzheng Hall were open. A towering tree grew by the window next to Zhao Zhen's desk, and it actually grew into the house in one night.
Zhao Zhen couldn't bear to cut off the branch, so he simply kept the window open from now on.
The soft sunlight shines in, filling the room with warmth.
Lu Yijian took the report handed over by the Ministry of Finance today and said: "Your Majesty, fiscal expenditures in the first half of this year reached 48.96 million yuan."
"Among them, there are more than 1.18 million people in the imperial army, 24.33 million guan, and 8.74 million guan in salary expenditure."
"2.37 million yuan was spent on school construction across the country, 4.89 million yuan was spent on repairing rivers, roads, bridges, and Yellow River management in various places, and the royal court spent 4.89 million yuan."
He reported a lot of things eloquently, and finally said: "This is only the expenditure in the first half of the year. The second half of the year will not be less than this. The tariffs are more corrupt than before. However, the income in the first half of this year is only 37 million yuan, and I may not be able to make ends meet." .”
Zhao Zhen frowned, looked at Zhao Jun and said, "Dasun, I'm afraid it won't be good if this continues."
"It's wonderful."
Zhao Jun smiled and said: "I originally thought it would be lower, but I didn't expect it to be 37 million yuan. This shows that the Song Dynasty has greater potential."
Lu Yijian said displeased: "I can't make ends meet anymore. Is this a good thing?"
"Actually, it's a good thing. The country still needs to maintain a certain fiscal deficit. Otherwise, will so much money go moldy in the treasury?"
Zhao Jun said: "There are still more than 100 million in the national treasury now, which is the wealth of the people. It is the right thing to spend it as soon as possible."
Song Shou rolled his eyes and said, "You should have no money if you work with the imperial court?"
"I'm not saying that it's a good thing that the court has no money, but what I want to say is that you only see the decrease in income in front of you, but you don't see that the Song Dynasty has become better."
Zhao Jun also took out a notebook from his arms and said: "Guan family, this is the report of the Audit Bureau and the Imperial City Department of various places. Starting from this year, a nationwide census of population and land will be carried out, and a large number of hidden properties will be found. Next year These people also have to pay taxes.”
"In addition, landowners and farmers responded positively. They were willing to register the hidden property and their households. Are they dedicated? No, the court lowered taxes and told them that once they were found to have hidden property, If you hide your property, you will be severely punished.”
He continued: "So after weighing the pros and cons, if you hand over the hidden property, the taxes will be greatly reduced than before, so naturally you have to choose to explain clearly. In this way, the Song Dynasty will become healthier and the future will be bright. ”
(End of chapter)
