Most of the people present were breathing rapidly!
Prince Zhu's hands were not soft when he was plundering, and his hands were not shaking when he was dividing the fat. What a truly generous person! Not to mention Emperor Chongzhen, even Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty couldn't compare to this handwriting!
A true emperor through the ages!
Of course, the wool comes from the pig. After Songjiang Prefecture allocated 600,000 taels a year to pay salaries and benefits to officials, Songjiang's military and civilian gentry and businessmen lost at least 1.5 million taels in rent! And the extra commercial tax paid was at least 300,000 taels - Songjiang cotton was sold all over the world, and the income of wealthy merchants in Jihu was not as much as that of Suzhou silk merchants, but the imperial court could not collect any tax in the past... but it will not be able to in the future. No more taxes!
In addition, the annual income of the Shanghai ports and customs located on the ground in Songjiang Prefecture and Suzhou Prefecture is even more astronomical!
Although the gentry and businessmen in Songjiang were generally going bankrupt, a small number of them, ranging from a few hundred to a thousand people, were able to obtain an official position and a generous salary and live as minions of the imperial court. happy life. With them leading and maintaining the Songjiang area, it would be difficult for other gentry and businessmen to cause trouble.
Zhu Cixiang smiled and said again: "Everyone, when the court has money, it will not be a problem to pay high salaries to maintain integrity, and it will be much easier to get an official position... It is not necessary to be a civil servant or to be promoted. Officials can be officials. , elders with skills can also be officials, and people with outstanding local reputations can also be officials. As for local candidates, as long as they are willing to be officials, they can be arranged to be small officials in the local area! Small officials are just the beginning, as long as you enter the official career , regardless of one’s background, one can be promoted based on merit, military merit, and years of service. Being a Jinshi, it’s just that the starting point for officialdom is higher, and the official position awarded at the beginning is higher than that of Juren.
In addition, we can also ask the large landowners in Qingtian and Qingtun to actively cooperate and the wealthy businessmen who pay more business taxes and duties to recommend celebrities to Nanjing to serve as political officials.
I see that all of you are well-educated and knowledgeable people. If you become an official, you will definitely be a good official in our Ming Dynasty! I hope that in this time of national crisis, all of you can go out to serve as officials and do your part for the Ming Dynasty and the people of the world! "
Expanding the bureaucracy was Zhu Cihong's established policy. Even if Grand Duke Luo did not propose it, Zhu Cihong planned to expand the bureaucracy that could actually do things while promoting the reform of Qingtian, Qingtun and commercial taxation. The bureaucracy in the Ming Dynasty was very large. The number of military attaches in the system is frightening. But there are very few officials who actually do things, and even fewer of them can get things done well while being greedy for money. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's bureaucratic team also needs to be greatly reorganized! The way to rectify the bureaucracy is to be lenient and strict in management. That is to say, recruit a large number of officials first, and then eliminate the last ones!
Recruiting a group of people every year and expelling another group every year, for ten or eight years, the officials of the Ming Dynasty will be able to "996", and they will all have the wolf nature of howling - by then, there will be enough for the Tatars to drink a pot. !
Of course, the prerequisite for people to ask "996" to do things even though they are screaming is that the money must be in place. Talking about loyalty to the emperor and patriotism without giving money is like being a hooligan.
In addition, the expansion of the bureaucracy, especially the increase in the number of actual officials, has the advantage that all local officials in a certain place can be fired, and then neighboring or nearby state capitals can send officials to take over the administration of the state capital - —This is a collective punishment for the gentry in a certain place! It was used to deal with the large-scale tax and rent resistance instigated by the gentry in a certain place (land rent of official and military land), but the local officials collectively failed to act.
In this case, all local officials will be laid off, and local literati will no longer be allowed to participate in the imperial examination-until they apologize to the court and pay compensation!
If an incident like "Ge Xian's tax resistance" happens again, it will not only be the reckless man who rushes to the front to be punished, but the scholar-bureaucrats and officials in the entire region who will be punished!
However, there is no need to state these rules yet...
After Zhu Cixiang finished speaking his encouraging words, he winked at Wei Zaode. Wei Zaode immediately took over the topic and said to everyone with a smile: "Do you have any objections to what the Crown Prince Qiansui said? If you have no objections, we, the Donglin Party, will We must fully support Qingtian, Qingtun and strictly levy commercial taxes!
In addition, our Donglin Party was too loose in the past and found it difficult to become one. Therefore, today’s conference is to discuss with everyone how we can unite our Donglin Party and become an aid to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in resisting the invaders and protecting the religion! "
This is to establish a Donglin political party belonging to Zhu Cixiang!
"Chief Assistant, what exactly do you want to change the Donglin Party into?"
It was Ji Kun who asked the question. In fact, he does not agree with Donglin's reform... Because after the reform, Donglin will definitely become a tool of imperial power and will no longer be the real Donglin. It may be more appropriate to call it the eunuch.
However, he is now "re-employed" by Zhu Cixiang, and he is reluctant to resign, so he can only cooperate.
However, even the Seventh Son who should be elected by the Donglin Conference can be decided internally. It is actually obvious that Donglin is still an eunuch...
Wei Zaode said sternly: "The princes of Donglin should gather under the banner of Donglin and become one. As one, there should be a program and purpose, a hierarchy, rules and regulations, and the ability to enforce orders and prohibitions."
The purpose of the so-called program is naturally to protect the Ming Dynasty and the famous religion... Now that the world has undergone strange changes, I am not alone in the changes in the Ming Dynasty. It is also the strange change in the famous religion since its founding. I, the gentlemen of Donglin, have all read the books of the sages. But sit back and do nothing, and don’t stand up?
The so-called upper and lower levels refer to the establishment of the Nanjing General Conference and the state capital branch. Branches should obey the General Conference, which is controlled by three gentlemen and seven sons. The Three Lords and Seven Sons were elected by the Donglin General Assembly...With the upper and lower levels, Donglin laws can naturally be formulated, and orders and prohibitions will be imposed, and penalties will be imposed if orders are violated. In the most serious cases, they may even be expelled from the country and labeled as scum of the eunuch party! "
Okay, it has a program, an organization, party discipline, and a democratically centralized decision-making mechanism - the Donglin Party already looks a lot like that.
Of course, it just looks like it! This quasi-modern political party using the name Donglin was actually a tool used by Zhu Cihong to control the discourse power of Southeast Shilin.
Because the Donglin Conference, which was used to elect the "Three Gentlemen and Seven Sons", the ten-member group that leads the Donglin Party, was completely under Zhu Cixiang's control, and only Zhu Cixiang had the ability to rush for such a conference.
Moreover, Donglin General Association and Donglin Branch require a lot of funds to operate! Of course, the only one who can provide funds for the Donglin Party is Zhu Cihong.
In addition, most of the scholar-bureaucrats who were registered in Donglin wanted to be officials! The official shop of the Ming Dynasty was named Zhu, and it was firmly in Zhu Cixiang's hands.
If those people want to be officials, they must obey Zhu Cixiang!
Once the Donglin Party, the backbone of the southeastern scholar-officials, was controlled by Zhu Cihong, the subsequent new laws and policies, and even Zhu Cihong's own "progress", would be easy to implement...
The southeast of the Ming Dynasty is now basically controlled by Zhu Cixiang!
