In early spring, in February, the snow melts and the ice melts.
Zhu Yijun was sitting in the Xinuan Pavilion of Qianqing Palace. After seeing Zhang Juzheng, Lu Tiaoyang, Zhao Zhenji, Zhang Siwei, Wang Guoguang, Tan Lun and Hai Rui come in, he pointed to the seven official chairs in front of him. "The purpose of summoning all ministers is not to listen to the affairs of the imperial family, but should be done without any formalities. Besides, the late emperor and his mother have repeatedly said that they should respect their senior ministers for the sake of government, so please allow them all to sit down and discuss today's affairs."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Zhang Juzheng knew that the emperor was worried that Tan Lun could not stand for a long time, but he could not let him sit alone as a minister, so he simply gave everyone a seat in the name of paying respect to the old minister.
And if anyone really becomes the emperor at this time because he wants to give face to the old minister, he is afraid that he will suffer a big loss in the future.
After Zhang Juzheng waited for Xie En to sit down, Zhu Yijun said: "I summoned you all to avoid another deficit this year. You should speak freely and let me learn how to govern."
"I obey the order!"
So, next, Hai Rui stood up first and said: "Your Majesty, I believe that the shortfall is due to the lack of central financial resources of the imperial court, and the lack of financial resources is due to unclear local land taxes."
"It has been two hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. The land in the world has changed owners countless times. However, the yellow book and the fish scale book used have not been cleared again, so that landless people and even empty households are regarded as people with extensive fertile land. Large households came to collect land tax, but large households with extensive fertile land were still treated as landless people and taxed, which in turn led to serious taxation or an increase in desertions and desertions, resulting in a significant reduction in the court's tax revenue."
At this point, Hai Rui said: "I believe that after passing the exam, we should immediately implement the policy of clearing the land. I have already implemented it when I was in the local government. It can indeed effectively prevent the increase of refugees, and even prevent the increase of taxes. It can even increase taxes, because this dynasty has actually added a lot of new fields compared to the beginning of the country, but many of the new fields have not been recorded in the books."
"Clearing the land is indeed a good way to solve the deficit and increase the national wealth. But I think this is not enough."
Academician Zhao Zhenji stood up and replied, and then said: "I have lived in the village for many years and visited the villagers. I learned that up to now, within a county, more than half of the land belongs to officials and gentry, while the land of common people has already been reduced. It’s less than half, and the clan and noble families have expanded by an unknown amount.”
"Therefore, the regulations on the preferential and exemptive measures for officials and gentry drafted during the Shimiao Dynasty should be abolished. This can avoid the situation in the future when almost all the land will be taken away by the officials and gentry, while the court will be increasingly exhausted by taxes, and even there will be a shortage of people who need to serve. leading to a further increase in expenses.”
After Zhao Zhenji finished speaking, he bowed his hands to Zhu Yijun and said: "I believe that since Your Majesty wants to launch a new policy to solve the deficit, he should abolish the regulations on the preferential treatment of officials and gentry, so that the officials and gentry in the world can receive food as one, and also change the policy of using land to support the clan! "
Zhu Yijun nodded when he saw Hai Rui's proposal to clear his father-in-law's land, but after hearing Zhao Zhenji's speech, he immediately stood there in shock.
He did not expect that Zhao Zhenji would be more radical than Hai Rui and directly suggested that the government and gentry should receive food as one.
Zhu Yijun even noticed that when Hai Rui said this, Lu Tiaoyang, Wang Guangguang, and Tan Lun were all relatively calm. Only Zhang Siwei moved his buttocks, as if his chair was different from others and had needles on it.
After Zhao Zhenji said that, not only Zhang Siwei suddenly changed his color, but Lu Tiaoyang, Wang Guoguang, and Tan Lun also widened their eyes.
Only Zhang Juzheng remained seated firmly on his chair.
Zhu Yijun looked at Zhang Juzheng: "Where is Mr. Zhang, Fu of the Yuan Dynasty? Can the policy of clearing the father's land or abolishing the regulations on privileges and exemptions for officials and gentry be implemented?"
The other six ministers also looked at Zhang Juzheng.
Zhang Juzheng stood up at this time, bowed his hands to Zhu Yijun and said: "Your Majesty, in my opinion, not only can the policy of abolishing the regulations on privileges and exemptions for officials and gentry not be implemented, but also the policy of clearing the land and acres of land is not suitable for implementation this year."
"Why not?"
Zhao Zhenji stood up and asked Zhang Juzheng, then raised his hand to Zhu Yijun, and then asked Zhang Juzheng: "Now that the new dynasty has just been established, and your Majesty has the intention to govern, it is time to work hard to eliminate the ills and avoid the crisis of national subjugation. Do we have to wait for this? Do you think about changing it when your anger is gone and you can’t change it even if you want to?”
"Your Majesty, I believe that although the policy of abolishing the regulations on privileges and exemptions for officials and gentry and changing the policy of using land to support the clan mentioned by Mr. Zhao Ge are stubborn problems that should be solved, they are indeed not suitable to be solved now."
"Because the imperial court does not yet have enough troops and officials to ensure that this policy can be implemented. After all, the dynasty is currently in charge of officials and gentry at the county level, including the collection of taxes and the organization of labor, so even an edict If we cancel the preferential exemptions, we won’t receive any money from them.”
"What's more, there are actually subordinates here who are the minions of the local officials and gentry."
After saying this, Hai Rui said: "So Mr. Zhao Ge's proposal is too hasty. Even if it is abolished by force, it will be in name only in the future. However, clearing land ownership is indeed a feasible policy. This is what the court should do. Officials and gentry should do it." It is not easy to refute, nor is it easy to take advantage of the imperial court, and the imperial court is not trying to take away all the benefits and exemptions."
Having said that, Hai Rui looked at Zhang Juzheng: "But I don't understand why Yuan Fu also feels it's inappropriate?"
Zhang Juzheng stood up at this time and said: "Your Majesty, my intention is that it is not appropriate to implement the policy of clearing the land of the father-in-law this year, and it is not appropriate to implement the government and gentry unified payment of grain before the imperial army is strong."
Hai Rui looked at Zhang Juzheng and said, "Nowadays, your Majesty is determined to innovate, and Yuan Fu is dedicated to assisting the emperor. It can be said that we have to rely on the emperor's orders to implement the law in the world. Why not?"
Zhao Zhenji also echoed: "That's right! It is difficult to implement the abolition of the preferential and exemption regulations for officials and gentry and change the policy of using land to support the clan, but as long as your majesty is determined, it can still be implemented. At least the land clearing can be carried out this year, and then it will be carried out We can consider canceling the exemptions and restrictions on vassal land."
"His Majesty!"
At this time, Zhang Juzheng bowed his hands to Zhu Yijun and said: "In the past, when Shenzong of the Song Dynasty came to the throne, he wanted to enrich the country and strengthen the army, so he summoned his old prime minister Fu Wenzhong Gong (Fu Bi) to ask about the reform. Duke Fu Wenzhong saw that Shenzong was too aggressive, There is not enough composure, but Jianyan said that Song Shenzong could not talk about military affairs for twenty years."
"Fu Wen Zhonggong (Fu Bi)'s words are inherently suspected of destroying Shenzong's aspirations, but they are also to prevent the emperor from doing excessive things, which will be harmful to the country. Now that His Majesty has just ascended the throne, as Zhao Ge said, he is indeed taking advantage of the new dynasty. The weather, and the good opportunity to eradicate the ills in one go, to prevent the spirit from being wasted, there will be no such opportunity again."
"but!"
When Zhang Juzheng said this, he looked at Zhao Zhenji: "In my humble opinion, on the one hand, reforms and innovations need to rely on the king to do the right thing, but on the other hand, we must wait for the officials and people in the world to have such a wish."
With that said, Zhang Juzheng looked at Zhao Zhenji: "Elder Ge is also a disciple of Wang Xue. Don't you know that before relying on the king to practice the Dao, you must also educate the people to practice the Dao?"
"If we don't first take advantage of the opportunity of implementing the examination method, the bureaucrats all over the world will have to devote themselves to handling government affairs in order to get a first-class score in the new examination. They will find that if they don't know their land, they can't really complete the examination. Then they realized that not clearing their land will affect their career, and started to actively ask the court to issue an edict to clear their land. Then they took advantage of the situation and issued an edict to implement the land clearing nationwide. How can we be sure that the bureaucrats in various places will seriously clear their land?"
Zhang Juzheng looked at Zhu Yijun again as he spoke: "Your Majesty, in my opinion, restructuring is not just an edict issued by the emperor, which can be implemented with strict orders, but it needs to be formed first, and then your majesty can issue an edict according to the trend, so that it can be completed smoothly." .”
“Otherwise, good governance may turn into bad governance.”
"The person who cleared his father-in-law would deliberately falsely report the number of acres of land he had cleared because he had no such intention or even opposed the policy, and even described the old land as new land."
"I believe that in order to govern, we must not only rely on the king to do the right thing, but also first wake up the people to do the right thing."
"When the bureaucrats all over the world begin to seriously comply with the requirements for officialdom this year and realize that they must clear their father-in-law, they can implement the clearing of land and land and mu in the next year or the year after that. After all, thousands of civil servants in the world are required to carry out the clearing of land and land. , thousands of military officials are required to protect it. If they don’t intend this, bad things will inevitably happen.”
