"How come Yan Gongzhi also advocates restructuring?"
Gu Xiancheng asked in surprise after hearing this.
"Hmph! How come these cabinet ministers and ministers all have the same moral character, and they only know how to flatter Zhang Jiangling and help him become arrogant?!"
Li Sancai finally lost his composure at this time and started speaking angrily.
Gu Xiancheng was the first to calm down, looked at Li Sancai, and said with a helpless smile: "Maybe you are right, maybe in the eyes of people at the level of ministers and ministers, friendship and friendship are not important, right or wrong is not important, only The pros and cons of their personal future and the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty are the most important, and nothing else will be taken to heart."
"The national destiny of the Ming Dynasty?"
After hearing this, Li Sancai couldn't help but ask, then shook his head and smiled bitterly.
"It's nice not to ask what's right or wrong, but everyone is just a hired hand!"
Li Zhi started talking at this time and said: "If Shen, Yan and others really consider Sheji, then I really don't understand. This industry is not theirs. What are they worrying about? Do they really believe it?" Do you understand the teachings of sages? But after all, they are not that pedantic."
Gu Xiancheng said: "I don't understand either. But no matter how you put it, these so-called ministers and ministers are all people without benevolence, justice and morality, and they are all hypocrites who can only settle for moderation!"
…
Indeed, after Yan Qing published a petition to execute Lu Huo and other rebels, he petitioned the court not to abolish the patrol team, but to reorganize the patrol team into an inspection department and add an inspection shop.
Obviously, once Yan Qing decided to be active in reform like Zhang Juzheng and other civil servants, he would know that not abolishing the patrol team would be beneficial to the Ming Dynasty to strengthen the management of Nanzhi, and he would know the elegant meaning of the song after hearing it. The imperial court was definitely not willing to abolish the patrol team, so it was included in this book in the name of strengthening public security in Nanzhi as the Minister of Punishment.
As the Minister of Justice, Yan Qing is qualified to put forward his own reform opinions on the national security.
The emperor must also pay attention to his opinions and not easily refute them.
Because if the emperor doesn't pay enough attention to the suggestions made by ministers at the ministerial level, how can he show that the emperor is diligent enough, has enough trust in the minister, and is good at accepting others' opinions?
Even when a minister really proposed reforms, the emperor ignored or refuted them, and many of them resigned.
For the ministers in the Gongqing position, if the emperor does not cooperate with their work, there is no need for them to shine for the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun and Zhang Juzheng did not reject Yan Qing's proposal, and even did not immediately approve it when Hai Rui petitioned for the establishment of an additional inspection department. They just wanted to wait until now to see if any more sensible ministers would be willing to ask the court to do so like Hai Rui. Let the imperial power be delegated to places below Nanzhi County.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun also directly issued an order to set up inspection shops and official officials at the request of Hai Rui and Yan Qing. In order to be subordinate to the ninth rank, they would be under the control of the Inspection Department, and inspection shops would be set up in towns with less than 5,000 households. , new towns with more than 5,000 households will set up inspection departments; some large towns and several small towns will be merged into one county to set up new counties.
In the Jiangnan area, the commodity economy developed, especially after the Ming Dynasty and Zhengde, a large number of new towns appeared.
The permanent population of many new towns has even reached 10,000 households, and they are even richer than many county towns, such as Nanxun Town, Wangjiafan Town, etc.
Most of these new towns did not appear close to the county seat, but in the no-care zone far away from the county seat, and they only prospered due to the development of commerce and trade.
Therefore, these places often do not have government management agencies.
But it happens to be a place where the population and new tax sources are concentrated, and it is also a place where thieves and profiteers are hidden.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun agreed to the request of Hai Rui and Yan Qing to add inspection departments and inspection shops in these places, and even re-establish counties if necessary to strengthen administrative management.
It can be said that because of this, Ming Dynasty is not suitable for downsizing organizations and streamlining redundant personnel in this era.
After all, the Ming Dynasty was originally a small court. There were not many local bureaucrats. It was all subordinate officials and squires who controlled the grassroots.
And if a big town like Nanxun, with more than 100,000 families, hundreds of wealthy businessmen, and the richest people in eastern Zhejiang, is only controlled by subordinate officials and squires, then the subordinate officials and squires here can almost control all the surrounding government offices. Then they completely became the emperor of the land, and they had the final say over the life and death of the local people.
The court's official taxes, miscellaneous taxes and corvee can therefore only be allocated to the yeoman farmers near the county capitals that are not controlled by these subordinate gentry. This will only cause more yeoman farmers to go bankrupt, more refugees to appear, and then more refugees. flowed into these new towns that were not controlled by the imperial court.
As a result, it seems that the Ming Dynasty's economy is getting more and more prosperous, but as a result, the entire country is getting weaker and weaker.
Zhu Yijun also understood this through Jin Yiwei's investigation and the report with Hai Rui and others in Nanzhi, so he decreed such a reform.
In addition, Zhu Yijun also compared the results of the population survey with the "Wanli Accounting Records" on the land tax situation of various departments in the world, showing that there are many people in Nanzhi and the tax rate is high, and the management of one governor is obviously not enough. It is required that Nanzhi be divided into two provinces, Jiangsu and Fengyang (today's Anhui), and that Jiangsu and Fengyang chief secretaries, inspectors' departments, capital commanders' departments and governors be added.
However, because Nanzhi was originally the land of Longxing and had a special political status, the title of Nanzhi was still retained. The governor of Nanzhi was appointed, with officials from the two capitals serving as governors, and the governor of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces to ensure military and political affairs. This dynasty's wealth-rich land will have long-lasting peace and stability.
Hai Rui was appointed as the governor of Nanzhi and in charge of the National Taxation Department. He did not return to Beijing for the time being. He was responsible for implementing the decree and began to split Nanzhi. He worked with Fu to draw up the splitting steps and was responsible for recommending corresponding officials to the Ministry of Personnel for corresponding positions. .
Since Nanzhi will have many more officials now, Zhu Yijun can only rest assured if Hai Rui is responsible for the appointment and assessment of these new officials, so he has no plans to let Hai Rui return to Beijing early.
The implementation of the unified payment of grain and errands between officials and gentry in Nanzhi was officially completed at the end of the ninth year of Wanli.
"According to the report of the National Taxation Department, the Ministry of Household Affairs calculated that after the cancellation of the preferential exemption, the total tax revenue of Nanzhi this year will increase by 870,000 dan, and the tax revenue will increase by 9.67 million taels."
Zhang Xueyan, the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, also reported on the achievements made after the implementation of the new policy of integrating officials and gentry into paying grain and serving errands at the financial meeting of the Zhengshitang in the ninth year of Wanli.
Zhu Yijun nodded with satisfaction after hearing this.
According to the results of the Qing Dynasty, more than 20 million acres of land were exempted for the Jiangnan gentry. It is not surprising that the exemption would increase so much money and grain.
Especially tax dollars.
Nowadays, Jiangnan is no longer the world's food center. Most of the wealthy gentry have begun to grow cash crops, so they cannot harvest much food, but they can earn a lot of money through reforms.
Many Jiangnan officials and gentry must have chosen to trade silver for grain.
What's more, the commerce in the south of the Yangtze River is developed, and the number of gentry families exempted from Ding Yin is large. If Ding Yin is really to be taken away, the increase will naturally be much greater than the increase in grain.
At this time, Wang Guoguang, who was in charge of the branch office, said: "Your Majesty, Governor Hai Rui has requested me to exempt farmers with less than 50 acres of farmland in Nanzhi from paying a small amount of silver. I calculated that the amount of money needed to be exempted is 650,000 taels. It is strange. Now, now This is specially reported to Your Majesty, and I will ask Your Majesty to judge."
"Exemption is granted!"
"Let Hai Rui order all departments to refund the 650,000 taels."
Zhu Yijun nodded and gave instructions.
Although the exemption of 650,000 taels of silver is only a fraction of the newly added annual income of 1,000 yuan, and it is shared with each small household, the exemption is only a few taels or even a few coins, but Zhu Yijun is very It is clear that for ordinary people, this has a great impact, and the domestic demand and employment value it drives are also great.
For example, if the same five taels of silver are exempted, if the five taels of silver are given to a wealthy gentry, he will use the five taels of silver to buy luxury handicrafts or reward musicians and actors, and this will not inspire many ordinary craftsmen to earn from it. Revenue only allows individual skilled craftsmen and art workers to be paid, which only promotes the emergence of exquisite crafts and high-end artworks, but does not promote the emergence of large-scale industrial production;
If the common people receive five taels of silver, they will increase their daily needs, renovate their houses, or purchase various farm tools, in order to improve their living environment and farming capabilities, and also allow a large number of ordinary craftsmen and ordinary workshops to With increased income, ordinary workshops will also find ways to increase productivity in order to make small profits but quick turnover, promote the emergence of large-scale production of industrial products, and thus promote the emergence of industrialization.
Even literary and art workers will be more willing to please the people and reflect the people's lives because these five taels of silver are given to the people, and in order to obtain more income, which will be more conducive to enlightening the people's wisdom. Instead of being a gentleman.
