Taiyue County, formerly Jiangling County, was the place governed by Jingzhou Prefecture. Now, because Zhang Juzheng's reputation has been preserved after his death, it is much more prosperous than Jiangling City at this period in history.
The Gein court cabinet still does more than other places in terms of investment support for local areas and care for local people.
Even the first railway in Jingzhou was related to Zhang Juzheng.
Therefore, after Zhu Yijun arrived at Taiyue, he saw dense clusters of houses stretching for dozens of miles. Traffic and people were seen inside and outside the city. Even at night, the fireworks did not go out and the sound of people did not disperse.
After Zhu Yijun arrived in Jiangling, the officials and eunuchs in Huguang were naturally very enthusiastic. Not only did they offer various gifts, but they also reported on various political achievements.
For Zhu Yijun, this is his first time coming to Huguang and Zhang Juzheng’s hometown.
Originally, Zhu Yijun had wanted to come for a long time. Even when Zhang Juzheng was alive, he wanted to come and asked Zhang Juzheng to personally explain the situation in Huguang to him.
However, Zhang Juzheng was not happy for the emperor to go out of the palace to inspect the world.
After all, Zhang Juzheng is actually relatively conservative compared to some current reformists, and he has always advocated frugality in the royal family.
Therefore, since Zhu Yijun had no intention of aggravating the contradictions and conflicts between the two when Zhang Ju was still alive, he did not mention this idea.
Only now, after Zhang Juzheng has passed away, the country is rich, even Zhu Yijun's own internal funds are sufficient, and the people's ideas in the world have changed drastically, did he come here.
Although Zhu Yijun had never been to his hometown with Zhang Juzheng, for some reason, after Zhu Yijun came here, he still felt that things were different and people were different. Especially when he came to visit Zhang Juzheng's tomb in person, he felt like seeing his tomb. After the death, I felt quite timid.
Because Zhang Juzheng was not liquidated in this life, Zhang Juzheng's tomb and his ancestral tombs were built in a very grand manner.
There are also pine trees planted all around, and the trees are tall and straight.
"Mr. Ikko has been gone for more than twenty years!"
"I am already over 40 years old, and the country has expanded its territory by tens of thousands of miles than before!"
"All this is because you dared to open up the world and reform the system for me first, so that I can achieve this great cause now. Therefore, I personally came to offer sacrifices to you today, and gave you a picture. I hope that you will be under the nine springs, so that you can Congratulations, please give me your dream!"
After Zhu Yijun finished speaking, he poured the wine on the soil and kissed her to smell the fragrance.
The children of the Zhang family were all busy kowtowing and paying tribute.
The rest of the people were also more solemn.
Zhu Yijun then also instructed Zhu Guozhen, the Minister of Rites, and Tian Yi, the eunuch of the Ministry of Rites, to unfold Li Shida's map of the well of the imperial city.
In Zhu Yijun's view, what a politician like Zhang Juzheng probably wants most is not to be granted the title of Grand Master or to pursue Wenzheng. Otherwise, he would not risk the disapproval of the world and do things for the landlord class in the world. But what he really wants is What we should see is that the king he served can really make the world after him become the world of Yao and Shun.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun now used Li Shida's market scroll as a sacrifice.
The slowly opened picture scroll, with the blue sky as the curtain, the sound of birds as the music, and the green mountains as the background, began to be revealed in front of Zhang Juzheng's tomb.
For a moment, the clouds that deceived the snow suddenly slowly rose up from behind the green mountains, accompanied by a slight breeze, which made the monarchs and ministers here feel at ease.
In traditional society, the emperor personally pays homage to a minister. For the minister, it is naturally a rare posthumous honor in the world.
This will mean that it will be more difficult for future generations to deny Zhang Juzheng.
Because once we deny Zhang Juzheng, we cannot avoid Wanli's personal sacrifice to Zhang Juzheng. According to the principle of three taboos, it is okay to deny Zhang Juzheng, but if we deny his ancestor Wanli, it will undoubtedly be a treasonous act.
What Zhu Yijun did also made the ministers in his entourage jealous.
Regardless of whether they really had a sense of reverence for Zhang Juzheng, at least the emperor's behavior made them think that they might be able to be so honorable after death, and they wanted to be more attentive to assisting Zhu Yijun and serve the country. Also more intense.
After all, they are all people who lack nothing in material life. The only thing they are not satisfied with is being able to get more honors than others, so that they can leave more political legacy to future generations.
"Zhang Taiyue ruled the country and cleared all the land in the world;"
"Shenwu County is in charge of the country, and all the corvee is exempted from the world;"
"Qi Penglai came to power and allowed all military households in the world to study for free for three years;"
"Next, if I want to show that in addition to borrowing money to build wonders and constructing buildings, I have some selfless achievements, I have to do one or two things of good governance that will defy the world's disapproval."
"Otherwise, I will be sorry to Your Majesty and the people of the world!"
Although Wang Xijue did not go to Huguang with the emperor, he soon learned that the emperor wanted to personally sacrifice Zhang Juzheng. Therefore, after learning about this, he said this to his cabinet minister Chen Yubi, Minister of Household Affairs Yang Junmin and other colleagues. stand up.
After hearing this, Chen Yubi smiled and said: "Yuanfu doesn't need to be too stressed. Now the world is in its most prosperous era, and as you are the chief assistant in the prosperous era, there is nothing wrong with Xiao Gui and Cao Cao."
"Having said that, compared with previous generations of people who were loyal to the country, they are quite bleak."
Wang Xijue said with a smile, then picked up the official newspaper that reported the news of the emperor's personal sacrifice to Zhang Juzheng, looked outside, and said:
“At the moment, if there is anything that we should do but dare not do, it is to once again conduct a thorough inventory of the population and land and adjust the taxation structure.”
"What do you think, gentlemen?"
Chen Yubi nodded after hearing this: "The country is based on the people, and food is the first priority for the people. No matter how prosperous the industry and commerce are, population and land should still be two government affairs that the court must clearly control. In fact, since ancient times, doing These two points are the most difficult. This dynasty was only truly accomplished during the Taizu period. When Zhang Taiyue was in power, he only made a clear inventory of the fields in the Central Plains, but he did not completely clear the population. Not to mention the rest of the period. Before Taizu founded the country, no dynasty could do this for at least six hundred years!"
"So, if Yuan Fu really wants to do something that will lead the world, he might as well adjust taxes, increase commercial taxes, and exempt agricultural taxes."
"At present, the income and non-agricultural taxes of the government-run commercial banks have indeed exceeded the agricultural tax by a lot. It is indeed very realistic to increase the commercial tax and reduce the agricultural tax."
"More importantly, if any twists and turns occur in this way, the farmers and households with land will not be dragged in. They can even become the backing of the imperial court."
Yang Junmin, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, also nodded at this time, started talking, and then looked at Wang Xijue with Chen Yubi.
Wang Xijue asked: "What if we only exempt agricultural taxes and do not impose commercial taxes?"
Chen Yubi thought for a while and said: "Of course Yuanfu doesn't want to offend the world's merchants too much, but Yuanfu should understand that the current increase in business profits is really too great, and has far exceeded the benefits of farming, especially now that there are a lot of farmers overseas. However, some large grain merchants directly used a large number of serfs to work in the fields overseas, and then shipped a large amount of grain back to China for dumping. The price of grain has been very low, so that many people have abandoned farming and would rather work in the city than return to their hometowns to farm. , causing a large number of fields to be abandoned. Therefore, if we want to ensure that the increase in national annual revenue can keep up with the increase in commercial profits in the future, we should increase commercial taxes, and then it is best to feed back agriculture. After all, from the long-term perspective of the country, local farmland is If we leave the land unused for too long, it will be difficult to fertilize the land. In this way, if there is unrest outside and unrest internally in the future, and there is not basically enough fertile land to produce food, how will our court be able to calm the people?"
After hearing this, Wang Xijue nodded and said with a smile: "After all, Mr. Ge is a master of two generations of emperors, and he has a more long-term plan than me."
Then, Wang Xijue said again: "I have asked Shaoqin (Zhu Geng) to inspect the situation of farmers and merchants and inspect taxation when he tours the country. I hope that his opinions will be consistent with the elders."
"Yuanfu praises you!"
"We are all trying our best to serve the country."
"In my opinion, regardless of whether the commercial tax is increased or not, we should be prepared, and we should even let the governor of a place try it first."
Chen Yubi said at this time.
Wang Xijue said: "This is natural."
Yang Junmin and others also nodded.
At this time in Huguang, Wang Yingjiao, the governor of Huguang, and Xiong Tingbi, who was on vacation in his hometown to visit relatives, also sighed together when they returned home after dark because they witnessed Zhu Yijun's personal sacrifice to Zhang Juzheng.
Wang Yingjiao said first: "Your Majesty praises the ministers so much. I'm afraid that those who are ambitious will only compete for the first place and have no intention of returning to the forest and spring."
"Exactly."
Xiong Tingbi got on his horse in high spirits and replied.
"etc!"
Wang Yingjiao stopped him at this moment: "It is said that you have passed the examination for the imperial censor. Where did you apply for the inspection?"
"Liaodong."
Xiong Tingbi replied.
Wang Yingjiao said: "This is a very cold place, and everyone wants to sign up to patrol the south. Why do you want to go outside the customs?"
"Precisely because everyone wants to go south, I can't go south. The imperial court will have to have officials who are familiar with northern Xinjiang in the future. What's more, with such a holy master, I can realize my lifelong ambition by going north!"
After Xiong Tingbi said this, he whipped away.
"Who is going north?"
It happened that Zhu Yijun came in a carriage in casual clothes at this time, and when he heard this, he raised the curtain of the car and said something.
Wang Yingjiao was so panicked that he immediately abandoned his sedan chair and came over to greet him: "Your Majesty, this is Xiong Tingbi, the former head of the Ministry of Industry. He is now back home to recuperate from illness. Now that Your Majesty is visiting Taiyue, he is here to wait for you."
(End of chapter)
