Hearing that Kong Yuqi called himself a slave, Kang Mazi was also stunned and asked Kong Yuqi: "Holy Duke, I don't remember you raising the flag, how come you call yourself a slave?"
In the Qing Dynasty, claiming to be a slave in front of the emperor with confidence was not an honor that ordinary ministers could have! It must be in the banner, and it must be a bannerman or a slave. If other people want to call them slaves, that would be a bit presumptuous.
Kong Yuqi hurriedly kowtowed and said, "To return to the emperor, I submitted a petition to raise the flag the year before last... This is my biggest wish, and I hope that my Lord Long Live will grant it."
His words were sincere, and Kangxi nodded slightly after hearing it, seeming to be quite approving of it. However, it was still a bit inappropriate to let the direct descendants of the most holy master be slaves. Moreover, Kangxi has now elevated Kong Yuqi to a position similar to that of the Great Lama of Snowland... Kangxi worshiped the Great Lama as his master. It is impossible for a master to call himself a slave when he meets his apprentice, right?
Thinking of this, Kangxi smiled and said: "There is no need for a slave... My wish is to become a holy master who can unify the world and make the people of the world live and work in peace and contentment, and you are now a Confucian holy prince who assists me. , we are about the same age, so why not become brothers with different surnames. From now on, you can call me your imperial brother and your brother."
"Slave, I thank you for your kindness." Kong Yuqi kowtowed to Kangxi again.
Kangxi said again: "Brother Shenggong, don't go back to Qufu in the future. I will reward you with Tongzhou City as the seat of the Confucian altar."
Tongzhou City was originally the terminus of the Grand Canal and a transportation hub in the east of Beijing. But after the water transportation to the southeast was interrupted, Tongzhou declined sharply. After the Beijing Incident last year, a large number of Cao Gong and Cao Gong's family members living in Tongzhou fled with Yang Qilong. Those who did not follow Yang Qilong were also afraid that the Qing army would massacre the city, and all disappeared, so Tongzhou was left empty.
Of course Kong Yuqi knew that Kangxi's purpose of transferring him to Tongzhou was to strengthen his control, so he did not dare to refuse. He immediately said: "Brother, my brother, I will move all the family members in Qufu to Tongzhou."
Kangxi shook his head and said with a smile: "That's not necessary. Kong Lin always needs someone to watch over him. Just move all his immediate relatives to Tongzhou."
"My dear brother, thank you, my dear brother, for your kindness." Kong Yuqi thanked him and kowtowed. Today he is almost turning into a kowtowing bug, but he will continue to live like this in the future! Now that we have arrived in Tongzhou, we are already in the palm of Kangxi's hands, and we still have to go to the capital to kowtow every now and then?
Thinking of this, Kong Yuqi gritted his teeth and held out the copy of the inscription requesting for more troops and conscripts, "Brother, the false grandson of Zhu San is now destroying true Confucianism and promoting false Confucianism in the southeast. He claims to be a saint, and distorts the meaning of the scriptures in an attempt to annihilate Confucianism. I am Confucian!
As a descendant of the Holy Saint, I should stand up and call out without hesitation. However, I have the desire to kill the enemy, but I don't have the power to kill the enemy. I have no choice but to represent the Confucian scholars in the world and implore the emperor to send troops to the south of the Yangtze River to crush the false Confucianism, kill the false saints, and ban the apocryphal scriptures... My brother also Knowing that the world is uneasy, the four sides are not at peace, and it is difficult to finance the army, so I request the emperor to send the money to protect Confucianism and religion from the Confucius and Saints who deeply hate hypocrisy and hypocrisy in the world, so that it can be used to recruit troops and protect religion and the country! "
After listening to Kong Yuqi's words, Kangxi quickly suppressed his joy, frowned and asked: "Are we going to increase the levy? Will it hurt the people?"
Kong Yuqi quickly kowtowed and said: "Brother Emperor, if the pseudo-Confucianism and Apocrypha are allowed to continue to develop and grow, the people will really have no way to survive! I beg the Emperor to think of the common people in the world and increase the number of troops and troops!"
As soon as Brother Shenggong took the lead, the ministers in the South Study immediately knelt down and all said in unison: "Please, Your Majesty, take the common people of the world into consideration, and hurry up and recruit more troops!"
When Kangxi saw everyone saying this, he had no choice but to sigh: "Then...how much should I add?"
The question of how much to add has of course been studied long ago. Kangxi's principle is that if you don't want to add, just add enough!
Over the past few days, he has carefully studied the three rates and increases in the Wanli, Tianqi, and Chongzhen dynasties, and he came to the conclusion that the addition was correct. The mistake was that the addition was too late and the "adding fuel and additions" were not done in one step.
After Kangxi, the holy master, conducted research using the method of "hindsight", he came to the conclusion that the best time to increase Liao's pay was actually after the Korean War. In the Battle of Korea, the Ming Army in Liaodong suffered heavy losses, and all the elite troops that Li Chengliang had cultivated for many years were lost. If the Wanli court could decisively increase Liao's salary at this time, don't increase it too much, and send a few million taels to Liao Town so that they could make up for the losses in the Korean War, then nothing would happen later. Because all the warriors under Nurhachi went to work as soldiers for the Ming Dynasty to make money, what else could he use to rebel?
Of course, now Kangxi has lost the best opportunity to send more troops, so he can no longer be picky about reforming and expanding the New Army... This is also the case with a group of ministers in charge of the Eight Banners New Army. The unanimous opinion of the ministers of Nanshufang!
Tu Hai, the chief scholar, then reported: "Long live my lord, after Pingxi King Wu Yingqi entered Shaanxi, not counting Guanwai, Saibei and Gansu, but only the five provinces under the direct jurisdiction of the imperial court: Henan, Shandong, Huaibei, Zhili and Shanxi. There are more than 200 million acres of land. If you pay an additional three cents of silver per acre, you can have six million taels... The slave suggested that the positive amount of the tax package be set at three cents, plus the small tax package. The tax should also be several million, so that the court can collect 17 to 8 million every year from the land and Ding taxes alone.
In addition, the imperial court can also set up tax cards at the main intersections of various provinces and state capitals, and collect taxes by plucking the feathers of geese... It should not be difficult to collect three to four million a year. Adding in various taxes such as salt tax, customs tax, mining tax, etc., the imperial court's revenue can be maintained at 22 to 3 million!
With this income, the imperial court can build flintlock guns, forge mighty cannons, recruit Mongolian warriors, and train them rigorously... In less than two years, three hundred thousand new troops can be completed. ! "
Kangxi still seemed hesitant, "Is the tax of six cents per acre too heavy?"
"It's not important," Tuhai said. "Today, there are only two to three million households in the five provinces under the direct jurisdiction of the Qing Dynasty. If the 200 million acres of land are spread out, one household can have an average of 100 acres of land... If In terms of one hundred acres, six cents per acre is only six taels of silver in total, which is almost the price of six shi of wheat. The annual output of one hundred acres of land is only tens of shi, so how can paying six shi of wheat be considered too much?"
Kangxi nodded and said: "It is indeed not much. If I give them a little more, I will give them a tax amount of one hundred acres of six stones of wheat and one hundred acres of six taels of silver. The people below can choose to pay either grain or silver."
In addition, local governments are not allowed to charge more! "
"Your Majesty!"
The ministers below had known this result for a long time, and now they are all pretending to be called Shengming.
But having said that, the tax rate of six cents per acre is actually not too heavy. In the early days of a dynasty, when the population was small, the land per capita was relatively large, and the administration was relatively clear, it was completely bearable.
And when the population increases, per capita decreases, land annexation increases, and farmers are forced to bear heavier land rents and usurious interest rates, not to mention a tax of a few cents of silver, even a tax of a few cents of silver will deprive some of the lowest level people. Forced into a desperate situation.
Of course, as the population increases, industry and commerce tend to develop. If the country can collect enough industrial and commercial taxes, it will have enough financial resources to maintain its rule. It’s just that industrial and commercial taxes are more difficult to collect and are not as easy to collect as land taxes.
However, the population of the Ming, Qing, and Zhou dynasties in China are not large. Except for the Ming Dynasty, the industry and commerce of the other two dynasties are not developed and they cannot collect too much money. Therefore, what really determines who rules the world among the three dynasties is Which of the three of them can improve agricultural taxation?
In this regard, Emperor Kangxi took a shortcut by using the tax collector method to get money and food in the shortest time.
As for Wu Zhou, because there was enough land to distribute, the progress in equalizing land was very smooth. It is nothing more than distributing land in Sichuan to the people who have no land and little land. As long as the land in Sichuan is not distributed, Wu Zhou can add more taxes to the people below.
On the contrary, Daming is the most difficult to deal with...
