"It goes against Taizu's original intention."
It can be said that the long speech above is all to lead to this argument. Because for a dynasty, this is the prerequisite for doing things, which is the so-called legal principle.
I have never seen any descendant emperor say that the founding emperor of his own dynasty acted recklessly, let alone point to a certain system established by the founding emperor and say, "This is a disorderly order, and I will not obey the imperial edict."
If you can violate your ancestors' wishes at will, why should you inherit their inheritance?
Therefore, ancestral precepts can be used by officials to resist the emperor's arbitrary orders; they can also be used by the emperor to refute the doubts of his subordinates.
Gao pragmatically said so much before, just to take a firm stand: I am proposing the following purification opinions based on Emperor Taizu's original intention of establishing the post station.
There is actually a foreshadowing here, that is, Gao Pragmatism only mentions the "original intention" and does not mention specific implementation methods.
In other words, as long as the "original intention" of Emperor Taizu is followed, even if the current purge method is slightly different from that of Emperor Taizu, it is not that strange. After all, times have changed, and the current situation and The situation faced by Taizu was different!
Next, Gao Jingshi put forward a total of eight major and nineteen minor rectification suggestions in his essay. There is no need to go into details here. I will only briefly talk about the two most important ones:
First of all, the power of post stations to collect taxes and corvee from local governments is abolished, and the local government collects a post tax. The post tax is determined according to the size of the post station, the quality of the facilities, and the number of personnel. Gao is pragmatic and at the same time follows Shu Wen Attached is a table linking taxes and the strength of the station that I developed based on the investigation.
Secondly, to supervise the actual situation of the inn (including but not limited to the size, quality of facilities, and number of personnel), firstly, the court appoints commissioners to conduct unscheduled inspections at least once a year; secondly, the local government effectively supervises - because The local government has to hand over a sum of tax money on hand to the post station, so generally speaking, it will not allow the post station to make false reports.
In turn, the post station also has the right to go directly to the court to impeach the local chief official or subordinate officials at all levels when he does not receive or does not receive enough of the post tax that he should have received.
This setting is a typical mutual supervision - for the place, if you have to spend my money, then I must see that you have reached the standards you should have; for the post station, if I have reached the standards, you must give me money. Otherwise I will sue you!
Although officials and officials protect each other is the most common operation, there is one point: the two "officials" must be related in interest, at least there is no conflict of interest. Otherwise, how can officials and officials protect each other when two tigers are competing for food?
Of course, Gao Yude was always afraid of speculating on these officials with the greatest malice. He even thought that if the local officials and the post office reached an agreement, they would directly increase the search for civilians, and then add five to one to divide the overcharged money. What's up?
This depends on the highly pragmatic third item: From now on, when the censors of the northern and southern capitals and various provinces take office and go on patrol, the Ministry of Household Affairs will mobilize capable personnel and allocate each censor of the patrols to a special financial team with approximately Three to five people are responsible for checking post taxes!
Regardless of the level, this financial team, which is directly under the Ministry of Household Affairs but only takes orders from the provincial patrol censor when at the local level, is very inconspicuous. It is expected that the people it uses are just some eighth- or ninth-grade petty officials. But in fact, Gao Pingshi knew in his heart that his move might be the most dangerous move in the entire "He Yi Lu Shu".
The most dangerous, bar none.
It is even more dangerous than taking back the post station's privileges such as taxation and corvee collection.
At the same time, the meaning is much greater.
Because this is the first time that Gao pragmatism has tentatively revised the financial system set by Zhu Yuanzhang - although the magnitude of this correction is very small, the movement is very slight, and it is almost timid, the true meaning of it is Gao pragmatism. One person knows.
This is a very hidden breakthrough.
As long as this system can become a routine, it will have at least several advantages:
First, since then, the local government has said that I can only collect so much tax here, so the situation of only paying this amount to the central government has changed qualitatively - the central government has directly sent people to check the accounts. If you dare to talk nonsense again, you will be punished. Make fun of your own black hat and even your wealth and life!
In the near future, this "tax inspection team" will be a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of local officials, and they are all specialized financial personnel, completely different from the original one who only knows how to count. The censor of the art was appointed as the nominal supervisor.
Second, since he has to send special personnel to audit the accounts, Gao Pragmatic can find a way to sell some new algorithms to the Ministry of Accounts to improve administrative efficiency. This will not only lay the foundation for future fiscal and tax reforms after he takes power, but also introduce various scientific technologies in the future. Laying the foundation - for the development of academics such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc., which one does not need to cultivate mathematical talents?
Let the Ministry of Revenue first discover that it has the opportunity to expand its power, and the Ministry of Revenue will naturally increase the training of relevant talents. When the time comes, Gao Pragmatic can use hidden means to bring in private goods, leverage the power of the Ministry of Commerce, and do some things for the future. Talent preparation - no matter what reforms you make, if the people under your command can only read the Four Classics and Five Classics, nothing will happen. If only all the officials in the world now had Gao Guoyan's level of mathematics, he would be so pragmatic that he would only worry about this after eating too much!
Thirdly, the post tax is an extra tax received by a local government. Now the court leaves it to them to handle. Regardless of whether there is anyone to supervise it, anyone who has ever been an official knows: if I handle the matter, then the power is in my hands; If I take it, it will be beneficial.
At the very least, your station can’t ignore me from now on, right?
Therefore, this is Gao Pragmatic's method to reduce local opposition as much as possible. With this guarantee, it will be easier to send personnel to supervise, otherwise someone will definitely jump out and say that supervision is purely unnecessary.
Fourth, Gao Pragmatic secretly cooperated with Gao Gong. After Gao Gong took charge of the Ministry of Personnel, he always advocated not only using Jinshi but not Juren, because in fact, the group of Juren was not only much larger than that of Jinshi, but also there were many talented people among them, so it would be a pity to abandon them. Once the highly pragmatic method is implemented, the two capitals and thirteen provinces will have at least 45-75 more positions to arrange for these members of the tax inspection team who are in the eighth and ninth grades, and these members will definitely not choose the Jinshi master to do it. The probability is to choose from among the candidates.
Moreover, it is impossible for the Ministry of Household Affairs to only use these dozens of people. There must be some spare capacity. As manpower can be replenished at any time, then it must be one or two hundred people, right? At this time, one or two hundred people with relatively reliable math skills have been placed. After some years of experience, when they want to reform the financial and taxation system in the future, won't they be able to use them directly?
Although they did not pass the Jinshi examination, they are not cultivating "prime ministers" now, so what is the use of your Jinshi "diploma"? Hai Rui is just a civil servant!
