The biggest difference between Gao Gong's examination method and Zhang Juzheng's examination method is that Gao Gong does not define fixed standards for all the things that officials in a certain place must complete every year.
Although there are many things that local officials must do every year, this examination method is consistent with the examination method, but some details are very different.
For example, the amount of taxes required to be paid by a certain prefecture under the examination law is basically unchanged. Once the court stipulates how much tax your prefecture should pay this year, then Zhang Juzheng will only look at whether you, the prefect, have paid the amount. If you pay enough, you will pass the exam. Insufficient payment means failure, and basically no other reasons are asked.
Gao Gong's examination method was different. He combined the previous suggestions given to him by Gao Pragmatic and adopted a floating numerical calculation method. Just take Wuchang Prefecture as an example. The specific operation method is to first calculate the total tax payment of Wuchang Prefecture in the past ten years, take an average annual tax payment, and then use this average as the base point to calculate the tax payment of Wuchang Prefecture next year. If it exceeds this average, it is considered at least qualified. If it exceeds 5, it is considered good. If it exceeds 1, it is considered excellent.
But this is only one of the items tested in the curriculum method. It also needs to be evaluated based on other items, such as regional stability. Regional stability is a large project, which also includes the investigation of various security incidents such as civil unrest, riots, bandits, bandits, homicides, and robberies.
Of course, roughly speaking, it can be summarized as "the economy must improve and unrest must reduce."
This is cruel.
According to the consistent rules of the Ming Dynasty or other feudal dynasties, the so-called increase in taxes is nothing more than squeezing harder, and squeezing this kind of thing will end up with ordinary people unlucky, and then the government will force the people to rebel and social unrest.
Now we have to raise taxes, and we can't make the officials force the people to rebel, otherwise they will fail the exams. Therefore, when the exam method was first implemented, the officials of the Ming Dynasty were a little confused for a while. What the hell are they going to do?
During that time, the pressure on Gao Gong was undoubtedly huge. Various impeachments and complaints flew to the General Affairs Department like snowflakes, filling the cabinet. Even the two palaces had to summon Gao Gong privately to ask about the situation.
But what kind of person is Gao Gong? He has determined the reform path, how can it be abandoned halfway because of some impeachments and questions?
With the power of the heavenly official, official hats fell into piles
In just three months, many officials who spoke fiercely when they were appointed to the throne have suffered great losses. They have been dismissed from their posts pending recruitment, returned to their hometowns to live idle, and have been demoted, demoted, transferred to foreign posts, and transferred to foreign posts. Various decisions of varying severity were made in the name of imperial edicts from the official department to various yamen and various places. Ming officials all over the world fully experienced the majesty of Gu Mingfu.
Seeing that hard work was not the solution, the officials of the Ming Dynasty had no choice but to find other methods and began to really think about how to complete this damn exam method.
At this time, Gao Gong's various private messages began to be sent to various places. Private message politics is a feature of the Ming Dynasty's cabinet system, which means that the ministers tell or hint local officials what to do through private messages without going through formal channels. This is actually a last resort for cabinet ministers who cannot truly become prime ministers. kind of workaround.
However, a red-headed document is not as good as a greeting from the leader. This has always been the case from ancient times to the present, so Gao Gong's private message was extremely effective. Officials who received the letter immediately knew what Mr. Fu meant. Collect business taxes.
Peasant uprisings have been common in China. Are there merchant uprisings in China?
Don’t you see that Wang Zhi, the largest maritime merchant in the Jiajing Dynasty, the captain of Wufeng, was thinking about being recruited by the imperial court?
Decades later, there was an even more powerful maritime merchant, Zheng Zhilong, who was also trying his best to find employment.
Local officials from various places got the hint and understood. Although they knew that tampering with the merchant's cake would cause a lot of trouble, they had to find a way to do it for the sake of their own black hats.
However, these officials also have different situations, but those whose families are wealthy generally have relatively slight changes, and a slight increase in business tax is enough, because as long as they keep their hats on, anyway, Not very short of money either.
If you are an official from a poor family with an average family background, you are usually more willing to climb up the ladder, and you will be more ruthless when you start to use your hands. However, this is also dangerous, because when some local merchants or wealthy gentry who often sell grain are powerful, it may cause some minor riots.
But again, they only dare to engage in tricks such as gathering crowds to resist taxes or going on strike. Although points will be deducted in the examination method, the deductions are much lighter than those in cases of civil commotion or rebellion. .
After calculation, these officials realized that even if there were three strikes and other riots in a year, the points deducted would not be as much as the points added by collecting more taxes. So why are you hesitating? Add them.
Of course, everyone is also good at calculating accounts, and they know that they cannot add too much in one year, because if they add too much this year, it will be difficult for them to live up to this year's base next year.
As a result, like the big hand of market regulation, many local government offices began to gradually and slowly increase commercial taxes. They did not seek more, but sought stability.
Since all places have added it, of course Huguang will also add it. However, it is easy to increase the proportion of commercial taxes, but it is difficult to increase the total value of business scale. If the total value does not increase, it will be difficult to increase commercial taxes year after year, which will inevitably cause increasing pressure on businessmen. Slowly speaking, Maybe there will be fewer and fewer people doing business, which will cause big trouble.
Therefore, increasing the total commercial value has become an issue that local officials must consider. Although Huguang has both cotton and silk, its scale cannot be compared with that of Jiangnan. Therefore, when it comes to the dominant industry, it is food after all.
How to increase grain production has now become a major issue on the minds of Huguang officials. When grain is sold from Huguang, commercial taxes must be paid through customs.
This is political achievement. It is the key to whether one can keep his black hat and become bigger. How can he not pay attention to it?
So Gao Pragmatic's opportunity came. He wanted to sell Huguang officials a good way to overhaul water conservancy, because it was a good deal that killed three birds with one stone.
How to achieve three goals with one stone during water conservancy overhaul
First of all, the construction of water conservancy projects has been a manifestation of political achievements in all dynasties in China, and it can also be called "Su Causeway at Spring Dawn". Did you know that Su Causeway was built by Su Dongpo? When future generations mention Su Causeway at Spring Dawn, they will have to think of Su Dongpo's political achievements. Not to mention Li Bing and his son’s Dujiangyan Irrigation System, it is really famous through the ages.
Secondly, building water conservancy projects can be profitable. Just like the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, the Chengdu Plain has become a land of abundance where floods and droughts are dependent on people and thousands of miles of fertile fields. Huguang already has large tracts of good farmland. If water conservancy construction is strengthened and disasters are reduced, then the grain output will continue to grow. After the increase, the external sales will be increased, and the total commercial tax will be increased.
Thirdly, it can reduce the probability of civil unrest and riots. Although it costs money to build a large-scale water conservancy project, it needs someone to repair it first. There are no mechanized operations these days, and a large number of laborers are needed to carry out large-scale projects. Since the idle labor force has been hired in large numbers to do work, the probability of various public security crimes has of course been reduced.
If there are any other difficulties in building water conservancy projects, is there enough money?
So when Gao Jingshi told Zhu Zaiyu the whole plan, Zhu Zaiyu thought for a while and frowned and asked this question: "Building water conservancy projects is naturally beneficial to the country and the people. If it is feasible, Zhu Zaiyu will naturally I completely agree and am willing to contribute, but how can the government offices in Huguang get so much money to build water conservancy projects? Moreover, even if they ask us to buy a large amount of cement, how will this help the disaster in the north?"
