Almost at the same time that these things happened in Dongnuan Pavilion, the Hubu Yamen was in solemn silence. In the grand meeting hall, there are not only the Hubu Tang officials headed by Gao Pragmatic, Yiqianlangzhong, Yuanwailang, Tiju, Ambassadors, etc., but also various Tang officials from the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Works.
The ceremonial guard of the Tianguan of the Ministry of Personnel usually does not meet the elders on the streets. The reason is the uniqueness of the Tianguan. The meeting official is one level higher. It will be very embarrassing if there is a dispute with the elders.
However, in today's large meeting hall of the Ministry of Household Affairs, this phenomenon no longer exists. Chen Yubi, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, sits at the top of the west side of Gao Pragmatic, and Song Yingchang, the Minister of the Ministry of War, sits on the east side. As for Shi Xing, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, he was sitting on the lower side of Chen Yubi with a serious look on his face.
The six ministries each perform their own duties. Logically speaking, this situation should not exist today. How can the Ministry of Household Affairs convene the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Industry to discuss matters? Even if this happens, given the presence of the Heavenly Official, the Earthly Official should not be in charge.
But it is obvious that Gao Pragmatic is not only the local official and household minister, he is also a cabinet bachelor. Everyone even knew something else: he, the Grand Bachelor of Wenhua Palace, would soon change his title to Grand Bachelor of Zhongji Palace.
"Everyone must have known why we made an exception today to recruit colleagues to come to the Ministry of Revenue." Gao Pragmatic's face was solemn, with a worried look on his eyebrows: "Within one day, the imperial court collected three points in a row to report the disaster:
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The first report: According to reports from Fu and Press in Zhejiang, the five prefectures of Jin, Qu, Ning, Shao and Tai suffered from rare white disasters (snow disasters and ice disasters) last winter, which affected millions of people. It is currently known that more than 9,000 houses have been damaged in various prefectures and counties. There is no way to count the houses in the suburbs and countryside. It is not yet known what the situation is, but it is expected to be worse than in the city.
Therefore, the governor of Zhejiang proposed that Nanjing should provide grain and silver, reduce taxes and reduce taxes to alleviate the poverty of the people. The Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs did not dare to take matters into its own hands, so it has forwarded the proposal to our ministry and at the same time submitted it to the imperial court, asking the imperial court to make a decision and Arrange disaster relief matters. The ministry stated that Nanjing is ready to fully cooperate with the court's resolutions. "
After a pause, Gao Pragmatic picked up another memorial and took a look at it, and said: "The second memorial: Jurong and other fifteen counties in Nanjing were also hit by white disasters. The Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs reported to the Ministry of Household Affairs and wanted to change the levy to those with severe disasters. If there is a slight difference, the original color will still be collected. The rice, beans, sesame and other items are for the purpose of worshiping the mausoleum and temple and cannot be changed. At the same time, the court is still asked to arrange disaster relief.
Third Shu: There was an earthquake in Liaodong Sanwan, Liaohai and Tieling on the same day. Zhang Taizheng, the governor of Liaodong, was in Kaiyuan at that time (note: it can be understood as counting the number of troops, ordnance, food and wages, etc.), and it almost collapsed when the earthquake hit. Buried alive in the warehouse. An inventory after the earthquake showed heavy losses, regardless of military camps or residential buildings. About 30% of the residences in Kaiyuan were destroyed. The two guards lost more than 400 soldiers (Note: Thirty thousand guards and Liaohai guards were both in Kaiyuan). Residents in the city suffered even more casualties. The number exceeds 2,000, and the remaining minor injuries are not counted.
The governor of Liaodong proposed that Kaiyuan and Tieling should be exempted from Beijing's grain, silver and tax reductions, and that the three guards should be exempted from rotational garrison duty this year, and that the two places should be exempted from corvee this year. The imperial court is also requested to decide and arrange disaster relief matters. "
After Gao Pingshi finished speaking, he let out a long sigh, put down the memorial in his hand, looked around at the crowd and said, "If you have any opinions, please tell me."
Everyone looked at each other, and finally focused their attention on the face of Chen Yubi, the Minister of Staff.
Chen Yubi said calmly: "The Ministry of Personnel is not in charge of disaster relief and other matters. The reason why our headquarters is here today is just to remind everyone - how well the matters agreed upon later are handled will be the focus of the Ministry of Personnel's inspection this year. "
When everyone heard this, their expressions suddenly became solemn, and they all sat upright without squinting.
Officialdom has always been based on seniority, and the order of speeches often depends on seating. Gao pragmatic was the presiding officer of the meeting. He asked everyone to speak. Naturally, everyone did not dare to ask him to express his position first, so they were the second to see Chen Yubi, the Minister of Civil Affairs. After Chen Yubi finished speaking, according to the ranking of the six departments and the current seats, everyone naturally looked towards Song Yingchang, the Minister of War.
"The first two guards have nothing to do with the Ministry of War. It is inconvenient for me to say more. Let me talk about the third guard." Song Yingchang pondered for a moment and said: "The three guards of Sanwan, Liaohai and Tieling were involved in the previous battle to aid Korea. Quite meritoriously, more than half of the Guardsmen participated in guarding the grain roads and transporting grain and wages. They also lost hundreds of people in the battle, which is truly said to be the king's dedication and dedication.
The places guarded by the three guards are Kaiyuan and Tieling, which were originally important towns in Liaodong. They are close to Yehe, Hada and Jianzhou. They are crucial places in Liaodong, so they have heavy responsibilities.
Now that North Korea is within its borders, the Jurchens have moved to town, and there is a large amount of open space in the east and north of Tieling in Kaiyuan. Originally, the Ministry of War was formulating a takeover plan, but at present, it seems likely that the implementation will be postponed and disaster relief will be the top priority.
Foolishly, the two guardsmen can avoid taking turns to garrison this year. They can just provide disaster relief on their own. As for the local people, they also asked the elders of the government to mobilize, and Yuyi ordered the Liaodong General Soldier and the Deputy General Soldier to mobilize the various military assistants in various places. "
Shi Xing, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, was the most embarrassed among the participants today. He could be said to be a member of the Practical School, but later he was attracted by the Xin School for some reason and switched to the team of Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue. As a result, Shen Shixing was not proud for long. Being forced to retire at the same time as Wang Xijue, Shi Xing's life began to become difficult.
However, with the rise of Zhao Zhigao and Shen Guanyin, because Shi Xing was at least senior enough and in charge of the Ministry of Industry, he was a force that the Xin School could not lose. Therefore, he was able to secure his position as Minister of the Ministry of Industry.
But no matter what, he was blacklisted by the Practical School, considered a traitor, and no one wanted to look at him. This is not the most difficult thing. The most difficult thing is that the power of the Ministry of Accounts has been seriously expanded. The office funds of the Ministry of Industry must be approved by the Ministry of Accounts. The "construction funds" that were originally controlled solely by the Ministry of Industry have also been supervised by the Ministry of Accounts. He was not allowed to do anything independently, which made his work as a minister very boring.
He didn't want to come to this meeting today. Unfortunately, the six government offices were very close to each other, and the main entrances of the government offices of the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue were so close that they were across the street. Therefore, when the Ministry of Revenue sent someone to invite him, he had no excuse at all, so he had to He came holding his nose.
Now that Song Yingchang had finished speaking, it was his turn. He had no choice but to say: "The Ministry of Industry can certainly mobilize a craftsman family in Liaodong to participate in the reconstruction, and the corvee labor in Kaiyuan and Tieling is not inevitable.
But in this way, if there is a major construction project in Liaodong this year, the number of corvees may not be enough. Moreover, although corvees can be used to mobilize craftsmen to rebuild the two places this time, even if corvees are used, it will still cost a lot of money... This is not what our Ministry of Industry has the final say. It still depends on how Mr. Gao Ge decides. . "
Gao Pragmatic looked around at the crowd and said: "Liaodong is more sparsely populated than other provinces in the Central Plains, and there are fewer people serving as corvees. The cost of participating in reconstruction is limited...Brother Yazhai, if we order 20,000 corvees for three months, How much should the Ministry of Accounts pay?"
Yazhai is the title of Hu Zhili, the right servant of the Ministry of Revenue. After hearing this, Hu Zhili did some calculations and said: "Corvees are not paid at all, and the expenses are rations and other items. Each person only has five or six cents per day. Based on six cents, the daily consumption of copper coins One hundred and twenty thousand coins, that is, one hundred and twenty taels of silver. Based on one hundred and twenty days, it costs 14,400 taels of silver."
Fourteen thousand four hundred taels of silver sounds like a small amount, but this "very few" is actually quite misleading. The real situation is that when Gao Pragmatic took office as the inspector of Guangxi, the whole province of Guangxi could only pay 70,000 to 80,000 taels of silver a year. On the contrary, the imperial court spent nearly 200,000 taels of silver in Guangxi a year.
Of course, today's Guangxi is developing very rapidly thanks to the "planned economy" that Gao Pragmatism gave it at that time. It is no longer the same as it used to be.
Nowadays, Guangxi's timber, spices, sugar and shipbuilding industries have become the four pillars. In addition, there is a Qinzhou Port in hand, which can already pay more than 600,000 taels of various taxes to the court every year. It can be said that Guangxi has not only gotten rid of the embarrassment of the financial black hole of the past, but has even been able to squeeze into the middle of the country.
With a tax of more than 600,000 taels, can we squeeze into the middle of the country? Yes, because after the highly pragmatic fiscal reform, taxation has actually become the characteristics of "national tax" and "local tax" in later generations. As a result, the proportion of tax revenue that Guangxi Province can obtain is limited, and a large part will be collected directly by the Ministry of Household Affairs, without going to Guangxi's local account at all.
Let’s put it this way, the taxes directly paid by Guangdong last year were only over 1.8 million taels. Although it is still three times that of Guangxi, if you compare it with later generations... at that time, Guangdong's GDP was more than five times that of Guangxi all year round, not to mention its financial contribution.
It has taken more than ten years for Guangxi to develop to this extent, making Gao Jingzhi's reputation and prestige unparalleled in Guangxi. There are even many Gao pragmatic shrines in the local area - yes, it is the thing that Eunuch Wei in the original history enjoyed all over the world. , but now the local Gao pragmatic students' temples in Guangxi are all built by private people, and the official has not stated anything.
In fact, it was not that the officials did not want to show off. After the news that someone in the local area had built a shrine for Gao Jingshi, Guangxi officials wanted to take the opportunity to flatter him. Unexpectedly, as soon as the article was published, it was stopped by Gao Jingshi, who was furious. Only then did the Guangxi officialdom realize that flattery was slapped on the horse's leg, and they dared not mention it again from now on.
Closer to home, the cost of more than 14,000 taels of silver in a province does need to be decided by the Ministry of Household Affairs, especially Liaodong, which is quite special. It is not a normal "province", but is actually a "military control area" ”——This point was specifically mentioned in the previous article of this book, so I won’t go into details here.
For this reason, Liaodong was actually the largest financial hole in the Ming Dynasty. The so-called finance in Liaodong is essentially a "military settlement system." There are no specialized administrative officials such as prefects and county magistrates in various places, let alone the third division of provincial agencies - the third division of Liaodong is represented by Shandong, but Shandong actually has little control.
Well, it's not that you don't want to take care of it. In fact, Liaodong itself is under military control. The prefects and counties have nothing to do. The officials in Shandong have a black eye. How can they take care of your civil affairs? Therefore, the so-called civil affairs in Liaodong are actually managed by the guards, and if the superiors of each guard have certain civil power, they are actually at the governor and military level.
Over the years, among the governors of Liaodong and Bingbei Road who have seriously engaged in administrative management, Gao Pragmatic is probably the only one. Thanks to a highly pragmatic manager who has been in charge for a period of time, Liaodong's economy is much better now than it was in the past.
There are several main industries that are developing well, including Liaonan salt industry, tussah industry, corn industry, cold-resistant rice industry, and the coal-iron military-industrial complex established by Jinghua near Anshan. However, although the industry has good development momentum, very little of it contributes to local fiscal revenue in Liaodong.
The Liaonan Salt Farm was jointly built by the emperor and Gao Pragmatic, under the banner of the royal family, and no one dared to collect taxes at all. Later, Gao pragmatically said that this would "compete with the people", so he took the initiative to pay taxes according to the unified national standards... However, the salt tax was a national tax, and the locals still could not get a penny.
The tussah silk industry was initially led by Jinghua, but later Jinghua withdrew from the production department. After restructuring, it is now essentially a local joint production contract, with almost all employees being private women, while Jinghua is only responsible for unified purchasing and marketing.
This tussah silk industry is pragmatically developed as a livelihood project, with the purpose of allowing local women to earn a certain amount of income to subsidize their families. Therefore, Gao Pragmatic deliberately set an extremely low tax rate a long time ago. This has resulted in that although the current development is good, the annual profits and taxes for the local area are less than 4,000 taels of silver - the profits and taxes of the entire industry are less than 4,000 taels.
Corn and cold-tolerant rice are said to be industries, but in fact they cannot form an industrial scale. They are essentially livelihood projects. After it was popularized, the main beneficiaries were the private sector, because the imperial taxation did not change, but they had more corn and cold-tolerant rice output, and their living conditions immediately improved a lot.
As for paying taxes, there is no such thing. The biggest benefit is that the official planting of Yuanmasi Temple in Liaodong [Note: Jin Fuhai builds the army and prepares the road] can provide some physical output. Unfortunately, this output has nothing to do with Liaodong officials. big.
Although Jin Fuhai was an official subordinate to the governor of Liaodong, Yuanma Temple in Liaodong was not under the control of the governor of Liaodong, but directly managed by the imperial court. Therefore, even if the output of Yuanma Temple in Liaodong was to be used, it had to be specially approved by the imperial court. Take Liaodong's account.
After this calculation, there is only one increased fiscal surplus left in Liaodong, and that is Jinghua’s Anshan Industrial Park. This industrial park is basically built according to the Kaiping model. It has coal mines, iron mines, coal washing plants, steel plants, agricultural tools factories, musket factories, and artillery factories.
There are even some related factories, such as the elastic factory, steel ring factory, bearing factory under Jinghua Precision Industry, the cement factory, building materials factory under Jinghua Infrastructure, etc., to name a few.
To a certain extent, Liaodong can be regarded as having a "nearly complete industrial chain" related to war. Why add the word "nearly"? Because Gao Pragmatic did not build a gunpowder factory for Liaodong, if Liaodong wanted gunpowder, it had to be transported from within the pass.
The reason here is very simple. First, it is to prevent the slightest change and prevent Liaodong from having the capital to separate itself by force. This idea is exactly the same as the highly pragmatic idea of controlling the military in southern Xinjiang; second, there are no good sulfur mines in the entire Liaodong—or even in the entire Northeast of China. . The characteristic there is that the black soil is highly fertile and there is enough coal and iron, but there is no sulfur.
China's sulfur mines are mainly located in the southern provinces. Except for later Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, there are very few sulfur mines in the north. At present, the sulfur in the Ming Dynasty is mainly imported from Tumote. In China, due to high pragmatism, it is basically not dug casually. The sulfur in southern Xinjiang comes from Japan, specifically the Shimadzu family.
The main force in boosting Liaodong's fiscal revenue in recent years has been the profits and taxes of Anshan Industrial Park. Last year, it paid a total of more than 113,000 taels. Gu Yangqian, the former governor of Liaodong, and Zhang Taizheng, the current governor, always keep their eyes on Anshan Industrial Park whenever they need to spend money.
To exaggerate, Liaodong’s finances are now almost entirely directed at Jinghua. Some people may ask, what about the original industry? Was there no tax at all originally? There is some, but it is almost non-existent, because the major generals in Liaodong are the main owners of the original industries in Liaodong, and they have many ways to pay less taxes.
Even Gao Jingshi didn't dare to touch this easily - it wasn't that he couldn't do it. Now that the emperor's power was at its peak and Gao Jingshi was so powerful, they wouldn't dare to rebel even if he was moved. But now that the military reform has not been completed, you have affected their source of profits. They cannot afford to support the army, and they will have diarrhea during the war. This is also intolerable to Gao Pragmatism.
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ps: This chapter is not finished yet. I will try my best to see if I can code another chapter, but given that I have been coding until I fell asleep many times recently, I can’t guarantee it. In addition, section (81) of this chapter has been blocked. If you can’t see it, you can find version d. I don’t mind, because I don’t know how to modify it to unlock it, so I don’t bother to bother with that.
What can I say, my subscription to update one chapter is just that. It is wrong to spend time thinking about the sensitive parts of each word. In fact, my attitude is quite simple. If you can directly tell me what is wrong, I will be willing to change it. But if you don't point it out, how can I change it?
