Wang Shouren did not go elsewhere. He chose to be the prefect of Fuzhou Prefecture. The original prefect was named Fu Jihua.
This person originally supported Fengxi, so the Yamen of the Governor's Mansion still retained him.
Wang Shouren chose this place mainly because other areas in Fujian Province have little value in the agricultural society, because it is mostly hilly, with rugged roads, and agriculture is not developed. The cost of conquering it is very high, and there is no harvest.
Therefore, since ancient times, this place has been an indisputable place for military strategists. In the past dynasties, few people went to war over the fight for Fujian. If we must fight for Fujian, we basically need to capture important towns such as Fuzhou and Quanzhou.
To be honest, other places have been barbaric places for a long time. Not to mention the emperor and the court, many people themselves are unwilling to go there.
So the so-called arrears of money and food actually don't have much money and food in the first place, so what can be owed.
But provincial capitals like Fuzhou are different. Once this is solved, the problem is basically not big.
Wang Shouren took office under the leadership of two deputy Qianhu of the governor's office.
To solve the problem of unfavorable tax and grain collection, we must first understand how taxes and grain were collected in the Ming Dynasty.
In the fourth year of Hongwu, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang invented a system called the "grain chief system".
Zhu Yuanzhang experienced the dark years at the end of the Yuan Dynasty when local officials imposed excessive taxes and the people's lives were in dire straits. Therefore, he always believed that corrupt officials were the biggest scourge of poor farmers. After he became the emperor, he came up with this grain chief system: Generally speaking, he selected a varying number of chief and deputy grain chiefs in each county, with the large households with the most land as grain chiefs, and ordered them to supervise the collection of taxed grains and deliver them to the government.
"Records of the Ming Dynasty" records: If we govern good people with good people, there will be no danger of fishing invasion.
Of course, we later learned that most of the so-called good people are actually bastards.
But this method worked very well at first. Once the big households knew that the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was a powerful man, what he said worked, and the grain chief had a feeling of saying, "Don't treat the village chief as an official." Inside, he was a bit petty. rights.
In addition, "Records of the Ming Dynasty" also records that Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude towards the crime of the grain chief would be reduced to one level, saying, "If the grain chief commits a crime, he will be given money to atone for his crime." To put it bluntly, he means spending money to eliminate disasters. This naturally has implications for large households. attraction.
So the big players at that time flocked to it.
However, after the Chenghua period, the grain chief system began to become chaotic. Originally, big households served as grain chiefs, but later the big households were unwilling to take the position and forced this position to the middle and lower poor.
the reason is simple,
After the land annexation, the people became poorer and poorer, and large households found that they suddenly couldn't harvest food!
This has nothing to do with the collection method. It’s just like when you lend money to a good but poor person, and you ask him for money, he has a great attitude, but he just has no money. What can you do?
However, government officials are under political pressure to collect grain taxes. Sometimes many officials also have the same attitude of saying, "After I die, I will only care about the flood. Anyway, when the time comes, they will go to the grain chief." No matter what you do, you hand over the taxes and grain in your jurisdiction to me.
Therefore, the position of grain director has become a loser.
To some extent, the continuous decline in annual income in the middle and late Ming Dynasty was also related to the disintegration of the grain chief system. ….
[Currently used, this is the most comprehensive and best-used book-listening sound system. It integrates 4 major speech synthesis engines with over 100 kinds of sounds, and also supports offline reading.
Who will collect food arrears for you?
"What about the past? In the past, these were the grain chiefs, right? How were the grain taxes collected last year and the year before last?"
Wang Shouren asked about his former prefect Fu Jihua.
Fu Jihua had a goatee. He stroked it and said, "In the past... Fuzhou Prefecture's taxes and grain were actually not enough anymore. Each county could only collect about 130,000 dan from the people. Different years There will be different gaps. At that time, the government will negotiate with the big households, write down IOUs, borrow some, and just make it up."
In the sixth year of Hongwu's reign, Zhu Yuanzhang divided the mansions into three levels. Those with a grain payment of more than 200,000 shi were called Shangfu, those with less than 200,000 shi were called Zhongfu, and those with less than 100,000 shi were called lower houses.
Fujian Mansion is a central government. The annual grain payment is about 160,000 shi.
By the way, Suzhou Prefecture's annual tax and grain tax can reach 2.5 million shi, and Songjiang Prefecture can reach 950,000 shi. Huzhou and Hangzhou can have more than 400,000 and more than 200,000 respectively.
So why do they always say that Zhu Yuanzhang imposed heavy taxes here... indeed very heavy. The sum of the several prefectures around Suzhou and Hangzhou was indeed about half of the Ming Dynasty's annual income.
In the late Hongzhi period, the annual income continued to improve, and now it is only about 28 million shi a year. After all, in the sixth and ninth years of Hongzhi, the Susong River was managed by Liu Daxia.
Back to business.
Fu Jihua said: "There are a total of 10 counties in Fuzhou Prefecture. Each county's tax revenue is basically more than 10,000 dan, but not much has been collected now."
"What's the reason?"
How to say this...
"Now it seems that the common people are resisting...but..." Fu Jihua saw that the governor, chief envoy, and Wang Shouren, who was appointed by the emperor, had all arrived in Fujian. He also wanted to get closer, so he told the truth, " But I think there must be a conspiracy between the government and big households. Firstly, they said that they would pay back the taxes and grains they owed in the past this year, and secondly, they would not borrow any more. In this way, the amount of taxes and grains to be collected by the counties this year has increased significantly, almost It’s enough to collect two years in one year.”
"The people were naturally unwilling to disclose such a large amount. When they reported to Xiaguan, they said that there were too many unruly people and the taxes and grain could not be collected. Later, Xiaguan also went to find out that the counties were deliberately provoking the people to resist. Anyway, they said that they would harvest more this year, but in fact they did not do much to collect the grain. The thunder was loud and the rain was light. When the superiors asked, they said that the people were unwilling, and they were probably waiting to see how we were going to collect the grain. "
Wang Shouren pondered for a moment, "So that's it. If we force the conscription, it will definitely arouse public resentment. If the public dissatisfaction is great, no one will be able to bear the blame of the court. If we don't force the conquest, given the current public opinion, it will be unacceptable. Those who don’t come forward, especially if they don’t work hard enough.”….
"good."
"Human nature seeks advantages and avoids disadvantages. The grain chief cannot count on him, the government cannot count on him, and the big households cannot count on him. It seems that we are going to be suffocated to death in this place."
"I'm a bad guy, is there any good idea?"
Wang Shouren touched his nose and said, "There is a simple and crude way."
"Please give me some advice!" Fu Jihua said excitedly.
"Don't worry yet. In the current situation, do you think the government is the first to be unwilling to pay for food, or are the big households the first to be unwilling to pay for food?"
Fu Jihua was puzzled, "What's the difference?"
"Yes, there is a big difference." Wang Shouren smiled slightly, "When the Ministry came to Fujian, they did not arrest anyone or kill anyone. Everyone knew who they were evacuated. Didn't you Fufu Zun also go from the prefect's Yamen? Are you going to participate in politics at the Yamen of the Governor's Mansion? The minister is the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Imperial Master. When such a person comes, the officials are desperate to serve in secret. Isn't this understandable? "
"Wang Fuzun means that the big households are the first to be unwilling to pay the grain. But it's not like magistrates from all over the country will follow them, right?"
"The big clan members are afraid that what happened in Zhejiang will happen again, and officials from all over the country are kidnapped by them. One person is unlucky and everyone is unlucky. In the end, it's all fear. People who are afraid will not believe anything you say, and they will be afraid of whatever you do."
"so?"
"Let's do something to make him more afraid, so that the things he was afraid of before will appear less scary." Wang Shouren touched his chin, "Starting from tomorrow, the prefect's Yamen will act very anxious. The more anxious the better. It's best if we rush and cause chaos everywhere
Channeling, anxious to collect food, anxious to collect no food!
I also let them all know that I am anxious and let them laugh at my jokes. When they all believe that I am anxious, they will find that rabbits will jump over the wall when they are anxious. So we sent some people to check in front of each big house every day, making it look like we were conducting an investigation. In this way, they will think that I, Wang Shouren, have become a rabbit jumping over the wall in a hurry, ready to capture large households to collect food money. "
"This...can it be useful?"
Wang Shouren smiled and said: "Normally, it's useless. But they are very scared at this time. No matter what happens to us, they will think too much about it. Even if you go to the street in front of each house to have a sip of tea, those people will imagine you. Maybe I was doing something. Besides, I didn't act so anxious at that time. What do you think they thought?"
Scared them to death!
Fu Jihua was doubtful, "But where are we going to find so many people?"
"Go find those poor grain chiefs. Probably none of them want to be grain chiefs, right? Most of them were forced by the big households and the government. If you did something to force others, now you find that these people are under your control Aren't you afraid of wandering around the house? If it doesn't work, I'll be serious and catch him!"
"Then the government said that we have nothing else to ask for but to pay the tax and grain in full, and there is still a shortfall of ten or twenty thousand dan. Then naturally there will be people rushing to pay the tax and grain for us."
Fu Jihua didn't know what this method was, he couldn't describe it. I can only say it's evil.
But for Wang Shouren, the method he thought of was to target the problem. If it works, it is a good method. This is how to deal with fearful people, and what he uses is the human heart. This is the simplest and most straightforward.
Sometimes very complex calculations are unbearable, and unexpectedly, one mistake and all plans are ruined. Only by pointing directly at that heart, no one can escape.
Because everyone's strategies are different, but their hearts are the same. They are afraid and selfish. Once they find that refusing to cooperate with the court to collect taxes and grains will be more harmful, they will immediately support them.
That's all. How complicated can it be? .
royal hired cat
