Chapter 76 Twenty-three years have passed since Hongwu
After Shen Guogong participated in Beijing Construction, he got off to a good start. With Shen Guogong as his backer, Zhang Youzhi's abilities were fully utilized. For example, in terms of manpower, there was no need for Shen Guogong to say anything. Zhang Youzhi held the badge of Shen Guogong's government. Go to any yamen in Hebei and you will get strong support.
Moreover, when these yamen handle private matters for Shen Guogong, they need more energy than official matters.
And Zhang Youzhi is also a person who understands the world very well. He is naturally very good at getting things done and will not mistreat the officials who work for him.
In He Xi's assessment, this method was more efficient and better able to protect the interests of the people than issuing direct orders for the lower government to cooperate in recruiting migrant workers, but it was a helpless thing.
After all, if it is official business, the subordinate staff involved below will take care of it and even get involved in it.
The official business was done very well this time. What will we do next time? That's pretty much it. Moreover, if you don’t get involved in public affairs, you would be a fool. Don't think that Zhu Yuanzhang's high-pressure treatment will make everyone below him honest and honest.
Please do not underestimate the wisdom of working people. Many things are difficult to check. The author's grandmother was in charge of the brigade canteen during the three-year natural disaster, so my father's brothers all grew up very well. But it is definitely not corruption.
Zhu Yuanzhang's ideas are too far away for the people at the lowest level.
Many things are not considered corruption, but they are enough to make one thing cost too much. But doing personal affairs for powerful people is different. In addition, Zhang Youzhi is a sensible person, so he will naturally get some benefits. Benefits were given, but problems still occurred. There are simply too many ways to kill a minor official or even a county magistrate based on the name of Duke Shen.
You don't even need to give a reason. Not giving Duke Shen face is the best reason.
Some people say that corruption is the lubricant of economic development, which is probably based on this logic. This logic is probably not tenable in future generations with a sound rule of law. But in this era, it may be true.
After all, it's the difference between bad and worse.
In any case, after Shen Guogong left, other nobles also left one after another. For a time, there were dozens more construction clubs on the construction site in Beijing. What made He Xi even more annoyed was that he had formed three major construction companies in Beijing, which were almost hollowed out.
Without him, the Construction Society and Guard Army established by He Xi were actually just brand changes. How much you earn is just a matter of accounting. There are a lot more tricks to play than in private places.
He Xi had to come forward and warn many people before the three major construction companies could survive.
However, the technical level of private construction companies has improved very quickly. On the one hand, although there are many new materials and technologies in construction, overall it is still a hard work and the technical content is not high. Private individuals have a natural pursuit of improving efficiency, providing technological content, and providing profits.
On the other hand, there are various distinguished people behind them, so they have received a lot of technical support.
Where are the most skilled technicians in building cities these days? In the military, you only need to look at the cities built by the Ming Dynasty over the years to know how much experience the Ming Dynasty has in building cities, and all your connections are in the military. It is not too simple to find some personnel from the military. .
Regardless of the circumstances, it can be considered a great help to He Xi. At the construction site in Beijing, more than 100,000 people gathered. He Xi also made some adjustments.
First of all, the profits of contracted projects have been reduced. In the future, when there are more people, bidding will be held soon to reduce costs. At the same time, an announcement was made regarding the issue of taxation. This year, the 23rd year of Hongwu, we will not care about it. Starting from next year, all club companies must pay taxes on their operating income. They were also asked to take their bank statements and take the initiative to go to the Planning Department to declare. At the end of each year, the court would conduct an accounting. If they failed to declare, they would be fined. In serious cases, the company would be confiscated and other disposal measures.
Of course, these are also the legal regulations that He Xi temporarily added, and they are not included in the new version of the Ming Dynasty Code.
According to the commercial tax set by Zhu Yuanzhang, the commodity tax that is related to people's lives is 30%, not the commercial tax that is related to people's livelihood.
In fact, the clause designed by Zhu Yuanzhang may not be applicable to company operations, but He Xi doesn't care. In He Xi's view, the most important thing now is to cultivate the habit of taxation. It can even be said to be letting the water go to raise fish. How to collect it in the future, how to challenge it, and how to adapt to local conditions will be discussed at that time.
Then there are some adjustments in bank policies. It’s not that they can no longer provide loans to these construction companies. However, the loan amount and even the process have changed a lot. I am determined not to get the loan as easily as Zhang Youzhi.
After all, Zhang Youzhi's benefits are all rewards for the brave. It's the advantage of the outlet, and now things are going to be done. That's another logic.
Even so, He Xi made a rough estimate and estimated that taxes alone could collect as much as one million taels for the Beijing City Project next year. Although it is a banknote. But one million taels of silver notes is also a large amount. It is estimated that in the entire Ming Dynasty, apart from Suzhou City, only the unfinished city of Beijing levied the highest taxes.
However, Suzhou City is different from Beijing City. Beijing City has an industrial and commercial tax, while Suzhou City has a land tax in name, but in fact it is a commercial tax. After all, if you farm, no matter how fertile the land is in Suzhou, you won't be able to pay the land tax.
Only doing business can fill this gap.
The businesses of both are very developed, but they are two different models. As of now, I don’t know who is better and who is not.
Of course, He Xi also has a lot of support. If it is silver, all the millions of taels of silver allocated by the imperial court have been used up. Although it passed, various factories in Liaodong and other parties recovered a considerable number of banknotes, and many of the banknotes themselves were stored in banks.
Generally speaking, banknote prices have remained relatively good.
Of course, this also means that banknotes are more widely circulated. Not to mention other places, in Hebei and Liaodong alone, there are bank branches in the so-called prefectural cities. And with the lowered account opening standards, you can open an account in just ten taels.
On the construction sites in Beijing, the monthly salary of the 100,000 migrant workers is at least hundreds of thousands taels, and many of the wages are transferred to their families through banks. There are also interest rate spreads such as loans. Banks are already making profits before taxes have even been levied.
This does not include the currency put on the market.
All in all, a lot of money.
And before winter comes, the planning and even the foundation of Beijing City have been completed. After winter comes, construction is not easy, and the work on the construction site naturally comes to an end. Many people have gone home. But there are also some people who are engaged in new jobs.
It's nothing else, but some newly built factories, such as brick factories, are now desperately hoarding bricks. In preparation for next year's use, the ceramic factory and He Xi paid special attention to Beijing's sewers when designing. We need to use large clay pipes that can allow people to walk in them, and they need to be hundreds of kilometers long. After all, Beijing is a very large city, and there are many twists and turns in it, so more clay pipes are needed.
There are actually some technical difficulties with this kind of clay pipe. It is not easy to make many things small, but it is also not easy to make them big. However, when it comes to ceramics, the Chinese are second in this era, and no one dares to be first. They hired some big craftsmen from Jingdezhen, and then combined with the use of steam engines and other machinery, they finally came up with a production process, but it was still quite cumbersome. of. The production speed is not high.
Fortunately, some craftsmen pointed out that it is not necessary to use all such pottery pipes, and the same passage can be built with bricks. This technique is often used when building tomb passages. This solves the problem.
However, such clay pipes still have to be produced and used in relatively special places.
Generally speaking, He Xi has been quite busy this winter. But He Xi knew that the busier time should be next spring. Next spring, the main construction project of Beijing City will officially begin.
He Xi hopes to do this one thing well in one year.
In this way, the twenty-three years of Hongwu ended quietly.
