After Zhu Jianshen's imperial chariot arrived in Nanjing, he first began to prepare for the memorial service to the Xiaoling Mausoleum. There was no morning court at all. After that, Zhu Jianshen ordered the cabinet to contact various confidential yamen to start re-checking and collecting taxes from previous years.
Because there were many yamen involved, the morning court meeting was changed to once every six days. Usually in the afternoon, His Majesty the Emperor would summon ministers in Qianqing Palace.
As for the joint and severe punishment, it is based on the general meeting held once every six days.
Li Xian, the chief assistant of the cabinet, made a summary of the tax collection and talked for half an hour, from the amount of fields concealed to the subsequent underpayment of taxes.
The strings of numbers are shocking.
The amount of collection proceeds in more than a month actually collected more than 30% of the country's taxes, and the number of acres of land that was dug out was as high as 460,000. You and I hid an entire county.
The most frightening thing is that it has been less than six years since the new tax system was fully implemented in Jiangnan. In six years, the Ming Dynasty lost one county's land and population.
The emperor, who was sitting on the dragon throne, was furious after hearing Li Xian's words.
"Have all their books been read into the stomachs of dogs? The world is for the public, loyal to the king and patriotic. The scene sounds so nice. It makes them pay taxes according to the law, which is like killing them."
The emperor's rage also made the officials furious. Several officials went to Fengtian Hall to scold these rich and unkind rural gentry clan, expressing their extreme disgust.
There are also officials who demand strict laws to be put in place to restrain this gang of rural gentry who are ruthless in their pursuit of wealth.
Seeing the officials being so angry, His Majesty the Emperor's anger dropped, but after Zhu Jianshen said something, his unknown anger rose again.
He just said softly: "I wonder what strict laws you think should be enacted."
As soon as the words were spoken.
The entire Fengtian Hall immediately became quiet, and the officials who were agitated also stopped talking.
Li Xian, who stood at the front of the team, said nothing. Xu Youzhen looked around, and Han Yong wanted to say something, but was held back by Peng Shi behind him.
As the chief minister of the cabinet and the person in charge of the collection verification, Li Xian was unable to speak at this time. Xu Youzhen also became cautious on this issue because he was not aware of the emperor's true intention at this time. Although Han Yong wanted to support the establishment of strict laws to restrain Shilin, his position became more and more important and he had a certain influence on the situation in the DPRK. He could not rashly express himself before the matter was clear. In his opinion, Peng Shi was right to stop him.
Because for the emperor, no decision is made on a whim.
Therefore, since His Majesty the Emperor directly stated what strict laws he would establish, he must have some rules in mind.
According to past practice, when it comes to such major national policies, the emperor would summon the core ministers, inform them in advance, and hold a small meeting. However, this time, neither Xu Youzhen nor Li Xian received any information in advance, and There was no news in the DPRK.
That's because Zhu Jianshen wanted to use the eunuch's power this time.
Zhao Huanong and Gao Yi operate below.
This is a sensitive topic.
Over the years, the imperial court has been suppressing scholars. Although, Zhu Jianshen relied on his imperial power and the assistance of Xu Youzhen and others, and there was never any trouble.
But the officials were still reluctant.
The country values scholars, which is the core program of the unified dynasty of the Han nation.
But at this time, Ming Dynasty was going in the opposite direction.
"Why, so many people can't even come up with a charter?"
The officials lowered their heads one after another, especially the six local officials from Nanjing and those from Beijing. Afterwards, they patted their butts and left with His Majesty the Emperor, but they still wanted to serve as officials in the south.
If we impose strict laws on the wealthy gentry in the south of the Yangtze River to restrict their tax evasion and avoidance, life will be difficult in the future.
The officials who came from Beijing also have Xiao Jiujiu in their hearts. Although most of them do not have so much land or wealth, they are already well up now, and the family's development will be much faster in the future. It won't be long before , their own family will also need to evade and avoid taxes. If they make suggestions for this now, aren't they just causing trouble for their descendants in the future?
Although loyalty to the emperor and patriotism are the first lessons of Confucianism, few people can put country before family, and selfishness is inevitable.
And just when His Majesty the Emperor wanted to get angry.
Ge Wangyang stood up.
Heavy fines were proposed.
It suddenly touched the waist of the scholarly gentry, no, to be precise, it should have suddenly touched the core interests of the entire reading circle.
If one person avoids taxes, the whole family will suffer, and five blessings and six generations will be affected.
Even Xu Youzhen's eyes twitched after hearing that Ge Wangyang was severely punished. He finally knew the reason for this matter. His Majesty the Emperor was unwilling to communicate with him in advance...
Most of the officials were not happy, but no one dared to refute Ge Wangyang in person, because they would look for opportunities. The current emperor was just when Long Yan was angry, and he rashly came out to sing the opposite. He could easily become a typical example of being killed to scare the monkeys, and become a tool.
Zhu Jianshen has been on the throne for such a long time and has been in charge for several years. These ministers are all aware of his ruthlessness and decisiveness.
After Zhu Jianshen heard Ge Wangyang's suggestions, he was very enthusiastic and satisfied. This undoubtedly cast a haze on the hearts of the officials in Fengtian Hall.
His anger seemed to have been relieved, and he praised Ge Wangyang, who had no sense of existence before, and was promoted three levels in a row, making him the right censor of the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate.
This has started to send signals.
Although most officials were in the court and did not dare to say anything, after leaving the court, these officials gathered together. As we all know, people's courage comes from gathering in crowds.
You clearly know that there is a pit in front of you. If you are alone, you will never jump. But if you are in a group of people, the mentality of following the herd and making trouble will make you jump to other people, and even wait until you are sure that others will not fall to death if they jump. When the situation arises, he will also jump.
The officials' memorial to impeach Ge Wangyang for his empty talk that harmed the country was delivered to the palace in the afternoon of the court meeting.
They criticized Ge Wangyang from all directions, hoping to use this to criticize what he said about joint and several heavy penalties. Of course, there were also some people who jumped directly into the trap and directly denied that such a policy of joint and several heavy penalties would harm their family and future generations, claiming that This is a cruel act that goes against the law of heaven and the people.
There are also some politically minded officials who are still waiting and watching, unwilling to express their attitude so quickly.
The representative among them is Wanan, a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, who was ordered by Zhu Jianshen to join the cabinet to participate in machine maintenance because of tax collection.
The future leader of Southern Shilin...
The future chief minister of the Ming Dynasty's cabinet...
Biquge
