It is said that the New Year brings new atmosphere, but most of the dignitaries in the Wei Dynasty did not live this New Year well. Every family in the capital took the opportunity to have New Year's wine and started to connect with officials they knew well.
With similar interests, they quickly reached a consensus. Now, they are all waiting for an opportunity.
This opportunity is the first court meeting of the new year. Before the court meeting, just as Feng Yibo expected, opposition memorials were sent to the palace like snowflakes.
In the Linjing Hall, the imperial eucalyptus that he and Yuanchun used to spend their spring night could no longer be piled up. But when Feng Yibo heard the news, he acted like nothing happened.
Everyone in the Chu Mansion was full of joy and had a good New Year. The first big court meeting of the new year is coming soon.
All the officials were standing solemnly, with a cold look in their eyes. After the ceremony, Feng Yibo walked to the front and continued to serve as an official in attendance.
"I have this report!" Before Feng Yibo could speak, a Kedao official, under the gaze of everyone, slowly walked to the front and bowed to Lord Dan.
"The Queen Mother and other ministers took advantage of your majesty's reform of the Yuan Dynasty to entrust the late emperor's will to promulgate new laws. Is this not safe?" As usual, Ke Daoyanguan took the lead.
After all, it is their job to report rumors.
"Not bad!" Without waiting for the reaction of Yuanchun and the cabinet, another person came out to pay homage to Lord Dan, and said with an awe-inspiring look: "As the saying goes, on the shore of the land, could it be the king's ministers and the common people of the Wei Dynasty? How can your Majesty's subjects have more friends because of their ancestors' accumulation, and less friends because of their ancestors' incompetence? Could it be that the imperial court is a knight-errant who robs the rich and helps the poor?" These words simply spoke to the hearts of all civil and military officials.
People have worked hard for generations to accumulate wealth. Why should they pay more taxes if they have money? Many people become officials because they want to honor their family members and ancestors.
In other words, it provides shelter to the family. There are also people who become officials just to make money and make future generations live a better life!
As the saying goes: if you don't get rich if you become an official, you won't even come to invite me. There are also people who become officials in order to complete a class jump and so on.
In short, there are very few people who serve the people wholeheartedly as officials. No one becomes an official just for charity!
The righteousness of the family and the country means that the family comes first and the country comes last. Reform is not impossible, but if you change it to your own home, who can bear it?
Feng Yibo put down the edict in his hand and watched their performance with a smile. Then more officials came out one after another, and the crowd was furious for a while.
"Those with more land pay more taxes, while those without land pay more taxes. This is not good for herdsmen and will make the people more lazy!" You can reform if you want, but it must be fair!
In all dynasties, people with poor legs have mainly paid taxes. If you don't share the world with the scholar-bureaucrats, why don't you ask us to pay more taxes?
In an era when land was the core of the economy, no one in the ruling class had a small amount of land.
After all, those who can afford to read are, at worst, from well-off families. The so-called poor family means that our ancestors were wealthy.
Otherwise, if a working member of an ordinary family is out of work and needs support, not only books, pens, ink, paper, and inkstones, the whole family will starve to death.
Therefore, the buttocks of the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty naturally sit on the side of the landlords!
"That's right! Everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the world. How can some people pay taxes and some not?" Why should those with land pay more?
Are the people who don’t pay taxes still the people of the Wei Dynasty? Most of the ambitions of this era are to cultivate one's moral character, regulate one's family, govern the country, and bring peace to the world.
Here, the country, the country, and the world have everything, except for the well-being of the common people. To cultivate oneself is to cultivate oneself, to harmonize one's family is to maintain family integrity, and to govern a country is to become a member of the ruling class.
As for leveling the world, some people say that leveling means equality, others say that it means equality, and some say that it means bringing peace... But at this moment, Feng Yibo felt that the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty had no control over the world.
The understanding of "pacifying the world" is: as the ruling class, the wealth of the people is equally divided!
"This law involves taxation. Even if it is the legacy of the late emperor, it should first be reviewed by the Ministry of Household Affairs, then discussed and improved at the court meeting, and finally whether to implement it!" You can reform if you want, but such a big thing has to go through the process, right?
At least it needs to go through the Ministry of Revenue and discuss it at the court meeting, right? Of course, once it is discussed, they will find a way to stop it.
Either change it beyond recognition and do not involve your own interests. Either disband on the spot and do whatever we did originally!
"..." For a time, all civil and military officials in the court expressed their opposition. Some questioned fairness and justice, some questioned competing for interests with the people, some questioned procedural justice, and some questioned the late emperor's legacy... Behind the bead curtain, Yuanchun acted as if he had not heard anything and showed no expression.
The old god is also present in the cabinet at the forefront, and it seems to have nothing to do with them. At this time, seeing no response from the Queen Mother and the cabinet, the Prince of Beijing County, who rarely appeared at court meetings, slowly came out.
"Everyone, please be patient." A voice as gentle as jade silenced the angry officials. Afterwards, Shui Rong bowed to His Majesty Dan and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty and the Queen Mother, this matter involves the gentry of the world, and I also feel that the implementation should be postponed and will be discussed again before making a decision!" As the Prince of Beijing County said Initiative, civil and military officials have expressed support.
"I second the proposal!"
"I second the motion!" They want the Queen Mother and the cabinet to know what it means to be angry and angry, and what it means to be boiling over things.
The shareholding ratio must be cancelled! Feng Yibo glanced at Shuirong and couldn't help but sneer in his heart. If you don't behave like a good idle prince, you actually dare to stand out when the trend in the court is not favorable to the founding of the country?
In fact, the Prince of Beijing County felt great pressure and took the lead as the Prince of Beijing.
In his opinion, sharing one's own land involves the interests of the gentry all over the world. If he can successfully persuade the Queen Mother and the cabinet to withdraw their orders this time, his reputation will reach an unprecedented level.
And this time he showed up and put himself in front of the stage, just to get a pair of
"Golden Body". At that time, once the court wants to deal with him, the gentry all over the world will definitely think of the issue of sharing their land and think that the court is going to take action against them again, so they will first get rid of this person who speaks for them.
"Your Majesty and the cabinet elders have also thought of your concerns. Therefore, the first item in today's meeting is the follow-up measures. Do you still want to hear about them?" Feng Yibo waited for a long time, until no one said anything, and then he calmed down. I asked hurriedly.
Then, under the puzzled eyes of the civil and military officials of the court, he took out the edict in his hand and said loudly: "The first item in today's court meeting is about the follow-up measures to share the land with the people." All the officials expressed their confusion.
But since it is a follow-up measure, it is obvious that the plan will not be cancelled! After hearing this, some people were ready to take action, pricking up their ears, ready to stand up and find fault at any time.
"After the implementation of the system of "sharing the income of one person into one mu", the salary of hundreds of officials will remain unchanged. However, His Majesty is considerate of the difficulty of serving as an official in the DPRK and plans to allocate one-tenth of the tax revenue as a special fund to specifically subsidize the official officials from the seventh rank and above in the world. Is this... a blatant attempt to bribe us?
As soon as the first item on the agenda of the court meeting came up, the civil and military officials in the court immediately looked at each other in shock. If the implementation of apportionment continues, then one-tenth of the tax revenue must be four to five million taels of silver, right?
For a time, the civil and military officials of the entire dynasty were stunned by such a generous gesture. Needless to say, this move was naturally done by Feng Yibo.
After the people are divided into acres, taxes will stabilize and be greatly increased. However, it will definitely be opposed by the gentry all over the world.
Feng Yibo's solution is naturally to divide and conquer. To put it bluntly, this trick is to use interests to bind officials all over the world.
Doing so can differentiate them from the gentry and landlords to a certain extent, so as to achieve their own goal of implementing the New Deal.
If not all officials, at least some of them can be won over, so that they will not fight alone and become enemies of the gentry all over the world like Wang Anshi did.
As for the public outcry, he had expected it. But having said that, these money are aimed at officials who have actual duties and errands, and have nothing to do with Xu Jue!
And if the money is divided, it may be better than nothing for the dignitaries. But this is a great benefit to the imperial censors, Hanlin nobles, and some Qingshui yamen.
As for families from the founding family, such as the Prince of Beijing County and the Second Mansion of Rongning, there is no subsidy.
Of course, there are also people in the founding line who hold actual positions. For example, the Shi family brothers, or Qiu Liang, the grandson of Marquis Jingtian and the Wucheng military commander, all have official positions.
For a time, the Ke Dao, Hanlin, Rites, etc. who had just joined in the conversation all showed expectant looks.
Obviously, they wanted to know how the money would be divided. As for the people who founded the country, their expressions changed one after another.
The founding lineage in the Beijing camp was wiped out some time ago, which has already made them feel great pressure.
Now that the court wants to distribute money, they are bypassing them again. This makes it difficult for everyone in the founding line not to think more about it.
"Among them, there are four main categories: integrity, performance, business trips, and subsidies." Feng Yibo introduced the special funds slowly.
"Nurturing integrity has been around since ancient times. The imperial court will distribute the money according to the grade of the actual job. As the saying goes: if you have enough food and clothing, you will know the honor and disgrace. Only when all officials have enough money to support their families can we avoid people taking desperate risks and put an end to corruption, bribery, favoritism and perversion of the law." The so-called "nurturing integrity" Silver means, in addition to salary, a certain amount of subsidies given to officials according to their grade.
Let them have the financial ability to live a decent life. In order to maintain integrity and serve the public, we can eliminate the occurrence of corruption, bribery, self-seeking and bending the law.
This is not something Feng Yibo moved from later generations, but this policy had already appeared on and off as early as the Tang and Song Dynasties.
What he has to do today is to fix and institutionalize it.
"Performance is based on the assessment of the Ministry of Personnel and the annual inspection of Kedao, and is rated as Grade A, B, C, and D. Those who are good or above in all items, and those who have outstanding performance in one item, can be rated as Grade A and awarded by His Majesty Commendations and performance bonuses." This is also an existing assessment, but it has been changed from a test every three years to a test once every one year old.
The original assessment results mainly related to promotion. And now, on top of it, rewards of money and honor have been added.
Obviously, Feng Yibo just wants them to roll up.
"Whether it is an outstanding contribution will be made by the Cabinet and His Majesty in the final assessment." This means that the final right of interpretation belongs to the court.
"All evaluations are excellent, but there are no outstanding contributors, they can be rated as B, and the cabinet will issue awards and corresponding performance bonuses." Hearing this, all the officials showed surprise.
Because not only the frequency of assessments has changed, but the evaluation standards have also changed. The original Grade A has now become Grade B, and the current Grade A has relaxed its standards and made an intriguing and outstanding contribution.
Such standards are somewhat illusory. Fortunately, such a reaction was expected by Feng Yibo.
"There are two levels: A and B. The quotas for each department and province are fixed every year. I hope you will encourage me!" With a fixed quota, there will be no empty spots.
When the nobles heard this, they immediately became energetic.
"Business trips, including imperial envoys, all secondments to other places, and cross-regional or departmental errands must be reported to the competent authorities, and corresponding subsidies will be issued according to the actual situation." This item is a huge deal for many officials who need to travel. Especially the censor of Kedao, who often has to patrol around.
The carriages and horses were sent out by the imperial court, and there were also official posts for accommodation. But how can you go out without spending any money? In this era, you can’t reimburse yourself. If you have money, you can pay for it yourself. If you don’t have money, you can only be frugal.
Now that there is a subsidy for business trips, it seems that it is not so hard.
"The subsidy is mainly aimed at officials in remote areas, so that they can work as officials in remote areas and have enough food and clothing at home, without worries." This item is mainly aimed at officials who are sent abroad.
At the same time, this also solved some of the worries for the Manchu civil and military forces. After all, no one can guarantee that they will not make mistakes.
Once the party fails or fails to do things well, it is inevitable that he will be sent to a remote area to serve as an official.
Although no one wants to go, with such a subsidy, I can feel at ease at home. Four policies in a row, all of which are beneficial to officials.
As each announcement was made, the minds of many officials had quietly changed.
It seems that the suffering of the gentry and landlords in the world is not unacceptable. At this moment, an inarticulate voice sounded.
"The late emperor worked hard and worked hard to bring the Wei Dynasty into a prosperous age. He has made plans for this for many years. Unfortunately, fate has played a trick on people. He controlled Long Bintian when he was still in his prime! Now, we should inherit the legacy of the late emperor and carry out this benevolent government. All over the country." Hundreds of officials searched for the source of the voice, but only those in front could see it.
It turned out that there was a chair next to several people in the cabinet. There was a person sitting on it, talking with a crooked mouth.
"Now that the edict has been made known to the world, with golden words and precise words, how can it be changed overnight? What's more, this edict was written when your majesty changed the Yuan Dynasty to show benevolence and filial piety. Is there anyone who wants your majesty to withdraw it?" All civil and military officials may have asked. Following the gaps or whispering to each other, most of them showed shocked expressions.
It turned out that this person was Zhang Songyue, the former chief minister of the cabinet. Even though he is gone now, he has been the chief assistant for more than ten years, and his power is still there.
For a time, many civil and military officials who were a little shaken became even more hesitant.
"Mr. Zhang has worked hard for the Wei Dynasty for half his life, but now he can't rest assured on his sickbed. His integrity is admirable!" Feng Yibo smiled and then looked at the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty.
"The follow-up measures have been discussed. Now I will ask you on behalf of Your Majesty, the Queen Mother, the ministers of the cabinet, and Duke Zhang." At this point, he narrowed his eyes slightly, looked at everyone present, and said in a deep voice: "Today Who is in favor of the first item of the meeting, the apportionment of people into acres and subsequent measures? Who is against it?"
