Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 381
Of course, although Zhang Juzheng's post reform is more rigid and strong than soft and ingenious, it is at least better than the Chongzhen Emperor who was dedicated to governance.

In 1629 in history, the 19-year-old Emperor Chongzhen also carried out a post administration reform. However, Chongzhen, who was eager for quick success, was not even as patient as Zhang Juzheng. He only hoped to solve the problem immediately with a package of drastic reforms.So there are two major differences between his method and Zhang Juzheng:

Although Zhang Juzheng's post office reform was tough, at least the focus was on reducing the burden on the people. As for saving millions of taels later, it was just a side benefit.As the emperor, Chongzhen only stared at the few 10 taels of silver obtained from the post administration reform.Therefore, he acquiesced in apportioning the officials to the people, but only asked the officials to hand over a large part of the funds to military expenses, which can be said to be short-sighted and short-sighted.

In addition, as I just said, Chongzhen was too hasty and impatient in the implementation of reforms.Without any pre-work, he ordered the reduction of 60% of the scale of the country's post stations across the board!You must know that the Jiajing period and Zhang Juzheng's reforms were carried out slowly and gradually, and both took several years.However, Chongzhen's reform required all localities to complete it immediately within a few months!
You haven't failed yet, who failed?

According to Gao Gong and Guo Pu's views on Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Juzheng was too hasty in doing things, so if it was replaced by Chongzhen who was several times more anxious than Zhang Juzheng, would it not be a bad thing?
Governing a big country is like cooking a small fish. It's like frying eggs. If you are too hot and too anxious, the eggs will definitely get mushy!

Just imagine that a great man like the Taizu of the Hong Dynasty back then, who possessed incomparable prestige and a sufficiently efficient administrative team, lost his hand on the word "urgent" in the end. something wrong?
After thinking about it, Gao Pragmatism found that the key reason why the Daming Post Station became a cancer that exploited the local people is that it has the power to exploit. The most fundamental way to eliminate this exploitation is to make it lose this power.

But although it is easy to take back this power, it is difficult to maintain the role of the station after it is taken back.

Now post stations have the power to "exploit" the people. Many post stations in remote places are unsustainable. They are in disrepair for a long time. It is a small problem. The cars, horses, postmen, etc. that should be owned are all not up to the standard. Once something happens, the efficiency is completely ineffective. make sure.Then just imagine, if it still loses the power to exploit, it may make no difference whether the station is set up or not-it can't do anything.

But Gao Yushi worked as a grassroots cadre after all, and he was very keen to figure out the key problem: Daming's inn is actually equivalent to those "self-financing" public institutions in later generations. Regardless of your eating problem, it will give you certain privileges.

Whoever it is, has to use this privilege to the extreme, otherwise where can I eat?
There is no Confucius in the world, conscience is certainly a good thing, but after all, it cannot be eaten as food, and those who starve to death are not a cheap food, they will always be a minority.

Very good, now I finally figured out where the root of the problem lies—it was still the Taizu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang.

That's right, this seemingly convenient but insane method was devised by Emperor Hongwu, who truly sympathized with the farmers from the bottom of his heart.

Simply mind-blowing.

Therefore, in the reform of the post station in the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court must take back the power of the post station to exploit the local people, but at the same time it must also afford the normal expenses of the post station.

Then there are two big problems:

The first big problem is that the imperial court is so poor that it almost loses its underpants. So far, Gao Gong is still paying the bills for the Jiajing Dynasty, so how can he afford the expenses of the post station?

The second big trouble is, why does the imperial court pay for the travel expenses of officials at all levels?Oh, you said that everyone is the emperor's courtiers, and of course the emperor must pay for business trips?That's right, but even if you have to be responsible, it stands to reason that the imperial court only needs to be responsible for the travel of officials at the central level. Why should the central finance be responsible for the travel of your local officials?How much is the tax paid to the center by your local government?At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang kept all the tax money that was added together in the local government, and he didn't ask your local government to turn it over to the central government at all!

This situation needs to be compared by Gao Yushi, as if he is an official of a certain township in a certain city, a certain county in a certain southern province, and now he is going to a certain place in the north to study and study. Can he directly ask the Ministry of Finance for reimbursement of his travel expenses?
What a face my friend!
The problem has been clarified and the root cause has been found. What is needed now is to find a solution.

At first glance, this is an endless cycle: the imperial court needs post stations—the imperial court has no money to afford post stations—the imperial court gives privileges to post stations—the post stations exploit local people—officials exploit post stations along the way—the imperial court still needs post stations—the imperial court continues to indulge the post stations Exploiting the people.

In the final analysis, the root cause of this lies in one point: the imperial court really needs a post station.

Among other things, if there is no post station for official document exchanges across the country, all of them will have to be caught blind.That also means that the ruling power of the imperial court has been completely cut off. Is this okay?
Moreover, it assumes the function of transmitting official documents across the country. Even high-practice travellers, who dare not come up with the idea of ​​setting up a private company to handle it—missing the military situation and urgent government affairs, which private person can afford such a responsibility?Not to mention the "legal person" of this private enterprise, if something important is missed, the imperial court may have to dig up the ancestral graves of the [-]th generation. come out.

Well, since the post station is irreplaceable, we can only find a way to meet the funds needed by the post station.

Gao Yushi doesn't know much about modern finance, but he feels that the most fundamental thing about finance is income and expenditure. If the court can support the post, it needs to increase income and reduce expenditure.

To increase income, we can find a way to “exploit” the local people in the previous post station. First, we need to figure out what level of exploitation the post station is for the local people. Collect another tax and pay the account separately. The post station cannot be responsible for it, and it is best not to let the local government be responsible.

Of course, since the local burden is to be reduced, this tax must be lighter than the previous exploitation of the post station, otherwise it will be a waste of work.

However, this also involves an issue of administrative efficiency. If a separate department is set up to be responsible for this matter, it will become an overlapping organization. If it is not overlapping, at least the organization will be bloated, which will also increase expenses.

As for the reduction of expenditure, the most important thing is to eliminate the consumption and extortion of officials at all levels passing through the post station. This is also the main focus of Zhang Juzheng's reform in that year.However, Zhang Juzheng's problem is that he seized the money and refused to allow officials to take it, so officials at all levels are very dissatisfied with this.

Gao Yushi is not a black-and-white cynic, and he will not say nonsense like "you shouldn't have taken this money" - he has taken it for 200 years, and now you say you shouldn't take it, and he will be convinced not to take it ?Even if Confucius came in person, they would not be convinced.

So this money has to be paid back, but the central finance of the imperial court cannot make it up, otherwise it will still be a waste of work, and the local finance can only make up for it-for example, when an official from various places takes office, it can be replaced by the official who took office after the official took office. The local government reimbursed his travel expenses when he took office.

Of course, there must be a strict standard for this travel expense. You can’t tell me how much you spend on the trip, and my local finance will report you the amount. You have to set rules and strictly calculate it according to your grade and the length of the journey.

　Thanks to the book friend "fengjiyue" for the reward, thank you.In addition, I also thank you for your concern about my physical condition. Here is an explanation: These days, I started to catch a cold, probably because the temperature was relatively embarrassing, and I may have kicked the quilt at night.But the cold itself is not serious. The problem is that I have chronic rhinitis. As soon as the rhinitis occurs, I tend to have nasal congestion for a long time, and then because of the nasal congestion... I can't tell whether it is a headache or dizziness. Anyway, I just feel drowsy and don't want to think.Therefore, if there is no major event, it will not be cured, which is very embarrassing.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)