The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 364 Gift giving is a big science

Because the military expenditure was not enough, the court wanted to collect payment again.

At that time, the number reported in the court meeting was not too much.

Xuanfu, Datong, Shanxi, Jizhou and other places need to collect 200 million taels,

Liaodong needs to collect 300 million taels, and Dongjiang Town in Phi Island needs 20 taels.

The whole country adds up to more than 500 million taxes.

That sounds like a lot, but it really isn't.

For example, in the fourth year of Chongzhen (1631), the imperial court sent 667 million taels of silver, which was more than this time.

At that time, the field tax was increased from nine per cent to one cent and two per cent (0.012 taels), and more than 667 million taels of silver were distributed. 522 taels.

When Chongzhen had the highest salary in the Liao Dynasty in four years, it was 667 million taels a year; apportioned on each mu of land, an extra 0.012 taels of silver was collected per mu of land, an increase of 1.2%.Converted according to the price at that time, it is equivalent to paying an extra 3 catties of rice per mu.

Four years after Chongzhen, although the Ming court had reached its final madness, the three salaries were all calculated, and it was only three cents of silver (0.03 taels of silver) distributed on each mu of land.

According to the prices at that time, this amount of money could buy at most five or six catties of rice.Although the grain output was low at that time, it stands to reason that the extra tax of five or six catties of rice per mu of land would not make it difficult for the common people to live.The problem is that at that time, he was able to make it difficult for ordinary people to live, and the reason was the person who implemented the policy.

One mu of land originally only needed to pay 0.012 taels of silver, so why did it become ten taels of silver in the end?The reason is very simple, nothing more than because, in the process of collecting taxes, the officials who dealt with them did not follow the imperial court's policy.

Rich and powerful people can find ways to avoid this kind of taxation, and in the end the relevant taxes all fall on the bottom people.More importantly, there are still vested interests who took the opportunity to make a fortune.

The final result was that the imperial court only charged an extra 0.009 taels of silver (9% of silver) to one mu of land at first, and later increased it to 0.012 taels of silver (one cent of two cents), and at most it was only 0.03 taels of silver.

However, when it comes to the common people, it may be multiplied ten times (to become 0.12 taels of silver), or even a hundred times (to become 1.2 taels of silver), or even hundreds of times (to become several taels of silver).

Against this background, a strange thing finally appeared, "one mu of civilian land is worth seven or eight taels of silver, and the payment is as high as ten taels."In other words, the value of buying an acre of land is only seven or eight taels of silver, while planting an acre of land requires paying a tax of ten taels of silver.Slowly, fewer and fewer people are farming, the fields are barren, and more and more refugees.

Someone obviously knew the truth and persuaded the court to be cautious about collecting wages.

But an official from the Ministry of Household Affairs told Chongzhen that we only collect 0.03 taels of silver per mu of land, which is enough to buy a few catties of rice, and a few extra catties of rice per mu of land.

When Chongzhen heard it, it made sense. It sounds like millions of dollars will be expropriated, and only a few catties of rice will be allocated to each mu of land. This must be expropriated. Chongzhen wants to levy more. It's all right.

At this time, Wen Tiren spoke up, saying that Dongjiang Town hoarded land and built a fort, and planted a large amount of fertile land, which should be included in the points for payment.

It means, count how many acres of land Dongjiang has, and then pay.

Chongzhen turned around and asked Luo Yangxing, what happened?

Luo Yangxing immediately said that Lushun, Pidao, and Jinfuzhou had all been hoarded by Ding Yi for a lot of land.

Therefore, the imperial court did not send people to the site for verification. Based on Luo Yanghe and Wen Tiren's words, Dongjiang Township has 30 mu of land, and 0.03 taels per mu will be levied. Dongjiang Town will give 9000 taels of silver to the court every year in the future.

In fact, the imperial court hadn't paid Dongjiang Town for several months at this time, and this time too, the imperial court's military pay was suspended, and Dongjiang Town's field tax would be levied instead.

Zhang Fengyi, Minister of the Ministry of War, was a little bit against it at the time, because Dongjiang Town was regarded as an elite soldier of the imperial court after all, and had won many victories, so doing this now would chill the hearts of the soldiers in Dongjiang Town.

Wen Tiren said again, on the side of the Dongjiang River, he farms by himself, and North Korea also provides food. Mao Wenlong survived the 100 million Liao people back then. Can Ding Yi not support the 10,000+ Liao people now?

As for his military salary, it's not that the imperial court didn't give it to him. Now that the money is scarce, he should give it to Liaodong first, because that is the important town of Ming Dynasty.

All the ministers present nodded their heads, expressing that what Wen Tiren said made sense.

Then Wen Tiren proposed that the imperial court could transfer some generals from the Qianhu Office in Denglai, such as transferring Yang Duan from Baihu to Xiahezhai Qianhu Office.

These words won Chongzhen's heart.

Chongzhen always wanted to transfer Ding Yi's general, but he was afraid that the court and himself would lose face if the other party did not listen.

For example, after Zu Dashou and Yuan Chonghuan were killed, they basically refused to listen to the court's orders.

Now they plan to try it from the level of [-] households.

Thus, Yang Duan received a transfer order to swap with Chen Jimin.

At that time, Ding Yi was marching, and Yang Duan didn't dare not to listen, but after he reported to Xiahe, he went home to recuperate on the grounds that he was unwell, and secretly returned to Haiyang Office.

Chongzhen was furious when he heard the news.

It's okay for Ding Yi to be so domineering, and his generals don't listen to orders. Does he still have the court in his eyes?Is there still Chongzhen?

Yang Duan said that he could not recover from illness. In the eyes of Chongzhen, it was tantamount to resisting the decree, and it was a serious crime that could kill the nine clans.

But at the moment, he can't take Yang Duan's knife.

It's a normal reason for people to go home sick.

Wen Tiren's attempt failed this time, but it made Chongzhen's impression of Ding Yi worse.

But Ding Yi didn't know anything about it. He was really wandering in Japan, and the disaster fell from the sky.

Afterwards, Wen Tiren and Luo Yangxing exchanged affection with each other, they were both very happy.

It turned out that Wen Tiren played Ding Yi like this because he had a good relationship with Luo Yangxing.

It was also with Luo Yangxing's help that he kicked Zhou Yanru out of power and became the chief assistant.

In return, he naturally tried his best to help Luo raise his sex, with the goal of overthrowing Ding Yi.

In addition to helping Luo raise his sex, Wen Tiren also hated Ding Yi in his heart.

Originally, Ding Yi had learned from Gao Qiqian of Wen Tiren's malice towards him. As early as May, he sent people to Beijing to visit Wen Tiren.

The person who did this at the time was Yang Yong.

Yang Yong posted a post at the door, claiming to be Ding Yong, a general of Ding Yi's family, who came to meet Wen Tiren.

On the surface, Wen Tiren is still very clean. As the first assistant, there is no doorman in the family. After knocking on the door, a middle-aged housekeeper appeared.

After he heard the story clearly, he asked Yang Yong to wait outside. After a while, the butler didn't speak to him. After looking at Yang Yong, he slammed the door shut.

It was obvious that Wen Tiren wanted to draw a line with Ding Yi and didn't want to talk to him.

In fact, it was Wen Tiren's vanity. The civil servants in the Ming Dynasty were quite similar to some people now. They wanted to accept gifts, but they couldn't make it too obvious.

If Yang Yong was replaced by Ding Yi to do it himself, most of the things could be done.

If Ding Yi was around, he would either put the banknote directly into the butler's hand, or come over late at night, or wait outside the door until Wen Tiren came out, and then put the banknote in there, regardless of whether he wanted it or not, give it away first.

But Yang Yong used to be the servant of Zhang Cheng, the defense officer of Little Xu Dabao. When he gave Liang Tingdong a gift for the first time, because Liang was very greedy and not hypocritical, he just let him enter the mansion and take the money. I got acquainted with Liang, and felt that Liang was easy to talk to.

After changing to Wen, Wen is a hypocrite, how could he let Yang Yong enter the mansion, of course he had to pretend to be noble on the surface.

Yang Yong was inexperienced. Seeing that Wen refused to let him in, he thought that Wen really didn't want to collect money, so he turned his head and left immediately.

Not long after, Wen Tiren came out and saw that there was no one at the door, so of course his face darkened: "Humph", he felt a grudge against Ding Yi in his heart.

So, gift giving is really a university question.

Sometimes if you don't send it out, you will offend people instead.

(End of this chapter)