prosperous age

Chapter 683 Chapter 782
"Those who have land pay taxes, and those who don't have no land pay taxes."

Emperor Longqing muttered something, although it seemed reasonable, but soon he found that there seemed to be something unreasonable in Wei Guangde's words.

"Shandai, the state tax and labor, there is a land tax, and the labor is shared on a head-to-head basis.

According to what you said, Ding servants will also fall into the fields. Is it unfair to those who have land? "

Emperor Longqing's words are actually the common standard in this era.

It is true that the land has owners, but their owners pay their talents according to the land, and the slavery is the obligation of the subjects to the court. How can the slavery be passed on to those who have land.

In later generations, although there was no military service, even in the era when Wei Guangde passed through, citizens still had the obligation to serve as soldiers and defend their homes and the country.

"Your Majesty, there is nothing absolutely fair in the world."

Wei Guangde shook his head and said: "The reason why I have this idea is to reduce the financial burden of the landless and small-land farmers. I think they have nothing and can only live under the sojourner and rely on labor to earn money to support their families. Businessmen value profits. Why? how much silver may be given to them.

It is nothing more than just enough to feed a family, and they have to bear taxes and labor to let them live in peace.

If you can't live in peace, you will easily change.

Why do those reckless people raise their arms and respond in groups? Isn’t it just farmers who can’t survive? Rather than starve to death because of lack of money, it’s better to make a scene and survive.

They have no property and no money, and the government will force them to rebel against them by collecting their small taxes, and those who have land don't really care about paying that little money, because they can afford it, and they won't be like those rioters if they drag their families along. "

Seeing that Emperor Longqing was only frowning and thinking, Wei Guangde continued: "Your Majesty, I am only thinking about this matter, there must be many inadequacies, if your Majesty hadn't asked, I would never have dared to say it.

However, I feel that if I, Daming, really realized that all the people in the Ming Dynasty could benefit from the benefits, it would reduce the chaos in the local people by half. "

Hearing Wei Guangde's words, Emperor Longqing rubbed his chin for a while before saying in a deep voice: "Then you have to write a memorial, I will think about it later."

"Your Majesty, it is not appropriate to bring this up."

Wei Guangde said hastily.

"Why?"

Emperor Longqing asked in puzzlement, since Wei Guangde thought it was a good idea, why didn't he want to write it out and leave it to him.

"Your Majesty, the matter of sharing the property into the mu must be determined after the implementation of the one whip method. It should be noted that one of the most important advantages of the one whip method is that it incorporates miscellaneous taxes and labor taxes into the land tax.

It looks similar to a small apartment, but it is not.

At the beginning of the Kingdom, the land was divided according to Dingkou, and the emergence of landless and landless peasants was actually due to the fact that the land was being concentrated from the hands of the peasants to the powerful gentry.

The change of landowners has led to an increase in the flow of population between urban and rural areas, and farmers who are invincible and have little land poured into the county to seek a living.

The amount of Ding is short of Ding and silver is lost, the financial corvee is Ding, the inspection is difficult, and the tax is determined in mu, and the verification is easy.

To implement a whip method, it is necessary to check the field mu and Dingkou, which is the foundation of finance.

What the minister is considering is to abolish the servitude, and the land will be calculated as a tax. Ding follows the land, which needs to be confirmed with a whip method. Only when a financially beneficial method is found can it be implemented. "

Wei Guangde had only heard of the term "Tan Ding Rumu". According to the meaning of the word, it means that the Ding tax was set in the land tax as a custom, but Wei Guangde didn't know exactly how and how much it was set in the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

If there are too many orders, it will undoubtedly increase the burden on the people. If there are less orders, it will lose the court's finances.

After all, the financial situation of the Ming Dynasty has always been bad.

To put it bluntly, the purpose of reform is to collect more money, not to collect less money.

As for some people who think that collecting too much and increasing the burden on the people does not exist, because what you collect is the money of the landlord, that can only be haha.

Other officials may think so, but Wei Guangde doesn't.

Landlords and gentlemen’s method of transferring burdens has long been mastered. If you charge too much, they will dare to play for you.

Therefore, Wei Guangde felt that even if he wanted to spread his income into his mu, he had to go through a whip method first, find out the real situation of the place, and then consider how to do this.

Emperor Longqing also understood. He knew that Wei Guangde's words of "spreading the land into the mu" can only be an idea in the short term, and there will be no specific implementation methods, so he is not in a hurry.

Instead, he felt that Wei Guangde was reliable and safe in his work.

He is using the effect of the implementation of the whip method to check the gains and losses of the court after all the people are allocated to the mu, so as to avoid meaningless court disputes. This is the expression of true loyalty to state affairs.

"That's fine, I'll just wait to see your performance."

Emperor Longqing said casually.

After Wei Guangde bid farewell and withdrew from the Qianqing Palace, he rushed back to the cabinet as soon as possible to inform Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen.

"Your Majesty won't take Li Fang's life, but you want to imprison him for a while to vent your anger?"

After hearing Wei Guangde's words, Yin Shizhen frowned and said.

"Your Majesty didn't say what exactly Li Fang said?"

Chen Yiqin said to Wei Guangde.

"I didn't say it, it seems to be some private matter of His Majesty."

Wei Guangde replied.

Yin Shixuan suddenly said: "Why don't I go to the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice tomorrow."

"Don't."

Wei Guangde hurriedly got up and stopped him: "Your Majesty doesn't want to say it, it must be a very confidential matter.

Although I don't think Li Fang will really do this, it's not important. What's important is that His Majesty thinks he said it. Presumably only they know about it.

If you really ask, it would be unwise to be careful to be accused of spying on the secrets of the palace. "

"Listen to Shan Loan, this matter will stop here, we just need to take care of his daily life in prison."

Chen Yiqin nodded and said, "Speaking of which, now I really doubt that Li Fang really said something that shouldn't be said."

Chen Yiqin's words made Yin Shixuan also start to bow his head to think, but Wei Guangde didn't take it seriously.

If people don't know unless they do nothing, many things that they think are confidential, in fact, they don't know that some inadvertent actions have leaked the secrets.

However, it does not rule out that Li Fang was drunk or said something taboo under what circumstances, who can say for sure.

In the afternoon, Wei Guangde met Ma Sen, Wang Ting and others in the value room, and handed them a copy of the articles of association he drafted. Naturally, it was about the result that Emperor Longqing wanted. , Shixun fixed the quota of [-] hectares.

"I have considered this matter, sooner rather than later."

When they circulated it, Wei Guangde said: "The sooner the dust settles, the court can collect taxes earlier.

If it drags on for a year or a half, it will be the imperial court that will suffer the loss in the end, and part of the land tax that should be handed over by the relatives will be lost.

After all, as long as His Majesty is not satisfied, the matter may be delayed forever. "

When Wei Guangde spoke, several people looked at him, even Wang Ting, who was holding the draft charter in his hand, looked up at him.

"In your Majesty's heart, half is the imperial court, and half is those relatives. Now he agrees to collect taxes from these people because of the imperial court's financial difficulties, but if he thinks about it, he thinks of dragging words."

Wei Guangde didn't say anything, they naturally understood what it meant.

To put it bluntly, the court is the world of civil servants, who help the emperor replace the herdsmen, and the honorary family is the foundation of the stable rule of the royal family, which is more important and easy to distinguish.

Although civil servants are very powerful now, so what, after all, they are floating officials, who are constantly changing people, while honors and relatives are hereditary, which can be passed down from generation to generation, and can enjoy the benefits of the imperial court forever.

Whoever is the most loyal to the emperor will naturally choose honorary relatives rather than civil servants in his heart.

That is to say, Emperor Longqing had not thought of this not long after he ascended the throne. If Emperor Jiajing was in power, he would not even think about collecting taxes from his relatives.

Wei Guangde said this to put pressure on them, but it is also true.

"What Elder Wei Ge said is very true. Although we have a clear conscience in what we do, your majesty will be deceived by traitors after all. I don't know that we are dedicated to serving the country, and there are only more and less left and right. It is better to finalize the regulations first, and then slowly plan. Of."

Ma Sen immediately echoed Wei Guangde's words, but there was also a meaning in his words, that is, what happened today is actually just the beginning, and the household department will find a way to continue collecting money from the relatives.

"Your Majesty is right. Now Shixun's relatives are desperate for extravagance, and the government is not enough for the country. Now that the regulations for tax collection are finalized, your Majesty will be asked to increase the tax when the country is not enough for the country."

Wang Ting also agreed to set a precedent first, and then slowly tighten the rope later.

It's just that the predecessors didn't notice this and dragged this matter until today.

It’s just that the royal court has forgotten that the imperial court’s fiscal deficit actually only appeared occasionally during the Hongzhi and Zhengde dynasties. At that time, the income and expenditure could basically be balanced. The real large-scale deficit was in the middle and late Jiajing period.

At that time, Emperor Jiajing needed Shixun to stabilize the imperial power for him, so how could he allow them to increase taxes.

In fact, the Jiajing Dynasty also tried their best to increase tax revenue, but they encountered an unstoppable emperor and a group of officials who had become popular. So far it's too big.

As for Emperor Longqing, of course he had to worry about the emperor's mood, so he had to pay attention to the timing, when the court wanted to do big things and had no money.

Wei Guangde was actually still sighing in his heart, if he really wanted to collect the money, then according to the court system, the scholar and the honorable money would be collected together, that would be a famous teacher.

Holding the money on his side, he just wants to let Xun Qi pay out. The idea is too beautiful and unrealistic.

Although it is said that scholars have few fields, and only officials and lords have thousands of acres of land, generally famous people have as many as hundreds of fields and as few as tens of acres of land. I can't stand the crowd.

How many people are there, and how many people have benefited from the two large-scale canonizations from Zhu Yuanzhang to Zhu Di.

The imperial examination is different. Every three years there will be a group of people who should pay taxes but not pay taxes. That is the key.

As for the deficit of the imperial court, no one here knows what is going on, the Metropolitan Procuratorate is in charge of those things, it is called Qingliu, but it is really muddy.

However, these sensitive topics are all scholars here, who talk about the way of sages and sages, and only care about governing the country and the country, so naturally they are not interested in those bad things.

When everyone talks about Tian Fu here, naturally they only talk about the people's fat and people's anointing in the hands of Xun Qi, and they will never mess with other people.

The first draft was passed from Wang Ting to Tuntian Yushi. The Yushi quickly flipped through the first draft, but he knew in his heart that what Wei Ge said just now had actually sealed the matter and there could be no changes.

Moreover, it seems that they have already waited for the approval of Hubu Shangshu and Zuodu Yushi Wangting.

Well, the official level crushes people to death.

Although it is said that the censor can hate the sky and the air, but with Wang Ting around, what can he, a little censor, do?

Don't you worry about being put on small shoes in the yamen?

If Mr. Wei Ge worked hard in the Ministry of Officials, Wang Ting turned a blind eye and turned a blind eye, and his little Qipin was let out to be a county magistrate or something if he couldn't say well, then the loss outweighed the gain.

Zhu Yuanzhang actually designed a good system, but he did not expect that in the current Ming Dynasty, the officialdom has long been colluding, and the supervisory power of the Metropolitan Procuratorate has become a tool for official struggles and lost its original meaning.

After reading the charter, what do you say?

The censor of Tuntian is naturally very familiar with the amount of farmland of those relatives. According to this standard, only the few top nobles have suffered more losses, because they all have thousands of acres of farmland.

As for more Hou Ye and Uncle Ye, most of them only exceeded a little bit, and there were even a few who did not reach this amount.

Think about it, let's do it like this, the work in the future is easier to do, and it seems to be good.

The number set by Emperor Longqing was naturally well thought out, fully taking into account the interests of his relatives, and would not cause a violent backlash.

"Old Wei Ge, Ma Shangshu, and Lord Wang, I have no objection from the lower officials."

The people sitting here are all second-rank officials of the imperial court, and he is only a seventh-rank official, so he can only call himself a lower official.

"Well, since everyone has no objection, can the household department send the memorial to the cabinet tomorrow?"

Wei Guangde is very satisfied, everyone is happy, no one has any objections, this is a good thing, the rest is to complete the procedure as soon as possible.

As the first step in the procedure, it is naturally the Ministry of Household Memorial.

"When I return to the Ministry today, I will arrange this matter. It should not delay the matter, Mr. Wang of the Metropolitan Procuratorate."

Mason spoke.

As for the memorial to the first book, it is too simple. Go back and gather the left and right servants, and you can write the memorial directly, sign it with everyone, and send it tomorrow.

However, Ma Sen was a little hesitant about whether the Metropolitan Procuratorate should also sign this memorial.

"If the two adults have nothing to do, you can go to the household department together and sign the memorial."

Emperor Longqing's previous approval was to ask him to convene the household department and the censor of Tuntian to discuss the replay, so it is best for the new memorial to be signed by the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

"As it should be."

The Metropolitan Procuratorate doesn't have many errands on weekdays. The thirteen censors and Tuntian censors actually don't have much to do in the courtyard, but if they are assigned to patrol the city, the affairs are more complicated.

After the matter was settled, Wei Guangde sent them out of the value room, and even though he was busy with these matters today, he didn't even deal with a few memorials.

When Wei Guangde returned home from the yamen, although there were still constant visitors at home at this time, it was not as busy as the first month.

Wei Guangde got off the sedan chair and returned to the mansion, the housekeeper Zhang Ji came over and said: "Master, at noon, Mr. Tan from the Ministry of War and General Qi from the Beijing Camp sent people to post a message saying that we have something to discuss in the evening."

"Then why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Wei Guangde said impatiently.

Zhang Ji should have sent someone to inform him about this kind of thing earlier. If he was delayed by other things and he didn't return home, he would have left him alone.

Although Qi Jiguang is nothing, but Tan Lun's official position is not small, so offending people like this is absolutely unacceptable.

"Today, a Liaodong caravan came over and said they had brought two thousand-year-old wild ginseng. I was in a hurry and forgot about it. Please punish me."

(End of this chapter)