Daming heir

this day.

The governor-general of Zhili in the Ming Dynasty entered the palace during the day and did not leave the palace in a hurry until sunset and the palace door was locked.

Those who are interested can naturally notice this.

On the eve of the chaos that was about to break out in the 18th Mansion of Zhili Province, Zou Xueyu, the Governor-General of Zhili Province in charge of the 18th Mansion, did not deal with the upcoming chaos in the yamen, but entered the palace without any cover-up.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Zou Xueyu was probably trying to communicate with the palace, and even gained the support of the nobles in the palace.

Judging from the time he spent in and out of the palace, Zou Xueyu gained a lot from this trip.

Everyone began to look forward to how Zou Xueyu, the first local leader in the Ming Dynasty to take charge of an entire place by one person, would face the situation in the 18th Prefecture of Zhili, and what the outcome would be.

And among the many palace gates is the inner court of the imperial city.

The moonlight was rising, and a slight chill passed by.

Zhu Yunxi, however, only wore a long gown and walked among the corridors.

Innovation has no rules. It has always been about assessing the situation and taking advantage of it.

The Hongwu New Deal implemented by the imperial court for more than a year has lost its initial momentum. This is bound to happen.

If you push it forward without explanation, it will only ignite all the resentments that have been accumulated before.

Only by trying new systems, finding new productive forces, and developing new production relations can we continue to achieve the results we have achieved previously.

"Aren't you afraid of cold air entering your body?"

Zhu Gaochi's figure walked out of the shadow in the distance, put his hands in his sleeves together, and walked silently to Zhu Yunxi.

Zhu Yunxi sniffed: "I do feel a little cold. I didn't feel it before I went out."

Taking advantage of the situation, he lowered his head and looked at the cloak placed between Xiaopang's hands.

Zhu Gaochi shook his head helplessly, handed over the cloak, and then whispered: "Zou Xueyu was secretly watched in 27 places when he left the palace."

"It seems that there are still many people who want to return to the life of waiting for the noble master before Hongwu 24 years ago." Zhu Yunxi's eyes were dark, but his face was a bit colder.

It also makes people feel that the temperature in the night is getting colder.

Zhu Gaochi nodded: "The military is so powerful that no one dares to openly oppose it. But Zou Xueyu, the Governor-General of Zhili Province, no matter how high his official position is and how powerful his hands are, he is only a minister of the Ming Dynasty after all. His position in Zhili Road If he doesn't sit well, those people will definitely use him as an outlet, and in the end they will have to destroy him if they can't."

A sneer appeared on Zhu Yunxi's face: "I gave Zou Xueyu a knife today in exchange for ten taels of silver. I think he should be able to use that knife well."

"Which knife?"

Zhu Gaochi asked curiously.

Zhu Yunxi said in a low voice: "Change the physical objects of tax collection in the Ming Dynasty to silver coins, and change the regular servants, equal corvees, and miscellaneous servants into hired servants. Clear the land, unify taxes and levies, collect silver per mu, and collect officials and officials."

He spoke briefly.

But Zhu Gaochi frowned, his face lost in thought.

Zhu Yunxi didn't feel sleepy, so he sat on the railing nearby with his cloak closed.

The taxation and corvée systems of the Ming Dynasty were complex and changeable, and even the officials of the Ministry of Household took office at the beginning, and it took a long time to master them.

If there are no experienced and experienced officials in the yamen to do things in detail, no matter how smart ordinary people are, they will not be able to find out the key points.

Let’s first talk about taxes in the Ming Dynasty, which are divided into summer and autumn taxes.Under the two taxes, there are various categories such as grain, cotton, and silk.

And the corvee was even more complicated.

For matters decided directly by the imperial court, the people had to pay corvee.If the toilet in a government official's house is clogged, the people still have to come and clean it out.It was not uncommon to turn the emperor's people into one family's private use.

Under such systems, the people have become lambs to be slaughtered, fish and meat on the chopping board, ready to be slaughtered.

A whip method is straightforward.

All taxes are calculated in silver currency and collected and delivered by the government.When the government needs people to work, it also needs to provide wages accordingly in order to hire people.

The local government will no longer have the opportunity to engage in the so-called fight between the government and the people. It is even more impossible for the government to recruit ordinary people to work for nothing even if the toilet in the master's house is clogged.

Zhu Gaochi thought for a long time, and his head nodded involuntarily.

"This matter of farmers entering acres has been going on for a long time. The court has added millions of hectares of taxed land over the years, which shows how cruel the local government is in squeezing the people. At this time, there are farmers in front of the people to eliminate corvee labor. It’s the right time to count the acres and collect silver.”

The latest account book of the amount of acres in the Ming Dynasty is kept on file in the Ministry of Household Affairs, in the pen holder of the cabinet, and on the island in the middle of Xuanwu Lake.In addition to these three places, the tax office also stored a copy.

Zhu Gaochi, as the head of the tax department, knows exactly how much wealth the Ming Dynasty has today.

just.

After confirming the whipping method first proposed by Zhu Yunxi, Zhu Gaochi showed hesitation.

"Most of the methods people come up with are good at first." Zhu Gaochi spoke softly, staring at Zhu Yunxi who was sitting on the railing: "It is best to work up and down, but most of the time, people below can always get through. Loophole. If the imperial court wants to implement a whipping method, the people will inevitably sell their grain for money.

The Ming Dynasty now controls the four roads of Yingzhou, and its gold and silver production increases every year.The barbarian merchants in Europe had constant exchanges, and the number of barbarian merchant ships was increasing day by day, clogging the waterways, and the treasury's monetary income was stable.Previously, officials such as Jiaozhi Road and Champa City Road had also reported to the court that local mineral deposits had been discovered and could be mined at a selected date.

There is no shortage of gold and silver in the Ming Dynasty, but when the people sell grain in exchange for money, they must go through private merchants. If the merchants are greedy and raise the price of silver, the people will still be poor.

It is certainly a good idea to hire corvees at government expense.But after all, the place is far away from the court, so it is inevitable that some people will dare to deceive, and if corvees are still added in private, the people will still suffer. "

once.

In Prince Yan's Mansion in Beiping City, Zhu Gaochi felt that he was a smart man and felt that as long as he was given a chance, he could do great things that benefit all people.

But when he went south to the capital and took office as the head of the tax department, he saw many realities that he had never understood before.

Why do people like him choose to acquiesce in the increase in the number of tax soldiers in the tax bureau? When the tax soldiers collect taxes, money and food in the local area, they will severely punish those who dare to resist and deceive.

It is because he knows that the reality is so cruel. If the court does not take action, the local people will only have an even more difficult life.

Murder is invisible.

Whenever there are people somewhere who have offended someone.

There is no need to pay to hire thugs or anything like that. All you need to do is inform the local grain chief, and the numerous corvee services from the court and government can kill a family.

Even if everyone is dead, if others ask about it, they can't find any fault with the procedure.

Zhu Yunxi just smiled.

But it made Zhu Gaochi feel a chill down his back.

He suddenly subconsciously tried to test: "You don't want me to make up for these loopholes, do you?"

……

No one knows for the time being what responsibilities have been imposed on the Crown Prince of Yan and Zhu Gaochi, the head of the Ming Dynasty Taxation Bureau.

But the people who were watching finally waited for the back-up plan of Zhili Governor's Yamen.

Daybreak.

Zou Xueyu, who had been sleepless at home all night, entered the Governor's Yamen in high spirits with several thick notebooks under his arms.Most of the officials appointed to the governor's office are new officials to the court in the past two years, especially those who are from Xinxue.

The yamen was newly established and the officials were also newly recruited.

The entire Governor's Office is like a wild mountain in late spring, full of vitality and high spirits.

Follow Zou Xueyu to the Yamen Dianmao.

The entire Governor's Yamen also began to officially operate.

Some brave people ignored the officers and soldiers guarding the yamen gate and listened to a burst of noise in the governor's yamen, and then fell into silence.

At last.

Then I saw countless officials from the Governor's Yamen rushing out of the Yamen.

The war horses tied to both sides of the Yamen left one by one.

The Governor's Yamen is about to take action again!
The people watching outside felt a thump in their hearts.

The news spread about half an hour later.

The Yamen of the Governor-General of Zhili in the Ming Dynasty issued an official document stating that starting from today, all the registered subjects in the 18th Prefecture of Zhili Road must collect money based on the number of acres of land to combine the previous summer and autumn taxes.All corvées were banned, and people were hired to work at government expense.

From now on, for the summer and autumn taxes, the people will first convert the money into money, then submit it to the local tax division of the tax bureau, return it to Beijing, and deposit it into the bank of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

This official document signed by Zou Xueyu and promulgated by the Governor's Yamen quickly spread throughout the country.

Ever since the imperial court implemented the taxation system, and with the establishment of tax bureaus, local governments have long lost the power to directly intervene in local taxation.All local taxes on merchants and citizens are collected by tax offices with tax soldiers.

But changing the original physical objects to collecting money per mu was something that no one had ever thought of before.

Those local officials who could still rely on delivering taxes and supplies to the tax office to enter the capital have completely lost their last bit of profit.

For a time, there were a lot of complaints in every government office.

Especially those officials, whose salaries are not high to begin with, and they used to rely solely on these people to get by.Now that the bans have been stopped one by one, the officials who were originally planning to go on strike against the governor-general's office in order to cooperate with the government officials have begun to spontaneously gather to fight against Zou Xueyu, the governor-general.

Even the yamen officials who had originally planned to sit and watch began to become unable to sit still.

Zou Xueyu directly stopped the common people's corvee service in Zhili Road. From then on, the government paid to hire people to work.

This will allow them to exploit the people in the future and work for free for their own private affairs.

For a time, the entire Zhili Taoist officials were full of complaints against the Zhili Governor's Yamen and the Zhili Governor-General Zou Xueyu.

If he hadn't been frightened by the king's law, I'm afraid the door panel of Zou Xueyu's house would have been covered with feces and farts.

The common people are doing nothing.

Handing over food is a handover, handing over money is a handover, but it's just a little more troublesome.

He no longer had to work for the government for nothing, and he was even more happy to call Zou Xueyu the great master of Qingtian.

The simple people of the Central Plains would never have thought that they might be exploited even if they paid money.And the character of local officials is definitely not something to be trusted.

Soon, someone discovered this.

"According to Zou Xueyu, from now on, the taxes of the 18 prefectures of Zhili Province will be converted into money and levied. I would like to ask you, where do the people get the money?"

It's still Suzhou Prefecture, but it's not on the Lion Rock.

Instead, it was in a courtyard near Taihu Lake in the south of the city.

In the courtyard, there was a group of businessmen from various places who were making a living in Suzhou City.

One of them spoke first, full of energy and excited about his discovery.

Someone then asked: "Of course the people have no money, but it's just like this, what else do we have..."

The man finally reacted, closed his mouth, and his eyes shone brightly.

"Yes! Although the people don't have money in their hands, we do! Who among us doesn't have a lot of money in our hands that can't be spent, and it's almost rotting when it's piled up at home!" A man with a fat head and big ears, wearing illegal clothes The silk merchant slapped his hands on the table and shouted.

"The people have food, we have money, and the court has to collect taxes. Then the people can only come to me with the food to sell it. Isn't it up to me to decide how much the silver will cost and how much the food will cost?"

The person who was the first to discover the loophole in the scheme to collect money from his parents let out a burst of triumphant laughter.

Someone suddenly stood up, and under the gaze of everyone, he had already made a gesture of leaving.

"This year's autumn grain harvest is about to begin! Everyone, I'll take my leave now!"

After that, the man ignored the surprised looks of the people present and left.

After a while, everyone here finally reacted.

According to the Governor's Office of Zhili, from now on we must switch to the method of levying silver per acre.The autumn grain that has not yet started to be harvested this year is naturally included in it.

That man clearly went home to raise money so that he could go downstairs to buy food first!

Make a profit on the price of silver, and another profit on the price of grain.

Everyone has vaguely realized that in the future, this grain business may be better than the salt merchant business in Lianghuai.

The figure of the first person had long since disappeared.

The remaining people could no longer walk.

At this time, raising money a quarter of an hour late will result in countless losses of money.

In just the blink of an eye, even the owner of this place disappeared.

Everyone rushed out in a rush, hoping to seize the opportunity and raise more cash to go to the countryside to buy food from the people.

Just a few days.

Following the official document from the Governor's Office of Zhili, the entire 18th Prefecture of Zhili Province fell into an inexplicable madness for grabbing money.

A whipping method that later extended the Ming Dynasty's life for nearly a hundred years appeared and was implemented 200 years in advance.

No one knows what the final result of such a change will be.

But now, the two sides are locked in a competition.

Yingtian City.

Above the Chaoyang Gate gate directly opposite Hongwu Gate in the Imperial City.

Zhu Yunxi, dressed in a sash, climbed up to the tower early in the morning to face the rising sun.

Around him, many officials such as Xia Yuanji, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, Zou Xueyu, the Governor-General of Zhili Province, Zhu Gaochi, the Chief of the Taxation Department, and Jiang Wei, the commander of the Jinyiwei, gathered here.In the corner, Sun Gou'er, the chief steward of the 24th Inner Court Yamen who was supposed to be in the palace, was also standing there silently.

With a smile on his face, Zhu Yunxi looked at Juechen riding on the official road outside the city, rushing towards Yingtian City.

He spoke slowly: "Everything is almost ready, so let's start taking action now."