General Constitution of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 214
"Minister Yan Song/Xu Jie, pay homage to Your Majesty."

"The emperor has a decree to bestow a seat as usual."

Huang Jin turned around and walked out of the monastery, leading a group of servants out of the palace.

Just when Xu Jie was about to sit down, he found that Yan Song had already knelt down on the ground.

"The old minister is terrified."

Xu Jie's heart sank, and he immediately fell to his knees, and then Xu Jie saw Huang Jin walking towards the two of them with eight servants carrying two dragon chairs.

Who gave a seat and a dragon chair!

"Eunuch Huang can't do it, can't do it...Your Majesty, my minister is dead, my minister is dead!"

It was only after the two fell to their knees that Jiajing's voice sounded in the monastery.

"Didn't I give the two elders a seat? The two elders sit."

Jiajing walked out slowly from the monastery.

Yan Song's voice already had a slight vibrato.

"Old, the old minister is terrified."

Jiajing looked at the two people in front of him with a smile.

"I sent people to move this from Fengtian Palace and Qianqing Palace. The old one is a little old. The two elders can sit together. We will make new ones after a while."

"I dare not."

Jiajing picked up Ning Jue's memorabilia from the imperial case and asked: "Then, is it Ning Jue's intention or the two elders' intention?"

"Very sparse?" Yan Song raised his head in confusion.

Jiajing sat on the dragon chair holding a copper hammer and waved his hand towards Huang Jin.

Only then did Huang Jin put Ning Jue's melody in front of the two of them.

Xu Jie lowered his head and only took a few glances, before the beads of sweat on his forehead fell down.

"Your Majesty! This, I don't know at all!"

Before Xu Jie finished speaking, Yan Song still kowtowed.

"As the chief minister, I failed to detect the danger beforehand, and I am ashamed of my father."

Hearing Yan Song's words, Xu Jie, who had just made a mistake in a panic, finally came to his senses. It wasn't Ning Jue's memorial that the emperor was angry with.

It is because the waterways and piers in the south of the Yangtze River have been silted up like this, why no one has reported it.

Hearing Yan Song's words, Jiajing leaned on the armrest of the dragon chair and let out a long sigh: "The new law in the south of the Yangtze River has so many problems, why no one dares to speak out, if I knew this, I would definitely not implement this new law. "

Why no one dared to give advice?

It may be because they still have family members, or it may be that the nostalgia in this world is too deep, and they don't really want to leave yet.

After secretly murmuring a few words in his heart, Xu Jie's brain gradually calmed down.

"I'd like to report to your father, that Ning Ke has been a spokesman for the Kodao all his life, and he made false statements about the strategy of governing the country, which should not be true."

Xu Jie played Tai Chi subconsciously and took the initiative to talk about Ning Jue's problem.

"Ning Ke is covered in iron in the end, how many nails can he drive? Jiangnan is only a year and a half faster than the rest of the world. When the whole world is like this next year, how will the court depose him?!" Jiajing said Feeling a little annoyed, Xu Jie quickly lowered his head.

Is it up to you to take what Ning Jue said to be true?The problem is what to do with the problem Ning Jue said!

Yan Song pondered for a long time before speaking.

"Qizou Your Majesty, since Emperor Taizu Gao, the system of the former Song Dynasty has been abolished and the taxation of merchants has been brought in. The old minister believes that merchants who want to use waterways and wharves should also take money from their servants and use it for servants. There is still internal money. Expenses, imitating the system of the former Song Dynasty, adding internal prisons..."

As he said this, Yan Song's confidence gradually weakened.

This pre-Song system is obviously not so easy to imitate.

In the Song Dynasty it was one tithe, but in the Ming Dynasty it was one thirty. This is not really important.

The important tax rate refers to the customs clearance. There are 11 customs offices in the whole country of Ming Dynasty.

In the former Song Dynasty, there were more than 2000 tax customs at the peak, and even when there were only half of the country after the Nandu, there were still more than [-] tax customs.

This is a tax. In addition, the commercial tax of the Song and Ming Dynasties also includes the residential tax, that is, the official store money collected by the official store opened by the imperial court, the house collapse fee and the store. The imperial store is actually an idea of ​​commercial taxation, but in the Ming Dynasty, only 33 counties attached to Guofu City had official stores, and in the Song Dynasty, more than [-] counties had official stores.

But even so, this is only a small part of Song Dynasty's business tax.

The biggest source of commercial taxation in the former Song Dynasty was the prohibition system.

That is to say, almost all the commodities in circulation on the market are all based on salt and iron, and the imperial court uniformly purchases them from craftsmen, and then sells them to merchants, and the government takes advantage of the price difference.

Although this system has created a source of income for the imperial court, in fact the cost has been transferred to the common people by the merchants.

Therefore, the horse market in the Song Dynasty was called the market, and the horse market in the Ming Dynasty was called the horse market.

It was not without reason that Zhu Yuanzhang abolished this prohibition system, because Lao Zhu was harmed by this prohibition system back then.

Before Yan Song could finish speaking, Jiajing looked at Yan Song and said, "Then according to Yan Ge's opinion, which province should I put the students in the internal prison first?"

Productivity is locked here, tax collection costs are placed here, and it is far from enough to eunuch a province's students.

Not only must there be eunuchs, but also a large number of subordinate officials. A considerable part of the reason for the redundant officials and redundant expenses in the former Song Dynasty is because of this complex business tax collection system.

Yan Song hurriedly said: "Old minister Meng Lang."

"Then... tax coverage?" Xu Jie looked at Jiajing cautiously, but before Jiajing could speak, Yan Song directly rejected it.

"The method of merchant bagging. The reason why the Yuan Dynasty was destroyed before was that even if the imperial court carried out the baggage expedition, I am afraid no one would dare to bag it."

The tax collection system is also a variant of the buy-and-pull system in the Song Dynasty, that is, the tax revenue of the imperial court is subsidized to the merchants. In this way, the imperial court is relieved, and the merchants also get their money back, but the people can't stand it.

As a tax collection method that has been implemented in both the East and the West, the results are surprisingly similar.

After the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, there was no trial at all for the merchant Zhu Yuanzhang, and he tried his best to kill those who were not guilty of death, and they were directly classified as lowly.

The bloody lesson is before your eyes, as long as the businessman is not stupid, he will know that this business will harm his children and grandchildren.

As for the fate of Western tax-packing merchants, it is more obvious. Most of the people who are willing to do this kind of wicked and smoky business are the same kind of people.

They call themselves Jewish.

The three monarchs and ministers fell into silence. After a long time, Yan Song spoke hesitantly.

"The old minister is incompetent, but the minister believes that there are many talented scholars in the world, and the support of the imperial court is waiting for this time."

Xu Jie was startled for a moment, and then said without any hesitation: "The minister seconded the proposal."

Jiajing stared at Xu Jie and Yan Song, a trace of hesitation flashed on his face, and then he spoke.

"allow."

Xu Jie and Yan Song successfully passed the ball, but the atmosphere in the hall became more and more chill, so that both Xu and Yan forgot how they got out of the hall that day.

It wasn't until after returning to the value house that Yan Song retreated from the left and right, that he looked at Xu Jie.

"Zisheng, all officials agree, can it be done?"

"Mr. Ge's discussion is more than enough to advance or retreat, and he really seeks to see the country." Xu Jie's expression was calm, but the hand holding the teacup was still trembling slightly.

Quietly checking in, the two of them sat for an unknown how long.

After a long time, Yan Song said with empty eyes, "To this day, you and I are finally on the same boat."

"Elder Yan Ge doesn't have to be too pessimistic, maybe some great sages really disappeared in the court."

"hope so."

Yan Song, Xu Jie, and Jiajing all knew that it would be a happy result if someone in the court could come up with a plan that bests both worlds.

If there is really no solution that has the best of both worlds, this move can also serve as an important reference for the court to test the officials' attitude towards the new law. Even silence is still an attitude.

The matter of commercial taxation was first discussed in the Hanlin Academy and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the General Affairs Department also issued an official letter to all counties, counties, and state governments for discussion.

But since that night, Dongchang has been going back and forth to the Secretary of General Affairs day and night, and kept a copy of the memorials of the state and county magistrates, and the regulations of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Imperial Academy were also transcribed by Dongchang.
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Changes have gradually taken place on the pier in the south of the Yangtze River.

The nearly saturated dock was the first to stop recruiting workers, and then gradually transferred to water-woven cotton and cotton yarn.

"Everyone, my master has ordered that the weaving field does not need so many people for the time being. The notice will be posted again in a few days, and please refer to the new notice when the time comes."

"I have traveled thousands of miles to Huating, why don't you need so many people suddenly? Why did you bother to go?!"

The guy who was scolded head on was also full of anger.

"Everyone, the conscience of heaven and earth, it's not our master who tied you all here, but you came here by yourself. Is there such a reason in the world? When you come, the master has to want you?"

"Then we have to find a way to survive. We don't even have the money to go home."

"Can't you guys go and see other houses? There are many weaving farms in the south of the Yangtze River. If it is really impossible, you can go to the dock. If you have a lot of strength, you can't find a way to survive wherever you go."

The folks in the weaving field are calm and breezy.

It's just that when these laborers poured into the dock, they found in despair that these businessmen seemed to have negotiated, and all of them stopped recruiting workers.

On the dock, a group of laborers were even blasted out.

Just above a restaurant in Liujiagang.

Ruan Bi held the teacup and carefully looked at the laborers who gathered outside the pier every day.

"Liangchen, I guess that's about it. Can the court really care?"

Ruan Bi blew away the tea stem lightly, and then smiled lightly, "That's almost it? Where is this going? Isn't the official document of the imperial court's expansion of the wharf not yet available?"

"Put up a notice. From now on, we will no longer recruit long-term workers, and instead recruit odd jobs. Ten cents a day."

"This... the people who went out of Gangge, aren't we recruiting them again?"

Ruan Bi lightly put down the teacup and said with a smile: "But ten yuan a day is much cheaper. Long-term workers are doing it, so shouldn't they be doing odd jobs? A little bit of manual work."

"Wonderful, after recruiting part-time workers, we can send out a batch of long-term workers."

Ruan Bi took a sip of tea and said, "I never said that, it's all because of your brilliant minds."

That night, new notices were posted at many docks.

However, when the tenant farmers holding on to their last glimmer of hope heard the wages, silence returned to the dark dock.

(End of this chapter)