Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1853 East Exercise ([-])

Before formally meeting Zhao Chuyan and his party, Wang Guodong of North Korea, Huang Hanhua returned to his office and spent a day dealing with some long-standing government affairs.

Most of the government affairs are the feedback on the tax situation in various places, including the tax collection situation, the objections of the people on this, and some problems exposed in the collection process.Logically speaking, he should not be in charge of these things, or not all of them should be in charge of him, but the director and deputy director of the General Administration of Taxation are both old people in their 70s. He is responsible for signing signatures, distributing benefits and bonuses, and basically leaving the daily work to the director below.And because Wang Yan, the executive committee member in charge of finance, finance, and taxation, attached great importance to Huang Hanhua, he took over more than [-]% of the government affairs here, and also served as a tax inspector. He was really busy, but look He seems to be enjoying it, after all, power makes people intoxicated!

Huang Hanhua carefully read these documents and reports, and carefully attached his own handling opinions one by one.For some of the more important ones, he thought for a long time, then pasted a note, wrote a note full of hundreds of words, and circled the key points so that his superiors or colleagues could review them.

The General Administration of Taxation is currently a unit under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance, but it is likely to become independent after a while. The State Administration of Taxation will be established to work independently without being disciplined by the "mother-in-law" of the Ministry of Finance. It can be said to have a bright future.However, once the tax office is upgraded to the State Administration of Taxation, I am afraid that many people will be targeted. Therefore, Huang Hanhua intends to take advantage of this tax reform to do more practical things and produce a beautiful report card. Before the upgrade and restructuring, he successfully took over the position of a 75-year-old deputy director, and then he was promoted to deputy director general.Otherwise, once the unit restructuring is completed, the position of deputy director general will be much more dazzling, and the competition will be fiercer out of thin air. Huang Hanhua doesn't want to compete with many gods and monsters with a lot of background.

"Sort these documents into categories, seal them in file bags, and send them to several directors for review." After ringing the bell to call the secretary in, Huang Hanhua put a large stack of documents on the corner of the table, and said, "I heard that there are members of the parliament Criticize our local tax police for violent law enforcement, and the means are too 'cruel'?"

"There is such a saying." The secretary nodded and reported in a low voice: "It's mainly Senator Menghu and a few old ladies who say that our tax police are brutal and barbaric, and they don't look like state officials. They drink and play mahjong when they have nothing to do. When you collect taxes, you look like a bandit. Be careful of your image. It is wrong for those people not to pay taxes, but they should not be treated so roughly. This will only have a negative impact on the image of the country. The extra tax may not be able to It makes up for it."

"Don't worry about them. Just listen to what they say. Be polite and don't confront them." Huang Hanhua waved his hand indifferently and said.

What a joke, don't look at how hard it is to collect taxes now!In the early years, the government had high prestige, the police and secret agents were rampant, the people were trembling, and there were many grassroots cadres who were veterans who were accustomed to carrying out orders, so the tax collection efficiency was very high.But now it has been more than [-] years since the founding of the country, and there have been two generations at the grassroots level. Although a lot of sand has been mixed in (new immigrants and non-nationals), the relationship between localities is still inevitably complicated. A tangled relationship.Many grassroots officials who were quite vigorous in the early years have been working for so many years now, and they have long since lost their vitality. They no longer have the vigorous and resolute work style of the past. He also colluded with some villagers and tried every means to pass it on to outside households, which caused many civil disputes.

Therefore, in the face of the current situation where grassroots executive power is slowly decreasing, the East Bank government has to passively start some reform measures.For the "money bag" issue that they pay special attention to, drastic reforms have been carried out. The establishment of tax police offices in various places, the increase of tax officials, and the emergence of tax police camps all reflect this idea, that is, they have already I don't trust the self-consciousness of grassroots rural officials anymore, and start to use other means to safeguard the interests of the ruling class.

Therefore, some "Holy Mothers" in the Founders' Parliament (formerly the National People's Congress) made some incomprehensible remarks. Huang Hanhua didn't care much, because in his opinion, this did not represent the mainstream. Large taxation efforts are still supportive.After all, the people on the east coast are tough, and there are no "capable" tax police officers in the local area, and they can't collect a lot of money just by talking about it.

"Member Hu's remarks did not get the support of the majority of people, even his son Meng Xiaohu did not support him very much. He believed that taxes should be collected from the people and used by the people. Now we must not give up eating because of choking, because further promotion of primary education, improvement of medical and health conditions, and construction of various infrastructures still need a lot of tax support." The secretary replied: "By the way, the director, the Ministry hastened to allocate a sum of money. The money of 10 yuan passed, and I heard that they were going to remit it to the Qingdao County Health Bureau in order to build a hospital there. The name seems to be Qingdao Memorial Hospital. This matter was raised by Ping'an County. It is said that when their county held a political consultation meeting at the beginning of the year, more than half of the representatives from all walks of life demanded that their county is one of the best cities in the country, and that there must be top hospitals. Even if the government agrees to build For Qingdao Memorial Hospital, all representatives of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference are willing to donate 5 yuan. The Ministry of Health saw someone donating money, so it made a decision."

"The Ministry of Health is also here to fight the autumn wind!" Huang Hanhua's mood suddenly became irritable, and he said helplessly: "Look, look, all the criticisms and notoriety are all borne by the tax office. Then the recovered tax money went to various places before it was warmed up. Moreover, the big men of the Ministry of Finance are also funny. The budget for the next year prepared at the end of each year is like farting, adding projects and investment at will. , so that they overspend every year, eat more than enough food, and borrow money to survive, is it plausible! In the end, there is no money to use, and it is really deceitful to put pressure on our tax office."

The secretary adjusted his glasses expressionlessly, not knowing what to say.Fortunately, there are no outsiders here, and there is no need for others to hear what he said. Huang Hanhua's shocking words will not have any bad influence on him. After seeing that he was almost venting, the secretary changed the subject in time, and only heard him say: "Director, don't forget that Zhao Chuyan, the envoy of the Kingdom of Korea, will visit you tomorrow morning, and you may need to give them a lecture at that time."

"Okay, I see. These North Koreans have been here for several months, and they don't know what they are doing." Huang Hanhua said after unpacking a pack of cigarettes and lighting one.

It is said that the mission of the Kingdom of Korea arrived at Ui Sung Port early last year and attended the inauguration ceremony of Ui Sung Iron Works.Later, because Zhao Chuyan, the leader of the mission and Dongxing envoy, accidentally contracted an illness, he was taken care of for two or three months, during which everyone had to stay in the local area to wait.

After Zhao Chuyan recovered, he and the mission continued westward on the "Hyeonjong the Great" armed transport ship. During the middle, they encountered bad weather off the coast of Cape Town. The ship was greatly damaged and had to be repaired in the port. This back and forth wasted a lot of time.

In late July, the "Hyeonjong the Great" left the free port of Cape Town, went northward along the Benguela cold current, passed through the Portuguese Angola colony and New Courland, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and arrived at Jiaohe at the northern end of the east coast in September. port.Here, they repaired and disembarked the ship again, and at the same time sold some goods brought from North Korea and other countries along the way to raise funds, which was also hard work.

The "Hyeonjong the Great" finally arrived at Dongfang Port, the capital of the east coast, at the end of October, and was warmly welcomed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China on the East Coast.Li Qing, a member of the executive committee in charge of diplomacy and foreign trade, expressed surprise and appreciation for their coming to the east bank from thousands of miles away, and encouraged them to walk more on the east bank, see more, broaden their horizons, and get to know different people thing.

To be honest, Zhao Chuyan is relatively open-minded among the North Korean two classes, and has an "international perspective", otherwise the North Korean monarchs and ministers would not have discussed letting him serve as Dongxing.It's just that his kind of enlightenment now seems to be more enlightened and knowledgeable among the conservative ministers who have learned Cheng Zhu Neo Confucianism, but when they go abroad, this so-called knowledge seems very It's a bit ridiculous, and it makes people lament the conservatism and backwardness of North Korea-it's not unreasonable for later generations of foreigners to call this country a "hermit country".

And when Huang Hanhua and the secretary were talking about the mission of the Kingdom of Korea in the office of the Taxation Office, at the age of 20, he passed the entrance examination for middle school students (students in the Korean imperial examination, with a higher status), liberal arts and first degree, and successively served as the deputy official of Quan Zhicheng Wenyuan. Zhao Chuyan, who is in important positions such as inspector of the Art and Literature Museum, Li Cao Zuorang, etc., is also chatting with his entourage in the room of the state-run Dongfang Hotel.

It has been several months since I came to the east bank, and Zhao Chuyan’s original arrogance due to his extensive knowledge of Confucian classics has dissipated most of it, but it seems that he is embarrassed by the superior country on the east bank—in fact, the suzerain country, and the kings and ministers of North Korea Acknowledging—somewhat dissatisfied with the strange status quo.

For example, Zhao Chuyan was full of expectations when he heard that the name of Shangguo had the word "Huaxia" in it, but after walking around, he no longer admits that the East Bank is "Zhonghua" in his heart, and wrote it all in his In the accompanying record.

In his view, although the East Coast Kingdom has sharp soldiers and unparalleled wealth, it lacks in "propriety" when interacting with people and "virtue" when interacting with foreign countries. It is very utilitarian. I'm not used to it.For example, due to insufficient travel funds, the North Korean mission carried many commodities including high-grade furs, medicinal materials and other North Korean specialties on board, and purchased some Southeast Asian, Indian or East African specialties along the way, and brought them to the east coast for sale. .In the various ports where their ships had docked, the merchants on the east coast were always vying for their pennies, and they almost didn't let them take advantage of it, which made Zhao Chuyan feel very unhappy.

After arriving in the capital on the east coast, they first gave many special products including bear fur, sea otter fur, mink fur, brocade, whole ginseng and the four treasures of the study to the officials of the foreign affairs department on the east coast as state gifts.As a gift in return, although the goods provided by the people on the east coast were also very good, in terms of value, they were not as good as North Korea's, which made Zhao Chuyan even more angry.

He still remembered that when some people from the middle school went to Beijing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, although they would be extorted by the soldiers of the Liaodong General Army on the way, it was like returning home after entering the capital. Send people to accompany them to wander around, and sometimes participate in some royal ceremonies, and get countless rewards.More importantly, the so-called national gifts such as folding fans, hats, paper, and inkstones presented by the Koreans (in fact, they are all worthless things, which shows the small family spirit of the Korean monarchs and ministers), can always be exchanged for dozens or even hundreds of times. It often makes a group of people on missions laugh from ear to ear—the only few occasions when they get less gifts in return will not make them lose money. It can be said that Koreans like to go to Beijing very much. For example, Emperor Wanli It's an ordinary birthday (12th birthday) and I have to send a mission, so there's no one left.

Therefore, from this point of view, Zhao Chuyan felt that the East Coast Kingdom was not grand enough, and that "propriety" was not good enough.If you look at the fact that they don't read the books of sages and don't respect famous teachers, this Eastern Kingdom is obviously not China.In Zhao Chuyan's mind, only the Daming who rescued them from the Japanese pirates was qualified to be called Huaxia and Zhonghua. The Korean Kingdom with a set value system is "Little China".Countries such as the East Coast Country, the Netherlands Country, and the Frangipani Country, although they have strong ships and powerful guns and are rich, they are indeed barbarians. Naturally, the morality of the country is low, and the people are naturally insane.In this regard, North Korea, a small China, still has an advantage!This is Zhao Chuyan's view that has become more and more firm recently.

"Flying around all day long, chasing money and profit, taking pride in strange skills and ingenuity, ignorant of propriety, righteousness and shame. If things go on like this, how can they be vigilant? So far, I know that people in the Eastern Dynasty are not good at learning." This is Zhao Chuyan. The paragraph written in the previous report should be able to reflect his current state of mind very well.Although he is more enlightened, it does not mean that he recognizes everything about people from the east bank. Speaking of which, Zhao Chuyan is not even as enlightened as scholars such as Li Zhi in the late Ming Dynasty and Sanyuan from Hubei. What do you think, Zhao's enlightenment is just a general among dwarfs, and I don't know how much he can gain when his trip is over.

(End of this chapter)