Daming under the microscope

Chapter 2 Xueba must die the whole story of the Huizhou silk case

introduction
During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, a civil riot broke out in Huizhou Prefecture.

The scale of this riot was not large, but the movement was not small. It lasted for nearly ten years. Fudu coerced him in.Many interest groups from central to local, from bureaucrats to civilians have their own ideas, attacking, calculating, and compromising with each other.How the Ming court's decisions were made, how local implementation was implemented, how official rules operated, and how interest groups played games, all these are really detailed in this case.

What's interesting is that the cause of the riot this time was neither a natural disaster nor bandits, but traced back to the root cause, it was actually caused by a top student doing math problems.

The first quarter is all the fault of the bully

This story begins with She County under the jurisdiction of Huizhou Prefecture.

Daming is divided into thirteen Chengxuanzhengshisi, and two Zhili, one in the south and one in the north. We can roughly understand them as provinces.

There is a Huizhou prefecture under the jurisdiction of Nanzhili. It has always been outstanding, whether it is officialdom or shopping malls, it is a well-known hometown of cultural and educational prosperity.At that time, Huizhou prefecture governed six counties: She, Yi, Xiuning, Wuyuan, Qimen, and Jixi.Among them, Shexian County is the largest, and it is also Fuguo County—that is to say, the government of Huizhou is located in the county, and it works in the same city as the county government of Shexian County.

The prefecture and county are in the same city, and many documents and files at the prefecture level are naturally stored on the shelf in the county seat, so that they can be retrieved at any time.These papers on tax, food and household registration are very important, related to the rise and fall of a county, but they are super boring, full of various boring numbers.Therefore, they have been shelved for many years and no one cares about them.

In the third year of Longqing (1569), a Shexian native suddenly became interested in these archives.

This man is called Shuai Jiamo, whose name is Yuchen.Strictly speaking, he does not have a registered residence in She County, so he is not considered a local resident, but a military household whose ancestral home is Jiangxia, and belongs to Xin'anwei in Huizhou Prefecture.Military household is a unique household registration in Ming Dynasty. They have been soldiers for generations and belonged to various guards—similar to military divisions—but there is nothing wrong with their background. At this time, there is a big man named Zhang Juzheng in the court, who is also from military households. , a rising political star.

【Note】

Huizhou Prefecture and Xin'anwei: According to the records of "History of Ming Dynasty Geography" and "History of Ming Dynasty Bingzhi", the entire territory management of the Ming Dynasty belonged to two major systems, namely the administrative system of the Six Ministries, the Chief Minister, the Government, and the County , and the military system of the Five Armies Dudufu, Dudu Commander, Wei, and Qianhusuo.In the early Ming Dynasty, Huizhou Prefecture was directly under Zhongshu Province, and later changed to Nanzhili. It had jurisdiction over six counties: She, Yi, Xiuning, Jixi, Qimen, and Wuyuan, and She County was attached to Guo.Xin'anwei is directly attached to the Governor's Mansion of the Chinese Army. Although it is located in the jurisdiction of Huizhou Prefecture, its garrison office is also in She County, but it is not under the jurisdiction of Huizhou Prefecture.

Military households: According to the "Daming Huidian · Household Department", Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, ordered the management of household registration in the world, set up household registration, household registration, record the name, age, residence and other information of the household, the household registration was sent to the common people, and the household registration was handed over The Ministry of Households serves as the basis for verifying household registration and collecting taxes and duties.In the Ming Dynasty, households were divided into military, civilian, medical, artisan, yin and yang, and other types. Except for those who were exempted from official duties, other people had to undertake different official duties. Changes of nationality were not allowed, and the official duties they assumed were also hereditary.Among them, the military households were specific households with hereditary supply of military errands, with heavy burdens and relatively low social status, so Ming people generally felt lucky to leave the military households.Many famous cabinet officials in the Ming Dynasty, such as Li Dongyang, Wan'an, Liu Ji, Liang Chu, Gao Gong, Zhang Juzheng, Ye Xianggao, etc., all came from military households.

Shuai Jiamo's performance in both civil and martial arts is average, and he is doomed to have no hope of official career.He has only one specialty: he is naturally sensitive to numbers, he is good at arithmetic, and he is a mathematician at the top of his class.

It's a pity that in Daming, there are not many fields where this science student can show his talents.The best direction of employment is to be a small official in charge of money and food.And this position requires you to be familiar with the calculation of money, food and taxes, and you need to do a lot of application problems to practice.

At that time, there were no teaching aids and problem sets, and Shuai Jiamo had nowhere to vent his desire to do math problems.Fortunately, this distress did not last long, and he discovered an excellent question bank: She County Jiage Library.

The tax and food account books of Huizhou government over the years are all stored in the warehouse of She County.The tax structure of the Ming Dynasty is very complicated, and Huizhou is also a large taxpayer. The account books involve a lot of addition and subtraction conversion, and book calculation of money and food. This is an excellent application problem example.After honing this skill well, employment will be guaranteed in the future.

So one day in the third year of Longqing, Shuai Jiamo managed to get access to these government account books.A schoolmaster happily started doing math problems like this.

As he was doing it, Shuai Jiamo felt that something was wrong.

With his high sensitivity to numbers, he noticed a suspicious point in Huizhou's taxes over the years: in the taxes and grains that Huizhou Government pays to Nanjing Shipping Depot every year, in addition to the regular tax, there is also a subject called "Ren Ding Si". "Silk" must be paid in kind, and the amount is quite large, 8780 pieces of raw silk are paid every year.

Shuai Jiamo went down to check the accounts of the counties under the Huizhou Prefecture, and found that the Huizhou Prefecture had six counties under its jurisdiction, and the other five counties did not have such an expenditure as "Ren Ding Siju". The equivalent of Nanjing Shipping Depot.

In other words, the annual tax of 8780 pieces of raw silk in Huizhou Prefecture is borne by She County alone.

Shuai Jiamo was astonished, this is not a small number.In order to make sure that he did not make a mistake, he went to look up the "Da Ming Hui Dian" on purpose.

【Note】

"Da Ming Hui Dian": A complete collection of records and regulations compiled by the Ming Dynasty officials.During the Hongzhi, Jiajing and Wanli dynasties of the Ming Dynasty, the Huidian was successively edited, continued and rebuilt.During the reign of Hongzhi, Xu Pu, Liu Jian and others compiled 180 volumes of "Da Ming Hui Dian", which was not promulgated until the death of Emperor Xiaozong.During the reign of Zhengde, Li Dongyang and others were re-edited by the imperial edict and then engraved and promulgated by the supervisor of ceremonies. It is the Zhengde version.The "Hui Dian", which was continued during the Jiajing period, was not published.During the Wanli period, the scholar Shen Shixing and others re-edited the "Hui Dian" into 228 volumes, which became the Wanli edition.Shuai Jiamo in this article should read the Zhengde version of "Da Ming Hui Dian".

"Da Ming Hui Dian" is an official collection of information, which contains the history of laws and regulations, taxation data and administrative regulations of governments at all levels. Since the Hongzhi Dynasty, it will be revised every generation. It can be regarded as a compilation of government decrees, and it is barely It can be used as a yearbook with high authority.

Shuai Jiamo found the same tax payment records under the entry of Huizhou Prefecture in the "Da Ming Hui Dian".More importantly, the "Da Ming Hui Dian" only mentions that Huizhou government is responsible for the "people's silk", and there is no word to indicate that She County alone bears it.

It stands to reason that the tax item of "people's silk" in Huizhou Prefecture should be shared equally among the six counties, so why is it only in She County?Although She County is larger than the other five counties, it can't bully people like this.

Shuai Jiamo thought to himself, this matter is related to the livelihood of the people in a county, so we can't continue to be so confused, we must dig out the truth!
Just like all academic masters, Shuai Jiamo was not surprised but happy when he saw a problem in front of him, and happily continued to dig deeper.In the end, he found a seemingly irrelevant ancient clue in "Huizhou Fuzhi".

【Note】

"Huizhou Fuzhi": There are two existing versions of "Huizhou Fuzhi" in the Ming Dynasty, one is Hongzhi's "Huizhou Fuzhi" edited by Peng Ze, Wang Shunmin and others in 12 volumes, and the other is Jiajing's "Huizhou Fuzhi" edited by Wang Shangning and others "Zhi" 22 volumes.What needs special attention is that Wang Shangning is a native of Shexian County. He was once an official to the Tongyi doctor and the right deputy of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. Shuai Jiamu caused this controversy.

Huizhou was attached to Lord Hongwu very early.After Zhu Yuanzhang became the King of Wu in the 24th year of Yuan Zhizheng (1364), the first thing he implemented in Huizhou was to revise the Yuan tax, which was called "Jiachen Legal System".As a result of the end-of-year inspection, the Xingzhongshu Province found that there was a problem with the figures, so in the 25th year of Zhizheng (1365), a "Yisi reform of subjects" was carried out, and the tax amounts of many subjects were readjusted.

【Note】

Yisi Reform Division: According to the "Huizhou Fuzhi Shihuo Zhi" records, in the first year of Wu (1364), Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang revised the old taxation system of Huizhou Prefecture, and collected the "summer tax raw silk" of the six counties as wheat.In the second year, that is, the Yisi year, when Xingzhongshu Province checked the taxation of Huizhou government, it was found that there was a problem with the increase or decrease of the land tax in the first year of Wu in the government. The amount of land tax for Huizhou Prefecture was changed, and the annual history was called "Yisi Kaike", which specifically pointed out that Shexian County owed the original amount of summer wheat more than 9000 shi.

During this restructuring, the imperial court found that there was a problem with the amount of summer wheat in She County, which was 9700 shi worse than last year. Therefore, the 3646 hectares of lightly rented land in She County were levied an additional four qian per mu of "summer tax for raw silk" in order to Make up for the shortage of summer wheat.

【Note】

Stone: The ancients drilled holes in stones to form concave rows for weighing grain, so "stone" became a unit of capacity, sound (dàn). "Shuo Yuan · Identifying Things" contains: "Ten buckets are one stone".The ancient capacity units are: spoon, combined (gě), liter, bucket, and stone, which are base 10.From "Huainanzi · Miao Chengxun", "a stone is measured by lifting" is a metaphor that it is difficult to speculate on profound truths with superficial understanding.The phrase "Dawn and Twilight" comes from Ming Ling's "Surprise at Two Moments", which is used to describe the hardships of life.In daily life, stone and combination are seldom used because they are too large or too small. People often use Sheng and Dou, so there are sayings such as Shengdou Xiaomin, Rijindoujin, and not bending for five buckets of rice.

This "repayment of summer tax" is too old, and it seems to have nothing to do with "human silk silk".With genius-like intuition, Shuai Jiamo felt that there must be some connection between the two, so he picked up a pen and made a rough calculation.

The 9700 shi of summer wheat supplemented by She County, according to the official conversion standard of Longqing, was converted into silver for 3 qian per shi, and the 9700 shi of grain was converted into silver, which was 2910 taels.And every year, the raw silk handed in by the "Ren Ding Sijuan" is converted into silver at 7 qian per piece, so 8780 pieces of silver are converted into 6146 taels of silver.Hmm, the two numbers don't seem to be related.

【Note】

Discount rate: The taxes set in the early Ming Dynasty were originally based on the principle of real finance. The government determined the types of items to be collected according to the items needed, and the people paid different items according to the characteristics of local products.However, when there is always a discrepancy between the production of various places and the needs of the government, other items need to be used instead.Or, when the government’s physical reserves are sufficient, items that have the function of general equivalents at that time are requisitioned as fiscal reserves. At this time, a certain conversion ratio, that is, the discount rate, is required.In the tax reform in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, silver was gradually used as the measurement standard, and the discount rate was mainly the silver conversion rate. This rate was mainly determined by factors such as the warehouse and use of the tax goods to be sent.For example, according to Jiajing's "Huizhou Fuzhi", during the Jiajing period, the summer wheat in Huizhou Prefecture was expropriated, and the local Yongfeng warehouse was collected for 4.5 yuan per stone, and it was sent to Jingku (Beijing) for 2.5 yuan per stone, and for Nanjing Guanglu Temple. money.

Shuai Jiamo is a top student after all, and his brain turns quickly.He quickly realized that the six counties in Huizhou were adjacent to each other, and if one county failed in the summer wheat harvest, the other five counties would not be spared.He checked again and found that at the same time, the five counties of Yi, Xiuning, Wuyuan, Qimen, and Jixi also owed summer grain, a total of 10,780 shi, which could be converted into 3234 taels of silver.

2910+3234=6144.

This number is only 2 taels away from "Ren Ding Si Juan".

Shuai Jiamo quickly came to a conclusion: at the beginning of the Republic of China, the entire six counties of Huizhou Prefecture owed a total of 20,480 shi for summer grain, which was made up in the name of "summer tax raw silk", and 8780 pieces of raw silk were exchanged.Ordinarily, the money was shared by the six counties, but for some reason, She County paid it alone.

What's even more frightening is that Huizhou doesn't raise silkworms, and the people in She County must first sell their grain for silver, use the silver to buy raw silk, and then hand it over to the government.Turnover twice, the burden is heavier.

If counting from the 25th year of Zhizheng's "Yisi Reform" to the third year of Longqing, this wrongful tax has been paid for more than 200 years!
She County is simply unlucky.

Shuai Jiamo was very cautious, he didn't rush to alert the government, but made a round in She County.As a result, he found that he was not the first to notice the problem. As early as the 14th year of Jiajing (1535), two people from Shexian County, Cheng Peng and Wang Xiang, had discovered that there was a problem with this "human silk".

They did not protest locally in Huizhou Prefecture, but leapfrogged to submit a report to the superiors of Huizhou Prefecture-Governor Yingtian and Governor Yingtian, and more than once!
Yingtian governor and Yingtian patrol press, the jurisdiction of these two official positions is not limited to Yingtianfu, but covers the entire southern Zhili area except Fengyang, Luzhou, Huai'an, and Yangzhou. Among them, Huizhou The government is also under its jurisdiction.

In terms of specific division of labor, the governor of Yingtian coordinated the prefectures and counties, focusing on taxation and labor, and also in charge of judiciary and public security; the patrol mainly focused on supervision, but also intervened in civil affairs, justice, and military affairs.For comparison, one is the governor and commander of the military region, and the other is the president of the provincial high court and the commission for discipline inspection. Finding the two of them is the right office.

The city doesn't care, doesn't the province still care?
It was the first time that Yingtian Governor Chen Kezhai and Governor Song Maoxi received the report. The two quickly gave a reply and asked the Huizhou government to conduct a thorough investigation.But they were quickly promoted and transferred away, and no one asked any more questions.The succeeding governors, Ouyang Duo and You Jujing, received the same petition and gave a reply, asking the Huizhou government to convene a collegiate meeting of the six counties.As a result, the officials and officials in charge of this matter were all from other five counties, and they were perfunctory and delayed.

During the back and forth delay, Wang Xiang and Cheng Peng passed away inexplicably one after another, and the matter was finally settled.

After finding this, Shuai Jiamo pushed aside the account book and made a decision: he wanted to submit a third report to seek justice for She County!
Is it due to the sense of justice and the local complex, or do you want to use this to hype yourself?The historical data are incomplete, so it is not easy to speculate on his motives.

Regardless, he decided to start taking action, at a huge risk of upsetting interest groups.

At the beginning of the fourth year of Longqing (1570), Shuai Jiamo wrote a report, describing his investigation process in detail, and then submitted it to Liu Shihui, the censor of Yingtianfu at that time.

In this report, Shuai Jiamo played tricks and added such a sentence when explaining the reason: "Yuanfu was handed over by the Ministry of Households every year to investigate and collect 780 pieces of raw silk from the original six counties. Both lost, the government records can prove it."

It probably means that the issue I mentioned was also mentioned in "Huizhou Fuzhi", which is ironclad evidence.

"Huizhou Fu Zhi" is a local chronicle compiled by Huizhou Fu, which is very reliable.However, the government annals actually only vaguely recorded how much the Huizhou government or Shexian County paid for the "people's silk" and did not explicitly say at all that "the original six counties all lost", let alone the debt owed by He Guochu. Xia Mai got in touch.

Shuai Jiamo secretly added these six words in order to create a preconceived impression on Shangguan, so as to facilitate his actions - but he didn't know that this small hand and foot later became a key focus of the lawsuit, which will be discussed later.

In addition to secretly changing the original text, Shuai Jiamo also launched an emotional offensive.He said emotionally:

"Nanjing Shipping Depot receives 20,190 pieces of silk every year, of which only 8501 pieces are paid in silk-producing regions such as Zhejiang and Huguang; only 2905 pieces are paid in the thirteen prefectures of Yingtian (etc.). Our Huizhou prefecture does not raise silkworms at all, but There are 8780 horses to bear. The local people can only sell the grain, convert it into silver, and buy it back from Zhejiang and other places. I can barely bear it, but now the county of She County bears it—the tax of this county is higher than that of Zhejiang and Huguang, which is unreasonable at all!"

【Note】

A careful examination of the "Da Ming Hui Dian" quoted by Shuai Jiamo shows that the number of summer tax silk silks shipped by the chief secretaries, governments, and prefectures of Zhejiang and Huguang to the shipping warehouse of the Nanjing household department were 3509 and 4992 respectively, and the two totaled 8501.The thirteen prefectures including Yingtian are: Yingtianfu, Changzhoufu, Zhenjiangfu, Taipingfu, Luzhoufu, Anqingfu, Ningguofu, Suzhoufu, Huaianfu, Songjiangfu, Fengyangfu, Yangzhoufu and Chizhoufu.The taxes paid in the above mentioned places were either silk or agricultural mulberry silk. Only the tax paid by the Huizhou government was somewhat different. It was 8779 pieces of woven silk, which was slightly different from the 8780 pieces that Shuai Jiamo said.

This is a little statistical trick played by Shuai Jammu.Because the Ming tax system is not a unified collection and settlement, one place often has to pay taxes to several places.

At that time, the silk tax in Zhejiang, Huguang and other places was not only sent to Nanjing Shipping Depot, but also a large part of it was sent to Taicang Bank, C Bank and so on.Judging from the tax records in the Wanli period, the total amount of silk tax in Zhejiang was as high as 130,000 horses, and the total tax in Huguang was 27,000 horses, both of which far exceeded that of She County.

Shuai Jiamo's logic is this: don't talk about the total number, just take out the Nanjing shipping warehouse for comparison, mainly to make Shexian County extraordinarily miserable.

The brilliance of this method is that these figures are all real and can be verified. It is just a little manipulation of the statistical method, which immediately shows a remarkable effect-the burden of She County itself is indeed heavy, but it is compared by Shuai Jiamo , became simply horrific, and it was shocking to read.

【Note】

Daming tax system: Shuai Jiamo quoted the amount of silk tax sent by various departments and governments to the carrier warehouse of the Nanjing household department recorded in the "Daming Huidian" to complain that the silk tax amount borne by Shexian County alone in Huizhou Prefecture was more than the total amount of the two departments of Zhejiang and Huguang , it is too unfair.His calculation in this way implies a premise, that is, he believes that the tax amount recorded in the Nanjing Shipping Depot is the entire amount of silk tax paid by the chief secretaries and governments.But in practice, such an assumption is completely untenable.Due to the two-Beijing system, the transportation depots in the Ming Dynasty were divided into southern and northern ones, and the data cited by Shuai Jiamo did not include the Beijing transportation depots.Moreover, not all the silk tax paid by the localities to the central government was sent to the shipping warehouse, some of the silver may be sent to the Taicang Bank, and some of the silk may be sent to the C Bank.Therefore, what Nanjing Shipping Depot collects is only a part of the silk tax amount.As shown in the chart on the next page, if we rank the total amount of silk tax of the chief secretaries, prefectures, and counties recorded in the "Wanli Accounting Records" during the Jiajing and Wanli periods, we can find that the silk tax of Huizhou Prefecture is the highest among all the prefectures in the country. Ranked ninth, She County ranked sixth among the counties, all of which are relatively high, but there is a considerable gap with Yanzhou Prefecture and Chun'an County, which are ranked first, let alone Zhejiang and Huguang. Division total of 167,544 compared to total.

This is really a method that only a top student can play.

In addition to tampering with historical data and statistics, Shuai Jiamo also prepared a third card: the political card.

The first sentence of his report is as follows: "The way of the world is more expensive than the average, and the old things will not be equal. She County has long focused on Fu, and the people are extremely poor. When Renming is in power, prepare Petition money, begging for equality."

【Note】

The way of the world is more important than equality, so if things are not equal, they will scream.For a long time, Shexian County has been emphasizing Fu, and the people have been extremely poor. When Renming was in power, he prepared petition money and begged for equality: the most important principle in the world is equality, so when encountering injustice, one must speak out Protest, stand up for justice!She County has borne such a heavy tax burden for so many years, and the people have become extremely poor and have no means of living.Fortunate to be blessed by God, to meet such a kind and wise censor as you, I am honored to report the situation to you in detail, and beg the lord to equalize the tax and labor, and save the people of She County from suffering!
In a short paragraph, he asked for "evenness" twice.

During the Longqing period, Jiangnan was promoting a whip method.And the slogan of a whip method is exactly: "Equal taxation and labor, so as to relieve people's poverty." Therefore, Shuai Jiamo "equalized" twice, elevating this tax dispute to the height of responding to national policies.

【Note】

One whip method: According to "History of the Ming Dynasty Shihuo Zhi", the two-tax law was followed in the early Ming Dynasty. According to the official registered household registration, land tax was collected on the field and paid in summer and autumn; Ding had to bear various corvees.Later, the government used various reasons to levy additional taxes and send additional handymen. The people were in dire straits, and a large number fled to avoid taxes.The government also faced a serious financial crisis, so it decided to combine the land tax, various corvees, and miscellaneous taxes of one state and one county. Except for the necessary rice and wheat, all of them were converted into silver taels and distributed to the fields of the state and county. Taxes are levied according to the amount of land owned. Official collection and official liberation are called "one whip method".This not only enables the country's fiscal revenue to increase steadily, but also greatly simplifies the taxation procedures and improves efficiency.

On a deeper level, the core gist of the one-whip law is to merge land tax and corvee, to cancel the tax in kind other than rice and wheat, and to change it to a discount of silver.Therefore, Shuai Jiamo repeatedly emphasized in his report that "Ren Ding Si Tuan" is a tax in kind, and it is very troublesome to pay. This is closely linked to the spirit of the central government.

As long as this matter can be borrowed from the national policy, it will attract the special attention of Governor Yingtian.

You must know that this governor of Yingtian has worked hard to implement the one-whip policy.As long as he is willing to express his opinion, the matter will be half, no, more than half!The reason why Shuai Jiamo has this confidence is because the governor is too famous, far from being comparable to ordinary officials—his name is Hai Rui, and his name is Gangfeng.

【Note】

Hai Rui: According to "History of the Ming Dynasty Hai Rui Biography", Hai Rui, named Ruxian, nicknamed Gangfeng, was born in Qiongshan, Hainan.Hai Rui went to Nanping to serve as an acting instructor after being elected. A censor came to inspect the county school. Some academic officials wanted to please their superiors, and when they met, they lay down on the ground and kowtowed.Hai Rui just bowed. He believed that the school is not a government office, but a place where teachers teach students, and they should not kneel down.Therefore, there is such a scene: Hai Rui, standing in the middle as an instructor, just bows and does not kneel; Hai Rui was nicknamed "Dr. Pen Holder".After Hai Rui was promoted to the magistrate of Chun'an County, he not only resolutely resisted the extra apportionment from his superiors, but also actively canceled unreasonable taxes and miscellaneous labor to reduce the burden on the people.

Needless to say.

In fact, to be honest, Shuai Jiamo's move is a forced elevation.

Because the core of the "human silk" controversy this time is the ownership of the tax burden. Is it the case of She County alone or the six counties together?As for the physical conversion, it is only a secondary issue, and has little to do with a whip method.

It's like two people arguing about paying for a meal.Who pays for the meal is the focus of the dispute. It doesn't matter whether the money is given in cash or by credit card.When the police arrived, one of them yelled: "Comrade policeman, please judge. In response to the country's call to encourage the use of credit cards, who should pay for the meal?" it does not matter.

However, under Shuai Jiamo's wonderful pen, this logical error was subtly covered up, not only did not reveal the flaws, but on the contrary appeared to be bright and upright, and the height was immediately raised.

In addition to these, Shuai Jiamo also prepared a fourth card - the solution.

He is well versed in the nature of bureaucrats, and he knows that what they are most impatient with is the people below arguing but unable to come up with a solution.So at the end of the report, he was anxious to get to the peak, and put forward a solution very thoughtfully: "Either according to the principles of the "Daming Huidian", the six counties are divided according to the number of people; or according to the "Huizhou Fuzhi", the six counties According to the distribution of the field, the wheat will be folded, then the silver will be folded, and then the silk will be folded.”

Look, I have prepared all the plans for you, and your Zhubi agrees.

In this way, whether it is based on headcount or field statistics, She County can reduce the burden by at least half.

It has to be said that Shuai Jiamo's petition is really a masterpiece of petition.At the beginning, it borrowed the wind of the general trend of the imperial court, with lofty intentions, detailed figures in the middle, convincing arguments, and very convincing inferences.The end of the story does not forget to be sensational, depicting how difficult the life of the people in Shexian County is, appealing to the emotional level.There are endless little tricks played in words and logic, like an antelope hanging horns without a trace.

As for Shuai Jiamo's career, there is no record in history, and the other five counties in Huizhou called him a cunning litigator.Judging from this complaint, if it weren't for a lawyer, it really wouldn't be able to write such words.

After this majestic essay was handed in, the effect was immediate, and it really got the high attention of Fu Yuan and Shi Yuan.

Money, food and taxes have always been the top priority of civil affairs.On the [-]th day of February in the fourth year of Longqing, the governor Hai Rui gave instructions: "Investigate the government and report the seizure." It means that I attach great importance to it, and you should investigate carefully.Later, Liu Shihui, the inspector, gave more detailed instructions: Please Huizhou government call the responsible officials, squires, senior citizens and other representatives of the six counties to conduct a collegial investigation on this matter.

Duan Chaozong, the magistrate of Huizhou, received the document and saw Haigangfeng's name. He didn't dare to delay, and immediately issued a card to urge the six counties to send people to discuss.

Who knew, at this juncture, something went wrong.

On February 25, the fourth year of Longqing, that is, No. 15 days after the two courts issued the order, news suddenly came that Hai Rui was transferred to Nanjing Grain Storage.

Why Hai Rui suddenly resigned from Governor Yingtian is another big article, so I won't show it here.In short, Hai Gangfeng couldn't take care of the situation in Huizhou.

Hai Rui is Shuai Jiamo's greatest reliance.His sudden transfer made the "Rending Sijuan" case suddenly lose its momentum.Although the inspector Liu Shihui is still there, even though Duan Chaozong, the prefect of Huizhou, is still there, but without Haigangfeng as the backbone, they are not willing to touch this bad luck.

You know, what they have to face is a huge vested interest group.

Shuai Jiamo's proposition is beneficial to She County, but it is downright bad news for the other five counties.Once the agreement is reached, they will have to pay a lot of taxes for no reason.Therefore, officials, subordinate officials, gentry, and common people from the five counties firmly opposed this proposal.

You know, Huizhou Prefecture is no smaller than other places, and there are a lot of people who have been officials in the court.Those officials who have become officials have a close relationship with the central government and are keen to marry each other, forming an intricate network of relationships.The gentry and eunuchs here are all of great energy, and their hands and eyes are open to the sky.Disputes among the six counties can easily lead to big figures in the political arena.Not to mention the prefect of Huizhou, even Ying Tianfu and the two courts have to have concerns.

【Note】

Among the officials from Huizhou Prefecture, there are many high-ranking officials. There are more than 40 biographies of famous officials in "History of Ming Dynasty".In particular, most of the officials from Huizhou prefecture entered the official career with the Kedi after Xuande, and their official career was prosperous.During the Jiajing and Wanli periods, Hu Song was an official in Jixi, who was an official to the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Hu Zongxian, the leader of the Japanese pirates, a post-official to the Minister of the Ministry of War, and the censor of the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, was captured by tricks; Wang Silun who prepared the signature; in Wuyuan, there was Wang Yuanxi who was an official to the Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of War and donated the Minister of the Ministry of War; In Shexian County, there are Wang Shangning, the official to the right deputy capital censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Wang Daokun, the official to the Minister of the Ministry of War, Xu Guo, the official to the Minister of the Ministry of Rites and a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion, and so on.

And from the standpoint of the prefect of Huizhou?

No matter how the "people's silk" is distributed in the six counties, it makes no difference to the government, as long as 8780 pieces of raw silk are collected for Nanjing every year.Therefore, if the silk tax is not changed, the situation will be as calm as ever, and at most Shexian County will complain a few words—you have paid it for more than 200 years, and you are used to it; Less than half of the benefits, but caused disturbances in the other five counties, it can be said that there is a hundred harms and no benefits.

How the Huizhou government will choose is self-evident.

Why didn't Shuai Jiamo go to the Huizhou government to seek justice, but instead went to the two courts to report?The reason is simple, because he has no local support at all.

Now that Hai Rui has left, the whole thing can't go any further.

In response to Tian Xun's instructions on February [-]th to discuss the matter with the six counties, the Huizhou government immediately issued a license to urge them.But there was no response from below, as if nothing had been heard.Not to mention the five counties of Yi, Xiuning, Wuyuan, Qimen, and Jixi, even She County, the host of suffering, is surprisingly silent.

After inquiring, Shuai Jiamo found out that Fang Huan, the magistrate of She County, was catching up with Ding You, and there was no one to act for him in county affairs.The magistrates of the other five counties declared that they would be busy preparing for the Hajj, so they stopped working because of the suspension.

From the 18th year of Hongwu (1385) in the Ming Dynasty, it was stipulated that local officials should go to Beijing for a pilgrimage every three years, and be inspected and deposed by the Ministry of Officials and the Metropolitan Procuratorate every three years.This is a big deal for officials.

But the problem is that the fourth year of Longqing is Gengwu, and the fifth year of Longqing (1571) is Xinwei, which is the year of pilgrimage.You will only go to Beijing next year, and you have been out of office since February this year?
And it's not just one, but five county magistrates all answered this way.

Obviously, the five counties have already discussed it, and they will take a passive and non-cooperative attitude towards this collegial meeting, and try to delay it until it is yellow, until it is forgotten, and until it ends without a problem, and then the world will be peaceful.Isn't this how Shexian's two appeals in the Jiajing Dynasty were dragged away?
Therefore, from the day when Ying Tianxun followed the instructions, the local government dragged on for a full two months.It was not until April [-] that Jixi County slowly replied with a letter of application.As for the other four counties, they didn't even bother to respond.

This application letter from Jixi County was submitted in the name of Yang Cunli, the edict of the county, and was also signed by several elders in the county.The fact that the Jiaoyu came forward also reflected Jixi's attitude from one side - this matter has nothing to do with money and food, it is an education issue!
Compared with Shuai Jiamo's majestic essay, this Shenwen does not have much dry content, but the knife and pen have hidden wit.

At the beginning, Yang Jiaoyu yelled a political slogan: "For the sake of kindness, obey the national code, according to the government's annals, all grants to save the poor, and use Su's difficult things." He is a shameless litigator who "fakes the public and coerces private interests", and he also called Cheng Peng and Wang Xiang, who reported the Jiajingnian report, to be troublemakers.

【Note】

In order to be kind and follow the national code, according to the government annals, all the taxes are given to save the side, and the hardships of the Soviet Union: In response to the government's call, the county now follows the records of the "Daming Huidian" and "Huizhou Fuzhi" to equalize taxes and remedy Bad governance, to effectively alleviate the hardships of the people for many years, to show the mighty grace of the adults!

Disturbing the state system, ignoring the superiors and oppressing the inferiors: (Shuai Jiamo) is really a shameless person who pretends to be public and seek personal gain. He stirs up troubles in an attempt to disrupt the state affairs, deceives and deceives the superiors, abuses and frames the common people.

After scolding for a long time, Yang Jiaoyu finally got to the point.First of all, he admitted Shuai Jiamo's discovery that today's "Ren Ding Silk" is indeed the "Xia Tax Raw Silk" in the early days of the country.However, he explained that according to the records of the government records, the imperial court discovered that She County owed Xia Mai 9700 shi, and ordered them to make up the "summer tax raw silk", a total of 8780 pieces to the Nanjing shipping warehouse.So this is the responsibility of She County itself, and has nothing to do with other counties.

Then he said that this tax has been paid for more than 170 years, and no one has ever protested.In the 14th year of Jiajing, Cheng Peng and Wang Xiang, two troublesome people from Shexian County, went to complain. Feng Shiyong, the prefect of Huizhou at that time, presided over an investigation, and even went to the inspection court to check the edition records. The conclusion was that "human silk" should belong to Shexian County Hand in separately.After more than 30 years, it was also calm.Who knew that there would be another lawsuit, Shuai Jiamo, who ignored the organization's decision and wanted to stir up trouble again.

Yang Jiaoyu's rebuttal is really unreasonable.

Shuai Jiamo has already figured it out very clearly.According to the discount rate during the Longqing period, 8780 raw silks were converted to 20,480 shi in wheat, which was not at all comparable to the 9700 shi in arrears from She County.Even according to the discount rate in the Hongwu period, it is impossible to make that much difference.Yang Jiaoyu was a liberal arts student after all, so he didn't understand this account.

But the technical details are irrelevant, because what liberal arts students are best at is lyricism.

Yang Jiaoyu wrote emotionally: "Our Jixi has a total radius of 24 miles. The land is barren and the people are poor. The annual rations are less than 220 shi. Their Shexian County has a radius of 6 miles, and the annual rations are more than [-] shi. .Is there any reason to transfer the burden of the upper county to the lower county?"

After he finished crying, he added a sentence with deep meaning: "As usual, it will be settled, and the common people will not worry about the upheaval of the common people, and it will be convenient for the government and the people." It means: You'd better collect taxes according to the original method, so as not to stir up civil uprisings. This is convenient for the government and the people.

Yang Jiaoyu's previous words are all nonsense, but the real Wenyan just happens to be here.

Although this sentence is humble, it carries a faint threat.Read it backwards, and the meaning becomes: If you don't collect taxes as they are, I'm afraid it will cause civil uprisings, and at that time, it will be inconvenient for both the government and the people.

This sentence was very ruthless, and it hit the vital point of Huizhou Prefecture.

You must know that although this threat came from the representative of Jixi, it was actually the consensus of the five counties behind it.It also means that if this matter does not satisfy them, the entire Huizhou government will be in chaos.Next year is the year of pilgrimage and examination, Mr. Qingtian, you can handle it yourself.

Yang Jiaoyu played this move very well.If the five counties threatened to cause trouble together and conspired against each other, it must not be done.Now the four counties are silent, and Jixi, the youngest, is pushed out to speak first. Jixi's population is too small, so no matter how noisy it is, it will never rise to the point of rebellion.In this way, the threat was conveyed in a tactful and subtle way, and enough face was saved for the magistrate, so that he could turn around in the future.

The local officials of Ming Dynasty have always put stability first in their political thinking, and it is easy to say anything if there is no accident, and it is secondary to whether they are reasonable or not.The ordinary people below also understand this logic, so when encountering any disputes, regardless of whether they are justified or not, let's make a fuss first.If the trouble is successful, the government will often distribute it according to the trouble; if the trouble is not successful, the law does not blame the public.

You see, this is the thinking of the liberal arts master to solve the problem.Yang Jiaoyu didn't bother to check the technical details of the "personal silk" at all. The numbers are not important, but the career is the key.It is enough to point out that improper handling of this matter will lead to civil uprisings and endanger the prefect's future.

Sure enough, the Huizhou government understood this application and stopped urging a collegiate discussion.In the tacit understanding of several parties, this matter was gradually no longer mentioned, and it was about to become a scandal.

Shuai Jiamo, the person involved, looked at it and was anxious. How could he have come to this point with great difficulty?Where is the crux of the problem?

From here, you can see the difference in literary thinking.

Yang Jiaoyu's Shenwen did not mention business right or wrong, but only talked about official careers.But Shuai Jiamo didn't read Shen Wen's level of maneuvering, wishful thinking that the reason why Huizhou government was unwilling to advance was because the whole matter was not clear enough-a typical way of thinking of technicians.

Following this line of thought, he reconsidered and found that there was indeed a vague point in the previous submission.

The "summer tax raw silk" lost by the six counties in the early days of the country is the "human silk silk" lost by Shexian alone today. This is no problem.Then, how did the subject of "summer tax raw silk" be changed to "human silk"?
Figure out this key point, and the truth will emerge.

Shuai Jiamo rolled up his sleeves and threw himself into the vast sea of ​​documents.He wanted to find the key needle in the sea of ​​archives of the six counties accumulated for 200 years.

This investigation lasted for several months.Huangtian paid off, and Shuai Jiamo actually found the clue:

The secret lies in the subject of taxation.

Shuai Jiamo dug out the surveys and cooperations issued by the Ministry of Households to Huizhou in the past dynasties-similar to receipts, on which it was written clearly: "Sit and take Huizhou rending silk silk." "Silk silk", and did not specify which county would pay separately, and the default is that the six counties will share equally.

And Shuai Jiamo went to check the reminder documents issued by the Huizhou government to the six counties, but found that the subject of "human silk silk" was gone.Only in the taxation subjects of Shexian County, there is an extra "summer tax raw silk".

So, the hands and feet are very clear.

When the Huizhou government collected taxes from She County, it used the name "Xia Tax Raw Silk".It just so happened that She County did have a "summer tax raw silk" subject that owed wheat at the beginning of the country, so the local area did not feel any difference.After the tax came up, when the Huizhou government submitted it upwards, it took out the due amount from the "summer tax raw silk" and put it under the "people's silk".

As a result, the tax burden shared by the six counties was unknowingly borne by She County alone. The dove "Ren Ding Si Juan" has occupied the nest of "Xia Tax Raw Silk" in such a grand manner.The poor people in She County don't know the inside story, and they work hard to pay taxes, but they don't know that the support is actually the burden of the six counties.

The person who did this trick is definitely a master.He is not only familiar with the history of money and food in the early days of the country, but also proficient in the process of copying documents. He cleverly used the subject of Xia Mai's supplementary payment from Shexian County to confuse the audience, and played a beautiful big move.Once such things as tax payment have become a custom and law, they will be implemented unswervingly and it is difficult to change.In this way, She County handed over 200 years of "human silk" without knowing it.

Shuai Jiamo slapped the table, it must have been cheated by the scribes of the Huizhou government house!
This guess is not groundless speculation.

In the two levels of government of Daming Mansion and County, the executive agencies for specific government affairs are called "three classes and six offices", and the three classes refer to the Zao class, the strong class, and the fast class, which are collectively called yamen servants; the six rooms are divided into official rooms, The household house, ceremony room, military room, torture room, and workshop correspond to the six central ministries.The magistrates and magistrates are low-level officials who will be transferred away after a few years of work, but the positions of the third shift and the sixth house are often dominated by local subordinate officials.These people are local aborigines, familiar with the grassroots, and they have mastered professional skills, and their positions have been passed down from generation to generation, forming a system of their own.Without their cooperation, even the magistrate would not be able to use his fists.

Especially the households in the six houses, which are in charge of money and food, are the hardest hit areas managed by subordinate officials.The petty officials have all kinds of means to turn things upside down.A skilled calligrapher can even "make those who are connected to the fields empty, and those who have no roots will be filled with wilderness", how arrogant you say it is.Huo Yuxia, an official during the Jiajing period, wrote helplessly: "The food department of each household in each county distributes food every year, and cheats all the time." This shows the chaos at the grassroots level at that time.

【Note】

The people who connect the rice paddies are empty and have no land, and the land without a cone is full of land: the fields in the Ming Dynasty mainly include official land and private land, Huangzhuang, Xuetian, horse pasture, Yuanling cemetery, Xungui Zhuangtian, and Baiguan's field , Frontier ministers raise Liantian, etc., are all official land, and the rest are civilian land.Land is an important source of tax collection by the government. In the early Ming Dynasty, the land was verified and a fish scale atlas was made to determine the tax quota. Every change in the field must be recorded.However, when land mergers are serious, the rich can connect fields, but the poor have no place to stand.What's even more frightening is that the bribed officials can use superb but despicable means to make the rich family with thousands of acres of fertile land appear as landless in official records, and the rich family can easily evade taxes; while the poor family with no land at all However, it was registered as rich in land and had to bear heavy taxes.

This silk tax must have been tampered with in the account books by the little official who handled it back then, so that She County suffered injustice!

Without further ado, Shuai Jiamo quickly wrote another report, briefly describing his latest research results.He knew that officials had been passed down from generation to generation, and if it was revealed completely, it would probably offend a large number of people, so he only vaguely mentioned the cause of the formation, "I don't know why the fraud was done in the past", and only emphasized that this tax department was What has been tampered with is wrong.

People can not be held accountable, after all, almost 200 years have passed; things, if you do something wrong, you have to set things right.

Shuai Jiamo also put forward another important argument: "Person silk silk" is obviously a poll tax, so it should be collected according to the population and let She County pay it alone. Don't there be any people in the other five counties?

On November 25th, the fourth year of Longqing, Shuai Jiamo officially submitted this report to the Huizhou government, expecting a response.

It should be said that this submission is more convincing than the previous one, and the two new evidences presented are also very reasonable.But when the report was handed in, there was no movement.The Huizhou government didn't even reply this time, and turned a deaf ear.

After all, Shuai Jiamo is a mathematician, and he is not as good as Yang Jiaoyu, a liberal arts tyrant, in exploring people's hearts.He didn't understand that the prefect of Huizhou's indifference was due to consideration of stability and career, and had nothing to do with technical issues.Shuai Jiamo regarded a strategic mistake as a tactical mistake, blindly digging into the corners to check the details, which is tantamount to winking at the blind.

If it were someone else, he would have resigned to his fate, but Shuai Jiamo did not back down.This upright and stubborn mathematician realized that he could not get support from Huizhou Prefecture and Yingtian Academy, so he made an astonishing decision.

Go to Beijing to petition!

I'm looking for your leaders!
I want to add a special word here, Shuai Jiamo's behavior may shock the world in other places, but in Huizhou, it is really not a miracle.

In Huizhou, the folk customs are tough.This "sturdy" does not mean that they are good at fighting, but that Huizhou people are good at fighting lawsuits.

Chinese people generally have a tendency to avoid litigation, and those who love to litigate will be regarded as "troublemakers".The evaluation of magistrates also uses "less litigation" as one of the standards of honesty and honesty.But Huizhou people are very similar to today's Americans. They litigate frequently, and they like to go to court when they have nothing to do. Therefore, there are many lawyers and litigators who are proficient in legal provisions - known as "litigators".

This folk custom was not cultivated in the Ming Dynasty. As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, Huizhou people liked to litigate.Ouyang Xiu once described the folk customs of Huizhou in this way: "The people practice laws and regulations, and they like to litigate. Every family keeps their own books. Anyone who hears people's private affairs, sits up and speaks, records the date and time, and takes evidence if there is a lawsuit." Huizhou People, every family has a small ledger, and they secretly record other people's words and deeds when they have nothing to do, and throw them out as evidence in a lawsuit. This legal awareness is really strong enough.

So much so that in the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhu Xi, a great master of Confucianism who was born in Huizhou, also commented helplessly on the natives: "It's hard to conquer the customs, but it's easy to win with reason."

So Shuai Jiamo could not win a lawsuit locally, so he resolutely went to Beijing to appeal. This approach is very in line with the style of Huizhou people.

But his "going to Beijing" is not going to Beijing, but to Nanjing.

At that time, the center of the Ming Dynasty was divided into two capitals in the north and the south. The six ministries in Beijing, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Department of General Administration, the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, and the Imperial Academy all had identical backups in Nanjing.Although the backup government in Nanjing is far less powerful than Beijing's, it still has a say in the area of ​​Nanzhili.

Especially in terms of money, grain and taxation, the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing is in charge of Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Huguang.The influence of the Nanjing Ministry of Households is not much worse than that of the Zhengyin of the Beijing Ministry of Households.

There is no record of what Shuai Jiamo did after he arrived in Nanjing.However, from the details disclosed in various government documents, it can be inferred that he should not have gone to the Ministry of Household Affairs, but first went to a censor named Song of the Metropolitan Procuratorate to ask for a petition.

This is a wise decision.In the capacity of Shuai Jiamo, it is very difficult to appeal directly to senior officials of the household department, but it is much easier to find a spokesman.

The thirteen supervisory censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate are responsible for investigating the mistakes of the six ministries and one hundred divisions. They have always liked to collect public opinions, hear rumors and play things, and ask them to work.

But he didn't take the path of impeachment.For Beijing officials, this matter is too small, and it does not involve central officials, so it does not mean much to write a letter of impeachment.Shuai Jiamo didn't want to completely tear himself apart with the local government.All he asked for was an attitude from the court, and a few words of criticism were enough.

On the second day of June in the fifth year of Longqing, Shuai Jiamo's report was finally submitted by Song Yushi and quickly forwarded to the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs.Accompanied by the submission, there is also a comment from the Metropolitan Procuratorate: "The codes are complied with, and the taxes should be distributed evenly, and it is discretionary to copy them out." It means that the code should be abided by, and taxes should be shared equally among the six counties. Discretionary.

This comment is exactly the conclusion Shuai Jiamo dreamed of.

The Nanjing household department received this document, added a sentence "Waiting for our office to inspect the yamen question", and forwarded it to Governor Yingtian and the inspector, allowing them to handle it as appropriate.At the same time, the Ministry of Household Affairs also sent a special message to the Huizhou government, specifically pointing out: "The government has been transferred to the government for investigation. When did Ding Sijuan from the previous item start, and why did she specialize in Shexian County? There are There is no other item of money and food to offset, if there is no offset, what should be discussed now."

Although this passage is still questionable, it has actually reached a conclusion: there must be a problem with She County's taxation, and what needs to be clarified is when it will start and how it will be distributed back to other counties.

With the support of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Shuai Jiamo's trip to Beijing has come to a successful conclusion.Next, he only needs to rush back to Huizhou and wait to cooperate with Shangfeng's investigation.Shuai Jiamo happily left Nanjing and embarked on a journey back home.

He didn't know that at this moment, a shadow of death threat had quietly shrouded his head.

Cutting off people's wealth is like killing their parents.Although the five counties showed indifference to the "Ren Ding Sijuan" incident publicly, they attached great importance to it in private.Among the Beijing officials, there are also those who are native to the five counties.They understood Shuai Jiamo's actions in the capital very well.

The crux of the whole matter is the lawyer of Xin Anwei!Without him jumping up and down, the world would be peaceful.

Otherwise, just kill him.

This is not the first time.During the Jiajing period, Cheng Peng and Wang Xiang, the two "tricksters" of Shexian County who were entangled with the "people's silk", ended up inexplicably dead in the end.On the Naihe Bridge, there is no shortage of this wronged soul.

On the way home, Shuai Jiamo encountered a great danger, and he escaped only by good luck.What is the specific danger and who instigated it, there is no record handed down.But Shuai Jiamo was really scared out of his wits, the enemy was ready to kill.He didn't dare to go back to Huizhou at all, and fled back to his hometown of Huguangjiangxia County with his family to avoid disaster.

Shuai Jiamo's escape brought the silk case, which was finally under investigation, to a standstill—how can we investigate now that the suing victims are gone?So under the perfunctory efforts of all parties, the matter finally fell silent again.As for the household department of the imperial court, it is impossible to keep an eye on this small place of Huizhou all the time.

In the fifth year of Longqing, there was no movement.

In the sixth year of Longqing (1572), there was no movement.

In this year, Emperor Longqing finally died and Emperor Wanli ascended the throne.Then, Zhang Juzheng eliminated all political opponents and became the chief assistant, and the entire Ming Dynasty entered a new era.However, there is still no movement in the Huizhou silk case.

In the following days, the entire Ming Dynasty was busy adapting to the ruling style of the new Chief Assistant.As for the silk case and the mathematician who hid in his hometown and dared not come back, it has been completely forgotten, and no one mentions it again.He was disheartened and didn't dare to argue any more.

The whole story seems to end like this.

But at the beginning of the third year of Wanli (1575), the Huizhou silk case, which had been silent for four years, seemed to be inspired by some force, and suddenly set off a huge wave, shocking the government and the public.

Section [-] Debate in Six Counties

On the ninth day of March in the third year of Wanli, Cui Kongxin, the prefect of Huizhou, suddenly issued an arrest warrant to She County, demanding that Shuai Jiamo be arrested.

The arrest warrant reads: "Now Zhaoshuai Jiamo, since he is able to write a statement to sue him, must be a powerful family, a man with a plan, what is false, and it is not mentioned repeatedly. There must be someone in the middle For this reason, the officials of Yangxian County quickly investigated whether Shuai Jiamo had a wife or brother, and whether he was outside. This generation of treacherous people will not be able to grow up, so try to arrest Jiefu, and ask them seriously. Violation."

The crime of arresting Shuai Jiamo is really a bit inexplicable: You Shuai Jiamo has the ability to go to the two courts to sue, why can't you stay and cooperate with the investigation?Hiding outside all the time, it must be evil or evil!
It's too unreasonable.Shuai Jiamo went out to avoid disaster, but it was not his own will.What's more, it took four years for the document issued by the Ministry of Household Longqing to accuse others of not cooperating with the investigation after four years. This reflex is too dull.

This seems to be a crime that was intended to be imposed, and it was drafted hastily.From the lines of the arrest warrant, we can feel the deep anxiety of the Huizhou government, a little out of breath, as if something big is about to happen, forcing them to act quickly.

The urgent arrest warrant was quickly issued to She County.Yao Xuemin, the county magistrate, did not delay, and immediately arranged for joint law enforcement - because Shuai Jiamo was a military household and belonged to Xin'an Guard, so this matter had to be coordinated with the guard.

Military households have been required to serve as soldiers in the past dynasties, and their household registrations are posted under the guards in various places, forming a self-contained system.If the local civil affairs department encounters something involving military households, it must notify the guard.

Half a month later, that is, on March 24, with the assistance of Xin'anwei, She County finally caught a relative of Shuai's family named Shuaigui.After asking, I found out that Shuai Jiamo had been hiding in Jiangxia County with his wife and children and never came back, leaving only Shuaigui to look after the house.

Yao Xuemin, the county magistrate, quickly reported the situation to the Huizhou government, and then deliberately added a sentence of "arrest without warrant".It means that if you want to catch him, you have to enforce the law across provinces. Law enforcement across provinces requires evidence, which we in Shexian County can't produce.

She County was not enthusiastic at all about arresting Shuai Jiamo, after all, Shuai Jiamo was working for the interests of the county.The Huizhou government knew this well, but they couldn't say anything, so they had to detain Shuaigui first.

Unexpectedly, only ten days had passed since this incident, and on the tenth day of April, the Huizhou government suddenly received a letter signed by Shuai Jiamo.

In this report, Shuai Jiamo brought up the old story again, first restating the cause and effect of the "human silk" and then reviewing the instructions of leaders at all levels on this matter.Immediately afterwards, he explained his whereabouts: "He was killed on the way back, and he was detained and avoided, and he did not apply for love."

Shuai Jiamo did not say what the danger was, nor did he mention who was in charge.But since he did not dare to return to Huizhou, it is clear where the murderer came from.This accusation is really a hidden needle.

Of course, Shuai Jiamo’s attitude towards the Huizhou government is still very sincere: “I’m urging you to discuss it with the benevolence of Ye Tai, and I’m going back thousands of miles. , I will rush back thousands of miles and starry night, I hope you can make the decision for the villain.

This sentence can be regarded as an explanation for the Huizhou government's "not mentioned repeatedly".

At the end of the report, Shuai Jiamo presented a new piece of evidence: the eight prefectures of Shuntian also had the tax category of "Ren Ding Si Tuan", which was apportioned among the counties without exception.

Although the taxes of the eight Shuntian prefectures are not conclusive evidence, they are a strong circumstantial evidence.It's also "human silk silk", and they are all shared and resolved. Why is your Huizhou Prefecture so special?

It seems that in the past few years in Jiangxia County, he has not been discouraged at all. He is still tirelessly searching for evidence and spreading his vision to the whole country.

However, the time when Shuai Jiamo submitted this submission is quite strange.

The Huizhou Government's arrest order was issued on the ninth day of March, and it was not until March 24th that She County found out the whereabouts of Shuai Jiamo.Even if they immediately sent people to Jiangxia to report the news, it would be early April.And on the tenth day of April, Shuai Jiamo's petition had already been sent to the Huizhou prefect's desk.

Huizhou is almost a thousand miles away from Jiangxia. Shuai Jiamo only took [-] days from receiving the report back to Huizhou to writing the report and submitting it to the government. Isn’t this too efficient?

Unless, Shuai Jiamo had already prepared this report.

Unless, She County had already notified him of the movement of Huizhou Prefecture.

This is in line with the actual situation. Shuai Jiamo pleaded for the people of She County, how could She County be indifferent?On the surface, it is inconvenient for the gentry in Shexian County to support it publicly, but they will definitely support it in private.

From all kinds of clues, it can be felt that Shuai Jiamo and She County have been in close contact secretly, and they are planning a big move.

In any case, the reappearance of Shuai Jiamo made Huizhou government breathe a sigh of relief.It probably smelled something in the air. Compared with the perfunctory attitude last time, the Huizhou government's attitude this time was terribly positive, a 180-degree change.

Two days later, on April [-]th, Cui Kongxin, the prefect of Huizhou, couldn't wait to forward Shuai Jiamo's letter to Shexian County, saying that someone had complained to the government about Ding Sijuan's case, and you should investigate it carefully.

This order is very interesting.It stands to reason that this matter should be discussed by the six counties, and then come up with a charter.If you don't notify the other five counties now and ask She County to conduct a detailed investigation first, wouldn't that mean letting the plaintiff try the prisoner himself?
Unexpectedly, She County was more active than Huizhou Prefecture.Three days after the detailed investigation document was issued, Shexian County actually sent an application letter to Huizhou government, and it was a long one.

This application was written by Yao Xuemin, the magistrate, and represents the official attitude of the entire She County.The beginning of the Shenwen is full of momentum: "She County slandered the system and slandered the code, and shot and harmed the people. Kindly follow the "Da Ming Hui Code", equalize the silk Fu, and use the Soviet side to make things difficult."

Yao Xuemin's Shenwen, in simple terms, is two points: first, the "Daming Huidian" records that Huizhou government lost 8780 pieces of "rending silk" and never mentioned that She County should hand it over alone; second, "rending silk" "Silk" was tampered with "Xia tax raw silk", so that the tax of the five counties fell on the head of She County.

This application is basically a copy of Shuai Jiamo's previous arguments.The only difference is that last time it was a letter written by Xiamin, but this time it was endorsed by the magistrate himself. Not only did he endorse, but he also went into battle shirtless.

Earlier, Shuai Jiamo also mentioned the fraudulent property transfer, but he didn't dare to make it too clear, so he could only express it vaguely.But Yao Xuemin didn't worry much at all, and directly tore his face, pointing at the noses of the clerks in the house and swearing.

The county magistrate said that the households in Huizhou Prefecture have always been controlled by subordinate officials from the five counties.No one in She County is in the mansion, so they can only be bullied.Therefore, the tampering of "Ren Ding Si Juan" into "Xia Tax Raw Silk" must have come from the scribes of the Household and Grain Department of Huizhou Prefecture.

【Note】

The world's top reputation: officials in the Ming Dynasty had a strict personnel avoidance system, not only were they not allowed to hold posts in their native places, but they could not hold posts for a long time; official".The clerk of the household house is one of the six subordinate officials in the yamen. They are responsible for the collection of summer taxes and autumn grain, and the dispatch of Dingcha corvee and miscellaneous tasks.

There is no way to verify whether this story is true or not. Anyway, Yao Xuemin said that it is "handed down from elder to elder".

Yao Xuemin is a magistrate, why did he suddenly become so vigorous?The answer to the mystery lies in a string of names in the Shenwen.

In order to strengthen the momentum, Yao Xuemin found a group of local eunuchs to sign.Most of these township eunuchs are retired high-ranking officials. Although they have no power, they still have great influence in the local area and cannot be ignored.

In fact, these gentry and eunuchs are the real rulers of She County.They have considerable control over the grassroots civilians, have a network of official favors, and own a huge number of acres and various industries.Without their support, She County magistrate can do nothing.There is a saying in China that "imperial power does not come down to the county", and government agencies must rely on the cooperation of these "village sages" in order to truly effectively rule the bottom.

Now these people have surfaced one by one, flexing their muscles to the Huizhou government.

【Note】

The imperial power does not go down to the county: According to Mr. Fei Xiaotong's discussion, in imperial China, the emperor has absolute power, but he cannot manage the entire country by himself, and the bureaucracy is the executor or tool of the imperial power.In fact, the officials dispatched by the central government went as far as the county magistrate, and there was no administrative unit below the county level.Therefore, from the county yamen to the people's homes, local sages and clans play an important role, and the power of the central government cannot enter the scope of local public welfare related to people's daily life, so there is a saying that "imperial power does not come down to the county."

Take a look at the top few of the list:
Wang Shangning, a native of Rongkou, Shexian County, was a Jinshi, an official to the right deputy capital censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. (Equivalent to the current Deputy Chief Procurator of the Supreme People's Procuratorate)

Wang Daokun, a native of Qianqiuli, She County, Jinshi, an official to the left servant of the Ministry of War.His literary fame was very prosperous, and he was called Sima of the North and the South together with Wang Shizhen, and was one of the "last five sons".When later generations speculated about the author of "Jin Ping Mei", Wang Daokun was also one of the objects of suspicion, which shows the strength of this person.

【Note】

Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of War: According to "History of the Ming Dynasty Zhi Guan Zhi", the military power in the Ming Dynasty was divided into two parts. The Governor's Office of the Five Armies was responsible for the management and training of the army, while the power to recruit troops belonged to the Ministry of War. The two restricted each other.Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of War, Zheng Sanpin, deputy of the Minister of the Ministry of War, assisting the Minister to be responsible for the food and grass of the garrisons, the mobilization of the army, and the appointment of military officials.

Jiang Zhen, a native of Xinan, She County, Jinshi, was an official to Zuo Buzheng of Guizhou.

【Note】

Guizhou Zuobu Political Envoy: According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty Official Records", the power of the local government in the Ming Dynasty was divided into three. In charge of the military, the highest officials are the chief envoy, the inspector, and the command envoy. The three powers stand side by side and are not subordinate to each other.Guizhou Zuo Buzhengshi, from the second rank, is the highest chief executive of Guizhou Province, equivalent to the current governor of Guizhou Province.

Fang Hongjing, a native of Shexian County, a Jinshi, was an official to the right servant of the Nanjing household department.

【Note】

Nanjing Household Department Youshilang: According to "History of the Ming Dynasty Official Records", the Ming court originally established Jinling as its capital, and after Ming Chengzu Zhu Di seized the throne, he moved the capital to Beijing, but still retained Jinling's status as the accompanying capital, renamed it Nanjing, and set up six departments in Nanjing.Among them, You Shilang of the Nanjing Household Department is the deputy of the Nanjing Household Department Shangshu. He assists the Shangshu in collecting the summer tax and autumn grain from the Southern Zhili and Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Huguang. and management.Although not as good as the Minister of the Household Department in Beijing, it can also be equivalent to the current Deputy Minister of Finance.

Cheng Dabin, a native of Huaitang, Shexian County, a Jinshi, was an official and inspector in Guizhou.

【Note】

Guizhou procuratorial envoy: According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty Official Records", the procuratorial envoy is in charge of the judicial supervision of a province, picks up officials' conduct, clarifies the governance of officials, eradicates rape, and resolves cases and redresses injustice; The responsibility of supervision is to report the situation to the Ministry of Officials and the Metropolitan Procuratorate for assessment.The Procuratorate of Guizhou is equivalent to the sum of the President of the Higher People's Court of Guizhou Province, the Procurator-General of the People's Procuratorate, and the Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee.

Cao Lou, a native of Xiongcun, Shexian County, was a Jinshi, and an official went to Jiangxi You to participate in politics.

【Note】

Jiangxi Right Participation in Politics: According to the records of "History of the Ming Dynasty · Official Records", the post of political participation in each chief secretary is from three ranks, and the personnel are not fixed, and they are set up according to the situation. functions.In the Ming Dynasty, the Chief Secretary of Jiangxi Province had a person who was responsible for collecting and transporting grain; the person responsible for supervising the book was not fixed, and was responsible for supervising the production of fish scale albums and yellow books, etc., as the basis for local taxation and apportionment of corvee; , Responsible for conveying the official affairs of urging the Chief Secretary to the governments and Zhili Prefecture.Cao Lou's right to participate in politics in Jiangxi is one of the above three ways.

Jiangdong, from Jiangcun, She County.At this time, he was not yet a Jinshi, and he would not pass the exam until the next year.Later, he was the first to fire at Feng Bao as a censor, and he was also a celebrity in the Wanli Dynasty.

【Note】

Censor: Jiangdong's impeachment of Feng Bao was the censor of Shandong Province at that time.According to the records of "History of Ming Dynasty Official Records", the Metropolitan Procuratorate of the Ming Dynasty had thirteen supervisory censors, with seven ranks, mainly responsible for picking up the discipline of internal and external officials.If they are in Beijing, they will check whether there is any delay or distortion in the trial of criminal and prison cases in the Yamen of the two capitals, and inspect the Beijing camp, warehouse, inner warehouse, imperial city, etc.; The representative and incarnation of the emperor, humble but powerful, is responsible for picketing local officials, recommending talents, adjudicating unjust cases, inspecting taxes, food and household registration, supervising public facilities such as water conservancy, and inspecting school education.Shandong Dao Yushi is equivalent to the leader of the inspection team sent to Shandong by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

As far as Huizhou is concerned, it is really a hometown of outstanding people and profound knowledge.In a mere She County, six or seven living senior Jinshi officials were randomly pulled out to help out. All of them are prominent and of extraordinary status. They are simply an all-star team.

With their endorsement, the weight of this application can be imagined.

From the list of joint signatures, it can be known that She County's sudden firing of heavy artillery this time was definitely planned for a long time.It took a total of three days from the Huizhou government to issue a document to Shexian County's reply. If there is a temporary connection, how can there be time?
The gentry in She County must have started planning early, waiting for a sudden surprise attack, and the five counties were caught off guard.

However, where did She County have the courage to put all the contradictions on the table to fight against the five counties?Even if there is a joint signature from the eunuch, it can't be so straightforward and bold, right?

Soon the answer came.

On May [-], Ying Tianxun reported to the Huizhou government according to Bao Xixian's words, saying that She County's Shenwen was very important, and that it was necessary to carefully review the canon, government records, taxes and other documents, and conduct a general investigation with the five counties, and report the results as soon as they were found.

Note that before, including Hai Rui, the previous governors of Yingtian, according to the approvals given by the two courts, were all "reporting to the government for investigation and deliberation".

However, Bao Xixian's tone this time was obviously biased towards She County, and he repeatedly emphasized that this five-county comprehensive investigation must find out a result.Moreover, Bao Xixian did not directly reply to the Huizhou government, but asked Bingbeidao to issue a constitutional card.

【Note】

Xianpai: In the Ming Dynasty, the official notices issued by the government were called Xinpai, while Bingbeidao, patrol censors, governors, etc. were all supervisory officials, and the Xinpai issued by them were called Xianpai.

The so-called Bingbeidao was an institution in charge of rectifying military affairs at the local level in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, which existed independently of the local government.Although it has a military color, the chief of Bingbeidao often wears the title of deputy envoy, so Bingbeidao can be regarded as half of an institution on the judicial line, with the function of accepting lawsuits, and has armed forces in his hands , the place can be pressed if necessary.

Nanzhili did not have an inspector, but there was a patrol censor, who also belonged to the superior officer of the Bingbeidao.

The Bingbei Road near Huizhou is called "Ying, An, Hui, Ning, Chi, and Tai six Bingbei Roads" in full, referred to as Huining Bingbei Road, and is led by Feng Shuji, the deputy envoy of Bingbei.He issued the constitution card to imply that the Huizhou government should stop using "fear of civil unrest" as an excuse this time.If there is a real commotion, the deputy envoy of military preparations has more than just civil servants.

Such a clear-cut statement shows that Long before the Huizhou government issued a document to arrest Shuai Jiamo, She County had already followed up.

This time, with the support of Ying Tianxun and the Deputy Envoy of Bing Bei Dao on the upper level, and the star team of the township eunuchs waving the flag and shouting, they worked hard together. No wonder Shen Wen of Shexian County was written magnificently and confidently.Previously, Shuai Jiamo had been single-handedly breaking into the enemy's formation, but this time several groups of troops gathered in one place, making it clear that the chariots and horses were going to fight head-on.

Faced with this unprecedented pressure, the Huizhou government naturally has no way to resist.On May [-], the constitutional card of Bingbei Road was issued, and on May [-], the Huizhou government forwarded it to the five counties, urging them to come to the collegiate discussion.Everyone should pay attention, this May [-]th is the time when constitution cards are delivered to the five counties.In other words, almost as soon as the Huizhou government received the document from Bingbeidao, it was forwarded immediately without any delay.

It can be seen that the Huizhou government is really terrified.

Facing the long-planned surprise attack in She County, the other five counties were stunned for a while.Isn't this early yellow?When did it get so big again?

One letter after another, the Huizhou government urged them to prepare an application and come to discuss it.This time, the five counties can't pretend to be deaf and dumb like last time, they must show something.

The first to respond was Wuyuan County.This is a large county second only to She County, ranking first among the five counties in terms of strength, and it is also the hometown of Master Zhu Xi.Wu Guan, the county magistrate, sent back the application on May 22, which is extremely fast.

Unfortunately, although the speed is fast, the quality is very rough.The argument of this application is the same as that of Jixi Yang Jiaozhi back then, alleging that She County owed 9700 shi of summer wheat and was fined to pay 8780 pieces of "summer tax raw silk", which had been transported over the years, and had nothing to do with the other five counties.As for "human silk", that is the business of Nanjing Chengyun Mansion.

This argument is flawed and nothing new.However, there was no way around it. In just a few days, no matter how talented Wu Guan was, it was impossible for him to compete with the evidence that Shuai Jiamo had carefully prepared for several years.

However, Wu Guan was not a mediocre person after all. He later became an official in giving affairs, which shows that he has a good mind.In the Shenwen, he also proposed a four-two plan:
Check the Yellow Book.

The yellow book is an important tax file of the Ming Dynasty, and the collection of taxes and services above must be carried out according to the yellow book.It is first-hand information, the most authoritative.The Yellow Book was created in the 14th year of Hongwu (1381), and it was held every ten years without interruption. It covered every county in Daming Prefecture and was specific to households. It is a miracle in the history of Chinese archives.

Wu Guan’s logic is: if the records in the "Da Ming Hui Dian" and the government records are correct, then there must be corresponding records in the original records of the Yellow Book, and the latter is more reliable than the former. Just check the Yellow Book Files, naturally know who is right and who is wrong.

According to the regulations, several copies of the yellow book will be sent for each term, and the county, prefecture and province will keep their own records, and the original book will be sent to the Nanjing household department.You can say that the yellow book kept by the county and the government may be tampered with, but the original book of the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs is absolutely accurate, and the authenticity can be known at a glance.

Wu Guan's move opened up a unique approach and provided a new way of thinking for resolving disputes.

In addition, he also followed the example of Shexian County and brought in a group of township eunuchs from the county to cheer.Although the battle is not as good as that of She County, there are also four high-ranking officials who were born in Jinshi. Huizhou is really too powerful. It is just a fight between the two counties under its jurisdiction that can pull out so many celebrities.

Three days later, on May 25, Jixi County also joined the battle group, led by the magistrate.

With Wuyuan County gaining time, Jixi County is more fully prepared.Chen Jiace, the county magistrate, chose another defense strategy, and put the breakthrough point on "exclusive acquisition of raw silk".

Shuai Jiamo had a question at the beginning: There are six counties in Huizhou, why is raw silk collected in She County alone?This is unreasonable at all, so all six counties must lose.He also cited many examples. For example, Changzhou Mansion paid tribute to tea, and the "Da Ming Hui Dian" stated that it was "collected from Yixing County";Therefore, if the collection of raw silk is only in Shexian County, the "Daming Huidian" will definitely write "collection in Shexian County" alone.

In response to this question, Chen Jiace listed a lot of counterexamples: the mung beans in Songjiang Prefecture are only collected by Huating County, and Shanghai County does not need to take care of them; There is no need to pay; the hemp land in Jinhua Prefecture is only collected from Wuyi County, and the two items of silk and yarn are collected from Tangxi, and other counties do not have to pay.

After listing all these items, Chen Jiace said that it is normal for a government to collect one type of materials in a certain county alone, and it is impossible for the "Da Ming Hui Dian" to cover everything.So Shuai Jiamo's questioning was purely due to his lack of knowledge and was unreasonable.

Oh, by the way, Jixi, as the smallest county among the six counties, has no living Jinshi in hand, so it had to rummage through the boxes and draw out three joint signatures.

Wuyuan and Jixi counties took the lead.On June [-]th, Xiuning and Qimen counties finally agreed.

Chen Lu, the county magistrate of Xiuning, should also be a top academic figure.He prepared for nearly a month, and with a strong army, he simply tore through those twists and turns, and shot straight at the core of Shexian County-numbers.

The core question of She County or Shuai Jiamo lies in the fact that the figures of the two taxes do not match:
She County "summer tax raw silk" replenishes 9700 stones of summer wheat and folds more than 4000 pieces of silk; however, Shexian County has to pay 8780 pieces of "personal silk" every year.The extra 4000 horses must have been borne by the other five counties!

Regarding this question, Chen Lu gave his own investigation results:
He found that during the Yisi reform, the Xingzhong Secretary not only seized the 9700 shi owed by She County to Xia Mai, but also re-examined some abandoned mulberry fields in the two townships of Dengying and Mingde under its jurisdiction. And confiscated the fields of Cheng Huixiang and Ye Zhong, two big landlords.These lands are re-measured and recorded, and then the taxes are recalculated.

Adding up the three items owed to summer wheat, abandoned mulberry fields, and confiscated fields, the new taxes in Shexian County amounted to 10974.3 catties of raw silk.For every 24 taels of raw silk, one piece of silk is folded, so the total is 8779 pieces, without any problem. (That's the source material.)
Chen Lu's investigation results don't stop there.

She County obviously does not produce silk, so why should raw silk be used as a tax discount?
Chen Lu inspected it and found that Dengying, Mingde, Renli, Yongfeng, Xiaoti and other townships under the jurisdiction of She County originally had mulberry gardens, but the other five counties never had them.Apparently, raw silk is a special local tribute in She County.In the tenth year of Hongwu (1377), the 24th year (1391), the tenth year of Yongle (1412), and the 18th year of Chenghua (1482), the amount of this tax was adjusted.In the 14th year of Hongzhi (1501), the court adjusted the ratio of raw silk and silk from 24 taels to 20 taels, but the quota of 8779 pieces remained unchanged.

Although She County does not raise silkworms now and has to buy silk from other places, it was obviously able to rely on self-production back then.The silk tax collected by the imperial court can only be collected from She County.

As for why the "Huizhou Fuzhi" did not mention the fact that there were mulberry in She County, it is very simple, because the "Huizhou Fuzhi" was first compiled by officials from Shexian County, and of course it had to be mixed with private goods!

As for why in the records of "Da Ming Hui Dian", it is only written that "Ren Ding Si Ju" was confiscated in Huizhou Prefecture, and it was not written that it was confiscated in She County alone. Chen Lu's explanation is only three words-it is unnecessary.The Huidian is a state-level archive, and it is enough to only record it in the prefecture, and there is no need to write it down to the county in such detail.What's more, each prefecture has its own situation, and it is absurd to use the example of other prefectures to question this prefecture.

Chen Lu's answer was by far the sharpest among the five counties' counterattacks.Even if Shuai Jiamo had a face-to-face debate, he would probably find it very difficult.

In contrast, in Qimen County, where homework is handed in on the same day, the Shen Wen is extremely boring, nothing more than clichés and crying for poverty.There was no way, because there was a vacancy in the magistrate of Qimen at that time, and the application was written by Liu Shoude, the county magistrate.

After more than a month, on July 21, Yi County finally submitted the last application.

With Wu Guan, Chen Jiace, and Chen Lu sitting in front of him, Chen Zhengmo, the magistrate of Yi County, seemed much more relaxed.In Shenwen, he absently repeated the opinions of the previous magistrates, and then said a slightly sarcastic remark: She County is so big, even if the silk tax is reduced, it is nothing more than removing a boat on the river; Our Yi County is very, very poor now, adding even a little bit of tax, it would be like a chronically ill person eating aconitum, unable to bear it at all!

So in Huizhou in the third year of Wanli, you can see a grand occasion like a novel of gods and demons: officials from six counties soared into the sky, offering magic weapons and supernatural powers one after another, and swaying letters like snowflakes, spraying each other wantonly, foaming at each other. splash.The eunuchs of the six counties are also secretly channeling their internal power to support the county magistrates in their fight to the death.

After the five counties counterattacked, they were able to draw with She County.But the movement of the gods fighting was too great, and as a result, all the local people were alarmed.The issue of Tian Fu is the most sensitive thing for the common people.As soon as they inquired, they couldn't sit still.It's okay to win, but what if the magistrate loses?Don't we just have to increase taxes for nothing?
This is not possible, you have to work hard and make the momentum as big as possible!So under the deliberate instigation of the township eunuchs, all of a sudden, the people of the six counties were gearing up to join in this great debate.

Huizhou custom has always been litigious, and when people encounter problems, the first reaction is to petition and sue.However, the Huizhou government is now involved in a lawsuit and cannot mediate this dispute.As a result, the people of the six counties focused their attention on the higher-level government agencies.

In the next six months, the entire Jiangnan officialdom was really bustling.Some people from She County went to Bingbei Dao to complain, some unjust scholars from Wuyuan County went to Yingtian Governor to complain, and some Jixi County scholars went to Yingtian Xun to complain.As long as the yamen has anything to do with Huizhou affairs, they have almost been harassed by them.The two courts and the government offices of Bingbei Road were full of people, and there were more people filing complaints than giving gifts. It almost turned into a lively scene of a nationwide lawsuit.

Faced with this dilemma, the two courts, in addition to repeatedly urging the Huizhou government to come up with a conclusion, also repeatedly emphasized in the document: "It is still forbidden to tell the scholars and the people not to bother." It can be seen that the higher authorities were really harassed.

But where is the conclusion so easy to come up with?In other words, how dare the Huizhou government come up with conclusions?Now the controversy is not only at the official level, but even among the people are arguing endlessly, which has even led to several cross-county fights.People in the six counties are accumulating grievances, who dares to provoke them?

Seeing that the stalemate was about to turn into chaos, at the end of the third year of Wanli, on the first day of December, Shuai Jiamo, the instigator of the silk turmoil, finally made another move.

Shuai Jiamo didn't have any new evidence in his hands, but he combined all the previous materials to give a complete story.In this story, at the beginning of the Republic of China, the imperial court conscripted 8780 pieces of "human silk silk" from Huizhou, which were shared among six counties.As a result, the household officials in Huizhou Prefecture were from five counties, so they coaxed She County to come first.After She County agreed, Hufang falsified the tax into the subject of "Xia Tax Raw Silk".Since then, Huizhou has collected "summer tax on raw silk" in Shexian County, and paid "people's silk" upwards, and has been cheating for 200 years.

Regarding the rebuttals of Wu Guan, Chen Jiace, and Chen Lu, Shuai Jiamo did not say a word.

The Huizhou government received Shuai Jiamo's report and forwarded it to the six counties again, asking for a collegiate discussion.This forwarded official document revealed an important message, explaining why the Huizhou government, which had been indifferent to it, suddenly restarted the investigation of the silk case at the beginning of the year.

According to the requirements of the official document, the Huizhou government needs to attach to the front the previous instructions of the competent departments at all levels on the silk incident.From this information, we can see the clues of the circulation of documents.

It turned out that as early as the beginning of the year, the Nanjing household department issued a document, asking the Huizhou government to ask you to investigate the "human silk" four years ago.

In the fifth year of Longqing, Shuai Jiamo went to Beijing to file a complaint, and successfully prompted the household department to issue a document urging the Huizhou government to investigate.Later, Shuai Jiamo disappeared, and then the emperor passed away. The Huizhou government thought that the superiors had forgotten about it, so they put it aside.

Who knows, after four years, the household department suddenly remembered this matter, and sent a letter to urge it.Moreover, the nature of the urging is different this time. It is clearly written in the front of the document: "According to the imperial decree: the Ministry of Households knows, hereby. I obey. Copy it out to the Ministry and send it to the Secretary."

By decree?This alarmed the emperor?
No, Emperor Wanli was still young at that time, this "according to the imperial decree" was actually an order from the cabinet, maybe it was the idea of ​​the chief assistant Zhang Juzheng.

Such a great god has been alarmed, do you think the Huizhou government is in a panic?Therefore, starting from February of the third year of Wanli, the Huizhou government uncharacteristically actively promoted the investigation of the silk case, and favored She County everywhere, resulting in a big debate among the six counties.

Now until the end of the year, the Huizhou government forwarded Shuai Jiamo's report and traveled to five counties.Wuxian jumped up immediately, and he didn't answer any of our questions, just talking to himself.

This time, the five counties not only did it, but formally formed a group, and co-authored an article "The People of Wuyi Complaints and Arguments to Reveal Posts".They are too lazy to talk too much, and the core meaning is just one, which is the previous proposal of Wu Guan, the magistrate of Wuyuan County: "Fu Qi found out that Hongwu made a yellow book in the early 14th year. Section, begging General Jiamo and others to punish him by the law!"

Let's check the original records of the yellow book, shall we, speak with evidence!
Not to be outdone, She County immediately responded with a mocking post: "Jiemeng Pai mentions the Dingmu papers of each county and takes any money and food to offset the reply. How can the counties resist and refuse to return, delaying the accountant, She suffers without extension, and begs Send someone to keep the mention, give it early and share it equally."

Translate: Your Excellency has already sent out the circular, asking all counties to quickly take out their own population and field records, check them carefully, and see how the money and food were paid in the past. It is a good answer to find out.Who would have thought that they were so bold and procrastinating, so far no results have been achieved, causing us She County to suffer but have nowhere to redress their grievances!I implore the Grand Master to send someone to submit a file for verification, and distribute this heavy tax among the six counties to show fairness!

You yourself are unwilling to take out the files in the county for reconciliation, and you are procrastinating in every possible way. How dare you ask about the yellow book?
Then the two sides jumped up and tore apart again, tearing until the sky was dark.

Song Yiwang, the inspector, saw this scene, and wrote a letter to remind the Huizhou government: "The She people have accumulated anger for a long time, and the disputes in the five counties are also strong. They show a sense of equality and consider the method of accommodating. Although there is partiality, it cannot be reset. Private beak."

It can be seen that the higher-ups also know what the situation in the six counties is like at this time, and they are afraid that it will lead to civil chaos, so there is a sense of "stop reasoning, make peace, and quickly settle this matter" in the words.

All the pressure from top to bottom fell on the hapless Huizhou government.

The Huizhou government thought, well, I'm not going to have a good year, and none of you will have a good time.

On December [-]th of the third year of Wanli, the Huizhou government issued a reminder document to the five counties, with an unprecedentedly strict attitude: "Combine the counties of Dingtian mu of the county's people, and report to Xinghuo, and do not confuse people with words." , hindering the transfer, this is the most urgent matter, and there is no room for delay, if it is violated, the official will not be loaned." The five counties are required to hand over all the county files, without delay or withholding.

It is said that the Chinese New Year is only less than half a month away. According to the Chinese tradition, we will talk about anything after the New Year.Now the Huizhou government doesn't even care about this tradition. It can be seen that the magistrate is really impatient.

So, on December 25, Wu Guan, the magistrate of Wuyuan County, went into battle again.

This time, Wu Guan brought a sharper weapon and fixed on several arguments of Shuai Jiamo.

First, Shuai Jiamo said that the figures calculated from "people's silk" and "summer tax raw silk" are incorrect.

He was wrong!

The reformation of Yisi took place on April 9766 of that year.She County owed a total of 9 stones, 3 buckets, 6 liters, and 3646 spoons—this figure was estimated to be found out by a Virgo person, so for the [-] hectares of lightly rented farmland in the county, an additional four dollars per mu of raw silk was collected.This tax was officially recorded in the yellow book file during the Hongwu period.

而按照当时的折率，生丝1两折麦7升。歙县亏补的9766石9斗3升6勺麦子，补生丝9041斤，算下来正好是7升麦子补丝1两。完全对得上。（原始资料即如此。）
Wu Guan also sneered casually, Shuai Jiamo, how can you use money to settle this matter?From the beginning of the country to the present, money has changed so much that it cannot be used as a reference.You are a layman.

Second, Shuai Jiamo said that the "Daming Huidian" recorded that Huizhou government expropriated 8780 pieces of "human silk" and did not say which county would hand it over, so of course the six counties would share it equally, otherwise it should be noted that She County lost alone.

He got it wrong!

Chen Lu has cited many counterexamples before, but Wu Guan has prepared more "ammunition" this time.

The "summer tax silk cotton" in Zhejiang is collected from the eight prefectures including Hangzhou, and the three prefectures of Wenzhou, Taiwan and Chu do not have to pay.However, in the "Da Ming Hui Dian", it only states that the Chief Secretary of Zhejiang Province levies "Xia Tax Silk Cotton". Why not specify Hangzhou and other eight prefectures?

Because this is the writing principle of "Da Ming Hui Dian": in Zhili, the government is mentioned but not the county;If everything is noted, how thick is "Da Ming Hui Dian"?
Let’s talk about the two examples given by Shuai Jiamo—the tea from Changzhou Prefecture is marked as produced in Yixing, and the papaya in Ningguo Prefecture is marked as produced in Xuancheng. They are special tribute products, right?What does it have to do with Tian Fu?
Third, Shuai Jiamo once put forward a theory: while She County owed Xia Mai, the other five counties also owed it, and the total amount owed by the six counties happened to match the tax amount of "Rending Sijuan".

He was wrong!

Wu Guan also made a very in-depth investigation on this doubtful point.

Before Yisi reformed the department, She County produced 19,632 shi of wheat and 17,688 shi of rice; Wuyuan produced 8315 shi of wheat and 8315 shi of rice.In the next year, while She County was in short supply for wheat production, Wuyuan produced 8000 shi of wheat, and indeed owed 300 shi of wheat, but the rice harvest was bumper, which was far higher than 8315 shi of wheat, so there was no need to replenish wheat, and naturally there was no need to pass it on to Shexian County. superior.

Fourth, Shuai Jiamo said that the petty officials of the five counties in the household house secretly tampered with the tax subjects and deceived She County.

To this question, Wu Guan simply replied: She County Chief is not an idiot, even if the She County Chief is an idiot, the common people are not stupid either.Such a large tax amount has to be paid out in real money, how can it be concealed by changing the figures?

After saying this, he added in an indifferent way: "You said that Huizhou household houses are controlled by petty officials from the five counties, but don't forget that Yin Zhengmao, the current minister of Nanjing's household department, belongs to your county." The subtext is, You said that the person in charge of the household house will favor the hometown for selfishness, so wouldn't the hall officials who control the household department be even more selfish? "

The origin of Yin Zhengmao mentioned by Wu Guan is not simple.He is a native of Shexian County. He was governor of Guangxi and together with Yu Dayou put down Wei Yinbao's rebellion. The Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing happened to be changed to the Minister of the Ministry of Households in Nanjing at this time.

The Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing happened to be in charge of the matter of silk and silk, so Wu Guan made it clear because he was afraid that Yin Zhengmao would secretly favor She County.

At the end of the article, Wu Guan once again emphasized the previous request of the five counties to reveal the posts: to check the records of Hongwu for 14 years as soon as possible to find out what happened.

Two days later, Shuai Jiamo did not reply. Instead, Yao Xuemin, the magistrate of She County, came to flatter him.

But this time, he didn't fight Wu Guan with all his strength, instead he showed his fighting skills, and everyone talked about him.

"Our tax burden in Shexian County is really too heavy. Please see, sir, the four divisions of Huizhou have 16,212 taels of silver, and Shexian County has to bear 5361 taels, and the other five counties have a total burden of 10,851 taels. Brick material silver is 708 taels, and Shexian County The burden is 234 taels, and the other five counties bear a total of 473 taels. Military supplies are 12,215 taels, She County bears 4032 taels, and the other five counties bear a total of 8183 taels. These are miscellaneous taxes other than regular taxes, and She County bears one-third of Huizhou One, extremely heavy. How can you have the heart to throw the 'human silk silk' on our heads again?"

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that from the perspective of reason, the balance of victory and defeat is beginning to tilt towards the five counties.Wu Guan's sharp offensive almost defeated every argument of She County, so Yao Xuemin had to take a defensive position, no longer fighting head-on, and playing the emotional card instead.

But things are finally making some progress.At the end of the application, Yao Xuemin also agreed that the yellow book should be investigated as soon as possible to find the original records.

There was no immediate response to this application.No way, the release time is December 27th, and it’s almost the end of the new year, so let’s wait until the end of the new year to talk about anything!
So the quarreling parties went home separately, and spent a new year in a lively manner.It was not until February of the fourth year of Wanli (1576) that Qimen, Jixi, Xiuning, and Yi counties were restored one after another.Their attitude is very clear, they support the opinions of Wuyuan County, and urge the investigation of the yellow book as soon as possible.

At the same time, the five counties threw out another piece of more explosive evidence.

They dug out the land files in their own county and co-compiled a "Wuyi Investigating the Origin of Silk and Silk Papers".This speech is boring, but quite lethal.It contains the changes in the tax quotas and increases and decreases for each county after the Yisi reform, which is extremely detailed.

The original text is long and cumbersome, so I will post the tax report of Xiuning County, so that everyone can see the effect.

The original amount of summer tax wheat is 99 shi, four buckets, five liters, two-in-one, two spoons, and autumn grain rice is 840, nine shi, eight dou, seven liters, eight-in-one, and six spoons.Change Kodomai 93 stones, two buckets, two liters, one combination and eight spoons, the silver is 210 four taels and eight cents five cents one centimeter and three cents.Jiami 850, one stone, four buckets, eight liters, and eight liters, the silver is 740 seven taels, seven cents, one centimeter and seven cents.A total of 62 taels and 260 cents of silver for Mai Mi.At the beginning of the country, the county's money and food should be two-thirds of She, but now it is equal to the number, and it is [-] eight taels and seven cents and five cents more silver than She.

With such meticulousness, it can be seen that the ancients were not ambiguous in terms of data.

Pay attention to the last sentence "Which one will be offset?" At the end of each county's report, a sentence "Which one will be offset" will be added, which means that our taxes are clear. Which tax item in your county is offset?
Each report was repeated five times in total, which was equivalent to five aggressive questioning.

As soon as the text was released, everyone who knew how to deal with it knew that something was wrong with She County.She County also felt that it was really difficult to respond to this, and immediately argued that it was built by the counties themselves, which may not be accurate, and it had to be determined by looking at the yellow book of the imperial court!

So, after nearly half a year of great debate, the two sides slowly focused on the yellow book.

In April of the fourth year of Wanli, Shexian County and the other five counties submitted a letter almost at the same time, officially requesting the transfer of the 14th year of Hongwu's Yellow Book.On May [-], the Huizhou government, with its head as big as a bucket, formally applied to the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs for access.

The yellow book is an important archive of the imperial court, and the archives of the past dynasties are stored in the back lake of Nanjing - Xuanwu Lake - the treasury.These are all confidential documents of the imperial court and cannot be retrieved casually.If you want to inquire, you must get the approval of the Nanjing Household Department.

In fact, before this, She County had already secretly sent people to Nanjing, secretly wanting to grab the upper hand.Unexpectedly, the Ministry of Household Affairs directly kicked back the person who went there, citing "Yue Shen".Because the Yellow Book Bank is an institution under the Ministry of Household Affairs, not all small states and counties can come to check it casually.To investigate, the Huizhou government has to file an application.

Xiuning County and Wuyuan County also secretly sent people to apply for inquiries, but they were kicked back by Yellow Book Library for the same reason.Although none of the three counties succeeded, it can be seen how fierce the struggle between each other is under the water.

This time the Huizhou government came forward to apply, and the Nanjing household department finally approved it.The Huizhou government hurriedly organized an investigation team, consisting of the county magistrates of Shexian County, Wuyuan County magistrates, and Xiuning County students and teachers, and they were going to Nanjing for investigation.

According to Song Yi, Ying Tianxun was an old Jianghu, and he was a little worried that even if he checked the yellow book, Huizhou people would still be entangled.No matter which side the query results in favor of, the other side is bound to make a fuss.In order to avoid these troubles, Song Yiwang specially appointed Liu Gai, the official of the Taiping Prefecture, Shi Yuanxi, the official of the Ningguo Prefecture, and Shu Bangru, the official of the Huizhou Prefecture, from Yugan, Jiangxi Province, to join the review of the yellow book as a neutral third party. team.

In order to prevent possible riots, Song Yiwang also instructed the Huizhou government to first control the few people who took the lead in making troubles in various counties.During the big debate in the six counties last year, apart from a few county magistrates, there was a lot of discussion among the people, and a few opinion leaders emerged.These opinion leaders have a great influence in the county. They either wave the flag to cheer for the county, or frequently submit letters, petitions, and appeals, and they will update the people on the latest progress at any time.The people are happy when they hear the victory, and complain when they hear the defeat. The people rely on them to make such a big noise.

From Song Yiwang's point of view, the public grievances below were all fooled by these big mouths.Seeing that the yellow book is about to be checked, we can't make these people change, so let's close it for a while.

So together with Shuai Jiamo, Huang Tang, Cheng Wenchang, Wang Fugao, Wu Minshi, Hu Guoyong and other most influential ordinary people in the five counties were all controlled.But Shuai Jiamo was soon released, because he, as the first advocate, had to go to Nanjing.

After eliminating this variable, the investigation team of Huizhou Prefecture set off on July 23 in the fourth year of Wanli and arrived in Nanjing on the evening of July 26. On the 200th, the investigation team submitted a paper to the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs and was summoned the next day.Yin Zhengmao, Shangshu of the Ministry of Household Affairs, encouraged them and said: "There is no reason to change the [-]-year yellow book. Everyone can feel at ease." The principal assists.

However, when the two of them heard the investigation team's request, they both showed embarrassment, saying that it has been so long, and they may not be able to find out.The investigation team is in a hurry, we came all the way here just to take a look, please help anyway.

On the second day of August, the investigative team finally entered Houhu and saw the long-awaited yellow book.Immediately afterwards, their eyes went dark.

The yellow book is made every ten years.The 14th year of Hongwu happened to be the time when the first batch of yellow books were collected. Counting from that time to the fourth year of Wanli, a total of [-] batches were made, and the accumulated number of yellow books can be described as vast.

Among other things, the yellow books related to Huizhou Prefecture alone are filled with twenty shelves.For porters alone, 150 people have to be hired temporarily.And the investigative team can check the files?A total of three people are the county magistrates of She County, Wuyuan County, and Xiuning County, plus a non-staff Shuai Jiamo.These four people immersed themselves in the investigation, and it is estimated that the investigation will be completed by the end of August.

The key is that they can't go into the warehouse to check in person.According to the rules of the yellow book warehouse, outsiders are not allowed to enter the warehouse to prevent tampering and daubing.What should I do if I want to check?The officials in the yellow book library had to find the relevant files, copy them first, and then send the copies to them.This is safe and responsible, but extremely inefficient.

But what can I do?Wait!A few unlucky members of the investigation team rolled up their sleeves and began to rummage through piles of old papers.

These poor children did not expect that while they were working hard, another accident happened in Huizhou Mansion.

On August [-]th, a student named Xu Yichun from She County suddenly wrote to the Huizhou government, proposing a new theory: "The records in the Yellow Book are not so reliable! Because they are all made by local people, and they want to tamper with the truth." It's too easy. The "Da Ming Hui Dian" was compiled by the imperial court and is more authoritative. If there is a contradiction between the Yellow Book and the "Da Ming Hui Dian", the latter should prevail."

All of a sudden, public opinion in the five counties was in an uproar.In their view, this claim is absurd.The yellow book was supervised by the imperial court at the beginning of the country, how could the local people tamper with it?And "Da Ming Hui Dian" is a manual of government regulations. How can second-hand data compare with original data in credibility?
No need to ask, this is because She County knew that the results of the yellow book search were not good for him, so he started to create momentum!
The five counties were unequivocal, and immediately issued a counterattack, and the words on both sides became more and more ugly.You scold me for "doing nothing to evade, insulting the text, slandering the law and disordering the government", I scold you for "the five counties are cunning, acting recklessly". Suppress the tiger and reassure the people."Look at this wording, suppress the tiger, this is wishing to suppress the other party as a bandit.

As a result, just as Song Yiwang feared, one group of troublemakers was locked up, and another group came again, and they couldn't finish arresting them all.Under their instigation, the counties immediately boiled again, and the situation was once again in chaos.

The unlucky Huizhou government went around to appease, and at the same time urged Nanjing to come up with a result as soon as possible.

This will wait until mid-September.The investigation team finally completed their work and sorted out a copy of the yellow book from the 14th year of Hongwu to the sixth year of Longqing.

What followed was a report by Shuai Jammu.

In the report, Shuai Jiamo said that there were many defects in the yellow book made by Hongwu in 14 years, especially the most critical "Yisi Reformation" and the records of reformation on April [-] of that year were completely lost.

Gone?

Gone!

Everyone was dumbfounded when they heard the news.

The people of the six counties are eager to see through their eyes, and they are counting on the yellow book to uphold justice.You talked so loudly before, but now you tell me that the file is lost and there is no proof of death, so what should I do?
Shuai Jiamo had already prepared for this, and wrote in the second half of the report in a leisurely manner: From the reform of the department in the Yisi year to the compilation of the book in the 14th year of Hongwu, there was a difference of 16 years. It is not enough to believe that the ambition is the first and the book is the last.Then throw a sentence:

"Chesi's "Da Ming Hui Dian" is the charter of the ancestors' legislation, and the yellow book is a picture book compiled by the people... How can the treacherous point out that the government annals yellow book is an established law, and play the "Da Ming Hui Dian" in vain, This letter is a private book."

It means: the original records of the Yellow Book kept by the imperial court are gone, so everyone must believe in the authority of the "Da Ming Hui Dian".

Well, things took a big turn and came back to the original point.

All in vain.

To be honest, Shuai Jiamo's proposition is really unreasonable.How can compilations be more reliable than original records?It's nothing more than the fact that the "Da Ming Hui Dian" is beneficial to She County, so he clings to this point.

The news spread back to Huizhou, adding another spoonful of oil to the already fierce public opinion.The people in the counties of Huizhou Prefecture were almost outraged. They gave up reasoning and directly changed to personal attacks.Later, he simply started cursing, swearing, and everything.Six counties are almost on the brink of war.

Section [-] Mud and Riot
The chaos in Huizhou Prefecture became more and more troublesome, and the Ministry of Household Affairs finally couldn't stand it anymore, and quickly issued an official document.

At the beginning of this official document, the Ministry of Households admitted: "If the headquarters follows the play of She County, the five counties will not follow; if it follows the play of the five counties, She County will not follow. .”

It's not a solution for you to scold like this every day.Now that the yellow book is gone, how to solve it?The Ministry of Finance gave a solution:
The Ministry of Household Affairs and Ying Tianxun will provide a departmental and government quota of Huizhou Prefecture (that is, the amount of tax sent to the Ministry of Accountancy and Yingtian every year), and then ask Huizhou Prefecture to count the grains of the six counties, plus the retained rice , government office expenses, and various additional money and food, and finally divide and average.If the 8780 pieces of raw silk are counted and the figures are even, it means that the silk tax belongs to She County;

The algorithm given by the Ministry of Finance seems a little unreasonable.The population and fields of the six counties are all different, and the fields of different grades, taxation amount and content are also different. It is too simple and rude to convert such a large sum of money into an average.

There are a lot of actuarial experts in the household department, how could they come up with such a muddled idea?
The mystery lies in the word "average". This is the second time this word has entered our field of vision.

The last time Shuai Jiamo used this word was in Long Qingnian, successfully responding to the country's call, which caught Hai Rui's attention.But this time, the Ministry of Households used this word, which naturally had a purpose - because the chief assistant of the dynasty, Mr. Zhang Juzheng, was planning to spread the whip method to the whole country.

Although Zhang Juzheng really started to clear Zhang Tianmu until the sixth year of Wanli (1578), he officially implemented a whip method across the country in the ninth year of Wanli (1581).But in the fourth year of Wanli, various preparatory work has been gradually carried out.As the tax law enforcement department, the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs is naturally the most sensitive to political trends, and they must keep up with the new situation of the central government.

From the perspective of the Ministry of Household Affairs, why is there a dispute in Huizhou?It is because the types of taxes are too complicated and chaotic. There are so many subjects that are so confusing.Raw silk is handed in for a while, and summer wheat is handed in for a while. It is a mess and the conversion is complicated. This is the drawback of the old tax system.

If we can re-count the number of acres of small grain fields in Huizhou Prefecture, and then combine all the taxes, divide the two, divide them evenly, and then convert them into silver, this matter will be completely resolved.

This line of thinking happens to be one of the core contents of a whip method: combine all regular taxes and miscellaneous taxes, attribute them to the fields, and uniformly collect silver taels per mu.

That is to say, the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs believes that the problem in Huizhou is the fault of the old tax law. As long as it is changed to the new tax law, the problem will naturally disappear.Therefore, it is time to set aside historical disputes and implement the law of equal taxation and labor.

This reminds us of a past event: the Huizhou silk case was silent in the fifth year of Longqing, but at the beginning of the third year of Wanli, the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs suddenly brought up the old matter "according to the imperial decree", which made the Huizhou government anxious and restarted the investigation.

Could it be that from the very beginning, this was a move planned by the Ministry of Household Affairs—or, to take a bolder guess, Lord Shoufu—to implement the New Deal?
Only by using the silk case to trigger a big debate can the shortcomings of the old tax law be highlighted.At that time, the public opinion will be raging and they will all demand reforms. The court will follow the good advice and immediately implement a whip method.
When this plan from the Ministry of Household Affairs was sent to Huizhou, the prefect of Huizhou almost cried.Originally, the six counties were almost out of their minds, and your household department not only failed to solve it, but also added chaos.But this is an instruction from above, and there is no room for negligence, so the Huizhou government had no choice but to bite the bullet and start arduous calculations.

But if you think about it carefully, the yellow book has been lost, and the source of taxation has become a deadlocked lawsuit.It is a good way to cut through the mess so quickly and cut all the problems left over from history.

Huizhou government spent a whole month, and finally got the figures of the entire six counties before the end of October.At the same time, Ying Tianxun, according to the tax collectors of the two courts, also completed the combing of the ministry and government.The numbers on both sides were added together and finally divided, and a result was quickly produced.

Under this calculation, the money and food in She County have exceeded the average amount of the counties.In other words, "human silk" is indeed an additional burden.

The tone of the conclusion is very ambiguous, but the attitude is very clear: How did the "Ren Ding Sijuan" tax come from in the first place, there is no need to delve into it, but now that it is under the average, it is obviously inappropriate to let She County lose alone. The six counties have to bear it together.

When the news reached Huizhou, the five counties were in an uproar, and the crowd was indignant.When these people thought about it, Yin Zhengmao, Shangshu of the Ministry of Household Affairs, was from She County. No need to ask, he must have bent the law for personal gain and favored his hometown.

All of a sudden, the entire Huizhou Prefecture, except Shexian County, scolded the dignified Master Shangshu endlessly.Some people said that Yin Zhengmao "knew that there was no solution to the loss, so he borrowed the facts from the family department to state the case, so he used it to show his selfishness", and some denounced the law of equality, "regardless of the origin, regardless of the fertility, it is all accommodating and mixed, and in the name of equality, It is a plan for chaos", and some even scolded the entire household department, "use the household department's private plan to market private favors, and use the ministers to make chaos into law."There were all sorts of nasty words, but I don't know how many times Yin Zhengmao sneezed in Nanjing.

There was a lot of criticism from the people, but the government had to continue to solve the problem.

According to the average report, She County was burdened with additional taxes, which had to be mitigated.But how to operate it will have to be discussed in detail by the local government.

However, this matter cannot be left to Liuxian to decide by himself, it must be killed.

Xun Press Song Yiwang understood the spirit of his superiors, and entrusted this matter to the three supervisory officials who investigated the yellow book: Liu Gai, the Taiping government official, Shi Yuanxi, the Ningguo government official, and Shu Bangru, the Huizhou government official.

On the eighth day of November in the fourth year of Wanli, three officials gathered in Taiping Mansion outside Huizhou. Under the auspices of the Governor's Court, they quickly discussed a solution.

"Ren Ding Silk" will continue to be paid by She County alone, and 8780 pieces of silk are equivalent to 6145 taels of silver, which will not be revoked.However, She County subtracted 5260 taels from the average silver of the four divisions, brick materials, military supplies, etc., and distributed it to the other five counties.

Here I want to explain in particular that the so-called average silver refers to a product of a labor law reform that appeared in the south of the Yangtze River during the Jiajing period.

In addition to paying land taxes, the people of Ming Dynasty also had to pay corvee and provide labor services to governments at all levels free of charge.There are many kinds of corvee, and the common people suffer unspeakably.The average level of silver is to let the government calculate the total number of corvees needed each year, convert the labor cost into silver taels, and distribute it to each mu of land, so that the common people pay the average level of silver per mu.When forced labor is needed, the government allocates funds from this money to hire manpower.

In other words, ordinary people don't have to go to the corvee in person, just pay the money, and don't delay their own farming time.The government is also very happy. It is more convenient and more efficient to hire people to work than to recruit strong men from family to family.Moreover, the apportionment of labor into the mu has also greatly reduced the government's workload.Kill three birds with one stone.

This approach has been tried out for several years and has become quite popular, so various governments have followed suit.Huizhou government also compiles the average silver every year, and the counties share the collection and allocate it to various purposes.The Sisi silver is the daily miscellaneous expenses of the yamen, the brick material silver is the repair cost of public facilities, and so on.

This Taiping government plan is to transfer the land tax to the slave bank.This can reflect the benefits of a whip method, both taxes and servitude can be converted into silver, and it is very convenient to merge and transfer each other.

The only problem is that it changes the soup but not the medicine, no matter how it moves, the five counties will suffer.Because they didn't have to pay a penny, but now they have to add more than 5000 taels of silver to the average silver for Shexian County.

This plan was reported to Feng Shuji, the deputy envoy of military preparations, and was rejected.

There is no problem with offsetting the average silver, but the food looks too ugly.A total of 6145 taels of silk tax was passed on to 5260 taels to five counties, which means that She County only bears 14%, and other counties bear 86%. This is obviously obtained by dividing the total tax by the number of counties.

The problem is that the economic volume of She County accounts for half of Huizhou Prefecture, so it is impossible to simply average it out.It's okay for you to help She County, but don't make it so obvious.

With a swipe of his pen, Feng Shuji proposed a compromise plan: changing 5260 taels to 3300 taels.In this way, Shexian County and the other five counties bear 6145% and 46% of the total silk tax of 54 taels, roughly in line with their respective economic proportions. (The specific calculation method is very complicated, because after the average, the counties will have more or less silver, which will offset each other and be converted, so I won’t go into details here.)
This plan is a typical and muddy way of thinking: it puts the Yellow Book and the "Daming Huidian" aside, and does not care about the origin of the silk tax-historical issues should be rough rather than detailed.In short, now everyone takes a step back and each suffers a small loss. This matter is over, so stop making trouble.

At this time, it was already the fourth year of Wanli.During the Chinese New Year, everything came to a standstill.After the first month of the fifth year of Wanli (1577), the local government reported this plan to the Ministry of Household Affairs, and asked Shangshu Yin Zhengmao to make a decision.

For Feng Shuji's plan, Yin Zhengmao agreed very much, and even criticized three sentences: "Its name is especially correct, its words are especially smooth, and its affairs are especially easy." The satisfaction is beyond words.He reported this plan to Beijing, and played it to the emperor on April [-], and soon got the emperor's approval and issued an imperial edict.

At that time, Emperor Wanli had not yet been in power, which can basically be regarded as the opinion of the chief assistant.

The imperial decree was issued to the Ministry of Accounts, and then the Ministry of Accounts issued it further, and it was passed to Huizhou Prefecture level by level. It was the seventh day of June.Considering the round-trip distance between Beijing and the South, coupled with the processing and approval by the cabinet and governments at all levels, the circulation of this document is extremely rare and efficient.

To this edict, the reactions of the six counties were completely different.

The people of She County were ecstatic.Their original proposition was that the silk tax should be shared equally by the six counties, and this distribution plan was exactly what they wanted.

Since then, their taxes have dropped by more than 3000 taels of silver.From the third year of Longqing to the fifth year of Wanli, the eight-year war of resistance finally won a complete victory.

The other five counties stared dumbfounded at the imperial decree, unable to believe it was true.Our plea is in vain?The yellow book was checked for nothing?Reasonable?We refuted every proposition of Shexian County to the point where it was wiped out when the Ministry of Household Affairs said "equal"?

The five counties had obviously presented extremely strong evidence, but because of the trouble in She County, it finally got a huge benefit.

The five counties scoffed at this distribution plan for Taiping Prefecture.Do you want to fool us by retaining the empty name of "human silk" and replacing it with the name of "average silver"?In the end, it's not about sharing the burden equally among the six counties!A well-known eunuch in Wuyuan sarcastically said: "This is a trick of going from place to place and playing with us like monkeys."

All of a sudden, the discussions in the five counties were raging, and all of them were filled with righteous indignation, as if a pot had been boiled over.However, this is not a government meeting, not a ministry meeting, but an imperial decree, which represents the highest will.Even if everyone was dissatisfied, they did not dare to criticize the emperor publicly.If the Huizhou government took the opportunity to appease them, maybe they would swallow this dumb loss and accept the fait accompli.

But a not-so-accidental accident completely detonated the whole situation.

At the same time that Feng Shuji submitted the plan, Shuai Jiamo also quietly rushed to Nanjing for the second time.With a sum of money provided by the eunuch of She County, he went to Beijing to operate.After the imperial decree was issued, Shuai Jiamo successfully completed the task and returned to Huizhou happily.

Years of hard work finally came true, and he was so happy that he thought it was time to reward himself, so he used the sponsorship money to get himself a crown from the relevant department.

The imperial court sometimes bestows crowns and belts on senior elders in the village, which is called crown belt honors.Occasionally, it is also awarded to young people who are brave and good, called crowned righteous men.This is an honorary decoration, similar to a big red flower hanging on the chest today.

Shuai Jiamo felt that he had pleaded for the life of the people for eight years, and almost lost his life. It is not too much to wear a crown.

The people in She County thought so too.When Shuai Jiamo returned to She County, the people of the whole county crowded out to warmly welcome this great hero who brought down bad taxes by himself.They held a very grand welcome ceremony, everyone cheered with red flowers in their hands, and there was a band playing beside them.After Shuai Jiamo entered the city, surrounded by the people, he went down the street to celebrate. Wherever he went, there were crowds of voices, as if a hero had returned home.

The gongs and drums in Xiangshe County are loud here, but the people in the five counties of Xiangshe are going to explode with rage.Every cheer from the county town turned into a slap in the face and slapped them heavily on the face.After fighting for eight years, the Shexian guy took advantage of this advantage, and he is still acting like a good boy!Especially seeing Shuai Jiamo, a treacherous villain, showing off his power on the street at this time, and thinking about the heavy tax burden in the future, the volcano in the hearts of the people in the five counties could no longer be suppressed and completely erupted.

Didn't you in She County make a tax cut by making trouble?OK, let's make trouble too!
On June [-], the imperial decree was forwarded to Wuyuan County.At that time, Wu Guan had already resigned, and Xu Tingzhu was temporarily appointed by the Huizhou government to act as government affairs agent.Xu Tingzhu happened to be going to Beijing to enter the congratulatory table, and before he could leave, the Yamen was blocked by thousands of angry Wuyuan people.Holding wooden sticks and torches, they guarded the Yamen for a day and a night, asking Xu Tingzhu to report to the higher authorities to stop this unfair tax increase plan, and they were not allowed to leave if they did not agree.

Facing the people who were about to explode, Xu Tingzhu had no choice but to verbally agree, and then left in panic.Immediately, the Huizhou government sent Shu Bangru, an official, to take over Wuyuan County.

Shu Bangru can be regarded as one of the initiators of this Taiping Mansion plan. After he received the appointment, he knew that this matter was extremely difficult.But with the appointment in hand, he had to hurry on the road.Shu Bangru was on his way while thinking about how to appease the people of Wuyuan.Unexpectedly, just after he passed Xiuning County and before he arrived in Wuyuan, he was stopped by angry local people.

The mountains and plains in front of me are full of people, blocking the official way.Standing at the forefront of the crowd were the most noisy people in the area, and behind them were rows of dignified gentry.They stopped Shu Bangru's team, handed him a protest letter, and asked him to forward it to the Huizhou government.

【Note】

Li Pai: According to the "History of Ming Dynasty Shi Huo Zhi", the Ming Dynasty edited the Yellow Book of Taxes and Service, with 110 households as a li, and ten households with a large amount of food in the family were selected as the head of the li; People, one person is the leader.Every year, one village head and one head Jia are responsible for collecting taxes.So sorted, ten years is a cycle, which is the row year.Therefore, the head of the mile in a certain year is called the mile row.

Qimin: Qi, old, refers to a person over 60 years old, so Qimin is a person of high age and virtue.

It is said to be a Shenwen, but in fact it should be regarded as a battle essay.When he came up, he scolded Yin Zhengmao, Shangshu of the Ministry of Households, as "power traitors change the system and harm the people, and the power is overwhelming and there is no room for complaints." "—Have you heard that, the word "Sheni" has already been used, and it is almost treated as an enemy country.

The words in the future are even more ugly: "If you want to go to the palace to write a letter, you will make the crime of making chaos in Shengshe people a crime, and if you want to launch a decisive battle, you will punish the person who initiated the first provocation in Sheyi."

After scolding, he even issued a threat: "Once the dispatch is changed, the people of the county will be angry and clamor for dissatisfaction. If they are not punished in time, it may lead to great changes."

When Shu Bangru accepted the application, his face turned pale with fright.The Xiuning people were not polite, and dragged out his accompanying scribes and servants and beat them up.Fortunately, Shu Bangru has an official status, so no one dares to touch him.But looking at this battle, he can only do a little bit of low work, and then Shen Wen promised to help pass it on.

On June 29th, Shu Bangru finally crossed Xiuning and came to Wuyuan. He thought he could breathe a sigh of relief, but when he looked forward, his eyes went dark—and thousands of people gathered in one place again, covering the road and clamoring.

Again!
This time it was the people of Wuyuan. Under the leadership of the local gentry, 5000 people gathered around the chief.In the distance, a villager named Cheng Tianqiu actually erected a big flag outside the county seat, with a long banner on it: "A certain She Huan leaned on the household department, arbitrarily changed the ancestral system, messed up the editions, sprinkled Silk, poisonous to the five towns." That momentum is short of filling in the words "walking for the sky".

In this strange atmosphere, Shu Bangru tremblingly entered Wuyuan County.What he didn't expect was that what was waiting ahead was an even weirder situation - Wuyuan County had become self-governed.

As mentioned earlier, Wu Guan, the county magistrate of Wuyuan, has resigned, and Xu Tingzhu, the acting county administrator, is busy preparing to go to Beijing again. In June, there was a short ten-day power vacuum in Wuyuan County.

But at this time, the silk tax has caught up with the public opinion, the local tyrants have endless disputes, and there is no leader among the dragons.So, a caring person in Wuyuan County took advantage of the situation and rose up.

This person is Cheng Renqing, a local student who was originally in charge of signing the seal.His position in the whole silk case is second only to Shuai Jiamo, but his importance will not be revealed until the whole incident is over.

Cheng Renqing is a man with a heroic temperament. He is keenly aware of the power vacuum in Wuyuan County. If he uses the current situation to do something amazing, he can gain a very high reputation in his hometown, which will be of great benefit to the future.

So he made connections everywhere to win over the local rich and influential gentry and eunuchs. At the same time, he preached and incited ordinary people, declaring that if the imperial court refused to change the silk tax back, trouble would arise.Cheng Tianqiu's banner was Cheng Renqing's idea, and he carried it wherever he went.

The people of Wuyuan saw the majestic banner, and some people wanted to plead for the people, and their emotions were all high, cheering, cheering, and donating money.All of a sudden, Cheng Renqing's reputation soared, and he was in the limelight.

When Cheng Renqing felt that he had mastered Wuyuan's popularity, as the climax of the entire movement, he led his people to suddenly occupy the Ziyang Academy next to the Wuyuan County Government, and set up a discussion bureau, as if to set up another central government and establish an autonomous government.

【Note】

Discussion Bureau: The Discussion Bureau established by Cheng Renqing and others in Wuyuan County is a grass-roots group established by the people. It was officially judged as an illegal organization, and it was also one of Cheng Renqing's important crimes. The officials believed that he gathered more than a hundred people, appointed himself the chief, and arrested and beat officials. , Spend grain and rice, and even have to collect taxes from the whole county and put them into their own pockets, which is really a heinous crime.In fact, the meeting bureau in the modern sense entered China. It was also established by the Portuguese living in Macao during the Wanli period. It was also called the city council and the city hall. It is the highest authority for maintaining local law and order in various internal affairs.

Ziyang Academy, as soon as you hear the name, you know it has something to do with Zhu Xi.Old Master Zhu Xi and Zhu happened to be from Wuyuan, Huizhou, so this Ziyang Academy is so authentic that it cannot be more authentic.Cheng Renqing's occupation here was obviously planned long ago.

The purpose of the creation of this so-called council bureau—or the stated purpose—is to organize and coordinate the protests of the people in various counties against the silk tax.Cheng Renqing proclaimed himself the management bureau, and as soon as he took office, he prepared a large number of slogans, and wrote words such as "The autumn of heroes' meritorious deeds, the day of volunteers' service", and they were posted everywhere in ten miles and eight villages.

He even said excitedly: "But if there is no one in the row, I will catch up with the gate, and if there is a county that will not come, I will rush into the county and spread the word to the towns." Four counties to go.

As for the big flag, it was poked in the middle of the academy, majestic and majestic.It has become a symbolic agreement between Cheng Renqing and the counties, and has a name: Jibian Banner.

At that time Xu Tingzhu hadn't left yet, he felt that you were tossing around casually, but this big banner was really an eyesore.Cataclysm flag?What is radical change? It's just making trouble. Are you afraid that others will not treat you as traitors?

Under the pressure of the government, Cheng Renqing asked Cheng Tianqiu to move the banner outside the city, but the work of the council was not affected at all, and continued to be carried out in full swing.He has instigated several major events.

One was that thousands of people besieged the county government and forced Xu Tingzhu to pass on his grievances; the other was to mobilize Xiuning County to intercept Shu Bangru halfway and deliver Shenwen on his behalf;

In several major actions successively, the Council has demonstrated a strong coordination ability and created a great momentum in a short period of time.Cheng Renqing saw that the people's hearts were available, and quickly mobilized them to collect donations. Every stone, grain and rice collected six cents of silver to maintain operations.Seeing that several officials were forced to compromise, the common people felt that this bureau was really capable of great things, and they donated generously.Large sums of money just flowed into Ziyang Academy.

This bureau is a grass-roots team, with neither account books nor supervision, and Cheng Renqing decides how much to charge and how much to spend.If he wanted to profit from it, it couldn't be easier.

Money touches people's hearts, even if Cheng Renqing himself is clean, there is no way to guarantee that others will not be jealous.There was another student in the conference bureau named Cheng Wenlie. When he saw the large sum of money, he became greedy and secretly planned to take the position of the bureau.

The implementation of this plan was scheduled for the day after Shu Bangru entered Wuyuan County, July [-]st of the fifth year of Wanli.

Book next time.It is said that Shu Bangru tremblingly entered Wuyuan County, which has almost entered a state of autonomy, and arranged for promotion on July [-]st.Cheng Renqing, as the management bureau, also came to the county government office and waited for an interview with a group of Li Pai and elders.Before Xiuning and outside Wuyuan City, the Council of Discussions had caused the old man to suffer twice, and it was enough to get off the horse. Now that they have a face-to-face meeting, they can gain enough benefits.

A few people were talking, and a fast messenger from She County, named Wang Xue, happened to come.When the people from Wuyuan heard that they were from She County, their expressions immediately turned ugly.

"Kuaishou" is not the current "Kaishou", but refers to the policemen in the government office who are responsible for summoning lawsuits and delivering documents, together with the arresting officers who are responsible for arresting criminals, it is what we know as "Catcher".

However, the attitude of this younger generation is still very arrogant, saying that you should not dream of restoring the old system of silk tax. We in She County spent 700 taels of silver to settle Cheng Dehuan, the householder in the mansion, and even Cheng Renqing, your management bureau, also agreed.He patted his chest and said that he could persuade the five counties to pay the silk tax.

When the angry crowd heard this, they were furious, and they immediately clamored to drag out the treacherous Cheng Dehuan and Cheng Renqing.Cheng Wenlie took the opportunity and shouted with several others, leading the crowd to rush into the county government office.

Poor Cheng Renqing was a revolutionary hero one moment, and was beaten as a reactionary who betrayed Wuyuan the next moment.He protested loudly, but no one listened at all, he was directly pressed to the ground and beat up so badly that he almost vomited blood.Cheng Wenlie stood excitedly on the high stool, pointed at Cheng Renqing and said to beat me hard!The gang beat Xing to the head, even took out knives, coerced him from the county government to Ziyang Academy, and continued the violence.

In particular, it should be pointed out that this detailed description is not based on the author's imagination, but is really clearly recorded in historical materials.

But Cheng Wenlie and Cheng Renqing had a fight that hurt both sides, but another scholar named He Xiang benefited and sat in the seat of the management bureau.The first thing He Ni did after he ascended the throne was to embezzle public funds, but when he checked the bottom of the box, there was still six taels of silver left, which caused another round of internal strife.

Seeing this situation, Shu Bangru felt that the disturbance was really outrageous, and was about to write a letter back to the mansion to ask for help.The people of Wuyuan were worried that the scandal of the meeting bureau would be exposed, so they actually intercepted all the official documents sent to the Huizhou government and did not allow them to be delivered.Shu Bangru sat in the city of sorrow and sorrow, and now even the news was cut off.

There was great chaos on the side of the Wuyuan Council, and there was also a commotion on the side of Xiuning.

Under the leadership of Wu Dajiang, Cheng Shiming, several local scholars and Haoqiang, more than 1 villagers gathered, built wooden ladders, climbed directly to the top of the county government wall, tore up all the notices and smashed everything related to She County Then they raised the yellow flag high, shouted gongs and shouts around the county government day and night, and held Chen Lu, the county magistrate; The official locked up and took it to Beijing.

The people of Xiuning also learned the experience of "advanced" information control from the people of Wuyuan. ".

With the two counties of Wuyuan and Xiuning taking the lead, the other three counties also issued calls one after another, making trouble together.The people of the five counties stopped buying and selling, and they stopped planting land. They specially surrounded Shexian merchants at various intersections between Huizhou Prefecture and the outside world.There was even a group of radicals who claimed to break into Yin Zhengmao's property in She County, burn down the ancestral house, dig up the ancestral grave, and give the Minister of the Ministry of Households a good look.

All of a sudden, wars broke out in Huizhou, and government affairs were paralyzed.The entire Huizhou Prefecture is in complete chaos this time.

Huizhou Mansion can no longer sit still.The newly appointed prefect Xu Chengwei had a black line on his face, he was so wronged to death.It was obviously a matter of appeasement by the previous prefects, but the bomb didn't explode until he took office, which is really bullying.

It's a pity that the magistrate has no right to change the silk plan, and he dare not promise anything blindly. He can't solve the deep-seated contradictions, so he can only send countless official documents in vague words to try to appease him, and the effect can be imagined.

At the same time, Xu Chengwei didn't care about his face, and hurriedly sent a letter to the Fu, the two houses, and the Bingbei Road for help, asking his superiors to quickly come up with a solution, otherwise Huizhou might not even pay taxes this year.

Before the higher authorities had time to respond, the Huizhou incident set off another bizarre wave.

There is a group of garrisons in Wuyuan County. The leading officer is Zhao Lai, who is also from She County.He has always wanted to go home and have a look, but because of the strict military law, he dared not do anything.Catch up with the riot this time, he led his troops out of Wuyuan overnight and headed straight for Shexian County.In order to deceive people, Zhao Lai also sent his soldiers from She nationality to spread rumors everywhere, saying that Wuyuan people were going to riot. (This statement comes from Wuyuan, the authenticity is very doubtful, let me just listen to it.)
【Note】

Ba Zong: According to the records of "History of the Ming Dynasty Bing Zhi", the Beijing camp in the Ming Dynasty was divided into three major battalions, with commanders such as Qian Zong and Ba Zong;Therefore, the commander-in-chief is under the leadership of a thousand, leading dozens to hundreds of soldiers, and is the grassroots leader in the army, which is equivalent to the current platoon leader or company commander.

The people of Wuyuan were furious when they heard rumors made in She County that they were rebelling.The person in charge of the coordination arrived in Xiuning. Wu Dajiang, the leader of Xiuning's side, said that you didn't play hard enough, look at us!

They had already kidnapped Chen Lu, the magistrate of Xiuning County, so the official seal could be arbitrarily stamped.In the name of the magistrate of Xiuning County, Wu Dajiang sent flying reports to the chief bureaus of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong, claiming that Xiuning and Wuyuan counties had been invaded by more than 1 thieves. He was taken away, Shu Bangru, the deputy county affairs officer in Wuyuan, was brutally beaten, and even the soldiers were surrounded, and the bandits would cross the border in no time.
More than ten thousand "she thieves" invaded, thanks to his imagination, his imagination is too rich.

The forged official documents in Xiuning County were distributed happily, and the chief secretaries of other provinces who received the urgent report were all dumbfounded.

Huizhou's geographical location is quite special. If there is a riot here, the entire southeast will be in a commotion.Therefore, the southeastern provinces attach great importance to this urgent military report.

However, after researching and researching, the chief secretaries of the provinces find it very strange.

The superior supervisor of Huizhou Mansion is Governor Yingtian. Logically, if something goes wrong, it should be reported to Nanjing first.Now that the emergency documents in Xiuning County have leapfrogged, they are even cross-provincial. Could it be that...Nanjing has been occupied by the "She Thieves"?

The chief secretaries of the four provinces broke out in cold sweat immediately.

The "She thief" is so arrogant that the Japanese pirates were not so powerful back then.

This time, Jiangnan was really shaken, and all provinces were in an uproar.Who would have thought that such a powerful county in Huizhou would dare to challenge the entire Jiangnan.In those few days, rumors of the "She Thief" spread in the south of the Yangtze River, and everyone's face changed when they heard about it, full of black humor and absurdity.

Nanjing is not a fool. Seeing that the entire southeast was shaken, it was very dissatisfied, and ordered the Huining soldiers to find out what happened to this "she thief" as soon as possible.

Huining Bingbei Dao has the responsibility to maintain local law and order, so they can't sit still when the trouble has reached this point.Deputy envoy Feng Shuji responded quickly and issued two safety notices.

First, let the people go home with a strict tone, "If anyone follows along the way, shouts and cites others, and makes a lot of noise, he is a member of the vicious young stick party."The latter said in a gentle tone, saying that Deputy Envoy Feng was going to tour the five counties and listen carefully to the voices of the people, but the weather was too hot and heatstroke could easily occur, so you don't have to travel far to greet them, just leave a few people for questioning.

This is not a polite word, Feng Shuji really rushed to Huizhou in person, and brought a lot of soldiers with him.First, he patrolled five counties to suppress civil unrest; second, he wanted to find out the truth about the "She thief".The Huizhou government also quickly issued a prohibition agreement, prohibiting the people of the six counties from hating each other and harming each other, otherwise they will be severely punished.

As for Governor Yingtian, he is busy explaining to those harassed government offices in other provinces that Nanjing is fine, and there are no thieves out of Huizhou, so don't panic...

Regardless of Huizhou Prefecture or Bingbei Dao, their attitudes at this time are fine, they just gently reassure the common people not to misunderstand, and they don't put on a face of killing them all.But those who are familiar with the officialdom understand that this is only because the officials want to calm down the chaos as soon as possible, and when the situation subsides, they will settle accounts after the fall.

It wasn't until this time that the eunuchs in the five counties realized that this time they might be playing too big...

In the beginning, when there was trouble in the five counties, these eunuchs had been behind the scenes, hoping to put pressure on it, but with the people's hearts together, it was beyond their control.

In Xiuning County, there is a township eunuch named Wang Wenhui, who has a very high status in the local area. His official position is as high as Shang Bao Siqing, and he can be regarded as a person who has seen the world.He also actively supported the five counties' rights protection at the beginning, but at this moment, he felt that something was wrong.Wang Wenhui urgently contacted several powerful people, saying that this matter must be taken back, we are defending rights, not treason, it is really a big trouble, and the reason has become unreasonable.

Wang Wenhui hastily prepared an exposing post and wrote it to the Huizhou government, explaining in a sincere tone that the five counties did not intend to cause trouble, but were forced too far and the people's hearts were unstable. The rumors of covering up roads and beatings and changing flags were all rumors , We have a good relationship with Shu Tui!
His writing style is quite good. While explaining, he still didn't forget to complain: "The counties are now angry, and the facts are here. The provocations have begun to sprout, and they can still be put to rest. The truth of his accusations is that he gnashed his teeth at Yinmen; his name is called I just want to apply to the government, and my urgent feeling is to get through to the emperor."

The three comparisons, advancing layer by layer, not only cleared up the riot, but also pointed out that the source of the chaos lies in the bastard Yin Zhengmao—we are anti-treacherous ministers and not against the emperor, and we are loyal ministers.

With him taking the lead, several other counties also wrote letters one after another. They all lowered their tone and sincerely stated: the people are just panicked. As long as the master changes the silk tax back, we are all obedient citizens.

The appeal of the township eunuchs slowly lowered the enthusiasm among the people, and then the imperial court's temper rose.

On July [-]th, this time, it was not the military preparations, but the higher-level Governor's Court issued a notice to calm the people aggressively.This time the tone was completely different. Instead of ambiguously referring to the "five counties" or "six counties", he directly named the five counties of Xiu, Wu, Qi, Yi, and Ji, and said murderously:

"If there is one person in a county who dares to speak out and encourage the crowd, he will be bound and beaten by military law first, and then asked to be sent away. He will never be tolerated."

What is intriguing is that, along with the Anmin notice, it was delivered to the Huizhou government, and there was actually an official document from the army to arrest Shuai Jiamo.

In this official document, the reason for arresting Shuai Jiamo is particularly worth reading: "Using the allowance of She County, the crown belt was paid, and Zili was exaggerated, so that the residents of the five counties were angry and gathered together." You are deceiving She County. The public funds of the county people were used to buy crowns and honors for themselves, and they were also displayed everywhere, which led to riots among the people of the five counties.

How much is this money?A total of 40 taels.

It can be seen that in order to calm the chaos as soon as possible, the superiors can only use Shuai Jiamo's head to appease the people of the five counties.You are not guilty, but you have to point out some crimes——However, Shuai Jiamo single-handedly promoted the silk tax reform. This position was confirmed by the imperial decree, and there is really no fault here.Bing Beidao held back for a long time, so he had to find an excuse indiscriminately, saying that he embezzled public funds to buy a crown belt.

Who let you show off everywhere and cause such a big mess, if you don't deal with it, who will you deal with!
Therefore, this hero who was dedicated to benefiting She County went to prison for fraud in a daze.

Of course, Shuai Jiamo was not lonely in prison, because within a few days, the Governor’s Court issued several official documents, naming a group of culprits who caused trouble in the five counties—Cheng Renqing, Cheng Wenlie, He Si, Wu Dajiang, Cheng Shiming, etc. Several people are on the list, and they must be held accountable.

With the imprisoning of those responsible, the strong repression by governments at all levels, and the desperate appeasement and persuasion of local officials, the vigorous Huizhou rebellion finally gradually returned to calm.

But whether it is the Fu, Press, or Huizhou Government, they all know in their hearts that the peace at this time is temporary.The root of the riots lies in the silk tax. If this is not resolved, it will always be a hidden danger.

Therefore, they also wrote to the Ministry of Accounts one after another, saying that although the reform of the silk tax was approved by the Holy Majesty, can they... discuss it again?
At this time, the influence of the Huizhou Rebellion was not limited to the local area, and the official circles in both capitals were shaken.Peng Yingshi, Yushi Tang Yi of Huguangdao, and Shi Yingyue of Beijing Huke all contributed to the incident in Nanjing Like, saying that the chaos in Huizhou began with the restructuring of the silk tax, which shows that this matter still needs to be carefully considered.As a native of She County, Yin Zhengmao, Minister of the Household Department, should avoid suspicion even if he has no intention of favoritism. He is also responsible for this accident.

In fact, they didn't know the ins and outs of the Huizhou silk case, and they only mentioned a few sentences in the bulletin.What they are worried about is that if this matter continues, the whole Jiangnan will become unstable. This is what matters.Therefore, it doesn't matter who is right and who is not. It is true that the matter should be put to rest as soon as possible, just as Peng Yingshi said in the bulletin: "Please (the emperor) make a decision. Don't follow the rules to put an end to conflicts. The place will be preserved forever." Celebration of safety."

【Note】

Please (the emperor) make a decision, do not rely on disobedience to prevent conflicts, and the place will always be safe and secure: Your Majesty must not hesitate or be ambiguous!I implore the holy majesty to judge right and wrong, set the record straight, and put an end to such disputes, and hope that the place can be kept peaceful forever!
Under heavy pressure, Yin Zhengmao had to write a letter of apology and resignation, but it was not approved.

His position as Minister of the Household Department has been retained for the time being, but his words and the opinions of the masses are too great.The silk tax plan must be revised.Even if there is already an imperial decree, it must be changed.

It's just that the emperor's golden words can't be contradicted.This face cannot be lost by the emperor.Therefore, the reason for the revision of the plan given by the imperial court is as follows: "Although the order was ordered by the imperial court, there was a feeling of exclusiveness, and the matter belongs to the township state, so there are inevitably suspicious signs." But there are traces of partiality in your specific operations, probably because the origin of the official in charge has been confirmed.

The tune set by the imperial court was correct, but the people below sang it wrong.Who sang crookedly?In the end, Yin Zhengmao, who was born in She County, was the one to blame.

Since the superiors agreed to revise the silk plan, officials from all walks of life below gathered in Taiping Mansion to discuss again.In December of the fifth year of Wanli, the third version of the silk tax reform plan was finally released.

Compared with the original plan, this plan is essentially the same, except that it has given way to the five counties.

The silk tax in She County remains unchanged, and the average amount of silver reduced or exempted is adjusted from 3300 taels to 2000 taels, which will be shared equally among the five counties.

In this way, the total silk tax of 6145 taels of silver was actually 4145 taels from She County and 2000 taels from five counties.

The people in the five counties did not dare to cause another civil uprising this time, but their dissatisfaction was palpable.Do you think this is a vegetable market bargaining?If one piece doesn't work, it's nine cents, and if nine cents fails, it's eight cents. It's too indecent.This is not what we want!

A burden is a burden, even a penny is a burden!
The common people have been making trouble for so long, and they are already familiar with the road.Protest papers and petitions turned into countless snowflakes, which flew to the yamen at all levels.The officials looked at each other in blank dismay, what else could they do?Let's continue discussing!Discuss until everyone is satisfied.

This discussion lasted for nearly a year.Until the fourth day of November in the sixth year of Wanli, the Huizhou government finally bit the bullet and came up with the fourth version of the plan, called "Exemption of the Five Counties from the Average Plan".

This plan does not change much for She County.The silk tax remains the same, and the average amount of silver reduced or exempted has been adjusted to 2530 taels.

And the 2530 taels will not be apportioned to the five counties.

In the sixth year of Longqing, the three ministries of households, rites, and industry levied the material price silver for Huizhou government, and part of it was reduced or exempted, and it has been kept in the government account.At the same time, there is also a military supply bank, which will have a surplus every year.Huizhou government takes 1950 taels from the total of these two items every year, and replenishes the average silver li for the five counties, and the counties share another 50 taels equally, for a total of 2000 taels.If the balance of military supply silver is insufficient every year in the future, it will be collected from the five counties to make up.

After going around in a big circle, it means that the Huizhou government has shouldered the tax.

This seems reasonable, but don't forget that this tax is paid every year.The Huizhou government’s material price silver is the income from Longqing’s six-year reduction and exemption, and the amount will only decrease, and it will be used up sooner or later; while the military supply silver balance is not fixed every year, more this year and less next year. Five counties to undertake.

In other words, the source of the 2000 taels of silver was unstable.

The first three plans are horizontally shifting and shifting, allowing the silk tax to move back and forth among the six counties; the fourth plan is vertically shifting and shifting according to the time axis.The five counties may pay less at the beginning, but as time goes by, it is almost certain to increase year by year, and finally return to the original level.

And here's another problem.

For She County, the average amount of silver reduced or exempted is 2530 taels.And 2000 taels were withdrawn from the material price silver, military supply silver, and the apportionment of the counties.

There are still 530 taels that cannot be offset, and the account is not even.

Shexian County and Wuxian County have rolled around many times, and they are almost at the bottom line. Whoever takes more points will probably explode.

Or, according to the idea of ​​the fourth edition plan, deploy from other subjects?
Ordinary deployment is not possible.Because if you pay less here, you have to pay more there. After all the calculations, there is always a subject that will suffer.A competent and high-ranking official is worried about this mere 500 taels of silver.

At this time, some genius came up with a brilliant idea-what if the subject itself is unreasonable?Wouldn't it be convenient to let it suffer?

What?Why are there still unreasonable tax subjects?

There are two words: Xiji.

The so-called assistance means that when a government has a shortage of funds, the superior will come forward to coordinate and organize the neighboring state to provide assistance.Such assistance is generally of a temporary nature.

For example, in the 38th year of Jiajing (1559), in order to guard against Japanese pirates, the Huizhou government assisted Suzhou and Songjiang Haiphong with 16,000 taels of silver; In the 39th year (1560), King Jing Zhu Zaizhen went to seal the country, and the Huizhou government assisted Chizhou with 1300 taels to meet the expenses of honor guards.

These big aids are all started because of events, and when the events are over, there is no need to give money.However, there are still some trivial small aids, although they are temporarily collected, they can become a long-term tax burden after a long time.This is a feature of the Ming tax system. Many subjects follow the established rules and cannot be easily changed. Over time, countless fragmented and complicated short chains are formed.

These trivial aids are often closely related to the military.Because the military's garrison transfer does not follow administrative divisions, it often spans several prefectures and counties.For example, Feng Shuji, the deputy envoy of Bingbei Dao, has the title of "Six Brigades of Ying, An, Hui, Ning, Chi, and Tai".If you want to seek local support for food and salaries, you have to rely on Huining military preparations to coordinate.

Therefore, Bingbeidao has the most comprehensive grasp of the aid situation in various places.

According to the official's suggestion, please ask Bing Beidao to come forward and check the aid expenses, and if there is any unreasonable item, cancel it.

Bing Beidao also wanted to get out of this quagmire as soon as possible.So under the instruction of the deputy envoy Feng Shuji, Bing Beidao checked the account books, and quickly selected a subject from it: Xieji Jinqudao solves the soldiers' salaries in Chizhou Prefecture.

The name of this subject looks strange.

The full name of Jinqu Road is Lingjinhua, Quzhou, and Yanzhou Bingbei Road. It is located in Quzhou Prefecture and has nothing to do with Huizhou Prefecture.Why does Huizhou pay it soldiers?Moreover, the money was not sent to Quzhou, but to Chizhou, which was obviously the station of the Huining army.

It is obviously the fee for the Xieji Jinqu Road in Huizhou, but it has to be sent to Chizhou in Huining Road. The flow of accounts is too messy, right?
After careful investigation, it turns out that this is also a problem left over from history.

As early as the 34th year of Jiajing (1555), in order to defend against the Japanese, the imperial court set up the deputy envoy Ying Tianbing to coordinate the defense of the Yangtze River, including Huizhou.In the 41st year (1562), this organization was abolished, but there was no next family to take over.During that time, Huizhou Prefecture was in a blank period without garrison protection.

Originally, the imperial court felt that the arrogance of the Japanese pirates was no longer what it used to be, and Huizhou was very safe in the interior, so there was no need to rush to deal with this matter.I didn't expect to die, but in the 43rd year of Jiajing (1564), there was a mine riot in Huizhou.A group of miners from Jinhua turned into thieves and rushed into Wuyuan County to plunder, shaking the six counties of Huizhou.

At that time, Liu Ji, the governor of Yingtian, had no soldiers to send, so he moved to Jinqu Road near Wenwen, hoping that they would help defend nearby.Assisting defense requires military pay, and the money naturally has to be paid by the Huizhou government.Therefore, the Huizhou government specially arranged a sum of military pay, which was sent to Quzhou every year.

Later, in the sixth year of Longqing, the imperial court established the Huining military preparation road to take Huizhou's defense back from Jinqu Road.Ordinarily, the salary should be transferred accordingly, and the name of the corresponding subject should also be changed, but Huining Bingbei Road made a small calculation, thinking that it could benefit from it.

First of all, the Huining Bingbei Dao first collected a sum of military pay from the Huizhou government. This is all due to the situation and reason, and there is no problem in the procedure.Then Huining Bingbei Dao sent a letter to Jin Qudao, saying that we have taken over the defense of Huizhou, and the soldiers' salaries will be used by the Dao in the future.Jin Qudao felt that this was reasonable and went through the transfer procedures.

Here comes the most critical trick: Huining Bingbeidao did not tell the Huizhou government that the soldiers' salaries had been transferred. Instead, they asked the Huizhou government to add the words "Xiechizhou Prefecture" in the middle of "Xieji Jinqu Road Soldiers' Salaries", meaning Yes, in the future you will hand over the military pay to Jin Qudao, just send it to Chizhou.

Huizhou government not only didn't notice this little trick, but also felt very happy.Because there is a cost in sending the soldiers' salaries, and sending them to Chizhou is much closer than sending them to Quzhou. We also saved a lot of transportation fees by changing the "Jie Chizhou Prefecture" in this way.Everyone in the whole family praised the master of military equipment for his compassion for the people.

After such an operation, the Huizhou government had to pay two sums of military pay every year, nominally one for Jinqudao and one for Huiningdao.In fact, Jin Qudao could not receive it long ago, and the two sums of money had to be sent to Chizhou and fell into Huiningdao's hands.

To put it bluntly, this is double taxation.

Some people may have doubts, is Huizhou government stupid if you pay twice?

The mystery is here.From the financial point of view of Huizhou Prefecture, these are two different expenditures, one is for the garrison in other places, and the other is for the local garrison.If you don't know the cause and effect of "Xie Ji Jin Qu Dao", you can't see that the two items are actually the same item.

You must know that in a huge bureaucracy, the implementation of policies has inertia (for example, in Daming).Once a policy has become a routine, even if the surrounding circumstances change, officials will continue to implement it mechanically, and will not take the initiative to change, or even be afraid of change.This is how the so-called "ancestors make the law".

The Huizhou government has been paying the "Xieji Jin Qu Dao Soldier Salary Silver", which has formed a habit.Since no one notified the cancellation, then just continue to submit it, and no one is investigating how it came about.The same is true for the silk tax. Hasn't She County paid it silently for 200 years?
There are not many formal taxes in Ming Dynasty, but miscellaneous taxes and hidden taxes are extremely heavy. A large part of them are quietly formed within the system through this method.Once the accumulative abuses are dirty, it is difficult to remove them, and the accumulation of less will become more, and countless fragmented and complicated short-distance tax chains have evolved, and the taxation is several times heavier than the book.

Seeing this, we can probably understand why the six counties are obsessed with these tax items.

It's not just because they love to litigate, the burden is too heavy to bear.It can be seen from this dispute that, in addition to the regular tax of summer tax and autumn grain, the Huizhou government also collects Ding Sijuan from Nanjing Shipping Depot, six items of equal silver from the local government, and tax from the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households. Material silver, and various local aid...

If there is another selfish person like Huining Bingbeidao, who will use his hands to generate an additional tax, the burden will be even greater.In the previous version of the Taiping Mansion plan, Huizhou officials even wanted to take the opportunity to operate it and increase government office expenses a little.

What's even more frightening is that these figures are only the amount of tax paid to the treasury, plus the burden of transportation, fire consumption, compensation, and internal government preparations on the way. This is the tax burden that the common people will eventually bear.The Huizhou government has to send taxes to six or seven departments each year, and for each additional route, the additional cost will double.

In this way, local miscellaneous taxes and temporary taxes continued to increase, additional costs increased accordingly, efficiency plummeted, the entire system gradually became extremely bloated, and at the same time created a large space for fraud.Most of the tax amount is sucked away by traders at all levels in these tedious and trivial circulation links.The common people paid more and more money, but the revenue of the imperial court did not increase, and most of it was consumed in the middle link.

If things go on like this, the local people's grievances are boiling, and the government is helpless. The final result is that regulation fails and the world is in chaos.

Zhang Juzheng's whipping method is a temporary solution, not a root cause. It cannot fundamentally change the mechanism of "miscellaneous taxes" in Ming Dynasty. It can only slightly expand the tax base and delay the outbreak of the problem for a period of time.

The reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty, this small tax from the Huizhou government should be a good revelation.

Let's get back to the book.

As mentioned earlier, the tax money of "Xieji Jinqu Road to solve Chizhou government soldiers' salaries" is not reasonable in itself.Huining Bingbeidao has been very worried, if he meets another serious person like Shuai Jiamo who loves him seriously, maybe there will be another disturbance.This time, since someone suggested it, Bingbei Dao simply pushed the boat forward and said that for the good situation of stability and unity in Huizhou Prefecture, we will suffer a little loss, and we will take 530 taels from this soldier's salary to make up for the final shortfall.

This tax, which was originally levied repeatedly, was so skillfully laundered.

The military equipment was high-spirited and upright, and the last problem was solved. The officials saw the dawn of success, and hurriedly went through another round of discussions and made some fine-tuning to make it more complete:

The inventory of material price reduction and exemption silver is limited, which cannot support year-by-year transfers and direct merger into military supply silver.

Forget the 50 taels of additional burden from the five counties, so that they don't have to talk about it, and it will be directly incorporated into the military salary of Xiechi Prefecture.

Therefore, in March of the seventh year of Wanli (1579), the fifth edition of the plan was released.

The 6145 taels of silk and silk for the population is still borne by She County, but the average silver they bear is reduced by 2530 taels.How to make up for this average silver?1950 taels were withdrawn from the military supply silver of Huizhou Prefecture, and 580 taels were withdrawn from the military pay silver of Jinqudao Jiechi Prefecture.

This plan can be said to be a combination of compromises and compromises, spreading the burden to many aspects such as Shexian County, Huizhou Prefecture, and Bingbei Road.In this way, Shexian County paid more than 2000 taels of silver, and was satisfied; the five counties were satisfied without adding any burden; Huizhou Prefecture and Bingbei Dao suffered a little loss, but it was worthwhile to eliminate a big chaos and eliminate hidden dangers. .

For the imperial court, one is that there is not a shortage of taxes paid, and the other is to take the opportunity to clean up redundant taxes and miscellaneous servants, unify money and food, and it is also a good thing for the implementation of a whip method-this plan really takes care of all aspects, no wonder the author It is proudly called the "co-exemption and two-enforcement law".

This time, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.Bingbeidao hurriedly released a large-character list, announcing the new tax system of the six counties, and proudly announced: "Since the seventh year of Wanli, the tax and service book will be clearly stated, and it will always be a rule."

I believe that at the moment when the list was published, these words suddenly turned into large golden characters, accompanied by magnificent music, spinning in the minds of officials of all sizes in Huizhou officialdom.They must have mixed feelings and tears at this time.

It's not easy. This big dispute that started in the fourth year of Longqing lasted for nearly ten years. There were five versions of solutions, and it was finally completely eliminated in the seventh year of Wanli.How many twists and turns in the middle, how much toss, finally survived.

The dust has settled and life has to go on.

What makes the people of She County happy is that the protracted silk disputes have thoroughly discussed various details and the principles of levy.At this time, it was caught up with the imperial court's implementation of a whip method, so the people's silk and silk borne by Shexian County did not have to be delivered in kind, but were directly converted into silver or color into silver, and there was no need to sell grain first and then buy silk. One less burden.

According to research by scholars, after the seventh year of Wanli, the actual silk tax paid by Shexian County was only [-]% of the rated tax.

All of this is thanks to the handsome scholar Jiamo.

And what happened to Shuai Jiamo afterwards?
Section [-] Settle Accounts After Autumn
In July of the fifth year of Wanli, Bing Beidao captured Shuai Jiamo and put him in prison pending trial.At the same time, a group of troublemakers from the five counties, including Cheng Renqing, were also arrested.

Two months later, the Huizhou government finally came up with the first-instance verdict: Shuai Jiamo, Cheng Renqing and several others were sentenced to exile.Among them, Shuai Jiamo was charged with "not doing his own business, fabricating lyrics, declaring accusations, intimidating to get rich, and slamming the stolen goods" and "accumulating with Chen Zou".

In the adjudication, the Huizhou government described such a "fact": Shuai Jiamo boasted that he had the means to collect money from the people of She County, saying that you subsidized me to go to Beijing to sue, and I have my own way to help you exempt from taxes.He took advantage of the panic of the people in Shexian County, withdrew a lot of money, and used public funds for private purposes—for example, he made a crown belt privately, using public funds.

This is a political judgment intended to impose a crime. The translation is only five words: "Who made you troublesome?" From the perspective of the government, this dispute was created out of nothing, and it was completely instigated by Shuai Jiamo alone. Back then you If you shut up and do your math homework, how can there be so many things behind?
Therefore, the government did not hesitate to sacrifice Shuai Jiamo in exchange for the stability of the five counties.As for whether this charge is reasonable, it is not under consideration.Legal issues, let's solve them politically.

The preliminary review opinion was submitted to Bingbeidao.But Feng Shuji was very dissatisfied, and felt that the Huizhou government was afraid of offending others, so the sentence was given lightly, which was not enough to warn others.So Feng Shuji referred these people to Taiping Mansion, and asked Anqing, Chizhou, and Taiping Mansions to interrogate them and discuss the charges again.

In this discussion, the final punishment for Shuai Jiamo was "one hundred miles and three thousand miles, and the frontier garrison was sent".From his point of view, this punishment is really unfair, but from the point of view of the government, it is very conscientious not to kill you.

On July [-]th of the sixth year of Wanli, this judgment was supported by Yan Qing, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment, and it was written on the title, and it was approved by the imperial decree on the [-]th.Everything is settled.

Then, Shuai Jiamo left Huizhou under the escort of officials, and embarked on the long road of defending the border.How he was feeling at the time, and what happened afterwards, we don't know.But it is gratifying that the people of Shexian County have not forgotten this hero who helped them reduce their taxes.In the "She County Chronicles", the righteous man item specifically records the deeds of Shuai Jiamo, as well as a comment: "With the view of an ordinary man and the dust of thousands of times, the case of a hundred years can be overturned with one dynasty. If you are a strong man and a knight."

I don’t know if Shuai Jiamo would continue if he had foreseen such a huge turmoil in the future when Shuai Jiamo opened the first page of She County’s ledger on that hot summer day in the third year of Longqing.

That's all for the story of the silk case and the experience of Shuai Jiamo, but the story is not over yet.

Because he is not the only hero.

In the hearts of the people in the five counties, there are also several great heroes who advocated righteousness and fought bravely.Without their desperate resistance, I am afraid that the government would have imposed the burden on She County as early as the fourth year of Wanli.

These people are also well-deserved righteous men of the five counties.

For example, He Xiang, who was once involved in the turmoil of the discussion bureau, died while waiting for the verdict. Before he died, he left a suicide note, which was very impassioned: "Although he died, his life was full of righteousness. , will not disappear with the prison.”

However, in the eyes of the government, these people are local thorns, and they want to get rid of them quickly.So these people were arrested at the same time as Shuai Jiamo on different charges.Some are amassing money to cheat money, some are gathering crowds to fight, some are picking quarrels and provoking troubles, and the punishments are also different, ranging from punishment, imprisonment to exile.

Among them, the most serious crime is Cheng Renqing.He set up the council, and this alone is completely different from others.

The government's verdict on him said: "The people who deceived the public and profitless turned into crimes and riots, set up flags and set up bureaus, and more than ten thousand people called for calls, bound officials and insulted officials, and Lu Liang made a statement. Flying words on Dalu, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangxi are all alarmed. When the ban is displayed on the public wall, the mountains, rivers, villages and Yan are almost disintegrated."

These crimes are taboo things for major criminals. Judging from the verdict, they are only one step away from treason.

Therefore, Cheng Renqing's sentence was the heaviest, and he was actually beheaded - equivalent to death with a reprieve.In the whole chaos in Huizhou, he was the only one who was sentenced to death.

Cheng Renqing is really a strange person. When he heard the news in prison, he didn't cry and wail, but wrote a letter to defend himself.As expected, he was born in Huizhou, and he had the halo of a litigator. He wrote a long article, and actually discussed the application of the Ming Law and criminal facts cited in the judgment.

He did not deny the facts of those allegations, but claimed that the legal provisions cited in the judgment were wrong and their nature did not apply to the case.One point, two points, three points... The arguments are clear, the logic is rigorous, and the quotations are extensive. It can make a Ming version of "Legal Affairs".If Shuai Jiamo is a mathematician, then Cheng Renqing is an untimely legal expert.

These defenses did not change the fact that he was sentenced to death.However, the crime of beheading the prisoner is very delicate. He was sentenced to death, but he did not say when it will be executed, which leaves a lot of room for manipulation.

Under the protection of many caring people, Cheng Renqing did not ask to be executed in autumn, but stayed comfortably in prison.Taking into account the sentiments of the people in the five counties, the Huizhou government did not dare to execute the death penalty lightly, so it simply dragged on.

Cheng Renqing has been in prison for a long time, and he is extremely bored.He decided to do a meaningful thing - write a book.

Writing books in prison is not uncommon in China.However, the book Ren Qing wants to write is different from ordinary ones—to be precise, he is not writing, but compiling.Cheng Renqing contacted the officials of the Huizhou government and friends from various counties, and collected all the large and small documents surrounding the silk case, and compiled them into a book.

You must know that the silk case has lasted for so long, and there have been countless quarrels and discussions among various interest groups, leaving a lot of written materials.Letters, inscriptions, pleadings of the squires, application documents of various counties, all kinds of postings, notices, constitution cards, memorials, judgments, guarantees, etc. , everything you need.

Huizhou also has a tradition of litigating. The premise of litigating is to have a solid data base. Therefore, all counties have the habit of keeping archives, and private individuals even secretly leave transcripts.Therefore, Cheng Renqing has no shortage of materials for compiling this book.

It only took him half a year to compile a book.

For some unknown reason, Cheng Renqing gave this book a particularly misleading name called "The Complete Book of Silk". Those who didn't know it thought it was about how to make silk. In the future, it can be compared with "How Steel Is Made". The" in a bookshelf.

"The Complete Book of Silk and Silk" is divided into eight volumes of gold, stone, silk, bamboo, gourd, soil, leather, and wood. It begins with Shuai Jiamo's letter to Hai Rui in the fourth year of Longqing, and ends with the "Exemption and Equalization Official Document of Fengshenyuan" in the seventh year of Wanli ( In fact, at the end there is also a post about He Xiang's deathbed), which contains 130 documents from various places, basically including all the important documents of the Huizhou silk case from the government to the private sector.

According to Cheng Renqing's thinking, his purpose of compiling this book is to confess his feelings and express his grievances.What is rare is that Cheng Renqing does not have the stink of ordinary literati. Although he admits that he has been wronged, he has not edited "The Complete Book of Silk and Silk", and has always maintained objectivity and neutrality.Even if it is unfavorable or abusive to him and the five counties, it will be included without changing a single word, at most a line of comments will be added at the bottom, and a few words of excuses will be added.

Many Shexian documents in "Sijuan Quanshu" describe Cheng Renqing as a buffoon who is greedy for small profits and fame.I wonder if Cheng Renqing would shake his head and smile wryly when he compiled this part.However, he strictly kept his position and did not smear it, but copied it intact, which can be regarded as a model for historians.

Many ancient Chinese historical materials often only record the general and ignore the details, emphasize the conclusion rather than the process, and have many high-level but few low-level. Therefore, many events—especially folk events—are not recorded in detail. Although the framework is there, the details are missing.People of later generations can only guess from the clues between the lines.Like the Huizhou silk case, there is only one sentence in "Ming Shilu".Just looking at that, the researchers will probably just take it as an ordinary civil uprising and pass it by.

Thanks to Cheng Renqing, for being able to preserve so many materials, we were able to get a glimpse of the true features of the great debate that year, from the cause to the result, from the government's attitude to the public's response, all of which are vivid and vivid.

There are a lot of detailed descriptions in this short article, and it is definitely not a "key person" who made up the brains, but it is really because the information included in "The Complete Book of Silk and Silk" is too detailed.It can be said that there is no such thing as a record of civil county-level incidents in the Ming Dynasty.

(A screenshot is attached, which shows how detailed the historical materials provided in it are-it can almost be used as a movie script.)
Cheng Renqing's beheaded prisoner waited for 20 years.Later, a fellow official named Yu Maoxue wrote a letter to appeal for his grievances, and was finally able to return to the army and was sent to the frontier.Cheng Renqing is also really capable. During the period of guarding the border, he actually made great contributions, became the general, and finally returned to his hometown with honor.

The people of Wuyuan always remember this hero of resistance, and they also reserved a place for him in the biographies of the martyrs in "Wuyuan County Chronicles".As a result, the "Complete Book of Silk and Silk" has been handed down to this day.

That's the end of Cheng Renqing's matter.

But the silk story is not over yet.

Around the 20th year of Wanli (1592), more than ten years have passed since the Huizhou silk case.This case that had been dusty for a long time was suddenly opened again, revealing a shocking detail that was hardly noticed before.

The person who opened this corner was an official from Wuyuan——Yu Maoxue, the right servant of the Nanjing Household Department.He suddenly published a "Exemption and Release of Silk Silk" and begged for a commutation of Cheng Renqing's sentence.In this book, Yu Maoxue narrated a secret incident that happened during the Huizhou Rebellion, and involved a former great figure——Zhang Juzheng.

In the third year of Wanli, Yu Maoxue, who was then in charge of the household department in Nanjing, was famous for his outspoken advice. He wrote several times to criticize Zhang Juzheng's various policies for being too aggressive.Especially after the "Duoqing" incident in the fifth year of Wanli, Zhang Juzheng demoted Yu Maoxue from his post to the people, and drove him back to his hometown in Wuyuan, never to be used again.

When Yu Maoxue returned to Wuyuan, the Huizhou Rebellion broke out.

When the Huizhou silk case broke out, someone came to Yu Maoxue to cheer.Yu Maoxue was more vigilant and didn't agree. He just wrote a letter to the prefect of Huizhou to persuade the old system to be restored.As a result, Yin Zhengmao, Shangshu of the household department, mistakenly thought that he was also involved, and wrote a letter to inquire.Yu Maoxue suddenly realized that it was Zhang Juzheng who was still angry and wanted to take the opportunity to punish himself, so he acted more cautiously, stayed behind closed doors, and did not interact with others.

Around August in the fifth year of Wanli, the riots were almost over, and the government began to arrest people everywhere.But the strange thing is that no matter whether it is the two courts or the Bingbei Dao, the arrest warrants issued first all keep saying that the Haoyou eunuchs are in trouble.

Yu Maoxue's statement is also corroborated in the "Sijuan Quanshu", which contains "Two Zhanghao Right Cards", "According to the Court's Re-discussion and Evening Investigation of the Hao Youxian Card", "The Duyuan Revisited the Hao Youxian Card" "The three documents are issued by governments at all levels.In addition, there was a report letter from Shexian people, saying that the mastermind of the riots in the five counties lay in the "two or three tyrants, sitting in the landlord alliance."

Why did the government target the local tyrants and eunuchs?Yu Maoxue believed that this was instructed by Zhang Juzheng, and tried to involve him in order to further revenge.

According to Yu Maoxue, during the incident, Zhang Juzheng wrote a secret letter to Yingtian governor Hu Zhili, naming the source of the chaos in Wuyuan as the former Nanjing Shangbao Secretary Wang Wenhui and Yu Maoxue; He sent a letter to Ying Tianxun as Zheng Guoshi, saying that Yu Maoxue and another Wuyuan eunuch named Hong Yuan were the masterminds and must be severely punished.

Even Yin Zhengmao personally wrote a letter to the prefect of Huizhou, implying the relationship between Yu Maoxue and the riot.

Under various pressures, governments at all levels had to take active actions and began arresting local tyrants with great fanfare.But when the order was passed to the level of the Huizhou government, the attitude suddenly became negative-this is completely understandable, there is a squire between the imperial court and the grassroots, and effective governance cannot be achieved without their cooperation.

If the Huizhou government foolishly followed the instructions of the superiors and vigorously attacked the local rightists, it would offend a large number of people, and it would be even more difficult to manage in the future.Therefore, the Huizhou government returned an official document to the imperial court called "Benfu Hui Wuhao Youshen Wen". You don't need to read the content, just look at the title: "There is no Haoyou in this government, so naturally it is impossible to talk about arresting .”

Hu Zhili and Zheng Guoshi were only issued cards to arrest them under the pressure of Zhang Juzheng.Now the Huizhou government denies it, and several friends of Yu Maoxue in Beijing, Wang Xijue, Lu Guangzu, Li Shida, etc., have also written to persuade him to keep upright, and the two courts are happy to push the boat along. Make trouble, catch them instead.

Then, there was the move to arrest Cheng Renqing and others.

When discussing the crimes of these people, Zhang Juzheng was very upset because he couldn't find Yu Maoxue's crimes. He also heard that Yu Maoxue had a good relationship with Cheng Renqing, so he specially instructed the Ministry of Punishment to deal with it severely.As a result, Cheng Renqing was originally sentenced to be exiled into the army, but Zhang Juzheng intervened, and finally became a prisoner.

Yu Maoxue didn't know about these gossips.He later recovered and returned to officialdom.Li Shida and Zheng Guoshi showed him the autographed letters of Zhang Juzheng and Wang Zhuan, and he realized how dangerous he was in that year. He claimed that he was so frightened that "his hair was terrified."

As for Cheng Renqing's death sentence, Yu Maoxue thought it was just for him.

Yu Maoxue went to the shuffle this time, hoping to apply for the exemption of Cheng Renqing's death penalty, and change his sentence to exile from the army.He also specifically mentioned that Yin Zhengmao, the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs at the time, lived in seclusion in She County after he became an official, and had been running for the release of Cheng Renqing, which showed that he felt ashamed.

Yu Maoxue was born as a speech official with strong writing skills. In order to justify Cheng Renqing's name, he severely criticized the imperial court's handling of the Huizhou silk case. .

The implication is that Zhang Juzheng has the primary leadership responsibility for the chaos in Huizhou. He forcibly favored Shexian County, forced the Ministry of Household Affairs and Yingtian Court to reform taxes, and the people of the five counties, especially the people of Wuyuan, were forced to fight back. Now, it cannot be simply defined as a "civil uprising".

I think the authenticity of the story Yu Maoxue told is questionable.From the perspective of promoting a whip, Zhang Juzheng did have a certain influence on the Huizhou Rebellion, but it would be too conspiracy theory to say that the whole thing was aimed at a foreword officer who went home and was waiting for a job.At most, Zhang Juzheng hugged the grass and beat the rabbit, just by the way.

The chaos in Huizhou, the process, really has nothing to do with Yu Maoxue himself, he simply thought too much.

Interestingly, despite Yu Maoxue's many criticisms of the Huizhou silk case, he never mentioned the matter of overturning the case.Not only did he not mention it, but he did not forget to add a sentence at the end of the article: "Nai Ruo silk is even, and the punishment will be fixed for a long time. I dare not put a beak again to cause trouble."

What's the meaning?Now that the silk case is over, I don't have much to say, lest there will be another mess.

Yu Maoxue knew very well that Huizhou's "personal silk" tax caused so many disturbances, and how much effort it took to reach a settlement.As a native of Huizhou, he dared not change his words easily.In case there is another dispute because of what he said, Huizhou will have to eat him.

It is easy to criticize Zhang Juzheng, but debate the silk tax in Huizhou again?just forget it.

(End of this chapter)