First Minister of Ming Dynasty

After Wang Huan threw the bait, he was waiting in this garden for Li Shanchang to take the bait. He gave Li Shanchang two manors, and the other was thirty miles away from Hangzhou. It was impossible for Li Xianggong to run that far.

Moreover, Wang Huan felt that with Li Shanchang's virtue, as long as he was willing to invest his money, there was nothing he couldn't accomplish. In fact, he has very few thugs.

In the end, he threatened to hold Li Shanchang hostage.

Officialdom is like rivers and lakes. It’s never been a fight. Wouldn’t it be nice to sit and eat and drink together and squeeze the remaining value together?

Why do you have to tear your face off?

Because of this, when Wang Huan wanted to call the thugs to arrest people, these things were far apart, even outside the courtyard. It takes time to get in,

Before they could come in, someone rushed over and took down all these thugs.

Guo Ying and Zhu Ying, one after the other, rushed in and rushed towards Zhang Ximeng.

"Brother, are you alright?"

Zhang Ximeng grinned, "It's okay, Brother Li, are you all right?"

Li Shanchang was relieved when he saw that it was Guo Ying who was coming.

Although this kid is not easy to deal with, there is always hope to be suppressed.

"Did your superiors send you here?"

Zhu Ying said with a smile: "No, it was the godfather who brought us here! The old man was worried... worried about the two prime ministers, so he came in person."

As soon as Zhu Ying turned her head, she saw Lao Zhu, who was striding forward and attacking aggressively.

Li Shanchang glanced at Lao Zhu, and was so frightened that he quickly lowered his head, his heart pounding!

It's broken, it's really broken!

Even what Wang Huan just said, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know. But this matter can't be concealed. There is such a big loophole in taxation, but this beast has bribed himself again. The superior will definitely suspect that he did it on purpose, and deliberately opened the door for bribery. Even if he was lucky enough to save his old life, he would probably have to go home with his grandson like Tao An.

How is this good?

Li Shanchang was almost annoyed to death. He understood much better than Tao An. Sooner or later, Zhu Yuanzhang was going to rule the world. At that time, he was the founding official, and he was destined to be famous in the history of history and go down in history forever.

If the car overturned at this time, it would be more uncomfortable than killing him.

Old Li Meng asked himself, guessing that he would find a tree with a crooked neck and hang it.

There are not many people who can save Li Shanchang now. He subconsciously looked at Zhang Ximeng, but Zhang Ximeng ignored him at all, but hurriedly greeted Zhu Yuanzhang and bowed deeply.

"My lord, how could you risk yourself?"

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted, "You dare to come, why don't we dare? You don't know how to bring more guards in such a wolf's den? What if there is a mistake?"

Zhang Ximeng grinned wryly. He followed Li Shanchang over here to find out who gave the gift. If there was a big fanfare, wouldn't they run away?

Fortunately, Li Shanchang hurried over at this time, bowed his body and saluted, and said ashamed: "The superior, all the ministers are confused, the minister is in a hurry, and wants to find out the bribery animal, which has caused Zhang Xiang and the minister to be in danger together, please punish the crime!"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at him. When someone gave you a gift and bribe, why didn't you give it to Mr. Zhang?

Flies don't bite seamless eggs!

You Li Shanchang must have become stinky first, and then attracted the stinky mosquitoes... It is wishful thinking to try to fool the past!

But right now, I am not in a hurry to take down Li Shanchang, and I have to use his hands to thoroughly investigate this Wang family! Dare to attack our two important ministers, you can be patient!

When Lao Zhu thought of this, he sighed heavily: "Mr. Li also has good intentions. We won't blame Mr. for such a trivial matter."

The implication is that if there are bigger things, it is hard to say.

Li Shanchang was very worried, but he was helpless. He could only see if God was willing to let him go...

The three rulers and ministers gathered together, and the three looked down at Wanghuan together.

This person who was just talking eloquently, looked down on Zhu Yuanzhang, despised Zhang Ximeng, and felt that he could kill Li Shanchang to death. At this moment, he was as soft as a lump of mud. .

How lucky are you?

Originally thinking of bribing Li Shanchang, he ended up provoking these most powerful people.

Could it be the Heavenly Death Royal Family?

A person was so frightened that he didn't even have the courage to beg for mercy.

Zhu Yuanzhang walked over, looked at Wang Huan, and said with a sneer, "It's this beast, he dares to harm our two prime ministers? Despaired, he deserves a thousand cuts!"

Li Shan is overjoyed, high-ranking, hurry up and kill this calamity! I beg you.

However, Li Shanchang didn't dare to speak, because Zhang Ximeng had already laughed.

"My lord, this person is not only a mad animal, but also a talented person with a lot of vision... Just now he was a scholar and a scholar, and he had never seen money! He also gave Brother Li an annual salary. A good idea of ​​100,000 taels, I think such people, even if they want to kill, they should talk about it first!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was quite surprised. He had seen arrogant people, but he had never seen such arrogance.

"Tell me, what kind of insight do you have?"

Zhu Yuanzhang asked twice. While Wang Huan was still wandering, he didn't know how to answer. Zhang Ximeng leaned down and said, "Wang Huan, are you going to be executed without saying a word?"

Hearing the last four words, Wang Huan seemed to be alive, and his strong survival instinct prompted him to struggle, lie on the ground, and kowtow desperately.

"Damn the villain, the villain is confused, I just ask King Wu to spare the villain's family!"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked down on such a coward and turned his head to the side.

Zhang Ximeng was very interested, he smiled and said: "Wang Huan, you said that Juntian just divided the land, but how to collect taxes, how to distribute the land tax collected, and the university asked me, the university asked me too. I don’t understand, you must have a lot of experience and experience, so let’s talk about it, let’s discuss it, maybe you can be counted as guilty and meritorious!”

The last sentence made Wang Huan agitated, he considered it for a long time, and then slowly said: "The source of wealth comes with power! The use of wealth comes with power! The villain, the villain thinks that King Wu has only strength, but No right!"

Good guy, is he really a madman?

How dare you question the authority in Lao Zhu's hands, why don't you try it with your own head to see if Zhu Yuanzhang dares to kill your whole family?

Obviously, Wang Huan is not so shallow, he did tell the essence of some problems...

As we all know, the fiscal and taxation system of the Ming Dynasty was very bad, but it seems that it is difficult to say exactly where it is.

There is a widely circulated rumor that the annual financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty is only a few million taels, which is far worse than that of the Song Dynasty. Ah, the Ming Dynasty spent less than one-tenth of the money to maintain the country for nearly three hundred years. What a remarkable achievement!

Fiscal efficiency is ridiculously high!

Obviously, this is impossible, so what's wrong?

The mistake is to equate the national tax with the income of the Ministry of Household, and the annual income of the Ministry of Household is equivalent to the Taicang tax and silver, and then a ridiculously small financial income is obtained.

If it really relied on such a small amount of revenue, it would have been maintained for such a long time, and the Ming Dynasty would have been completely clean.

In fact, the taxation yamen of the Ming Dynasty was far more than the household department, and the taxes collected were not limited to Ding Yintian Fu... The complexity of this level is simply indescribable.

To give a simple example, the Ministry of Works of the Ming Dynasty not only built palaces and projects, but was also responsible for collecting taxes. The tax levied by the Ministry of Industry is called Bamboo and Wood Extraction, which is about bamboo, firewood, charcoal, bricks, lime, etc., which are related to fuel and building materials.

This thing is included in the account of the Ministry of Industry and has nothing to do with the Ministry of Household.

If you think that the Ministry of Industry’s taxation is outrageous, then there are even more outrageous ones. As the yamen responsible for the palace meals, Guanglu Temple also has the right to levy taxes from the people.

The rice and grain materials on hand are used to supply the expenses of the palace.

If this is understandable, then the Ministry of Rites of Qingshui Yamen has the power to levy taxes.

What does the Ministry of Rites levy?

Herbs!

That's right, the Ministry of Rites wants to collect money for medicinal materials for the Imperial Hospital.

After all, the rank of the Tai Hospital is too low to ask for money. It would be better for the Ministry of Rites to come forward. Of course, the civil servants of the Ministry of Rites should get some wolfberry, ginseng, and seal kidneys to replenish their waists.

Similar central yamen are by no means rare. And this is not the end. In addition to the part that needs to be sent to the court, there is also a part that is kept for personal use. It is also a bad debt, which is unclear.

Just imagine, in a normal process, the Taiyuan Hospital needs medicinal materials, writes a document to the Ministry of Household, and gets approval, and then the Taiyuan Hospital takes the money to go to the place of origin to purchase it, and it is included in the departmental expenditure budget for one year, that's it.

But in the Ming Dynasty, things got weird.

The Taiyuan Hospital had medicinal materials, and discussed with the Ministry of Rites. The Ministry of Rites wrote to the local government, and then handed over the matter to the local grain chief, asking them to send silver taels of medicinal materials to the Ministry of Rites.

It travels thousands of miles from the local area, and is sent to the city, handed over to the Ministry of Rites, and transferred to the Imperial Hospital... On the way, people eat horses and feed, money and money are consumed, dredging up and down, and handing over layer by layer... The cost in the middle is quite amazing.

Moreover, every yamen, every tax, has to go through such a tossing.

The common people were miserable. Especially in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the grain chiefs couldn’t hold it anymore, and they scrambled to avoid the errands. Taxes were frequently defaulted in various places. In some places, they could not pay for decades.

The reasons for this situation are very complicated, but it is undeniable that the clues can be seen from the design of the initial fiscal and taxation system.

In history, Lao Zhu really had a shallow understanding of the fiscal and taxation system... He thought that by using the long-term levy of grain and the release of taxes, he could avoid exploitation and oppression by officials.

And it is very convenient to use.

As long as he made a will, if there is a lot of things missing, let the grain chief deliver it, that's all.

From the perspective of the foreign military use of the Hongwu Dynasty, under the careful management of Lao Zhu, the fiscal and taxation system can still operate efficiently.

However, with the death of Lao Zhu, the later emperors had neither the diligence of Zhu Yuanzhang nor the prestige of Lao Zhu.

All kinds of ills appeared quickly... All officials ~www.readwn.com~ who could intervene, they would ruthlessly exploit them, using all kinds of hurricanes to squeeze the bottom.

The grain chiefs who couldn't bear the countless yamen and continued to fish out of water, simply gave up.

Grandpa quit!

The local yamen also kept more and more wealth to cover their own expenses, and refused to turn it over to the court.

Having said so much, the fundamental problem of the Ming Dynasty's finances was that it did not establish a complete system of total revenue and expenditure.

"My lord, wherever the will comes, it is the king's prestige, and where the wealth comes, it is the king's blessing. Only when the lord has the power of finance and taxation in his hands, can he truly be self-reliant and self-determined! Going out is the only way to fully exercise the power of the king... This beast can have such knowledge, it is really rare!" Zhang Ximeng still admired Wang Huan a little bit, of course, only a little bit.

Zhu Yuanzhang gritted his teeth and was furious. From a single salary, he led to the distribution of wealth and power. Zhu Yuanzhang was solid again and taught a lesson!

"Although this beast has some opinions, he has ulterior motives. He wants to rely on loopholes to make a lot of money, and even bribe and coerce our important ministers. Such a madman, not killing is not enough for common people's anger! Come on, give the entire Wang clan to We copied it!"

When he turned around, Lao Zhu said to Li Shanchang, "Go, go back now, and discuss financial and tax matters immediately. Don't hesitate."

After Lao Zhu finished speaking, he left immediately. Zhang Ximeng was in a good mood and followed behind. It seemed that there might be a better chance for finance.

Elder Li Shan's face was ashen, he didn't know what storms were waiting for him! Old Li can only catch up in a hurry...

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