Chapter 176: Qingyun's Policy (please vote for me!)
Zhao Wenhua's "Seven Stories about Japan in Shangping" was able to impress Emperor Jiajing mainly because of two of them.
The first one is to offer sacrifices to the sea gods. Many sea gods including Mazu, the third prince Nezha and the Dragon King are worshiped along the coast to pray for peace in the sea.
The second item is to recover the taxes owed by the private sector. In particular, the large households in Jiangnan owe as much as one million taels of gold and silver. Zhao Wenhua advocates recovering the arrears of taxes to quell the Japanese.
Of these two, the first one was in response to the feudal superstition of Emperor Jiajing. In recent years, Jiajing had become more and more obsessed with Taoism, and the fasting ceremony for the God of the Sea was exactly what he wanted.
Su Ze also agreed with the latter point. In fact, the injustice against Japanese pirates was mainly an economic issue.
The guardsmen were short of soldiers, and Zhejiang had begun to recruit soldiers. However, recruiting soldiers requires money, and without money nothing can be done.
At the beginning of this year, Anda in the north violated the border again. The Ming Dynasty faced two threats, one from the south and one from the north. Coupled with the heavy snow in the north, the court wanted money everywhere.
Even Jiajing had no choice but to suspend the construction of palaces and temples, and urgently mobilized the army's Beibian silver to defend Ananda in the north.
In this case, where the money to fight the Japanese came from was the biggest problem for the court.
The last time Yan Maoqing plundered a large amount of money from Fujian, although most of it fell into his and Yan Dang's pockets, it also relieved the financial pressure of the anti-Japanese war to a certain extent.
But now Zhang Jing is training soldiers in Zhejiang to fight against the Japanese, and his daily consumption of silver is astronomical, and the court can no longer support it.
Therefore, starting from the end of the New Year, the imperial court's orders to Zhang Jing became more and more severe. Nie Bao, the minister of the Ministry of War who advocated "moderate peace" in the court, was kicked out of the Ministry of War and went home to retire. Yang Bo, who was more aggressive in his Japanese policy, succeeded Nie Bao. , served as Minister of War.
The Jinghai policy written by Su Ze is naturally not about the current situation, but about the issues of Jinghai in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Su Ze wrote down his first plan - fasting to worship the God of the Sea, and then put down his pen for the time being.
If Fang Zhifu takes this approach, I am afraid that the reputation of being a "lucky person" will not be lost.
Although Xu Jie's Qing Ci is also good, he just "seeks perfection"!
If you, a prefect, persuade the emperor to fast and worship the God of the Sea, then you are a complete traitor!
Su Ze thought for a while and then picked up the pen. Anyway, his Jinghaice was written on the paper. Whether the prefect uses it or not is up to you.
After finishing the eloquent paragraph, Su Ze put down the pen again for the next paragraph.
If we follow Zhao Wenhua's "Seven Notes on Shangping Japanese" and request the court to recover the taxes owed by Jiangnan, then the prefect will no longer be a "lucky" minister, but a proper strict party.
Although the current Qingliu Party is not yet the Donglin Party of later generations, its base is still scholars from wealthy southern provinces such as Nanzhili.
The "political correctness" of the Ming Dynasty was to lighten corvee and reduce taxes. The reason why the collection of accumulated debts could not be carried out was because Qingliu always shouted in the name of "harming the people". All the taxes owed to Jiangnan by all the household officials were You can only turn a blind eye.
Jiangnan was the cultural center of the Ming Dynasty, and those influential scholars were all from big families. Anyone who collected debts in Jiangnan would be labeled as a cruel official.
Yan Song's party was indeed rife with corruption and serious political speculation. It has to be said that Yan Song was indeed the "financial expert" of the Jiajing Dynasty. This is why the Jiajing Emperor never wanted to replace Yan Song.
If Magistrate Fang really follows this strategy, he will be the enemy of Qingliu in the imperial court. Even if he is not Yan Song's disciple, he will be attacked as a Yan Party member.
In an extreme political environment, once you step into the center of the stage, there is no such thing as double-dealing, you can only choose sides.
Yan Song was ordered to become an official in the 41st year of Jiajing. It is now the 34th year of Jiajing. Once the prefect was labeled as a strict party member, it would be considered as joining the national army in 1949.
Anyone who takes action against the earth will basically have a bad reputation in the history of the Ming Dynasty.
Even Zhang Juzheng, the "Ming Shenzong" who was born in Qingliu and was the leader of Qingliu, was liquidated after his death because of a whipping method.
You must know that during Zhang Juzheng's tenure, he petitioned the emperor to forgive Jiangnan's accumulated debts over the years, but even so, he was still scolded as a cruel official who "competed with the people for profit."
I don't know how these tax-resistant landowners can be regarded as "small people", and which small people dare to default on the taxes owed to the court.
Su Ze thought for a while and crossed out the item about collecting debts in Jiangnan. He thought about it and replaced it with another item.
Lijin.
This system is always considered to be an invention of the Qing Dynasty, but in fact it already existed in the Song Dynasty.
In fact, the commodity economy of the Ming Dynasty is now quite developed, and the Ming Dynasty also has commercial taxes.
The merchant tax of the Ming Dynasty was similar in nature to the money tax, and was collected in large quantities. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was already the third largest tax after land tax and salt tax.
The financial problem of the Ming Dynasty was not that there was no commercial tax, but that it was insufficient collection of commercial tax, or corruption caused by the high cost of commercial tax collection.
The Ming Dynasty commercial tax is mainly divided into two parts: over-tax and residence tax.
Overtax refers to toll tax, which is a tax on the circulation of goods. The biggest one is banknote tariff.
Residential tax is a tax on shops, land transactions, and specialized products such as wine and vinegar.
For example, when Su Ze transferred the shops and tea gardens from the Cai family, he paid taxes to the government, and each shop also had to pay regular shop taxes.
The problem with commercial taxes is that under the corrupt system of the Ming Dynasty, commercial taxes were not in the hands of the court.
The reason is also very simple. Land is dead. No matter how much land is concealed, the land in a region cannot suddenly disappear without a trace. If the total amount of land in a region decreases sharply, it will also affect the success of local administrative officials.
The land in the Ming Dynasty was decreasing, but it was slowly decreasing over many generations, not all at once.
But business tax is different.
There is no way for these superiors to verify how many ships and caravans have passed by and how much gate tax has been paid when entering the city.
It is certainly impossible for the household department far away in the capital to know how much city gate tax was paid at Nanping's city gates.
For example, in the Jiangnan area, merchants queued up to enter the city, but the city gate tax they paid was similar to that in Fujian.
The second method proposed by Su Ze was to levy banknote customs and banknote tariffs in Japanese-insurgent areas, and use the money to quell the Japanese.
However, the original Ming Dynasty's banknote tariff was quite rough. It was not a tax on goods, but on the ships that transported the goods.
So rather than saying this is a goods transfer tax, it is better to say it is a vehicle and vessel tax collected.
As he wrote on the manuscript paper, Su Ze's thoughts became clearer.
The first is to set up more customs clearance, and to change the tax on the size of transport ships to the value of goods.
A shipload of silk must be taxed at a higher rate than a shipload of sand.
The next step is how the court controls this tax.
Let's take a Kana donation, which Yanpingwei has done. If we just set up more banknotes, the result will be an increased burden on the people, and the court will still not be able to receive money.
Su Ze knew the lower limit of officials in the Ming Dynasty quite well, and that was that there was no lower limit.
As long as there is money to be made, they will never let it go.
Su Ze continued to write urgently, and the best way was naturally to "deduct" it.
Su Ze's method sounds complicated, but in fact the principle is very simple. It is to form a deductible chain of banknote tariffs, so that the court can find out how much banknote duties have been levied by each customs office.
When a ship passes through Customs A and pays tax, it can obtain a tax certificate from Customs A.
With this certificate, the ship's goods will not need to pay taxes when passing through other currency customs.
And when the goods are transported to the city and pay the city gate tax or go to the market to sell and pay the city tax, you can use the banknote certificate to deduct the tax.
In this way, the tax quota issued from the Jia banknote pass can be returned to the government through the method of "tax deduction".
Because there is no direct relationship between banknotes and local governments, it is difficult to form a chain of interests. Local governments can also "deduct taxes" and collectively hand over the collected "tax deductible" tax vouchers to the Ministry of Revenue. Then the Ministry of Revenue can roughly know how many tax vouchers have been issued and how much tax has been collected.
As long as there is a deterrent, the tax collectors will not dare to act recklessly, knowing that they will not dare to withhold most of the tax money as before.
After Su Ze finished writing the Chaoguan method, he felt something was wrong. Wasn't this a way to extend the life of the Ming Dynasty?
But Su Ze soon felt relieved. No matter whether Su Ze wanted to rebel or not, it was always right to pacify the Japanese. If he could really contribute to the situation in Zhejiang and make the people of Zhejiang suffer less, it would be good.
Of course the law is a good law, but given the urinal nature of the Ming Dynasty, no matter how good the law is, some people will find loopholes, and eventually good governance will turn into bad governance.
There is no good law in the world that will last forever!
Any policy must be constantly adjusted, re-divided into interests, and cracked down on corrupt groups in the policy chain in order to be sustainable in the long term.
This is why it is said that reform is always on the way.
But this bloated and rusty machine of the Ming Dynasty has lost its ability to adjust itself.
Any policy with good intentions will eventually be distorted.
The Lijin system of the Qing Dynasty can be said to have extended the life of the Qing court, but the same Lijin system also led to the rise of local powerful factions, which later led to the situation of mutual protection between the Southeast and the Southeast.
Besides, this is just a policy paper for the government examination.
Su Ze continued to write.
The rest is the old topic, winning over the trade faction among the Japanese pirates and instigating Japanese pirates to fight against Japanese pirates.
Thoroughly investigate corruption and smuggling in the Coast Guard and recruit new troops to fight against the Japanese.
Su Ze proudly collected the seven items, corrected the typos, and then copied them onto the examination paper.
When he raised his head, he saw that Magistrate Fang was already standing beside him, reading his exam paper carefully.
Su Ze was shocked, but didn't say anything. No noise was allowed in the examination room.
At this time, the prefect Fang was already crazy.
In fact, the magistrate didn't have much hope at first. Those Ke Dao Yan Guan were all Jinshis who came out of the palace examination papers, and they were all among the top Jinshis. Their methods couldn't satisfy the emperor, and none of these scholars were. What can Tong Sheng do?
Magistrate Fang asked them to write policy papers, just to inspire his own ideas for writing memorials.
While inspecting the examination room along the way, the prefect saw many candidates' papers.
What are these things!
Some proposed a complete ban on the sea, moving coastal people to inland provinces, and "starving" Japanese pirates to death.
This is a good idea. Should we also give up Southern Zhili to the Japanese pirates?
There are also people from all over the country who want to recruit local warriors and offer rewards to kill Japanese pirates. The imperial court can't even afford to raise regular soldiers. Who will pay for this?
The prefect took a look around and found that those who could talk about Chelulu were considered good. He was also confused and believed that these children could come up with some good ideas.
Originally, the prefect had given up all hope, but after seeing Su Ze's policy, the prefect was completely dumbfounded!
Worshiping the God of the Sea during a fasting ceremony was considered a favor to the emperor, and it was nothing. A smart official had already submitted such a letter.
But the next banknote pass made the prefect stupid!
Fang Zhifu has been a county magistrate and a prefect. Of course he knows that commercial taxes are difficult to collect.
But this law is different. There are two systems, that of the bank and the local government, which can avoid collusion between the bank and the government.
The banknote customs collects the tax and issues the tax invoice, the local government deducts the tax invoice, and finally the tax invoice is collected to the Ministry of Household Affairs. By comparing the two, we can calculate clearly how much the banknote tax will be for a year.
No matter how courageous the bank checkpoints in various places are, they will not dare to withhold business taxes as greedily as before!
This method really works!
This method not only puts forward suggestions, but also proposes a complete set of methods to solve the problem. What is more valuable is that this method is also executable and supervised.
The prefect became confused again. Even the cabinet ministers might not be able to come up with such a specific and effective solution.
Since ancient times, talents for governing the country have been quite rare.
Are there really people who are born with great talents?
The prefect loved Su Ze even more and wanted to recruit him as his son-in-law no matter what!
After all the candidates had finished the examination, the lights were lit and the intense marking work began.
Su Ze's policy was naturally recognized by all the reviewers and was recommended to the magistrate.
Magistrate Fang hesitated for a moment, but still ordered Su Ze's paper as the head of the case.
Chen Chaoyuan was also very lucky. Although his Jinghai policy theory did not have any substantive content, it was at least meaningful and he passed the government examination.
After completing the grading and release of results, people naturally congratulated Su Ze.
When the prefect returned home, he was not in such a happy mood.
It was a rare occasion for Mrs. Li to come back from the folk art club. When she saw Magistrate Fang like this, she asked,
"What's bothering you, Master?"
Naturally, the husband and wife had a tacit understanding for many years. Magistrate Fang explained Su Ze's plan for entering the examination room, and then talked about his daughter. marriage.
Mrs. Li didn't say anything. After Magistrate Fang finished speaking, she asked,
"What worries me, is that Su Ze was picked on the head of the case. Is it possible that if he recruits him as his son-in-law in the future, he will be criticized?"
Magistrate Fang nodded.
Mrs. Li said: "I don't understand the politics of the imperial court. Let's talk about Su Ze's policy statement. If other examiners read it, would they point him at the top?" Magistrate Fang nodded heavily and
said: "That's natural! This policy is Qingyun's policy. " If you submit the plan to the court, you will definitely get an important position!"
Mrs. Li sneered and said: "In that case, Su Ze should be the head of the case. Sir, don't you feel guilty, Su Ze can become the head of the case for the same reason, so why should you be afraid of others' opinions? ?"
Magistrate Fang sighed and said, "People's words are scary."
Mrs. Li said, "My parents died young and I raised my younger brother, so I naturally know that people's words are scary. Because I was afraid of people's words, I asked Su Ze not to be the head of the case. Master Can you feel at ease?"
Fang Zhifu shook his head.
Mrs. Li added: "Or do you want to give up such a good son-in-law for the sake of reputation?"
Magistrate Fang shook his head and said, "That won't work, my daughter."
Mrs. Li interrupted and said, "That won't work. I'm a woman who doesn't understand the principles. But when we play horse hanging, if we want to win, we have to move forward. Just focus on the planned cards. If you waver, you will lose."
Fang Zhifu felt enlightened and saluted Mrs. Li: "Thank you, Madam!"
Mrs. Li added: "You used Su Ze Qingyun's plan is to invite him to his home and talk to him, so that he will avoid any grudges in the future."
Magistrate Fang said quickly: "This is natural! If this plan is used, Su Ze must agree. If he refuses, I will definitely not go to the memorial."
Mrs. Li shook her head and said: "I don't care about your men's affairs. You and your daughter kept this matter from me and you have to settle the account! I want to see this Su Ze." Mrs. Li added: "
My daughter is going to marry a Jinshi. She passed the provincial examination. After the promotion, we will be engaged and engaged, and we will get married after winning the Jinshi!"
After saying this, the magistrate smiled bitterly and shook his head, and then ordered the book boy to summon Su Ze to the government office.
This chapter was so difficult to write, but I finally wrote it!
Fat Bird thinks this plot is not cliché, right? But I’ve been thinking about it for a long time!
Asking for a monthly ticket!
(End of chapter)