Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1173 Li Wei (Part [-])
What made Shen Shixing restless was not that Gao Pragmatism was qualified enough to ask Wei Xuezeng to come forward to help him - although this in itself was also a very representative thing.

Who is Wei Xuezeng?During the Longqing period, Gao Gong returned to the court, and served as the second assistant and was in charge of the Minister of the Ministry of Officials. At that time, Wei Xuezeng was already the left servant of the Ministry of Officials, Gao Gong's de facto "first assistant".

In other words, he is of the same generation as Gao Gong.It's just that his official fortune is not so good. If it had developed normally at that time, he would have hoped to join the cabinet before Xu Guo. Who knows... Ding You.

After returning to the court for a few years, I also experienced such things as the number one scholar in the high-pragmatic middle school. I thought it was time to join the cabinet this time.

When Ding You was about to return to the dynasty, Yanjing was full of carrots and pits, and Zhang Siwei had no way to get him back to Yanjing (his seniority was too high to be downgraded to be a servant).In desperation, he had no choice but to let him go to Nanjing to be the secretary of the Nanjing household department first, and then transfer back to the north when the capital is vacant.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Siwei will worry about himself next.

In any case, Wei Xuezeng's status within the Real School is quite special. Even if he is not one of the three elders of the Real School, his status within the Real School is definitely not weaker than that of Xu Guo, Zhang Xueyan, and Wu Dui.

Gao Pragmatism's ability to ask Wei Xuezeng to stand for him and handle affairs is enough to show that the political resources left to him by Gao Gong, Guo Pu, and Zhang Siwei's three generations of chief assistants have been completely controlled by him.

It can be said that with Wei Xuezeng's promotion, Shen Shixing's plan of "weighing high pragmatism" has been completed. He already knows the strength of high pragmatism, and knows that his actual status in the school of pragmatism will not be weaker than that of Xu Guo. party leader.

But for Gao Wuzhen's current strength, Shen Shixing was psychologically prepared anyway. Although he would sigh when it was really in front of him, he would not feel frightened.

What frightened him to the point of fidgeting was Wei Xuezeng's point of view.

At first glance, this memorial was impeachment of Pan Sheng, but Shen Shixing keenly discovered that it was not Wei Xuezeng's focus.In fact, Wei Xuezeng just impeached Pan Sheng incidentally. What he really wanted to do was to redefine the tax rates in Yingtian and Zhejiang.

The tax rate of the Ming Dynasty was basically set during the period of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. It was not unified across the country like the tax rates of later generations, but one tax for each locality. It was based on the economic development level of each locality when the country was founded. Subsequent adjustments have been very small.

Theoretically speaking, with the development of social economy, this fixed tax system will definitely accumulate more and more problems gradually.That being the case, more adjustments should be made so that the tax rate is always in line with the actual level and affordability of various places.In some places where the development is fast, the tax rate can be slightly increased; in some areas where the development is slow, the tax rate should be slightly lowered.

However, given the consistent rigid performance of the Ming court on financial issues, this idea is clearly a dream.Simply put, how is it?No matter which place your imperial court wants to increase the tax rate, a large number of people will inevitably jump out of the local area (the county, the government, and the chief envoy) to cry and sell miserably. Hear the voice of singing praises.

This is also one of the reasons why Daming collected less and less tax.

And when it comes to Yingtian, Zhejiang and other places, raising tax rates is a taboo topic that no one dared to touch in the past.

Why?Because although these regions have the most developed economies, they also cultivate the most officials. The bigwigs in power in the imperial court will grab a lot of them. You want to raise the tax rate in his hometown?You have eaten the heart of a bear and the guts of a leopard, you!
Even if the imperial court came up with the imperial examination list to balance the regional issues in the selection of officials, this situation has not changed much, because the officials in the southeast rely on the region with the strongest economy in the country. If the interests are not harmed, they all secretly support the "development" of local officials. This issue has been mentioned above, so I won't repeat it here.

So this has led to some very bad results: everyone's background is different (the southern list looks down on the northern list, unless you are the top of the three tripods), and now the extra support received by both parties is not equal, of course It is easier for Nanbang Scholars to get ahead.

As a result, 200 years have passed. Although the southeast area is the most prosperous in the world, its tax rate has never been raised. On the contrary, some areas have even lowered part of it.

However, this "excellent situation" finally loosened a bit after Gao Gong promoted the commercial tax reform.

The first is the issue of tariff collection.Gao Gong presided over Longqing’s opening of the sea. He didn’t dare to make a big deal at the beginning. He just conducted a pilot project in Yuegang and used the opening of the sea in exchange for the collection of tariffs. In the past, the local area still went to sea, but it was illegal after all.Gao Gong's opening the sea is actually a sum of money in exchange for their right to legally go to sea to do business.

The tax rate of this tariff has been mentioned before, not only is it set very low, but also highly pragmatic, considering the issue of "social pressure", he also suggested to Gao Gong a method of levying taxes on ships instead of goods.This set of measures is actually secretly giving ship owners a space to legally avoid taxes, and the purpose is also to prevent the customs agency from being completely collapsed and sprayed out by coastal sea merchants during the initial establishment period.

The road has to be walked step by step, and the meal has to be eaten at one bite.Going forward, Gao Gong will slowly expand its "plate" on this basis. At the beginning, there was only one moon port with a relatively average location advantage and a small port, and gradually developed to the current long list of ports.

Guo Pu's administration was stable, and he and Gao Gong were in a state of Xiaogui and Cao Sui. They did not pioneer other ways, but continued to expand the number of ports.

But when it came to Zhang Siwei, the last time he took advantage of the situation and reached a deal with the Mind School, to collect commercial taxes in the southeast coastal area-this is on land, not tariffs.The tax rate for this commercial tax is still set at an extremely low level, only one hundred and three percent (three percent) on average.

However, it is only this [-]% commercial tax that has caused complaints in the southeast - of course, there is no need to elaborate on who complained, everyone knows this.

That incident put a lot of pressure on Shen Shixing, Yu Youding and others. The reason why Yu Youding supported Liu Shouyou's things later was that apart from the tendency of the two factions to have factions, the southeast The pressure brought to him is also a very important factor.

Similarly, Shishi Bank did not explicitly object to this matter, but chose to acquiesce, precisely because he knew these inside stories.

It can be seen from this that as long as the imperial court considers imposing additional taxes on the southeast coast, no matter what method and name is used, it will eventually lead to a backlash.The people who were first affected by this backlash were officials from the southeast like Shen Shixing and Yu Youding.

They are the agents of these people in the imperial court, so of course they have to come forward to protect the interests of the "employee" at this time.

It is not unreasonable for the level of commercial development along the southeast coast to be called "the budding of capitalism" in later generations. This kind of gold and dollar politics itself can be regarded as one of the characteristics of capitalism.

This time Wei Xuezeng's Shangshu, the blade is directed at the tax rate in the southeast.Moreover, Wei Xuezeng was extremely courageous. He was not a pilot like Gao Gong was when he opened the sea, and he deliberately set up a tax law with loopholes to exploit, and he did not achieve his goals through political transactions like Zhang Siwei.

He actually planned to take this Pan Sheng incident as an opportunity to directly attack Tian Fu in the southeast!

He actually wants to adjust the unreasonable low land tax policy in some areas in the southeast!

Shen Shixing was dumbfounded for a while, his mind was buzzing, and finally the sound converged into one sentence: Wei Xuezeng, you want to shake the world!

Tian Fu, you dare to move Tian Fu? !
It's true that the richest people in the southeast are not big landlords but big merchants, especially big merchants, but... In this world, except for the strange thing called Gao Yushi, which big merchant doesn't have a lot of fertile land?
You have to ask why the big merchants also have a lot of fertile land?What a joke, there was not a lot of fertile land in the Ming Dynasty, so your social attributes are pure businessmen, not landlords and gentry!
Who doesn't know how much social status the merchants of the Ming Dynasty had?If you are not a landlord and gentry, how can you deal with officials?
You think that everyone is highly pragmatic, and your family is a sect of practical learning, so you don't worry about family status at all?
Gao Wushi didn't worry about his family status because his family was originally an eunuch, and his uncle was Wen Zhenggong, and he himself was the number one of the six "true leaders in the past 200 years"!
Who are you, worthy of being compared with him?

So Wei Xuezeng's move shocked Shen Shixing beyond measure.

But the question is, does Wei Xuezeng dare to make such a big commotion by himself?Who is standing behind him?What is the fundamental purpose of doing this?
Judging from the current situation, the person behind Wei Xuezeng is most likely to be highly pragmatic. He is the only one who has the guts to make such a move. Apart from being highly pragmatic, no one dares to do this kind of thing, or even mention it!
However, does Gao Yushi really want to take this opportunity to adjust the tax rate in the southeast?He has such a certainty?
He should be very clear that if you start from this aspect, the struggle between the Heart School and their Real School will have to start in an all-round way. No, I can't fight without fighting, and I can't fight without dying!

Shen Shixing was so anxious that not only his forehead broke out in cold sweat, but even the soles of his feet were wet with sweat after a while.

Now he suddenly feels very regretful. He thought that the practical school suddenly lost its core this time. The "dual core" between Xu Guo and Gao Yushi is bound to be unstable, and there may even be a certain scale of internal fighting. A good time to fish in troubled waters.

Unexpectedly, Xu Guo has a name for nothing. Gao Yushi seems to be quiet at ordinary times, but in fact his position in the Real School is very stable. Once something happens, he can immediately mobilize resources and concentrate firepower to fight back.

What was even more unexpected was Gao's pragmatic reaction. This kid was always cautious, but this time he exploded as if he had eaten gunpowder.It's even better now, he's even thinking about Tian Fu in the southeast!

Why?Does he know about the Zheshang Alliance?
Thinking of the Zheshang Alliance's plan to fight Gao Wushi in the southeast shopping mall, Shen Shixing suddenly felt that he had grasped the key point - yes, the Zheshang Alliance wanted to start a war with Jinghua, Gao Yushi naturally refused to sit still, but Gao Yushi The foundation is in the north, and he obviously has no advantage in fighting the Zheshang Alliance in the southeast.

That being the case, why not use a set of "random punches" to stir up the situation and catch the Zheshang Alliance by surprise?
Shen Shixing forced himself to think from a highly pragmatic perspective. If he was highly pragmatic, what is the purpose of doing this now?

After thinking for a while, he realized that he had gained something: I will muddy the water in the southeast, and let the court focus on the tax rate in the southeast. Then Pan Sheng's affairs will become a trivial matter, and the Heart School will do it for you. To ensure that the foundation of the southeast is not bad, there must be no spare energy to estimate a mere Pan Sheng, and it is very likely to give up Pan Sheng at that time, so the foundation of the southeast must be preserved first.

In this way, Pan Sheng will definitely die, and the position of old man will definitely not wait for Wang Xijue to take over. When the time comes, the chaos may make it easier for someone with high practical arrangements.At the same time, the situation that no one dared to mention the tax rate in the southeast has also been broken. Even if this incident is just a high-level pragmatism, it does not necessarily have to achieve real results, but as long as there is the first time, the second, It is not surprising that the third time or even countless times.

Going on like this, sooner or later Gao Yushi will succeed!
Shen Shixing wanted to understand this, but felt that his hands and feet were numb and his mouth was smoky. He didn't care about anything else, so he picked up a cup of cold tea that had already cooled down and drank it.

A large cup of tea is used to going in, and his mind has cleared up a lot. He suddenly made up his mind: it doesn't matter if you lose a Pan Sheng, or even lose Wang Xijue's coming to Beijing to replace Pan Shengge's old position. The topic of proposing to reform the tax rate in the southeast is spreading!
This thing is simply terminally ill, we must take precautions before it happens, and we must nip it in the bud!
Shen Shixing no longer hesitated, and was not even in a hurry to draft the memorial, but directly sent someone to call his entourage over, and wrote a letter of greeting to him on the spot, asking him to send it to others immediately High pragmatism in the Yamen of the Ministry of War.

Half an hour later, Gao Wu was on duty at the yamen of the Ministry of War and received a greeting card from the Shen University Scholars' Office, which was actually written by Shen Shixing himself.There was no serious matter mentioned in the greeting post, it just said that Shen Yuanfu felt that the weather has been very good recently and the autumn air is refreshing, and he hoped to visit Gao Gongbao Yubaiyulou tonight and enjoy the bright moon together.

Gao Wushi read the greeting post with a calm expression, and said to Shen's servants: "Master (Shen Shixing is Gao Yushi's teacher in name) is here, the student is very honored, and the Baiyu Tower is full of splendor. Please tell the master, and tell the student I will sweep the couch to welcome you tonight."

His performance was very calm from the beginning to the end, until the servants of Nashen's mansion walked out of the yard, he stood up abruptly, squeezed his fist hard, and laughed three times.
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Thank you book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your support, thank you!
(End of this chapter)