Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 167 Practically Returning Home (Part [-])
Only two taels of silver were missing, so it was probably just an error, so Shuai Jiamo came to the conclusion: At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the entire six counties of Huizhou Prefecture owed a total of 480 shi for summer grain, and the debt was based on the "summer tax raw silk". Make up in name, fold 780 raw silk.This was not a problem at first, but the problem was that after Yisi was restructured, the tax was borne by the whole government instead of being borne by She County alone for some reason.

What's even more tragic is that the 780 bolts of raw silk belong to the folding tax, which must be paid in kind.However, Huizhou did not raise silkworms at all, so the people in She County had to sell their grain and exchange it for silver, then use the silver to buy raw silk, and finally hand it over to the government.This means that it has to be folded twice before and after. Needless to say, the cost must be very high.

What's more, the 780 horses are the number arriving at the warehouse, and the cost and loss of mid-way transportation must be added.So after the whole conversion, the people of She County actually paid more than the book, maybe [-] horses, or even tens of thousands of horses.

It is conceivable that if this situation is correct, then She County is simply out of luck!Because from the beginning of the "Yisi Restructuring" in the 25th year of Zhizheng, until the third year of Longqing-the unjust tax on the heads of the people of She County has been paid for more than 200 years!

Shuai Jiamo was so shocked that his scalp was numb, so he acted very cautiously. He didn't rush to alarm the government, but first carefully found out in She County.As a result, he found that he was not the first person to discover this problem. As early as the 14th year of Jiajing, two people from She County, Wang Xiang and Cheng Peng, discovered the problem with this "human silk".

At that time, they did not protest locally in Huizhou Prefecture, but directly submitted a report to the superior of Huizhou Prefecture-Governor Yingtian, and more than once!
At that time, it was the first time that the report was received by Yingtian Governor Chen Kezhai and Governor Song Maoxi. These two were still serious about their work, and they quickly gave a reply, asking the Huizhou government to conduct a thorough investigation.It's a pity that the timing was unlucky, the two were promoted and transferred away soon, and the successors didn't know the previous situation, so no one asked about this matter.

Wang Xiang and Cheng Peng also estimated this possibility, so they submitted another report to the governor of Yingtian and the inspector. The succeeding governor Ouyang Duo and inspector You Jujing also received the same report.These two had just taken office, so of course they couldn't do nothing, so they quickly gave a reply and asked 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, so they were perfunctory and delayed.

Later, Wang Xiang and Cheng Peng passed away inexplicably one after another, and the matter was left alone.

How to do?These two people died strangely, most of them were not normal deaths, and nine out of ten were related to this incident.If I also hold on to this unjust tax, will I encounter the same disaster in the future?

The stubbornness of a mathematical talent occupied his whole brain: people can die, but accounts can't be wrong!
Thinking of this, Shuai Jiamo pushed aside the account book and made a decision: he wanted to make a third submission to seek justice for She County.Not to mention getting back the overpaid taxes in the past or seeking to reduce or exempt other taxes in the future, but at the very least, this tax must be redistributed to the six counties, and She County must not be alone!
Shuai Jiamo's determination was not easy.You must know that Ming Dynasty’s taxation system is relatively chaotic, intricate, and involved a lot. Unless a certain place is severely affected by a disaster, it will be extremely difficult for the emperor to increase or decrease one or two subjects. If he wants to delete a whole subject with the power of a commoner, It's really hard to reach the sky.What's more, if it is redistributed, it means that the other five counties will increase taxes for nothing, and this huge interest group will definitely try their best to obstruct it.

However, Shuai Jiamo, who had already made up his mind, still personally wrote a report, describing his investigation process in detail, and then at the beginning of the fourth year of Longqing, he did not pass the Huizhou government, but submitted it to the then Ying Tianxun as the censor Liu Shihui.

In this report, Shuai Jiamo played a little trick. When he explained the reason, he added a sentence: "Yuan Benfu 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."

In fact, in the "Records of Huizhou Prefecture", it is only vaguely recorded how much Ding Sijuan paid in Huizhou Prefecture or Shexian County. Mike connected.

Shuai Jiamo secretly added these six words in order to create a pre-existing impression on the Shangguan, so as to make it easier for him to do things—who knows that this small hand and foot later became the key point of the lawsuit.

In addition to this point, Shuai Jiamo also said: "Nanjing Shipping Depot receives 190 pieces of silk every year, of which only 780 pieces are paid in silk-producing regions such as Zhejiang and Huguang; , only need to pay [-] horses. However, our Huizhou government does not raise silkworms at all, but we have to pay [-] horses. The local people can only sell grain, convert it into silver, and buy it back from Zhejiang and other places. The procedure doubles the cost, which is miserable. What's more, if the burden is shared by six counties, it may be barely bearable, but now it is borne by one county in Shexian County-the tax of this county is higher than that of Zhejiang and Huguang. The two divisions (Wufeng's Note: Chief Executive Division, similar to provincial administrative regions) are both high, which is simply unreasonable!"

To be honest, Shuai Jiamo played another statistical trick here.Because the tax system of the Ming Dynasty is not a unified collection and settlement, one place often has to pay taxes to several places.

For example, the silk tax in Zhejiang, Huguang and other places is not only sent to the Nanjing shipping warehouse, but also a large part of it is sent to the Taicang Bank, C Bank, etc.In fact, the total silk tax in Zhejiang is as high as 13 horses, and the total silk tax in Huguang is about [-] horses, both of which far exceed those in Shexian County.

But Shuai Jiamo didn't talk about the total number, but only took out the Nanjing shipping warehouse for comparison, and it immediately seemed that the situation in Shexian County was extremely miserable.

The brilliance of this method is that these figures are all real and can be verified completely. It is just a little manipulation in the way of comparison, which immediately shows extraordinary effects-in fact, the burden on She County itself is indeed heavy, but it does not mean that As a result, the people are in dire straits, but compared with Shuai Jiamo, normal people will feel that it is horrific, it is shocking.

In addition to doing a little trick on historical materials and statistics that he thought was sufficiently concealed, Shuai Jiamo had other means.

In the first sentence of his statement, he wrote: "The legacy of the world is more expensive than the average, and it is impossible for the old things to be equal. She County has long focused on Fu, and the people are extremely poor. When Renming is in power, Prepare a petition, and beg for equality."

In just one sentence, the word "average" appeared twice.Obviously, this is not because of his limited writing skills, but because of his profound intentions.

Earlier, when Gao Gong and Gao Yushi's uncle and nephew were discussing financial planning in private, Gao Gong mentioned that even Zhang Juzheng was a little concerned, hoping to spread the whip method to the whole country.Gao Gong believes that the one-whip law can be implemented in some wealthy areas—that is, "economically developed areas" familiar to Gao Pragmatism—but it must not be implemented in some poor areas, otherwise the poor will inevitably suffer more. exploit. [Wufeng’s Note: As mentioned above, readers who don’t remember can look it up by themselves. ]
At present, Jiangnan is of course a rich place, so a weaving method is being implemented, which is a whipping method in the future.The embryonic form of this tax reform policy began in the 40th year of Jiajing. From the [-]th year of Jiajing to the Longqing period, it was gradually tested in the Nanzhili area, which has the strongest economy but also the heaviest tax burden.And the slogan it put forward happened to be: "Equal taxation and labor, so that the Soviet Union can relieve the people's poverty."

So why is Shuai Jiamo "even" twice?It is to elevate this tax dispute to the height of responding to the imperial court's policy.

On a deeper level, the core gist of a law is indeed 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, which is very troublesome to pay and needs to be adjusted urgently. This is closely linked to the reform that the center is vigorously advocating.

From Shuai Jiamo's point of view, as long as this matter can benefit from the national policy, it will most likely attract the attention of Governor Yingtian.China's thousands of years of tradition is there: once the top management pays attention, things will be handled easily.

In particular, the current governor of Yingtian is also working hard to implement a policy.And as long as he is willing to express his opinion, half of the matter will be completed—no, more than half will be completed.The reason why Shuai Jiamo has this confidence is because the governor is so famous that he is far from being comparable to ordinary officials.

In the end, this incident really alarmed Hai Rui, but at the same time, Gao Gong, who was at the helm of the national policy and the banner bearer of the reform far away in the capital, also got the news—it was Gao Yushi's job.

　Key points: The Huizhou silk case mentioned in this chapter, the earliest or at least the most widely circulated version on the Internet, originated from Mr. Ma Boyong's article, but it is indeed an analysis of historical event records, not a fabrication.This series of articles is a bit long, but the writing is very detailed and the analysis is very clear.Since this book has a clear standpoint of "novelist's words", there will be tendencies in the portrayal of Shuai Jiamo, for example, and the time of events in the original history may also be fine-tuned according to the needs of the novel. Therefore, readers If you want to know the detailed and true historical facts, it is recommended to refer to the original text of Mr. Ma Boyong.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)