Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1736
It is natural for Zhu Yijun to feel that he has no clue. As far as his political and ideological foundation is concerned, it is obvious that there are strong limitations of the times and classes.But his cluelessness may not be a problem for Gao Yushi, because Gao Yushi has a direct solution in his hands.

Gao Yushi didn't come up with this solution himself, he just happened to stand on the shoulders of a great man with the same surname as Zhu Yijun on this issue.That great reformer, withstood enormous international and domestic pressure, reformed a bright future for China in his era, and his solutions to this problem were mainly two: tax-sharing system and transfer payment.

From Gao Pragmatism’s point of view, financial affairs are an important entry point for understanding the national governance system.In a sense, not only fiscal behavior is essentially governance behavior, but even governance behavior is essentially fiscal behavior.Every reform of the fiscal system in ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, in all dynasties, will have an important impact on the relationship between the central government and the local area, regional relations, and even the development of future generations.

The financial system of the early Ming dynasty was almost exactly the opposite of the financial system of the later Hong dynasty. The central financial capacity of the Ming Dynasty was extremely poor and the financial power was pitiful. This point has been repeatedly emphasized in the previous chapters of this book and will not be repeated here.

In the early days of the Red Dynasty, it was a financial system of "unified revenue and unified expenditure" with a high degree of centralization and comprehensive management.The fiscal revenues of local governments are turned over to the center, and local expenditures are then allocated by the center.There was a reason for doing so at the time. It was to solve the financial and economic situation of decentralized management and decentralized operations formed during the Revolutionary War, and to raise funds necessary for the early construction of New China.

However, 80 years later, the Red Dynasty adopted a relatively decentralized "contract system" fiscal system. The principle was "division of tax categories, verification of revenue and expenditure, and hierarchical contracting."

The background of this reform is that there was a fiscal deficit in the 70s, and after the reform, a supporting fiscal system was needed to give local economic autonomy and fiscal autonomy, so there was a saying of "all the country, and the rest is local." The practice of eating in separate kitchens.

The profit-to-tax reform is to change most of the profits that state-owned enterprises originally handed over to the state into income tax, thereby fixing the distribution relationship between the state and enterprises through the tax law.However, it is clear that this system is not perfect and needs to be further deepened.

So after 94, the Red Dynasty adopted the "tax-sharing system reform" of centralization of income and decentralization of expenditure, which was accompanied by the establishment of two tax systems of "national tax" and "local tax".

Please note that during the time period from 80 years later to 94 years ago, the situation in the Red Dynasty was somewhat similar to that before the "big household reform" in the Ming Dynasty.

The World Bank stated in February 2002 that it considered the fiscal system of the Red Dynasty at that time to be a "financial federal system with rings intertwined".It says this: "While the central government sets the broad outlines of the system, it deals directly only with the provinces.

For example, it sets the rules for sharing revenues with the provinces; then, the provinces determine the revenue sharing system with their municipalities, and then the cities and counties, and so on.The same goes for the breakdown of expenditures.Therefore, although the Red Dynasty was a unitary system of government, these institutional arrangements gave it a strong federal character. "

The word "Federation" is used here, and its main meaning is: the central government has absolute power in theory, but local governments have relatively high autonomy in practice—isn't this very "Ming"?
As a modern country in the Red Dynasty, the details of the tax-sharing system were far more complicated than that of the Ming Dynasty, so I won't elaborate here.However, the result must be summed up in one word, that is, after the reform of the tax-sharing system, the local financial capacity has been weakened, and it depends on the appropriation from the higher authorities.

This kind of "allocation" is actually a centrally based local subsidy, which is generally tax rebates and transfer payments, and transfer payments are divided into general transfer payments and special transfer payments.

General transfer payment, also known as balanced transfer payment or financial transfer payment.It does not specify the purpose and can be arranged independently by local governments. The purpose is to balance the financial gap between regions and achieve the equalization of basic public service capabilities.

Special transfer payments mainly serve the specific policy objectives of the central government, are generally combined with local industrial development and economic development, and need to be used in strict accordance with the prescribed purposes.

At that time, as a young cadre who had worked in the grassroots government for many years, Gao Yushi had personally participated in this practice. In addition, he had a background in law and later studied economics, so he knew these things well.

The principle of tax sharing at that time was the tax sharing of the five-level fiscal system, in which the higher-level government at each level had the right to formulate a tax-sharing system plan with the lower level.The common law is: financial power is released at all levels, and administrative power is pushed down at all levels. The lower the government is, the more distressed its financial situation is.

Because of this, at the time Gao Wu heard jokes from people at the grassroots level, "The center is magnificent, the province is beautiful, the city is rickety, the county is tearing down the east wall to make up for the west wall, and the town is full of crying fathers and mothers." .

But this statement is just a self-deprecating cadre at the grassroots level. In fact, everyone has held countless meetings, and they have unified their thinking long ago, and they know what they are doing.Therefore, self-deprecating is self-deprecating, but few people really resist this reform ideologically.It has to be said that the Chinese at that time had no reason to feel inferior. At least few officials abroad could possess such a spirit.

Chinese people have always firmly believed that it is an inescapable social responsibility to leave one’s family behind for everyone, so that they do not understand the so-called freedom of Westerners who “as long as I am happy, let others do what they want”.

Transfer payment is the sublimation of this idea.The so-called transfer payment, expressed in the most simple language, is generally to collect taxes from rich areas and invest them in infrastructure construction in poor areas, so as to try to bring the level of regional development closer and resist the "forced" development of regional development under excessive freedom. The strong are always strong, and the weak are always weak" to create a fairer and more stable social environment.

The Hong Dynasty did this because it was socialism, which was its ideal and goal; the Ming Dynasty had to do the same, but the reason was obviously not as great, just because it would cause big troubles if it didn’t do it—such as the gradual infiltration of Jiangnan chaebols and Control the right to speak in the court.

If there is no highly pragmatic intervention, wouldn't the later Donglin Party in the original history just do this?Isn't that the end of Daming?
The reason why Gao Yushi insisted that among the three major events mentioned by Zhu Yijun, Cao Jun’s unrest was the first problem that had to be settled was precisely because he wanted to take advantage of the fact that the prestige of the Yuan Dynasty’s victory was at its peak, and both Bozhou and North Korea needed a big war. At this juncture, the truth of the chaebol's indirect interference in politics was revealed, a political blow was given to them, and a red line was drawn for them from then on.

Only by doing this at this point in time can the power in one's hands be maximized and the resistance faced will be minimized, so the final effect must be the best.If you change the time point, I'm afraid it will be more or less meaningless.

Therefore, Gao Wu practically explained the tax-sharing system and transfer payment to Zhu Yijun in as simple a language as possible, and tried to make it more in line with the mainstream of thought of this era.

So Zhu Yijun suddenly realized after hearing this: "Isn't this just robbing the rich and helping the poor? I think this is feasible, and it should be done—it can't always be the rich. ambition!"

The two discussed some relevant details for a while, and both drank half a jug of wine.After a while, Zhu Yijun looked at the hourglass and realized that time was tight. He was afraid that the discussion would not be finished, so he quickly stopped the topic and moved to the second matter, asking: "Let's talk about the Jiangnan matter first, and then Why do you think Pyongyang should be prioritized instead of North Korea?"

"There are two points. The first point is that the emperor should be able to guess: to fight against the outside world, the inside must be settled first." Gao Wushi said: "Banzhou is not peaceful, not only the southwest is not safe, but it is originally under the jurisdiction of Nanjing, which will affect us. Mobilize military and financial resources from the south to support the war in North Korea..."

"Wait a minute!" Zhu Yijun opened his eyes wide, and asked in a puzzled way: "I can understand that you want to mobilize financial resources in the south, but why do you want to mobilize troops from the south? With a million troops, if you randomly deploy some, you should be able to drive the Japanese pirates all the way into the sea to feed the fish, right?"

Gao Wushi raised his eyebrows slightly, and said, "Good lord, the Pope learned that the current total army strength of the Wa Kingdom is about 50, and this is on the premise that there has not been a large-scale conscription."

Zhu Yijun was really taken aback, subconsciously said "ah", and then asked in disbelief: "There is such a large army in Japan, why didn't I hear about it before?"

"The country of Wa has experienced a long-term civil war before, and it is probably a bit like the situation of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States. Therefore, there are large armies everywhere. Now it is unified by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the sum is too many. At the same time, because of too many troops, Toyotomi Hideyoshi can't feed them, so he has to find a way...he started this big war, which is somewhat related to this."

Gao Wushi sighed, and said: "When I heard the news before, I happened to be serving as Minister of the Rongzheng, so I discussed this with Cheng Guogong and others. Cheng Guogong said that he had previously discovered that someone had asked the Wa State Sold some old guns..."

Zhu Yijun's face collapsed, and he said sullenly: "If you dare to sell artillery, how can the court's laws be a joke!"

Gao Wushi smiled wryly and said, "There is certainly something wrong with this matter, but..." When he said this, he suddenly became embarrassed.

Zhu Yijun's heart moved, and he hesitated: "Could it be that you also sold it?"

Gao Wushi sighed: "I didn't sell it myself, but the artillery they sold was sold to them by Jinghua. Your Majesty, the thing is this: after they used it for a while, they lied that they needed to replace it for some reason. Installed new cannons, so I re-ordered them from Jinghua, but dismantled those half-new old cannons and sold them to the Japanese country..."

Zhu Yijun was relieved when he heard that Gao Wushi didn't participate, and waved his hands: "As long as you didn't participate, it's fine. They did this to deceive you that you don't have time to take care of your many industries - after all, you are a big Situ. It's already busy enough."

Before Gao Wushi had time to thank you, Zhu Yijun continued to speak, and his tone suddenly became severe: "However, I think those who sell guns just got into the eyes of money and can't get out!"

Who knew that Gao Yushi's face was still a little embarrassed, which made Zhu Yijun feel a little unconfident again, and asked with uncertain eyes: "What else do you want to say?"

Gao Wushi coughed lightly, and said with a wry smile: "Your Majesty doesn't know. The problem is that the imperial court had only restricted sales to Mongolia, Jurchen, and even North Korea. Here... there is no Japanese country by chance."

"Ah?" Zhu Yijun was dumbfounded for a moment, before asking, "Why?"

"After the Ningbo Incident, the Ming Dynasty and the Wa Kingdom originally stopped trade, but since the imperial court opened the sea, the Wa Kingdom was within the scope of free trade. At that time, because the Wa Kingdom was still in civil strife, it was possible to earn money by selling some soldiers. It can also bring benefits to the imperial court, so there is no strict ban on the sale of Japanese goods.

And then... Uh, after all, no one expected that the Wa Kingdom would be so bold as to dare to stroke Ming's tiger's beard, so things became like this. "

Gao Wushi's remarks are generally half-truths and half-false. The truth probably accounts for [-]% to [-]%, and the cover-up side accounts for [-]-[-]%. Most of them are to excuse the nobles - after all, selling guns As far as Gao Wushi knows, the nobles have done a lot.

It's not that Gao Wushi insisted on saving them, but to save them is to save the Maritime Trade Alliance. Otherwise, although the Maritime Trade Union will not die this time because of his relationship, it is estimated that it will inevitably be slashed severely.

Although this knife will probably be cut on the heads of the nobles, it should not have much to do with Gao, but from a long-term perspective, the strength of the nobles cannot be weakened at least for now-otherwise, how can Gao Wushi fight against Jiangnan? Chaebol?

Relying solely on the power of the emperor to suppress them administratively will only make the Jiangnan chaebols temporarily dormant, and to lead the chaebols into a healthy development path requires high-level economic means to implement both soft and hard.That being the case, of course the emperor should not let the emperor deal with his allies before achieving his goal.

However, Zhu Yijun is still the same Zhu Yijun after all, the Wanli Emperor who was famous for his "greedy" in history.As soon as he heard that the sale of guns to Japan was due to trade, and trade can increase the revenue of the national treasury, he suddenly changed his attitude, from a vicious expression to "Long live understanding", his expression softened and said: "So that's the case. , that can be regarded as... well, it can be regarded as excusable."

Having said that, Zhu Yijun was still a little upset, and said again: "But even if the Japanese country has some artillery, and its military strength is not weak, but my army of millions on the nine sides, can't it still be able to level a mere North Korea-the Japanese army of 50 can't Don't even care about the old nest, throw it all to that tiny place?"

Gao Wushi coughed dryly, and said, "But since we're newly settled in Mongolia, we have to watch the Wanli Grassland. What's more, after Tumen fled to the west, who knows if he will still have a chance to gain a foothold in the Western Regions and see the Central Plains in the east?"

After all, it was a mortal enemy for 200 years. Zhu Yijun finally calmed down when he heard this, and no longer insisted that entering the DPRK to fight against the Japanese was a matter that could be easily settled by drawing part of the troops from the nine sides.

"In your opinion, how to pacify Bozhou as soon as possible and mobilize financial resources and military forces from the southern provinces?"
-
Thank you book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi" and "Amateur Onlookers" for their monthly support, thank you!
(End of this chapter)