Daming Yuanfu

Gao Pragmatic's many years of officialdom were indeed not in vain. As his words were sent to the palace early the next morning, seven memorials to impeach him also arrived.

Two of these seven bullets came from the local area, and five came directly from the capital. Among the two bullets from local areas, one came from Suzhou under the jurisdiction of Governor Yingtian, and the other came from Huizhou, Jiangxi.

If you look at the map, you will know that Suzhou and Huizhou are two economic centers close to Zhejiang. The bullets from here gave Gao Pragmatic reason to be sure that his previous judgment was accurate.

As for the bullets in Beijing, this is a matter of course. It is true that since Gao Pingshi took over as chief minister, especially since Shen Yiguan was forced to leave the capital to be responsible for preparing for the Zen ceremony, there has been "peace" in the capital, and the political disputes for many years have seemed to disappear overnight.

However, Gao Pragmatism is not so arrogant as to think that this is the complete surrender of the Xin School, and that this will be the era when the Practical School wins the Confucian orthodoxy and begins to monopolize power.

Officialdom is always officialdom, and the struggle for power and profit never sleeps. The benefits are there, either you take them or I take them. No faction dares to say that they can satisfy everyone, so the Heart School's temporary dormancy is just a last resort. When they think there is a chance, they will still jump out - or even if they jump out People have changed their vests and stopped calling the Xin School. That won't change anything. In short, there will always be political enemies.

Although the first person to initiate the impeachment this time was just a soldier, and Gao Pragmatic ignored the root cause of the impeachment because there were few people around him to help him, he knew very well: since someone has taken action, there will never be only one Li Shuyuan jumped out, followed by waves of bullets.

This is because the official method of the Ming Dynasty is like this: first pick a person who is neither high nor low to come out to stir up trouble, and then follow up again after stirring up the matter, gradually creating a stir, from the local to the central, from the seventh and eighth grades Ministers from the second to the third rank began to participate in it, forming a situation like "the entire dynasty was arched backwards" like Xu's high arch, and finally the senior ministers came out to make the final decision.

Gao Qingshi is very familiar with this method of playing, and he has been playing according to this method of playing for many years. However, this time, the Xinxue Sect and the Jiangnan Chaebol behind them may look at each other in shock, because Gao Pragmatic chose not to defend himself and directly resigned.

This is like someone who is still gathering strength, being pragmatic and going straight ahead - the resignation of the chief minister is not a trivial matter. The emperor cannot wait for public opinion to ferment to see how many people are against the chief minister. At this time, the emperor had only two choices, and he had to choose one of the two immediately: either give up the chief minister and allow him to resign; or try to keep the chief minister and severely punish the person who initiated the impeachment.

Of course, the implementation level will be a little more complicated, that is, the emperor will retain him once or twice no matter what, and when the chief minister resigns again and again, the emperor will go along with the situation and express his permission. However, this is just a performance process and will not affect the development of the situation.

When Li Shuyuan's bullets were delivered to Zhu Yijun yesterday, the emperor was a little puzzled. Why did the southern officials start impeaching pragmatism after everything was going well? It stands to reason that Shen Guanyin is not in the capital now, and your school of thought is leaderless. If impeachment is pragmatic at this time, how will the final drama be performed?

Waiting until today with such doubts, the emperor thought that he would receive a self-defense letter from Gao Pragmatic, and had already thought about how to "gentle words and comfort". Who knew that what was sent with the seven bullets was actually Gao Pragmatic? Ci sparse. When the emperor heard what Chen Ju said, he thought he had heard wrongly - what kind of situation is this? Just like Li Shuyuan's impeachment yesterday, Pragmatic actually resigned directly?

Zhu Yijun, who originally seemed relaxed and leisurely, suddenly became serious and asked Chen Ju to show him the seven bullets and the pragmatic rhetoric. He first subconsciously picked up Gao Pragmatic's Cishu, but the moment he opened it, he suddenly hesitated, slowly put it aside, and first read the seven bullets.

Not long after, Zhu Yijun finished reading the bullet. He frowned, his expression gloomy, and he seemed a little disappointed. The charges for impeaching Gao Pragmatic in the bullets are not much different from those of Li Shuyuan yesterday, especially the five bullets in Jingzhong, which basically retell Li Shuyuan's bullets with a different version, which is very devoid of anything new. Of course, the most important thing is that Zhu Yijun knows very well where these charges come from, and he even knows it better than the bullets.

However, the two bullets from Suzhou and Huizhou contained some details that Zhu Yijun was not very clear about. For example, the bullet stamp posted by the prefect of Huizhou clearly tells how Jinghua Infrastructure hinted at the importance of the "sewer project" to him, and how Gao Yuanfu paid attention to it, and finally "forced the officials to summon the gentry and virtuous people to discuss donations for the project." , and the whole process of Jinghua Infrastructure making huge profits."

It has to be said that the prefect, who was a Jinshi, wrote very well and described the whole thing in detail as if he had seen it in person. Zhu Yijun seemed to be able to think of that scene. But what Zhu Yijun pays more attention to is another thing: data.

The government official directly presented him with the financial list provided by Jinghua Infrastructure, which included various materials and labor expenses. From the perspective of Zhu Yijun, a novice who had never seen such a list, it was just a "socket cement pipe" It accounts for a little more than 30% of the total funds, which does seem to be a problem.

Moreover, it cost more than 30,000 taels just to build a "sewer" in Huizhou Prefecture, that is, the county seat of Shexian County, and the purchase of "socket-type cement pipes" cost 11,000 taels. Two, this is really beyond his understanding.

Is pragmatism really making huge profits from it? This thought flashed through Zhu Yijun's mind, but he quickly shook his head - not that he firmly believed that Gao Pragmatic would not profit from it, but that he suddenly understood something: Even if it is true, so what?

Don't talk to the emperor about the rule of law, the emperor doesn't care about it at all. I hold the Constitution in my mouth and follow the law as I say. Whether you are guilty or not depends on what I think.

What would "I" think?

It's very simple: pragmatic merit is the best in the world, and there is no one in the court today who is more useful than pragmatic, so what if he makes some money?

Moreover, as the upper county of Huizhou, Shexian County costs 30,000 taels, so the middle county may cost 20,000 taels, and the lower county may cost 10,000 taels. Applying this to the whole country, assuming that there is a "sewer project" in more than a thousand counties in the Ming Dynasty, it will indeed cost a lot of money, but... this has nothing to do with me, the emperor, and pragmatism does not let me get the money! According to this Huizhou government official, this money was paid by "gentlemen and virtuous people"!

In fact, Zhu Yijun's estimates of 30,000, 20,000, and 10,000 for each of the upper, middle, and lower counties were very inaccurate, but the emperor would not make detailed calculations for this, he would just make a simple estimate.

In the Ming Dynasty, more than a thousand prefectures and counties were divided into several levels. There are generally four methods for this level classification:

One is the level divided by geographical location.

The county where the two capitals are located has the highest status and is called Jing County; followed by the prefecture-affiliated county where the Chief Secretary is located is called Shou County; the third is the county where the prefecture and Zhili Prefecture are located, called Yi County or Fuguo County, such as She County It is this category; then there are the counties that belong to the prefecture and the direct state, which are called prefecture-affiliated counties; the bottom is the counties that belong to ordinary states (they must accept the leadership of the prefecture and the jurisdiction of the state), and they are called state-affiliated counties. .

The second is the classification based on the amount of land tax. This is also the most familiar classification method for ordinary people in later generations. Those who pay less than 100,000 shi are called upper counties, those who pay less than 60,000 shi are called middle counties, and those who pay less than 30,000 shi are called lower counties.

The third is a hierarchy based on the complexity of the county's affairs.

"The government will provide more than 150,000 shi of field grain, the prefecture will use more than 70,000 shi, and the county will use more than 30,000 shi. They may visit the royal palace, the capital secretary, the chief secretary, or the censor in person, and have troops and horses to guard them. The roads will be used as post roads and the border areas will be charged with supplies. Wherever you go, things are complicated; in prefectures, prefectures, and counties, the amount of farmland and grain is less than 150, 70, or 30,000 dan, but in secluded places, things are simple."

However, it should be noted that this classification according to the complexity and simplicity of affairs is mainly used for the promotion and demotion of state and county officials.

"Foreign officials who are talented in surveying and managing complex affairs will be assigned to remote places; and if they are surveying and managing simple matters and see that they are assigned to complex and dramatic places; if the governor or inspector-general asks for a change, he will consider the change; if there is no merit, he will send it to the department for use."

The fourth is the level divided by the population and territory size of states and counties.

Prefectures and counties are located in the southeast and plain areas with a relatively large population. Generally, the prefectures and counties with a population of more than 20 are called Fanju prefectures and counties, also known as large prefectures and counties; those with sparse people are called small prefectures and counties. Even if things are complicated, there will inevitably be small counties. For example, at that time, Shucheng County was 90 miles from east to west, 90 miles from north to south, with 42 miles of household registration, and a population of 12698. Guo Mao "started to build up Shucheng, and made it small and complex", so it was called a small county.

Prefectures and counties are located in the northwest and mountainous areas. Although they have a small population, they have a large territory. They are also known as Dazhou counties. Even if they are simple, they are still called Dazhou counties. For example, Yunyang County in Sichuan is 160 miles from east to west and 240 miles from north to south. The current population is 16215. The population is roughly the same as Shucheng County. It can also be seen that it is also called a large county because of its vast territory.

In short, the above four levels of classification are neither specific nor clear. In fact, there is no official unified standard. The "big" or "small" of each state and county also changes from time to time.

If we calculate a little more carefully, then according to Zhu Yijun's idea of ​​​​"all states and counties across the country to do a sewer project" at the moment, the total cost will be at least 20 million taels. That is not "it really costs a lot of money", but "it simply costs too much." It’s too much money.”

But what a coincidence, Zhu Yijun didn't do the calculation carefully, and Jinghua Infrastructure didn't even consider doing it across all states and counties. In fact, there is a premise for such a project, that is, the city has a large enough population. If the population is not large, this new sewer project will not be needed at all, and the previous drainage and sewage measures will be enough.

There is a classic line in a famous Ming Dynasty blockbuster: "The imperial court is just a few palaces and several yamen. Food should be eaten in separate pots."

This is how the emperor thought about the problem, so Zhu Yijun didn't care at all how much money the "gentlemen and virtuous people" spent on this. He even thought that the "gentlemen and virtuous people" had plenty of money, so he pragmatically collected money from them by building sewers for the local area. Compared with Those corrupt officials who come to them directly to ask for bribes are much better! At the very least, the sewers have really been repaired, right?

Then came the bullets from Suzhou. To be precise, this bullet comes from Taicang, Suzhou - don't panic, it's not from Wang Xijue, it comes from the deputy envoy in charge of rectifying Su Song's military preparations and managing grain storage and water conservancy... Su Song's military preparations for short, this officer is not stationed in Suzhou City, but in Suzhou City. In Taicang Prefecture under the jurisdiction of Suzhou.

The reason why Su Songbing's bullets attracted Zhu Yijun's attention was because he impeached a new highly pragmatic crime: private collection of sea taxes.

As mentioned earlier in this book, after the Longqing switch, the Ming Dynasty first used Fujian Yuegang as a pilot to levy tariffs. The tax system used was relatively crude, and taxes were basically based on the size, or tonnage, of ships leaving the port.

Later, Gao pragmatically became the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs and established two departments and eleven departments. He then upgraded this overly crude tax law, changing the original calculation based on the gross tonnage of the ship to the calculation based on the deadweight tonnage, and simplified the types of goods. Classification, different categories of goods will use different tax rates.

For example, a shipload of silk and a shipload of rice were originally subject to the same tax rate, but now the tax rate for a shipload of silk will be much higher than that of a shipload of rice. The principles here are actually relatively simple, there are only two: First, look at the value of the goods, the tax rate for luxury goods will be significantly higher than the tax rate for daily necessities; second, look at the people's livelihood attributes, the tax rate for people's livelihood necessities is generally low, and the tax rate for non-people's livelihood necessities is generally low. tax rates generally increased.

No matter what, in short, all ports in the Ming Dynasty now have to pay taxes. The reason why Su Songbing was impeaching Gao Jingshi was that the imperial court had already collected taxes once, so why did Gao Jingshi (Jinghua) have to collect taxes again.

What does it mean that Jinghua collected taxes again? In fact, he was talking about Jinghua's escort fee. The escort fee has been mentioned before, so I won't go into details here. In short, Su Songbing believes that the escort fee is a "private sea tax" because the reality is that almost no ship that goes to sea in the Ming Dynasty dares not to pay this escort fee. of.

To be honest, this means that Gao Pragmatic has not come to the cabinet today to look at matters. If he came, he would probably roll his eyes when he saw this charge - why, you could pay protection fees to the pirates back then, but now you leave it to me, Jinghua Not just an escort fee? Those pirates were all eliminated after I, Jinghua, spent money to build a two-ocean fleet, and Jinghua's charges are much cheaper than those of pirates.

However, Gao Pragmatic rolled his eyes, and he probably wouldn't be surprised that there is such a person - this guy seems to be speaking for those maritime business groups, and since the maritime business group has already had "capitalism sprouts", it must be Money must be compared with money, and money is the only thing in the eye. Seeing that all pirate groups have been destroyed and maritime trade is now safe, they will definitely not be willing to spend any more money. Then, Jinghua who continues to collect money is naturally guilty of a heinous crime.

Zhu Yijun left his bullet and looked at it carefully, but he didn't think Gao Pragmatic was too harsh here. He was just curious, wanting to know how much money Gao Pragmatic could earn here - but don't forget, the Emperor privately held shares in the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance.
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