Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 523 Imperial Power and Sovereignty
The court meeting was held as scheduled.

In the original Denglai governor's yamen, Liu Chao, the chief inspector of ceremonies, led a group of eunuchs to welcome the ministers.

Zhu Yihai watched these important ministers enter the arena while blowing the wind in the attic far away. The palm prints of Dao Yushi, Xiedao Yushi, and the six subjects were all given to Shizhong, left and right to Shizhong, and the Tongzheng Envoy, Dali Temple Minister, Fengtian Fuyin, Governor of the Beijing Camp, Admiral of the Imperial Camp, etc. filed in.

Looking at these noble ministers, Zhu Yihai felt as if he was holding a company meeting.

Daming's company was listed on the backdoor, and the eunuchs such as Liu Chao, the supervisor of ceremonies, and the supervisor of Yuma, are equivalent to him, the secretary of the board of directors, assistant to the president, etc.

The first assistant, Song Zhipu, is the executive vice president of the company. Below are the directors of major departments, general managers of branches such as Shandong, Liaodong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, and directors of several major sales regions.

In general, although Daming has existed for a long time, he almost started his own business again, only using this shell, and up to now, the structure of the entire company is actually completely different from the original Daming company.

In the cabinet led by Vice President Song Zhipu, the bachelors no longer serve as directors of various departments, but each is in charge of a department.The supervisor of rituals is the secretary of the board of directors, not only responsible for taking care of the daily life of the chairman, but also mainly responsible for internal inspections.

In addition to the president's management team, there is also a board of directors, which is the prime minister's office.

Of course, the most important thing is the company's sales elite team, that is, the imperial camp was established and brought out by the emperor, and now it is firmly in the hands of the chairman, and the directors of the major districts, that is, the admirals of the towns The generals are all directly responsible to him.

Not to mention that the Jianyuan and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, which are responsible for auditing and supervision, are also directly responsible to him.

As the founder of the company, he is completely above the entire company. No matter which team it is, it is impossible to confront him as the founder.

However, the bigger the company, the bigger the team, and the more systems are needed in terms of management.

Today's company conference will also focus on solving these problems.

The eunuch Liu Chao, the supervisor of ceremonies, came to ask the emperor, "Your Majesty, all the ministers who were ordered to participate in the court discussion have arrived, and there is no one who is absent."

"Well, let's go."

When Zhu Yihai arrived at the hall, the Chief Assistant Song Zhipu hurriedly stood up to greet him.

Nowadays, the nominal head of hundreds of officials in the imperial court is still the chief assistant of the cabinet.

The Prime Minister's Office is still only a temporary office, not a formal government office, and all prime ministers and ministers are also transferred from various offices to take part-time errands.

Therefore, in formal occasions, the cabinet is still in charge of the officials of the court, and the supervisor of ceremonies assists the emperor in approving awards, and is the emperor's private secretariat.

Because the cabinet scholar no longer holds the position of the six ministers concurrently, the status of the six ministers has declined. After all, in the past, the two positions were bundled together, but now the six ministers are no longer concurrently held by cabinet ministers. It is just a book, and it is to be led by the cabinet.

In the lobby of the former governor's yamen, a dragon chair was placed, with an upright plaque hanging behind it.

Zhu Yihai is wearing a black dragon robe today, which is more casual and light.

The Chief Assistant Foreign Minister Song Zhipu cited the cabinet and six ministers, the interior minister Liu Chao led five eunuchs who held pens, and the eunuchs of the Yumajian, the admiral Dongchang, the commander of Jinyiwei, the governor of the Beijing camp, and several admirals of the imperial camp. The governor of Shuntian Prefecture, and the governors of Liaodong and Shandong among the foreign ministers paid homage to the emperor.

Officials from the Jian Yuan, Metropolitan Procuratorate, General Administration Department, and Dali Temple stood at the door.

Zhu Yihai sat down.

"Your gentlemen, let's gossip, I won't talk too much gossip. It is urgent to convene this court meeting today. It has been more than a year since I raised the army. I have been away all the year round, and I have no time for many things. Discuss with Qing and others.

Let's discuss together today.

Let’s talk about finances first. The soldiers and horses have not been moved, and the food and grass go first. Now my Ming Dynasty has stabilized the situation, and the situation is pretty good, but the use of troops in various places, military expenditures are huge, and disaster relief in various places. I heard many voices about how to distribute financial revenue. Some people said that the military pay in the imperial camp was too high.

There are even those who say that too many local taxes are paid, and those who say that there should not be a separate tax office to collect industrial and commercial taxes.

There are many opinions and discussions.

Then let's have a good discussion today. What areas need to be improved in this new tax policy? ! "

Liu Chao, the eunuch who was in charge of the official seal, got up and began to preside over the meeting. In the late Ming Dynasty, the chief inspector of ceremonies even dominated the cabinet.

But now in the Shaotian Dynasty, the Supervisor of Rituals is not as good as before, basically it is Zhu Yihai's secretariat, or the chairman's office.

"The household department is in charge of finances. The household department can summarize the general revenue and expenditure information for more than a year, and then talk about the current main expenditures. Everyone has a bottom line." Liu Chao stood there , bowing slightly, this former companion of Zhu Yihai, even though he is now the number one eunuch, is still very cautious. "Ruan Shangshu, what do you think?"

"It's not long for me to take over the household department, but I have worked overtime these days to sort out the household department's files, and I can probably explain the bottom line." Ruan Dacheng stood up to answer.

After Shen Tingyang, the former Shangshu of the Ministry of Household Affairs, became the governor and governor of Liaodong, Zhu Yihai chose Ruan Dacheng to take over the important position of Shangshu of the Household Department.

Ruan Dacheng did a very good job as the governor of Zhejiang. This time he entered the court as the Minister of the Ministry of Households and the cabinet to co-organize the bachelor's degree, and even went to the Prime Minister's office.

This man was classified as an eunuch by Donglin during the time of Tianqi Chongzhen, and then became a traitor in the Hongguang Dynasty, but now he has become a capable official in the emperor's mouth, and he is deeply trusted, and the emperor even married his daughter and niece Entering the palace can be said to be a tumbler in the political arena.

"Relying on the great kindness of the saints and the solidarity of the civil and military officials and the people, we have already passed through the most difficult period, and the days are getting better and better," Ruan Dacheng came up and flattered the emperor first, and then decided A tone that is doing well these days.

"Let's not talk about last year's situation. The life-and-death crisis of landslides and landslides, the sage took us here, let's talk about this year."

"This year we not only completely drove the Tartars across the Yangtze River and restored all the land in the south of the Yangtze River, but also captured Huainan, captured half of Shandong, and newly captured half of Liaodong,"

"The imperial battalion now has more than 21 soldiers in the 12 towns of Shuimabu in the headquarters, and has expanded the Shaanxi-Gansu Camp, the Sichuan-Guizhou Camp, the Huguang Camp, the Fujian Camp, and the Four-row Camp with more than [-] soldiers.

In addition, we have the three towns of Beijing and Yingying, and the provincial battalions in various places are also being reorganized one after another..."

"Of course, this year's war has not stopped. Here, the three armies went to Huainan, Shandong, and Liaodong. In addition, Fujian Lingnan troops crossed the sea to conquer Taiwan and besieged the Dutch. Guangxi and Sichuan and Guizhou sent troops to fight against the Tusi rebellion in Yunnan. Qing army.

Sichuan soldiers and horses are also preventing the Qing army from entering Sichuan..."

"The Tartars issued the order of moving the sea and abandoning the Huai River, and even now it is confirmed that in order to prevent Shandong from raising righteousness, they also diverted the Yellow River and diverted the Yellow River, allowing three provinces, ten prefectures, and 47 counties to suffer major floods, which led to serious floods in the Central Plains. hungry.

But even if the situation is like this, we not only hold on, but also under the protection of the saints, we strive to win steadily and fight back. Since the beginning of this year, we have not only stabilized the south, the southeast, and the southwest, we have even received a large number of relief from the Central Plains refugee.

The Central Plains and the South are now in a world of ice and fire. In the areas controlled by the Tartars, the people live in dire straits, famine and epidemics are rampant, and human lives are worthless. People who died of starvation, disease, and war and famine are everywhere.

But in our areas where the Ming Dynasty was restored, this kind of situation is very rare, especially in the southeast region, it is basically nonexistent. Although food prices are still high, they are generally under control,"

Ruan Dacheng's opening remarks were still somewhat flattering, but most of what he said was true.

In order not to starve to death, the court paid a huge price, spending a lot of money, food and even manpower and material resources. This is why some officials believe that they should not spend money like this in pursuit of not starving to death.Especially nowadays, most of the money is actually squeezed out from the hands of gentry and landlords, merchants and wealthy people.

As the situation gradually stabilized, many people began to try to return to the tax system of Jiajing Wanli or even Tianqi Chongzhen. It is even better for the gentry to be completely exempted. Now the rich gentry pay too much tax, and the money is huge Subsidies are given to poor people, even beggars and refugees, which arouses their dissatisfaction.

The tax reform that originated in eastern Zhejiang is now not only implemented very well in Zhejiang, but also basically implemented in Jiangnan after the war. Even in Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi, the imperial court has also implemented the Zheng family, Ding Kuichu, etc. After suppressing and adjusting the local mountain tops, they have also begun to open up paths and are gradually deepening.

Even Hunan, Sichuan, Guizhou, and even the new control areas such as Shandong and Liaodong are also fully implementing these new tax laws.

The new policies are going deep into the localities, such as the allocation of stalls to the mu, the distribution of fire consumption to the public, the payment of grain by the gentry, the industrial and commercial tax, tariffs, tax donations, salt, tea, wine and tobacco monopoly, etc., and these reforms are all controlled by the imperial court, the provincial camp, etc. The army is guaranteed.

The gap in tax revenue before and after is a world of difference, just like the tea tax in Zhejiang has almost disappeared before, but under the new tax law, tea is a special tax, and the tea tax in Zhejiang this year is only more than half a year old, and it has already been collected More than 20 taels, and this does not include the tax on tea exported overseas.

The same is true for salt. There are salt farms in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong, and the salt output is also very high. However, in the past, there were not many salt taxes, and a large amount of salt taxes were evaded. Traders and traders loosened restrictions and strengthened anti-smuggling, but the salt tax was immediately increased several times.

Not to mention that in the past, industrial and commercial taxes, tariffs, and even deed taxes did not account for much of the taxation. Taxes were all based on land tax and silver, and these were mainly on the heads of ordinary poor people.

Now after the adjustment, the burden of ordinary people, especially the landless poor, has been greatly reduced, and various places are still reducing rent and interest to protect tenants.Taxes for landlords and businessmen have been levied, but there is evidence to support them, and the burden of tax rates is within a reasonable range.

So the current tax revenue is more than ten times that of the past, but the problem is that it does not have the previous situation of excessive taxation and excessive taxation, and people's livelihood.

In the past, I stared at a lean sheep and plucked it desperately, but the other flock of fat sheep did not move. Now, the fat sheep should be plucked more, and the thin ones should be plucked as little as possible. In this way, when the cold wind comes, the sheep still have enough Hair to keep out the cold.

Of course, there were internal and external troubles in the past, such as Zhejiang, where the Tartars went south and soldiers approached the city, and even many officials and gentry surrendered in anticipation. Take the opportunity to unite and kill the landlords to rebel.

Under such circumstances, Zhu Yihai raised his troops and led his troops to tell the defeated prefectures and counties that they would share their income into the mu, levy industrial and commercial taxes, set up a card and pay a fee, and require the gentry to pay the food as a whole. The gentry were willing, because Zhu Yihai guaranteed Their lives and properties are safe, and they pay a little money and food, which is actually less than what they paid during the turmoil.

If they don’t take it out, they may be robbed. It is also possible that after Zhu Yihai left, tartars or bandits came to raid their homes and robbed them. Everyone also hoped that by holding Zhu Yihai, they would rejuvenate the Ming Dynasty and continue to protect their status as gentry or officials, as well as their property.

The situation forced it.

But now the situation is getting better and better, the Tartars have been completely driven away, driven across the Yangtze River, and may even be driven back to the outside of the customs, then everyone is less willing to continue to pay money and food like this.

Why can a stinking soldier get four or five taels of silver a month?
In the past, Guan Ningjun was not treated so well.

A battalion officer, in charge of 50 soldiers, actually pays 150 taels a month and has [-] taels of envoy silver?
In the past, a county magistrate only had a few dozen taels of silver a year!
There are more and more such voices, and they are even forming public opinion.

So today Zhu Yihai specially convened a court meeting, and also discussed the finances for the first time, in fact, it was for this purpose.

"The previous expenditures and other accounts have been corrected. There is no problem. Now the key is the next expenditure. If you are not in charge, you don't know how expensive it is. Your Majesty also ordered the Ministry of Households to make a budget for the fourth quarter of this year. Good measure distribution.

There are many places to spend money. Although the financial income is good now, we still have to plan carefully. It is now August. In the last three months of the fourth quarter, there are still many places to spend money. Our household department will make a preliminary plan first. , Live within one's means, and then invite His Majesty and the cabinet to deliberate. "

Ruan Dacheng didn't talk too much about the income situation, but directly turned to the expenditure budget.

When talking about income, there will definitely be discussions about whether they should receive so much, whether they should return to the past, etc., and Ruan Dacheng will not give them this head start.

Liu Chao answered, "How did you manage the appropriation budget for the fourth quarter of the second year of Shaotian?"

(End of this chapter)