Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 812 The Prince
"Ten years of hard study, how happy it is to be named on the gold list!"

deep winter.

Beijing, Guozijian, the crown prince of Jianguo visited the scholars who went to Beijing to take the exam, and summoned some representatives of the scholars. When talking about the incident of canceling the exam in Henan, the prince bluntly said that everyone studied hard in the poor window, but they stopped the exam because of something. Didn't he just give up his fame and family's high hopes?

"To give up the exam is to give up. On the battlefield, it is a deserter. Don't you think about it, isn't this just hurting the hearts of parents, wives and children, isn't this just a moment of confusion and a big mistake?"

Although the prince is young, he is only sixteen after the new year, but in the face of these people who are about 30 years old on average, he can directly point to the core essence, that is, benefits.

Scholars talk about benevolence, righteousness and morality, but in fact they are all interests.

No matter the emperors, generals, or traffickers, they cannot do without interests, not to mention that since the Ming Dynasty, scholars have been chasing interests even more crazily.

Li Shimin stood on the tower of Chang'an City, watching those scholars who came to Beijing to rush for the exam once said a classic saying, the heroes of the world will enter my nest from now on.

"What His Royal Highness said is correct, but the late students still have to ask, what's the use of being admitted to fame like ours in Henan?"

A Henan Juren stood up and asked.

Prince Hongjia looked at this person, his hair was half white, he looked at least 50 years old, but he was just a Juren.However, this age is not considered old. The so-called Fifty Young Scholars, the average age of the Jinshi admitted in the Ming Dynasty for nearly 300 years is also 40 years old.

There are even those in their 70s and [-]s who are still taking the exam for talent.

"Are you from Henan?"

"The late student was Liu Yuanzhan, a native of Xinxiang, Weihui Prefecture, Henan Province. He won the first year of Chongzhen. Since then, he has been displaced by war and famine. In a blink of an eye, he is already 50 years old. I am really ashamed."

The motivation of scholars in the Ming Dynasty who received imperial examinations.

In the past, passing the imperial examinations at all levels and becoming a scholar, a scholar, or a Jinshi after admission, they knew very well how much benefit they could bring. They knew that they could become a scholar-official class, a real nobleman.

However, since Emperor Shaotian raised his army, the privileges of scholars have been deprived a lot, and their interests have also been continuously lost. After the gentry paid their food together, Henan also engaged in errands with gentry, and students were even not allowed to monopolize lawsuits. .

The prince said that scholars should not give up the exams, and should not be deserters. He also said that the imperial examinations are beneficial to fame, but now the benefits are gone, and the court is degrading their scholars.

Zhu Hongjia’s books are certainly not read as much as these Juzi people. These people are older in their 60s, the youngest in their 20s, and generally in their 40s and [-]s. Whoever has studied hard for many years in the cold window has defeated the world by becoming a Juzi. Ninety-nine percent are scholars.

Chen Qianfu wanted to answer for the prince, but the prince coughed and took the initiative to answer.

"What is fame? I once asked His Majesty for advice, and His Majesty said that merit means making contributions to the country, and fame is a name that goes down in history. If you read the book, you only think about how to make more money and buy more land, and even think about exploiting the people and evading taxes. , or even monopolize the lawsuit and arbitrarily judge the country song, that is, if you become an official, you are also a corrupt official, where is the merit and where is the name?"

Zhu Hongjia directly moved out of the emperor, first stood on the commanding heights of morality, and then condescendingly counterattacked fiercely, and grasped the right to speak as soon as he opened his mouth.

In negotiations, it is very important to have the right to speak, just like taking the initiative in a war.

The prince's words are so righteous that no scholar can refute them publicly. Although they may think so in their hearts, how can they say so in public.

Liu Yuanzhan immediately explained, "That's not what we mean, we just can't stand Mr. Chen's abuse of scholars!"

Zhu Hongjia did not refute this time, but changed into an attitude of listening humbly, asking the representatives of the scholars to tell what they had seen, and said, "I am here alone today, and I also want to hear everyone's opinions with their own ears. He is the proud son of the country's scholars, and once he is named on the gold list, he will become an official of the court, and he will listen carefully to what he has to say, and will write down the answer and pass it on to the saint."

Liu Yuanzhan then said that Chen Qianfu, as the governor, carried out evil policies in the Central Plains, and he did not dare to criticize the emperor's policies. After all, Zheng Sanjun, Hou Xun and Ding Qirui had all been ordered to death, and a major case involving tens of thousands of people was settled.So he could only talk about Chen Qianfu's local policies in Henan.

For example, the imperial court lost silver as a service agent, and then shared the dynamite into the mu, and returned the gentry to pay the grain. As a result, Chen Qianfu now asked everyone to share the dynamo according to the mu, but the dingyin he gave was less than one-third of the market price.

"Gu also invited Governor Chen here today, and Governor Chen explained everyone's problems to Gu in person."

How could Chen Qianfu be afraid of these people, and he replied calmly, "Since the restoration of the saints' army, they have implemented a benevolent government, so they lost the money and relieved the burden of servants for more than two hundred years. This benevolent government is not only lenient to the common people, but also All the scholars and officials are also one body and no longer have to take on the job, great benevolent government."

"Moreover, the sage understands the common people. For the local servants, they only take the most basic local expenses, use it as a quota, and then spread it into the fields, and combine it with the same fixed land tax. There has been an oracle, and it will never be added Fu."

"There is no tax increase, and neither is Dingyin. However, this fixed amount of Dingyin is only enough for the daily basic expenses of the local people in ordinary Taiping years. Not to mention relief in case of famine, even the construction of rivers and water conservancy, etc., are not included. These Insufficient expenses, the sages subsidize the localities from the industrial and commercial tax."

"Just now, Liu Juren from Xinxiang said that he won the Juren in the first year of Chongzhen, and it has been more than 20 years. You are 50 years old this year. You have experienced the Wanli period. Let me tell you that today's saint's Shaotian benevolent government, only this Are the guards and Ding Yin not much less than in the past?"

"In the past, although there was a fixed amount of land tax in the local area, the additional dispatch was uncertain. The local guards were both paid and dispatched. What is the real burden?"

Liu Yuanzhan is 50 years old and has been a juren for more than 20 years. Although he can be regarded as a privileged class, since the apocalypse Chongzhen, the current situation is turbulent and local officials are corrupt. It can be exempted and evaded, but it is just a regular tax exemption, and apportionment is often unavoidable.However, in those years, the addition of apportionment, fire consumption, etc. was several times the regular tax.

However, Chen Qianfu continued to directly produce a piece of data, which is the actual tax burden of the Wanli, Tianqi, Chongzhen and Shaotian dynasties in Xinxiang County, Weihui Prefecture, Henan Province, followed by the Hongguang period, as well as Li Zicheng, Manchu Qing control and the actual burden of control in Tuzhai.

Any statistic is astonishing. Not only is it frighteningly high, but it’s even not enough.

So it has already become a messy account, and if everyone can't get it out, it will be searched and looted again and again, local officials will have to take cars to collect money, and bandits and thieves will come to rob from time to time.

In contrast, even during the so-called Taiping Wanli period, the taxation was much higher than it is now, and even if it was a family of Jinshi, the actual burden was much higher than it is now.

The so-called preferential exemption for gentry, even if they use various means such as sending their names and donating, the final burden is still much higher than it is now.

After all, the wool always comes from the sheep.

"Let me talk about building the river again. More than half of us Henan people live on both sides of the Yellow River. Now that the Yellow River has changed its course, the southeast of Henan is no longer along the river. In the past, the Yellow River was repaired every year, and workers were sent every year , and even pay for the repair of the river, the same is the repair of the river, but the result is that the floods are hit every year, and the big and small disasters continue. The private pocket of the filthy official."

"But now our imperial court has not collected the money for the river repair from the people in Henan, and even the small amount of silver that has been converted into the silver is not included in the silver for the river repair. Why? Is the imperial court negligent, no, yes The sage made a special decree, saying that the money for the construction of the Yellow River should be allocated by the imperial court in a unified way, planned and governed in a unified way, and the people along the river should not be able to bear all the money, otherwise they would not be able to afford it.

So even though we are all people from prefectures and counties along the Yellow River, there is no agency bank for repairing rivers in the Ding Bank, and there is no agency bank for post stations. Many original agency funds have been cancelled. The imperial court draws money from the industrial and commercial tariffs in the treasury to the localities.

How much is our Dingyin?Is it different from Jiangxi, Hebei, Shandong, or even Shaanxi and Gansu?No, now the whole country is unified, the land tax is two buckets of tax per mu, or it is converted into the standard tax per mu, the actual tax rate is [-] and the tax is one, and the Dingyin is also unified across the country, the ding is divided into mu, the tax per mu is two liters, and the fire consumption is [-]% , Tian Fu Ding Yin plus fire consumption, the whole country is one mu, two buckets, four liters and two.

High?

There are no other additional levies, no other floating income, fire consumption and consumption consumption, and no other servants, donations, etc. Is it high?
In order to repair the river, the imperial court has withdrawn funds several times, and even issued several river repair bonds. Some of you should have bought it. The interest is not bad, so I bought a lot.

I have calculated that compared to before, the burden of the local people has actually dropped several times, even for the gentry and landlords, the burden has also dropped several times. "

Chen Qianfu's words are all real data, and they are all true.

"Although all the candidates come from Shannan, Haibei and not all Henan Juren, they all know that what I said is true. To be honest, in fact, the land tax and Dingyin collected by the imperial court are very low, especially Ding As for the silver, the imperial court reserved all of it for the local yamen to spend, but in fact it was not enough for each yamen, and the imperial court also reserved a large part of the land tax for the local yamen at all levels, but even if these were added, it was barely enough for the local government. Use.

For river construction, disaster relief, even road construction, city building, water conservancy, etc., the imperial court still needs to allocate funds from the treasury, which is subsidized by special taxes, industrial and commercial taxes, and customs duties. "

"Scholars, the families are basically landlords, and they all know that what I said is true. Your burden now is actually several times lighter than before, and the imperial court is still providing subsidies to protect you. Compared with Didn’t you have an account in mind before you started?”

Be reasonable, present the facts.

(End of this chapter)