Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 350
"Sure enough..."

"His Royal Highness King Qi is back, and it's not surprising that Long Live will send out."

"The salary has been increased several times, but the bad rules and pens have been sealed."

"More than that, I heard that from now on, all the taxes of the prefectures, counties and towns will be shipped directly to the Huangdian, and from the Huangdian to the national treasury."

"In this way, wouldn't even the internal money be counted? Didn't the chief inspector respond?"

"His Royal Highness Qi Wang is here, long live to use silver, just say it, not to mention that after the silver is collected into the national treasury, it will be registered and sent back to the internal treasury."

"In short, if this imperial decree is issued, I am afraid that the officials of all prefectures, counties and towns will collectively go to the evacuation."

"One wave of ups and downs and another wave..."

On the first day of the winter month in the eighth year of the Apocalypse, with the private discussions among the officials in the Wenhua Hall, the matter of "Officials' Determination of Salary" took nearly four months to finalize the final decision and issue the imperial decree.

The issuance of the imperial decree can be said to have offended the entire Daming official group.

Although the Qi Royal Party and Yanshan faction were obedient on the surface, they were actually very anxious in their hearts.

Not to mention parties such as the three parties of Zhejiang, Xuan and Kun, the second party of Qi and Chu, and the eunuch party.

In the main worship hall in the backyard of the Wenhua Hall, there are seven ministers in the cabinet, six officials from six departments, all censors from the left and right of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, censors from the two capitals and eighteen provinces, and six ministers from the six departments. Gather in the hall.

The 41 people sat in the seats, the difference is that today's main seat is no longer Gu Bingqian, but Zhu Youjian who makes people dare not breathe.

Although Zhu Youxiao was still hiding from Zhu Youjian, Zhu Youxiao also knew the importance of "Officials Determined Lu", so he granted Zhu Youjian the position of supervising the country and supervising the country on behalf of the emperor.

At this moment, Zhu Youjian was wearing a red round-neck suit and a jade crown on his head. His skin was not dark, but he was thinner than before he set off for Shaanxi.

His eyes were like lightning, and he looked around, but all the officials who noticed his gaze shut up, and no one dared to stand up and sing the opposite.

Fingers tapped rhythmically on the table, each blow seemed to hit everyone's hearts instead of the table.

The more people there are, the less important things are, and the fewer people are, the more important things are.

Zhu Youjian only called 41 of them, but everyone could see that the gold content of these 41 people was heavier than the more than 3000 people in the Dachaohui.

Zhu Youjian glanced at the crowd. Among them were Qi Wangdang, Yanshan faction, Qi Chuzhe Xuankun, Donglin, and Eunuchs.

Not to mention that there are many parties in this group, and the court councilors usually have their own ghosts.

It's just that at the moment, they are united like never before.

Qi Wangdang and Yanshan faction did not dare to stand in line, but Zhu Youjian did not believe that they would obediently obey.

A civil uprising in Shaanxi allowed Zhu Youjian to see clearly the appearance of the Yanshan School, which is rich in gold and jade, but corrupt in it.

They are just afraid of themselves, but will they be a stumbling block?Zhu Youjian doesn't even have to think about this, the answer is definitely yes.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian stopped the sound of tapping his fingers on the table, and Bi Ziyan, who had been paying attention all the time, suddenly started talking "outside the hall".

"In the past three months, the Ministry of Household Affairs has investigated the matter. If you are not bored, you can listen to it..."

"The Ministry of Household Affairs has investigated the living conditions of ordinary people in the two capitals. Generally speaking, it can be summarized in terms of basic necessities of life."

"Among them, food, clothing, housing and transportation are the most important."

"The ancients said that 'food is the most important thing for the people', but when it comes to food for the people of Ming Dynasty, some people collectively call it the "seven things to open the door"."

"The so-called "seven things to open the door" are firewood, rice, oil, salt, sugar, cloth, tea..."

"First of all, in terms of firewood, the 'firewood' used by the people at present has basically changed from firewood to honeycomb coal since the fifth year of the apocalypse, and the price of honeycomb coal has fluctuated greatly."

"The briquette in North Zhili costs only one penny per catty, but in South Zhili it costs two pennies per catty."

Bi Ziyan's words are unpredictable, and it is not clear what this has to do with "Officials Dinglu", but he still said:

"Although briquette is expensive, for the common people, three catties is enough for a whole day, so the common people don't have much opinion on the price of briquette."

"As for the rice, wheat, and beans in the seven events of opening the door, although natural disasters have continued since the first year of the apocalypse, and the price of rice has been fluctuating, the imperial court made proper arrangements and the disaster relief was timely..."

"Therefore, regardless of whether it is Zhili in the north or the south, since the second year of Tianqi, the price of rice in the two capitals has been as low as [-] renminbi and as high as [-] renminbi. Even when Suhu, Changsong and Sifu were flooded, the price of rice did not soar too high."

"I think everyone knows that the most unstable necessities in our dynasty are the price of rice, wheat and beans, especially in Nanzhili after 15 years of Wanli."

"Since the 15th year of Wanli, the price of rice in Nanzhili has always been at a price of [-] Wen per stone, and it was not until the first year of Tianqi that it was reduced to [-] Wen per stone."

"Although Beizhili is a bit more stable, the price of rice in the Wanli period was around [-] Wen all year round. It was not until the first year of Tianqi that it was controlled at around [-] Wen, and occasionally even only [-] Wen."

"To sum up, from the Jiajing and Wanli years of my Ming Dynasty until the first year of Tianqi, the price of rice was in constant fluctuation, sometimes rising and sometimes falling, but it was not stable."

"However, since the second year of Tianqi, the price of rice in all provinces has been very stable on weekdays, except for the severe drought in Shanshan and Shanxi. Even the people in the south of the Yangtze River have praised our dynasty for entering the "Tianqi rule of the world" and the people are in good health. "

Having said that, many people already understood what Bi Ziyan wanted to say, but no one broke him.

Seeing this, Bi Ziyan continued to say:
"The price of firewood, rice and wheat is stable and cheap, not to mention the oil price of the third issue."

"Since the founding of our dynasty, the Northwest has been famous for its oil shortage. During the Wanli period, the price of oil in North Zhili was [-] yuan per catty, and that in South Zhili was [-] yuan per catty, which made people intuitively horrified."

"However, during the Wanli period, in Shaanxi, Hexi, and Shaanxi, the price of oil was 160 yuan per catty, and the highest price was [-] yuan per catty. The people in Guanzhong had no oil to eat, and their faces were yellow and emaciated."

"It's just that since Tianqi four years ago, Huangdian began to produce oil from peanuts, and the price of oil in the world has dropped to [-] yuan. Even the oil prices in the three northwestern provinces are only about [-] yuan."

"As for the salt in the seven things, although the price of salt in my dynasty has been stable between twelve and twenty cash since the fifth year of the apocalypse, it is not much compared with the previous dynasty. Although the people complained for a while, it is still Acceptable."

"The tea in the Seven Things is also similar to the price of salt, and has not received much criticism."

"As for the sugar in the sixth matter, it was more than [-] yuan per catty during the Wanli period, but now the old port is supplying a lot of sugar, and the price of sugar has dropped to [-] yuan per catty."

After speaking, Bi Ziyan rested for a few seconds, and then continued to say: "The last of the seven things is textile fabrics."

"Life is inseparable from food, clothing, housing and transportation, and the clothes involved in the fabrics of clothes."

"The fabrics used by the common people in my dynasty are usually cotton cloth, and the better ones are silk. As for the more high-end fabrics, they are almost luxurious and beyond the enjoyment of ordinary people."

"Since "changing rice into mulberry" during the Jiajing period, Songjiang Prefecture has been the production area of ​​cotton and cotton cloth, known as "clothes and quilts in the world."

"However, the price of local cotton is around [-] silver per load. The price of ordinary cotton cloth is basically kept between [-] and [-] silver per piece. Even the most exquisite cotton cloth is expensive. But each horse is worth between [-] and [-] silver.

"However, since Tianqi six years ago, the Nanchang Weaving Bureau has exported tens of millions of cotton cloths every year. The quality of each piece is very exquisite, but the price is only three hundred yuan per piece."

"Looking at the price fluctuations in our dynasty, it can be said that since the first year of the apocalypse, prices have risen and fallen, but generally speaking, they are all falling."

"There are two lists in the hands of the Ministry of Households, which are the price lists for the 30th year of Wanli and the eighth year of Tianqi. You can take a look at them."

As Bi Ziyan spoke, he pushed forward a thick stack of lists on the table, and the editor of the Imperial Academy who was in charge of auditing records also took the initiative to take out the lists and distribute them to all the ministers in the palace.

After the price lists of the two periods were placed in front of everyone, Bi Ziyan said:
"The price of my dynasty is very cheap compared to other countries in the world, but even so, in the 30th year of Wanli, the price of pork in Beizhili is 580 yuan per catty, beef is 420 yuan, mutton is [-] yuan, and a water chicken is [-] yuan. Rice costs [-] renminbi, wheat [-] renminbi, fine cotton cloth [-] renminbi, oil..."

Bi Ziyan kept it in his heart, and kept saying the prices of the Wanli years from his mouth, and when he finished speaking, he picked up the price list of the eighth year of Tianqi and said:
"As of now, on the first day of the eighth year of the Apocalypse, every catty of pork in Beizhili is worth 450 Wen, mutton [-] Wen, beef [-] Wen, water chicken [-] Wen a piece, rice [-] Wen a stone, wheat [-] Wen a stone, [-] Wen per piece of fine cotton cloth, oil..."

Various prices were taken out for comparison. A little comparison shows that prices in the Tianqi period were [-], [-], [-] percent lower than those in the Wanli period.

These things can be seen on weekdays, but no one cares about them, but now everyone in the main worship hall knows that Bi Ziyan is going to use the price to make a fuss.

"I've looked all over prices, and I've never heard of a price reduction while salary remains the same."

"However, at the moment, Long Live and His Royal Highness Ren Ai specially designed the "Officials' Fixed Salary" to double or triple the salaries of hundreds of officials."

"Prices have dropped, but salaries have risen so much, the salaries of officials are already unattainable compared to prices."

"You can't say that..."

After Bi Ziyan finished speaking, someone couldn't help but stand up, and this person was Cui Chengxiu, the leader of the eunuch party.

His face was a little ugly. After speaking, he first bowed to Zhu Youjian to save face, and then he said:

"Ordinary people are ordinary people, and officials are officials. Not to mention whether they can be confused, the common people can't do the things that the officials need to pay for the yamen out of their own pockets."

"There are a lot of expenses in the county government. At present, the imperial court has adjusted the retention, and the local government is struggling to support it. It is subsidized by the income of people's brushes. If the current "Officials Dinglu" abolishes the brushes, then... ..."

Cui Chengxiu said three points, but there was shamelessness in the words.

Local officials subsidize the county government by using moistening pens and silver. This kind of talk will undoubtedly make the people want to laugh in any era.

Zhu Youjian does not deny that there are such people among the hundred officials, but there are only a handful of such people.

Cui Chengxiu is generalizing right now, but what he wants to generalize is far more than moistening pens and silver.

Sure enough, without resting for a few seconds, he chased after the victory and said:

"What's more, the officials are busy with their affairs after they become officials. Many officials deal with government affairs until late at night and have not returned home. The farmland at home depends on the imperial court's tax exemption and exemption from paying people to take care of them."

"Right now, the exempt tax and exempt ding are going to be abolished, and the officials don't say anything about it, but how will the millions of scribes below survive?"

Cui Chengxiu retorted with a smile in his heart, but before he could feel complacent, a voice suddenly sounded:
"Officials are struggling and don't want to cultivate the land, so let the court pay the money to buy the land and distribute it to the people for farming!"

"..."

In a word, Cui Chengxiu was at a loss for words in an instant, and he didn't know what to say to refute.

He wanted to see who said it, but saw Zhu Youjian leaning on the chair looking at him at the moment.

Obviously, the sentence just now came from Zhu Youjian's mouth, and as soon as he spoke, Cui Chengxiu knew that he had made a mistake.

Everyone knows that Zhu Youjian wants to solve the problem of land annexation, and two-thirds or even more of Daming's land is controlled by the powerful gentry.

Officials, as members of this class, actually possessed quite a few acres of land.

Cui Chengxiu opened his mouth here to say that the officials could not grow the land, so Zhu Youjian could just "understand" and propose to take back the land.

"At present, there is a severe drought in the provinces, and the severe drought may continue to spread. The imperial court's payment of money to recapture the land is also to reduce the risk for you, and avoid spending money to cultivate the land without any harvest."

Zhu Youjian's understanding made everyone speechless, Shi Fenglai looked at the situation caused by Cui Chengxiu, an idiot, and couldn't help being a little annoyed, but he still had to find a way to solve the siege.

Therefore, even though he was helpless, he bowed to Zhu Youjian and said:
"Your Highness, although the national treasury is a little rich right now, there are many disaster victims in the world, and the land price is not cheap, and the imperial court can't spend so much money to collect the land..."

In the Ming Dynasty, the amount of land property determined the wealth of the family, but the price and situation of the land were like a heaven and an underground in the Wanli and Tianqi years.

The land price in the Wanli period not only showed a regional difference, but also in general, due to the aggravation of taxes and corvee, the land price showed a downward trend.

Judging from the regional differences in land prices, the price per mu in Zhejiang is the most expensive.

In Zhejiang, one mu of good land is worth 80 taels of silver per mu, and the value of lesser fields is 40 taels. Even the worst fields are worth more than ten taels of silver.

Judging from the overall downward trend of land prices during the Wanli period, the original land prices in South Zhili were quite expensive, worth 30 taels of silver per mu.

However, due to the increasing taxation and corvee, the price of land dropped suddenly, and it was only worth five or six taels of silver per mu.

Even if it was so cheap, no one would buy such a field, because even the gentry and magnates liked to annex fields, and they realized that the Ming Dynasty was fading away, and began to reduce their holdings of fixed assets such as fields.

The gentry reduced their holdings of land by force, but even if the common people forcibly bought the land, they could not support the land due to taxes, corvee, and loans, and finally had to abandon the land and flee.

Such a situation is actually the embarrassing situation of land prices in the Wanli period, but this embarrassing situation began to change in the Tianqi period.

As Zhu Youjian supported Zhu Youxiao step by step, innovative policies were introduced one after another, miscellaneous taxes and corvee were continuously reduced and exempted, the people began to have confidence in the imperial court again, and the powerful gentry began to annex land again.

Because by this time, land is no longer a burden, but has become a sunrise industry.

Zhu Youjian has long noticed that the gentry and tyrants have merged a large number of land in the local area and raised the price of land.

It is precisely because of their actions that more people in the two capitals and thirteen provinces cannot afford land and can only enter the city to work for a living.

The Yumajian has become the best place to house them. However, even though the Yumajian is trying its best to develop new industries and the Armament Academy is redoubled its research, their speed is still not as fast as that of the gentry and powerful annexing the land.

Peasants who could not find a job could only return to their villages, sign contracts with powerful gentry and become their tenants, and this phenomenon was particularly serious in Nanzhili and Zhejiang.

Zhu Youjian hadn't thought of how to deal with this group of powerful gentry, but this did not prevent him from using this to beat Cui Chengxiu.

It's just that Shi Fenglai's standing up gave hope to the officials who were dissatisfied with Zhu Youjian.

For Shi Fenglai, if Zhu Youjian can't refute well, then more and more people will stand up.

"The land can be harvested little by little. This year, nearly ten million taels of silver have been transported to the state from Jiugang and Yingzhou. I have heard that the price of land in Zhejiang has reached as high as 80 taels per mu. An ordinary peasant in Zhejiang has been working day and night for ten years. price to buy."

"The common people can't afford it, and they have nothing to rely on. Naturally, the imperial court has to solve this kind of thing."

"The 1000 million taels of silver will be invested in Zhejiang to buy land from Zhejiang officials. Even if they can only buy a million mu and distribute the land with three mu per person, it will benefit hundreds of thousands of people."

"Officials don't need to be distracted to manage the fields at home. The common people take the fields and cultivate them well, and the government's tax revenue has also increased. It can be said to kill three birds with one stone."

Zhu Youjian moved out the amount of silver that was transported from Jiugang and Yingzhou to the capital for storage. This was a move that Shi Fenglai and others did not think of.

They naturally knew that Yumajian was mining in Jiugang and Yingzhou, but they did not expect that Yumajian had mined so many mines and stored so much gold and silver for the court.

With gold and silver in the imperial court, Shi Fenglai's words would be untenable.

He glanced vaguely at the temple, and realized that many Yanshan faction officials and Qi royal party officials did not support him, so he gained confidence in his heart, but before he could speak, a familiar figure suddenly stood up:
"Your Highness, the imperial court has money, so taxes should be reduced and exempted, so that the people and victims of disasters can live better, and prevent more people from becoming victims of disasters because of taxes!"

As soon as this person spoke, Zhu Youjian squinted his eyes, because the person who spoke was Feng Quan who had already joined the Zhejiang Party.

At this moment, he has a look of compassion, and what he said, if not expected by Zhu Youjian, will be intentionally spread after the court meeting.

In this way, even if Feng Quan angered Zhu Youjian, he could still gain a good reputation, and even dirty Zhu Youjian's reputation.

Don't you, Zhu Youjian, sympathize with the people?So why not reduce taxes now?

This question is like a knife stabbed at Zhu Youjian. If he does not reduce his land tax, his reputation will be tarnished, and Feng Quan will gain fame.

If he reduces the land tax, the people will get benefits, but the gentry will get even more benefits, and the means of buying land with money will not be used. Feng Quan will also be favored by the gentry, and maybe he will be supported as the leader of the Zhejiang Party in the future .

In general, whether Zhu Youjian agrees or not, it seems that Feng Quan has taken advantage of it.

If his methods were used a few years ago, Zhu Youjian might not be able to deal with them well, but now...

"The policy has been decided, but instead of reducing or exempting the land tax, it is abolishing miscellaneous items such as consumption envy, labor, and firewood!"

"In addition, all the feudal clans, big and small, are willing to donate acres of land, totaling 420 acres and six cents and three percent."

"These donated land, except for the 600 million mu distributed to more than [-] families, the remaining [-] million mu of land was distributed to Sichuan, Guangxi, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Beizhili, Huguang, Jiangxi, People in Shandong and other provinces!"

donate land...

Zhu Youjian took out the second method, and he released this extremely lethal method, and the object of donating the land was the vassal king.

You know, under the verbal criticism of the vassals, the people's impression of them is extremely bad.

However, the vassal kings are now donating land, and they still donate all of them.

Feng Quan was at a loss for words, and it was not difficult to imagine how excited the local people would be when the court notice was issued.

He naturally knew that it was impossible for the feudal vassals to donate the land. In fact, the feudal vassals had already started to prepare for the feudal lordship. The so-called land donation was nothing more than the imperial court's payment of money or some promise to get so many acres of land from them.

Thousands of words are not worth a penny of land. In the era of soaring land prices during the Tianqi period, the imperial court allocated more than 2000 million mu of cultivated land to the people at one go.

Not only that, the reason why Zhu Youjian did not use the court to buy land to gain fame for the court, but used the vassal donated land to gain fame for Zhu Jiabo, is not as simple as benefiting the people.

He did this to push all the notoriety onto the officials.

During the Wanli period, there was a folk saying of "five evils", the first evil is the emperor, the second evil is the eunuch, the third evil is the vassal king, the fourth evil is the general of the guard, and the five evils are corrupt officials.

Zhu Youjian didn't know who spread this statement, but he knew very well that once four of the so-called five evils were washed clean, the remaining one would have to be held accountable.

Right now, it goes without saying that the people respect the emperor, but the guards have already been abolished, and the generals have been turned into the five-army governor's mansion, which does not involve politics.

Although eunuchs still exist, with Zhu Youjian's persuasion, Zhu Youxiao rarely sent any eunuchs to guard them, so naturally they did not harm the interests of the people.

Of the five evils, only vassals and corrupt officials are left, and in public opinion, the common people still believe that those so-called Qingliu are good and honest officials from beginning to end.

So what Zhu Youjian has to do is to help the vassal king clean up, and then only the so-called corrupt officials are left behind, and finally tear Qingliu's fig leaf completely!

"The willingness of the feudal clans to donate the land is beyond what Long Live and Gu expected."

Zhu Youjian spoke unhurriedly, and the pressure on the officials in the temple doubled, but he continued:

"Feng said it right. The imperial court wants to reduce the pressure on the people, so miscellaneous items should be reduced and the land should be divided."

"At present, the vassal kings donate fields, and the people in Shanxi, Hexi, Sichuan, Guangxi, Shaanxi, Huguang, Henan, Shandong, and Beizhili have all benefited."

"In the original Ming Dynasty, there were two capitals and thirteen provinces. Leaving aside Yunnan and Guizhou, the people in Nanzhili, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and other one capital and four provinces still had no land to divide."

"Since the officials can't take care of the fields..."

Zhu Youjian scanned the crowd and spoke slowly:
"It's still the same sentence, how about the imperial court paying 1000 million taels of silver to buy land from the officials of the four provinces in Beijing, and distribute the land to the common people in the name of donating land from all the officials..."

　Sorry for being late, sorry, this chapter is a bit difficult to write.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)