Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 118
Chongzhen smiled, but did not speak.

Zhang Youyu then went on to say: "Of the ten million taels of tax silver, four million is retained by the provinces as the royal family's salary, the salaries of officials and subordinates, and the regular expenses of government offices at all levels."

"Six million taels of Nanjing were used for imperial expenses, of which two million taels were used for the distribution of salaries of nobles and officials and the regular expenses of the six temples, and [-] million taels were used for various expenses of the imperial family. The last [-] taels will be used as military pay for the towns of Xuzhou and Wuchang."

After Zhang Youyu finished speaking, the doctor's hall fell into a long silence, Chongzhen did not make a sound for a long time, Shi Kefa and his four elders were also silent for a long time, as if the five monarchs and ministers suddenly practiced closed-mouth meditation.

To be honest, there are problems with this budget plan, and the problems are still serious.

The total financial revenue has been reduced by half, and logically speaking, the expenditure should also be reduced by half in proportion. Then, taking the expenditure of the [-]th year of Chongzhen as a reference, the military salary should be [-] million, and the imperial family's expenditure should be [-] million. million, and the expenditure of official Xungui should be two million!

But now military pay and clan expenses have been greatly reduced.

However, the salaries of officials Xungui have not decreased at all!
Chongzhen suddenly wanted to laugh, laughing at these Donglin party members who claimed to be clean, but they were just as greedy.

In addition to laughing at the Donglin Party, Chongzhen also wanted to laugh at the Ming court. The Ming court was really poor, sitting in the fertile land in the south of the Yangtze River, and its annual income was only a mere ten million taels of silver!
However, was the Ming Dynasty really poor?The answer is of course no. The Ming Dynasty was actually not poor at all, but most of the money flowed into the private pockets of government and business groups.

According to credible historical data, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the accumulation of past dynasties plus imports from the Americas and Japan, the silver inventory of the Ming Dynasty was at least [-] million taels!

Li Zi copied only a small part in Beijing.

However, most of these silver were buried in cellars by officials and wealthy businessmen.

As a result, an extremely absurd scene appeared in the Ming Dynasty. On the one hand, the court was so poor that it couldn't get rid of it because it couldn't collect taxes; The silver is buried, this is really guarding the silver mountain and begging for food!

However, Bie's family guarded Yinshan to beg for food, pretending to be poor and complaining.

The Ming Dynasty guarded the silver mountain to beg for food, but it was limited by the system.

However, this system is not so easy to break.

It is not so easy to break the historical inertia of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business.

If it is not handled well, either Daming will be tossed away, or himself will be tossed away.

At this time, Daming was like a dying critically ill patient. Although Chongzhen had a complete set of treatment plans, if he directly pushed Daming onto the operating table, he would definitely not be able to get off and would undoubtedly die.

So the most important thing now is to warm up, take your time.

To put it bluntly, it is to make little changes under the existing system.

At the bureaucratic level, it is possible to vacate the cage and change the bird to start a new stove, but the ideological system must be gradual, and a little impatience may lead to unpredictable consequences, so we must be cautious.

And the first step to be done right now is to drive in the first small wedge.

Immediately, Chongzhen smiled and said: "The four elders, not to mention the local retention, official salaries, and Zongzhi expenses, do you think 240 million salaries for both Xuzhou and Wuchang are enough?"

"Not enough." Zhu Cijiong said, "It's not enough to plug the gap between the teeth."

Zhu Cihong also said: "Not counting the Xiangyong who will be trained soon, but the one town of Zuo Liangyu in Wuchang plus the twenty-eight frontier towns in Xuzhou, the monthly salary is 40 taels. 480 million taels! This is just a salary, if you encounter a Jiannu attack, you will have to pay a war salary, and it will cost 120 million taels a month!"

Zhu Cijiong said with a smile: "240 million taels will last for two months."

Shi Kefa, Jiang Yueguang and Xie Xuelong were stunned speechless.

Only Gao Hongtu said with a dark face: "If Daming has sufficient taxes, why would the ministers not want to pay more? But Daming only has such a small annual income, so the border town may only be able to live within its means."

Zhu Cilang frowned and said, "Does Elder Gao Ge mean to reduce the salary standard?"

Gao Hongtu nodded and said: "Either reduce the salary standard, or reduce the number of frontier troops, or both, in short, do as much as you have ability, and as much rice as you have."

Chongzhen suddenly asked: "Gao Hongtu, won't half of the 240 million be lost again?"

Subconsciously, Gao Hongtu wanted to say that he would never do it this time, but he swallowed the words abruptly, because he really didn't have the ability to make such a guarantee.

"So, there are only 120 million pairs in hand?"

Chongzhen sneered and said: "Zuo Liangyu still gets [-]% of the points."

Gao Hongtu didn't say a word, in fact, he acquiesced to this point.

Chongzhen sighed lightly, shook his head and said: "It seems that the taxation of the Ministry of Households is hopeless."

Hearing this, the four elders and Zhang Youyu, the left servant of the household department, immediately became vigilant.

"Your Majesty still wants to collect commercial taxes through eunuchs guarding various places?" Zhang Youyu said solemnly, "Just now in the Yilun Hall, the Holy Majesty also listened to the arguments of the scholars, and sent mine supervisors and tax envoys to various places to collect commercial taxes and enter the Holy Majesty's internal funds. The tax money is only one-tenth of the money, and this action will harm the people but not benefit the court, I ask the Holy One to think twice!"

Shi Kefa and other members of the four cabinets also cupped their hands and said, "Please think twice, Your Majesty!"

"Then, why not let the local officials collect commercial taxes?" Chongzhen said.

"How about [-]% of the income tax going to the household department, and [-]% going to my internal money?"

"This is not appropriate." Jiang Yueguang frowned and said, "How can the imperial court compete with the people for profit?"

The officials and gentry groups in the south of the Yangtze River are extremely vigilant about commercial taxation, and the institutionalization of commercial taxation is even more untouchable.

"This is not allowed, and that is not allowed, so how can I support the [-] soldiers of the [-]th Township on the front line of Xuzhou?" Chongzhen suddenly exploded, "Why don't you sell me and see how much it is worth? "

"The Lord worries about the humiliation of his ministers, the Lord humiliates his ministers to death, and the ministers are so incompetent that the Holy One is so light on himself."

Shi Kefa suddenly fell to his knees, Jishou said: "My minister, Shi Kefa, begs for the bones."

"Minister Gao Hongtu, minister Jiang Yueguang, minister Xie Xuelong, minister Zhang Youyu, beg for bones together."

Gao Hongtu and the other four fell to their knees, and Chongzhen was furious, and these civil officials also began to amplify their moves.

The two brothers Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong were dumbfounded, thinking that these civil servants are really shameless.

When is this now? The Jiannu have all gone to the capital. If Xuzhou can't defend Daming, it will perish!
At this time, you don't want to work together to defend Xuzhou, but you still think about your own one-acre three-point land?

Isn't it just a few commercial taxes?It's not digging your ancestral grave, why do you guys react so much?As for what?
Chongzhen was not actually angry, the anger just now was just faking, so after seeing the four major cabinet ministers and the left servant of the household department begging for bones together, he quickly "calmed down".

"I lost my composure just now, all lovers, please stand up."

"I take back what I just said, and the matter of business and taxation is over."

Chongzhen said that he came to help Shi Kefa and Gao Hongtu in person.

Shi Kefa took advantage of the victory and pursued: "Your Majesty, you have sent Chinese envoys to serve as mine supervisors and tax envoys to collect business taxes, which is too harmful to the people. Your Majesty knows all about the disaster in Yangzhou. The eunuchs guarding other places are more harmful to the people than Yangzhou. Please also ask your Majesty to give the people all over the world a blessing." In order to commemorate this, all the guarding eunuchs stationed in various places will be recalled to Nanjing, and the emperor's ancestral precepts will be revised, so that future kings will never be allowed to set up mine supervisors and tax envoys."

"My lord, please recall the guarding eunuchs from all over the country, and revise the emperor's ancestral instructions."

Gao Hongtu and the other four also agreed to second the proposal.

There was a look of "struggling" on Chongzhen's face.

After a long while, Chongzhen finally made up his mind: "Come on, just wait!"

"My sage, my sage!" Shi Kefa and the other five were overjoyed when they heard this.

Chongzhen sighed: "Four elders, Zhang Youyu, can you get up and talk now?"

"The ministers take orders." Shi Kefa and the other five people had successfully achieved their intentions, and immediately got up and sat back in their chairs.

Chongzhen shook his head, and said again: "Business taxes can be exempted, mine supervisors and tax envoys can be recalled, and the emperor's ancestral precepts can also be revised, but the payment of the twenty-eight towns of Xuzhou must still be settled."

Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu and others immediately kept silent after hearing the words.

This is the virtue of the Donglin Party, collecting business taxes?Absolutely not.

Solve the problem of insufficient national use?Sorry, we can't think of a way either.

Chongzhen sighed softly, and said: "If it is really impossible, we can only sell the official land in the south of the Yangtze River."

"Ah?" Chongzhen's words were completely unexpected by Shi Kefa and others.

There are three types of cultivated land in Daming. The first type is civilian land, which is the private cultivated land of ordinary people. The tax rate is three liters, three in one, and five spoons. For the cultivated land enclosed in various provinces, the tax rate for these cultivated land is zero, and no tax is paid.

The third is Guantian, and the tax rate of Guantian is five liters, three in one, and five scoops.

Guantian, as the name suggests, is the cultivated land under the name of the government, which is state-owned.

There are several sources of official land, one is the arable land that was not cultivated when Zhang Shicheng was defeated, the other is the arable land obtained when the offender's family property was confiscated, and the third is the wasteland reclaimed by the soldiers at the border.

The official fields of Ming Dynasty are mainly concentrated in Jiubian and Nanzhi.

Among them, Nanzhi Province has more than [-] million mu of official land.

The more than [-] million mu of official land in Nanzhi is as much as three million shi, plus the one million shi of the official land in Zhejiang, which is the four million shi grains sent to the capital. Although the four million shi The entry is internal money, but it has to go to the Ministry of Households to go through the account. It is counted within the five million taels allocated to the clan, and it is not counted as the emperor's internal money.

Chongzhen said with some pain: "I want to sell all the 5 million mu of official land in Nanzhi for a price of [-] taels and one mu. What do the elders and Zhang Aiqing think?"

"Your Majesty can't do it!" Zhang Youyu prostrated himself on the ground again.

"The [-] million mu of official land in Nanzhi is the foundation of my Ming ancestors, and it is also the foundation of my Ming taxation. It cannot be sold!"

"You must not sell official land!" Shi Kefa also knelt on the ground. "Selling official land can solve the temporary difficulties, but what about next year and the next year? Sell [-] million official land for civilian land, and the court's regular tax will be reduced in the future." If it is reduced by a large amount, the gap in national expenditure will only become bigger! Your Majesty, this must not happen!"

Gao Hongtu even started to scold people directly: "Your Majesty, this is a cub who sells his father's land. I don't feel sorry for you. After ten thousand years, you will be under Jiuquan, so you won't be afraid that Emperor Gaozu and Emperor Chengzuwen will scold you?"

(End of this chapter)