Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 137
Over the years, wealthy businessmen from all over the Yangtze River have become accustomed to tax evasion, and even say that they basically do not pay taxes. Therefore, now that the imperial court is carrying out tax reforms and implementing new tax laws, it has suddenly begun to pay attention to the collection of industrial and commercial taxes. They are Very unaccustomed.

The imperial court sent officials from the Taxation Department a few months ago to conduct a thorough investigation of the business operations of local merchants, and required all businessmen to register for taxation. The officials in the Taxation Department were also incompetent, and they also With Jin Yiwei supervising from the side, it is impossible to evade taxes or not pay taxes.

However, although the court suddenly began to collect taxes from them, fortunately the collection ratio was not very high. In addition, when tax registration was conducted at that time, the court provided a certain degree of tax exemption for businessmen who actively registered for tax, so there was After these tax exemption policies, the little tax paid by most businessmen is simply insignificant to them.

Of course, there were also some people who were not active in tax registration at that time, or because they wanted to fight against the court to the end, and insisted on opposing the implementation of the new tax law. You will face a certain amount of fines.

However, this is their own fault and they do not deserve mercy.

Because the preliminary work was very sufficient, the court was able to curb the tax evasion of businessmen to a large extent. However, businessmen are very smart, and they can also come up with many ways to avoid taxes, so as to achieve the goal of not breaking the law but also reducing taxes. For tax purposes, this is not inevitable.

But at least the overall situation is much better than Zhu Tianqi expected. There have been no incidents of tax resistance and payment in various places. This has a lot to do with the attitude of the officials in the DPRK and China. Many officials in the DPRK and China are Jiangnan businessmen and Among the representatives of interest groups, there are also many businessmen from Jiangnan and the backers behind the interest groups are senior officials in the DPRK and China.

Now after the previous series of open and secret fights, the officials in the court are already very tired. They are very lucky to be able to keep the income of this year's autumn grain, and they don't want to fight against the emperor anymore. They have also recognized the industrial and commercial taxes.

All the officials in the court knew the emperor's means through the previous incidents, and they were also afraid that if there was another disturbance over the industrial and commercial tax, the emperor might have other tricks waiting for them, and the loss might be even more serious. .

The attitude of the officials in the DPRK and China has naturally directly affected the merchants in Jiangnan. After the merchants knew the stakes, they had no choice but to choose to pay taxes obediently. As for whether they can pay less taxes or not, it all depends on own ability and means.

The collection of industrial and commercial taxes went smoothly overall, and Zhu Tianqi gradually turned his attention to several other things.

The primary and most urgent problem facing the Ming Dynasty now is the disaster. Nowadays, the disaster situation in various governors and envoys in the northern and central plains is intensifying. It has just entered October and it is already so cold that you have to wear cotton clothes. And it is not only cold, but also everywhere. When there is a drought, some places may even face the problem of food harvest failure, and a large-scale famine will sweep across the entire north.

Fortunately, Zhu Tianqi had already asked Xu Guangqi to formulate a plan to respond to the disaster relief plan implemented by the Shaanxi Chief Executive, Beizhili, Henan Chief Executive and Shandong Chief Executive. We have prepared the disaster relief plan of the Chief Envoys' Department and have sent people to each Chief's Envoys' Department in advance to carry out disaster relief preparations.Nowadays, various provinces, prefectures and counties have almost completed the construction of disaster relief facilities such as soup kitchens, shelters, thatched wooden houses, etc., and the officials responsible for disaster relief in various places have also been put in place. Zhu Tianqi gave an order, and the imperial court prepared the disaster relief facilities. Money and food were sent to various places, and disaster relief work began on a large scale in the north.

Such intensity and scale of disaster relief are unprecedented since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. Even if we look through the history books, no dynasty or generation has ever done this.

Good guy, the emperor spent all his internal funds, and hundreds of officials donated money and food, and half of the country's tax revenue was used for disaster relief. Not only in terms of money and food, but also in terms of personnel, the imperial court also mobilized nearly a thousand officials to go to the local areas. At the same time, many officials were mobilized. The province carried out disaster relief work.

Therefore, all officials in the court could not understand that Zhu Tianqi attached great importance to disaster relief work, and even regarded disaster relief as the top priority of the court. Even Qian Qianyi and Qian Longxi could not understand it. Is it possible that the emperor is really so considerate of the people and loves them like his own son?
But the things the emperor wants to do are all benevolent things. It is really hard for them to stand up and oppose them. After all, the food for disaster relief is mainly bought with the emperor's private money and the money donated by officials. He came without touching the money in the treasury.

Now that the imperial court has just collected the summer tax, there are more than 1000 million taels of silver in the treasury, which is enough to meet the various regular expenses of the imperial court. What's more, the autumn tax is still being collected, and a large amount of silver will be put into the treasury in the future. Therefore, the emperor's tormenting like this will not shake the foundation of the country, and it is not considered to be doing nothing regardless of the cost.

As for the disaster relief work of the chief ministers in the north, they were very well prepared in advance, and the imperial court also purchased a sufficient amount of food in advance for disaster relief, and the officials in the court did not deliberately obstruct it, so the disaster relief work went smoothly. , after all, with the successful experience accumulated in the disaster relief work of the Shaanxi Chief Envoy Department, we can now avoid many detours.

In addition to disaster relief, the second most important thing is the military affairs of Liaodong. The memorials sent back from Liaodong during this period are all good news. Yuan Chonghuan's defense line is still advancing steadily eastward, and Jiannu, in addition to sending scouts over, Apart from watching and investigating from a distance, they did not send troops to harass, let alone have any intention of confronting the Ming army head-on.

Sun Chengzong was stationed in Ningyuan, and he was also stepping up military training and farming. The number of soldiers increased from the previous 10 to 15. Among the 5 additional people, 1 were incorporated into the Guanning cavalry, allowing Liaodong to The most combat-effective army in the army has been greatly expanded.

Regarding the spying on the slave establishment side, the scouts sent by Yuan Chonghuan also brought back a lot of news. In the past few months, Huang Taiji has been leading his army to attack Chahar, and has achieved considerable results. A lot of land was acquired and a lot of people were plundered. Many of Chahar's subordinates have surrendered to Jiannu, and Jiannu's strength has been greatly improved.

As Jiannu's sphere of influence continued to expand to the northwest, Yuan Chonghuan became more and more worried that Jiannu might bypass the Great Wall and Shanhaiguan, launch a surprise attack from the north of the capital, and attack the rear of the Ming army.

(End of this chapter)