Optimus One Pillar of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 21 Showing the Sword to the Rent Collectors
While Wang Daoqiu was lamenting Zhang Juzheng's life of a big intestine wrapped in a small intestine, the big commotion here also alerted the owner of the passenger ship.

This boat owner is indeed a dock runner. When he arrived at the scene, he first asked both parties to calm down.Then he hinted in and out of words to those wealthy local merchants that if this matter continues to cause trouble and reaches the point of being brought before the officials, they will not be in a good position.After all, the eldest lord of Wuhu County is also a scholar who came from the imperial examination. And if the eldest lord of Wuhu County needs the help of local rich and wealthy businessmen, he can't ask for help from rich people like you from other places.

The captain's words were very clear, and the local rich and wealthy businessmen also understood them, so after the captain finished speaking, they said that they were giving the captain face today and found a way for themselves, and then they stopped and sat back in their seats to continue. time to eat.

The candidates looked down upon these rich "scumbags" to begin with. When they saw that the "scumbags" were intimidated, they gave each other a blank look and let it go.

The dispute subsided, and Zhang Juzheng thanked the class brothers who had just helped him one by one.

Then he came to Wang Daoqiu's table, saluted Wang Daoqiu and said, "You two brothers are invited. A certain Zhang Juzheng, whose name is Shuda, whose name is Taiyue, is the son of Jiangling County, Jingzhou Prefecture, Huguang. I don't know what to call the two brothers. ?”

Seeing Zhang Juzheng coming over to introduce himself so enthusiastically and proactively, Yin Zhengmao also stood up and said in return: "A certain Yin Zhengmao, named Yangshi, also named Shiting, is the son of She County, Huizhou Prefecture, South Zhili."

After introducing himself, Yin Zhengmao pointed to Wang Daoqiu and introduced: "This is my brother Wang Daoqiu, whose courtesy name is Liangzhen. He is the son of Changxing County, Huzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang Province. My brother is the Jieyuan of this provincial examination in Zhejiang Province, hahahahaha."

Speaking of Jieyuan, Yin Zhengmao thought of Wang Daoqiu, the man named Jieyuan. As soon as he left the Zhejiang Gongyuan, his clothes were torn off by someone who wanted to catch his son-in-law. He couldn't help but laugh to himself there again.

Zhang Juzheng looked at Yin Zhengmao's meaningful smile, and then thought of what Yin Zhengmao had just said, "My brother is the Jieyuan of Zhejiang Province this time."

The name Jieyuan of Zhejiang Province immediately reminded Zhang Juzheng of something.So he raised his hand to Wang Daoqiu again and asked with a question mark on his face: "Brother, could it be this year that I was... as soon as I left the Zhejiang Gongyuan?"

"Stop, stop, brother, please don't go any further. Let's have a tacit understanding of this matter. I just heard from brother that you are Zhang Taiyue from Jingzhou Prefecture, Huguang. I dare to ask, brother, you Zhang Taiyue, Could it be that Jiangling prodigy who had high hopes for you, Mr. Gu Lingu, the governor of Huguang, when you were 13 years old? He even went so far as to commit fraud in the examination room and deliberately let you fail the provincial examination in order to allow you to practice more and become a great person in the future. Zhang Baekyu!"

Wang Daoqiu pointed out Zhang Juzheng's awesomeness in his youth. He was a genius who could make the governor of a province even violate national laws for the sake of his growth.This is so awesome, think about future generations, is this possible?

So now that Zhang Juzheng is full of vanity after hearing Wang Daoqiu say such awesome things about him.Damn it, my awesome stuff has spread so much that even people in Zhejiang know about it!Damn, I’m so proud!
So Zhang Juzheng, whose vanity was greatly satisfied, suppressed the arrogance in his heart and tried hard to show the Chinese modesty on his face. He covered his face with his sleeves and looked embarrassed. He said: "Ashamed, ashamed, don't make fun of Mr. Jie Yuang. Compared with Mr. Jie Yuang's talent, Zhang's talent is just like a wisp of fireflies under the bright moon! Ashamed, ashamed."

Seeing Zhang Juzheng clearly feeling very happy about being praised and still pretending to be humble, Wang Daoqiu despised Zhang Juzheng's character.

But thinking about her future, she would be so powerful that even the emperor's own mother would sleep with him, and the emperor would take advantage of the fierce people he couldn't help.You can make such a fierce man become your younger brother in the future, and let him be your swordsman and wielder of swords and guns to defeat the unruly enemies.Isn’t this very exciting!
Thinking of this Comrade Xiao Zhang, he might be his top horse in the future.So for the sake of his future class relationship with Comrade Xiao Zhang, Wang Daoqiu suppressed his inner contempt for Zhang Juzheng's character, showed goodwill to him, and warmly invited Zhang Juzheng to sit down and have a drink together.

Young people?They are all very receptive to strangers, so after three rounds of wine and five tastes of food, we all became friends.

After getting high from drinking, the conversation naturally turned to topics that everyone was interested in.Zhang Juzheng licked his drunken red face and asked Wang Daoqiu for advice: "Brother Liangzhen, I was just listening to you and Brother Shi Ting talking about the fiscal and tax reform that Ming Dynasty should have now. What I just heard was not very detailed. , can you talk to Brother Wei again."

"That's right, that's right. Brother, I also listened to your speech just now. It wasn't very detailed. Brother, please say it again loudly."

"We, the scholars, should be gentlemen and open-minded. If my brother has any high profile, we should talk about it with everyone and discuss it together."

…………

Zhang Juzheng asked Wang Daoqiu to repeat his thoughts on fiscal and tax reform. As soon as Zhang Juzheng finished speaking, he sat around Wang Daoqiu's table. Just like Zhang Juzheng, he also heard some of Wang Daoqiu's high-minded remarks and immediately encouraged Wang Daoqiu. , say what you just thought again.

Then following the words of Zhang Juzheng and these Jizi, other Jizi in the dining hall also started booing, asking Wang Daoqiu to talk about his high opinion again, and everyone discussed it together. Is this considered a tradition among scholars? ?
Everyone responded, Wang Daoqiu also drank a lot of wine and was in high spirits.So facing the expectations of everyone, he stood up with a blushing face, and pressed down with his hands first, signaling for everyone to be quiet.

After the scene calmed down, he said: "Everyone, let me first declare that I drank a lot of wine today. Everything I say next, whether it is right or wrong, is all drunken talk. I will not Admit it, I said something like that when I was drunk.”

"Okay, just tell me quickly. It's just an academic exchange between us scholars. It's up to him to decide whether it's right or wrong. It doesn't violate the king's law."

"A man in heaven and earth, how can he be so timid and unworthy of being a man!" "Okay, okay, let's wait until he says everything!"

.........

As soon as Wang Daoqiu finished the disclaimer he made for his next words, the comments below began to make all kinds of irresponsible remarks about Wang Daoqiu's courage and character.

Smiling at the students questioning his own character, Wang Daoqiu shook his head and prepared to sit down.But at this time, Zhang Juzheng saw that Wang Daoqiu seemed to want to retreat. How could he be willing to do so?So he hurriedly stood up and used his gifted tongue to stop those who were talking nonsense and deliberately wanted to show off their thorns with objections.

When Zhang Juzheng controlled the order of the venue, he took the lead in applauding and instigated everyone to applaud together, forcing Wang Daoqiu to show off something useful today.

With all the attention, Wang Daoqiu also enjoyed the feeling of being in the spotlight.So when the applause stopped, he talked about his summary of the fusion of a whip method and a piece of cake.

Wang Daoqiu said: "Since you are so kind, I won't waste any more words. Wang has made a fool of himself."

After saying these words, Wang Daoqiu bowed to every table around him and then continued: "Everyone knows that in recent years, our Ming Dynasty treasury has been running low every year and the money is not enough. But what about the people! This tax seems like a year. It's heavier than a year ago. Everyone, the court and the people, are having a hard time, so why is this?"

"Let me take my hometown as an example. Taizu set a land tax of [-] to [-] tax. This tax rate has been considered generous to our farmers in all dynasties. But what is it in reality? Our dynasty's tax system implements a tax system for the people. The local grain chief is responsible for collecting taxes from farmers and escorting them to the government, and there is much room for manipulation."

"Don't talk about those remote places where there is no king's law, let's talk about our Jiangnan! In Huzhou, where I live, when the local grain chief collects land taxes, the buckets are all twelve liters. In addition, there are no equal buckets when collecting grain. There will still be a tip, and the tip of that part is at least one liter of millet. This means that after being manipulated in this way, the farmer will actually have to pay at least one bucket of three liters of tax for the original one bucket."

"In addition, in order to prevent the grain chief from finding trouble, saying that your millet has too many empty shells, that it is not dried enough, and that the grains are not full, the farmers have to take care of the grain chief. Finally, because the grain chief is responsible for delivering the grain to the government, so The grain chief also charges an additional seven dou of grain transportation fees and wastage fees for every stone of taxed grain. After all this calculation, the nominal tax of thirty taxes per field, actually the farmers have to pay almost thirteen taxes per field. "

"In addition to the land tax, there are also the head tax, Lijia, equal corvee, and four different amounts of silver. According to the court rules, these four items are requisitioned by local officials and do not need to be turned over to the national treasury. Then there are even more expenses here. Let's go today. Let’s not talk about the dirty things behind the scenes, let’s talk about the unfairness on the surface! A landlord’s family occupies a thousand acres, but there are only a few men in his family. Compared with the income of a thousand acres of land, those few men What does silver mean? A farmer has only a dozen acres of land and a small income, but his Ding tax is almost the same as that of a landowner with an income of thousands of acres. Do you think this is fair?"

"There are also various lijia and corvee arrangements. Our government stipulated that 110 households constituted a li and [-] households constituted a li. The corvee collection was also calculated based on this number of households. But the reality is that many farmers took care of themselves in order not to pay this tax. Various families who do not have to pay taxes, such as the princes in various places, the officials of the imperial court, and we are waiting for such people. After these farmers become tenants of the princes, officials, and people, they are separated from the original Lijia, so their Who pays the tax?”

"For example, there are 110 households in the list of the imperial court in one mile. Now those who have run away, died, and joined the palace, officials, or elected officials, let's count them as fifty households! There used to be 110 households in Lijia, but there are fewer of them due to various reasons. There were fifty households, and now there are only sixty households left, so these sixty households will have to bear the head tax, lijia, corvee, and four differentials of silver for 110 households. This burden has doubled all of a sudden."

"What I'm talking about now is only our Jiangnan, which is still the best place in our country. After all, the great grandfather delineated our Zhejiang and Nanzhili as the land of state taxation, and we are not allowed to divide them. So there is no royal palace in our two provinces. , and in places where there are many royal palaces, such as Huguang and Sichuan."

"I heard that the palace of the King of Shu occupies [-]% of the local land, excluding the land occupied by local officials who are eligible for tax exemption and the families. How much land belongs to farmers in the local area? Can it account for [-]%? But even with such [-]% of the land, it has to bear [-]% of the local field tax, head tax, lijia, corvee, and four points of silver. Do you think, can the farmers not be miserable and the court not be poor if this continues? So now The fiscal and taxation system must be changed..."

Next, Wang Daoqiu talked to everyone in detail for more than an hour about the reasons for implementing the "one-whip method" and "dividing people into acres" that he found in the library, the specific implementation details, and matters that should be paid attention to. He was drunk and told everyone in detail for more than an hour. .

As soon as he finished speaking, the scholars in the dining hall were still thinking about these policies!The rich landowners and businessmen started to make trouble first. After hearing Wang Daoqiu's policies, the rich landowners all stared angrily, pointing angrily at Wang Daoqiu, saying all kinds of dirty words, all kinds of words against Wang Daoqiu's family. Greetings from female relatives.

After the businessmen listened to Wang Daoqiu's words and the rich man's scolding of Wang Daoqiu, they went up to argue with the rich man without any instigation.Then the argument inevitably turned into a fight.After all, the wealthy locals and businessmen did not dare to take action against scholars with a good reputation, but they had no pressure to take action against the farmers and merchants themselves.So the wealthy locals and businessmen started fighting on the spot.

Looking at the wealthy locals and businessmen, after hearing Wang Daoqiu's policies, they immediately changed from an alliance against scholars to a life-and-death enemy.The reason for the falling out was just the policies Wang Daoqiu mentioned just now!
The scholars sitting in the dining hall now are all candidates preparing to go to Beijing for the imperial examination.We must know that in the 270th year since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, a total of 11 candidates were admitted in the three-year provincial examination. On average, [-] candidates were produced every year.

In other words, the examination results of the Ming Dynasty's candidates are equivalent to the top [-] in the country and the top dozen in each province in our future generations' annual college entrance examination.Based on their test scores, their IQ is self-evident.

Therefore, as soon as Wang Daoqiu finished explaining the policies he had conceived, this group of traitors saw the landlord class and businessmen groups start to work.At this time, with their intelligence, they also understood that Wang Daoqiu's policies were beneficial to farmers and businessmen, but not beneficial to landlords.

(End of this chapter)