People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 49 The debut of Yongle Butler Xia Yuanji!

The side hall of the Farming Hall.

The black dust on Zhu Youwei's face has not been wiped off, but she can't wait to bring her work to Chen Han.

She wanted Chen Han to try her craft quickly.

"You personally cooked the food for me?" Chen Han was quite touched.

Zhu Youwei nodded: "Yes, how do you like it?"

As he spoke, he carefully put the chopsticks on the table.

Chen Han couldn't see it, so he stretched out his hand and touched Princess Jiangdu's delicate and warm little hand.

The touch made Chen Han's whole body feel like electricity was flowing through him.

He was so shocked that he quickly moved his hand back, but in his heart he wanted to touch it again.

He didn't see that Zhu Youwei blushed instantly.

At this point, if Chen Han can really remember what he once said, there are signs in the Book of Changes.

A rural girl in the mountains who works often would not have such delicate and jade-like hands.

But love is not only a woman's brain, but also a man's.

At this time, the taste of love blocked the brain's thinking.

"Try it..." Zhu Youwei was also embarrassed because of the first skin-to-skin contact between the two of them, and her speech speed couldn't help but speed up.

Chen Han felt for no reason that this kind of life was really good.

So he fumbled and, with Zhu Youwei's reminder, picked up a piece of vegetables.

As soon as I put it in my mouth, I felt like I had swallowed a mouthful of raw salt, which was bitter and astringent.

Seeing his expression, Zhu Youwei quickly said: "Isn't it delicious?"

Chen Han immediately adjusted his mentality: "Ah, no, no... it's delicious... it tastes good, it's really good!"

Speaking of which, it really tastes like love, and the more you chew it, the more it tastes.

The expression on his face is not that stiff.

Zhu Youwei didn't believe it, so she took the chopsticks and tasted a piece.

When he tasted it, he immediately frowned.

"It's so salty...it's so salty...I'm sorry, I'm sorry...don't eat it, I'll make it for you again."

But he didn't want to, Chen Han didn't dislike it, "It's okay, it's just a little salty, it's edible... don't waste food, I can eat it, you see."

Seeing Chen Han eating vegetables and drinking porridge, Zhu Youwei's eyes turned red.

……

The side hall next to Fengtian Hall.

A separate hall was set up here as a temporary office space for the cabinet.

At this time, several officials including Xia Yuanji, the head of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Tongzhi of Yingtian Prefecture, Tongzhi of Songjiang Prefecture, Zhejiang Qiantang County Magistrate, Jiangxi Nanchang Prefecture Jinxian County, and Huizhou Prefecture magistrate had already entered the cabinet one after another.

These officials who were transferred to the cabinet also looked confused and didn't know what to do specifically.

When they heard the instructions given by Prince Zhu Biao to them, explaining that they were asked to assist the emperor in handling government affairs, they were shocked and numb.

Especially those county magistrates, they do have a high reputation in the local area.

But it only deals with the important affairs of one county.

Now that it has reached the level of the whole world in an instant, they are all sweating.

Fortunately, Zhu Biao told them that they are still temporary and in the trial stage.The purpose is to see whether the cabinet can operate, and not to worry too much.

Even tell them directly, not to ask them to make any decisions, but to give them reference.

This relieved the pressure in these people's hearts.

When Xia Yuanji entered the cabinet on his first day, he gave Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao a very big surprise.

It turned out that Zhu Yuanzhang asked a question when Xia Yuanji and others first entered the cabinet.

That is, since you all come from the local area, you should know what the local tax situation is like?
In particular, these magistrates have more say.

Because the county magistrate is at the forefront of collecting taxes, grains and physical taxes, so he needs to have a good understanding of local taxes.

Although there are grain chiefs and li chiefs under the county magistrate, if he does not know these taxation situations, he will not be able to complete the tax collection task at all.

As the head of the Household Department, Xia Yuanji is in charge of this matter.

He also understood very well how things were done at the local level, so Xia Yuanji was first called upon to summarize.

"Reporting to Your Majesty and Your Highness, the main taxes of the Ming Dynasty now come from the countryside, which are mainly divided into taxes and levies. The levies are land taxes, and the levies are divided into corvees and errands."

Xia Yuanji was worthy of it, so he came up from the bottom and knew all these things well, so he talked about it eloquently.

"Nowadays, the Lijia system of the Ming Dynasty goes hand in hand with the law of service. In the countryside, farmers are organized into Lijia, with every 110 households being one li. The ten households with more grain are designated as grain chiefs, and the remaining [-] households are divided into ten. There are ten households.

According to the amount of land and population, households are divided into nine categories: upper upper, upper middle, upper lower, middle upper, middle middle, middle lower, lower upper, lower middle and lower lower.

The nine rules of household division are the basis for assigning corvee labor.

Every year, the grain chief collects money and grain and takes care of official affairs, while other A's have to complete tasks such as paying grain.

In addition to these basic things, the rural tax system requires that in addition to the fixed amount of grain turned over, some physical goods must be turned over. This part is called "sitting office", "year-old office" and "miscellaneous office".

"Sitting" means that if the court wants to build a city wall, it will need to spend 100 million guan.

In terms of materials, the Ministry of Industry often directly requests officials from various provinces where timber is produced, where sand and gravel are produced, and where stones are produced to allocate the materials.

As for labor, the corvee collection was completed.

But in the end, it still falls on the people. This is called "sitting and doing."

The "Suiban" is for the common people to provide local government office supplies, such as pens, ink, paper, inkstones, oil, charcoal, and wax.

As well as military supplies for the garrison, such as bows, arrows, swords, cotton clothes, etc.

They also need to provide medicinal materials for Taiyuan Hospital, food ingredients for Taipu Temple, and tea, pigments, lacquers, etc. for the palace.

The remaining "miscellaneous affairs", such as colored paper, are supplied every three years, the saltpeter and sulfur required by the Ministry of Industry is supplied every ten years, etc. "

After Xia Yuanji concluded, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao were very satisfied.

These are basic local taxes. It seems that he, as the head of the household department, is quite capable.

Then Xia Yuanji said, "Your Majesty, Your Highness, the Lijia system and the labor law are quite good if they can adapt to the income from labor production in the countryside.

After all, large-scale corvee collection can provide a way out for the idle rural labor force; local products are directly collected as taxes and handed over without being put on the market to avoid being priced down by unscrupulous traders.

If the government's expropriation can remain unchanged, the Lijia system can be sustained. It will also help the government meet its daily needs and even help the government reduce office expenses.

The local government does not have any public expenses to speak of, even such as the reception expenses for receiving superior officials, the expenses for escorting and executing prisoners, the expenses for official travel, the expenses for repairing official residences, the expenses for New Year or His Majesty’s birthday greeting gifts, and the expenses for local officials. Even if there are no expenses such as building a memorial arch and subsidizing students to take exams, the Lijia system can protect them one by one.

However, as time goes by, as the number of things under the jurisdiction of local governments increases, and the emergence of corrupt officials, the balance of System A is completely destroyed.

After listening to Xia Yuanji's words, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao immediately paid attention...

　Please read!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)