The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

At the critical moment, Li Changwen, the General Counselor of the Political Bureau, the Secretary of the Ministry of Personnel, and the Minister of Military and Aircraft stood up and expressed his attitude very clearly, "Your Majesty, I think it is the right time to implement the 'officials and gentry uniting as servants and paying food'."

Liu Sheng nodded, "Sir, please elaborate."

Li Changwen said, "Part of the reason for the demise of the Qianming Dynasty was financial collapse, that is, lack of money."

"The reason why the former Ming Dynasty was short of money was because some taxes and levies could not be collected, or they were not collected enough."

“In addition to the corruption of officialdom and the reduction of the court’s control over local areas, the rich and powerful colluded with corrupt officials and defaulted on taxes.

"There are also some people who take advantage of the exemption privileges granted to the powerful and gentry in the Ming Dynasty to evade taxes by renting their land."

"There are also merchants who use the authority of officials and gentry to evade customs duties and other commercial taxes, and even engage in smuggling openly."

"If we want to cure this kind of problem, we can only implement the policy of 'one body serves as the errand and one body pays the bills'."

"From the royal family to the common people, they pay taxes as they should. The labor money is collected as one, without distinction."

“Only in this way can we try to prevent privileged groups such as the powerful and the gentry from exploiting loopholes, evading taxes and servitude, and even corroding the national finances.”

Liu Sheng and Li Changwen had reached a consensus in the early years on the policy of integrating officials and gentry as messengers to pay for food.

Now that it's time to implement it, Li Changwen will naturally not let it slip.

In the more than ten years since Damei was established, the Li family in Tianmu Mountain has also developed into a big family and acquired a lot of properties.

But these did not affect Li Changwen's thoughts.

Moreover, whether it is Liu Sheng's annual reward or the Li family's participation in some royal business activities, the money earned is much more than the little money the Li family earns from the fields every year.

Therefore, even if ten years have passed, Li Changwen is still a die-hard supporter of the policy of "officials and gentry working together as errands and paying food".

Li Changwen has served as the General Counselor of the Government Affairs Council and the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel for more than ten years. He is the well-deserved first civil servant of Da'ei. ,

Now that he clearly supports the New Deal, other ministers at the meeting did not dare to say anything even if they had some thoughts on it.

However, some ministers have other ideas and attitudes.

Li Banghua stood up and cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, it is certainly a good strategy to solve the chronic problems of taxation and service in the previous Ming Dynasty. However, it is probably very difficult to implement this strategy."

"If local officials are unwilling to cooperate, or even secretly obstruct it, a good policy may be twisted into a policy that harms the people, and ultimately the success will fall short."

At this point, Li Banghua stopped.

His meaning is very clear: This new policy is good, but you have to be able to implement it.

After listening to Li Banghua's words, many ministers nodded, obviously thinking so.

It should be understood that if reform fails, it is not simply that certain ills cannot be eliminated. It would also damage the majesty of the emperor and the court, consume national power, and even shake the foundation of the dynasty.

Li Changwen said: "It is indeed detrimental to the interests of officials to have officials and gentry work together as errands to pay for food, but at the moment, it is not unacceptable."

"In the past, successive dynasties granted officials the privilege of exemption from service, not only to give officials dignity, but also to avoid conflicts between official duties and service duties."

"However, since the Ming Dynasty, most of the services can be replaced with grain and silver. In this way, the dignity of the officials given by this exemption is not so important, and serving as an official will not conflict with the official's duties."

"If this policy is really implemented, it will only require officials, gentry, dignitaries, etc. to pay a little more silver."

"If any official goes against the imperial policy because of this small amount of silver, he will not only be disloyal to Da'ei, but also unwise."

"How can such a disloyal and unwise person still be an official? It's better to fire him!"

Li Changwen's words not only explained the principle of "times change", but also clearly told the ministers that those who would do this and obstruct the New Deal were not worthy of being officials.

At the same time, this also shows his strong attitude in supporting "the integration of officials and gentry as errands and payment of food".

Li Banghua opened his mouth, but was speechless for a moment. At this time, Ma Shimin also came out and said: "It is certainly difficult to implement 'officials and gentry integrated as errands and pay grain', but if we don't do it now, it will only be more difficult to implement in the future."

"The immunity privileges left over from the previous dynasty are like human diseases. You can't just treat them just because they are difficult and painful, right?"

Li Banghua did not expect that Ma Shimin, who usually had a good relationship with him, would also stand so firmly on the side of the reformists.

It was quite a shock for a while.

Then, the ministers Ma Shiying, Qian Yunsheng, and Li Yunzhong all came out one after another to express their approval of the implementation of the new policy of "officials and gentry working together to pay for food".

Although the few remaining ministers had his thoughts or doubts, they couldn't say anything else.

At this point, it was decided that Dayei would implement the new policy of "officials and gentry working as errands and paying grain".

Liu Sheng said with a smile: "The ministers agree to implement the two new policies of sharing the land with the peasants and paying the grain to the officials and gentry, so let's discuss how to implement it."

Subsequently, the conference was held for three consecutive days (only for two hours in the morning) before it was over.

The meeting decided to pilot these two new policies in the southern and northern Zhili provinces for one year to accumulate experience and identify deficiencies.

Then it will take another two years to promote and implement it to other provinces.

A few days later, on the twenty-eighth day of the first lunar month, part of the preparations for the New Deal were completed, and Liu Sheng immediately issued an imperial edict and announced it to the world.

It soon aroused widespread discussion in the governance of the north and south and in various provinces.

Nanjing, Lion Tower.

Several petty officials working in Beijing discussed the matter.

"When this new policy comes out, doesn't it mean that those of us who are officials will have to do corvee service like ordinary people?"

"Brother Zhang is wrong. Even in the Ming Dynasty, we could pay silver to serve as slaves. How much more so in our country? The new policy of the imperial court is just to let us pay silver as common people."

"If that's the case, it's acceptable. It's just that compared to the previous Ming Dynasty, we officials are not so dignified after all."

"But compared to tomorrow, our salaries have also increased a lot. According to me, you have to think for the best in everything."

"I mean, come on, have a drink."

"···"

Similar discussions abound.

Xiuyiwei was ordered by Liu Sheng to collect relevant public opinion information during this period and provide Liu Sheng with reference.

Knowing this, Liu Sheng finally felt relieved.

Although he has made up his mind, he will resolutely implement these two new policies even if there is bloodshed or even local rebellions.

But it would be best if the officials and gentry could understand and be willing to compromise and accept the New Deal.

Of course, the public opinion reached by Xiuyiwei can only be used as a reference.

Whether the New Deal can be successfully promoted and implemented still depends on the situation three years from now.

Speaking of which, whether it is sharing the land or working as an errand to pay the rations, the royal family will take the lead and set an example.

If other dignitaries, officials and gentry groups are interested, they should also cooperate with the implementation of the New Deal.

If someone is really ignorant and does something wrong, the hundreds of thousands of personal guards he holds in his hands are not vegetarian.

It was just in time to conduct another wave of house raids to replenish the national treasury and exile a group of people to support border construction. (End of chapter)