My Ming Dynasty, I have the final say

Chapter 168: It’s not like I don’t know, but I’m shocked when I calculate it

Sun Ruyou is worthy of being promoted by the historical Apocalypse himself and put into the cabinet.

Although in the end Sun Ruyou could not resist the pressure and resigned - because Yan Guan said that he was not pushed by the court to be impeached.

Although this person's ability to withstand stress is not great, his ability to do things is still very strong.

The emperor said to hurry up, the process will be accelerated.

The wedding day was finally set on the tenth day of March, Jiayin Day.

After calculation by the Imperial Supervisor and approval by the Ministry of Rites, Zhu Youxiao and Xu Waner were a match made in heaven. They could protect the Ming Dynasty for generations to come and have many children!

Regarding this result, Xungui, Bi Ziyan and others did not object at all. They would come as fast as they wanted.

And those who objected could not or dare not say one, two, three, four, five.

In the capital, the Jin Yiwei captured refugees and sent them to mines when they had nothing to do. Who was too busy to panic?

When Zhu Youxiao, who was demolishing a house in Xiyuan, heard about this calculation result, he said: Blow, keep blowing.

Why did Zhu Youxiao demolish the house in Xiyuan?

This has to talk about the structure of Xiyuan.

From north to south they are the North Sea, the Central Sea, and the South China Sea.

Although there is a small island in the South China Sea, it is Yingtai. There is Qionghua Island in the North Sea, but it is too small. In addition, he is easily soluble in water, so he did not consider it.

With this calculation, he can only go to the Longevity Palace, or the Great Guangming Palace in the future.

Thanks to the Jiajing ancestors for leaving such a large Taoist temple outside the Forbidden City.

The reason why the house was demolished was because the emperor needed a campus large enough to review the troops.

Zaimai Yetian felt no pain. To the north of Wanshou Palace, the entire building complex headed by the Tibetan Scripture Library was bulldozed, and a military camp capable of stationing [-] people was built here.

With the emperor's marriage settled, it was rare that no one in the court came to bother the emperor again.

This also allowed Zhu Youxiao to spend some relatively comfortable days, allowing him to calm down and work with Yuan Shizhen and Bi Ziyan to dig through Daming Youwu's bad debts.

In the early days, although there were exemptions and exemptions for scholars in the Ming Dynasty, there were no formal regulations and it was a gray income.

During the Hongwu period, the preferential exemptions for scholars were initially extended to civil servants (these people did not receive official salary from the court), gradually extended to serving officials, and later changed to court officials and appointed officials, but there was no specific amount standard.

During the Zhengtong period, partly because the power of civil servants was on the rise, and partly because it was already difficult for the imperial court to issue salaries, families of civil and military officials began to be established in Beijing. In addition to Lijia's regular service and taxes and grain, the rest were exempted from miscellaneous service.

The official introduction of the preferential and exemption policy had to involve that emperor: Hongzhi, the Great Xiaozong of Huitang.

In the seventeenth year of Hongzhi's reign, the Ministry of Household Affairs announced that from now on, except for civil servants, internal officials, and internal envoys, they would still be exempted as usual. For the rest of the families who are serving as district officials, they will be exempted from ten Dings each. The magistrates will be exempted from eight Dings. The officials from Tongzhi to the county magistrate will be exempted from three Dings. The eighth grade and below will be exempted from miscellaneous duties, provincial sacrifices, and elective officials, and The families of supervisors, examiners, students, and officials are all exempted from the tax. "

This refinement of the preferential and exemption policies made the preferential and exempted groups include not only current and retired officials, but also officials and scholars, which was the beginning of harming the tax base of the Ming Dynasty.

Putting aside Yuan Shizhen's calculated development history of preferential treatment, Zhu Youxiao looked at Yuan Shizhen and Bi Ziyan with a smile.

"Last year, the Ministry of Household Affairs reported the number of land tax in Ming Dynasty. How many people were there?"

"This."

Hearing this, Yuan Shizhen was stunned for a moment. He didn't know why today, when he originally talked about exemptions and taxes, he suddenly talked about the population issue.

"I remember, it should be [-] million people."

"I settled an account a few days ago."

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao shook his head and handed a piece of paper to Yuan Shizhen.

"Rough calculation, our Ming Dynasty should have a population of [-] million."

"This is impossible."

Bi Ziyan and Yuan Shizhen were immediately shocked when they heard this number from the emperor's mouth.

Although they had expected that the private sector would conceal the number of Dingkou, they did not expect that there would be such a big gap. There is a four-fold difference between the population calculated by the emperor and the population calculated by the Ministry of Household Affairs.

If this is true, what does this mean? It means that the Ming Dynasty's corvee has been reduced by nearly [-]%.

"Nothing is impossible."

Looking at the two of them, Zhu Youxiao shook his head and said.

"I calculated it from the salt tax. This number can only be more, not less."

"Suppose one is drawn out of twenty for the salt class, and no one enriches his own pocket, and the salt is given and received privately, the salt produced every year is converted into silver taels, which is [-] taels."

"The price of salt in various places in the Ming Dynasty is evenly divided, calculated as one tael of silver per hundred catties."

“The salt fields produced every year in various parts of the Ming Dynasty are enough for [-] million people.”

"That's it, there are still salt shortages happening all over the place."

"????"

After listening to the emperor's calculation method, Bi Ziyan and Yuan Shizhen took the abacus handed over by the eunuch and started tapping.

The abacus in their hands was tapping, and the more they calculated, the more frightened they became.

Because of their inherent way of thinking, they never connected the two unrelated matters of salt and population.

Today the emperor pierced the window paper in the middle and did the math himself, and the two of them discovered a big problem.

"Six cents of salt per person per day is too much."

Reaching out to push the abacus away, Bi Ziyan stroked his long beard and combined it with what he saw and heard when he was an official at the grassroots level.

"According to what I saw when I was an official in Shaanxi, it was very difficult to break up the salt to cross the Yellow River in Shanxi. Therefore, there is little salt in Shaanxi and many people are reluctant to use salt. In many households, except for those who have to work in the fields, the female relatives at home are very talkative. Less salt.”

"If you calculate it based on five cents of salt per day, then the Ming Dynasty had it."

Bi Ziyan murmured to himself as he thought.

After hearing his words, Yuan Shizhen next to him gave a vague answer.

"Thirty million people and upwards."

Looking at each other with Yuan Shizhen, they both understood the problem at the same time.

"In the thirteenth year of Hongwu, Taizu executed Hu Weiyong and deposed him as prime minister."

Seeing the expressions of the two people, Zhu Youxiao directly put his legs on the Long Book Desk, leaned on the chair and said.

"The following year (1381), the taxable population in the world was investigated and the number was [-] million."

"In the sixth year of Wanli (1578), Zhang Juzheng carried out the Reform and investigated the taxable population of the country and found a figure of [-] million."

"In the past two hundred years, the number of Ming Dynasty's tax-paying population has only increased by [-] people."

"Last year, the number of people taxed by the Ministry of Revenue to the imperial court was [-] million."

"In just forty-two years, the tax-paying population has decreased by more than nine million."

"Can the five large-scale conquests against barbarians during the Wanli period reduce the population by [-] million at one time?"

"what does that mean?"

"It means that the Ming Dynasty has [-] million people, supporting a court that has to control a population of [-] million."

"It means that there are [-] million people in the Ming Dynasty who are under the control of the imperial court, but they do not pay a penny in taxes to the imperial court!"

ps: The Apocalypse Record records: At that time, the number of households with household registration and land tax in the world was [-], with a population of [-], and the total land and land of the officials and the people was [-]. Seven hundred and four hundred and thirty-nine thousand three hundred and nineteen hectares and eighty-three acres, eight centimeters and nine centimeters, four micro-three fibers and two sand and eight.

(End of this chapter)