My Ming Dynasty, I have the final say

Chapter 69 Establishment of Liaodong Transshipment Department
On the tenth day of October, Guiwei day.

"Your Majesty, I have checked all the treasuries in the capital and preliminary verification shows that the book deficit is 130 taels of silver."

Holding an account book, Bi Ziyan stood behind Zhu Youxiao and reported.

Next to him, Li Ruhua, the Minister of Household Affairs, stood.

"Where is Nanzhili?"

"South Zhili."

Hearing this, Bi Ziyan clicked his tongue and said.

"I preliminary estimate that [-]% of the accounts reported by Nanzhili are false."

"Then let it go for now and keep the case."

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao patted his butt and stood up from the ground.

"Southern Zhili involves too much and cannot be easily moved. Now let's focus on Northern Zhili."

"The minister obeys the order."

After hearing this, Bi Zishen bowed his body and said.

"I have just ascended the throne, and I am not too aggressive with Nanzhili. Let's not talk about other ministries in Nanjing. The Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs alone is responsible for the Yanke, Huangce and the taxes of Nanzhili. At the same time, I also represent In charge of taxation in the three provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Huguang, half of the Ming Dynasty’s money and food had to be collected in South Zhili.”

"There is a lot of meat on the hands, so it is inevitable that there will be no oil or water left behind. I will ask the officials from the Department of Science and Technology to check first. Whatever can be found is the best. If nothing is found, we will deal with it together when the time comes."

"The imperial court's money and food matters are nothing more than increasing revenue and reducing expenditure."

"Opening the source of income is nothing more than raising taxes, but the Liaoning salary has been increased three times. If we increase it any more, it will force the people to rebel."

"My minister agrees."

Hearing this, Li Ruhua said quickly.

"Nowadays, Liao's wages have reached nine cents per acre. Taking the capital as an example, one acre of farmland can produce three shi of raw grain a year. After deducting the losses of threshing and grinding, it is a blessing to be able to produce two shi. According to the calculation, one shi of grain is one tael of silver. Come to think of it, it’s nearly twenty tax dollars.”

"If you include corvees, levies, and some privately imposed exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, it would be really difficult for the people to make ends meet."

"see this."

Zhu Youxiao took out a memorial from his sleeve and asked the young eunuch to hand it to Li Ruhua.

This is Yang Sichang's report on the famine in Huaibei.

He went straight to the General Affairs Department, entered the cabinet, and then went to Zhu Youxiao's desk without going through the Ministry of Household Affairs.

"Is there any report from Nanzhili?"

"Back to the emperor, not at all."

After opening Yang Sichang's memorial and reading it, Li Ruhua frowned.

"I think, Nanzhili can control the situation for the time being, so we haven't reported it yet."

"If you can control it, why don't you report it? There is a famine in Huaibei, and I don't know until the head of the Jiangxi Department of the Ministry of Household Affairs passes by Beijing."

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao snorted coldly.

"Send an order to the Metropolitan Procuratorate and ask them to send people to South Zhili to go to Huaibei to show me what is going on."

"The servants lead the order."

Hearing this, Liu Shimin quickly ordered someone to write a note.

"Your Majesty, although the Duzhi Division is now divided into the household department, the power of money and food is divided, but the affairs of the department are complicated, and it is inevitable that some things will be omitted. I would like to establish a new Pay Division to take charge of Liao Pay."

Seeing that the emperor had made up his mind about the affairs in Southern Zhili, Bi Ziyan handed over the matter again.

"New rates department?"

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao reached out and touched his chin.

The Pay Division, in layman's terms, is the department in charge of military rations.

The New Rates Department was a department specially established in the late Ming Dynasty to provide material supplies to Liaodong.

"The Rating Department is for military purposes and transports materials to Liaodong. It is inappropriate to name it the New Rating Department."

Zhu Youxiao shook his head and said.

"I remember that during the Zhao and Song Dynasties, various provinces set up transshipment envoys to transport taxes from each province for state use. Nowadays, Liaodong is short of materials and needs to transfer a large amount of materials north. Let's follow the example of the previous dynasty and set up a Liaodong Transshipment Department. "

"As for the grade, let's choose the fourth grade. As for the candidate, let's choose Yang Sichang."

As he spoke, Zhu Youxiao tapped his fingers on the table.

"The responsibility of the Transportation Department is to communicate supplies between the imperial court and the local government. It is up to the two of you to decide where the government offices should place them and how many staff they should give."

"The ministers obey the order."

Hearing this, Bi Ziyan and Li Ruhua cupped their hands and said.

"What Liaodong lacks now is not money, but supplies. After this Yang Sichang comes to Beijing, let him come to Nanhaizi to see me. I want to talk to him face to face about some things." With that, Zhu Youxiao signaled Liu Shimin to be there. Make a note of this on your memo.

"Just now, we talked about increasing revenue and reducing expenditure."

Indicating that the two of them were level, Zhu Youxiao continued to return to the original question.

"Can the land tax be increased? If it is to be increased, now we can only add miscellaneous taxes."

"But I don't know how the Ming Dynasty collects miscellaneous taxes. After Li Aiqing returns, he will make a list of the miscellaneous taxes and submit it to me. I want to see it."

"The minister leads the order."

Hearing this, Li Ruhua cupped his hands and said.

Waving for the two of them to leave, Zhu Youxiao opened the memorial submitted by Bi Ziyan and read it carefully.

"Ugh."

After reading for a while, Zhu Youxiao threw the memorial aside and had someone drag out the blackboard from last time.

It is necessary to speed up the progress and separate the central court departments from Shuntianfu.

The central court of the Ming Dynasty usurped too many powers and responsibilities belonging to local officials.

"I asked Zhou Yingqiu to give the question, has he finished it?"

After writing and drawing for a while, Zhu Youxiao suddenly turned to look at Liu Shimin and asked.

"Go back to your Majesty, Zhou Shangshu has not responded yet."

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao frowned.

It’s been five days. Is it so difficult to come up with a question?

This eunuch's work efficiency is not good either.

"Prepare rice paper, bring me the "Instructions for Arrival", and then bring me a copy of "Suan Jing" and "Da Ming Law".

"Yes."

Hearing this, Liu Shimin quickly went to ask someone to prepare.

Sitting in front of the long book desk, Zhu Youxiao instantly remembered the painful memories of being a party member in the previous life, and then quickly shook his head to throw away that feeling.

"We are the ones who set the questions, not the ones who make them."

After comforting himself, Zhu Youxiao picked up his pen and started writing questions on the paper in front of him.

Haven't eaten pork, haven't you seen a pig running?

At present, he needs a group of low-level officials, so the literary talent test will not be tested. Only practical skills will be tested, which is divided into three parts: law, politics, and arithmetic.

Law, judgment.

Government, administration.

Calculate, settle accounts.

Each part has twenty multiple-choice questions, twenty true-false questions, twenty application questions, and finally an essay question.

The entire test paper uses a point system instead of the grade system commonly used in imperial examinations.

There will definitely be people who will beep, say something, the graded system is better than the points system.

Don't make trouble, the grading system has existed in China for a long time.

When marking the sealed examination papers of the Ming Dynasty, the marking officers would grade them according to their own standards and draw five kinds of marks: circles, sharp points, dots, straight lines and crosses. Isn't this a grading system?

joke.

I randomly copied a dozen examples from the book and converted them into questions based on the examples from my previous life.

In two hours, Zhu Youxiao produced the world's first test paper.

Looking at the questions on the paper that he had worked hard to figure out, Zhu Youxiao nodded with satisfaction.

"Go find some eunuchs who can write and ask them to copy this according to my layout."

"After copying it, bring it to me."

"Then, let the cabinet ministers and the chief officials of the six ministries and nine temples come to Nanhaizi tomorrow."

"The slaves obey the order."

Hearing this, Liu Shimin bowed and said.

What the hell is this little master up to?

　Read on, read on, read on.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)