Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 222: Examination Law and Tax Sharing System

After supplementing the first point, Zhu Youjian temporarily skipped the second point and focused on the third point:
"Strict test is a good way."

"The most important thing for passing the household examination is to collect money and food."

"The Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Personnel must formulate specific measures to reduce or increase the amount of taxes paid to officials."

"In combination with the previously enacted grinding survey law, officials are encouraged to pay taxes."

Let the officials explain the grinding method and integrate it with the strict examination proposed by Bi Ziyan.

Bi Ziyan was very surprised when he heard that there was such a way. It seemed that the emperor had thought of it with him and even made preparations in advance.

After Zhu Youjian formulated the grinding method before, he did have the intention to restart the examination method.

How could Zhu Youjian, who knew something about political performance appraisal and performance appraisal, let go of this measure. This was the guarantee for the success of Zhang Juzheng's reforms at that time. It was by relying on the test that Zhang Juzheng's various reform measures were not reduced to a piece of paper, but were strictly implemented.

However, after Zhang Juzheng's death, most of his measures were overturned, and the Kao Cheng Law was abolished by Shen Shixing. Although it was later restored, it was reduced to nothing. The test results that exist on the paperwork have little practical effect.

Now, relying on the strict examination proposed by Bi Ziyan, Zhu Youjian combined the grinding method and the examination method to force officials to pay taxes by reducing grinding and expanding grinding.

If those officials are still concerned about public opinion and don't want to push for prosecution in the future, just give them a hard time. It depends on whether they want promotion or a "virtuous reputation".

The ministers were all worried about the emperor's measure. At this time, they all understood why the emperor had to promote the grinding method before.

This kind of examination method will exert great power when combined with the examination method. Officials who want to be promoted must pay attention to passing exams.

However, many officials also knew about the disadvantages of passing the examination. Yuan Ke immediately advised:

"Too eager to pass the exam will make people homeless."

"I think it should be relaxed appropriately, and we should not be like Zhang Juzheng, who passed the exam with nine points, and then levied another two points in arrears, and the people had to pay more than ten points every year."

"In today's poor world, we should not push students too hard."

This is a specific implementation issue. Zhu Youjian would never overestimate the quality of Ming officials, so he said:
"We must pay attention to this matter. Bandits are everywhere in the world, and we can no longer let the people become refugees."

"So the assessment of the Ministry of Household Affairs must be comprehensively considered, with taxes accounting for one part and local governance accounting for another part."

"If you can manage the place well and pay enough taxes, then you can be regarded as a capable official and an official needed by the court."

"Officials who are unable to complete the tax collection, or who are eager to rush the tax process and cause the people to be displaced, are incompetent and will be relegated to another department."

Putting forward these views, Zhu Youjian saw that no one objected to Yan Kaocheng's point, so he immediately ordered:

“The tax-related parts of the Kao Cheng Law shall be discussed by the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Personnel.”

“The part of governing the local area is discussed by the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Punishment, the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Personnel, and is supervised by the Metropolitan Procuratorate.”

"In the future, the implementation of the examination law and the determination of the examination and grinding will be the responsibility of the Ministry of Personnel."

This is different from the previous examination method.

The cabinet is responsible for Zhang Juzheng's examination. Taking advantage of this, the Six Ministries were almost reduced to subordinates of the cabinet.

The examination method of Zhu You's examination is the responsibility of the Ministry of Personnel, the participation of various ministries, and the supervision of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. There is no cabinet matter at all, and the power of the cabinet has been partially reduced by him.

Those four people are still in office in the cabinet now. They had just been impeached and were saved by the emperor, and they did not dare to oppose the emperor's decision. Jiu Qing was happy to see the success, and their power had increased.

Especially the Ministry of Personnel, after Zhu Youjian cut off the power of appointing senior officials, it was supplemented with the important power of passing the examination. Even though Fang Guiwei didn't want to seize power, his beard couldn't help but curl up.

With this, he can finally explain it to the officials. In the future, no one will say that the official department is in his hands and he has lost a lot of power.

As long as the official examination method is there and as long as the Ministry of Civil Affairs still holds the title of official, it will undoubtedly be the largest department in the imperial court. In the ranking of officials, households, rites, soldiers, and punishment workers, the official department is always at the forefront. After confirming this point, Zhu Youjian responded to what Yuan Keli said just now and said:
"It is indeed a problem for local governments to rush to complete the exam under the entrance examination law."

"But the imperial court needs enough taxes to pay the border troops."

"In such a dilemma, there must be a choice."

"The food and wages of the border troops must be guaranteed, otherwise we will not be able to protect the people of the Ming Dynasty."

Explaining the importance of collecting taxes, Zhu Youjian said:
"Nowadays, the imperial court's tax revenue is transferred by the local government. Which yamen needs it, the local government collects it and sends it directly, and the rest will be transported to the imperial court."

"Of the approximately 20 million in tax revenue each year, only 2 to 3 million is actually controlled by the court."

“How can such a number cover so many expenses?”

"So I believe that the Ming Dynasty must have a unified tax bureau, and the court and local governments should implement a tax-sharing system. It cannot be as vague as before."

"In the future, 40% of the taxes collected will be retained by the local government for expenditures by the provinces, prefectures and counties. The remaining 60% will be transported to the court for court expenses."

"If the local government fails to do its job and only receives 80% to 90% of the taxes, then the 60% needed by the court will be paid first, and the rest will be distributed to the local governments."

"Food and salary for the frontier army are absolutely indispensable. If local officials don't want to rush the tax, they can reduce the expenses themselves and apply to the Ministry of Household Affairs for exemption from that part of the tax."

This measure made the officials widen their eyes, it felt really wonderful:

Don’t local officials want a good reputation? Don’t you want to rush the exam? Then just save money and apply for tax exemption!

Anyway, the expenses of the imperial court cannot be reduced, and the 60% allocated to the imperial court must be handed over no matter what.

If you fail to hand it in, you will fail the exam and be punished by the court.

This was a great thing for the court officials, who were fed up with the fact that the court had no money and food, and was restricted in everything they could do.

Even Yuan Keli felt that this was appropriate. The border army cannot be owed food and salary. Of course he, the Minister of War, must insist on this, otherwise he will be held accountable for causing a mutiny.

The money collected by the local government was only divided into 60% by the court, which was also not strict. Compared with Zhang Juzheng's stipulation that 90% of the tax must be collected to be considered qualified, this ratio was already very low.

The only problem was that the emperor wanted to build a new yamen specifically responsible for collecting taxes.

While thinking about this matter, Zhu Youjian already said:

"The deputy director of Cangchang is responsible for the warehouses of the Ministry of Revenue, especially the Taicang Bank. All the taxes of the imperial court are controlled by this official position."

"However, the deputy director of the warehouse does not have an office, and it is already difficult to manage these warehouses. After the tax sharing system is implemented and local money and grain are received from the court, management will be more difficult."

"So I decided to build Taifu Temple in the ancient style, and appointed the Minister of Cangchang as the Minister of Taifu Temple, who is responsible for warehousing and taxation affairs."

"Guo Yunhou, the minister responsible for supervising Cangchang, served as the first Minister of Taifu Temple and was responsible for establishing Taifu Temple. He separated the relevant responsibilities of the household department and established a separate yamen."

This decision made the officials have different expressions, but Guo Yunhou was a little excited.

He was worried that he would not be able to face his former subordinates after being demoted. Now that he was working in an independent government office in Taifu Temple, this problem would no longer exist——

From now on, he will still be the head of the department, and no subordinate would dare to laugh at him.

　"Chongzhen Changbian":
　　Renshen in March of the second year of Chongzhen:

　　Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Household Affairs, said:...

　　The total annual income of Jingbian is 1,692,792 taels of Tian Fu, 1,103,110 taels of salt, and more than 103,100 taels of miscellaneous taxes. Two, the banknotes were over 161,240 taels, and the case was about 200,000 taels, for a total of more than 3,265,520 taels. The arrears were extended and the actual payment was Less than two million taels. …

　　(The imperial court held "less than two million taels of silver every year")
　　
　
(End of this chapter)