Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 463 Tithe Tax and the Publicity Department

The purge of Ministry of Revenue officials did not affect the tax reform in Shuntian Prefecture.

Because collecting taxes in a small area like Shuntian Prefecture does not require many officials.

In fact, after cleaning out those incompetent officials who only knew how to engage in corruption, the tax collection work in Shuntian Prefecture made great progress.

Guo Yunhou, the Minister of Agriculture, reported the tax situation of the property tax to the emperor, and together with the Imperial Household Supervisor, formulated the policy of the eleventh tax, requesting the emperor to make a ruling:
"The collection of the tithe tax should be one-tenth of each acre."

"But the yields vary from acre to acre, so we need to set standards."

"I have discussed with the eunuch Wang, the supervisor of the inner court, that we should levy a 10% tax on the permanent farmland and the land of the nobility, in the same way as we did on the military farms."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Youjian asked:
"How was the regular grain collected from the military farms before?"

“How much difference is there between that and one-tenth of the yield per acre?”

Guo Yunhou immediately replied:
"Each army received 50 mu of land for one fen, and the initial tax for each mu was one dou."

"Later, it was decided that one-tenth of the army's land would be given 12 shi of grain, and the rest would be used as the salary for the officers and soldiers of the garrison."

"Fifty mu of land yields twelve dan of grain, and each mu yields two dou and four liters."

"At present, the yield of farmland in Daming is more than two shi per mu, which is two dou and four liters per mu, just close to the 11th tax."

Speaking of his reasons, Guo Yunhou added:
"When the actual collection is done, it will vary according to the fertility of the land."

"The original method of collecting grain would have the least changes. There would be no need to distinguish between fertile fields and poor fields. Taxes could be collected according to the previous method."

"Moreover, it is Your Majesty's benevolent policy to only pay the regular grain and not the surplus grain."

"When the military households learn of this, they will surely remember your majesty's kindness."

Zhu Youjian listened to Guo Yunhou's reasons and was very dissatisfied with his way of trying to save trouble. He asked:
"Has the fertility of the land changed over the past two hundred years?"

“Has the original wasteland become irrigated land?”

“Did the originally irrigated land become dry land because the river dried up?”

"Have you checked all these?"

Guo Yunhou was speechless. In fact, he just wanted to save trouble and wanted to collect taxes according to the previous method.

But Zhu Youjian refused to agree. What he wanted was to clean up the accumulated problems of more than two hundred years and rebuild the entire Ming Dynasty so that he could go into battle with ease.

Otherwise, there would be a figure like Li Zicheng who would complete this task, destroy the entire Ming Dynasty, redistribute the land and establish a new dynasty.

Therefore, although Guo Yunhou's method was simple and could ensure the collection of the eleventh tax, Zhu Youjian did not accept it. He ordered:

"All the land of the guards must be measured and redistributed."

"Try to distribute them in a concentrated area of ​​15 or 30 mu. At the same time, ensure that each military household has at least 15 mu of irrigated land. The remaining irrigated land will be reserved for officers."

"The levy of the tithe tax is temporarily set at two dou. One dou of summer grain and one dou of autumn grain each year."

"If the area has one crop per year or three crops per two years, the two taxes should be reduced accordingly."

"Land is divided into three categories: upper, middle and lower. The middle and lower fields should be reduced accordingly, and additional tax reductions will be made when disaster strikes."

"Shuntian Prefecture and Northern Zhili will pilot this policy, and then decide whether to implement it in other places based on the results."

As he spoke, Zhu Youjian remembered something else and stared at Guo Yunhou and said:

"The standard ruler I set before is a little longer than before, right?"

"Why does Guo Qing think that we can continue to use the previous land register?"

When Guo Yunhou heard this, he broke out in a cold sweat.

In fact, he knew that the school used a standard ruler when measuring, but he deliberately ignored this point to save trouble.

Unexpectedly, the emperor specifically pointed this out and questioned him about this point.

This left him speechless and he could only kneel down and apologize.

Zhu Youjian was very dissatisfied with his trickery, but Guo Yunhou was already considered to be the only official left by the Ministry of Revenue who was willing to work. So he could only scold him and then order him to do his job well.

However, as a check and balance, he asked Qin Shiwen to lead the border defense officials to participate in the reform of the garrison system. The distribution of garrison land and the relocation of garrisons with insufficient land to wasteland for reclamation all required the participation of the border defense department.

Zhu Youjian also stipulated that the military registration books of the garrisons should be revised every ten years like the local registration books, and should be revised again every thirty years.

The land of military households that had fled or had become extinct was redistributed, and the land was also redistributed to officers and soldiers whose hereditary positions had changed.

At the same time, we must strictly investigate land occupation and the mismatch between name and reality, and ensure that soldiers who join the army actually own the land.

He knew that some families would divide the land privately and give some of the military land allocated by the court to their sons who would not join the army.

This needs to be explicitly prohibited, because the imperial court allocated military land to support soldiers. If it continued to distribute land, no one would be willing to join the army.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian asked Guo Yunhou to confirm that the military farms of the guards belonged to the court. The permanent farms of officers and soldiers, or more precisely, the permanent tenancy rights of owning the land -

They obtained the right to cultivate these lands by paying rent through military service and tithes.

The imperial court has the right to take back and redistribute the land. If this is not strictly enforced, the results of the thirty-year rear guard reform will be destroyed. The extra population of the next generation will disrupt the redistribution of land.

As for the remaining soldiers in the garrisons, Zhu Youjian's current policy is to recruit military households and allow them to become military and civilian households.

Except for the need to serve in the military for three years after reaching adulthood, they are no different from ordinary people in other aspects and can choose their own jobs.

In the future, we should encourage them to move overseas, while developing industry and commerce to absorb these people.

The various industries of the royal family would specifically absorb these people and recruit workers from retired military and civilian households.

This would not only allow the royal family to mobilize forces when faced with a crisis, but would also be conducive to the stability of the Wei system.

It can be said that Zhu Youjian truly regarded the garrisons as his basic base and an important force in maintaining imperial power.

Because of this, he lowered the eleventh tax set by Guo Yunhou from 2 dou and 4 liters per mu to 2 dou. In the future, he would make more exemptions when disasters occurred to buy the hearts of the soldiers in the garrison.

In order to facilitate tax payment and to reduce the exploitation of military households by merchants, Zhu Youjian stipulated that soldiers and military households could choose to pay grain or silver on their own, and only officers had to pay gold and silver, similar to the zhujin of the Han Dynasty.

At the same time, he also asked Sinong Temple to formulate a guide price for grain purchase and set a minimum price. He also asked Sinong Temple's General Grain Administration to set up a grain group and cooperate with military officers from all over the country to set up grain companies and grain stations to facilitate grain collection and transportation.

Grain companies and grain stations will have a certain loss quota when storing and transporting grain. The loss they reduce is their profit. This standard is also fixed every ten years, determined based on the grain loss rate of the previous ten years.

Grain companies and grain stations that lose too much grain will also be eliminated regularly. In the future, the grain industry will also implement an access system or even a monopoly, which will be strictly controlled by the court.

This policy can also be seen as compensation for officers because they no longer have salaries.

In the past, officers received their salaries from the surplus grain collected from the military households, but after the reform, in addition to the 11th tax, the military households in the garrisons no longer had to pay any other taxes, so the officers' salaries were naturally gone. They could only receive the salary for their positions while serving in the army.

Zhu Youjian's method was to use the permanent fields as actual nobility fields, replacing the salaries given to hereditary military officers.

In the future, these officers will need to farm to support themselves, and those with more land can recruit military and civilian households as tenants.

This is also a way out for the remaining soldiers in the garrison.

However, military households were not allowed to be tenants, and officers were strictly prohibited from using military households to farm the land to prevent them from being used as serfs by officers again.

It can be said that this reform of the garrisons involved all aspects.

Even the Yitiebian Law, which previously required the payment of silver, was changed to allow the payment of grain instead.

At a time when disasters were constantly occurring, Zhu Youjian needed to control more food.

This is also the reason why he set up a grain company and a grain station.

As long as the method works well in the garrison, he will promote it to other places, allowing farmers to pay grain to grain stations and strengthen the grain companies.
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After formulating the policies related to the eleventh tax, Zhu Youjian summoned officials from the Ministry of Rites, including Wen Tiren, to levy a new tax.

When talking about Wen Tiren, we have to mention his tact.

As the first government office to implement the policy of officials declaring their properties, Wen Tiren required officials in the Ministry of Rites to do the same after all officials in the Ministry of Revenue were required to declare their properties.

After the Ministry of Revenue implemented government transparency, the Ministry of Rites also made its government transparency public, completely following the emperor's policy.

This made Zhu Youjian very satisfied with him. He felt that if he was used properly, this person could also do real work.

Therefore, when summoning officials from the Ministry of Rites, Zhu Youjian first praised Wen Tiren's approach to government transparency, and after assigning the Department of Guests to the Lifanyuan, he finally added a department to the Ministry of Rites:

Publicity Department.

The propaganda functions of the Department of Rites and Music, as well as institutions such as the Publishing House, were transferred to the Propaganda Department.

From now on, the Ministry of Rites will be responsible for the court’s propaganda work and focus on guiding public opinion.

At the same time, a Press Office was established and a spokesperson was appointed to publicize the court's policies to news organizations and the public and to promote government transparency.

Each government office must also appoint a spokesperson and accept guidance from the Press Office.

The most important task at present is to do a good job in promoting the parliament, property tax and the reform of the garrison system, and to cooperate with these efforts.

This was undoubtedly an affirmation of Wen Tiren, which made him so happy that his face flushed and he felt that he had done the right thing.

After attacking Qian Qianyi and condemning the Donglin Party, what he mainly did in the past year was to actively follow the emperor and show his loyalty.

At the same time, he had to do practical things to let the emperor see it and gain recognition from ministers who were qualified to participate in the court recommendation.

At a time when the number of Donglin Party ministers was still small, Wen Tihen's approach was very effective.

He was almost certain that as long as there was a vacancy in the position of Grand Secretary, he would be recommended to the cabinet.

Now, like other ministers who aspire to join the cabinet, he is eyeing a cabinet change next year.

Now that Huang Liji is determined to step down, a few new people will have to be added to the cabinet.

The emperor's affirmation of him was undoubtedly the best compliment, which increased his confidence in joining the cabinet next year.

However, the emperor's next words made him feel a little difficult, because the emperor wanted to abolish the status of musicians and completely abolish the status of slaves.

After providing a way out for the untouchables such as the boat people, fallen people, beggars, and fishermen of the nine surnames to join the garrisons and cancel their status as untouchables, the emperor planned to directly cancel the status of the last remaining musicians and give them the status of civilians.

(End of this chapter)