The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty.

Chapter 434 Five years passed in the blink of an eye!
Zhengde fifteen years.

The imperial capital of the Ming Dynasty, the Forbidden City, and the Palace of Heavenly Purity.

Zhu Houzhao was reviewing memorials, and he had already grown a beard.

After ruling the country for fifteen years, Emperor Zhengde was no longer the ridiculous emperor he used to be. He became more majestic and respectable, and his emotions were not revealed on his face.

Yang Tinghe was sitting next to them. He was still the prime minister of the cabinet, and no one could shake his position.

In addition to Yang Tinghe, there were also many important ministers such as Wang Ao, Fei Hong, Mao Ji, and Liang Chu.

Five years passed in the blink of an eye, and with the cooperation of the emperor and his ministers, the Ming Dynasty had completely changed.

"Your Majesty, this time the Henan students' boycott has had a very bad impact. They are deliberately resisting the new policies implemented by the court!"

Cabinet Chief Minister Yang Tinghe spoke in a deep voice.

Just a year ago, the Ming Dynasty had just completed the transition from the Single Whip System to the Land-based Tax System.

These two policies are actually aimed at reforming the imperial taxation system.

The Single Whip System was to merge the land tax and labor service that had been levied separately since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, that is, to combine the various types of labor service, including Class A labor service, corvee labor, miscellaneous labor, and forced labor, into one, and incorporate it into the summer and autumn taxes of the land tax and collect them together.

First, survey the land, expand the scope of taxation, and make the taxation relatively evenly distributed.

According to the results of only a partial survey, the land area increased by nearly 300 million mu, which caused many lands hidden by gentry to pay taxes, greatly increasing the tax revenue of the court.

Second, unify taxes and levies, limit harassment, and make taxes more stable.

Since the taxes and levies were unified, it was difficult for officials at all levels to find tricks to impose taxes, so corruption was eliminated, taxes became stable, and the people felt a little more at ease.

Third, silver was levied based on the acreage of land and collected and paid by officials, making the collection method more complete.

From then on, taxes were no longer levied in kind, saving the cost of transportation and storage; they were no longer collected by baojia personnel, eliminating the malpractice of embezzlement of payments, making the collection method more perfect.

The Single Whip System was implemented for three years and proved to be a great reform.

Since the reform was implemented in the tenth year of Zhengde, the total income of the Taicang Silver Treasury has shown a straight upward trend amid fluctuations, which not only reduced the taxation cost and increased the court's tax revenue, but also greatly reduced the burden on the shoulders of the people!

However, no policy is perfect. Although the single-whip system is very beneficial, it still breeds many problems.

For example, the Single Whip System itself has a strong Jiangnan regional flavor. If a local policy with a strong regional flavor is implemented unchanged in other parts of the country, it will inevitably cause conflicts due to factors such as differences in regional environment, different levels of economic development, and obstruction by local officials to protect the interests of their region and class. The end result is that the interests of local people will be damaged.

Another example is the Single Whip Law, which was originally intended to collect silver from the government and use it for government purposes. However, after its implementation, it did not achieve the goal of eliminating the harm caused by menial labor. Some local governments added corvée and taxes on top of the Single Whip Law, and created various pretexts to extort money from the people.

Therefore, when the court noticed these bad phenomena, Emperor Zhu Houzhao and the chief minister of the cabinet Yang Tinghe agreed and decided to immediately implement the system of equalizing the land tax.

The biggest difference between the "Equalizing the Tax on Land and Single Whip System" is that the "Single Whip System" only simplified the tax collection procedures and collected taxes in cash based on land and population, but did not abolish the poll tax; while the "Equalizing the Tax on Land and Population" abolished the poll tax and only collected taxes based on the amount of land. It can be said that the "Equalizing the Tax on Land and Population" is a further development of the "Single Whip System".

It included the silver tax for adult males in the land tax collection and abolished the previous "head tax". The court officials relaxed their control over household registration, allowing the common people and handicraftsmen to migrate freely and sell their labor.

The local governments of each province should find out the amount of land in each place and distribute taxes equally on a per-acre basis.

In other words, those who own the most land pay the most taxes!

After the tax was distributed, it goes without saying that landless peasants no longer had to bear the tax. As for the landless peasants, since they were the largest group when the tax was previously levied on a per capita basis and they were often burdened by the gentry and other powerful people, their burden far exceeded the proportion they should have borne based on their land and property.

After the tax was equalized, the tax silver was shared according to the amount of land or land tax. Since these farmers had less land, their burden was naturally lighter than before. After the tax was equalized, the gentry had to serve and pay taxes at the same time, and their preferential rights were abolished. Their land was also subject to the tax silver, so the amount of land subject to the tax silver increased, which also relatively reduced the burden on farmers.

However, whether it was the equalization of land tax or the requirement that gentry and gentry serve and pay taxes together, it was equivalent to directly touching the fundamental interests of the gentry and the local gentry. So this time, there was an incident of students boycotting the Henan provincial examination and openly tearing up the examination papers, which caused an uproar in the country.

Zhu Houzhao pinched his brows and fell into deep thought, looking a little tired.

After a moment, he spoke faintly.

"Lord Fei, go to Henan and take a walk yourself!"

"Kill those who should be killed, arrest those who should be arrested, show no mercy!"

"The land tax and unified tax payment must be implemented. Anyone who dares to violate the rules will be killed!"

Hearing the Emperor's murderous words, the Chief Censor of the Censorate, Fei Hong, immediately nodded. "Don't worry, Your Majesty. I understand."

Just at this moment, Zhang Yong ran in hurriedly.

"His Majesty!"

"Your Majesty! They're back! The navy is back!"

After hearing this, Zhu Houzhao was stunned at first, and then stood up suddenly.

"Who did you say came back?"

Zhang Yong was out of breath and said hurriedly: "The general is back! Duke Xin is back!"

"The general has led his fleet to Japan and will be back to Ming soon!"

came back!
The Savages are back!
Tears suddenly welled up in Zhu Houzhao's eyes.

Five years!
Damn savages!
Do you know how I spent these five years?
You are finally back!
All the court officials were also shocked, and the burly figure appeared in their minds at the same time.

Duke Xin of the Ming Dynasty, Tang Hao!

The most powerful minister who once dominated the court did not die in the sea. He actually came back!

The next moment, a frustrated voice sounded.

"Father, that bastard Tang Tuo is using dirty tricks again!"

A heroic young man walked in angrily. It was none other than Crown Prince Zhu Zaihou, Zhu Houzhao's eldest son.

Immediately afterwards, a young man as strong as a calf walked in and glared at Zhu Zaihou unhappily.

"Your Majesty, please don't listen to his nonsense. It's obvious that he is not as strong as me..."

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help laughing out loud when he heard this, and walked forward and rubbed his head with one hand.

"Stop making noise, the savages are back!"

Savage?

Hearing this, Tang Tuo was stunned for a moment.

"Your Majesty, are you saying that my...real father is back?"

Zhu Houzhao nodded and looked at the bastard with joy.

Unexpectedly, Tang Tuo covered his head subconsciously.

"It's over!"

"Daddy is back!"

"I'm going to get beaten this time!"

Everyone: "???"

Damn?

This bastard?

He's simply a copy of Tang Hao!
Zhu Houzhao angrily gave him a slap on the face and also gave one to his son.

The two little ones looked at each other aggrievedly, and then laughed at the same time.

"Tuo'er, go back and tell your mother that the general is back!"

"Xiaotuo, I'm going with you. Auntie can finally be happy!"

(End of this chapter)