Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

1000 million per year sounds like a huge number, but hundreds of thousands of Manchu (human) traitors (traitors) sentenced to hard labor still have to eat, and they have to maintain a very intensive labor. Rice grains worth 10,000+ tons are spent; and the necessary labor tools and supporting cattle and horses for transportation are required to open the river, not to mention dustpans, shoulder poles, baskets, shovels, crowbars, picks, ropes, carts, etc. The loss of transportation means, the annual cost of more than 1 ordinary pack horses and trolling horses alone is hundreds of thousands of horses; Just excavating along the old course of the Yellow River, at least [-] river gates will be built along the main canals to control the water flow. A river gate can weigh thousands of catties or several (summer) tons. For the item of iron materials, the budget will be tens of millions; this does not include the most expensive cement bottoming at the bottom of the river and the reinforced concrete embankments on both sides, even if the Dushui Yamen can be shipped relatively cheap from Jinzhou (Sumatra) The pozzolan cement, the cost will also be astronomical.

For Cai Tong and Duzhi Yamen, even if they allocate 200 million yuan per year as loan interest for the Yellow River Comprehensive Improvement Project, they can only maintain a total loan amount of 4000 million yuan for four years at a relatively low interest rate of [-]% per annum. , every four years, all the principal and interest must be paid off, otherwise it will not be sustainable at all. Fortunately, Zheng Kezang also thought of this, and he was willing to build a section of the river and sold the land along the bank to the bondholders to maintain the credit of the court.

It's a pity that Zheng Kezang had a good plan, but after Cai Tong contacted Sihai and Tonghai, two quasi-central banks, he found that he couldn't borrow money at all.Can't borrow money?This made Duzhi Yamen dizzy.Could it be that the loan interest rate is too low?However, if the interest rate is raised, there will be problems in the payment of interest, and the Duzhi Yamen, who are starving to death in the warehouse, cannot be allowed to tighten their belts.What?Even if the interest rate is raised to one cent and five cents, you can't borrow money?Sihai, Tonghai, you are going too far. This is an official business of the court. Besides, I am not asking you to borrow money, but asking you to connect with two or three hundred banks across the country to borrow money. What kind of big-tailed wolves are you pretending to be? As for the shareholders of the company, although they cannot exercise their shareholder rights until the purchase price has been repaid, they cannot be so perfunctory.

However, the hosts of Sihai and Tonghai No. 13 put the difficulty on the table: Yes, No. 16 does not operate actual deposit and loan business now, but given that Zheng Kezang sold No. A series of major financial actions such as the Taiping Smelting Iron Works and the 18th year of the suzerain vassal loan took away most of the money on the market, resulting in the actual lack of silver deposits in various banks today. Facing the threat of a possible run, No matter how high the interest rate the Huaxia court offered, they might not be able to borrow money.

Cuju kicked back to Zheng Kezang's feet, but Zheng Kezang, who was reported by Duzhi Yamen, was furious. He thought that Cai Tong and Duzhi Yamen were fooled by the inner court manager, and the money was taken away, and the market was tense , It is simply nonsense --- most of Wu Cheng's proceeds from selling the shares of Sihai and Tonghai in 13 were spent on war expenses. In the past, most of the suzerain's large loans were used for domestic trade. There will be absolutely no shortage of money in the market, and it is impossible for bank banks to have money shortages. The key to the problem is interest rates. The money industry association is obviously Wanting to take advantage of the fire, the Inner Court Manager's Office contributed to the flames in order to distribute the credit pressure of Bo Zongfan's loan.

So Zheng Kezang directly called several councilors and assistants from the Inner Court Manager's Office. Under Zheng Kezang's pressure, the Inner Court Manager's Office had to decide that the Inner Court would buy 300 million yuan of Yellow River (comprehensive management) bonds every year, and the Four Seas and Tonghai Banks On the other hand, they also agreed to absorb 100 million guan of the Yellow River bonds each year. As for the remaining 500 million guan, the two quasi-central banks will come forward to persuade each bank to purchase the opening reserves mortgaged in the two.

The matter seemed to be resolved, so Zheng Kezang, who settled accounts after the fall, ordered the Yantie Yamen Money Industry Department to formulate relevant regulations to regulate the maximum limit of deposit and loan interest in banks; he also planned to order the Ministry of Punishment to formulate laws and regulations to restrict usury carried out by banks, pawnshops, bonded banks, and private individuals. Behavior.However, the two banks, Sihai and Tonghai, lodged a complaint with Zheng Kezang through the manager of the inner court, arguing that deliberately lowering deposit and loan interest rates did not meet Zheng Kezang's requirements for promoting the further development of industry and commerce, and would instead lead to funds flowing to relatively more profitable land investments. , Killing the vitality of industry and commerce from the source.

The Southern Song Dynasty and the end of the Ming Dynasty were both times when China’s economy was extremely active. It can be said that they all touched the threshold of capitalism. One of the reasons why they did not cross this threshold in the end was that the invasion of foreign enemies interrupted the process. The profits obtained are transferred to land management, which makes the continued development lack sufficient stamina.In this regard, Zheng Kezang is naturally unwilling to repeat the same mistakes, but the words of the bank are obviously misleading. Even Zheng Kezang, who is not an economist, knows the important role of low interest rates in stimulating the economy.Therefore, the only reason for the opposition of the two quasi-central banks is nothing more than worrying that after the profit rate falls, the number of people interested in operating Qianzhuang bank accounts will decrease, and the related business of Qianzhuang bank accounts will also decrease, which in turn will affect the two quasi-central banks, Sihai and Tonghai. Expected benefits obtained in terms of reserves, etc.

It is understandable that the interest department has its own small calculations, but alarmist talk is not right, but Zheng Kezang did not directly deal with the high-level managers of the inner court manager's office and the two banks. The key lies in how the Huaxia court is profit-oriented---Huaxia does not restrain land mergers. It means that Zheng Kezang acquiesced in investing in land to obtain excess profits.

Soon, according to Zheng Kezang's order, the Agricultural Administration Office discussed the improvement of the national land tax collection level and consulted the opinions of the agricultural administration departments of all provinces, prefectures, prefectures, and counties---the amount of land tax collection in Huaxia is the amount collected in the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the actual tax pressure is very high. It is just that Huaxia does not collect additional taxes such as color, fire consumption, rat consumption and other miscellaneous taxes and apportionments other than the regular tax, so it seems Slightly lower than in the Ming and Qing dynasties—precisely because the original tax pressure was already very heavy, and the local agricultural bureaucrats agreed that they could no longer increase the burden on the people, and many local chief officials were out of concern for the country. For reasons such as worrying about the people or gaining fame and reputation, they repeatedly issued memorials requesting the court to reduce taxes appropriately. Of course, there were also officials who intended to affix Zheng Kezang. Therefore, in the first half of the 19th year of Wucheng, the Chinese government and the public were in chaos because of the issue of land taxes.

Facing the concerns of the government and the opposition, several Hanlin scholars from the Hanlin Academy, which is the secretarial institution, proposed to Zheng Kezang a proposal to implement a stepped tax rate: if the per capita cultivated land in the household registration is ten (summer) mu or less, the land tax shall be collected according to the original collection level. ; If the per capita arable land in the household is between 110 (summer) mu and 12.00 (summer) mu, the part exceeding 15.00 (summer) mu will be levied at [-]% of the original rated land tax; Between [-] (summer) mu and [-] (summer) mu, the portion exceeding [-] (summer) mu will be levied at [-]% of the original rated land tax; Between (summer) mu and [-] (summer) mu, the portion exceeding [-] (summer) mu shall be levied at [-]% of the original rated land tax; The portion exceeding [-] (summer) mu will be levied at [-]% of the original rated land tax; the land tax payable by Gongmin and Juemin will be calculated after deducting the tax-free part; in addition, the original non-self-operated land The [-]% additional levy is still implemented as usual.

According to this plan, the more acres of land an individual owns, the higher the total amount of taxes paid. However, the rate of increase is not large, so there is a certain restraint on land investment, but it will not shake Zheng Kezang's use of land mergers to achieve agricultural intensification. The original purpose of production was naturally adopted by Zheng Kezang.However, since the largest landowners in China are the royal family, clan and dignitaries, the first taxation target of the new land tax system is the Huangzhuang. Therefore, the new tax system of the Agricultural Administration Office met with great opposition from the Inner Court Manager's Office as soon as it was introduced.However, Zheng Kezang fully supported the agricultural administration yamen, and the Inner Court Manager Office, who was unable to hold back his thighs, united with some clans and dignitaries to bypass Zheng Kezang and directly put pressure on the agricultural administration yamen.

Considering that the land policy is the easiest to repeat, the Agricultural Administration Office, which had to introduce the new policy only under the pressure of Zheng Kezang, was unwilling to over-irritate the inner court and the dignitaries, lest they be liquidated and counterattacked in the future.Therefore, when the two parties hit it off, the agricultural administration office secretly issued a message to the local government, announcing that the accounting power for the calculation of the average farmland, forests, and lakes and ponds per household will be transferred from the county level to the inspection department level. With the point unchanged, the amount of land owned by large landowners in a single expropriation area is reduced, thereby reducing the total amount of land tax, so as to ensure that the interests of large landowners will not be excessively damaged.

The high-ranking Zheng Kezang didn't know that the subordinates had compromised behind his back. Maybe he knew, but he was powerless to stop the actions of interest groups, but anyway, his action of changing land income from excess profits to normal profits was still partially successful. , at least after such a toss, in the eyes of the people at the time, land management is for stability, if you want to get rich, you still have to operate industries with high risks and high rewards such as industry and commerce, maritime trade, and finance.

It’s just that whether Zheng Kezang’s fine-tuning of the economy is truly successful remains to be tested, but at the moment, the major reforms of government institutions he advocated have been unanimously opposed by the civil service group. Increases and decreases are normal things. Changes in the economic environment, the need for better troops and simpler administration, the implementation of political fertilizer distribution, etc., may all lead to changes in a country's government institutions. However, in this era, Zheng Kezang often changes The actions of the Zhangya Office can only be described as frivolous---although Zheng Kezang also set up many similar weird institutions under the framework of recruiting the General's Mansion and the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion before, they were temporary systems in the chaotic era , the two cannot be confused at all.

Since Zheng Kezang made a decision like Zheng Kezang in all dynasties, only Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty ordered widows to marry, Wanli in the Ming Dynasty insisted on collecting mining taxes, and in another time and space, Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty realized that the gentry paid food and served errands together. A few cases.Therefore, the empress Chen Xianqiao, who couldn't see it anymore, tried to persuade him several times, but Zheng Kezang, who knew that the bureaucratic group could not be tamed at all, and did not want to tame the bureaucratic group, but the power of the Gongminhui and Xiangxianhui to check and balance the bureaucratic group had not yet fully grown. I couldn't find a suitable spokesperson before I got up, so I had to continue to go shirtless.

But even if Zheng Kezang kicked out many cabinet ministers and cabinet counselors who were both positive and negative, and went overseas to take up the vassal, Li Cang, who succeeded Lin Weirong as the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, still refused to countersign Zheng Kezang's edict.Just when Zheng Kezang did not rule out using further purges to implement his policies, things turned around——Tong Chunniang, who had been lingering and sick since the 17th year of Wucheng, was critically ill. Concubine Zhao suddenly begged Zheng Kezang to treat his subjects kindly.

In order to let this caring person who accompanied him since he was a child leave without regrets, Zheng Kezang finally made some concessions to the officials and agreed not to change the court organization in the future.Fearing that Zheng Kezang would show his butcher's knife if he continued to push the bull, the civil servant group took the opportunity to take a step back, so the emperor and his courtiers finally reached a consensus on the reform of the court.

On August 19th, 27th year of Wucheng, Zheng Kezang issued an edict to reorganize the government departments of the central government. Yantie Yamen was changed to Yantie Province, Agriculture Administration was changed to Agriculture and Forestry Department, Criminal Ministry was split into Law Department and Pirates Yamen, Military Department was changed to Military Affairs Department, Academic Department was changed to Culture and Education Department, Health and Health Yamen was merged with former Criminal Department Household Affairs Department and then changed It was renamed the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Yamen of Postal Communications.

After the restructuring, each province has one official third-rank servant and two secondary third-rank servants; each yamen has one official third-rank minister and one secondary third-rank servant; provinces and yamen have Cao, and Cao has one fourth-rank official and fourth-rank official There is one foreigner; under Cao there is a department, and the department has one person in charge of the fifth grade, and one deputy head of the fifth grade; there are houses under the department, and each room has one person in charge of the sixth grade and one person in charge of the sixth grade; except for the chief officials at all levels In other provinces, Cao, Si, and Fang, there are several officials and officials under the hall.

In this way, the outer dynasty of the Huaxia Dynasty set up eight provinces including the cabinet and Duzhi, salt and iron, agriculture and forestry, law and administration, military affairs, culture and education, health and life, and postal communications, as well as two courts including the Supreme Court and the Supervisory Yuan, the Governor’s Yamen, There are four yamen, including the arrest and robber yamen, the Dushui yamen, and the construction yamen; the Huaxia Dynasty set up six courts, including the Court of Appeals, the Court of Etiquette, the Court of Tongzheng, the Court of Gezhi, the Court of Bute, and the Privy Council; The Ministry of the People's Republic of China, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the emperor's secretarial consulting institution --- Hanlin Academy.

In addition, according to the results of the restructuring of the Huaxia Center, the local administrative agencies have also made corresponding changes-the provinces set up Cao, Si, and Fang under the Dudu Xingtai; each prefecture and Zhili Prefecture set up divisions, Houses; each county has a house under the county magistrate; each local Cao has one doctor from the fourth rank, one official from the fifth rank, and one foreigner from the fifth rank; There is one person in charge of the pindu, and one person in charge of the deputy capital of the seventh rank; as for the inspection departments under the county, there are police stations in each room, and there are also officials such as the chief of the eighth rank, the chief of the eighth rank, and the master of the ninth rank.

So far, Zheng Kezang has finally made the bureaucracy of the Chinese court similar to that of his previous life. It is up to future generations to judge whether this is right or wrong.