Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 69 Tax Reform Begins

Chongzhen Zhu Youjian has been stationed in Nanjing for one month.

Time suddenly began to enter a hotter season.

However, the flames of war in the north have not yet reached the Yangtze River, and there have not even been wars in Huguang, Henan, Cangzhou, and Baoding.

Jiannu was busy moving the capital to Beijing, establishing a national name, conferring hundreds of officials, and building a political system. He still only confronted Li Zicheng's tribe on both sides of the Yellow River in Shanxi.

Daming, whose political center moved southward, was still very calm.

Although it is the hot summer season right now, due to the influence of the climate of the Little Ice River, the officials, gentlemen and civilians in Nanjing City can bear it.

and.

Since Qian Qianyi's rebellion case, there have not been many violent political struggles and major turmoil in Ming Dynasty.

Because Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian moved to the south and a large number of merchants hoarded it.

The entire city of Nanjing and even the whole of Jiangnan have already experienced inflation with soaring prices.

The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River also wanted to take advantage of this to make money for the country, and by the way control Zhu Youjian's economic lifeline. After all, the imperial court needed their support to raise troops and repair the defense system.

But Zhu Youjian was not controlled by these Jiangnan chaebols.

As the emperor, he chose to use Wei Zaode's rebellion case and Qian Qianyi's rebellion case as an opportunity to obtain a basic capital through rough house raids.

At the same time, these two major cases were also used to frighten the courage of the officials and gentry.

Even if there were no Wei Zaode and Qian Qianyi rebellion cases, Zhu Youjian would have created one or two cases.

Through massacres and family raids after the big case was made, the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River first deeply realized that the emperor Zhu Youjian was not as strong as he thought.

Then, Zhu Youjian publicly announced to the cabinet and the six ministries and seven ministers that he would change the tax policy in the form of a new policy at the opening meeting. is withdrawn.

In this way, the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River will naturally be filled with resentment, but because of Zhu Youjian's thunderous methods before, they dare not rebel against the majesty of the king.

Therefore, when Zhu Youjian threw out the decree of tax exemption for one year.

The Jiangnan gentry who dared not resist Zhu Youjian's New Deal but wanted to keep their best interests had to give up the previous means of raising prices in the market to make profits and control the court.

Now they can only increase production and lower prices.

As a result, Zhu Youjian successfully mobilized the entire south of the Yangtze River to desperately produce strategic materials for the upcoming war without using a single soldier.

The gentry in the south of the Yangtze River also unknowingly followed the baton in the hand of Emperor Zhu Youjian.

Quietly, it was not the Jiangnan gentry who controlled the emperor Zhu Youjian, but Zhu Youjian controlled the Jiangnan gentry.

In the whole of Jiangnan, there was no turmoil due to the continuous rise in prices, which made the people at the bottom unable to survive.

Zhu Youjian's skillful use of policies prevented major civil unrest in Jiangnan because of his brutal methods against Qian Qianyi's rebellion case and forced taxation.

For Zhu Youjian, it has to be said that it was a victory without seeing the beacon.

At least he has gained a firm foothold in Jiangnan, which is controlled by the Donglin Party.

The war outside is not yet imminent.

The overall situation in Ming Dynasty is in a stable state. For Zhu Youjian, it is the best time to continue the New Deal reform and accumulate strength.

Although it is tax-free for one year.

However, tax reform has not slowed down and is still ongoing.

Zhu Youjian convened the cabinet ministers and household officials on the second day after the end of the court meeting to discuss the details of the specific tax reform.

Zhang Shenyan, a scholar of the cabinet, was changed from Nanjing Hubu Shangshu to Hubu Shangshu.

However, Zhu Youjian considered that he did not support taxation reform, a typical radical of the Donglin Party, and refused to compromise at all.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian changed him to Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and it was a title, regardless of the Ministry of Rites.

Liu Zongzhou, Minister of the Ministry of Rites, is a famous minister of Neo Confucianism who manages the Ministry of Rites.

Although the Six Ministries of the Ming Dynasty and the Metropolitan Procuratorate only have one minister and two ministers in charge of the affairs of the Ministry, there are also many cabinet scholars and foreign governors who have the addition of ministers or ministers of the various ministries and the capital censor or deputy capital censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. The former is naturally the actual power holder of each ministry, while the latter is naturally just raising the rank.

Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian transferred Zhang Shenyan from the powerful household department to teach Zhang Shenyan a lesson.

After all, as the emperor, he is now no better than when he came to Nanjing. In order to take care of the Jiangnan Donglin Party, he had to let a high-ranking Nanjing official like him into the cabinet.

Now, Zhu Youjian is only waiting for the officials below to find an opportunity to participate in impeachment, and he will naturally be removed from the cabinet.

Fan Jingwen, the chief assistant of the cabinet, the great scholar of Jianji Temple, took over the position of Minister of the Ministry of household affairs.

Zhu Youjian asked Fan Jingwen to take over the real power of the household department as the chief assistant, in order to show that he, the emperor, attached great importance to taxation reform.

In this way, Zhu Youjian formed a team of Fan Jingwen, Dang Chongya, the left servant of the household department, and Qi Biaojia, the right servant of the household department, to coordinate and arrange the tax reform. The government is more active in taxation reform, so Zhu Youjian also participated in these three cabinet scholars.

Only Li Banghua and Gao Hongtu did not participate.

The former is to govern the military affairs of Fengyang and Henan, while the latter is a mediocre person with moral character but no talent. Zhu Youjian did not intend to reuse him. .

After several days of discussion, Zhu Youjian finally decided to approve the implementation of Fan Jingwen's "New Policy on Tax Collection" in the 17th year of Chongzhen.

The specific implementation of this new policy is to divide the taxation of Ming Dynasty into four categories: agricultural tax, commercial tax, customs duty, and personal income tax.

The left servant of the household department is directly responsible for the collection of taxes, while the right servant of the household department is responsible for various tax expenditures. The Langzhong and Yuanwailang of the provincial official cleansing departments under the household department add this, so that the four types of taxes are available in the provincial official cleansing departments. A dedicated doctor and Yuanwailang are in charge.

Both Ma Shiying and Lu Zhenfei had served as local officials and were familiar with local government affairs. They knew how much the above four types of taxes should be collected, not too little or too much, so that the common people could not afford it.

The families of Dang Chongya and Qi Biaojia are rich local businessmen, so they naturally know how to collect business taxes and customs duties more reasonably.

Fan Jingwen has always loved the people, so naturally he would not set too high a farm tax collection amount for Zhu Youjian's new tax policy.

Once the tax reform is confirmed, it is the next implementation issue.

The cabinet issued detailed reform proposals, and Zhu Youjian approved them from the Secretary of Rites and Superintendents. After Zhu Youjian approved them, they were transferred from the Secretary of General Administration to the cabinet and sent to the Ministry of Finance. .

The Ministry of Household Affairs issues ministerial orders to the governors of each province. It should have directly issued the political secretary, but now it is normal for the governor to take charge of the local government affairs of each province, so the governor is in charge, and then the governor appoints a chief envoy official of the chief secretary to directly Responsible for provincial tax collection.

Among them, the key areas of tax reform are naturally the South Zhili and Huaiyang regions, which account for half of the world's wealth.

Zhu Youjian directly transferred Lu Zhenfei from the governor of Yingtian to the governor of Nanzhili, responsible for tax collection in rich areas such as Yingtian, Suzhou, Songjiang, and Fengyang.

As a participant in this reform, Lu Zhenfei naturally spared no effort to promote the tax reform in the Southern Zhili area.

The governor of Huaiyang is Zhu Youjian's hard-core confidant Li Mingrui, so he naturally spared no effort to promote it in Huai'an and Yangzhou.

With Li Banghua in Henan, there is no need to worry about obstacles.

However, Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi are close to Nanzhili, and very close to the emperor Zhu Youjian, so they dare not make mistakes.

The commerce and trade in Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, and Yunnan and Guizhou were not as good as those in southern Zhili and western Fujian and Zhejiang. Even if the reform implementation process was slow, it would not affect the collection of taxes by the court.

　Thank you for the reward of 100 book coins from book friend Liu Huo Canglong, officially promoted to deacon, and the highest fan of this book has also become a deacon, and thank you to book friend Mu Shou Tianxia for the 100 book coin reward.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)