Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 394

Yu Zhining quickly understood the meaning of Li Shimin's sudden running out to sideline the fight, the eldest Sun Shunde felt relieved, and Sun Xiangfu secretly praised Li Shimin's superb management methods.

Giving those corrupt officials a chance to make up for the shortfall will not only not affect the reform, but also recover a large amount of money embezzled by them. Those who have filled up the money from the money can still be saved.

As for those diehards, since they didn't even give the emperor face, Li Shimin didn't have any psychological burden for convicting them and ransacking their homes, and it was hard for other ministers to come out and say anything.

However, this was just an appetizer for the early morning court. Changsun Shunde was a so-so man in war, and he was just a fool who was exploited every minute when he played politics in the officialdom.

After the silence in the main hall, an official came out to play immediately, and it was Zhang Shuo, the right servant of the Ministry of Officials.

"Your Majesty, all the ministries of the imperial court have a very large demand for manpower. If all the officials are recruited according to the needs, the number of officials may be two or three times more than the original. Even though our official department is currently only responsible for evaluating and training officials, There is also a large shortage of manpower.

If things go on like this, in the first one or two years, it is not bad for the imperial court to provide these people with the treatment of interns. If these people become full-time officials in the future, then the imperial court will at least increase the expenditure on official salaries by two or three times. , I am afraid that the imperial court's finances and taxes cannot afford it.

Therefore, the minister suggested that it is better for the local officials to assume all the functions and powers of the local officials concurrently. In this way, the court expenditure can be greatly reduced, and the officials will not be too idle in the local area. "

Zhang said this, clearly for the consideration of the court, but in fact, it represented those local officials who were unwilling to delegate power, and expressed their wishes to Li Shimin tactfully.

At the same time, it also denied Xiao Yu and Sun Xiangfu's new imperial examination system to recruit scholars on a large scale according to the needs of the court. In this way, Li Shimin's reform this time is just a small-scale play in Chang'an or Guanzhong, which is not worthy of the name.

Zhang said that he was already the third-in-command in the Ministry of Officials, and when he came out to speak, he basically represented the attitude of the Ministry of Officials. In a department in charge of officials, generally speaking, the more officials there are, the greater their authority is. It's a good thing, but they jumped out to oppose the increase of officials by the court, which is surprising.

Li Shimin looked at Wen Yanbo, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, who was also somewhat puzzled, and asked again, "What do you think?"

In fact, Li Shimin also has an account in his heart. After Guanzhong implemented the reform of official salaries, although a large amount of land was taken back for the court, hundreds of thousands of self-cultivating farmers who directly paid taxes were added, and the tax revenue increased, but the expenditure was also greater than before. Some.

Just for officials' salaries, the treasury has to withdraw more than 40 guan in cash every month. If the whole country changes, then this expenditure will at least triple, which is about 500 million guan. The salary expenditure of officials will reach about 1000 million guan. If the expenses of all local government officials, handymen, and office expenses are included, it will be at least [-] million guan.

In the past, the imperial court directly used the output of the field to distribute about 300% of the salaries to the officials. The salaries of the officials and miscellaneous servants were borne by the officials themselves, and there was very little cash to pay. How much surplus can there be after the reform, in fact, Guanzhong is used as the basis to calculate, and you can roughly know the situation in the whole country.

According to the data reported to him by Changsun Wuji, from the beginning of the year to October in Guanzhong, the total tax revenue was 370 million guan, which is a little over 400 million guan. There is still a surplus of about 100 million guan.

But other places outside of Guanzhong may not be able to do it. Although they are not like Guanzhong, they need to bear the big expenditure of the central court officials' salaries, but their tax output is also much less, because Guanzhong is planted in two seasons this year. Some of them are cash crops grown with new agricultural technology, and the development of commerce is unparalleled in other places.

That is to say, even if the situation is relatively good and there are no natural disasters, the total tax revenue of the country will not be much higher than before after bearing the expenditures of the official salary reform. Two to three times, then the expenditure on salary alone will increase by at least several million guan every year, even if all the tax balance of the court is spent, it may not be enough.

But what if there is a natural disaster?What if there is a foreign war?
Li Shimin had to consider these issues, so even though he knew that Zhang said he was obstructing the reform, he had to ask the ministers for advice in a friendly manner.

Regarding such a more realistic problem, even wise men like Fang Xuanling, Changsun Wuji, and Xiao Yu were helpless. However, when Zhang Shuo was about to force the emperor to make a decision, the gazes of several top bosses all turned to After seeing Sun Xiangfu, they felt that since Sun Xiangfu proposed the reform of the official salary system and the reform of the imperial examination system, then he must have a solution.

"Zhengming, do you have anything to say?"

"Uh, that, it seems, it should, right!"

Sun Xiangfu, who originally wanted to see how many people jumped out to do things, was embarrassed to pretend to be an ostrich when asked by Fang Xuanling, and said, "Your Majesty, the imperial court recruited a large number of scholars according to the demand, because To expand output, increase income, and bring local politics and people's livelihood management to a higher level, as Zhang Shilang said, the number of officials in the imperial court will increase by two or three times, and expenditures will increase by two or three times. Agree."

Aren't you talking about money, brother, I'm here to tell you about money.

Hearing Sun Xiangfu's words, Li Shimin was overjoyed and said, "Please explain in detail what Sun Qing has to say."

After receiving the title of "Qing" from Li Shimin and the permission to speak, Sun Xiangfu said, "It will take two or three years for the people recruited by the imperial court to gradually become court officials. , are also middle and low-level officials, even if 5000 people are recruited and 3000 people become regulars, the annual salary expenditure is only about 500 million yuan."

According to the official salary reform system, the monthly salary of the county magistrate of the seventh rank is 160 guan, and the middle and lower counties are reduced by [-] guan. When it comes to ordinary seventh-rank officials, it is only [-] guan. Small officials of the eighth and ninth ranks do not even have a hundred guan, because there are basically no officials in charge of the eighth and ninth ranks.

Not to mention that these 3000 people will be able to become seventh-rank officials in two or three years, even half of them will not be there. Even if there are, half of them will be more than 100 chief officials. That's all. For the rest of the people, they are all based on more than 100 guan, and the total sum will not exceed 40 guan, which is more than 400 million guan in a year. Sun Xiangfu said 500 million guan, which is already about [-]% more. I'm not a fool, I calculated silently in my heart, and then I didn't dare to speak out again.

Because they don't dare to think as much as Sun Xiangfu. There are a total of more than 8000 people in the imperial examination, and you just take 5000 people?Isn't this child's play?

Therefore, they only counted around 1000 people, and the conclusion they came to was that even if all of these winners became officials, and all of them were chief political officials of the seventh rank or above, 500 million guan would be more than enough.

"It's only 500 million guan? Dudu Sun, you can say it lightly. The current annual tax surplus of the imperial court is only about 300 million guan." Zhang said that he caught an opportunity and immediately interjected.

However, Sun Xiangfu didn't take it seriously, and said with a smile, "The governor doesn't use 'mere' to describe 500 million guan, because he is afraid that the ministers in the court are old, have a bad heart, and are prone to accidents. Zhang Shilang should not use the current tax It is not a concept to calculate the expenditure in two or three years from now.”

When Sun Xiangfu said this, Li Shimin immediately understood that Datang's tax revenue is increasing every year. After two or three years, it may not be able to afford the 500 million expenses. Since this matter has something to do, He couldn't let those who obstructed the reform show up, and pressed Zhang Shuo with his palm, "Zhang Shilang, please go back to work and wait a while, let Sun Qing finish talking before asking."

After being silenced by Li Shimin, Zhang said he didn't dare to show his displeasure. After bowing his hands and saluting, he retreated to the middle of the class, leaving the middle performance position to Sun Xiangfu to perform alone.

"Your Majesty, the expenses that I have just calculated are roughly calculated according to the reform of the official salary system. That is to say, even if the imperial court really expands the number of officials by two or three times, and all the 3000 people selected become full-time officials, the expenses It will only increase by 500 million guan.

In fact, by comparing the taxation in Guanzhong with the past, it can be roughly calculated that after the overall reform of the official salary in the Tang Dynasty, the total taxation and total expenditure of the imperial court for one year.For this data, I ask the eldest grandson Shangshu to make it public first, so that there is a basis for it. "

"Of course, the auxiliary machine will come out and tell the ministers!"

Li Shimin nodded his approval, and Changsun Wuji went out to talk, "Your Majesty, before the official salary system was reformed in the second year of Guanzhong Zhenguan, more than 70% of the salary of officials was produced from the land. When everything is converted into money, there will be a balance of about [-] guan, accounting for a little more than [-]% of the national tax balance.

In February of the third year of Zhenguan in Guanzhong, the reform of the official salary system was fully implemented. As of October, the total tax revenue was 370 million yuan, excluding the annual salary of Guanzhong officials, the salaries of local officials and handymen, and the supply of the palace. There should be no problem with the balance of 100 million Guan, which is expected to account for about [-]% of the country's total tax revenue. "

What's happening here?It is just a reform of the official salary system, which can actually increase Guanzhong's fiscal and tax balance by 30%, but the balance is obviously [-] yuan more. How did it change from accounting for more than [-]% of the national tax balance to about [-]%?
Calculated according to the output of Guanzhong, in fact, the total tax revenue accounts for more than half of the whole country, because Li Tang almost put most of his energy in governing Guanzhong. However, the output of Guanzhong needs to support the ministers of the court. As well as the royal family, this is Li Tang's biggest expenditure item apart from the national war, so that the balance in the Guanzhong region does not account for a large share of the national tax balance. be compared.

The amount of information contained in the data that Changsun Wuji said is too large. Officials who are not stupid have already thought of many points. The increase in volume and output is huge, the increase in grain output in the south of the Yangtze River is huge, and so on. As a result, the country's tax revenue must have a large increase compared to last year, but no one doubts the data he reported.

Of course, after thinking of these points, all the ministers were a little bit tongue-tied. The balance of 100 million guan only accounts for about 600% of the total tax balance of the country. Does that mean that the total tax balance of the court this year will reach more than [-] million guan? , more than double that of last year?
Thinking about the data of last year, it was only created in the year of the catastrophe. It seems that doubling the data is not so unacceptable.

(End of this chapter)