The world of film and television begins with the God of Medicine.

Chapter 1563 Jiajing
Wang Yan was appointed as the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, in charge of the affairs of the Ministry of Revenue, not to be asked to do accounting in a routine manner.

It's about making money.

To make money, one needs to take large-scale actions, which will inevitably affect the interests of others, and thus, reform naturally follows.

Reform is a long-term process; it doesn't appear suddenly. It's been ongoing throughout history, a continuous process of change and reform. But every momentous era has a beginning, like Sarajevo to World War I, or Luigi XVI's head to the French Revolution.

If the great transformation of the Ming Dynasty were to be unearthed from old documents, and historians were to draw a clear line for this reform, it would certainly begin with Wang Yan's promotion to Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, in charge of the Ministry's affairs.

The winds of reform have been blowing for a long time. The prominent problems of the Ming Dynasty are visible to all insightful people, and some are indeed seeking solutions. However, many more people disregard the overall situation and continue to frantically seek personal gain.

This reform began with the various questions raised and solutions sought by insightful people in the Ming Dynasty over the past few decades, and reached a major turning point when Wang Yan used money to secure the position of Registrar of Chun'an.

This turning point also connects to the conversion of rice paddies to mulberry fields, indicating the financial predicament of the Ming Dynasty at the time, and further connects to the major political event of the downfall of Yan Xishan, indicating the political ecology at the time and highlighting the bloody political struggles hidden in just a few lines of historical text.

Wang Yan then brought the Chun'an model to Daxing, and subsequently spread it throughout Shuntian Prefecture, remarkably striking at the heart of the Ming Dynasty. This move ushered in a transitional phase from an agrarian society to an industrial society, resulting in a significant increase in productivity, a thriving market economy, and the emergence of the first clearly defined capitalist class on the historical stage.

He also spearheaded the construction of the Ming Dynasty's navy and quelled the Japanese pirates. Although there were still some scattered sea bandits, who were true pirates and people who lived on the edge of death, they were practically non-existent in the overall situation.

After all, those who are insignificant can't cause much trouble, and it's difficult to capture them even with a large army on the vast ocean. But those who have become powerful can be easily scattered by a naval offensive, and the captured leaders are killed as a sacrifice to the Dragon King of the Sea to ensure peace on the coast.

At the same time, and most importantly, it suppressed the rising power of the wealthy families in the southeast, preventing them from causing chaos in the southeast and alienating the central government, thus preventing the central government's power from reaching the southeast.

They reopened the Maritime Trade Office and lifted the maritime ban, conducting maritime trade in a standardized and large-scale manner, and actively joined the great development of the ocean and the discovery of new continents.

In addition, the renewed promotion of paper money revitalized the Ming Dynasty's economy, boosted the market, reduced the burden on the people, greatly alleviated the conflicts in the Ming Dynasty, and promoted the overall development of the Ming Dynasty.

All of these factors have already sparked a major transformation in the Ming Dynasty, but ultimately the policies of the emperor's will have not been fully implemented throughout the entire Ming Dynasty. Although there was a great deal of momentum, it was never fully rolled out.

Now that Wang Yan has reached the pinnacle of power, in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, he is about to unleash a major transformation across the entire Ming Dynasty...

After assuming power, Wang Yan quickly got to work. His first task was to establish a special statistics office within the Ministry of Revenue, expand its staff, and begin compiling various data on the regions under the actual control of the Ming Dynasty. They also made extensive use of data from the Royal Bank. However, the Royal Office mainly compiled economic data, while the Ministry of Revenue compiled comprehensive data on productivity, means of production, and various assets.

Therefore, in order to facilitate the statistics, the anticipated campaign to clear land and check population throughout the entire Ming Dynasty was initiated. At the same time, Wang Yan also had his subordinates draft a very formal document to discuss the re-establishment of the tax law, officially classify the cleaning fee as a commercial tax, and propose to re-evaluate the commercial tax and redefine the commodity catalog, among other things.

The Cabinet convened an expanded meeting to address this matter, with the top two officials from the Cabinet, the Directorate of Ceremonial, and the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers all in attendance. After a day of discussion, the Cabinet voted to approve the proposal, and the Directorate of Ceremonial immediately issued a formal approval, fully approving Wang Yan's suggestion and commencing the nationwide land clearing and inspection operation.

This is not a simple count check. It is like the Shuntian Prefecture and Jiliao region. If the count is found, taxes must be paid, household servants must be registered, resistance to investigation will be punished, and too many connections with too bad influence will result in the cancellation of the household registration.

This is only the investigation stage; taxes haven't been collected yet.

The main focus this time is the revision of the tax law, which is fundamental to the dynasty. This includes land tax, population tax, corvée labor tax, city gate tax, cattle, sheep and horse tax, and even taxes on firewood gathering in the mountains, as well as commercial taxes. These are the subcategories of the tax law.

The most important of these were naturally the land tax, the poll tax, the corvée labor tax, and other miscellaneous taxes. Wang Yan proposed to abolish some of the miscellaneous taxes and the corvée labor tax, and to simply merge the poll tax into the land tax, paying taxes according to the amount of land.

At the same time, to ensure the greatest possible fairness and justice, a balance must be struck between those who own land and those who do not own land but have jobs. After all, farmers and workers are the two largest groups, and their incomes should not be unequal. It is foreseeable that with the development of the Ming Dynasty, workers will certainly earn more and more, and preparations must be made in advance.

On the other hand, it is necessary to re-plan the tax exemption policy for scholars, including officials. After all, the overall tax rate has been reduced, and the cost of studying is also decreasing. Preferential treatment is one thing, but there must be limits.

In addition, there were a series of tax laws targeting the powerful and wealthy, such as property tax, inheritance tax, and many additional taxes on high-end products. There were even laws targeting nobles and royalty, specifying how much silver they would have to spend to inherit a title. This wasn't rejected, but it didn't pass either, and Wang Yan received a lot of criticism.

Even more criticism came from Wang Yan's proposal to drastically reduce expenditures on the imperial clan and restrict the descendants of the Zhu family. This was a considerable expense; the annual cost of supporting the imperial clan exceeded even the spending of the Jiajing Emperor. This money, if converted, would significantly improve the Ming Dynasty's financial situation.

Given this situation, it would be strange if he didn't get scolded. It's only because Wang Yan has such outstanding military achievements and a far-reaching reputation that he's not being targeted; otherwise, several members of the imperial clan might have come to kill him. They're just sobering up now, fearing their property will be confiscated and they'll be exiled to the Northeast or the grasslands to work until they die. They'll just get a few words of criticism.

The imperial clan is also a complex group; some are extremely wealthy and don't care about this small amount of money. Furthermore, they must have already been dealt with by Wang Yan in previous campaigns such as clearing fields, investigating old cases, and collecting "cleaning fees," so they are indifferent to it.

On the contrary, those members of the royal family who weren't doing well were actually living off this money. It's just that there were quite a few of them; after all, not everyone who's a member of the royal family becomes incredibly wealthy, or everyone who's a member of the royal family achieves great things.

Add to that the various forms of corruption in between, with this person taking more than their share and that person embezzling more than their share, and with so many members of the imperial family, a huge sum of money just went out of pocket like that...

Therefore, their opposition was very strong; before the issue of whether or not it would pass was even discussed, they had already started making a scene.

Jiajing was indifferent to this matter; he barely paid attention even to his own son, let alone his relatives. However, he was impatient with their commotion and disliked their confrontational behavior.

Xu Jie and his group were simply malicious. When Wang Yan submitted the memorial, Xu Jie and his group passed it unanimously. They also unanimously stated that since it was Wang Yan who proposed it, Wang Yan should take charge of the matter.

After communication, the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs approved the request, and the matter fell to Wang Yan...

Wang Yan did not resist this, except that he scolded Xu Jie again during the meeting, and then steadily took action against the imperial clan.

If they wouldn't give them money, then of course they had to be given a way to make money. Wang Yan didn't care about all that; he convened another expanded meeting, and after a period of deliberation, decided to allow members of the imperial clan to engage in business, take the imperial examinations, and serve in the military—opening a floodgate for them to develop on their own. As for those who refused to cooperate and continued to cause trouble, well, sorry, the North would welcome them…

In three years, the entire Ming Dynasty completed a comprehensive land survey and population census, resulting in a direct increase of over 30% in both land and population. The newly revised tax laws were also implemented throughout the country, ensuring the smooth operation of the Ming Dynasty and unleashing tremendous vitality once again.

The main reason, of course, is that it has reduced the burden on all the people of the Ming Dynasty, giving them more possibilities, and naturally, things have started to operate in a positive direction.

During this period, besides doing these things, Wang Yan actually published a book summarizing his principles of governance and military administration, mainly emphasizing the importance of the circulation of wealth. He also encouraged people to innovate, invent, and research new things.

His examples were simple: crops like potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn, after so much research and cultivation, have seen their yields rise to just above those of native crops. New yield records are being set every year, and even the Jiajing Emperor was very concerned. Every year at harvest time, he would inquire about their progress.

In addition, there were many novel things that emerged in the Ming Dynasty over the past decade. At the same time, some opinions were put forward on other ideas, which led to academic debates.

Therefore, he finally petitioned the emperor to establish a newspaper on the current affairs of the Ming Dynasty, in which he would engage in debates with various great Confucian scholars from all over the country, further promoting the collision and development of ideas.

During this period, Hu Zongxian, who succeeded Wang Yan as governor of Jiliao, took charge of the war and managed Liaodong, continued to cooperate well with Qi Jiguang and made steady progress. They not only crushed the Tatar regime, but also drove away the Oirat Mongols. The grasslands and the northern deserts were all at peace.

The chieftains of the southwest were also given a good beating, and they obediently followed the orders of the Ming Dynasty, accepting the dispatch of more officials and obeying their commands. Disobedience meant certain death.

Japan has remained completely silent, not even deploying its navy yet, and has already suffered greatly at the hands of Ming Dynasty merchants over the years.

It appears that Wanli's three major campaigns have been resolved...

However, the young Wanli Emperor, who was already grown up, did not understand these things.

"Minister Wang, Your Majesty..."

Wang Yan waved his hand, interrupting the seemingly anxious young Wanli: "Your Highness, Your Highness, I am truly powerless. I have already looked at it, and it will be the same no matter how I look at it again."

"Then prescribe some more medicine to make Father Emperor more comfortable." Prince Yu sighed, showing his filial piety.

Wang Yan glanced around at the ministers who were waiting for Jiajing to breathe his last, cupped his hands in greeting, and rose to follow Prince Yu into the main hall of the Wanshou Palace.

On the platform in the hall, Jiajing leaned against the wall, while Lü Fang fiddled with a towel and Huang Jin wiped away her tears and fanned him.

"What? Are you here to see if I've breathed my last? Can't wait to become emperor?" Jiajing looked at his son with a smile.

Prince Yu and the young Wanli Emperor immediately knelt down and kowtowed. Before they could speak, Wang Yan said, "Your Majesty, it was Prince Yu who asked me to come and examine Your Majesty again and prescribe some medicine to make you feel better."

"No need. I know my own body best. It's already exhausted and beyond saving."

Jiajing looked at Wang Yan and slowly said, "The mighty Yangtze River flows eastward, its waves washing away heroes. Right and wrong, success and failure, all turn to nothing. The green mountains remain, witnessing countless sunsets... So many things, past and present, are now just tales told with a smile."

Yang Shen was indeed talented; this poem is well-written.

"Your Majesty is a wise and sagacious ruler who has quelled the Japanese pirates, destroyed the Tatars, driven out the Oirats, reduced the burden on the people, and brought peace and prosperity to the people. The wealth of our Great Ming Dynasty is unprecedented in history. Your Majesty's civil and military achievements are unparalleled throughout the ages. You are truly a great ruler."

"Are you going to propose a posthumous title for me?" Jiajing glanced at Wang Yan.

"Your Majesty knows me best; I am speaking the truth." Wang Yan bowed, his face full of loyalty.

While Wang Yan did everything himself, and his role in those events was indeed irreplaceable, the importance of Emperor Jiajing was also considerable. Without Jiajing's support, many things wouldn't have gone so smoothly.

Historically, Emperor Jiajing was a scheming, factional, alchemical, and extravagant emperor. While not necessarily incompetent, his overall reputation is predominantly negative.

However, the Jiajing Emperor was different now. During his reign, the Ming Dynasty achieved a historic turning point. Domestically, he implemented various reforms, suppressed powerful families, and readjusted and balanced the distribution structure, which greatly improved productivity. Externally, he defeated the Japanese pirates and the Tatars who occupied the grasslands. He gradually began to govern the Northeast and further govern the various chieftains in the Southwest, also gradually achieving effective governance.

Popular thought surged, influential progressive ideas were constantly put forward, people's lives began to improve, the economy prospered, the Age of Exploration began, the national treasury was full, the national strength was strong, and the country was prosperous, truly reaching the point where the sun rises in the east and we are invincible.

Emperor Jiajing was accomplished in both civil and military affairs, and in terms of various achievements, he would definitely rank among the top emperors in history. Even his extravagant construction projects were seen as positive actions because he paid the people for their labor instead of conscripting them.

Where can I go to seek justice?

Jiajing waved his hand weakly: "You've suffered these years, and I haven't let you down. Go out, everyone, and let me talk to my son and grandson."

Wang Yan knelt down and kowtowed three times, then turned and walked out.

Outside the Wanshou Palace, the wind was strong, and it was snowing...

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