My father is Jiajing

Chapter 201: Corrupt Officials’ Ability to Do Things

To be serious, Yan Maoqing is a person who, apart from his character, is really capable of getting things done.

Unfortunately, this man was greedy and met Yan Shifan, a very smart master who thought he could fool everyone. His tragedy was naturally doomed.

Of course, he is still prosperous and proud now, after all, he is the prime minister in charge of the salt administration.

Although the Ming Dynasty is now in financial difficulty, its population growth rate is far faster than that of previous dynasties.

Two hundred years have passed since the founding of the country, and there have been very few major disturbances and disasters in the two capitals and thirteen provinces in the core Han area.

Although these lower-class people lived like zombies under the oppression of such a feudal dynasty, at least they were still alive, and those who were lucky could change their fate through the efforts of three or four generations.

So under such circumstances, from the entire Ming Dynasty to the period of Emperor Jiajing, the registered population of the whole country plus the hidden population was at least close to 200 million.

At first glance, this number of 200 million may not seem too large in later generations, after all, there are countries with populations of over one billion. However, in today's world, these 200 million people may account for one-third or one-half of the world's population.

It is precisely because of such a large population and territorial size that anyone who can do some monopoly work on this land will definitely reap staggering profits!
However, even in such an environment, the salt tax in the Ming Dynasty became a difficult problem. The salt tax that could be collected throughout the year was only 600,000 taels.

Moreover, the salt tax of 600,000 taels was collected as the harvest progressed, as if it had been contracted out. It was only 600,000 taels per year, and it would be the same for anyone who came.

You can imagine how big the trick is here.

But Yan Maoqing is a talented person.

According to the record in "Ming History·Yan Maoqing": "The surplus salt in Lianghuai was taxed 600,000 taels of silver per year, and during Maoqing's reign, it was increased to 1 million taels. After Maoqing left, the salt inspector Xu Yu spoke out against the harm, and the tax was restored to the old 600,000 taels."

It can be seen from this that the salt tax of 600,000 taels is not the real level of the salt tax in the Ming Dynasty. If there is someone who is capable and dares to do things, it can at least increase it by 80% on the original basis!

But unfortunately, the salt tax involved too many interests, so it was simply a pipe dream to collect all the salt tax and rely on the administrative efficiency, management methods and people's hearts of the feudal era.

So now that Yan Shifan boasted in front of Emperor Jiajing that Yan Maoqing could double the salt tax to one million, Emperor Jiajing certainly had no reason to refuse.

When the money is collected, it will be a real deposit into the national treasury. If it goes wrong and causes public outrage, the worst that can happen is that Yan Maoqing will be executed to appease the public anger and that will be the end of the matter.

So no matter how you look at this matter, Emperor Jiajing felt that he had not suffered any loss.

As long as Yan Maoqing, whom Yan Shifan is employing, can really get money, what's wrong with showing him some mercy?
Just when Yan Maoqing was feeling proud of having been appointed as the head of the salt administration of the four salt transport offices of Liangzhe, Lianghuai, Changlu and Hedong on the recommendation of Yan Shifan, Zhu Zaigui was also not idle.

Ever since Huang Jin started working diligently at Prince Yu's Mansion, Zhu Zaigui felt like he was just going to work. Every time Huang Jin came to talk, he would bring one or two questions and tasks, and ask Zhu Zaigui to write down his own insights and thoughts, as well as ideas and methods for solving the problems.

Zhu Zaigui also knew that this was most likely the idea of ​​Emperor Jiajing, but he could not refuse or shirk his responsibility.

After all, Zhu Zaigui now has a "handle" in the hands of Emperor Jiajing, so Zhu Zaigui can be passively involved in these issues that should have been discussed and considered within the court.

The problem Huang Jin brought up this time was the Beijing expansion project which had been much discussed recently but had not yet been finalized.

As Zhu Zaigui listened to Huang Jin's talk about the capital's expansion plan, he vaguely remembered something.

It seems that in the original historical process, the reason why Emperor Jiajing was determined to build the outer city of the capital was not because he really considered that the increasingly crowded capital needed a larger urban area to meet daily living needs, but because the stimulation of Altan's invasion made him feel that the capital must have another circle of outer cities to make it safer.

However, due to financial difficulties, the outer city of the capital, which was originally planned to be built in the shape of a "U". In the end, only the southern wall could be built, and there was no money to continue the construction. Then this southern wall was connected to the wall of the inner city, creating a "convex" shape for the capital, which looked very different.

This ugly "凸"-shaped capital city was not demolished until hundreds of years later, when the Qing Dynasty fell and the Republic of China ended, at the suggestion of Guo. But at that time, even the ugly "凸"-shaped ancient city wall had a profound historical heritage, which was simply incomparable to the later reinforced concrete buildings that had no aesthetic appeal or characteristics.

Therefore, the fate of this capital city, which prospered during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, is really unfortunate.

Now that Huang Jin came with the issue of expanding the capital, Zhu Zaigui had to rack his brains to think about how to build this soon-to-be-expanded capital into a world-class city that is majestic and culturally rich!
You must know that in the future development of science and technology, the invention and emergence of various means of transportation will cause urban reconstruction problems again and again.

Many cities have encountered various difficult urban problems later due to short-sighted planning in their initial construction.

Therefore, if we want the capital to keep pace with the times, in addition to leaving room for current planning and construction, we must also leave huge room for development in the future.

Otherwise, in the future, when technology and transportation have developed to a certain level, the population density will reach an unimaginable level.

Cities and roads that were once thought to be spacious and livable now appear cramped and messy, becoming urban villages with numerous problems.

Therefore, in Zhu Zaigui's consideration, the future expansion plan of the capital must be advanced to a certain extent to leave enough space for future transportation and cultural development.

The capital will always maintain this special cultural charm unique to oriental architecture. Even after a thousand years, it will still not be out of date, and people walking in the alleys of this ancient city will still feel the unique historical heritage of this ancient capital!

Only in this way can Zhu Zaigui feel that he has lived up to the future and his original intention.

Otherwise, a giant "village in the city" would be built, which would look okay now but would be extremely congested in the future. This would be absolutely unforgivable for Zhu Zaigui.

So after thinking for a long time, Zhu Zaigui said to Huang Jin: "Eunuch, the expansion of the outer city of the capital is a great achievement that will last for thousands of years. It is directly related to how future generations will evaluate the deeds of our generation. Therefore, for the sake of your majesty's eternal reputation, this cannot be sloppy at all. I have to think carefully about the rules and logic involved before I can answer this question."

(End of this chapter)