My father is Jiajing

Chapter 516 I'm going to retreat

After Hai Rui finished speaking, a faint smile appeared on the corner of Emperor Jiajing's mouth.

Emperor Jiajing threw off his Taoist robe with the golden pattern of the Tao Te Ching, and said without raising his head: "Okay, let's not say these high-sounding words here. This is not a grand court meeting in the Huangji Hall, so we don't need some high-sounding reasons."

"We are discussing specific feasible national policies in front of me. I don't need you to preach any great principles. I just want to ask you how much money you can earn after building this toll road? Will there be any losses?"

After Emperor Jiajing said this, Hai Rui was in trouble.

Strictly speaking, this was his second time attending such a meeting in front of the emperor with only a few people in attendance, so he was not very familiar with the deliberation method used by Emperor Jiajing in such meetings.

So when speaking, Hai Rui tried his best to make his words clear and understandable.

Who would have thought that Emperor Jiajing would not play by the rules and directly ask how much silver he could collect after the road was completed and whether he would have to pay compensation.

Hai Rui looked up at Emperor Jiajing in astonishment, then looked at the expressions of the other people in the hall who had no reaction. He took a deep breath and tried to adjust his state of mind.

Hai Rui bowed and said, "Your Majesty, the court cannot be like merchants who only care about profits. Please take back what you just said."

When Hai Rui said this, the others who had originally shown no expression could not help but turn their gazes to Hai Rui.

At the same time, Emperor Jiajing, who was sitting on the throne, also laughed.

Emperor Jiajing said: "The court cannot be like merchants who only care about profits, but I cannot. I have to be responsible to the people of the world. If this road cannot generate income, then the more roads are built in the future, the greater the burden on the court will be."

"If this burden is unsustainable and the court still wants to insist on the convenience of these hardened roads, then the burden will be passed on to ordinary people."

"At that time, if you tell me not to talk about profit again, then will you be a saint or a sinner?"

When Hai Rui heard what Emperor Jiajing said, he could not help but feel overwhelmed by his aura. He immediately knelt on the ground and said, "I am sorry, but I still think that Your Majesty should not put courtesy first."

Emperor Jiajing looked at Hai Rui like this and was too lazy to argue with him.

They are not in charge of the household and do not know how hard it is to earn money. They think that the court can get things done just by asking for help. But what is the reality? Anything the court wants to do cannot be done without money.

Emperor Jiajing said, "Okay, let's get back to the point. You should tell me about this road. The Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue are both here. Do you think that if you want to build a road that costs money and requires the court to back it, will the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue allow it?"

When Hai Rui heard this, he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart. Given his usual position, he really didn't stand at such a high level to look at the problem.

Now that Emperor Jiajing convened an imperial meeting for this road and also summoned the Cabinet, the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of Rites, this is enough to show that Emperor Jiajing attached great importance to this road.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered to gather so many people to come to Yuxi Palace to discuss the final decision on this route.

Hai Rui immediately said, "I will report this right away."

Then Hai Rui told him the statistics of the number of commercial vehicles traveling between Tianjin and the capital every day, and then he told him the time cost saved after the road was repaired. Finally, he also told him the toll standard per mile for this road.

Hai Rui's data showed that if this road could be built smoothly and could save so much time, even if a certain fee was added per mile, the merchant caravans or ordinary people using this road would be able to gain more benefits than before.

Moreover, based on the fees collected per mile, this nearly 400-mile-long toll hardened road will only take eight to ten years to recover its costs, which includes the cost of daily maintenance of the road, as well as the wages of toll collectors and management expenses.

When Hai Rui spoke out all these data one by one, the eyes of the people present, whether it was Emperor Jiajing himself, Yan Song, Xu Jie and others, or the people from the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue, all lit up.

If these data are true, then this road must be repaired.

Moreover, having this road is equivalent to developing a new source of taxation for the imperial court, which will not only make the imperial treasury richer, but also allow the imperial court to strengthen its control over all parts of the world through the convenience of this road.

You must know that in ancient society where road transportation was not well developed, even the most powerful central court had to delegate power to local governments and allow them to exercise some private rights to maintain local stability and rule.

But decentralization, to put it bluntly, is about dividing money. The more power given to local governments, the less benefits the court can get.

Therefore, the court’s policies are obviously good, but they become distorted when they reach the lower levels.

To put it bluntly, it is the game between the central and local governments that has changed, which has turned these policies, which should have been good, into evil policies that exploit the grassroots people.

And the most obvious example of this is "tax"!
In ancient dynasties, whether it was the earliest Qin and Han dynasties or the late Ming and Qing dynasties, the tax laws formulated by the court were no more than one-tenth of the maximum, which, in terms of people who can understand it, means a tax of 10%.

However, even such a low tax could make the common people feel suffocated, which shows that the actual tax burden is definitely not the one-tenth or one-thirtieth tax stipulated by the court.

When the actual taxes were collected, no one knew how much was added layer by layer, and even the imperial court itself did not know how much these additional taxes were.

This shows that in the ancient feudal society where management was relatively backward, no matter how powerful the dynasty was, some facts that were difficult to accept were inevitable.

Now if the imperial court can build this road, then the court's control over the world will increase a little, and this increase can solve many problems that were previously unsolvable.

Therefore, regardless of whether this road can make money or not, the imperial court will find a way to build it quietly, but it is hard to say when the construction will start.

Emperor Jiajing looked at the officials in the hall. His eyes swept over Yan Song, Xu Jie, and finally Li Chunfang and others.

Emperor Jiajing said: "Hai Rui has finished speaking, you can also express your opinions."

Yan Song, who used to wait for a while to see what others did before speaking, could no longer hold back and spoke first.

Yan Song said, "May God bless you! This is truly a blessing from heaven to the Ming Dynasty! I think this road should be built, but before that, the court should find a good reason to collect money." After hearing what Yan Song said, Emperor Jiajing couldn't help but hum and said, "Lord Yan is right. There has never been a practice of charging for roads from ancient times to the present. If this road is really to be built, then the court should indeed find a suitable reason to collect money."

"You two can discuss it and see what kind of excuse we can use so that people won't find it strange or surprising."

Yan Song and Xu Jie looked at each other, Li Chunfang and the Minister of Revenue Gao Yao looked at each other, and they seemed to have a telepathic connection at this moment and fell in love with each other at first sight.

Then Li Chunfang stood up while Yan Song and Xu Jie were still thinking.

Li Chunfang said: "Your Majesty, under the Ministry of Works there is the Grand Customs Administration Office, which is responsible for taxation within the territory of Tong County in the capital. Commercial goods traveling between the capital and Tianjin Wei must pay a portion of customs duties when passing through Tong County."

"So I think we can take the example of the Datongguan Tizhusi and set up different checkpoints at all entrances to Tong County and its toll roads to collect detailed tax revenue."

"So even if commercial trucks that travel this route pay the fee, they will think it is a tax that they should pay."

What Li Chunfang said was indeed a good idea.

Emperor Jiajing also nodded slightly, but then raised another question.

Emperor Jiajing: "You can charge commercial trucks for this route as you wish, but what about ordinary people? You should know that the original intention of this route is to collect money from everyone. If you use this reason, how can you charge ordinary people who don't carry any goods?"

"And if some people think that this road is free for them, and they also occupy this road when walking between two places, how can we drive them away? You can't ask for a tax just for walking, right? If the news gets out, won't people all over the world think that the court is a den of thieves who block roads and rob people?"

Emperor Jiajing's words made Li Chunfang feel awkward. The reason he just gave was indeed not well considered.

The Datongguan Tijiu Si can collect taxes, but they can only collect taxes from merchants who transport goods. They cannot charge ordinary people.

So this proposal is flawed.

At this time, Xu Jie also came back to his senses and said, "Your Majesty, since the banknote method doesn't work, why not try another method? Just inform the customs clearance department that the customs clearance department will be abolished. I believe that once this news comes out, the merchants traveling to the capital will certainly be excited."

"Then the Ministry of Revenue or the Ministry of Works will charge tolls based on the new road and work out detailed charging rules, such as how much for ordinary cars and how much for trucks. This way, the problem will be solved."

"Even if the people don't understand at first, as long as they get used to it, I believe they will gradually accept it. After all, only a few ordinary people can actually use horse-drawn carriages to travel between the two places, and most of those who have this need are merchants."

Upon hearing this, Emperor Jiajing nodded and said, "That's right. We really can't hide it, and we really can't charge twice. Since this method is feasible, let the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue discuss their respective fee sharing and management rights and responsibilities, and then write all these issues into a memorial and submit it to me. I will approve it after I read it."

Li Chunfang and Gao Yao immediately bowed to Emperor Jiajing and said, "We obey your order."

But then Li Chunfang also said something more important.

Li Chunfang said: "Your Majesty, I have something else to report!"

When Emperor Jiajing heard Li Chunfang say that he had more to say, he also stopped and continued to look at Li Chunfang and said, "Go ahead."

Li Chunfang said, "During the past few days since I took office as the Minister of Works, I have specially checked the detailed maps of the official roads across the country. I think that since Hai Rui and Pan Jixun mentioned that toll roads are a great thing that will benefit the country and the people, I dare to suggest that the Ministry of Works can undertake the planning of new roads across the country, and then gradually build them according to the subsequent plans of the court. In this way, a new road network can be built across the country."

As soon as Li Chunfang said this, everyone present turned their attention to him.

Although this suggestion is easy to think of, it took Li Chunfang some homework to come up with such preparation and strategy in such a short period of time after he took office in the Ministry of Industry.

He did not treat the Ministry of Works as an ordinary government office or an ordinary job, but put a lot of thought and thought into it.

Emperor Jiajing also approved of this.

Emperor Jiajing said, "You are right. This matter can indeed be done. However, I also received a memorial some time ago, which also mentioned this matter. I was thinking of putting this matter aside for a while. Now that we have come to this point, I will not wait any longer. I will tell you all about it now."

As soon as Emperor Jiajing finished speaking, Yan Song, Xu Jie and others immediately bowed and said, "Your Majesty, please give us your instructions."

Emperor Jiajing said, "The memorial said that although large national projects are important, we should not over-utilize the people's power, otherwise we will inevitably end up like Emperor Yang of Sui. Therefore, to carry out these national projects, we cannot just rely on the power of the court, but also find ways to mobilize the power of the people."

"I have read these reports and I agree with them. Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty dug the Grand Canal to connect the north and the south, sparing no effort on the people's part, which led to the demise of the Sui Dynasty."

"Also, when the Yuan Dynasty was managing the Yellow River, they did not have a good method or a coordinated approach, and rashly summoned the people of the world to repair the breached Yellow River. As a result, they attracted backlash from the world, causing the country to end in less than a hundred years."

"Therefore, I think that if we want to carry out such a large national project, we should have new methods and ideas to handle it, and we should not put all the responsibility on the court."

"The court can first survey the world's road map for building new roads, but when it comes to actually starting construction, the court can also make some changes and concessions. For example, the Ministry of Works can be used as the responsible government office to specifically supervise some capable and wealthy households to contract the construction of certain sections of the road."

"The court can also grant these wealthy families the right to collect taxes for 20 to 30 years, so that they can also earn some money. However, there must be some conditions on this basis, such as how much tax they have to pay to the court from the money they earn. These must also be calculated clearly."

"Otherwise, the court's tax revenue will decrease, but the places where it spends money will increase. If this continues, the court will inevitably fall into a situation where its income is not enough to cover its expenses."

"So you should think about this matter carefully. When you have thought it through, report it to Prince Yu and let him make a decision for you."

"As for me, please don't bother me if you have nothing to do. I have recently felt something and I am going to stay in seclusion for a while. Prince Yu will handle all state affairs on my behalf."

"I will issue an edict in the next two days. You must assist Prince Yu in regulating the country and must not slack off in the slightest."

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