Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 133: Bombarding Uncle Zhang’s house and violently levying taxes!
February 21st, the first year of Jiajing.

Zhu Houcong formally summoned Grand Secretaries Yang Yiqing and Fei Hong, who were reinstated and brought back to Beijing, at Yuntai Gate.

It stands to reason.

Yang Yiqing and Fei Hong, who were reinstated by imperial decree a year ago, should have already arrived in Beijing.

But the reason why they arrived so late was mainly because according to convention, they had resigned from their appointments twice, and only after the New Year and the arrival of the third imperial edict did they officially accept the order and set off.

This is not because they are arrogant.

The two of them were eager to return to the capital immediately and experience the feeling of having power again.

Rather, it was because in this era, civil servants had to be polite when appointing ruling officials.

The more eager one is to get something, the more one should pretend that he doesn't care. At the same time, it also helps the emperor to gain a reputation for being "respectful to the wise and humble" to the point of accepting three requests.

Let’s talk.

Before meeting Zhu Houcong, Yang Yiqing had heard many rumors about the current emperor.

He had therefore long concluded that the current emperor was a man of great energy and determination, and was also a wise and capable leader sent from heaven.

But in Yang Yiqing's opinion, the current emperor is much harder-hearted than the previous emperor Zhengde.

After all, it was a fact that so many people were beheaded within one year of the emperor ascending the throne.

Although those people were killed with justification, it was enough for Yang Yiqing to clearly know that the current emperor would have no mercy when it comes to eliminating those who do not follow the rules.

Therefore, even before going to Beijing, Yang Yiqing asked the emperor to invite him three times before agreeing to come to the court just for show. But when he really arrived before the emperor, he did not dare to show the slightest disrespect and honestly paid his respects to Zhu Houcong.

The same goes for Fei Hong.

When he heard that the emperor had killed many ministers because of the discussion on the grand ceremony, and had killed many people because of the embezzlement of disaster relief funds and the conspiracy with the Northern Sect Kong family, he became quite afraid of the current emperor and believed that the current emperor was really ruthless.

Therefore, even when he was before the emperor, he did not dare to put on airs as a senior minister.

But now, in addition to fear, Fei Hong also has more expectations for the current emperor.

This is not only because the emperor set up the Duzhi General Office in the cabinet, but also intended to let him be in charge of all the financial budgets of the country.

More because...

After arriving in Beijing, Fei Hong saw with his own eyes that a large number of refugees were resettled outside the capital.

I also saw that the capital city had been completely renovated.

In addition, he knew that the emperor had just ascended the throne for less than ten days before he cleared the farmlands in the capital, removed the eunuchs who were in charge of the garrison, and reorganized the salt administration, among other good policies.

This allowed Fei Hong to confirm that the current emperor was truly determined to clear up the world.

Therefore, after meeting Zhu Houcong at this moment, Fei Hong's heart was still beating uncontrollably, hoping that he could really work with the emperor in front of him to accomplish many of his ambitions that had not been realized during the Zhengde period.

After Zhu Houcong gave Yang Yiqing and Fei Hong a seat, he spoke first:

"The two elders must know that the country has had many drawbacks since its development."

"The biggest drawback here is that the financial and tax systems are not clearly organized, which allows corrupt officials to exploit the flaws in the court system, exploit the people, and embezzle the national treasury. If this continues, I really don't know how many years our Ming Dynasty can survive."

"I reinstated you two because I wanted to use your prestige and talents to help me unify the finances and taxes of the country and clarify the finances and taxes of the country."

"I hope you two will take more care of this. This will not only comfort the late emperor, but also satisfy the people's wishes. I will also be grateful for your assistance."

After Zhu Houcong said this, Yang Yiqing and Fei Hong hurriedly said they dared not.

Yang Yiqing said first: "The late emperor met me on his way back to Beijing after his southern tour and talked to me about finance and taxation. Your Majesty is now willing to change the great fiscal and taxation problems, which is exactly what the late emperor wants!"

Zhu Houcong smiled and nodded.

He knew that Yang Yiqing said this intentionally to let the world know that the late emperor also supported the emperor's fiscal and taxation reforms.

The emperor was doing this to fulfill the unfulfilled wishes of the previous emperor, which would naturally shut up many people who would say that doing so was contrary to the previous emperor's ideals.

of course.

No one knew what Yang Yiqing and Zhengde talked about, so when Yang Yiqing said that Zhengde said this, no one could deny it.

What made Zhu Houcong very happy was that Yang Yiqing was willing to stand on his side and support him, and did not use his status as the only person who had a deep conversation with the late emperor to oppose Zhu Houcong's reforms.

Otherwise, it would naturally make the reform more troublesome for Zhu Houcong.

of course.

It is because Yang Yiqing was the only minister who had a deep conversation with Zhengde at that time.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong asked Yang Yiqing to be responsible for the national tax reform.

In this case.

Yang Yiqing will have greater motivation to support this matter because he will be the one to accomplish this great policy that benefits the world.

After all, Yang Yiqing was a eunuch, which means he was born infertile.

In later generations, he should have had gender abnormality due to an incorrect number of chromosomes, which made him look like a male and even have male organs, but not have male functions. That is why he did not grow a beard, was infertile, and had no offspring.

And precisely because Yang Yiqing was a eunuch and had no children, he could do more for the country without having to consider the interests of his family too much.

Just as Zhu Houcong thought, since the emperor had asked Yang Yiqing to preside over the reform, he had no intention of opposing it, but was very supportive.

For him, he could not leave his bloodline to future generations, the only thing he could leave behind was his outstanding achievements.

Otherwise, he would not have dared to lead his troops to sneak into the border area to ambush the enemy when he was an official in the border town.

Zhu Houcong then said to Yang Yiqing: "In terms of tax policy, how do you think we can make it unified and clear?"

"Return to your majesty!"

"In my humble opinion, if we want to unify and clarify the tax policy, we should first proceed in three steps."

Yang Yiqing said.

Zhu Houcong asked: "Which three steps?" "First, the discount rate should be unified, and it should be determined by the court. After all, the price of grain in silver will be different at different times. This means that if the discount rate does not change, sometimes the discount rate will be too low, and sometimes it will be too high."

"For example, in Jiangnan, although the amount of silver in circulation is the largest, the discount rate is very low, which makes the burden of paying one million taels of gold and silver every year far lower than the burden of paying four million shi of grain they should have paid."

"Because they have always paid the gold flower silver at the rate of 2.5 cents per dan of rice and wheat, but now the price of 1 dan of rice and wheat in Jiangnan has risen to 6 cents! So, they should make adjustments anyway."

As Yang Yiqing spoke, Fei Hong looked at him in shock.

He didn't expect that Yang Yiqing was serious.

In order to please the emperor, he actually wanted to change the tax policy of the world.

"You, Yang Anning, are relying on the fact that you will not have any offspring, so you want to increase taxes in Nanzhi and Jiangxi without restraint, right?"

Fei Hong couldn't help but complain in his heart.

Zhu Houcong nodded and asked Yang Yiqing to continue.

Yang Yiqing continued, "The second step is to unify the huo kuo. Different places cannot have different huo kuo. Only when the huo kuo is unified can the court have a reason to punish those officials who levy huo kuo beyond the prescribed huo kuo!"

"As for the third step, it is that each provincial government, prefecture, state and county should have a dedicated tax officer stationed there. We cannot just rely on the inspections of the censors. The inspections of the censors cannot guarantee that we always know how much silver is in the treasuries of the various provinces of the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Houcong thought about it and asked Yang Yiqing: "I have also thought of a way to reform the tax system. What do you think?"

"Your Majesty, please give your instructions."

Yang Yiqing bowed.

Zhu Houcong said: "We can simply combine the land tax, corvée and other miscellaneous taxes of each prefecture and county into one, collect silver taels, and pay it according to the acreage. This can be called a "tiao bian".

"Your Majesty, this policy is a good policy to curb the annexation of powerful people, and it is also a good policy for the convenience of the people, but it is not appropriate to implement it now."

"Because many places are short of silver, and many small households have less than one penny of silver in total for all their taxes and corvées. But if they are forced to do so, they will have to borrow silver for this penny, and then have to pay out an extra penny to repay the loan. This is equivalent to doubling the taxes and corvées for the common people!"

Yang Yiqing replied.

Zhu Houcong nodded: "Then let the local governors decide for themselves for now! After the official currency is fully circulated throughout the country, we can unify it!"

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

Yang Yiqing bowed in reply.

Zhu Houcong then looked at Fei Hong and said, "General Director of Revenue, there is nothing much to say here. First, we need to sort out how much national treasury the Ming Dynasty has by using the six departments and the governors. Second, we need to sort out how much national treasury is expected to be used and how much national treasury is expected to be collected this year. Then, based on the annual revenue and savings, we need to list reasonable suggestions for reduction and increase."

Fei Hong cupped his hands and praised: "Your Majesty is right!"

As the imperial examination was imminent, Yang Yiqing and Fei Hong did not take charge of national taxation and finance affairs first, but instead served as examiners for the imperial examination.

The most famous scholar in this special examination was Xu Jie.

However, Zhu Houcong did not choose him as the top scholar, but chose Wang Jiao as the top scholar instead.

This was mainly because Zhu Houcong discovered that there were too many southern scholars ranked at the top, especially from Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Therefore, in order to balance the north and the south, he selected the northerner Wang Jiao from the top three examinees as the first top scholar admitted during the Jiajing period.

And Xu Jie still became a new Jinshi of the Ming Dynasty as the third place in the imperial examination.

Shortly after Encore ended, it was already mid-March.

As the one-month deadline for the wealthy households in the capital to voluntarily pay their overdue taxes had expired, Zhang Fujing officially began to order the tax soldiers to forcibly collect taxes from the wealthy households in the capital.

Let’s talk.

The Ming Dynasty only exempted officials and nobles from military service, not taxes.

It was only because the local prefectures and counties did not dare to levy taxes on the officials, nobles and gentry that in fact the officials, nobles and gentry were exempt from both taxes and military service.

Before this, Zhang Fujing had already obtained the tax and service lists of the prefectures and counties under Shuntian Prefecture, so he naturally knew which wealthy families in the capital owed taxes and how much they owed.

Logically, these taxes would never be collected by officials.

But isn't this because the wealthy families in the capital turned a deaf ear to the emperor's edict to ban speculation in grain and money in order to reshape the monetary system?

Therefore, Zhu Houcong asked Zhang Fujing to teach these wealthy families in the capital a lesson in the name of taxation.

Among them, the two brothers Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling owed the most taxes.

Zhang Fujing then led the tax soldiers to surround Zhang Heling's residence.

Zhang Heling was not afraid of this, but challenged Zhang Fujing: "Mr. Zhang, if you have the guts, break into my Zhang family and see if I dare to take your life!"

Zhang Fujing laughed and said, "So, the uncle of the emperor refuses to pay taxes?"

"Pay your ass!"

Zhang Heling spat.

Zhang Fujing personally held the torch, walked to a bronze cannon, and lit the fuse.

Zhang Heling was shocked when he saw this: "No, you really dare to bomb my house!"

Zhang Heling said this and turned and ran to the backyard.

boom!
Zhang Heling hadn't run far when a cannonball flew over and hit the screen wall of Zhang's house.

then.

Zhang Fujing said, "Go in, seize the grain and silver, and seize ten times the amount of taxes owed!"

"Yes!"

A large number of tax soldiers rushed in immediately.

And Zhang Heling also asked to see Empress Dowager Zhang in the afternoon of that day, and cried to her:

"Sister, you have to make the decision for my brother. A few days ago, Yang Shen bullied my brother, but now Zhang Fujing is even worse. He directly bombarded my brother's door, making me, the uncle of the emperor, lose face! Woo woo!"

(End of this chapter)