Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 223: The Mystery of Tax Exemption and Military Service Exemption, Xichang and Yuhuatian [Please Subscribe]

Liu Kuan recalled some of the information he had sorted out last night and said, "First, it's about the birth of the 'Chuanfengguan'—in the eighth year of Tianshun, Zhu Jianshen, who had been on the throne for less than a month, issued an imperial decree directly appointing a craftsman named Yao Wang as the deputy envoy of the Wensiyuan."

"At that time, people called these officials who were directly appointed by the emperor without going through the Ministry of Personnel, selection, imperial recommendation, or ministerial discussion 'Chuanfengguan'."

"The gentry at the time and some people in later generations believed that the role of the official had three negative effects."

"First, the gentry believed that official titles were 'public property of the whole world,' and the system of official appointments allowed the emperor to appoint officials at will based on his personal preferences, undoubtedly turning official titles into 'private property of the ruler.'"

"Secondly, the Ming court was a civil government based on scholars. However, the system of official appointments led to the emergence of a number of officials from military backgrounds, monks, craftsmen, painters, and doctors. This led to numerous conflicts within the court and poor functioning."

"Thirdly, because the positions of officials were granted by imperial decree, concubines and eunuchs in the palace could use their close proximity to the emperor to recommend personal connections, thereby pursuing their own personal gains and even selling official positions and titles."

"As a result, many treacherous and incompetent people have infiltrated the ranks of officials, causing corruption and chaos in the court."

Liu Kuan stopped here.

Zhu Yuanzhang immediately snorted coldly, "It's those idiot gentry talking nonsense again! We have directly appointed many officials and even directly dismissed many officials. According to their argument, this system of official appointments should be the ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhu Biao hesitated and expressed a different opinion.

"Father, I believe that the system of official transfers is not entirely bad, as later generations of gentry have said, but it does have its drawbacks."

"For example, if concubines, eunuchs, and other people close to the emperor recommend officials for personal gain, it is indeed very likely to lead to corruption in the government. After all, not every emperor is as perceptive and discerning as my father."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and said nothing when he heard this.

After listening to Liu Kuan's many stories, Zhu Yuanzhang had already deeply realized that his qualifications were top-notch among the emperors, and it was impossible to expect every emperor of the Ming Dynasty to have such qualifications as him.

So what Zhu Biao said does make sense.

When the Chuanfengguan system met an emperor like him, it naturally tended to be good governance, allowing the emperor to select talented people more efficiently and promote talents in an unconventional way.

But if they encountered a tyrant like Zhu Qizhen or Wanli, it would become a weapon for them to corrupt the government.

If we consider the long-term continuation and stability of the Ming Dynasty, the system of Chuanfengguan should not exist.

But if he were asked to give up the power to directly appoint and dismiss officials, he would definitely be unwilling to do so.

Therefore, it is worth pondering whether the Chuanfengguan system should be used or not, and whether it can be used with restrictions.

Now is not the time to dwell on this matter.

Zhu Yuanzhang then withdrew his thoughts and said, "Liu Kuan, continue with the rest of the story."

Liu Kuan nodded and said, "In the eyes of the gentry and some people in later generations, Zhu Jianshen's second bad policy was the establishment of the 'Imperial Farm'."

"This incident also began in the eighth year of the Tianshun reign, when Zhu Jianshen established the land of Cao Jixiang in Shunyi, Beijing, which had been confiscated by Zhu Qizhen, as an imperial farm."

"The so-called imperial farm is a piece of land that is treated as the private property of the emperor. Part of the output is distributed to the tenants, and the rest is all added to the imperial treasury, without paying taxes."

"Some later scholars and writers believed that it was the aggressive expansion of the imperial farms by Zhu Qizhen and his son, Zhu Jianshen, that prompted the princes below to follow suit, leading to numerous cases of princes and royal relatives encroaching on the people's farmland."

"Because the imperial and princely estates did not pay taxes, some people offered their land to vassal princes and royal relatives to evade taxes. This became one of the main reasons why tax revenues decreased year by year in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and eventually the Ming Dynasty's financial system collapsed due to insufficient revenue to cover expenditures."

"Nonsense!" Zhu Yuanzhang shouted angrily as Liu Kuan finished speaking, "Who said that the imperial and royal estates don't pay taxes?!"

Liu Kuan really didn't understand this matter - he only knew that as the emperor's son-in-law, he had to pay taxes on the land awarded by the emperor. He had no idea whether the imperial and royal farms also had to pay taxes.

Zhu Biao also said at this time: "Brother-in-law, the imperial and royal estates also have to pay summer taxes and autumn tributes, but the tenants in the estates do not have to pay the capitation tax or perform labor service."

"Later generations claim that imperial and royal estates were exempt from taxes. Could this be a conflation of regular taxes, miscellaneous taxes, and corvée labor? Or is there some other misunderstanding?"

After hearing this, Liu Kuan also realized that most people in later generations had some misunderstandings about the tax system of the Ming Dynasty - after all, national finance and taxation is a very complicated matter, and the financial and taxation policies of all dynasties are worthy of in-depth study and it is difficult to sum it up in one sentence.

He said, "I do know that in later generations, during the early Wanli period, Zhang Juzheng carried out reforms and implemented the "One Whip" system, which combined summer and autumn taxes, the capitation tax, and the labor service tax into one, calculating and collecting them using silver."

"Could it be that the Single Whip Law allowed special groups exempted from corvée labor, such as princes, royal relatives, and gentry, to take advantage of this opportunity to evade regular taxes as well?"

Old Zhu was speechless after hearing this. "You, a person from the future generations, don't know, so how can I know?"

Liu Kuan thought about it and decided to take this opportunity to make relevant suggestions to Lao Zhu.

"Your Majesty, according to later generations' summaries and research on the finances and taxation of past dynasties, as long as there are privileged groups in terms of finance, taxation, and corvée labor, these privileges will inevitably be expanded and used to evade taxes."

"So, if you want to avoid this kind of thing from happening, the best way is to never give anyone any special privileges in finance, taxation, or corvée labor."

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered and said, "Your idea is quite nice, but it's oversimplifying the problem. If you were to follow your suggestion, would you, the son-in-law of the emperor and a doctor of the Ministry of Science and Technology, also be required to perform corvee labor? Would the emperor of the Ming Dynasty also be required to perform corvee labor?"

"It's fine for everyone to pay taxes and even capitation fees. However, it's simply impossible to expect everyone to perform corvee labor."

"Let's take another analogy. Suppose a man is serving as a county magistrate in a certain place, but it happens that he is supposed to do corvee labor in his hometown. Should he abandon the affairs of the county and go to do corvee labor for a few months before returning?"

"If this continues, how will the imperial court and government at all levels function? Wouldn't the world be in chaos?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, it's actually not difficult to solve this problem. There are two ways."

"Not difficult? There are two more ways?" Zhu Yuanzhang stared, refusing to believe it.

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "The best way is to learn from later generations and directly exempt all labor service except military service. Whenever the court and government need to mobilize civilian manpower, they should do so through employment."

"The second method is to allow the people to pay money and grain to avoid military service—this method can actually be combined with the previous one." "The system I have implemented at factories like the Liuhe Iron and Steel Plant and the Qinglongshan Coal Plant is actually an attempt to replace corvée labor with hired labor. I'm sure Your Majesty has seen its effectiveness over the past two years."

After hearing Liu Kuan's words, Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a moment.

He didn't expect that he would gain so much from listening to Liu Kuan's history lectures today. First, there was the issue of the official system, and now there is the issue of eliminating the privileged groups exempt from military service. Both are worth pondering.

After thinking for a while, Zhu Yuanzhang said, "It is definitely not possible to directly exempt everyone from corvee labor. Even if we agree, the Ming Dynasty does not have enough money and grain to hire workers now."

"In fact, many issues faced by local governments now rely on the conscription of corvée labor."

Zhu Biao was also pondering this, and upon hearing this, he said, "So, could we first consider allowing the people to pay a fee to be exempted from military service? Then the court and the government could use the money the people paid to hire workers?"

Zhu Yuanzhang pondered and said, "Some corvee labor can be done this way, but some corvee labor cannot be done this way. There are some things that the court cannot do without forcibly conscripting the people and organizing them to do them, and even if they pay people to do them, there may not be people willing to do them."

"And if the exemption fee is too high, what's the difference between that and forcibly conscripting civilians to serve?"

"To fully implement this policy, the country needs not only sufficient money and grain, but also a large population. I think we may have to wait until you or Xiongying ascend the throne in the future before we can implement this policy."

Zhu Biao nodded, "I understand."

Seeing that Liu Kuan was still lost in thought, Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Don't think about it anymore. Let's continue talking about Zhu Jianshen."

Liu Kuan nodded and said, "The third thing that Zhu Jianshen was criticized for by civil officials, gentry, military officers, and even the common people was the Daxing Factory Guard."

"After Zhu Jianshen ascended the throne, he was concerned about the interference of the imperial guards' chief commander, Menda, in government affairs. He first vigorously rectified the imperial guards and the East Factory, and then ordered his trusted eunuch, Wang Zhi, to establish the West Factory."

"Wang Zhi was a legendary and controversial eunuch in the Ming Dynasty. In the eyes of later generations, only five other eunuchs, Zheng He, Wang Zhen, Liu Jin, Feng Bao, and Wei Zhongxian, could be compared to him in terms of fame."

"There are even several TV series and movies based on Wang Zhi and the Western Factory. I happen to have a short video on my tablet about this. Your Majesty, would you like to watch it?"

Old Zhu's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he said, "Why not? Of course I should watch it!"

Watching Lao Zhu's reaction to the video was also a great pleasure for Liu Kuan, so he took out his treasured video of the beauty of the West Factory and played it.

The video begins with a scene where Yu Huatian, played by Chen Kun, comes to cause trouble for the East Factory and confronts the director of the East Factory.

"Why is the West Factory interfering with East Factory's affairs?"

"A swordsman has made you all so paranoid that he's even come to kill you, and you still dare to say I have nothing to do with it? Huh?"

"That day, Eunuch Wan was careless and underestimated his opponent."

"Underestimate? Humph, that's stupid!"

"What is the West Factory? Your West Factory has only been established for less than half a year."

"You asked me what the Western Factory was? Now I'll tell you."

In the video, Yu Huatian began to use his superb martial arts skills to pack coins in a fancy way.

Zhu Di, who considered himself quite skilled in martial arts, was stunned. He thought to himself, "Could there really be such a master in the world? If there is, I'm afraid I wouldn't last more than three moves against him."

In the video, Yu Huatian also recounted the "West Factory Declaration" which later became popular on the Internet.

"The cases that the East Factory cannot solve will be solved by the West Factory."

"I will kill the people Dongchang dare not kill, and I will take care of the things Dongchang dare not take care of."

"In short, I will manage everything that the East Factory can manage, and I will manage even more everything that the East Factory cannot manage!"

"Execute first, report later. Imperial authority. This is the Western Factory. Is that clear enough?"

Later on, Yu Huatian led people to hunt down Zhao Huaian and others, and all kinds of martial arts and lines were used to show off their skills.

The short video of more than three minutes was over quickly.

Old Zhu stroked his beard with great joy.

"The Western Factory and its director in this video are indeed interesting. But let's not talk about the impossibility of such a skilled person existing in the world. Even if there were, we wouldn't give him the power of 'imperial authorization to execute first and report later.'"

Zhu Biao also laughed.

As early as two years ago, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Bright Guard, the East Factory, and the West Factory. Compared with the one shown in the video, their West Factory was much more low-key, and even most of the princes were unaware of its existence.

At this time, Old Zhu commented: "The Imperial Guards are the eyes and ears of our Ming Emperor, even his minions. Zhu Jianshen has greatly strengthened the Imperial Guards. Even if they are too rampant and have made some mistakes, their merits outweigh their faults."

Liu Kuan lamented, "Historically, the West Factory of the Ming Dynasty was indeed too rampant due to lack of restraint, which led to its mistakes and gave officials a handle to criticize it."

"Zhu Jianshen, out of concern, abolished and reinstated the Western Factory, then abolished it again. Wang Zhi, the prototype of Yu Huatian in the video, only served for five years before offending so many people that he was dismissed and reduced to idleness. It's truly lamentable."

Zhu Di couldn't help but ask, "Third brother-in-law, is Wang Zhi really an outstanding martial arts master?"

Liu Kuan said, "I don't know if Wang Zhi was a master of martial arts, but he certainly had a talent for military affairs. During the two years he was in charge of the Western Factory, he built a large prison and helped Emperor Xianzong to rectify the court bureaucracy. In the three years that followed, he patrolled the borders and repelled the northern barbarians several times."

Zhu Di was puzzled again and asked, "Since Wang Zhi was so useful, why did Emperor Xianzong abandon him just because of the impeachment of the ministers?"

　Second update.

　　Good night~
　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)