My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 488: One reform, countless oppositions.

Putting down the letter, Su Ze rubbed his temples.

Su Ze also admired Liu Zhijie's courage. After finding a breakthrough, Liu Zhijie immediately rushed to the county and personally supervised the reform of the fields.

With this breakthrough, Liu Zhijie optimistically estimated that half of the prefectures and counties in Henan would agree to levy commercial taxes, and land could be transferred.

After putting down the letter from Henan, Su Ze picked up another letter.

This is a letter from Zhang Yuanbian, the prefect of Yiling.

The issue of commercial taxation in Henan has been resolved, but there has been no progress in Hubei, Hunan, and Sichuan.

The letter on the table is Zhang Yuanbian's letter to Su Ze, requesting help.

However, the problems Zhang Yuanbian encountered were completely different from those in Henan.

Henan is a major agricultural province, and the main obstacle is the local gentry and landlords.

Land was the means of production for the gentry and landlords, but tenant farmers could also be considered their "means of production."

The local gentry and landlords were unwilling to levy commercial taxes because they did not want farmers to leave the land.

The imposition of commercial taxes meant an expansion of local government power, allowing them to directly manage rural areas without the need for government intervention.

These are things that the gentry and landlords of Henan did not want to see.

Therefore, Li Yiyuan's proposed solution was to exploit the issue of land ownership to divide landlords and gentry, and to dismantle their control over the local area by transferring land ownership, thereby promoting commercial tax reform.

This method was extremely ingenious. Li Yiyuan truly lived up to his reputation as one of the Nine Ministers, striking at the heart of the matter with his very first move.

Is this the power of the Nine Ministers?

Upon opening Zhang Yuanbian's letter, the Yiling Customs encountered yet another situation.

"To my esteemed teacher: Your student Bian respectfully bows in Yiling."

"Yiling is located at the gateway to the Three Gorges, and it is common for merchants to come and go. However, in the past month, tax revenue entering Sichuan has plummeted by 30%, which is quite unusual..."

Zhang Yuanbian was the prefect of Yiling, where the imperial court established a customs post.

According to the agreement at the time, due to the principle of equal rights and responsibilities (Chapter 422), the tax collection on goods leaving Sichuan was deferred.

The method for calculating the tax deferral is to reduce the tax burden based on the ratio of the volume of goods entering and leaving Sichuan, according to the difference.

For example, if the amount of goods leaving Sichuan is five times that entering Sichuan, then according to this method, one-fifth of the commercial tax will be levied on the goods leaving Sichuan.

Su Ze was confident because he believed that with technological advancements and the advent of steamships, logistics costs for entering Sichuan would be further reduced.

Sichuan is a large market, and by then, the volume of goods entering Sichuan will be equal to the volume of goods leaving Sichuan.

According to the agreement at that time, as long as the amount of goods entering and leaving Sichuan was equal, the imperial court could levy a full tax on the goods leaving Sichuan.

At that time, the imperial court could collect taxes from the entire Sichuan region using only the Yiling customs post.

This method is certainly ingenious, as it can force Sichuan to voluntarily levy commercial taxes.

As Su Ze had predicted, a large amount of goods poured into Sichuan at the beginning.

The volume of goods entering Sichuan has begun to rise.

However, the volume of goods entering Sichuan soon began to decline again.

Zhang Yuanbian was Su Ze's disciple, so he naturally knew about Su Ze's entire plan.

The decline in the volume of goods entering Sichuan means that the tax reduction and exemption for goods leaving Sichuan will continue next year, which delays the imperial court's plan to fully levy commercial taxes. Zhang Yuanbian naturally cannot sit idly by.

Zhang Yuanbian then conducted an investigation as well.

The investigation revealed a chilling result that sent a shiver down Zhang Yuanbian's spine. He immediately wrote to Su Ze, instructing the fat pigeon to activate its "Starry Night" skill and bring it back overnight.

One reason for the decline in goods entering Sichuan was the "boycott of cotton cloth from other provinces" movement in Sichuan.

In February, Chongqing hand-weaving households stormed a cargo ship unloading cotton cloth from another province, burning three ships carrying cotton cloth destined for Sichuan and causing considerable losses to merchants from other provinces who were transporting cotton cloth.

These cotton merchants filed a complaint with the local government, but the local officials shirked their responsibility and refused to accept the case.

Later, when the case was finally accepted, the ringleader of the disturbance had already fled. The government couldn't even catch the main culprit, let alone find someone to compensate the cotton merchants.

These merchants suffered losses on their goods and incurred substantial legal fees, ultimately having no choice but to accept their misfortune.

This kind of thing doesn't just happen in the textile industry.

Several major goods entering Sichuan, including cotton cloth, iron products, and soap, all faced varying degrees of resistance.

The only products that have not faced resistance and whose sales in Sichuan continue to increase are printing presses and paper inks.

This is because the aforementioned items could also be produced in small workshops in Sichuan, leading to local guild resistance.

Printing presses, printing paper, and ink are all things that cannot be produced manually in central Sichuan. However, a local newspaper boom has emerged in central Sichuan, leading to the large-scale purchase of printing presses and other related products.

After these printing presses arrived in Sichuan, the local newspapers they printed all called on the people of Sichuan to boycott goods from other provinces.

These printing presses, ironically, became propaganda weapons to resist goods from other provinces, further exacerbating the decline in the volume of goods entering Sichuan.

Conversely, goods leaving Sichuan gained a tax advantage due to tax reductions and exemptions, which in turn led to their sale in Hubei and Hunan, widening the trade deficit between the two regions.

Zhang Yuanbian couldn't laugh at this darkly humorous outcome.

He carries the expectations of the imperial court; if he cannot perform his duties at the Yiling Customs, his future in officialdom will be over.

However, Zhang Yuanbian was only the prefect of Yiling, and the prefect of Yiling was not an official in Sichuan. He had no way to influence things in Sichuan, so he could only write to Su Ze for help.

It’s difficult.

Su Ze also had a headache.

The resistance in Henan could at least result in the execution of one or two unscrupulous gentry as a warning to others.

However, in Sichuan, the mastermind behind this resistance could not even be caught.

In the history books of the original timeline, industrial production seemed to be completed overnight. It seemed that after a certain technology was "discovered," the country completed industrialization and entered the industrial age.

But in reality, industrialization is a long process.

In the early stages of industrialization, especially during the First Industrial Revolution, industrial production had an advantage only in certain areas, and in many areas it was even inferior to manual production.

For example, in the original timeline of the Qing Dynasty, the Jiangnan hand-woven fabric industry still had a production advantage until its demise. It wasn't until Jiangnan was destroyed that foreign textile industries were able to dump their products into the domestic market.

The British colonists in the original timeline were also utterly defeated by Indian handmade homespun cloth.

After Britain colonized India, it dismantled India's hand-weaving industry, allowing British machine-woven fabrics to be dumped in India.

Moreover, the so-called working class did not appear all at once.

It could even be said that in the early stages of industrial development, those who were able to actively protect their rights and engage in political struggles were not the industrial workers in the factories, but rather the artisan owners.

The artisans themselves had traditional guilds, which united them and were even more cohesive and proactive than the earlier workers' organizations.

The artisans themselves were property owners, and some of them were also local gentry, who had the ability to engage in political activities.

Therefore, such a strange phenomenon also occurred in the early stages of industrialization. Those who were most opposed to machine production were often the artisan owners who had just stood with the workers.

It's also common for craft business owners to storm into factories and smash machines.

Something similar is happening in Sichuan.

Those who resisted industry and commercial taxes were the artisan business owners in Sichuan.

Sichuan's well-developed handicraft workshops were also a major force in resisting commercial taxes.

This is completely different from the situation in Henan.

Su Ze sighed.

In his previous life, he had also criticized Zhang Juzheng's one-size-fits-all reforms in the original timeline as too brutal, failing to consider the differences between coastal areas with abundant currency and inland areas with scarce silver, and for pushing forward the Single Whip Law so roughly that it harmed the people in inland areas.

But now Su Ze also understands that the entire Ming Dynasty is simply too vast.

There are too many problems encountered in the reform process, and each place has its own problems.

For Zhang Juzheng, the political power he could mobilize was also limited.

Unlike others, Zhang Juzheng didn't have any special advantages, so he could only rely on his authority to forcefully push forward the reforms, hoping to achieve further progress.

However, in the original timeline, Zhang Juzheng's reforms did not last and were ultimately short-lived, only temporarily alleviating the financial situation of the Ming Dynasty.

The reform of commercial taxes in the Ming Dynasty has now entered a difficult stage.

After thinking about it, Su Ze decided that he still needed to find someone to think of a solution.

Of all those in the imperial court, Zhao Zhenji was the one who understood the Sichuan issue best and also held prestige in Sichuan.

When Su Ze arrived at the cabinet, he asked Song Xun, the head of the military affairs office, to pay his respects to Zhao Zhenji. Zhao Zhenji quickly met with Su Ze in the new duty room.

The cabinet renovation project is almost complete.

In the past, the Grand Secretaries worked together in cramped cubicles, which was a terrible working environment and also damaged their prestige.

The Longqing Emperor allocated funds from the imperial treasury to renovate the Grand Secretariat and build public housing for the five offices of the Secretariat-Chancellery. Su Ze also reformed the Grand Secretariat's office space.

Firstly, each Grand Secretary had a separate duty room.

The offices were all separate public houses, while the front row housed the offices of the five departments of the Secretariat and the Chancellery, where the corresponding clerks worked nearby, specifically to assist the cabinet ministers.

In addition, the cabinet set up a council chamber, so the cabinet members no longer had to work together in a crowded place; they only needed to come to the council chamber to discuss matters at regular intervals.

In addition, the cabinet now has a dedicated small kitchen, so that the Grand Secretary can have a hot meal when he is on duty, instead of eating simple reheated noodles with the Directorate of Ceremonial.

The cabinet ministers were very satisfied with the new cabinet, but they would have to wait until the auspicious day of April 9th ​​next month to officially move in.

However, Zhao Zhenji was clearly unwilling to wait any longer. Since the new cabinet was right next to the old one, Zhao Zhenji moved into his office ahead of time.

As soon as Zhao Zhenji moved, Zhang Juzheng and Zhu Dashou also moved away immediately, leaving only Gao Gong working in the old cabinet.

In the new cabinet, each Grand Secretary has their own separate residence, unlike before when they had to go to a separate reception hall to meet guests.

A side hall for receiving guests is often crowded and noisy, so it's naturally not as convenient as a separate courtyard house.

This is why, apart from Gao Gong, the chief minister, all the other ministers were in a hurry to move away.

The new cabinet is so convenient; it allows them to meet with their subordinates at any time, and the Grand Secretary has become even more authoritative.

Zhao Zhenji's duty room was a bit messy, with a large map of Sichuan Province hanging on the wall.

Since the start of the war in the Northwest, Zhao Zhenji, as a member of the inner court, has been busier than ever before.

Under the new military system, the inner court was the highest decision-making body for military affairs, and the inner court was established around the emperor.

However, Emperor Longqing's condition also prevented him from handling too much military work.

Therefore, in the current operation of the inner court, the General Staff analyzes and assesses the war situation based on the "Situation Reports" sent from the local areas, provides decision-making references to the inner court, and drafts "Operations Staff Reports".

Then Zhao Zhenji and the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs discussed and came up with a plan, which was then approved by the emperor.

None of the three chief eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs were proficient in military affairs, so in reality, only Zhao Zhenji assisted the emperor in making decisions.

This system, however, proved to be remarkably efficient.

Zhao Zhenji was also in charge of the Ministry of War. Under his coordination, the General Staff and the Ministry of War operated very smoothly, the war in the Northwest went well, and logistical support was timely, which greatly pleased the emperor.

"What's going on at the Yiling Customs?"

After Su Ze sat down, Zhao Zhenji got straight to the point and asked.

Before Su Ze paid his respects, he had already asked Song Xun to inform him that he had come to discuss matters related to the Yiling Customs. Zhao Zhenji usually did not care about such matters, so he was somewhat surprised that Su Ze suddenly came to discuss them with him.

But thinking about it, it wasn't surprising. He was considered a powerful backer of the officials in Sichuan, so they must have encountered some problems with the commercial tax in Yiling, which was why they came to him for advice.

Su Ze told Zhao Zhenji everything that Zhang Yuanbian had found out.

Zhao Zhenji's attitude toward commercial taxes also quietly changed.

It was precisely because of the strengthening of the Ming Dynasty's financial resources that it was able to wage war in multiple locations and carry out reforms to the new army.

Now that all the officials have benefited from the government's finances, how could they possibly go back to the way things were before?

We can't let the imperial court go back to the days of financial hardship, can we?

Therefore, as a member of the cabinet, Zhao Zhenji was also aware of this. He was also well aware that Sichuan's resistance to the imposition of commercial taxes was going against the general trend of the court.

Of course, there are techniques to going against the tide.

Like in Sichuan, directly resorting to violence will inevitably attract the attention of the imperial court sooner or later.

If that happens, it will be like the situation in Henan, and there's no way to resolve it amicably.

After recounting the situation in Sichuan, Su Ze sighed and said:
"This is not a matter of one place or one county. It is a joint effort by guilds from several provinces in Sichuan to protect themselves and resist 'dumping' from other provinces. The momentum has been established. Local officials are either passive or secretly assisting. The Yiling tax policy may be in danger of being shelved."

"I have pondered deeply, and if we forcefully suppress this, I fear it will incite even greater public resentment, damage the court's prestige, and play right into the hands of those who incite 'collusion between officials and merchants and the exploitation of the people of Sichuan.' I wonder if Grand Secretary Zhao has any good plan to break this deadlock?"

Zhao Zhenji looked at Su Ze. Su Ze didn't consult Gao Gong, who was in charge of the cabinet, or Zhang Juzheng, who was the most enthusiastic about levying commercial taxes, but instead came to him. This was to give the matter room for maneuver.

Otherwise, if the same drastic measures were used as those in Henan, Sichuan would suffer a great loss.

Zhao Zhenji understood that Su Ze was giving him face, as he was a son-in-law of Sichuan, and this was also giving face to Sichuan.

If she refused Su Ze at this point, then the matter would no longer be in her control.

The remaining members of the cabinet had absolutely no pity for Sichuan.

Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng were both ruthless individuals who strongly advocated for the imposition of commercial taxes in their hometowns.

After much deliberation, Zhao Zhenji finally said:

"The root of the problem lies in the fact that the 'one-size-fits-all' approach to easing the tax burden gave them a pretext to band together and unite against external forces."

(End of this chapter)