I make a popular science video and all the emperors learn from it!

[The second of the four major cases of science popularization and Hongwu. 】

【Empty Seal Case!】

[The "seal" here is the big seal of the government, and the "empty seal" is the big seal stamped on the blank paper. 】

[This case is related to the Ming Dynasty's tax payment. 】

[During the Ming Dynasty, the administrative law "Ming Huidian" promulgated by the state stipulated various taxes in the Ming Dynasty, including real estate tax, pawn tax, cattle, donkey, horse, pig and sheep tax, flower cloth cigarette package tax, wine tax, land property tax deed, tooth sticker tax, sea tax, printing wood and plant silver, Heli silver, brick silver, school rent, hemp silver, stick chestnut folded silver, ......]

[The easiest way to pay taxes is to pay money, and in the past, it was to pay silver. 】

[The monetary tax is also very old, in the Southern Song Dynasty, the peasants began to pay the tax directly to the silver. 】

[But Zhu Yuanzhang is biased, he likes to seek truth from facts. 】

[The Ming Dynasty paid taxes, not silver, but in kind, this way of paying taxes is called "in kind ~ tax". 】

[If you grow rice, you will pay me rice, and if you grow wheat, you will pay me wheat, even if you are engaged in mushroom farming, you have to pay a basket of mushrooms. 】

[Every time it is time to pay taxes, the common people carry them on their shoulders, what bamboo baskets, cloth bags, wheelbarrows, the whole village of old and young are dispatched, humming and delivering goods, the field is quite spectacular. 】

[Then you have to weigh, check the moisture, and check the quality.] 】

[The peasants have to put their own hard-earned crops, shouting and kneeling and begging the official to accept them, look at their faces, and suffer all the hardships. 】

[The tax collectors of the Ming Dynasty were also annoyed. 】

[In the face of the agricultural products in the large farmers' market, people have to weigh them one by one, pass the acceptance, and then pack these messy things, and then be responsible for transporting them to nan. 】

[This is the tax situation in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, and it is also the root of the "empty seal case". 】

[It was not easy for the tax officers in the Ming Dynasty to go to the countryside to collect taxes, and they had to pack, and they had to transport these things to Nan, and collecting taxes was like receiving express delivery. 】

[After receiving the express, they will encounter a difficult Party A's treasury and the head of the household who does not recognize the six relatives. 】

[For example, a county levied 10,000 stone of wheat in accordance with the tax policy. 】

[Next, the county magistrate will send someone to transport the wheat to Nan, and at the same time report to the household department, saying that our county has collected 10,000 stone of wheat, and it is planned that it will be sent to the national treasury by so-and-so on a certain day. 】

[Then, the person in charge of escorting the wheat will send it to the state treasury, and only after the state treasury has accepted it correctly can it be officially put into storage.] 】

[But in reality, ancient means of transportation were inconvenient. 】

[These levies will be lost in transit.] 】

[For example, 10,000 stone of wheat, in case of rainy days, will it become moldy, right? 】

[The portion is insufficient, and there are extenuating circumstances. 】

[However, the inspectors of the state treasury only recognize the numbers but not the people, and they have to pay as much as is written on the declaration form.] 】

[It was written as 10,000 stones, but at first glance it was 9,999 stones, and the amount was not enough, so it was refused. 】

[If it is 11,000 stones, the amount exceeds the standard, and it will also be refused!]

[That is to say, neither more nor less, otherwise people will refuse to accept it.] 】

[This can make the grassroots personnel who run errands miserable. 】

[In the end, they can only weigh in advance, one or two are not bad, and then they have to transport it on a day when the wind is mild and the humidity is suitable, chasing mice and sparrows along the way, to ensure that there is no slightest problem. 】

[Then, we can deal with the strict acceptance officers of the treasury. 】

[Getting the acceptance officer is only the first step.] 】

[Next, the treasury will open a receipt form, and the errand clerk will take this receipt to the household department to check, and the check is correct, so as to complete the tax payment task. 】

[However, this level is even more difficult than the treasury!]

[First of all, the household departments are all Beijing officials, and they are busy with a lot of things. 】

[Second, the audit of the household department is stricter. 】

[According to the procedure, the household officials should take the original documents, that is, the earliest data reported by the state and county, and compare them with the receipt of the state treasury, and only when the two documents are completely consistent can they be finally approved.] 】

[With such a comparison, the problem comes. 】

[The problem is big and small, and some magistrates didn't figure it out and wrote wheat as barley. 】

[There are also those who have not calculated the time, for example, it was sent to the capital on August 1, but it only arrived on August 3. 】

[Small questions, what is the wrong format, typos, forgot to sign, stamp in the wrong place, etc.] 】

[As long as there is a problem, it is a result:]

[Hit back to revise, when to change it, when to pass.] 】

[If something goes wrong, then you have to go back in person, bring the news back to the locality, and the state and county officials will rewrite the report, stamp it again, and send it to the capital. 】

[If it is on the edge of the capital, this set of procedures will take several days at the earliest. (Read the violent novel, go to the Feilu Novel Network!)

[But if it's other remote areas, even if it's fast, it will take half a year to make a trip!]

[In addition to running on the road, there is also a big problem. 】

[There is no guarantee that it will be changed once and all of it will be corrected.] 】

[If something goes wrong in one of the changes, I have to go back again.] 】

[In this way, who can stand it? Who can afford it?]

[However, regardless of whether it can be endured or not, whether it is consumed or not, anyway, according to the procedure, if the household department is not completed, the tax task will be not completed. 】

[If the tax is not completed, it is not only a small tax official who is unlucky, but also the officials at all levels in the county, even the provincial leaders, are unlucky, and they will be demoted to prison at worst. 】

Therefore, the annual tax collection task is the top priority at the local level. 】

[Origin of the Empty Seal:]

[There can be no mistakes in the household tax declaration, and if there is a mistake, you have to go back to the original point and go through the process again. 】

[So, someone figured out how to deal with it.] 】

[The declaration form, in the final analysis, is actually a matter of paper. 】

[No matter how troublesome the declaration form of the treasury is, it is written by people, and since it is written by people, it can be completely changed. 】

[If you want to change, there are two issues that must be solved. 】[]

[One is that on the declaration form, there must be a handwritten signature of the state and county magistrates. 】

[This is not difficult, people's signatures are easy to imitate. 】

[But the seal is a bit troublesome, and the declaration must be stamped with the seal of the state and county yamen, otherwise it is a piece of waste paper. 】

[Someone thought of a way to prepare a few blank pieces of official paper in advance and stamp the official seal in advance. 】

[Then go to the capital with these blank papers, regardless of how the county magistrate fills in the list, as long as it is filled in on the spot according to the actual quantity, type, and arrival time of the grain, and re-report, so as to ensure that the stored grain and the reported data are completely consistent. 】

[Even if the household audit finds that there are still errors, don't be afraid. 】

[Where there is a mistake, the scene is changed again, so that everyone saves trouble, this is the "empty seal". 】

[This unspoken rule is very clear to the top and bottom of the court. 】

[Even the particularly harsh household officials know the difficulties of the errand personnel below. 】

[After all, everyone has come from this road, and they have all done the "empty seal" thing, so they will turn a blind eye to this behavior of lower-level petty officials. 】

[Therefore, the officialdom has acquiesced to this empty seal, and over time it has become a habit of officialdom. 】

[But the most serious problem is that Zhu Yuanzhang doesn't know about it!]

[None of his officials reported him.] 】

[Only he is in the dark!]

【...... in].