First Minister of Ming Dynasty

If this is understandable, then the Ministry of Rites, who has always been in the Qingshui Yamen, has the power to levy taxes.

What does the Ministry of Rites collect?

herbs!

That's right, the Ministry of Rites wants to collect money for medicinal materials for the Tai Hospital.

After all, the grade of the hospital is too low, so it is not easy to ask for money, so it is better for the Ministry of Rites to come forward. Of course, the officials of the Ministry of Rites just got some goji berries, ginseng, and sea dog kidneys to replenish their kidneys.

There are by no means a few such central yamen.And that's not the end yet. In addition to sending it to the court, the local government also has the part that is kept for personal use. It's also a bad debt, so I don't know.

Just imagine, the normal process, the Tai Hospital needs medicinal materials, writes to the Ministry of Households, obtains approval, and then the Tai Hospital takes the money to go to the place of origin to purchase, and include it in the department's expenditure budget for a year, that is.

But in the Ming Dynasty, this matter became weird.

The Tai Hospital bought the medicinal materials, discussed with the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Rites issued a document to the local area, and then handed over the matter to the local food chief, asking them to send silver taels of medicinal materials to the Ministry of Rites.

Traveling thousands of miles from the place, sending it to the city, handing it over to the Ministry of Rites, and transferring it to the Imperial Hospital... Along the way, people eat and feed horses, money is consumed, and they are dredged up and down, and handed over layer by layer... The cost in the middle is considerable. amazing.

Moreover, every government office and every tax has to go through such a toss.

The common people were miserable, especially in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the food chiefs couldn't hold on anymore, and they scrambled to evade the servants, and various places frequently defaulted in tax arrears, and some places could not pay in arrears for decades.

The reasons for this situation are very complicated, but it is undeniable that the clues can be seen from the design of the initial fiscal and taxation system.

The old Zhu in history did have a shallow understanding of the fiscal and taxation system... He thought that using the grain to collect taxes and remit them would prevent bureaucrats from exploiting and oppressing.

And it is very convenient to use.

As long as he makes a decree, if there is a shortage of things, let the food chief send them over, that's all.

Judging from the Hongwu Dynasty's external use of troops, under the careful management of Lao Zhu, the fiscal and taxation system can still operate efficiently.

But with the death of Lao Zhu, the later emperors had neither Zhu Yuanzhang's diligence nor Lao Zhu's prestige.

All kinds of ills appeared quickly... All the officials, whoever could get in their hands, were ruthlessly exploited, using various names of fire consumption to squeeze the people below.

Unable to bear the countless yamen, the food chiefs who have been exhausted for sustainability simply let go of their picks.

Father quit!

Local yamen also kept more and more wealth to meet their own expenses, and refused to turn it over to the court.

After so much, the fundamental problem of the Ming Dynasty's finances is that it has not established a complete system of general revenue and expenditure.

"My lord, the fulfillment of the will is the prestige of the king, and the arrival of wealth is the blessing of the king. Only when the lord holds the power of wealth and taxation in his hands can he be truly majestic and self-disciplined! Take it up and send it out." Going out is the full exercise of the king's power... It's really rare for this animal to have such insight!" Zhang Ximeng still appreciates Wang Huan a little bit, of course, only a little bit.

Zhu Yuanzhang gritted his teeth and was furious. From a salary, he led to the distribution of wealth and power. Zhu Yuanzhang was solid again and learned a lesson!

"Although this animal has some opinions, he has ulterior motives and wants to rely on loopholes to make a fortune. He even bribed and threatened our important ministers. Such a madman, if he doesn't kill it, it won't be enough to anger the people! Come, let the whole Wang family be killed. We copied it!"

Turning around, Lao Zhu said to Li Shanchang: "Let's go, go back now, and discuss financial and tax matters immediately without delay."

After Lao Zhu finished, Zhang Ximeng was in a good mood and followed behind. It seems that there may be hope for better finances.

Elder Li Shan's face was ashen, and he didn't know what storms were waiting for him!Lao Li can only catch up in a hurry...

Chapter 316 Finally

Zhu Yuanzhang's face was as sinking as water and as cold as iron.

It was obvious that he was furious.

Lao Zhu seemed to have turned into a ferocious beast that chose to devour people. From the inside to the outside, there was a horrifying aura.

This is not an exaggeration at all.

His two prime ministers were almost kidnapped, and a bold and arrogant royal family appeared under his nose... This is not a problem.

There are all kinds of birds in the big forest, and no hardcore ruthless person can surprise Lao Zhu, whoever made us the hardest one!

What he can't stand is that a mere businessman can easily see the loopholes in the fiscal and taxation system under his control. Faced with this level of output, Lao Zhu really can't stand it.

"You must discuss a result now, and we must know the solution immediately!"

Facing the officials headed by the two prime ministers, Lao Zhu yelled angrily. This time, even Zhang Ximeng was not eligible to be spared.Not to mention Li Shanchang, he only felt that [-]% of the anger was directed at him.

Whether it is life or death, it depends on the following discussion, whether Zhu Yuanzhang can be satisfied... "Everyone, there are many departments of finance, taxation and government at present. The state government also withholds money and food for its own use. All of these are numerous, and the Ministry of Education is unable to control the financial power, and each government office acts on its own. If this continues, there will be many problems and chaos, and it will even affect the overall situation..."

Li Shanchang thought about it until he realized that there were already so many problems. It seemed that he, Zuo Xiangguo, did not have any suggestions to benefit and eliminate disadvantages. It seemed that it was not unreasonable for Zhu Yuanzhang to vent his anger on him.

So how should the tax be reformed?

The big guys pondered for a long time, and no one was willing to express their opinion easily, for fear that a sentence would be wrong and cause trouble.

Li Shanchang looked around, and finally set his sights on Ruan Hongdao. There was nothing he could do, who made him the Minister of the Household Department!

"Ruan Shangshu, what do you think we should do?"

Ruan Hongdao blushed, he was silent for a while, then simply gritted his teeth, "Li Xiang, this matter is clearly there, it's just not good!"

Li Shanchang taught with a sullen face: "The boss is here, and the big guys are also here. Since you know the root of the disease, you should know everything without saying anything. I don't understand. What do you mean by hesitating?"

Ruan Hongdao sighed heavily again, turned his heart, and said proudly: "Li Xiang, then I will be bold, there are too few people in the household department, we need to add more people!"

After saying this, Ruan Hongdao seemed to have opened up the chatterbox.

"What does the Ministry of Households manage? As the name suggests, the household registrations in various places are under our control. How many households and how many people are there under the management, the yellow book is revised, and the households are organized to equalize the people... and it is also in charge of the land tax. How should the land tax be collected? How many are there in each place? When to ship, where to go, and how to receive them are all in the hands of the Ministry of Households. From this, warehouses in various places, Changping warehouses, military supply warehouses, and some military grain storage... are all in the hands of the Ministry of Households."

"Look, guys, which government office is busier than the household department? The yellow book of the population of the common people, the fish scale book distributed by the fields, the long list of grains in various places, and the storage situation. There are also treasure banknotes, tax cards, markets, iron yards, etc. Salt tea, copper and iron... these are just normal times, if there is a need for soldiers, the Ministry of Householding will recruit civilians to supply military supplies. There are so many of them. The burden of a thousand catties rests on the Ministry of Householding."

"Let's look at how many people are there in the household department? It's nothing more than a minister, two servants, and the officials who work below add up to dozens of people. Whoever is busy is busy. If you are not polite, everyone laughs at themselves. Since becoming an official Since then, there is no time to even have children, if you don’t believe me, you can ask, is there any official of the household department who has had children in the past few years?"

At this point, Ruan Hongdao felt aggrieved, "I strongly agree with the need to unify financial power and avoid multiple branches of government, and it should be done... But I have a saying, if you want the Ministry of Household Affairs to do things well, you must Increase the number of people. Or...or simply, follow the example of the end of the Tang Dynasty and order a minister to control the wealth and power in order to succeed. Otherwise, there will be no enough people, and everything will be empty talk!"

Just after Ruan Hongdao finished speaking, the big guy was still thinking about it, thinking that what he said was reasonable.But Yang Xian from the Ministry of War has already stepped forward, "Ruan Shangshu, your words are very reasonable, I just have a little doubt. The affairs of the household department are complicated and need to increase manpower, and even arrange three envoys to take over the financial power. This is your I mean... what about the Ministry of War? We have fewer things to do? The selection of generals, performance evaluation, ordnance production, rewards for soldiers, compensation for wounded soldiers, which one can be sloppy? According to your situation, should we also set up a privy envoy to be in charge of military power? ah?"

As soon as these words came out, Li Xi immediately said: "No, we have abandoned Zhao Song's bad government, and reopened the dynasty. How can we get back the third envoy and the privy envoy? I object!"

Ruan Hongdao was in a hurry, "When will I be restored to the third division? I am not enough people in the Ministry of Households!"

Yang Yuangao said quietly: "Since the household department is not enough, let the big guys share it. You, Ruan Shangshu, are also happy to be free."

"You! What do you mean? It is Li Xiang who wants to take over the financial power! I advocate increasing the manpower, is it wrong?"

Yang Xian still sneered and said: "It's okay to increase manpower, but it can't just be added to the household department! Also, your household department is not responsible for many things in Ruan Shangshu's office just now, such as fish scale books and yellow books, and the local yamen will bear the burden." There are a lot of them, you just collect them and hide them, how many people can you use?"

"Huh! The most important thing is to make households equal to the people and divide the land evenly. I have to personally check and verify every county's atlas. How can you allow your nonsense?"

……

This group of people came and went, making a fuss.

People like Song Lian and others were dumbfounded, as if they were stupid.

Isn't that the unified property right?

Why are there so many arguments?

What each of them said has a little truth, but put them all together, it becomes a mess, who should listen to?

The big guys are also at a loss.

Li Shanchang's old face was getting darker and darker, and he didn't dare to look back at Zhu Yuanzhang now, because he knew that the old Zhu was on the verge of breaking out at this moment.

These bastards, can't you have some brains?

When did you only care about fighting for self-interest?

No matter how nicely Ruan Hong said, in the final analysis, isn't it still necessary to expand power?Even to stand shoulder to shoulder with the three envoys, to put it bluntly, is to fight against himself.

The rest of the people didn't want to see the expansion of the household department, so they held back one after another.

It was roughly a basket of crabs, and one of them wanted to escape, but was caught by other crabs, one after another, and no one could escape.

This is the officialdom, which has a natural tendency to be stable. It is almost impossible to break the situation purely by brute force.

Li Shanchang's head was so big, he was afraid that Zhu Yuanzhang would explode in the next second, and then he would pay the bill for these bastards!

At this critical juncture, Zhang Ximeng laughed suddenly, and it was almost like spring breeze turned into rain, and he immediately laughed to Li Shanchang's heart.

"Zhang Xiang, what's your opinion, hurry up! Everyone, listen up!"

Sure enough, the others stopped and looked at Zhang Ximeng.

"If you want me to unify financial power, it is to prevent multiple branches of government, to improve efficiency and reduce disadvantages... In the end, no measures were taken, and I clamored to increase manpower and expand authority, so that I can really unify financial power and clarify taxes. ? I don't think so!"

After these few words, Ruan Hongdao's momentum dropped by half, and he was even a little panicked.

This trick of his was exposed in this way, Zhang Ximeng is really merciless!

Zhang Ximeng paused for a moment, then said again: "Let's pay the chief of grain first... I think it may be discussed in the future, but it cannot be abolished until the whole country is unified. The chief of grain comes from the people and is elected by the people. They not only shoulder the heavy responsibility of transporting grain , it is still a channel for people to express their sentiments. One of the advantages of our advocacy of the equalization of land is that it can mobilize the people, reduce the difficulty of governance, and save money... To put it bluntly, it is to let the people take the initiative to pay their grain and pay taxes, so we don’t need to arrange so many people , ran to the villages to collect collections. Give up the grain chief and increase the number of officials, how much should the increase be? Three times five times? Or ten times and eight times?"

Zhang Ximeng once again pointed the finger at Ruan Hongdao, and completely lost his temper with the Minister of the Household Department.

"The grain chief system cannot be changed. Sending taxes and grains to various places will inevitably lead to multiple orders, local interceptions, and even corruption and perverting the law... I mean, can we set up a special office to be responsible for reviewing and counting all taxes and grains?" ... We can't do the total income and expenditure of the household department for the time being, but we must have an accurate grasp of the overall land tax situation. Now it is convenient for the Lord and the Secretary of State to make a decision!"

When this idea came out, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up first.

In fact, he advocated the unification of financial power, because he saw that merchants and officials colluded and could easily embezzle and pervert the law.

If there is a yamen that can supervise all taxes and grains, no matter the household department or the locality, there is an accurate situation, which can make me feel at ease for a while, that would be very good.

After all, as Ruan Hongdao complained, the Ministry of Household Affairs really couldn't shoulder the responsibility of unifying finance and taxation.

This requires a thorough reform and adjustment of the entire official system.

But right now, the fire is not ready yet. To put it bluntly, good steel must be used on the blade, and the surplus money and food must be raised first.

In the end, Mr. Zhang still understands our thoughts, and everyone else is just adding to the chaos...

"Mr. Li, what does your Mr. Zhang mean?"

Li Shanchang hurriedly said: "What Zhang Xiang said is very true, I think it is very appropriate." Li Shanchang now has no intention to refute Zhang Ximeng, no matter what outrageous suggestions he puts forward, Li Shanchang can only agree with both hands.

Zhu Yuanzhang finally felt a little relieved, "Since this is the case, you two should discuss, what is the name of the new yamen, what is the main responsibility, who will be in charge, and hand it over to us in three days... Also, don't keep the Wang family. , If the moths live one more day, more officials will be bribed by them! When dealing with malignant tumors, you must be decisive and quick!"

Li Shanchang was horrified, and quickly bowed deeply, his voice trembling slightly, "I...understand!"

Chapter 317 Li Shanchang's Enlightenment

Lycium barbarum, red dates, and stevia were placed in a small stone mortar, slightly smashed, and then poured into boiling hot water. Immediately, the aroma rose, and the water turned bright yellow.

Red dates protect the liver, wolfberry nourishes qi, and stevia is even more remarkable, mainly treating thirst and high blood pressure.

Putting the three together is the best drink for office clerks, and it tastes better after being refrigerated.Compared with milk tea, it is much healthier.

In front of Zhang Ximeng, there was a steaming pot of jujube tea.

As a man who is almost at the top of the civil service, life is so plain and boring...

"Zhang Xiang, this jujube tea is also an ordinary thing. Compared with West Lake Longjing, it is naturally not worth mentioning!" Li Shanchang sighed sincerely after taking a sip.

Zhang Ximeng rolled his eyes, didn't say anything, just lowered his head and drank water... If you, Old Li, have a conscience, you can send me some more. If you encounter trouble in the future, I can give you a hand, otherwise you just wait Bad luck!

Sure enough, Li Shanchang seemed to have sensed Zhang Ximeng's intentions. He tasted it carefully, and then said with a smile: "Actually, I am also a layman. Wild boars can't eat fine chaff. I will make some jujube tea later. Zhang Xiang, don't look at it." You are so young, you are my teacher everywhere!"

Zhang Ximeng's face instantly collapsed, I have enough apprentices, I don't miss you!

Am I short of an apprentice?

I miss West Lake Longjing!

I miss that misty and hazy superb yard!

Zhang Ximeng accepted his fate and didn't bother to talk nonsense. Three days after Zhu Yuanzhang told him and Li Shanchang, he came up with a plan... This time it was not just empty talk of principles, there must be something real.

Time must not be lost.

"Brother Li, let's sort it out!"

Li Shanchang hastily put down his teacup, and said seriously, "I'm going to listen to Xiang Zhang's opinion."

Zhang Ximeng said: "Brother Li, I don't have any good opinions here... I just want to ask you, what do you think of Zhongshu Sheng?"

Li Shanchang looked solemn, pondered for a while, and then said: "Master Zhang, the Zhongshu Province inherited the Zhongshu sect of the Song Dynasty, and it was also the Tang Dynasty's political affairs hall. It has always been the place where government affairs are handled. The chief minister, assisting the king, governing the people, linking the past and the future, Assisting the country and governing the people.”

Zhang Ximeng smiled faintly, "Brother Li, do you really think so?"

"This... I can't say."

Zhang Ximeng laughed loudly, "Brother Li, if you don't say it, I will say it. The position of the prime minister is actually a position with a huge gap between the top and the bottom. Since ancient times, the power minister can easily lift the emperor, control the government, and monopolize the power. And the incompetent prime minister, And it’s just the emperor’s messenger, such as the famous Sanzhi Xianggong, that’s it.”

"There are thousands of differences between the prime minister and the prime minister, but no matter Zhongshusheng, Zhongshumenxia, ​​Zhengshitang, Shangshusheng, or any other name, they all naturally hope to expand their power. This expansion has the purpose of encroaching on the emperor. power, and there is also a downward pressure on the Baiguan government office... Brother Li, what do you think of what I said?"