"It's not right, it's really not right!"
In the Huangji Hall, the Minister of Revenue Fang Yuegong was trying his best to dissuade Emperor Chongzhen.
"Your Majesty, it would be fine if you exempted the land tax for one year, but if you also exempted corvée labor, the local government offices would have to be provided with everything they needed. This would be a huge expense! According to the current treasury reserves, it is not enough for a year!"
"The ratio of tax revenue to revenue is about 50-50. Now the local governments have no money left, and the national treasury has less than 10 million taels of silver. The local governments have no money and need to withdraw money from the national treasury. This money will be gone by October at most!"
Li Banghua, the chief minister of the cabinet, also advised: "Your Majesty, please be cautious. The money in the national treasury and the inner court can only be used for one year. If the summer grain is not collected in time next year, we will face the dilemma of having no money to use. The silver for corvée labor adds up to a huge amount of one million taels. Although it is not much, it can help in an emergency!"
Fan Jingwen and Qiu Yu also kept on nagging and trying to persuade him.
After Wu Sangui left, Chongzhen discussed administrative and economic issues with the cabinet.
Before talking about the administration of officials, he was the first to turn his knife to corvee labor.
The purpose of rectifying the administration of officials is nothing more than to combat corruption.
Where does greed come from?
There is usually only one way for officials to engage in corruption: taking advantage of the opportunity to collect taxes to levy exorbitant taxes and impose additional levies privately.
The court asked them to collect one tael, but they collected three taels. The court did not have this part of the tax revenue, so they made up some excuses to levy additional taxes.
If we want to reform the civil service and solve the problem of corruption, we must first eliminate the channels for corruption.
Just like the rural corruption problem before he traveled through time, after he stopped paying public grain, the corruption problem related to public grain disappeared instantly.
"Don't persuade me any more. I am determined to rectify the administration and corruption. I will start from the capital. If there is no effect after a month, I will obey you completely."
The cabinet had no choice but to agree temporarily.
In fact, Li Banghua also wanted to know whether the emperor's method was effective. If so, he would immediately arrange for the whole country to follow suit.
"Official administration is the inducing factor. The fundamental reason why bandits cannot be eradicated is the collusion between officials and businessmen!" Chongzhen stared at the four cabinet ministers, seeming to be thinking about something.
Li Banghua was confused and hurriedly bowed: "Your Majesty, please give me your instructions!"
Then, Chongzhen told him in detail the situation he had.
Historically.
There was generally enough food in the late Ming Dynasty. Except for areas with severe disasters, there was surplus food everywhere else.
Why would they rebel if they had enough to eat?
At the root of it all, those farmers were forced to rebel due to collusion between officials and businessmen.
As we all know, the Ming Dynasty was based on silver.
At the beginning of the country, most of the taxes were collected in kind. In the middle and late stages, most of the taxes were changed from kind to silver.
There is no problem with collecting silver.
However, the population of the Ming Dynasty was growing at that time, and most of the silver was hidden in the mansions of princes, merchants, and wealthy gentry, who were reluctant to spend it.
Over time, a problem arose: there was a shortage of silver in the market.
What’s even worse is that the imperial court collected taxes in silver, and farmers had to exchange grain for silver in order to pay taxes.
So after the summer and autumn crops were harvested, grain buyers took advantage of the opportunity when the government was collecting land taxes and tried their best to lower the purchase price of grain.
Originally, one stone of grain could be sold for one tael of silver. In order to exchange the silver as quickly as possible to deal with the government's collection, farmers needed to exchange two stones or even more grain for one tael of silver.
Logically speaking, food prices would rise during natural disasters, but farmers just couldn’t sell the food at a high price.
What's more, after they exchanged all the grain they had for silver, they found that the money was still not enough to pay the taxes.
How can they not rebel?
When Chongzhen put forward this theory, several members of the cabinet stood there in silence for a long time.
Fang Yuegong opened his mouth and found that he didn't know what to say.
He looked at the Prime Minister Li Banghua and found that this elder was also standing there with his eyes wide open, at a loss as to what to do.
"The officials of my Ming Dynasty actually colluded with businessmen. They all deserve to die!" Li Banghua said angrily after he recovered.
Chongzhen waved his hands: "Mr. Li, you are wrong!"
Wrong?
Li Banghua was confused. What was wrong with what he said? If it weren't for the corrupt officials and profiteers, the farmers wouldn't have been exploited so severely.
Chongzhen smiled faintly: "Collecting taxes is an indicator for the court to evaluate officials, and merchants pursue profits, they will go wherever there is profit!"
"You can say they are all wrong, or you can say they are both right! If you think about it carefully, it is actually the system that has loopholes!"
"As for the solution to this problem, I..."
Just as Chongzhen was about to continue speaking, he heard Wang Chengen's anxious voice outside the door.
"Your Majesty...something...something happened."
"Come in and talk."
"Yes!" Wang Chengen pushed open the door and trotted to Chongzhen.
"After reading what was said in the newspaper, the students of the Imperial College were a little dissatisfied with the promotion of the status of craftsmen. Later, the Hanlin Academy also learned about this matter, and these people united to petition His Majesty... and said that if His Majesty did not go, they would kneel down and die!"
"Petition? Kneel down and die?" Li Banghua's eyebrows almost stood up.
This is no joke. At the very least, it is a petition and a remonstrance. At the most serious level, it is forcing the emperor to submit.
He stood up suddenly, bowed to Chongzhen and said, "Your Majesty! These nerds have become stupid because of reading too much! The bandits have been gone for just a few days and they are already causing trouble. Your Majesty, wait a moment, I will go and deal with them right away."
"Wait..." Chongzhen waved his hand.
Li Banghua's heart skipped a beat...
It's bad. Based on his recent understanding of the emperor, he is afraid that someone is going to be killed.
"Your Majesty, please forgive me. As the chief minister of the cabinet, I did not discipline my subordinates strictly. Please give me a chance to redeem myself."
Chongzhen ignored Li Banghua and asked Wang Chengen: "Where are they now? What is the content of the petition?"
Faced with Chongzhen's questioning, Wang Chengen hesitated to speak.
"You didn't say that, repeat it again!"
"Yes, Your Majesty. They gathered outside the Meridian Gate and asked Your Majesty to abolish the policy of exempting craftsmen from corvée labor. It seems that there were other demands as well, but they were all just a lot of noise but little action, and few people agreed."
Chongzhen smiled with disdain. He thought it was some big deal, but is it just this?
However, he admired these students and Hanlin scholars very much. They were willing to risk being beheaded to petition the emperor, which showed their character.
It turns out that the character of the Ming Dynasty's literati did not disappear, but was transferred to some young people.
etc...
Suddenly, Chongzhen thought of a way to deal with factional disputes.
"Mr. Li, please go back to the government office and do your job first. I need to meet with these young people! We can discuss the administration of officials and the policy of benefiting the people another day. Some things cannot be rushed."
Li Banghua hesitated and asked, "Your Majesty, don't you want us to accompany you?"
"No need, we are all scholars, we should just talk instead of do it!"
Li Banghua sighed helplessly and turned away with the others.
Under the escort of the Embroidered Uniform Guards and the Imperial Guards, Chongzhen arrived outside the Meridian Gate.
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