Chapter 960 1049 Ding Sijuan

Wei Guangde's strategy to control Huang started from the upstream and was arranged clearly all the way to the downstream. Zhang Juzheng naturally understood it.

However, Zhang Juzheng was not sure whether such a big battle would have any actual effect.

After thinking about it for a while, I figured it out.

Despite Wei Guangde's suggestion to treat the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River at the same time, in fact the imperial court did not need to bear anything; it was all done with money from local people.

Build some reservoirs in the upper reaches to store water to control the amount of water flowing into the middle and lower reaches. We also find places to store some water in the middle reaches. In the final analysis, it is all to control the amount of water.

As for the downstream, Wei Guangde didn't have many suggestions, but there was Wang Gong's memorial, so it didn't hurt to let him try it for the time being.

However, Wei Guangde's suggestion seems to be reasonable. All the troubles in the Yellow River are in the lower reaches, and there are basically no floods in the middle and upper reaches. What does this mean?

Not to mention that the incident was actually caused by too much water and too much sediment.

Controlling water volume and reducing sediment flow downstream may actually be effective.

"I have no objection. Send a letter to Mr. Wan and let him consider the matter. He Qing, what do you think?"

Zhang Juzheng expressed his stance.

"You can try it, I hope it works."

Lu Tiaoyang nodded.

Since the Tang and Song dynasties, all dynasties seem to have been unable to deal with the Yellow River. Floods have become more and more severe in the Ming Dynasty. All we can say is that you can try any reasonable plan. If it works, it will naturally be the best. If not, then continue to think of a way.

After finishing talking about Wei Guangde, Zhang Juzheng also started talking about him.

During this period of time, when he had nothing to do, he read the memorials of Jiangxi and Nanzhili on the trial implementation of a whip method. There were both good and bad in them. To promote it nationwide, it was naturally impossible to copy the methods of Jiangxi and Nanzhili. The imperial court You still have to think about it all.

Which ones are fixed rules and must be implemented, and which ones can be flexibly adjusted by each province, must be carefully considered.

There was no way, Zhang Juzheng had not planned to bring this matter to the cabinet for discussion so early, because Wei Guangde proposed reforming the money law, so he had to throw it out now.

In Zhang Juzheng's plan, he first used the examination method to clean up the officialdom.

After the official clean-up is completed, another whipping method can get twice the result with half the effort.

If we still follow the original rules, we don't know what will happen to the whipping method.

But when Zhang Juzheng was thinking recently, he discovered a thorny issue, which was the issue of tax sharing if all taxes and services were collected in silver.

Seeing the figures of Hubu's acres from the Hongwu Dynasty to the present Wanli Dynasty, he felt his head was heavy, and the food was too ugly.

For more than a hundred years, the court said that the acres of taxable land had decreased instead of increasing, and the decrease was outrageous, which was not normal at all.

So he thought that before implementing a whipping method across the country, he would have to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to clear the country's acres.

The results of the Qing Dynasty were used as the tax base to distribute taxes to various places.

Clearing the land may seem like a small matter, but the final result may be completely different from the current registration in the Ministry of Household Affairs, and may eventually lead to a big trouble that they cannot avoid, that is, errors and omissions in the Yellow Book of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

All officials actually know what is going on in the Yellow Register, which records land acres and household registration information all over the world.

If the land area is wrong, what about the household registration?

At the beginning, Wei Guangde proposed the plan of "dividing a small amount of money into a piece of land", which was to incorporate the corvee's silver into a whip method and break it into small amounts of silver.

This amount of money actually existed in the past. When local governments did not have projects that required corvee collection, they would collect it at a discount.

Or because this is not a regular project of the imperial court. In Zhu Yuanzhang's beautiful idea, that is, when the imperial court needs it, it recruits people's power. When it is not needed, it is natural for the people to rest and recuperate.

But it turned out that it was just wishful thinking on his part.

The dingyin collected by the government was not handed over to the court, but stayed in the local area. In the end, it actually went into the pockets of the officials.

After the tenants were allotted their land, taxes and servitude were combined and converted into silver. Naturally, all taxes and silver had to be sent to the court in proportion, and the remainder was local.

If the place needs money, then reach out to the court so that the court can control the place. This is a clever trick.

In fact, in later generations, the so-called tax reform is also a game of tax distribution, a game between the central and local governments, competing for the right to distribute tax revenue.

The key point of Zhang Juzheng's economic approach lies in land.

At this time, the phenomenon of land annexation and deception of the government was very serious across the country. Dingkou fled, his household registration was unclear, and the local tax burden was extremely unbalanced, resulting in "the country was deprived and the people were poor", and only local gentry and officials benefited.

In response to this, Zhang Juzheng came up with the plan to re-measure the acres of land across the country, check for leaked land, and at the same time recover the accumulated tax arrears.

In fact, one of the purposes of the Kao Cheng Law itself was to recover accumulated tax arrears. The court was too poor.

Wei Guangde used coined money to increase profits for the court. He also had to think of ways to greatly increase the court's income, otherwise he would be outcompeted by Wei Guangde.

But if he clears his land, he will have to face the problem of yellow registration.

How many households are there in the world, how many people are there, and where are they distributed?

It can be said that clearing land and household registration are very consuming tasks for the government and cannot be carried out lightly.

These two points are also known as the biggest obstacles to the implementation of the one-whip method.

If the land acres and household registration are unclear, a single whipping law will not achieve its purpose, because the purpose of this law is to combine land taxes, corvee and other miscellaneous levies in various states and counties into one, consolidate and levy silver tael, and pay it per mu.

The Yellow Book and Fish Scale Book of the Ming Dynasty recorded the household registration and land situation of the whole country respectively, and were the basis for the court to collect taxes and labor service.

Wei Guangde and Lu Diaoyang listened to Zhang Juzheng's ideas quietly, and they were a little hesitant.

They knew the problem, of course, but the Yellow Book and Fish Scale Book had to be updated, and the manpower and material resources consumed were not a simple matter of moving the lips.

But even the Yellow Book, according to the rules set by Zhu Yuanzhang, was recompiled every ten years. Every compilation required the mobilization of local government and thousands of students from the Imperial College in the north and south to participate in it.

It was also because it was too troublesome, so in the middle period, the Yellow Book gradually became a formality. Many places directly copied the previous Yellow Book, but only added ten years to each person registered in it.

For this reason, Hangzhou had a joke at the beginning, that is, there were hundreds of centenarians in Hangzhou.

But in fact, many of these people were gone, but the compilation officials just copied it to save trouble.

Checking the land and finding the hidden land is conducive to the distribution of taxes and labor service, which is "equalization", but if the population is also checked, the workload will be huge.

But the population involves the silver for the capitation, so should we not check it?

You know, the slogan of the court's trial of the "One Whip Law" is "equalizing taxes and labor service, and relieving the people's difficulties", and it is not only the taxes that are checked, but also the labor service.

"There is one thing that Shandai may not know. I just suddenly remembered it yesterday and felt that there might be something strange in it."

Zhang Juzheng said, "This is the matter reported in Nanjing in the fifth year of Longqing. At that time, Shandai was still in mourning in his hometown."

So, in Zhang Juzheng's mouth, an old story in Nanzhili was turned up and talked about in the cabinet.

"This matter originated in the 14th year of Jiajing. Cheng Peng and Wang Xiang, who were from She County, Huizhou Prefecture, Nanzhili, discovered that She County had to pay a tax of "population silk and silk" alone, totaling 6146 taels of silver, while the other five counties under Huizhou Prefecture did not have to pay.

They found something wrong and reported the situation to Huizhou Prefecture many times, and even reported it to the governor and the inspector of Yingtian. Because the governor and the inspector were transferred soon, and the officials in charge were from the other five counties, the matter was delayed until the two died, and the matter was left unresolved.

In the third year of Longqing, the Huizhou Prefecture, which was under the jurisdiction of Huizhou Prefecture, Jia Mo, the military household commander of Xin'an Guard in the prefecture, found that the "population silk and silk" should be borne by She County alone, and verified his idea through the records in Huizhou Prefecture Chronicles. He continued to submit a report after Cheng Peng and Wang Xiang, detailing his investigation process and submitting it to Liu Shihui, the then Yingtian Inspector General, and Hai Rui, the Yingtian Governor. "

The so-called "population silk and silk" means that silk and silk are collected according to the registered population and paid in kind. The collected original silk is supplied to the official weaving, and the discounted silk is sent to the central government for salary and reward.

The silk and silk tax in the Ming Dynasty is mainly divided into summer tax silk and silk, agricultural silk and silk and population silk and silk.

The silk and silk tax in the northern region of the Ming Dynasty retained the practice of collecting taxes from household registration and population, which was called "population silk and silk". The silk and silk tax in the southern region was collected according to the number of acres of land, which belonged to the land tax and was called "summer tax silk and silk".

This is actually where the tax collection in the early Ming Dynasty was flexible. There were many people in the north, and miscellaneous taxes were mostly distributed according to household registration and identification, while there were more fields in the south, so they were directly distributed on the land.

This is because the population in Jiangnan dropped sharply after years of war in the early Ming Dynasty, while there were relatively few wars in the north, and the population reduction was limited.

Therefore, the population silk mentioned by Zhang Juzheng should actually be the summer tax silk, but the meaning is similar, and Wei Guangde does not need to remind him.

"Can the source of this matter be investigated?"

Wei Guangde frowned and asked.

Since this matter has been heard by Zhang Juzheng, Nanjing must have found out the source when reporting it.

"It is indeed recorded in the "Collected Statutes" that Huizhou Prefecture needs to pay 8,780 pieces of silk for its population every year, which is equivalent to more than 6,100 taels of silver, but there is no record that She County should bear it alone.

In addition, it has been verified that it was not only She County that owed summer wheat in the early Ming Dynasty. The other five counties of Huizhou also owed more than 10,700 shi in total, but they did not pay it back.

Furthermore, if wheat is converted into silver, according to the official discount standard at the time, 3 cents per shi, this amount is only 3,000 taels, but if it is converted into 8,780 pieces of silk, 7 cents per piece, it will cost more than 6,000 taels.

According to the situation after the investigation in Nanjing, this tax should actually be borne by She County, 3,000 taels, The other five counties should bear more than 3,000 taels.

It was just that the copyist of the Secretariat made a mistake and mistakenly put the tax silver borne by the six counties of Huizhou on She County, and it has been borne until now. "

Zhang Juzheng sighed: "It has been more than a hundred years since the Hongwu period, and She County has always borne thousands of taels of tax silver more than the five surrounding counties.

Yesterday I remembered that I looked through Shuai Jiamo's petition, and there was a good sentence in the petition.

'The way of the world is to call for equality, so if things are not balanced, they will complain. She County has been heavily taxed for a long time, and the people are extremely distressed. I personally met the benevolent and wise in power, and I prepared a petition and begged for equality'.

This article is well-founded and should be true. "

Zhang Juzheng was silent after he finished speaking, letting Wei Guangde understand the meaning of his words himself.

"You want to check the taxes and levies in the world?"

Wei Guangde understood that in order to promote the fairness and justice of the Yitiaobian Law, Zhang Juzheng planned to conduct a check on the taxes and levies recorded in the "Da Ming Hui Dian".

You know, Zhu Yuanzhang set the taxes and labor service for various places and ordered the emperors of the future generations not to change them.

The matter of She County was probably not only noticed by the Jiajing Dynasty, but no one said anything because of this.

After all, this tax and labor service has been recorded in She County and it is difficult to change it.

Zhang Juzheng still did not say a word in response to Wei Guangde's question.

Rubbing his hands, Wei Guangde was a little worried that the matter would get worse and it would not end well. Even if it was justified, it would be difficult to overturn the established facts, so he asked again: "Since this matter has happened for many years, what is the situation in Nanzhili?" How to deal with it?”

"Governor Hai Rui gave an instruction to "yangfu to investigate and report the seizure", and inspector Liu Shihui instructed to "ask Huizhou to convene responsible officials, squires, elders and other people from the six counties for a collegial discussion."

Since then, all counties have responded, among which Jixi County has responded with the statement "It will be accepted as usual, so that the common people will not have to worry about sudden changes in the common people, and the government and the people will be satisfied." "

Only then did Zhang Juzheng speak.

"hiss"

Wei Guangde took a breath, Jixi County could dare to say threatening words to Haigangfeng.

Doesn’t the worry of the small people’s violent upheaval refer to the popular uprising?

However, the surprise only lasted for a moment. Wei Guangde suddenly realized that the matter might not be that simple.

After lowering his head and thinking for a moment, he roughly figured out the reason. He couldn't help but look up at Zhang Juzheng and asked, "Are they dissatisfied with the whipping method?"

Any government decree is actually mutual. There is only so much wealth in the world. Either you give more, or they give more, and the total amount remains unchanged.

If the whip method is introduced to alleviate people's difficulties, it will be a huge loss to those who have previously gained vested interests.

"What happens after that?"

Seeing that Zhang Juzheng did not answer, Wei Guangde asked again, "What happened in the fifth year of Longqing?"

"Shuai Jiamo checked the surveys of Huizhou from the previous dynasties of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and guessed that the Huizhou household clerks had committed fraud, which caused all the tin silk silk to be transferred to She County.

At the end of the fourth year of Longqing's reign, Shuai Jiamo submitted his new discovery to Huizhou Prefecture. When there was no response, he decided to go to Beijing.

In the fifth year of Longqing's reign, the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate replied that "the codes must be followed, the taxes should be distributed equally, and the copies should be made according to the discretion." The Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs approved "the title of Hou's headquarters patrolling the Yamen", and also issued a special notice to Huizhou Prefecture. A speech asking them to explain and come up with solutions.

But until now, there seems to be no progress. "

Zhang Juzheng replied.

"Where is the handsome Jiamo man? Since he has done so many things, it is impossible for him to do nothing in the past two years."

Wei Guangde said in surprise.

“I just want to use this case as an example as the source of the investigation of taxes and levies, first to check the taxes and levies, then to check the household registration and re-edit the yellow roll, and finally to clear the land and acres.

After these things were done, a whipping method was implemented in the thirteen provinces of Ming Dynasty.

Otherwise, if we promote a whipping method based on the current situation under the control of the Ministry of Revenue, we are afraid that it will fail. "

Zhang Juzheng said.

Hearing this, Wei Guangde frowned slightly and said, "Uncle, this method has been implemented in many places in Jiangnan. There is nothing wrong with it."

"It was implemented by the prefectures and counties. If there are any mistakes, just correct them in time. But when the imperial court implements it throughout the Ming Dynasty, it must consider these impacts. Shandai will not forget what happened in Shandong."

Zhang Juzheng reminded, "Yellow books and white books are also not conducive to the court's actions and must be unified."

Wei Guangde felt a toothache. Now Ge Shouli, the censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, was appointed as the Minister of Household Affairs in the first year of Longqing. He opposed the whipping method because of the Shandong Rebellion.

As for the yellow book and the white book, Nanjing Huguang Road Examination Supervisor Chen Tang also made it clear in the memorial.