New Shun 1730

After laughing, Li Gan's expression gradually became serious.

He read it once, then read it again, put down the memorial, and remained silent.

This "letter" looks a bit like "Mosquito Prison", which is obviously a pretext.

Before each reform, there is a sentence "The students of the Imperial College taught me..."

Taking advantage of the "righteous" words of the Imperial College, they misinterpreted their meaning, reconstructed every sentence, and hit the soft spot of the gentry everywhere.

You said that since it is for "righteousness" and for the order of hierarchy, then just collect money. Hiring others to serve after adding money is the law of the Song and Ming dynasties, which not only retains the dignity of the gentry, but also reduces the burden on the people. Of course, exemptions are allowed, but there must be a limit for exemptions. Find out the limit clearly. It's not easy for you to say anything about this in terms of righteousness, right? If you want to oppose, then you are not a gentleman, you are a villain who talks about profit.

You said that we should increase the words of sages and cut off the knowledge of foreigners, then we should go one step further, close the country to the outside world, and even prohibit exports, so that the gentry in Jiangnan who invested in export-oriented industries would have nowhere to cry.

You said that Wude Palace should be abolished and the words of sages should be added, then abolish it. After abolishing it, let the students of Wude Palace go to Jiangnan, so that you don’t say that the children of Wude Palace lack the knowledge of sages and can’t govern the country.

You said that we can’t let the dignity of the country fall, then we won’t. Raise taxes, didn’t the previous dynasty have Liao and Lian taxes? This dynasty can also add border taxes.

You said that as long as we educate the soldiers and let the soldiers know the righteousness of loyalty to the emperor, the soldiers will naturally have doubled their courage. Then educate them, let the students of the Imperial College and the scholars who are going to take the imperial examination go to the border to educate the soldiers...

Every one of them seems to be said in anger, and many of them are just looking for trouble, but many of them are completely feasible.

Li Gan has seen many young people like Chen Zhen.

Full of passion, but lack of practice; unrealistic, but thinks he has great righteousness.

This is called "ambition, unwilling to work hard, like to be a high official, otherwise think that great talent is underused, bury heroes, do one job and complain about it, the grass is greener on the other side, can't do big things, unwilling to do small things, even if you do it, there is no plan..."

Such people's words are just for listening, anyway, they are idle anyway, and few people in the court will really care.

Li Gan really didn't expect that Liu Yu could play like this.

It seems to be nonsense, but some items clearly point out a way of reform.

For example, it is said above that the Mingsuan subject of the Tang Dynasty can be restored in the Wude Palace, and then increased according to the needs of this dynasty.

For example, the study of clerks, accounting, coroners, land measurement, agronomy, etc. can be added to cultivate enough talents for a province or a prefecture.

If necessary, they will be airdropped here, taking over the whole situation, checking the land, reviewing the case, and reporting taxes.

These people are directly under the emperor, or the princes are sent to the town, and have no connection with the local gentry.

And because they have everything from officials to clerks, there is no need to worry about the local shutdown.

In addition, it is not a permanent place, so there is no need to worry about taking root in the local area.

Directly under the emperor and the princes are sent to the town, there is no need to worry about the pressure from the local area.

As long as a few events are held, killing the chicken to scare the monkey, other places will naturally be clean for a while.

And there is no need to raise too many people, only three to five hundred people are needed, and the court will only spend tens of thousands of taels of silver a year.

Going out for inspection every now and then, not to mention several times the silver can be brought back, at least it can extend the life of Dashun for a few more years.

Because Wude Palace does not follow the imperial examination system, but is more similar to the good family and Yulinlang of the Han and Tang Dynasties, there is no need to worry about this force being interfered with by others.

The Wenyuyuan, which was independent after the promotion of the Wenxuansi of the Ministry of Personnel, was still under the control of civil officials, but the people in the Wude Palace were completely dependent on the imperial power.

There were naturally big problems in using the hereditary soldiers of the Old Five Camp as the sons of good families in the six counties and the Wude Palace as the Yulin Lang.

The Han and Tang Dynasties were both magnificent and crisis-ridden.

Liu Yu did not mention this in this letter to the emperor, but he had said it before: reform the military system, have a system of soldiers, so that soldiers who do not know the generals and generals who do not know the soldiers can also fight, strengthen the strength of the Beijing Camp Imperial Guard, all middle-level officers come from the newly established military academy, the emperor directly serves as the principal, and the middle-level officers are all disciples of the emperor. Reform the system of commanding, leading and training soldiers, and the brave generals will be removed from power and enter the General Staff, and the young people will be filled with their powers and responsibilities, so that the emperor can always use the General Staff to provide battle guidance and maintain prestige in the army.

At the same time, increase the number of flintlock rifles and field artillery, so that any army without the logistics of the central government will be unable to fight. The deeper the reform, the greater the reliance on logistics.

This should avoid the disasters of Tang Dynasty's vassal states and Han Dynasty's generals.

These things rely on each other and gradually form a system, so that this seemingly nonsense letter is actually a reform direction that is at least feasible.

However, only half of it was said, and the other half was said privately when I was in the northern border.

Before implementing the land survey, tax evasion, the strengthened version of the "One Whip Law", and the unified tax payment of gentry, one province can be selected for trial, and talents directly under the central government are needed.

The three-house system and the five-camp hereditary soldiers created by Emperor Taizong have already reserved a basic base for this talent. Only some clerks need to be added to meet the needs of one province and one prefecture.

As for the saying that if you don't go to the border to educate, you can't take the exam for Juren, that's all nonsense. It's not practical and it's easy to cause chaos in the southeast.

The art of politics lies in compromise, and the basis of compromise lies in mutual threats.

If the Wude Palace really adds practical learning and clerk learning, it is equivalent to the imperial power having another knife to threaten the gentry: whether to use it or not is one thing, and whether it has the ability to stab you is another.

The lesson of the previous dynasty is that the art of compromise was messed up. Civil officials can only threaten, but the centralized government is unable to counter the threat. In the later period, there is no compromise at all, and the gentry in Jiangnan is completely rotten.

The killer move of this memorial is that it is all open conspiracy, without conspiracy: no matter how long the imperial examination gentry stretches, they can't reach the old five camps of hereditary soldiers and Wude Palace.

Every year, Wude Palace recruits a group of people who can carry out land inventory and accounting calculations. Scholars disdain to do it, but there are many people who are willing to do it. Being a big head soldier only pays two taels of silver a month, and there are many hereditary soldiers in the old five camps who don't want to be big heads.

A real murderous knife hidden in a bunch of nonsense is exactly what Li Gan expects to "muddy the water".

Liu Yu's status is not high, but his achievements are great. He has no party members and no foundation. He is the most suitable person to muddy the water.

Of course, these changes cannot be used at this time.

Although they are not used, they can be used to bargain with the gentry and the Confucian scholars: set a bottom line. Within this bottom line, you should stop making trouble. If you make trouble again, I will try to do what Liu Yu said.

Let's compromise with each other, take a step back, and everyone will be happy. If you really push me, I am not without a knife to kill. Although there will be pain, I can't care if I push you to the point.

Once the bottom line is drawn, both sides will stop fighting.

The students of the Imperial College made trouble, and Li Gan was not stupid. He had been the emperor for so many years. This incident was deliberately slapping the emperor in the face to make the emperor sober: If you continue to do this, we have the ability to make the world's public opinion uproar. If you want to expand the border, we can make you expand it to make you exhausted.

This Chen Zhen is just a passionate young man who was used by others. Li Gan could only deal with the previous fight in a cold way.

But he never expected that Liu Yu would take such an unconventional approach.

In this way, the emperor does not need to say anything, and naturally someone will settle the public opinion as a bargaining attitude and sincerity.

Of course, this bargaining can get a lot of things in return, naturally not just the small matter of fighting between the two sides, which requires subsequent bargaining.

After reading Liu Yu's memorials again and again, Li Gan has already formulated a bottom line for negotiation.

The reform still needs to be done, but before pacifying Junggar, this matter can be delayed and frightened, and don't do anything like the public opinion storm of the Shilin Society.

I thought, Liu Shouchang, Liu Shouchang, you are really "obedient". I told you to be "legitimate", and you really are legitimate, and you can actually make such a scene on the drum.

But Chen Zhen is really pitiful. He is also a passionate child. Now that you have forced him like this, will he still have a way to live in the future? How many people want to peel off his skin, but he is not the son of a nobleman, nor a student of Wude Palace...

You really can't bear any loss. In order to get revenge, you can even do such a thing as asking for punishment. You have to grind someone's bones and scatter his ashes even if you lose seven points of your own face, and you have to let the person you trust the most grind his bones and scatter his ashes. There is nothing more sad than a dead heart.

Righteousness and profit, I'm afraid there is no righteousness in your eyes, all profit. Everything can be traded, everything can be converted. Including face, even... life.

Where is your weakness? What is it that you really dare not gamble with, and what can be caught and controlled?

After thinking carefully for a long time, Li Gan subconsciously wrote the word "Tao" in the blank space of the memorial.

At least now, it seems that the only thing that can threaten Liu Yu is the "Tao" he wants to implement. Li Gan couldn't tell what this "Tao" was at this time, because now it was all "techniques". After looking at it for a long time, he could only see "one heart for the country", at least at this time.

But Li Gan was very suspicious that these "one heart for the country" actions were also techniques, not Tao. What did Liu Yu really want to do?

For a long time, he couldn't figure it out. Just like Zhuge Wuhou, the only thing that could threaten him was "no northern expedition unless you promise me one thing", but on the other hand, what was more important than the northern expedition?

"Is this really a loyal minister? Let's take a look. If the techniques are used more, maybe we can get a glimpse of his Tao."

Thinking of this, Li Gan laughed and asked the eunuch to send this thing to the writing room after the reform of the former Zhongshu Department, and asked people to copy dozens of copies immediately and send them to the officials in the court. The court will discuss this matter tomorrow.

Then, Li Gan wrote a sentence on the memorial: Since you admit your guilt, all the students in Wude Palace who participated in the fight will be fined ten taels of silver, and the money must be paid within a time limit. The Tianyou Palace will discuss it.

…………

That night, the whole capital was in an uproar.

The memorial was copied in the writing room and had already been circulated among the officials who were qualified to participate in the court discussion. Just as the Left Assistant Censor of the Censorate thought, this was a thunderbolt thrown into the hearth.

What was even more bizarre was the emperor's reply: All the students in Wude Palace who participated in the fight were fined ten taels of silver.

Is this a fine?

What kind of fine is this? It's just short of writing "You did a good job" on it.

Not to mention that most of the people who participated in the fight were descendants of dukes and earls, and they didn't need the ten taels of silver.

Even the rest, all together, there were less than a hundred people. A thousand taels of silver, who can't afford the families of the first few people who made trouble?

Things like arrears, concealment, righteousness and profit, gentry paying taxes, exemptions, exemptions from military service, etc., which have evolved into tax evasion, are a cesspool of accumulated manure. No one is willing to jump into it, and no one is willing to take the initiative to lift the cloth covering the pit.

In theory, exemptions are not exemptions from land tax. But paying taxes is not just paying taxes, but also transporting them, which is the big part.

No matter who you are, you have to pay national taxes. But the first tax is light, and the second tax is heavy. After paying the grain, you have to transport it away. The national treasury doesn't pay, and you have to do some miscellaneous work, such as cleaning the river and receiving superiors... These are all solved by the local government.

This requires people.

The clerks and gentry can force people to death with this labor service if they make a little move: young man, you are the only laborer in your family. I see that you have special bones, so you should go to the capital to transport grain. If you leave, your family will have no labor, and your old mother will starve to death? Then you should show some respect.

Whether it was the Ming Dynasty or the Shun Dynasty, the theoretical land tax was not heavy. Even if the Ming Dynasty levied three taxes, it was not much according to the theoretical amount.

But the problem is that the labor service and miscellaneous labor did not go into the national treasury, and the burden on the people was actually very heavy.

Pay taxes, pay taxes. It does not mean paying only grain taxes, but paying grain taxes plus transporting grain. Working with mud legs is indeed unworthy of the literati, but you can pay money, and there are exemptions. This loophole is huge.

The court confiscated a lot of national taxes, but the lower classes were heavy and suffocated.

There was a blind Xu Minshi in the previous dynasty who uncovered this cesspool when he was the governor of Yingtian.

So much so that even Shen Shixing, who was gentle, never scolded, and was introverted and cautious, got angry and reprimanded Xu Minshi as his teacher in the examination, saying that if you do this, I will personally escort the grain and grass to the capital. Let your majesty see what you have forced me, the retired cabinet chief, into?

Xu Minshi realized that he had stirred up a hornet's nest, and had to propose a method of "double preferential exemptions", doubling preferential exemptions, but the exemptions beyond preferential exemptions had to be investigated, but it still didn't work.

So much so that after his death, someone wrote a book specifically saying: Someone enslaved the gentry, and was a traitor like Wang Anshi, so after someone died, he was bankrupt. As the saying goes, the net of heaven is vast and nothing can escape it, don't you believe it?

Only Ye Xianggao said a fair word: Can your descendants definitely become officials? Isn't there a time when they are reduced to the bottom of the people? You rich people don't work, but let those without land work, this Ming Dynasty is definitely over.

However, facts have proved that Ye Xianggao was wrong. The name of the country changes, but the gentry is iron. Whether the Ming Dynasty will perish or not, it has nothing to do with the gentry?

The example of the previous dynasty is there, whoever exposes this cesspool will not die well, this is a foregone conclusion.

No one expected that this cesspool would be opened by Liu Yu in such a farce.

Afraid that the noise was not loud enough, he threw a firecracker directly into the cesspool, but the name of the firecracker was written on it as "Students of the Imperial Academy".

What did the emperor want to do?

Was he really going to do this?

Or... did he want some conditions, to make a deal?

This was different from the past, when local affairs were handled locally, and there were policies from above and countermeasures from below.

But Liu Yu's crazy talk on this "nonsense" made the emperor directly use the means of Wude Palace students and increasing the number of clerks and subjects to cut off the firewood from the bottom of the pot and directly airborne to the local area.

The gentry paid taxes together, checked the land, checked the preferential exemptions, and the prince left the town. What else could the local gentry do except howl a few times?

You can't just write a memorial saying "The prince did this, and the net of heaven is wide and nothing can escape it, and it will definitely cut off his descendants?"

Bribery? Bribing the prince who finally got a chance to show off? How much money is enough to buy the five words "the son is capable" in front of the emperor?

At this point, Liu Yu, who said crazy things, is no longer important.

He is just a guard of honor. What impact can attacking him have?

You can say he is pretending to be crazy or he has dark thoughts. Whether he is promoted or not has nothing to do with the evaluation of civil officials. He does not take the imperial examination. In this way, he can be so reckless as to "carry a thorn stick to ask for punishment" and "beat the drum to report to the emperor". There is nothing we can do.

Was this memorial written by Liu Yu just a joke? Or was it written by the emperor to instruct Duke Yi?

Some of the things in the memorial are simply murderous. How could these things be written by a kid who is less than 20 years old?

The night has fallen. Everyone in the capital knows that tomorrow's court meeting will be a big event.