The First Lackey Under The Empress

Inside the room, Zhao Du'an's lecture continued.

Wang You's arrival didn't cause any ripples.

Because at this moment, everyone had already broken free from their surprised state and, instead, gradually immersed themselves in the content Zhao Du'an was presenting.

The Performance Assessment Method… it seems…

…really has something to it…

Although, in Zhao Du'an's view, these scholars lacked experience in governance.

Or even if they had experience, they were high-ranking officials who rarely mingled at the lowest levels, so some of their strategies and ideas were somewhat fanciful…

Just like in his previous life's history, many strategies failed miserably because the formulators were too idealistic.

The scholars of the Great Yu Dynasty also had similar problems.

But…

…undeniably, the group selected into the "Institute for the Advancement of Literature" were definitely the elite of the Great Yu.

It's always easier to talk to smart people; they can accurately understand what Zhao Du'an is expressing.

They can even deduce on their own, filling in the gaps for details he hadn't thought of.

Precisely because the scholars were so intelligent, they easily recognized the advanced nature of this "Performance Assessment Method."

"…Zhang Fajie uses strict discipline to manage the officials, grasping the reins of power to correct all matters…"

"…In this way, people in all positions will be diligent and dedicated; lazy officials will be in awe of the law."

Zhao Du'an wrote and spoke simultaneously. Many characters had already appeared on the screen behind him. Finally, he used his brush to heavily emphasize the three characters at the top, saying:

"This, I call the 'Performance Assessment Method'."

Silence.

His lecture had come to an end in the room, but everyone was still immersed in it, as if deep in thought.

Only Wang You, who was secretly sitting in his seat, not daring to say a word, was still unclear about what had happened.

At this moment, the remaining few scholars who were late also entered the room one after another, and they were equally stunned by the scene.

"What are you…" someone began to ask.

But Mo Chou suddenly glared at him forcefully, signaling him to shut up and not disturb the Grand Tutor's thinking.

Although she was very unwilling to admit it, she had already realized the value of this assessment method.

Grand Tutor Dong, Han Zhou, Guo Jieyuan, and others also had obvious changes in their expressions.

They looked at each other, understanding each other's meaning without needing to speak.

"This method…"

Han Zhou opened his mouth, frowning:

"If such an assessment is implemented, will it cause the lower-level clerks to resort to any means to complete their quotas?"

Zhao Du'an didn't say anything. Nonsense, of course it would.

Performance assessments, of course, cannot be perfect and also have many drawbacks.

But in comparison, it is already the best strategy at the current stage.

Sitting in the Grand Tutor's chair, the red-robed, white-haired old man also returned to his senses from his contemplation, suddenly saying something out of the blue:

"In this case, the Six Ministries will be under the jurisdiction of the Grand Secretariat."

Zhao Du'an smiled and said:

"Now that there is no Grand Secretariat, only the Institute for the Advancement of Literature, and the Institute for the Advancement of Literature only follows His Majesty's lead."

The two's conversation seemed nonsensical.

But smart people like Han Zhou had already understood with a flicker in their eyes.

Grand Tutor Dong, as expected of an old fox, saw at a glance a major drawback of the Performance Assessment Method, which was "suppressing freedom of speech."

Because in this design, the censors of the Six Ministries, who were originally responsible for impeachment, as well as the investigating censors of the Censorate, were also included in the assessment.

They were governed by the "Grand Secretariat," which is now the Institute for the Advancement of Literature.

In this way, the censors would not dare to offend the Institute for the Advancement of Literature for the sake of their official hats.

Invisibly, the censors were suppressed.

Historically, after Zhang Juzheng implemented this method, one of the charges against him was suppressing freedom of speech and controlling all power in the Grand Secretariat.

And Zhao Du'an's answer was very clever.

If the "Grand Secretariat" was still there, once this mechanism was activated, then Li Yanfu, as the Chancellor, would become the most powerful official, with no one to restrain him.

But the "old Grand Secretariat" was gone. Now, the Institute for the Advancement of Literature only has a group of young, powerless scholars and a completely pro-Empress Grand Tutor.

Everyone is only loyal to the Empress.

In this way, as long as the Performance Assessment Method is put into operation, then the power of the entire court will be concentrated in the Empress's individual hands.

It would become extremely difficult for Li Yanfu to use censors to control the Empress again.

Grand Tutor Dong was silent for a moment, then said:

"Many people in the court will strongly oppose it."

Zhao Du'an smiled and said:

"From the moment the New Policies are planned, they are destined to be opposed by countless people."

Grand Tutor Dong nodded slowly, his gaze towards Zhao Du'an already greatly changed.

He also became more and more expectant of the "manuscript" in his hand.

"This old man sees that in your manuscript, only half of the Performance Assessment Method is written. How do you explain this 'Equalizing Land Tax with Population Tax'?" Grand Tutor Dong asked.

There's more? Only less than half?

The scholars were stunned.

Zhao Du'an didn't rush to speak, but looked at the brush on the table:

"There's not enough ink, and not enough paper either."

Everyone: "…"

Grand Tutor Dong turned his head, swept his gaze around, and casually pointed to the few scholars who had come in later:

"Grind the ink, change the paper."

Wang You and the other scholars couldn't believe it, especially Young Master Wang, who had high standards, almost changed his expression.

Let him, a commoner who rose by selling his face and being ruthless, be his assistant?

Born from a powerful aristocratic family, he couldn't accept it.

Mo Chou also glanced at them at this time, her voice indifferent:

"Didn't you hear? Do you want the Grand Tutor to do it himself?"

"…Dare not."

Wang You and the others chickened out and reluctantly took new ink and poured it into the inkstone, and changed a new page of white paper for the screen.

Zhao Du'an cleared his throat: "My throat is dry from talking."

"…" A scholar sighed and got up to make tea.

Another opened a drawer and took out the pear that Zhao Du'an had given him at noon, returning it to its original owner.

The night breeze was cool. Zhao Du'an slowly ate a pear and drank a cup of tea, also giving the scholars time to digest what they had just learned.

About a quarter of an hour later, he clapped his hands, attracting attention, and smiled:

"Just now, we talked about officialdom. But in the final analysis, the biggest problem facing the court today is the word 'money'.

If Scholar Han's ten policies were only to collect money for the country, they would be effective. What I criticize is not their uselessness, but their too great drawbacks."

Han Zhou blushed and said:

"Master Zhao, please don't mention it again. What methods do you have? Please tell us."

Zhao Du'an smiled and didn't tease him anymore, and said seriously:

"Regarding the word 'money', I want to divide it into two parts. The first part is still what you discussed during the day, and it is also the focus of Scholar Han's strategy, namely the two major problems of land tax and corvée labor."

"Although they are said to be two, they are actually one, because corvée labor itself is a kind of tax.

The largest source of silver for the royal treasury is also the word 'tax'. In my opinion, the Great Yu's method of collecting taxes is really unflattering.

Not to mention the exorbitant taxes and levies, which are unavoidable. Using goods to offset taxes gives lower-level officials too many opportunities to profit, and the most deadly thing is the 'head tax' that has been used for thousands of years since ancient times."

Zhao Du'an wrote the three characters "head tax" on the screen.

He was no stranger to the so-called head tax, which is that everyone has to pay, whether ancient or modern, Chinese or foreign, it is the most common.

The head tax in Great Yu was a typical characteristic of feudal dynasties.

The poor and the rich paid the same amount. The rich naturally wouldn't feel anything, but it was different for the poor.

As the saying goes, the poorer they are, the more they give birth… coupled with a high infant mortality rate, the people of Great Yu were very fertile.

However, the more people in a family, the more head tax they had to pay… gradually becoming unable to support themselves. If they encountered a year of disaster, they couldn't afford it even more.

They either fled and hid, becoming 'hidden households,' or they could only sell their land and become tenant farmers.

The gentry class, however, enjoyed the privilege of tax exemption and also had family wealth, so they could unscrupulously acquire land… thus opening Pandora's Box, and the wealth of Great Yu rapidly concentrated in the hands of a few.

“Under the head tax, accompanied by the dynasty's long reign, the tax revenue that the court can collect will inevitably become less and less… Therefore, my second strategy is to 'apportion the tax to the land'!”

Zhao Du'an wrote these words on the screen and then explained its content.

The so-called apportionment of tax to the land was actually a modified version of Zhang Juzheng's Single Whip Law, with little change in its core.

One was to convert all kinds of miscellaneous taxes into only one, which was 'silver'.

The court only wanted silver, changing the previous practice of paying with goods or performing corvée labor and other messy items.

This was similar to one of Han Zhou's strategies, which was that people who performed corvée labor only needed to pay silver, and the workers needed for corvée labor were hired by the government.

However, the difference from Han Zhou's Ten Policies was that Zhao Du'an directly moved the method of collecting taxes, so there would be no repeated collection twice.

The second was to change the head tax to a 'land tax'. Those who had land paid, and those who didn't have land didn't pay.

In this way, the gentry who had land could afford to pay taxes, and the poor, because they no longer had the head tax, could have children as much as they wanted…

Zhao Du'an knew very well that more people meant more power, and people were productivity. He didn't mind having more people, only fewer.

“In addition to this…”

After Zhao Du'an finished talking about the main content, he turned around and added two subsidiary words on the screen:

Public Fire Consumption

Gentry and Officials as One

“In the past, the government had to melt the broken silver paid by the people into silver ingots to supply the court, and there would inevitably be losses in this melting process, which was pocketed by many people.

Therefore, since the new law requires settlement in silver, this loss must be attributed to the court.”

“Similarly, since the collection is changed according to land, then the gentry's privilege of tax exemption must be剥夺, this is the integration of officials and gentry.”

Zhao Du'an finally concluded:

“Apportioning the tax to the land means that more land means more丁, less land means less 丁, calculating by the mu, there is no way to deceive or hide. Its benefit is one: the people have no suffering of compensation; its benefit is two: in the year of compilation and review, registers are made as usual, and there is no need to add verification; its benefit is three: each completes the丁 of their own land, and there is no way to manipulate it; its benefit is four.”

He paused, looked around at everyone, and said loudly:

“If this method can be implemented, it can protect the country and the court's treasury will no longer be depleted.”

The room fell into silence for the second time.

When Zhao Du'an finished speaking, many people present had a look of longing on their faces.

Suddenly enlightened.

“Wonderful, wonderful.” Han Zhou slammed the table and stood up, his eyes bright, staring at the words on the screen, lost in thought.

No one knew how frustrated he was this afternoon, not only because his ten policies were rejected.

But also because he couldn't think of a better way even after racking his brains.

The so-called taking back the ten policies to modify them, but how to modify them, how to modify them?

He had no clue at all.

But at this moment, just a few hours later, he saw a set of methods that were completely different from his ten policies, but obviously more superior.

How could he not be excited?

“Apportioning the tax to the land… apportioning the tax to the land…” Mo Chou also murmured the word.

Although she was far inferior to a real 'female prime minister', and often acted more like a big maid because she was Zhao Du'an's love rival.

But being reused by the female emperor to assist in handling national affairs was enough to show that Mo Zhaorong was at least no less inferior to this group of scholars in terms of vision and judgment.

Therefore, she also understood the benefits of this method.

Wang You and other later scholars finally understood why the atmosphere in the room was so strange before.

It was really because what Zhao Du'an said was too shocking.

The key was not the kind of shocking words, but no matter how you thought about it, it was indeed feasible.

But after the surprise, Wang You, as a son of a noble family, frowned.

Because this new law was obviously targeting the gentry class.

This was not a good thing for the powerful families in various places…

“Grand Tutor…”

Someone looked at the old man at the head, wanting to ask for his opinion.

Grand Tutor Dong's eyes were bright, staring at the screen for a long time before he let out a long breath:

“What a good apportionment of tax to the land.”

After a pause, he shook his head again and said, “It's a pity.”

Pity? What a pity?

Grand Tutor Dong looked at Zhao Du'an and said:

“This method is indeed quite feasible, but unfortunately, although it is much gentler than Han Zhou's method, I am afraid it will still be difficult to implement. If you want to make it happen, you must take it slowly, but the court can't wait.”

Can't wait!

This sentence instantly pulled everyone back to reality from their excitement.

Han Zhou calmed down, was stunned for a moment, and then sat down again.

Yes, although Zhao Du'an's method was good, it still couldn't solve the urgent problem, which was money.

If it was to be implemented slowly, it would be difficult to alleviate the emptiness of the national treasury.

If we strive for speed, then we will inevitably be enemies with the gentry, although we can win the hearts of the people, but…

If the gentry of the world therefore became alienated and defected to the Eight Kings, the court would also be turbulent.

It was indeed much better than his ten policies, but distant water could not quench the immediate thirst.

Wang You's frown relaxed, and his expression became slightly easier.

Mo Chou also reacted, her eyes slightly dimmed.

Yes, whether it was apportioning the tax to the land or the previous assessment method, it actually took time to slowly implement.

It's good, but…

“Hehe, the Grand Tutor is right, if the above two methods are to be implemented, it will inevitably take time.”

Zhao Du'an saw everyone's expressions, but he was not flustered at all.

Because he never had only Zhang Juzheng's weapon in his hand.

Regarding how to quickly get money without resorting to swords and soldiers and without affecting the stability of the court as much as possible, he had no clue at first.

But after talking with Han Zhou, some inspiration became clear.

“But, everyone, don't forget, I said just now that in order to solve the word 'money', I want to say two parts, but now I have only said one.

And the next one is the way to alleviate the urgent need.” Zhao Du'an smiled.

What?

There is another way?

At this moment, including Grand Tutor Dong, everyone looked at him in amazement.

I just remembered that this martial artist and cruel official did say before that he was going to talk about two parts.

Under the gaze of everyone, Zhao Du'an turned around and personally changed a new piece of white paper.

On the screen, he swiped and wrote a few big characters:

“Silver, Merchants, Capital, Market.”