The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Li Chunfang ordered Ma Sen to write a report as soon as possible after returning to the household department, and then said to Wei Guangde: "You and Ma Shangshu will be responsible for the good loans and the restriction of the land to Qi Zhuang.

After the report is made to the Ministry of Household Affairs, you will directly vote for entry into the palace. If you find anything wrong, you can raise it in the vote. "

Li Chunfang saw that this matter was actually a competition between the Ministry of Revenue and Xun Qi, and now the person in the court who could represent Xun Qi's strength was Wei Guangde.

Leaving this task to others may easily cause dissatisfaction among the relatives.

Let Wei Guangde directly draw up his opinions. The general direction has just been determined, but the difference in the amount of Zhuang Tian is irrelevant.

A little more, a little less, that's it.

"By the way, do you have anything else to say?"

After Li Chunfang finished speaking, she suddenly remembered that Wei Guangde had only said about increasing the amount of land in the Honorable Village, but had not made any other comments, so he added another question.

If you have any ideas, put them forward now so that they can be taken into consideration when the Ministry of Household Affairs drafts the document.

"It's best to separate Shixun and Xunqi. Shixun has already said before that the two hundred hectares can be reduced by half for Xunqi. In addition, for those who abolished the land, those who were given land without recording it, and those who cheated, it is best to list the land in detail. Quantity, after all, must be treated differently.”

Wei Guangde replied.

"Master Ma, does the Ministry of Finance have any clues about this matter?"

Wei Guangde wants specific figures, just to know who is in the hands of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

Cheng Guogong and Ding Guogong had too much property, so they had no choice but to ask each of them to contribute some money to deal with the disaster, so as not to be constantly watched by the Ministry of Household Affairs.

"It's basically all there. It's just that during the previous discussion with the Ministry of Household Affairs, there was some controversy over the number of tombs of the ancestors who were abolished. It's hard to be sure."

Mason replied.

Those who were abolished include nobles who committed crimes and were deprived of their titles, as well as families whose heirs were cut off.

The emperor usually cared about the glory of his ancestors for the officials who were deprived of their titles, so they only deprived the offenders of their titles and did not trace them back.

As for those who cut off their heirs, they usually choose their heirs from the side lines, but this all depends on the emperor's mood and perception, so there are also Shixun families that have no heirs and no one to inherit.

Naturally, these people's fields must be brought into the official system, but ancestor worship is also a problem.

In Daming, this is actually a very serious matter and cannot be treated lightly.

"Destroyer."

After Wei Guangde hesitated for a while, he said: "It's easy to say, if the land is more than 200 hectares, five hectares will be left for sacrifice, and if the land is less than 200 hectares, three hectares will be left.

However, the land left by these families must be recorded in detail, and the Ministry of Household Affairs must keep it in separate books. After all, no one knows when His Majesty will remember and select the clan heirs. If detailed records cannot be produced by then, it will be easy. Causing a storm. "

"What Mr. Wei Ge said is true, and the Ministry of Revenue will definitely comply with it."

Mason nodded in agreement.

There are also so-called noble families with three generations of single generations or several generations of single generations, but there are really not many, and you can still find relatives if you continue up.

The reason why there was no one to inherit the family business was actually because the emperor did not want anyone to inherit the family business, mostly because the family members offended the emperor.

But politics is something that is often hard to say.

Just like the Marquis of Linhuai, how many generations have been cut off?

When Emperor Jiajing came to see him, he not only restored the title of marquis to the Li family, but he also favored him.

By the time of the Longqing Dynasty, it seemed that Emperor Longqing also favored the Li family of Linhuai Marquis and allowed them to take over the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army.

Although the ancestors of the Li family were once rich and were still members of the Duke's family, they were demoted by Emperor Yongle after all.

"Okay, are there any difficult matters in other ministries?"

Li Chunfang asked again at this time.

In fact, all the six ministers had spoken before, and everything they had to say had been mentioned. The matter of the Ministry of Revenue had also been mentioned before, but Li Chunfang felt that it was a bit troublesome, so she postponed the discussion until the end.

By this time, it seems that the Six Parts have no issues to talk about.

As Gao Yi, Yang Bo and others had nothing else to do, Li Chunfang planned to announce the end of today's cabinet meeting. Wang Ting, the censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate who was attending the meeting, was about to stand up when Wei Guangde's voice rang out again.

"If there is no major matter in the Sixth Department, I have one more thing to do here. I just received the memorial from Jiangxi today. The matter is serious and I think it is necessary for everyone to discuss it."

Wei Guangde's loud voice reached everyone's ears.

Everyone first looked at Wei Guangde in unison, and saw that he had reached out his hand to take out a memorial from his sleeve, and then sat down again.

"Jiangxi? What's going on?"

Li Chunfang asked in surprise.

In the past two months, the Lanhu rebellion in Jiangxi had just subsided. Both the cabinet and the Sixth Ministry were actually afraid of hearing news about this place.

"Your Excellency, Jiangxi Governor Liu Guangji has been touring various prefectures and counties in Jiangxi for several months. According to what he said, the local government was very unhappy with the imperial court's forced discontinuation of the one-whip method last year, and the people were also suffering from the complicated taxes and servitude, so we petitioned Restore the whip method to collect taxes and servitude in Jiangxi."

Wei Guangde said, stood up and handed the memorial to Li Chunfang.

"One whip method."

Of course, Li Chunfang is not an old fool. Last year, it was Ge Shouli who insisted on stopping this law. The reason was that there was trouble in Shandong due to the implementation of this law.

At that time, for the sake of stability, Mr. Xu Ge followed Ge Shouli's suggestion after discussing with them. When he reported to Emperor Longqing, he also pointed out many shortcomings of the whipping method, so the imperial court issued an order to stop it.

But I didn't expect that in just one year, someone in Jiangxi would petition to reinstate this method.

Li Chunfang did not express her attitude immediately. Instead, she lowered her head and read Liu Guangji's memorial. After reading it, she handed it to Chen Yiqin.

This matter should have been discussed by the cabinet ministers behind closed doors. Wei Guangde did not want to bring it up at this time at first, but Ma Sen, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, is here to resume a whipping method. The Ministry of Revenue is actually the direct The person responsible should simply bring it up now and see how Ma Shangshu reacts.

"There is no pain in the father's budget, there is no risk of kinship, there is no risk of losing property, and there is no risk of bribery and fishing infringement."

Chen Yiqin read it more seriously, and at the end he read out the final summary of Liu Guangji's memorial, obviously agreeing with it.

In fact, Wei Guangde did not discuss with Chen Yiqin, Yin Shizhen and others on the restoration of the one-whip method early in the morning, because he actually knew that the one-whip method could be implemented in most places in Jiangnan, but it also had some flaws and was really unfavorable to the north, and it needed to be carried out according to local conditions. Revise.

However, in Jiangxi alone, the people really hoped to restore the whip law and simplify the government's tax collection procedures.

Just the summer grain and autumn taxes that were reinstated this year have caused several disturbances among the people. People complained that the government repeatedly imposed taxes. The most important thing was the corvee taxes, which caused widespread complaints among the people.

Corvee service is not easy to do. Not only do you have to travel far away, but you also have to prepare your own food. For many people, being dragged into corvee service is actually the same as committing suicide.

They can bear the pain of farming, but it is really difficult to bear the work of those projects. In fact, in order to complete the progress quickly, the government people basically do not regard the conscripted soldiers as human beings, and they are all ordered to death.

Those who serve as corvees are destined to live and die, and wealth and honor are determined by heaven. It depends on the individual's destiny.

But it would be different if the government used money to recruit people, at least they would not use it to kill people.

Officials who deduct wages naturally hope that the more people they can, the better, so that they can have enough money.

If we exhaust people to death, no one will dare to work in the future.

After all, one provides free labor to the court, while the other provides paid labor. The two are essentially different.

Liu Guangji also expressed this in detail in his memorial, which made everyone who read it empathize with them and feel pity for them.

After Chen Yiqin read it, he silently handed the memorial to Zhang Juzheng. After the cabinet minister read it, he handed it to Ma Sen.

He is the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and this is what he is in charge of.

Ma Sen also had some difficulties after reading Liu Guangji's memorial.

The previous Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Ge Shouli, forced the entire country to suspend the whipping law. Will he reinstate it in his own hands the next year?

In fact, during his time in the Ministry of Household Affairs, he also knew that many people below him were very dissatisfied with Ge Shouli's conservative stubbornness, especially since the discontinuation of the whip method was Ge's personal wishful thinking and did not receive broad support in the Ministry of Household Affairs.

However, when it comes to major national policies, it is difficult for Ma Sen to express his position now.

After everyone had read it, Wei Guangde said: "After seeing Governor Liu's memorial today, I understand why many places in Jiangxi have been implementing the same whipping method without incident. Although there are differences between the north and the south of the Ming Dynasty, I still hope that the court can I approve Governor Liu’s memorial and let Jiangxi resume the implementation of the whip law.”

"This is the case in Jiangxi, and it is also the case in Huguang. I have also received requests from Huguang officials many times, hoping to raise this matter in the court."

Zhang Juzheng suddenly interjected at this time, actually supporting Wei Guangde's remarks, and even vaguely used the topic to implement the one-whip method in Huguang.

"In fact, the fact that a whip method can exist in various places also shows that some places are indeed suitable for this method, otherwise the people would not have this demand."

Li Chunfang was more to the point, saying that there are regional differences in whipping methods. Some places are suitable and some places are not.

However, the most critical attitude is not revealed.

"What do you think, Master Ma?"

Chen Yiqin asked.

Ma Sen hesitated for a moment and then said: "This is a serious matter and I need to go back to the department to discuss it with my subordinates." ’

Ma Sen still had some concerns in his heart, and planned to go back to the Yamen and summon the ministers and doctors to discuss it before giving his attitude.

After all, it had just been suspended by the Ministry of Household Affairs for less than a year, and it was about to be restored again. The impact on the Ministry of Household Affairs was also not good, and it seemed that the Ministry of Household Affairs was making decisions that took one thing into account while neglecting the other.

The people and the official circles will not consider that Ge Shouli single-handedly promoted this policy in the first place. Even in the Ministry of Household Affairs, it encountered great opposition.

Subsequently, others such as the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Personnel, and the Ministry of War all had ambiguous attitudes. In fact, this matter had little to do with them. That is to say, northern officials such as Yang Bo proposed that the northern provinces should not implement it for the time being, but in the south it is best to leave it to the local governments. at your own discretion.

"If this is not the case, let one province in Jiangxi try it out first, and then gradually roll it out based on the results. As for the North, wait until Jiangxi improves the system before choosing one province to try it out, and then roll it out slowly.

After the one-whip method was proposed by the Monkey King, Liang Cai, the Minister of Household Affairs at that time, compiled and reviewed the Corvee Memorials based on it. Since then, prefectures and counties in various places have tried to collect the two taxes with this method. The results have been good and bad, but this does not prevent various places from trying successively. .

It can be seen that although this method has disadvantages, it still has merits.

If not, the imperial court would try this and continuously improve it to customize it for the eternal use of our Ming Dynasty. "

Zhang Juzheng spoke again.

The "monkey king" he refers to refers to Gui E, the second assistant to the cabinet in the early Jiajing Dynasty, who was a Jinshi in the sixth year of Zhengde.

In the early years of Jiajing's reign, he was promoted to head of the Nanjing Criminal Department and entered the imperial court with the help of the Dali Conference.

In the third year of Jiajing, he was promoted to a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy. In the fourth year of Jiajing, he was appointed as Zhan Shifu of Zhan Shifu and a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy. In the sixth year of Jiajing, he was successively appointed as the Right Minister of the Ministry of Rites, the Minister of the Ministry of Rites, and the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel.

In the eighth year of Jiajing, he was also a bachelor of Wuyingdian. He entered the cabinet and participated in machine affairs. He succeeded Zhang Cong as the second assistant to the cabinet. He was soon impeached and became an official. In the ninth year of Jiajing, he was re-appointed.

He submitted a review of the "Ren Min Kao" to Emperor Jiajing, advocating the implementation of "one whip law" and other measures to carry out reforms. However, he was forced to stop due to the obstruction of Yang Yiqing and others, and retired and returned home in the first month of the 10th year of Jiajing.

The most fundamental reason for his ups and downs in the final days of his official life was actually the "Review of Renmin" he submitted to Emperor Jiajing. The meaning expressed in the essay was exactly what almost all powerful families were most opposed to.

Gui E proposed to re-clear the land of the world, abolish the old method of rotating labor according to the yellow book, and instead use a small amount of grain from each province to support the labor of each province.

In Gui E's tax and servitude reform plan, the equalization of land was a prerequisite for the reform, because the implementation of the one-whip law essentially meant dividing the land into acres.

He realized that only by clearing out the oppressed land and registering it in the register could the court effectively implement the principle of assigning corvee according to Ding property.

At that time, Liang Cai, the Minister of Household Affairs, stipulated a new tax collection law based on Gui E's suggestion: "Together, ten pieces of grain and ding grains are collected in one li, each li's grain grains are collected in one state and one county, and all counties and counties' grain grains are collected in one county. The rations of each government are under the Chief Secretary.

The Chief Secretary assigned each province's ding grain to a province's corvee. After excluding the number of privileges and exemptions, each grain was compiled into a certain amount of silver, and each ding was examined and reviewed. Order all prefectures, prefectures and counties to comply with it forever. "

In terms of reform, Guihe continued the trend of merging taxes and levies and simplifying the complex. It merged various servitude items into one item, compiled them all at once according to the grain grain, and levied them all in the autumn grain.

The "economic reforms" pushed forward by Zhang Juzheng in the Wanli Dynasty were actually the realization of Gui E's suggestions in "Ren Min Kao Shu", that is, clearing the land and implementing the "one whip method".

Counting the counterattacks that Zhang Juzheng encountered later, we can think of the political pressure that Gui E faced from all sides after he presented "Ren Min Kao Shu".

The failure to implement his governing ideas may be the reason why he was able to die. Otherwise, his end would have been worse than Zhang Juzheng.

Obviously, Zhang Juzheng was actually a loyal supporter of Gui E. He accomplished what Gui E failed to accomplish.

It's just that he failed to teach good students, allowing Emperor Wanli to personally destroy the reform achievements that the Ming Dynasty had finally achieved.

People in later generations said that "Mingshi perished in Wanli", which was actually not a lie.

Wei Guangde was not surprised to see Zhang Juzheng supporting the implementation of the "One Whip Law" and just nodded to Zhang Juzheng cheerfully.

"Yifu, do you have any opinion on Liu Guangji's memorial?"

Li Chunfang asked Chen Yiqin, the second assistant, and wanted to hear his attitude.

"Master Chief Assistant, I support the trial implementation of this method in Jiangxi. As for whether it should be implemented nationwide, we should wait until Jiangxi implements it."

Chen Yiqin smiled.

"Ma Shangshu, the cabinet does not object to Governor Liu's memorial. You can make it clear to your subordinates after returning to the cabinet."

Li Chunfang smiled and said to Masen. (End of chapter)