"Your Highness, I believe that cement roads should be used in areas south of the Yangtze River where they are needed more!"

"Your Majesty, Your Highness, I second the proposal..."

"Your Majesty, Your Highness, and your ministers second the proposal."

When Zhu Youjian said that cement would be used in eleven provinces in Beijing, a large number of Jiangnan officials could not sit still.

Among them were not only members of the Zhejiang Party, but also Donglin and Qi Wang Party members.

As soon as these people stood up, nearly a quarter of the people in the temple stood up instantly, which shows how powerful Jiangnan is.

It concerns his own reputation and whether he can please the gentry below. Huili's hometown cannot tolerate them not standing up.

Under this situation, it stands to reason that officials from one capital and eleven provinces should stand up and refute, but they did not.

On the contrary, before they could stand up, many officials also stood up and bowed:

"Your Highness, the areas most in need of road construction are actually Huguang, Jiangxi, Shandong..."

"My official seconded the suggestion that the provinces that need the most road construction are Huguang, Jiangxi, Shandong and other large grain-receiving provinces."

"Huguang, Shandong, Jiangxi, South Zhili, North Zhili, Zhejiang...these are the major tax-paying provinces of our country, and we should satisfy them first."

Officials from Huguang, Shandong, Jiangxi and other places jumped out. As a result, nearly two-fifths of the people in the court stood up.

Although Yao Zongwen, the leader of the Zhejiang Party, was afraid of Zhu Youjian, facing this situation, he couldn't help but say:

"Your Highness, let's not talk about anything else, just taxes."

"Last year, Nanzhili paid a land tax of 5.7 million taels, and taxes on salt, tea, wine, and miscellaneous items totaled more than 4.2 million taels, accounting for one-fifth of our government's taxes."

"Let's talk about Zhejiang. Last year, the land tax paid was 3.25 million taels, and the taxes on salt, tea, wine, etc. and miscellaneous items totaled 2.15 million taels."

"Let's talk about Jiangxi. The land tax is 4.06 million shi, and the tax revenue is 2.29 million taels."

"There are also Shandong, Huguang, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan..."

"These seven provinces in Beijing account for 60% of our Ming Dynasty tax revenue, followed by ten provinces in Beijing, including Jiugang, Liaodong, Shaanxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Sichuan, Hexi, Guangxi, Beizhili, Yunnan, and Guizhou."

"As for the three provinces of Duogan, Yingzhou, and Jiaozhi, the Ministry of Household Affairs has no statistics for the time being."

"It can be seen from this that if our dynasty builds provincial roads, we can first build one of the seven provinces in Beijing, which accounts for 60% of the tax revenue, and Beizhili, where the dynasty is located."

"As for the victims, they can repair the original official roads first, and then build the thirteen provinces after the imperial court is satisfied with the two capitals and seven provinces."

According to Yao Zongwen, from a purely economic perspective, it is naturally better to build the two capitals and seven provinces first.

Because of the construction of provincial highways in two Beijing and seven provinces, local tax losses can be reduced.

From this point of view, the court's losses were reduced, the officials gained reputation, and the local gentry and people enjoyed welfare. It seemed to be a good thing that killed three birds with one stone.

However, Zhu Youjian's plan to build provincial roads in one capital and eleven provinces was not just for simple disaster relief. His purpose was to equalize wealth and poverty.

"In terms of taxation alone, it's easy..."

Zhu Youjian did not get angry, but calmly said to the officials who jumped out:

"However, what the country needs to do is not to judge the level of wealth based on taxes and wealth, but to equalize wealth and poverty and achieve world harmony!"

Zhu Youjian stood on the moral high ground because he brought out "the world is unified".

The world is unified. This is the ideal society where Confucianism advocates "everyone is for the common good", and it is also the basic ideological framework of ancient Confucian scholars.

"Tianxia" is the expression of the world by the ancients; "Datong" comes from the "Book of Rites", which means there is no difference and no war, which is the ultimate destination of "benevolence".

It can be said that early Confucianism was the first school to propose the ideas of communism and equalization of wealth and poverty.

It's just that I am a hero, and my children and grandchildren are just trying to make ends meet.

Today's people have completely forgotten the idea of ​​"university under heaven", and only focus on the little bit of profit, lying on the back of the imperial court to suck blood, making the poor poorer and the rich richer.

Zhu Youjian glanced at the officials and saw that no one jumped out yet. He turned to Zhu Youxiao, who was taking a nap on the dragon chair, bowed his head and said:

"Your Majesty, it is true that as Yao Du said in his report, among the twenty provinces in our two capitals, seven provinces in one capital account for 60% of the imperial tax, while the other thirteen provinces in one capital only contribute 40%."

"Among them, the most severe ones are Beizhili, Sichuan, Fujian, Yunnan, Guangxi, Hexi, Guizhou, and Duogan. These seven provinces only account for 10% of the imperial court's tax payment."

"But, from the perspective of taxation, doesn't this prove that the gap between rich and poor is huge in the Ming Dynasty?"

"Why is it that one capital and thirteen provinces, whose territory is several times that of one capital and seven provinces, are not as good as the other party in terms of tax payment?"

While Zhu Youjian was talking, he also turned and looked at Baiguan:

"It is precisely because of poverty and vulnerability to disasters and wars that the court decided to build provincial roads in these places."

"As for the one Beijing and seven provinces you mentioned, which one is not close to the sea and rivers? Which one has inconvenient waterways?"

"Since waterways are convenient, we should use waterways first, and let one Beijing and eleven provinces, which have more inconvenient transportation, use the work-for-relief method to sort out transportation first."

Zhu Youjian used the waterway and the great unity of the world to counterattack the civil servants. Although this logic is great, if the civil servants were persuaded in this way, they would not be called "people who can kill people with their mouths".

"What His Highness said is not unreasonable..."

Feng Quan stood up, bowed, and seemed to obey Zhu Youjian's words, but then he changed the subject and said:

"It is precisely because we want to equalize wealth and poverty that we need to build provincial roads and even prefectural roads in one Beijing and seven provinces."

"As long as the prefectural and provincial roads in one Beijing and seven provinces are built, taxes can be better transported to the court, and the court can make great efforts to provide disaster relief and even out the rich and the poor."

"Not to mention anything else, just for the severe drought in the north and south in the past few years, if Jiugang and the seven provinces of Beijing had not paid nearly 70% of the taxes, how would the imperial court have money to provide disaster relief? How could the government achieve the equalization of wealth and poverty that His Highness said?

"

"Therefore..." Feng Quan bowed to Zhu Youxiao on the high platform and said:

"Your Majesty, only by making the transportation between the seven provinces of One Beijing and Old Port beneficial to the people, and making the people of the eight provinces of One Beijing rich first, can we drive the national revenue of the imperial court and the other twelve provinces of One Beijing."

Feng Quan added Old Port to the original one Beijing and seven provinces, forming a scale of one Beijing and eight provinces.

Together with the eight provinces of Jiugang, they already accounted for 70% of the Ming Dynasty's tax revenue.

This seems to be pulling Old Port together to carry out large-scale infrastructure construction, but in fact everyone knows that the large-scale infrastructure construction in Old Port has been carried out using prisoners, and the court does not need to invest any money at all.

Therefore, in fact, those who get the money are still one Beijing and seven provinces.

They took advantage of all the benefits of co-authorship.

"Old Port has its own system, as does Yingzhou and Jiaozhi. In fact, it is the ten provinces in Beijing that need money from the court, and the court can only support one million disaster victims."

"You can't starve to death the victims of the disaster just for the sake of one capital and seven provinces, right?"

“The important thing about providing work-for-relief is to provide disaster relief and save lives, not to discuss the proportion of taxes.”

Zhu Youjian opened his mouth and was immediately blocked, because the current level had risen to the level of life and death for the victims.

Similarly, Zhu Youjian also said that the imperial court could only support one million disaster victims. In this case, unless Yao Zongwen and other officials from one Beijing and seven provinces are willing to spend money to build provincial roads in one Beijing and seven provinces, this matter

Just can't reach an agreement.

However, Zhu Youjian overestimated the lower limit of Yao Zongwen and others after all, and they also showed what it is like to eat human blood steamed buns in a feudal society.

"The imperial court has no money, and we are naturally in harmony with the people. However, building provincial roads and prefecture roads is something that benefits the people. I think the people are also willing to have the court send corvees..."

Distributing corvee...

Zhu Youjian had not heard these four words from Yao Zongwen for many years.

Since the fifth year of the Apocalypse, he clearly stipulated that all employees of disaster victims must be paid, and local officials are not allowed to levy corvee at will, these four words have never appeared on his forehead again.

Distributing corvees is the most important action that affects people's lives. Many people would rather pay a few more taxes than be assigned corvees.

Zhu Youjian didn't believe that Yao Zongwen and others didn't know about these things.

They clearly know it and don't care about the life or death of the people.

Because the people they want to please are the gentry. As for the common people? After the road is built, people will naturally sing their praises.

"Distributing corvees?"

After all the evil deeds of corvee flashed through his mind, Zhu Youjian laughed angrily.

He finally understood that nothing made sense with this group of people. They only cared about their own interests. To them, the people were just like cattle and horses.

"Cao becomes a dragon!"

Zhu Youjian suddenly shouted, and this time Cao Bianjiao, who temporarily served as the Han general's staff officer as a general, came in immediately with a group of Han generals.

The sound of Jiawei resounded in the temple, and everyone was horrified, thinking that Zhu Youjian was going to have Yao Zongwen taken out.

Not only did they think so, but Zhu Youxiao, who was sitting on the dragon throne, and Cao Bianjiao, who led the team into the temple, also thought so.

However, just when Cao Bianjiao was about to lead someone to take Yao Zongwen out, Zhu Youjian said:

"Tell me about when you were studying at Yanshan University. When you went to the countryside, what did the people hate the most about what the government distributed?"

"Uh..." Cao Bianjiao, who was about to take action, was stunned for a moment, then bowed respectfully and said:

"What people hate most is corvee..."

"Corvee service is often conscripted for four months, and is often postponed. Although the people can use money to pay for the service, the price of the service is so high that the people basically cannot afford the money."

“What people hate most about corvee service is firstly military service, and secondly civilian service. Civilian service delays people’s farming time, but the government never cares about it. When it comes time to collect taxes, they still collect taxes as in previous years, and many people are forced to lose their families.

"
To be continued...