Survival of the Chongzhen Emperor Chapter 196 It's the county where imperial officials don't go down, not the county where imperial power doesn't go down!
Chapter 196 It's the county where imperial officials don't go down, not the county where imperial power doesn't go down!
In the past few days, Huang Chao has experienced what it means to be a classmate, and what it means to turn against others. Chen Dayou suddenly got angry, and the Huang family was in a state of panic. Huang Laocai was so angry that he almost died.
Can you not be angry to death? According to the number of hidden fields that Chen Dayou found out, the Huang family has to pay an extra one or two hundred taels of tax a year. This is a cut in the heart of the rich locals who regard wealth as their lives.
"Brother Chen, my father has been treated badly this time. I'm afraid our friendship as classmates will be difficult to maintain in the future." Huang Chao sent Chen Dayou and his entourage away after finishing work, and his tone was very bad when he spoke. It doesn't matter who has the problem, and whoever spends an extra one or two hundred taels of silver every year will be upset.
"Brother Huang, your father is your father, and you are you. I hope you can figure this out! I wonder how you think about assisting the working group to handle this matter publicly?"
"Brother Chen, I still need to discuss this matter with my father. I'll get back to you after it's over."
His family was so miserable this time by Chen Dayou. Huang Chao felt very uncomfortable if he followed Chen Dayou again, so he thought about sending this plague god away quickly. Working with such a ruthless person, he I feel confused.
After Chen Dayou and the others left, Huang Chao hurriedly checked on his old father.
"Why didn't you go with Mr. Chen? Why did you come back?" Huang Laocai saw his son returning home and asked him sternly why he came back.
"Dad, I didn't know that Chen Dayou and the others were acting like this. Who knew he could actually do something like this? If I had known this, I wouldn't have provoked them into my home even if I beat them to death."
"You've already provoked the God of Plague, so what's the use of saying this anymore? I asked you why you didn't go with them. Is it because they don't want to take you?"
"It's not that before he left, he invited me to join the working group in the office. It's just that I feel that I don't have any confidence in working with such a person."
"Are you afraid that I will embarrass you? You're confused! Our family is already like this. If you don't want to make a fortune, are you just watching our family fail? Tomorrow morning, you go to the county to find Chen Dayou. Follow his work team to work! Our family is being punished this time. To put it bluntly, there is no one in the officialdom. These people who my father worked for in the village will probably suffer this time. Seeing that you have a clear path, why not If you don’t walk away, what is wrong with you?”
Huang Laocai regards wealth as his life, but after all, he has been involved in society for decades. After being punished, he lay in bed. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that his son had to join the working group. Even if it was to draw the nearby rich man into conflict with him. We have to do this on the same starting line.
Before dawn the next day, Huang Chao was driven by his father to go to the county town to find Chen Dayou. Even if he was a beggar, he had to stay in the working group to work.
When I arrived in Xianghe County, I found out after a little inquiry where the temporary office of the working group was. When I got there, I saw that there were quite a lot of people in the working group. In addition to Chen Dayou and the others, there were also many people I knew from the township. Going in and out.
Only then did Huang Chao realize that he was not the only one who had this idea of advancement.
"Brother Huang, have you figured it out? Okay, let's go to the lobby quickly, and I'll introduce you to my colleagues."
Chen Dayou took Huang Chao's hand and walked quickly into the lobby, introducing his classmate to other members of the working group inside.
After chatting for a while, Chen Dayou arranged specific work for Huang Chao and others.
With people coming from the capital and people recruited from the local area, the working group now has more than 200 members. Chen Dayou divided these people into twelve groups, with about ten or twenty people in each group. Then the entire Xianghe County was divided into
Twelve areas, let them act separately.
"Everyone, I think the work of clearing the land for tax purposes will be completed in another month. Let's work harder and strive to complete this work as soon as possible. Now the unreported taxable acres in the county that we have cleared have equaled the original taxable acres.
It’s almost done! The next step is to break the hard nut and count the acres of land owned by the students, officials and others.”
"Team leader Chen, after measuring the fields, will our work be over?" A person who temporarily joined the working group asked, wanting to know how long this work would take.
"Where is this? Clearing out the untaxed acres is just the first step! After this work is completed, we have to supervise the officials to create the register! At the same time, we must find out some officials and gentry who have caused trouble in the countryside and select them
Serious officials should fill in. At the same time, it is also necessary to monitor whether the gentry wants to use this time to measure the fields to increase the rents of the tenants. The court's policy is that the rents after measuring the fields must be exactly the same as before, and cannot be allowed to do so.
Take the opportunity to raise rent.”
"Team Leader Chen, the land belongs to the owner. If the rent increases, we may not be able to deal with it, right?"
"The imperial court has a clear decree that any family that takes the opportunity to increase rents and pass on taxes will have their family members expelled from their official positions, and their family members will no longer be able to engage in any activities related to the yamen, including joining the army. We must publicize this policy to
Those who refuse to change after repeated admonitions can just take action to correct them. In addition to these matters, the imperial court will set up township and town offices under the county. Our working group must use the clear knowledge of these days to delineate the roster and scope of township offices and report to the court.
Sure."
The restructuring must first prevent it from turning into bad governance. It is easy for the gentry to pass on the taxes they have to pay to the farmers who actually work the land. Zhu Youjian had expected this, so he sent so many working groups and asked them to
Recruiting local helpers. Without extensive supervision means, when this thing is implemented, it will become a tax increase for farmers.
The establishment of villages and towns is naturally to strengthen the court's ability to vertically manage local areas. Regarding ancient China, there is an attributive saying that the imperial power does not extend to the county. Strictly speaking, this statement is wrong! In that dynasty, the imperial power did not extend to the county? Outside Hezhu County, all local tyrants
Does the clan power have the final say?
Seriously speaking, the imperial officials did not go down to the county. The central court's management of local government officials ended at the county level. Officials at the lower levels completed governance by cooperating with the local gentry. If it is true that some people have no idea that the imperial power does not go down to the county.
Do you understand, which county or below does not become an independent kingdom? The laws set by the imperial court that involve individuals have no basis for implementation.
Like in later generations, for a long time village-level cadres were self-selected and self-organized. Can we ask that political power not come to the village? Indeed, due to this kind of official composition, there will be some big households and powerful figures in the village, and there will be village tyrants and the like.
But the village-level administrative unit is not out of the control of the political power. Even the village hegemon has to cooperate with people at the higher level to succeed, rather than saying that he can become the village hegemon by himself! For the same reason, in the Ming Dynasty
The power exists dependent on the county government, and the imperial power is not out of control of them. As long as the administration is still sound, it is not a problem to deal with them.
In terms of the conditions at that time, many counties were just larger towns. Under this situation, it was indeed difficult and costly to establish a system of floating officials directly under the jurisdiction of the central civil service department. Zhu Youjian planned to implement the system in townships
The office has no intention of turning these chief officials into floating officials directly under the Ministry of Personnel. His idea is that the personnel power of these officials should be delegated to the provincial and government levels!