The entire prefectures and counties in Southern Zhili basically completed the measurement of the fields in their jurisdictions, compiled statistics, and then reported it to the Ministry of Household Affairs within one month, almost a few days earlier than the time stipulated by the cabinet.
Let’s not talk about the content. At least the administrative efficiency has been top-notch in all dynasties. Compared with before the Ming Dynasty, it is even more different.
This is the establishment of the authority of the cabinet. Ma Shiying sticks to his word without any constraints from the civil service parties.
At this moment, in Nanjing's Hubu Yamen, thousands of officials are busy compiling data from various places and verifying it over and over again.
It was not until after repeated verification that the Minister of Revenue took the book and hurried to the Wenhua Hall where the cabinet was located.
Ma Shiying and other officials from various ministries have been waiting eagerly for a long time. Almost everyone wants to know how many fields there are in the entire southern Zhili and how much tax they can collect every year.
"Mr. Ge, the Ministry of Revenue has completed the statistics of all the mulberry fields and dry fields in the four prefectures and four prefectures. Please take a look at it..."
"Bring it here quickly..." Ma Shiying hurriedly stood up and went to meet him, grabbed the booklet, and started reading.
Other officials also gathered around.
After Ma Shiying read it, he also gasped. After handing the brochure to the Minister of Civil Affairs, his tone was trembling: "I never expected that there are more than 60 million acres of mulberry fields and dry fields in South Zhili Province alone.
."
"Hiss! Aren't there more in Henan and Huguang?"
Except for the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel who was reading the brochure, other officials also took a breath of air.
Before all the officials had finished watching, Xu Lan came to the cabinet and declared Ma Shiying to enter the palace immediately.
Obviously Zhang Yan is also very concerned and curious about how many fields there are in the whole of Nanli.
Ma Shiying did not waste any time, and hurried to the imperial study room with the booklet in hand. When she arrived at the imperial study room, Princess Kunxing was also there, standing next to Zhang Yan.
"I pay homage to the Queen Mother, and to pay homage to Her Royal Highness the Princess."
"Ma Aiqing, there's no need to be polite, sit down quickly!"
"Thank you, Queen Mother."
"Mr. Mage, I heard that the Ministry of Household Affairs has made a clear count of the fields in various places?"
As soon as Ma Shiying sat down, Princess Kunxing asked impatiently.
"Going back to the Queen Mother, Princess, the Ministry of Revenue has indeed calculated that the entire southern Zhili has more than 15.3 million acres of mulberry fields, more than 25 million acres of paddy fields, and more than 20 million acres of dry fields, a total of more than 6,000 acres.
Ten thousand acres, this is the detailed figure, please take a look at it, the Queen Mother and the Princess..."
Zhang Yan and Princess Kunxing were shocked when they heard this.
Zhang Yan took the brochure handed over by the palace maid. After reading it and handing it to Princess Kunxing, she said in disbelief: "Ma Aiqing, there are more than 60 million acres of farmland in the south of the Yangtze River, including 1,500 acres of mulberry fields alone."
With more than one million acres, at five cents per mu per year, more than 7 million taels of tax can be collected. Adding more than 40 million acres of paddy fields and dry fields, more than 6 million taels of tax can be collected... This, this
, wouldn’t it add up to more than thirteen million taels this year?”
After Zhang Yan finished speaking, her little mouth was so shocked that she couldn't close her mouth shut.
"Back to the Queen Mother, it is indeed the case. Moreover, this is only land tax, not counting local tax, commercial tax, and customs duties. If these are added, it will at least double again. The exact amount that can be collected in a year is difficult for me to estimate for the time being.
"
Ma Shiying replied, feeling equally emotional.
I heard that it would be doubled. The tax revenue in Jiangnan alone might exceed 20 million taels every year. Zhang Yan was going crazy. She really couldn't imagine that after the New Deal was fully implemented, what would the entire country be able to do next year?
How much tax is collected?
"This bunch of corrupt officials and evil gentry are really abominable. When my father was in power, the entire south only collected a mere five to six million taels in taxes every year. Now it's better, they actually concealed so much land..."
Princess Kunxing slammed the book on the table, her little face turned red with anger, and she cursed angrily.
Both Zhang Yan and Ma Shiying chose to ignore this little angry young man, because it was meaningless to say this now.
It wasn't until a long while that Zhang Yan calmed down some of her excitement. She looked at Ma Shiying and asked with a hint of worry: "Ma Aiqing, Jiangnan alone has to pay more than 10 million taels of land tax every year. Isn't it too heavy?"
?Making it unaffordable for the people?"
Obviously, Zhang Yan has been in power in Nanjing for more than a year and has learned many things. She knows that the wealthy gentry households in various places will most likely distribute taxes equally to their tenants.
"Your Majesty, five yuan per mu for mulberry fields is not high, and one or two yuan per mu for paddy fields and dry fields is also not high. The people can afford it. In fact, the previous taxes were also not high, but they were only implemented in the local areas. Officials in each county
They will create clever names and collect too much at will.
So in the end, the taxes that the people had to pay were often several times or even ten times more than what the court stipulated."
Ma Shiying gritted his teeth at the last moment and simply told the truth.
"Ma Shiying, since you have known this for a long time, why didn't you go to the court to explain it before?"
Princess Kunxing was furious and couldn't help but ask after hearing this.
Every time I think about my father's past affairs for money and food, which made his hair turn gray and his body exhausted, the anger in his heart rises.
"I am guilty, I am ashamed of myself!"
Ma Shiying had no choice but to stand up and kneel down to apologize, but he thought in his heart, if I had dared to write such a memorial before, my bones would have been cold.
"Okay Juan'er, how can we blame Ma Aiqing for this matter?"
"Ma Aiqing, please get up quickly!"
"It turns out that Aiqing knows the crux of the problem. I must have a good plan in mind to deal with it, so I won't repeat the same mistakes as before, right?"
After Zhang Yan finished speaking, she looked straight at him.
Princess Kunxing didn't say anything either.
"Back to the Queen Mother, the only way to deal with this matter is to strengthen supervision and punish each case severely. However, it is almost impossible to completely prevent officials from collecting taxes indiscriminately." Ma Shiying answered honestly.
Zhang Yan frowned, obviously not very satisfied with his answer. It would be fine to just rely on supervision for this kind of thing for a short time, but over time, she would definitely become slack again.
Princess Kunxing snorted coldly: "Nothing is impossible. If you want to completely put an end to arbitrary tax collection by officials, you Ma Shiying can't do it. It doesn't mean that the emperor brother can't do it. The matter of deducting officials' salaries and funds,
Wasn't it solved easily by the emperor's brother? Now, can you, Mr. Mage and the Minister of Household Affairs, deduct the salaries of officials from all over the country?" He said with a proud face at the end.
"What Her Royal Highness the Princess said is that your Majesty is an eternal sage, and your knowledge is beyond the comparison of ordinary people like us. I think your Majesty must have already had a solution in mind."
Ma Shiying said with a look of admiration. He was both depressed and admired by His Majesty for letting the bank pay the salary to the Ministry of Accounts.
"You're right, the emperor actually told me about this matter."
"oh?"
Zhang Yan's eyes lit up, and Ma Shiying also looked at Princess Kunxing.
"Mother, the emperor didn't tell me the specific method. He just said it was related to the bank and asked me to speed up the establishment of the bank and improve the relevant systems."
Princess Kunxing had no choice but to explain.
Zhang Yan nodded and did not ask further questions, but said to Ma Shiying: "Ma Aiqing is busy with official duties, so she needs to take more care of her health."
"Thank you, Queen Mother, for your concern. I will take my leave!"
Ma Shiying resigned and left.
Back at the cabinet, all the officials were relieved when they heard that the Queen Mother just asked.
After all, if the data reported by various places is without water, you wouldn't believe it even if you beat them to death.
Ma Shiying also didn't believe it, so he said: "Everyone, although there is nothing wrong with the number of acres reported by each state government this time, it still needs to be verified."
"Brother, in my opinion, this is enough. With 60 million acres, the annual tax revenue is as high as more than 10 million taels. I am afraid that even the land tax in the south of the Yangtze River in the Song Dynasty is far inferior. There is no need to add more."
Has it been verified?”
"Yes, the Queen Mother didn't say anything. If you can, it's better not to bother. After all, when the water is clear, there will be no fish. Relaxation is the way to govern."
After the Minister of Hubu and Libu finished speaking, almost all the officials nodded in agreement.
This time the Queen Mother allocated a total of 500,000 taels of silver. Apart from their own salaries, everyone made almost no profit, so they all felt that such results were enough. They could not only explain to His Majesty, but also take the opportunity to collect tributes from various places.
silver.
Otherwise, if you really check them one by one, you really have no filial piety.
"Hmph! Do you think I just want to make trouble? The Queen Mother didn't say anything, but what about Your Majesty?
I am sure that no matter whether the cabinet sends people to verify or not, your majesty will eventually send people to each county to verify one by one. Rather than being embarrassed by your majesty in the end, it is better for the cabinet to check first and give officials in various places a chance.
So that you don’t end up being a soul killed by the sword in vain!”
Ma Shiying snorted coldly, how could everyone hide their thoughts from him? But he knew exactly what His Majesty's temper was, and he absolutely couldn't take any chances.
Everyone's expressions changed when they heard this. Considering His Majesty's style of doing things, this possibility is really high.
Everyone was depressed for a while, secretly thinking that it was really difficult to be a civil servant in the Shenwu Dynasty. If it were the Chongzhen Dynasty that went to such great lengths to measure the land, all the officials would probably have to save tens of thousands of fortunes.
"How do you plan to check this? If you check all of them, I estimate that all officials will be dismissed from their posts and have major demerits recorded."
The Minister of the Ministry of Personnel frowned and said, last time Ma Shiying was dismissed from his post and assigned dozens of civil servants, which made it very difficult for him to behave. After all, when he was conferring grades, he had received a lot of money from civil servants from various places.
"Let's do this. We'll first select ten counties for inspection, and then notify all states and counties of the inspection results and penalty decisions. Let each place report again, and finally verify them one by one."
Ma Shiying waved his hand and said, obviously he had already been worried about it.
"Brother Ge, are ten counties too many? Why not just pick two."
The Minister of Civil Affairs was shocked. Ten counties meant that at least a hundred more civil servants would suffer.
"snort…"
Ma Shiying snorted lightly and glanced coldly at the Minister of Staff.
A chill ran down the latter's spine, and he immediately said respectfully: "I'm so presumptuous, sir. Please forgive me."
He couldn't help but feel nervous. Although Ma Shiying had no right to remove him, he believed that as long as this old guy suggested to His Majesty that he be removed from office, Your Majesty would not hesitate at all.
"alright!"
"It's not that I'm ungrateful, but we all need to take a longer-term view. His Majesty attaches far more importance to the New Deal than you and I imagine. Playing tricks on this is like pulling chestnuts from the fire, and sooner or later you will burn yourself by playing with fire."
Ma Shiying's tone also slowed down a bit, and he glanced at the civil servants and said.
In my heart, I cursed these guys for being so stupid. They only wanted to make money. I didn’t think about how His Majesty would be unprepared for delegating power to them to lead the New Deal.
There will be many opportunities to make money in the future, but you can choose to make money at this time. Isn't that obviously committing a crime against the wind and going against His Majesty?
Everyone was not stupid, and they all woke up. This is indeed not the time to make money, but to do the job beautifully and gain His Majesty's trust.
As long as they gain His Majesty's trust, they will be able to completely replace the people in Beijing from now on. They have great power, but are they afraid that they will not have the opportunity to make a fortune?
Seeing that everyone was being awakened, Ma Shiying said no more, and then he selected ten counties and sent out ten teams to inspect the censors. Each team was led by a new Jinshi, and there were more than two hundred newly admitted officials.
Scholars, plus a hundred soldiers, marched to various counties in a mighty manner.
