Chapter 161 The Troubles in Nancha (Forty) Two Doubts
Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue did not reach an agreement in their brief meeting during the day, or it should be said that neither of them could accurately determine Gao Jingjing's actual purpose in this Beijing inspection.
For Jingcha, it is normal to get rid of some of the other party's people and replace some of their own people. Everyone knows it very well. However, for them, sometimes doing things in a pragmatic way seems too unreasonable and difficult to grasp.
Prepare accordingly according to his intentions.
Shen Shixing tends to believe that Gao Pragmatic intends to perform a major operation on Nanjing's officialdom, in other words, to obtain the real power in Nanjing.
Although the Beijing inspection mainly targeted officials below the fourth rank, and the senior officials of the Six Ministries in Nanjing went directly to the emperor to report themselves, and the emperor ultimately decided who should be retained and who should get rid of them, in fact, there were not many officials below the fourth rank who held real power.
Unlike most dynasties, the Ming Dynasty officially implemented the "Dual Capital System". As we all know, Nanjing is one of the few cities in Chinese history that has been the capital of more than a dozen political powers, and its geographical advantages are self-evident.
When Zhu Yuanzhang started his army, he was very clear about Nanjing's advantages. His early adviser Feng Guoyong once suggested to Zhu Yuanzhang that Jinling should be settled first. He once suggested to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Jinling is the capital of the emperor, where dragons and tigers are inhabited, so we must first uproot it as the foundation. Then we should remove it as the foundation."
Go out on four expeditions, advocate benevolence and righteousness, win people's hearts, and don't be greedy for your children, treasures, and silk, because the world is not stable enough."
Since the economic advantages of Jiangsu and Zhejiang were greater than those of the south at that time, occupying Nanjing was equivalent to possessing the wealth foundation of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang was able to maneuver with ease in the position of the Fourth War, defeating Chen Youliang and Zhang Shicheng, and then went on to the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains.
But this does not mean that Zhu Yuanzhang is completely satisfied with Nanjing as the capital. In fact, in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart, Nanjing is too peaceful and cannot stabilize the whole country. There has always been a saying that "Jinling is Nanjing, Daliang (Kaifeng) is Beijing, and I am in the Spring and Autumn Period."
The idea of patrolling back and forth.
However, in the eleventh year of Hongwu, after careful consideration, Zhu Yuanzhang believed that Daliang, also known as Kaifeng, was not suitable to become a capital because of its geographical location and the location of the Fourth War. However, Zhu Yuanzhang never gave up looking for a new capital. He had three goals: "
Luoyang, Xi'an, and Peiping. These three cities each had their own advantages, but Zhu Yuanzhang died before he could make a decision.
After Zhu Di launched the Jingnan Campaign to seize the throne, he almost immediately began to consider the issue of moving the capital. The reason was also very simple. After all, Beijing was his "Longxing Land", so he very much wanted to add a reasonable basis to his succession.
The reason is as the saying goes: "Emperors in the past have either taken up commoner robes and pacified the world, or foreign vassals have taken over the throne, and they have all been admired in the places where they made their mark."
On the other hand, Beijing's geographical location was more conducive to fighting Mongolia and controlling the north, so Zhu Di decided to move the capital. In the 18th year of Yongle, when the Beijing palace was completed, Zhu Di decided to move the capital to Beijing and change Nanjing as the remaining capital. However, this did not mean that
From then on, the DPRK regarded Beijing as its only capital.
After Zhu Di's death, Emperor Renzong of the Ming Dynasty and Zhu Gaochi once wanted to move the capital back to Nanjing. Later, Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty stopped it in time, and only then did Beijing's position begin to stabilize.
The capital was moved, but it did not mean that the institutions were also completely moved here. The situation at that time was that the yamen in Nanjing had to hear cases and maintain the operation of the country during the process of moving the capital, so they were not abolished. After the capital relocation was completed, the yamen in Nanjing ceased to exist.
Therefore, the word "Nanjing" was added in front of all the six volumes of Nanjing in the late Yongle period, thus forming the unique six volumes of Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty.
Compared with the Six Ministries in Beijing, the Six Ministries in Nanjing actually don’t look much different. According to the system of the Ming Dynasty, each of the Six Ministries has one Shangshu (Second Rank), one left and right Minister (Second Rank), and the Metropolitan Procuratorate has left and right ministers.
The capital censor (the second rank), the left and right deputy censors of the capital (the third rank), the left and right censors (the fourth rank), and under their jurisdiction are thirteen supervisory censors with one hundred and ten people.
These institutions also exist in Nanjing, but they are still different from the Six Ministries in Beijing: the Six Ministries in Nanjing do not have Zuo Shilang, the Yamen of the Ministry of Personnel does not have Yuanwailang, and the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate does not have Zuo Du Yushi.
The six departments in Nanjing basically have nothing to do. For example, the Nanjing Criminal Department can only manage cases in Nanjing and has no right to hear cases in other places. The Nanjing Civil Affairs Department can only evaluate officials in Nanjing. Most of the Nanjing yamen are for the elderly.
Holy land, everyone retires from Beijing and goes to Nanjing to enjoy the benefits. It is not a happy thing.
But this does not mean that the yamen in Nanjing are unimportant. As a system for consolidating the capital of the Ming Empire, the Six Ministries of Nanjing can still play a role at critical moments (such as when Qing troops enter the pass). At least they can directly take over half of the country. It can be seen that in normal times, everyone
They all agree with the idea of "Nanjing manages the south." However, the highest administrative body in Nanjing is not Nanjing's Six Ministries, but Nanjing's "Government Conference".
Nanjing usually sets up a garrison to guard Nanjing for the emperor. Most of the Nanjing garrison is composed of princes and ministers, most of which are served by Wei Guogong. The garrison hall meeting is composed of garrison, counselor, internal garrison and other officials.
It is where the highest power lies in Nanjing.
This composition has a certain institutional nature. Among them, the Nanjing Counselor and Mechanical Affairs is concurrently held by the Nanjing Ministry of War. Therefore, the Nanjing Ministry of War is also a special existence among the Six Ministries of Nanjing. It does have real power, and the real power is very large. It is said: "Therefore, its duties
The five parts are regarded as particularly important."
Among the Six Ministries of Beijing, the Minister of Personnel is called the "Tianguan", and he can control the promotion, appointment and dismissal of officials below the fourth rank. The Tianguan also has strong suggestion power for the appointment, dismissal and adjustment of higher-ranking officials. However, among the Six Ministries of Nanjing, the Nanjing War Ministry
The strongest, he can control all the military training and garrison expenses in the Nanjing area, which means that the Minister of War in Nanjing can mobilize the army to support Beijing at critical moments.
However, the Six Ministries in Nanjing are, after all, the Six Ministries that accompany the capital. In fact, no matter what they do, they have to be controlled by the Six Ministries in Beijing. For example, if Nanjing’s Ministry of Rites wants to hold sacrificial activities, it must first ask the Beijing Ministry of Rites for instructions; the selection of officials from Nanjing’s Ministry of Personnel is controlled by the Beijing Ministry of Personnel;
Although the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs collects the finances themselves, it must be handed over to the Beijing Ministry of Household Affairs after collection... and so on.
Therefore, many Nanjing officials actually feel aggrieved. After all, although the names are similar and the official status (referring to the administrative level) is theoretically the same, in fact, the Beijing officials are the head wives and the Nanjing officials can only be regarded as concubines.
Shen Shixing's view is that Gao Pragmatic may use Nancha to control the doctors and principals of the Six Ministries of Nanjing who actually manage various affairs. Like the Six Ministries of Beijing, it is impossible for the ministers and ministers to personally manage the specific details, and they have no right to manage detailed affairs.
In the hands of ministers and chiefs of various ministries and departments.
Doctors of the fifth rank and principals of the sixth rank are all within the scope of Nancha. In Shen Shixing's view, it would be difficult for Gao Pragmatic to directly replace the Tang Shangguan of the Sixth Department of Nanjing, but if he only replaces some doctors, chief ministers and the like
, after sacrificing Haigang Peak, it is entirely possible to do it, and this can also actually control Nanjing's administrative system - anyway, the ministers have to listen to Beijing on major matters. Doing so is tantamount to neglecting the six departments of Nanjing.
The top and bottom are not close to each other.
As for the garrison meeting, the garrison minister in Nanjing was Wei Guogong Xu Bangrui, whom Gao Jingshi praised. The garrison in Nanjing was from Chen Ju. There was only one Nanjing Minister of War who was a neutral faction. Gao Jingshi did not need to interfere and would not ruin his affairs.
However, Wang Xijue's views are different from Shen Shixing's. He believes that high pragmatism will not "bloom in full bloom", but will definitely have some emphasis. Wang Xijue believes that this emphasis will most likely be on financial issues. To be precise, it is very likely that
It should be at the head of the household department in Nanjing.
The Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs also has certain real power. It is responsible for collecting taxes and grains from Nanzhili and Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Huguang provinces (the taxes and grains paid by these four places accounted for almost half of the Ming Dynasty). It is also responsible for water transportation, national salt diversion and surveying.
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Especially the matter of Yan Yin Ke He, the Nanjing Household Department has been responsible for this matter from the beginning to the end of the Ming Dynasty. There were only two years when the Nanjing Household Department was not responsible for this matter: in the third year of Zhengde, Liu Jin changed the law and the Beijing Household Department was changed.
He was responsible for, "Nanjing Yinban, all ordered to be destroyed"; but in the fifth year of Zhengde, after Liu Jin was executed, the Ministry of Household Affairs petitioned the Ministry of Household Affairs to "print Yan Yinban, and still be under the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs", and was approved. Since then, it has remained unchanged.
In addition, the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs is also responsible for the collection and management of yellow books across the country, which are stored in Xuanwu Lake, Nanjing. By the way, the Minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs often also serves as the prime minister's grain storage.
Wang Xijue’s focus is on taxes and salt production, and he believes that Gao Pragmatic is the most likely to take action in these two areas.
Grain tax is not a commercial tax. The four provinces under the jurisdiction of Nanjing have always been large tax payers. After the "Hai Rui and Xu Jie", a whipping method has been implemented in Nanjing provinces for more than ten years. Now these four provinces have no
Instead of collecting taxes in kind such as grain, they should all be levied silver taels and copper coins.
Now Gao Pragmatic is the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. According to Wang Xijue's observation and understanding of him, this Gao Situ is particularly stubborn on tax issues. It is hard to believe that he would not trust the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs to do this on his own.
In particular, the amount of taxes collected by Nanjing last year was not up to standard, with a shortage of more than 73,000 taels of silver. The reason was that there was a hurricane at the turn of spring and summer last year, which affected the harvest in Zhejiang and other places.
Wang Xijue was in Suzhou at the time, so he knew very well that this matter was nonsense. The wind disaster was real, and the impact was indeed there, but it actually had nothing to do with the collection of grain taxes.
Why? Because the amount of tax collected by the court is relatively fixed and will not change because of a disaster. There is only one exception, that is, the emperor specifically approves that a certain place is exempted from tax due to a disaster, or explicitly allows a certain place to reduce taxes in a certain year.
How many.
In the past few years, Zhu Yijun often approved tax reductions and exemptions because the court was much wealthier than in the past. Among them, the year of Huangzhuang's reform was the most severe. The total tax reductions and exemptions for all parts of the country were as high as 700,000 taels. Although he was very pragmatic at that time and did not care about finances.
, and almost got mad to death.
After his persuasion, Zhu Yijun restrained himself. In the following years, the annual nationwide tax exemptions and tax reductions were mostly kept within 300,000 taels. As for last year, because the decision was made to open the vassal ban,
Zhu Yijun was even more strict in this regard, with a reduction of only 140,000 taels for the whole year, and he basically ignored the Jiangnan typhoon disaster.
In other words, the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs said that the over 70,000 taels of tax money was undercollected because of the storm. This reason is not legal in the first place.
Secondly, although the Jiangnan typhoon disaster will definitely cause economic losses, the Jiangnan grain tax has long been no longer dependent on Jiangnan's self-produced grain. The provinces in Jiangnan have to buy grain from Huguang. How does the Jiangnan typhoon affect grain tax? Huguang grain tax also
It is under the jurisdiction of the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs, but there is no hurricane disaster in Huguang, and it is even less likely to affect it.
However, last year's typhoon still affected some economic activities. For example, if mulberry trees were blown down, silk production would be affected, and weaving mills, paper mills and other workshops could not start operations due to the typhoon, so they were more directly affected by the disaster.
Many of these people are landowners, such as Wang Xijue's family, who are involved in both government and business affairs. Therefore, after the disaster, they have to find some means to make up for it.
This is actually how the reduction in grain taxes came about. Ordinary people cannot enjoy it, but those who can enjoy it are those who the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs does not want to offend.
Wang Xijue himself was one of them. Of course, he would first think that Gao Pragmatic was eyeing this matter, and then he would extend his hand into Nanjing's financial power.
Although Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue did not reach an agreement, their interests were always relatively consistent, so they both began to make arrangements according to their own ideas after returning.
Shen Shixing wrote another letter to the senior officials of the Xin School in Nanjing, reminding them not to just focus on writing their own statements, but also to pay more attention to their subordinates of the Xin School. At least they must write better in their test papers, and at the same time, they must also
We must pay attention to "protecting cadres" in all other aspects.
Wang Xijue was more direct. He first wrote a letter to his family, asking them to sort out their accounts and make sure that every income and expenditure was "reasonable, reasonable and legal". At the very least, they couldn't play more than others, so as not to have trouble in the future.
What went wrong in the investigation?
Immediately afterwards, I wrote to the relevant officials in the Nanjing Ministry of Household Affairs, asking them to check the accounts immediately and fill in the "even" accounts as soon as possible. Every income and expenditure must be clear, at least it seems that there is no problem.
Specific to last year's typhoon tax reduction, although Wang Xijue refused to put his words into words, he also hinted that Nanjing must adhere to the principle of "under disaster conditions, forced taxation cannot be tolerated" and must not rely on other reasons.
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Don't worry about whether there are people who are making trouble with the system. Just say that you can't bear forced conscription and that's it.
The reason is very simple. The system is there and cannot be circumvented. However, "cannot bear forced conscription" raises this matter to a moral issue. Needless to say what the status of morality was in the Ming Dynasty, as long as taxation is not
When it turns from a legal issue to a moral issue, the nature is completely different. Even if Gao Pragmatic finally finds an excuse to investigate, he can only hold it high and put it down gently.
"Gentlemen" enjoy magical immunity in this society, and sometimes even breaking the law cannot be punished.
After the two old gentlemen in the pavilion finished doing this, they felt a lot more at ease, and then they could only wait for Gao Pragmatic to make a move.
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