Chapter 288 Economic and Party Struggle (7) New Charges
Gao Pragmatic's many years of officialdom were indeed not in vain. As his words were sent to the palace early the next morning, seven memorials to impeach him also arrived.
Two of these seven bullets came from the local area, and five came directly from the capital. Among the two local bullets, one came from Suzhou under the jurisdiction of Governor Yingtian, and the other came from Huizhou, Jiangxi.
If you look at the map, you will see that Suzhou and Huizhou are two important economic towns close to Zhejiang. The bullets coming from here gave Gao pragmatic reason to be sure that his previous judgment was accurate.
As for the turmoil in the capital, this is a matter of course. It is true that since Gao Pangshi succeeded to the position of chief minister, especially since Shen Yiguan was forced to leave the capital to prepare for the Fengchan ceremony, there has been "peace" in the capital, and the political disputes over the years have It seemed like it disappeared overnight.
However, Gao Pragmatism is not so arrogant as to think that this is the complete surrender of the Xin School, and that this will be the era when the Practical School wins the Confucian orthodoxy and begins to dominate the world.
Officialdom is always officialdom, and the struggle for power and profit never sleeps. The interests are there, either you take them or I take them. No faction dares to say that they can satisfy everyone, so the Xin School sect's temporary dormancy is just a last resort. When they think they have a chance, they will still do it. Jump out - or even if the person who jumps out changes his vest and is no longer called the Xin School, it won't change anything. In short, there will always be political enemies.
Although the first person to initiate the impeachment this time was just a soldier, and Gao Pragmatic ignored the root cause of the impeachment because there were few people around him to help him, he knew very well: since someone has taken action, there will never be only one Li Shuyuan jumped out, followed by waves of bullets.
This is because the official method of the Ming Dynasty is like this: first pick a person who is neither high nor low to stir up trouble, and then follow up again after provoking the matter, gradually creating a stir, from the local to the central government, from the seventh to eighth grade minors. Ministers from the second to the third rank began to participate in it, forming a situation like the "full dynasty inverted arch" situation like Xu's level arch, and finally the senior ministers came out to make the final decision.
Gao Jingshi is very familiar with this method of playing, and he has been playing according to this method for many years. However, this time, the Xin School and the Jiangnan Chaebol behind them may look at each other in shock, because Gao Jingshi chose not to defend himself and directly resigned. .
This is like someone who is still gathering strength, being pragmatic and directly opening the door - the resignation of the chief minister is not a trivial matter. The emperor cannot wait for public opinion to ferment to see how many people are against the chief minister. At this time, the emperor only has two There are two choices, and one must be made immediately: either give up the chief minister and allow him to resign; or try to keep the chief minister and severely punish those who initiated the impeachment.
Of course, the implementation level will be a little more complicated, that is, the emperor will retain him once or twice no matter what, and after the first assistant resigns again and again, the emperor will go along with the situation and express his permission. However, this is just a performance process and will not affect the development of the situation. .
When Li Shuyuan's bullets were delivered to Zhu Yijun yesterday, the emperor was a little puzzled. Why did the Southern officials impeach Pragmatic? It stands to reason that Shen Guangyi is not in the capital now, and your Xinxue school is leaderless. At this time, impeach Pragmatic, and finally How to sing a play?
Waiting until today with such doubts, the emperor thought that he would receive a self-defense letter from Gao Pragmatic, and had already thought about how to "gentle words and comfort". Who knew that what was sent with the seven bullets was actually Gao Pragmatic?
Cishu. When the emperor heard what Chen Ju said, he thought he had heard it wrong - what kind of situation is it that just like Li Shuyuan's impeachment yesterday, Pragmatic actually resigned directly?
Zhu Yijun, who seemed relaxed and leisurely at first, suddenly became serious and asked Chen Ju to show him the seven bullets and the Gao pragmatic words. He first subconsciously picked up the Gao pragmatic words, but the moment he opened them, he
But he suddenly hesitated, slowly put it aside, and looked at the seven bullets first.
Not long after, Zhu Yijun finished reading the bullet. He frowned, looked gloomy, and seemed a little disappointed. The charges of impeaching Gao Pragmatic in the bullet were not much different from those of Li Shuyuan yesterday, especially the five bullets in Beijing, which were basically
There is nothing new in retelling Li Shuyuan's bullet in a different way. Of course, the most important thing is that Zhu Yijun knows where these accusations come from, even better than what is stated in the bullet.
On the other hand, the two bullets from Suzhou and Huizhou mentioned some details that Zhu Yijun was not very clear about. For example, the bullet from the prefect of Huizhou clearly described how Jinghua Infrastructure hinted at the importance of his "sewage project"
nature, as well as Gao Yuanfu's concern about this, and finally "forced ministers to convene the gentry and virtuous people to discuss donations for the construction, and Jinghua Infrastructure made huge profits from this".
It has to be said that the prefect, who was a Jinshi, wrote very well and described the whole thing in detail as if he had seen it in person. Zhu Yijun seemed to be able to think of the scene. But Zhu Yijun paid more attention to another thing: data.
The government official directly presented the financial list provided to him by Jinghua Infrastructure, which included various materials and labor expenses. From the perspective of Zhu Yijun, a novice who had never seen such a list, it was just a "socket-type cement pipe."
It accounts for a little more than 30% of the total funds, which does seem to be a problem.
Moreover, it cost more than 30,000 taels just to build a "sewer" in Huizhou Prefecture, that is, the county seat of Shexian County, and the purchase of "socket-type cement pipes" cost 11,000 taels.
Two, this is really beyond his understanding.
Did pragmatic Gao really make huge profits from it? This thought flashed through Zhu Yijun's mind, but he quickly shook his head - it was not that he firmly believed that Gao pragmatic would not make huge profits from it, but that he suddenly understood something: even if it was true, then what?
how?
Don't talk to the emperor about the rule of law. The emperor doesn't care about it at all. I follow the Constitution and follow the law. Whether you are guilty or not depends on what I think.
What would "I" think?
It's very simple: pragmatic merit is the best in the world, and there is no one in the court today who is more useful than pragmatic, so what if he makes some money?
Moreover, as the upper county of Huizhou, She County costs 30,000 taels, so the middle county may spend 20,000 taels, and the lower county may spend 10,000 taels. If this is extended to the whole country, if there is a "sewer project", the Ming Dynasty
It does cost a lot of money to cover more than a thousand counties, but... it has nothing to do with my emperor, and pragmatism does not allow me to take the money! According to the Huizhou Prefect, this money was paid by the "gentlemen and virtuous people"
Yes!
In fact, Zhu Yijun's estimate of spending 30,000, 20,000, and 10,000 for each of the upper, middle, and lower counties was very inaccurate, but the emperor would not make detailed calculations for this, he just made a simple estimate.
In the Ming Dynasty, more than a thousand prefectures and counties were divided into several levels. There are generally four methods for this level classification:
The first is the level divided by geographical location.
The county where the two capitals are located has the highest status and is called Jing County; followed by the prefecture-affiliated county where the Chief Secretary is located is called Shou County; the third is the county where the prefecture and Zhili Prefecture are located, called Yi County or Fuguo County, such as She County
It is this category; then there are the counties under the prefecture and the direct state, which are called prefecture-affiliated counties; the bottom is the counties under the ordinary states (they must accept the leadership of the prefecture and the jurisdiction of the state), called state-affiliated counties.
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The second is the classification based on the amount of land tax, which is also the most familiar classification method for ordinary people in later generations.
Those who pay less than 100,000 shi are called upper counties, those who pay less than 60,000 shi are called middle counties, and those who pay less than 30,000 shi are called lower counties.
The third is the level divided based on the complexity and simplicity of the county's affairs.
"The government should provide more than 150,000 dan of field grain, the prefecture should use more than 70,000 dan of grain, and the county should use more than 30,000 dan of grain. They may also visit the royal palace in person, with the capital secretary, chief secretary, and censorship division, and be guarded by troops and horses. The roads should be used as post roads, and the border areas should be charged with supplies.
Wherever you go, things are complicated; in prefectures, prefectures, and counties, the amount of farmland and grain is less than 150, 70, or 30,000 dan, and in secluded places, things are simple."
However, it should be noted that this classification according to the complexity and simplicity of affairs is mainly used for the promotion and demotion of state and county officials.
"Foreign officials who are talented in surveying and managing complex affairs will be assigned to remote areas; and those who are surveying and managing simple matters will be assigned to complex and dramatic places; governors and governors will change the order at their own discretion if they request a change; or if there is no merit, they will be sent to the Ministry for use."
The fourth is the level divided by the population and territory size of states and counties.
Prefectures and counties are located in the southeast and plain areas with a large population. Generally, the prefectures and counties with a population of more than 200,000 are called Fanju prefectures and counties, also known as large prefectures and counties. Those with sparse people are called small prefectures and counties. Even if things are complicated, there will inevitably be small counties.
For example, at that time, Shucheng County was 90 miles from east to west, 90 miles from north to south, with 42 miles of household registration, and a population of 12,698. Guo Mao "started to build up Shucheng, and made it small but complex", so it was called a small county.
Prefectures and counties are located in the northwest and mountainous areas. Although they have a small population, they have a large territory. They are also known as Dazhou counties. Even if they are simple, they are still called Dazhou counties. For example, Yunyang County in Sichuan is 160 miles from east to west and 240 miles from north to south.
It has a population of 16,215, which is roughly the same as that of Shucheng County. It has a small administrative area and a population of less than 20,000. Because the territory is too large, there are discussions about dividing the territory into counties. It can also be seen that it is also called a large county because of its large territory.
In short, the above four levels of classification are neither specific nor clear. In fact, there is no official unified standard. The "big" or "small" of each state and county also changes from time to time.
If we calculate a little more carefully, then according to Zhu Yijun's idea of "all states and counties across the country to do a sewer project", the total cost will be at least 20 million taels. That is not "it really costs a lot of money", but "it simply costs too much."
It’s too much money.”
But what a coincidence is that Zhu Yijun did not make careful calculations, and Jinghua Infrastructure did not consider doing it all across the country. There is actually a premise for such a project, that is, the city has a large enough population. If the population is not large, it will not be used at all.
Without this new type of sewer project, the previous drainage and sewage treatment measures are enough.
There is a classic line in a famous Ming Dynasty blockbuster: "The imperial court is just a few palaces and several yamen. Food should be eaten in separate pots."
This is how the emperor thought about the problem, so Zhu Yijun didn't care at all how much money the "gentlemen and virtuous people" spent on this. He even thought that the "gentlemen and virtuous people" had plenty of money, so he pragmatically collected money from them by building sewers for the local area. Compared with
Those corrupt officials who directly come to them to ask for bribes are much better! At the very least, have the sewers been really repaired?
Then there is the bullet from Suzhou. To be precise, this bullet comes from Taicang, Suzhou - don't panic, it is not from Wang Xijue, it comes from the deputy envoy in charge of rectifying Su Song's military equipment and managing grain storage and water conservancy...referred to as Su Song's military equipment, this official
It is not stationed in Suzhou City, but in Taicang Prefecture under the jurisdiction of Suzhou.
The reason why Su Songbing's bullets attracted Zhu Yijun's attention was because he impeached a new highly pragmatic crime: private collection of sea tax.
As mentioned earlier in this book, after the Longqing switch, the Ming Dynasty first used Yuegang in Fujian as a pilot to levy tariffs. The tax system used was relatively crude, and taxes were basically based on the size, or tonnage, of ships leaving the port.
Later, Gao pragmatically became the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs and established two departments and eleven departments. He then upgraded this overly crude tax law, changing the original calculation based on the gross tonnage of the ship to the calculation based on the deadweight tonnage, and simplified the types of goods.
Classification, different categories of goods will use different tax rates.
For example, a ship of silk and a ship of rice were originally subject to the same tax rate, but now the tax rate of a ship of silk will be much higher than that of a ship of rice. The principles here are actually relatively simple, there are only two: First, look at the value of the goods
, the tax rate for goods with luxury attributes will be significantly higher than the tax rate for goods with daily necessities; secondly, looking at the people's livelihood attributes, the tax rate for people's livelihood necessities is generally low, while the tax rate for non-people's livelihood necessities is generally rising.
No matter what, all the ports in the Ming Dynasty now have to pay taxes when going to sea. The thing about Su Songbing's impeachment of Gao Pragmatic is that the court has already collected taxes once, so why should Gao Pragmatics (Jinghua) have to collect taxes again?
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This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! What does it mean that Jinghua has collected another tax? In fact, he is talking about Jinghua’s escort fee. The escort fee has been mentioned before, so I won’t go into details here.
, in short, Su Songbing believes that the escort fee is a "private sea tax", because the reality is that almost no ship that went to sea in the Ming Dynasty dared not to pay this escort fee.
To be honest, this means that Gao Pragmatic has not come to the cabinet today to look at the matter. If he came, he would probably roll his eyes when he saw this charge - why, you could pay protection fees to the pirates back then, but now you leave it to me, Jinghua
A single escort fee won't suffice? Those pirates were all wiped out by Jinghua after I spent money to build a two-ocean fleet, and Jinghua's fee is much cheaper than that of pirates.
However, Gao Pragmatic rolled his eyes, and he probably wouldn't be surprised that there is such a person - at first glance, this guy speaks for those maritime business groups, and since the maritime business group already has "capitalism sprouts", it must be
Every penny counts, and money is the only thing that matters. Seeing that all the pirate groups have been destroyed and maritime trade is safe, they are definitely not willing to spend more money. So, Jinghua, who continues to accept money, is naturally guilty of a heinous crime.
Zhu Yijun left his bullet and looked at it carefully. He didn't think that Gao Jingshi was too ruthless here. He was just curious and wanted to know how much money Gao Jingshi could make here - don't forget, Beiyang Sea Trade
The alliance included shares held privately by the emperor.
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