The second strategy? In fact, people who are familiar with Gao pragmatism have already realized this, because Gao pragmatism often carries out top-level design of the system first, and then makes adjustments to the distribution of benefits.

As expected, Gao pragmatically said: "The second strategy is to provide a certain degree of financial support to the mutual aid team."

When many ministers heard this, they immediately showed expressions of "Sure enough," but they still stared at Gao Pragmatic to see how this financial master would squeeze out some of this year's precarious financial balance to support this mutual aid team.

.

However, unexpectedly, Gao Pragmatic did not look embarrassed, and said calmly: "Last night, our cabinet reviewed this year's contribution to the Honors. The report for the first half of the year showed that from the first day of the first lunar month to the 30th of June, the total amount was reduced to approximately

One hundred and thirty-four thousand two hundred and fifty taels of silver.

According to last year's trend, the contribution of Honor in the second half of the year may be slightly more than that of the first half. Here, I will make some redundancies for the time being, and calculate based on the contribution in the second half of the year being one million taels. My Ming Dynasty has nearly 1,300

Counties (originally 1,171 in history, in the book the number increased to about 1,300 due to the attachment of North Korea, the relocation of towns to the Northeast, and the recovery of the Western Regions). If the upper, middle and lower counties are not considered for the time being, each county contributes about 770 taels of silver on average.

This white disaster mainly affects the north, especially the nine border areas. Considering that there are wartime allocations in the Western Regions, there is no need for additional support from the court this time. Therefore, what I actually need to allocate is the four provinces of Beizhili, Liaodong, Shanxi, and Shaanxi (Gansu).

Although there are governors, they are under the jurisdiction of Shaanxi under the Chief Secretary system of "Two Capitals and Thirteen Provinces". From a pragmatic financial point of view, there is no need to separate them).

There are 336 counties in these four provinces, including 96 counties in Shaanxi, 77 counties in Shanxi, 106 counties in Beizhili, and 57 counties in Liaodong [Note: As discussed earlier in this book, Liaodong was in the original

Historically, it was a "military control model" and there was no clear "county". The fifty-seven counties in this book are the result of high-pragmatic reforms.], among which there are fifty-two upper counties and two hundred middle counties.

Seven, lower county seventy-seven.

It is my intention to allocate one million taels from Rongge in the second half of the year as incentives to local mutual aid teams in response to the white disaster this year. In principle, 3,000 taels will be provided to the upper county, 2,500 taels to the middle county, and 2,500 taels to the lower county.

Two thousand taels.

That is to say, the upper county allocated a total of 156,000 taels, the middle county allocated a total of 517,500 taels, and the lower county allocated a total of 154,000 taels, for a total of 827,500 taels.

, with a balance of 172,500 taels. Of course, the account department will not take back the balance, but it is still used for disaster relief and emergency dispatch.

In addition, considering that disaster relief is an urgent need and it is inconvenient to dispatch large amounts of cash, the above funds are all disbursed by local branches of the Federal Reserve Bank of China at any time according to the quota. However, emergency dispatch funds cannot be allocated by local yamen and must be signed by the cabinet and issued by the Ministry of Accounts.

Only the local Federal Reserve Bank can disburse according to the amount."

You see, a large territory also has its own troubles. One million taels seems like a huge sum of money, but even if Gao Pragmatic reduces the allocation provinces to the four northern provinces, there are still more than 300 counties looking at it eagerly.

Money. As a result, one million taels were divided up, and the average support for a county was only more than 2,000 taels.

What is the concept of more than two thousand taels? It is roughly equivalent to a thousand pigs. In later generations, a county-level breeding farm can get it at any time. Considering that in later generations, China eats 700 million pigs a year

, on average, each person eats half a head every year, so a county often has a row of such farms. (This also needs to take into account that the Chinese diet in later generations is extremely extensive, otherwise it may not be possible to feed even 1 billion heads.)

The saying that the economic base determines the superstructure is a truth that is applicable everywhere.

Of course, if this money is allocated, buying pigs will definitely not be the main expense. The above is just a value replacement. In short, this money seems to be very large, and it will not be a big waste if you divide it into one cent. This is also before the highly pragmatic fiscal reform.

The reason why the Ming Dynasty had almost no decent disaster relief measures.

The finances are so weak that it looks like impotence. If you expect the imperial court to have a dragon, a tiger, a tiger, a tiger, and eight girls at night, it is obviously a eunuch going to a brothel - nonsense!

Gao Pragmatic's words made all the ministers present fall into deep thought. Of course they could hear that such a specific value could be blurted out. It was obvious that Yuan Fu had a plan in advance, and the so-called "checking for leaks and filling vacancies" might just be casual humility.

However, they also had to admit that Gao Yuanfu's plan was probably not only to deal with the coming white disaster, but also an attempt to change the Ming Dynasty's grassroots governance model.

After so many years, everyone has been an official in the same palace, and now we can also see some tricks: high-pragmatic reforms often start from a small point to break through. When this small point is driven into a wedge by him and is sure to be nailed, he will

Based on this, he will gradually start to exert force, slowly open the opening, and finally when everything is mature, he will cut it open.

The old foxes have even discovered that if this plan succeeds, it will leave a mark in the history of the Ming Dynasty.

Why do you say that? Because Gao Pragmatic’s plan is fundamentally about throwing away the past model of local squire management, and implementing an organizational model based purely on local reputation.

In other words, in the past, those who had power in the local area were all local wealthy families with money and power. However, the so-called "mutual aid team" that Gao Pragmatic insists on establishing today is different. Its person in charge is most likely the person Gao Pragmatic said he wanted to be.

The "righteous man" who was rewarded was actually explicitly required to have "no more than a hundred acres of land."

What does this mean? It means that our ministry has clearly requested that only those from truly "poor families" can lead this mutual aid team.

Don't look at this mutual aid team now being described by Gao Pragmatic as if it is a very temporary position. Under the premise of no disaster or emergency, it seems that it can't do anything... But everyone is not stupid. Especially you Gao Yuan

We have all seen Fu's methods over the years. You have given it so many restrictions today, but what if you lift these restrictions step by step in the future? What about you expanding the powers of the mutual aid team step by step?

If this is the case, perhaps in the future the lowest level of the people will form a poor organization that can compete with the local gentry and wealthy families. The leader of this poor organization is determined by "popularity" and is determined by the court through the awarding of the title of "righteous man"

, in this way, a direct connection will be formed between the local people and the imperial court, breaking the past situation of "imperial power not extending to the county"!

Why do you say this? Because the reason why the imperial power did not extend to the counties was, on the one hand, because the court did not have so much spare money to appoint officials at the lowest level among the people, and on the other hand, because the local gentry had the strength to "help" the court manage the grassroots level.

In this way, by being loyal to the imperial power, the gentry could obtain the actual power to govern the local grassroots people, and the imperial power could maintain stability at the grassroots level without having to go to the county. This was a two-way street, and it was a dilemma!

However, this model has hidden dangers. The hidden danger is that when your imperial power is stable, the local gentry will naturally be willing to be loyal, but when your imperial power is unstable... Oh, sorry, we will help whoever wins.

Aren’t the countless times in Chinese history where counties and governments have been forced to surrender? Isn’t it the result of the hidden dangers of this model? After all, if I change my allegiance to another emperor, it will not affect my dominance in the local area as always!

However, once something like a "mutual aid team" is created, it can skip the gentry level and directly connect with the imperial power and the government, thereby depriving the gentry of the power to govern the local area. Although this is only a long-term crisis, consider that

Who can guarantee that Gao Pragmatic's acting style will not become a reality? After all, Gao Pragmatic is shockingly young for a chief minister. If nothing unexpected happens, he can still rule for thirty years!

In fact, everyone thinks it is a bit difficult to understand what Gao Pragmatic did - your Xinzheng Gao family is not only the largest "rich family" in Xinzheng, but also looking at the whole of Henan, it is undoubtedly second to none. You are doing yourself a disservice by doing this

It’s not good for the family either! What are you trying to do?

Is it true, as some rumors say, that the Gao family in Xinzheng will become the Gao family in Dingnan sooner or later? However, don’t the famous families in Zhongzhou have more style and reputation than the native kings of the Southern Barbarians?

However, no matter what, since Gao Pragmatic has done this, then everyone should advise or oppose, and who should let everyone be gentry from their respective hometowns?

"Yuanfu, although this plan sounds good, I'm afraid it will encounter a lot of difficulties in actual operation." Chen Yubi, the official secretary, frowned and said: "First of all, how to ensure that these mutual aid teams can really play their role? Secondly,

, how to prevent local officials from misappropriating these funds? Finally, can this plan get the support and cooperation of local people?"

It’s not surprising that some people objected, but the first person to stand up and object was Chen Yubi, which more or less made Gao Pragmatic feel a little emotional. Of course, he knew the status of the Chen family in Sichuan. After all, his father Chen Yiqin had served as a cabinet minister.

Lao, he himself has been a civil servant for so many years, so it is not surprising that he rejects his own idea. Besides, although Chen Yubi deliberately opposed it, the questions he raised were serious questions and were not unreasonable.

So Gao Pragmatic nodded first, expressing his understanding of Chen Yubi's concerns, and then said: "These issues have been considered by our cabinet. First, on how to ensure that the mutual aid team can truly play its role, we can start from two aspects.

On the one hand, we need to strengthen the training and guidance of mutual aid teams so that they understand their responsibilities and missions. This can be done by the local government officials who were originally in charge of civil affairs, and will be included in the examination afterwards.

On the other hand, we need to establish an effective supervision, review and incentive mechanism. For those mutual aid teams that have performed well, we need to reward and commend them, including but not limited to the award of 'martyrdom' honors and direct silver rewards.

We will also impose severe penalties on those mutual aid teams that do not act or act indiscriminately. First, the local government will evaluate the performance of the local mutual aid team, and then hand it over to the province for verification, preliminary judgment, and reporting."

"As for how to prevent local officials from misappropriating funds, we can take the following measures. First, all funds must be managed through the Federal Reserve Bank of China, which can ensure the safety and transparency of funds.

Secondly, the audit offices and audit bureaus at all levels under the Audit Office of the Ministry of Revenue should strengthen the supervision of local officials. Once any misappropriation of funds is discovered, it will be reported to the Ministry of Accounts first, and then the Ministry of Accounts will notify the Ministry of Personnel and submit it to the cabinet.

In the end, he was punished severely.

Finally, we can give mutual aid teams the authority to report fund transfers across levels, that is, county-level mutual aid teams can report the details of the allocations received to the government. At the same time, if there are three or more county-level mutual aid teams jointly reporting, the highest allowed reporting is to the province.

Touch and press the two houses."

"As for how to get the support and cooperation of local people, I am not worried. As long as officials like us can truly think about the people and take them as the starting point to solve practical problems, they will naturally support and cooperate with our actions.

Everyone, cats and dogs understand human nature, how about the common people? Even if they are illiterate, they can still feel the imperial court and whether the actions of the Yamen are beneficial to them. I think this does not need to be said by me."

Regardless of whether you agree with Gao Pragmatic's insistence on setting up this mutual aid team, at least no one can question Gao Pragmatic's words. Of course, the bigger difficulty for them now is that no one really dares to stand up to Gao Pragmatic - look, Chen Yu

Bidu hit a soft spot, but Shen Guanyi simply didn't dare to say anything.

In this way, no matter how much they complained or slandered in their hearts, Gao Pragmatic's words at least made the ministers present openly nod their heads, as if they all recognized Yuan Fu's "reason".

"In this case, colleagues, please act according to Yuan Fu's plan." Zhao Zhigao, as the second assistant, first expressed his support.

This is not surprising, everyone knows him well now, and even if Gao Pragmatic farts, he will listen to it respectfully.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "I can't see anything wrong at the moment." Shen Yiguan also nodded in agreement. However, there was obviously room for his words, and he couldn't see anything wrong at the moment.

But that doesn't mean it won't suddenly become apparent in the future.

But it doesn't matter, as long as he doesn't object directly. When Zhou Yong also expressed his agreement, it meant that the cabinet had reached a "unanimous opinion", not to mention the other ministers, not even the Heavenly Official Chen Yubi could persuade Yuan Fu to change his mind.

, they asked themselves that they didn’t even have that face, so they all agreed.

In this way, the highly pragmatic plan became the final result of "the cabinet and the nine ministers discussed it". According to the usual practice, even the emperor would not easily veto it at this stage - not to mention that the emperor is still recovering from illness and seems to not want to care about anything.

.

Next, Gao Pragmatic introduced the specific implementation steps and precautions of the plan in detail. The ministers also put forward some suggestions and opinions as much as possible to prevent this mutual aid team from gaining too much local governance power. The meeting continued

At sunset, even the palace gates had to be closed on time. After all the details were finalized and the ministers left one after another, the side door was opened for passage.

Gao Pragmatic stood at the door of the Cabinet Chamber, watching the ministers leave. There was a trace of fatigue on his face, but more of it was determination.

As a planner, he certainly knew that this plan would be an important turning point in the history of the Ming Dynasty. He hoped that through this plan... and subsequent plans, the people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty would have more of a voice channel and autonomy.

power instead of being oppressed and bullied by local gentry forever.

In the same way, this also releases pressure on the local government. After all, if the gentry never gives in and can always exploit the people without any scruples, one day it will trigger a popular uprising, and then they will not be able to reap the consequences.

The night wind blew by, and Gao Qingshi tightened his clothes and looked up at the stars.

"Manpower is limited, so do your best."

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PS: I received the news that my aunt will be extubated today. My dad told me on the phone that he went to the hospital today. Please pay attention to the mood of your aunt and cousin. If they are not stable, go to comfort them. I said in my heart that I will comfort you.

It didn't really work...but in the end it just said "hmm".

Thanks to the book friend "book friend 20210301105351573896" for your reward support, thank you!
Chapter completed!