Chapter 111 Kill three birds with one stone [4th update]
The biggest difference between Gao Gong's examination method and Zhang Juzheng's examination method is that Gao Gong does not define fixed standards for all the things that officials in a certain place must complete every year.
Although there are many things that local officials must do every year, this examination method is consistent with the examination method, but some details are very different.
For example, the amount of taxes required to be paid by a certain prefecture under the examination law is basically unchanged. Once the court stipulates how much tax your prefecture should pay this year, then Zhang Juzheng will only look at whether you, the prefect, have paid the amount. If you pay enough, you will pass the exam.
If you don't pay enough, you are unqualified, and basically no other reasons are asked.
Gao Gong's examination method is different. He combined the suggestions given to him by Gao Pragmatic before and adopted a floating value calculation method. Let's take Wuchang Prefecture as an example. The specific operation method is: first, Wuchang Prefecture
Calculate the total tax payment in the previous ten years, take an average annual tax payment, and then use this average as the base point. If the tax payment in Wuchang Prefecture next year exceeds this average, it will at least be considered qualified. If it exceeds 5%
, it is considered good; if it exceeds 10%, it is considered excellent.
But this is only one of the items tested in the examination method. At the same time, it must be evaluated based on other items, such as regional stability. Regional stability is a big item, which also includes civil unrest, riots, bandits, bandits, homicides, and robberies.
Investigation of various security incidents such as cases.
Of course, roughly speaking, it can be summarized as "the economy (taxation) must be improved and unrest must be reduced!"
This is cruel.
According to the consistent rules of the Ming Dynasty or other feudal dynasties, the so-called increase in taxes is nothing more than squeezing harder, and squeezing will most likely end up with ordinary people being unlucky, and then the government will force the people to rebel, leading to social unrest.
Now we have to raise taxes, but we can't make the officials force the people to rebel, otherwise they will fail the exams. Therefore, when the exam method was first implemented, the officials of the Ming Dynasty were a little confused for a while. What the hell are they going to do?
?
During that time, the pressure on Gao Gong was undoubtedly huge. All kinds of impeachments and complaints flew to the General Affairs Department like snowflakes, filling the cabinet. Even the two palaces had to summon Gao Gong privately to ask about the situation.
But what kind of person is Gao Gong? How can the reform route he has identified be abandoned halfway because of some impeachments and questions?
When the heavenly official shows his power, the official hats fall into piles!
In just three months, many officials who spoke fiercely when they were appointed to the throne suffered great losses. They were dismissed from their posts pending appointment, returned to their hometowns to live idle, had their titles and titles idle, were demoted, demoted, transferred to foreign posts, transferred to foreign posts...
...Various decisions of varying severity were sent from the Ministry of Personnel to various yamen in the name of imperial edicts. Ming officials in various places and all over the world fully experienced the majesty of Gu Ming's chief minister!
Seeing that hard work was not the solution, the officials of the Ming Dynasty had no choice but to find other methods and began to really think about how to complete this damn exam method.
At this time, Gao Gong's various private messages began to be sent to various places again. Private message politics is a feature of the Ming Dynasty's cabinet system, that is, the ministers do not communicate through formal channels, but tell or hint local officials what to do through private messages. This
In fact, it is a workaround that cabinet bachelors have to adopt as a last resort because they cannot truly become prime ministers.
However, a red-headed document is not as good as a greeting from the leader, and this has always been the case from ancient times to the present, so Gao Gong's private message was extremely effective - the officials who received the letter immediately knew what the chief minister meant: collect business taxes!
Peasant uprisings have been common in China. Are there merchant uprisings in China?
Don’t you see that Wang Zhi, the captain of Wufeng, the largest maritime merchant (pirate) in the Jiajing Dynasty, was thinking about being recruited by the imperial court?
Decades later, there was an even more powerful maritime merchant, Zheng Zhilong, who was also trying his best to find a job!
Local officials from various places got the hint and understood. Although they knew that tampering with the merchant's cake would cause a lot of trouble, they had to find a way to do it for the sake of their own black hat!
However, these officials also have different situations, but those whose families are well-off generally have relatively slight changes, and a slight increase in business taxes is enough, because as long as they keep their hats on, anyway,
Not very short of money either.
If you are an official from a poor family with an average family background, you are usually more willing to climb up the ladder, and you will be more aggressive when you start to use your hands. However, this is also dangerous, because you will encounter certain local businessmen or people who often sell goods.
When the power of the wealthy gentry in the grain industry becomes larger, it may cause some minor riots.
But again, they only dare to engage in tricks such as gathering crowds to resist taxes and going on strike. Although points will be deducted in the examination method, the deductions are much lighter than those in cases of civil commotion or rebellion.
.
After calculation, these officials discovered that even if there were three strikes and other riots in a year, the points deducted would not be as much as the points added by collecting more taxes! So why are you hesitating? Add them!
Of course, everyone is also good at calculating accounts and knows that you can’t add too much in one year, because if you add too much this year, it will be difficult to exceed this year’s base next year.
As a result, like the master of market regulation, many local yamen began to gradually and slowly begin to increase commercial taxes. They did not seek more, but sought stability!
Since all places have increased it, of course Huguang will also increase it. However, it is easy to increase the proportion of commercial tax, but it is difficult to increase the total value of commercial scale. If the total value does not increase, it will be difficult to increase commercial tax year after year, which will inevitably cause
The pressure on businessmen is increasing, and over time there may be fewer and fewer people doing business, which will cause big trouble.
Therefore, increasing the total commercial value has become an issue that local officials must consider. Although Huguang has both cotton and silk, its scale cannot be compared with that of Jiangnan. Therefore, when it comes to the dominant industry, the most important one is food.
How to increase grain production has now become a major concern for Huguang officials - when grain is sold from Huguang, commercial taxes must be paid through bank customs!
This is a political achievement! It is the key to whether you can keep your black hat and become bigger! How can you not pay attention to it?
So Gao Pragmatic's opportunity came. He wanted to sell Huguang officials a good way to overhaul water conservancy, because it was a good deal that killed three birds with one stone!
How to overhaul water conservancy and achieve three goals with one stone?
First of all, the construction of water conservancy projects has been a manifestation of political achievements in all dynasties in China, and it can also be called "Spring Dawn on the Su Causeway". Do you know? The Su Causeway was built by Su Dongpo! When future generations mention the Spring Dawn on the Su Causeway, they will have to think of it.
The political achievements of Su Dongpo? Not to mention the Dujiangyan Irrigation System of Li Bing and his sons. That is really a good name through the ages!
Secondly, building water conservancy projects can bring benefits. Just like the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, the Chengdu Plain has become a land of abundance with thousands of miles of fertile fields and floods and droughts. Huguang already has large tracts of good farmland. If water conservancy construction is strengthened and disasters are reduced, the grain output will not be reduced.
Continue to grow? After increasing production, won’t we need to increase external sales? Shouldn’t external sales also increase the total commercial tax?
Thirdly, it can reduce the probability of civil commotion and riots breaking out. Although it costs money to build a large water conservancy project, it must first be repaired by someone. There is no mechanized operation these days, and the labor force required for large-scale construction is not a small number. Since a large number of idle labor is being used
If you are hired to work, the chances of various security crimes will of course be reduced.
If there are any other difficulties in building water conservancy projects, then there is one problem: is there enough money?
So when Gao Jingshi told Zhu Zaiyu the whole plan, Zhu Zaiyu thought for a while and frowned and asked this question: "Building water conservancy is naturally a move that benefits the country and the people. If it is feasible, Zhu Zaiyu will naturally
I fully agree and am willing to contribute, but... where can the government offices in Huguang get so much money to build water conservancy projects? Moreover, even if they buy a large amount of cement from us, how will this help the disaster in the north? "
