Chapter Eighty-Eight: Different Views on Jiangnan Reassignment

For a long time, the Ming Dynasty has stipulated that there is a fixed amount of taxes in various places, and this quota is actually the amount on the yellow book.

Now that the number of acres of land on the yellow book has increased, should the quota be changed? Do you want to increase?

If it doesn't increase, then Qingzhang will be meaningless, but if it increases, it will be extremely unfair to the Jiangnan area.

The heavy tax in Jiangnan is already high enough, and the government of Suzhou District will have to bear more grain taxes than a province, and now it will increase.

I don't want anyone to live.

"Yes," another old man, he is from the Tang family, this is a Jinshi background. It can be said that all of you here are from Jinshi.

This can be regarded as a dual attribute of these people.

On the one hand, they are the backbone of their own family, and on the other hand, they are also the courtiers of the Ming Dynasty.

Speaking of which, these people also have good official reputations, and when they didn't retire, they were also officials.

It's just that sometimes, what they do, is so contradictory.

Tang Shiliang said: "Even if it is really clear, at that point, we have to have the final say." It's just that we're just waiting. ”

Lu Yong said: "Just do it, otherwise we will take a step back first." It's up to us to do anything then. ”

A couple of people have just finalized.

Suddenly, someone came from below, but it was a few brocade guards. After Jin Yiwei came in, he said to Lu Yong: "Lord Lu, Lord Kou, please come over and talk about it." ”

When a few people looked at it, they immediately felt that the person who came was not good.

Without him, Kou Shen has a brocade guard by his side. There's nothing wrong with that, but there aren't many of them.

This is also a habit that Zhu Qizhen slowly developed after ascending the throne. But when he went out on a mission, Zhu Qizhen would send a team of brocade guards to escort him. On the one hand, there are guards, and on the other hand, eyeliner.

Report the matter of this mission to the 1510.

The Manchu civil and military forces were also used to it.

After all, this kind of selected Jinyiwei, let's not talk about eyeliner or eyeliner, but they are all strong in martial arts and well-equipped, and there have also been cases where Qincha encountered danger and was protected by Jinyiwei and rushed out of the danger zone.

But not much.

After all, there are not many people who dare to kill officials and rebel in these years, let alone murder Qincha.

The function of eyeliner is put aside for the first time, but the function of protection is very practical. After all, everyone knows what the guards in many places have become rotten. Expecting them to protect the Qincha, it is better for the Qincha to bring a few children of his own clan from home.

But Jin Yiwei is Jin Yiwei after all.

Under normal circumstances, Jin Yiwei does not undertake other tasks other than protecting Qin Cha himself.

Kou Shen is not useless, and at this moment, he sent someone to invite Jinyiwei over, and the hint could not be more obvious.

Lu Yong stood up and said, "Okay." I also want to meet Kou Gong. ”

Kou Shen did not occupy the Suzhou Mansion, but occupied a courtyard around the Mansion. As an office location, firstly, I did not stay in Suzhou for a long time, and secondly, I did not cultivate the tradition of officials, plus Suzhou gardens were the best in the world. It is much more comfortable to live outside than to live inside the government.

At this moment, Kou Shen met Lu Yong in the backyard. The two of them leaned on the railing and looked out at the lake below. Kou Shen handed some account books in his hand to Lu Yong, and said: "You and I are colleagues, both from the Criminal Department, you can see for yourself these things, can you pass them." ”

Lu Yong opened it, and there were some local records in Suzhou.

Although Zhu Qizhen sent one or two thousand people to clear the land, but if he really wants to clear the land all day and do a good job in land statistics, where is one or two thousand people enough?

Even 10,000 or 20,000 people may not be enough. In particular, the level of mathematics and the era when optical equipment was not developed, it was an unimaginably large project.

Therefore, when the Qing Dynasty was cleared, it was necessary to rely on the manpower of the local officials to supplement it.

With so many locals, it is natural that there will be some collusion between the top and bottom.

But some of these people are okay, and they don't leak, Kou Shen doesn't make a lot of effort, and he can't find the problem, but some people are simply foolish, and they don't compare it with other data at all.

This kind of stupid thing that can't even do fake accounts really makes Kou Shen a little speechless.

However, this is also normal.

A lot of things are not how seamless the people below are, but whether the people above are willing to check it. Now Kou Shen is willing to investigate.

Lu Yong is also a long-time criminal name, although he later became a full-time magistrate, it is not bad in this regard, and these problems are too obvious.

It was impossible for Lu Yong not to see it, he just smiled faintly and said: "No way, the grain tax in Jiangnan is too heavy every year, and the people must find a way to take a breath, Suzhou Mansion, Changzhou Mansion, Zhenjiang Mansion, Songjiang Mansion, and the four prefectures have an annual grain tax of 10 million stones, and Suzhou itself has an annual grain tax of 5 million stones." ”

"Such a heavy endowment, and now there is Qingzhang, if Qingzhang comes out of Xintian, the imperial court will add endowment, and then the people in Jiangnan will not have a good life."

"Kou Gong loves the people, the world knows it, why not let go of your hand and let the people of Jiangnan have a chance to breathe."

Kou Shen sighed and said: "The Jiangnan re-endowment is not a temporary solution, but Your Majesty intends to clear the world, but it is also a good intention, since Yongle, the amount of money and grain in various places has never been real, and now Your Majesty wants to re-brush politics." We must first sort out the source, and then talk about other things. ”

"Please rest assured, Brother Lu, after I go back, I will definitely explain this matter to the imperial court."

What Kou Shen said is also true.

The feelings between people can never be empathetic.

Kou Shen also knew that Jiangnan was heavily taxed and taxes were unreasonable, but his feelings in Suzhou were a city of flowing wealth, and the people in Suzhou were better than Beijing.

In recent years, because of Zhu Qizhen's economic policies and Beijing's political influence, Beijing has been in a period of expansion, so there is a proposal to expand the city wall.

But the city of Suzhou is a different issue.

The people of Suzhou and the magistrates have completely denied the construction of the city wall.

Without him, it cannot be built. Suzhou's urban circle was so large that it was impossible to build a city wall. Because the speed of building the city walls cannot keep up with the speed of urban expansion. Later, the construction of the Suzhou city wall must be a million taels of silver.

The Suzhou government can't afford to come up with this amount of silver.

That's it.

If we talk about Beijing's urban construction, there is a strong political connotation. It can even be said that there are not many rich families in Beijing, or even if there are some rich families, these rich families also highly overlap with the noble relatives and officials.

But Suzhou is different, Suzhou has a well-developed handicraft industry. Many families have passed on a skill for generations, and they have even reached the point where they are unparalleled in the world.

The breath of business is very strong.

Even under the heavy endowment, the people did not live much worse, because of the impact of the heavy endowment, many people did not farm the land, but went to live in the city.

Anyway, I get to buy food from outside.

Even planting a lot of cash crops is more profitable than farming, such as mulberry, cotton, flowers, vegetable melons, and so on. Only then will they be able to pay the money again.

In short, although Jiangnan has a great impact, in Kou Shen's view, the plan has not reached the point where the people can't survive. Jiangnan's status in the Ming Dynasty is almost equal to Shanghai.

If we look at the proportion of taxes paid by Shanghai to the total revenue of the central government in the future, and the proportion of Jiangnan's fiscal revenue in the Ming Dynasty, we will find that although Jiangnan's heavy endowment is still a little heavy, it is not too much.

For this Hebei person, Kou Shen has a different view on Lu Yong's Jiangnan reassignment, especially to a certain extent, Hebei people are also the beneficiaries of Jiangnan reendowment.

After all, if Zhu Qizhen spends a lot of money to build water conservancy projects, today's Hebei will definitely not be like this.

But where did the money in Zhu Qizhen's hands come from, and a considerable part of it came from Jiangnan.

Kou Shen naturally wanted the imperial court to react to the problem of Jiangnan's heavy endowment, but there were too many people in the Ming Dynasty to reflect this matter to the above. Never saw any results.

Lu Yong also understood this, Lu Yong said: "Why should Gong Kou lie to me? You don't have to look for me in this matter, Kou Gong is aware of everything, and people are called gods, these little tricks naturally can't hide from you. Enforce the law impartially, what to do, just do it, even if it is a villager of Lu, Lu will never protect him. ”

Kou Shen frowned when he heard this, and said, "Why is Brother Lu doing this? If it goes on like this, it's not good for anyone. ”