Some people want to ask, the salt introduction is in the hands of the imperial court, and the tax is directly counted in the salt introduction, isn't it possible to perfectly avoid tax evasion?

Hehe, so young.

The salt introduction of the Ming Dynasty was originally tax-included. The purchase of salt is subject to a tax, and the purchase of salt with salt is subject to another tax. Not only did I collect taxes, but I collected them twice!

However, with an annual salt output of 600 million catties, according to these two taxes of more than 13 million taels of silver, it is true that only 1 million taels can be collected.

It's weird, how did this tax disappear out of thin air?

Of course, because of the open system, 99% of the salt produced by the two Huai stove households has to be opened and lost, and many of them have been converted into military rations. Moreover, the imperial court also has subsidies for opening China, just because the grain transportation is far away, it is necessary to use preferential policies to encourage border merchants to open China.

What is even more embarrassing is that the Kaizhong system is becoming more and more corrupt, and it is the emperor who takes the lead in corruption. After the reform of the Hongzhi Dynasty, the Kaizhong system was completely blind, and it was difficult to realize the salt tax into military rations.

Where did all those vanished rations go?

Emperors, eunuchs, and nobles, these three forces account for the majority and eat the most military rations! Then there were the civil officials and military generals, who also profited from it, resulting in the salt tax revenue not coming up, and the military rations could not be transported to the border towns.

Wang Yuan really wanted to cancel the Kaizhong system, but it was not time yet, and he had to wait until after Zhu Houzhao's death, because the first thing to do in such a reform was the emperor!

Since it is impossible to cancel the system of opening the middle and collect taxes on the regular salt, we can only start with the surplus salt and the salt classes of the local governments.

The content of the conversation between Wang Yuan and the ministers soon spread to the foreign courts, and everyone guess who spread it?

Yan Song was the first to come to the door, and the disciple saluted: "If the surplus salt is sold, there are small ticket restrictions, and how to prevent the collusion of hoarders, officials and businessmen?" ”

Wang Yuan said with a smile: "The stove is not stupid, the officials and businessmen colluded to lower the price, and directly sold illicit salt." Isn't that what the stove is doing now? If the stove households do not steal and sell illicit salt, I am afraid that most of them will already starve to death. What's more, domestic businessmen will also be moved. ”

"Insider?"

Yan Song thought for a while, and immediately clapped his hands and praised: "The subtlety of this plan is that it is a domestic businessman, and the students are convinced!" ”

Any reform will inevitably hurt those with vested interests.

If the New Deal is to be implemented successfully, new stakeholder groups must emerge.

Take the Hongzhi Dynasty's salt reform as an example, the opening of the central system also involves countless people, why can we start from scratch to implement the silver system? It is to let the two Huai salt merchants eat enough! To be precise, it was to let the two Huai salt merchants endure it, giving birth to an even more hateful "hoarding" group.

Wang Yuan proposed that the surplus salt be sold privately, and that it should also support the emerging interest group, which was also a salt merchant in Lianghuai.

It's just that the hoarders fed by the silver system are the capital giants among the two Huai salt merchants. But what Wang Yuan supports is a larger number of retail investors from the two Huai salt merchants!

Hoarders can control the market, all rely on the official sale of salt, collude with the government, and have salt but do not ship. Border merchants and retail domestic businessmen, because they cannot buy goods, are in danger of breaking the capital chain, and can only be forced to give in to those hoarders, so that they will be manipulated to death by the hoarders.

To put it bluntly, salt quotation can only prove that you have the right to buy and traffick, but it is also blind to hold salt quotation but not be able to buy salt from the government. For example, some salt merchants obtained salt quotations during the Yongle period, but they were unable to buy salt during the Zhengde period, and the salt quotations have become heirlooms from generation to generation!

The government said, it's not that we don't sell salt, it's that the salt production is not enough, so you go home and wait slowly.

And once the private sale of surplus salt is released, domestic businessmen and retail investors can rush to the salt field to trade directly with the stove households as soon as possible, and can you wait for the collusion of officials and businessmen to reduce prices?

The hoarders seem to be using salt to attract salt, but the core means is to control the government's salt shipments, and take advantage of the time difference to cause tension in the capital chain of border merchants and domestic businessmen. As long as the private sale of surplus salt is opened, the hoarders cannot control the shipment, and the border merchants and retail domestic merchants will be liberated in an instant.

Wang Yuan's reform plan, stove households, border merchants, and retail domestic businessmen, all of whom benefited, and their number was the largest. As for those whose interests have been damaged, they are a small number of hoarders, officials of the Salt Transportation Department, and the powerful people behind them.

There is no need for the imperial court to supervise, as long as the new policy is promulgated, countless retail domestic businessmen will spontaneously charge into battle.

No matter how big the hoarders are, it is impossible for them to hoard indefinitely, and they have to slowly return to the market itself after being hit by countless retail domestic businessmen.

Many officials pondered this truth carefully and slowly understood it.

Zhang Xuan, who was working in the Hanlin Academy, slapped the table and laughed: "Wang Shangshu is really a strange person, and it seems that the salt government knot that cannot be untied, only this surplus salt is sold privately, and it will be straightened out like a cocoon." ”

Historically, no one thought of this method in the entire Ming Dynasty?

Someone!

Li Xueshi of the Longqing Dynasty once put it forward, but when he made this suggestion, it was just a small imperial history, who listened to him? (Note: This Li Xueshi is not the one of the Jiajing Dynasty, but the one of the Longqing and Wanli dynasties.) ）

……

Yang House.

In the matter, Cai Jing and Yushi Gao Shikui, with a large group of science and Taoist officials, blocked the gate of Yang Tinghe's house.

After Wang Yuan's "Please Change the Salt Law" was submitted, the cabinet never approved it, and it was not even discussed in the court. A large number of science and Taoist officials, after learning the pros and cons, also asked to change the salt law.

Speech officials can not only spray people to get political achievements, they also have the right to deliberate. As long as they have a good move and can successfully reform the salt government, then they can achieve success.

has both political achievements and a name, so why not do it?

It's a pity that the emperor didn't go to court, and the recital of the imperial history was stopped by the cabinet, and the recital in the matter was stopped by the celebrant supervisor, and the officials purely flattered the blind man.

The officials were anxious, and privately complained that Yang Tinghe and Zhang Yong joined forces to block the way of speech.

When it comes to this, the cabinet is still pretending to be dead there, and Yang Tinghe does not dare to reform at all. Then, the officials could only block the door, and gathered twenty or thirty people to block the gate of the Yang family.

They came very early, and the curfew was lifted in the middle of the night, and Yang Tinghe went out to work just in time.

"Elder Yang Ge, please take the imperial court as the priority!" Cai Jing bowed down.

"Elder Yang Ge, please take the imperial court as the priority!" Twenty or thirty officials shouted in unison.

Yang Tinghe was so angry that his head smoked, thinking that these officials were all sent by Wang Yuan. He suppressed his anger and said with a pleasant face: "Everyone, please go back, there is no room for the slightest omission in the major matter of the salt law reform, and the cabinet is discussing it in detail." ”

One word, drag!

It's not that the cabinet is not reforming, but it is discussing the details of reform, and as for the discussion until the Year of the Monkey, I don't know.

Yushi Gao Shikui asked: "Then why didn't I wait for the music to be approved?" ”

Yang Tinghe shirked and said: "The cabinet has approved it, and all of them have been sent to the celebrant supervisor, but there is no news from the celebrant supervisor." ”

Two words, shake the pot!

Throw the pot to the celebrant eunuch, can the official still go to the inner court to argue with the eunuch?

The officials looked at each other, and there was nothing they could do about it. Yang Tinghe said that the cabinet was discussing reforms, and the eunuchs were playing tricks when they were stopped, so they could still beat Yang Tinghe?

Yang Tinghe sat in a sedan chair and swaggered to the office, leaving a bunch of officials in a messy manner.

"Hmph, I used to think he was a capable minister, but I didn't expect him to be a mediocre person. Wang Shangshu's new salt law is so exquisite, it should be promulgated in the world as soon as possible, and he Yang Tinghe just dragged it out! ”

"Yang Tinghe is in charge of the cabinet, Zhang Yong is in charge of the celebrant supervisor, and after His Majesty is seriously ill, he has not been in court for several months, and these two have been isolated from China and abroad!"

"The treacherous ******** is not the same, and the mediocre is absolutely true."

"Who are the people he promotes? Peng Ze has a short temper, and it is okay to lead the army to fight, how can he be qualified to be the secretary of the household department? Peng Ze was in charge of the household department for more than half a year, and the officials were in a mess. I have impeached several heads of households, but there is no follow-up until now, and I haven't even brought it to the court to discuss! ”

"That is, Sun Shangshu (Sun Jiao), Shi Shangshu (Shi Jue), Huang Shangshu (Huang Ke), when these three were in charge of the household department, which one was not in order? As soon as the household department arrived in Peng Ze's hands, it was chaotic, and Yang Tinghe simply recommended a bastard to come out! ”

"I think Yang Tinghe should have been Zhishi a long time ago, and if Wang Shangshu is replaced as the first assistant, the world will definitely be under great rule!"

“……”

These science and Taoist officials all want to climb up, and they attribute their career failures to Yang Tinghe's head - if Wang Yuan is replaced as the first assistant, most of them will also spray Wang Yuan.

The brothers Yang Shen and Yang Dan, who were about to go out, heard the noisy discussion outside the door and hurriedly retracted in fright.

The two brothers looked at each other and snuck to the side door, they had no face to walk through the door, afraid of being ridiculed by the officials.

Not to mention that Yang Tinghe has not yet had the power to lean towards the government and the opposition, even in the early years of Jiajing in history, Yang Tinghe had already dominated the dynasty, and one after another of the officials jumped out and sprayed Yang Tinghe several times to resign.

The main thing is that Yang Ting and the gang formed a faction, although they won over a large number of courtiers, but they were not popular with middle and lower-level officials and science and technology officials.

The officials who were not bribed and co-opted by Yang Tinghe were all his opponents, and to put it bluntly, they were not convinced. are all fellow scholars, why is so-and-so promoted so quickly, and Lao Tzu is still sitting on the cold bench? So-and-so is naturally promoted by his ability, but his ability is not better than mine, and his political achievements are not more than mine!

"Brother, let's persuade my father." Yang Dan sighed.

Yang Shen shook his head helplessly: "I can't persuade you." ”

Yang Dian said aggrievedly: "My own house can only enter and exit through the side door, what is the matter?" ”

Yang Tinghe was too difficult, and once he agreed to reform the salt law, he would attack many officials of his own faction. How could he possibly do it?

Don't look at Yang Yiqing as a reformer, he also appreciates Wang Yuan's reform ideas in Wenyuan Pavilion.

But if the new law is really implemented, Yang Yiqing will most likely not support it, and whether he can secretly obstruct it is already regarded as forbearance for the country. Because Yang Yiqing's hometown is in Zhenjiang, which is one of the base camps of hoarders, there may be which hoarders are covered by Yang Yiqing.

In any case, Yang Tinghe was once again greatly disappointed, and the middle and lower-level officials in the capital secretly ridiculed him as a mediocre minister.

The officials were naturally not satisfied with saying bad things behind their backs, and with a turn of the pen, they did not reform the salt law, and called friends to arrest Yang Tinghe and impeach him to death.

Wang Yuan is thick-skinned and never cares about impeachment.

Yang Tinghe is embarrassed, because he is the leader of the clear stream. The piles of impeachment recitals made Yang Tinghe's scalp numb, and he could only resign from his own impeachment, not to mention whether it was true or not, at least he had to make a resignation.