In the Wenhua Palace, more than a dozen pairs of eyes looked at Xie Jin.

Shock, suspicion, and surprise ranged.

No one could understand that such a shocking advice and policy came from the mouth of such a talented person as Xie Jin.

The abolition of taxes in kind is understandable, after all, there were some precedents to follow as early as the era of developed commerce and trade in the Song Dynasty, and there are also pros and cons for reference.

It has been a matter of course for thousands of years that the people have farmed the land, paid for grain, and worked according to the law.

The Jianwen Dynasty has abolished Ding Xi, the reason is that the country has money and is not short of hungry soldiers, and the people participate in the fortifications of the imperial court to earn wages to improve the living environment, which is reasonable, but the complete abolition of agricultural taxes, in the future, in case the country has a short horse stirrup, if you want to re-levy it, will it break the people's will?

"If the gentry puts it forward, let the gentry talk about his thoughts and opinions, let's listen to it, and then express our opinions."

Although the big guy was shocked, he didn't slap the table and stare at him in a hurry, but he also listened patiently to Xie Jin's expound of his thoughts as they were, and then pondered.

The stakes are very high, and at this time, no one is rushing to say their opinions, so Yang Shiqi will come and do something.

The latter looked at Xia Yuanji, who was in his right hand, and said, "Wei Zhe, you are in charge of finance, profits and taxes, what do you think about the feasibility of abolishing the policy of the two taxes?" ”

In the face of Yang Shiqi's inquiry, Xia Yuanji obviously did not have sufficient preparation for a while, he held the tea to his mouth, but he didn't take a sip for half a day, and finally put it down and shook his head.

"It is not feasible to abolish the agricultural tax, but it is possible to abolish the tax in kind."

This made Xie Jin, who was not far away, look a little worried.

After being a cabinet minister for so many years, this is the first time Xie Jin has proposed a major national policy, and he never thought that he would be directly rejected by Xia Yuanji.

"Why not?"

Unconvinced, Xie Jin knocked on the table, stared at Xia Yuanji and asked: "There is no difference between the thirty taxes and one grain payment, there is no difference between there and not, the grain depot in Shandong will be built next year, the imperial court will do a good job in the control of grain prices, and fully accept the grain delivery from India, and the people of the whole Ming Dynasty will leave the cultivated land to engage in handicraft or sideline production, and there is no reason to be hungry, why do you still not let go of the grain tax of thirty taxes and one day?" ”

"I'm not afraid of 10,000, I'm afraid of what if."

Xia Yuanji sighed, looked at everyone and said: "India is not my Ming land, and Indian grain is also grown in my Ming land.

In the event of a collapse in India, it will be difficult to control domestic food prices. ”

How long has the emperor promulgated the policy of the gentry paying grain as a whole, and now exempting the agricultural tax is equivalent to restoring the eternal privilege of not paying taxes to the gentry class.

"At that time, a tiered grain tax was set, and the more land there was, the higher the grain tax, and the common people were 30 taxes within 10 acres of land, but the landlords and clans were 20 or even 15 taxes and 1, in order to divide the land and households and inhibit mergers.

Although the fields of grain chiefs do not need to bear additional grain endowments, the local grain chiefs have to make up for the vacancies, and they do not get any cheapness, so with the prosperity of the localities in recent years, coupled with the successive return of farmland in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu, this has prompted the vast majority of landlords and grain chiefs to begin to reduce their own land deeds and sell more land to their tenant farmers.

More and more semi-cultivators have become yeoman farmers, achieving self-reliance and living a self-sufficient life.

Now that the agricultural tax is exempted, grain prices will fluctuate again, which will undoubtedly encourage the landlords to buy and hoard land, and this will affect the country's capital. ”

Xia Yuanji's consideration was quite forward-looking, which also made everyone present nod their heads.

The country's comprehensive transformation of production and the vigorous innovation and development of all walks of life have not yet reached the point where they can afford the transformation of tens of millions of peasants across the country, so the existence of the agricultural tax is to protect the common people rather than the imperial court for the sake of a small amount of grain collected by the imperial court.

Now the annual food endowment of the Ming Dynasty is only twenty or thirty million stones, not to mention a person with a broad vision like Yang Shiqi, even Xia Yuanji, who has always been stingy, is completely ignored.

Just kidding, the imperial court has burned hundreds of millions of light burns in recent years, and it still cares about these two or thirty million?

The military expenditure in the northwest alone has been burned for four years, which year is not tens of millions of taels of silver and tens of thousands of grain carts?

India's gold, Japan's silver to the so-called water pumping pipes, a steady stream of into the Ming Dynasty's country, the bank went crazy to absorb the deposit of copper bills, to the precious metal currency back, to protect the purchasing power of copper money, if the domestic productivity can not progress rapidly, the Ming Dynasty should be from absorbing gold and silver from the outside world to transport gold and silver.

"Maintaining the current stability in the country is a big and serious matter, and His Majesty said in his book that stability is paramount, and sufficient research and preparation must be made before the agricultural tax is moved, and this preparation may take ten or even twenty years to ensure that there are no problems in all aspects before it can be abolished."

At this time, it was Xu Buji's opening to express his stance and support Xia Yuanji's opinion.

"The abolition of the millennia-old agricultural endowment may make the people happy, singing and dancing, and they will be enshrined for many years the immortal tablet of the person who proposed this policy, but when something goes wrong in the future, this present good government will become a harsh government, even tyranny and abusive government, and stability will no longer exist."

After Xia Yuanji and Xu Buji expressed their objections, the rest of the Shangshu also shook their heads after careful consideration, not supporting Xie Jin's proposal, and this scene also made Yang Shiqi a little disappointed.

"Since everyone disagrees, the matter of grain payment will not be abolished for the time being, and the tax in kind will be cancelled, how will it be canceled, and in what way will it be replaced, what does Wei Zhe think."

Yang Shiqi is not Wang Anshi, he does not have the courage of a strong man to break his wrist, nor does he have the pride to break through the south wall, and he insists on promoting a national policy that concerns tens of millions of people in the country with his own strength, although he wants to take out the authority of the first assistant of the cabinet and implement it with all his might, so that his name can be engraved into the history, but as Xia Yuanji said.

What if something goes wrong in the future?

The legacy of the Xunmeng Revolution has affected the Great Song Dynasty for decades, and a change of law has led to hundreds of local uprisings.

At least as far as Yang Shiqi is concerned, he is unwilling and unable to carry this cauldron.

"It is not difficult to abolish the tax in kind and replace it with cash silver."

Xia Yuanji refuted the first proposal of Xie Jin, and held a positive opinion on the second one: "In the past two years, in order to encourage private family workshops and self-operated production, His Majesty stopped the taxation of production, and only levied the commercial tax declared after the transaction was sold, which has already laid a good foundation for the abolition of the tax in kind.

In order to prevent the people from having to hastily sell goods at a loss because they have to pay the actual cash payment, I propose that the Cabinet report to His Majesty next year, and then implement the abolition of the tax in kind after agreeing on the policy of guiding prices, and at the same time determine a grace period according to the situation in each province.

For example, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces are relatively easy to buy and sell physical goods, and they can give 15 to 20 days of tolerance, as long as they pay the same amount of cash or bank copper bills within this time limit, while Yunnan, Guizhou and Liaodong may be more difficult to buy and sell goods, we can give 30 to 50 days of tolerance, so as not to let the people sell at a low price in a hurry and suffer losses. ”

Xia Yuanji is really stable.

Yang Shiqi closed his eyes slightly, and said that these two policies were all rejected by Xia Yuanji.

After agreeing with Zhu Yunwen on the guide price policy next year, the tax in kind will be abolished, so can the credit for this policy still be credited to the cabinet?

After all, as soon as Zhu Yunwen returned to Beijing, Yang Shiqi was going to submit his resignation.

"If the guide price policy is uncertain, can't the tax in kind be abolished?"

Yang Shiqi couldn't hold it down, sat up straight, looked at Xia Yuanji sideways, and said: "The tax in kind is not an agricultural tax, it does not involve the people of the world, and it is not connected to the country.

In addition, this year, Wang Yusen has come up with a package of production to households, encouraging the people to develop animal husbandry and manual work, and rewarding those who meet the standards and giving proportional subsidies to those who do not meet the standards, which has greatly prospered the livelihood of millions of people inside and outside Nanjing.

We can use this as a reference to link the two policies, once the people are forced to tolerate and still do not sell the goods, the local commercial and trade department can be purchased in accordance with the guide price reduction at that time, and the reduction is the amount of the actual tax. ”

After speaking, Yang Shiqi no longer planned to give Xia Yuanji a chance to express his position, his hand patted Xia Yuanji's forearm twice, and then raised it: "I agree to abolish the tax in kind, and the first line of the cabinet at the beginning of next year will be issued by the General Political Secretary to the whole country." ”

As soon as Yang Shiqi raised his hand, Xie Jin, as the initiator, of course, followed closely behind, and Zhu Gaochi silently responded.

The three cabinet ministers expressed their stance and passed, and the opinions of various ministries were no longer important, and the big guys opened their mouths to support Yang Shiqi's opinions and agreed to the introduction and promulgation of this policy.

"Then I'll stick a little bit."

Xia Yuanji was powerless to stop the overall situation, but he still added his own meaning: "The newspaper of the General Administration Department must clearly mark the word trial at the end of this policy." ”

As long as it is written on the trial, in case something bad happens, it can also be abolished at any time.

This is like the imperial court burning grain every year, and the saying to the common people is that it is expired and spoiled, and it is inedible.

It doesn't matter if the people believe it or not, that's a matter of the heart, and the court can't control it.

At least on the surface, the court is reasonable.

The trial policy, whether it is good or not, can only be known, and if it is not good, it will be stopped, which can be regarded as an attitude of the imperial court to be responsible for the people.

Anyway, it's all the good of the imperial court.

In this regard, Yang Shiqi has no reason to be unallowed.

It is the credit of the cabinet, and the pot that is not carried by the cabinet is not too dark.

After discussing two things in a row, Yang Shiqi was also a little tired, but he still opened his recital and continued to talk down according to the matters described above.

"The third thing, on the proposal to expand the scope of inspection and increase the number of personnel in the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and promote the inspection system, this proposal was put forward by Jingqing, Jingqing, you can talk about specific opinions, and today's cabinet meeting can be decided."

I haven't had a strong sense of existence all the time, and Jing Qing, who was in the last seat, sighed, a little surprised.

He had reported this proposal to Yang Shiqi privately a few months ago, but he had never heard Yang Shiqi mention it, and even Jingqing himself had almost forgotten it, and he never expected it to be taken out today.

Although he was a little unprepared, but in the end it was his own thoughts, Jing Qing organized his language and spoke.

"Several elders, ladies and gentlemen, in recent years, with the completion of official reforms in various provinces and localities, the traditional way of inspecting officials and the scope of inspection have obviously slowed down, so I want to expand the scope and methods of inspection.

In addition to the rigid five-year plan indicators as the first test of political performance, the scope of the two traditional official inspections of the official voice and the people's voice has been expanded to include the official's inner room and children.

At the same time, the Metropolitan Procuratorate has established an inspection system to select capable Metropolitan Inspectors to inspect the provinces, receive relevant local reports, and jointly supervise the handling of the provincial departments and departments, so as to severely punish corruption, perversion of the law, and even relying on power to run rampant in the localities. ”

The Metropolitan Procuratorate is doing some work that offends people.

A wry smile appeared on everyone's faces.

There is already a Jinyi Health Division in the place, and I don't even know which corner hides the branch of the West Factory, and now the Metropolitan Procuratorate is going to carry out this kind of big action again, and the officials are about to become ants on a hot pot.

That's too much of a sin, isn't it?

"Xu Butang is a secretary of the ministry, what do you think?"

Yang Shiqi asked Xu Buji, which made everyone pout secretly.

Does this need to be asked?

Who doesn't know that the emperor hates officials the most about lawlessness, so of course Xu Buji is an unwavering supporter of Jing Qing's proposal.

As everyone expected, Xu Buji said two words competently: "Feasible."

"Let's take a stand."

Yang Shiqi drank tea for a long time, and the voices of seconding the proposal sounded in his ears.

Opposing bureaucratic corruption is the most basic political correctness, don't care if you offend people a lot, anyone who has to support it on the surface and can't oppose it, and if you oppose it, you are anti-emperor and anti-Zhu Yunwen.

When the time comes, Xu Buji will buckle a big hat for you, and it is estimated that you can pull it out and kill it on the spot.

"Okay, the specific quota for increasing the number of personnel, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Ministry of Officials will discuss it after the meeting, as long as you discuss it with one department and one court, Tiao Chen will get it to the cabinet and approve it directly."

Yang Shiqi put down the tea bowl and looked around: "Just talk about my side of things, what questions do you have?" ”

Three things, except for the first one is very happy, the other two are all heartbroken, and everyone here is haggard, how can they have the energy to continue to speak.

Hurry up, everyone wants to go home and sleep with their beautiful wives and concubines in their arms.

It's the New Year, can't people relax and relax?

"That's all for today."

Yang Shiqi got up and said loudly: "The General Administration Department has prepared today's record, and the cabinet and the two legal departments of the ministries will sign it and file it, and submit it to the imperial court for review after His Majesty returns to Beijing, and disperse." ”

After speaking, he raised his legs and left, and the big guys also got up and sent them off.

"Congratulations to the elder pavilion."

After sending Yang Shiqi away, the big guys packed up and left, only before Xie Jin left, he turned his head and glanced at Xia Yuanji again, and snorted coldly.

The Zhejiang Party is all bad people.