There is one biggest difference between Gao Gong's examination method and Zhang Juzheng's examination method, that is, Gao Gong does not define all the things that must be completed by local officials every year as a fixed standard.

Although the number of things that local officials must do every year is consistent with the examination method, some details are very different.

For example, the amount of tax required to be paid in a certain place is basically immutable, once the imperial court stipulates how much tax your government will pay this year, then Zhang Juzheng will only look at whether your prefect has paid enough to pay this amount, and if you pay enough, you will pass the test, and if you pay enough, you will be unqualified, and basically do not ask other reasons.

Gao Gong's examination method is different, he combined the previous advice given to him by Gao Pragmatic, and adopted a floating value consideration. Just take Wuchang Mansion as an example, the specific operation method is to first calculate the total tax payment of Wuchang Mansion in the first ten years, take an average annual tax payment, and then take this average value as the base point, next year's tax payment in Wuchang Mansion will be over this average value, then it will be at least qualified, if it is over 5, it is considered good over 1, then it is considered excellent.

However, this is only one of the items that are tested in the curriculum, and it is also evaluated in conjunction with other items, such as regional stability. Regional stability is a major project, which also includes the investigation of various public security incidents, such as civil unrest, riots, bandits, gangsters, homicides, and robberies.

Of course, roughly speaking, it can be summarized as "the economy should be improved, and the turmoil should be reduced"

That's ruthless.

According to the consistent law of the Ming Dynasty or other feudal dynasties, the so-called increase in taxes is nothing more than to squeeze more ruthlessly, and squeezing this kind of thing, in the end, the first ten are the unlucky people of Pingtou, and then the officials forced the people to rebel and social turmoil.

Now we have to raise taxes, and we can't make the officials force the people to rebel, otherwise they will all fail the examination, so when the examination method was just implemented, the officials of the Ming Dynasty were a little confused for a while, how the hell should they do it

During that time, the pressure on Gao Gong was undoubtedly huge, and all kinds of impeachments and appeals flew to the General Administration Department like snowflakes, piling up in the cabinet, and even the two palaces had to privately summon Gao Gong to ask about the situation.

But what kind of person is Gao Gong, how can he give up halfway because of some impeachment and questioning

The heavenly officials are mighty, and the official hats are piled up

In a short period of three months, many officials who were fiercely speechful at the time of their dismissal and investigation, returned to their hometowns and lived idle, demotion, demotion, and transfer to other posts, and all kinds of decisions of varying severity were made from the ministry to various yamen and localities in the name of the holy decree, and all the Ming officials throughout the world fully saw the majesty of Gu Mingfu

Seeing that it was not the way to carry it hard, the Ming officials had no choice but to find another way and began to really think about how to complete this damn test method.

At this time, Gao Gong's various private messages began to be sent to various places again. Private message politics is a characteristic of the Ming cabinet system, that is, the auxiliary ministers do not go through the official channels, but through the way of private messages to tell or hint to local officials what to do, which is actually a workaround that the cabinet scholars cannot really become the prime minister and have to do.

However, the red-headed document is not as good as the leader to say hello, and it has always been like this in ancient and modern times, so the effect of Gao Gong's private message is wonderful, and the officials who received the letter immediately knew what the assistant man meant

Peasant uprisings have been seen a lot in China, and merchant uprisings are there in China

Don't you see Wang Zhidu, the largest maritime merchant in the Jiajing Dynasty, the owner of Wufeng, thinking about being recruited by the imperial court

A few decades later, there is an even more powerful maritime businessman, Zheng Zhilong, who is also trying to find Zhao'an

Local officials in various places got the hint and understood that although they knew that it would be a lot of trouble to move the merchant's cake, they had to find a way to move it for the sake of their black gauze hat

However, these officials are also divided into different situations, but those who are wealthy in their own families generally move relatively slightly, and a little bit of commercial tax means that, because as long as they hold on to their black yarn hats, they are not very short of money anyway.

If it is the kind of official who is born in a poor family and has an average family background, he usually has more willingness to climb up, and he will be more ruthless when he starts to use the knife. However, there is also a danger in doing so, because in some places when the merchants or the rich gentry who often sell grain are more powerful, it may cause some small riots.

However, it is still the same sentence, and they dare to do something to gather people to resist taxes, gather people to strike the market, and so on, although they also have to deduct points in the examination method, but it is much lighter than the deduction of points in the case of a popular uprising or rebellion.

These officials calculated after the fact that even if there were three such strikes and other riots in a year, the points deducted would not be as much as the points added by overcharging taxes

Of course, everyone will also settle accounts, knowing that you can't add too much in a year, because if you add too much this year, it will be difficult to get through this year's base next year.

As a result, like a big hand in market regulation, many local yamen began to gradually and slowly begin to increase commercial taxes, not seeking more, but seeking stability

Since it is added everywhere, then Huguang is of course also added. However, the proportion of commercial tax is easy to increase, but the total value of the scale of business is not easy to increase, if the total value is not increased, then it will be difficult to increase the commercial tax year after year, which will inevitably cause more and more pressure on businessmen, and slowly say that there will be fewer and fewer people doing business, then it will be a big trouble.

Therefore, increasing the gross commercial value has become a matter that the magistrate must consider. Although Huguang has both cotton cloth and silk, the scale cannot be compared with the Jiangnan area, so if you want to talk about the advantageous industries, it is still grain.

How to increase grain output has now become a major matter in the hearts of Huguang officials, and when grain is sold from Huguang, it is necessary to pay commercial taxes through the banknote customs

This is a political achievement, it is the key to whether your black yarn hat can be kept and whether it can become bigger, how can you not pay attention to it

Therefore, the opportunity for Gao Pragmatic came to sell Huguang officials a good way to overhaul water conservancy, because it was a good deal to kill three birds with one stone

How to overhaul water conservancy kills three birds with one stone

First of all, the construction of water conservancy in China is the embodiment of political achievements in all dynasties in China, and it can also invite the name "Su Causeway Chunxiao" to know that Su Causeway is Su Dongpo's repair, and when later generations mention Su Causeway Chunxiao, they have to think of his Su Dongpo's political achievements, not to mention Li Bing's father and son's Dujiangyan, which is really a good name through the ages

Second, the construction of water conservancy can be profitable. Just like Dujiangyan, let the Chengdu Plain become a country of abundance with water and drought from people and fertile fields. Huguang already has a large area of good land, and if water conservancy construction is strengthened and disasters are reduced, then grain output will continue to increase, and after the increase in output, it will be necessary to increase foreign sales, and it will be necessary to increase the total amount of commercial taxes

Thirdly, it can reduce the probability of civil unrest and riots. Although it costs money to build a large water conservancy, it is necessary to have someone to repair it first, and there is no mechanized operation in these years, and the labor force needed to start the project is not a few. And since the idle labor force has been hired to work in large numbers, the probability of various law and order crimes has naturally decreased.

If there are any problems in building water conservancy, there is also a way to have enough money

So when Gao Pragmatic told Zhu Zaiyu about the whole plan, Zhu Zaiyu thought for a while, and asked this question with a frown: "Building water conservancy is naturally a move for the benefit of the country and the people, if it is feasible, Zhu is naturally fully in agreement and willing to contribute, but how can the yamen in Huguang get so much money to build water conservancy and even if they ask us to buy a large amount of cement, but what help does this have for the disaster in the north?"