Chapter 106 Houhu Yellow Book II

Zhang Xuan pointed to the two numbers and asked the old officer, "Is this all the case here?" ”

The old errand was frightened by Zhang Xuan's sudden anger, and said tremblingly: "The little one is illiterate. ”

Zhang Xuan said: "I mean, these yellow books are all copied according to the previous year, right? ”

As soon as the old servant was obedient, he immediately put his mind at ease and said: "Exactly, according to the ancestors, when Taizu became an ancestor, there were still people who were demoted because of the inconsistency of the yellow book. Now no one cares about it at all. I don't know that since that year, all localities have not traveled thousands of miles to send yellow books to Nanjing, but sent people to Nanjing to find some calligraphers. Get some manuscripts out of here, and then copy some of them, and just take care of the errands. ”

"Huh." Zhang Xuan suddenly laughed and said, "If the Ming Dynasty does not die, it is unreasonable. ”

What is the basis for the Ming Dynasty's tax collection, it is the Yellow Book. Now the situation of the Ming Dynasty is that the public account is an ornament, and the local officials collect taxes in a white book, what is the white book, and the white book is essentially the private account of the local officials. In other words, as far as the imperial court is concerned, there is no standard for collecting taxes at all.

According to the ability, the tax collection is more, just follow the old practice of previous years, pay the tax silver, and collect less tax, but must pay according to the practice of previous years.

Why does the number of accounts in the account books change little from year to year, or even the same, because this number corresponds to the number handed in, and it cannot be changed, for the bureaucrats, what they hate the most is the change itself.

The political system collapsed to this place, and it was even said that the Ming Dynasty implemented a package tax system, in which each local official bears the tax of a place, and the central government collects a limited amount of money, while the local government collects its own profits.

Not to mention the massive influx of silver after Wanli, to a certain extent, silver depreciated. The millions of taels of silver at the beginning of the country are too different from the millions of taels of silver at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

In this case, there are still many Qing officials who are exempt from taxes, claiming that after receiving what should be collected, the rest will not be taxed, but they don't know whether they really don't collect it, or if they don't have the court's share of what they collect below.

Zhang Xuan's laughter was not only laughing at the Ming Dynasty, but also at himself.

I know how rotten Da Ming is, and I want to find some help from here. Could it be that when he came to Houhu Yellow Book Library, he just looked at the copyists in Nanjing who didn't know how much it was worth, and wrote these things? It's really a sword carving. But I don't know the time and events, if it is placed in the Hongwu period, you can get the Yellow Book Library, which is naturally very useful. But on the other hand, if this yellow book library can still be very useful, and the yellow book corresponds to the actual situation, no, it does not need to be completely corresponding, even if only fifty percent of it corresponds. Zhang Xuan can't come in one day.

Zhang Xuan shook his hand and said, "Zheng Lian." ”

"The lower official is here." Zheng Lian said.

"You will check the information of Jiangnan Prefecture and Hongwu Yongle in detail, especially the number of acres of land, and give me a bit of written materials." Zhang Xuan said: "There is also Zhang Juzheng's data on measuring the acres of land in the world, and give me a copy." ”

The Houhu Yellow Book certainly disappointed Zhang Xuan, but it was not all waste paper, at least there were some useful documents in the early stage, not to mention anything else. The number of households is uncertain, and the land is always unavailable. Those who have land can always collect taxes.

Zhang Xuan left Zheng Lian here and left the Houhu Yellow Book Library angrily.

This time, he didn't go to find someone else, but went to Zhang Qian.

Zhang Xuan had to admit that in terms of government affairs, Zhang Xuan was not as good as Zhang Qian. And Zhang Xuan also knew that Zhang Zhen had been here, so he naturally had to ask what Zhang Zhen meant.

Zhang Zhen's office was not in the palace, but in the yamen of the household department.

As soon as Zhang Xuan arrived at the Yamen of Nanjing, he saw that he didn't know how many people were coming and going, trotting all the way, and he was extremely busy. In Zhang Zhen's office, which should be called the signing room, Zhang Xuan saw countless people queuing up to see him. There are some people among them that Zhang Xuan knows.

It's none other than the literati who came from Runing, these people have long since lost their original embarrassment, and they look like people. When these people saw Zhang Xuan, they saluted and said, "Meet Master Zhang." ”

Zhang Xuan nodded.

After Zhang Zhen saw Zhang Xuan coming, he immediately drove everyone out and talked to Zhang Xuan. After the two sat down, He Hutou wanted to close the door easily, but was stopped by Zhang Zhen, he smiled slightly and didn't say anything. But Zhang Xuan instantly understood.

In front of him was not the previous one, the patriarch of the Linying Zhang clan, Zhang Xuan's nominal brother. It is the long history of King Wu, the future prime minister of King Wu.

Although Luo Rucai's illness is kept secret, he can't hide it.

Zhang Zhen did this, but he just wanted to show that he was above board and had no personal relationship with Zhang Xuan.

Zhang Xuan suddenly felt a little uncomfortable in his heart, obviously Zhang Zhen saw Luo Rucai's great future, and pressed the treasure on Luo Rucai and Luo Yulong, and was unwilling to be too deeply involved with Zhang Xuan, so that Luo's father and son had another year to affect Zhang Zhen's status among civil officials.

If it is said that before, the relationship between Zhang Zhen and Zhang Xuan was the help of Zhang Zhen to sit firmly with the head of Cao Ying, after all, there was a rebellion of Ji Qi and others, Luo Rucai needs a trustworthy person, Zhang Zhen should have Zhang Xuan's guarantee, absolutely trustworthy, he has today.

Luo Rucai is in poor health. In order to face the situation of the change of power in the future, if Zhang Zhen and Zhang Xuan hug each other, it may have the opposite effect.

Zhang Xuan understands that it is understandable that it is uncomfortable to be uncomfortable. But he also knew that some things were not what he wanted, and he sighed slightly in his heart

, what I was going to say to Zhang Qian, I thought about it again, and I felt that there was nothing to say to others, so I said it.

I also know that it is impossible to talk in secret like before.

"Zhang Changshi, Houhu Yellow Book Library, you have also been there." Zhang Xuan said.

"Oh, Commander Zhang also went?" Zhang Zhi said: "How do you feel? ”

"It's hard to live up to fame." Zhang Xuan said with a sneer.

Zhang Zhen said: "That's it for a long time. ”

Immediately, Zhang Zhen immediately told Zhang Xuan some things.

Nothing else, just a whip.

It is said that a whip law is Zhang Juzheng's political achievement, but in fact it is not, there is a causal relationship between a whip law and the collapse of the Yellow Book. It is precisely because the Yellow Book collapsed and could not be used that a whip method appeared. In the early Ming Dynasty, the tax service was centered on the Lijia system.

It can be clearly controlled to everyone.

How many strong men are in a Zhuangzi, the government collects taxes according to the roster, and the people are allowed to bear the labor.

One of the benefits of a scholar is that he is exempt from forced labor. It can be seen in general.

And the collapse of the Yellow Book was also a gradual process. Zhu Yuanzhang saw the lesson of the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and he felt that the death of the Yuan Dynasty was due to the uneven taxation and servitude, so the important idea of the Yellow Book system was that everyone contributed to the end, so the pressure on everyone would be small.

And the collapse of the Yellow Book is that some have escaped from the control of the Yellow Book.

Of course, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, after the Yellow Book existed in name only, many local conscripts could not be requisitioned, so some people thought of collecting money and then spending money to hire people to work.

This evolved into a whiplash.

It's just the virtue of officials in the late Ming Dynasty, once it gets involved in money. If you don't scrape a few layers, you will be sorry for the official hat on your head, so that the effect of conscription in various places can be imagined, and the large and small water conservancy failures in the last years of the Ming Dynasty are taken for granted.

Large-scale water conservancy, such as the Yellow River, Huai River, and canals, can probably still be guaranteed with funds from the state, but water conservancy in small places does not need to be mentioned.

Therefore, the Yellow Book has long become a face-saving job.

"However, when Taizu became an ancestor and was with Zhang Jiangling, there were still some spectrums in the measurement of acres, so I went to prepare to tax the counties according to this number." Zhang Zhen said.

Zhang Xuan heard the words, "Tax." The two words were immediately overjoyed, and said: "Zhang Changshi is going to collect taxes in Jiangnan?" ”

"Exactly." Zhang Zhen said: "Although King Chuang has not paid grain for three years in the north, so that the people have come to vote, but Jiangnan and the north are different, I am ready to Fengyang Town counties are exempt from tax for three years, but Yangzhou and Jiangnan are taxed as usual." ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Zhen said with a somewhat wry smile: "Otherwise, I won't be able to support this stall." ”

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