Wang Shouren naturally also knows that the levy of inheritance tax must be difficult to accept for wealthy families, after all, he himself is also a wealthy family, at the beginning when Xiong Hun proposed to levy inheritance tax, he also found it difficult to accept, but thinking that now Jiangnan is no more than other places, there are many wealthy families, and if there is no inheritance tax, the descendants of the chaebol can continue to become chaebols by getting something for nothing.

Although it is understandable for people to inherit the inheritance of their parents, it is naturally not conducive to the long-term stability of the country and society to let a large amount of wealth be concentrated in the hands of a few people.

Moreover, after there are more rich people in Jiangnan, the number of cases involving inheritance will definitely increase, and the imperial court cannot preside over justice for free, and judicial services also need to be paid, otherwise, who wants to take care of your family's affairs.

"The minister also thought of it with them, for the wealthy families, it is indeed unacceptable to give a part of their family property to the court for free, but the minister believes that they will also need to let the court divide the inheritance for them, the court can first establish the inheritance law and inheritance tax system, but it is not strictly levied, it is just the property inherited or transferred by the people privately, the court does not recognize and does not protect, if you want the court to preside over justice, you naturally have to pay inheritance tax to the court in accordance with the court system, the minister believes, There are clans who are desperate and weak, and they will be willing to pay inheritance tax in order to be protected by the imperial court for their right to inheritance. ”

Wang Shouren put forward his own opinion, as he is also a wealthy family, he is naturally accustomed to seeing the clan and the powerful fighting for the division of family property, and knows that the imperial court really needs to increase the intervention of the government in this regard, and avoid the clan and the powerful from breaking up due to the struggle of interests, resulting in family discord, family discord, and the country is naturally difficult to reconcile.

Zhu Houzhao was naturally willing to levy inheritance tax, and now seeing that Wang Shouren also offered to let the imperial court establish an inheritance law and levy inheritance tax, he had no opinion, and only nodded:

"In this case, these days, you are responsible for drawing up a draft of the inheritance law, and when it is deliberated and passed, it will be promulgated to the world, and in addition, the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau can increase the inheritance tax collection regulations."

"Yes!"

Wang Shouren began to draft the inheritance law, which was naturally not drafted by him himself, but by the cabinet secretary under the jurisdiction of him, a cabinet scholar.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty does not yet have a clear legislature.

Although the outline of the constitution stipulates that the legislative power is in the hands of the emperor, it is impossible for Zhu Houzhao to draft the bill by himself, and under normal circumstances, he still asks the cabinet to draft it, so that the cabinet can also block the gun for himself, but people outside still think that the cabinet is doing these things, and the emperor does not know.

The cabinet is now not only the center of internal affairs, but also the secretariat of Zhu Houzhao, which makes the cabinet still very powerful.

Wang Shouren is now completely able to preside over the entire Jiangnan system reform for Zhu Houzhao.

Soon, the Inheritance Act was finalized and published in the official press.

The ruling class of the Ming Dynasty, the powerful gentry, did react strongly to the emergence of the inheritance law.

"Since ancient times, people in a family have been taboo about separating the family, and the so-called inheritance law is only in accordance with the Confucian etiquette law, and the heirs are established! It does not care about the division of private family property, but now the imperial court stipulates the order of inheritance by law, but it also avoids the uneven distribution of wealth within the clan! ”

But what Zhu Houzhao didn't expect was that, like Wang Shouren, when the inheritance bill came out, the powerful gentry still supported it, and it was indeed easier and fairer to decide that the imperial court would manage it, after all, the inheritance bill was also drafted by a bureaucrat like Wang Shouren, and naturally it would not make the rich family owners unable to accept the inheritance order stipulated by the government in terms of ethics and feelings.

However, when the inheritance tax came out, the powerful gentry could not accept it, although on the surface it was not easy to say that they passed on their property to their descendants, how could the court benefit from it, but they all thought so in their hearts, therefore, they did not take the inheritance tax of the court seriously, and only felt that they did not need to rely on the court to inherit their family property from their children.

What really made the Jiangnan gentry unacceptable was the other new policies of taxation.

As soon as the new tax policy of the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau was published in the official newspapers, it caused an uproar.

First of all, the officials in the background are the powerful gentry of Jiangnan, and they all slapped the table angrily.

Wei Shangchen, the right judge of Nanjing Dali Temple, said angrily at this time: "The dynasty of the prosperous era has increased the tyranny, how is this the benevolent government of loving the people!" The day before yesterday, His Majesty summoned the officials of the household department and the household department, as well as the governors of Nanzhili and Zhejiang, to discuss tax administration, but they did not expect that not only did they not pay tax exemptions, but instead increased taxes. ”

Wei Shangchen's family is a large Huizhou businessman, according to the original tax policy, is taxed according to the number of fields under the household registration name, and his family's household registration is in Huizhou, Huizhou has few fields, and because Zhu Houzhao is permanently exempted from the world's forced labor, the people's enthusiasm for contribution is not high, so the number of fields under his household registration is not large, if according to the original tax payment method, only a small amount of land needs to be paid.

(Check it, in real history, the gentry of the Ming Dynasty were not exempt from taxation, but only exempted from forced labor and a certain amount of tax-exempt fields, so here, Wei Shangchen still had to pay taxes)

But now, the two northern officials Cong Lan and Xiong Hu, who are familiar with the actual situation in Jiangnan and know that there are mostly overseas residents doing business in Jiangnan, have directly not let the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau collect taxes based on household registration, but directly levied business tax according to commercial banks, shops, and workshops, and also required these commercial houses, shops, and workshops to be registered with the industrial and commercial departments of the corresponding prefectures and counties.

In this way, even if Wei Shang's household registration is in Huizhou, and the whole family and industrial expatriates live in Jiangnan, they still need to pay more business taxes than before.

Wei Shangchen couldn't accept it, so he wrote a note to discourage the implementation of the new tax policy of the imperial court.

However, Wei Shangchen's recital was not presented to the imperial front, because now that Zhu Houzhao has reformed the administrative procedures and clarified the specific division of labor, the officials of Dali Temple belong to the judicial system and are not qualified to comment on tax affairs.

Here, Bai Xiang, an official of the Department of General Administration, put Wei Shangchen's note into the column of collecting the official notes of Dali Temple, and after receiving this note, the officials of Dali Temple did not report Wei Shangchen's criticism of the imperial court's tax administration to the front of the emperor, and also replied that he should not seek his government if he was not in his position.

Wei Shangchen did not thank the officials of Dali Temple after receiving this recital, but resented the officials of Dali Temple, saying that his arrogance and criticism on behalf of the Son of Heaven was a great crime of rebellion, and scolded the court for not making sense.

But in fact, it is just that Wei Shangchen and some other officials who have been in Nanjing for a long time still do not understand the rules of the current operation of the imperial court.

Of course, most officials still know this rule.

Wang Yongshi, the editor of the Hanlin Academy, knew the current rules of the imperial court at this time, but because he knew that Wang Yongshi was even more dissatisfied with the current system of the imperial court.

In his opinion, although the imperial court now divides government affairs very clearly, it also blocks speech, resulting in serious restrictions on the power of scholars, which makes him have to miss the previous era, no matter the size of the official position, he can hand over the song Shu to the imperial court, and criticize a certain court policy, although it is inevitable to anger His Majesty and be severely punished by the court staff, but at least he can get a clear name and let the court know his opinion.

But now, Wang Yongshi has to admit that the court's speech has been seriously blocked.

Although speech is free, you can say whatever you want, but the content of the text is difficult to affect the Son of Heaven and the government, unless it is within one's own responsibility.

It is difficult for scholars to point fingers at the affairs of the world.

Now, as soon as the tax reform was announced, Wang Yongshi's feelings became even stronger, so he couldn't help but say angrily: "Before the new tax policy was issued, whether it was a senior official of the ministry or a Qingliu prince, they didn't know the details, let alone participated. This time, Wang Mou died, and begged His Majesty to speak widely, so as not to make the ministers mislead the country. ”

In Wang Yongshi's view, this kind of tax increase must have been done by the officials of the cabinet and the household department, after all, the policy was set by them, and if they were unwilling, His Majesty could not implement the policy, just like the previous policy.

Wang Yongshi even thinks that the imperial court system has now become an official who cannot interfere in the affairs of other yamen, and the Dali Temple, the Criminal Department, and the major headquarters of the Guards have the right to vote, and they must also be the ghosts of the ministers, who want to divide the power of His Majesty.

Therefore, Wang Yongshi knelt outside the Mochou Lake Palace and begged to meet the emperor, and he wanted to denounce the ambitions of the ministers and the misguided behavior.

Zhu Houzhao saw Wang Yongshi kneeling outside, he also admired his courage, and even admired his simplicity, but he didn't like Wang Yongshi's dullness, yes, he thought that Wang Yongshi was stupid, and because of the tax reform, he criticized the current system of the imperial court, obviously sitting on his own class.

"Let him kneel!"

Zhu Houzhao naturally won't see this Wang Yongshi, and when he sees it, it is equivalent to breaking his own rules, not that he can't see it, but that he can't see it because of the tax administration and the government system, which will only boost the arrogance of other officials.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao will not punish Wang Yongshi now, first, Wang Yongshi is against the ministers who did not oppose him, and second, Wang Yongshi's behavior is not a violation of the law from the law, just like the citizens of later generations kneeling to see the city 0 committee 0 book 0 records, as a "senior city official", he must not beat out the "citizen" Wang Yongshi who wants to see him, which will only lose the hearts of the world.

Zhu Houzhao knew that as the emperor, the best way now was to hide behind the scenes forever, so that people in the world mistakenly thought that he was unaware and did not participate, and even mistakenly thought that he was manipulated by powerful ministers.

Listening to the eunuchs' criticism of Wang Yongshi and other officials against Wang Shouren and other officials in the cabinet, Zhu Houzhao also wanted to laugh and felt a little sorry for them, but at the same time, he also had to admit that when he engaged in mutual checks and balances of rank and power within the civil official group, it would be difficult for the civil official group to unite with himself, the emperor, but to fight among himself.

In the past, any official could criticize the government, so that the big officials had no power and the small officials were not afraid, so all civil officials could interfere with the emperor, but now, the power of the big officials is checked and balanced, the small officials are managed by the big officials, the small officials can only fight the big officials, and the big officials fight each other, and the emperor can sit firmly on the throne and control the overall situation.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao also knew that he still needed to be careful about the battle between the party and the government.

When he saw that Wang Yongshi was still kneeling outside, he couldn't help but sigh secretly, thinking that the officials of the Hanlin Academy were still too idle, if he was really busy, he would kneel outside for a while, and his colleagues would have to do a lot of work, but I was afraid that no one would complain about him.

The day after he knelt and fainted and was carried back, Xu Huan, a bachelor of Nanjing Hanlin Academy, as Wang Yongshi's boss, directly listed Wang Yongshi's evaluation as the worst, because Wang Yongshi did not do his job well, and even organized an internal meeting of the Hanlin Academy to criticize Wang Yongshi, which made Wang Yongshi half dead.

There are also officials who sympathize with Wang Yongshi, and they also praise Wang Yongshi for his uprightness, for example, Chen Bao, who supervised the imperial history, admired Wang Yongshi very much, and also corrected Wang Yongshi's name, but it was useless, and the imperial history can only impeach and file a case now, and there is no reward and the right to make a name for someone, and the right to decide whether Wang Yongshi is excellent or not is in the hands of his boss.

Neither the upper class nor kneeling outside the palace could achieve the goal of obstructing the new tax policy, and the officials who opposed the new tax policy had only one last resort, which was to directly seek out the cabinet and household officials to theorize, or even directly scold them.

"Wang Butang, as an important minister of the imperial court, is still a scholar of the southern household, but why did he allow such a tax policy to appear, this is a tyrannical expropriation!"

Meng Feng, the secretary of the Nanjing Criminal Department, questioned Wang Chengyu, the secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Households, Wang Chengyu felt that he was quite aggrieved, and he did prevent the tax reform in the court discussion, but he had no choice but to agree, and even tried his best to protect the interests of the Jiangnan gentry, but now he has to be criticized.

Thereupon.

Wang Chengyu was disheartened, so he resigned.

After Zhu Houzhao retained, Wang Chengyu's words were clear, so he didn't stop him anymore, and he also knew that Wang Chengyu didn't have the courage to fight with the gentry of his own class, and it was indeed not suitable to stay in the position of the head of the household department in Nanjing.

After Wang Chengyu resigned as the secretary of the household department in Nanjing, he was regarded by the majority of the bureaucrats and gentry who did not know the inside story as a victory for his people to resist the new tax policy through public opinion.

But what these Jiangnan bureaucrats and gentry don't know is that they are forcing away a person who speaks for their own class, and they are lowering their own right to speak.

Of course, there are also bureaucrats and gentry in Jiangnan who are wiser and feel sorry for Wang Chengyu.

At all costs.

The implementation of the new tax policy is an ironclad matter, and no one can stop it at the moment, and for the bureaucrats and gentry, they can only rely on the ordinary people to resist it, and they can take the opportunity to use public opinion pressure to demand that the court withdraw the resolution.

The bureaucratic gentry are inherently cowardly, and the richer the people, the more afraid of death.

When the dynasty still had the ruling power, it was basically a fierce opponent in words, but in action, they did not dare to resist the court head-on, and the scholars who dared to resist the court were only a few, and the real ones who dared to resist were the common people, and the common people could indeed be desperate for their own survival interests, and they were easy to be fooled by the scholars and used as guns.

At this time.

The Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau began the collection of taxes.

Nanjing is naturally the first to bear the brunt.

When the tax inspector of the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau came to the first weaving workshop outside Nanjing, hundreds of weavers with sticks stopped the tax inspector.

Tu Jin, who was appointed as the chief tax supervisor of the Hongwumen Gate of Yingtianfu, was also dumbfounded for a moment when he saw this scene, so he had to hurriedly shout: "Fellow villagers, what are you doing here, do you want to obstruct the imperial court from collecting taxes?!" ”

"My lord, we shouldn't have obstructed the imperial decree, but the new tax policy wants to levy a tax on personal income, which is really too much to take away the benefits of the people, these villagers earn only one yuan a month, if they pay taxes again, how can they support their families! My lord, you are also a citizen of the imperial court, and you should understand that the difficulties of people's livelihood are! How can you help the abuse! Abuse the people in lieu of power! ”

At this time, an outsider stood up and said a few words.

Seeing this, Tu Jin couldn't help asking, "Are you?" ”

"Student County Zengsheng Tian Shuxiang! At the same time, it is also the owner of this weaving workshop," Tian Shuxiang replied.

Tu Jin didn't ask any more questions after knowing it, but shouted loudly: "Fellow villagers, for the new tax policy, you must have misunderstood, for personal income tax, the new tax policy of the imperial court stipulates that those who have a monthly income of more than ten silver dollars only need to pay five hundred and one tax silver, and your monthly silver is too small, so naturally you don't have to pay taxes!" ”

The weavers present were all a little shocked when they heard Tu Jin say this, and one of the weavers asked with some uncertainty: "Is it true, but we heard Tian Xianggong say that as long as you earn silver dollars, no matter how much you have, you have to take thirty percent!" ”

"It's true!"

Tu Jin nodded.

The weavers fell silent, and one of them said, "Then it has nothing to do with us." ”

Tu Jin only picked up his gun at this time, and asked in a cold voice: "So, do you dare to stop the imperial court from collecting taxes now?" ”

Meanwhile.

The tax collectors under his command also took up guns.

Although the IRS belongs to the central household department, its incumbents are all retired officers and soldiers drawn from the army, and they are allowed to possess advanced weapons and equipment that are inferior to the main battle weapons.

After all, Zhu Houzhao also knows that if you want to collect taxes from these wealthy families, you can't do it if you are not the backbone of the army loyal to the imperial court, and you don't have hard weapons.

Because they didn't need to pay taxes, and seeing that these IRS tax collectors were all loaded with guns, the weavers also consciously stepped aside.

Only the owner of the weaving workshop, Tian Shuxiang, and the senior treasurer and shareholders he hired are still standing in front of Tu Jin and other IRS tax collectors.

Tian Shuxiang was a little stunned and puzzled, thinking how could this be possible! How could this be! How can the officials of the imperial court be so thieves that they actually exempt ordinary craftsmen from taxes! This, how does this allow us to call on ordinary weavers to resist taxes!

"The owner, the imperial court's trick is very powerful, it can be said that the bottom of the kettle is drawn, in this way, we have no reliance, and it is difficult to resist the imperial court's taxation with only a few shareholders and shopkeepers", Wang Tingzhao, the deputy owner of the weaving mill, couldn't help but whisper to Tian Shuxiang.

Seeing this, Tian Shuxiang had to sigh: "Bring the account books, I will also pay your personal income tax for you, and it will be deducted from your salary when the time comes, no comment."

Several shopkeepers and shareholders nodded, knowing that although they were the shareholders and chief treasurers of the workshop, they could not resist the imperial court without the union of the weavers, and they were reluctant to lose their profits in the weaving workshop.

Next, Tu Jin also successfully collected taxes, he was a graduate of the military academy, and before graduating from the military academy, he learned arithmetic in the senior academy, and also served as a financial worker in the army, otherwise he would not have been transferred to the National Taxation Bureau, therefore, to determine how much tax to collect, he can also figure it out, and he will not let Tian Shuxiang and other businessmen be deceived.

From the very beginning, the imperial court determined the new tax collection plan to distinguish the low-income ordinary people from the high-income gentry, low-income people are exempt from tax and even subsidized, and high-income people increase taxes, which directly makes the two unable to unite, making the court's taxation difficulty greatly reduced, at least not worried about causing trouble to the people at the bottom because of the taxation.

Of course, this is not to say that taxation is all smooth sailing.

In the process of collecting taxes, the IRS tax collectors have also encountered a lot of hard bones.

Jingshan Hou Cui Yuan is the first hard bone encountered by the National Taxation Bureau, in the case of Xu Pengju, the Duke of Wei Guogong of Yingtianfu and paying taxes in full because of his timidity, Cui Yuan still refused to pay taxes because he was a meritorious hero, closed the door directly, and hung Ma Yinglong, the tax supervisor of the National Taxation Bureau, outside the house, and hung it all night.

"Master Hou, I heard that even the Duke of Wei has paid taxes, if the property under our name does not pay taxes, will Your Majesty blame it", at this time, Cui Yuan's wife Lun couldn't help but ask Cui Yuan with some worry.

"What are you afraid of, Xu Pengju is that eggless guy, he really lost the face of the King of Zhongshan, and he is also the founder of the country, and the emperor of the Zhu family can't deny us because he sits firmly in the world! We laid this picturesque country for them, not to mention the anger of the civil officials and thieves, and now they are just making some money to become a rich man, and they are still looking for us to collect taxes! If I were Xu Pengju, he would directly knock the tax-collector out of the door! What are you afraid of! ”

Cui Yuan couldn't help but say.

"Master cautiously, Your Majesty is in Nanjing right now, be careful to let the West Factory hear", Lun hurriedly persuaded.

"I know, speaking of which, presumably it was not Your Majesty's intention to change this tax policy to the way it is now, but I am afraid that it is the ghost idea of these civil officials to His Majesty, who want to make money from us nobles, just because we nobles now have no military power and are easy to bully!"

Cui Yuan said and said: "Anyway, this tax, I, Cui Yuan, will never pay it!" Tell me to go down, and if the IRS people dare to come and collect it, you will call me out!" ”

Cui Yuanzheng said, and his housekeeper ran over: "Master Hou, it's not good, the IRS has transferred artillery!" ”

"What!" Cui Yuan was very stunned, he didn't expect that the people from the IRS would actually adjust the artillery for tax collection.

Ma Yinglong did transfer the artillery here, there was no way, after all, it was the Hou Mansion, although the gate was not made of iron, but it was also very solid, so he could only adjust the artillery.

Boom!

Ma Yinglong directly blasted open the Marquis Mansion of Jingshan here!

Then, Ma Yinglong instructed: "Immediately confiscate the Marquis Mansion of Jingshan, 12 o'clock of the day has passed, and it has officially entered the compulsory taxation mode!" Tax resisters, regardless of their status, will be shot to death! ”

As Ma Yinglong spoke, a few slaves had already rushed over, so he directly threw a grenade over and killed several slaves on the spot!

At the beginning, when Zhu Houzhao asked the National Taxation Bureau to hire a new tax supervisor, he followed Wang Shouren's suggestion, and not only selected retired officers and soldiers, but also selected retired northern officers and soldiers, this Ma Yinglong is also a northerner, so at this moment, even if he came to the Hou Mansion to collect taxes, he dared to directly transfer the cannon to bombard!

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