"For a country, the importance of the hukou is in no way inferior to that of a soldier. Some stupid people are full of muscles in their brains, thinking that only the military is the most important thing in the world, and this kind of person is most suitable for going to the north, and mixing with those guys who live in pursuit of water and grass and kill people with knives if they don't agree with each other, not to mention managing the world, they can't even manage a government and a county, and they don't know how to govern the country or survive in the prosperous world. Raising soldiers needs money and food, and they can't even understand their own household registration plates, so where does the money and food come from? Where do you go to send soldiers? ”

In Zhang's study, Zhang Ju was looking at Fan Jin, and he was also repeatedly deliberating on his suggestion. Although Tiao Chen has already handed it over, most of them will be approved, but Zhang Juzheng's mood has never been calm. From the beginning of seeing the third article of the Chen species, he was a little unsure whether it was right or wrong for him to finally compromise with his daughter and allow her to marry into the Fan family.

Originally, in his opinion, Fan Jin belonged to the best head horse and the sharpest fast knife under his disciple, but now it seems that he feels a little like earth-shaking thunder, and he is a little unsure whether he can guarantee that he will not make mistakes. This can't be blamed on Zhang Juzheng's timidity, but Fan Jin's arrangement makes those who are as bold as Zhang Juzheng can't help but hesitate.

In fact, the role that the so-called time-traveler can play far beyond the insight of the times is far less powerful than imagined. As an empire with a territory of thousands of miles, the administrative system of the Ming Dynasty may not be perfect, but they are all based on the actual situation of the Ming Dynasty.

The establishment of these systems not only refers to the current social reality of the Ming Dynasty, but also takes into account the current scientific and technological level limitations and the actual ability of the staff. In many cases, the stupid method that people seem to be is only the least bad one of the strategies that can be adopted in the current era, or the one that is most conducive to maintaining the stability of the country and the emperor's rule, and the better way is not unthinkable but cannot be implemented.

Take the Ming Dynasty hukou system as an example. At present, the significance of the statistical household registration lies in the collection of taxes and the dispatch of labor, and other factors are not considered at all, so the imperial court does not pay attention to the acres of household registration, but the system is there, and it is too out of touch with the times.

At the beginning of the founding of the country, Zhu Yuanzhang surrounded Xuanwu Lake in Jiangning and set up a yellow book library to guard it with heavy troops. In order to ensure the authenticity and effectiveness of the Yellow Book, a holy decree was issued: My army is no longer on the march, and the capital is taught to go to various states and counties, and go around the ground to point out the survey. Those who are compared are good people, and those who are not compared are used as armies. In the meantime, if there is a judge who conceals it, he will be beheaded by the official who has it. And every one of the people who had taken refuge from himself took their sins, according to the law, and took them as an army.

In this way, it can be seen that Daming was very clear about the importance of hukou at the beginning, and he also cared about it very much. For the importance and strategic significance of Houhu, there is also a lot in my heart, according to the official's statement: Houhu hides the yellow book of the world, contains household registration and property, and is the country's important affairs, and the foundation of hundreds of millions of years without borders.

The Yellow Book is made every ten years, and the local investigation is updated and sent to Houhu, and the Jiangning Guozi Supervisor is responsible for refuting and preventing omissions and tampering. In the Hongwu and Yongle eras, this method ensured the country's grasp of the grassroots level, and also ensured the normal operation of the imperial court, which played a fundamental role for hundreds of millions of years. But in the Wanli era, such a method would not work.

First of all, in terms of personnel, Guozi Prison students are no longer as easy to get official positions as in the past, and there are only a handful of people studying in Jiangning Guozi Prison, and they can't complete the refutation requirements, so they can only hire people from outside. The salaries and food expenses paid to these people are staggering. For example, in Shangyuan County, where Fan Jin worked, a special tax of more than 20,000 taels was apportioned to pay for the cost of the refutation every year of refutation. This money is not included in the regular tax, it is an additional burden on the people, and the taxpayer population of a county bears such a large amount, naturally no one is happy.

In addition, the localities are becoming more and more lazy, and some magistrates, in order to save trouble, will make up yellow books after taking office, and compile them for decades in one go, just to save worry. Naturally, its data is not enough to be trusted, and it cannot be used as a basis for tax collection at all. In the Wanli period, most of the hukou editions were not credible, and the yellow books, which were once regarded by the emperor's hundred officials as the foundation of thousands of years, were reduced to façade projects. The real collection of taxes depends on the clerks to run their own family accounts, and the court has no way to grasp it.

Fan Jin's method is to start with this article, since the Yellow Book is invalid, simply abolish this system. The current national situation is no better than Hong Wunian, and Zhang Juzheng's iron-fisted methods are not necessarily worse than Hong Wunian's execution. A sum of funds and manpower were set aside to conduct another national census, fabricate a yellow book, and seriously refute it. After that, the yellow book will no longer be compiled, and all the fields will be subject to the data of this census.

There are, of course, drawbacks to this approach. For example, people are not immortal, at this time a family of five, in a hundred years, who knows what will become. Taking this household registration to collect poll tax or send servants cannot be carried out at all. Of course, Zhang Juzheng didn't think that Fan Jin was stupid to such an extent, and he couldn't even see such a simple question. Based on his understanding of Fan Jin and the meaning between the lines, the only possibility for Fan Jin to put forward this proposition is that Fan Jin wants to completely abolish the poll tax of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

The real point of the tax reduction is not that Su Song's millions of stones are in arrears, but that the poll tax, which has been in operation for more than 100 years, should be completely abolished. In the future, the country's tax revenue will be based on the number of acres, and all regions will calculate taxes and forced labor according to the data on the acres of land in this yellow book. In other words, the tax is fully apportioned to the land tax.

The basis of the poll tax that has always been pursued is that there are many people and there is a lot of strength in the family, so the force will serve and pay taxes. Fan Jin's thinking is based on the current production reality of the Ming Dynasty, the state cannot maintain the land policy of the Hongwu era, the more people do not necessarily have more land, and the tax according to the land is simply good news for the extremely poor class.

This group of proletarians, who have lost their land and are forced to become tenant farmers themselves, without a single piece of land in their names, can suddenly escape the fate of paying taxes and serving in the army. Subsequently, it can be used as an alternative to employment in the imperial court, and the salary given by the imperial court can be used to undertake conscription. This tax reform is good for the poor, but bad for the landholders, and it will never be easy to implement.

Fan Jin also knows that it is not trivial for this kind of system to be popularized, and the field is divided into two points, according to whom will the statistics? If the statistics are inaccurate, it will inevitably lead to unfair taxation. In addition, after the preferential exemption system is improved, the local economic pressure will also increase, such as Jiangxi, Zhejiang, where the literary style is prosperous, a group of people and scholars suddenly come out, and what should happen to the land under their names, these are also the problems.

It is Fan Jin's patch that once the Yellow Book is compiled, it will never be easier, that is to say, after the Yellow Book is compiled, no matter how many new fields are opened, they all belong to themselves, and their output has nothing to do with the imperial court, as long as they have the ability to open fields, they can increase their wealth unscrupulously.

Prior to this, one of the great achievements of the local government of the Ming Dynasty was to develop new fields and open up a number of fields, which was to increase enough revenue for the country. Fan Jin's proposition is actually not original, but a pasting method that he came up with with reference to the strategy of the Qing Dynasty in the future.

The tax burden of the Qing Dynasty was not lighter than that of the Ming Dynasty, and the so-called basis for not paying taxes was based on the perverted special tax apportionment and servitude at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The reason why it has been able to survive for so many years is that the most important magic weapon is not that the land is burned and returned to the public, let alone the ridiculous gentry who pay for grain in one piece, but that the development of Xintian is not counted as a performance. The country's land figures remain constant, and no matter how much land is changed or rivers are diverted, or how many new fields are developed, they are not included in the national household registration data.

This approach may seem rigid and unfair in some areas, but on the whole, it still acts as a pressure reducing valve. Although the high tax is intimidating, there is a completely tax-free new field as a adjustment, and the tax is not intolerable. In other words, this strategy gives ordinary people a source of income, believing that it opens up a gray area and gives ordinary people hope to live, so that they do not want to run away or rebel.

This is also a good thing for landlords and local heroes. After all, they have a strong ability to develop new fields, and they can open 100 acres for one acre of land for the common people, and if they open this opening, they can confidently and boldly reclaim new fields and expand their family business, and they will not oppose this policy.

The exemption of Su Song's money and grain and the increase of the preferential exemption are honey wrapped in poison. Everyone welcomes this kind of thing, and the officials of Su Song's nationality also have a lot of weight in the court, whether these people are for personal purposes or love Sangzi, it is impossible for them to come out and speak against it.

Swallow this bait, and the hook behind it won't be shaken off. It can't be said that as long as it is exempted, it is not allowed to redefine the yellow book, this kind of talk cannot stand in the court. After Su Song's tax arrears were cleared, the re-determination of taxes was of course welcomed by Su Song's officials, and since this was the case, it was inevitable that the Yellow Book would be re-examined, and they could not stop it.

Fan Jin's suggestion was not only an innovation, but also a compromise with the gentry. He never thought of being an enemy of the gentry and eunuchs of the world, and this idea itself did not conform to the reality of the Ming Dynasty. After all, the local government could not do without the cooperation of the gentry and clans, and they were completely offended, and the local government could not administer it. The policy of redefining the yellow book leaves a back door: if you don't look at the yellow book in the past, you won't change the accounts in the future, and you can report as much as you want this time.

In the past, some fields that were hidden and annexed and could not see the light could be washed by this opportunity, which was not a good thing for the gentry. After the number of preferential and exempt fields is increased, some fields can be underreported, and there is room for these compromises, and the people who are willing to cooperate with the work are always the majority.

As for a handful of die-hard diehards, of course there will be them. The attitude towards this kind of person Fan Jin is also very simple, killing chickens and setting an example for monkeys. Zhang Juzheng is not a living bodhisattva, and killing a few heads or bringing down a few families in order to implement the new law is nothing to him. What really made Zhang Juzheng consider was the subsequent impact of changing the tax payment method that Daming had been implementing for many years and changing the Ding tax to Mu tax.

"Old Taishan, my Ming law has reached the time when it must be changed. The old people know the harm of the Ding tax, and it is only by implementing a whip law to assign soldiers with tiger heads and rats' tails, in order to cancel the outdated rule of assigning soldiers according to Ding, so that the common people can stay at home and farm with peace of mind. Judging from the method of the tiger head rat tail book, you still want to spread the Ding tax into the mu tax. This may not be fair, but at least it can leave a bite to eat for the people at the bottom and give them a way out. As long as they are all working in the fields with peace of mind, the imperial court does not have to worry about no grain harvest, let alone that these people will put down their hoes and pick up knives and plot rebellion. Such a practice will inevitably cut some people's flesh, which is also something that cannot be helped. Cut some meat so that the people at the bottom have something to eat, and then we ourselves can continue to eat meat. Otherwise, even the pot will be smashed. If we want to eat well, live well, and live a good life, the first thing we need to do is to protect the pot, don't let people smash the pot, and ensure that there is always rice in the pot. ”

"We must not only win the trust of the gentry and make them believe that we will not really give them a way to live, but also win the trust of the people, so that the people of Li will believe that the court is for their good and will give them a way to live. Negotiations, compromises, and concessions are indispensable in the process. The system is always just a system, and when it comes to implementation, it will definitely change, be out of shape, and even go against the law. But with the elderly, there will always be a concern for others that these new laws will not be out of shape for at least a few decades. As long as they can advance for a few decades, they can benefit the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years. Although it cannot guarantee that the common people will live and work in peace and contentment, it can at least ensure that there are no big thieves and that there is corn in the warehouse. ”

"As for some of the unfairness in the process, we can also try to improve it in the future, and as long as we can continue to implement it, we will have the opportunity to improve in the future. The son-in-law has said before that changing the law is not an overnight effort, or even a generation's thing. We reorganized the yellow book, leaving a barely able to rely on the account version of Daming, and in the future, the time will change and it can be adjusted again. But no matter what, the idea of ensuring the reproduction of Dingkou and not treating the people as a source of tax cannot be changed. Only by ensuring this can the officials no longer regard the people as a source of wealth, and the people's hearts will be more comfortable, and their hearts will no longer resentfully the government. If there is no land, there is no tax, and it is okay to work as a tenant or a helper, and the imperial court also has local employees. If they have a way to live, they don't want to rebel, and we are not afraid of being smashed by others. ”

Zhang Juzheng sighed, "This truth is actually very simple, there are so many smart people in the Ming Dynasty, and it's not that they can't understand it." But understanding does not mean that you are willing to cut meat, after all, everyone is eating this pot, and you always feel unwilling to cut your own meat. Everyone thinks so, in the end, no one does anything, and what should be eroded is still eroded. The sages of the past generations have changed the law and failed, not because the people around them are stupid and can't see the crisis, but when they think of cutting their own flesh, they are not happy in their hearts. How can there be no problem with so many people opposing it in the end? The old man replaces Dingkou with a mu yield, which is indeed only one step away from the mu you want to pave into the mu, but since ancient times, I don't know how many people have fallen on this step, and their ambitions have not been rewarded. The old man can see that your strategy is not only to prolong the life of the Ming Dynasty, but also to relieve the Son of Heaven, proving that the old man has no intention of personal gain, nor does he want to cultivate party henchmen. Between monarchs and ministers, this means should be used to win trust, is there some misunderstanding of His Majesty? From the establishment of the school to the current article Chen, retreat is not only to contribute to the country, but also to fight wits with the Son of Heaven. ”

Fan Jin said: "In the hearts of the old man, what kind of person is the Son of Heaven? ”

"The posture of a middle-aged person, so it is necessary to discipline strictly. He is still young, so he does not distinguish between good and evil, so he must practice it and let the Son of Heaven understand what is the right way in the world. But no matter what, the status of the monarch and the minister is here, and the minister and the king must always be loyal. Even if you have to use some scheming for the sake of the overall situation, you still have to remember your identity in your heart, and you can't be disloyal to the king in your heart, thinking about deceiving the king and cheating the king, and fooling the king with your cleverness, that is not a loyal minister's doing. ”

"The son-in-law understands. I hope that the son-in-law misunderstood His Majesty. ”

"Whether it is a misunderstanding or not, you must remember that the son-in-law of my Zhang family must always be loyal to Your Majesty, no matter what time it is, you must not have a different heart, otherwise the old man will not spare you first!"