After recovering Taiwen, Chen Wen returned to Jinhua to sit in town, on the one hand, it was to deal with Hong Chengchou's reaction, on the other hand, it was the ability to trust Ma Xin, and on the other hand, this year's summer tax turned out to be problematic again. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The silver confiscated by the field endowment and conscription according to a whip law is the basis for the Ming army in Zhejiang today to raise troops for combat -- the salaries of officers and soldiers, the manufacture and research and development of weapons and armor, the purchase of grain, grass, and raw materials, the construction of military facilities, the training of officers and non-commissioned officers, and the huge expenditure of the army on expeditions, and so on, all of which do not require a large amount of silver to guarantee.

Methods of making money, such as taxes, loans, the occasional Xiangzan military quartermaster, and the confiscation of the property of Manchu officials and generals. Of course, now with Taizhou and Wenzhou, the mutual benefit between Zheng Chenggong and Zheng Chenggong, or the development of maritime trade on their own, will begin. But for the time being, taxes are still the most important

In the past dynasties, there are countless cats in the process of tax collection, and there are drenched and kicked in the collection of grain, and the cash collection money will be charged with fire consumption or forced copper money to do tricks on the exchange rate of copper money and silver. For example, there is such a story in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, saying that the local market price of one tael of silver can be exchanged for 1,700 to 1,800 wen copper coins, and when collecting taxes, officials exchange 2,200 copper coins for 1 tael according to the gentry and large households, and ordinary people are 3,200 wen for 1 tael.

There are many kinds of methods of corruption, and a large number of them are carried out by the gentry and the big families in collusion with officials. If all of them were written, it would be enough to publish a series of corruption books.

In the past few years, Sun Yu has gone back and forth, racking his brains to raise money for Chen Wen, and the whole person seems to be several years older, and all the bitterness is in his eyes. And with the unstoppable rise of the Ming army in Zhejiang, Chen Wen and Sun Yu's methods have also become tougher, and the serious rule of officials on the tax issue in the autumn of last year is an example.

However, as the rule of officials improved, it was as if the rotten outer skin had been removed, and what was seen was an even more corrupt interior.

"Tell me, what are the remnants going to do?" The word remnant, Chen Wen bit very hard, even Sun Yu couldn't help but sigh when he heard it.

The Ming Dynasty has had a tradition of Yourongshi since Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Taizu Gao, in which the reduction of taxes and forced labor has also increased over time.

The "Preferential Exemption Regulations" of the 24th year of Jiajing stipulates: 30 stone of first-grade preferential exempt grain and 30 ding of people are exempted from service in the first grade of Beijing officials, and the following is reduced to 6 stone of excellent exempt grain and 6 ding of people; halving of foreign officials; lifting, prison, and student preferential and free food two stones, two people; Seven out of 10 of this product is exempt. In the 38th year of Wanli, the new "New Regulations on Preferential Exemption" stipulated: the current Jiake Jingguan is exempt from 10,000 mu of land for the first grade, and the following is decreasing, and the eighth grade is exempt from 2,700 mu; halving of foreign officials; Six-tenths of this product is exempt; The maximum amount of land can reach 3,350 acres, and the field of 1,200 acres can be 1,200 acres; Eighty acres of students and prisoners.

In the meantime, even in the early Qing Dynasty, it was carried out in accordance with the "New Regulations on Preferential Exemption" formulated by the Wanli Emperor who was scolded by the scholars for the flowers. In the era of the Green Hat Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the finances could not bear it, so he began to implement the integration of officials and gentry to pay food, and in the end it was not successful.

Chen Wen's occupation area was Zhejiang, although it was not as good as Nanzhili, especially the six prefectures of Jinquyan and Taiwen that he now controlled, and it was also inferior to Hangjiahu and Ningshao, but there was never a shortage of scholars, and almost every county had to have as few as three or four hundred, and as many as four or five hundred students. And this is still in the Ming Dynasty has not carried out the imperial examination for many years, only the number of students is counted, and the jinshi, juren, prison students, and even more huge officials who have obtained preferential exemption fields have not been counted.

Although these prefectures are in Zhejiang, they are actually quite few. In places such as Susongchang Town and Hangjiahu, the number of jinshi, lifters, prisoners, and students is even more amazing. According to Gu Yanwu's account, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were more than 500,000 students in the country alone, with an average of 300 people in each county, of which Jiangsu and Zhejiang had the largest number.

Chen Wen did not recognize the fame of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and he had no obligation to give preferential treatment to scholars for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which no one could say. However, those scholars with meritorious names in the Ming Court are not enjoying the preferential exemption regulations all the time, and what makes Chen Wen speechless the most is that these scholars who enjoy the preferential treatment of the Ming Court are generally relict at home, and even from the Manchu Qing Dynasty, anyway, they don't work for the Ming army.

"Those gentry are really face-saving, obviously eating more and occupying more, and licking their faces to talk about the emperor's "New Regulations on Preferential Exemptions".

Chen Wen's mouth of eating more and occupying more, not only talking about contributions, but also the gentry in the Ming Dynasty colluded with officials to exempt them from taxes in addition to the preferential exemption of land. Apportionment, damage to the Yellow Book, and other means are varied, and it is rare for them not to do so.

"Forget it, Furen, I've barely survived in the past few years, and if I offend them in vain, things in the local area will be much more difficult, and the gains outweigh the losses."

"I didn't say that I didn't admit it, it was the rules set by Emperor Xian, and I had to carry it even if I gritted my teeth, but this group of disloyal and unrighteous bastards, we have recruited talents several times, but they just don't come. The students are better, especially those officials at home and Jinshi and Juren who have not entered the ranks, in addition to you, how many are working for our Zhejiang Wangshi? ”

From the moment Chen Wen sarcastically emphasized the word "remnants", Sun Yu knew that Chen Wen had already been extremely angry. This group of scholars is indeed not talkative, but now where is it not like this, with his understanding of Chen Wen, this matter should have been seen a long time ago, it can only be because another thing has aroused his anger.

Some time ago, the Marquis of Anyuan's Mansion issued an order for the collection of grain and silk to the guards and military households, but the guards and military households had no opinions, but were opposed by the gentry of these mansions. The reason for their opposition is not that the grain merchants have fewer channels to make money, but that the army is competing with the people for profit, and if this continues, the people will not be able to eat food!

The Zhejiang Ming army occupied a lot of land in Jinhua and Quzhou, and the amount of military merit land allocated was huge, which is true, but compared with the local private land, especially the land owned by the gentry and wealthy households, the 20,000 army actually did not go out much. Moreover, most of the land that Chen Wen has divided over the years has been forced to abandon due to the massacre and cruelty of the Qing army in recent years, and it has not accounted for too much proportion of the land that has been cultivated. On the contrary, the Ming army in Zhejiang was strictly disciplined, there was almost no harassment among the people, and the rule of officials continued to improve, and the number of civilian fields that returned to resume cultivation and the government to open up wasteland was also increasing.

According to Sun Yu's investigation, the total amount of grain output will indeed affect grain prices, but most of the reasons for the impact should be the hoarding of grain merchants, not the fact that the people's grain will really lack food to the extent that they can't eat.

The grain merchants and the gentry are inherently one, and even if the gentry do not trade grain, they have a large amount of grain production in their hands, and they will have an inextricable relationship with the grain merchants. What's more, most of today's gentry hired farmers to grow cash crops on preferential fields, and the grain they needed could only be bought, and the possible rise in grain prices would naturally cause them dissatisfaction.

"This is not the case anywhere in the world, especially in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. This time, Taiwan and Wenzhou have been recovered, and with the support of sea trade and salt monopoly, it should no longer be as stretched as before. The affairs of the military household, I will talk to those talkative gentry, the military order of the Hou Mansion is ordered to be the Wei Office, according to the Emperor Ming ancestral system, the Wei Office is owned by the Governor's Mansion of the five armies, and they can't make irresponsible remarks. If you dare to hoard Juqi, I don't mind doing it again the last time I was in Quzhou. ”

The method Sun Yu said was to forcibly use administrative means to stabilize grain prices, starting with the word killing, and forcing grain merchants to sell grain at a parity price. This is the usual method used by officials in ancient times, but there are not many who dare to use it, because more officials have long been in collusion with the grain merchants, and it is not them who suffer anyway, but just some small people, and they can still profit from it, so why not.

It's just that even with Sun Yu's assurance, Chen Wen's anger is still difficult to eliminate for a while. It's one thing for a gentry to interfere with the affairs of the guard, but more for the bloody soldiers under his command.

According to Wanli's "New Regulations on Preferential Exemption", a student is exempt from tax of 80 mu, a person is exempt from tax of 1,200 mu, and a jinshi is exempt from tax of 3,350 mu, and those officials who have returned to their hometowns are even more. However, in the past few years, his heavy generals Li Ruixin, Yin Yue, Wu Dengke and others have only been allocated more than 1,000 acres of land, and even these highest-ranking officers are just like a person, not to mention other officers and non-commissioned officers.

Over the years, all the military exploits, Chen Wen has distributed a lot of land, which is what those soldiers deserve. However, compared with those scholars who have made meritorious contributions, a remnant who has been an official or has not been an official before, and he refuses to serve the Ming court even if he is killed, but he can still enjoy preferential treatment every year, and it is justified, so the price of blood and lives paid by the soldiers under his command is not too cheap!

Chen Wen clearly remembered that he had seen a short story about the resistance against the Qing Dynasty in the Southern Ming Dynasty mentioned by the author in a famous historical novel at that time:

In the first year of Yongli, the son of Yongli was chased and killed by the Qing army, and Zhang Jiayu, a national hero of one of the three loyalties in Lingnan, raised an army against the Qing Dynasty in his hometown, thinking that he was the king of Qin. At that time, there was a shortage of food in the army, so he borrowed money from Li Juesi, the former secretary of the criminal department of his fellow townsman and a local tycoon, but Li Juesi categorically refused. For this reason, Zhang Jiayu waited in front of Li Juesi's court for three days, knowing the righteousness, and tears fell, but Li Juesi was unmoved. In the end, Zhang Jiayu's subordinates couldn't stand Li Juesi's face, so they simply copied the Li family to replenish military funds.

When Zhang Jiayu was powerful, Li Juesi did not dare to move, and when the Qing army came to suppress it, Li Juesi immediately ran to offer advice to the Qing army, and led the Qing army to dig Zhang Jiayu's ancestral grave, destroyed the Zhang family's family temple, and killed more than 1,000 people of Zhang Jiayu's clan.

This Li Juesi, later generations and Yuan Chonghuan and called Dongguan Shuangxian, the Yinxian Villa built by him covers an area of 1,800 acres, the internal layout is beautiful and elegant, and it was built at that time. But this virtuous minister, who has enjoyed the preferential treatment of the Ming court for decades, waited until the Son of Heaven was in distress and the Han family was not clothed, and he did not raise troops against the Qing Dynasty like Zhang Jiayu of his fellow villager, and he refused to even borrow some money and food.

In this matter, Zhang Jiayu's subordinates could not wash away the problems of military discipline, but for some money and food, they went to dig people's ancestral graves by the hands of barbarians, and almost exterminated the Zhang family in Dongguan.

Similar stories took place in Fujian, Zhejiang, Huguang, Jiangxi, Nanzhili and the north, and Chen Wen has seen a lot of them in the book and on the forum. At first, he was just ashamed of what these scum did, but when he read the account of Wen Ruilin, the grandson of Wen Tiren, the first assistant minister of the Chongzhen Dynasty and a friend of Wan Sitong, a student of Huang Zongxi, in "The History of Southern Xinjiang", he suddenly became enlightened.

"The gentleman of Ming, about Rong Lilu, tends to be popular, and his private wife is Ji Er. Rather have the relatives of the monarch's father, the feeling of the family and the country! Therefore, if you break in, you will fall, and if you dedicate to you, you will sacrifice if you don't stop falling, and then you will be again, and the righteous people in their eyes are all monster ears! ”

Since they have all regarded the anti-Qing righteous people as monsters, and the gap between the three views has reached this point, there is nothing abnormal about refusing to borrow money. It's a pity that the emperor has been raising a scholar for two hundred and seventy-six years, and the preferential treatment has been repeatedly improved, but in the end, it is not only moths, but also waste, most of which are both, and there are such "virtuous" in endlessly, which is really ridiculous to think about.

The grain, silkworm cocoons, silk and other things of the military households of the guard are exclusively collected and sold by the subordinate departments of the Hou Mansion, which is beyond doubt, and after talking to Sun Yu, Chen Wen's anger was slightly extinguished, but for those who dared to hoard Jiqi, he still ordered Han Qizheng to take the Yamen of the Criminal Division to cooperate with Sun Yu. As for the crime, colluding with the Manchu Qing Dynasty and disturbing the price of grain in the areas occupied by the Ming army, how to sentence it at that time is not without precedent, Han Qizheng should know how to do it.

This matter was negotiated, and it was not too early, and Chen Wen planned to discuss the dirty things left by Xia Shui tomorrow, so he went back to the house in the inner courtyard.

Chen Wen has also seen a lot of scholars in the Southern Ming Dynasty, including Wang Yi, Feng Jingdi and others who raised troops to resist the Qing Dynasty and were captured and vowed not to surrender, Qian Qianyi and Lu Yuding who broke their homes for the country and even went bankrupt to support the Ming army, and Huang Zongxi and Wei Geng who were willing to risk their lives to deliver news to the Ming army. But once he thinks of those remnants who enjoyed all kinds of political and economic preferential treatment before their death, but shrank their heads like Wang Ba and didn't ask about the world at the moment of national peril, he only felt that he had nothing to say, let alone the scum who made him feel disgusted by Li Juesi, Xie Sanbin and others.

However, the power of the gentry at the end of the Ming Dynasty was extremely great, especially in places like Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but any mishandling would affect the overall situation of the anti-Qing Dynasty, so it was necessary to weigh it more carefully and clearly.

Qianqianyu's fingers pressed gently on the head, probably only at this time can he feel the word relaxation, since getting married, Zhou Yueying has arranged everything properly at home, and he never needs to worry about family affairs every day, and he never needs to worry about family affairs. However, a moment later, the owner of the soft pair that had brought him relaxation said something that made his nerves tighten.

"In my humble opinion as a concubine, the husband is too polite to those, well, those remnants." (To be continued.) )