Chongzhen four years, May.

The southern sky is gentle and elegant, the climate is suitable, and it is the season when the grass grows and the warbler flies. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

However, for the entire north, the melting of ice and snow has just ushered in a rare drought, which affects Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Henan and other provinces.

In the face of this natural disaster, if it were not for Zhu Jian's implementation of a new policy a few years ago, reducing taxes and deposing Wang Tian, in addition to partly recruiting displaced people, the most important measure was to set up a royal farm.

Because farms were not taxed, and the empire paid farm workers a certain wage, and built a series of public facilities such as houses, hospitals, and tiles, farms were far more resilient to disasters than the average subsistence yeoman farmer.

Of course, since the third year of Chongzhen, the empire issued a decree to immigrate to Liaodong for reclamation and exempt from paying taxes within three years, and for a time, a large number of displaced people from Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, Jingshi and other places went to Liaodong to reclaim the famine under the centralized resettlement of the government, which to a certain extent also eased the pressure of the current drought.

In addition, the emperor increased the construction of water conservancy projects across the country, especially in the trilateral areas, and the water conservancy projects that had been congested for many years were renewed.

At the same time, in addition to arranging for grain to be released in granaries in various places, Zhu Jian even sent Han Yi, minister of agriculture and industry and commerce, to carry 1 million silver dollars to be spent by the Du branch to go to the disaster-stricken areas on behalf of the Son of Heaven to carry out disaster relief.

Along with the huge disaster relief team, there are also 100 imperial historians jointly sent by the Imperial Supervision Department and the Imperial Party Supervision Committee (the officials of the Imperial Supervision Department and the Imperial Party Supervision Commission are collectively referred to as 'imperial history'), and the mission of these dispatched imperial historians is to eliminate all corruption in the disaster relief process, regardless of the size of the official position, but if there is corruption, those who ignore the interests of the empire, the imperial history has the power to cut first and then play.

May, 15th.

Kyoshi, Imperial Council.

The so-called Imperial Council was a daily meeting after Zhu Jian's New Deal, which was attended by members of the Cabinet, ministers of various ministries, ministers of the Imperial Party, and ministers of the Political Bureau. Zhu Jian reformed the system of the previous dynasty, which was not an important matter, and did not use the early dynasty, and the officials performed their duties, and the previous dynasty was reformed into a system in which the imperial supervision department was responsible for the provinces, ministries, and the cabinet department was responsible for the imperial supervision department, and the imperial party supervision committee was responsible for the cabinet department, and the imperial party supervision committee was directly responsible for the emperor.

However, since there is no need for the court meeting for non-major affairs on weekdays, there is the convening of the Imperial Council, which is usually responsible for the cabinet department, and all major affairs are presided over by the emperor himself.

Qianqing Palace, Chamber, Imperial Council.

At this moment, the rectangular sandalwood table was already full of ministers who came to participate in the daily meetings of the empire, and the first person was the current emperor Zhu Jian.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there is a great drought in the north, and I have sent Lord Han Yi to patrol the lands for me, and it is a lot of autumn here, and I hope that you can cooperate sincerely to share one or two burdens for me and the empire."

For what the emperor said, everyone on the field was silent, waiting for further instructions from the emperor.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of this meeting convened by me is already clear to you."

Speaking of this, Zhu Jian looked around, but the expressions on everyone's faces here were in full view.

After a while, Zhu Jian continued.

"In the previous dynasty, Zhang Juzheng implemented a new policy, and there was a 'whip law' for the implementation, which was to divide the tax and forced labor, and spread part of the forced labor into the acres of land, and the forced labor and the field tax were all levied in silver, I thought it was excellent, but in today's world, trade is prevalent, and the brilliant achievements made by our empire since the establishment of the imperial trade group, I think you are clear!"

For the emperor's words, the ministers nodded yes one after another.

After all, if it was said that in the past, when the Ming Dynasty was at its most glorious, the taxes collected in a year, plus the thousands of stone grains, were only tens of millions of taels of silver.

And since the third year of Chongzhen, since the official operation of the imperial trade group, the income in that half a year has been as much as the taxes of the Ming Dynasty in the past year, because of money, some things that can be solved with money will naturally be solved, and the most important thing is that the emperor has tripled the salaries of all officials in the empire, but the premise is that it can survive in the anti-corruption storm not long ago.

"Everyone, be quiet and listen to me!"

Facing the exchange of words among the ministers, Zhu Jian coughed and motioned for everyone to be quiet.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what I said is just to tell you that the world today is a prosperous era of maritime trade, and although our empire has lived in Middle-earth for a long time and is based on agriculture, the so-called general trend of the world is mighty, and those who go along with it prosper, and those who go against it perish. I heard that the Netherlands was originally a small Western country, but it was able to gallop on the sea, and the country was rich and the people were strong, so I thought that if my Ming Empire wanted to get rid of the previous predicament, it should also embark on the road of trade-oriented, of course, agriculture is the foundation of the country, and it is also extremely important.

It is true that agriculture is the foundation, but if the empire only uses agriculture as the source of imperial taxes, it will not be in line with the general trend of the whole world, so I decided to use commercial taxes as the main source of tax revenue for the empire, supplemented by agricultural taxes, so as to reduce the burden of the people, and better let the people get out of the land dependence relationship, and better devote themselves to the town handicrafts, industry, mining and imperial commerce. ”

Zhu Jian's words, if they had been placed in the past, would have set off a lot of earthquakes.

However, since the new policy of the empire, in just over a year, the imperial treasury has been full, not to mention, the end of the Ming Dynasty was already open, so in the face of the emperor's words, the ministers all agreed.

"What Your Majesty said is very true, but as for how the land tax should be decided, please make it clear to Your Majesty."

At this time, Yang Sichang got up and said.

Regarding what Yang Sichang said, Zhu Jian said with a smile.

"The elder of the pavilion is thoughtful, I came here to convene a meeting for specific matters, I think that a whip law in the previous dynasty, although it is good, but there are still shortcomings, and in my opinion, the Ding tax, forced labor, etc. should all be incorporated into the acres of land, and the levy per mu is tentatively levied at five percent, and in addition, all taxes shall not be levied on the people!"

Regarding the emperor's categorical words, everyone stood up.

"Your Majesty's words are very good, and this move should be for the benefit of the country and the people!"

"By the way, everyone, half a year ago, I sent Fu Zonglong, the left waiter of the Ministry of Agriculture and Industry and Commerce, to measure the land in various places, and I think that I will be able to return to Beijing in the near future and spread the matter into the mu, Yang Ge Lao, I will hand over this matter to your cabinet."

"The minister must lead the cabinet to live up to his mission!"

......

And just when the meeting was over and everyone was about to disperse, Zhu Jian seemed to remember something, but it was the Tao.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what did you think about the fundraising that I said not long ago?"