said that Zhu Cihuan had a grudge against Yang Chao, but Yang Chao himself didn't believe it.

But Zhu Cihuan believed, the reason is very simple, his mother is Tian Guifei, his uncle is Tian Wan, Tian Wan and Yang Chao's enmity has long been spread all over the world, and Yang Chao has always stood on the side of justice, and his uncle Tian Wan is a negative supporting role.

After arriving in Nanjing, Zhu Cihuan often heard the story of Yang Chao's fight against Tian Wan in Nanjing, which made Zhu Cihuan feel as if he was slapping him in the face, but Yang Chao's power leaned towards the government and the opposition, and he was powerless to fight, so he could only endure it.

At that time, he could endure it, but now he can't bear it, at that time he was just a prince in distress, but now he is the emperor who has ascended the throne.

So even if he was pressed by the Zheng family, Zhu Cihuan still kept an eye on it, and he did not fully agree to Yang Chao's request.

Nanking.

Yang Chao received the decree and appointed the edict.

Zhu Cihuan allowed him to build a metropolitan governor's mansion in Nanjing, received orders from Nanzhili's soldiers and horses, and agreed that he would collect Nanzhili's finance and taxes as military salaries, but did not fully agree that he had the power to appoint Nanzhili officials, but only told Yang Chao that when there was an official vacancy, he agreed to his recommendation, that is to say, Yang Chao had no right to remove the current Nanzhili officials.

"So be it!"

But Yang Chao didn't care.

Because even if he is asked to appoint Nanzhili officials immediately, Yang Chao does not have so many civil officials in his hands to appoint.

To put it bluntly, Yang Chao was a military general dedicated to military affairs before, and there were not enough civilian officials under his command to use.

Originally, Yang Chao planned to stay as an old official, not to make a big move on the civil official clique of Nanzhili, and to maintain political stability as much as possible.

As for reform, it is a step-by-step approach, and we cannot rush for quick success.

The first step is to increase the commercial tax.

"My lord, this business tax is added, I'm afraid that the gentry of Nanzhi will be angry."

Yang Chao had just discussed the tax increase, but he didn't expect that his current first minister, Huang Fengfu, would stand up to dissuade him.

Yang Chao couldn't help but be a little annoyed: "Fengfu." The governor knows that nine out of ten households of the gentry in the south are in business, but many of them do not pay taxes! Ben Governor has heard that your house has also opened a few shops. Doing raw silk and silk trading, is the business good? ”

When Huang Fengfu heard this, he immediately knelt down: "The majority of the governors atone for their sins, and their subordinates are not for their own selfishness." ”

Yang Chao helped him up and comforted: "This governor knows. But in this world, wealth is based on business. But my Ming commercial tax is only 100,000 taels. ”

After speaking, Yang Chao took out a list, which recorded in detail the tax situation of the Ming Dynasty in recent years.

Before the fall of the north, the tax on land was more than 26 million taels per year, which was equivalent to 26 million taels of silver at the official price of the Ming Dynasty. The government also increased the annual salary of 10,299,602 taels, the annual salary of 2,800,000 taels, and the annual salary of 7.3 million taels. This is more than 20 million taels, a total of more than 40 million taels.

"The imperial court has added three salaries, but the commercial tax has not been increased at all, and the three salaries are all on the heads of ordinary people, and the gentry can't collect them, how can the world not rebel?"

Yang Chao couldn't help but sigh.

Huang Fengfu's hand holding the list couldn't help but tremble, shocking.

"Fengfu. There are 33 banknote customs on my Daming Canal, but the Linqing banknote customs, which collect the most taxes, are only 80,000 taels a year. Daming's annual grassland income is more than 400,000 taels! ”

Yang Chao couldn't help but stand up as he spoke, feeling very ridiculous, Daming has some horse farms all over the country, such as Xiaolingwei, and the money from these pastures is sold every year, and there are more than 400,000 taels.

However, as for the commercial tax, the total amount of silver such as commercial tax, fish tax, rich households, calendar days, people strong, archers, and tun folding, changing folding, and monthly grain is only 140,000 taels, and even if the income from the banknotes on the Grand Canal is included in the commercial tax, it adds up to less than 500,000 taels of silver.

"Return to the Grand Governor. It's not that the imperial court doesn't collect commercial taxes, but the ancestral system is limited, so I don't dare to levy it. ”

Huang Fengfu said in a low voice.

Yang Chao sighed: "How can this governor not know. Emperor Hongwu has an edict: The traitorous ministers gather, and the taxes and finesse are known. I'm ashamed. From now on, the things of the military and civilians marrying and mourning, boats, cars, silk cloth, etc., are not taxed. ”

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang thought that the commercial taxes collected by the Yuan Dynasty were too heavy, and small merchants and hawkers who did small businesses had to collect taxes, which made him feel "very ashamed". So an edict was issued, and the taxation of weddings, funerals, boats, carriages, silk cloths, etc., was abolished.

For a pre-industrial society, economic activities are basically the main food, clothing, and housing, so the boat, car, silk cloth is definitely the big head, these things are not taxed, basically there is no need to collect, in fact, the commercial tax of the Ming Dynasty was almost abolished, knowing that the Wanli Emperor sent eunuchs to collect taxes in various places, and finally was scolded by the officials of the world, and caused riots in many places, if these riots were not supported by the local gentry, Yang Chaocai did not believe that the timid citizens would spontaneously launch.

Then Yang Chao said: "But since it is an ancestral system, it is the one who governs the ancestors, and today's rivers and mountains are not the ancestors' rivers and mountains." The restructuring must be restructured. ”

Huang Fengfu listened, and suddenly trembled, he originally planned to use the edict passed on by Zhu Yuanzhang to his descendants, "Later generations of ministers, claiming to reform the system, in order to seek rebellion."

Zhu Yuanzhang compiled the book "Ming Emperor's Ancestral Training", and wrote all his experience in power, hoping to pass it on to his descendants.

Originally, Huang Fengfu wanted to use this to persuade Yang Chao, but Yang Chao's words such as "Today's rivers and mountains are not ancestral rivers and mountains" made Huang Fengfu's heart rise a monstrous wave, and he decided that this was Yang Chao's scheming, and the Ming Dynasty was not the Ming Dynasty!

Whose country is that? Self-explanatory!

Jiangnan Zhili, the land is big and the people are rich, and the people are strong, this is the capital of the king!

In an instant, Huang Fengfu had already decided in his heart that Yang Chao had the heart to be the king and hegemon, and Yang Chao was the most powerful to win the world, so Huang Fengfu, as Yang Chao's number one staff, would be a figure like Liu Bowen and Li Shanchang in the future, and he would be better than the prime minister!

How did he not shake it, compared to the shops in his house, it was nothing to mention, and he couldn't help but scold himself for almost missing a century-old foundation for the sake of small profits.

"What adults teach is that the system should be reformed, I don't know how the adults want to reform the system?"

Seeing that Huang Fengfu had changed his attitude, Yang Chao was still very pleased, let him see the tax details that he found someone to go to the household department to copy, and let him see the burden of the people in the world, so that he could change his mentality. It shows that he still has a conscience.

"My Ming Dynasty's taxes are extremely unreasonable, and it is enough not to collect commercial taxes, and most of the autumn and summer grains are collected from the ordinary people. The gentry and civil official families who occupy more than half of the area do not accept it. First remove most of them, and they themselves hide half of them, which must be corrected, and the people of the world, regardless of the official gentry. It's time to take food in one piece. ”

Collecting taxes from civil officials, which was only done later during the Manchu Dynasty, of course, encountered strong opposition, but the Manchus used the knife in their hands to make those literati groups succumb, the Manchu knife was very sharp, and Yang Chao's knife was not sharp?

Yang Chao knew that he had snatched Nan Zhili from the emperor, he was already the public enemy of the heavenly officials, and he was a loyal and upright literati. It has begun to be fashionable to scold Yang Chao.

In any case, Yang Chao could not get the support of the official gentry group, and he was determined to reform, which naturally harmed the interests of these people, and Yang Chao had long been destined to stand on the opposite side of this group, so Yang Chao didn't care about the evaluation of these people at all.

But Huang Fengfu was shocked again, the officials and gentry paid for the grain in one piece, which was against the principles of heaven, and he had to dissuade him again.

"The gentry is the pillar of the country, and if the gentry is levied more, I am afraid that it will provoke a material controversy."

Huang Fengfu understands him. That was a person who didn't care much about secular opinions, but he paid great attention to reality, telling him that it was too contrary to justice to let the gentry pay grain, and Yang Chao would definitely not listen. But when he was told that he would force the anti-gentry, Yang Chao would consider it.

I have to say that after hundreds of years of brainwashing by the civil service, the people have long accepted the axiom that scribes should not pay food, and they think it is unfair? Then study hard and turn your family into a gentleman!

Yang Chao shook his head: "Time is running out." The Governor didn't have time to move forward slowly, and he had to cut through the mess quickly. You have to take these gentlemen under the knife. They have to start learning to pay taxes, and they have to learn to do their duty for the country. They don't pay taxes to the country today, and they won't share the same fate tomorrow as the country. ”

Huang Fengfu saw that Yang Chao couldn't make sense, and he didn't dare to refute it, so he weighed it, even if Nanzhili and the gentry objected? It is estimated that he can only tremble under Yang Chao's soldiers, at most hide in a place where no one scolds a few times, and the money and food can be handed over, which is real.

Without money and food, how can Yang Chao achieve hegemony, Yang Chao does not achieve hegemony, how can he Huang Fengfu achieve meritorious deeds, suddenly, Huang Fengfu felt that those gentlemen seemed to be standing on the opposite side of him.

"So let's take these two steps first, the first step is to increase the commercial tax, rectify the banknotes, except for the Longjiang Pass in Xinjiangkou, Zhenjiang, Guazhou Banknotes, Yangzhou and Huai'an Passes, Suzhou Hushu Pass, Susong Changguan, all small passes are closed. But these big banknotes, the annual banknotes must reach one million taels. ”

Guazhou and Zhenjiang control the Grand Canal into the Yangtze River estuary, the location is extremely important, Yangzhou and Huai'an needless to say, salt in the world, Longjiang Pass controls Nanjing in and out of the Yangtze River water and land, Suzhou is responsible for communicating Zhejiang, these places are waterways must pass through, here to collect tolls is obviously the most efficient, and the cancellation of other small money customs, is to take care of the efficiency of cargo transportation.

Yang Chao believes that these banknotes have the ability to earn millions a year, and with his many years of experience in shipping on the Yangtze River, this money is nothing.

As a result, there will be an increase of more than 5 million taels per year.

"The second step is to measure the size of the shop, and use it as the tax base, which is open and fair, and there is no possibility of escape!"

The toll collection is for the passing merchants, and as a merchant like a shop in various places, it is taxed through the size of their shop, and there is really no good way to do anything else. By sales? This can't be counted, and their own account books can be used to manipulate and get invoices? The invoices of later generations have become a disguise, at least Yang Chao never asks for invoices when he goes out to eat, and the invoice thing is completely inconvenient for businessmen and consumers, and it will definitely not be implemented.

Yang Chao also thought about it for a long time before he came up with the idea of charging a fixed tax and calculating the tax amount by the area of the shop that could not be changed, so that the businessman could never deny it and could not pay less.

It is necessary to cultivate the habit of businessmen paying taxes legally, and after this habit is cultivated, and cultivate a kind of tax evasion, once tax evasion, they will face great social punishment, and they will almost be squeezed out, and then businessmen will not evade taxes.

"The tax that shops can collect is not too much for the time being, and Nanjing and Suzhou are set at one million taels. Yangzhou is set at 600,000 and Huai'an is 400,000, all of which measure the shops and share the taxes! ”

Only these three cities have three million taels of silver, plus the canal toll, the 10 million commercial tax is basically settled, if the commercial tax can be collected, then Yang Chao intends to reduce the tariff, after all, more exports are conducive to stimulating the handicraft industry.

"This third step is to clear the land and squeeze out the hidden acres. Squeeze out the hidden land of the gentry, and then collect taxes. At the same time, we will reduce the food rations of the other people, and the three salaries will no longer be collected anyway, and they will be abolished this autumn. ”

Yang Chao now wants to reduce the burden of small and medium-sized ordinary landlords and yeoman farmers, and then add it to the gentry and the official family, after all, the main force of the world's turmoil is these small landlords and yeoman farmers, who were originally well-off, but were forced to go bankrupt by the government, and the resentment in the hearts of these people will drive them to take up arms.

However, Yang Chao did not dare to add too much burden to the gentry class, not because he was afraid of forcing them to rebel, but because these people often held tens of thousands of acres or even more than 100,000 mu of land, hired tens of thousands of tenant farmers, raised taxes on them, and the wool came out of the sheep.

Therefore, Yang Chao only planned to abolish the three salaries, and at the same time exempt the ordinary people from half of the tax, and put this half of the family on the heads of the gentry, speaking of the motive and goal of tax collection, is to relieve the pressure on the majority of the people, so that the richer class can take on greater responsibility, or let the gentry and eunuchs shoulder the responsibility they should shoulder, rather than let the small people bear it.

"Fengfu, this Qingzhang land is the most difficult, but no matter what, it must be completed before the end of this year. I give you full authority to draw anyone in the army, and all officers and soldiers must cooperate with you. ”

Huang Fengfu nodded slowly, this matter is too big, although Yang Chao entrusted him with such a heavy responsibility, which is a trust in him, but the difficulties he encountered are too great.

"The subordinates plan to start with Su Song, Su Song is the richest and has the most gentry, if Su Song succeeds, then Nanzhili will be a matter of course."

Huang Fengfu pondered for a moment and admonished Yang Chao.

Yang Chao nodded: "You let it go, don't be afraid of provoking a backlash from the gentry, this governor plans to spend three years in business, and there is time to suppress them." ”

Huang Fengfu nodded, and then walked out with a heavy heart. (To be continued.) )