Yesterday, I really didn't want to code words, so I went on a complete strike...... I'm in a good state today, and I still have a chapter in the early morning to make up for yesterday.

―――――― soon, Zhao Yan promulgated the "Shandong Agricultural Tax Collection Act".

This is only promulgated in Shandong, and Liaodong and North Korea are still in the stage of tax exemption, and how the agricultural tax will be collected will be observed for two years.

At the same time, there was no public announcement everywhere, and the "Daming Daily" did not mention anything about this matter, as if it had not seen this bill in Shandong.

The Shandong Agricultural Tax Collection Act stipulates that no tax-exempt privileged class will be allowed to exist if they own more than 50 acres of arable land in Shandong.

As soon as this bill was announced, there was an uproar in the three western prefectures.

The mood of those landlords and squires was very great, and Zhao Yan went to Xisanfu to preside over the agricultural tax reform, and on the other hand, he was ready to suppress it by force, and the five infantry brigades of the first division in the reorganization were all transferred to Xisanfu.

When Zhao Yan arrived in Jinan, he met with the landlords who had rushed to Jinan three times and explained to them the reasoning that land is the foundation of agricultural production, and it is not possible to concentrate too much. But it is not to take away people's property, they can completely extract the capital concentrated in the land and invest it in industry and commerce.

The truth has been explained to them, and as for whether to cooperate in the future, it depends on self-awareness.

Zhao Yan then convened an administrative meeting in Jinan, mainly on the details of the implementation of the tax reform.

After the meeting, the yamen of the three western prefectures, in accordance with Zhao Yan's instructions, began to comprehensively measure and register the cultivated land in the three western prefectures.

Most of the western three provinces are plains, but they are very easy to measure.

The standards of cultivated land are also different, and for some cultivated land with poor environmental conditions, only half or even less of the agricultural tax can be considered.

Each county is responsible for the measurement of its own area and for the new registration of landowners in its area.

For the question of who owns the land, this must give the title deed, and at the same time do not recognize the legal surname of all white deeds (not notarized).

Those lands without land deeds, that is, those that have been cleared out of the land and are within the scope of tax evasion, will not be investigated, but the title deeds must be supplemented and entered into the scope of taxation in the future.

Each county has its own police force, and this time Zhao Yan sent 5,000 armed police units from Shandong to cooperate.

If you encounter nail households that do not cooperate with the measurement of acres of land, they should be caught and locked up for ten days and half a month.

The entire Xisanfu, with the promulgation of the "Shandong Agricultural Tax Collection Act", is in a situation where both the good and the bad are in place, and the yeoman farmers in the Xisanfu are naturally happy, as long as they do not have more than 50 acres of land in their hands, they can be exempted from tax, and there is no forced labor, let alone miscellaneous taxes, so they will not have to pay a copper plate for a year.

Of course, they are also happy too early, and Zhao Yan will have to levy taxes such as 'value-added tax' and 'personal income tax' in the future. Even if it is tax-exempt, personal income tax has to be taught. It's just that there is no such sophisticated administrative system at present, and it is more difficult to expropriate.

The administrative system is not the higher the productivity, the more sophisticated, take the later generations of China, in the collection of personal income tax, the entire Jiangsu Province has a monthly income of more than 20,000 people only 7,000 people, who believes this? How do those rich people get away with personal income tax? In terms of the intensity of the collection of personal income tax, the result is that the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.

The yeoman farmers are happy, but the landlords are not happy!

Zhao Yan came up with this set, didn't he force them to death?

Let's put it lightly, invest in business and industry!

Not everyone knows how to do business.

Those landlords criticized each other's "Shandong Agricultural Tax Collection Act" promulgated by Zhao Yan, but after scratching their backs, they still obediently ran to cooperate with the government's land measurement work.

Since Zhao Yan ordered not to recognize Bai Qi's legal surname, those landlords could not falsely transfer the land to other people, because the transfer of land was only legal if it was registered with the government, but once it was registered with the government, it was really transferred.

The landlords of the entire Xisanfu saw that Zhao Yan was really here this time.

Even most of the soldiers and horses swaggered to the West Sanfu, and at this time they jumped out and messed around, and there was only a dead end. However, these landlords really made a lot of small moves, and bribing local officials was their usual method.

Of course, Zhao Yan also pretended not to see it.

However, after Zhao Yan returned to Zhaojiapu, in mid-March, Zhaojiabao once again formed a large measurement team, entered Xisanfu under the protection of the Shandong Armed Police Force, and began to re-measure the land of Xisanfu.

"Lord, this re-measurement, I'm afraid it will bring out a lot of greedy people, and even more so a lot of landlords involved in the case, how to deal with these people?" Zhang Buyun asked Zhao Yan for instructions.

"Arrest them all, the capital offense of accepting bribes, and the same capital offense as bribery." Zhao Yan said coldly.

Zhang Buyun couldn't help but be awe-inspiring, bribery is also a capital crime! It is estimated that the implication this time will be great.

There was no bribe at the beginning, how could there be bribes.

Once the beginning is started and no one stops it, the officials will in turn ask for bribes, and when the time comes, not only those who want to take advantage of the loopholes will also pay bribes, but also those who do the right thing.

Therefore, it is not only the officials who take bribes that are held accountable, but also the people who give bribes.

…… When Zhao Yan was dealing with agricultural reform, he was also making arrangements for Shanxi. To swallow Shanxi this year, it is not only necessary to do something to Shanxi's Jin merchants, but also to find a coal production base.

According to the report of the Ministry of Intelligence, after more than a month of investigation, they have locked down all 28 Jin merchants in the list seized in Shenyang.

These 28 Jin merchants were distributed all over Shanxi, and if they wanted to be confiscated, they must first control the administrative power of Shanxi.

Shanxi's administration was divided into two parts, the Datong region in the north was under the jurisdiction of Lu Xiangsheng's 'Xuanda Governor', and the other areas were under the jurisdiction of the Shanxi Governor.

Shanxi's administrative layout is the same as Shaanxi's, and Shaanxi is also divided into two governors, the governor of Shaanxi and the governor of Yantuo, one is a local governor and the other is the highest governor of a military area.

It is not difficult to take over the administrative power of Shanxi, after all, the cabinet is in the hands of Zhao Yan, and he has the right to take over the local administrative power.

Just who to let go.

When Zhao Yan was dealing with official business in the morning, he looked at the list for a long time, and he really didn't know which one to choose.

Now Zhao Yan also has to be cautious when choosing officials from Shandong. Because of this tax reform, the landlords in Shandong were offended.

Similarly, the merchants of Shandong were also landlords.

It's just that these Shandong businessmen are less resentful, after all, Zhao Yan has opened the door for them to be convenient in business, and their future way out is also very clear.

Therefore, when Zhao Yan chose to be an official in Shanxi to be the governor, he first analyzed the family composition clearly before making a choice.

"It's better to send this Ruan Jingyuan to Shanxi, recently my father wrote a letter saying that he was very cooperative with us in the court." Yan Yuyao saw that Zhao Yan couldn't make up her mind, so she suggested.

"What's he doing at home?" Zhao Yan asked.

"I heard that he came from a business background." Yan Yuyao said with great certainty.

"Let's go and check it, if there is no problem with the background, let the cabinet transfer this Ruan Jingyuan to Shanxi as the governor, and then send someone to inform him of the content he wants to cooperate." Zhao Yan said.

Zhao Yan just needs to say it, Yuan'er and Yan Yuyao will help him remember, two beautiful women are secretaries, this is so cool.

After dealing with the issue of the selection of the governor of Shanxi, Zhao Yan picked up another letter and read it.

The letter was written by Chen Zhongsheng, who said that the cabinet's finances have been very tight recently, and since the passage of the 8 million taels military expenditure bill, only 3 million taels have left in the treasury.

The financial deficit of the imperial court was very serious.

That's not going to work!

You have to find a way.

In the past, Chongzhen was in charge of this country, but now Zhao Yan is in charge, but Zhao Yan can't come nonsense, he has to do a better job than Chongzhen in order to block the mouths of the world.

Chen Zhongsheng said that this year's fiscal revenue will be further reduced after the tax exemption is carried out in Shaanxi, Gansu, Shanxi, Henan, and Hubei.

At present, the imperial court has to support nearly 200,000 imperial relatives and more than 20,000 officials, and needs to spend more than 10 million taels every year.

Among them, it doesn't take much silver to raise officials, after all, there are not many officials in the Ming Dynasty, and the income is not high.

The most fatal thing is still those imperial relatives and relatives, they can't practice freely, they can only wait for the imperial court to support, if according to the regulations, it will cost more than 12 million taels a year, and the budget of the cabinet is still compressed.

In this regard, let alone what water conservancy is repaired.

In fact, even Chongzhen can detain these royal relatives and relatives, and those royal family members who are already very sideline, just like those military households, it is possible that they will not be able to get the rice of the imperial court for a few months.

Imperial relatives and relatives, this is a very deformed group.

Those direct royal relatives are all very rich. And those who are on the side are so poor that they can't even eat.

And Chongzhen, as an emperor with a strong clan concept, has never made any deductions for those direct members, but the expenses of those side lines are very serious.

Chen Zhongsheng said in the letter that for Chongzhen's method, it would probably cost more than 5 million taels a year. Now the cabinet can't afford to pay even five million taels.

The reason why the cabinet's finances are so tight is that at the end of last year, it paid three months' salaries to the soldiers and horses of the whole country.

At the end of last year, the sound was sent by eunuchs under the supervision of Shandong officials. But in fact, after leaving the capital, it was reversed, and when the sound was issued, it was issued by the Shandong officials themselves, and those eunuchs took some money and went with it themselves.

That sound quickly stabilized the situation in the entire Ming Dynasty.

The soldiers received full salaries, and their combat effectiveness was improved to a certain extent. The army of the Ming Dynasty should not be so weak in terms of combat effectiveness, and the reason for being so weak is [***].

And this time the sound was presided over by Zhao Yan, and the silver was only the yamen of the military department, nor the hands of the military attaché, and it was directly distributed to the soldiers below, which made those soldiers not eat everywhere because of hunger and cold in the eleven years, and the thieves showed a declining situation, so the eleven years were relatively stable in various places.

But that sound, it also sent more than 5 million taels.

Zhao Yan was in a good mood when he got married, and promised Chongzhen 8 million taels of military spending, which made the treasury empty at once.

Of course, this year's tax has not been collected, and it cannot be said that there is no money to spend this year. It's just that the imperial court is not like Zhao Yan, who took last year's financial revenue to use this year, and this year's silver was saved first, and it was really not enough to take it out.

Eight million taels were given for military spending, which is also considered a normal expenditure.

It's just that raising those royal families theoretically requires seven or eight million taels, and it costs five million taels after deducting them, which is really unbearable for Zhao Yan.

Chen Zhongsheng said in the letter that he planned to vote on a motion in half a month to remove all the restrictions on the employment of people outside the direct family of the imperial family, and then cut off the expenditure of this piece, and then reduce the rice of some direct members, which would save about 3 million taels, and the expenditure of the entire official system would probably need about 2 million taels.

After this bill was passed, the 4 million taels of the treasury was just enough for the operation of the empire.

However, it is unable to repair water conservancy and transportation.

Money, money, money!

No money!

However, the management of the Huanghuai River has reached the point where it has to be carried out.

In the repair of water conservancy, Zhao Yan focused on the water conservancy of the commercial grain producing areas, which are currently the commercial grain producing areas of the Ming Dynasty, namely the Huanghuai Plain and the Hanjiang Plain in Huguang.

Zhao Yan of Nanzhili has never been to see it, but he has heard reports that the water conservancy is relatively bad. As for the water conservancy of Huguang, Zhao Yan has seen it with his own eyes, and when it rains, the place will be flooded.

Water conservancy in these two regions should be repaired first.

It is estimated that there are no five or six million taels that can't be done, after all, Zhao Yan doesn't need to repair things with conscription, incognito taxation does not exist, and the imperial court uses conscription to repair water conservancy, which basically doesn't cost any money.

Zhao Yan is very opposed to this kind of conscription, and he naturally feels more terrifying about this kind of conscription from the future.

After thinking for a while, Zhao Yan felt that it was better to repair the water conservancy sooner rather than later, and the treasury should borrow it from Denglai Bank first if there was no silver! After copying the Jin merchants, return the silver.

Of course, the repair of water conservancy is still left to the engineering brigade in Shandong to do, and the water conservancy in Shandong has been repaired for so many years, and it has been relatively professional, although the means are not too advanced, but at least it is also a world-class level.

In the past dynasties of China, water conservancy has paid attention to equipment. Shandong is now repairing water conservancy, focusing on calculation, first calculating, and then choosing the most secure method to repair.

Zhao Yan immediately asked Yan Yuyao to write back.

In the letter, Zhao Yan first explained his plan, and asked the imperial court to borrow money from Denglai Bank first, and first repair the two major rivers of the Yangtze River and the Yangtze River basin, so as to stabilize the overall situation first.

At the same time, in terms of the imperial court's finances, Zhao Yan asked Chen Zhongsheng to suspend the assessment of officials in the form of 'tax collection'.

Although it is said that the payment of taxes is not regarded as a political achievement, which leads to the embezzlement of the taxes collected by local officials, at least they will not collect them indiscriminately at the local level.

The most important thing in Daming now is stability.

Stability is the most important thing.

As for the anti-corruption issue, Zhao Yan will station armed police in all provinces, and anyone who arbitrarily collects taxes at the local level will be directly arrested and questioned.

And after the cabinet came to power, the first thing was to abolish all miscellaneous taxes, and who collected and who confiscated them, it was clear at a glance.

As for the problem of tax arrears, let's leave it alone! This legacy is not something that can be resolved in a short period of time.

After all, the number of officials in Zhao Yan's hands is limited now, and it is already difficult to get rid of Shandong, and if he expands indiscriminately, it is easy to dirty his own system.

…… The letter was quickly sent, and Zhao Yan also began to lay out the problems in Shanxi.

Zhao Yan planned to transfer Ruan Jingyuan over as the governor first, and then communicate with Lu Xiangsheng, and then send troops and horses to copy all the twenty-eight Jin merchants.

Then a large number of officials were dispatched to take over Shanxi.

At present, the officials in Shandong have all climbed up from the grassroots level, and there are still quite a few grassroots officials, so there is no problem in transferring some of them, and then making up some people to go to the grassroots level.

Zhao Yan is now vigorously training teachers, so many literati have been transferred to the normal college for training, and the officials have not been replenished much.

Fat fish and bear's paws are incompatible!

This is Zhao Yan's current dilemma. Therefore, Zhao Yan still chose education before, and after the education is done well, he will directly transfer students from the school to the grassroots level in the future.

However, since we are going to go down to Shanxi this year, we naturally have to adjust the proportion slightly.

At the same time, Zhao Yan immediately set up a Shanxi exploration team, and after entering Shanxi, he immediately carried out a comprehensive exploration of Shanxi's coal and minerals.

…… Entering March, trade has been carried out very smoothly.

The two major ports of Qingdao and Longkou are very busy every day, and the ships of Longkou are constantly transporting personnel and materials to Liaodong and North Korea, while Qingdao Port is a port for trade between the north and the south.

This year, the development of trade and the increase in ships in the north-south trade have made it even more necessary for factories in Shandong to go all out to produce because of the development of trade.

Shandong's factories have the support of Shandong's good market, after all, the people have a lot of money in their pockets, the market is amazing, and the market of Daming is also very huge.

This phenomenon has also greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of other businessmen for industrial investment.

After several months of reorganization, the First Fleet already has 20 warships that are ready for action, and with the addition of 20 frigates, it is ready for sorties.

"This is an order from the military department, the fleet will lead the Nanyang Marine Brigade in three days to attack the Dutch on Taiwan, and our task is to drive out all the Dutch on Taiwan, and then attack Jakarta, the headquarters of the East India Company." Su Buheng summoned a general and said to them: "In general, our task this year is to drive the Dutch out of East Asia, so that our merchant ships from Shandong can reach the South Seas. Our main force will be deployed in Taiwan to inspect merchant ships in Fujian. The mission of the Nanyang detachment is to open up the trade route to India, and to explore the Australian continent further south, and send the newly established Australian gold force over. Do you get it? ”

"Understood."

"Sir, we don't have enough rockets and haven't replenished them yet." One of the captains said.

"It's too late to add, the Ordnance Bureau has just started, and we have to wait a month or two. The Dutch's sea forces have been almost wiped out by us, what else do you need rockets for. Su Buheng said.

The stock of rockets is gone, and the stock of artillery shells is relatively small, so the Ordnance Bureau took all the gunpowder to produce shells some time ago, and rockets have only begun to be built now.

After all, artillery shells are more reliable than rockets. Although the rocket has a fast rate of fire, it is not enough to be used as a main weapon, and the accuracy is not high, and the consumption of resources is very serious.

"Okay, go back and get ready, we'll leave in three days."

(To be continued)