Zhang Fengqi nodded: "Zi said, the gentleman is reserved but not fighting, and the group is not the party." The lower officials uphold the teachings of the saints and have always disliked forming parties, but unfortunately the world is declining, and now the party strife above the court is becoming more and more intense. ”

Hearing this, Yang He asked, "Brother Zhang, is the party fighting in the court very strong now?" ”

Zhang Fengqi sighed and said: "It's not just powerful, it's almost to the point of life and death." ”

Shaking his head, Zhang Fengqi sighed: "In the past, although I had ministers in the Ming Dynasty, it was not considered a party, until more than 20 years ago, Gu Xiancheng rebuilt the Donglin Academy, and Gao Panlong and others lectured in the Donglin Academy, a large number of students gathered in the Donglin Academy, formed the Donglin Party, the Ming Dynasty has a real party, since the fight has this Donglin Party, the Ming Dynasty has no peace, and the situation is getting worse. ”

"Donglin Party?" Yang He muttered and repeated.

Yang He of the Donglin Party had heard of it, and he was the political opponent of the famous eunuch Wei Zhongxian, who was nine thousand years old.

When later generations mentioned Wei Zhongxian, they all said that this person was a thief who did all kinds of evil, so his political opponent Donglin Party was undoubtedly praised. That is to say, the Donglin Party that Yang He knows is a positive image.

But now listening to Zhang Fengqi's meaning, it doesn't seem to be like that.

After pondering for a while, Yang He said: "Since these people are called the party, they must have ideas, otherwise they will not gather so many people, I don't know what the proposition of this Donglin Party is?" ”

Zhang Fengqi was stunned when he heard this, and couldn't help but glance at Yang He deeply, this person actually knew that the Donglin Party had its own political opinions, which was not like the words of a person who had not read a book.

However, Zhang Fengqi still said: "The Donglin Party's proposition is to open up the way of speech, eliminate maladministration, demand that the imperial court revitalize the rule of officials, and propose to develop the economy, reduce the burden of servitude, oppose the levy of mining taxes, and so on." ”

"Doesn't seem wrong with these claims?" Yang He was puzzled when he heard this.

Zhang Fengqi said with a smile: "There is nothing wrong with it, and the lower official did not say that the Donglin Party's proposition is wrong, what the lower official said was a party dispute." ”

"Party strife?" Yang He pondered for a while, and then asked: "Since it is a party dispute, it will definitely not be only the Donglin Party, I don't know what other factions there are in the DPRK and China?" ”

Zhang Fengqi said with a wry smile: "There are many factions, and the stronger ones are the Qi Party, the Zhejiang Party, and the Chu Party. ”

"Qi Party, Zhejiang Party, Chu Party? The names of these parties don't seem to be quite the same as those of the Donglin Party. Yang He wondered.

Zhang Fengqi said: "It's different, these parties are friends named after the leader's hometown, those officials headed by Shandong Qi Shijiao and Zhou Yongchun belong to the Qi Party, those officials headed by Zhejiang Shen Yiyi and Fang Congzhe belong to the Zhejiang Party, and those officials headed by Huguang officials Ying Zhen, Wu Liangsi, and Huang Yanshi belong to the Chu Party. ”

"Lord Zhang, I don't think there is anything wrong with the Donglin Party's proposition, why should these officials of the Qi Party, the Zhejiang Party, and the Chu Party oppose the Donglin Party?" Yang He wondered.

Zhang Fengqi shook his head: "Brother Yang, you only know one thing but you don't know the other, some of the Donglin Party's propositions are really right, such as eliminating maladministration, rectifying the rule of officials, and developing the economy, these are all problems, but some are not, such as opening up the way of speech, reducing or reducing taxes, this is all problematic." ”

"How can there be a problem with opening up the way and reducing taxes?" Yang Heqi said.

Zhang Fengqi smiled bitterly and said: "Brother Yang, you are in the army, you should know that the army often fails to pay military salaries on time. Why can't military pay be paid on time? Because the imperial court has no money.

He once told Xiaguan that the land endowment collected by the imperial court in a year was about 27 million stone grain, which was about 21 million taels of silver when converted into silver.

In addition to the money provided for the emperor's relatives and officials, the rest of these fields were used for military expenses, about nine million taels of silver.

Brother Yang, you can calculate, there are 1440,000 people in the eastern border army alone, and even if a person is paid 12 or 3 yuan, it will cost more than 2.3 million silver a year, not counting the cost of military rations, ordnance, etc. Counting these, the Liaodong Frontier Army alone will consume four or five million taels of silver a year.

There are a total of nine places in Daming border town, and you can't allocate all the money to Liaodong, right? That is to say, the military expenditure of nine million taels of silver a year is far from enough.

The imperial court can't afford to raise soldiers now, and if taxes are reduced or reduced, what will the imperial court use to raise soldiers? If there are no soldiers, what can be used to defend against foreign captives? In fact, the current situation of the Ming Dynasty should not only reduce taxes, but on the contrary, increase them. ”

"If taxes are increased, will the people be able to bear it?" Yang He wondered.

Zhang Fengqi shook his head: "In fact, the tax amount set by the imperial court is not high, about less than thirty taxes, even if you add various assessments, it is less than ten taxes." ”

"Ten taxes should not be high, but why do ordinary people think that taxes are high?" Yang He asked.

Zhang Fengqi sighed and said: "Xia Guan has served as three magistrates, serving in three places respectively, and collecting taxes over the years, I found a problem, that is, every year when it is time to collect taxes, the price of grain will plummet.

Under normal circumstances, a stone of grain can be sold for about six pieces of silver, but when it comes to collecting taxes, a stone of grain can only be sold for four pieces of silver or even less. After the people paid the taxes, the price of grain returned to normal, or even higher.

That is to say, when the common people pay the taxes, they have to sell a lot of grain in order to pay the taxes.

For example, if a family has 300 acres of land, it should pay a land tax of 3 cents per mu, and a tax of 9 taels of silver per mu should be paid for 300 mu. In normal times, one stone of grain costs six pieces of silver, and he only needs to sell fifteen stones of grain to pay taxes, but at this time, the price of grain is four dollars of silver and one stone, so the family has to sell twenty-three stones of grain to pay taxes.

Then, after the local government released the tax to the household department, because the period of tax collection had passed, the price of grain returned to normal, and it became six coins of silver and one stone, and the imperial court could only buy fifteen stone of grain with these taxes. ”

Yang He frowned when he heard this: "That is to say, the common people handed over twenty-three stones of grain, but the imperial court only received fifteen stones of grain." ”

Zhang Fengqi nodded, and asked with a smile: "Do you know where the seven or eight stone grain went?" ”

"Grain merchants, the difference is earned by grain merchants." Yang He said without hesitation.

"Yes, it was earned by the grain merchants. Whenever the time the tax was levied, the grain merchants suppressed the price of grain, and the common people could only sell grain at a low price in order to pay the tax. When the tax period has passed, the grain merchants will sell it to the imperial court at the normal price. Zhang Fengqi said.

"That is to say, although the tax of the imperial court is not high, but when it comes to paying taxes, the actual taxes paid by the people are much higher than the tax amount set by the imperial court, and profiteers and profiteers are the source of increasing the burden on the people." Yang He said.

"Therefore, as long as the imperial court can restrain the illegal profiteers from suppressing grain prices, it doesn't matter if it increases some taxes." Zhang Fengqi said with a smile.

Yang He nodded, and then shook his head again: "Although a little increase in the tax amount seems to have little impact, but the people need to look at the face of God when they dig food from the land. ”

"Yes, the common people do have to watch the sky to eat, and life is not easy, but the imperial court wants to raise troops to resist foreign captives, so it can only find a way from the common people." Zhang Fengqi said.

"Is it possible not to increase the peasants' land endowment and only increase the commercial tax?" Yang He said.

"Business tax? Behind those big businesses are officials and gentlemen, especially in the Jiangnan area, almost all the big businesses are run by these people, how can these people pay taxes? Zhang Fengqi sighed.

After a pause, Zhang Fengqi continued: "Let's settle the account just now, the current situation of the imperial court should increase taxes, but the Donglin party people proposed to reduce or reduce taxes, I said something unpleasant, these people did not think about the imperial court at all, they just wanted to have a good reputation for caring for the people." ”

Yang He nodded silently when he heard this.

Zhang Fengqi continued: "Let's talk about opening up the way of speech, isn't the current way of the imperial court open enough?" Those speech officials almost pointed at the emperor's nose and scolded, and the emperor was helpless against the speech officials, and could only beat the board at most. How else do these people want to open up? The days of opening up the emperor can't pass anymore, where is the dignity of the emperor? ”

"Wait a minute." Yang He waved his hand, looked at Zhang Fengqi and asked, "You said that the official almost pointed at the emperor's nose and scolded?" And then the emperor can't do anything about them? At most, pull it out and hit the board? ”

Zhang Fengqi said with a smile: "The scolding that the lower officials said is not those rude scolding words, but accusations, but it is similar to scolding." Moreover, if the literati scold people, they are much more ruthless than those rough people, if you are not educated, I am afraid you will not be able to hear that they are scolding. ”

Yang He shook his head: "I don't mean this, I mean that those officials scold the emperor, and they are not afraid that the emperor will kill them?" ”

Zhang Fengqi smiled: "Kill? The emperor will not kill the speech official, since ancient times, there has been no emperor to kill the speech official, if the emperor kills the speech official, then the emperor will leave a big stain in the history books, basically even if it is a stench for 10,000 years. Therefore, even if the Yanguan scolded the emperor's eighteenth generation ancestors, the emperor was so angry that he couldn't do anything about the Yanguan. ”

"Ahh Yang He couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this.

Zhang Fengqi's remarks completely subverted Yang He's cognition of ancient emperors, the feudal dynasty that Yang He knew, the emperors were all golden mouths and jade teeth, and they were right even if they were wrong, but they didn't expect that there were such officials in the feudal dynasty, and they could accuse or even scold the emperor.

After a while, Yang He asked, "Brother Zhang, what kind of official are you talking about?" ”

Zhang Fengqi said with a smile: "Our Ming Dynasty's speech officials refer to the Metropolitan Procuratorate's thirteen supervision of the imperial history and the six departments of the matter, the total number of people is about 200, and since the previous dynasties, our Ming Dynasty has the most speech officials. ”

"Two hundred?" Yang He couldn't help but exclaim in surprise when he heard this.

Judging from the total number of officials in the country, more than 200 people are not much, but these more than 200 people can blame the emperor, and this number is terrifying.

It is conceivable that if a person is accused by several people in turn, I am afraid that the accusation will be annoyed and embarrassed. The emperor has to face more than 200 people, you can imagine, what does the emperor have to look like?

After thinking about it, Yang He said again: "In addition to being responsible for advising the emperor, do these officials have any other duties?" ”