"For thousands of years, the sages smelted ore into copper, and through the coins made of copper, the first line of heaven is powerful in the world. By communicating with each other, manpower and goods gather into a tower, all the people can enjoy its benefits, but it also oppresses people's hearts, and all the people suffer from it. Three generations down, the national tax from cloth, grain and rice, gradually turned into silver, this is the heavenly power, irreversible, and we are in charge of the country, should investigate the way of heaven above this silver money, promote its benefits, eliminate its harm. Today's meeting, there is no room for falsehood, we should be dedicated to practical matters, how to regulate the tax system of the imperial court and the local government, how to implement the apportionment of the acres, these two things, are the fundamental policy of governing the new Yinghua dynasty! ”

The main hall of the Tianwang Mansion in Guangzhou was originally very spacious, but more than 200 officials sat on the left and right, and there were not only chairs, but also tables, which suddenly made the space seem cramped. Li Zhushou's neutral voice echoed in the main hall, and everyone could hear it clearly.

This is the first county meeting of Yinghua, and now the whole province of Guangdong, in addition to a few counties in Lianzhou, the other 90 counties are all included in the territory of Yinghua. In the new year, all the acting governors of the county, together with the officials of the three government departments, gathered together to solve this fundamental national policy.

Li Zhushou lived in Baicheng for a few months, and he figured out one thing, starting from Yingde Zhixian County, he had been with Li Xian "snake and rat nest", and his future in the Qing court had long been cut off, and he was only in his thirties, and his heart of merit could not be extinguished, whether it was for wealth or ambition, he could only take Li Xian, the newly established country, as a stage.

Seeing that Li Shi's army was fighting with their fists and feet, fighting east and west, and the momentum was steaming, Li Zhushou could hardly be idle, stepped forward, accepted the position of senator of the Tianwang Mansion, and took charge of the Shangshu Hall, which also allowed Liu Xingchun and Su Wencai to finally free up their hands and concentrate on the pile of chores in the Zhongshu Hall.

This county meeting was carried out with the affairs of the six departments of the Shangshu Hall as the core, as well as the responsibilities involved in the local prefectures and counties, and Li Zhushou naturally became the presiding officer of the meeting.

The composition of the participants is complex, the six departments of the Shangshu Hall are mostly people from the public relations department and the business relations department of the Qingtian Company in the past, and most of the local state and county officials are officials, and there are more than a dozen people who are very eye-catching.

These "clean officials" are very unaccustomed to the current style of "holding meetings"; first, they do not have to stand, but sit firmly, second, they have pen, ink, paper, and inkstones to serve, and they have to take notes; third, in addition to Li Xi's initial few simple greetings and encouragement, Li Zhushou got to the point, without a trace of red tape.

"It's a sitting......"

Cheng Guijue was the original Dianbai County Cheng, and was persuaded by his brother Cheng Yingde to demote Long Xiangjun and get the position of county affairs. Originally, I thought that this conference was to make a wish for everyone to be crowned officials, confer products and set ranks, take them away and go through the motions, set the right way, and raise everyone's hearts, but I didn't expect to arrest everyone to discuss specific issues.

"It's just sitting and talking about things, Qingtian Company is like this, pay attention to the point."

The clan brother Cheng Yingde was originally the industrial and commercial master of Dianbai County, and he is now the head of the household department, so he sat next to him and reminded him softly.

"Oh, Qingtian Company has big rules, in case I doze off, do I have to whip? Or do you want to pay a penalty? ”

Cheng Guijue was a little nervous, he had heard Cheng Yingde say that Qingtian Company had strict laws, and Mr. Li of Qingtian Company had become the current Li Tianwang, was he more iron-fisted?

"Dozing off? Wait until you have the ability to doze off, I'll call you big brother! ”

Cheng Yingde's eyes widened, as if he had heard something extremely funny.

At this time, Li Shi, who was sitting on the main seat of the main hall, spoke: "I used to write to the counties, and when I came, I had to copy the relevant numbers of the county's household registration and acres, not the yellow book, but the book of your actual collection of money and grain. ”

When the words fell, the documents were passed down one by one, and Cheng Guijue said in his heart, okay, on-site office, there is no way to doze off if you want to.

All the officials present were concentrated and busy, this was the first job in the new dynasty, and they had to hand in a beautiful answer, but Li Xi on the main seat covered his mouth with a sideways face and yawned.

For him, this conference was just a formality, how to divide the fiscal and taxation systems between the local and central governments, and how to implement the apportionment into acres, he had already discussed with the senators of the Tianwang Mansion. This is a new dynasty, and what he wants to implement is a completely new concept of governance, and of course it is impossible to rely on the officials who have just been pulled out of the Qingtian Company and the old Manchu dynasty to make decisions. But having these magistrates compile the specific information they have is also the basis for refining the policies they have in place. At the same time, involving local officials in the decision-making process can also make them accept this new set of things early, after all, local officials still occupy a very important position in the new governance system.

Most of the officials of the Senate and the Six Sections of the Tianwang Mansion have actually handled local government affairs, and from the apportionment to the mu to the financial and tax relations between the central and local governments, this turn is not very difficult, but the question they raised, just like the problem Xue Xue faced in the Baicheng Academy, how to make the new dynasty avoid falling into this strange circle?

"Successive dynasties, including the current Manchu Qing dynasty, did not really recognize the nature of money. In the past, the conditions were insufficient, and now it is a poor line, but if we are careful to adjust, this line can also be made up......"

Li Shi's answer made everyone a little confused, and then Li Shi's words made them realize that this is a work that involves too much, and the process will be very long, but once it starts, it is a great cause that is difficult to match in all dynasties.

"In the old days, all dynasties wanted to make the world a stagnant and rigid world, otherwise it would be difficult for them to grasp it. But when the money goes deep into the world, if you can grasp the money, you can roughly grasp a changing world. We need a lot of work to do for this, and now the first step is to ......"

Li Xi said the move to make everyone breathe.

First, the government went to the countryside...... Adjust the administrative structure of Guangdong Province, remove the establishment of the Zhili Prefecture Department, and replace it with counties. Each county is divided into a number of townships according to geography and population density, and the scattered and wide places are townships, and the dense and concentrated places are towns. Cities like Guangzhou, on the other hand, are divided into several districts.

Townships and districts are only called names, and there is no other difference, and each township and district has set up a yamen called "public office" to handle specific matters.

Everyone was stunned when they heard this first article, this is to increase the scale of officials several times!

The big question is, where does the money come from?

Where does the money come from? This problem cannot simply be looked at the officials, because the dynasties of the past dynasties have set a number of officials within the establishment of the localities, which are supported by the central government. But that poor manpower is completely insufficient to govern local government affairs, and they all rely on "miscellaneous", that is, local taxes.

The central government has many requirements for local governance, so that they can really control the localities, including documents and registers, and control of civil affairs, which must be managed by people, but do not solve the funds, which is actually the central government's approval that local governments should collect taxes on their own. However, based on the Confucian concept of rule of law, such as great unification, strong cadres and weak branches, and never too many things, the central government is also unwilling to draw a clear line with the localities, so that local taxes can be swept away at any time with a piece of paper.

If these miscellaneous factions are filled in to the local government and clearly separated from the local finances, the problem of money and food will naturally be solved.

Others are worried, will it make it more difficult for the people? There are even people who jump directly to the road, and there is a disaster of redundancy in the Song Dynasty, who offered this strategy? Woe to the country and the people!

Li Xian shook his head and sighed, the idea of Confucianism is deeply rooted in the hearts of officials.

He stopped the boiling voices and said the second strategy, the officials as one.

Everyone was silent, they didn't understand the pros and cons for a while. The officials naturally want to be officials, but Li Shi's move is actually equivalent to canceling the living space of the officials and letting them come to the front desk. Combined with the first policy just now, it can be seen that the so-called expansion of officials by several times is actually bringing in all the officials. If the officials were to follow the requirements of the officials, the control that fell on the officials from the imperial court, such as recusal and supervision, would also fall to the officials, and they feared that this policy would not be supported by either the scholars or the officials.

"I really want to do everything in harmony, but some things, involving the fundamentals, can only be done with strength."

Li Shi is very resolute in this point, indicating that even if neither side supports it, he will force it forward.

"The officials of my British dynasty are no longer the officials in charge of people, but the officials in charge of affairs. To be an official is to do things, and to be a human being is the kind of official who has to do things thoroughly before he can climb up. ”

This also points out that there is still a difference between officials, which is the difference between administrative officers and administrative officers, but the difference is that the vast majority of people will be administrative officers, and the posts of administrative officials will be very rare.

Some people still don't understand, saying that the people have their own part, and the world will be harmonious, so why do you need to do so much? And what can be done?

What is there to do...... This is the foundation of the country of Confucianism, and it will never want to be troubled. Because they want to make society rigid, because the officials of the country of Confucianism and law really have to do four things: collect taxes, promote education, cut punishments, and settle the countryside. But in the final analysis, the last three things also serve the first thing, and they are to collect taxes for the imperial court.

Essentially, in the dynasty of bureaucratic centralization, the magistrates were the tax agents sent by the central government to the localities. On this basis, he naturally did not take the initiative to provide "public services", and only to stabilize tax sources, he must provide some of the most basic public services, such as public security, disaster relief and prevention, and stabilizing people's minds, as well as providing education for the central government.

The central government pooled the country's finances and taxes, and the public services provided were limited to dealing with large-scale unrest and disasters, and defending against foreign invasions. Speaking of which, at least one of the important reasons for the initial evolution of feudalism to the county system was the need for more public services, such as river control and disaster relief.

The key to transforming into a modern state lies not only in the face of the power centers at the top of the political hierarchy, but also in how the political power at the grassroots level is constructed. The refinement of public services and the promotion of all levels of society is the foundation of the modern state. And this process was gradually completed in Europe with the Industrial Revolution. Why does Li Shi say that it is still a bad line, that is, Guangdong under his rule has only a glimmer of sprouts, and it has not evolved to that point, and at this time, he is needed as a "wise leader" to pull out the seedlings and help them grow.

On the other hand, after the political power penetrates to the grassroots level, the organizational capacity of society will also be raised to a higher level, and the efficiency of resource utilization and internal tenacity will be difficult to match in ancient countries.

In this regard, although the family of officials has room for improvement, there is no gray area, and it is not completely regarded as a good thing to be directly responsible. Although Li Shi still has cards, he does not expect to completely eliminate the contradictions, so he has to hold on to the iron heart that he has to do it even if there are difficulties and obstacles.

And everyone subconsciously thinks that if there are more officials, the common people will suffer, which is the continuation of the concept of Confucianism and the rule of law.

The officials who want to leave the countryside behind, and even the original state and county and even the central officials, will essentially change, just as he said, the officials are no longer in charge of people, but in charge of affairs.

Take the public office that Li Shi wants to set up as an example, what kind of officials are they? Yizheng, responsible for the transmission of the people's post. Xuezheng is responsible for the construction and management of Mongolian education, as well as basic education such as universal literacy. Medical correction, in charge of primary medical care, inspection, public security arrests, legal rectification, legal publicity and "announcements", similar to the prosecutors in the future. There is also the head of the public office who sounds like the chief official, but in fact he is only responsible for three things, one is to upload and issue, including the explanation of the decrees of the court and the superiors, the contact and submission of local public conditions, one is household registration, and the other is to supervise other officials. In addition, there are Nongzheng and Shangzheng, Nongzheng is in charge of agricultural planning, technology promotion and verification and registration of land acres, and Shangzheng is to promote industrial and commercial development and verify and register local industrial and commercial households.

Among these people, the ones who are really responsible for management are the chief managers, inspectors, and agricultural businessmen, but their responsibilities are also limited. The household registration of the main book falls on the armor protection system, which only provides basic information for inspection and rural businessmen, and has no right to convict and collect taxes for rural businessmen, and is only based on the service and information control function of the grassroots level.

How to ensure that these grassroots officials can fulfill their duties, do what they should do, do not cope, and do not falsify, in addition to the supervision of the main book, will also be the relevant activities of the grassroots people, such as the legal basis for buying land and starting a business, from the past to the county government for the record, dispersed to the grassroots office, and also split out household registration, land, industry and commerce and other details, this is a public service. After all, the government and the imperial court theoretically want to speak for justice, and the people must find a Chinese person to buy a house and share their property, and if there is no official government among the Chinese people, the government will not provide him with legal protection.

Through the new dynasty's action to approve the ownership of industries such as acres of land and workshops, commercial houses, etc., the establishment of private property of the people was also a "mass movement" to forcibly integrate the people into the system of the new dynasty. The benefits enjoyed by this rebel are certainly not clear to Li Xian.

After listening to Li Xian's discussion on the setting up of the public office, the senators of the Tianwang Mansion and the officials of the three halls and six departments were still very confused, does this look like an official? How does it feel like the public relations department and business relations department of Qingtian Industry and Commerce before, and the set of shelves of Limeng and medicine in Baicheng College?

For a period of time, the task of Qingtian Company was to cut off the connection between the Manchu government and the people, leaving only the surface skin of the official master. In Shaozhou, Qingyuan, Xin'an, Foshan, Dongguan and other places where the work has been done very well, the shelves of this set of offices have actually been paved, and they only need to be further pressed to the next level. It was in Qingtian's exploration and experiments that Li Shi gained experience, and this design was not created by him.

To promote the Qingtian model to the grassroots level below the county level, Li Shi wanted to treat the original society under the Manchu Qing Dynasty as iron ore, throw it into the furnace, and stir it with the wind, so that the active oxygen components in the air could be combined with the carbon and impurities in the ore, so as to smelt it into steel.

"So, who's going to collect the taxes? Is it still a county official? ”

The county's planning is so meticulous that everyone feels that it is difficult for the county-level government to maintain the original structure, and this change is already difficult to grasp, so they have to ask Li Shi.

"To answer this question, we must first answer, how should the local and central governments divide taxes?"

Li Xi finally came around.

(To be continued)