Just after April of the first year of the Longhan Dynasty, Xu Jin, the prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture in Henan, was busy with his feet not touching the ground. This is the time when the wheat is filled, and the wheat of the year is about to ripen and harvest, and it is the most critical period. Wheat filling needs to ensure the most important filling water, but during this period of drought and lack of water.

In order to ensure the harvest, the governor issued a strict order for the yamen of each prefecture and county to organize the people to dig ditches and dig wells to divert water. The governor even issued a strict order for officials in the provincial capitals, prefectures, and counties to take charge of the work of fighting drought and protecting wheat in their respective jurisdictions.

On the one hand, the new governor issued strict orders, and on the other hand, he pulled out special funds for drought relief, which were used to dig wells and lead canals to make water wheels.

Xu Jin is the old prefect of Kaifeng Mansion and has been in office for more than four years. The prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture is not a good errand, Kaifeng Mansion is located in Kaifeng Xiangfu County, and there are not only Kaifeng Prefect Yamen but also Zhixian Yamen in the city, because the Fucheng is attached to Guo in Xiangfu County. Not only that, the provincial capital of Henan is also located in Kaifeng City, and several yamen such as political envoys, envoys and yamen, as well as guards, patrols, and military garrisons are also located in Kaifeng City.

The most important thing is that the governor of Henan and the governor of the Central Plains Yamen are also located in Kaifeng City, not to mention the situation of the original Kaifeng Mansion and the Zhou Wangfu and other Zhou kings, a family of more than 5,000 people, and dozens of county kings.

The most feared thing about being an official is to be this kind of official, there is a saying that is good, three lives are unfortunate, and the county is attached to Guo; Three lives do evil, attached to the provincial city of Guo; The evil is full of evil, attached to Guo Jingcheng.

Although he is not a prefect but a prefect, he is no better than the prefects of the county attached to the capital division of Guo Province. is a dignified governor, but there are countless top bosses working in the same city as him, and he can only be a little daughter-in-law every day, how can life be better.

The most headache for Xu Jin is not the current drought, although the drought is serious, but after all, there is the silver above, and now it is the beginning of the new dynasty, although most of the original officials in the yamen are retained. But everyone didn't dare to stretch out their hands as sluggishly as in the past, and the drought fight was done again, and it was still going well.

There are other things that really give him a headache, specifically three things. First, after the arrival of the new governor, he asked all officials in the two provinces of the Central Plains to submit a report on their work, the content of which was the self-evaluation of each official's current position, and the details of his tenure in the past few years should be reported, and even all the years of service experience from his entry into the office to the present should be attached.

After the self-debriefing report. I also want to give them a review of my partners and colleagues over the years after joining the company. Not only peers, but also direct supervisors and subordinates have to make a comment.

In the face of this request, Xu Jin has not yet begun to write this work report. He really didn't know how to write it, and although the notice issued by the Governor's Office provided a template format for the debriefing report, he still couldn't write it.

He is nearly 50 years old, and he has been in the company for 20 years now. In the past 20 years, he has served many official positions, and there are countless bosses, colleagues, and subordinates in each office, some of whom he can't even remember by name, but now he wants him to comment on them one by one. Not to mention self-description. How do you describe yourself?

The most important thing is that the debriefing report should also be accompanied by a property declaration form, reporting the property owned and attaching the source of these assets. as well as their own income, etc.

Although Xu Jin dared to say that he was not a corrupt official, he had a lot of favors in the officialdom, and he received a lot of gifts. Even some unspoken rules such as rules and regulations have not been less. How are these going to be written now?

The second thing that gave him a headache was that the governor's yamen asked the yamen at all levels to start cleaning up the accounts, and the scope of the cleanup was the accounts of each yamen for ten years. All deficits and misappropriations must be cleared out and the parties involved must be held accountable. Whoever has a shortfall in office will be held accountable, but officials will be given three months to fill these shortfalls, and as long as the officials have filled the shortfall within three months, they will not be held accountable.

This is another thing that makes Xu Jin painful.

He has been the prefect of Kaifeng for four years, and now he has to clear the deficit and embezzlement within five years, which means that he has to be responsible for four of them. Although he can also check down layer by layer, and then investigate the accounts of each office and room to the official's head.

But Xu Jin is very clear about the situation in Kaifeng Mansion, and the accounts have long become a pile of bad and dead accounts, and they can't be found out at all. In the past few years, the yamen has also demolished the east wall to make up for the west wall, and Yin has eaten grain, but now there is an official document on it, and it must be thoroughly investigated, which is fatal.

If he really wants to investigate, he doesn't know how much deficit he has to find out, these are simply confused accounts, and he doesn't know where to check. However, he estimated that the deficit of Kaifeng Mansion within five years would not be less than 100,000 silver dollars.

For example, some salt and tea taxes have a fixed amount, but in practice they are often not collected. Many of them are corrupt and corrupt, and the money goes into private pockets. On the books, the annual tax is insufficient, just like the tea tax in Zhejiang is only a few taels a year, and there are actually a lot of such things.

But now they don't care about it, they only track it down. According to the original quota, the amount of tax in a certain year has to be filled by those management officials, and they have to use their own money to fill it, regardless of whether you were greedy or not before, whether you were greedy or not, whether you were so greedy or not.

If you can fill in the clear, then you will not be guilty of the past, and if you can't fill it in, then you will have to be condemned and imprisoned.

Xu Jin felt that this method was simply fatal, and the Longhan Imperial Court had only been established for a short time, but now it was inclined to pursue the accounts for five years, which was not nonsense.

Xu Jin has calculated his family's property these days, and the bank deposits, the houses in Kaifeng City, and the fields in his hometown are estimated to be two or three hundred thousand silver dollars. Although there is not so much money in cash, but it can still be made up by selling some land, but people are officials who make a lot of money, he has been an official for 20 years, and he has finally accumulated some belongings, but now he has to take out half of his family property, and his stomach hurts when he thinks about it.

The third troublesome matter is to conduct a national census. Surveying the fields, checking the household registration, and conducting business surveys. Engaging in these things always offends the local gentry and clans.

As a prefect, the official residence is four-grade, but he is just a small official in front of the governor. Besides, now that it is the Han Dynasty, who knows how long he can be the prefect of Kaifeng?

Although he, the prefect and the governor, are both working in the same city, it is even more difficult to see the governor once, even if he goes to the governor's palace to visit, it is also official, his hands resting on his knees, standing upright and answering questions, after a question and answer, the governor will serve tea to send guests. He's going to have to slap his ass and leave.

Throughout, since the arrival of the new Governor, he had not spoken a few words privately to His Excellency. Even if I tried to find a chance to stammer, I couldn't find a chance.

The relationship between him and the Governor is neither a village hall, nor the friendship between teachers and students, and there is no relationship between him and the Governor from the inside and outside.

To be honest, Xu Jin is usually regarded as an official and diligent, he is only less than fifty years old, and he is already a fourth-grade prefect. And he is also a serious two-list jinshi, and he really wants to go further in his career. When he reaches his position, if he can find Bole, he is willing to support him at a critical time, and then he has a chance to be a parting of ways or a political envoy, and it is not impossible to even enter Beijing as a waiter.

If you are lucky and get the help of nobles, maybe you can mix up with a waiter in front of the old man. Even if you hang a book title, it is also a great thing that can be recorded in the family tree and passed down from generation to generation.

It's just that he really doesn't have any nobles.

Xu Jin didn't want to lose his position. He also wants to be promoted, and after thinking about it, he can only do a good job of the things that the governor has explained, and see if he can win the favor of the governor. Get their help in the future.

"This national census is very important, and it is a matter that His Majesty personally confessed. The Governor also repeatedly ordered that our Kaifeng Mansion must be done well, and it must be done beautifully, and the idea of passing the test in confusion must not be allowed. All the officials in the yamen also divided the area according to the drought-fighting method, and every official, in a certain area, sent me to the countryside to squat and take the lead in the census. ”

"All fields must be measured, and every acre must be measured, and every acre must be 240 steps per acre, and no big acres or small acres must be fooled. The fields that have been cleared should be registered in the form of the form given above, and the size, location, fatness, yield, and landlord of the fields should be clearly registered one by one, and there should be no omission. ”

"All commercial banks and shops must also be registered clearly, and then the licenses will be issued in a unified manner, and the people of the tax office must cooperate well to do these things well."

Once Xu Jin made up his mind, he also acted decisively, and made up his mind that this time he would resolutely cooperate with the governor to complete the task. Not only must it be done, but it must also be done beautifully, so that it can attract the attention of the Governor.

"Ladies and gentlemen, now is the era of the Han Empire, and it is no longer the time of the Ming Dynasty. The emperor is sage, the governor is wise, and he can't tolerate the people below to fool him, let alone engage in fraud and fish in the village. Whoever dares to slack off, then I will ask him to roll up and leave. And don't think about leaving easily, before leaving, you have to clean up your accounts, your butts can't be wiped clean, and there is prison food waiting for you. I, Xu Jin, said ugly words here, if you don't want me to have a good time, I will also pull you on your back! ”

"Hurry up and write your work report, and if you have problems with your accounts, whether it is a deficit, arrears, misappropriation, drifting, etc., don't make excuses anymore and fill it up as soon as possible. I don't care whether you go to the bank to withdraw money, or take out a loan, or sell a house or land, in a word, level the accounts of the past five years, otherwise, the difference is a penny, and then you have to be held accountable. ”

After a stern threat was released, Xu Jin began to subcontract the task.

"Everyone has been given their own tasks, and whoever fails to complete the task will be held accountable when the time comes."

When all the officials heard this, they couldn't help frowning, and they all felt a menacing pressure.

Waiting for the officials to retreat, a master said to Xu Jin, "Dong Weng, this matter of Kaifeng Mansion, no matter what, can't get around Zhou Wangfu." There are more than 5,000 men in the Zhou Dynasty, 36 county kings, and the county kings of the Zhou Wangfu account for nearly a quarter of the former Ming county kings. Especially this clear field, more than half of the fields in Kaifeng Mansion are occupied by them, if the Zhou Wangfu refuses to support, I am afraid that this matter will be difficult. ”

Xu Jin snorted, "That's the old Huang calendar, now they are all in the Han world, do they really want to put the genealogy of the royal family in the former dynasty?" The emperor treats them well, it is the benevolence of the Son of Heaven, but if they really don't know how to advance and retreat, then the official doesn't mind fighting with them. ”

Almost at the same time, the Central Plains Governor Yamen sent a letter to the prefectures and counties of the two provinces under his jurisdiction, ordering all the government offices to do a good job in defending the drought and protecting the wheat, and at the same time, they must also get a good grasp of the work of clearing up the deficits of the various government offices and the matters of the general census.

Xu Jin, the prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture, reacted the most positively, he was the first to clear the fields, and the first to find the Kaifeng Zhu family.

Xu Jin personally led people to clear the fields of the Zhou Wang's family one by one, and strictly followed the above requirements, cleared the amount of each piece, and registered it truthfully, and registered it according to the standard of 240 steps and one mu.

No matter how the stewards of the Zhu family give gifts or say good things, they refuse to register one acre and one penny, let alone engage in ghosts of big acres and small acres.

"My lord, the inventory is out."

"Oh, has it been cleaned up? How much? ”

After many days of hard work, Xu Jinpin lost a lot of weight, and even his face tanned a lot, but he was very energetic. Master Qian Liang presented the form to Xu Jin.

"The Kaifeng Zhu family owns 6385,657 acres of land in Kaifeng Prefecture. It covers 28 counties in the four states of Kaifeng Prefecture. And as far as we know, the Kaifeng Zhu family also has a large number of fields in several surrounding prefectures. ”

"More than 60,000 hectares." Xu Jin sighed and shook his head in amazement. This is almost half of the fields in Kaifeng Prefecture.

"Do they have land deeds for these fields?"

"Most of them are, but they don't come from very well. Of these more than 60,000 hectares, only less than one-tenth of them were given by the former Ming court, and the remaining part was occupied by the military tun and official tun, and some were donated by traitors, and many were bought by the palace at a low price during the famine over the years. After more than 200 years of continuous accumulation and merger, it finally accounted for half of Kaifeng Prefecture. ”

"These clan moths from the previous dynasty." Xu Jin slapped his palm on the table, "Occupy more than 60,000 hectares of land in Kaifeng, but never pay a grain of grain." Even if it is calculated according to three liters and five per mu, it will still be 223,497 stone fields in arrears a year, and if you add the silver per mu, this is a huge amount of tax evasion. ”

"Even if it is 300,000 stone grain in a year, and if you pay the arrears for five years, it will be 1.5 million stone grain."

The master was shocked for a moment, and persuaded in a low voice, "My lord, I'm afraid this is not suitable, when the previous dynasty was in power, the Kaifeng Zhu family enjoyed preferential privileges." Even if there is a tax, it will only start this year. ”

Xu Jin snorted coldly, "Even in the previous dynasty, there was a clear law that stipulated that the public land given by the clan and nobles was recorded in the golden book, and it was not reported to the official for naturalization, and it enjoyed the privilege of being exempted from taxes, grain and servitude. But this only refers to the giving of land, and the land outside of the field is to be used as a messenger for all the people. However, the king of Zhou gave only one-tenth of the land he owned, and the remaining more than 5 million mu of land, but they have never paid taxes as an errand boy. ”

The master was a little speechless, although this is something that everyone knows, but who doesn't know about the things of the pre-Ming Dynasty, not to mention the nobles of the chamber domain, even if it is the officials and gentry, they are ignoring the laws and regulations of the country and enjoying this kind of preferential privilege.

"Subtract the thousands of acres of land that can be exempted, and we still have to recover the rest, minus 150,000 stones, and the Kaifeng Zhu family still has to pay 1.35 million stone of grain for five years. Someone came and sent an official document to the Zhu family in Kaifeng, asking them to replenish the 1.35 million stone arrears within three months. They can also turn in the silver, and at the current market price, four silver dollars per stone of grain, a total of 5,400,000 silver dollars. ”

"Tell them that if they don't pay when due, they will bear the consequences!" (To be continued.) )

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