Lu Zhenfei's demeanor stunned the high-ranking officials present.

No one expected that Lu Zhenfei would directly expose the shortcomings of Zhang Shenyan, the scholar of Dongge University, and Zhu Guobi, the Duke of Baoguo, in front of His Majesty.

Zhu Youzhen was also surprised, of course, Lu Zhenfei, the former governor of Caoyun Huaiyang, who was not very familiar with him, also had a lot of good feelings in his heart.

After all, Zhang Shenyan and Zhu Guobi, the Duke of Baoguo, are both Donglin bigwigs, and they have a lot of status among the official gentry and relatives in Jiangnan.

And this kind of favoritism, which is just an ordinary matter of officialdom, was directly brought by Lu Zhenfei to himself and the officials of various ministries.

I have to say that this road Zhenfei is not small, and he is also quite bold.

"In front of His Majesty today, Xia Guan took out these two indecent things involving Zhang Ge Lao and Bao Guogong, not to impeach Zhang Ge Lao and Bao Guogong, but to ask Zhang Ge Lao, if the imperial court treats the official gentry preferentially and does not tax the official gentry, then once the official gentry's business is forcibly bought and sold, looted and even sunk into the sea, can the imperial court ignore it?"

"In the same way, can the official gentry guarantee that they will not rely on the power to fight for profits with the common people illegally, the world is the world of the billions of people of the Ming Dynasty, and the world is not the world of the official gentry, why can't the official gentry pay taxes, as for the official gentry using power for personal purposes, it can only be stopped by the court discipline and law!"

Lu Zhenfei's words made Zhang Shenyan, the head of the household department, choke his mouth directly, and hung his head silently, but in his heart, he naturally gritted his teeth with hatred for Lu Zhenfei.

Zhu Youzhen just smiled faintly, looked at the contents of the letter, and glanced at Zhang Shenyan.

"I said that today's court meeting, no one will be held guilty, only the pros and cons of the Ming Dynasty's current government and government, what you Aiqing said is heartfelt, and there are many merits, I am very relieved and very happy, which at least shows that everyone is still thinking about the Ming Dynasty."

To everyone's surprise, Zhu Youzhen did not ask Zhang Shenyan for favoritism, nor did he praise Lu Zhenfei for his honesty and dedication.

As the emperor, Zhu Youzhen knew that it was most important to let the empire clarify a basic new policy policy now, and as for the illegal affairs of individual officials, it was naturally not necessary to investigate at this time.

However, Zhang Shenyan's face was still inevitably a little hot, and Lu Zhenfei's attack that did not pay attention to the rules of officialdom made him completely unconfident.

Seeing this, Zhu Youzhen patted Zhang Shenyan's shoulder, and continued: "The hustle and bustle of the world is all for profit, and the hustle and bustle of the world is for profit, the common people are my people, and the gentry are also my people, and any Ming people also hope that I can give them a good life and let them have profits, so that the country can be peaceful and peaceful." ”

According to several elders, it can be roughly classified as the collection of taxes, the treatment of the gentry, how the court made profits, and the affairs of agriculture and commerce; It is true that the poor and rich people of the Ming Dynasty are in today's situation because of the problems in these places, so the new policy will start to implement reforms from these aspects:

"First of all, taxes and conscription, according to what the first assistant Fan Jingwen said, plus what I think these days, the levy and poll tax are permanently exempted, so that the common people can be freed and devote more energy to farming or other labor, what do you think?"

As soon as Zhu Youzhen's words came out, he was greatly surprised by the cabinet scholars and officials of various ministries and halls who were listening to the government.

Because they didn't expect His Majesty to actually ban the forced labor and poll tax that had existed for thousands of years!

"Your Majesty's move is really a good government that has never been seen for a long time, but the burden on the court is bound to increase," Fan Jingwen said, getting up.

The other ministers also looked at Zhu Youzhen, they could all accept the ban on forced labor and poll tax, after all, as an official gentry, they did not have these taxes, and now that they are banned together, it will naturally not affect the interests of the gentry.

But we also know that in this way, the treasury tax of the dynasty will naturally be sharply reduced.

"I also took this into account, even if the poll tax is not abolished, the imperial court will only have a million taels of income, and I can cover this loss without a single corrupt official, so why bother to exploit hundreds of millions of lishu."

As soon as Zhu Youzhen said this, the cabinet ministers naturally did not want to say anything, because he also had to admit that what His Majesty Zhu Youzhen said was the truth.

"In this way, now only the tax on land and the tax on sales remain, first of all, the tax on land, according to Fan Aiqing's proposal, the people in the north will be exempted from taxation for three years, and the people in the south will be exempted from taxation for one year, and the displaced people will be encouraged to reclaim the wasteland, and the newly cultivated land will be owned by the reclaimer's own household, and the imperial court will exempt him from paying taxes for two years."

After Zhu Youzhen said, Li Banghua stood up: "Your Majesty, although this is good, but in a year or two, the imperial court will have almost no taxes to enter, how to raise an army?" ”

"Now the imperial court still has a huge amount of 8 million silver, although the silver confiscated by Qian Qianyi's rebellion case has not been counted, but it will not be less than 10 million, so even if there is no land tax, the imperial court can still support it for a few years, not to mention that there are commercial taxes to collect."

Speaking, Zhu Youzhen said: "The so-called commercial tax is naturally a matter of buying and selling, the people farm the land, I don't have to be exempted, but doing business is a sideline, it is an accidental income, this must not be levied, the same is true for the official gentry, the job is to be an official to seek knowledge, but since you have done business, you also have to pay taxes, but how to collect it, it is not easy to decide casually, Ma Shiying, you go back to draw up a detailed recital, and calculate how to collect it in detail, so that the small people who do business can not survive or make the businessmen unprofitable, and the court cannot collect less than the income from the land." ”

"Wechen obeys!" Ma Shiying noticed the gaze of the ministers looking at him, and couldn't help but smile in his heart, these officials with the background of the Donglin Party usually hate them to the core, and now His Majesty has handed over the right to decide how to collect commercial taxes to himself, and he will definitely let these Donglin Party members who are full of brains have a good bleeding, as for the Shengdou Xiaomin, they will naturally be reduced if they can.

"In addition, there is a new tax that must be collected, which I thought of according to what Lu Ge Lao said, that is, personal income tax, since the imperial court has the obligation to protect the property safety of the people, then the people should also have the obligation to pay for this security; Of course, in order not to burden the common people at the bottom, I will set a threshold, and those with low incomes will have a low levy ratio, and the income from farming will be in addition to personal income, and agriculture is the foundation of all industries, and I hope that this will keep the cultivated fields in the world from being barren. ”

Zhu Youzhen's sudden introduction of the concept of personal income tax surprised the officials present, but when Zhu Youzhen finished speaking, they immediately understood that His Majesty was taking care of the people at the bottom in disguise and taxing high-income gentry and businessmen, as well as those who advocated excellence.

"Your Majesty's move naturally has no effect on honest and honest officials, after all, they are not in business, and their own income is not high, and for those who are greedy and love money, although they have to give a small part of the benefits to the court, the court also has more spare power to create a stable rule for them, so it is also the best of both worlds."

Lu Zhenfei really stood up first and expressed his support for His Majesty Zhu Youzhen's personal income tax, while other officials also said that they were not honest and honest officials because of Lu Zhenfei's words, so it was naturally difficult to refute them.

"You don't have to stare at Lu Ge Lao with snake-like eyes, and you don't have to complain secretly, I know that you are thousands of miles of officials just for money, and I don't mean to let you get rich, I can say it in front of you, and if you commit a crime in the future, your family's legal income, I will not confiscate it, this legality includes your income from trading, writing, teaching and even being an official, except for the bribes you receive."

Zhu Youzhen's words finally relieved the officials present, what they were most afraid of was that if they accidentally committed something, all the family wealth they had worked hard to accumulate for years or even decades would be confiscated.