The atmosphere in the imperial study was very depressing, and the faces of the seven pavilion elders were even more solemn.

If you really want to talk about it, they may not really support the ancestral system much, and they, including the Manchu ministers, are only concerned about whether the interests of the scholars and doctors will be damaged.

And the change of commercial tax must touch the interests of scholars!

In the wealthy land of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, at least seventy percent of the merchants have a relationship with officials, that is to say, a family has clansmen who are officials in the court, and there are also clansmen who practice the way of merchants, and the two complement each other, and it is simply common that it can no longer be common.

The levy of commercial tax is to let the silver that originally went into the pocket of the merchant take out a part of it to pay the tax, and the loss is naturally the merchant family itself, and the interests of the family are damaged, so the interests of the scholar are naturally damaged.

As cabinet ministers, they are the leaders of the civilian community, and they naturally have to appeal for the interests of the civilian community, otherwise they will be considered incompetent by the entire civilian community.

The strength of the civil official group of the Ming Dynasty is extremely strong, as long as the group is united, even the emperor has to avoid the edge, as the spokesman of the cabinet, if it falls into the disadvantage when playing with the imperial power, it will inevitably suffer from unprecedented pressure from the civil official group.

Sitting in the position of the cabinet, the seven ministers in the imperial study actually do not care about the gains and losses of their own or even family interests, what they care about is the name of the posthumous body, if the cabinet is suppressed during their reign, then one of the seven of them is counted as one, and they will definitely be ridiculed and disdained by the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty.

So even though he knew that the commercial tax was unreasonable, Yang Tinghe still used the ancestral system and the words of the sages to resist, but it was useless.

Now the emperor has actually made a choice in front of them, either continue to open his eyes for the ministers, and do not hesitate to fight the emperor to the end for the interests of the ministers, even if it is at the cost of national finances, or follow in the footsteps of the emperor and act as the vanguard of reform!

It is reform, the cabinet has now seen clearly, the current saint is ambitious, and wants to eradicate the bad government of the Ming Dynasty, then he will inevitably carry out drastic reforms, the previous military and political affairs, and the current commercial politics are like this, but the commercial politics can definitely not be the last, and I don't know how much it will change in the future.

Therefore, the emperor used the commercial tax, a policy that could touch the interests of Confucianism, to force them to stand in line, and whether this team could stand well or not was related to whether they would be famous or ruined!

This is by no means alarmist, there are too many places involved in the reform, and there is a great possibility that it will involve party struggle, just like the old and new party struggles in the former Song Dynasty.

With today's ruthless hand, the cabinet can even see what will happen to the diehards, and now the spring and autumn are at their peak, as long as there is no situation, at least they can still hold the country for decades, if the diehards are suppressed and go into the wilderness, there is no hope in this life, and then there is no chance to return to the court.

Yang Tinghe knew that this was the Son of Heaven forcing him to be Wang Anshi.

The most critical factor is that Emperor Shenzong died young, if Shenzong can live for twenty years, no Sima Guang, what Wen Yanbo can have the slightest chance, and the so-called hope has become a joke at that time.

Those old parties who have returned to the court will not have a chance to turn over, and after a long time, the whole dynasty is full of people from the new party, and it is difficult for Wang Anshi to succeed in the end.

It's just a pity......

After Yang Tinghe weighed it, he felt that following the emperor all the way to the dark, the end might be light, but he still couldn't make up his mind, not to mention that the matter was big, although he was the first assistant but not a minister, this cabinet and even the court were not his hall, so he needed to discuss and analyze the pros and cons.

"The wind of corruption in the world has been repeatedly banned, and excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes are rampant, I know that one of the reasons why this is the case is that one of the root causes is that the initial Ming Dynasty is too low, so I plan to raise the standard of officials, six to nine officials will be increased by three times, four or five officials will be doubled, and officials above three will be doubled, what do you think Aiqing?"

Such a big hand, the seven elders all gasped, tens of thousands of officials in the world, the annual expenditure of Yulu is at least two million taels, according to the emperor's meaning, this Yulu is at least five million taels a year!

The Ming Dynasty officials are so low that they almost outperform all the previous dynasties, and they are even more heaven and earth than the Great Song Dynasty.

But there is no way, who made Daming poor? Now that the emperor has salt government income and has to levy business taxes, there is naturally not much pressure to increase the amount of money, but this courage is indeed admired by the seven elders.

However, the seventh elder also understood what the emperor meant, it was nothing more than a big stick and then a sweet date, he collected business taxes, which was tantamount to moving the money bags of officials all over the world.

Moreover, the seven elders are sure that the income after the levy of commercial tax will definitely be much more than the profit from the increase, which means that the state finances will not be stretched thin because of the increase, but will be more abundant.

This hand is really beautiful, and this method is also an obvious conspiracy, but it can also make the officials shut up.

That's really smart!

"I'm a high-paying pension." Zhu Houwei said with a smile: "Officials are low, and they have to feed a large family, and they also have to support their staff, etc., and officials don't have so much silver, so they can only be greedy, and greed and greed have become a habit, and they will take it for granted."

Therefore, I raised the salaries of the low-level officials, so that they could have money to support a large family and their subordinates, although I could not cut off the trend of corruption, but I could let them restrain a little, so that the life of the common people would be better. ”

The seventh elder was impressed, an emperor who can hold the people in his heart can be regarded as a Ming monarch no matter what.

"However, the small people, especially the small businessmen, are having a hard time, a large part of the reason is that they are born and raised, harsh on the people, and ruthless, the cabinet can think about how to rectify the lawlessness of the officials, and when necessary, they can kill people to deter lawlessness."

"Remember, Ministers." The seven elders responded in unison, but such stubborn diseases as Xu officials have been passed down for thousands of years, and it is not easy to punish them.

The emperor is a scheming and skillful person, but he can only deter by killing, which shows that it is not much worse if he is not poor in skills.

The Seven Elders left the imperial study, and Zhu Houwei also felt a deep exhaustion all over his body, this time he summoned the Seven Elders, his purpose was not to salt the government, but to tell the Seven Elders his reform direction and determination.

It is conceivable that after the seven elders go back, they will definitely calculate the pros and cons, and at the same time make a decision!

This decision will be related to the future situation of the court, if the seventh elder chooses to follow his steps, then everything is negotiable, if not, turmoil in the court is inevitable!

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