Bi Ziyan, who was stunned to break a penny into two petals, actually let the Ming Dynasty's finances that could not make ends meet last for nearly ten years, and it can be said that he made outstanding contributions, and later generations called it famous. Financial planners!

However, the influence of the traverser is too great, and Bi Ziyan's fate trajectory has also changed a little.

When Bi Zisu was about to uncover the pot in Liaodong, who could he find for help?

Isn't the best candidate just his brother, who is an official in Beijing?

As an elder brother, it is impossible to stay honest in the capital.

So Bi Ziyan had to rush to Liaodong to help his younger brother in the stars and the moon, but he didn't expect this gang.. Let Guo Yunhou, the head of the household, take a big advantage.

Not only can he continue to be his scholar in peace, but Guo Yunhou, who is now complacent, is naively knocking on the abacus, calculating how much surplus the household can have this year, and when the treasury is full, he can also show a great achievement.

Maybe one day the emperor will also ask for his own head, and when the time comes, it will be easy for the treasury of the household department to do something with money in his hands.

At that time, Guo Yunhou, who was holding the silver in his hand, wanted to shake off some credit to the emperor, and it was not easy.

However, although Guo Yunhou was complacent on the one hand, he was also scratching his scalp on the other hand for the task of checking the country's acres of land and military tuns.

...

"Minister. Bi Ziyan saw him. ”

It is the familiar warm pavilion again, and the familiar Zhu Youzhen, and now the winter warm pavilion in the palace has completely become one of Zhu Youzhen's favorite places, and he meets one minister after another here every day.

Although it seems to be inefficient, it is actually necessary to be able to do things, which is not much better than watching the ministers talk about it in the early dynasty?

"Bi Aiqing is sitting here. I'm tired from running around all night."

"Back to Your Majesty, the minister is in the prime of life, it is nothing, not to mention that now the post road from Liaodong to Jingshi can be described as unimpeded, and the carriage is very fast."

Zhu Youzhen nodded with satisfaction, for a talent like Bi Ziyan, he had already arranged a place for him in his heart, and today's summons was just to let Bi Ziyan take office better and more at ease.

"I have arranged a new place for Bi Aiqing, the Ming Royal Taxation Bureau, I wonder what Bi Aiqing thinks about this?"

Originally, after receiving the decree, Bi Ziyan kept estimating on the way what His Majesty the Emperor meant by the holy decree of recalling himself back to the capital and appointing him to another place.

Bi Ziyan, who had already secretly speculated in his heart, didn't expect that everything really fit with his overall estimate.

In Zhu Youzhen's view, handing over the tax matter to Bi Ziyan is definitely a wiser decision.

"Back to Your Majesty, Wechen has no objection to this, Your Majesty let Wechen go, Wechen will go, but I just don't know what is the difference between this Ming Royal Taxation Bureau and the original household taxation?"

Zhu Youzhen did not directly answer Bi Ziyan's doubts, but instead asked Bi Ziyan a question.

"According to Bi Aiqing, what are the fundamental problems of Daming's tax predicament today?"

Bi Ziyan was stunned, this is not talking about his own expertise.

Then he replied.

"Nowadays, there is more than one malaise in taxation in our dynasty, and there is more than one factor in trouble, if Your Majesty is willing to listen, the minister will talk to Your Majesty about the minister's humble opinion."

"I would like to hear the details, Bi Aiqing has something to say, but it doesn't hurt to say it."

"According to the minister's understanding, although His Majesty re-planned the tax some time ago, left the agricultural tax to the household department, and then gave all the other taxes to the Daming Royal Taxation Bureau, but the problem still exists."

"One is that this household department is not only checking the acres of land, but also collecting agricultural taxes, which is not only unprofitable, but also easy to cause endless trouble in the long run."

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but interject, this was the first time that someone questioned his decision.

asked, "Bi Aiqing, both things are done by the household department, in order to collect more taxes and silver, this household department will not make a fuss during the inventory, isn't it a good thing?" ”

I saw Bi Ziyan shaking his head at Zhu Youzhen, and said softly:

"Your Majesty, this move will not make the collection of agricultural taxes more beneficial, but will cause the household department to conceal and not report, and evade taxes."

"Why did Aiqing say this?"

"The most difficult thing to control is human nature, and the person who collects the money and the line is one person, although Guo Yunhou, the head of the household department, naturally wants to collect more tax silver, but the local officials who can collect tax silver are so willing to pay more agricultural taxes? Obviously not, then they will use more covert methods to evade the supervision of the imperial court. ”

"The laws of the imperial court are so strict, and now there are supervisory agencies under the jurisdiction of Dongchang in various places, so they are not afraid of the people reporting it, and they are not afraid of being inspected and asking for their lives?"

"Your Majesty, Weichen dares to talk about the officials of this state and county, most of the local parents and officials of the current Ming Dynasty who are not of high grade are from the local area, and more often they are also involuntarily, not that they have no power in their hands, but that their power is not used by what they want in their hearts."

"Huh?" Zhu Youzhen was slightly puzzled.

"The local gentry, wealthy merchants, and landlords are often the core of the power of the state and county, and it is impossible for local officials to do without their support and help if they want to make achievements.

"The gentry are entrenched in the township, controlling public opinion, usually in the form of a family, and the intricate network of relationships is all over the periphery, and if something happens to someone's family, the family next to them will not stand idly by, and will try their best to help."

"Because they know that helping others now is helping themselves later, and in the face of higher agricultural taxes, they will not only control state and county officials to declare tax exemptions.

If they were exempt from taxation, they would be happy, but if they were not exempt, they would not only disrupt the normal inventory of the acres, but would also nominally return the concentrated land back to the tenants. ”

"By the end of the inventory, the local tenants not only did not benefit from it, but they also had to bear more taxes because more land was registered in their names during the inventory, and so on, and the cycle continued, not only did the inventory not reduce the burden on the people."

"On the contrary, they have to bear the agricultural tax that the local gentry should have borne on their own, and in the end, the people's lives will be even more difficult, and they will have to sell the scarcer land in their hands to continue to pay the agricultural tax and continue to repay the landlords' rent."

Such words stung Zhu Youzhen like thunder.

It was also the first time that Zhu Youzhen felt that the stubborn disease of the local area was not as simple as it seemed, and if such a gentry problem was not solved, then the local government would be replaced with more officials.

Even if the imperial court cut off more beheadings, then the local officials had to continue to risk killing their heads, risking breaking the law, and constantly providing convenience for the local gentry.

The cycle goes on and on.

It's not just as Bi Ziyan said, in the end, it will be empty.

Has the policy of benefiting the people become a disaster for the people?