made a big fuss in Taicang, beat Shangguan, and forced the palace to be sparse, and the rabid dog barked.

It is not enough to describe it as a mad dog jumping over the wall, it can only be said to be a big death. In a state of madness, these hundreds of people drove themselves to a dead end and went to the opposite side of tens of thousands of bureaucrats all over the world.

Self-isolation from officialdom, self-isolation from the world.

Today's matter, if Emperor Hongzhi puts these people in the prison of the Criminal Department, only to ferment for a period of time, the Ming Dynasty, the two capitals and thirteen provinces, up to the officials of the feudal territory, down to the officials of the prefectures and counties, must be sparse one after another.

Tens of thousands of letters will be handed to the imperial court, just to kill these hundreds of people.

At that time, the world will shake, and the middle palace will shake. At that time, even if the emperor tried his best to protect these hundreds of people, he would not be able to do it.

The final result must be that after the triage of the three law divisions, hundreds of people went to the fourth archway in Naxi.

However, he was sent to the imperial prison, which was the emperor's imperial prison, and the three legal divisions had no right to intervene in the trial of the imperial prison.

For example, in the Ming Dynasty, there were two highest execution sites for executions, one was the West Fourth Archway of the Beijing Division, where the prisoners tried by the three legal divisions were publicly executed; The other is in prison.

In other words, one is the judicial branch of the imperial court and the other is the judicial department of the emperor.

For example, if the emperor wants to kill a person, but the officials want to keep this person, then the emperor directly bypasses the Criminal Department, Dali Temple, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate and throws this person into the imperial prison.

There is no hurry to kill, just lock it up. Then the emperor delayed the opportunity under the pressure of the hundred officials, and when the time was almost right, he compromised and gave in, listened to the loyal and straightforward advice of the hundred officials, pardoned him, and released the man from the edict.

As for whether the person who released it came out vertically or horizontally, only God knows.

There are two sides to everything. And if the hundred officials want to kill a person, but the emperor wants to protect this person, then he can also be put into prison.

Can you keep these people alive now, let them live, and even stay in officialdom. It depends on whether Emperor Hongzhi can withstand the follow-up pressure.

"Your Majesty, you may not want to listen to what the minister said, I have more corrupt officials in the Ming Dynasty than in all dynasties.

One of the reasons is that the country's stipends are too meager, and these suffocates are enough to support their families. However, as officials, especially local officials, they have to hire staff members, ask for secretaries, and maintain the dignity of so-called officials, and all the expenses they should spend are at their own expense.

In this way, those that seem to be enough are not enough. Therefore, many people stretched out their hands to the people at the bottom, to exploit the people under their rule, and the officials and businessmen colluded to oppress the people. ”

"Your Majesty knows that there is such a thing as exploiting the people, but you may not know how to exploit it, I wonder if Your Majesty has ever heard of Rinching and Kicking?"

“.. Drenched in spiky kicks? ”

Xia Yuan snorted, and continued: "When those local officials collect tax grain, the tax grain needs to be piled up in the hu, and it needs to be sharp. The man who was in charge of collecting the grain ran over and kicked it so hard that the grain poured out on the ground, and then they told the people to fill it up again until it was at the tip, and then they took it and handed it over to the transportation department.

And the food that was kicked out was their legitimate income. ”

Hearing that it was so drenched, especially the word legal, Emperor Hongzhi instantly became angry, and said in a suppressed voice: "The dynasty has never had such a law. ”

"There is no dynasty in the country, but where do the people dare to argue about this, those officials say that there is, then there is."

Hearing this, Emperor Hongzhi's words were stagnant, and he was blocked back.

Xia Yuan seemed to be caught in a memory, his voice was a little weak and erratic,

"In addition to the taxes set by the imperial court, those officials also invented many names themselves: rice consumption tax, silver before the month, water foot silver, open money, poured money, free sieving money, and sifting money."

"Huh"

Speaking of this, Xia Yuan snorted, "Your Majesty may not have imagined it, you can still make money through a sieve, such a big sieve, the eyes are very big, and the holes are also very big." ”

He gestured with his hand, and his voice became more empty, as if it was coming from all directions, far and near.

"Those county officials shook and shook and shook and shook and shook In their mouths, these are all inferior grains, and they cannot enter the treasury. The people were asked to fetch new grain, and the 'bad grain' that fell was their legitimate income. ”

"But where can such a big sieve pass the wheat grain? The people don't have so much grain, even if they take all the grain, it will be useless, all of them will be turned into inferior grain, and all of them will become the legitimate income of the old men.

Fortunately, those old men were kind and thoughtfully made this free sieve money and additional sifting money. If the amount of silver given is enough, then change the size of the sieve according to the amount of silver. ”

Speaking of this, Xia Yuan raised his eyes, "Your Majesty may think that this kind of thing is far away, it should be in those places where the Heavenly Emperor is far away, but it is not far at all. It's at the foot of Jingshi, it's in Daxing County, it's in Chen's hometown. ”

"When it comes to taxation, the state and county are like hungry tigers out of the forest, officials are like poisonous snakes, and servants are like vicious dogs barking at villages."

When Xia Yuan said this, his voice became low again, "The patriarch of Chen's village is a very old-fashioned and pedantic old man. It stands to reason that he is most unaccustomed to this kind of thing, but every time he collects taxes, he organizes the whole village to pool money together and pay these so-called nominal taxes to the government. ”

"Your Majesty, do you know what those people of the courtiers are looking forward to the most?"

"What?" Emperor Hongzhi's throat was a little dry, and it took a long time to ask these two words.

"I look forward to natural disasters the most, locust plagues, droughts, and frost plagues. But don't be a big disaster, a big disaster will kill people, just a small disaster.

As long as we can hope that these small disasters will not have a great impact, His Majesty the Emperor of Benevolence will give us tax exemptions, and those officials will not come to collect taxes, and we will not have so many names to earn silver, and we can still take a broken bowl to receive a bowl of porridge to drink. ”

His Majesty the Emperor of Benevolence.

This was originally a praise, a sincere praise, but Zhu Youzhu did not have the slightest joy.

I look forward to natural disasters the most.

Hearing these four words in his ears, he felt an indescribable sense of astringency in his heart, as if a condensed depression had accumulated in his heart, turning into a boulder, pressing his chest for a while, and it was uncomfortable.

However, Xia Yuan didn't stop, but his voice became lower, "The minister was admitted to the Yuan Yuan last year, and the minister's uncle was admitted to the Juren." We held a banquet in Xiajia Village for three days, and the villagers pooled their money, and even the good money for sending the good news was also given by the villagers.

The reason why they did this is not because my uncle and I have taken the examination to lift people to honor their ancestors, but because they have the merit of lifting people, according to the laws of my Ming Dynasty, they can be exempted from taxes on land property. ”

"The minister now has thousands of acres of land under his name, and most of the fields in Xiajiazhuang are under the name of the minister, but only four acres are my family's, and the rest of the fields are the fields in the minister's family.

"But the taxes set by the imperial court are not high, if you pay taxes according to the real taxes and combine all the taxes, the people will only pay two or three buckets of land per acre at most. Don't say it's two or three buckets, it's ten buckets, and what about eight buckets? But why do people still try their best to evade taxes? ”

(End of chapter)