When Liu Yan left Nanjing City, he specially summoned Liu Liangzuo and Gao Jie. For these two generals who have left a strong mark in history, Liu Yan's intention is not to reuse, Gao Jie is better, and Liu Liangzuo is completely the executioner who defected to the Manchu Dynasty.

It's just that these two are both strong generals who can fight habitually, and now there will be no more tragedy of the Manchu Qing Dynasty entering the customs, so Liu Yan doesn't want to force the two to leave, so most of the two of them will be left behind, and then they will clean up again.

So Liu Yan beat the two of them, especially Liu Liangzuo, and sent them to the Huangming Yanwu Hall, and after the two graduated, he arranged a position as a general in the garrison barracks to see if the results would be good.

Huang Degong listened to Liu Yan's arrangement for the two of them, and said: "Gao Jie is still usable, but Liu Liangzuo did a lot of things in his early years, but now he has also got a chance to reform himself, and Xia Guan is really a little uncomfortable in his heart." ”

Liu Yan also sighed, how could he feel comfortable in his heart?

It's just that now that the new policy and military reform policy are being rolled out in an all-round way, not to mention anything else, just talking about the suitable candidates for the generals in the garrison barracks in various places, Tian Huixu, the secretary of the Ministry of National Defense, is already worried, and there are not so many suitable generals.

At present, the Huangming Martial Arts Hall in Qingzhou Mansion is almost full, and all of them are cadets drawn from various armies of the National Defense Force, in order to train qualified generals from various departments of the garrison army.

So Liu Yan simply said his helplessness: "The world is too big, and there are too many places to employ people, so sometimes the court is helpless, and General Huang should be considerate of this." ”

"But General Huang too

You can rest assured that the lack of people in the imperial court does not mean that people will be used indiscriminately. Anyone who violates the laws of the Ming Dynasty and resists the imperial court will not be appointed. What Liu Liangzuo committed before, my father has also notified the Supervision Department to file a case, and Liu Liangzuo will be punished in the future. ”

Huang Degong clenched his fists and said: "The old man of the pavilion is allowed, and the lower officials admire it." ”

Huang Degong then bid farewell to Liu Yan, and the army continued to march in the direction of Beijing.

At the beginning of October, Liu Yan led his troops back to Beijing.

At this time, the news of the abolition of the Nanjing Imperial Court had reached the city of Beijing, and Emperor Chongzhen was very angry about it.

However, the large amount of evidence sent by Liu Yan and the huge amount of money and grain transported back to Beijing by the soldiers of the National Defense Army extinguished the anger in Emperor Chongzhen's heart and made the young emperor begin to think deeply.

"Ome."

"The old servant is here."

"You said that the official of the Ming Dynasty is really so rich? Every time Liu Yan raids his house and takes someone, he can copy out tens of millions of taels of silver! ”

Wang Chengen didn't know how to answer, which of the officials in the world is not wealthy, if the money of hundreds of civil and military officials is nationalized, the court doesn't know how rich it will be, even Wang Chengen doesn't dare to imagine!

Emperor Chongzhen glanced at the silent Wang Chengen, snorted a little dissatisfied, and then said: "What about Liu Yan, didn't he go back to Beijing, why didn't he enter the palace to see me?" ”

Wang Chengen said: "The old servant sent someone to ask, and Liu Ge said that he was busy formulating new policies, saying that he wanted to raise taxes, and raise taxes on officials and the rich. Now I am afraid that it is up to Yue Ming, the secretary of the Ministry of Finance, and Song Gongming, the secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, to discuss this matter. ”

Emperor Chongzhen frowned and said, "It seems that Liu Yan wants it again."

Poke the hornet's nest! ”

At the same time, in the Cabinet Office, Liu Yan, Yue Ming, and Song Gongming were discussing something.

"Property tax?"

Song Gongming and Yue Ming glanced at each other, and both of them were frightened by Liu Yan's idea in their hearts.

This is to stab the rich and officials all over the world, who would agree?

Liu Yan explained: "This time I went to Nanjing, let my father realize one thing, that is, the officials of the Ming Dynasty are almost ten officials and nine greedy, if the Ming Dynasty blindly implements the new policy, then not to mention anything else, the officials of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty will be taken down ninety!" ”

"At that time, who will govern the place, and who will maintain the normal operation of the Ming Dynasty?"

Liu Yan said helplessly: "This duke also wants to remove all the corrupt officials in the world in one fell swoop, but the reality does not allow this, and my duke must face the reality: as long as the officials from all over the country support the new policy and agree to the Ministry of Finance to verify their property, this duke will recognize that their current property is legitimate and legitimate!" ”

This is where Yue Ming and Song Gongming were shocked.

The property tax that Liu Yan wants to collect this time is to ask officials of all sizes in the imperial court to take the initiative to report their property, no matter how much the property is, what kind of source it is, as long as they take the initiative to declare it to the imperial court before the deadline, after verification by the Ministry of Finance and the United Nations Defense Forces, they will be levied a property tax of 30% of the total amount.

As long as the court officials paid the money, the remaining seven achievements were legitimate.

Of course, when these officials died, their children wanted to inherit the property, and they had to pay a total amount of 30% of the property tax, and so on, just like the edict of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, to reduce the wealth of those officials from generation to generation

Give birth.

As long as the new policy is implemented in various places, the Ministry of Supervision, the Ministry of Criminal Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Prosecution have set up yamen independent of local governments, coupled with the internal monitoring of the Ministry of Military Intelligence, Liu Yan is confident that corruption can be controlled at a relatively low level.

At this time, Yue Ming said: "Those officials of the imperial court have the opportunity to launder their greedy money, and they will definitely rush to report to the imperial court, and at the same time, the imperial court can use these money and grain to help the people, develop the people's livelihood, and can also effectively appease the people, killing two birds with one stone." ”

"It's just that the lower officials are worried, will those officials be afraid that the court will settle accounts after the autumn, so they will wait and see at the beginning?"

Liu Yan nodded and said: "It will be a matter of wait-and-see, so the officials of the fifteenth department of the imperial court must take the lead, and the officials of the capital must also complete the report in the first batch, and those who violate the order will be dismissed from their official positions!" ”

"When officials from all over the country see that the Beijing officials are fine after reporting, they will rush to report to the imperial court."

Yue Ming nodded and said, "Since this is the case, then the lower officials will improve these detailed rules and form a question book, which will be submitted to the cabinet for deliberation and approval." ”

"Hmm."

Liu Yan then said to Song Gongming: "The same is true for businessmen and local gentry and heroes, and they must complete the report within a limited time limit. However, after reporting, it is not necessary to pay 30% of the property, but when the heir inherits the family property, he must pay 30% of the property tax to the imperial court. ”

"Yes."

Song Gongming said: "Regarding the detailed rules for merchants, gentry, and haoqiang, the lower officials will draw them up in detail. ”

Later, Liu Yan added: "Whether it is an official or a businessman

Jia, gentry, and haoqiang all have an amount limit for paying property tax, and officials who have a family wealth of less than 5,000 taels do not need to pay property tax, and businessmen, gentry, and haoqiang who have a family wealth of less than 50,000 taels do not need to pay. ”

"Yes."

In fact, Liu Yan planned to follow the method of later generations at the beginning, using the detailed rules of ladder tax deduction, the more family wealth, the higher the cumulative property tax paid, and the less family wealth, the lower the proportion of payment.

It's just that the specific operation is too complicated, and judging from the administrative efficiency and integrity of the Ming Empire, even if the new policy is fully implemented, it will not be possible to do a good job in this set of overly detailed property tax operations.

Therefore, Liu Yan had no choice but to simplify directly, no matter how much property there was, as long as it exceeded the expropriation limit, it would be 30%.

Later, Liu Yan, Yue Ming, and Song Gongming took the officials of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce to be busy for a few days to fill in another article for the new policy.

When Liu Yan came to the imperial study with the strategy for the collection of property tax, Emperor Chongzhen was looking through the previous cabinet report.

"Liu Ge, sit down."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Emperor Chongzhen put down the piece in his hand and said: "At present, the new policy has been fully rolled out in Beizhili, Shandong, Xuanfu, Shanxi, Henan, Nanzhili, and Sichuan, and the number of displaced people in various places has been greatly reduced, and the annual income of the imperial court has also begun to increase. ”

Liu Yan humbled for a while, and then took out the property tax strategy and said: "This is the property tax strategy formulated by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce, please take a look at it." ”

After Emperor Chongzhen saw it, he asked, "In this way, how much can the imperial court increase its income?" ”

Liu Yan said: "Property

In addition to the tax will be collected when the official reports for the first time, the rest of the time will only be collected when the wealthy such as officials and businessmen inherit the property, so it is really difficult to calculate how much the annual income will increase. ”

"However, the minister estimates that the amount of money reported and collected by my officials in the Ming Dynasty will never be less, and the cabinet estimates that the imperial court can collect at least 30,000 taels of silver!"

"How much!"

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen had completely lost the demeanor of an emperor, and stood up directly, shouting loudly.

Wang Chengen's eyes also widened, looking like he wanted to eat people.

In fact, this is not Liu Yan's opening of the river, according to the bottom file of the Ministry of Officials, at the moment, the Ming Dynasty will not talk about the place, but the officials of the imperial court in the capital, there are 882 people, these are all officials above the seventh grade, and the officials who have not entered the stream such as the eighth and ninth grades in the capital have not yet been counted.

And what about locally?

According to the records of the Ministry of Officials, the number of civil servants on the books was 2,445. With the addition of guards and generals in various places, this number is afraid to double.

Now there are at least 8,217 civil and military generals in the Ming Dynasty on the books of the Ministry of Officials, and with Liu Yan's understanding of the Ming officialdom, this number must be watery, and the actual number of officials in various places must rise by at least 30%, which is calculated according to 11,000 people, and these are all officials above the seventh grade.

Then it is calculated according to the property of officials with less than 5,000 taels of 20 percent, and the officials who were lucky enough to be confused in the past account for 10 percent, judging from the experience of these several raids, there are more than 100,000 taels of silver in the homes of Ming officials is "standard", only a lot more, and it is calculated according to 150,000 taels for the time being.

So it counts, thirty percent

The imperial court can collect at least 346,500,000 taels!

At the beginning, when Liu Yan heard that the cabinet had calculated this number, he was also shocked, Daming actually had so much silver?

But after thinking about it, since the opening of Longqing in the Ming Dynasty, the silk, porcelain, tea, and handicrafts produced by the Ming Dynasty have been sold well overseas, even if the imperial court banned the sea again, but the smuggling of the people and the overseas trade of the imperial court officials have never been cut off.

It can be said that since the opening of Longqing, Daming's foreign trade has always been a trade surplus. According to historical records, by the time of the Apocalypse and Chongzhen dynasties, even one-third of the world's silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty!

It's just that these huge amounts of silver have flowed into the official and business groups and put them into the purses of the powerful and gentry, and the Ming court did not share much benefit, which also indirectly caused the financial difficulties of the court at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

So Daming is not without money, on the contrary, he is very rich, rich beyond Liu Yan's imagination, in the treasury of Daming official and business groups, there are at least hundreds of millions, or even billions of silver, this is by no means alarmist!

So in the face of the surprise of Emperor Chongzhen and Wang Chengen, Liu Yan said: "Your Majesty heard it right, it's at least 30,000 taels of silver!" As long as the property tax and the new policy are implemented, the imperial court will no longer be struggling for money and food for at least ten years in the future. ”

After listening to this, Emperor Chongzhen sat down dejectedly, and then gritted his teeth and said resentfully: "I am ready to play!" Liu Ge Lao let go and did it, for me, and get back the money they had greedily lost! ”