Chongzhen Chat Group

"Your Majesty, our Ming Dynasty mainly divides tax exemptions into two categories."

"First, the public land given to the royal family and nobles is recorded in the gold register. They do not apply for official citizenship and enjoy the privilege of being exempted from taxes, grains and labor."

"Second, imperial officials have fixed quotas of exemptions and exemptions according to grades. Taking the "Preferences and Exemptions Rules" in the 38th year of Wanli as an example, the current Beijing official Jiake is exempted from 10,000 acres of land for the first grade, and the following decreases to 2,700 acres for the eighth grade. acres; for foreign officials, the land will be reduced by half; for rural officials who have become official, they will be exempted from six-tenths of the land; for unofficial gentry, the land will be exempted up to 3,350 acres, and for birth members and supervisors, 80 acres."

At this point, Wen Tiren's face became extremely serious, and his voice became slightly more passionate as he said: "Your Majesty, this system of land granting has been finalized during the Taizu period. It is said that the tenants of the public land granted by the honorable ministers often rely on their power and abuse the law. In the countryside, the meritorious officials did not impose restrictions, so in the 25th year of Hongwu, they "gave the princes a year's salary and gave them fields to the officials." However, just over a hundred years later, the land granting system was restored, and the land granted was more than 100 years old. More and more come. But if that’s all, it’s okay to give up…”

When he said this, he looked at Emperor Chongzhen's face and saw that he was listening attentively without any hint of dissatisfaction, so he continued: "However, in addition to the land granted by the emperor, in addition to the land given by the emperor, there are also There are countless private lands, and there are countless private lands. Among them, some of them are purchased by themselves, some are plundered by others, etc. Because of their great power, their private lands also enjoy the right to grant land, and there are no taxes and servitude. In this way Recently, many unscrupulous people donated their fields to the emperor's relatives and grandsons to avoid taxes. Such vicious things are getting worse."

"Such a private land that refused to work with the people also appeared at the beginning of this dynasty. Therefore, Taizu strictly prohibited covenants in the "Great Edict". But now, the prohibited covenants are like waste paper. Many royal relatives and grandson Guiguang have accepted The people's fields are their own private property, but Yin uses his power to control them, so that officials are not allowed to collect taxes."

If he had not seen Wen Tiren's memorial, Emperor Chongzhen would not have understood that there were so many things in this Tian Fu. At this time, even though he read and listened to it again, he still felt very surprised.

Hearing this and seeing Wen Tiren looking at him as if waiting for an opinion, he nodded and motioned for Wen Tiren to continue.

"There are fixed quotas for officials and gentry's preferential and exempted grain and preferential and exempted land. According to the Ming Dynasty law, the official and gentry's land property, except for the preferential and exempted land, should also be shared with the people. However, officials and gentry are also as noble as the emperor's relatives. , ignoring the imperial decree, all fields enjoy the treatment of preferential and exempted fields. This has attracted unruly people to donate their money."

Having said this, Wen Tiren bowed deeply and said again: "Your Majesty, if such things are not prohibited, the taxes collected by the imperial court will be less. And ordinary households who pay grain and taxes also feel that it is unfair and are included in the list of unruly people. , this is a vicious cycle and is actually a major drawback of this dynasty!"

Emperor Chongzhen nodded when he heard this, but he said a little seriously: "Wen Qing, I know what you mean. But do you know that if the laws of the ancestors are really implemented, the royal family and the officials at all levels will benefit from it?" Will they be willing to suffer losses?"

This is a sharp statement! Wen Tiren nodded in his heart. He stood up straight again, raised his head and looked at Emperor Chongzhen, and said with an extremely serious attitude: "I have received your majesty's kindness of knowing you, and I have nothing to repay. I am willing to give up my life and fight with them!"

For Wen Tiren, he didn't know how powerful his opponent would be! But he believed that after more than two hundred years of accumulation, this shortcoming had reached its most dangerous moment. If it was not dealt with, the emperor's wish to revive the Ming Dynasty would not be realized at all.

If the emperor is willing to give his full support, he is willing to be the first person. If he succeeds, the Ming Dynasty will be revived, and he will become a generation of Ming Prime Minister surpassing Zhang Juzheng.

After hearing his words, Emperor Chongzhen felt a little emotional. It would be great if all Ming officials were like Wen Tiren. However, he was not the real Emperor Chongzhen and had no experience to make an effective assessment.

Therefore, he thought for a moment and said to Wen Tiren: "Does Wen Qing have specific implementation steps?"

When Wen Tiren heard this, he realized that the emperor was seriously considering it. He was overjoyed and immediately replied: "Your Majesty, I have already verified it. Now the most serious ones, that is, the ones with the most fields, are the vassal kings and other Ming clans in various places. If your Majesty can regulate it from the Ming clan, I think , the backlash from other nobles and officials should be much smaller."

After he finished speaking, he saw Emperor Chongzhen frowning and seemed dissatisfied, so he quickly added: "Your Majesty, the clan issue is also a major factor in the Ming Dynasty's financial inability to make ends meet. I believe that the clan issue must also be resolved. By the way, Let’s settle the farm matter right now!”

"Oh, tell me more specifically!" Emperor Chongzhen asked immediately after hearing this. This matter was not mentioned in the memorial, but he was very interested in hearing it.

When Wen Tiren saw that there seemed to be something going on, he hurriedly played again: "The salary of my royal family in the Ming Dynasty is ten thousand stone for the prince, two thousand stone for the county king, one thousand stone for the general of the state, two hundred stone for the general of the auxiliary state, the general of Fengguo, and the lieutenant of the state." Decreasingly, the auxiliary lieutenant and the Fengguo lieutenant are reduced by 100 shi, the princess and the prince are 2000 shi, the princess and the honored guest are 800 dan, the county lord, the county monarch and the honored guest are reduced by 200 dan, the county monarch, the township monarch and The number of ceremonial guests is reduced by a hundred stones."

"Such salaries were nothing at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. But now more than two hundred and fifty years have passed, and the number of members of the Ming Dynasty clan alone has reached 100,000. This kind of payment is equivalent to all the taxes of the imperial court. It’s not enough for this! The court has been in arrears for a long time, or refused to register it on the disk. But in this way, it will also lose the prestige of the court and show the emperor’s... ungratefulness!"

If it were the original Emperor Chongzhen, he might be furious. You Wen Tiren, you gave me a slap in the face, and then you pointed the finger at my uncles, brothers and other relatives, and also said that I was ungrateful. What are your intentions? Is your surname in this world Zhu or Wen?

However, Emperor Chongzhen at this time came from later generations. To him, the Ming Dynasty clans were no different from ordinary people. You can just say what you should say, let's just discuss the matter.

This Ming Dynasty clan matter is indeed a problem. But if there is no proper solution, I'm afraid it won't be easy to do anything. He frowned and thought for a moment, then asked: "How should we do it specifically?"

When Wen Tiren heard that the emperor was not even angry about this, but still discussed it patiently, he was surprised. He quickly bowed and said: "Your Majesty, I think we can test the water from the Tang Dynasty. If it is feasible, we will promote the solution."

Having said this, he took out a memorial, held it up with both hands and said: "Your Majesty, this is a report from the governor of Nanyang, Henan to the king of Tang Dynasty. He said that he commanded the troops and horses without the holy order and wanted to serve the king, which was against the ancestral system! "

To put this in a harsher tone, it means that the king of Tang had the ambition to rebel. For Emperor Chongzhen, this was something of great concern.

Thanks to Fengzhihuayu for the reward!

Finally got it out, High Order needs to add another update, that is, there are 4 chapters that are owed, my wife has received it, starting from tomorrow afternoon, it should be updated on time, and then I will start to add more chapters, and pay off the owed updates.