Chapter 116: Easy Knowledge

What did Li Dongyang's recital say?

He said one thing.

The first thing is the county-level finance.

That is, the part that remains in the Ming Dynasty's taxes.

On the whole, the remaining part is to pay for the officials' salaries, as well as to pay for the food of local students.

From the founding of the country to the later period, the county-level finances of the Ming Dynasty were in a situation of increasing weakness.

And the reserve bin is a sign.

During the Hongwu period, almost all counties had reserve warehouses, and depending on the size of the county, they stored tens of thousands of stones to thousands of stones of grain. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it was almost completely deserted.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the local financial resources of the imperial court were simply not enough to maintain local expenditures.

Expenses such as water conservancy, roads, and disaster relief were not enough to sustain it, and the only way for the magistrates to find a way to ask the rich to pay for it.

Not yet, though.

But there are already signs of it.

In general, it was the imperial court that took the local finances too closely.

Generally speaking, there are precedents for all kinds of local expenditures. For example, in a county, during the Hongwu period, the cost of maintaining water conservancy is taken as an average, which is the county's retained funds on water conservancy.

This is okay when the Hongwu period, or not far from the Hongwu period.

But in modern times, a few decades later, it is already a dead letter.

And not all taxes can be collected.

It is as if during the entire Xuande period, Emperor Xuanzong exempted tens of millions of stones of money and grain in the south of the Yangtze River, and there were more or less reductions of money and grain in various places.

There is a convention, that is, tax reduction, generally only reduction and retention, not reduction.

That is to say, for example, there are some difficult households in Ninghua County, or natural disasters, or man-made disasters, and they really can't collect taxes, so the county order will be played to request exemption and exemption.

The imperial court's reply is that the reduction and exemption can be done. However, the money and grain that should be handed over to Beijing cannot be less, and the money and grain that should be reduced or reduced must be deducted from the part that is retained.

There is some truth to this.

If they don't do this, the officials below will only intensify their efforts to use the money and grain of the imperial court as their favors.

In ancient times, the productive forces were underdeveloped, and almost every year taxes were stained with blood.

If you don't try to supervise it, no one will be able to collect taxes.

But this has created a phenomenon that there is almost no independent financial power at the bottom.

The county lord seems to be majestic, but in fact, he can't do anything he wants, after all, there is no money in the county, and if he wants to do something, he has to ask for favors from the local rich people.

Naturally, I can only persuade to learn. Decide the case, urge the money and food, and nothing else can be done.

As for the real catastrophe and chaos, it is impossible to even stop the people.

In Li Dongyang's recital, the first half is about the disadvantages, and the second half is about the second half

Partly, it's a solution.

Li Dongyang did not say that he wanted the imperial court to give more retention ratios, just think about it, unless the brain is kicked by a donkey, there is no need for Zhu Qizhen to veto, the household department, and the cabinet will not agree.

After all, in Confucianism, there is a strong idea of great unification, and only the strengthening of central power and financial resources has absolutely not decreased.

Therefore, Li Dongyang did not say anything about this aspect at all in the solution.

Instead, he proposed a way to sort out local finances.

He came up with a know-it-all.

This easy-to-know list is divided into two parts.

Part of it is the documents left to the people when the imperial court collects taxes.

In order to prevent the officials from committing fraud and oppressing the people. The list of taxes collected should be divided in duplicate, so that the people should hold one point and the officials who did the work should hold one point.

It seems simple.

After all, modern people have long been accustomed to all kinds of bills. When I go to the government to do things, I don't know how many of these bills and that bills there are, and I am even very troubled.

But doing so now can greatly prevent the officials from getting their hands on it.

The other part is the collection of taxes by the imperial court, all of which are posted outside the county government and made known to the people.

There is a certain intention of openness in government affairs.

This alone only reduces the degree to which the officials deceive the people, and it is still much worse to improve the county-level finances.

After that, it was Li Dongyang who divided the retained part into two parts, one part is permanent expenses, which are generally fixed expenses, such as officials' salaries, etc., and the other part is non-permanent expenses.

There are also two parts to this, one of which is sales. After reporting to the above, it can be left directly from the shipping tax, and on the other hand, the balance.

Because the taxes of the Ming Dynasty are all fixed, the balance may not be large, and it will not be too much.

To be honest, Li Dongyang's sorting out of county-level finances is not very clever, but the most amazing thing he did was to introduce a large number of forms.

Even in his recital, there are several samples of tables, such as those for the people, the easy-to-know single sample, and the annual tax collection amount to be posted by the imperial court, which is specific to each person. There are also samples of various forms in the county office.

And Ninghua County as an example.

Li Dongyang praised hundreds of stones of grain and dozens of copper coins from the chaotic finances.

In addition, Li Dongyang also put forward one special thing, that is, to go to the floating people.

Or rather, to the homeless.

Ninghua County, where Li Dongyang is located, is a small county in the ravine, but it has a large population, so Ninghua County has a specialty, that is, bandits.

Most of these bandits are ordinary people who can't eat, so they can only find ways to take risks, just for temporary food and clothing.

Therefore, Li Dongyang proposed to ask the imperial court to migrate from Ninghua, which has no industry and is mixed with the line of life and death, to move to Yizhou.

Even invited the imperial court to implement it in Fujian, Jiangxi and other places

This way.

Although it sounds very inhumane.

The poor don't even have the right to die in their hometowns. But it's also a helpless thing. Because Fujian and Jiangxi have too many people, the state of land annexation is second only to the north and south of Beijing.

And bandits, a specialty, are countless.

Even the famous Wang Yangming suppressed bandits in Jiangxi, and even the main force of King Ning's rebellion was the bandits appeased by King Ning, and there were tens of thousands of troops.

Before Zhu Qizhen ascended the throne, there were people in Jiangxi, and they once gathered around 30,000 people. In Zhuqi Town, Ye Liuzong moved to Jiangxi and Fujian.

It's all the root knot.

Why is Liu Dingzhi satisfied with Li Dongyang.

It is that Li Dongyang did not force a whip law in Ninghua County. Ninghua County is not suitable for a whip law, although most of the courtiers may not be sure, but they have expected it.

In particular, most of the ministers in the cabinet are elite people and have experience in local administration, and many people expected a whip law as soon as it was proposed.

If Li Dongyang really wants to advance, he applauds a whip law.

Li Dongyang will not only be fine, but will also be promoted by the imperial court, after all, when the emperor is now trying to promote a whip law, he will never pour cold water on the law change at this time.

But it doesn't mean that Li Dongyang has nothing to do.

I prayed that Li Dongyang's affairs in Ninghua would not be caught, but I just wanted people not to know, unless I did nothing, maybe it would be turned out in the future.

You must know that being an official is not a matter of one or two years, but a lifetime.

If you have a stain, even if you hide it, you will not be able to hide it because your status is getting higher and higher.

Now Li Dongyang is doing very well.

On the one hand, although Li Dongyang did not directly say that he supported or opposed a whip law. However, the attitude of changing the law that he showed from the twists and turns was the same.

No one will classify Li Dongyang as an opponent of the reform of the law.

This attitude was put out first.

And the various measures proposed by Li Dongyang. It seems to be a change in some local malaise. A heart of love for the people. In line with His Majesty's political views.

And if you think about it, you find it.

In fact, there is a mystery.

Is there really no one who doesn't know the situation at the grassroots level of Daming?

No, what is the use of knowing that it can't be solved, a chaotic grassroots level is actually one of the political ecology of Xu officials. If the situation is not messed up, how can these officials get up and down and fill their pockets.

Now, although this set of methods is not surprising, it is also perfect. But if there are not enough qualified officials, will this method work?

Naturally, it can't.

So, this one thing is bypassed. In fact, it still returned to the reform of the Xu official system proposed by His Majesty the Emperor. It can even be said that he secretly patted the emperor's ass. If the officials do not reform the system, the people will not be able to sleep in peace.