Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 449: Pure and Innocent Pei Ayuan

After listening to Pei Yuan's method of "tying taxes to land and collecting them in a clear and quantitative manner", he couldn't help but blurt out, "This is a good idea!"

Historically, the Single Whip Law was proposed by Gui E, a close friend of "Wandering Half Life".

Gui E was a Jinshi who passed the imperial examination in the sixth year of the Zhengde reign. He was stubborn by nature and repeatedly disobeyed his superiors. He also had a bad relationship with the clerks and clerks.

So, Gui E, who originally wanted to clean up the workplace and do a great job, was actually done a great job by the workplace.

He served as a county magistrate for a long time, but no one promoted him.

Later, Gui E focused his attention on local governance, and slowly, he discovered many unreasonable things.

Many wealthy and powerful people had clearly occupied large amounts of land and seized the main wealth of society, but they were able to avoid social responsibility by means of fraudulent registration of the land in the names of local officials, civil servants, students and other people who were legally exempt from military service.

When the rich evade taxes on a large scale, who is implicitly responsible for the missing social spending?

Most ordinary people.

Ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty already had a hard life, and they had to bear taxes that they shouldn't have to bear, which naturally exacerbated the gap between the rich and the poor.

So Gui E used his work experience at the grassroots level and boldly linked taxation and land, and developed the "One Whip System". The main idea was that whoever occupied more social resources would bear more taxes.

Unfortunately, due to Gui E's own experience, this idea has not been well promoted.

It was not until Gui E stood out in the Great Ceremony Debate that he was able to realize his political ambitions.

Unfortunately, the idea of ​​"Single Whip System" had to wait for several decades before it was vigorously promoted by Zhang Juzheng.

At this moment, Gui E was still fighting wits and courage with others in the courtyard of the county party committee of Dantu County, and the "One Whip Method" had not yet been formed.

Pei Yuan couldn't wait for Gui E to grow up, nor could he count on the future of Zhang Juzheng.

Now that we have this rare opportunity, why not let the more reliable Brother Wang take charge?

Wang Qiong was a person who valued people's wealth and saved people's energy. The effect of this "One Whip Law" in reducing the burden on the people was obvious and would definitely get his support.

Moreover, judging from Wang Qiong's experience in managing the Caohe River, he also had a successful precedent of converting unnecessary corvee labor into silver and saving officials.

It can be said that there is absolutely no problem with Wang Qiong being the initiator of the "One Whip Law".

only……

After Wang Qiong's excitement, he also realized the huge risk involved. After hesitating for a moment, he asked Pei Yuan, "If this happens, won't I offend all the noble families in the world?"

Pei Yuan said simply, "Of course, there is no need for the prince to make such a great sacrifice."

"Didn't we agree on this? Our goal is to return to Beijing."

"As long as the prince takes the opportunity of inspecting the local areas, he can actually prove the necessity of implementing the 'single whip law'."

"As long as you make some noise and let those predators in the court see what kind of weapons of mass destruction you are working on, they will send people to negotiate with you."

Pei Yuan even gave his prediction, "It's not difficult to return to Beijing, but forget about staying in the Ministry of Revenue."

The Ministry of Revenue was in charge of taxation, which was exactly what happened. How could they dare to allow Wang Qiong, a tax terrorist, to continue to hold the position of the Ministry of Revenue?
After listening to Pei Yuan's detailed explanation, Wang Qiong silently thought about the feasibility of it.

It seems..., will it work?
However, this was obviously a good policy, but it became a means to threaten political opponents, which made Wang Qiong feel sad.

Wang Qiong sighed to Pei Yuan, "Friend Pei is indeed a man of great strategy and a talent for the country. It's a pity that such a good method can only be used to bargain with others."

Pei Yuan thought about the meaning of Wang Qiong's words and decided to give him a hint.

Wang Qiong has already seen Zhu Houzhao's true face. As long as he can guide him slowly in the future, there is still hope of converting his camp.

The time is not yet ripe to implement the "Single Whip Law", but when the time is ripe, there will probably be no better executor than Wang Qiong in the entire Zhengde Dynasty.

Moreover, if Wang Qiong was not given any hope and was only being perfunctory in order to return to Beijing, it would be difficult for Pei Yuan to find such a strong force again when he started the plan.

Therefore, Pei Yuan hinted, "Don't worry too much, Your Excellency. As the saying goes, success doesn't have to be mine. You just need to do your part."

"As for the rest, Pei is willing to do his best to push things forward."

Wang Qiong was a little surprised, "You?"

Wang Qiong really couldn't connect the grand ambition of promoting the "One Whip Law" with Pei Yuan, a small captain of the Jinyiwei.

Pei Yuan, however, did not show any anger at being looked down upon.

Instead, he looked at Wang Qiong and said calmly, "Now, haven't I convinced you?"

Wang Qiong was speechless, but he had to admire her. He said willingly, "Not bad."

Thinking back to everything that has happened since I met Pei Yuan.

First, I heard that in order to uphold justice and not fear power, he beat the son of Liang Chu; then, in order to save people's money, he selflessly came to me to expose the malpractice of wasting money and food on the front line; later, in order to avoid killing more civilians in the civil unrest, he joined forces with me to promote the issue of "not judging merit by the number of heads taken when quelling civil unrest."

Now he cares about the suffering of the people and their food and vegetables. He is really a cheerful and warm person.

Wang Qiong was filled with emotion for a moment. She never expected that such a pure and innocent person like Pei Yuan would blossom in the mud of the Jinyiwei.

Wang Qiong said with a little shame, "How about, how about I take charge of this matter."

Pei Yuan could see Wang Qiong's reluctance. A politician like him might have some sentimental feelings when he was passionate, but once he figured it out, he would let it go.

Pei Yuan smiled and said, "No need for that. For things like this, there must always be someone to coordinate the overall situation, someone to support, and someone to lead the charge."

"Your Excellency is highly respected and should take good care of yourself. I heard that your inspection this time will focus on Henan, Hebei and Shandong. I think it would be better for you to go directly to Shandong and take a good look at the hard life the people are living."

"I heard that Shandong Governor Wang Chang is also willing to work hard. He will definitely fully support your idea. If you go to Shandong, it will be much more convenient than other places."

"If one day we really want to implement the one-whip system, we can start from Shandong."

Wang Qiong was very happy to hear this. This was good news.

If this matter could get the support of the Governor of Shandong, it would indeed be a good place to open up the situation.

Shandong is very close to the capital, so as long as there are results, the feedback can be immediate.

Pei Yuan added some details. "After you go to Shandong, you can thoroughly review the situation in Shandong."

"The first thing is to clean up the hidden fields and re-register those hidden lands. After that, we need to calculate the corvée and labor service in each state and county, come up with a rough figure, and then establish a dynamic and balanced allocation system. If we really want to implement the 'One Whip System', then there will be higher requirements for the circulation of money and goods. I have a few ideas, please write them down..."

The two of them were united and tense, and discussed many things related to the "Single Whip System" in a serious and lively manner.

Wang Qiong was like seeing the sun after the clouds had cleared. The haze of being driven out of the capital that had troubled him for the entire afternoon was swept away.

Wang Qiong looked at the thick stack of operating points she had memorized and felt that this afternoon had been very fulfilling.

Pei Yuan had to reorganize some plans, so he didn't have dinner at Wang Qiong's house and went straight home.

Using Wang Qiong as the starting point of the "One Whip Method" is effective enough.

Pei Yuan did not expect Wang Qiong to push the plan forward stubbornly, but hoped that through Wang Qiong, who had a high enough status, more people would know about the "One Whip Law" plan.

Pei Yuan believed that since the "Single Whip System" was able to be promoted in history, there must be a reason for it.

Zhang Juzheng was able to push forward the movement not only because of his own strong position, but also because he must have had powerful allies supporting him.

So who are these people?
Pei Yuan thought about it and believed that the most likely possibility was the Southern Economic Group that controlled the flow of silver through trade.

Only these people have the greatest motivation for change.

Because the small peasant economy society is self-sufficient.

With the massive influx of silver, if there are no more applications and consumption scenarios, the rapid depreciation of silver will be obvious.

The principle is very similar to the process of the devaluation of Ming Baochao. The difference between the two is that silver still has a certain use value. It can be used to make ornaments that show nobility and can maintain the value of the currency to a certain extent.

However, with the massive accumulation of silver, the upper limit of competition for wealth will be raised little by little, which will inevitably lead to rising prices within a certain range.

The same No. 1 lady in Hangzhou, the same 300 taels corkage fee, 10 taels for refills, if everyone has a lot of silver, will there be a situation of driving up the price of the bottle?

With silver flooding the market, is the bottle price the only thing that will be driven up?

This phenomenon will be widely seen in every region where silver surges.

In other words, the Southern Silver Group, which had earned a huge amount of wealth, could only watch the value of the silver in their hands shrink.

How to ease the contradiction?

The simplest and most direct way is to allow more and broader markets to take over their silver.

Slow down the depreciation of their wealth.

For example, when they went north along the Grand Canal and found that the ticket price for watching a play in Jining was still one or two taels, did they feel that the silver in their hands was still very valuable?
However, what flow of wealth can compare with the taxation of the imperial court?

If taxes were bound to silver, then people who held grain and cloth would need to take their supplies to merchants and exchange them for silver and hand it over.

After the imperial court received the silver, it used it for official salaries, military expenditures, construction facilities, disaster relief and other activities. Then, those who received the silver would take the silver to merchants to buy back food and cloth.

Not to mention the profits that merchants can make in this process of inflow and outflow, the flow of the White Silver River, driven by the Ming Dynasty's taxation, is like a breath, flowing vigorously and full of vitality.

The Ming Dynasty's finances were looking for a solution, and silver was also looking for a way out. It can be said that the two sides hit it off.

And he, Pei Qianhu, with his hands full of Ming Dynasty banknotes that were like waste paper, was ready to wait until the last moment to launch a fatal sniper attack.

As long as the "Single Whip Law" is pushed to the later stage, enough interest groups will be gathered to form the "Baochao Party" and fight back and forth with the "Silver Group" several times.

If we win, it will mean a new beginning for the Ming Dynasty and a new situation.

If he loses, he can also seek negotiations with the "Silver Group" and ask them to exchange their treasure notes for silver at a high price as a compromise to send him off.

That's right.

Pei Yuan just wants to steal money.

Therefore, whether it was to make history take a different path or to make huge profits to strengthen himself, Pei Yuan had a strong motivation to promote the "Single Whip System".

Pei Yuan thought about it and instructed Chen Xinjian, "Wang Chang still has 170,000 taels sent by the southern garrisons. Find some reliable people to take some of it out and go to various provinces to buy a large amount of Ming treasure notes."

"Ming Dynasty Treasure Notes?" Chen Xinjian was surprised.

He quickly reminded, "Qian Hu, that stuff is almost like waste paper now. Even the court won't print it if the price is so low."

The matter of the Ming Treasure Notes involved Pei Yuan’s core secrets, and its status was equivalent to the Grand Canal strategy. Even Chen Xinjian, his confidant, was unaware of it.

Pei Yuan was too lazy to explain to him and said directly, "I told you to collect it, so just go and collect it."

Chen Xinjian was confused and asked quickly, "How much? At what price?"

Although Pei Yuan felt that there were not many Ming Dynasty treasure notes left, it was still safer to be lenient with the enemy in such matters.

Pei Yuan said, "First collect along the canal, from northern Zhili to southern Zhili, and then send people to Huguang and Guangdong to see. As long as the ratio is less than one penny to one string of paper money, we will collect all of it."

Chen Xinjian was shocked when he heard this, and quickly reminded him, "Qian Hu, you can't use this price. Now one penny can be exchanged for dozens or even hundreds of strings of cash."

Pei Yuan shook his head and said, "Before, no one wanted Baochao, so the price naturally fell. But as long as someone starts to buy it, the price will slowly rise again."

In the fifth year of Zhengde, the imperial court stopped collecting banknotes at the customs in order to raise silver to quell the rebellion. This severely hit the largest source of banknotes and caused the price of Ming treasure notes to plummet.

Now that Pei Yuan has started to collect money on a large scale, it will definitely attract some smart people to hold their money and wait and see.

Moreover, Pei Yuan believed that before the Ministry of Revenue decided to use banknotes again at the customs, there would definitely be "well-informed" people who would join in and buy up the Ming treasure notes at a bargain price.

Pei Yuan is now buying a lot of stocks. After those people buy at the bottom, there will be a lot less selling pressure, which will be very conducive to the rise of Ming Baochao.

Pei Yuan had no intention of profiting at this stage, but instead planned to continue eating up the food and nurture this wave of hot money.

Because what Pei Yuan had in his hand was not goods, but Ming Dynasty treasure notes, which were money.

The increase in the value of the Ming Baochao is the best reward for Pei Yuan.

If there are enough people who profit from the speculation of the Ming Treasure Notes, then when Pei Yuan starts to speculate the "One Whip Law" to bind the Ming Treasure Notes, more people will rush in and form an interest group united around the Ming Treasure Notes.

(End of this chapter)