Emperor Zhengde
Chapter 310 Open the door and enforce taxation!
Chapter 310 Open the door and enforce taxation!
Wang Shouren naturally knew that the collection of inheritance tax would be difficult for the wealthy and powerful to accept. After all, he himself was also a wealthy and powerful person. When Xiong Jia first proposed the collection of inheritance tax, he also found it difficult to accept it. But when he thought that Jiangnan was no different from other places, with many people from wealthy families, if inheritance tax was not collected, the descendants of the chaebols would be able to continue to become chaebols by gaining wealth without working.
Although it is understandable for people to inherit their parents' inheritance, allowing a large amount of wealth to be concentrated in the hands of only a few people is naturally not conducive to the long-term stability of the country.
Moreover, as there are more wealthy people in Jiangnan, the number of cases involving inheritance will definitely increase. The court cannot uphold justice for free, and judicial services must be paid. Otherwise, who would be willing to meddle in your family's affairs?
"I have thought of this with them. For the wealthy and powerful, giving part of their property to the court for free is indeed unacceptable. However, I believe that there will be a time when they need the court to divide their inheritance. The court can first establish an inheritance law and inheritance tax system, but not strictly collect taxes. The court will not recognize or protect the property that the people privately inherit or transfer. If they want the court to be fair, they must follow the court system and pay inheritance tax to the court. I believe that the weak and extinct families of the clan will be willing to pay inheritance tax in order to have their inheritance rights protected by the court."
Wang Shouren put forward his own opinion. As a member of a wealthy and powerful family, he was naturally accustomed to seeing clans and powerful people fighting for the division of family property. He knew that the court really needed to increase the intervention of the government in this regard to prevent clans and powerful people from breaking up due to struggles for interests, which would cause family discord. If there is family discord, it will naturally be difficult for the country to be harmonious.
Zhu Houzhao was naturally willing to collect inheritance tax. Now that Wang Shouren had also taken the initiative to propose that the court could enact inheritance law and collect inheritance tax, he had no objection and just nodded:
"In this case, you will be responsible for drafting the inheritance law in the next few days. I will issue it to the whole country after it is reviewed and approved. In addition, I will order the Jiangnan National Tax Bureau to add regulations for the collection of inheritance tax."
"According to the order!"
Wang Shouren then began to draft the inheritance law. Naturally, it was not drafted by him personally, but by the Cabinet Secretariat under his jurisdiction as the Grand Secretary.
In fact, the Ming Dynasty does not have a clear legislative body yet.
Although the constitutional outline stipulates that the legislative power lies in the hands of the emperor, it is impossible for Zhu Houzhao to draft the bill himself. Generally speaking, he still lets the cabinet draft it. This way, the cabinet can take the blame for him. However, people outside still think that it is the cabinet that is doing these things and the emperor is not aware of it.
The cabinet is now both the center of domestic affairs and Zhu Houzhao's secretariat, which means that the cabinet still has great power.
Wang Shouren is now fully capable of presiding over the entire Jiangnan system reform on behalf of Zhu Houzhao.
Soon, the inheritance bill was finalized and published in the official newspaper.
The ruling class of the Ming Dynasty, namely the powerful gentry, did react strongly to the emergence of inheritance law.
"Since ancient times, the family members have been reluctant to talk about the division of the family property. As for the so-called inheritance law, it is just in accordance with the Confucian etiquette, and the eldest son is the heir! They don't care about the division of family property among the people. Now the court has stipulated the order of inheritance by law, which can avoid uneven distribution of wealth within the clan!"
But what Zhu Houzhao did not expect was that, like Wang Shouren, when the inheritance bill came out, the powerful gentry still supported it. It was indeed easier and fairer to let the court manage it. After all, the inheritance bill was also drafted by bureaucrats like Wang Shouren, and naturally it would not make the heads of wealthy households ethically unable to accept the order of inheritance stipulated by the government.
However, when the inheritance tax came out, the powerful gentry could not accept it. Although on the surface they could not say that they were passing their property to their descendants, how could the court benefit from it, but they all thought so in their hearts. Therefore, they did not take the court's inheritance tax seriously, and felt that they did not need to rely on the court to pass on their property to their descendants.
What really made the powerful gentry in Jiangnan unacceptable were the other new taxation policies.
As soon as the new tax policy of the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau was published in official newspapers, it caused an uproar.
First, in the background, officials from the powerful gentry in the south of the Yangtze River slammed the table in anger.
Wei Shangchen, the Right Judge of the Nanjing Dali Temple, was furious at this time and said, "In a prosperous era, the government is imposing heavy taxes. How can this be a benevolent policy that loves the people? The day before yesterday, Your Majesty summoned the officials of the Ministry of Revenue and the Revenue Department, as well as the governors of Southern Zhili and Zhejiang to discuss tax policies. Unexpectedly, not only did they not exempt taxes, but they imposed more taxes. Don't these officials who manage the world's money laws have any sympathy for the people's hardship?!"
Wei Shangchen's family was a large Huizhou merchant family. According to the original tax policy, taxes were levied based on the number of fields under the household registration. His family was registered in Huizhou, where there was little land and because Zhu Houzhao permanently exempted the whole country from corvée labor, the people were not very enthusiastic about donating. Therefore, his family did not have many fields under their household registration. If they followed the original tax payment method, they only had to pay a small amount of land tax.
(I checked and found that in real history, the gentry of the Ming Dynasty were not exempt from tax, but were only exempt from corvée and a certain amount of tax-free land, so here, Wei Shangchen still had to pay taxes)
But now, Cong Lan and Xiong Jia, two northern officials who were familiar with the actual situation in Jiangnan and knew that most of the expatriates doing business in Jiangnan, simply did not let the Jiangnan National Tax Bureau collect taxes based on household registration. Instead, they directly collected business taxes based on businesses, shops, and workshops, and also required these businesses, shops, and workshops to register with the industrial and commercial departments of the corresponding prefectures and counties.
In this way, even if Wei Shang's household registration was in Huizhou, but his family and property lived in Jiangnan, he still had to pay more commercial taxes than before.
Wei Shangchen could not accept this, so he wrote a memorial to the court to dissuade it from implementing the new tax policy.
However, Wei Shangchen's memorial was not presented to the emperor because Zhu Houzhao had already reformed the administrative procedures and clarified the specific division of labor. The officials of the Dali Temple belonged to the judicial system and were not qualified to comment on tax policies.
Here, Bai Xiang, an official from the Ministry of Public Administration, put Wei Shangchen's memorial into a column that collected memorials from officials from the Dali Temple. After receiving the memorial, the officials from the Dali Temple did not report Wei Shangchen's criticism of the court's tax policy to the emperor for the purpose of protecting Wei Shangchen. Instead, they rejected the memorial and replied that it was not their place to interfere in other people's affairs.
After receiving this memorial, Wei Shangchen did not thank the official of the Dali Temple. Instead, he was angry with him, saying that he was overstepping his authority and approving memorials on behalf of the emperor, which was a crime of treason. He also denounced the court for its lack of communication.
But in fact, it was just some officials like Wei Shangchen who had been in Nanjing for a long time and did not understand the current rules of the court.
Of course, most officials know this rule.
Wang Yongshi, the editor of the Hanlin Academy, knew the current rules of the court at this time, but because he knew it, Wang Yongshi became even more dissatisfied with the current system of the court.
In his opinion, although the court now divides government affairs very clearly, it also blocks speech, resulting in severe restrictions on the power of scholars and officials. This makes him miss the previous era, when no matter how high or low the official rank was, one could submit a memorial to the emperor and criticize a certain government matter. Although it would inevitably anger the emperor and lead to severe punishment in court, at least one could clear his name and let the court know his opinions.
But now, Wang Yongshi had to admit that the court's channels of speech were severely blocked.
Although speech is free and you can say whatever you want, it is difficult for the content of your writing to have an impact on the emperor and the government, unless it is your own responsibility.
It is difficult for scholars and officials to point fingers at the affairs of the world.
Now, after the tax reform was announced, Wang Yongshi felt even more strongly about it, and could not help but say angrily: "Before the new tax policy was announced, no matter whether it was the high-ranking officials or the ministers, none of them knew the details, let alone participated in it. If this continues, how can the emperor listen to both sides and understand it? This time, I, Wang, would rather die than let Your Majesty open up the channels for people to express their opinions, so that the powerful ministers will not ruin the country."
In Wang Yongshi's opinion, the increase in taxes must have been done by officials from the cabinet and the Ministry of Revenue. After all, they were the ones who set the policy, and if they were unwilling, His Majesty could not implement the policy, just like the previous policies.
Wang Yongshi even thought that the court system had now changed into one in which officials could not interfere in the affairs of other government offices, and that the Dali Temple, the Ministry of Justice, and the major headquarters of the Imperial Guards had the power to draft bills, which must have been the work of powerful officials who wanted to divide the emperor's power.
Therefore, Wang Yongshi knelt outside the Mochou Lake Palace and begged to meet the emperor. He wanted to denounce the powerful officials' ambitions and their actions that harmed the country.
When Zhu Houzhao saw Wang Yongshi kneeling outside, he admired his courage and even appreciated his simplicity, but he did not like Wang Yongshi's stupidity. Yes, he thought Wang Yongshi was stupid. He criticized the current system of the court because of the tax reform, which was obviously a sign of his own class.
"Let him kneel!"
Zhu Houzhao naturally would not meet Wang Yongshi. If he did, it would be like breaking his own rules. It's not that he couldn't meet him, but he couldn't meet him because of the tax policy and the court system. Doing so would only encourage the arrogance of other officials.
Of course, Zhu Houzhao would not punish Wang Yongshi now. First, Wang Yongshi was opposing the powerful officials and not against him. Second, Wang Yongshi's current behavior did not violate the law. It was just like the citizens in later generations kneeling to see the secretary of the municipal party committee. As a "senior city official", he could not beat out Wang Yongshi, a "citizen" who wanted to see him. Doing so would only lose the hearts of the people.
Zhu Houzhao knew that as an emperor, the best way for him now was to hide behind the scenes forever, making people in the world mistakenly believe that he was ignorant and not involved, or even mistakenly believe that he was being manipulated by powerful officials.
Listening to the eunuchs' reports about Wang Yongshi and other officials criticizing Wang Shouren in the cabinet and other officials in the Ministry of Revenue, Zhu Houzhao wanted to laugh and felt sorry for them, but at the same time, he had to admit that when he established hierarchy and checks and balances of power within the civil service group, it became difficult for the civil service group to unite against him, the emperor, and instead they fought among themselves.
In the past, any official could criticize the government, making high-ranking officials powerless and low-ranking officials fearless. As a result, all civil officials could interfere with the emperor. But now, the power of high-ranking officials is checked and balanced, and low-ranking officials are controlled by high-ranking officials. Low-ranking officials can only fight high-ranking officials, and high-ranking officials fight each other. The emperor can sit firmly on the throne and control the overall situation.
Of course, Zhu Houzhao also knew that he still needed to be careful about the factional disputes.
Coming back to the topic, now is not the time when the Party and Factions Dispute is too serious, and Zhu Houzhao did not put his mind on it. When he saw Wang Yongshi still kneeling outside, he could not help but sigh inwardly, thinking that the officials in the Hanlin Academy were still too idle. If they were really busy, his colleagues would have to do so much more work just because he knelt outside for a while. I am afraid that no one will not blame him.
Wang Yongshi's method of kneeling to see the emperor did not work. The next day after he fainted and was carried back, Wang Yongshi's superior, Xu Gao, a lecturer in the Nanjing Hanlin Academy, directly ranked Wang Yongshi's evaluation as the worst because Wang Yongshi did not do his job well. He even organized an internal meeting of the Hanlin Academy to criticize Wang Yongshi, which made Wang Yongshi very angry.
There were also officials who sympathized with Wang Yongshi and praised him for his uprightness. For example, the Censor Chen Bao admired Wang Yongshi very much and even wrote a memorial to clear his name, but it was useless. The Censor could only impeach and file a case but did not have the right to reward or promote someone. The power to evaluate whether Wang Yongshi was excellent or not was in the hands of his superiors.
Whether submitting memorials or kneeling outside the palace, they could not achieve the goal of obstructing the new tax policy. Officials who opposed the new tax policy had only one last resort, which was to directly argue with the cabinet and the Ministry of Revenue officials, or even scold them directly.
"Minister Wang, you are an important official of the court and the Minister of Southern Revenue, but why did you allow such a tax policy to come into being? It is extortion!" Nanjing Minister of Punishments Meng Feng questioned Nanjing Minister of Revenue Wang Chengyu. Wang Chengyu felt that he was quite wronged. Originally, he had prevented the tax reform in the court meeting. He had to agree in the end because he had no choice. He even tried his best to safeguard the interests of the gentry in Jiangnan. But now he is still being criticized.
then.
Wang Chengyu was so disheartened that he submitted a letter of resignation.
After Zhu Houzhao tried to persuade him to stay, Wang Chengyu made it clear that he wanted to resign, so Zhu Houzhao did not try to stop him. He also knew that Wang Chengyu did not have the courage to fight against the gentry of the same class as himself, and was indeed not suitable to stay in the position of Minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing.
After Wang Chengyu resigned from the post of Minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing, most bureaucrats and gentry who were unaware of the inside story viewed it as a victory for their own resistance to the new tax policy through public opinion. For them, even if they could not change the implementation of the new tax policy, it was a consolation to be able to overthrow a powerful official who dominated the emergence of the new tax policy.
But what these Jiangnan bureaucrats and gentry did not know was that they were forcing away a person who spoke for their class and were reducing their own voice.
Of course, there were also some wise bureaucrats and gentry in Jiangnan who felt sorry for Wang Chengyu.
anyway.
The implementation of the new tax policy is a foregone conclusion, and no one can stop it at this moment. For the bureaucrats and gentry, they can only rely on ordinary people to resist. Only then can they take the opportunity to use public opinion pressure to ask the court to withdraw the resolution.
Bureaucrats and gentry are essentially cowardly, and the richer they are, the more afraid they are of death.
When the dynasty still had the ruling power, people basically opposed it fiercely in words but did not dare to confront the court head-on in action. Only a few literati dared to confront the court head-on, and the ones who really dared to do so were the common people. The common people could indeed do anything for their own survival interests, and they were also easily fooled by the literati and used as guns.
at this time.
The Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau began its tax collection work.
Nanjing is naturally the first to be hit.
When the tax inspector from the Jiangnan National Tax Bureau arrived at the first weaving workshop outside Nanjing, hundreds of weavers holding sticks stopped the tax inspector.
Tu Jin, who was appointed as the chief tax inspector of Hongwu Gate in Yingtian Prefecture, was stunned when he saw this scene. He had no choice but to shout: "Fellow villagers, what are you doing? Are you trying to stop the imperial court from collecting taxes?!"
"Sir, we shouldn't have obstructed the imperial court's decree, but the new tax policy wants to levy taxes on personal income, which is really taking away too much of the people's benefits. These villagers only earn one yuan a month. If they pay more taxes, how can they support their families? Sir, you are also a citizen of the imperial court, you should understand that people's livelihood is difficult! How can you help the tyrant to do evil? How can you help the powerful to abuse the people!"
At this time, a man stood up and said a few words.
Seeing this, Tu Jin couldn't help but ask, "Who are you?"
"I'm Tian Shuxiang, a student at the county school! He's also the owner of this weaving workshop," Tian Shuxiang replied.
After knowing this, Tu Jin did not ask any more questions, but just shouted loudly: "Fellow villagers, I believe you have many misunderstandings about the new tax policy. Regarding personal income tax, the new tax policy of the court stipulates that those with a monthly income of more than ten silver dollars only need to pay a tax of one in five hundred silver dollars. Your monthly income is too little, so naturally you don't have to pay taxes!"
When the weavers present heard what Tu Jin said, they were all a little horrified. One of them even asked unsurely, "Is that true? But we heard from Mr. Tian that as long as we earn silver dollars, we have to take 30% no matter how much!"
"it is true!"
Tu Jin nodded.
The weavers quieted down, and one of them said, "Then this matter has nothing to do with us."
Tu Jin raised his gun at this time and asked in a cold voice: "So, do you still dare to stop the imperial court from collecting taxes now?"
at the same time.
The tax collectors under Tu Jin also raised their guns.
This was a special request from Zhu Houzhao. Although the State Taxation Bureau belonged to the central Ministry of Revenue, its employees were all retired officers and soldiers drawn from the army, and they were allowed to possess advanced weapons and equipment that were inferior to main battle weapons.
After all, Zhu Houzhao also knew that if he wanted to collect taxes from these wealthy families, he would need military backbones loyal to the court and hard weapons. Who knew how many slaves these wealthy families had kept and how many firearms they had privately stored.
Because they did not need to pay taxes, and seeing that the tax collectors from the IRS were armed with guns, the weavers consciously stepped aside.
Only the weaving workshop owner Tian Shuxiang and the senior managers and shareholders he hired were still standing in front of Tu Jin and other tax officials from the National Tax Bureau.
Tian Shuxiang was somewhat surprised and puzzled, thinking how could this be possible! How could this be! How could the officials of the court be so cunning as to exempt ordinary craftsmen from tax! How could we call on ordinary weavers to resist taxation!
"Boss, this move by the court is very powerful. It is like cutting off the source of our trouble. Now we have no one to rely on. It is difficult for a few shareholders and shopkeepers to resist the court's taxation," Wang Tingzhao, deputy owner of the weaving workshop, could not help but whisper to Tian Shuxiang.
Seeing this, Tian Shuxiang could only sigh and said, "Bring the account books here. I have also paid your personal income tax for you. I will deduct it from your salary when the time comes. Do you have any objection?"
Several shopkeepers and shareholders nodded. They knew that although they were shareholders and chief shopkeepers of the workshop, they could not resist the court without the unity of the weavers. Moreover, they were reluctant to lose the profits from the weaving workshop.
Next, Tu Jin also collected taxes smoothly. He was a graduate of a military academy, and before graduating from the academy, he studied arithmetic in a senior school and also worked in finance in the army. Otherwise, he would not have been transferred to the State Taxation Bureau. Therefore, he was able to figure out how much tax to collect and would not be deceived by businessmen like Tian Shuxiang.
From the very beginning, the imperial court made a distinction between low-income ordinary people and high-income powerful gentry when it decided on the new tax collection plan. Low-income people were exempted from taxes or even subsidized, while high-income people were taxed more. This directly prevented the two from joining forces and greatly reduced the difficulty of taxation for the imperial court. At least there was no need to worry about the lower-income people rising up because of taxation.
Of course, this does not mean that taxation will be smooth sailing.
During the tax collection process, the IRS tax collectors also encountered many tough problems.
Cui Yuan, Marquis of Jingshan, was the first tough nut the State Taxation Bureau encountered. Even though Xu Pengju, Duke of Wei in Yingtian Prefecture, paid taxes in full due to cowardice, Cui Yuan still refused to pay taxes on the grounds that he was a meritorious official. He simply closed the door and left Ma Yinglong, the tax inspector of the State Taxation Bureau, and others outside the mansion for a whole night.
"My lord, I heard that even the Duke of Wei has paid taxes. If we don't pay taxes for the properties under our names, will His Majesty blame us?" At this time, Cui Yuan's wife Lun couldn't help but ask Cui Yuan worriedly.
"What are you afraid of? That ballless guy Xu Pengju has really brought shame to the King of Zhongshan. After all, he is a founding hero. The Emperor Zhu can't deny us because he has secured the throne! We built this beautiful country for them, and we have been bullied by the eunuchs. Now he just wants to make some money and become a rich man, but he still wants us to collect taxes! If I were him, Xu Pengju, I would just kick the tax collectors out! What are you afraid of!"
Cui Yuan couldn't help but say something.
"Master, please be careful with your words. His Majesty is in Nanjing right now. Be careful not to let the people from the Western Factory hear it," Lun hurriedly advised.
"I know. To be honest, it is probably not your majesty's original intention to change the tax policy to what it is now. I am afraid that these civil servants gave your majesty another trick to make money from us nobles because they think we are easy to bully now that we have lost our military power!"
Cui Yuan then added: "Anyway, I, Cui Yuan, will never pay this tax! Give the order, if the people from the IRS dare to come to collect it, you must kick them out!"
As Cui Yuan was speaking, his butler came running over and said, "My Lord, this is bad. The IRS has sent in artillery fire!"
"What!" Cui Yuan was very surprised. He didn't expect that the people from the IRS would actually mobilize artillery to collect taxes.
Ma Yinglong did mobilize artillery here, but there was no other way. After all, it was a marquis' mansion. Although the gate was not made of iron, it was very sturdy, so he had to mobilize artillery.
Boom!
Ma Yinglong directly blasted open the mansion of Marquis Jingshan!
Then, Ma Yinglong ordered: "Immediately confiscate the Jingshan Marquis's mansion. The 12 hours of the day have passed, and we are officially entering the compulsory taxation mode! Anyone who resists taxation, regardless of status, will be shot to death!"
As Ma Yinglong was speaking, he saw several Hao slaves rushing over, so he threw a grenade at them, killing them on the spot!
At the beginning, when Zhu Houzhao asked the State Taxation Bureau to recruit new tax supervisors, he followed Wang Shouren's advice and not only selected retired officers and soldiers, but also retired northern officers and soldiers. Ma Yinglong was also a northerner, so even if he came to the marquis's mansion to collect taxes, he, who came from the artillery department, dared to directly dispatch cannons to bombard!
(End of this chapter)
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