Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 61 Quarrel
After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, Minister of Personnel Ma Wensheng and others did not speak again. The Qianqing Palace seemed particularly quiet, with only the rustling of the wind outside still blowing.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Houzhao realized that although he had only increased the depth of reform a little, it had already shocked several senior civil servants present.

However, Zhu Houzhao always believed that Ma Wensheng was not a selfish official who only knew how to maintain the interests of his own class. Therefore, he felt that Ma Wensheng should not be too opposed. If Ma Wensheng was opposed, then he really needed to find new officials who could support his reforms.

"Your Majesty wants to increase the severity of punishment. I think that's fine. Severe punishments can deter corrupt officials. However, although it can indeed encourage officials to do more things that benefit the country and the people, it will also increase the burden on the court. The current salary is sometimes insufficient, and I'm afraid there won't be enough money to reward diligent officials if we increase their salary income."

Ma Wensheng expressed his doubts. Just as Zhu Houzhao had expected, he did not oppose the ideas proposed by Zhu Houzhao, but he did not just flatter the emperor by saying that there must be no problem with what Zhu Houzhao proposed.

"So, if we want to curb the corruption of officials, we must first increase the court's revenue. Do you have any good ideas for increasing the court's revenue?"

Zhu Houzhao actually thought that increasing officials' income would definitely increase the burden on the court, but this would also require an increase in court revenue, that is, treasury revenue.

However, whether increasing the national treasury revenue or increasing the revenue of one's own treasury would harm the interests of the gentry and the people, so it would be met with great opposition from below, and no one dared to propose reform measures to increase the court's revenue.

Since the discussion tonight was only about how to reform the civil service, Zhu Houzhao did not mention the issue of increasing the court's revenue at the beginning.

After hearing Zhu Houzhao's initiative to ask for advice, the Minister of Personnel Ma Wensheng hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to speak out his inner thoughts:

"Your Majesty, I have mentioned to Emperor Xiaozong that we should increase the salaries of officials. The Ming dynasty has few officials and low salaries. It is not enough to rely on virtue to make people's hearts right. Providing benefits to support them may help to maintain integrity. I even suggested that we could increase commercial taxes to support the army and officials with your Majesty's grace. This would not hurt the common people but only the merchants. However, there was great resistance, so I only proposed the performance evaluation system."

Jiao Fang looked at the Minister of Personnel Ma Wensheng meaningfully. He couldn't help thinking that you, Minister Ma, have only been concerned with military and political affairs all your life, and have never been involved in business, so naturally you don't care about the amount of commercial taxes collected. Moreover, it would be beneficial for you to levy more commercial taxes to increase the salaries of officials. But now there are quite a few officials with Shanxi, Anhui and Zhejiang merchant backgrounds in the court, so how could they allow Your Majesty to levy more commercial taxes?

Although Jiao Fang thought that Ma Wensheng's idea of ​​levying commercial taxes was a fantasy, he had also considered how to increase revenue for the court. After hearing what Ma Wensheng said, he hurriedly said:

"Your Majesty, I have been a prefect before and I know some of the rules for paying taxes to the court. In my humble opinion, if we want to increase the court's revenue, the best way is to return the fire consumption to the public. The fire consumption should be collected by the court and then distributed to the honest officials with good performance. This way, they can complement each other!"

Zhu Houzhao could not help but smile slightly. He did not expect Jiao Fang to come up with the idea of ​​returning the fire consumption to the public. He thought that it was not without reason that it was best for the prime minister to start from the state. Those who had been local officials could really come up with some new measures that later reformers had done.

But at this time, the Minister of War Xu Jin could not sit still any longer: "Your Majesty, I think what Jiao Shaozai said is inappropriate. The public revenue from fire consumption is the main source of income for the local government, and local affairs all depend on it for survival. If it is rashly returned to the public, I am afraid that it will increase the pressure on local governments to levy taxes, and make the people suffer more from their exploitation!"

Zhu Houzhao felt that what Xu Jin said was correct. The public revenue from fire consumption was indeed the main source of fiscal revenue for local governments. Although a large part of it went into the personal pockets of officials, it was undeniable that the funding for most local government affairs was indeed maintained by fire consumption income.

"Grand Marshal, I think the court can strictly prohibit the local governments from levying more levies. Besides, not all the income from the fire consumption tax is used to reward officials. A part of it can also be used for local affairs." Jiao Fang has always been an upright and straightforward person. When he saw Xu Jin refutate him, he directly retorted.

Xu Jin was not to be outdone: "Does Jiao Shaozai think that this will stop the local government from increasing taxes? If a civil uprising is caused by local officials privately increasing taxes, it will be a crisis for the country!"

"Your Majesty, I think that the public ownership of fire consumption is indeed of great concern, and I am afraid that all local officials in the world will be angry. It is better to increase the business tax. Merchants do not work but make huge profits, while farmers work all day and can only get enough to eat and wear. It can be seen that the profits of merchants are actually unjust. It is better to take the merchants' wealth and then add it to your majesty's grace. This way, the monarch and his subjects can be in harmony!"

Ma Wensheng also interrupted him at this time, and Zhu Houzhao was almost moved after hearing it, thinking that it seemed to be the case. In this era, merchants did not have much power, and it was naturally safer to take profits from merchants than from farmers. Moreover, he could use this part of the profit to increase the income of all officials, so the officials should not object.

But in fact, after Ma Wensheng finished speaking, Jiao Fang had already objected: "I disagree with what the Grand Chancellor said! It's not that I really think that the profits of merchants cannot be taken away, but most of the merchants in our Ming Dynasty are noble officials and gentry. If Your Majesty takes the profits of merchants, it is equivalent to taking the profits of gentry, which is probably more difficult than returning the fire consumption to the public. Returning the fire consumption to the public only hurts the interests of local officials, while levying more business taxes is to be hostile to the entire scholar-officialdom!"

"Jiao Shaozai is exaggerating. What do you mean by making enemies with the entire scholar-official class? I am also a scholar-official. I don't think increasing commercial taxes is an enemy of me," Ma Wensheng responded immediately.

"How many scholars and officials in the world are there who are as powerful as the Grand Chancellor but do not use business to enrich themselves?" Jiao Fang replied directly. Zhu Houzhao felt a headache, not just a headache, but also a pain in the ears. He did not expect that there would be such a big dispute and even no consensus on reform just by discussing it with the three officials who were interested in reform.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but think that if he let all the officials discuss it, they would have to argue for three days and three nights without coming up with a final reform plan, and it was just a discussion about reforming the civil service system.

At the same time, Zhu Houzhao became increasingly aware that reforming the government was not an easy task.

Seeing that the three-day argument was so intense that their faces turned red and their necks became thick, and they couldn't stop talking, Zhu Houzhao had no choice but to slam the table and say, "Enough!"

When Ma Wensheng, Jiao Fang and Xu Jin saw Zhu Houzhao suddenly roar, they kept quiet and resumed the respectful and solemn demeanor that old ministers should have.

"How to increase the court's revenue is not discussed for the time being. This is a matter of reforming the Ministry of Revenue. I will find another time to convene relevant officials for discussion. For now, we are still only discussing the reform of the civil service system. We will implement a new performance evaluation system, link the salaries of officials to their personal political and military achievements, and increase the penalties for corruption. Do you have any objections?"

Zhu Houzhao asked.

"I have no objection, but the additional court expenditure due to the increase in officials' salaries cannot be ignored," said Ma Wensheng.

"I will find a way. If it doesn't work, I will use the treasury to make up for it. You don't have to worry!"

Zhu Houzhao waved his hand and said.

"If that's the case, I have no objection. Your Majesty is wise!"

Jiao Fang also replied.

"It's not okay to take profits from merchants, and it's not okay to take profits from the people. But now you're taking profits from me, that's wise. There's no objection, right?" Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but give Jiao Fang a blank look.

"Your Majesty, I am not the one who wants to do this. You said so yourself. If Your Majesty does not want to, that's fine. Even if Your Majesty really wants to increase the commercial tax, I have no objection. But I ask Your Majesty to consider it. If you rashly increase the commercial tax, I am afraid that the country will really be unstable!"

Jiao Fang couldn't help but say.

"Okay, I was just joking," Zhu Houzhao said and looked at the Minister of War Xu Jin.

Xu Jin stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I have no objection, but I don't know how Your Majesty will use the meager income from the treasury to subsidize the increased salaries of the court officials since Your Majesty will neither increase the commercial tax nor return the fire consumption to the public."

"I have my own way of dealing with this! You don't have to worry. Now let's just talk about the reform of the civil service system. Since you all have no objection,

Then, starting tomorrow, I will officially start the reform of the civil service system. After the three cabinet ministers resign, I will immediately let you join the cabinet, and you will still be in charge of the ministry. At the same time, I will set up a cabinet office and clarify the cabinet system.
At that time, the three of you new cabinet ministers will comprehensively promote the reform of the civil service system. However, the positions of the Minister of Personnel and the Minister of War will have to be filled by others. Do you have anyone to recommend? It would be best if it is someone who can promote the reform of the civil service system!"

Zhu Houzhao asked.

(End of this chapter)