The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 567: The whip is for the common people

The Ming Dynasty was really seriously ill at this time.

If we talk about symptoms, there are more than one.

For example, corrupt officials are rampant.

This is an old problem.

It seems that every dynasty will suffer from this disease in the later stages of its development.

For example, there is serious problem of land annexation.

This is a chronic disease.

Throughout the dynasties, the annexation of land became more and more serious as time went on.

It seems that the Ming Dynasty had far more problems than these, and that these were old problems that had existed in all dynasties.

Not long after, Wanli discovered a new symptom.

This symptom originated from Yuan Keli's confession during the trial.

After the provincial examination, there were four to five thousand more successful candidates, so Yuan Keli could finally let go and conduct the trial.

The ranks of the corrupt officials he interrogated were getting lower and lower, closer and closer to ordinary people.

New symptoms of the Ming Dynasty were gradually exposed.

Early in the morning at about noon that day, Wanli came to the imperial study with little Zhu Changxun in his arms as usual.

A stack of files had already been placed on the imperial desk. These were Yuan Keli's confessions during the trial.

They watch it almost every day these days, and Xiao Zhu Changxun is a little tired of it.

It seems that corrupt officials only confess to two things: how much they have embezzled and how much they have revealed.

To be honest, Wanli was a little tired of it.

However, he still has to watch it because he has the final say on how to punish corrupt officials.

He opened the first confession with some lack of interest and frowned again, and the more he read, the deeper his frown became.

This is a county magistrate who was exposed by the county magistrate. This guy is the county magistrate's confidant and is specifically responsible for helping the county magistrate make money.

How do they make money?

These guys actually used the one-whip method to make money!
Zhang Juzheng's reforms actually became a tool for corrupt officials to exploit the common people!

There was a big problem with this "One Whip" system, which was that everything had to be converted into tax silver, and there was no unified conversion standard.

Without a unified standard, there will be loopholes everywhere!

For example, there is no standard for the per-acre yield of farmland. In some places it is about two dan, in some places it is more than two dan, and in some places it is even less than two dan.

This doesn't seem to make a big difference, because the land tax is one in twenty. Even if the yield per mu of land is one stone different, after converting it into tax, it is only a difference of five or six kilograms of grain.

If it is one or two acres, the difference is more than ten coins. Even if it is ten or eight acres, the difference is only a few dozen coins.

Nowadays, ordinary people usually have only about ten acres of land at home, so paying a few dozen cents more or less a year doesn't seem to make much difference.

The problem is that corrupt officials and even local tyrants and gentry don’t own more than ten acres of land. They own thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of acres!
There is a big difference between them.

If it is 10,000 mu, the difference is hundreds of taels of silver. If it is 100,000 mu, the difference is thousands of taels of silver. If it is millions of mu, the difference is tens of thousands of taels of silver!

Nowadays, at least 70% to 80% of the farmland is in the hands of corrupt officials and local tyrants. Even in a county, the land owned by corrupt officials and local tyrants would amount to millions of acres. There is a lot that can be done here.

What these guys did was to take money from corrupt officials and local tyrants and classify all their land as inferior land, with an output of less than two dan per mu. In this way, millions of mu of land could pay tens of thousands of taels less in land tax, and they could easily make a few thousand taels or even tens of thousands of taels.

He considered all the common people's land as good farmland, with an output of more than two or even three dan per mu!

By doing this, the overall land tax seemed to be not much different, but corrupt officials and local tyrants paid less, while ordinary people paid more, and they even got money.

This is just one way to make money. These guys have come up with many other ways to commit corruption.

For example, there is no standard for the pricing of grain. In some places, one tael of silver is equal to three dan, in some places, one tael of silver is equal to two dan, and in some places, one tael of silver is equal to one dan.

Even the price of the same kind of grain in the same place is different, because grains can be good or bad. For example, the price difference between glutinous rice and brown rice is very large.

These guys used this pricing power to collect money from corrupt officials and local tyrants, and counted the grain produced in their fields as the least valuable, while the grain produced in the fields of ordinary people was counted as the most valuable.

By the same token, if grain is not valuable, the tax silver converted into it will be less; if grain is valuable, the tax silver converted into it will be more.

In this way, the overall land tax seems to be not much different, but corrupt officials and local tyrants pay less, while ordinary people pay more, and they get money again.

In addition, they would conscript laborers to do the work of 50 or even 30 laborers to do the job of 100 people. Ordinary people had to work very hard and still provide for their own food, and still received the lowest wages.

They eat and drink delicious food, don't have to do any work, and in the end they have to eat up most of the wages!

What's worse, they deliberately fabricated false cases and arrested civilians who owned land, forcing them to sell their land to corrupt officials and local tyrants at low prices in order to profit from it!

The more Wanli looked at it, the angrier he became.

It seems that all the reforms Zhang Juzheng carried out were done for these corrupt officials, and the people he whipped were all ordinary people!
These corrupt officials deserve to die!
Seeing him panting like an ox, little Zhu Changxun couldn't help but ask cautiously, "Father, what's wrong?"

Don't you see?

Wanli took a deep breath, then patiently taught: "Xun'er, implementing the Single Whip Law is originally a good thing.

Because taxes were originally collected separately, including grain, various agricultural products, and even timber, it was too manpower-consuming and the loss of grain in the canal transportation was also astonishingly large.

Just think about it, how much food can one tael of silver buy?
If it is a grain-producing area like Bashu and Huguang, one tael of silver is enough to buy about three shi, which is four or five hundred kilograms.

Think about it again, is it easier to transport one or two taels of silver or four or five hundred kilograms of grain?
The biggest benefit of this "One Whip System" after all taxes were converted into silver was that it saved on grain transport costs.

After all, an 800-ton express ship can carry tens or even hundreds of millions of taels of silver. If all the taxes from the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty are included, it will only take dozens of ships to transport them to the capital.

Do you know how many grain ships we originally needed to transport the grain? There were tens of thousands of grain ships!
If we follow the original grain transport standards, the cost of transporting one stone of grain from the south to the north would be two stones.

In other words, the land tax collected in the south was 15 million shi, but after transporting it to the capital, only about 5 million shi remained. It is conceivable how much transportation costs were saved by this "One Whip System".

The implementation of the Single Whip Law was originally a boon for the imperial court, but these corrupt officials found ways to exploit its loopholes. The imperial court's tax revenue didn't seem to increase much from the reduced labor and transport costs, while the common people were being ruthlessly exploited by these officials.

They are so devout in their corruption and abuse of power that no matter how much we reform the law, the common people will still be exploited by them."

These corrupt officials!

Upon hearing this, little Zhu Changxun gritted his teeth and said, "Father, wouldn't it be better if we just killed all these corrupt officials?"

You can’t kill all the corrupt officials. These guys are like leeks. When you kill one group, another group will pop up.

These guys can only find ways to deal with it.

Wanli was just thinking about how to deal with corrupt officials in the future when Li Xuancheng suddenly poked his head in and said, "Your Majesty, Guozhu is back."

This guy is finally back.

Upon hearing this, Wanli immediately said in a loud voice: "Announce."

Soon, Li Guozhu walked in quickly, bowed and said, "I pay my respects to His Majesty, and to His Royal Highness the Third Prince."

No, there is another one?

Wanli couldn't help but ask curiously, "Where's Zhenzhi? Didn't he come back with you?"

This guy was in a hurry to expand his territory.

Li Guozhu explained in detail: "Your Majesty, after our fleet arrived in Dongfan, Lord Li said that the navigation map was almost finished.

The route from Dongfan to Japan has been open for many years and there is no need to draw it again.

He hurriedly ordered a hundred centipede ships and ten 2,000-ton Fuchuan warships, and then turned around and headed towards the South Seas, saying he was going to expand his territory.

Oh, this guy can't wait to run to Australia.

Well, the sooner we take over the island over there, the better.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "How is it going? How much gold has been mined in North America Xidusi? How much did you bring back this time?"

This is not that fast.

Li Guozhu said carefully, "Your Majesty, I only stayed there for more than ten days after I brought the Japanese and the garrison soldiers there. After collecting one million taels, I set out to return.

The gold mine over there should be able to produce one million taels a month without any problem, but I will have to go back to bring back a few million taels."

Only one million taels were brought back this time?

However, this is not a small amount. According to the current gold-silver price ratio, it is equivalent to more than 10 million taels of silver.

Moreover, the gold production there has increased to one million taels a month, and he is finally not short of money.

Wanli nodded slightly, then said solemnly: "When you go back, negotiate with the Spanish and buy more copper from them."

what?
Aren’t we planning to go to war with them next year?
Why waste this money?
Li Guozhu asked carefully, "Your Majesty, how much do you need to buy?"

Naturally, the more the better.

Wanli pondered and said, "It's up to you. We need at least two million catties. If you can buy it all in one trip, go ahead.

If they don't have that much inventory, you can ask them to stock up quickly and you can go back next time to get more. It's okay to buy more. You can just take the gold directly from there and pay them. "

Next trip?
My next trip there will be next year.

Li Guozhu thought about it carefully after hearing this, and then asked cautiously: "Your Majesty, do you mean that we won't go to war with them next year?"

There's no need to rush this.

Wanli nodded slowly and said, “Yes, we can’t go to war with them next year.

I have too much to do here. We are currently cleaning up corrupt officials, and I don’t know if we can finish it by next year.

Moreover, we will have to hold the imperial examination and the palace examination next year, and we will also have to prepare to deal with the Jiannu. We really don't have time to go to war with them.

More importantly, communication is very important in this world of war. If the battlefield situation cannot be reported in time, there is a high probability of problems.

This problem has to be solved by steamships. Now that the steam engine has been developed, the steamship should be available soon. It would be safer if we wait a while.

Anyway, the main reason we went to war with them was for the copper resources, so it wouldn't be a big deal to buy some from them first."

There won't be another war next year?!
Li Guozhu was stunned when he heard this, then he said carefully: "Your Majesty, the vassal states over there have gathered over two million troops for training in the Apache Kingdom. Should we let them disperse first?"

It doesn’t seem necessary?

Wanli thought for a moment and then asked, "How are the 20 million mu of land over there? When can we harvest it?"

This is fast.

Li Guozhu estimated: "The crops on the 20 million mu of land there are growing well and can be harvested around mid-September.

The harvest should have already begun when I rushed over there, so I don't need to carry any grain this time."

That's good. Twenty million mu of land can yield at least 40 million dan of grain, enough to feed four million people for a year.

Wanli thought about it carefully and then instructed: "Then you go and tell General Wang and General Lou that the two million troops of the vassal state will continue to assemble and train, and we will provide them with food.

Also, this time you should bring more sheep and horses over so that they can have some meat.

As for horses, take all the people from the Haixi Jurchen tribe over there and have them cut wood. Also, take some craftsmen over there and build carriages to transport food."

Now the fleet is about to be full again.

Li Guozhu bowed repeatedly and said, "I understand."

What else?
Wanli thought about it carefully, and suddenly he said, "Oh right, ask Zhaolong to come back with you next time, and have him arrange a reliable disciple to take care of things over there first."

Is Master Zhu coming back?
Li Guozhu nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

(End of this chapter)