The Prosperous Era of Longwan

After hearing Wei Guangde's words, Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Siwei fell silent.

Wei Guangde had informed Zhang Siwei about this matter, but he did not have much say in it, after all, it was mainly a matter of the Ministry of War.

The news Zhang Juzheng received naturally came from the palace, and it expressed more concerns about the growing power of Mongolia.

Wei Guangde's plan to use the Mongols to spread the Ming Dynasty's will into Tibet was only briefly mentioned.

After all, although the Ming Dynasty had in fact crushed Mongolia in terms of strength, the fear of Mongolia that had formed over the years could not be alleviated in a short period of time.

[At this point I hope readers will remember our domain name Taiwan Novel Network → 𝓉𝓌𝓀𝒶𝓃.𝒸ℴ𝓂]

Perhaps, only Wei Guangde, who is familiar with the future, knows that Mongolia’s power has come to an end, and in a few decades, each generation of Mongolians will be weaker than the previous one.

After the emergence of machine guns and cannons, the once invincible cavalry was swept into the garbage dump.

If the Mongols continued to fight the Ming Dynasty, it would obviously not be in Sonam Gyatso's interests.

Accepting the Ming Dynasty's enthronement will also make his status and position more respected after he returns to Tibet.

In the foreseeable ten or twenty years, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the grassland may really enter a peaceful period as Wei Guangde predicted.

Although the Ming Dynasty would have to pay more through tribute, it could be exchanged for peace. The Ming Dynasty could also use this time to reorganize its northern border defenses and form and train a new army.

It is definitely better than continuing the confrontation with Mongolia.

Without the North having to be on guard too much, he can focus on domestic reforms.

As for Wei Guangde's ambition to control the grassland and even infiltrate Tibet, although Zhang Juzheng was not sure, he felt it was worth a try.

Anyway, there will be no war between the two sides in the short term, so there are many things that can be done.

"Okay, since Shandai has considered it so carefully, I will file a petition later and explain the situation more clearly."

When Zhang Juzheng said this, he actually changed his attitude and planned to support Wei Guangde's strategy.

"Otherwise, does Shandai have any other plans?"

After saying this, Zhang Juzheng continued to ask.

"I have asked the Ministry of War to select young generals from the army and send them to Liaodong to learn Qi Jiguang's method of training troops, in preparation for future training of other military towns.

The current focus is on the newly formed Chariot Battalion, Cavalry Battalion and Infantry Battalion in Xuanfu. Liaodong has already sent generals to assist in the training."

Wei Guangde also told the Ministry of War what he had told him. Thinking of Xuanfu, Wei Guangde naturally thought of Ma Fang, so he continued, "Ma Fang in Xuanfu is old, and someone needs to be arranged to replace him."

"Is there anyone who can be chosen?"

When Zhang Juzheng heard about the replacement of the general of the border town, he became concerned and asked immediately.

"Ma Gui, currently serving as the deputy general of Datong, guarding Datong West Road."

Wei Guangde said bluntly, "The Ministry of War is preparing a transfer order to send him to Xuanfu as deputy commander-in-chief to assist Ma Fang in defending the city."

"Magui."

Zhang Juzheng just nodded slightly. Although Wei Guangde handled more of the Ministry of War's affairs, it did not mean that Zhang Juzheng was completely unaware of them.

Although the Ma family was also known as the Ma Family Generals in later generations, and had produced nearly thirty admirals, generals, lieutenant generals and other high-ranking military officials, in fact the Ma family's rise to prominence was very short. Similar to the situation of Li Chengliang's family, they only stood out in recent decades.

The first person in the Ma family to obtain an official position in the imperial court was actually Ma Gui's father, Ma Lu. He started out as a groom raising war horses for the imperial court and became a lieutenant general of Datong based on his military achievements.

With the foundation laid by his father, Ma Gui's career went smoothly. With the help of several battles with the Mongols in the late Jiajing period and the early Longqing period, he was promoted to deputy general for his merits, thus surpassing his father's generation.

Zhang Juzheng was silent for a while. In fact, he was not considering whether Ma Gui could replace Ma Fang, but he vaguely realized that Wei Guangde had already begun to select successors for Ma Fang and even Yu Dayou and others.

They are all getting old, and at this age they are no longer suitable to continue to serve as generals.

With the support of Zhang Juzheng, the petition for title, which had been kept in the palace for many days, was finally sent out from the palace and back to the cabinet.

Although Zhang Juzheng supported it, the inner court still debated it for a long time. Many people thought that the Silijian was just a government office that approved documents and stamped them with red seals, but in fact, the people in it were also the think tank of the royal family. When dealing with the memorials drafted by the cabinet, they would also express their opinions and views.

This time, it was actually because the eunuchs in the Imperial Household Department had similar concerns as the Ministry of War that caused this memorial to stay in the palace for quite a while.

Wei Guangde immediately drafted an imperial edict, and according to what he had planned long ago, he conferred the title of "Zen Master who Protects the Country and Promotes Buddhism" on Sonam Gyatso. He also specially drafted a document to the Shangbaojian to make a golden seal for Sonam Gyatso, and planned to issue an imperial edict to the Governor-General of Gansu, ordering him to go to Yanghua Temple to announce the edict and bestow the seal.

The cabinet began to issue documents related to the enfeoffment in an orderly manner. Wei Guangde also issued an edict to Altan Khan, which was to let him return to the grassland as soon as possible to build a temple for Sonam Gyatso as a place for Sonam Gyatso to preach on the grassland.

However, this time the Ming Dynasty did not reward gold, silver and building materials, but let Altan Khan prepare them himself.

The purpose, of course, was to spend Altan Khan's money, which was also to consume his economic strength. Wei Guangde had even thought of the rhetoric. Naturally, believers could express their religious beliefs by spending money, just like Emperor Jiajing had spent a lot of money to build temples.

At the same time, in the capital, the Ministry of Works was ordered to build a Lama temple as a place for the "Zen Master who protects the country and spreads the teachings" to preach.

Since he was a Zen master canonized by the Ming Dynasty, it would be natural to prepare a temple for him, and he might even be invited to the capital to preach in the future.

"Master, please go over to the Prime Minister as soon as possible."

Just then, Lu Bu came in and whispered in his ear.

"Do you know what it's about?"

Wei Guangde was stunned, then asked.

"I don't know. They didn't say."

Lu Bu answered immediately.

"Send this note to the Ministry of Works and ask them to prepare as soon as possible. Someone will pass on the order soon."

Wei Guangde's idea of ​​building a new lama temple for Sonam Gyatso in the capital was a sudden idea, so he thought that the Ministry of Works might not be prepared.

After sending the letter here, we will immediately arrange for someone to pass the news to Jiang Zhi and ask him to start preparing, so as to avoid being caught off guard, which would be embarrassing.

"Yes, sir."

Lu Bu took the note handed over by Wei Guangde with both hands and agreed.

Thinking that everything was fine for the time being, it wasn't that he had already dealt with all the memorials that had been sent to him, but that he just didn't have the heart to deal with them at the moment.

He stood up, walked out of the duty room quickly, and went straight to Zhang Juzheng.

Entering the room, Zhang Juzheng was still dressed in plain clothes. Anyway, he would not wear official robes in the next two years, and would not participate in any ceremonial activities of the court. Wei Guangde or other people designated by the emperor would do it for him.

"Good loan, take a look at this."

After a few words of greeting after entering the room, Zhang Juzheng took out a memorial from his sleeve and handed it to him.

Although he was curious, he still reached out to take it and knew what it was at a glance.

The memorial drafted by Zhang Xueyan of the Ministry of Revenue contained exactly the yahang and ya tax mentioned by Wei Guangde before.

The business of yaren was actually strictly prohibited by Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang during the Hongwu period in the early Ming Dynasty. However, private transactions, especially large-scale transactions, required the help of knowledgeable middlemen such as yaren, so it was not really implemented.

As Ming Dynasty society gradually stabilized and the handicraft industry prospered unprecedentedly, merchants' need for brokers further increased. As a result, brokers began to appear in all aspects of commercial activities in various parts of the Ming Dynasty and were no longer a taboo.

It is said that the term "toothman" originated from the middleman who helped people buy and sell livestock in the livestock market and needed to look at the teeth of cattle and horses to facilitate the transaction.

In the Ming Dynasty, as business prospered unprecedentedly, the brokers became polarized.

Some people became official brokers by contracting commercial taxes levied by local governments, but there were still many private brokers among the people who walked around the streets carrying scales on their backs. They were actually the lubricants in commercial activities, helping buyers and sellers to complete transactions.

The business of pawnbrokers gradually disappeared until the comprador system in the late Qing Dynasty, but in fact, even in later generations, it still exists in inconspicuous corners.

Wei Guangde quickly looked through Zhang Xueyan's memorial and found that "ya tax" was added on top of the local commercial tax originally borne by the yamen.

However, the memorial cleverly made a turnaround by changing the "commercial tax" originally borne by the yamen into the "yapai fee" of the local government, which was understood by later generations as an industrial and commercial license. The tax amount set by the Ministry of Revenue now was the "commercial tax" to be paid to the court.

In this way, local governments were guaranteed a stable income and the imperial court had a name for collecting taxes, which was the "commercial tax" that existed in the early Ming Dynasty.

Wei Guangde naturally had no objection to this.

However, when he saw the tax standards for goods, Wei Guangde frowned slightly.

The commercial tax in the Ming Dynasty actually went through three tax rates. Before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, due to high military expenditures, Zhu Yuanzhang initially set the commercial tax at 15%. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it was relaxed to 120%.

Afterwards, in order to restore the handicraft industry and prosper private commerce, the tax rate was soon relaxed again to 30%, and even tax exemption measures were adopted for some of the people's daily necessities.

Commercial taxes were also mostly concentrated on luxury goods such as tea, ironware, salt and silk, while low tax rates were imposed on cotton cloth and other items.

In this memorial submitted by Zhang Xueyan, the standard of 30% tax on business was adopted, and the tax amount was indeed a bit low.

Although low taxes are actually a good thing for Wei Guangde, Wei Guangde is considering the long term.

After the Industrial Revolution, productivity increased greatly, and the tax rate of 30% was too low. It was difficult for the imperial court to collect enough tax silver to meet various expenditure needs.

Even if productivity increased along with output, the court's tax revenue would also rise, but Wei Guangde knew that the Ming Dynasty fell due to insufficient fiscal spending, and the temporary tax increase was all borne by the poor people, which led to the rampant bandits in the late Ming Dynasty.

Since he had already planned to impose commercial taxes in advance to balance the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue and expenditure, Wei Guangde would naturally not ignore the greater good for the sake of small profits.

After a brief thought, Wei Guangde smiled and said to Zhang Juzheng, "Brother Uncle, Minister Zhang mentioned this memorial to me earlier."

"oh."

Zhang Juzheng nodded slightly when he heard this. He had met Zhang Xueyan last night and naturally knew the reason why this memorial was issued.

Zhang Xueyan was opposed at first, but when faced with the deficit of the Ministry of Revenue, his attitude changed.

Before that, before he returned to the capital, he also discussed this matter with Wei Guangde and got his support, which is why this memorial appeared.

Zhang Juzheng was happy to see this happen and he supported it himself, but he needed more people to respond before he could push it forward.

Now that he doesn't need to actively push it, it would be great if Zhang Xueyan changed his mind and supported it.

"I think the Ministry of Revenue's plan is very good, but..."

Wei Guangde continued speaking, but suddenly stopped halfway through.

"Just what?"

Zhang Juzheng asked immediately. It was obvious that Wei Guangde saw something wrong in the memorial, so he did this.

In fact, after reading this memorial, Zhang Juzheng did not feel that there was anything wrong with it.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of goods circulating in various places, commercial tax on goods was collected through the brokerage firm, which was one in thirty, which was very reasonable.

"A tax rate of one in thirty is really too low and unreasonable."

Wei Guangde spoke up.

Zhang Juzheng was stunned when he heard this. He had never thought that Wei Guangde actually thought that the tax rate collected by the court was too low.

You know, the amount of taxes collected by the court will directly affect the profits of those private chambers of commerce, as well as Wei Guangde’s own dividends.

"Shandai, what do you mean?"

Zhang Juzheng asked hesitantly.

He was not sure whether Wei Guangde's words were genuine or just a pretense.

"Commodity classification: there is no problem with charging a 30% tax on ordinary commodities, but for textiles, such as silk, long cotton cloth, as well as fine products such as tea and fine porcelain, a 10% tax is imposed.

These things are not affordable for ordinary people, so raising the tax on these goods will not have any impact on the people.

People who can afford it will not choose not to use it just because of the 10% tax.

In addition, I remember that the goods shipped to Yuegang were taxed at a rate of 15% when entering Yuegang. This time, it might be changed to 10%.

Also, I think it is a bit inappropriate for the Ministry of Revenue to define this as a commercial tax.”

Wei Guangde spoke eloquently.

Zhang Juzheng ignored the issue of the 10% tax rate for the time being. High taxes were definitely a good thing as the court could collect more tax silver.

But this tax is not called commercial tax, so what should it be called?

"Then Shandai, what do you think we should do?"

Zhang Juzheng asked directly.

“All the goods handled by the pawnbroker will have a pawnbroker certificate, which proves that the pawnbroker has paid the money. It is called a pawnbroker certificate.

When the dental shop receives the tax, it will issue a dental certificate to the goods to prove that the tax has been paid and exchange it for silver, which is very appropriate. "

Wei Guangde guided.

In the past, stamp tax would be affixed to the tax receipt, similar to a stamp, to indicate that the stamp tax had been paid.

The current silver exchange tax is actually very similar to stamp duty.

However, after the Ming Dynasty collected the tax silver, it gave a "tax receipt", which was stamped by the government and given to the tax-collecting agent of the contractor as a receipt for tax collection.

Now, the Ministry of Revenue will directly deliver this tax invoice to local areas as a receipt for tax collection.

"The money exchanged at the dental clinic?"

Zhang Juzheng muttered something and then nodded.

"But, brother, I actually have other ideas about this money."

Thinking of what he had planned before, Wei Guangde continued. (End of this chapter)