Chongzhen Wiretapping System

Chapter 280

Hearing the emperor's question again, no matter whether it was Zhang Pu or Wu Changshi, they couldn't help being humble, and at the same time naturally hinted that the fact was indeed like this!

After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen seemed to be even happier, so he praised the two of them again, saying that they were really role models for all officials.He was relieved to have officials like them teaching the prince.

Anyway, they talked a lot, all about the reputations that Zhang Pu and Wu Changshi had deliberately cultivated. This just scratched their itch, not to mention that the person speaking was the current emperor.In addition to their original worries, they did not find out at all that the emperor did not mention that they were suspected of forming a party or manipulating the imperial examination. Therefore, both Zhang Pu and Wu Changshi became excited, and slowly, they became less excited. He was reserved and talked more.

"Your Majesty, I have been studying the books of sages and sages since I was a child, thinking that one day I will share the worries of the country and benefit the people. This is what our generation of scholars should do, and it is really normal!" Zhang Pu showed a serious expression on his face, and asked Emperor Chongzhen played.

Wu Changshi didn't expect Zhang Pu to snatch the belly draft in his heart, so he couldn't help but feel a little depressed.In fact, he has been unhappy with Zhang Pu for a long time!
Speaking of which, he formed Fushe with Zhang Pu, Zhang Cai and others back then, and was one of the first 11 people; however, the world only knows Zhang Pu and Zhang Cai, and his reputation in Wu Changshi is far less than that of Zhang Pu and Zhang Cai. loud.What makes him most dissatisfied is that the power of Fushe is in the hands of Zhang Pu, which makes him even more indignant.

Now that the imperial prelude is right and the emperor is boasting, Zhang Pu took the lead again, and the dissatisfaction accumulated in his heart is even greater.

Of course, he also knew the occasion, this was in front of the emperor, in order to show his broad mind, of course he couldn't say anything to Zhang Pu.Therefore, he also hastened to play to Emperor Chongzhen: "When I was young, I had the ambition to be loyal to the emperor and serve the country. I will do my best and die. I will not hesitate!"

When Emperor Chongzhen heard what they said, he seemed to say with emotion: "If there were more officials like Qing, the situation in Ming Dynasty would not be so severe!"

Hearing this, this time, Wu Changshi took the first step and asked: "Your Majesty wiped out the Hetao Tartars and encircled and suppressed all the rogues. Thanks to Your Majesty, the situation is already very good!"

The implication is, Your Majesty, you are humble, and this is all thanks to you!This can be regarded as a flattery, and I sent it out.

This time, Zhang Pu held his own identity and didn't say much, but just echoed.

After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen stopped his smile, shook his head and sighed, and then asked Lan Tianbao to forward a stack of memorials on the imperial case to the two of them, and at the same time said with a little worry: "I'm not just talking, Qing, etc. The two of you can take a look first, the disasters in various places are serious, and they are all waiting for the imperial court to provide disaster relief!"

After finishing speaking, he saw Zhang Pu and Wu Changshi reading the memorial, and he said again: "Although I have wiped out the bandits, if the root of the disaster is not gone, there will definitely be new bandits in the future. With your talents and knowledge, You should know what the evil I am referring to is, right?"

While the two of them were reading the memorial, they were naturally also paying attention to the movements of Emperor Chongzhen.Therefore, as soon as Emperor Chongzhen finished speaking, Zhang Pu and Wu Changshi said to each other almost at the same time: "Famine!"

"Yes, famine!" Emperor Chongzhen nodded and said with a slightly sad face, "There are floods in the south and drought in the north. We all need disaster relief, but the court cannot spend so much money and food for disaster relief! Sometimes, I think... …”

Speaking of this, he glanced at the two people below, and said in a harsh tone: "If you find some rich households to search their homes, forget it. In this way, if the imperial court has money, it will be able to provide disaster relief!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Pu and Wu Changshi were startled, and they said in unison: "Your Majesty, absolutely not!"

After finishing speaking, the two looked at each other, and shut up without saying anything.

When Emperor Chongzhen saw it, he immediately asked: "The money and food stolen from the big treason case have been almost used up, but Qing and the other two should have seen the disaster situation in various places. Where did the money and food come from?"

If he was asking how to deal with disasters in various places?Then these two people will definitely say tax exemption.However, this was not the answer he wanted, so he directly asked where did the relief money come from?
Among Wu Changshi and Zhang Pu, relatively speaking, Zhang Pu was deeper in the city. Therefore, when he heard the emperor's question, he wanted to answer that the princes of the court had their own judgments on this matter.

But Wu Changshi next to him didn't even think about it, and immediately played: "Your Majesty, the imperial court has its own laws, and if it collects taxes, or sends more taxes, there will naturally be money and food for disaster relief."

This Wu Changshi was really on the right track, Emperor Chongzhen thought in his heart, and said: "This is easy to say, but it is difficult to do it! Two lovers, may you share my worries and relieve the people's difficulties ?”

He had praised the two of them before, and both of them responded.The most important thing is that this is in front of the emperor, and the emperor asked them if they would like to share their worries for the emperor. Which of the officials dared to say that they did not want to share their worries for the emperor?
Therefore, no matter what they thought in their hearts, the two of them responded.At the same time, they also felt that this was probably the real purpose of the emperor summoning the two of them.

In fact, they did not resist this.They were doing things for the emperor, and this kind of thing was originally done by the princes in the court, which showed that the emperor valued them both, and maybe they would be promoted because of it.

Before that, they had actually seen that Emperor Chongzhen had promoted many people to become great officials in the frontier, and even Song Yingxing and his like had written a mere book on miscellaneous studies, and the emperor specially set up a new book for him. the Yamen.It is impossible to say that they are indifferent to the situation.

The two of them were still Jinshi, and now they are just working on their qualifications.The best job is to teach the prince.If one day in the future, the prince ascends the throne as the emperor, they will definitely be reused.But the key problem is that the crown prince is still young, and the emperor is so young, and he doesn't know what year of the monkey will be waiting until the day the crown prince ascends the throne as emperor!

Therefore, now that the emperor seems to be giving a chance, the two of them are still looking forward to it.If I think I can do well, I will definitely be promoted.

When Emperor Chongzhen saw that both of them had expressed their opinions, he asked his personal chamberlain Lan Tianbao to take several other memorials from the imperial case and show them to them.

Zhang Pu and Wu Changshi were a little puzzled, wondering what kind of memorial this is?When they opened it and glanced at it for a while, the expressions of the two of them changed immediately, as if they were a little frightened.

It turned out that the contents written in these memorials were the tax arrears of the counties over the years and the tax payment registrations of the officials in various places.

The reason why the two of them were scared after watching it was because they guessed what Emperor Chongzhen wanted them to do.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, tax arrears in various places was already very common.

If it is ordinary people who default on their debts, the local officials will be merciless, and they will probably be arrested, whipped, or even killed.According to historical records, many ordinary people in Shandong and Shaanxi committed suicide because they failed to pay taxes within the deadline.

But these are actually only a small part of the tax arrears, and most of the tax arrears are actually from wealthy households.They have money and will donate their officials to avoid possible corporal punishment and arrest by magistrates.For these people, the magistrates can only report, and reporting cannot actually solve the problem.And if the local officials report too much, they will appear incompetent, which in turn forces the local officials not to report too much.In this way, wealthy households are the main force behind tax arrears.

These rich households who owe taxes are actually very cunning.First, they have power, and second, they will not really refuse to pay a penny, but only pay a small part, and then they will rely on it, year after year, for a few years, and the court sees this accumulation The tax arrears will become a difficult point in the latest tax collection, and we can only forgive the taxes that have been in arrears for many years.

In addition, according to the usual practice, such as the birth of a prince, the establishment of a prince, or the enthronement of a new emperor, etc., it is often necessary to pardon tax arrears.As long as this is the case, the arrears of taxes can often be paid off.

These kinds of things are actually a vicious circle, which encourages those who are in arrears of taxes. As for those who pay taxes normally, they can get away with it at first glance, and paying taxes normally is not beneficial, so they will naturally follow suit.

Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen showed them the amount of tax arrears in this memorial, which can be said to be shocking.

Another type of memorial is the record of officials paying taxes.

In the Ming Dynasty, officials were never fully tax-free.It doesn't mean that as long as you win the exam, you don't have to pay taxes or do hard labor anymore.

There are provisions in the law of the Ming Dynasty, and officials and gentry can indeed be exempted from certain corvees.This point has existed since the early Ming Dynasty.

In the early Ming Dynasty, it was stipulated that, in addition to taxes and food and regular service in the Lijia, the family of Beijing officials was exempted from miscellaneous service, and foreign officials were reduced according to their rank.Later, with the continuous efforts of these officials and gentry, this regulation was changed to preferential exemption of Ding, Liang or Dingtian according to the grade limit.

For example, during the Zhengde period, it was stipulated that four hectares of land would be exempted for Beijing officials with a rank of three or more, three hectares of land for those with a fifth rank and above, two hectares of land for those with a seventh rank and above, and one hectare for foreign officials with a rank of nine and above.

This regulation is actually not a big deal in the north, but if it is replaced by a lot of land in the south, it will be more.

However, the hearts of the people were not enough, and the officials and gentry were still not satisfied, so they continued to work hard. During the Jiajing period, they persuaded the emperor several times to modify the preferential exemption.

In the 24th year of Jiajing, it became Beijing officials who were free of grain for 24 shi for the first rank and 24 dong for a person; Ding; Foreign officials are halved.

In the Wanli period, it was changed again, from "discussing products free of grain" to "discussing products free of land".The content of preferential exemption is changed from Liang and Ding to Tian and Ding, and Tian and Ding can be exchanged for each other.

This back-and-forth change can be seen as a change brought about by the ebb and flow of official power in the north and the south, because there is a big difference between free grain and free land for the north and the south.

The regulations in the 14th year of Wanli lasted until the Chongzhen Dynasty, that is, Beijing officials were exempted from [-] mu of land for the first rank, [-] mu for the second rank, and then decreased to [-] mu for the eighth rank;Those who are not officials are exempted from [-] mu of land, tribute students from [-] mu of land, supervisors and students from [-] mu of land;

It can be seen that during the more than 200 years of the Ming Dynasty, the officials and gentry have been working hard for their own privileges.

就拿万历38年比正德16年，一品京官优免田额就增长了25倍；八品京官优免田额增长了27倍之多；而万历38年比起14年时候，甲科京外官优免田额就又各增长了十倍，告老还乡的官员优免田额增长了六倍；
It stands to reason that there are so many officials and gentry who are exempted, and they are all saints' children, so they should be content, right?

But the fact is that although the law stipulates that the line between officials and gentry is already quite generous, [-] out of [-] literati and bureaucrats obey and [-] out of [-] violate the law. For most officials and gentry, they can be exempted as much as they can, and it is best that all of them can be exempted. Lose.

There are many representatives who have this idea, and the famous one is Xu Jie, the chief minister of the Jiajing Dynasty.He seems to be the representative of upright officials and the leader of the clean stream; however, he is actually an extremely big landlord. When encountering someone who abuses the power of preferential exemptions, he asks the local magistrate to "mediate appropriately", which is meaningless. On the surface, it turns a blind eye and turns a blind eye. It can be seen that in fact, it is the butt that determines everything.

During the Wanli period, Nanzhili inspectors proposed that officials and gentry should be exempted from inspection quotas. Lu Shusheng, the empress minister of the Ministry of Rites, immediately objected strongly. Restrictions also".This kind of words can be uttered, so it can be seen that in order to be exempted from the full amount, it does not need any face.

In fact, during the Wanli period, land annexation was serious, and the officials and gentry wanted to be exempted completely. They could not collect taxes, and all of them fell on ordinary people.If it is not rectified, just like in history, the Ming Dynasty went bankrupt and finished.

Therefore, some officials proposed that the preferential treatment of officials and gentry should be strictly in accordance with the law. Among them, Gan Shijia was one of them; although he was opposed because he represented the emperor's inspector, it was okay, but he was sprayed. saliva.As for magistrates, they were not so lucky.

In the 29th year of Wanli, Zhu Guozhen, the magistrate of Wucheng County, Huzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang Province, saw that the officials and gentry were exempted from military service, sitting comfortably, and the villagers responded to the service. Must serve.The people welcomed it very much, and even posted the four big characters "Jiantian Convenience" in big books everywhere to express their support.

However, the final result was that the families of the officials and gentry united together, entangled with more than a thousand servants, and directly broke into the official office to arrest Zhu Guozhen and even burned Zhu's house.

There are also Shen Shixing, Qian Longxi and others who are famous in history, and they also use various reasons to oppose the equalization of land and labor other than preferential exemption.

In addition, the law of the Ming Dynasty stipulates that after the death of officials and gentry, they can continue to be exempted for three years; however, the reality is that after three years, they are often exempted all the time. It is not too difficult for them to spit out the benefits. .

From all these, after more than 200 years of accumulation, by the time of the Chongzhen Dynasty, it was only the disadvantages of this aspect, and one or two can be known; therefore, the content written in this memorial scared Zhang Pu and Wu Changshi.

(End of this chapter)