Zhu Houzhao began to admire Wu Wending a little. He actually didn't have a deep impression of Wu Wending. He only knew that this guy was a general, but he also had a bad temper. He had an unhappy relationship with Zhang Zhong because the eunuch Zhang Zhong wanted to take his merits of participating in the pacification of Ning Wang. He was recommended by Wang Shouren and went to Nanzhili to serve as the governor to replace Yan Song.

Now because of the reform of tax affairs in Jiangnan, Wu Wending directly suggested that all officials who were unwilling to reform tax affairs but ignored the interests of the people in Jiangnan. Zhu Houzhao had to admit that Wu Wending was really a military officer who looked like a civil servant on the outside and was actually a decisive military officer. It seemed that he would directly take human life if he had a disagreement.

But in fact, only such officials can suppress thoughtful officials.

Although Wang Chengyu, Zhang Jin and others hated Wu Wending so much that their teeth were itchy, they could not provide any reason to accuse Wu Wending.

Wang Shouren was in a much better mood. Wu Wending was his former partner and had killed the rebels back to back together. Naturally, his friendship was not comparable to ordinary officials. Now, seeing Wu Wending stand up to support him, I am naturally very happy, at least I can fight side by side again.

Wu Wending also glanced at Wang Shouren, and his thick eyebrows couldn't help but raise his thick eyebrows. He didn't want his friend, the founder of the Heart, to fight alone when he was a cabinet minister. As for doing so, he could make the emperor happy to let Wang Shouren regard himself as a political alliance and continue to support himself in the future, that was just a matter of being by the way.

Cong Lan did not mix some personal feelings like Wang Shouren when the bombardment of Wu Wending at this time, but he also admired Wu Wending's courage to stand up and fight with Jiangnan chaebols and his wisdom in understanding the relationship between officials and the people, at least better than Huang Zhong.

Cong Lan looked at Wang Chengyu provocatively: "Look, even Wu Wending from Huguang wants to reform the tax affairs. Can you officials in Nanzhili and Zhejiang resist the discussions of officials from other provinces?"

Zhu Houzhao saw that these officials were silent and did not know what these officials were thinking for a while. Sometimes he felt it was difficult for him to guess what these officials were thinking. Although he had a factory and a Jinyiwei, when everyone was only thinking about him and he needed to think about everyone, it was obvious that everyone knew him better, not that he knew everyone better.

At this time, the only thing Zhu Houzhao can do is to keep his own thinking and have his own opinions.

To put it directly to reform the tax administration of Jiangnan, commercial taxation was to impose an additional commercial tax, because Jiangnan was no longer an agricultural society, and collecting commercial taxes according to the way of collecting agricultural taxes was obviously a loss for the court.

After all, the productivity levels of commercial civilization and agricultural civilization are different. One is that it can transform nature with an industrial science and technology foundation, and the other is that it relies on the weather to make a living.

Of course, the court can suffer losses and not increase the proportion of profits in the commodity economic activities of Jiangnan, so that the people of Jiangnan can become rich. However, the consequences of doing so will only lead to more chaebols in Jiangnan.

Now there are also chaebols in the Ming Dynasty. Those officials who strengthened centralization with Zhu Houzhao were all given state shares. For example, Wang Shouren, who presided over the tax reform in Jiangnan, was one of them.

But these chaebol Zhu Houzhao have the same interests as those linked to national income. You can say that they are bureaucratic capitalists who absorb the benefits of the people of the world, but at least they are unwilling to let the Ming Dynasty fall, and even have to work hard to increase national income, because by increasing national income, they can share the profits.

After Zhu Houzhao asked this, Wang Shouren, who was familiar with border affairs, said: "It will go south in a large scale, or even the northern Han, Mongolian and Manchu forces will join forces to go south. In name, it will overthrow our Ming Dynasty, but in fact it will plunder the wealth of Jiangnan to solve its survival crisis!"

Zhu Hou took a look at Wang Shouren. He admired Wang Shouren very much and could directly foresee the future of history. Isn’t this the subsequent historical development? The northern forces such as the Qing Dynasty, Mongolian, and Han bureaucrats formed a bandit group (Eight Banners) and went south directly, and wiped out the Jiangnan where capitalism was sprouted with a destruction. The selfish, without foresight and even aiding the evildoers in Jiangnan never recovered from this. In front of the Qing nobles who had absolute military power and national emotions, they did not even have the ability to bargain.

"Not only the north, but also the foreign chieftains in the southwest and northwest, even the powerful people in Henan, Shandong and other places can make you rich alone? Every man is guilty of being guilty of being a treasure. Jiangnan is unwilling to give the world with profit. Then the world can only divide the benefits of Jiangnan with swords. Back then, the Southern Song Dynasty occupied the benefits of Jiangnan and achieved a hundred years of peace, so that the white man did not know that he was famine, but it was not because he contributed to the north for years. Now, if the tax affairs of Jiangnan do not change and do not give benefits to the court, there may be chaos in the world in the future, and even foreign tribes will take advantage of the situation and slaughter the Jiangnan!"

Cong Lan also said so, Wang Chengyu remained silent for a long time before saying:

"What Your Majesty and the Shangguan said may be reasonable, and I am not ignoring the situation in the world. However, the people in Jiangnan can benefit because of their own diligence and no fault. Moreover, even if the court did not reform the tax administration, the local government has already charged the tax administration and the miscellaneous fees collected secretly have made the business and the people have less profit. If the tax administration is changed and the tax administration is levied (official tax on the surface), I am afraid that the people will not have any extra benefits. For this reason, I suggest that the court will not compete for profit with the people!"

Wang Shouren wanted to speak but stopped. He really didn't expect that Wang Chengyu and others would be so stubborn. He and Cong Lan both spoke directly, but they insisted on their own opinions.

"What Wang Qing said also needs to be considered. Local levies and hidden taxes are everywhere. Officials, gentry, clerks, and township officials make the most profits, but the court and the people make the least profits. This is the most unreasonable and the most need to be curbed. The court has no money and cannot maintain stability. If the people do not have enough profits, they will turn merchants into bandits!"

Zhu Houzhao said something at this time, and Wang Shouren also stood up and continued to add:

"So, we are talking about reforming tax policies rather than directly saying that we need to increase taxes. How to change tax policies is naturally not simply collecting them according to commercial and profits. The details of the internal ones naturally need to be carefully considered. First, we set up a tax threshold;

If it is a small-scale transaction and the profit is only enough to support the family, the court can exempt them from taxes and even subsidies, but those with high profits need to be levied, and a gradient can be set, that is, the share of collection at different levels of profits is different. For those who are not monopolistic, malicious competition and even business operations are not conducive to the world, not only will they be subject to heavy taxes but also punished!"

When Wang Chengyu heard Wang Shouren say this, he had to give up the idea of ​​letting the court not change his tax affairs and continued: "Since that is the case, how to determine the specific tax system is the top priority. The tax system should be formulated by the court and should not be collected by the local government. Moreover, the court should prohibit local governments from levying additional taxes and banning heavy taxes."

"Wangbutang's words are not agreed with the officials. How can the local governments have no spare money to help the urgent need? If there is another drought and flood disaster, how can we wait for the imperial court to allocate funds? That would not lead to the starving people who have been starved to death before the food arrives!"

As the governor of Southern Zhili and a local official, Wu Wending naturally hoped to be financially free without relying on asking the Ministry of Revenue to allocate money.

"The state has been in operation for more than a hundred years, and it was allocated by the court, and it was all right. The local area has the income from fire consumption, and then it is up to the finance and taxation. What is Governor Wu trying to do?"

Zhang Jin, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing, asked aggressively.

As a representative of the gentry in Jiangnan, he did not agree with the change of tax affairs from the bottom of his heart, but now even if the court wants to change, he has to change it. He does not want the tax affairs to be held in the hands of local governments. This will only affect centralization and will not be conducive to the interests of him, the Beijing official.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but smile. He had to admit that all parties in the officialdom had their own considerations. Although they all began to accept reform of tax policies, the right to collect taxes and the power to formulate tax quotas became the focus of debate.

In fact, this is just a matter of tax sharing or tax-bearing system. The tax-bearing system means that the central government will collect taxes uniformly and then distributes part of the local government. The tax-bearing system means that the central government outsources tax collection to local governments or private groups.

Undoubtedly, the former is more conducive to centralization and unified financial scheduling.

Zhang Jin asked Wu Wending this now, naturally questioning Wu Wending's idea of ​​becoming a military governor of the Tang Dynasty and having the idea of ​​relying on taxation and separatism and independence.

Wu Wending himself did not expect that he would set up such a trap for himself, and hurriedly said to Zhu Houzhao: "Your Majesty, I have no intention! I just believe that the tax reform in Nanzhili was originally intended to avoid local governments exploiting the people and to encourage local governments to have more financial resources to benefit the people's livelihood. Now taxes are only collected by the court, which inevitably makes local governments have no wealth to benefit the people."

"Okay, the right to collect taxes and how much tax is collected can only belong to the Ministry of Revenue. The Ministry of Revenue can divide the taxes of the part of the share to the local government, but there is no power to add them to any local officials. This is the bottom line that the Ming Dynasty relies on to maintain. Otherwise, is the Ming Dynasty still a country?"

Zhu Houzhao naturally would not decentralize fiscal power. It is already the biggest concession for local officials to have certain administrative appointment power and share your part of the money. How can you make your local government highly autonomous to be able to collect taxes freely? If it is highly autonomous, what is the difference between it and an independent kingdom? How can the central court control the local government and subsidize wealth from rich areas to poor areas in order to alleviate conflicts and maintain stability?

Zhu Houzhao doesn't want the Ming Dynasty to become the EU in the future, an organization that you can leave if you want.

"I have been wrong with my words, but Your Majesty is wise!" Wu Wending said with shame.

At this time, Wang Shouren, Wang Chengyu, Cong Lan and others shouted: "Your Majesty is wise!"

"Since that's the case, what is certain now is that the court still needs to change the tax administration of Jiangnan. How to change and re-collect taxes is the responsibility of the central court. I had established a Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau before, responsible for collecting Jiangnan annual taxes, but now the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau is still responsible for the specific responsibility!

However, the officials of the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau have to be changed. I am worried that Zhang Jin, the left minister of the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue, will not be busy."

Zhu Houzhao said that he was worried that Zhang Jin would be too busy, but in fact, he was worried that Zhang Jin cared too much about the interests of the scholars and the people in Jiangnan, and still levyed the tax lower.

And Zhang Jin could not say that Emperor Emperor, I am not afraid of fatigue, so he could only bow and say humbly: "Thank you for your understanding of your subordinates, I should devote all my efforts. Even if you die, it will be difficult to repay Your Majesty's kindness. Moreover, you are not talented and knowledgeable, and you will find it difficult to take on the great responsibility alone."

"The decree was drawn up to establish a tax reform group, with Cong Lan, Zhang Jin and Xiong Jia in charge, and Fang Xianfu took over the position of Xiong Jia. Xiong Jia was promoted to the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing, with Cong Lan as the chief, Zhang Jin and Xiong Jia as deputy."

Zhu Houzhao naturally had some considerations when doing this.

The head of the audit bureau of Conglan Daming knew that the minimum taxes the imperial court needed to collect from Nanzhili and Zhejiang, and it was from Shandong. It would definitely only be more levied, not less levied. After all, only more levied will benefit the people in Shandong and other places;

And Zhang Jin was from Nanzhili or from a bureaucratic family, so naturally he would not have made Cong Lan too much;

Xiong Jia was a local official in Nanzhili and was familiar with the actual income of the people at the bottom of Nanzhili. He was from Jiangxi and Jian Zai's selected student, so he was naturally more objective and could reconcile the conflict between the two.

Wang Shouren couldn't help but secretly admire this, thinking that His Majesty the Emperor is indeed following some rational thinking, rather than relying solely on personal likes and dislikes. This is the act of a wise ruler!

Cong Lan and Zhang Jin were naturally in a complicated mood, knowing that they would inevitably have a quarrel with each other next, and the most important thing was to see where Xiong Jia stood.

...

Next, it was naturally the issue of tax quota and gradient setting. Cong Lan and Zhang Jin had already started arguing before Xiong Jia arrived in Nanjing, and almost started to fight, but they also turned red several times.

"I'll go to Nanjing Central University to find a few top students in arithmetics. I have to hire a few masters who can calculate. This tax reform will not allow Cong Lan and other northern officials to exploit the people of Jiangnan too much!" Zhang Jin said.

Here, Cong Lan was no exception, asking her aides: "Director Le from the Department of Money and Arithmetics of the Peking University Department of Jinfa has arrived! This tax reform can no longer allow the officials and gentry in Jiangnan to take advantage!"

...

"Cong Lan and Zhang Jin have been arguing about tax reform. Cong Lan hopes to get one for five, and Zhang Jin hopes to get one for fifteen. You are here just right. Try to choose a suitable tax rate between them and give the result as soon as possible. Within one month, I will get your final result!"

After Xiong Jia arrived in Nanjing, Zhu Houzhao was summoned by Zhu Houzhao, and Zhu Houzhao also gave him a face-to-face message. Then he was made an appointment by Wang Shouren and finally came to the yamen of the Jiangnan State Taxation Bureau.

"Mr. Xiong, you are here just right. I'll take you to the Shandong Guild Hall. Some of them come from Shandong to Nandu to work. You can understand their current annual pressure. Then think about whether the five-to-one choices proposed by the official is more reasonable!" Cong Lan pulled Xiong Jia and was about to walk out.

At this time, Zhang Jin also came over and stopped Xiong Jia: "Mr. Xiong, Zhang also happened to invite you to the cement factory in Jurong, Nandu. You can find out how much profit the factory owners there can get every month. If you calculate it according to the five-point collection of Congbutang, how many workshops will not be able to be opened!"

After pulling and pulling, Xiong Jia almost tripped to the ground, so he had to bow and say, "Don't worry, sir. Xiong just arrived in Nandu and saw His Majesty and the Pavilion Master, and also knew about the two people. I have visited many people along the way and brought the trade quota for cloth, cotton, silk, silk and tea in Ningbo, Songjiang and Suzhou over the years. We will discuss it carefully at that time."

Cong Lan and Zhang Jin stopped raising Xiong Ji.

Xiong Jia discussed with the two of them again.

Cong Lan and Zhang Jin still quarreled with each other. Cong Lan was from the National Academy of Administration and had one set of theories, while Zhang Jin was a famous scholar in Jiangnan, and there were also one set of theories that made decisions for the people.

Fortunately, Xiong Jia convinced himself with his years of practical data as an official in Jiangnan, and finally got the two of them to agree to a compromise tax reform plan.

Wang Shouren gave the three people's tax reform plan to Zhu Houzhao. Zhu Hou was very satisfied after taking care of it. He had to admit that Cong Lan, Zhang Jin and Xiong Jia did a good job, and even had some forward-looking features, such as adding content similar to later generations of personal income tax and value-added tax.

After all, in areas with developed commodity economy such as Jiangnan, many highly paid professional managers have appeared.

While enjoying high social treatment, these people have to pay some public service fees, but this means that aides like Shaoxing masters also have to bear the corresponding taxes.

Don’t look down on these aides. With the development of the commodity economy of the Ming Dynasty and the development of the new court policies, many officials are required to understand finance, technology, and control public opinion, agricultural production, and data statistics. This means that more and more aides these officials need to hire.

Many students from new-style schools have become the darlings of major officials when hiring staff. For some senior staff, officials have given them no less treatment than some local officials.

Value-added tax is naturally a new tax after the development of the commodity economy.

Zhu Houzhao could guess that Cong Lan, Zhang Jin and Xiong Jia were the three officials who had investigated the actual situation in Jiangnan and knew that the circulation of goods in Jiangnan is no longer as simple as the transaction between the buyer and the seller.

"This is Xiong Jiatu's suggestion, which is recommended to have low tax rates and multiple taxes. Based on his experience as a local official in Susongning, he realized that wealthy households have more sources of income, but poor households have a single source of income. Many taxes have low tax rates naturally avoid the burden on civilians. In this way, although taxes are increased, they are only about one ten, which is not considered harming the people;

Moreover, the inheritance tax proposed by Xiong Jia made me feel that it was quite desirable. There were many wealthy families in Jiangnan. When I was coordinating, I found that there were many families involved in the division of family property or the division of families, and even more so that I could not afford to lose my family, forcing the widow to commit suicide to take up his wealth and sell his daughter. The court also needed legislative interference in inheritance, so I naturally needed to collect some inheritance tax to ensure the smooth inheritance of his family property!"

After Wang Shouren said this, Zhu Houzhao nodded: "According to Confucian etiquette, dividing families is an ominous thing, and it is also taboo to divide families. It is important to be in the same family for generations. However, regardless of the rich or poor, the family will inevitably have disputes and will inevitably be divided according to profit, so as not to cause the weak to be bullied, and the strong are too domineering. This method should be found!
Chapter completed!