Chapter 640 King Wucheng’s new policy

On April 20, the second year of Tianyou, Emperor Tianyou made a spell of the world and issued the "Tianyou Reform and Elimination of Bad Laws" that shocked the country and had a far-reaching influence. It is also known as the "Tianyou New Law", but the more resounding name in history was called "The New Policy of King Wucheng" because Qin Yutian was the initiator of this incident. He planned the blueprint of the reform, improved the details of the reform, and used his own authority and iron fist to escort it, making it change from idea to reality.

In fact, seriously, the beginning of the reform should not be counted from the date of promulgation of its iconic document, "The New Law of Heaven Blessing". A common view is that it should be counted from Qin Lei's speech in Qinghe Garden.

Because from a vertical perspective, whether it was the previous purge of court officials, the intern officials in the middle, and the later promulgation and implementation of the "Examination Law". This series of measures was obviously coherent and carefully designed.

From pacifying Li Hun to today, every action of Qin Lei and Qin Ting, in addition to gathering power, also hides a deeper purpose, that is, "clear administration"!

The reason is actually very simple. Things are done by people. If there is a problem with the person who does things, no matter how good the song is, it will be sang incorrectly. Only by first rectifying the characters who sing the song can the tune be sang well.

Therefore, Qin Lei believed that although the domestic hematopoietic function was seriously insufficient at that time, and the finances were ineffective for years and faced a serious financial crisis. However, it was caused by the deeper corruption of the administration. It was precisely because officials formed cliques and competed to seek personal gains for their own power, "damaging the people to support several people" and turning themselves into a privileged class who did not pay taxes and staked the treasury that the taxes that the country should collect were not raised, and the places where money should be spent were not spent, so they were in trouble all year round.

What is even more abominable is that in order to be able to do things for a long time, these gentry bureaucrats regarded bullying the superiors and concealing the subordinates as common sense; they ignored the kings and the people, so that "the superiors could not be misunderstood, and the subordinates could not be grateful even though their feelings were bitter."

Therefore, if the slightest trauma in the administration of the government is not solved first, it will definitely lead to improper employment of people in the process of implementing the new law, making the new law a tool for local officials to disturb the people and trap the people, which is beneficial to the people and the country, and is even opposed by the people.

Moreover, the reforms violated the interests of the gentry landlords a lot. If these people were not eliminated first, they would definitely be subject to fierce opposition.

At that time, it would be really "Zhu Bajie looked in the mirror, but he was not alone inside and outside." It can be seen that before the administration was clarified and the old forces were broken, reform would encounter many unexpected difficulties.

It is precisely because of these potential problems that the "God Blessing New Policy" will begin with the title: "The way to governance is to ensure people's livelihood. The key to peace of the people is to verify the administration!" It is clearly pointed out that if the officials are not upright, all government orders will become formal!

Therefore, although he was facing a serious financial crisis, Qin Lei did not rashly rectify the finances as soon as he came up, but instead reformed the administration of officials first. As for how to innovate the administration of officials, he also had a very clear understanding through observation and thinking over the years.

Qin Lei believed that the tragic diseases at that time could be summarized into eight big words: "The tragedy became a trend, and the government was a result of bribery." The main reason was that the authority and responsibilities were unclear, and they were shirked and procrastinated. Even if they finally wanted to do something, they would pat their heads and do whatever they thought of, without planning in advance, tracking in the process, and without summarizing afterwards.

The original type is, but you can't just blame officials. After all, in the original situation where there is no supervision, no accountability, and good work is the same, it is difficult for someone to do things seriously and steadily. Most of the motions, plans, and behaviors are like hot pot stir-frying farts. After a while, there will be nothing left!

It is in this chaotic state that the court is extremely inefficient, the country's resources are seriously wasted, and the people's burden is extremely heavy. This has led to a series of today's problems.

After finding out the situation, Qin Lei decided to prescribe the right medicine. He did not criticize or promote it, and only used one trick to show his determination to the world!

Since the bureaucrats were already in a mess and had no cure to help, then please go home. Without you, the butchers, I will still eat pigs with hair!

After all the people were gone, the imperial court's structure was naturally followed by him. Qin Lei drastically cut off more than half of the redundant official positions, and then stuffed the scholars in Qinghe University Hall into it.

After seeing the prince's thunderous methods, these rookies who were pushed to the high position by him naturally obeyed the orders and did not dare to make any mistakes.

With the premise of clear rewards and punishments and fair law enforcement, Qin Lei implemented the long-planned "testing method". In the past year, all officials were so cautious that they did not dare to pretend to be wrong. The court ordered the court, even though they were thousands of miles away, and the efficiency was greatly improved!

Ironically, these trembling rookies were plagued by tasks that followed all day long, just thinking about passing the assessment, and not being dismissed by official positions, that would be a shame. So they had no time to engage in the most important, most laborious and cruel intrigue in the officialdom. For a time, the air in the court became unprecedentedly fresher, and the administrative efficiency quickly surpassed that of their ex.

When the court became peaceful and peaceful, Qin Lei gained a skilled weapon. He then used this transformed tool to promote reforms in economic and livelihood, and for a while, he was invincible and twice the result with half the effort.

The measures of the "God Blessing New Policy" can be summarized into 24 words: "Zhang acre of land, change taxes, repair water conservancy, and stabilize prices. Focus on the imperial examinations, promote industry and commerce, smooth transportation, and strengthen military preparations." The eight real contents.

These eight articles are divided into two parts. The first four articles can be regarded as an act of peace and stability in the people, while the last four articles are a strategy to strengthen the country. Let us tell you all the same.

Let’s talk about ‘Zhangtianmu’ first, which is the land investigation mentioned before. The reform edict said: ‘The rich people have land but not the tax, the poor people lose money, and the poor people are burdened, and the poor people flee, so the price is reduced.’ This is the root cause of ‘the country is scarce and the people are poor’.

In order to change this situation, the edict ordered the land remeasurement across the country and the land that was evased was checked to increase the taxes of the court and reduce the burden on the people.

Article 2 "change taxes" mainly targets the current land taxes include summer grain and autumn grain, and there are various items in the collection, which are very complicated and corruption and deductions are very serious. All taxes, tributes, various funds needed by the central and local governments and all corvee labor are now uniformly organized.

Except for the country's necessary rice, wheat, silk, silk, and silver converted from corvee service are still borne by the people, the rest are all collected by the acres, and the silver is collected by the official. All the money is converted into tax silver, which is a total income and is collected uniformly. This can prevent those with more land from evading taxes, and those with less land paying more taxes, which balances the tax burden.

Moreover, it is easy for the country to grasp how much it should be collected, and the people understand how much it should be exchanged. It can also prevent officials from deceiveing ​​their superiors and hiding their subordinates and making profits from it.

It is worth noting that the edict clearly stipulates that the corvee service that the people should be subject is converted according to the standards set by the court, and the number of people in each household is summed up and added to the tax bank.

At the same time, it is clear that all the officials use labor services to be "officials are recruited" and hire people to serve according to local labor standards. If they convert free of charge to paid, the money will be paid from the tax collected.

This is of great benefit. For example, before the new law was promulgated, the government was very arbitrary. In addition to raising taxes, releasing land and grain, building roads, and building embankments, they also used the people to transport, cook, carry sedan chairs, drive cars, etc. free of charge. They were completely in the name of official service and ordered the people to do slavery.

After the implementation of the new law, the power to hire civil servants will be uniformly taken to the provincial government level, and each county will report the labor required according to the actual situation, and then the provincial government will review it and allocate funds. After the work, the completion status must be checked to avoid using public services to private individuals.

Obviously, the new law changed the original chaotic corvee system, greatly reduced the phenomenon of the government's excessive recruitment of civil servants, freed the people from heavy labor, and had more time to engage in production and create wealth for the country.

At the same time, the two new things about taxes, labor, and paying for money will inevitably elevate money to a key position in social and economic life, which is conducive to the prosperity of business and economic development.

The third is to "repair water conservancy", summarize and learn from the experiences and lessons of the three major water conservancy projects, namely dredging the Grand Canal, reopening the Jingshui River, and digging water diversion canals, and re-administer the Grand River Basin and the Grand River Basin. By diversion of the main trunks, reduce floods and increase irrigation area.

The fourth is that the imperial court paid a huge sum of money to establish the Municipal Yisi in Zhongdu, Luoyang and Xiangyang. The task was to purchase grain and rice from the people at a reasonable price during the bumper harvest, so as to curb illegal vendors taking the opportunity to lower prices and prevent low grain from hurting farmers and low rice from hurting farmers. Then, when food is in short supply in spring or in a certain place, it will be sold to the people at a reasonable price, and in order to curb illegal tyrants and blackmail them to blackmail them.

A two-pronged approach can make the people's production and life safer, and they will not go bankrupt easily and become tenant farmers. As the edict says, "The powerful and noble are in harmony with the existence and non-existence, and to help the people, so they suppress mergers."

From the above four points, we can see that Qin Lei’s reform aims to “safeguard the people” and relieve the burden on the people as much as possible. His idea is that within ten years, the vast majority of people can support their families and not escape from their hometowns and become refugees who harm society. Within twenty years, half of the families can have extra money... at least buy whatever they want during the holidays.

But we can also see that Qin Lei's method is beneficial to the people and the court, but there are a group of people who will not be too happy. That is, vested interests who did not pay taxes or serve without serving, and who could also drive the civilians to do this and that, and from time to time, they could make a fortune by hoarding things.

These people include the gentry men who were temporarily driven out of the court by the Qin brothers, and even the upstarts who had just entered the court in the future. Although Qin Lei did not reap good feelings for those bureaucrats, he also knew that he would still rely on these literati and officials to govern the world, rather than the common people who were grateful to him...

Emperor Taizong of the former Tang Dynasty said: "The people are water, and the king is a boat. Water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn the boat." The support of the people is indeed a great force, but most of the time it is not a big deal. Just like Li Shimin, he relies on the world captured by the clans of the old Xier family, rather than the support of the people.

Therefore, the focus of his sentence was on the last sentence "It can also overturn the boat." Li Shimin clearly realized that under the docile appearance of the people, there was an extremely violent power hidden. This power was enough to destroy the world and change the new sky.

Because of fear, I love the people. This was the case with wise kings in ancient times, and Qin Lei was no exception. But those who could really help these supreme officials were still those unlovely bureaucrats and the various forces they represented.

It is not advisable to offend both sides too much, this is a contradiction. Qin Lei’s solution is that no one will destroy anyone. They all need some benefits. They all take a step back. Hello, I, everyone, okay... It has no technical content, but it is quite effective.

This is actually a helpless choice, because if he wants to change and to make the people survive, he must let the big people stop exploiting and exploding the people. But if he simply lets the big people suffer losses, they will not be happy. Even if he doesn't fight against Qin Lei, he will never cooperate with him.

If these people are forced into a hurry, there will be a big mess. So Qin Lei's last four points try to tilt towards the scholars and officials as much as possible...

For example, Article 5 "Recently on the Imperial Examination". The "New Policy" clearly states that the Imperial Examination will be the only right way for the country to select scholars. Officials are selected based on the principle of "free registration, open examinations, equal competition, and selecting the best officials". All other methods will be abolished.

This order was an improvement in the Qin State's official selection system and a correction of the imperial examination that was chaotic. It was a system of investigation, recruitment and shelter, and the most direct and powerful replacement and denial, providing common people with landlords and common people with the ladders of the imperial examination to enter the political stage of history through the ladder of the imperial examination, providing a platform, opportunity and conditions for fair competition.

The new law reiterates that the imperial examination system should be divided into two parts: civil and military examinations and military examinations. It emphasizes that military examinations are subjects specially selected for military officers. "The two subjects of civil and military shall advance at the same time, regardless of their superiority or inferiority."

But having said that, the country ultimately needs civil officials to govern, and military generals pay more attention to military achievements. Whoever can fight is the hero, not the martial arts rank in which year you came from, and who is the first to be the martial arts rank in which year I came from, and who is the first to be the first to be the martial arts rank in which year I came from.

Therefore, the status of the martial arts is not as good as that of the literary arts. This is unquestionable, and it is not something that can be changed by an imperial edict.

According to the statistics from previous years, among the people who participated in the martial arts, most of them came from ordinary families, and among the people who participated in the literary hearing, there were more common landlords. This is easy to understand. After all, in the eyes of the world, it is a rough man to work as a soldier and carry a gun. Although it is easy to make contributions, it is too dangerous. Except for those curious and rebellious young masters, most of them are children of ordinary families. They rely on their thick hands and feet and practice some swords, guns and sticks, and they think of joining the army through this way and gaining military merits... at least they don’t have to start over, right?

Wenju is completely different. First of all, in this era, reading is a very luxurious thing... Shu Xiu is expensive, books are expensive, brushes are expensive, and white paper is even more expensive. Conservatively, it takes ten years for a student to start from the Three Character Classics and Thousand Character Classics to read the Four Books and Five Classics. In these ten years, not to mention a strong laborer who spent only two hundred taels of silver. This is something that ordinary people dare not imagine, let alone poor families who cannot even eat.

Therefore, those deeds that can’t even eat and can pass the top scorer are mostly inspirational stories and cannot be done real. Even if they occur occasionally, they are still unpredictable children of officials, and they have unique advantages.

Therefore, it would be nice to have one of the literate people in a hundred people. Therefore, the people have a natural awe for scholars... Not to mention that you pass the Jinshi, even a scholar must be respected.

Therefore, when the children of the gentry landlords collapsed, the common landlords definitely belonged to the educated category among all the people in the Qin Dynasty. Therefore, there is no doubt that in the fair imperial examination led by Qin Lei, their chances of passing the exam were much higher than those of the gentry and civilians.

This is Qin Lei's inclination towards the literati... not the gentry. In his conception, common landlords would become emerging literati and occupy the position of the original gentry.

As for those gentry who were driven out of the power circle, Qin Lei had the sixth "promotion of industry and commerce" and the seventh "remove transportation". Promotion of industry and commerce is to encourage industry and commerce, which may be the most rebellious of all reforms. Therefore, all dynasties have regarded merchants as people who are chaotic in the country, believing that they hoarded goods, disrupted the local economic order, and were profit-oriented, which seemed incompatible with moral society.

But if Qin Lei said that they were farts. Without the business of business, the rice from Jingzhou Prefecture would not reach Luoyang City, and the well salt from Bashu would not reach Zhongdu City. Then the peasant brothers from all over the country would have to produce and use it themselves, and the Chinese economy would also have to retreat thousands of years.

As for how to deal with hoarding and speculation, Qin Lei had already explained the details of the fourth article on the price, so there is no need to repeat it here.

Although there are problems of this kind, Qin Lei still believes that the flaws do not conceal the merits. He feels that the status of merchants should be higher because they are the accelerators of social production and life. With them, producers can sell the goods they produce as soon as possible and shorten the production cycle. Consumers can also obtain the products they need in a timely manner, which greatly stimulates consumption. Therefore, if they start business, other industries will be injected with a surge of heart-warming agents to achieve faster development speed.

Qin Lei was very clear that no country could establish no farming, and no business would be rich. Therefore, while establishing the status of the agricultural land, he did not forget to develop industry and commerce. There are three specific measures: First, the power to set up taxes in the prefectures and below the country will be cancelled. A batch of goods will be transferred within the province, and only a commercial tax is required. After that, as long as you do not leave the province, you will not be taxed again, reflecting the principle of no heavy tax collection. Second, the tax rate is reduced and the original commercial tax of five or one was reduced to fifteen or one; Third, all unreasonable restrictions on merchants will be cancelled and their private property will not be violated.

In order to stimulate industry and commerce, he proposed the seventh "Smooth traffic", which is the saying: "If you want to be rich, build roads first." With spacious and flat roads, transportation will be convenient, so you will not have to worry about not being able to transport things from production, and you will not have to worry about running around, which will greatly reduce the costs of merchants. It can be said that it is like a tiger with wings.

Moreover, with spacious roads with all connections, the distance between the city and the city and the palace is significantly closer, which is conducive to the imperial court's control over the local area and national security. Therefore, Qin Lei placed smooth traffic in such an important position.

But of course he would not do these things himself, but would use the method of reviving the yamen to form similar institutions in provinces across the country. They are also jointly operated by the royal family, government and wealthy families. The wealthy families contributed huge wealth. The government opened the door to the front door, and Qin Lei provided it with shelter to him, leaving all the industry, commerce and transportation industries in the jurisdiction to manage, and the income was also based on the established ratio. The royal family took 20%, the imperial court took 40%, and the wealthy families took 40%.

Qin Lei was confident in doing this, and he had already conducted a pilot program in the south. The effect and the huge profits made the gentry and wealthy families in other provinces so jealous that they couldn't sleep... The rising price of Fuxing Yamen is a clear proof. Moreover, Qin Lei had long stipulated that the discussions of Fuxing Yamen and their close relatives were not allowed to serve in the governments of the two southern provinces, and artificially divided a boundary for them.

In this way, the owner of the asset does not directly participate in management activities, but can effectively supervise, suppress, or even request the removal of relevant malfeasance officials. In this way, common landlords will rule and gentry landlords will supervise, and a system of mutual restraint and mutual supervision will be established.

Qin Lei's good intentions are fully reflected in this matter.
Chapter completed!