Chapter 57 The 30th round of tax payment and bank transfer Yang Tiju slickly reconciled the account book Wang Butang frowned

These days, Wang Guoguang came to the house early every day before the o'clock.The national treasury is exhausted, and his immediate task is to raise silver to fund the country.The national land tax is collected in summer and autumn, and the summer tax should be collected before the end of August.But in fact, it is often delayed until September and October and the collection is not complete.Wang Guoguang asked the thirteen divisions to urge their corresponding provinces separately, and the Ministry of Household Affairs also sent a message to the provincial governors, hoping to earnestly urge them to go to Taicang, the two capitals, for inspection before August 10th.Seeing that the deadline has come, but no province's class bank solution has yet come.The nine salt transport divisions including Lianghuai, Zhejiang, and Changlu directly managed by the Ministry of Household Affairs, as well as the top ten customs offices such as Yangzhou, Jiujiang, and De'an, have no salt due to various reasons despite repeated supervision. Lesson and business tax solution.For a family of several, there are seven things waiting to spend money on opening the door every day, let alone a country.There are dozens of yamen in the five prefectures and six ministries in the capital. How much money do they spend a day? In particular, the emperor decreed to cancel the salary of pepper and sumac for princes, marquises and relatives, and added tens of thousands of taels of silver to the deficit. This is as anxious as ants on a hot pan.In addition, after the incident of Tong Liben, some officials took the opportunity to make trouble, sniping and writing anonymous posts, all targeting him, the minister.Under such circumstances, even though Wang Guoguang was a hard-working man, he was exhausted physically and mentally. After a few days, he lost more than ten catties of flesh, and his usually plump cheeks collapsed.

As soon as he arrived at the duty room today, the daily duty officer came in and reported that Yang Yongcheng, the Taishan lifter, was waiting to see him in the duty hall.Wang Guoguang ordered Yang Yongcheng to be brought into the duty room, and the honest minister who obeyed the order was deeply moved, and Zhang Juzheng was no exception.He came here today because firstly, he really had important matters to discuss, and secondly, he also meant to give special care and consideration.Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the household department, he encountered such a headache, so he realized the difficulty of Wang Guoguang's handling of affairs all the more.At this moment, when he saw his old friend's sunken eye sockets and slack paws, he couldn't help saying emotionally:

"You Guan, I haven't seen you for twenty days, and you have become so haggard." Wang Guoguang stretched out his hands to touch his cheeks, and said mockingly: "Wu Zixu passed Zhaoguan, and his head turned gray all night. We have tasted this feeling." "That's true." Zhang Juzheng sighed, "Yesterday, the emperor issued an order to the Nanjing Household Division to punish Zhong Gui Yuanqing from removing his registration. What's the response from the Household Department?" "Of course the household officials are happy. But we heard that the Yangwei Hutong where Tong Liben lives is still like a temple fair every day."

"Don't worry about it." Zhang Juzheng sneered, "If the tree falls and the tigers scatter, you should understand this truth:" "Catch the thief and capture the king, the current kings are Wei Xuezeng and Wang Xilie," Wang Guoguang shook his head with an angry look on his face, and continued, "However, be careful not to lose anyone, we have already prepared an argument to present to the emperor, and we have also prepared Two accounts." ''What account?" Wang Guoguang got up and took a stack of account books from the case table, took out two stickers and handed them to Zhang Juzheng, and said: "The various departments in the ministry will cooperate to investigate, rush day and night, and check the outstanding debts over the years. It's in the ledger."

Zhang Juzheng took it over. The so-called yellow book is a simple book that is different from the detailed ledger with a lot of data. It is a special book that is presented to the imperial court for the emperor to read. Flipping through the book one by one, a table on one of the pages caught his attention: time Yearly Silver (Two) Annual output of silver (two) Deficit silver (two) The first year of Longqing 2014200 5530000 -3515800 Longqing two years 2300000 4400000 -2100000 Longqing three years 2300000 3790000 -1149000 Longqing four years 2300000 3800000 -1150000

Longqing five years 3100000 3200000 -100000 Zhang Juzheng continued to look down, and after turning a few pages, he saw the figures of tax arrears over the years: the amount of silver taels owed from the Jiajing period to the first year of Longqing was more than 3.4 million taels, and from the second year of Longqing to the fifth year of Longqing was 270. More than ten thousand taels. After reading this yellow book, Zhang Juzheng picked up another book to look through, which was the total amount of silver collected and the expenditure situation that year.Due to the great trip of Emperor Longqing and the enthronement of Emperor Wanli this year, the two major events have greatly increased the amount of silver used. Compared with the two, it is a shortfall of more than two million.Putting down the account book, Zhang Juzheng felt his eyes were tired, rubbing his eyes, and said heavily:

"The family of the country was poor and weak and almost collapsed. In the Longqing dynasty alone, the treasury was short of eight million taels of silver. Including this year, it is almost ten million taels. It is really shocking! It is said that it collapsed It is not an exaggeration to say that the fish is rotten. Now that Taicang is running out of money, the officials of the two capitals, Pepper and Sumu, have lost their salaries. It is a last resort. However, there are a few people who not only do not share the worries and problems of the court, but sell traitors and incite troubles for the unknown. Officials pick quarrels and make troubles, longing for the world to be in chaos. Wang Xilie is an example. The matter of Mount Tai's taxation and silver was clearly stated in one sentence, but he instructed his subordinates to deliberately conceal it, intending to stir up troubles and create conflicts. This kind of surly behavior People, they can still do their best in the officialdom, you say evil is not evil? It seems that if they are not cured, this evil spirit really cannot be suppressed."

Although Zhang Juzheng spoke in a slow tone, Wang Guoguang could see that he was trying to restrain his anger.So he got up again and went to the desk to get two pieces of paper and handed them to him, saying: "Uncle, look at this again." Zhang Juzheng took it and took a look, it read: In the 22nd year of Yongle, "Order all civil and military officials in Beijing to give pepper and sumu. Pepper is sixteen per catty, and sumu is eight per catty." In the sixth year of Xuande, "it was ordered to use the silk produced in the carrier warehouse to fold the official salary of the civil and military officers in Beijing in November and December, and to fold two stones of rice for each piece of rice."

In the seventh year of Xuande, "Order civil and military officials to pay one stone a month for their true colors, and give them clothes, cloth, silk and other items stolen from the two capitals." In the ninth year of Xuande, "the order still uses pepper and sumac to fold the salaries of civil and military officials in the two capitals. The pepper is 100 guan per catty, and the sumu is 50 guan per catty." In the first year of Jingtai, "it was ordered to use the salt accumulated in the Longjiang Salt Inspection and Testing Institute to pay for the true salary of civil and military officials in Nanjing, and every 50 catties of salt was converted into a load of rice."

In the sixth year of Jingtai, "the Zhangjiawan salt warehouse was ordered to collect the remaining salt from the merchants and private salt, and to give Tongzhou and the five guards of Tongzhou and the six guards in nearby Miyun a salary. Each salt is 140 catties, and the quasi-meter is one stone .” After seeing these examples of discounting salaries, Zhang Juzheng praised Wang Guoguang for his thoughtfulness and thoughtfulness, and said with a smile: "It seems that Ru Guan has already made preparations for a counterattack. These cases are detailed and convincing evidence, which shows that the in-kind compensation is an ancestral system, and it is not your original idea of ​​Wang Guoguang. Those officials who wanted to make trouble, this time they chewed on one. Copper peas."

Wang Guoguang was not optimistic, and said: "From Wu Qingbo Li Wei to Gui Yuanqing, we saw that someone was fanning the wind and lighting will-o'-the-wisps. I was the one who hit, but you are the one who should be punished." "I know that," Zhang Juzheng said with confidence, remembering what Feng Bao said about Yao Chong, the prime minister of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, "Actually, these tricks are nothing new." "Wu Qingbo and Li Wei's complaint still caused a lot of trouble," Wang Guoguang said indignantly. "How many of the princes and relatives live on their salaries? They have not been paid for three years, and they still spend a lot of time drinking and eating. It's really difficult." It’s the small officials who are suffering, but now it’s good, they don’t offer compensation in kind, and it’s the low-level officials who suffer.” "Qicaixia's boss, Hao Yibiao, used his signboard to buy a large amount of pepper sumac. It shouldn't be a problem for these small officials to realize the real thing." "No way." Wang Guoguang smiled wryly, "No matter how poor the officials are, they still don't want to be stained with money. After Tong Liben's death, officials came to the Ministry of Households to make trouble every day, demanding to return the pepper sumac." "How do you deal with it?" "Take all of them, and when there are silver bills in Taicang, I will exchange them for silver." "In this way, isn't the discounted salary of pepper and sumac existing in name only?" "That's right, Uncle, we have to admit that this trick has failed. Li Wei stepped forward and ruined everything." Wang Guoguang suddenly looked old, and a shadow seemed to be cast on his dark brown forehead.Facing the sadness of his old friend, Zhang Juzheng's face suddenly became serious.He already had the same idea as Wang Guoguang in his mind, but he didn't want to mention it to others.The facts of these times have proved that: he can touch anything, the only thing he can't touch is the imperial power; he can change anything, the only thing he can't change is the interests of the royal family.In this way, his desire to enrich the country and strengthen the army will have to be greatly reduced.But he refused to accept this reality, and still tried to realize his ideal in the cracks.However, he didn't want to discuss this matter with Wang Guoguang today. He glanced at the yellow books on the desks and said calmly: "Ru Guan, servant is here today, and I have three things to discuss with you."