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The willows along the Qinhuai River have shed their leaves, but this does not create a feeling of bleakness. The banks of the river are prosperous like a dream. You can always find fresh flowers to decorate the doorways of shops and windows of homes, and the fragrance of flowers, tea, and wine can be smelled in the air.
The pleasure boats swayed on the river, music and singing could be heard in the distance, people were bustling on the streets, and hawkers were calling out. Scholars from all over the country gathered in Jinling, waiting to take the imperial examinations. They gathered in restaurants and teahouses, pointing to the south of the Yangtze River and writing passionately. People put on Hanfu again and regained their former confidence.
The King of Qin opened the way for people to express their opinions. He posted a memorial about currency and finance and taxation by Huang Zhenlin, a member of the Ministry of Works, in the Imperial Examination Hall, soliciting opinions from the public and looking for talented people. This aroused the enthusiasm of scholars and led to a heated debate.
If you have any insights, you can write them up as a memorial or a report and send them to the Hanlin Academy. The Hanlin Academy has a special person to sort out the memorials of scholars. If your insights are unique, your memorial can be sent directly to the desk of the King of Qin.
If the King of Qin approves of the work, the candidate will have the opportunity to see the Emperor. If the candidate passes the King of Qin's personal assessment, he will be granted the title of Jinshi. Scholars naturally flocked to this opportunity, looking for people to discuss with and writing to the Emperor.
The next day, two scholars were summoned by the King of Qin. One of them was a scholar from Tongcheng, named Wei Yingtao. He successfully passed the King of Qin's assessment and was awarded the title of Jinshi.
This further motivated the scholars. No one cared about matters such as property confiscation. When they met, they only discussed currency and taxation.
Besides this, what impressed me most was that the dirty beggars who used to fill the streets were almost gone;
It was said that the King of Qin had heard from the First Emperor in his dream that a large iron ore had been discovered in Ma'anshan, and the government sent most of the captives to work on the mine.
Now they were going to build the palace again, which required a lot of labor. The government put out a notice to recruit workers, and anyone with a little strength applied. Even the old, weak, women and children could find a job to boil water and cook.
In the past, whenever there was such a project, the common people would be conscripted to work for it. But this time it was very different. Not only would the volunteers have three meals a day provided by the government, but they would also get some wages. This was a great blessing for the beggars on the streets.
Some were happy and some were worried. In the riverside house by the Qinhuai River, Duke of Wei Xu Wenjue, Marquis of Anyuan Liu Changzuo, Marquis of Lingbi Tang Guozuo, Marquis of Nanhe Fang Yiyuan, Marquis of Dongning Jiao Menglong, Marquis of Cheng'an Guo Zuoyong and others were waiting anxiously. Of course, these marquises and earls were all things of the past, and they didn't dare to address each other like that anymore.
Yesterday, the homes of Liu Kongzhao, the Earl of Chengyi, and Zhu Guobi, the Duke of Baoguo, who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, were confiscated, which made Xu Wenjue and others feel lucky but also worried. Fortunately, they fled to Jiangxi and did not surrender to the Qing Dynasty. What they were worried about was whether they would pull up the radish and bring up the mud. There was no guarantee that Qin Mu would not treat them as fat sheep and slaughter them together.
As everyone waited anxiously, Xu Yongshun finally arrived on horseback. As soon as he entered the riverside room, Liu Changzuo couldn't help but step forward and ask, "My dear nephew, what's going on? Why didn't Han Zanzhou come?"
Xu Yongshun shook his head and replied, "Han Zanzhou will not come."
"what happened?"
"what happened?"
When they heard that Han Zanzhou would not come again, everyone panicked and surrounded Xu Yongshun, asking questions one after another.
Xu Yongshun replied with a worried look on his face: "Recently, the King of Zhao, the King of Gui, the King of Baoning and others have started rebellions. The King of Qin asked us if we knew about these things."
"What? What does this have to do with us? The King of Qin is just trying to accuse him of something, so he can find a pretext for it..."
"Shh, are you going to kill everyone? Be careful what you say."
"That's right. Ye Bushou is not much worse than Jinyiwei. Be careful with your words."
"Don't panic, everyone. Things shouldn't be that serious." Xu Wenjue paced back and forth, thinking hard.
Dongning Earl Jiao Menglong urged, "Brother Xu, we are now on the same page. If you have anything to say, please say it quickly."
Xu Wenjue pondered and said, "It seems that the King of Qin is definitely dissatisfied with us, but he probably just wants us to make our position more clear."
"We donated so much money, isn't that enough?"
"If the King of Qin just wanted money, wouldn't he get more by finding a random excuse to raid your house?"
"Yes, it seems that the King of Qin wants us to stand up and question the King of Tang, the King of Lu, the King of Zhao, etc."
Xu Yongshun didn't say anything for a long time. Since coming to Beijing, it has been difficult for him to see Qin Mu. He originally asked Han Zanzhou for help, hoping to send his sister to the palace. Judging from Han Zanzhou's reply, this plan has also fallen through, which makes Xu Yongshun feel frustrated.
He picked up the wine glass and drank it all before saying, "There is one more thing. The King of Qin intends to hand over the Longjiang Treasure Shipyard to private management. This is also an opportunity for us."
"Treasure Shipyard?"
"That's right. The King of Qin intends to hand over all shipyards to private operation. From now on, the court will no longer set up official shipyards, and all ships needed will be ordered from private shipyards. In other words, the connection between the shipyard and the government will still be very close.
The King of Qin attaches great importance to the navy. If it is done well, the King of Qin may be happy and get extra benefits; if it is not done well, there may be no return. This seems to be a double-edged sword, so for a while, not many people may dare to take over the Longjiang Shipyard. If you have confidence, let's take action as soon as possible and take over the shipyard."
As soon as Xu Yongshun finished speaking, everyone started whispering to each other, asking each other about their gains and losses.
If it were an ordinary person, they would inevitably worry about being at a disadvantage when dealing with officials, but these former dignitaries knew very well that there were rare opportunities in it;
They were racking their brains to get some connection with the power of the new dynasty. Relying on the foundation accumulated over generations, they were not afraid of being associated with the word "official", but were afraid of not being able to do so.
Therefore, after some discussion, everyone quickly reached a consensus that Xu Yongshun should find Xu Yingjie as soon as possible to find out the details of the shipyard so that he could take over the management.
Unfortunately, Xu Yingjie was very busy these two days and didn't even go home. Xu Yongshun could only hand over the visiting card and wait patiently.
The Ministry of Revenue of Qin State was quite special. It had an additional Department of Commerce and a Department of Banking Supervision under its jurisdiction. Xu Yingjie, the Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, was mainly in charge of the affairs of these two departments.
Huang Zhenlin's memorial sparked heated discussions, and Xu Yingjie was particularly concerned about it. Born into a merchant family, he was very familiar with the circulation of silver and money in the market, and he also sorted out a large amount of information in the past two days.
On the third day of the court meeting, as soon as the ministers sat down, Xu Yingjie stood up and said, "King Qin, I have something to report."
Qin Mu and his ministers are now busy discussing matters such as the military system, political system, judicial system, taxation system, currency, etc. every day. Although most of these systems are inherited from the Ming Dynasty, the demise of the Ming Dynasty itself shows that these systems have great problems and must be improved by summing up the gains and losses.
Xu Yingjie came forward first, which undoubtedly indicated that today's topic would start with currency and taxation. Qin Mu nodded and said, "Xu Qing, please speak."
"King Qin, the currency of the Ming Dynasty can be divided into four stages: from the first year of Hongwu to the seventh year of Hongwu, copper coins were the main currency; from the eighth year of Hongwu to the tenth year of Xuande, paper money was used; from the first year of Zhengtong to the beginning of Jiajing, silver, coins and banknotes were used together; after Jiajing, silver became the main currency, supplemented by copper coins, but it was still very chaotic;
After Zhang Juzheng implemented the "One Whip Law", he incorporated the labor service and local tribute into the land tax, and collected silver per mu. All state taxes, military salaries, annual needs of the capital treasury, and private trade and loans required silver.
The Great Qin is still using the One Whip Law; the drawbacks of collecting silver based on the acreage are becoming more and more serious, which is extremely disadvantageous to both the court and the people. "
Qin Mu nodded and said, "Please tell me the pros and cons of this in detail, Xu Qing."
"I would like to report to the King of Qin that the tax is levied on the basis of the acreage. After the grain is harvested, the people need to sell the grain to pay taxes. In a short period of time, a large amount of grain will flood the market, causing the grain price to fall. In this way, the people will need to sell more grain to make up the tax silver, which will increase the burden on the people. On the other hand, after the court collects the tax silver, when it purchases grain from the market to supply the officials and the military, the grain price will soar, which will increase the court's expenditure.
Therefore, although the tax collection based on the acreage of land seemed to reduce the complicated procedures and eliminate the process of tax collectors' corruption, in fact, the court and the people still suffered losses, and the only ones who really made huge profits were the grain merchants.
In addition, in addition to silver, copper coins were also in circulation. The currency was not unified, which inevitably gave rise to many problems. Not only were the copper coins in a chaotic pattern and of different qualities, but the official minting was insufficient and private minting was rampant, resulting in bad coins driving out good coins, making the exchange rate between silver and coins very unstable.
The official regulations stipulate that one tael of silver can be exchanged for one thousand coins, but in reality, silver is either cheap or coins are expensive. When silver is expensive and coins are cheap, one tael of silver can be exchanged for more than one thousand copper coins, and when silver is cheap and coins are expensive, one tael of silver can only be exchanged for a few hundred copper coins. It is very chaotic; and the changes in the price of silver are often linked to the annual two taxes. Merchants and wealthy households take advantage of this chaos to seek huge profits, and the people of the court are also harmed. Therefore, I think it is imperative to improve the tax system and unify the currency system. "
Qin Mu glanced at the ministers sitting there and asked, "Ministers, do you have anything else to add?"
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ps: It's the end of the month, please vote for me! If you have monthly tickets, please vote for me. I'm begging for monthly tickets...
.(To be continued..)
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