Wang Qiong's method is to divide the camp of scholars, and use the situation of lowering the standard of becoming a minor official to win over the scholars who account for the majority of them to his side, and then give those scholars who are capable of passing the imperial examination a favorable treatment. In this way,

Most scholars benefit, while a small number of scholars are dissatisfied, but they are no longer in a state of decline.

Although the resistance to breaking the barriers of officials was broken by Wang Qiong with cleverness, the last thing was to stump everyone. This was to expand the authority of the Taxation Department of the Ministry of Revenue and completely strip the taxes from various places from the yamen.

As long as local governments are no longer responsible for collecting taxes, most of their chances of embezzlement will be reduced. After all, most of the gray income in the officialdom comes from taxation. Although there are many other ways left, they are only a few after all.

However, it is a very involved thing to want to snatch the right of taxation from the local government. After all, governments in various places have long regarded local taxation as their small treasury, and now some people want to snatch this small treasury away.

, it was like they were killed, so as soon as this reform was released, it was immediately opposed by almost all local officials.

In fact, these opposing officials are not all for their own personal gain. Some officials think that local taxes can enter the government and intercept part of them according to the practice. This part of the tax will become administrative funds for local governments. What is the use of local governments in the future?

The money place can be more convenient, and there is no need to ask the court for instructions in everything, but now if there is no power for taxation, they will need to ask the superior for instructions in the future if they have any money to spend. This is really troublesome.

It's right.

The power of taxation in local governments may be the biggest obstacle that Zhou Chong encountered since the reform. After all, all local officials opposed it. Even the ministers in the court were not optimistic about this matter. If Zhou Chong forced it, it would be very likely

It will cause a lot of chaos, which also makes Zhou Chong hesitate.

The officialdom is a place where there is constant compromise and compromise. Zhou Zhong was mentally prepared when he was implementing reforms. He knew that although his ideas were good, reality would make some of his ideas unfulfilled, especially

Things that involve too many people's interests will be opposed by countless people. It is also in this case that Zhou Chong and Jiao Fang, Wang Qiong and others discussed it and finally took back the tax power of the local government.

Some reforms have been made.

First of all, the power of the Taxation Department must be expanded. All localities must establish a unified tax agency, which is under the jurisdiction of the Taxation Department. After all, the tax revenue in the Ming Dynasty was too chaotic. There were countless levies and miscellaneous taxes in various places, and some local officials could even do it.

Items and amounts that arbitrarily increase tax revenue. This not only increases the burden on the people, but also hinders the circulation of goods. Therefore, establishing a unified tax department has become an urgent task for the Ming Dynasty. Zhou Chong will never compromise on this.

of.

However, after the establishment of tax institutions in various places, Zhou Chong no longer requires these tax institutions to be independent of the administrative system, but still belong to subordinate institutions of government agencies at all levels. In addition, in addition to paying a certain proportion of the taxes collected by the tax department, the tax department must pay.

.The rest can be used as administrative funds for government officials at all levels. If you want to use these funds, government officials at all levels need to apply to list the reasons and amount of funds needed. In addition, during the use process, there is also a need to be

The local supervisory censor sent someone to supervise. Only in this way can we ensure that these taxes will not be used indiscriminately.

Although Zhou Chong has taken a step back, there are still many people opposing this tax reform. However, Zhou Chong's attitude is very firm this time. He used Beijing, Nanjing and Nanyang as pilot projects and forcibly implemented this reform.

As a result, he soon encountered obstacles in the officialdom, either openly or secretly. Zhou Chong took a ruthless move this time for those who prevented his reforms from happening behind the scenes. When the Jinyiwei found out the other party's identity, Zhou Chong used thunder methods to make it happen.

He captured more than a dozen middle and senior officials, but except for a few of them who were exiled for a little crime, all the others were killed by him.

In this world, it is impossible to reform a country without bleeding. Although Zhou Zhong tried his best to avoid this situation before the reform, he soon discovered that his retreat would only arouse the other party's arrogance

Only when you show your strength enough, or even raise your butcher's knife, will the other party listen honestly to you.

It was Zhou Chong who stepped on the rolling heads and finally shocked the officials who opposed tax reform, making the tax reform in the three places in Beijing very smoothly. After the reforms in these three places were completed, the official atmosphere in the three places would be as good as that.

For the sake of the purging, especially after the unification of tax revenue, the people in the three places obviously felt that the burden on them was lighter, and the merchants were also surprised to find that when their goods passed through the three places, the tax revenue they had to pay was much less, and they also

Without the difficulties made by local governments, this situation makes them feel like they are dreaming.

With these successful cases in the three places in Beijing, Zhou Chong was more confident in promoting tax reform across the country. The Ming Dynasty's tax revenue was generally divided into two types. The first is agricultural tax and the second is commercial tax.

In the past, the agricultural tax in the Ming Dynasty was the most important tax. After all, the Ming Dynasty was established by agriculture and the tax levied on agriculture was also very heavy. In addition to being responsible for taxes, farmers also had corresponding labor every year. To put it bluntly, they worked for the government for free.

There are also some miscellaneous taxes that have to be put on farmers. It can be said that heavy taxes are one of the fundamental reasons for the poverty of the people of Ming Dynasty.

However, after the tax reform, farmers no longer need to serve in labor. Although they have to pay a certain amount of taxes every year, they are relatively not much. As for other miscellaneous taxes, they are completely exempted.

A reform alone benefited hundreds of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty, which also made the tax reform support from a large number of people.

As for the reform of commercial tax, it is quite complicated. Speaking of which, the commercial tax rate stipulated by the Ming Dynasty's laws is extremely low, with only 20 taxes. However, this is only on the surface. Officials in various parts of the Ming Dynasty can set up checkpoints on the road, and these checkpoints can be

All taxes are required, and every time you pass a checkpoint, you have to collect taxes. Adding up so much tax, even if you transport a bag of rice from Nanjing to Beijing, the price will increase several times, or more than ten times.

, from this we can see how unreasonable the Ming Dynasty commercial tax is.

However, after the tax reform, the power to collect taxes was completely transferred to the tax departments established in various places. Although these tax departments still belong to local administrative agencies, they are directly under the jurisdiction of the Tax Department of the Ministry of Revenue, and the Tax Department's taxes on various places

There are unified regulations, no one is allowed to increase or delete taxes at will, and commercial taxes are only collected at one time, and are no longer levied once every time they arrive. This not only reduces the burden on merchants, but also avoids

Local governments make money from trade taxes.

It can be said that farmers and merchants benefited from the entire tax reform, but only local officials suffered huge "losses", because the previous heavy taxes were their main goal, and now all of these have been taken over by the Tax Department.

Now they can't reach out, which is the main reason why so many people opposed it when promoting tax reform.

Just as Zhou Chong was busy rectifying the administration and implementing reforms, Liaodong was in a state of war. Before, the Ming Dynasty increased its troops to the east and south of the three guards of Duoyan, which caused the three guards of Duoyan to be frightened, and then the envoys of the Ming Dynasty arrived.

The three guards of Duoyan asked them to escape from the control of the Tatars and re-take over the Ming Dynasty.

Originally, this kind of thing was nothing to a fence-breasted man like Duoyan Sanwei. Anyway, they have always been dependent on the strong. Now the Ming Dynasty is strong, so it doesn’t matter if they surrender, but this time it’s different because the Ming Dynasty requires them to hand over the army.

At the same time, the Ming Dynasty would also send officials to the grassland to manage various tribes instead of the tribe's heads.

Hua Dang, the leader of Duoyanwei, was also an ambitious person, so naturally it was impossible to hand over the army he relied on easily. Therefore, after several meetings with the Ming envoys, he failed to change the conditions of the Ming Dynasty.

He was also furious and drove the envoys of the Ming Dynasty out, then blew the horn to prepare for the war.

Zhengde, who had reached Xifengkou, had already predicted this reaction from Huadang. So as soon as the envoy of the Ming Dynasty came back, Zhengde immediately led his army from Xifengkou to the grassland from south to north. They were facing

The enemy is the strongest Duoyan Guard among the three guards of Duoyan. At the same time, the 50,000 Japanese servants of the Liaodong Guard and Li Anliang also rushed into the grassland from east to west. The most powerful Duoyan Guard among the three guards of Duoyan Guards in front of them

The weak, but still relies on Duoyan Wei.

Although the Ming army was mostly infantry, and it was a bit of a loss to enter the grassland to fight the cavalry of the three guards of Duoyan, the Ming Dynasty mobilized an astonishing 150,000 troops this time, of which the southern army led by Zhengde had 70,000, all of which were border troops.

The elite troops among them, and the Western Route Army reached 80,000, mainly because Li Anliang's 50,000 Japanese minions also participated in the war.

Such a huge army drove into the grassland from two routes, and the Ming cavalry paraded around, which made it impossible for the three guards of Duoyan to rely on cavalry to attack the Ming army. What's worse is that although Duoyan's three guards are nomadic people,

They traded with the Ming Dynasty all year round, and were influenced by the Ming Dynasty, which led to their settlement. For example, Duoyanwei's nest was in the original Daningwei.

Zhengde had already investigated the situation of the three guards of Duoyan in advance, so he naturally knew that Duoyan was entrenched in Daning, and even Duoyanwei expanded the original Daning City, as if he wanted to regard it as himself.

The royal city, but now this royal city has become the weakness of Duoyanwei. With the approaching Zhengde army, Duoyanwei has only two roads left. He either gave up on Daning and fled north, or tried his best to defeat the Ming Dynasty.
Chapter completed!