The test is just around the corner.
Su Che couldn't help but think, how to solve it?
In the history he knew.
Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely angry about this matter. At first, the officials did not take it too seriously because everyone did it. As the saying goes, the law does not hold everyone responsible. You can't do this to all of us, right?
If it were any other emperor, he might have just turned a blind eye .
But unfortunately, they met Zhu Yuanzhang!
Zhu Yuanzhang was a rare great ruler who knew very well what he was doing. Everything he did was actually an attempt to resolve a fundamental institutional dilemma facing the Ming Dynasty, namely the contradiction between formal and informal institutions.
As for the empty seal case, the Ming court needed a formal financial system to accurately collect local data. If you were allowed to fill in the data at random, and the data reported at all levels were problematic, then the court would lose control of the entire country.
After the Empty Seal Case, everyone finally behaved themselves under the butcher knife of Zhu Yuanzhang, as heads rolled down the hill.
But the problem is, if you can't solve the problem, but instead try to solve the person with the problem, doing so is essentially treating the root cause and not the root cause.
After Zhu Yuanzhang's death, blank official documents became popular again. All efforts were wasted, and the countless blood shed was ultimately in vain.
Zhu Yuanzhang did many earth-shaking things in the second half of his life.
But the results are getting worse and worse.
Even most things go against one's wishes.
No matter how hard Zhu Yuanzhang tried, the final result and the entire historical trajectory seemed to be playing a joke on him.
so.
Killing can certainly give you a sense of satisfaction, but it cannot solve the problem.
Su Che thought for a long time, and finally raised his eyes slightly, "Call Zhan Hui, Zheng Shiyuan, and Han Yi over to us."
Not long ago, Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the Censorate and established the Censorate.
The main duties of the Censorate were to impeach civil and military officials, identify grievances, and supervise the subordinate provinces.
These people are all censors of the Censorate. Now that such a big problem has arisen, they certainly have an obligation to take responsibility.
Soon, Zhan Hui, Zheng Shiyuan and Han Yi came to Su Che.
After the three of them saluted, they waited for the Emperor to speak.
Su Che didn't waste any words. He knocked on the table and asked the eunuch to hand the empty-stamped account book to the imperial censors.
The first person to hand it to him was Zheng Shiyuan, and Han Yi on the side couldn't help but glance sideways.
These two people left a deep impression in Lao Zhu's memory.
In the early years of the Hongwu reign, Zhu Yuanzhang personally appointed two censors, Zheng Shiyuan and Han Yike. He placed high hopes on them and hoped that they could uncover more major cases to deter corruption.
And these two people have indeed uncovered many major cases.
For example, Zhu Huan, the magistrate of Dingyuan, was Zhu Yuanzhang's "imperial nephew". During his tenure, he levied heavy taxes, accepted bribes, and raped women. He did all kinds of evil things, but because he was related to the emperor, no one dared to report him.
The censor Zheng Shiyuan reported Zhu Huan's illegal activities to Zhu Yuanzhang, and the evidence was conclusive, so he was sentenced to death.
But Zhu Huan's father had once saved Zhu Yuanzhang, so Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to spare Zhu Huan's life.
However, Zheng Shiyuan and Han Yike argued with reason, and Zhu Yuanzhang finally executed his nephew.
Later, the corruption and abuse of power of meritorious officials such as Zhu Liangzu, Shangshu Kaiji, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue Qin Sheng, and Prince Consort Ouyang Lun were all found out by the Censor-in-Chief.
At this moment, when the two saw the empty account book, their pupils couldn't help but shrink and their faces instantly became extremely ugly.
Obviously, they both knew what this was...
Empty account book!
The account book was empty, but the seal was real and carried a very pure official aura!
Both Zheng Shiyuan and Han Yi knew very well why there was this empty account book.
For the sake of convenience, various places continued the unspoken rules that had existed since the Yuan Dynasty. Everyone used them tacitly and secretly, working together from top to bottom to conceal the news, which has been concealed until now.
But who would have thought that this account book would actually appear in the hands of the emperor !
Zhan Hui on the side had no idea what was going on. He glanced at the account books in the hands of the two men. There was clearly nothing in them, so why did their faces look so ugly?
Soon, when the account book came into Zhan Hui's hands, he immediately began to look through it. It was a blank account book, but there was an official seal on it.
This is... Empty Seal!!
There is no doubt that Zhan Hui's expression quickly became extremely ugly.
The three of them fell silent for a moment.
"Why aren't you talking?"
Su Che's tone was very cold.
"Your Majesty... where did you get this account book?" Zheng Shiyuan tried to maneuver and "explain" the matter clearly.
"What do you think?" Su Che sneered and asked directly, "If I hadn't discovered this, would it have remained the same forever? Are you planning to deceive me forever in this way?"
"Your Majesty, this is an old custom from the previous dynasty. As there is no explicit decree prohibiting it, as the saying goes, anything is allowed unless prohibited by law. Therefore, it is understandable that the officials below continue to use this method. However, even so, it is still a problem. If Your Majesty wants to deal with it, please issue a decree. If an empty seal is used again, immediate investigation will be held..." Han Yi said hurriedly, and he was trying to make the guilt of this matter seem less serious.
Most people think this is not a problem and think it is one of the unspoken rules of officialdom, so they never care about it.
If they really investigate, the number of people implicated would be too great!
"What kind of old custom is this? This is an old abuse of the previous dynasty !" Su Che questioned, "The seal is directly printed, and the losses are arbitrarily lost and the account books are filled in arbitrarily. The national account books and the local account books are completely inconsistent. Such a serious matter, do you really think it is insignificant?"
As soon as these words came out, the three of them immediately bowed their heads in fear and said quickly: "Your Majesty, calm down!"
Su Che continued, "Calm down? Tell me, this matter has been concealed for more than ten years. How long do you plan to keep it secret from me? Will you keep it secret forever?"
"If this isn't deceiving the emperor, then what is this?"
"You use the empty seal for convenience?"
"Is it really because it's convenient?"
The words of civil servants are lies.
The excuses sound high-sounding, but what they do is extremely dirty.
If you really say it's for convenience, then you're treating others like children and fooling them.
Old Zhu didn't believe it, and Su Che didn't believe it even more.
However, he did not intend to kill people indiscriminately.
At this moment, the three of them were lying on the ground, shivering, not daring to breathe, let alone speak.
Su Che looked at the three people and said calmly: "I know the filthiness here. You don't need to explain or refute anything."
“Officials have two mouths. They can swallow the fat of the country and the people. They can also protect the country and feed the people.”
"Governing this world is inseparable from officials, but if you think you are irreplaceable, you are totally wrong."
"My original plan was to kill all the financial officials in the world who were responsible for the account books."
"Since you think this is an old custom from the previous dynasty and an unspoken rule in the officialdom, then I will kill you all and replace you with a group of cleaner ones."
"Just replace them with some people who are cleaner and don't have this habit, right?"
"Don't you think so?"
As soon as these words were spoken, murderous intent was revealed.
The three people lying on the ground were shaking continuously.
Because they realized that His Majesty was not joking, and the implication of his words was that he really intended to do this!
At this moment, in a trance, they seemed to see heads rolling and blood flowing like a river, with countless people implicated, guilty and innocent, lining up to be sent to the execution ground, and all having their heads chopped off!
Is this what's about to happen?
Zheng Shiyuan in particular seemed to see himself being implicated and thrown into jail!
It felt so real, like it was going to happen.
The three of them understood.
This is a omen.
This is what the emperor is about to do and what might actually happen.
They are definitely not daydreaming!
Thinking of this, the three of them couldn't help but feel their scalps tingling and goose bumps all over their bodies.
Su Che looked at the reactions of the people in front of him with an expressionless face.
The reason why the three of them could see these was because Su Che let them see these, everything that was really possible to happen, so that they knew the seriousness of the matter and how terrible the consequences would be!
but.
That was what Zhu Yuanzhang did. Although it was satisfying to kill someone, Su Che would not do that.
Su Che said slowly: "Although I will do this, I am not prepared to do so."
As soon as these words came out, it was like a drowning person finally floating to the surface, or a death row prisoner being released at the last moment. Zhan Hui, Zheng Shiyuan, and Han Yi were shocked and finally able to breathe. They shouted in unison: "Your Majesty is wise! Your Majesty is wise!!"
Su Che ignored their praise and continued:
"You have some truth in what you said. This kind of thing is not expressly prohibited. But you are also wrong. Some things cannot be done without being prohibited by law."
"Officials should not wander on the edge of illegality. This is not what officials should do!"
"Since there is no such decree, from today on, there will be such a decree."
"From now on, no alteration is allowed in the account books, and no printing first and then writing is allowed."
"Those who forge account books and make false seals on account books will be executed immediately! No mercy will be shown!!"
When these words were spoken, the three of them did not dare to refute and quickly agreed.
They knew very well that if they dared to refute at this time, the matter would never end.
However, there were some stubborn ones, such as Zheng Shiyuan, who gritted his teeth and asked:
"Then your majesty...what should we do if the spiritual rice is lost during transportation?"
This is the essence of the problem.
If this cannot be solved, then the problem is still unsolved. It is not that a ban on a book will lead to peace from then on. Losses along the way are inevitable. If this is not solved, the problem will still exist.
As soon as these words came out, the other two people subconsciously glanced at Zheng Shiyuan, their eyes were full of helplessness. His Majesty had already planned to let it go, why did you keep pursuing it???
Now we just need to drag this matter out!
This matter can be resolved later.
Better not talk about it now!
But Zheng Shiyuan is obviously a stubborn person!
The two looked at the Emperor carefully and found that he did not seem angry.
Actually, even if Zheng Shiyuan didn't say anything about this issue, Su Che also planned to talk about it in detail. If the problem is not solved, it will still exist.
Su Che said slowly: "From now on, all spiritual rice taxes will be subject to the one- whip system ."
"All land taxes, corvée labor and other miscellaneous taxes will be combined into one, and the treasure notes will be collected together!"
As soon as these words were spoken, Zhan Hui, Zheng Shiyuan and Han Yi looked up in astonishment. These words, spoken lightly, carried a weight of a thousand pounds!
Tax reform!
Moreover, what was collected together were not spiritual stones, spiritual silver, and spiritual gold, but the treasure banknotes printed by the imperial court!
What does this mean? ?
According to past practice, Zhu Yuanzhang printed treasure notes crazily and used them as money to spend, but if others used treasure notes to pay off debts, he would be extremely unhappy.
This is a typical double standard, and it is precisely this behavior that has caused Baochao to gradually lose its credibility and the basis of its circulation.
In Su Che's opinion, this was really a waste of a good hand. Baochao was such a useful thing that could be used to print money like crazy, so why not use it?
Therefore, Su Che made a direct decision to establish a new monetary system around Baochao.
This is the case with many things in this world. With money, everything will be much easier.
Even the emperor is no exception.
In the eyes of many people, the world belongs to the emperor, so the emperor must be the richest and least short of money person in the world.
But in fact, the emperor was indeed very rich, but it would be a big mistake to say that the emperor was not short of money.
On the contrary, the emperor is the person who lacks money the most in the world.
In order to solve financial crises, various means have been used since ancient times.
For example, the emperor took the lead in saving money.
Another example is the manufacture of 100-5-zhu notes, large coins worth 1,000 yuan, and even treasure notes.
They all used the method of harvesting leeks to exchange for income for the court.
At this moment, Su Che wanted to carry out tax reform, combining land tax, corvee and other miscellaneous taxes into one, and collecting all of them in the form of treasure notes. This was a very bold move, and if one was not careful it would cause the economy to collapse.
However, risks and benefits always coexist.
Once completed, Ming Dynasty's finances will be relieved unprecedentedly, and many things can be done.
So instead of sitting there and waiting for death, Su Che chose to take the risk!
As soon as this policy is implemented, the value of Baochao will rise sharply.
The essence of money is general equivalent.
As long as the treasure notes completely replace the commonly used currencies such as spirit stones and spirit gold.
That treasure banknote will be no different from those things!
This is Su Che’s first move!
One Whip Law, financial reform!
The former reforms all existing taxes.
The latter directly changed the monetary system.
These are two bombshells!
Before.
After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, the tax system was inherited from the Tang and Song dynasties.
This tax system is mainly based on the Yellow Book and the Fish Scale Map.
There was no problem at first.
The imperial court provided strong economic support to civilians in reclaiming wasteland and establishing military farms, while at the same time reducing corvée and taxation, and promoting economic development through certain industrial and commercial policies. As a result, the economy that had been devastated by the war quickly stabilized and everything prospered.
But the problem is.
As time went on, more and more gentry began to reduce taxes and corvee labor through various means, making the tax burden on ordinary civilians increasingly heavy.
Some bureaucrats and literati neither had to pay taxes to the state nor perform corvee labor, which made taxation increasingly uneven.
At this moment, Su Che implemented the Single Whip System, which originated from Zhang Juzheng's reform, but Su Che made changes to it and added currency reform!
He wants to make these two policies national policies!
Moreover, it is the kind of national policy that cannot be changed according to the ancestral laws!
At this moment Su Che finished speaking.
A strange phenomenon suddenly occurred in the sky!
The thunder dragon surged, roars rose one after another, the wind and rain were blowing, and the sky and the earth changed color.
In the wind and rain, the sun is still above the sky, and there is even a white rainbow piercing the sun!