Chapter 201 The Ability of Corrupt Officials
To be honest, Yan Maoqing, regardless of his character, really has the ability to do things.
It is a pity that this man was greedy and met Yan Shifan, a master who was extremely smart and thought he could fool everyone. His tragedy was naturally doomed.
Of course, he is still very proud of himself now. After all, his prime minister is responsible for the salt policy.
Although the current Ming Dynasty is in financial difficulties, the population reproduction rate is also far ahead of its predecessors.
It has been two hundred years since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Major turmoil and disasters have rarely occurred in the two capitals and thirteen provinces in the core Han region.
Although these common people at the bottom are living like zombies under the oppression of such a feudal dynasty, at least they can still survive. If they are lucky, they can change against the odds through the efforts of three or four generations. life.
So under such circumstances, from the Ming Dynasty to the Jiajing Emperor's period, the registered population across the country plus the hidden population must be close to 200 million people at least.
The number of 200 million people may not seem too much at first glance in future generations. After all, there will be countries with a population of more than one billion in future generations. However, in today's world, 200 million people may occupy one-third or one-half of the world's population.
It is precisely because of such a large population and territory that anyone who can do some monopolistic work on this land will definitely be extremely profitable!
But no matter what the environment was, the salt tax in Ming Dynasty became a long-standing problem. The salt tax that could be collected throughout the year was only 600,000 taels.
And the customization of the 600,000 taels of salt tax is collected as soon as it is harvested, as if it is contracted out. It is only 600,000 taels per year, and everyone can get so much.
You can imagine how tricky this is.
But Yan Maoqing is a talent.
According to the record in "History of the Ming Dynasty·Yan Maoqing": "The remaining salt in the Huaihe River is 600,000 taels of silver per year, and it increased to 1 million in Maoqing. When Maoqing left, Xu Xuji, the censor of salt inspection The harm is to restore the old state of 600,000 yuan.”
It can be seen that the salt tax of 600,000 taels is not the true level of the Ming Dynasty salt tax at all. Anyone who is capable and dares to do something can at least increase it by 80% on the original basis!
But it is a pity that the interests involved in the salt tax are too great. Therefore, it is simply a fantasy to collect all salt taxes and rely on the administrative efficiency, management methods and people's hearts in the feudal era.
So now that Yan Shifan is bragging in front of Emperor Jiajing that Yan Maoqing can double the salt tax to one million, Emperor Jiajing must have no reason to refuse.
When the money levy comes, it will be a real contribution to the national treasury. If it is messed up and causes outrage in the local area, the worst thing is to kill Yan Maoqing with a wave of his hand to quell the public anger.
So no matter how this matter was calculated, Emperor Jiajing felt that he had not suffered a loss.
As long as the Yan Maoqing used by Yan Shifan can really make money, what if he can be given some grace?
Just when Yan Maoqing was so proud that he got the job of the Prime Minister's Salt Transport Department of Zhejiang, Lianghuai, Changlu, and Hedong on the recommendation of Yan Shifan, Zhu Zaijing was not idle either.
Ever since Huang Jin came to Prince Yu’s Mansion to work hard, Zhu Zaijing felt as if he was at work. Every time Huang Jin came to talk, he would come with one or two questions and tasks for Zhu Zaijing Write down your own opinions and thoughts, as well as ideas and methods for solving problems.
Zhu Zaijing also knew that this was most likely Emperor Jiajing's idea. But Zhu Zaijing could not refuse, nor could he refuse.
After all, Zhu Zaijing now has the "handle" in the hands of Emperor Jiajing, so Zhu Zaijing can passively engage in these issues that should be discussed and considered within the court.
The problem brought by Huang Jin this time is the capital expansion project that has been discussed recently but has not yet been decided.
When Zhu Zaijing heard what Huang Jin said about the capital expansion project plan, he vaguely remembered something.
It seems that in the original historical process, the reason why Emperor Jiajing made up his mind to build the outer city of the capital was not really considering that the increasingly crowded capital needed a larger urban area to handle daily life needs. It was because the excitement of An Da's invasion made him feel that the capital must have an outer city to make it safer.
However, due to financial difficulties, the outer city of the capital was originally planned to be built in the shape of "Hui". In the end, only a south wall could be built. There was no money to continue building it, and then the south wall was connected Along with the city wall of the inner city, a "convex"-shaped appearance of the capital was created, which looked very unusual.
And this extremely ugly "convex"-shaped capital was not demolished until the Qing Dynasty fell and the Republic of China ended hundreds of years later at the suggestion of Guo. But at that time, even the extremely ugly " The "convex"-shaped ancient city wall also has a profound historical heritage, and it is simply not comparable to the kind of reinforced concrete buildings built later that have no beauty or characteristics.
So, this capital city that flourished in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties had a really bad fate.
Now that Huang Jin came with the issue of expanding the capital, Zhu Zaijing also had to rack his brains to think about how to build the capital that was about to be expanded into a majestic and majestic place. The first city in the world without losing its cultural heritage!
We must know that in the future development of science and technology, the invention and emergence of various means of transportation will cause urban reconstruction problems again and again.
Many cities’ short-sighted planning in initial construction has led to various thorny urban problems later.
Therefore, if we want to keep the capital city from falling behind in the future, in addition to leaving room for current planning and construction, we must also leave huge room for development in the future.
Otherwise, in the future, technology and transportation will have developed to a certain extent, and the population density will reach an unimaginable stage.
Cities and roads that were originally thought to be spacious and livable will appear cramped and cluttered, and become urban villages full of problems.
So in Zhu Zaijing's consideration, the future expansion plan of the capital city We must be ahead of the curve to a certain extent and leave enough space for future transportation and humanities development.
And the capital will always maintain this special cultural charm exclusive to oriental architecture. Even if it is another thousand years, it will still not be outdated and will still make people walk in this ancient city. You can feel the unique historical heritage of this ancient capital in the alleys!
Only in this way did Zhu Zaijing feel that he was living up to his future and his true intentions.
Otherwise, building a giant "urban village" that looks okay now but will be extremely congested in the future would be absolutely unforgivable to Zhu Zaijing.
So after thinking for a long time, Zhu Zaijing said to Huang Jin: "My father-in-law, the expansion of the outer city of the capital is a thousand-year achievement, and it is directly related to how future generations will evaluate us. The actions of one generation, so for the sake of His Majesty’s eternal holy name, this cannot be done carelessly. I have to think carefully about the rules and logic before I can answer this question.”
(End of this chapter)< br>