Chapter 541: Tax Reform and Military Reform

The matter of Duke Wei was settled, and he had come to the capital as well. Along the way, he kept gazing southward, his eyes brimming with reluctance to part with the fields and estates he had so painstakingly managed.

Even so, there was still quite a lot of stuff at home that needed packing up. From Nanjing to the capital, his family assets would shrink considerably—the original mansions and lands were all gone.

Duke Wei's heart ached—ached so badly his liver and innards trembled, ached so badly he couldn't eat for days.

That much was tolerable; Zhu Youxiao had exchanged some real estate in the capital for Duke Wei, but a great deal of his liquid wealth had to be handed over.

Duke Wei's shops in Nanjing were sold off at low prices, and most of them ended up in the hands of the Imperial Household Department.

In a short time, the Imperial Household Department's holdings in the south expanded rapidly. This time, the confiscation had seized so much, and it all went to the Imperial Household Department.

The visible money couldn't all go to the Imperial Household Department—most of it had to go to the Ministry of Revenue. This was the tacit understanding between the Emperor and his ministers.

Everyone works together, everyone splits the spoils together—it had always been so.

The Emperor couldn't hog everything for himself; otherwise, the ministers wouldn't play along next time, and they wouldn't do this sort of thing anymore.

This time, the civil officials had put in a great deal of effort, so they were entitled to a share of the money. Once it entered the Ministry of Revenue, the funds would quickly be dispersed. Before long, it would spread to every corner of the Great Ming—to the places Zhu Youxiao needed it.

Seeing Empress Zhang approaching, Zhu Youxiao pulled her into his lap and said, "What's for dinner? I bathed for too long just now, and I'm a bit hungry."

"I've already sent someone to prepare it." Empress Zhang sat on Zhu Youxiao's thigh and said, "We're an old married couple now—isn't it improper for others to see this?"

As she spoke, Empress Zhang tried to struggle free and stand up.

But how could Zhu Youxiao possibly let her have her way?

He pulled Empress Zhang back into his arms, then said, "Come now, who's looking? Do you see anyone looking?"

Hearing the Emperor say this, everyone below hastily lowered their heads.

Eyes asking the nose, nose asking the mouth, mouth asking the heart—wearing an expression of "I saw nothing, I heard nothing," while inwardly crying out in distress.

The Emperor is joking with the Empress—why must we be dragged into it?

We're just wooden posts.

Empress Zhang shot Zhu Youxiao a helpless look and could only say, "Enough, don't torment these people—you'll scare them. Your consort needs to go make preparations as well, and tonight I'll dine with Your Majesty."

"Oh, and I've already informed the Consort Dowager, along with Noble Consort Tian and Noble Consort Yuan—they'll be bringing their people over shortly."

Zhu Youxiao nodded and said, "Fine, you handle this matter as you see fit. Over all these years, you've managed the affairs of the inner palace very well—I am at ease."

This wasn't Zhu Youxiao speaking idly—it was the truth.

He rarely concerned himself with inner palace affairs on a daily basis. What he did was establish Empress Zhang's authority, and beyond that, he didn't manage much—everything was left to Empress Zhang.

To that end, Zhu Youxiao had even polished Wang An and sent him to Empress Zhang's side.

After these few years, Empress Zhang could be said to handle it all with ease, and this time she had done a commendable job as well.

The Emperor had returned, but he couldn't stay by her side the whole time—that would seem a bit too domineering.

As mistress of the inner palace, the Empress couldn't monopolize everything for herself—she had to learn to share.

The welcome banquet for the Emperor's return naturally had to be somewhat grand. Inviting the Consort Dowager over was a matter of filial piety; as for the other two consorts, that naturally showcased Empress Zhang's magnanimity; and their children—the Emperor should see them too.

This arrangement was very good. Of course, tonight the Emperor absolutely could not leave—he would stay at Empress Zhang's quarters. First, to demonstrate the affection between Emperor and Empress; second, having been apart for so long, there was indeed some longing—husband and wife had much to say and much to do.

If possible, Zhu Youxiao would also stay tomorrow. Of course, things shouldn't be overdone three times. On the third day, he couldn't stay—he would have to go to the other consorts.

Over these past few days, Zhu Youxiao felt his body probably needed some nourishment. There were only these few women so far—if the number kept growing, he estimated life would become even harder to bear.

If he ignored them, the women of the inner palace would scheme against each other in ways beyond imagining, and their resentment ran very deep—the inner palace might end up in who knows what state.

So Zhu Youxiao was very careful, and he followed Empress Zhang's arrangements—eating dinner at her place that night, then spending the night there.

The next day he was still at Empress Zhang's place, but on the third day, he couldn't be there anymore.

After running through the circuit for four or five days straight, Zhu Youxiao finally completed the whole routine and went straight back to his own quarters.

Now that he had entered sage mode, Zhu Youxiao wanted to rest properly and didn't feel like doing anything.

Zhu Youxiao didn't summon any ministers either—he simply emptied his mind there in the palace.

Soon enough, Zhu Youxiao turned his thoughts to what needed to be done next.

Many of the Great Ming's problems had been resolved, but many still remained unsolved.

First were the matters of Liaodong and the Mongols—those required warfare and certainly couldn't be settled in the short term.

Beyond that, there were the domestic matters, mainly two items: one was tax reform, the other was military reform.

Tax reform went without saying—the Great Ming's current taxation was simply a joke. Neither the land tax nor the commercial tax served any real purpose; they needed to be thoroughly revised to make them function.

Commercial tax reform, in Zhu Youxiao's view, wasn't difficult. After several purges, the Great Ming's major merchants basically all stood on his side—those who didn't obey had mostly been cleaned out—and they were essentially all clustered around the Imperial Household Department.

As long as commercial laws were drafted and promulgated, there would certainly be no problem. No merchant would dare oppose it, and when the time came, a tax bureau could be established to investigate thoroughly and collect taxes properly.

The difficulty lay in land taxation—the implementation of merging the poll tax into the land tax was still quite challenging. From then on, the Great Ming would levy taxes according to land, not according to heads.

This had many benefits. Local tax revenue would have nothing to do with population, which could unbind the common people—they wouldn't have to till the land, they could go out to work, they could concentrate in the big cities. There were many advantages to this.

And taxing according to land wouldn't produce excessive wealth disparity either—however much land your family had, that's how much you paid, which would lighten the burden on ordinary people.

Of course, there were problems here too—namely, that the gentry would shift this burden onto their tenant farmers, which touched on another issue: population mobility.

Zhu Youxiao needed to expand the scale of commerce, hire more workers, open more workshops, and then let ordinary people avoid being tenant farmers and instead become laborers—giving them a way to survive.

Only in this way could the landlords be compelled to improve treatment of their tenant farmers, and only in this way could more people leave the land and still make a living.

Besides merging the poll tax into the land tax, there was another measure: officials and gentry paying grain taxes like everyone else. Plainly put, it meant abolishing the privileges Zhu Yuanzhang had given to scholars, making everyone pay taxes together—no one could have exceptions.

Back then, Zhu Yuanzhang's privilege was meant to favor scholars, allowing poor scholars to study properly. But in the end, this policy was exploited by the civil officials and evolved into tax exemption, stirring up widespread resentment.

Moreover, the civil officials had exercised great ingenuity to create the practice of "tax dedication," making this policy even more detestable. Fewer and fewer people paid taxes, and ordinary people also used this policy to gain considerable benefits.

The one who suffered was the state—after all, ordinary people would give their land to scholars and pay only a land rent lower than the state's tax. In this way, they could keep a bit more; and the scholars could collect rent as well; it was just that the state couldn't collect its taxes.

They carved up the state's taxes—part went to themselves, part went to the scholars. That was the truth of "tax dedication."

Both scholars and commoners did this, so if Zhu Youxiao wanted to collect taxes, even ordinary people might not support him—and if handled poorly, it could easily lead to chaos.

He would need to put serious effort into the matter of tax collection.

But Zhu Youxiao didn't mind—reform was imperative; this wasn't a question of money.

Beyond that was military reform, which was actually not as difficult—many of the current hereditary military households didn't even want to be military households anymore.

And now that Zhu Youxiao had the current equipment, he could completely discharge them, distribute the military farmland among them, and let them put down roots and become ordinary commoners.

As for the remaining elite troops, they would switch to a recruited-soldier system with fine equipment, allowing the army to be kept smaller. Besides, in this era, if you ran out of money you could go plunder, or do business—after all, trade routes had to be opened up anyway.

If too many workshops were set up, a market would also be needed. The domestic market was one part, and the foreign market was naturally another.

Next, aside from fighting wars, the task was to expand markets.

The top priorities were Japan, Liaodong, and Joseon—seize these territories first.

Sitting up from the bed, Zhu Youxiao stretched his muscles and bones.

This time he had raked in so much money; everything that needed equipping should be equipped. Rear-chamber cannons, mortars, metal cannonballs—all of these could go into production now. As for firearms, whatever needed to be done had to be done, with increased investment. In short, one sentence: get everything up and running.

At the same time, the development of the steam engine could also be accelerated—with money, anything was possible.

"Your Majesty, Grand Secretary Han is outside requesting an audience." Wei Chao came before Zhu Youxiao and said respectfully.

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao was taken aback.

After all, these past days he had not summoned anyone, making it clear he was resting, so no ministers had come to disturb him.

As Chief Grand Secretary of the Grand Secretariat, Han Kuang had always been sensible—why would he come at a time like this?

It seemed something was up.

Zhu Youxiao forced himself to rally and said, "Let him in."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Wei Chao quickly answered respectfully, then turned and went out to receive Han Kuang.

Before long, Han Kuang walked in from outside.

Upon seeing Zhu Youxiao, Han Kuang promptly bowed respectfully and said, "Your subject Han Kuang pays respects to Your Majesty."

"Enough, no need for ceremony." Zhu Youxiao waved his hand and said, "Let's skip all that empty formality."