Chapter 273: Change of Plans: Prepare to Take the Championship

In the two thousand years of Huaxia, never has any dynasty's reform efforts followed such a refreshingly unconventional line of thought.

Shang Yang erected a log to establish trust, channeling all profit through a single aperture; Sang Hongyang's suanmin levy aimed to gather all the realm's wealth into the state's hands; Wang Anshi's Green Sprouts scheme sought to enrich the state and strengthen the army; Zhang Juzheng's performance-evaluation reform was meant to emulate the governance of later sage-kings.

The starting point of our predecessors' methods was always fixed rigidly on the state treasury, on how much annual revenue could be raised.

The livelihood of the common people? At best an incidental benefit, and often it became the price paid — the more they reformed, the worse things got, until the people were left with no means to live.

But this new policy begins from an entirely different place.

First it defines the effective tax rate and the nominal tax rate, then sets up the clerk coefficient and the gentry coefficient, dragging the "Dark Ming" out into the open for all to see. Last night, after Lu Zhenfei returned from Wu Kongjia's place, he simply recalculated the "residual income" from scratch on his own.

He found that the final result was actually 9.43 taels.

But that figure doesn't matter — what matters is that after this confirmation, Lu Zhenfei felt the clouds part and the fog lift, a sudden clearing of all obstructions, not a single lingering doubt left in his mind.

The greatest Dao is the simplest — it has truly come to this!

What shook him even more was that this whole affair had been set in motion two months ago!

Back then, he had only just received his summons to the capital and was traveling day and night, still hurrying along the road!

But that is precisely the brilliance of it — a faint trail laid like a grass snake, a scheme woven across a thousand li!

If what Wu Kongjia said is true, then in the entire Northern Metropolitan Region, only a handful of fortunate county magistrates are aware of this arrangement.

And among those scant few, how many could have as splendid a starting position as his, Lu Zhenfei's?

Yes — Laoting is no longer worthless land. It is a land poised to soar!

Once the yardstick of measurement changes, the entire situation reverses.

All of Laoting's original flaws have now become its strengths!

— Change of plans: prepare to take the championship!

Now, only one word lies before Lu Zhenfei: speed!

Speed is the soldier's greatest asset.

Before Wu Kongjia presents the proposal before His Majesty, before the Secretariat settles the framework and dispatches investigators from the capital in unison — thereby alerting every county magistrate to the hidden logic — he must become the most dazzling capable official in the entire Northern Metropolitan Region!

This window of time is one month at the shortest, three months at the longest.

It will slip away in an instant — time waits for no man!

The tenth day of the twelfth month.

Lu Zhenfei's fifth day in office, the day after he had glimpsed the truth.

Lu Zhenfei drew his two advisors aside, shut the door for a secret conference, and urgently adjusted the new policy strategy.

Paddy fields? Raising taxes?

Those must still be done, of course, but Lu Zhenfei has ruthlessly pushed their priority down.

The original target of surveying ten thousand mu of paddy fields was slashed with a single stroke of the brush to a mere one thousand mu.

Indeed, after discussion among the three of them, they had penetrated even deeper into the truth within the truth.

Statistical average income is not the same as actual income.

If one hopes to inflate the average figures by boosting production on a small number of paddy fields, it might fool others, but to think one could deceive that sovereign whose gaze pierces like a torch — that would be nothing short of a fool's daydream.

Whatever else they might gamble on, they would absolutely never gamble on that sovereign being stupid.

Based on this fundamental judgment, the details, the procedures, the pacing — everything was torn down and rebuilt from scratch!

First personnel, then land surveys, then water conservancy, and finally, when spring warmth returns and the flowers bloom in the third or fourth month, formally launch the agricultural reforms.

Advancing step by step, each link interlocking with the next.

The eleventh day of the twelfth month.

The winter was bitter, the wind cutting like a blade.

Lu Zhenfei invited Wu Kongjia to visit the Laoting county school together.

By this time, Laoting's twenty stipend students, twenty supplementary students, and fifty-two attached students had long since assembled. Seeing the county magistrate arrive, they all bowed in salute. Lu Zhenfei's gaze swept the hall like lightning; he wasted no words and immediately ordered the doors shut and the examination to begin.

The examination papers were distributed. On them was a single line:

"As for the common people, if they lack a stable livelihood, they will lack a stable heart."

Inside the examination hall, a dead silence fell, broken only by the rustling scratch of brush on paper.

When the exam ended, Lu Zhenfei, along with Wang, Li, and Wu, graded the papers on the spot, marking them with the red brush. In barely half a shichen, the results were out.

Lu Zhenfei held the list, his face as still as deep water, and barked: "Rot produces worms, and dried fish breeds maggots! Here, under the very gate of the Sage, are frauds like you who merely fill a place without merit!"

He called names on the spot and rooted out twenty-nine government students whose writing was incoherent and whose classical learning was desolate.

"Tomorrow, this official will send a dispatch to the Provincial Education Commissioner to strip you of your degrees. Now — all of you, strip off your Confucian robes, knock off your scholars' caps, and be driven out! Such vermin are unworthy of standing within the Sage's gate!"

At his command, the runners, fierce as wolves and tigers, seized the twenty-nine and threw them out of the school.

These men, as any clear-eyed observer could tell at a glance, were scoundrel sons who had wormed their way in through back channels, greedy for the tax exemption of two adult males and two dan of grain.

The dynasty holds an examination every year to determine which apprentice students may advance to government student status.

Yet by this Tianqi era, the educational system had decayed and fallen to utter depravity.

Live decapitation scams, proxy test-takers, whole-hall answer-passing, hidden cheat sheets... abuses too appalling to behold.

Even for those who genuinely sat the exam, the net of personal favors was woven so tight no wind could pass through.

The public lists of the local gentry, the county magistrate's recommended papers, the order slips from the two provincial offices, the wholesale approvals from the three commissions, the prefectural office's past connections, examination-year classmates and kin, sitting officials in the two capitals...

In the end, for a prefecture selecting two hundred scholars, over four hundred favor slips would be submitted — enough to turn the Provincial Education Commissioner's hair white with worry.

However, this chaos at the government student level had not yet spread to the juren and jinshi levels.

In the examination halls at the juren level, the essays were judged by hard, solid merit — there was no place to hide.

Besides, the chief examiners themselves had to mind their reputations and public opinion.

In the officialdom of the Great Ming, though officials shield one another, the more common ecology is officials tearing at one another.

Have you not seen it? Even someone as powerful as Qian Qianyi, the foremost figure of the Donglin faction, once embroiled in the cloud of an examination scandal, had to be stripped of his post and sent slinking home in disgrace.

But when Lu Qingtian arrives, fairness follows.

A family that even needs to cheat for government students — what kind of powerful house could that be?

Sweep them all clean away — perfect, blank paper for painting!

The man truly in charge of the county school, Instructor Chen Dashou, had been stripped of his grading authority and had witnessed the entire process with his own eyes.

Though his whole face was pale as paper and his frame trembled faintly, he did not dare let out so much as a heavy breath.

The man before him was a genuine jinshi by examination, a frontline champion of the New Policies, and moreover had been personally examined and appointed by the Son of Heaven!

With those three layers of status pressing down, his own petty post as instructor, in that man's eyes, was likely no different from a wild dog by the roadside.

What was more, of such exalted figures, two were now squatting right here in this little temple of Laoting!

Chen Dashou had long since made up his mind: these New Policies, I will cooperate with all my strength, stir up no trouble, and ask only to land safely.

Yet however fine his hopes, Lu Zhenfei had no intention whatsoever of letting him off.

Lu Zhenfei cast a sidelong glance at this old instructor, nearing sixty, timid and obsequious, and sneered inwardly.

Mind ossified, blind to the times, stupid as a pig!

This official has been at his post six days — those who meant to declare themselves declared themselves long ago.

The local gentry aside, that Assistant County Magistrate Liu Zhengcai prostrated himself that very night, and the day before yesterday even handed over all his customary fees and donated an extra two hundred taels of silver, swearing to follow to the death.

Yet this old thing still stands here like a wooden stump, knowing neither when to advance nor when to retreat!

If they won't change their thinking, then change the men — His Majesty's words are truly a maxim of perfect wisdom.

Lu Zhenfei was already turning over in his mind the phrasing of a memorial; tomorrow he would send his impeachment straight to the capital.

First, since Laoting has now resolved to build its work around the government students, this post of instructor, unranked and miscellaneous though it may be, has instead become the key of keys — it absolutely must be filled by a man shrewd and capable, in his prime and full of vigor.

Of course, if his luck held well enough to draw a figure of the Hai Rui type, that would be adding wings to a tiger.

Second, this would also serve to probe the workings of the Command Headquarters.

If the reply came with divine speed, then he, Lu Zhenfei, would be like an arrow loosed from the string, sharp and unstoppable.

If the reply was slow… hah, then he might well have to give that Command Headquarters a scolding too!

Having set his resolve, Lu Zhenfei did not fear making trouble big — he feared only that the trouble would not be big enough!

"Good! The rubbish has all been swept out!"

Lu Zhenfei turned, swept his wide sleeve, and faced the surviving students.

"Now at last, this official can properly lay out for you, in full detail, the charter of the Laoting New Policies!"

He did not take the bench, but strode directly to the great screen prepared the day before, lifted his brush and soaked it thick with ink, then let brush and ink fly. From the derivation of nominal tax rates to the calculation of effective tax rates;

from the insidiousness of the under-clerk index to the definition of the gentry index.

At the very end, he even worked through the "residual income formula" publicly before the crowd.

The government students around him, most of whose families held about a hundred mu of land, some even as little as fifty —

listened as though drunk or entranced, as if a door to a new world had been pushed open before them.

Yet a few students of wealthy gentry background showed a faint, uneasy look.

But what use was unease?

The great tide surges; those who go with it prosper, those who oppose it perish.

These New Policies are no parochial game of Laoting alone, but a thunderous storm sweeping the entire Northern Metropolitan Region!

Since the new monarch ascended the throne, all manner of personnel reshuffles, conceptual expositions, and rewards and arrangements, laid down over a hundred days, have all been building toward this very moment — to crash down with a roar. And yet, amid all this unease, there was one man who, the more he listened, the more elated he grew, the more he listened, the more stirred, until he nearly threw back his head and howled at the sky.

Liu Boyuan!

Though he had no gift for the examination essay, he loved above all to read history, and prided himself on reading men's hearts and judging the great currents of the age.

His only regret was that in the craft of the eight-legged essay he truly had not a shred of talent; all his fervent ambitions could only lie trapped within this tiny patch of ground.

Had these New Policies been mere patchwork of the Wanli sort, he would absolutely never have stuck his neck out — he would have played the old turtle, diving deep beneath the water, and watched the winds and clouds from below.

For every history book plainly records: reformers, for the most part, come to no good end.

A worthy minister of reform, riding on hot blood and righteous zeal, sets himself against the whole world and plows the earth anew.

But when the reforms reach their end, the opposition always rises again, borrowing the emperor's hand to strike him down.

The fruits of reform, in such cycles of reversal, may advance three steps and retreat one, or advance three and retreat two.

But the fates of the individual men are altogether different.

The emperor sits forever on high.

Yet those who lead, those who go first — most of them will be made to pay in full.

But!

These New Policies now actually point straight at "residual income"!

Ten taels of income!

Liu Boyuan understood all too well the weight of that result.

This was even more terrifying than the emperor himself descending to drive the New Policies.

So what if he descended himself? Should the emperor die, these New Policies would still be reversed and repaid just the same!

But the New Policies had actually taken this line of thought — and if a line of thought like this could actually succeed,

then who under heaven could reverse the New Policies? And who would dare reverse the New Policies?

He swept his gaze around the room, looked upon those few dullards with their uneasy faces, and laughed coldly in his heart.

The tax rate is the surface; income is the core. Whoever cannot see this is nothing but a fool!

Father, your son cannot wait for your reply.

Today, I will stake everything the Liu family has, and gamble on this broad, clear road to the heavens!

Upon the screen, the white paper was now filled.

Data stretched in every direction, formulas arrayed in dense ranks.

In the blank space he had barely managed to preserve in the center, Lu Zhenfei drew a heavy circle.

"Gentlemen! You always ask what the New Policies aim to achieve."

"You always suspect the New Policies will mean higher taxes."

"That is a grave error!"

"In this moment of surpassing opportunity, how can you measure it by stale old precedents!"

His brush slashed down, ink splattering — with each line he wrote, he barked a declaration:

"Ten dou per mu yield!"

"A ten percent tax rate!"

"Ten taels of income!" As the words fell, his brush-tip turned and traced that great circle once more, heavily outlining it, until it resembled a thick-rimmed, perfectly round flatcake!

"The Laoting New Policies — a myriad of statutes and regulations, stripped to their essence — come down to just four words!"

"The Thirty Policy!"

Lu Zhenfei spun around abruptly, facing the assembled students, his voice booming like a great bell:

"In days past, His Majesty asked his ministers in Wuying Hall: 'Are you willing to join me in propping up the falling sky?'"

"Today, this magistrate asks the same of you gentlemen here…"

"Those who wish to join in this Thirty Policy, raise your right arms!"

These Laoting government students, who had never seen much of the world — when had they ever witnessed such an incendiary spectacle?

Strain their imaginations as they might, they could only conjure a ten-thousandth part of the new sovereign's charisma as depicted in the Great Ming Times.

Who could have imagined that one day this passionately blazing scene would descend upon the tiny Laoting county school?

Before the words had fully faded, countless arms shot up like a forest, each vying to be first.

"This student is honored to follow in your wake!"

"Count me in!"

"I, Chen Yumen, will not yield my place!"

In the crowd, Liu Boyuan watched this scene, his pupils contracting sharply.

An opportunity not seized is lost forever!

When the wave of voices had ebbed slightly, he suddenly strode forward one step, bowed low to the ground, and declared in a voice ringing with fervor:

"Venerable Father-Magistrate!"

"This matter of the New Policies — my Liu family has been waiting on tiptoe for it for a long time now!"

"The many fields in our household that were sheltered under exemptions, or fraudulently registered under the names of relatives and friends, have all been completely surveyed and measured, and we were just about to submit the report!"

The entire hall fell abruptly silent.

Every gaze converged upon him in an instant.

Liu Boyuan drew a deep breath and, speaking very rapidly yet enunciating every word, laid out the figures he had long since committed to memory:

"This student's family, the Lius — from the time my grandfather passed the juren examination in the early Wanli years, to my father's fortune in succeeding at the metropolitan exams, has managed its household down to the present for over fifty years now." This established his family background, displayed his pedigree, and signaled the weight his words carried in Laoting.

"Through many years of land reclamation and commerce, all gains were placed into fields to preserve the family patrimony. At present, the main family's four branches together hold a total of three thousand seven hundred and forty-one mu of land." This laid bare the family assets, demonstrating sincerity.

"In addition, there were two thousand one hundred and eighty-two mu fraudulently registered in our name at the entreaty of relatives and old friends, which we could not refuse. These have now all been cleared out as one body and returned to their original owners!" "Of these, the taxes evaded over the years — apart from those remitted by His Majesty's edict upon his ascension — total seven hundred and twenty-three taels of silver."

"Mindful of the bonds of kinship and friendship, the Liu family beseeches the County Honor not to pursue or press the sons and younger kin of those old acquaintances. This sum of silver, the Liu family is willing to donate in full on behalf of those relatives and friends, to serve as funds for the New Policies!"

At these words, the entire assembly was stunned.

This was not merely cutting off one's own flesh — this was gilding oneself in gold!

First survey the land, then make good the back taxes, and further pay them on behalf of others in the name of "kinship and affection" — in an instant, he had planted himself atop the moral high ground.

Yet this was only the beginning!

Liu Boyuan paused, and his voice grew even more resonant:

"Now that the Thirty Policy is to be implemented, how can there be no funds for the grain seeds, fertilizer, plow oxen, and farming tools to promote agriculture — even for the labor and provisions, the cotton, silk floss, bamboo, and timber for water conservancy works?"

"This student, unworthy as he is, wishes on behalf of the Liu family to donate a further two thousand two hundred and seventy-seven taels of silver for this purpose!"

"Altogether making a round sum of three thousand taels, to aid the County Honor in jointly accomplishing this grand undertaking!"

Silence filled the room.

The impoverished government students were gaping at the figure of three thousand taels.

But the scions of the great houses — the Wangs, Lis, Zhangs, Qians — their eyes were practically bulging from their sockets.

Liu Boyuan? Have you gone mad?

Is this what your father intended? This is absurd!

My father gave me no such instructions!

With you pulling this now, what are the rest of us supposed to do?!

The juren Cao Simu was even more shocked into speechlessness.

Only at this moment did he truly grasp what caliber of wager his grandson had meant by "staking it all."

This declaration of position was nothing less than standing directly opposed to all the other gentry!