Chapter 1623 Settlement of accounts!

In addition to the reports on risks such as rainfall and floods reported by the Youyan Provincial Government, the Qilu Provincial Government, and the Jiyu Provincial Government, there are some old-fashioned memorials today, such as the memorial from the Imperial Censorate opposing Ye Mingsheng’s reforms.

They said that the reform was unpopular, resented by God and people, and violated morality. The recent series of droughts and floods in the northern region were disasters sent by God. These people also said that if Ye Mingsheng continued to insist on his own views, did not listen to the advice of these loyal people, and failed to mend his ways, God would bring down even greater punishment!
Ye Mingsheng has seen a lot of these imperial censors’ words and has memorized them completely. However, compared with before, there are more such memorials in recent times. In the past, it might take several days to get one memorial, but now there are two or three in a day.
Ye Mingsheng felt that there might be two main reasons for this situation!
The first is the constant natural disasters. In traditional concepts, this is indeed believed to be due to the presence of tyrants, incompetent rulers, treacherous ministers in the court, etc. Anyway, it is associated with ZZ!
The second point may be related to Fang Shi. Although other people in the Censorate may have opposed Ye Mingsheng’s reforms in their hearts like Fang Shi, they did not dare to submit memorials directly due to Ye Mingsheng’s intimidation.

At most, these people would rant in private, saying that Ye Mingsheng was tyrannical and persecuted them, the loyal ministers of Daqian, forcing them to work like ordinary people, which was really a disgrace!
Only Fang Shi, the young and incompetent man, did not care. He would write a letter to Ye Mingsheng every few days to oppose the reform and ask Ye Mingsheng to return to the “right path!”

Seeing Fang Shi was so ignorant, Ye Mingsheng used the old method on him and asked the Coordination Office to find out Fang Shi’s problem. However, Ye Mingsheng did not expect that Fang Shi was really an outlier in Daqian G Field, and the Coordination Office could not find any problem with him…
Although Ye Mingsheng disliked Fang Shi and thought he was a smelly and hard stone in the toilet, Ye Mingsheng would not find reasons to frame him just because the censor said a few words that did not suit his wishes. How would that be different from being a tyrant?
Therefore, the approach adopted by Ye Mingsheng towards Fang Shi was to leave him alone. Ye Mingsheng would read every memorial submitted by Fang Shi to see if what this guy said was related to his own problems. He would use his memorial as a mirror to check for his own shortcomings and fill in the gaps. After reading it, Ye Mingsheng would give it a “read” stamp and return it to him!
Seeing how Ye Mingsheng treated Fang Shi, the other censors in the Censorate might have become bolder, thinking that there was nothing wrong with Fang Shi doing this and that they could also follow Fang Shi’s example and submit their own memorials!

Ye Mingsheng’s idea about this is very simple!
Don’t all of you consider yourselves the pillars of the court and loyal ministers?
That’s good! Then I will let the Coordination Office investigate you. If you can pass the investigation like Fang Shi and find no problems, then I will admit that you are pillars and loyal subjects. I may not adopt your suggestions, but I will definitely take them seriously!
But if you yourselves are not clean and the Coordination Office can find problems with you, it means that you are not the loyal ministers you claim to be, but a bunch of corrupt officials who accept bribes and break laws and disciplines. To these corrupt officials, Ye Mingsheng will naturally show no mercy…
After explaining the matter to Ye Cheng, Ye Mingsheng continued to read the memorial. At this time, there was a sound of footsteps outside the door. Ye Mingsheng subconsciously looked over and saw the attendant Zhang Yufeng appeared outside the door. He also had a memorial in his hand. Seeing Ye Mingsheng looking over, Zhang Yufeng immediately raised the memorial and reported:

“Your Majesty, this is the memorial from Minister Cui of the Ministry of Revenue!”

Upon hearing that it was Cui Shao’s memorial, Ye Mingsheng waved to Zhang Yufeng, then put down the memorial from Zhu Xiaowen of the Dali Temple in his hand.

After taking Cui Shao’s memorial from Zhang Yufeng, Ye Mingsheng also read it carefully.

Compared with other people’s memorials, Cui Shao’s memorial appeared to be very capable. After a simple and polite greeting to Ye Mingsheng at the beginning of the memorial, Cui Shao went straight to the point and said that due to the impact of potential floods, the situation in Qilu, Jiyu, and Youyan was expected to be worse than expected!

For this reason, Cui Shao also proposed a possibility, that is, the taxes and fees in Youyan, Qilu, Jiyu and Henan this year are likely to be greatly reduced. It can even be said that the taxes and fees in these three places cannot be transported to the national treasury, but are likely to remain in the local area to deal with the disaster!
Although Cui Shao only mentioned that there was such a possibility in his memorial, Ye Mingsheng was very clear that this possibility was very high. After all, judging from the memorials sent by the three provincial governors, the local situation was not optimistic. If the rain continued, the Deshui River would most likely erupt, and the cities and villages along the Deshui River would suffer heavy losses.

In the worst case scenario, not only will the taxes and fees of these three places have to be kept in the local area to deal with the disaster, but the court will even have to take extra money from the national treasury to help the three places deal with the disaster…

Based on this possible disaster outbreak, it is very likely to cause a series of chain reactions!
You should know that Youyan, Jiyu, Qilu were the early territories of the Fengwu Army and the first regions to complete the first wave of reforms. Therefore, in the past few years, they have been the financial pillars of Daqian, second only to the Jiangnan region in the Daqian system!
Therefore, if the taxes and fees in these three places are gone, it means that the court’s fiscal revenue will be greatly reduced, and fiscal expenditure will exceed fiscal revenue, resulting in the court’s expenditure being greater than its income!
At the fiscal budget meeting at the beginning of the year, Ye Mingsheng had calculated the accounts repeatedly. If there was no war on the grassland this year and no particularly large natural or man-made disasters occurred, then Daqian’s finances would have a surplus this year, with a surplus of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

It is for this reason that Ye Mingsheng has the confidence to fight the battle on the grassland. Ye Mingsheng’s idea is that the cost of this battle on the grassland should be controlled within one million taels of silver. Although there may be some financial problems, they can be adjusted through some means and will not have too much impact on the normal operation of the court!
But later, a drought occurred, which affected farmers’ income. In order to keep farmers alive, the court had to reduce taxes. As a result, taxes were reduced, and financial problems were exacerbated.

For this purpose, Ye Mingsheng also held a small-scale meeting with Cui Shao, Zhang Juning and other officials from the Ministry of Revenue. Everyone calculated various accounts and thought of some tricks at the meeting. The final result of the meeting was that the operation was difficult, but it was still possible to ensure the operation of the court as much as possible through some means of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The salaries of all officials were paid normally…
The result of this meeting was equivalent to giving Ye Mingsheng a reassurance. For Ye Mingsheng, the normal operation of the court and the normal payment of salaries to officials were the basis of Ye Mingsheng’s reform and also Ye Mingsheng’s bottom line!
As the reforms have affected GL interests, the grassroots GL members have been complaining. Everyone feels that the tasks from above are becoming more and more demanding, while the gray income is becoming less and less. The original golden rice bowl and silver rice bowl have become iron rice bowls!

But now the iron rice bowl is no longer safe and there is pressure of layoffs!
Under such circumstances, the salary that can be paid on time every month is the best comfort for everyone. Therefore, if the salary cannot be paid on time, Ye Mingsheng is a little worried that it will become the last straw that breaks the camel’s back!
Therefore, in order to avoid potential risks, Ye Mingsheng must ensure the normal operation of the court, and the salaries must be paid to every member on time so that everyone can perform their duties!
Cui Shao’s memorial finally told Ye Mingsheng that all the possible solutions and means had already been thought of at the previous meeting. From the perspective of adjustment, there was no way to tear down the wall anymore!
If the wall is demolished again, the house is likely to collapse and the normal operation of the court will be affected.

Therefore, Cui Shao suggested that Ye Mingsheng find a solution as soon as possible. If the flood really comes, Youyan, Qilu, Jiyu and other three places will not be able to collect a penny, and the current situation cannot be improved, then according to the current situation of the court, it can only last for three months at most! After three months, the court may not be able to pay money, and some government offices will also be shut down…
Seeing this, Ye Mingsheng’s expression also became solemn!

For Ye Mingsheng, the current situation is rather difficult, but it is not yet a critical moment!
Ye Mingsheng has many solutions to solve the current problem, but he just needs to make choices among many things!

The biggest expense of the imperial court at present is the war on the grassland. Xun Ke brought tens of thousands of soldiers to the grassland and spent at least a thousand taels of silver a day. Including the early preparations for the war, the imperial court has already spent 500,000 taels of silver on the war.

Therefore, if Xun Ke returns to the court, this money can be saved and the court’s financial difficulties will be solved!

But the consequence of doing so is that if Xun Ke leads his troops back to the capital, the Cumans kill the Robe people and unify the entire grassland, then Daqian will face a powerful enemy in the north. In order to fight this enemy, Daqian may have to spend millions of taels of silver every year!
In fact, silver is not the most important thing. Daqian established its capital in Yijing, and Yijing is only a few hundred miles away from the grassland. Therefore, once the Cumans unified the grassland, it can be said that Yijing would be directly exposed to the Cumans’ military force. This is something Ye Mingsheng cannot accept!
Therefore, in order to avoid this risk and possible huge expenses, the war on the grassland must continue…

Financial matters are nothing more than increasing revenue and reducing expenditure!

Now that it is no longer possible to cut costs, Ye Mingsheng needs to find a way to get money from other places to make up for the financial gap!
What is the easiest way for a feudal dynasty to get money?
The answer is just two words – increase taxes!
At the Tiande Pavilion meeting at the beginning of the year, in order to continue to carry out reforms under the pretext that the court was running short of money, Ye Mingsheng implemented a tax reduction policy for Jingchu, Sichuan, Huainan, Guanzhong, Anqing, and Yun after the tax-free period ended. This year, only 50% of the taxes will be collected, and next year, 70% of the taxes will be collected!

At that time, Ye Mingsheng did not know that the drought and floods in the northern region would be so serious this year, and he did not know that taxes and fees in Hebei, Henan, Youyan, Qi and Lu might not be collected!

So since the taxes from Ji, Yu, You, Yan, Qi and Lu cannot be collected, Ye Mingsheng may have to collect some taxes from other places to make up for the fiscal gap!

According to some reports from the local provincial government, although the six places of Jingchu, Sichuan, Huainan, Guanzhong, Anqing and Yunbing have not yet fully recovered, the situation in Jingchu, Guanzhong and Anqing is relatively good among the six places.

Therefore, it is completely feasible for Ye Mingsheng to adjust the tax reduction policy. For example, cancel the tax reduction for Jingchu, Guanzhong and Anqing, collect taxes and fees at the normal proportion, and increase the taxes and fees collected in Yunbing, Huainan, and Sichuan by 20%, reaching 70% of the normal proportion!
If this is done, Ye Mingsheng roughly estimates that the fiscal revenue can be increased by at least 300,000 taels of silver…
However, 300,000 taels of silver cannot solve the current financial difficulties of the court, but it can only solve half of the problem!
And if we were to go even further and cancel all tax cuts in the six places, and collect taxes at normal rates, we should be able to collect an extra 500,000 taels of silver in taxes this year!
Five hundred thousand taels of silver are almost enough to solve the problem. Even if there is a shortfall, it won’t be too much. Ye Mingsheng can get the remaining thirty to fifty thousand taels of silver from other places!
Canceling tax cuts is undoubtedly a viable solution, but doing so also has negative consequences!

First of all, when the tax reduction plan for the six places was first proposed, many people disagreed at the Tiande Pavilion meeting. It was barely passed after Ye Mingsheng overcame all objections at the meeting.

And if Ye Mingsheng cancels the tax cuts now, it would undoubtedly be a slap in the face to himself for going against the majority opinion at the Tiande Pavilion meeting!
To be honest, although it is embarrassing to do this, Ye Mingsheng is not afraid of being slapped in the face!

Ye Mingsheng is not a god, and he does not know when droughts and floods will occur. For Ye Mingsheng, his consistent thinking is that if he can only choose one between face and substance, Ye Mingsheng will choose substance ten thousand times!

If he could solve the problem by just embarrassing himself, he could ensure the normal operation of the court and ensure that everything developed in a good direction. Ye Mingsheng could lose face. Anyway, even if someone wanted to ridicule him, they would not dare to ridicule him in person. They could only say a few words behind his back!
Ye Mingsheng was completely able to not care about this and remain calm!
But the key to the issue of canceling the tax reduction is that the tax reduction matter had already been sent to the six governors after the Tiande Pavilion meeting in March. The governors also made arrangements for local economic development based on the tax reduction policy. If Ye Mingsheng cancels the tax reduction policy, it will inevitably disrupt local economic development and affect the economic recovery of the six places…