flstandardbreds Chapter 139 Yongzheng's Achievements
Chapter 139 Yongzheng's Achievements
Lin Ke continued, "When Emperor Yongzheng dealt with deadbeats, he only used one technique: confiscating their property. Unlike the methods used in other dynasties, he searched their government offices and their hometowns at the same time. Whether it was the assets of the government offices or the assets of their hometowns, as long as they had embezzled and embezzled and did not want to repay the money, all their assets were put into the national treasury by Emperor Yongzheng."
"However, as the saying goes, for every plan you have, there's a way to get around it. If Emperor Yongzheng has a method for confiscating property, then he won't allow corrupt officials to transfer their assets first, such as putting them under the names of some friends."
"Yongzheng also had a solution to this problem: search all his relatives and friends to find out how much money he had spent, and if any embezzlement was found, confiscate all their property!"
"He believed that it was better to kill a thousand innocent people than to let one guilty person go free. If the wrong person was arrested, only one family would suffer, but if they were let go, the whole county might suffer."
An unlucky family: ? ? ?
Corrupt official: You little brat! I can't even choose suicide!
"Some officials, seeing that Yongzheng was so unyielding, simply thought that they could just commit suicide, so that there would be no way to prove anything, and that would be fine! Anyway, their children and other family members would live without worry!"
"Therefore, during this period, many officials chose to commit suicide to protect their families. However, Yongzheng immediately came up with a solution to this situation. He said that if an arrested official did not commit suicide, then only he would be convicted; but if he committed suicide, then his family members would all be arrested!"
Corrupt official: Damn it! You've got some nerve, you tyrant!
"It was precisely because Yongzheng used such a strict method to investigate corruption that his already poor reputation was further damaged, and rumors flew everywhere inside and outside the court!"
"This rumor is quite outrageous, claiming that Emperor Yongzheng confiscated property to amass wealth because he was greedy and lustful."
Emperor Zhao Kuangyin of the Song Dynasty: To combat corruption, one must be strict!
The son of a high-ranking official in the Han Dynasty: These officials are really something else, spreading such rumors is outrageous!
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"As a result of Yongzheng's actions, the Ministry of Revenue's silver reserves rose from 2361 million taels to 4741 million taels in just four years (2361-4741)."
"When people talk about Yongzheng in later generations, they often give him a label - this emperor died from overwork."
"The most practical reason for this is that some of the problems left over from the Kangxi era were too serious, which made it impossible for him to gradually change them."
"After all, the fourth brother is already 45 years old. He doesn't have the extra energy to solve them one by one, so he carries out several tasks at almost the same time."
"For example, the Imperial Examination Office was established in the first month of the first year of Yongzheng's reign, the lowly status was abolished in the fourth month, the land tax was converted into a poll tax in the ninth month, and the Qinghai rebellion occurred in the tenth month, and so on."
"This country was already riddled with problems before Yongzheng took over, which means that Kangxi didn't manage it well in his later years. So it's hard to understand why nine people were vying for the throne!"
"Do they all enjoy cleaning up messes and then working themselves to death?!"
Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty: ...
The other eight princes: !!
A butcher from the Song Dynasty: An emperor actually died from overwork!!!
A scion of a prominent family in the Tang Dynasty: So, all this fighting over positions is a battle to see who will die of exhaustion first?!
Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty: ...
People from all over time were stunned when they heard this. How could an emperor die from overwork?!
However, it's also possible that the emperor was cleaning up the mess!
……
"In the first year of Yongzheng's reign, before he had even secured his throne, the fourth prince not only recovered the deficit but also pushed forward several reforms at the same time."
"It can be said that from the time the fourth prince took office until the second year of Yongzheng's reign, he had to complete a task almost every month, and he also had to take into account previous policies."
"Yongzheng's reforms ensured the country's fiscal revenue and strengthened the monarch's control over officials. Such a major reform largely affected the interests of the nobility, so his reforms started with officials."
"Afterwards, Yongzheng adjusted the memorial system. This system was designed to address matters that lower-level officials dared not report. With this change, these officials were able to bypass the middle officials and report directly to the emperor."
"This system existed during the Kangxi era, but there were too many officials and therefore too many memorials. In the mid-to-late Kangxi period, he didn't have the energy to read all these memorials, so he granted about two hundred people the privilege of submitting secret memorials."
"When it was Yongzheng, he did even more. We later generations called him the 'Liver Emperor,' but we never expected that he granted such secret memorial privileges to as many as 1,300 people, which is almost six times that of his father."
A young master from a prominent family in the Song Dynasty: Good heavens, look at all these people! No wonder I'm exhausted!!!
A Tang Dynasty official: I really want to know where he got the time from!?
A scholar from the Ming Dynasty: Time? You can always find it if you squeeze it in!
……
Lin Ke noticed this comment and really wanted to say that Yongzheng's daily routine was not something ordinary people could live through. He got up so early, I really couldn't get up!
"However, there are quite a few diligent emperors. The problem is that some people are diligent in their duties, but what they do is basically useless."
Some emperors: It seems like they're calling my name!?
"In order to ensure the smooth progress of the reforms, Yongzheng also carried out reforms on the officialdom."
"First, let's talk about taxation. The taxes that officials collect from the people are melted down and reprocessed into official silver, which results in losses, hence the term 'fire loss silver'."
"Simply put, in addition to collecting taxes, officials also have to collect a handling fee to make up for the losses. Of course, the amount of this fee is determined by them, and the people are the ones being exploited!"
"But after you say you've paid this tax and that tax, you tell me there's some kind of 'fire loss silver.' As the saying goes, the people can't fight against the officials, so the common people can only suffer and obediently pay the money."
"Therefore, Yongzheng legalized this portion of tax revenue through legislation, supplemented it with a relatively low tax rate, collected it into the national treasury, and finally allocated it to various local government offices for operating expenses."
"This greatly reduced the burden on the people, and frankly speaking, the salaries of officials in the Ming and Qing dynasties were quite low. For example, a first-rank official received 180 taels of silver, while a ninth-rank official received only 45 taels."
"With such low salaries, people would inevitably skim money from other sources, which is what we call embezzlement. So when Yongzheng's system was implemented, the salaries of most officials were increased, for example, to a general level of 800 taels."
A down-on-his-luck young man from the Tang Dynasty: "It's my turn! I want to work for a boss like that too! He gives so much!"
A scion of a prominent family in the Song Dynasty: Damn! It's increased many times over! This emperor is something else!
A scion of a prominent family in the Ming Dynasty: So why would his own brother be so foolish as to oppose him?! Having an emperor as an older brother, and being so rich himself, wouldn't working under him be incredibly comfortable?!
Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty: Thank you for the invitation! I didn't really want this younger brother!
……