OBS Chapter 364 Tired, destroy it
Chapter 364 Tired, destroy it
Shen Hao looked at Wu Yanhu and wanted to ask: Do you think I'm stupid?
The total taxes of the entire Hangzhou Prefecture amounted to more than 25,000 taels of silver, but Hangzhou Prefecture is not just a single county!
Ningyang County is in a terrible state; its commercial taxes alone amount to more than five thousand taels!
According to the current 70/30 system of the Ming Dynasty, local governments could divert 30% of taxes to maintain the normal operation of their offices.
Projects such as repairing government buildings, building bridges and roads, and dredging waterways, as well as the salaries paid to numerous minor officials and yamen runners, all came from the 30% of taxes that were diverted.
Ironically, back when Emperor Zhu issued an edict to place Ningyang County under the direct jurisdiction of the Central Secretariat, he had already promised that Ningyang County would not have to pay a single coin in taxes to the court for three years.
In other words, if Ningyang County collected 5,000 taels of commercial tax in the second year of the Hongwu reign, then all of this tax could be retained and would not need to be transported to the capital!
Then the problem is coming.
Ningyang County alone could intercept as much as 1,500 taels of commercial tax. If all other taxes that could be intercepted were added together, it would amount to several thousand taels.
No matter how much Ningyang County is directly under the Central Secretariat, it cannot change the fact that Ningyang County is a small county with only two or three thousand people. Not to mention that the county government office in Ningyang County has always been dilapidated and has no trace of repair. Even if there are places where money can be spent, how much can be spent?
Seeing Shen Hao's suspicious look, Wu Yanhu couldn't help but complain, "Your Excellency Shen, you don't know this, but although our Ningyang County is small and poor, there are too many places where we need to spend money. Let alone five thousand taels of commercial tax, even fifty thousand taels of commercial tax might not be enough."
Shen Hao chuckled and looked at Wu Yanhu with a hint of mockery, saying, "Would you like to hear the details?"
Is Ningyang County small and poor?
Ah.
Wu Yanhu paused slightly, but still forced himself to say, "Imperial Censor Shen may not know this, but the number of officials and servants in our Ningyang County is somewhat excessive, much more than that of a typical superior county."
Upon hearing this, Shen Hao immediately became interested.
Many people think that officials paid for their own minor officials and clerks, but in fact, clerks were properly employed and their wages were called "salary" instead of wages.
The servants that officials paid for themselves were called servants, either those hired by their own households or those hired by their advisors.
To put it simply, clerks with official positions are considered permanent employees, while unemployed yamen runners are a type of "service" with limited positions, which can be considered temporary workers. Those hired by the officials themselves without official positions are not even considered temporary workers.
Ningyang County is just a small county. Even if the number of officials and servants is a bit higher, how much more can it be than the limit set by the Ministry of Personnel?
Wu Yanhu counted on his fingers: "The Six Offices, the Issuance Office, and the Cabinet Treasury need no further explanation. Each office needs several clerks to work in it, especially the Household Office, which now involves many miscellaneous tasks such as invoices, so it naturally needs more manpower."
"As for the yamen runners, in addition to the regular 36 yamen runners in the three shifts, Ningyang County also has minor runners under the fast shifts, such as those who patrol the streets and those who are stationed in the communities. All of these together number more than a hundred people."
"In addition, there are warehouse workers who are in charge of four reserve warehouses inside the city, eight community warehouses outside the city, the Ever-Normal Granary, and the County Treasury. There are dozens of these in total."
"This part of the expense alone would probably amount to nearly a thousand taels of silver a year?"
Wu Yanhu continued to complain: "The key issue is that our son-in-law spends money recklessly. The county school has to pay for writing materials, students' clothes, and books. The teachers, who are considered clerks in the ceremonial office, also have to receive a salary."
"Furthermore, there are the four artificial lakes outside Ningyang County, numerous workshops, the cement road south of the city leading to Yanzhou Prefecture, and the cement road north of the city leading to Jinan Prefecture. Each of these projects costs money."
"There are also farms and livestock farms, brick kilns and cement kilns. On the surface, these seem to make money, but at the end of each year, farms and livestock farms have to sell some poultry and livestock to the people at low prices, and brick kilns and cement kilns lend to the people to fire bricks and tiles without charging them money."
"Oh, by the way, our Ningyang County now has a nursing home, a sanatorium, and a pharmacy. The nursing home takes in widows, widowers, and orphans over the age of sixty, the sanatorium collects the remains of the dead, and the pharmacy goes without saying, we have to put money into it almost every month."
Wu Yanhu said with a bitter face, "It's all thanks to our son-in-law's ability to both spend and earn money; the money he's brought back in the last two years is barely enough to make ends meet."
"If Ningyang County's taxes were also transported to the capital at a rate of 70% like other prefectures and counties, I'm afraid Ningyang County would already be heavily indebted."
After glancing at Shen Hao, who had a blank expression, Wu Yanhu added, "By the way, the Prince Consort also said that he wants the workshops in the county to spend money to buy some shrimp, seaweed and the like from Dengzhou Prefecture. It will probably be another big expense."
Shen Hao was completely numb.
Tired, destroy it.
Otherwise, let Liu Zhongcheng come to Ningyang County himself, or let His Majesty or His Highness the Crown Prince come to Ningyang County themselves.
I, Shen, am merely a seventh-rank imperial inspector. I neither understand Yang Dianfeng's various schemes nor can I comprehend what Wu Yanhu is rambling about.
I want to go back and find it!
It’s his mother’s fault!
After a long silence, Shen Hao sighed softly and said, "I will check all the other account books again in the next few days. If there are no problems, I will return to the capital to report to His Majesty."
……
While Shen Hao was rummaging through various account books in the warehouse of Ningyang County, Yang Shaofeng was listening to Yang Qing, the imperial physician, shouting and cursing wildly in the backyard of the Penglai County government office.
"You promised me, those were medicine people prepared for me!"
Yang Qing glared at Yang Shaofeng and shouted, "Now look what's happened! All my medicine men are doing hard labor on the construction site in Penglai County, getting whipped and injured every day by those bastards. I have to find ways to treat their injuries every day. Is this acceptable?"
Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but roll his eyes and said, "What's wrong with this? I'm telling you, Imperial Physician Yang, you have these puppies every day for you to experiment on and treat all sorts of injuries. You don't even thank me, and you still have the nerve to come and cause me trouble?"
Yang Qing rolled his eyes upon hearing this, snorted coldly, and said, "What do I have to be embarrassed about? We agreed that those medicine people who couldn't survive would belong to me, but what about now?"
These guys are all incredibly resilient; I've waited for several days and not a single one or two have died. How am I supposed to disassemble them and study them?
After hesitating for a moment, Yang Qing still couldn't bring himself to say it. He just snorted again and said, "I need a few people who have caught a cold. I would appreciate it if Your Highness could come up with a solution."
Upon hearing this, Yang Shaofeng immediately laughed and turned to Limpy Wu, instructing, "Quickly, find a few short, ugly men who have caught a cold and send them over to Physician Yang. Also, prepare a short, ugly man who is still warm; don't take one that's completely cold."
Yang Qing then turned his anger into joy, and with a smile, cupped his hands to Yang Shaofeng, saying, "In that case, I will not disturb the Prince Consort's reunion with the Princess any longer. Farewell, farewell."