Chapter 151 Uproar
The next day, morning.

As the Ministry of Revenue sang the ceremony loudly, all officials gathered at the Huangji Gate.

Chongzhen took his seat. Without waiting for the civil and military officials to come out and report, the chief minister of the cabinet, Shi Fenglai, stepped forward and reported: "Your Majesty has ordered my cabinet ministers to discuss the abolition of the Liao tribute. They have reached a consensus. They all think that this is a good policy that benefits the country and the people. We can immediately announce it to the world to show our emperor's benevolence!"

When these words were spoken, all the officials were stunned at first and then in an uproar.

When did the emperor order the cabinet to abolish the Liao salary? There was no sign of this happening beforehand.

And the most bizarre thing is that the cabinet actually agreed?
The person who reacted most strongly to this incident was the Minister of Revenue Bi Ziyan.

The imperial court spent millions of taels of money outside the Great Wall every year, which was simply not enough to support the situation with its pitiful three or four million taels of tax revenue. The only reason it could support itself until now was entirely because of the Liao salary.

If the Liao salary was abolished, where would he, the Minister of Revenue, get the millions of taels of silver for Liaodong's annual expenditure?
Good man, it turns out you are not the ones who are worried, right?

Thinking of this, Bi Ziyan didn't care about anything else. Before Shi Fenglai returned to the line, he had already stood up and said at a loss: "Excuse me, Your Majesty, what is the reason for the abolition of Liaozhang that Yuanfu mentioned? I, the Minister of Revenue, know nothing about it?"

Chongzhen was a little embarrassed. Logically speaking, matters concerning taxation and levy should have been notified to the Minister of Revenue in advance.

After all, the Ministry of Revenue is in charge of the country's money and grain, and any changes in tax policies are related to the court's money and grain revenue.

The most important thing is that Chongzhen had made up his mind and was determined to implement the land-based tax system, so he did not summon the six ministers to discuss it.

This will prevent too many people from talking too much, which will make it difficult to make a quick decision.

Chongzhen nodded, and Shi Fenglai immediately explained on his behalf what the land tax distribution meant, as well as the resolution to rectify the Single Whip System and strictly implement it.

Of course, it is also necessary to explain what the land-based tax system means and what impact it will have on the Ming Dynasty court.

However, it would have been better if he hadn't explained it, because once he did, the ministers were immediately in an uproar.

During the Ming Dynasty, scholars were given great preferential treatment. As long as they passed the examination to become a scholar, they would be exempted from a certain amount of taxes.

This also led to the gentry and powerful people throughout the world sparing no effort to cultivate scholars within their own clans.

Because the family land can be registered under the name of these scholars, so that they can enjoy the preferential policies of the court.

Even those ordinary scholars who had no one to rely on and no family, once they passed the imperial examinations, would immediately be wooed by local big families, who would marry women from the family to them in order to obtain tax exemptions in their names.

Even if there are a small number of scholars who are not from big families and are unwilling to be someone else's son-in-law, once these people enter the court as officials, as long as they are not incorruptible like Hai Rui, they will become new local tyrants in a few years, annexing large amounts of land and enjoying preferential treatment from the court.

Simply put, behind each of the civil and military officials standing outside the Golden Gate today, there is the interest of one or more large landowners, or some of them themselves are large landowners.

Chongzhen's imperial edict seems to benefit the country and the people, but it is detrimental to officials, businessmen and powerful people!
They even have to reach into their pockets to take out money. How can we tolerate this!

As a result, whether it was the officials of the six ministries, the officials of the Ministry of Personnel, or even the censors, they all stood up to oppose it. They all said that the emperor was competing with the people for profit, and the country would no longer be a people!

Fortunately, this matter was first raised by Shi Fenglai. Although all the officials knew that this must have been instructed by Chongzhen, they did not dare to point the finger directly at Chongzhen at the beginning, so they attacked Shi Fenglai one after another.

Not to mention the Donglin Party members who were originally irreconcilable with the Eunuch Party, even those who were originally neutral, who wanted to avoid offending the officials who were watching the fun, had to step out and attack Shi Fenglai and others.

Gradually the war expanded, because according to Shi Fenglai, the entire cabinet agreed with Chongzhen's order, so gradually the war was no longer limited to Shi Fenglai.

Second Assistant Minister Zhang Ruitu, Grand Secretaries Qian Longxi, Lai Zongdao, Yang Jingchen and others were all criticized.

However, they did not dare to argue at all. They could only stand there with a grim face, staring at Shi Fenglai with resentment.

After Shi Fenglai left the palace last night, he visited the two of them that night and told them that Chongzhen was going to implement the policy of allocating land tax to each household.

The two of them naturally understood how much the interests of the powerful families would be harmed by this land tax, so they rejected it outright. Qian Longxi even wanted to drag Si Feng to the palace to meet the emperor and persuade him to revoke his decision.

However, they were all persuaded by Shi Fenglai one by one. It was not because Shi Fenglai was so good at speaking, but because Shi Fenglai suddenly took out an imperial sword and slammed it on the table, indicating that the emperor had made up his mind about the matter and ordered him to distribute the land tax according to the amount of land. This imperial sword was used to support treacherous ministers.

As for who is a treacherous minister, Shi Fenglai did not give a clear standard.

But it was obvious that if Shi Fenglai, the head of the cabinet, could not get an answer that satisfied Chongzhen when he visited other cabinet ministers late at night with the imperial sword and the emperor's edict, he would have to go back with something else.

As for what that thing is, it’s very simple. It is something that can only be cut off with the imperial sword.

Emperor Chongzhen had been in power for less than half a year, but he dared to send the cabinet head with the imperial sword to scare people everywhere. It was simply appalling!
However, the reason why Shi Fenglai was able to convince the cabinet ministers so easily was not only because he had the imperial sword, but also because of the political stance of the cabinet at that time.

At this time, the Donglin Party had suffered years of suppression by Wei Zhongxian and had not yet had time to quickly seize the power vacuum.

Shi Fenglai, Yang Jingchen, Lai Zongdao, Zhang Ruitu and others were almost all considered eunuchs in the eyes of outsiders, or members of the Zhejiang Party who were close to the eunuchs. Even Qian Longxi, who was at odds with Shi Fenglai, hated the Donglin Party very much.

Now that the eunuch party is declining, the Donglin party is gradually gaining momentum, and the senior officials in the court also tend to be friendly to the Donglin party. Therefore, those eunuch party members or cabinet ministers who are not in harmony with the Donglin party are actually having a very hard time.

Almost no one gave them a good look, so these cabinet ministers were happy to give everyone a piece of bad apple to eat. Regardless of whether the land-based tax system was successful or not, at least it would disgust the officials.

What's more, Shi Fenglai patted his chest and guaranteed that he would be in charge of the entire matter, and all others needed to do was to remain silent.

So everyone had no reason to refuse.

Sure enough, Shi Fenglai did what he said. When faced with his responsibilities as an official, he did not drag others into it. Instead, he debated with every official who opposed the equalization of land tax.

(End of this chapter)