Professional matters should be left to professionals. There was a very powerful organization in the United States called the "United States Internal Revenue Service". This organization was powerful and domineering. It was definitely a role model that Zhu Yijun wanted to learn from.
The Chicago Mafia boss was known as the most powerful boss in American history. His annual illegal income was hundreds of millions, which was a lot in that era.
Moreover, he was very slippery. The police could not catch him at all. In the end, he fell into the hands of the IRS.
At that time, the IRS found that Al Capone had never filled in a tax return and never paid taxes. I'm already in the underworld, why should I pay taxes? However, the IRS felt that even the Emperor had to pay taxes.
Therefore, the IRS sent an undercover agent to be Al Capone's accountant.
In the end, they found out that there was a casino with hundreds of thousands of income that had not been declared. This was nothing in Al Capone's underworld empire, but the IRS arrested him.
In the end, they did not convict Al of being a gangster, but tax evasion was enough.
Thus, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison and fined 50,000 yuan.
From then on, he lost contact with the outside world. After he was released from prison, because he contracted syphilis in prison, he could only fish. His career as a gangster boss came to an end.
It could be seen that the IRS was more powerful than the FBI.
It had a special tax collection force, and its authority was much greater than the FBI's. It suspected and convicted. Once it suspected, it would freeze all your assets first.
Next, you had to prove that you did not evade taxes.
Therefore, there was a saying in the United States: "In this world, only death and taxes are eternal."
What Zhu Yijun wanted was this kind of tax organization. They even collected taxes from drug dealers. The punishment for tax evasion was severe. It was definitely a nightmare for tax evaders.
This kind of thing must be done by professionals. You let the officials collect your own taxes, and it would be gone after a while.
The key was that there was a very easy operation, and that was the tax burden on the fields. The tax burden on the fields above, below, and in the fields below was different.
For some gentry, it did not seem difficult to change the nature of the land.
Not to mention in this era, even in the future, there were a lot of commercial and industrial land.
As for the examination law, the Daming Bureaucracy's supervision system was full of loopholes. The Imperial Censors were only looking at big cases, cases that could raise their reputation. Moreover, they were just rumors, so they could not be convicted based on their words. To put it bluntly, they could only spout nonsense.
When Zhang Juzheng was around, the implementation of the examination method might have been fine. However, when Zhang Juzheng was gone, it would probably collapse.
After all, they were the ones with the greatest vested interests. Without enough checks and balances and the emergence of a new class, the reform would not last long.
However, the current reform was positive, and Zhu Yijun was very supportive of it.
For example, this time's land accounting. Check how much land there is in the country and make a booklet. Otherwise, you won't be able to collect taxes even if you want to in the future.
Not only did Zhu Yijun want to check the land of the officials, but he also wanted to check the land of the Royal Family and the Honours. Putting aside taxes, he wanted to find out how much land they owned.
It was better to know oneself and the enemy. It was not good to be blind.
Zhu Yijun sat on the Dragon Throne and let his imagination run wild. The people below were already in a mess. Both sides had different opinions and were arguing fiercely.
Zhang Juzheng still squinted his eyes and stood there calmly. Nothing could be seen on his face, as if the argument had nothing to do with him.
However, Zhu Yijun knew that Zhang Juzheng was preparing for a big move.
"I have a memorial!"
As expected, after a while, Zhang Juzheng stood up and bowed.
The hall was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. The arguing also stopped. Everyone looked at Zhang Juzheng quietly, waiting to see what he would say.
For the past five years, Zhang Juzheng was in charge of human affairs and was very authoritative.
With the examination law in his hands, Zhang Juzheng dismissed many officials. Zhang Juzheng stipulated that if the local officials tried to collect taxes less than 90%, they would be punished.
In December last year, according to the Revenue Department's report, there were 17 local officials in Shandong and two in Henan who were demoted because of this. There were two in Shandong and nine in Henan who were dismissed.
This made the officials who were afraid of being punished not dare to slack off. They urged the householders to pay the taxes and grain for the year.
Because of the change in the situation of delinquent taxes and grain, the national treasury became more and more abundant.
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Revenue last year, the annual income of the whole country was more than 4.35 million taels, which was more than 2.5 million taels of silver in the Longqing era, an increase of 74% compared to the annual income of 2.5 million taels of silver in the Longqing era.
The balance of revenue and expenditure was more than 850,000 taels. The long-term deficit was reversed.
However, Zhu Yijun also knew that taxes were collected. But who was the one collecting the taxes? How many people were forced to die and how many families were destroyed in the process of collecting taxes?
If there was no fundamental change, the more taxes were collected, the faster the Daming would collapse.
Even so, Zhang Juzheng's prestige was still built up in the process. After all, Zhang Juzheng's words were no different from an imperial edict.
If you want an imperial edict, then fine. I will write one for you. This was Zhang Juzheng's power.
"This official thinks that the imperial court is short of money and does not collect taxes. This is because the rich people have land but do not pay taxes. The poor people are burdened by this and run away. This is the root cause of the country's poverty." Zhang Juzheng's voice was not loud, but it was deafening.
The people standing in the hall were not fools. Everyone knew what Zhang Juzheng meant. He wanted to clean up the land!
Zhu Yijun looked at Zhang Juzheng and suddenly thought of a person. This person was Hai Rui!
As for Zhang Juzheng's plan to clean up the land, Hai Rui thought that it was a bad idea. It could not solve the problem of unequal taxation among the people.
As for Hai Rui, there were all kinds of opinions. However, Hai Rui was fair and strict.
After Zhang Juzheng died, Hai Rui was used. Hai Rui was already 72 years old at that time. He was old and dying. He was willing to follow the example of the ancient remonstrations. He listed the laws of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, such as skinning people and putting grass on them to make leather bags. He also said that he had perverted the law and sentenced people to death by hanging.
He said that this method should be used to punish corruption and other political plans. His words were very practical.
Only when he advised the emperor to use tyrannical laws was it was considered wrong.
However, Zhu Yijun understood Hai Rui's thoughts. He saw the current situation of Daming's officialdom. After so many years of ups and downs, he knew the extent of Daming's officialdom.
He could not tolerate the exploitation and corruption of the officials. He felt that only the strict laws of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang could reverse the decline of the officialdom.
After all, although Zhang Juzheng was in charge of politics, he did not care much about corruption.