I make a popular science video and all the emperors learn from it!

【The second of the four major Hongwu science cases】

【Blank case!】

【The"seal" here is the official seal, and the"empty seal" is a large seal stamped on blank paper.】

【This case is related to Ming Dynasty tax payment】

【During the Ming Dynasty, the administrative law"Ming Huidian" promulgated by the state stipulated various types of taxes in the Ming Dynasty, including real estate and land tax, pawn tax, cattle, donkeys, horses, pigs and sheep tax, calico cigarette package tax, wine tax, land property tax, deed tax, tooth tax, etc. Tax subsidy, sea tax, stamped wood silver, river silver, brick silver, school rent, hemp silver, chestnut silver......】

【The easiest way to pay taxes is to pay money. In the past, it was just money.】

【Monetary taxes are also very old. In the Southern Song Dynasty, farmers began to pay taxes directly in silver.】

【But Zhu Yuanzhang didn't. He liked to seek truth from facts.】

【The Ming Dynasty paid taxes not in money but in kind. This method of paying taxes was called"tax in kind"."】

【If you grow rice, you pay me the rice. If you grow wheat, you pay me the wheat. Even if you are engaged in mushroom farming, you still have to pay a basket of mushrooms.】

【Every time it's time to pay taxes, the people carry bamboo baskets, cloth bags, and wheelbarrows on their hands and shoulders. The whole village, old and young, goes out to deliver the goods with humming sounds. The scene is quite spectacular.】

【Then you have to weigh it, check the moisture content, and check the quality.】

【Farmers have to shout and kneel down to beg the officials to accept the crops they have worked so hard to grow. They will see their faces and make things difficult for them.】

【The tax collectors of the Ming Dynasty were also very angry】

【Faced with the various agricultural products in large farmers' markets, people have to weigh them one by one, check and accept them, then pack these messy things, and then be responsible for transporting them to Nan.】

【This was the tax situation in the early Ming Dynasty and the root cause of the"Empty Seal Case"】

【It was not easy for the tax collectors in the Ming Dynasty. They had to go to the countryside to collect taxes, pack them, and transport all these various things to Nan. Collecting taxes was like receiving a courier.】

【After collecting the express delivery, they will encounter a difficult treasury from Party A and the leader of the household department who does not recognize their relatives.】

【For example, a certain county collected 10,000 shi of wheat in accordance with the tax policy.】

【Next, the county chief will send someone to transport the wheat to Nan, and at the same time report to the Ministry of Household Affairs, saying that our county has collected 10,000 tons of wheat, and plans to send it to the treasury by so-and-so on a certain day.】

【Then, the person responsible for escorting the wheat will be sent to the treasury, and only after it is inspected and accepted by the treasury, can it be considered officially put into the treasury.】

【But in reality, transportation in ancient times was inconvenient】

【These collected physical goods will be damaged during transportation.】

【For example, if 10,000 shi of wheat are encountered in rainy days, will they become moldy? Rats stole it, sparrows pecked it, etc.】

【Insufficient portion, excusable】

【However, the acceptance officers of the treasury only recognize numbers and not people. Whatever is written on the declaration form is what you have to pay.】

【It was written as 10,000 shi, but it turned out to be 9,999 shi. It was not heavy enough, so I refused to accept it.】

【If it is 11,000 stone and the weight exceeds the standard, it will also be rejected!】

【In other words, it cannot be more or less, otherwise people will reject it.】

【This makes the grassroots staff miserable.】

【In the end, they can only weigh themselves in advance to make sure they are accurate, and then transport them there on a day with good wind and sunshine and suitable humidity, chasing away mice and sparrows along the way to ensure that nothing goes wrong.】

【Only then can we deal with the strict acceptance officers of the treasury】

【Getting the acceptance officer is just the first step】

【Next, the treasury will issue a receipt, and the clerk will take this receipt to the household department for verification. Only if the verification is correct can the tax payment task be completed.】

【However, this level is even more difficult than the treasury!】

【First of all, the Ministry of Household Affairs are all officials from the capital, and they are busy with many things.】

【Secondly, the Ministry of Household Affairs’ review is more stringent.】

【According to the procedure, officials from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development must compare the original documents, which are the earliest data reported by the state and county, with the receipts from the treasury. Only when the two documents are completely consistent can the application be finally approved.】

【After such a comparison, the problem arises】

【There are big and small problems. As for the big ones, some local officials didn’t understand it well and wrote wheat instead of barley.】

【There are also people who haven’t calculated the time well. For example, it was sent to Beijing on August 1st, but it didn’t arrive until August 3rd.】

【What about minor problems, such as incorrect formatting, typos, forgotten signatures, wrong seals, etc.】

【As long as there is a problem, the result is the same:】

【Call it back for revision, when will it be corrected, and when will it be passed?】

【If something goes wrong, you have to go back in person and bring the news back to the local area. The state and county officials will rewrite the report, stamp it, and send it to the capital.】

【If it's on the edge of the capital, this set of procedures will take several days at the earliest. 】(To read exciting novels, go to Feilu Novel Network!)

【But if you go to other remote areas, no matter how fast you go, it will take less than half a year!】

【In addition to traveling on the road, there is another big problem】

【There is no guarantee that if you modify it once, everything will be corrected.】

【If something goes wrong somewhere in the modification, you have to go back again.】

【Who can stand this over and over again? Who can afford it?】

【However, no matter whether you can bear it or not, and whether you can afford it or not, according to the procedures, if you don’t get through the household department, the tax task will be unfinished.】

【If the tax collection is not completed, it is not just a small tax official who is unlucky. Officials at all levels in the entire county, and even provincial leaders, will be unlucky. They can be demoted or jailed.】

【Therefore, the annual taxation task is the top priority for the local government.】

【The origin of the blank seal:】

【There must be no mistakes in the household tax return form. If you make a mistake, you have to go back to the starting point and go through the process again.】

【So, someone figured out a way to deal with it】

【In the final analysis, the declaration form is actually just a piece of paper.】

【No matter how troublesome the treasury declaration form is, it is written by people. Since it is written by people, it can be changed.】

【If we want to change it, there are two problems that must be solved.】[]

【One is that the declaration form must have the signature of the state or county governor.】

【This is not difficult. People’s signatures are easy to imitate.】

【But sealing is a bit troublesome. The declaration form must be stamped with the seal of the state or county government, otherwise it will be a piece of waste paper.】

【Someone thought of a way to prepare several blank pieces of official paper in advance and stamp the official seal in advance.】

【Then go to the capital with these blank papers. No matter how the county magistrate fills out the form, just fill it out on the spot according to the actual quantity, type, and arrival time of the grain, and resubmit it. This will ensure that the grain in the warehouse is completely consistent with the reported data.】

【Even if there are errors found during the review by the Ministry of Accounts, don’t be afraid.】

【If there is any mistake, just change it on the spot. In this way, everyone will save trouble. This is"empty printing""】

【This unspoken rule was very clear to everyone in the imperial court.】

【Even the particularly demanding officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs are aware of the difficulties faced by the staff below.】

【After all, everyone has come this way and has done the"empty seal" thing, so they just turn a blind eye to this behavior of lower-level officials.】

【Therefore, everyone in the officialdom has acquiesced in this empty seal, and over time it has become an official habit.】

【But the most serious problem is that Zhu Yuanzhang doesn't know about this!】

【None of his officials reported him】

【Only he himself was kept in the dark!】

【......enter】.