Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 181 - 176: Solution (Extra for votes 5)

Chapter 181: Chapter 176: Solution (Extra for votes 5)

The so-called Blank Seal Case, when summarized, is actually not complicated.

According to the laws of the Great Sheng Dynasty, the taxes collected from each county had to be reported up the chain, the prefectural governments would check the reported taxes of each county, all the way up to the Ministry of Revenue.

Once the Ministry of Revenue had calculated the true taxes stored in the national treasury, it would then compare this with the reported figures from the various localities to ensure that the two numbers matched.

If there was a discrepancy, then the figures would need to be recalculated and resubmitted.

However, in the early years of the Great Sheng Dynasty, a large portion of taxes were paid in kind, meaning these included not only silver taels but also grain, cloth, silk, salt, and so on, and even trivial items like a few taels of vermilion.

Due to the high probability of accidents during the transport of these goods to the capital, resulting in notably fewer goods entering the storage compared to the figures reported by the counties, the accounts would have to be sent back for re-auditing.

And since ancient transportation was underdeveloped, traveling back and forth between many places was quite troublesome.

Hence, as early as the Northern Barbarians’ time, officials at all levels came up with a method to save trouble, which was to let local officials carry ledger books stamped with blank official seals to the capital. After being checked by the Ministry of Revenue, they would fill in the figures, guaranteeing the two sets of numbers would always match.

Many officials in the Great Sheng Dynasty were actually from the previous dynasty.

After all, in ancient times, those who could read and hold office were often from the prominent families or at least had a certain foundation. During a change of dynasties, the Great Sheng Dynasty could not possibly discard all these people, as that would have caused significant problems.

Thus, many officials, especially the local clerks, were actually the same as before.

These people naturally continued the old method, bringing ledger books with stamped blank seals to the capital, and handing in a set of accounts that were sure to be without any errors.

But to Emperor Taizu of Sheng, this was clearly intolerable.

Why demand accountability at every level, requiring recalculations if the accounts did not match?

Because taxation was the foundation of the nation, and the potential for corruption and fraud was tremendous. Therefore, despite the tedious steps and troublesome processes, it was necessary to scrutinize these details.

Taking blank account books to the capital, then filling in whatever amount one wished, what was the point of accounting?

Better not to keep accounts at all, just accept whatever the localities hand over to the Ministry of Revenue. If they don’t pay, don’t collect. Wouldn’t that be even more convenient?

So, in a fit of rage, Emperor Taizu conducted a thorough investigation and punished all those involved; the chief officials had their heads chopped off, and their deputies were beaten and exiled after being sentenced.

Chuge had a rough understanding of this case he had stumbled upon, which was almost identical to the situation faced by Emperor Taizu back in the day.

As for whether this was a miscarriage of justice, Chuge did have some opinions of his own.

Firstly, was this a miscarriage of justice?

Certainly not.

A group of local treasury officials and a group of central treasury officials gathered together from afar, discussing what figures to fill in on an already sealed blank ledger, claiming this was to save trouble and improve administrative efficiency?

Any emperor with a bit of sense wouldn’t believe it.

This was no longer just a matter of falsifying accounts but a most egregious alteration of original data. If the figures were negotiated, what was the purpose of all the actual data collected and checked by each government office and county?

Just fill in whatever you see fit, right?

Before the Great Sheng Dynasty, taxes in kind had always been collected, and there’s no record that blank seals had been universally used. Moreover, Great Sheng had over a thousand counties, and more than half did not use blank seals for bookkeeping.

Among the jurisdictions that did use blank seals to keep their books, many were prefectures and counties near the capital, reachable within a day or two by fast horse, yet they also used blank seals.

To say this was for improving administrative efficiency seriously insulted one’s intelligence.

The duty of these officials was to clearly account for all data. If they couldn’t do that, Emperor Taizu would simply have them recalculate.

Local officials were tasked with calculating these data, and after a year of calculation that still did not tally, they still had the audacity to be indignant?

Even more outrageous was that these people, to save trouble, brought blank ledgers and filled it in themselves.

Using the old dynasty’s practices for this dynasty’s matters, and justifying it? Having these people executed indeed wasn’t unjust.

Secondly, were there some officials who were unjustly killed?

This cannot be confirmed, but it’s very likely there were.

In this situation, it was also very difficult to distinguish.

Because the key to this case was that the method of using the blank seal could introduce significant vulnerabilities into the entire financial system, easily leading to fraudulent activities that are extremely difficult to investigate.

How many officials used the blank seal to amass wealth? And how many used it just to save trouble?

This was almost an impossible question to verify.

And for Emperor Taizu of Sheng, to believe that these officials were purely aiming to improve efficiency? That was impossible.

Chu Ge didn’t believe it either.

Just like the current officials, if they proposed a policy claiming to improve efficiency but clearly with a large margin for manipulation, would ordinary people think they were doing it to improve efficiency or to seek rents for their own power?

It was self-evident.

Therefore, it was definitely correct to handle this matter strictly and severely. If left untreated, the severe fiscal problems that the Great Sheng Dynasty would face in the later period might emerge in the early to mid-period.

After all, when it comes to embezzling money, everyone’s appetite only grows.

If at the beginning, a group of people were severely executed, perhaps it could temporarily curb this unhealthy tendency and slow its spread; but if it was ignored, indulged, and tacitly approved from the start, then in a few decades, it’s hard to imagine how much leeway these officials could carve out for themselves.

But Chu Ge didn’t plan to copy Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s method entirely, because there was indeed a very tricky practical problem behind this issue.

That is the problem of inevitable loss during the transportation of in-kind taxes.

After the Blank Seal Case, local administration would levy excess to fill the number lost, which in turn actually increased the burden on the common people. Hence, the Blank Seal Case stopped officials from arbitrarily filling out account books, but it couldn’t completely solve the problem.

That’s why in the later period of the Great Sheng Dynasty, the in-kind tax was changed to a uniform collection of Silver Taels, and when Silver Taels were used daily or smelted, natural loss might occur causing numbers not to match up, leading to a concept of loss due to melting becoming public...

In short, this issue was almost insolvable in feudal society, but a series of reforms could at least have some effect at the time, extending the dynasty’s longevity for several decades.

"With the conditions of the Great Sheng Dynasty in its early years, changing the in-kind tax to a unified collection of Silver Taels is definitely unrealistic, as the market economy had not developed to that extent. Forced changes would easily cause problems.

"What’s more, Emperor Taizu of Sheng was already in his twilight years, with his health much deteriorated, and could not push through a reform that would take years to complete.

"However, regarding the loss of in-kind taxes, it’s possible to implement a simplified version of ’excess becoming public’."

Thinking of this, Chu Ge had a clear idea in his mind for handling this case.

The official entrusted with the seal should be executed, the instance with the seal should be punished with caning and exile, and any form of blank seal activity should be strictly prohibited from happening again—this point remained unchanged, of course.

After that, a strategy for "excess becoming public" should be established.

This means, since the loss of in-kind taxes was inevitable, excess would naturally occur. But this excess shouldn’t be levied additionally from the people, and there must be strict regulations, not letting officials levy whatever amount they wanted; there should be a fixed ratio.

In this way, every region would still report their tax data accurately, layer by layer, for verification by the Ministry of Revenue.

When loss occurred during transportation for some special reasons, it could be regarded as excess. Upon entering the Ministry of Revenue, if the loss was within the normal range, then it would be stored as usual. Any excess would also not be kept by the officials, but submitted, although this excess could be used as a subsidy for various officials or for other purposes.

If the loss was outside the normal range, then the reasons had to be clarified. If it was due to special circumstances, like a heavy downpour, then there must be relevant proof for inspection.

Of course, Chu Ge also knew very well that any tax reform in ancient times could not escape a rule: historically, tax reforms occurred more than once, but after each tax reform, due to the limitations of the social and political environment at the time, the peasants’ burden would drop for a while, only to rise to a level higher than before the reform.

The reason was simple; the initial intent of these reforms was to combine various arbitrary and sundry taxes into one, thereby reducing the difficulty of collection and preventing officials from finding ways to embezzle under various pretexts.

But towards the end of the dynasty, as the imperial court’s control over the grassroots weakened, officials still found ways to levy taxes under various pretexts.

This means, that what was originally combined into one tax, after being implemented for some time, officials would again find pretexts to levy new taxes, which, in fact, were already included in the previous taxes.

In effect, the imperial court would squeeze the grey income from the officials’ hands, and the officials would ingeniously find ways to increase new grey income, while the common people ended up bearing more and more taxes.

Chu Ge was not a god, of course, and could not solve this problem.

But he would use the wisdom from later generations as much as possible, to find an optimal short-term solution to the fiscal issues in this instance of Emperor Taizu of Sheng, which would suffice for now.

After Chu Ge had a general countermeasure in mind, he automatically started to implement it.

However, just as Chu Ge was preparing to observe the changes in the fate of the Great Sheng Dynasty as a result of this case, he discovered that the case was not yet over.

A young eunuch came to report: "Your Majesty, Mr. Fang Shiyong requests an audience."

Chu Ge paused: "Fang Shiyong?"

He quickly searched his mind for this name.

He soon remembered.

This was a renowned scholar of the time, who had also been involved in the Blank Seal Case.

In history, he had submitted a lengthy memorial to Emperor Taizu of Sheng, with thousands of words eloquently arguing "no other guilt in the Blank Seal Case, it should be forgiven."

And Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s response to him was: exile.

Chu Ge realized that this situation was probably much like the original instance of the scholar.

Simply giving a measure was not enough; he needed to refute these people face-to-face before the task could be considered complete.