The World of Yellow Sky

Chapter 842 Famines are not enough to fear, ancestors are not enough, and people's words are not enough.

In the fourth year of the Ming Dynasty (197), August [-]th.

Jizhou, Anhailing Port.

There are [-] troops stationed in Anhai Port, one guard is left, and one Captain Anhai is set up.

At this time, Anhai Port was completely under martial law, and the streets in the port were full of guards.

Even the bazaar next to the military port is not very popular at this time, and there are many fewer passers-by.

Before the construction of Anhailing Port, it was just a small fishing village.

When the Anhai Port was built, a small market was gradually formed here because of the labor required for the construction of the military port.

After all, the Ming Court conscripted corvee and recruited workers for money, unlike the Han court that forced corvee and worked for free.

With abundant money, there will be corresponding spending power.

The Ming court did not suppress the development of commerce, so the porters and pawns began to rush towards this side and slowly gathered together.

After the construction of Anhai Harbor was completed, it became an important market.

After the establishment of the bazaar here, it also became a trading place for villagers in the surrounding settlements and settlements.

After the Hebei land went through a public trial, almost all the land owned by the aristocratic family was nationalized.

Xu An followed the previous measures in Bingzhou and Zhongzhou, and also implemented the farming system.

Of course, some inappropriate parts have been modified according to the local situation in Jizhou.

It is worth mentioning that this revision was not proposed by Xu An, but by Fu Qi, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

And the suggestion he made was citing what Xu An said before, formulating and correcting measures according to local conditions.

It seemed like a small move, but it still made Xu An feel quite excited.

Because Xu An has always been encouraging the spirit of pioneering and innovation.

in short.

"Famine is not enough to be feared, ancestors are not enough to follow the law, and human words are not enough to be sympathetic."

During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Dong Zhongshu proposed the "interaction between heaven and man".

That is to say, heaven and human beings are of the same kind and interact with each other. Heaven can intervene in human affairs, and human beings can also respond to heaven.

If the emperor violates the will of heaven and is unrighteous, there will be disasters and disasters to condemn and warn.

If the government is sound and the people are harmonious, the sky will send down auspicious signs to encourage them.

However, Emperor Hou Hanwu "respected Confucianism alone and dismissed all schools of thought".

For hundreds of years in the Han Dynasty, the "mandate of heaven" and "the relationship between heaven and man" have been convinced by everyone.

Therefore, once natural disasters occur in various places, the officials will be fined and the emperor will observe the etiquette, and the three officials will resign and the emperor will judge himself.

Confucianism has both good and bad aspects. As it continues to develop, it tends to be more conservative and is misused and modified by conservative forces.

In the later dynasties, they even took the initiative to release their territory, fearing the reform like a tiger.

What Xu An wants to do is to transform the existing Confucianism into the revised Taipingdao thought.

When Xu An revised it, he added "famines are not to be feared, ancestors are not to be law-abiding, and people's words are not to be sympathetic" into the Taipingdao thought.

This sentence is actually taken from Wang Anshi, who reformed in the Song Dynasty, but there is a difference in it. Wang Anshi said that "the change of the sky is not to be feared."

The original intention was that there is no need to be afraid of natural disasters. This was a response to the attack on the new law by some people at that time who used various so-called "innate visions" to attack the new law.

However, it has been changed to Famine Not Fearing, which is actually just colloquial and has not had much impact.

And at this time, Xu An himself declared that the Ming Kingdom is now the Mandate of Heaven, which is the foundation of the Ming Kingdom and the foundation of the future.

The right to interpret the Mandate of Heaven can no longer be controlled by those Confucian scholars and scholars. The power to interpret the Mandate of Heaven will be controlled by the Taoist government of the Ming Empire.

No matter how the future generations develop, China will always be the country of destiny, what Xu An wants is to root the idea of ​​this country of destiny in the hearts of ordinary people.

Ancestors are not enough to follow the law, and words are not enough to be compassionate.

That is, if the laws and regulations formulated by the predecessors do not meet the current needs or even hinder social progress, they must be revised or even abolished.

There is no need to worry too much about the rumors and rumors caused by the reform, because as long as it is a reform, it will definitely touch the interests of conservatives.

Fu Qi, Minister of the Household Department, is a good friend of Yan Zhong. He, Yang Ji, and Pang Bo were the first to join the Taiping Taoist family. It was entirely because they believed in Yan Zhong that they moved to Bingzhou with their family. At that time, the family members also moved to Zhongzhou.

Fu Qi is actually older than Yan Zhong, and he looks the thinnest among the four, but in fact his body is the best among the four.

This change was also brought up by him on his own initiative. Originally, Xu An was planning to put forward suggestions for improvement. After all, Fu Qi was old and it was not easy to change his mind, but he did not expect that Fu Qi would actually change his mind.

Due to years of wars in Zhongzhou, Bingzhou, Yizhou and other states, the land was abandoned and the population was lost.

The tuntian system adopted by Xu An at the beginning has been developed very well, with families as units, integrated, and set up tunforts and tunsuo.

However, in the land of Hebei, there has not been any war for a long time. There are not many refugees, and most of them gather together in the form of settlements, village pavilions, and cities.

Most of the small people in the head of Guizhou had no land and could only be reduced to tenants or servants of powerful families.

But even so, they still have families and gathering places, and moving them together rashly may cause unnecessary disturbances.

So after the tuntian system entered Hebei, it was reformed again.

Originally, the contracts of the tenant farmers under the powerful families were all collected by the household department of the Ming court, and then signed new contracts with the Ming court.

To put it simply, the owners of these lands have changed. These tenant farmers are now the land of the leased country, and they have to pay much less tax. In peacetime, they only need to pay land tax and service money.

Some of the surviving aristocratic families, such as the Shen family and the Zhen family, only have the right to use the land they occupy now.

The tax-exempt privilege of powerful families has been completely abolished. Under Ming Ting's rule, no one has tax-exempt privilege, and all fields have to pay taxes.

To become an official and general school, gain honors, and make meritorious deeds, you can only get a certain amount of "flat tax land" at most. It is not a direct grant of land, but a set amount.

Originally, those with more land paid more, those with less land paid less, and those without land did not pay, and taxes were levied according to the level of the land.

Flat-tax fields still have to pay taxes, but for flat-tax fields within the quota, you only need to pay the land tax and service money, and don’t pay the extra land tax that needs to be paid because it exceeds the upper limit.

For example, if a person owns more than [-] mu of land and reaches [-] mu, then the land tax he originally had to pay will be more, which is punishment.

But if he is a small official in the county, he has ten acres of flat-tax land quota, and he owns sixty acres of land, and he doesn't need to pay extra land tax, but if it exceeds it, he still has to pay extra tax.

And when he resigns from office, the amount of flat tax land will disappear at the same time.

If the land is not disposed of, corresponding taxes must be paid.

This land reform also took into account the actual national conditions.

After all, it is still a farming-dominated society. If supporters cannot enjoy good treatment, who will support it.

Is it possible to let supporters go hungry and live a poor life to support by relying on empty teeth?

Resisting tyranny is for a better life, not for continuing to starve and suffer from cold.

There must be bread, and so must cake.

The reason for opening up business routes and revitalizing business is because of this.

The land reform system introduced by the Ming court was completely aimed at the powerful families, but it was beneficial to the ordinary people in the head of Guizhou, and greatly reduced their burden.

The tenant farmers in the Hebei land were delighted by this policy change, while the self-cultivating farmers continued as before, and they could also lease land from the state and pay land tax according to the standard of garrison land.

Thanks to the aristocratic family's annexation of land for hundreds of years, Ming Ting now controls nearly [-]% of the land in the country just by acquiring the land from the powerful family.

The remaining [-]% ​​of the land has only a small number of self-cultivating farmers, and the newly reclaimed land is theoretically private.

Wang Mang reformed the land at the beginning. He wanted to nationalize the land and change the land ownership system to the "Wang Tian System", which is similar to the well field system of the Zhou Dynasty.

But at that time, big landlords and big aristocratic families controlled the land, so how could they accept such an arrangement.

The policy could not be implemented at all, and ordinary Guizhou people were more severely exploited because of this, which made the land reform a complete failure.

But now Xu An has no such problem to worry about.

The power of Taiping Dao made him no longer need the support of the family like ordinary princes to be able to rule the world.

There is no need for aristocratic families, no need for power, and no need for so-called compromises.

The spread of Taiping Road made it possible for ordinary Guizhou people to hear his voice in this era of inconvenient transportation and difficult government orders.

For a long time, Xu An has been constantly telling the people in the head of Guizhou who they are fighting for and why.

These concepts are constantly being rooted in the hearts of the people. With the opening of the school, new trends of thought have emerged.

More and more people are enlightened, in fact, the change has already started from the grassroots.

What supports this country is not a family that has been passed down for thousands of years, nor is it some nobles, but thousands of people in the head of Guizhou.

Han Ting felt that although Ming Ting annexed Hebei, there was no way to completely stabilize it, nor did it really occupy a decisive force.

After all, Ming Ting, which now occupies Hebei and the four states in the west, has a total population of just over [-] million, although it is much larger than them.

However, national strength cannot be turned into motivation in a short period of time. The vast territory still needs soldiers to guard, and it is bound to disperse the troops.

This is why the aristocratic families within the Han court know that once the Ming court invades the south, they will be deprived of everything, but they are still unwilling to reform and maintain their own interests. They are lucky in their hearts.

Maybe some people think that people can't be so stupid, especially these powerful families can last for such a long time and have their own survival wisdom, so they can't be so stupid.

But in fact, Cao GUI of the Battle of Long Spoons was right, "meat eaters are contemptible".

Reality is often more magical than fiction and movies.

"Ming Dynasty Beilue Volume [-] The Tenth Day of the First Day Levying Qi Dang for Salary" records the matter of Emperor Chongzhen's persuasion to donate.

It was ordered that all relatives of the emperor, princes, ministers, and civil and military officials should donate silver as military expenses, but only hundreds of thousands of taels were raised.

Among them, Zhou Kui, the head of the state, did the most ridiculous thing. As the head of the state, the emperor's father-in-law, and the queen's father, once Li Zicheng led the troops into Beijing, it was almost impossible for him to escape.

However, his family's Wanguan family wealth was not willing to donate at first, and finally he reluctantly donated five thousand taels of silver.

Empress Zhou saw that her father Zhou Kui was greedy for money and had no choice but to give her father Zhou Kui five thousand taels of silver to donate in his own name.

After Zhou Kui received the silver from his daughter Queen Zhou, he deducted two thousand taels from it and only donated three thousand taels of silver.

After Li Zicheng went to Beijing, he ransacked the entire city and ransacked his homes everywhere. Most of the relatives, princes and ministers who refused to donate money were killed.

Zhou Kui copied [-] yuan in silver and hundreds of thousands of precious coins.

Liu Zongmin, a general under Li Zicheng's command, chased the stolen goods and extorted payment. He recovered tens of millions of taels of silver from the city of Beijing, which shows the wealth of the officials.

The current Hanting is simply a replica of the original time and space of the late Ming Dynasty.

The aristocratic family is lucky. They have read a lot of poetry and books, but they don't know the truth that the skin will not survive, and the hair will not be attached.

The reason why the current Han court has not perished and collapsed is entirely because Liu Xie, the emperor, holds military power in his hands, is determined to forge ahead, and implements reforms.

And Liu Chong, Wang Yun, Yuan Shu, Cao Cao and others also supported him, and the state herdsmen of each state were basically regarded as direct ministers of the great Han, and they saw the situation clearly.

It's just that even if they understand it, the result is already doomed.

There were more than [-] people in the Ming Court, and most of the powerful families were either destroyed or exiled.

Even the powerful families who stayed in the territory lost their land and lost a lot of economic income.

Slavery is severely punished in Taiping Dao, and slaves are allowed to choose whether to be free or to follow the master. Of course, the Eagle Wolf Guards have heard the news.

And no new slaves are allowed, no slave contracts are recognized, and the slave trade is cut off.

The slaveholders will have to pay the slaveholding tax, which is extremely heavy, and it is a huge tax for the family.

Nowadays, there are very few slaves in the Ming court.

In fact, the total population of Ming Ting is now approaching [-] million. If people from the Western Regions, Beiyuan, and Liaodong are included, as well as domestic labor reformed laborers, then the total population of Ming Ting is already more than [-] million. Thirty million.

However, the Han court only has more than [-] million people, and both manpower and material resources are far behind.

Moreover, after the public trial, Xu An obtained a large amount of money to support the development of military industry and infrastructure in workshops and other places.

After conquering the Northland, Xu An acquired a large number of horses to pull carts, as well as hegemony at sea, which made the logistics supply capability of the Ming army far exceed that of the Han army.

And all this is not known to everyone.

But soon, this battle of Qingzhou is destined to make everyone in the world know about the terrifying war potential of Ming Court.

(End of this chapter)