Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1400 Magical Changes

Gao Yushi took over the task of "rebuilding the Huangji Palace with the new construction law" in the future. What shocked the officials and the people the most was not that the new law was said to be "not afraid of lightning strikes", but just plainly lamented Gao Situ's wealth, and even Because of the great amount of money he put in "for the holy family of Long".

In fact, Gao Yushi himself had forgotten that a major event that would have occurred ten years later and that might ultimately affect the fate of the Ming Dynasty was related to this.

In the original history, on June 1597 of the lunar calendar in 6, the Forbidden City was full of flames.A fire of unknown origin suddenly rose from the Xihe Gate on the west side of Jinshui Bridge, and spread to the three halls of Huangji, Zhongji, and Jianji in the center of the imperial city.

The strong wind engulfed the raging flames and rolled them into fire dragons tens of feet high. Whenever they touched the wooden buildings and palaces, a sea of ​​flames would quickly ignite. swirling.

The imperial city fire that occurred in the 25th year of Wanli finally swept half of the Forbidden City.In addition to the three main halls being burned, the Huangji Gate (later Taihe Gate) and the Yemen on both sides were also burned down. The ministers had burned down the two pavilions of Wenzhao and Wucheng on both sides of the square in the early morning, together with the corridors. Burned the ashes, "From the inside of Yemen to the gate of Qianqing palace, you can see desolation".Only the Meridian Gate was spared because it was separated by the famous Jinshui River.

Perhaps it was because the five elements of the Forbidden City in the Ming Dynasty belonged to fire, so that in the 230 years from the completion of the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were 47 fires, an average of one fire every five years.Even more coincidentally, nine months before the fire, Qianqing Palace and Kunning Palace were also destroyed by fire, and the entire central axis of the imperial city was burned.

In fact, as early as 1421, the three halls were burned down due to lightning strikes.It just so happened that Zhu Di had just moved into the Forbidden City at that time, and he was inevitably guilty, thinking that his nephew, whose life and death were unknown, was causing trouble, so he hurried to the Taimiao to pray in fright.

And 30 years ago, that is, in 1557, Emperor Shizong Jiajing, who was obsessed with cultivating immortals, declared inexplicably that he was the "master of the five thunders". As a result, Li Gui alarmed Li Kui and attracted Lei Gong to visit him in person. On a thunderous night, "there was a thunderstorm, and the fire suddenly broke out, and all the fifteen gates on the second floor of the three halls were destroyed."

If it is said that Zhu Di’s heart was the most harmed when Cheng Zu burned down the three main halls because of the prosperity of the country, then the lightning damage in the 36th year of Jiajing has already made all officials and the people terrified by the huge consumption of wealth.

In the Jiajing Dynasty, it was Yan Song and his son who presided over the reconstruction of the three halls. Corruption and waste were very serious, which is for sure. Thirty years later, in the 30th year of Wanli, Zhu Yijun had not been in court for several years, so he felt that the repair of the three main halls could be delayed, but the reconstruction of Qianqing Palace and Kunning Palace could not be delayed—the emperor and empress should not sleep in work sheds, right?
This kind of project with many leaders, less funds, and a tight schedule finally fell on the head of a doctor named He Shengrui from the Ministry of Industry.

He Langzhong was one of the few "remnants" of the practical school in the court at that time. He did not bribe eunuchs or collude with officials. He was also very capable, and he was the kind of project manager Yang Guoqiang especially wanted.At that time, the imperial court allocated 160 million taels of silver for the construction of the two palaces. Langzhong He completed the task with only 67 taels, and kept 93 taels and turned it over to the Ministry.

This is obviously a typical capable official. However, the court at that time could not tolerate such a remnant party of the Real School, and those corrupt forces who wanted to make a profit from it were even more intolerable. In the end, He Langzhong was framed and dismissed from office. It's embarrassing to end in depression.

The reconstruction of Qianqing Palace and Kunning Palace was successfully completed due to He Shengrui's outstanding talent, but the reconstruction of the three halls turned into a financial disaster in the end, and it can even be regarded as the death knell of Ming Dynasty.

The 25th year of Wanli, when the three halls caught fire again, was indeed an eventful year.In this year, Japan's Kanbai Toyotomi Hideyoshi refused to be entrusted with the title, and the Japanese army did not evacuate Busan to return home. Japan stationed [-] Qing orthodox warships in Zhangying, and at the same time mobilized various people to prepare to recapture the strategic locations and cities returned to North Korea. .

On the 25th of the first lunar month, North Korea once again sent envoys to Ming Dynasty for help.On the fifth day of February, the Ming court summoned various officials to discuss the situation of the Korean War and analyze the movements of the Japanese army.

On the 7000th, the matter of aiding North Korea was discussed again, and it was decided to transfer 700 troops from Xuanfu, Datong, Ji, and Liao, recruit [-] soldiers from Zhejiang, and order North Korea to set up a coastal defense officer.

On the [-]th, the former general officer of Yansui and Tongzhi Magui, the governor, was appointed as the general officer of the preparation of the Japanese army, commanding the northern and southern armies, sending troops to North Korea to conquer the Japanese invading army.

On March [-]th, Yang Gao, the chief secretary of Shandong Province, was promoted to be the censor of Youqin capital, and he managed the military affairs of North Korea.

Not only the resurgence of chaos in North Korea, this year Yang Yinglong of Bozhou also turned his back on his word, leading Miao soldiers into Sichuan, Guizhou and Huguang; above the court, Xie Jie, the right servant of the Ministry of punishment, directly advised Zhu Yijun that "frugality is not as good as before, and diligence is not as good as before." At that time, Lu Kun, the left servant of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, even bluntly said that the imperial court apportionment was too heavy, and the people were in dire straits.

In this difficult situation, Zhu Yijun, who has become a strategic goal to fight against the civil servants, not only refused to give in, but decided to restart the construction of the three halls in anger.

At this time, the daily expenses of the Ming Dynasty's finances, such as royal expenses, official salary expenditures, and military expenditures, were already quite large. How to raise the huge construction costs of the three halls became a difficult task.In the end, it was Wanli who made the decision, "The two palaces and three palaces were disasters, the construction costs were not cheap, and the mines began to increase taxes." The simplest expression is: tax increases.

The long-span wooden structures of Chinese palaces have a great demand for precious wood, especially golden nanmu.This kind of precious wood is produced in the deep mountains and old forests in the southwest of Daming, and the mining and transportation costs are extremely high.The cost of purchasing golden nanmu by the imperial court was apportioned to the localities, and all localities had to raise taxes for a year to collect money.

However, Daming's unique imperial wood procurement system was even more corrupt. The eunuchs were ordered to eat and drink at the local level, and the provinces complained endlessly. [Note: When reading other books in the past two years, some people commented that golden nanmu is only used for coffins. ]
Zhu Yijun's decision eventually led to disastrous financial consequences: Household Department official Han Guanghu wrote a letter impeaching the supervisor and eunuch Chen Yongshou for extorting materials, "referring to double one hundred", resulting in the cost of the three halls' light timber as high as 930 million taels of silver, which was higher than that of the Jiajing Dynasty. The construction of the Three Great Halls is several million taels taller.

In the end, the construction of these three halls was not completed until Wanli's grandson, the famous carpenter Emperor Tianqi. During the reign of Tianqi, the cost was close to more than 600 million taels of silver.In other words, the fire in the 25th year of Wanli burned a total of 1500 million taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty.

What is the concept of 1500 million taels of silver?After the rise of the Tartars in the late Ming Dynasty, Liaodong’s military expenditures supported the military operations of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses. It was almost 500 million taels a year, and 1500 million taels could support the Ming army in Liaodong for at least three years (this is still after the corruption of the Liaodong army The premise).

And when Li Zicheng's soldiers approached the city in 1644, Chongzhen called on the ministers to donate money to pay the soldiers, and only raised 20 taels of silver in total.

These three halls have drawn a strange curve in history. Their completion, repair, lightning strike, fire, reconstruction, and collapse have miraculously become the epitome of the Ming Dynasty's finances and the fate of the dynasty.

Today, Gao Wushi accidentally took over the renovation project of the Huangji Hall. Although the construction will not start immediately, but will start after the completion of the Rixin Building and observation for a period of time, this may have changed the fate of the three halls unintentionally. Indirectly avoided another financial disaster in Ming Dynasty.

If there is no accident, the various golden nanmu and other precious woods in the Huangji Hall will be greatly reduced in the future, and will be replaced by the rise of stone pillars and stone carvings. Considering that the main material of white marble is produced near the capital, Huangji Hall The future cost is expected to be greatly reduced.

Gao Wushi only remembered that when he was reading "Shenzong Veritable Records" back then, he saw records about the repair of the Three Great Halls. Although he couldn't remember the exact time, at least he knew about it, and he spent a lot of money on repairing it for many years.

Therefore, in order to "confirm" that he will undertake the new construction of Huangji Hall, Gao Yushi deliberately made the construction of the Rixin Building a buzz, and the entire project was fully displayed to the public.

At the same time, he also personally released the words, saying that in the future, he would offer Daming an "eternal palace" that could survive lightning strikes and fire without being destroyed. In the long game, bet on whether Gao Situ's "Hall of Eternity" is bragging.

At this time, the great reputation of Baiyulou finally came into play. Many officials, scribes, and folks who often passed by the other courtyard of Baiyulou and looked at it from afar expressed that since the completion of Baiyulou, it has never been repaired. Now it seems that it is "the same as it was back then", and I think Gao Situ's words may not be false.

But some people think that Baiyulou has only been built for a few years, and it is a "stone house", so it will not be broken in a while.However, "stone houses" are not "livable" after all, and people's dwellings still have to be in "wood" to conform to the way of the five elements.

This matter eventually evolved into a debate over whether "the new law is better" or "the established law is better", and then it became a new controversy between the two schools of practical learning and mind learning in the court and China.

Officials of the School of Reality cited the low construction cost of the Baiyu Tower and the firmness of the building itself, and believed that the promotion of new buildings would "benefit all the people in the world and benefit the common people." "House" is not suitable for cultivating righteousness, and even "yin and evil enter the house", which is not good for long-term.

However, this was caught by the officials of the Practical School, who directly took Gao Pragmatism as an example, and asked those officials of the Mind School, why Gao Situ was not affected by the "invasion of evil spirits"?

This was a good time, the two sides fought back and forth, and in the end the godly mind officials could only hold their noses and admit that Gao Situ was unusually upright, and he was born as the No.In addition, he, Annan, Dingbei, and Pingxi, had countless bloody evil spirits under the three wars, and the white tiger's killing spirit was too strong, so he was able to resist these "yin and evil".

But they still insist that not everyone can do this—how many Gao Situ can there be in the world?Even if all of you here have literary luck, how many of you can attract the evil spirit of the white tiger?
In the end, Gao Yushi couldn’t stand it anymore. It’s not enough for me to become the King of Ming Bodhisattva in Tumote. Is it enough to become a god in Daming?Talk nonsense as much as he can.

In order to turn back the limelight of the discussion, Gao Wushi even had to bring up a matter that was originally planned to wait until the establishment of the two departments and eleven divisions was completed and officially opened.

This time, Gao Yushi asked the emperor to cancel all taxes in kind other than food and cloth.

Originally, he planned to bring up this matter early next year, but now he has to bring it forward, but the matter itself is indeed very important, and it can't be said to affect the overall situation if it is earlier, but even if the emperor agrees, he still has to go through the process and wait for the two departments. It is easy to handle the work of the eleventh division.

Why is this important?This has to start with Zhu Yuanzhang's system, which was called "Hongwu type finance" by a later scholar named Huang Renyu.

Gao Yushi did not agree with Gao Yushi on many arguments in his famous masterpiece "The 15th Year of Wanli", but Gao Yushi is a matter-of-fact person, and he basically agrees with the relevant discussions of "Hongwu-style finance" in his works.

What is going on with this "Hongwu-type finance"?Zhu Yuanzhang, who was probably born in mud legs, hates corruption deeply, and at the same time is well versed in the official wisdom of "passing the pork and leaving a layer of oil".So he cleverly designed a tax collection system with material objects and corvee as the main body, that is, to let taxpayers directly pay the materials to the consumption department.Zhu Yuanzhang believes that this system of "no middlemen earning the price difference" is the best system.

Therefore, under the organization and dispatch of "Hongwu-type finance", the grain produced by Suhu was sent to the remote frontier barracks in the northwest; the porcelain calcined in Jiangxi was shipped to the capital palace in the north; The income is directly linked to the consumption department, and Zhu Yuanzhang himself distributes the materials needed for the country's various expenses to counties across the country in every detail.

An idealized planned economy is often a reversal of history. At least the monetary tax in the Tang and Song dynasties degenerated into a tax in kind.A consumption department (a government office that needs to use materials) may have to receive goods from dozens of counties, which is also troublesome for the county seat. For example, a county magistrate in Wanping County, the capital, once complained that their county had to give the government 27 A consumer department pays all kinds of taxes in kind, and the total price of these various things is only 2000 taels of silver.

This utopian tax system is too magical in the eyes of Gao Yushi, a later generation.He even remembered that when he was reading history books in the past, he saw that in the national tax arrears report submitted to the emperor by a minister of household affairs on the eve of the death of the Ming Dynasty, he even listed trivial matters such as a county's arrears of honey worth 28 taels of silver to the court.

Gao Wushi was dumbfounded at this: You are the dignified household secretary! "Honey worth 28 taels of silver", why does it take a big man with a series of positions such as the director of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Minister of Finance, and the governor of the People's Bank of China to think about it?

However, the fact is so magical. In the vast land of the Ming Dynasty, the corvees carried all kinds of messy materials such as grain, cotton wool, and dyes in their cars, and they went back and forth to pay taxes in the north and south of the river. The transportation cost was often much higher than the value of the materials.

If this thing doesn't change, do you expect me, Gao Rixin, to take care of the 28 taels of honey owed?
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Thank you book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Cao Mianzi", "Good mood on a cloudy day", "Liuguang Jianyu", "Boundless Sprite", "Tesla's Leakage Protector", "Single Riding Photo Bixin", "Dongguan Bald King" Monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: I suspect that in the long run, my monthly ticket will be higher than the weekly recommendation ticket, which is a bit magical, everyone!Although the recommendation ticket is not very useful, at least it can make the data look normal, can't it?
(End of this chapter)