Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2278: Economy and Party Struggle () Discussing Seizing the Domain King’s Wealth

What Zhu Yijun meant by "eliminating the country" was to revoke the title and take back the territory. In layman's terms, it meant demoting the prince involved to a commoner and confiscating all his original property. Obviously, this is indeed a very severe, even too severe punishment, so he stated in advance that he could not do this.

It doesn't matter, Gao Pragmatic didn't intend to do things so radically. Although Gao Jingshi knew very well that most of the Ming vassal kings were state worms. Although there were masters of legal studies and calendar studies like Zhu Zaiyu, the proportion was still very limited.

However, political matters are best solved with political thinking, and the first priority of political thinking is to take into account the overall situation. You must not seek quick results, and you must not have a pleasant plot - such as clearing out the moths and slaying all the feudal kings. .

Not only would the emperor never agree to this, but even the civil servants of the court would not agree. This is because in their view, this kind of behavior is not first of all a failure of the imperial court to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, but to disrupt the order of hierarchy and order.

In the eyes of people of this era, if Tsuna is in chaos, then the world will be in chaos. Well, to a certain extent, even in later generations, "Tsunagi" still exists - for example, a father-son quarrel, the son actually beat me, this kind of thing is a big deal, and the son cannot escape an "unfilial thing" ".

In an era when Confucianism fully controlled thought, Gang Chang was a taboo that could not be touched at all. No matter how much credit he has made in the past and how much prestige he has established, if he turns against Tiangang in this matter, it will be a dead end and his reputation will be ruined overnight.

"Why did the emperor say this? When did I say that I would do such a heartless thing?" Gao Pragmatic said seriously: "I think that as long as we clean up the legacy of our ancestors and act in accordance with the laws of our ancestors - there are mistakes that have been made, and there are mistakes. "Correction of bias."

"Oh?" This time it was Zhu Yijun's turn to be surprised, thinking: When have you ever cared about the "ancestral methods" of our old Zhu family? I can’t even count the “ancestral laws” you’ve changed, okay! How did you say that... "Follow the original intention of the ancestors, not the fixed laws of the ancestors"! This is what you said in the past reforms!

Seeing that Zhu Yijun hadn't turned around for a while, Gao pragmatic blinked and prompted: "Did the emperor forget? In the ninth year of Hongwu, the annual payment for the princes and princesses was determined: Prince, 50,000 shi of rice, 25,000 guan of banknotes. Forty There are three hundred pieces of silk, one hundred pieces of gauze and cotton, five hundred pieces of silk, one thousand pieces of winter and summer cloth, two thousand taels of cotton, two hundred pieces of salt, one thousand catties of flowers, all horse feed grass, and five monthly branches. Ten pieces of satin are given to the craftsmen and made by the prince.

In the 28th year of Hongwu's reign, the edict was repeated: the officials and soldiers' salaries should be used to increase the income, and the annual salary of the kings should be reduced to support the military and state. It was then that Prince Wanshi (Bense Lumi, Zhese, Zhechao) was appointed as a vassal, and he was ordered to temporarily give Mi Sui three thousand stones, so he took it as an example. "

Zhu Yijun suddenly realized it, slapped his thigh, and said: "Ah, yes, yes, I remembered it! Rixin, you are right, this is indeed the teaching of our ancestors, and I... I should strictly abide by it."

What does the above passage mean? In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang set the annual payment for the princes and princesses twice. The first time it was set too high. Later, due to lack of money, Zhu Yuanzhang changed it once and set the annual payment for the prince at "ten thousand stones". There are even fewer in the country, only three thousand stones.

To be honest, if all the vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty followed this standard, Gao Pragmatic would dare to express his position on behalf of the civil servant group today: he would never quibble over the issue of vassal king Lumi in the future.

Why? Because although there are many clans, the number of princes is still relatively limited, and according to the reformed system of the previous vassal ban, it is difficult for the number of princes to increase significantly.

Under this assumption, the expenditure of only two to three hundred thousand shi of rice a year is really not taken seriously by the Ministry of Revenue - drizzle! You know, in theory, the amount of food transported from the south to the capital every year alone is as high as more than three million shi (this is only sent by the south, and the other small part is taken care of by the northern provinces).

Although Zhu Yijun was very excited, it was a pity that Gao Pragmatic had not finished his words yet. Gao Yuanfu waited for the emperor to finish speaking, then smiled slightly and said: "Your Majesty, Lumi is just a small matter, there is something more important... Wang Tian."

Zhu Yijun was stunned for a moment and said hesitantly: "Does Wang Tian want to move too?" Obviously, the emperor was hesitant on this matter. No, it should be said that he was very hesitant.

But Gao Pragmatic said seriously and solemnly: "Yes, Your Majesty, Wang Tian is more important."

This is certain. The largest source of finance for the princes of the Ming Dynasty was actually Zhuang Tian, ​​which was what Gao pragmatically called "Wang Tian".

As we all know, land annexation was very serious in the Ming Dynasty. The emperor took the lead in annexing land and set up a large number of imperial estates. Following the example, with the development of Huangzhuang, the number of vassal fields increased day by day.

The source of Wangzhuang's land was originally land granted by the emperor. According to the "Records of the Ming Dynasty", starting from Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, emperors of all dynasties have basically granted land on a large scale, ranging from a hundred hectares to tens of thousands of hectares.

If the land grant is still "legal", then the other source of Wang Tian is obviously illegal, because it is occupation and dedication. Seizure means seizing farmers' land. There are two forms of dedication. One is dedicating one's own land to the vassal king in order to seek protection. The other is the powerful slaves or local bullies falsely referring to civilian land as official land or wasteland and depriving it of land. Entered Prince Feng's Mansion, made friends with the feudal lord, and received a heavy reward. The former is undoubtedly illegal, while the latter is taking advantage of legal loopholes. In this era, it is essentially illegal.

For example: "Shaanxi Tongzhi" records that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the King of Qin owned more than 8900 hectares of farmland in Xi'an Prefecture, and also occupied 483 properties and 3 mulberry gardens. The kings of Chu, Han, Su, etc. each owned tens of thousands of hectares of farmland, and there were tens of thousands of tenants alone. Most of the land in Henan was occupied by King Zhou, King Zhao, King Zheng, King Tang, King Lu, etc., and the farmers were displaced. In the original history, Zhu Yijun continued to give land to his favorite King Zhu Changxun, and once gave him yuan of land at a time. Qing—Originally, I wanted to grant qing, but it was halved due to strong opposition from the ministers in the DPRK.

During the Tianqi period, Ming Xizong also granted 30,000 hectares each to Huguang and Shaanxi Zhuang fields to King Hui, King Rui and King Gui. However, the local officials could not carve out so much land, so Emperor Xizong ordered it to be allocated to Sichuan, Shanxi, and Henan for joint "assistance".

After a long period of peaceful development, wars have decreased and the population has naturally increased. However, due to the backward production methods, it is unlikely that the feudal dynasty will reclaim too much wasteland in a short period of time. As a result, the contradiction between population and land arises, that is, more population and less cultivated land. In the face of natural and man-made disasters, in order to survive and survive, farmers have no choice but to transfer their land to bureaucrats and landlords in order to survive. For farmers, arable land is getting less and less.

In this situation of severe shortage of arable land, the Ming vassals also wantonly occupied land and pushed the peasants further into the abyss. This was undoubtedly the case of "officials forcing the people to rebel" and the fatal catastrophe of the late Ming Dynasty. The uprising eventually broke out.

Now Gao Pragmatic wants to move Wang Tian. On the one hand, Zhu Yijun thinks this is a good way to expand finances, but on the other hand, he is worried about what Chang Xun will do if he does this?

Gao pragmatic saw the emperor's worries and said calmly: "The so-called purge naturally means that the land is given without being investigated, and the rest is confiscated."

Zhu Yijun breathed a sigh of relief and nodded: "That's good, that's good, otherwise... I don't even know how to explain to Taizu when I go to Xiaoling in the future." This is pure nonsense, very pragmatic Don't believe a word of it. Taizu took back Lutian and gave it only to Lumi. Later, Zhu Di took back the political and military power of the kings and started the pig-raising model. As a kind of redemption, he started to grant land. Then Zhu Di himself started to build up the imperial estate, which attracted the vassal kings from all over the country to follow suit and use various illegal means to obtain the royal land, which finally led to the current chronic disease.

Therefore, although Zhu Yuanzhang has a lot of bad debts that are just nonsense in terms of economic policies, the blame that should not be attributed to him cannot be dumped on him.

Seeing that the emperor accepted the suggestion of "purging the royal fields", Gao Pragmatic proposed another reform: "Besides this, there is another thing that I think should be considered."

Zhu Yijun was simply frightened and said in horror: "What, more?" However, Gao Pragmatic was indifferent and just looked at him seriously. The emperor swallowed hard and said resignedly: "Okay, okay, please tell me first."

Gao pragmatically said: "It is strictly forbidden by Taizu for all kings to engage in business."

Zhu Yijun said awkwardly: "If you want to say this... then I also have some talents at your place."

The high and pragmatic moral standard is obviously "the strength is unknown and varies from person to person". He was able to say calmly: "It is true, but Taizu did not say that future emperors must not be like this."

Zhu Yijun said in astonishment: "Is this okay?"

Gao's pragmatic tone affirmed: "There is freedom without prohibition by law - well, I mean, since the ancestral precepts did not say it, it means that Taizu did not have such restrictions, so the emperor naturally did it. But on the contrary, Taizu explicitly prohibited the kings Business people.”

Indeed, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang once stipulated that "officials' families are not allowed to buy and sell within the department", "no civil and military officials, both internal and external, are allowed to lend money" and so on. However, the lords still ignored the ancestral system and rushed to participate in commercial activities.

In the fifth year of Zhengtong (1440), Zhu Zuojing, king of Jingjiang in Guilin, Guangxi, sent people to "privately trade in Jiaozhi and communicate with foreigners." During the Tianshun period, King Ning of Jiangxi "occupied the area along the river, built warehouses, and stopped trading to make profits." He even built thousands of private boats for business. The scale of his business was shocking.

During the Zhengde period, King Rong of Huguang befriended the eunuch Liu Jin and "occupied Changde 2,000 hectares of farmland, 800 li of mountain farm, and more than 1,000 houses and shops." Governor Han Chong and other officials refused to give it, so Liu Jin gave up. The King of Han in Shaanxi "annexed Yamada stores", the King of Jing sent officials to "forcefully take over the prosperous commercial areas as industries", and the King of Chu in Huguang area "brokered trade with the citizens no different".

It was too easy to make a fortune by doing business, which made the late Ming Dynasty "without officials". However, it was more common for vassal kings to take advantage of their advantageous position to do business.

For example, before King Lu became a vassal, he "lived in the capital with the emperor's mother and brother. Wangdian and Wangzhuang were all over the territory. He was compared to the vassal, and he returned the official position, so he took charge of it as an internal minister. From then on, the huangdian and huangzhuang became more luxurious. King Lu lives in the feudal vassal and asks for help with farmland and salt.

Zhu Changxun, the King of Fu, was even more famous for making huge profits in business. In the name of doing business, he extorted money everywhere. Before he entered the feudal dynasty, he had more than 200 official shops in the capital, "to solicit customers and goods, stop and go". Later, King Fu "sold all the merchants' groceries into the official stores alone, and did not allow nearby private stores to stay without permission." After the feudal dynasty, he "invited 1,300 Huaiyan salt dealers to open stores in Luoyang and Weishi" and at the same time forced the people to switch to Huaiyan salt and no longer eat Hedong salt, which caused a commotion.

In fact, Gao Pragmatic was not that disgusted with the lords doing business - he actually had no objection to whoever was doing business. The problem is that the vassal kings mainly rely on their privileges to do business, such as selling the state's monopoly goods at a large increase in price, or reselling them, acting as traitors (of course, they will not do it themselves, but sending their subordinates to run errands), smuggling, tax evasion, etc.

Even the feudal princes and nobles not only use their power to do business, they also often engage in power-for-money transactions, and even engage in extortion and public robbery. This is what Gao Pragmatic cannot tolerate - I don't object to you doing business legally, but you only do these things, so don't blame me, Gao, for being rude.

This is not a high-pragmatism that wronged them. For example, there is a record in "History of the Ming Dynasty: Five Kings": "Robbing people's vegetables, firewood and other things along the street, harassing the place, and the people are dying."

In the process of doing business, they bully others and do whatever they want, disrupt social order, monopolize goods, control the market, and prevent ordinary businessmen from carrying out normal business activities. After making profits, the lords almost never used it to expand reproduction, but used it to squander it, either to buy land or to lend money at usury.

You must know that these behaviors have seriously hindered the development of the commodity economy and the budding development of capitalism. This obviously touches the counter scale of high pragmatism - you are typical reactionaries.

However, Zhu Yijun was still a little hesitant and said hesitantly: "Rixin, is this too harsh? We have already cut off the Lumi and the Wangtian. In this business... How about we give them something to look forward to? Bar?"

The emperor's words were already very soft, but this time Gao Pragmatic was determined and insisted: "Either you don't do this, or you have to do it in full, otherwise the kings' losses on Lumi and Wangtian will only be If you go to make up for it in business, it will seriously affect the imperial court's commercial tax... Your Majesty, how important is commercial tax now? I don't need to repeat it anymore, right?"

Zhu Yijun found it a little strange. Although Gao Pragmatic had always been a very independent person, he generally did not have the urge to kill everyone. In this case, what is the reason why Gao Pragmatic is so murderous today, as if he must let the feudal kings drain their blood to be satisfied?

Zhu Yijun pondered for a moment and said in a deep voice: "This is a big matter and it is getting new every day. Please allow me to think about it carefully before making a decision."

Gao pragmatic raised his eyebrows slightly, but finally said solemnly: "I... obey the order."
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