Hongwu Daming: Why hasn't my son rebelled?

Chapter 159 Zhu Qi's Three Steps to Business
As Liu Bowen expected.

Summoning Zhu Qi to respond to the imperial decree of heaven, he arrived in Liaoyang in July of the tenth year of Hongwu.

Zhu Qi took Liaoyang in early June, and the imperial decree came in mid-July. I have to say that Yingtianfu's speed is still very fast.

The main reason is that the strategic goal has been achieved, and the next step is to stick to it for a long time, build city defenses along the Liaohe River, and so on.

Naturally, there was no need for Zhu Qi to personally supervise these engineering matters.

And Zhu Yuanzhang also adopted Zhu Qi's suggestion and let Lanyu take over the defense of Liaodi.

It's just that Liu Bowen still felt that the edict came a little too soon.

He found Zhu Qi and said:
"Could it be that someone read His Highness's book behind his back, saying that His Highness made friends with foreign ministers? According to the old man's prediction, His Highness should not be called back to Beijing until the end of the year."

When Zhu Qi heard Liu Bowen's words, he shook his head with a smile and said:
"Even if someone tries to make friends with foreign ministers, or even conspire against me, not to mention my father will not believe it, and my brother, His Royal Highness, will definitely not believe it either."

Liu Bowen didn't relax because of Zhu Qi's words, he still said:
"In short, the old man feels that things will not be that simple when he returns to Beijing this time."

Zhu Qi just smiled, feeling that Liu Bowen was a little too cautious.

Now that the imperial decree has arrived, Zhu Qi has no intention of continuing to stay in Liaoyang.

After all, in Yingtian, there is also his eldest wife and son.

This Liaoyang is a place full of wars and horses. Although it will be his own fiefdom in the future, it would be great if he could come here later.

After Zhu Qi packed his things, he took some of his trusted followers, as well as Zhu Di, Xu Zengshou and the second generation of nobles who followed, and set foot on the road back to Yingtian Mansion.

Zhu Qi wanted to return to Yingtian Mansion, although he had tried his best to pack as lightly as possible, but a day or two of preparation in advance was definitely indispensable.

The folks are talking about His Royal Highness Liao Wang, and naturally they can hear the news that His Royal Highness Liao Wang is going back.

Early this morning, Zhu Qizheng was thinking of leaving secretly, but as soon as he left the mansion, he found that many people outside gathered spontaneously.

Those common people looked at Zhu Qi sincerely one by one, and some people shouted:

"Your Highness is a good prince, you must come back!"

"Your Highness, please come early, we will wait for Your Highness."

While the people shouted, some people waved at Zhu Qizhi.

Everyone looks reluctant.

Is that worth it?
His Highness King Liao is different from other officials, and he never talked about liquidation.

Opening warehouses to release grain without saying a word, in addition to that, the original maladministration of officials in the Yuan Dynasty was also wiped out.

It turns out that it is called a parent officer, it is simply a tiger that eats people without spitting out bones!
If your family is rich and powerful, it's okay, but if it's an ordinary family, it's not bad if officials don't come to trouble you.

If there is some kind of lawsuit, it doesn't matter who is right or who is wrong. If you enter the official office, you can't pay some money here or there.

That's all, the common people don't report to the government at worst, and just treat this government office as a department that only collects taxes.

The key is that these officials and gentlemen, they will find trouble for nothing.

All kinds of tax collection in the name of war are fine. What's more, these officials take to the streets when they have nothing to do.

Whether you get paid for food or not is a trivial matter. If you are in a good mood, I will add a tax to you, so I will ask you if you will pay.

Not to mention land annexation, oppression of good people and so on.

In short, the people of Liaoyang City have grown up so much, and they have never seen such a good prince as His Royal Highness Liao Wang.

Notices are posted in the streets and alleys, publicizing that it is strictly forbidden to harass the people, and they also try and accumulate old cases to actively mediate conflicts between neighbors.

This government office can be regarded as a bit of an official government.

In a word, it all depends on peers.

The common people naturally loved Zhu Qina very much. Zhu Qi, who was sitting in the carriage, looked at the common people who came here and there, and he was full of emotion in his heart.

The common people on the land of China are such a group of simple and unpretentious people.

Whoever treats them well, they will naturally remember it in their hearts.

Zhu Di saw the appearance of the people lining the road to send off, so he also said beside him:
"Third brother, when I go to the fiefdom in the future, I must do more things for the people like you, third brother, so that the people love me so much."

Zhu Qi smiled and said:

"I'm still very relieved of your behavior, third brother."

Zhu Qi is not flattering, although in the history of the Yongle period a series of policies to benefit the people, in fact, most of them were presided over by the prince Zhu Gaochi at that time.

But these major national events must have Zhu Di's permission, otherwise how can they be implemented.

Although fighting was a bit frequent during the Yongle period, Zhu Di used professional troops most of the time, such as the three major battalions established.

The team quickly headed in the direction of Lushun amid the calls of the common people to see them off.

………………

From Lushun to the sea, it only took two days to arrive at the Shandong Peninsula.

The sea route has to be said to be extremely convenient. Even the uncertainty and danger of the sea route is greatly reduced because the distance from Lushun to Penglai Port on the Shandong Peninsula is too short.

Since Penglai's login, the road behind has been speeding up and going fast.

From receiving the imperial decree to arriving at Yingtian, it took about a month. At the end of August, he arrived at Yingtian Mansion.

It is conceivable how convenient this waterway is to reach Liaodong. If the navigation skills of ships can be better and more mature.

From Yingtianhai to Liaodong directly along the sea route, there is no need to stop day and night, and the distance may be shortened by half.

I just want to think so, but it is still a bit difficult to put it into practice.

After all, the center of gravity of the Ming Dynasty was not at sea at all. Just like all feudal dynasties, the Ming Dynasty's vision was limited to the land.

Emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business is naturally the basic national policy for maintaining stability and long-term stability.

If you want to develop maritime transport, you can't rely on government investment alone. The real great wisdom still depends on those capable people from the people.

But with the sea ban policy implemented by Ming Dynasty alone, and the household registration system that fixed merchants in various provinces, it was an insurmountable gap to vigorously develop commerce.

It is not an easy task to bridge this gap.

Zhu Yuanzhang's side is not easy to persuade, and under the background of the full-scale war between the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Yuan Dynasty, the advantages of the household registration system still outweigh the disadvantages.

There is no possibility of change in a short time.

Zhu Qi then set his sights on Zhu Di.

If the inertia of history has not been changed, after the future prince Zhu Biao, Zhu Di is still very likely to become emperor.

So reforming Zhu Di's thinking is undoubtedly a shortcut to achieve one's own goals.

Previously, Zhu Qi had subtly guided Zhu Di to pay attention to mathematics, natural science, and the good habit of paying attention to data calculations and putting an end to fantasy.

Now on the road, they started to talk about business again, Zhu Qi and Zhu Di started to debate, and the chat was in full swing.

Zhu Di knew that the third brother liked to do business, and he actually liked it quite a bit. After all, this thing is for making money.

Who doesn't like money?

But after Zhu Qi talked about the business related to the country, Zhu Di's ideas were not so bold.

To put it bluntly, scholars in ancient times were not dead-readers who everyone took for granted. The reason why they valued history was naturally because they could learn from history and teach.

As for the consequences of emphasizing business and neglecting agriculture, in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, countless countries have already proved it with the lessons of blood and tears.

In ancient times when productivity was underdeveloped, if commerce suppressed agriculture, large areas of land would be abandoned, food shortages, and national power would naturally collapse.

Because the output of the land is directly linked to the number of workers, doing business in ancient times was very profitable, no matter if you bought raw materials and processed them to sell them.

Or a businessman who buys and sells things can always make a profit.

This is much faster than farming with the loess and the sky and relying on the sky for food.

Look at those famous rich and powerful gentry in ancient times, apart from being officials, weren't they just doing business?
Even if you become an official, most of the money you get is from the businessmen behind it.

Acting as their protective umbrella and charging high protection fees is probably the case.

In short, in the eyes of the ruling class, the role of a businessman will eventually do all kinds of evil for the sake of profit, leading to social unrest.

Properly suppressing them is also a matter of course.

For Zhu Di's idea, Zhu Qina agreed very much.

After all, many philosophers have already talked about these related knowledge. To sum it up in one sentence-pure capital is bloody and can eat people.

But there are two sides to everything.

Drinking water can also clog your teeth, why don't you drink it?
What's more, the emphasizing on agriculture and suppressing commerce in the past dynasties is nothing more than a matter of interests. If you pay attention to agriculture, you don't know if the people are rich or not, but the country's wealth will definitely not be poor.

Emphasis on business, the conduct of local officials cannot be guaranteed, and there is no big data supervision, tax evasion is simply something that can be done with eyes closed.

Any businessman affiliated with a famous person can even legally avoid tax directly.

People with fame and fame do not need to pay taxes. This has been a rule for thousands of years.

This has also led to the fact that it is simply impossible for the country to extract profits from huge commercial activities.

Take the late Ming Dynasty as an example, private business activities flourished, capitalism even sprouted, and large-scale workshops merged and merged.

The trade volume of the Ming Dynasty accounted for more than 70.00% of the world, but the treasury revenue was outrageously low.
Chongzhen even asked the ministers to borrow money with IOUs, and even begged the ministers for donations.

I won’t mention the examples of the late Qing Dynasty, which is probably the case.

To change the status quo, Zhu Qi proposed three solutions to Zhu Di:
First, the integration of tax collection by officials and gentry.

To put it simply, it doesn't matter whether you are an official or have a reputation, and it doesn't matter what the income in your name is, as long as the income is generated.

Then you have to pay taxes!
Even if it is the royal rations issued by the court, I have to pay the tax.

Second, tariffs.

This is very easy to explain.

Tariffs are not aimed at domestic business activities, but at business activities between countries.

For example, caravans travel between Daming and Tibet, and they only need to pay a little commercial tax when buying and selling in Tibet.

Then ship the goods to the Ming Dynasty, pay a little commercial tax, and then there is nothing.

The huge profits among them are all obtained by the businessmen themselves, and have basically nothing to do with the country.

Make money at both ends, eat a lot of oil, and then suppress the price casually, practice fraud, find an official backer or something, and even waive the commercial tax.

From the perspective of Zhu Qi, a modern person, how incredible is this?
Nowadays, regardless of where you buy most commodities, as long as they enter the customs, you need to pay 20% or even 50% of the customs tax.

This is the real big head of commercial taxation.

We don't care about the goods that go out, but you want to sell the goods in?Excuse me, pay the tax first.

Of course, domestic businessmen can get discounts, but foreign businessmen should not mention it, but you have to work hard to accept it!
When Zhu Di heard Zhu Qi say 50% tax, he was really stupid.

How can you charge so much?

Daming's market tax for merchants is at most only [-]/[-].

Zhu Qi rolled his eyes and said:
"You are childish, do you think this is too high? This is still a normal diplomatic relationship. If Bei Yuan comes to us to sell things, we will directly pay him an [-]% tariff.

If he can't sell anything, he will die of poverty. "

What Zhu Qi said was of course just a simple and crude example, but in reality there are still many customs and customs, and all aspects of the design cannot be explained clearly in a few words.

But what Zhu Qi said is indeed true, as long as the commercial tax is opened, the huge trade profits originally monopolized by the merchants will have to be divided equally with our imperial court!

Why do you get a certificate of customs clearance, you can come to me without spending a dime, and enjoy the super huge market of Ming Dynasty for free?
Not to mention taking the money away, my Ming court has to provide you with venues and shelters for the pitiful market tax. I'm afraid you won't be able to earn the meal money for a soldier, right?
It's really a loss-making business, and you can't make money even by shouting.

Zhu Di was completely dumbfounded and was deeply shocked. He didn't know if this was right or not, but after hearing the analysis of third brother Zhu Qi, it seemed that the tariff was collected.

Ordinary people have nothing to lose. How can most people have the capital to do cross-border trade.

Only those rich families can have this book, and it is only natural to think about it to earn their money.

The more Zhu Di listened, the more excited he became, and he hurriedly asked:

"What about the third?"

third?

That is the measure that will put the first and second days into practice - an independent tax bureau with sufficient supervision measures!

As I said earlier, there is no such thing as a tax bureau in Ming Dynasty.

Yamen in various places are also in charge.

But those officials who have read the Four Books and Five Classics know nothing about taxes.

Not only do they not understand, but there are also those who are corrupt and corrupt the country's wealth, so corruption occurs frequently.

Three years to clear the magistrate, one hundred thousand snowflake silver, I am not joking with you.

An independent tax bureau with sufficient supervision measures must be completed first among the three items.

This tax bureau has three elements in total:

Independent, professional and supervised!

What?You mean clean?Let go of power, but don't put a cage on it.

How about you use this to test the officials?I'm afraid it's not for the underpants to be clean.

(End of this chapter)