Hongwu Daming: Why hasn't my son rebelled?

Chapter 160

Zhu Di's little head was full of great doubts.

Zhu Qi also knew that the tax reform measures he mentioned were a bit too avant-garde.

It can be said that this kind of taxation reform has never been dared to do since the establishment of the feudal dynasty system.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, there was a person who did it. It was Zhang Juzheng’s whipping method. In layman’s terms, this reform meant that the poor paid less taxes and the rich paid more taxes.

But after all, it did not touch the fundamental interests of the officials and gentry. The official and gentry groups still do not need to pay taxes, and the implementation of a whip is not thorough, and it was finally abandoned, directly adding a barrel of gasoline to the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

Thinking of this, Zhu Qi felt extremely distressed. With such a large market share and such a large economic scale, the Ming Dynasty was unable to collect money. In the end, the whole country "starved to death", which was extremely distressing.

Zhu Di was still thinking about it. At a young age, he didn't have too deep-rooted bureaucratic thinking, not to mention that under the influence of Zhu Qi, he was already quite avant-garde.

If other lords, even the crown prince Zhu Biao, came, and heard what Zhu Qi said, and just heard Zhu Qi say that the government and the gentry should be integrated to collect taxes, they might have to shout:

"How can this be so, the gentry is the foundation of my Ming Dynasty!"

There is no other reason, to rule the country and govern the world, these gentry scholars are needed.

Coupled with the traditional concept of thousands of years, it is already a tradition that officials and gentry do not pay their food. If you want to break this tradition, you can imagine the resistance you will encounter.

However, Zhu Qi just talked to Zhu Di a little bit, and after planting a seed, how it will develop in the future is beyond what Zhu Qi can predict.

As for what you said, let Zhu Qi stand up and lead the reform or something, then forget it.

Zhu Qi firstly has no real power, and secondly, he has no right to speak. He didn't study economics, let alone any leadership.

In history, a powerful figure like Director Zhang has not succeeded in tax reform. Zhu Qi really has no confidence in doing it.

He felt that he just opened his mouth to talk about it. As for the forerunner, it would be appropriate to let Zhu Yuanzhang come.

Zhu Qi and Zhu Di were talking, and the city wall of Yingtian Mansion could already be seen from outside.

This time when Zhu Qi returned from a great victory, the scale Zhu Yuanzhang arranged to receive him was naturally quite grand.

At the gate of the city, Prince Zhu Biao personally led a group of officials to greet him.

How could Zhu Qi dare to sit in the carriage and talk to Prince Zhu Biao, he only saw it from a distance, and hurriedly took Zhu Di out of the carriage.

The two walked towards the city gate together.

Zhu Biao also hurried forward to meet him, and the officials behind him also hurriedly followed.

Zhu Qi had already brewed two tears in advance, rolling in his eyes, and when he saw the prince Zhu Biao, he held the prince's hand, already sobbing and choking.

I don’t want to mention those with high acting skills. Zhu Di looked stupid from the sidelines. He howled twice and wanted to cooperate, but he almost shouted "Sorry, third brother!"

I don't know, I thought that Zhu Yuanzhang had passed away, and His Royal Highness Liao Wang was so sad.

Prince Zhu Biao also supported Zhu Qi, and Zhu Qi said with a crying voice:

"Brother Huang! Third brother, I'm lucky that I didn't disgrace my father and my Daming!
It’s just that Liaodong is far away, third brother, I have always missed my father and elder brother very much, and I often think that I can’t sleep at night, and I feel so sad, I wish I could always serve by my father’s and elder brother’s side in the future! "

After Zhu Qi finished speaking, the prince's eyes were also red, and all the officials behind him were old fritters, and those who didn't graduate in acting skills, how could they stand up?

Needless to say, the scene was very touching. Zhu Di was the only one who was young in acting, howled twice, and really didn't know what to say, forget it, just stand.

Prince Zhu Biao took Zhu Qi and Zhu Di to the gate of the city together, and wanted to take them to see his father.

The gate of this city is called Xuanwu Gate, facing north, it is the road leading directly into the imperial city.

Although Li Shimin's Xuanwumen change came first, the naming of the palaces and palaces are all particular. Mr. Feng Shui has to read it, and it can't be changed easily.

Let's take the Xuanwu Gate as an example. No matter which dynasty or generation established the imperial city, it must be called the Xuanwu Gate.

After passing through the Xuanwu Gate, the officials were naturally not allowed to enter the inner palace, and their task of welcoming His Royal Highness King Liao and King Yan was also completed, so naturally they dispersed separately.

Prince Zhu Biao pulled Zhu Qi and Zhu Di into the imperial city and walked all the way in. There were no officials behind him, so he frowned, and seemed to have some heavy thoughts.

Zhu Qigang wanted to ask what happened, Prince Zhu Biao frowned and said:

"Third brother, fourth brother, something happened!"

Hearing Zhu Biao's words, Zhu Qi's nerves collapsed, and he remembered what Liu Bowen said to him before for no reason.

Zhu Yuanzhang summoned himself so soon, and returned to Yingtian from Liaodong, I'm afraid there is some trouble waiting for him!
Mommy really hit Liu Bowen's conclusion, as soon as he saw Prince Zhu Biao's frown, Zhu Qi knew that something was serious, don't let me cause trouble, right?
After thinking about it, I didn't do anything.

Zhu Qi hurriedly asked:

"Brother, what's the matter?"

Prince Zhu Biao sighed and said:
"Remember, two years ago, I asked you to go to Dingyuan County to investigate Zhu Huan's oppression of the people?"

Zhu Qi nodded, of course he remembered.

Speaking of which, Zhu Huan was still his distant cousin, but he was greedy, and through his kinship, he became a magistrate of Dingyuan County.

Then he began to collect taxes indiscriminately. The tax of [-] in [-] was [-] in [-] in Dingyuan County.

After being imprisoned by Zhu Qi, his relatives were killed righteously, and he was beheaded in the street at Caishikou to make an example.

There was also a lot of discussion about this in the officialdom, but few people knew that the emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was also there at the time.

Zhu Di was puzzled and said:

"Then Zhu Huan's death is more than justified. Could it be that someone reversed the case for him? Falsely accusing the third brother? Father was also there at the time!"

Prince Zhu Biao shook his head, showing a exhausted expression, sighed and said:
"It's not for this reason, but Zhu Huan, the tax increase document posted on the yamen's announcement earlier was wholesaled by the provincial department.

At that time, the father arranged for people to investigate. At the beginning, he said that it was the official of the Chief Secretary of Zhili who did not dare to offend Zhu Huan, so he helped to approve the official documents. "

Zhu Qi asked:

"Did the officials of Zhili Chief Secretary deal with it?"

Prince Zhu Biao nodded and said:
"Those who should be killed are killed, those who are exiled are exiled, and most of them are dealt with."

Zhu Di asked again:
"Isn't it time to close the case? How can there be troubles? The emperor is so eager to call us back, could it be related to this matter?"

Prince Zhu Biao smiled wryly at Zhu Di, and said:

"It would be fine if the case was just closed in this way, but a few days ago, the mother of the former Zhili chief secretary filed a blood letter against the imperial court, saying that this is a completely unjust case!"

Zhu Di snorted unconvinced, and said:

"What kind of unjust case, this Zhu Huan can get the tax increase document issued by the Chief Secretary of Zhili, and the seal of the Chief Secretary of Zhili is clearly stamped on it. He is the Chief Secretary of Zhili, but he can't get away with it?"

What Zhu Di said was filled with righteous indignation, while Prince Zhu Biao said:
"Although that is the case, the imperial statement written by that woman is something that even I have never thought of."

Zhu Qi looked at the expression of the prince Zhu Biao, and thought to himself, what else could it be to make this certain matter an unjust case?

Just heard the prince Zhu Biao say something that made Zhu Qi feel terrible:
"The Chief Secretary of Zhili issued to Zhu Huan an empty-sealed document!"

Zhu Qi was shocked when he heard these words, like a bolt from the blue, a famous historical event popped up in his mind - the empty printing case!

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Taking advantage of the effort to go to Zhu Yuanzhang's side, Zhu Biao talked about what happened later in detail.

The woman was thinking about saving her son, but she didn't think too much about it.

That is to say, this government office is always issuing blank documents in this way, so why do you want to use this to accuse your son, insisting that your son is innocent.

Poor parents all over the world, in order to save her son, this mother dared to directly sue the imperial court for grievances, which is precious.

But the state owns the state law, and the family has family rules, let alone such a big event in Dingyuan County, how can it be possible to show mercy outside the law?

But Zhu Yuanzhang also found some clues. When he sent people down to investigate, why didn't anyone say anything about the empty seal?

At first, I thought it was just a blank document that Zhu Heng wanted to come by taking advantage of his status as a relative of the emperor.

Looking at it now, it turns out that Zhu Hengkong's printing of documents is not only in Dingyuan County, but the entire government office. Has this habit?
Zhu Yuanzhang was angry. In his eyes, there are few officials, especially local officials, who really serve the people.

It's not that Zhu Yuanzhang is prejudiced, but that during his growth, he came into contact with officials of the Yuan Dynasty.

If you can have good officials, you will really see hell. There is really no place for grassroots officials with ideals and aspirations to survive in the Dayuan officialdom.

Everyone is corrupt, but you are not corrupt, do you still want to get along?It is impossible for the boss to let you advance.

As for the blank printed documents, it is purely for the convenience of reconciliation between the central and local governments every year.

Otherwise, the tax data reported by the local government will not match the central statistics, and local officials will have to go back and recalculate.

The Zhili area is better. If you go farther, like northern Shaanxi and Guangdong, it will take half a year to go back and forth.

The official stopped doing anything and wasted his time on the road every day.

Therefore, since the Yuan Dynasty, there has been the habit of printing blank documents.

Local officials who go to the household department to reconcile accounts will carry documents with blank seals with them, and then they can modify the data on the spot when they find that the data is not correct, saving the trouble of going back and forth.

This is the origin of the habit of blank printing, but it also has a huge loophole. For example, the incident in Dingyuan this time gave Zhu Heng an opportunity to take advantage of the fact that local officials in Zhili issued blank documents.

If everything followed the rules and regulations, how could it be so easy for Zhu Heng to obtain the text with the Zhili seal?

Therefore, Kongyin has its convenience, but it also has a huge hidden danger of cheating. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious after learning about the habit of Kongyin because he saw that officials could use this loophole to carry out corruption. , This is clearly fooling the emperor, can it be that the emperor is really a fool?

In the past, the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty didn't care about these things because the Yuan Dynasty didn't take care of things very much. The whole government was very loose. They only cared about making money in the Central Plains. They didn't care about these administrative things. Quickly, it was opposed by the people so quickly.

But Zhu Yuanzhang is different. He is a model worker in all dynasties.

I really care about the people and the country from morning till night.

How could such a thing be allowed to happen?
Therefore, what was originally an unlucky matter for local officials in the Zhili area suddenly affected local officials across the country.

Especially the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs, how could they not know that the local government uses blank seals to fool them?
And they also want to save trouble, so as to avoid the trouble of reconciling whether the account is right or not.

It is also possible to collude with local officials to obtain benefits.

No matter what the reason is, it is unforgivable in Zhu Yuanzhang's view, so when Zhu Qi left Yingtianfu to fight in Liaodong.

There was an uproar in the entire Yingtian Mansion. At this time, there were already dozens of officials arrested, and these were only officials from the Sixth Ministry. There are too many to count.

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's temper, Zhu Qi already had a premonition that a terrible earthquake would be inevitable in the officialdom this time.

The empty printing case in history is indeed a major case involving tens of thousands of people.

The name of the Hongwu Four Cases is not for nothing.

But there is a problem, that is, some of the officials involved in the empty printing case must be innocent, they are just working according to the established habits, but they did not expect that this would cause such a big consequence.

After all, in the eyes of these officials, they don't even count as violating the rules. Everyone is like this. They haven't seen anything before, and there is no clear rule in the legal books that this is not allowed.

But the Ming Dynasty was not a society ruled by law. It was a feudal dynasty, and there was no such thing as a society ruled by law. Even in the Qin Dynasty, which had the most perfect rule of law, the emperor had the final say.

So it is a certainty that all these officials will be unlucky.

But Zhu Qi couldn't understand what the blank seal case had to do with him, he was not in the officialdom, and he never printed any blank seals for others.

What does Zhu Yuanzhang have to do with him in such a hurry to call him back?

Zhu Qi couldn't understand, but after seeing Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Qi finally understood what was going on.

I saw Zhu Yuanzhang standing at the door listening to others talking about the investigation. After seeing Zhu Qi coming over, Zhu Yuanzhang said overdue:
"Third brother, you came just in time! I'm really pissed off!
I have a matter, I will leave it to you to check! "

Zhu Qi was startled, wouldn't he?
(End of this chapter)