Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 69 Financial Solutions
"Father, my son understands!"

Zhu Cijiong suddenly roared.

Chongzhen laughed: "What do you understand?"

Zhu Cijiong: "The son understands why the father wants to be with the head of Guizhou and hang out among the fields, and also knows why the father wants to be with the soldiers, eating, living and training together."

Zhu Cihong: "Really? Then why do you want to talk about the father doing this?"

Zhu Cijiong: "In the event of the Great Ceremony in the Jiajing Dynasty, Grandpa Sejong drove some low-level civil servants to fight with high-ranking civil officials through the appointment of officials and made a wish, and finally won the victory of the Great Ceremony."

"But right now, it's the entire civil servants who have never paid off."

"So, the father can't follow the example of Emperor Sejong to divide civil servants."

"So, father and emperor can only win over the people at the bottom and soldiers and civil officials."

"As the so-called scholar meets soldiers, there is no reason to explain it. Grandpa Taizu once said that as long as our old Zhu family holds the knife, they will not be afraid of these civil servants turning the sky upside down."

"What Jionger said just now can be said to hit the point." Chongzhen couldn't help applauding, "It has become a bad habit in the officialdom for the civil servants to cheat on their own money. Zun also has no ability to change all this, so we must win the hearts of the people and the army."

"If the people's hearts are not attached and the army's morale is not stable, there will be no reforms."

Speaking of this, I have to mention the establishment of slaves, not to mention the support of the officials and gentry, but I have completed the suppression of the Jiangnan gentry group with bloody knives.

The political ambitions of Donglin Party and Fushe were completely stifled.

For more than three hundred years since then, scholars in the south of the Yangtze River have kept silent about the politics of their families and countries.

"What's more, in addition to the low-level people and soldiers, we can actually win a considerable number of scholars from poor families to support this change, because scholars from poor families can better understand the hardships of the people and soldiers at the bottom and make more changes. The willingness and determination of the bad habits in the officialdom must be kept in mind.”

"My son, please remember." Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong stood up and bowed to each other.

Seeing the serious faces of Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong, Chongzhen smiled and said: "You don't have to worry too much, maybe you can solve the problem of insufficient national use without reform."

"Huh? Can the national shortage be solved without reform?"

Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong looked at each other, how could this be possible?
Only Zhu Cizhao really didn't care, and fell asleep on the straw mattress.

Chongzhen just smiled, and didn't say much to Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong.

Because it’s useless to talk about it, can the two of them understand the production relationship with the little brothers?

Many people think that during the reign of Chongzhen, the finances of the Ming Dynasty had completely collapsed and there was no cure, but this was not the case. In fact, the finances of the Ming Dynasty still had great potential to be tapped.

This involves Marx's capital theory: productivity and production relations.

Human society is constantly developing. With the continuous development of society, productivity will gradually increase. For example, the evolution from stone tools to bronze tools, and then from bronze tools to iron tools will definitely promote the improvement of productivity, and then the improvement of productivity will inevitably affect the old Some production relations cause shocks.

The relations of production include the ownership of the means of production, people's status and mutual relations in production, and the distribution of products, among which the ownership of the means of production is the most important.

When the development of productive forces reaches a certain level, it will definitely have an impact on the ownership of the means of production.

When stone tools were promoted to bronze tools, primitive society collapsed, when bronze tools were promoted to iron tools, slave society collapsed, and when the highly developed commodity economy dominated, the feudal system representing the interests of the big landlord class would definitely collapse, and the bourgeoisie would sooner or later occupy human The dominance of society until it is replaced by the proletariat in the future.

And the current Ming Dynasty, especially the commodity economy of the eight prefectures and one state in the south of the Yangtze River, is already highly developed.

The highly developed commodity economy has had a huge impact on the old ownership of means of production. The direct manifestation is the emergence of the Fushe. People in the Fushe began to show an extremely strong tendency to participate in and discuss state affairs. Manipulate the chief minister of the cabinet, Zhou Yanru, to realize his political intention of changing the ownership of the means of production.

Of course, due to the limitations of the times, Zhang Pu's behavior was only unconscious, and subjectively he had no intention of changing the ownership of the means of production and overthrowing the imperial power.

In a word, the national policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce implemented by the Ming Dynasty has already formed a huge constraint on the commodity economy of the eight prefectures and one prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River, and has seriously hindered the further development of the economy. The national policy can undoubtedly greatly release economic vitality.

Once Jiangnan's economy is invigorated, there will be tax revenue.

It is said that the commercial tax is the opposition of the Jiangnan gentry group, but in fact, it is not the commercial tax that the Jiangnan gentry group really opposes.

If enough benefits can be given, the government-business group will turn around and embrace the commercial tax, and no one will be troubled by money.

This is actually a matter of making the cake bigger and distributing the cake. If you don’t want to make the cake bigger first, but just focus on taking more of the cake, then even if you are the emperor, the government and business groups in Jiangnan will dare to kill you and block people. Making money is like killing one's parents. If you don't kill them, who will you kill?
Civil officials may not have the guts, but businessmen have no bottom line.

Conversely, if you first find a way to make the whole cake bigger, then even if you take more share, the government and business groups will not say anything.

The reason is simple. Although the share of government and business groups has decreased, the amount of cake they eat has increased. With more cakes to eat, who would risk the genocide to kill the emperor?
Therefore, there is actually a solution to Daming’s financial problems, and once it is put into practice, the help will definitely outweigh the resistance. The government and business groups in the south of the Yangtze River have suffered from the national policy of "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business" for a long time.

However, governing a large country is like cooking small fish, and such a major event must not be rushed.

Especially now that they are still facing the survival crisis of building slaves going south, so they can only postpone it.

Early the next morning, Liu Zongzhou came to Yiding Barracks again to persuade Chongzhen to return to Nanjing.

After being rejected by Chongzhen again, Liu Zongzhou retreated and proposed to let the prince return to Nanjing to supervise the country.

Chongzhen had no way to refuse this request, and finally let Yongwang Zhu Cizhen follow Liu Zongzhou back to Nanjing. Anyway, this kid couldn't bear the hardships in the military camp, so he was asked to go back to Nanjing to supervise the country.

As for Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong, Chongzhen decided to take them with him and train them as heirs.

The former emperors of the Ming Dynasty were born in the forbidden palace and grew up in the hands of women, but this can no longer be the case in the future. The emperors of the Ming Dynasty in the future must have experience in the army, even if it is just a formality, they must start from the army and must master military power!
On the day Liu Zongzhou took Zhu Cizheng back to Nanjing, Chongzhen also took the two brothers Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong to Xiazhen on a tank boat transporting salaries and firearms, accompanied by naval warships for protection.

As for the farming affairs in Xuzhou, it was handed over to Du Yinxi.

……

Another two days passed quickly, and the time came to June [-]th.

It has been more than [-] days since Huang Deli led the frontier army from ten towns to Xia Town.

After more than [-] days of sweating like rain, the entire Xia Town defense line has taken shape.

It is relatively easy to construct earthworks. If you want to build a solid city and cover the outer layer with bricks, the amount of work will be greatly improved, and it may not be able to be repaired in a year.

But it's much easier to just dig a trench and ram the earth.

Seeing Huang Degong, Tian Xiong, who commanded the soldiers to dig trenches, hurried up to meet him.

"Uncle, why are you here?" Tian Xiong said, "There is a lot of dust here..."

"Leave me alone." Before Tian Xiong finished speaking, Huang Degong interrupted, "You just need to fix your gun base."

"Returning to Uncle, the fifty gun platforms that the last general is in charge of have all been completed, and the retreat and fire output channels between the gun platforms have also been dug through." Tian Xiong said, "The slope protection has also been repaired. .”

"All repaired?" Huang Degong snorted, "Have the fences of the fifty gun towers been erected?"

"Only a part of the fence has been erected." Tian Xiong scratched his head and said, "But this can't be blamed on the general, because all the houses in the nearby villages have been demolished, and there is really no more wood to be found."

"Then look further afield, the fence must be erected."

"Yes, the last general will send troops to look for wood further afield."

"You don't need too many people to find wood. For the remaining people, let them continue to deepen the external trench. It is best to arrange some sharp wooden stakes at the bottom of the trench. Bamboo thorns are even better."

"Yes!" Tian Xiong was a little helpless.

There is so much work again, I have to be busy.

At this moment, the sound of horseshoes sounded.

Immediately, a postman galloped from the north.

"Report! Urgent report!" Still far away, the hoarse roar of the postman came, "Jian slaves are going south! Jian slaves are going south! Jian slaves are going south!"

"The Jiannu army invaded Dongchang Mansion!"

"It's urgent in Linqing Prefecture! It's urgent in Linqing Prefecture! It's urgent in Linqing Prefecture!"

The postman rushed into Xia Town like a whirlwind, and then the horse under his crotch fell to the ground with a sad hiss, and the postman on the horse was also overturned heavily, and fainted on the spot.

Huang Degong immediately told Tian Xiong: "Don't go out to look for wood for the time being, and use all the existing wood for the several outer blunderbuss platforms, and make sure that the outer blunderbuss platforms have fences that can be used as barriers!"

"Tamp up the slope protection and the inner platform of the gun platform more solidly."

"Don't let a single shell from Jiannu fall apart."

"Yes!" Tian Xiong solemnly promised, "In the end, the slope protection and the gun platform must be rammed as hard as bricks, not to mention a single shell, even a hundred or a thousand shells will not break it!"

Huang Degong has hurried back to the town.

The postman who fainted has been rescued.

(End of this chapter)