I'm really not doing business

Chapter 596: Severe punishment, I did this evil man
There is a widely circulated legend in the West that in the vast ocean, there is an island called Atlantis, which is located in the dangerous Peruvian Sea. The lost West fleet once set foot on that dreamy land.

Everything is so prosperous, everything is so orderly. All the tranquility, order, and laws that are different from those in the world on this island come from the place where wise men gather, the Palace of Solomon.

Solomon's Palace is the temple of science.

As it was constantly passed down, the Palace of Solomon became more and more specific. It existed for 1900 years and was originally composed of craftsmen on the island. It was a union, a noble organization, and a guiding light of Atlantis, specifically established for the study of nature and humanity.

Solomon's Palace has a huge talent pool, complete experimental facilities and equipment, an astonishing number of research teams, a relaxed and free atmosphere of public opinion, where everyone can speak freely, a rigorous and rigorous argumentation process, and is committed to promoting all kinds of magical scientific equipment to every corner of Atlantis.

Of course this is just a legend in the West. According to the legend, Solomon's Palace was also a church.

A place dedicated to scientific research is actually a church. This is somewhat contradictory and ironic. People cannot imagine things they have never seen. In the imagination of Westerners, there is no way to live without the church. They have never seen a world without the church. It seems that they lack God's guidance.
The most important thing in the West now is secularization, that is, opposing the cruel oppression of the Inquisition. Doing science in the West is a relatively dangerous thing, because the pervasive believers often pull out all those heretics and disrespectful to God and send them to the stake.

Legazpi told this story to the emperor more than once, and he also improved the story. The only difference was that the story took place not in Atlantis, but in the far east, in the Ming Dynasty, which had a long civilization. The Palace of Solomon had a more specific name, the Royal Institute of Studies.

When describing the first generation of sages, Li Yashi referred to Mozi, not Lu Ban.

Because he witnessed it with his own eyes, Legazpi's description of the 'Temple of Science' was more specific and detailed.

Zhu Yijun moved the small ball in his hand. He was just a diligent emperor, a little out of tune with the world of geniuses. A parabolic orbit and a small ball could remind him of the vast starry sky, and he got an answer that was almost correct.

"It is the tedious chores that have affected your majesty's mood. If the court officials were more respectful and did not make your majesty so busy, the Ming Dynasty would definitely have one more all-round doctor of the Five Classics." Zhu Zaiyu said again with great regret.

It is the tedious mundane affairs that waste Your Majesty's time and prevent Your Majesty from putting more energy into studying things; it is the worldly intrigues that pollute Your Majesty's imagination. Otherwise, Your Majesty would have become an excellent doctor of the Five Classics.

Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said, "The Shah's envoy once told me a proverb that is popular among them: Don't use your real skills easily, otherwise, everyone will easily find out that you have no skills."

"I can only understand what you are saying."

Zhu Yijun moved the small ball in his hand with great interest. From these tedious experiments, the Ming Dynasty Royal Academy of Sciences extracted Newton's first law, which states that any object must maintain uniform linear motion or remain stationary until an external force forces it to change its state of motion.

Newton didn't like people praising him for how great he was. He wrote to Hooke: If I can see further, it is because I am standing on the shoulders of giants.

This was both Newton's mockery of Hooke as a hunchbacked dwarf who was not one of the giants he stood on, and also Newton's modesty that his own achievements were achieved by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Because the first person to put forward a similar idea was Galileo. After the inclined plane experiment, Galileo concluded: If there is no friction, the ball will roll forever, and it will not change unless forced by any external force.

Then a natural question arises: what force does the ball or slider experience when it slides down the inclined plane?
This force is obviously the same force that causes ripe apples to fall from the tree.

"Rain falls from the sky, as does sandstorm; arrows fly in arcs, as do cannonballs; but people have become accustomed to these phenomena, and have never delved into the mysteries behind them." Zhu Yijun looked at Zhu Zaiyu and smiled, saying, "The Imperial Institute of Gewu has lived up to my expectations when it was first established."

"I am very pleased."

"So, uncle, is the Institute of Gewu really not short of money?"

"No, there is no shortage of money. Another sum of money has arrived." Zhu Zaiyu said quite accurately. The share of last year's steam engine production has not been spent yet, and this year's share has arrived. It cannot be spent all, it cannot be spent at all. The doctors of the Five Classics are already spending money very hard.

The scale of the Five Classics Doctors was still too small. One day, the entire Ming Dynasty would be filled with Doctors of the Inquiry of Things. Zhu Zaiyu could not imagine what a grand occasion that would be.

Zhu Yijun stayed in the Academy of Gewu for a long time. Huang Zifu's display of his discoveries was not the reason why the Royal Academy of Gewu invited the emperor to visit this time; the steam engine was.

Compared with abstract theories, more concrete realities can more realistically demonstrate their role. Huang Zifu publicly refused the first-class merit plaque because he hoped that the Gewu Academy could get more recognition. Compared with the deep-rooted Confucianism, the influence of the Gewu Academy was still too small.

Zhu Zaiyu brought the Emperor and introduced in detail the various specific improvements of the 36-horsepower steam engine. Compared with the 18-horsepower iron horse, the 36-horsepower steam engine became smaller in size, from half a room to the size of a long table.

Miniaturization, standardization, and scale are the three requirements of the Ming Emperor for steam engines, and the Royal Academy of Sciences is actually fulfilling the Emperor's requirements.

The noteworthy improvement here is that the improved boiler has many more heat chambers and the boiler has become a honeycomb coal-like structure.

This allows the heat from the burning coal to be more evenly distributed throughout the boiler, steam is generated faster, and as the air tightness increases, the air pressure in the boiler begins to increase.

"Perhaps from the very beginning, I took the wrong path towards steam turbines. I should have moved from ordinary reciprocating steam engines to high-pressure reciprocating steam engines, so that the high pressure required for steam turbines can be achieved." Zhu Zaiyu had worked hard for seven years on steam turbines. As reciprocating steam engines continued to develop, he discovered in despair that this path was a dead end.

Exploring the boundaries of human cognition is always accompanied by such pain. You don’t know where the road ahead leads, let alone whether your own path is correct, or whether your entire life will be wasted on the road.

"Teacher, tell me not to be discouraged or disappointed. It is indeed very cruel to have no gains after hard work, but I still have to go on. Not being upset by failure is the perseverance of a scholar." Zhu Yijun said with a smile: "Also, uncle, is it true that the research and development of steam turbines has yielded nothing?"

"This 36-horsepower steam engine in front of me uses a higher temperature and higher pressure boiler. Isn't it a small step towards the success of the steam turbine?"

"Without the accumulation of small steps, one cannot reach a thousand miles; without the accumulation of small streams, one cannot form a river or sea."

Zhu Yijun encouraged Zhu Zaiyu, saying that it was not that this road was blocked, but that this road was blocked at the moment, so why worry? If it cannot be realized today, one day in the future, the five classics doctors of the Institute of Gewu will eventually realize it.

After Zhu Yijun asked about the mass production of the thirty-six iron horses, the production capacity of the hydraulic printing press and other key issues, he waved his hand, rewarded the doctors of the Five Classics, and left the Gewu Academy with a sense of unfulfilled desire.

The Royal Gewuyuan was a stage built by the emperor himself, and even the pillars of the stage were invited by Zhu Yijun from the Prince Zheng's Palace. Zhu Yijun really liked this place, but he could not stay there for long as state affairs were waiting for him.

Zhang Juzheng and Wang Chonggu went to the imperial study in Tonghe Palace together and submitted a memorial. To sum it up, it can be said in one sentence: The country is in imminent danger, and the words are beyond comprehension.

In the eyes of Zhang Juzheng and Wang Chonggu, the crisis encountered by the queen during childbirth was a major event that endangered the country and the people.

Zhang Juzheng was not exaggerating.

What would happen if Wu Lian slipped his hand during the caesarean section and caused the death of the queen? Would Wu Lian be imprisoned for investigation? Would he be implicated in the investigation? Or even cause a violent upheaval in the dynasty, with waves of purges following one after another?

Or to ask more simply and clearly, would the supreme emperor of the Ming Dynasty go crazy?
I don’t know. Zhu Yijun himself doesn’t know either. He has no idea what will happen.

This is the biggest drawback of the imperial system. Success or failure depends on the emperor himself. The upper and lower limits of the empire are closely related to the emperor himself.

Zhang Juzheng and Wang Chonggu also discussed another issue in their memorials, which is that Your Majesty must protect the doctor Wu Lian.

Wu Lian saved the queen's life. Such a great contribution required the emperor's protection. This seemed outrageous, but Zhang Juzheng told an old story.

In the 21st year of Jiajing, there was a palace coup in Renyin, and Daoye was assassinated by a palace maid. The imperial physician Xu Shen gave Daoye a strong medicine to save him, and then prescribed several more prescriptions for him to finally recover. Daoye was grateful for Xu Shen's life-saving grace, so he promoted him to the Minister of Rites and Prince Taibao, and gave him generous rewards. Later, Xu Shen died of fright. He saved the emperor and got a high position and generous salary, but he began to have fright in March of the following year.

What is Xu Shen afraid of?
Time flies, and Zhang Juzheng can no longer find out what Xu Shen feared. The man is gone, but the lesson remains, and Wu Lian cannot die in fright.

Wang Chonggu talked about the four things in the capital that were unreliable: the articles from the Hanlin Academy, the swords and guns from the Armory, the prescriptions from the Imperial Medical Bureau, and the tea from the Guanglu Temple.

The prescriptions of the Imperial Medical Bureau are not trustworthy. In many cases, it is not that the doctors in the Imperial Medical Bureau are powerless, but that they do not have the ability. If they cannot save the royal family, they will die, and if they save the emperor's family, they will also die.

When Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty became seriously ill, he wanted to change the imperial physician, but Yang Tinghe refused to allow it. Eventually, the treatment was delayed until he died.

"Wu Lian will not be troubled by anyone, even a woman. I will not let anyone embarrass Wu Lian and her family. This is my promise." Zhu Yijun picked up the red pen and wrote his words on the memorial. This was a written document.

"She has a weakness that can be attacked now. She is a female official." Zhang Juzheng said with a complicated expression: "I am very worried that after the joyous occasion is over, the officials will start to attack this matter."

This is what a cheap Confucian is like. The reformists only need to put the Ming Dynasty into practice to make it better, but the cheap Confucian has to consider a lot more. The cheap Confucian can always find all kinds of strange angles to deny the new policies, and then continue to promote the theory of the Three Dynasties that is so common that it makes everyone laugh, constantly showing their own low standards.

The emperor was very happy because the mother and child were safe, and he gave auspicious boxes to all officials. At this time, no court official reported to the emperor to displease him, but after the joyous atmosphere, they would report to the emperor.

Confucius said: Only women and villains are difficult to raise. If you are too close to them, they will be disrespectful. If you are too far away from them, they will complain.

In political practice, the Wu Zhou Dynasty was used as a lesson. Even if future generations made the final judgment on Wu Zetian, saying that she was an empress, not an emperor, etc., the Wu Zhou Dynasty was established, and Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, was indeed the king who destroyed the Tang Dynasty. This is an indisputable fact.

"On this issue, Wan Shi and Wan Taizai have already submitted a memorial. He said that this is the law passed down by our ancestors." Zhu Yijun took out a memorial and handed it to Zhang Juzheng.

"Is this also a law passed down by our ancestors?" Zhang Juzheng was stunned for a moment, even a little dazed. How could this become a law passed down by our ancestors in the hands of Wan Shihe?

Zhang Juzheng opened it and read for a long time before he discovered that it was indeed the law passed down by his ancestors, the first envoy of the Ming Dynasty to Jiugang, Shi Erjie.

After the death of the first Xuanwei Envoy of Jiugang, Shi Jinqing, Shi Jinqing's son and daughter competed for the throne of Srivijaya, which was the position of Xuanwei Envoy of Jiugang, but the fight ended inconclusively.

After Zheng He arrived at Jiugang and learned the details, he finally determined that Shi Erjie was the envoy of Jiugang. This was the ancestral law during the Yongle period. This was not far-fetched. In the Ming Dynasty's understanding, the envoy was an official of the Ming Dynasty.

The laws passed down by our ancestors are true!
Zhang Juzheng said sincerely: "Mencius said: If my king cannot do it, he is called a thief. Anyone who says that the way of the ancient kings is not something my king can do is a thief."

Wang Chonggu said sincerely: "No wonder these lowly scholars have no time to criticize me recently, but instead turned their guns on Lord Wan. Lord Wan's presence in the court is really like a thorn in their throat. It makes them feel even more uncomfortable than when I was in the court, and it is very uncomfortable."

"The key is that Wan Shihe has changed the atmosphere of the Ministry of Rites. Shen Li has always been fearless and not fawning on the powerful, but now he has become a sycophantic minister."

Wan Shihe attracted all the firepower of the treacherous ministers.

In the matter of Wu Lian becoming a female official, either it is determined that the Jiugang Xuanwei Office is not the territory of the Ming Dynasty, or that Emperor Chengzu Wen is wrong, or our monarch cannot be called a thief.

To say that the Jiugang Xuanwei Office is not the territory of the Ming Dynasty does not conform to the established pattern of the Ming Dynasty to re-establish the Jiugang Governor's Office. It goes against the trend. The Strait of Malacca is the Jiayuguan on the sea. This has long been a consensus. Even if there is no legal basis, it must be snatched. Jiayuguan was not in the hands of the Central Plains Dynasty from the beginning, nor has it always been in the hands of the Central Plains Dynasty.

You can eat indiscriminately, but you can't talk indiscriminately.

But if you say that Emperor Chengzu Wen was wrong, then His Majesty would most likely send the despicable Confucian who said that to the underworld to debate with Emperor Chengzu Wen face to face.

Let’s talk about whether Emperor Chengzu Zhu Di was wrong or not in person.

My king cannot be called a thief, this is what Mencius said. We cannot deny Mencius' words and say that Mencius was wrong.

The Ming Dynasty not only had its first female governor-general, but also its first female marquis. Qin Liangyu was the first female marquis of the Ming Dynasty.

"In fact, the first female official in the Ming Dynasty was Na Yanchu, the wife of Zhongshun, the governor of Suiyuan." Zhu Yijun added a little evidence. He did not oppose Sanniangzi being the governor of Suiyuan at the beginning, but now he opposed Wu Lian being a female medical officer. Wasn't he bullying Wu Lian because he didn't have cavalry?

To this day, Sanniangzi still holds some military power, namely the cavalry of the old reconciliation faction. The Ming court did not disband these cavalry immediately, but incorporated them into the organization of the Suiyuan border army, and they are still under the command of Sanniangzi, which also shows the Ming court's determination to transform the grassland.

“If a commotion really breaks out, whoever says so among the civil servants of our Ming Dynasty will be a bully who only bullies the weak and fears the strong, and has no integrity.” Zhu Yijun first labeled such people as spineless and incorruptible. Such people are all rats!

The thing that Confucian scholars who love reputation fear the most is losing their reputation. When Zhu Yijun put the accusation of bullying the weak and fearing the strong on him, ordinary Confucian scholars could not stand it at all.

Sanniang has military power, so she doesn't dare to speak out about the seriousness of the matter. But she bullies the medical officer because she sees that he is easy to bully?
Everyone would be accused of something, and Zhu Yijun himself was a scholar.

Zhang Juzheng and Wang Chonggu finally showed a relaxed smile. Before coming to the imperial study in Tonghe Palace, the two ministers were still worried. Now they are not as anxious as before. Now with Wan Shihe to deal with these despicable Confucian scholars head-on, they can feel more relaxed.

"Your Majesty, Shen Shixing's promotion of the One Whip Law in Songjiang Prefecture has not been smooth." Zhang Juzheng's face was solemn. He came to the imperial study in Tonghe Palace not only to express his concern for the emperor and to protect a medical officer, but it was mainly about state affairs, that is, the One Whip Law that was being tried out in Songjiang Prefecture.

"The imperial court implemented the Single Whip System, which incorporated corvée labor into farmland, which led to a substantial increase in land tax." Zhang Juzheng explained the logic of the powerful.

The straw tax, land rent, and private requests from the townships and villages. The private requests from the townships and villages include all kinds of corvée labor under various pretexts. Now that the court has promised to incorporate labor into the land, can the court guarantee that there will be no more exorbitant taxes in the future?
The court cannot guarantee it.

This is an obvious thing. The imperial court is the imperial court, and the local areas are the local areas. The imperial court has to live their lives, and the local areas also have to live their lives.

Therefore, in the eyes of the powerful and wealthy, the essence of the Single Whip System was still a tax increase, because the imperial court had no way to eliminate the various taxes and levies that were created under various pretexts.

Hai Rui advocated that the land of a county should be used to undertake the service of a county, and silver should be collected according to the acreage. The officials in charge of the service would hire themselves. The collection of taxes in the first part could be realized. The land had been surveyed and the population had been censused. The head tax could be divided into four levels: upper, middle, lower and poor. This could be done.

But is it really possible for officials to hire their own personnel?

When it comes to collecting labor service, won't the local government offices use all kinds of reasons and excuses to shirk, postpone or simply refuse to pay? You know, it is extremely difficult to ask the government offices for debts, because the government offices are the power holders. At a time when the people sue the officials, they will be beaten with 30 sticks first. How can we ensure that the local government offices will fulfill their promises when they recruit people?
At that time, all the people who owe debts will go to the court and the palace to seek justice?
The representative of the powerful and wealthy, the Songjiang Sun family, Sun Kehong, represented the powerful and wealthy, and after communicating with the Songjiang governor Shen Shixing, he raised these two questions one after the other.

In addition, when Sun Kehong was communicating with Shen Shixing, he raised a third question: once the silver, which was relied upon for the monetary tax under the Single Whip System, stopped flowing in, would the silver from Womagang alone be able to support the circulation of silver under the Single Whip System?

This question is not based on the current situation of Songjiang Prefecture. Songjiang Prefecture connects nine provinces and distributes all kinds of goods in the world. Wherever there is a shortage of silver in the Ming Dynasty, Songjiang Prefecture will never lack silver. This is also the reason why Songjiang Prefecture was the first to transform from a small peasant economy to a commodity economy.

Sun Kehong stood on the side of the powerful and wealthy in the Ming Dynasty and asked that when the policy was widely implemented throughout the country, the inflow of silver must be guaranteed and the Ming Dynasty must have sufficient currency. The court, which could not even print 10 million silver coins a year, was going to implement the Single Whip Law in the two capitals and 15 provinces of the Ming Dynasty. The reality did not seem to allow this.

"The three issues raised by Sun Kehong are what the court must face when implementing the Single Whip Law. I, the assistant ministers, and the court officials are still lacking in thinking about the problem. Even if it is based on the contradiction theory, we have taken into account the various problems of the Single Whip Law, but we still need to widely solicit opinions from all walks of life so that we can make arrangements at the beginning of the policy, so as not to be at a loss and close our eyes and play dead when problems arise." Zhu Yijun exhaled a breath and said solemnly.

The Single Whip Law had not yet been implemented, but the Ming court was stumped by the question.

The Ming Dynasty now tries to consider things from the bottom up when making decisions, but the trial implementation of the Single Whip Law still seems to be somewhat taken for granted.

The inflow of silver relies on overseas, which is an old problem and can be left aside for now. It is also an urgent problem that needs to be faced when the one-whip policy is implemented nationwide in the future. The remaining two problems have become roadblocks and stumbling blocks.

"The first two problems, one is the administration of officials, and the other is the communication of public opinion from the bottom up. If these two problems are not solved, they will become more harsh than a tiger." Zhu Yijun tapped the table with his fingers, thinking about the solution.

"Your Majesty, there is actually a way to solve this problem." Zhang Juzheng said solemnly, "Increase the land tax from 1% to 5% under the One Whip Law. This will solve both problems."

Zhang Juzheng resorted to the old method of increasing taxes.

This time he was not threatening the powerful and wealthy, but reporting to the emperor in person that he really had this plan to implement.

The tax rate of 50% is outrageous. It is extremely difficult for local government offices and powerful people to come up with excuses or to seek private favors from local officials. After all, the people of the Ming Dynasty are not docile. If they are really forced to live in misery, the Sochi incident will happen again.

The logic is to increase taxes to suppress mergers.

"Your Majesty, my solution is to reduce taxes. The proportion of commercial taxes in the Ming Dynasty has increased year by year. There is no need to target the common people who work hard in the fields. I think Songjiang Prefecture, which has completed the transformation into a small peasant economy, can be bolder and directly cancel the land tax. There is not much left anyway." Wang Chonggu briefly explained his solution.

Reduce taxes, set up government-owned factories, and use the profits from the government-owned factories to make up for the deficit.

Tax cuts will indeed intensify mergers, but at present the Ming Dynasty has nothing left to merge with, so it might as well just stop paying land taxes, stand up, step on the accelerator, and directly complete all mergers, allowing the people to enter government-owned factories.

This is also a way.

"Aren't you kidding me? The enclosure movement in England has caused beggars to fill the capital. There are two million people in the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and beggars are everywhere. How chaotic would that be? You are the Minister of Justice, how could you not know? Songjiang Prefecture is no exception. With a population of more than 240 million, and suddenly there are hundreds of thousands of beggars, wouldn't Songjiang Prefecture become a place where demons are rampant?" Zhang Juzheng objected immediately.

"England is a small country, how many people are there? How many people are there in Ming Dynasty? With your tax reduction decree, Ming Dynasty will be full of refugees."

Wang Chonggu stood up suddenly and said, "If you raise taxes, aren't you creating vagrants? If the imperial court raises taxes by 50%, will the people still be able to survive? Those damned Japanese people are praising those daimyo for being scumbags. The Japanese tax increase is even higher than your 50%!"

"Hasn't the Prime Minister considered the consequences of raising taxes?!"

"That's why it's only 10% to 5%. The people of the Ming Dynasty are not Japanese! Reduce taxes, the court reduces taxes, but who will take care of the poor and hard laborers? The wool comes from the sheep, if no taxes are collected from the farmers, will the local government care about the lives of the farmers?" Zhang Juzheng also stood up and said loudly, slamming the table.

Wang Chonggu exhaled a breath of foul air and said in a stern voice: "So, the government-run factories and the military camps are one part, and there are also the engineering corps. My approach at least provides a way to resettle them, and I am not afraid of refugees everywhere. You have increased taxes to this extent. Are you planning to tattoo the faces of the poor and desperate coolies and make them thieves and join the army?"

"Only those bastard scholars of the Song Dynasty could come up with such a rotten idea that hurts the world and morality! The rotten smell is still disgusting after hundreds of years!"

"I advocate raising taxes, but I didn't say that we don't need government-run factories or engineering corps camps. Why can't we resettle them? Can't I use the proposal you put forward? We are all working for the Ming Dynasty and being loyal to His Majesty. What you proposed does not belong to you alone! If you think it belongs to you alone, then you can return the contradiction to me!" Zhang Juzheng made a killer move.

Wang Chonggu was a little dizzy after being beaten. He had already learned the knowledge and methodology in his head. How could Wang Chonggu return it? Should he twist off his head and return it to Zhang Juzheng?

Zhu Yijun held his forehead with his hand. The Prime Minister and the Second Prime Minister of the empire had started arguing again because of their different political views. They were arguing with red faces. It was obvious that they had not reached any agreement in private, so they quarreled in front of the emperor.

And what both of them said seemed to make sense.

"Those of your disciples and old officials used the government-run factories and engineering corps to build their products. Did I ask you to return them? Don't be unreasonable. What we are discussing now is the Single Whip Law!" Wang Chonggu was easily angered and his face was already showing.

"Alright, alright! Stop arguing. Sit down now that you've had enough." Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said, "It's impossible to raise taxes. The merger has reached this point, and it can't be suppressed by raising taxes. It's also impossible to reduce taxes. Thirty percent tax is already very low. If it is reduced further, the court will not look at the countryside anymore."

"We can neither raise nor reduce taxes, and we have to spread the poll tax among the fields. There is only one way to deal with it, and that is to impose strict laws and severe punishments."

"You two ministers, you have performed enough. Just sit down. Isn't it just asking me to punish you severely? What's the big deal?"

"I did this evil thing."

(End of this chapter)