Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 88
As the saying goes, "Those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes." When people have no choice but to rebel, it is because they really have nothing. Rebellion means death, and not rebelling means death. It is better to rebel than to rebel.

But these gentry and wealthy businessmen are different. They do have much more energy than ordinary people, but the more they have, the more they are afraid of losing. They don’t have the courage to give it a try. At most, they spend their money secretly to find some black money. Evil forces and ruffians are just causing trouble.

In fact, although the court's new tax law focuses on high-income groups, overall the collection ratio is still very humane. It is not a burden at all to these gentry and wealthy businessmen. It's just that these people are used to tax evasion and tax evasion. All tax payments within the obligation are regarded as burdens and losses.

When Zhu Tianqi made up his mind to reform taxes and levies and introduce a new tax law, he had naturally thought of the situation today. Ordinary people naturally supported the new tax law, but these big landowners and businessmen must also absolutely resist it. Yes, Zhu Tianqi had already thought of a countermeasure for this.

Although it is said that as the king of a country, as long as he gives an order, he can catch all these troublemaking gentry and businessmen, and then use the method of killing chickens to scare monkeys, these people will naturally be honest, but these people have a higher social status after all. The status (gentry) and the wealth that can rival a country (the wealthy businessman) are really hard to come by, and I am afraid that there are certain risks.

This risk is not limited to internal risks, but may also come from external sources.

Nowadays, most of the officials in the court are no longer dedicated to the country and the people. Instead, they have become representatives and vassals of interest groups in various places. In other words, if they offend these gentry and wealthy families, they will also be offended. Having hundreds of officials in the court means that it may affect the stability of one's own rule.

On the other hand, Jiannu is not at peace now, and the Ming Dynasty's foreign invasion is still serious. Many wealthy merchants are secretly trading with Jiannu, so they also provide a lot of materials to Jiannu. This is why Jiannu can accumulate so much wealth and materials. The strength is getting stronger day by day, and some officials of the Ming Dynasty are also secretly colluding with Jiannu.

If I really push them into a hurry, then these wealthy businessmen will definitely provide materials and wealth to the slaves even more frantically to retaliate against the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, they will also be prepared to surrender to the enemy and treason for the slaves to enter the customs in the future. Those officials The same must be true for them. Even if they have no chance to betray the Ming Dynasty now, once the slaves enter the customs in the future, they will definitely surrender to the enemy without hesitation.

Therefore, what is tough is the last resort, and some means should be used to be safer.

Zhu Tianqi’s countermeasure is very simple. It starts with an interesting story:

Once upon a time, there was a robber who robbed a group of people. Then the robber said to the group of people, "You guys line up to pay me. The first one pays 100, the second pays 200, and so on, the closer you are in line, the more you pay me." The lower you are in the queue, the less you have to pay, and the further you go, the more you have to pay!”

So people rushed over and queued up to pay. Even the people at the front were very proud, thinking that they paid less than others. In the end, everyone rushed to pay the robbers, forgetting to resist.

Although this story sounds a bit outrageous, human nature is like this. This group of people can obviously unite to defeat the robbers, but they are hostile to each other for their own personal interests, just to get a front position.

Zhu Tianqi believes that the robber's tactics are very clever. Rather than using strong methods to force opponents to unite against him, it is better to shift the contradiction and let them fight among themselves for their own interests.Therefore, Zhu Tianqi gave an order to the taxation departments of the chief envoys in the south of the Yangtze River, notifying all major taxpayers in various places that the sooner those who actively cooperate in paying taxes should go to the taxation department to register, the more taxes the court will reduce or exempt. The batch can even be exempted from tax for the current year.

The effect of this order was very significant. Although the gentry and wealthy businessmen were still unmoved on the surface, saying that they would never be deceived by the court and that they would unite as one and fight to the end, secretly, they had already Some people rushed to the tax department office to register and file.

Once someone starts this kind of thing, who else will continue to wait and see stupidly. If you go too late, won't you have to pay a few percent more tax than others?

After receiving the memorial from the tax bureaus of various places, Zhu Tianqi burst out laughing, "This is the bad nature of these gentry and wealthy businessmen. Their minds are full of interests and the money in their own pockets. Where do they have anything?" Can you speak of loyalty?"

Qian Qianyi and Qian Longxi were speechless when they heard the news. They did not expect that the emperor would use such a trick to easily resolve the crisis of Jiangnan gentry and wealthy families boycotting the implementation of the new tax law. They also secretly cursed this person. The group of gentry and wealthy businessmen are really disappointing.

At this point, the tax reform and the implementation of the new tax law have become a foregone conclusion, and neither the Donglin Party headed by Qian Qianyi and Qian Longxi nor other forces in the DPRK can no longer reverse the situation.

This major matter has been resolved, and Zhu Tianqi can finally return to the affairs of the Chief Envoy of Shaanxi Province. Now the court's disaster relief work is being carried out in an orderly manner, the victims have been effectively rescued, and the local area has become peaceful. Quite a few.

As for the spring sowing by the Chief Envoy of Shaanxi Province, the agricultural officials sent by the imperial court have also gone to the local areas and began to teach farmers more advanced and scientific agricultural planting techniques. These agricultural officials were personally trained by Xu Guangqi and were trained by the imperial court. A group of young people were selected from young candidates and Jinshi who were willing to engage in agricultural work. After a few years, most of these people became experts and academic leaders in the Ming Dynasty's agricultural industry.

Although it is not ruled out that some of these people are anxious to become officials before accepting this dispatch from the imperial court, most of them still sincerely want to do something. After all, they are all young people and they still have a sense of dedication to the country and the people. His own passion.

Therefore, after these people arrived at the place, they were willing to endure hardships and stand hard work. They would go out early and return home late every day to teach the farmers. They also went to the fields in person to teach and help the farmers on the spot. The farmers gradually also paid attention to these young people. They felt that these young officials had no airs and were not as pedantic as the scholars they usually saw.

After all, these young people have studied agricultural knowledge seriously for a period of time, and have also received crash training in Xu Guangqicheng's system. They still have two brushes. These farmers who have been farming for a lifetime are guided by them to farm, even though they have just started. They were a little unconvinced at the time, but after seeing some results, they became very convinced of them.

(End of this chapter)