Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 525 Blood-sucking Feast
"Crackling——"

The smoke is filling the air, and the New Year is coming.

Amidst the crackling of firecrackers, Hong Xi's tenth year arrived as scheduled.

In the blink of an eye, it was already the thirty-fourth year since Zhu Gaoxu came to this era.

Today, he is already forty-eight years old, and Zhu Di, who should have died early, also lived to be sixty-eight years old.

Zhu Gaoxu did not show any surprise that the father and son could live for such a long time. What surprised him was mainly that the good brother who returned to Yunnan actually lived to the age of fifty.

Of course, this is a change on a personal level, while historical changes make it impossible to rely on history books.

The tenth year of Hongxi was supposed to be the second year of Xuande in history. In this year, the Ming army withdrew its troops from Jiaozhi. Jiaozhi was recaptured after more than 400 years, but was finally abandoned twenty years after its recovery.

This year Portugal was supposed to, under the leadership of Enrique, gradually explore the Songhai Empire in the south along Morocco and gradually accumulate maritime knowledge.

This was the year that America was supposed to suffer from food shortages due to long droughts and the disintegration of various city-states.

They are not sure whether they will be implicated in the future, or whether their relatives will be implicated and banished because of them.

For a time, hundreds of officials spoke out for the family members of the officials implicated in the Yan Li case, but Zhu Gaoxu knew very well that they were not speaking out for the officials involved in the Yan Li case, but for themselves in the future.

"It is decreed that Yan Yan and Li Mian's cars will be broken up in the city in accordance with the law, their relatives will be executed, and their accomplices will be sentenced to various charges such as execution and exile."

"The number of acres in the world is 6,973,160 hectares, and there are eighty-nine acres and four quarters left."

In addition, various regimes such as Japan, North Korea, Tatar, Oara, Timur, etc. should focus on domestic affairs, some are reforming, and some are fighting among themselves.

Jin Chun, the Minister of Punishment, stood up. Zhu Gaoxu glanced at him through Mianqi and said calmly: "Yes!"

Faced with this farce, Zhu Gaoxu had to make a final judgment.

"Your Majesty, if so many people are sentenced to abortion, I'm afraid it will affect the order of various places..."

The gold income from the treasury is usually not included in the scope of money and grain that can be mobilized, but even so, the amount of money and grain that could be mobilized in the Ming Dynasty in the 10th year of Hongxi's reign reached about 85 million yuan.

"Your Majesty, Jin Chun, the Minister of Punishment, has something to report!"

From Northeast Asia to East Africa, the Ming Dynasty had more than 70 vassal states, becoming the pinnacle of the vassal system in Chinese history.

Because of this, they are so united in advocating for the family members of the officials involved in the Yan Li case.

"In addition, in the case of Yan Li, about 31.6 million yuan was obtained from the subsequent confiscation of homes and property."

It can be said that the Yan Li case contributed nearly 60 million yuan in income to the Ming Dynasty, but these incomes were obtained by lying on the back of the imperial court and sucking blood.

But all the above have been overthrown by Zhu Gaoxu, and the Ming Dynasty became the first empire on which the sun never sets, which was more than a hundred years earlier than the Spanish Empire.

The reason why Zhu Gaoxu did this was to solve the problem of overly dense local population and unbalanced ethnic ratios in some areas.

How could Zhu Gaoxu personally choose to let go of such a resource for population migration in an open and honest manner?
"Are you finished?"

Guo Zi reported the overall income of the imperial court last year. In addition to the basic tax increase of more than 3 million yuan after the strict implementation of the Jiangnan Salt, Wine and Tea Policy, the largest income last year was still the proceeds from the "Yan Li Case".

Either decentralization or delegation of power, these are the two paths left to Zhu Gaoxu by history.

This major case that affected the seventeenth chief envoys of the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty finally came to an end at this year's imperial meeting.

The line of Japanese emperors was cut off, leaving only the line of emperors of the Ashikaga clan.

Except for Europe and Northwest Asia, which did not have vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, the rest of the world was filled with vassal states of the Ming Dynasty.

The emperor had never sentenced such a severe punishment, which shows the emperor's hatred for Yan Li's case.

The power of the palace is still suppressed and restricted by him, and the world has become much clearer because of the Yan Li case that just passed.

"After the Jiangnan Salt and Tea Winery Administration was implemented, taxes increased by 3.16 million yuan."

After Jin Chun finished speaking, many officials also bowed:

"Your Majesty, the Yan Li case has involved more than 7,400 officials, and more than 98,000 officials. According to the "Ming Dynasty Law", the relatives of these people need to be implicated. This will increase the number of people involved. It’s as high as more than 1.2 million.”

Yan Li and his followers had been sucking blood from Ming Dynasty for twenty-five years, sucking out an interest group that was as wealthy as the country.

"His Majesty……"

In this regard, he chose to decentralize power to Zhu Zhanhe, and at the same time delegated part of the governance power to the six ministries.

Of the 1.2 million people implicated today, except for the more than 500,000 who have been sentenced to exile, the remaining more than 700,000 are important resources for the Ming Dynasty to stabilize its borders.

"Last year, the number of households in the world was over 2,000, 364,000, and the population was over 100,782,000."

However, they overlooked one thing, that is, the current "Da Ming Law" was formulated by Zhu Gaoxu himself, and the laws involved in it were also added by Zhu Gaoxu.

"Your Majesty, too many relatives have been implicated. Even if they are distributed, it will cost millions of dollars. The gains outweigh the losses, Your Majesty."

The Lucchuan dynasty in the south that was supposed to re-emerge has been destroyed. Officials and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty have penetrated deep into northern Myanmar and northern Thailand. The three declarations and ten comforts have become three declarations and seven comforts.

It is undoubtedly very difficult to control such a huge empire based on one's own ability.

On the sea, Luzon, Old Port, Managa, Ceylon, Hurumos, Mugudushu, Kunlun Cape, Sandalwood Islands (Hawaii), Dongzhou, Beizhou and other Xuanweisi and Qianhu places are allowed by the sun. The banner of Ming Dynasty has been planted in every shining place.

Hamgyeong Road in North Korea became the Donghae Prefecture of the Ming Dynasty, and the gold mining area in North Korea changed from Hamgyeong Road to Kunlunzhou.

Sitting high on the golden platform, Zhu Gaoxu's voice spread throughout the entire Fengtian Palace. While it made people happy, it also frightened the hearts of the ministers.

"Your Majesty, I think that the imperial court's laws are too frequently involved. Is it possible to amend the laws?"

"The court's land tax, commercial tax, customs duty, and mining tax totaled more than 53,463,000 taels, and the deposits were more than 193,400 taels and 27 taels."

As soon as Zhu Gaoxu opened his mouth, the noisy hall instantly became quiet.

Facing the shocked and frightened looks of everyone, Zhu Gaoxu slowly said:

"I have made laws myself. Do you think the laws I have made are outdated, or are you worried that you will also become a member of the Yan Li case in the future?"

"I don't dare!" After hearing what the emperor said, everyone who had just remonstrated knelt down and kowtowed.

Looking at them, Zhu Gaoxu did not investigate carefully, but just expressed his attitude:

"Since the law has been enacted, we must abide by it. If their husbands, fathers and brothers did not violate the law, would the court arrest them and exile them at will?"

"When their husbands, fathers and brothers were corrupt, didn't they just enjoy themselves?"

"You don't stop someone when you're having fun, but after the incident, you think it has nothing to do with you. How can there be such a good thing in the world?"

"It is decreed that the remaining 700,000 criminals in the Yan and Li cases will be assigned to Yunnan. The criminals in Yunnan will be assigned to the three prefectures of Mengyang, Mengken and Luchuan."

If there were not enough anti-malarial powder for so many people, Zhu Gaoxu would even want to distribute these 700,000 people directly to the three prefectures of Yunnan Xingdusi to serve the people.

"I accept the decree..."

Jin Chun, the Minister of Punishment, felt bitter in his mouth. He felt that he might be scolded by these people for hundreds of years in the future.

"Tobe continues..."

Zhu Gaoxu withdrew his gaze and focused on Guo Zi, the Minister of Household Affairs.

After hearing this, Guo Zi stood up and bowed, and then continued to report on the financial problems of the imperial court.

"Last year, the imperial court's administrative expenditure was about 29 million guan, the Sixth Army Governor's Office spent more than 19 million guan on military pay and military expenses, and the maintenance and expenditure on engineering projects was about 8.5 million guan."

"Based on the above, the imperial court had a balance of 28.36 million yuan last year."

"Today, there are still 65.24 million taels of gold accumulated in the national treasury and the world's Changping warehouse, and there are more than 5.4 million taels of immovable gold in the treasury."

"Excluding the national debt obtained by confiscating the house, the national debt today is only over one million guan that has not been repaid. In the thirteenth year of Hong Xi's reign, the amount, including principal and interest, was approximately 1.56 million guan."

Twenty years later, the Ming Dynasty's treasury reserves finally exceeded 50 million guan again, reaching a level of more than 65 million guan.

As a result, until the three railways currently under construction in Huguang, Mobei, and Northwest China are completed, the money from the court will not be used up.

Because of this, as a party that worked hard this time, Yang Shiqi took the lead in standing up and bowing:
"Your Majesty, now that the national treasury is full, I think we can start building the Jiangnan Railway from Wuchang to Ningbo."

After Yang Shiqi stood up, Yang Rong, a grand bachelor of the palace, also stood up.

"Your Majesty, I have discussed with the Ministry of Works that the Jiangnan Railway is 2,780 miles long, starting from Ningbo, passing through Shaoxing, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Songjiang, Suzhou, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yingtian, Taiping, Chizhou, Raozhou, Nanchang, Jiujiang, and finally arriving at Wuchang, connecting to the Huguang Railway."

"In this way, the livelihood of nearly 30 million people along the way will be affected, and it will actually be a project that benefits the people in Jiangnan."

"Your Majesty, I agree!" Yang Pu agreed, and after San Yang expressed his stance, many people in the temple bowed to express their stance.

They support the construction of the Huguang Railway to facilitate connection with the Jiangnan Railway.

As long as the Jiangnan Railway project is agreed to, they can be considered responsible for Jiangnan.

However, they also know that if His Majesty does not agree, it is impossible for the project to be implemented no matter how much they suggest.

"Prelude!"

"Sure enough... accurate?"

When the majestic voice came from the golden platform, everyone originally thought that it would be rejected like before, but they didn't expect that the person on the golden platform actually approved it. "At the same time as the Jiangnan Railway is being built, railways will be built from Jiaxing and Hangzhou to Huzhou, and from Huzhou to Guangde, and finally to Nanjing."

Zhu Gaoxu not only agreed to the Jiangnan Railway, but even agreed to another railway in the Jiangdong area.

The two railways combined have a mileage of at least 3,300, which Yang Shiqi and others cannot believe.

"The Ministry of Industry has sent people to investigate. In addition, I am preparing to build a railway from Haizhou to Jinzhou, then to Dingliao, and a railway from Changchun to Jilin."

Zhu Gaoxu explained his intention. While building a railway of more than 3,300 miles south of the Yangtze River, he continued to build two railways with a total mileage of about 1,200 miles to the northeast.

Upon hearing this, Huang Fu, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, stepped forward and bowed: "Your Majesty, based on the mileage cost of the Huguang and Northeast Railways built by the Ministry of Industry, these four railways will cost approximately 20 million. The specific construction period will only be known after detailed investigation."

Huang Fu gave Zhu Gaoxu a shot. After all, 20 million guan was not a small amount. Even if the total construction period was ten years, the average annual investment would be about 2 million guan.

Although this is nothing compared to the other three railways being built, it is definitely not a small amount.

"Arrange a survey."

Zhu Gaoxu signaled Huang Fu to arrange for someone to operate, and then looked at the ministers: "The six departments report..."

At his instruction, the other ministers of the Six Ministries, the Governor's Office of the Sixth Army, and the Procuratorate respectively presented their reports, while Yang Shiqi and others were immersed in the joy of the successful registration of the Jiangnan Railway Project.

The meeting was held very quickly after this incident, and all the remaining procedures were completed in just half an hour.

After Zhu Gaoxu got up and left, all the ministers shouted long live the mountain and sang for eternity.

It wasn't until Zhu Gaoxu took Zhu Zhanhe to sit on the carriage that Zhu Zhanhe asked: "My father didn't agree to build the Jiangnan Railway before, so why did he suddenly agree now?"

Zhu Zhanhe remembered that his father said that once the railways in developed areas were connected to the railways in backward areas, and if the government's control was reduced, the population would continue to flow to the developed areas.

This situation is not a good thing for the current unstable local territory of Ming Dynasty.

"The north and northwest have been stabilized. As long as there are no troubles in the southwest, there will be no problem in building a railway in the south of the Yangtze River."

When Zhu Gaoxu responded, he glanced at Zhu Zhanhe and warned: "Ignorant demands will only make the people resentful. How much tax has the imperial court demanded from Jiangnan in the past sixty years? You should have some confidence in your heart."

"In the early years, there were water conservancy projects, and the people's complaints against the court were not big. Now that the water conservancy projects are gradually improving, and only maintenance is left, the people in Jiangnan will naturally turn their attention to other things."

"The Jiangnan Railway will have to be built sooner or later. It is better to build it while taking this opportunity than to build it again in the future when there is no money."

"Besides..." Zhu Gaoxu paused and glanced at Zhu Zhanhe meaningfully.

“It’s much easier to handle your wealth in one place than to run around.”

Zhu Gaoxu's words made Zhu Zhanhe suddenly realize that the concentration of population means the concentration of wealth, and if the wealth is concentrated in Jiangnan, then given the environment of collusion between officials and businessmen in the Ming Dynasty, if there is another big case in the future, it will only take one big case in Jiangnan. It is enough to solve the urgent needs of the court.

As soon as Zhu Zhanhe understood, Zhu Gaoxu continued to explain to him:
"The important thing is not how to confiscate homes, but how to redistribute them."

"People's money is concentrated in the hands of this group of people, and their consumption is always limited. In this way, the money will be limited in their hands and cannot be spent."

"In this case, if the court wants to take action against him, what he has to do after the action is successful is to let the money circulate."

"Infrastructure construction is one method, and government loans are the second method."

"However, if this second method is not used properly, it will develop into a bad government like official loan sharking in the two Song Dynasties, so we need to be cautious."

What Zhu Gaoxu is talking about is the "Market Change Law" implemented under Wang Anshi's new policy during the Shenzong period of the Northern Song Dynasty. The so-called Market Change Law is to provide loans to merchants at an interest rate slightly lower than usury, and the merchants use fixed assets such as houses as collateral.

Not to mention the high interest rate of the Market Change Law, this policy is originally a good policy to circulate money and develop the economy.

As a result, in order to complete their work tasks, officials forced merchants under their jurisdiction to take loans whether they needed them or not. As a result, the court received a lot of bad debts.

Although Shenzong once allowed merchants to extend the repayment period for three years and repay the loan on a monthly basis, after the Xifeng Reform, all industries in Kaifeng City were in depression. No matter how extrajudicial mercy was granted, the merchants were unable to repay the money to the court on time, so Only then did the "Great Detention and Looting" occur during the Zhezong reign of Song Dynasty.

The so-called "big arrest" means a large-scale inventory of property and a large-scale control of income, and the targets of the inventory and control are those merchants who owe loans to the court.

In this operation, all households, big and small, had their houses confiscated and their income taken over until they repaid the money they owed the court with interest.

Of course, the imperial court was "merciful" and chartered small households to "detain half of their debts" and control their assets and income based on only half of the arrears.

After Liang Tao, the admonishing doctor, learned about this incident, he urgently made a petition to dissuade him.

He believed that plundering the people's daily income into the hands of the court and extorting late payment fees for the shortfall would ruin their livelihood. In the end, the people would go bankrupt and the court would not be able to collect the arrears, which would benefit no one.

Perhaps because he felt that the above principles were not enough to convince the imperial court, Liang Tao also supplemented the content of the memorial from the perspective of interests in the form of "advertising".

However, this yellowish supplement involves the Northern Song Dynasty court's method of sucking blood from the world.

From this exposure, Zhu Gaoxu also learned many ways to deal with officials and wealthy households.

The content of this is probably that the imperial court gives high priority to the people of the capital and does not harass them much in daily life, so hundreds of famous families can develop in the capital.

If there was a war and money was urgently needed, the imperial court could bring over dozens of wealthy families and raise enough military funds in one day.

The imperial court raised these people of the capital and did not move them on weekdays, just to put them to use at times like this.

Now the imperial court should take good care of these people in the capital who were scarred by the political reform, so that in another ten or twenty years, they can develop into several big surnames that the imperial court can use in times of emergency.

This yellow post, which talks about "ancestral methods", is actually advising the court not to just think about sucking blood, but also to pay attention to blood production and pig raising.

The more blood is produced, the pigs are fattened, and at the critical moment, they suck blood and then slaughter them to maximize their profits.

Intentionally or unintentionally, Liang Tao revealed the true nature of Kaifeng, the capital of Song Dynasty.

Under the rule of the Northern Song Dynasty, the city of Kaifeng was magnificent and prosperous for more than 160 years. However, this magnificence and prosperity was not the result of free growth, but the product of the crazy blood-sucking of imperial power and bureaucratic consumption.

Kaifeng is a city without industry. It relies almost entirely on "the consumption of officials and soldiers" to maintain its operations.

Zhu Gaoxu saw this when he read the "Tokyo Menghua Lu" of the Northern Song Dynasty in his spare time after coming to the Ming Dynasty.

Although Kaifeng described in the book has a dazzling variety of luxurious consumption, there is almost no mention of any other industries.

The group of luxury consumers is also a group that feeds off the imperial government's finances.

If this group of people evacuates collectively, Kaifeng's wealth and prosperity will collapse in an instant, and the entire city will instantly lose vitality and become dead.

In other words, Kaifeng, the capital of the Song Dynasty, was a city of pure consumption. Its source of vitality was the extreme extravagance of power groups. Behind its prosperity was the continuous input of taxes from across the country.

In order to maintain this kind of luxury and prosperity, power groups implemented high-intensity extraction throughout the Northern Song Dynasty for a long time.

Even in the era of Song Renzong, who was known as benevolent, people's livelihood was in decline and they were overwhelmed.

Official Chen Shunyu publicly criticized the Renzong Dynasty's governance in a memorial, saying that it "took the people's wealth very carefully" and used all means to exploit the people.

In such a blood-sucking game, the century-old prosperity of Kaifeng, the capital of Song Dynasty, is nothing but a deformed consumption feast.

Because of this, the scholar-bureaucrats miss this era so much. As for the common people, they are just consumables that are forced to drown their own children by their little money.

Zhu Gaoxu would not use the methods used by the Northern Song Dynasty to deal with the people of the world, because the times are moving forward, and each generation and each generation has different standards of life.

Living is the main theme in the feudal background, and now the Ming Dynasty has touched the threshold of the industrial age, so it must not only pursue living, but living well.

Let the world's wealth gather in Jiangnan, and then repeatedly harvest the bureaucracy and the big businessmen who colluded with it in Jiangnan, and redistribute their wealth to the people. This is the best fuel to maintain the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, the fundamental source of these fuels is the common people. After all, this wealth is squeezed from the common people through collusion between the bureaucracy and big businessmen.

Although the Zhu family is the largest landlord at the moment, the prerequisite for the Zhu family to be landlords is to maintain their rule.

If the rule cannot be maintained, the officials will at most kneel down and kowtow, but the Zhu family will die.

The scene of more than 200,000 clan members being slaughtered in the late Ming Dynasty was the result of failure to maintain rule.

When his thoughts fell to the ground, Bu Yu, who was carrying Zhu Gaoxu, also fell to the ground.

He stepped down from the carriage and walked into the palace, while the academicians in the palace had not yet returned to Wuying Palace.

After walking back to the side hall and sitting down, Zhu Gaoxu looked at Zhu Zhanhe and said, "How are you familiar with overseas government affairs?"

"We are basically familiar with it. I think that simply letting the people of the Three Kingdoms of Dongzhou mine gold and silver will only make them hateful. They must also enjoy the benefits of work before they will continue to work for the imperial court willingly."

"At the same time, the imperial court should speed up the population migration to Dongzhou and Beizhou in the future, and also impose restrictions on the Xuanweisi of Dongzhou and Beizhou."

"If new weapons appear in the future, the local military must be the main force, and the local army should always be ahead of overseas countries. Only in this way can we seize the opportunity when riots occur overseas."

"In addition, special attention needs to be paid to the flow of shipwrights and Ordnance Bureau craftsmen. Once they go overseas, it will be a huge loss to the court."

After Zhu Zhanhe finished speaking, Zhu Gaoxu asked him: "The two continents are always too far away from the Ming Dynasty. If I want to confer your brother to go there, what do you think?"

"My son has great trust in his younger brothers, but the other vassal kings..." Zhu Zhanhe lowered his voice and made his meaning clear without making it too obvious.

"People say that one generation is close to the other, and the second generation is the representative. The third generation and the fourth generation will bring down the family."

"It's normal for you to have this idea. If you have enough brothers and heirs, it won't matter. If you have too few, it won't be a problem."

Zhu Gaoxu didn't make it too obvious, and Zhu Zhanhe needed to understand it himself.

Zhu Zhanhe bowed after hearing this and said nothing more. He just stepped forward to pour tea for Zhu Gaoxu. Zhu Gaoxu also picked up his ink pen and opened the memorials.

(End of this chapter)