Ming Dynasty: He was ordered to give lectures in prison, but Lao Zhu eavesdropped and made people nu

Chapter 355: Do the gentry in the world think that the pre-Yuan Dynasty was the heyday of Confucianism?

"After the common people use chemical fertilizers, even if they receive one hundred dan per acre of land, as long as they pay the prescribed tax, aren't the rest theirs?"

"Unless they owe money to the gentry and landowners, it is impossible for anyone to take a grain of grain from them."

Lin Che faced Zhu Bai's question of "not eating minced meat".

For a moment, I forgot what class I was going to teach next.

It's also my fault that this little bastard usually behaves too evil.

So much so that after he exposed his lack of social common sense.

The contrast was so great that it made people think that he was deliberately pretending to be stupid.

Fortunately, Zhu Xi noticed Lin Che's speechlessness and gave Zhu Xi a blow with his backhand.

Then he slowly gave him extra lessons and said, "I really don't know how your first teacher taught you?"

"Your father, the parents of Emperor Hongwu, were oppressed by the landlords and gentry together, and they were both hanged at home."

"If they could keep their own food, would we still be obedient citizens of the former Yuan Dynasty?"

It is only a few years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

Were Emperor Hongwu's deeds forgotten so quickly?

Even though Zhu Xi has never been to the fields and observed the real life of the people at the bottom.

We can also glean some insights from the experiences of Emperor Hongwu in his childhood.

However, Zhu Bai, who rarely speaks, may be too naive or habitually arrogant.

At this time, he suddenly interrupted: "What happened to my father when he was young is already a thing of the past dynasty."

"Now our Ming Dynasty is the prosperous age of Haiyanheqing, how can we harm the people and evil squires?"

"And even if there are, I think there are only a few people like this. As long as his evil deeds are informed to the government, he will definitely not be able to escape the Ming Law... Oops!"

Before Zhu Bai could finish what he thought was a reasonable analysis, he suffered a brain breakdown.

However, the person who took action this time was Lin Che.

He complained speechlessly: "What happened in the previous dynasty? Do you really think that in today's Ming Dynasty, there are no people who are forced to death by the wealthy gentry and landlords?"

"Normally, except for the county magistrate and county magistrate, the county government officials are foreign officials appointed by the court, and the others are local gentry."

"You still want people to report to the government to punish them? What's the difference between this and voluntarily committing suicide?"

Since the imperial power did not go to the countryside, the collusion between officials and gentry was very serious in the feudal era.

If you don't want to be oppressed by both, you can either learn to choose a common man's anger and die together with the other person.

Or they can only choose to imitate Emperor Hongwu's parents and hang themselves out of the sea of ​​suffering.

Otherwise, as long as the people can still breathe, they will continue to be squeezed by both.

"This, these low-level officials are actually in the same group as the gentry?"

Zhu Bai was shocked by Lin Che's words.

It seemed completely unexpected that the lower class would be controlled by the gentry.

Rather than being subject to the constraints and rule of the Ming Dynasty.

In this way, no matter what the landlords and gentry want to do, won't the people have no chance to resist?

"If they are not colluding, it seems a little unacceptable, the dark side of the prosperous Ming Dynasty."

He couldn't help but snorted coldly: "You know, if we follow the normal tax, even if the people pay twice as much, they can still support their family."

"It's a pity that the greed of the gentry and landlords knows no bounds."

"They joined forces with county officials to collect taxes from the people, which directly amounted to 80% of the harvest."

When Lin Che said this, she couldn't help but hit the table with her fist.

Thinking of Zhu Bai, a student who didn't understand the meaning of proportion, he explained: "The official tax of our Ming Dynasty is only fifteen tax one. Even if various miscellaneous taxes are added, it is less than fifteen tax two."

"And the squires and landlords colluded with the county officials and directly changed the tax to five to three, or even five to four."

"After paying the due taxes to the court, all the money they receive will be theirs."

Nowadays, not long after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the country gentry and county officials are not so courageous. Even if you charge a tax of five to three, you still have to worry about it.

But after various officials in the imperial court reached official positions and became the largest squire in the local area.

With these officials, intricate relationships provide support.

When officials collected taxes, they gradually became unscrupulous.

Can be based on the harvest of the land that year.

Leave enough food for the people to barely survive.

The remaining squires and officials who took all the money in the name of taxes can be considered conscientious.

When encountering squires who want to annex land, they force honest people to death in the name of taxes and then annex their fields.

These were all routine operations by the squires and landlords of the Ming Dynasty in later generations.

"How dare these country gentlemen and landlords do this?"

After all, Zhu Bai is young and still has this basic sense of morality.

He roared angrily: "The country treats the gentry and scholars so generously, but they are still not satisfied and do such things that bully the country and the people."

Zhu Bai, who had never been in contact with the common people, couldn't believe it and said: "These gentry often ask His Majesty to reduce taxes."

"His Majesty, mindful of the difficulties in people's livelihood, also abolished many exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes."

"And these gentry don't care about the emperor's favor and abandon the faith of scholars. It's simply..."

Zhu Bai is young and has not learned many curse words.

For a moment, I didn’t know how to evaluate these shameless gentry.

"Haha, you think the Ming Dynasty treated the gentry and landlords well, but others think you ruined their rare prosperity."

"They also drove their Confucian master to the grassland."

Lin Che couldn't help but make a few remarks as she listened to Zhu Bai, who was shocked by his outlook on life, criticizing the landowners and gentry for being unfaithful and unfilial.

"The prosperous age?"

Zhu Bai's face was full of doubts.

I don’t know if there were any other prosperous dynasties before Hongwu.

But when he heard about the great Confucian master, he immediately woke up and said: "Sir, are you saying that all the gentry in the world think that the pre-Yuan Dynasty was the heyday of Confucianism?"

"Is this impossible? I remember that in the Yuan Dynasty, Confucianism was a ninth-class existence, and its social status was only higher than that of beggars."

"The former Yuan Dynasty humiliated the gentry who farmed, studied and passed down their families. How could they praise the former Yuan Dynasty so much?"

There is another point that Zhu Bai did not say.

That was the Qianyuan Tartar Dynasty, which lasted less than a century. During this period, various uprisings were everywhere.

All kinds of natural disasters also come in turn.

Countless people died in wars and natural disasters.

How come he has something to do with Shengshi?

"It's okay to have a low status. If you can be an official, you can be a common man."

“You must know that the former Yuan Dynasty implemented a tax farming system, so as long as the gentry and landlords paid all their taxes, even if they killed people in the countryside, the court of the former Yuan Dynasty would not bother them.

"Compared with this kind of unlimited indulgence, what are the few taxes reduced by the Ming Dynasty?"

Lin Che faced Zhu Xi and Zhu Bai with either shocked or angry looks, her tone full of sarcasm.

"In a sense, since the emergence of Confucianism, only the dynasties ruled by the Yuan Dynasty have truly achieved the rule of thumb that many Confucian scholars have always longed for."

It is really because the Qian Yuan Dynasty only kept the common people as widows and did not manage the world.

This made countless gentry and landlords become domineering local emperors during the Yuan Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)