Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 133 Two Years Later

Time flies, years pass.

The wheel of history is rolling forward, and the time has come to the third year of Yongle, the second day of September.

Today is the day when the new class of students from Jinling Regular College will enter school in the autumn of the third year of Yongle.

At this time, in the right hall of Zhengxin Hall, the third entrance of the academy, Yu Yanzhao, as one of the first batch of outstanding students to enroll, was entrusted with an important task by the dean and prince Zhu Gaoxu. He was facing 36 freshmen from remote areas in front of him. , preaching Emperor Yongle's great achievements in recent years.

"Today, we pay special attention to the daily life of the people, and believe that 'the family is well-off' and 'the people are well-off' are the foundation of peace in the world. We also vigorously promote and improve the system of military camps and the method of opening up salt merchants to ensure military rations and border salaries. supply.”

"The imperial court encouraged land reclamation, implemented laws such as relocating people to widen the countryside, and supervising people's farming to promote production. It also paid attention to measures such as exemption and relief to prevent small people from becoming refugees and ensure taxes and levies."

"In order to persuade the people to return to their fields, we are doing everything possible to recruit the refugees and resume their businesses. We have issued special edicts, instructing the local government offices not to punish the fleeing people. We have also sent people out to recruit the refugees to resume their businesses and cultivate the fields as much as possible."

Yu Yanzhao is not exaggerating, but it is true.

After many refugees returned to work, some local officials demanded the grain and grain they had owed for many years.

Zhu Di was very angry after hearing this, so he told the ministers of the Ministry of Household Affairs: "The people had no choice but to flee and resume their business. The fields were barren, and there were no agricultural tools and seeds. The government should show mercy to them. It is necessary to re-conquer their stubbornness. How can the poor people be like this?" There is a reason to survive! Those who have fled and returned to the country from now on will be exempted from the grain and grain they have borne over the years. Those who have not returned to the country will be carefully cared for. Taxes on newly cultivated fields will be stopped."

After the promotion of this policy, many refugees quickly returned to the fields, allowing the dilapidated agricultural production to be quickly restored.

Due to the impact of successive wars in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, a large amount of land in many places was deserted and uncultivated.

And those places where the war has less impact appear to have more people and less land, and some people even have no land to cultivate.

In order to integrate farmers with the land and develop a large amount of wasteland, Zhu Di, like Zhu Yuanzhang, carried out large-scale immigration across the country.

"In order to encourage people to work in the fields and encourage land reclamation, in the second year of Yongle's reign, we implemented a whip method based on the decree to clear the country's cultivated land."

Yu Yanzhao continued.

When the 36 students in the hall heard this, they suddenly started talking in confusion.

Most of these students who were selected from remote areas looked puzzled. Apparently due to the lack of information due to inconvenient transportation, most of them did not understand the imperial court's policies in the past two years.

In fact, Yu Yanzhao knew very well that 36 of the 19 new students were nephews of native officials specially selected by Prince Zhu Gaoxu from remote chieftain areas such as Yunnan and Sichuan, and belonged to Shaomin.

Among the other seven people, two are from Nanyang Old Port and are overseas Chinese, and the other five are from Nurgan and are Jurchens.

People in these areas do not fully understand the changes in the Ming Dynasty in recent years. Some people have enjoyed the benefits of the New Deal, while others have not even heard of the reform of the imperial examination. Individual students who are selected to study only obey the arrangements of their parents.

Zhu Gaoxu's intention of selecting people from these places to study in the academy was very obvious. Yu Yanzhao was not a stupid person, and of course he understood what he should do and say.

"Everyone, please be quiet for a moment. If you have any doubts, you can ask questions and I will definitely answer you."

Yu Yanzhao said in a considerate voice.

"Excuse me, senior brother, what is the 'one whip method'?"

Among the students, someone asked loudly.

The tax and servitude system in the early Ming Dynasty levied taxes and servitude separately, with land as the object of levy and heads as the object of servitude. There were two types of collection content: physical goods and labor.

Yu Yanzhao explained: "One whip method is to combine land tax, corvee, miscellaneous taxes, etc. into one for collection. The labor silver collected in the past according to households and dings is evenly collected. Regardless of land tax or labor service, it is converted into silver and paid. .”

He then added: "If the people have no money, they can use the grain harvested from farming to sell it to the Ming Dynasty Hubu Bank at market prices, and then use the money to pay taxes. Or they can directly treat the grain as taxes and hand it over to the Ming Dynasty Hubu Bank."

"What is an account bank?"

Another student asked.

"The Bank of Accounts is similar to the Royal Bank, but has the additional function of collecting taxes and distributing salaries to local officials."

"Senior brother, how does the one-whip method compare with Wang Anshi's political reform in the Song Dynasty?" a student asked.

"The two are not the same thing, so they cannot be compared. The one-step law is a tax reform that benefits the country and the people, and let me explain it to you in detail."

Yu Yanzhao said with excitement: "The One-whip Method combined taxes and levies into one, simplifying the procedures for collecting taxes and levies. From then on, the types of taxes and levies collected changed from complicated to single."

"In this case, who is responsible for collecting taxes?" a student asked.

Yu Yanzhao replied: "Of course it's the police hired by the Bank of Accounts."

He paused and said with high spirits: "In addition to the whipping law, we have also promulgated a grand and good governance law. Do you know which one it is?"

A student from Yunnan Tusi raised his hand and said: "Nature is unprecedented in all dynasties. It can be said to be the greatest good governance in history - breeding people and never adding wealth."

"Never give more gifts? Is this, this, is this true?" an unsuspecting student from the Nurgan area asked in surprise.

"Of course it's true. Who dares to make fun of His Majesty?" replied the student from Yunnan Tusi.

"I wonder when such good governance was announced?" asked the uninformed student from the Nurgan area.

Yu Yanzhao heard the discussions of the students and raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet.

After the students calmed down, he continued: "It's a long story, so let me explain it in detail."

"After I succeeded to the throne, in order to show the court's benevolence, I exempted money and grain many times. However, the exemption of land tax does not mean the reduction of Ding tax."

"Although the Ding tax has been exempted many times, the imperial court has never conducted a thorough census of the population. As the world has been at peace, the population has increased rapidly. In order not to pay the Ding tax or to avoid corvee, most of them did not register as household registration."

"As a result, the imperial court was unable to effectively control and manage these new populations. Local officials and gentry took advantage of this opportunity to exploit them, forcing the poor people to migrate and flee. The increasing number of refugees will definitely disturb local peace and cause chaos in various places. turmoil."

"At the end of the first year of Yongle, Jinshang and His Highness the Crown Prince convened the ministers, discussed for several days, and decided to control the population and stabilize the order of the world by reforming the system of taxes and servitude, so the saying "Grow people, never increase taxes" government decree."

Historically, in the early Ming Dynasty, three types of taxes, land tax, head tax and corvee, coexisted. "Ding Yin" began to appear in the tax reform in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and its final form was the "one whip method".

Both the Ding tax and the corvee were collected by local officials, and the Ding tax was not turned over to the court, so most of it fell into the private pockets of local officials.In the Ministry of Household Affairs of the imperial court, there were no statistics on ding tax across the country, only the total number of households. In terms of administration and policy formulation, the court did not involve the handling of ding tax and how to manage it.

In other words, Zhu Di's order to "grow people and never increase taxes" was tantamount to generously throwing away the tax that local officials could collect.

In February of the second year of Yongle, the imperial court issued Zhu Di's edict to "never increase taxes": "I have seen the number of editors and examiners reported by the imperial envoys in various places, but have not reported the increase. The world has been at peace for a long time, and the household registration If there are many days, it is impossible to levy more money and grain according to the number of people. Although the number of people has increased, the land has not expanded. The national Ding tax amount in the first year of Yongle is the permanent Ding tax collection quota. In the future, additional people will be added and no more taxes will be levied."

"You are truly a benevolent king today! We are so lucky to have a benevolent king governing the world!"

Some students who heard the news for the first time had their views completely refreshed. They were excited and incoherent. Some shouted "Eternal Benevolence" in a dialect that Yan Zhao could not understand. Some even bowed towards the east toward the palace.

"If you say that I am a benevolent king, you are looking down on me."

After the students who had just learned about it gradually calmed down, Yu Yanzhao continued: "Let me tell you, another edict was issued today. Do you know how powerful this edict is?"

"How powerful is it?" The student from the Nurgan region asked in surprise in not very fluent Chinese.

"When my father, mother, grandfather, and grandmother heard the news, they couldn't believe it at first, and then after confirming that the news was true, they all cried and laughed, laughed and cried. Your Majesty, that is the Holy King! When the saint is alive, No one can compare with Renjun!"

The previous student from Yunnan Tusi answered.

The students in the Nurgan area were shocked and hurriedly asked Yu Yanzhao who was standing on the podium in broken Chinese: "Brother, please tell me, what is the edict?"

"Don't worry, before I say this edict, I have to ask you a question." Yu Yanzhao said.

"Brother, please."

The sturdy student from Nurgan, 1.9 meters tall, said respectfully: "My Han surname is Wu, my first name is Tengfei, and my courtesy name is Feiniao. Senior brother, you can call me Feiniao."

"Feiniao, do you think there are loopholes in the good governance of 'breeding people and never adding wealth'?" Yu Yanzhao asked.

"This kid doesn't dare to speak nonsense." Wu Tengfei said in a low voice.

Yu Yanzhao looked at the former student from Yunnan Tusi and said, "What's your name?"

"Senior brother, my surname is Su, Su from Gusu, his name is Xin, his name is Xin, and his word is Youxin." Su Xin said.

Yu Yanzhao nodded and said: "Okay, I have faith. Do you think there are any loopholes in the policy of never increasing taxes?"

Su Xin blushed and said: "I don't see any shortcomings in this good governance. If I say it is shortcomings, I'm afraid that at the beginning of implementation, there will be many local officials who are disobedient and obstruct the implementation of this new policy."

"Yes, there are indeed many bold and reckless people who violate the new policies, but today we sent out royal guards and patrolling censors to deal with waves of local officials. Only in this way can this great good government be carried out."

When Yu Yanzhao said this, he looked around at the crowd and said, "Okay, I won't play riddles with you anymore."

“In the third year of Yongle, when the Ministry of Household Affairs reviewed the addition of new people to make up for the old vacancies, in addition to allocating people according to the land, they still implemented the allocation based on people. That is, within one household, if one person was reduced, another person was added. New additions offset reduction.”

"If there is a decrease of [-] or [-] ding, and the new additions are not enough to make up for it, the compensation will be made up by the households with more people in the family. If it is not enough, the households with more than [-] people in the same family will make up for it, and the remainder after the compensation will be included in the breeding population. Make a report in Ding's book."

"Because of this, after the implementation of the policy of 'Growing people and never increasing taxes', the contradiction emerged that no tax will be imposed on the newly added people, and no tax will be reduced on the old people. Moreover, there are many new people, and the use of Whoever comes to make up for the old vacancy will find it difficult to achieve an equal balance of pain and joy."

Wu Tengfei asked in confusion: "I don't understand what senior brother said. Why did the number of people increase so much in one year this time?"

"According to the system of this dynasty, people become adults at the age of 16. From then on, they have to pay Ding tax until they are 59 years old. Every year, there will always be 15-year-olds who become 16 years old!"

Su Xin explained for Yu Yanzhao: "Furthermore, the imperial court implements such great and good governance, many people who hide their household registration, as well as refugees who hide in the mountains and forests to avoid disasters, will inevitably choose to return to the local government and register their households. , become a household registered person!”

"That's right, the boy didn't think well." Wu Tengfei blushed, stood up and cupped his hands to Su Xin.

Su Xin stood up and returned the greeting.

Yu Yanzhao couldn't help but nodded when he saw that both of them paid great attention to etiquette.

Then, he continued: "In order to achieve an equal balance of suffering and happiness, in April of the third year of Yongle, the emperor issued an edict to implement the 'dividing the land tax into the land tax'. The previously fixed land tax was evenly distributed into the land tax, and a unified land tax was levied , the Ding tax will no longer be levied on the population. Once this policy comes out, the chaos of land, household, Ding, etc. taxation will be completely ended, and the head tax that presses on all the people in the world will be gone!"

"This is simply a policy of great kindness that has never been seen before and will never be seen again!"

Many students commented one after another.

In particular, the two students from Nanyang Old Port were deeply touched.

Before the area was included in the territory of the imperial court, the authorities of the Srivijaya Kingdom not only levied a poll tax, but also imposed other exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, which made many Chinese and native people miserable.

"So I am a holy king now!" Yu Yanzhao sighed.

Since the object of taxation was land, the imperial court divided the land into acres, which was equivalent to a disguised relaxation of control over household registration.

This indirectly led to the increase of a lot of free-flowing labor force, which played a role in promoting the commodity economy of the Ming Dynasty.

Yu Yanzhao continued: "From now on, farmers with little land are freed from the burden of labor and are no longer forced to work on farmland. They can go to the city to do small business, and they can also choose to join the Huimin Works and Construction Bureau and become A craftsman who builds roads and bridges.”

"What is the Huimin Industrial Construction Bureau?" Wu Tengfei asked.

"You don't even know about the Huimin Industrial and Construction Bureau? Have you never even read the Jinling Xunbao?" Su Xin asked rhetorically.

"I have read the "Jinling Xunbao". It is published every ten days and is published by the imperial general affairs department. Its function is similar to that of the imperial court's Dibao, but different."

Wu Tengfei replied: "It's like a 'tabloid' in the Song Dynasty. However, the 'tabloid' in the Song Dynasty was not published by the imperial court, and the "Jinling Xunbao" was an official official newspaper published by the imperial court."

"I really didn't realize that you are also someone who knows the history books."

Su Xin looked at Wu Tengfei, who was 1.9 meters tall and as strong as a calf, and joked with a smile.

PS: I know that veterans have seen too many old-fashioned reform plots such as never increasing one’s wealth and dividing one person into another, so I decided to speed up the progress of the plot.Next, Zheng He is about to return, and the kings have also begun to change their titles. After several years of stable development, Zhu Di can expand to the outside world!

(End of this chapter)