Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 239 Breaking out of the dynasty cycle law

Where is Ming going?
Zhu Di has been thinking about this issue recently.

The princes who were enfeoffed by Emperor Taizu during his lifetime had been transferred outside China one after another before the 20th year of Yongle.

In the fifth year of Yongle, King Zhu Zhu of Zhou and King Zhu Zhen of Chu established the Kingdom of Zhou and Kingdom of Chu on the Java Island. King Zhu Gui of Dai and King Zhu Quan of Ning established the Kingdom of Dai and Kingdom of Ning in the southeast of the Peacock Peninsula. King Zhu Mo of Shen and King Zhu Song of Han established the Kingdom of Dai in the northeast of Nurgan. The Shen Kingdom and South Korea were established in the area near the Whale Sea.

From the seventh year of Yongle to the tenth year of Yongle, King Zhu Chun of Shu, King Zhu Bai of Jin (formerly King of Xiang), King Zhu of Su (yang), King of Liao Zhu Zhi, King of Qing Zhu Zhu (zhan), King of Min Zhu Pian (pian), King of Gu Zhu The seven kings including Lu were successively moved to the south and west of the Peacock Peninsula.

In the 17th year of Yongle, with the surrender of the northern desert tribes, the three provinces of the Western Regions also became more stable. The already elderly King Zhu Shangbing of Qin (second term), King Zhu Zhaohui of Lu (second term), King An of Zhu Ying, King of Tang Zhu Kuang (jing), Six kings, including Ying Wang Zhu Dong and Yi Wang Zhu (yi), were successively transferred to the northwest of the Western Regions by Zhu Di, which was named "Moxi Plain" by Zhu Gaoxu.

The so-called Moxi Plain is the West Siberian Plain area north of the Kazakh Hills.

It is now the first year of Qianxi. The kings of Zhou and Chu, who went to Java to establish the country as early as the fifth year of Yongle, have been the powerful kings for 20 years now.

Even the second King of Lu, the youngest among the princes, had been the king of the country for eight years.

Over the years, what the kings have realized most deeply is that it is easy to conquer a country, but difficult to sit on it.

At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was enough to use the huge force of the Ming army to overthrow all disobedient forces around the royal capital.

Then an improved version of the "national wild system" was used to absorb the surrounding wild people and turn the barbarians into summer.

The most difficult thing is to govern the people of this vassal country and the savage tribes and villages around the towns.

After Zhu Di ascended the throne, King Zhu Ju of Zhou and King Zhu Zhen of Chu, who were in their [-]s, also decided to abdicate early and pass the throne to the prince.

King Zhu Chun of Shu and King Zhu Bai of Jin (formerly King of Xiang), both in their fifties, also felt that it was not easy to govern the country after governing the vassal state for more than ten years.

Therefore, during this period, the matters discussed by Zhu Di and his four younger brothers Zhu Zhu, Zhu Zhen, Zhu Chun, and Zhu Bai were more related to the rise and fall of the dynasty.

In summary, what is the next path for the Ming Dynasty to take to ensure that the Zhu family will last forever?
So, on the evening of the first day of March in the first year of Qianxi, Zhu Di took the initiative to send someone to summon Zhu Gaoxu.

This was the first time Zhu Di took the initiative to summon Zhu Gaoxu after he abdicated. Before, Zhu Gaoxu would greet Zhu Di and Xu (formerly Empress Xu) as a routine matter every day.

Because Zhu Di rejected the title of Supreme Emperor, Xu also rejected the title of Queen Mother.

At first, Zhu Gaoxu was a little embarrassed when he greeted his two elders by calling them "Dad, Mom", but after getting used to calling them "Dad, Mom", it didn't matter anymore.

That evening, the family of three sat at the same table for dinner again.

During this period, Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu, father and son, exchanged views on what they had done recently. Mrs. Xu also specifically asked Zhu Gaoxu to pay attention to his self-cultivation and not to stay up all night and waste his efforts on government affairs. After all, the days ahead are still very long, and it will be done step by step. .

After the meal, the father and son moved to the warm tea room next to them and sat cross-legged on the warm couch facing each other.

"Gao Xu, I have often been thinking about a question recently. How should the future of the Ming Dynasty go forward to ensure that the legacy of our old Zhu family can be passed down to thousands of generations?"

Zhu Di finally couldn't hold it in any longer and took the lead in expressing his biggest worry during this time.

"Dad, my son has also been thinking about this issue recently."

Zhu Gaoxu said solemnly: "In our land of China, since the Qin Dynasty merged with the six kingdoms and established a unified dynasty, no dynasty has ever existed for more than 500 years, and no dynasty has ever existed stably for more than 300 years!" "Dad" We all know that at the beginning of the establishment of any dynasty or country, it is always enterprising and vigorous. However, as time goes by, future generations of monarchs and ministers will inevitably become slack, and the government will gradually deteriorate, which will breed corruption and waste armaments. In the end, people's resentment boiled over and they were unable to recover. That is to say, its prosperity was rapid, but its demise was sudden."

"The world has been peaceful for a long time, and the monarchs and ministers began to slack off, which led to corruption. Then public resentment boiled, the people rose up, and finally the dynasty was overthrown."

"Or when encountering foreign invasion, such as the Mongolian Yuan and Nüzhi in the Song Dynasty, or the civil unrest in various places in the late Han Dynasty, in order to defeat the foreign enemies or suppress the civil unrest, the imperial court had to delegate power to recruit troops, and then developed into a warlord separatist regime, and then emptied the imperial court, and finally this The dynasty fell apart.”

Zhu Di nodded and said: "That's good in theory. I've also talked about this with several of your uncles."

He changed the topic and said helplessly: "As for how to break this cycle, your uncles and I couldn't figure it out despite all our brains."

"Dad, my son believes that the fundamental reason for the cycle of dynasties is the cycle of fiscal expenditure management. The reason for the cycle of fiscal expenditures is that the expenditure of the dynasty exceeds the tax revenue of the treasury and cannot support the needs of weathering natural disasters, man-made disasters and foreign invasions. spend."

Zhu Gaoxu thought.

Zhu Di frowned and said, "Tell me more carefully."

Zhu Gaoxu said: "All dynasties have built their country on agriculture, focusing on agriculture and suppressing commerce. It can be seen that the foundation of the country in all dynasties is farming and farmers, but farming has two biggest enemies."

"One is the drought, flood and locust plague caused by climate change. Coupled with the prolonged peace, overpopulation, overpopulation, and land annexation have resulted in people not having enough to eat, and finally revolt."

"The other is the southward invasion of steppe nomads."

"In order to deal with these two biggest enemies, the emperors of the past dynasties had to set up civil and military officials. While collecting taxes from the people to carry out water conservancy and other construction and increase the per-acre yield, they also rectified their military armaments, maintained border defenses, and resisted foreign enemies."

"When the number of people with bureaucratic privileges increases, the taxes received by the court will decrease, which will lead to an empty state treasury."

"After the natural disaster struck, the imperial court was unable to pay for disaster relief food and silver, and the people couldn't survive and revolted."

"In order to suppress the civil unrest, we recruited troops and horses, so military expenditures increased sharply, and the national treasury became increasingly unable to support it."

"In this way, the national treasury cannot make ends meet, and the imperial court has to raise taxes and withhold military pay to maintain balance. This will lead to more and more people, soldiers and the imperial court becoming alienated, and eventually lead to the demise of the dynasty!"

Zhu Di was a smart man. Hearing this, he suddenly said: "You mean, start by filling the national treasury?"

"Yes, in my son's view, the inequality between rich and poor caused by land annexation can be solved by formulating relevant policies, and the reduction in agricultural production caused by climate change can also be solved by increasing crops that are resistant to cold and waterlogging."

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said: "Strengthen the military strength, continuously train troops, and improve the military system, so that we can not be afraid of foreign invasion. We will then formulate new regulations, rectify the administration, and keep pace with the times to weaken the rate of corruption of the privileged class of bureaucracy. Improve the administrative efficiency of the court."

"And all of this requires money. Therefore, my son believes that the Ming Dynasty must change the national policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, and implement a new national policy of paying equal attention to the four people (scholars, farmers, industry and commerce) in parallel!"

Zhu Di was stunned when he heard this, as if he had been shocked by electricity.

Zhu Gaoxu's answer completely exceeded his expectations.

If this is really done, then the future Ming Dynasty will inevitably embark on an unprecedented path!
Whether it is good or bad, no one knows!

(End of this chapter)