People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 464: His Royal Highness the Crown Prince may be more capable than the Emperor!
The Minister of Rites looked at the civil servants present with great confusion.

"Why is it that even His Royal Highness the Crown Prince doesn't know such an obvious truth?
Why is it that so many people in the world don’t know such a simple truth?

Even when it comes to the most basic taxes, don’t those businessmen know that we are trying hard to make them pay less tax?
Wouldn't it be good for them to pay less tax?

Why don’t these businessmen understand us?

Do we still want to follow traitors like Chen Han to carry out so-called reforms?

They are stupid, they have something wrong in their brains.”

The Minister of Rites shouted loudly.

He didn't understand Chen Han's reforms and why so many people thought they were good.

He didn't understand why so many people didn't oppose Chen Han's reforms?

Only they, the civil servants, saw the dangers of the reforms.

Even those businessmen whom they once looked down upon did not stand up to oppose after Chen Han levied high taxes on them.

Officials, deeply influenced by Confucianism, generally believe that low taxes must be good for taxpayers.

However, this view is wrong.

The example of the present Ming Dynasty shows that this is not always the case.

Chen Han really wanted to tell them.

Insufficient tax revenue meant that the court could not adequately manage Ming Dynasty's resources.

This would actually be disadvantageous to taxpayers.

Prior to the reforms, throughout the Ming Dynasty, insufficient funds led to the loss of many court functions.

The most obvious shortcoming is that many officials do not have the ability to go to the countryside.

Local administrative management and functions are entirely handed over to autonomous village associations.

The so-called respected elders, headed by the Three Elders, managed the village to the point where power was abused.

A large number of villains colluded with local officials to oppress the people.

But now it’s different. Chen Han has abandoned all such things.

Not only does the Tax Inspection Bureau extend to the village level.

From then on, power could be delegated to the countryside.

The functional management brought about in this way has rescued the people from the chaotic management system.

Although they will face the imperial court directly, it does not mean that they will be treated unfairly in the process.

On the contrary, because of the direct jurisdiction of the imperial court, there was a transparent and fair system for them to pay taxes and perform labor service.

No longer being exploited by certain individuals.

But all these reforms were heresy to the Confucian cultural figures who had come from the old system.

Not only in terms of taxation, but also in the reform of basic functions, for them, it is a change of ancestral laws.

That is not worth promoting.

So the Minister of Rites was hysterical at this time.

As Chen Han's reforms became more and more profound, their fear could be felt even in the war.

Especially officials like the Minister of Rites, who have always relied on their own experience in the imperial examinations to become officials and farmers, are even more afraid that future reforms will impact their interests.

In fact, there are already signs of this happening.

For example, Chen Han's tax reform of equalizing land tax and requiring all officials to pay taxes together has caused huge damage to their interests.

How do these officials and gentry ensure their own interests?

That is, to train a large number of one's own children to become people with achievements, and then to register the land in the hands of these children, so as to avoid taxes.

However, Chen Han made this phenomenon completely transparent.

Let them pay taxes from now on.

After all their land was measured, they paid taxes according to how much land they owned.

It is no longer calculated according to the head tax of the old system.

The head tax was completely absorbed into the land tax.

In the past, whoever had more people in the family had to pay more.

But it’s different now. Whoever has more land has to pay more.

As for the exempted head tax, it was all distributed into the land tax according to the previous tax amount.

In other words, the current land tax not only includes the previous land tax, but also includes most of the population tax.

Poor people who have no land but a large population no longer have to worry about head taxes.

They no longer need to hide their household registration, and all the illegal residents have emerged.

These are human resources.

Where are human resources used?
Now that land tax has been abolished, there is no need for so many people to be nailed to the land.

Then you can go to the city to work.

Previously, the household registration management system restricted population mobility.

Now, due to economic development, under the advice of Chen Han, Lao Zhu has relaxed the household registration management system.

People can leave their hometowns at will and go to other places to make a living.

In fact, the reason why the old man is so confident now.

It is not only because after the economic opening up, ordinary people can now go to the local areas to make a living and no longer rebel because of hunger.

It would not be like when he was begging for food at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and faced the crisis of starvation.

More importantly, after the local troops had more advanced weapons, they no longer had to worry about uprisings by bandits and common people.

Just like now, Prince of Yan Zhu Di led tens of thousands of troops to the Northern Expedition, didn't he defeat the Mongolian Tartars at the cost of sacrificing a hundred people?
Were hundreds of thousands of them captured?
This is all because of the development of economy and technology.

So the weapons in the soldiers' hands became harder.

It is impossible to allow those bandits to have the opportunity to fight against the regular army of the Ming Dynasty.

It was because of these that Zhu Yuanzhang was relieved to release all the common people.

In the eyes of the civil servants, all this was heresy.

The people should be rooted in the land forever.

Then they produced food for these officials to eat and drink.

The common people should be exploited by them forever.

These officials will jump out as long as someone speaks for the people.

They will think that this is heresy and that it is nonsense.

The officials sighed when they saw the Minister of Rites becoming hysterical.

They knew that the Minister of Rites had become unreasonable.

So an official tried to persuade him, "In fact, I think Chen Han's reforms will bring us great changes.

Let alone the increase in salary, haven't you enjoyed the benefits?"

After hearing this, the Minister of Rites became even more hysterical: "Why would I care about his little money?

What I care about is my face;

What I care about is the thousand-year heritage of the Ming Dynasty;
What I care about is the thousand-year-old foundation of Confucianism.

All of this was ruined by that guy.

After the Kong family was exterminated, the only sacredness for us scholars was also destroyed.

Aren’t you angry?”

The civil servants were all very angry, as if their faith had been shattered.

But they knew better that even if there was no Kong family war, the Confucianism in their bones could not be wiped out so easily. Besides, this was not what they were discussing now, and the Minister of Rites was even more hysterical.

That's why he's so angry.

This was because Chen Han’s previous reforms had infringed upon Confucianism.

He was so angry because Chen Han's reforms destroyed the Confucian heritage.

That's why he imagined that everything Chen Han did was heretical.

They all imagine it as an invasion of Confucian culture.

They are all imagined as an infringement on scholars.

Even imagine it as an infringement on yourself.

Therefore, he opposed everything that was getting better because of Chen Han's reforms.

Now it’s just like Zhu Di.

Since Zhu Di led an army with weapons and equipment all provided by Chen Han's reform, he won this great victory, but this made the Minister of Rites very angry.

There was only one thought in his eyes.

Why is Chen Han respected by so many people?
Why are the weapons and equipment made by Chen Han so good?

Why aren’t these things the pride of us civil servants?
Why aren’t these proposed by us civil servants?
Why wasn't I the one who proposed it?

He was envious, jealous and angry.

Seeing the Minister of Rites being so hostile, the others didn't know how to persuade him.

The Minister of Rites clenched his fists and said, "Zhu Di, this bastard, dared to instigate the people to insult the imperial envoy. I must impeach him.

He deceived his superiors and subordinates in Beiping Prefecture, and even the common people were deceived.

It is absolutely impossible that only a hundred people were injured.

I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it.”

He shouted that he didn't believe it and wanted to find evidence that Zhu Di had committed fraud, but he couldn't find any.

So he was very angry.

This is the kind of person who is described as impotent and furious.

Others whispered on the sidelines, "It looks like this guy has gone crazy. We should find another way out and not just follow him down this path.

Various signs have shown that His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan did not commit any fraud and all the data are true.

We will immediately prepare a memorial of our own and submit it to His Majesty and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

If we continue to follow this guy, we will definitely end up in trouble."

The remaining officials are well aware of how strictly His Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and even Chen Han will punish such fraud.

They understood it once they analyzed it.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince must have known that the memorial submitted by His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan did not contain any false information, so he felt confident and bold enough to let these civil servants investigate.

They even analyzed that it might be because they believed in the strength of His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan and the power of weapons and equipment after Chen Han's reforms, so they deliberately needed these civil servants to investigate the same data as reported by Zhu Di, so that it would be more convincing.

From now on, those civil servants will have to shut their mouths and never dare to say anything against reform.

After realizing this, they secretly admired Crown Prince Zhu Biao very much.

"After investigating for these days, I finally truly admire His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. How much confidence does he have to trust His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan so much?

How confident I am that the improvement of weapons and equipment will definitely greatly enhance the strength of our Ming army."

Other officials echoed, "Who says it's not true? Don't underestimate our Crown Prince, who appears to be weak and frail on weekdays.

It seems that he values ​​civil servants very much, but in fact, he is exactly like Your Majesty in heart.

But we all overlooked the ruthlessness of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

He even ignored the decision of His Highness.

We are afraid of His Majesty but we are not very afraid of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

But from what happened today, it can be seen that His Royal Highness is hiding in the dark like a lamp under the night, silently watching all of our actions. He is more skillful than Your Majesty."

Now that these officials have mentioned Crown Prince Zhu Biao, he has a feeling in his heart.

There is even a feeling, as the official said.

Crown Prince Zhu Biao was not the kind of person who would show off. He always seemed to be hiding behind the Emperor.

Therefore, many people did not pay much attention to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

I even felt that the Crown Prince was a little weak.

But now it doesn't seem to be the case. Not only is he not weak, but he is also very shrewd.

He knew clearly that His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan had not committed any fraud, but he did not say anything and did not stand up to defend him, thus preventing the civil servants from having any doubts about His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

On the contrary, I feel that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince also supports this action and I am very confident in it.

So they came to Beiping Prefecture to investigate.

But as the investigation deepened, they found that not only was there no falsification, but the battle losses were actually underreported.

Then they understood.

It must be His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. He had actually learned the news a long time ago and had already grasped intelligence on the battle situation at the front, and he deliberately revealed the flaw to the officials.

Give officials the confidence to investigate.

He just wanted to use the officials' mouths to say that there was no possibility that His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan had committed fraud.

We want to use them to tell the whole world that the findings of our civil servants' investigation are consistent with the reports from the Palace of Prince Yan.

From now on, if anyone suspects that His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan is cheating, we will be sorry for that.

Now the whole world knows that the civil servants have strong objections to reform.

So there is no way they would talk about the benefits of reform.

But this investigation slapped them in the face.

Those civil servants thought that His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan must be cheating, but facts showed that it was not the case at all.

Doing so will greatly enhance the prestige of the military faction.

He is really just picking up a rock and dropping it on his own feet.

The officials had to admire His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's plan.

Because even Chen Han was very angry in the court at that time.

Especially when I heard how angry the civil servants were about the military generals underreporting the casualty ratio.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Chen Han was anxious.

However, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince acted calm and composed, which gave many civil servants the wrong impression.

I thought His Royal Highness the Crown Prince agreed to let his people investigate.

But I didn't expect that he had such thoughts hidden behind it.

I want the civil servants to whitewash His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan. No, no... I can't say whitewash.

I want the civil servants to clarify the matter to His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan.

clever!

Really brilliant.

Let these civil servants who are very supportive of reform and innovation say it themselves that reform and innovation are good.

It is not just a slap in the face. Using opponents to prove that reform is useful greatly increases credibility.

After the civil officials thought about this, they said to the people around them, "The Minister of Rites has gone crazy, we can't be on the same boat with him.

Why not go and see His Royal Highness the Prince of Yan right now and explain the situation to him, at least to get us out of this mud pit."

The other officials all agreed...

(End of this chapter)