Zhu Yuanzhang can see my dreams

Chapter 336 Zhu Di did not understand his father's meaning

Wang Buli thought for a while before speaking:

“Your Majesty, is it possible that the number of goods available for trade among the people is always limited, so the amount available for taxation by the court is also extremely limited?

When it reaches a certain point, it becomes unprofitable for merchants, fewer people are doing business, and commercial taxes have not decreased at all.

The Southern Song Dynasty could only further increase the additional taxes on the two-tax system. Due to its small land area and heavy military pressure, the central government repeatedly levied taxes on local governments.

The local government had to levy various levies and taxes on the people, and the corruption of local officials made the levies even more severe.

As people's livelihood declined, the Southern Song Dynasty was unable to cope with foreign military forces and eventually collapsed.

Just as Emperor Taizong of Tang said, "Cut the thigh and eat the belly, the belly is full and the body dies."

No matter how developed the Song Dynasty's commerce was, it was still an agricultural society and did not have that much economic surplus.

There isn't so much tax to collect from you, the plate is only that big.

The powerful and wealthy eat a lot of food, and the rest is shared by the common people. If the powerful and wealthy do not eat a lot of food, the share left for the common people will be even less.

How could the Southern Song Dynasty maintain its basic foundation and prevent it from collapsing?
Wang Buli's words made Zhu Yuanzhang think deeply. Was this also the reason why the Southern Ming Dynasty did not continue to exist?

Zhu Biao had some understanding because his teachers had taught him before.

After Shang Yang's Reforms, although the dynasty was established with monarchy as its core and land as its support, it did recognize the institutional ideal that the monarch should "rule the world for the people of the world" and "govern the world for the people of the world."

Without this, the regime will have no just support and will not be able to last forever.

It is nothing like the Yuan Dynasty, which was based on plunder from its establishment to its demise.

Genghis Khan's famous saying is: "The world is vast and you have to take it all by yourself. To plunder everything from others is the greatest joy for a man."

Even during the period of Ogedei, when the regime was relatively stable, he still believed that the Han people in the Central Plains were useless and considered killing them all so that grass and trees could grow and the land could be used for grazing.

However, the minister Yelu Chucai advised him to keep the Han people engaged in production and then levy taxes on them. In this way, he could obtain at least 500,000 taels of silver, 80,000 pieces of silk, and 400,000 shi of millet a year, which was far better than plundering or grazing.

As a result, the Mongolian regime began to establish a taxation system in the Central Plains.

A year later, Ogedei happily said to Yelu Chucai, "If it weren't for your suggestion, how could I have gotten so much money?"
The Yuan Dynasty was very different from the traditional politics of China.

The several finance ministers at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty were almost all merchants from Central Asia with no experience in governing the country. Financial officials in various provinces often appointed those who claimed to be able to bring in more revenue.

During the reign of Kublai Khan, Yao Wenlong claimed that he could obtain 2500 million taels of silver in taxes from the Jiangnan region, so he was appointed as the envoy to Jiangxi.

In short, it’s about who can get more money for me.

I will appoint anyone as an official.

The Yuan Dynasty's system of governing the country was just so-so, very rough. Anyway, herding has been managed in a rough manner since ancient times.

The Mongolian emperor did not understand the difference between "sedentary bandits and roaming bandits".

"Sedentary bandits" who rely on collecting taxes can earn more income than "roving bandits" who rely on looting.

Zhu Yuanzhang played a card and looked at Wang Buli and said:

"I learned from the lessons of the Song and Yuan dynasties that if the country's income is based on commercial taxes, it will over-exploit the people. That's why I rejected commercial taxes and focused on collecting land taxes as the main source of income for the Ming Dynasty."

This is also the introverted and conservative "Hongwu-style finance" evaluated by Huang Renyu.

It relieved the Ming Dynasty’s financial pressure in the short term, but as time went by, it became an important cause of the Ming Dynasty’s financial crisis in the middle and late stages.

The Yuan Dynasty's finances were created to plunder the people's wealth, so the most convenient form of tax merchants was used extensively, and the two worst means of plunder, tax farming and excessive issuance of paper money, were particularly used, which ultimately resulted in a lose-lose situation for both officials and the people.

Zhu Yuanzhang also suffered greatly from this, so naturally he could not allow this lesson to be repeated in the Ming Dynasty.

"Your Majesty is right."

Wang Buli agreed and said that it was actually great that Lao Zhu could come up with this idea.

However, there is no such thing as a policy that lasts for a hundred years; ultimately it needs to be constantly adjusted based on actual conditions.

Zhu Yuanzhang was too conservative and believed that the methods he formulated were enough to ensure the long-term operation of the Ming Dynasty.

"I was just thinking about the changes in wealth and poverty. Since the third year of Hongwu, the household registration system for recording people and property has been in place." Zhu Yuanzhang took a sip of tea and said, "So I have always been thinking about establishing a more rigorous population account book based on households.

The name, age, number of people, land, and property of each household were recorded in the account book, which was then compiled and bound by village (110 households).

It is compiled every ten years and, after verification, four copies are sent to the Ministry of Revenue, provincial governments, prefectures, and counties respectively to serve as the basis for levying taxes and grain and assigning corvée labor.

Local authorities must promptly record changes in land ownership.”

"Your Majesty, this is a very good method."

Hu Weiyong quickly praised it, saying that although this model had been implemented in Yingtian Prefecture for many years, there had not been a suitable opportunity to promote it nationwide.

The most important thing is nationality, which is mainly divided into three categories: military, civilians and craftsmen.

“Then we will redefine it starting this year.”

Zhu Yuanzhang was too lazy to say any more words. In fact, he attached great importance to the authenticity of the list, and he was also furious about the empty seal case.

The financial account books that reflect the actual revenue and expenditure situation of local governments can actually be filled in temporarily and stamped before filling in, which means that no matter how the specific handling personnel fill in the books, they have been approved by the competent officials above.

In this way, Zhu Yuanzhang's goal of monitoring lower-level governments and specific officials through financial accounts was obviously not achieved.

However, in practice, if blank seals are not used, the operation of the account book system may be too costly or simply not feasible.

Just like the possibility of re-forging account books in the empty seal case, and the problems of transportation loss when remitting money and grain.

"During the registration process over the years, I have discovered that these cunning people have concealed or omitted information.

Especially the wealthy families in Liangzhe, who feared corvée, often falsely entrusted their land to relatives, neighbors and servants. This was called "iron-foot fraud". Over time, it became a common practice. Village residents deceived the prefecture and county, and the prefecture and county deceived the government, and all kinds of corruption and abuse occurred.

Zhu Yuanzhang became very angry whenever he thought of this incident, and it reminded him of the case of the empty seal from time to time.

They all deserve to die!

If Biao'er had not been kind-hearted, Zhu Yuanzhang would have wanted to kill all those people instead of just a few hundred. Most of the other officials were sent to Fengyang to do hard labor.

It can be said that during the early Ming Dynasty, there were too many scholars and former wealthy families in Fengyang!
It is indeed a gathering place for Confucianists.

Everyone has common topics.

In order to avoid this situation, Zhu Yuanzhang directly took the approach of rewarding the recipient's family who was the first to report to the government. He would give him a Honda as a reward and keep it as his property forever.

Since you want to say farewell, why pretend to give it as a gift? Just tell me and I will give you this piece of land for real.

As long as you pay your taxes on time, the rest will be yours without having to worry about anyone else's feelings.

Zhu Yuanzhang's method was to confine people to the land, thereby realizing the hereditary inheritance of taxation and corvee labor.

At the same time, it also played a certain restrictive role in preventing landlords and wealthy people from concealing their land and evading taxes and labor service.

However, the practice of deceit was still prevalent, and Zhu Yuanzhang's reward method did not have much effect.

"Your Majesty, regarding the supervision system, I suddenly have some ideas."

Hu Weiyong, who was sitting next to the emperor, spoke up.

"Well, go ahead."

Zhu Yuanzhang played a card today, the main purpose of which was to ease Wang Buli's vigilance.

It's a pity that this kid talked so much and kept talking nonsense, but he just wouldn't let down his guard.

Zhu Yuanzhang really didn't know what this kid was guarding against.

“The Censorate is full of investigative officials, and they don’t investigate the common people very much. Now, provincial governments have been set up in various places.

It would be better to set up some censors, of the ninth rank, to investigate the affairs of military settlements and civilians in various places.

In order to prevent someone from deceiving Your Majesty, it is best to set up one open and one hidden, so that you can better understand the people's sentiments."

Zhu Yuanzhang thought Hu Weiyong's suggestion was quite good.

"Well, that makes sense."

Zhu Yuanzhang responded that the students of the Imperial Academy who were sent to the north for training also had the same function.

The ninth rank official position is not high, not as high as that of a local county magistrate.

However, being able to report what he had found and investigated directly to the emperor also had a bit of the meaning of being an imperial envoy.

In the seventh year of Hongwu, the Ministry of Revenue counted that more than 920,000 hectares of wasteland had been reclaimed across the Ming Dynasty, but this year it was revealed by an official from the Ministry of Works.

After Yu Wenming went down to direct the road construction, he took a look at the surrounding fields. It turned out that the land was vast and sparsely populated, and the land that could be reclaimed was limited. Most of the local officials ordered the village heads to increase the number of acres reported in order to increase their own political achievements.

False reporting of political achievements was inevitable in feudal dynasties.

As long as I get promoted, why should I care whether the successor officials can collect taxes according to the land register?

"It's really something that needs to be studied carefully."

Zhu Yuanzhang asked again, "Buli, has the White Lotus murderer been caught?"

Wang Buli thought that he had finally come back to the subject after all the talk, so he said:

"Not yet. This person is very cunning."

"Do you need help?"

"With your majesty's help, we can quickly catch the murderer, and this will also help to calm people's hearts."

Wang Buli did not refuse Zhu Yuanzhang's intention to use the censor. Some places were not easy for them, the yamen runners, to find, especially the paving of the censor, Zhu Yuanzhang was still very careful.

"it is good."

Zhu Yuanzhang sent someone to call Mao Xiang over and ordered him to secretly assist Wang Buli.

If you find any clues, report them directly to the Prince Consort without asking him for permission first.

Mao Xiang responded quickly.

Wang Buli also took the opportunity to flatter the emperor, saying that the emperor was taking care of the common people and that the murderer would be punished by being cut into pieces.

After Zhu Yuanzhang finished doing all these things, he no longer had the heart to play mahjong and started to drive people out.

He has to continue to be busy with government affairs.

Zhu Di and Wang Buli walked away together. After leaving the hall, Wang Buli said politely:
"Commander Mao, I will be on duty at the Jiangning County Office for the next few days until the murderer is caught. If you have any clues, please report them to me."

In front of Wang Buli, Mao Xiang naturally did not dare to be arrogant.

He knew a lot about Wang Buli, and he understood why His Majesty valued this prince consort so much.

That was the emperor's dream of having wise ministers.

Now it seems that Wang Buli is indeed a wise minister.

"Don't worry, my Lord. I will send someone to inform you as soon as I have any news."

"Thank you."

Mao Xiang watched Wang Buli and the fourth prince walk out together, standing aside in a daze.

Someone like Wang Buli is so polite, not at all cocky, and highly favored by the emperor, so everyone subconsciously wants to get close to him.

Anyway, there is no harm in getting to know him and becoming friends with him.

We all serve the emperor, and everyone knows that serving the emperor is like serving a tiger.

Many friends, many ways.

It would be terrible if you accidentally made the emperor angry and there was no one to plead for you.

Neither Wang Buli nor Zhu Di said anything, as there were many spies in the palace.

Plus, there are Mao Xiang’s people here.

He walked out of the palace only after he had said hello to Ping An who was guarding the city.

"Brother-in-law."

Walking on Hongwu Street, Zhu Di saw that there were few people and no one was approaching, so he said, "I have something to ask you."

"ask."

Wang Buli did not stop. He planned to go back to the princess's mansion first and then return to the yamen when it got dark.

"But my father didn't let me ask you."

"Then don't say anything, so as not to be exposed."

Wang Buli felt that the current Zhu Di was a straightforward person and did not have any inappropriate thoughts, so he could not withstand the pressure and questioning from his father.

"But if I don't ask, I won't be able to sleep."

Zhu Di looked bitter. Today's events were too legendary for him to believe.

As his military advisor, Zhu Di felt it was normal to ask him questions.

But the words of his father and his good elder brother made him extremely fearful.

"You will be even more sleepless if you ask. It is better to wait until you go to Peking to be a vassal, so that someone will not be watching you in the palace and you will talk in your sleep."

Zhu Di was stunned. Seeing that Wang Buli did not stop, he did not dare to stop either.

He quickly lowered his voice and said, "Brother-in-law, I think you are not kind enough to take me with you when you have something good to do."

“Oh.” Wang Buli didn’t even look at him: “Old Four, don’t you know that secrecy leads to success, words lead to failure, success comes from thinking, and planning comes from deep thought?
You don't like to use your brain except in military matters. If I tell you, can you control your mouth and mind and not be tricked by others?

It would be better for me to do it quietly and then tell you everything when the time is right."

Zhu Di had no room for rebuttal after hearing Wang Buli's words.

At present, Zhu Di is still too young and his considerations are even more incomplete.

"But."

"Don't say but." Wang Buli suddenly stopped and stared at him and said, "Do you think I will hurt you?"

"That won't happen!"

Zhu Di blurted out.

"That's it." Wang Buli shook his sleeves and continued walking forward: "We have prepared dinner at home, do you want to go with us or go home?"

"Hey, I haven't seen my sister for a long time. Let's eat together next time."

Zhu Di felt that if he didn't speak up for Wang Buli, he might be kicked to Fengyang to train troops.

Not only Wang Buli was worried that he didn't keep his mouth shut, but his father and elder brother were also worried that he didn't keep his mouth shut.

Wang Buli felt that Zhu Yuanzhang told Zhu Di something, but he didn't know what it was.

After all, now is not a suitable time to ask anything.

Everyone should calm down first and then communicate with Zhu Di.

To prevent Zhu Di from revealing his cards first.

In this kind of testing game, Wang Buli felt that he was able to remain calm.

Zhu Di also needed to digest what he had seen and heard today, but he was thinking about whether he should tell Xu Miaoyun about it after returning home.

I just don't know where to say it.

So the two went their separate ways.

Zhu Di returned to his home.

On the contrary, Zhu Yuanzhang had nothing to worry about. He was not afraid that the fourth brother would tell Wang Buli about the secret.

I was afraid that the fourth brother would really do as he wished and not give Wang Bu any room for error.

As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang's attempt to find out more information was in vain.

Who says that what the emperor says is the same as what he thinks in his heart?

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang also told Wang Buli not to fight with the Ryukyu envoys so as not to cause disputes between the two countries.

However, after Wang Buli killed the envoy in the street, Zhu Yuanzhang did not show any anger at all. Instead, he sent ships to Ryukyu for serious negotiations.

What kind of crappy envoy did you send? How dare you kill people indiscriminately in the territory of my Ming Dynasty? If you dare to do that again, we will send soldiers to destroy you immediately.

The Ryukyu King was so frightened that he immediately knelt down to apologize and spoke good words to the Ming envoy. He almost killed the Queen's entire family to calm the envoy.

After all, the small country of Ryukyu currently consists of three countries.

The other two countries are eager to use the power of the Ming Dynasty to expand their territories.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang was handling government affairs, he still felt that the fourth brother did not understand his true meaning, and he couldn't help but sigh.

"Dad, are you dissatisfied with the discussion at the card table just now?"

Zhu Biao naturally noticed his father's sigh.

Because when handling government affairs, Zhu Biao rarely found his father sighing.

The method just now is very good, which shows that playing mahjong can help with thinking.

Otherwise, your brain will become a mess from dealing with government affairs all the time.

"It's not that I'm dissatisfied, but that I'm too satisfied." Zhu Yuanzhang naturally didn't want to easily tell his son what he was thinking, so he just sighed:
"The policies I formulated were not wrong. The problems that occurred were caused by the people who implemented them. They did not follow my instructions and instead used my name to seek benefits for themselves.

I have to bear all the blame, and they have taken all the benefits. How can I not be angry?"

However, governing the world is different from conquering the world, and he still needs many civil servants to help him govern the Ming Dynasty.

It would be much better if governing the world was as easy as conquering it. Wouldn't it be enough to just kill the enemies?
"Dad, talents need to be cultivated slowly."

Zhu Biao didn't know how to comfort his father. There were still too few scholars who were loyal to the Ming Dynasty.

What happened in the Six Dynasties was just a private plan.

Everyone did this, and Zhu Biao had no good ideas about how to cultivate officials loyal to the Ming Dynasty.

Especially when he saw what the officials of the future Ming Dynasty would do, he was extremely annoyed, but after being annoyed, he had no practical solution.

The end result is only more annoyance.

"nourish?"

Zhu Yuanzhang pinched his beard and shook his head. How could it be easier said than done?
(End of this chapter)