Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 149 The emperor’s favor turned into a joke
Yuxikou.

"Emperor Hu Yuan issued an edict to reduce rent."

Zhu Yuanzhang said this to Zhang Cheng after reading Yuan Ting's "Di Bao".

"Not only did he reduce the rent, but he also used internal funds to labor the army. It seems that after executing Tuotuo, Emperor Hu Yuan also began to take the initiative to do something to save the fate of the country."

Zhang Cheng smiled.

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned and said, "This is not a good thing for our rebels."

Zhang Cheng, on the other hand, smiled and said, "Your superiors don't have to worry about this. Although Emperor Hu Yuan did this to win over the people, it was actually just deceiving the confused."

Although Zhang Cheng was a very ordinary person in later generations, social science research in later generations was also very developed, and there were many good articles analyzing many internal affairs reforms in various dynasties and generations.

In order to better deal with the many situations of Shijie in the late Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Cheng read many articles carefully and was able to see the situation behind it more clearly.

Therefore, Zhang Cheng acted quite calmly now.

However, what surprised Zhang Cheng was that Feng Guoyong, who was participating in the political affairs, also smiled slightly at this time, disapproving of Emperor Yuan Shun's move to win the hearts of the people, and also said:

"In short, Emperor Hu Yuan seems to have issued this edict for the people of the world, but in fact it is so that the princes and nobles can annex more fields and make more people bankrupt and become their slaves."

Zhang Cheng asked with a smile.

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang stood up and said: "That's it! This kind of decree is really just to confuse confused people! It is not a good thing for the people."

Guo Tianxu also asked from the sidelines: "Why do you say that?"

"Yes, and Hu Yuan's tax power is basically controlled by the Semu people. Therefore, the Semu people may also increase taxes on the people in the name of the emperor's reduction of rents and interest rates. In this way, the self-cultivated people will have to because The powerful and powerful bureaucrats are more willing to work as tenant servants due to reduced rents and interest rates.”

Zhang Cheng replied to Guo Tianxu here: "Because this reduction in rent and interest is more conducive to the contribution of the small people and the annexation of land, it can be said that Emperor Hu Yuan has no intention of damaging the interests of the powerful bureaucrats."

Feng Guoyong followed.

Zhang Cheng followed.

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a beaming smile: "It seems that if Emperor Hu Yuan really wants to win the hearts of the people, he should not just follow our rebels and do small favors, but he should directly divide the fields of the nobles and reduce them. I know all the official and private lands in the world about my palace expenses!"

"If an emperor and Huimin have to follow the rebels and act coyly, what's the point of the people in the world worshiping this emperor?"

"Sir, as Mr. Zhang said, our rebel army has not conquered the world after all, so we can only reduce rents and interest rates. However, Emperor Hu Yuan still dominates the world, but he only improves step by step behind our rebel army. The key is Still tinkering with improvements in Sosou will not have miraculous results and will only burden the people.”

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded: "Yes, even if the rent and interest are not reduced, the common people are more willing to contribute to the big households and seek shelter to avoid being exploited by officials, let alone reduce the rent and interest. Therefore, as Mr. Zhang said, rent reduction If the interest rate cut is not accompanied by land clearing and tax rate adjustment, it will only be more conducive to mergers.”

"It is true that our rebel army's reduction of rent and interest must be accompanied by the policy of clearing the land and adjusting the tax policy. We must not only reduce the burden on the tenant farmers, but also reduce the burden on the small farmers at the same time, and prevent the reduction of rent and interest from causing self-cultivation. The small people donated to the big households, and after the rent and interest rates were reduced, the taxes and grain of the entire rebel army were also reduced. "

"What's more, Emperor Hu Yuan has loose control over high-ranking officials and nobles. Therefore, I am afraid that not many people will respond positively to the rent reduction and interest rate reduction. Instead, it is more likely that he will take the opportunity to increase taxes and exploit the small farmers who have not contributed to the big households."

Zhu Yuanzhang also started thinking seriously.

then.

Zhang Cheng also frowned and said: "So, what we should be more worried about is whether the people in Jiangnan will be slaughtered and persecuted more because of this. In addition, whether the situation of the rebels already in Jiangnan will be more difficult, and whether they will They will make better responses in this more difficult situation. This will be a test for Wen Zheng and the others, but no matter what, the outcome will be that the fight between them will become more intense and cruel! "

As Zhang Cheng and others said, after Emperor Yuan Shun's edict of "reducing rents and interest rates" was promulgated, the most happy people were the powerful bureaucrats, followed by the people who were still willing to believe in the court. Duoer was very happy after receiving this edict. He looked north and bowed, and specially summoned a group of officials and gentry to say: "My emperor wants to benefit the people, and I hope you will obey the edict and make concessions that will benefit the people."

"The Emperor's kindness is so great, how could we not be willing to do so?"

Shi Di, a wealthy family from Jiangnan who once served as a minister of the Privy Council of the Yuan Dynasty, replied with a smile.

"Yes, we should respond to help the imperial court eliminate the bandit army as soon as possible."

"Our emperor has given us this kind decree. If we disobey it, wouldn't we be disloyal and unfilial?"

Many Jiangnan officials and gentry said this.

Duo'er was very happy because of this.

At this time, Fushou suggested: "Your Majesty, I humbly believe that the most important thing now is to exterminate the demon thieves, and to exterminate the demon thieves, the first priority is money and food. Our elites along the Yangtze River in the south of the Yangtze River are still half-paid, how can we resist the army of thieves?"

"So, it is better to take advantage of the reduction of rents and interest rates, and the people will benefit more, and we in Jiangnan will temporarily increase taxes on the people. I think the people understand the court, not to mention that the people in Jiangnan are already rich, and they can bear a little more than one and a half cents. The tax is not serious, it’s just one less chicken to eat and one less goose to kill.”

Duo'er only nodded: "Yes, it's important to suppress thieves. Let's do it this way. You can just increase taxes as appropriate."

Fushou handed over his hand and said yes, feeling very happy.

As a result, in the Jiangnan area, rent and interest reductions became a voluntary matter for the wealthy officials and gentry, while tax increases became inevitable.

Although the officials, gentry, and officials cooperated in reducing rents and interest rates because they still hoped that the Yuan Dynasty would survive, this also led to more common people becoming slaves.

Simultaneously.

Although the Yuan Dynasty's Zhongshu Province did not increase taxes much, but at the lower level, the tax officials and officials increased the taxes many times, and the key point was that they collected an additional ten years directly.

As a result, many people went bankrupt and gave up their land, either as donations or as refugees.

However, because too many people were bankrupt, many large government and gentry households did not lack tenants and slaves, and the speed of mergers could not keep up with the speed of bankruptcies. Therefore, most of them became refugees, and then became bandits and thieves.

Duo'er only knew that this would be the result, but he had no other choice. He could not choose to support the army by suffering the powerful and bureaucratic methods. Therefore, he only asked Fu Shou and others to directly massacre the landless Han people outside the city. , a strict Baojia and Sitting system was implemented. Anyone with unknown origins could be directly killed by the militia organized by local large households, and then reported to the government afterwards.

Thus.

A large number of people in the south of the Yangtze River died due to Emperor Yuan Shun's edict, and the population dropped sharply.

However, many people began to choose to join the rebels. After all, no matter what the rebels said, they would not kill them because they were refugees.

As a result, Zhu Wenzheng's Zhenjiang City was flooded with a large number of refugees in a short period of time, almost reaching one hundred thousand.

Even when Zhu Wenzheng's troops had to evacuate early because Duo'er only gathered heavy troops to attack Zhenjiang, these people followed him with their young and old.

“With so many people coming to seek refuge, we don’t have enough food to eat!”

"And it's not conducive to our mobile operations."

(End of this chapter)