Follow Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the country

Chapter 272 Zhu Yuanzhang was puzzled that the Qing Dynasty actually lost to Japan!

"There are many explanations as to why his population is larger than that of the Ming Dynasty you founded. Some make you feel more uncomfortable, while others make you feel much better."

"Which version do you want to hear first?"

Zhang Cheng asked about Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang took a deep breath and sat on the chair:
"Listen to what makes us more uncomfortable first!"

"Well!"

"That is, his alien regime does seem to treat the people more as individuals. Not to mention that many reforms that are beneficial to the people are implemented more thoroughly, such as sharing the land with the family. His disaster relief efforts alone are more powerful than your Zhu family's. Ming Dynasty’s disaster relief efforts are great!”

"I'll give you some data."

As Zhang Cheng said this, he brought a map of disaster relief data from the Ming and Qing Dynasties to Zhu Yuanzhang not long after:

"Look, your Ming Dynasty rarely provides more than one hundred thousand taels of disaster relief silver and more than one hundred thousand dan of disaster relief grains every time it provides disaster relief."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhang Cheng: "If this statement is correct, then it means that we indulge our own family members too much, which is why the people of the world have a bad life?"

"Are you telling the truth?!"

Zhu Yuanzhang twirled his forehead: "Then please ask Mr. Zhang to give us an explanation that will make it less uncomfortable for us."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhang Cheng in astonishment.

"In addition, you yourself also specifically issued an order to record all the crimes your children and grandchildren committed against the people, saying it was to alert your children and grandchildren."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the data, rubbed his temples, and looked at Zhang Cheng:

"But they don't seem to be alerted by this. Instead, it seems that you are condoning them and think it is okay to abuse the people. Instead, you really regard the people as your Zhu family's slaves and you can treat them how you want."

"if not."

Zhu Yuanzhang read it while reading it and said: "This is the preface style that Zhu Yuanzhang likes."

After Zhang Cheng said this, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately stood up and looked at Zhang Cheng with blood-red eyes.

Zhang Cheng asked Zhu Yuanzhang to wait a moment, and then handed Zhu Yuanzhang the "Imperial Records".

"How dare our descendants treat our compatriots any worse than outsiders treat our compatriots?"

"I can show you historical records."

then.

"The most fearful thing is that his Qianlong Dynasty always used millions of taels of silver for disaster relief at a time, and food was not included. In his last period alone, more than 100,000 taels of silver were used for disaster relief every year! So, from this point of view, , He really treats the people as human beings.”

"Do the people hate our descendants so much?"

"You can say that."

"If your descendants are kind to their compatriots, there won't be any princes among your descendants who will be cooked and eaten by the rebellious people, or thrown into the river and drowned alive."

Zhang Cheng nodded.

"But in his Qing Dynasty, he spent more than one million taels of silver and one million stone grains on many occasions for disaster relief!"

"I estimate that the number of people in ancient times should be tens of thousands. From the Yellow Emperor to the states of Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, and Zhou, under Yao and Shun the state was complete, but after Yu it was gradually reduced, and in the Zhou Dynasty there were very few. Therefore Why are there so many people who are living in obedience to God’s will, who block the king’s orders and serve the people diligently, who are ignorant, extravagant and insatiable..."

"Okay."

"Another way of saying it is that the Qing Dynasty did not regard the people as human beings more than your Ming Dynasty, but because the global production of gold, silver and food crops has increased significantly, the cost of rehabilitating the people has dropped a lot. Naturally, it can be more Generous relief for the poor.”

"You know this, the yield of sweet potatoes and potatoes is terrible."

"So it's easy for them to ensure that people don't starve to death. It's even easier to spend millions of taels of silver to provide relief through work. In the Qing Dynasty, there was already a lot of silver."

"In fact, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, there was a large inflow of overseas silver."

"But more importantly, the Qing Dynasty was more successful and more ruthless in collecting taxes from local officials, gentry, and wealthy people. For example, it set up its own imperial merchants, monopolized the benefits of border trade and maritime trade, and controlled a large amount of silver flowing into the country from overseas. into the hands of the emperor."

"He is also more cruel to his own royal nobles. Even the emperor's son cannot be born with a prince title. Other meritorious nobles, except the Iron Hat King, have to fight for him. They can only be promoted to titles after performing meritorious deeds."

"In this way, the expenses of the clan and the nobles will be reduced a lot."

"So, it was easy for their emperor to just randomly spend millions to provide disaster relief when he was at his peak."

"And your Ming Dynasty is a new dynasty established on the basis of Hu Yuan's concessions to the world's officials, merchants, and wealthy people, and even exempted them from military service. If you don't compromise, don't exempt them from service, don't give up profits, and don't give hereditary inheritance, will people be willing to establish the Ming Dynasty? ?”

"This means that the wealth controlled by your Ming Dynasty court is not as much as the wealth controlled by the Qing Dynasty court."

After Zhang Cheng said this, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but said: "So, Hu Yuan has a big responsibility in this?"

"That is!"

"From lenient governance to strict governance and strengthening centralization of power cannot be accomplished in one or two generations."

"The system regression caused by Hu Yuan cannot be solved in one day."

"What's more, after you, your descendants have been lazy. It would be good if they could patch the system you left behind. What's worse, they use the ancestral system you established as a banner to refuse to repair and allow annexation. Intensified, the only way to deal with the refugees is to brutally kill them!”

Zhang Cheng took a sip of tea and then looked at Zhu Yuanzhang: "Anyway, it depends on what you think. Anyway, this is the result."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded after hearing this: "No wonder Mr. Zhang doesn't want us to build another family world! From this point of view, this family world is indeed only conducive to foreigners enslaving us Han people and then building a powerful empire on our Han people's territory."

"Yes."

"However, don't be too sad when you come to power. Although your Ming Dynasty's population and territory are not as good as those of the Qing Dynasty, the idea of ​​resisting the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty has always been very strong throughout the Qing Dynasty."

Zhang Cheng smiled and comforted Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked in disbelief: "How is this possible!" "In our opinion, according to what you Mr. Zhang said, our Ming Dynasty must be hated by the Han people all over the world. As you said, there are already rebellious people who hate us. We have to cook the Zhu family!”

"Because the gentry have always missed the Ming Dynasty!"

"So the idea of ​​opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty has always existed."

"After all, they were exempted from military service in the Ming Dynasty. Especially after you, the gentry's life became easier and easier. The emperor could scold him, steal taxes and grain, and be greedy for money without committing a capital crime."

“Even when a high-ranking official named Ye Xianggao came to power, he carried out reforms to expand the tax-free land for the gentry to 10,000 acres.”

When Zhang Cheng said this, Zhu Yuanzhang completely broke his guard and stood up by clapping the table:

"Bastard!"

"When that man named Ye was in power, which of our bastard descendants was the emperor?!"

"If we expand the tax-free land to 10,000 acres, even if he becomes the emperor, he will be willing to do so!"

"Did this person named Ye set him up?"

"no!"

"This man named Ye is actually a wise minister."

Zhang Cheng replied.

Zhu Yuanzhang was even more puzzled: "Is this a virtuous minister?"

Zhang Cheng nodded: "Yes."

"Because at that time, the wealthy gentry who secretly did not pay taxes had increased their untaxed hidden land to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of acres. Ye Xianggao did this first in order to gain the support of bureaucrats from middle and lower class landlords for his reform and clearing of land. As a show of favor, he expanded the tax-free land to 10,000 acres to win over some gentry to support his reforms. "

"You should understand that if he wants to reform as a minister, he also needs to win over a group of bureaucrats to form the base."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded: "That's true, but we didn't expect that when he was in power, tax evasion and land annexation by large households had reached such a terrible level. If he wanted to reform, he had to first increase the tax-free land to 10,000 acres."

"That is!"

"Even such moderate reforms have failed!"

Zhang Cheng said.

Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked after hearing this: "What? Is it because our descendants are useless, or is it because the people's hearts at that time were already very bad?"

"All!"

"The emperor at that time was indeed very kind to Confucian scholars!"

"In addition, in the Ming Dynasty after you, the gentry had other gray privileges. For example, they could arbitrarily capture people as slaves when they went out. A scholar could capture people from a village to cook and carry luggage for him. Those who did not obey could directly Beat to death."

"Do you think such a Ming Dynasty is worthy of their gentry's nostalgia and their efforts to restore it?"

Zhang Cheng asked.

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang sneered: "Who wants the gentry to miss our Ming Dynasty! If the people miss our Ming Dynasty, we will still feel happy."

"It's not impossible for people to miss the Ming Dynasty."

Zhang Cheng said with a smile.

"is it?"

Zhu Yuanzhang immediately looked at Zhang Cheng and his expression became much better.

"Yes! But it didn't start to appear until the end of the Qing Dynasty."

Zhang Cheng replied.

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help frowning and asked: "Why do we have to wait until after the end of the Qing Dynasty?"

Zhang Cheng replied with a smile: "At that time, the whole of China was affected by the invasion of bigger foreign enemies, especially when the Japanese pirates next door were able to cut off a large area of ​​territory from us and take a lot of money, and even almost wiped out our entire country later. After the Han Dynasty, many Han people began to pay more and more attention to the difference between Hua and Yi, which naturally made many ordinary people who began to learn some history miss the Ming Dynasty. "

"Japanese pirates can also take away a large area of ​​our territory and take a lot of money?"

"Almost destroyed me, China?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was very good at grasping key information, so he immediately sensed information that he felt was important from Zhang Cheng's words.

Zhang Cheng smiled and asked, "Do you think it's incredible?"

"If this hadn't come from your mouth, Mr. Zhang."

"We will think that the person who said this is a madman!"

Zhu Yuanzhang said calmly.

"But it's true."

"You wait."

As Zhang Cheng spoke, he gave Zhu Yuanzhang the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" and relevant historical materials of the Anti-Japanese War.

After seeing these historical materials, Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a long time, and then looked at Zhang Cheng:
"how so?!"

"Didn't the Qing Dynasty have a larger population and a wider territory than the Zhu family of the Ming Dynasty? How could they suffer such a big loss at the hands of Japanese pirates?"

Zhu Yuanzhang became increasingly puzzled.

(End of this chapter)