Ming Dynasty: A hundred-year-old immortal cultivator, Zhu Yuanzhang’s biological father

The person responsible for collecting land taxes from the common people was the clerk of the county government. The clerk was an official outside the government, not an official on the roster of the Ministry of Personnel. His salary was paid by the county magistrate himself.

The clerk of the county government was holding a book in his hand and calling out the names of the people in a loud voice. Every time a citizen was called, the citizen had to carry food over.

Yes, before the tax system was completely unified, the basic tax in the Ming Dynasty was still grain, which was not converted into silver.

Zhu Xiongying actually knew about tax collection from historical documents, but it was the first time he actually saw ordinary people paying taxes.

He couldn't help but be curious.

Zhu Yuanzhang stood outside, with his hands behind his back, motioning Zhu Xiongying to continue watching.

"Take a good look at the Ming Dynasty's fatigue and illness."

Zhu Xiongying looked in the direction where he saw the clerk of the county government signaling the clerk to bring up a mouthful of Dendrobium.

Hu is a container. Before the Tang Dynasty, Hu was a common name for stone among the people.

The middle part of the Dendrobium is hollowed out, and the people who were reminded of the name would carry up grain and pour it into the Dendrobium, so that the government could inspect the quality of the grain.

When the grain was poured onto Shihu, a minor official rubbed his hands together in anticipation, then, with his face flushed red, he ran up from dozens of steps behind and kicked Shihu.

The dendrobium shook, and a lot of grain fell to the ground.

The people felt heartbroken when they saw this.

Zhu Xiongying was shocked: "What are they doing?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Lin Jian kicking the bucket."

The fallen grain belonged to the government and was considered a loss during transportation. Common people were not allowed to pick it up and could only watch with heartache.

Zhu Xiongying looked a little angry: "Isn't this just tricking the people into paying more grain taxes?"

Zhu Yuanzhang looked a little entangled, and sighed: "I once reviewed a memorial from Shandong. The local official in Linyi, Shandong, a seventh-rank county magistrate, had his sedan bearer be his brother-in-law and nephew, and his wife and sister-in-law as the cooks.

The official robes were all patched, and the old mother had to go up the mountain to dig wild vegetables!"

"The government has a low salary and doesn't have enough expenses to hire too many petty officials, so they can only make some money this way... Alas, the people are the ones who suffer in the end."

The old man had a feeling of helpless fatigue. Although he knew that this was exploiting the common people, the government also needed to eat. Whether it was the fire consumption after melting the silver or this kind of punishment, it was all tacitly approved by Zhu Yuanzhang.

While Zhu Yuanzhang felt sorry for the common people, he could not destabilize the local government.

This kind of tangled issue has always troubled Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Is there any way to prevent this kind of thing? You are smart, think about it for your grandfather when you have time, and let's do something practical for the people together."

It turns out that the old man brought me here for this purpose.

Zhu Xiongying glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang, and the old man's face was full of heartache and worry.

The old man's concern for the people is truly engraved in his bones. His childhood experiences have made him closest to the people, and he truly treats the people as his own children.

Seeing the common people suffer, the old man felt sadder than anyone else.

Zhu Xiongying felt something deeply. He had read historical materials before and knew that farmers today were an exploited class, but he didn't feel much at that time.

When he saw the people being exploited, Zhu Huai was still shocked.

There are endless ways in which the common people are exploited. First it was the gentry, and now it is the government. In the end, it is only the common people at the bottom who suffer.

at the same time.

At this time, brothers Xu Yingxu and Xu Zengshou were walking on a country path.

Just now, there was a problem with the grain delivery of their tenant farmers, and the two brothers had nothing to do, so they went to deal with the dispute. They had just finished and were preparing to go back.

“Second brother!”

Xu Zengshou suddenly stopped, and pulled Xu Yingxu to hide behind a big willow tree, causing Xu Yingxu to stagger.

"Are you fucking sick? Are you on guard against thieves?" Xu Yingxu was a little unhappy.

Xu Zengshou pointed at the crowd in front of him and said tremblingly: "Second brother, you, you look carefully, am I blind? That, is it, is it the guy surnamed Zhu?"

"So what if I met him!" Xu Yingxu cursed.

"Hush! Second brother, please help me with some advice. Is the old man next to Zhu Huai the emperor of our Ming Dynasty?"

It was spring, the sun was shining, and the scenery in the countryside was beautiful.

Behind a willow tree as thick as a man, Xu Zengshou stared ahead with his eyes wide open in disbelief.

Xu Yingxu was a little curious and looked in the direction Xu Zengshou pointed.

The profiles of an old man and a young man suddenly came into view.

The young man looked very familiar. It was Zhu Xiongying. How could Xu Yingxu not know him?

Look at the old man again.

Swish!
Xu Yingxu's cheeks stiffened slightly, and he rubbed his eyes like Xu Zengshou did.

next moment.

Then he exclaimed: "That, that, isn't that our old emperor?"

Xu Zengshou stood there in a daze, muttering, "I said, I said this Mr. Zhu seemed very familiar to me before. Second brother, do you still remember fishing by the Yongding River?"

hiss!
Xu Yingxu's eyes suddenly widened, and his lips trembled as he said, "Remember, remember!"

Last winter, beside the Yongding River, the old man and Duke Xin were fishing, with a man and a woman, as well as the abbot of Tianyun Temple, next to them.

At that time, the two brothers didn't feel at ease going up, thinking that the old man was out fishing to relax, and didn't pay much attention to the boy and girl beside the old man.

Now he understood everything!
No wonder I felt a sense of familiarity when I first met Zhu Xiongying!

Aren't these two men and women the young man and girl who were with the old man by the Yongding River?
Xu Yingxu trembled slightly and asked incredulously: "Why is Mr. Zhu standing with the old man?"

Xu Zengshou was even more stunned, and he pointed to the front and said tremblingly: "He, he even patted the old man on the shoulder?"

not far away,
Zhu Xiongying was patting the old man on the shoulder, serving him tea, and motioning Zhu Yuanzhang to drink the tea.

"Edi Niang!"

Xu Zengshou was completely confused.

Who is next to Zhu Xiongying?
The Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the ruthless killer, just recently wiped out the entire family of Wen Yuzhang, and just recently massacred the entire family of Zheng Yong!
In the eyes of his ministers, and even any bureaucrats, the old man is definitely a murderous and tyrannical monarch!
Even the old man's own son was probably afraid of him, right? Who would dare to do such an outrageous thing to Zhu Yuanzhang?
But now, Zhu Xiongying seems to be used to it!
"Mr. Zhu, who is this?"

Xu Zengshou asked blankly.

Xu Yingxu said: "How should I know... Uh, let's go back and tell big brother!"

The two brothers couldn't wait to lift their robes and leave.

At this time, Zhu Xiongying obviously did not notice the Xu brothers not far away.

He was thinking about what the old man said. If you want to completely abolish the depreciation of private tax revenue, it is actually simple. Just like Jiaozhi, you can directly carry out a one-whip reform, without distinguishing between levies and taxes, and without requiring payment in kind.

In addition to the physical offerings to the palace from various places, taxes were collected uniformly in silver.

But it may be applicable in Jiaozhi, but it is not practical when looking at the entire Ming Dynasty.

If he had just traveled through time, and if the old man had not shown him the sufferings of the people and the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, he would have been able to talk about it eloquently and could have mentioned Zhang Juzheng's "One Whip Reform" without any hesitation.

Anyway, the policy must be good.

But the problem is, after experiencing so much, Zhu Xiongying also saw clearly the current situation of the Ming Dynasty.

Good policies may not necessarily conform to the current national conditions.

There is no doubt that the people are easy to govern. If the court has a policy, they will definitely implement it.

But the difficulty lies in the gentry class and bureaucratic class that have been formed over thousands of years.

These deep-rooted problems cannot be changed overnight. Even Zhu Yuanzhang did not have the ability to snatch food from the tiger's mouth.

"Grandpa, can you think about this from a different angle?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said casually: "Tell us what you think, whether it is good or bad, practical or not, let us listen to it."

"Just speak boldly."

Zhu Xiongying was silent for a moment, organized his words, and then said: "The reason for the Linjian kicking the Hu first is that the local government is short of money, right?"

The old man nodded: "Yes."

Zhu Xiongying continued, "Local county offices need money to pay for the salaries of officials outside the government. The salary of a county magistrate is no more than 200 dan per year. All taxes collected by the county office need to be sent to the national treasury, and then the Ministry of Revenue will make a budget and distribute it to the various provincial governments. The provincial governments will then distribute it to the local county offices."

"In short, the county government does not have a budget for the salaries of non-official officials. This money must be completely self-sufficient."

"So they needed to find a way to reasonably deduct a portion of the tax revenue to maintain the basic expenses of the county government, and thus the Linjiantihu came into being. This money was also a guarantee for them to allocate to the officials outside the county."

"Then from another perspective, if the county government does not need to deprive the people of grain tax revenue, and it is enough to pay the salaries of officials outside the county, does that mean that it does not need to take food from the people?"

Zhu Yuanzhang listened very carefully, smacked his lips and said: "That's true, but in addition to collecting taxes, what else can the county government do to increase revenue?"

To put it bluntly, the income of the imperial court and even the local governments can be summed up in four words: "increase revenue and reduce expenditure."

It is difficult to find a policy of increasing revenue that is consistent with the local government's policy based on the current situation in the Ming Dynasty.

This was even more difficult because Emperor Hongwu was suppressing commerce and preventing government involvement in commerce.

To take a step back, even if there are local commercial taxes, it is the job of the local taxation office.

The Taxation Bureau was under the jurisdiction of the imperial court and had no connection with local governments, and the money would not go into the pockets of local governments.

Zhu Xiongying looked at Zhu Yuanzhang, seeming to want to say something but stopping himself.

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said, "If you have something to say, just say it! We know that you are definitely thinking of doing something bad in business, right?"

Zhu Xiongying scratched his head and replied: "Yes, and no."

"All dynasties have collected taxes at the city gates and on the canals. But this way, not to mention the officials enriching themselves, even merchants have many ways to evade taxes. In the end, often only 10% of the 100% tax can be handed over to the state."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Xiongying with a cunning look, just waiting to see what the brat could come up with!
Zhu Xiongying continued: "Don't we have a stamp post office in Ming Dynasty?"

"The income of post stations in various places is considerable now, and the government cannot be responsible for all the delivery work."

"Many goods and mails are actually transported by merchants."

Although it may be suspected of being pro-business, it is insignificant compared to the interests of the people!
Zhu Yuanzhang sometimes frowned and sometimes smiled.

Zhu Xiongying smiled. Although he could not immediately and directly change the commercial status quo of the Ming Dynasty, this subtle influence would sooner or later change the thinking of the court officials.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not say anything immediately, but just nodded calmly: "We think this is feasible, but it still needs the consideration of all officials."

After he finished speaking, the old man smiled broadly and was in a particularly good mood. He looked at Zhu Xiongying and said, "In any case, you have made contributions to our Ming Dynasty again."

"Tell me, how do you want us to reward you?"

Zhu Xiongying scratched his head: "It's not even a plan yet, and it may not be implemented. I'll say what I want when it really benefits the country and the people. If I say it now and the policy doesn't work in the end, wouldn't that be a joke?"

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed and said, "You are a very thoughtful person. Fine! Let's talk about it when we get back!"

Zhu Xiongying and Zhu Yuanzhang sat on the shallow grass on the edge of the field.

Zhu Yuanzhang silently took note of Zhu Xiongying's suggestion.

He looked at Zhu Xiongying with some satisfaction.

This little guy,

When I was this age, I wasn't that powerful.

The old man's eyes were filled with relief.

Then the old man pointed ahead with some emotion and said, "Grandson, do you know? When our rebel army first rushed into Yingtian City, this place was a wasteland with weeds everywhere. There was no such thing as the vast fields of crops that we have now."

"This is Jiangnan! This is such a complex Jiangnan, with the nine canals of the Yangtze River behind it, the most developed place for river and land transportation, and the place with the highest grain harvest."

"But the Yuan court made a mess of this place. The people were displaced and no one wanted to farm. There was wasteland everywhere."

"The Yuan people divided people into high and low classes. The Mongols were divided into different classes, and the Han people were placed on the same level as slaves! Haha, we are all fucking human beings, so what is the difference between high and low?"

"Yes, we in the Ming Dynasty also have classes, but no powerful person has ever dared to harm the people under our noses!"

"But the Mongols are different. Han people can be killed at will in front of the Mongols, and they won't be held accountable."

"Our nation has inherited thousands of years of civilization. Any ruler who fails to live up to the Han people will perish. This has been proven by various dynasties for thousands of years. There is a saying that goes..."

Zhu Xiongying replied: "Those who are righteous have many supporters, while those who are unrighteous have few supporters."

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "Yes, this is the only thing Old Meng said in his life!"

Zhu Xiongying was speechless.

The old man has been with the emperor for a long time. Zhu Huai knows that the current emperor Zhu Yuanzhang hates Mencius the most, but he didn't expect that the old man also has no feelings towards Mencius.

He looked at Zhu Xiongying meaningfully: "The people are the root of our Ming Dynasty. Governing the country, in the final analysis, is about governing the people."

"Governing the people is a science. I am old now and I don't know how long I can govern. Seeing that you are becoming more and more capable, I feel relieved."

Zhu Xiongying hurriedly said: "Grandpa, what are you talking about? You can still live for a long time, you are not old at all!"

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "Don't try to make me happy. I can feel that my body is getting worse day by day, and I am getting more and more sleepy now."

"I can feel that I am almost at the end of my rope. I have five or six years left at most."

Zhu Yuanzhang was never afraid of life and death.

(End of this chapter)