Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Aibu stayed in Kaifeng and kept asking for various information about the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, he was often criticized, and Ming officials obtained a lot of information.

The information obtained by both parties is a bit distorted...

For example, Abu always praises Seljuk, saying that everything in the empire is very beautiful, and the enemies of the empire are all bad guys!

"The country to the west of us is called Rome, and it always attracts stupid fanatical pagans. Those pagans are cruel and murderous. In the early years, they took advantage of the division of the empire to rob and massacre our civilians everywhere. They held high the cross flag and invaded our homeland again and again. .Those happy people were often killed by pagans because they were loyal to the Sultan..."

"The great Seljuk Sultan appointed Zanji as Aita Bek. When I left, Zanji had retaken Aleppo and driven out the cruel and stupid infidels there..."

After getting this information, Ju Ming could only make some simple guesses.

He said to his father: "The Byzantine Empire and the Crusaders have joined forces to continuously invade and occupy Seljuk territory, and they are fighting back and forth with the Seljuqs."

In fact, there were a large number of sultanates within the Seljuk Empire.

The most successful period of the Crusaders' progress coincided with the Seljuk Civil War.

Now, Sanjar has formally unified the empire and has launched a counterattack against the Crusaders.

The Zanji mentioned by Abu was once just a Turkic slave. Because of his bravery and good fighting skills, he was taken in by the former Sultan, and he also learned cultural knowledge. Then he served as the prince's teacher, and finally grew up to be the governor step by step.

Three years earlier, Sultan Sanjar had given him three cities, two of which were in the hands of the Crusaders.

Zanji led the army to give it a heavy beating, recaptured his own city, and continued to expand. This year he even began to counterattack Antioch. (When this man died, his territory already covered most of Syria and all of Mesopotamia, and he started a dynasty by violently defeating the Crusaders.)

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Byzantium and the Crusaders are too far away from us after all. No matter how lively the fight is, it has nothing to do with China."

"There are also some that are related to our interests."

Ju Ming said: "Based on the information provided by the Byzantine envoys, maritime merchants from various countries, and the Ming Dynasty merchants, we can draw a conclusion. That is, the maritime trade between the East and the West is currently in the hands of two countries. The Arab and Persian merchant ships want to If you want to trade with China, you must pay heavy taxes to these two countries!"

"Which two countries?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Ju Ming said: "One is the Chola dynasty in India, and the Srivijaya dynasty in Southeast Asia. These two countries started fighting naval wars a hundred years ago, competing for maritime control of Eastern trade. The Zhula dynasty in India The dynasty, at its most powerful, even occupied southern Myanmar, the Malay Peninsula and part of Sumatra.”

"Did the Indian country also invade Southeast Asia?" Zhu Guoxiang was very surprised.

Ju Ming nodded and said: "A Hindu country and a Buddhist country have been fighting each other for more than a hundred years to control the Chinese trade routes. The existence of these two countries has seriously affected the Maritime Silk Road, and merchant ships from all countries have to be levied heavy taxes. . Including Chinese maritime merchants, the furthest they can reach is the eastern part of the Malay Peninsula, because the entry tax is getting heavier and heavier as they go further.”

Zhu Guoxiang muttered: "This is a problem."

"We must learn from Zhu Di and launch a Zheng He voyage to the West to defeat these two countries!" Ju Ming said.

Were the soldiers carried by Zheng He's fleet really going to the armed parade?

The situation Zheng He faced at that time was similar to Ju Ming's now.

However, Srivijaya was replaced by Majapahit, and the Cholas were replaced by the Sinhalese (Sri Lanka).

In order to defeat Majapahit, Zheng He first appointed a Han governor in Luzon and drove Majapahit's forces out of the Philippines. Then it supported Brunei and established a foothold in Kalimantan. Then the Palembang Xuanwei Department was established and took root in Sumatra.

Encircled and pressed from three sides, his sphere of influence was continuously reduced, forcing Majapahit to surrender.

When conquering Sri Lanka, Zheng He brought nearly 30,000 soldiers and even 2,000 elite armored cavalry.

Just like that, Zheng He almost overturned.

The whole process was a battle of wits and courage, which was thrilling.

If the quality of the Sinhalese army was higher, Zheng He's fleet would most likely be wiped out.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "The Kingdom of Jin must be destroyed first. The maritime expansion you mentioned is too far away."

Ju Ming said: "We need to start building ships now. The Kingdom of Jin can also use them. Just build a few warships every year. We cannot be like Zhu Di who built a large number of ships in a short period of time and made some local people miserable. The future operation model , we cannot learn from Zhu Di and have to distribute benefits to all parties."

"Zheng He's voyages to the West by Zhu Di were an official monopoly on maritime trade, which blocked the financial paths of private merchants. Local governments and ordinary people bore all the costs of building warships. However, all the profits from maritime trade were taken away by Zhu Di , most of which were used for the Five Conquests of Mobei and the construction of Beijing City."

"As a result, central ministers, local officials, private businessmen and ordinary people all opposed the continued voyage to the West."

Zhu Guoxiang took out a plan: "Let's discuss internal affairs first. This is a reform plan that I collected local information and asked the cabinet to formulate."

Zhu Ming took it and read it carefully, but it was about the reform of civil servants that matched the work of assigning people to their own land.

First, the amount divided into acres is determined to be allocated within the province.

That is, each province first determines the amount, and then allocates these amounts according to the actual situation of each province. Rich governments provide transfer payments to poor governments. Similarly, within a prefecture, the states and counties also share the same.

The advantage is that people in poor areas will not be overburdened by this.

The downside is that the richer the place, the greater the resistance to reform because they will bear more.

Second, 30% of the money and grain collected by the stallholders from farming the acres goes to the prefecture and county, 30% to the government, 30% to the province, and 10% to the central government.

This is the opposite of the Qing Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, the central government directly charged 70% to 80%, making the place as if there were no tenants to share the land, and other methods were used to squeeze the people to obtain funds.

Third, reform the official service.

Strictly determine the number of official staff. These staff can be promoted to officials, and all salaries are paid by the central court.

The number of formal servants is strictly determined. These servants cannot be promoted, and their wages are paid with the income of the diners per mu. Because this was originally a service, but it was changed to employment after being assigned to work.

Local officials can recruit temporary officials and temporary servants at their discretion, but the wages must be paid by themselves. White officials and white servants (those who are not paid) are not allowed to be used. Once it is discovered that wages have not been paid, officials will be dismissed from office, staff will be fired, and their corruption charges will be thoroughly investigated.

After reading it, Ju Ming sighed and said, "Maybe it can last for decades."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "With the foundation of this plan, even if a hundred years pass, the situation will be better than without reform."

To put it bluntly, it means that the imperial government finances a group of regular officials. These officials can be promoted, but the number is not very large. They are mainly civil servants and are responsible for maintaining the operation of governments at all levels.

The head tax paid into the land tax was used to support a large number of servants and temporary workers.

There is only so much poll tax, and it is up to the governments at all levels to decide what to do.

Anyway, the police are not allowed to work for free, which is the most harmful. If the government does not pay wages, it is equivalent to allowing the police to exploit the people.

The central government of the Qing Dynasty withdrew 70% to 80% of the poll tax, resulting in a serious shortage of local finances, as well as a serious shortage of scribes and servants. In addition to the scribes who must be reported to the Ministry of Civil Affairs for approval, some paid non-staff scribes can only be recruited. If the scribes are still too busy, they will recruit "white scribes" in the name of recruiting apprentices and find ways to make money by themselves without receiving wages. The police officers were even more confused. The county magistrate himself didn't even know how many officers there were.

The plan that Zhu Guoxiang asked the cabinet to come up with is the complete version of "dividing a small family into an equal amount".

The central court really can't just randomly take away land and silver, otherwise it will violate the original intention of allocating land to farmers and turn it into a roundabout way for the court to raise taxes out of thin air.

Zhu Guoxiang asked the central government to share a symbolic 10%, purely to know the amount charged by the local government.

"Provinces that have already allocated their land to farmers should implement it immediately, otherwise the trend of corruption at the grassroots level cannot be stopped," Zhu Ming said. "One more thing is that grassroots officials should not be blamed for corruption in the past. If they become corrupt again after this plan is implemented, they will be punished once they are corrupted." It is verified that past crimes must also be dealt with.”

Zhu Guoxiang nodded and said: "We also need to ask the Supervisory Office to strengthen inspections during implementation and create some examples to punish severely."

After the father and son finished their discussion, Zhu Guoxiang called the eunuch in, and Zhu Ming patted his butt and left.

When he walked to the door, he saw Liang Yi standing at the door.

"Is there something urgent in the Tongzheng Yuan?" Zhu Ming asked.

Liang Yi said with a serious expression: "There may be a nest case in Henan, and the case also involves the Ministry of Punishment and the Inspectorate. I don't dare to neglect, so I can only report it in person. I have been waiting outside the door for half an hour."

Ju Ming turned around and entered the room again: "I'll accompany you in."

Liang Yi handed over the memorial sent by the Henan officials, and Zhu Guoxiang took it and read it twice carefully.

Ju Ming asked: "Is it serious?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "The facts of a murder case are not complicated. The county magistrate sent the preliminary investigation results to the provincial court. After the court judged, they sent it to the provincial prosecutor's office for review. This was already two years ago. The case was closed, and the previous Henan prosecutor sent him back for a retrial. Fa Caopu quickly changed the verdict and acquitted the murder suspect, and the witnesses also changed their confessions."

"The family members of the deceased were dissatisfied and went to the government office to appeal, but Fa Caobo ignored them. The family members went to the Chasi Bureau to complain, but they couldn't even get in through the Chasi Gate."

"The family members were also somewhat capable, and they used some means to illegally submit the case to Dali Temple. Zuo Shaoqing of Dali Temple felt something was fishy and ordered Henan to retry the case, but Henan still upheld the second verdict."

"In order to promote the establishment of landowners, Bai Chongyan personally visited local areas and communicated with officials and people in various places. As a result, he was stopped and complained about injustice, so he asked the new prosecutor to retrial. As a result, the retrial case was sent to the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of Punishment sent it back for retrial. , and the review speed of the Ministry of Punishments is frighteningly fast.”

"By the way, the family of the deceased also approached the censor for inspection, but the censor ignored it. There is also something wrong with the inspectorate."

Ju Ming sneered: "It's only been a few years since the founding of the country, but some people are really tired of living here."