Chapter 716 Sleepless Night
On this night, in addition to three official documents for sending money to Beijing, Zhu Ping'an was arranged to draft more than ten other official documents, all of which were in line with the spirit of tonight's court meeting. .
Because the matter was urgent, these officials had to print and issue documents early in the morning, so they worked overtime until deep into the night. Only then was Zhu Ping'an able to drag his tired body and lay himself across the small building of the low duty house. on the bed.
This has been two consecutive nights of overtime work, and each time he worked overtime until around the early morning. Zhu Ping'an was so tired that he didn't want to move a finger.
However, even though he was extremely sleepy and exhausted, Zhu Pingan couldn't fall asleep while lying on the bed.
Although the night was already deep, the low duty house was still as hot and muggy as a steam oven. It was probably going to rain, and it was extremely hot inside and outside the duty house.
Not only is it hot, it’s also noisy.
The frogs in the rice fields opened by Emperor Jiajing outside the house kept croaking wildly, and the cicadas on the tree trunks refused to admit defeat and squeaked endlessly, croaking and squeaking. It's like a duet, one after another, and it doesn't help to cover your ears.
Why are there so many frogs and cicadas in the palace? Zhu Pingan lay on the bed speechless for a while, unable to fall asleep.
After finally falling asleep, Zhu Pingan was awakened by another nightmare. In the dream, there was a family whose family was ruined due to the extra tax on Beijing materials and silver. The hostess screamed a curse before she fell into the well. clerical official.
Covered in cold sweat.
It’s too real.
Zhu Ping'an closed his eyes now, and that scene appeared in front of his eyes. The desperate and sad eyes of the hostess were just like what really happened.
Hey
Zhu Ping'an couldn't help but get up and get out of bed, sitting in front of the window in the dark, looking at the long night outside the window, and felt dazed.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty was already a huge ship in disrepair in the sea, and it was already on the verge of capsizing after a hundred years.
The current emptiness of the national treasury is a microcosm of a fiscal crisis. The direct cause of the Ming Dynasty's overthrow was not so much the peasant uprising as the financial crisis.
The financial crisis of the Ming Dynasty was like opening Pandora's box.
Because of the financial crisis
That is why when natural disasters and famines occurred, the Ming Dynasty did not have the financial resources to provide disaster relief, which led to the lack of credibility of the Ming Dynasty and caused the people to rebel in order to survive;
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Therefore, it led to a shortage of military pay, insufficient weapons and equipment, and insufficient recruitment and training. The combat effectiveness of the Ming army declined. Foreign wars and internal counter-insurgency wars continued to fail. In addition, the lack of military pay also led to mutiny and rebellion among many soldiers.
The financial crisis gave rise to refugees and mutinous soldiers, which led to domestic uprisings and rebellions that continued and grew stronger.
The financial crisis caused the Ming army to lack combat effectiveness and was unable to quell domestic rebellions and eliminate foreign invasions.
In this way, after more than a hundred years of vicious cycle, by the time of Chongzhen Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, a giant ship riddled with holes, finally capsized.
Zhu Ping'an could not imagine at this time that the Ming Dynasty, the most developed and prosperous country in the world, would actually fall into such a financial crisis.
A huge empire, it has more than one billion acres of arable land, a population of nearly 300 million, a hugely developed industry and commerce, and the emergence of capitalism, accounting for more than two-thirds of the world's industrial output.
However, its tax revenue cannot satisfy its administrative operations and arm hundreds of thousands of troops.
The invasion of tens of thousands of soldiers and horses by Beihu Ada Khan made the northern border of the empire as full of holes as a sieve.
This is incredible.
Such tax revenue is so abnormal.
Is there something wrong with the tax system?
Yes, but not entirely.
You must know that when the Ming Dynasty was first founded, it was during the period of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. At that time, the Ming Dynasty had not as much cultivated land as it does now, the population was not as large as it is now, and industry and commerce were not as developed as it is now. However, the tax revenue at that time was completely sufficient. It is more than enough to satisfy the operation of this huge empire, whether it is large-scale construction projects, large-scale foreign wars, or disaster relief.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Yuanzhang made several Northern Expeditions and drove the Mongols into exile in Europe; during the period of his son Zhu Di, the emperor, he continued to launch foreign armies. An army of 500,000 troops made five northern expeditions to Mongolia, and an army of several hundred thousand troops made several southern expeditions. Vietnam is building the Forbidden City, carrying out large-scale construction projects in Wudang Mountain, and Zheng He's seven voyages to the Western Seas, the famous one in history, but there is no financial crisis.
You must know that the tax system of the Ming Dynasty has basically remained unchanged since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Why has the cultivated land increased, the population increased, and industry and commerce developed, but the taxes collected according to the tax system since the founding of the People's Republic of China cannot satisfy the operation of the empire, leading to a financial crisis?
Zhu Pingan, who comes from modern times, knows the root cause clearly.
However, it is a pity that not many people in the Ming Dynasty know this. Of course, some people may have seen it, but due to various reasons, maybe they are worried, maybe they know the cause but have no solution. , did not say it.
The people participating in the court meeting tonight are either cabinet ministers or ministers of various ministries. However, the several measures discussed in the court meeting tonight only treat the symptoms rather than the root cause.
And some measures, such as sending funds to Beijing, are temporary solutions in the short term, but in the long run they are not worth the gain.
Among the current problems of the Ming Dynasty, one of the biggest problems is the serious land annexation.
The land annexation in the Ming Dynasty was too serious. Although there were more and more cultivated lands, there were fewer and fewer owners of the land. The cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty became more and more concentrated in the hands of a few people.
The imperial palace of the royal family got off to a bad start. As soon as Emperor Jiajing’s cousin Zhu Houzhao succeeded to the throne, he established seven imperial palaces. Later, more than 30 imperial palaces were established one after another. The amount of farmland in Zhuang far exceeds that of previous dynasties.
The royal family, bureaucrats and gentry were not far behind.
To be disrespectful, it is not clear how much land his master Xu Jie now owns, but Zhu Ping'an knows that when Xu Jie was the chief assistant, he occupied 240,000 acres of fertile land in his hometown in Su and Song Dynasties. There are tens of thousands of tenants; and Yan Song, the current chief minister, owns countless cultivated lands in Jiangxi, Nanjing, Yangzhou and other places.
According to the information Zhu Ping'an consulted in modern times, about half of the fertile land thousands of miles away from the capital of the Ming Dynasty belonged to the royal family, bureaucrats and gentry after land annexation.
Land was highly annexed by the royal family, bureaucrats and gentry.
You must know that most of these owners of land annexation belong to the privileged class of the Ming Dynasty. According to the tax system, they have privileges.
The royal family, princes, relatives, and honorable ministers enjoy the privilege of being exempted from taxes, grains, and errands; officials' families are exempted from corvee service; officials who become official "return to their families and have nothing for life"; living members are exempted from service except themselves. , free of charge indoors.
There are also landless people who become their tenants, and they can live under their cover and avoid serving as state servants.
Therefore, there is more farmland and more people, but less taxes.
The original tax system of the Ming Dynasty could no longer cope with these facts such as land annexation.
The future Zhang Juzheng's reform method was more advanced than the current tax system and restored some vitality to the Ming Dynasty, but it was still a minor repair.
At least, a hundred years later, the Qing Dynasty's "dividing a small person into an acre" was much more advanced than the one-whip method.
Of course, in addition to agricultural taxation, there are also many problems with commercial taxation
But the question is, if you know so much, what’s the use? !
Zhu Pingan sat in front of the window, looking out the dark window, and silently recited Zuo Qiuming's "Zuo Zhuan. Cao GUI's Debate" in the Spring and Autumn Period. What made Zhu Pingan sigh was not the sentence "In one go, It will decline again, and it will be exhausted three times." This is what Cao GUI said to his fellow villagers, "Meat eaters are despicable and cannot plan far."
I don’t want to sit in the audience and watch a show, I want to perform on stage
Hey.
Zhu Pingan shook his head again and smiled bitterly, knowing that it is unrealistic. This is not a novel. How can a small sixth-grade official be qualified to perform on stage?
However, Zhu Pingan looked out the window with more determination. (End of this chapter)