Chapter 149 A new ruling class must be cultivated
Zhu Houzhao really couldn't admit that this was a counter-insurgency incident worth boasting about.
Because in his opinion, this is more like a farce.
Not only Zhu Houzhao thought so, but Ma Wensheng, Wang Yangming and others also thought so. They were not very excited and their expressions were very dull.
Even the officers and soldiers of the First Division of the Guards who were preparing for a fierce battle at the gates of Nanjing were dumbfounded. Many of the sword and shield soldiers among them did not even get the first blood, but the war was over.
Among them, some members of the Zhongjun Society felt that they were shouting slogans to boost morale in vain.
However, these Jiangnan gentry were still very excited. They participated in a battle in a daze, a fierce and cruel battle, a battle that decided life and death, and they all cheered endlessly.
Even Cheng Jian, who had just been awarded the title of Doctor of the Five Classics of the Hanlin Academy, with a flushed face, raised his hands to Zhu Houzhao and said: "The Holy King reigns! All the people in the world support him! Even if the rebels are powerful, they can only be destroyed overnight! This is the merit of our emperor, this is the power of Ming Dynasty!”
Zhu Houzhao smiled faintly, ignored Cheng Jian, and left Hongwumen directly.
Ma Wensheng just touched his nose and handed over the next matters to the governor Wang Yangming, and followed Zhu Houzhao away. He even thought in his heart that although it was a good thing that these Jiangnan gentry could no longer oppose His Majesty, it would not cause chaos in Jiangnan, but It doesn't seem to be a good thing. Privately speaking, the northern gentry cannot take this opportunity to completely suppress the southern gentry. Publicly speaking, if such a hypocrite controls the court in the future, I don't know how bad the world will be.
At this time, Zhu Houzhao happened to see Qianhu Bai Jingshan standing on the city wall. This military attaché was originally a subordinate of Tian Zheng, but he immediately reported to him that Tian Zheng wanted to rebel.
Although Zhu Houzhao didn't know whether Bai Jingshan was afraid of being implicated in the failure of the rebellion, or whether he was really loyal to himself as the emperor and to the court, when he saw Bai Jingshan clenching his iron fist and looking angrily at the gentry outside the city, he I couldn't help but come over and ask: "Bai Jingshan, tell me, what are you thinking about now?"
Bai Jingshan did not expect that the Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao would suddenly ask him, and he hurriedly bowed and replied: "Back to Your Majesty! I am thinking that from now on I will only be a loyal minister, a loyal minister who is only loyal to Your Majesty!"
Zhu Houzhao smiled slightly. He could see that the shamelessness of the Jiangnan gentry greatly stimulated these military attaches. It made them understand that literati were really unreliable. At the same time, it also made them understand that it was really difficult for rebellion to succeed because the world had not yet When the people's hearts are at a loss, that's why Bai Jingshan said he wanted to be a loyal minister.
"Pass the decree! We will ascend Baijing Mountain as a garrison and station in Zhenjiang."
Zhu Houzhao issued the decree. He could guess that Bai Jingshan, the military attache, should have seen through the hypocrisy of the Jiangnan gentry from today on. For this reason, he naturally wanted to let Bai Jingshan, a military attaché, permanently stationed in Jiangnan.
In this way, even if he leaves Jiangnan in the future, there will be people in Jiangnan who are not on the same side as the Jiangnan gentry to control Jiangnan for him.
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Bai Jingshan was a little overjoyed. He was even worried that the Jiangnan gentry would use the reason that he was Tian Zheng's subordinate to ask the emperor to punish him. After all, the Jiangnan gentry's temperament of eradicating weeds would not tolerate him, but he Unexpectedly, after he said that he wanted to be a loyal minister, Emperor Zhu Houzhao changed hands and promoted him.
"Get up and take a good look at the Zhenjiang waters for me. If water bandits rob the tax bureau again, I will blame you!"
With that said, Zhu Houzhao left with a group of officials.
After Tian Zheng's rebellion is over, Zhu Houzhao is also preparing to return to Beijing.
Although Jiangnan was good, it was a Ming tradition for the emperor to guard the country. Zhu Houzhao still had to return to the capital and start promoting the New Deal reforms in other aspects.
Of course, another reason why Zhu Houzhao was eager to leave Jiangnan was that he really didn't want to stay here anymore. He didn't want to watch the group of Jiangnan gentry shamelessly praise him and shamelessly exaggerate the significance of this counter-insurgency incident. He was afraid that If he stays too long, he will really forget about himself and become as shameless as them.
But what Zhu Houzhao didn't know was that even if he and the central court had no intention of bragging about the counter-insurgency incident, the Jiangnan gentry themselves were still bragging about it and were still obsessed with it.
The incident of Cheng Jian scolding the rebel thief Tian Zheng on the city wall was even made into a drama and was sung. It was also gradually made into a story about "Cheng Jian scolded Tian Zheng for retreating 100,000 soldiers". Suddenly Tian Zheng's The number of soldiers and horses was blown up to one hundred thousand, and the reason why the rebellion of one hundred thousand horses failed was because they were scolded by Cheng Jian and retreated.
All of a sudden, Cheng Jian became a courageous and loyal person.
Of course, these Jiangnan gentry also gave Zhu Houzhao a lot of face, and they promoted Zhu Houzhao as a mighty emperor who visited the city wall in person and frightened hundreds of thousands of rebels. They even said that the fact that he was granted the title of Doctor of the Five Classics by Cheng Jian was a sign of the sage's emphasis on talented people. The story of the Ming Dynasty has also been made into a drama. Zhu Houzhao himself has not yet admitted that he has created a prosperous Ming Dynasty, but the gentry of Jiangnan performed the drama of the prosperous age in Jiangnan first.
Zhu Houzhao knew that the purpose of these Jiangnan gentry boasting about themselves was to gain more political chips and not to be suppressed by the northern gentry.
However, Zhu Houzhao has no intention of arguing with these Jiangnan gentry now, nor does he intend to completely deprive these Jiangnan gentry of their privileges and completely seize their wealth for state ownership. He still has to strike a balance. After all, once the Jiangnan gentry is taken away now, If the gentry pressed down, the gentry in the north would probably take this opportunity to press forward.
As the emperor, he has to beat a stick with each side and give a sweet date to each side. Naturally, the reform is to let the southern gentry shed some blood and then let the northern gentry shed some blood, and finally achieve a balance between the north and the south. This will prevent the northern gentry and the military landlords behind them from becoming warlords, and prevent the southern gentry and the pirates behind them from becoming warlords. At the same time, it will also change the entire Ming Empire.
Zhu Houzhao knew that he had to take his time and cut into the flesh of these gentry and bureaucrats.
The purpose of his coming to Jiangnan this time is to protect the tax sources. Whether it is the commercial tax collected by the Royal Taxation Bureau or the land tax and corvee managed by the Ministry of Household Affairs, it cannot be reduced any further.
Now, he has stationed a governor and a tax bureau as well as tax police and police soldiers in Jiangnan. At the same time, he also asked these gentry to compromise and pass a convention to ensure that taxes will naturally be no problem. He even deprived Jiangnan of For him, the power of the gentry at the grassroots level has been achieved.
Therefore, it was just the right time for Zhu Houzhao to leave Jiangnan.
When he left Jiangnan this time, Zhu Houzhao also took away more than three million taels of silver, all of which were obtained from the confiscation of his home, either from the recovered Fu or from other crimes.
This is only part of it, and much of it has been directly used as funding for stability maintenance in South Zhili.
After all, it costs money to establish the Police Department, recruit police soldiers, and establish government-run workshops.
Of the more than three million taels of silver, only one million taels were collected as gifts by the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the rest were collected by the Royal Taxation Bureau.
In other words, Zhu Houzhao's own trip to Jiangnan was equivalent to grabbing more than two million taels of silver into his own pocket!
Only now did he understand why the officials in Southern Zhili were so opposed to him going to Jiangnan.
Moreover, from now on, the Ministry of Revenue will be able to receive more than two million taels of tax revenue from Jiangnan every year. Although the local stability maintenance funds in South Zhili have increased, the Ministry of Revenue can also increase its income by more than one million taels. In this way, the central court's The finances can also be more comfortable.
Of course, the wool comes from the sheep, and Zhu Houzhao believed that these Jiangnan gentry would transfer the overpaid taxes to overcharged rents, increasing the burden on tenants.
But for the court, this could also indirectly inhibit land annexation and dedication, because once the rent increased, more farmers would be willing to be self-cultivators rather than devote themselves as tenants.
In general, Zhu Houzhao's trip to the south of the Yangtze River caused a lot of damage to the interests of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River.
But because Zhu Houzhao did not use too wide a knife to extract benefits, he did not really deprive the gentry of their privileges, and he did not deprive all gentry of some of their interests nationwide. In addition, the people's support was still there, so the gentry in Jiangnan could only give in. , accept the fact that this part of the interests will be handed over to the court.
But Zhu Houzhao could guess that these Jiangnan gentry must still hate themselves as the emperor and the reformist officials around them. Not only the Jiangnan gentry, but also many northern gentry are also worried that Zhu Houzhao and the reformist officials around him are in trouble. Recover unpaid taxes nationwide.
In fact, the examination law itself has made the entire bureaucracy angry. After all, this examination law has restricted them.
Zhu Houzhao knew that although these bureaucrats did not dare to object on the surface, and even the northern gentry wanted to suppress the southern gentry by supporting the imperial court, secretly they must still be very resistant to the new policies implemented by Zhu Houzhao and his reformist officials.
I am afraid that they will use various means to deal with themselves and the reformist officials around them, such as assassination and so on.
Reformers have never had a good end, and Zhu Houzhao knew this. Whether he was an emperor or a minister, he had to succeed and have a good ending.
The only way is to cultivate a new ruling class through reform and let this new ruling class deprive the old ruling class of the interests. Only in this way can the reform become not just Zhu Houzhao fighting alone or several people fighting, but also taking advantage of the trend. Do it for, rather than against, the trend.
Even if Zhu Houzhao leaves this world one day, his reform career will not end. Even during his lifetime, there will be people who will fight to the death to keep his life safe or even extend his life.
Zhu Houzhao now also wants to cultivate a new ruling class. He wants to change the current lifestyle of rulers who only know how to get promoted and buy land, so that the ruling class of the entire empire only wants to get rich, and after getting rich, they do not buy land but become a technology Development facilitator and organizer.
The landlords and gentry were naturally abandoned by Zhu Houzhao.
The new capitalist class must be cultivated by Zhu Houzhao himself.
First of all, what Zhu Houzhao had to do was to turn some enlightened gentry who had the same pioneering spirit and collective spirit as himself into capitalists, so that they could become the first generation of capitalists in the Ming Empire and carry out the first capital accumulation, resource plunder and colonial expansion of the Ming Dynasty. .
As soon as he returned to the capital, Zhu Houzhao immediately summoned Wang Hua, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, Xu Jing, the head of the Royal Bank and the Royal Taxation Bureau, Tang Bohu from the Attendant's Room, and some officials from the inner court and the outer court into the Qianqing Palace. He decided to Hold a financial meeting before the end of the second year of Zhengde.
(End of chapter)