Chapter 191: Cutting off the ‘vassal’ of the Jiangnan gentry!
Zhu Biao was stunned.
He looked Xia Zhibai up and down.
He didn't expect Xia Zhibai's ambition to be so big.
He not only wants to annex Beiyuan, but also wants to occupy all the territory of 'Yuan' based on the existence of 'Yuan'.
This ambition is enough to be called wild.
He serves as the prince.
Of course I have an understanding of the situation in the Yuan Dynasty.
I also know how vast the territory of the Great Yuan Dynasty was at its peak, and I also know how powerful the outsiders and the internal affairs under the so-called vast territory of the Great Yuan Dynasty were.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there was no such thought at all. The only idea was to build the Great Wall in the northern Xinjiang to resist the Mongols from the north and take advantage of the strong national power of the Ming Dynasty to severely weaken the north and serve the world. Win decades or hundreds of years of peace.
But Xia Zhibai is different.
He is a madman. He not only wants to win, but also wants to annex. Now that annexation is not enough, he also wants to go one step further and bring all the territories of the Yuan Dynasty into the control of the Ming Dynasty. , this idea is so crazy.
Even Zhu Biao was shocked.
"Xia Zhibai, are you crazy?" Zhu Biao said with a bit of trembling.
Xia Zhibai smiled faintly and said calmly: "I'm very calm. This is just a possibility. Why can't it come true? Has your Highness ever heard of a saying? It's called Zaibei Ye Tian, doesn't feel bad, just Just like many princes in the Ming Dynasty, they squandered money without thinking at all. ”
“Because they don’t know where the money comes from.”
“And they don’t know how difficult it is to earn the money.”
“These vassal kings are like this. In the future, the emperors and emperors of the Ming Dynasty, Minister, the same is true, just as the ancient book said, cut one city today and ten cities tomorrow. If the Ming Dynasty really wants to occupy the world for a longer time, it should be bolder and more ambitious."
"The territory of the Ming Dynasty is not enough. . ”
“As far as I’m concerned, the country will be destroyed if I can’t cut it off a few times.”
"When the emperor guards the country, wouldn't it seem too tragic? But if the Ming Dynasty continues to expand its territory to the surrounding areas, then the emperor of the Ming Dynasty will really cut it off, and it can last longer. Of course, this is just a joke."
Xia Zhibai joked and brought back the topic.
“There is never too much land.”
“The wider the Ming Dynasty’s territory, the more time it has left for the Ming Dynasty to buffer and deal with. Now, under His Majesty’s design, around Three lines of defense were established for the vassal kings to guard the border in northern Xinjiang, but it was not enough, because one thing that was indispensable in the future was to cut down the vassal kings militarily. br>
"Economically weaken the 'vassal' of the Jiangnan gentry."
"And this kind of thing will definitely be done, and even His Majesty himself will take action."
Xia Zhibai's tone was very sure.
Zhu Biao was silent.
Cutting the feudal clan.
He actually rarely thinks about this matter.
Because too many people and too many things are involved.
From the bottom of his heart, he also believed that the Ming Dynasty should reduce the vassal status. Although he was not very worried about his younger brothers, he was not worried because he was confident that he could suppress them. But the Ming Emperor behind him Woolen cloth? Can it still be suppressed?
The main reason why no one mentions it now is that Northern Xinjiang is still undecided.
The generals of the Ming Dynasty are mostly arrogant and powerful generals. If the military power is not taken away from these generals, I am afraid that Your Majesty will be uneasy. Letting the vassal king command the troops is an expedient measure, and it is more to consolidate the military power. In the future, the real military power of the Ming Dynasty will only belong to the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies.
Zhu Biao can understand the idea of cutting down the vassal of the vassal king.
But what about cutting down the Jiangnan gentry?
Zhu Biao doesn't quite understand. When did the Jiangnan gentry become a vassal?
Xia Zhibai said: "The most important rights in governing the world are two rights, one is financial power and the other is personnel power."
"Your Highness should also know."
"Under Guo Huan's case, all six departments suffered."
"But the most important departments of household and personnel did not have new ministers in office, but His Majesty shouldered them alone."
"This is the reason."
"Your Majesty knows how to govern the world."
"But in my opinion, Your Majesty has exercised too much power and has not made any substantial changes. , just because I don’t know who can believe it, so I took back all the power, but this is obviously not advisable.”
"Originally, the imperial court was busy with political affairs."
"Now it has to be responsible for the political affairs of four more departments."
"Such a heavy burden is simply undesirable and unsustainable."
“The reason.”
“Your Majesty did not think of how to make changes.”
"In the past ten years, the six ministers of the Ming Dynasty have been replaced one after another and dealt with one after another, but the problem has never been solved. On the contrary, the problem has become more serious, especially in the Jiangnan area, which is already economically prosperous. With a profound literary background, the court changed one after another, and the scholars in the Jiangnan area were finally replaced. "There are officials who consider the court, but such people are destined to be in the minority."
“With your Majesty’s current strength, there is not much we can do about the Jiangnan region. It will only become more difficult in the future.”
“But I won’t say too much about this.”
“It makes no sense.”
"I am mainly talking about the economy."
"The economic base determines the superstructure. When the economy is good, local people will have enough money to study, and they can continue to expand the region's influence in the court. If the economy is bad, Even if one or two talented people rush out, what can they really accomplish in the face of the powerful Huaixi Group? ""It's impossible"
"As time goes by. , Jiangnan’s influence in the court will only grow, and many of the policies of the court will be influenced by these people.”
“The Ming Dynasty is a small government, which will inevitably lead to the court’s influence on the world. We don’t know much about the real situation, so the possibility of being deceived by these officials will become higher and higher, and in the end, more and more people will do bad things with good intentions.”
Zhu Biao frowned.
He glanced at Xia Zhibai helplessly.
Xia Zhibai is really saying that there is something wrong with the Ming Dynasty's system.
But if Ming Dynasty’s system really had problems, it would not have been running for more than ten years without major problems.
He didn't believe Xia Zhibai's words.
Xia Zhibai seemed to have guessed Zhu Biao's thoughts, and smiled and said: "The Ming Dynasty's system does not seem to have many problems, and everything is in order, but the biggest problem with the Ming Dynasty's system is the economy. The court does not have enough people." "
"Your Highness should know about the Kyoto Salt Industry."
Zhu Biao nodded.
He is in Yingtian Mansion, how could he not know about the Kyoto Salt Industry?
But he didn't interfere.
It is not his turn to intervene in this kind of thing, and the Kyoto Salt Industry, to a certain extent, is not owned by the Ming Dynasty government, but privately owned by Xia Zhibai. It is even more impossible for him to intervene for Xia Zhibai, let alone the Kyoto Salt Industry. It would be of certain benefit to the Ming Dynasty that the famous steam engine spread throughout the world.
It can liberate a lot of labor force and free many kitchen households from it.
The court can also have more available labor.
Why wouldn't he do it?
Xia Zhibai didn't care about this.
He looked at Zhu Biao with a smile and asked: "At the beginning of the operation of the Kyoto Salt Industry, Your Highness should know that there was almost no harvest in the first two months, but starting from the third month, the Kyoto Salt Industry began to have Stable income."
"The Jiangnan region obtained the core information of the Kyoto Salt Industry through various means, and established a local salt enterprise with the help of the imperial court."
"It's just whether His Highness has. Have you ever asked about the price of salt in the place?”
“And the tax received by the court?”
Hearing this.
Zhu Biao was stunned.
He looked at Xia Zhibai suspiciously, not understanding what Xia Zhibai said.
"What do you mean? Jiangnan does use steam engines. Is it possible that the price of salt will rise? Can the court still collect taxes?"
Xia Zhibai nodded and shook his head again He shook his head and said: "The price of salt will not rise, but the tax is hard to say."
Xia Zhibai smiled and said: "Your Highness doesn't know much about the operation of steam engines, and the use of steam engines in Jiangnan is also very Obviously, Jiangnan has indeed been poaching people from my salt industry for more than half a year, but there cannot be another situation. ”
"What's going on?" Zhu Biao was shocked.
Xia Zhibai said: "The steam engine is running normally and the salt production efficiency is also very high. However, you can report to the court that there is a problem with the operation of the steam engine and deliberately 'lose' part of the salt. It is said that the salt production failed, but in fact it failed. Secretly selling it to local people in large quantities at a price lower than the market price through private means?"
"And these 'thrown' salt eventually became personal property."
Zhu Biao was shocked.
He looked at Xia Zhibai suddenly, but was thinking secretly in his heart.
In the end, he had to admit that this situation was extremely possible.
And
If he remembers correctly, many local officials have reported to the police, and the steam engine is not running smoothly, and it is still being debugged. Perhaps the memorials of these people may indeed be true. , but that doesn’t necessarily mean there are no fish in troubled waters.
“They dare?!” Zhu Biao shouted angrily.
Xia Zhibai said: "Not only do they dare, they are also very courageous."
"Because this steam engine was made by Kyoto Salt Industry, but the person they hired was Li Sheng. Li Sheng was indeed responsible for the development of the steam engine, but he was not involved in the whole process. There is a possibility that problems will arise. We will investigate them when the time comes. The person who takes the blame is Li Sheng. "
"Moreover."
"My return will make many people happy, and they all hope that I will take action to kill Li Sheng. And those who betrayed should be brought to justice, so that they can blame Li Sheng for the 'problems' of the steam engine with peace of mind."
"At the same time, they will also sue Li Sheng for lying to others. ."
"Put Li Sheng to death"
Zhu Biao's face darkened slightly.
He already understood what Xia Zhibai meant.
Someone is scheming.
By bribing Li Sheng, the court paid for the establishment of a salt enterprise in the south of the Yangtze River, and because of Li Sheng's evil intentions, the court despised him. When the salt enterprise failed to perform well, all problems were attributed to Li Sheng. He deceived the court because of his "not good academic skills", and then Xia Zhibai's hands eradicated Li Sheng.
When the time comes
What was left in place were some faulty ‘machines’.
Local officials used these steam engines to 'line their own pockets' and made a lot of money.
The imperial court collected a lot less salt tax.
And because of the rift between Xia Zhibai and Li Sheng, Xia Zhibai will definitely not hand over the 'complete' steam engine drawings. The local government has done so much for these steam engines, and it is impossible to stop production directly. I can hold my nose and continue to use these "not too high-yield" steam engines.
The imperial court became the biggest loser!
(End of this chapter)