Chapter 197: Covering one’s ears and stealing the bell!
At dusk.
Xia Zhibai went to the palace.
He was not surprised.
Zhu Biao could not persuade Zhu Yuanzhang.
Xia Zhibai knew this very early.
Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed very satisfied with his eldest son, but that was all.
As an emperor, the relationship between father and son is always an afterthought, especially for someone who has been the emperor for more than ten years, and has long since turned into a political machine.
He will not allow such a big change in the world.
Outside Fengtian Hall.
Xia Zhibai was waiting outside.
He raised his head and looked at the word 'Fengtian' still hanging above it, with a faint smile on his lips.
As long as the word "Fengtian" remains, Zhu Yuanzhang will not change.
Soon.
Xia Zhibai entered the palace.
Compared with the last time they met, Zhu Yuanzhang was much thinner.
There are also a lot of age spots on my cheeks.
Xia Zhibai cupped his hands and said, "Xia Zhibai, please see your majesty."
Zhu Yuanzhang raised his eyes and looked at the man in a gray gown below, with a hint of disgust in his eyes.
He said: "Xia Zhibai, you want us to agree to open the sea."
Xia Zhibai nodded and said: "Return to your majesty, this is not what I think, but what your majesty thinks."
"Haha." Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said sarcastically: "When did we say we were going to open fire?" The sea is over, but we have never wanted to open it. We have made repeated requests to close the sea in recent years. "
"Although we are old, we still remember things."
Xia Zhibai. He nodded and said with a smile: "Your Majesty did not say it, but he asked for it."
"I just followed your Majesty's wishes."
Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned.
He looked at Xia Zhibai suspiciously, not understanding what he said.
When did he make such a request?
Xia Zhibai raised his head, looked at Zhu Yuanzhang, and said calmly: "Your Majesty is the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and everything in the world needs to be handled by your Majesty. What I have done is naturally no exception, and this is indeed the case. Your Majesty’s thoughts.”
Zhu Yuanzhang snorted, “The ones we hate the most are you scholars.”
"Sharp tongue."
Xia Zhibai did not explain, but just asked: "Your Majesty must have learned about the matter that I discussed with His Highness the Crown Prince. Since His Majesty called me here, I would have not guessed Wrong, I'm afraid your majesty is not satisfied with my idea."
"In your majesty's design, the world is allocated a certain amount of salt and iron. , even the amount of cloth produced is carefully designed. "
"The amount of things each person buys is also determined. "
"It's just that the data your Majesty gets is always from the previous year, and the world changes every moment, so many times there will be deviations in these quotas, and once there is a natural or man-made disaster in the world, the court will often need to Spend a lot of effort to solve it."
"There is another way."
"This is also the practice of the past dynasties." br>
“Two to one to two percent of the world’s population are killed every year.”
"Your Majesty is familiar with history books and has a profound understanding of the experiences and lessons of past dynasties. In the past few years of governing the world, Your Majesty has gradually discovered that it is not that easy to govern a country based on historical experience and lessons."
“It is not very suitable for use.”
“Because His Majesty planned a governance model for the Ming Dynasty in a prosperous period.”
“Through equalizing time, Li Jia takes turns to respond. Measures such as reducing corvee work and avoiding farming time spread the heavy corvee work to the people in a relatively balanced manner so that the people can accept it. A complete set of embryonic security systems that save tax expenditures has been established, such as military villages, civilian villages, and village fields. , official land system with high rent rate, etc. "
"We have promulgated the policy of wealthy households to crack down on local powerful people and restrict land annexation, as well as the hereditary household registration system for the descendants of military service, craftsman service, and kitchen service. The system of atonement for convicts serving in the army, the salt law and the system of opening up the middle of the country for merchants to transport millet to military towns, the system of transporting taxes and grain to the nearest place, etc. ”
"We have built a country with low agricultural and commercial taxes for the world."
"Even if there are natural or man-made disasters, people can be forcibly recruited to provide disaster relief through corvee collection and other methods."
"If it is fiscal If there is any shortage, then money will be distributed through Ming Dynasty treasure notes."
"Under your Majesty's theory, it is already a beggar's version of Datong society."
"But this is not the case. Everything is based on a peaceful and prosperous age with abundant materials, clear administration, harmonious and friendly people, and no troubles or turbulence. As long as the world is peaceful and the order is implemented step by step, the world can be maintained for a long time. Even if there is a population explosion, it can still be punished through severe punishment. Strict laws to clean up excess population.”
"In the past ten years, His Majesty has always wanted to complete these things."
"He has sent troops to the Northern Expedition many times to eliminate border troubles. Under the constant intrusion of Japanese pirates, he was even more determined and thought of banning Hai, in order to achieve that ideal environment."
"It's just that your Majesty should have discovered it."
"It's all about deceiving yourself."
"Just do it. Less than. ”
Xia Zhibai didn't leave any words, and directly exposed the dream that Zhu Yuanzhang had woven.
Zhu Yuanzhang idealized everything.
From the emperor to the subjects, the world, etc., everyone thinks that it is immutable, but how is this possible, especially since the world is entering the Little Ice Age, so many experiences and lessons have been learned. The system is burdened with too much historical baggage.
Strong on the outside but dry on the inside. This system has actually collapsed as Zhu Di came to power.
Even now, when he came all the way from the north, the military camps were either abandoned or occupied by powerful military attachés. They were unable to provide enough food for the army. Zhu Yuanzhang said that it would feed the world without costing the people a grain of food. Ten thousand soldiers cannot do it at all.
Now.
The Ming Dynasty transported hundreds of thousands of stones of grain to the north every year.
Otherwise, Zhu Yuanzhang would not be so cruel and use the Guo Huan case to plunder the world's richest people to collect military pay and rations.
Zhu Yuanzhang knew all this.
It’s just that he felt that this was the only way to the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty.
What he designed for the Ming Dynasty is a foundation that will last for generations. Now that the Ming Dynasty has just founded the country, it will indeed face various problems. However, as the Ming Dynasty's national power becomes more and more powerful, his current strength over the world will gradually weaken. Finally, he achieved his vision of a country through the ages.
Zhu Yuanzhang’s face was livid.
He stared at Xia Zhibai coldly, his eyes so fierce that he could eat the man in front of him alive.
Before he had an attack, Xia Zhibai was counting down on himself.
Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly: "It can't be done?"
"What do you know? How much effort we have put into this world. No one can imagine that our Ming Dynasty is just starting now. When the world is stable in the future , all of this will become the long-lasting foundation of the Ming Dynasty."
Xia Zhibai sneered.
He looked at Zhu Yuanzhang coldly and said indifferently: "Your Majesty, as the emperor of the world, you know the most about the world's situation, but you also selectively ignore the most things. I used to walk in the north, I have also learned about some situations.”
“During my investigation, many officials used clever names when collecting taxes.”
"Collect various kinds of taxes on water, food, treasury, gods and Buddhas, etc. that are not collected by the imperial court to line their own pockets."
"In the edict issued by His Majesty, it is only written It was revealed that these people had clever names.”
“But it did not write about why these people had clever names.”
“Although the officials of the Ming Dynasty were very greedy, from the initial ‘empty seal case’ to In the subsequent 'Hu Weiyong Case', everyone in the world knows how His Majesty handles problematic officials, and the world has decided that everything will be done, and even the most ignorant officials will be more restrained."
" However, under His Majesty’s governance, corruption has not only become less common, but has become more severe.”
"Your Majesty knows the reasons better than anyone else."
"Your Majesty is familiar with history books, but you can only see things that are useful for centralization of power in the history books, but you cannot see the disadvantages other than centralization of power."
< br>"In the past dynasties, the imperial court gradually collected local financial rights. In the Song Dynasty, the imperial court took away almost all local financial rights, and all financial rights were concentrated in the imperial court. However, the imperial court was not responsible for local financial expenditures, which led to the local government in the Song Dynasty. The officials directly became the tax collectors of the imperial court. "And the imperial court asked the local officials to do their jobs and did not provide them with extra money or food."
"What can the local governments do?" >
“The only way to collect taxes is extra-legal, and eventually it gradually evolved into random taxation, which then aroused the resentment of the local people. The court sent people down to integrate the random taxation in these places into regular tax collections, and collected them all. When something happened to the local area, The imperial government had insufficient funds and could only continue to send more troops randomly. "This situation was particularly severe in the Ming Dynasty." "How can this amount of money and food be enough for management and settlement?"
"In the end, we have to collect it from the people, or even give high interest rates and let the people sell their property. .”
"There is also the case of empty seals."
"In the eyes of His Majesty, this is official fraud."
"I think this will open the door to corruption."
>"The basis of the empty seal is that the imperial court stipulates that every year, each chief minister, prefecture, and county must submit money, grain, financial revenue and expenditure, and tax accounts to the Ministry of Household Affairs. The figures between the Ministry of Revenue and each chief division, prefecture, and county must completely match , the items can be closed only if there is no difference. If there is any discrepancy, the entire account book will be rejected."
"But the taxes paid by Ming Dynasty are in kind."
"During the transportation process, there will inevitably be losses, and it is easy for the account books to not match the actual objects. Once there is a problem with the court's review, it will have to be resubmitted."
"In some places with convenient transportation Fortunately, for the Chief Secretaries of Yunnan, Guangxi, Guangxi, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Sichuan, the transportation is not developed and the distances between them are long. Once problems arise, a lot of time will be wasted in the exchanges. If the documents are not handed in by the specified time, the court will be convicted. "
"They can only prepare blank books with seals in advance for use."
"This practice has been done in all dynasties."
"It has never been done before. Expressly prohibited.”
"The root cause of the empty seal case was written by Zheng Shili of Zhejiang Province."
"It's just that His Majesty didn't agree with it at all. Instead, he ordered a thorough investigation. In the end, the mastermind was not found, and he was exiled by His Majesty in anger."
“They are still in exile today.”
“Except for Zheng Shili, many officials in the Kongyin case are still in exile.”
“I will not speak for them. Clear.”
"Because they did something wrong."
"But what happened after that?"
"Did the court do anything to make up for it?"
"No."
>
“If you can’t solve the problem, solve the person who raised the problem. Is this your Majesty’s solution?”
"You are just deceiving yourself and others."
"Your Majesty has made mistakes for everyone, but he has not made any mistakes for himself, nor has he patched up the system. Even if it is finally found that these people are not corrupt, Bribery is just a habitual behavior done subconsciously, and His Majesty still doesn't let it go."
"Close your eyes and pretend to be blind, and you won't solve any problems."
(End of this chapter)