Chapter 200: To govern a country is to create inequality!
Xia Zhibai’s voice echoed in the spacious hall.
This is the only echo in the palace.
Zhu Yuanzhang remained silent.
He was moving in the hall with his hands behind his back, looking a little uneasy.
He knows more and more deeply about the things Xia Zhibai said than Xia Zhibai. Is the reason why there is so much anger in the Guo Huan case really because there are so many corrupt officials involved?
Not so.
But it was already the eighteenth year of Hongwu.
Eighteen years.
An entire generation.
The Ming Dynasty that he worked so hard to build has always been dedicated to changing the world's atmosphere. However, everything came to nothing after the Guo Huan case. The current Ming Dynasty has not changed in any way from the situation before the founding of the Ming Dynasty. This is what caused him to finally become furious. , investigate the reasons thoroughly.
What he wants is for the world to change for the better.
What is important is that these scholars and officials change their minds.
But that’s not the case.
He realized one thing very early on: ruling the world comes with a cost.
Therefore, after the founding of the country, he has been committed to cutting costs, whether it is reducing the salaries of officials, reducing the number of officials, or cutting off some official offices, etc., all in order to reduce the cost of governance.
But the cost of ruling the world in the Ming Dynasty was still too high.
The imperial court had to recruit a large number of civilians and levy a large number of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes.
However, he loves the people.
It is impossible for him to shake these things out.
It's just that Xia Zhibai brought these things up again and again, and then put them directly in front of himself, and told himself bluntly that all this was his instigation, and repeatedly criticized himself for deceiving himself.
He was really angry.
He knows this.
There is no need for Xia Zhibai to remind him.
And this is part of the system. The emperor is always right, and the only ones who are wrong are the officials and the people below.
This is imperial power!
But after Xia Zhibai crushed some things in front of him again and again, Zhu Yuanzhang had to admit that what Xia Zhibai said was right. Covering up the problem would not solve the problem, but would only delay the problem, but If you don't solve the problem, it will be difficult for these problems to go away on their own.
And
He is indeed afraid of being cheated!
He turned around, faced Xia Zhibai, and said in a deep voice: "I am afraid that we are the only emperor in the world who has been so aggrieved. He was jumped in the face again and again, and Yang Xian was once , Hu Weiyong is one time, and you are one after another.”
“We really don’t understand.”
“Since you know so much about the system we designed, why do you still hold such great resentment?”
“Isn’t the Ming Dynasty system we designed not Okay?”
Zhu Yuanzhang stared at Xia Zhibai, eager to find an answer.
Xia Zhibai said: "Not good."
"What's wrong?" Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was filled with anger.
Xia Zhibai said lightly: "Your Majesty only knows that rule has costs, but rule also requires technical support. Your Majesty only considered the cost of rule and completely ignored the fundamentals of the system designed by Your Majesty. There is no technical support.”
“It is true.”
“In His Majesty’s eyes, ‘imperial power is sent to the countryside’”
“But is it really going to the countryside?”
"When it comes to levying corvees to build water conservancy, the imperial power is not only sent to the countryside, but also to the villages. In terms of the scale of tax collection, starting from the Qin Dynasty, the scale is getting bigger and bigger from generation to generation. Regardless of the meaningless consumption of food, the imperial power is all Those who go to the countryside."
"But when it comes to beating people to death according to family law, and tax evasion and tax avoidance by gentry, the imperial power does not even go to the county."
"The Ming Dynasty has never had power over the grassroots. "It's selective."
"When it is beneficial to the local bureaucracy, the imperial power can go to counties, villages, and even villages. But when it comes to the interests of the bureaucracy itself, the imperial power will not even step out of the way. It’s difficult for everyone, but Ming’s control over the grassroots is actually very weak.”
“This is also the disadvantage of small government.”
"In the Qin and Han Dynasties, the world has always been a big government, with the central government vertically managing local areas."
"With the rise of the Wei and Jin dynasties, the central court gradually lost its ability and awareness of grassroots management, but whether in the Sui and Tang dynasties, The Song Dynasty tried again and again to reach out to the grassroots, but the results were not good. The Tang Dynasty's management method of local grassroots was very simple and crude."
"That is, military officers directly manage the township. ."
"It was just that the Anshi Rebellion broke out in the Tang Dynasty, and then the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms disasters occurred."
"The Song Dynasty overcorrected."
"Since the Song Dynasty, there has never been a situation where military group officers directly manage local areas. At the same time, this has also caused local officials to directly become tax collectors of the central court. It is difficult to have any substantive control over local areas. , if you want to govern the place, you have to rely on the local rural gentry and clan."
"Song Youqi after moving to the south"
"From then on, the world completely lost control of the grassroots. "
"His Majesty learned from the experience of previous dynasties and directly adopted a small government, which is almost equivalent to giving up grassroots control."
"The official salary in the Ming Dynasty was the thinnest in history. ”
"In the Tang Dynasty, all officials had 'job fields', and in the Song Dynasty, officials also had 'public fields.' However, the Ming Dynasty only relied on salaries and no other gifts. Many ninth-level officials had only five stones per month, which was not as high as the Northern Han Dynasty in the Five Dynasties. Half of that time."
"The livelihood of the lower-level officials in the Ming Dynasty is actually seriously insufficient." "But why do people still flock to such low salaries?"
“Because many officials do not rely on the imperial salary at all.”
“More of their income comes from family operating income, such as renting out fields, real estate, and some textiles, etc.”
"These officials are essentially landlords."
"In addition."
"In the basic income of Ming Dynasty officials such as field management, they usually rely on the privileges given to them by the court. Free of privileges and extra generous rewards. "
"According to the Ming Dynasty's system, any two-ranked squires, regardless of their official rank and the amount of land, will never be signed for service."
"The people who are promoted to the second list, depending on the dignity of their official position, can be exempted from two or three thousand acres for more people, and up to one thousand acres for less people. As for officials born in Gongsheng who serve as officials, according to their official positions, those with more people can be exempted from one thousand acres, and those with less people can be exempted from one thousand acres. Only three to five hundred acres, or free from corvee.”
"Today, the imperial examination has just begun. In the future, these successful candidates will become a cloud, and the world will enter the era of great mergers."
"It has been nearly 20 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty."
" All kinds of chaos came one after another, just like the Han and Tang Dynasties, they were all faced with the task of reducing the vassal state. "
"It was difficult to remove the vassal state in all dynasties."
"The Emperor Jing of the Western Han Dynasty. Fan, triggering the Seven Kingdoms Rebellion."
"The Tang Dynasty cut down vassals several times, but because the central court was powerless, it could not solve the problem at all, and eventually brought down the Tang Dynasty."
"The vassals that the Ming Dynasty wanted to cut down were different from those in the Han and Tang Dynasties. The Han and Tang Dynasties were mainly about military affairs. , and the Ming Dynasty mainly reduced the economic 'vassals', and the 'privileged vassals' of the scholars."
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes became sharp.
Zhu Yuanzhang closed his eyes slightly and his eyes became deep.
Cutting the feudal clan.
These two words are very strong.
And he never thought that the Ming Dynasty had a ‘fan’.
He did entrust his sons to various places, but neither the King of Qin nor the King of Jin had much military power in their hands.
And he learned from the lessons of the Han and Tang Dynasties, only giving military power and not local economic power. This also meant that King Qin, King Jin and other kings of Sai could have sufficient supplies except when the court ordered the Northern Expedition. The rest of the time, I basically just lie down.
The economic ‘vassal’ and the ‘privileged domain’ of scholars that Xia Zhibai talked about gave him a refreshing feeling.
"Tell us carefully about this vassal." Zhu Yuanzhang said.
Xia Zhibai said: "The economic 'fan' refers to very clearly."
"Jiangnan."
"The current economy of Jiangnan is too prosperous. ”
“We can be self-sufficient in all aspects, so we can still live well without the north. Even the north is a burden in the eyes of southerners. ”
"In addition, the Jiangnan region accounts for nearly half of the world's taxes. If His Majesty does not take advantage of the power of the imperial court to completely take over the economic power of the Jiangnan region, with more and more officials from the Jiangnan region, the imperial court will tax the Jiangnan region. The tax will only become more and more difficult."
"It is very possible for Jiangnan to protect itself and become independent of the court."
"Because they can. Open the court, but the court cannot do without them."
Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes turned cold.
Xia Zhibai said: "It is actually unrealistic to directly reduce the economy of the Jiangnan region, because Jiangnan has a large population. If we suppress it blindly, it will easily cause the people to be displaced and turbulence will occur frequently. Therefore, relying on the power of the imperial court It’s impossible to suppress it.”
"We can only find another way."
"Use interests to divide the now monolithic Jiangnan."
"Through opening up the sea, a number of interest groups will be formed, and these people will inevitably join the water transport group. People have interests. "
"At the same time, the government and the people of the station are divided into two groups, and a group of benefiting groups have been divided again."
"In addition, steam-driven salt is now introduced in the Jiangnan area. Greed will most likely lead to overproduction of salt. At that time, the imperial court will take action and close some salt companies, while concentrating some large salt companies in a few places in the south of the Yangtze River. ”
"The location of these large salt companies is determined based on the closeness of local officials to the imperial court."
"Let the economy in Jiangnan be unbalanced and unbalanced, and use various differentiation methods to create discord in various places in Jiangnan. Then the imperial court gradually took control of local power. "
"At the same time, the economies of Jiangxi, Huguang, and Zhejiang became uneven through the means of imperial support, allowing one of the chief secretaries to receive strong support from the imperial court and directly communicate with other chief ministers. The political department widens the gap.”
“Confucius said: Don’t worry about the lack of power but the imbalance.”
“But running a country, to a certain extent, means creating inequality.”
"The localities cannot unite, let alone form a group. Only in this way can the imperial court play a prominent role and unite them together."
"In addition."
"If this method is used Support a huge economic capital."
"The imperial court can also directly promote this city to be directly managed by the central court, just like Yingtian Mansion, to improve its political status and separate it from the local chief secretary. The capital's financial revenue is entirely the responsibility of the imperial court, and not a single cent will flow to the local chief secretary."
"Economic problems should be solved through economic means."
"Administration is just an auxiliary."
(End of Chapter)