Chu Zhen knew that Zhu Yuanzhang not only said harsh words, but he was really capable of killing people.
However, it will not be possible to successfully implement the idea of dividing the land into acres and allowing the officials and gentry to pay the grain together.
Li Qingzhao thought thoughtfully: "The merger of the Recruitment Law and the Farmland Equalization Tax Law is roughly equivalent to dividing the land into acres... Banshan Gong's reforms are useful after all."
"Yes!" Chu Zhen said: "From the development of renting servants in the Tang Dynasty to the two-tax law, to the recruitment and square fields of the Song Dynasty, to the one-whip method, and finally to the farming of land, the overall development trend of taxation is, Using money instead of physical goods, from various taxes, corvee, and labor to simply collecting taxes based on acres of land.
The ultimate goal is to make the rich households who hide their land pay taxes so that the poor households can survive. It can be simply understood as killing the rich and helping the poor. "
The phrase "kill the rich and give to the poor" made the three people present look at him with suspicion.
Lin Daiyu touched her white neck with her slender hands, which felt cool.
Although she has never read these miscellaneous books, she also knows that bandits like Uncle Chu who shout slogans such as robbing the rich to help the poor and doing justice for heaven, love to kill official families like hers and rob official ladies like her. when……
Daiyu couldn't help but glance at him, and realized that this bandit didn't look fierce at all. Instead, he was as gentle as the spring breeze, just like a banished immortal.
"Chu Langjun said it well!"
Li Qingzhao smiled at Chu Zhen.
Lin Daiyu also thinks it's good.
"How could I not know that collecting money is better than harvesting grain?"
Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly, "But I'm afraid you don't know that during the tax collection period in summer and autumn, how many people will be bankrupted by exchanging rice, grain, silk and silk for silver?"
Before the Tang Dynasty, people paid taxes in kind.
After the Tang Dynasty, sometimes in kind and sometimes in money, even in modern times, agricultural taxes in the past were paid directly to grain.
But transporting food is cheap in modern times, which is different from ancient times.
"Paying taxes in silver is easier to transport than paying taxes in kind, and can reduce corvee labor."
Chu Zhen said, "The whip method and the sharing of acres into acres are the development trend. People can run away, but the land cannot. After spreading into acres, the country can obtain relatively stable tax revenue from the fields, and recover taxes from the clan and gentry landlords. .
Moreover, dividing the land into acres can promote population growth and fill the vacancies in the north of the Ming Dynasty. "
"The clan does not directly collect taxes on the land, it is collected by officials and then given to them."
Zhu Yuanzhang corrected Chu Zhen's statement.
"Don't talk about taxes, just talk about hereditary inheritance and neglect of replacement. If the ancestral precepts are not changed, it will be useless no matter how much you spread the income, and it is impossible to talk about the integrated payment of grain by officials and gentry."
Chu Zhen read Hu Weiyong's policies and found that there were no restrictions on the clan. In Zhu Yuanzhang's heart, his children and grandchildren were his enemies.
Sure enough, when he mentioned his sons and grandsons, Zhu Yuanzhang darkened his face and said: "The country I conquered cannot guarantee the wealth of future generations?! How can this be true!"
"Is it you who conquered the country?"
"If it's not me, could it be you?"
"It was not me, nor you. It was the Chinese people who picked up hoes and sickles and followed the rebel armies. Together with you, Zhu Yuanzhang, they drove Meng Yuan back to the north! Because he was strong and capable of fighting, the powerful and powerful people from all walks of life defected one after another. , the people follow you, so you can become the lord of the world!"
Without looking at his expression, Chu Zhen said again: "You led the uprising and it is true that you have taken the throne, but the people all over the world also deserve credit!"
"Have I ever treated the people badly?! Is it a lie that I am a frivolous corvee and receive little wealth?!"
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at it coldly.
Lin Daiyu opened her mouth to speak. She had read history books and knew Ming Taizu's methods.
"But your hereditary plan is to ask the people of the world to support the millions of Zhu family members in two hundred years! But you have to know that water can carry a boat and capsize it. The people of the world can support the Zhu family until the Ming Dynasty is destroyed. At that time, I can also kill your Zhu family!!"
Chu Zhen was not polite at all and stabbed Zhu Yuanzhang directly in his heart.
The inheritance of children and grandchildren is the most sensitive thing in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart, except for the queen and the prince.
What's more, now Chu Zhen said bluntly that he would kill his descendants of the Zhu family!
In the Ming Dynasty, anyone who dared to say this would definitely die.
Even here, Zhu Yuanzhang was furious, and his dark and majestic face was red.
Li Qingzhao's heart was in his throat.
In the Song Dynasty, who dared to make officials so angry?
What's more, the person Chu Langjun is angry with now is the hero who has regained the Sixteenth Province of Youyun, Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty.
"Of course, you don't have to be angry because the descendants of the Zhu family were killed." Chu Zhen said.
"How can I not be angry?!"
Zhu Yuanzhang almost wanted to point his nose and scold him.
"When the dynasty collapsed, which clan was not completely slaughtered?"
"..."
Zhu Yuanzhang had nothing to say about this.
Chu Zhen said again: "You are hereditary and let all the descendants of the Zhu family receive salary money from generation to generation. When the dynasty collapsed, they suffered this unreasonable disaster. You know, the court has no money to pay them!"
"I have harmed my descendants instead?!"
Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely angry and laughed.
"To a certain extent, yes."
Chu Zhen looked at him calmly and said, "You divide the vassals into feudal lords and let them lead troops to guard the borders. That's the right thing to do."
Zhu Yuanzhang's face turned pale.
"But you didn't think about the future."
Chu Zhen said: "When you are the emperor, and the vassal kings are all your sons, of course you will feel relieved. But what happens next?
I won’t talk about Zhu Yunwen, nor Zhu Biao, but just any emperor after the fifth Ming Dynasty. After he became emperor, he faced a group of relatives who didn’t know how to call him, and saw them holding heavy troops on the border. , 'Controlling the soldiers and horses along the border', 'Controlling ninety soldiers to the upper city, carrying 80,000 armor, and six thousand leather chariots'. The court also paid taxes to them and used the money to help them raise troops.
Which emperor is not frightened and can resist the idea of cutting down his vassal? "
"How do you call relatives who don't know how to call them? They are all descendants of my Zhu family!"
Zhu Yuanzhang retorted again.
"Those are the descendants of your Zhu Yuanzhang, not the descendants of the five emperors."
Chu Zhen took a sip of tea and said, "Think about it for yourself. Your father's grandfather's third uncle's great-grandson had an army of 100,000 on the frontier of your Ming Dynasty. You have never seen him since you were a child. Oh, you have met him once, that is. When you ascend the throne, after seeing this, can you feel relieved and hand over the army to him?"
Zhu Yuanzhang: "..."
He was speechless.
After thinking for a long time, he asked: "How did Zhu Yunwen reduce the vassal status?"
"He reduced your son to a commoner."
"Fuck."
Zhu Yuanzhang didn't have the energy to scold him even if he wanted to.
He gave his sons the title of vassal king, so that they could be hereditary and their descendants could enjoy glory and wealth.
As a result, the next emperor of the Ming Dynasty he chose demoted his son to a commoner.
He was only the second emperor, and he didn't dare to think about how the future Ming Emperor would treat the feudal kings.
"so!"
Chu Zhen concluded: "The ancient saying says that the beauty of a gentleman can only be killed after five generations. It is not unreasonable."
"The words come from Mencius Li Lou~" Li Qingzhao helped Chu Zhen add with a smile.
This sentence was not used correctly, but of course she would not say it out loud.
"Sister is really knowledgeable and talented."
Lin Daiyu smiled, and Li Qingzhao smiled at her, did not go to her side, and continued to stay beside Chu Zhen.
After the two girls finished speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a while before asking:
"The clan population you said is one million is false, right? How could it be so many?"
"..."
Chu Zhen gave him a speechless look, "You should really learn mathematics, that is, arithmetic and arithmetic. The average generation has five children. After ten generations, you can count how many princes, princes, and various town officials there will be." General of the country and auxiliary country. I have not counted the twenty-four princes you have granted."
"I have twenty-five sons?!"
Zhu Yuanzhang knew that he could not calculate without having to calculate, so he was concerned that he would have seven more sons.
Lin Daiyu wanted to do some calculations, but she found that sons gave birth to sons, and grandsons gave birth to sons. Generation after generation, all of them were made generals. The number was far beyond her mental calculation ability.
"I can't figure it out." Li Qingzhao also gave up.
"That's the easiest one."
Chu Zhen said: "A rough calculation shows that the Ming Dynasty created a total of 60 princes, 1,000 county princes, and 500,000 clan members. Calculated by the lieutenant of the town, how much food was spent every year."
"..."
Zhu Yuanzhang asked in confusion: "Are there really so many clans?!"
A clan of half a million people can't even afford a hundred dan of food every year, let alone five hundred dan.
"The exact number is unknown, but after the mid-Ming Dynasty, the money given to the clan became a quota because it was really unaffordable.
And because of the ancestral precepts and being cut off from the feudal vassal by Zhu Di, they could not go to work and could only be poor.
Many poor children of the Zhu family had no choice but to beg for food, defect to Mongolia, or take the initiative to steal, because they only had a mouthful of food to eat when they entered the prison cell. As a result, some members of the Zhu family burned treasure notes to Emperor Taizu every year and festival. Burning and cursing at the same time, Taizu was asked to spend treasures in the underworld. "
"Stop scolding me, I...change it!!"
Chu Zhen's bitter and sarcastic words made Zhu Yuanzhang feel cold, as if he was being scolded by the descendants of the Zhu family while burning paper money. He could only grit his teeth and make a decision quickly to stop Chu Zhen from telling those things in the history books.
Change, must change, change the hereditary system!
