Clan.
This thing has been around for a long time.
The Chinese people resettled and valued blood and family ties, so the product of clan was born.
However, for the central government, the greatest danger lies precisely in the fact that clans will control grassroots political power.
No matter what the policy is, national policies cannot even reach the countryside without the permission of the rural clans!
For example, most of a county's fiscal and tax revenue depends on the clans that control local fields and local people. When such clans intervene in the collection of grain taxes, in a sense, they can even influence the financial resources of the central government!
The material basis of political power is people, finance, and the military. With the barrier of clan, the central government has never been able to truly control the land and the people of the Ming Dynasty because there is a thick barrier of clan between the two sides!
Whether they are local gentry or court gentry, behind everyone stands a clan, whether large or small, but always present.
Because people cannot exist independently. They have parents, brothers and sisters, and parents also have parents, brothers and sisters. When these relatives come together, they become a clan, which will result in the transfer of benefits.
For example, a court official in Beijing may appear to be an upright and honest official, but what about the clan behind him?
People such as Yang Rong, Huang Huai, Jin Youzi, etc. not only themselves were corrupt and bribed, but the clans behind them were even more unscrupulous in the local countryside, annexing the fields to the detriment of the people, but local officials dared to be angry and dare not speak out!
Why?
Because I can’t afford to offend him!
A county magistrate of a prefecture is just a fourth-rank official or a local official. Would he dare to take action against the clans of Yang Rong and Huang Huai, who are important officials in the court?
Besides, although these local officials are officials in other places, the clans behind them are not the same as Yang Rong, Huang Huai and others. They annex the fields that should be annexed, and plunder the people's fat and the people's anointing. There is no difference. Everyone Same!
In history, even Yang Shiqi is not exempt from vulgarity. He, Yang Shiqi, is indeed upright and upright, but his family members are tyrannizing the countryside in his hometown. His son Yang Ji takes advantage of his power to do evil and kills people. When Yang Shiqi finds out, his good son has already committed a crime. He committed many evil deeds and killed dozens of people. In the end, he was executed by beheading. Yang Shiqi's reputation was also greatly damaged.
As the saying goes, "When a person attains the Tao, a chicken or a dog ascends to heaven," this is nothing more than this truth.
The clan cultivates talents, and after the talents become "virtuous", they feed back the interests of the clan. The two parties have long formed this tacit cooperation model.
For ordinary members of the clan, all matters such as life, old age, illness, death, schooling, promotion, weddings and funerals, etc. of these ordinary people are all related to the clan.
A well-governed clan may be able to provide them with protection.
However, if an ordinary citizen's parents unfortunately pass away, instead of receiving any material security, he may be deprived of his family; if his wife's husband dies, the clan may severely prevent her from remarrying and require her to remain a widow or she will be imprisoned in a pig cage; or even to the extreme In this situation, as long as the common people offend the interests of a certain clan elder, an unintentional act in the ancestral grave hall can be labeled as disrespecting the ancestors and betraying the clan, and may even be lynched to death; or the common people are good at renting the house. As a result, if the clan gentry takes a fancy to the few acres of land in their name, they may be expelled from the clan and become refugees who can be bullied by everyone.
At that time, Xie Jin was expelled from the Xie clan because of his promotion of new learning, and he became a lonely ghost.
To put it bluntly, the Jie clan was afraid that Jie Jin would promote what they considered to be fallacies and heresies, and the entire world's scholars would attack them, which would implicate them, so they made such a decision.
But no one expected that Xie Jin not only had nothing to do, but because Zhu Gaoxu entered the East Palace and even ascended to the throne, he became the Minister of Academic Affairs, in charge of the world's academic affairs, and a true minister of the court.
As a result, the Jie clan became the laughingstock of the world and was ridiculed and reviled by countless people.
As a result, the Jie clan saw this and contacted Xie Jin not long ago, hoping that he could return to the clan and lead the clan to revive again!
Why would the Jie clan do this?
Would you rather put down the so-called clan dignity and want Jie Jin to return?
To put it bluntly, it’s not just about profit!
Who in the whole world does not know that Xie Jin is the absolute confidant of Zhu Gaoxu, the virtuous Emperor, and a popular minister in the court.
If Xie Jin returns to the clan, then they can naturally rely on Xie Jin's power to do whatever they want in Jishui County, Jiangxi and even the entire Ji'an Prefecture, annexing fields to enrich themselves!
This is the clan!
Through the local gentry and court gentry within the clan, they have become closed and independent self-reliant kingdoms in the countryside!
If local officials want to implement the national policies of the imperial court and collect taxes, they must first say hello to the kings of these independent kingdoms in advance, otherwise they may not even bother with them!
The characteristics of the clan are that the surname is the link, the bloodline is the bridge, the interests are the goals, and the land is the foundation, forming an intricate community of interests!
The harm to the imperial court of these independent kingdoms and communities of interests is self-evident!
And the policy that Yang Shiqi is currently implementing is still being implemented slowly. Sooner or later, he will have a head-on conflict with this clan. There is absolutely no possibility of reconciliation between the two parties!
Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu had to take action!
The best way to break up the clan is to urbanize rapidly, allowing the common people to leave the fields and run to the city, thereby breaking away from the control of the clan.
Correspondingly, cities must provide employment opportunities for these common people to ensure that they can support their families and even make a fortune after leaving the fields!
In other words, if you want to completely break the clan monopoly, you must wait until the Ming Dynasty enters the era of industrialization. Factories are built one after another, but what follows is the big problem of barren fields and reduced food production.
With the current economic conditions and industrial level of the Ming Dynasty, it will take at least hundreds of years to implement urbanization.
Zhu Gaoxu knows this very well!
It is true that because he is a time traveler, he can see through the fog into the future and see the right path that the Ming Dynasty should take, but his descendants do not have this ability!
This means that if he doesn’t do it now, his descendants will not be able to do it, and it is impossible for them to do it!
Because of this, no matter how difficult it is now, Zhu Gaoxu will implement all these new policies and plant the seeds for the Ming Dynasty in advance!
When the gentry is defeated and new interest groups grow up, even if these old-fashioned people gather to fight back, those who have benefited from the New Deal will resist with all their strength, fight against it, and protect their own interests!
This is true for promoting new learning, it is also true for promoting the sharing of land among farmers, and it is even more true for building an ocean-going trading fleet!
As long as these seeds can grow up safely, even if Zhu Gaoxu drives west, the Ming Dynasty will sail towards a new and unknown distance in the direction set by Zhu Gaoxu himself!
