The first person to offer advice to Zhu Cihong was Huang Zongxi. He twirled his beard and talked eloquently: "Your Highness, I thought the reason why the gentry was strong and the country was poor was the sin of Qin's abolition of feudalism. The world is big and difficult to govern, and the emperor can't reach it. The concerns are limited. Therefore, we cannot use officials to govern the people, but can only use officials to appease the gentry, and use the gentry to rule the people of the world. This is what is called sharing the world with the scholar-officials! Since we share the world with the scholar-officials, then the scholar-officials will naturally benefit from it. Their gains The amount of benefit depends on the strength and distance of the court.
In the past, the imperial court used Beijing as its capital, with the emperor guarding the border, and the rich and prosperous land in the southeast as Yuanzhou. The governance of the southeast naturally relies heavily on the gentry, and the benefits of the southeast must be shared with the gentry. Moreover, since the Tumubao Incident, this dynasty has turned from prosperity to decline, the country's power has declined, and the monarch's power has gradually weakened. If the king is weak, the gentry will be strong, and if the gentry is strong, they will compete with the king for profits. Of course, the world's tax revenue will be lost. Therefore, with 100,000 acres of land and a population of 10 million, only more than 20 million dan of grain and 2 to 3 million taels of silver were paid.
The way to deal with late births is to use strict governance in nearby counties, and to use small towns in distant states. In order to overcome the difficulties of the tens of thousands of new troops, there are thousands of nobles and ministers who came from the north to the south, and tens of thousands of eldest sons gathered from all over the country. They are also afraid that they will not be able to manage the southern Zhili, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi. Dozens of state capitals? Therefore, students feel that what really needs to be paid attention to is the outlying states and counties in the north! "
Really insightful!
What Huang Zongxi broke through was the biggest difficulty in China's centralized monarchy - the country is too big! These days, transportation is basically based on running, and communication is basically based on shouting. The larger the country, the slower the transmission of information. It's easier to control things closer to the capital, but it's easy to get out of control in far-off border counties.
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, when Nanjing was established as the capital, people looked at the money bag. As a result, the border troops rebelled under the leadership of King Zhu Di of Yan!
Later, Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing and personally watched the border troops, and the southeastern gentry immediately rose up...
Now Zhu Cixiang has led hundreds of thousands of northern troops, thousands of northern dignitaries, and tens of thousands of eldest sons and clans to the south of the Yangtze River. With so many people and such strong strength, it is not a big problem to suppress the southeastern gentry. The real problem was the outlying states and the northern front.
If there are no troubles in the outlying states and counties, and the Tatars in the north don't interfere, what's wrong with the southeast?
"Your Highness, the student has a way to keep the southeastern states and counties in peace while the court strictly collects business taxes and conducts land inventory."
This time it was Grand Duke Luo who spoke - Enke's No. 1 spot this time depends on the performance of him and Huang Zongxi!
In a sense, today's Donglin Conference is also an interview for the top pick! Grand Duke Luo dreams of becoming the number one scholar, can he not perform well?
"The students' solution is to exchange rich officials for poor gentry!" Luo Dagong launched his own "solution."
"How do you say it?" Zhu Cixiang asked with interest.
Luo Dagong said: "The way of governance in this dynasty has always been that the gentry are rich and the officials are poor! The gentry is a scholar, a scholar, and an official household. This dynasty treats scholars better than those in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Taking the Song Dynasty as an example, civil servants have generous salaries and official households It is also tax-free and exempt from corvee. However, how many official households do officials have? It is difficult to pass the imperial examination and it is not easy to get an official position. The number of official households in the country is only a few hundred in three years. There are tens of thousands of official households in the country. Although there are various preferential treatment, But the cost is ultimately limited.
However, this dynasty has been receiving generous treatment since the beginning of the scholarly period, including tax exemption and exemption from corvee. It can also use the methods of deceitful mail, donation and protection of merchants to disguise the preferential treatment of scholars, which is actually a share of the country's tax revenue. Therefore, as long as a scholar in this dynasty has a scholar, he is not poor. If he wins the imperial examination, he will become a rich man in three or two months. There is only one person among ten thousand who can be honest and self-sufficient! As for becoming an official... If you are not corrupt at all, you are actually just seeking a posthumous reputation. You won't make much money, and you may have to put money into it.
However, the preferential treatment given to government officials at the local level is much higher than that for civil servants. Therefore, even those officials who are apparently upright can still make some money by sharing profits and state taxes. If this official comes from a prosperous place in the southeast, he doesn't have to be a corrupt official to become a rich man. It's just that this money does not come from the emperor, but from the local area... The biggest failure in the administration of this dynasty lies here! "
Officials work for the emperor's family, but the emperor's family's salary is meager, accounting for a negligible proportion of the family income of most officials!
Even if he loses his official position, as long as he does not reduce his status, or if his status is reduced and his reputation increases, he will not suffer any financial losses.
This is the fundamental reason why the civil servants of the Ming Dynasty dared to resist the imperial power - their economic foundation was not the emperor's salary at all, but the right to share profits from national taxes. This is not official salary, but gentry power!
Grand Duke Luo continued: "If His Highness the Crown Prince wants to take over the power of the gentry in the southeast, he must raise officials with high salaries so that officials who are dedicated to their work can share in the benefits of the gentry's power taken back by the court. Only in this way will some officials with gentry origins work for the gentry." The imperial court went to seize the financial rights of other gentry.”
"That makes sense!" Zhu Cixiang laughed, what a talent! You can be a Luo Ge elder in the future!
"Tell me about it," Zhu Cixiang smiled and asked, "How should I support my officials with high salaries?"
Luo Dagong said: "Your Highness, the late student's idea is that wherever more taxes and grain are paid, more officials will be supported! The court should take a portion of the land rent and commercial taxes of each state capital, such as two out of ten, as a means of supporting officials. Capital. The more capital there is to support officials, the more officials there will be! Taking Songjiang Prefecture, where I am a registered official, as an example, Songjiang has fertile land. The total land area on the books is about 2 million acres, but the real number should be around 3.3 million acres. Among them, nearly half are official, military, and hidden land. If the inventory can be completed, then 1.65 million acres of land can be attached to military garrison. The court can use 300,000 acres of it as job land for Songjiang officials.
So just from the rent collection of job fields, Songjiang officials can get at least more than 200,000 shibai rice. Half of it was given to Songjiang officials serving in the imperial court or foreign governments, and the other half was given to low-level officials, civil servants, police officers, rural soldiers and other local officials. With such generous treatment, it is natural to win over many Songjiang gentry who are willing to serve the court and can do their jobs. "
In the late Ming Dynasty, the price of rice was so high that more than 200,000 shi of white rice was equivalent to 4 to 50,000 taels of silver. This was a huge benefit! Grand Duke Luo was a little worried when he proposed this price - would he ask for too much?
"But how can two out of ten official fields be enough?" Zhu Cixiang's answer was beyond Grand Duke Luo's expectation, "I am not short of hungry soldiers. If you want people to work with sincerity, of course you have to give them enough salary... ..In addition to 20% of official, military, and hidden fields, Songjiang’s local commercial taxes can also be divided! Customs duties and salt taxes in commercial taxes belong to the imperial court, but taxes, residence taxes, liquor taxes, and deed taxes are all borne by the local government and the imperial court. Share it! With Songjiang’s wealth, it’s no big deal to receive one or two hundred thousand taels of silver a year!
In addition, Songjiang officials serving in the court or in Beppu will naturally receive a generous salary! "
Zhu Cixiang looked at the room full of Donglin gentlemen with burning eyes, "Do you think that under such conditions, we can find enough scholar-bureaucrats and brave men in Songjiang Mansion to use them for the country?"
