"Is there a clear way to beg for food?" Wang Fuzhi twirled his beard lightly, a little dumbfounded. This Ji Kun himself is a cruel official who offends others. He still dares to talk nonsense. Aren't he afraid that someone will accuse him of slandering the emperor?
Ji Kun, who didn't know he was wrong in slandering you, thought for a moment and said: "There are examples of donations in this dynasty, but the income from donations cannot make up for the shortfall of 20 million stones...and the prince is now implementing The officials, gentry, merchants and people all pay grain and taxes, so an empty official position is of no use. As for the actual shortage, there are not so many to sell!"
Huang Zongxi said: "You can exchange political power for rice! Didn't the Crown Prince issue an edict to recommend political officials based on the amount of business tax paid?"
"That's a way, but..." Ji Kun shook his head, "How can you get 20 million shi of rice just for the power to discuss politics? According to the current market price in Nanjing, Suzhou, Yangzhou and other places, that's 6,000 shi Ten thousand taels of silver!"
"Sixty million..." Wang Fuzhi said, "How about borrowing grain? Use it as an offset against future field taxes. Borrow 20 million, get 40 million!"
After all, he is a great Confucian... he still calculates the accounts well! That rice will get moldy even if it is left at home. If you lend it to Prince Zhu, you can offset the double farm tax, and the rate of return is not bad!
Huang Zongxi added: "We also need to set up a place to discuss politics and govern the world together!"
Gu Jiang added: "Not only must we discuss politics, but we must also discuss taxes! Only by harmonizing the private interests of the world can we become the commonwealth of the world. This is the discussion of royal government!"
This Gu Jiang's thinking is very backward. He once said in "Rizhilu": From the world as a family, everyone loves his relatives, and everyone has his own children. However, people are selfish and have solid feelings. This is definitely selfishness in public!
Gu Daru doesn't believe in selfless things!
Therefore, he advocated "combining private affairs with public affairs", that is, collaborating to come up with a set of methods that are in line with "the private interests of all people", which is "public", and the world can be governed.
Ji Kun said: "We should restore feudalism and clarify the laws!"
This Ji Yushi was born in a semi-feudal guard house and was well aware of the shortcomings of semi-feudalism. At the same time, he also felt that the world was so broken that it was unrealistic to completely restore counties and immediately re-establish centralization of power, so he could only "officials" The government is responsible for it, and the feudal people are responsible for it."
"It's impossible," Gu Jiang shook her head and said, "The failure of counties and counties is due to the superiors. The failure of feudalism is due to the subordinates."
Huang Zongxi interjected with a smile: "Brother Ningren (Gu Yanwu's nickname) just said that only by uniting the private interests of the world can we become the public of the world? Some of our family's properties are private, and the army and territory are in the hands of those powerful people who separate themselves from one side. Isn’t it private?”
Huang Zongxi's views on feudal issues were similar to Ji Kun's. They both believed that it was impossible to completely restore centralization. Moreover, he opposed returning the capital to Beijing, believing that the northern land was barren and cold and could not support a large capital. The population of Beijing city is greater than the soldiers and generals of Jiubian Town together. In order to support them, millions of stones of rice alone have to be transported every year, not to mention various other consumer goods transported from the southeast.
The water transport capacity is also limited. If a few million stones are transported to Beijing, then the supplies to support Jiubian will be millions less! After many years, can Jiubian not be exhausted?
So setting up nine borders is not as good as sealing nine fortresses. The question is just to let the feudal lords of nine fortresses take care of themselves and defend the borders for the country?
Huang Zongxi said: "If the imperial court wants to take back the troops and territory of those people, it will have to fight with each other... Now the Tartars occupy Zhongzhou and the rogue bandits occupy the northwest and disrupt Sichuan. If we fight again ourselves, it will not be a pain for our relatives." , the haters are about to come?
Moreover, the northern and central plains are now also implementing plans to teach the land through dictation, and the policies they implement are different from those in the southeast. If we force ourselves to travel to the north using the southeast method, we will probably turn millions of people in the north into enemy bandits! "
Nowadays, most of China's population is concentrated in the southeast, while the population in the Central Plains, northwest, and northeast is relatively small, so it is possible to implement equalization of land per population. This is a "gold finger" in Zhu Cixiang's view, but in Chinese history In fact, I did it many times.
Historically, the Qing Dynasty did this. For example, the famous "Huguang Fills Sichuan" was actually a land equalization campaign. They directly sent troops to some densely populated villages in Huguang, and all were taken to Sichuan to divide their fields... ..
Nowadays, no one in the Northeast fails to mention it. In the Central Plains and Northwest, land equalization is already being carried out. By the time the Ming Dynasty recovers, solid interest groups will have already been formed - this is different from Hubei. Hubei just asked Li Zicheng to carry out a few Even so, Zhu Cixiang has to admit the reality of equal land distribution in Hubei.
Therefore, in the future, there must be a system different from that in the southeast to protect the interests of farmers with equal land, otherwise more than 10 million people will fight against the Ming Dynasty, which will be a big trouble.
"That's right!" Ji Kun thought about it for a moment, "Nowadays, the government can only be the government, and the feudal is the feudal... But there must be laws and rules so that the private interests of the feudal lord can be integrated into the world. Lord!"
Gu Jiang nodded, "That's right... Let's discuss it again and write a confession letter to the Crown Prince together!"
...
"In the past, Shang Tang defeated Jie for ten years, and Zhou Wu defeated Zhou for eight hundred years. It started at the end of the cold period, and the road was blue and blue. He educated the barbarians, mixed with the sea, and pastored the people of the world, and then became China. In modern times, the Qin, Han, Jin, Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties were no more than three A hundred springs and autumns can only last for a few dozen cold and summer seasons, so why?
One is feudalism, and the other is political discussion. Feudalists do not only enfeoff their king and country, but also enfeoff their system.
The feudalists of the three generations established feudal vassals to suppress the evils of barbarians. Under each king, there were public offices, officials, officials, and scholars. They respected each other closely, and built guards at each level, each with their own responsibilities.
Although Dog Rong and Dong Hu were in trouble, Qi Huan and Jin Wenzun were there to avoid it. Officials, ministers, officials, scholars, or monarchs and ministers of a country may contract with each other to be masters and subordinates. The country is established by the king's pardon and command. During the establishment of the king, the various levels of the country have checks and balances, determine their duties, and each performs their rights and responsibilities to ensure the destiny of the country. Kings, monarchs, officials, ministers, officials, and scholars should practice martial arts and observe etiquette. They should not only offer sacrifices and prayers, but also sing praises when they hear the joy of war.
At that time, the king controlled his ministers, and the ministers also controlled the king. After establishing his country, educating the Miao people, expanding the territory of barbarians, and creating hundreds of millions of Xia people, he was the beginning of the rest of Jin, Chu, Qi, Lu, Song, Yan, and Qin. How many refugees were there at that time? How much progress was made in the next two thousand years?
But where are the Seven Kingdoms and Eight Kings? In the Han and Jin Dynasties, there was no discussion of government affairs. The discussion of government was not the discussion of imperial examinations, but the discussion of princes, nobles, and nobles, with special emphasis on the discussion of the countrymen and the three elders. Officials, ministers, officials and noble people. Scholars and nobles are concubines and nobles. The people of the country are kings and people. They serve the country as soldiers, and the king orders the foundation of the country. The three fellow villagers are virtuous, they are the leaders of Li and Miao, and they are also attached to military affairs.
In the past Zhou Dynasty, King Wu Mu had three elders to discuss the government, check and balance the nobles at home, and sweep away the east and outside. The countrymen rushed to obey the king's orders and took pride in military service. Su Shen did not dare not to pay attention to Hao. In the Zhou Dynasty, when Li's government declined, Xuan and You regarded the three elders of the country as enemies and bandits, so they moved to Luo.
Afterwards, this government gradually declined. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucius and Mencius promoted Confucianism and wanted to restore the system, but eventually it died. It has never been heard of the 400-year-old dynasty in China again.
Without political discussion, it is difficult for feudalism to survive, and if it does, it will be a disaster for the king. In this dynasty, Taizu established Saijun as a far-sighted person, hoping to imitate the Shang and Zhou dynasties. However, the king of Sai had no feudal system and political system. The king and the king of Sai were hostile to each other, which led to great chaos. After the declaration of virtue, the government collapsed. So, it turns out that Liu Ji and Li Shan are just mediocre people who know the surface but don’t know the reason. Jie, Hu, and Sanyang are officials with swords and pens who stop eating because of choking and flatter their masters for advancement. They are not worthy of their position and cannot be called scholars. To this day, there are tens of thousands of Jurchen barbarians, but there are no good candidates. The northern land is lost and weeping and mourning. "
In the Wenhua Hall, Zhu Cixiang's eyes seemed to be closed, and he was sitting on a chair with his arms folded, listening to Bi Jiucheng, a Hanlin scholar, reciting word by word the "Admonishment and Suggestions on Government" jointly signed by Ji Kun, Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu, and Wang Fuzhi. sparse".
Ji Kun, Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu, and Wang Fuzhi submitted two proposals in total this time, one of which recommended Zhu Cihong to solve the food problem. He proposed to use the method of "borrowing grain to pay taxes" to raise rice from landowners in Southeast and Hunan to meet the urgent needs. And this "Remonstrance, Suggestions and Political Commentary" nominally cooperates with "borrowing grain" - using the power of "discussing politics" and "discussing taxation" (discussing land tax) as a guarantee for "borrowing grain".
At the same time, Ji Kun, Huang Zongxi and others also hoped to use the method of "feudal government proposal" to negotiate a set of feudal laws. Those who could participate in the political discussion were not only the landlords in Southeast and Huguang, but also other people, including those who supported the military and occupied the country. Local warlords can also participate, and everyone will discuss how to improve the feudalism of the Ming Dynasty...
