You bunch of feudal remnants still want democracy?
Zhu Cixiang remained calm on the outside, but he was already scolding in his heart. Of course he is not against democracy... He was born in the 1970s and grew up during the most powerful era of the Western free world, so he does not think democracy is bad.
But in his opinion, these scholar-bureaucrats in Nanming are not worthy of democracy at all!
It is now the year 1646 in the Western calendar. If it weren’t for Zhu Cihong’s awesomeness, Ji Kun from Yangzhou would probably have been beaten to death by Duduo’s Qing soldiers in Yangzhou City!
Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu, and Wang Fuzhi were a little better. They were still running around fighting the Qing Dynasty, but it was of no use. In the end, the Qing Dynasty unified the world?
You can't even kill tens of thousands of Eight Banners Tatars, but you still want to exchange 20 million shi of rice for the right to discuss politics and taxes... When will you guys be able to carry muskets and line up with Maozi to be shot? When can we drive gunboats to compete with the British Empire and the French Empire for world sea power? Let’s talk about it again!
By that time, no one who becomes the Ming Emperor would dare not agree...
However, Zhu Cihong would not punish the four of them. He was a reasonable prince, and Huang Zongxi was right about this.
These four remnants of feudalism are qualified to be sent to the public in any case, and their content is not useless at all.
First of all, they reminded Zhu Cixi that the landlord still had food left over! If they hadn't told him, Zhu Cixiang wouldn't have been able to remember it for a while!
Secondly, the method of establishing feudal laws and implementing people's deliberation on government proposed in "Admonitions and Suggestions on Government" is correct - it's just that the southeastern scholar-officials are not qualified to be citizens! But it does not mean that others are not qualified to discuss politics.
For example, those who carry guns to open up colonies are qualified, and they must be treated as compatriots who can discuss politics. Otherwise, how would the colony be governed? Engage in governor-general dictatorship? Then the governor is no longer the king?
Centralize power? That wouldn't work either. It was too far away and the situation was too chaotic. The emperor in Nanjing could not centralize power at all. If something happened in the colony, it might be a year before Nanjing knew about it, and it would be two years before the court held a meeting to discuss it and then sent the imperial edict to the colony...
In addition, there are still many self-respecting warlords under the Ming Dynasty!
Whether Zhu Cihong likes them or not is one thing, but whether he can destroy them without letting Dorgon, Li Guo, and Zhang Xianzhong reap any benefits is another matter.
Therefore, the realistic choice before Prince Zhu is to coexist peacefully with these warlords.
But if we want to coexist peacefully, we have to work out a formula and find some common interests!
Third, it is also a feasible way to raise food from the landlords' old wealth by paying land taxes in advance.
"Everyone, what do you think?"
After Bachelor Bi finished reading, it was Zhu Cixiang's turn to ask questions in a pleasant manner.
It was now midday time, and the senior officials of the Cabinet Office and the Generalissimo's Office in Nanjing were all sitting in the court hall, listening to the wonderful article "Admonishment and Suggestions on Government" with Prince Zhu.
"Your Highness, I think there are some merits." Wei Zaode, the first assistant, is the one who understands the superior's intentions best. Now he is the first to speak. In fact, he is trying to touch Zhu Cihong's trump card.
Zhu Cixi nodded. He is not afraid of his subordinates testing him, and he is unwilling to be a monarch with too much uncertainty like Chongzhen.
"Among them, 'Feudalists do not grant titles to their kings and countries, but also to their institutions' is very well said." Wei Zaode said, "Now the imperial court has granted many vassal towns and nobles, but not their institutions. And only the institutions." The monarch has no countrymen, let alone discuss the government. Therefore, there is no control under the monarch, and the superiors will be suspicious, and the feudal system cannot survive for a long time. If the feudal system cannot survive for a long time, the monarch and the court cannot work together, just like when the king competed with the king of Sai. If you turn toward hostility, there will be chaos sooner or later!"
Nowadays, there is no feudal law that can be accepted by both the upper and lower levels, so the imperial court at the top is always trying to cut down the vassal, while the vassal towns below are more defensive against the imperial court than against the bandits.
This model of struggle between the vassal town and the central government also applies between the colonies and the Ming Dynasty itself.
A colony is actually a "vassal". If there are no laws acceptable to both parties to constrain it, how can the imperial court run a colony? Are you causing trouble for yourself? It would be cleaner than closing the country in isolation!
"What the First Assistant said is very good," Zhu Cixi said with a smile, "There must be a way to seal it... But we can't come up with this method by discussing it in the court. There must be a political meeting to let The lord of the feudal lord will send people to discuss the matter, and counties and counties can also send political officials to discuss the matter."
In fact, the political officer has already appeared. It is a false name used to reward large tax-paying counties. He went to Nanjing City at the end of the year and the beginning of the year to participate in the "Thinking Over Political Affairs Conference" - but during this period of time at the end of the year and the beginning of this year, because Zhu Cixiang led his troops outside. , and did not hold the second political thinking conference.
Chen Rui, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, had spent more time with Zhu Cixiang, so he naturally knew that he did not want to continue discussing the political meeting, so he changed the topic and said, "Your Highness, the matter of proposing political affairs is not an urgent matter. The urgent matter now is to raise food. In After Zhu Cihong ordered the release of 500,000 stones from the army to store grain, the Mi family, which had slightly declined, has risen to five cents and five silver per dou in the past two days, and it is still the price of brown rice.
Now the lives of refugees in Pukou City in Jiangbei are extremely difficult. Many people only have one meal a day. Nanjing is full of beggars who came from Pukou..."
Pukou City was the original Jiangbei Camp. After killing Hauge, Zhu Cihong turned the Jiangbei Camp into a base camp for refugees from the North. Many family members of the Northern Army soldiers who did not catch up with the distribution of fields and houses (due to insufficient merit) also live there.
For these northerners, Zhu Cixiang's court also provided relief as much as possible. However, as the grain stored in the military garrison treasury of the Ministry of War continued to decrease, the court's ability to distribute relief was also declining - the military garrison division of the Ministry of War received a total of 1,600 yuan last winter. Yu Wanshi white rice is a lot, but there are also many people eating with it!
Now there are "refugee camps" for northerners in Nanjing, Yangzhou, Huai'an, Fengyang, Anqing, Zhenjiang and other places, and there are millions of people in need of relief!
Due to Hauge's offensive in Huaibei last year, the grain harvest in Huaibei (including Xuzhou) was severely damaged, requiring the court to provide food relief.
Shandong hosted a large number of refugees and launched several rounds of wars with the Qing army, which seriously delayed agricultural work, so the government also needed food assistance.
In addition, Zhu Cixi's court also carried out a lot of major projects - many cities in the north of the Yangtze River needed to be reinforced, and many military important places needed to build bastions. However, the biggest major project is the reinforcement project of the Huaihe River embankment, because the Yellow River has flowed southward for hundreds of years, and the lower reaches of the Yellow River have taken over the Huaihe River channel due to serious sedimentation. During the Jiajing and Wanli years, there were frequent disasters. Although the famous minister Pan Jixun carefully managed it, the river disaster has become serious again. Unless there is a severe drought, it will definitely overflow.
In order to ensure the safety of the Jianghuai grain-producing areas, Zhu Cihong had to appoint Han Lin as Minister of Industry and River Governor in the autumn of the 18th year of Chongzhen, and began the hugely expensive Huaihe River management project!
Adding up several consumption items, the 16 million shi that Zhu Cixiang obtained with a bad heart was consumed very quickly, and there was no more food left to help the refugees... And it was only late June, and it was not until autumn food was put on the market in large quantities. There’s still some time left!
And even if autumn grains are on the market, it may not be able to alleviate much. Because the Huguang War lasted too long, it affected this year’s spring sowing. At the same time, Li Zicheng's implementation of planned farm transfers and land enclosures in several Hubei provinces also had a negative impact on the productivity development of Hubei's rural areas. Therefore, Huguang's grain output this year must be less than the average of previous years.
If we want Southeast to survive this food shortage, we must dig out the grain reserves of the landlords and wealthy families!
But at the same time, we should not break up with each other. If we break up with each other and let it go, it will be fun for a while, but the consequences will be to seriously destroy the productivity of Huguang and Southeast China, and the food shortage will only become more serious in the future.
"Your Highness, I have an idea." The person who spoke was military advisor Li Yan. "Master Qiansui, you can lead the refugees from the north to Huguang to eat at a wealthy restaurant!"
