"Your Majesty, are you talking nonsense?" Queen Zhou looked at her son Zhu Cixi distressedly, "Are you working too hard for the country and the people these days?"
"Yes, yes!" Emperor Chongzhen nodded repeatedly, "Brother Da Chun, how about you take a good rest for a few months?"
He only said half of what he said, and the other half was: Let the father serve the country and the people! My father now knows how to be a more cunning and wise king!
It turns out that after more than two years of study (learning from his son), Emperor Chongzhen felt that he had greatly improved in governance. If he had been at his current level in the first year of Chongzhen, he would have governed the world in an orderly manner. .
At that time, he was so naive that he actually believed that everything that happened in the Ming Dynasty was caused by a bunch of corrupt officials and traitorous ministers!
So after he came to power, he was busy looking for good officials who were not corrupt or treacherous to do things to save the situation... But he didn't expect that this approach was completely wrong. The problem of Ming Dynasty was not caused by corrupt officials at all. It was not the corrupt officials but the traitorous ministers who divided the country among three groups: the scholar-bureaucrats, the hereditary military attachés, nobles, and the clan!
Needless to say, the clan has more and more people, and there are so many princes, princes, generals, and lieutenants that we can’t even count them all. They all have to be paid. It’s simply a financial black hole!
However, no matter how big the black hole of the clan is, it is not as big as the black hole of hundreds of military guards of the Ming Dynasty! There are so many military households and military fields on the books, but how many of them can actually go into battle to kill the enemy?
Very few!
How come a few hundred people have more than 100 million acres of farmland, right? These fields are all state-owned! Since we can't raise soldiers, why don't we charge some rent to the head office?
Or not!
Why is this happening? It was the nobles and hereditary military attaches who divided up the land of the military garrison in the garrison... The military system of the Ming Dynasty relied on soil to raise soldiers. If the land is gone, it will be difficult to raise soldiers.
The hereditary noble military officers eat military households and military villages, while the scholar-bureaucrats who read the books of sages and take the imperial examination eat civilian land, official land, hidden land and business taxes!
Through buying, selling, occupying, and deceitful transfers, these scholar-officials, mainly those who were registered but not yet official, took over most of the land in the world without raising taxes, paying apportionments, or paying rent. What's more, some even protect businessmen and make profits by helping them evade taxes!
The little preferential treatment that our ancestors gave to scholars and scholars was all used by them to divide the imperial court's financial resources and taxes!
Emperor Chongzhen originally thought that the biggest problem in the officialdom was that there were too many corrupt officials. Now he finally knew that corruption was not a problem until he became an official. The real problem was that he was already corrupt without being an official... This is The real problem!
If you can be corrupt only if you become an official, and if you don't become an official, you can't be corrupt, and you can only be a poor scholar drooling when you look at those corrupt officials, then the Ming Dynasty will not be so poor.
Because only when you become an official can you have the opportunity to be corrupt, which means that the wealth and glory of scholars are in the hands of the emperor!
Only when the emperor gives it can they become rich! If the emperor doesn't give it, Qincuo will be the big one!
There are so many poor people in the world who stretch their necks and have red eyes to become corrupt officials. Are there any who are willing to make money for the royal family? Will they only care about getting rich themselves and not care about their master dying in poverty?
However, the tax-free treatment and the privileges given to scholars and scholars by the Ming Dynasty were repeatedly expanded by them, and finally became a tool to divide the country's tax sources and dig into the feudalism of the Ming Dynasty.
The civil servants of the Ming Dynasty all got rich before they got official positions!
Moreover, the benefits of "getting rich before becoming an official" are often greater than being a corrupt official.
For example, Qian Qianyi has not been an official for many years! And he didn't get any good jobs, so how could he still be so rich?
Isn’t he just using his status as a celebrity and his imperial examination status to get tax exemptions, shelter, and secretly send money to his family?
Even if you lose your official position, you can still be prosperous and wealthy. Can anyone still be a good official?
Therefore, the problem of officialdom in the Ming Dynasty is not official corruption at all, but that corrupt officials do not behave well!
Why does Zhu Cixi, a rebellious son, respond to every call? Didn't he just lead a group of empty-handed northern corrupt officials to the south of the Yangtze River? Is it okay for them to disobey? If you don't obey, you don't have to be greedy... These guys don't even have money to eat, how can they live without corruption? So they are all Zhu Cixi’s dogs! More obedient than a dog!
Disobedient son, while using the empty-handed northern nobles and corrupt officials, tried his best to seize the privilege of "getting rich before becoming official" from the southeastern scholar-officials. This approach is completely right...
Emperor Chongzhen has made up his mind. If he still has a chance to take power, he will be more ruthless than his disobedient son and will definitely destroy the gentry officials in the southeast!
I wonder if there is such an opportunity now?
Emperor Chongzhen looked at his son expectantly. He was dark and thin, and he looked a bit like a beggar! I wonder if he is really tired and confused?
"Father, I am a filial son. I can survive a little tiredness and hardship." Zhu Cixiang smiled, "I will never let my father be burdened by worldly affairs again, so my father can just rest assured and take care of himself in his old age... ....It’s just that the Inner Zen Ceremony has to be postponed a little until I come back from asking for food. This Chongzhen will not be around for twenty years!"
why? Chongzhen's face turned gloomy. You are a traitor, and you won't even give your father a round number!
Zhou Hou only felt sorry for her son and asked: "Brother Chun, do you really want to go..."
"Go and beg for food!" Zhu Cixiang explained with a smile, "There are always more than two million refugees from the North in the southeast who cannot eat... I plan to imitate the practice of the Sui and Tang Dynasties in chasing the emperor, and take them to Huguang, Just eat in Jiangxi and Guangdong.”
Chasing the emperor? Chongzhen thought to himself: Then I should go! But how to ask for food? Our ancestors had this skill, but they didn’t pass it down!
"I see..." Zhou Hou frowned slightly, "Brother Chun, are those gentry from Huguang, Jiangxi, and Guangdong willing to provide food?"
"Yes!" Zhu Cixiang smiled, his tone becoming colder, "They are all enlightened gentry... When they see so many people without food, they will definitely donate the food!"
I am very sure of that! The gentry of the Ming Dynasty will definitely be very enlightened when they encounter the two million people brought by His Highness the Crown Prince, pulling cannons and riding warships to eat refugees from wealthy families. If the food is gone, people will be happy!
You want to take the refugees to grab food!
The hatred in Chongzhen’s heart! Such a good idea, why didn't I think of it? This was the method he should have used when he asked Yang He to appease the bandits! It's so hard for me to spend one hundred thousand taels of silver out of my own pocket, and then beg a few feudal princes to come up with fifty thousand taels of silver and twenty thousand shi of grain... But that's enough! There were so many bandits who didn't have enough to eat, so they all ended up in vain!
If I had known earlier, I should have used the treacherous method and personally led Yang He to recruit the bandits to go to Jiangnan to eat big money!
Let the big families spend money and food, and the refugees will eat 30%, and I will eat 70%... With the money and food, we can recruit troops to fight against the Donglu, and the world will have been peaceful long ago!
So stupid!
Chongzhen looked at his son and said in his heart: How about we switch? You will be the father and take over the mess left by the Xi Temple. I will be the son-in-law and will succeed you as a benevolent king in the future...
Seeing her husband's remorseful look, Zhou Hou felt sad. She now knew that her son was not confused, so she said in a consultative tone: "Brother Chun, you won't be able to come back to Huguang in a few months? Now, will you?" It's already autumn... Why don't you ascend the throne after the New Year! You have to give Chongzhen twenty years, right?"
"Okay," Zhu Cixiang glanced at Chongzhen, "Then let's round up a round number for my father!"
Finally twenty years... Chongzhen sighed.
When Zhou Hou saw Chongzhen sighing, he thought that Chongzhen had other concerns and must be worried about the safety of his two concubines. So she said to Zhu Cihong again: "Brother Chun, Cizhao's child is still young, and he was captured by the bandits and was frightened. It is understandable that he said some wrong things. You are the eldest brother, don't care too much... ....”
Chongzhen also remembered it at this time and nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, there is Ci Huan. Brother Dachun, do you know the whereabouts of Ci Huan?"
Zhu Cixi smiled: "Father and Queen, don't worry, my son will not argue with his fourth brother... Not only will he not argue, he will also seal Yunnan to him. Now his bodyguards are being reorganized , by the time Erchen goes to Huguang again, it will be almost time to hit the road to Yunnan.
As for the fifth brother... Erchen doesn't know his whereabouts. "
