"Your Majesty..." The old prince Zhu Yiming is still a very responsible king. He really regards himself as an elder of the clan, and he is still here to make plans for the "young and energetic" Zhu Youjian. He thought and said: "Don't think that one province is big and one prefecture is small, so you don't have to worry about delegating power to one prefecture. In fact, there are quite a few prefectures in the south that are quite powerful, no less than one province! For example, Jingzhou Prefecture in Huguang has been controlling power since ancient times. It is the key point of Jingzhou and Xiangzhou, and it has many people, vast fields and paddy fields. It can be said that half of the essence of Huguang Province is in Jingzhou! In terms of financial and material resources, no province in the north may be as good as Jingzhou. !”
At this time, Jingzhou Prefecture in Huguang has at least tens of millions of acres of paddy fields. In terms of harvest, the nearly 30 million acres of dry land in Shaanxi cannot compare with the 10 million acres of paddy fields in Jingzhou Prefecture.
The old prince Zhu Yiming thought deeply and said: "As for the big mansions that are as rich as Jingzhou, there are Chengtian, Wuchang and Changsha in Huguang. These four mansions all occupy large areas of plains, with convenient transportation, rich paddy fields and large populations.
In addition, as far as the old minister knows, Chongqing Prefecture and Chengdu Prefecture in Sichuan and Guangzhou Prefecture in Guangdong are all very powerful and powerful prefectures, with a large number of people and a lot of money. Moreover, the local area is either close to barbarian territory, has strong folk customs, or is a coastal defense port. If the imperial court wants to grant military power to the government, one or two thousand people will not be enough. Five or six thousand will be needed! If there were several big mansions with evil intentions in those places, disasters in Tang Ji Fan Town would be inevitable. "
The old prince has a good heart, but his vision is not broad. His family has been trapped in the palm-sized city of Xiangyang for generations. In fact, they are sitting in a well and watching the sky. In his opinion, having a palace and controlling five thousand elite soldiers is enough to separate one side...
Of course, Zhu Youjian's policy of granting great power to the government did have the possibility of separatist feudal towns. But relying only on five or six thousand elite soldiers will not be able to separate the country in any case, unless the prefect who governs the place on behalf of the Ming Dynasty colludes with the local wealthy families!
Just like in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, a county governor who received the support of local noble families could easily transform into a separatist force!
In addition, what kind of government requires five to six thousand troops to guard it? Isn’t it a wealthy and tyrannical mansion? For example, the Guangzhou Prefecture mentioned by the old man must have five to six thousand soldiers.
In Guangfu, there are four tyrannical forces: Western barbarians, pirates, private merchants, and native tribes. Moreover, there are a lot of firearms in that place. Not only everyone has a gun, but at least Western barbarians, pirates, private merchants, and native tribes have guns. The four major forces of the Hakka clan are not short of guns.
With one or two thousand troops, let alone forcing those guys to pay taxes, it would be difficult to even protect themselves!
Therefore, five to six thousand troops are necessary, and ruthless people with sufficient abilities are needed to dig out money from these four major forces.
As for the Zhu Ming court, if the big government in Guangfu joins forces with the Xiyi, pirates, private merchants, and native guest clans, then they can really separate the empire.
"It is impossible to separate the empire with only five or six thousand elite soldiers, at least not when the world is peaceful." Zhu Youjian said with a smile, "But you still have to be on guard against others! And I will guard against these people. To govern the army, to dismount the horse and govern the people, the way to turn a powerful government into a rebel town is to not let the powerful government and the wealthy family collude... you have to let the powerful government and the wealthy family restrain each other!"
"How do the big mansion and the wealthy family restrain each other?" The old prince didn't understand again.
Zhu Youjian said: "My method is to have the governor negotiate taxes with the wealthy families on behalf of the court, and then the government will be responsible for collecting the negotiated taxes... In this way, there will be a connection between the imperial court and the local wealthy families. If you have something to do, you can discuss it carefully first. The prefect who governs the local area is a villain, responsible for collecting taxes and suppressing disobedience!"
"Let the wealthy family negotiate taxes with the governor? This..." Old Prince Zhu Yiming stroked his beard, "I have to think about it carefully. How can the court collect taxes and discuss it with the people below?"
"Haha," Zhu Youjian smiled, "Grandpa, haven't I been discussing with you these days?"
"And I..." The old prince Zhu Yiming was stunned when he heard this, "I am different from them!"
Zhu Youjian nodded and said with a smile: "Yes... you are my great-uncle and grandpa. Naturally, you are different from the people below, but you are also a rich man! You have a lot of land in Xiangyang Mansion, right?" Shouldn't we have a good discussion with you about collecting land taxes?
In addition, the princes of Chu, Liao, Jing, Ji, Rong, Hui, and Gui are all from wealthy families... We have to discuss it carefully first, and then think of other ways! "
The meaning of a good discussion is that the princes will happily take the lead in paying taxes, and they will not visit their homes if they want soldiers, and Zhu Youjian will not have to deal with them by moving the town to another place.
To be honest, it is quite troublesome to move the town and transfer the seal, although you can get a lot of land during the transfer process. However, the size of the housekeeper group available to Zhu Youjian is also limited and cannot manage so much land. When these lands are given to the state government, the rent is one or two dou per acre.
If those princes were willing to pay taxes according to the standard of one mu per acre, Zhu Youjian would not bother... And keeping these Huguang vassal princes has a great use - he can raise food through them.
Most of the vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty were engaged in business, and the Huguang vassal king's business was food - if Huguang was cooked, the world would have enough!
Due to the rapid development of the textile industry in the southeast and the floods of the Huaihe River, a large amount of land in the land of fish and rice in the southeast has been replanted with mulberry cotton with higher economic value. Grain production has been declining, so that grain needs to be imported from Huguang.
The eight vassal kings of Huguang were all big landowners and had tax-free privileges, so they naturally developed into grain merchants.
Through these "eight business kings", Zhu Youjian can promote the Huguang area to increase rice planting area in the next few years by placing large orders for rice - Huguang's grain production capacity is much higher than the needs of the local people, and this production capacity Whether it is fully utilized depends on whether you pay for it.
In the famine years of the previous life, because the imperial court had no financial resources, the economies of Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, Beizhili and other places were on the verge of collapse due to the looting by rogue bandits and Donglu. In addition, Huguang itself was repeatedly ravaged by rogue bandits, so the food supply was Capacity is not fully utilized...
Only then did the old prince Zhu Yiming remember that those "rich families" who did not pay taxes in Zhu Youjian's words turned out to include vassal kings like himself. His face was a little ugly, and he coughed a few times: "Your Majesty, you and the old minister How can such a vassal have any need to negotiate? Wherever it is needed, just give an order."
"It has to be discussed! How can we not discuss it?" Zhu Youjian said with a smile, "Although this dynasty treats the vassal king favorably, the vassal ban is too strict. It almost treats the vassal king as a thief to guard against... This It’s also unnecessary. A vassal king can also serve the country!”
"Long live my lord," the old prince Zhu Yiming swallowed, "do you mean that the prince can also be an official?"
"Not only can I be an official, but I can also lead troops!" Zhu Youjian extended his thumb and pointed at himself, "I was also a vassal king... If the late emperor had not conquered Bintian at a young age, I would have It has to be circled. Then all my abilities will be buried? Without me, would the country of the Ming Dynasty be as stable as Mount Tai?"
The old prince thought to himself: You are so humble! You probably don’t know yet, but many people in Huguang Shilin believe that you are a foolish king and have angered God, which is why you have brought so many natural disasters... They also want you to issue an edict to punish yourself!
Zhu Youjian then said: "I have to trouble my uncle and grandfather to bring these ideas to the princes of Chu, Liao, Jing, Ji, Rong, Hui, Gui and so on! They are in charge of Jingzhou, Wuchang, Changsha, Changde , Hengzhou... let them contact the rich and powerful households in these places, and select people with the final say to come to Xiangyang Mansion to discuss with me how the government and gentry should pay grain and tax together, and how to increase the tax on acres of land in Huguang. matter!
When they arrive, the wealthy families in Xiangyang will all be scrambling to pay more taxes to me! As for the wealthy houses in other places in Huguang, they have to learn from the people of Xiangyang! "
