If it were Hai Rui's previous stubborn temper.
He really dared to walk away.
But now looking at Zhu Yuanzhang in front of him, his legs seemed to be filled with lead and he could not move at all.
In fact, he understood that it didn't matter whether the man in front of him was the real Hongwu Emperor. What was important was that the Ming Dynasty really started to get better and better in his hands.
He likes the current Ming Dynasty.
He also wants to do his part for the current Ming Dynasty.
Besides, Hai Rui was a huge fan of Emperor Hongwu, and he admired Zhu Yuanzhang to the core.
If it were really Emperor Hongwu in front of him, wouldn't he regret it if he left?
Hai Rui didn't want to leave.
Yan Song, Xu Jie, Li Chunfang and others did not dare to leave.
If it was really Emperor Jiajing in front of them, they might still have a chance of survival if they left. If it was really Emperor Hongwu in front of them, if they left now, there would be no other possibility except death.
As great scholars of the Ming Dynasty, they had a deeper understanding of Zhu Yuanzhang, the Hongwu Emperor, than anyone else.
This is an emperor who speaks his mind. .
No one dares to disobey the orders of such an emperor, because history has proven that those who dare to disobey will end up dead without a burial.
"Very good. Since you are all willing to stay and work with us, let me let the prince tell you about the next reform plan of the Ming Dynasty."
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at everyone and spoke in a deep voice.
Upon hearing this, Zhu Biao stepped forward and said with a smile: "Actually, it's all old tunes again. Basically, they are all plans that Ming Dynasty in this plane has already tried, but they were not implemented before due to problems of one kind or another."
"There are three points in total."
"The first one is aimed at the officialdom. The examination method is used for local officials in various places. The Metropolitan Procuratorate conducts political evaluations on officials every quarter every year."
"This has always been the responsibility of Liu Bowen and Duke Liu in the early Ming Dynasty. The method of passing the examination here is left to Hai Rui and Duke Haigong. After you two go down, you can formulate a reasonable plan based on the experience of governance in the early Ming Dynasty. "
"The second is taxation. From now on, the Ming Dynasty's taxation is going to adopt a whip method proposed by Gui E in the 10th year of Jiajing. The first thing we have to do is to inventory the land in the world, formulate a new fish scale book for the Ming Dynasty, and summarize the land tax, corvee and other miscellaneous taxes. For one, they will be collected together, but the money collected is not money, but my Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes."
"Of course, this treasure banknote will be a new banknote, printed and issued by the Royal Bank of Ming Dynasty. As for the old banknotes that were previously issued indiscriminately, they will be abolished."
"President Shen Wansan of Daming Royal Bank will explain the specific trial plan to you later."
"Third, the officials and gentry will pay taxes as one."
"Starting next year, the imperial court's preferential land policy for the gentry will return to the level of the early Hongwu years, and all changes made in subsequent dynasties will not be counted."
At this point, Zhu Biao couldn't help but smile and joked: "I think this is called restoring the ancestral system."
"But I want to explain something to you here. In fact, this policy has not been implemented in our country at all, so this preferential policy here is also temporary. The tentative implementation time is five years. After five years, all land will be Whether owned by officials or gentry, taxes must be paid according to law."
Everyone below could not help but feel frightened as they listened to Zhu Biao's talk above.
Even reformists like Zhang Juzheng and Gao Gong deeply admired Zhu Yuanzhang's bold reforms.
Such a policy harms the interests of all gentry and bureaucrats, and the implementation of such a policy requires the execution of bureaucrats and gentry.
There are not many officials and gentry in this world who can harm the interests of their own family and make the country rich and powerful.
Even in the original history, Zhang Juzheng was under tremendous pressure from his clan during the late reform period.
In this era of governing the country with filial piety, not everyone can bear this kind of pressure.
"Of course, parallel to these three reforms are increases in officials' salaries and benefits. I won't go into details here, but these salaries will definitely allow them to live an extremely comfortable life after meeting their daily expenses."
"Your Majesty, I think this is a bit too eager!"
"These three reform strategies are all very good, but if they are implemented separately and slowly reformed over twenty to thirty years, it may be better." Zhang Juzheng advised.
Gao Gong next to him also nodded.
He had always felt that he was a radical person, but now compared with His Majesty, he felt that the so-called reform plan he had drawn up in his mind was so trivial that it was completely worth mentioning.
So he couldn't help but say at this moment: "Your Majesty, if we follow this reform, there will only be one situation. I am afraid that 80% of the officials in the world will resign and return to their hometowns, and the gentry will do everything possible to obstruct the implementation of these reforms."
"Maybe they won't obstruct it openly, but they will definitely obstruct it secretly, which will cause huge resistance to reform."
"Taiyue Gong and Zhongxuan Gong, this is actually a very moderate reform plan. If my father's original intention is followed, the reform will only be more radical." Zhu Biao said helplessly.
To be honest, if the subsequent development of the Ming Dynasty did not require the support of a large population, how could Zhu Yuanzhang be so patient and transform the Ming Dynasty step by step from nobility to royal family to gentry.
If he had followed Zhu Yuanzhang's temper twenty years ago, he would have mobilized an army to this world and killed many of these colluding officials, gentry, nobles, and royal families.
Zhang Juzheng and others couldn't help but breathe after hearing this.
Only then did they realize that the person in front of them now was Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang!
The ruthless men who almost killed all the officials of the Hongwu Dynasty during the Four Major Hongwu Cases have indeed become much gentler in their treatment of them now.
"okay."
"Just follow Biao'er's instructions. Those who are uncooperative and want to cause trouble, we have plenty of ways to deal with them."
After Zhu Yuanzhang finished speaking, he looked at Yan Song: "This reform will still be led by Yan Song, assisted by Xu Jie, Gao Gong, and Zhang Juzheng."
"The specific reform plan will be implemented after you and Li Shanchang have discussed it."
"If, as Gao Gong said, there are officials who don't understand the formality and don't want to do it, just let them go. When the time comes, we will dispatch officials from the early Ming Dynasty to fill the vacancies."
"I still say the same thing, do things well for us, it will be in your favor."
"Don't worry about the temporary loss of small profits in the family. Soon you will find that there is a wider world outside."
"Yan Song, Xu Jie, do you two understand what I'm saying?" Zhu Yuanzhang said suddenly.
"Ming... understand!" Yan Song and Xu Jie couldn't help but panic when Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly mentioned their names.
"You really should understand!"
"To be honest, I have made murderous intentions against you two many times, but you two can be considered honest and everything I told you has been done well, so the beheading thing can be put aside for now. The next focus is Reform and do things well. If you do it well, you will not only be loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty, but you may also be famous throughout the ages. If you don't do it well... I will personally take away the heads you have stored around my neck."
"You should understand that we never talk empty words."
"Your Majesty, I will definitely do my job well and live up to your Majesty's trust." The two of them knelt down with a pop.
How could they not know that Zhu Yuanzhang was giving them a hint.
Fortunately, they haven't done anything secretly in the past two years.
"Okay, let's go down and do some work!"
Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand, indicating that the civil servants could retreat.
After these civil servants and scholars left, the few generals who were qualified to come in to discuss matters, such as Yu Dayou, Qi Jiguang, and Wang Chonggu, suddenly became even more uncomfortable.
They had been standing in the corner since they entered the temple.
They did not understand what His Majesty and the civil servants were discussing just now. All their attention had been on the generals around Zhu Yuanzhang.
As generals, they are very sensitive to the scent of the same kind.
These few people could stand beside Zhu Yuanzhang. Qi Jiguang and others knew that these people should be the founding generals of the early Ming Dynasty.
These people put too much pressure on them.
Especially now, as the civil servants leave and the eyes of the founding generals begin to fall on them intentionally or unintentionally, the pressure they are under is even greater than when they were fighting in front of the Japanese pirates.
"Okay, now that we've finished talking about the nonsense in the country, it's time to talk about some serious things!"
Zhu Yuanzhang ignored Qi Jiguang and several young generals who were trembling under the power of the famous founding generals. Instead, he waved his hand. Behind him, Mao Xiang came forward with several imperial guards and quickly carried a large table into the center of the hall.
A carefully drawn world map was soon spread out on it.
In an instant, Qi Jiguang and others felt that the hall, which was full of talents just now, had become sinister.
"Everyone should be familiar with this world map. After all, we just conquered the world once in the late Qing Dynasty."
"This world is even more backward than the late Qing Dynasty. Except within the Ming Dynasty, extraordinary factors are almost negligible."
"So, it shouldn't be difficult to conquer all the countries in this plane."
Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's words, everyone couldn't help laughing.
"That's a good thing. I dare not say anything else. Father, please give me three thousand people, and I promise to obey the Japanese system!" Zhu Di said with a smile.
After twenty or thirty years of growth and experience, the little guy who was sensitive, had low self-esteem in front of Zhu Biao, and was so wronged that he cried, has now completely grown into a generation of famous generals who are not weaker than Xu Da and Chang Yuchun.
"Haha, fourth brother, you need 3,000 men to defeat Japan. Father, give me 2,000 men, and I will defeat the United States for you." Zhu Xi said with high spirits.
"laugh……!"
"Second brother, do you have any culture? There is no America now. North America is still occupied by Indians!" Zhu Fan, the third child, laughed.
"alright!"
Zhu Yuanzhang drank sullenly.
"You three traitors have no place to talk here, so shut up and get to the back."
The three guys who had just wanted to let themselves go suddenly stopped talking and ran away in despair, each one more honest than the other.
Zhu Yuanzhang motioned for everyone to gather around the big table, and then continued: "It is said that conquering the world is easy, but governing the world is difficult. It is easy to defeat those foreign races, but it is difficult to completely conquer and assimilate them."
"But this time, this plane is expected to become a sub-plane of our Ming Dynasty. You should all understand what this means, so we will not allow any unstable factors to appear here in the future."
"And it just so happens that the extraordinary power in this world is Confucianism and Taoism. It is an extraordinary power that only belongs to me, the Ming Dynasty, and has unparalleled assimilation capabilities."
"This gives us unlimited possibilities..."
(End of chapter)
