For a family as big as the Kong family, just operating land cannot satisfy the appetites of so many Kong family members.
So it’s better to make money quickly by doing business.
Moreover, through the title of Duke Sheng of the Kong family, the income from business, excluding the necessary expenses, is basically pure profit, and the Jin people did not ask them for this part of the tax.
So after entering the Ming Dynasty, they continued their traditional performing arts and did some operations on this matter. They made money by undertaking some businesses and made a lot of profits.
This money is basically provided to the Kong family, allowing them to maintain a superior and even luxurious life.
Moreover, the Kong family has a large family, many branches, and huge expenses. They also have to spend money to manage many places. Without this income, it is really difficult for them to maintain their family status.
If it were placed in the Jin Kingdom, this would certainly not be a big deal. Even if Wan Yanliang knew about it, he would probably turn a blind eye and pretend he didn't see it.
However, the current emperor is Su Yonglin.
It was Su Yonglin who was preparing to overturn the table and start a great revolution in Shandong.
After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there was a plan to collect commercial taxes, but due to lack of manpower, the main goal was still on agricultural taxes. Commercial taxes are now in a state where there are laws to follow but lack of manpower to enforce them.
Su Yonglin attached great importance to commercial taxes and learned the lessons of the Zhu Ming Dynasty. From the beginning, he had no intention of ignoring commercial taxes and focusing on agricultural taxes. The Southern Song Dynasty was able to rely on the huge scale of commercial taxes and salt taxes to survive the indiscriminate bombardment of the Mongols. Withstanding the explosion for decades is enough to show the huge potential of commercial taxation.
Su Yonglin's Ming Dynasty chose not to make money from the common people, but he had no intention of giving preferential treatment to businessmen.
He not only set different levels of tax standards for merchants' business income, but also imposed strict restrictions on merchants' property management.
Su Yonglin clearly stipulated in the Ming Law that the land system of the Ming Dynasty was state-owned, and all the land in the world was royal land. The way farmers owned land was that the Ming court contracted it to farmers for farming.
The agricultural taxes paid by farmers are equivalent to contract fees. The ownership of the land still belongs to the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty protects farmers' qualifications to contract land for farming. If there is any wavering, it will be regarded as a breach of contract and liquidated damages will be paid.
Therefore, legally speaking, land sales within the Ming Dynasty's national boundaries can only be handled by the Department of Land and Resources of the Ministry of Finance who received the emperor's order. Farmers who enjoyed the benefits of the Ming Dynasty's land reform could only cultivate the land and were not qualified to sell the land.
Similarly, no private person can purchase land from farmers, otherwise it is illegal. Even the transaction of just an inch of land is illegal and will be severely punished.
When the Ming Empire distributed land, merchant families were not eligible to obtain land. After the Ming Law was promulgated, merchants were not allowed to directly purchase land with money, which was a change from the loose land laws of the Jin and Song Dynasties.
With restrictions on both purchases and sales, land regulations in the Ming Empire were tightened across the board.
When the Ming Law was promulgated before, many ministers expressed their opposition to this law.
But it was of no use, because Su Yonglin controlled the entire judiciary and legislative body, so he had no intention of compromising with the old forces on this matter.
You can decide whatever you want, there is nothing negotiable on this matter.
Su Yonglin knew the real reason for the opposition of those ministers. Regardless of the reason why they were doing so one by one, which was not conducive to the stability of the country, they actually found that this decree restricted the way for them to annex land through commercial white gloves.
Su Yonglin slashed their flesh with a knife.
Although it has not been implemented yet, as long as it is implemented, this law will definitely give them a heavy blow, and no matter when it is implemented, it will be a huge hidden danger for them.
If they are not allowed to accumulate wealth and buy land, what else can they buy?
Luxury?
Luxurious service?
Or something else?
What one minister said was very interesting, saying that if Su Yonglin restricted people with money from purchasing land, their money would have nowhere to spend it and would either be saved or used to do things that violate laws and disciplines.
Saving money will naturally affect the currency circulation in the market and affect economic development, and the so-called violations of law and discipline are of course not just ordinary violations of law and discipline.
He didn't say everything, but Su Yonglin felt it. He was hinting to himself that if wealthy people were not allowed to buy land, then they could only use money to recruit soldiers and horses.
They can only use wealth to obtain force and further strive for their own political and economic rights.
Su Yonglin sneered and kept these memorials silently, and then recorded everyone who signed them in preparation for settling accounts in the future.
All of the people listed above are bastards, spokesmen for interest groups and old ideas. How can we do good politics if we are with this group of insects?
If you are not allowed to buy land, don’t you know how to organize a fleet to go to sea?
Don’t you know how to go overseas to plunder resources and cheap labor in other places and come back to complete primitive accumulation for the industrial revolution?
I don’t have a forbidden sea!
Su Yonglin was very unhappy with the narrow vision of these people.
Of course, it is not impossible for them to recruit troops. At least by doing so, they are giving all the money they have accumulated to Su Yonglin, so that Su Yonglin can quickly accumulate original capital and provide a large amount of funds for technological development.
All in all, the establishment of this law has only advantages and no disadvantages for Su Yonglin.
Su Yonglin has always been thinking about changing the phenomenon where landlords and wealthy people only use the money to annex land and not do other things, so no matter what, he cannot allow such a thing to happen again under his rule.
In line with Su Yonglin's plan to promote technological innovation in the future, it is necessary to prevent these guys from using all their accumulated wealth to annex land.
Su Yonglin must change the general situation of the traditional land economy, otherwise this strange circle of [accumulate wealth-annex land-collapse of order-rebuild order-accumulate wealth] will not be able to break through no matter what.
The legal restrictions are true, but what is important is ideological reform. If we cannot innovate ideologically, we cannot determine the "going global" strategy as a national strategy. In the end, we will still have to go back to the old path.
Therefore, Confucianism, the weapon that maintained the ultra-stable social structure of ancient China, must take a back seat. It can exist, but it cannot continue to exist as the official guiding ideology.
As a representative of Confucianism, the Kong family has become the target that Su Yonglin will inevitably attack fiercely.
Once upon a time, Su Yonglin needed Kong's existence to take the blame for him and let him show his gentleness, so that scholars all over the world would feel a little more at ease and have some expectations for the Ming Empire he established.
But now, when Su Yonglin is about to lift the table, Kong is the most ugly decoration on the table, and it is also very heavy, which will affect Su Yonglin's ability to lift the table.
So Su Yonglin gave the order without hesitation and prepared to blast the Kong family.
In order to achieve this goal, Su Yonglin also specially traveled south from Jinan to Qufu and came to this land that he had not seen for several years to relive the prosperous years of those years.
I remember that when his power was not very strong, he came here and attacked Qufu County under the banner of Zhao Kaishan, forcing Kong to follow the Liberation Army and rebel with them as a political offensive against the Jin Kingdom.
In order to preserve the family, the Kong family promoted Kong La, the younger brother of the family leader Kong Zheng, and Kong La served as the magistrate of Qufu County as a political symbol of the Kong family's obedience to the Liberation Army.
However, Kong Zheng still maintained the status of Yanshenggong as the supporter for the Kong family.
At that time, Su Yonglin did not force Kong to give up everything.
However, it was precisely because he took a step back that in order to gain Su Yonglin's understanding and gain a firm foothold in the Ming court, Kong led the Shandong scholars, landlords and rich men to donate to the court, and almost shouldered the responsibility single-handedly. Materials and money needed for the Liaodong immigration plan.
In this way, the Shandong faction entered the Ming court as a fence-sitting faction, gained political power, and was able to continue their political status.
It can be said that everything originated from Kong, and now, the end of everything will also begin with Kong.
Su Yonglin arrived in Qufu County on May 19th. The day before, Chai Yang had personally led a thousand soldiers to Qufu County, took over the internal and external defense of Qufu County, began to screen people entering Qufu, and did not allow the county to enter. Anyone out.
Kong was very frightened by this, especially when they learned that the reason why the army blocked Qufu County was because His Majesty the Emperor was about to arrive in Qufu.
Good guy, why is the emperor here?
Kong La, the magistrate of Qufu who stayed in Qufu, suddenly remembered the unforgettable scene of that year, the scene where the knife was placed across his neck and he was powerless.
It was almost becoming his nightmare.
Although they later had a blessing in disguise, from the time he became the magistrate of Qufu until Su Yonglin conquered Zhongdu, Kong Lao always treated himself as a dead man, and every day was treated as his last.
Such a panic-filled day has passed for such a long time, and no one can bear it.
After that, Kong Li indulged himself for a while, and Kong Zheng also intended to compensate him by letting him do whatever he wanted for a while, which at least allowed him to recover.
The magistrate of Qufu County continued to enjoy the glory and wealth of the Kong family.
He thought that his life would slowly pass through days like this and end his life slowly.
But he never expected that the man who gave him the nightmare would come to him again so quickly, and even come with troops to take over the defense of Qufu, showing an unkind attitude.
What is he going to do?
Did Kong break the law?
Is he going to teach Kong a lesson?
Kong La didn't eat anything all day long, drank a few sips of water, and didn't fall asleep at night. The next day, he stood at the city gate for two hours with dark circles under his eyes, waiting for Su Yonglin to arrive.
