"Your Majesty, do you really want to divide the land of North Korea equally?"
Duke Luo Fangbo of Lan State, who had retired from officialdom and was concentrating on his work on the Industrial and Commercial Promotion Committee, was wearing the Northeast mink coat given by the emperor and followed Emperor Zhu step by step on the edge of the Riyue Lake in the Jiangbei Palace.
He has no official status now and rarely talks to Emperor Zhu about matters in the court.
But today, for the first time, the matter of North Korea was mentioned - logically speaking, even the ministers of the Ming Dynasty should not interfere with this matter, because it is a matter of North Korea.
In matters concerning the vassal state, interfering with officials other than the vassal council is considered to be a bit beyond their authority.
Therefore, Uncle Luo Fang, who had no official status, was probably instigated by a group of important officials in the Ming Dynasty to come to Emperor Zhu to have a chat.
It's autumn now.
The weather is starting to get cooler.
On the Riyue Lake, there are already women in cool kimono in small boats picking the last lotus seeds, which looks like a Jiangnan water town. These women in kimono are tributes from feudal lords from all over Japan.
For kings.
Accepting tribute from vassals was also part of politics.
These women are good-looking, and they are different from Han women. They have a weak face but a very graceful figure.
Quite exotic.
Emperor Zhu Da's life became increasingly corrupt.
However, Lan Guogong looked at his nose and mouth, looking like a gentleman and a virtuous minister.
Emperor Zhu waved his hand, and several young female officials and guards around him respectfully stepped away from him.
Emperor Zhu then turned his head and looked at Luo Fangbo, the first hero of the restoration of the Ming Dynasty.
If Luo Fangbo hadn't bowed down immediately, it would have been much more difficult to pacify Lanfang and get the first piece of land.
If we talk about ability.
Emperor Zhu's group of "Twenty-eight Heroes of the Restoration of the Nation" are probably only slightly more capable than Emperor Guangwu's "Twenty-Eight Generals of Yuntai".
"Brother-in-law, you didn't come here for North Korea's Yangban, did you?"
Luo Fangbo nodded and said: "Your Majesty, North Korea is a small country, so the Emperor can naturally handle it as he pleases."
Emperor Zhu smiled: "So some people are worried that I will also divide the land equally in the Ming Dynasty?"
"this."
Emperor Zhu laughed, waved his hand and interrupted Luo Fangbo and said: "Brother, there are no monarchs and ministers today, only in-laws. You are the uncle of Fatty (Zhu Yixi), can I not trust you? You can be bold and confident." Tell me, is this method of dividing the land equally good or bad?"
Luo Fangbo was silent for a while, then nodded: "Okay, but..."
"Whether it is good or not depends on the national conditions. It is a good idea to divide the land equally in North Korea because the country is small and the people are weak. I am the one who makes the decision for the people of North Korea. Ming is the father of North Korea, so dividing the land in North Korea will not cause trouble. What kind of chaos will happen!" Emperor Zhu waved his hands and said, "But it won't work in the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty is too big, and there is no father's country above the head like North Korea to suppress it. If chaos breaks out in the Ming Dynasty, no one can suppress it. live!!"
Luo Fangbo nodded.
Emperor Zhu's meaning is obvious.
Equally dividing the land is a good thing if it is done well, but if it is not done well it will lead to chaos in the world!
Emperor Zhu was not afraid of chaos in North Korea, because North Korea was a small country and he could suppress chaos easily.
No matter what, North Korea has Ming to back it up - although from the current perspective, North Korea is obviously "losing power and humiliating the country", handing over diplomatic, customs and other powers to Ming, and even the succession of the country's king is subject to Ming control.
It can almost be regarded as an autonomous region in Ming Dynasty.
But the same thing.
North Korea also received protection from the Ming Dynasty, and even had a backer to provide cover when problems arose.
But there is no country in this world that can give Ming the full answer.
Ming Dynasty is too big.
If this was done in the Ming Dynasty and chaos broke out in the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Zhu would not be sure that he would be able to suppress the chaos.
Therefore, North Korea is North Korea and Ming Dynasty is Ming Dynasty.
Not to be confused.
"I understand." Luo Fangbo breathed a sigh of relief obviously.
Emperor Zhu walked a few steps with his hands behind his back.
"Recently, many officials from Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and other provinces have written letters, asking them to refrain from mergers. Do you think it is good or bad to curb mergers?"
"Okay!" Luo Fangbo said immediately.
The hot topic in newspapers during this period is actually not the chaos in North Korea - although the chaos in North Korea is so messy that the people of the Ming Dynasty don't care much about this filial son of Korea. What was discussed in newspapers during this period It was the issues of land annexation and tenant withdrawal that began to appear intensively in the south during the Ming Dynasty and were likely to spread to the north.
Luo Fangbo's views naturally represent the views of a considerable portion of the scholar-bureaucrat class.
When Emperor Zhu heard this, he shook his head repeatedly and said, "I think it's not good! It depends on when and what the circumstances are to restrain the merger."
He walked under the pavilion, looked at the sparkling surface of Riyue Lake, turned to look at Luo Fangbo and said: "If it were Han, Tang, or even the Ming Dynasty now, I would not hesitate to attack the annexation! Because on time, Local wealthy families are annexing not only land, but also population!!"
"They controlled the land and population and became the actual rulers of the local area. These people were called gentry in the past and later the gentry. They ruled the people in the local area and collected taxes. The court also had to cooperate with them to achieve long-term peace and stability. In fact, they They are not landlords, but lords. The so-called kings and scholar-bureaucrats share the world, they mean they share the world with these actual lords!"
Emperor Zhu looked solemn.
Chinese scholar-bureaucrats are actually similar to Japanese samurai and European knights.
They were not only owners of the land, but rulers of the people.
Sharecroppers were tied to the land.
If the privileges of the gentry class are restored now, the industrialization process of the Ming Dynasty will definitely be greatly curbed - population, or cheap labor that can circulate freely, is one of the fuels in the development process of industrialization!
Emperor Zhu knew very well that driving people from the land into factories would not necessarily bring much benefit to the bottom class. There would also be a lot of friction and conflicts in the process.
But the same thing.
If he doesn't.
That's a hundred years later.
The entire wealth of China will be plundered.
This is the wealth accumulated by the Ming and Qing dynasties for hundreds of years!
There is no such wealth.
In future generations, China will develop industrialization.
There is no choice but to take a path that will cause the rural areas to suffer even more.
The accumulation of primitive capital has always been bloody.
But now, the Chinese people have enough wealth and capital - so this bloody road can now be gentler and less bloody.
The pain endured by people today is far less than a hundred or a thousand times less than the pain suffered by future generations after hundreds of years of national humiliation, war, hunger, etc.!
therefore.
Emperor Zhu would never allow the restoration of the gentry class to allow them to regain control of a large population and interrupt the process of industrialization.
Luo Fangbo was stunned when he heard this. He subconsciously looked at the female officials who were far away and could not hear their conversation at all. He lowered his voice and said, "Your Majesty, this scholar-bureaucrat has been the cornerstone of the country since ancient times."
"I didn't say there was anything wrong with the scholar-bureaucrats doing this." Zhu Daohua said with a smile, "If it were still the Han and Tang Dynasties, I would probably be happy to share the world with the scholar-bureaucrats, but not now, the times are different!"
"The era of scholar-officials has passed. If they are allowed to come back, the Ming Dynasty will become poor and weak, and eventually become a hunting ground for Western powers! There used to be a knight class similar to scholar-officials in Europe, but now Europe has long ceased to do so. A world without knights”
Luo Fangbo was stunned.
Zhu Daohua actually compared scholar-bureaucrats with the European knight class.
But then again.
It seems that scholar-officials and knights are indeed somewhat similar.
It's just that the Europeans clearly stipulated the rights and obligations of knights - acquiring land and serfs from the great lords, and undertaking military service. In China, it is very unclear how many rights scholar-officials have and what obligations they have to bear.
"Brother, I didn't know this when I just came back from Europe, and I didn't know what it means to share the world with the king and the scholar-bureaucrats. Now it seems that I can only win the world when I know nothing about the situation in the country. It’s said that it’s destiny.”
You are obviously pretending to be your destiny. In the past, you needed the support of the scholar-bureaucrats to fight against the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Now that the overall situation has been decided, you have begun to target the scholar-bureaucrats.
Luo Fangbo murmured in his heart.
But how could he know.
Emperor Zhu spoke the truth.
He really doesn't know what "the king and the scholar-bureaucrats share the world" is.
He even confused feudal land ownership and private land ownership.
There is a menstrual problem in later generations: If the last feudal dynasty of China was not the Qing Empire under the rule of the Eight Banners of Manchuria, but a country ruled by Han people similar to the Ming Dynasty, or simply the Ming Dynasty continued for more than two hundred years, then Will there still be a century-old national humiliation?
Similar issues have generated a lot of controversy.
But now, after Emperor Zhu became emperor, he made his own judgment from a higher dimension.
For China at that time.
The deeper contradiction under the cover of national contradictions is feudal land ownership-this time it is really a systemic problem.
On the surface.
Neither the Ming nor the Qing dynasties looked like a typical feudal empire.
Because they did not have feudal lords like warriors and knights.
most of the time.
It was a centralized imperial state.
The emperor's decrees can be communicated smoothly from top to bottom.
under the imperial examination system.
The scholar-bureaucrat class was also completely a branch of the country, cooperating with the emperor to rule the country.
They appear to be a harmless group of literati.
Their identity is not hereditary based on blood, but mainly comes from the imperial examination.
And the imperial examination.
This is another fairer selection model than relying on hereditary blood to select officials.
but.
In the current view of Zhu Daohua.
Scholar-bureaucrat class.
In fact, it is the feudal lord class.
They actually ruled the local area. They obtained power and identity from the "big lord (emperor)" through the imperial examination. The gentry with the status of scholar-bureaucrats could participate in the management of grassroots political power.
They have certain judicial powers - they are required to adjudicate most civil disputes.
They own land and control the lower classes of the population in the form of clans.
Of course.
Scholar-officials still have certain advantages over Japanese samurai and European knights.
For example, their status is not hereditary, their class is not solidified, and ordinary people at the bottom also have the opportunity to obtain the status of scholar-officials through the imperial examination - so there are channels for advancement.
therefore.
If we compare scholar-officials with Japanese samurai lords, I am afraid that the scholar-officials who are always supplemented with fresh blood are more awesome.
in history.
Legend has it that Japan's Warring States Period was a time of troubled times with numerous famous generals. The most powerful Japanese samurai in history emerged from the troubled times.
On the Korean Peninsula, weren't they defeated by the Ming army, which was far smaller in number than them?
But when it came to the Sino-Japanese War.
Japan is no longer a country of samurai lords. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan became a modern capitalist country.
At that time, the Manchu Qing Dynasty also had the Westernization Movement.
But the fundamentals of the scholar-bureaucrats and the Eight Banners were not touched.
It is normal for a group of feudal lords to fight against a modernized national army but to be defeated.
After being emperor for several years.
Emperor Zhu thought.
What really hindered the Ming Dynasty from moving toward industrialization was not Confucianism, land concentration, or private ownership of land.
It is a disguised form of scholar-bureaucrat feudal lordship under the imperial examination system!
So these few years.
Emperor Zhu's reforms were all aimed at these two points.
The imperial examination must be reformed.
The power of scholar-bureaucrats will be weakened.
Emperor Zhu could allow private ownership of land and land annexation.
But the control of the population by feudal lords could not be tolerated.
In the past, Emperor Zhu also scorned the division of the so-called "feudal era China".
It is believed that since the First Emperor unified the world, there has been no feudal system in China - on the surface, it is a centralized monarchy.
Where is feudalism?
Now he knows.
feudal.
Just in the scholar-bureaucrat!
To get rid of feudalism.
We must attack the scholar-bureaucrats and reform the imperial examination system!
Now.
The feudal land ownership system of the literati in the Ming Dynasty was on the verge of collapse!
China's feudal era.
finally.
It's over!
Emperor Zhu took a deep breath, looked at Luo Fangbo and said with a smile: "Brother, let me explain to you. In the past few years, I have been thinking about how to get rid of feudalism in China. I once thought that I had defeated the Manchu Qing Dynasty. , feudalism was over, but the facts tell me that defeating the Manchus was only the first step! What really needs to be done is to shake the rule of the scholar-bureaucrats over the countryside! Now it seems that this path is the right one, I am not It will stop. The current annexation of land and the withdrawal of tenants are caused by the collapse of the rule of the scholar-bureaucrat class!"
"Therefore, I will not inhibit annexation, nor will I oppose the withdrawal of tenants! My Ming Dynasty covers the four seas, including the Northeast, Nanyang, Northwest, and the New World. I have many farmers who have lost their land under local arrangements, and in recent years, Guangdong and Liangjiang have Factories have also developed, and if you don’t want to farm, you can still make ends meet by working as a worker in the city!”
His voice became colder.
"If someone wants to take advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble! Then just give it a try!"
(End of chapter)
