Gao Pragmatic did not just follow the emperor's wishes and shout about cutting his salary and expelling him. Although he actually wanted to do this in his heart, people in politics should avoid being emotional, and they should be especially cautious when managing politics.
Why is it said that governing a big country is like cooking small dishes? Xiaoxian is small fish, shrimp and the like. If you accidentally handle this kind of tender meat, if the heat is slightly overheated, it will be completely mushy, so you won’t be able to eat it.
The same goes for governing a country. Making decisions without planning or foresight will lead to big trouble. Governance must be pragmatic and step-by-step. Just like the Red Dynasty, without Taizong exerting the power of Korea, there would be no environment for peaceful development; without Taizong abandoning the struggle between left and right, there would not be the 40-year development miracle of surpassing the British and pursuing the United States.
There are things that should be done in every period, and if we do what we should do at that time in every time period, this general trend will remain the same.
What is the current trend in Ming Dynasty? It is indeed gradually "reviving", but it has also exposed some past shortcomings, and some things cannot be done without it.
If Gao Pragmatism had not appeared, the current Ming Dynasty would not have considered taking over Mongolia completely. After all, Anda's tribute in the Gao Gong era established the situation in the northern frontier of the Ming Dynasty. At least Chahar could not threaten the survival of the Ming Dynasty. Then, it would be impossible for the Ming Dynasty to rush to collect money to prepare to wipe out the Mongolian right wing in one fell swoop, so issues such as vassal salary and salary would not seem so important or have to be dealt with.
This is not because the country has become weaker. On the contrary, it is precisely because the country has become stronger and has new and more ambitious goals that such urgent problems have arisen.
Barry is only half of 90. The more times like this, the more you need to be calm and considerate, and you can't get into trouble internally just because you are eager for success, which would be completely contrary to the established goal.
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic is not in a hurry to express his position or make suggestions. Instead, he wants to ask clearly about the current actual situation.
However, although Zhu Yijun's level was definitely higher than in the original history, he still failed to understand the profound meaning of Gao pragmatism. He just replied smoothly: "Last year, Taicang's annual income was more than 5.78 million taels, and the vassal's expenditure was about 1,640,000...or 1,670,000, I can’t remember exactly, but it’s probably this number.”
Gao Pangshi was about to nod, but Zhu Yijun immediately answered: "But the Ministry of Accounts has said that this year the amount will only exceed 1.75 million taels."
Gao Pingshi was taken aback by this and asked, "One hundred thousand taels more a year?"
Zhu Yijun said distressedly: "I don't know if it will be one hundred thousand taels more every year, but it will probably be the same this year."
Gao Pragmatic's expression immediately turned serious.
A fixed expenditure that was already as high as more than 1.6 million taels now actually increases by 100,000 taels a year. Who can bear this? This expenditure originally accounted for a quarter of the Ming Dynasty's annual income, but now it will go straight to 30%. No matter who is in charge, they have to find a way to face this situation.
Looking at Zhu Yijun's expectant eyes, Gao Pragmatic did not directly give him a solution to the problem, because he knew that what Zhu Yijun expected most now was to solve the financial difficulties, not to solve the vassal issue.
This won't work.
It's not that Gao Pragmatic can't start by increasing fiscal revenue and continue to suppress the clan issue, but that is meaningless, because judging from the current situation, the clan population explosion has already begun, and it will only get worse the longer it is delayed.
"Your Majesty." Gao Pingshi was silent for a while, and then slowly said: "When the "Emperor Ming Ancestor Instructions" was promulgated, Taizu had an explicit order to instruct, "Anyone in the future who dares to change the ancestral law will be regarded as a treacherous minister." "There is no pardon. If I propose a policy of greater expansion, I wonder what crime the emperor wants to convict me of?"
Zhu Yijun was stunned for a while, then suddenly lost his temper, slumped his shoulders and leaned back on the chair, saying feebly: "This ancestral system..." He hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Can you go around it?"
"You can give it a try." Gao Pragmatic said this, but at the same time he shook his head and said: "As for the court, most of the civil and military ministers and workers will agree, but Your Majesty, if you really want to do this, I'm afraid you have to do some things well. Be mentally prepared.”
When Zhu Yijun heard that there was a chance to go around, and Gao Pragmatic also judged that most of the civil and military officials of the court would support it, he couldn't help but perked up. He didn't pay much attention to what he said next, and just asked casually: "What preparations?"
Gao Pragmatic looked solemn and said: "There may be some... group incidents among the sects in the world."
Zhu Yijun's expression suddenly froze, and he hesitated: "Rebellion? Isn't this... not enough?"
Can the current vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty rebel? Are you kidding? These are just useless snacks. Not to mention they have no soldiers and no power for a long time. Even if they did, they wouldn't be able to build them.
The current situation is that these vassal kings are basically useless, and the court's attitude towards the control of sects and vassals, regardless of the practical school or the spiritual school, can basically reach a consensus.
The reason is very simple. Where does the money that Zongfan gets come from? It was given by the imperial court.
If the imperial court gives an extra tael of money to the vassals, wouldn’t we, the civil and military ministers, have one tael less to use? As the money that can be controlled decreases, doesn’t the power correspondingly decrease? Then you can still object?
Therefore, there is no problem with the attitude of the court, and it may even be a situation where everyone is united.
The difficulty lies in the attitude of the vassals - of course it does not mean rebellion. Rebellion is basically impossible. How can a group of domestic pigs that have been raised for two hundred years rebel? Even Zhu Bajie is useless.
It seemed that Zhu Yijun didn’t know much about the term “mass incident”, so Gao Pragmatic changed his explanation: “Your Majesty, I’m not saying that there will be rebellion among the vassal by unscrupulous people. What I’m talking about is referring to gatherings of people to riot or make trouble. , to put pressure on the court."
Zhu Yijun let out a long "Oh" as if he suddenly realized something, but judging from his expression, he didn't realize there was any danger, and he might even think it was no big deal.
Gao pragmatic reminded: "Your Majesty, if only a few clans are like this, then it doesn't matter. The court has many ways to deal with it. But if there are too many clans involved, it will be very bad, and the political impact will be very bad."
"Really?" Zhu Yijun still seemed a little unconvinced.
Gao pragmatic sighed and had no choice but to give an example: "I will give you an example - Your Majesty, I forgive you. This is just an example, not what I want to imply."
Zhu Yijun nodded to express his understanding: "You say it."
"In Hongwu, there was only one Zhou prince's palace in Kaifeng, Henan." As a native of Henan, Xinzheng happened to be under the rule of Kaifeng, so he took Kaifeng directly as an example: "By the Jiajing period, there were thirty-nine princes' palaces in Kaifeng alone. There are more than 500 auxiliary generals, and the following lieutenants, ceremonial guests, etc. are even more numerous. If you look at one government, the whole world can know it. Now there are several decades in the Jiajing period, and the number of officials who have been added has not yet been investigated in detail, but It can also be deduced.”
It was also the first time that Zhu Yijun knew that there were at least thirty-nine princely mansions in Kaifeng alone. He was stunned and speechless at the moment.
Before Gao Pangshi finished speaking, he continued: "I don't know how much money there is in Taicang. However, because the water transportation was changed to parallel river and sea transportation, Jinghua also participated in part of the sea transportation, so I know the distribution of the annual grain supply." I wonder if the emperor knows the exact situation?"
Zhu Yijun shook his head and said: "I only know that the capital needs about four million shi of food to be transported from the south every year. I don't know the other details."
"Yes, the capital's food shortage is about four million shi per year." Gao Jingshi raised his eyebrows slightly: "But does the emperor know how much rice the princes outside the palace need?"
This time he didn't wait for Zhu Yijun to answer and directly gave the answer: "It's 8.5 million shi, which is twice as much as the capital."
Zhu Yijun took a deep breath.
It’s hard not to gasp. With so many people in the capital eating, the shortfall is only four million shi. And these four million shi are so troublesome that the court has to set up a governor and a lot of officials to deal with the water transportation problem. Even We also need to set up troops to escort along the way, etc.
However, in addition to this, the sects in various places actually consume 8.5 million stones every year, which is more than twice what the capital requires! How much manpower, material and financial resources did the imperial court spend to ensure continuous supply?
In other words, if there is no such big burden, what is a mere Chahar? Could it be that if eight and a half million stones of military rations were thrown at it, it would not be able to hit even one Chahar?
But he suddenly remembered what Gao Pangshi said before, and couldn't help but ask: "But that group incident you just mentioned..."
Gao pragmatically said calmly: "Yes, a mass incident - Your Majesty, the 8.5 million shilumi will be gone. What will these clans eat? Can we not make trouble?"
Zhu Yijun was really speechless.
Gao pragmatic continued: "The reason why I say that the feudal kings will not have the idea of rebellion is because each feudal king also has a large amount of private property in addition to salary. Even if they lack this little salary, the impact they will suffer is actually It's also very small, and there's no need for Lumi to cause trouble to his death and wipe out the country. The ones who will really get into trouble are those distant clan clans."
The distant branch clan is actually a nice term. In fact, high pragmatism refers to those low-level clans. Zhu Yijun certainly knows this.
At this time, Zhu Yijun also understood what Gao Pragmatic meant, and nodded solemnly: "Yes, the vassals are actually not short of this Lumi. The ones who really rely on Lumi to survive are the distant branches."
Gao Pragmatic said: "The Lumi that these distant clan clans can get is at an extra discount, but they actually don't get much, and they can't serve as officials, nor can they farm, join the army, or do business. This Lumi is a If it is cut off, their way of survival will be cut off. If they don't make trouble, they will just starve to death. How is this possible? Ants are greedy for life, let alone humans!
However, as they were members of the clan, they would not be punished, and even if they broke the law, they would not be under the jurisdiction of the law. Instead, they could only go through the clan's mansion and ultimately be judged by the emperor himself. In this way, once they cause riots in various places, the local officials will definitely take action. If they come up with something like burning, killing, looting, etc., not only will the Tian family lose face, but the local area will also be severely affected. Isn't it serious? "
Ah this...
Zhu Yijun also had a headache now. The clan punishment was not imposed on him, so the clan government could only investigate and find out, and then hand it over to the emperor to decide. This was also an ancestral system - how could this ancestral system take care of everything? Are you annoyed?
Forget it, it’s just like some bad ideas!
For a moment, Zhu Yijun really wished he could find a copy of "Emperor Ming's Ancestral Instructions" and burn it.
But this is just a thought. If "Emperor Ming's Ancestral Instructions" can be burned, wouldn't he, the emperor, be replaced?
It's better this time. There is a conflict and we are still in a dilemma.
"Then what should we do now?" Zhu Yijun scratched his head in an awkward manner: "There are already so many clans that the court can no longer support them, but they still can't move! If it takes another ten years, what will I do to support them? "
Originally, his words were just to vent his emotions, but unexpectedly, Gao Pragmatic nodded and said: "Yes, the emperor already understands the key to the problem."
ah? Do I understand now? No, I don’t understand!
Gao pragmatic ignored the dull-looking emperor and nodded: "Yes, the key to the problem lies in the word 'raise' - why does the emperor have to raise all the clan members?"
Zhu Yijun was stunned for a moment, and thought to himself: It's not me who wants to raise her. Isn't this also the ancestral teaching?
However, he was familiar with Gao Pragmatic, and he guessed that Gao Pragmatic was going to come up with countermeasures. He couldn't help but feel hopeful, and pretended to be honest: "Ah, yes, yes, what you said is...but I'm still a little unsure. , you might as well go into more detail..."
Very good, very on the road, this is the good emperor.
Gao Pragmatic said with a serious face: "Your Majesty, since the problem is 'raising', why not solve this problem?"
He let out a long sigh and said: "Today, the most serious and difficult situation in the world is none other than Zongfan, and the most urgent and difficult thing to deal with is none other than Zongfan. When I was compiling the "Da Ming Huidian", I tried to test the previous dynasties, but I didn't try it. There are clan members who sit and eat as county magistrates. My Taizu is the only one who favors his clan members, and has been awarded titles and honors throughout his lifetime, which is a great kindness.
However, Taizu was at the beginning of the birth of Tianhuang, so he entrusted several counties to make it easy to offer. As for today, when the sect's branches are extremely prosperous, it will be difficult to provide even though all the power of the world is exhausted. According to the general theory of the world, in the early days of the Kingdom, there were only forty-nine relatives, princes, and generals, but now there are tens of thousands of them in the jade certificate, and it is surprising that the annual income and food grains are 8.5 million stones. The county and county lords and guests are not among them yet. So compared to the beginning of the country, it is almost hundreds of times. How can we still support it as before? "
Zhu Yijun hesitated and said: "If you don't raise it..."
Gao pragmatically said: "I think the emperor probably has two worries: one is whether he can circumvent the ancestral system, and the other is that not raising him will lead to chaos in the clan."
Zhu Yijun nodded repeatedly: "That's right, that's right, I just think your method seems to be going back again."
"That's not the case." Gao Pingshi smiled and said: "First of all, the matter of bypassing the ancestral system has just been mentioned. As long as the emperor approves it and all civil and military officials agree, this ancestral system will be bypassed - it cannot be done by the whole world. Are all the officials here treacherous? Naturally, times have changed, and some established laws have to be adapted."
Zhu Yijun nodded, very satisfied.
Gao pragmatic added: "As for the clan riots... In fact, the reason why they may harass is simply because they have lost their way of life. But what if the emperor and the court give them a way of life?"
Zhu Yijun hurriedly asked: "How to give it?"
"It's easy to give." Gao pragmatically said calmly: "Just open the vassal ban."
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