Gao pragmatic took over the future task of "rebuilding the Huangji Palace with new construction methods". What shocked the officials and the people the most was not that the new method was said to be "not afraid of lightning strikes", but just a more plain expression of Gao Situ's wealth, and even Because of the huge amount of money he spent "for Long Sheng's family".
In fact, Gao Pragmatic himself had forgotten that a major event that would have occurred ten years later and might ultimately affect the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty was related to this.
On June 19 of the lunar calendar in 1597, the Forbidden City was ablaze. A fire of unknown origin suddenly broke out from the Xihe Gate on the west side of Jinshui Bridge and spread to the three main halls of Huangji, Intermediate and Jianji in the center of the imperial city.
The strong wind carried the flames and rolled them into a fire dragon several feet high. Whenever it touched the wooden structure of the palace, it quickly ignited into a sea of fire. The roof tiles crackled and exploded in the raging fire, and sparks filled the sky like hail. Flying.
This fire in the imperial city that occurred in the 25th year of Wanli eventually swept through half of the Forbidden City. In addition to all the three main halls being burned to the ground, the Huangji Gate (later Taihe Gate) and the Yemen on both sides were also burned. The Wenzhao and Wucheng Pavilions on both sides of the square were burned together with the gallery rooms. After removing the ashes, "from inside the Ye gate, to the gate of Qianqing Palace, you can see the desolation." Only the Meridian Gate was spared because it was separated by the famous Jinshui River.
Perhaps it is because the Forbidden City of the Ming Dynasty belongs to the five elements of fire, so in the 230 years from its establishment to the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were 47 fires, an average of once every five years. What's more coincidental is that nine months before the fire, the Qianqing Palace and the Kunning Palace were also destroyed by fire, and the entire central axis of the imperial city was burned down.
In fact, as early as 1421, the three main halls were burned down due to lightning strikes. It happened that Zhu Di had just moved into the Forbidden City at that time. He was already feeling guilty, thinking that his nephew, whose life and death were unknown, was causing trouble. He was so frightened that he hurried to the Ancestral Temple to pray.
Thirty years ago, in 1557, Emperor Shizong Jiajing, who was obsessed with cultivating immortals, inexplicably claimed that he was the "Great Master of Five Thunders". As a result, Li Gui alarmed Li Kui and attracted Lei Gong to visit him personally. In an April telegram On a thunderous night, "there was a thunderstorm, fire suddenly broke out, and the fifteen doors on the three halls, two floors, and the other were all in disaster."
If it is said that when Emperor Chengzu burned down the three main halls, Zhu Di's heart was probably the most harmed because of the country's strength. Then the lightning damage in the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing's reign had already left officials and people stunned with the huge consumption of wealth.
During the Jiajing Dynasty, it was Yan Song and his son who presided over the reconstruction of the three main halls. It is certain that corruption and waste were very serious. Thirty years later, in the 25th year of Wanli, Zhu Yijun had not been in court for several years, so he felt that the construction of the three main palaces could be postponed, but the reconstruction of Qianqing Palace and Kunning Palace was urgent - the emperor and the queen could not sleep in the work shed. Bar?
This kind of project with many leaders, few funds, and tight construction period finally fell on a doctor named He Shengrui from the Ministry of Works.
He Langzhong was one of the few "remnants" of the practical school in the court at that time. He did not bribe eunuchs or collude with officials. He was also very capable. He was the kind of project manager that Yang Guoqiang particularly wanted. At that time, the imperial court allocated 1.6 million taels of silver for the construction of the two palaces. He Langzhong only used 670,000 taels to complete the task, and retained 930,000 taels to be returned to the ministry.
This is obviously a typical capable minister and official. However, the court at that time could not tolerate such remnants of the practical school, and those corrupt forces who wanted to take advantage of it were even more intolerable. In the end, He Langzhong was slandered and framed, dismissed from office and left the capital. It ends in depression, which is disappointing.
The reconstruction of Qianqing Palace and Kunning Palace was successfully completed due to He Shengrui's outstanding talents, but the reconstruction of the three main halls eventually turned into a financial disaster, which can even be seen as ringing the death knell of the Ming Dynasty.
The twenty-fifth year of Wanli when the three main halls caught fire again was indeed an eventful year. In this year, Japan's Toyotomi Hideyoshi refused to be granted the title, and the Japanese army did not evacuate Busan and return home. The Japanese stationed 200 Qing Dynasty warships in Zhangying, and mobilized various people at the same time to prepare to recapture and return strategic places and cities to North Korea. .
On the twenty-fifth day of the first lunar month, North Korea once again sent an envoy to ask for help from the Ming Dynasty. On the fifth day of February, the Ming court convened various officials to discuss the situation of the Korean War and analyze the movements of the Japanese army.
On the 11th, the matter of aiding Korea was discussed again, and it was decided to mobilize 7,000 troops from Xuanfu, Datong, Ji, and Liao armies, recruit 3,700 troops from Zhejiang, and order Korea to set up a coastal defense officer.
On the 15th, Ma Gui, the former commander-in-chief of Yansui and the governor of Tongzhi, was appointed as the commander-in-chief of preparing for Japan. He commanded the armies of the north and the south and sent troops to Korea to suppress the Japanese invading army.
On March 15th, Yang Gao was promoted to the Chief Secretary of Shandong and was appointed as the censor of Youqiandu to manage the military affairs of North Korea.
Not only was the chaos in Korea rekindled, this year Yang Yinglong of Bozhou also went against his promise and led Miao soldiers to invade Sichuan, Guizhou and Huguang; above the court, Xie Jie, the right minister of the Ministry of Punishment, directly admonished Zhu Yijun that "the economy is not as good as before, and the diligence is not as good as before." , Lu Kun, the left minister of the Ministry of Punishment, even bluntly said that the imperial court's allocation was too heavy and the people were having a hard time.
In this difficult situation, Zhu Yijun, who had become a strategic goal in fighting the civil servant group, not only refused to give in, but angrily decided to restart the construction of the three main halls.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty's finances, daily expenses such as royal expenses, official salary expenditures, military expenditures, etc. were already quite huge. How to raise the huge construction costs of the three main halls became a difficult task. In the end, it was Wanli who made the decision, "Two palaces and three palaces were hit by disaster, and the construction costs were unaffordable. Mines were opened to increase taxes." The simplest way to express it is: to increase taxes.
The long-span wooden structures of Chinese palaces are in great demand for precious woods, especially golden nanmu. This precious wood is produced in the deep mountains and old forests in the southwest of the Ming Dynasty, and the mining and transportation costs are extremely high. The cost of the imperial court's purchase of golden nanmu was allocated to the localities, and each locality had to pay additional taxes for a year to collect the money.
The Ming Dynasty's unique royal wood procurement system was even more corrupt. Eunuchs were ordered to take bribes at the local level, and the provinces complained endlessly. [Note: When I was reading other books two years ago, someone said that golden nanmu is only used for coffins. This is a big fallacy. I really refused to do so even after searching on Baidu, but I still insist on talking nonsense. ]
Zhu Yijun's decision ultimately led to disastrous financial consequences: Han Guanghu, an official from the Ministry of Revenue, wrote a letter to impeach the eunuch Chen Yongshou for extorting materials, "a hundred times as much", resulting in the cost of wood for the three main halls being as high as 9.3 million taels of silver, which was much higher than that of the Jia Jing Dynasty. The height of the third main hall was millions of taels.
In the end, the construction of these three halls was not completed until Wanli's grandson, the famous carpenter Emperor Tianqi. During the reign of Tianqi, it cost nearly more than 6 million taels of silver. In other words, the fire in the twenty-fifth year of Wanli burned a total of 15 million taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty.
What is the concept of 15 million taels of silver? After the rise of the Tatars in the late Ming Dynasty, military expenditures in Liaodong supported military operations of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses. It was almost 5 million taels a year. 15 million taels could support the Ming army in Liaodong for at least three years (this was after the corruption of the Liaodong army). The premise).
When Li Zicheng came to the city in 1644, Chongzhen called on his ministers to donate money to pay the soldiers, but only raised a total of 200,000 taels of silver.
These three halls have drawn a strange curve in history. Their completion, repairs, lightning strikes, fires, reconstructions, and collapses have magically become the epitome of the Ming Dynasty's finances and the fate of the dynasty.
Now, Gao Pangshi unexpectedly took over the reconstruction project of Huangji Hall. Although he did not start the construction immediately, but had to wait for the completion of the Rixin Building and observe it for a period of time before starting the construction, this may have inadvertently changed the fate of the three halls, and also Indirectly avoiding another financial disaster in the Ming Dynasty.
If nothing unexpected happens, the various golden nanmu and other precious woods in Huangji Palace will be greatly reduced in the future, and will be replaced by the rise of stone pillars and stone carvings. Considering that the main material of white marble is produced near the capital, Huangji Palace will Costs are expected to drop significantly in the future.
Gao Pragmatic only remembered that when he was reading "Records of Shenzong", he always saw records about the construction of the three major halls. Although he couldn't remember the specific time, at least he knew about it, and he had spent many years building it and spent a lot of money.
Therefore, in order to "certainly confirm" that he would undertake the new construction of Huangji Palace, Gao Pragmatic deliberately made the construction of Rixin Building a fuss, and the entire project was fully displayed to the outside world.
At the same time, he also personally announced that he would provide the Ming Dynasty with an "eternal palace" that could withstand lightning strikes and fire without being destroyed. For a time, the appetite of the people in the capital was aroused again, and some people even opened A long bet on whether Gao Situ's "Eternal Palace" is bragging.
At this time, the famous name of Baiyu Tower finally took effect. Many officials and scribes who had visited Baiyu Tower, as well as civilians who often passed by Baiyu Tower and looked at it from a distance, said that Baiyu Tower had never been repaired since it was built. Now it seems that it is "the same as before", and I think that Gao Situ's words may not be false.
But some people think that the Baiyu Tower has only been built for a few years. It is a "stone house" and will not be damaged for a while. However, a "stone house" is not "livable" after all, and people's residence must still be in "wood" to comply with the five elements.
This matter eventually evolved into a debate about whether "the new law is better" or "the existing law is better", and then became a new dispute between the two schools of practical learning and spiritual learning in the DPRK.
Officials from the Practical School cited the low construction cost of the White Jade Tower and the solidity of the building itself, and believed that promoting new architecture would "benefit all people in the world and benefit the common people." Officials from the Xinxue School cited scriptures and even made up some mythical ghost stories to prove that "stones" "The house" is not suitable for cultivating righteousness, and even "evil evils can enter the house", which is not good for the long term.
However, this was caught by the officials of the Practical School. They directly used Gao Pragmatic as an example and asked the Xinxue officials why Gao Situ was not affected by the "evil invasion"?
This was a good time, the two sides were arguing back and forth, and in the end, some of the spiritual officials could only hold their noses and admit: Gao Situ had an extraordinary righteousness, he was born in the Sixth Number One Scholar, and his literary fortune was extraordinary. In addition, he suffered countless bloodshed in the three battles of Annan, Dingbei, and Pingxi. The white tiger's killing spirit was excessive, so he was able to resist these "evil evils."
But they still insist that not everyone can do this - how many Gao Situ are there in the world? Even if all of you here are blessed with literary fortune, how many of you can attract this white tiger evil spirit?
In the end, Gao Jingshi couldn't stand it anymore. It wasn't enough for me to become the Bodhisattva of the Ming Dynasty in Tumut. I also wanted to become a god in the Ming Dynasty? All his nonsense.
In order to turn the spotlight back on the discussion, Gao Pragmatic even had to report an issue in advance that he originally planned to wait until the establishment of the eleven departments of the two departments was completed and officially launched.
This time, Gao Pragmatic asked the emperor to cancel all kinds of taxes in kind except grain and cloth.
Originally, he planned to mention this matter early next year, but now he has to bring it forward. However, the matter itself is indeed very important, and it cannot be said that it will affect the overall situation earlier. But even if the emperor agrees, he still has to go through the process and wait for two approvals. It will be easier to handle if Division 11 is put into work.
Why is this important? This starts with Zhu Yuanzhang's system, which a later scholar named Huang Renyu called the "Hongwu-type finance".
This scholar had many arguments in his famous work "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" that Gao Jingshi did not agree with. However, Gao Jingshi was a person who discussed things as they happened, and he basically recognized the relevant discussion of "Hongwu-type finance" in his work. .
What is this "Hongwu-type finance" all about? Zhu Yuanzhang, who was probably born in a mud-legged family, hated corruption deeply, and at the same time he was well versed in the officialdom wisdom of "passing the pork, leaving a layer of oil". So he cleverly designed a taxation system based on physical goods and corvee, that is, allowing taxpayers to pay materials directly to the consuming department. Zhu Yuanzhang believed that this system of "no middlemen making price differences" was the best system.
Therefore, under the organization and dispatch of the "Hongwu-type finance", the grain produced in Suhu was sent to the frontier military camps in the far northwest; the porcelain fired in Jiangxi was transported to the capital palace in the north; the silk juan woven in Zhejiang was rewarded to the beauties in the harem... all taxes Income was directly linked to consumption departments, and Zhu Yuanzhang himself distributed the materials needed for various national expenditures to counties across the country in every detail.
The idealized planned economy often reverses history. At the very least, the monetary taxes of the Tang and Song Dynasties degenerated into physical taxes. A consumption department (a government unit that needs to use materials) may have to receive physical goods from dozens of counties, which is also troublesome for the county. For example, a magistrate of Wanping County in the capital once complained that their county had to give the imperial court 27 Each consumption department pays various in-kind taxes, and the total price of these various things is only 2,000 taels of silver.
This utopian tax system is too magical in the eyes of future generations such as Gao pragmatism. He even remembered that when he read historical records in the past, he saw that on the eve of the death of the Ming Dynasty, a household minister submitted a national tax arrears report to the emperor, and even listed such trivial matters as a county's arrears of honey worth twenty-eight taels of silver to the palace. .
Gao Pragmatic was dumbfounded by this: You are the dignified Minister of Household Affairs! How did "honey worth twenty-eight taels of silver" need to be cared about by a big boss with a series of positions such as the director of the National Development and Reform Commission, the minister of finance, and the governor of the People's Bank of China?
However, the reality is so magical. In the vast land of the Ming Dynasty, corvees carried animals in their vehicles with grain, cotton wool, dyes and other messy materials, and they traveled north and south to pay taxes. The transportation costs were often much higher than the value of the materials.
If this thing doesn't change, do you expect me, Gao Rixin, to take care of the honey debt of twenty-eight taels?
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