Chapter 27 The Dai family’s desperate situation
What does Zhu Yuanzhang's perfect social model look like?
The four peoples are each in their own place. Whatever the father does, the son must also do. It is passed down from father to son, from generation to generation. Therefore, there are so-called military households and craftsmen households. Boat households, kitchen households. If so, wait.
Of course, the emperor also has to be passed down from generation to generation.
The court does not need to be too rich. Just maintain the most basic social order. Let the people develop freely. It is better to hide wealth among the people than to hide it in the court.
In short, the beautiful social model in Zhu Yuanzhang's mind was a static one, with the court occupying a dominant position. But the court can treat the people loosely. The people in the imperial court are all in their own way, there are no beggars, there are no idle and degenerate people.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang's idea cannot be said to be bad.
Even hundreds of years later, when people understand Zhu Yuanzhang, they can still see the light of Zhu Yuanzhang's ideals.
Unfortunately, many things are good ideas. Implement it. There is a problem.
Zhu Yuanzhang created this invisible network, but there was actually no place for maritime merchants. Haishang and Zhu Yuanzhang hoped for a stable, harmonious and static society, which was simply incompatible.
The world is dynamic and cannot be stable in a certain era.
But when Zhu Yuanzhang was alive, his system was the most flexible, because Zhu Yuanzhang could adjust it himself, and it was also the most complete. Whoever is disobedient will see how Zhu Yuanzhang will kill him. Therefore, the problems faced by maritime merchants during the Hongwu period were different from those faced by maritime merchants after that.
The resistance faced by maritime merchants in the future was often due to conflicts of interest. It’s not that there is no supply. But the price cannot be negotiated.
There are a large number of people on land who serve maritime merchants, or pirates. As long as the price is negotiated, everything is easy to discuss.
But during the Hongwu period, it was different.
These maritime merchants really don’t understand things. There really is no goods.
Without him, Zhu Yuanzhang's system was based on the control of social resources. During the Hongwu period, Zhu Yuanzhang's control of social resources was unmatched by later generations. Don’t talk about anything else, just talk about taxes. It was Zhu Yuanzhang who set the cut-off line for taxation in the Ming Dynasty. It was Zhu Yuanzhang who determined the basic tax amount for the entire Ming Dynasty. Because Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the Ming court needed so much money to run it. Therefore, a certain year's tax is set as a fixed amount. In the Ming Dynasty and even in the Qing Dynasty, there were not many changes.
Of course, the Qing Dynasty raised taxes on a large scale. But the basis for the tax increase. It is also on Zhu Yuanzhang's quota.
It can be said that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the most abundant era of manpower and material resources was the Hongwu period. It could still be maintained during the Yongle period, but only just. At the time of Renxuan, the financial crisis began.
Want to know what it was like during the Hongwu period? After hundreds of battles, everything was devastated. What is the population of Ming Dynasty? This is a difficult number to determine. Because the official archives of the Ming Dynasty are nonsense. When the Ming Dynasty had the largest population, different historians have different opinions.
Roughly one or two hundred million, some say it could be as high as 300 million.
However, the population during the Hongwu period is relatively certain. More than sixty million. This is a relatively certain population. It is very different from the middle and late Ming Dynasty. People said it at the time of the Ming Dynasty. The unregistered population is more than three times the registered population.
But that's it, a foundation that is ready to be revitalized. The north is sparsely populated. Plate that has not been recovered yet. As a result, they produced the most money and food in the entire Ming Dynasty. And the people live and work in peace and contentment. People in Ming Dynasty miss Hongwu's rule.
It can be seen to what extent Zhu Yuanzhang controlled the entire Ming Dynasty.
It would be a lie to say that every grain of rice and every piece of cloth were under Zhu Yuanzhang's control. However, the transfer of materials on a human scale is absolutely under Zhu Yuanzhang's control. In addition, during the Hongwu period, the political atmosphere was relatively clean. A very capable waterman.
There is no additional supply of goods in the first place, and it is simply impossible to send them to sea through these many checkpoints.
Of course, this has also caused the prices of Chinese goods overseas to rise. As a result, Annan porcelain became a substitute for Ming porcelain, and was even called Chinese porcelain. But overall, the scale of trade agglomeration has shrunk.
Such as the Dai family and other old maritime merchants. I feel like I can't live my life anymore.
Compared with those years ago, Fang Guozhen occupied the three mansions, and a large amount of goods became the source of goods. What I am doing now is simply worse than shaving my teeth.
Today's Dai family is even more anxious than the Dai family that cooperated with Fang Guozhen in the past. According to history, he estimated that Ming would have to wait until Zheng He's voyages to the West were completed before Ming Dynasty gave up control of the oceans. Only these merchants or pirates can take the lead.
That will probably be decades later. I don’t know if Dai Mingshi’s grandson is still alive.
No, it should be said that the Dai family, a maritime merchant inherited from the Yuan Dynasty, still exists.
History is like this. A small turn can crush a family that has been inherited for hundreds of years into powder.
Dai Mingshi may not have such a vision that spans the ages, nor does he understand what he is facing. But he knew very well that the Dai family could not hold on any longer. Now he is still there. When will he be gone? The name of the Dai family may no longer exist.
It was this deep despair and helplessness against reality that even gave him the idea of supporting Fang Guan to make a comeback.
Of course he knew that if he really did this, the Dai family would most likely be extinct. Not even blood can be left behind. However, with the current situation, can the Dai family continue to have descendants? Competition in the maritime trade is brutal. If the Dai family had a foundation at sea before, they also had a foundation on the shore. More inclined towards maritime trade. Now that there is only a little foundation left at sea, it is more inclined to pirates.
What does inheritance annexation look like among pirates?
He speaks with the handle of his knife.
If the Dai family's foundation cannot be maintained, it will be equal to being killed. Sinking into the sea.
Both of them have no descendants. The difference between the two is probably death now or death in the future.
Everything is said and done. Dai Mingshi burst into tears. I almost want to cry with Fang Guan.
Little did he know that Fang Guanting was secretly happy.
It's not that Fang Guan built his happiness on the pain of others, but that Fang Guan discovered an opportunity.
Yes, opportunity.
Fang Guan originally came only to inquire about news. But now Fang Guan discovered that he seemed to be able to recruit the Dai family. The Dai family is now barely surviving. However, in any case, it is a time-honored brand of maritime merchants and provides news on the sea. Is very well-informed.
If the Dai family is recruited and sent to He Xi. I dare not say that the maritime trade circle has no secrets about He Xi. But most things cannot be hidden from He Xi.
Not to mention, although the Dai family has declined terribly. But there are still hundreds of tribesmen. They are all veterans of ocean navigation. Listening to what Dai Mingshi said, these people have traveled to Southeast Asia many times. He is also familiar with Nanyang.
They were much better than those sailors of the Ming Dynasty who only sailed offshore, at most to Ryukyu and Liaodong.
Fang Guan said: "Uncle. I came here today to inquire about the consort. However, I have an idea today. I wonder if uncle dares to seek wealth with me."
Dai Mingshi was also a veteran and had already heard the implication of Fang Guan's words. His first reaction was to object.
Just kidding, Fang Guozhen surrendered back then. He didn't even surrender. Asking him to bow his head to Daming, he couldn't swallow this breath in his heart. It should be noted that the Dai family did not fall into this situation all of a sudden. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, when cleaning up the sea, the Dai family may have fought against the Ming Navy several times.
The Dai family, which was once a great family and even Fang Guozhen did not dare to look down upon, only had a dozen large and small boats, a few hundred heads, and a few women and children. Lingering here.
But, as the head of the Dai family. Even if the hatred is as deep as the sea. He couldn't care less at the moment. The living are always greater than the dead.
Dai Mingshi said: "Is it useful to say this now? Do you think I haven't thought about surrendering? It's too late."
There was enmity between the Dai family and several coastal guards. And the Dai family is even more vulnerable. If you surrender, wouldn't you be just meat on someone else's chopping board and be slaughtered by others without looking at others? Just look at Fang Guozhen, what a hero Fang Guozhen was back then. After the surrender, he just died in Nanjing in depression.
His Dai family is in no way comparable to those of the Fang family. If the Dai family surrenders, their fate will only be worse. It is unlikely that the direct descendants of the Dai family will survive. The members of the Dai family are likely to be classified as boat households. They can only make a living by fishing.
Dai Mingshi did not dare to use the last spark of the Dai family to gamble on other people's consciences.
