Chapter 70 New National Policy
Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked and said, "It won't come to this."
The prince is not that easy to fool.
The prince is the successor carefully cultivated by Zhu Yuanzhang. Compared with Zhu Yuanzhang, although he is a little soft-hearted, he is a qualified monarch. Zhu Biao was even used to replace any emperor except Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Biao can only do better, not worse.
Arguably, the most important sensitivity as an emperor. There has always been a prince.
He keenly felt that Zhu Yuanzhang's change of direction would affect many things. Among them is the battle for the future prince.
All this time, the prince has never worried about his position as heir apparent. Because of Zhu Yuanzhang's plan for the future of Ming Dynasty. Before the fourteenth year of Hongwu, he had always suppressed arrogant and powerful generals. Changing the current situation of the Ming Dynasty to a civilian government will be more conducive to the long-term stability of the Ming Dynasty and the inheritance of the descendants of the Zhu family from generation to generation.
The training of the prince was also arranged in this way.
The prince's side, from Song Lian to Fang Xiaoru. There are also many noble descendants. Even Chahan, the son of Nahachu who had just surrendered, was walking in the East Palace. He is one of the Donggong team. Fourteen years after Hongwu, the prince continued to act as prime minister.
It can be said that he is a veritable prime minister.
The prince's political leanings also made him the de facto leader of the civil service group.
If there are no variables.
Zhu Yuanzhang himself became Emperor Wu and asked Zhu Biao to become Emperor Wen. Then the Ming Dynasty transitioned to a normal civilian government. But now, He Xi is coming. This broadened Zhu Yuanzhang's horizons. He pondered the various ideas brought by He Xi for a year or two and made new plans for the future of Ming Dynasty.
And who is the biggest obstacle in this plan?
Not someone else. It was the civil servant group of the Ming Dynasty.
Because most of the Ming Dynasty nobles are not from the grassroots and are relatively low-level. They achieved their own glory and wealth because of the rise of Ming Dynasty. As long as they can keep their own glory and wealth, they actually don't care much about such a major issue as where they will go in the future of the Ming Dynasty.
On the contrary, there will definitely be a lot of resistance from the civil service group.
The prince has become the de facto civilian leader.
The prince naturally felt this sign. Just asked this question.
The prince said: "Father, there is no need to lie to me. I understand dad, and I will not allow you to kill Mr. Fang and other senior ministers. Even if you kill me, I will not allow it."
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Silly boy, what are you talking about?"
The prince did not speak, but looked at Zhu Yuanzhang, showing his firmness.
Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a long time and took out two brochures. He said to the prince: "There are some things that He Xi has not said to you. But after all, you are the prince of the country. You should still know what you should know. Take it and take a look."
The prince took it with both hands. One is "The Wealth of Nations" and the other is "Tian Zhi". The prince didn't care whether he was rude or not. He started reading it on the spot, he was so curious. What kind of knowledge can make my father become like this all of a sudden?
These two books were actually written by Zhu Yuanzhang.
It can even be said to be a summary of Zhu Yuanzhang's own reading of modern books. Wealth of Nations. It means a great division of labor in society. Already industrialized composition model. A new economic system was formed to replace the small peasant economy of the Ming Dynasty. The "Tian Zhi" describes the land system of all dynasties since ancient times, and introduces new ones, such as dividing the land into acres, gentry paying grain as one, etc., and there are many details in it, such as new methods of measuring land. That is to use hot air balloons to measure land. Not too precise though. But the error was small enough for the court to accept.
Perhaps, there are still people tampering with the land. But land cannot be hidden from the ground. As long as the hot air balloon makes an estimate of the land, the place that is missing 30% can be found at once.
According to the results of aircraft surveying and mapping during the Republic of China. The difference between the amount of land in most places and the amount controlled by the government is 30%. In other words, at least 30% of the land has always been hidden land. Nowadays, although hot air balloons are used for surveying and mapping, the accuracy is not very high. It is normal for it to fluctuate up and down. But it is absolutely impossible to miss 30%.
And this kind of hot air balloon clears people. Not much is needed. One or two thousand people at most is enough.
Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't control all the subordinates in the world, couldn't he control one or two thousand people? That's a joke.
The final land system is to combine all agricultural taxes into one item. But there was no silver exchange because the problem of the Ming Dynasty's currency system had not yet been solved. Today, tax in kind is still the main method. All land in the world must be taxed. Even if you are an official, it is the same.
The tax-free land of officials will be directly converted into salaries and transferred to the lower levels.
In fact, for a period of time after Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, the world was troubled. The court was very short of money. Official salaries. There is no treatment for the students at all. Only then did Zhu Yuanzhang come up with a way to exempt officials and gentry from land tax for a certain amount. In fact, this method is not without precedent. After all, both Tang and Song dynasties had official land. Wherever you were an official, you would be given as much land as you could get, and the output of this land would be the official's salary. Zhu Yuanzhang's method of tax exemption evolved from the method of job fields.
It’s just that Zhu Yuanzhang never imagined that future generations would evolve into that. What was originally a limited tax exemption would become an unlimited tax exemption. Since he knew about this problem, he naturally wanted to remedy it. Moreover, the salary in the Ming Dynasty was low, which is the consensus of later generations. Although Zhu Yuanzhang felt that it was not low, he faced so many comments from later generations. I also feel in my heart that I should give more. As a result, the tax-free quota will be empty. It is regarded as a new subsidy to make up for the loopholes. Official salaries were also increased. It can be regarded as killing two birds with one stone.
Of course. This subsidy is not much. For example, an official can have one hundred acres of tax-free land. Then his subsidy is calculated based on the Ming Dynasty field tax, which is five liters per mu, which is only five stones of grain.
To the prince, the former seemed confused. The latter looked at it in amazement. He exclaimed: "This was proposed by He Xi. It is a wonderful idea. Using this method, the court can increase taxes by at least 20%. However, as a result, it may be difficult for county governments to maintain it."
The method of assigning people to acres of land and whipping them are essentially the abolition of unpaid corvee. When the people paid land taxes, they had money for corvee labor. However, whether it is a method of apportioning a small person into an acre or a whipping method, there are still taxes added to the tax and laws added to the law.
What this means is that all taxes are integrated. Collected together, it is convenient to go up and down. But after a while, the tax name that had been integrated into the land tax resurfaced.
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "The common people and the officials must suffer. It is better to suffer the officials than the common people. In the future, the court will just withhold more taxes from the localities. The essence of this method is not to increase taxes, but to facilitate the people. Corvee service is too bitter. ”
The prince said silently: "Father, do you want to change the Jintian system?"
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Why, you think you can't change it."
The prince said: "You can do it, you can change it."
The prince did not understand anything in "The Wealth of Nations" at all. But he admired the things in Tianzhi very much. He didn't know that doing such things would make many people around him uncomfortable. But the prince also has his own beliefs. I won’t stop doing it just because I feel uncomfortable.
Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Then get ready. After the spring starts tomorrow, I will clean up the world and promote the new law. You can shoulder this burden for me."
The prince said: "Father, please rest assured that I will definitely live up to my father's trust."
Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Well, go ahead and prepare. In addition, don't tell anyone what happened today. Do you understand?"
The prince lowered his head slightly and said, "Understood."
Zhu Yuanzhang watched the prince leave and sighed slightly in his heart.
Carrying out major surgery on the Da Mingtian system is what Zhu Yuanzhang will do next year. It was also something he had been preparing for many years. Zhu Yuanzhang had already made full preparations for this matter. Although there is great resistance to this matter in the South. But Zhu Yuanzhang didn't think it couldn't be done. Because the civil service power in the south has not yet been formed. He left the capital to give some people some opportunities to see what they would do? Let's settle accounts later.
It's different in the north. The north performs big projects and has a lot of labor. shorthanded. Once the corvee is waived. Although the people are happy, there will be endless complaints in the local area. Even the military was unwilling.
Without him, there would not be enough civilians to be exempted from corvee and dispatched by the army. Directly affects the operational capabilities and costs of the Ming Dynasty's army.
Because even if civilian husbands are recruited from now on, it will not be free. You have to give money.
When the Ming Dynasty's army was dispatched, the cost was even higher.
This was also Zhu Yuanzhang's intention, and it was inevitable for him to encourage external expansion. Because the future world will be divided up by several small countries, Zhu Yuanzhang is not convinced. But external expansion and militarism are two different things. He raises the cost of military campaigns abroad. They just weren't prepared to pass on the cost of Ming's foreign wars to the common people.
In the past, the civilian men who accompanied the army were all recruited for corvee service. If you die outside, you will die outside. There is no state compensation at this time. Even if family members want to transport the body home, they have to do it themselves. At most, some money will be given for burial and funeral expenses, which will not be very high.
But from now on, civilian husbands will be hired. If you die, the army will pay for you.
This greatly affects the interests of the nobles and affects the operation of the government. This is why Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to go north. Of course, he also wanted to talk to He Xi. He gave He Xi so much support and did not let He Xi go to war. There are too many people in the world who can do such things as fighting. There is not much He Xi.
And if you can’t give so much support, you’ll have to pay a price.
But Zhu Yuanzhang could only sigh slightly when he thought of Zhu Biao's figure. It was the first time that there was such a deep rift between father and son.
