Chapter 89 Journal
Xie Jin was on full display in the journal.
No reservations whatsoever. In the halcyon days, my underwear was turned inside out.
In particular, all the things done by the Jiangnan scholar-officials were revealed.
Yes. Because the court had strict control over things like hiding acres of land, evading taxes, etc. Most people don't dare to do these things. If they dare to do it, Zhu Yuanzhang will definitely let them know their fate. However, the scholar-bureaucrats, no, it should be the landlords, cannot give up the most basic and indispensable tool for land management, usury.
Nothing else, this is a matter of land management philosophy.
Scholar-officials, they never thought of cultivating the land themselves. There was no thought of investing money into the land for necessary water conservancy construction. Increase grain production or improve production methods to increase yield per mu. to increase your own profits.
These tedious mundane tasks. How could it be what their noble scholar-bureaucrats had to do?
Even though many gentry collectively built bridges, paved roads and built water conservancy projects. However, their main starting point is definitely not to increase the yield per mu so that they can have better profits.
Of course, among the large group of scholar-officials, there were also some people like this who personally managed agriculture and even summed up their experience and wrote agricultural books. But most scholar-officials are not like this. The income from the land on which they depended did not consist in the rent itself.
Because the income from land rent is limited, and it is quite limited.
The personal dependence on land and loan sharking are the main sources of exploitation by landlords.
Because of the personal dependence on the land, the tenants' manpower can be used unlimitedly, which can be said to be free. This kind of tenant is already similar to a serf. As for usury, at the moment the loan is lent, there is almost no expectation that the farmers will be able to repay it. He wants to use usury to exploit the people without limit.
Life is theirs, death is theirs.
The kind that eats people without spitting out their bones.
This is why many landowners and scholar-bureaucrats cannot bear the large number of people going to sea. Although it is said that most Chinese people have a hard time parting with their wealth, it is difficult for them to make the decision to leave their hometown until the last moment. Under the pressure of the landlords, they would rather live in exile.
Before, there was no other way. Now there is only one way out to sea. The economic cycle of landowners annexing land was broken.
This cost them a lot.
In fact, from a national level, as long as the land is still taxed, it does not matter whether it is annexed or not. But the problem is that in ancient times, land annexation meant that the population shifted from the government to the private sector, and the land shifted from paying taxes to not paying taxes, and from shouldering public obligations to not bearing public obligations.
This is the danger of land annexation.
It can be said that the opening of the sea is not perfect. The nobles' monopoly on the surface and the secret methods are naturally not innocent. But generally speaking, as long as you are willing to obey the rules of the sea, apart from natural disasters, man-made disasters are still very rare.
The reason is also very simple. Because everyone is here to make money. Not out to kill people. The purpose of killing is to make money. Rather than the other way around.
What the landlords make is not money, but lives. It is unpaid labor and bloody land.
Talent is their greatest wealth. instead of money.
In many places, money is of no use at all. Even if the poor have money, they cannot keep it in many places.
If many things have existed since ancient times, everyone seems to have taken it for granted, thinking that this should be the case. I didn't feel anything was wrong. But Xie Jin brought these things out again and told the world, but it was different.
Many things are not worth mentioning if they are not put on the scale. Once they are put on the scale, a lot of money will not weigh them down.
The first problem here is that Zhu Yuanzhang had express provisions on usury. One of them is that the interest cannot exceed the principal. No matter how much money you borrow, your repayments will be doubled in the end. But how can the people below follow such regulations?
Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang just carried out a major operation on the entire Ming Dynasty. Since the founding of the country, he has been committed to equalizing land and taxes. On the one hand, they value the rich clan and on the other hand, they suppress the rich clan. Zhu Yuanzhang even had a book in hand, and all the families with land of more than 3,000 acres were listed.
However, the natural differentiation of human beings is a natural law and is not subject to human will.
After the founding of New China, there was a period of time when the land was divided. However, it didn’t take long, probably less than ten years, or even less, before the central government noticed a tendency for land to re-gather in the hands of a few people. In the same situation, what Zhu Yuanzhang did was definitely not as thorough as New China's land reform. Farmers operating land have encountered many more natural and man-made disasters than they have since New China.
The vulnerability of the small-scale peasant economy to these problems will also arise when land is concentrated again.
In fact, what Zhu Yuanzhang did at the beginning of the founding of the country has completely changed after the orthodoxy. A large amount of land was concentrated in the hands of the gentry. Millions of refugees are spread all over the world, and the Ming Dynasty's disaster relief has just begun. The court has been proactive and has become passive.
The main reason is that there is not enough money.
If we count the time, it is less than a hundred years.
It is also that these gentry are not strong now. Otherwise, they would not use this method to make their voices heard and kill a few people in the countryside. Even if dozens of people are exterminated, it may not be a big deal. It is precisely because the power of the gentry is not strong enough. Faced with the Kaihai issue supported by nobles, they could only find ways to stop it in a roundabout way, and maybe get a share of the pie.
Follow formal channels.
There is no telling how many people have died due to this habitual pattern.
Xie Jin suddenly dug up the ancestral graves of these people. It even directly shook the foundation of Confucianism.
Yes, Confucianism teaches that benevolent people love others. It does not support the economic logic. There are some scholar-bureaucrats who also cultivate and study to pass down their families. The problem is that the biggest supporters of Confucianism are behind this economic model.
Both sides are deeply tied.
This is that the economic base determines the superstructure, whether Confucianism is willing or not. We all have to face this fact.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Xie Jin's impassioned speech in the journal and criticized it fiercely. He shook his head slightly and said to himself: "No wonder he has to be buried in a snowdrift. In this life, this kid will definitely not end well. However, this is okay. Some things should be torn apart."
Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to continue the reform. The land is so vast that it’s almost there. Of course, the world is big. Land clearance in many provinces is still ongoing. But the most important places such as Southern Zhili, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Huguang, etc. have been cleared.
Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to further change the land system.
There must be a reason for this. As the emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang was too shirtless, which was not good and had no room for maneuver. Even Zhu Yuanzhang was prepared to ask He Xi to return to Beijing to discuss this matter. This is just great. Jie Jin took a hard bite. Nanjing will not be at peace for a long time to come.
Zhu Yuanzhang had room to intervene.
As for Xie Jin personally.
Xie Jin was too restless and too pushy. It is difficult for such a person to reach the end of the officialdom. Historically, Jie Jin used the words "good sage grandson" to win the favor of Yongle and Renzong, but offended the king of Han to death.
In the end, he died a violent death.
But Xie Jin is younger now and doesn't know the importance. In order to get ahead, he naturally tried his best. Use the knowledge you have learned to overwhelm Ding Xian. Pave a bright future for yourself.
But he didn't know that he was using too much force, and the strong ones would break easily. Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy with his approach. But he attracted all the hatred of the opposing party to himself. As for the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible to advance from feudal society to the next stage within a few decades, that is to say. The Ming landlord class may have declined, but it will still exist.
Politics is the art of compromise.
Once the superiors need to reconcile and compromise with these people. So what will happen to Xie Jin who has attracted so much hatred?
The weights are thrown out, and the instructions are given.
Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that Jie Jin's nature is easy to change but hard to change. If you dance so happily, you will inevitably make a list in the future. But that is in the future, and now he also wants to give rewards. Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a moment, and then ordered that Xie Jin be awarded the title of seventh-grade Hanlin bachelor, and invite him to enter the palace to attend the Sutra banquet for Zhu Yuanzhang, that is, to give lectures.
"I'm asking for leave. I don't have perfect attendance this month. I have no motivation and I have some glitches. There is only one update today."
