Daming: At the beginning, recognize Zhu Yuanzhang as grandfather!

Chapter 107 Grandson's choice is...

The Longevity Festival lasted for three days, and the whole country was peaceful during these three days.

Slaughtering is prohibited, and criminal names are ignored for several days before and after.

During these three days, apart from accompanying the old man, Zhu Xiongying stayed in Chunhe Palace most of the time.

Of course Zhu Yunxi was extremely happy.

At the Wanshou Banquet that day, he couldn't even get a chance to talk to his elder brother, so now in the Chunhe Palace, he has enough time to talk to Zhu Xiongying.

Zhu Xiongying also likes his younger brother. Today's Zhu Yunxi is no longer as submissive as before, he has become smart and studious, and his whole person has become much more cheerful. It seems that after Zhu Xiongying came back, he found his backbone all at once.

And Zhu Xiongying can also feel that Zhu Yunxi's feelings for him are so sincere, without any impurities.

The relaxed and happy time always passes quickly, and the three-day Wanshou Festival passed by in a flash.

And during these three days, Zhu Xiongying is slowly getting used to the life in the palace...

The first day after Longevity.

Genius had just seen darkness, and the entire Forbidden City was already dark and empty, only wisps of faint light shone through the main hall of the Hall of Martial Arts.

A palace lantern slowly floated towards the Hall of Martial Arts.

Zhu Xiongying was wearing a stone-blue casual robe with a bright yellow silk sash tied around his waist. Although he was walking casually, his steps were still long and fast.

In a blink of an eye, Zhu Xiongying had already walked outside the Hall of Martial Heroes, and waved his hand to make the following palace attendants retreat.

According to the old man's instructions, the current booklets are first presented to Zhu Xiongying, and after Zhu Xiongying's review, they are sent to Zhu Yuanzhang for review.

Just after the Wanshou Festival, I received a booklet from the local government.

"Jiangxi's chief envoy, Zhang Wei, was dismissed. There was a severe drought in Jiangxi, and the people's sentiments were restless. I hoped for the grace of the Holy Majesty to stabilize people's hearts and demonstrate the grace of heaven. I begged the court to exempt Jiangxi from taxation for a year, and I begged the Holy Majesty for his permission."

After seeing it, Zhu Yuanzhang frowned.

After a long time, Zhu Yuanzhang sighed slowly, and said: "Many people think that being an emperor is a pleasure, but according to our opinion, this is the most difficult job in the world."

"Kyushu Wanfang, 400 provinces, more than 8000 prefectures and counties, more than [-] officials, and [-] million people are all governed by one person."

"Money and food, prisons, taxes, river construction, frontiers, military use, and year-round droughts, floods, and locust plagues... this burden is hard to pick!"

Speaking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang turned his eyes to Zhu Xiongying, and said, "Da Sun, tell me, what should we do?"

Zhu Xiongying pondered for a moment, then replied: "Natural disasters cannot be avoided by manpower. My grandson thinks that the one-year tax exemption is enough to reassure the people."

"Well, that's right!"

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, and then said: "But do you know how much money is left in the treasury?"

Hearing this, Zhu Xiongying shook his head slightly.

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Zhu Xiongying, and continued: "It's normal if you don't know about this problem. After all, you have just taken over. Let me tell you, this year, there are floods in two provinces, severe drought in three provinces, and several times in the north and southwest. Big wars have basically consumed sixty-seven out of ten of the court's revenue."

"Now the Ministry of Housekeeping has less than 100 million taels of silver deposits, and the treasury banks of all provinces are in a complete deficit. The province with the least deficit is more than 100 taels, and the province with the largest deficit is already more than [-] million taels! The imperial court urged , the local officials doubled down on exploiting the common people, if not done well, the people will be full of resentment!"

"Once Jiangxi's taxes are reduced or exempted, the imperial court's finances next year will probably be even more difficult!"

After hearing this, Zhu Xiongying was stunned.

He didn't expect that the financial difficulties of the Ming Dynasty, which was thriving in all aspects, would be so serious.

At this time, after listening to the old man's few words, he spoke them out as if telling a family story, and only then did he understand why the old man sighed like that in the first place.

Taxes are the main source of fiscal revenue for a country.

For this, Zhu Xiongying had a special understanding before.

Like the previous dynasties, the Ming Dynasty was still an economy dominated by agriculture. Agricultural tax and land tax were the country's largest fiscal revenue, supplemented by Ding tax and official labor.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the two-tax law was implemented, and the land tax was divided into summer tax and autumn grain.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, in order to ensure the government's fiscal revenue, the household registration and land conditions of most parts of the country were checked, and the "yellow book" recording the household registration and the "fish scale atlas" recording the land conditions were fabricated as the basis for tax collection. in accordance with.

The tax system of the Ming Dynasty was formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang himself. The system formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang was based on the two tax laws of the Tang Dynasty and the tax system of the Song Dynasty.

If you really understand the taxation system during the Hongwu period, you will know that Zhu Yuanzhang really considers the people at the bottom.

According to Zhu Yuanzhang's plan, the Ming Dynasty implemented a fixed tax system, that is, during the Hongwu period, the amount of tax should be paid in the world was stipulated, and there would be no increase in taxation for land reclamation in the future. In this way, more and more cultivated land, The population is increasing, but the tax revenue is not increasing, so the tax revenue shared by each common people is reduced.

He didn't want the court to tax the people too much, so he also set the regular tax very low.

After the old man's precise calculations, if this tax system continues to operate, the annual tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty is exactly equal to the fiscal expenditure of the Ming Dynasty.

However, this was set by him at the beginning of his ascension to the throne, and he thought it was too good. Later, he realized that the court still had many expenditures under abnormal circumstances, such as military operations, disaster relief, and construction of major projects. appear, the court will be stretched.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang have to print more precious banknotes to cope with the current situation.

And this is equivalent to using future money to solve current problems, which resulted in the arrears of nine sides in the late Ming Dynasty, as high as several million silver.

Zhu Xiongying thought a lot, and said slowly: "Grandpa, there is a saying that my grandson doesn't know whether to say or not."

"Stinky boy!"

Zhu Yuanzhang scolded: "Is there anything we can't say between you and me?"

He knew that every time his grandson said this, he was bound to make some astonishing remarks, so he also had some expectations about what his grandson would say.

Zhu Xiongying didn't hesitate anymore, and said: "The treasury of the Ming Dynasty is tight, and grandpa can't bear to increase the taxes of the common people. Like this time when there was a disaster in Jiangxi, they even reduced or exempted their taxes, but did grandpa ever think about it? It can be open sourced elsewhere.”

"where?"

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were burning.

Zhu Xiongying slowly spit out two words: "Business!"

"Ah--"

Zhu Yuanzhang chuckled and said, "It's business again. To tell you the truth, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Household Affairs last year, the tax revenue of business was only 20 taels, less than [-]% of the overall tax revenue."

Zhu Xiongying was not in a hurry, and said slowly: "Grandpa, don't underestimate the means of business. The speed of making money through business means is even more terrifying than you imagined. Just look at Shen Wansan."

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded.

In fact, he did not underestimate the speed at which commercial methods can make money.

When the capital was building the city, Shen Wansan donated one-third of the capital to build the city, which shows his strong financial resources.

But Shen Wansan was not finished yet, and wanted to contribute money to reward the three armies, which made Zhu Yuanzhang very annoyed.

"Every man rewards the army of the world, and the people who are in disorder, should be punished!"

If it wasn't for Empress Ma's persuasive advice at that time: "The ominous people will be destroyed by heaven. Why should your majesty punish them!"

Shen Wansan was able to save his life.

The past flashed by, and Zhu Yuanzhang said calmly: "Sun, you mean that the imperial court no longer suppresses commerce and allows those merchants to amass wealth, and the imperial court collects commercial taxes from merchants. Less financial revenue, but have you ever thought about it? In the final analysis, the money comes from the common people, and the court is just a change of pretext, and the merchants will become the targets of the court's reliance and wooing, and their status will also rise!"

"We also said before that if the imperial court raises the status of prostitutes, then everyone will become prostitutes, not to mention merchants. At that time, who will farm the land and who will open up wasteland? Can money replace food?"

As Zhu Yuanzhang said, he couldn't help looking at Zhu Xiongying with some disappointment: "We've said so much, have you listened to it? You are the master of Ming Dynasty in the future, and we can't let our country become a castle in the air, flashy!"

As he said that, Zhu Yuanzhang sighed: "We know that you are doing it for the good of Ming Dynasty, but governing the country is not just playing games. Every decision we make will have a profound impact on the entire Ming Dynasty, so we must be cautious and cautious, not just slap your head That's all right, it's killing people, kid!"

Zhu Xiongying was moved when he heard the words, he knew that the old man always had people in his heart, so why didn't he?

"Grandpa, you misunderstood!"

Zhu Xiongying explained: "Sun'er's intention is not to encourage the development of domestic commercial activities, but to use commercial means to gain benefits from neighboring countries!"

"The surrounding countries?"

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned again, showing a puzzled look.

Zhu Xiongying nodded and said: "Since the Tang and Song dynasties, there has been a tea-horse trade. In our dynasty, a tea-horse department was established to take charge of exchanging tea for horses in the northwestern Tibetan and Tibetan areas. This is to gain benefits from abroad. !"

"You also know that my Daming's salt, iron, tea, silk, porcelain and other things are very valuable abroad!"

"Fanbang can't produce these things at all. Rare things are more expensive. Just like the wine and snowflake salt that my grandson made before, sell as much as you can, and the price is much higher than the market, so people will still buy it!"

"Then why don't we increase the production of these things and exchange things such as silver and food with neighboring countries?"

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes slightly.

The tea-horse exchange market has huge benefits, Zhu Yuanzhang is clear about this.

Because this area has always been strictly controlled by the imperial court, and the people are not allowed to intervene, but there are still many people who take risks and smuggle tea, why?It's not because of the huge benefits!

"But……"

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Dasun, apart from horses, what other things in those foreign countries are worth our troubles to exchange with them?"

Zhu Xiongying shook his head and said, "My grandson doesn't think so."

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "But it doesn't matter."

Zhu Xiongying nodded and continued: "Our Chinese treasures are true, but each foreign country also has the characteristics of each foreign country, such as the Tibetans mentioned just now, they have good horses, the Japanese country we told you before, their land There are a large amount of gold and silver ore buried in the land, and there are countries such as Annan, Siam, and Chenla in the south. The climate is warm all year round, and the rice is three-ripe, etc. These are things that we Ming can get from them! "

Zhu Yuanzhang listened quietly, showing a thoughtful look.

Zhu Yuanzhang is quite familiar with these small foreign countries, because they will send people to the capital to pay tribute every few years.

For example, this Longevity Day, many vassal states sent envoys to celebrate their birthdays.

Moreover, Zhu Yuanzhang's greatest strength is his ability to learn. From a beggar to an emperor, this change of status as heaven and earth reflects Zhu Yuanzhang's terrifying growth ability.

Zhu Xiongying continued: "So what Sun'er means is that we don't collect money in the country, and don't increase the burden on the people in the country, but collect money from the surrounding foreign countries, so as to enrich the treasury of our Ming Dynasty!"

"My Daming's treasury is full, so it can also feed back to the people of my Daming!"

"To put it bluntly, it is to squeeze the labor force of neighboring countries and absorb their blood, so as to make our Ming Dynasty rich and strong!"

In fact, this is also the means of developed countries in later generations.

They have high-end technology, so they can send low-cost labor to other poor countries, squeeze the labor of other countries, and liberate their own labor.

Poor countries work hard to get enough food and clothing, while developed countries just make people greedy for the welfare of the people.

At present, such things as salt, iron, tea, silk, and porcelain are the high-end technology of Ming Dynasty.

Daming has the qualifications and the ability to make the surrounding countries, even the whole world, serve him and provide him with cheap labor.

What Zhu Xiongying thinks is not like some timetravelers who develop business in their own country and amass wealth wantonly, in that way it is always their own money that is collected, and it is always their own people who are oppressed.

Instead, they regard the entire Ming Dynasty as a money-gatherer, amassing the wealth of other countries, not involving in their own land, but allowing other countries to involve and support Daming.

Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a long time. He is worthy of being the greatest person of this era, so he can naturally think clearly about the meaning of Zhu Xiongying's words.

Glancing at Zhu Xiongying, Zhu Yuanzhang said slowly, "Sun, what are you going to do?"

Zhu Xiongying replied: "Grandson feels that we can't act too hastily. I want to choose a vassal state as a pilot to see how it works."

"very good!"

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "The envoys from all the vassal states came to celebrate our birthday, and they are still in the Honglu Temple. Grandson, you can choose one."

While we are still alive, we will let you try, and let us take a good look at whether your idea is really feasible.

Otherwise, if we are buried in the ground, we don't worry about it!
Dasun, I hope you won't let us down this time...

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Xiongying with burning eyes, and saw that Zhu Xiongying didn't think too long, and replied, "The grandson's choice is Annan!"

(End of this chapter)