At the beginning of the civil castle, the Ming God of War was a little panicked

Chapter 188 Why did the emperor rebel?

This time Zhu Qizhen is determined to make some big noises. The reform of the military guards is just the beginning. Everything in Nanjing City has to be overthrown and restarted.

When Li Zhen went to rectify the various guards, Yuan Bin was not idle, and all Jin Yiwei was dispatched, arresting people everywhere.

The group suspected of treason has been cut down long ago, and now those who are arrested are following the clues, being linked, or being reported by others, so there is really a problem when it is found out.

From Fuzhou and the coastal areas of Guangzhou, Zhu Ji had also started to act. A large number of officials and gentry suspected of smuggling and collaborating with the enemy were taken down, and then escorted back to Nanjing.

In just a few days, more than 300 officials were found involved in the incident, and more than [-] people were involved, and this number is still increasing every day.

Among these officials, there were civil servants, military generals, and even those who had retired and were preparing to spend their old age in peace, but they were also pulled out of their homes.

All of a sudden, the entire officialdom in the south of the Yangtze River was panicked, and some people even wrote suicide notes and left them at home before going to duty in the morning.

Yu Qian stopped pretending to control the water, and left the affairs of Huai'an Mansion to Wang Yonghe, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, while he rushed to Nanjing without stopping.

However, even though he had been prepared for a long time, when he saw the list, he was still shocked after all.

"Your Majesty, the situation must not escalate, otherwise, the consequences will be disastrous!"

Zhu Qizhen had a disapproving expression on his face, and said: "These people I have captured are all based on solid evidence. According to the law of the Ming Dynasty, those who should be exempted, those who should be shut down, and those who should be killed, why not?"

"This... the law does not blame the public. This case involves a lot. I think it's best to... press it down."

"D?"

Zhu Qizhen couldn't help laughing, and asked: "During the time of Emperor Taizu, why didn't there be a saying that the law does not punish the public?"

Yu Qian was stunned. In the famous four major cases during the Hongwu period, tens of thousands of people were involved in each case. Could it be...

He glanced at Zhu Qizhen cautiously, and wondered in his heart, could it be that this is the inheritance of the old Zhu family, and he has the blood of being a tyrant in his body?
Zhu Qizhen put away his smile and continued: "The law is the law. There has never been a saying that the law does not blame the public. If not, what is fairness and justice?"

"But... the imperial court is at the time of employing people..."

Yu Qian didn't want to excuse these people, but thought that there were too many people involved. If all the people were killed, the number of officials in Jiangnan would be reduced by half out of thin air. How would it work?

Zhu Qizhen didn't wait for him to finish, then interrupted: "You're wrong, Daming never lacks talents, it's just that too many talents are drowned out and wasted. Come and see!"

Yu Qian took a stack of self-written papers, the first page said the restructuring of the military guards. He himself is the Minister of the Ministry of War, so he is naturally the most concerned about the military issues, so he read it carefully.

At the beginning, I was a little confused and confused, but the more I read it, the more shocked I became.

The emperor actually wanted to abolish all the farming system left by Emperor Taizu and change it to the recruitment system.

In addition, the household registration of ordinary people is no longer restricted, and there will be no distinction between peasant households and military households in the future.

To reduce the number of troops, to allow old, weak, sick and disabled military households who are not suitable to continue serving as soldiers to retire, to fend for themselves, the imperial court will give certain subsidies, and then increase military expenditure, strengthen military training, and update weapons and equipment...

Seeing this, Yu Qian couldn't help but said: "The emperor's innovative measures are all aimed at the shortcomings of the current army, but if they are implemented... I'm afraid it will be difficult..."

"Tell me, what's the problem?"

Yu Qian nodded and said: "The first is military expenditure. If there is no farmland, where will the large amount of military expenditure come from? Just for this item, it is not enough to spend all the tax revenue of the court every year. This is only in normal times. If there is a war , the cost will at least triple."

Zhu Qizhen said: "Of course I have thought about the question you mentioned. Since it is a reform, it must be reformed in an all-round way. It is definitely not enough to just reform the army. Therefore, I have changed all the scholars, farmers, businessmen and commerce at once. Next, The imperial court will encourage the people to vigorously develop industry and commerce, especially overseas trade. With money, you can pay more taxes and support the Ming army! Only when the army is strong, others will not dare to covet the great power of the Ming Dynasty, and it will be better Protect the people all over the world, and when the time comes, when my merchant ship of Ming Dynasty goes out to do business, people will look at you with high regard!"

"What the emperor said is reasonable, but... I think that if you want to develop industry and commerce, the most important thing is to let the people have enough to eat. Only when they are full can they have the strength to do other things. The most important thing right now is to solve the land problem. .”

Yu Qian's worries are justified. For a hundred years since the Ming Dynasty, the princes, nobles, officials and gentry have been vying to annex the land, and the poor land in the hands of the common people has long been taken away by these people through various means. However, if this problem is not solved, it is simply a dream to develop any kind of industry and commerce.

But Zhu Qizhen said: "I have also mentioned this issue, you can see for yourself!"

Yu Qian lowered his head and continued to flip through the planning book in his hand.

Sure enough, the second page was about land.

All the land is re-measured, registered and recorded. The land confiscated by the court will be redistributed according to the population. The land acquired by the big landlords through improper means will be returned unconditionally.

Moreover, the land tax was also changed in the future, from poll tax to field mu tax.

In other words, the more land you have in your family, the more taxes you pay, and this figure goes up. The larger the number of acres, the higher the tax rate.

Under such circumstances, hoarding land is no longer a wise move, otherwise, the poor income would not be enough to pay taxes.

After Yu Qian finished reading this page, his brows were directly twisted into twists.

I have to admit that this idea is very good. If it can be implemented, it will definitely improve the living standards of the people, and even improve the strength of the entire Ming Dynasty.

But the problem is that this measure will harm the landlords and gentry. These people have formed a huge community of interests from ordinary squires to princes and nobles. If their interests are damaged, the consequences will be disastrous.

Although in the whole world, the emperor is the biggest in name, but the emperor is also a human being, not a god.

The reason why the emperor is the largest is because of the support of the gentry class.

And the reason why these will support the emperor is because the emperor can protect their interests.

When the emperor no longer protects their interests, and even takes actions that harm their interests, will these people still support the emperor as before?

Yu Qian was even uneasy in his heart, and continued to turn to the next page.

This page is about the official appraisal system.

It roughly means that below the officials of the ninth rank, there are three grades of officials of the tenth rank, eleventh rank, and twelve ranks.

Moreover, the assessment of officials is universal, tenth-rank officials who pass the assessment and have excellent results can be promoted to ninth-rank officials.

In the Ming Dynasty, the smallest official was not the seventh-rank magistrate. Below the magistrate, there were county magistrates, patrol inspectors and other auxiliary officials, which were eighth and ninth rank respectively. These were the lowest-level officials.

Below the officials, there are officials, that is, clerks, such as Zan Dian, secretary, ambassador of Hebo, post office, etc.

Although the word official is often called together, the two are heaven and earth.

There is a gap that can never be bridged between officials and officials. Although both are paid by the court, there is no promotion path between them.

Officials come through the imperial examination, and climb up step by step from the bottom, how high you can climb depends on your own ability.

An official can only be an official forever, and after working for a lifetime, he is still an official.

But now, the channel has been opened up, and officials can also be officials, which is simply unimaginable.

After thinking about it again, this is also very good, it can stimulate the enthusiasm of the low-level officials, otherwise, there will be no hope for the rest of their lives, and they are just eating and waiting to die. Where does the enthusiasm come from?
The more Yu Qian looked at it, the more shocked he became. When he opened the next page, his eyeballs almost fell out.

Change the imperial examinations, cancel the stereotyped candidates!

Damn... Your Majesty, you want to rebel!
Create a rebellion against your old Zhu family!
What is Stereotyped Scholars? It is the root of Ming Dynasty!

Now... you can cancel it if you say it is cancelled, what about making trouble?

It can be imagined that once this edict is issued, the world will inevitably be in chaos, and when the time comes... the consequences will be unimaginable...

There are still a few pages to follow, but Yu Qian is not in the mood to read them at all.

"Your Majesty, regarding the implementation of the New Deal... I think that you should be cautious and take it slowly. As for these drastic measures, please think twice!"

Zhu Qizhen smiled and asked: "I'll ask you a word first, you talk about my new policy, is it good or not?"

"Your Majesty, this is no longer a question of good or bad, the New Deal..."

"You answer me first, whether it is good or not!"

Yu Qian had no choice but to reply: "The New Deal is good, but it is not suitable for the current... situation..."

He really wanted to tell Zhu Qizhen that as long as you dare to cancel the imperial examination today, someone will dare to cancel your throne tomorrow!

Zhu Qizhen didn't seem to understand, and asked: "Why isn't it suitable?"

Yu Qian sighed secretly, and said: "Your Majesty, the imperial examination is the foundation of my Ming Dynasty. The whole court, including the ministers, are all selected through the imperial examination. This is the foundation of the country and cannot be changed!"

These words are not alarmist, because since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang has attached great importance to the cultivation and treatment of scholars, and he has personally made regulations to take the four sons' books and the five classics of Yi, Shu, Poetry, Spring and Autumn, and Book of Rites.

Moreover, the difficulty of stereotyped essays does not stop there. Zhu Yuanzhang believes that all scholars should read Confucius, Mencius, and Zhu Xi. It's called stereotyped.

Since then, stereotyped essays have become the lifelong pursuit of scholars.

Zhu Qizhen is the most clear about the advantages and disadvantages of this system. Stereotyped essays are often criticized and criticized by later generations. However, in the early Ming Dynasty, this system was not useless.

The important role of the imperial examination system is to centralize the power of selecting officials and employing people, avoiding the generation of elites, and strengthening the centralization and imperial power.

Through the imperial examination system, scholars from all over the country have the opportunity to participate in state management, which promotes social mobility and effectively maintains the unified situation.However, in order to give full play to the role of the imperial examination system, maintaining the fairness of the examination is a key.

Just imagine, if you use poetry to select scholars, the subjectivity is too strong, which can easily lead to the disadvantages of candidates asking for entrustment from princes and nobles in the Tang Dynasty.

If the scope of the examination is not limited, scholars from poor families and remote areas will certainly not be able to compete with those from wealthy and developed areas. In the long run, a vicious circle will form, which is not conducive to social stability and national unity.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated a fixed format and fixed requirements. This is the stereotyped essay.

Through strict format regulations, examiners can quickly make objective evaluations according to the format and content when marking papers.

There is also the scope of the examination. The stereotyped examination is based on the four books and five classics, and the scope is narrow. For poor scholars, these books have a high popularity rate and are easy to obtain. can basically be on the same starting line.

Of course, the disadvantages of doing so are also great.

If a person's mind is not very bright, he puts all his energy on the imperial examinations, only immerses himself in the Four Books, Five Classics and Stereotypes, and his knowledge is narrow. Not only does he not have the ability to govern the country, he does not even have the basic ability to live.

Such a person can only become a nerd.

Therefore, when Zhu Yuanzhang formulated the imperial examination, he suddenly gave up stereotyped composition and changed it to policy theory in the final imperial examination.

Through policy theory, nerds can be excluded. Of course, if they are really nerds, there is a high probability that they will not pass the palace test.

Even if they are not nerds, because the imperial examination only takes stereotyped parts, of course scholars can only do stereotyped parts, which makes them ignorant of other aspects, such as natural sciences. Disdainful.

In this way, although these scholars have read the books of sages and sages, except for the top group who can go to the temple, most of them are just ordinary people throughout their lives.

They can't lift their shoulders, they can't lift their hands, and the knowledge in books can't be eaten as food. This is what later generations mean when they say that they are useless.

If you fail the exam, at most you can go back to your hometown to be a teacher, or go to a wealthy family to be an accountant or something. Apart from being barely registered, you will have no future in this life.

Of course Zhu Qizhen knew that imperial examinations should not be acted rashly, which is related to the big cake, and the scholars and bureaucrats all over the world are sharing this cake, if they cut a piece for them, maybe they can accept it, but just serve the cake directly Go, these people must be impatient with you.

"About the imperial examinations, I am not going to completely abolish them, but to reform the system. It is no longer meaningful to simply test the school's stereotyped essays. Governing the country is not as simple as the Four Books and Five Classics. Let me give you the simplest example, accounting statistics, Four Books and Five Classics Is there any of them?"

Yu Qian was stunned for a moment, and replied: "Account statistics... are just some arithmetic problems, not advanced..."

Zhu Qizhen suddenly changed the subject, and said: "Since you can't be regarded as advanced, I think...you, a Jinshi, must be more than enough. How about this, I will give you a debut question, and you do the math, how about it?"

(End of this chapter)