I'm really not doing business

Chapter 1059 This is true feudalism!
"The legal code in my hand is the current legal code of the Holy Roman Empire, called the Carolingian Code. It was purchased from the West by merchants at a high price by the Ministry of Rites to see if there were any overseas legal codes that could be referenced."

"This code of law was promulgated 60 years ago and is still in effect today. It contains 179 articles, none of which are directed at nobles, officials, knights, or feudal lords. They are all directed at serfs."

“Any lord may cut off the ears, noses, gouge out the eyes, cut off the hands and feet, behead, tear by chariot, burn, clamp with fire tongs, or separate a person into four horses” for his serfs and dependent peasants.

"Believe me, you esteemed Ming Dynasty officials would never want to know what kind of torture is being subjected to fire tongs!"

Li Yaz took out a legal code, held it up in his hand, and showed it to everyone. It was the current law of the Holy Roman Empire. He had Galileo bring a translated copy of the Carolingian Code, and distributed copies to all the scholars present.

After distributing the more than twenty volumes of legal codes, Li Yashi hurriedly returned to the stage. Standing in the middle of the stage, he waited for the scholars to look through the legal codes and experience firsthand what feudal legal codes were all about.

Holding up the legal code in his hand, Li Yashi declared loudly, "I dare say! On this land, the legal code from three thousand years ago is far more benevolent and far more just than this legal code from sixty years ago!"

"Let me ask you, is there any provision in the laws of the Ming Dynasty that allows local gentry and elders to arbitrarily inflict these shocking punishments on their tenants who work for them?"

"This is the feudalism you wanted! A piece of dog shit feudalism!"

Li Yashi was somewhat agitated. Sometimes, he really wanted to ask these Ming Dynasty scholar-officials if they had been kicked in the head by a donkey when they were young, that they would actually hope to use feudalism to fight against the feudalization of local government offices.

Even feudalization within local government offices is a million times better than feudalism itself.

"I also have to tell you a fact!" Li Yashi said emotionally, "In Taixi, every farmer must have a master! It could be a nobleman directly under the empire, a bishop, a monastery, or even a slave in a city! But they have no freedom!"

"Even the so-called dependent farmers, who were tenant farmers in the Ming Dynasty, spent the vast majority of their time working on their master's estates; the only time they had left, they had to use all the fruits of their labor to earn wages and pay the following taxes:"

"Damn the tithes levied by the Papacy, the rent from the landowners, the miscellaneous taxes from subordinate cities, the corvée labor stipulated by the Empire, the expeditionary tax for reclaiming the Holy City, the war tax of this city-state, the city-state's entry tax, the sunlight tax, and the imperial tax that I don't even know who pays to!"

"These taxes are all clearly written in this legal code!"

"This is the feudalism you wanted! A piece of dog shit feudalism!"

Li Yashi was very agitated. He flipped through the legal code and guided everyone to the chapter on taxes. Even the most ruthless officials of the Ming Dynasty, who were best at inventing pretexts, could not have come up with such taxes. Sunlight, rainwater, and even windows were taxed.

Even the Ming Dynasty's tax bureau, due to the cost of tax collection, would not levy taxes on laborers and peddlers. However, the West basically adopted a tax farming system, which directly involved the interests of tax officials themselves, so naturally they would collect taxes from anyone.

There has never been a shortage of tax collectors who have been beaten to death, but tax collectors continue to follow one after another because there is profit to be made.

Li Yashi returned to the stage and loudly proclaimed, "The dependent peasants are already freer than the serfs, but they are still slaves! Slaves, do you even know what a slave is?"

"Whether they were serfs or dependent farmers, they were required to gather hay, strawberries, raspberries, and snail shells for their masters, drive away wild animals for hunting, and chop firewood for their masters."

"Have you ever farmed? Wild boars have stormed into your fields, trampling on farmers' crops. In the Ming Dynasty, you can use any means to drive these wild boars away; it's legal and reasonable, and you call it justice!"

"But in Taixi, farmers cannot drive away wild boars when they damage their crops!"

"Because of the hunting rights, in the hands of these damned masters, once you launch an attack on a wild boar, the master can dispose of all your property, including your wife, daughters, and children, without paying any price!"

"This is the feudalism you wanted! A piece of dog shit feudalism!"

Li Yashi, his voice almost hoarse, his face flushed, pointed at the codex and shouted, "The light of the sun and moon will eventually shine upon the whole world! Thunder will eventually judge these evils! Judge all of this!"

Zhu Yijun watched this scene in silence. Ever since Marion's martyrdom, Li Yashi's mental state had been very unstable.

He hated himself for being a coward, for not daring to return to Taixi and bring light there, and for being powerless against all this darkness.

He appeared to be insane.

"Preach in public, and send him to the Songjiang Garrison Command for ten days to calm down," Zhu Yijun instructed the military commander Luo Bingliang.

Anyone who preaches in public, regardless of who they are, will be arrested, and the punishment will be determined based on the specific circumstances.

Two guards quickly went up to the stage and dragged Li Yashi away.

Jiao Hong looked at Gu Xiancheng, thought for a moment, and asked, "After this farce, do we still need to discuss this?"

"No, thank you." Gu Xiancheng quickly stood up, bowed to all four directions, and hurried away, as if afraid of being beaten if he left too late.

If the imperial guards were to take the stage, they would let Gu Xiancheng know that the emperor, who loves to watch the spectacle, might also be at Luming Pavilion. If the emperor heard his nonsense and threw him into the imperial prison, that would be a truly unbearable situation for him.

Jiao Hong bowed to the four directions, and then left Luming Pavilion with the others.

Zhu Yijun sat in the top-tier private box, staring blankly at Zhang Juzheng, and asked, "Is this feudalism really as Li Yashi described?"

"I suppose so, Your Majesty. I have never seen what feudalism looks like." Zhang Juzheng thought carefully. He could not deceive the emperor. To tell the truth, his understanding of feudalism was actually no different from that of the scholar-officials below the stage.

It wasn't until Li Yashi pierced through that thin veil that everything became clear; it turned out that this was what feudalism truly was.

The Ming Dynasty's scholar-officials lacked imagination about feudalism because the Ming Dynasty had been far removed from feudalism for so long that everyone had forgotten what it should have looked like. Fortunately, the opening of the seas provided the Ming Dynasty with a practical example to learn from, shattering the unrealistic fantasies of the scholar-officials.

Zhu Yijun's understanding of the word "feudalism" was not much different from that of the scholar-officials, after all, he had not seen it with his own eyes.

If you think about it carefully, you don't need to look that far to the west, such as Luzon and Annam, which were similar feudal states. It's clear at a glance how the barbarians in these places suffered oppression.

Qi Jiguang remained silent for a long time. In his view, the feudal system was inferior to the prefecture-county imperial system, which was also reflected in the army's combat effectiveness and the cost of war.

The imperial system of prefectures and counties in the Ming Dynasty could support both military units like camps and garrison troops that combined farming and warfare on the borders, making them very inexpensive.

The offensive forces consisted of battalions specifically tasked with defeating the enemy's will to resist, while the defensive forces served as garrison troops. This system was extremely cost-effective, allowing for both offensive and defensive maneuvers, making it superior to feudalism in both combat power and cost.

Simply confining the Ming Dynasty to the framework of feudalism is a shameless and ignorant act.

The Ming emperor had lunch at Luming Pavilion before leaving, but the song and dance performance after the gathering at Luming Pavilion made Zhu Yijun somewhat emotional and led him to misunderstand King Zhou.

In terms of enjoying themselves, the ancients were in no way inferior to their later generations. These dancers, in addition to their wonderful performances, also possessed considerable emotional value.

Zhu Yijun returned to the Huangpu River Imperial Palace, watched the grain transport boats for a while, and prepared to go to the mill to process the memorials of the day. Before going to the mill, Zhu Yijun closed his eyes and pondered, thinking about what he had seen and heard that day. He suddenly discovered a paradoxical fact.

The Wanli Reforms were a radical movement, a constant push for change. But the Ming Dynasty became increasingly conservative with each reform!

Moreover, this tendency toward extreme conservatism is becoming increasingly apparent.

After the Wanli Reforms, the Ming Dynasty stopped appointing any foreigners or barbarians as officials in the court. Not to mention officials of the fifth rank or above in the court, even in local county governments, except for the appointment of the Third Lady in Suiyuan to appease the border people, almost no foreigners or barbarians became guests of the emperor or powerful officials in the Ming Dynasty.

This is actually very rare in all dynasties.

Even in the already conservative Ming Dynasty, there were still a large number of Manchu officials in the early years of the dynasty.

For example, during the Tumu Crisis, the brothers Wu Kezhong and Wu Keqin, who died for the Ming Dynasty, were originally non-Han people who had been assimilated into the Ming Dynasty. Even today, Wu Jijue, the fifth generation of the Marquis of Gongshun, is still in charge of the affairs of the Nanjing Central Military Governor's Office in Nanjing.

When it came to the fifth generation, Wu Jijue, if someone told him, "You are a barbarian," they would probably start a fight on the spot.

Since the beginning of the Wanli Reforms, the Ming Dynasty has successively recovered Damingwei, Suiyuan, Liaodong reclamation, and Korea, but rarely made good use of barbarians. After the nine victories of the Eastern Expedition, Yi Sun-sin did not even get the 132 generals' rank, but only got the hereditary fifth-rank Wude General and served as the garrison commander of Busan.

Li Yashi, a favorite of His Majesty, wasn't even an official; he was just an interpreter at the Four Barbarians' Office, a mere clerk.

This is not surprising. Everything is relative. The more reform and innovation we undertake, the further we go towards reform, the more extreme the conservative forces will become, in order to prevent extreme reformers from destroying the country.

As the two factions become increasingly extreme, the contradictions eventually become irreconcilable, and the struggles and conflicts escalate.

Zhu Yijun opened his eyes and began grinding grain.

While the emperor was busy processing memorials, the massive bureaucratic machine of the Ming Dynasty was also in operation, except this time it was implementing the Single Whip Law in the six ministries, and the situation was not very optimistic.

"Such a clear and explicit imperial edict, written more clearly than could be, uses the population census of the ninth year of the Wanli reign as the basis, with no increase or decrease, and assigns all labor service to the fields, with silver paid for the service."

"Taxes are divided into land tax and commercial tax. Land tax is reduced or exempted according to regulations, and commercial tax is collected according to the revised 'Great Ming Code: Commercial Tax'. Six books and one account are prepared and audited at the end of the year."

"Such a simple policy, what exactly are these county magistrates asking?" Zhang Xueyan looked at the dozens of official documents in front of him, which were the replies from various counties after the imperial edict arrived.

These replies contained all sorts of questions, some asking for more time, and others even mentioning that the deadlines set by the Examination and Assessment Law required consultation with the Grand Minister of Education and the Junior Minister of Education.

Hou Yuzhao looked at the official documents and shook his head, saying, "The strategy of delaying is clear; the various prefectures and counties are obviously planning to delay as long as possible."

"What are you dragging out? If you keep dragging it out, will it just stop happening? If it's not done within the time limit set by the performance evaluation law, everyone will suffer a low rating, no hope of promotion or transfer, and it's a miracle if they aren't stripped of their official positions!" Zhang Xueyan said angrily.

Hou Yu Zhao frowned and said, "If everyone is rated as the worst, it's actually the same as everyone being rated as the best. The law doesn't punish everyone. If everyone really drags their feet and doesn't do anything, can the court just replace them all?"

"They delay to see if things change, to see if others will follow through, and to see the results of others' implementation, so as to avoid causing trouble. In short, delaying is a common practice among local county and state officials. Everyone delays, and this leads to stagnation."

"Staying here is not a solution." Zhang Xueyan thought of a lazy solution: to ask His Majesty for help.

Of course, asking Your Majesty to intervene will ensure that the decrees can be implemented, but how Your Majesty will intervene is difficult to control. Since Your Majesty proposed this matter, it is reasonable for Your Majesty to take action.

If things get out of control, His Majesty will definitely station the Northern Army in various prefectures. The Beijing Garrison has a dispatch mechanism, and once it is dispatched, it will not let the matter rest without the deaths of a large number of local gentry, powerful figures, and influential people.

The Beijing Garrison has been holding back for years. They've received so much salary from His Majesty, and if they don't do something, they can't prove their worth.

"Grand Minister! When a sword is drawn, how can it not be stained with blood?" Hou Yu Zhao's expression changed drastically as he looked at Zhang Xueyan's face, and he suddenly stood up.

He guessed Zhang Xueyan's thoughts. Zhang Xueyan was getting old, and instead of becoming more conservative, she was becoming more radical. She was always thinking about overturning the table instead of doing things well within the framework of the system.

When implementing the policy of returning land to its original state and consolidating its restoration, Hou Yu Zhao was asked the most questions: "Aren't the poor and laborers Your Majesty's subjects, as well as the local gentry, powerful and influential people?"
Admittedly, in the past, local gentry and elders evaded taxes and engaged in land annexation, which led to the deterioration of the situation. However, these issues cannot all be blamed on them.

During the Hongzhi era, the Ming Dynasty was at its most frenzied in terms of annexation. Emperor Xiaozong was misled and various policies favored annexation. With this guidance, local gentry, powerful figures, and influential people naturally followed suit.

Zhang Xueyan was silent for a moment before saying, "Of course I know, but there are many similar cases, and in the end we still have to ask the Beijing Garrison's Northern Soldiers to guard various places."

Sometimes, it wasn't that Zhang Xueyan was extreme; it was that he found that many times, the implementation of government orders involved a lot of back and forth, and in the end, the Beijing Garrison had to be called in. So he simply skipped the intermediate steps and sent the Beijing Garrison directly.

Let's cut the Gordian knot and get all these things sorted out.

"Grand Minister of Works..." Hou Yu Zhao paused for a moment and said, "We should also understand the difficulties of local officials. They also want to be promoted and they also want to fulfill the orders of the court. The reason they want to delay now is naturally because they have their own concerns. We should provide them with assistance instead of pushing them to the opposite side."

"I always put my stance first when doing things. Of course, there are all sorts of problems, but over the years, I feel that I have never made any mistakes in doing things this way."

"If we ask His Majesty for help in everything, won't it make us, the people in the Ministry of Revenue, look like a bunch of good-for-nothings who just draw salaries and do no work?"

"In that case, leave this matter to me. I will go to Suzhou Prefecture, Jiading, Changshu, and Wujiang to see the specific difficulties faced by these county and prefectural officials, and then make a decision."

"If I can't do it, we'll go ask His Majesty again."

Hou Yuzhao took on the entire task himself, deciding to personally visit the prefectures and counties to inquire about the predicament, rather than sitting in the Six Ministries' office on the Huangpu River and making a decision on a whim.

These prefectural and county magistrates were not all rebels; on the contrary, they were all officials appointed by the imperial court.

“Okay.” After considering it for a moment, Zhang Xueyan nodded in agreement and handed the matter over to Hou Yuzhao.

As soon as Hou Yuzhao left, Zhang Xueyan lay down on the soft rattan chair and revealed a cryptic smile. He wasn't passing on responsibility; at his age, it was time to retire. He was getting old and his energy was waning, and he was increasingly distrustful of others. This state of mind had brought him to the brink of his final days.

The difficulty of overcoming death is not a calamity that only emperors and monarchs have to face. Death is fair to everyone; everyone will die, everyone's physical strength will decline, everyone's control over their own body will become worse, and paranoia will become more and more serious.

The difficulty of overcoming adversity is something everyone must experience, from kings and generals to common laborers and peddlers.

After the implementation of the Six Ministries' Single Whip Law, Hou Yuzhao succeeded. Zhang Xueyan then planned to propose that Hou Yuzhao join the cabinet, as he was originally a member of the Western Study and had been summoned by the Emperor many times.

As for Hou Yuzhao's preference for prioritizing his stance, Zhang Xueyan believes there is nothing wrong with it. Sometimes, if your stance is wrong, the more you do, the more mistakes you make.

Hou Yuzhao went to Suzhou Prefecture in person. It took him half a month to return to the Huangpu River Palace. After that, he presented a memorial to the emperor. Upon receiving the memorial, the emperor immediately summoned Hou Yuzhao and Zhang Xueyan to an audience.

"Please have a seat, Your Excellencies. Li Daban, please have some good tea." Zhu Yijun smiled broadly, holding the memorial in his hand, and said with a smile, "Minister Hou is indeed a capable minister, decisive and efficient!"

Zhu Yijun first praised Hou Yuzhao's style of doing things. He said he would go that day, and set off in the afternoon. When he arrived in Suzhou Prefecture, he visited the government offices of various prefectures and counties, and even went deep into the countryside to understand the problems in depth and put forward practical solutions.

This time, the magistrates of prefectures and counties have resorted to delaying tactics to postpone the imperial decrees, which is a common phenomenon.

The reason for this phenomenon is that the magistrates of prefectures and counties have their own difficulties, and the problem lies with the clerks of the prefectural and county government offices, who are controlled by local gentry and gentry. Moreover, these clerks themselves are the local officials that Gu Xiancheng mentioned, and they themselves are local gentry and gentry.

During his two-week visit, Hou Yuzhao discovered the crux of the problem: the dire situation of having no capable magistrates in the prefectures and counties; the few clerks they brought were utterly useless.

Hou Yuzhao's solution was to transfer retired officers and junior officers of the Beijing garrison and navy to local positions, especially to appoint the heads of the three shifts of yamen runners, thus expanding the scope and scale of the transfer of retired personnel.

Hou Yuzhao said with a solemn expression, "It is said that even a clever housewife cannot cook without rice. The clerks under the magistrates of these prefectures and counties are all local gentry and elders, or even local gentry and elders themselves. It means that there is neither rice nor a clever housewife."

"The prefectural and county magistrates have no one to rely on, there's no rice to cook, and they're in all sorts of predicaments. But when they report to the prefectural government, the three ministries, the governor, and the imperial court, they're just scolded."

"What can we do if we can't do it? We can only falsify the accounts."

“When I went to Suzhou Prefecture, I found that the land return policy in several places was just a perfunctory effort. The land was returned, but it was still in the hands of these local gentry and nobles through long-term leases. The court did reduce land taxes, but the reductions all went to the land owned by these local gentry and nobles.”

“Retired soldiers and junior officers were all literate and literate, and most of them even studied arithmetic. They could understand how to make a six-book account.”

When Hou Yuzhao arrived at the local area, he initially communicated with the magistrates of these prefectures and counties. However, these magistrates remained tight-lipped, only complaining bitterly but refusing to reveal the root of the problem.

Because these county and prefectural officials have already suffered many such losses, and even if they report it to their superiors, no one will take action to resolve it.

Hou Yuzhao had seen too many officials like this and had long since developed countermeasures. With just a few words, he could extract the words that these prefectural and county magistrates dared not, did not want to, or could not say, and ultimately formulated the policy of transferring retired soldiers to local positions.

"I have also considered the possibility of artisans being reassigned, but local governments do not have many official factories. Only last year were they allowed to establish their own official factories. Not to mention the artisans who can be reassigned, there are not enough artisans in the official factories. After looking around, the only option left is to use soldiers." Hou Yu Zhao explained why he had thought of using soldiers.

Soldiers and officers who retired received a sum of money, ranging from thirty-five to one hundred and fifty taels of silver, depending mainly on their years of service.

However, according to Hou Yuzhao's understanding, these retired soldiers who had served as soldiers and junior officers for five or six years, or even more than ten years, were severely out of touch with society. They spent their entire lives honing their killing skills, but these skills were almost useless in society.

The resettlement funds provided by the imperial court would soon be swindled away by con artists.

Being able to kill doesn't mean one is quick-witted. Especially with the opening of the seas and the transformation of the commodity economy during the Ming Dynasty, all sorts of scams emerged. Ordinary people were sufficiently vigilant about these scams, but the strict management of military camps meant they didn't come into contact with them, making them particularly vulnerable to being deceived.

Many junior officers would tell soldiers when they retired: "Don't squander your resettlement allowance. If someone asks you for money, just say that a junior officer robbed you of it."

Retired soldiers have always been a major problem for the Ming Dynasty, whether it was the disbandment of the military in the early Wanli period or the current reassignment of retired soldiers.

"We can resolve this dilemma ourselves," Zhu Yijun said with a smile.

So, what was the price paid by the Ming emperor?
As local gentry and officials retire and are reassigned, they lose their power, which harms their interests. At this time, local conflicts will intensify. However, unlike in the past, county magistrates now have capable people to rely on.

After detailed discussions between Zhu Yijun and Hou Yuzhao, they decided to start with the six ministries that were to implement the Single Whip Law.

In fact, Songjiang Prefecture had already tried this method. It was effective, but not entirely. It was effective because it enabled soldiers to learn to read and write, but it could not completely replace scribes.

In Songjiang Prefecture, each county still needs to select suitable candidates from among the scholars, but overall, this is much better than relying entirely on local officials in the past.

Zhang Xueyan sent Hou Yuzhao away first, and then told His Majesty about his plan. Over the next year, Zhang Xueyan would gradually hand over all his Russian affairs to Hou Yuzhao, so that he could retire in peace.

"Back then, the Grand Secretary proposed to skip a group of people. Now, we old men have finished our twenty years of service and haven't disgraced His Majesty." Zhang Xueyan said, a hint of melancholy in his voice.

In the 29th year of the Jiajing reign, the northern barbarians broke through Gubeikou and marched south. In the same year, Zhu Wan committed suicide. The 41 Zhejiang garrisons that Zhu Wan had restored were disbanded, and all 439 warships were burned. Lu Tang, Ke Qiao, and others who had quelled the Japanese pirates were sentenced to death and imprisoned to await execution in the autumn.

Since then, the dynasty has declined, and for more than twenty years, the country has been in turmoil. Those who grew up and passed the imperial examinations during this period all had some degree of contempt for the court.

In the imperial court, there was a phenomenon of long tenure. Zhang Juzheng served as Grand Secretary for a full twenty years, and Wang Chonggu served as Second Grand Secretary for seventeen years. Wang Guoguang, Zhang Xueyan, and a group of ministers who participated in the Wanli Reforms were all very old.

In local areas, there was a clear trend towards younger talent, so His Majesty had to discard the Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) from those years and appoint the Jinshi and Juren (successful candidates in the provincial imperial examinations) selected by Wanli, which resulted in some talent gaps.

More than twenty years have finally passed. The old guard in the court has been leaving one after another. Only now can we say that the Ming Dynasty has finally emerged completely from the turmoil and chaos.

"Yes, when you told me that the first twenty years of the Wanli Reforms were twenty years of paying off debts, I didn't believe it at first. But as I governed for a longer period of time, I realized that what you said was true. On behalf of all the people, I thank you all for your dedication and hard work." Zhu Yijun was quite emotional.

Throughout this journey, Zhu Yijun knew how difficult it was. However, when he was doing it, he didn't find it difficult at all. It seemed that he just followed the steps and got things done.

But looking back, Zhu Yijun realized that even he himself had a hard time, let alone the ministers who were accused of clinging to power. According to the custom of the Ming Dynasty, after serving in the central government for nine years, he should leave. After all, if he stayed for more than nine years, it would be easy for him to form cliques and engage in factional strife.

Things that can be done for a long time must be done.

This is also one of the reasons why the Wanli Reforms, which lasted for twenty years, became even more conservative.

Zhang Xueyan bowed again and left the Huangpu River Palace. Before retiring, he wanted to hand over all his work to Hou Yuzhao within a year, so that he could do a good job as the Minister of Finance of the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, before the emperor traveled south and stayed in Songjiang Prefecture, Zhang Xueyan had this idea when he called Hou Yuzhao to the treasury of Tonghe Palace.

Hou Yuzhao was a seasoned warrior of the prefecture-county imperial system, and his loyalty was beyond question. It was loyalty tested by the freezing cold of Liaodong and the complex struggles in Zhejiang. Zhang Xueyan wanted to see his abilities and character further, especially his ability to deal with the attacks from the lowly Confucian scholars.

Hou Yuzhao's tendency to go against the flow of people, or rather, to be the one being went against the flow of people, was initially a concern for Zhang Xueyan. However, after careful observation, Zhang Xueyan concluded that it was not a flaw, but rather a strength of Hou Yuzhao.

(End of this chapter)