Daming: The most ruthless tyrant in history

Chapter 752: Really Caught

Reduce or exempt some of the established taxes, promote immigration to fill the border areas, consolidate intensive manual manufacturing, strengthen the disaster relief system, and replace the standard equipment of the Ming army...

The above policy implementation requires massive amounts of gold and silver support, and it is definitely not enough to rely solely on the national treasury and internal funds. Faced with such a special situation, Zhu Youxiao has two options.

One is to keep putting pressure on the grassroots, levy taxes on local areas through the central government, squeeze the grassroots people under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, no matter how they live, and then promote the implementation of various policies.

One is to exert continuous pressure on the upper levels, and rectify the administration of officials at the local level through the central government. Anyone who does not perform his duties, commits malpractice for personal gain, abuses his power for personal gain, or commits corruption and abuses the law will be arrested and confiscated, and then the implementation of various policies will be promoted.

Both of these paths are extreme, either offending the lower-class groups or offending the privileged groups.

If he had more options, Zhu Youxiao would adopt a combination of hard and soft methods to solve practical problems bit by bit.

But now there is obviously no choice.

Zhu Youxiao decisively chose the latter and forced the upper class instead of the lower class!

The damage caused by the Little Ice Age continued to ferment, and the central finances of the Ming Dynasty had not yet been truly relieved. If the Ming Dynasty did not find ways to break the impasse and seek change, the giant ship of the Ming Dynasty would really sink.

In Zhu Youxiao's eyes, as long as the Ming Dynasty did not lose the support of the people, he would firmly control public opinion and the right to speak in the army, so that the lower classes of the Ming Dynasty could see real changes and their lives would not be as desperate as before. In this way, in the process of promoting reform, no matter how many corrupt officials and evil spirits he killed, no matter how many vested interests he touched, the general trend would always be on his side! !

With this premise, under the autocratic rule of the emperor, as long as he did not go the wrong way, Zhu Youxiao was not afraid even if he became enemies with privileged groups such as the powerful, officials, gentry, and businessmen.

"This tax police corps is really ruthless. If I remember correctly, they arrested a group of treacherous villains in Tongzhou not long ago. Why are they arresting another group now?"

"It's true. This time, more people were arrested than last time. My goodness, there are more than 200 people. This year is really different. The court is willing to arrest people. What? These are the people in the upper echelons, and they don't want to protect the people below?"

"Look at what you said. Rectifying the administration of officials... This is a special decree issued by the emperor. Who dares to cover up this matter? Don't you want to keep your official hat?"

"It's hard to say. The imperial court has tried to rectify the administration of officials before, but what was the result? It was just a lot of noise but little action. The excitement died down within a few months."

"If you don't understand, don't make a fuss. Our emperor is different. How many people has he killed since he ascended the throne? Don't you have any idea?"

"That's right, that's right. The past was the past, and the present is now. Have you ever seen anyone rectify the administration of officials and set up a special anti-corruption agency and a special procuratorate? All the officials in the court were extremely opposed to it, but the emperor simply ignored it."

On both sides of the crowded streets, citizens of the capital city who were watching the excitement were chatting with each other. Even though before this, the Commercial Tax Police Corps had paraded batches of arrested people through the streets and taken them to the Ministry of Revenue for interrogation, it was still very new to the citizens of the capital city.

how to say.

Perhaps many people had been arrested before, but it was extremely rare to carry out arrests at such a high frequency as in the third year of Tianqi.

If we really have to make a comparison, it is probably only during the Hongwu Dynasty that there was such a lively and grand occasion. For Emperor Taizu Gao, killing corrupt officials was as easy as chopping vegetables and melons.

At that time, the capital of the Ming Dynasty was still in Nanjing. Whenever a large number of corrupt officials were killed, the Qinhuai River would be dyed red with blood.

"Master Huang, let's go somewhere else."

In the bustling crowd, Liu Ruoyu had a worried look on his face, his eyes fixed everywhere, and he whispered admonitions to Zhu Youxiao who was in the crowd.

Although Liu Ruoyu knew that there were countless guards guarding and alerting the crowd, the emperor's body was worth millions and could not afford any mistakes.

"Smash these corrupt officials to death! Damn it, they are all bad guys!"

"Smash them to death!" "They eat the emperor's food and receive official salaries, but they are all doing nothing."

"Smash..."

Suddenly, when the team reached a certain place, the crowd of onlookers became lively. Amidst the waves of curses, a lot of rotten vegetable leaves were flying in the air. Well, eggs were still very precious in the Ming Dynasty at that time. Ordinary people could not bear to eat them more than a few times a year, even in the capital.

It's a sheer waste to use those eggs to throw at these corrupt officials!
The many tax police who were in charge of escorting the imperial prisoners seemed to have known about this in advance. They all raised their small shields and tried their best to protect themselves from being hit.

"Just hit it twice, don't disrupt the order."

"Who the hell is throwing stones? That's too much!"

"Don't cross the line, back off! Back off!"

Zhu Youxiao was standing in the crowd. When he heard some people shouting, a smile appeared on his lips. The accumulated bad emotions needed to be channeled.

If the traffic jam continues, something big will happen sooner or later.

In fact, Zhu Youxiao knew very well that the people of the Ming Dynasty did not want much. As long as their basic needs were met, such as a wife, children, and a warm bed, no one would easily cause trouble.

As long as life can go on, a little hardship doesn't matter.

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It would be even better if we could buy some more property.

The purpose of life is to live for a family. With a home, even if you suffer a lot outside, you will feel relieved when you see the smiles of your family members.

"What an injustice!!"

“Heaven is so unfair!!”

However, there are always people who want to destroy this basic need. On the noisy streets, those who were constantly hit huddled in the prison van, but they were roaring at the top of their lungs.

It seems like they were framed.

Zhu Youxiao's eyes flashed with coldness. If the rectification of officialdom was mixed with the shadow of factional struggles, perhaps there were people who were really wronged.

After all, the practice of forming a clique to attack dissidents will harm many people once it appears, whether in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty or in other periods.

But the groups of people who were arrested now were those who were arrested by Ming Dynasty’s Minister of Finance Bi Ziyan, who launched a surprise attack on commercial taxes based on the Ming Dynasty’s central tax reform.

If even Bi Ziyan were to use the tax reform as an excuse to secretly form a faction to attack dissidents, then the Ming Dynasty would really be hopeless. If that were the case, then the emperor might as well not be the emperor!
"Let's go."

Looking at the lively scene in front of him, Zhu Youxiao calmed his mind, turned around and walked towards one place. Seeing this, the people accompanying him also walked forward.

"Don't crowd."

"Slower."

"Smash them to death!"

The noisy voices were still echoing here. For most people, they were very happy and excited that the court could catch these treacherous villains. After all, they didn't expect that the court would really catch them! !
(End of this chapter)