If I fail to overcome the tribulation, I can only return to the Ming Dynasty and become a prince.

Chapter 20 The disaster of national subjugation
Zhu Gaochi didn't care much about the Kong family. After all, Zhu Zhanquan was only the grandson of the emperor. Even if he had any ideas, he couldn't put them into practice.

But Zhu Gaochi was very concerned about what Zhu Zhanyu said that the Ming Dynasty would be subjugated within a hundred years, because it was less than 50 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. If there would be a subjugation of the country within a hundred years, wouldn't this mean that The Ming Dynasty was less than 200 years old?
If this is the case, even if he fights to be named Jie and Zhou a hundred years later, Zhu Gaochi will resolve the affairs of the Confucius family to resolve the danger of the Ming Dynasty's collapse.

So he immediately unfolded the booklet written by Zhu Zhankun, not even caring that the fishing rod under his feet almost fell into the water.

And after he spent about a stick of incense reading the contents of the brochure, although the sun was still shining brightly today, Zhu Gaochi felt cold all over, and even his heart was cold.

He raised his head, looked at Zhu Zhanchun with disbelief, and asked him, "Is this all true?"

"Of course it is true. I have been dreaming for eight years, and I have been enlightened by immortals in my dreams. I once had the opportunity to deduce the destiny of our country in the Ming Dynasty. If these problems are not solved within a hundred years, the disaster of national subjugation is bound to happen." Zhu Zhanqi There was no sadness or joy on his face, but his words showed extra seriousness: "Speaking of these three causes of the country's destruction, they are all related to my great-grandfather. He is indeed a talented man, but he still made mistakes in governing the country!"

The three disasters that Zhu Zhanyu mentioned were actually the three main factors that led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty summarized by later generations.

The expansion of the clan population, excessive spending, tax exemptions for the gentry led to serious land annexation, as well as social and economic problems caused by excessive suppression of business and a strict household registration system.

In the final analysis, these three points sum up that there are problems with the Ming Dynasty's system, which will cause serious economic problems and eventually lead to the financial collapse of the Ming Dynasty.

"The first point you mentioned is that as the clan's population grows, the clan's population will grow larger. I can understand this point. After all, according to the rules set by your great-grandfather, the eighth rank of the clan will not be extinguished, and the lowest Lieutenant of Fengguo can have an annual income of two hundred shi. Lumi, and all weddings and funerals are supported by the court. If the number of generations is multiplied without restraint, the court's finances will indeed be unable to support it." Zhu Gaochi has experience in supervising the country, but he is not interested in the clan issue raised by Zhu Zhanquan. The account was soon settled.

In fact, it is easy to understand. Zhu Yuanzhang had 26 sons, and his grandchildren had exceeded a hundred. Among them, King Zhou, King Chu, King Dai and King Liao all gave birth to more than ten sons.

According to this method of birth, there will be at least 1 Ming Dynasty clans within three generations.

Even if each person only receives the minimum salary of 200 dan, the financial expenditure is nearly [-] million dan per year.

And what is Daming’s annual income?Zhu Gaochi knew about this. The annual tax on grain was about 3000 million shi. In addition, there were other taxes and corvees that the people had to pay. The total amount was equivalent to about 500 million shi in grain. .

At first glance, it seems that the imperial court's financial expenditure is not a lot of salary, accounting for at most one-thirtieth of the imperial court's fiscal revenue.

But that's not how the accounts were calculated. Although the imperial court's annual income was not low, it was spending money everywhere.

The Northern Expedition to the Mongolian tribes was a hole that could not be filled. Although the Northern Expedition in the eighth year of Yongle period only lasted from February to June, the 50-strong army that went on the expedition consumed a huge amount of food in just four months. Not to mention the consumption of other military supplies.

If Zhu Gaochi had not been in charge of the rear, and Xia Yuanji, the Minister of Household Affairs, and the court officials were cooperating, the army might not have been able to hold on for three months, let alone four months.

With Zhu Di's temper, it was obviously impossible for him to fight only this time. Zhu Di would never stop until he could completely surrender the Mongolian tribes.Moreover, the in-kind tax adopted by the Ming Dynasty means that the tens of millions of shi of grain collected are really tens of millions of shi of grain, which is approximately more than 200 million tons of grain. Of course, it is impossible to send all this amount of grain to the central treasury. , and more will remain in place and be consumed during transportation.

So it seems that the imperial court has a lot of fiscal revenue, but in fact, the portion that the imperial court really has at its disposal is not much. It would be a blessing if only one-tenth of it could enter the national treasury and become a part of the national finance that can be used.

In this case, the salary expenditure of Zongfan was not a small amount.

More importantly, the population of the vassal vassal will grow, and it will double.

You must know that the vassals of the Ming Dynasty were all very capable of having children. Although Zhu Di only had four sons and one of them died in infancy, the other vassals had more than 100 heirs in total.

In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang established the ancestral vassal vassal system and had to be maintained by the court. Therefore, the clan in the Ming Dynasty was desperately trying to survive in order to squeeze the court's wool.

Although not every clan does this, and some of their descendants even die, the total population is always rising.

It was precisely because he could settle this account that Zhu Gaochi became cold-hearted. He felt that this question alone could really lead to the destruction of the country, let alone the other two.

"Dad, don't worry too much. If the sky falls, there will be a tall man holding it up. You are no longer in charge of the country, so you don't have to worry about this. Pass me my paper and let grandpa and the ministers in the court go. You have a headache." Zhu Zhanjuan was not worried at all about this, and persuaded Zhu Gaochi with an attitude of watching the fire from the other side.

On the one hand, he has pointed out the problem. No matter how interested and incompetent the ministers in the court are, they will still find ways to do something.

On the other hand, he does have some ideas on how to solve the problems he raised.

After all, he was once a time traveler from the era of information explosion in later generations, and he went to practice immortality for hundreds of years and became the real person of Jindan. If there was no solution to this problem, he might as well not think about it so much and just listen to it every day. Forget it, Prince Xiaoyao who is just fishing.

However, Zhu Gaochi was not as big-hearted as him. He was worried about national affairs and was no longer in the mood to fish.

"Dock the boat, I want to go to the palace to face the saint!" Zhu Gaochi made up his mind. Regardless of whether there is a solution or not, these problems must be made known to the court anyway.

Seeing this, Zhu Zhanju didn't say much. He just lifted the sound insulation, asked the boatman to dock the boat on the shore, and watched his father's fat body trotting along.

"Hey, Dad, if I don't help you or give you a headache, who will realize the seriousness of the problem?" Zhu Zhanquan shook his head, then called the singer in the cabin and asked her : "How much of the "Yue Fei Biography" I taught you these days have you memorized?"

(End of this chapter)