Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 115 Zhu Biao: I am not like my father? (First update)
Zhu Yuanzhang tightly grasped the jade ruyi in his hand, and his finger bones were creaking.

Since he started his army, he has met many talented people and has many counselors and scholars under his command, but this is the first time he has seen someone who can express all his thoughts so bluntly and clearly.

Xia Zhibai was the first one.

Zhu Yuanzhang suppressed his shock, and did not show too much anger on his face. He looked at Xia Zhibai with dignity, and his eyes became solemn for the first time, but he still showed disdain and arrogance in his eyes. Zhu Yuanzhang said, "You surprise me more and more."

"A scholar."

"A scholar in his early twenties."

"I have always stayed in Kaifeng Prefecture and have never really been involved in the court, but you know more about our arrangements than the ministers in the court."

"We really underestimated you."

"Since you know our system so well, I would really like to hear what problems you think are in the system we created?" Zhu Yuanzhang leaned forward and looked at Xia Zhibai disdainfully, with no emotion visible on his face.

Zhu Biao didn't dare let Xia Zhibai speak.

He took the initiative to say: "Father, Xia Zhibai has never set foot in the court, and knows very little about the affairs of the world. He has no idea of ​​the whole picture of the Ming Dynasty. How can we allow him to make irresponsible remarks on national affairs?"

"Father, please think again."

At this moment, no one cared about Zhu Biao's words.

Zhu Yuanzhang wouldn't listen, and Xia Zhibai would pay no attention to him.

Xia Zhibai stood tall, not showing any sign of timidity, nor any intention of retreating.

It's time for Zhu Yuanzhang to wake up.

Xia Zhibai cupped his hands and said, "Since Your Majesty wants to hear it, I will obey your orders."

"In my opinion, your Majesty's philosophy of governing the country has always been self-contradictory."

"Your Majesty was born in a poor peasant family and suffered from extreme cold and hardship since childhood. You have a deep understanding of bureaucratic corruption and the evil deeds of local tyrants. Therefore, the system of the Ming Dynasty, to a large extent, is derived from your true feelings under your past life experience."

"Your Majesty's financial thinking is simple, that is, to spend according to your income, to even out taxes and levies, to save money, and to keep wealth in the hands of the people."

“But that’s exactly why it’s even more contradictory.”

"Your Majesty, as the founding emperor, has been in charge of a country that has been through a long period of war, with a sharp decline in population, a large amount of land being sold off, and a lot of things in need of reconstruction."

"In this situation, your majesty wants the people to live a prosperous life and have no shortage of labor, but at the same time, you urgently want the people to contribute their spare energy to your majesty in order to achieve your goal of 'constant prosperity for the country'."

"Your Majesty has too much to do."

"Building the capital and the central capital, rewarding meritorious officials, paying salaries to officials, paying military salaries, and your majesty's unprecedented achievement of 'bridging the north and south', building schools and education, all require a huge amount of financial expenditure."

"The former obviously requires a break from the people, while the latter requires strong support from the country's abundant fiscal revenue."

“But you obviously can’t have both.”

"Your Majesty has clearly and firmly chosen the latter over the past 18 years."

"Your Majesty's proud fixed tax system and low commercial taxes are just a cover-up for the cruel exploitation of the Ming Dynasty. The low taxes on agriculture and commerce imposed by the Ming Dynasty on the people were eventually compensated through unpaid corvée and increasing taxes year by year."

"Your Majesty is so concerned about agriculture and neglects commerce."

"It's not that I really love farmers."

"But your majesty knows very well that the financial income of the Ming Dynasty almost all comes from farmers. As for merchants? They are just pigs and sheep raised by the court. When the time is right and the merchants have a surplus in their pockets, it will be time for the court to wield the butcher knife and directly rob them."

"This is the fate that Your Majesty has long determined for the merchants and the powerful."

"For now."

"The system created by your majesty can operate normally. Although the local people have many complaints, if I am not mistaken, your majesty's target this time is not officials like Guo Huan, but merchants and wealthy farmers with surplus grain under the Ministry of Revenue."

"Your Majesty's ideal world was clearly stated long ago."

"A ruler can be pure in heart and few in desire, be diligent in government affairs, and do nothing useless to harm useful things, so that the people can live in peace and contentment, have enough food and clothing, and prosper without realizing it."

"Since ancient times, people have hated poverty and loved wealth."

"Therefore, these 'rich' people must be eradicated."

“The world has never been troubled by scarcity but by inequality; it has never been troubled by poverty but by insecurity.”

"So what the court needs to do is to take away the wealth of these rich peasants and turn them back into 'poor peasants'. Then the people of the world will not see the difference between themselves and others, and will be able to settle down in the fields. They will no longer have so many desires, and there will no longer be so many troubles. The world will be able to be well governed."

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly but did not raise any objection.

He does value agriculture.

He believed that a rich country and a safe people were "the first priority of governance and the foundation of a country". Only when the people worked hard in the fields could the country have funds available. If the Ming Dynasty wanted "inexhaustible financial resources, constant prosperity for the country, and constant enjoyment for the gods and ghosts", it must rely on agriculture.

Moreover, from the perspective of national and social governance, the most urgent thing in the world is food and clothing, and the most important thing is education.

He actually admired Mencius's "thought of light taxation".

But precisely because we see things more clearly, we must remove Mencius from the Confucius Temple.

Because these ideas of Mencius are contrary to the system he promoted, if too many scholars were to realize them, it would cause great instability to the rule of the Ming Dynasty.

Xia Zhibai kept staring at Zhu Yuanzhang.

Seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang did not show any thoughtful expression, he knew that Zhu Yuanzhang's old ideas had already been ingrained in his bones.

Since ancient times, it has been a matter of course for farmers to farm, pay taxes, and perform military service.

And there is no doubt about it.

Citizens have to pay rent if they own land, and perform labor service if they have bodies. This has been passed down from generation to generation and has been followed in the old way.

It is the duty of farmers to pay land taxes and perform labor service to provide for the government. Only when farmers fulfill this duty can they be benevolent, righteous, loyal and filial people. Otherwise, it will not only be intolerable under the laws of the country, but also against the will of heaven.

This idea has long been deeply rooted in people's minds, and Zhu Yuanzhang agreed with it deeply.

This is also the reason why agriculture was emphasized in ancient times. It not only provided a large amount of land rent and taxes, but also provided a large amount of free labor.

How could the emperor not enjoy it?

Xia Zhibai added: "From your perspective, the world has always been on the right track. As long as it continues to be on the right track, it will last forever. But your majesty has been ignoring one thing, intentionally or unintentionally. The reason why your majesty can make this system run so smoothly is that your majesty can maintain a high-pressure and powerful state for a long time."

"But this kind of high-pressure power is only created for your Majesty."

"Perhaps in the future, Your Majesty will take action again and again to eliminate any existence that may threaten the imperial power and the emperor's rule. He may even issue various laws to strictly control future emperors and force them to follow the direction indicated by Your Majesty."

"Your Majesty, do you still remember how you evaluated the Crown Prince?"

Hear the words.

Zhu Biao was stunned.

He also didn't expect that Xia Zhibai would mention him.

Zhu Biao raised his head, glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang secretly, and then quickly looked away.

"What do you think of our boss?" Zhu Yuanzhang also showed a strange look on his face. He glanced at Zhu Biao, then looked at Xia Zhibai suspiciously, and directly praised: "Our boss is naturally good in everything. He is brave, resourceful, strategic, decisive, and respectful to his brothers. Who in the world would not praise him?"

Xia Zhibai smiled.

It seems that he does not quite agree with this statement.

Xia Zhibai said: "Your Highness the Crown Prince is indeed well-known and respected by the people of the world."

"But that's not what I want to talk about."

"It's 'benevolence'."

"Your Highness is more kind than Your Majesty."

"And this is the biggest problem with the system established by Your Majesty."

As soon as the words came out, the hall fell silent.

Zhu Biao looked at Xia Zhibai suspiciously, not understanding what he said.

Only Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes darkened.

A strong murderous intent flashed in his eyes again.

Xia Zhibai looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and said slowly: "Your Majesty has high hopes for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. He was established as the crown prince very early on and was carefully trained. Throughout history, there have been very few crown princes who have been able to gain the authority and trust of the current crown prince."

"Your Highness has also started reviewing memorials very early, and His Majesty has been teaching you how to handle government affairs."

"To some extent."

"Your Majesty did abolish the chancellor."

"But in essence, it was not abolished. It just handed the job of prime minister to the crown prince."

"Father and son are united, ruler and subject are in agreement."

"The relationship between His Majesty and the Crown Prince is different from that of previous dynasties. To a certain extent, His Majesty and the Crown Prince cooperate with each other. There is no open or covert fighting between the emperors and their sons in the past, and they are wary of each other."

"This is your Majesty's good intention."

“A model for the world.”

Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly, and was very pleased with this sentence.

He was well-versed in history and hated the vigilance and scheming of the imperial father and son.

This is why such a system was designed.

Not only can it allow the prince to get involved in government affairs earlier, but it can also help him deal with memorials to the emperor, and he doesn't have to worry about powerful officials monopolizing power. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Xia Zhibai smiled and turned his gaze to Zhu Biao.

He shook his head and said, "Your Majesty has been thinking very hard about future generations. But if I remember correctly, Your Majesty has said more than once that Your Highness is kind-hearted. But is Your Highness really kind-hearted? Compared with Your Majesty, the Crown Prince can indeed be considered kind-hearted."

"But the Hu Weiyong case and the empty seal case were both handled by Your Majesty."

"The number of people killing the Yi people has reached tens of thousands."

"Such a treatment, in the eyes of your majesty, is still considered benevolent."

"Because in your Majesty's mind, more people should have been killed in these two cases, and the killings should have been more severe, and they should not have stopped at just killing tens of thousands of people."

"Your Highness should not stop, and should not be soft-hearted."

"Your Highness's cold and ruthless methods are not considered benevolent and righteous by any minister."

"But your majesty is still dissatisfied, even uneasy."

"Because 'the son is not like the father'!"

When Zhu Biao heard the words "the son is not like his father", he felt his scalp tingling.

These four words are too heavy.

Looking through the history books, these four words are filled with too much blood.

But Zhu Biao didn’t understand why Xia Zhibai used these four words to describe himself?

He doesn't deserve this evaluation from any perspective.

Xia Zhibai said: "Perhaps Your Highness will be surprised why I said this, but Your Majesty must know the reason."

"To be precise, Your Highness is not unlike your father, but Your Highness is destined not to become the next His Majesty. However, the Ming Dynasty system needs a constant supply of 'Zhu Yuanzhangs', and this is the biggest problem with the system Your Majesty has created."

(End of this chapter)