Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 191: Cutting down the "feudal power" of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River!
Zhu Biao was stunned.

He looked Xia Zhibai up and down.

He never expected Xia Zhibai to be so ambitious.

He not only wanted to annex the Northern Yuan Dynasty, but also wanted to take over all of the Yuan Dynasty's territory based on its existence.

This ambition is wild enough.

He is the crown prince.

Naturally, I have some understanding of the situation in the Yuan Dynasty.

He also knew how vast the territory of the Yuan Dynasty was at its peak, and he was also well aware that the Yuan Dynasty was strong on the outside but weak on the inside despite its vast territory.

After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there was no such thought at all. The only idea was to build the Great Wall in the northern border to resist the southward advance of the Mongols in the north, and to take advantage of the strong national strength of the Ming Dynasty to severely weaken the north, thus winning decades or even hundreds of years of peace for the world.

But Xia Zhibai is different.

He is a madman. He not only wants to win, but also wants to annex other territories. Now annexation is not enough for him, and he wants to go a step further and incorporate all the territories of the Yuan Dynasty in a broad sense into the rule of the Ming Dynasty. This idea is too crazy.

Even Zhu Biao was shocked.

"Xia Zhibai, are you crazy?" Zhu Biao asked with a trembling voice.

Xia Zhibai smiled faintly and said calmly: "I am very calm. This is just a possibility. Why can't it come true? Your Highness, have you ever heard of a saying? It's called "a son sells his father's land without feeling bad." Just like many princes in the Ming Dynasty, they squander money without thinking."

“Because they don’t know where the money comes from.”

“I don’t know how hard it is to earn this kind of money.”

"These vassal kings are like this, and the future emperors and ministers of the Ming Dynasty will be the same. Just like what the ancient books say, cede one city today, cede ten cities tomorrow. If the Ming Dynasty really wants to occupy the world for a longer period of time, it should be bolder and more ambitious."

"The Ming Dynasty does not have enough territory."

"As far as I'm concerned, if I don't make a few cuts, my country will be destroyed."

"Wouldn't it be too tragic for the emperor to guard the country's borders? But if the Ming Dynasty continues to expand its territory, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty could take a long time to divide it. Of course, this is just a joke."

Xia Zhibai made a joke and brought the topic back to the topic.

“You can never have too much land.”

"The wider the territory of the Ming Dynasty is, the more time it has to cope with the situation. Now, under your majesty's design, three lines of defense have been set up around the northern border. But it is not enough, because one of the things that the Ming Dynasty must do in the future is to reduce the power of the vassal states."

"Militarily reduce the power of the feudal lords."

"Economically weaken the 'feudal power' of the gentry in Jiangnan."

"And this kind of thing will definitely be done, even His Majesty himself will take action."

Xia Zhibai's tone was very certain.

Zhu Biao was silent.

Cut off the vassal.

He actually seldom thought about this matter.

Because too many people and too many things are involved.

From the bottom of his heart, he also believed that the Ming Dynasty should reduce the power of the vassal states. Although he was not very worried about his brothers, he was not worried because he was confident that he could control them. But what about the emperors of the Ming Dynasty who came after him? Could they also control them?
The main reason why no one mentions it nowadays is that the northern border has not been determined.

Most of the generals of the Ming Dynasty are arrogant and brave. If the military power is not taken away from these generals, Your Majesty will be uneasy. Letting the princes command the troops is a temporary measure, which is more for the purpose of concentrating the military power. In the future, the real military power of the Ming Dynasty will only belong to the Five Military Commission.

Zhu Biao could understand the idea of ​​reducing the power of the princes.

But the one that punishes the gentry in Jiangnan?
Zhu Biao was a little confused. When did the gentry in Jiangnan become considered "feudal vassals"?

Xia Zhibai said: "In governing the world, the two most important rights are financial power and personnel power."

"Your Highness should also know."

"In the case of Guo Huan, all six ministries suffered."

"But the most important Ministry of Revenue and Ministry of Personnel have no new ministers, and Your Majesty is the only one who is in charge."

“That’s why.”

"Your Majesty knows well how to govern the world."

"But in my opinion, Your Majesty has abused his power too much and has not made any substantial changes. He just took back all the power because he didn't know who he could trust. This is obviously not advisable."

"The court is already busy with political affairs."

"Now I have to take charge of the political affairs of four more departments."

“Such a heavy burden is simply undesirable and unsustainable.”

"The reason."

"It's because Your Majesty has not thought about how to make changes."

"In the past ten years or so, the six ministers of the Ming Dynasty have been replaced one after another. They have been dealt with one after another, but the problem has never been solved. Instead, the problem has become more serious, especially in the Jiangnan region, which has a prosperous economy and a profound literary heritage. The court has been replaced one after another, and the scholars in the Jiangnan region have finally taken over."

"Among these people there are officials who consider things for the court, but such people are destined to be a minority."

"Even with your majesty's current strength, you still don't have much to do with the Jiangnan region. It will only be more difficult in the future."

"But I won't say too much about it."

"Pointless."

“I’m mainly talking about the economy.”

"The economic base determines the superstructure. Only when the economy is good can the local people have extra money to study and continue to expand the region's influence in the court. If the economy is bad, even if one or two talented people rush out, what can they really accomplish in the face of the powerful Huaixi Group?" "Impossible."

"As time goes by, Jiangnan's influence in the court will only grow. Many of the court's policies will be influenced by these people."

"The Ming Dynasty is a small government, which inevitably means that the court has little understanding of the real situation in the world. Therefore, the possibility of being deceived by these officials will become higher and higher, and eventually, more and more people will do good things with bad intentions."

Zhu Biao frowned.

He looked at Xia Zhibai helplessly.

Xia Zhibai just kept saying that there were problems with the Ming Dynasty's system.

But if there were really problems with the Ming Dynasty’s system, it would not have operated for more than ten years without causing any major problems.

He didn't believe what Xia Zhibai said.

Xia Zhibai seemed to have guessed Zhu Biao's thoughts, and smiled and said, "The system of the Ming Dynasty does not seem to have any major problems, and everything is in order, but the biggest problem of the Ming Dynasty's system is the economy. The court does not have enough financial resources."

"Your Highness should be aware of the matter concerning the Kyoto Salt Industry."

Zhu Biao nodded.

He was in Yingtian Prefecture, how could he not know about the affairs of the Kyoto Salt Industry?

But he didn't intervene.

It was not his turn to interfere in such matters. Moreover, Kyoto Salt Industry, to a certain extent, did not belong to the Ming government but to Xia Zhibai personally. It was even more impossible for him to interfere for Xia Zhibai's sake. Moreover, spreading Kyoto Salt Industry's steam engine to the world would be of certain benefit to the Ming Dynasty.

It can liberate a lot of labor and allow many kitchen owners to get out of it.

The court would also have more available labor.

Why wouldn't he do it?
Xia Zhibai didn't care about these.

He looked at Zhu Biao with a smile and asked, "Your Highness should know that when the Jingdu Salt Industry started operating, there was almost no harvest in the first two months, but from the third month onwards, the Jingdu Salt Industry began to have a stable income."

"The Jiangnan region used various means to obtain the core information of the Jingdu Salt Industry and established a local salt enterprise with the help of the imperial court."

"But has Your Highness ever asked about the price of salt in the local area?"

"And the taxes received by the court?"

Hear the words.

Zhu Biao was stunned.

He looked at Xia Zhibai suspiciously, somewhat not understanding what Xia Zhibai said.

"What do you mean? Jiangnan does use steam engines, so is the price of salt going to go up? Is the imperial court still unable to collect taxes?"

Xia Zhibai nodded, then shook his head and said, "The price of salt will not increase, but the tax is hard to say."

Xia Zhibai smiled and said, "Your Highness doesn't know much about the operation of steam engines, and the use of steam engines in Jiangnan is also very common. Therefore, in the past six months, Jiangnan has indeed been constantly poaching people from my salt industry, but is there another situation?"

"What's going on?" Zhu Biao was startled.

Xia Zhibai said: "The steam engine is running normally and the salt production efficiency is also very high, but you can report to the court that there is a problem with the steam engine and deliberately 'throw away' some of the salt, saying that the salt production has failed. In fact, you are secretly selling a large amount of it to local people at a price lower than the market price through private means?"

"And this 'discarded' salt eventually becomes personal property."

Zhu Biao was shocked.

He looked at Xia Zhibai suddenly, but was thinking secretly in his heart.

In the end, he had to admit that this situation was very likely.

And
If he remembered correctly, many local officials had submitted memorials stating that the steam engine was not running smoothly and was still being debugged. Perhaps these people's memorials were indeed true, but there might not be someone trying to take advantage of the situation.

"They dare?!" Zhu Biao shouted angrily.

Xia Zhibai said: "Not only do they dare, but they are also very courageous."

"Because this steam engine was developed by Kyoto Salt Industry, but the person they poached was Li Sheng. Li Sheng was indeed responsible for the development of the steam engine, but he did not participate in the entire process. There is a certain possibility that problems will occur. If we really investigate, Li Sheng will be the one to bear the blame."

"Besides."

"My return will probably make many people happy. They all hope that I can take drastic measures to bring Li Sheng and those who betrayed me to justice. This way, they can feel at ease and put the blame on Li Sheng for the 'problems' that occurred with the steam engine."

"At the same time, we will sue Li Sheng for deceiving his superiors and subordinates."

"Put Li Sheng to death."

Zhu Biao's face darkened slightly.

He already understood what Xia Zhibai meant.

This is someone's calculation.

By bribing Li Sheng and getting the court to pay for the construction of a salt company in Jiangnan, the court looked down on Li Sheng because of his evil intentions. When the salt company did not perform well, they attributed all the problems to Li Sheng's "lack of skills" and deceiving the court. Then, with the help of Xia Zhibai, they eliminated Li Sheng.

When
What is left in place are some problematic 'machines'.

Local officials made a fortune by using these steam engines to enrich themselves.

However, the imperial court collected much less salt tax.

Moreover, due to the grudge between Xia Zhibai and Li Sheng, Xia Zhibai would definitely not hand over the "complete" steam engine drawings. The local government had made so many products for these steam engines, so it was impossible to stop production directly. They could only hold their noses and continue to use these "low-yield" steam engines.

The imperial court became the biggest loser!

(End of this chapter)