Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 276 Whoever dares to disobey will be suppressed by the army!

Yingtian Prefecture, Wuying Palace.

An old man with a slightly shabby figure and a tired look was reviewing memorials with all his might.

In front of the old man, a middle-aged man was also bent over a desk reading a memorial, and from time to time he read the contents of the memorial to the old man on the podium.

The old man nodded and frowned from time to time. After listening to Zhu Biao read another copy, Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly grinned and said, "This Xia Zhibai is really cunning. There are clearly three copies of the memorial, divided into three transmission methods, but it is said to be one copy to the outside world."

"It's just that this little bit of cleverness is not actually used in the right place."

Zhu Biao chuckled and said, "Father, in my opinion, Xia Zhibai may not really want to do this. He just wants to take this opportunity to try to loosen up the 'sea transportation'. These three memorials were sent out at the same time. As far as I can see now, land transportation is faster, followed by sea transportation, and finally the grain transport is the last."

"This is a bit surprising to me."

"But Xia Zhibai said before that it would be much more convenient to travel from north to south during the spring and autumn. We might as well test it again then."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and snorted, "Let's not talk about this for now."

"What do you think of the memorial sent by Xia Zhibai?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was not very willing to talk about "sea transportation" and still focused on the news reported by Xia Zhibai.

Zhu Biao frowned and said in a serious tone, "From the information reported by Xia Zhibai, the tax resistance in the south is very serious, especially in 'Susong'. The court has actually noticed this phenomenon a long time ago. In the past two years, the two prefectures of Susong have begun to owe grain. Under normal circumstances, this should not happen at all."

"It's just that the court sent people to investigate, but they haven't found out the actual situation yet."

"Perhaps, as Xia Zhibai said, the southeastern regions have long colluded with each other privately to jointly resist the court's investigation and prevent the court from collecting taxes from the southeastern regions. These people are too bold. As Xia Zhibai said, the salt policy issue is just the tip of the iceberg of taxation in the south."

"It is a method used by the South to test the imperial court."

"It's just that the salt administration was too profitable, and many people were too greedy, so they didn't stop and exposed their tracks. Eventually, Xia Zhibai discovered it and took advantage of it, which led to the reform in the south. But there must be other evil behind the scenes that have not surfaced. The court must pay attention to it."

"And deliver a powerful containment blow!"

Zhu Biao's eyes were cold and fierce.

As the crown prince of a country, he could not bear to see local officials deceiving their superiors and concealing the truth from their subordinates, and he could not bear to see local officials deceiving their superiors even more.

The impact is too bad.

Zhu Yuanzhang had no expression on his face, his graying hair fluttering gently. He said indifferently, "Do you really believe the memorial sent by Xia Zhibai? Aren't you afraid that he is also deceiving you? Have you ever thought about what would happen if we really believed Xia Zhibai's words and severely disciplined the southern officials, but in the end we found that what Xia Zhibai said was a lie, then how would we end it?"

Zhu Biao was stunned.

There was a look of panic on his face.

He hadn't considered that.

Because deep down he didn't think such a thing would happen. The South had too much weight in the Ming Dynasty. Most of the founding heroes of the Ming Dynasty came from the South. The South's population, economy, culture and other aspects far surpassed other regions.

Because of this.

Only the South has the confidence to bargain with the imperial court.

Zhu Biao calmed down and said in a deep voice: "Xia Zhibai may indeed be lying."

"He is from the north and is naturally prejudiced against the south. He is naturally not happy to see the south doing well. But judging from Xia Zhibai's past actions, he is not a person who shoots without purpose. There is no need for him to take such a big risk to fabricate and discredit the Southern Group."

"It won't do him any good."

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and was very satisfied with Zhu Biao's answer.

He did not value Zhu Biao's answer, but rather valued Zhu Biao's thinking.

As the successor of the Ming Dynasty, you must have the ability to think independently and must not be led by the officials under you.

The king is the king, and the minister is the minister.

How can it be reversed?
"What solution did Xia Zhibai come up with?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked.

Zhu Biao bowed and said, "Father, Xia Zhibai is not in a hurry to solve the problem all at once. Instead, he wants to do it step by step. He will first make a high profile through the salt administration to scare these officials and meritorious officials in the south, so that they will be afraid. At the same time, he will take the opportunity to complete his original idea."

“Relocate the population northward and open up shipping routes.”

“And complete the salt administration reform.”

"Let the court completely control the production and sales of salt, at least let this major source of tax revenue be firmly in the hands of the court. At first, Xia Zhibai's idea was to integrate the salt factories in the south and make them all owned by the court. However, the memorial he sent this time made certain concessions."

"They were only integrated into large factories, and the court did not nationalize them."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned.

He was not happy with Xia Zhibai's change.

Since we want to rectify the South, we should do it thoroughly. What's the point of procrastinating?
Zhu Biao said: "Xia Zhibai gave an explanation."

"Even if we have to be moderate, we can't push these meritorious officials and officials in the south into a dead end. We must always leave them some leeway. If these people are pushed into a corner, there's no guarantee they'll do something, and then the people in the area will be the most affected." "It's not good for the country."

"Xia Zhibai's idea is to gradually force meritorious officials and local officials to become furious, but not to the point of desperation, so that they still have a little hope. In this way, he will gradually reduce local forces and achieve centralization."

"As for the financial power held by local forces, when the imperial court really takes action in the future, they will take it back with legitimate reasons."

"The Ming Dynasty follows the rule of law, so we should punish them according to the rule of law!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's face twitched.

legal system?

He never used the Ming Dynasty Law to punish crimes.

He himself is the Dharma.

Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a while with his cloudy eyes, and nodded without raising any objections. He didn't like this style of doing things very much. He preferred to be straightforward. Instead of using so many tricks, it would be better to just chop with a knife.

Only the sight of blood can make people afraid!
However, he also knew that this way of doing things was something that only he could do. Zhu Biao could barely make do with it, but if his Zhu family wanted to truly secure their rule over the world, they had to have rules to follow. Xia Zhibai's style of doing things was obviously more suitable for later emperors.

"Go on." Zhu Yuanzhang said.

Zhu Biao nodded and continued, "The three memorials sent by Xia Zhibai mainly talked about one thing."

"Cutting the feudal lordship."

"Reduce the economic vassalage of the South."

"The economy in the south is too important. It's so important that it can affect the decision-making of the imperial court."

"And the meritorious groups and officials in the south, relying on 'money and grain' to gain respect, have been evading and resisting taxes through various means, and have also found ways to take money from the court. The court is barely able to hold on now, but if this continues, it will surely suffer greatly."

"It's just like Xia Zhibai said before, the South is where my father's dragon was born, and it's also where the civil and military officials made their fortunes."

"It's not easy to tidy up the south, there's a lot of resistance."

"Father did clean up a lot of civil officials by attacking Hu Weiyong, but the military officers in the court had no effect at all. Without the restrictions of Hu Weiyong, Liu Ji and other civil officials, the Ming Dynasty now clearly values ​​military over civil officials. Many of the Ming Dynasty's military officers are arrogant and domineering. They are also a group of arrogant generals. These people are not like civil officials who will listen to good or bad words. These people can't understand and only know how to do things according to their own preferences."

"They feel that they have made contributions and shed blood for the Ming Dynasty, and that the North has not yet been settled, and the emperor wants to continue to use them, so they act like they are fearless."

"No one cares about anyone, and everyone dares to bully one."

"If the imperial court wants to reduce the power of the feudal lords, it must do one thing well, which is to stabilize the army."

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered and said disdainfully: "There is no problem with our army. Without our military orders, no one can mobilize troops, not to mention your brothers, even Feng Sheng and Fu Youde can't do it."

"When we first started the army, we realized that military power must be firmly in our own hands."

"I can't trust anyone else!"

Zhu Biao said: "Xia Zhibai thinks it is not enough. Although the Ming Dynasty has implemented the method of separating generals from soldiers, and the military power is in the Five Military Commandery, the founding generals of the Ming Dynasty still have high prestige in the army. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty must completely eliminate the influence of the 'generals' on the army."

"To establish who is in command of the army."

"Xia Zhibai has put forward some ideas in this regard."

"It means completely abandoning the so-called 'military numbers' and classifying them all as the No. X army."

"Reduce the actual influence of generals on the army."

"Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, whenever there was a war, the generals were ordered to serve as commanders and mobilize the garrison troops to join the battle. However, the soldiers mobilized were only the best and strongest soldiers in each garrison, and they were temporarily organized into a wartime organization."

"This kind of situation where the court temporarily dispatches troops and generals during wartime, and the soldiers and generals are separated, and the soldiers do not know the generals, and the generals do not know the soldiers, is very unfavorable for the court to stabilize the local areas. Therefore, we can add a battalion system on the basis of the existing deployment of troops and generals."

"The battalion system implemented a service system, with the army numbered as so-and-so. As the generals were transferred and the soldiers retired, the quality of the army remained unchanged, always loyal to the Ming Dynasty and the emperor, and effectively eliminated the influence of senior generals on the army."

"In short, it advocates collective honor and downplays the consciousness of generals."

"Establish the leadership core of the army."

"What Xia Zhibai wants is for the court to always firmly grasp the military power, rather than the current situation where the court only has prestige. If it wants to truly form combat power, it will take a certain amount of time to deploy troops. The court must be prepared for both long-term combat power and timely combat power."

"Only in this way can we be invincible."

"Only then can we reduce the power of the vassal states!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was silent.

This is a good idea.

Downplay the existence of generals, promote collective consciousness, and establish the emperor's leadership. Through this method, ensure that a part of the Ming army is always controlled by the court. With soldiers in hand, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty truly has the right to speak and the ability to turn the table over.

Anyone who dares to disobey will be suppressed by military force!

(End of this chapter)