I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 268: The Ming Dynasty with Internal and External Troubles

Gao Yi turned and looked at Gao Gong.

Gao Gong replied slowly: "So the next step is to rectify the fiscal and taxation system of the dynasty. Previously, the fiscal and taxation system of our dynasty was a mess. The money collected was confused, and the money spent was also confused.

Officials were paid little, and some clerks and clerks were simply not paid, or forced to do corvée labor, or local officials handled it themselves. Haha, how to handle it themselves? It was still exploiting the local areas and levying it on the people.

The result was that the court collected one tael of silver for every dan of rice, and the people had to pay ten taels of silver for every ten dan of rice. The imperial court had been in power for two hundred years, and this was a well-known bad policy, but no one dared to change it.

Why? Once the system was changed, the clerks would have no food to eat and would all slack off from work, and the scholars sent by the court would be at a loss.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince meant to first rectify the administration of officials, reform the official system, and cut off the reasons for exploitation and apportionment. All taxes and expenditures of the court were clear, how much was collected was clear, and how much was spent was clear.

I thought about it for two or three months and felt that this would benefit the country and the people, so I agreed. "

Gao Yi sneered and said, "I'm afraid some people will say that this is competing with the people for profit!"

"Competing with the people for profit? Competing with which people for profit!" Gao Gong said bluntly, "It's nothing more than some local aristocratic families who have always colluded with the clerks to control the collection of taxes, deceive the superiors and bully the subordinates, and exploit the people.

If this change is made, they will lose the opportunity to exploit the people and will definitely instigate the scholars and officials they support to speak out, saying that they are competing with the people for profit!
Haha, the guy from Xiyuan will just treat them as barking dogs and insects!"

Xu Yangzheng was still a little worried, "Xinzheng Gong, will they take advantage of this opportunity?"

Gao Gong's eyes widened, his big beard trembling, and he asked sternly, "What are you taking advantage of this opportunity to do?"

Xu Yangzheng was startled by Gao Gong's voice. Looking at his appearance, which looked like an angry tiger, he was so scared that he swallowed the rest of his words.

Gao Gong continued: "Do they want to purge the emperor's court? Do they dare?
Hu Ruzhen, Tan Zili and others had been organizing the military affairs of the nine frontier camps and the north and south Zhili for several years, and Qi Yuanjing and others had painstakingly trained hundreds of thousands of new troops. These soldiers were well fed with silver by Xiyuan, and they were just in need of military merit to be awarded titles and promoted to officials.

In addition, Kaiping and Taiyuan have been developing industries in the past two years, and they are still the first and second industrial centers as Your Highness said. The documents I got show that these two places produce 1.8 billion catties of steel a year. According to the new measurement method, the total is 800,000 tons, which is ten times the annual iron output in the Hongwu period and eight times the annual iron output in the Jiajing period.

Ten thousand muskets and one hundred cannons can be produced per month, and the production quantity continues to rise.

In war, besides fighting for money and food, the other is fighting for weapons and firearms. The weapons and firearms produced by these two places alone in a year are enough to conquer the whole world. Who dares to purge the emperor's side?"

Gao Yi sighed, lowered his head and said nothing.

Xu Yangzheng's face was full of disbelief.

But I began to understand in my heart why His Royal Highness the Crown Prince lived in the Western Garden and was in charge of the state affairs, turning the Emperor in the Forbidden City into a "nominal monarch".

All the nobles and ministers in the court saw this unprecedented violation of the rules, but they remained silent.

It turns out that they are like dumb people eating wontons, but they know what is going on.

He has soldiers, money, and mountains and seas of weapons and firearms. The one in the Western Garden is called the Prince, but he is actually the true emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

Seeing that Xu Yangzheng had fully understood, Gao Gong turned to Gao Yi and said, "What I am worried about now is how the Crown Prince will deal with the matter of Cai Chuntai kneeling in Xu's house?"

Gao Yi also nodded slowly: "This matter does need to be handled appropriately. We will wait and see how Your Highness handles this matter properly."
-
In the Xiyuan Qinzheng Hall, Zhu Yijun stared at Pan Yinglong and asked word by word: "Then tell me, what do you understand?"

Pan Yinglong raised his head and replied, "I understand, but now is not the time to deal with the Xu family or the Jiangnan family."

The flesh on Yang Jinshui's face couldn't help but twitch a few times.

Xiao Pan, you are so brave to say such things.

But you are smart enough to find out His Highness's pulse so quickly. The more you speak frankly, the better. Hiding things will only make things worse.

Zhu Yijun looked at Pan Yinglong, his hands in his sleeves, his face expressionless, "Why?"

Pan Yinglong's Adam's apple couldn't help but move up and down a few times. He didn't expect that Zhu Yijun was young, but so calm and his mind was deeper than he imagined.

Even though I said it so bluntly, he didn't show any sign of abnormality.

But the most urgent task is to answer His Highness's question. "I originally separated the Xu family from the Jiangnan family, and the Jiangnan family from the scholars and Confucian scholars of the world. After listening to His Highness's teachings, I realized that they were actually breaking bones but not tendons.

All it takes is one imperial decree to overthrow the Xu Mansion. But the herbs are still the same herbs, and the medicine soup is still the same soup, which is of no benefit to the country and the people."

Interestingly, Pan Yinglong was the first person he met who thought so deeply. He even thought more deeply and thoroughly than Li Zhi.

That’s right, now is not the time to touch Xu Jie and the Xu family.

Because Confucianism had not yet been reformed by itself, if the old was destroyed without new ones to fill the gap, the Ming Dynasty would become even more chaotic.

Li Zhi has been working hard in this regard. He also invited a group of like-minded people such as his good friend Geng Dingli to vigorously promote the new learning of "respecting the people, promoting industry and commerce, and attaching importance to armaments" and "following the laws of nature, exploring the laws of all things, opposing the empty talk of Neo-Confucianism and false Taoism, and promoting utilitarianism" on the basis of Yangming's philosophy of mind.

Some of these new academic ideas were developed by Li Zhi himself based on Yangming's philosophy of mind, while others were developed under his own influence.

Why not just abolish Confucianism?

After two thousand years of influence, can you change yourself in one day?
If we abolish Confucianism, what should we use to replace it?
This is a whole set of self-consistent philosophical thoughts that have influenced China for thousands of years and are ingrained in every individual. In the 21st century, it is still subtly influencing the Chinese and many people in Asia. Can you overturn it with just a sudden push?

Besides, if we tear it down, where will we get a new replacement?
The new alternative must also be a complete set of self-consistent philosophical ideas, and I don’t have the ability to create it yet.

It would be better to make a major reform based on Confucianism. Anyway, it has been undergoing reform for more than two thousand years, so we should just take the final right of interpretation into our own hands.

Only when the new school has trained a group of talents, the emerging industrial and commercial class has enough representatives and has a basic base of common interests, can they take action against Xu Jie and the Xu family, and then take action against the Jiangnan families and the landlord class that he represents.

Why did the Qing Dynasty in history dare to implement the tax system based on the amount of land used and require officials and gentry to pay taxes together?
Because they have a base, the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia, not the aristocratic families and landlord class from the Central Plains and Jiangnan.

If you dare to shirk responsibility and deny, your property will be confiscated; if you dare to incite the people to resist, you will be slaughtered. After a few ruthless moves, those landlords who hid their land and evaded taxes in the Ming Dynasty fell to their knees one by one.

Of course, even if he took action against the landlord class, he would not kill them with one blow. He would only weaken them so that the weaker emerging industrial and commercial class could compete with them and achieve the purpose of checks and balances.

Pan Yinglong probably didn't understand it so deeply, at least he didn't understand the difference between the emerging industrial and commercial class and the conservative landlord class, but he was able to figure out that he had to use a new force to counter the traditional conservative forces and stop them from dominating, which was already very rare.

More importantly, Xu Jie and the Xu family still have value.

Zhu Yijun waved his hand, "Stand up and talk."

Yang Jinshui at the side quickly winked at Pan Yinglong and said, "Boy, you have passed the first question of the prince's test. Hurry up and get ready to take the second question."

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Pan Yinglong stood up and sat carefully on the chair.

Zhu Yijun spoke again without delay: "Pan Yinglong, when Yang Jinshui recommended you to me, he said you were Wang Jinglue, Wang Meng of the Ming Dynasty. But our Ming Dynasty has ruled China for two hundred years, and the world is peaceful. Do we still need Wang Meng?"

This question doesn't seem to be an easy one, it requires a question!
The questions in His Royal Highness's exam are so difficult.

Pan Yinglong's mouth twitched a few times, his heart turned nervously for a few breaths, and he suddenly made up his mind and answered: "Your Highness, of course it is necessary!"

"Why?" Zhu Yijun asked the same simple question.

Pan Yinglong immediately replied: "Your Highness, the Ming Dynasty may seem peaceful and tranquil now, but in fact, it is plagued by internal and external troubles, and is not much different from the Later Qin Dynasty of the Fu family."

Zhu Yijun stared at Pan Yinglong and said in a very impolite tone, "Are you exaggerating?"

Pan Yinglong was completely desperate. "Your Highness, I am not exaggerating. Your Highness is intelligent, wise, far-sighted, and has a clear understanding of the current situation of the Ming Dynasty. You must know that the Ming Dynasty is facing internal and external troubles. In times of crisis, it needs a monarch like your Highness who obeys the will of heaven, and also needs ministers like Wang Meng who are determined to make progress."

Zhu Yijun stood in front of the window, looking out, and said leisurely: "The northern barbarians, the eastern Japanese, the southern barbarians, and the western barbarians are all around us. This is the external threat of the Ming Dynasty. The military preparations are lax, the fields are annexed, the finances are exhausted, the officials are corrupt, and there are natural and man-made disasters. This is the internal trouble of the Ming Dynasty.

Internal and external troubles! Those who can see the internal and external troubles of the Ming Dynasty are all knowledgeable people. Those who can speak out loudly are all warriors. "

He turned around and looked at Pan Yinglong, "Pan Yinglong, how do you think we can eliminate the internal and external troubles of the Ming Dynasty?"

(End of this chapter)