Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 352 I fight with him

It is well known to people of insight that the country's financial problems are, on the surface, land annexation and the shrinking tax base, and on the inside, the preferential treatment of officials and gentry, and the protection of the government and the public.

This question is almost unanswerable.

The Great Sage Teacher is enshrined in the Confucius Temple. He originally had the title of King Wenxuan. It was Zhang Cong of the Jiajing Dynasty who thought it was not right for Confucius to be called a king. Zhu Houcong followed his opinion and removed the title of king and the title of Dacheng Wenxuan from Confucius, leaving him only as the Great Sage Teacher.

In addition, there are dozens of people such as the Fu Sheng, the Zong Sheng, the Shu Sheng, the Ya Sheng, the Twelve Philosophers, and ancient Confucian scholars who are worshipped together, forming the privileged edifice of Confucianism as an official school that has been high above the temple for thousands of years.

Why do you study so hard?
The rich don't have to buy fertile land, there are thousands of millets in the book.

There is no need to erect a high hall in Anju, the book has its own golden house.

When you go out, don't regret that no one will follow you. There are many horses in the book.

Don't hate unscrupulous matchmakers when you marry a wife. There is Yan Ruyu in the book.

The man wanted to read his life histories, and read the Six Classics to the window diligently.

Since the Song Dynasty, how widely has this "Poem to Encourage Learning" been circulated?
The Confucius Temple will last forever, and the saints and sages are worshipped by students all over the world every year. If they are still alive, they will naturally see that most of these students only read the first few sentences, thinking that the book will contain thousands of bushels of grain, a golden house, a large number of horses, and a beautiful wife.

This is the lifelong ambition of most educated men.

Maybe it is not so naked. Maybe most people can empathize with the famine and the people struggling to survive. Maybe most people think that they are assisting the emperor in governing the country and serving the country, but there must be corresponding gains in life: status, wealth, and fame.

There is nothing wrong with that, of course; that's human nature.

The emperor relied on Confucianism to provide a steady stream of talents to enter the officialdom, grant them status and power, tie them to the chariot of confusing interests and ideals, maintain the stability of the entire rule, and at the same time meet everyone's common enjoyment needs through taxation and distribution.

Officials took the initiative to maintain the entire state machinery. With the power they were given, they naturally had a thousand bushels of grain, a golden house, a large number of horses, and beautiful women. But it was still not enough. After all, the competition in the imperial examinations was fierce. Who could guarantee that all the descendants would be able to become officials? Therefore, the best way was to continue to expand assets and leave a solid foundation for future generations, so that they could have more resources to study full-time and have much greater opportunities than the children of poor families.

In fact, there were no hundreds of industries in the Ming Dynasty, only two types of people.

One group creates wealth through production, they are the human power like animal power; the other group becomes the superior people based on the favor of their ancestors or through various channels such as studying, meritorious service, luck, etc., they are the masters.

Zhu Changluo is the greatest master in the world.

The Ming Dynasty had numerous institutional and social problems, which ultimately all pointed to the privileges of officials, gentry and wealthy, and the privileges of officials, gentry and wealthy in turn pointed to the privileges of the emperor.

He also had selfish motives, so he would not change anything radically, and comforted himself that this was the limitation of the times, and that taking big steps would only lead to trouble. He comforted himself that the contribution he would bring was greater than the enjoyment he would receive, so he only standardized the system of the royal family, clan members, and noble relatives, and allowed them to make contributions to the country, and then only targeted the officials and gentry.

The first sword is to strictly implement preferential treatment and exemption, which shows the attitude; the second sword is to improve the treatment of officials and strictly supervise officials and the academic records of gentry, which are tools.

But it's not enough.

Face to face with Tian Le, Zhu Changluo first proposed the third sword: "Starting from the nine borders, Liaoning Province, and Chengde Prefecture, we will first fully unify the civilian population, implement the recruitment system, and establish a system for military service and retirement. The service is not free. In addition to military pay and future retirement and transfer to public security police, we will consider the future of many government officials. For families with male conscripts, there are some preferential exemptions in the process of compulsory service and voluntary military service. In this way, we can ensure military strength."

Tian Le's expression was extremely solemn. "Let's not talk about military expenses. The issue of soldiers being used by generals and family soldiers is also easy to deal with, but unifying the civilian population... Even though it is in the Nine Frontiers, what should we do with the many righteous men and women, hired workers, official slaves, tenants, and slaves? How will the Administrative Council manage the exemptions for military service? How will the tax system be determined?"

"After the strict implementation of preferential treatment, is the situation of the slaves still serious?" Zhu Changluo asked.

"I am in charge of the Privy Council, so I dare not speak without thinking." Tian Le said directly, "Let's not talk about the civil officials and relatives of the nobles. There are still quite a few slaves in the families and clans of the military generals."

The preferential treatment for officials and gentry naturally cannot exclude military officers, but compared with civil officials, the military career lacks a large group of gentry.

The "strong slaves" mentioned by the emperor and his ministers involved the actual slave system of the Ming Dynasty.

Officially, there were slaves in the real sense, namely prisoners of war and families of criminals, who were directly deprived of their status as good citizens by the state. For slaves like these, members of the royal family, relatives of the nobles, and officials also had corresponding permission to own slaves, but the number would be symbolically regulated: during the reign of Emperor Yingzong, the number of slaves was changed once, with an increase in grace, allowing those above the fourth rank to own sixteen slaves, those of the fifth and sixth ranks to own twelve, and those below the seventh rank to own two slaves.

However, "the common people's families should serve themselves and work hard, so they are not allowed to keep slaves." Those who violated the order would be "beaten 100 times with the stick and then sent back to become good people."

The authorities seem to have been committed to prohibiting the spontaneous enslavement of good people among the people, but the people have their own countermeasures.

First, they were sold. “They were not recorded as slaves or maids, but were called adopted sons and daughters.” The indenture sold them as adopted sons and daughters, but in reality they were slaves and maids. For example, they took the surname of the master, and when they came of age, they might be given land and married, becoming hereditary servants.

In response to this, the imperial court's policy was to never recognize the slave status of adopted sons and daughters, and to legally regard them as descendants of the master's family and include them in the household registration.

Then there is employment. The most recent case for Zhu Changluo was in the 15th year of the Wanli reign, when the imperial court introduced a new system: when officials or civilians hired someone, they had to sign a written agreement and agree on the employment period.

Apart from the officials and dignitaries who were officially allowed to own slaves, the imperial court was actually committed to retaining the good status of other actual slaves at the legal level.

However, due to the existence of the privileges of officials and gentry and the situation of "you in me and I in you", there were actually tenants who had no land at all and rented the land of the powerful officials and gentry, and there were also powerful slaves who cooperated with the powerful officials and gentry and voluntarily surrendered themselves to avoid taxes.

The characteristic of these slaves is that they still own a lot of assets. They only pay "rent" to the masters who nominally own their land or shops, but in fact they are responsible for their own profits and losses and often act as "executive managers" of the masters.

Unlike tenants and hired laborers, the families of the Hao Nu still had the status of good people and could study, take exams, and become officials. Most of the Hao Nu also had slaves who were tenants or hired laborers.

At this point in time, the rich and powerful also know not to intensify conflicts. They are allowed to live separately, arranged to marry, given land and houses to farm, or provided with other means of production to work. If we ignore the fact that they are slaves who have to obey the orders of their masters, their daily lives are not much different from those of ordinary people. The only difference is that the object of taxation and military service has changed from the government to the master.

Now Zhu Changluo mentioned that he would start the work of unifying the civil registration from the nine borders. This meant that it was a more systematic job than the ordinary surveying of land and checking of population. It was necessary to really go deep into every living person that could be seen and put one's hands into the homes and clans of the powerful, officials and gentry.

The previous strict implementation of preferential exemptions actually had the same effect as "self-declaration" by officials and gentry, and at most affected some "rich slaves" with relatively large assets and taxable scale.

Because if we go deeper, we will find that those truly lower-class people are those who voluntarily become slaves, which is a more extensive and profound social problem.

"It just so happens that Chengde Prefecture, Liaoning Province and Xinbian have a lot of farmland. The nine frontiers are all under the management of the Privy Council. Make sure they are settled properly." Zhu Changluo was very determined. "If the border generals are reluctant to give up the military registration, soldiers and servants, and the benefits of farming and food and wages, they will have trouble rewarding their merits in the war."

He looked at Tian Le and said, "When it comes to civil officials and gentry, it is absolutely impossible to favor military officers separately. First, thoroughly reorganize the border troops. Although the public security bureaus in provinces other than Liaoning will not be established now, a separate system can be set up within the Privy Council to divert them. If the Nine Frontiers are not properly sorted out, it will be empty talk to communicate with the Tatars and Jurchens with new ideas. You know best about the border troops' smuggling, looting, and killing innocent people for credit."

Tian Le knew the emperor's thinking: start with the military officer system, which would not only make the knife sharper, but also prevent civil officials and gentry from using this as an excuse in the future.

He nodded solemnly: "Then I have to discuss the strategy with the court first. In addition, we also need to talk to the Administrative Court. The rectification of the nine borders will definitely occupy a lot of new border land."

"The Production and Construction Corps." Zhu Changluo had thought about this problem a long time ago. "The military farms will no longer be dispersed among a few military guards. The supervision of military farms will be taken back from the government. Gradually transfer the ownership. The military farms in various provinces will gradually be used to settle various local people and tenants. The Privy Council will directly manage the military farms and other military properties in the border areas through the Production and Construction Corps, imitating the post station system."

Tian Le listened to this idea and pondered it for a while, then asked, "Are the military farms in various provinces gradually being sold?"

"When I want to take action against civil officials and gentry," Zhu Changluo said, "there are many ways. When the time comes, families who want to buy land must first have male volunteers to join the army. We can convert the exemption into the purchase price, so that they will not be unable to come up with the money and let the gentry take it all. If the gentry and wealthy families want to buy, it must also be a hard rule that they send male volunteers to join the army, and they are not allowed to hire people to replace them. This should also be done together with the unification of the civil register and the investigation of the number of people in each household."

Tianle has a heavy burden.

With the power of a great victory, the first major move is to continue to reorganize the army, and this time the interests of all the generals will be affected.

He naturally had to raise the issue.

Zhu Changluo had also considered this a long time ago: "Military expenditures and military finances are in the hands of the Privy Council. Starting with the military, the Privy Council is naturally responsible for the treatment of officers and soldiers. What I mean is that the servants of military officers should be fully enlisted in the military, and a special department can be set up to manage them, divided into three levels: the five prefectures, the military regions of each town and province, and each battalion. The servants of military officers who are away from home are in the military and receive military pay; those who are really close servants at home are allowed to receive silver subsidies, and the amount and amount are limited. In addition, military hospitals, military schools, and residences must be planned. In short, there is no need to worry about the rich and noble treatment, but they cannot spend money privately."

"...will the central government and local government offices be like this in the future?"

"Of course. I will order the establishment of a system for public expenditures, including board and lodging, travel, official business, medical care, etc. The court will provide for the rich and powerful, and those who want to go further will pay for it themselves. If the burden of personal expenses as an official is already extremely small, the salary should be enough. If you are still greedy, it will be much easier to investigate. In short, being an official has its own constraints, and everyone is just a part of the big machine of the country."

Of course, there will be many more problems, but for Tian Le, this at least means that the court will provide officials with as much treatment as possible, so that they do not need to pay for their official duties out of their own pockets, and they also receive generous salaries.

The only problem was where the money would come from. Whether it was the Privy Council or other government offices, from the central government to the local governments, they would require far greater financial expenditures than before.

The result is self-evident: abolish preferential treatment for officials and gentry and make major changes to taxes.

Only when the imperial court collects money can it have enough money to meet such public expenses and control these expenses from the source.

"...I understand." Tian Le took a deep breath, "Then I will start with the Privy Council and try this strategy first. But Your Majesty, the Privy Council wants so much military funds, I am afraid that the Ministry of Revenue and the Inspection Office will have great objections."

While abolishing preferential treatment for officials and gentry and establishing a stable and large source of tax revenue, the military reform only cost money. The civil officials were very dissatisfied because they simply did not have that much money to spend.

In this regard, Zhu Changluo's approach was of course simple and crude.

"We can sell wheat fields and border trade licenses. Apart from the portion allocated to the Northeast Construction Corps of the Privy Council, all of Chengde Prefecture, New Three Borders, and Liaoning Province can be sold to assist in border construction. The silver we earn can support us for a while." He said calmly, "Besides, we have captured prisoners after pacifying Jianzhou and Korea. We also captured prisoners when we wiped out the four Lingnan tribes of Chahar. There are many things we can sell, including the mining rights of Chengde Prefecture and the firewood felling rights in the mountains. Zongminghao and Changminghao will all be interested."

He looked at Tian Le and said, "The nine frontiers, Chengde Prefecture, and Liaoning Province are going to fight for more than that. My long-term goal is that the land rights are all owned by the state, not by me; the use and operation can be rented out for a short period of time or bought out for a long period of time, and the income will go into the unified treasury; the royal family, including the royal family, will be given a one-time buyout of some of the use and operation rights, and only have a fixed salary or tribute, and the rest can be operated by themselves and still need to pay taxes; including the slaves in the forbidden palace, are all hired workers."

Tian Le was shocked and looked at the emperor speechless.

Zhu Changluo sighed, "If I want the people of the world to be convinced, I must set an example. I have selfish desires, too, so I will try my best to achieve this. The people's money cannot be enjoyed by me and the civil and military officials in the end. I must understand more about governing the country and pacifying the world. Even if I cannot make the world a harmonious place, I must ensure that the people have a well-off life, and that future generations will have the hope of making progress in all kinds of industries. On that day, I hope that many graces will not be bestowed because of the emperor's preference, but because of achievements and promotions for the country's achievements."

Looking at Tian Le, he said seriously: "The road ahead is long and difficult. Now that we have a sharp knife, the front is a mess. Starting with Duke Yansheng is a good idea. Apart from the royal family, Duke Yansheng's family is naturally the most typical example of a collection of all evils. I will personally start him, and the world will have its own arguments; I will personally set an example and reform the tribute system of Jinhua, Yinhuang, Zhuanghuang and other systems, and the officials and gentry in the world will have nothing to say. In this game, Duke Yansheng and I are at war. The royal family is not damaged, so how can the officials and gentry not have resentment?"

After hearing the emperor say that the royal family also had all kinds of problems, what else could Tian Le say?
He knew that the emperor was serious, extremely serious, and was even prepared to kill one thousand enemies and lose eight hundred of his own.

From now on, "respecting" the emperor and father will no longer seem to be taken for granted. Is this the depth that we dared to imagine before?

Tian Le could only bow sincerely and said, "Your Majesty, the Holy King has come to the world. It is a blessing for the people and the Ming Dynasty!"

"Holy Lord..." Zhu Changluo just shook his head in self-mockery.

The holy king is still a king.

He doesn't deserve to be mentioned this word, after all, he still has the selfish desire to enjoy himself.

I just want to enjoy myself more peacefully.

(End of this chapter)