Jiajing Chengming

After hearing what his son said, Mo Dengyong pondered for a long time and then sighed.

"This Ming emperor is quite strategic!"

After Mo Dengyong sighed like this, he smiled miserably and said, "Let the Tartars do the dirty work and win the favor of the Ming army."

"I, Annan, will be completely destroyed."

Then, Mo Dengyong added.

Mo Dengling also shed tears because of this: "Father, are we really wrong? We shouldn't have the ambition to usurp power and establish our own country. We should honestly abide by the etiquette of loyalty, righteousness, benevolence and filial piety?"

"But who could have thought that there would be another person who really wanted to maintain the order of the world's rites and laws!"

"I have always believed that few people in the world care about etiquette and laws. After all, although the voices of people in the world are getting louder and louder to uphold etiquette and laws, the things they do are becoming more and more unorthodox."

"The key point is that this ruler who wanted to maintain the order of rites and laws in the world actually had the ability to do so. With sufficient money and food and a strong army, a dynasty that was strong on the outside but weak on the inside could actually become strong again under his leadership."

Mo Dengyong continued to speak with a sigh.

While Mo Dengling was listening to what his father said, he was looking at the Ming army tent which was getting closer and closer to him.

As these Ming soldiers armed with heavy muskets and long spears and wearing cloth armor appeared more and more clearly in front of him, he felt more and more the oppression from the Ming emperor in the Forbidden City through his father's words.

This made him gasp for breath.

Forbidden City.

One day in early autumn of the 21st year of Jiajing, Zhu Houcong received news that the pseudo-regime of the Annan Mo family had been completely suppressed.

To this end, Zhu Houcong ordered the establishment of Jiaozhi Provincial Administration in the area ruled by the pseudo-regime of the Mo family in Annan, and conferred the title of Duke Yiguo on Guo Xun, and appointed him as the commander-in-chief of Jiaozhi, and allowed him to rule Jiaozhi for generations.

Then, Zhu Houcong issued another decree to change the title of the former King of Annan, Li Ning, to the Governor-General of Guangnan and abolish the title of king, on the grounds of curbing the ambitions of powerful officials to rebel to seize the throne.

Of course, the real reason why Zhu Houcong did this was to weaken the influence of the Li family in Annan.

Zhu Houcong knew that Annan was in chaos. In addition to the Le regime and the Mo regime, there were also the Champa and Longping regimes.

The more divided the natives of Annan are, the more advantageous it will be for the Ming Dynasty to divide, disintegrate and eliminate the local ruling class of Annan, so that the locals will only recognize themselves as Chinese people in the future.

Therefore, although Zhu Houcong seized the throne of Li Ning and appointed him as the governor of Guangnan, he also appointed Longping Wu as the pacification envoy of Longping, which was equivalent to acknowledging that Wu was also a chieftain of the Ming Dynasty.

besides……

Zhu Houcong also asked Liu Xunxuan to meet with the king of Champa. Through negotiations, he made the king of Champa accept his position as the envoy of Champa and cede Xinzhou to the Ming Dynasty as a direct-controlled area, as a place for the Ming Dynasty to garrison troops to guard Champa.

In addition, Liu Xun was also promoted to Duke Xuan Guo for his role in suppressing the rebellion in Annan, and was ordered to govern Xinzhou and serve as the pacification envoy of Xinzhou.

Historically, Xinzhou was a good port where Zheng He often stopped for supplies and rest during his voyages to the West. Now that it is under the direct management of the Ming Dynasty, it will naturally be more conducive to future voyages to the West.

At this point, there were five forces along the coast of the entire Annan region in later generations.

There were three regimes composed of indigenous peoples and two independent military rule areas ruled by Han people.

This allowed Annan to nominally fall under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty.

But in fact, there is still a long way to go before Annan can be completely unified by the Ming Dynasty, and even be included in China in terms of civilization and national identity.

In general, Zhu Houcong now simply turned Annan into a chieftain, just like many areas in the southwest in the early Ming Dynasty, with local officials and military units.

"When the time is right, we can gradually transform Annan into a state of absolutism. If we do it directly now, there is no foundation and it will easily lead to a large-scale rebellion."

"But the southwest region can increase the efforts to change the chieftains into officials. Some chieftains have been in office for hundreds of years, and those who need to be assimilated have almost been assimilated, so it is more appropriate to set up officials as officials."

After conquering Annan, Zhu Houcong mentioned his new ideas on ruling the southwest to his ministers in the imperial study.

After Xia Yan was killed and Li Shi retired, the new Prime Minister Huo Tao died in office due to illness caused by overwork, and the second Prime Minister Wu Wendi also retired early and returned home due to a recurrence of an old injury.

Therefore, Yan Song became the Prime Minister now.

Not long after being promoted to Minister of Rites, Xu Jie entered the cabinet and became the Second Assistant.

The Minister of Personnel Wang Hong also entered the cabinet and became a new Grand Secretary.

Now, after Zhu Houcong said this, Yan Song spoke first:
"As Your Majesty said, the southwest should gradually change the local chieftain system. We can no longer allow those chieftains to do whatever they want and enslave our Han people!"

"That's right. Right now, the Ming Dynasty is in need of a revival. What it lacks most is not money and grain, but people with income!"

"After the opening of new spinning and loom machines, as well as horse-drawn trains running from north to south, the production and transportation of cotton cloth and other materials became more convenient, but many commercial goods were still unsalable! Many weaving workshops still dared not expand their scale, and new weaving workshops also grew slowly. This was all due to insufficient population."

"The chieftains in the southwest don't treat the people under them as human beings. They even capture Han people as slaves. As a result, only these chieftains with noble status can buy cotton cloth and horse carriages."

"If the system of aboriginal rule is changed to civilian rule, more people in the southwest, regardless of whether they are Han, Miao or Tujia, can afford cotton cloth or even horse-drawn carriages, it will undoubtedly greatly improve the current situation."

Wang Lun also started to explain at this time.

Zhu Houcong nodded after hearing this: "Population is indeed the most important thing at the moment. It is not only to solve the problem of unsalable goods, but more importantly, if the number of our Han population cannot be greatly increased, then whether it is the current reform of the natives in the southwest or the reform of the natives in Annan in the future, it will all be in vain! And the carrying and expansion of our Chinese civilization, so that the world will be unified because of civilization, and all will be affected by the cunning of saints, and no more tragic things will happen, it also requires a large increase in the number of Han people, and an increase in the proportion of Han people in the world's population can only be achieved!"

"Do you have any way to increase the population significantly within ten or twenty years?"

Zhu Houcong looked at Yan Song and others.

When Wang Lun and Zhu Houcong successively mentioned that the size of the population was important, Yan Song had already begun thinking about ways to increase the population.

Therefore, when Zhu Houcong asked, Yan Song had already thought of a solution, and he said, "Your Majesty, I have learned from the old days of Gui Gong's One Whip Law that we can implement the national policy of allocating capitation to each acre of land, fix the capitation silver in the world, and then distribute everything to the fields. In this way, the new population will not have to pay the capitation silver, and the people will naturally be more motivated to have children. More importantly, the new population will not have to join the wealthy or hide in the mountains to avoid the capitation silver."

Zhu Houcong nodded and looked at Xu Jie and Wang Lun: "What do you think about this?"

"In my opinion, this tax will inevitably be resisted by landlords all over the country, and they will join forces with bureaucrats to deliberately increase the actual tax to double or even several times the fixed amount. Everything depends on the degree of collusion between local bureaucrats and landlords and their loyalty to the court."

"And these increased taxes will be distributed to ordinary people who own land."

"In this way, the amount of ding silver paid to the court is fixed, but in reality many large landowners may not have to pay ding silver, which will increase the burden on ordinary people with land, and then force them to sell their land or even abandon it and become refugees." "So, after the implementation of the ding silver system, whether it can benefit ordinary people and increase the population still depends on the personal governance level of local bureaucrats and the integrity of local gentry. There are many unpredictable aspects."

"If we really want to increase the population and suppress the surrender and hiding in the mountains, it is better to directly exempt the ding silver from the whole country, and then levy additional taxes on customs duties to make up for the shortfall of the permanent exemption of ding silver."

Xu Jie expressed his opinion at this time.

Zhu Houcong thought about it seriously, and said with a smile: "What Lord Xu said makes sense, but the sea has just been opened, and private maritime trade has not yet flourished. Overseas places have not yet brought a large amount of trade, taxation, and farming income to the Ming Dynasty. The court's various expenses have increased a lot compared to before. It is not realistic to permanently exempt the annual 7 million silver dollars of ding silver."

"Your Majesty is right. If we exempt the tax forever, we will not be able to use foreign troops again after conquering Annan, and the transformation of the chieftains in the southwest will also have to be postponed."

Wang Hong said at this time.

Zhu Houcong suddenly asked, "What if we first issue an edict that the tax on the population will not increase after the 21st year of Jiajing, with the reason being that the population will increase during a prosperous era and the tax will never be increased?"

"I think this is the right strategy!"

"At least we can't increase it any further. As for whether to distribute the tax according to the amount of land, or to exempt the tax and labor service permanently, we can wait and see if the court can get higher income in the future."

"If the court's income is higher, we can directly exempt taxes and labor service permanently. If the income does not increase but decreases, we can only distribute the tax according to the land. In the long run, even if many people lose their land, it is better than not increasing the population."

Yan Song spoke at this time.

Wang Hong also echoed, "That's right! Anyway, as long as the court continues to open up new land, the people who have lost their land will not have to worry about not being able to get land again. In fact, the production of more refugees will actually help the court to relocate them to places where Han people are more needed, such as the areas in the southwest where there are many chieftains, as well as Donglai, Sunrise, and Annan."

"I second the proposal. Starting next year, we will no longer collect additional taxes and service fees. This is the most reliable policy for now, and it is also the virtuous policy that Your Majesty should implement during the revival of the country! It will go down in history!"

Xu Jie also started talking at this time.

Zhu Houcong said: "Then your cabinet should draft this edict!"

"According to the order!"

Zhu Houcong's mouth corners slightly raised at this.

He couldn't help but sigh that it was not easy for him to achieve this step.

If he had not been frightened by the pro-ritual faction such as Yang Tinghe, and then revitalized the military aristocracy, suppressed the gentry and wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River and the coastal areas, and took back the profits from maritime trade, he would not have been able to do this.

But this step was not cheap. The Tartars surrounded the capital, the palace was damaged, and the heirs of the emperor were threatened...

He encountered all kinds of situations.

But this also forced Zhu Houcong to admit that as long as the emperor was wise, strengthened the imperial power, and suppressed the power of scholars to the point where they could no longer oppose the court, it would still be beneficial to the people of the world.

At least, he could really do it. Originally in history, a series of major policies that benefited the people but not the scholars could only be implemented after the Qing Dynasty dealt with three major cases in the early Qing Dynasty, killing all the gentry in the world and causing rivers of blood.

"In prosperous times, the population will grow, and taxes will never be increased!"

"The imperial court could have come up with this idea!"

"To be frank, I would rather see an emperor of a different race who is not of Han descent implement this great policy that will go down in history than a Han emperor do it."

Yu Xu, a Langzhong in the Ministry of Personnel's Examination and Reward Department, spoke in a low voice in frustration when his cousin Li Feng, who was the Right Counselor of the Ministry of Public Security and also the Imperial Censor, came here and learned about Zhu Houcong's latest edict.

After hearing this, Li Fenglai couldn't help but ask curiously, "Why did you say that, brother?"

"Because this will embarrass us scholars and officials all over the world!"

"If it was an emperor of a foreign race who did this, we could still blame the fact that the benevolent and filial emperors we admired before did not implement such virtuous policies on the fact that they were of different races! We could say that it was because the emperor of a foreign race did not have to worry about foreign invasions and therefore did not have to maintain heavy military expenses that they could implement such virtuous policies, not because they suppressed the power of the scholars in the world;"

"But now, the Han emperor can do this. Doesn't that mean that if we want the people of the world to live a good life, we must suppress the power of the scholars?"

"Don't you think this is a further denial of the co-governance of the monarch and his subjects?"

Yu Xu asked back as he spoke.

After hearing this, Li Fenglai nodded solemnly: "That makes sense."

……

……

"This is the true reign of the Holy Lord!"

"The fact that the current dynasty has never increased taxes shows that the rituals and policies that Your Majesty established in the past were truly the actions of Yao and Shun."

"What is even more admirable is that many people in the world have already felt that the teachings of saints can only be spoken, but no longer put into practice. Now it seems that it is not impossible to practice, but that no true saints have appeared yet."

Hu Zongxian, who had passed the imperial examination and became a censor in the court in the 17th year of Jiajing, walked towards his colleague and fellow townsman Luo Longwen with a bright smile.

For him, this is not worth being depressed about, because he really wants to see the people of the world live a better life.

Luo Longwen was also very excited, but his excitement was different from Hu Zongxian's. When Hu Zongxian came, he said:

"Yes, my Luo family's ink shop will become more prosperous because of this! This is truly the emperor's great favor!"

Hu Zongxian thought about it carefully and said, "Yes, once the tax is never increased, the people will undoubtedly have a stronger desire to have children, and they will not be worried about the burden of silver for children increasing due to too many people in the family. When the world has more people, more people will need ink for reading, and your family's ink business will prosper."

Luo Longwen said, "I have prepared to ask my family to apply for more loans from Xingming Bank to expand the ink workshop and recruit more ink workers. However, I estimate that we will have to focus on producing ordinary ink blocks in the future, preferably the kind that can be produced in large quantities at one time. To be honest, the current ink production process is too complicated and the materials are too scarce. In addition, the ink needs to be ground, which is too troublesome for ordinary people to use. I recently saw that the clan school is developing the use of steam engines, and I am also thinking about whether to use steam to make ink directly."

After hearing what Luo Longwen said, Hu Zongxian agreed: "You are right. The increase in population will be mostly from the common people. Moreover, after the land survey and the increase in the silver for the capitation, the increase in the surplus money should also be mainly for the common people. We should pursue the efficiency of ink production instead of the quality of ink. Ink will no longer be used only for writing by the nobles and scholars!"

Luo Longwen's family is well-known locally for making ink, and he himself is also a famous master of ink making.

Therefore, Luo Longwen now noticed the opportunity for his family to make a fortune because of Zhu Houcong's policy.

But this also shows that Zhu Houcong's national policy not only did not cause any loss to the gentry who were mainly engaged in industry and commerce, but was beneficial instead, and even promoted the transformation of their industries from handicrafts to industry. (End of this chapter)