Jiajing Chengming

"This is all due to your Majesty's diligent governance, which has made the people of the world willing to believe that only by being loyal to your Majesty can they become richer and richer."

Yan Song replied at this time.

Xu Jie also solemnly echoed, "As Yuan Fu said, it is precisely because of your majesty's great talent and love for the people that the people of the world are increasingly confident that the country will continue to prosper!"

“It’s not good to be too confident.”

"Xingming Bank should indeed raise its interest rates. Otherwise, it will be easy for everyone to just sit back and collect interest from the court without doing anything or learning. That would be terrible!"

"It is not advisable to live beyond one's means. Whether a country can continue to prosper depends on whether each citizen is intelligent enough!"

"After all, whether the imperial court can continue to pay interest does not depend on how much land it has seized from overseas or how many mines it has occupied, but on how many talents who can innovate the world emerge from the efforts of the people. After all, fields cannot directly grow crops, and minerals cannot be directly turned into food."

When Zhu Houcong got to this point, he asked the three people: "Has the cabinet agreed to raise the interest rate?"

"Not yet. This is the first time that the ministers have encountered a situation where the people of the world believe that the country will become stronger and stronger, so it is difficult for them to speak in unison."

Yan Song replied at this time.

Zhu Houcong smiled slightly and asked, "What about the increase in commercial taxes and the matter of Japan and Luzon?"

In order to prevent the economy from overheating, Zhu Houcong has decided to let the cabinet discuss the issue of increasing commercial taxes and how to further limit the civil war in Japan and the threat from the Western Barbarians to Luzon.

"It has been agreed to increase commercial taxes, which will be levied on luxury goods and fancy items;"

"The tax on grain, coal and timber will not be increased in order to avoid the increase in taxes leading to excessively high prices that the people cannot afford. After all, the big households are still the ones making profits by buying government bonds and doing business, and the common people still do not benefit."

"As for the reasons: first, most of the land is in the hands of large households, and most of the common people are tenants, so even if the grain price soars, it will not mean much to the common people; second, after the tax is increased, the price of grain, coal, and wood will increase even more, and the wine, vinegar, tables and chairs made from them will also soar."

Yan Song continued to answer.

Zhu Houcong nodded: "It is a proper strategy."

Yan Song continued to answer, "As for the issue of the Japanese civil war still not stopping, after discussion, I think that, as Your Majesty believes, the court cannot ignore the lives of ordinary Japanese people. The Japanese daimyo and their samurai foot soldiers who refuse to live in peace must be exiled to the north of Nurgandusi and the north of Monan to mine and cut wood!"

"First, the death of these unkind and unjust people will reduce the risk of war;"

"Secondly, it is difficult to recruit workers in these places. After all, it is a bitter and cold place. Even if you offer more money, not many people will respond. Even the local Tartars would rather accept recruitment and go south than to the north to do hard work. Therefore, they can only be forced to exile and take people there to mine. "

"Third, the imperial court is in great need of raw materials such as coal, iron ore, and timber to alleviate the problem of soaring commodity prices caused by the shortage of these raw materials."

"As for Luzon, the southwest is currently undergoing the process of changing its natives to Han Chinese. Many of the Han Chinese can be recruited here in the name of recruiting soldiers, and allowed to cultivate the land. They can be exempted from military service and taxation. At the same time, we can check and suppress the local natives who are flirting with the Western Barbarians. In this way, within a few years, this place will be our Han Chinese land."

After Yan Song finished his report, Zhu Houcong nodded thoughtfully: "You really do know how to deal with overseas affairs. You don't just know how to save money and appease distant countries!"

At this point, Zhu Houcong stood up and said with a smile:

"I have adopted all your proposals! But I suddenly think that we cannot rely solely on the previous decree of 'never increase taxes' to stimulate population growth in the local area. We need new incentives. The Han people are still not enough! We can only rely on the civilized aborigines to conquer Luzon, but the civilized aborigines are also the basis for the transformation of the land system in the southwest!" "Your Majesty is saying that the land tax should be implemented in advance to force more people to be willing to move out and even give birth to more people to make a living and support their families. Otherwise, they will only want to guard their ancestral fields and houses and live a peaceful life for the rest of their lives!"

"In addition, we will implement the national policy of requiring officials and gentry to pay taxes and serve as officials, but officials and gentry willing to move abroad to preach can continue to be exempted from the tax and even be given tax-free land!"

"Those who enjoy the court's preferential treatment and can travel around the mountains and rivers and form associations for entertainment in their homeland are not enthusiastic about pacifying the people, except for taking advantage of their power to easily seize the people's benefits. If they are allowed to move out, there will be many benefits, and the preferential treatment will be worth it."

Yan Song bowed again and expressed his own opinion.

"That makes sense!"

Zhu Houcong immediately agreed and said with a smile: "Scholars and officials should be encouraged to go to places where the country and the people need them more, and shine for the people of the world, instead of staying in their hometowns to protect their children. It is also okay to stay in their hometowns to maintain local stability, but they should sacrifice themselves for the sake of the village and make more contributions, and not just let the villagers bear the cost of the service. This is what a virtuous person should do, valuing righteousness over profit."

……

……

When this series of new domestic and international policies were promulgated at the end of the 25th year of Jiajing's reign and stated to be implemented in the 26th year of Jiajing's reign, the world was in an uproar.

Unlike the last time when "the population increased in prosperous times and taxes were never raised", when most of the gentry did not curse secretly, this time there were many people cursing secretly.

"Before, Yan Fenyi didn't look like someone who was actively promoting reform! How come he is more like Wang Anshi than his students now?"

Fei Cai, the then Minister of Rites, even asked Xu Jie about it in confusion after learning from Xu Jie that these new policies were proposed by Yan Song.

Since Wang Anshi has been synonymous with treacherous officials since the Southern Song Dynasty, Fei Cai's comment that Yan Fenyi is like Wang Anshi is already a criticism of Yan Song by an upright official like him.

Xu Jie smiled and said, "The reason is still your majesty. Yan Song is a minister who will be whatever your majesty wants him to be. Maybe Zhang Fujing himself will not implement these policies, and may even stop your majesty, but Yan Song will not. After he understands your majesty's ideas, he will speak for your majesty first, making your majesty want to leave him more than Zhang Fujing."

Fei Cai sighed, "I thought that without Zhang Fujing, the lives of the gentry would be better, but who would have thought that someone even more powerful would come."

"We are better off, but the foreign nobles are the ones suffering!"

"The Japanese daimyo Oda and others have started a war without authorization. The Yan Party censors have impeached them. Please send troops to arrest them and exile them to the Polo River Guard to mine coal."

As Xu Jie spoke, he picked up the tea and took a sip.

Fei Cai felt even more helpless after hearing this: "The sage's teachings were originally to appease the foreigners, but now it has become that we must use military force to punish the foreigners in order to maintain the rites and laws of the world."

Owari, Japan.

Because of his attack on Mikawa, the Owari daimyo Oda Nobuhide had the entire Oda clan listed for exile by the Ming Emperor.

When the Ming army and the army that opposed him broke into his castle and captured his family and all the samurai who were loyal to him, Oda Nobuhide's son Oda Nobunaga was quite depressed and asked Oda Nobuhide:

"Father, why doesn't the Ming Kingdom allow us to fight each other?" (End of this chapter)