Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 102 Zhu Biao's New Policy, Let Go
On June 15, the 13th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang set out on a northern expedition and headed to Shaanxi to prepare for an attack on the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

The border of the Hongwu Dynasty was not peaceful at this time.

In addition to enemies in the four directions of Yunnan, Shaanxi, Hebei and Liaodong, Shandong, Fujian and Zhejiang also have major border problems.

Not to mention Yunnan, Shaanxi, Hebei and Liaodong.

So who are the enemies of Shandong, Fujian and Zhejiang, the heartland of the Central Plains?
Japanese pirates!

Since the middle and late Yuan Dynasty, the threat of invasion had become very serious. They first invaded Goryeo. Goryeo was unable to resist and was forced to change its water transport to land transport.

Then in the second year of Hongwu, they launched a large-scale invasion of Shandong, Suzhou, Huai'an and other places of the Ming Dynasty.

In the third year of Hongwu, Japanese pirates invaded the Shandong coast again, then plundered Ming, Tai, and Wen states in Zhejiang, and then entered the coastal counties of Fujian to plunder.

This series of events forced Zhu Yuanzhang to issue an imperial decree, ordering the people along the coast to prepare knives and kill anyone who came.

In addition, the maritime ban policy that prohibited no ships from going out to sea was also implemented at this time.

So the southeast region is not peaceful at the moment.

of course.

Compared with the Northern Yuan Dynasty, the Japanese pirates were just a minor problem that could only disgust people, but they were not a serious threat.

But it was still very troublesome for Zhu Biao.

Because his new policy is to lift the maritime ban next year, but given the current situation, it is likely that it cannot be lifted.

Therefore, according to Zhu Biao's idea, he should first wait until Zhu Yuanzhang has defeated the Northern Yuan Dynasty and recovered Yunnan, and then start to vigorously develop the navy after firearms are manufactured around next year.

Now that the navy has firearms, it will be easier to deal with the Japanese pirates. When the time comes, they can go to sea again and visit Japan to avenge the killing of the envoy.

Zhu Yunfeng expressed his support for Zhu Biao's idea.

The development of commodity economy is inseparable from agricultural revolution. Coincidentally, from the second half of this year to the first half of next year, the grain production in Ming Dynasty will double in a very short period of time.

As food increases, the number of idle people in society will also increase.

At this time, we can either conscript soldiers, or follow Roosevelt and the Führer's example and implement work-for-relief, or develop industry and commerce to increase the number of employed people.

As industry and commerce develop, goods must be sold, so the maritime ban seriously hindered the development of commerce.

Therefore, taking advantage of this opportunity, not only could the Japanese pirates be destroyed, but Japan could also be forced to open up its country, allowing a large amount of Japan's gold, silver and copper mines to flow into the Ming Dynasty, further promoting commercial prosperity. It was a good thing that achieved multiple goals at one stroke.

In the afternoon, I talked with Zhu Biao about his new policy in the Hongwu Dynasty.

The order will be officially issued by the Ministry of Public Administration tomorrow, which makes Zhu Biao very nervous as he is carrying out institutional reform for the first time.

Zhu Yunfeng analyzed the gains and losses with him, encouraged him that his new policies were all positive and good policies, and pointed out an important situation.

That is to say, to some extent, the early Ming Dynasty was a period of authoritarian politics.

In the absence of adequate national supervision, Zhu Yuanzhang's policies were often implemented successfully because Zhu Yuanzhang's prestige was so high at that time that it was difficult for the officials below to disobey his orders.

Zhu Biao's prestige has been growing in the past two years, and it has reached its peak after he personally investigated the Hu Weiyong case.

He also had the support of the Zhejiang East Group and the Huainan Noble Group, so he promoted the Yuan official group, and the Huainan official group also gradually moved closer to him.

It can be said that everyone in the court, from officials to generals to nobles, followed Zhu Biao's lead.

If Zhu Biao had raised his arms and started a rebellion while Zhu Yuanzhang was on the Northern Expedition, he might have had a chance.

Therefore, in this situation, he had to implement new policies.

Moreover, these policies were positive in nature, such as reducing taxes and corvée labor, restricting princes, raising officials' salaries, issuing silver coins, adjusting officials' power structure, and abolishing the hereditary system of garrisons. It was reasonable for them to be supported.

The only thing that touched the interest groups was the cancellation of preferential treatment for scholars such as scholars and juren who did not hold official positions.

There are also certain KPI assessments for officials, and the implementation of the first three-year plan requires officials across the country to widely promote new crops in the next step.

However, the scholar interest groups in the early Ming Dynasty were not powerful, and there were not many officials who entered the government through the imperial examination system. At present, many officials were appointed through the recommendation system, so there was not much opposition to the abolition of preferential treatment for scholars.

As for setting KPI assessment for officials, Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty treated officials like dogs. And as can be seen from the case of the empty seal, many of them were meaningless, just forcing you to do things.

At least now you are told what to do, which is much better than the previous feeling that everyone is busy but not knowing what they are busy with.

Therefore, it is certain that under the current policies, the situation will not be worse than before.

With Zhu Yunfeng's support, Zhu Biao felt much more stable. After all, it was only the 13th year of Hongwu, and Zhu Biao was only 25 years old, and he had only been observing government for three years.

If Zhu Biao, more than ten years later, had helped his father handle state affairs for fifteen years, he would not have been so nervous.

Early morning court the next day.

Zhu Biao convened a grand court meeting with full confidence.

In mid-June, the days are long and the nights are short. At five o'clock in the morning, the sky is already bright and the temperature is very comfortable.

A gentle breeze blew, and officials lined up in an orderly manner in the square outside the Fengtian Hall.

However, there were very few nobles standing in that direction.

Apart from the newly appointed founding duke Chang Sheng, there is only Hua Zhong, who inherited the title of Marquis of Huaian from his father Hua Yunlong.

Duke of Shen, Deng Zhen, inherited the title from his father, Duke of Wei, Deng Yu.

Chen Yong inherited the title of Linjiang Hou from his father Chen De.

Han Xun inherited the title of Dongping Hou from his father, Han Zheng.

Cao Tai inherited the title of Xuanning Hou Cao Liangchen from his father.

As well as seven others including Mao Xiang who were newly conferred the title of Loyal and Brave Earl for their contributions in the Hu Weiyong case.

The previous Duke of Zheng, Chang Mao, was stripped of his title by Zhu Yuanzhang due to his misbehavior in the palace and some bad things he had done in the military camp, and the title was inherited by his younger brother Chang Sheng.

After all, Chang Yuchun still holds a very high position in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart.

Moreover, Zhu Biao's deceased wife was the daughter of Chang Yuchun, and Lan Yu was Zhu Biao's brother-in-law. Zhu Biao had deep ties with the Chang family, so it was unlikely that he would execute Chang Mao.

But from the fact that Chang Mao was stripped of his title, while the King of Wu and the Duke of Chu were not punished at all and were only fined three years' salary, it can be seen that Zhu Yuanzhang's favoritism was too obvious.

The court officials were not fools, so they naturally knew the details of the current King of Wu and the Duke of Chu. Their backgrounds were already very powerful.

As a large number of nobles were transferred out of Nanjing, it meant that except for the second-generation nobles whose combat effectiveness was not very good, there was no one in Nanjing who could mobilize the army.

Even Li Wenzhong and Lan Yu were gone, and the remaining 200,000 troops in Nanjing were all under the command of Zhu Biao alone, which shows how cautious Zhu Yuanzhang was.

Compared with the large number of nobles who were drawn to follow Taizu in the Northern Expedition against the Mongols, the civil officials were full of talented people.

There have been a lot of personnel changes during this period.

The total number of the six ministers, vice ministers, doctors, deputy doctors, chief secretaries and attendants totaled more than one hundred.

The Censorate was changed to the Censorate, which consisted of the Left and Right Censors-in-Chief, the Left and Right Deputy Censors-in-Chief, the Left and Right Assistant Censors-in-Chief, and a total of eighty-seven censors from the thirteen regions.

Next are the cabinet ministers, the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme Court, the Imperial College, the Five Temples, the Hanlin Academy and other departments. The total number of people in all these departments is about five hundred.

From this perspective, the government structure of the Ming Dynasty was quite streamlined, with only about 500 to 600 officials in the capital Nanjing. In contrast, in the early Northern Song Dynasty, the number of officials in Bianliang was more than 3,000.

By the time of Emperor Renzong of Song, the number had skyrocketed to more than 5,000. The total number of officials in the country was around 40,000 to 50,000, and the number of redundant officials, that is, idle officials who only received salaries but did not work, was 10,000.

However, the prosperity levels of the two sides were not at the same level. In the early Ming Dynasty, the population of Nanjing City was only 200,000, most of whom were officials, soldiers and their families. The real indigenous people either died or were relocated by Zhu Yuanzhang.

During the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, the population of Bianliang had already exceeded one million, so it seemed reasonable that so many officials were needed to govern it.

At this moment, the morning breeze was blowing, and Wang Dong, the chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, came out and said loudly: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has arrived!"

"See His Highness the Crown Prince!"

All the officials bowed in salute.

Zhu Biao sat on the dragon throne, while Zhu Yunfeng and Zhu Di, the two generals, stood on both sides.

Wang Dong said loudly: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has ordered that the new policy will be changed from today!"

After that, many eunuchs came over with printed booklets and handed them to the officials below.

This was copied by Zhu Biao using the newly purchased printer by Zhu Yunfeng. It was all on A4 paper, densely packed with his new policy implementation guidelines and strategies.

After all, if you read them one by one, there would be tens of thousands of words in total, and it would be easy for people to forget what they read after they finish.

It would be better to print it out and distribute it to everyone.

The ministers below took the booklet and began to flip through it. There was silence for a moment, as they were all watching closely to see if the new policy would affect them.

This situation reminded Zhu Yunfeng of playing games. Every time the game was shut down for updates, he had to wait and see what the next version would be like.

From this perspective, governing the world is quite similar to playing games, except that it is not a competitive game, but a real-time strategy game.
After a long time, Zhu Biao saw that everyone had read it briefly, so he said, "Everyone, if you think there is anything wrong, you can discuss it together."

Song Ne, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, stepped forward and saluted, saying, "Your Highness, should we discuss the matter of canceling the corvée for the candidates?"

"Oh?"

Zhu Biao asked, "Why not?"

Song Ne replied, "Due to the brutality of the Yuan Dynasty, Confucianism has declined since the Song Dynasty, and the number of scholars has decreased. Your Majesty knows that knowledgeable people are indispensable to state affairs, so you exempt candidates from corvée labor, and allow the family of a scholar to be exempted from taxes on several acres of land, all in order to encourage young people to study and learn calligraphy. Now the imperial examination is not smooth, and if you cancel some of the preferential treatment, I am afraid that scholars all over the world will have to work hard while studying, and it will be difficult to achieve success."

"I have my own considerations on this point."

Zhu Biao said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty favors the candidates because they need to concentrate on studying, and their family members work to provide for them. If you don't give them favors, the burden will be heavy. But the court has exempted a large number of taxes throughout the country this time, and the quota will be greatly reduced again. The tax amount of the court has already been reduced, and if you give them favors again, no one will pay taxes to provide food. I know you want to say that there are few scholars now, but if this measure continues for a long time, the number of scholars will increase day by day, and the taxes of the court will decrease day by day. Your salaries all depend on the court taxes. Once the court taxes are reduced, it will be difficult for officials all over the world to maintain their jobs."

"Uh this."

Song Ne hesitated for a moment, but finally bowed and said, "I have no objection."

Zhu Biao continued, "Now that the country is founded, there are many things to be done. The number of people and farmland in the country is far less than that in the Song Dynasty. In addition, there are enemies on all sides and we need to prepare everywhere. Military expenses are high and the salaries of officials are not high. I will squeeze out my salary from my teeth to increase your salaries. After two years, when new fields are reclaimed all over the country and grain increases, I will set up permanent fields and official fields, and add them to all officials on the basis of the current ones. I hope you will do your best to urge local governments to manage agriculture and sericulture to provide for the national treasury."

"I obey the prince's order!"

All the officials showed joy on their faces and bowed in greeting.

Zhu Biao then said, "We will not hold a complicated court meeting today. In the future, unless there are important matters to inform the officials, there is no need to hold a court meeting early. All announcements from various departments should first be reported to the six ministries, the cabinet and the Tongzheng Department, and then the six ministries, the cabinet and the Tongzheng Department will report to this palace."

"Yes!"

"Retreat!"

Wang Dong shouted loudly.

All the officials bowed and saluted again, then retreated like a tide.

Zhu Biao let out a long sigh.

Then he walked back to the Qianqing Palace with Zhu Yunfeng and Zhu Biao.

The three of them walked side by side, followed by a large group of eunuchs, palace maids and guards.

When they reached the side of the Fengtian Palace, Zhu Biao said, "I thought there would be resistance."

"You've read too much about the bloody reform rhetoric."

Zhu Yunfeng smiled and said, "It is the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, which is like a blank sheet of paper. Various interest groups have either not been established yet or are very weak. How could there be any resistance? If there was resistance, the Empty Seal Case would not have happened."

"Song Ne is against the abolition of the preferential treatment for candidates, is that possible?"

Zhu Di suddenly asked.

"Your conspiracy theory shouldn't be that exaggerated."

Zhu Yunfeng shook his head: "If he can see the future through this, then his vision is too far-sighted. The reason should be as I told him, which is to encourage scholars."

In the final analysis, the reason why this policy became an important measure for Ming Dynasty scholars to avoid taxes was that the net was not broken at the beginning. At most, it leaked a little, and was eventually torn apart by successive Ming Dynasty scholars.

If the scholars of the Ming Dynasty today can already see that the scholars of two hundred years later will use this measure to complete various tax avoidance schemes, then their vision is too far-fetched and does not make sense.

"Yunfeng, the country is still too poor. Although the more than 10 million silver dollars per year can solve the urgent problem, it still takes too long."

Zhu Biao put his hands behind his back, hidden under his robe, and said, "Is there any other way?"

"I'll order a generator when I get back."

Zhu Yunfeng said: "You can only rely on yourselves for this matter. More than 10 million is my limit, but I can provide you with some ideas."

"What idea?"

"brass!"

"brass?"

Zhu Biao was surprised and asked, "Can't you buy copper?"

"Copper is indeed difficult to obtain, as the quantity is too large, but you can get it yourself."

Zhu Yunfeng smiled and said, "When the generator comes, I will send a stamping machine to directly generate hydroelectric power. Then we can vigorously dig copper mines and synthesize brass with zinc. This appeared during the Jiajing period. Brass has high corrosion resistance and will not rust even if it is placed in water for hundreds of years. The disappearance of ancient copper coins was due to corrosion. If we synthesize brass and make copper coins, it will greatly prosper the lower-class market and the economy will be able to develop."

"Ah."

Zhu Biao said: "Let's do this as soon as possible. I feel like I want to reach the sky in one step. Although I know this is unrealistic, some things are still urgent."

"Don't worry. I can't say that I can help you achieve success overnight, but there won't be any problems with technical support."

Zhu Yunfeng said: "I just happened to promise our ancestor that we will start working hard in the second half of this year when he comes back to see the new Ming Dynasty!"

"Okay, let's go!"

Zhu Biao was overjoyed and burst into laughter.

Father is gone.

With power in hand, there are fewer constraints.

(End of this chapter)