Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 310
The capital, Xianghe Tower.

Li Jing sat with his eyes closed, tapping the armrest of the chair lightly with his fingers.

Ma Wu, Xiao Wu and the others next to him knew that Li Jing was considering his next move, so they didn't dare to disturb him, but stood beside Li Jing with their hands behind their backs.

After pondering for a long time, Li Jing suddenly opened his eyes and saw Ma Wu standing beside him. He smiled and pointed to the opposite chair and said, "Brother Wu, why are you standing? Sit down and talk."

Ma Wu nodded and sat down opposite Li Jing.

Poured a cup of tea for Ma Wu, Li Jing held up the teacup and raised his hand at Ma Wu, drank a cup of tea with Ma Wu, Li Jing smiled and said, "Can you contact Wang Chengen?"

"Yes!" Ma Wu said as he put down his teacup.

"Well, you go to Wang Cheng'en right away and ask him to come here. I guess he is busy right now, so just tell him that I want to see him." Li Jing pondered for a while and said.

"This... big brother, is it too risky? Wang Chengen is loyal to the emperor, if he knows you are here, I am afraid it will be against you!" Ma Wu hesitated and said.

Li Jing waved his hand: "It's okay, Wang Cheng'en is a smart man, and he also knows my details. He knows that I will never rush into Beijing alone, and there must be a large army by my side. For the safety of the emperor, he will never dare to act rashly."

"I'm afraid that he will tell the emperor first. With the emperor's character, if he knows that you have come to the capital, he will take you down regardless." Ma Wu said hesitantly.

Li Jing smiled and said: "No, Wang Chengen won't do that, you just go."

Ma Wu pondered for a while, finally nodded, got up and said to Xiao Wu and Chen Erhu: "After I leave, you two must protect the commander, if the commander loses a vellus hair, I will ask you two. "

"Fifth brother (fifth uncle), don't worry, the two streets outside the restaurant are full of our people, and the officers and soldiers are extremely capable, and they can't get in." Chen Erhu and Xiao Wu hurriedly clasped their fists and said.

Ma Wu nodded, saluted Li Jing, got up and left.

After Ma Wu left, Li Jing got up and went to the window and opened his eyes. Seeing the tall and majestic palace in the distance, Li Jing sighed softly and said, "Notify Zhuzi and Dingguo to get ready. Let's attack."

"Brother, Zhuzi and Dingguo are ready, just wait for our side to send out the arrow." Chen Erhu continued.

Li Jing nodded slightly, and stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back.

After a long time, footsteps were finally heard from downstairs. Xiao Wu hurriedly opened the door and looked down. After a while, he turned back to Li Jing and said, "Marshal, Uncle Wu and Wang Chengen are here."

Seeing Xiao Wu's expression of admiration, Li Jing smiled and patted Xiao Wu's shoulder lightly.

After a while, the door was gently pushed open, and both Ma Wu and Wang Chengen walked into the room. Li Jing smiled and went forward to greet Wang Chengen, clasped his fists at Wang Chengen and said, "Your Majesty, are you safe here?"

Wang Chengen returned the salute and said with a wry smile: "General Li, why did you enter the capital? If the emperor knows that you entered the capital without authorization, I'm afraid he will punish you."

Li Jing smiled: "Whether the emperor punishes you or not depends on you, Wang Gonggong. If you tell the emperor, the emperor will naturally punish me, but if you don't tell me, how can the emperor know that I am coming?"

Wang Chengen smiled wryly: "You know that I won't tell the emperor, why bother to make fun of me?"

Li Jing waved his hand with a smile, invited Wang Chengen to sit down, then poured a cup of tea for Wang Chengen, handed it to Wang Chengen and said, "Wang Gonggong, please drink tea. After walking so far, let's take a rest first."

Wang Chengen was also polite, took the teacup and drank it down.

Li Jing casually picked up the teapot and filled it up for Wang Chengen. Wang Chengen waved his hand: "Don't drink it, General Li, let's stop messing around. Just tell the truth, why did you come to Beijing this time?"

Li Jingjing nodded, put down the teapot, looked at Wang Chengen seriously and said, "Eunuch Wang speaks quickly, and Li doesn't beat around the bush. Let me tell you clearly, Li came to Beijing this time for the sake of Daming, and for us." The Han people are coming!"

Wang Chengen frowned, stared at Li Jing and said, "I'm afraid it's for the purpose of seizing Daming's country?"

Li Jing smiled and shook his head: "Eunuch Wang, based on your understanding of Li, do you think Li is such a person?"

"It's hard to say, at this time and at that time, you used to be loyal to Daming, but after all these years, who knows if you have other ideas?" Wang Chengen shook his head and said.

After a pause, Wang Chengen continued: "I know that Cao Wenzhao belongs to you. You ordered Cao Wenzhao to stand still and let the bandits occupy Fengyang and destroy the imperial mausoleum. Then you ordered Cao Wenzhao to destroy Zhang Xianzhong. You have always boasted that you care about the people, but you just sit back and watch hundreds of thousands of people in Fengyang being massacred. This is not the Li Jing I knew before. There are hundreds of thousands of people! Li Jing, you are so cruel!"

Li Jing sighed softly when he heard the words, and after a while he said: "Eunuch Wang, you should know that for the sake of the overall situation, I have to sacrifice some people, so this matter is not right or wrong. If the people of Fengyang can exchange for a big tomorrow Taiping, even if this kind of thing happens again, I will still do it this way, so I don't regret it.

In addition, I will not hide it from you, I am not afraid of being infamous as a traitor and traitor.

You say that I want to take over Daming's country, and I will not deny it, but Daming is already too chaotic, if there is no emperor, I don't know what kind of chaos it would be.Therefore, unless it is absolutely necessary, I will not do anything to the emperor. "

Wang Chengen was silent for a while and said, "What do you want to do to the emperor?"

Li Jing looked at Wang Chengen, saw Wang Chengen's serious expression, and knew that if he did not respond properly at this time, Wang Chengen would never help.

With a slight smile, Li Jing said: "My lord, how do you think the emperor has been treated as the emperor these years?"

Wang Chengen didn't want Li Jing to ask this question, so he was stunned for a long time, then sighed suddenly: "The Ming Dynasty has been in power for nearly 300 years, I am afraid that there is no emperor who is more tired than the emperor. The emperor sleeps every day. In less than two hours, the clothes he was wearing were all torn, and the food he ate was extremely simple. Other people enjoy being emperors, but the emperor really suffers a bit."

After finishing speaking, Wang Chengen sighed again.

Li Jingjing nodded, then sighed and said: "Yes, the emperor is too tired to be the emperor. Then let me ask you again, does the emperor have power?"

Wang Chengen thought for a while, and finally shook his head: "The emperor is supposed to have power, but to be honest, I'm afraid that even the ministers in the court don't listen to what the emperor says, and the local government even ignores the emperor's words."

Li Jing sighed and said, "Then what do you think caused this situation? Is it because the ministers didn't listen to their orders, or the emperor's lack of ability?"

Wang Chengen pondered for a while and said: "The emperor's ability is a bit weak, but there are certain reasons for those ministers not to work hard."

Li Jing shook his head with a smile: "You are wrong. Over the years, there have been many emperors who are much less capable than the emperor, and many ministers who are more jerk than the ministers of this dynasty. How did the country not have chaos at that time? "

Wang Cheng'en said: "The country has accumulated evils for a long time, the treasury cannot make ends meet, coupled with natural disasters, so, in this dynasty, the country began to struggle."

Li Jingjing nodded: "You're right. The country has long-standing evils, which is right to the point. But since they are long-standing evils, why don't they solve them? What exactly are these evils?"

Without waiting for Wang Chengen's answer, Li Jing continued: "These ills are in the final analysis a problem of the system. If the country's system does not change, there is nothing anyone can do if he becomes the emperor."

Seeing that Wang Chengen opened his mouth to argue, Li Jing waved his hands and said with a smile, "I know what you want to say, so don't worry."

After taking a sip of tea, Li Jing continued, "Do you want to say that Daming's system has lasted for 300 years, why did it suddenly fail?"

Wang Chengen nodded hastily.

Li Jing smiled and said, "Let me ask you, how many vassals did the country have during the time of Taizu, and how much land did these royal families occupy?"

Wang Chengen flexed his fingers and did the math: "There are only about twenty vassal kings, and the enfeoffed land is only about a dozen counties."

Li Jing then asked, "What about now?"

Wang Chengen counted for a while, let go of his hand, shook his head and said, "It doesn't count!"

Li Jing smiled and said: "Yeah, you can't count it, and I can't count it, but Mr. Xu Guangqi had statistics back then. By the 23rd year of Wanli, the royal family had a total population of more than 15 people. These are only direct descendants. royal population.

Back then, twenty or so vassal kings only occupied the land of more than a dozen states and counties, but now they occupy several provinces.

I remember that there was a statistic during the Jiajing period. The annual grain production of Shanxi and Henan provinces to support the clans of these two provinces was actually half of the Lumi, and other provinces were needed to help with the burden.I don't know if I said this, do you understand the meaning? "

Seeing Wang Chengen's silence, Li Jing sighed and continued: "The royal family owns a lot of land, but the state has to provide them with a lot of food. Is there such a reason? This is one of the system's disadvantages I mentioned.

In the past, these disadvantages were not felt because of the small population base, and these disadvantages were not visible at all, but they became more and more serious in the later period, and today, the country can no longer afford to support so many people. "

Wang Chengen nodded silently upon hearing this.

After a pause, Li Jing continued: "The royal family is only one of the disadvantages. The tax system of Ming Dynasty has even more disadvantages. I think you are very clear about who owns the land of Ming Dynasty, but these people above are all No tax.

On the contrary, the people who pay taxes have less and less land, so the country's taxes are getting less and less.

At this time, once a natural disaster occurs, the country cannot provide food for disaster relief, and the common people will not be able to survive. If they do not rebel, what can they do?
Let me tell you, if Daming does not change these systems, the country will perish.And let me tell you, no matter who replaces Daming, if this system is not changed, within three to two hundred years, the country will still perish!
Let me ask you, is the current emperor capable of changing these ills? "

Wang Chengen shook his head silently.

Li Jing smiled and said: "The emperor is so tired, but he can't do anything about the current situation. In this case, it's better to let the emperor put down these burdens and let him be a leisurely emperor."

Hearing this, Wang Chengen suddenly raised his head: "You want to take the emperor off?"

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(End of this chapter)