Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 96: The Foundation of the Nation Has Decayed (VIII)
"All the tricks of plundering that I just talked about, as long as the Yellow Book is complete and the review is effective, these will not be possible! For example, the scattered money mentioned just now. As long as the students who review it have a little common sense, they will find the problem: it is possible for poor households to save for many years and buy one or two acres of good land, but how is it possible for fifty poor households to buy land collectively, and it is so coincidental that each household buys one acre at the same time? As long as the students raise doubts and ask the local county government to provide the red deed, this scattered money will be exposed!
Another example is the death of a family. Assuming that the death occurred in the 28th year of the Wanli reign, when the students reviewed the yellow book sent by the county in the 30th year of the Wanli reign, as long as they had the complete yellow book of the 20th year of the Wanli reign, they would find out by comparing the two. Of the four extinct families, two had died out in the 18th year of the Wanli reign. How could they come out to buy land in the 28th year of the Wanli reign?
Another example is forcing the upper household to change to the middle household, and the lower household to change to the middle household. As long as the Yellow Book is still alive, it will be found that the two brothers in the lower household have indeed married, but the Yellow Book ten years ago shows that one just had a daughter and the other has no children. How could there be five or six more able-bodied men in the family ten years later...
Therefore, the Yellow Book compiled by Emperor Taizu in the past was not only convenient for the state to collect taxes to support state expenditures, but also effectively protected the good people who honestly paid taxes and served the country. As long as the Yellow Book of previous years is available and the review is effective, those scoundrels will not be able to act recklessly! "
Taking a deep breath, sitting down to drink a sip of tea to slow down, Lu Fengyi stood up again: "Corrupt officials, cunning clerks, and tyrants all regard the Yellow Book as their enemy. In the officialdom, the Nanjing Imperial College has repeatedly submitted memorials to improve the treatment of students entering the Lake College, but the officials ignored it. The Yellow Book Library has repeatedly pleaded for separate expenditures, but no one responded. In the past hundred years, the quality of the Yellow Book has been declining, and the time for delivering the Yellow Book from various places has been delayed. Although the emperor has repeatedly issued strict orders to severely punish the officials involved, the court has never been able to use the same means as Taizu in the past to deter them... As the saying goes, only by learning from the best can one achieve the best. The court treated the officials in charge of the Yellow Book and the students who reviewed it in this way. Local officials at all levels began to neglect the Yellow Book. Gradually, officials at all levels set their sights on the Yellow Book... Some local officials were so crazy that they simply mixed rice milk and honey into paper pulp to make the Yellow Book in order to facilitate their own bribery in the future! Such Yellow Books were all eaten up within less than half a year after they were put into storage. In this way, local officials could do whatever they wanted when making the Yellow Book for the next ten years, and the clerks and bullies in the countryside could oppress the good people at will! "
"These bastards are rebelling! Young master, let's ask the emperor for permission to take on all the expenses for the Huangce Treasury and the students. At most, it's only 10,000 taels a year, which is totally affordable for our Xinghua Palace! If the emperor approves, I am willing to donate half of my annual salary."
"Wang Chengen, you sit down first." After waving his hand to let Wang Chengen sit down, Zhu Youdong stood up, refilled Lu Fengyi's water and said, "Old sir, we already know who the enemy of the Yellow Book is. We also understand the harm that the Yellow Book has caused to the common people if it gets out of control. Could you please talk about the harm that the Yellow Book has caused to the country from a big picture perspective?"
"Yes, I obey your command." After bowing respectfully, Lu Fengyi cleared his throat and said, "I will give you a few examples. In the 31st year of Jiajing, the yellow book submitted by Xinghua County, Yangzhou Prefecture, contained more than 11,000 households, of which more than 3,700 were headed by households over 100 years old. Do you believe it?"
After a bitter laugh, Lu Fengyi continued, "I have worked in the Yellow Book Library for many years and have compared the Yellow Books of different years in the same area. The problem here is even bigger. For example, the military Yellow Book of the sixth year of Longqing shows that the number of households in Funing Prefecture, Fujian Province, is two-thirds less than that in the Hongwu period, and the number of adults is three-fifths less. The civilian Yellow Book of the 41st year of Jiajing shows that the population of Yingtian Prefecture, where we are now, is half less than that in the Zhengde period. Haha, it's really strange. These two places, especially Yingtian Prefecture, are fertile lands. In the past hundred years, except for the Japanese pirates who made trouble for a while, there have been no other disasters. How could the population decrease so much? It's because after the Yellow Book got out of control, local tycoons embezzled a large number of people through means such as sponsorship, impersonation, escape, concealment, and tampering.
The number of households controlled by the state is decreasing, but the taxes in each county will not decrease. As a result, the government will intensify the oppression of the remaining good people, and then these good people will either escape to the wealthy or abandon everything and become refugees. "
Having said that, there is no need to continue. Because once this situation occurs across the country, anyone with a little common sense of history will know: this is a standard sign of national destruction!
Lu Fengyi said at the beginning that if he lived longer, he would be a citizen of a fallen country. This was really true: the officials of the Huangce Library were the most sensitive to the rise and fall of the country.
The room was terribly quiet, especially for the three children Wang Chengen, Zhang Shize and Li Chunzhong. Although they had been exposed to many high-level things as the crown prince's companions, it was still too early for them to face such a cruel scene.
Not only the three children were afraid, but also adults like Xu Guangqi and Zhao Shizhen were trying their best to control their trembling: as bureaucrats, they knew that there were many problems in the country. But it was not until today that they realized how terrible these problems were.
As for generals like Li Shizhong and Liu Zhaosun, no one stood up and said to kill them all: the household registration is in chaos, even if you are an invincible military god, are you stronger than Xiang Yu?
"Mr. Lu." After all, he was a time traveler. Although he had not personally experienced the tragic fall of the Ming Dynasty, he had read about it countless times. Therefore, Zhu Youdong's emotions were relatively stable at this time: "I am willing to do whatever it takes to rectify the Yellow Book. Even if there are millions of fierce and stubborn enemies ahead, even if there are mountains of swords and seas of fire ahead, even if I lose my position as crown prince and die without a burial place. As long as I am still alive, I will never retreat. Sir, is there anything you can teach me?"
"Your Highness!" After paying respect in a proper manner, Lu Fengyi stood up with the help of Zhang Shize and Li Chunzhong: "Your Highness, if you want to rectify the Yellow Book, you first need to rectify the personnel of the Yellow Book Library. Over the years, because they have always been unpopular, the officials, clerks and even the students who entered the lake have long lost the momentum of defending the foundation of the country. They have degenerated into termites that are even worse than the country clerks!"
"how do I say this?"
"Your Highness, since the reign of Emperor Xuande, the various expenses of the Yellow Book Library have been levied by Jiangning and Shangyuan counties for many years. As the number of yellow books in the Yellow Book Library has increased, the expenses required have also increased. As a result, Jiangning and Shangyuan counties have also suffered terribly. As a result, the relevant expenses are often not delivered in time, and the officials and students of the Yellow Book Library often suffer from cold and hunger. As a last resort, the Yellow Book Library has come up with a way to make money."
"Well, when the Yellow Book Library finds errors in the Yellow Book sent by the local government during the review, in addition to ordering the local government to review and redo it, they will also impose a fine?"
"Your Highness is the wisest. But once this precedent was set, instead of being dissatisfied, the locals were very happy and deliberately made mistakes in the Yellow Book."
"Well, yes, they can use this to levy taxes on the people."
"Your Highness, if a government office that is mainly responsible for cleaning, reviewing and keeping records can grow prosperous because of the little power in its hands, then this government office will inevitably decay. It will no longer have the integrity of the founding dynasty to protect the country. Therefore, the Yellow Book Library now... I don't know what your Highness thinks of the officials there when you went there today. At least when I was in office, the officials who specifically managed the library had conduct that was really not worth mentioning."
"I understand. To rectify the Yellow Book, we must first rectify the atmosphere of the Yellow Book Library."
"That's right." Lu Fengyi hesitated for a moment, but still gritted his teeth and said, "Your Highness, I dare to tell you something secret."
"Secret? No problem, just tell it here."
"Well... okay. Your Highness, the Yellow Book Library is supposed to protect the foundation of the country. But in fact, its power is very small. Think about it, Your Highness. For nearly a hundred years, the Ministry of Revenue in Beijing of our Ming Dynasty has often been unable to make ends meet. Now, this small office of the Yellow Book Library has a large amount of income because of wrongful punishment. Why don't the powerful departments come to ask for it?"
"Mr. Lu, are you trying to say that if I move the Yellow Book Library, it will affect the entire system?"
"Not only that." Lu Fengyi knelt down at this point: "Your Highness, not to mention the powerful departments, even the royal family has set their sights on this money. In the 35th year of Jiajing, Emperor Shizong issued an order to the Yellow Book Treasury to pay 17,878 taels of silver to the eunuchs of Nanjing Weaving, so that Nanjing Weaving could buy the emperor's clothes, empress's clothes and other items for Emperor Shizong. When this happened, I happened to be the Nanjing Household Department Jieshizhong, in charge of the Yellow Book Treasury. And I clearly remember that at that time, there was exactly 17,878 taels of fine silver and 2.8 cents in the Yellow Book Treasury."
Zhu Houcong! Damn you!
It's fine if other government offices want to take over the Yellow Book Library, but how can you, as an emperor, take over the Yellow Book Library? This is the foundation of the country, and it is also the basis for whether the descendants of the Zhu family can continue to be the emperor!
Later, the Qing dynasty compiled the "History of Ming Dynasty", saying that the Ming Dynasty actually fell during the reign of Emperor Wanli. That was actually putting the blame on Emperor Wanli. In Zhu Youdong's opinion, the reason why the Ming Dynasty embarked on the road to national destruction was still Emperor Shizong Zhu Houzhao.
This bastard was extremely selfish and only thought about how to succeed in cultivating immortality so that he could live forever. He ruined the stable balance of the emperor, the cabinet, and the Imperial Household Department in the Ming Dynasty. He ruined the stable finances of the Ming Dynasty for more than a hundred years. He allowed Japanese pirates to wreak havoc in the southeast and Altan Khan to become powerful in the northwest... How could this guy do such a shameless and unscrupulous thing?
The fact is that Jiajing drove the Ming Dynasty to the direction of national destruction . After that, except for Zhang Juzheng who tried his best to pull the Ming Dynasty back a little, the emperors of the previous dynasties, Longqing, Wanli, Tianqi... were unable to change the direction and could only try their best to step on the brakes that had already failed. And Emperor Chongzhen just mistook the accelerator for the brake.
Hey, let’s put the competition among time travelers on hold for now. I have to fix the brakes first, and then I will have time to fix the stuck steering wheel.
