Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 97: Power comes from the barrel of a gun
After all, he was old. After Lu Fengyi insisted on speaking, he showed obvious signs of exhaustion. Zhu Youdong then ordered Wu Youxing to send the old man back in the dark: Although the old man is over 80 years old, it is still necessary to help him have less troubles in his later years.
After Wu Youxing left, Zhu Youdong looked at the people in the hall who were eager to speak and said, "First, the content of today's meeting must not be leaked. Second, everyone should go back and think carefully, and then submit to me within three days how to rectify the Huangce Library. That's all for today, everyone can go home."
"Yes... We are waiting to see off the Crown Prince."
After returning to the bedroom at the back, he changed his clothes and bathed with the help of the palace maids, had a midnight snack, and asked Wang Chengen to find a palace maid who was good at massage to give him a massage. After all this, his depressed mood and tired body finally felt a little better. Then he asked everyone to leave, and he once again fell into a state of long thinking with his elbows on his knees and his hands on his forehead.
The most valuable thing for a person is to know himself.
As a time traveler who was chosen by accident, Zhu Youdong never thought that he could conquer the world by himself. Since he was reincarnated into this era, he has repeatedly thought about how to go on his own path. And the results of his repeated thinking are actually the same.
The Ming Dynasty has the largest population in this era, and the most hardworking and intelligent people. As long as they can be fully mobilized and can be relied on with peace of mind. In future battles with other time travelers, Zhu Youdong may fail, but he will definitely be able to stand up again quickly!
However, the Huangce Library had basically collapsed, so not only could he not rely on the people, but he also had to face the surging tide of refugees across the country.
Moreover, from the paralysis of the Yellow Book Library, it can be seen that the entire Ming bureaucracy, from top to bottom, has been completely rotten. If the two goals of the people living and working in peace and contentment and the bureaucracy being clean and efficient are not achieved, haha, let alone competing with other time travelers, I am afraid that I will become the king of a fallen country!
It seems that his grandfather has a deeper vision than himself. When he was still obsessed with making some technological inventions, making a little money, or doing small things in small places like Mubang and Kuandian, this grandfather had already forced himself to a higher position, just to let him see more and farther!
The Ming officialdom was indeed rotten as a whole, but individually, there were indeed many officials with ideals who made practical efforts to save the country.
For example, Hai Rui.
When Hai Gangfeng was the governor of Yingtian, he was well aware of the problems of the Yellow Book Library. He also knew that the rich became richer and the poor became poorer because of the out-of-control of the Yellow Book. In order to reverse this situation, he adopted a very stupid but effective method: sorting out the problems one by one .
But how much power can one person have? Even if Hai Rui worked hard until his death, how much could he have figured out? Moreover, he had just started, and almost all the civil and military officials in the court put pressure on him. In the end, he had no choice but to resign sadly.
The one who really made achievements was Zhang Juzheng.
The core of the Single Whip Law was to simplify everything. All the land tax, corvée labor, and additional taxes were combined into one and converted into silver. Farmers no longer had to calculate anything when paying taxes, they just had to pay a single amount of money.
As a time traveler, Zhu Youdong agrees with this idea very much: in this era, the literacy rate of the people is low, and due to the cost of ruling, the imperial power cannot go down to the county. The more taxes you have, the easier it is for petty officials at all levels and village tyrants to manipulate them. The final result is that the court did not receive much money, and ordinary farmers went bankrupt. After the tax types were simplified, it became much more difficult for officials at all levels to manipulate them.
In particular, the policy of allowing corvée labor to be converted into silver was a great good policy. When a farmer went out to perform corvée labor, the lack of labor at home could easily lead to starvation to the family members, and they had to bring their own dry food, which could lead to death outside. For an ordinary peasant family, corvée labor was a double or even multiple injury, and a careless move could lead to the destruction of the family. When corvée labor was allowed to be converted into silver, the interests of small farmers were effectively protected. As long as ordinary small farmers did not go bankrupt in large numbers, the foundation of the country would remain stable.
But if the small farmers don’t go bankrupt, how can the gentry expand?
Therefore, the Single Whip Law undoubtedly touched the interests of the bureaucratic gentry class, but when Zhang Juzheng was alive, there was political strongman forcing pressure, and the Single Whip Law was still effectively implemented. But when Zhang Juzheng died...
Zhu Youdong felt very sorry for Zhang Juzheng's death. But after a brief moment of regret, he fell into a new long thought: Why was Hai Rui forced to resign just after he started, while Zhang Juzheng was able to be tough until the last moment of his life?
Comparing the two, Zhang Juzheng certainly has more power than Hai Rui. He is the only living prime minister in the Ming Dynasty!
But the question arises again. No matter how powerful Zhang Juzheng was, even if he said, "I am not a prime minister, but a regent", he was still a regent. But could his power be greater than that of the emperor? But why did the emperor fail to protect the "One Whip Law" later, so that less than 20 years after Zhang Juzheng's death, the "One Whip Law" was almost dead in name only?
After repeated thinking, Zhu Youdong's eyes lit up: Zhang Juzheng was not only the chief minister of the cabinet and the head of the civil officials. During his reign, he also had the support of the army!
Let’s not talk about others. Qi Jiguang and Li Chengliang, at that time, only followed Zhang Juzheng’s lead. And the troops of those two were the most powerful in the Ming Empire at that time. So, no matter how dissatisfied you bureaucrats and gentry are, if you really want to tear your face and fight to death, you can only use memorials and public opinion to criticize Zhang Taishi’s soul, while Zhang Taishi can use weapons to criticize your body.
After Zhang Juzheng, the frightened civil officials quickly cut off the connection between the military generals and the emperor. From then on, the emperor had no way to revive himself.
Thinking of this, my thoughts seem to become clearer.
How could I have forgotten the truth that the founder of the Celestial Empire said? This sentence is not only applicable to conquering the world, but also to defending the world! As long as I have enough power, no matter what kind of jackals, tigers, leopards, demons, monsters, I will chop them all down with one sword... and the world will be peaceful.
Humph! When I have enough power, you, the termites on the body of the Ming Dynasty, will find that Zhang Taiyue is gentle to you. At present, the productivity is not developed enough and the agricultural tax cannot be exempted. My learning target is Yongzheng in my Qing Dynasty in the historical plane.
The tax rate was based on the amount of land used, officials and gentry performed their duties together and paid taxes together, and all fire consumption was turned over to the public.
Although the fundamental purpose of Yongzheng's introduction of these three policies was to cut the flesh of Han landlords and gentry to feed the millions of unproductive Eight Banners descendants, these three policies are really good, aren't they?
You all disliked the Single Whip Law, so you must dislike these three policies even more, right? But in terms of history, when faced with the mighty butcher knife of Emperor Yongzheng, didn’t you all just accept it?
There is no reason why I, a time traveler, cannot accomplish what Yongzheng could accomplish. As long as I have an army that is absolutely loyal to me and invincible.
Of course, it is not enough to have an army, many other supporting things are needed. For example, later studies have found that the Single Whip Policy would have failed even if Zhang Juzheng had lived for a few more decades, because this policy was limited by the Ming Dynasty's political system and inherently had major risks in technical operation.
But these are not problems for time travelers.
"Hahahahahaha~~~" As the night watchman in the Nanjing Imperial City rang the fifth watch bell, a burst of children's cheerful laughter rang out in the study room of the Nanhua Palace.
"Wang Chengen!"
"Master, your servant...oh, master, your hair?"
"Hmm? What happened to my hair? Oh, it's nothing. Hurry up, get some paper and ink. I want to write a letter to Grandpa Huang while my mind is still clear!"
