It's messy!

On February 20, this day, the whole of Nanzhili was in chaos, dozens of guard posts at the same time "radical changes", thousands of officers and servants of the Qingliang military field were beaten by the people and bloodied, embarrassed, some of them were stripped of their clothes before they could escape, and they were thrown naked on the road.

In order to show the attitude of the government, under the instigation of the house slaves in the crowd, the people became unscrupulous for a while, and even directly beat the officials to death.

In the face of such a bad civil uprising in various guards, the state and county officials in various places all lost their voices, and no one came out to stop them, and they all chose to remain silent, just reporting the civil uprising, and did not ask anything else. It may be a bit untrue to say that they are in a group, but in fact, they do have a stake.

The news of the civil uprising in various places naturally reached Zhu Guoqiang's case, and of course it also reached Zhang Liang, who reported to the general as soon as possible.

"The general atonements, the officials are incompetent, and this popular rebellion is really impossible to carry out together."

At this moment, Zhu Guoqiang, who was on fire in his heart, stared at Zhang Liang and asked:

"The people are changing, the people are changing! Zhang Liang, tell me, why do I change every time! Why, every tax season, there will be the so-called "small people can't bear the harsh taxes and beat the tax collectors", why are there always posts that say that "the king has no jokes, and the tax supervisor can be killed" incitement and nonsense! ”

The civil uprisings in the Ming Dynasty were even countless, in addition to the tens of thousands of people in Linqing who resisted taxes, the change of weaving maids in Suzhou, the looting and riots instigated by the official documents of the machine owners in the Susong area to expose the post "The king has no jokes, and the tax supervisors can be killed", and the mass incidents of large-scale strikes and escapes in Hangzhou. Almost every year, when taxes are collected, "popular uprisings" are stirred up in various localities, in which hundreds of people participate in the revolts, and more than 1,000 people participate in the revolts, and they beat the tax collectors and storm the official offices, with only one purpose of refusing to pay exorbitant taxes.

But why, there were so many civil changes in the Ming Dynasty?

Facing the general's inquiry, Zhang Liang gritted his teeth and said.

"General, the rebellion of the common people was instigated by the gentry, and their purpose was to refuse to pay money and grain."

"Oh?"

Raising his eyebrows, Zhu Guoqiang did not interrupt him.

"General, the accumulation of arrears is a long-term problem that has plagued me for more than two hundred years in the Ming Dynasty, since the Yongle Dynasty, the imperial court has been fighting against the situation of "not receiving money", the first peak of the endowment is the Yongle Dynasty, and it owes millions of stones at every turn, and in the later period of Yongle, the average annual arrears in Suzhou alone are as high as one million stones. ”

Many people say that this is the end of the Ming Dynasty, but in fact, the Yongle period has reached its peak, the main reason for the arrears in this period should be several major projects in the Yongle era, especially the relocation of the capital, on the one hand, the relocation of the capital to Beijing led to a sharp increase in the demand for wealth in the south of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty, and on the other hand, the central government was not in Nanjing, which led to a significant reduction in the control of the state over the south of the Yangtze River. In this context, the orthodox era of Xuande, represented by Zhou Chen and other capable bureaucrats, carried out quite effective governance of Jiangnan's arrears and Cao Yun, which continued until the middle and late Zhengde periods, and Jiangnan basically had no arrears. By the way, Zhou Chen was taken down after Tumubao, so his backer in the court is most likely Wang Zhen, and the complexity of politics in the Ming Dynasty can be seen from this.

From the middle and late stages of Zhengde, the amount of Jiangnan endowment increased year by year, and could not be lowered anymore, taking the most important private money for the emperor, one million gold and silver per year, for example, from the 30th year of Jiajing to the 39th year of Jiajing, the cumulative debt was 3.48 million; Another example is the thirty-seventh year of Wanli, which owes gold and silver and 320,000; According to the statistics of the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the provinces owed more than 2 million gold and silver; In the sixth and seventh years of Chongzhen, a total of 890,000 gold and silver flowers were lost. This kind of silver that the emperor himself "used exclusively for the royal family" and "did not exempt from the example" is like this, not to mention the rest.

Why can't I collect taxes?

Wanli summed up "the powerful and stubborn, and the dismissal of the staff and the deception", but in fact? From Xiaomin to Shihao, they are all the main delinquents.

And the root of "arrears", in the final analysis, is actually in Emperor Gao, when Emperor Gao was compassionate to the poor people at the beginning of his ascension, and allowed poor households to delay the payment of taxes and grain, at the beginning, it was just some real poor people who delayed payment due to disasters, but later others also followed suit, as long as there is a reason, everyone will take advantage of it. Later, from the poor people to the high-ranking officials and gentry, who did not owe taxes and grain for decades, so that more and more accumulated, so, from the beginning of the orthodox years, every time the new emperor ascended to the pole to change the yuan, the imperial court will be exempted from arrears, and when he first ascended the throne, he decreed that the arrears before the Longqing Yuan were exempted, and the arrears of taxes from the fourth year of Longqing to the first year of Wanli only need to pay seventy percent, and even if he ascended the throne today, he had to repeatedly decree to exempt the arrears ......"

Is there such an operation in the world?

The Ming Dynasty not only had such an operation, but also the ancestral training of the Ming Dynasty not only allowed the people to "defer payment", but also "among the four people, only the peasants are the most bitter, and there are those who are diligent all year round and are not able to eat. Those who are not strong and harsh are guilty of felonies. In other words, if a magistrate dares to forcibly levy, he will be dismissed at the least, and he will lose his head at the worst!

This...... This is too unbelievable!

If you collect grain from the imperial court, you may have to lose your head, do you say that the officials dare to forcibly levy it? Emperor Gao, you are also going to pit your descendants!

Therefore, for the gentry and the common people, as long as they can owe money and grain, they will one day be exempted by the imperial court, and even some ignorant people even pray for the death of the emperor. So this is why in order to be able to owe money and grain, the gentry or ordinary people are racking their brains, the gentry have more land, and naturally they are more reluctant to pay money and grain, and the ordinary people certainly don't want to pay, and those who have more land don't want to pay, and those who have less land don't want to pay, so from the Yongle year to the present, the gentry and the people have already reached a consensus, and the gentry with more land incite the ordinary people every time they go to the government to collect taxes, so that the people beat the tax collectors, and the name is anti-grain. Poor or rich, they don't want to pay taxes anyway, the gentry have a small number of powerful people, the people have no power to have a large number of people, the two sides add together, one side has a powerful side and the other side has a large number of people, both sides cooperate with each other, although the money and grain are not not paid, but they can always pay a lot less, this arrears will naturally accumulate more and more, anyway, it is not themselves who suffer, as for the imperial court...... Who cares. ”

Who cares if there is a good sentence, Zhang Liang's words made Zhu Guoqiang's brows wrinkled, here it was the gentry who hollowed out Daming, and it was clear that the big guys joined forces to hollow out Daming.

Of course, the most hateful thing is those gentry, I don't have them behind the scenes, how dare those ordinary people do this?

"In fact, they are not paying, but they are dragging it first, and when it is delayed to the end, the government will naturally give everyone a discount, as for the arrears first hang there, and wait for more than ten or decades, and wait until the more and more arrears in the world, there are naturally officials who advocate tax exemption at every turn to show royal benevolence, if anyone pays enough, they will suffer a loss in the future, who do you say in the world is willing to suffer such a loss?"

Although he paid attention to the tax arrears of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Guoqiang never thought that there would be such an inside story, and Zhang Liang's words completely subverted his cognition, after all, many materials say that "Evil Sergeant Wu Doctor Lai Liang", but how did Zhang Liang get here, it changed its taste.

"Zhang Liang, if you say so, the sinners I owe to Daming are all small people!"

Although he heard the general's tone not good, Zhang Liang still said.

"Hmph, the general" Sergeant Wu Doctor Lai Liang "is well known, our Ming Dynasty arrears of taxes and grain are said to be gentry, but the people have always been the people, when the people mutiny to resist the grain, the scholars are all standing on the side of the government, they, that is the mainstay of our Ming Dynasty! ”

Ignoring the ugly face of the general, Zhang Liang sneered.

"The people are overwhelmed by the mutiny and resist the grain, what should I do? Of course, it is up to the local scholars to appease. In this way, not only can the mutiny be defused, but also the tax money and food can be received. The local officials came to visit the gentry, and as soon as they discussed, the people's changes were resolved, and the money and grain were collected. A gentry is a good gentry, an official is a capable official, and the people are naturally good people. ”

Listening to Zhang Liang's sarcasm, Zhu Guoqiang asked rhetorically.

"Aren't they anti-grain? Why did you pay the money and food again? Isn't it all in vain? ”

"Busy in vain? How can it be in vain? Generals, even ignorant people know that it is impossible not to pay the money and grain of the court, but it is just a matter of paying more and paying less, so there will be officials to discuss with the gentry, if you want to collect their money and grain, you have to let the gentry pay the money and grain, and they take the lead in giving money and food, and the ordinary people will follow, and in the end, most of the money and grain paid by the gentry will be returned, and the ordinary people will pay seven or eighty percent, so that the government can collect five or six percent of the money and grain, then it can be regarded as a capable officer. It will be returned as it is. In this way, the gentry can not pay, and the small people can pay less, they are naturally happy to do so, for ordinary people can pay less, it is better to pay more. ”

In an instant, Zhu Guoqiang's mind came up with the line he had to watch in that movie.

"We have to let the gentry pay the money first and bring the people to donate money. The gentry donated, and the people followed suit. After the money arrived, the money of the gentry was returned in full, and the people's money was divided into three or seven accounts. ”

Ooh!

After a long time, the Ming Dynasty is another goose city!

"What a happy one...... Do they really think that the Ming Dynasty has no royal law? ”

The general's cold words made Zhang Liang say.

"General, it's true that the general has the law of the king, but they have the ancestral system of Emperor Gao, and they also say that the law does not blame the public! So many people are together, those who have the power to plan in the back, and those who have no money come out, and everyone goes together, even the magistrates are extremely jealous, and in the end, the big things are turned into small things, and the small things are turned into small things. ”