Cut the domain!

When this seemingly simple term came out of Zhu Heyu's mouth, Zhu Hejia was silent, he didn't answer immediately, just quietly looked into the distance.

After a moment, he spoke.

"Jianwen cuts the ...... of the domain"

Muttering this word, Zhu Hejia asked rhetorically.

"Is it the minister's demagoguery, or is it inevitable? After becoming an ancestor, in the past hundred years, all the emperors of the past dynasties have taken the reduction of the domain as their responsibility, and the pseudonym has been used to cut the domain, and in the end, what has become of the clan? ”

Shaking his head and smiling bitterly, Zhu Hejia said again.

"Jiashen Tianchang, all the vassals in the world, can't defend the society and the country, and can't resist the foreign invasion, if it weren't for this, how could my Ming Dynasty almost lose the country?"

The lesson of almost the death of the country, the tragedy of the death of hundreds of millions of people, brought extremely profound changes to the Ming Dynasty, in addition to eliminating the border troubles in the north at all costs, another change is feudalism. The colonization of Nanyang and overseas territories provided feudal opportunities for the Ming Dynasty.

"Feudalism is to avoid the insurance of putting eggs in one basket, and it is also to defend the central government, whether there are traitors in the court, intending to steal the power of the country, or there is a foreign invasion, or the people are in trouble, Zhuxia can raise troops to defend the central government......"

Staring overseas, Zhu Hejia groaned.

"What my father is worried about is that after a hundred years, there will be courtiers who will make excuses to be unfavorable to Zhuxia, after all, after a hundred years, Zhuxia may also be a big country with a population of hundreds of millions."

"It should be cumulative, dozens of countries combined, with a population of hundreds of millions, how can it compare to the Ming Dynasty? When the time comes, some people think so, in the eyes of the younger brother, they must be for personal authority. ”

Zhu Heyu sneered.

"Throughout the ages, even the so-called virtuous ministers, but also by fame and fortune, not to mention most of the ordinary people, they will always use all kinds of excuses, trying to seek personal fame and fortune, when Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng and others ignored the law of their ancestors, blindly cut the domain, so that they forced the clan to death, and so on, it seems to be for the country, but in fact it is just for the name of the individual, and it wants to be the pillar of the court, so it is not to cut the feudal domain, trying to achieve personal fame by cutting the feudal domain......"

Under the influence of his father, Zhu Heyu never had the slightest good impression of Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng and others, and in his opinion, it was precisely because of their personal reputation and authority that led to the Jing disaster.

"Only by creating contradictions can we profit from them, and if there are no contradictions, how can we highlight their importance? As far as the ministers are concerned, whether it is a vassal king or a noble, if they are in harmony with the royal family, the minister's authority will be heavily restricted, and only by creating contradictions, so that the royal family does not trust the vassal king and the nobles, and has a sense of crisis, the royal family will rely on the minister, as long as the two are defeated, the only choice that the royal family can rely on is the minister's ......."

Zhu Hejia looked at the second brother and said.

"This truth, my father told us when we were very young, I was in the end, ostensibly because of the party struggle, but the cause of the party struggle was actually the death of too much civil power, just like the cabinet scholars, at the beginning of the establishment of Gaozu, when the ancestors were selected, the emperor selected the scholars, and they were often filled by the fortunate ministers. Yingzong ascended the throne at the age of nine and was unable to handle the affairs of the court normally, so the decision-making power of political affairs basically fell on the shoulders of the cabinet. The cabinet scholars basically got rid of the constraints and control of the imperial power, and used their own will to handle government affairs and protect the interests of the civil bureaucracy. This is extremely important in the history of the Cabinet, and it is the beginning of the Cabinet's independent handling of state affairs. Since then, the cabinet ministers have been appointed by the emperor to be recommended by the ministers, and then appointed by the emperor. At the beginning of the 22nd year of Wanli, starting with the case of the country, the party struggle began, and the parties would fight openly and secretly with the Donglin Party to snatch the cabinet and the six ministerial seats, and in the end, because of the fierce party competition, the cabinet scholars could only accept the recommendation of all parties, and rely on the emperor to decide by lot, in the final analysis, it was the power of the minister that swelled to the point that it had threatened the imperial power, and the power of the minister was expanded, and it had a lot to do with its unrestrainedness. ”

Staring at the sea, Zhu Hejia continued.

"Before the civil fort, the ministers were restricted by the ministers, and the imperial power was still balanced, but when it came to Xizong, the emperor could only rely on the eunuchs and the ministers to compete for power and profit, and the eunuchs were uneven, and they were useless, and after Emperor Xiaolie ascended the throne, he was afraid that the eunuch party was too powerful, so he summoned the remnants of the Donglin party, defeated Wei Zhongxian, and wiped out the eunuch party members. After the Donglin Party returned to power, but the Donglin Party threatened the imperial power, so it began to suppress the Donglin Party again, such as Wen Tiren and other speculators came to the forefront, but in the end, Emperor Xiaolie suspected Wen Tiren of forming a party, and also expelled Wen Tiren, the first assistant of the cabinet, from the imperial court. Do you remember what Your Majesty said when he mentioned the old story of the Emperor? ”

The eldest brother's rhetorical question made Zhu Heyu nod and said.

"Father said, in the final analysis, they are all unavailable, Shenzong avoids the dynasty because the courtiers have too much power, even the imperial power can only retreat, to Xizong can only use eunuchs to fight the ministers, and whether it is the so-called eunuchs or Wen Tiren and others, they are still ministers in the final analysis, nothing more than to defeat one party, the other party inherits power, but the faction that inherits power will still pose a threat to the imperial power, well, it should be said that the subject power still has an advantage over the imperial power, and compared to the subject power, the imperial power is weak, with one person against the Manchu Dynasty, Moreover, the emperor must also rely on them to govern the country, whether it is an upright minister or an opportunist, and the concentration of power on them is always detrimental to the royal family. ”

Listening to his younger brother's answer, Zhu Hejia silently walked in the direction of the coast, and the snowflakes drifted onto his shoulders from time to time.

"The expansion of the power of the ministers, in the final analysis, there is still a process, and this process is to crack down on dissent, create contradictions, and eliminate dissent little by little, and finally lead to the emperor being unavailable, that is, to Emperor Xiaolie, although it seems that the Son of Heaven is arbitrary, but whether it is to fight the eunuch party or Donglin, or Wen Tiren, the final loss is still the ...... of the country."

Looking back at his younger brother, Zhu Hejia said.

"Although now, it seems that the power of the ministers is subject to the power of the monarch, and the lords can help the monarchy, but decades later, a hundred years later, there will still be ministers who use various excuses to attack the nobles, and if the nobles cannot respect themselves, they will definitely be hit by them, as for the reduction of the feudal ......"

Looking at the sea, Zhu Hejia said sarcastically.

"Now there are voices asking the imperial court to force Japan to open the country, because the domestic production of yarn and cotton cloth is increasing day by day, and the merchants need a larger market, perhaps, when Jianwen succeeded to the throne, the ministers were on the grounds of the thousands of generations of Jiangshan Sheji, and suggested cutting the feudal domain, but a hundred years later, perhaps, they will become a "unified market" as the reason, they will use the appeal of the people, they will ask Zhuxia to abolish tariffs, realize the unified market of Zhuxia, and so on, anyway, they will find a reason, and driven by interests, Even the nobles are likely to fall on them......"

Listening to the words of the imperial brother, Zhu Heyu did not speak, and now there are indeed voices in the country asking for the opening of Japan, but now this voice is not the mainstream, after all, compared to exchanging war for the opening of Japan, and then exporting goods to it, India's already open market is more attractive to them, and the ministers of the court have no intention of opening up territory for businessmen.

However, ministers may feel that it is always shameful to go to war for businessmen now, but in a few decades, if ministers themselves were businessmen, and even nobles were driven by profit, would they not agree?

Japan, perhaps, is just the beginning.

Indeed, as the eldest brother said, anything can happen driven by interests.

After a moment of silence, Zhu Hejia smiled bitterly.

"That's exactly what my father was worried about!"

But what worries the emperor the most?

Staring at the sea, Zhu Heyu suddenly spoke.

"I remember that my father said that what he was afraid of was never a chaotic minister and thief, because a chaotic minister and a thief, but he could be punished at any time, and what he was most afraid of was loyal ministers!"

Zhu Heyu's tone was a little mocking,

"Because the loyal minister will always put on the appearance of being selfless and serving the country in everything, he will stand on the moral high ground, he will demand everything in the name of the people, if the ruler refuses, then the ruler is a tyrant and a husband, and the loyal minister will always be generous to others!"

"Hypocritical morality is the most terrible, hypocritical sublime is the most shameless......"

With a wry smile, Zhu Hejia sighed.

"Just like the old party struggle, all of them are gentlemen, it seems to be for the country, but in fact, they have their own ghosts, Donglin gentlemen are like this, villains are so, eunuch villains are like this, gentlemen are also like this, no matter the gentleman villain, they only have power in their eyes, as for the so-called people...... It's just an excuse for them to fight for power. ”

"Therefore, the people throughout the ages are the most pitiful, the world is a false name, and who cares about the people, the so-called care, is just to show favor to the people."

Shaking his head, Zhu Heyu stared into the distance and said,

"In the future, they will also use public opinion to drive the court to their advantage, and even those nobles may turn to them because of interests."

When he said this, Zhu Heyu continued.

"Interests...... A unified tariff-free market is advantageous for those nobles, who have always been the most important investors in industry and commerce. ”

Unlike any era, the nobles of the Ming Dynasty did not use the funds for land, of course, this is not only because of the restrictions of national law, but also because the income of land is not much, compared to land, industry and commerce can bring more lucrative returns, and even the nobles invest in yarn factories, a year to get hundreds of thousands of examples, a year of income is equivalent to the past years, it is in the high return on investment in industry and commerce, they will invest in industry and commerce, even laymen, will buy the company's stocks. Instead of freezing money in the land.

"Yes, my father encouraged this, compared to letting the nobles invest the remaining funds in the land, so that the land annexation of the past dynasties was staged in the Ming Dynasty, and it became more and more intense, the father hoped that they would invest their funds in industry and commerce, according to the father's words, that is, no work is not strong, no business is not rich. Every time they set up a factory or an enterprise, they can not only make the country rich and strong, and the state can tax from it, but also absorb a large number of people into the factory, if it were not for the development of industry and commerce, perhaps, now any city in the capital and the Ming Dynasty will be like Europe, full of beggars and vagrants. ”

Zhu Hejia nodded slightly, and then sighed.

"In the seventeenth year of the country's peace, the population grew rapidly, and the failure of the primogeniture made millions of second sons have to leave their hometowns, and there are no factories to absorb these surplus population, except for some immigrants to Nanyang, more of these people will become displaced people and gather around big cities such as Zhongdu and Nanjing, and a huge slum will be formed in the official land. Most of these people are idle. They will become a hidden danger of riots, just like Europe now, why urban riots sometimes occur in European cities, because the slums gather a large number of idle civilians! ”

"Therefore, industry and commerce are the best way to absorb surplus labor, and now the population of my Ming Dynasty has exceeded 10,000,000, and if you add the population of the Nanyang Zhuxia and other colonies, it has already exceeded 11,000,000. Without the business community to absorb the surplus labor, the country will definitely be in turmoil! Therefore, at any time, Daming must develop industry and commerce. ”

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhu Hejia looked at his younger brother again and said.

"Immigration, of course, is also the solution to the problem, in fact, now those who move into the city, although some of them are absorbed by industry and commerce to become industrialized labor, but even if they become workers, but because of the exploitation of the factory owners, they can often only live in the slums, but only to have food and clothing, just like in Huguang, the wages of workers often do not exceed about four taels, even in Nanjing, it is only about five or six taels......

The wages of most factories are not high, and even in the past few years, the wages of ordinary workers have not been substantially increased, except for those skilled workers, ordinary workers are just making ends meet.

"It's really not high, if it weren't for the fact that the world has been peaceful for more than ten years, coupled with the cheap Nanyang rice, the price of rice is now only half a tael of silver per stone, which is half lower than in the past, it is estimated that those people have to pay rent and eat, I am afraid that the days will only be more difficult!"

Zhu Heyu's exclamation made Zhu Hejia nod.

"Therefore, the father hopes to immigrate as much as possible overseas, when the Nanyang Zhuxia was first sealed, the Nanyang Han people were only hundreds of thousands, but now there are as many as seven million people, 60% of which are immigrants in the past ten years, and now the Zhuxia countries, there are more and more Han people, and the natives continue to educate, but even so, it is still not enough, or should try to immigrate."

Then he pointed to a migrant ship in the harbor.

"Therefore, I hope that you will try to build as many immigrant ships as possible, clippers, and steam ships, population is not only the foundation of the future development of the Jin Kingdom, but also can help Daming alleviate the crisis, after all, whether the remaining population in China can be moved overseas is directly related to the future of Daming!"