Forbid the people to beg!

When a cold sentence came out of His Majesty's mouth, everyone couldn't help but look at each other. They are no strangers to this decree, in fact, it is still controversial until now.

At the heart of the controversy is whether the government's brutal and simple ban on begging will affect the lives of ordinary people, especially those who are poor.

Although this issue has been controversial for many years, and there have been many problems in the process, even the original proposer said that he did not think it through in the first place. But one thing is certain, His Majesty himself is still supportive of this.

"Your Majesty, the ban on begging back then was because there were many displaced people, and it was a last resort to promote the development of the border areas and Nanyang and other places, and now that the Holy Son of Heaven is in power, the world is peaceful, the people are rich, and there is no need to worry about hunger and cold, even if it is forbidden to beg, presumably the people will not ......be displaced."

This time it was Zhang Huangyan who stood up to explain, and Zhu Mingzhong did not immediately refute his explanation, but listened to him continue, and listened to him explain again.

"Your Majesty, the ban on begging was planned by the court for the future of the people, and it has been banned for 20 years, and for 20 years, there have been no beggars in the world, and the ban is opened today, but it is just to abolish the old law......"

Listening to Zhang Huangyan's high-sounding argument for "lifting the ban on begging", Zhu Mingzhong couldn't help but cry and laugh a little, he calmed down slightly and then spoke.

"Zhang Qing's family, since the people are rich today and there is no longer any worry about hunger and cold, what difference does it make if the old law is abolished or not? Since the people don't want to go out to beg, even if the old law exists, it will not disturb the people! To tell you the truth, as far as I can see, once this law is abolished, many of the old begging and evil deeds will reappear under my clear and clear mind! ”

Zhu Mingzhong's tone then became stern, and he said coldly.

"At that time, the world was first decided, and I decreed that workhouses and nursing homes should be set up in various places, and special funds were allocated to relieve the poor and weak, but there were still a large number of beggars on the streets. And beggars everywhere are subject to their beggars, and beggars are all wives and concubines, brocade clothes and jade food, and enjoy beggars' offerings. In addition to begging, beggars are repeatedly extorted, those in the beggar gang's sphere of influence, every New Year's holiday to pay a certain amount of protection money to the beggar gang owner, do not pay the protection money will often be harassed by beggars. Even ordinary people have to send money first every time there is a big event, and even so, they can't be hated......"

Referring to the evil deeds of beggars in the old days, Zhu Mingzhong no longer had the slightest sympathy for those so-called "poor people".

During the "ban on begging" in those years, local governments interrogated beggars in various places and found that such appalling things as "harvesting and cutting" happened everywhere, and those gangsters obtained a lot of money in order to defraud money, so as to win the sympathy of the world. Capture normal people, usually children, and then use knives and axes to make them disabled, or even to make people into animal shapes...... Do you remember that there was a newspaper report that an old beggar led a bear in the market to perform in the market, and the bear was as big as a horse and could write poetry. After the ban on begging, the old beggar was arrested, and the inspection planned to send the bear to the zoo, who knew that the bear wrote that he was from Changsha, and was caught by the beggar since he was a child. The beggar led him every day to cheat him out of countless money. The people were terrified and sent him to the government and returned to his house...... In fact, this bear is a human, but it has been transformed by cruel means. It's hard to know whether this is true or not, but the most common practice is to mutilate the bodies of captured children in order to gain sympathy. Such an atrocity of "harvesting and cutting" is exactly what the so-called poor people do, pity them? Who is going to pity these people? ”

When mentioning "harvesting and cutting", Zhu Mingzhong's tone was cold to the bone, he had witnessed too many such atrocities in this era, and even in the 21st century, he had occasionally heard of "harvesting and cutting".

"You say that after the ban is lifted, if someone does "harvesting and cutting" again, who will be responsible? Is it you, or is it me? ”

Seeing that His Majesty's tone became stern, Fang Yizhi on the side hurriedly played a round.

"Your Majesty is angry. In fact, "harvesting and cutting" is not a new thing, for thousands of years, repeated prohibitions, so when formulating this law, we have already taken this situation into account, and will limit them to begging in a specific area, so that the government can directly control to avoid the occurrence of "harvesting and cutting" and other things, once found, they will ......be severely punished."

Because some of the beggars use "harvesting and cutting", a bill should be enacted to prohibit "harvesting and cutting". It sounds so reasonable, but in reality, it's useless. Once the poor man is allowed to beg, overnight, many evil deeds that have disappeared from the world will reappear in the world, and driven by profits, the thing that has disappeared will reappear in front of the world.

Zhu Mingzhong knows very well in his heart that once something is opened, I am afraid that he can't even ban it, and the so-called "ban" is just a joke. He threw the draft on the table.

"I don't know, why Zhu Qing is here to not allow the people to beg, spend a lot of effort and argue with me, since Zhu Qing said that the world is peaceful, the people live and work in peace and contentment, and then talk about what quasi-people begging, wouldn't it be self-defeating, if you want Zhu Qing to entangle this matter, not only will it not benefit the people, but it will make the people's livelihood suffer. The ministers I want are thinking about the livelihood of the people, not for the sake of the people begging, and they are thinking about begging for food all day long...... Is this what a minister of prosperity should do? ”

Seeing that His Majesty had changed his polite attitude in the past and refuted the bill of the "Poor Law" in an almost stern tone, Fang Yizhi and Zhang Huangyan couldn't help but be speechless for a while, especially Zhang Huangyan. In fact, at the beginning, he advocated accurate begging, but he just felt that the "prohibition of begging" such a decree was a bit excessive, after all, the severe punishment of "begging for thousands of miles" was almost no less than rebellion, in the face of such a severe decree, he naturally supported the abolition, but it is not easy to abolish a decree, the easiest way is to abolish the things of this decree, stuffed into another bill, according to the "Daming Law" when the two laws conflict, the new decree shall prevail, so that the purpose of not abolishing and abolishing is achieved.

However, what he didn't expect was that His Majesty's attitude was so firm, and not only that, but what surprised him was that His Majesty didn't even give him a chance to explain on this issue, and even directly questioned the role of these ministers.

In fact, the reason why they set this decree. There is another consideration. If only for the poor. These people in high positions do not need to be so scheming at all, even at the risk of offending His Majesty.

One of the fundamental reasons why they went to such great lengths was to reduce the speed of population flow to the colonies and Zhuxia. Since the beginning of the Xingqian period, there has been a great increase in overseas colonization, with a population of hundreds of thousands and millions of people flowing overseas every year.

Although it is clear to all that overseas colonization is advocated by His Majesty. And it is conducive to the balance within the Ming Dynasty. But now in the eyes of many. With a large number of people flocking overseas. It has created a new crisis for the future of the Ming Dynasty. This kind of crisis is the continuous decline of the population in the Ming Dynasty, which will inevitably affect the national strength of the Ming Dynasty.

For these high-ranking ministers, if they don't want future generations to accuse them of being corpses, they must face this reality.

But they can't directly oppose all this. After all, His Majesty's support for overseas immigrants has always been described as sparing no effort. What's more, the cause of immigration is also directly related to the future feudal state of the princes, if they are directly opposed. It is bound to provoke His Majesty's dissatisfaction.

So after thinking about it. That's why they came up with a decree that tried to reduce the outflow of people by repealing the law prohibiting begging.

Although on the surface the two may seem unrelated, in reality, the ban on begging has led to a large number of people moving overseas. After all, this directly leaves many people with no other choice but to emigrate when faced with temporary difficulties. In the past, they could survive short-term hardships by begging, but now they often have the option of immigration.

At least about 10 percent of those who move overseas each year are likely to stay. Because they were aware of this problem, they came up with such a way to secretly display their warehouses.

In this way, Zhang Huangyan naturally could not explain any further, and he even believed that such a "Poor Law" would definitely be shelved this time, but compared with "begging", the "Poor Law" is undoubtedly more beneficial to the people.

After all, it is not only the abolition of the prohibition of begging that is hidden in this decree, but also the other ways to keep the population as much as possible.

However, at this moment, he is more concerned about his next need to redeem all this, rather than letting His Majesty misunderstand him. Obviously, His Majesty has just vetoed the "prohibition of begging" with a very clear attitude. It would be a sin to cause the Poor Law to be vetoed by His Majesty.

When these important ministers of the Ming Dynasty fell silent due to embarrassment, Zhu Mingzhong glanced at the bill on the table, and then said coldly.

"Let's keep this bill for now!"

"Your Majesty, this must not be done!"

In a hurry, Zhang Huangyan immediately said out loud.

"The Poor Law is about the livelihood of millions of poor people, and it is not good for the people to stay in China like this!"

"The livelihood of the poor?"

Staring at Zhang Huangyan, Zhu Mingzhong asked rhetorically.

"What is the livelihood of the people, you tell me? Is it like the rich gentry annexing land today, causing the people to be displaced and suffering from hunger and cold, or is it the heavy taxation of the imperial court, which makes the people unbearable? ”

His Majesty's sudden rhetorical question made several people stunned. On the surface, it seems that they are thinking about the livelihood of the people, but what is the real purpose?

Of course it's unspeakable.

"No, today the government has no less than 40,000 mu of official land, and less than 20,000 mu of official land can be rented. If they say that the official land can not be passed on to the descendants, then they can also go to Zhuxia, Zhuxia to grant land is less than hundreds of acres, more than 1,000 acres, even if they say that Zhuxia is not the Ming Dynasty, then they can also go to the colony, and the colony also grants a lot of land...... You told me that there are so many choices, and they don't want to choose? ”

Unlike the important ministers who looked at each other, Zhu Mingzhong still seemed calm and abnormal, although he had already guessed in his heart that their purpose in coming up with this bill was not so simple, but he had to pretend that he didn't know anything. The best thing to do now is to put this matter on hold. And this requires finding another reason and excuse. He continued.

"At that time, when I set up the workhouse, I emphasized that "those who are in the prime of life who are able to work are not poor", and the reason why I did this was because of my compassion for the people who were unable to work. If Ding Zhuang, who was in the prime of life, worked hard, how could he worry about food and clothing? Just like many poor people now, the government has repeatedly encouraged them to rent official land and move to Zhuxia, why do they repeatedly refuse? The reason is that a considerable number of them can't stand the hard work, if they are allowed to beg here, maybe tomorrow they will abandon their homes and careers and be willing to become beggars, so I said that "helping the poor is not lazy", only helping the old and weak, women and children, not the young and strong. As for ......"

Yang held the "Poor Law" in his hand, and in response to those untimely and even out-of-date remedies in it, Zhu Mingzhong shook his head and said.

"Leaving this case in the middle is not that I am unkind, but that I do not intend to feed the lazy with the taxes of the people of the world, the Ming ......"

Shaking his head, Zhu Mingzhong sighed.

"At any time, the Ming Dynasty can not support lazy people, taxes are the blood and sweat of the people, it is the people's fat and people's ointment, taken from the people, and should be applied to the people, with this silver money to subsidize them, it is better to use it for the education of the people's children, it is better to use it for diagnosis and treatment, there are too many places that need to use silver, as for the "Poor Law" of this line of great benevolence......"

Throwing the bill on the table, Zhu Mingzhong said in an unsympathetic tone.

"There is no reason for need, there are almshouses, workhouses, and orphanages that can help the old and weak women and children, and it is already great benevolence to be able to help the old and weak women and children in the world, and as for benevolence, it is for all the people and the people of the world...... That's not benevolence, that's harm! Raising lazy people...... It will only make people lazier and lazier! ”

After listening to His Majesty's rebuttal, Fang nodded convincingly. Zhang Huangyan and others also completely dismissed the intention of continuing to persuade His Majesty to accept the "Poor Law", after all, His Majesty had already made his attitude clear.

So, after Fang Yizhi and Zhang Huangyan exchanged a look, he immediately proposed a compromise plan to His Majesty.

"Your Majesty, it seems that there is something wrong with this "Poor Law". However, although the "Poor Law" is being implemented in various places, there is no way to follow it, and the ministers think that although the "Poor Law" is inappropriate, the state really needs this law, so that there is a law to follow for the help of the poor......

Zhu Mingzhong did not object to Fang Yizhi's suggestion, after all, he himself had a plan to take it step by step, so he happily nodded in agreement.

"Well, then let's do it according to the wishes of the Qing family, as for how to help the poor, it seems that I still need to be verified."

"Yes, Your Majesty, after the ministers wait, they must carefully examine the measures to help the poor in the past few years, and they must come up with the safest method."

Fang Yizhi hurriedly held the ivory wat board and led the way.

"Then please leave it to the secretaries."

Zhu Mingzhong nodded with satisfaction. Then he added earnestly.

"The Ming Dynasty can have today, all with the work of the rule of law, this legislative matter is very important, related to the stability of the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years in the future, so when it comes to legislation, we must act cautiously. Otherwise, even if the original intention of the legislation is well-intentioned, it will be self-defeating and harmful to the people. It's like this Poor Law. I believe that when you first formulated this draft, you did have the idea of helping the poor people. But can some of these provisions really help people get out of their predicament? ”

Seeing that His Majesty suddenly turned the conversation to helping the people get out of the predicament, Fang Yizhi asked cautiously.

"Your Majesty, do you think there is anything wrong with the Poor Law?"

"Helping the poor" in fact, in terms of its original meaning, itself has a problem, as the saying goes, "help the emergency does not help the poor", if you blindly help the poor, it will only make it dependent, and you can't always let people rely on relief! The original intention of this "helping the poor" was to let the people get out of their predicament, so we should make more fuss about it. ”

It is not natural that the famous one thinks of certain countries in Western Europe in another time and space, whose social welfare systems are meticulous. But what kind of people do you want to raise? A group of people who do not work for anything and rely on social welfare to eat and wait for death. And this has directly given rise to a series of social problems. The so-called meticulous welfare, the real beneficiaries are those who do not work hard. Eventually, a society when more and more people live on welfare. There will be no future for the country.

Although it is impossible for the Ming Dynasty to establish such a social welfare system, at most it is to take out some food and silver money to ensure that some people can have enough to eat, but it must be prevented.

"You don't have to be nervous. I still have some doubts in my heart. ”

Zhu Mingzhong said and flipped through the "Poor Law" in his hand again, and then said.

"In the past, according to the "ban on begging", the government had the right to exile beggars and displaced people overseas and make them self-reliant, and as for orphans, they should also receive education in orphanages, including skills education, and when they become adults, they can be self-reliant. , rather than "self-reliance", so I hope you will think about this carefully......"

Looking at the Zhuqing in front of him, Zhu Mingzhong said earnestly.

In my opinion, this is the foundation of "helping the poor"! ”