Xungui, this word is different from the royal nobles, Xungui refers to the nobles of the nobles, that is, the nobles with different surnames, the lords are mainly because of the "Khan Malao", that is, the military merits of the princes, in the history of China, the establishment of each dynasty, the new emperor must establish his own nouveau riche group, replacing the aristocratic group of the previous dynasty. Share this great inheritance with them and rely on them to maintain it.

The poor are rich, and the cheap are expensive. Land is given, people are given, and feudal privileges commensurate with their status are read. The successive vassals of the Ming Dynasty allocated Zhuangtian to the nobles, and the Xunchen group of the Xingqian Dynasty was no exception. The title of Daming is only the third class of the duke and the marquis, and the area of the three titles is 10,000 acres, 6,000 acres and 4,000 acres respectively.

It is precisely because of this that the lords of the Xingqian Dynasty were actually a group of large landowners with military merits. There are few large landowners who own thousands of acres, and many tens of thousands of acres. This also makes them look down on the current "Gongtian" at all, after all, the current Gongtian reward is to be discounted in the Guannei. After the military merit discount of 1,000 acres of merit field, there are only more than 100 acres left. Unless they are willing to settle outside the Guan, who is willing to abandon the property in the Guannai?

It is for this reason that the land is not attractive to the lords in the slightest. This is also the reason why they are actively involved in industry and commerce, because under the official ownership of the land, there is very little land that can be circulated in the market, and it is expensive.

"The reward for our dynasty's military merits can be described as quite rich, and it is by no means inferior to that of previous dynasties, so the lord has to be rewarded very generously, and it is precisely because of this that he will be grateful for the royal gift."

When mentioning the rich rewards that those lords received because of their "sweat and horses", Zhu Mingzhong continued.

"But what about the future? How can future generations be grateful for the rewards of the world and remember the exploits of their ancestors? ”

His Majesty's rhetorical question made Yan Ermei's heart startled, and even felt a little panicked, after all, if such words were spread, it was not only Wenchen who was cold.

Ignoring Yan Ermei's surprise, Zhu Mingzhong continued.

In fact, this is also inevitable. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty issued a decree of Tui En in order to consolidate the central government and weaken the princes and kings, requiring the princes and kings to distribute their fiefs to their children, the world is divided equally between the princes and the people, although it has always been implemented is the primogeniture inheritance system, but its essence is that the eldest son inherits the throne, the title, that is, the inheritance of identity, not the inheritance of property. The property is that each son can get his share of the inheritance after he is an adult, and it is generally presided over by a prominent elder in the clan to show fairness. This kind of "production system" is certainly conducive to the inheritance of incense. It is good for parents to set up a family for their children, but as far as the country is concerned, it is not necessarily good. ”

"Your Majesty means that the military field is inseparable?"

The principle that Yan Ermei immediately thought of when he gave military fields to officers and soldiers - "military fields cannot be divided", that is, soldiers should give fields to them, and no second sons other than the eldest son could be graded.

"That's right, why can't Juntian be divided? It is because once it is divided, the family of the soldier will be rich for no more than three generations. According to the military system of my Ming Dynasty, after retirement, soldiers can get 30 to 40 acres of land as a meritorious field, if this meritorious field can be divided, if there are three or four sons, but the kung fu of a generation, the family of soldiers, relying on this military field can only barely make a living. And compared with the income of the son who served in the army, there is no difference between the income of others, his brother does not have to serve, but he can share the property of the eldest son, so it naturally does not meet the needs of my Ming military system, so I will set "the merit is inseparable". ”

Although the military system of the Ming Dynasty has disappeared from the old military households, and there are no military and civilian households, but the Ming Dynasty still has a special existence - military households, military households are not a pure household registration, but refers to the retired soldiers in the township, they get the country's military land when they retire, and ordinary people, like ordinary people, farm and weave cloth to support themselves, and also need to pay taxes to the state.

The military field needs to pay taxes, because the military field is different from the Xuntian, as the soldiers in the township, after they get the military field, although they have retired, they are also responding to the call at any time, and they must train for half a month every year during the slack time. And when their sons reach adulthood, they will also serve as the successors of the military fields.

It is precisely because of this that the military fields issued to ordinary soldiers will be different from ordinary Xuntian, and they will be imprinted by the government and will always be in business. Every year, the land tax is paid according to the people's acres, but because they need to train for half a month every year, they do not bear the burden of forced labor. On the other hand, Juntian is equivalent to Xuntian, and it is not allowed to pawn it privately, and even in order to prevent private sales, it is also set that the private buyer will be fined three times that of the seller.

"The military land is indivisible because the rest of the income needs to be used to support the soldiers' families. One generation is a soldier, one generation of service, of course, if you don't want to serve, you can also return the military field. Since the eldest son inherited his father's title and responsibility, it is natural that he should also inherit the property of the heir, Xuntian is only one of them, and other properties are also included. ”

His Majesty's "primogeniture" shocked Yan Ermei's heart, and the reason why "the inseparability of military fields" was not resisted by officials was because in their opinion, this was a military system that was beneficial to the Ming Dynasty. But there was no influence with the noble officials.

However, if His Majesty implements primogeniture, the eldest son of the lord inherits the family business, and the other younger sons have no right of inheritance. Although the nobles' estates, especially estates, would be preserved more effectively, the eldest son was in a very advantageous position. This may seem to have nothing to do with ordinary families, but eventually it will gradually become popular and become a habit.

"Your Majesty, if so, where will you leave the other young sons? Isn't that disrespectful? ”

Yan Ermei's instinctive retort is because he also has young sons, and if the family business belongs to the eldest son, what will happen to the young sons? As an official, he knew very well that once the inheritance system of honorable people was established into law, then the current "property separation system" would inevitably be replaced by primogeniture.

"The noble is one of the pillars of the country, and the first condition of this pillar is stability. The primogeniture system is adopted, that is, the eldest son inherits all the family property, and the other children have no share. This is because the title of the lord cannot be divided, the father is on public leave, and it is impossible for all ten sons to be a prince, so the title can only be given to one son. With a title, there must be matching land and property, so the land of the noble family cannot be divided into ten parts and one for each person like the common people's family. The sons are going to fight, what should I do? Then it is decreed and given only to the firstborn. What are the other sons......"

Zhu Mingzhong first emphasized the particularity of Xungui, and then changed the conversation.

"Let's take a look at the history books, without considering politics, war and other reasons, in the world of Chengping, there is often a saying that the rich are not more than three generations, that is, after the three generations of separation, everyone becomes a small family, the military field can not be divided, and the same is true for Xuntian, if the field is divided, the princes of the past dynasties will be addicted to money and profit, because they know that after those family businesses are divided to a few or more than a dozen sons, everyone will become smaller, in order not to let the family decline, it is necessary to buy as much family business as possible, In order to divide it among the sons, and then ensure that the family does not fall, they do not hesitate to obtain the silver money by various means, even by cunning. ”

This is precisely the biggest problem of the Chinese nobles in the past dynasties, their ingenuity and robbery, not for themselves, but more for the inheritance of the family, and the reason why this is so is entirely because of the family decay caused by the "property separation" of the sons under the Tui En order.

In Europe, there is a view that under the primogeniture, the nobility did not have to worry about food, clothing, or even fame, and they began to pursue something of a higher realm, and in this pursuit reflected the nobility of human beings. Some people even believe that only an aristocratic society can produce great rulers and honest governments, protect art, and develop science and technology, because the aristocratic class is no longer greedy for wealth and knows etiquette, so they can give artists leisure to engage in creation, and the public can have cultural cultivation to appreciate art. Scientists can be funded, funds will be used for research, and the country's scientific and technological level will be improved.

In an era of low productivity, when people are running around all day long, it is natural that they cannot talk about art, science, and ideals, and even in the 21st century, ideals often give way to reality in the face of high housing prices. In addition, historically, the land and capital needed by British industrial and commercial enterprises to build factories also relied on the support of the great nobles to carry out smoothly.

"But when the eldest son inherits the title and real estate and the vast majority of the family's property, the financial resources of the main family will not be weakened, and the princes of the past generations naturally do not need to take advantage of the loot to maintain the reputation of the family, and they do not have to worry about food, clothing and even fame, they began to pursue something of a higher realm, honor, and naturally one of them, after all, when they no longer worry about property and fame, each generation of princes will bear the heavy responsibility of the glorious lintel, and the honor will surpass everything else at that time."

Emphasizing the benefits of primogeniture, Zhu Mingzhong immediately analyzed the shortcomings of the "separation of production system".

"Negative analysis of the production system, because the brothers everyone has a share, everyone also has expectations, consolidate the family consciousness, my Han family clan concept is also born here, but this also brings a problem, that is, everyone nests at home waiting for the division of property, and even the sons of Gongxiao often have a utilitarian heart, hoping that in the future in order to share a few more taels of silver, and this kind of waiting for the division of property, and caused the next generation of people often lack of enterprising, they pursue a stable life, do not dare to take risks, this conservative and stable mentality, is with this kind of expectation, The "production system" has a lot to do with the income. ”

His Majesty's answer made Yan Ermei become silent, the Yan family itself is a big family, he naturally knows that among the big families, the vast majority of people are waiting there to split up, not to achieve anything by themselves, but this is all for the eldest son, so what about the younger son?

"Your Majesty, what about the young son? Don't you just ignore it? Blood is so thick, how can you be so careless? ”