The recovery of Cochin made the people of the empire a windfall.

Stimulated by money, it leads to an increase in consumption.

From noisy and chaotic country towns to bustling cities, you can see the rich and wealthy people frantically scavenging for goods.

The trade restrictions or bans of Western, Japanese and other countries have not affected the commodity economy of the Ming Dynasty, and the continued high domestic demand is still slowing down the inflation of the Ming Dynasty.

But for most people, once they have wealth, it is nothing more than to satisfy their desire for food, or to obtain a long life and a long life.

As a result, a large amount of money is spent on entertainment and delicacies, as well as on religious ceremonies.

As the manager of the Ming society, the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao and his court naturally had to use the ruling power to guide the people's wealth to flow in the right direction, to avoid the people's excessive pursuit of pleasure and to lose their historical desires, and to avoid some religions from taking this opportunity to grow stronger, and even extreme events to occur.

In this context.

The "Shengtian Jiayuan" outside the Daming Gate was officially opened.

This is a high-end continuation of imitation Huizhou residential buildings, using the latest reinforced concrete structure, the most complete layout of various facilities, coupled with the superiority of the geographical location, making the price of this continuation of the real estate very high.

But there is still a steady stream of buyers.

In fact, the people of the empire invested all their newly acquired money into such commercial houses, and even owed debts not enough to make it impossible to survive.

In any case, the people's living conditions have been improved, and the ordinary people in the capital no longer have to live in low, cramped houses.

Even in the countryside, people have spent money to buy high-priced cement houses in towns because of this windfall, bidding farewell to rough houses and thatched houses, and thus inadvertently accelerating the degree of urbanization.

Even if there is meat for meals, even if there is a car when you go out, even if you can wear cotton clothes in winter and eat ice water in summer, the people of the Ming Empire are still diligent.

Because the government uses the best quality municipal services, the most high-end sustainable environment and the best schools, coupled with the stingy way of land supply, the people spend all their money on buying these public goods and improving their lives.

But because of this, the people still don't have much money to spare, for the comfort of the second half of their lives, for a more adequate sense of security, they have to continue to work the surface they already have a lot of wealth.

However, they are still full of insecurity and have to demand more wealth, which in turn requires the empire to continue to expand.

Zhu Hou looked at the palace maids who got up early in the morning to sweep the floor under the palace wall, and couldn't help but smile, he knew that these palace maids were also the same as the people outside the palace, in order to get an extra year-end reward, they were more diligent than before, and they swept the floor more seriously.

Therefore, even if I was paid last night, there is still not a single fallen leaf on the marble stone steps today.

However, when Zhu Houzhao saw a palace maid kneeling in a corner and praying, he couldn't help frowning, he didn't expect that although the people at the bottom were still more diligent than before, they were more likely to be influenced by some religions than before and became believers.

Sometimes, Zhu Houzhao also wonders if this continues, will there be a day when secular power will be swallowed up by these religions.

At this time, Zhang Xuan, the first assistant of the cabinet, dragged his increasingly haggard body over, and he was holding a notebook in his hand.

Zhu Houzhao took over the music book from Zhang Xuan's hand, and the content of the music book was Li Wen's performance in the ceremony, saying that outside the Chongwen Gate in the capital, in the Anning Temple, many monks have gathered in recent years, and they often set up places to build altars, and the good men and women who have been ordained and converted are crowded like clouds for many times, and the monks gather as many as 10,000 people, gathering day and night, and mixing men and women; There are even fugitives who absconded to do evil, and the people all rushed to give alms because of the so-called magic elixir, so that their families went bankrupt.

"In addition, there are even private temples, Taoist temples and even churches, and even regarded them as prostitutes, and the powerful gentry colluded with external protection to make it more and more intense.

Zhu Houzhao looked at it and couldn't help but read silently, it stands to reason that this kind of thing doesn't need to be dealt with by him, the emperor, but at this time, Zhang Xuan submitted this note to the emperor, Zhu Houzhao felt that there must be Zhang Zhang's own reason, so Zhu Houzhao said: "Let's talk about it, what do you think about this matter?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, the rich people are getting more and more, and there are naturally many good men and women who ask the Buddha to ask, this is the smoke of the people, but now according to what Li Wen said in this rite of affairs, although the foolish people have increased their wealth, they have not yet increased their wisdom, and if this continues, the people are afraid that they will be taken away by these churches, and if they have a little ambition, they will take over the church, and I am afraid that the disaster will not be small."

Zhang Xuan said at this time.

Zhu Houzhao also nodded: "What Aiqing said is very true, this matter must be vigilant, you can take care of this matter!" If you really want to destroy the Buddha and destroy the sect, it doesn't matter. ”

"Obey the order!"

Zhang Xuan arched his hand to Zhu Houzhao and retreated.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but sigh slightly when he saw this, thinking that this Zhang Fujing had offended many gentry from the beginning of the reform of the grassroots, and later imposed a heavy tax on mining in the Guannei that everyone in the world scolded him as a "bloodsucking prime minister".

After Zhang Xuan received Zhu Houzhao's permission, he was indeed not polite, and directly ordered the Ministry of Rites to prohibit all temples, Taoist temples, and churches in the world from recruiting believers at will, and sent officials to strictly inspect the degree, and at the same time levy the degree tax, that is, those who really want to convert to baptism need to pay the degree tax, so as to compensate for the alms they get when they have no labor.

In addition, Zhang Xuan also ordered the uncles to check the property of each temple, and no longer exempted the monasteries from the field tax, and increased the arable land tax, because many monasteries encroached on the cultivated land.

Of course, religious gatherings with more than 100 people must be reported to the government, otherwise they will be directly arrested for illegal gatherings.

For a time, the entire religious community was greatly shaken, and some people who relied on propaganda and doctrine to confuse the people and use this as a means were also arrested one after another.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been forcibly relegated.

Of course, these monks and followers were not willing to be controlled by the imperial court, thus losing the opportunity to benefit from the people.

On this day, Hui Jin, a monk of Anning Temple, brought thousands of monks to the Daming Gate, and sat cross-legged, shouting: "Since the first assistant does not allow the Buddha to be magnificent, and wants to collect heavy taxes in the Buddha Gate, the reason why we eat people's property, and now we are on a hunger strike here to prove this heart!" ”

"Yes, our generosity is a voluntary act of the benefactor, and there has never been the slightest coercion, how it is unjust, how it should be taxed heavily! The donations of good people were originally righteous wealth, but now they are collected by corrupt officials and corrupt officials in the bank, and we are being bullied, but we are falsely accused of bringing disaster to the country and the people! Although those who are born are not burdened by the world, they are not wronged by the world! ”

Another mage responded.

"As the Master said, since the current Zaifu wants to destroy the Buddha and destroy the religion, then we will starve to death here, take off this skin!"

Whitkin's chant again.

The Ming army on the city gate ignored these monks and still stood on the city wall like a sculpture.

The steam bus line that drove into Daming Gate still entered the inner city with a clattering sound.

And the first assistant of the cabinet, Zhang Xuan, was actually in this car, but he just watched all this silently at this time, of course he knew that these monks were not guilty, but he only knew that the Ming Dynasty could not raise too many idlers, historical experience told him that the prosperity of the dynasty would lead to the prosperity of Buddhism, and the prosperity of Buddhism would lead to chaos in the world!

Fortunately, His Majesty did not believe anything.

It is hard for Zhang Xuan to imagine how terrible it would be if His Majesty also believed in religion.

Zhu Houzhao does not believe in these things, but he does not reject religious believers, but he also does think that it is a bad phenomenon that religious believers can get something for nothing, although most people do not realize this problem, including religious believers themselves, and they do not realize that receiving alms from good men and women is not conducive to the stability of this society.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao supported Zhang Xuan to do this, but Zhu Houzhao had to admit that he also had to pay attention to the development of the cultural industry and the guidance of the ideological field, and could not let the people put their money and energy on the construction of religion after becoming rich.

When Wen Zhengming of the chamberlain came to Wu Chengen's house by order, Wu Chengen was writing his journey to the west, since he met His Majesty the Emperor when he was a child and listened to His Majesty the Emperor tell a story about the Monkey King, he planned to write down this story.

"Wu Chengen, Your Majesty sent me to ask you, have you finished writing this Journey to the West?" Wen Zhengming asked.

Wu Chengen replied: "It's fast, it's fast, but it hasn't been corrected and modified yet." ”

"Try to hurry up, this is a contract, you see, if you can accept it, sign it, it is Your Majesty's intention, the Royal Academy bought out your work, bid fifty silver dollars, and in the future, the right to spread and adapt your legend will belong to the Royal Academy, you and your descendants will not have the right to inherit, what do you think."

Wen Zhengming asked.

Wu Chengen thought to himself that the profit of a legendary script on the market was only about ten silver dollars, and his own Journey to the West may not be attractive, fifty silver dollars is considered a high price, which is enough to show that this is a literati like Your Majesty who takes care of me, who can only write legends.

"It's really the emperor's grace and majesty! Wu Mou is naturally willing, it's just a legend, how can the book circulated in the market be passed on to future generations, Your Majesty can buy it! ”

Wu Chengen thanked him.

A few months later, Zhu Houzhao obtained the original manuscript of Journey to the West presented by Wu Chengen, which was immediately published in the Inner Palace, and at the same time, the cabinet established the Daming Copyright Bureau, and officially asked the Huangming Daily, which was responsible for the propaganda of the chamberlain, to publish an editorial, and the theme of the editorial was to attach importance to the development of the cultural industry.

Wen Zhengming was officially in charge of the newly established Daming Cultural Company with the official rank of Right Attendant of the Ministry of Rites, and was also in charge of the Copyright Bureau, responsible for the management and development of the cultural industry throughout the empire.

But there is no doubt that this means that even the field of cultural industry has become an industry that can only be opened by the emperor and the Ming court, which will undoubtedly lead to the further concentration of interests in the central court, and the empire will further become a public ownership of the main economy.

However, there is no way, who makes Zhu Houzhao the emperor, the private capital is always slow to react, and it is difficult for them to establish an industry without public power.

"Journey to the West, the official has read it, the story is suitable for both the elderly and the young, but it is not a superficial demon story, there are many satirical oracles of the world and today, but it is naturally more attractive, and now the official has only one request, to let the people of the world know about this work, and like this work, including the opera derived from him and other things! The people of the world should not only know how to go to the temple to worship the Buddha, burn incense in Taoist temples, and listen to some stories of asking for children and getting children. ”

Wen Zhengming said to his subordinates with a pair of dark circles under his eyes.

And because of this, under the influence of the royal strong capital power and advanced British technology, Wu Chengen's Journey to the West was immediately published in Daming, and because Zhu Houzhao could directly use the state's public power to legislate and protect the bans, he severely cracked down on pirates, making Journey to the West quickly become popular and sold well in the north and south of the country for a while.

But because of this, the people of the empire, especially the ordinary people who are not interested in the spring and snowy Kunqu Opera, have more suitable entertainment and pastimes for them, and they pay less attention to religion, and some satirical content hidden in Journey to the West also makes them have a clearer understanding of Buddhism, which is even more effective than the bitter words of the government.

"It turns out that not all of them are good goods in Buddhism!"

An ordinary student sat in front of his house and said this after watching Journey to the West.

And in addition, storytelling and drama also have fresher content, and even new dramas are directly clustered out, and the story of Journey to the West allows the people of the empire to finally have entertainment and pastime after achieving economic prosperity, and will not be bewitched into the cult orthodoxy.

It's just that although the spare money of these people no longer flows into the temple and Taoist temple, it flows into Zhu Houzhao's pocket.

Wu Chengen didn't expect his Journey to the West to be so popular, and now he naturally regrets it, and he doesn't know how to express it for a while.

But Zhu Houzhao took the initiative to summon him, and promoted Wu Chengen to be the attendant of the Hanlin Academy, and at the same time asked Wen Zhengming to draw up a new contract for Wu Chengen, asking Wu Chengen to write a book of Journey to the East, and bidding for 5,000 silver dollars, which means that one word is five silver dollars, and writing one million words can have five million silver dollars.

Under the temptation of heavy money, Wu Chengen could only agree.

But Zhu Houzhao also has a request for this, and the requirement is that Wu Chengen should expose the dark side of foreign popes such as Catholicism and Green Religion in his new work, so that the people of the world can have a clearer understanding of these foreign cultures.

Wu Chengen didn't expect that he could write a legend with such significance, and he wrote it very actively.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao wants to develop the cultural industry of the empire, not just to make the IP of Journey to the West, but to let the literati of this era understand that the objects of the words in their hands can not only be the noble gentry, but the toiling masses are the majority of the people they need to serve, and serving the toiling masses is not only respected but also more affordable economic benefits.

Although this era is not the Internet era, people can only get the pleasure of reading by buying paper books, but because of the increase in the literacy rate caused by the national education of the Ming Dynasty, the profits in the early days of the market became very rich, and even fed a group of professional mechanics, not only Wu Chengen.

However, in this early stage, most of the best-selling ones were still relatively yellow, and the scale was so large that some officials impeached this as a sign of immorality.

However, Zhu Houzhao is not worried about the people being addicted to sex, he is only worried that the people are addicted to cults, so there is no restriction on it, and he only wants to make the people's entertainment activities more abundant.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao also knows how to use the old energy to lead the people down to the entertainment activities.

To this end, Zhu Houzhao will not only personally fund the establishment of the Daming Literature Award, with a large amount of money to reward important literary products, in order to encourage the people to create, in addition, but also the establishment of the Ming Writers Association and the Ming Academy of Social Sciences to encourage the public to engage in social science research and creation, and even spend a lot of money to focus on cultivating a number of positive energy works.

It's a pity that there is no film and television in this era, after all, the research of optics has just started in the Ming Dynasty, although the fierce imaging was discovered by the Mo family very early, but photography and photography technology is still being studied, therefore, now the only way to directly convey the correct ideas to the people in terms of visual impact can only be drama.

For this reason, Zhu Houzhao specially asked the Ministry of Rites to add a cultural department, which is responsible for controlling the creation of these itchy products and theatrical creations, and of course, the external publicity is to promote the creation of itchy products and theatrical creations.

Now occupy the mainstream of the drama industry are some stories of Journey to the West, as well as some stories of Water Margin and Yang Jiajiang, however, Zhu Houzhao also ordered the royal literati in the chamber to write some brainwashing dramas about his own wisdom and love for the people, in addition, the drama of the white-haired girl is still circulating, which is very disgusting to the gentry, and some civil officials have repeatedly suggested banning it, but Zhu Houzhao rejected it on the grounds that it was a drama that reflected the suffering of the people.

The increase in the wealth of the people of the empire and the development of the cultural industry and the openness of the mind have made the extravagance of the empire more and more serious, and there are traditional scholars and civil officials who have suggested that the imperial court ban folk luxury, but what Zhu Houzhao did not expect is that some ministers began to disagree with this idea of banning luxury, the reason is very simple, that is, the luxury of the people can promote domestic consumption and promote commercial trade.

Zhu Houzhao thought that instead of letting the people spend their wealth on subsidizing religion, it would be better for the people to dress better, eat better, and live a better life, if you want to talk about luxury, there is still a long gap between the people of today and the people of some countries in later generations, and the big deal is that you will levy luxury tax and value-added tax, and you are not afraid that your people will spend money, but you are afraid that you will not spend money, anyway, part of every money your people spend will go into the government's pocket.

Thereupon.

The luxury tax and value-added tax of Nanzhili were extended to the whole country, and the tax revenue of the empire increased again.

In addition, in order to increase this tax, Zhu Houzhao officially decreed that he would have fun with the people, starting from the 45th year of Zhengde, the empire lifted the distinction between nobles and commoners, and all the things forbidden by the people were lifted, and those who had broken the law of etiquette were not punished, and the people were allowed to love freely and increase the freedom of life of the people.

Influenced by the study of the mind and the study of the sacred, as well as the influence of free thought after the development of the commodity economy, Zhu Houzhao's will undoubtedly made most of the people grateful, after all, breaking the taboo has become a common phenomenon in society, but it only made some old Confucians cry more and more The world is declining, and the people's hearts are not ancient.

However, the people were willing to accept the freedom granted to them by His Majesty the Emperor, and even because of this, they were opposed by many magnates and gentry, and they were still given freedom and began to break the hierarchical order, but when the imperial court imposed luxury tax and value-added tax, these people still united with the powerful officials and gentry to resist the imperial court's increase in taxes, and even boycotted the market and went on strike, and even smashed and looted.

Now it is still Zhang Xuan who is in charge of the affairs of the cabinet, and Zhang Xuan is not polite, and directly mobilizes all the police officers to arrest and kill, and exile those who should be exiled, which has suppressed these people who are too free, but because of this, Zhang Xuan has suffered greater criticism from the people.

In the early summer of the forty-sixth year of Zhengde, although Daming's medical technology has improved a lot, Zhang Xuan still inevitably passed away.

Unlike Wang Shouren, who was posthumously made a marquis when he died two years ago, which did not arouse opposition from the government and the opposition, when Zhu Houzhao asked for Zhang Zhang's posthumous "Wenzheng", he was opposed by the government and the opposition.

"Obviously, inside and outside the government and the opposition, I don't want a second Zhang Xuan to appear!"

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but say something at this time, and Xia Yan couldn't help but reply:

"As His Majesty said, since the Zhengde Dynasty, since Ma Gong Ma Wensheng), has been the reformist in power, the government has changed dramatically, to Zhang Gong is repeatedly risked the world's disapproval, so that the world is not tolerated, because of Zhang Gong's new policy and suicide is countless, because of Zhang Gong's new policy and desperate people are countless, Xun Gui Gong and even the vassal king, there are not a few people who are ruined, so, the world hates Zhang Gong for a long time, how can he be allowed to be Wenzheng now! Even, when his body was still cold, some ministers had already impeached him for letting his son cheat before his death, and even temporarily changed the examiner in the name of corruption. ”

As he spoke, Xia Yan handed the note of impeachment of Zhang Xuan to Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao opened it and looked at it, and said: "It stands to reason that what I want to do now is to punish Zhang Xuan from what he asked, so as to calm the anger of the people of the world, so as not to make the people of the world angry with me?" Yes and no? ”

Zhu Houzhao asked, and Xia Yan couldn't help but nod after being silent for a long time.

"The birds are all gone, and the good bow is hidden; The cunning rabbit dies, the lackey cooks, this is the wisdom of the emperor, but what I don't understand is that if the innovation and elimination of cheats should be praised by the world, why does it make the world angry? ”

Zhu Houzhao said and threw away the song: "The matter of impeachment comes according to the judicial procedure, I don't want to wronged the good ministers in order to appease the anger of the people of the world, if the people of the world want to force me, then I will turn against the people of the world, but I believe that the most people who are silent are the people, and most people support Zhang Xuan and me in their hearts." ”

As soon as Zhu Houzhao said this, Xia Yan didn't say more, why didn't he want Zhang Xuan to be honest after his death, but he also knew that Zhang Xuan was the Shang Yang of the Ming Dynasty, how could a character like Shang Ying die a good death4 and die before he was punished, and he would also be whipped after his death.

But as Xia Yan expected, the Metropolitan Procuratorate submitted that Zhang Xuan was indeed guilty of fraud when his son was admitted to the Jinshi, and also submitted the evidence, and even had the handwritten confession of Zhang Zhang's son, as well as Zhang Zhang's own handwritten letter as evidence.

After Zhu Houzhao found out, he had to admit for a while, and sure enough, he, the emperor, still thought about the problem too simply.