Although his words sound quite reasonable, they are not invulnerable, but Wang Chengen intends to make friends, so it is naturally impossible to dismantle the stage in person, so he praised again and again: "Good, good, the champion is not only amazing, but also a bodhisattva, our family admires, admires!" ”

The rest of the conversation was not too nutritious, the two of them spoke without a word, and slowly walked from the west side of the Huangji Palace, passed through the right Shun Gate, passed through the Jianji Palace, and came to this famous platform. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"Platform summoning" is the Ming Dynasty advisory system, when the ministers stand solemnly, the emperor is on the throne, the name is called and answered, the name is kneeling in front of the throne to answer, if the emperor is favorable, you can stand to answer. However, since the Wanli Emperor, this system has existed in name only, and only Chongzhen succeeded to the throne and decided to innovate and restore this system.

Seeing the two of them coming, the little eunuch who was accompanying him raised his voice and shouted, "The new champion Liu Xu is here!" ”

Emperor Chongzhen was already sitting on the throne of Panlong, Liu Xu walked over and bowed down slowly, and by the way, he did not forget to observe Emperor Chongzhen's appearance and his throne.

Emperor Chongzhen is still a half-grown child at the moment, with black hair and starry eyes, and he can't see the appearance of being exhausted and hysterical because of worrying about state affairs in the future, but the muscles on his brow are raised, and he is obviously frowning often, which shows that his personality is stubborn and difficult to change. His throne is made of nanmu, carved with dragon and gold, in the form of "Sumeru", which is the emperor's throne. There are nine dragons on the throne, the dragon's head is held high, the body is thick and powerful, and the claws are sharp and pressing, making people feel that they are about to rise into the air and pounce down, and the momentum is quite majestic.

"I used to follow my friends into the Forbidden City and sit on the dragon chair, and I think the feeling is average, I don't know what it's like to sit on the dragon chair in the Ming Dynasty?" Thinking of the great rebellion in his heart, Liu Xu pushed the golden mountain and bowed down like a jade pillar: "Student Liu Xu to meet my emperor!" ”

"Mr. Liu is a great talent in the world, and he has made great contributions to the country, I have wanted to see you for a long time, no need to be polite, get up!" The young emperor seemed to be very curious about Liu Xu, and he generously allowed Liu Xu to get up and answer, which was a rare honor for his courtiers. And his title is even more respectful, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty called himself "I", commonly known as "I", and the minister was called "you" and "you", and the word "sir" was even more incredible, when Zhang Juzheng was in the world but was called "Mr. Taiyue", which shows the importance of Emperor Chongzhen to Liu Xu.

Sure enough, as soon as these words came out, Wang Chengen and the other little eunuchs next to him looked at Liu Xu differently - just a new champion given by the emperor can be called Mr., it seems that Liu Xu's future is far greater than he thought!

Liu Xu was stunned, he didn't expect Chongzhen's buddy to give face so much, and he even used "sir", but he was never hypocritical, and he had no reverence for the emperor, so he said bluntly: "Thank you, Your Majesty Longen." ”

"You came from afar, what did you teach me, why did you benefit Daming?" The emperor asked, judging from his slightly eager tone, he was very eager to find a good way to govern the country, and he also had great hopes for Liu Xu.

Liu Xu laughed, he didn't care about the disgrace in front of the king, thinking that the emperor wouldn't mind this little rudeness, so he just heard him say loudly and categorically: "Why should my emperor say profit, but just benevolence and righteousness!" ”

Although Liu Xu didn't look directly into the emperor's eyes, his gaze was slightly downward, looking at the emperor's nose and mouth, but he could feel that as soon as he said this, the emperor's face was not good. After all, although Mencius's set of words sounds good, he has never seen anyone use Mencius's way to enrich the country and strengthen the army, so he can understand the emperor's dissatisfaction.

However, this kind of dissatisfaction was originally intentional by him, Liu Xu did not wait for the emperor to speak, and immediately said: "Enlighten my emperor, the so-called benevolence and righteousness of the students, although born from the benevolence and righteousness of Mencius, is different from the benevolence and righteousness of Mencius, which can not only be operated practically, but also achieve rapid results, and within five years, it can be effective!" ”

"Oh, sir, come quickly!" This kind of desire to promote and suppress the first really won the curiosity of Emperor Chongzhen, and he urged again and again: "Today's performance is right, only between you and me, sir, don't hide your secrets, what is the way to govern the country quickly come out!" ”

Liu Xu had already prepared a draft in his heart, so he spoke calmly and without any stumbles: "Your Majesty, what the kings of ancient and modern times ask for is nothing more than a 'rich country and strong army' technique, but strong soldiers are easy to get, and national wealth is hard to find, the emperor knows why?" ”

"Why?" The emperor had been attracted by Liu Xu, and his body sat on the throne and leaned forward slightly, and asked loudly.

"Your Majesty, the student dared to ask my emperor, how many riches are there in this world, how many are there?"

This question was still a little novel in the Ming Dynasty, asking whether there was a fixed amount of total social wealth, whether it was more and more, or a fixed distribution. According to the traditional Confucian view, there is always a lot of wealth in the world, so the king takes more, the common people will be less, the doctor will take more, and the lower class will be gone, but Emperor Chongzhen seems to have a vague feeling that there is something wrong there, but his weak knowledge of economics is not enough to support his in-depth thinking, so he frowned and thought for a while, but did not gain, but just looked at Liu Xu: "I thought about it for a long time, and I felt that the wealth in the world was counted, and it was not counted, and it was said that there was a number, because the tax was heavy and the natural people were damaged, but if the wealth was counted." Why do prices keep rising? ”

"Your Majesty said it well!" Liu Xu slapped the emperor on the back first, and then said: "There are countless riches in the world, this is inevitable!" Why? For example, if someone borrowed ten taels of silver from a minister, he used it to trade, and after a year he earned twenty taels, and when the time came, he gave the student thirteen taels, and he himself left seventeen taels! This is the benefit of doing business, and the farmer's cultivation, the artisan's production, and the fisherman's fishing are all constantly growing, so it can be seen that from the individual's point of view, this wealth is growing-this thing, the student calls it microeconomics. Farmers, merchants, and craftsmen, who actually produce food, wealth, and tools, are producers; Soldiers, scholars, and monks who do not produce are non-producers! From a macro point of view, in the era of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, the voices of chickens and dogs were heard, the old and the dead did not get along, the population was sparse, the peak population of the Han Dynasty was only 40 million people, and I had at least 20,000 people in the Ming Dynasty today. Therefore, the goods must grow! ”

"Well said sir, well said!" The emperor nodded again and again, and then said, "But how does this explain the tax problem?" ”

"That's easy to say! For example, today I collect eleven taxes, and take one tael for every ten taels of silver, and as long as the people's income exceeds one tael, they can have the rest of their wealth to support their families, and if the remaining goods are enough, they can use it to accumulate, and if they are businessmen, they will use the surplus to buy more goods, and if the craftsmen will use it to buy more workshops, the farmers will use it to buy more ploughing cattle, and the peasant women will use it to buy more looms, and this income will be even higher -- this is called expanding reproduction! If it is a long time, more and more accumulation, higher and higher natural income, and more and more social wealth, this is a virtuous circle! ”

The disadvantage of taxation is that if the tax is too high, after the farmers, merchants, and craftsmen have paid the taxes, the remaining money is not enough to feed themselves and their families, so how can they expand reproduction? At that time, it is impossible to say that in order to pay taxes, you will have to sell your children and daughters, sell your house and sell your land, and the more you sell your production, the less tax revenue will be for the imperial court, which is naturally a vicious circle! ”

"In that case, then why is my income getting lower and lower? The imperial court taxes were not heavy, and they should have left enough money for the peasants and merchants, but how can this be explained? ”

Liu Xu secretly rolled his eyes in his heart, and said in his heart that this is naturally because your ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang did not understand economics, and made a good Ming Dynasty into a small peasant empire, without a unified central bank, lacking logistics and financial overall management, not to mention, and without a sense of quantity management, even the Song Dynasty is greatly inferior - but such a small peasant empire caught up with the era of maritime trade and the industrial revolution, can it not be chaotic!

However, this question is difficult to answer, because the crux of the problem is not that the imperial court collects too much, but that the scholars and gentry are too greedy. But Liu Xu can't turn his face with the gentleman at the moment, so it's hard to think about how to answer this question.

"Sir, is this a difficult question to answer?" Emperor Chongzhen asked a little strangely.

"Your Majesty, it's not that it's hard to answer, it's that you can't answer!" Liu Xu said word by word.

"Why can't you answer?"

"Does the emperor want to enrich the country? Want to be safe and sound? Liu Xu raised his eyes, looked directly into Chongzhen's eyes, and shouted loudly.

"Presumptuous!" Wang Chengen was frightened by Liu Xu's behavior, he was afraid that Chongzhen would pull Liu Xu out and cut him in anger, so he made the first move, knelt down and said: "Liu Xujun lost his honor in front of him, and he should be punished with a court staff!" ”

Liu Xu didn't speak, he looked directly into the emperor's eyes, trying to see some clues from the eyes of this tragic young man, but although the latter was young, he already had some city mansions, and his eyes were as deep as a deep well, so that Liu Xu couldn't see any expression.

The air on the platform seemed to freeze, Liu Xu didn't speak, the emperor didn't speak, and the eunuchs knelt on the ground and didn't speak, so the world seemed to be silent.

Liu Xu was not in a hurry to speak, it was impossible for him to be beheaded, if he was beaten by the board, he was afraid that his reputation would be higher, so he just looked at the emperor with his head held high and said nothing.

The Emperor gasped violently, as if no one had dared to speak to him in his short life, which made him feel a sense of surprise in addition to being offended. The young son of heaven was silent for a while, and finally spoke: "The king accompanies him, and I will not investigate him for the crime of dereliction of honor in front of the king." As he spoke, he looked at Liu Xu again and said slowly, "What does Mr. mean by this?" ”

Liu Xu laughed three times: "Dare to ask the emperor, who is in the hands of the wealth in the world?" ”