Wang Shizhen's "Huang Mingsheng" records that there is also a son born to King Qingcheng more than 100 people, except for the eldest son hereditary king, the remaining 99 people are named generals of Zhenguo. Every time the family meets, the same father and brother can't get to know each other. With such a high birth rate, the population of the Ming Dynasty clan continued to increase and expand geometrically.

The mere distribution of rice by such a large parasitic group according to the aforementioned standards is unaffordable for the state finances. For example, this Zhu Qizhen, his own county king has an annual salary of 2,000 stones, seventy sons all take the annual salary of the general Zhenguo 1,000 stones, the daughter county lord and grandson Fuguo General have an annual salary of 800 stones, and the state pays more than 100,000 stone of rice to this family every year. , members of the royal clan of the Ming Dynasty, became a privileged class and a parasitic class. Most of these dragon sons and grandsons do not work hard and live a life of indulgence in lust and lust. Except for a few outstanding people who have made special contributions to the progress of the country, the nation, and the world's culture, most of them are people who only eat, drink, and have fun and have no interest. It is not difficult to imagine the great pressure on the society at that time by such a huge parasitic group, and the huge clan consumed a lot of national wealth, people's fat and people's ointment, especially in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the huge Zonglu expenditure made everyone's burden of servitude heavy, and also caused a serious financial crisis in the Ming Dynasty. For example, in the 31st year of Jiajing, the total revenue of the whole country from taxes and grain was 22.85 million stones, and the annual expenditure of the royal palaces amounted to 8.53 million stones, accounting for 30 percent of the total revenue of the whole country's taxes and grains, and the expenditure on supporting the members of the royal family exceeded the sum of all the officials.

In the 41st year of Jiajing, the grain stored in the granaries of Shanxi totaled 1.52 million stones, while the total number of royal salaries in the province was 2.13 million stones. In the nineteenth year of Wanli, the largest annual tax expenditure of Linfen in Shanxi Province was to pay the prince and the royal family, accounting for nearly half of the tax grain, and 40% of the tax silver, followed by the military salary, which also accounted for 37 percent of the tax grain and 36 percent of the tax silver.

It is conceivable that the expenditure of the entire Ming Empire, in the later period, what to do, not to mention the Chongzhen period that was separated by decades, therefore, the Ming Dynasty has not been able to solve the expansion of the imperial family population and burden, and the support of the royal family has become the largest expenditure in the state funds, which is one of the most serious problems in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

It's a pity that the number of these 200,000 clans is much more than that of the Eight Banners. They are pampered and accept the support of the people, but they cannot organize to defend their families and the country. If these 200,000 clans can concentrate on learning cavalry and archery, how can the country use conscription? Just relying on the children of the Zhu family of the Daming Clan, it is enough to form an elite army of at least twenty or thirty thousand people who are completely professional, and do not need to worry about anything like food, grass, military salaries, etc.

-------------------- now, it has only been a hundred years since the beginning of Hongwu, but the population of the Daming clan has reached an era of explosive growth, at least, according to Zhu Qizhen's understanding, the population of the Daming clan has reached more than 2,500. You must know that it has only been a hundred years, from 58 people in the Hongwu period to 127 people in the Yongle period, and then from the Yongnian period to the present, it has actually increased by 20 times.

It can be imagined how boring those clan disciples of the old Zhu family are. They can't be officials, they can't do business, they can't do anything, and they can't find much entertainment except for finding women to sleep off every day. Of course, it also proves from another side that once the quality of life improves, how strong the fertility of the old Zhu family is.

And just this person, already needs more than 2 million stone Zonglu to spend, you know, now the tax income of the Ming Dynasty, just talking about the grain tax, is only about 24 million stones, and just to start the Ming Zonglu, you need to draw nearly one-tenth of the national tax revenue.

This number is appalling enough, at least Zhu Qizhen felt a toothache when he first heard this number, and after seeing that in the later stage of history, almost half of the financial revenue of the Ming State had to be used to spend Zonglu's income, Zhu Qizhen was completely messy at that time.

, the country's tax revenues are all used to support the clan, so what about the country's army? What about the officials of the state? Doesn't it cost any money?

Although there are many people who will conduct in-depth research and reform on the tax issue, it is a pity that they have been criticized by those officials, so that they will end up in nothing, and the Ming Dynasty is still the least important to the country's commercial tax revenue since the Tang Dynasty, or it is a dynasty that is the most powerless to control and work, not that the emperor does not want to do nothing, but that the ministers are unwilling to act.

The specific reason, Zhu Qizhen's heart is quite clear and understood, at least according to later generations, even some famous ministers who are hyped up in those history books, their families have a huge amount of money, and the fertile land can even reach the area owned by an ordinary county.

Zhu Qizhen really wanted to ask, where did the money and land come from for those ministers who studied hard for more than ten years and became officials after taking the imperial examination?

Moreover, according to the system, the property of officials does not need to pay taxes, and there is another point, many officials even resist paying taxes for the sake of fame, hoping to gain a good reputation during their time as magistrates.

Okay, it seems to be off topic again, in short, Zhu Qizhen knows very well that these broken things, or these reasons that led to the demise of the Ming Empire, must be solved, if he doesn't think about trying to solve it, then in the future, no one will solve it, after all, they are not like themselves, they are from the future, and they can clearly know that the Ming Dynasty will decline and perish because of these reasons.

And as his younger brother, Zhu Qiyu is an excellent model, or rather, a card that Zhu Qizhen will use in the future.

What's more, Zhu Qizhen also deeply remembers that although Zhu Qizhen in history regained the throne, he still did not kill Zhu Qiyu, but only imprisoned him in the west, not to mention that back then, even if he raised troops to kill most of China and killed Zhu Di in Nanjing, although he did not capture Zhu Yunwen and his eldest son, but he did not kill Zhu Yunwen's second son, but only imprisoned him in the Guang'an Palace in Zhongdu (Fengyang).

And if he, Zhu Qizhen, does it to Zhu Qiyu and his son now, then it will inevitably cause dissatisfaction, or panic, or panic among the civil and military ministers who have already served him. What's more, Zhu Qizhen didn't want too much turmoil in the Ming Dynasty in the first place, and it was for this reason that Zhu Qizhen did not lead hundreds of thousands of elites in border towns to go straight to Beijing, but only with a small number of elites, and then cooperate with those ministers who were loyal to him, and regain imperial power with lightning speed.

“…… If the child really disposes of Zhu Qiyu's father and son, how does the world view the child, I am afraid that when the time comes, those who have already gone because of Zhu Qiyu's general trend and descended with the trend may be repeated, and at that time, they will regret it. Of course, Zhu Qizhen will not and cannot tell the previous reasons, but he only needs to use Zhu Di, Emperor Taizong, as a reference, which is enough to make the Empress Dowager Sun and Sun Jizong break off this thought.

--------------------At least, after hearing Zhu Qizhen's words, Sun Jizong couldn't help but shed a cold sweat, and once again bowed to the ground and said ashamedly: "Your Majesty Shengming, Weichen is blunt, I almost missed the court, and I ask Your Majesty to punish you." ”

"Okay, uncle, get up quickly, you are also thinking about me, you are in a hurry, and it is inevitable that there will be a mistake, and I can blame you." Zhu Qizhen took a step forward, picked up Sun Jizong and said with a warm smile, he knew very well in his heart that Sun Jizong also had selfish intentions, but his selfishness was for himself, as long as he was still the emperor, then the Sun family would be safe and sound. Therefore, since his thoughts are a little biased, Zhu Qizhen will not blame him.

Seeing this scene between her uncle and nephew, Empress Dowager Sun couldn't help but bow her head again and again. "The mourning family is confused, yes, the emperor has grown up after all, and he thinks about it much longer than his mother, hehe, it seems that he can put his mind at ease for his mother in the future."

After a long night, Empress Dowager Sun couldn't support it after all, under the persuasion of Zhu Qizhen, Empress Dowager Sun reluctantly went to bed, and Zhu Qizhen and Sun Jizong left Renshou Palace together, but Zhu Qizhen did not take advantage of the imperial chariot that the Son of Heaven often used in the palace, but surrounded by a guard with a knife, and walked slowly with Sun Jizong.

"Uncle, in the past two years, you have lost a lot of money, and your grandfather and several other uncles have come to Beijing to work hard for me, otherwise, even if I want to go back to Beijing, if I don't have your help, I won't think about it for three or five years."

Zhu Qizhen and Sun Jizong walked forward slowly, looking at the Forbidden City, which was full of corridors and pavilions, but it seemed that they would never be able to get out, they couldn't help but feel a little depressed, I don't know why, this Forbidden City made Zhu Qizhen feel very depressed, and even felt that it made people feel breathless. "Is it because I was dizzy from the palace fighting scene I saw in my previous life, and I don't like this kind of dirty and dark atmosphere in the palace forbidden." Zhu Qizhen couldn't help but scratch his slightly itchy scalp and thought to himself.

"Your Majesty, why should you be modest, originally, don't say that it is an old minister, I am afraid that no one in the whole world can believe that Your Majesty, you can work hard and regain the great treasure under such adversity." Sun Jizong shook his head, looked at the nephew, who was almost half a head taller than himself, and said with a smile.

"Your Majesty, when you were in the tile thorn, you have already begun to plot, this is far away and scheming, not the ministers can be fathomed, when Your Majesty you got rid of the tile thorn and returned, the old minister finally believed, Your Majesty, but not the former Majesty."

(To be continued)