From Bai Yunzhen, the governor of Yingtian, and Yang Mingshen, the governor of the Central Bank of Daming, Zhu Youzhen saw the contradictions and common interests of the Daming management group and the capital group.

But he still can't identify who is more in the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

Although the governor of Yingtian, who represented the Ming bureaucracy, was even somewhat conservative in raising taxes, he did not forget to take care of the interests of first-class citizens.

Yang Mingshen, who represents the capital group, is not anxious about the damage to his own interests, but is anxious about the development speed hindered by the fact that Daming merchants are still under the control of the government.

Zhu Youzhen decided to take a closer look at the current Ming world.

He came to the outer part of Nanjing, which was a gathering place for ordinary people and small merchants.

There were many people gathered outside a small glass workshop at this time, and Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but come over, but saw a team of officials smashing the thin glass products in the workshop and tying up some ordinary people.

didn't wait for Zhu Youzhen to finish speaking, the governor of Yingtian on the side blushed first: "Go and call the prefect of Yingtian to this official!" ”

Zhu Youzhen pulled a citizen over and stuffed a silver dollar: "Dare to ask what happened?" ”

"Recently, there is an official errand in Yingtianfu who specializes in checking licenses, and whether the shops and workshops with special funds have a genuine license, but in fact, they are here to ask for money, and they want to buy a brand for 200 silver dollars, and the family will be beaten if they refuse to pay it, saying that they are illegal businessmen and will be detained!"

After the people spoke, Zhu Youzhen didn't say anything.

But this incident made him realize that there was something that needed to be changed immediately, that is, whether the administrative officials of these governments should be stripped of their law enforcement powers.

The tax increase by the Governor of Heaven shows that the tax rate is determined by the government.

But now the qualifications of merchants are also determined by the government, and even used by the government as a tool for extortion, the reason is that the government has the power to enforce the law.

So that these governments have the power to indiscriminately and directly take people.

Ying Tian's prefect rushed over at this time, Ying Tian's governor Bai Yunzhen was obviously short-tempered, in order not to let His Majesty not blame himself, he gave this Ying Tianfu Yin a slap on the spot: "Who let you do this!" ”

Ying Tianfu Yin looked at the situation in front of him and knew what was happening, and said with a smile: "Futai is angry, this is not a short year for business taxes, I want to make up for it, and the lower officials are also for the sake of commercial order, there are always some bad businessmen who resist the law, and the lower officials can't do it, so they have to be stronger, and let them squat in the class room for a few days and be honest." ”

Generally speaking, many people arrested by the yamen did not really commit crimes, so it is not in line with the prison procedures to be detained, so there will be a class room to detain these people who have violated the administrative order but have not committed crimes.

But Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but think that if these officials were allowed to enforce the law so casually and use their power to arbitrarily extort the common people, would it mean that even if he attracted many peasants from the land to the city, he would still not be able to promote the development of industry and commerce in the Ming Dynasty.

Is the merchants of the Ming Dynasty still suffering from the exploitation of these governments, which will affect the pace of the development of the entire Ming Dynasty?

Zhu Youzhen doesn't know if this is the case in Britain at this time.

He knew that the British Empire was the first Western European power in history to carry out a bourgeois revolution, so he always worried that the Ming Dynasty would still lag behind Britain in the system.

Now that the bureaucracy, that is, the scholars, and doctors, can still use their power to exploit the interests of industrial and commercial households, Zhu Youzhen's concern is even stronger.

Bai Yunzhen, the governor of Yingtian, forced Yingtianfu Yin to release the owner of the workshop and compensate a generous amount of silver dollars, and also dismissed several officials of Yingtianfu on the spot.

The people are very grateful for the righteous behavior of Bai Yunzhen, the governor of Yingtian.

But Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but ask Governor Yingtian: "Bai Qing, who gave you the power to remove these officials, and you can also ask Ying Tianfu Yin to suspend himself for three months?" ”

"Returning to Your Majesty, this is the power given by Your Majesty, in addition to the six ministries and nine secretaries, officials below the fourth rank can be directly appointed by the head of the cabinet, and the lower officials, as local governors, can directly appoint local officials, all of which are Your Majesty's new policies of the year."

Bai Yunming replied.

Zhu Youzhen was not angry, but laughed: "I dare to love because I dug a hole for myself at the beginning, so that you, the governor, have so much power." ”

"Your Majesty, the governor's power has always been like this, and he can also mobilize the army, just like a prince on one side," Yang Mingshen added on the side.

Zhu Youzhen didn't say anything more, what he is worried about now is that it is precisely because of the absolute control of the higher-level officials over the lower-level officials that the lower-level officials can only obey the orders of the higher-level officials, and then by extension, in front of the higher-level officials and the people, the officials can only choose to obey the higher-level officials, so this is the fundamental reason why the common people are exploited by the government.

Power is given by higher officials, and ultimately by itself, the emperor, so the entire bureaucracy can take care of the interests of its own emperor regardless of whether the people live or die.

But Zhu Youzhen is basically indifferent now, and the imperial executive power has been given to the cabinet chief assistant.

As a result, the cabinet chief assistant has become the object of hatred of the capital group, and hopes that he, the emperor, will re-preside over the overall situation.

However, Zhu Youzhen felt that even if he went out to replace the first assistant of the cabinet, it was just a way to treat the symptoms but not the root cause, and if he wanted the empire to run benignly and let the bureaucracy be controlled, he could not only rely on himself, the emperor, to control it.

After all, Zhu Youzhen didn't dare to guarantee that the emperor behind him would be willing to sacrifice his own interests to take care of the interests of the people like himself.

"The Ming Empire may have to carry out deeper reforms," Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but think.

But Zhu Youzhen has not yet decided to return to Beijing to let Daming further reform, he still has to go to see the countryside of Daming, agriculture is still the foundation of Daming, and farmers still account for the majority of Daming's population.

The situation of these people is the real factor in where the Ming Dynasty will go in the future.

"Bai Yunming, go to the nearest countryside in Nanjing with my micro-service, and go out on patrol with micro-service", Zhu Youzhen turned around and left.

And Bai Yunming, the governor of Yingtian, had to comply.

Zhu Youzhen first came to a place called Gaojiazhuang, because a large number of farmers were attracted to the city to become workers, so that the number of tenants decreased, the population of Gaojiazhuang has declined to less than one-tenth of the previous year, and the whole village seems to be very depressed.

Zhu Youzhen found the clansmen who were still in Gaojiazhuang and asked, only to find that with the development of Daming industry, it was a devastating blow to the entire Gaojiazhuang village.

In the past, Gaojiazhuang was a village where the clans lived, and the clan patriarch managed the entire Zhuangzi, and was in charge of the administrative and judicial order of the entire Zhuangzi in the form of ancestral hall sacrifices and clan meetings.

However, because a large number of tenants and children of the Shu clan went to the city to work, the Gao clan fell apart, and the patriarch could not use the land to control the group.

And the Yan tribe, who lived by exploiting the children of the Shu people, had to become merchants or become yeoman farmers.

(End of chapter)