In order to take into account the overall situation and avoid the army of the Han court being overconsumed in the civil war, Zhu Changzhu chose to temporarily forbear Zhu Yousong and take the opportunity to cut the feudal domain from other vassal kings. This decision is absolutely not a problem.

A very small number of cabinet ministers, including Shi Kefa, who participated in the decision-making process, also knew that if they dealt a heavy hand to King Fu from the beginning, even if they could get it, it would definitely leave a sequelae, that is, they would cause everyone in other vassal kings to endanger themselves and resist entering the court.

In this way, if we try to subdue all local warlords in the future, the hidden danger of civil war will definitely be higher than it is now. It is better to temporarily show the tolerance of the imperial court, and let all the songs and mistakes go to the king of Fu.

Of course, in this decision-making process, it is not that no one objected, for example, Xu Shiqi, the secretary of the Criminal Department, secretly admonished and put forward a point:

"In troubled times, the king should use heavy canons, the king should first supervise the national government, and when he uses thunderous means, he can suppress the situation, once he shows weakness, it will make the ambitious people more and more ready to move."

Zhu Changzhu himself is a weak person who doesn't understand politics, and he doesn't know how to refute it when he listens to Xu Shiqi's secret advice, after all, it does sound reasonable.

Fortunately, Shi Kefa and Zhu Shuren were very sober, and in the end, Shi Kefa came forward and gave a firm opposition to Xu Shiqi's statement:

"This time and that time! In troubled times, heavy canons are used, and the law is clear and responsible, which is used in the case of the weakness and mud of the ancestors! For example, when Liu Bei entered Yizhou, Liu Zhang was weak and muddy before, and the law was relaxed, so Zhuge Liang had to clarify the law and confirm his responsibility! ”

"But if the ancestor himself is in a state of fortitude and harshness, such as Qin Shihuang and Hu Hai, then Liu Bang will enter the customs and be in the third chapter of the law!"

The reason why Shi Kefa needs to come forward with these words is naturally because Zhu Shuren is still the governor of another town, not the cabinet of the central government.

If he openly interferes with the central decision-making, it is easy for him to fall into the hands of others, and he will further give careerists an excuse to resist under the banner of "purging the prison and the country". Therefore, even if Zhu Shuren is trusted by his father-in-law, he can only come secretly for the time being. Among the courtiers, only Shi Kefa and Shen Tingyang directly knew that Zhu Shuren was involved in the central decision-making, and everyone else hid it.

In the process of consolidating the authority of the central government in this round, Zhu Changzhu will be able to continue to promote him, add a scholarly title, and participate in the central decision-making.

(Note: At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the governor of the town added a military department secretary and a superintendent, or added the rank of university sergeant, it was much more convenient, and he could directly participate in the discussion of the imperial court.) Zhu Shuren only had a governor and was made a duke, but he never increased the rank of bachelor or scholar. ）

And there is still half of this sentence, Zhu Shuren obviously didn't let Shi Kefa say it, that is, they think that Chongzhen belongs to the style of Qin Shihuang and Hu Hai.

Only by taking the opportunity to show that the new prison will never settle the old accounts of history, and everyone can look forward to unite the hearts of the people more.

In contrast, the laws and regulations are not strict enough to reward and punish, and they are not the main contradiction at the moment.

Xu Shiqi is just a secretary of the criminal department, and he attaches more importance to his reputation and is not used to being muddy. was persuaded by Shi Kefa like this, and he admitted it. As a result, Zhu Changzhu's vassal policy was unreservedly implemented.

……

Although the policy has been promulgated, it will take time to implement. The first time King Fu was summoned before, it was issued on the eighth day of the first month of March, and King Fu procrastinated to reply, had a war of words, and the discussion between the DPRK and China basically dragged on until late March.

In late March, the edicts proclaiming the kings were issued one after another, and the road had to be walked for as little as ten days and eight days, and as much as one or two months, so this matter could not be completely concluded until at least the second half of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen.

After all, the summoning of the kings is not an urgent military situation, and it is impossible to send it urgently with six hundred miles, but only an ordinary messenger who travels one or two hundred miles a day.

And after the vassal kings agreed to set off, they would travel fifty miles a day at most. These pampered princes, where are they willing to ride horses and gallop to work hard.

In these three months, the imperial court could not be idle, and Zhu Shuren had no excuse to stay in Beijing all the time, so he was ready to discuss the major policies of the next stage with his father-in-law, father, and Shi Kefa a little more, and then temporarily return to his defense area to supervise the army and deal with civil affairs.

After Chongzhen's death, Zhu Shuren's farming and climbing science and technology in the jurisdiction of the Huguang Governor can also have a new stage of deployment, and those things are also very important. Otherwise, for half a year at most, when the Qing army comes, the southern seizure of power will be won, and the careerists will be cut off, but the result will not be able to defeat the Qing army, then everything will be over. The primary and secondary contradictions are still clear to Zhu Shuren.

Zhu Shuren calculated the time, and at about the beginning of April, he could leave Nanjing, go back to his own territory first, and wait for the implementation of the policy on the side of the imperial court.

If the situation is in crisis, he can be on standby in Hefei, anyway, Hefei is also his governor's jurisdiction, and as soon as there is an accident, he can lead his troops back to Nanjing as soon as he stretches his legs. If the situation is not critical, return to Wuchang.

Therefore, in late March, Zhu Changzhu also took advantage of his son-in-law's departure from Beijing to intensively take time out of his time to specially convene Shen Tingyang, Zhu Shuren, and Shi Kefa to discuss the major policies for the next stage in private behind closed doors.

As for the outsiders of the other four Shangshu, there is no need to participate. After the closing meeting, Shen Tingyang and Shi Kefa can argue with the outside world, and Zhu Shuren will not care about the details of the process of going to the court, nor will he see it.

Zhu Changzhu's nature is Buddhist, and he is not willing to toss more, so as soon as these secret discussions came up, he first threw out a fundamental question:

If there is a big chaos today, when he is in charge of the country at the beginning, should everything continue as usual and calm the people's hearts, or should the new officials take office with three fires and make some moves vigorously and resolutely to show that they are different from when the first emperor was there?

In the face of this question, Shi Kefa still wanted to be serious, Shen Tingyang's attitude was not as firm as Shi Kefa, mainly because he didn't read much and didn't know much about politics other than finance.

Shi Kefa sincerely persuaded: "Great King, when discussing the control of the feudal domains before, the minister has already said that in today's world, it is like the chaos at the end of the Qin Dynasty, and when the three chapters of the Han Gaozu Covenant are followed, the province is light, and the past is not to blame.

Before the kings came to Nanzhili, it was better to settle people's hearts as usual. Even if there are some urgent changes to be made, it is not bad for these few months. After controlling the kings, no matter how much the local generals want to make trouble in the name of cleverness, they will have no object to support, and there will naturally be much less resistance at that time. ”

Zhu Changzhu felt that these words were really old and conspiring for the country, and he had already adopted them a little, and turned to Shen Tingyang next to him: "What does Shen Qing think?" ”

Shen Tingyang sighed: "What the Shi Pavilion Department said is indeed Lao Cheng Mouguo, but at the moment, something is imminent. It has been two months since the martyrdom of the first emperor before the imperial court is back on track, and most of the northern provinces have fallen.

When the first emperor was martyred, but Beizhili fell into the hands of thieves, and some state capitals in Henan and Shandong were controlled by the imperial court. It is in these two months that the thieves have been defeated and retreated, and now the whole territory of Beizhili and most of Shandong, and several prefectures in Henan Province located north of the Yellow River have been occupied by the Tartars.

I heard that the thieves themselves have retreated to Kaifeng, and now there are only a few provinces in Henan, and Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces are in the hands of the thieves, and they occupy only two provinces and three provinces.

In such a situation, the imperial court only had taxes to collect in the southern provinces this year, but there were more soldiers and horses to raise than in previous years to ensure that it could hold its territory. The three salaries set by the first emperor are destined to be unable to be levied in many provincial capitals.

If we do not seek new sources of wealth, we must ensure that in the process of grabbing financial resources, we must not force more people to rebel, but we are afraid that when the Tartars come, the morale of the army and the people will collapse first. ”

Shen Tingyang's remarks have always paid attention to practical benefits, in his opinion, even for the sake of righteousness, there are not so many that can be wasted, and it is very necessary to accelerate the appropriate risk.

Zhu Changzhu was already an unassertive person, so he had to look at his son-in-law again and gesture with his eyes, hoping that Zhu Shuren would help him analyze.

He also didn't want to think that Zhu Shuren and Shen Tingyang were father and son, if the national policy decision-making needed "the minority obeys the majority", then the three people present, Shi Kefa would not be able to account for the majority of votes - unless Zhu Shuren also really felt that his father's idea was problematic.

Zhu Shuren also realized this, and he really felt that Shi Kefa's approach was a bit too stable, and he only paid attention to uprightness, and there was no strategic cooperation. But in order not to appear to be colluding with father and son, he also had to fully understand the reason before he could open his mouth to refute.

Zhu Shuren thought for a long time, and then said impartially: "King, the minister thinks that what the Shi Pavilion Department said, although it is the right way, there are some things that cannot be seen. As the courtier's father said, it is urgent to open up the source of the imperial court's wealth, expand the army by raising troops, and resist foreign insults.

Therefore, the minister thought that at the beginning of the king's imprisonment, he should conform to the expectations of the people of the world for the 'three fires of the new official taking office', and make some adjustments, so that it would be easier to stabilize people's hearts than doing nothing——"

When Zhu Shuren said this, he paused for a moment, and did not continue to explain to Zhu Changzhu, but turned to Shi Kefa, "Shi Gebu, you also said just now, Liu Bang calmed people's hearts with light provinces in the late Qin Dynasty, but Liu Bang's light province was specifically manifested as 'Three Chapters of the Law', rather than doing nothing and directly abolishing the Qin Law.

The death of the murderer, the wounding and the punishment of the thief, is this the first creation of Liu Bang? No, there has long been a Qin law, but the Qin law is more demanding. Extracting three chapters of the Qin Law and re-issuing them in the name of Liu Bang is also a kind of 'action', rather than ruling by vertical arches.

What's more, people today can learn from far more lessons from ancient history than from previous generations. Scholars and generals all over the world are accustomed to the ancient example of 'three fires for new officials to take office'. Even if the king doesn't do anything, they will be anxious, and they will always feel that the king has to do something.

It's like if you live in a small two-story building, and the people upstairs take off their boots before going to bed in the middle of the night, once the first boot hits the ground and disturbs you, can you still sleep peacefully? Wouldn't we have to wait for the second boot to hit the ground?

In this case, it is better to burn these three fires, and in the process of burning, the wording of the edict should be more modified and noted, and even two of the three changes and one of the three will be used to reaffirm the right, showing people that 'burn early and feel at ease, and then no longer toss, and in a hurry, there are not enough three variable methods, it is purely a number', presumably it can also be easier to calm people's hearts than doing nothing. ”

Shi Kefa is still very fair-minded, so he listened to Zhu Shuren's opinions very seriously, and he had a completely wrong attitude towards things and people, and he didn't make trouble because the other party's father and son joined forces to refute him.

After thinking about it carefully, Shi Kefa really had to admit that he didn't know enough about the details of these power schemes and stealing profits, and he only cared about taking the right path, and he was slow at an extraordinary time.

Although he hadn't heard the story of "waiting for the second boot to land", as soon as Zhu Shuren explained, he could understand it immediately, and after thinking it out, he frankly admitted:

"What Governor Zhu said is indeed a strange match, and the king and the minister are willing to second. However, I wonder how Governor Zhu wants to piece together these three opportunities for change and reiteration? ”

Zhu Shuren had already prepared, so he waited for Shi Kefa to loosen his mouth, so he took out the strategy he had thought of in the past few days from his sleeve and presented it, while saying:

"The king, the minister thinks that for the sake of today's plan, he may be able to use the three fires of the new office in these aspects. Of course, this is just the shallow opinion of the minister's family, and the Cabinet Department can also delete and supplement.

First of all, after the martyrdom of the first emperor, what must be adjusted immediately is the wealth system of our Ming Dynasty. Among the three fires, the first one should show the world to be lenient and benevolent, push the boat down the river to exempt the northern provinces and some provinces in the south that have been particularly severely affected this year, and then abolish the 'three salaries' system left by the first emperor.

The former part of this money is destined to not be recovered, and the latter part is now extremely costly, easy to continue to stir up instability among the people, or the basis for expropriation no longer exists. Instead of being a villain in vain, it is better to abolish it to show the atmosphere of the new deal.

As for the larger gap that arose after the abolition, it was filled with a second fire. When the first emperor first established this law, in order to avoid the rebellion of the merchants and gentry in the world, the tax rate was only set for every province, one out of a hundred.

In the following four years, due to the tense war, many provinces were adjusted, or added to the second or third of the hundred, and in a very few provinces and a few years, there were as high as five per hundred, that is, five cents. The minister thought that this time he could take the opportunity to increase the commercial tax of 'collecting 10% of the value of the goods for every province'.

Since the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, at that time, the southern provinces could get about two million taels of silver a year, and then the provinces increased their own taxes, and this part of the money could range from four to five million per year.

Now that it is directly added to 10 percent, the minister estimates that it can be at least more than 150,000 taels, and if there is no obvious reduction in cross-provincial and seagoing trade, it can even reach 20 million taels, which is almost 70 or 80 percent of the total sum of the three salaries set by the previous emperor, or more than the total amount of two of them, which is enough to raise troops and train troops and expand armaments and warfare. ”

Zhu Shuren sprinkled with joy and put out his overall ideas. Some of his practices were also done in the same period of history, and the Fuwang regime would have done it under the manipulation of Shi Kefa.

When the new emperor comes to the new prison country, it is not easy to loot directly, but he must first show mercy and reduce taxes.

Historically, Shi Kefa used the method of asking King Fu to exempt the taxes of those places in the north that had already fallen to show off. Zhu Shuren's current show is more humane and more concealed than what Shi Kefa used in history, and it really gives some benefits to the poor people, after all, the three salaries are really going to be abolished.

Liaodi is now no longer in the hands of the imperial court, even Hebei and Shandong are gone, and those places do not need to be guarded by the imperial court at present, so what else do you need for "Liaodi"? Even if you want to avenge the first emperor and the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, the money needed must be set up under another name, and the old ones that are out of date should be abolished.

And the new money needed will obviously have to be accomplished by continuing to expand the commercial tax.

Centigold has been implemented for several years, but no matter how much it has been added before, it has not broken through the lines of 3% and 5%, after all, if you receive 3% and 5%, it is still centigold in name. If you receive a point directly, it is a qualitative change, and the original name is embarrassed to use, so don't you have to change it to "Fenjin"?

Increase the commercial tax, there will definitely be a revolt, and the southern Donglin gentry do not want their business to be exploited. But as long as the Shen family takes the lead in paying taxes, pays the largest part, and then pulls the Zheng family up and promises the Zheng family a little political status, small businessmen in other provinces can use force to coerce under the pretext of a special period.

In fact, the businessmen are not unable to understand that they overcharge a cent of money to save the country, they are just afraid that they will be fattened and slaughtered as a fat sheep, and they are afraid that the imperial court will selectively and strictly enforce the law, turn a blind eye to powerful and related businessmen, and only strictly enforce the law against businessmen who have no backstage and no backing, so that businessmen with weak backgrounds will be squeezed out of unfair competition sooner or later.

As we all know, the ultimate problem at the end of the Ming Dynasty is that no matter how a new policy is introduced, whether it is changed for the better or for the worse, and finally at the implementation level, it will be used to abuse power for personal gain-

Just like a few months ago, when the plague in Beijing City, Chongzhen asked people to promote the cremation of the dead and reduce the source of infection, which is no problem.

But in the end, the law enforcers either collected black money and let go of the corpses that should have been burned, or extorted money from those who should not have been burned, and if they couldn't extort money, they burned what should not have been burned.

Whether it should be burned or not, or it should not be burned and forced to burn, it has become a means of collecting black money and collecting money, the key is that the rule of officials has completely collapsed, everyone knows the power of unspoken rules, and knows that even if they abide by the law, it is useless, and others will still fish.

After this terrible expectation is solidified, people are urged to squander their short-term power as soon as possible, and they will not stop until the last breath of the country's demise.

So in the same way, businessmen in the late Ming Dynasty were not without patriotism, it was not that they could not pay more taxes, the key was that they should see the fairness and sustainability of law enforcement.

It's like a highway network, if the toll is expensive, but it is fair to everyone, then it will not squeeze the law-abiding logistics providers, anyway, everyone asks the owner to collect the freight when the price increases.

I'm afraid that law-abiding people have been bearing high costs, and there is a group of privileged people next to them who can collude with the toll booth, and then the law-abiding people will increase their prices and their businesses will be snatched away by the privileged, and in the long run, the privileges can squeeze the law-abiding people to death.

Once Shen Tingyang and Zheng Zhilong take the lead in paying heavy taxes, this expectation of fear of privilege can be broken.

Zhu Changzhu and Shi Kefa quickly figured out this truth, and they supported the promotion of this idea as the core of the new prison policy.

Shi Kefa was more steady, and asked again: "Since such an extra heavy tax has been charged to merchants, there must always be a supporting method to calm people's hearts, I don't know what Governor Zhu thinks?" ”

Zhu Shuren smiled: "If you want the horse to run, you naturally have to give the horse grass." I thought that to make the merchants pay such heavy taxes, it would take two things.

First of all, it is necessary to change the social status suppression of agriculture and business suppression since Taizu in the Ming Dynasty, and achieve equality among the four people. The status of the businessman is high, and if he pays more, he will not be so angry.

And the so-called low status of businessmen in my Ming Dynasty has long since become an empty word, which is nothing more than suppressing those ignorant businessmen who have no reputation, and finally promoting the collusion between officials and businessmen, allowing businessmen to surrender and shelter officials, suppressing it is equivalent to not pressing, and leaving countless bad rules! It's better to abolish the unspoken rules and directly make equality clear.

Secondly, it is necessary to rectify the rule of officials, so that people can believe more that the imperial court will be fair in the process of collecting commercial taxes. It's not something that happens overnight, and it needs to be done slowly.

At present, you can first rely on the tree model to solve the problem, such as letting the imperial court relevy the commercial taxes of the Shen family and the Zheng family, and let the Shen family and the Zheng family take the lead in abiding by the law and spend a huge amount of money.

In the long run, it is even more necessary to reform the official salary system of our Ming Dynasty, pay high salaries and maintain honesty, first ensure that the officials can live well if they do not collect ice and charcoal, and as long as they do not compare, at least they can ensure that the whole family and staff can have good food and clothing.

Then, at the same time, severely punish the abuse of power for personal gain, and gradually bring some looting scales under the supervision of the imperial court, supplemented by the inspiration of 'not to blame for the past, stop not asking about the past', and not blame the historical greed left over from the previous emperors, and only severely punish those who do not stop in the future, so that the people's hearts can be avoided and the majority can be temporarily enveloped......

Of course, these things will be long-term, and we will have to wait for my Ming Dynasty to achieve a decisive military victory on the battlefield before we can talk about these things. If you are too hasty, you are afraid that you will immediately force people to the thieves and tartars. ”

——

ps: It's almost 6,000 words here, and the internal affairs strategy of the upper level of the prison country also has to be written, which is not water.

The New Year's pigeon for a few days, slowly adapted, the last few days of January, basically five or six thousand words a day, the beginning of February began to resume two changes a day.