Jing Yang, born in Yangzhou Yizheng in the twelfth year of Chenghua, was a high school jinshi in Zhengde for three years, and went to sea in the eleventh year of Zhengde, and the emperor praised it as the Bowang of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Houzhao stood at Fengtianmen, everything was normal in front of him, but he always had the scene of the civil and military officials of that day with agitated expressions in his mind.

On that day, he ordered the recognition of the sea as Xinjiang, which was based on the Daming Navy and the Naval Academy under preparation, and in order to support the ability to defend the 10,000-mile sea frontier, it was beyond question to further strengthen the naval armament.

The navy of the Ming Dynasty has not fought any naval battles so far.

Zhu Houzhao has a picture in his mind: the west coast of the Pacific Ocean or Northeast Asia is actually not a big deal, North Korea has no sense of existence in any era, and it is difficult for Japan to get up.

He thought in his heart that if the time was right, he would send the Daming Sailor to Nanyang to undergo the test.

The key to gradually extending your sphere of influence from the continent to the sea is your military power projection, and in the process, the islands become very important.

The government and the opposition have long reached a consensus on this point, and Zhu Houzhao has long ordered Mei Kejia to build military ports and towns in Taiwan, Luzon and other places.

Taiwan in this period of population is small, and mainly the local Gaoshan people, historically, the middle of the Ming Dynasty began, the plague gradually serious, Fujian Province is mountainous, resulting in more people and less land, the imperial court has a mediocrity, the people are not living, under the combined effect of a variety of factors, many people in Fujian Province began to move to Taiwan.

However, during the reign of Zhengde, the lives of the people of Fujian have already been improved in recent years, and the development of trade and the promotion of new crops such as sweet potatoes have made few locals want to immigrate to Taiwan.

This has somewhat hampered the Navy's plans to go south.

Zhu Houzhao worked hard for a long time and dug a pit for himself. ’

The two important ministers beside him followed him and spoke, "Under the hard work of Your Majesty, the territory of the Ming Dynasty has been restored to its peak, and there is a lot of land, but there are not enough people." Over the past few years, Hetao has needed immigrants, Sichuan has a population of only three million, and it also needs immigrants, and Liaodong needs to be reclaimed, and immigrants are also needed. ”

Yang Tinghe said this a little 'happy', and there was no sorrow at all, all of this is a manifestation of strong national strength and national expansion.

As for Wang Wei, he was thinking about the matter of Lu Yin, he said: "Your Majesty, the minister received a note from Guan Yanqing, the prefect of Suzhou, yesterday, and he said that there are two major difficulties in Suzhou's tax affairs, one is that Suzhou's taxes are quite heavy, and the people are overwhelmed, and second, in recent years, going to sea to do business has become a trend, and almost all villages and townships have gone out to work, or even go to sea and do not return. ”

Zhu Houzhao put his hands behind his back, "Isn't this good?" The people have a livelihood. ”

"But it's hard to collect the silver."

The so-called Ding Yin, also known as the poll tax, was one of the main taxes of the Central Dynasty.

The so-called obedient and listening, Zhu Houzhao knew that what Wang Wei wanted to say was the matter of Lu Yin.

"In the past few years, I have a little experience in governing the country, and if I collect taxes on people, the people will hide the population, and if I collect taxes on the land, the people will hide the farmland. But in the end, it's better to collect taxes on land, at least people who don't have to pay taxes for landless, don't you say? ”

Yang Tinghe and Wang Wei were slightly stunned, there was a secret in the emperor's words.

"Mr. Wang, why don't you send a task to the household department, and ask them to sort out how much the poll tax is in the annual tax of the Ming Dynasty. In this way, you and I have a good number. ”

"......"

"Other things are on the table, and I know your worries, but I already have plans, don't worry."

This involves the tax system, that is, apportionment into the acre, in short, the abolition of the poll tax, and all the land is merged.

There are two main and recognized reasons for China's population explosion during the Qing Dynasty, one is the introduction of high-yielding crops such as sweet potatoes, corn and potatoes, which raised the food ceiling.

The second reason is that the head tax has been abolished. This reform has been carried out more vigorously by Yongzheng, but its source is not Yongzheng.

It's not that Yongzheng patted his head and thought of this brilliant idea.

In fact, it began to evolve gradually from the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

That is, the per capita tax is not easy to collect at all.

The tax system in the late Ming Dynasty gradually collapsed, regardless of the fact that the Qing Dynasty, which was supposed to be a new dynasty during the Shunzhi and Kangxi periods, also found it difficult to receive the per capita tax, most of which was still land tax. The official count of Dingkou was only about 20 million, but in fact it was later estimated that there were at least 40 million (Dingkou, not the population).

In other words, the poll tax is not suitable for collection, and it is not easy to collect.

The endogenous power of the cancellation began to increase gradually.

Once the taxation is no longer levied, the motivation for childbearing will suddenly increase, and the immigration plight mentioned by Yang Tinghe will be gradually alleviated.

Twenty years later, no matter how far the territory has expanded, there is no need to worry about no one.

In this era when machine production does not exist and mainly relies on people, a large population is really a resource.

However, this is a long-term policy transformation and social transformation, which needs to be gradually implemented in a subtle and silent manner.

Now Zhu Houzhao understands that the Ming Dynasty is in the stage of vigorous development of the commodity economy, which requires the free circulation of population and goods, so it is gradually deregulated, but this will make it more difficult to collect taxes in various places, and eventually inevitably lead to a decline in taxes and grain.

Since you can't collect taxes, then cancel them with the trend, which is a silky operation.

In fact, this all belongs to the category of 'policies are easier to keep up with social development'.

Zhu Houzhao felt that they should gradually instill this kind of concept, so today is the beginning, he thought about it and said: "In the past few years, I think the two elders can feel that the situation faced by our monarchs and ministers is completely different from that of our ancestors, and it can be called a great change unseen in a thousand years.

The Han people of the Central Plains had to deal with people from outside, to promote the development of industries such as cotton textiles in addition to agriculture and mulberry, and to promote scientific progress in order to improve navigation and shipbuilding technology, so that we could be more at ease at sea. All of this is different from what has happened in the millennium.

Someone has to figure it out. The so-called tree moves to death, people move to live, let's laugh at the Chu people who carve boats and ask for swords every day, don't turn back and become Chu people. ”

Wang Wei and Yang Tinghe didn't quite understand the emperor's intentions, "Your Majesty said that there have been great changes in a thousand years, but Weichen feels that there doesn't seem to be such a big change." ”

"It will be soon, and soon Elder Yang Ge will realize it." Zhu Houzhao is not in a hurry, it is useless to be in a hurry, he is kind and tempting, "For example, the scale of this business and industry is expanding year by year, and one day in the future, it will be tens of millions of taels of trade a year, what do you say the imperial court will do?" Closed? Even if it's going to be chaos in the world, don't you close? It doesn't matter how to regulate and guide development? If there is a problem, how can the imperial court ensure that he continues to prosper while not allowing the problem to worsen, and how big or small is the intensity of this rectification? What strategy to deal with, these are not answered in the ancient books, we can only explore by ourselves.

I said that this road leads, business always has to circulate, control people, business can't be done, the court's taxes can't increase, is this what we want to see? In the past, the system of the Ming Dynasty was tailor-made for agriculture, and in the future, we should consider commerce, unless we stopped the sea trade ourselves, let the business be depressed, and the cities in the southeast were desolate, otherwise some laws had to be changed. How can it be changed? There has been no answer to this question for thousands of years, so how can it not be a great change unseen in a thousand years? ”

In this way, it actually feels like a long way to go.

However, the emperor's expression was still relaxed.

Wang Wei said in a daze: "According to the emperor, the old minister is becoming more and more incompetent for the post of cabinet leader." ”

What he meant, the old system is not suitable, and the old people are certainly not suitable.

Zhu Houzhao really didn't be polite to him, "Mr. is still suitable, this change will not be so fast, and the trade volume will not swell to the sky overnight." But in the future...... You're pretty old by then, anyway. ”

"And what about the future?"

"Won't there be an advisor in the future?"

Wang and Yang suddenly became clear in their hearts, and it turned out that the emperor's son had also fallen.

Alas, Wang Wei couldn't help but shake his head, he somewhat understood Yang Yiqing's mood back then, saying that he was the first to control hundreds of officials, but in fact, the main direction of the imperial court was controlled by the emperor. And if Yang Yiqing is a little weak, he is a little guilty, and he always feels that he can't worry about you.

"Then the minister will go to the household department and pass on His Majesty's message."

"Go ahead." Zhu Houzhao touched his nose, and before leaving, he commanded, "Pick a time, and you can discuss the great changes that I said about a thousand years ago." ”

"Yes!"