Chapter 70: A New National Policy

Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked in his heart and said, "It won't come to this point." ”

The prince is not so easy to fool.

The crown prince is Zhu Yuanzhang's carefully cultivated successor. Compared with Zhu Yuanzhang, although he is a little soft-hearted, he is a qualified king. even used Zhu Biao to replace any emperor except Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Biao will only do better, not worse.

Arguably, the most important sensitivity as an emperor. The prince has always been there.

He keenly felt that Zhu Yuanzhang's change of direction here would affect many things. Among them is the dispute over the future prince.

All along, the crown prince has never worried about his position as prince. Because of Zhu Yuanzhang's plan for the future of the Ming Dynasty. Before the fourteenth year of Hongwu, he had always suppressed the arrogant soldiers. Changing the status quo of the Ming Dynasty into civil and official politics is more conducive to the long-term stability of the Ming Dynasty and the inheritance of the descendants of the Zhu family.

And the cultivation of the crown prince is also arranged in this way.

The prince's side, from Song Lian to Fang Xiaoru. and many noble children. Even Nahachu's son, Chahan, who had just surrendered, walked in the East Palace. It is one of the East Palace teams. Fourteen years after Hongwu, the crown prince has been acting as the prime minister.

It can be said that he is a veritable prime minister.

And the prince's political leanings also made him the de facto leader of the civilian clique.

If there are no variables.

Zhu Yuanzhang himself became a martial emperor and let Zhu Biao be an emperor of Wen. Then it became the Ming Dynasty and transitioned to a normal civilian government. But now, what a day has come. let Zhu Yuanzhang broaden his horizons. He pondered the various ideas brought by He Xi for a year or two, and had a new plan for the future of Daming.

And who is the biggest obstacle to this plan?

Not someone else. It is the civilian-official group of the Ming Dynasty.

Because of the Ming Dynasty, most of them are not from the grassroots, and they are relatively low-level. Because of the rise of the Ming Dynasty, they became their own glory and wealth. As long as they can keep their glory and wealth, they don't really care much about where they will go in the future of the Ming Dynasty.

On the contrary, there will be a lot of resistance from the civilian bureaucracy.

And the crown prince has become the de facto civil leader.

Naturally, the prince also felt this sign. I asked this question.

The prince said, "Daddy, don't lie to me. I understand my father, I won't allow you to kill Mr. Fang and all the old ministers. If you kill me, I won't allow it. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Silly boy, what are you talking about." ”

The prince didn't speak, just looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and showed his firmness.

Zhu Yuanzhang was silent for a while and took out two booklets. said to the prince: "There are some things that He Xi has not told you. But you are the prince of the country after all. What you should know, you still have to know. Take it and see it. ”

The prince took it with both hands. One is "The Wealth of Nations" and the other is "The Farm System". The prince doesn't care if it's rude or not. Flipping through it on the spot, he was too curious. What kind of knowledge can make my father become like this all of a sudden?

These two books were actually written by Zhu Yuanzhang.

It can even be said to be a summary of Zhu Yuanzhang's own reading of modern books. The Wealth of Nations. It is to divide the society into a large part of the labor. Already industrialized composition model. A new economic system was formed, which replaced the small peasant economy of the Ming Dynasty. The "Field System" is written about the field system of all dynasties since ancient times, and brings forth the new, the apportionment into the mu, the gentry pay the grain in one, and so on, and there are many details in it, such as the new method of measuring the land. That is to use a hot air balloon to measure the land. Not too precise, though. But the error was small enough to be acceptable to the imperial court.

Perhaps, there are still people who do their hands and feet on the land. But the land is something that cannot be hidden from the ground. As long as the hot air balloon makes an estimate of the land in the place, the kind of place that is missing 30% can be found out at once.

And according to the results of surveying and mapping with aircraft during the Republic of China. In most places, the difference between the amount of land and the amount controlled by the government is 30%. That is to say, at least 30% of the land has always been a hidden field. Nowadays, although the mapping on the hot air balloon, the accuracy is not too high. It's normal to have a fluctuation up and down. But it's absolutely impossible to miss three percent.

And this kind of hot air balloon clearing personnel. It doesn't take much. A maximum of one or two thousand people will be enough.

Zhu Yuanzhang can't control the officials in the whole world, can't he control one or two thousand people? That's a joke.

In the end, the land system is to make all agricultural taxes into one. However, it was not converted into silver, because the problem of the Ming monetary system had not yet been resolved. Nowadays, it is still mainly based on taxes in kind. All the land under heaven is subject to taxes. It's the same even if you're an official.

Tax-exempt land for officials will be directly converted into a stipend and decentralized.

In fact, for a period of time after Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne, there were many events in the world. The imperial court was very short of money. Officials are in vain. There is no treatment for students. Only then did Zhu Yuanzhang come up with a way to exempt the land of officials and gentry with a certain amount of tax. In fact, this method is not without precedent. After all, the Tang and Song dynasties all had professional fields, that is, where you became an official, you will be given as much local land as you want, and the output of this land is the official's income. Zhu Yuanzhang's tax exemption method evolved from the method of vocational fields.

It's just that Zhu Yuanzhang never thought that future generations would evolve into that, which was originally a limited amount of tax exemption, but became an unlimited amount of tax exemption. Since he knew about the problem, he naturally had to make amends. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty was low, which was the consensus of later generations. Zhu Yuanzhang certainly feels that it is not low, but in the face of so many evaluations from later generations. I also feel that I should give more. As a result, the tax-free quota will be vacant. Counted as a new subsidy, closing the loophole. It also increased the number of officials. It's a win-win-win-win

Of course. This subsidy is not much. For example, an official can have 100 acres of tax-exempt land. Then his subsidy is calculated according to the Daming field tax and five liters per mu, which is just five stones of grain.

For the crown prince, the former is in a fog. The latter was amazed. Exclaimed: "This is proposed by He Xi." It's wonderful. With this method, the imperial court can increase the tax by at least 20%. It's just that in this way, I am afraid that it will be difficult to maintain the county government offices in various places. ”

The law of whipping is essentially the abolition of unpaid forced labor. When the people paid the land tax, they had money for forced labor. However, whether it is a mu or a whip method, there is a tax addition and a law of addition.

That is, all taxes are integrated. It is levied at the same time, which is convenient for both up and down. But after a while, the tax name that had been integrated into the field tax came back to life.

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "The people and officials must suffer one, and it is better to suffer the officials than the people." Moreover, in the future, the imperial court will withhold more taxes from the local government. The essence of this method is not to raise taxes, but to facilitate the people. Conscription is too hard. ”

The crown prince said silently: "Father, do you want to change the system and change to the present field?" ”

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Why, you think you can't change it." ”

The prince said: "It can be done, it can be changed." ”

The prince couldn't understand the things in "The Wealth of Nations" at all. But he was amazed by the things in the field system, and he didn't know that doing such a thing would make many people around him uncomfortable. But the crown prince also has his own beliefs. I don't stop doing it because I'm uncomfortable.

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Then you can prepare." After the beginning of spring tomorrow, I will clear the world. Promote the new law. You carry this burden for me. ”

The crown prince said: "Please rest assured that your son will not live up to his father's trust." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang said; "Alright, you go and prepare. Also, don't tell anyone about everything today. You know? ”

The prince bowed his head slightly and said, "Understood." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang watched the prince leave, and sighed slightly in his heart.

Performing major surgery on the Damingtian system is what Zhu Yuanzhang will do next year. It is also something he has been preparing for many years, and Zhu Yuanzhang has made full preparations for this matter. This is a matter of great resistance in the south. But Zhu Yuanzhang didn't feel that it couldn't be done. Because the civil power in the south has not yet been formed. When he left Jingshi, he also gave some people some opportunities to see what they did? Settle accounts after the fall.

It's not the same in the north. The north performs great work, and there is a lot of labor. Manpower shortage. Once the conscription is exempted. The people will rejoice, but the people will be miserable. Even the military was unwilling.

Without him, the people who are exempt from conscription and the army will not be enough. It directly affects the operational capacity and cost of the Ming army.

Because in the future, even if you recruit people, you won't be able to do it for free. To give money.

The cost of the Ming army's dispatch was even higher.

This is also Zhu Yuanzhang's intention, and it is inevitable that he encourages foreign expansion. Because the future world will be divided by several small countries, he, Zhu Yuanzhang, is not convinced. However, foreign expansion is not the same thing as reckless military force. He raised the cost of the army's offensive against the outside. is not ready to pass on the cost of the Ming Dynasty's foreign conquest to the small people.

In the past, the entourage of civilians in the army was all conscription. If you die outside, you will die outside. At this time, there is no state compensation. Even if the family wants to transport the body home, they have to do it themselves. At most, some money for burning and burial, funeral expenses, will not be very high.

But from now on, the people will be hired. If he dies, the army will pay for the money.

This greatly affects the interests of the nobles and nobles, and also affects the operation of the government. This is also why Zhu Yuanzhang went north. Of course, he also wanted to talk to He Xi. He gave He Xi so much support, not to let He Xi go to war. There are too many people in the world who can do such things as wars. Not much more than him.

And to give so much support, if you can't do it, there is also a price to pay.

It's just that Zhu Yuanzhang thought of Zhu Biao's figure, and he only sighed slightly. It was the first time that there was such a deep rift between father and son.