Last time, I talked about the miserable life of ordinary people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty, and the historical and social phenomenon of "vegetable people" made Emperor Chongzhen sad and wanted to eliminate it.

As we all know, "Zhu Chongba", who rose from the poor peasants at the bottom of the society, went through a thousand difficulties and dangers and the test of life with a small and broad life, and only then succeeded in defeating the Mongolian aristocracy, overthrowing the Yuan Dynasty, recovering China, and establishing the Ming Dynasty. But why is the life of ordinary people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty still difficult?

We have to start from the beginning. In the eighteenth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty (1385), Yu Minding, the imperial historian, accused Zhao Quande and others of the political envoy of Beiping and Zhao Quande, the official of the inspection department, and conspired with Guo Huan, the head of the temple, to embezzle. After investigation, Zhu Yuanzhang believed that there was a huge "corrupt group" headed by Guo Huan in the Ming court. Zhu Yuanzhang said in "The Imperial Decree" that this corrupt group has embezzled a total of more than 2,400 stones!

This amount is very huge, almost close to the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty in a year! Because at that time, the taxes from which the finances of the entire Ming Dynasty came could be divided into "summer tax" and "autumn grain". According to historical records, the annual income of the Ming Dynasty at that time was about 29.43 million stones. In other words, Zhu Yuanzhang thinks that Guo Huan, a "corrupt group", has almost embezzled a year's tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty, how can he not make Lao Zhu angry? So, go on a killing spree!

In fact, to be specific, Guo Huan privately divided the taxes of Taiping, Zhenjiang and other prefectures, that is to say, the money and grain in these wealthy Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions did not enter Lao Zhu's treasury, but were all privately swallowed by Guo Huan and others! At the same time, Guo Huan also privately divided the autumn grain in western Zhejiang, because the total autumn grain in western Zhejiang at that time was about 4.5 million stones, but Guo Huan only handed over more than 2 million stones to Zhu Yuanzhang, and the rest of the grain was privately swallowed by him, after all, he did something when collecting taxes.

For example, he creatively set up a name and creatively collected a variety of taxes, including "water foot money", "car foot money", "mouth money", "pants money", "god and Buddha money" and other unbelievable tax collection items, and finally calculated the general ledger, it turned out that Guo Huan and his party embezzled a total of more than 24 million stone grain! That's a huge amount!

If all this is true, then Guo Huan is simply a huge greed in ancient Chinese history! In response to Guo Huan's "corruption group", after Zhu Yuanzhang's investigation, he found that almost all the officials of the entire Ming Dynasty and the entire "Six Ministries" were Guo Huan's comrades, that is to say, the officials of the six ministries of work, criminal, soldier, rites, households, and officials were all involved in the "Guo Huan case". However, the final outcome of this case is also shocking.

At that time, the "six departments" of the imperial court, except for the "big leader" of "Shangshu", who was not killed, all other officials were killed by Zhu Yuanzhang. As a result, the "Sixth Department" has no "clerks" except for the minister and a "light commander"! In addition to the "court officials" who were punished and killed in accordance with the law for the "nest case", local officials such as various prefectures, prefectures, county offices, and wealthy "grain chiefs" were also arrested by Zhu Yuanzhang and prepared to be killed.

Due to the involvement of the "Guo Huan case", the court attacked and killed more than 30,000 "corrupt officials"! As a result, "most of the people's middle-class homes are broken". This can be regarded as Zhu Yuanzhang sweeping away the inside of the Ming court. However, is this case really as Zhu Yuanzhang thinks?

It is better to start with the amount of corruption of the Ming Prime Minister "Guo Huan", the "last prime minister of China", to see the crux of the problem. As mentioned earlier, the "agricultural tax" of the Ming Dynasty was divided into two parts: "summer tax" and "autumn grain", and when the people paid the tax, they either handed over the grain or paid the money according to the grain discount.

The cultivated land of the Ming Dynasty was also divided into "official land" and "private land", but the taxes of these two "acres of land" were also different, because the tax of "official land" was much higher than that of "private land". As for the Zhejiang region of the "Guo Huan case", it is even more complicated. However, Zhu Yuanzhang has always believed that the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions are the richest places in the world.

At the beginning, after Zhang Shicheng's forces were wiped out by Zhu Yuanzhang's army, he first confiscated Zhang Shicheng and a large number of fields under his command and changed them into "official fields", and then carried out a "house raiding movement" in Jiangsu and Zhejiang to eliminate all the "rich households" in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, and finally confiscated the fields of these "rich households" as "official fields".

According to historical records, the total number of "official fields" reached 46,544.47 hectares, accounting for 69%, and Zhu Yuanzhang's wishful thinking is also very simple.

At that time, the tax revenue of "Guantian" was nearly 8 to 9 times higher than that of "Mintian". However, the taxes were too high, and of course the people could not afford to pay the taxes.

So, Zhu Yuanzhang appointed "cool officials" to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and these "cool officials" also used various means to collect taxes for Zhu Yuanzhang. For example, in the first month of the third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang sent Chen Ning to serve as the "prefect of Suzhou", and as soon as Chen Ning arrived in "Suzhou", he adopted cruel measures to collect taxes.

As long as the people pay taxes late or late, Chen Ning will take out a soldering iron to scald the people, but no matter how powerful the "cool officials" are, the people still can't afford to pay such a high tax! As a result, a large number of peasant riots followed, and there were more than 200 in the "Hongwu period" alone, seven or eight every year!

Zhu Yuanzhang felt that it was not a way to go on like this for a long time, so in the thirteenth year of Hongwu, he issued a holy decree to reduce the tax standard. However, even if the tax standard is lowered, the people still can't afford to pay such a heavy tax? Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang believes that the tax that can be collected in Jiangsu and Zhejiang should be about 5 million stone of grain. However, due to the high proportion of taxes, the "autumn grain" in western Zhejiang only collected more than 2.6 million stones, and the gap is too big!

Zhu Yuanzhang thought to himself, nearly half of the shortfall must have been embezzled by some officials, but it will not be embezzled millions of stone grain, right? Actually, this is completely Zhu Yuanzhang avoiding asking. I don't want to admit that it's because the tax amount I set is too high, and I have forced the people at the bottom to the point where it is unsustainable!

Before the outbreak of the "Guo Huan case", the "Suzhou prefect" had reported to the imperial court that the taxes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were indeed too heavy, and the people really couldn't stand it. However, Zhu Yuanzhang did not listen to the performance at all after receiving it, but dragged the "Suzhou Prefect" to Suzhou City to "cut off his head to show the public" to scare the local people.

At that time, Teng Demao, the "Hubu Shangshu" who agreed with the view of the "Suzhou Prefect", was also directly beheaded by Zhu Yuanzhang on the grounds of "stealing 100,000 stone of military rations". And Teng Demao's wife, Wang, was also arrested by Zhu Yuanzhang's order and interrogated by the government: "Your husband was killed for stealing 100,000 stone of military rations, what do you want to say?" ”

Wang said: "Stealing military rations is a serious crime against the law of the country, and of course it deserves death!" But since you keep saying that my lord stole 100,000 stone of military rations? So why not give a little to support your family? So, after hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang asked: "Then what are you eating?" Wang said, "I eat wild vegetables." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang was furious, and immediately asked people to kill Wang, cut open her belly, and see what she was eating? As a result, it was eventually discovered that Wang's stomach only contained wild vegetables. Although Zhu Yuanzhang felt that it was wrong to kill Teng Demao, he still stubbornly believed that the grain in the Jiangnan region was like water in a sponge, as long as it was vigorously squeezed, there would always be it. Zhu Yuanzhang believes that the reason why he can't collect enough taxes and grain is because of the existence of the corruption group "Guo Huan"!

Therefore, in the entire "Guo Huan case", some historical records record that the number of people who were killed in accordance with the law is 30,000, but some historical records record that it is 80,000. Even Zhu Yuanzhang himself can't remember clearly, he can only say: "Tens of thousands of people in prison are all convicted." "It shows the weight of the killing in this case!

However, among them, the most killed were not "officials", but "officials". In ancient times, "officials" were just miscellaneous clerks in the government, also known as "small officials" and "officials", which were equivalent to the "clerks" and "township-level" cadres of later generations of civil servants.

The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang went on a killing spree and mainly tortured the officials of the six central departments and the small officials in various places, instead of deliberately killing the middle and lower-level officials in the local area, was because if all the officials in various places were killed, then who would maintain the feudal rule in various places for him? The state also can't function, at least no one is working on the case.

Therefore, in the entire "Guo Huan case", the vast majority of those killed were actually the so-called "ordinary people" represented by the "rich households", because they colluded with officials such as "county orders" ("zhixian") and "state capitals" ("zhizhou") in various places, relying on their status as "squires and wealthy families", they used chicken feathers as arrows to exercise the functions and powers of "government officials", and passed on the huge taxes of the imperial court to the poor people at the bottom of society, forcing the people to riot in desperation.

As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang was furious at this operation, and tens of thousands of people were imprisoned and killed after being sentenced, and more than one million people were exiled after their property was confiscated, for example, the southerners were exiled to the northeast, the northerners were exiled to Qiongdao in Lingnan, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang people were exiled to the Western Regions, and the prisoners in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo border region, especially the "Xifan" (Qinghai), were exiled to the islands of the East China Sea, such as "Ryukyu" and "Dongfan" (Taiwan Island).

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang's handling of the "Guo Huan case" seems to reveal a kind of "naivety" and "ridiculousness" on the surface, and it seems that Zhu Yuanzhang insisted that the officials of the "six ministries" were collectively corrupt and must be scavenged out of all their "dirty silver" (stolen money), but in fact he consolidated the imperial power by cracking down on the bureaucratic system.

Moreover, the scheming Zhu Yuanzhang insisted on the "accountability system", for example, if he was responsible for the "political secretary", he would arrest the "political envoy" (governor), and then asked "Where did the dirty silver come from?" So, he continued to ask questions layer by layer, and finally pointed to the "rich households" ("squire landlords") among the common people, which were equivalent to the so-called "middle class" in later generations. At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was relieved, because the so-called "grain chief system" formulated by him at the beginning of the founding of the country worked.

This so-called "grain chief system" is actually a "trap that harms others and benefits himself", which is just convenient for Zhu Yuanzhang to harvest all the other party when needed. Why? Because in the fourth year of Hongwu (1371), Zhu Yuanzhang implemented the "grain chief system" in Nanjing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Huguang, Liangguang, and Fujian (including Taiwan Island), and divided the region with an annual tax income of 10,000 stone of grain, which was convenient for grain collection.

At that time, each region had to find one person to be the "grain chief" (equivalent to the "township chief" in later generations), and two "big households" to be the "deputy grain chief" to assist the "grain chief" in collecting grain, so as to complete the tax collection tasks issued by the imperial court to the local government, especially the county government in various places. The task of the "grain chief" is to be responsible for the "tax and grain collection" (payment of public grain) and the transportation of "tax grain" in each region, but the imperial court will not pay these "small officials" (wages), so they can only find their own ways to solve it.

For these grassroots officials, the imperial court does not pay them salaries, nor does they have any activity funds, so what can they do? Can you strike? Then wait to be killed! However, there are two sides to everything, because the "grain chief", as a "township-level cadre" in later generations, has a somewhat "nepotism" with a "small sesame official" such as the "county magistrate" ("county magistrate"). Therefore, it is logical to "take chicken feathers as an arrow", and Sonaka should be natural, reasonable and legal.

But for "Zhu Chongba", who has mixed from a "monk" and a "beggar" to a master, how can he not be familiar with the logic of pinching each other between the bottom of society left over from the Song and Yuan dynasties? So, he thought to himself, first of all, if the area in charge of your "grain chief" cannot collect grain and pay taxes, then your "grain chief" will pay for it yourself, and you will make up for the shortage. If the "grain chief" can't handle it alone, let the two "deputy grain chiefs" work together to find a way to solve the problem.

Moreover, at that time, the people had to pay their own taxes (public grain), which not only had high transportation costs, but also the "little officials" who collected the grain would also use excuses to make things difficult and exploit the people who paid the grain. Therefore, in all dynasties, there were people who acted as "households" (mostly with nepotism with the "deputy grain chief"), which was convenient for colluding with the local government to conceal the superiors and subordinates. And Zhu Yuanzhang insisted on asking "big households" to serve as "grain chiefs" and "deputy grain chiefs", just to replace those "households" with mixed qualities.

This is Zhu Yuanzhang's skillful "using the people to govern the people", coupled with Zhu Yuanzhang's extreme distrust of the bureaucracy, so he created this so-called "grain chief system", which is responsible for grain collection and transportation. The "grain chiefs" first went to the peasant households' homes to collect grain from door to door, and after receiving the grain, they had to pay for the construction of the "grain depot" themselves, and then they were responsible for transporting it. If you fail to complete the task of collecting grain, you will pay for it yourself, or you will kill it directly!

However, there are also many advantages for the "rich households" to be "grain chiefs"; if they are lucky, when they send grain to Nanjing, they may meet Zhu Yuanzhang, because Zhu Yuanzhang also admonishes hundreds or thousands of "grain chiefs", and if they deal with it properly, they may be directly promoted by Zhu Yuanzhang to become "officials" without taking the imperial examination. If you catch up with Zhu Yuanzhang when he is in a good mood, he may also send some money to reward, after all, Emperor Laozi's reward, you can't get it if you don't have it, and you can make a steady profit!

In addition, there is the advantage of "privilege", that is, except for crimes related to the work of the "grain chief", all crimes can be atonemented with money. Therefore, when Zhu Yuanzhang investigates it level by level, the grassroots person in charge (small official) who will eventually be found is the "grain chief" and "deputy grain chief" in various places.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang was angry on the surface, but in fact he secretly laughed in his heart, because he could harvest these tens of millions of "grassroots officials" again, so he confiscated the land and property of these "rich households", and sent his whole family to the frontier to reclaim the wasteland and provide food for the army, wonderful!

However, although there is indeed corruption among grassroots officials, the main reason for the huge deficit in the tax grain (public grain) of the "Ming Empire" is that the "official land" tax formulated by Zhu Yuanzhang is too high, and even if all the grassroots officials become "cool officials", it is difficult to complete the task!

In the end, a large number of ordinary people ("rich households") were involved in the entire "Guo Huan case", and hundreds of millions of people were arrested and sent to prison for punishment, so that Zhu Yuanzhang completed the "targeted harvest", and the money and grain obtained were just enough to support his repeated campaigns against the northern Mongolian steppe, stabilize the northern frontier, and consolidate the imperial power.

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Haha, thank you for your attention, collection, recommendation, subscription and review of this book! As an author, I am very happy and honored to provide readers with a novel that meets the needs of the general public. As the saying goes, "Life is short, but the tip of the pen is slender." "Therefore, the road to cultivation is long, where to find immortality? There is nowhere to go for troubles, and read the people in the book! I hope that the novel "Heaven and Earth Let Me Go" series can bring happiness and insight to everyone!

This story is pure fiction, if there are similarities, it is a coincidence! Friends, the part-time job is hard, the time is urgent, the creation is not easy, like the collection, by the way, forward, want to know the plot? Next time I break it down! ("The book has its own golden house?") There are thousands of bells in the book? There is Yan Ruyu in the book"? Welcome to my book)