"From now on, Lord Shoufu also began to invite you to their party, now you finally have a backer, and after a few months, you will be sent to a rich place in Jiangnan to serve as the prefect, that is a fat shortage, I didn't dare to think of it before."

"You were overjoyed to receive this errand, and I am so grateful to Lord Shousuke, and when you get to the place, you will know that this is the hometown of Lord Shousuke."

"After being a magistrate for a while, you can understand why Lord Shoufu resolutely opposes the collection of official gentry tax, it turns out that Lord Shoufu is in his hometown, with nearly one million acres of fertile land, plus seven relatives and six dependents, almost accounting for nearly sixty percent of the land in this prefecture and county."

"At this time, it suddenly dawned on you that you were opposing the collection of gentry taxes in the court, not asking for the people's lives, but desperately protecting the property of these gentry, and you are a villain who helps and abuses."

"Every time you go to the countryside to collect taxes in the future, you see the local farmers known as the granary of the south of the Yangtze River, all of them are yellow and thin, ragged, no different from a refugee, although this is known as the land of fish and rice, but it is also very difficult to collect taxes, but in order to complete the tasks assigned by the emperor, you can only let the wolf-like officials and officials go to the unarmed peasants, and fight against those unarmed peasants, these peasants are beaten all over the ground and wail, and the peasants are forced to hand over their own good seeds."

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang's already angry forehead was exposed, and his palm held the cup tightly, almost crushing the cup.

"You finally understand now that those in the court who seem to have clean sleeves and never take bribes are free, but they live a free life, and they are even more poor and luxurious."

"After that, you finally understood the real way of being an official, and you also began to rise steadily, all the way up, in the years that Lord Shoufu controlled the government, the public opinion of the government and the opposition was controlled by a small number of people, and you also became one of them, and the officials and gentry of the world are facing you, and you occupy various official positions."

"The emperor wants to make money, you oppose it, the emperor wants to do something, and if it is not good for you, either oppose it, or deal with it passively, and in the end it will not be done."

"It is true that you people are not corrupt and take bribes, but the more powerful you are, the poorer the people will be, and the less money the country will have."

When Lin Che said this, he sighed:

"After that, there were floods, droughts, insect plagues... The imperial court had no money for disaster relief, and those peasants had to pay taxes after the disaster, so they could only abandon their homes and land, begging for food everywhere, and became homeless. ”

"Once the abandoned fields belong to these officials and gentry, there is no need to pay for food, the treasury is even more empty, the officers and soldiers on the border cannot pay their salaries, they can't even eat, and of course they have no spirit to fight, and from then on they will fight once and lose once, and the displaced people who have lost their land can only take risks, rise up, come out to revolt, and confront the government."

"With such a link, the imperial court is falling step by step."

"The emperor is short of money and anxious, so he can only reuse eunuchs, these eunuchs have begun to meow your property when they are in power, and they often find excuses to arrest your people and put them in prison and extort money from you."

"At this time, you panicked, and asked Lord Shoufu, who has already returned to his hometown, what should I do if things in the world have become like this?"

"Lord Shoufu calmly tells you: The rise and fall has its own providence, and non-human beings can reverse it, we read the books of sages, the most important thing is not to join the same stream, the official can't do it, don't do it, keep the family business first, and wait for the world to be peaceful in the future, and there will be a Ming monarch and a holy lord born."

"As long as we help the gentry of the world speak, as long as the gentry of the world praise us, are you afraid that the emperor will not give us officials?"

The words fell.

Deathly silence.

Zhu Yuanzhang leaned back on the chair, pressed one hand to his chest, and gasped.

Lin Che saw Zhu Yuanzhang's angry face and thick neck, and said with a smile:

"I advise you to stop all other reforms first and make every effort to solve the problem of the gentry paying for food."

"Step by step, steady and steady."

"Your Majesty, you want to become a fat man in one bite, this is not good!"

"This is the relationship between the state, officials and the people in the "Theory of National Fortunes."

Hearing Lin Che mention the theory of national fortune, Zhu Yuanzhang immediately thought of the edict in prison, but Lin Che mentioned the content that he did not explain, and suddenly came to his senses:

"The relationship between the state, the officials, and the people?"

"What does this have to do with what you said about civil officials selling their fame and reputation, forming parties and running private businesses?"

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned, still thinking about the story Lin Che had just told in his mind.

They are not corrupt or bribe-taking, but they can still enjoy glory and wealth, and even the emperor has no way to take them.

The interests of the state, the survival of the nation, and the life and death of the people are worthless in the eyes of these people.

The change of dynasty and the change of ownership will not affect them at all, those who should be officials should be officials, and those who should be rich should still be their own rich people.

With that in mind.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt a chill down his spine.

"Your Majesty, this is wrong."

Lin Che shook his head slightly and said with a smile:

"The real rise of a country is inseparable from unity from top to bottom, and only when everyone works together can we move forward for a common goal."

"Conversely, if there is a problem in any of these links, it will have an incalculable ripple effect."

"The civilian-bureaucratic embrace of the unity party not only devoured the fortune of the dynasty, but also destroyed the people's hearts that had accumulated so hard."

"It is difficult to unite the hearts of the people, and sometimes it takes the efforts of several generations of county kings, but it is very simple to destroy the hearts of the people."

"At least three or five years, at most seven or eight years."

"No matter how powerful the steel empire is, it will lead to collapse!"

After a pause, Lin Che continued:

"I also mentioned before that the basic plate of the Ming Dynasty is the common people, not those nobles and scholars."

"To put it bluntly, water can carry a boat and capsize a boat, and the fate of the common people and the national fortune of the Ming Dynasty are complementary to each other."

"The people's heart is not only to eat well and wear warm clothes, but also to have a sense of identity in the heart, and the power brought by the spirit is infinite."

Hear this.

Zhu Yuanzhang's face was undisguised confusion. I just felt that my brain was starting to be a little insufficient, and I couldn't help but ask:

"Identity?"

"Don't you have a sense of identity now?"

"We all grew up in the same land, were influenced by the same culture, and received the same ideas and education..."

Without waiting to finish speaking, Lin Che raised his hand to interrupt:

"Wrong!"

"These things that Your Majesty said are a sense of national identity, something from the bones of the descendants of Yan and Huang."

"However, it does not mean a sense of identity with the dynasty!"

"This recognition is even more glorious!"

"For example, during the peak of the Han Dynasty, during the Tang Dynasty, everyone regarded themselves as Han and Tang people."

"Whenever I introduce myself, it's a very face-saving thing."

"These things have nothing to do with identity, nothing to do with status."

"Even if an ordinary farmer faces the nobles from different races in Fanbang, showing his identity as a descendant of Yan and Huang, he can still make the other party extremely envious."

"To put it bluntly, this is the spiritual identity that the state has given to the people, and it is a kind of wholehearted satisfaction."

(End of chapter)