Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 58, Ancient Tax Evasion
"Then is there any solution?"

Emperor Hongzhi thought for a long time, carefully combining the history he had learned, and what Liu Jin said seemed to be true.

With the development of history, the entire center has been constantly moving south. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, although the Jiangnan area was important, it was far inferior to the Hanzhong area.

However, with the development of history, the status of the Hanzhong area has become weaker and weaker, and the status of the Jiangnan area has become higher and higher, gradually becoming the center of population and economy, and in the Southern Song Dynasty, it even became the political center.

At the founding of the Ming Dynasty, his ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang also relied on the prosperity of the Jiangnan area to achieve great things. On the contrary, the original Hanzhong area gradually lost everything it had before.

One of the big reasons for this is that the Hanzhong area, the original place where the Chinese nation originated, is getting worse and worse, and it is gradually no longer suitable for becoming a political center.

The same is true for the entire northern region. Over a long and long history, too many fields have been reclaimed here, while forests and vegetation have been severely damaged.

Once there is any natural disaster, the refugees in these areas will be scattered everywhere, and the sky will be full of flames.

Although the current Daming has improved in all aspects after more than ten years of hard work by Emperor Hongzhi, it is also called Hongzhi Zhongxing.

But as an emperor, Emperor Hongzhi knew very well that this so-called ZTE was actually very fragile. Once there was a disaster or something, it would immediately be the same as what was recorded in the history books.

Among other things, the weather is too cold now, and the refugees who can no longer survive are coming towards the capital area. Although the number is not large, if the severe cold continues, it is estimated that in a few months, especially food When it's over, there will be more refugees.

Therefore, Emperor Hongzhi knew very well in his heart that he was considered competent as an emperor, and this was true in ZTE. If he met an emperor like his father Ming Xianzong, no one knew what the world would be like.

In the end, it was probably the same as other dynasties in history. With peasant uprisings one after another, the old Zhu's dynasty was eventually overthrown.

Thinking of this, Emperor Hongzhi stared at Liu Jin, hoping to find a good solution from Liu Jin. Since Liu Jin knew this, he would definitely have a good solution.

Liu Jian, Xie Qian, and Li Dongyang heard what Emperor Hongzhi said, and each of them became contemplative. They knew exactly what Emperor Hongzhi was thinking. For Emperor Hongzhi, there was nothing better than the inheritance of the old Zhu family. more important.

"The solution is actually simple and easy to say, and difficult to say."

"One is nothing more than continuous external migration and expansion, just like our ancestors, from the Hanzhong area, slowly migrated and expanded to every corner of the entire Ming Dynasty."

"Constantly evacuate the population in the north and move the excess population to areas with better natural conditions, so that even if there are disasters in the north, if the population here is relatively small, there will be no major problems."

"The other is to use coal instead of charcoal, reduce deforestation, and pay attention to protecting forests."

Liu Jin thought for a while and said, also thinking in his heart, is it a bit too advanced to talk about protecting mountains and forests in this era.

"Relocate the population and protect the forest?"

When everyone heard it, they all thought carefully.

"The population has moved away, who will cultivate this land?"

Li Dongyang thought for a while and asked, in the era of small-scale peasant economy, all these are maintained on the land, and the emperor is most concerned about agriculture.

Even when Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, he formulated strict policies to strictly prohibit the flow of population. All this is to lock people tightly on the land. Only in this way can the society be more stable.

"My dynasty has always implemented the household service system in order to prevent the flow of population. Now you say that you want to move the population, which is against the ancestral system."

Hearing Li Dongyang's words, Emperor Hongzhi, Liu Jian and others also nodded slightly. This household service system is a national policy set by Zhu Yuanzhang, and it has been running until now, so how can it be easily changed.

"Well, during the Taizu period, how many household registrations and people did my Daming have?"

"Now, how many household registrations and people do I have in Daming?"

Liu Jin thought for a while and asked back.

"During the Taizu period, my Ming Dynasty had about 1000 million households with a population of 6000 million. Now there are 900 million households with a population of about 5000 million."

Xie Qian reported the data almost without thinking about it.

"Do you think this data is accurate?"

"When my dynasty was founded, the whole world was poisoned by Yuan Hu, with a population of 6000 million. Now it has been more than 100 years. Although there have been twists and turns, overall, it is still peaceful and peaceful. The population of our dynasty has not only not increased. , but decreased, only about 5000 million.”

When Liu Jin heard this, he immediately laughed. He didn't expect land annexation to be so serious in this era. Over the past 100 years of development, the population has not only not increased, but has actually decreased. Ghosts believe it.

This is the official statistics of the Ming Dynasty, which shows that the hidden population of the whole world is very large, and it can even be said that at least tens of millions of people are hidden.

The reason for hiding these populations is nothing more than paying less taxes and not having to serve corvee. In other places, the gentry and aristocrats will have a large number of people hidden. The more hidden people, the stronger the annexation of this land.

Hearing Liu Jin's words, Emperor Hongzhi, Liu Jian, Xie Qian, Li Dongyang and others were also slightly taken aback. They had only seen this number before, but never thought about it.

"Yeah, why is the population decreasing?"

They all thought about it carefully, and soon, they had some answers in their minds.

"In the era when there was no war, under the policy of encouraging birth, the population of the whole country must have been growing continuously. The current statistics of the population are smaller than when the country was founded. There must be a large number of people hidden, and hidden The numbers are absolutely staggering."

"Let's not care about why a large number of people are hidden. Now we are just talking about the relationship between the population and the land. After finishing talking, you may understand that as time changes, the country's policies should Constantly adapting to changing times.”

Liu Jin looked at the slightly dumbfounded crowd, smiled and continued.

As a person of later generations, as long as anyone who has studied history knows that the number of people hidden in ancient times is absolutely huge, and the people who hide the largest population are naturally those gentry and aristocrats. Linked, hiding the population is almost a way of tax evasion.

　Please collect, please collect~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)