Prince of Chaos

Chapter 701 The Difference Between North and South
Nine Sides can be as prosperous as it is today, which is actually inseparable from Zhu Changluo's long-term support.

To be honest, no matter in the ancient farming civilization or the modern marine civilization, it is extremely difficult for inland areas to develop rapidly.

Because in the inland areas, if you want to produce wealth, you almost have to rely on the sky.

God is in a good mood and is willing to enjoy the meal, so it is relatively easy.

Once some natural or man-made disaster occurs, it will be more difficult for the barren inland to complete the correction by its own ability.

After all, in addition to being able to plan food in the ground with the loess facing the sky, it is really amazing to get other supplies.

Moreover, almost all places that rely on land to survive rely on rainwater, even modern societies with highly developed science and technology are no exception.

Once a drought occurs and lasts for a long time, even if the water pumps can be pulled to the fields for irrigation, it will be a drop in the bucket.

Because the groundwater under the well will always be drained, and the excessive use of groundwater to irrigate the farmland, not to mention the amount of groundwater, even the cost of irrigation is also daunting.

Once the drought lasts for too long, for farmers, they would rather dry the crops in the field to death than continue to invest like filling a bottomless pit.

As for the status quo of Nine Sides, it is obvious that they have broken away from the single agricultural social structure.

Because of the promotion of potatoes and sweet potatoes in Jiubian, Jiubian has already satisfied the problem of eating, and it is precisely after the most important problem of eating that Zhu Changluo has been solved that he moved other thoughts.

After all, the cement hardened road on Nine Sides is the first hardened road built by Zhu Changluo.

The truth that if you want to get rich first, build roads is universal no matter ancient or modern.

As long as the road can be repaired well, merchants will naturally communicate with each other along this road, and exchange and ferment the continuous resources and wealth on this road.

Gradually, both population and property will gather along this road, and wealth is no exception.

Therefore, Zhu Changluo took advantage of the trend and established trade markets directly under Xishan Huangzhuang in all towns on the nine sides.

The reason why these mutual markets were not directly arranged under the court is because the shortcomings of the Ming tax system have not been effectively resolved.

Once the power to manage these mutual markets is given to the imperial court, let alone the issue of whether taxes can be collected, the bureaucratic nepotism accumulated over the past 200 years of the Ming Dynasty and the intricate relationships between local powers can make it difficult for Zhu Changluo. The built platform was completely destroyed.

Therefore, Zhu Changluo must hold some important financial power in his own hands before completing the strong crushing of the local area.

Even during this process, Zhu Changluo will not be moved by how those scholar-bureaucrats who want to get a share of the pie but have nowhere to go criticize these behaviors of "competing with the people for profit".

Because the face that Zhu Changluo cares about is different from the face they care about.

They vainly tried to fool Zhu Changluo with the old method of bullying those emperors who were born in the deep palace and didn't care about the suffering of the people, but it didn't work for Zhu Changluo.

Zhu Changluo knew how difficult the life at the bottom was, and also understood how rigid and corrupt the current Daming system was.

If there hadn't been an industrial revolution, this rigid and decadent feudal system might have lasted for hundreds of thousands of years, but there is no assumption in history.

Even if the germ of the industrial revolution didn't happen in Taixi, Zhu Changluo would lead him out on the land of Daming bit by bit.

The Industrial Revolution is a behemoth that can destroy the old world!
Now Zhu Changluo is giving this giant beast a chance to be born in advance, as long as it is given a little more time to grow up, whoever dares to stand in front of it at that time will be crushed into pieces by the mighty trend led by it !

Now that this behemoth has just shown its edge, the Nine Sides is where it will try its hand.

The marine civilization represented by Taixi is still navigating the world with sluggish sails because there is no industrial assistance, so this process is destined to be slow.

Therefore, this also gave Zhu Changluo enough time difference, and he could use this time difference to plan the Nine Borders and the Northwest Region in advance.

These places are placed in later generations. Compared with the prosperous southern coastal areas, they are all representatives of barrenness. Even the later roads are incomparably smooth, and the country has poured a lot of resources into development and revitalization.

However, the opportunity has been missed.

Capital is profit-seeking.

Modern civilization, which started with marine civilization, is destined to take the ocean as its wealth center.

For those places far away from the ocean and with poor traffic, it is almost impossible to get a share of the future world!

Before Zhu Changluo crossed over, he knew that in order to change his current situation and predicament, a province in the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty applied for the establishment of a national-level airport, in an attempt to open up a route centered on the sky in a world where the economy is centered on the coast. economic center.

But how difficult is it?
Although, aircraft technology is extremely mature, and train freight is also extremely mature.However, this is still a drop in the bucket compared with the giant ship freight that is easily [-] tons.

The giant freight ships on the sea can run non-stop around the clock. There are tens of thousands of large freight ships. The advantages they form are simply not comparable to trains and planes.

Both trains and airplanes have their own restrictions. The limitation of trains is the laying of railroad tracks, and the limitation of airplanes is the construction of airports.

However, there is no such restriction for large freighters. If the wharf is small, it will be expanded, and if the water level is not enough, it will continue to dig deeper. It is much easier than railway tracks and airports.

Therefore, in order for the Nine Sides and the Northwest to catch up, we must take advantage of the current time difference to enjoy the benefits of the Industrial Revolution first. Only in this way will the Nine Sides and the Northwest not be further and further apart in the comparison with the South in the future .

Of course, Zhu Changluo's original intention of building Nine Borders is definitely not to realize the great ideal of common prosperity.

The main reason is that the Nine Sides are in the north, and the capital is also in the north. Although the Mongol Tatars on the Nine Sides are suffering frequently, in the final analysis, this is also Zhu Changluo's basic base.

Although the south is rich and prosperous, the south is too far away from the capital. The capital's decree is almost a piece of waste paper when it reaches the south. In the south, no matter whether it is a local official or a small citizen, they will not take the imperial court seriously.

It can be seen from this that Zhu Changluo's desire to open up the situation based on the south is simply wishful thinking.

Therefore, it is better to have nine sides.

There are military towns on the nine sides, although these big soldiers are not very obedient.However, no matter how disobedient these people are, they still have to eat.

As long as Zhu Changluo can take care of their jobs and control their future, it's relatively easy for these top soldiers to get started.

And, the facts prove it.

Now, when Jiu Bian is full of food and drink, and under the subtle influence of Zhu Changluo Jixian Military Academy, he has almost turned Jiu Bian into an iron bucket!
Now the Nine Sides guard system has not been completely abolished, but now there is a basis for it to be abolished directly.

Once the recruitment system in Jixian County is fully implemented along the nine borders, from the north to the bottom, the guards in Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong and other places will be directly disintegrated.

After all, the Ming Dynasty has been in peace for more than 200 years, and those inland provinces have not seen what war looks like for more than 200 years.

They usually suppress bandits and bully the local people. Maybe they are good at it. Once they are confronted with well-trained frontier soldiers with real knives and guns, they can almost be imagined with their toes.

Therefore, Zhu Changluo didn't care about the guards in these provinces. As long as he held the nine-sided steel knife in his hand, who in this world would be able to turn the tide?
However, not caring does not mean not caring.

The guards of Henan and other inland chiefs also have to change their appearance. If they are allowed to continue to be bad, in case there are strong enemies outside the nine borders, these powerful enemies enter the inland, and these vulnerable guards Wouldn't all the soldiers have to turn into the "Imperial Association Army"?
Therefore, even for the less important inland troops, Zhu Changluo still could not relax his control over them.

After Daming's road construction and grain production reach a certain level, Zhu Changluo will start the army's system of discussing and changing defenses, so that these soldiers who used to have nothing to do in the interior will also be pulled to the border for drills. At the same time, some hereditary practices will also be broken .

For example, the hereditary system of military officers below the third rank.

In Zhu Changluo's future plan, these hereditary official positions and titles can continue to be hereditary, but this kind of hereditary is not hereditary representing power and position.

More just a hereditary honor.

As long as these people with hereditary official positions and titles want to have certain powers and real positions, then they must follow certain rules.

Although, under this rule, the chances of their descendants getting opportunities are still higher than ordinary people, but at least they can filter out the extravagant wine bags and rice bags.

Although Zhu Changluo also wanted to create a fair mechanism, in the final analysis, this mechanism was still a mechanism of the greatest common denominator. For some families with their own abilities, this mechanism was ineffective for them.

Just like before Zhu Changluo crossed over, the civilized world was already very developed. That world can be said to be almost [-] times better than the current Daming.

However, in some areas, the power of family inheritance still exists.

Some second and third generations can grandly reach a height that others can't reach in a lifetime in a few years.

Is this fair?

It's certainly not fair.

But how can this be?
Ordinary people can only scold them and envy them at the same time.

In the final analysis, this is the selfishness of human nature, which cannot be eliminated.

Therefore, since Zhu Changluo is also a vested interest in this model now, he has no reason to pick up the bowl to eat and throw it away to scold his mother.

What Zhu Changluo can do is to do his best to give fairness to the vast majority of ordinary people, and at the same time relatively curb the greed of those with vested interests.

Only in this way is the long-term solution to the problem.

It is also the most realistic way.

Ideals are sometimes beautiful, but when looking up at the starry sky, you still have to be down-to-earth.

Otherwise, everything is like a flower in a mirror, like a moon in water, which will shatter when touched.

Zhu Changluo, who has been traveling for 20 years, is no longer that young man with a heart higher than the sky.

Counting his age before time travel and the 20 years of time travel, Zhu Changluo is already at the age of knowing his destiny.

People at this age are more pragmatic.

Although, sometimes there are young people's impulsiveness, but most of the time, they can still control some unrealistic fantasies.

After all, in terms of knowledge, Zhu Changluo is absolutely beyond anyone in this era.

Although, in terms of some so-called philosophy of life, Zhu Changluo may not be as good as the well-educated people of this era, but this does not prevent Zhu Changluo from overlooking them from the perspective of the future.

Because, Zhu Changluo knew that they didn't know, even if they could talk about countless big truths endlessly, the final result still couldn't be spoiled by these big truths.

Therefore, Zhu Changluo will never be led by the nose by people of this era!
Although sometimes Zhu Changluo can only compromise and detour on many issues, but his essence will not be changed by this era.

He will compromise and make detours, it's all because his own strength is not enough to shake the rules of this world, otherwise, with Zhu Changluo's spirit of being as high as the sky when he crossed, he will definitely be Sui Yang's second!

Not even as good as Sui Yang!

After all, Emperor Sui Yang still had the merit of destroying Chen before he ascended the throne, but Zhu Changluo had nothing but the name of the eldest son of the emperor, which was nothing but an empty name.

Although the education of the ancients is all about loyalty to the emperor, this kind of loyalty education is also based on the foundation of the strong and the weak.

Although the Emperor Ming seemed to be very strong, after the civil engineering change, the emperor could not settle many things with one word, and had to see and see with the ministers for a period of time to achieve his goals.

Otherwise, how could Emperor Jiajing start the Great Court Discussion incident?How could it be possible for the Wanli Emperor in the historical time and space to set off a protracted national struggle?

To put it bluntly, these major incidents can be triggered because the imperial power is not strong enough.

If it was placed on Hongwu and Yongle, the founding monarchs and horse emperors who made their fortunes by virtue of their military exploits, which reckless minister would dare to talk about royal affairs so sternly?
As long as there is such an iron-headed baby, it will also be punished by the ten clans.

Therefore, don't think that being an emperor is really supreme and doing whatever you want.

If the emperor didn't have a few knives in his hands, how could the people below be so obedient?
It was a fluke that Zhu Changluo was able to reach this point.

How much firepower the Wanli Emperor helped him attract in the early stage, as a bargaining chip for the ministers to fight against the imperial power, he naturally won the unconditional support of the ministers.

Therefore, at the beginning, no matter how outrageous things Zhu Changluo did, these ministers all turned a blind eye to admitting it.

Otherwise, how could he, a few-year-old prince, leave the palace so easily and create such a large Huangzhuang in the suburbs of Beijing?
In the final analysis, it was Zhu Changluo who took advantage of his age and status to make these ministers think that he was a harmless and good baby.

It can be said that everything Zhu Changluo is doing now is achieved by various chances and coincidences.

Otherwise, even if Zhu Changluo was a time traveler, he would be powerless to change Daming's fate of blood collapse.

After all, the demise of the Ming Dynasty was not due to the Jianzhou Jurchen who suffered from foreign aggression, but the internal conflict between the rich and the poor that had accumulated for hundreds of years.

The common people of Daming are kind enough, as long as they still have something to eat, they will not rebel even if they are acting like cows and horses.

However, in the last few decades of the Ming Dynasty, with the intensification of land annexation and the ravages of the Little Ice Age, coupled with the continuous occurrence of disasters such as earthquakes, plagues, and droughts, the people of Ming Dynasty could no longer hold back, and then they rose up. It gave the final blow to this aging 300-year dynasty.

It is precisely because the Ming Dynasty failed to be kind to the world and did not have a broad foundation of popular support, so even the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty after Chongzhen still could not stand firm in the south and form a confrontation between the Manchus and the Qing Dynasty in the north.

Therefore, in the original historical time and space, the death of the Ming Dynasty was not wronged.

The only pity is that the Ming Dynasty died, and the feudal rule continued, and the succeeding dynasties were out of self-confidence in their own ethnic groups and distrust of the majority of Han people.

It also led to the continued closure and isolation of the country in the following hundreds of years, and isolated itself from the world.It does not develop important gunpowder technology, nor does it explore natural science, so it is inevitable to fall behind.

In the Ciqing Palace, Zhu Changluo sat in his seat, his eyes glanced at the members of the cabinet and the Military Aircraft Department standing in the palace.

Seeing the appearance of these eight ministers, Zhu Changluo finally put down a memorial in his hand.

Zhu Changluo said: "How is the discussion on the tax system? It will be a matter of time before the north and the south are on the same track. The mutual market between Xishan Huangzhuang and Jiubianyan Town has paid taxes that are several times higher than those in the south according to the new system of the imperial court."

"Nowadays, the Xishan Huangzhuang and Jiubian Mutual Market, which pay a lot of taxes, not only have not been abolished because of the high taxes, but have become more and more prosperous. Now let's look at various parts of the south, especially the prosperous Jiangnan area. Although Emperor Taizu Gao At that time, Jiangnan was set up with higher taxes than other regions."

"However, the tax payment situation in Jiangnan in these years must be obvious to all of you. How many years has Ye Xianggao been sent to Nanjing alone? He was asked to supervise the taxes of the seven provinces in Jiangnan, and he did nothing. How is it?"

"After arriving in the south of the Yangtze River, did I really think that the emperor was far away from the mountains, and that the court's laws could not be controlled? He actually collaborated with the wealthy gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, wantonly defaulting on and evading the taxes due to the court."

"In these years, not only did he not receive the taxes due for the imperial court, but he bought a new house in Nanjing, boarded a flower boat, lingered among the kabukis on the banks of the Qinhuai River, and became a unique romantic figure for a while. "

"This is really romantic and elegant of the ancients, but what about his ethics as a court official, as an imperial court official? The imperial court has supported scholars for 300 years, not for you to enjoy the imperial court's official position and salary, and feel sorry for life without illness."

"The imperial court needs you to contribute your ability, your conscience and your loyalty. Don't think that if you pass the imperial examination and become an official, you will honor your ancestors. If you want to honor your ancestors, you must be a good official who dares to take responsibility and dare to do things. Row."

"Otherwise, you will be mediocre officials, corrupt officials, and bad officials. When you are a hundred years from now, whether you want to be remembered as famous ministers through the ages or as sycophants with eternal infamy, you have to think about it yourself."

"Ye Xianggao has come to this point today. It is not an isolated case, but the daily life of most officials. It's just that he is too ostentatious, and he happens to be an official who went out of Gu Ciqing Palace, so Gu pays more attention to it. killed him."

"However, this is not the reason for him to degenerate himself and go wild! Gu has already ordered people from the Anti-Corruption Agency and the Ministry of Criminal Justice to arrest him. You should also think about it carefully if you want to gain a foothold on this temple. Bodhisattva, or be an angry-eyed King Kong who dares to do things?"

"Today's topic is the tax system issue that caused Ye Xianggao's case. Today I must get a result! How should the North and South tax systems be balanced? How should the South tax issue be resolved? Think about it carefully, and then tell Gu one by one."

After finishing the conversation, the Ciqing Palace could hear the sound of needles being dropped. Everyone feared that their eyes would be caught by the Crown Prince who was sitting in a high position.

Over the years, His Highness the crown prince's prestige has become more and more serious, and often just a plain look can give people infinite pressure.

They had never felt this kind of situation in Emperor Wanli or even Zhang Juzheng who was in power in Tingguo at the time, but as time went by, the originally weak and weak crown prince had developed such a vast power of heaven!

It can be seen how great Zhu Changluo's prestige is in the capital among the officials in these years!

It has reached an unattainable level.

But fortunately, the crown prince never kills people out of anger, and everything the crown prince does is in line with the law of the court.

But it is precisely this that makes the crown prince's majesty unquestionable!

This is also the reason why the ministers of the DPRK and China are more and more in awe of Zhu Changluo.

Zhong Huamin, the new minister of punishment and cabinet minister who had just arrived in Beijing, took a deep breath and stepped out of the train.

Zhong Huamin paid homage to Zhu Changluo: "Your Highness, I think that Ye Xianggao's case has been dealt with severely. We should restart Taizu's punishment of skinning and stuffing grass, and put Ye Xianggao to death to deter the young people! Let them not dare to be greedy, don't let them die!" Dare to be corrupt, do a good job as an official of the court, and do your job well."

Zhong Huamin's answer was a bit tricky. He didn't directly answer Zhu Changluo's question about the North-South tax system, but directed the question to Ye Xianggao, the unlucky guy.

Zhu Changluo glanced at Zhong Huamin, and Zhu Changluo said lightly: "Peeling and stuffing grass hurts the peace of heaven. Although Ye Xianggao committed a crime to death, the country ruled the world with benevolence. During the reign of Emperor Taizu Gao, the world was initially settled, and people's hearts were floating. The emperor's way of governing the country vigorously is also doing extraordinary things."

"Nowadays, the Ming Dynasty has been in peace for nearly 300 years. If there is still such a bloody killing, it will be bad. Therefore, the topic of peeling and stuffing grass must not be mentioned again."

As soon as Zhu Changluo said this, those who originally wanted to follow Zhong Huamin's words and continue to bring the problem to Ye Xianggao became dumbfounded.

They can only echo along: "Your Highness Shengde!"

Zhu Changluo continued to bring the question back, "Zhong Qing, what is your opinion on the North-South tax system? You have been working in Lanzhou for five years. In your hands, this small border town in the northwest has become the leading city in the northwest of Ming Dynasty. The tax system is also quite familiar.”

"Now the government and the opposition are talking about the imbalance of the tax system between the north and the south. Gu also thinks it's time to solve this problem. Tell me about your experience in Lanzhou, and let Wang Qing and Shen Qing listen to it, too. There's a whole lot of thinking."

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Officially back today! !There is no fever or cough anymore. Although there are still some minor problems, they are no longer serious.

In the future, we will strive to make up for the shortcomings of last month! ! !

(End of this chapter)