Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 414 Brotherly Battle
"According to me, this time all sixteen guards from Shangzhi will be sent out, and the Zhigong guard battalion will be transferred to change defense."

"That's right, our straightness is enough to sweep the hole!"

"Fart! I've done all the work for you, so what are we doing in the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion? Wipe your ass!"

"Crazy He! Didn't your East Army Governor's Mansion just come back from fighting in Yingzhou? We haven't exercised our muscles for four years."

"Fighting Japanese pirates is considered a war? Besides, we went to twenty battalions, and the brothers in the other twenty battalions haven't done anything yet!"

"Okay, okay, stop arguing..."

In Mengxia Palace, amidst the noise, Zhu Youjian watched the farce with some headaches, but Zhu Youxiao who was sitting next to him was very happy.

"Brother, it's almost time..."

Looking at Zhu Youxiao's cheerful appearance, Zhu Youjian turned his head to remind him.

Originally, according to his intention, he would issue the military order directly after the greeting, but Zhu Youxiao said to let the generals discuss it, and then it became like this.

Around the big round table, He Shixian, Sun Shoufa, and Cao Meng were arguing happily, and all the generals looked at each other.

Sun Yingyuan didn't end because of his status as the governor, and the officials kept silent because of his status as a post-transfer, while Zhu Youjian had a headache, and Zhu Youxiao was happy.

Of course, in this situation, there is another person who is particularly embarrassing.

"Okay, brother, let's talk." Zhu Youxiao satisfied his bad taste, and waved his hand to let Zhu Youjian speak.

Zhu Youjian breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this, and then looked at the generals and said:

"I……"

"okay!"

As soon as he opened his mouth, the three of He Shixian who were arguing immediately shut up, and more than a dozen generals also breathed a sigh of relief, and listened quietly.

Seeing that everyone was quiet, Zhu Youjian said:
"Shangzhi's four cavalry guards will be transferred to Taining Mansion this year, and the remaining twelve guards will be transferred in turn after the spring of next year, and I will take charge of them personally."

"Shangzhi Gongwei Battalion in the pass, each province dispatched a battalion to the three cities of Duolun, Kaiping, and Alun to guard against tigers and rabbits."

"At the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion, the [-]th Battalion hastened to replenish its personnel to restore its combat power, and at the same time transferred the [-]rd Battalion to Jingcheng to be under the jurisdiction of You Shigong."

"The Liaodong 45th Battalion currently has seven battalions in Yingzhou, and only the 38th Battalion in Liaodong."

"Then stay at the Eighth Battalion of soldiers and horses, and the remaining [-] Battalions of soldiers in Mali. You Shigong's Sixth Battalion of Jingcheng crosses the Yalu River and walks through the Mowen River Guard to compress the space for Jianlu's activities."

"Sun Yingyuan, you lead ten battalions to Jianzhou to attack Huifa City, while Xiong Tingbi and He Shixian led fourteen battalions to attack Yimihe City from Yidonghe City and Wula City (Xingjing)."

"I'll take orders..." Hearing this, all the generals bowed to accept the military order.

But at this time, Zhu Youxiao asked curiously: "My brother wants to destroy Jianlu in a battle. I know this, but do you want to fight in the north?"

"Long live, Your Highness! The last general suggests fighting!" He Shixian said hastily.

"Long live, Your Highness, this time we are going to hit Gulihewei (north of the Outer Xing'an Mountains)!" Sun Shoufa was not to be outdone.

"Long live, this time His Highness will go on an expedition again after six years of absence. Or maybe we will say that we not only have to clean up the Jian captives, but we also have to clean up the tigers and rabbits and the North captives!" Cao Meng said even more exaggeratedly.

"Hit to the bank of the Onan River!" Sun Shoufa followed suit.

"What's the bank of the Onan River? Your Highness will personally fight, this time we're going to fight to Mount Langjuxu!" He Shixian continued to follow.

"When Hulan suddenly loses temperature, sweep up Liting!" Cao Meng yelled even louder.

The three of them coaxed, Guan Fumin swallowed while listening, Sun Yingyuan kept nodding, and Zhu Youxiao still looked at the scene cheerfully.

But in this situation, the awkward person sitting beside Zhu Youjian kept swallowing and sweating on his forehead.

The instigation of the three made Zhu Youjian a little bit moved.

If Mobei and Northeast can be wiped out in one go, it will save a lot of work.

"Bi Ziyan, what do you think?"

Zhu Youjian set his sights on Bi Ziyan, the Minister of the Household Department who was called by him from the capital, but Bi Ziyan was hesitant to speak.

After a while, Bi Ziyan showed a helpless face, bowed and said:
"Your Highness..."

"No Money……"

After expressing his thoughts, Bi Ziyan explained:
"At the beginning of the year, Pingwu Dilong turned around, and [-] people were affected by the disaster..."

"Longhang in Guangxi in March, heavy rain in Fengyang in April, a total of more than [-] people were affected..."

"The Changping grain warehouses in Shandong, Hexi, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Huguang have all been transferred to disaster relief, and now the country only has 600 million shi of rice and wheat." Bi Ziyan said with a bitter face:

"Shicai, His Highness has resumed the grain distribution policy of Liaodong settlement, and Liaodong only has 300 million stones of rice and wheat in Changping warehouse, and Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangxi have 300 million stones."

"The 300 million shi of grain from the south of the Yangtze River was transferred to the north, not to mention the loss of half of it. Even if it was transferred, it would only be able to recover 30 mu of land."

"If hundreds of thousands of people go out of the pass, even if there is no run, Liaodong may release millions of shi."

"These 600 million shimimai are barely enough to maintain the old policy of reclamation outside the customs. Why did the Ministry of Households have extra money and food to support the war..."

Bi Ziyan was stating the truth, but Zhu Youxiao frowned, regardless of Zhu Youjian, he took the lead in questioning:
"Midsummer is over, and the taxes in the pass have not increased? What about the taxes in Jiugang, Jiaozhi, and Yingzhou?"

"This...the tax in the pass has been raised." Bi Ziyan answered the first question first, and then explained:

"Shanxi, Shaanxi, and the disaster-stricken prefectures and counties in various provinces together exempted more than [-] million mu of land from taxes."

"There are only more than 600 million mu of arable land in the Guan. After the exemption of the land tax of the 700 million mu of arable land, there will be only [-] million shimi of wheat land in the two capitals and [-] provinces in the Guan."

"The arable land in Liaodong, the four prefectures directly under the central government, and the three overseas provinces is about 300 million mu, and the land tax is 500 million shi. The total is [-] million shi. There is indeed no increase."

After Bi Ziyan complained, he wanted to say something more, but Zhu Youxiao frowned and said:

"The country's arable land is thirty percent of the land tax, but the army and overseas all receive thirty percent of the land tax."

"According to this calculation, excluding the military farms in Shanshan and other places, there should be more than 4000 million mu of land taxes to be collected in the military farms and overseas. Even if the yield is one stone per mu, [-] million land taxes can be collected."

"The number of acres you mentioned just now has been reduced to 4000 million yuan, and the remaining fields are calculated according to the thirty-one tax, and at least 100 million stones can be collected."

"North and south are different in the country. No matter how poor the northern part of the pass is, it can produce one stone per mu, while the south is two stones."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youxiao gradually showed dissatisfaction:

"The land tax of Guochao is like this, do you still insist on the amount of 500 million?"

Zhu Youxiao watched his younger brother do a lot of calculations, and under the influence of his ears and eyes, he would naturally use the data to check the accounts.

When he checked, a lot of sweat oozed from Bi Ziyan's forehead, and Sun Yingyuan, a group of ordinary people in the five-army governor's mansion, looked at him gradually becoming elusive.

"Long live, my lord..."

"Okay..." Zhu Youjian frowned and raised his hand to signal that he didn't need to say anything, and Bi Ziyan quickly shut his mouth when he saw this.

Bi Ziyan knew that it was Zhu Youjian who gave him the steps, but Zhu Youxiao frowned and looked at his younger brother.

"As for the taxation, I will discuss it with His Majesty later."

It was rare for Zhu Youjian to use the solemn address of "Your Majesty" to Zhu Youxiao, and after Zhu Youxiao heard this address, he also leaned back on the chair, as if to let Zhu Youjian continue.

"For money and food, is it insufficient before the autumn harvest this year, or is it insufficient before and after the autumn harvest?"

Zhu Youjian asked Bi Ziyan, and Bi Ziyan quickly said: "There is not enough money before the autumn harvest, and after the autumn harvest, there will probably be a surplus of more than nine million taels of folded silver."

"Hmm..." After hearing this, Zhu Youjian said without hesitation:
"I will ask Yumajian to allocate 200 million taels of silver from the state fund to the household department. The household department will use this money to buy grain from each province and transport it northward."

After all, he looked at Bi Ziyan: "Should this be enough to subsidize Liaodong?"

"Enough..." Bi Ziyan nodded in response, while Zhu Youjian turned his attention to Sun Yingyuan:
"The matter is finalized like this. I will send the specific marching plan to all the ministries before the battle. The time for the Northern Expedition is tentatively scheduled for June next year."

"The last general takes orders..." Sun Yingyuan responded first, and then said with a bit of worry:
"Your Highness, in Ciluwei (Shangjing) and other places, there is only no snow from March to September throughout the year. Is it too late to send troops in June?"

"Four months is enough to destroy the captives." Zhu Youjian responded confidently.

"Yes, then there will be no doubts." Sun Yingyuan responded, and then remained silent.

Compared with him, Zhu Youjian glanced at the generals in the palace after giving the order, and then said:

"In this battle, the Jian captives will be destroyed first. As for the northern captives, they are nothing more than clowns. In the future, they will choose a partial army, which will be enough to wipe them out."

"Your Highness Chitose..." Hearing His Highness's confident words, although all the generals thought it was a bit exaggerated, they still complied honestly.

"Okay, let's step back." Zhu Youjian served tea to see off the guests, and all the generals got up one after another and bowed to the emperor.

"The ministers will retire, long live long live long live..."

"Go." Zhu Youxiao's mind was not on the generals, but on taxes.

After all, he was the emperor of a feudal dynasty, and he had a natural distrust of civil servants and generals.

Right now he trusts the general because he knows that with his younger brother around, the general will not be able to cause any disaster.

But the military commander can rely on Zhu Youjian, but the civil servants can't, because this group of people have even deceived their younger brothers many times.

Sun Yingyuan and the other generals could see that Zhu Youxiao had a bad expression on his face, but they didn't have any thoughts about it, but got up and left Mengxia Palace.

After they withdrew, Zhu Youxiao turned his head to look at Zhu Youjian, and Zhu Youjian took a sip of tea, then put down the teacup, then looked at Bi Ziyan and said:
"You go out too..."

"Long live, I'm leaving..." Bi Ziyan got up quickly when he heard the words, and saluted Zhu Youxiao.

Zhu Youxiao didn't directly signal him to go out, but let him hang out for a few seconds, and then waved his hand to signal him to go out.

Seeing this, Bi Ziyan bowed deeply again in return, and then walked out of the palace cautiously.

Seeing him walk out with his own eyes, Zhu Youxiao immediately turned to look at Zhu Youjian, the doubt in his expression was particularly obvious.

Regarding Zhu Youxiao's obviousness, Zhu Youjian said directly:

"I told my brother before that for my land in Ming Dynasty, as long as the miscellaneous items and small taxes are excluded, and the land tax of ten is one, it is enough for the people to live and work in peace and prosperity."

"At present, my Ming Dynasty has more than [-] million mu of land, and the yield per mu in the north and south is different, but even if I take it, I can still produce a total of [-] billion stones. The imperial court can easily get hundreds of millions of stone fields."

"Currently corrupt officials rely on miscellaneous items to covertly accept bribes and embezzle."

"Although Zhang Taiyue's "One Whip Law" simplifies the types of taxation, it does not stipulate the total amount of miscellaneous items, so that officials from top to bottom can increase at will.

"But didn't my brother remove a dozen kinds of miscellaneous items?" Zhu Youxiao frowned and asked in confusion, but Zhu Youjian shook his head and said:

"At present, there are still seven major taxes and 29 small taxes in my dynasty."

"Among the 29 types of small taxes, 22 types involve miscellaneous items. There were originally 36 types of miscellaneous items, targeting various industries."

"When local officials are greedy for ink, people from all walks of life are exploited."

"It's just that after the imperial court eliminated fourteen miscellaneous items, although it benefited the people in some industries, the corrupt officials lost this part of the benefits, so they had to add it back from other places."

"In this way, the pressure of a small number of people is reduced, but the burden of most people is greatly increased."

"Add it later, to put it bluntly, it still has to be added to the farmers who plan food in the field, and the land tax is added to the population, plus miscellaneous items..."

"On the surface, the farmers in our dynasty only need to bear less than a hundred cash in taxes, but in reality they need to bear three hundred, or even four hundred cash..."

"Four hundred words..." Zhu Youjian sighed:

"For example, Yang Lian is an ordinary helper in Dali, and the day is only ten cents."

"Excluding the two busy months of farming, in the remaining ten months, they worked for the court and corrupt officials for one and a half months."

"If we want to completely reduce the burden on the shoulders of most people, we must simplify the tax system. This is what we need to do."

Zhu Youjian's voice is not loud, and it can even be described as whispering.

It's just that the voice was heard by many maids and eunuchs in the palace, but it was deafening.

Most of the maids and eunuchs in Dading Palace had never met the Emperor and King Qi, but they had met many local officials in Yanshan County.

When officials such as the county magistrate and Zhu Bo of Yanshan came to Dading Palace, they often appeared in style and had extravagant meals.

When discussing matters, you can't see a word about the people in his mouth, whether it's poetry or songs, or family and country affairs.

Such as Zhu Youjian, who has such a high position and authority, but still knows the lives of the people like the palm of his hand, and someone who speaks out for him is really incredible.

Everyone calmed down, and the entire palace became much quieter.

Zhu Youxiao's hands were leaning on the chair, and his fingers kept trying to figure it out.

After a long time, he frowned slightly and said:

"The common people have no burden and less pressure, so they will be free."

"If the common people are idle and there are strongmen pulling up the flag at that time, wouldn't my country of Ming Dynasty be..."

Zhu Youxiao didn't continue talking, but changed his tone:
"Weary people and weak people are sometimes for the sake of the court and the world."

Zhu Youxiao's words are in line with the thoughts of all feudal kings, not only because of education, but also because of his superior attitude.

His idea is basically the method in the "Book of Shang Jun" that teaches the art of emperors.

The art of the emperor, to put it bluntly, is the five arts of controlling the people, and the five arts are specifically divided into weak people, poor people, tired people, humiliating people, and foolish people.

Of course, this is not all. After mastering these five skills, the king himself will learn the remaining two hidden skills, and these two skills are abuse of people and Yimin.

Zhu Youjian has been reading and pondering the book "Shang Jun Shu" repeatedly, whether in his previous life or in this life.

In his previous life, he thought it was because helping the poor in the mountains was boring, but in this life, he thought it was because he knew how to control the people better than the officials who learned this book.

Shang Yang's five arts are different from those proposed by Confucianism and Mohism, and Shang Yang advocates the promotion of traitors, that is, the selection and reuse of treacherous people.

Rule the traitors with good people, and the country will be reduced to chaos; rule the good people with traitors, and the country will be strong.

The people are strong and the country is weak, and the people are weak and the country is strong. Therefore, the way to govern the country is to weaken the people first.

The art of weakening the people is first of all to prevent the people from having weapons, and to make the dynasty prosperous and strong, it is necessary to weaken the power of the people and minimize the power of the people.

When the power of the people is weakened, it is necessary to stabilize the people, and the fundamental means of stabilizing the people is to make the people "simple", in other words, to fool the people.

If the people are simple, they will be weak, if they are promiscuous, they will be strong, if they are weak, they will be disobedient, if they are promiscuous, they will be more ambitious, if they are weak, they will be useful, if they are more ambitious, they will be strong...

Only by making the people ignorant, simple and honest, it will not be easy for the people to form a powerful force against the dynasty and the monarch, but they can only honestly obey the arbitrary arrangements of the court.

If the people are like this, the dynasty will be easy to govern, and the position of the monarch will be stronger.

If you want to be stable, you have to come up with specific means, and the poor and tired people are the best means.

The art of the poor is to let the people struggle on the poverty line, so that the people "have nothing to accumulate at home".

The art of exhausting the people is that when the people are plowing the land, they should not look at the eyes, listen to the ears, and talk with the mouth, so as to control public opinion.

If you want to control public opinion among the people, you must first "humiliate the people" and "fool the people".

To humiliate the people is not to make people humiliate the people personally, but to make people despise the people in their hearts and regard the people as inferior to animals, and ignoring the people is to implement cultural dictatorship, let the people receive all the information from the outside world that is controlled by the government, and in the long run, so that the people are ignorant ignorance.

The five arts are interlocking, and as long as they are successfully performed, the people under their rule will become walking corpses without their own thoughts and souls, and will be driven by the monarch.

Zhu Youjian has already mastered the five techniques of controlling the people, but what he is facing is not the people who have been controlled for 2000 years, but the "people" who have been active in the temple since 2000.

Therefore, these people cannot be punished with the five arts alone, only the last two arts can subdue these people.

Zhu Youjian has always been indifferent to the art of controlling the people, but he also knows that the current Daming is still an agricultural society, and Zhu Youxiao is also the king of an agricultural society, he cannot have the vision of an industrial society.

In Zhu Youxiao's view, the development of agriculture is the foundation of a dynasty's prosperity, and the victory of war is the most important means to defeat the enemy.

Farming and war are the main content of the king's desire to govern the world. If he wants to achieve the point of "a sage governing the country, so that the people will turn their hearts to agriculture", they must make the people ignorant.

In this regard, Zhu Youxiao was right, because the essence of controlling the people was for the stability of the dynasty, and the stability of the dynasty made it easier for the common people to survive.

People in prosperous times pursue freedom, while people in troubled times only seek to survive.

If the dynasty is stable, even if the corrupt officials exploit it, the lives of most people can still be guaranteed, but if the dynasty is unstable, there will be massacres and disasters.

It's just that Zhu Youjian is going to take Daming into the industrial society right now, so the vision and policies of the feudal society need to be abandoned.

In the Central Plains Dynasty, the system has always been "confucianism outside and law inside, and Daoism as the aid".

On the surface, it puts on the cloak of Confucianism, but its essence is still Legalism, treating the common people like cattle and horses, making them uncivilized people.

This also led to the most indispensable thing in the Central Plains Dynasty for thousands of years, that is, slavery and insensitivity.

It is inevitable to liberate the minds of the people, and it is also inevitable to liberate the pressure of the people. This is the general trend after the industry, and it cannot be stopped.

Therefore, facing Zhu Youxiao's feudal thinking, Zhu Youjian could only take a deep breath and said:
"If the common people can eat enough to eat and wear warm clothes, how can the common people rebel?"

"The art of controlling the people is certainly powerful, but which dynasty that used this method has survived for 300 years?"

"My Ming Dynasty is now 260 years old. At this life span, the Qin and Sui dynasties have long been burned, and the Yuan, Eastern Han, and Western Han Dynasties have also been turned into soil."

"Even the Song Dynasty was divided into two Song Dynasties, lingering in the south of the Yellow River for 150 years."

"Brother, please think about it, how many dynasties can survive for 260 years like mine? And if my younger brother didn't insist on reforms ten years ago, how many years can I, Ming Dynasty, persist?"

Zhu Youjian was trying to persuade Zhu Youxiao, and his persuasion made Zhu Youxiao hesitate for a while, almost wavering.

To put it bluntly, the examples reported by Zhu You are really irrefutable.

Zhu Youxiao believes that if you want the dynasty to last, you must pay attention to controlling the people, but Zhu Youjian pays attention to managing the world, and moved out of the dynasties that focused on controlling the people and died.

Finally, there was a dynasty that valued controlling the people and was longer than the Ming Dynasty, but it was the Song Dynasty that was extremely humiliating in the eyes of the Han people in the Ming Dynasty.

Daming has a very obvious inferiority complex. In order to hide this inferiority complex, they often brag about their strength to cover up their inferiority complex.

In the eyes of all classes in Ming Dynasty, Ming Dynasty was a powerful country whose enemy was against Tang, but not as strong as Han.

Therefore, when arguing about this issue of "managing the world and controlling the world", Zhu Youxiao actually had only one weak Song Dynasty worthy of his refutation. It would be better not to refute.

Refuting Zhu Youjian, then Daming is the large version of the Song Dynasty.

Don't refute, then Daming is still Daming.

Therefore, facing the rebuttal, Zhu Youxiao chose to shut his mouth and look at Zhu Youjian with his eyes.

But even so, he still can't help but think about what Zhu Youjian said.

With this thought, it was even more difficult for him to convince himself.

Before Zhu Youjian's reform, the territory of Ming Dynasty was only two capitals and thirteen provinces, but now it has reached two capitals and twenty provinces.

Before the reform, the total tax discount of Ming Dynasty was only 400 million taels of silver, but in the eighth year after the reform, the tax discount of Daming was a total of 300 million taels, and this is not the peak.

Once the severe drought is over, the tax discount of Ming Dynasty can even reach 800 million taels.

The ancient and modern emperors, especially the middle and late emperors, no matter who heard this series of comparisons, they would inevitably doubt their own policies, and Zhu Youxiao was no exception.

Therefore, when Zhu Youjian looked at each other, his eyes gradually fell into a disadvantage, and finally he could only be soft and said:

"Hey... let's do what my brother said, but after the small tax and miscellaneous items are abolished, I'm afraid I will lose nearly ten million taels of tax money."

Zhu Youjian was very happy with Zhu Youxiao's obedience, but facing his discouragement, Zhu Youjian smiled heartily:
"If you lose 1000 million taels of tax money today, you will earn back 3000 million taels of tax money tomorrow!"

"Brother, let's see how I collect the taxes that fall into the corrupt officials one by one..."

　Chapter 2 update at [-]pm

　　
　
(End of this chapter)