After five years of teaching support, Daming became an empire on which the sun never sets.

Chapter 23 It's a Scholar's View
"Thanks to your reminder, we almost made a big mistake!" Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly realized, "I have to send someone to protect his safety immediately. As for the reward of gold and silver, we will talk about it later."

Having said that, he lowered his head and pondered, thinking about who to send.

It is also a matter of learning who to send.First of all, you must not reveal your identity, and secondly, you must be someone you can fully trust.

The first thing he thought of was the Jinyiwei he secretly built...

"Your Majesty, Liu Yushi and Li Xiang are here." At this moment, a eunuch entered the door.

"Let them come in." Zhu Yuanzhang said. Seeing that the emperor was going to deal with the state affairs, Empress Ma quietly retreated through the back door.

"My minister Liu Bowen, and my minister Li Shanchang see your Majesty." The two entered the door and bowed down.

"Be flat, give a seat." Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Bowen, good leader, we have a question to test you."

Have a question to test?
Hearing the words, the two of them couldn't help but groan.If they were replaced by the previous two, they would definitely be full of confidence and do not care. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't read much, and it was easy to fool the past, and Zhu Yuanzhang would still treat them with respect as a teacher.But since the last court meeting, the thinking of the two has undergone earth-shaking changes: the current Emperor Zhu is no longer the previous Emperor Zhu.

At the last court meeting, Zhu Yuanzhang gave them a proposition of sending them off and almost sent them away.The knowledge he showed shocked everyone, and all the great Confucian scholars in the court were speechless.

They couldn't handle the reborn Emperor Zhu.

So when they heard that Zhu Yuanzhang was going to test them this time, they both felt guilty.

"Please show me the emperor." Li Shanchang said anxiously.

"There is a village surrounded by mountains, traffic is blocked, and the grain output per mu is only three buckets." Zhu Yuanzhang said, "If you are the local magistrate, what can you do to make the villagers in this village have enough to eat and even get rich?"

"You are all our ministers, high-ranking officials of the imperial court. You won't even be able to govern a small village, right?"

"This question is not a random question. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there were still many prefectures and counties who could not have enough to eat, and the disaster victims were displaced everywhere. Governing a village is equivalent to governing all the prefectures and counties.

It turned out that it was not a proposition, and the two were relieved when they heard it.

"Your Majesty, if you want the villagers to have a full meal, the first thing to do is to encourage farming and allow the villagers to open up more land to grow food." Li Shanchang said, "The second is to reduce the burden on the poor and even exempt the farmers from taxes for several years. burden."

Li Shanchang is a good hand in internal affairs, so Zhangkou came to answer this question.

"Your answer seems reasonable, but in fact it has no practical effect." Zhu Yuanzhang said, "As we said before, the biggest reason for the poverty of that village is the low land yield, and the yield per mu is only three fights. It has nothing to do with the amount of land, even if the grain yield is low, even if the cultivated land is reclaimed to the top of the mountain, it is still not enough to eat."

"Secondly, you said that you are light and thin."

"In the early days of the Ming Dynasty, silver was needed everywhere. If every place was lightly repaid, and even reduced or exempted taxes, where would the income of the court come from? What would the court use to pay you salaries and use it for construction without money? What do you use to allocate funds to local governments for disaster relief in disaster-stricken areas? You have to send troops to exterminate pirates everywhere, they don’t need money?”

"Your Majesty, my minister..." Li Shanchang was speechless.From ancient times to the present, the method of the imperial court to let the place rest and recuperate has been to encourage farming with light requisitions, but in front of Zhu Yuanzhang, it seems unrealistic.

"Your Majesty, this minister believes that the main reason for the low yield of land and grain is that there is no wind and the rain is not going well." Liu Bowen said, "If the minister is a local county magistrate, he will clear up the long-standing injustices and establish a legal system to prevent indiscriminate killings. With benevolent government, the weather will naturally be good. Once the weather is good, the grain output will naturally increase and the villagers will have enough to eat."

Liu Bowen used to be the Grand Historian of the Sitian Supervisor. He has held this position for the longest time and has been very effective. He is an expert in observing the sky.When Zhu Yuanzhang was not yet emperor, he encountered a severe drought, and he suggested that Zhu Yuanzhang issue an edict of guilt and clear the injustice.

Zhu Yuanzhang also did the same, but then the heavy rain really fell from the sky.

Another time Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to kill all the prisoners. He had a dream at night. Liu Bowen explained to him that he could gain territory, but the prisoners had to be released. As a result, after Haining surrendered, Zhu Yuanzhang also released the prisoners.

It has to be said that Liu Bowen is a good player in watching the sky at night.

"There is some truth to what you said." Zhu Yuanzhang said, "But it is still a bit unreliable to entrust the governance of the place to God. What if the county magistrate clears all the wrongful prisons, and there is still no good weather?"

"That can only prove that the magistrate's benevolent administration is not in place, and we must continue to check for leaks and fill the gaps." Liu Bowen said, "If it is really finished, the magistrate will lead the people to pray for rain."

In ancient times, it was very common for county magistrates to lead the people to pray for rain.

"Stop, stop, stop." Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't listen anymore. After the implementation of benevolent government, good weather is the credit of the implementation of benevolent government. If there is no good weather, he has done enough. He is invincible both horizontally and vertically.

Could it be that you Liu Bowen can really call the wind and call the rain?
"We only know one person who can make this village well-fed and even prosperous without the imperial court reducing or exempting taxes or praying for rain. Don't you feel ashamed compared to this person?"

"Excuse me, Your Majesty, who is that person?" Li Shan said long, "If he can really do it, he is definitely a rare official, a capable official."

"Your Majesty, I do not believe that there is such a capable person." Liu Bowen said.

"If you don't believe it, it only proves that you are not capable." Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Okay, let's step back."

After seeing the two leave, Zhu Yuanzhang also looked sad.

In order to feed the people and make the Ming Dynasty prosperous, the first thing they need is money.

And the current court is too short of money.

The Yingtianfu Palace has just been built, and Xu Da has returned from the Northern Expedition to fight for the Yuan Dynasty. These two major events have emptied the savings of the imperial court... Moreover, some prefectures and counties have to be allocated funds to resume production, and the grass bandits have to be paid. When the world is in chaos The people could not survive, and they fell into the grass and became bandits and have not yet come down the mountain.Even the former prosperous city of Yangzhou now has only a few dozen families.

This is the case in Yangzhou, not to mention other remote areas.

If you don't give them money, you won't be able to build it.If the court cannot be built, there will be no taxation, forming a vicious circle.

Zhu Yuanzhang was born as a peasant, unlike Li Shimin, who had a huge family background from the Li family in Taiyuan from the beginning.If it weren't for the fact that the Li family was originally a gatekeeper, Tang Taizong would never have been able to achieve the rule of Zhenguan.

And in this case, Li Shanchang actually suggested tax exemption... what a scholar's opinion.

(End of this chapter)