my days with tyrants

Chapter 218 The Dawn of a New Era
Looking at the emperor's grandson's proud appearance, Yang Feng was also very emotional!
This is the result that the emperor's grandson wanted.

In fact, he just wanted to complete the identification of his emperor status in front of the subjects of the world in advance.

Anyway, his grandfather doesn't shy away from such things, he doesn't need to be like those princes of other dynasties, behave honestly, and don't make people feel anxious...

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't care about this.

He is like a pure old farmer, watching his children and grandchildren start to take charge of the family business, and then he can finally expose the roots of the wall, watching the diligence of the heir with gratified eyes. He used to be like this to Zhu Biao, but now he is getting older and older. This is especially true for Zhu Yunxi. In fact, he never thought of changing heirs. No matter whether he supported Zhu Yunqi or Zhu Di, his purpose was to try to let Zhu Yunxi take the right path.

That is to stay away from Yang Feng's temptations and keep a distance from Yang Feng.

Daming needed the new technologies brought by Yang Feng, but not the heresies brought by Yang Feng, just like our Westernization School in the late Qing Dynasty.

Ming learning is body, Xia learning is practical.

Zhu Yunqi and Zhu Di are just his tools.

But now Zhu Yunxi took the opportunity to solve the prestige of the two uncles in one fell swoop, and just took the opportunity to establish his status as emperor preconceived in front of the subjects of the world.

Tell Zhu Yunwen and Zhu Di...

You all give up!

It's useless.

I am the one!
At this moment, in the Shanhu Long live, the grandson of the emperor who walked up to Huanqiu, seemed to be conducting a rehearsal of his enthronement...

"The grandson of the emperor has finally grown up."

Yang Feng said.

"Ambassador, have you played enough?"

Xie Cheng said.

"Yongpinghou, I'm just fulfilling my promise. Even the common people will do what they promise. Since you want me to be a middleman, then of course I must be fair and just."

"Ah, fair and just, by the way, why didn't the river god come?"

"He is a god, so how could he keep staring at the mundane world? As long as you didn't break your promise, the River God didn't need to come over, but if you broke your promise, it would be hard to say."

"So what does the ambassador want us to deliver?"

Xie Cheng said.

Of course, it is impossible for the emperor grandson to come forward to negotiate such a matter.

So next, Zhaoyi, Huguo, and the commander-in-chief of the Hedong Sanshe will formally start negotiations with Yongpinghou on behalf of the more than 200 million Shanxi people belonging to the Sanshe.

"First, amnesty."

Yang Feng said.

"Well, His Majesty has made it clear that once the Shanxi rebellion is settled, all those who participated in the amnesty period, whether they were the rioters in the counties during the initial northward journey to Taiyuan, or the capital elected afterwards, plus those who fought with the imperial court at Tianjing Pass before, All of their crimes are pardoned, but these clubs, all of them, must be disbanded afterwards, and as for those commanders, His Majesty will reward each of them with a position."

Xie Cheng said.

"Then look for an opportunity to catch them, and then use the court law to settle the score?"

"The ambassador was joking. As long as they don't break the law in the future, the court will have no way to arrest them even if they want to!"

"Whether you break the law or not, in the end it's not your official words, but you don't have to worry about it, I will hire them, from the command to the capital, and then send them to Fengzhou River to open up wasteland and farm."

"Send them back to raise their arms if there is something to do in the future?"

"Yongpinghou is really professional."

Yang Feng said with a smile.

Xie Cheng just smiled.

Everyone is a sensible person, and it is impossible not to settle accounts after the fall.

Even if the imperial court does not settle accounts later, the magistrates and the gentry who were forced to donate before will still have to settle accounts with these rascals.

During this period of time, it is impossible for those unruly people to pay for it themselves. They were all forced to donate from gentry from all over Shanxi. Either you stand up and take the lead against the imperial court, or you pay for food and let us stand up against the imperial court.Those gentry were afraid that the court would settle accounts after autumn, so of course they dared not come out to take the lead. In fact, their intestines were almost remorseful at this time. It was true that they were the first to follow the river god to make troubles, but they just wanted to force Jin Fan away, but they ended up step by step. Come now...

This is already a rebellion.

Therefore, I definitely dare not take the lead, and can only cry and pay for food.

And after the order is restored, these gentry will eventually have some local power, and then colluding with the local officials, it will be strange if they don't retaliate!

But Yang Feng's move keeps the knife hanging. If the court or local officials and gentry really retaliate against the troublemakers who participated, then these capitals who have established prestige in the process can come back at any time Raise your arms and let Shanxi fall into rebellion again in a very short period of time.

Xie Cheng is also from a rebellion background, he is a professional.

"Second, military households must divide their land."

Yang Feng said.

Xie Cheng nodded silently.

This is already necessary. You must know that the imperial court still has to rely on military households in Shanxi after all, and it is impossible for the emperor to change batches of military households to garrison Shanxi.

Even military households not only in Shanxi, but also military households in other places have begun to demand land distribution.

If the emperor refuses, then it is likely that it is not just the military households in Shanxi. What's more, he himself has lost confidence in this system after knowing the corruption of the military household system, so the reform of the military household land system is necessary. , it’s just that a new system has not yet been formulated. After all, this is not just as simple as dividing the land. If the land is divided, how will the military rations be solved in the future?There is also the issue of the transfer of military households. It is common for military households to be transferred due to various problems. If the land is allocated, how can they be transferred?Also, if the land is divided, what will happen to the additional land in the future?Originally, Yu Ding was also given land by the Weisuo. Although it was half of that of Zhengbing, their land was also given by the Weisuo.

The number of military households Yu Ding is increasing, so how will the guards deal with their land?
In short, it is not a simple sentence that can be solved by dividing the land.

"The third equalizes the land and exempts grain."

Yang Feng said.

"Ambassador, as long as you guarantee the food supply of Shanxi Xingdu Division, and ensure that Shanxi's industrial and commercial tax revenue exceeds the current 200 million shi every year, the imperial court can exempt grain. As for the equalization of land, it is the easiest. Your Majesty is just an imperial decree. This does not require the imperial court to pay. , the imperial court has nothing to lose, at most, His Majesty will compensate those landlords whose fields have been divided, and give their family a reputation as a scholar."

Xie Cheng said.

"So, why don't you just contract Shanxi's taxes to me?"

Yang Feng said.

While speaking, he looked at the grandson of the emperor who had already started offering sacrifices to heaven.

This ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven is very cumbersome, and must be strictly followed step by step. The process of offering sacrifices to heaven by Yuan Datou took more than an hour!
Although the emperor's grandson is not an emperor, the process must also follow etiquette.

"Just like those color-eyed people in Hu Yuan's time?"

Xie Cheng said.

It's a good idea.

In fact, for the imperial court, the key is the exemption of grain, which is more than 200 million shi per year in Shanxi. This is the largest tax revenue in the north, especially for the military supply of the capital of Shanxi. If Yang Feng can ensure that the imperial court will not lose this income , Shanxi Xingdusi will not be short of this supply, so simply adopt the tax package system like Hu Yuan to contract Shanxi tax revenue to Yang Feng, which will save the court a lot of trouble.

After all, maintaining a tax system requires a lot of money and food.

Collection, storage, transportation, and management all need to support a certain amount of manpower alone, but if you use the tax package system, you don't have to worry about it at all.

It's all taxpayer's own.

And this kind of system is not without precedent. After all, most of the tax revenue in Hu Yuan's time was contracted.

"But if I am asked to pay the tax, then except for the salt, which is still owned by the imperial court, everything else, such as tea, will be released in Shanxi."

Yang Feng said.

"I will play your Majesty."

Xie Cheng said.

In fact, as long as the salt industry is not released.

Tea is indeed an important material for changing horses at present, but this has nothing to do with Shanxi.

There is no way to grow tea in Shanxi, and it is useless to let go of Shanxi. Anyway, the imperial court will import it from outside, and at most it will be more free to trade in Shanxi.

As for the others, it is not worth mentioning.

"Fourth, all terms must be written in black and white into a covenant, and the emperor's grandson must sign it, and His Majesty will seal it."

Yang Feng said.

Xie Cheng nodded silently.

In fact, this is the most important question...

The Son of Heaven and the common people form an alliance, and the emperor and the common people are drawn to equal positions.

Covenant...

First of all, there must be equality to make a covenant. One is high above, and the other is kneeling at the feet. This is not called a covenant. Although it can be beautified with some nice words, as long as the emperor and the people make a covenant, in fact, there is no distinction between high and low.Fortunately, this is not something that Xie Cheng needs to worry about, and the emperor at this time started from the lowest level of common people. Beggars, no matter how low they are, they are slaves, but slaves are not considered common people, they are just common people. As far as the emperor is concerned, there is indeed no one who started lower than the emperor.

So he shouldn't be too concerned about this issue.

In this way, during the process of the emperor's grandson offering sacrifices to heaven, Yang Feng and Xie Cheng represented the negotiating parties and completed the core content of the negotiation ahead of schedule.

While the emperor's grandson was on Huanqiu, in the eyes of hundreds of thousands of people, he continued the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the sky in a crown.

The whole process lasted for half an hour, and with the burning of the sacrificial rites proclaiming to the heavens in the burning furnace, the River God Incident in Daming, which had disturbed the entire north, was officially over.

As for the next negotiations, there is no suspense.

Yang Feng agreed to all four points.

Then it is the choice of returning to the Ming Dynasty or returning to the Song Dynasty. As for this choice, there is no suspense.

All the conditions were agreed, and of course he chose to return to Daming.

And after the news that the Shanxi people chose to return to Daming reached the capital, His Majesty the Emperor announced an amnesty the next day, not just in Shanxi, but in the whole country. Seeing that all the emperors of the Song Dynasty came to thank him, he was in a very good mood for a while, and felt that he could finally achieve peace in the world, so he gave amnesty as soon as he was happy.

The division of land for military households has also become a reform of the military household system, but this reform cannot be rushed, so a pilot is needed to test it out, and finally Shanxi Metropolitan Command and Envoy Division was selected as the pilot.

Juntian in Shanxi...

This has become a landowner in Shanxi actively donating soil...

Donate soil in exchange for fame, offer a hundred mu of land for a scholar's fame, and offer a thousand mu of land for a scholar's fame.

Those who donate [-] mu of land will be directly awarded with Jinshi background.

However, there are no large landlords of [-] mu in Shanxi, so it is actually a bunch of talented people.

Then these lands were given by His Majesty the Emperor to those tenants for cultivation, not allotment of land, but for the fame of their descendants, those landlords insisted on dedicating the land to the Emperor. The land was distributed to the tenants who originally cultivated it, but these lands were regarded as official land, and the tenants had the right to cultivate but not the right to trade.

Official land is to be re-burdened.

And Guantian can be traded.

However, these official lands in Shanxi are not heavily endowed, so they cannot be traded.

food free...

Of course, food cannot be exempted, and Shanxi’s tax exemption cannot exempt other provinces. Doesn’t that force other provinces to rebel?
Food exemption is definitely unavoidable, but all the taxes in Shanxi are contracted to Ambassador Yang. As for how he collects them, it has nothing to do with the imperial court. Shanxi pays taxes as the imperial court does, but these taxes are paid by Yang. The ambassador collects it on his behalf and then hand it in. It is his own business not to accept it himself, as long as he does not lose the share he handed over to the court every year.

The summer and autumn courses in Shanxi add up to 280 million shi.

As long as Yang Feng handed over the 280 million shi of millet and wheat to the imperial court a year, he would be free to collect taxes in Shanxi.

But the salt industry cannot be affected.

Hedong Yanchi and Yanyin are still the same as in the past.

The covenant in black and white, of course, exists in duplicate, but the Shanxi people's share is handed over to Ambassador Yang for safekeeping, and the court's copy is of course hidden in the palace, just like an iron coupon, so as long as Ambassador Yang doesn't take it all over the world Propaganda is tantamount to secrecy.As for those commands, what people say outside is just nonsense. If the people of Shanxi want to verify, of course they can go to Ambassador Yang to see, but Ambassador Yang will not take the initiative to spread it, and it is not possible to spread it nationwide in this era. of.

The Di Bao belongs to the imperial court, so it will definitely not be disseminated.

So Zhu Yuanzhang signed very happily.

One is that his mentality is not so high that he must never bow his head to the troublesome people. This is very important. Deep down in his heart, he actually understands that he and the people are equal. If he doesn't announce it to the world, then this covenant will not be spread, and at most it will be placed with Yang Feng, and it will be used by this guy to trouble him in the future.

On the other hand, the people of Shanxi recognized Zhu Yuanzhang's recovery of the Three Jins and rescued them from Hu Yuan's tyranny. recognize the right of dominion and protection of its heirs.

Although there is no difference in essence, the definition of imperial power has changed.

In fact, Confucian scholars have become wary of this covenant, because it has changed the theory of destiny they have been preaching.

They lost the right to interpret the legitimacy of imperial power.

but……

This covenant opened the door to a new world for them.

Because it is the people who choose the king.

The choice of the people became the explanation for the legitimacy of the imperial power. In other words, if the people did not choose, the imperial power would be illegal.

And Confucian scholars, or the gentry behind them...

That is also the people!
For the first time, they obtained the basis for restricting imperial power.

Therefore, compared with the relative illusory things, the benefits of reality are more important after all.

(End of this chapter)