national surname chiming

Chapter 345 The Three Fires of Xinjian Kingdom

In order to take the overall situation into consideration and avoid the excessive consumption of the Han court's army in the civil war, Zhu Changping chose to temporarily concede to Zhu Yousong, and first took the opportunity to cut down the vassals from other vassals.There is absolutely no problem with this decision.

A very few cabinet ministers who participated in the decision-making process, including Shi Kefa, also knew that if they dealt with King Fu hard from the beginning, even if it could be done, it would definitely leave a sequelae, which would cause everyone in the other feudal lords to feel insecure and resist entry. towards.

In this way, if you want to deter all local warlords in the future, the hidden danger of civil war will definitely be higher than it is now.It would be better to temporarily show the court's tolerance and let all the twists and turns belong to King Fu.

Of course, in this decision-making process, it is not that no one objected. For example, Xu Shiqi, the minister of the Ministry of punishment, privately suggested a point:
"In troubled times, heavy codes should be used. When the king first supervises the state affairs, he should use thunderous means to suppress the situation. Once he shows weakness, it will make the people with shady ambitions even more eager to move."

Zhu Changping himself is a weak person who doesn't understand politics, and he doesn't know how to refute Xu Shiqi's secret advice, after all, it does sound reasonable.

Fortunately, Shi Kefa and Zhu Shuren were sober, and finally Shi Kefa stepped forward to firmly oppose Xu Shiqi's statement:
"One moment and another moment! In troubled times, heavy codes and clear laws are used to clarify responsibilities. It was used when the predecessor was weak and muddy! For example, when Liu Bei entered Yizhou, Liu Zhang before that was weak and muddy, and the law was loose, so Zhuge Liang had to be clear. The law confirms responsibility!"

"But if the First Lord himself was in a state of fortitude and harsh laws, such as Qin Shihuang and Hu Hai, then Liu Bang's entry into the pass will be three chapters of the law!"

The reason why Shi Kefa needed to speak up for these remarks was naturally because Zhu Shuren was still the governor of the outer town, not the court department,

If he blatantly interferes in the decision-making of the central government, he will easily fall into the shoes of others, and will further give careerists an excuse to resist under the banner of "the side of the Qing Dynasty".So even if Zhu Shuren was trusted by his father-in-law again, he could only do it secretly for the time being.Among the courtiers, only Shi Kefa and Shen Tingyang knew that Zhu Shuren was involved in the decision-making of the central government, and the others kept it secret.

In the process of consolidating the authority of the central government in this round, Zhu Changqian can give him a further promotion, a title of minister, and the status of participating in central decision-making if he makes some more obvious contributions.

(Note: At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the governor of Waizhen added a military minister with the title of supervisor, or a bachelor's degree, which was much more convenient, and he could directly participate in the discussion of the court's affairs. Zhu Shuren had only a governor before, and he was named a duke, but he never added a bachelor's degree. Or Shangshu title.)
And there is still half a paragraph behind these words, Zhu Shuren obviously didn't let Shi Kefa say clearly, that is, they think Chongzhen belongs to the style of Qin Shihuang and Hu Hai.

Now all the ministers and generals in the world are worried about being liquidated for historical issues. Only by taking the opportunity to show that the new supervisory country will never liquidate the old accounts of history, and everyone looks forward, can we unite people more.

In contrast, the legal rewards and punishments are not strict enough, and it is not at all the main conflict at the moment.

Xu Shiqi is just as the minister of the Ministry of punishment, he pays more attention to fame, and is not used to it.After being persuaded by Shi Kefa, he also accepted it.So Zhu Changpan's vassal policy was carried out without reservation.

……

Although the policy has been promulgated, it will take time to implement it.The first summoning to King Fu was issued on the eighth day of March. King Fu procrastinated in replying, spat, and the negotiations between the court and China basically dragged on until late March.

In the last ten days of March, the imperial edicts calling for the kings to supervise the country were issued one after another, and the road had to be walked for ten or eight days according to the distance, and at most one or two months, so this matter, at least until the second half of the 17th year of Chongzhen, can be completed. Complete results.

After all, summoning the kings is not considered an urgent military situation. It is impossible to expedite the delivery by six hundred miles, but it can only be an ordinary messenger who travels one or two hundred miles a day.

After the vassal kings agreed to set off, they would only travel fifty miles a day at most.These pampered and pampered princes are not willing to work hard on horses and gallops.

In the past three months, the imperial court cannot be idle, and Zhu Shuren has no excuse to stay in Beijing, so he plans to discuss with his father-in-law, father, and Shi Kefa about the major policies for the next stage, and then temporarily return to his defense area to supervise the army and handle civil affairs. .

After the death of Chongzhen, Zhu Shuren's farming and scientific and technological achievements in the Huguang Governor's area can also have a new stage of deployment. Those things are also very important.Otherwise, at most half a year, when the Qing army came, the South would have seized power, and all the careerists would have been cut off, but in the end they would not be able to beat the Qing army, then everything would be over.Zhu Shuren can still distinguish the primary and secondary contradictions.

Zhu Shuren calculated the time. He could leave Nanjing around the beginning of April, return to his own territory, and wait for the imperial court to implement the policy.

If the situation is critical, he can be on standby in Hefei. Anyway, Hefei can be regarded as his governor's jurisdiction, and he can lead his troops back to Nanjing as soon as there is a change.If the situation is not critical, return to Wuchang.

Therefore, in late March, before his son-in-law left Beijing, Zhu Changbai took time out to gather Shen Tingyang, Zhu Shuren, and Shi Kefa to discuss the next stage of major policies in private behind closed doors.

As for the outsiders in the other four Shangshu, there is no need to participate.After the closing meeting is over, Shen Tingyang and Shi Kefa can just argue with the outside world. Zhu Shuren will not care about the details of the process in the court, nor will he see it.

Zhu Changqian is a Buddhist by nature, and he is not willing to bother too much, so as soon as these secret discussions came up, he first raised a fundamental question:
Now that the world is in chaos and the power to oversee the country is in the hands of the first, should it be business as usual to stabilize people's hearts, or should the new official take office as the third fire, act resolutely and make some moves to show that it is different from when the first emperor was there?
Facing this question, Shi Kefa still wanted to be cautious. Shen Tingyang's attitude was not as firm as Shi Kefa's, mainly because he didn't read much and didn't know much about politics other than finance.

Shi Kefa sincerely persuaded: "Your Majesty, when discussing the control of the feudal vassals, the ministers have said that today's world is like the chaos at the end of the Qin Dynasty. We should imitate the three chapters of the Han Gaozu's contract, lighten the government and let the past go.

Before the kings come to South Zhili, it is better to keep things as usual to calm people's minds.Even if there are some urgent matters that need to be changed, it is not too late in the past few months, so we should take it slowly.Once the queens are under control, the local generals will no longer have anyone to stand up for if they want to make a name for themselves and make trouble. Naturally, there will be much less resistance at that time. "

Zhu Changqian felt that these words were really old-fashioned, and he had already accepted them to some extent, and then turned to Shen Tingyang next to him: "What does Qing Qing think?"

Shen Tingyang sighed: "The Department of Shi Ge is indeed old-fashioned, but there are certain things that are imminent. It has been two months since the late emperor died, and the court has returned to normal, and most of the northern provinces have fallen.

When the first emperor died for his country, Beizhili fell to the hands of thieves, and Henan, Shandong and some prefectures were controlled by the imperial court.Even in the past two months, the bandits retreated steadily, and now the entire territory of Beizhili, most of Shandong, and several prefectures in Henan Province north of the old course of the Yellow River have been occupied by the Tartars.

I heard that the intruder himself has retreated to Kaifeng, and now there are only a few prefectures in Henan, as well as Shanxi and Shaanxi, in the hands of the intruders, and they occupy only two provinces and three prefectures.

In such a situation, the imperial court only has the southern provinces to collect taxes this year, but has to raise more soldiers and horses than in previous years to ensure that the territory can be defended.The three rates set by the first emperor are destined to be unable to collect in many provincial capitals.

If you don't seek new sources of income, you must ensure that more people will not be forced to rebel in the process of seizing financial resources. If the Tartars attack, the morale of the army and the people will first collapse. "

Shen Tingyang's remarks always pay attention to practicality. In his opinion, even if it is for righteousness, there are not so many that can be wasted. Appropriate risk and acceleration are very necessary.

Zhu Changqian had no idea at first, so he had to look at his son-in-law again, and signaled with his eyes, hoping that Zhu Shuren would help him analyze it.

He also didn't think about it, Zhu Shuren and Shen Tingyang are father and son, if the decision-making of state affairs requires the "minority to obey the majority", then Shi Kefa can't get the majority of the three people present - unless Zhu Shuren really thinks that his father's thinking is wrong.

Zhu Shuren also realized this, and he really felt that Shi Kefa's approach was a bit too steady, and he only paid attention to integrity without strategic cooperation.But in order not to appear to be colluding with his father and son, he had to fully understand the reasons before he could open his mouth to refute.

Zhu Shuren thought for a long time, and then he said impartially: "Your Majesty, I think that although Shi Gebu's words are correct, there are some things that I can't see. What my father said is to open up the wealth of the court, to raise troops and expand the army, to resist Foreign insults are really urgent.

Therefore, I think that at the beginning of the king's supervision of the country, he should conform to the expectations of the people of the world about the "three fires of the new official's appointment" and make some adjustments, so that it will be easier to stabilize people's hearts than doing nothing—"

When Zhu Shuren said this, he paused for a while, and did not continue to explain to Zhu Changpan, but turned to Shi Kefa, "Shi Gebu, you just said that at the end of Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang used lightness to calm people's hearts, but Liu Bang's lightness, Specifically, it is manifested as "three chapters of the law", rather than doing nothing and directly abolishing the Qin law.

The death of the murderer, the punishment of the wounded and the punishment of the robber, was this Liu Bang's first creation?No, Qin Fa has already existed, but Qin Fa is more stringent and complicated.Extracting the three chapters of the Qin Law and re-promulgating them in the name of Liu Bang is also a kind of "action", not a rule of thumb.

What's more, people today can learn from the lessons of ancient history far more than previous generations.Scholars and military generals all over the world are accustomed to the ancient practice of "three fires for new officials".Even if the king doesn't do anything, they will feel uneasy, always thinking that the king will do something.

This is like if your family lives in a small two-story building, and the people upstairs take off their boots and throw them on the ground before going to bed late at night. Once the first boot hits the ground and disturbs you, can you still sleep peacefully?Don't we have to wait for the second boot to hit the ground?

In this case, it is better to burn these three fires. During the burning process, the wording of the imperial edict should be modified and paid attention to. Two of the three articles can be reformed, and one can be used to reaffirm the right to show people that "burn early and feel at ease, From now on, I will stop tossing, and I can't find enough three variable methods in a hurry. It's purely a make-up. It must be easier to calm people's hearts than doing nothing. "

Shi Kefa was still very public-minded, so he listened to Zhu Shuren's opinion very seriously, and he was completely indifferent to the matter, and he didn't get upset because the father and son of the other party joined forces to refute him.

After thinking about it carefully, Shi Kefa really had to admit that he didn't have enough grasp of the details of these schemes and stealing profits, and he only cared about following the right path, and lost his time in extreme times.

Although he had never heard the story of "waiting for the second boot to hit the ground", he could understand it immediately when Zhu Shuren explained it, and admitted frankly after thinking it through:
"What Governor Zhu said is indeed a coincidence. Your Majesty, I would like to second the proposal. However, I don't know how Governor Zhu wants to piece together these three reforms and reaffirm the opportunity?"

Zhu Shuren had been prepared for a long time, and was waiting for Shi Kefa to let go, so he took out the strategy he had thought up in the past few days from his sleeve, presented it, and said:

"Your Majesty, I think that for the current plan, the three fires newly appointed may be used in these areas. Of course, this is just the humble opinion of the minister's family, and the Shi Ge Department can delete and supplement.

First of all, after the death of the first emperor, what must be adjusted immediately is the wealth system of my Ming Dynasty.Among the three fires, the first one is to show the world to be lenient, and to follow the trend to exempt the northern provinces and some southern provinces that have been particularly affected by the disaster this year, and then abolish the "three rates" system left by the late emperor.

The former part of the money is doomed to be irrecoverable, while the latter part is because the cost of collection is extremely high, it is easy to continue to arouse public instability, or the basis for collection no longer exists.Instead of being a villain in vain, it is better to take advantage of the trend and abolish it to show the atmosphere of the New Deal.

As for the larger gap that appeared after the abolition, the second fire was used to make up for it.It is possible to reaffirm the importance of the lijin method and increase the tax rate. When the first emperor first established this method, in order to avoid resistance from merchants and gentry all over the world, he only set a tax rate of one out of a hundred for each province he passed through.

In the following four years, due to the tense war, many provinces have adjusted, or added to one-hundredth, one-third, and very few provinces and very few years, as high as one-hundredth five, that is, five percent.The minister thought that this time, he could take advantage of the opportunity to add the commercial tax of 'every province that passes through, collect [-]% of the value of the goods'.

Since the 14th year of Chongzhen, when one or two out of a hundred were chosen, the southern provinces could receive about 200 million taels of silver each year. After that, each province increased taxes by itself.

Now it is directly added to 5%, and the minister estimates that it can be at least 2000 taels. If there is no significant reduction in cross-provincial and overseas trade, it can even reach [-] million taels, which is almost [-] to [-]% of the sum of the three rates set by the late emperor. , or the total amount exceeding the two salaries, is enough to raise troops, train troops, expand armies and prepare for war. "

Zhu Shuren eloquently revealed his overall idea.Some of his actions are also what he would have done in the same period of history and under the manipulation of Shi Kefa's regime.

It is not easy to search for the new emperor and the new supervisory country directly. You must first show kindness and reduce taxes.

Historically, Shi Kefa used the method of asking King Fu to exempt the taxation of those places in the north that were already occupied by the Japanese as a show.Zhu Shuren's current show is at least more humane and more concealed than Shi Kefa's in history, and it is actually giving some benefits to the poor people. After all, the three rates are really going to be abolished.

The Liao land is no longer in the hands of the imperial court, even Hebei and Shandong are gone, and those places do not need the imperial guard at present, so what "Liao pay" is needed?Even if it is necessary to avenge the late emperor and conquer the Central Plains, the money needed must be set up in another name, and the old outdated ones should be abolished.

As for the newly needed money, it is obvious that we must continue to expand the commercial tax to complete it.

Likin has been implemented for several years, but no matter how much it was added before, it did not break through the lines of 5.00% and [-]%. After all, if you charge [-]% and [-]%, you are still in likin.If you receive one point directly, it is a qualitative change, and the original name is too embarrassing to use, shouldn't it be called "Fenjin"?
There will definitely be resistance to increasing business taxes, and the southern Donglin gentry does not want their business to be exploited.But as long as the Shen family takes the lead in paying taxes, pays the largest part, and then pulls the Zheng family in and promises a little political status to the Zheng family, small businessmen in other provinces can use force to threaten them under the pretext of a special period.

In fact, it’s not that merchants can’t understand how to charge more lijin to save the country. They are just afraid of being fattened up as fat sheep and then slaughtered. In addition, they are afraid that the imperial court’s selective and strict law enforcement will turn a blind eye to powerful and influential businessmen. With one eye, only strictly enforce the law on businessmen who have no backing and no support, so that businessmen with weak backgrounds will be squeezed out in unfair competition sooner or later.

As we all know, the ultimate problem at the end of the Ming Dynasty was that no matter whether a new policy was introduced, whether it was changed for the better or for the worse, when it came to the implementation level, it would be used for personal gain—

Just like a few months ago, during the plague in Beijing, Chongzhen asked people to promote cremation of the dead to reduce the source of infection. This idea is no problem.

But in the end, the people who enforced the law either collected black money to let the corpses that should have been burned, or extorted money from those who should not be burned.

Whether it should be burned or not, or forced to burn it, it has become a means of collecting black money to make money. The key is that the bureaucracy has completely collapsed. Everyone knows the power of unspoken rules. fishing.

After this terrible expectation solidifies, it urges people to squander the short-lived power in their hands as soon as possible, and will not stop until the last breath of the country's demise.

So in the same way, businessmen in the late Ming Dynasty were not unpatriotic, and it was not that they could not pay more taxes. The key is that they must see the fairness and sustainability of law enforcement.

Just like a highway network, if the toll is expensive, but it is charged fairly to everyone, it will not crowd out the law-abiding logistics providers. Anyway, when everyone asks the owner to charge the freight, the price should be increased.

I am afraid that the law-abiding people have been bearing high costs, and there is a group of privileged people who can collude with the toll booths. Then when the law-abiding people raise prices, the business will be taken away by the privileged people. If things go on like this, the privileges can Squeeze the law-abiding ones to death.

Once Shen Tingyang and Zheng Zhilong take the lead in paying heavy taxes, at least this expectation of privilege and fear will be broken.

Zhu Changqian and Shi Kefa quickly figured out this truth, and they also supported the promotion of this idea as the core of the new supervisory policy.

Shi Kefa was more stable, and asked again: "Since such extra heavy taxes are charged on merchants, there must be a matching method to calm people's hearts. I don't know what Governor Zhu thinks?"

Zhu Shuren smiled indifferently: "If you want the horse to run, you must also feed the horse. I think that to make the merchants pay such a heavy tax requires a combination of two aspects.

First of all, it is necessary to change the social status suppression of the Ming Dynasty since the Taizu, emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, and achieve equality among the four peoples.The businessman's status is higher, and he will not be so resentful if he pays more money.

Moreover, the so-called low status of businessmen in my Ming Dynasty has long been an empty talk. It is nothing more than suppressing those ignorant businessmen who have no fame. There are still countless bad rules left!It is better to abolish the unspoken rules and directly declare equality.

Secondly, it is necessary to rectify the administration of officials, so that people can more believe that the imperial court will be fair in the process of collecting commercial taxes.This is not something that happens overnight, it needs to be figured out gradually.

Right now, we can first rely on the establishment of models to solve the problem, for example, let the imperial court re-levy the business taxes of the Shen family and the Zheng family, let the Shen family and the Zheng family take the lead in abiding by the law, and spend huge sums of money.

In the long run, it is even more necessary to reform the official salary system of our Ming Dynasty, high salaries to support honesty, first to ensure that officials can live well without receiving ice and charcoal, and as long as there is no comparison, at least the whole family and staff can be well-fed.

Then, at the same time, severely punish the use of power for personal gain, and gradually bring some search standards under the supervision of the imperial court, supplemented by the inspiration of "don't blame the past, stop and don't ask about the past", let the past be ignored for the historical corruption left over from the time of the first emperor, and only severely punish those who will not stop in the future If you don't lend money, you can save people's hearts and win over the majority temporarily...

Of course, these things will take a long time to come. At any rate, we, Ming, have won a decisive military victory on the battlefield before we can talk about these things.If it is too hasty, I'm afraid it will immediately drive people to the thieves and tartars. "

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PS: There are almost [-] words here, and the supervisor of the country has to write the internal affairs strategy, which is not enough.

After a few days of Chinese New Year pigeons, I slowly got used to it. In the last few days of January, it was basically five or six thousand words a day. It resumed in early February and opened twice a day.

(End of this chapter)