Hongwu Survival Guide

Chapter 163 Untitled
Zhu Yuan took a stack of memorials and looked at them. The thickness varies, but there are as many as six copies.

Open the first copy.

This is a censor from Jinling Yushitai, who said that Zhu Yuan ordered the prohibition of private participation in sea fishing.

as expected.

After roughly scanning the content, it is also well-founded and impartial.

Look at the second copy.

This is a memorandum from an inspector in eastern Zhejiang, impeaching Zhu Yuan for corruption and extorting bribes, and searching so endlessly that on the return journey, treasures, treasures and servants of Meiji loaded a total of eleven large ships.

This……

It seems to be right, it is indeed eleven big ships.

Scrolling down further, it is nothing more than a collection of various crimes and rumors.

After browsing through all of them, Zhu Yuan took out a copy and handed it to the old Zhu opposite, and said with a smile: "My ancestor, this is good, 'promote without authorization', 'compete with the people for profit', 'excessive taxation', 'robbing women',' Occupying good land', 'using power for personal gain', 'greedy', 'conspiracy'. Tsk tsk, the eight major crimes. Speaking of which, I have been writing a work report recently, roughly summarizing the work of the past half a year, and giving my ancestors Suggestions for follow-up implementation. This...he summed it up for me first."

Lao Zhu took it back, but glared at Zhu Yuan, and scolded with a smile: "You are quite calm, you can still smile, aren't you afraid at all?"

Said it has been opened.

I've seen it in advance, so I'm going to watch it again, and I want to hear how the 23rd grandson of my baby on the other side will deal with it.

"I'm afraid," Zhu Yuan nodded, "Actually, I've been a little scared since my ancestors sent me the first impeachment memorial. And I know that it will only be the beginning."

Old Zhu thought for a moment, and said, "It's that... about the fish collection. I remember it. You've explained the truth, and I think it's good. If not, I wouldn't have passed it on to you to handle it yourself."

"Yuan'er is talking about the backside of this incident."

Old Zhu raised his head: "Huh?"

Zhu Yuan said: "At first, my ancestors, I actually want to...well, to be a blank piece of paper. Since I have returned to this era so miraculously, and my ancestors trust me so much, I want to do my best. For example, my ancestors I don't even want to reward the land continuously, because I want to lead by example, like a blank sheet of paper, and behave innocently."

Lao Zhu's expression was slightly restrained, he didn't speak, but continued to look over.He could feel that the next thing was but.

Zhu Yuan also turned around: "But after that letter of impeachment, I suddenly felt something was wrong, I can't be a blank slate."

Old Zhu still looked over: "Why?"

Zhu Yuan and Lao Zhu looked at each other, and said: "Yuan'er is a person who has lived two lifetimes, not really the appearance of a teenage boy on the surface. In the previous life... I am used to seeing the world, so I know that the human heart is the most important thing. I can’t stand repeated tossing. Let’s talk about these impeachments. One or two letters is okay, and three letters and four letters are also fine. However, if it continues for many years and the ancestors read too much, they will start to doubt whether this is true. where?"

Old Zhu opened his mouth to say something, but Zhu Yuan rushed to continue: "There is a problem here, if Yuan'er continues to keep a blank sheet of paper, those people, as long as they successfully throw an ink idea on me, they will be killed by their ancestors again." See, then, this ink dot will look very dazzling, making the ancestors think... oh, so everything about this kid is fake, he lied to me."

"How could this be?" Lao Zhu finally spoke, shaking his head as he spoke, "It won't be like this!"

Zhu Yuan continued quickly: "In contrast, if I take the initiative to do some ridiculous things, such as appearing more lustful and greedy for money, it is equivalent to smearing some ink on myself in advance, and then being seen by my ancestors, pulling you down Expectations for me. At that time, if someone impeaches me again and dumps another ink idea on me, my ancestors will think, that kid has this kind of virtue, so what if he is a little worse. It just so happens that I can still do things, and my ancestors may also be able to do things. Allow me a little longer."

Lao Zhu looked at the eyes of his own baby, the 23rd generation Sun Heiliang, who was facing him, and was silent for a while, then shook his head and said, "This...what a stupid thing to say suddenly."

"At first I didn't want to explain to my ancestors, I just wanted to do it silently, but my ancestors were so kind to Yuan'er, I couldn't help but want to confess to you," Zhu Yuan said honestly, with a bit of sadness: "And, this is not Silly words. Remember the previous life... It is a poem of the next dynasty: If life is only as it was first seen, what is the autumn wind and the sad fan, waiting for leisure to change but the old heart, but the old heart is changeable. Everyone hopes that everything will be the same as before See, everyone can't resist the fickleness of the old man's heart. There are too many disturbances in this world, and if you don't want to change, it can forcibly twist people beyond recognition."

After hearing these words, Lao Zhu suddenly felt a little sad when he thought of all the things in the "Book from Heaven". He closed the impeachment memorial in front of him, got up, and reached out to grab the stack in front of Zhu Yuan, and walked to Throwing it directly into the river by the window, he said to his 23rd generation grandson who was still sitting by the desk: "Yuaner, you can rest assured, our family, nothing will change. Anyone who dares to make any noise, I will cut it off." he."

After saying this, Lao Zhu came to his senses and looked out the window suddenly.

They should have been chopped off just now. After thinking about it, out of the six memorials, I remembered four names. Lao Zhu planned to ask about it later, and he would not miss any of them.

These scholars will talk about some trivial matters, so they know how much they have done.If he hadn't opened up the sea food road, so that he could increase the army without any worries, if it wasn't for the strategy of surprise attack and outflanking Dadu, and even, if it wasn't for the hot air balloon, the army would have been defeated in just a few months. A battle that can only end in years?
Going back to the desk and sitting down again, seeing that Zhu Yuan still looked sad, Old Zhu said again: "Son, just forget about it. When I get back to Jinling, I will vent my anger on you and cut off those who talk nonsense."

Zhu Yuan sniffed his nose, felt his eyes start to moisten again, shook his head, wanted to say something, but felt a little choked up.

After taking a few deep breaths, seeing Lao Zhu standing up again, he poured water over himself, quickly caught it, and stood up, but was held down by Lao Zhu's shoulders, so he could only sit down again, thanked him, and then slowed down, saying: " Ancestor, we still need to talk about this matter."

After Lao Zhu returned to the desk again, he hadn't sat down yet, and waved his hand to stop him when he heard the words: "Don't talk about it, don't mention this."

Zhu Yuan insisted: "I still have to say that this matter seems trivial, but the truth behind it is actually related to our Zhu family. Yuan'er must sort out it for his ancestors."

Seeing Zhu Yuan's solemn tone, Old Zhu paused, then nodded slightly.

Zhu Yuan organized his language and said, "Have you ever thought about it, the ancestors, that all the people in the world really want to 'expel the barbarians and restore China', and they are really optimistic about our new Ming Dynasty?"

Old Zhu shook his head: "It's definitely not, otherwise there is no war."

This is a bit off.

Zhu Yuan stopped throwing bricks to attract jade, but directly said: "Not only the Yuan court that has been destroyed, but also, what Yuan'er wants to say is that in the Central Plains, the originally powerful and powerful families do not want to change the dynasty so much. Want to change the dynasty? What has changed is only the poor people who couldn't survive like our ancestors did at the beginning."

Lao Zhu realized that he had just misunderstood.

Thinking about the words of my baby's 23rd generation grandson, compared with the experience of the past ten years, it is obvious that it is true.

When I joined the Red Scarf in the early days, whenever I went to a place, the officers and soldiers were often unable to fight, and most of the people who greeted them were village soldiers organized by local powerful organizations.

Nodding slightly, Lao Zhu didn't interrupt, just waiting for Zhu Yuan to continue.

Zhu Yuan thought for a while, and then said: "The first time Yuan'er discussed economics with his ancestors, he said that from the perspective of economics, the Yuan Dynasty quickly collapsed within a hundred years. There are two reasons. The first is production. It is not as well-developed as the Han people. However, what is more serious is actually the distribution level. The Yuan court allowed the nobles, powerful, and powerful families to invade and plunder the people wantonly, completely forgetting the Tang Zong's saying that "water can carry a boat, and it can also overturn it." The people can't survive anymore, so they can only rise up."

"Among them, the powerful local households actually have more interests than Yuan Ting. Otherwise, Yuan Ting would not have had serious economic problems or even financial collapse in the last few decades because of the inability to collect taxes and taxes."

"In the history books, there was a saying from our ancestors. I don't know if you said it this time, it was called 'Yuan Yikuan lost the world'."

"It's brilliant."

"In the past half a year, living in the southeast, one of my deepest feelings is that the big locals are really rich. As for the glass, because it was commonplace in the previous life, the windows of every house are inlaid with transparent glass. I don't expect much. , I just planned to open up a small business. Unexpectedly, after firing glass, it can be sold to an extent equivalent to gold. This shows that glass is very rare in this era, and on the other hand, it is still one thing. The big family is really rich. As far as the unofficial history records in the previous life are concerned, some big families can even donate one-third of the city wall of Jinling City with their own efforts."

Hearing this, Lao Zhu finally couldn't help but interrupted: "This is nonsense. The city wall is an important weapon for defense. How can we let that private person intervene? We are not craftsmen without money and food." He was curious: "This wild history Are you talking about... the big family?"

Zhu Yuan shook his head: "Yuan'er also knows it's not true. As for which one, I won't tell my ancestors. It's unofficial history anyway."

Lao Zhu understood Zhu Yuan's thoughts and didn't mind, but just motioned him to continue.

Zhu Yuan continued: "There is an idiom called 'Desires are hard to fill'. Even under the leniency of the Yuan court, the rich and powerful households in various places have accumulated for a hundred years, but people's hearts will never be satisfied. For example, when I went to Ming Zhoushan. In the past half a year, while handling grain transportation, it has also opened up two major sources of income, one is to reorganize maritime trade, and the other is to encourage marine fishing through various measures. Before I arrived, according to records, the Zhoushan fishery The highest fishing output in China is only about 300 million catties, but this year’s summer floods alone have increased this figure to 43 tons, equivalent to 4300 million catties. Ten thousand taels of silver."

Old Zhu couldn't help nodding: "This is your great talent, I'm watching."

Zhu Yuan took a sip of the tea that Lao Zhu had just poured for himself, and then said: "My lord, I still can't help arguing here, I'm not greedy for money, if I'm greedy for money, don't say anything else, it's just the 200 million taels I have a hundred ways to quietly put the income from the license of the maritime trade company into my pocket instead of taking it out to supplement the national use."

Lao Zhu waved his hand: "Don't talk about this disappointment."

Zhu Yuan then continued: "What I have done in the past half a year is actually the root cause of my impeachment. Because I made two pieces of fat meat, one is 'sea catch', but just after I let them taste it, I was impeached." No more distribution to them. Another piece of 'maritime trade', under the circumstances that the imperial court spares no effort to support, I believe that the overall overseas trade volume of Ming Dynasty will increase rapidly, which will allow the southeast maritime merchants to earn more, but, because I lock [-]% tax, which is higher than previous dynasties, and strict control measures, which will prevent them from concealing their income and getting more. Therefore, of course they will attack me. If I fall, before For the policies that have been set, they will be able to gradually relax the imperial court through continuous lobbying and writing, and eventually, they will not give a penny to the imperial court, and all will fall into their own pockets. Let’s talk about the current situation, the last few years of the Yuan court , In fact, this is the case. The ancestors brought back many official documents and books of the Yuan court this time, and after going back to sort them out, they will definitely find out how bad their financial situation is. Moreover, if I remember correctly, since the founding of the country, they have been Too bad, the taxation at the peak of the Yuan Dynasty was only about half of what it was at the peak of the Ming Dynasty. The question is, the same piece of land has so little output, why? The answer is simple, it was eaten by people, but it is not those who are so hungry Poor people who can rebel."

Old Zhu was thoughtful.

Thinking again, I should write these down and think about it.

However, thinking about my precious 23rd grandson in front of me, let him organize it into a document later.

Zhu Yuan took a sip of water again, and continued: "All of these made me realize one thing. Distribution is more important than production. This is contrary to my initial consideration. At the beginning, I thought that distribution can be done slowly. , the main problem at present is to increase production. However, it turns out that if the road is wrong at the beginning, then no matter how high the production is raised in the future, many things will not be avoided. Because the dividends brought about by the increase in production, It cannot fall on all the people. When production continues to increase, it may be fine, but once production stagnates and accumulated problems break out, it may only be a short period of ten years, and everything will fall apart."

Speaking of this, Zhu Yuan looked at Lao Zhu: "My ancestor, what I'm talking about is our Great Ming Dynasty."

Before Lao Zhu responded, Zhu Yuan gave an explanation: "History books of later generations, many dynasties have so-called 'prosperous times', but the Ming Dynasty does not seem to have it, at least not as famous as the 'Government of Zhenguan' and 'The Prosperity of Kangxi and Qianlong'. , does the ancestor know why?"

Lao Zhu was puzzled: "Why?"

"Because in all other dynasties, the ancestors first laid the foundation, and then after several generations of management, they reached a peak, no matter the Han and Tang Dynasties, or the Qing Dynasty later." Zhu Yuan said: "Only the Ming Dynasty, the ancestors just One generation brought this dynasty to its peak. Of course, I am not talking about the peak of economic size, but the peak of national power. This mainly includes two aspects of economic strength and military strength. In terms of economy, in the late Hongwu period, more than 3000 million shi I don’t know all the data on the grain tax, but it is almost the highest level in the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years. In terms of military affairs, the ancestors expelled the Hulu in just over ten years, swept away the Han family for hundreds of years, and reappeared the Chinese style. There is no doubt about it. After that, the ancestors did so well, and the descendants of the future generations can only be regarded as conservative, so they cannot be called prosperous times."

Hearing these words, Lao Zhu's expression moved a few times, and he shook his head lightly: "You child, don't try to flatter horses in different ways."

After finishing speaking, I was still a little depressed.

I remembered "Book from Heaven" again, in which... there are too many regrets.

Zhu Yuan firmly said: "Yuan'er is not exaggerating at all. The founding kings of the past dynasties mostly have one 'martial arts', and 'cultural governance' is often lacking, which can only be gradually made up for by future generations. Our ancestors have been in China for thousands of years, and the only one who has achieved 'cultural governance' The founding emperor of both martial arts and martial arts."

Lao Zhu waved his hand: "Let's talk about just now, then what... fell apart."

Zhu Yuan nodded and said: "One of the biggest mistakes of our ancestors was that the distribution system was too idealistic. In the previous life, when you read history, the records about you were always tax-free. When the local disaster happened, tax-free and the treasury was full. , tax exemption, I feel that some places may have too heavy a tax, tax exemption. In the 31 years of the Hongwu Dynasty, almost every year there was a word "exemption". There are also all kinds of meritorious service for scholars, and all kinds of exemptions are exempted, and the preferential treatment is extremely good. Yours The concept is very simple, wealth is hidden in the people, and the country is naturally stable. Therefore, not only are they often exempted, but also set the rules for future generations. In other respects, it is not allowed to increase taxes casually, such as salt tax, tea tax, wine tax, etc. Compared with other dynasties , the tax rate is the lowest. I used to have people collect relevant data in Dinghai. Among them, during the Song Dynasty, the salt tax was as high as 1700 million guan. Of course, this is not a long-term, but a temporary increase when the Song Dynasty encountered financial difficulties. National use, so that even in the turbulent period when the north and the south alternated, the Song Dynasty still had enough money and food to ensure expenditure and continue the country. Besides, in the Ming Dynasty, the ancestors set a rule that the salt tax could only be collected 200 million yuan a year, which lasted for more than two hundred years throughout the Ming Dynasty. , it’s all the same. In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, there were famines inside and border troubles outside. .”

Old Zhu Moran murmured after a while: "Rules are dead, people are alive, alive..."

On the contrary, Zhu Yuan's tone was very calm: "This is what Yuan'er just said. If you go wrong at the beginning, it will be even more difficult to reverse it."

After thinking about it, he continued: "For example, in the Qing Dynasty, the Manchus entered the Central Plains and almost inherited most of the Ming Dynasty's system, but only changed two points. One is that they no longer rely entirely on the civil service group, but have their own noble foundation. , This ensures that the civil servants are not obedient, and other people in the court can use them. Another is the distribution system. The rule of dividing the land into the mu is that no matter who you are, you cannot be exempted from taxes. Tanhualang, No.3 in scientific research, was dismissed from his fame because he was found to owe a tax of one cent of silver, that is, one penny. This made it impossible for the court to lack money even in the late Qing Dynasty. Empress Dowager Cixi spends millions of taels of silver on her birthday. If the Qing Dynasty hadn’t faced the industrial age’s suppression of the civilization level of the agricultural age, Guozuo would have no problem continuing for another one or two hundred years.”

Looking at the old Zhu who was pondering again, Zhu Yuan finally said: "So, ancestor, what I am doing, what caused these impeachments is related to the issue of distribution. To use another word that ancestors are more familiar with, this is a reform. Shang Yang's reform , succeeded, and was torn apart by the car. Another Ming Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng's reform, a whip, similar to the reform of sharing the land into the mu, failed, and could not escape the liquidation, and his family was ruined. Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing Dynasty, the land into the mu, succeeded, He became the emperor with the worst reputation in the Qing Dynasty. It was clearly the heyday of Kang, Yong and Qian. People only knew about the heyday of Kang and Qian, but the one with the most credit was deliberately ignored. Even, there is your ancestor, the only "wenzhiwugong", who obviously did so well , and later did not have a good reputation, because you changed the "wide" of the Yuan Dynasty into the "strict" of the Ming Dynasty. Generally speaking, it has been more than two hundred years, but, because it violated the interests of too many people, they will not give you the affirmation you deserve. Speaking of which, I was still thinking a few days ago, I don’t want to do that to achieve the unification of the Great Qin, but I myself Shang Yang, who is divided into five horses. But the problem is clearly there. I won’t say it, and I won’t do it. Suffocate."

(End of this chapter)