Comprehensive martial arts: Summon Li Chungang and ask Wu Zetian for advice

Chapter 112 Shocking!

"Your Majesty, Wei Chen discovered that this matter was led by the vassal kings from various places, and Wei Chen also discovered that the vassal kings have close connections with King Pingnan and King Ning who have rebelled."

"This is evidence that the vassal kings from various places were corrupt and colluded with King Ning and King Pingnan."

As he said this, a young eunuch came in carrying a box full of account books.

Zhu Houzhao just flipped through a few books casually, and his expression immediately turned gloomy.

Even though he had already prepared in his mind, the dazzling array of ledgers still shocked him.

Just the information copied from the residence of Prince Pingnan is worth 5000 million taels, which is equivalent to nearly three-tenths of the revenue of the Ming Dynasty treasury.

From this we can see how wealthy those vassal kings who cried out for poverty every year and asked for rewards from the court were secretly.

"They are all my good vassals, and they colluded with each other to deceive the court!"

He suddenly became furious, and his tone became extremely harsh.

He originally thought that no matter what happened, there would still be a few people among the Ming Dynasty feudal lords who were clean and unconventional.

But he didn't expect that all the vassal kings would be so bold as to openly unite the seven imperial courts.

The vassals from all over the country united to create false accounts, and every year they tried their best to deceive the court and embezzle taxes and money.

The 1000 million taels receivable from the national treasury were less than 300 million taels when it arrived at the court.

What's even more annoying is that even so, these vassal kings pretend to be poor every year and shamelessly ask for huge rewards from the court.

"These vassal kings are really greedy!"

"Wherever they are, they are my vassal kings. They are clearly thieves of the country!"

Zhu Houzhao's face became increasingly gloomy, his cold and stern eyes filled with anger, emitting a sharp light that chose and devoured people.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the purpose of breaking the earth and conferring the king was to defend the central government, better protect the country and the country of the Ming Dynasty, and allow the Ming Dynasty to continue for a long time.

But now, this system has become the best shield for those lazy, ignorant and ignorant Ming vassal kings.

This is also the drawback of the vassal system, and it is precisely because of this that vassal kings everywhere are so confident and corrupt.

It can be said that these lawless vassal kings are the blood-sucking insects in Ming Dynasty.

They can obtain huge wealth from the Ming Dynasty court every year without doing anything.

The actions of these vassal kings even had a worse impact than those of Buddhists who did not engage in production.

The weakening of the Ming Dynasty's national power and its current situation are closely related to this group of idle vassal kings.

These vassal kings have already unknowingly hollowed out the Ming Dynasty and shaken the foundation of the Ming Dynasty.

Although he now has two money bags, Li Chenzhou and Wan Sanqian, the Ming Dynasty's treasury has been greatly supplemented.

However, while open source is important, cost reduction cannot be ignored.

If these vassal kings are not completely eradicated, even if the Ming Dynasty has a money bag with a daily income of [-] yuan, it will not be enough for these vassal kings to squander.

If the Ming Dynasty wanted to truly rise, it was urgent to cut down the feudal vassals.

Thinking of this, Zhu Houzhao snorted coldly, his deep eyes full of awe-inspiring killing intent, and said coldly: "Let all the vassal kings come to the capital for any reason. Anyone who disobeys the will will be killed without mercy!"

Hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Zhuge Zhengwo was immediately startled, and immediately stepped forward and said: "Your Majesty, although the reduction of vassalage has reached the point where it is urgent to delay."

"But this matter needs to be considered in the long term. If it is too radical, the feudal kings may jump over the wall in a hurry, or even..."

"What can you do?"

"Will there be a mutiny?"

Zhu Houzhao smiled contemptuously and shouted coldly, "I didn't even think about getting rid of these people immediately!"

"If they understand the situation and voluntarily give up all corruption, I may still spare their lives!" Of course he also knew that the matter of cutting down the vassal was very difficult, otherwise all dynasties would not turn a blind eye to the issue of separatist vassal kings.

However, he didn't want to kill all these feudal kings immediately, but wanted to do it slowly.

As long as the vassal kings from various places enter the capital, he will be able to control these vassal kings and slowly reduce the vassal vassal.

If he really killed all these feudal kings at once, it would be a headache for him if these feudal kings rebelled.

Moreover, in this situation of internal and external troubles, the Ming Dynasty cannot tolerate any more chaos within the Ming Dynasty.

Now Daming is extremely ill and can no longer withstand the slightest pain.

But this is only the corruption among the vassal kings in various places, not to mention the corruption at the court level.

Although he had already carried out some renovations to the Ming Dynasty when he came to the throne, that was limited to the central court.

Various policies of the central government may be violated at the local level, and the problems this time are mainly local.

This shows that local corruption is another shocking scene.

"If the vassal king is like this, how unimaginable will it be in the court?"

Zhu Houzhao raised his brows slightly, revealed a sneer at the corner of his mouth, and shouted coldly: "What will happen to the corruption in the court?"

When Zhuge Zhengwo heard this, he sighed sadly in his heart. He knew that as soon as his words came out, countless people would suffer.

But in the face of Zhu Houzhao's power, what can he do?How dare you hide anything?
All this can only be blamed on those people who could not withstand the temptation and brought the blame on themselves.

Thinking of this, he took a deep breath and continued: "Your Majesty, I have found that local officials are protecting each other and are exploiting each other.

The scale and amount of corruption are simply appalling! "

The corruption of the Ming Dynasty was not caused overnight, and the forces involved were not just one or two.

After his investigation, he found that this phenomenon of corruption has become deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Especially at the lowest level, there are only six or seven people serving as county magistrates at the same time, and the phenomenon of selling off officials and titles is extremely serious.

According to the imperial decree, a ninth-grade Zhima official's annual salary is only a few hundred taels.

But even this small official has thousands of acres of fertile land, hundreds of acres of manor, and his mansion is extremely magnificent.

"It's really ridiculous that a small magistrate can have a house with a hectare of land."

"Before, I was sitting in a well and looking at the sky, but it was only today that my eyes were opened!"

Zhu Houzhao said this, his tone became colder and colder, and anyone could hear the anger in his words.

As he thought, corruption was extremely serious in this place.

The local government was controlled by the wealthy and powerful families, each of whom occupied a leading position in all walks of life.

These noble families joined forces with each other and relied on their huge resources to monopolize all walks of life.

For a long time, they have accumulated unimaginable wealth, and they can be said to be the real rich people of the Ming Dynasty.

Some people can even reach the point where they are as rich as anyone in the country, even richer than him, the Lord of the Ming Dynasty.

And after those aristocratic families monopolized everything, they didn't stop there. In order to consolidate their positions, they colluded with local officials to form a large network of relationships and control one party.

It can be said that at the local level, sometimes their words are even more effective than the words of the emperor. They are the real local emperors.

Moreover, these aristocratic families also supported some poor scholars to obtain honors and become officials in the court, gradually influencing the government of the Ming Dynasty.

Even Yan Song, who was above ten thousand people before, was just the spokesperson of those aristocratic families.

(End of this chapter)