Traveling through the Ming Dynasty, as soon as you open your eyes, you will die

Chapter 128 The Emperor’s Mind in the Rewards

Lu Mou was panicked and was about to kneel down to explain. Chongzhen waved his hand and pointed to the reward conditions on the note: "Article 1, on my behalf, you reward the old general Zhongyi. This is very appropriate."

When Wu Xiang and Wu Sangui heard this, they were really happy for Zu Dashu. At this moment, Zu Dashou surpassed his father and son.

"And the second one is to contract one million acres of land to the ancestral family. You just need to collect the contract fee, how can you still collect the commission money? You are mean and ungrateful."

Isn't it quite ironic that the most mean and ungrateful people in history have been defined as saying others are mean?

But when Chongzhen said this, there was no profound meaning.

Chongzhen continued: "The gentry in the world are the cornerstone of the dynasty. They have always been given preferential treatment, such as not paying taxes, not paying food, and not doing corvee work. Now that the country is in difficulty, you can just collect land rent from the gentry officials' families, but you still dare to collect gentry officials. This deprives the gentry officials of their last trace of dignity and dignity. Therefore, I have decided that from now on, the gentry officials will be exempted from the commission payment, so that the gentry officials can still maintain their dignity. This is a established rule and will never be changed."

He only said that service fees would be exempted, but he did not say that land rent and taxes would not have to be paid, and this would always be the rule. This is how the national policy of the gentry receiving food from one body was established.

As soon as he said this, Lu Mou almost jumped up to give him a big kiss because of his cheap daddy's cleverness.

Dad, you are so smart. With just your words, it has been officially established that the gentry and officials in the Ming Dynasty will have to pay land rent forever. But giving them dignity, freeing them from labor service, and making it a permanent rule eased their determination to resist. You are really exploiting them again, and you still want them to be grateful to you.

You really are a role model for setting up a memorial arch. You are my role model.

Chongzhen looked proudly at the officials around him, who all had expressions of gratitude. It was considered acquiescing to Chongzhen's rules.

The first reason is that after the last major change, the remaining ministers are now a group of ministers who are truly loyal to the country. Besides, the Ming Dynasty is only a palm-sized place now, and not many people have land here. Just change it. At worst, you can contribute some money yourself and it will be considered a service to the country.

But they ignored one thing. Throughout the dynasties, so-called reformers who wanted to make money from the gentry had no good end.

Not to mention, Wei Zhongxian, a Ming Dynasty papermaker, forced the gentry all over the world to pay a small sum of money to increase the revenue of the state treasury. The whole world only collects one million taels per year, but for the gentry, it is only ninety ounces and a drop. The result is that most of the Donglin people here will fight to the death with Wei Zhongxian throughout the Tianqi Dynasty.

Going forward, Yongzheng changed his business from small to small, and worked as an official and as a errand, and as a result, the old man joined forces with the iron hat king and almost overturned the table of Emperor Yongzheng.

But now, just a thoughtful saying that in order to preserve the dignity of the gentry and not do corvee, everyone relaxed their determination to resist. Once the effect of boiling the frog in warm water is achieved, it will be too late if you want to pounce again in the future.

Now, you think it is just a small thing like Zhili, it is insignificant and has nothing to do with the overall situation. As long as the huge gentry class in Jiangnan rebels, you, Chongzhen, will have to submit obediently.

You are thinking too much. Now Li Zicheng's army of 600,000 to 700,000 rogue bandits is in the south of the Yangtze River, killing the rich and gentry in full swing.

When there are not many gentry left of the older generation, Lu Mou will lead the restoration army to the south of the Yangtze River, and carry out this policy that has been agreed upon and taken for granted by people, and then implement it among the new generation of gentry. It just fell into place.

Huh? After Li Zicheng's abuse, will there still be gentry in Jiangnan? Should Li Zicheng be notified and leave one or two as specimens of the gentry that once existed?

This is like when Huang Chao and Liu Yu (the one who was not a poet) killed the nobles too hard, and as a result, later generations have forgotten what the nobles looked like. That is also part of Chinese culture. What if South Korea applies for World Heritage and belongs to them? What a pity. What a pity.

Chongzhen felt that San'er was distracted, knocked on the table, called his soul back, and said again: "Zu Aiqing has been in the army for fifty years, how can he just be a staff officer of the Ministry of War? Talents are rare. Here, Jin Fengzu's birthday will be With the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, he is appointed as the Minister of War to participate in political affairs."

With the addition of the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, in fact, the General Staff is still heavily involved in politics. But with or without a title, there is a big difference in name and reality. Especially participating in politics.

It was Lu Mou who mentioned the word "staff officer". There was no such thing in the imperial official system.

But participation in politics is not the case. It is a truly important position of the third rank in the official system.

After the title was added, he had the right to directly intervene in the Ministry of War. In fact, it was a disguised decentralization of power for Li Yan. But Li Yan, who was here, didn't feel any discomfort.

Where did I come from? If it weren't for the blessing of Lu Mou's children's song "Only mother is the best in the world," I would not be in this position.

With a veteran in charge, he and Prince Ding will go out to fight in the north and south in the future, and the family will feel relieved, right?

The greatest honor is for a man to fight on the battlefield and make achievements, and Li Yan couldn't ask for it.

But as soon as this reward came out, all the officials had a strange feeling. How could the Ming Dynasty's military department be all traitors? There are no good people in the Ministry of War.

Chongzhen pointed to the note again: "My ancestral Aiqing came back with her nephew. You only rewarded my ancestral Aiqing, but ignored my ancestral nephew. This is wrong. So, I decided to restore the original Ming Dynasty to my ancestral nephew. Position, reward and promotion to Lieutenant Commander of Light Vehicles."

Captain Qingqi is from the third rank among the seventh level of martial arts. This is definitely a reward.

The five young men quickly knelt down and kowtowed to express their gratitude.

Chongzhen said again: "The entire ancestral family left their homes and property to come here, why didn't they give them resettlement? My son didn't think well. In this way, I decided to resettle the entire ancestral family in Tongzhou, allocate internal funds, and reward everyone A man can make a home with ten silver dollars.”

This arrangement is extremely generous.

Not only was the imperial court not afraid of the longevity of the ancestors, but it divided the ancestral clans and placed them in Tongzhou, the gateway to the capital and the waterway dock.

Tongzhou is in decline now, but once the canal is opened, it will become a business center. If nothing else, as long as the ancestors occupy a few good locations in Tongzhou and open a street stall and supermarket, they will make a lot of money in the blink of an eye. The prosperity of the descendants of the ancestral family is not necessarily certain, but it is a certainty that the wealth will be endless.

In the envy of countless people, Zu Dashou stood up again and knelt down again: "I thank the Lord for your kindness."

But Lu Mou had to admire his father's imperial ingenuity in filling in the gaps for him.

Not to mention anything else, the 30,000 members of the ancestral family were placed in Tongzhou, and it seemed to be treated with great trust and kindness, but why not put his ancestral family under your nose, do you have any second thoughts to try? There is a First Division of the Fourth Army in Tongzhou. I can't kill your whole family.

So Lu Mou sighed in his heart that he was omnipotent, but in the imperial family, as a political means, he was just a novice. No, to call him a noob is to overestimate himself, and to call him an idiot is correct.

This won't work, it's very dangerous. If you come down, you'll have to do some arbitrage.

But when I think about such a large pile of books, still written in traditional Chinese, it makes my head hurt.

Forget it, politics can be played by two people, the father and the prince. In this situation, he can't be the emperor, so he should just relax.

After placing these arrangements, Chongzhen stood up and issued an order again: "We will hold a banquet with wine in Jiying Hall to welcome the return of loyal ministers."

This is the third time since his rebirth that the Jiying Palace has given a banquet to the ministers. But what everyone is eating now is not a share of glory, but a share of hope.

At the same time, we can see Chongzhen's obedient attitude towards this third son from the fact of congratulating his ancestor on his birthday. He just made an understatement of criticizing San'er for taking the initiative in such a big matter. Instead, he tried his best to remedy it, thereby consolidating King Ding's status as executive deputy emperor.

(End of this chapter)