Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 656 The Declining Daming Village

From Bai Yunzhen, governor of Yingtian, and Yang Mingshen, governor of Daming Central Bank, Zhu Youjian saw the contradictions and common interests between Daming Management Group and Capital Group.

But he still has no way to identify who is more in line with Daming's interests.

Governor Yingtian, who represented the bureaucratic group of the Ming Dynasty, had raised taxes and was somewhat conservative, but he did not forget to take care of the interests of first-class citizens.

On the other hand, Yang Mingshen, who represents the capital group, is not worried about the loss of his own interests, but is worried about the fact that the merchants of Ming Dynasty are still under the control of the government, which hinders the development speed.

Zhu Youjian decided to take a closer look at the current Daming world.

He came to the outer city of Nanjing City, where common people and small merchants gather.

At this time, many people gathered outside a small glass workshop. Zhu Youjian walked over involuntarily, but saw a team of officials smashing the thin glass products in the workshop and binding some common people.

Before Zhu Youjian could finish speaking, Governor Yingtian blushed: "Go and call the prefect of Yingtian to me!"

Zhu Youjian pulled a commoner over and stuffed a silver dollar: "May I ask what happened?"

"Recently, Yingtianfu has a special official who checks the license plates. Whether the special shops and workshops have genuine licenses, but in fact they came to ask for money. They asked for two hundred silver dollars to buy a brand. The family refused to pay and they were beaten. Merchant, you will be detained!"

After the people spoke, Zhu Youjian didn't say anything.

But this incident made him realize that there is an urgent need for immediate change, that is, whether the law enforcement power of these government officials should be deprived of it.

Governor Yingtian's tax increase shows that the tax rate is determined by the government.

But now the qualifications of merchants are also determined by the government, and even used by the government as a tool for extortion, because the government has the power to enforce the law.

This gives these governments the power to directly take people indiscriminately.

The prefect of Yingtian rushed over at this time, and the governor of Yingtian, Bai Yunzhen, was obviously irritable. In order not to let His Majesty not blame herself, she slapped the prefect of Yingtian on the spot: "Who told you to do this!"

Looking at the situation ahead, Ying Tianfu Yin knew what had happened, and said with a smile: "Calm down your anger, it's not that the business tax is a little shorter this year, and I want to make up for it. This is also for the sake of business order. There are always some bad businessmen who resist the law." , I have no choice but to be a lower official, so I have to be more aggressive, let them stay in the prison for a few days and they will be honest."

Zhu Youjian knew what the jail was mentioned by Yin Tianfu. Generally speaking, many people arrested by the yamen did not really commit crimes, so being detained in prison did not conform to the procedure of the prison, so there would be a squad To detain these people who violated the executive order but did not commit a crime.

But Zhu Youjian couldn't help thinking, if these officials are allowed to enforce the law so casually and use their power to wantonly extort the common people, does it mean that even if he attracts many farmers from the land to the city, he still cannot promote the development of Ming Dynasty's industry and commerce? develop.

Whether the merchants of Ming Dynasty will still be exploited by these officials will affect the pace of development of the whole Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youjian wondered if this was the case in Britain at this time.

He knew that the British Empire was the first Western European power to carry out a bourgeois revolution in history, so he was always worried that Ming Dynasty would still lag behind Britain in terms of system.

Seeing that the bureaucratic group, that is, the scholar-bureaucrats, can still use their power to exploit the interests of industrial and commercial households, Zhu Youjian's worry is even stronger.

In front of Zhu Youjian, the governor of Yingtian Bai Yunzhen forced Yingtianfu Yin to release the owner of the workshop and compensated him with a generous sum of silver dollars. The card system is invalid, and Ying Tianfu Yin was even suspended for three months for self-examination.

The common people are very grateful to Bai Yunzhen, governor of Yingtian, for such a just act.

But Zhu Youjian couldn't help asking Governor Yingtian: "Bai Qing, who gave you the power to dismiss these officials, and ask Yingtian Fu Yin to suspend his post for three months?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, this is the power bestowed upon you by Your Majesty. Except for the six ministries and nine ministers, officials below the fourth rank can be directly appointed by the chief minister of the cabinet, and the lower officials, as local governors, can directly appoint local officials. It is all the new policies of Your Majesty back then. .”

Bai Yunming replied.

Instead of being angry, Zhu Youjian laughed: "It's because I dug a hole for myself back then, so that you, the governor, have such great power."

"Your Majesty, the power of the governor has always been like this, and he can also mobilize the army, just like a prince of a party," Yang Mingshen added on the side.

Zhu Youjian didn't say anything more. What he was worried about now was that because of the absolute control of the superior officials over the subordinate officials, the subordinate officials could only obey the orders of the superior officials, and furthermore, in front of the superior officials and the people, the officials could only choose to obey. Higher-level officials, so this is the root cause of common people being exploited by the government.

Power is bestowed by superior officials, and ultimately by the emperor himself, so the entire bureaucratic group can care about the life and death of the people but will definitely take into account the interests of the emperor himself.

But Zhu Youjian basically doesn't care about things now, and the imperial administrative power has been given to the chief minister of the cabinet.

As a result, the chief minister of the cabinet became the object of abhorrence by the capital group, and hoped that he, the emperor, would take charge of the overall situation again.

But Zhu Youjian felt that even if he came out to replace the chief minister of the cabinet, it was only a way to treat the symptoms but not the root cause. If you want the empire to run benignly and the bureaucratic group to be controlled, you can't just rely on yourself as the emperor to control it.

After all, Zhu Youjian couldn't guarantee that the emperor behind him would rather sacrifice his own interests to take care of the interests of the people like himself.

"The Ming Empire may have to carry out deeper reforms," ​​Zhu Youjian couldn't help thinking.

But Zhu Youjian has not yet decided to return to Beijing to allow Daming to further reform. He still wants to visit Daming’s countryside. Agriculture is still the foundation of Daming, and farmers still account for the majority of Daming’s population.

The situation of these people is the real factor for where Daming will go in the future.

"Bai Yunming, go to the countryside closest to Nanjing City with my microfu, and go on tour in my microfu", Zhu Youjian turned around and left after saying that.

But Bai Yunming, the governor of Yingtian, had no choice but to obey.

Zhu Youjian first came to a place called Gaojiazhuang, because a large number of farmers were attracted into the city and became workers, which reduced the number of tenants, and the population of Gaojiazhuang had declined to less than one-tenth of previous years. The whole village looked very depressed.

Zhu Youjian asked the clansmen who were still in Gaojiazhuang and found out that with the development of Daming industry, it would be a devastating blow to the entire village like Gaojiazhuang.

In the past, Gaojiazhuang was a village where clans lived together. The clan patriarch managed the entire Zhuangzi, and was in charge of the administrative and judicial order of the entire Zhuangzi through ancestral hall sacrifices and clan associations.

However, because a large number of tenants and children of the common people went to work in the city, the Gao family clan fell apart, and the patriarch could not use the land to control the ethnic group.

And the direct clan who live by exploiting the children of the common clan has to become merchants or become self-employed farmers.

(End of this chapter)