Take a plane to the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 487

Zhu Changyuan was very happy with the great victory in the Central South War, and the welfare of civil and military officials was naturally indispensable.

First of all, the wages of all officials have generally increased five times on the basis of the previous Ming Dynasty, which made many people really happy for a long time. Secondly, Zhu Changyuan implemented the salary system for the kings for the first time.

In other words, from now on, all princes and kings will no longer grant fiefs, but will convert them into salaries, just like the officials of the imperial court.

At first, he thought that the salary of each prince and king should be equivalent to that of a first-rank official. After the five-fold increase, the annual salary would be about 3000 taels of silver. Wang's salary standard was raised to ten thousand taels of silver a year, and besides that, there were other rewards.

In addition, each prince can have 300 private soldiers. The previous system has been changed, which seems to be better for the clan.

Of course, Zhu Changyuan didn't move immediately for those princes and kings who already had land and property.

In this way, people such as Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng, Haoge, Luo Rucai have a basis for their treatment methods, and the basic salary is almost ten thousand taels of silver a year.

Another advantage of the princes and kings is that they can be hereditary and live with the country, which is incomparable to those first-rank officials.

During the court meeting, Zhu Changyuan also clearly felt that due to the Zhongnan victory this time, his status in the hearts of all the officials involuntarily increased, and now he basically said the same thing in the court, and he could do whatever he wanted, and no one came out to oppose and hinder him. .

Thus, Zhu Changyuan finally showed his fangs to those kings who had been entrusted for hundreds of years.

Minister of Agriculture and Cabinet Minister Yan Hong wrote a letter, saying: "Your Majesty, I heard that the land reform in Taiwan has been completed, and the whole Taiwan is peaceful. This is the way to a peaceful and prosperous age. I suggest that land reform should be implemented nationwide Of the policy."

"Oh?" Zhu Changyuan smiled, looked at the other people in the court hall, and asked, "Do you have any opinions?"

Hou Xun, Minister of the Ministry of Rites, said: "Master Yan is telling the truth. Carrying out land reform is indeed the way to a peaceful and prosperous age, but Your Majesty, if this is the case, it will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among the people. It is okay to say anything else. I am worried about those princes and kings. ..."

Hou Xun is a landlord class whose root is Zhengmiaohong. Although he agrees with Zhu Changyuan's approach theoretically and ideologically, and the test of practice has proved that Zhu Changyuan's approach is very good. It is a policy of long-term stability for the whole world, but from his childhood As far as everyone is concerned, he still has his own little abacus.

If everyone has the same land, and there is no distinction between landlords and poor people, how can the status of an official be manifested, and how can the wealth of his Hou family be guaranteed?
Therefore, he came out first and posed a big problem for Zhu Changyuan: Your Majesty, if you can manage those clans, let's talk about it.

Zhu Changyuan waved his hand and said, "I have my own arrangements for this, and Hou Aiqing will step down for now."

Then Cao Huachun stepped forward, took out an imperial decree and began to preach.

After hearing the content of the imperial decree, all the ministers smiled bitterly, and said to themselves: Your Majesty, this is the rhythm of playing with the kings to death.

Zhu Changyuan formulated a plan to divide the entire Hainan Province into more than 100 parts according to the region's rich and poor, and each part was divided into a vassal state, such as Jin, Lu, Ning, and so on.

Then, force these princes to relocate their fiefs!

Zhu Changyuan thought, for the sake of the whole of China, and not to treat Zhu Yuanzhang's descendants too harshly, he can only abandon Hainan Island and turn Hainan Island into a pig raising island to raise those princes.

This was already the best way he could think of.

"Go, everyone!" Zhu Changyuan took out a super huge map containing the topography of Hainan Island, and then sent it down to tell the cabinet ministers, saying: "These you divide this island into 120 parts on average, and give them to the princes. After dividing the land, we will come up with the plan tomorrow, and I will deal with it according to the plan."

The cabinet took over the map of the island and went down to start preparations.

At the same time, Zhu Changyuan issued an edict to those vassals at the same time, making them prepare for the transfer of their fiefs.

Although the vassal kings are also a huge force, they are compared with the common people. If they are compared with Zhu Changyuan's already very strong imperial power, it will not be enough.

As long as they have food and drink and can continue to bully men and women, Zhu Changyuan believes that they will not dare to rebel or play Jingnan, especially since he has the power to quell the nine kingdoms in Central and Southern China, those little feudal lords will dare not object even more.

Moreover, the relocation of feudal kings has existed since ancient times.

In the Western Han Dynasty, it was no longer common for feudal lords to change territories.

"The next thing, this time the Nine Kingdoms in Central and South China were pacified, and a lot of gold and silver treasures were obtained. Although my Ming Dynasty has not yet taxed, it can be said that the treasury is now full. The silver is more than enough to buy the land of those landlords. Land reform The policy has to be implemented in a hurry.”

"Do you have any different opinions?"

Now no one has any objections. Just now Hou Xun came out and posed a problem to Zhu Changyuan, but this problem was quickly solved by him. Therefore, the land reform of the whole country is imperative.

Therefore, Zhu Changyuan said: "Since there is no opinion, then the cabinet will draw up an order according to my will, and all the land in the world can be sold to the country, and all the government offices in the state government can follow the law of the Ming Dynasty!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The cabinet ministers and eunuchs clasped their hands at the same time, expressing their agreement.

Zhu Changyuan said again: "There are too many princes and nobles escorted here this time, more than [-] people. I can't think of any good resettlement measures for a while. Think about it for me. How should these people be resettled?"

"Your Majesty!" Liu Zongzhou, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, came out and said to Zhu Changyuan, "Your Majesty can imitate the story of the Han Dynasty's placement of the Xiongnu's surrendered generals, and those who choose the best can enter the court as officials."

Zhu Changyuan said: "The land of Central South is no better than the Xiongnu, and has many differences with my Ming thought. I am afraid it is not appropriate for them to enter the court as officials!"

Liu Zongzhou said: "In this way, the lords of the country can divide their titles and give them some land to worship their ancestors and ancestral temples!"

Zhu Changyuan shook his head, and said: "Nationalization of land is the general trend, and it can be divided equally among the common people, but I can't just give it to these guys for no reason."

Kong He came out and said, "Your Majesty, I heard that Xinsheng City in Beihai is being built on a large scale. Since these people keep food for no use and waste food, it is better to distribute Beihai to the king of Siberia, so that they can make the best use of everything and people!"

This guy is more ruthless.

Zhu Changyuan said with a smile: "I'm afraid it's too much to treat the lords of the Nine Kingdoms like this. How about it, except for the lords of the Nine Kingdoms, the rest will move to Xinsheng City in Beihai. The Ministry of Industry will build a large courtyard in the capital and name it Hundred Gardens. Let the Lords of the Nine Kingdoms live in it, and all the food and clothing will be allocated from the national treasury, if there are such prisoners in the future, we will use this as an example!"

"Follow the order!" Kong He and Liu Zongzhou withdrew.

Zhu Changyuan said again: "I only have so many things to do today, if you have anything to report, you can say it."

The courtiers below were silent for a while, and after a while Wang Wu came out, knelt down in the direction of Zhu Changyuan, and reported, "Your Majesty, I have something to report!"

"Speak!" Zhu Changyuan stretched out his hand to flatten him.

Wang Wu stood up and said: "Yesterday, someone arrested more than 70 officials of my Ming Dynasty and sent them to the procuratorate. It is said that these officials were all arrested for corruption and breaking the law. I also carefully checked the relevant materials they sent. These officials are corrupt. There is no doubt that the law is wrong, but..."

"Okay, don't need to say more!" Zhu Changyuan knew what Wang Wu was going to say next, and said, "Those people are hidden stakes that I have arranged all over the country to monitor all officials and control corrupt practices!"

"Since the evidence of the crime is undeniable, you should transfer all criminal officials to the Ministry of Punishment for punishment according to the law!"

Zhu Changyuan stood up from his seat and said, "Since you mentioned it, I will make it clear to you today! Punish the crime, come out!"

As soon as the words fell, a stern-looking big man came in from outside the hall. After seeing Zhu Changyuan, he bowed deeply and said, "Master!"

Zhu Changyuan nodded, pointed at Zhu Zui and said, "From today onwards, Wang Wu, you will hand over all the affairs of the Overwatch Council to Zhu Zui. His 4 people are spread all over the country, and they specialize in monitoring the actions of officials of the Ming Empire. If there are criminals, No matter how high or low, everyone can be captured!"

"You should keep in mind the words of Emperor Taizu's admonition to all officials: Your salary is rich, and the people anoint the people. The people are easy to abuse, but the heavens are hard to bully. Sixteen words, stick to the way of being an official, and don't bully the people to harm the country. Enrich."

All the officials bowed their heads below, each of them didn't know what to say, although the reasoning was right, but what Zhu Changyuan did really cut off the official's source of income completely.

If it weren't for the substantial increase in the salaries of officials now, it is estimated that many people really don't want to be officials.

All the personnel of the current Overwatch Council are loyal warriors exchanged from the system, and this alone can ensure that the entire inspection system is impervious and absolutely clean.

With such a team of clean and honest troops, all the officials want to commit crimes, ha ha!You must know that the staffing of these Overwatch Councils is extremely large, with a total of 4 people, which can basically guarantee that all grassroots areas in Daming can be covered.

"Shouguo, you come in too!"

Zhu Changyuan called the guards into the hall, and said to everyone: "My dear friends, you are all my ministers. I have high expectations for you. The thing I hope most is that the cabinet can become the highest level of the entire empire in the future." Managers, you don’t need to report all matters to me, you can make the most correct decision!”

"I just want to be a worry-free emperor. In the future, all the emperors under me will be happy emperors, and the power is completely delegated to you. However, in order to ensure that the cabinet ministers will not deceive the superiors and the inferiors for personal gain, I have to take precautions. "

"This general is the guard of the family. He has guarded the gate of the house for generations. If someone wants to overpower the royal family, the guard has the right to kill and refuse to fight! I can also tell you clearly that there are [-] troops under the guard, and they are all enemies of ten thousand. !"

In the hearts of all the officials, they were both surprised and happy!
Surprised that the emperor made such a big battle in order to keep the royal family, and happy that the emperor was willing to transfer power to the cabinet. Isn't this self-important?
Zhu Changyuan knew what they were thinking, so he continued: "The term of office for all cabinet ministers is five years, and they can be re-elected once at most. Write it into the Constitution!"

Zhu Changyuan has already begun to build his constitutional monarchy.

This is not to put a shackle on oneself, but to ensure the real ten thousand years of the Ming Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)