Invincible Zhengde

Chapter 445 Japanese pirates and smuggling

Yang Lian spoke cautiously, but Zhu Houzhao remained expressionless.

For this kind of thing, Zhu Houzhao was not too surprised.

As the saying goes, relying on the mountains to eat the mountains, relying on the sea to eat the sea, as the population of the Ming Dynasty continued to increase, the land did not increase much.

If it is explained that in the early years of the dynasty, the common people still had places to cultivate, but now there is basically no land for the common people to cultivate.

As for other places, that is immigration. Immigration is actually one of these policies, but there is no way to realize this policy.

Leaving aside such spiritual things as the difficulty of leaving the homeland, the actual conditions alone do not allow it.In this traffic environment, hundreds of thousands of people migrate, how many people will die on the road?How much food will be consumed along the way?
Therefore, the Ming Dynasty had a strict population and household registration system, which prevented the people from wandering around, so refugees were formed.Under such circumstances, the pressure of survival is so great, the people will naturally find ways to survive.

This is the origin of relying on mountains to eat mountains and relying on seas to eat seas, and the refugees in Jingxiang area gathered in this way.

In recent years, the handicraft industry has developed, and many places in Zhejiang have realized the transformation of rice into mulberry. There are many smuggling businesses, but overall it should be fairly stable. Everyone only makes money by going to sea to do business, and has not yet developed to the level of Japanese pirates.

The real large-scale appearance of Japanese pirates was during the Jiajing period.At that time, wars were frequent in our country, and business travel was basically cut off. At the same time, after the early years of Jiajing, Emperor Jiajing used the excuse of Ningbo's "tributary tribute incident" to order that the construction of illegal large ships was strictly prohibited, and all prohibited sea ships were destroyed. The seamen and civilians along the coast, privately engage with thieves, and those who do not raise their neighbors sit together", trying to cut off all maritime ties and trade.

However, after the 20th year of Jiajing (1540), instead, "the ban became stricter and the bandits became more and more prosperous. The boards were not allowed to go to sea, and the giant ships came from the river; the goods were not allowed to enter, and the children and treasures were always full." On the contrary, the scale of private overseas trade was even larger, and "Japanese pirates" were rapidly flooding the southeast coast.

There are many reasons for this situation, some of which are due to the imperial court.

Because Emperor Jiajing was afraid of enemies coming from the sea at that time, in addition to Japanese pirates, there were also some Portuguese, so the imperial court became more and more strict with the sea ban, so they cut off the livelihood of some people along the coast. People like Wang Zhi appear.

In fact, the Japanese pirate war in the Ming Dynasty was, in the final analysis, a struggle between the private maritime trade and the government's ban on the sea. This was the essence of the matter, but it turned out to be out of control.

At that time, the Japanese kingdom was in turmoil, the Portuguese were eyeing it, and the imperial court banned the sea, so that people along the coast had no way out.

Under such circumstances, they can only choose to resist by force, so they go to sea, they build warships, they fight against Japan, they occupy ports in our country as bases, they fight against the Portuguese, they trade with the Portuguese, all these are needed With a strong foundation of force, Wang Zhi grew rapidly.

Originally, if the Ming Dynasty recruited Wang Zhi and set his sights overseas at that time, everything would be in time,
It's just that after Wang Zhi surrendered, he was killed by Wang Bengu, which made everything fall short, and the situation of the Japanese pirates quickly deteriorated.Without the possibility of bridging, the two sides can only fight.So things get out of hand.

At this moment, things are far from as bad as they were later.

Firstly, the private smuggling trade was still flourishing, and the imperial court basically did not take much care of it.Although the imperial court received no tax and no income, in fact, the people did not prohibit it. Whether it was the common people or the merchants along the coast, they all lived well.

Zhu Houzhao understands this through Qiyizhai, because among the partners of Qiyizhai, there is such an existence.

At the same time, they also sold the products of Qiyizhai, which Zhu Houzhao also knew.It's just that Zhu Houzhao's energy has been in the north, so he doesn't have the energy to take care of things here for a while.

This time when he came to Nanjing, he wanted to settle all the matters here at once.

Secondly, the outer seas were not so chaotic. Although the Ming Dynasty was fighting, it hadn't reached the level it was later on.In addition, the Portuguese did not come, so basically there is no big problem, the situation is still stable, and there will be no such large-scale Japanese pirates in later generations, and they do not have the strength to wrestle with the court.

Although the armaments along the coast have been abolished, they have not yet reached the appearance of the Jiajing period.When Emperor Zhengde fought King Ning, Jiangnan's army could still be used. It would not be like Qi Jiguang's first battle, when he saw Japanese pirates and turned around and ran away. At that time, the army was really unwilling to fight for the court.

Now that Zhu Houzhao has come to Nanjing, he will naturally not let this kind of thing happen again.

After hearing what Yang Lian had said, Zhu Houzhao nodded, and then said, "Where are the biggest ones? Can you find them?"

"Back to His Royal Highness, the largest ones are in Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong. Among these three provinces, there are the most people doing this kind of trade. Among them, Zhejiang produces more silk, while Fujian produces more porcelain and tea. Guangdong silk, porcelain and tea are all produced. Among them Many teas from Guangxi are sold in Guangdong." Yang Lian said with a bow.

Yang Lian is very clear about these matters, so it is very familiar to say.

Zhu Houzhao nodded, probably this is the situation. Although it only involved Fujian, Guangdong, and Zhejiang, Zhu Houzhao knew in his heart that it had actually involved the whole of Jiangnan.

There are 63 provinces in the south and north of Ming Dynasty, and the north is a bit worse. In fact, the south has been doing these things all the time.

The reason why Jiangnan is prosperous is largely supported by this aspect.The handicraft industry in the south of the Yangtze River, the so-called sprout of capitalism, is actually supported by foreign smuggling trade.If there is no market, where will the handicraft industry come from?

"Can you find out some representatives?" Zhu Houzhao asked.

"Back to His Royal Highness, they are all scattered, and there are no leading figures, but it is still possible to find a few big families." Yang Lian said, with no joy or anger on her face, and no emotion, as if this was a matter. very common.

Zhu Houzhao glanced at Yang Lian, then nodded, very satisfied with his attitude.

In fact, when Zhu Houzhao asked this question, it was impossible for Yang Lian to know what he wanted to do. He might want to use these people, or he might want to kill them.But in Yang Lian's opinion, it doesn't matter, as long as His Royal Highness wants to do it.

"Then let's find a few households." Zhu Houzhao said, knocking on the tea bowl in his hand.

Of course Zhu Houzhao didn't want to kill them, Zhu Houzhao wanted to use them.It can be seen from Wang Zhi later that the merchants of the Ming Dynasty did not lack the spirit of adventure.As long as you allow you to support them, they will go to sea, even if it is dangerous to do so.

Zhu Houzhao needs to find a few big households, support them, and let them do things for him.

The British royal family can support pirates, but what happened to supporting a few businessmen?
Besides, what era is this?
This is the era of global colonization, the prelude has already begun, and it is no longer a question of whether one wants to do it or not.

"Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince. I will arrange someone to do it right away." Yang Lian bowed and said.

Zhu Houzhao nodded, then waved his hands and said, "Go."

Yang Lian bowed and backed out, then turned around and walked out.

He is going to arrange manpower immediately, and this matter must be done as soon as possible. Naturally, there cannot be any delay in the matter explained by His Royal Highness.Besides, there may not be anything else to do later, so this matter should be done as soon as possible.

When Zhu Houzhao arranged for Yang Lian to do things, the city of Nanjing was also disturbed because the tax department took action.

Qi Huan directly led people to the household department of Nanjing City, and directly wanted to take over the accounting books of the Nanjing household department, and also wanted the land to be kept in the fish scale book. All these things had to be taken away, which was the basis for their future investigation and governance.

Household Yamen.

Nanjing Hubu Shangshu Han Wen looked at Qi Huan, stroked his beard and asked, "But have you met His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?"

Facing the Korean in front of him, Qi Huan didn't dare to make any mistakes.

This guy is not easy to mess with, he is old, he was a Jinshi in the second year of Chenghua, he did engineering in the beginning, and he is also a person who has had ups and downs in the officialdom for decades.The last one was Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, and later became Minister of the Ministry of Households in Nanjing, and he was his immediate boss.

Han Wen's methods are very clear to him, if he is not careful, there will be problems, so Qi Huan dare not offend him.

After hearing Han Wen's question, Qi Huan quickly said, "My lord, I went to meet His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Although Qi Huan is in charge of the Tax Department, his official position is the Minister of the Nanjing Household Department, which means that Han Wen is his immediate boss.

Han Wen nodded, and then said: "Then do as His Royal Highness said."

As he said that, Han Wen waved to the people not far away, and then said to Qi Huan: "You are also very clear about the affairs of the Ministry of Accounts, and I will hand over all the account books to you. They were in charge of this before, these people I'll give it to you too."

"Thank you, sir." Qi Huan said hastily.

Han Wen glanced at Qi Huan with a complicated expression.

In fact, he likes Qi Huan very much. He thinks that he is a talented person who can be cultivated well. At least in the future, there will be one more official who can do things in the court.

It's just that since Qi Huan took charge of the tax department, Han Wen has withdrawn his thoughts.

The Department of Taxation is a yamen established by His Royal Highness, and it can be said that it is directly under His Royal Highness.After entering this yamen, they are actually not tolerated by the ministers of the imperial court. They feel more like Jin Yiwei, similar to the emperor's pro-army.

This is not to say about their origins, they are still civil servants, but their management system is still similar.

For civil servants, being an official must be in the officialdom, there are superiors and subordinates, and they are under the jurisdiction of everyone. This is within a circle.

But the tax department is obviously not. They are an independent system and only obey the orders of His Highness the Crown Prince.Although they are attached to the household department, they do not need to be responsible to the household department.This independently operated yamen is more like Jinyiwei and Dongchang.

Although everyone will not be excluded and disgusted.He won't accept it as much as before.Everyone's attitude is to keep them at arm's length, and Korean is no exception.

Especially after the incident came out this time, they had to check the fields, recompile the fish scale book, and then collect taxes. Hidden land.

Whether it is an official from a wealthy family.Officials who were born in poor families were all moved.

Officials from poor families, after you are admitted to Juren, your family will have a lot of donated land, and these lands are not taxed.

According to normal operations, the imperial court will give you a certain amount of tax exemption, but if you don’t have that much land, people in the family will attach his land to your name to avoid paying taxes, and only give you some land every year. ground rent.In this way, hello, hello everyone, the one who suffers is the court.

If this is the case, then it is no big deal, at most it is a reasonable tax avoidance, or it is a loophole in the court law.Even if the court is unwilling, you can't say anything.

But more often than not, they get a taste of the sweetness.They will buy large amounts of land and accept more donations.By bribing local officials, or bribing the subordinates of the Yamen, all the land under his name will not be taxed.

If it is the former, the imperial court will add a large number of people who do not pay taxes every three years.How much will you accumulate over the years?
As the population base gets bigger and bigger, there will be more and more people like this. Coupled with the methods they engage in privately, the tax revenue of the imperial court will naturally decrease every year, and the death will become more and more miserable.

This is something that everyone in the officialdom knows, but no one dares to poke this hole.

It was not until later, after the Jiajing Rebellion, did people of insight stand up, that is, a group of people from Gao Gong Zhang Juzheng. Although they also changed, they did not move to the cutting edge in many places.That is not reform at all, it can only be regarded as tinkering.

In addition, Director Zhang's proud whipping method was also taken advantage of by someone.

People pay taxes with silver, and all kinds of taxes are combined into one, but the people's grain is sold for silver to pay taxes. During this period, grain prices will be suppressed.

Before the tax is paid, the gentry will join forces to suppress the price of grain, so that the common people can only sell their own grain at a low price.When people's homes don't have enough food and they want to buy food, they raise the price of food so that people can't afford to eat, so they can only sell their own fields, which is also a vicious circle.

Any tinkering is useless if the root cause of the problem is not solved.

Everyone in the officialdom knows, they all understand what's going on, and no one is allowed to touch this thing.This time His Royal Highness the Crown Prince came out, Qi Huan was going to touch this thing, Han Wen wanted to stay away from him now.

So after Qi Huan came, Han Wen happily gave him everything he wanted, without delay, let alone making things difficult.

Hanwen wants to stay away from this matter now, and doesn't want to get involved at all.

(End of this chapter)