Invincible Zhengde

Chapter 58

After taking a look at the court documents, Zhu Houzhao laughed, and then read: "Stop passing on to serve redundant officials, eliminate the excessive recruitment of military craftsmen in the inner government, Qing Tengxiang Four Guards warriors, stop temples to watch fasting sacrifices, and provincial servants, painters, fanciers, etc. The supply of monks is prohibited, and the excessive begging for salt in the palace and weaving is prohibited, and the officials are ordered to collect farmland rent."

Looking up at his father, Zhu Houzhao said with a smile: "That's not bad! It's not bad, father, look, everyone is staring at father!"

To put it bluntly, the military craftsmen of the inner palace are the ones who make things in the palace. There must be corruption in it, but can't it be solved by simply eliminating the craftsmen?Does the Imperial Palace still make things?If you go out to buy, Zhu Houzhao can only hehe, there may not be any dirty things in the purchase!Clean up the four guards of Tengxiang, let alone clean up, they wish they could be dismissed, anyway, the emperor's personal guards, it's good to be gone.

Stopping the temple to watch the feast, the provincial servants, painters, and monks supply, and the temple in front of the temple, many of these things are done by the concubines and the empress dowager, these women in the harem, you save these things, what about the women in the harem? ?Zhu Youtang dare to do this?Zhu Houzhao felt scared even thinking about it, and Zhu Houzhao felt that Zhu Youtang didn't have the courage to do it.As for the supply of servants, painters, and monks in the province, it is simply salary and less expenditure.

How many servants, painters, and monks are there?Why don't they ask to reduce the salaries of civil servants?Anyway, it is to deduct money from the emperor. You are the emperor, so don't spend money, just stay like a clay plastic wooden tire!
How much money can the emperor Zhu Youtang spend?His concubine was only Empress Zhang, and he didn't even have any other women. Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty went to the south of the Yangtze River, repaired gardens, bought antiques, spent all kinds of money, and left his son a fortune as big as Heshen after his death. The economy of the Qing Dynasty was also as stretched as that of the Ming Dynasty!Where did all the food and money in the world go?Zhu Houzhao has completely seen the shamelessness of these people.

I know, I don't say it, I'm still loyal, I'm still upright, I'm still persuading the emperor, Zhu Houzhao now has the urge to kill with a knife.

Zhu Houzhao thinks it is okay to ban the king's mansion and weaving and begging for salt, but Zhu Houzhao also knows that this thing still restricts the clan and relatives.Of course, there are already a lot of salts in the hands of civil servants and salt merchants. If the princes and relatives still beg for salts, they must be the first to raise salt!This is malicious competition, which disrupts the market order, and what disrupts the market order established by them must be severely cracked down.

It is also very ruthless to order the Secretary to collect the rent of Zhuangtian. To put it bluntly, it is like collecting taxes on Zhuangtian. So what is Zhuangtian?Zhuangtian refers to the gardens given by the court to subordinates or princes.

There are two forms of Xungui Zhuangtian and Wangfu Zhuangtian. The Zhuangtian granted due to the title is called Xungui Zhuangtian.Xungui refers to Xunchen (military officials) and noble relatives (relatives of the emperor), that is, the so-called nobles with different surnames.In addition to the emperor's appropriation, the source of the honorable farmland also includes the farmland that was paid for by the emperor, the private land that was seized, and the official land that was occupied by the tenant.

Wangfu Zhuangtian refers to the Zhuangtian of the princes' mansions in various generations. The emperor's sons (except the crown prince) are crowned kings, also known as princes.The imperial court bestowed the prince with a pastoral garden as Zhuangtian, which started from Xuanzong.In the first year of Hongxi, Emperor Xuanzong gave his uncle 80 hectares of pastoral land.Since then, the prince has become a vassal, and he has played against Zhuangtian, and the number is increasing.In addition to imperial grants, the source of the land in Wangfu Zhuang also includes petitions, which means that a certain field is unused land, and the petitions are made to beg for their own.Accepting donations and plundering, that is, the people are forced to sell their land due to the pressure of life, and the royal family takes advantage of the danger to buy it at a low price, seizing the land and invading taxes, which is called "buying".Those who rent out farmland are called Zhuangmin, commonly known as tenants.

Land is not an issue of nobles and princes, but a problem of the entire feudal dynasty. In the era when land was the main means of production, this trend was irreversible.Only after the productivity is liberated, the production efficiency is improved, the yield per mu is increased, and the land is no longer the main means of production, this problem will be fundamentally resolved.No matter what kind of system, land annexation is inevitable.

The whole feudal dynasty has always been about land annexation. There is no way to solve this problem, and Zhu Houzhao knows it clearly in his heart.

"Collect the tax of Zhuangtian!" Zhu Houzhao sighed, and then said: "Father, if it is really collected, will Huangzhuang also have to pay tax?"

Glancing at Zhu Houzhao, Zhu Youtang didn't answer his son's question at all. Does he dare to set a precedent for imposing Zhuangtian tax?The civil servant thought it was a big piece of fat, but how delicious was this piece of meat?

Putting down the note in his hand, Zhu Hou looked at his father and said with a smile: "Father, it has not been easy these years, but these people always set their sights on Zhuangtian, this is not good! If Zhuangtian has to pay taxes, then the scholar is Don’t you also have to pay taxes? Emperor Taizu gave preferential treatment to scholars and gave them tax-free land, but there is a quota for the tax-free land of these scholars, but what about these people now?”

"Anyone who has fame and fame does not pay taxes, hides the fields, hides the population, why don't they talk about this? Why don't the officials and the gentry pay the food together!"

Zhu Houzhao uttered an earth-shattering sentence in very casual words.

This is definitely the best way to collect land tax. There is no poll tax, and only tax is collected from the land. As long as there is no land, there is no need to pay tax.Of course, this simple policy will cause the tenants to be squeezed even more, and the people at the bottom will suffer even more.The gentry and landlords will definitely pass on the tax. If they pay taxes, then the tax money must be paid by those tenants, not the gentry and landlords.

This is also the reason why the Qing Dynasty was so rich, but the life of the people at the bottom was extremely difficult. It is very simple, the oppression and exploitation were even heavier.

At this time, the country needs diversion, so that the landless people will no longer be tenants, have a new direction, have a new way of life, and will not just be suppressed on the land, cut down, and oppressed.

So how to divert?Industry and commerce, physical industry and commerce, how to stimulate the development of industry and commerce?Maritime trade, colonization, this is an industrial chain.Tenants who can't afford to live will choose to go to sea to fight, even if they are buried in the belly of a fish, they will not choose to become refugees or rebel, because there is a way out.After blogging, it's another world. Even those who don't want to go to sea can get job opportunities.

The wharf, shipyard and other output products all need people to produce. These people will become the earliest workers, without land, and rely on selling their physical strength and technology to make a living.

It is incomplete to simply share the income of the family and the government and the gentry. This policy is only half done. Zhu Houzhao chooses to say it now, and it is not that he will do it now, but Zhu Houzhao wants his father to have a psychological preparation.

(End of this chapter)