Chapter 71: A True Patriot, the Painful Zhu Di

[Zhu Yuanzhang originally set the land tax area to be over 8.5 million mu. However, during the Hongzhi reign, only 6.2 million mu of land was left after land tax was cleared.]

[Although some of this land was abandoned, given to various kings or taken back as official or school land, it only accounted for a very small portion of the taxable acres in the country.]

【The country has been recuperating for more than 200 years, and there is not much reason for land loss. After Zhu Yuanzhang, the entire province of Guizhou was developed, and the country's tax land should have increased significantly. Why is it that there are more than 200 million acres less?】

【The answer is land annexation! 】

[More and more land was constantly seized, plundered, bought and transferred from the hands of the middle and low-income people to the hands of the big landlords. After a large amount of land was transferred, the landlords concealed the amount of land through various means in order to evade taxes, resulting in a large reduction in the tax acres on the books of the Ming Dynasty.]

[In addition, Zhu Yuanzhang not only collected taxes on land, but also ordered the army to cultivate more than 400 million acres of land. These lands were not included in the yellow book for local officials to collect taxes. By the late Ming Dynasty, these lands had been occupied and there was not much left.]

[A rough estimate is that at least half of the land in the Ming Dynasty did not receive the proper taxes.]

[Land surveying means to survey and find out these hidden lands in order to increase the country's revenue.]

[This means that Zhang Juzheng will stand in opposition to the aristocracy of feudal society.]

[No one will deprive himself of his own benefits for the sake of the country.]

[This is to go against the whole world, and the most powerful group in feudal society. No one will honestly give up their vested interests for the sake of the country.]

【In history, many great people have worked for the welfare of the country in this way, but almost all of them ended up with a bad ending. With Zhang Juzheng's wisdom, how could he not know this?】

……

“At least half the land is not taxed!”

When seeing these words, countless people gasped, and only then did they realize how serious the corruption was in the Ming Dynasty.

at the same time.

Countless people expressed their sincere respect for Zhang Juzheng.

How much courage does it take for a commoner to dare to stand against the aristocracy?
Zhuge Liang gently waved his feather fan for a long time and sighed slightly.

Tianmu is right. Throughout history, how many great reformers have died because of offending the powerful?
Wu Qi and Shang Yang of the Warring States Period are good examples.

Wu Qi offended the conservative nobles of Chu State because of his reforms. After King Dao of Chu died, Wu Qi went to the funeral site, but was hunted down by the nobles and eventually shot to death by arrows.

After the death of Duke Xiao of Qin, Shang Yang was falsely accused of treason by Prince Qian and eventually died by being torn apart by chariots.

These two men made great contributions to the growth of the country, but because they offended too many people, they were immediately purged after the death of the monarch who supported them.

This makes people worry about Zhang Juzheng's fate.

……

"How much courage does it take to stand alone against everyone?"

Fang Xuanling admired him very much.

At the same time, he couldn't help feeling a little emotional. Fortunately, the monarch he was assisting was an enlightened one.

It was precisely because there was an enlightened monarch like Li Shimin who withstood the pressure that many reforms that benefited the country and the people were implemented and the Tang Dynasty flourished.

……

"It's the other way around!"

"It's the other way around!"

Seeing this, Lao Zhu became furious.

This group of damn landlords and gentry are really rebelling!

They found ways to exploit loopholes in the imperial court, and nearly half of the land tax revenue in the country was embezzled by them! These parasites really deserve to die!
The descendants in the future will also be incompetent!

Think about how Zhu Yuanzhang dealt with corrupt officials, why are his descendants so useless and allow corrupt officials to become more powerful!
If Zhu Yuanzhang were still alive, he would have killed all these parasites in the court!
Kill him until he bleeds like a river!
"These scholars and officials have never cared about the people! How despicable!"

Old Zhu was furious.

These so-called scholars say he is a murderer all day long! Little do they know that it is precisely because he has suffered oppression from those landlords and gentry and exploitation from those officials that Zhu is so ruthless in killing these so-called scholar-officials.

Aren’t you greedy?
I’ll kill all nine generations of your clan and see if you still dare to be greedy?
Old Zhu thought that he could use severe punishments to make these people restrain themselves.

But he didn't expect that after hundreds of years, this group of people still couldn't change their bad habits, which made him feel helpless and angry.

He wished he could travel back in time to let these corrupt officials see how powerful he, the Hongwu Emperor, was.

……

at the same time.

People from other dynasties all looked at this scene with complicated expressions.

What the Ming Dynasty experienced was the same predicament that every dynasty had experienced.

Seeing that the Ming Dynasty was still in such a predicament thousands or hundreds of years later, the enlightened rulers of all dynasties could not help but sigh.

Could it be that the problem of corrupt officials and land annexation is really unsolvable?
I don’t know whether there is any way to eliminate this phenomenon in modern times as mentioned in the sky curtain.

……

"Mr. Zhang's reforms should have been abolished after his death."

Yongle Dynasty.

Yu Qian thought worriedly.

Tianmu would not mention this matter for no reason. Since he mentioned it, it proves that the other party must have been purged by the powerful later.

After Zhang Juzheng's death, the reforms he presided over had only two possible outcomes. One was that, like Wu Qi, the reforms would be immediately abolished after the death of the monarch he supported.

There is another type, like Shang Yang, where although the person is dead, his reforms are preserved.

However, considering that the Ming Dynasty only lasted for 76 years, Yu Qian felt that the former was the most likely possibility.

"After all, there are too few ministers like Zhang Juzheng." Zhu Di said with regret.

Very few people can be as devoted to the country and determined to become a saint as Zhang Juzheng.

What this world lacks the least is mediocre people who are good at planning for themselves and fighting for their own interests.

It’s not that these people are unaware of the benefits of reform. Perhaps before they became vested interests, they were also full of passion and tried to change all kinds of injustices and tried to change this filthy world.

But when they entered officialdom, became the envied officials of everyone, enjoyed the benefits of power, and became the so-called vested interests, they were quickly corrupted and assimilated.

The once passionate young man has become a staunch supporter of the rules.

This is the short-sightedness and bad habits of most people.

It is precisely because of this that the greatness of people like Zhang Juzheng is further highlighted.

This is a true patriot.

……

[Zhang Juzheng knew that this was a war that was almost impossible to win, but he showed the determination of an outstanding politician to reform, and declared a decisive battle against the world's termites.]

[However, the biggest enemy of the implementation of the land survey was not the opposition but the officials’ lack of understanding of the political significance of the land survey.]

[Some officials, in order to increase the number of acres of land, reported more land survey data, used smaller measuring instruments, or collected other acres of land to serve as fictitious grain. Some, out of "loving the people", reported as few acres of land as possible, or reduced the quality of the land to reduce the burden on the people.]

[Who can write whether local officials love the people? 】

[Of course it is the local landlord class who owns the land. They have the money to study and they have the right to speak for the people.]

[Who will love the people at the bottom of society? Regardless of whether they over-report their achievements or under-report their reputation, for officials themselves, achievements and reputation are what ultimately bring them power and benefits.]…

Just from these stories, everyone can feel the difficulty of land surveying.

Officials are both officials of the Ming Dynasty and spokesmen for landlords and gentry. How easy is it to expect every official to perform their duties conscientiously?
And what about the people?

There is no chance to speak at all.

Are there not many cases in history books where officials ignored the rights and interests of the people and acted recklessly for the sake of so-called political achievements?

Who knows whether land surveying will bring inconvenience to people's lives or damage their interests?
It all depends on the conscience of the officials.

……

【But anyway, the land survey was a success. 】

[From the beginning of the sixth year of the Wanli reign to the end of the eighth year, a total of 7.2 million mu of farmland was counted, an increase of just over million mu compared to the Hongzhi reign, a remarkable achievement.]

【After that, Zhang Juzheng proposed the "One Whip" reform. The main contents of this reform include: first, merging various taxes into one, namely "One Whip"; second, implementing a fixed tax, that is, determining the amount of tax according to the output of the land; third, implementing the "One Whip" reform, that is, linking population and land, and allocating land according to population. 】

【Zhang Juzheng's greatest achievement was in the economy. After the land was measured, he began to implement the Single Whip Law, which reduced the burden on the people and increased the country's income.】

[The Ming Dynasty had always been short of money, but after Zhang Juzheng's death, the treasury had more than 400 million taels of silver in reserve, and the grain in Taicang was enough to last for ten years. The Ming Dynasty was completely free from debt.]

……

"The more complicated the taxation method, the more likely it is to breed talent. Combining all taxes into one is simple and effective. It is the right remedy for the problem and has helped the Ming Dynasty reverse its decline. That's good."

Zhuge Liang nodded.

Since ancient times, how to collect taxes reasonably has always been a major difficulty for the country and also the place where corruption is most likely to breed.

There are too many loopholes in tax policies, and corrupt officials can always find reasons to make things difficult for the people.

Those who use crude tactics will say that your grain is of poor quality and insufficient, and ask you to pay half as much.

A more sophisticated one, for example the famous "Linjiantihu", was when the people went to pay the government grain, the grain was piled up in the hu into pointed corners with part of the hu wall protruding. The official would kick the pile hard, and the excess grain would fall to the ground. The official would then embezzle this part of the grain in the name of loss.

As for these losses, they will naturally be borne by the people.

As we all know, the simpler the method, the smaller the loopholes it can find.

Zhang Juzheng merged these taxes into one, which greatly alleviated the phenomenon of corruption.

However, Zhuge Liang felt that although Zhang Juzheng's policies could greatly alleviate these problems, it was still difficult to solve these problems from the root.

After all, every policy has a countermeasure.

What this world lacks most is smart people. If people at the bottom want to be greedy, they can always think of various ways to do it.

Policy supervision only treats the symptoms and not the root cause. The most ideal way should be to improve the quality of officials and the people.

Just like in the Shu area under his rule, people did not pick up lost items on the roads and did not lock their doors at night.

……

"Great! Biao'er, quickly write this down."

Old Zhu felt as if everything had suddenly become clear.

After all, the Shu area governed by Prime Minister Zhuge Liang is what officials should be like in an ideal state.

But Zhu Yuanzhang, who had suffered exploitation and oppression in his childhood, instinctively distrusted the ministers and officials under him.

If there was trust, there wouldn't be such a thing as the Jinyiwei.

If the emperor and his ministers are suspicious of each other, how can all officials perform their duties conscientiously?

Under this kind of social atmosphere, it is impossible to leave doors unlocked at night or not pick up things on the streets.

Moreover, given Zhu's personality, rather than letting him trust the self-awareness of the bureaucrats, the seemingly reasonable and compliant policies, as well as the imperial edicts of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, are more reliable.

With this kind of personality, when Zhu Yuanzhang learned about better policies, he naturally regarded them as treasures.

……

【The Ming Dynasty was already aging and had left various important places. Zhang Juzheng used his extraordinary political vision to prescribe the right remedy and the effect was remarkable.】

[The Ming Dynasty had a history of 276 years, and the last 76 years could be said to have been entirely sustained by the efforts of Zhang Juzheng alone. After Zhang Juzheng's death, the Ming Dynasty had no other national expert who could heal the country like him.]

[But unfortunately, the Great Empire refused to provide medical treatment. ]

[Perhaps Zhang Juzheng himself did not expect that after his death, his most proud student, Little Wanli, would personally destroy all the reform achievements that his most beloved teacher had worked so hard to accumulate.]

……

Hongwu period.

In Yingtian Prefecture, Zhu Biao sighed silently.

Originally, he was still wondering why Zhang Juzheng, known as a genius, only extended the life of the Ming Dynasty for 76 years. Now, through Tianmu's explanation, he already had the answer in his mind.

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned and found it difficult to accept this result for a while.

Other dynasties also felt a bit regretful.

It was not that the Ming Dynasty had no chance to revive, but unfortunately it was ruined by the emperor himself.

But it makes sense when you consider that the emperor at that time was a weirdo who had not attended court for 28 years.

At the same time, everyone has a deeper understanding of the statement that the Ming Dynasty fell during the Wanli period.

All we can say is that the Ming Dynasty has run out of luck.

Even with Zhang Juzheng's drastic measures, it was still powerless to save the situation.

Time is also destiny.

……

[As mentioned earlier, the Ming Dynasty lasted 276 years, and the last 76 years were only possible because of the efforts of Zhang Juzheng alone.]

[I think this has something to do with Zhang Juzheng's ability and talent, but I also think it has something to do with the fact that he was the best teacher teaching the best student, Little Wanli, and that this emperor student had the best parents and the best tutors behind him.]

[But what is strange is that this most ideal combination of four teams did not exist until the tenth year of Wanli, which was 1582 during the Ming Dynasty.]

[After Zhang Juzheng's death, an astonishing destructive force suddenly erupted, turning the original creativity into destructive force, and quickly swallowed up all of Zhang Juzheng's reform achievements during the Wanli period.]

[It was his most proud student, Little Wanli, who personally destroyed all the reform achievements that his most beloved teacher had accumulated with great effort.]

[Not to mention that as soon as Zhang Juzheng died, the young Wanli launched a counterattack against his beloved teacher.]

[They destroyed the Zhang family and even wanted to pull Zhang Juzheng out of his coffin and whip his corpse.]

[Until the end of the Wanli Dynasty, this little Wanli did only one thing, which was to completely destroy everything accumulated by Zhang Juzheng's reforms.]

[The son had always been very strictly disciplined and had always been very supportive of Teacher Zhang, but Empress Dowager Li suddenly made a 180-degree turn in her attitude and stopped caring about her son no matter how he behaved.]

[So by the end of the Wanli Dynasty, there was no Zhang Juzheng in the world anymore, and the Ming Dynasty was truly on the road to destruction. ]

……

"Ugh……"

Zhu Di closed his eyes in pain. The scene he least wanted to see finally happened.

(End of this chapter)