Zhu Yiyuan took decisive measures to deal with the scum who collaborated with the enemy under his rule, and time passed quickly. Looking back on this year, it was destined to be a very chaotic year.
Not to mention anything else, the small imperial court of the Southern Ming Dynasty had two year names, namely the first year of Hongguang and the first year of Longwu. Corresponding to the Qing court, it was the second year of Shunzhi.
The same was true for Zhu Yiyuan. In the first half of the year, he was ordinary and did nothing. In the second half of the year, he joined the rebel army, had his own team, occupied several counties, and had tens of thousands of troops.
Looking back, it feels like a dream.
"Mr. Ning Ren, I plan to write something to summarize my experience." Zhu Yiyuan said with a smile.
Gu Yanwu also smiled and said: "If you have anything to write about, just give it and I will do it for you."
Zhu Yiyuan smiled and said: "What I want to write is not complicated. I just want to talk about how long the Ming Dynasty can continue to fly and what we should do."
Gu Yanwu was shocked and gradually became serious. This was not the question he had been thinking about.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but pull his chair forward, leaned forward, and asked, "What do you have in mind?"
Zhu Yiyuan smiled and said: "It's not a high opinion, it's just some simple ideas. First of all, we have to make one thing clear. The fault of Ming Dynasty lies first in itself. If Ming Dynasty had no problems, or was not even terminally ill, it would be impossible for him to be replaced by only a few dozen people.
The tens of thousands of Donglu were defeated steadily, and even gave the Eight Banners a chance to enter the pass. This is the most fundamental point, and everyone must understand this."
Gu Yanwu listened more carefully and even picked up his pen to write it down.
In fact, ever since Li Zicheng occupied Beijing, or even earlier, a large number of knowledgeable people have been thinking about what happened to the Ming Dynasty.
When the Qing troops entered the country, the pain of national subjugation became even more unforgettable, forcing too many scholars to seriously think about what the problem was.
"First of all, we must admit that the Ming Dynasty has maintained its power for three hundred years. It did not suddenly perish, but it was difficult to return. It can even be said that it came to an end."
End of life?
In other words, the Ming Dynasty should die!
Gu Yanwu smiled helplessly, but did not correct anything. As a minister of the Ming Dynasty, it was inappropriate for him to say this, but as Zhu Yiyuan was a member of the clan and a member of the Zhu family, the meaning of what he said was different.
"The fundamental reason for the collapse of the Ming Dynasty was the loss of people's support. It was because tens of millions of people had no clothes to wear, no food to eat, and it was difficult to make a living. In order to survive, the people had to rise up. Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were both caused by the Ming Dynasty themselves.
Their growth was also caused by the Ming Dynasty's constant supply of troops. It can be said that it was the Ming Dynasty that destroyed itself."
Listening to Zhu Yiyuan's words, Gu Yanwu felt that he spoke to his heart. Whether it was the old slaves, Huang Taiji, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, putting them together with the Ming Dynasty, not to mention outsiders could not stand it.
Even they themselves dare not accept it calmly.
In such a large country, it is impossible to kill a country that is attacked from outside. A centipede cannot die without being stiff. Only by committing suicide can it be completely defeated.
If there were not all kinds of shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty, how could the country be destroyed?
At this point, Gu Yanwu felt that he could write a very good article.
But what Zhu Yiyuan said next made Gu Yanwu stand in awe.
"There were so many shortcomings in the Ming Dynasty that if I were to mention them, dozens of books would be written. What I want to talk about is what to do now!"
Gu Yanwu raised his eyebrows and immediately said: "Please give me some advice."
"I thought that the old shackles should be broken, reborn, and reborn... What are the old shackles? They are the taxes, corvees, renting and lending that formed around the land. It was these things that made it difficult for the Ming Dynasty to recover and lead to its demise.
of."
Gu Yanwu's hand holding the pen actually trembled slightly.
"Tell me, keep telling me."
Zhu Yiyuan said: "In the past two hundred years or so, large families have annexed land, evaded corvee taxes, robbed the court of finance and tax, and devoured the people's bones, enriched the public and enriched their own pockets. At the beginning, Zhang Juzheng implemented a whipping method to clear out the land, and there was a crackdown on giants.
His death meant that his people died and his government ceased, indicating that the Ming Dynasty failed to save itself. In the following decades, it collapsed thousands of miles away, and the people finally couldn't survive. There was smoke and war everywhere."
"According to common sense, readjusting land finance and taxation is something that can only be done in the early days of the country. The Ming Dynasty was ruined and had no way to recover. But it happened that the Eight Banners entered the customs. They were different from the previous dynasty changes. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty was
Master, the Eight Banners are all slaves, and as for the Han ministers, they are worse than slaves. They have absolutely no ability to change the world and completely re-evaluate land tax rates, and they even want to condone the Eight Banners, compete for land, and continue to harm the people."
"This gave the Ming Dynasty a chance to come back to life. Completely break the old pattern, re-assess land taxes, establish new relationships with the people, win the hearts and minds of the people, and win the support of the people. The equalization of land we advocate is not simply to divide the land
It is distributed to farmers who have little land, but it is a complete change, allowing the people to relieve themselves of the burden and start over."
When Gu Yanwu heard this, he could no longer restrain his excitement and couldn't wait to write down what Zhu Yiyuan said.
And with his knowledge and ability, he can naturally write a brilliant and penetrating article.
In fact, Zhu Yiyuan made it clear that equalizing land is not just about dividing the land.
It can even be said that equalizing land is just the first step in this huge project.
Take Shandong as an example. Due to the war, the population has decreased a lot. Calculated purely based on the number of acres of land and population, it is not considered stressful. It is not enough to level the land and recruit refugees directly to reclaim wasteland.
Sorry, this really doesn't work.
The problem is that land has many things attached to it. The most important things such as land tax, corvee, and a mess of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes are all based on the land.
Take the annexation of land by large households, for example. Why cannot it be tolerated from the perspective of the state? The reason is very simple. The land rent paid by tenant farmers to landlords is actually a tax collected by landlords from tenant farmers, and this tax originally belongs to the country.
.
When tenant farmers work as long-term or part-time laborers for landlords, they essentially perform corvee service for the landlord, and this corvée service is also owned by the state.
In a word, what wealthy families do is actually cutting the flesh of the imperial court and sucking the blood of the country, in a physical sense.
Once you understand this problem, you will also understand what the essence of equalizing land is.
It is not as simple as granting land based on head count, but signing a new contract with all the people to eliminate middlemen. The past is invalidated, and we start over, which means smashing the old rope framework and starting over.
Vientiane update.
By the way, Zhang Juzheng implemented the one-whip method, and 90% of his energy was focused on clearing the land... The reason is very simple, the one-whip method is nothing more than exchanging grain for silver, so what's the trouble?
The real trouble is who will pay for it!
That’s why we need to clear out the land, clarify tax responsibilities, and who owns the land pays taxes... This is the real core.
Just like Zhu Yiyuan's glance, he divided the fields for the people, but the key is behind it. The people have to pay land taxes, perform military service, obey orders, and abide by Zhu Yiyuan's rules... There are many things behind this!
It stands to reason that for a dynasty, these things can only be formulated in the early stages. Once the rules are formed, there is almost no better way than waiting for collapse.
This is also the reason why Zhu Yiyuan said that the Ming Dynasty should die.
There's really no way to save it.
It's just that the Qing court was born with a body of slavery and could not really treat the people well. That's why the wise people now have the slightest chance.
"Mr. Ning Ren, there is only one way to save the country from danger, and that is to temporarily avoid the major cities where the Qing army is strong, enter the mountainous areas, rely on the people, let go of the mobilization of civilian forces, win the support of the people, and form an army belonging to the people. Continue to grow and develop.
, and finally expel the Huru. This is the only feasible way we have concluded in the past six months, and I hope it can be spread throughout the world as soon as possible."
Gu Yanwu was startled, "Zhu Qianshi, aren't you afraid that others will learn from you?"
Zhu Yiyuan instead smiled and said: "I wish that everyone could learn from it, so that the overthrow of the Qing court would be just around the corner."
Gu Yanwu took a deep breath, and then nodded vigorously, "I understand, please rest assured, this article will be spread to Jiangnan in the first month of next year!" This chapter has been completed!
