Zhu Cijiong: "My son understands why his father associates with the chief of Guizhou and wanders among the streets. He also understands why his father associates with the soldiers, eating, living and training together."
Zhu Cixiang: "Really? Then you can tell me why my father did this?"
Zhu Cijiong: "In the Great Ceremony Conference during the Jiajing Dynasty, Grandpa Sejong drove some low-level civil servants to fight against high-level civil servants by granting officials and making wishes, and finally won the Great Ceremony Conference."
"But now it is the entire civil servants who are deprived of rent."
"Therefore, the father cannot imitate Emperor Sejong and divide the civil servants."
"So, my father can only win over the lower class people and soldiers to fight against the civil servants."
"As the saying goes, when a scholar meets a soldier, there is no explanation. Grandpa Taizu once said that as long as our old Zhu family holds the handle of the sword, we are not afraid of these civil servants turning the sky upside down."
"What Jiong'er just said hit the nail on the head." Chongzhen couldn't help but applaud, "It has become a bad officialdom habit among the civil servants to take advantage of the situation, and it is hard to get rid of. If there is no support from another force or forces, even if it is the emperor's
I don’t have the ability to change all this, so I have to win over the hearts and minds of the people and the military.”
"If the people's morale is not there and the military's morale is unstable, it will be impossible to talk about reform."
When it comes to this, we have to mention the establishment of slaves. It had no support from the people and no support from the officials and gentry, but it was with bloody swords that it completed the suppression of the Jiangnan gentry group.
The political ambitions of the Donglin Party and Fushe were completely stifled.
For more than three hundred years after that, the scholars in Jiangnan kept silent about the politics of their family and country.
"Furthermore, in addition to the common people and soldiers at the bottom, we can actually win over a considerable number of scholars from poor families to support this change, because scholars from poor families can better understand the hardships of the common people and soldiers at the bottom and are more likely to make changes.
The will and determination of the bad habits of officialdom must be kept in mind."
"Please remember this." Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong stood up and bowed.
Seeing Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong's serious faces, Chongzhen smiled and said: "You don't have to worry too much. Maybe the problem of insufficient national resources can be solved without reform."
"Huh? Can the shortage of national resources be solved without reform?"
Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong looked at each other, how could this be possible?
Only Zhu Cizheng really didn't care and had fallen asleep leaning on the straw mat.
Chongzhen just smiled and didn't say much to Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong.
Because it’s useless to talk about it. If you talk about the relationship between productivity and production to the two little brothers, will they understand?
Many people believe that by the Chongzhen period, the Ming Dynasty's finances had completely collapsed and there was no cure, but in fact this was not the case. The Ming Dynasty's finances actually still had great potential to be tapped.
This involves Marx’s Capital: productivity and production relations.
Human society is constantly developing. With the continuous development of society, productivity will gradually increase. For example, the evolution from stone tools to bronze tools, and then from bronze tools to iron tools will definitely promote the improvement of productivity, and then the improvement of productivity will inevitably have an impact on the old people.
Some production relations have caused impact.
Production relations include three aspects: ownership of the means of production, people's status and mutual relationships in production, and distribution of products, among which ownership of the means of production is the most important.
When the development of productivity reaches a certain level, it will inevitably have an impact on the ownership of the means of production.
When stone tools are upgraded to bronze, primitive society collapses. When bronze is upgraded to iron, slave society collapses. When a highly developed commodity economy takes over, the feudal system that represents the interests of the big landowner class will inevitably collapse, and sooner or later the bourgeoisie will take over the human race.
The dominance of society will not be replaced by the proletariat until the future.
At present, the commodity economy of the Ming Dynasty, especially in the eight prefectures and prefectures south of the Yangtze River, is already highly developed.
The highly developed commodity economy has had a huge impact on the old ownership of production means. The direct manifestation is the emergence of Fushe. People in Fushe began to show an extremely strong tendency to participate in politics. Zhang Pu, the leader of Fushe, even tried to pass the
Manipulating the chief minister of the cabinet, Zhou Yanru, to realize his political intention of changing the ownership of the means of production.
Of course, due to the limitations of the times, Zhang Pu's behavior was only unconscious behavior, and he had no subjective intention to change the ownership of the means of production and overthrow the imperial power.
In a word, the national policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce implemented by the Ming Dynasty has formed a huge restriction on the commodity economy of eight prefectures and one state in the south of the Yangtze River, and has seriously hindered the further development of the economy. At this time, if we can comply with the opinions of scholars and the people, we can change the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce.
The national policy can undoubtedly greatly unleash economic vitality.
Once Jiangnan's economy is revitalized, tax revenue will also be available.
It is said that commercial tax is the enemy of Jiangnan Gentry Group, but in fact, it is not commercial tax that Jiangnan Gentry Group really opposes.
If enough benefits can be given, the government and business groups will turn around and embrace commercial taxes, and no one will have trouble with money.
This is actually a question of making the cake bigger and allocating the cake. If you don't want to make the cake bigger first, but just want to get more of the cake, then even if you are the emperor, Jiangnan's official and business groups will dare to kill you and block others.
Making money is like killing your parents. They are irreconcilable. If you don't kill them, who will you kill?
Civil servants may not have the courage, but businessmen have no bottom line.
On the contrary, if you first find a way to make the entire pie bigger, then even if you take a larger share, the government and business groups will not say anything.
The reason is very simple. Although the share of the official and business groups is smaller, the portion of the cake they eat has increased. With more cake to eat, who would take the risk of genocide and kill the emperor?
Therefore, there is actually a solution to the Ming Dynasty's financial problems, and once it is really implemented, the help will definitely exceed the resistance. The official and business groups in Jiangnan have been suffering from the national policy of "focusing on agriculture and suppressing business" for a long time.
However, running a big country is like cooking small dishes, and such a big thing must not be rushed.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Especially now we are facing the survival crisis of establishing slaves going south, so we can only postpone it.
Early the next morning, Liu Zongzhou came to the Yiding military camp again and advised Chongzhen to return to Nanjing.
After being rejected again by Chongzhen, Liu Zongzhou retreated and offered to let the prince return to Nanjing to supervise the country.
Chongzhen could not refuse this request, and finally asked Yongwang Zhu Cizheng to follow Liu Zongzhou back to Nanjing. Since the boy could not endure the hardships in the military camp, he was asked to return to Nanjing to supervise the country.
As for Zhu Cixiang and Zhu Cijiong, Chongzhen decided to take them with him and train them as heirs.
In the past, the Ming Emperor was born in a forbidden palace and had the skills of a woman, but this will no longer be the case. The future Emperor of the Ming Dynasty must have experience in the military, even if it is just a formality, he must start from the army and must control the military power!
On the day Liu Zongzhou returned to Nanjing with Zhu Cizhen, Chongzhen also took Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong brothers to go north to Xia Town on a canoe transporting wages and firearms, accompanied by navy warships for protection.
As for the farming affairs in Xuzhou, they were handed over to Du Yinxi.
…
Two days passed quickly, and it was June 17th.
It has been more than twenty days since Huang Degong led the ten-town frontier troops to Xia Town.
After more than twenty days of sweating, the entire Xia Town defense line has taken initial shape.
It is relatively easy to build civil fortifications. If you want to build a solid city and cover it with bricks, the amount of work will be greatly increased, and it may not be possible to repair it in a year.
But it would be much easier to just dig a trench and tamp down the soil.
Seeing Huang Degong, Tian Xiong, who ordered the soldiers to dig trenches, quickly came to meet him.
"Uncle, why are you here?" Tian Xiong asked, "It's very dusty here..."
"Don't worry about me." Huang Degong interrupted before Tian Xiong could finish his words, "Just fix your gun."
"Replying to my uncle, all fifty gun platforms that the general is responsible for have been completed, and the retreat and fire output channels between the gun platforms have also been dug." Tian Xiong said, "The slope protection has also been repaired.
.”
"Has it been repaired?" Huang Degong groaned, "Have the fences of the fifty gun platforms been erected?"
"Only part of the fence has been erected." Tian Xiong scratched his head and said, "But this cannot be blamed on the general, because all the houses in the nearby villages have been demolished, and there is really no more wood."
"Then go and search farther away. The fence must be erected."
"Yes, General Mo will send troops to look for wood further away."
"It doesn't take too many people to find wood. For the remaining people, you can let them continue to deepen the outer trench. It is best to arrange some sharp wooden stakes at the bottom of the trench. Bamboo thorns are even better."
"Yes!" Tian Xiong was helpless.
With so much work to do, I am quite busy.
At this moment, the sound of horse hooves sounded.
Immediately, a cavalry of post soldiers came galloping from the north.
"Report! Urgent report!" Still far away, the hoarse roars of the postmen could be heard, "Jiannu is going south! Jiannu is going south! Jiannu is going south!"
"The army of Jiannu invaded Dongchang Mansion!"
"Linqing Prefecture is in emergency! Linqing Prefecture is in emergency! Linqing Prefecture is in emergency!"
The postman rushed into Xia Town like a whirlwind, and then the horse on his hip fell to the ground with a mournful neigh. The postman on the horse was also knocked down heavily and fainted on the spot.
Huang Degong immediately ordered Tian Xiong: "Don't go out to look for wood for the time being. Use all the existing wood for several rounds of gun stands around the perimeter. Make sure there are fences around the gun stands as a barrier!"
"Tamp down the slope protection and the internal platform of the gun platform more solidly."
"Don't let one of the slave-building cannonballs hit you and cause it to fall apart."
"Yes!" Tian Xiong solemnly promised, "In the end, the slope protection and gun platform will be pounded as hard as bricks. Not to mention one cannon shell, even a hundred or a thousand rounds will not be able to break it!"
