In 1749, the plan to wipe out households and drain wages from the bottom of the cauldron destroyed the gentry.
Seeing that Chongzhen had not yet woken up from the shock, Yang Fan continued: "Your Majesty, what do you think is the biggest disaster in the Ming Dynasty?"
Chongzhen thought for a while and said: "They are the gentry. These people have formed an absolute power. Even I, the emperor, can't do anything to them. They don't pay taxes, and they annex land. They make the farmers bankrupt and go into exile, and the tax base is shrinking day by day."
The imperial government's finances are on the verge of bankruptcy."
Yang Fan continued: "If you want the imperial court to not collapse, you must let the gentry collapse."
"Only by defeating them all can we ensure that the imperial court does not collapse."
As if morning bells and evening drums were ringing suddenly in his ears, Chongzhen looked at Yang Fan in shock. In his impression, Yang Fan was a person who was fearless. But he didn't expect that he would be so crazy and dare to challenge the entire gentry class.
However, Yang Fan wanted to dig into the Ming Dynasty's ruling foundation and its old roots. Can such a huge class be overthrown by one person?
"Yang Qing, how is this possible? The imperial power has not been sent to the countryside, and the gentry below the county level are directly ruling. I'm afraid our monarchs and ministers are exhausted and cannot dig their foundations." Chongzhen said with some frustration.
Yang Fan smiled and said: "Nothing is difficult in the world, as long as there are people who are willing."
"How did the Wei and Jin dynasties, five surnames and seven families, the Guanlong nobles, and warlords and vassal towns get swept into the garbage heap of history? There is no eternal privileged class in this world. As long as the hoe is good, there will be corners to dig.
Don’t fall.”
Chongzhen immediately became excited after being encouraged by Yang Fan. What he said was so good and so inspiring. Yes, this is what I think in my heart. As long as I want to do anything, there is nothing I can't do.
"My dear, tell me, how should we dig this wall of gentry?"
Yang Fan asked with a smile: "To deal with them, we must first understand how they developed. What is their foundation."
Chongzhen thought for a while and said: "The gentry is promoted through the imperial examination."
"Yes, your Majesty has hit the key point. Starting from the Northern Song Dynasty, in order to deal with the domineering and autocratic generals who arbitrarily abolished the emperor's vassal and town generals, Song Taizu began to expand the scope of the imperial examination and increase the number of admissions for the imperial examination. The common people's landowners were used to replace the gentry landowners."
"Especially after King Qian entered the court, a large number of surrendered officials from the Wuyue Kingdom entered the center of the Northern Song Dynasty. The industrial and commercial capital groups in the southeast began to enter the historical stage as an emerging political force. These were used by the emperor to replace and attack the gentry.
and the methods of warlords and vassal towns. From then on, the Guanlong nobles, five surnames and seven families, and the noble families since the Wei and Jin Dynasties have completely declined." Yang Fan said.
"It can be seen that no class is invincible, irreplaceable, and invincible. It depends on whether the people who want to deal with them have the means, means and ability." Yang Fan said coldly.
Chongzhen was completely shocked.
He immediately realized that this group of people from the southeast in the Northern Song Dynasty did play a role in being supported by the emperor and fighting against the old noble families and warlords.
But they also had the same name in the Northern Song Dynasty as the Ming Dynasty today. That was the Donglin Party.
Donglin Academy was founded in the Northern Song Dynasty, not the Ming Dynasty.
At the beginning of the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, these people were introduced to use the emerging industrial and commercial capital forces from the southeast to balance the Guanlong nobles in Guanzhong, the five surnames and seven families in Guandong, the noble families, and the warlords in vassal towns all over the world.
Song Taizu adopted a two-pronged strategy. One was to expand the scope of qualifications for the imperial examination, increase the number of admissions, and directly connect with the officialdom. This was to overwhelm the officials of the gentry landowners with the number of officials from the common people landowners.
At the same time, the power of emerging industrial and commercial capital groups was introduced to fight against the old agricultural aristocracy.
This is also the reason why industry and commerce in the Northern Song Dynasty were highly developed.
The Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty were dynasties with very small territories in history, and the Southern Song Dynasty was even worse than the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
However, the tax revenue of the Southern Song Dynasty was dozens of times that of the late Ming Dynasty.
This is all related to the fact that officials with industrial and commercial backgrounds are good at running the economy. Bianliang is also called Tokyo, and its commercial prosperity will amaze us thousands of years later.
Chongzhen listened in shock as Yang Fan talked about the ins and outs of the Donglin Party. Only then did he realize that they had defeated the Northern Song Dynasty in the first place, and the Southern Song Dynasty was also established on their territory.
The emperors were all controlled by them, and nine emperors and three abdicated.
Moreover, once Zhao Gou died, the throne returned to Taizu's lineage.
Wouldn't it be easier to control the court by changing the name of the emperor?
Emperor Chengzu was afraid that his descendants would lose the fortitude and domineering power of himself and Taizu, and would be controlled by them, so he insisted on moving the capital to Peking.
Yang Fan took a sip of water and continued: "After the establishment of this dynasty, because the former Yuan Dynasty adopted an indirect rule, the local area was handed over to the Han princes and local powerful men for management. Finance and taxation were auctioned to the Arabs.
Adopt a tax package system to manage.”
"Those you rely on will eventually control you." Yang Fan said, "At the beginning, we used this group of people in the southeast to balance the big ones in the north, which has threatened the imperial court. But these people played an active role in the early stage.
After their role, especially after defeating the old forces, they also grew in size and became a new threat to the imperial court."
"After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, in order to clear up the historical issues left over from the B.C. Yuan Dynasty and crack down on local tyrants and nobles, the same method as the Northern Song Dynasty was adopted again, which was to once again expand the scope of qualifications and admission quotas for the imperial examination. In the Ming Dynasty, the imperial examination was held every three years.
There are additional Enke. The number of admissions is several hundred for each Jinshi class. The scale is unprecedented. The qualifications for the imperial examination have also been greatly reduced. Various explicit and implicit rules and thresholds have been abolished. Common people can participate as long as they have talent and learning.
.”
"These people monopolized the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty in just a few decades. Especially after Tumubao, the nobles and nobles collectively died out, and the young and the old were no longer connected. They took the opportunity to completely control the court. As a result, now the civil servants are low-ranking, and there are no civil servants.
Constraints. Absolute power leads to absolute corruption.”
Chongzhen took a deep breath, what Yang Fan said was so right.
If civil servants are corrupt to this extent, isn't it because they have monopolized the officialdom of the court?
All the other forces were defeated. No one could stand up to them. The nobles had all been destroyed long ago. Their relatives, the Ming Dynasty, were not strong, so the eunuchs could only make do with adding some obstacles to them.
Without restricted power, one must seek to maximize interests!
Chongzhen asked: "How did they become so big in this dynasty?"
"Students can be exempted from taxes. In the Taizu Dynasty, there was a limit on the number of acres of land. In the beginning, any excess amount was not tax-exempt. Scholars could have large tracts of land under their names. The maximum amount could be 80 acres, and no tax was required.
Juren enjoys a land tax exemption of 400 acres. Jinshi enjoys a land tax exemption of 2,000 acres."
"These are all restrictions from the Taizu Dynasty. After Tumubao, the restrictions basically existed in name only. At least no tax was paid on any land above the level of Juren. The common people dedicated the land to their names, and after receiving the land, they responded
If rented to the original owner, the tenant rent is only half of the tax and can be exempted from corvee. These scholars relied on this to annex land and become big landowners."
