In the study of Xie Qian, the cabinet minister in the capital, Xie Qian was looking at a world map in a daze, and fell into a long thought.
Looking back on my life, when I was young, I became knowledgeable, talented, tall and handsome. Later, I became the top scorer in high school at the age of twenty-six. It can be said that I was so proud that I could see all the flowers in Chang'an in one day.
His official career was also smooth sailing. He started as a compilator in the Hanlin Academy and became Zuo Shuzi in just a few years. In the early years of Hongzhi's reign, he entered Zhan Shi Mansion as a Shao Zhan Shi and a lecturer.
Only eight years later, he successfully entered the cabinet and became a cabinet minister that countless officials could not achieve in their lifetimes. In the eleventh year of Hongzhi, he entered the Ministry of War as Minister of War and Dongge University as Prince Shaobao.
It can be said to be smooth sailing and extremely magnanimous.
But now, he feels that it's time for him to retire.
After several incidents in succession, he could already feel that Emperor Hongzhi was dissatisfied with him.
From the famine in the three northern provinces in the eleventh year of Hongzhi, to the tax reform, the introduction of commercial taxes, and the establishment of tax yamen, to the return of military power by Emperor Hongzhi, to what happened in Nanjing last year, Emperor Hongzhi wanted to reduce the number of places in Jiangnan Science Examination
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Xie Qian knew that Emperor Hongzhi's dissatisfaction with him had reached its limit.
As a cabinet minister, if you don't have the trust of the emperor, you will basically not be able to do it for a long time, and you will not be able to continue doing many things.
He knew this very well, but looking at the resignation letter in his hand, he was extremely reluctant to part with it.
He is still very young, only over 60 years old. Compared to the ministers in the court, he is very young. Liu Jian is already over 70 years old, almost 80 years old.
As long as he continues to persevere, when Liu Jian retires, there is still great hope that he can become the chief minister of the cabinet and be the ultimate minister. When that time comes, it will naturally be completely different if he retires.
However, now it seems that the time has come to have to retire.
The emperor has expressed his dissatisfaction clearly enough.
"I didn't do anything wrong, but why do I seem to have done so many wrong things?"
Looking at the world map in front of him, Xie Qian couldn't help but ask.
What he has always believed in is to assist the king in governing the world. He has always advised the emperor to be close to the wise, to stay away from the sycophants, to be diligent in learning, and to avoid ease.
All over the world.
At first, Emperor Hongzhi had great trust in his approach. He also started as a scholar and knew that Emperor Hongzhi was generous and kind, diligent in government and caring for the people.
But I don’t know since when, Emperor Hongzhi no longer believed in this set of things, and began to believe in the set of things proposed by Liu Jin.
Liu Jin proposed rectifying military affairs, expanding externally, reforming the tax system, levying commercial taxes, studying unique crafts, opening factories, workshops, and colonizing overseas, as well as bloody plunder and expansion.
This is the thinking and line of No. 1 Middle School that is completely contrary to the traditional Confucian way of governing the country.
This continuous external expansion, in Confucian terms, means being aggressive and warlike, leading to death. It not only kills a large number of its own people, but also causes huge killings and bloodshed in the expansion areas.
In particular, Liu Jin's several external expansions as commander-in-chief, whether it was sweeping the Nanyang or annexing the Western Regions, Liu Jin has always believed in the idea that power is truth, and those who follow me will prosper and those who go against me will perish.
In Nanyang, the Western Regions, especially the Hezhong area, carried out bloody killings and plunders. I don’t know how many countries and tribes fell under the butcher knife of the Ming Dynasty. The Hezhong area originally had hundreds of prosperous tribes. However, once the Ming army passed by, the Hezhong area became
A land of death and silence, a land thousands of miles away, deserted.
Countless countries in Southeast Asia were destroyed by Liu Jin, and even a small country like Malujia had to surrender to the Ming Dynasty, sign an alliance under the city, and compensate millions of taels of silver.
Siam, which had a good relationship with the Ming Dynasty in the past, was directly attacked by the capital, and finally surrendered and paid tens of millions of taels of silver.
From the perspective of traditional Confucianism, these are absolutely unacceptable.
Since ancient times, all the great countries have convinced people with their virtues and conquered the world. Only then did they come to visit us from all over the world. All the countries in the four directions admire our Chinese civilization.
But Liu Jin went to war, conquered people with force, swept all directions, and killed wantonly. How is this different from bandits and barbarians?
However, it was Liu Jin's series of external expansion and wars that not only failed to bring down the Ming Dynasty, but instead brought huge wealth to the Ming Dynasty.
Just from the war reparations from the surrounding countries to the Ming Dynasty, they can still receive tens of millions of taels of war reparations every year. Japan, Malacca, Siam, the Ottoman Empire, and England all have to pay the war reparations honestly every year.
Come to Daming.
Such a huge wealth greatly eased the financial tension of the Ming Dynasty, and also greatly strengthened the Ming Dynasty's army, allowing the new military system to be successfully completed and bursting out with strong vitality and combat power.:.
In addition, the huge land acquired through external expansion provided conditions for the immigrants of the Ming Dynasty. The fertile Nanyang, the fertile Liaodong, the vast Western Regions and Hezhong areas had millions or tens of millions of immigrants migrating to each place.
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Nanyang became the sugar warehouse of the Ming Dynasty, Liaodong became the granary of the Ming Dynasty, and the Western Regions and Hezhong became the meat warehouse and horse farms of the Ming Dynasty, so that the Ming Dynasty no longer had to worry about food and horses.
The Tatars in the north, who used to watch with eager eyes and withheld customs every year, have now become grassland people who are good at singing and dancing. They are grazing cattle and sheep and providing warm wool to the people of Ming Dynasty.
It was obviously bloody and inhumane killings to the outside world, but in turn, it nourished the Ming Dynasty and gave new life to this huge empire that was already crumbling and precarious.
There is also the reform of the tax system and the introduction of commercial taxes. In the view of traditional Confucianism, this is excessive taxation and a sign of the destruction of the country. As an emperor, he should be light on corvee and light on taxes, cultivate himself with the people, collect as little tax as possible, and do not tax.
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However, as for Liu Jin, he not only wanted to collect taxes and levy commercial taxes, but also set up tax offices and tax agents, tried every means to collect taxes, and used force to collect taxes.
In the past, it was absolutely appropriate to impose excessive taxes and extortionate taxes, and you would never be able to get rid of this label.
Xie Qian was strongly opposed to this matter. In his opinion, excessive taxation and extortion would have no good results. If he were not careful, wars would spread and the country would be in turmoil.
But the fact is that this series of tax reforms not only did not cause wars and chaos in the Ming Dynasty, but also gave the court money to carry out a series of operations because of the huge increase in tax revenue from the treasury.
It can support millions of immigrants, large-scale immigration to Liaodong, the Western Regions, Hezhong, Nanyang and other places, which greatly eases the land and population conflicts within the Ming Dynasty.
The imperial court had money, so it could build large-scale water conservancy projects, carry out infrastructure construction, build a large number of reservoirs, river lifts, roads, dredge canals, build new ports and other measures, which made travel between various parts of the Ming Dynasty extremely convenient and the flow of goods smoother. At the same time, the north
The impact of drought and flood disasters has been greatly weakened.
Now that the imperial court has become rich, it has also greatly increased the salaries and benefits of officials. In the past, the salaries and benefits of officials in the Ming Dynasty could really starve people to death, and were simply not enough to support officials to have a decent life.
Now, after several substantial increases in salary and treatment, the salary and treatment of officials in the Ming Dynasty are already quite good. Even a seventh-grade official can now receive several hundred taels of silver plus grain, cloth, etc. every year.
Lots of real objects.
The substantial increase in salary also made the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty become more clean. There were still corrupt officials, but many officials became more honest, because such a salary was enough to easily support their families and live a good life.
Studying on strange and clever sexual skills is a crooked and third-rate thing in the eyes of traditional Confucianism. The real way should be the way advocated by Confucianism. People should be diligent and diligent, rather than always thinking about lazy and slippery things.
But it was these things that, under the leadership of Liu Jin, new spinning machines and looms set off the textile revolution of the Ming Dynasty, and countless textile factories and workshops sprung up like bamboo shoots after a rain.
The new spinning machines and looms were dozens or hundreds of times more efficient than the original ones. They instantly surpassed the original household looms and set off the rapid development of capitalism.
The next steam engine gave rise to a series of machines.
Steam-driven spinning machines and looms were faster and more efficient, and steam cultivators allowed the people of the Ming Dynasty to easily cultivate hundreds or thousands of acres of land.
Steam trains, accompanied by billowing white smoke and whistles, are like giant dragons passing through the north and south of the Ming Dynasty. It greatly facilitates people's travel and the circulation of goods, allowing the grain of Liaodong and the meat of the Western Regions to continuously nourish the Ming Dynasty.
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The emergence of steamships also set off a revolution in maritime navigation. The originally distant Golden Continent has become closer to Australia. Dried fish, ginseng, gold and silver from Golden Continent, Australian mutton, dried kangaroos, abalone, wool, etc.
Rice, cane sugar, fruits, and spices from Nanyang were continuously shipped back to the Ming Dynasty.
Steam rice mills, flour mills, bicycles, etc., various machines have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, which greatly improved the productivity of the Ming people and created more wealth than any previous era.
Became the richest man.
"Are we really wrong?"
Xie Qian looked at the world map. The territory of the Ming Dynasty was extremely vast. There were also a large number of vassal states and colonies overseas. The descendants of China were spread in every corner of the world and dominated the world.
The Ming Dynasty today is far beyond what can be measured in the prosperous age. The so-called prosperous age in history is simply insignificant compared to the Ming Dynasty today. The key is that the Ming Dynasty at this moment is still developing at a high speed, becoming richer and more prosperous.
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