In the cabinet, Liu Jin was studying behind closed doors, thinking carefully about some things. After serving as an official for more than ten years, he finally sat in the position of chief minister of the cabinet. Liu Jin did not feel too happy, but felt a lot of pressure.
Every chief minister who comes to the cabinet will basically have his own style of doing things as long as he can sit firmly.
Like Liu Jian, who has been the chief minister of the cabinet for more than ten years. His style of doing things has always been mature and prudent, focusing on frugality and opposing redundant officials.
This can only be regarded as quite satisfactory, without any special features, and does not have much effect. Of course, in itself, Liu Jian can only be regarded as mediocre among the many chief ministers of the Ming Dynasty's cabinet, but it is better than his maturity and prudentness.
Under the auspices of the emperor, the Hongzhi Dynasty changed into the monsters and strange waves of the Hua Dynasty.
Restoring peace to the Ming Dynasty, it also greatly restricted the power of the factory guards, and the civil servants in both the government and the public were able to live a good life.
But this is limited to this. For all aspects of governing the country, the set of principles he follows is still the Confucian way of governing the country, such as benevolence, justice, morality, filial piety and the like. The slogans are very good, but in reality
It is of no use in governing the country.
That dynasty did not mean to govern the country with benevolence and righteousness, and that emperor did not rule the world with filial piety. This has been the case in all dynasties, and there is no big difference.
This thing was used to fool the unreasonable emperor. Many times, the emperor seemed to be unfilial and unkind.
In fact, Liu Jian was unable to solve any of the many problems faced by the Ming Empire.
Internally, the treasury was empty, the border defenses were empty, the armaments were depleted, and the people were poor. Liu Jian did nothing. Without money, he shouted for frugality every day, called for redundant officials, and asked the emperor to be diligent and thrifty.
This is not nonsense, there is nothing new at all. If you put this thing in any dynasty, it can be said to be a thing of the past.
Emperor Hongzhi only had one wife and one son. He had always been very frugal, and the palace was not willing to take a break. Even so, he was told to be frugal every day, but as for those ministers, none of them were extravagant and extravagant.
He simply doesn't, or he doesn't dare to face the root of the problem.
The fundamental reason why the Ming Dynasty's treasury was empty was that land annexation became more and more serious. A large amount of land was annexed by gentry landlords. The grain that was originally paid to the treasury was turned into tax-free farmland.
Another issue is the issue of commercial tax. Commercial tax has been unable to be levied because there are many people in the government and the public who oppose it. Liu Jian does not have the courage and ability to do this. Of course, it is also possible that he is unwilling to do it because it will harm his own.
Benefit.
He is unable to do anything that can fundamentally solve the two main problems of empty national treasury. He can only shout about diligence and frugality, oppose extravagance and waste, and talk nonsense about redundant officials.
The lack of border defense and the depletion of armaments are related to the national defense of the Ming Dynasty. The root cause is that the military household system has been corrupted. The military households' military fields have been encroached on by hundreds of households, thousands of households, guards, etc., and the military households can't have enough to eat, so what else can they do?
Soldier?
If he wanted to rectify it, he would offend the noble group, hundreds of households, thousands of households, guards, etc., and he would not dare at all.
As for the depletion of armaments, in the final analysis it comes back to the issue of an empty national treasury. If there is no money, there will naturally be no armaments. What's more, civilians are still in charge of the army, and corruption is endemic. It is strange that the armaments can be good.
Internally, it can be said that Liu Jian has not accomplished much and is just a mediocre first and second aid.
Externally, the Tatars in the northern grasslands, the Jurchens in Liaodong in the east, the Japanese pirates on the southeast coast, and the chieftains in the southwest were all taking turns, and none of them were solved.
There is neither the financial resources nor any good solution, so we can only drag it on and watch the Tatars march south to plunder every winter. As long as they don't attack Beijing, the rest is easy to say, just plunder and plunder at will.
When enough is enough, he will naturally go back.
As for the Japanese pirates in the southeast region, they were left to their own devices. Without ships, warships, and a strong army, there was nothing that could be done about the Japanese pirates.
Just let them plunder. Anyway, the loss to Ming Dynasty will not be big.
It was precisely this attitude of letting things go that led to the Japanese pirates becoming more and more rampant and wreaking havoc. By the time of the Zhengde and Jiajing dynasties, the Japanese invasion had become quite serious and had to be eradicated vigorously.
If the Japanese pirates could be severely suppressed and attacked during the Hongzhi Dynasty, there would be nothing that happened later. Some things just grow up slowly like this.
The same is true for the chieftains in the southwest. They knew that they were capricious, and after annihilating them, they continued to make them chieftains and emperors. Naturally, they would cause endless troubles.
To sum up, Liu Jian's years as chief minister of the cabinet can be said to have been very mediocre and accomplished nothing.
Gu Xian
Later, with the strong support of Emperor Hongzhi, Liu Jin continued to introduce many new policies and carried out reforms in many aspects, and this is how the Ming Empire came into being.
If Liu Jian had followed Liu Jian's previous routine, Ming's life would only become more and more difficult.
Land annexation became more and more intense, salt merchants, Anhui merchants, and grain merchants continued to gain influence, Jiangnan Shilin continued to become stronger, party struggles gradually formed, and gradually moved towards fierce confrontation.
What awaits the Ming Dynasty in the end will be the same as other dynasties, and will eventually perish.
In fact, the Hongzhi Dynasty was the most critical moment of the Ming Dynasty. In the middle period, many problems had begun to be exposed and highlighted. If changes can be made effectively, it can become prosperous and powerful.
If there is no change, the demise of the Ming Dynasty will be inevitable, its various problems will continue to be exposed, and the final result will be a change of dynasty.
Now that Liu Jin has become the chief minister of the cabinet, as the head of the ministers, Liu Jin is also thinking about what he can do and how to do it, so as to lead the Ming Empire to a more glorious future.
Although the Ming Empire is now rich and powerful, with a sufficient treasury, a wealthy people, a strong army, and a vast territory, this does not mean that the Ming Empire does not have some problems.
On the contrary, contradictions will never disappear at any time, but will only change.
There will always be problems at any time. Sometimes the moon waxes and wanes, and things like prosperity and decline are common. Back then, under the governance of Li Longji, the Tang Empire was extremely powerful. The Kaiyuan era was no joke.
However, they did not pay attention to the serious problems of the Tang Empire. The local Jiedushi had too much power and could not lose their power. Once An Lushan rebelled, the entire Tang Empire was in turmoil. It only took a few years for the Empire to turn from prosperity to decline.
After the Anshi Rebellion was put down, the Tang Empire was completely destroyed, and the power of local military governors became even greater, and the power of eunuchs was unprecedentedly powerful. Compared with the eunuchs of the Tang Dynasty, the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty were really childish.
The eunuchs of the Tang Dynasty killed the emperor as if they were killing chickens. They would kill the emperor if they were unhappy. The eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty were always the emperor's dogs. They could not get out of the emperor's palm. No matter how awesome the emperor was, he would kneel down with an imperial edict.
So many times, what seems powerful has its empty side.
For the Ming Empire now, there are many problems.
The land area is too large, and it is more difficult to control and develop overseas land. There are many unstable factors. For example, the Golden Continent is too far away from the Ming Dynasty. The Golden Continent has vast land, fertile land, and rich resources. As long as the population increases,
, if you don’t strengthen your rule, someone in Golden Continent will definitely break the soil and seal the king.
There is also the natural contradiction between the new school and the old school. When the old school reads Confucianism, it always involves the Four Books and Five Classics. The Confucian classics cannot be understood among them. Many of these scholars are just casual readers and do not have much talent or understanding.
What contribution does it make to social progress?
In fact, as Confucianism has developed to this point, the eight-part essay has seriously restricted and hindered the development of the Ming Empire.
If you look at history, you will know that starting from the Ming Dynasty, it gradually fell behind the world. By the Qing Dynasty, if such a strategy continued to be used, both the ideological and scientific circles were in a state of silence. This was never seen in the more than two hundred years of the Manchu Dynasty's history.
Give birth to any thinker, scientist or the like.
Of course, although this is also due to the fact that Qiqing, as a foreign ruler, constantly suppressed and squeezed the development of Han people's thought and culture, it is also an indisputable fact that Confucianism has been completely decadent.
As Confucianism developed into the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was no longer of any use to the country, the nation, and society. On the contrary, it continued to hinder the progress of the country, the nation, and society, making us start to lag behind the world.
New learning is different. It starts from basic education, advocates practicality, and advocates integrating the strengths of hundreds of schools. Students who come out of the new education begin to shine in all aspects of the Ming Dynasty.
Ming Dynasty was able to develop automobiles, telegraphs, etc. in such a short period of time, which is inseparable from Xinxue's education.
The number of new scholars is increasing, and it is developing faster and faster. Now some new thinkers are beginning to emerge in the ideological world. The things they advocate are completely different from those of Confucianism.
The contradiction between the two is inevitable and irreconcilable.
In addition, the most important thing is in terms of power. Traditional Confucian scholars dominate the officialdom, while scholars from the New Confucian School cannot be officials. It was better at first, but as more and more talents from the New School become more and more powerful, they will inevitably move towards the court.
The government moved forward, demanding more power and introducing policies that were more in line with New Learning Thoughts.
This contradiction will inevitably break out in the future, and if you are not careful, a large-scale civil war may break out within the Ming Empire. The final result will inevitably be the victory of New Learning over traditional Confucianism.
The Ming Dynasty was not without its problems. On the contrary, there were many problems. In the final analysis, it was the contradiction between the feudal system and capitalist productivity, and the contradiction between productivity and production relations.
