Emperor Hongzhi was a good man, but he was not necessarily a good emperor.
He was deeply influenced by Confucianism, and he used to rely heavily on civil servants, so he lacked independent opinions on many things and was led by the civil servants.
In addition, he was soft-hearted and destroyed all the good systems left by his ancestors. The most serious damage was the Shiohiki system.
He rewarded many times more salt bait than his father Ming Xianzong. Not to mention other things, the salt bait given to the Zhang brothers alone was hundreds of thousands of coins each time. Hundreds of thousands of salt coins were awarded every time.
.
The Zhang brothers also relied on Queen Zhang's favor and status as uncles, like wolves that couldn't be fed. From time to time, they would go to Queen Zhang to cry out for their poverty. And Queen Zhang was a womanly person, and she had no independent opinions.
Can't see the long-term problem.
Of course, the most important thing is that Emperor Hongzhi lacks independent opinions and a long-term vision. Not only the Zhang brothers, but also the princes, nobles, six ministers and nine ministers have also received a lot of salt and guidance from Emperor Hongzhi.
Emperor Hongzhi himself was very stingy. In addition, the treasury was empty and the internal funds were running rampant. Naturally, there was no silver reward. He could only reward salt, tax and empowerment, etc.
For example, the three cabinet elders and the six ministers were all awarded salt and gold by Emperor Hongzhi. As for the princes surnamed Zhu, many of them were given tax and power to obtain fiefdoms, or they were allowed to expand their land, etc.
of.
It seems that things were done without spending any money, won over people's hearts, and gained a good reputation, but the real situation is that the salt hiki system, which had problems in its operation in the first place, cannot be implemented at all.
The merchants worked hard to transport grain to the border in exchange for salt, but they could never bring out the salt, because there were princes, nobles, six ministries, nine ministers, etc. who were occupying their nests, and their salt was not brought out.
, naturally there is no such thing as the following businessmen.
If the reward of salt is not much, the merchants can just wait.
However, Emperor Hongzhi rewarded so many salt citations that even though many merchants had no salt citations in their hands, they still could not bring out the salt and had to wait decades for their turn.
, and after waiting for decades, the day lilies have become cold.
Because this greatly dampened the enthusiasm of merchants to transport grain to border towns, it also made the salt introduction system unsustainable. Therefore, in the fifth year of Hongzhi, Ye Qi proposed the reform of the salt introduction system, using Nayin to open the middle
Replaced the payment of food to open the center.
The so-called Nayinkaizhong means that merchants no longer need to work hard to transport grain to border towns in exchange for salt. They only need to pay silver to the court in exchange for salt. The court will then purchase grain when the money is in hand.
Transport to border town.
It seems that it has been said before, and there is not much difference.
But the real situation is that merchants pay less and less money every year, because tax evasion is the nature of merchants; and the money collected should logically be earmarked for purchasing food for the border troops.
But in the Ming Dynasty, the literati were in power. They wanted to cut military expenditures completely. This grain was turned into money and went to the hands of the Ministry of Revenue. Naturally, the Ministry of Revenue had the final say. How could it fill other holes?
Give everyone extra subsidies, etc. In short, not much of this money will eventually fall on the border troops.
Therefore, the border troops became extremely trapped, and even the most basic meals became a big problem.
In the past, merchants were constantly bringing in grain. At least, eating would not be a problem. The extra grain could be used to exchange for other military supplies. The military supplies were guaranteed, and there was no need to look at the faces of the civil servants, let alone
I begged grandpa and grandma to allocate funds to buy food.
It's different now. There are no merchants to transport food, and the money allocated by the superiors is being withheld at all levels. When it comes to ordinary soldiers, the rice and flour may turn into bran, and eating is a problem, let alone other armaments.
Regarding the matter, how can there be any combat effectiveness here?
If Zhu Yuanzhang knew that the good national policy he had racked his brains to come up with was ruined in this way, he would probably be so angry that he would jump out of the coffin immediately.
A good salt introduction system, a salt introduction system that was enough to ensure the military supplies of the border army, was forced to be played by future generations. This was also an important reason for the final demise of the Ming Dynasty.
In the late Ming Dynasty, various taxes could not be collected at all, and the expenditure on military pay for the frontier army increased year by year, which abruptly brought down this large enterprise that was in financial difficulties in the Ming Dynasty.
Having said this, I have to mention that Emperor Hongzhi, under the advice of the civil servants in the court, emphasized governance by inaction and light corvee and small taxes. Therefore, during the period of Emperor Hongzhi, Emperor Hongzhi paid a total of one-third of the tax on fiscal revenue.
Fu was the emperor who exempted the most from taxes in the Ming Dynasty.
Originally, this must be considered a good thing. Emperors who are frivolous in corvee and low in gifts always have a good reputation, and it is also a manifestation of loving the people like a son.
However, many of the taxes he exempted were commercial taxes, which did not reach the heads of ordinary people at all. The taxes that the ordinary people should pay are still a lot, and the rents that should be paid will not be reduced or reduced as a result.
In the end, the merchants were benefited, the court was trapped, and the people of Li suffered.
From these points, we can see that Emperor Hongzhi was definitely not as wise and powerful as what is written in the history books. Although he was a good emperor, he could not be said to be a qualified emperor. He had too many failures in governing.
He was just kind to scholars, similar to Song Renzong, and his reputation in history books was extremely good. It was just blown out by the scholars. After careful study and history, we can clearly know that Emperor Hongzhi committed many crimes.
big mistake.
The Yanyin system has changed. The combat effectiveness of the border troops is low and they cannot be tough on the outside. A lot of business taxes have been waived. This is easy to do. It is easy to say something, but it is difficult to take it back. The court has no money and financial difficulties.
It completely brought down the Ming Dynasty; it favored the literati and overindulged the literati, which resulted in an imbalance of power.
(Cough cough~cough cough, personal opinion, please spray lightly if you don’t like it~)
After hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Emperor Hongzhi looked ugly and fell into deep thought.
Because of the emergence of Liu Jin, Emperor Hongzhi has changed compared with the history. Now he is slowly using both civil and military forces. He also knows how to use the power of factory guards and knows a lot of information that he did not know before.
A pound of salt costs tens of renminbi. Ordinary people can only buy a pound of salt after working for a day. This price is really not expensive. You can imagine how wealthy the salt merchants in the Ming Dynasty were. They were really rich.
The world.
“The cost of salt from this salt farm is really almost zero?”
Emperor Hongzhi thought for a while and asked Liu Jin.
"If your Majesty doesn't believe it, you can ask someone to check. Kitchen households are the poorest. They are forced to cook salt all day long, but they don't even have enough to eat."
"And the actual salt produced by this salt field is much higher than the salt reported to the court. A large part of it is the salt that the officials of the salt field squeeze and cook day and night."
Liu Jin quickly replied that because Xiahetun where he was located was close to the sea, he relied on boiling salt to make a living, so he knew this very well.
The people in Xiahetun are very miserable, but this is not the most miserable. The most miserable are the military households and the households. They are the most miserable. They have been tied to the household service system for generations.
Never turn over.
"If you are asked to set up a salt farm, you have to hand over two million taels of silver to the court, and you still have to make a profit. Do you have any new methods of making salt?"
Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly. He had asked Xiao Jing to investigate these things. The results would be available soon. After thinking about it, he looked at Liu Jin and asked, the young man in front of him always doesn't play according to the routine. Since he can
To release such a seaport, he must have his own unique skills.
Just like the briquettes, the sea fish, and the merchant ships out to sea, Emperor Hongzhi's current bulging pockets are all inseparable from Liu Jin.
"Your Majesty has a keen eye. I do have a new method of making salt."
Liu Jin smiled and nodded in reply.
"Tell me and listen~"
Emperor Hongzhi immediately became interested, and his tone became much calmer. He still liked Liu Jin very much.
"Your Majesty, the traditional method of making salt is to boil salt and use a pot to boil sea water and brine to obtain salt. This method not only requires a lot of firewood, but also requires a lot of labor and time."
"But the method of making salt that I have newly developed does not require boiling. It only needs to be dried. It relies on the sun's light to dry the seawater to obtain salt."
Liu Jin briefly explained the salt-drying method.
"Sun salt?"
Emperor Hongzhi and Zhu Houzhao both said in unison.
"Yes, it means sun-drying salt. Build salt fields on the coastal beaches, draw seawater in, rely on sunlight to dry the seawater, and the salt will come out naturally. There is no need to work hard to boil the salt, which saves time, effort and cost.
It’s low, that’s why the common people have the confidence to fulfill their promise to His Majesty.”
Liu Jin said very confidently that there would be no boiling salt in later generations. They all rely on sun-dried salt, and the salt produced is many times more than the current salt.