"Sure enough, Hei Erhuo Zhe helped him capture the city of Hami in accordance with the agreement with Shang Bing. Now, the situation in the Western Region has opened up."
"Although the road from Hami to the middle of the Junggar Basin is still not enough to support the entry and exit of large armies, 30,000 to 50,000 people can always do it. Although the Junggar Basin is now the territory of Oara, the most important thing whether it is Oara or Yili is several
In the war against the Timurid Empire in the next 20 years, the Ming Dynasty will tolerate some small tricks; the Junggar Basin is at the junction of Yilibari and Oara, and the Junggar tribe has not yet risen. If it operates well, Shang Bing may not be able to
Get the Junggar Basin."
"Then I suggest Shang Bing take advantage of this good time to continue to expand westward, increase his influence in the Junggar Basin, and wait for an opportunity to seize this place in the name of a future war against Timur."
After Yunxi finished thinking about it, he wrote down his own suggestions on the memorial written by Shang Bing, and ordered his wife to send it to the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army and pass it on to Shang Bing through the military post.
Yunxi then continued to review the memorial. After finally finishing the review, he stretched himself and looked at the inscriptions. He planned to go back to Kunning Palace to accompany Xiyao to have a meal. Huang Huai, who had previously made a preface to retaliate for Tianfu's affairs, suddenly said: "Your Majesty
, It’s the summer harvest season soon. How will Shangyuan County and Jiangning County collect this year’s summer tax?”
Yunxi said strangely: "Just follow the practice of previous years, so why bother asking me?"
"Your Majesty, in previous years, subordinate officials collected imperial grain and national taxes, but this year there are no subordinate officials. Does Your Majesty mean that the tax policemen are asked to go to the countryside to collect taxes?" Huang Huai said.
Ah! Yunxi patted his head and forgot about it. There are no subordinates this year, only tax policemen, and they cannot collect agricultural taxes like in previous years.
However, is it really necessary to use tax police to collect taxes? The tax police, a tax collection system with modern characteristics, is not used to collect ancient agricultural taxes.
Yunxi thought about it again and again, but still couldn't think of who should collect the tax. He was about to agree to let the tax police go to the countryside to collect the tax. Suddenly he remembered something and asked: "I remember that when the emperor was still here, we established
Grain chief?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. At that time, Emperor Taizu established grain chiefs in Caojiang, southern Zhili, Yongjian, Huguang and other provinces to assist in collecting the summer and autumn taxes." Huang Huai replied.
"In this case, the agricultural taxes in the two Fuguo counties of Shangyuan and Jiangning this year will be collected by the grain chief," Yunxi said.
"Only the grain manager?" Huang Huai asked doubtfully.
"Let the district chief assist. And it will be a rule from now on that all agricultural taxes will be collected by the grain chief and the district chief. The grain chief will collect all the taxes and hand them over to the tax police. The tax police will then use the peasants to transport them to the granary." Yunxi finally decided.
Although the saying that "imperial power does not extend to counties" began to spread from the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty did not completely allow rural areas to govern themselves.
In the 29th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang divided a hundred households into one li and set up a li chief, who was responsible for handling daily neighborhood disputes and receiving the officials when they went to the countryside. However, the li chiefs in ancient cities were just that, and the li chiefs in the countryside were basically useless.
.In the countryside, there are generally many clans. Basically every village has a clan that includes more than 50% to 60% of the village's population. Everything in the village is regulated by the elders of the clan, without the need for a village leader.
At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang set up grain chiefs for every several thousand to ten thousand shi of tax payable, and they were filled by large local households to assist the servants in collecting taxes. If the tax collection was insufficient, the grain chiefs were asked to make up for the shortfall.
Naturally, the grain chief does not want to be taken advantage of, so even if the family was kind before becoming the grain chief, they will become vicious after becoming the grain chief, otherwise their family business will not be saved.
At the same time, it is not uncommon for the grain chiefs and subordinate officials to collude with each other to make villagers pay more agricultural taxes. In particular, the grain chiefs are from the village and are familiar with the people's conditions, so they can be more greedy without forcing the people to go out of their way. Money and food.
So Huang Huai said: "Your Majesty, if you ask the grain chief to collect taxes, I'm afraid there will be corruption."
"Then even if we don't use the grain chief, there won't be corruption. Usually subordinate officials collect taxes, so there won't be corruption?" Yunxi asked.
It is simply impossible to ban corruption, unless it is a communist society, or a small country with few people in Laozi's conception. Therefore, although Yunxi will fight against corruption, it will not be an absolute priority like Zhu Yuanzhang.
Huang Huai had nothing to say and could only accept the order and retreat.
Yunxi then ordered Wang Gen: "Send an order to Caojiang and let Hangzhou collect taxes as a grain chief."
Afterwards, Yunxi returned to Kunning Palace and ate with Xiyao.
After having lunch, Yunxi took a nap there before returning to Qianqing Palace.
At the beginning of the afternoon, Yunxi received another memorial about the vassal state.
"Yun Chen asked for permission to mediate the war between Fuso and the Ainu people? He has just established himself in Vladivostok, and he wants to mediate the war between Fuso and the Ainu people? It's a bit too ambitious. Besides, he doesn't have a navy to mediate. Please reject it. ." Yunxi said to himself.
Yunxi wrote a few words, threw the memorial aside, and continued to criticize other memorials.
Fortunately today, there were not many memorials. Yunxi finished his comments and answers in a short time, and asked Shiren to send the memorials to the General Affairs Department and the Fifth Army Commander's Office respectively.
Yunxi was about to think about other things when suddenly a eunuch reported: "Your Majesty, Yang Ben, the chief guest of the Ministry of Rites, wishes to see you."
"Let him in." Yunxi said, slightly confused.
Not long after, Yang Ben walked into the Qianqing Palace, saluted Yunxi and said, "Your Majesty, Yang Ben, has met."
"Get up without ceremony." Yunxi waited for him to get up and asked again: "But there are other countries coming to pay tribute?" That's all the host and guest did.
"Yes, Your Majesty, Fusang Kingdom has come to pay tribute." Yang Ben said.
"Huh? When Fusang was still a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor stipulated that Fusang should pay tribute once a year. They had already paid tribute during the New Year. Why are they here again? Tell them, no, let them go back. If they want something from the Ming Dynasty For goods, just go to Shanghai Shipping Department to buy them." Yunxi said.
However, Yang Ben did not retreat, but said again: "Your Majesty, the Fuso envoys are not here to pay tribute entirely. They also talked about lending Yokohama."
"Lent to Yokohama? Fuso agreed?" Yunxi said in surprise.
"Your Majesty, Fuso has put forward some conditions. Only when Ming Dynasty meets their conditions will they be willing to lend Yokohama."
"Tell me what the conditions are."
"Your Majesty," Yang Ben said, "First, Fusang asked the Ming Dynasty to allow them to pay tribute twice a year."
"I can agree to this." Yunxi said. Compared with the benefits of controlling Yokohama, letting Fuso get a small advantage is nothing.
"Second, Fusang requested that your majesty not allow merchants other than those permitted by the central court of his country to do business in the Ming Shipping Department."
Yunxi frowned. He had also learned about the current situation of Fuso before. The territory that Ashikaga Yoshimitsu could control was less than half of the total area of Fuso. The area he directly controlled was even smaller, and there were many hostile forces. Now he asked Daming to only allow him. Merchants who agreed to come to Ming Dynasty to do business were obviously to limit the development of hostile forces.
But after weighing it, Yunxi still felt that controlling Yokohama was more important, so he said: "But, what else do they want?"
"Your Majesty, they also request that the navy of the Ming Dynasty cannot be stationed in Yokohama for a long time, and the scale can only be smaller than one thousand households."
"Can."
"Your Majesty, there is one last thing." Yang Ben said with a trembling voice and a slightly frightened expression: "Your Majesty, the Fusang envoy said that Fusang never lends land to other countries, so in order to avoid domestic opposition, he came up with a roundabout way.
"
"The King of Fuso, Ashikaga Yoshitsugu, is willing to marry one of his sisters to my prince, the Ming Dynasty, as his wife, with Yokohama as the dowry, so that he will have nothing to say in his country."
"What?" Yunxi said in surprise. Then he stood up and stamped his feet.
According to the views of later generations, this was definitely a good thing. Fuso was willing to marry a daughter and also gave Yokohama as a dowry, killing two birds with one stone.
But that's not what they said at this time. The Ming Dynasty did not engage in marriage. Previously, Shang Bing had made a marriage agreement with Hei's son Huo Zhe in Yili's army in the northwest. He had already divided it up and could make his own decision.
In order to rent Yokohama, you can't make a king; even if he is willing to do so, what about the land? Just a small area like Yokohama? It's ridiculous.
But Yunxi was reluctant to give up the benefits of renting Yokohama, and said to Yang Ben: "If there is no last clause, would they be willing?"
"Your Majesty, the Fuso envoy said that without the last clause, it cannot be lent to Yokohama." Yang Ben said.
"This," Yunxi thought over and over, suddenly his eyes lit up, and he said, "They rented out Yokohama, but who is in charge of the local people?"
"Your Majesty, the local people are naturally under the jurisdiction of the Fuso people. However, if there are Fuso people who work for the Ming Dynasty to build ports and other tasks, they can be managed by officials stationed in Yokohama from the Ming Dynasty during the work."
"That's good, I still have some power after all. I have drafted a decree that after the Ming Dynasty officially leases Yokohama, Yokohama Town will be established, and Yong'an King Zhu Mengjiong will be appointed as the commander-in-chief of Yokohama to guard it."
"The decree is drawn up to allow Zhu Mengjiong to marry himself."
Zhu Mengjiong is the second son of Chu King Zhu Zhen. He is nineteen years old and is not yet married. Of course he was engaged before, but his fiancée died of illness before getting married. Then came the funeral of Zhu Yuanzhang, and their grandchildren always had to mourn for a year. After that, Chu
Wang Zhuzhen has just started looking for a wife for him again, but he hasn't decided yet.
Not only was he selected because he was not married to Yun Xi, there were many Ming Dynasty clans with such conditions, but more importantly, he was a concubine. Zhu Zhen's legitimate son was the third son. His position as a concubine was awkward.
Even if you grant the King of Chu a title, he may not follow him. Just like if you grant the title of vassal to Zhu Gaoxu, Zhu Gaochi will not go.
Moreover, Zhu Mengjiong was very powerful in martial arts and was one of the few people in the clan who was highly skilled in martial arts. He would not be underestimated by the Fusang people. He was also a county king and his title was suitable. So after much deliberation, he was chosen as the candidate.
Although Yun Xi's words were not stated clearly, the meaning was already very clear. Yang Ben would resign after drafting his decree.
Yunxi said to him again: "By the way, you can announce Zhu Mengjiong to the palace to see him. I have something to say to him."
Yang Ben agreed and retreated.
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Thanks to the book friends, the client is too bad, Liu Guang Ping Bi, and rewarded each one one by one.
