Rise From the Humble

This evening, in addition to the three official documents sent by Beijing to send money, Zhu Ping'an was arranged to draft more than ten other official documents, all of which were in line with the spirit of tonight's court meeting.

Because the matter was urgent, these officials had to print and issue notices early in the morning, so they worked overtime until late at night, and Zhu Ping'an was able to drag his tired body and lie down on the small bed in the low duty room.

This has been two consecutive nights of overtime work, and each time he worked overtime until around the early morning. Zhu Ping'an was so tired that he didn't want to move a finger.

However, although he was extremely sleepy and exhausted, Zhu Pingan couldn't fall asleep while lying on the bed.

Although the night was already deep, the low duty house was still as hot and muggy as a steam oven. It was probably going to rain, and it was extremely hot inside and outside the duty house.

Not only is it hot, it's also noisy.

Outside the house, the frogs in the rice fields opened by Emperor Jiajing kept croaking wildly, and the cicadas on the tree trunks squeaked endlessly. The croaking and squeaking sounds were like a duet. It keeps coming and going, and covering your ears doesn’t help.

Why are there so many frogs and cicadas in the palace? Zhu Pingan lay on the bed speechless for a while, unable to fall asleep.

After finally falling asleep, Zhu Ping'an was awakened by another nightmare. In the dream, a family was ruined due to the extra tax on Beijing materials and silver. The hostess screamed at the official who issued the documents before throwing herself into the well.

Covered in cold sweat.

Too real.

Zhu Pingan closed his eyes now, and that scene appeared in front of his eyes. The desperate and sad eyes of the hostess were just like what really happened.

Why

Zhu Ping'an couldn't help but get out of bed, sit in front of the window in the dark, look at the long night outside the window, and feel dazed.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty was already a huge ship in disrepair in the sea, and it was already on the verge of capsizing after a hundred years.

The emptiness of the national treasury that has exploded now is a microcosm of a fiscal crisis. The direct cause of the Ming Dynasty's overthrow was not so much the peasant uprising as the financial crisis.

The financial crisis of the Ming Dynasty was like opening Pandora's box.

because of financial crisis

Therefore, when natural disasters and famines occurred, the Ming Dynasty did not have the financial resources to provide disaster relief, which led to the lack of credibility of the Ming Dynasty and caused the people to rebel in order to survive;

Therefore, it led to a shortage of military pay, insufficient weapons, equipment, and recruitment training. The Ming army's combat effectiveness declined. Foreign wars and internal counter-insurgency wars continued to fail. In addition, the lack of military pay also led to mutiny and rebellion among many soldiers.

The financial crisis gave rise to refugees and mutinous soldiers, which led to domestic uprisings and rebellions that continued and grew stronger.

The financial crisis caused the Ming army to lack combat effectiveness and was unable to quell domestic rebellions and eliminate foreign invasions.

In this way, after more than a hundred years of vicious cycle, by the time of Chongzhen Dynasty, the huge ship riddled with holes in the Ming Dynasty finally capsized.

At this time, Zhu Pingan could not imagine that Ming Dynasty, the most developed and prosperous country in the world, would fall into such a financial crisis.

A huge empire, it has more than one billion acres of arable land, a population of nearly 300 million, hugely developed industry and commerce, and the emergence of capitalism, accounting for more than two-thirds of the world's industrial output.

However, its tax revenue cannot satisfy its administrative operations and arm hundreds of thousands of troops.

The invasion of tens of thousands of soldiers and horses by Beihu Anda Khan made the northern border of the empire as full of holes as a sieve.

It's really unbelievable.

This kind of tax revenue is so abnormal.

Is there something wrong with the tax system?

Yes, but not entirely.

You must know that when the Ming Dynasty was first founded, it was the period of Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. At that time, the Ming Dynasty had not as much cultivated land as it does now, the population was not as large as it is now, and the industry and commerce were not as developed as now. However, the tax revenue at that time was completely enough to meet the operation of this huge empire. , whether it is large-scale construction projects, large-scale foreign wars, or disaster relief, it is more than enough.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Yuanzhang went on several northern expeditions to drive the Mongols into exile in Europe; during the period of his son Zhu Di, the emperor, he continued to build foreign armies. An army of 500,000 made five northern expeditions to Mongolia, and an army of hundreds of thousands made several southern expeditions to Vietnam, and built the Forbidden City. , there was also a large-scale construction project in Wudang Mountain, and there was also the famous Zheng He's seven voyages to the West, but there was no financial crisis.

You should know that the tax system of the Ming Dynasty has basically remained unchanged since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Why has the cultivated land increased, the population increased, and industry and commerce developed, but the taxes collected according to the tax system since the founding of the People's Republic of China cannot satisfy the operation of the empire, leading to a financial crisis?

Zhu Ping'an, who comes from modern times, knows the root cause clearly.

However, it is a pity that not many people in the Ming Dynasty know this. Of course, some people may have seen it, but due to various reasons, maybe they were worried, maybe they knew the cause but had no solution, so they did not tell it.

The people participating in the court meeting tonight are either cabinet ministers or ministers from various ministries. However, the several measures discussed in the court meeting tonight only treat the symptoms rather than the root cause.

And some measures, such as sending Beijing materials to the bank, are temporary solutions in the short term, but in the long run they are not worth the gain.

Among the current problems of the Ming Dynasty, one of the biggest problems is the serious land annexation.

The land annexation in the Ming Dynasty was too serious. Although there were more and more cultivated lands, there were fewer and fewer owners of the land. The cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty became more and more concentrated in the hands of a few people.

The royal family's imperial estates got off to a bad start. As soon as Emperor Jiajing's cousin Zhu Houzhao succeeded to the throne, he established seven imperial estates. Later, more than 30 imperial estates were established one after another. The amount of cultivated land in the imperial estates far exceeded previous dynasties.

The royal family, bureaucrats and gentry were not far behind.

To be disrespectful, it is not clear how much land his master Xu Jie now owns, but Zhu Ping'an knows that when Xu Jie was the chief assistant, he occupied 240,000 acres of fertile land in his hometown in Su Song Dynasty and had tens of thousands of tenants; Yan Song, the current chief assistant, occupies countless cultivated lands in Jiangxi, Nanjing, Yangzhou and other places.

According to the information Zhu Ping'an consulted in modern times, about half of the fertile land thousands of miles away from the capital of the Ming Dynasty belonged to the royal family, bureaucrats and gentry after land annexation.

Land was highly integrated with the royal family, bureaucrats and gentry.

You must know that most of these owners of land annexation belong to the privileged class of the Ming Dynasty. According to the tax system, they have privileges.

The royal family, princes, relatives, and honorable ministers enjoy the privilege of being exempted from taxes, grains, and errands; the families of officials are exempted from corvee service; officials who become official "return to their homes and have nothing for life"; in addition to their own exemptions, newborns are exempted from servitude for two years Man.

There are also landless people who become their tenants, and they can live under their cover and avoid serving as state servants.

Therefore, there is more farmland and more people, but less taxes.

The original tax system of the Ming Dynasty could no longer cope with these facts such as land annexation.

The future Zhang Juzheng's reform method was more advanced than the current tax system and restored some vitality to the Ming Dynasty, but it was still a minor repair.

At least, a hundred years later, the Qing Dynasty's "dividing a small family into an entire family" was much more advanced than the one-whip method.

Of course, in addition to agricultural taxation, there are also many problems with commercial taxation.

But the question is, if I know so much, what’s the use? !

Zhu Pingan sat in front of the window, looking out the dark window, and silently recited Zuo Qiuming's "Zuo Zhuan. Cao GUI's Debate" in the Spring and Autumn Period. What made Zhu Pingan sigh was not the sentence "One rush, then fade, three times." "Exhaust" is what Cao GUI said to his fellow villagers: "Meat eaters are despicable and cannot plan far."

I don’t want to sit in the audience and watch a show, I want to perform on stage

Why.

Zhu Pingan shook his head again and smiled bitterly, knowing that it was unrealistic. This was not a novel. How could he, a small sixth-rank official, be qualified to perform on stage?

However, Zhu Pingan looked out the window with more determination.