eldest son of Ming dynasty

Jing Yang was born in Yizheng, Yangzhou in the 12th year of Chenghua. He was a Jinshi in high school in the 11rd year of Zhengde. In the [-]th year of Zhengde, he went to sea with his intention. The emperor praised him as the most promising person in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Houzhao stood at Fengtian Gate. Everything was normal in front of him, but in his mind, he kept thinking of the scenes of civil and military officials with excited expressions.

The basis for his order that day to recognize the sea as a territory was the Ming Dynasty Navy and the Naval Academy under preparation. In order to support the defense capabilities of thousands of miles of sea territory, it is unquestionable to further strengthen the navy's preparations.

The navy of the Ming Dynasty has not fought any naval battles so far.

There is a picture in Zhu Houzhao's mind. There is actually nothing going on on the west coast of the Pacific or Northeast Asia. North Korea has no sense of existence in any era, and it is difficult for Japan to rise.

He was thinking that if the time was right, he would send the Ming Dynasty navy to Nanyang to stand the test.

The key to gradually extending your sphere of influence from the continent to the ocean lies in the projection of your military power. In this process, islands will become very important.

The government and the opposition have long agreed on this point, and Zhu Houzhao has long ordered Mei Kejia to build military ports and towns in Taiwan, Luzon and other places.

Taiwan had a relatively small population during this period, and they were mainly composed of the local Gaoshan ethnic group. Historically, starting from the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese invasion gradually became more serious. Fujian Province was mountainous, resulting in more people and less land. The imperial court was ignorant and ignorant, and the people were in dire straits. Under the combined effect of various factors, many people in Fujian Province began to immigrate to Taiwan.

However, during Zhengde's reign, the lives of Fujian people have improved in recent years. The development of trade and the promotion of new crops such as sweet potatoes have made few locals want to immigrate to Taiwan.

This actually hindered the Navy's plan to go south.

Zhu Houzhao worked hard for a long time and dug a hole for himself. '

Two important ministers beside him followed him and said, "Under your Majesty's hard work, the territory of Ming Dynasty has returned to its peak. There is a lot of land, but there are not enough people. In the past few years, Hetao has needed immigrants. Sichuan, with a population of only 300 million, also needs immigrants. Liaodong needs immigrants." Reclamation also requires immigration, plus Xinjiang and Taiwan, which Your Majesty mentioned today, where can there be so many people?"

Yang Tinghe's words were a bit 'happy', not a little bit sad at all. All these are manifestations of strong national power and national expansion.

As for Wang Hao, who was thinking about Lu Yin, he said: "Your Majesty, yesterday I received a memorial from Guan Yanqing, the prefect of Suzhou. He wrote about the taxation in Suzhou. There are two major difficulties. First, the taxation in Suzhou is quite high. The people are overwhelmed, and in recent years, going overseas for business has become a trend, and almost all villages and townships have people who go out to work, or even go to sea without returning."

Zhu Houzhao said with his hands behind his back, "Isn't this good? The people have a livelihood."

"But Ding Yin is hard to collect."

The so-called Ding Yin, also known as the head tax, was one of the main taxes of the central dynasty.

The so-called obedience, Zhu Houzhao knew that what Wang Hao wanted to say was about Lu Yin.

"I have little experience in governing the country in the past few years. If we tax people, the people will hide the population; if we tax the land, the people will hide the land. But in the final analysis, it is better to tax the land. At least the landless people do not have to pay Tax, don’t you think so?”

Yang Tinghe and Wang Hao were slightly startled. There was a hidden mystery in the emperor's words.

"Mr. Wang, you go and assign a task to the Ministry of Household Affairs and ask them to sort out how much the head tax is among the annual taxes of the Ming Dynasty. This way you and I, the emperor and our ministers, can have an idea."

"Can……"

"Other matters will be discussed later. I know you are worried, but I have a plan, so don't worry."

This involves the tax system, which means that every person is divided into acres. In short, the head tax is cancelled, and everything is transferred to the fields.

There are two main and recognized reasons why China experienced a population explosion during the Qing Dynasty. One is the introduction of high-yielding crops such as sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes, which increased the food limit.

The second reason is that the poll tax was abolished.This reform was implemented more vigorously by Yongzheng, but its origin was not Yongzheng.

It's not like Yong Zheng just hit his head and came up with this brilliant idea.

In fact, it gradually evolved from the middle to late Ming Dynasty.

That is to say, the capitation tax is simply not easy to collect.The tax system gradually collapsed in the late Ming Dynasty. Regardless of the fact that the Qing Dynasty was supposed to be a new dynasty during the Shunzhi and Kangxi years, it was difficult to receive capitation tax, and most of it was land tax.The official statistics of Dingkou were only over 2000 million, but in fact it was later estimated to be at least over 4000 million (Dingkou, not population).

In other words, the poll tax is no longer suitable for collection, and it is not easy to collect.

The endogenous driving force for cancellation began to gradually increase.

Once the population is no longer taxed, the incentive to have children will suddenly increase, and naturally the immigration dilemma mentioned by Yang Tinghe will gradually be alleviated.

In 20 years' time, no matter how far the territory has expanded, there will be no need to worry about being left alone.

In this era when machine production does not exist and relies mainly on people, a large population is really a resource.

However, this is a long-span policy transformation and social transformation, and it needs to be done gradually and quietly.

Zhu Houzhao now understands that the Ming Dynasty is in a stage of vigorous development of the commodity economy. This stage requires the free circulation of population and goods, so controls are gradually relaxed. However, this will make it more difficult to collect taxes in various places, and ultimately inevitably lead to tax Grain decline.

Since the tax cannot be collected, then cancel it as the situation arises. This is a smooth operation.

In fact, these all fall into the category of "policies should more easily keep pace with social development".

Zhu Houzhao felt that this concept should be gradually instilled in them, so he started today. He thought about it and said: "In the past few years, the two cabinet elders must have felt that the situation faced by our monarchs and ministers has changed from that of the past few years. Our ancestors were completely different. It can be called a major change that has not happened in a thousand years.

The Han people in the Central Plains need to deal with people from outside, promote the development of industries such as cotton textile industry in addition to farming and mulberry, and promote scientific progress in order to improve navigation and shipbuilding technology so that we can be more calm at sea.All of this is different from what has happened in the past thousand years.

Someone needs to think about this matter.As the saying goes, people die when they move, and people live when they move. We laugh at the Chu people who carve boats and seek swords every day, but don’t turn around and become Chu people yourself. "

Neither Wang Hao nor Yang Tinghe fully understood the emperor's intention. "Your Majesty said that the situation has undergone major changes that have not happened in a thousand years, but I feel that there does not seem to be such a big change."

"It will happen soon. Mr. Yang Ge will realize it soon." Zhu Houzhao was not in a hurry. There was no point in being anxious. He followed his guidance, "For example, the scale of business and industry is expanding year by year. One day in the future, one year The trade volume is tens of millions of taels. What do you think the court should do? Shut it down? Even if the world is in chaos, don't shut it down? If not, how can we regulate and guide development? If problems arise, how can the court ensure that they are not closed? To continue to thrive without letting the problem worsen, should the intensity of the rectification be large or small? What strategies should be used to deal with these problems? There are no answers in ancient books, and we can only explore by ourselves.

I just say that this is the way to go. Business always needs to circulate and control people. If business cannot be done, the court’s taxes will not increase. Is this what we want to see?In the past, the Ming Dynasty's system was tailor-made for farming and mulberry farming, but in the future, trade will have to be considered. Unless we stop sea trade, let trade slump, and the cities in the southeast become desolate, some laws will have to be changed.How to change it?There has been no answer to this question for thousands of years, so why is it not a major change unseen in thousands of years? "

Having said that, it actually feels like there is a long way to go.

However, the emperor's expression was still relaxed.

Wang Hao said in a daze: "According to the emperor's words, the veteran minister is becoming more and more incompetent for the position of chief minister of the cabinet."

What he means is that the old system is not suitable, and the old people are certainly not suitable either.

Zhu Houzhao was really not polite to him, "Sir, it is still appropriate. This situation will not change so quickly, and the trade volume will not expand to the sky overnight. But in the future... Anyway, you will be old and honest by then." .”

"Then what will happen in the future?"

"Aren't there still affairs officers in the future?"

Wang and Yang suddenly understood that the emperor's son had also fallen.

Alas, Wang Hao couldn't help but shook his head. He somewhat understood Yang Yiqing's mood back then. He said that he was the chief minister and controlled all officials, but in fact the main direction of the court was controlled by the emperor. This move made the emperor want to Don't tell them, they can't think of it even if they think about it.And if Yang Yiqing was a little helpless, he felt a little guilty, always feeling that he couldn't take care of you.

"I will go to the Ministry of Household Affairs and pass on His Majesty's oral instructions."

"Go." Zhu Houzhao touched his nose and ordered before leaving, "Choose a time and you can discuss among yourselves the great changes that I have said are unprecedented in a thousand years."

"Yes!"