Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

"What do you mean? Why 98 Phaspavin silver coins?"

Zhu Di in the secret room was a little shocked at this time, even if he was not thinking deliberately.

This is somewhat unreasonable.

"Master Daoyan, have you figured it out?" Zhu Di asked.

Daoyan turned the rosary and said, "I understand it, but I can't say it out yet. Have you two ministers understood it?"

"I'm ashamed, I haven't figured it out yet." Ru Yu replied honestly.

Jian Yi, on the other hand, didn't speak for a long time, and finally spoke with certainty after a long while.

"I figured it out! This Jiang Xinghuo really has something to say. As a result, all the previous troubles have suddenly been solved!"

"So that's the truth." Jian Yi sighed and looked at the wall, feeling a little complicated. "No wonder, our previous understanding of taxation was indeed superficial."

Under the trees, autumn leaves are falling.

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the leaves falling on the silver coins in his hand and blew them. The leaves with raindrops fell on the ground in a trajectory and soaked into the sand.

Jiang Xinghuo slowly explained: "Actually, the example of 'Japanese pirates splitting money' not only explains the study of economics and the people, but also explains the 'game theory'. It is a very classic example."

"Next, let me analyze for you why the Japanese pirates were able to take away an unreasonable 98 Pasibawen silver coins and escape with the consent of the other Japanese pirates."

Zhu Gaoxu listened especially carefully.

"The first thing to explain is why the last Japanese pirate numbered 'E' was unlucky enough to be disarmed early."

"The reason is very simple. According to the rules, we currently assume that the Japanese pirates A, B, and C have been hacked to death after making the proposal. It is the turn of the Japanese pirate 'D' to propose. So, no matter how the Japanese pirate 'Ding' proposes the allocation, as long as he raises his hand I voted to agree to my proposal, and in the end 'E''s objections were invalid?"

Zhu Gaoxu thought for a while and nodded.

"It is invalid because the rules stipulate that half or more is enough. Half of the two people, and one person (the 'Ding' Japanese pirate himself) agrees."

Jiang Xinghuo nodded and said: "So, the 'Wu' Japanese pirates will be disarmed in advance. The reason is that [absolutely rational] people will not have mercy. If this happens, then the 'Ding' Japanese pirates will definitely I will take away all the 100 Ba Si Ba Wen silver coins and not leave a single silver coin to the 'W' Japanese pirates."

Zhu Gaoxu realized: "When the five Japanese pirates made the rules, they didn't know who would draw 'W', and the five Japanese pirates [had the same force], so in order to prevent the future 'W' Japanese pirates from being in a one-on-one situation If you want to risk your life with a knife, you must discuss it in advance and disarm the Japanese pirates who drew 'E'!"

"exactly."

"How did A's 98 Pasiba silver coins come from?" Zhu Gaoxu asked again.

"Inverse deduction method." Xia Yuanji replied.

Jiang Xinghuo motioned to Mr. Qiu to speak.

Xia Yuanji nodded slightly, then turned his squatting direction and said to Zhu Gaoxu.

"What Mr. Jiang assumed before was that A, B, and C were all rejected and died, leaving only Ding and E."

"So since these five Japanese pirates are all [absolutely rational] and extremely intelligent people, they must have thought of this happening."

"So, the 'C' Japanese pirate knew that the 'D' Japanese pirate wanted him to die very much, and then he would monopolize the 100 Pasi Bawen silver coins without giving him any Pasi Bawen silver coins."

Zhu Gaoxu made some gestures on the ground and understood.

The distribution plan for 'Ding' Japanese pirates is: 'Ding' Japanese pirates 100 pieces, and 'Wu' Japanese pirates 0 pieces.

In other words, the 'C' Japanese pirates and the 'D' Japanese pirates are naturally on opposite sides, and due to [absolute rationality], they will not give up any interests.

Xia Yuanji continued to deduce: "Then for the 'C' Japanese pirate, since it is already known that the 'D' Japanese pirate cannot give him even one Pasiba silver coin, so the 'C' Japanese pirate's only way is to win over the 'W' Japanese pirate , give 1 Pasibawen silver coin to the 'Wu' Japanese pirate, and give 0 Pasibawen silver coin to the 'Ding' Japanese pirate."

"Why only gave the Japanese pirate 'Wu' one Pasibawen silver coin?"

Xia Yuanji explained: "Because they are all [absolutely rational] people, in the plan of the 'C' Japanese pirates, the 'W' Japanese pirates can get 1 Pasibawen silver coin alive and leave, but if the 'W' Japanese pirates disagree , then the 'C' Japanese pirate will die, and then the 'D' Japanese pirate will swallow 100 silver coins alone, and the 'W' Japanese pirate without weapons will also die, and will not even be able to get this 1 Pasibawen silver coin."

Zhu Gaoxu continued to record on the ground.

The distribution plan for 'C' Japanese pirates is: 'C' Japanese pirates 99 pieces, 'D' Japanese pirates 0 pieces, and 'W' Japanese pirates 1 piece.

"What's next?" Zhu Gaoxu felt like he was about to understand.

"Next, it's time for 'B' Japanese pirates."

Xia Yuanji pointed to A, B, C and D on the ground and continued.

"For 'B' Japanese pirate, since it is his turn to propose a distribution plan, it means that 'A' Japanese pirate is dead. Under the conditions of 4 people, 'B' Japanese pirate only needs the consent of 2 people including him. The proposal can be passed. In other words, since the 'C' Japanese pirates and the 'W' Japanese pirates have already stood together, he only needs to win over the 'D' Japanese pirates."

"So, the distribution plan for 'Y' Japanese pirates is: 'Y' Japanese pirates 99 pieces, 'C' Japanese pirates 0 pieces, 'D' Japanese pirates 1 piece, and 'W' Japanese pirates 0 pieces."

Zhu Gaoxu suddenly asked: "How many knives do the four Japanese pirates have in their hands at this time?"

Jiang Xinghuo seemed to have expected that he would think in this direction and laughed.

"Mr. Jiang, why are you laughing?"

Jiang Xinghuo stopped laughing and said with a smile in his eyes: "These five Japanese pirates who are [absolutely rational] and [have the same force], when designing the rules, have already considered the situation where someone will turn against them and use force."

"The reason why the 'W' Japanese pirates were disarmed was because under the rules, the last person did not have the right to resist the second to last person, otherwise the rules would be broken."

"And when there were three people, that is, the situation of Bing, Ding and Wu, the 'C' Japanese pirate disarmed his weapon and suggested, while the 'D' Japanese pirate had a knife in his hand, and the 'W' Japanese pirate did not have a knife. On the surface, one person had two knives. If a man has no sword, the 'Ding' Japanese pirates can turn against him."

"But in fact, due to the [same force], 'Ding' Japanese pirates can only deal with one person at the same time, and the other person will get a knife not far away. He can even choose to bring two knives back. If he is attacked by 'Ding' 'If the person the Japanese pirates dealt with is not dead yet."

"They are [absolutely rational] and have [the same force], so one of them does not have a sword and the other has a sword, or both of them have swords, the 'Ding' Japanese pirates cannot deal with them."

"In other words, in the scene of three people, the 'Ding' Japanese pirate is bound to die."

Zhu Gaoxu understood at this time and said: "That is, when it was the turn of 'B' Japanese pirates to propose, among the four people, 'B' Japanese pirates and 'W' Japanese pirates both had no swords, but 'C' Japanese pirates and 'Ding' Japanese pirates 'The Japanese pirates all have swords, and they use balanced force. In this case, will they move towards a negotiated solution?"

"This is breaking the game, that is, overturning the chessboard and overturning the table." Jiang Xinghuo replied: "Of course it can be done in actual situations, but not in our example of 'Japanese pirates splitting money'. This is an [absolute rationality] The game model now only makes assumptions based on rules and tries not to consider the use of force."

At this point, Zhu Gaoxu finally fully understood the meaning of "Japanese pirates divide silver".

Zhu Gaoxu took the initiative and said: "Then if we play the role of 'A' Japanese pirates, we can keep 98 Pasibawen silver coins ourselves, and then propose to 'B' Japanese pirates the 'C' Japanese pirates and 'V' Japanese pirates who suffer the most, One Phaspavin silver coin each will suffice."

The distribution plan for 'A' Japanese pirates is: 'A' Japanese pirates 98 pieces, 'B' Japanese pirates 0 pieces, 'C' Japanese pirates 1 piece, 'D' Japanese pirates 0 pieces, and 'W' Japanese pirates 1 piece.

"so."

"Do you understand?"

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the two people squatting on the ground and said.

"In the stock game, the winner must take it all, or he can only take it all, otherwise, other players will make him lose until he is dead!"

"So, in the game of taxation, if the court, the local government, and the people play a game, guess what is the optimal solution to the game among the three?"

——————

In the secret room, it started to become audible.

"Your Majesty! This is a heart-breaking argument!"

Jian Yi knelt down and said, "Does Your Majesty really want to release this person from prison?"

"Why not?"

Zhu Di said calmly: "I am a person who cannot be used. Is there anyone in this world that I dare not use?"

Zhu Di stood up and walked slowly, his steps firm.

"Shouldn't the heroes of the world be in my bag? "Historical Records" said that the life of a wise man is like a cone in the bag, and the end is immediately seen. Jiang Xinghuo, a genius like Jiang Xinghuo, is in Even in prison, it is worthy of my attention and attention."

"Does Shangshu Jian think that I am not using Jiang Xinghuo's ability or Jiang Xinghuo's capacity?"

"If it comes to intelligence, Master Dao Yan and I use it, so why can't we use Jiang Xinghuo?"

"If we talk about military strategy, after looking at all the famous generals from all over the world, who is my opponent? Can Jiang Xinghuo, a scholar, threaten me?"

"Jian Shangshu, you might as well tell me your answer."

“In the ‘stock game’ of taxation, the court, local governments, and the people compete. What is the court’s optimal solution?”

Jian Yi was silent for a while, then spoke with difficulty.

"The imperial court takes away all the tax revenue, and local governments are not allowed to withhold it, and the people are not allowed to refuse to pay."

Zhu Di was aggressive: "Where is the place?"

"If you don't pay it to the court, the local government will take away all the tax revenue, and the people will not refuse to pay it."

"Where are the people?"

Jian Yi was sweating like rain and did not dare to answer.

"explain!"

"The people refuse to pay!"

——————

"Those of you who are smart have already understood that taxation is the most typical stock game."

Jiang Xinghuo continued: "It is precisely because of the 'winner takes all' feature of the stock game that irreconcilable conflicts arise between the court and local governments, and between the court and the people."

"Of course, the stock game model of 'Japanese pirates splitting money' is based on [absolute rationality]. If we talk about things on this basis, then people will continue to pay taxes in full unless they starve to death, and local governments will definitely He will not intercept and will faithfully carry out the imperial court's orders. This is obviously impossible."

"Not only do localities need to have their own money to do things, but it is neither timely nor realistic to wait for the money to be allocated by the court. If the people cannot afford to pay taxes, they will definitely not wait to starve to death. Maybe the people will not rebel, but the people will choose Migrate somewhere else.”

"And it is precisely because of the existence of this [non-absolute rationality] that the court's tax system will gradually collapse over time."

"We have talked about the issue of land annexation before. The biggest impact of land annexation on the dynasty is the reduction of the dynasty's tax base. Once the tax base is reduced and taxes cannot be collected, the dynasty's various execution capabilities will be seriously affected. influence, such as repairing water conservancy facilities, maintaining inns, paying salaries to the army, paying officials, etc.”

"To put it bluntly, there may be many reasons for the demise of the empire, but the most direct one is lack of money."

Jiang Xinghuo smiled and said: "There are indeed things in this world that money cannot solve, but such things are generally very few, accounting for only 10%; 30% of things require money to solve."

"Where's the remaining 60%?" Zhu Gaoxu asked.

"The remaining 60% needs to be paid more!"

Several people couldn't help but smile.

After laughing, Jiang Xinghuo continued.

"I think the Ming Dynasty's tax system problems have laid hidden dangers. This hidden danger may explode violently in a few hundred years, causing the Ming Dynasty to die without money."

In fact, this was Jiang Xinghuo's euphemistic way of saying it.

Why did the Ming Dynasty perish?

There are many theories, such as the Little Ice Age, earthquakes, and the emperor is not good enough. But Jiang Xinghuo believes that the most intuitive point is that there is still no money.

If Li Zicheng had money and could receive his salary, wouldn't he still be happy to deliver express delivery? As for rebellion?

If you have money, you don’t need to scrape the common people’s land, and you don’t need to impose additional taxes, how can you make refugees everywhere?

If you have money, can you station troops in the back to train troops, and just use the money to kill the dead? If you can't kill it, it just means you didn't spend enough money.

But the fact is that it is a pity that Ming Dynasty just has no money.

Why no money?

The most fundamental reason is of course that as a traditional feudal agricultural empire, the Ming Dynasty’s main tax base was agricultural taxes. Unlike modern industrialized countries, agricultural taxes in industrialized countries only accounted for a small part.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's only source of wealth was to scrape the land and suffer the hardships of the people.

A bitter gentry?

Stop making trouble, the gentry doesn't pay for their food.

This is a question of fairness and efficiency in taxation.

If you take both efficiency into consideration, there will be no fairness; if you take both fairness into consideration, there will be no efficiency.

Well, it’s just that Ming didn’t do both.

"What do you mean, Mr. Jiang?" Xia Yuanji asked with a slight frown.

"Since the tax system is a game, one thing to point out is that taxation is not a game between the court and the people directly. The people do not have this ability. The real three-party game objects in the Ming Dynasty's taxation are: the court, localities, and gentry."

Jiang Xinghuo said: "Even if the 'three distributions' cannot be achieved, Ming's tax system is still not good enough."

“This lack of quality is reflected in the game model as the Ming court, which was supposed to be highly centralized, failed to achieve winner-take-all, and instead allowed local governments and gentry to usurp the benefits of taxation.”

"The court, localities, and gentry are not concrete individuals, but abstract concepts."

"It's never three chess players, but three interest groups."

"Based on the tax benefits of agricultural taxes, just that, the Ming court was soft-hearted and felt that it could gain support by making concessions to local governments and gentry."

"Actually, after reading the conclusion of 'Japanese pirates splitting money' just now, you should know."

"——Any mercy towards other players is cruelty towards oneself!"

"Because the other party will not hesitate to expand their demands until they become the last-minute winner and kill all the original winners!"

"Mr. Jiang, what should we do?" Xia Yuanji asked.

——————

In the secret room, Jian Yi and Ru Ru saw the shock in each other's eyes.

What a cruel person!

If the tax system is changed according to Jiang Xinghuo's wishes, I am afraid that this big sword will fall on the heads of the Thirteenth Chief Envoy of the Ming Dynasty and thousands of gentry families!

But the benefits of doing so are also extremely obvious.

Nip problems in the bud!

Moreover, Jian Yi and Ru Ru also thought of a very scary point.

That is their emperor, but he is famous for "either don't do it or do it!"

Thinking of this, Jian Yi and Ru Ru couldn't help but look at Zhu Di.

As expected, a sneer appeared on Zhu Di's face.

"Interesting, very interesting."

"It turns out that the Ming Dynasty's taxation is for the winner to take all. Otherwise, the gentry will be in trouble, and the local area will tend to split. If you have money, you will have a knife. The military leaders of the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, no Is this all done?”

"But, I am very curious, how Jiang Xinghuo solves the tax conflicts between the court and local governments, and between the court and the gentry?"

"You know, this touches their fundamental interests."

"I'm afraid it's impossible to solve it properly, right?"

"Two ministers, what do you think?"

Jian Yi and Ru Yu were silent, what could they have thought? What ideas do they dare to have?

As long as there is a little bit of news about any change that touches the interests of the gentry class, both of them will be sprayed with blood, okay?

By this time, the two of them really regretted not making excuses not to come.

Even if the emperor hates him, it is better than listening to these tiger and wolf words!

At this time, it was as if a ferocious tiger and a hungry wolf were chasing behind the two of them, their bodies hunched up nervously.

They looked at the wall nervously and curiously.

Waiting for Jiang Xinghuo's answer.

Yes, what should I do?

Under the tree next door.

Jiang Xinghuo spoke slowly.

"In fact, it is not impossible to resolve the tax conflicts between the court and local governments, and between the court and the gentry, and to achieve the court's optimal solution under the stock game."

"I would like to hear the details." Xia Yuanji squatted on the ground and awkwardly cupped his hands.

“The way to solve the tax game between the court and local governments is to establish a two-level tax system of national tax and local tax.”

"The way to solve the tax game between the court and the gentry is simpler."

"The gentry and the gentry all receive food from one body."

I went out to celebrate my birthday today, so that’s all for these two chapters. Well...it’s also Xiao Jiang’s birthday. You can click on the free comment on the homepage of this book. Finally, please give me a monthly ticket!