[Comprehensive History] Clothes are all over the world

From all aspects, generally speaking, Emperor Hongwu is really not a magnanimous person. His childhood that was too rough made him feel a little penny-pinching.

Well, cough cough, the gas is also big and small.

For example, when he was building the mausoleum, he would order not to move the tomb of Sun Quan, the great emperor of the Eastern Wu Dynasty, so as not to disturb the ancestors. He would also ask his grandsons to serve him with pen and ink after discovering the pranks of his grandsons, and then wrote a "copying the Analects three times" and stuffed it into the tomb. In the little box, and then let go of the happy jumping puppies.

Don't get me wrong, Emperor Hongwu is of course not venting his anger because of the hair, he is simply criticizing his grandson for releasing the son of a bitch without sending someone to look after him (insider: ???)!

Walking a dog without a leash is equivalent to walking a dog with a human being. How about raising a dog in a civilized way? At this moment, the brain circuit of Emperor Hongwu is equated with the street aunts of later generations.

Regardless of how Mu Wen, who was still waiting to transport the "military intelligence" puppies back, was in a shattered mood when he saw the homework that fell from the sky, Mu Xiaobai who was suddenly assigned homework was very unhappy anyway.

Assigning homework is fine, but it is still a large-scale question such as: How to judge the good and evil of officials, how do people answer this?

Give up, for thousands of years from ancient times to the present, no emperor or head of state can complete this judgment?Or is it that this step into the realm of gods, even a few divine beasts that can read people's hearts have a hard time judging the good and evil of this person, let alone human beings?

Emperor Hongwu was a little unbelieving, most of the emperors who have left their names in history were full of creativity, and he proposed for the first time: "You say, how about letting the common people rate people?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he shook his head immediately: "No, it is easy to be retaliated against for selfishness, unless the person is transferred away immediately, but that is unlikely, the speed is too fast."

This is not the problem.Mu Bai thought about it, and voted against it, but his opinion was somewhat different from that of Emperor Hongwu: "Grandfather, whether it is an emperor or an official, the management of a place depends on the authority in his hands, and the status is not right. Wait, if the right to elect officials is really delegated to the hands of the people, it will be much more difficult for officials to manage another place in the future."

This is not to say that officials should oppress the common people, but that the identity of the manager must be separated from the person being managed so that the work can be carried out smoothly.

Being too close to the people, or being too low-key is actually not conducive to shaping the official image.

If any village woman can swagger into the state shepherd's office and slap someone on the table and say, "I'm selling green vegetables for five cents a catty today, any child can shout loudly with a snot in their nose: I don't want to study anymore, I want to play." , this is not a mess.

Moreover, if the common people are openly criticized or praised, once in a while is okay, but if it becomes the norm, officials will have to flatter the people.

"In this way, they will be kind to the people, isn't that good?" Mu Wen, who came over to protest with "military sentiments" crying, said in surprise: "Mencius has a saying: the people are the most important, and the society is second. Officials are good to the people, isn't it?" Is it also in line with the doctrine of saints?"

Emperor Hongwu narrowed his eyes slightly, and wanted to speak, but he held back and looked at the eldest grandson, wanting to know what the eldest grandson thought.

"Officials should be nice to the people, but flattery is a big deal." Mu Bai reached out and touched his younger brother's head, and then patted the head of the son of a bitch who wanted to come over to pet it because it felt so good. I couldn't help touching it again, "What do the people care about? Benefits, if you want to please them, the easiest way is to lower taxes, send money, visit the door from time to time, and give them enough face."

Seeing the child nodding unconsciously, Mu Bai reminded softly: "Brother once heard that there is an island on the other side of the sea called Wanwan, and its officials are all elected. As long as the people love to recommend them, they can become the governor of a county, a continent, or even the entire island. .”

"Therefore, in order to flatter the people, those who have a heart will publicize before the election what kind of things they will do to benefit the people after taking office, and they will tempt the people with tax cuts and welfare. At that time, he had to choose himself, but whenever there were any weddings and ceremonies among the people, he would come to visit him, and the people praised him, and he was indeed re-elected next year."

After a pause, Mu Bai smiled amidst the horrific expressions on the faces of several elders: "How many households are there in a state, a prefecture, and a city? If everyone wants to applaud and praise, where do officials have time to work? The state uses Are these officials trying to please the people, or are they doing things for you?"

Mu Wen thought for a while, and heard his elder brother say: "And this move will have a big bad result."

"Most people are short-sighted and only care about immediate interests." Mu Bai looked at Emperor Hongwu who made this suggestion: "Grandfather, if an official wants to be praised by the people and everyone speaks well, he will not be able to do most of the jobs in the country." Finish."

"Qin Xiu ran through the north and the south, built the Dujiangyan for thousands of miles, and built the Great Wall to resist the northern barbarians. Is the choice to take a sum of money or build those projects?"

"It must be the former. Even if it is not about the projects that are thousands of miles away from the public, even if it is between building a road at the door of the house and distributing money, some people will choose the latter without hesitation."

"Why?" Mu Wen said that he couldn't understand it at all. His experience of living in a mountainous area with extremely inconvenient traffic left him with a desire for a big road: "It would be great if there were a big road! Cars and horses can pass directly, Merchants can also communicate frequently, products can go out, foreign goods can come in, the road, the road is very good!"

"But that's for young people." Mu Bai pointed out softly: "For young people or middle-aged people, the road is necessary for its existence, but for old people, it's been like this for a lifetime , it doesn’t matter if there is or not. And they will think: In terms of construction speed, they may not see the road arriving before their eyes are closed, so it’s better to take a sum of money and enjoy the comfort of their old age in peace.”

He paused for a while, and then said: "These seniors are either the head of the family, or the palm of the family."

In today's society, these elders generally have absolute authority. Once they voice their objections, there is no need to mention how much influence they have in this era of families and clans.

Mu Wen had a little understanding, but at the same time he became more confused. The sage said that the people should be the most important thing, but the elder brother said that you can't blindly please the people, so what should be done right?

"Ah, it's time to talk about tax burden and data," Mu Bai immediately became excited, and was about to tell his younger brother the story of his elder brother. In the era he lived in, the tax repayment system had not yet been formed, and all countries There are various attempts, especially enumerated.

However, before he could speak, Mu Bai felt a sudden weight on his head. Emperor Hong Wu rubbed his grandson's head hard, and said with a very meaningful expression: "It's digressing."

Mu Xiaobai, who is used to talking about what he thinks about with his younger brother, and no one has ever said that he digressed, choked for a moment, rearranged his thoughts, and said: "The people have the needs of the people, and the country has the needs of the country. We must explain this , it must be based on the needs of both parties.”

"People want to live better, to be richer, to be safer, and to have more colorful entertainment and leisure activities."

"And the country also wants to be richer, safer, and more influential. To achieve this goal, what the people need is more fields, lighter tax burdens, and more opportunities to make money. To achieve this, the country must It is to obtain more tax burdens, only when the national treasury is full, can there be more soldiers, and the Ming Dynasty will be safer if the soldiers are strong, so it seems that the two are contradictory?"

Mu Wen nodded, and his little expression became troubled, so it seems that the country is born to stand on the opposite side of the people!

If you think so, you are wrong!

Mu Bai shook his finger, "Does Wen'er know how much Daming's tax burden is now? How much is Daming's army?"

This question is beyond the scope of the child's knowledge. The child immediately looked at the elder brother. The elder brother motioned him to ask the grandfather at home. Emperor Hongwu smiled on his face, but he did not hesitate in his mouth. Take one out of thirty, each guard has about 200 million soldiers, the population of Daming is more than 5000 million and over two million, and 660 million hectares of land have been reclaimed."

"Wen'er might as well do the math, not counting miscellaneous taxes, just talking about land taxes, how much tax can Daming receive in a year?"

Mu Wen snapped his fingers, and said crisply after a long time: "120 million hectares of tax can be collected!"

"Yes, among these lands, [-]% of the first-class land, and the rest are middle-end, state-owned, widowed and lonely, tax relief, and tax exemption in disaster years, so the tax amount for a year is about this amount." Mu Bai wrote on the paper. A string of numbers was written on it, and Mu Wen nodded, thinking that it was quite a lot.

Then I saw Mu Bai listed military expenditures, food and grass, soldiers and horses, pensions after the death of soldiers, medical expenses, weapons and armor expenses, etc., a series of figures made Mu Wen's eyes roll with mosquito coils.

There are not many people who have the same reaction as him. When Mubai was halfway through the calculation, Emperor Hongwu had already ordered all the radish heads in the palace to come over. Now the young boys are sitting in a row, blinking their eyes together. Accept the beating of the big devil of mathematics.

In the end Mu Bai wrote an astonishing number after a series of statistics, and all the teenagers present gasped, oops!Raising an army is too expensive, right?Look at the tax income on the left, and then look at the expenditure. Even if the money didn't come out of their pockets, the children still feel pain.

Is raising an army really that expensive?

Where is this? It’s not counting the research expenses yet, Mu Bai casually modified a number, and looked at the little radish heads who were swaying here and there as if they were bent down by the economic pressure. It was amused, and he continued to ask: " If this part of the military expenditure is excluded, isn’t there only a little tax left for the country?”

That's more than a little bit!A lot of numbers are missing!

"So it's not enough to rely solely on tax burdens. It won't take long for the Ming Dynasty to be dragged down by high military expenditures like the Song Dynasty. Moreover, the treasury has no money or food, and it cannot cope with risks, let alone develop. Basic construction." Mu Bai gave them a list of the main expenses of the Ming royal family today.

Now the Ming royal family has no pressure to support the clan in future generations. The population of the first family of the Ming Dynasty is still relatively simple, and Emperor Hongwu, who has a lot of money on hand, has invested most of the money in people's livelihood.

The new world that Emperor Hongwu, who had suffered from homelessness and pain, wanted to create was a world where everyone lived and worked in peace and contentment, where the old and the young could be supported, the sick could be cured, and the dead could be buried.

Therefore, he combined the folk policies of the Song and Yuan Dynasties to create various infrastructures of the Ming Dynasty today.

During the Hongwu Dynasty, literacy-style grassroots education was distributed among the people for the first time. Emperor Hongwu ordered the local county magistrates to set up government schools, and the state hired teachers to enlighten the folk children.

Beginning in the third year of Hongwu, Huimin Pharmaceutical Bureaus were set up in prefectures and counties to provide free treatment for poor and sick soldiers and civilians. Doctors and medicines were allocated from local taxes. To put it bluntly, it was the money of Emperor Hongwu.

In addition, there are sales offices for orphaned children, and if those who have no relatives or relatives die, the local government will build a coffin to place them so that they will not have no place to be buried.

In addition, there are also the support of the elderly and the support of the family members of the officers and soldiers who lost their only children. All of them are places where money is spent.

It is definitely not enough to add these figures to taxes, so Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty created an unprecedented feat-the officers and soldiers garrisoned the fields, and used the fields they planted and the by-products they produced to support themselves.

It is precisely because the 200 million troops of the Ming Dynasty need the supply of the country except for the northern military camps due to the weather, and they can basically maintain self-sufficiency. The court of the Ming Dynasty is now able to develop various constructions with free hands.

For example, after Shexiang arrived in Beijing, Emperor Hongwu waved his hand after punishing Ma Ye, and sent her a sum of money to let her cooperate with the local area to dig mountains and dig stones to build a joint post road in Guizhou, Yunnan, and the Central Plains, so as to strengthen communication among multiple peoples while avoiding government orders. "Misunderstanding" caused by unreasonable.

At the same time, Emperor Hongwu also sent a pile of books sorted by his grandson to Yunnan, and even sent a complete set of printing templates to Yunnan, so that the chief political envoy stationed in Yunnan could print books locally to open up people's wisdom.

Which one of these piles is not burning money.

But will the locals find it unpleasant?Won't.

Because although they pay taxes, the common people will make calculations in their hearts. The money they pay is far lower than the benefits they get now, and they can feel that there will be more benefits in the future after this move, so that happiness will arise.

Except for a few saints, the source of most people's happiness is because they get something out of their efforts, and if their efforts are far less than their gains, that's even more ecstasy.

"The people and the country are like the light and the dust, and the light is the same as the dust, so that the requirements of both sides can be satisfied, so it is a great good."

After Mu Bai said this, he paused, and realized that he seemed to be off topic, so he added another sentence: "Grandfather, grandson thinks that to test whether an official is a good official, all he needs to do is give a commendation."

Emperor Hongwu raised his eyebrows slightly, and his eldest grandson smiled slyly: "We might as well send officials to the place to praise their honest government, and then observe the performance of the people. If the people are honored, they are good officials. If you look disdainful or numb, there must be something wrong, and you can investigate it in depth."

"The plumbing duck knows that no one knows better than the public whether the official position is good or not."

Emperor Hongwu pondered for a moment, then nodded: "It might as well be a good idea."

In September of 17, the envoys carried the "Integrity of Government" written by Emperor Hongwu to the prefectures and counties, escorted by Jin Yiwei. This action inspired countless grassroots officials, and also caught some local officials who were not benevolent.

When none of these caused any waves in the court, because the entire court was overturned by another decree.

In the 17th year of Hongwu, on October [-]st, Emperor Hongwu appointed the eldest grandson of the emperor as the grandson of the emperor in Fengtian Hall.