Chapter 627: Civil and Military Checks and Balances! Plan to Support Xungui!
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The enemy of Lao Zhu’s family is the gentry!
Zhu Di was not surprised by this. After all, he was the Yongle Emperor, and he had clearly felt the constraints of the gentry on imperial power many times!
For example, there is a saying that the second child often repeats - the imperial power does not go to the countryside!
The emperor of the Ming Dynasty is the master of the country of the Ming Dynasty. Is it the king's land in the whole world, and the king's ministers are on the shore of the land!
Zhu Di would sneer at this sentence at first, but slowly he gained a clearer understanding.
The reason is very simple. The imperial decree can only be issued to various prefectures and counties, but never reaches the countryside below the county seat!
why is that?
Because the countryside is the fields, and the real owner of the fields is not Zhu Di, the Yongle Emperor, but the gentry who occupy the countryside and control the fields!
To give a sad example, last time Lao Er implemented a whipping method and used new students to clear the land in Jiangnan again.
In the end, the number of fields that were cleared from Jiangnan was very different from the number originally recorded in the imperial yellow book. There was a big difference!
In other words, Zhu Di, the emperor of Ming Dynasty and the master of Ming Dynasty, didn’t even know how many fields he owned!
Not to mention levying taxes based on the number of fields?
I have to say, this is a very sad thing!
It was at that moment that Zhu Di strengthened his determination to implement the One Whip Method!
And now Zhu Gaoxu told Zhu Di more bluntly that the real enemies of the old Zhu family have always been these gentry and gentry who control local fields!
Although Zhu Di was angry about this, he could only accept it bitterly.
Zhu Gaoxu saw that he did not refute, so he continued: "So to fight against the gentry and gentry, dad, do you think the royal family alone is enough?"
"Impossible!" Zhu Di pondered for a moment and shook his head decisively.
Not to mention the royal family alone, even if all the clans and vassals of the Lao Zhu family are included, it is impossible to fight against the gentry and Jin gentry!
There are so many officials in the world, and there are so many gentry in the world!
The reason is that the dynasty needs gentry to serve as officials, and the emperor also needs ministers and herdsmen. This is simply an unsolvable problem!
"It's really impossible!"
"Since the beginning of the Song Dynasty, there have been many 'scholar-officials' in the local area. They own a large amount of land and property, and control the life, death and public opinion of the people at the bottom. However, the royal family of the former Song Dynasty were all weaklings and actually chose the emperor and the scholar-officials to rule the world together. The final result was that the scholar-bureaucrats became more and more unscrupulous, the government became more chaotic, and the country's power declined, and eventually the great rivers and mountains fell into the hands of the Mongols."
"The Mongols are much smarter than the previous Song Dynasty. They directly adopted the tax farming system. As long as the local scholar-officials gave them gold and silver on time, they didn't care about the life and death of the people at the bottom. This made the scholar-officials annex fields even more crazily. He oppressed the people even more unscrupulously, eventually causing the anger of heaven and the people, and the country lasted less than a hundred years!"
"But what about those scholar-officials? The change of dynasty has nothing to do with them. They suddenly became the ministers of the Ming Dynasty, and they are everywhere in the countryside. They were the real owners of the fields in the early days of the Ming Dynasty!"
"These gentry colluded with local officials to monopolize local fields, control the local population, control the direction of public opinion, and even colluded with the upper and lower levels to control the source of local talents through the imperial examination, thus forming a powerful family of local scholars, which is the so-called home of bells and dishes, poetry and books The hairpin clan!"
"And as someone in their clan enters the palace and enters the court to rise to prominence, these powerful academic clans will go one step further and continue to annex fields and control places. Just one wealthy clan in the south of the Yangtze River has annexed ten thousand acres of fertile land. Now these clans above the court Lord Gon, which family does not have a thousand acres of fertile land under its name?"
Zhu Di's expression changed drastically and he clenched his fists fiercely.
At first, he heard the second brother talk about the gentry annexing fields, and he had already paid attention to it.
However, Zhu Di obviously didn't pay enough attention to it, because he was still busy with the Northern Expedition and solving the problem of the Northern invaders!
It wasn't until Zhu Gaoxu clearly put the data in front of him that Zhu Di realized how wrong he was!
He originally thought that the danger of the Northern Barbarians was the biggest hidden danger of the Ming Dynasty, which was enough to destroy the Ming Dynasty.
But the hidden dangers of the gentry within are the real danger. If they continue to annex land like this, the Ming Dynasty will collapse soon!
Zhu Di still remembers the second brother's "divide the cake" theory. He just didn't expect the situation to be so serious!
"Second brother, what do you think we should do?"
Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaoxu with hope, and for a moment he had no better idea.
Zhu Gaoxu's eyes were cold, and he had always adopted a suppressive policy towards the gentry.
“These gentry and Jin gentry not only controlled the local fields, but also monopolized the source of talent for the court through imperial examinations. This resulted in the gentry and Jin gentry being one and the same, forming an intertwined and complex relationship. There is me in you, you in me, and it is difficult to eradicate! "
"After the Great Patriarch ascended the throne, he tried his best to suppress these gentry. On the one hand, he cleared the land of the world and severely cracked down on officials' collusion in corruption and bribery. On the other hand, the Great Grand Ancestor began to support the new class and tried to confront the gentry..."
"Are you talking about... Xungui Group?"
Zhu Di's eyes suddenly lit up and he gave the answer.
After the Ming Dynasty established the Ding Dynasty, Taizu granted a large number of meritorious ministers honors.
"That's right, the founding heroes."
"But Taizu later discovered that his method didn't work."
Zhu Gaoxu sighed.
"Compared to the well-educated gentry, these founding nobles controlled a large amount of land and power, and even after controlling the right to speak in the court, they acted more unscrupulously. Whether it was annexing fields or bullying the people, these arrogant founding fathers The nobles and nobles are even worse and more serious!"
"Taizu also discovered this, so he began to suppress the founding nobles. Especially after the sudden death of Prince Yiwen Zhu Biao, Taizu began a bloody purge of the court, and the gentry and gentry became The best helpers of the royal family, the two work together to fight against the founding fathers who have the power to speak in the court."
"Everyone knows the final result. The founder of the country was defeated. Except for a few smart people, they were all killed by Taizu. But then Jianwen ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. Only then did the scholarly emperor create a scholarly court!"
"Because of the demise of the founding nobles, the gentry and the gentry had absolute say in the court and officially began to rise until..."
Zhu Gaoxu did not say a word, but looked at Zhu Di.
"It wasn't until I raised an army to quell Jingnan and killed Zhu Yunwen's scholarly court that they shed a river of blood, then the balance would be restored, right?"
Zhu Di exhaled heavily, and he understood that this was the emperor's way of checks and balances. UU read books www.uukaｎｓshu.net
Whether it is emphasizing literature over military affairs or valuing military affairs over literature, it is not a good thing for the court.
Only by checking and balancing each other can the long-term stability of the country be ensured.
"But now Jingnan Xungui is powerful enough to resist the gentry and Jin gentry."
"That's only now!" Zhu Gaoxu shook his head, "In a hundred years, the noble military ministers will completely lose power, and the gentry and gentry will completely rise, and they will even grow into scholar-bureaucrats no less than those in the former Song Dynasty, and they will rule the world together with the emperor!"
"This is impossible!" Zhu Di's face changed drastically and he shouted subconsciously.
The emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats rule the world together!
This itself is a deformed dynasty!
Without anyone to check and balance those gentry and gentry, they will become the real masters of the Ming Dynasty!
This is definitely not what Zhu Di wants to see!
"Why isn't it possible?"
"The Ming Dynasty will not have another Jingnan Campaign, nor will there be an opportunity for a large number of noble military ministers to appear in a short period of time. Now that there is no strong enemy outside the Ming Dynasty, the war has been established, and these noble military ministers will slowly be defeated without the need of the common people. Wither and decay!”
"But what about the gentry? The imperial examinations held every three years will continuously provide them with fresh blood. They have plenty of time to wait slowly for a 'wise ruler' like Jianwen to appear!"
"Even if Jingnan Xungui is so arrogant now that he can overpower the gentry and gentry, it is only in the Yongle Dynasty. One side has no successors, and the other side has the imperial examination. The balance between civil and military affairs will eventually be unbalanced, and the right to speak in the court will eventually fall to the gentry and gentry. In hand!"
Zhu Di was startled when he heard this. Even if he wanted to refute, he could not speak.
Because what Zhu Gaoxu said is true, the imperial examination held every three years guarantees that the gentry and gentry will win the final victory!
"So you abolished the imperial examination and now you send Zhu Yong and Xu Qin to Liaodong. Are you preparing to support the nobles?"
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