Why the Ming Dynasty has repeatedly reached the verge of destroying the country, in fact, many people of insight often ask themselves, and most of them know the specific reasons.

For Yue Qijie, who can supervise the local officials, he naturally knows the stubborn illness of the Ming Dynasty.

There are many problems in the Ming Dynasty, and the problems of the gentry are the biggest one. But it is clear in my heart that one of the most gentry, as a person with vested interests, no one will say that the reason for the death of the country is because of himself, and it will be more attributed to something like qi.

However, in the face of Chen Yue's questioning, Yue Qijie couldn't answer, so he could only remain silent.

Chen Yue didn't expect him to answer, and continued: "In the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, many people are accustomed to attributing it to natural and man-made disasters. In the king's view, natural disasters naturally occur, but more man-made disasters.

For example, in the north, such as this Henan Mansion, during the Chongzhen period, half of the fields in Henan Mansion belonged to the Fuwang Mansion, and a large amount of land belonged to the gentry such as Er. You may only have thousands of acres of land for a single family, which is not too much. But the gentry of the entire Henan Mansion are hundreds, and the total number of fields owned can be tens of millions of acres, and the fields belonging to the royal palace do not need to pay taxes to the imperial court, and the fields that belong to the same gentry do not need to.

However, the imperial court has a fixed amount of taxes that should be paid by each government, and if you don't pay taxes, the taxes can only fall on ordinary people.

For these ordinary people, the grain harvested after hard work for a year, after paying the imperial grain tax, there is not much left, but they can't eat a few full meals all year round with the grain they have worked hard to grow, and many people need to sell their children and daughters to survive in disaster years.

Therefore, when Li Zicheng led the eighteen horsemen to kill out of the mountains, so many people would defect to Li Bandit! ”

The gentry listened to Chen Yue's words, and their faces were very ugly, could it be that King Qi still refused to let them go in the end? But looking at Chen Yue's impassioned appearance, these people didn't have the courage to interrupt and refute.

The gentry didn't dare to speak, and Yue Qijie had to say: "King Qi, although the gentry don't have to pay taxes, but this is also the practice of the imperial court, after all, the gentry are all famous, and those with meritorious names are exempt from paying taxes, which is also the rule of the imperial court." You can't put all the blame on the gentry, can you? ”

Chen Yue sneered: "Imperial court routines, imperial court rules? May I ask Lord Yue, according to the ancestral system of Taizu, should the gentry be exempt from taxes? According to the current Ming law, do the gentry not have to pay any taxes? ”

Yue Qijie was silent for a moment. According to the system formulated by Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, there was no preferential treatment for the gentry, and later, as the status of civil officials became higher and higher, a system was established in which those with meritorious fame could be exempted from money and food, but it was not all reduced, but a certain amount of reduction and exemption according to the level of merit. For example, Xiucai can be exempted from taxes on 80 acres of land, while Juren can be exempted from 400 mu, and Jinshi can be exempted from 2,000 mu.

For the Ming Dynasty, which has 900 million mu of cultivated land, under normal circumstances, the total amount of farmland reduced by the country's Jinshi is more than 10 million mu, and the total amount of cultivated land is actually very small.

However, since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, as the status of civil officials has become higher and higher, it has become a joke to reduce or reduce the number of meritorious officials, in fact, as long as you have achieved more than one person's fame, all the fields under your name do not have to pay any taxes. Therefore, often after the examination is lifted, there will be countless neighbors who take the initiative to dedicate the field to the name of the lifter, and the field does not need to pay taxes to the court in the future, and the distant owner of the field has become a servant tenant of the lifter, and only needs to pay some land rent to the lifter, and the amount of this field rent is naturally less than the tax paid to the court. As a result, more and more fields were concentrated in the hands of the gentry, which led to a sharp decline in the taxes of the imperial court year after year, and the treasury was empty.

Therefore, when Chen Yue was questioned, Yue Qijie did not dare to answer again.

"The gentry and officials colluded and maliciously encroached on the fields of ordinary people, this situation abounds, the reason why the Ming Dynasty has come to this situation now, do you dare to say that you have no responsibility?"

"I can't wait." In the face of Chen Yue's fierce reprimand, looking at the heavily armed soldiers standing around the hall, the gentry in the hall turned pale, and finally couldn't hold it anymore, and knelt on the ground to plead guilty.

"Of course, you can't blame all the reasons for it, and the court is also responsible for negligence. And since the gentry can gain fame, they can be regarded as dragons and phoenixes among the people, and when the Manchu invaded, there was no shortage of people who dared to fight against the Manchurians.

And in the future, there will be many places in the court and places that need to borrow from you.

Therefore, this king does not want to kill you all. However, if the Ming Dynasty wants to prosper, and the world wants to be peaceful, it is definitely impossible to imagine it as before. Therefore, the privilege of non-payment of taxes must be abolished. When the king returns to the court, he will promote the reform of the court, and from then on, the gentry will pay taxes as one! ”

Finally, Chen Yue said his thoughts, which was the first time he said his thoughts to the outside world.

It stands to reason that Chen Yue is just a vassal king, just a general who leads the army, and has no power to dispose of state affairs. But everyone knows that Chen Yue will inevitably take control of the government after returning to Beijing. Therefore, his current words represent the national policy of the Ming Dynasty.

The gentry pay taxes in one piece? The gentry in the hall looked at each other, and their faces were full of bitterness. The gentry paid taxes as a whole, which meant that they were deprived of their greatest privileges. From then on, they had to pay their taxes just like ordinary people. The more land you have, the more taxes you pay.

However, in the face of Chen Yue's prestige at this time, although the gentry in the hall were unwilling, they did not dare to express their objections.

After the banquet, Chen Yue returned to the camp with his own troops. After the gentry sent Chen Yue away, they did not disperse directly, but gathered around Yue Qijie and did not leave.

"Ladies and gentlemen, King Qi, he is going to be the enemy of all the gentry in the world, isn't he afraid that all the gentry of the Ming Dynasty will unite?" A gentry shouted.

"Yes, even Taizu had to reuse the scholar back then, King Qi, did he think he could conquer the world by force alone, I want to see what will happen to him!" The other gentleman sneered.

"Enough!" Yue Qijie finally couldn't help it, "You didn't dare to let go of any of your farts when King Qi was there just now, but now you are ruthless!" There is a kind of you talking like this in front of King Qi! ”

"Lord Zhongcheng, didn't you just be under the roof?" The gentry sneered.

Yue Qijie snorted coldly: "No matter what, King Qi promised that he would not deal with Er and the others directly, at least your family property was saved." You have to be glad that is. As for whether the gentry of King Qi can pay taxes in one body in the future, let's wait and see! ”

......

"Is this king a little soft-hearted?" On the way back to the camp, Chen Yue asked Zhang Huangyan.

Zhang Huangyan shook his head: "It's not that you are soft-hearted, it's that we can't help it." ”

Chen Yue sighed: "Yes, there is no way." I don't want to raid all the gentry at once and solve the problem once and for all. But is it possible? Impossible.

It's just that Shandong and Beizhili are not enough to send all the literate and hyphenation people we have accumulated on hand, and it is not easy to control the world with our own strength without the help of readers? Governing the world requires talents, a large number of talents, and such talents must be scholars. However, the gentry is the representative of the world's scholars, the elite of the scholars.

If we push all these elites to the opposite side and defeat them all, it will be very detrimental to our future. Therefore, in Shandong, in Beizhili, although I acquiesced in Li Yanzhi and Shan Minglei to deal with the gentry, it was in the name of their surrender to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but I was open to those backbone gentry.

And now the newly occupied Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi, if we want to imitate the policy of Shandong's northeast direct administration, we don't have the talent to do this. So I wondered if I should be gentle. ”

Zhang Huangyan nodded and said: "Lord Wang, in fact, I have always wanted to remind you but I don't dare, because I also have a reputation as a member of the gentry, so I have to avoid suspicion." Now, Lord Wang, you have finally woken up.

Yes, the gentry are the great evil of the world, but in the same way, the gentry are the elite of thousands of scholars, and if we push them all to the opposite side, it will be very detrimental to our future rule.

Although we have a strong army, if the gentry all oppose us, with their local influence, it will cause us great trouble.

Therefore, I should not shoot the gentry with one shot, but find a way to make them useful to me. Therefore, it is just right for your gentry to pay taxes in one piece. This not only limited the privileges of the gentry, but also gave them a way to live, so as not to force them to rebel.

For the gentry, they are local celebrities, but they do not have the privilege of not paying taxes, and they still live better than ordinary people by relying on their fame, status and fame! ”

Chen Yue sighed: "When the news of Zhejiang Susong came, I was shocked. Qian Fenglin and they acted in the name of the rebels, and they were too brutal and cruel, too many gentry in Zhejiang were killed, their property was robbed, and their wives and daughters were abused by the rioters......

Although it is said that Qian Fenglin's actions are out of my acquiescence, in fact, the Zhejiang rebels have gone out of control, and their behavior has broken through the bottom limit of people.

It is true that after the rebellion, the gentry in Zhejiang were wiped out. However, Zhejiang's economy is bound to collapse completely, and it is unknown when it will recover.

Zhejiang, Susong, is the most prosperous place in my Ming Dynasty, and half of the world's taxes come from there. If it really becomes a ruin, it is a great sin! ”

Zhang Huangyan sighed leisurely when he heard this, he was born in Ningbo, and he was the most sad when he heard the news of the rebels. After all, the rebels are all harming his hometown, including his relatives and friends. If it weren't for the fact that he had been tied to Chen Yue's chariot, he really wanted to just leave without it.

Fortunately, Chen Yue finally woke up!

"Lord Wang, as long as we rush back to Jiangnan as soon as possible, we can minimize the losses in Jiangnan. Lord, we can't delay any longer. Zhang Huangyan persuaded.

Chen Yue nodded: "That's right!" ”

Chen Yue's army did not stay in Luoyang for long, and after replenishing some materials, he continued to the east.

Hearing that Chen Yue led the army to leave, Henan governor Yue Qijie hurriedly led the Luoyang gentry officials to see him off, Chen Yue just had a brief conversation with Yue Qijie, and then rode away with the army.

Looking at Chen Yue's upright back, Yue Qijie's face was complicated, perhaps, this Ming day is about to change!

All the way through Zheng County, Zhongmu, Kaifeng, when arriving at Guidefu, the general soldier Wei Yang led 10,000 troops south from Beijing and joined Chen Yue. These 10,000 people are the original elite of the Northern Expeditionary Army, and the descendants in Chen Yue's hands were originally used to guard Beijing.

In this way, the army guarding Chen Yue had 20,000 people, all of whom were the most elite troops in their hands, and Chen Yue's heart was relaxed.

Chen's route from Vietnam to the south is from Guide all the way to the south, through Xiayi, Yongcheng, Suzhou, through Xuyi to Yangzhou, and then from Guazhou to cross the Yangtze River.

After entering Suzhou, I arrived at the territory of Fengyang Mansion in Nanzhili, and the situation was obviously much better than in the north.

In the past two years, the Lianghuai River valley has been relatively smooth, and after the Manchurian retreat to the north, there was no more war here, and the economy quickly recovered. As the army walked along the road, it could be seen that there were dense farmlands on both sides, and it was no longer a barren area in the north.

Seeing this situation, Chen Yue was very relieved, he knew that as long as the world was peaceful, it would not take a few years for the Ming Dynasty to return to its prosperous state, of course, provided that the government had to act.

The army stopped in the territory of Tianchang and rested for a while, because after Tianchang entered the territory of Yangzhou, Chen Yue needed to know the position of Wu Mengming, the governor of Zhenbei Hou and Jiangbei.

Wu Mengming had 50,000 or 60,000 troops in Yangzhou, and if his position was ambiguous and he attacked him blatantly, he would be in great trouble. Although Chen Yue has always had a good relationship with Wu Mengming, Wu Mengming is more loyal to Chongzhen.

On the second day after Chen Yue's army arrived in Tianchang, a messenger arrived from the south and brought a letter from Qian Fenglin.

Qian Fenglin told in his heart about the meeting with Wu Mengming, and told Chen Yue that Wu Mengming was now on his side.

After reading the letter, Chen Yue still did not order the army to march.

"Lord Wang, why don't you continue to set off?" Zhang Huangyan couldn't help but ask, since the army will not be attacked, it should continue to advance, there are still too many things waiting in Jiangnan, why do you want to stay?

Chen Yue smiled faintly: "This king is waiting for someone." ”

Wait for others? Zhang Huangyan was stunned, who would be waiting for? My mind was spinning rapidly, and I soon understood.

On the third day of the army stationed in Tianchang, a team of men and horses hurried from Yangzhou, and the banner in the team was hoisted high, which was the banner of Wu Mengming, the governor of Beihou Jiangbei in Daming Town. Wu Mengming personally rushed to Chen Yue's army and met Chen Yue, the king of Qi.

"Uncle Wu actually came in person, and the little nephew was terrified." Seeing Wu Mengming, Chen Yue had a bright smile on his face. Wu Mengming and Chen Yue's father, Chen Jianghe, were peers of Jinyiwei's colleagues, and Chen Yue always called him uncle.

Seeing Chen Yue's affectionate tone, Wu Mengming also showed a smile on his face, but said, "If I don't come, I'm afraid King Qi, you won't be able to feel at ease." ”

PS: My wife and her mother-in-law had a certain situation, went to the hospital to wait for the patient, and threw the child to me. I'm going to take my children these days, and I don't know if I can guarantee the update.