"Since then, no matter how much arable land increases or how much population increases, how much commerce and trade are prosperous? The agricultural taxes in our dynasty have always been maintained at this 27 million stones, which has made the taxes levied by nearly 20 million people almost the same as those of 10 million. Lao I told Bo Ye a few figures: In the 26th year of Hongwu, the summer taxes were more than 4.7177,000 stones of rice, wheat, more than 39,000 ingots of money, and more than 288,000 pieces of silk; autumn grain, more than 24.729,000 stones of rice, and more than 5,000 ingots of money.

In Yongle, there were more than 30 million stones of taxes and more than 20 million stones of silk banknotes. At this time, the whole world was rich, and the tax was in Yingxian, and the rice and millet were transferred to millions of stones of capital. The granaries of prefectures and counties were very abundant, and the red rot was inedible.

In the second year of Jiajing, Li Guanyan, the then censor, had two taxes on summer and autumn, with more than 4.7 million stones of wheat, which is now less than 90,000 stones; more than 24.7 million stones of rice, which is now less than 2.5 million. However, the royal family members, the redundant officials, the number of internal officials, and the increase of soldiers are all given to them. The taxes will be reduced every day, and the expenses will be increased every day.

By the Wanli period, the summer taxes were more than 4.65,000 stones of rice and wheat, more than 57,900 ingots of banknotes, and more than 206,000 pieces of silk; the autumn grains were more than 2,233,000 stones of rice.

Boye must have understood that the more people and land they have, the more taxes they have, but the more taxes they have been. From the peak of the Yongle Dynasty, it has been continuously decreasing. During the Jiajing period, compared with the Hongwu period, the wheat decreased by 90,000 stones and the rice decreased by more than 2.5 million stones; in the Wanli period, the wheat decreased by 110,000 stones, and the rice decreased by 2.69 million stones. On the surface, the reduction was not much, but if combined with the population and the growth of the land, the more people, the taxes were less, which was quite terrible."

Wu Zheng asked: "Then won't the important officials in the court find a way to solve this disadvantage?"

This is a matter of reason. Although there are corrupt officials and officials in every dynasty, there are never a shortage of honest officials and honest ministers.

There is no reason for a hundred years, no one will point out this matter and correct it.

Mo Guaninian smiled bitterly, "My uncle is really full of energy, but any dynasty will form old rules once it is over the peak. These old rules will often become tools for some people to conservative interests. Whoever wants to change it will have to oppose his ancestors. Needless to say, the ministers, I am afraid that the late emperor will not have that courage."

"Bo Ye is right. In a century, there are naturally some honest ministers who are as strong as Bo Ye, who are as strong as Bo Ye, who often fail to give advice. The resistance comes from two places, first, the constraints of civil officials on the emperor, and secondly, the local government protection intentions. Bo Ye Ye is afraid that Emperor Chongzhen distributed three additional taxes to resist the Jin Dynasty. The civil officials in the court were in unison and wrote memorials to the emperor, saying that increasing taxes will make the heavens angry and people resentful, and the crimes will be overwhelming, and even the situation will deteriorate. All officials who suggested to Emperor Chongzhen to increase taxes are portrayed as villains. Yang Sichang, who suggested to the emperor to increase taxes, was even scolded by Huang Daozhou as a dog-man owl.

At that time, the emperor paid three additional wages to withstand the huge pressure exerted by most members of the civil ministers. In the end, it was not enough, so Zhou Yanru took office and suggested to the emperor that he would first ask for the owed grain to the households, and to redeem the accumulated land among the people. The soldiers were deserted for the year and the wasteland was reduced to two taxes in the year. Su, Song, Chang, Jia and Lake were flooded, and it was recommended that wheat be used for grain next summer. The emperor finally agreed. This made the already stretched finance even worse. In Laoji's opinion, the Ming Dynasty was destroyed in less than two years, and it was the most direct connection with Emperor Chongzhen following these suggestions!"

"As for the local government's local protection thoughts, it is not difficult to understand. I have talked about the arrears of taxes in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and was exempted by the court by 3 million stones. Here I will give you an example to Master. When the late emperor first ascended the throne, although some people proposed to increase the tax quota, the regular tax quota was never paid at that time. According to reports from 340 counties, the tax arrears reached 50%, or even more. These 340 counties accounted for 30% of the fiscal tax areas controlled by the Ming Dynasty. In fact, 134 counties did not pay any taxes to the court that year. From these two obstacles, even if the emperor wanted to work hard to govern, he might be willing but not able to do so."

Don't sigh with obsession.

Wu Zheng felt very depressed when he heard this, and felt his lips were thirsty, so he took a tea bowl and drank it all.

A cup of good Mingchao tea was regarded as a bowl of tea from a roadside tea stall by Wu Zheng, which had the meaning of chewing peonies.

Don’t obsess with someone to change the tea for Wu Zheng.

Wu Zheng asked: "But the people live in poverty and abandon their land and become refugees because of heavy taxes, or sell their land and turn to other livelihoods. Is this also false?"

Mo Zheng looked at Wu Zheng in surprise and asked for a long time: "Have you seen truly poor people in Hangzhou City? Maybe there are really, but that can only occupy 100. Besides, in all dynasties, there have never been few poor people, why did they come to our dynasty and the poor people become the cause of destruction?"

Wu Zheng does feel like he is brainwashed by Mo Obsessive.

His words almost subverted Wu Zheng's understanding of this history.

The reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty was not what I knew, but one word - money!

He is, is this something money can solve?

This reminded Wu Zheng of a saying, money is not omnipotent, but money is absolutely impossible.

But Wu Zheng was indeed a little convinced. What kind of political incompetence, corrupt officials, collusion between officials and businessmen, and heavy taxes. Which dynasty and which dynasty did not exist?

Whether it is the Qin Emperor and Han Wu, the Tang Emperor and Song ancestor, or the later republic, these situations are accompanied by them.

Although they are all disadvantages, they seem to lack some persuasion if they really need to investigate the root cause of destruction.

From Wu Zheng's personal experience this year, the defeat of the Ming army was not due to the strong combat power of the Qing army and the insufficient combat power of the Ming army, but rather the unresistance and passive resistance from top to bottom.

Just like when Chen Sheng and a hundred people were chased by dozens of Tartars, they were not able to beat them, but they didn't want to beat them or were unwilling to fight them.

The reason for this is that Shangguan fled when he heard the news.

Why did Shangguan escape? He was just greedy for life and fear of death and had no hope of defeat in his heart. Even King Lu surrendered in the city. What a fucking thing about them?

If this is just an example, every dynasty and every generation, but if most generals are like this, it would be a ghost to be undefeated.

Therefore, when Wu Zheng confirmed his personal experience with Mo Zhinian's statement, he realized that what Mo Zhinian said was indeed some truth.

Thinking of this, Wu Zheng's eyes shrank slightly.
Chapter completed!