Chaos!

On February 20th, on this day, the entire South Zhili was in chaos. Dozens of guard posts had "catastrophic changes" at the same time. Thousands of officials and servants in the military field were beaten to death and bloody by the common people, and they were in a miserable state.

, some people even had their clothes stripped off before they could escape, and were thrown naked onto the road.

In order to show their attitude to the government, under the instigation of the domestic slaves in the crowd, the people suddenly became unscrupulous and even beat officials to death.

However, in the face of such a bad civil uprising, all the state and county officials from all over the country lost their voices. No one came out to stop it. They all chose to remain silent and just reported the civil uprising. As for other things, they were not asked.

It may not be true that they are in a group, but in fact, they are indeed related by interests.

News of civil uprisings in various places naturally reached Zhu Guoqiang's case, and of course also reached Zhang Liang, who immediately reported it to the general.

"The general is atoning for his sins, but the subordinate officials are incompetent. It is really impossible to clear the land with this civil uprising."

Zhu Guoqiang, who was feeling angry at the moment, stared at Zhang Liang and asked:

"Civil volts, civil commotions! Zhang Liang, tell me, why do we always have more civil commotions in Ming Dynasty! Why, every tax season, there are so-called "small people can't bear the heavy taxes and beat the tax collectors" everywhere. Why do they always have

The post posted some instigating remarks like "If you don't joke, the tax supervisor can kill you!"

There were even countless civil unrests in the Ming Dynasty. In addition to the Linqing tax resistance of tens of thousands of people, the Suzhou weaving uprising, the robbery and riots instigated by the Jihu in Susong area with the official post "If you have no joke, the tax supervisor can kill you", the Jihu in Hangzhou

In addition to large-scale strikes, fleeing mass violence, etc., almost every year when taxes are collected, "civil uprisings" are triggered in various places. In such uprisings, there may be hundreds of people participating, or more than a thousand people participating, and they beat the tax collectors.

, attacking the government offices has only one purpose - to refuse to pay exorbitant taxes.

But why were there so many civil unrests in the Ming Dynasty?

Facing the general's inquiry, Zhang Liang gritted his teeth and said.

"General, the rebellion of the common people was instigated by the gentry, and its purpose was to refuse to pay money and food."

"oh?"

Zhu Guoqiang raised his eyebrows but did not interrupt him.

"General, the debt arrears has been a long-term problem that has troubled our Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years. Since the Yongle Dynasty, the imperial court has been struggling with the situation of "not being able to collect money." The first peak of the debt was the Yongle Dynasty.

It often owed millions of shi. In the late Yongle period, Suzhou alone owed an average of millions of shi every year."

The lack of tax can be said to be a chronic problem of the Ming Dynasty. Many people say that it only existed in the late Ming Dynasty. However, in fact, it reached its peak during the Yongle period. The main reason for the lack of tax during this period should be several major projects in the Yongle era.

, especially the relocation of the capital to Beijing, on the one hand, the Ming Dynasty's demand for the wealth of Jiangnan increased sharply, and on the other hand, the absence of the central government in Nanjing led to a significant reduction in the state's control over Jiangnan. In this context, the Xuande-Zhengtong era was dominated by Zhou Chen

Represented by elite bureaucrats, they managed the arrears and water transportation in Jiangnan very effectively. This lasted until the middle and late Zhengde period. There was basically no arrears in Jiangnan. By the way, Zhou Chen was captured after Tumu Fort, so

His court backer was most likely Prince Wang Zhen, which illustrates the complexity of Ming Dynasty politics.

Starting from the middle and late periods of Zhengde, the amount of Jiangnan Fu increased year by year and could no longer be reduced. Taking the most important private money for the emperor, one million gold flowers and silver every year as an example, from the 30th year of Jiajing to the 30th year of Jiajing

In nine years, a total of 3.48 million was owed; for another example, in the thirty-seventh year of Wanli, 320,000 gold and silver were owed; according to statistics in the sixth year of Tianqi, each province owed more than 2 million gold and silver; in the sixth and seventh years of Chongzhen

A total of 890,000 gold and silver are spent every year. This is the amount of money that the emperor himself "exclusively uses for the royal family" and "will not be exempted from exceptions", not to mention other things.

Why can't I collect taxes?

Wanli concluded that "the powerful and powerful people are stubborn and unwilling to accept the bullying of the servants", but what is the reality? From ordinary people to powerful powerful people, they are all the main subjects of arrears.

"The root cause of "arrears of taxes", in the final analysis, actually lies with Emperor Gao. When Emperor Gao first came to power, he cared about the poor people and postponed the payment of taxes and grains to the poor households. At the beginning, it was just some real poor people because of

Disaster deferment, but later others followed suit, and as long as there was a reason, everyone would take advantage of it. Later, from the poor to the high-ranking officials, no one's family had been in arrears with taxes and grain for decades.

As a result, starting from the Zhengtong years, every time the new emperor ascended the throne and changed the Yuan Dynasty, the court would waive arrears. When I first ascended the throne, I issued an order to waive arrears before Longqing Yuan B.C., and exempted arrears from the fourth year of Longqing to the first year of Wanli.

You only need to pay 70% of the tax arrears. Even if you ascend the throne now, you have to issue decrees to forgive the arrears..."

Is there such an operation in the world?

Not only did the Ming Dynasty have such an operation, but the Ming Dynasty's ancestral precepts not only asked the people to "postpone payment", but also "among the four peoples, farming is the most miserable, and there are those who work hard all year round but can't eat.

The ancestral motto of "If there are officials who are not strong and harsh, they will be punished with serious crimes." In other words, if a local official dares to forcefully conscript him, he will be dismissed from office, or his head will be lost in the worst case!

This... this is too incredible!

Requisitioning grain for the imperial court may cost you your head. Do you think officials dare to requisition it by force? Emperor Gao, you are really good at cheating your descendants!

"So for the gentry and the common people, as long as they can default on their money and food, they will one day be forgiven by the court. Some ignorant people even prayed for the death of the emperor. After the new emperor ascended the throne, he issued an edict to exempt them from defaulting. The emperor's kindness and kindness are what he got in exchange.

But that's just it! That's why the gentry and ordinary people are racking their brains in order to be able to default on the money and grain. The gentry has a lot of land, so naturally they are less willing to pay the money and grain. The ordinary people certainly don't want to pay. There is so much land that they don't want to pay.

Those with less land did not want to pay it, so from the Yongle year to the present, the gentry and the common people had long reached a consensus. Whenever the gentry with more land went to the government to collect taxes, they would incite ordinary people and let the common people beat the tax collectors. This was called resisting grain. Emperor Gao had it

The ancestral precepts are there, and the official hat of the county magistrate is no longer stable, isn't it? It doesn't matter whether you are poor or rich, you don't want to pay taxes anyway. The gentry can be powerful if they are small, and the common people can be powerful if there are many. Add in on both sides

Together, one side is powerful and the other side has more people, and the two sides cooperate with each other. Although the money and food are not paid, they can always pay a lot less. The arrears will naturally accumulate more and more. Anyway, it is not you who suffers the loss. As for the court...

…who cares.”

Who cares about a good sentence? Zhang Liang's words made Zhu Guoqiang frown. Here and there, the gentry hollowed out the Ming Dynasty. It was obvious that the big guys joined forces to hollow out the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, the most hateful thing is the gentry. I don’t have their backing to plan this, so how can ordinary people dare to do this?

"Actually, they don't pay, they just delay it first. When it gets to the end, the government will naturally give everyone a discount. As for those who are in arrears, they will hang it there first. After more than ten or several decades, the whole world's accumulated debts will be accumulated.

As time goes by, naturally there will be officials who often advocate tax exemption to show the royal benevolence. If any family pays enough, it will suffer a loss in the future. Who in the world is willing to suffer such a disadvantage?"

Although he had paid attention to the tax arrears in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Guoqiang never thought that there would be such an inside story, and Zhang Liang's words completely subverted his knowledge. After all, many materials said that "the evil sergeant Wu and the official Lai Liang"

, but why did it change when it came to Zhang Liang?

"Zhang Liang, if you put it this way, all the criminals who owe money to me in Ming Dynasty are ordinary people!"

Although he heard that the general's tone was unkind, Zhang Liang still said.

"Hmph, it's well known that the general "Zhong Wu, the scholar-bureaucrats who rely on grain" were the gentry in the Ming Dynasty who defaulted on taxes and grains, but it was always the common people who took action. When the common people rebelled against grain, the scholar-bureaucrats always sided with the government.

Yes, they are the mainstay of our Ming Dynasty!"

Ignoring the ugly look on the general's face, Zhang Liang sneered.

"What should we do if the common people are overwhelmed and rebel against food? Of course, we need to rely on the local scholar-officials to appease them. This will not only resolve the rebellion, but also receive tax money and food. Local officials visited the gentry, and after they discussed it, the rebellion was resolved.

Money and food have also been collected. The gentry is a good gentry, the officials are capable officials, and the people are naturally good people."

Listening to Zhang Liang's sarcasm, Zhu Guoqiang asked in reply.

"Aren't they anti-grain? Why did they pay for the grain again? In the end, wouldn't their hard work be in vain?"

"Working hard in vain? How can it be possible that working hard is in vain? General, even ignorant commoners know that it is impossible not to pay the money and food to the court. It is just a matter of paying more and paying less. Therefore, there are officials who discuss with the gentry and want to

To collect money and food from them, you must first ask the gentry to provide money and food. If they take the lead in providing money and food, ordinary people will follow. In the end, most of the money and food paid by the gentry will be returned, and ordinary people will pay 70 to 80%. In this way, the government can

If you collect 50% to 60% of the money and food, you are considered a capable official. If you encounter a more powerful gentry, you may have to return the money and food that he paid. In this way, the tycoon does not have to pay, and the common people do not have to pay.

People can pay less, and they are naturally happy to do so. For ordinary people, it is better to pay more if they can pay less."

Instantly, the line from the movie he wanted to watch came to Zhu Guoqiang's mind.

"You must first let the gentry contribute money and lead the people to donate money. After the gentry donates, the people will follow suit. After the money is received, the gentry's money will be returned in full, and the people's money will be divided into 30 and 70."

Oops!

After working on it for a long time, the Ming Dynasty was just another Goose City!

"What a willing person... Do they really think that the Ming Dynasty has no royal law?"

The general's cold words made Zhang Liang say.

"General, it is true that the generals have the king's laws, but they have the ancestral system of Emperor Gao, and they also say - the law does not blame everyone! There are so many people working together, and those with power are planning behind them, and those without money are
Chapter completed!