The Ming Dynasty: Wanli

Read the author's explanatory chapter in one breath and express your feelings. First, the author and the reader should be on the same starting line, instead of passing over many details by default that the reader already knows, causing the reader to have doubts about the protagonist's actions. For example, the dispute between the internal treasury and the state treasury, such as the implementation of the examination law. PS, up to now, the benefits of the examination law are not obvious. Instead, it forced away a few upright and capable ministers, which left a deep impression on readers. Second, the main and branch lines are unclear. Completing the reform is the first main line. The main tasks that need to be completed in the middle of reaching the goal and the resulting side tasks are all mentioned in one go. The only thing that is clear is that the protagonist's first task is to make money, but it is said to be to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, but in fact it is to confiscate the house. The story of selling the emperor's estate is also hurriedly mentioned. Secondly, the quelling of chaos in various places is also hurriedly mentioned, but the plot is not advanced after all. Third, the portrayal of the protagonist is really unlikable, and the direct result is that the sense of substitution is not strong. Since the protagonist ascended the throne, it can be said that he has been indifferent to human affairs. Most of his methods are deceiving, deceiving the Queen Mother, deceiving the ministers, and deceiving the late emperor. He kept saying that he wanted to complete reforms. At the same time, he was hiding and unwilling to face it. Finally, he said that history books should not be trusted. To be honest, not only did he not have a sense of empathy for the character, but he saw from the protagonist those leaders in life who do nothing, have high demands, and just throw the blame when something goes wrong. 🙂🙂🙂 Finally, the rhythm can be slow, but slow is not flat. It is difficult to agree with others, so the author can control it himself.

How to say it? I feel that the protagonist in this book is useless, and he is not as good as the Wanli Emperor in history. The Wanli Emperor's reforms at least had a clear goal. Whether it was a test method or a whip method, the purpose was to exaggerate the finances. As for other behaviors, people don't bother to pay attention. But when it comes to the reform of the protagonist of this book, he doesn't have a plan, route, or idea. What is the purpose of reform? In order to improve the living standards of the people and expand the national finance. Or to centralize power for the emperor. It's called reform, and the protagonist is still not sure what his goal is. If pig trotters want to improve the level of the people at the bottom, then the agricultural tax will be reduced and the commercial tax will be increased. One is to control customs and use the national model to monopolize maritime trade. One is to directly establish a Lijin system in the Jiangnan area. The absolute annual income is no problem if it is 20 million taels of silver, and no problem if it is 30 million. But in order to expand the emperor's power, then set up a military aircraft office and a study room. Reform is difficult to say or not, but it is not difficult at all. To put it simply, reform means employing people. Be familiar with your officials before hiring them. Now the protagonist is Zhang Juzheng. Zhang Juzheng's shortcomings are already obvious. His reforms are all minor repairs and are mainly made of mud. Similar to Li Hongzhang in the late Qing Dynasty, he was a paper framer. Reform is never simple, just give orders and approve notes. Instead, go deep into every detail and do the small things well, and the big things will be successful. To put it simply, if the protagonist wants to control the army. It's close to giving out a little grain, and it's suitable for giving enough wages, that's fine. The protagonist also needs to be familiar with every grassroots official in the army, and must visit the military camp every three to five days. If the protagonist wants to control the court, he must not only rely on Zhang Juzheng, but also every official he is familiar with, from their personalities to their family history, etc., Must be recorded. Those who support reform, even superficially. The protagonist should also be rewarded. The protagonists who oppose the reform must be severely punished. Nowadays, those who support reform are not rewarded with pig's feet. The reformers are not promoted or made rich, nor are they given any benefits. The protagonist who also opposed the reform was not severely punished. He was still an official in the court, so he was still in a high position. The protagonist can't even distinguish the basic rewards and punishments. He does the same thing no matter how much he does, and the ministers below are absolutely sluggish. There are also pig's feet, if you want to reform. We can't reform the whole country, and we can't reform even one province. Then reform, one county at a time. Using this government as a template, we will carry out reforms for three years. Then reform one province a year, and when the protagonist dies, the Ming Dynasty will definitely change. It is the reform and opening up in China, which means first five special administrative regions, then more than 20 coastal cities, and then gradually extended to the whole country. If the protagonist wants to reform, he should do the following things instead of feeling sorry for himself. First, work hard to review the memorials every day, and push everything to the cabinet and Zhang Juzheng. The cabinet is meant for He Xini, not for reform. Be familiar with every official, know every official who has at least five levels of praise, you know them all. They can use them. A certain president can remember the names of 10,000 people. The protagonist's requirements are a little lower, remember the names of 100 people. Second, every three or five days, we should go to the military camp to inspect, instead of relying on it, instead of simply approving notes and distributing money. Third, the protagonist walks out of the palace and walks among the people. Look at private grain prices, vegetable prices, coal prices, look at what the people at the bottom eat, and see if they support the reform. Instead of just relying on Jin Yiwei and Dongchang to learn about the outside world. Fourth, approach at least 50 officials every day to understand the psychological motivations of most officials in the imperial court. Not going to court does not mean that you should ignore everything. At least you should be familiar with the officials. Officials are lazy. It's not that the officials are useless, but that the emperor has a problem. If officials don't work hard, it's all the emperor's problem. Don't blame everything on the ministers. It is easy for the emperor to reform the system. He can succeed by doing every little thing well. The protagonist now just stays in the palace, doing nothing and feeling sorry for himself. You say that the ministers below are useless and don't work hard, but they don't care about your reforms. The protagonist, now relies on approving notes to reform, thinking that if he approves a few notes, the reform will be successful. Most of the officials below are unknown. Nothing else is required. The protagonist has at least memorized the names of more than a hundred officials, as well as their personalities and resumes. The protagonist has traveled through time and is no longer the Wanli in history. How history develops can no longer rely on Ming history. The current plot is depressing, and it's not Goldfinger's problem. It feels like the protagonist is doing nothing now and loves to feel sorry for himself.

Writing a novel about the Ming Dynasty will inevitably involve going to sea and dealing with foreigners. Can you refer to the Chinese double-layer plywood battleship I drew myself? Chinese-style 48-gun three-masted gunboat, 54 meters long, 12 meters wide, with an aspect ratio of about 4.5 To 1, a draft of 5 meters, and a height of 10 meters. The bottom of the ship is modified based on the Western-style hull, and the hull is a combination of Chinese and Western styles. The ship is equipped with 2 48-pound guns on the bow, 2 12-pound guns on the upper deck of the stern, and 2 24-pound guns on the lower deck. 11 12-Pound guns are mounted on the upper plywood side of the hull, and 10 24-pound guns are mounted on the lower side of the hull. A total of 48 guns are installed, with a crew of 500 and a speed of about 10 knots. The size of the ship and the number of guns it can mount are in line with the third-tier ships of Western sailing warships. During the First and Second Crow Wars, Western records show that the Qing navy imitated Western gunboats, which were similar to this type of warship. Are the authors interested in adopting it?

Ming Taizu Gao Emperor Yu Zhen

Friends who have read Chapter 88 suggest skipping directly to Chapter 95. Chapter ninety-five finally the author comes back to his senses. Not easy! Before and after the release of these photos, I feel like the protagonist is sick and has been ghosted by some idiot from later generations. Especially when I read that the Queen Mother listened to the slander of the young eunuch and directly asked the protagonist to issue an imperial edict to sin against herself (no problem, Queen Mother Li might really do it in history). But the problem is that the protagonist has complete control over the inner court, and the court and cabinet also recognize it. When the protagonist, the emperor, had no power at all (different from the situation in history where Feng Bao was present inside and Zhang Juzheng was outside), the protagonist gave up and said that he did not dare to bet on whether Empress Dowager Li would depose him. I was speechless on the spot because there was only one scene in my mind: Zhang Juzheng shouted: Where are his teammates? What about teammates? Please help! Good guy, in the previous dynasty, the government system was abolished at the earliest opportunity, and the academies were closed at the earliest opportunity. This situation has reached the depths of reform. The protagonist surrendered without resistance. Aren't you afraid that in a few days some forces will encourage the Queen Mother to masturbate Zhang Juzheng? Imperial power comes from the emperor. Historically, Empress Dowager Li threatened Wanli because Wanli did make mistakes. Zhang Juzheng didn't care because he also felt that Wanli did something wrong. It does not mean that he would agree when Empress Dowager Li really wanted to depose Wanli. Where did Empress Dowager Li's power come from? She came from Wanli, not because she was the Queen Mother and everyone admired her, but because she had merit in giving birth to Wanli, and the mother is more valuable than the son! It is not her own strength. I dare say that if Empress Dowager Li really deposed Wanli in history, the ministers would be the first to disagree, because this is a typical case of foreign relatives interfering in politics. No matter how unbearable Wanli is, it was passed down to him by his father, unless he himself abdicated to his younger brother, and his ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang and Emperor Mingzu trained him to protect the throne for his whole life.

This book is really amazing. I will delete the post after expressing my normal opinion. I have not said anything bad about this book, nor any negative news. It is just my normal opinion. You don't even dare to keep the correct things. Do you have to sing praises every day? Isn't this a bit deceptive to yourself and others?

Nobles, gentry, common people and officials, in no particular order, all were offended together. . . . . .

As we all know, Zhang Juzheng's whipping method reduced the possibility of officials collecting exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, but you must not have imagined how harmful this was. A whipping method, to put it simply, is to cancel all taxes, donations, taxes and other miscellaneous taxes, spread them among the acres, and only pay money. Roughly speaking, isn't this a good thing? There are no fixed rules for exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes. Officials can collect as much as they want. Moreover, in the late Ming Dynasty, officials were greedy and collected enough taxes first before turning them over to the central government. They don't care if the central government's tax amount is sufficient. After the reform, ordinary people will be able to reduce their pressure and will not be exploited. But the problem cannot be viewed this way. From the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang counted the large households with more than 700 acres of land in the country and asked them to undertake "service" to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor. After two hundred years, most of these wealthy families have been exploited into civilians, and even their families have been destroyed. Two hundred years later, these large households were replaced by a new class, including officials, gentry, large landowners, etc. The former two did not have to pay taxes because of the imperial examinations, while the latter would also resist taxes. The resistance to taxes was especially severe in Zhijiang, Zhili Province in the south. Suzhou was a model nationwide. Zhang Juzheng once called Suzhou a "ghost country". Despite this, the "services" are still habitually handed over to wealthy families, and occasionally they have to ask them to collect exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes. However, the exploitation is not too heavy, and they pay attention to kindness. You get what you pay, especially when there is a war disaster, many people will ask the wealthy families to "donate", and the wealthy families look at their face. Yes, your family is more or less "collective", and my family is more "collective", because they are afraid that the chief official will write them into the big family, and once they are included in the book, the exploitation will be more severe, so they give the chief official a little, and they can live well. As for how the big family exploits the small people, it is not the focus of our discussion. After the implementation of the One Whip Law, miscellaneous taxes such as taxes, donations, taxes, and servitude were all cancelled, and money was collected in the fields. But do you think it's collected from everyone's property? No, because big households don't pay regular taxes on their acres! Oh, it's over. Big households can blatantly refuse all assessments and exorbitant taxes. It's useless to write them in the book. Therefore, these usual exorbitant taxes are all allocated to small landowners and poor peasants. Coupled with the implementation of the examination law, all officials must collect the full amount. Many of these small landowners and farmers were forced to lose their families because they could not pay. In addition, Mud Legs usually don't need silver. They usually use copper coins of different qualities, so they have to exchange for silver. Who should they turn to? Of course it is a big household, and there are many ways to exchange silver. If you exchange copper coins for silver, you will be exploited because of insufficient quality. If you sell grain to big households, the price of grain will be lowered. When the year is bad, you will mortgage your land. If you go out nine times, you will return home. If the land is not repaid, it will be owned by the big households. This is commonly known as land annexation. Therefore, it is undeniable that the one-whip method added about one million taels of fiscal revenue to the national treasury when it was first implemented, but all of it was squeezed out from small landowners and farmers. It is not unfounded to say that the whipping method has made the country full of complaints. Of course, the one-whip method does have its advantages on the surface, but it ignores the land ownership situation at that time, and even ignores the behemoth of the civil servants and gentry, which is out of touch with reality. It was a powerful medicine for the ailing Ming Dynasty. If reforms were deepened and officials and gentry all received food from one body, it might be possible to bring the country back to life. But in the end, Zhang Juzheng died. We have no way of knowing whether Zhang Juzheng had any follow-up plans to deepen the reform. After all, the strong medicine did not cure the patient, but sounded his death knell.

Generally speaking, the protagonist's political methods are average. The author understands history, but the protagonist seems not to understand history very well. The reform suddenly appeared, and there was no talent reserve in the early stage. Zhang Juzheng seemed to be fighting alone without the support of capable officials. The consequences of the examination method in history are written in great detail, as if describing some of the advantages and disadvantages of the examination method. The protagonist, as an emperor time traveler, is the head of a country, but so far it seems that it has not brought tangible benefits to the people. He is not involved in the specific content of the examination. It feels like I am writing about some historical phenomenon.

The Zhang Juzheng created by the author is a bit too weak! The chief assistant of the Ming Dynasty had few people who could charge into battle. I don't see any political means at all. Has the author really understood the character Zhang Juzheng?