After the Ming Dynasty

There were many ways to extend his life in the Ming Dynasty. Even if Chongzhen wanted to live to be seventy-three, as long as his health was good enough, it was possible, but it was absolutely impossible to make a comeback. To solve the problems in the late Ming Dynasty, the solution is very simple, just let the farmers go back to farming. To allow farmers to go back to farming, we have to move away the five big mountains that burden farmers: taxes, labor, donations, rent, and debt. (1) Taxes From beginning to end, the Ming Dynasty was plagued by a serious problem: taxes were too low. Because taxes are too low, ordinary people cannot live under the pressure of taxes. The taxes in the Ming Dynasty were so low that even the cost of collecting them was not enough to maintain the daily expenses of the government. Therefore, the cost of collecting them had to be "solved by themselves" by the local government. So, should the government look to the poor to solve the problem, or should the government look to the rich to solve the problem? In the environment of the Ming Dynasty, there were no rich people without political background, so the answer was obvious, find the poor to solve the problem. And even if it is a formal tax, it is easier for the rich to evade it because they have power. So the taxes that should have been paid by both the poor and the rich are now paid only by the rich, and the rest falls on the poor. When Chongzhen levied three rates, he made "precise calculations" and believed that the three rates were completely within the range that farmers could afford, because he only counted legal taxes, but illegal taxes were ten times more than legal taxes. Even if the three rates were not levied, farmers would still be unable to afford it. For example, there are 10 households in this village with 3,000 acres of land. Two of them have 1,200 acres each, and the remaining 8 households have a total of 600 acres. Originally, if one bushel of land was collected per acre, and a total of 300 shi of grain was collected, everyone could afford it, and the government's expenses would be sufficient. However, the court wanted to "light corvee and pay little tax" and changed it to 30 tax per 1, and only levied 100 shi for grain. The two large households could each pay 40 shi, and the 8 small households paid a total of 20 shi. However, the government actually needs 300 shi, otherwise it will not even be able to pay the tax collector's salary. So who will come up with the remaining 200 shi? Of course, it is through various "bad rules" and all kinds of unbelievable excuses that are imposed on those small households. So, two large households own 80% of the land, but only need to pay 27% of the tax, and eight small households only own 20% of the land, but need to pay 73% of the tax. This is based on the premise that large households abide by the law and pay taxes according to regulations, but in actual implementation, they still have to evade taxes. Therefore, those small-scale self-cultivators nominally "enjoyed" the "benevolent government" of thirty-one tax, but in fact had to spend half of their income to deal with government exploitation, which was not much lighter than the exploitation suffered by tenant farmers. This has led to their poor ability to withstand natural disasters. Once a disaster occurs, the total harvest is not enough to pay taxes, what should we do? Then you have to escape, and so the refugees were born. (2) Service There were rules in the Ming Dynasty. People with meritorious status were not required to perform corvee service, and even the service silver had a certain amount of exemption. As long as you dare to dig a cat hole, someone will dig an undersea tunnel for it. In the environment of the Ming Dynasty, if there was no famous person in the family, it would be impossible to be a big landowner for a long time, and the family property would definitely be taken away. Therefore, most wealthy landowners have fame. The "appropriate exemptions" stipulated by the grassroots level mean that they simply don't pay a penny. Therefore, this regulation actually means that the issue of corvee service has nothing to do with the Jin gentry. Corvee service was supposed to mean "the rich should pay and the powerful should contribute." But now that the rich can no longer contribute, what should we do? Then we can only exert our strength to death. Not only people have to work hard, but animals also have to serve the Ming Dynasty. For example, if you have a cow at home, then your corvee will be much heavier than others, so heavy that you can't afford it at all. What should I do if I don't want to do corvee work? Sold the cow. How to farm the land after selling the cattle? Cannot be planted. What should I do if I can't plant the land? Escape. So the refugees were born. (3) Donation What should we do if normal taxation and the extortion accompanying taxation are still not enough for the daily expenses of local government, or cannot satisfy the desires of officials? Then come up with various excuses and make temporary arrangements. Including the transit of officials and troops across the border, it will bring a huge burden to the farmers, because these will become an excuse for the government to collect various assessments, taxes, and "temporary transfers." The so-called "temporary recruitment" is basically direct robbery. It would be even worse if the people who came to be "recruited" were not government servants but officers and soldiers. Especially during the Chongzhen period, the officers and soldiers who suppressed bandits took away your family's money, food, livestock, your wife, daughters, and even your head. What to do? When the army is suppressing bandits, the most dangerous thing is to be a commoner, but it is safer to be a bandit. After all, the bandits are the people who provide food and clothing for the officers and soldiers. In many cases, even if they are surrounded by the officers and soldiers, they can still spend money to buy a way out, while the common people can only die. (4) Rent Rent refers to the rent paid by tenants to landlords. I don't know what the original practice was. I only know that when the tenant farmers in Shicheng County, Jiangxi Province were fighting for rent reduction, they demanded "a reduction in rent, so that they can only pay seven or eight dou per stone." With a large population and little land, landlords and tenants are in a completely unequal relationship. Landlords rely on their fame to gain protection from the government, while tenants only have their own labor force, and their labor force can be replaced at any time. This makes tenant farmers have no right to speak without resorting to violence. Therefore, landlords can use various means to exploit tenants at will, such as making large buckets in and small buckets out, making tenants bear the transportation cost of delivering grain to the granary, adding one bucket of rice for every stone collected, asking tenants to work for their families for free, asking tenants to avoid taboos, and even sleeping with tenants' wives. If you are dissatisfied, you do not want to share the land. Others want to share it. If the land is leased to others, the landlord will still be the landlord, and your whole family will starve to death. Of course, there are also landowners who have good conscience and do not exploit their tenants. However, others have the ability to take care of you at any time, but you can only rely on their conscience. Can such a peaceful life really last long? (5) Debt Both farmers and tenant farmers generally face a problem. After dealing with the four major problems of taxes, labor, donations, and rent, there will be basically nothing left in this year's harvest, and they will not even have food to eat. Then, you have to borrow food. If you borrow money, according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, the maximum monthly profit is three points, but in actual implementation, this is basically the minimum standard. It is even more outrageous to borrow grain. No matter you borrow it for half a year or three months, you have to pay back the summer grain as soon as you harvest it. For every stone you borrow, you have to pay back one stone and a half. What should I do if I can't afford it? Li Zicheng has already set an example. The master will hand you a piece of paper to the Yamen. He will first beat you, then show you the shackles, and make you kneel in the sun. You will not be given food or water. You will be released after three days of shackles. Nonsense, you will attract flies in three days. The combination of these five mountains ensures that farmers have no residual property and no ability to resist risks. If an accident occurs, their families will be destroyed. "Unfortunately", Chinese farmers do not have the custom of starving to death at home without food. None of these five mountains can be moved by the emperor. Once the mountain collapses, the emperor will be the first to be killed. These problems can be solved, but they cannot be solved by the emperor. If the emperor wants to touch these problems, he will betray most of his minions. An emperor without minions is nothing but an emperor. Chongzhen did not dare to shout the slogans of "three years of exemption from taxation" and "no errands and no grain". Completely clearing land and reforming the land tax across the country, not to mention how many people will be offended, there are not even available human resources. If he wanted to "suppress the troops and pacify the people", the soldiers would be suppressed by him first. Chongzhen naturally did not dare to support the permanent tenancy system and let tenant farmers press the landlords' heads to force them to sign contracts. Abolition of slavery, burning of body deeds, and burning of bonds would be even less daring. If you don't dare to do any of these, then you will just have to linger.

The author takes it too much for granted. He divides the fields, unites this and that, and discusses military and state affairs with ordinary people. You are ridiculous. You take it too much for granted.

What if you come during the harvest season? Disrupt your production order, how can you feed so many people. You are in Shandong, and the geographical location is too bad. There is no one who can unify the world from Shandong. When the author develops in Shandong, he will inevitably be attacked from the north and the south. How can the army fight against the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty without training for several years. The combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners was second to none in East Asia at that time, and could even be said to be the best in the world.

The reason why Guangwu can be revived is because the people of the Han Dynasty have always had a sense of kindness to the royal family. The rule of Wen and Jing is not an exaggeration. Although Emperor Wu was militaristic, he established the backbone of the Han nation. On the other hand, in Zhu Ming, the wooden and earthen forts caused hundreds of thousands of elite troops of the Han nation to be wiped out in one fell swoop. Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty drafted a girl, and the people of Jiangnan were wiped out. He was busy marrying his daughter, Emperor Jiajing was busy cultivating immortals, and let the people of the capital die of hunger and cold without even caring about the dignity of the country. The various taxes imposed by Emperor Chongzhen to protect the country were imposed on ordinary people without any bottom line. It was a completely unacceptable practice. Didn't he know that this was a rebellion forced by the government and the people? He just knew that he would suppress the people and did not dare to attack the nobility, civil servants, and clan. To these people, he would rather humble himself as a noble emperor and beg for donations from these people. He did not have Zhu Yuanzhang's ruthlessness at all! He is really cruel to the people! Not to mention those weird clans in the Ming Dynasty, the people wanted to eat their flesh. Such a pig will never die, which is unacceptable in heaven. It's just that what no one expected was that Manqing Pig Tail took advantage of that. After the death of the Song Dynasty, due to its openness to business, although the peasants were exploited too much, but the people could still survive to some extent. For the scholar-bureaucrat group, the scholar-bureaucrats are still willing to observe integrity for the country, so there are still people who are willing to jump off the cliff. And the Ming Dynasty was cruel to the people. It has also raised a group of literati and landowners who have no integrity, and a royal family that has completely lost its popular base will only become a ghost if it can be supported!

You take it for granted. If you rebel, you will rebel. Ancient people, do you think they were stupid? Farmers are simpler and smarter than anyone else. Literary and reasonable, full of idealism. Brother, you are rebelling.

There is a problem with the title of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the book. What is the Qing court called? Calling it Qing means that the protagonist recognizes its legitimacy. On the protagonist's side, it should be called Pseudo-Qing or Donglu and Jiannu.

How should I put it, fifty or sixty chapters have been written, and the protagonist has been showing off how great he is. The protagonist is the one who expresses himself in front of others, and there are no other characters in the author's works. The rebellion has been going on for so long, but there is no specific program, no specific teaching group, or propaganda team. Others are watching the protagonist train, eat with the soldiers, and help the old lady carry water. The protagonist is acting like a crazy person, and he has not taught everyone what to do.

I have no desire to continue watching. Are my expectations too high?

Why do so many books start in Shandong? No matter which angle you look at, Sichuan is more suitable than Shandong, right? The mountains are high and the forests are dense and dangerous, and it is a granary. There is no shortage of people, minerals and rivers. The location is perfect. Why not start in Sichuan?

In short, author, please use less technology trees and less preaching. Don't describe the main heroine's plot like the previous book. There is not as much life as the main character. The main character in this book is a bit ungrounded and looks down. Ordinary people are half a step ahead. Geniuses are one step ahead and crazy. Don't say anything to me about those who win the hearts of the people. The world is so fake. Look at who in history has truly risen from ordinary people to the position of emperor. Only nobles are always qualified to play. Although it is cruel, it is reality. What I want to tell you is that Zhu Yuanzhang started out as a commoner. Zhu Yuanzhang was the son-in-law of Guo Zixing.