The Ming Dynasty's Chief Censor

When I saw the introduction, I almost persuaded me to leave. After reading two chapters, I realized that it was actually quite well written.

It's written like a pig's feet. Also brought along Zhang Juzheng's second wife

I don't think this author is a novice and doesn't know whose source it is.

The Yuan Dynasty had the most prosperous overseas trade in Chinese history. The Yuan Dynasty government relied on this extra income to conquer Japan twice in a row, conquer Myanmar three times, violently assault Vietnam countless times, and even taught Indonesia a lesson thousands of miles away. It also conquered Thailand along the way. Such huge military expenditures not only did not bring down the domestic economy, but made all walks of life in the country prosper. This is what Marco Polo saw before leaving China. But not long after Marco Polo left, the economy of the Yuan Dynasty ran into problems. The first big problem was that as overseas trade became more and more prosperous, the income of the Yuan Dynasty government was getting lower and lower. When Kublai Khan was in power, the Yuan Dynasty government The government only levied a 10% tariff on luxury goods and a 5% tariff on general items, which was enough to fill the Yuan Dynasty's treasury. However, shortly after Kublai Khan left, the Yuan government doubled the tax, but the revenue was plummeting. What's going on? To understand this problem, we must first understand who is paying taxes in a society? We generally think that the wealthy class is the main source of national tax revenue, but the fact is exactly the opposite. No matter in which society, the wealthy class pays the least taxes. Why would Trump rather take the lawsuit to the Supreme Court than make his tax reports public? Why is Buffett ashamed to say that he pays more taxes than his secretary? Because no matter in any society, the wealthy class can always control more resources, so they can always pay the least taxes. The richest class in the United States basically do not pay taxes because they can always find loopholes in the policy. This is the so-called establishment of a charitable foundation, so Bill Gates donated all his assets, and Zuckerberg followed suit. We used to think that these two people were extremely noble, and we were moved to tears by their selfless feats. But now we all know that they are just to evade taxes. The real main force of taxation in American society is actually the less wealthy middle class. The same was true in the Yuan Dynasty. In the early days of the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, the shipping industry of the Yuan Dynasty had a large number of small and medium-sized shipowners. They made money by transporting grain from the south to the north and overseas trade for the Yuan Dynasty government. However, due to their small capital and weak ability to resist risks, they would immediately go bankrupt if they encountered natural disasters. For example, it is recorded in "Da Yuan Shipping Records" that in the fourth year of the Great Yuan Dynasty, the small and medium-sized boat owners who undertook the transportation of grain from the south to the north were hit by a wind on the way and suffered sea damage. Not only were they unable to earn the freight of 11 taels and 5 yuan per stone, but they had to compensate for the official grain transported. In the end, they had to sell fifty-six ships with a total of 26,230 grain to compensate for the official debt. Not only are their ability to resist risks lower, but shipowners with smaller capital are also less able to establish government relations. Therefore, they pay higher operating costs than big businessmen during the business process, but their profits are much less than those of big businessmen. Of course, this is true in any country today. According to the records in Volume 6 of Yu Ji's "Ancient Records of Dao Yuanxue", "Two Envoys to Send Concubines to the Temple", the wealthy family's boat received a large amount of millet, and the commission was very generous, and it was half-realized to make profits from private goods; the middle-class family often bribed officials to seek exemption, while the lower-class boat households had to pay for grain in dangerous distances, and could not get good grain, so their boats often failed. Not only were they at a disadvantage in domestic trade, but even in overseas trade, they could not compare with big merchants. According to the records in Volume 4 of "Guangdong Customs Chronicle", the maritime merchants of the Yuan Dynasty were quite complex. They included not only ordinary merchants, but also princes and ministers, religious forces, and even queens. These people had great hands and eyes and could not pay taxes, so they had an absolute advantage in the competition. The Yuan Dynasty engaged in a free market economy, so after a period of survival of the fittest, the domestic and foreign trade of the Yuan Dynasty gradually concentrated in the hands of a small group of wealthy and powerful people. For example, "Historical History of the Yuan Dynasty" and "Ahema Zhuan" recorded that the powerful minister Ahema Zhang Hui "narrowed the power of the prime minister and served as a merchant to attract huge profits from all over the world." It is recorded in "Remaining Stories from the Farm" that Zhu Qing and Zhang Xuan, the great merchants who led 500 giant ships to surrender to the Yuan Dynasty at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, by the middle of the Yuan Dynasty, had become "wealthy than the feudal lord, with jewels and goods worth tens of thousands of dollars." Capital will definitely form a monopoly, and this is true both at home and abroad in ancient and modern times. So, just like if you drive in the United States today, the gas stations, hotels, and places to eat that you see along the way are almost all chain stores. This situation is not only happening in the United States, but China today is also developing in this direction. In fact, this is an inevitable law of history. As long as capital reaches a certain level, it will inevitably be able to interfere in politics, so these rich people basically do not pay taxes. Therefore, as the overseas scale of the Yuan Dynasty became larger and larger, fewer and fewer people paid taxes, and the revenue of the national treasury began to plummet, so the government increased taxes. As a result, small and medium-sized businessmen went bankrupt, capital became more concentrated in the hands of large chaebols, and the government was even more stretched. Some people may wonder, is this caused by the corruption of the Yuan Dynasty government? Of course there is this reason, but even if the Yuan Dynasty government is not corrupt, big businessmen will not easily hand over money to the government. This has been the case from ancient times to the present. Do you know why Trump scolds Apple every day? Because they keep all their profits in Ireland and do not remit them to the United States, they do not pay taxes. Large companies have many capable people and many ways to evade taxes. Since the rich do not pay taxes, the country has no choice but to exploit the poor. The tariffs the country loses in overseas trade will have to be made up for in other industries, and a lot of new problems will arise. This brings up the second major problem of the Yuan Dynasty, the unprecedented scale of land annexation. What will a businessman do when he has money? Of course, they have to buy land. Previous dynasties also had land annexation issues, but they were usually very slow. Firstly, the landlords did not have much money, so it was difficult to make a fortune from farming. Secondly, it was also difficult for them to buy farmers' land. Unless there was a natural or man-made disaster, farmers would not easily sell their land. But the Yuan Dynasty was different. The Yuan Dynasty was a commercial society, so there were many rich people. That is to say, people in the Yuan Dynasty were not short of money. Secondly, the Yuan Dynasty was different from other dynasties. Farmers in the Yuan Dynasty planted a large number of cash crops, and the division of labor was very detailed. This made them particularly vulnerable to market fluctuations. So much so that if a butterfly flaps its wings thousands of miles away, the economy of the Yuan Dynasty will have a bad cold. After the middle period of the Yuan Dynasty, major changes took place in the world. The Ilkhanate established by the Mongols split, the Ottoman Turks rose, and the Black Death broke out in Europe. This caused the Sino-European trade routes to be often blocked, and demand in Europe dropped sharply. This in turn caused China's external exports to plummet, and overproduction actually occurred in the Yuan Dynasty. As a result, Dayuan had domestic problems. Handicraftsmen began to lose their jobs. Farmers who planted cash crops naturally went bankrupt. Land was quickly acquired by businessmen with large capital. This led to another problem. More and more industrial and commercial households and farmers who provided tax revenue to the country became bankrupt. The less, but the state's expenditure cannot be less, which forces the government to continuously increase taxes, which in turn leads to the bankruptcy of a large number of industrial and commercial households and farmers, and then causes a new round of land annexation, making it more difficult for the government to collect taxes, and is forced to raise taxes again, and then enters a vicious circle. Moreover, there were continuous rains when the house leaked. Natural disasters continued from the middle to the mid-Yuan Dynasty, resulting in a reduction in food production. The Yuan Dynasty was a society with a high degree of division of labor. There were particularly many people who were engaged in industry and commerce full-time, so people who ate commercial grains were also the same in all dynasties. However, the Yuan Dynasty was the era when the proportion of cash crops was the highest and the proportion of commercial grains was the smallest. Therefore, famines began to break out continuously from the middle period of the Yuan Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang's parents both starved to death because of this reason. Under the influence of these factors, after the mid-term of the Yuan Dynasty, a large number of refugees appeared. According to the records in "History of the Yuan Dynasty", because "rich households in the south of the Yangtze River invaded people's fields, causing the poor to become homeless", in the first year of the Da dynasty, there were more than 1.3 Million households in Jiangsu and Zhejiang alone. By the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty, there were more than 5 million hungry people along the Yellow River, so it didn't take long for the Red Turban Army to revolt. So trade must bring benefits? Depends on who you ask! ! ! If we draw our vision back to the late Yuan Dynasty and look at it from Zhu Yuanzhang's perspective, without large-scale overseas trade, there would not be a large amount of commercial capital involved in national politics, causing corruption in the bureaucratic system, large-scale land annexation, and the collapse of the national tax system. If it collapses, there will not be a large number of refugees, there will not be a large number of people quitting their jobs to engage in handicrafts, and there will not be a large number of farmers to plant cash crops. In this way, a slight drought or flood will not trigger a large-scale famine, starving Zhu Yuanzhang's parents to death, causing him to rebel and directly destroy the country. So faced with so many unforgettable lessons, what should Zhu Yuanzhang do when he becomes emperor?

At first I thought it was a nonsensical type, but in the end the plot turned out to be quite interesting, and it also explained my own views on historical cases. I just can't bear it anymore, why would I just write such rubbish on the shelves? I hope I can get my subscription money back. Even though it's not much, I don't care. You can just find a charity to donate to. I just want to express my worthlessness, I don't understand what is written after it is put on the shelf? Emperor Jiajing is not even as good as Chongzhen, right? Emotional Jinyiwei is all a background board, right? Jiajing's decrees can't leave the imperial city, right? There is also a setting. Since the protagonist is going to die, why not just open the city gate or directly enter the palace? Also why not go directly to the emperor and tell him to flee south. Or simply force Jiajing to learn from Jingkang and bring the harem to peace talks? Finally, refund the money

This book friend is not revolutionary at all. He sympathizes with the emperor in the book every day and is worried about what happened to the revolution in the book. Let's not talk about the extremely short life span of workers in the early days of capitalism. Child labor basically did not survive for five years. It took more than a hundred years for the French Revolution. For a strong centralized country like China, if you want to overthrow the monarchy, you must wait until the Bolsheviks after the second-dimensional industrial revolution Putting aside these things, is revolution a bad thing? Shouldn't the feudal autocratic monarchy be overthrown? Shouldn't they be eliminated? It's too outrageous for you to empathize with an autocratic monarch.

The law of historical development must not be violated. The protagonist of the Jiangnan chapter is still too soft-hearted. Since he was exploited by Jiajing's short selling, capitalism will definitely not be able to stop it. We can't just want and want, and be thrown into jail at every turn. If it's too long, we should engage in party struggle fiercely. Only when we enter the cabinet can we have the right to speak. No one is invincible. I want to see blood flowing like a river.

I compared this book and dry skills again today. It's completely two directions. One is to look at the imperial court from the bottom up, from the local level, with the promotion and progress of ideology, culture, science and technology as the leading role. One is from top to bottom, from the court to the local governments, led by the implementation and results of changes and reforms in the court system. One writes that Jiajing is hopeless and needs to be pushed back to the beginning The other writes that Jiajing can still be saved and needs to be reformed One protagonist is smooth in everything One protagonist is strong and would rather die The most interesting thing is. The current plot. One is that the imperial court forced the people to plant mulberry trees to waste food. The other is that the people forced the court to grow mulberry and waste grain. There are a lot of complementarities among them, which is really interesting to watch at the same time.

I saw Chapter 100 today and I was confused, really confused. Did the author sell the book? Or has it become more popular? I can't understand the chapters after they are released. I don't know what the protagonist wants to do? What are you doing? Inside, from Jiajing, Yan Song, and Xu Jie to the passers-by and soldiers below, are they really big question marks? What are they doing? The plot is completely disconnected, the text has no preface and follow-up, and the protagonist simply disappears or does some inexplicable things. As soon as it was put on the shelves, the quality plummeted. How can I subscribe?

The quality of the book has been declining since the protagonist was assassinated. I hope the author can adjust it. Now the protagonist is basically invisible. Regardless of whether it is a group portrait or not, if there is a protagonist, the story should revolve around the protagonist. But in the last ten or twenty chapters, it does not matter whether there is a protagonist or not 🤔