Mingzuo

After Chongzhen succeeded to the throne, it took ten years to defeat Zhang Xianzhong and force Li Zicheng to surrender. The Annei War basically entered its final stage. Just when he was about to turn his energy to the war against foreigners, a strange drought suddenly broke out in North China. From the Great Wall to the Huanghuai River, hundreds of millions of acres of fertile farmland fell into a state of no harvest, and tens of millions of people were unable to make a living. This was the situation where Li Zicheng rode into the disaster area on his 18th horse and mobilized millions of hungry soldiers. Therefore, in the face of the three-year drought in North China, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, and Huangtai chicken were just suffering from scabies. If we want to revive the Ming Dynasty, we must deal with three years of severe drought. We must build canals, dig irrigation wells, plant corn, and plant sweet potatoes in advance.

Simply put, the tax cannot be collected. To collect taxes, a strong army is necessary. This requires the emperor to be able to train troops and fight. Or you can find loyal ministers who can train troops and fight. Chongzhen had Sun Chuanting, but it was a pity that he was killed by himself. In general, many problems in the Ming Dynasty originated from Zhu Yuanzhang, and subsequent emperors basically did not solve the problems left by Zhu Yuanzhang.

The cuteness is over, why! Natural disasters and man-made disasters are still happening before the natural disasters, and the relief supplies have not even left Beijing. Several percent of the supplies have been sold out. He talks about benevolence, justice, morality, and is all about business.

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.

Even if you travel to Chongzhen, you still have to rebel. If you don't rebel, how can you survive? The gentry in the late Ming Dynasty is definitely a typical representative who will not shed tears without seeing the coffin.

In the situation at the end of the Ming Dynasty, unless there was a real finger, everyone would be dead. Natural and man-made disasters, financial collapse, military collapse, and official governance collapse. Besides, the situation at the end of the period was a financial collapse, and there was no financial support for any idea. The only way is to attract money and manpower, go to the south to arm the locals, and start over. Only then can victory be possible. Only by entering as a rebel can there be a glimmer of hope.

After flipping through the first few chapters, I saw Zhu Youjian running to debate the Bible with a missionary and gave up!

We start minting money as soon as we come up, why can't we wait a little longer?

😂 Wei Zhongxian wants to be the emperor himself, really 6, I can't stand it anymore

If your level is not good enough, please read more history books.

A suggestion to the author, don't involve too much technology in the novel. There is currently a Western pseudo-history theory that points out that there are too many flaws in Western history. The longer time goes by, the greater China's influence will be, and the higher the tone in this regard. For those who have read Western pseudo-histories, looking back at today's historical novels, it feels like the Jade Emperor shouted, Go to the West and invite the Tathagata Buddha. The smell was so strong. Missionaries such as Tang Ruowang and Matteo Ricci were well versed in astronomy, geography, medicine, cartography, cannon-making, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, calendars, navigation, shipbuilding, and so on. Why do you feel like you are possessed by Aristotle? The true God has blessed us with omniscience and omnipotence! 😅

At the beginning of Chongzhen's succession, everything was still possible. He stopped Sun Chengzong who was crazy about building terrain, refused Yuan Dudu to leave Guangxi, strongly supported Mao Wenlong in developing Dongjiang Town, and formed a new army of absolutely loyal musketeers! But if it were the Chou Zhen of 1644 and there was no golden finger, then just wait for death. If you move south earlier, you can live a few more years!

Just mint coins as soon as you come up? Basic information, shallow knowledge!

The Ming Dynasty is hopeless. There are natural and man-made disasters. There are too many pig teammates. I have not lost the courage to practice again. I am too naive to believe that greedy and shameless civil servants and nobles are speechless.

There is no golden finger when traveling through Chongzhen. It is really hopeless. The slaves and bandits are only minor problems, but the weather is the big problem. If it weren't for Xiao Glacier, no matter how serious the land issue was, the country would not be destroyed. Tens of millions of people in the entire north have not had enough to eat for more than ten years. Even if Zhu Yuanzhang is reborn, the most he can do is save the south without food. The north is in a dead end.

The French cannon and the Furlong cannon are not the same thing. The French cannon is copied from the European front-loading smoothbore cannon. It is a front-loaded cannon from the beginning to the end. Moreover, the French cannon and the French cannon have never been confused. During the Chongzhen period, red barbarian cannons weighing less than 1,000 kilograms were often called French cannons. And even for field artillery, the Ming Army also had many wrought iron cannons that could be used as lightweight field artillery, such as the large and small Weiyuan cannons. The large and small Weiyuan cannons played the role of field short-barreled cannons even though they were lightweight.

I didn't even finish reading twenty chapters, but I felt the plot of Forcible Walking. As soon as I wrote the first book, I immediately attracted the attention of a high-ranking eunuch, kidnapped him and took him to another city, and coerced and induced the protagonist to do things for him. The protagonist immediately joined the camp and helped the eunuch with his plans! The step is too big

When the ship was in disaster and turned around, what Ming Dynasty needed was someone with clever means, who would take his time and die in a sudden storm, such as Chongzhen, which is more typical.

After reading fifty chapters, I feel that the author's writing skills are good. If this is the first time for the author to write a book, I feel excited and a little envious, haha. Because the subject was chosen during the late Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen, a very controversial era with many related works, the arrangement of certain plots and the creation of characters may not be in line with the tastes of some readers. At least I expressed some objections in the article, but the author still responded patiently to the exchange. Overall, the control and advancement of the plot are to a certain level, and the description of the battle process of the Battle of Ningyuan is very attractive to me, not a novel. I really look forward to the author writing this book, and I also hope that some subsequent parts of the novel (such as the steam engine) can refer to readers' feedback and appropriately adjust the plot arrangement and description focus. I have read a book called Puan Ming before, also written by Chongzhen, and it has many merits. Another book from the late Ming Dynasty is also worth learning about its descriptions of technology and military warfare, characters, and dialogues. Finally, I can't help but share my opinion. If the author wrote about steam engines, would it be appropriate to develop them in the early days of Chongzhen? What level of improvement would be appropriate for later inventions, and what impact would it have on agricultural society? This prime mover, which historically appeared in the late 17th century and was only widely used in the late 18th century, would make it difficult to control the plot if it is developed and used too early in the text. If it is for military purposes, there is actually nothing wrong with using water power. For this point, we can refer to the weapon development and application in the late Ming Dynasty, and the focus should even be on financial reform and military reform.

I used to be able to update twice a day, but now I just let it happen. Brother, please give me some strength 😅

I'm so weak, and it's intermittent every day 😥

The taxes of the Ming Dynasty were set by Zhu Yuanzhang. For example, Shaanxi had to pay 500,000 taels of silver a year. If Shaanxi had a good harvest, it would only pay 500,000 taels. But what if there is no harvest due to natural disasters? Sorry, it's still 500,000 taels. No more, no less! Many people attribute the demise of the Ming Dynasty to the Little Glacier, but the Little Glacier is a global climate anomaly that affected not only the Ming Dynasty, but also the Manchu and Qing Dynasties. The Little Glacier lasted for a century, and the most severe period was in the middle of Kangxi. This raises questions, why did the Ming Dynasty fall while the Manchu Qing Dynasty continued to expand? First of all, the Ming Dynasty was fundamentally opposed to farmers. Zhu Yuanzhang divided his sons into feudal lords all over the country, and his descendants followed suit, such as King Qin, King Shu, King Chu, King Fu, King De, and dozens of other vassal kings. Each one of them was the largest landowner in the local area, occupying a large amount of people's land and annexing land. Of course, it is borne by the common people. As long as natural disasters break out and a large number of poor people starve to death, peasant uprisings will naturally occur. Secondly, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were greedy for enjoyment and incompetent in governing the country. Jiajing practiced Taoism, Wanli did not go to court, Tianqi was a carpenter, and in the end Chongzhen wanted to make a splash, but his ability was limited and it was too late.

A good historical fan fiction, as long as you persevere, it will probably become a masterpiece.

No more updates? Are you preparing to be a eunuch?

In fact, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, I have a way to start the martial arts era and restore the glory of the martial arts in the late Tang Dynasty. Those civil servants will be dead. Of course, I won't talk about the consequences.

Chongzhen should insist on fighting against the outside world and pacify the inside first. He should not give up the decisive battle between Songjin and Huang Taiji. He should drop his superior troops into the pass and wipe out the rebels first! Then we have a decisive battle with Huang Taiji

The boss updates every day. It's so insincere. How about I keep it for a month?

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the bureaucracy was rotten to the core. Civil servants were fighting for power and the party was fighting against dissidents. Military generals were greedy for life and afraid of death, eating empty pay and drinking the blood of soldiers. The court and the localities were alienated from each other, and the people and the gentry were alienated from each other. Emperor Huang Taiji, Emperor Taizong of the Qing Dynasty, was a great leader of the world. He reused Han officials and promoted national integration. He was good at introducing and learning Western firearms. Everyone in the poor Han race was vying to be the leader. It was a pity that he died young!

I don't understand why the author set up the time traveler to be a researcher at the Local Chronicles Institute. Studying local chronicles is only limited to a corner of history and culture. What role does it play in saving the peril of the late Ming Dynasty?

I feel that the author is still very careful. After all, he has just started writing, so it is understandable to be a little green. But in terms of language expression, I personally think it takes a lot of effort to be remarkable. Why didn't you persevere, brother?