strictlysupreme Chapter 934 The Great Era
Chapter 934 The Great Era
Chapter 934 The Great Era
The 22nd year of Zhengde finally arrived as promised.
If there was one thing that made the emperor feel uneasy before the New Year, it was the lack of new war reports from Japan.
He originally expected that his 100,000-strong army was unlikely to encounter defeat in Japan. Even if that nation was extreme, there would at most be one or two tough battles, and the outcome would not change.
If time drags on for a few more months, he will start to doubt. Even if he doesn't fail on the battlefield, after all, he is crossing the ocean to the east, where the winds are high and the waves are rough, and any accidents may happen.
He hid this slight worry in his heart and didn't let anyone see it.
Under such circumstances, he took the third, fourth and fifth princes to the Beijing Garrison Military District for a two-day in-depth inspection.
The Beijing Garrison Military District has five large armies. According to the standard of 30,000 people per army, the size of the large military district after the reform will be smaller than the original Beijing Garrison of more than 200,000 people.
But the combat effectiveness has obviously improved.
Soldiers need to be selected, generals need to have a military academy background, and senior generals above the rank of thousand households need to have experience on the battlefield.
In any feudal era, if one could gather such an elite army of 150,000 people, one would have the capital to compete for the world.
As for how deep the inspection is...
The emperor stayed in the military camp for two nights, watching the cannon test, the soldiers fighting each other and the cavalry charging. On another occasion, he walked into the soldiers' accommodation and carefully inspected the soldiers' basic living conditions.
Finally, I had a meal with the soldiers in the army.
Outsiders thought that this was a face-saving project, or simply an attempt to win people's hearts, but Zhu Houzhao himself was quite interested in it, especially since Zhou Shangwen, the commander-in-chief of the military region, was a famous general of the time and his views were quite unique, which made him feel very fresh.
After the Chinese New Year, there will be no such time anymore.
The grand court meeting in the 22nd year of Zhengde was not just for officials summoned by the emperor to come to the capital.
In addition, countries such as Korea, Champa, and Ryukyu also sent envoy delegations, as well as some representative big businessmen from abroad.
There are also leaders of Mongolian tribes and local chieftains in the southwest.
The Grand Court Assembly has been going on for twenty years, and the surrounding countries and major forces have a clearer idea of what it does.
If they had a sensitive relationship with the Ming Dynasty and some ulterior motives, they would definitely come. Even if they did not have an official position in the court, they could always hear some news in the capital. If the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was angry with someone, they might be able to avoid disaster if they begged for mercy in time.
This is even more true for those who do business, as the directions decided by the court often contain business opportunities, such as port construction, development of a certain industry, and so on.
As for the local chieftains, most of them came just to ask for money.
The grand court meeting determines the direction of the court's policies, most of which require investments of real money.
In fact, just like many local officials, one of the reasons they came to Beijing was to ask for money. The Ming Dynasty was so big and there were so many national affairs that the finances could not take care of all places. For example, investment in water conservancy also had to be prioritized.
This power was in the hands of the emperor alone, so even the important ministers had to first understand the emperor's thoughts before they could successfully make suggestions.
In order to win the favor of the emperor of Ming Dynasty, in exchange for a word of relief,
People from all walks of life who come to Beijing really have to put in a lot of effort.
Gifts like beautiful women, local specialties, etc. should be placed in the back row.
At the grand court meeting in the 19th year of the Zhengde reign, the chieftain of the Yang family in the southwest directly submitted the statistical yellow book of the population and land under his jurisdiction, as well as taxes.
Paying taxes is a symbol of actually accepting rule.
This made the emperor very happy, so he became generous. On the one hand, he conferred more official titles on the chieftains, and on the other hand, he allocated more funds for supporting construction.
In order to achieve one's goal, meeting the emperor is the first step. For many people, meeting the emperor is very difficult.
After all, the emperor has limited time and it is impossible for him to meet all the guests.
From this perspective, it was naturally not easy for the emperor to take care of Zhang Cong's request to see his son.
Lantern Festival night,
The emperor, wearing his imperial robes, ascended the Chengtian Gate Tower. When he looked up, he saw the sky filled with fireworks and brilliant lights.
The eldest prince Zai Hao also returned to Beijing. He and several of his younger brothers and sisters lined up to kowtow. Everyone had to say a word of blessing to add color to the New Year.
Except for the second brother Zai Wei who was too far away, everyone else was there.
Zhu Houzhao put away his serious tone of giving a lecture. After all, he didn't want to spoil the mood at this time. Instead, he happily accepted the blessings of the prince and princess.
After the Lantern Festival and before the grand court meeting, various government offices in the court began to present their major achievements of the previous year.
Each government office is responsible for its own affairs.
Among them, the Ministry of Revenue received the most attention.
In the 21st year of Zhengde, the total income tax of the Ming Dynasty in summer and autumn was more than 55 million taels of silver, of which 14 million taels were directly earned from Japan, and 12 million taels were earned from national salt, tea, iron and other taxes. The Shaofu and Nanyang Company paid a total of 10.3 million taels of profits and taxes.
These three are the big ones.
Apart from these, the remaining 18 million taels came from agricultural taxes, customs duties and some miscellaneous commercial taxes implemented in the early years in various provinces, and some... were confiscated during investigations.
Now the Ming Dynasty accepts payments from the people in kind or in silver.
Therefore, in addition to direct silver and monetary profits and taxes, there are also taxes in kind, including grain, cloth, silk, cotton, etc. The main one is grain, which is 34 million shi.
This number started to decline after the physical goods were converted into silver.
But it is an improvement in the tax system. After all, it is inconvenient to transport grain.
Besides the annual revenue of the 21st year, the national treasury still had 34 million taels of silver. The figure had dropped slightly, mainly because of the war in the 21st year.
During the Han Dynasty, it was said that the ropes used to string money together were rotten.
Now the Ming Dynasty has reached this point.
After all, after the 12th year of Zhengde, the land areas in the world were clearly measured, Zhang Cong served as the chief minister and implemented reforms and punished corrupt officials. The last ten years of the Ming Dynasty were a super stable decade with no war, turmoil or man-made disasters.
The country has reached the peak of another prosperous era.
In fact, when later generations looked through history, they found that the annual revenue of the Ming Dynasty was often only a few million taels.
The reason why there is such a big gap between now and then is that, on the one hand, the imperial court at that time could not collect taxes at all. Not to mention measuring the land and clearing the military farms, even the land tax system was almost collapsing.
On the other hand, the silver import was advanced by many years.
At that time, it was the opening of the gate during the Longqing reign, and now it is the opening of the gate during the Zhengde reign. The huge amount of silver input also brought inflation. Now, even if we talk about tens of thousands of taels of silver, the emperor and his subjects may think it is a small amount of money. The purchasing power is also completely different from decades ago.
There is another point that makes Zhu Houzhao different from other great emperors.
He didn't have any particularly strong opponents.
Emperor Wu of Han had to face the Huns, Li Shimin had to face the Turks, and Kangxi had to face the Junggars and the three princes in the southwest.
But in the early sixteenth century, during the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, there were no prominent and powerful enemies around the Ming Dynasty, and the Age of Exploration was slowly opening up.
Another thing is that he is actually quite stingy. He will not engage in large-scale construction or extravagant living just because he sees a surplus in the treasury. In fact, he still practices strict economy as always.
If it is really extra money, we can use it to exempt disaster-stricken areas from taxes, build water conservancy projects, and invest in various colleges.
The money has been spent, but the wealth has not disappeared out of thin air; in the end, part of it will flow back in another form.
This year, Zhu Houzhao began to plan to exempt a certain degree of tax for provinces that have always been relatively poor. These areas often cannot collect a few taels of silver, so there is no need to keep exploiting them.
The imperial court had enough money, and after the commercial tax was levied, there was certainly room for tax reduction or exemption for farmers.
Light taxes and levies are no longer just words on paper.
As for the Gyeonggi region,
That is even more prosperous.
Standing at Chengtian Gate, Zhu Houzhao could see more than a dozen relatively tall buildings concentrated in the south of this majestic city. On the annual celebration day, lanterns were hung up everywhere, making them very conspicuous in the dark night.
After the Lantern Festival, the capital city became extremely crowded.
People from about a dozen different countries, including Semites, Koreans, Japanese and those from Southeast Asian countries, began to gather.
This resulted in all buildings with signs hanging on them being fully booked, and prices not doubling but tripling or quadrupling. But it didn't matter, as foreign envoys and businessmen were all rich; they spent money everywhere and didn't care about these fixed investments at all.
The merchants in the capital also turned this grand court meeting into a folk commodity exhibition, with refined salt, snow sugar, maps and other goods all on display.
Aurora, a merchant who came from Spain, had an experience similar to that of Marco Polo when he traveled in the East. If he felt that Hangzhou was prosperous, he was basically dumbfounded when he arrived in the capital.
From the moment he entered the city, all he saw were neatly planned streets and rows of shops. When he walked in front of the tall buildings and looked up, he was stunned to see that there were still people walking on the sixth floor as if it were flat ground, and that they were connected by sky bridges.
He couldn't imagine that there was such a world in the far East.
You have to know that in Western society, cities are still full of feces and urine.
Once he sat down in the restaurant, tasted a dish of braised pork and steamed fish, and felt the aroma and smoothness of the meat between his lips and teeth, he was immediately fascinated by this country.
Unfortunately, he is just a businessman. At most, he buys some goods and resells them for profit. It is difficult for him to meet a serious official figure.
Especially during his few days in the capital, he could see grand and luxurious motorcades entering the capital almost every day.
There are many princes of noble status and even charming women among them. Compared with them, he is really nothing.
Wealth, fame, beauty...it seemed as if all the good things in the world had gathered in the capital of the Eastern Empire.
The next morning, he woke up from his room and was shocked by a new scene when he walked downstairs.
People of all ages were watching the excitement on the street. What was coming were two rows of soldiers riding majestic horses. They were young, strong, dressed in brocade, and looked very imposing. There were about five hundred of them.
The team also used a cart to pull a huge piece of milky white jade. The sebum was extremely delicate and it looked crystal clear under the sun. It was obviously priceless at first glance.
If there weren't a hundred elite black-clad cavalrymen guarding them, it would be hard to imagine that no one would have evil intentions.
"What a huge piece of jade! This must be a gift to the Emperor!"
“There is such a treasure in the world!”
……
Aurora could understand Chinese now. Listening to the exclamations of the people around him, he couldn't help swallowing. He had never seen such a treasure even in all the places he traveled to. Now he had to take it out and present it to the emperor.
He looked towards the Forbidden City. According to his concept, the person sitting on the throne now should be called Emperor Zhengde.
(End of this chapter)