Chapter 404: Inspecting the Fields! The Ambition and Courage of Prince Han!
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Are you loyal to the king?
Do you need to hesitate about this question?
Jia Liang was not stupid and replied loudly: "If you eat the emperor's salary, you must be loyal to the emperor!"
Just kidding, no minister would dare to be clever when faced with such a fatal problem.
When Zhu Gaoxu heard this answer, he smiled jokingly.
"That being said, if the imperial court wants to abolish the academic privileges of scholars, how should you, Jia Liang, choose?"
Jia Liang: "???"
What?
Abolish the privileges of fame and fortune?
Damn it, you are going crazy!
His Highness the King of Han really wants to kill scholars!
Jia Liang was shocked and his face turned a little pale.
He did not expect that Han Wang Zhu Gaoxu would be so crazy and wanted to abolish the academic privileges of scholars!
How is this possible?
"Your Highness the King of Han, scholars are the foundation of our Ming Dynasty..."
"Okay, I have heard this kind of talk enough, I don't need you to repeat it again!"
Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand impatiently, "Didn't you just say that you should be loyal to the emperor by eating the emperor's salary?"
"Then if the court is going to abolish the academic privileges of scholars, what will you do, Jia Zixin?"
Jia Liang was dumbfounded and subconsciously looked at Gu Zuo, the big boss behind him.
But at this moment, Gu Zuo's face was solemn and he did not dare to make any hints.
Gu Zuo had always been aware of Han Wang Zhu Gaoxu's hostility towards scholars' fame and privileges, but he also knew the reasons why the Han prince was hostile to scholars.
Therefore, this difficult decision was not only faced by Jia Liang, but also by Gu Zuo.
Is it really about eating the emperor's salary and being loyal to the emperor, standing firmly on the side of the court and abolishing the academic privileges of scholars, or is it choosing to protect scholars and harm the interests of the world's gentry?
This is a tough choice!
Gu Zuo and Jia Liang both knew that this was Han Wang Zhu Gaoxu forcing them to express their stance.
Compared to Gu Zuo, the censor of Zuodu, Jia Liang felt greater pressure at this moment.
Although Jia Liang is upright and will slander anyone he catches, he is not a mean-spirited person.
The reason why he chose to be a minister was precisely because of the inspirational role of Gu Zuo's example, and he jumped from a lowly clerk to a high official in the court.
Therefore, Jia Liang gave full play to his privilege of reporting on the rumors in the matter. As long as an official or minister violated the law, he would impeach him no matter who it was. In this way, his image as a loyal minister was successfully established.
This is Jia Liang's way of serving as an official.
However, Jia Zixin never expected that his image of daring to fight would successfully fall into the eyes of Han Wang Zhu Gaoxu, and he would be promoted to the minister of Dali Temple.
Before he could show off his talents in Dali Temple, the thief Prince Han started to cause trouble!
How dare you think of abolishing the honor of being a scholar!
If Zhu Gaoxu, the king of Han, really did this, I am afraid that war would break out in an instant and the world would be in chaos!
Zhu Gaoxu looked at the two of them indifferently and did not urge them. Instead, he gave them enough time to think about it and began to explain on his own.
"The wise and powerful Emperor Gao had planned for decades to find out the actual number in the world!"
"Emperor Gao spent the first ten years to get the people of Ming Dynasty accustomed to household posts, which recorded in detail the households' acres of land and their tax payable, and allowed them to find out the population records within the dynasty's territory."
"When the household registration system was almost implemented all over the country, and the people of the Ming Dynasty had one copy, Emperor Gao took the next step. He spent the second decade to establish the yellow registration and Lijia systems. Since then, the population of the Ming Dynasty has It can be seen at a glance from the yellow book, and the Lijia system successfully extended the tentacles of the central court to the countryside."
"After the second step is completed, Emperor Gao is ready to proceed to the third step, using the fish scale atlas to survey the world's fields!"
"Unfortunately, God did not give Emperor Gao enough time to complete this increasingly perfect tax system."
Speaking of this, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but sigh.
"From household registration to the yellow book, and then to the fish scale atlas, Emperor Gao had carefully planned for ten years one after another in order to find out the land in the world. However, his carefully designed tax system gradually failed to meet the needs of the situation, and the yellow book system After being destroyed, the fish scale atlas gradually became inconsistent with reality, and even became a document!"
"You two, do you know why this is happening?"
Jia Liang shook his head in confusion. What the King of Han said today was too much information and he needed time to digest it.
Gu Zuo's face was very ugly, because he had already vaguely guessed what His Highness the King of Han would say.
"Because of interests, no one wants the court to know how much land they hold!"
“The civil and military officials of the entire dynasty, the gentry and officials, and even the common people were all afraid that the emperor would know how much land they had in their hands, and how much land they had!
"Because fields represent food, interests, and wealth."
"Emperor Gao wanted to control the world's land and firmly control the country's land in the hands of the imperial court. This undoubtedly touched the bottom line of everyone's interests."
"Officials and gentry are unwilling to carry out the investigation work, and ordinary people are unwilling to report truthfully. As a result, the final result obtained by the court is just a vague number. There are many networks of interests hidden under this number."
Jia Liang was horrified when he heard this. He had never thought that in the prosperous age of the Ming Dynasty, there were still such scumbags hiding in the world!
Gu Zuo's expression just changed slightly, UU reading www. uukanｓhu.net He had heard about this matter before. It originated from the theory of gentry annexing fields mentioned by His Highness the King of Han Dynasty.
Now it seems that this is indeed the case!
"Heh, it's funny, isn't it?"
"His Majesty the Emperor is a great noble, but sadly he doesn't know how much land there is in the world!"
"The people who have contributed the most among them are the literati and gentry who you say are the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, Jia Zixin!"
"This nonsense of 'farming and reading heirlooms' is just a fig leaf used by these literati and gentry to cover up their own greed. Who among their families has less than hundreds of good fields to cultivate?"
"This is the scholar's fame and privilege, which gave them the legal weapon to annex fields and exploit the common people. However, it was given by the court. Not only were they not restricted or attacked by the laws, but they were protected by the laws. This made these rural gentry even more Unscrupulous and even more greedy!"
Zhu Gaoxu took a sip of tea and then cursed: "A group of shameless hypocrites have the nerve to claim to be the 'foundation' of the Ming Dynasty?"
"It doesn't matter if I don't want such a 'foundation', the worst I can do is tear it down and start all over again!"
When Jia Liang heard this, his whole body went numb and his face turned pale with fear.
Gu Zuo also looked moved at this moment, looking at Prince Han with a complex expression.
I'm afraid that in the entire Ming Dynasty, the person who is truly loyal to the country and dedicated to the people is His Highness the King of Han in front of me!
If he, Zhu Gaoxu, had the intention to seize the direct descendant, he would naturally not have such a terrible idea to offend the gentry of the world!
If he, Zhu Gaoxu, didn't have the intention of seizing his direct descendants, he wouldn't need to inspect the land in the world. Wouldn't it be nice to just go to Yunnan and become a free and happy vassal?
However, he had such a terrible idea. He wanted to inventory the number of fields in the world and abolish the academic privileges of scholars!
Why?
For the Ming Dynasty!
For the people!
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