Chapter 6                                                                                                                              

Zhou Mengchen's thoughts touched Jiajing.

Jiajing may not have no idea why Zhou Mengchen said this, but he never thought about the reasons for the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty from this perspective. However, Jiajing read a lot of books and read a few pages of the Yongle Ceremony before going to bed every day. In this regard, he was no less than that of ordinary scholars.

He thought about it carefully and found that what Zhou Mengchen said was quite reasonable and could not even find any loopholes.

This is what scares Jiajing.

Could it be like this in the future of the Ming Dynasty?

In his opinion, the Ming Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty were still different. The capital of the Tang Dynasty was in Chang'an, which was close enough to the border. In other words, the rebellion of the border town really happened, and it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to escape to Shu like the Tang Dynasty to breathe a sigh of relief.

Even to a certain extent, Jiajing's expectations were not wrong.

Nurhaci also served as a soldier under Li Chengliang's sect. If Nurhaci was not a Jurchen, eliminating some national things could be regarded as a border rebellion. It was just different from the rebellion of middle and upper-level officers that Jiajing thought. This time it was a rebellion of lower-level officers.

After all, although history is similar, it is never a simple repetition.

Jiajing was a little anxious and said, "Tell me what happened to the one you made?"

Zhou Mengchen said: "Yes, the Weishou is the fundamental system of the court, and it is actually worth it. Unfortunately, it has been a long time and has been plagued by all kinds of problems. It has reached a point where there is no cure. I believe that the method of reform is to make little movement, so I adhere to the organization of the Weishou Army, and still use 5,600 people as the basic organization. Some firearms were added and the swords and guns were replaced with firearms. The number of people changed slightly, and 6,000 people were used as the one. Like the old system of the court, the fundamental change was to recruit soldiers, and the minister abolished the military.

According to the nationality, the land of the fourteen garrisons in Datong was measured, and all were divided equally among the people of the garrisons and Datong, in units of one household and a hundred acres. Although they were allowed to plant these lands, they were the official land of the court. Those who had joined the army at home could be exempted from taxes. The army also had monthly food. When I arrived in Datong, it was the plan of using military troops, which was set as one stone a month and one twelve stone a year. But now the war has slowed down, and the army can be different due to the qualifications of the soldiers and the army. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. I think four stone a year is enough."

"However, in this way, there is an important issue, that is, the management of these lands. With these lands there is a constant source of troops. Once these lands are encroached, the army will probably not be able to maintain it."

"So I want to do this, that is, to combine the troops of several nearby garrisons into a county. This county is different from other prefectures and counties. I call it border counties. Among the border counties, there is a county magistrate as the deputy of the county magistrate. The matter under his jurisdiction is all matters about the army, such land control, recruitment and training of soldiers, connecting with the army, and even receiving reports of deceased people, sending people to the army to retrieve the ashes of the soldiers who died in battle, and hold funerals for them, etc.."

After hearing this, Jiajing pondered for a moment and said, "This is actually a variant garrison system. It separates the affairs in the original garrison and allows the army to train and use troops. Each soldier is four stones, 100,000 is four hundred thousand stones, and a million people are only four million stones. The court can afford it. However, if you want to continue doing this, it is a very troublesome thing. It is simply a flower in the mirror and the moon in the water, which is out of reach."

"Do you know why?"

Zhou Mengchen nodded and said, "I naturally know what it is? It is land. The premise of all this is land. Without land, everything is a castle in the air. No matter how well it is said, it cannot be done."

Everything is valuable. Zhou Mengchen's method saved a lot of expenses for the court and also ensured combat effectiveness. In fact, there is a way to achieve the best of both worlds, where can you spend less money and do good things. This is simply contradictory.

Zhou Mengchen actually inherited Zhu Yuanzhang's idea of ​​using land to support his soldiers.

It’s not okay to inherit it. After all, Zhou Mengchen did not paint on a piece of white paper. Instead, he moved in the frame laid by Zhu Yuanzhang, just like an architect. The architect who designed the building could naturally be imaginative. As long as it conforms to the physical laws, it would be fine. However, the project that Zhou Mengchen received was an old house renovation project. The original frame and beams and pillars could not be moved randomly.

He could only follow Zhu Yuanzhang's ideas.

Land is the first expenditure, but it does not mean that there is no other expenditure besides land. Zhou Mengchen's plan is essentially a tax replacement. The taxes in Yanbian from grain to blood taxes. Even these border counties cannot pay taxes to the court, and even require central government financial subsidies. After all, the Ming Dynasty did not have special local taxes. Local office funds were all divided from land taxes, or gray income was generated by the whole process.

Now that the land tax is gone, local prefectures and counties may not be able to expose the blame.

Of course, there are other funds for weapons. It is absolutely impossible to raise a soldier for only four million stones of food. But even so, it has saved too much money. After all, it has maintained the nine sides, openly and secretly, and invisible and openly, nearly ten million taels of taels of per year, and Datong Town alone had to spend nearly one million in the previous year.

The Ming Dynasty's finances were so tight, although there were financial problems with the finances themselves, and it was also related to the heavy military expenditures.

But the root of all this is still on the land. Land is the most important asset of the feudal dynasty. Everything related to land is extremely sensitive.

Jiajing sighed and said, "You can kill Datong completely. But can't I kill all the worms in the world completely. Follow the trend and follow the way of heaven. Your method is not possible."

Jiajing was a very distinctive emperor. It was naturally impossible to say that he was stupid. But it was even more excessive to say that he was a good emperor. Jiajing was a sober person. In the first twenty years, Jiajing could have been considered a great effort to govern, but later it changed greatly. Although Jiajing began to believe in the way of gods, it may not be that he had encountered setbacks in politics.

Of course, no minister dares to oppose Jiajing. No matter what kind of powerful enemy Jiajing encounters, he can control the other party tightly. Jiajing's successive chief ministers were held tightly in his hands. However, Jiajing could deal with any minister, but he could not deal with the bureaucrats or civil servants.

When Jiajing discovered that many things were happening, no matter how many prime ministers he changed, he dealt with several ministers, or even killed a group of censors. The people he changed were the same as before.

There is naturally a deep feeling of fatigue in my heart.

The desire to be in danger of politics arises from this. In addition, when encountering some changes, such as being almost strangled to death by a palace maid, there was a huge change in thinking. From working hard to governing, it turned into perfunctory things.

Because of this experience, Jiajing knew too well what he could do and what he could not do in the court. Zhou Mengchen killed only the hereditary military officers and generals in Datong, which only counted as dozens of big families. This caused a huge uproar. However, Datong had just been ravaged, and these generals had original sins. In addition, Datong was a corner of the country, and military generals were not as popular as civil officials. Zhou Mengchen had Jiajing's endorsement, and this matter was over. But now, who endorsed Jiajing? Who was the backer for Jiajing?

No, I thought that just because Jiajing was the emperor, the subordinates would completely obey orders?

When Jiajing first ascended the throne, he was highly educated by Yang Tinghe. Naturally, he knew that such a good thing would not happen. To do what Zhou Mengchen said, a violent storm would have to be. Not to mention anything else, Yan Song, the chief assistant, could not do such a thing.

Could it be that I have to change the chief supervisor?

Jiajing doesn't want to bother.

Zhou Mengchen also understood Jiajing's thoughts and said, "Of course I know that this matter cannot be pushed out in the whole world. However, Your Majesty now has a great opportunity to follow the trend. Your Majesty can get an elite soldier and a source of troops. There will be something wrong in the world in the future."

After hearing this, Jiajing changed his mind a few thoughts and said guessingly: "Do you mean Qingcheng?"

Zhou Mengchen immediately said, "Your Majesty is not inferior to you, and I am the one who wants to do this."
Chapter completed!