Chapter 47 Ancestral Tomb

When Han Yong's memorial arrived, Zhu Qizhen had already arrived in the Lianghuai area.

Han Yong proposed to clear the cemetery again and use this as a basis to re-count the population. For places with small populations, Hezhou and counties will be merged, while for places with large populations, more county seats will be established.

Han Yong wrote his reasons in detail.

Han Yong believed that it was inaccurate to clear the cemetery a few years ago. Of course, he also admitted that this level of clearing the cemetery was the ultimate that he could do at that time.

But now the situation has changed dramatically.

That is the implementation of the One-Whip Law. Ding tax and tax service are discounted on a large scale, and the population is no longer the basis of local administration.

Now that I can’t say that I can get the exact data, it’s at least much better than when I was clearing it back then.

Zhu Qizhen also understood that statistical data actually have certain errors.

It is difficult to achieve 100% accuracy.

Even in later generations, it will be the same.

Various factors have an impact on the statistical data.

Now the implementation of the One Whip Law and the Official Law has a great impact on the administrative capabilities of the Ming Dynasty. The former exempted the people from the reason for hiding the population. Before, the court found that one person had to bear the extra taxes and service, but now it is not necessary.

The latter greatly increases the administrative capacity of local governments.

Not to mention anything else, at least this time, the central government will send people to clear the cemetery, but it is more about supervision, because the local population is capable of taking on the task of clearing the cemetery.

So now I have done another national clearance, and the result is definitely very different from before.

Han Yong was sure of whether to set up a county or not, but it was also the logic of the ancient government.

In the Han Dynasty, tens of thousands of people set up county management.

Although he is not such a person now, according to Han Yong's intention, if there are more people, more administrative agencies will be set up, and if there are fewer people, less will be set up. This idea is also consistent.

Moreover, Han Yong's intention was not just that. He vaguely wanted to clean up the phenomenon of redundant officials.

When the imperial court implemented the official law, it relaxed the review of the number of local officials. Because the subsequent promotion of the one-whip method requires a large number of people.

What Zhu Qizhen cares about is that the county seats are unreasonable. But Han Yong cares about that in some places, he falsely reports to the officials and reports to the officials. Especially in the face of the total number of officials with a total of 600,000, Han Yong, as the chief minister, felt that it was under great pressure, and he had to pay wages.

Therefore, this time, Han Yong's cleaning of the archery department mainly achieved two cleanups of officials and reduced the number of officials.

You should know that there were only tens of thousands of officials before the Ming Dynasty, and at most, only tens of thousands of officials were more than one hundred thousand, of which 100,000 were military officers, and only 20,000 to 30,000 civil servants.

This number is too much for Han Yong.

Zhu Qizhen agreed to Han Yong in principle. But how to implement it will be discussed after returning to Beijing.

Zhu Qizhen had just replied to Han Yong's letter. Huai'en said outside: "Your Majesty, the ancestral tomb has arrived."

In Zhu Qizhen's mind, he had never thought about how many times the southern tour was. If everything was safe and everything could be solved well, he estimated that this southern tour would be his last southern tour in his life.

So he did a lot of things.

For example, worshiping the ancestral tomb, such as worshiping the filial tomb.

These are all things that the emperor should do. It can be said that when Zhu Qizhen proposed to go to the south, the Ministry of Rites had already arranged two major events on the itinerary without waiting for Zhu Qizhen to speak.

Zhu Qizhen can't do it even if he wants to.

So Zhu Qizhen went to the ancestral tomb to worship first.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were two cemeteries in the Lianghuai area, one was the Ming ancestral tomb and the other was the Ming imperial tomb. These two places were things that Zhu Qizhen could not avoid.

The ancestral tomb was the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, and the imperial tomb was the tomb of the father and family of Emperor Taizu.

However, the ancestral tomb is in Sizhou, and the imperial tomb is in Fengyang. Zhu Qizhen has to go to the ancestral tomb first and then to the imperial tomb.

There are certain rules for worshiping the tombs, so I don’t talk much nonsense now.

However, when Zhu Qizhen was worshiping the ancestral tomb, he saw the geographical environment of the ancestral tomb and his face looked very ugly. After worshiping the ancestral tomb, he did not rest, but took all the civil and military officials to the embankment.

This embankment is Gaojiayan, south of Hongze Lake, which was found very early, but it was reinforced when Chen Xuan, the Marquis of Pingjiang, was managed by this dynasty. People who managed rivers in all dynasties strengthened this embankment.

Now what Zhu Qizhen sees now.

The Gaojiayan Dam is several meters tall and much higher than most city walls. The ancestral tomb is not far south of the dam. In Zhu Qizhen's view, it is probably that the bottom of the Hongze Lake is much higher than the highest place in the Ming Dynasty's ancestral tomb.

This situation can be described as dangerous and enlarged eggs.

Of course, there has been nothing for so many years, and there is no reason, because of the importance of the ancestral tomb. From here to the south, it is almost flat. If the dam breaks here, the flood will directly rush to Yangzhou and enter the Yangtze River.

So even in the Qing Dynasty, the dam here was still a key target for protection.

Zhu Qizhen said nothing on the dike.

I just stomped my feet and saw that the embankment was all stone embankment, with large pieces of bluestone superimposed together, which can be said to be very strong and costly.

Zhu Qizhen said: "Has someone come to the Ministry of Works?"

"Chen Yi, the head of the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Water Affairs, pay homage to Your Majesty." A small official immediately stepped out and said.

Zhu Qizhen said: "Are you born in the Water Conservancy Academy?"

Chen Yi immediately said, "Your Majesty, I am a disciple of Master Ruan."

Zhu Qizhen said: "Okay, then you are talking about what will the ancestral tomb look like if this embankment is not protected?"

Chen Yi was shocked and dared not answer for a moment.

Because this is a question that is clear, anyone with eyes can see that once the dam breaks, the ancestral tomb may sink to the bottom of the lake.

Zhu Qizhen said, "Why don't you know?"

Chen Yi did not dare to neglect and said, "Your Majesty, the northern part of Hongze Lake is severely silted, and the entire bottom of the lake is much higher than before. Even most of the bottom of the lake is much higher than the south of Gaojiayan."

"If, I say, if, if, if you are unlucky, I'm afraid neither the ancestor tomb nor the Sizhou City will be protected."

"What I am more worried about is that Hongze Lake moves south, then -------"

Zhu Qizhen said: "At that time, the ancestral tomb will sink to the bottom of the lake forever. Is it right?"

Chen Yi was trembling all over, knelt on the ground, and said, "I will die."

Chen Yi was like this, and other ministers of all sizes were kneeling on the ground and said, "I will die if I wait for you."

There was a sneer on Zhu Qizhen's lips, and then he covered it up.

He had known about this situation for a long time.

Zhu Qizhen didn’t know about the ancestral tomb today. He just picked it out today.

For ordinary people, ancestral tombs still have special meanings. Not to mention that for a dynasty, the ancestral tomb can even be said to be the location of the dragon vein of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, Zhu Qizhen never believed this.

But it does not hinder others from believing.

The reason why Zhu Qizhen raised this matter today is that Zhu Qizhen was rich, and Wang Shu implemented commercial tax in Jiangnan and collected three million taels in the first year, which was just cloth.

If Han Yong really follows Han Yong's opinion, a tax induction is imposed on more than a dozen commodities, or commodity tax. Zhu Qizhen can foresee that it is levied 10 to 20 million taels because there is no problem.

In this way, it will be enough to support the entire Ming Dynasty officials and military forces.

With money, you have confidence.

It’s something that Zhu Qizhen has always wanted to do, so it can be done.

That is the Huaihe River regional governance.

But this matter is very obstacle.

Because the benefits involved in the canal are too great.

It can be said that all the people along the canal economic belt do not want the canal to be cut off, which will have a devastating blow to their lives. Because many of the cities along the canal economic belt live on the canal.

Once the canal is cut off, their livelihoods will be cut off. Even big problems will occur.

Just to maintain the canal, the problem of the Huaihe River is difficult to solve.

Zhu Qizhen thinks there are probably ways to maintain the canal and manage the Huaihe River Basin well. However, Zhu Qizhen cannot take risks.
Chapter completed!