Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

In the secret room.

"Huang Shangshu speaks first." Zheng Ci said with ill intentions.

Huang Fu, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, glanced at Zheng Ci Yinjiu's face and spoke to the emperor.

"Your Majesty, although I have never heard of the so-called 'Law of Dynasty Cycles', I think what Jiang Xinghuo said is quite biased. It refers to the response measures of previous dynasties to the conflict between man and land. The core is not about man and land, but whether it can inhibit annexation."

"oh?"

Hearing that Huang Fu and Jiang Xinghuo had different opinions, Zhu Di motioned to Huang Fu to continue.

"I believe that part of the reason why the Zhou Dynasty enjoyed such a long-lasting national destiny is that the Zhou Dynasty implemented the well-field system for quite some time. The well-field system prevented the annexation of fields, because the whole world is nothing but royal land."

The first sentence made Zhu Di's face darken.

Isn't Huang Fu a very pragmatic person?

What happened to the open-mouthed well-field system? Cheng Jiejin came second?

Fortunately, Huang Fu's next words brought Zhu Di back to his mood.

"Of course the well-field system is not advisable. After all, the 'first-tax mu' system was implemented in the era of Duke Xuang of Lu two thousand years ago, which recognized the exclusive ownership of the fields. However, Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty and tried to use the 'king field system' to restore the 'well-field system' but failed. , let alone the current Ming Dynasty, it is impossible for all the fields to be owned by His Majesty."

"This is the reason why I said it was to suppress land annexation, rather than to prevent it."

Zhu Di nodded slightly. As long as he didn't bring up stupid ideas like the well-field system with him like Xie Jin, Zhu Di was still willing to listen to the opinions of these important ministers.

Huang Fu said slowly: "As for the uniqueness of fields, I believe that it is actually helpful for the development of agricultural production. Otherwise, Shang Yang's reform of Qin State would not completely recognize the uniqueness of fields. If they did not recognize the uniqueness of fields, Qin State would not have created it." It is impossible to unify the six countries with this system of farming and war."

"In the Han Dynasty, the tenancy relationship in agricultural production was formally formed. Landlords leased their fields to farmers, and farmers paid certain taxes to the landlords."

"So." Huang Fu solemnly suggested, "The ownership of land cannot be abolished, nor can the tenancy relationship be abolished. What the court should try to do is to consider how to control land annexation as it has done in previous dynasties, rather than thinking about annexing land to others. Open up fields outside, or reduce the population.”

Obviously, Huang Fu does not understand what "industrialization" is.

Therefore, I subconsciously thought that Jiang Xinghuo's idea of ​​​​solving the conflict between man and land was to increase fields through foreign conquest or control and reduce population, rather than the traditional suppression of annexation.

Therefore, from his perspective, there is no problem with Huang Fu's words.

After all, in the agricultural era, even the most intelligent people could not imagine what a country would look like in the industrial era.

It is unimaginable that only 10 to 20 percent of the country's population could be engaged in agricultural production, instead of more than 90 percent now.

It is even more unimaginable that the vast majority of people are not working in the fields, but in factories.

Even Zheng Ci, the Minister of Punishment who was preparing to argue with him, agreed with Huang Fu's point of view in his heart.

Although Zheng Ci's abilities were at the bottom among the six ministers, even inferior to Li Zhigang, his knowledge and experience were not bad.

Zheng Ci also knew that in the past thousands of years, all dynasties had regarded land annexation as a scourge, and tried every means to curb it, because once the land was in the hands of a few people, it would not only cause the country to lose its tax sources, but also severely The widening gap between rich and poor will cause social unrest and undermine the country's stable development.

From the "farming system" of Cao Wei to the "equalized land system" of the Northern Wei, Sui and Tang Dynasties, the reason why the war-torn dynasties paid so much attention to the equal distribution of land was that they knew how serious the consequences would be if they did not restrain land annexation.

But knowing that he knew it, Zheng Ci was still ready to fight.

After all, isn’t the essence of a party that agrees with each other and opposes differences just to oppose for the sake of opposition?

But before Zheng Ci could speak, Xia Yuanji, who had a good rapport with Huang Fu, disagreed.

"Huang Shangshu's words are wrong." Xia Yuanji shook his head.

Huang Fu was surprised and asked: "Why?"

"It is impossible to abolish the exclusive ownership of land or to abolish the tenancy relationship."

Xia Yuanji first agreed with Huang Fu's point of view, and then expressed different opinions.

"But according to my understanding of Master Jiang, the solution to the contradiction between man and land will definitely not be to expand the fields or control the population, because the former is not feasible mathematically, and the latter is not feasible in the current human ethics and ethics. .”

Xia Yuanji's words can be said to be superficial.

But among the six ministers present, which one is not a smart person?

It only takes a little thought to understand what Xia Yuanji means.

In Zheng Ci's heart, he was even more amazed by Xia Yuanji's title of "Master Jiang".

First there was Dao Yan's so-called "Jiang Sage", and now there is Xia Yuanji's "Jiang Master". I don't know why this young-sounding Jiang Xinghuo has such great personality charm.

To be honest, Zheng Ci initially thought that this person who could attract such attention from the emperor would be someone like Jiang Ziya.

But I really didn't expect that he sounded so young.

This couldn't help but make some contemptuous thoughts appear in his heart.

"I'm afraid he's still a young man who doesn't know much about temples. If he's an immortal, he may not be as old as he actually is."

However, although Zheng Ci agreed with Zhu Di, he was not a believer in ghosts and gods.

Therefore, in Zheng Ci's heart, he is more willing to believe that Jiang Xinghuo is like a young Wolong, but he is only talented. When it comes to temple methods, he is probably far inferior to an old bureaucrat like him.

This is because he doesn't want to believe that the emperor, whom he cares about very much, would value an incompetent person. That would make him look even more incompetent when he is desperately licking.

But he also didn't want to believe that he was useless compared to Jiang Xinghuo.

Therefore, Zheng Ci reluctantly found a strength for himself.

Not to mention Zheng Ci's thoughts, Huang Fu asked Xia Yuanji: "Then Xia Shangshu thinks that since it is not these four methods, nor the old countermeasures I proposed to restrain annexation, it is the way to solve the contradiction between man and land. Where is it again?"

"I have no idea."

Xia Yuanji shook his head and answered frankly.

Huang Fu was slightly surprised when he saw this.

Xia Yuanji, what does this mean? To tease him?

"Although I don't know." Xia Yuanji immediately said: "But since Master Jiang said that there is a gap between agricultural countries and industrial countries that is unimaginable, then I think the answer to the problem of the contradiction between man and land should lie in This 'industrial country' is on the rise."

Looking at Xia Yuanji, who almost blindly worshiped Jiang Xinghuo, Huang Fu frowned, a little confused.

Huang Fu, like Zheng Ci, has reached such a high position and does not believe in ghosts and gods. Naturally, he does not believe that Jiang Xinghuo is the so-called banished immortal.

Middle-aged and elderly people are so stubborn, and their three views have long been fixed and difficult to change, not to mention those who hold high positions such as Shangshu Daoyan and Xia Yuanji, which are special situations that touch the soul and are influenced.

But even if Huang Fu didn't believe that Jiang Xinghuo was a banished immortal, Huang Fu had to admit that Jiang Xinghuo was certainly capable and knowledgeable.

But even so, how can we create a set of things out of thin air to solve the problem of contradiction between man and earth from the perspective of "treating the symptoms" that no one has solved for two thousand years?

It should be noted that when faced with the problem of conflict between man and land, countless famous officials in the past dynasties gave almost the answer of "restraining annexation."

Either it is Wang Mang who is reversing the course of history and working on the four aspects that are doomed to failure: “abolition of exclusive land ownership, abolition of tenancy relations, expansion of farmland outwards, and reduction of population internally” just mentioned.

If there is a better way than "disincentivizing mergers," why has no one figured it out?

Therefore, there is absolutely no solution to this eternal problem!

Huang Fu thought in his heart.

Of course, it's not like Huang Fu has never thought about it. Jiang Xinghuo has proposed so many amazing strategies. Maybe there is really a way to solve the contradiction between man and earth?

But this thought only fleetingly passed through his mind.

After all, Huang Fu had never listened to Jiang Xinghuo's lectures. The emperor's attention alone was not enough to blindly convince this high-ranking imperial official with outstanding political abilities.

When he is in this position, he is more willing to trust his own judgment in everything he does.

"Although there is no solution to this kind of thing, there are still a few points that can be drawn out. But it's okay to say it. If Jiang Xinghuo can't tell one, two, three, four, I think His Majesty the Emperor's face will be very interesting. Well, after all, it was His Majesty who brought us here to the prison with great fanfare to listen to the lectures." Huang Fu thought in his mind.

Seeing Huang Fu lowering his head and saying nothing, Xia Yuanji also knew that he could not convince the other party. However, this was something that was expected. It would be strange for a stubborn person like Huang Fu to believe it easily.

Xia Yuanji glanced at Zheng Ci, who was sitting upright, and thought in his mind: "I'm afraid Zheng Shangshu is convinced by His Majesty's words about Master Jiang's ability on the surface, but he is also very unconvinced in his heart."

But at this moment, Xia Yuanji's eyes met the emperor's in mid-air.

Zhu Di looked at him with a half-smile, and Xia Yuanji immediately understood what the emperor meant.

——Now you can question it as hard as you can. The harder you question it, the more painful it will be when you are slapped in the face later.

The more conventional and well-founded the questioning is, the more it will become clumsy and ridiculous in the face of Jiang Xinghuo's unrestrained ideas for solving problems.

It's as if before Li Bai came out, people didn't know how majestic and magnificent the imagination expressed in poetry could reach.

At this time, Jiang Xinghuo really lived up to the expectations of Zhu Di and Xia Yuanji.

As soon as you open your mouth, you go straight to the essence.