The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Wei Guangde's words "all the land and land are free of taxes and servitude" moved Zhang Juzheng very much, because this was how people in this era understood wealth.

Although Wei Guangde has always preached that doing business can make money, but influenced by the Four Books and Five Classics, "if you have soil, you will have wealth" has always been regarded as a golden rule by literati.

Of course, Zhang Juzheng also had his own views on wealth. In fact, this can be seen from the eight-part article "There is a Way to Make Money" that he wrote in his early years.

Yes, in fact, a very important purpose of Zhang Juzheng's reforms was to collect and accumulate wealth for the court. He believed that wealth was accumulated by increasing income and reducing expenditure.

It's not that he doesn't know that Wei Guangde advocates business and that he can get rich by doing business, but as the chief assistant, he cannot agree with it.

"Thus, diligence is used to serve the foundation, and the income of wealth is unlimited. Frugality is used to control use, but the income of wealth is also limited."

This is the way to get rich that he recognizes. It definitely does not rely on doing business, buying low and selling high to make a profit from the price difference.

"Before I passed the law exam, I heard that in order to complete the annual tasks, some officials tortured the people and forced money to complete the tax tasks."

Zhang Juzheng began to speak in a low voice. In fact, although Zhang Juzheng's reforms have been praised more than criticized in history, the controversy is actually not small.

The root cause is that whether it is the clearing of land or the implementation of a whip law, it does not essentially reduce the tax burden of the people, but only slows down the way of paying taxes, and at the same time provides a policy of redeeming corvee.

Before this, these were all operated privately by subordinate staff, without the support of national politics, and fell into a gray area.

But in fact, even though this opening was made, the people still couldn't come up with money, and when they were promoted, they still had to leave their hometowns to serve.

As for what caused the people to go bankrupt, it was largely due to the levy and the Ding tax. After all, the taxes came from the acres of land. If a family had a small amount of land, it might be exploited. But if there was no land, and there was no Ding tax, the government could no longer impose exorbitant taxes on the people. .

It can be said that if Wei Guangde's method of allocating land from land to land was implemented, as long as local taxes on landless people were eliminated and all regular taxes and miscellaneous taxes were taken out of the land, although land annexation could not be stopped, it could shift the pressure to the landlords.

For Wei Guangde, developing a capital economy requires a large number of workers, so that they can make a living without the burden. Whether they are foraging in the fields or working in the city, it seems to be a good choice.

As long as policies to support workshops are formulated in the future, people who lose their land will go to the city to work and work as wage earners, which can maintain local stability.

Even though some people say that the landlords will force the government's taxes and duties on the peasants and increase their rent.

In fact, this is not important, as long as they know that in addition to farming, they can actually work in the city to make money to support their families.

When the time comes, I'm afraid it's not that farmers won't be able to rent land for farming, but that landlords won't be able to find tenants to rent land.

After Zhang Juzheng finished speaking, Wei Guangde was also deeply moved and said solemnly: "In order to complete the examination, local officials desperately squeezed the people to pay taxes. I have also heard about this.

I also asked about the specific details. In fact, most of them are landless people who have to pay the Ding tax. It is difficult to eat. Where can I get the money to pay the Ding tax?

If the method of apportioning people into acres is implemented, the court must explicitly prohibit the collection of taxes from the people, including miscellaneous taxes, and all taxes will go out of the acres.

The rules of the imperial court have changed when they are implemented. We can only try to improve them as much as possible to prevent loopholes from being exploited and let the people suffer in vain. "

Zhang Juzheng deeply believed this.

In fact, land annexation is a major trend that cannot be stopped by man-made efforts. This has been the case in all dynasties.

Even if it is legislation, people below can use ultra-long-term leases to modify the properties of the land in disguise.

Because of the era in which the Ming Dynasty lived, it was impossible to develop from a small peasant economy to a commodity economy due to the impact of technological development. As for the higher-level capitalist economy, the basic conditions were difficult to achieve. At most, the manor economy would be excessive.

As for the manor economy, it also needs to be dominated by landowners after land annexation.

However, as ministers of the Ming Dynasty cabinet, their first consideration was to solve the national financial problem and take into account local stability.

The biggest achievement of Zhang Juzheng's reforms was actually reversing the long-term fiscal deficit that began in the mid-Ming Dynasty, allowing the Ming government to have a certain balance during this period.

Just as Zhang Juzheng himself said, "Although there are major affairs in the country, the reserves of the internal and external governments will be used without shortage."

Therefore, financial issues are actually the first choice for cabinet ministers to consider.

As long as the court can receive more money, they will continue to do it even if it infringes on the interests of the common people.

Of course, the path chosen by Zhang Juzheng was not good for the gentry class, so it is understandable that the people died and the government died.

However, now Wei Guangde proposes to incorporate all Ding servants into the whipping method after clearing the land, which is a good deed that can substantially reduce the burden on the people.

At the very least, for most people, whatever they earn belongs to them and they do not need to pay taxes to the government.

The two began to have substantive discussions on dividing the land into acres. In fact, the main purpose was to consider possible local countermeasures after the implementation of this law.

Yes, they need to think things through, and naturally they have to take the local area into consideration. As the saying goes, there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. This has been true from ancient times to the present.

Good governance, if not considered thoroughly, may change its flavor and turn into a cannibalistic bad governance at the local level.

This is what they want to prevent.

"Um?"

While he was talking, Wei Guangde suddenly saw a figure moving at the door from the corner of his eye, and he subconsciously turned his head to look over.

"Lu Bu, is there something wrong?"

The man outside the door was his clerk, who should not have come here.

Since he was here, there must be something wrong, so Wei Guangde stopped discussing with Zhang Juzheng and asked directly.

"Prime Minister, sir, there is an urgent letter from the Ministry of War, so I can only come here presumptuously."

Lu Bu entered the room and saluted Zhang Juzheng first, then said to Wei Guangde.

"Show it to me."

Wei Guangde guessed that it was most likely a war report from the southwest.

He took the official document from Lu Bu and opened it and read it quickly.

Two days ago, he already knew that Qi Jimei led his troops to a "defeat", which was not so tragic, after all, he did not lose soldiers and generals, but retreated when he saw the situation was not good.

After that, he won several games in a row. Needless to say, winning is normal, and losing is abnormal.

As for the other defeat against the Burmese elephant soldiers, Li Chengliang admitted that his rival was negligent and the generals were not in good command on the battlefield. Not only did he lose hundreds of soldiers, but he also lost a lot of firearms.

What Wei Guangde saw this time was also a defeat, but the more he looked, the deeper his frown deepened.

Because this time was obviously different from the previous encounter with elephant soldiers, the Ming army was not well prepared, but encountered a surprise attack by the firearms of the barbarians.

The loss was not great, with only a hundred casualties and some firearms losses, but not much, but it greatly touched Wei Guangde.

Before, Wei Guangde asked the Ministry of Industry to develop the Red Barbarian Cannon, which was actually mainly for the use of the South China Sea Navy in naval battles. Although the Portuguese cannon was good, it had obvious defects.

He believed that the Portuguese cannon was better than the Red Barbarian Cannon in land warfare because it fired quickly.

Even if there were disadvantages such as insufficient range and power, they could be overcome.     After all, there seemed to be no rivals around the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, it was also decided by Wei Guangde that the Red Barbarian Cannon would be cast and supplied to the Navy first.

But this time, the Southwest War Report taught Wei Guangde a lesson, letting him know why the Portuguese cannon would be replaced by the Red Barbarian Cannon.

Wei Guangde thought he had a clearer view of the advantages and disadvantages of the Portuguese cannon and the Red Cannon than many people of this era.

The Portuguese cannon, with its unique breech-loading smoothbore design, is unique. From the perspective of later generations, it is actually a weapon very close to modern artillery.

The barrel, the barrel belly and the sub-gun, a trinity, together wrote his legend.

When firing, the gunpowder and the projectile are all in the sub-gun, which is then placed in the barrel belly. The sight and rear sight on the barrel are like his eyes. After aiming at the target, the ignition door is turned, and the projectile whistles out.

Its barrel belly is thick and the rudder at the rear of the gun is flexible, allowing the barrel to turn at will, showing endless power.

It has an amazing firing rate, and the separation of the gun and the projectile makes it as fast as lightning on the battlefield. The heavy version of the "Invincible General" only takes 20 seconds to fire three shots. Rapid heat dissipation and rear-loading design ensure continuous firepower and reduce the risk of spontaneous combustion.

The gunpowder capacity is stable, safe and worry-free, the sub-gun shares the chamber pressure, and the barrel life is longer.

After the Ming Dynasty obtained the Portuguese cannon, it not only imitated it, but also dared to innovate, giving birth to a variety of cannons such as naval cannons, city defense cannons, chariot cannons, field cannons, as well as infantry guns, cavalry guns and other firearms, with a wide variety and a total of tens of thousands of guns.

In the late Jiajing period, the Portuguese cannon had become a powerful assistant to the Ming army. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the ratio of cold and hot weapons in the Ming army was optimized to three to one because of this thing.

Although the Portuguese cannon is good, it has inherent defects.

Limited by technology, the air tightness between its sub-gun and the belly of the cannon is poor, the gunpowder gas leaks, the range is limited, and it is difficult to exert its power in the face of enemy cavalry charges.

This also provided an opportunity for the red cannon that came later to stand out and become the new overlord.

Unlike the Portuguese cannon, the red cannon is a front-loading smoothbore copper cannon with a doubled range, up to several thousand meters.

With its great power, slender barrel, high precision and thick wall, the Red Cannon also demonstrated excellent performance in actual combat, which quickly won the praise of Ming court officials.

Of course, the firing rate of the Red Cannon is always an unavoidable hurdle. For the Ming army, which used a large number of Portuguese cannons, this era actually still felt that this cannon was a bit tasteless, and it was a pity to abandon it.

In fact, if the navy did not need heavy artillery, the Ministry of War would not look down on this kind of firearm.

At least before proving its actual combat ability, it would not choose to let the Ministry of Industry cast a large number of them.

However, in this battle on the Lujiang River in the southwest, the Red Cannon taught the Ming army a lesson with its range, allowing them to experience for the first time the absolute crushing power of the Red Cannon over the Portuguese cannon on the battlefield.

"Shandai, but something happened in the southwest?"

Wei Guangde was speechless for a long time after reading the document, and Zhang Juzheng asked.

"Uncle, take a look."

Wei Guangde handed the document in his hand to Zhang Juzheng and asked him to take a look.

Wei Guangde supported the casting of the Red Cannon. It seemed that this matter once again reflected his knowledge of military affairs, but he could not be complacent.

Because the actual combat effect also impacted his thinking.

The range of artillery is always the first priority in any era.

At this time, Wei Guangde kept reminding himself in his heart.

The cannon is known as the god of war and can destroy everything on the battlefield. However, even in the era of later airplanes flying all over the sky and missiles capable of intercontinental strikes, the cannon still survived tenaciously and was still working hard to increase its range.

From the past dozen kilometers to twenty or thirty kilometers, and then to more than fifty kilometers of bottom exhaust bullets, it has not been eliminated by the times.

Wei Guangde also attaches importance to cannons, but he attaches more importance to the rate of fire than the range.

Now, the Portuguese have taught him a lesson.

"It was Shandai who first proposed that the Ministry of Works cast this red cannon, right?

Although our craftsmen did not make it, we learned the cannon-making skills from Haojing."

Zhang Juzheng had already read the battle report and knew that the Ming army had suffered another defeat, but he still flattered Wei Guangde.

"At the beginning, we only thought that this kind of cannon was beneficial for naval battles, but ignored the power of land battles, so the cast red cannon was first supplied to the South China Sea Navy, and the land navy did not give much.

Now it seems that the Ministry of Works has to speed up the production of this cannon, and each guard post must also be equipped with some."

When the idea of ​​the red cannon was first proposed, the Ministry of Works named it the general cannon.

But because it required wrought iron precision casting, it was not successful until Haojing discovered that the Portuguese could cast this kind of cannon, so the Ming court learned the casting method from there.

So, the general cannon also had another name in the Ming court, that is, "red cannon", which also shows that the technology actually came from the West.

"Let them produce more red cannons and reduce the production of Portuguese cannons?"

Zhang Juzheng asked.

Since the Red Cannon showed great power, Zhang Juzheng actually thought that there was no need to continue producing the Portuguese Cannon.

However, he also knew that Wei Guangde seemed to have always liked the Portuguese Cannon, so he said this.

"Well, that's right."

Sure enough, Wei Guangde nodded and said, "Red Yi cannons should be produced more and equipped in all units. Portuguese cannons have a fast firing rate and are also suitable for land warfare, so they can't be missing.

If the Burmese army hadn't mixed with the foreigners, there wouldn't be such a bow.

I'll have the Ministry of War send this battle report to the garrisons in various places so that the generals below will know about it, lest they think that the court has given them firearms and they are invincible.

It's different now. The foreigners came to the west and brought too many new things, which greatly changed the war mode.

In the past, fire guns and bows were mainly used, but now they have become Portuguese cannons and bird guns. In the future, we may have to add long-range firepower suppression of red Yi cannons."

Wei Guangde kept spitting out some new words, but Zhang Juzheng could probably understand the literal meaning.

After all, he was also born in a military household, and his grandfather was the commander of the army. Although he had never fought in a war, he had heard and seen a lot.

Thinking of Wei Guangde's words, Zhang Juzheng actually understood Wei Guangde's analysis of the battlefield very quickly, that is, the cannons can fire far, and the enemy will be beaten first, and then the Portuguese cannons will be used to bombard the enemy if they are close, and there are also tiger squat cannons and bird guns that many military garrisons are equipped with now, and finally the real fighting with swords and guns.

"Yeah, that makes sense."

Zhang Juzheng nodded in support. Although these firearms cost a lot of money to manufacture, as long as they can win, spending money is actually a small matter.

For them, losing a battle is unacceptable, and as for spending money, they can always find a way to do it.

Immediately, Wei Guangde wrote a note in the duty room and asked Lu Bu to arrange someone to send it to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works.