The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Sir, this is what Zhang Shoufu sent to his room. It is said to be the Datong Calendar of the First Year of Wanli written by Qin Tianjian. Please take a look at it.

It has reached the end of September in the sixth year of Longqing, and the imperial court is expected to issue next year's calendar in October.

As early as June, the young emperor Zhu Yijun issued the Wanli Amnesty Edict after he ascended the throne. Now that it is approaching the end of the year and is about to enter the first year of Wanli, the approval and issuance of the Tatong Calendar must be implemented as soon as possible.

In fact, in the Ming Dynasty every October, the first thing the emperor had to do was usually to determine the Tatong calendar for the coming year.

Some people may think that it is just an almanac, but it is of little use. Wei Guangde had this view before, but when he realized the great role of the T\u0026T calendar, he gave up his original idea.

China has been a major agricultural country since ancient times, and people live on a few acres of land, so spring plowing is the most important time.

And how do ordinary people know such an important season?

Naturally, it can only be the Datong calendar issued by the imperial court. By consulting the Datong calendar, you can know what time it is and what to do in the fields.

To put it bluntly, in addition to keeping time, the most important function of the Tatong calendar is to tell the people about the solar terms and let them know what to do.

One of the most important tasks of Qin Tianjian is to observe and predict the future farming season, compile a Datong calendar, and then print and distribute it in large quantities to farmers to help with planting and harvesting.

Some even say that the demise of the Yuan Dynasty was related to the fact that the imperial calendar was not issued to the people for about ten years at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, which caused a lot of land in the world to be barren. People did not know the seasons, did not dare to farm, and starved to death everywhere.

At that time, the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty spent all his energy on wiping out peasant rebels everywhere, so he naturally did not think about compiling and promulgating the imperial calendar to guide farming.

It is said that Zhu Yuanzhang was influenced by Liu Bowen. When he was still King of Wu, he asked people to compile a new calendar based on the astronomical data and calculation methods of the Yuan Dynasty's "Time Calendar", and this almanac was named "Datong Calendar" by Zhu Yuanzhang. 》.

Liu Bowen deeply analyzed the importance of the imperial calendar to Zhu Yuanzhang. He said that the people of the world did not care who became the emperor. What they really cared about was whether the emperor cared about the life and death of the people. If the imperial calendar was released before the emperor proclaimed himself emperor, Then the people know in their hearts that you care about them, and they will definitely support you.

After hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang thought it was reasonable, so he ordered Xu Da, who was conquering the north, to set out with the Datong calendar. Whenever he arrived at a place, he distributed the imperial Datong calendar to the villagers.

As a result, the effect of this could not be better. With the imperial calendar, the people could live in peace and engage in agricultural activities under its guidance, and the society was stable.

At this time, Wei Guangde immediately put down the memorials he was reading and took over the Datong Calendar of the First Year of Wanli and quickly browsed it from beginning to end.

Although he didn't understand how to compile it, and certainly didn't know how to study it, he still understood the important parts of the imperial calendar, so naturally he had to check it in this new imperial calendar to see if there were any omissions.

Later generations looked at the T\u0026T Calendar and mostly focused on its accuracy in predicting solar and lunar eclipses, but in fact its most important role was to predict solar terms and guide farming.

After reading it quickly, there was nothing missing. Wei Guangde immediately signed Zhang Juzheng's signature at the back, and then called Lu Bu and asked him to send the memorial to Lu Tiaoyang's room, and ask Mr. Lu Ge to take a look at it.

"By the way, wait a moment."

Just when Lu Bu was ordered to go out with the memorial, Wei Guangde suddenly stopped him again.

"I heard that the ministers in the Ministry of Rites are seriously ill and have asked for leave. Do you know what's going on?"

Wei Guangde accidentally learned about Zhu Dashou's illness yesterday, but he forgot to ask Zhang Ji if he knew the inside story. When he saw Lu Bu, he naturally stopped and asked.

There may not be rumors about some things in the market, but the scribes in the yamen are very well-informed.

"In August and September, after Empress Xiaoyi's Li family's coffin and the late emperor's coffin were buried in Zhaoling, all the ministers fell ill. They all said that they were tired from running around for funerals day and night. There is no other news."

Lu Bu thought for a while before answering.

Hearing that he collapsed from exhaustion, Wei Guangde didn't ask any more questions. He just thought about whether he should go over to see him in the evening. After all, he was the number one scholar in his own year and he was still the top scholar in that subject.

While Wei Guangde was still thinking about it, he saw Lu Bu standing in front of the check-in door without going out. After being surprised, he realized that Lu Bu didn't know if he had anything else to ask, so he could only stand at the door and wait. He spoke.

Just as he was about to wave, Wei Guangde remembered what he had been asked to do two days ago, so he asked again: "I asked you to look for pornographic information the day before yesterday, have you completed it?"

Lu Bu breathed a sigh of relief obviously, then bowed and replied: "Master, we have found it and I will send it to you right away."

"No, please send the memorial to Mr. Lu Ge first, and then give it to me when you come back."

Wei Guangde gave the order and got back to work.

After finishing another memorial, footsteps sounded at the door, and Lu Bu came in from the door, holding a letter in his hand.

"Master, this is what you want. I randomly selected a few pieces of yellow book information. If I still need it, I will go look for it again."

While talking, Lu Bu had already sent the note to Wei Guangde.

After reading Chen Tang's memorial a few days ago, Wei Guangde began to care about the household registration and land situation of the Ming Dynasty, so he asked Lu Bu to check the data compiled by the previous court to see what kind of family background the Ming Dynasty had.

Regardless of whether these data are accurate or not, he feels that as a cabinet minister, he should still have access to them, even if the data is wrong.

Just like the statistics of later generations, everyone knows that there is moisture, and it is not small, so we often see comments about "being represented" and "being held back" to vent our anger, but so what?

In addition to this watered-down data, do you have other data that you can come up with?

No.

Therefore, even if you know that these data are false, you can still only take them seriously, especially at the level of the group of people who formulate policies. They also know that the data is wrong, but if there is no correct data, then they can only use this Incorrect.

The yellow book and the white book, we know that the yellow book is not accurate, maybe the white book is more accurate, but the imperial administration will still be based on the yellow book, and the Jedi will not be the white book.

As for when policies are formulated at the local level, whether they follow the yellow book in the government office or the white book in Lixu's hand, it doesn't matter that much.

Wei Guangde unfolded the note and simply looked at the data for a few years. He felt a little creepy. The change in the data was really unacceptable.

In the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, the results of the national survey were summarized as having 16,052,860 households, 60,545,812 people, and 8.5 million fields. Seven thousand six hundred and twenty-three hectares.

By the fourth year of Hongzhi, the total number of households was 9,134,46 and the population was 53,281,150. Compared with Hongwu, The number of households decreased slightly.

The number of acres of land in the world is only 4,228,580 hectares, half as much as in the Hongwu period.

The most recent registration was in the second year of Longqing. The number of household registrations and land taxes in the country was 18,850 households, 62,537,419 households, and 466 fields. One hundred and seventy-seven thousand seven hundred and fifty hectares and eleven acres are extraordinary.

Not to mention anything else, Hongwu alone had 8.5 million hectares of farmland. Now, nearly two hundred years have passed. Instead of increasing, the farmland has been reduced to only 4.67 million hectares. Think about it. You can imagine how much tax money the Ming Dynasty lost in a year due to the newly opened fields in these years.

Of course, these fields will not disappear out of thin air, but will be listed in the names of vassal palaces, dignitaries and people with fame in various places, thus avoiding aggregation.

At the same time, it is believed that a large amount of newly cultivated fields will be hidden and will not appear in the household statistics, and the benefits will be shared by the landlords and Lixu.

Wei Guangde waved his hand and motioned for the cloth to be lowered, while he looked at the note in a daze.

The number of fields has changed so much. As long as the man in the room over there is willing to take action, even if he lets out half of the hidden fields below, the number of fields that can be collected by the Ming Dynasty will be doubled.

Now the annual tax revenue of the imperial court is close to three million taels. Based on this, an increase of two million taels should be possible. In addition, there will be a large amount of taxes in kind such as grain, which will alleviate the financial constraints of the imperial court.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help but tap the desk gently. He felt as if he had understood something.

The Ming Dynasty had no money because the money was shared by the local governments.

Taizu set the framework of the imperial court to death, so the people below had no choice but to find ways to intercept wealth. He thought he could frighten corrupt officials by peeling off skins and stuffing them with grass, but he didn't know that corrupt officials would succeed one after another.

How much is the tax on millions of hectares of land?

It's enough to support a court, this is an extremely huge number.

Wei Guangde thought about this matter in his heart. It is no wonder that Zhang Juzheng was punished after the incident. In the end, he almost had his coffin opened and his body whipped.

Wei Guangde doesn't want to do anything now, but just wait and see how Zhang Juzheng will advance his reforms.

Now that the Longqing Year is coming to an end, it seems that Zhang Juzheng will promote his reform measures starting from the First Year of Wanli.

The remaining two months passed very quickly, and in the blink of an eye it was time to seal the Yamen.

In addition, they can seal yamen, but the cabinet does not exist.

With the beginning of the Zhengdan Dynasty Meeting in the first year of Wanli, a new era began. Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun sat on the supreme throne of Huangji Hall and accepted the congratulations from ministers.

From now on, all official documents of the Ming Dynasty will be dated according to the Datong calendar of the first year of Wanli, and the Wanli calendar will be used.

Although this year is the first year of the new emperor, according to Zhang Juzheng's wishes, the palace has reduced the expenditure on hosting the Aoshan Lantern Festival, from three to four hundred thousand taels of silver in previous years to less than three hundred thousand taels.

Although the amount of money spent has been significantly reduced, according to Wei Guangde, it seems to be no worse than last year. It can be seen that the eunuchs who held the Aoshan Lantern Festival in previous years enriched their own pockets.

In the blink of an eye, it is the 19th day of the first lunar month, and Emperor 369 is coming to court. Today, Emperor Wanli Zhu Yijun is about to ascend to the throne.

Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde and others, as well as the officials attending the court meeting today, gathered outside the palace gate to wait for the arrival of the hour. The officials below were obviously not out of the New Year's atmosphere yet, and they were still gathering together to talk and laugh.

After the three cabinet members murmured for a while, Wei Guangde waved to Tan Lun, the Minister of War, and not long after, Yang Bo, the Minister of Personnel, was also called over.

What they were talking about was, of course, the official document received by the Ministry of War yesterday. Qi Jiguang, the chief military officer of Ji Town, reported that Dong Fox, the chief of the Wuliang Hadoyan tribe, was showing signs of leading his troops to invade the border. The imperial court was asked to decide whether Ji Town should take the initiative to send troops to chase him away. .

Yes, in the first year of Wanli, the Jizhen border army discovered signs of gathering troops from the Wuliang Hadoyan tribe outside the Great Wall.

Although the Ming court and Ada Khan have negotiated a peace, the peace agreement does not include the three guards of Duoyan. After all, in the eyes of the Ming court, these three guards are untrustworthy people who have repeatedly surrendered and rebelled. In the eyes of the Mongols, the three guards of Duoyan have already defected to the Ming court. , no longer worthy of being a Mongolian.

Well, the result of this is that the Ming Dynasty only ended the confrontation with most of the Mongols, and the risk of war dropped to a very low level, but the three guards of Duoyan, who were not very powerful, were still possible enemies of the Ming court.

Yang Bo and Tan Lun were both governors of Jiliao, so they naturally had a clear judgment on the power of the Duoyan tribe, so they did not think that Qi Jiguang's request to attack would fail.

But now the Ming court does not want to launch a war, and the court's finances are still in a mess. Launching a war under such premise is really an unbearable burden for the court.

"Just let Commander-in-Chief Qi supervise the troops to be on guard. I think if Ming is on guard, the Duoyan tribe will not dare to start a war without authorization."

Yang Bo's opinion is to be on strict guard and not give the slightest chance, so that Dong Hu can retreat when he sees difficulties.

"My opinion is the same as Yang Shangshu's."

Tan Lun also supported Yang Bo's opinion, "This is not the time to send troops outside the wall. Even if the Duoyan Department wants to fight, just let them in and fight. There is no need to attack."

"In this case, the Ministry of War will send a message to Jizhen, asking them to be on strict alert."

Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde looked at each other and then said to Tan Lun.

In the cabinet meeting yesterday, Wei Guangde had a similar opinion. It was not a good time to send troops to fight in the fortress at this time. It was better to wait for work and let the Duoyan tribe fall into the trap.

The current Wei Guangde is not an angry young man from later generations. He wants to beat up anyone he catches.

Soldiers are important matters of the country, the place of life and death, and the path to survival. They must be observed.

If war can be avoided, try to avoid it. There is no need to actively provoke conflicts.

While the court officials were waiting for Emperor Wanli to come to the Imperial Palace, the time had come, but there was still no sound of bells and drums.

There is no sound of bells, drums, silk and bamboo, which means that the emperor has not arrived yet, and everyone can only continue to wait under the Huangji Gate.

As time went by, everyone became more and more impatient.

"Why hasn't His Majesty arrived yet?"

Lu Tiaoyang asked Zhang Juzheng.

Yesterday, Zhang Juzheng was giving lectures to Emperor Wanli. At this time, Lu Tiaoyang wondered whether Zhang Juzheng had arranged a lot of homework, which affected the emperor's rest and stayed in bed.

Zhang Juzheng didn't answer, just shook his head, then looked up at Huangji Gate.

At this moment, the left door suddenly opened, and a chamberlain hurried out of the door. After looking around and seeing them, he came quickly.

When they arrived in front of several people, the young chamberlain hesitated for a moment before saying to Zhang Juzheng: "Master Chief Assistant, something happened in the palace. I would like to ask the three elders to follow me into the palace first."

"What happened? Why doesn't His Majesty guard the court?"

Zhang Juzheng didn't move and just asked.

The chamberlain hesitated and looked around.

Everyone understood what he meant. He must have been ordered to summon the cabinet ministers in. They didn't want to see Tan Lun and Yang Bo standing next to them. They hesitated for a moment before saying: "There is an assassin in the palace."