Back to the Ming Dynasty to be a tyrant

The most direct impact of grain prices is that the people of Ming Dynasty don’t have to worry about not being able to eat. Instead, they have surplus grain to feed livestock and make wine. Naturally, no one will sell their land because they are too poor to eat.

In addition, there is no such thing as a tax at all now, and the corresponding corvee is exempted, and ordinary people will not go to rent land with nothing to do.

Although those big landlords have also gained some benefits in the process, compared with the previous time when the food price was extremely high, the benefits now are almost doubled.

In this case, what should I do if I want to reap the benefits as before?Of course, it is to let the price of food rise back-what should I do if I want to let the price of food go up again?Of course it is artificially raising food prices!

If you want to raise food prices, the first hurdle is the court.

Emperor Chongzhen definitely didn't want to see the price of grain rise, and the court chiefs led by the young and strong faction must also be on the same front as Emperor Chongzhen, and they also didn't want to see the price of food rise.

The second hurdle is the common people.

The people of Ming Dynasty are more concerned about whether their families can have enough to eat, and secondly, how much benefit can they bring to themselves after the increase in food prices-if they can't eat enough, no matter how high the price of food is, there is no use?

There are even some people who, like those big landlords, also hope that the price of grain will rise-after the price of grain rises, the grain in their hands can be sold for more money, and the life of the family will be better.

There is also a very fucking problem, that is, the people of the Ming Dynasty have not experienced the Internet explosion. A lot of news is either from people who have heard books, or from the second cousin of the third son-in-law of the third son-in-law of the neighbor’s relatives. As the uncle said in his younger son, ordinary people who can read and buy newspapers are still a minority among the minority.

True and false news are mixed together, and the government's lack of control over the bottom layer naturally creates unequal information and is easy to be fooled.

Fortunately, since Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne in the seventh year of Tianqi, most of his energy has been devoted to how to make the people of Ming Dynasty full and well-fed. .

So the final result is that there are indeed many people who are dissatisfied with the low food prices and have been limped, but they are not so stupid as to point the finger at the court and Emperor Chongzhen, but at Chen who made the optimization of grain. Strange.

Then it was the reason why Emperor Chongzhen got angry.

Chen Zuqi is the same as Yuan Longping, this is an existence that is enough to become a saint, and they can produce high-yield food to feed these people, and then put down the bowl and scold them?

There is no such reason in the world, and it doesn't make sense anywhere.

I have seen all kinds of nonsense remarks, but I didn't expect this kind of brain damage to appear in Daming. Emperor Chongzhen's mood is not beautiful anyway: "Those actors and storytellers like to sing operas and storytellers, don't they? Hang them on the poles to let them calm down, and then send them to Chennai of the Mughals to open up wasteland, so that they can reflect on themselves there.

And the people behind this incident, no matter how many people are involved, I will arrest [-] if there are [-], and arrest [-] if there are [-]. It is better not to keep this kind of garbage! "

After the anger was over, Emperor Chongzhen turned his attention to Lu Xiangsheng again: "Remember to tell the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial College that if any scholar has such a bullshit opinion, he will directly take away his fame, recover all the preferential treatment, and never use it again!"

It’s okay for these ordinary people who are led astray by others, but if those scholars are also led astray, they will be very fucked-the ones who will be released to future generations will be keyboard warriors.

Unlike the keyboard warriors of later generations who could only hold the keyboard and not participate in government affairs, many of these scholars in Ming Dynasty actually participated in government affairs and got in touch with all aspects of Ming Dynasty.

When these people enter the ministries and even the cabinet, they can really affect Daming, and the emperor loses the chain, that will be a truly terrible situation!

After Lu Xiangsheng bowed and answered, Emperor Chongzhen continued: "The reason why such a problem arises is that the people's wisdom is not developed, and people follow what they say. If the people in the world are well-informed, who can incite the people?"

Lu Xiangsheng bowed and said: "Your Majesty's words are very true, but although social studies are everywhere, illiterate people are still like crucian carp crossing the river. If you want to completely change, I'm afraid it won't happen overnight."

Emperor Chongzhen hummed, knocked on the table with his fingers and said: "There is no rush for social studies. It takes ten years to grow a tree and a hundred years to cultivate a person. It is not a one-time achievement. I also know that there is no rush.

But there is another problem, which was exposed by the current incident. If this matter is not resolved in the future, today's incident will happen again sooner or later. "

Lu Xiangsheng still bowed and said: "Yes, the country gentry still has a very strong voice. The common people in Shengdou regard the patriarchal law more than the national law, regard the patriarchal order more than the government order, and fear the elders more than their parents and officials. Once someone instigates it, there will be big problems."

Lu Xiangsheng did not expect this scene to happen before—it has been smooth sailing for more than ten years, and it has been almost Haiyan and Hejing since Chongzhen five years ago. Feel.

Emperor Chongzhen sneered and said: "Is it because I can't lift a knife anymore? Or are some people too careless? The situation of the imperial court's decree not going to the countryside should be changed in the future. I don't care about the patriarchal clan law. In front of you, you must make way for the law!

The cabinet, the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the Ministry of Officials discussed together to see how towns should be set up below the county level. Township chiefs should be appointed to govern the townships under them. Townships should have township chiefs to govern their villages. Villages must have village chiefs.

Once such a problem arises again, from the village head to the township head, I don't believe that there will be people who have the guts to fight against Da Ming Law! "

Lu Xiangsheng's egg hurts immediately.

No one in the past dynasties did not know the disadvantages of not going to the countryside, and it was not that they did not want to directly set up administrative units in the villages. Although the ancients did not have those messy technologies and technologies as support, they did not necessarily have a political vision than the people of later generations. Where to go.

To put it bluntly, it's not that I don't want to, but that I can't.

Even with the imperial examination system, which can select a large number of talents, it is still not easy to achieve a surplus of talents. How can these officials and gentlemen be assigned to the position of village chief? Take care of it for a long time.

In the ancient times, there were [-] households in the village of small officials in the Spring and Autumn Period, and those who had the ability to manage affairs were regarded as the Lizheng.Hundreds of families in Qin and Han Dynasties called Li, and Lizheng was set up in Li, also known as Li Dian and Li Kui.In the Jin and Southern Dynasties, it was renamed Lili.The Northern Wei, Northern Qi, Sui, Tang, and Song were all set up, and they are still called Lizheng.In the Song Dynasty, Lizheng and household heads were used to supervise and pay taxes; in the fifth year of Song Taizong's Chunhua, all counties took the first-class households as the Lizheng, and the second-class households as the household heads.Jin and Yuan also established Lizheng, which was clearly called Lichang.

This is back to the original question, officials are not officials!It is also impossible for the Ministry of Officials to focus on officials below the county level - the Ministry of Officials is responsible for the officials of the entire Ming Dynasty, and they don't even want to care about the county level. Returning to the hometown?

What's more, most of these lizhengs were produced by the local clans, and naturally they would be directed towards their own clan's power. As for how the court decrees would be interpreted by these people, one can imagine.

It is precisely because of this that when Emperor Chongzhen mentioned the establishment of townships under the county, and the establishment of villages under the township, Lu Xiangsheng felt extremely painful.

Daming does not have so many surplus talents!

Especially with the continuous conquests of the Ming army, the territorial area is getting bigger and bigger, and the number of officials needed is also increasing, so there is no need for extra talents to be wasted in the local area.

But this issue was not a problem for Emperor Chongzhen at all: "Abolish the head of the village, the village head will be elected by the people of the village, and will be elected every three years. Into the management of the local chief envoy.

As for the head of the township, let's choose from the county government in various places first. The official status is from the ninth rank.

By the way, the township also sets up township lieutenants, led by retired general flags and small flags, and township officers are also selected from among retired soldiers to guard the township and arrest thieves and other matters. It must be no problem . "

Lu Xiangsheng finally agreed after pondering for a while.

Emperor Chongzhen was very capricious, and he could make decisions with a swipe of his head. As for how to operate in the middle, it had to be a headache for the cabinet, the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of Officials.

But it has to be admitted that the method proposed by Emperor Chongzhen is indeed a solution.

The advantage of the county government's direct contact with the head of the village is vertical management. If there is any matter, it can go directly to the Lizheng level, and then go directly to the people. It is precisely because of this that the county magistrate is called an official close to the people.

The problem lies in this point. The district chief is directly facing the county level. How many district chiefs must there be in a county?The county magistrate is too busy to manage the district chief, why should he take care of other things?

Once there is any problem, it will take a part of time just to find these chiefs, give orders, and then implement them, and the administrative efficiency can be imagined.

Now that Emperor Chongzhen proposed to select township heads from the county governments at all levels, it has actually saved a lot of effort-at least, these township heads do not need to be selected by the official department from the scholars who are selected by the imperial examination every year.

As for the village chief, it is even easier to say, even if the village chiefs elected in the first term are still those old clan chiefs, it is actually not a big problem, because they already have a village chief directly in charge of them.

The township head is not like the county head. The county head may be very busy. The head of the township is staring at the three-acre land in front of him. He can devote a lot of energy to fighting these old clan heads.

Even if they can't beat them, they can use various operations to make these old patriarchs lose the election after three years, or simply abolish their village chiefs, and then re-elect - even if these clans If the old patriarchs are re-elected, they will be re-elected.

Anyway, everyone is used to playing shady operations, and it is not necessarily true that these old clan leaders will be able to control the local area to death.

If they really had that ability, Emperor Chongzhen would have already caused a big mess when he was playing with the immigrant real side before, and they would honestly wait for the government to arrange it?

At this point, Emperor Chongzhen was still not very satisfied: "I heard that in many places, the people still recognize the patriarchal clan law, and there are often cases of clan elders bypassing the Ming law and lynching.

In the future, the county, township, and village levels need to pay attention to this issue. The patriarchal clan regulations are a good thing, and I don’t want them to be abolished entirely, but no matter what kind of patriarchal clan regulations, they must not violate the Ming Law. "

This is going straight to the root - patriarchal clan rules are a good thing to a certain extent, and Emperor Chongzhen did not intend to completely abolish them.

But this thing is a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. It is a typical double-edged sword, because there are many patriarchal clan rules that simply ignore the law of the Ming Dynasty.