Chapter 148: Too Scared
"Hmm?" Zhu Biao's eyes suddenly widened. After a little thought, he was sure that what Zhu Chong said was indeed true. The Zhu family was just like that. How could the Zhu family rebel if he had no land to farm?
"Second brother, stop keeping us in suspense. What did you find out?" Zhu Biao felt like a cat was scratching him.
He felt that if he could understand what Zhu Chong was saying next, there would be hope that the future of the Ming Dynasty would never repeat the mistakes of the previous dynasty.
"Actually, the reasons are very simple, just two: natural disasters and man-made disasters." Zhu Chong once again made shocking remarks.
"Natural disasters and man-made disasters?" Zhu Biao must have known this word, but he suddenly felt that he seemed to have never really understood the meaning of this word, because after hearing it from Zhu Chong's mouth, he felt like an enlightened child, and urgently needed Zhu Chong to explain the meaning.
"Yes, brother, can't you understand? Then let me break it down and explain it to you in a simpler way." Zhu Chong said with a smile.
"First, the people did receive land after the founding of the country in each dynasty, but their knowledge was limited, and their ability to withstand external uncontrollable situations was extremely poor."
"For example, if there's a flood, a drought, or a snowstorm, the year's harvest is gone. Without the harvest, there's no food. Without food, what's the point of guarding the land? Are we going to eat dirt?"
"So the people certainly know that land is very important to them, but when faced with life and death, they will sell their land when they have no choice, and the land will eventually end up in the hands of wealthy families and high-ranking officials with a strong foundation."
"Of course, this isn't always the case. For example, there may be civil unrest, foreign invasion, collusion between officials and businessmen, state expropriation, landlords seizing land by force, or even cases where our father divided up land to reward projects..."
"Ah? Is that really the case?" Zhu Biao broke out in a cold sweat after hearing this. He wanted to refute Zhu Chong's words, but he could not give any example or reason.
Because Zhu Chong had set an example before. He used some tricks to buy a coal mine with huge reserves from the magistrate of Changning County, spending only the money to buy a barren mountain!
But at that time, Zhu Chong's behavior did not arouse Zhu Biao's vigilance. After Zhu Chong said this, Zhu Biao increasingly found that the land previously allocated by the country to the people was being continuously eaten away by landlords and powerful people.
"Second brother, do you have a solution to this situation?" Zhu Biao asked this question with difficulty, because he had just asked himself this question in his heart, but was shocked to find that this question had no solution!
"Brother, are you joking?" Zhu Chong sneered, "Qin Prime Minister Lü Buwei once said something famous. I've forgotten the exact words, but I still remember the general meaning."
"What he meant was that by doing business you could only earn three times as much money at most, but by annexing land you could earn ten or even dozens of times as much."
"So from this point of view, if it were you, Big Brother, would you turn a blind eye to something that could easily yield dozens of times the profit?"
"But I am the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty. How could I do such a thing?" Zhu Chong's words made Zhu Biao angry and he shouted sternly.
"If what you say is true, and all the powerful people in the world act like this, then wouldn't the Ming Dynasty also follow the same fate as the previous dynasty? Doesn't anyone know that doing so will lead to the destruction of the nation and the extinction of the race?"
Seeing Zhu Biao angry, Zhu Chong laughed even harder in his heart. It was already very difficult to make Zhu Biao realize the problem. At least as long as Zhu Biao could ascend the throne smoothly, the people of the world would definitely have a good life, and he would also educate his descendants to pay attention to this issue.
As long as we pay attention to this issue, we can avoid many problems and win the hearts of the people.
Only with the support of the people can a dynasty continue. That is why Zhu Chong once said that the rise and fall of a country has nothing to do with whether the king is a wise ruler.
Take the Ming Dynasty as an example. Wasn’t the last emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian a wise ruler?
That guy may have this or that shortcoming, but the fact that he gets up earlier than the chickens, sleeps later than the dogs, and is as diligent as Zhu Yuanzhang is enough to call him a wise ruler.
But in the end, the Ming Dynasty still fell at his hands. But did the Ming Dynasty really fall because of him? I'm afraid not.
To give an example, during the reign of Zhu Youjian, the population base of the Ming Dynasty should have been over 100 million. If each person paid an average of ten cents in taxes to Zhu Youjian every year, the national treasury would have received 10 million taels of silver.
But what was the actual situation? During Zhu Youjian's time, the national treasury had an annual income of less than three million taels of silver, which was simply unprecedented!
The Ming Dynasty had such a vast territory, but the national treasury could not collect more than three million taels of silver in a whole year. If this is not ridiculous, what else is ridiculous?
The root cause of this situation was the land issue mentioned by Zhu Chong, because land annexation at that time had reached an outrageous level.
I have to say here that most of the land annexations were done by the royal family of the Ming Dynasty. The royal family did not have to pay taxes to the state for the land annexed, so the annual income did not exceed three million taels!
Of course, Zhu Chong couldn't tell this to Zhu Biao. He could only wait for Zhu Biao's emotions to calm down a little before analyzing the situation with him.
"Brother, in this world, greed is the biggest part of human nature. So even though everyone knows that annexing land is harmful to the court, national interests are unimportant when it comes to personal gain."
"What's more, the interests involved in land are too great, so great that some people are willing to take risks and even rebel."
After hearing Zhu Chong's description, Zhu Biao's expression became even more miserable. He looked at Zhu Chong with a dazed look, "Second Brother, is there no way to prevent this situation? Even if we can delay or postpone it for a while, it would be fine!"
Hearing Zhu Biao say this, Zhu Chong felt a little uncomfortable and felt that he had scared Zhu Biao too much.
But it was Zhu Biao who had just scared him so much, so he could scare him back now, so they were even. However, scaring was enough, but Zhu Biao would not just stop there and do the whole thing. Life is like a play, it all depends on your acting skills!
"Brother, you overestimate me. I don't have any solution. It's just that when I learned about these things, I thought of a possibility, or maybe it's a suggestion I can share with you."
"Hurry up and tell me!" Zhu Biao's eyes suddenly lit up, like a drowning man grabbing a life-saving straw.
He was really frightened by Zhu Chong. Most importantly, he thought about it carefully. The problem Zhu Chong mentioned did exist in all dynasties, and the situation in the Ming Dynasty seemed to be even more serious, because the imperial edict to enfeoff the royal family members had been issued, and Zhu Chong was among them.
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