Chapter 149 The Seriousness of the Problem
Just as Zhu Chong said, the royal family's fiefdoms do not have to pay taxes to the country. The harm may not be obvious at present, but when the descendants of princes like Zhu Chong multiply, these royal family members will definitely seize more land by trickery.
By that time, a large amount of land in the world will become the land of the royal family, and these lands will not have to pay taxes to the country. It would be strange if the national treasury is not empty by then!
However, faced with this situation, Zhu Biao could not think of a solution at all, so he was of course happy when Zhu Chong said he had an idea.
After all, it is better to have something than nothing. Even if it is a bad idea, Zhu Biao thinks it is worth considering. In fact, the only person he can rely on now is Zhu Chong.
"First, we need to clearly stipulate in the law that any act of land annexation is strictly prohibited. However, I don't think my father will agree to this at the moment. We can only wait until you take over."
Hearing what Zhu Chong said, Zhu Biao nodded slowly. This was indeed a method. Perhaps he could do something now, but it was definitely not as convenient as the emperor giving a direct order.
"But this method is a double-edged sword. After all, the benefits of annexing land are clear to everyone. Even ordinary people, as long as they have enough power, will definitely want to annex land."
"And even if you, Big Brother, came to power and explicitly prohibited the annexation of land, there would definitely still be people who did it secretly. I'm mainly talking about royal family members like me, as well as princes and nobles."
"Honestly, big brother, for people in our position, speaking out against the law is nothing. Even if you don't allow it, they still have countless ways to circumvent the restrictions of the law."
"Let me tell you one thing I can think of. Your laws are so restrictive that they can only limit the amount of land someone like me can own. So I'll have a few more children and then find a way to give them the title of Marquis. So, do you think you'll give them land?"
"Or, to put it even more simply, I could bribe the clans to help me take over the land, or simply take the people's land for myself. But I'd make a Yin-Yang land deed with them to determine the ownership of the land. In name, it belongs to the people, but in reality, it belongs to me!"
What Zhu Chong said was definitely not alarmist, but was based on real historical records, especially in the late Ming Dynasty.
Land annexation in the late Ming Dynasty reached an extreme. The most famous one was Prince Fu, who was later killed by Prince Chuang. He alone owned more than 70% of the land in his fiefdom!
Prince Fu's fiefdom was Luoyang, where there were millions of people in the Ming Dynasty at that time. As a result, the land owned by these millions of people was less than half of Prince Fu's land.
Therefore, the fall of the Ming Dynasty had nothing to do with land annexation. I am afraid no one would believe it. It is for this reason that Zhu Chong used it to scare Zhu Biao, because using such real cases to scare people is the most effective!
As expected, Zhu Biao was frightened out of his wits at this moment. After all, in the education he had received, neither Old Zhu nor those famous scholars had ever mentioned these issues to him.
Although Zhu Biao also knew that the land issue was important, he never understood the disaster that land annexation would bring to the Ming Dynasty!
From this, Zhu Biao thought of the lands that were granted in the imperial edicts issued by Zhu Yuanzhang after he founded the country, rewarding his meritorious officials and enfeoffing the kings. When he thought of this, he felt panicky.
Zhu Biao then remembered what Zhu Chong had told him before, asking him to tell Zhu Biao to throw Zhu Biao outside the Great Wall and let him fend for himself. It turned out that this was because Zhu Chong saw the problem.
Zhu Chong must have been unable to think of a solution, so he simply turned a blind eye. As a member of the Ming royal family, he was unwilling to watch the Ming Dynasty fall step by step into the abyss, so he asked to leave the Ming Dynasty and go to the frontier to find the answer.
When Zhu Biao thought of this, the look in his eyes when he looked at Zhu Chong changed. It turned out that his seemingly cynical and unruly brother was actually so concerned about the country and the people in his heart. He even saw problems that he himself did not see.
When he could not think of any solution, he racked his brains to find a way, and even went out of the border to fight a bloody battle with the Northern Yuan people.
Zhu Biao, who was constantly imagining things, never thought that Zhu Chong didn't think so much at all. He just wanted to scare him. But Zhu Chong would definitely not tell him the truth and would just continue to scare him.
"The land issue is very troublesome because it's not a problem involving one or two people, but a problem involving a large group of people. In other words, it's a problem between the top people in the Ming Dynasty, our father, and you, Big Brother."
"So, big brother, you must be mentally prepared. This isn't something you can resolve overnight or by yourself. You have to approach it slowly, otherwise the world will be plunged into years of war. Don't act rashly until you find a real solution!"
Zhu Chong said this purely to prevent any problems from happening.
After all, we are all descendants of Zhu Yuanzhang. God knows whether Zhu Biao has the same bloodthirsty genes as Zhu Yuanzhang. What if Zhu Biao can't help but kill people crazily like Zhu Yuanzhang? Then what Zhu Chong said today would be a sin!
The population of the Ming Dynasty is not large now, and Zhu Yuanzhang is about to kill a large number of the Ming Dynasty's top talents. In fact, it is a loss for the Ming Dynasty. After all, in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, even corrupt officials should be spared if possible!
After all, Zhu Yuanzhang did kill quite a few corrupt officials during his reign, but the more he killed, the more corrupt officials there were. Ultimately, Zhu Yuanzhang could not find out the reason why the corrupt officials were so corrupt.
In Zhu Chong's opinion, as long as the corrupt officials do not go too far, it is okay to spare their lives or even let them continue to hold office. Sometimes, when the water is too clear, there will be no fish. This is how it should be understood!
"Well, second brother, please continue." Zhu Biao now listened to Zhu Chong's words completely, but the more he did this, the more frightened Zhu Chong became, because he was afraid that Zhu Biao would turn around and tell Zhu Chong.
Lao Zhu is a person who cannot tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes. In his eyes, water is clear. Whoever makes it muddy will be killed along with his entire clan!
Zhu Chong doesn't want what he said today to cause something to happen prematurely!
Zhu Chong then began to give Zhu Biao a heads-up, "Also, big brother, there are some things you must make your own decisions about. Our father has a tough personality and sometimes does things without considering the consequences. If he makes a mistake, we might have to clean it up for him."
Hearing this, Zhu Biao hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded slowly. Zhu Chong was right. Old Zhu was indeed impulsive and reckless sometimes, just like what happened today. If Old Zhu knew about it, there would probably be a bloody storm immediately.
"Don't worry about that. I'm not stupid." Zhu Biao agreed to Zhu Chong and then asked, "Besides the law we just made, are there any other solutions?"
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