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Volume 13 Revitalizing the Ming Dynasty Chapter 665 Continue to Change

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    The effect of the system reform that added Enke was very obvious, because with this change, those scholars who wanted to enter the official career could not help but pay much more attention to strategy theory.  You must know that in the past, although the imperial examination was also divided into two aspects: Ming Jing and Policy Theory, it was Ming Jing, that is, the Four Books, Five Classics and Eight Parts, that determined the candidates' scores.  But with such an exception, the candidates are afraid to be as sure as before. If they follow this approach in the autumn and future scientific examinations, they may not be able to get good results just by relying on Mingjing.  , so many people also changed their strategies.

    This is exactly what Tang Feng hopes to see. The prosperity of a country actually depends on the power of the elites. At this time in the Ming Dynasty, scholars were elites, and those who could rank on the list in the examination were even more elites.  If these elites in the Ming Dynasty could really improve their knowledge and their vision would not be limited by books like the Four Books and Five Classics, it would not be difficult for Ming Dynasty to develop further.  []

    This time, most of the more than 100 Jinshi selected by Qiu Wei are talents who can satisfy Tang Feng. In addition to their excellent test scores in Mingjing, they also have strong abilities in governing the country and serving as officials.  Generally speaking, it is impossible for these newly promoted Jinshi to be awarded actual official positions immediately. They will either be placed in the Hanlin Academy to continue their studies, or they will return to their hometowns to wait until there is a vacancy before they will be appointed there.  Be an official.  But this time Tang Feng was very different from usual. He appointed these people and the top scholars in the previous Enke examination to serve as officials in Shaanxi and other places.

    This is also caused by the current situation in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty. Although it has been several years, the yamen in Shaanxi and other places are not yet full.  On the one hand, many people did not want to go to that poor place, and on the other hand, the court could not find suitable candidates for the time being, so it had to order local officials to hold multiple positions.  Now that there are so many new scholars who have a theoretical basis for governing the people, Tang Feng will naturally not let them go back. He just uses these very dilapidated places to verify the abilities of these people.

    From these hundreds of people, Tang Feng selected fifty-six with outstanding achievements and assigned them various official positions such as county magistrate and county magistrate. They were all full-time officials.  On the day when he was appointed as an official, An Guogong, who had many things to do, also took the time to meet them in person, one to cheer them up, and the other to give them a warning.

    Seeing the sudden appearance of the Duke in a python suit really made these new scholars feel flattered.  Although many of them were still worried about Tang Feng's changes to the imperial examination before, but now that they have become officials of the Ming Dynasty, they only feel grateful in their hearts. Naturally, they are so grateful to Tang Feng.  The big shot respects him very much.

    Seeing that everyone was a little nervous when he saw his arrival, Tang Feng smiled: "Everyone, if we talk carefully, you should call me senior, so there is no need to be too formal here." He was referring to the fact that he had also been  Although his status as a Tongjinshi has little to do with him now, it also livens up the atmosphere very well.

    When everyone saw that the Duke was so kind, the nervous look on their faces disappeared. They all smiled and said yes, and some followed his words and called Tang Feng their senior.  Seeing that everyone had relaxed a little, Tang Feng continued: "However, the regulations of the imperial court cannot be ignored because of this. This time, I strongly advocate that you be allowed to go to other places as officials as new scholars. Do you know why?  ?¡±

    Everyone was a little confused about this, so they all looked at Tang Feng, waiting for his explanation.  Tang Feng chuckled and then said: "Just because in my heart, you will become the pillars of my Ming Dynasty in the future, I let you serve as the county magistrate and other officials this time just to test your skills. If  If you can achieve great results in these official positions, after you return to the capital in the future, there will definitely be a time for you to show your revenge. But" At this point, he paused and glanced at the excited photos.  And the young face with expectant eyes said, "If you become an official and not only do nothing, but make any mistakes, my father-in-law will never show mercy, and I will not attack you just because you are someone I value."  Open up."

    "I'll take note of it!" A group of young officials nodded repeatedly. They were all full of confidence and believed that with their more than ten years of knowledge, they would be able to make great achievements in their posts.

    "Okay, I will wait and see. After three years, I hope that all of you will be people who have made achievements. There is one more thing I want to tell you. Although the chaos of the year has passed, in Shaanxi local  , the people are still deeply wary of officials. When you go there, you must not only manage the place well, but also control it within a certain limit so that the local people cannot be dissatisfied with the court again. Otherwise, it will not take three years.  The duke will petition the imperial court to dismiss you from your posts." This vaccination must be taken, otherwise Tang Feng is afraid that these people will be too ignorant and have weak hands, making the situation in those places even worse.

    Although there are no people from Shaanxi provinces among these dozens of people, they also know that there areAfter Tang Feng's reminder, he naturally did not dare to be careless again, and said quickly: "We will definitely live up to the high expectations of the imperial court and the Duke, and we will be able to manage the territory where we are in office well, so that the people there can  Know the benefits of the imperial court again!"

    "That's very good. Well, I won't say much else, my princes. I have ordered people to prepare some food and wine for you in the hall next to me. I will just treat it as a farewell and wish you success.  please!"

    After sending away all the people he valued, Tang Feng continued his reforms.  After having the successful experience of the previous series of reforms, Tang Feng became much more familiar with reforming the original system of the Ming Dynasty.  With the opening of the sea ban and the development of commerce, the status of merchants has naturally been improved, and as a result, the original tax rate of 30 to 1 tax is naturally no longer suitable for development.  Tang Feng introduced a new commercial tax rate at the turn of autumn and winter in the fourth year of Zhengyuan, reaching a level of one tax per fifteen.

    Although the merchants would have to hand over more money to the court, because business has developed greatly in recent years, the profits earned by the merchants are far higher than before, which makes them affordable.  In addition, the increase in taxes also symbolizes the improvement of the status of businessmen. It turned out that it was precisely because of their humbleness that Zhu Yuanzhang set a low tax rate. As a result, many big businessmen not only did not object to this change, but instead raised their hands to express it.  gained his own approval.

    Although some stubborn forces among the people still have opinions and criticisms about this, these voices can no longer change what happened.  And generally speaking, those who are famous in the local area mostly have business backgrounds or have some relationship with businessmen. For their own interests, they will naturally try their best to promote this matter, and those who oppose it are even more impossible.  Make a difference.  This is exactly what Tang Feng had hoped for. When more people are tied to their own interests, it is impossible for the inherent conservative thinking to prevent the arrival of change.

    In addition to merchants and commercial taxation, Tang Feng also inspected the officers and soldiers of the guard station, which was the basis of the stability of the Ming Dynasty.  Over the past hundred years, the number of officers and soldiers in various provincial guard posts has dropped sharply due to the lack of pay and the seizure of land for officers and soldiers. Even those who remain are mostly old and weak. This is the key to the success of rebels like Li Zicheng.  .  If the Ming army was as strong as it was in the early Ming Dynasty, even if there were natural disasters, it would be impossible for these clowns to succeed.

    Although Tang Feng was aware of this problem before, he temporarily tolerated it because he had more important things to deal with and didn't want to fight on both sides.  But now that the officials in the imperial court have been subdued, and many people have been sent to accumulate experience and lay the foundation for the continuation of future policies, he can finally have his hands free to deal with this matter.

    During this period of time, Tang Feng did not ignore the shortcomings in the health center. He had secretly asked Jin Yiwei's spies to conduct secret investigations into hundreds of health centers across the country. Now that the evidence is complete, it is  It's time to settle accounts in the fall.  Orders from the Ministry of War and imperial edicts were continuously sent out from the center of the Ming Dynasty, and the operation to rectify the guards began.

    Tang Feng knew that in comparison, the style of the officers and soldiers in the north was tougher than that in the south, so this time he started with the difficult things and then the easy ones, starting with the southern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.  Because there is no Japanese pirate disaster during the Jiajing period, the number of troops in these two provinces is not too large now. In addition, some generals have occupied land, causing the officers and soldiers to flee. The number of soldiers in these two provinces is less than two out of ten.  The best target for surgery.

    However, in order to prevent the generals in these two provinces from taking risks and causing chaos in the local area when they saw that the situation was not good, Tang Feng also ordered people to give orders to the garrison in Nanjing, asking them to send troops at any time to prevent unexpected events.  After all, Nanjing is no better than other provinces, prefectures and counties. No one dares to falsely report the number of its garrison troops. Therefore, with the suppression of the troops there, even if the officers and soldiers of the various garrison stations in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces really cause trouble, they cannot cause too much damage.

    Sure enough, after seeing the court's order, the local officers and generals panicked.  Although there were a few brave ones who wanted to do something, they were immediately intimidated by the eyeing army from Nanjing.  These people were found to have embezzled more than tens of thousands of taels of money. Naturally, the imperial court would not let these people go. They were quickly escorted to the capital, where the Ministry of Punishment and the Ministry of War jointly convicted them.

    With the reorganization of the guard posts in several southern provinces, the focus of the imperial court was placed on the north.  At this time, the generals at the guard station already knew about the incident, and they quickly began to recruit soldiers and horses, hoping to cover up everything before the court could find out the exact evidence.

    In doing so, they obviously underestimated the capabilities of the imperial court. Long before they attacked them, the imperial court had obtained evidence of their crimes through Jin Yiwei's spies. Now they just wanted to find some random people to fill the number of the army. It was completely a waste of time.  The behavior of hiding one¡¯s ears and stealing the bell.  The officials who were ordered to come to inspect the court found out the flaws after a quick inspection.?

    With conclusive evidence, these generals naturally can no longer quibble. In order to prevent them from jumping over the wall in a hurry, all the troops in Liaodong and other important towns are on the side. Not to mention that most of those generals have no objections, and even if they do, they can only give up.  Kind of thought.  You must know that the number of men and horses in their hands seems to be large, but the actual number is greatly insufficient. Some of them are ordinary farmers who were recently recruited. How can they be the opponents of the elite soldiers who have been on the battlefield for a long time.  Moreover, the families of these generals were still under the control of the imperial court, so the only thing that could be done was to capture them without restraint.

    So very quickly, nearly half of the generals with more than a thousand households from hundreds of guard stations in the north and south were escorted back to the capital to hear their convictions.

    However, Tang Feng did not really go on a killing spree this time. He knew very well that the reasons for today's disadvantages had actually existed for hundreds of years. It was really no wonder that the generals were there.  But military discipline must be serious, and latecomers must be alerted. Only in this way can the combat effectiveness of the Ming army be improved.  So he made a relatively safe way to deal with it. Except for the most serious ones and those who still had evil thoughts after the incident, all the generals were simply removed from all their posts and sent back.  I became a commoner in my hometown.  Of course, a few people were killed. Those were typical examples of people who focused on propaganda, in order to give an explanation to those oppressed sergeants.

    After doing this, the imperial court issued another clear message to recruit soldiers from the people to protect the family and the country.  This time, the military household system of Zhu Yuanzhang's time was no longer implemented, but a recruitment system was changed. Not only could soldiers leave the army at any time, but even the army could send away soldiers due to differences in the quality of the soldiers.  Of course, the salary of being a soldier is now much higher than in the past. In addition to ample land, there is also a lot of military pay available, which is enough to make ordinary people excited.

    In fact, this recruitment system had quietly become popular as early as the Jiajing period. At that time, in order to deal with Japanese pirates, famous generals such as Qi Jiguang recruited their own troops from the southeastern provinces. This was much stronger than the officers and soldiers of the guards at that time. This is why the Japanese pirates  He was driven back overseas and the peace of the southeast was guaranteed.  However, the imperial court would not admit this at all, so soon these troops named "a certain army" finally disappeared.

    However, because the quality of the soldiers obtained was much higher than that of the military household system in which sons inherited their father's legacy, this recruitment system was still inherited by those who cared about it, such as the previous Liaodong Army.  Sun Chengzong had understood this level at the beginning, so he recruited local young men in Liaodong to form the elite Liaodong soldiers, and guarded the country for many years.

    This point is very clear, whether it is Tang Feng¡¯s modern thinking or the guidance he received when he later studied with Sun Chengzong.  So when he reformed the army this time, he launched it without hesitation.

    Knowledgeable people in the military are well aware that the military household system is outdated, so although there are some criticisms, the resistance is not great.  After the late spring of the following year, this new military system was promoted and followed by the garrison posts in all provinces.

    The premise of having the freedom to enter and leave the army, coupled with the fact that the income of being a soldier is now much richer than before, makes people who originally had opinions about the army feel safe to let their men become soldiers.  Moreover, now that all the foreign enemies of the Ming Dynasty have been eliminated, the risk factor of being a soldier has been greatly reduced, and the people are naturally less afraid of what will happen to their children because of being a soldier.  However, there are still many people with prejudices. In some wealthy places, there are almost no children enlisting in the army, which is also a bit of a headache.

    Tang Feng understood these situations through various channels. He knew that it was not easy to change the Ming people's views on the army for more than a century. It was already very rare to make them less resistant, so he no longer  We are only waiting for time to make this system completely accepted by the people of the world.

    While solving military problems, Tang Feng also set his sights on a bigger issue - agriculture.  China has always regarded itself as a major agricultural country, and in the earlier Ming Dynasty, more than 80% of the people were farmers. Nothing is more important than allowing farmers to get benefits.

    Although the planting situation of some new crops introduced from the coastal areas in the past few years in the southeast is very optimistic, in the Central Plains, due to deep-rooted ideas, these new crops have not won the trust of the people.  Their ancestors have made a living by growing grains for generations, and now there are suddenly crops that have never been seen before. How can the people plant them with confidence?  Therefore, although the seeds of these crops have been spread to various parts of the Central Plains, only a few are actually planted.

    Tang Feng also understood the conservative thinking of the people, but he knew more clearly that if he wanted to achieve a breakthrough in food production, these new crops must be planted on a large area.  But he couldn't use forceful means to order the people to do what he said, so he could only use some tactful methods.

      Fortunately, with the opening of the sea ban and the prosperity of commerce, the Ming Dynasty's treasury was fully filled, and Tang Feng took advantage of this to make a decision.  He let the yamen in various places spread the word that as long as there are families who are willing to try to grow new crops such as corn and sweet potatoes, the government will provide them with enough silver and grain for a year, and will also reduce part of the tax accordingly.  Endowment.

    As a result, the interest of people everywhere has been greatly increased. Since the government can afford everything and pay a lot less taxes, many brave people among the people have tried it.  They obtained seeds of corn and other crops from the government and signed documents, and thus agricultural reforms began.

    Maybe God also wanted to make Tang Feng's reform successful, but it didn't rain a few times this year, but the weather was very cold, which caused the original crops to fail.  However, sweet potatoes and other crops that are very easy to feed have not been affected, and the yield is much higher than that of wheat and other grains in general.

    This time, the two crops with sharp contrast naturally gave the people an objective understanding. The next year, without the government's publicity, most people consciously chose the new crops, and the government's guarantee was still available at this time.  there is none left.

    Several reforms have been successful, and the development of the Ming Dynasty has also entered its highest speed. This made Tang Feng feel that everything he had done was not in vain. Soon, the originally backward empire would truly rise
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