Wandering the Heavens

The eighth year of Chenghua was not just about Zhu Jianshen's wedding. The most important thing was that he began to rule the country from that year. The reason why he ordered Yu Xian to go out to worship the mountains and rivers after the queen gave birth to her eldest son was, firstly, to show his love and tell the mountain gods that he had married a good wife, who had given birth to a big fat son; secondly, to reduce his influence in the court, although he was over eighty years old.

From the 14th year of Zhengtong to the 8th year of Chenghua, nearly 20 years, although Xuanwu Bo Yuxian spent most of his time fighting outside, he fought almost all of the borders of the Ming Dynasty except the southwest. The grasslands annexed, Anxi was rebuilt, Liaodong was stabilized, and there was even an enclave in the vast ocean.

His influence in the court grew day by day, and he changed the ridiculous image during the reigns of Renzong, Xuanzong and Zhengtong. It was as if he had become a different person overnight. He went on horseback to fight and dismounted to pacify the people. He forcibly pulled back the country's fortunes that had been declining since the Zhengtong period.

Now that Zhu Jianshen has grown up, this young and vigorous monarch wants to break away from the influence of Yu Xian and create his own history.

In the ninth year of Chenghua, he issued an edict to permanently abolish corvee labor in the name of the birth of the emperor's eldest son. The word "abolition" was used here, not "exemption". Government officials at all levels were not allowed to take this opportunity to convert corvee labor into taxes and add them to the additional taxes.

In the tenth year of Chenghua, in the name of the 40th birthday of the retired emperor, an edict was issued to abolish the population tax and levy agricultural tax based on the actual amount of land owned by each household.

When Zhu Jianshen received a lot of imperial grace and praise from the people, Yu Xian felt that this student was so qualified to be a political machine that even his own father and son could be used as bargaining chips for governance. Fortunately, he would be dead in his eighties, otherwise he would sooner or later be regarded as a powerful official like Sima Yi who lost his integrity in his later years.

Now that the head tax has been abolished, and the next step is to require all officials and gentry to pay taxes together, no one knows when and what excuse he will find to take action.

The opportunity came quickly.

In the 13th year of Chenghua, Yu Xian, who had already resigned as the Left General, retained the title of Prince's Tutor, intending to let him continue to raise the children. In return, his title was changed from Earl to Marquis, and he wanted it to be hereditary. However, when he saw that the old man had been a lonely man since the day he arrived, he had to give up.

In this year, the Huguang tax case broke out and caused a civil uprising. After the abolition of corvée and poll tax, the Huguang gentry colluded with local officials to break up the land and register it in the hands of the people, and even fabricated that every family owned land. When it came time to collect taxes, they placed the tax amount on the people.

After the incident was exposed, the Huguang Provincial Government and below did not report it in a timely manner. Instead, they covered it up and arrested those who leaked the news. At the same time, they also detained many people who resisted taxes and even killed them. This eventually triggered a large-scale civil uprising, and more than 100,000 people fled into the Jingxiang mountain area.

In fact, considering the Grand Council, the reorganized East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, as well as the fully functioning cabinet, it is very likely that this matter had already reached Zhu Jianshen from the very beginning, but he had suppressed it.

The means to resolve conflicts is to intensify them.

Zhu Jianshen ordered an investigation into the civil unrest. Everyone knew what the situation was, and it was just a formality. However, to everyone's surprise, this formality went a bit too far. From the outbreak of the tax case in the 13th year of Chenghua to the summer of the 15th year of Chenghua, Zhu Jianshen did not receive the investigation report until.

In the same year, Zhu Jianshen ordered the army to march into Huguang and recruit the people who had fled to the mountainous areas back to their hometowns. The East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard began large-scale arrests. The three offices of Huguang and officials at all levels were almost wiped out, along with tens of thousands of local gentry and families.

Once the people are caught, they should be dealt with. There is nothing to say about the principal offender being executed, and the accomplices and followers will be packaged together and sent to the overseas enclave to mine.

At the same time, Zhu Jianshen issued an edict to confess his guilt. This edict, which consisted of more than a thousand words, consisted of Zhu Jianshen scolding himself in the first part and the second part urging all officials and gentry to pay taxes.

At this point, the main content of the Chenghua Reform was basically completed, and the remaining time was just to sit on the throne and watch the policies implemented.

Next came the struggle between the new imperial power represented by Zhu Jianshen and the traditional civil servants. The two sides used the reform of the imperial examination system as a battlefield and launched a long-lasting quarrel. Yu Xian, who was taking care of the children at home, was dumbfounded. He had never expected the imperial examination system to be a problem. At the same time, he also felt that people really cannot eat too much.

The Ming Dynasty's imperial examinations were made and broken by the eight-part essay. It was during the Chenghua period that the eight-part essay was determined to be the only official answering format for the imperial examinations.

This is also the result of the candidates' internal competition. In the case of all subjective questions, if there is no requirement for the writing style, the examiners' marking standards will also be affected. For example, candidate Zhang San's answer ideas and attitude are correct, but the form of the article is messy and full of tricks, which makes people dizzy; and then Li Si's paper is fluent and brilliant, with a correct attitude, but the content is irrelevant and has nothing to do with the topic.

The practical examiner likes Zhang San, the emotional examiner likes Li Si, and then they argue over who to admit. In short, the examiner's personal factors have a great impact on the fairness of the exam.

Then we might as well make strict requirements on the format of answering questions, and all candidates should answer questions according to the official writing format. Only within this framework can we barely achieve relative fairness.

In the 18th year of Chenghua, when Yu Xian was fishing in Xuanwu Marquis's mansion, Zhu Jianshen swallowed his pride and came to ask for advice. He always thought that with the ruling team that Yu Xian had accumulated for him, he could change all the rules of the world at will, but he didn't expect to be met with failure in the imperial examination.

Yu Xian pointed out that the intensity of the current struggle between the old and new bureaucrats is beyond control. This is true, but this is not a problem of the imperial examination system itself, but a problem of ideology.

Under the current social and productivity conditions, the imperial examination system is already the best system. Zhu Jianshen's mistake lay in his misunderstanding of this system.

It's the same old story. The purpose and means of doing things are both indispensable. Zhu Jianshen only saw the shortcomings of the traditional bureaucrats who came from the imperial examination system, but did not analyze the reasons for these shortcomings. What's more serious is that Emperor Zhu Jianshen only saw the short-term benefits brought by the means and ignored the long-term development.

This is an extremely dangerous phenomenon. He holds the highest power in the empire. Once there is a deviation in his cognition, the consequences will be extremely serious.

The bottom line is that the social and economic structure of the Ming Dynasty was in a period of rapid transformation, and disputes arising from the society's failure to adapt to the current development and changes were inevitable.

Therefore, what we need to deal with now is the ideological issue, which requires a discussion and change of ideas. Not only the traditional civil servants need it, but Zhu Jianshen and his fellow apprentices need it even more.

To put it simply, how to develop the Ming Dynasty is the means, and what kind of Ming Dynasty it should become is the goal; both are indispensable.

Zhu Jianshen left Xuanwu Marquis Mansion as if he understood something. He needed some time to think.

In the 19th year of Chenghua, the emperor issued an edict asking his subjects what kind of Ming Dynasty they wanted.

In the same year, Yu Xian, a veteran minister of the Six Dynasties and the Prince's Junior Tutor, died of illness in Beijing. Because his death was so sudden, Zhu Jianshen did not even see him for the last time. There was only a box with a mechanism, which he said would be buried in front of the temple dedicated to the martyred soldiers during the 30th anniversary of the Tumu Fortress.

The veteran traitor Zhu Jianshen could not suppress his curiosity and took great pains to open the sophisticated mechanism box. Inside was a small kneeling iron statue with the words "Sinner Yu Xian" engraved on its back.

Zhu Jianshen thought about it and added his biological father's name...

——The end of the glorious world of Ming Dynasty——

PS: Regarding the problem of the protagonist watching the Ming army being annihilated at Tumu Fortress, when writing, I thought of many plans, that is, to kill all the civil and military ministers and even Zhu Qizhen who went on the expedition in person while preserving the 200,000-strong army. For example, bribe the Mongolian nobles and let them only attack the officials; for example, the protagonist disguised as Wala cavalry and went into battle in person, etc. I lost a lot of hair but couldn't think of any good solution. Another thing is that before Zhu Qizhen went on the expedition in person, the senior generals of Beidouwei did a pre-war deduction in a secret base, and they did not think that Zhu Qizhen would fail.

If it is a time travel with a historical background, the protagonist's enemy will definitely not be a specific person. For example, in the myth, the protagonist's opponent is not Yi Xiaochuan, Gao Yao, Liu Ji, and Xiang Yu, but the old nobles of the six kingdoms represented by Xiang Yu. The enemies in Nirvana in Fire are the aristocratic families and separatist forces represented by Xiao Xuan, and so on.

And the most important thing is, I messed up my writing, so what?

It's too tiring to go against a group of people. I'll go to the modern world and eat dog food first in the next world...