After broadcasting the ancient times live, I handed the system over to the state.

One comment on the screen completely broke the defenses of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di of the Yongle era.

Zhu Yuanzhang had initially relaxed after being called out, but this one sentence turned his face ashen.

"We'd rather skin that rebellious son alive than kneel before him!" Zhu Yuanzhang said with a cold snort.

Ever since he learned about the Jingnan Campaign, Zhu Biao had noticed that Zhu Yuanzhang would beat the fourth prince from time to time, and Zhu Biao couldn't stop him. Now he was even more troubled, and it seemed that Zhu Di would inevitably get a beating with a belt when he got back.

“Father, Tianmu was just joking. Now that Miss Zhu has seen what you asked, why don’t you see what Tianmu has to say first?” Zhu Biao comforted her.

Zhu Yuanzhang wasn't really angry; he was just putting on airs to prove that he was still the father.

Ying Zheng was also somewhat interested in the Ming Dynasty. Logically speaking, with so many dynasties preceding it, the Ming Dynasty should have learned from its mistakes. So why did it perish?

The emperor of the Han Dynasty also looked at the sky and was very curious about the reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

"I wonder if there's anything I can do to help me learn from his strengths?" Li Shimin became even more interested.

The emperors of the Tang and Song dynasties were also paying attention to it.

……

Zhu Qinggu said, "I can only mention it briefly here. I will go into more detail later when we talk about the fiscal and taxation, reforms and other aspects of various countries."

"In fact, the fall of the Ming Dynasty was caused by a variety of factors. Finance was only one of them. Political corruption, military defeats and natural disasters were also causes, as well as the Little Ice Age that we always talk about."

Natural disaster? Little Ice Age? What are those?

This new term aroused endless curiosity among people of all dynasties: Could this Little Ice Age have also led to the fall of the Ming Dynasty?

Judging from the literal meaning, could it be that the weather is too cold?

If it gets cold, won't that lead to reduced food production? And then people won't be able to survive?

Many ancient people had constricted pupils.

"Alas, famine is everywhere. Is the Yellow Turban Rebellion about to repeat itself?" Liu Bei had deeply felt the suffering of the common people who had no food.

Zhu Yuanzhang was the same. The feeling of hunger when he was a child was really unbearable. He would try to put anything edible, even things that were not edible, into his mouth.

The vegetables were all eaten, the grass was all eaten, and there wasn't even any grass root left to eat...

Hunger can inspire people to rise up in rebellion, and Zhu Yuanzhang could already imagine the scene where people would respond to his call to revolt.

However, after Zhu Qinggu had piqued everyone's interest, he turned back to the main topic, but the people of the Ming Dynasty had not yet forgotten about the 'Little Ice Age'.

"It's not just the Ming Dynasty; in fact, when any dynasty collapses, its finances are the first thing to collapse."

"One of the reasons for the fall of the Qin Dynasty was the failure of supply-side reforms. One of the reasons for the fall of the Tang Dynasty was the loss of tax revenue from the southeast. The Song Dynasty suffered from two periods of inflation, as did the Han Dynasty."

"And what about the Ming Dynasty's finances?"

"The Ming Dynasty's finances were meticulously designed by Zhu Yuanzhang, and they exuded a unique vitality in the early Ming Dynasty."

"As everyone knows, many fields were abandoned in the early Ming Dynasty, so Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di both did one thing: increase the tax base."

"Taxation is the foundation of a country. If there aren't enough taxes to be collected, how can you maintain the country's rule?"

"The way Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di increased the tax base was by migration, balancing the areas with large populations and limited land with areas with small populations and abundant land, so that everyone could have land to cultivate."

"In order to prevent the population from moving around at will, Zhu Yuanzhang created the household registration system, which is very similar to our current household registration system. However, the household registration system was much stricter. The household registration system included the name of the head of household, his/her date of birth, his/her relationship to the head of the household according to his/her age, and also the family property, including the amount of land, houses, cattle and everything else."

"The government also categorized people into different professions based on the circumstances of each household. There were three main types: civilian households, military households, and artisan households. In some places, there were also salt-making households, and monks and Taoist priests all had ordination certificates."

"Such policies stipulated what people could do and what they should do. At the time, such a system seemed better because it facilitated population statistics, land statistics, and economic censuses."

"In the fourteenth year of Hongwu, the court also created a Yellow Register of Taxes and Labor, which assigned different tax and labor responsibilities to different households. When the court measured the land, because the land was of different sizes, it looked like fish scales on the map. Therefore, the land measurement records were also called the Fish Scale Register."

"Wait, I know what you're going to say. Are you going to say that military households and artisan households are fixed, and that household registration is not conducive to social vitality?"

The Ming Dynasty died of poverty.

[Actually, my first impression of the Song Dynasty was that it was rich, while my first impression of the Ming Dynasty was that it was poor.]

[The Ming Dynasty's tax revenue was less than that of the Southern Song Dynasty; they were dirt poor.]

[It's not that Zhu Yuanzhang had a poor vision or a peasant mentality; I mainly think that historical figures all have the limitations of their time.]

The tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty is indeed not as good as that of the Southern Song Dynasty, and it is not even comparable now. Zhu Yuanzhang squinted his eyes and said, "I wonder how the tax revenue was when that rebellious son was in power, and what about those good-for-nothing descendants after him."

During the Yongle era, Zhu Di was also looking at the sky. Now, the discussion was about financial issues that were closely related to the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Di could not help but pay attention to it. However, he lamented that the Ming Dynasty's tax revenue was far less than that of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Even I myself may not be able to achieve it now, so what about my descendants?

Is there anyone capable enough to show him?

Zhu Gaochi shook his head. "No, pass it on."

Zhu Zhanji said no, and passed the message on.

Although Baozong was somewhat human-like, its tax revenue still couldn't compare to that of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Even at its peak, during the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty's tax revenue could not compare to that of the Southern Song Dynasty.

They looked down on DaSong in every way, but now that they're compared, they're not much better off.

Zhu Yuanzhang fell silent.

"That's right. Historical figures are limited by their times. We only know the ending now. By analyzing the past from the perspective of later generations, we can naturally know what was good and what was bad. But at that time, they were also feeling their way across the river."

"In other words, we are wise after the event. The truth that humanity has learned from history is that humanity never learns from its mistakes."

"As for the salt permits and the tea-horse trade, I'll just say a few words. The salt permits allowed merchants to transport grain and other supplies to important border towns in exchange for the right to distribute official salt."

"Later, this group of people quickly became rich, and many of them became the Shanxi merchants later on."

"The Tea-Horse Trade involved establishing Tea and Horse Bureaus to strictly manage tea and exchange it for horses held by ethnic minorities."

"And there are all sorts of other taxes, such as the bamboo and timber tax for buying and selling bamboo and firewood, the gate tax for goods entering and leaving the capital, and many other types of taxes..."