nucmednet Chapter 334 Who says a rich country cannot be destroyed?
Chapter 334 Who says a rich country cannot be destroyed?
Chapter 334 Who says a rich country cannot be destroyed?
Wang Buli glanced at the silver in Zhu Biao's hand and felt very uncomfortable.
This kid has been mentioning Japan's silver intentionally or unintentionally recently. What is he doing?
Wang Buli's doubts were even more aggravated. He had only told Zhu Di about this matter, and no one else knew about it.
Could it be that the fourth brother was talking in his sleep at night?
It is really unnecessary for Mr. Zhu to send someone to monitor his son, right?
Wang Buli had to doubt Zhu Biao's behavior and repeatedly mentioned the two points of Japan and silver.
Zhu Di was stunned for a moment, he felt it was a bit of a coincidence.
Because he believed that his wife Xu Miaoyun and Wang Buli would never leak this matter.
So Zhu Di subconsciously took the silver from Zhu Biao and looked at it:
"Brother, what's the difference?"
"The quality is not good."
Zhu Biao shook his head and continued playing mahjong: "That's why Dad didn't give out this batch of silver as a reward."
Hu Weiyong was obedient and listened carefully.
I always feel that the prince is not talking about money.
How much silver can a small country like Nacuoer in Japan have?
Since ancient times, China has used copper coins.
They all relied on robbery, and the silver they snatched from the people would not be of good quality.
"Oh, let's not talk about this."
Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at Wang Buli casually, and seeing that he had no intention of talking, he did not force an interruption.
"The fourth brother said that the Ming Dynasty was short of cattle, so we went to the northwest to fight." Zhu Biao sighed leisurely, "But the Ming Dynasty was short of silver, where else could we go to fight?"
Wang Buli quickly sorted the cards and asked casually, "Who knows where there are silver mines around Daming?"
Zhu Biao didn't expect Wang Buli to ask this question directly.
He was stunned for a moment and didn't continue the conversation.
"Your Highness is right." Xu Da added, "If it had really been discovered, the news would have been spread long ago."
Zhu Di silently arranged the cards. He just wanted to speak.
As a result, Wang Buli spoke first, so he took the silver.
"Fourth brother, what did you want to say just now?" Zhu Yuanzhang looked at his son who opened his mouth and closed it again.
"Me?" Zhu Di only whispered in response to his father's question:
"Father, we haven't decided how big the fight will be."
"Hahaha."
Zhu Yuanzhang burst into laughter. He always thought that he had never fought before and had forgotten about it.
He always felt that the fourth brother knew something, but not everything.
Zhu Di did not reveal his cards. Although he felt that it was not kind of Wang Buli to be able to enter the fairyland and eat alone, he was not an outsider after all.
Since he didn't choose to tell his father, there must be some reason for it.
What if Wang Buli had only heard about it and was not sure? If the Ming Dynasty had spent so much manpower and resources to conquer Japan but didn't find any silver mines, wouldn't that be a waste of joy?
"In fact, even if a country has money, food and people, it can still perish."
Wang Buli mentioned it when he was drawing the cards, which immediately aroused everyone's interest.
"Which dynasty would be like this?" Zhu Yuanzhang raised his eyebrows slightly: "Could it be the Han Dynasty?"
"impossible!"
"I think the Prince Consort's words are like duckweed without any basis."
"Well, I haven't heard of it."
"Of course it's the Sui Dynasty." Wang Buli looked at the cards in his hand in response to the rebuttals from the people around him:
"I remember a scholar from the Yuan Dynasty wrote a book saying that the richest country in history was the Sui Dynasty."
"Oh?"
Zhu Yuanzhang never thought about the Sui Dynasty which would perish in the second generation.
Yang Guang lived a dissolute life and was fond of ostentation. He was not a good role model for an emperor to follow.
As for some books about the Yuan Dynasty, none of you here have read much.
"The first sign of a country's wealth is its population growth, which is the best indicator of its wealth."
(During the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui, the average annual population growth rate reached 2020 per thousand (China's population growth rate in was per thousand).
Wang Buli's words made everyone agree that if the population of a dynasty does not grow, there must be a huge problem.
Only when ordinary people have a stable and secure life can their children grow up as safely as possible.
There are no wars, plagues, high taxes or the like that can feed people.
“Secondly, Sui’s wealth was also reflected in the fact that the treasury was full.
Many famous large granaries were built at that time, such as Taicang in Xijing, Hanjia Granary and Luokou Granary in Dongdu.
The large warehouses store tens of millions of dan of rice and millet, and the smaller warehouses store millions of dan.
The ruling minister at the time estimated that the food stored in the warehouses would be enough to feed the entire nation for 50 to 60 years.”
Zhu Yuanzhang became interested, this was exactly what he expected.
If his Ming Dynasty also had so many large granaries, then there would be nothing to be afraid of!
Unfortunately, there is none.
"Why was the Sui Dynasty so rich?"
Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't understand why the Sui Dynasty was so prosperous.
"Your Majesty's question is the same as Emperor Wen of Sui's." Wang Buli drew a card and inserted it into the deck: "He said, I don't seem to collect much money and grain, and I don't spend a lot of money and grain, so how come I still have so much money and grain?"
Zhu Di laughed out loud a few times.
He felt that Emperor Wen of Sui was being too pretentious when he said this.
He learned this word from Wang Buli.
Zhu Biao, however, didn't understand why Wang Buli had dragged his topic to something so far away.
"Emperor Wen of Sui was a wise ruler, but he failed to choose a good successor." Hu Weiyong also commented.
Wang Buli played a card and then stretched out his hand to make a "yeah" gesture, saying, "Generally speaking, there are two main reasons for Sui's wealth."
"Which two aspects?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked.
"First, since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the state has cracked down on the power of the nobles and powerful families, so that the state can effectively control the land and population, and can levy taxes on the vast land and the people, thus changing the past situation of national corruption and family prosperity;
The second is to establish an effective administrative system, such as the three-province and six-department system, which can effectively concentrate resources in the hands of the government.
Especially after the widespread use of highways and canal transportation, grain, materials, and wealth were continuously transported to the central government and stored.
In addition, Emperor Wen of Sui was relatively frugal and restrained in imposing corvée labor.
For example, the age of adult labor service was raised from 18 to 21, which gave people more time to engage in agricultural production, and also played a role in promoting the formation of the Sui Dynasty’s wealth.
Zhu Yuanzhang subconsciously began to compare himself with Emperor Wen of Sui, and he achieved the first point.
He dealt a severe blow to the power of the scholars in the south of the Yangtze River, constantly weakening them, and also levied taxes on the people.
Secondly, it was also an effective administrative system. He was confident that Emperor Wen of Sui was not as diligent as him, and he was also very frugal.
Even so, the Ming Dynasty was not as prosperous as the Sui Dynasty.
On the contrary, money needs to be spent everywhere, but there is no money to spend.
The only difference is that Zhu Yuanzhang lowered the age for corvee labor to 16 years old.
Even when Emperor Yang of Sui first ascended the throne, he raised the age for corvée service to 22, and even exempted women from the burden of rent and taxes.
However, Emperor Yang was too ambitious and eager to accomplish unprecedented feats in a short period of time.
He soon changed his approach of reducing the financial burden on the people when he first came to the throne.
In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had been conscripting laborers on a large scale, especially when building the Fengyang Palace, many craftsmen died.
Everyone started to curse the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Yuanzhang felt uncomfortable so he gave up the plan to move the capital to Fengyang.
It is an unfinished engineering project that has cost a huge amount of money.
Today, the Nanjing Imperial City is still being expanded and renovated, but corvée labor has not stopped.
Hu Weiyong glanced at Wang Buli, stepped back silently, and said nothing.
There were few common people in the early Ming Dynasty.
That is why the emperor ordered that the age of those performing corvee labor be reduced.
Of course, there is a lack of strong laborers in the fields. Farming is extremely hard work, so the output is naturally even less.
If the Ming Dynasty wanted to emulate the ancient dynasties, its financial expenditure would suddenly increase dramatically.
Then it will be even more difficult to get anything done.
This was a taboo for Zhu Yuanzhang, who always liked to save money.
Hu Weiyong would naturally not get into trouble.
Zhu Yuanzhang was also considering it, and then asked:
"Buli, do you think the country should become rich first or the people should become rich first?"
"Your Majesty, that is indeed a good question." Wang Buli fumbled with his cards and said:
"The country should be made rich first, but after the country is rich, how to make the people rich is a bigger problem."
Zhu Yuanzhang also agreed with Wang Buli's opinion.
If the country has no money, how can it suppress the rebellion?
Just like in the late Ming Dynasty, all the money was taken away by the nobles and powerful.
The emperor didn't even have the money to recruit soldiers, let alone resist foreign invasions and peasant uprisings.
The Ming Dynasty naturally perished.
"What was Emperor Yang of Sui's great cause?"
Zhu Biao's teacher never taught him this kind of knowledge.
The emperor's guidance books such as Han Feizi that we studied were from an earlier era.
Wang Buli pointed out: "There are still two points, one is "dealing with the four barbarians", and the other is "patrolling".
Both of these measures have greatly increased the burden on the people, and more importantly, have over-taxed their labor."
Zhu Di looked at his cards and was very interested in the first point: "Brother-in-law, what is "serving the four barbarians"? "
Wang Buli was willing to explain Zhu Di's question:
"The Four Barbarians refer to the ethnic minority regimes surrounding the Sui Dynasty. These three words mean that Emperor Yang of Sui recruited ethnic minorities from the Western Regions to pay homage to them and ordered the counties they passed through to spend huge sums of money to entertain them.
Emperor Yang of Sui also lured the Western Turkic regime to submit to the emperor by offering land. In order to supply the soldiers and civilians garrisoning there, huge amounts of supplies were transported from the interior, and a large number of civilians died on the road.
Not to mention that he also conquered Goryeo three times, for which he recruited millions of soldiers and countless laborers. There were hundreds of thousands of civilians transporting grain to the northern granaries all year round, and soldiers and civilians died side by side. "
"Look at me. When the four directions come to pay tribute, I only let them stay at the post station. The extra expenses of the envoys are all paid by themselves. We, the Ming Dynasty, will never spend money on them."
Zhu Yuanzhang was very proud of this matter.
He was not only stingy with himself, but also with foreigners who came to pay tribute.
"As for the issue of foreign tribes submitting to the country, we have considered it before, but we mostly let them graze outside the Great Wall and exchange cattle and sheep for food, salt, tea, etc. We never thought about supporting them."
Zhu Yuanzhang was very dissatisfied with Emperor Yang of Sui's actions. Isn't this just creating a group of bigwigs to enjoy themselves?
I'm going to fuck you!
In the Ming Dynasty, no one can be the boss!
"I went to Peking to be a vassal, and I was thinking of driving those people who defected to the Ming Dynasty to fight the Mongols."
Zhu Di was actually somewhat influenced by his father and would never spend money on others for no reason.
It would be better to use this money to reward my subordinates. When the time comes, they will follow me and work hard to achieve success, and I will still have to rely on them.