pdf-ebookys Chapter 707 Barbarians? Sorry, not familiar with them.
Chapter 707 Barbarians? Sorry, not familiar with them.
Yang Shaofeng never imagined that just a bag of pepper would inspire Lao Deng to think that "the vast ocean holds great potential."
The key point is that Lao Deng wants to get involved in maritime trade, and it's not as simple as just setting up a border market in Dengzhou.
To put it bluntly, the Dengzhou border market was just a trading place. Although it was essentially robbing money from the local gentry, the part that could be robbed was called "customs duties and commercial taxes." They couldn't rob money from other aspects.
for example.
A wealthy gentryman named Zhang San from Jiangnan gathered a group of local ruffians and fled to Southeast Asia, where he occupied an island and then kidnapped some natives to grow pepper, spices, or other spices for him.
Q: Is there anything wrong with this operation?
A: Assuming the imperial court doesn't want to pursue the matter, Zhang San's actions are perfectly acceptable.
Since Zhang San and some villagers did not need a travel permit to go out to sea to fish, it can only be said that it was fate that they got lost at sea and drifted to a deserted island.
As for the claim that he captured natives and planted pepper for them?
First of all, the natives did not have household registration in the Ming Dynasty.
However, in the "Great Ming Code", neither the Five Punishments, the Ten Abominations, nor the Household Law, the Rites Law, the Military Law, nor the Criminal Law stipulated the crime of kidnapping natives. Therefore, Zhang San did not violate any of the Great Ming Code.
Secondly, the prerequisite for suing Zhang San is that there is a victim.
Let alone whether the abducted natives could survive and come to the Ming Dynasty to sue Zhang San, even if they could, there would have to be officials willing to accept the lawsuit.
The natives are different from the common people of the Ming Dynasty.
Don't be fooled by the officials' frequent use of things like "days for filing complaints" or "days for settling disputes." The laws of the Ming Dynasty clearly stipulated that ordinary people could file complaints at the yamen (government office), and if they got really angry, they could even tie up the officials and take them to the capital to file a complaint with the emperor.
Although the actual implementation would certainly be far less effective, and officials would never really care about a few peasants, in the Hongwu era, ordinary people could indeed bind officials and bring them to the capital, and there were real examples of this.
More importantly, there was also an Imperial Censorate keeping an eye on the officials.
For those human-shaped trolls in the Censorate, impeaching Yang the Madman was simply fulfilling their assigned tasks, and investigating the conduct of the people was also part of their duties—all routine operations for getting by.
Only by helping ordinary people bring down corrupt officials can one achieve a righteous act that brings honor to one's ancestors and leaves a lasting mark on history.
If you don't write an impeachment memorial in a dazzling way, you'd be doing a disservice to all your talent!
As for the barbarians?
Sorry, I'm not familiar with you.
Otherwise, you can go to Ningyang County or Dengzhou Prefecture to inquire. It is said that there is a judge named Yang there who can help you.
and so.
As long as the imperial court doesn't intend to seriously investigate, then Zhang San's overseas spice cultivation is a completely legal and normal activity.
Under these circumstances, if Zhang San transports a large quantity of spices to the Dengzhou market for sale, he only needs to pay the customs clearance fees and commercial taxes as required.
Other transactions, such as purchasing spice seeds or buying food for the local laborers, were beyond the jurisdiction of the market, so the market could not collect money from them.
Extending this further, it's as if the imperial court only levies customs duties and commercial taxes, and the gentry only lose a small amount of money, yet they can still reap huge profits.
Between offending the imperial court and being killed, and losing a small fortune, the gentry knew very well which choice to make.
It was precisely for this reason that when Emperor Zhu issued an edict to implement the equal-field system, the progressive tax system, and even to abolish slavery in favor of employment, the local gentry and gentry of the Ming Dynasty reluctantly accepted it.
Occasionally, cases involving blank seals, plowshares, illegal coal mines, children, and ironware were not even considered a counterattack against Emperor Zhu in the eyes of the local gentry and gentry of the Ming Dynasty.
Then the problem is coming.
After exhausting all means to force the local gentry to give up their land annexation efforts, Emperor Zhu also wanted to establish a formal navy and fleet to officially intervene in maritime trade, which was tantamount to cutting off the gentry's last avenue of livelihood.
What kind of shady things will those local gentry and gentry do?
Yang Shaofeng calmly clicked his tongue and said, "Father-in-law is right. Those lands originally belonged to our Great Ming. We must plant the flags as soon as possible."
It was impossible to get Emperor Zhu to give up developing the navy, fleet, and maritime trade.
For Zhu Chongba, it was already a loss if he didn't find any money on the street. If he allowed those local gentry and gentry to go overseas and use all sorts of means to avoid the Ming Dynasty's taxes, it would be like cutting flesh off his body, and with a dull knife at that.
So, who cares whether those local gentry and gentry live or die?
Especially for that gentry who grows pepper in Gulifo, it would be a huge loss if he died after returning to the Ming Dynasty; it would be best if he could die in Gulifo.
……
Just as Yang Shaofeng was pondering having those local gentry act as Han envoys, the three hundred scholars who had passed the imperial examinations and were sent to Huai'an Prefecture by Zhu Biao had already arrived outside Ningyang County.
Looking at the towering city walls from afar, 284 out of the 300 successful candidates in the imperial examination were stunned and bewildered.
It wasn't until quite a while later that one of the scholars pulled another aside and asked, "Brother Li, the city wall of your Ningyang County... must be five or six zhang high?"
The scholar, addressed as Brother Li, smiled and said, “Brother Chen is right. The city wall of Ningyang County is 56 feet high. The outside is made of blue bricks and cement, and the inside is made of gravel and rammed earth. There are bamboo strips and iron bars connecting the blue bricks, cement, gravel, and rammed earth.”
The scholar surnamed Chen took a small step back, looked up and examined the scene carefully, but still couldn't help but gasp in shock.
"Let alone an ordinary county town, even many prefectural cities might not be as large as Ningyang County?"
Looking at the villages along the nearby road, the scholar surnamed Chen continued, "The county seat of Ningyang is so grand, and the people outside the city are quite wealthy. The Prince Consort is truly a capable ruler and a role model for us all. I admire him greatly."
The scholar surnamed Li smiled and led the way, saying with a smile, "What Brother Chen sees is Ningyang County after the third year of Hongwu, not Ningyang County in the first year of Hongwu."
"Back then, the city walls of Ningyang County were only two or three zhang long, and they were made of mud bricks. Some were destroyed by war, and some were destroyed by rain erosion over the years. In any case, they were either collapsed or fell down, and they didn't look like a city at all."
"As for the people outside the city, they are already grateful to have a thatched hut to shelter them from the wind and rain. How could they dare to hope for a house with blue bricks and tiles like this?"
"Moreover, when the magistrate first took office, he tried every means to establish schools. Not to mention that he has given us a second life, his long-term consideration for the people is something that is beyond the reach of ordinary people."
The scholar surnamed Chen nodded and then asked, "Brother Li, I've heard that in Ningyang County, even a random old farmer can recognize five hundred characters. Is that true?"
The scholar surnamed Li nodded first, then shook his head: "To say that most people can recognize five hundred characters is true, and many can even recognize one or two thousand characters, and can write more than five hundred characters."
"But to say that just anyone can recognize five hundred characters is an exaggeration."
“Li’s grandfather is now over sixty years old and only knows about a hundred characters. He can write his own name and the characters Ningyang, but he can’t write the rest.”
The scholar surnamed Chen stared blankly at the scholar surnamed Li.
Having passed sixty-five years old means being over sixty.
A 65-year-old man could recognize more than a hundred characters and could even write his own name.
Is this normal?