Chapter 222 The importance of education

Henan can have the current situation, for example, various new policies, whether taxation, commerce, or agriculture, can be implemented smoothly. If you look carefully, the thieves have played a big role.

Of course, it is not unrelated to Ying Yi's thunderous methods.

For example, in matters of taxation, if there were no bandits raging, given the background of the Central Plains of Henan and the gathering of nobles, big landowners and big businessmen, no matter who came, it would be difficult to provide food and shelter for them.

The issue of taxation has accumulated many ills throughout the ages. It is not that no one realizes that many years ago, a top figure in the Ming Dynasty carried out reforms to address this issue. That is Zhang Juzheng.

A whip can be used to divide an acre into an acre, and the gentry will pay taxes as one. Integrating all kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes into one, removing many places where manipulation can be done in complicated taxation, and incorporating the original privileged classes into the tax law will benefit the people on the one hand, and the country on the other.

In fact, the tax law implemented by Ying Yi now has many similarities with Zhang Wenzhonggong's new law.

Zhang Juzheng's new legal reforms were implemented forcefully and took ten years due to his strong tactics and his position as the leader of the country. But here, Ying Yi is much more relaxed. Li Chuang brought disaster to the Central Plains, and the people were displaced. However, the landowners and local emperors also suffered disasters.

Second, when Ying Yi entered Kaifeng, he used thunderbolt methods to cleanse the remaining households on land, killing many people.

Only in this way can the smooth implementation of the new law be ensured.

During the Wanli period, Zhang Juzheng's reforms gave a boost to the increasingly declining Ming Dynasty. However, the new law of Zhang Wenzhonggong was finally abolished due to the opposition of the gentry and landlords, which is very sad.

However, although Wen Zhonggong's new law is good, there are still many unresolved problems, such as the so-called fire consumption.

Including tax and service, the money is converted into silver taels. But in any case, fire consumption cannot be avoided. The common people converted a tax payable into silver taels and turned it over, because most of the silver was in pieces. After the government collected it, it needed to be smelted. During the smelting process, a certain amount of loss occurred - for example, if you originally received 100 taels of silver in pieces, you would only receive 100 taels of silver in pieces after being smelted. There are ninety taels left.

Among them, there is some manipulation.

This is one of them.

The second fire cost is the cost of long-distance transportation of taxes and silver, which must also be included.

There is more room for manipulation here.

Perhaps the one hundred taels of silver originally collected from the people, after deducting the fire consumption, only forty or fifty taels were left. What to do with such a big gap?

Spread it on the heads of the people.

Originally, according to the new law, people only needed to pay ten taels of silver, but to pay for the fire, they would have to pay twenty taels or even more.

This is a problem that even Zhang Juzheng cannot solve.

In the final analysis, it is still limited by the times and social productivity.

In fact, there are ways to solve this problem, such as banning the currency status of gold, silver, and copper and replacing them with paper money.

During the Ming Dynasty, there were either treasure banknotes or banknotes that were never issued. Unfortunately, banknotes are easily counterfeited and pose even greater risks.

This is the limitation of the times. If the problem of counterfeiting cannot be solved, paper money cannot replace the currency status of gold, silver and copper.

The tax laws implemented by Ying Yi are directly linked to the new currency, which eliminates the so-called fire consumption - Ying Yi can be sure and certain that the new currency made of gold and yuan alloys will never be smelted by the public. It is impossible to break into pieces like gold, silver, and copper when cut with scissors.

Moreover, the new coins are issued in large denominations, up to 10,000 yuan, which is only the size of a palm-sized card, but is equivalent to one hundred taels of silver.

The issuance of new coins solved the problem of fire consumption and eliminated the hidden dangers of official manipulation to a great extent. In addition, Henan's land tigers and local emperors were wiped out, and even the remaining ones were frightened by Ying Yi's fierce power. He had to accept it, so that Ying Yi could easily transform Henan into a new one.

However, if it is placed in other places, such as Jiangnan, tax laws will be difficult to implement. The privileged class, which was suppressed by Zhang Juzheng and then rose again and became more vicious, would never be able to keep low and petty easily.

Of course, Ying Yi didn't care. His knife is sharp enough.

Ying Yi's smelting of Henan was all-round, and tax law and commercial law were just one of them. In comparison, the education of the people was even more important.

On the one hand, this method can break the inherent knowledge privileges formed over thousands of years, and on the other hand, it is the first step for Ying Yi to implement the Yuan Qi plan on a large scale.

The gentry class is the intellectual privileged class. The privilege they possess is rooted in knowledge. The ruling class is composed of knowledgeable people, and privileges come from this.

However, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, society gradually changed, and this class transformed from a relatively pure scholarly family into a combination of businessmen and scholars.

Businessmen use money to support scholars, and then wait until the scholars reach high positions, then support the businessmen, cover them from a policy perspective, and obtain benefits for them.

The so-called parties in the Ming court, such as the Donglin Party, the Chu Party, the Zhejiang Party, and the Jin Party, are all such deformed cancers.

The existence of this class, on the one hand, monopolizes land and knowledge, and on the other hand, monopolizes commerce, forming a behemoth that lies on the country and sucks blood.

The Ming Dynasty was not destroyed by natural disasters, nor was it destroyed by the Tartars. The root cause of its decline and destruction was this blood-sucking insect.

In the original history, the Manchu Qing Dynasty killed this class to pieces with butcher's knives and blood, killing them with fear and despair, and only then took over the Central Plains with its slave system.

It can be seen that this cancer is not without a solution. It is fierce, yet weak. Its ferocity targets weakness, and in the face of violence, it can only stay humble and remain humble.

This is a class that has been corrupted by money and interests. This is the so-called capitalist class. There is only benefit, but no justice.

Those without righteousness have no bones.

Of course, in this era of turbulent change, it has not yet been completely corrupted. After the Jiashen national disaster, there were still some scholars who died for the country. But in the end it was not as tragic as the death of 100,000 people crossing the sea when the Song Dynasty died.

The scalp is itchy and the water is too cold, that's all.

To change, education is one of them. But we can't make a one-size-fits-all decision just because of Shang's evil strategy. Use usage to restrict, use knowledge to teach, and on the premise of obeying the evolution of the times, it is right to guide it in an orderly and meaningful way.

The existence of a country and civilization is for the entire nation. Only when everyone is like a dragon is the ultimate goal of humanity.

Barbaric body, civilized spirit, forging an unbreakable body and an unbending spirit, this is what a country means to a nation.

The first step is to educate.

Laws involving relevant aspects are the first guarantee. In addition, Ying Yi has already considered specific educational methods.

In terms of humanities and culture, Ying Yi will not make too many changes. Whether it is the Three Hundred Thousand or the Four Books and Five Classics, they are the essence of civilization. The spirit of this nation is hidden in them and does not need to be changed.

And some new things need to be added to adapt to the progress of the times.