Abu stayed in Kaifeng and kept asking for various information about the Ming Dynasty.
At the same time, he was often picked on, and Ming officials obtained a lot of information.
The information obtained by both parties is a bit distorted...
For example, Abu always praised Seljuk, saying that everything in the empire was very beautiful, but the enemies of the empire were all bad guys!
"The country to the west of us is called Rome, which always attracts stupid fanatical pagans. Those pagans are cruel and murderous. In the early years, they took advantage of the division of the empire to rob and massacre our civilians everywhere. They held high the cross flag and invaded our homeland again and again.
.Those happy people were often killed by pagans because they were loyal to the Sudan..."
"The great Seljuk Sultan appointed Zanji as Aita Bek. When I left, Zanji had recaptured Aleppo and driven away the cruel and stupid infidels there..."
After getting this information, Ju Ming could only make some simple guesses.
He said to his father: "The Byzantine Empire and the Crusaders have joined forces to continuously invade and occupy Seljuk territory, and they are fighting back and forth with the Seljuqs."
In fact, there were a large number of sultanates within the Seljuk Empire.
The most successful period of the Crusaders' progress coincided with the Seljuk Civil War.
Now, Sanjar has formally unified the empire and has launched a counterattack against the Crusaders.
The Zanji mentioned by Abu was just a Turkic slave in the past. Because of his bravery and good fighting skills, he was taken in by the former Sultan. He also learned cultural knowledge, then served as the prince's teacher, and finally grew up step by step to become the governor.
Three years ago, Sultan Sanjar gave him three cities, two of which were in the hands of the Crusaders.
Zanji led the army to take back his own city, and continued to expand. This year, he even began to counterattack Antioch. (When this man died, his territory already covered most of Syria and the entire Mesopota.
Mia started a dynasty by defeating the Crusaders.)
Zhu Guoxiang said: "Byzantium and the Crusaders are too far away from us after all. No matter how lively the fight is, it has nothing to do with China."
"There are also some that are related to our interests."
Ju Ming said: "Based on the information provided by the Byzantine envoys, maritime merchants from various countries, and the Ming Dynasty merchants, we can draw a conclusion. That is, the maritime trade between the East and the West is currently in the hands of two countries. Arab and Persian merchant ships want to
If you want to trade with China, you must pay heavy taxes to these two countries!"
"Which two countries?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.
Ju Ming said: "One is the Chola dynasty in India, and the Srivijaya dynasty in Southeast Asia. These two countries started fighting naval wars a hundred years ago, competing for maritime control of Eastern trade. The Zhula dynasty in India
The dynasty, at its most powerful, even occupied southern Myanmar, the Malay Peninsula and part of Sumatra."
"Have Indian countries ever invaded Southeast Asia?" Zhu Guoxiang was very surprised.
Ju Ming nodded and said: "A Hindu country and a Buddhist country have been fighting each other for control of China's trade routes for more than a hundred years. The existence of these two countries has seriously affected the Maritime Silk Road, and merchant ships from all countries have been levied heavy taxes.
.Including Chinese maritime merchants, the furthest they can reach is the eastern part of the Malay Peninsula, because the entry tax is getting heavier and heavier as they go further.”
Zhu Guoxiang muttered: "This is a problem."
"We must learn from Zhu Di and launch a Zheng He voyage to the West to defeat these two countries!" Ju Ming said.
Were the soldiers carried by Zheng He's fleet really going for an armed parade?
The situation Zheng He faced at that time was similar to Ju Ming's now.
However, Srivijaya was replaced by Majapahit, and the Chola dynasty was replaced by the Sinhalese (Sri Lanka).
In order to defeat Majapahit, Zheng He first appointed a Han governor in Luzon and drove the Majapahit forces out of the Philippines. Then he supported Brunei and established a foothold in Kalimantan. Then he established the Palembang Propaganda Department in Sumatra
The island takes root.
Encircled and pressed from three sides, his sphere of influence was continuously reduced, forcing Majapahit to surrender.
When conquering Sri Lanka, Zheng He brought nearly 30,000 soldiers and even 2,000 elite armored cavalry.
Just like that, Zheng He almost overturned.
The whole process was a battle of wits and courage, which was thrilling.
If the quality of the Sinhalese army was higher, Zheng He's fleet would most likely be wiped out.
Zhu Guoxiang said: "The Kingdom of Jin must be destroyed first. The maritime expansion you mentioned is too far away."
Ju Ming said: "We need to start building ships now. The Kingdom of Jin can also use them. Just build a few warships every year. We cannot be like Zhu Di who built a large number of ships in a short period of time and made some local people miserable. The future operation model
, we cannot learn from Zhu Di and have to distribute benefits to all parties."
"Zheng He's voyages to the West by Zhu Di were a result of the official monopoly on maritime trade, which blocked the financial paths of private merchants. Local governments and ordinary people bore all the costs of building warships. However, all the profits from maritime trade were taken away by Zhu Di
, most of which were used for the Five Conquests of Mobei and the construction of Beijing City."
"As a result, central ministers, local officials, private businessmen and ordinary people all opposed the continued voyage to the West."
Zhu Guoxiang took out a plan: "Let's discuss internal affairs first. This is a reform plan that I collected local information and asked the cabinet to formulate."
Zhu Ming took it and read it carefully, but it was about the reform of civil servants that matched the work of renting land to farm workers.
First, the amount divided into acres is determined to be allocated within the province.
That is, each province first determines the amount, and then allocates these amounts according to the actual situation of each prefecture. Rich prefectures transfer payments to poor prefectures. Similarly, within a prefecture, states and counties also allocate the amount in this way.
The advantage is that people in poor areas will not be overburdened by this.
The downside is that the richer the place, the greater the resistance to reform because they will bear more.
Second, 30% of the money and grain collected by the stallholders from farming the acres goes to the prefecture and county, 30% to the government, 30% to the province, and 10% to the central government.
This is the opposite of the Qing Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, the central government directly charged 70% to 80%, making the place as if there was no land allocated to the land, and other methods were used to squeeze the people to obtain funds.
Third, reform the official service.
Strictly determine the number of official staff. These staff can be promoted to officials, and all salaries are paid by the central court.
The number of formal servants was strictly determined. These servants could not be promoted, and their wages were paid with the income from the shareholding. Because this was originally a service, but after the shareholding, it was changed to employment.
Local officials can recruit temporary officials and temporary servants at their discretion, but the wages must be paid by themselves, and white officials and white servants (those who are not paid) are not allowed to be used. Once it is found that wages are not paid, the officials will be dismissed and the officials will be fired, and a thorough investigation will be carried out.
His corruption charges.
After reading it, Ju Ming sighed and said, "Maybe it can last for decades."
Zhu Guoxiang said: "With the foundation of this plan, even if a hundred years pass, the situation will be better than without reform."
To put it bluntly, the government finances maintain a group of regular officials. These officials can be promoted, but the number is not very large. They are mainly civil servants and are responsible for maintaining the operation of governments at all levels.
The head tax paid into the land tax was used to support a large number of servants and temporary workers.
There is only so much poll tax, and it is up to the governments at all levels to decide what to do.
Anyway, the police are not allowed to work for free. This is the most harmful. If the government does not pay wages, it is equivalent to allowing the police to exploit the people.
The central government of the Qing Dynasty withdrew 70% to 80% of the poll tax, resulting in a serious shortage of local finances, as well as a serious shortage of scribes and servants. In addition to the scribes who must be reported to the Ministry of Civil Affairs for approval, some paid non-staff scribes could only be recruited.
If the officials are still too busy, they will recruit "white letters" in the name of accepting apprentices, and find ways to make money by themselves without receiving wages. The servants are even more chaotic, and the county magistrate himself does not know how many servants there are.
The plan that Zhu Guoxiang asked the cabinet to come up with is the complete version of "dividing a small family into an equal share".
The central court really can't just randomly use land and silver, otherwise it will violate the original intention of allocating land to farmers and turn it into a roundabout way for the court to raise taxes out of thin air.
Zhu Guoxiang asked the central government to give him a symbolic 10% purely to know how much the local government would charge.
"Provinces that have already allocated their land to farmers should implement it immediately, otherwise the trend of corruption at the grassroots level cannot be stopped," Zhu Ming said. "One more thing is that grassroots officials who were corrupt in the past will not be blamed. If they become corrupt again after this plan is implemented, they will be punished once they are corrupted."
After verification, past crimes must also be dealt with."
Zhu Guoxiang nodded and said: "When it is implemented, let the Supervisory Office strengthen its inspections and identify some examples and punish them severely."
After the father and son finished their discussion, Zhu Guoxiang called the eunuch in, and Zhu Ming patted his butt and left.
When I walked to the door, I saw Liang Yi standing at the door.
"Is there something urgent in the Tongzhengyuan?" Zhu Ming asked.
Liang Yi said with a serious expression: "There may be a nest case in Henan, and the case also involves the Ministry of Punishment and the Inspectorate. I dare not neglect it, so I can only report it in person. I have been waiting outside the door for half an hour."
Ju Ming turned around and entered the room again: "I'll accompany you in."
Liang Yi handed over the memorial sent by the Henan officials, and Zhu Guoxiang took it and read it twice carefully.
Ju Ming asked: "Is it serious?"
Zhu Guoxiang said: "The case of a murder case is not complicated. The county magistrate sent the preliminary investigation results to the provincial court. After the court made the verdict, it was sent to the provincial prosecutor's office for review. This was already two years ago.
The case was closed, and the previous Henan prosecutor sent it back for a retrial. Fa Caopu quickly changed the verdict and acquitted the murder suspect, and the witnesses also changed their confessions."
"The family members of the deceased were dissatisfied and went to the government office to appeal, but the law officer ignored them. The family members went to the Chasi Bureau to complain, but they couldn't even get in through the Chasi Gate."
"The family members were also somewhat capable, and they used some means to illegally submit the case to Dali Temple. Zuo Shaoqing of Dali Temple felt something was fishy and ordered Henan to retry the case, but Henan still upheld the second verdict."
"In order to promote the establishment of landowners, Bai Chongyan personally visited local areas and communicated with officials and people in various places. As a result, he was stopped and complained about injustice, so he asked the new prosecutor to retrial. As a result, the retrial case was sent to the Ministry of Punishment, and the Ministry of Punishment sent it back for retrial.
, and the review speed of the Ministry of Punishments is frighteningly fast.”
"By the way, the family of the deceased also approached the censor of the inspection, but the censor ignored it. There is also something wrong with the inspectorate."
Ju Ming sneered: "It's only been a few years since the founding of the country, but some people are really tired of living."