Chapter 768 Make full use of the advantages of the Japanese
Tokugawa Shigenobu is dead!
He and his tens of thousands of troops died at the foot of the mountain before they could even escape into the mountain. The speed of their defeat was far beyond people's imagination.
Just when Tokugawa Shigejou's head was chopped off by his subordinates and sent to Tokyo.
Emperor Zhu Da had already begun preparations to leave Japan and return to the Ming Dynasty.
Of course, before leaving, the final structure and personnel arrangements for the Japanese Protectorate must be arranged.
Similar to the structure of the Protectorate in the Ming Dynasty, the Protectorate of Japan was directly under the Ming Emperor and had full military, legislative, administrative, and judicial power over the four islands of Japan. Under the Protectorate were the Director of Government Affairs, the Protectorate Office, the General Affairs Department, and the Internal Affairs Department.
Department, branch, Ministry of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Justice. In addition, there are the Central Council, the Police Chief's Department, the Court and the Railway Department and other institutions.
Many of these departments are officials of the reform government. After all, this is also a reward for meritorious service. Of course, many positions are held by Ming officials.
The reason why Qian Degong was appointed as the Protector is also clear at a glance.
Since ancient times, local officials like him who hold military and political power, especially those who live overseas, must first and foremost be loyal.
Loyalty, there is definitely no problem with Qian Degong. After all, he was rescued by Emperor Zhu Da in a gold mine. He was the founding immigrant of Nanhua and a member of the core retainers. There was no problem with loyalty, and he was also the Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce in the Ming Dynasty.
Let him be the Protector. No matter how you look at it, you can see that Ming Dynasty is preparing to develop industry and commerce in Japan... Of course, this is just what the outside world takes for granted, and it is just a false impression given to the Japanese.
"industry!"
Emperor Zhu Da shook his head and said.
"In terms of resources, Japan is not suitable for developing industry at all, and the development of industry does not meet our requirements. What do we need? Of course it is an agricultural Japan. The poorer Japan is, the more likely they are to go out to make a living.
Desire, men go to Africa to work as coolies, and women go to the Ming Dynasty to be wives. In short, at least for the next thirty years, we do not need industrialized Japan."
Industrial Japan?
is it possible?
If Japan industrialized and Japanese people could easily find a job in Japan, how could they willingly serve as supplies for the empire and contribute their meager efforts to Ming Dynasty's African cause?
If Japanese women could work as bonded laborers in Japan, how could they go to the Ming Dynasty and eventually marry the men of the Ming Dynasty and have children for the Ming Dynasty?
Therefore, Japan's impoverishment is an inevitable choice. Of course, Japan also needs some industries, such as a certain ability to repair and build ships. After all, this will also be the most important naval base of the Ming Dynasty in the future.
It has a certain ability to repair and build ships. This is to serve the Ming Navy. Otherwise, the Ming Navy would not be able to be stationed in Japan, and would have to travel all the way back to the Ming Dynasty for repairs and maintenance.
"Your Majesty, if this is the case, the current taxes on farmers will certainly not be reduced!"
Qian Degong said directly.
"The 3% tax rate set by the reform government when implementing the "land rent correction" was very high, but from the perspective of impoverishment, it was absolutely appropriate! We were originally planning to lower it appropriately, after all, we always have to bribe
.3% of people’s hearts, this tax rate is too high!”
Is 3% high?
This ratio may not seem high, but it is actually very high, because the "land rent correction" levies the tax rate according to a certain ratio of the land price, rather than based on the crop output, which avoids taxes due to bumper or poor harvests.
The government can ensure stable revenue despite changing circumstances.
Such a high tax rate is absolutely astonishing. In 1893, before the Sino-Japanese War, the cultivated land area in Japan was approximately 72 million acres. The central fiscal revenue that year was 88.2 million yen, equivalent to 57 million taels of silver, of which land tax accounted for 75.2%.
, which is 42.75 million taels, or almost 60 million silver dollars. In other words, every acre of cultivated land in Japan has to bear the burden of nearly one silver dollar!
In 1891, the fiscal revenue of the Qing Dynasty was 89 million taels, and the land tax was 33 million taels. At that time, the Qing Dynasty's cultivated land area was about 1.2 billion acres. In other words, Japan obtained 127% of the Qing Dynasty's land tax revenue with 6% of the Qing Dynasty's cultivated land area.
If Japan is used as a standard, even if we charge half of the tax, we can still collect about 500 million in land tax.
When it comes to the extreme exploitation of farmers, Japan is definitely number one in the world! And this is also the reason for Japan’s Meiji Restoration - through the extreme exploitation of its own country, it has obtained the capital to build a strong army.
"Oh, Sanshi, how can you be so short-sighted?"
Emperor Zhu Da sighed.
"As a benevolent king, how can I oppress the people like this? Since Japan has become a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, the people should feel the warmth of the Ming Dynasty instead of the same tyranny as in the past. Otherwise, how can they feel the difference between the Ming Dynasty and the past?
What? Well..."
After thinking for a while, Emperor Zhu Da named a number.
"0.5%, reduce it by 0.5%, and tax it at 2.5% of the land price!"
You see how merciful Emperor Zhu was. He reduced the tax burden by 15% as soon as he came up. For Japanese farmers, it was definitely a policy of virtue that won people's hearts.
In fact, after the land rent reform was implemented and the burden on farmers increased, a lot of land was confiscated by the government due to difficulty in paying taxes. This directly led to the continuous occurrence of riots. Therefore, in order to prevent the combination of gentry rebellion and peasant riots, Okubo established the
Reduce the tax rate to 2.5%.
The 2.5% of the other world was obtained in exchange for tens of thousands of heads. Now it has become the Ming Dynasty's virtue policy. Of course, this burden is also extremely heavy for the Japanese. The difference now is that in the past, they had to sell three daughters
, now I only need to sell two.
"Your Majesty, if this is the case, what will happen to the poor?"
Qian Degong's brows furrowed.
"Isn't it easy to want poor people? Use imported rice to lower food prices. If food prices fall by 10%, farmers' income will decrease by 10%. That is more fatal than reducing taxes. Moreover, this is completely a commercial behavior. As for import companies
, we can get a few companies that specialize in rice imports and use them to act as white gloves for the government."
Emperor Zhu Da naturally had his own methods for dealing with the "poor people". Of course, he also believed that Qian Degong would also have his own methods.
After all, he was a scholar, and he learned the five skills of controlling the people from Lord Shang: weak people, poor people, tired people, humiliating the people, and ignorant people. The dynasty that used these five skills most skillfully was, of course, my Qing Dynasty.
When it comes to weak people, poor people, tired people, humiliating people, and ignorant people, I, the Qing Dynasty, take the first place without hesitation.
Don't feel sorry for the Japanese farmers. They are pitiful, while selling their daughters to brothels to pay taxes, they support Japan's invasion of China and sing praises for the invasion.
"If the country is weak and the people are strong, the country will be strong if the people are weak. Although we cannot take all of the five skills of controlling the people, we can still use one or two of them. It is also possible. For example, this poor man, what we need is a poor man
You can write more articles on how to implement Japan, which is culturalized and is grateful to the Ming Dynasty, and..."
After thinking for a while, Emperor Zhu Da emphasized again.
"The Japanese are a nation without a national concept. In future education, we need to dilute Japan's national concept and strengthen the Ming Dynasty's national concept. At the same time? Increase the differences between localities and create a unified
Japan is not conducive to the rule of the Ming Dynasty. In addition to artificially creating geographical divisions, it can also create antagonism among people, such as the antagonism between civilians and nobles..."
In the following hours, the topic that Emperor Zhu Da and Qian Degong talked about the most was how to rule Japan. No, it should be said that Japan should be divided from a whole into multiple individuals. After all, the Duhufu is just a transitional institution.
, in the end, Japan will be divided into several provinces, and by that time, Japan will naturally cease to exist.
He will only exist in history as a noun. Even so, it depends on Ming's mood. If he is in a bad mood, even the noun will no longer exist.
Finally, Emperor Zhu looked at him seriously and said.
"Sanshi, you are my confidant and my great protector of the Western Regions. You have to understand my thoughts. What do I rely on to govern this land? We must rely on Legalism and rule the country by law. You must understand what this law is.
That method!”
Looking at Qian Degong, Emperor Zhu Da smiled.
"You have to know that the Japanese people have a very strong endurance. In this case, we must make full use of this advantage of them."
"I understand!"
When Qian Degong nodded vigorously, his eyes were full of desire. After all, he was the first Protector of the Western Regions of the Ming Dynasty... No, he was the Protector of Japan! This chapter has been completed!