I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 561 The Consequences of Reform

After all, Zhu Houxuan was a time traveler, and he naturally had an information advantage over others. Moreover, those things that had no answers at that time already had answers in later generations. So after he mastered some key information, he quickly deduced the whole picture of the matter.

And Yang Tinghe has almost made it clear.
This coup was caused by a series of reforms that Zhu Houzhao had started three years ago, including tax reform (the Single Whip System), land surveying, land tax distribution, and the integration of officials and gentry in serving and paying taxes. During these three years, Zhu Houzhao even began to try to reform the Ming Dynasty's official system, hoping to add some non-imperial examination channels to allow people who passed these channels to enter the Ming Dynasty's official system.

In short, Zhu Houxuan carried out drastic reforms in the past three years, and then it seemed that because the steps were too big, they got into trouble and this incident happened.
Zhu Houxuan's ruling line in the last three years is very different from that in the past. Before the 22nd year of Zhengde, Zhu Houxuan's ruling line was to strive for growth and keep the growth firmly in his own hands, such as developing various industries and commerce, immigrating to overseas frontiers, vigorously developing maritime trade, and opening up routes to the Americas.
Because Zhu Houzhao had been constantly launching foreign wars, which required a large amount of materials and wealth, Zhu Houxuan could only make incremental efforts in this situation and use the incremental materials and wealth to support the wars launched by Zhu Houzhao.

Because while the foreign war was ongoing, the Ming Dynasty must not be in chaos and must maintain stability. Therefore, Zhu Houxuan did not dare to touch the Ming Dynasty's existing wealth at that time, and he was not qualified to touch the Ming Dynasty's existing wealth at that time. He had too few cards in his hand at that time. He was just a prince of a distant branch, and his participation in politics was viewed with strange eyes by the ministers. His political reputation and appeal were very low, and he was backed by a notorious and ridiculous emperor. Even so, he still wanted to touch the Ming Dynasty's existing wealth, which was simply courting death.

So during this period, Zhu Houchun was still at peace with the gentry, nobles, military officers and royal family class of the Ming Dynasty, because Zhu Houchun did not do much to touch their interests. Instead, they were very envious of the incremental growth developed by Zhu Houchun. At this time, Zhu Houchun always fought back resolutely and firmly maintained control over the incremental growth. They could not do anything to Zhu Houchun.

As Zhu Houzhao achieved brilliant victories in foreign wars, there were fewer and fewer places around the Ming Dynasty that could be conquered, and the foreign wars came to a temporary end. Zhu Houzhao's prestige reached its peak, and Zhu Houyan also believed that the time was ripe to take action on the country's existing wealth.

At this time, Zhu Houxuan had a powerful royal group behind him, with relatively strong industrial capabilities and control over the national finance of the Ming Dynasty; he also had a prestigious emperor as a backing; and finally he controlled 150,000 of the most powerful guards in the world.
With both the people and the money, Zhu Houxuan thought he had all the tools and it would be easy for him to complete a series of reforms within the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, if he and Zhu Houzhao did not complete these reforms while they were at their most prestigious and powerful, would they leave them to future generations? Who knows how much they would have to pay.
Moreover, Zhu Houxuan's so-called reforms and actions on existing wealth were essentially about changing the way the existing wealth of the Ming Dynasty was distributed, that is, abolishing a series of privileges of the privileged class of the Ming Dynasty and reducing the burden on ordinary people.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty did not legally grant many privileges to the gentry, nobles, military officers and royal family classes, but they used their power and status to seize a large number of privileges. For example, on the most common issue of taxation, they did not pay taxes and constantly undermined the tax base of the Ming Dynasty (such as secretly donating land, hiding households, etc.), making the number of tax-paying population in the Ming Dynasty decrease, and the burden on tax-paying households became heavier and heavier.

This is also one of the main reasons for the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhu Houxuan could not tolerate or allow this situation to get worse. I will not elaborate on the reasons.
This kind of reform is the only way for the Ming Dynasty to become an industrial country and even a modern country. And this is just the beginning. Zhu Houxuan plans to carry out continuous reforms on the Ming Dynasty in the future.

After all, there are still great differences between modern countries in later generations. There are countries like India with many feudal remnants, and there are countries like Tokyo with relatively few feudal remnants. However, the situation of Tokyo is not natural, but is formed through the efforts of generations of people to reform.
Zhu Houxuan hopes to continuously reduce the feudal remnants of Ming society through his own efforts, and he hopes that the future Ming Dynasty will be even better.

Moreover, he believed that his reform methods over the past three years were quite gentle. He implemented so many policies just to make these privileged classes pay the taxes they should pay and release the hidden population they sheltered, not to confiscate any property or anything like that.

But even so, the privileged class of the Ming Dynasty could not stand this. It was not that they were more stubborn and obstinate, but they had never suffered such injustice.

They have taken the privileges they have seized for granted, and touching their privileges is like touching their lifeblood.
So they fiercely opposed Zhu Houxuan's reform policies, but the result was just as Zhu Houxuan expected. They were no match for Zhu Houxuan in the state of six divine equipment. Zhu Houxuan mercilessly dealt with them, and their resistance seemed extremely ridiculous.
Then Zhu Houxuan began to become naive and childish. He naively thought that they had given up resistance and childishly underestimated the bottom line of the privileged class.

Historically, when Yongzheng was carrying out these reforms, he was facing only a castrated gentry class. The first-class people at that time were Manchus, and the second-class talents were gentry. Their power had been much weakened compared to the Ming Dynasty, and Yongzheng still suffered a lot of backlash. Zhu Houxuan is now facing a complete body, and the situation he faces is more severe than that of Yongzheng.
As Zhu Houxuan had observed before, the so-called civil servants in the Ming Dynasty had no self-awareness. They just used the power in their hands to unconsciously proliferate and expand. They were large in size, but their power was dispersed.
But what Zhu Houxuan didn't notice was that this behemoth without self-awareness actually began to develop self-awareness under the constant attack of his six-god-equipped warrior, because the pressure Zhu Houxuan put on them was too great.
It began to look for ways to fight back against Zhu Houxuan, and then it found that they didn't have many ways to use. The simplest and most direct way was to deal with the person who created the problem.
(End of this chapter)