Sky Curtain: The opening scene explains the four major cases of the Ming Dynasty plus the early Ming

On the screen in the live stream room, two brightly colored flowcharts stood side by side.

On the left is the blue "Method of Paying Grain and Opening the Middle".

On the right is the blood-red "Ministry of Revenue Color Reduction Method".

Zhu Dijun picked up the pointer (actually a back scratcher) and pointed to the picture on the left.

"Family members, let's first talk about the 'Open Market Law' established by Zhu Yuanzhang."

"This is absolutely one of the most ingenious economic designs of the feudal era!"

"The principle is very simple: bartering."

"The first step: The imperial court issued a demand notice on the border (such as in the nine key towns along the border), saying that there was a shortage of food."

"The second step: Merchant groups such as Shanxi merchants and Anhui merchants spent their own money to buy grain and transported it to the border with great difficulty, and then handed it over to the army."

"Step 3: The army gives the merchant a receipt."

"Step 4: The merchant takes the receipt to the imperial court to exchange for a 'salt permit' (which is a legal license to sell salt)."

"Step 5: Merchants use salt permits to collect salt from salt fields, sell it throughout the country, and make huge profits."

Zhu Dijun tapped the blackboard.

What is the core of this closed loop?

"It's the real thing!"

"The food went straight into the soldiers' mouths!"

"The imperial court doesn't have to spend a penny on transportation costs or worry about how to transport the grain. Merchants, driven by greed, will send the grain over mountains and valleys to make huge profits."

"This is called—using market mechanisms to solve national defense logistics!"

The Hongwu Era.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded repeatedly as he listened, a hint of pride on his face.

"That's right! This is the method we came up with!"

"We know that transporting grain is difficult and results in significant losses."

"Let the merchants transport the goods, give them a little incentive, and our soldiers will have enough to eat!"

"This method has been used for over a hundred years, making the border as impregnable as a rock!"

However, Zhu Dijun's tone suddenly changed on the screen.

He pointed the back scratcher hard at the red chart on the right.

"but!"

"In the fifth year of the Hongzhi reign, Ye Qi and Xu Pu joined forces to abolish this system."

"It has been changed to the 'color folding method'."

"What is the color-folding method?"

"It's very simple: merchants no longer need to transport grain to the border."

"Merchants only need to take the silver to the Ministry of Revenue in Beijing and hand it over."

"The Ministry of Revenue will issue salt permits directly."

"Then the Ministry of Revenue will allocate the silver to the border regions, allowing them to purchase grain themselves."

Upon hearing this...

Yongle Time and Space.

Zhu Di suddenly stood up and kicked over the imperial desk.

"idiot!"

"A traitor who has ruined the country!"

"This is sending my border troops to their deaths!"

The Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi, who was standing beside him, was startled and quickly asked:

"Father, wouldn't it be more convenient to pay in silver? It would prevent the merchants from running away."

"You don't know anything!"

Zhu Di pointed at the sky, his eyes turning red.

"Food is something that can actually be eaten!"

"Can you eat silver?"

"In the past, when merchants transported grain, they had to deliver the grain to the gate of the military camp, and the soldiers would only issue a receipt after watching the grain enter the warehouse."

"Now the merchants hand over the silver to the Ministry of Revenue."

"What kind of people are those civil officials in the Ministry of Revenue? They're all just picking feathers off a passing goose!"

"Of the one million taels of silver that went into the Ministry of Revenue, it would be good if even half of it reached the border!"

"Besides, can money really buy food at the border?"

"No one is transporting grain across! Even with money, you can't buy rice at the border!"

"This is a treacherous plan! This is undermining the Ming Dynasty!"

[Modern Live Streaming Room]

Zhu Dijun seemed to hear Zhu Di's roar and sneered:

"It seems that many smart family members have already figured it out."

"The greatest evil of the discount system is that it cuts off the physical supply chain and turns everything into currency."

"Fellow family members, in ancient times, every link in the currency circulation process was a breeding ground for corruption!"

"The merchant handed the silver over to Ye Qi's Ministry of Revenue."

Ye Qi was overjoyed; the Ministry of Revenue suddenly had several million taels of silver in hand, greatly increasing its power!

"But what about the soldiers at the border?"

"No one is transporting grain anymore."

"The 'merchant settlements' (farmland cultivated by merchants on the border) that had prospered thanks to the Sino-French trade route were instantly abandoned."

"Because merchants no longer need to cultivate land on the border to exchange for salt permits; they only need to take silver to Beijing to bribe officials!"

Zhu Dijun pulled up a set of shocking data.

"Before the fifth year of the Hongzhi reign, the nine border towns had ample grain supplies and stable rice prices."

"Five years after the Hongzhi reign, the price of rice on the border skyrocketed tenfold!"

"The soldiers, receiving only a pittance of silver mixed with sand from the imperial court, can't even afford to buy food!"

Countless soldiers starved to death or deserted!

"And what about the other side?"

"Those Shanxi merchants who used to work hard on the border have declined."

"Those merchants from Anhui and Zhejiang, who held considerable wealth and had close ties with high-ranking officials in Jiangnan such as Xu Pu and Ye Qi, rose to prominence!"

"They don't need to go to the border to eat sand."

"They only need to sit in the gardens of Jiangnan, send the silver to Beijing, and they can get salt permits and make money while lying down!"

"This is a massive transfer of wealth!"

"It has moved from the northern border to the hands of the gentry in the south!"

"It has shifted from national defense to the private pockets of the civil service!"

A satirical cartoon appeared on the screen.

On one side, border soldiers were gnawing on tree bark in the cold wind, their bodies emaciated.

On the other side, in a garden in Jiangnan, Xu Pu and Ye Qi were drinking and exchanging toasts with merchants. The table was full of delicacies, and the bottom of the table was piled high with silver.

Zhu Dijun's voice was icy cold.

"Zhu Youcheng thought he had made a profit."

"Because Ye Qi told him that there was more silver in Taicang."

"But that idiot didn't know that."

"That silver was obtained by selling off the Ming Dynasty's national defense and security!"

"That silver was obtained by mortgaging the future of the Ming Dynasty for the next hundred years!"

"When the border defenses collapsed, the Mongol cavalry swept in unimpeded."

"When Li Zicheng and other low-ranking officials rebelled at the end of the Ming Dynasty because they could not pay their soldiers."

"I wonder if Zhu Youcheng, now in the underworld, regrets listening to the nonsense of these 'upright gentlemen'!"

The Chenghua Era.

Zhu Jianshen slumped to the ground, staring at the bloody truth on the sky.

He suddenly laughed.

His smile looked worse than his tears.

"Okay...okay..."

"I am wary of military generals, eunuchs, the women in the harem, and scholars."

"In the end, it was still these people who studied the classics who stole our house."

"Paying taxes changes color..."

"This is hardly a reform!"

"This is clearly selling my empire to them at a discount!"

Hongzhi Era.

Inside the Qianqing Palace.

Zhu Youcheng looked at the satirical cartoon and at the Jiangnan garden piled high with silver.

"puff--!"

This time.

The blood he spat out stained half of the imperial desk.

He finally understood.

Why did Ma Wensheng want to control military power?

Why did Empress Zhang want to control the harem?

Why did Ye Qi want to change the salt law?

It turns out that he, the emperor, was just a dish on this gluttonous feast from beginning to end!

"Ye Qi..."

"Xu Pu..."

Zhu Youcheng's fingers made a grasping motion in the air, as if trying to grab something.

But in the end, it drooped helplessly.

During the live stream, Zhu Dijun showed no mercy to the scoundrel.

"Family members."

"This is the truth behind the Hongzhi Restoration."

"Politically, imperial power has fallen into the wrong hands."

"Militarily, it's like destroying your own Great Wall."

"Economically, it's killing the goose that lays the golden eggs."

"If this can be called ZTE?"

"That old hag, Empress Dowager Cixi, could somehow manage to create a 'Xuantong Restoration'!"

"It can be said that the 'reduction of color' during the Hongzhi era was second only to Zhang Juzheng's reforms in its harm to the Ming Dynasty. We'll discuss that when we talk about the Wanli era."