Chapter 42: My Minister, Skilled in Firearms

The Han dynasty emperors were utterly unscrupulous when it came to raising money. Relocating wealthy households to Guanzhong, monopolizing salt and iron, even directly imposing the property tax and informant rewards — they struck with precision, ruthlessness, and accuracy.

Zhu Youxiao was deeply envious in his heart. The reason Han emperors could do all this was simple: they held formidable military power in their hands.

Especially the property tax and informant system implemented during Emperor Wu of Han's reign — that truly required powerful military force to back it up.

In the era of Qin-Han unification, the feudal landlord-class regime built on an agricultural economic foundation could not possibly tolerate the abnormal development of commerce.

Because the primary targets of merchant exploitation were peasants — especially the wealthy merchants and great traders who recklessly annexed land, impoverishing the peasants — and this destroyed the economic foundation upon which the feudal state depended for its survival.

Therefore, since the pre-Qin period, thinkers and statesmen of the landlord class had mostly advocated emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, which further crystallized into the Qin and Han dynasties' policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce. The fundamental spirit of this policy lay in maintaining social stability and consolidating the landlord class's political power.

Hoarding merchants and usurious moneylenders exploited peasants even more severely. Someone once said: "The coffin seller wishes for people to fall ill, and the grain hoarder wishes for years of famine." (Huainanzi, "Shuolin Xun") — a vivid portrayal of the profit-driven nature of hoarding merchants.

Emperor Wu of Han directly stipulated that all industrial and commercial owners, usurers, and hoarding merchants — regardless of whether they held market registration (Han merchants had separate household registers called market registration) — must truthfully report their property figures to the government, and stipulated that for every two strings of cash (one string being one thousand coins), one levy of one hundred twenty wen (some say two hundred wen) was to be collected; while ordinary small artisans paid one levy per four strings — this was called the "property tax."

Those who concealed their reports or submitted false ones were punished with one year of frontier garrison duty and had their property confiscated; anyone daring to inform on them would be rewarded by the government with half of the confiscated property of the accused — this was called "informing on property."

Just this one policy alone was terrifying enough — after informing, you could split half of the other party's property. One can imagine how intensely people of that era desired to report those trying to conceal their wealth. It could be said that everyone was watching these wealthy merchants — whoever dared to hide their family assets without reporting would naturally have someone report on their behalf. The ruthlessness was real.

Additionally, merchants with market registration and their families were forbidden from owning land and slaves. Those who dared to violate the law had all their property confiscated.

The punitive measures of these laws were extremely simple — confiscation of all family property — yet doing exactly this happened to be the best means of accumulating wealth.

What became of those merchants whose property was confiscated?

It certainly couldn't have been good, and the confiscated property could still increase court revenue. The faction supporting this policy at the time was the Confucians — the Gongyang school of thought.

But now in the Great Ming, looking at today's Confucians, Zhu Youxiao could only sigh in frustration. Still, it wasn't impossible — this could also be done.

The merchants of the Great Ming today were all scholar-officials, so one could start from that angle. Of course, to keep the realm from descending into chaos, one needed troops in hand before attempting it.

As for suppressing commercial development, Zhu Youxiao didn't care in the slightest, because what the Great Ming called commerce and the sprouts of capitalism was actually extremely deformed.

Scholar-officials engaging in trade, collusion between officials and merchants — if it were merely for making money, that would be one thing, but these people sought more in the political sphere, yet unlike true capitalism, they didn't seek power in a legitimate way.

These people formed factions for private gain, didn't pay taxes, and simultaneously embezzled, undermining the state's foundations — possessing none of capitalism's pioneering and enterprising spirit, but instead being conservative to the extreme.

To develop the Great Ming's industry and commerce healthily, these cancers absolutely had to be swept away.

Guiding them was basically impossible. These people had been sucking blood from the state's body since their very birth — how could you guide them? They couldn't do anything else; all they could do was cling to the state and suck its blood.

Take the coastal smuggling merchants, for example — they converted rice paddies to mulberry fields and sold silk overseas for profit.

By normal commercial logic, if money could be made overseas, shouldn't we be building ships to trade abroad? Why should those people across the seas be the ones making money off us?

But these people refused — the very ones opposing the opening of the seas were these people, who wanted to monopolize trade. They only knew how to endlessly demand tax exemptions from the court.

What use was there in keeping such merchants, or rather scholar-officials, around?

They should all be swept clean.

Only by breaking the old could one establish the new. Zhu Youxiao had neither the energy nor the time to engage in schemes with them.

Rather than waste time trying to guide them, it would be faster to just smash them all outright.

"Your Majesty, Bi Maokang has arrived." Chen Hong came to Zhu Youxiao's side and said respectfully.

Zhu Youxiao nodded, pulling back all his wandering thoughts, and said: "Let him in!"

Before long, Bi Maokang walked in from outside.

He was a middle-aged man in his forties, thin of build but with dignified features. In this era, anyone who could pass the jinshi examination and become an official was certainly not ugly or misshapen.

Bi Maokang was rather bewildered — what did His Majesty want with him?

Bi Maokang knew the situation at court well; many said this was the beginning of great chaos. If the powerful eunuch Wei Zhongxian gained the upper hand, then the court would inevitably descend into turmoil.

At such a time, His Majesty summoning him made Bi Maokang feel extremely uneasy. He was after all merely a Vice Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture — let alone a vice prefect, even the Prefect of Shuntian himself rarely received an audience with His Majesty!

Though his heart was pounding with anxiety, Bi Maokang still bowed to Zhu Youxiao: "Your subject, Bi Maokang, Vice Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, pays respects to Your Majesty."

Zhu Youxiao nodded and said: "Rise!"

After Bi Maokang straightened up, Zhu Youxiao asked directly: "I have heard that you, my minister, are skilled in firearms?"

Bi Maokang never expected His Majesty to ask about this, and hesitated for a moment. But since His Majesty had asked, he couldn't very well not answer!

After pondering briefly, Bi Maokang quickly said: "Your subject does indeed have a fondness for firearms. Your subject believes that what the barbarians fear most about China is firearms."

Hearing Bi Maokang's words, Zhu Youxiao nodded — what an absolutely correct statement!

This was the age of firearms. When it came to archery and mounted combat, the Great Ming's soldiers could not compete.

The military equipment gap between the two sides wasn't large, and the appearance of stirrups and horseshoes had greatly enhanced the mobility and combat power of the steppe peoples' cavalry. Trying to contend with steppe peoples on horseback was far too difficult.

Add to that the Confucian education of so many years, so many years of suppressing military officers — repeating the martial glory of Han and Tang was simply too hard.

You see, in the Han and Tang eras, Confucian scholars were the type to shout about great vengeance and charge forward with blades in hand — the ideal was to become a general when going out and a minister when coming in. Everyone took pride in military merit.

And now? What were today's scholars doing? How many of the Six Arts of the gentleman remained?

Relying on these people was utterly hopeless.

Besides, Zhu Youxiao was a man who had transmigrated here — if he wasn't going to play with firearms, was he supposed to play with cold weapons?

Those were things destined to be eliminated by the times; Zhu Youxiao certainly wouldn't treasure them.