The yamen runners probably had never seen such a bold and reckless person who beat them up and even said arrogantly that they were going to Xiongxian.

The headmaster laughed anxiously: "I have the ability to sign up and leave your Wan'er, and see you in Xiong County."

These people are really not afraid of death, and they dare to make trouble in Xiongxian. Okay, since you are here, let you come and go without a return. You are afraid that you don’t know how deep the water in Xiongxian is.

Xiongxian seems to be an inconspicuous small county town, but it is also a place where there are hidden dragons and tigers. Not to mention the royal relatives of the Zhu family, there are also some descendants of nobles.

These aristocratic families are mixed in Xiongxian. This is why the entire Xiongxian, which has more than 200,000 people, only tens of thousands of people pay taxes.

Zhu Yuanzhang was a beggar and lived a hard life. After ascending the throne and becoming the emperor, on the one hand, he advocated officials to save money and abide by the law. However, the salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty was the lowest in all dynasties. On the other hand, he rewarded his descendants with great benefits.

After Zhu Di ascended the throne, although the military and political power of the vassal kings was abolished, the treatment of the vassal kings was still very good. All princes were granted the title of prince, and they were hereditary from generation to generation, while the rest of the sons were demoted to one level. When Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, he was granted twenty-six vassal kings. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were a total of thirty-one princes in the country.

With the rebellion of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong and other bandits, most of the princes died at the hands of bandits. Now, there are only about seventeen or eighteen princes left in the Ming Dynasty.

It seems that there are not many princes, but some of them have been passed down for many generations, and they have accumulated a lot of money and land. In addition to the prince, other princes, generals of the state, generals of the state, and generals of the state, there are no less than tens of thousands of people who have titles.

The Ming Dynasty had to pay a large portion of the taxes to these descendants of the royal family with titles. The more serious ones were the taxes in northern provinces such as Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong. Apart from these descendants of the Zhu family, there was only a lot of them left. Moreover, most of the land in the province was occupied by these vassal kings, and the people dared not speak out, and became tenant farmers one after another.

The prince's salary was 10,000 stones of grain, 2,000 stones of county lords, 1,000 stones of state generals, and 800 stones of auxiliary generals. 1 stone in the Ming Dynasty, about 150 kilograms of rice. The salary of first-rank officials in the Ming Dynasty was 1,000 stone a year, and the salary of seventh-rank officials was about 100 stone a year. Compared with these royal relatives, it was really insignificant.

This is not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing is that these princes not only own a large area of ​​land, but also continue to carry out land annexation. As a result, the tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty decreased year by year, from more than 20 million taels of silver at its peak to four to five million taels of silver during the Chongzhen period. This little money was simply not enough to meet the needs of the court.

Not to mention fighting, even if you encounter natural disasters and man-made disasters, the treasury will be in an instant.

In fact, the Qing Dynasty, which was originally in Liaodong, was not enough to pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty. It was not even a threat, and at most it was a group of clowns jumping.

But in the end, why did the entire Guanningjin defense completely collapse?

It has to be denied that the Qing Dynasty's cavalry was indeed powerful. But if the Ming army relied on the strong city and the blessing of various weapons and equipment, the Qing Dynasty would not be enough to pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty.

Sun Zhaokui asked back: "Hong Zhengluo, you come from the north. Do you know if the Master Hong, who died in Songshan, died really or pretended to die?"
Chapter completed!