Jiaozhi's recovery made the people of the empire make a fortune.

Under the stimulation of money, the consumption is increased.

From the noisy and disorderly rural towns to the bustling cities, you can see the rich men sweeping goods frantically.

Trade restrictions or bans in the West, Japan and other countries did not affect the commodity economy of the Ming Dynasty, and the continued high domestic demand still slowed down the inflation of the Ming Dynasty.

But for most people, once they have wealth, they are nothing more than satisfying their desire for food and sex, or seeking a long-lasting body and eternal enjoyment.

This has caused a lot of money to be spent on entertainment, delicious food and other pleasures or some religious ceremonies.

As the administrator of the Ming society, Emperor Zhu Houzhao and his court naturally had to use the ruling power to guide the people's wealth to flow in the right direction, avoiding the people's excessive pursuit of pleasure and losing their desires, and avoiding some religions taking this opportunity to grow, and even extreme events occur.

In this context.

"Shengtian Jiayuan" outside the Daming Gate is officially launched.

This is a high-end continuation built in imitation Huizhou house. It uses the latest reinforced concrete structure and has the most complete facilities. Coupled with the superior geographical location, the price of this continuation property is very high.

But buyers are still in a constant stream.

In fact, the people of the empire bet on all the money they had just obtained into such commercial housing, and even owed debts that were not enough to make them unable to survive.

But no matter what, the people's living spaces have been improved, and ordinary people in the capital no longer have to live in low and crowded houses.

Even in the countryside, the people spent money to buy high-priced cement houses in the town because of the money they received, bid farewell to unfinished houses and thatched houses, and thus inadvertently accelerated the level of urbanization.

Even if there is meat for meals, even if you have a car when you go out, even if you can wear cotton coats in winter and eat ice water in summer, the Ming Empire is still diligent.

Because the government uses the best municipal services, the highest-end environment and the best schools, and the stingy land supply method, the people spend all their money on purchasing these public products, pursuing the environment and improving their lives.

But because of this, the people still don’t have much extra money. For the comfort of their second half of their lives and a more sufficient sense of security, they have to continue working hard. On the surface, they already have a lot of wealth.

However, they were still full of insecurity and had to demand more wealth, and then demanded that the empire continue to expand.

Zhu Houzhao looked at the palace maids who had gotten up early in the morning under the palace wall and couldn't help but smile. He knew that these palace maids were like the people outside the palace. In order to get an extra year-end reward, they were more diligent than before, and sweeping the floor more seriously.

Therefore, even though I paid a reward last night, there were still no fallen leaves on the marble steps today.

However, when Zhu Houzhao saw a palace maid kneeling in a corner praying, she couldn't help but frown. He didn't expect that although the people at the bottom were still hardworking than before, they were more susceptible to the influence of some religions than before and became believers.

Sometimes, Zhu Houzhao also wondered whether this would happen, one day, secular power would be embezzled by these religions. Now there are more and more memorials to build temples, Taoist temples, and churches.

At this time, the cabinet chief Zhang Cong walked over with his increasingly haggard body, holding a memorial in his hand.

Zhu Houzhao took the memorial from Zhang Cong. The content of the memorial was Li Wen, the director of the Ministry of Rites. He said that outside Chongwen Gate in the capital, there have been many monks gathered in Anning Temple in recent years, and they have set up places to build altars. The good men and women who received the precepts and converted were crowded for a long time. When the monks gathered, there were as many as 10,000 people, gathered at day and night, and men and women were mixed. Some fugitives even committed crimes and fugitives took advantage of this to do evil, and the people all fought for the first time to give alms because of the so-called magical medicine and elixirs, and they lost their entire family.

"In addition, there are also those who set up private temples, Taoist temples and even churches, which even serve as places for prostitutes. The powerful and powerful gentry colluded with external protection, which made it more and more intense. Therefore, Li Wen asked the court to have some flaws!"

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but recite it silently. Logically, this kind of thing no longer needs to be handled by the emperor, but at this time, Zhang Cong submitted the memorial to the emperor. Zhu Houzhao felt that it must be Zhang Cong's own reason, so Zhu Houzhao said, "Tell me, what do you think about this matter?"

"Report to Your Majesty, there are more and more people who are rich in the people, so there are many good men and women who seek Buddhism and ask for advice. This is a draw from people. However, according to what Li Wen, the minister of the rituals, said, although the foolish people have increased their wealth, they have not yet gained wisdom. If this continues, the people are afraid of being taken away by these churches. If anyone has a little ambition, he will take over the church and take on the affairs of the church, which may cause great disaster."

Zhang Cong said at this time.

Zhu Houzhao also nodded: "What I love said is very good. You must be alert to this matter. Just take care of this matter! It doesn't matter if you really want to destroy the Buddha and the sect."

"I obey the order!"

Zhang Cong bowed to Zhu Houzhao and retreated.

Seeing this, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but sigh slightly, thinking that Zhang Fujing had offended many gentry since the beginning of reforming the grassroots. Later, the collection of heavy mining taxes in the pass made everyone in the world call him the "blood-sucking prime minister". Now, Zhang Fujing's health is getting worse and worse, but he still has to attack religion. It can be seen that this is a politician who has been innovating all his life.

After receiving Zhu Hou's approval, Zhang Cong was indeed not polite. He directly ordered the Ministry of Rites to prohibit the temples, Taoist temples, and churches in the world to recruit believers at will, and sent officials to strictly investigate the sacrificial certificates and collect the sacrificial certificates at the same time. That is, those who really want to convert to baptism must pay the sacrificial certificates to compensate for the donations they receive when they are not working.

In addition, Zhang Cong also ordered his uncle to investigate the property of each temple, and no longer exempt the land tax from each temple, and impose a tax on arable land, which was because many temples occupied arable land.

Of course, religious gatherings of more than 100 people must be reported to the government, otherwise they will be arrested directly as illegal gatherings.

For a time, the entire religious community was greatly shocked, and some people who rely on propaganda and doctrine to deceive the people and use them to block them were arrested one after another.

Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to return to secular life.

Of course, these monks and religious believers were not willing to be restrained by the court, thus losing the opportunity to benefit from the people.

On this day, Hui Jin, a monk from Anning Temple, came to the outside of the Daming Gate with thousands of monks, and sat cross-legged, shouting: "Since the Prime Minister does not allow the Buddha's Taoism to be prosperous, he wants to collect heavy taxes within the Buddhist sect, and says that the reason why we absorb civil property is now we are on a hunger strike to prove this heart!"

"Yes, the donation we have to give voluntarily, and we have never done anything forcibly. How can we get improperly? How should we be levied with heavy taxes! The donation of good people is originally a good fortune, but now it is trapped by corrupt officials in the bank. We have been deceived and have been falsely accused of harming the country and the people! Although people born in the world are not burdened by the secular world, they are not wronged by the secular world!"

Another mage responded.

"As the master said, since the current prime minister wants to destroy the Buddha and the religion, we will starve to death here and take off this body of skin!"

Huijin shouted again.

The Ming army above the city gate ignored these monks and still stood on the city wall like sculptures.

The steam bus line entering Daming Gate still entered the inner city with a clattering sound.

The cabinet chief Zhang Cong was actually in this car, but he was just watching all this silently at this moment. Of course, he knew that these monks had no sin, but he only knew that the Ming Dynasty could not raise too many idle people. Historical experience told him that the prosperous dynasty event led to the prosperity of Buddhism and Taoism, and the prosperous dynasty event led to chaos in the world!

Fortunately, Your Majesty believes nothing.

It is hard for Zhang Cong to imagine how terrible it would be if His Majesty also believed in religion.

Zhu Houzhao did not believe in these things, but he did not reject believers, but he also believed that it was a bad phenomenon that could be obtained without work by faith. Although most people did not realize this problem, including believers themselves, they did not realize that receiving donations from good men and women is not conducive to the stability of this society.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao supported Zhang Cong to do this. However, Zhu Houzhao had to admit that he had to pay attention to the development of the cultural industry and the guidance of the ideological field. He could not let the people become rich and devote money and energy to the construction of religion. No matter how well the temples and churches are built, how can we build a better city and be more conducive to people's livelihood? How can we spread a few famous works and paintings that can enlighten future generations and enhance civilization?

When Wen Zhengming from the attendant's room came to Wu Chengen's home with the order, Wu Chengen was writing his Journey to the West. Since he met His Majesty the Emperor and heard His Majesty tell a story about the Monkey King when he was young, he planned to write this story down. Now that he has not finished his writing for the past year, he has finally come to a big plan.

"Wu Cheng'en, Your Majesty sent me to ask you, have you finished writing the Journey to the West?" Wen Zhengming asked.

Wu Chengen replied: "It's soon, it's soon, it's just that it has not been corrected and modified yet."

"Try to hurry up. This is a contract. Look, if you can accept it, sign it. It is Your Majesty's intention. The Royal Academy buys out your work and bids fifty silver dollars. In the future, the right to disseminate and adapt the legend will belong to the Royal Academy. You and your descendants will have no right to inherit it. What do you think?"

Wen Zhengming asked.

Wu Chengen thought that a legendary script would only benefit about ten silver dollars on the market, and his Journey to the West may not necessarily attract people. Fifty silver dollars are considered high, which shows that this is a literati like His Majesty who can only write legends with this.

"It is truly the emperor's grace that is vast! Wu Mou is naturally willing, just a legend. How can the book passed down to his descendants? His Majesty can buy it!"

Wu Chengen thanked him.

A few months later, Zhu Houzhao received the original manuscript of Journey to the West presented by Wu Chengen, and immediately published it on the inner palace. At the same time, the cabinet established the Ming Dynasty Copyright Office and formally required the attendant office to be responsible for publicity to publish an editorial. The editorial theme was to pay attention to the development of the cultural industry.

Wen Zhengming was officially in charge of the newly established Daming Cultural Company as the right minister of the Ministry of Rites and also in charge of the copyright office, responsible for managing and developing the cultural industry of the entire empire.

But this is undoubtedly true that even the cultural industry field has become an industry that can only be opened by the emperor and the Ming court, which will undoubtedly lead to further concentrating interests in the central court and the empire further becoming a public-owned main economy.

However, there is nothing we can do about this. Whoever made Zhu Houzhao the emperor? The private capital always responded one step slower, and it was difficult for them to build an industry without public power.

"I have read the story of Journey to the West. The story is suitable for both the elderly and the young, but it is not a simple story of demons. There are many secret instructions that satirize the world and the present, but it is naturally more attractive. Now I only have one requirement to let the people of the world know this work, like this work, including the operas and other things he derived! People in the world cannot only know how to go to temples to worship Buddha, burn incense in Taoism, and listen to some stories about begging for children."

Wen Zhengming said to his subordinates with a pair of dark circles.

It is precisely because of this that under the influence of the powerful capital power of the royal family and advanced British technology, Wu Chengen's Journey to the West was immediately published in the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, because Zhu Houzhao could directly use state public rights to legislate the protection of the Saxing Dynasty, severely cracking down on pirates, making Journey to the West a hit and became popular all over the country for a time.

But this also made the people of the empire, especially ordinary people who were not catching colds like Kunqu opera, have more entertainment and entertainment products suitable for them, which reduced their attention to religion. Moreover, some ironic content hidden in Journey to the West also gave them a clearer understanding of Buddhism, and even more effective than the hard work of the government.

"It turns out that it is not a good product in Buddhism!"

An ordinary student sat in front of his house and said this after reading Journey to the West.

In addition, storytelling and drama also have fresher content, and even new dramas are directly generated. The story of Journey to the West allows the people of the empire to finally have entertainment and entertainment content after achieving economic prosperity, so as not to be deceived into the cult Orthodox Church.

However, although the spare money of these people no longer flowed into the temples and temples, it flowed into Zhu Houzhao's pockets.

Wu Chengen didn't expect that his Journey to the West would be so popular. Now he naturally regrets it and doesn't know how to express it for a while.

But Zhu Houzhao took the initiative to summon him and promoted Wu Chengen to the lecturer of the Hanlin Academy. At the same time, he asked Wen Zhengming to draw up a new contract for Wu Chengen, asking Wu Chengen to write a book on Travels East, and bid to infringe 5,000 silver dollars, which means that one word of five silver dollars, and writing one million words can bring five million silver dollars.

Under the temptation of a lot of money, Wu Chengen had no choice but to agree.

But Zhu Houzhao also has requirements for this, which is that Wu Chengen needs to expose the dark side of foreign popes such as Catholicism and Green Church in his new work, so as to give the people all over the world a clearer understanding of these foreign cultures.

Wu Chengen didn't expect that writing legends would have such significance, and he also started writing them actively.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao wanted to develop the cultural industry of the empire, and not just make the IP of Journey to the West, but to make the literati of this era understand that the words they have in their hands can not only serve the nobles and gentry, but the working people are the majority they need to serve, and serving the working people will not only receive respect but also more affordable economic benefits.

The protection and development of copyright by the Ming Dynasty court gave the imperial legendary scripts to make profits. Although this era is not the Internet era, and the people can only get the pleasure of reading by purchasing paper books, the increase in the literacy rate due to the increase in the Ming Dynasty's universal education, the profits of this market in the early stages became very rich, and even supported a group of professional machine players, not just Wu Chengen.

However, in the early days, most of the best-selling people were relatively yellow and had a very large scale, so that some censors impeached this was a sign of injustice.

However, Zhu Houzhao was not worried that the people were addicted to sensuality. He was only worried that the people were addicted to cults, so he did not have any restrictions. He now only wanted to make the people's entertainment activities more abundant.

Of course, Zhu Houzhao also knew how to use old power to attract the people to the entertainment activities of surrendering.

To this end, Zhu Houzhao will not only personally invest in the establishment of the Daming Literature Award, but also reward important literary products with a large sum of money to encourage people to create. In addition, the Daming Writers Association and the Daming Academy of Social Sciences have also been established to encourage people to engage in social science research and creation, and even spend a lot of money to focus on cultivating a batch of positive energy works.

It’s a pity that there was no film and television in this era. After all, the research on optics was just beginning in the Ming Dynasty. Although the fierce imaging was discovered by the Mohist school very early, photography and photography technology are still under research. Therefore, the only way to directly convey the correct ideas to the people in terms of visual impact is drama.

Zhu Houzhao specially added a Cultural Department to the Ministry of Rites, which is responsible for controlling the creation and drama creation of these cultural works. Of course, it also promotes the creation and drama creation of cultural works.

What now occupies the mainstream of the drama industry are some stories of Journey to the West, as well as some stories of the Water Margin and the Yang family generals. However, Zhu Houzhao also asked the royal literati in the attendant's room to write some brainwashing dramas about his own wits fighting against powerful ministers and loving the people. In addition, dramas like the white-haired girl are still circulating, which makes the gentry dislike. Some civil servants repeatedly suggest banning them, and Zhu Houzhao rejected them on the grounds that this was a drama that reflected the sufferings of the people.

The increase in wealth of the people in the empire, the development of cultural industries and the opening of ideas made the empire's luxury more and more serious. Some traditional scholars and civil servants used this advice to make the court ban civil extravagance, but what Zhu Houzhao did not expect was that some ministers began to disagree with this proposition of banning luxury. The reason was very simple, that is, the luxury of the people can promote domestic consumption and commercial trade.

Zhu Houzhao thought that instead of letting the people spend their wealth on supporting religion, it would be better for the people to wear some food and eat better and live a better life. To be more luxurious, the people today are still far from the people of some countries in later generations. Moreover, at worst, they can collect luxury tax and value-added tax on their own. They are not afraid of your people spending money, but they are afraid that you will not spend money. Anyway, a portion of every money you spend will enter the government's pocket.

then.

The luxury tax and value-added tax in Nanzhili were promoted nationwide, and the tax revenue of the empire increased again.
To be continued...