Mid-October.
October is already the season of autumn. The city of Beijing, nestled in the embrace of the Yanshan Mountains, is already full of autumn scenery. The autumn wind sweeps fallen leaves everywhere inside and outside the city, and people wear thick clothes and walk on the streets. The pace is much faster.
At this time, in the Cabinet Office, ministers from fifteen departments of the imperial court gathered here and were holding a small court meeting. Everyone was sitting together. Liu Yan had just finished his speech and copied a copy of the "Huang Ming Land Acquisition System" for everyone to look at. The various ministers had different expressions.
Zhao Min, the Minister of Civil Affairs, looked at Liu Yan with a surprised look on his face, as if his long-cherished wish was finally coming true.
Yue Ming, the Minister of Finance, and Song Gongming, the Minister of Commerce, were discussing something in a low voice. There was some worry on their faces, as if they were saying "a waste of financial resources", "delay" and other words.
Tian Huixu, the Minister of National Defense, and Xun Jingyun, the Minister of Equipment Ministry, were also whispering. They were talking about the deployment of troops and lack of manpower. They seemed to have some differences and were discussing.
Zhang Lei, the Minister of Agriculture, smiled broadly and looked at Liu Yan with eyes full of admiration, as if he were looking at an ancient sage. In Zhang Lei's view, being able to take action on the land system alone was enough for Liu Yan to be worthy of enjoying the Ancestral Temple, although Liu Yan actually didn't care about this in his heart.
As for Bao Xuezhen, the Minister of Health, Wu Guojin, the Minister of Military Intelligence, and Wang Wenzhen, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, they did not have any special reactions. They were just worried that the implementation of the "Huangming Land Acquisition System" would attract too much hostility for Liu Yan. , so at this time the three of them were waiting for Liu Yan to speak.
Beside, the prosecution
Bai Wenyi, the Minister of Ministry, Mi Hao, the Minister of Supervision, and Shang Wenyuan, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, frowned. They were obviously worried that once the "Huang Ming Land Acquisition System" was implemented, there would be turmoil in the Ming Dynasty. The workload will surge.
As for the Minister of Rites, Huang Jin, and the Minister of Industry, Song Shiwen, they carefully watched the discussion and did not dare to express their opinions at will.
At this time, Liu Yan glanced at everyone and was not in a hurry to express his opinion. Chen Xinjia, the Secretary of the General Staff next to him, said: "Mr. Ge, this re-confirmation of the country's cultivated land situation is an earth-shattering event. It may not affect the world." It’s a big mess!”
Liu Yan smiled and said: "The matter is not that serious, and I will never let this situation happen."
Then Liu Yan looked at Zhang Lei and asked: "Zhang Shangshu is in charge of agriculture and land throughout the country. What do you think of the "Huangming Field Acre System" drafted by me?"
Zhang Lei naturally raised his hands in agreement, and immediately said loudly: "The "Huangming Land Acquisition System" advocated by Mr. Ge is very good. Now 90% of the world's population is ordinary people, but these 90% of the people own only a few acres of land. Thirty percent of the world’s cultivated land is in the hands of officials, gentry, powerful men, merchants, and the royal family.”
"If this situation is not broken, the rejuvenation of the country and the country will be empty talk. Even if the New Deal and military reform policies are forcibly implemented, it will only give the country a breath of relief. Sooner or later, the world will still be in chaos!"
Liu Yan nodded appreciatively to Zhang Lei, and Zhang Lei hit the nail on the head.
The reason why there are so-called dynasties in Chinese dynasties
The periodic law is due to problems with land distribution.
At the beginning of the founding of each dynasty, the land was vast and sparsely populated, so the people were given enough farmland to recuperate, and the country could quickly accumulate wealth and create a prosperous age.
But at the end of the dynasty, there were more people and less land, and land annexation inevitably occurred. Eventually, more and more people lost their land and became refugees. Eventually, various conflicts within the dynasty broke out, no matter how small they were. All powerful dynasties will collapse!
What Liu Yan has to do now is to redistribute the cultivated land throughout the Ming Dynasty while implementing the New Deal and military reforms. No matter how great the difficulties are, this must be implemented. Only in this way can the Ming Dynasty be saved.
Because the implementation of the "Huang Ming Land Acquisition System" is to fundamentally solve the root cause of the turmoil in the Ming Dynasty!
Yue Ming and Song Gongming wanted to say something, but they didn't say it in the end. It was just a matter of money and food. Now that the court had money and food, they knew that opposing this policy was futile, so they had to give up.
At this time, Shang Wenyuan, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, Bai Wenyi, the Minister of the Ministry of Public Prosecutions, and Mi Hao, the Minister of the Supervision Department, all said that once the "Huangming Tianmu System" is implemented, the number of private cases, lawsuits, and officials who confront the imperial court will increase dramatically. If it increases, there will be turmoil everywhere.
Liu Yan asked directly: "Could it be that just because they were worried about unrest, the imperial court did nothing and just sat back and watched the people in the world have no land to cultivate?"
The three of them were ashamed, and they all clasped their fists and said, "I made a mistake!"
Everyone started talking about it. Everyone knew the resistance to the implementation of the "Huangming Land Acquisition System".
The resistance is even greater than the implementation of the New Deal and military reform, and it is much greater.
But everyone could see that Liu Yan's determination was very strong and almost unshakable, so everyone became worried.
Chen Xinjia pointed it out directly and said: "Mr. Ge, three-thirds of the annexed farmland in the world belongs to the officials and gentry, three-thirds to the merchants and powerful merchants, and the remaining four-quarters are all in the hands of the vassal kings and royal families everywhere. If we want to implement the "Huang Ming Tian Mu" "System", what the elder has to face is not only the officials and powerful people from all over the world, but also the royal family in the world, and even His Majesty!"
Liu Yan frowned slightly. In fact, he was not a royalist. To put it bluntly, there were so many royal families in the Ming Dynasty. It didn't matter who took the throne, as long as he could save China. Therefore, Liu Yan was not worried about falling out with Emperor Chongzhen, and he did not mind deposing him.
It's just that maintaining the Ming Dynasty is the best choice under the current situation. Saving the Ming Dynasty means saving China. Therefore, Liu Yan doesn't care about the person who takes the throne, but he cannot care about the stability of the Ming Dynasty.
So Liu Yan thought for a while and said: "The implementation of the "Huangming Land Acquisition System" cannot be negotiated. No matter how difficult it is, it must be implemented. I will report to your majesty."
Then Liu Yan looked at everyone and said: "As for your worries, I can understand it, so before the official implementation of the "Huangming Field Acquisition System", all ministries must first complete the preliminary affairs."
"The Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Military Intelligence, and the Ministry of Defense jointly set up a land inventory team. The ministers will negotiate the specific details and go to various places to verify the amount of cultivated land."
"I want to bring all the Ming Dynasties to a new level within one year.
Find out the quantity and ownership of cultivated land! "
"within one year?"
At this time, not only Yue Ming, Wu Guojin, and Tian Huixu had bitter expressions on their faces, but even Zhang Lei, who had been fully supportive at the beginning, collapsed and said: "Mr. The territory is so vast that just one year for the inventory team to visit all over the country is not enough, let alone trying to deal with the forces in various places to measure and inventory acre by acre. There are probably not three or three subordinates. It’s impossible to complete it in five years, or even ten or eight years!”
Liu Yan frowned and said: "I don't have that long time to give you. It will take up to two years. The land measurement work must be completed. If it doesn't work, just add more people."
"The inventory team must include people from the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Military Intelligence. If that doesn't work, we can mobilize garrison troops from various places to join in and use manpower to pile it up!"
Everyone gasped.
This small court meeting lasted for more than two hours. When the ministers dispersed, it was already evening.
At this time, Chen Xinjia walked out of the Cabinet Office, looked at the sunset in the west, and thought to himself: "I don't know what kind of turmoil Liu Gelao will cause this time with such a battle!"
Not to mention the sighs of the crowd, Liu Yan was still thinking in the Cabinet Office at this time. For some reason, Liu Yan always felt that the "Huang Ming Tian Mu System" he drafted had similar decrees in history, but I can't remember when it happened.
In fact, the strategy formulated by Liu Yan can be summed up in two parts: first, inventory the situation of cultivated land across the country, and second, confiscate
The imperial court stepped in to acquire the excess cultivated land from large households, and then uniformly redistributed it to the landless and landless people.
This is also a strategy Liu Yan formulated after several days of summarizing based on his experience in implementing the New Deal in Shandong, plus some experiences of later generations.
Therefore, Liu Yan was very confident in the "Emperor Ming Land Acquisition System" and believed that as long as he could withstand the counterattacks of the four forces of officials, gentry, powerful men, merchants, and the royal family at this time, he would be able to revive the Ming Dynasty.
"When did a similar policy appear?"
Liu Yan frowned, and had a hunch in his heart that his "Huang Ming Land Acquisition System" was still a bit rough, and he needed to supplement it with the government decrees that had appeared in history in his memory.
While Liu Yan was thinking hard, Wang Chengen walked in with a smile, saluted and said: "Haha, the Za family didn't disturb Mr. Liu Ge from handling government affairs, right?"
Liu Yan stood up and returned the courtesy and said, "My lord, please sit down. Does your Majesty have any orders?"
"hehe,"
Wang Chengen said with a smile: "That's right. Your Majesty saw a Tang Dynasty secret-color porcelain in the Chongwen Hall earlier. It seems to be from the Kaiyuan period. He said that it was in good condition and he wanted to reward Mr. Liu Ge. Isn't that right? , His Majesty asked the Za family to come over and see if Liu Ge is always handling government affairs."
Liu Yan clasped his fists and said, "Your Majesty is so kind to me. I will go and thank you in person right now."
With that said, Liu Yan stood up and followed Wang Chengen to meet Emperor Chongzhen.
Suddenly Liu Yan remembered the four words "Kaiyuan Year" mentioned by Wang Chengen just now. He suddenly stopped and suddenly remembered something.
Wang Chengen looked at Liu Yan who was standing there in surprise and said: "Liu Ge
old? What happened to Mr. Liu Ge? "
Liu Yan suddenly burst out laughing and said to Wang Chengen: "Haha! Eunuch Wang is really the noble man I am today. He solved the doubts in my heart with just one sentence!"
"Confuse?"
Wang Chengen also became interested, and asked with a smile: "I wonder what doubts Mr. Liu Ge has in his mind, and can they be solved by this useless person from the Za family?"
Liu Yan looked happy and said only four words: "Search the fields and close the households!"
