"Mr. Mu Zhai, Hu Chi, Hou Fu, and Da Mu, who do you think shares the southeast half with the Zhu family?"
At this moment, the moon and stars are sparse, the sky is clear and windless, and the lights on both sides of the Qinhuai River are bright. In the flower hall between the courtyard of Duke Quan's Mansion inside the Sanshan Gate, Zheng Zhilong, dressed in a Confucian robe, was sitting on a table, and what he asked was this sentence.
The people who were in the same room with him at this time were Qian Qianyi, also known as Mu Zhai, Huang Binqing, also known as Hu Chi, Zhang Mingzhen, the former Zhejiang Shipu Navy guerrilla named Hou Fu, and Zheng Zhilong's eldest son Zheng Sen and Zheng Damu.
Among them, Qian Qianyi was Zheng Sen’s teacher, and Huang Binqing was Zheng Zhilong’s fellow Fujianese. Zhang Mingzhen, on the other hand, was born in the Xunwei of Nanjing. Although he did not participate in the "Eunuch Rebellion" in Nanjing in September, he was picked on by the right-ban censor because his family had misappropriated military farmland, and he was dismissed from his official position and became a rich man. Qianyi diners. Although he had no worries about food and clothing, he had no chance of an official career, and he also lost 70% to 80% of his family's land. Of course, he was full of resentment.
When Zheng Zhilong asked this question, he was met with a sneer from Zhang Mingzhen: "Who can share it with me? Just one husband! At first, the Wu family thought they could share the southeast with Zhu and Wu... What happened later? Just one husband. Divide the fields, divide the money, and divide the wives. The little strength of the Wu family has been swallowed up by the prince! Who still recognizes the old Wu family now? That is to say, the silly girl of the Wu family can really please the prince. It is said that she can still do it with a big belly. Specially pamper the house.
There are still some Donglin Party members who want to join the Zhu family in the southeast. Just watch... When the Donglin Conference is held, we will know who is the master and who is the servant! "
Zheng Zhilong frowned and glanced at his old friend Huang Binqing again. Huang Binqing said with a smile: "What Hu Chi said makes sense. The prince does have means... The little boatman I have has now gone to the Yangtze River Navy." . At least you can get a regular salary of five taels of silver, plus miscellaneous silver rewards, totaling seven or eighty taels a year, and you can also drink spicy food with the popular ones.
But this is just to deal with warriors like us who don’t have much strength... Now Fanshan Harrier (Gao Jie), Huang Chuangzi and Wuchang Hou Ke are all still very capable and occupy the state capital, and they are very happy! "
Zheng Zhilong glanced at his son again, and Zheng Sen smiled: "Huanshan Harrier and Huang Chuangzi didn't run away. When the Tatars came, their little strength was quickly exhausted. In the future, they will be the rich men of Jinling. But our family is different. , the foundation of our family is on the sea. And Chitose's way of controlling the soldiers is to grant land, which is actually the way of the Sui and Tang Dynasty soldiers and the old military households in the early Republic of China... But you can't get sailors by dividing the land. "If sailors become farmers and don't go to sea anymore, what's the use?"
"Yes!" Zheng Zhilong nodded and said with a smile, "Going to sea is difficult and dangerous. That is to say, the Fujian people who have eight mountains, one water and one farmland have no choice but to risk their lives in exchange for money. If you have a hundred With ten acres of paddy fields, who would be willing to go out on a boat to go to sea?”
Zheng Sen continued: "Sir, I think it will be of great benefit to our family that Qiantose Master gave Quanzhou to our family... These Quan and Fujian merchants are all over Southeast Asia! With Quanzhou, our family will be able to If you control the roots of Quan and Fujian merchants, you will be able to lead Nanyang." He paused, "But the opening of Shanghai as a port will be a mixed blessing."
Zheng Zhilong looked at his son.
Zheng Sen said: "When my son went back to Zhoushan last time, he passed by Shanghai and found that there is a deep and wide Wusong River that flows into the mouth of the Yangtze River into the sea. No matter how big the wind and waves are at the Yangtze River estuary, the Wusong River is calm. Moreover, the terrain on both sides of the Wusong River is open and flat. , the water network is crisscrossed, and the other end of the Wusong River leads to Suzhou and flows into the canal... It is really unique! Once the port is opened, it will surpass Anping within ten years and become the number one port in the world! If Relying on the No. 1 port in the world, the imperial court may be able to build a navy that can traverse the seven seas."
Zheng Zhilong nodded lightly, noncommittal. He turned his attention to Qian Qianyi, who had been smiling and saying nothing, and said with a smile: "Brother, how much land and tenants does Qiantui Master have on hand?"
"There are more than 50 million acres of land..." Qian Qianyi said with a bitter smile, "More than 35 million acres of it were confiscated from Jinling nobles and ministers. The rest came from four Lianghuai Salt General and the military garrison and official fields in Huai'an, Yangzhou, Fengyang, Yingtian, Zhenjiang, Chuzhou, Hezhou, Taiping and other prefectures were organized.
In addition, more than 8 million acres of the more than 50 million acres were allocated to the soldiers of the new army who overcame the difficulties and the heroes who went south to overcome the difficulties. The remaining more than 42 million acres are under the control of the Generalissimo's military garrison. This period is being sorted out, and it will take six months to clarify the tenancy relationship, and the current version of the tenancy contract is also being drafted... Tenancy contracts will also be signed with all tenants who actually rent the land, and The tenants are required to pay rent on time, otherwise the contract will be terminated and the tenants will be evicted! "
"How much rent will you charge?" Zheng Zhilong asked.
Qian Qianyi said: "The upper field collects seven buckets of rice, the middle field collects five buckets of rice, the lower field collects three buckets of rice... On average, it is about five buckets of rice.
If more than 42 million acres can be collected according to this standard, then a total of more than 21 million shibai rice can be received. 10% of it was used for military garrison and military garrison expenses at all levels, 10% was used for transportation expenses, and the rest was turned over to the Generalissimo's Mansion... It was almost more than 16 million shi. "
"Not much!" Zheng Zhilong said with a smile, "The land in the southeast has two seasons a year. If you wipe out the harvest years and lean years, and then deduct the crops, how can the average income be only one stone and a half hundred meters? No matter how much less that is, I'm just lazy... I pay five dou for one stone and a half, and there is still one stone of rice left. If you want to rent my family's land, you can't pay such a small amount of rent!"
"It's not much!" Qian Qianyi said, "The rent they had to pay was not less than one stone per mu, but the court couldn't get a few kilograms of rice."
The fields in the southeast, as long as they are not terraced or sloping fields, can produce an average of rice and two stones per acre. If you rent a land from a landlord's family, the rent for one stone meter will definitely not be less. Juntuntian only charges five dou, which is definitely a preferential price.
Moreover, not all the fields in the southeast are planted with rice, but a considerable number are planted with cotton, mulberry trees, tea, rapeseed, vegetables, and fruits. Growing cash crops can make more money than growing rice!
Nowadays, no matter what the tenants in the military garrisons grow, they are always paid three to seven dou rice for rent. And there are no additional assessments, taxes, corvees, or levies.
For civilian households and military households (who are now also exempted from military status) who actually rent land for farming, such rent can definitely be called the emperor's grace.
But the problem is that there are many scholar-bureaucrats in the southeast who "rent" military and official fields, and then don't hand over a grain of rice... The so-called "encroachment" is actually done in the name of renting crops. .
Otherwise, how can I take advantage of it? Directly transfer military and official land to private names and make land deeds? That's not possible. How to do it in the fish scale account book?
Therefore, once Zhu Cihong extended the rectification of the general's villages and fields to the southeastern provinces such as South Zhili, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian. Then the scholar-officials in the southeast will suffer heavy losses!
In addition, the practice of directly signing tenancy contracts with tenants in the military camps established by Zhu Cihong also gave insightful people in the southeast a bad sign.
There are no less than 2 million tenant households on these more than 42 million acres of land alone... As soon as the tenant lease contract is signed, these 2 million households are placed under the protection of military camps.
Although they are not members of the military, Zhu Cixiang can still directly recruit soldiers from among them through the military garrison! The authority of the military garrison also prevented them from being exploited by other gentry and officials.
In a sense, these 2 million households are tenants dependent on Zhu Cihong... If Zhu Cihong includes all the military villages and official fields in the southeast in the future, then it is very likely that the land he controls will It will exceed 80 million acres, the number of tenant households will reach 4 million, and the annual land rent collected will reach 32 million shi!
And Zhu Cihong has 32 million more shi, and the pockets of the scholar-bureaucrats and nobles in the Southeast will lose at least 40 million shi every year... 40 million shi plus 4 million households, isn't it obvious who belongs to the Southeast?
Zheng Zhilong breathed out, smiled and said to Zheng Sen: "Let's take Tea Girl to see her tomorrow... and let Qiantose Master see your sister."
Zheng Sen said: "Sir, will you give me the 1 million acres of land?"
"Give!"
