Hearing Duduo say "there are few people", Dorgon laughed and said, "What are you afraid of when there are few people? The solution is to have fewer people and fewer people, but the trouble is to have more people and more people! We have all watched "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", you guys Do you know how many people there were in Wei, Shu, and Wu during the Three Kingdoms period? Cao Wei, the most populous, only had ten to ten thousand people. Our Manchu ancestors were still squinting in the mountains and forests in those days...let alone Cao Mengde Even Gongsun Du can't defeat him!
Also, do you know how much population there was in the country in the early years of the Tang Dynasty? According to records, during the Wude reign of Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, the number of households in the world was only over 2 million, with a maximum population of 100,000. Didn't this population of tens of millions still support the prosperous age of Zhenguan?
So let’s not be afraid of a small number of people... No matter how small the number of people is, there are still 10 million! It’s no worse than in the early Tang Dynasty and Cao Wei. The key is how to manage it! "
"Your Majesty is absolutely right," Mandahai echoed Dorgon with a smile on his face, "I think back when we were in Liaodong, Emperor Taizu killed the population of Nikan because of lack of food. If there are more people and food, maybe Not enough to eat!”
Dorgon smiled and did not answer the question. He paused and said: "In my opinion, the chaos in the Southern Dynasties was caused by too many people! With more people and less land, there will naturally be a shortage of food... ...The people have no food, how can there be no chaos? Now that there are fewer people in the North, there is relatively more land. We only need to use all the abandoned land in Henan, Shandong, and North Zhili. Sooner or later, the land of Zhongzhou will be used by the Qing Dynasty Used!"
What he said makes sense! The cycle of chaos in Chinese history is to a large extent the accumulation and release of contradictions between man and land - in the early days of the founding of the country, due to the consumption of the previous troubled times, there must be fewer people and more land. The output of the land is enough to feed the small population. Everyone has food to eat and clothing to wear, so naturally there will be no rebels.
As the economy developed and the population multiplied, land became tense and precious. On the one hand, land output is not enough to feed the growing population; on the other hand, the huge gap between rich and poor caused by economic development has caused land concentration, making it difficult for the landless poor to survive.
Troubled times are coming soon!
Now in the territory of Beiqing, due to years of war, the population has been reduced by at least 80%, so the contradiction between man and land has been well resolved. Therefore, it was not difficult for the Manchus to manage the Central Plains. The common people had enough food and clothing, so who cares if everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the world?
On the territory of Nanming, because it has not experienced too many wars and many refugees from the north have arrived, the conflict between man and land has become quite intensified... It is not easy to keep everyone full!
Duduo asked: "Brother Fourteen, how can we use the wastelands in Shandong and Henan?"
"Two ways," Dorgon held out two fingers, "One is to enclose the land for farming...encircle a part of the wasteland and give it to Nikan Green Flag for farming. It should be around Henan and Shandong. 20 million acres. In this way, 200 Niulu can be built, and each Niulu will give 100,000 acres of land.
The second is to clear the fields and inspect the land. I don’t care about those messy land deeds. Whoever pays taxes and errands to the Qing Dynasty, the land belongs to him, and the land deeds of the Qing Dynasty will be given to him! "
The senior Eight Banners present already knew about the establishment of two green flags, and they all agreed. Now there are hundreds of thousands of green soldiers on the ground in Henan, Shandong, and Shanxi. Now the monthly military salary expenditure is upwards of 300,000 taels of silver, which is three to four million taels a year. In addition, hundreds of thousands of stones of military rations are required every year.
If the Green Camp is not changed into the Green Flag, the Qing Dynasty will not be able to support it sooner or later!
However, this is the first time I have heard of "clearing land and inspecting land" and "land to those who pay taxes"... and it sounds a bit wrong!
Everyone was definitely not right, but they didn't dare to say it. They all turned their attention to Duduo.
Duduo is not afraid of Dorgon. He helped give birth to Dorgon's son, Duoerbo!
"Brother Fourteen," Duduo said, "Those who pay taxes have their own land... Doesn't it sound like there's an equalization of land?"
"Equal fields? Is there any?" Dorgon thought for a moment, seemed to be a little bit, then waved his hand and said, "Then let's all be equal!"
Duduo was stunned again and again, why did his fourteenth brother learn from Li Zicheng?
Duduo reminded: "Brother Fourteen, Juntian is the path of the bandits..."
"What is the road number of the bandits?" Dorgon glared at his brother, "Where can the bandits all share the land? Besides, when the bandits were in Beijing, the population of the Central Plains was more than it is now, so it may not be enough to equalize the land! Now, okay I was dead, I was dead, I was running away... After leaving Gyeonggi, I saw no one along the way. There were uncultivated wastelands everywhere. What should I do if I don't get out? Is there any grass left?
Everyone, it’s not the land that’s valuable now, it’s the people that are valuable! If you go out, you will make money, you know? "
The nobles of the Eight Banners present here look at me and I look at you. They all think that what the regent said makes sense.
When Li Zicheng occupied Beijing, the population of Beizhili, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong provinces was much greater than it is now!
Since the Qing army entered the customs, they have massacred cities, enclosed land, occupied houses, surrendered, and tried to escape. They were also slandered and said they wanted to rob the tombs, and they did so in many places. In the tug-of-war, the population was dying and fleeing, at least it was reduced by half again!
Dorgon counted on his fingers: "According to the records of the Ministry of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty, there are 61.74 million acres of cultivated land in Shandong. The Dongchang, Yanzhou and Jinan Banfu (northern half) we occupy are all flat land, at least 20 million acres of cultivated land.
Henan has 74.15 million acres of cultivated land. Now, except for Nanyang and Runing, all Henan Province is in our hands. We have at least 50 million acres of cultivated land on our territory.
Shanxi has less cultivated land, only more than 36.8 million acres... We have almost 25 million acres on our territory.
North Zhili has nearly 50 million acres, of which 20 million acres have been occupied by flags, and 30 million acres remain.
Added up everywhere, excluding flag land, there are a total of 120 million acres of cultivated land. After giving out more than 20 million to the 100,000 soldiers of Zhenglv Banner to cultivate and cultivate the land, there were still nearly 100 million left! If you can harvest four liters of flour per acre, you still have 4 million shi... Four liters per acre is not much, right? Whoever can deliver this four liters of royal grain per acre will be granted the land to him. As for those old eight-legged land deeds, I don't care about them anymore. "
Is this still possible?
The Eight Banners nobles present were a little stunned. They were good at fighting, but politics... they still couldn't do it!
Duduo frowned, "Are all 100 million acres of land given away?"
"Give it all away... What's the use of keeping it in your hands?" Dorgon thought for a while, "You can give the land orally! Make it simpler and divide it equally, giving ten acres at a time. If someone can give it, If you have land deeds from the Ming Dynasty and are willing to pay the taxes for the first and second years of Shunzhi, we will accept them. If you don’t have the land deeds or are unwilling to pay taxes, then let’s pull them down!”
Wow, this Dorgon actually wants to do something that Li Zicheng didn't even do!
But this is a matter of course... Land conflicts are always less severe at the beginning of the dynasty and more intense at the end of the dynasty. The ultimate reason is that the contradiction between man and land intensifies!
Now in the Central Plains under the rule of the Qing Dynasty, the population is 80% less than during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. There are not many people left, so of course there are no conflicts between people.
Excluding the Eight Banners lords, coated minions, and Green Flag lackeys, there are still at most 10 million people and 2 million households in the lands directly controlled by the Qing Dynasty in Beizhili, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong. If the land is transferred by oral administration, one household can get at least 50 acres of land. Only four liters of imperial grain could be harvested from one acre, and the amount of imperial grain a household had to hand over in a year was two shi. And no matter how "little ice age" 50 acres of land is, there will always be more than ten dan per year, right? After paying two stones of royal grain, the rest was enough for a family of five.
While one household pays the emperor two dan for grain, two million households equals four million dan! The salt tax, customs duty, and commercial tax amounted to one hundred and hundreds of thousands taels.
With these two incomes, plus the savings from granting land to the Green Flag Soldiers, the Qing court would never be unable to survive.
The only problem is that after the scholars in the southeast know about this, I am afraid that no one will vote for the Qing Dynasty and become a traitor - the Qing Dynasty is much more ruthless than Zhu Cixiang, not only digging graves and raising hills, but also equalizing the land!
