"Invite Qian Qianyi, Hou Xun, Zhu Chunchen, and Li Yan to the Qinzheng Hall!"
As soon as Jin Zhijun left, Zhu Cixiang immediately asked the eunuch on duty to announce the presence of these important ministers in Fengyang.
Qian Qianyi was the Minister of Rites, and was hired by Zhu Cixiang to be responsible for the reconstruction of the Fengyang Imperial Tomb and the Ming Zu Mausoleum (in Xuyi). In order to prevent the imperial mausoleums and ancestral mausoleums from being excavated by the Qing army, Zhu Cixiang, the filial son and grandson of the Ming Dynasty, planned to build two fortress-style imperial mausoleums... However, how to revise the method had to be studied by Qian Qianyi, a great scholar, and it had to be consistent What a ritual!
Hou Xun is the governor of Jiangbei and the governor of Fengyang. He has a high official position in Fengyang.
Zhu Chunchen was left behind in Zhongdu. He sounded like he was on the same side as Hou Xun, but in fact he was the chief military officer of Fengyang Mansion and was responsible for the defense of Fengyang Mansion.
After the Qingliuxi War, Li Yan continued to serve as the commander of his general's army, and was Zhu Cihong's military advisor.
The four people were summoned and hurried over. What they saw in the Qinzheng Hall was a somewhat melancholy Prince Zhu.
Zhu Cixiang always had a smile on his face. Even when Beijing was under siege, he never looked so melancholy.
Zhu Chunchen, who had followed Zhu Cixiang for the longest time, immediately thought of Chongzhen and immediately put on a sad expression. Before even saluting, he asked with concern: "Master Qiansui, are you the emperor..."
Zhu Cixiang looked at Zhu Chunchen and didn't understand for a moment, "What's wrong with my father?"
It's not that Chongzhen is dead...Zhu Chunchen was also confused at this time, and said quickly: "Nothing, nothing...I just saw Master Qiantui looking sad, and thought you missed the emperor."
Miss Chongzhen? Zhu Cihong said to himself: I don’t have any feelings, what a nonsense...
He thought so in his heart, but said: "Yes, I do miss my father."
Zhu Chunchen took a breath and then saluted the prince together with Qian Qianyi, Hou Xun and Li Yan.
The chair was placed in Zhu Cihong's Qinzheng Hall. After kowtowing, he went to sit on it. This was Zhu Cihong's etiquette - he originally wanted to skip the kowtow procedure, but the people below were used to kowtowing, and they felt uncomfortable if they didn't kowtow. Be practical!
"You all should read Dorgon's autographed letter!" Zhu Cihong waved to an eunuch serving in the palace, who immediately handed the letter to Qian Qianyi.
Qian Qianyi unfolded the letter and started reading it. He was smiling at first, but halfway through, his expression changed dramatically.
"What? The Tatars actually want to equalize the land..."
When he shouted, Hou Xun, Zhu Chunchen, and Li Yan were also shocked. Zhu Chunchen and Li Yan were better off. Zhu Chunchen's government occupied a lot of military land in Beizhili, but there were not many legal private lands, and all his family's land was occupied by Tatars. Li Yan's family is just a middle-class landowner and does not have much land. Hou Xun is different. His family is the largest landowner in Guide Mansion! Isn’t all this even land gone? When the Ming Dynasty counterattacks in the future, it may not be possible to take it back, right?
"What's going on?" Hou Xun asked hurriedly.
Zhu Cixiang said: "Dorgon said in the letter that because the gentry in the north were incited by me and unwilling to be used by the Eastern invaders, the interests of the gentry were not considered. Moreover, there are fewer people in the north and more land in the north. , Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong all have countless wastelands, so he plans to follow the method of the Northern Zhou, Sui, and Tang Dynasties and implement the land equalization system in the north. The land will be granted orally, and each land will be granted ten acres. After the land is granted, the rent will be four liters of white flour per acre... ...Mr. Hou, what do you think?"
Dorgon was honest and told his son-in-law the truth - the gentry in the north, especially the gentry in Shandong, were deceived by Zhu Cixiang into going against the Qing Dynasty. So the Qing Dynasty didn't count on them anymore, and simply planned to dictate the fields!
Hou Xun just shook his head: "How can it be like this? How can it be like this? This is seizing people's land! What Donglu is doing now is just like rogue bandits..."
"Hmph!" Zhu Cixi snorted coldly, "Sir, did you think that the Donglu were better than the rogues before?"
Hou Xun was startled by Zhu Cixiang's question and quickly knelt down to Prince Zhu, "Master Qiansui, that's not what I meant. I..."
"No need to say more," Zhu Cixiang raised his hand to signal Hou Xun to stand up, "Mr. Hou, your family owns a lot of land in Guide Mansion, right? How did you collect rent before?"
Hou Xun stood up tremblingly, "Master Qiansui, my family doesn't have much land, and it was all left by our predecessors... As for the rent, it varies from field to field. Henan is poor and has been suffering from drought for many years, so we can't collect it." How much. Usually two or three bushels of wheat are harvested from an acre, and when folded into white flour, one bushel rises to two bushels."
Zhu Cihong said: "Donglu only charges four liters! You are much more ruthless than Donglu..."
"No, no, no..." Hou Xun waved his hands repeatedly, "The Donglu's four liters of imperial grain is the amount that was obtained, and the common people must have more than that... the officials who handle it always want to get some. Yes, the output of ordinary people will never be less than eight liters per acre."
"Haha," Zhu Cixi said with a smile, "That's half less...and Mr. Hou is kind-hearted, ordinary landowners won't accept so little, right? Military advisor, what do you think?"
Li Yan also frowned tightly, "Master Qiansui, Dorgon has indeed collected too little... In an ordinary year, the Chen family collected no less than three bushels of rent per acre, and they also had to pay rent." Another loan sharking.
But that’s all in the past, and now the landowners in Zhongzhou can’t afford that much! "
"Why?" Zhu Cihong asked.
"There are no people anymore!" Li Yan said, "In the past, there were more people and less land... If you couldn't rent a field, you would starve to death! If you rent a field, even if you pay three to five dou per acre, you can still make a living. Struggling to survive. Nowadays, Zhongzhou has fewer people and more land, and it is difficult to rent out the land. Otherwise, how can the Tatars account for the land?"
"Master Qiansui," Zhu Chunchen interjected, "I heard that the Tatars are going to set up some kind of Green Flag Army. It seems to be modified from the Green Battalion... They also want to enclose land and grant farmland. They should also ask people to have less land and more land. I can’t collect any taxes to make trouble.”
Zhu Cixi also knew about this and had a headache for a few days.
However, compared with the current plan to grant farmland through oral planning, enclosing land with green flags is nothing - the land granting through plan or dictates solves the most fundamental and most difficult social contradiction in feudal society!
Even Zhu Cixiang, a "traveler", doesn't know how to resolve this contradiction. But Dorgon solved it easily... Although he started the "Thanos Mode" and solved the problem on the basis of reducing the population of the Northland by 70 to 80%, the problem was finally solved.
Moreover, a family of five can be granted fifty acres of land, and the annual royal grain payment is only two dan. Even if the number of corrupt officials is included, the maximum is four dan. And the average annual output of fifty acres of northern dry land is never less than fourteen or five stone. After paying four stones, there are still ten stones, which is enough to support five people. It is also very generous, so it can be maintained for a long time.
Once this problem is solved, the Qing Dynasty's rule in the north will be stabilized, and the Northern Expedition launched by Zhu Cihong will be difficult to gain support from the working people in the north. Because if you are given ten acres of land and pay four measures of imperial grain, you can be fully fed and clothed, and you can eat until you die... What benefits can the Ming Dynasty represented by Zhu Cihong bring them?
Of course, those farmers in the north who were granted land would not spontaneously serve as soldiers to protect the Qing Dynasty. Because Dorgon does not have that kind of organizational ability, it would be good if he could collect four liters of rent per acre... What he can really control is the organized Eight Banners and Green Flag military groups. 200,000 households, this is his foundation.
"Then what should we do?" Zhu Cixiang asked.
Li Yan said: "Master Qiansui, we have no way to plan and grant land in the southeast... The population in the southeast is too large, and now there are refugees from the north. There is not enough land to grant, but it is urgent to clear the land and inspect the land. It must be implemented as soon as possible.”
The population density in the southeastern region of the Ming Dynasty was already very high, and the contradiction between man and land was very prominent. Moreover, due to years of turmoil in the north, Huguang, and Sichuan, a large number of refugees poured into the southeast. The population of the Southeast is now likely to reach 80 million or even 100 million. The cultivated land is only 200 million acres at most, and this also excludes some land that is difficult to cultivate normally in frontline areas such as Huaibei and Xuhai.
In addition, the implementation of the oral allocation of land cannot save the land of officials, the land of meritorious service of the army and the land of military garrisons. Otherwise, if the feudal regime cannot be maintained, how can we implement land granting? Therefore, Zhu Cixiang had to seize tens of millions more acres. The amount that can really be used for land transfer is just over 100 million acres. Divided equally among 100 million people, each person would only have one or two acres of thin land, and a family of five would only have six acres of thin land at most. If it is a paddy field, it can be maintained for some time. But the southeast is not full of paddy fields. There are also many dry lands and slopes, and the yield is not very high. Six acres of dry farmland and sloping land is a small-scale peasant economy that cannot be maintained for a long time - even in New China, which has a higher level of productivity, didn't differentiation appear in the few years after the land reform?
What other solutions can Zhu Cixi have to solve the problems that New China cannot solve? With the current level of agricultural production and the government's management capabilities, I am afraid that the concentration of land and the differentiation of farmers have already begun before the planned land transfer in the southeast is completed.
What to do then? Again?
Zhu Cixiang shook his head and sighed: "It is necessary to clear the land and inspect the land. In addition, we should bulldoze Huguang as soon as possible... Huguang has more than 200 million acres of cultivated land, of which official fields and military villages account for most of it. How can we do this? With good management, it is possible to earn tens of millions of dollars a year.
Another thing is that the officials and the people must pay the grain together, and the Ding tax and the servants must contribute to the fields. "
