Regarding the land issue in Hubei, Zhu Cixiang had already made a decision and did not need to listen to the opinions of Huang Zongxi and Ji Kun. However, the entire Huguang area is vast, the situation is complex, and there are also the sequelae of chasing barbarians to expand industry, so one size fits all will not work. That's why he summoned Ji Kun and Huang Zongxi, who had more ideas, to Wuhan to listen to their opinions.
"I believe that everything must be done with great justice, with titles and status determined, and in a dignified and upright manner. Only in this way can there be smooth and prosperous life, harmony between top and bottom, and joy at home and abroad. What this dynasty has lost is that it attaches great importance to justice but neglects title, and has feuds but no construction, so there is an emperor above. If you don't have a monarch, and if you don't have a monarch, you won't have vassals, so the title of the guard station is not correct in name, but in fact it is rotten..."
The person who is talking about justice is Ji Kun! He is a litigator and a cruel official, so he naturally values the law. At the same time, he was born in the military, and his ancestors were also heroes who followed Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the world, so he was granted the title of Yangzhou Guard.
In his opinion, Zhu Yuanzhang was actually half feudal and half bureaucratic when he established the Wei system! The semi-feudal and semi-bureaucratic nature is the failure of the Wei system.
If it were a complete version of feudalism... then there would be no way there would be so many guards. They would neither be needed nor controllable. There would be no feudalism in the world without territories directly under the jurisdiction of a monarch.
The so-called feudalism actually means direct management in places that can be controlled, and subcontracting in places that cannot be controlled.
In the case of the Ming Dynasty, at most dozens of vassal towns were sealed in the surrounding areas of the country, either guarded by kings, or with meritorious officials as kings. The remaining places still have to be directly managed by the bureaucratic government.
In this way, the internal officials of the external vassal can restrain each other, maintain pressure, and easily maintain vitality.
In addition, if the foreign vassals sealed on the border did not have the strength to rebel, they would have no choice but to expand outward and torment the barbarians and Tartars.
Of course, it is possible for internal officials and external vassals to screw up! At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the king of Jiusei vassal had some prototypes of an internal official and an external vassal. However, the system of King Jiusei is also semi-feudal and semi-bureaucratic. There are no upright laws to restrain the top and bottom, and various twists and turns continue.
If it were a complete version of bureaucratic rule, it would be almost the same as Zhao Song...
"In my humble opinion, national affairs should be in name only, and be dignified and upright. A feudal town belongs to a feudal town, a government office belongs to an official government, public land belongs to public land, and private lands belong to private lands."
Ji Kun continued: "Now that the name of the southeast is slightly correct, the government is much more accessible than before, the people are a little more peaceful, and the court's income has increased a lot. It can barely maintain a new army of two to three hundred thousand. However, Huguang, In Bashu, Shandong, and Yunnan-Guizhou, there are many things that are difficult to describe in name. For example, they are actually vassal towns, but some are named governors, governors, and ministers of regiment training; in fact, they are vassals, and they are named commanders, commanders, and commanders. There are also those who are doing things; there are even more ones that are called military villages and official fields, but are actually private towns for vassals.
If the imperial court wants to maintain long-term peace and stability, it should first rectify its status and then consolidate its roots, so as to guard against strong branches with strong trunks! "
His words seemed a bit off topic, but the root of the land problem in the Ming Dynasty was actually the chaos of the feudal system!
"How to correct the name?" Zhu Cixiang asked.
Ji Kun said: "If you want to be in the government, it's the government's government, and if you're in the government's land, you're in the government's land."
If you can take what he means, then don't be polite...Who doesn't know what Prince Zhu is like? But if you can’t get it, there’s nothing you can do about it!
The Ming Dynasty is now only slightly at peace in the southeast, and there are still many opponents to deal with. How can it be possible to fight a bad war here in Huguang with a bunch of Turkish army leaders who have experienced the barbarian expansion?
The plain areas of Huguang are of course easy to deal with, but there are also large areas of mountainous areas in the west and south of Huguang. The virgin forests are connected to the ground and the sky. It would take ten or eight years to clear them all, so don't even think about it.
Ji Kun added: "Those who cannot serve in the government should practice feudalism and legislate laws. The king and his ministers should each perform their duties."
If we speak in human terms, what this means is that there is no way to directly govern, nor can we let it go, but it must be an upright feudal system. Only in this way can laws and regulations be formulated so that the princes and vassals can perform their respective duties and contribute to the court.
Don't think that feudal lords will definitely resist the central government. Old Mrs. Qin Liangyu, who worked hard for the imperial court for so many years during the last days of Ming Dynasty in history, is just a feudal lord! She is the "old queen" of Shizhu Chieftain, and her white-poled soldiers are the chieftain's family soldiers. In terms of merit and hard work, even the Jingying camp cannot compare with them.
Zhu Cihong was noncommittal and turned his attention to Huang Zongxi again. Huang Zongxi has also been a "cool official" for more than a year, and he looks a little gloomy.
"Your Highness," Huang Zongxi said thoughtfully, "do you want to regard the fields in Hubei as official fields or civilian fields?"
Zhu Cixiang looked at Huang Zongxi, "What do Huang Qing think?"
Huang Zongxi said: "The land that is equalized in Jikou should be official land. The purpose of equalizing land is to suppress mergers and reduce the rich and poor, so it should be official land. Private resale and sublease are not allowed... But now the official land army of the imperial court However, the land was not designed to suppress mergers and alleviate the rich and the poor. Not only was it allowed to sublease, but the land would also be evicted because tenants owed rent, and the official rent collected was very large. This method of official land can really be implemented in Hubei ?"
Zhu Cixiang was not the founding hero of the country, so he could not take the path of "restarting the cycle". Instead, he could only try to lead the tens of millions of people in chaos to find a way out of the cycle of chaos.
Therefore, like Li Zicheng and Dorgon, he did not seek to equalize land by population. The essence of equalizing land by population is to restart the cycle of fighting chaos. The premise is that the population has been greatly reduced due to "chaos" and the contradiction between man and land has been fully alleviated.
If you give a common man ten to eight acres of good land, he will naturally live and work in peace and contentment. And before the population expands to a certain number, the benefits of annexing land are not great - feudal bureaucrats annex land to collect rent, and the rent is higher when there are more people and less land! If there is no one, who would you rent to?
At the same time, when the land is abundant enough, farmers will not easily lose money by farming, and it will be easier to maintain the small-scale peasant economy.
But when Hubei returned to the southeast of the Ming Dynasty, which has many people and little land, how could the results of equalizing land by population be maintained? If all the land in several prefectures in Hubei is included in the Military Tun Division, then not only will the rent be high, but there will also be a problem of evicting tenants. Are those Hubei farmers satisfied? They were all assigned fields from Li Zicheng. From now on, they must not think about King Chuang day and night!
But if we don’t charge so much rent and don’t drive out tenants...then farmers who rent public land elsewhere should be aggrieved.
Huang Zongxi added: "If all the land owned by the bandits in Hubei is classified as private land, then the policy of exempting private land from taxes for five years will be implemented in Hubei? Now the number of business gentry in Hubei has been greatly reduced, and it will be difficult to recover in the short term. There’s no point in the rice grown by small farmers if they can’t sell it… If they can’t sell it, why not grow some?”
"Does Huang Qing have any good ideas?" Zhu Cixiang asked with a smile.
Huang Zongxi said: "I suggest that the land owned by the bandits in Hubei should be classified as private land, but the common people in Hubei must pay a sum of money to buy the land. The money to buy the land can be set as the amount of white rice produced by one acre of land in two years. . It is about between one stone, five buckets to four stones, and can be paid in five years.
The average farmland in Hubei is about 30 to 40 million. If the three stones are averaged, you can get between 90 million stones and 120 million stones of white rice!
The court could compensate part of it to the owners of the lost land who had land deeds, so that the court would not have to use the official land of Wuhan Prefecture to make up for their losses. And the remaining part can be owned by the imperial court. I estimate that 50 to 60 million dan are still available... Once the law of purchasing land is fully implemented in Hubei, the imperial court will be able to obtain 20 million dan from Hubei within a few years, which will not only alleviate the food shortage in the southeast, but also Can increase a lot of money. "
Isn’t this redemption-style land reform? Zhu Cixiang thought to himself: It should be possible, right? I don’t know who adopted it in later generations... Since it has been through practical experience, it should be unmistakable! But this method is still a long way off. After all, sorting out the land in the four prefectures of Hubei and entering into agreements with farmers to purchase land is not a matter of words.
"Huang Qing's method is good!" Zhu Cixiang nodded, "Ji Qing's suggestions are also good... They all have merit.
Let’s set up a Hubei Qingtian Department under the Military Field Department of the Ministry of War. This Qingtian Department should be chaired by Huang Qing... After a while, the Huguang Talent Recruitment Examination will be held, and Huang Qing will also serve as the examiner. By the way, Qingtian Division selected a group of bureaucrats. "
"As for Ji Qing!" Zhu Cixiang glanced at Ji Kun, who looked eager and expectant. He obviously wanted to break away from the ranks of cruel officials and become a respected civil servant of the Ming Dynasty!
Prince Zhu smiled: "Reward two thousand taels of silver!"
