Chengdu Imperial City, Chengyun Hall.
The atmosphere was extremely oppressive. All the ministers, including Gao Hongtu, the military chief counselor in front of the tent, Hou Xun, the Hanlin scholar, and the eunuch Bingbi, the chief ceremonial officer, raised their heads and hid in the room. They all looked surprised and said nothing. Because the three of them did not expect that Zhu Youjian would suddenly make a request to inventory the land in Sichuan Province!
Sichuan is a large province, and it is also known as Tianfu. The cultivated land area is impossible to be small. According to later measurements, the area of the bottom of the Sichuan Basin (excluding surrounding mountains) is 160,000 square kilometers, while the core of the Sichuan Basin, Chengdu Pingtan, covers an area of 1.88 square kilometers. For such a large basin, there are only 13.48 million acres of registered land. In the early Ming Dynasty, it could be compared to the Mongolian Massacre - the Mongols killed Sichuan into a wasteland, and the entire Sichuan area fell to the Red Turban Uprising. There was only more than sixty years, and the population did not have time to recover, so it was normal that not much cultivated land was opened. But after the Ming Dynasty ruled Sichuan for more than 200 years, there were still only 13.48 million acres. Sichuan people collectively deceived the emperor! How can this be?
What's even more hateful is that Zhu Youjian really believed it in his previous life. It wasn't until the bandits entered Sichuan that they cleared out 50 to 60 million acres of land, which made Chongzhen feel insulted. These Sichuan people are too shady. You have 60 million acres but only 10 million acres are hidden. You can just report 50 million acres. How can you only report 13 million acres? Isn't it so fun to evade taxes?
In fact, Heicheng's behavior is not good for the Sichuan people themselves. If they pay taxes according to the standard of 50 million acres, they will have a tax of 4 million a year, which is 3 million more than the original tax amount.
Three million dollars of food and wages a year can support 100,000 soldiers!
If this money and food were given to Qin Liangyu, Sun Chuanting, and Lu Xiangsheng to train 100,000 more troops like the Baigan Army, Qin Army, and Tianxiong Army, would the rogue bandits still be able to invade Sichuan? Can all Sichuan people be turned into serfs and oppressed?
Therefore, after Zhu Youjian rectified the eight prefectures of Beizhili in his life, the second place he wanted to rectify was Sichuan!
Didn’t you Sichuan people say there are only 13.48 million acres?
good!
Check it out now!
The officials of Sichuan Province who were present certainly knew that there was a lot of hidden land in Sichuan. Although they were not good officials, they were not so confused that they did not know how much land there was in their jurisdiction.
However, the problem of Sichuan Hidden Field is not just a year or two ago. It was a bad government that lasted for more than a hundred years, and it has reached the point of "bad government passed down from ancestors." How can we just say it will be changed?
"Qin Yipeng!" Zhu Youjian called the name of the newly appointed Sichuan Governor Zuo at this time.
"Long live my Lord, I'm here!" Qin Yipeng stood up bravely. He is from Shaanxi. Of course he knows how hard his hometown has been in recent years!
Farming is a business that depends on the weather. Shaanxi has been experiencing drought for several years. Although it has eased this year, it is still very difficult overall. Moreover, floods are very likely to occur after continuous drought, and people will be in dire straits by then.
People who cannot make a living must either rebel or find a living elsewhere. As a bureaucratic landlord class in Shaanxi Province, Qin Yipeng certainly does not want the hungry people in his hometown to become one, so he hopes that the hungry people in Shaanxi can go as far as possible...
And Sichuan seems to be a good place to go! Due to the scourge of the two thieves of She'an, the population in many places in Sichuan has indeed decreased a lot, and there is also a lot of abandoned land. If we also count Guizhou, which has suffered equally serious population losses, there is no problem in absorbing one to two million Shaanxi hungry people.
But Sichuan absorbing the hungry people of Shaanxi does not mean that it can distribute Sichuan's land to the Shaanxi people!
"You are the governor of the left," Zhu Youjian said, "and you are from Shaanxi. Tell me, how much wasteland is there in Sichuan? Can it accommodate another 200,000 hungry households in Shaanxi?"
This is actually Zhu Youjian's "demand" for land. For a hungry family, 20 acres of "wasteland" is enough for a family of five (of course, rent must be paid for these lands), so the total is 4 million acres. . It is less than one-tenth of the actual cultivated land area in the Sichuan Basin.
As long as the Sichuan landlord class can come up with this amount of "wasteland", Zhu Youjian will not ask how much land there is in Sichuan for the time being.
After all, this Sichuan is not yet Beizhili, and Zhu Youjian's control ability is not that strong.
Moreover, he has now obtained the Wangzhuang of the King of Shu. If he can obtain another 4 million acres of "wasteland", he will distribute it to the hungry people of Shaanxi. In the future, these two parts of land can be rented to Zhu Youjian for at least 3 million taels (stone). Of course, the "wasteland" is not as fertile as the paddy fields in the Chengdu plain. One acre can be rented for two and a half buckets. Not bad. In addition to the original land tax of 1.08 million, it can reach more than 4 million a year, and South Zhili only has more than 6 million!
"Long live my lord," Qin Yipeng shook his head, "The registered acres of land in Sichuan are only over 13 million acres. I'm afraid there is no land that can accommodate 200,000 Shaanxi households!"
"Zhang Lun, what do you think?" Zhu Youjian kicked the ball to the Sichuan governor again.
Zhang Lun is from Guangzhou, Henan. Although Henan suffered a severe drought last year, the situation has improved this year. Moreover, Gwangju is located in the Huaihe River Basin. Flooding in the Huaihe River has become more and more serious in recent decades, so less rain would be beneficial.
In addition, the danger of peasant uprisings in Shaanxi has been largely eliminated by Zhu Youjian, which makes Zhang Lun, who is a bureaucratic landlord in Henan, more reassured.
"Long live my lord, although Sichuan is known as Tianfu, it has many mountains and few flat lands..."
"Zhang Heming, what do you think?"
"Your Majesty," Zhang Heming said, "I am old. If the overall situation in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan has been decided, it is time to retire and return home."
Zhu Youjian looked at Zhang Heming, he was indeed old! He was born in Jiajing for 30 years. He is 81 years old this year. It is indeed time for him to go home and retire.
"I allow you to sue," Zhu Youjian paused, "but you have to tell me the truth. Can I find 40 to 50 million acres of land in Sichuan?"
"What? Forty to fifty million acres..." Zhang Heming looked at Zhu Youjian in surprise.
Zhu Youjian said: "I know how big Sichuan is! Old gentleman, since you are going to retire, tell me the truth one last time. I will ensure that you will be safe and happy after your retirement."
Zhang Heming smiled bitterly: "Long live my Lord, I am old, what joy can I have for an old man? However, I have been an official for more than 40 years since I was a Jinshi in high school in the 18th year of Wanli. I am also a very popular minister, and I have truly received great favors. You should tell everything you know. The hidden fields in Sichuan are well known to the officials, but it is indeed not easy to find out. Unless His Majesty sits in Sichuan for a year or two and personally supervises the matter, or sends the prince to investigate in the future.
Otherwise, the mountains in Sichuan are high and the roads are far away, beyond the reach of the imperial court, and the exiled officials are unwilling to offend the local sages and be hated by the scholars, so it is better to delay them as long as possible. Didn’t Mencius say this: It’s not difficult to govern, as long as you don’t offend a wealthy family! Many places in the Ming Dynasty appear to be in charge of officials from the imperial court, but in fact they are still ruled by wealthy families! An official only has a few followers, what can he do with these wealthy people? "
The old man did tell the truth!
The Ming Dynasty shared the world with the scholar-bureaucrats!
And this kind of "sharing the world" is actually a helpless choice.
Because it is really impossible for the imperial power to completely go to the countryside! In the eight prefectures of North Zhili, Zhu Youjian's imperial power looked very powerful, but not here in Sichuan.
Of course, Zhu Youjian is in Sichuan now, so he can certainly accomplish something. But he can't be Liu Bei in Sichuan!
And once he left, how could it be possible for those civil servants who took office with a few servants to find out clearly?
Even if the officials are willing to investigate, what about the subordinates below? They are all lackeys of wealthy families. Will they help an official to investigate?
If you want officials to have the ability to control subordinate staff and local officials, you must grant heavy powers—for example, granting local officials considerable military and personnel power, allowing them to open government offices, appoint their own staff, and control the army.
But can Zhu Youjian rest assured that such a local official is in charge of Sichuan?
Zhu Youjian nodded and sighed: "It seems that it was not unreasonable for Emperor Taizu Gao to use Saijun to control the four directions in the past. Emperor Taizu Gao did not trust military generals and did not trust civil servants, so he could only rely on his sons to supervise the place. "
This is a very real problem!
The places where imperial power can effectively control are limited. Usually, the further away from the center of power, the less effective the imperial power becomes.
The worse the imperial power's control, the less the emperor could delegate great authority to local governors and make them a center of power that could effectively control local areas. Otherwise, separatism and civil war would easily occur.
This is a dilemma!
But this is not a problem for Zhu Youjian, because he still has a trump card in his hand!
