After Su Yonglin explained, everyone in the audience fell into deep thought, and nodded slowly as he explained, understanding the truth behind it.
Kong Maojie, director of the Supervision Department of the Renaissance Society, reacted quickly.
"So what the chairman means is that the state makes laws and stipulates that no matter it is a famine year or a good year, no matter what the situation is, landlords must not extract more than 40% of the grain. This line should be drawn to death. It can be low but not high, so as to protect the tenants. Interests?"
Su Yonglin nodded.
"Yes, that's what it means. Tenants have no bargaining rights, and they are not even included in the imperial household registration statistics. They cannot receive protection from the imperial court. This situation is infinitely similar to the "hidden households" in ancient times. This situation itself is what we call unacceptable."
Su Yonglin continued: "Using such a law can protect the interests of tenants, so that tenants will not starve to death because they lose their bargaining rights even in lean years, and restrict landlords from misbehaving and hoarding. I think it is beneficial to the country and the people. things.
We need to know that the more the landlords exploit, the greater the possibility of refugees. Once refugees occur, it is the government that has to pay the price. The landlords force this part of the price to the government, and they themselves are full of fat. How can such a good thing happen? "
Zhou Chong, director of the General Affairs Department of the Renaissance Society, frowned after hearing Su Yonglin's words.
"Chairman, it is a good thing to do this. We all know it, but can it really be implemented? Not to mention that there will be protests in the court. Even if the court passes this decree, can it really be implemented at the local level?
If you want to implement this policy, you must determine the total grain output. If you want to ensure fairness, the government must intervene to weigh it. It requires the government to send people to intervene between the landlords and tenants. In this case, can the landlords agree? You also said that this would cause shock across the country. "
Many people echoed Zhou Chong's opinion and believed that such a policy would be a good thing, but it must be difficult to implement. There must be many people who violate it, making it difficult to implement the decree.
Don’t even think about this kind of thing, it is almost inevitable. Many famous reform strategies in ancient times were difficult to implement. Some even took ten or twenty years to slowly advance, such as the comprehensive implementation started during Zhang Juzheng’s term. A whip method.
Despite this, there will also be dangers of people dying and the government dying.
In this regard, the organizer Chang Jiang Yu also raised his concerns.
“Even if the imperial court forcibly advances and sends people to intervene between the landlords and tenants, in order to recover their losses, the local landlords are likely to clear out a group of tenants and retain only the minimum labor force.
The land belongs to them, and the government cannot take it by force. In this way, there will be a large number of refugees in the local area without waiting for a disaster year, which will affect the stability. Isn't this a worry for the Ming Dynasty? "
Yes, this is also a problem.
Many members at the meeting agreed with Jiang Yu's view and felt that once this law is implemented, it will inevitably cause many difficulties. What's more serious is that the effects have not yet been seen. First, there will be a large number of refugees that will affect social stability.
It is also unclear whether landowner groups will stage armed protests, which is very troublesome.
On the opposite side is another group of revival members.
They believed that Su Yonglin was right to do this. They should fight bravely against this unfair exploitation and oppression and lead the tenants to overthrow those unscrupulous bastards.
Tian Guizi spoke on behalf of these revival members.
"The tenants work hard, and the landlords sit on a large amount of land and do nothing. They can enjoy the fruits without having to work in the fields. They can also forcefully seize more than half of the fruits of labor from the tenants. The tenants' faces are blue with hunger, but the landlords are rosy.
Many of you here are from tenant families. Don’t you know the hardship and misery of tenant farmers? Isn’t changing all of this the original intention of the Revival? If we are so timid and do not care about the lives of our tenants, is it still necessary for the Renaissance to exist? "
After Tian Guizi made his speech, the venue was silent for a while.
Tao Yongguang, Tian Guizi's subordinate and head of the Civil Affairs Department of the Ministry of General Affairs, also made a speech later.
"I think what Premier Tian said is right. When soldiers come to stop them, and when water comes to cover them up, there are always solutions to problems. The chairman also said that you can't stop solving problems just because there are problems, and you can't be timid just because you are worried about problems. To solve, if this is the case, what is the difference between the Renaissance Association and those corrupt officials?"
Led by Tian Qizi and Tao Yongguang, this group of revival members firmly supported Su Yonglin's idea and strongly demanded the advancement of this policy.
This group of members headed by Zhou Chong and Jiang Yu were not opposed to Su Yonglin.
Zhou Chong stood up and spoke.
"We just thought more about it and felt that doing so would cause a huge shock and destabilize the country at this moment when the Ming Dynasty had just been established. The Ming Dynasty had not yet unified China, and there were many regimes around it.
The Xia Kingdom in the west, the Song Kingdom in the south, Goryeo in the east, and the grassland cavalry in the north are all potential threats to us. If we cause trouble, won't they take advantage of it? "
Tao Yongguang firmly opposed this and stood up to refute it.
"The stability of a country is always relative. There is no absolute stability. It is normal for some regions or areas to experience shocks. If we have problems, there may not be problems within these countries.
I heard that there is serious internal strife in Xia. The king of Xia, Li Renxiao, and the prime minister, Ren Dejing, are fighting openly and secretly. They are very divided internally. Do they have the power to interfere with the Ming Dynasty?
The same is true for the Song State. Peasant uprisings occurred one after another. The Song State was tired of suppressing the internal affairs and could not threaten the security of the Ming Dynasty. As for Goryeo...give him ten courages, he would not dare to invade the Ming Dynasty.
Moreover, such an approach is in line with the interests of the working people and will definitely gain majority support. There is no need to fear those exploiters, just as the Liberation Army did not fear the Jin Army. "
Tao Yongguang's rebuttal left Zhou Chong and Jiang Yu speechless. Members who opposed this were speechless and could only turn their attention to Su Yonglin.
Tian Qizi and Tao Yongguang also looked at Su Yonglin.
Kong Maojie and Xin Qiji, who had been silent, also looked at Su Yonglin.
Su Yonglin listened to their discussion and remained silent. Now that they had finished arguing, Su Yonglin nodded slowly.
"I also know your worries. As Director Tao said, I am not worried about external problems at all. Xia, Song, and Goryeo are all withered bones in the graves. Although the cavalry in the northern grasslands is powerful, there is still no unified voice. It's not a threat.
So what we really have to face are internal problems, and the landowners’ rebellious attitude towards this matter. They may cause rebellion, but isn’t that just right? "
Su Yonglin's words aroused questions from most people.
After being stunned for a while, Xin Qiji, who had been silent, was the first to react.
"I understand! What the chairman means is that once these people violate the law, they will break the law, and the three judicial departments are all under the control of the Fuxing Association. When the time comes, it will be justifiable to deal with them! A teacher has a reputation! Anyone who objects can Label her as a rebel to scare Xiaoxiao!"
"correct!"
Su Yonglin smiled and said: "The key to this matter is not to expect them to implement it, but to pass it at the central level and make it a real law. After the legislation is successful, according to this law, anyone who violates it will be a criminal. It's just a matter of course to deal with them.
Moreover, the three judicial departments are all under the control of the Renaissance Association. In the future, the local judicial departments will also be dominated by Renaissance members. By then using this law, we can fully crack down on those who violate the law, seize their land, liberate their tenants, and naturally seize rural power.
As for before that, they cleared out the tenants and tried to create refugees to affect local stability and put pressure on me. That was what I could expect, but I am not worried. I have enough land for them to cultivate. I have enough money. Food and manpower can escort them to where there is land.
I want the population they don’t need, and I want the labor force they don’t want. They sent a large amount of labor force to me and Ming Dynasty for no reason. Isn’t this a good thing? Guys, do you think this is a bad thing?
If they ask me to be the emperor, yes, I will do it, but if they ask me to be the emperor, they must give me imperial power. As the emperor, my power is unlimited. If they don't comply, they are rebelling, and I can deal with them openly. , because I am the emperor. "
It's also a way of fighting magic with magic.
To make him emperor, you must give him imperial power. Imperial power is unlimited in principle. As long as Su Yonglin has enough support, he can do whatever he wants.
Does he have enough support?
Of course there is.
After some thought, the members realized that there was indeed much to be done.
As long as Su Yonglin really has enough manpower, material resources and land to deal with these evicted tenants, he can turn them into his own strength.
Does Su Yonglin have it?
Of course there is.
There was money, people, and even enough land to distribute.
Moreover, Su Yonglin is really willing to spend money, really has strong mobilization ability, and really has extremely strong execution ability. All of this is beyond the imagination of those landlords and evil gentry.
If they resist, Su Yonglin will resolutely attack them and immediately gain a lot of land and population.
If he violates the law, Su Yonglin can also use local judicial power to attack him, and he can also gain land and population.
If they pretend to comply, but in fact they want to cause local chaos, then Su Yonglin can absorb as much labor as they throw out.
The amount they threw out was limited, but Su Yonglin's appetite was far greater than they imagined.
So once this game begins, Su Yonglin is really confident that he can win and gain an advantage.
He was confident that through this game, he could open up new ways for the Renaissance to expand its local power and lay the foundation for victory before launching a full-scale liquidation operation.
