The landlord class is short-sighted and compromising. They long for Su Yonglin's compromise, but they themselves may not be able to compromise.
The cruelty and greed of the landlord class are very obvious, but the more cruel and greedy they are, the more obvious their weakness and limitations become. When they encounter a powerful force that cannot resist success, their moral bottom line is the same as that of the Confucius family. Very flexible and very soft in body.
In the final analysis, if someone resists, then Su Yonglin moves his fingers, the music is played and the cloth is covered, and the whole village, old and young, waits for the food to be served. After eating the food, everything is solved.
Moreover, even though it was already 40%, it was not a big embarrassment to them. It was just that they had more to eat in the past but less now. They could still exploit the labor income of the tenants and they could still enjoy the benefits.
It's just that the income is less than before, and it has to be done under official supervision.
Perhaps for them, the addition of an official step to audit grain production will make them feel uneasy, resentful, and feel that their rights and interests have been violated.
So they will protest, object, and initiate further confrontation.
However, Su Yonglin was sure that after the initial failure of resistance, this group of short-sighted and easy-to-compromise people would compromise after realizing that the matter was unavoidable, and would not cause a large-scale wave of resistance that exceeded Su Yonglin's limit.
Just like the reaction of Shandong officials to the reform of the imperial examination.
After Su Yonglin's explanation, the Renaissance members finally understood what Su Yonglin was thinking, and felt that this was indeed a strategy that would not violate the rules of the game, would not cause nationwide rebellion, and could also have important effects.
The Renaissance Association's biggest worry is that it cannot find a legitimate excuse to expand its power, but Su Yonglin is not worried.
When a country is willing to take charge of the country for the people at the bottom, there will always be vested interests who will jump out and provide the country with countless excuses to cause trouble for them.
One is law, the other is determination, and the third is mobilization. The combination of all three is enough to change the situation.
Su Yonglin holds great power and authority. Through the law, he creates a righteous name that no one can resist. It is a natural disadvantage to cause trouble for Su Yonglin.
Once the two sides start to compete, the Renaissance Party will naturally have a moral and legal advantage.
Isn’t it beautiful?
The Central Committee of the Fuxing Meeting quickly approved Su Yonglin's proposal and prepared to add such a legal provision to the "Ming Code" that was being revised.
No matter when, where or under what circumstances, the owner of the land title cannot expropriate more than 40% of the food obtained from the land from the tenants, with the maximum being 40% and the minimum being arbitrary.
The total amount of grain and the amount of rent that landowners can obtain will be determined by official tax officials.
A red line is drawn in the name of national law, and any situation beyond it must not be allowed to occur, and it provides the most basic line of life and death for the poor farmers at the bottom.
As the official legal provisions of the Ming Empire, the "Ming Code" has been compiled since before the establishment of the Ming Dynasty. It has been compiled for more than three months. The main responsible department is the current Third Department of Justice. There is no excuse for the administrative field to intervene in it.
However, the news that this legal provision was completed quickly spread to the yamen of the Third Department of Justice and spread to the entire court, and soon aroused a lot of heated discussions.
It is related to everyone's interests, and this is definitely not a trivial matter. Even if they as an administrative official cannot intervene in this matter, as a citizen of the Ming Empire, they have no choice but to ignore the provisions and implementation of this law.
Should I say it or not, this time, the enactment of this law really touched the sensitive nerves of many people.
A large number of officials from the Yanyun Clan, Waizhao Clan and Shandong Clan were involved.
It would be ridiculous to say that anyone who is an official these days does not have hundreds or even thousands of acres of land, unless it is the kind of completely unconventional officialdom. But even if it is an unconventional officialdom, if his own small family does not have land, does it mean that all his clan members do not have land as well? ?
The so-called corrupt officials are those who commit corruption themselves, and their status is relatively low.
The so-called upright official means that he himself is poor and his family has no money, but his clan members, relatives and friends are always extremely rich.
Among the officials of the feudal dynasty, he, his family, and clan members were extremely poor. He was a mental patient, and everyone marveled at him, laughed at him, and suspected that he was sick.
This means that in China and the United States, people are dragged to a mental hospital to be sectioned.
So if we take this rule one step further, we can see the true meaning of many things.
So at this moment, most officials were a little panicked, except for the land property of the Yuan Cong department, which only received salary and there were really no regulations.
The more land there is, the more tenants there are, and the more panic one feels.
Once this law is determined, it will no longer be a matter of ten or twenty thousand dollars for them. If they really follow this rule, not to mention that the court will send tax officials to intervene in their production activities, and once they lose the freedom to adjust the rent The more land and tenants there are, the greater the loss, and it is almost a permanent loss.
Who gave the emperor the idea?
Or was it the emperor’s own idea?
Almost everyone felt that this matter was not simple.
However, thinking of the emperor's previous actions against the imperial examination and education system, they did not dare to truly discuss this issue with the emperor.
Because they also know that once the emperor they serve is determined to enact this law, no one can stop him.
Unless someone can defeat 400,000 elite Ming troops.
Good guy, it was another expected failure.
But they all know that things are not that simple.
Once a law is finalized, even if no one from the central government blocks it from becoming a truly written law, someone must implement it and someone must actually act in accordance with this law.
Who will execute it?
Those local officials?
Please, the relationship between those local officials and the landlords and gentry is not to say collusion, at least it can be regarded as collusion. Not to mention wearing the same pants, at least they are sleeping on the same quilt.
Will they take this law seriously?
Well, even if all of them are brainwashed, and all of a sudden they are all honest and loyal to the public, they all ignore Hai Rui, and they all want to carry out the emperor's will to the end - then are the landlords and squires in the place easy to get along with?
Obviously not.
They will definitely not sit still and wait for this kind of law that obviously harms their interests. They will definitely take traditional actions [policies from above and countermeasures from below].
Anyway, I opened this road, I planted this tree, and the land is mine. If you want to step over me, then step over me first.
Either verbal protests, hands-on protests, or non-violent non-cooperation movements must be done to avoid obstruction by those sent by the government.
Once trouble breaks out in the local area, there will really be no peace in the court.
After all, this kind of law, which is obviously meant to protect the low-level people, can really only be enacted by an emperor like Su Yonglin who came from the bottom.
Although it is understandable, many court officials are also unhappy.
You have become an emperor, do you still need to read that way?
You are already the greatest emperor in the world, why do you still want to be the master of those despicable idiots?
What are you planning?
Can't you just be your holy emperor, rule from the top down, and leave everything to us?
Although we will ask you for hundreds of millions of benefits, we won’t vacate your home, right?
Although we will do hundreds of millions of illegal and unscrupulous things, the inheritance of the throne of your family is still very appropriate, right?
The dynasty is still the Ming Dynasty, and the emperor is still your Su family. You have honestly followed the saint's words to found the country and become the emperor. You are indispensable for all the benefits. Why do you want to be the master of this group of mud-legged people?
Will they make your throne more secure or something?
With uneasiness and lack of understanding, the officials waited for the official revision of "Ming Code" to be completed and promulgated to the world.
They were very concerned about this matter, and they wanted to know what special thoughts and special actions the local landowners and gentry would have after this matter spread.
At the same time, on the third day of December in the first year of Hongwu, Xin Qiji arrived in Haizhou and met Zheng Chenghong, the governor of Haizhou Prefecture and a member of the Fuxing Society who was responsible for welcoming and entertaining him.
