Looking at Wang Hao's back.
Zhu Houzhao suddenly felt that it was time for his teacher to join the cabinet.
The communication between the monarch and his ministers is much better than with Li Dongyang, Xie Qian and the others.
Moreover, it is the second year of Zhengde, and he will only have more and more new ideas in the future. Rather than end up having a big fight with Li and Liu and wasting energy, it is better to end the relationship early when the relationship between them is still okay. It's better to keep some feelings.
"Your Majesty, I wonder what I need you to do?"
Zhu Houzhao thought for a while, "I have to ask Mei Qing to brag."
"boast?"
"Last year, Mei Ji sent 2.4 million taels of silver to the capital. This year, it is 5 million taels. By next year, it should have increased, right? Only by increasing, with the same proportion, can we get more silver."
"If everything goes well, eight million taels of silver should be achieved."
"If you say eight million taels, just say ten million taels."
Zhu Houzhao didn't blink.
As for the eight prefects, he will still support them.
A two-pronged approach, naturally pressing on one side and tempting on the other, will be effective.
The imperial edict from the palace has been issued.
Gu Renyi also received the decree at the Sichuan Guild Hall. At such a critical moment, the Holy decree asked him to serve as the governor of Shuntian Mansion. Do you need to think about its purpose?
In the capital, no one cares about the meeting anymore. It seems that everyone is watching and watching the show around this matter.
"When I brought you to the capital, I knew you wouldn't be able to go back, but I didn't expect that it would be Shuntian Prefecture Yin." Fei Hong felt a little complicated. He naturally hoped that Gu Renyi could do things well.
But this matter was too difficult, and he was afraid that something would happen to Gu Renyi.
But for someone like Gu Renyi, he doesn't think so much about his personal future and safety.
"My subordinates will always remember Zhongcheng's kindness in promoting and employing him. I am waiting for Zhongcheng to return to Beijing at Shuntian Mansion."
"I have reached the rank of governor. It is already a great merit to be able to take care of more than three million people in a province. I don't have any extravagant wishes to return to the capital or not, and you don't have to think too much. It's a pity that you are in Shuntian Mansion. , I am always beyond my reach. I can only say one thing, be sure to cherish it."
A simple farewell did create a feeling of separation between life and death.
It's because Gu Renyi's responsibilities as governor are very important. In fact, the governor of Shuntian is in charge of many affairs in Gyeonggi Xingming Qiangu, but for him right now, it's just one thing, allocating the land and tracing the source.
The rank of Shuntian Prefect is actually about two levels higher than that of the prefect on one side, so Gu Renyi was promoted very quickly this time. But he was right about that memorial, which was very different from others.
Many civil servants in the Ming Dynasty were like this. Once they had a Qing name, it was very easy to get promoted.
Like Zhang Cong during the Jiajing period, in the 16th year of the Zhengde period, he supported the Emperor Jiajing's ceremonial conference. At that time, he had just finished the scientific examination and only got an opportunity to observe the Ministry of Etiquette. However, by the 6th year of the Jiajing period, he was already in charge of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and became the official. Jiu Qing.
But this kind of promotion is a heavy responsibility for me.
Shuntian Prefecture has jurisdiction over four prefectures, totaling 23 counties. The four prefectures are Tongzhou, Zhuozhou, Bazhou, and Jizhou. These four prefectures have 12 counties. Some counties are directly under the jurisdiction of Shuntian Prefecture, mainly Wanping. County, Daxing County and other 11 counties.
In addition to the capital city, Shuntian Prefecture has a population of more than 2.4 million in the surrounding counties, and has about 100,000 hectares of arable land, which is more than 10 million acres. In other words, 40 to 50% of the cultivated land in Shuntian Prefecture was set up as Huangzhuang. That’s why we have always said that the North Zhili region is an area where land annexation is extremely serious.
But whether it is more than 100,000 hectares is actually a confusing account.
When Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, there were more than 8 million hectares of arable land in the country. By the Hongzhi period, this number dropped to more than 4 million hectares.
As the population grows, land should be reclaimed, but the result is a sharp decline. This was clearly hidden.
In fact, even if all the more than 10 million acres of land are allocated to these more than 2 million people, the average person will only have four or five acres of land.
To feed one person, the grain output of four or five acres of land is basically enough.
Therefore, in ancient times, people often said that in good years, people had just enough to eat, but in times of famine, people would definitely starve to death.
The situation is serious.
Gu Renyi could not tolerate being here all the time and saying goodbye to Fei Hong sentimentally.
Gu'an County is actually under the rule of Shuntian Prefecture. He does not need to take care of the civil unrest there, but he needs to divide the imperial village there.
This matter is not that easy, and I might have to be busy all year long.
First of all, there are people from the Palace Ceremony Supervisor, and there are also people from the Royal Guards. The factory guards are an extension of the emperor's will. The emperor is greedy for money, so they collect money from the emperor. Now that the emperor wants to divide the land of the emperor's village, they naturally do the same. Do things according to orders.
However, Gu Renyi had a bad impression of the factory guards, so he had to personally take care of the matter of dividing the fields.
Otherwise, the land allocated to the common people might be appropriated by people from Jinyiwei and Dongchang themselves.
To this end, he called a few of his trusted friends, who were recommended by him as the governor of Shuntian to serve as county magistrates below.
Even so, Gu Renyi himself was not lazy. He went to the ridge of the field in person, framed the area on the spot according to the number of acres of land deed provided by the Supervisor of Ceremonies, and then registered it again.
This thing sounds like just those steps, but from the beginning of preparation to the actual implementation, there are many details that need to be paid attention to, and a little negligence can easily fall into the hands of the people who divide the land.
Except for him, the other seven prefects are almost like this.
Also because the government took this matter seriously, the civil unrest in Gu'an County did not cause any disturbance in the end. To be honest, in a cannibalistic society, it is normal for any county to cause trouble.
Now that the land distribution order has destroyed their foundation, there are fewer and fewer of these people. It will definitely not be like the late Ming Dynasty, when the ranks of refugees grew bigger and bigger.
Twenty-three counties, come one by one...
A few days later,
Gu Renyi first led his troops to Daxing County. Daxing County has eight Huangzhuang locations, which together account for more than 6,000 acres of land. It's a troublesome thing to decide who to give it to - how to identify poor students? How to prevent fraud?
After Gu Renyi arrived, he adopted a simple and crude method: the people in the family who had starved to death were divided first.
This matter is not easy to hide. It is easy for people from the countryside to be exposed.
And divided according to the number of households, each person has three acres of land.
Divide it first, and if there is excess, then each family will be divided into half an acre or something.
The government officials, led by Gu Renyi personally, rushed to Zhangji Village in Daxing County.
The plain countryside in the north has a misty feeling in the spring morning, and there is still dew on the heads of some weeds on the roadside that has not had time to dissipate.
Walking into the village, many houses looked dilapidated. Looking up, they were either made up of a few broken tiles, or the windows had holes that had not been repaired.
Several almost-similar houses fell together, their walls collapsed and their roofs collapsed, and there was no vitality at all.
Even though it was still early, you could still see skinny old people digging with hoes in front of and behind their houses.
The appearance of one house made Gu Renyi's emotions surge. It was a young child lying on a large round stone dipped in water and writing, and a woman, probably her mother, was washing rice.
Very few handfuls of rice.
It can't fit in the palm of an adult's hand.
If it is cooked into a pot of porridge for three people, it is not much different from water.
The people's livelihood is already suffering beyond description.
As for the third person in the fenced courtyard, it should be the child's father bundling firewood, probably preparing to carry it to the market to sell for money.
All three of them had pale faces, and the woman was so thin that her cheekbones were prominent and her lips were dry.
They were all quite nervous when they saw the people from the government. The woman hurried over and helped the child to hide in the house.
"Don't be afraid, this is a senior official from Shuntian Prefecture." Li Zheng from the village introduced him, "He's here to allocate the fields."
On the way here, Li Zheng told Gu Renyi about this family. Years ago, the head of this family, the child's grandfather, passed away. He didn't really die of starvation, but he was so hungry that he ate a lot. As a result, he fell ill due to poor health and had no money to buy medicine, so he could only wait to die.
And this family of three is also having a hard time.
In this situation, Gu Renyi also made up his mind: it can be divided.
As for the man, he was quite frightened and said in a trilling voice: "Whose land will I share?!"
Gu Renyi knew that he would be wrong, "To share the land with the emperor, there are three people in your family. Originally, there were still two acres of four-quarter land left. This time, we will give you six acres of six-quarter land. With nine acres of land, your life will be better. Better off."
When these words were spoken, even the honest farmers did not react immediately.
"How come the emperor's fields...are given to us?"
In fact, Shuntian Fuyin is not a small official. How can he be in the position of directly talking to farmers? It was really the miserable situation before, which made Gu Renyi feel uncomfortable. If he didn't do something for them out of the ordinary, he would be in trouble just sitting in the yamen.
Looking at it now, he felt that this matter was too careless.
The emperor promoted him so vigorously, and the people of the world finally waited for such an opportunity. How dare he, Gu Renyi, be careless! A sloppy move can cost a person's life!
A grown man couldn't help crying when he saw the common people in such a state. The emperor wanted to allocate fields to them, but they couldn't believe it.
"...Is it really divided? Is it divided among us? Do you want money?" The woman in the room came out and asked.
"Why do you, a woman, take care of so many things? Go back!"
"It doesn't matter." Gu Renyi opened her eyes hard, holding back tears, and said: "These lands are all given to you directly for no money, and the land deeds will be redrawn, and the government will sign and pledge them with you, and it must be done quickly. , so that you still have time for spring plowing this year. After these few months, the fields will have a harvest, and the second half of the year will not be so painful."
The man was still a little defensive, so he simply came down and said, "May I ask the official...the emperor, why do you want to allocate fields to us?"
"The Son of Heaven is the king and father of all his people. He couldn't stand the suffering of his children, so he sent us to allocate the fields to you."
I don’t know if the man understood this, but he was still stunned anyway.
Gu Renyi could no longer look at his skinny face, "It's better to explain it a hundred times than to do it once. Let's divide the fields. Once we get the land deeds, the people should believe it."
At this time, a person next to him came over,
"Only one of the eight royal estates in Daxing County is here, which is only 1,200 acres, which is quite large. If one family is given six or seven acres of land, I'm afraid it won't be enough in the future."
Gu Renyi showed no expression, "It's okay, let's divide it first. If it's not enough, we'll check other farms and do the same thing."
In this matter, if he can achieve 50% success in 50% and 30% success in 3%, he can't control that much. Even if it is only 50%, it will still cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, and Beizhili will be able to recover more or less its population.
"...but other Zhuangtian was not mentioned in the imperial edict."
"I have my own idea. Let's not say more. The main thing is to divide the fields."
(End of chapter)
