The harm to Zhuangtian that began in the last years of Xianzong's reign was progressed within a short period of time.
Rumors are still flying all over the sky, but Zhu Houzhao is not someone who only plays these tricks. Real things must be done as soon as possible. Failure to catch up with spring plowing will be a man-made disaster.
In order to manage the imperial village, the palace sent many young eunuchs, either village heads or junior principals. These people often did immoral things. Fortunately, they were completely controlled by the palace.
Therefore, whether it is the fields or the people on the fields, there is currently no obstacle to the Huangzhuang and Zhongguanzhuang fields.
Although the common people have some behind-the-scenes accusations against civil servants and ministers, there is no clear imperial decree so far, and the main focus is still on the fields in the divided palaces.
It's not that difficult to do things like this.
It's just that officials at all levels, whether in the outer court or the inner court, may reach out.
Zhu Houzhao shouldn't worry too much about how to divide the fields, but he still has to pay close attention to supervision.
Otherwise, you will always feel uneasy.
It's not that they don't trust the new prefects like Gu Renyi, the point is that they only have two eyes, and sometimes they can't care.
In addition, it would be different if an imperial envoy was specially sent to inspect this matter.
Officials at higher and lower levels can embarrass people, but they cannot embarrass imperial envoys.
After some thought, he ordered Xie Pi from the Attendant's Office, Han Ziren, deputy envoy of Jinyiwei, and Jing Yang, editor of the Hanlin Academy, to be the inspection imperial envoys specifically responsible for this matter.
Moreover, Xie Pi was listed as the chief, and Han Ziren and Jing Yang were the deputy.
Jing Yang was a Jinshi from Jiake in the first year of Zhengde, ranking first, first and second.
At that time, the imperial examination system was slightly modified, but it did not include those with high rankings, so he still went to the Hanlin Academy. I think of him this time because Jing Yang has a reputation for being honest and thrifty.
As for choosing Xie Pi,
First, because he was born in the attendant's room. Judging from the current situation, there is no need for people who come out of the attendant's room to commit crimes. There is a broad road ahead, so why bother?
Second, he is the second son of Mr. Xie Ge. Mr. Xie Ge had been in the court for decades and had met countless people. Officials big and small had to give Xie Qian some face no matter what, and they did not dare to do anything secretly.
You can bully me, you don't understand the ways of the world, aren't you afraid that I, who is like a human spirit, will come to your door?
Of course, Xie Pi himself has a profound family background, and I have never seen him do anything bad like being greedy for money and lustful in his life.
Even if he is a little green, there is still Han Ziren after all.
Plus Jing Yang, who has just joined the ranks of officials and is still cautious.
Zhu Houzhao believes that these people will probably not be able to come up with any more exaggerated corruption cases, and at most they will not find any problems.
No matter what, the patrolling imperial envoy is out anyway.
As long as you go out, all relevant officials will have scruples in doing things.
March in the capital was already warm, the sun was shining, and the branches on both sides of the official road had sprouted. They walked along the official road, crossed the stream, and walked along the dirt road into the countryside.
Along the way, I saw several old farmers carrying bamboo baskets on their backs and walking on the road wearing straw sandals. In the field, there are people with gourds hanging on their waists. When they get tired from working for a while, they open them and take a few sips.
Jing Yang is from Jiangxi. He has only seen rolling hills since he was a child. He has rarely seen such large fertile fields like those in the north. However, these fields that seem to be full of hope are full of people who are struggling to feed themselves.
"...The fields in Huangzhuang and Zhongguan's fields are being divided right now. Are we not going to mention the other fields?"
Han Ziren and Jing Yang were both looking at Xie Pi.
The people in the attendant's room that day should have known what was going on.
Xie Pi wore a black hat and a blue round-collar official robe. He was a little delicate-skinned and a little shy. He said, "The holy will is profound and difficult to fathom, but I have to figure it out."
Although redeeming land is also a way.
However, the Metropolitan Procuratorate and various ministers and officials kept writing to the court. The entire court was now extremely tense. Many low-level officials were impeaching either for their own reputation or to cater to their superiors. In short, they were impeaching .
This kind of public anger was not caused by the cabinet, nor by officials like Beizhili. It was basically guided by the emperor.
In other words, even if there is a way to redeem their land, they will still have to force the big landowners in Northern Zhili to hand over their land.
Just to see if there are any stupid people.
Han Ziren had been a magistrate in Shandong, and he knew more about the matters involved, "I also think it needs to be divided. Although Your Majesty has not pursued it too deeply yet, how can you not pursue it too deeply? As long as the matter of dividing the land continues, Inevitably you hit a wall.”
Jing Yang asked: "What wall?"
"Not enough points."
Han Ziren pursed his lips and uttered these three words.
Excluding the land of Huangzhuang and Zhongguan, there are still more than 20,000 hectares of land in Guanzhuang. With such a large population, even if the land per person has been reduced to 3 acres, it will still not be enough.
"When the land division is halfway done, what should we do if there is not enough land?" Han Ziren said thoughtfully, "Your Majesty will definitely not think of this issue. He must have already thought of it. Then he will use the situation to decide the matter."
Sometimes, it may not be particularly easy to use imperial edicts to make decisions. Especially when it comes to matters involving land. But if it's based on momentum, that's not necessarily the case. What can the emperor do if he is riding a tiger and cannot get off? Of course, he has to bite the bullet and do it.
While chatting like this, they soon arrived in Daxing County.
Gu Renyi first started dividing the fields here.
Naturally, the imperial envoy could only come here to take a look first.
Gu Renyi was standing in the field at the moment. The breeze blew his clothes and made his black hair fly. In his sight, there were several men from the village. They were carrying rulers and pieces of wood. The sunshine When he inserted it into the ground, a piece of red cloth fluttered in the wind.
"Zhang Laizi's house is right here!"
After the initial panic, the people have begun to accept the pie in the sky, and this acceptance is no small matter. Now men and women, old and young, have gathered around.
As for the man named Zhang Laizi, he couldn't read either. Anyway, he just made a mark under the guidance of the old scholar in the village. He lost one of his front teeth, his knuckles were thick and it looked like he had done a lot of farm work, and the black skin folds on his face were extremely wrinkled. A lot, but that could also be because of my smile, which just doesn’t sound very smart.
"Zhang Laizi, there is no need to sell your daughter now!"
"If I don't sell it, I'll just serve this land."
…
The next day, Gu Renyi received the imperial envoy Xie Pi and his party, and they continued to the village to supervise the land distribution matters.
As soon as they met, after a brief introduction, Gu Renyi said sadly, "There is a problem. I didn't expect it at first."
Xie Pi stood side by side with him and asked, "Master Gu, please tell me."
Gu Renyi wears his official hat very upright and has a black beard on his lips. He has no airs and doesn't seem to be very hygienic... His shoes are dirty and his clothes are not clean, but he speaks and acts quickly, which seems to be Very capable.
"Originally, the court only considered that the people had no land, lost their foundation, and lived in extreme hardship. If they had land, they could grow their own food and no longer have to sell their children. In fact, this is not the case."
Xie Pi and the other three were a little confused, "Isn't that true? This can't relieve the suffering of the people?"
"It can be explained, but only part of it. The people... are more miserable than we imagined. Land is the lifeblood. Before a certain point, the people will not change hands easily, and the people who are reduced to landless farmers are very poor after all. , so many of them still owe money.”
When the three of them heard this, their hearts trembled.
"What if this is the case, they took the land, sold it for money, and became landless overnight? What if the court spent so much effort to divide the land? It would be better to give them a few taels of silver to pay off their debts. 's simplicity."
There is no need to mobilize so many people to distribute money.
In the end, there were so many landless people after the land distribution, so the inspection imperial envoy must have gone up with a memorial.
When the emperor saw this result, would he be satisfied?
"Alas." Han Ziren sighed deeply, "Let all the poor people in the world have land and food. This is the most difficult task in the world."
"I am going to issue a ban in the name of Shuntian Prefecture. All the land divided in the second year of Zhengde will not be traded within ten years. But..."
In fact, before the Ming Dynasty, there were some periods when land sales were restricted.
But again, if the law cannot be implemented, it will be a piece of paper that is too hard to wipe your butt. The Ming Dynasty also banned slaves. We also ban pornography.
The key is execution.
In fact, many laws and regulations can be enacted, but it does not mean that they will be effective if they are enacted. Many things can even be done without laws and regulations. It is just a will of the people in power, and it will still be effective.
"...But it is useless for Shuntian Prefecture to have such a ban. People will follow the policy and everything will continue as usual."
Gu Renyi can be transferred.
If it were the emperor who issued the announcement, then officials like them would still have something to do as executors. After all, the emperor could not move away.
"The land cannot be sold, so how will the people who owe debts repay their debts?" Jing Yang asked.
It is natural to pay back debts.
You can't just say that you are poor and have a reason not to repay the debt. That is also wrong.
Gu Renyi replied in a deep voice, "We can only return it slowly. There is no other way. A sum of money should be returned in many years, and only a part of it should be paid back every year. This way, we can always live on."
Life can go on!
"Oh. This is not only about dividing the land, but also about litigation. Is this still a busy job?" Han Ziren has some experience after all.
To repay the money over several years, the government must be the mediator to coordinate with the creditors, otherwise how could these people negotiate such conditions on their own?
"I'm too busy..." Gu Renyi looked at the people on the side of the slope, happily dividing their fields, "I have to be busy too."
As the saying goes, things may as well be done.
Once the fields are really divided, the people will start to dig up the soil. It happens to be March. As soon as the land is sorted, wheat seeds must be sown. As long as the climate is suitable, you can harvest in July and August.
If we miss this season, we will have no choice but to plant winter wheat again and wait for it to ripen. Then we may only be able to eat disaster relief grains this year.
So in the fields that were being divided, many people were running around measuring the fields. However, in the fields that Gu Renyi and his men had divided in the past two days, people already came to dig up the soil with farm tools.
Eh? When everyone saw it, they saw that they were lagging behind. The old farmers all know the season and know that this is the critical time and cannot afford to delay, so they are very cooperative.
So although I still have some doubts, things are going fast.
As soon as Gu Renyi became busy, he forgot many things.
This piece of land, which is more than a thousand acres, is quite large. He led people to go through it one by one, and pulled the people in charge of each family over to make it clear that no more than one foot of space was allowed to be occupied from which side to which side.
Some people even get the land deed in the morning and start working in the afternoon.
So the scene in this field is like a goose leading a group of geese. After taking two steps, a few people are left behind. The remaining people are busy working in the square fields, either weeding or turning the soil. , the figures were sparse, coming and going, and it began to feel like a busy place at sunrise.
Gu Renyi sometimes feels tired, but it's worth it to look behind her.
Few people who serve as officials can really save the people of the world, but if they can save people in a county or a prefecture, that is considered very powerful.
At a certain moment, some women in the village rushed to wipe the sweat of this official. They were all from poor backgrounds and did not pay much attention. If this official was good, the people would love him and the others would not talk nonsense.
The ten-year-old daughter of Zhang Laizi's family is the most cheerful. She has followed her from the first farm, carrying water all the time. Her little figure may be unsteady on the dirt road if she is not careful, but she is not afraid. He didn't even dust himself off when he got up and continued to run.
Gu Renyi drank Baijia's water and asked people to surround her like this.
"No matter how hard I work, I will divide into a few more households today. Once they are divided, they can be cultivated, and I can go to the next village. I just have one thing I can't do to my fellow villagers. Although some fields are also farm fields, we can't separate them. Zhangji Village In the end, there may be a difference of more than a dozen households. Some people with relatively good conditions may not be able to get a share."
"That's it, the little old man is very satisfied."
"Yes, it was only a little bit close. Mr. Gu should not blame himself. Mr. Gu is the best official in the world."
These words are simple and don't even make sense, but these peasants are willing to say them.
When it’s time for lunch,
There was a girl in her twenties who was a little shy, but she finally had the courage to show him what she was holding.
The girl had pigtails, her forehead was a little messy, and there was a lot of dust on her face. Even her big eyes were like ink-colored black stones, and the blush on her face was obscured by the dust.
"What's this?"
"Eggs. I kept them for several days and couldn't bear to part with them."
Gu Renyi looked at the eggs and then at her, "Have you eaten them? Or you can take them back to the men at home. After dividing the fields, there will be heavy farm work, which is very tiring."
"Mr. Gu is also very tired. Just keep it."
As he said that, he put the egg in his hand, turned around and left.
Xie Pi came over and said, "Master Gu, this is not considered bribery."
He knew it was a joke, but Gu Renyi could only smile hard and said: "Actually, the people can clearly see who is good to them and who is not good to them. Only by implementing this kind of benevolent government can we, the Ming Dynasty, be able to enjoy a hundred generations." country."
The eggs in my hands are still warm.
In fact, there is nothing good that the common people can do. When they meet him, he is hope.
"Thank you, my servant. I would like to go to His Majesty and divide the farmland between honorable ministers and ministers."
"There are always people writing this memorial."
"I would like to advise your Majesty to be more decisive and decisive! Those who win the hearts and minds of the people will win the world. Now that the people's hearts and minds are like this, how can the government be unstable? What is there to worry about?!"
Since ancient times, which prosperous times have been achieved by talking, laughing, and being harmonious. Without killing a few people, some people really feel that they can't afford to offend them!
===
ha!
(End of chapter)
